Ubiquitous in many classrooms since the 19th century, chalk and chalkboards are familiar to most of us. White, powdery and prone to sticking to those surfaces where it is put (and just as easy to wipe away), chalk and its accompanying board are excellent instructional aids. Notably, however, most chalk today isn’t technically chalk at all, but gypsum. Read more…
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Blackboard Chalk Isn’t Really Chalk at All
This is the Fourier Transform. You can thank it for providing the music you stream every day, squeezing down the images you see on the Internet into tiny little JPG files, and even powering your noise-canceling headphones. Here’s how it works. Read more…
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Digital Music Couldn’t Exist Without the Fourier Transform
Chevy’s Volt hybrid was once considered pricey even after government tax credits, but the 2016 model may well be within your reach… if you live in the right state, at least. The automaker has revealed that its latest eco-friendly sedan will cost $33, 995 at full price (down $1, 200 from last year), but it’ll drop to to a more palpable $26, 495 if you qualify for a full federal tax credit. And if you live in California, it’ll sit just under the magic $25, 000 mark — not bad for a full-size car that can stay on electric power during a typical commute. You can certainly find cheaper hybrids if you look around, but this is a testament to how quickly Chevy’s once-exotic technology has become accessible. Filed under: Transportation Comments Via: TechCrunch Source: Chevrolet
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Chevy’s 2016 Volt costs just $25,000 if you live in California
An anonymous reader writes: In April 2015, we saw the naming of Microsoft Edge, the release of Chrome 42, and the first full month of Firefox 37 availability. Now we’re learning that Google’s browser has finally passed the 25 percent market share mark. Hit the link for some probably unnecessarily fine-grained statistics on recent browser trends. Have your browser habits shifted recently? Which browsers do you use most often? Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Chrome Passes 25% Market Share, IE and Firefox Slip
An anonymous reader writes: It appears that most pharmacies in the US are interconnected, and a breach in one leads to access to the other ones. A security advisory released [Friday] shows how a vulnerability in an online pharmacy granted access to prescription history for any US person with just their name and date of birth. From the description linked above: During the signup process, PillPack.com prompts users for their identifying information. In the end of the signup rocess, the user is shown a list of their existing prescriptions in all other pharmacies in order to make the process of transferring them to PillPack.com easier. … To replicate this issue, an attacker would be directed to the PillPack.com website and choose the signup option. As long as the full name and the date of birth entered during signup match the target, the attacker will gain access to the target’s full prescription history. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Hacking the US Prescription System
Selerity reported Twitter’s Q1 2015 quarterly earnings results On April 28, 2015. #BREAKING : Twitter $TWTR Q1 Revenue misses estimates, $436M vs. $456.52M expected — Selerity (@Selerity) April 28, 2015 Besides the news itself (Twitter’s revenues were disappointing to some investors) the event was noteworthy because it occurred at 3:07 pm New York time—almost an hour before the close of trading . While it’s rare for companies to release during market-hours there is no official policy prohibiting it and early announcements do happen occasionally. In the case of Twitter’s earnings, it was apparently the result of an accident by NASDAQ’s investor relations subsidiary , Shareholder.com. Most of the media coverage to date has focused on the process by which Selerity obtained the earnings press release so quickly. Some of that coverage has been speculative or inaccurate. In particular it’s important to understand that this was not a “hack.” That term implies a circumvention of laws or privacy, something Selerity would never do. Nor was it a “leak” by Selerity—it had already been published in the expected manner in the expected location. It was just early. We did not “guess” the URL that contained Twitter’s quarterly earnings results. Anyone with a web-browser and an Internet connection could have followed the links from the main investor relations page to the same PDF file that Selerity found. Read 27 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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How Selerity reported Twitter’s earnings—before Twitter did
TheRealHocusLocus writes: HR 2039: the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act for 2016 and 2017 (press release, full text, and as a pretty RGB bitmap) is in the House. In $18B of goodies we see things that actually resemble a space program. The ~20, 000 word document is even a good read, especially the parts about decadal cadence. There is more focus on launch systems and manned exploration, also to “expand the Administration’s Near-Earth Object Program to include the detection, tracking, cataloguing, and characterization of potentially hazardous near-Earth objects less than 140 meters in diameter.” I find it awesome that the fate of the dinosaurs is explicitly mentioned in this bill. If it passes we will have a law with dinosaurs in it. Someone read the T-shirt. There is also a very specific six month review of NASA’s “Earth science global datasets for the purpose of identifying those datasets that are useful for understanding regional changes and variability, and for informing applied science research.” Could this be an emerging Earth Sciences turf war between NOAA and NASA? Lately it seems more of a National Atmospheric Space Administration. Mission creep, much? Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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NASA Gets Its Marching Orders: Look Up! Look Out!
If you’ve been jonesing for a featherweight laptop but feel that Apple’s MacBook rubs you the wrong way, you’re in luck: as promised, Lenovo is now selling the LaVie Z and LaVie Z 360 in the US. Both 13-inch systems largely resemble what you saw in January, and strike a careful balance between brisk performance and a light design that won’t strain your shoulder when it’s in your bag. They share Quad HD screens, fifth-generation Core i7 processors, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB solid-state drive. The only big difference is the 360’s namesake convertible touchscreen, which turns your PC into a makeshift tablet. Lenovo may have been optimistic about what it could deliver this month, though. The standard Z is ever-so-slightly heavier than claimed at 1.87 pounds, and the models available now are significantly more expensive than what we were quoted a few months ago. You’re looking at $1, 700 ($1, 500 after a discount) for the regular LaVie Z, and $1, 850 ($1, 699 on sale) for the 360 — that’s at least $200 higher than expected. It’s entirely possible that lower-end versions are coming, but you’ll have to pay a premium if you simply can’t wait. [Thanks, Ibrahim] Filed under: Laptops , Lenovo Comments Source: Lenovo (1) , (2)
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Lenovo’s super-light LaVie Z laptop is now available
Referencing former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s infamous “developers!” chant is practically a cliche nowadays, but it felt like the silent refrain throughout the company’s entire Build conference this week. In the run-up to Windows 10, Microsoft wants developers. It needs developers. And it will do whatever it takes to get them — even going so far as to allow devs to recompile their Android and iOS apps without much fuss. None of this seemed possible from Microsoft years ago, when simply owning the dominant desktop platform was enough. But now with mobile devices and the cloud in play, Microsoft needs to evolve. And by doing so, it’s also making Windows 10 a far more exciting upgrade than Windows 8 ever hoped to be. Microsoft’s been talking up the idea of Windows 10 as a platform since announcing it back in September. But it wasn’t until the company revealed it was also going to be a free upgrade for existing Windows 7 and 8 users (for the first year), that it truly hit home how different Windows 10 would be. Microsoft is now prioritizing getting as many people as possible on a single Windows platform more than the revenues it would get from selling access to it. Throughout the Build conference, one thing became clear: Microsoft is no longer just reacting to the competition. Windows 8 was notable for unifying desktops and mobile devices, but it also felt like a desperate attempt to prove that it could do touch interfaces too. Windows 10, with its hooks into Azure Cloud services, better support across a variety of devices and the promise of freaking holograms with HoloLens, finally puts Microsoft back into a leadership role. That’s a sentiment echoed by several Microsoft staffers I talked to (though they wouldn’t admit it on the record). And that could be the key to Windows 10’s success. All of the apps Several years after Windows 8’s launch, I can only think of a handful of truly compelling apps. Many developers didn’t want to devote time to the platform when they would be much better off building something for iOS and Android. And, aside from the vague promise of easy porting to Windows Phones, Microsoft never really gave developers a compelling case to jump ship. Windows 10 is a completely different story. Microsoft is basically opening the floodgates to apps from pretty much every major platform. Got an iOS or Android app? You can easily recompile it and plug it into the Windows Store. Microsoft’s even making room for web apps and older Win32 desktop software . The goal is to populate the Windows Store with plenty of compelling apps — it doesn’t matter how it was originally made. Microsoft’s also making it easier to build Windows 10 apps by releasing coding tools for OS X and Linux. And the icing on the cake for developers: Once you’ve got a Windows app, you can make it “Universal” so that it runs across phones, tablets, and even the Xbox without much effort. The truly astounding thing? Basically everything I wrote in that last paragraph would have been impossible at Microsoft a few years ago. By removing much of the friction involved in making Windows apps, Microsoft has shifted the mentality for developers from “why should I build for Windows?” to “heck, why not?” Strong device support Windows 10 has all of the cross-device promise that Windows 8 had, except it’s potentially far more useful. The new Continuum feature , for example, reshapes the OS’s interface depending on how you’re using it. If you’ve got a Windows 10 tablet, it’ll be much more touch-friendly. If you’ve got a traditional laptop or desktop, it’ll resemble Windows 7 with a revamped desktop Start menu. And for convertible devices like the Surface Pro 3, your experience will change depending on its orientation. Herein lies the promise for Universal Windows Apps — developers only have to manage one codebase to bring an app to multiple devices. During one of Build’s keynotes, Microsoft reps showed off how USA Today managed to bring its desktop Windows 10 app to tablets and even the Xbox One, where it only shows you news videos. (Because nobody expects you to read articles on your Xbox.) At Build, Microsoft also showed off how a Windows 10 phone can spit out a decent desktop interface. That won’t replace your primary computer, but if you’re working on the go, or can’t afford anything beyond a phone, it’s a feature that could fundamentally change the way we compute. It’s no wonder Microsoft laid out an ambitious goal to bring Windows 10 to a billion devices in a few years. It has to think big. By doing so, it will finally be able to court the developers who’ve ignored Windows 8 so far. Compelling software and features On their own, some of Windows 10’s features might be enough reason to upgrade. Microsoft’s Cortana virtual assistant is steadily improving with every new early Windows 10 build. It’ll also be the first such assistant on a desktop OS — Apple’s Siri came first, but it’s still only on iOS devices. Then there’s Edge, Microsoft’s slick new browser which could make you forget about the dark days of Internet Explorer. It’s speedy, minimalist, and also supports Cortana. And once again Microsoft is also working hard to court developers by making it easy for them to bring over their existing browser extensions. I also got a taste of Windows 10’s Xbox One streaming feature, which performed surprisingly well, with no discernible lag or stutter. It’s definitely something I’m looking forward to using when my living room TV is occupied. Excitement about the future We still don’t know when and how Microsoft will bring its holographic headset HoloLens to the public, but even at this early point it’s clearly something special. It’s light years beyond Google Glass, which was more of a persistent notification platform than a true augmented reality solution. And it interacts with the physical environment far better than the VR platforms we’ve seen. Most impressively, HoloLens isn’t some far off satellite project for Microsoft — it’s part of the company’s vision of a unified Windows 10 platform. On top of being powered by the new OS, it can also run any Universal Windows app. With HoloLens, Microsoft has something that could keep developers excited for the next few years. I had the chance to sit through a HoloLens programming session , and while the experience didn’t quite match those demos Microsoft has been promoting — the field of view was small, and the fit wasn’t very good — it still has the potential to be a significant leap forward in computing. I built a hologram using the Unity game development tool and Visual Studio (with a huge helping hand from Microsoft’s reps) and spent about an hour tweaking it. When viewed through HoloLens, my creation’s textures were surprisingly clear (I was able to read the text on a crumbled up ball of paper), but it wasn’t truly lifelike. Sure, it was just a beginner hologram, but it was enough to make me excited for what real developers will be able to do once they get their hands on HoloLens. Wrapping up Maybe this is reading too much into things, but I noticed a very different feeling in the air after chatting with developers and Microsoft employees over the past few days, when compared to the Windows 8 launch years ago. Back then there was plenty of apprehensiveness around the new touch interface, and a general sense that Microsoft was just rushing to catch up to Apple and Android. Now, that anxiety has been replaced with excitement. And for Microsoft, that’s the best possible outcome from its developer conference. Filed under: Software , Mobile , Microsoft Comments
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Build 2015: With Windows 10, Microsoft is no longer a follower
An anonymous reader writes: For over 5 years, and perhaps even longer, servers around the world running Linux and FreeBSD operating systems have been targeted by an individual or group that compromised them via a backdoor Trojan, then made them send out spam, ESET researchers have found. What’s more, it seems that the spammers are connected with a software company called Yellsoft, which sells DirectMailer, a “system for automated e-mail distribution” that allows users to send out anonymous email in bulk. Here’s the white paper in which the researchers explain the exploit. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Unnoticed For Years, Malware Turned Linux Servers Into Spamming Machines