DashCon2014 , a gathering of tumblr users and celebrities, “descended into chaos” this weekend , with the chaos including an alleged $17, 000 friday night shakedown by the Marriot-owned hotel.
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"Tumblr convention" a total disaster
Researchers from the University of Stanford have developed a microchip that could make it much less costly to diagnose type-1 diabetes. The debilitating disease often strikes children, and the quicker it’s detected, the easier it is to treat. The current test, however, is a time-consuming, costly burden for both hospitals and patients, requiring radioactive materials and several days of time. The new chip uses gold nanoparticles that cause fluorescent materials to glow when telltale antibodies are detected. Unlike the old tests, only a pinprick of blood is required, and the $20 chip can be reused up to 15 times. Such diagnostics could compliment other diabetes research, like Google’s glucose detecting smart contacts , along with potential treatments or even cures . Researchers said the test will be particularly useful in countries where the standard test is too expensive, and are now working to launch it globally. [Image credit: Stanford University/Norbert von der Groeben] Filed under: Science , Alt Comments Source: Stanford University
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$20 reusable chip detects type-1 diabetes quickly and cheaply
By your command. Sean Gallagher Earlier this month, I spent a day working in the throwback world of DOS. More specifically, it was FreeDOS version 1.1, the open source version of the long-defunct Microsoft MS-DOS operating system. It’s a platform that in the minds of many should’ve died a long time ago. But after 20 years, a few dozen core developers and a broader, much larger contributor community continue furthering the FreeDOS project by gradually adding utilities, accessories, compilers, and open-source applications. All this labor of love begs one question: why? What is it about a single-tasking command-line driven operating system—one that is barely up to the most basic of network-driven tasks—that has kept people’s talents engaged for two decades? Haven’t most developers abandoned it for Windows (or, tragically, for IBM OS/2 )? Who still uses DOS, and for what? To find out, Ars reached out to two members of the FreeDOS core development team to learn more about who was behind this seemingly quixotic quest. These devs choose to keep an open-source DOS alive rather than working on something similar but more modern—like Linux. So, needless to say, the answers we got weren’t necessarily expected. Read 22 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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It may be “barely an operating system,” but DOS still matters (to some people)
This video captured on a beach in Novosibirsk, Siberia, looks like a scene from a movie about the end of the world. People were enjoying a perfect sunny day—with temperatures of 99F (37C)—when bullet-sized hail started strafing the beach while everyone were running for their lives in panic. Read more…
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Amazing hail storm on a beach looks like the beginning of the Apocalypse
From Truck Yeah! : The US Marines have been planning up the “Ultra Heavy-Lift Amphibious Connector (UHAC) to replace their beach-storming hovercrafts since 2008. They started building this one in 2012, and have finally brought out of the garage for a little test drive. Read more…
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US Marines Turned A Ship Into A Truck, Watch It Be An Absolute Beast
The next time you have a few dollars left on one of those prepaid credit card-based gift cards, consolidate those odd dollars and cents into your Google Wallet account. Read more…
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Consolidate Your Credit Card Gift Cards with Google Wallet
Yellowstone National Park is riddled with constantly changing geothermal hot spots —it’s part of the reason for the park’s famous geysers. But this past Thursday, the area around one section of road got so hot that asphalt literally started melting. Read more…
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It’s So Hot In Yellowstone That a Road Literally Melted
msm1267 (2804139) writes “The source code for Tinba, known as the smallest banker Trojan in circulation, has been posted on an underground forum. Researchers say that the files turned out to be the source code for version one of Tinba, which was identified in 2012, and is the original, privately sold version of the crimeware kit. Tinba performs many of the same malicious functions as other banker Trojans, injecting itself into running processes on an infected machine, including the browser and explorer.exe. The malware is designed to steal financial information, including banking credentials and credit-card data and also makes each infected computer part of a botnet. Compromised machines communicate with command-and-control servers over encrypted channels. Tinba got its name from an abbreviation of “tiny banker, ” and researchers say that it’s only about 20 KB in size.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Source Code Leaked For Tinba Banking Trojan
Zothecula (1870348) writes “The Retina displays featured on Apple’s iPhone 4 and 5 models pack a pixel density of 326 ppi, with individual pixels measuring 78 micrometers. That might seem plenty good enough given the average human eye is unable to differentiate between the individual pixels, but scientists in the UK have now developed technology that could lead to extremely high-resolution displays that put such pixel densities to shame.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Nano-Pixels Hold Potential For Screens Far Denser Than Today’s Best
An anonymous reader writes Oxford University engineering professor Dr Thomas Povey just invented a new cooking pot that heats food 40% faster. The pot is made from cast aluminum, and it features fins that direct flames across the bottom and up the sides, capturing energy that would otherwise be wasted. The pot is set to hit the market next month in the UK. “Povey specializes in the design of high-efficiency cooling systems for next-generation jet engines. He is also an avid mountaineer and says that this invention was spurred by the long time it takes for water to reach a boil at high altitudes. He and a group of his students worked three years experimenting with different designs before they came up with one being marketed.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Rocket Scientist Designs "Flare" Pot That Cooks Food 40% Faster