In a medical first, researchers have streamed Braille patterns directly onto a blind person’s retina, allowing him or her to read letters and words visually, with almost 90% accuracy. Developed by researchers at Second Sight , the headset-like device is set to revolutionize the way degenerative eye diseases like Retinitis Pigmentosa are treated. More »
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New implant allows the blind to stream Braille directly onto their retinas
A Greek hacker stole the personal data of about 9,000,000 Greek residents, which is approximately the same as the population of Greece itself. As Kevin at Lowering the Bar points out, this means that “If You’re Greek, Someone Probably Just Stole Your Identity.” Third, according to some reports, the files ” appeared to include duplicate entries ,” so the actual number of affected Greeks may be lower than 9 million, but we don’t know how much lower yet. For now we have to assume the number is 9 million, so your answer should have been that there is approximately a 91% chance that any particular Greek citizen’s identity has been stolen. That number is high enough that it seems reasonable to say that somebody just stole an entire country’s identity , and to use italics to do it. If You’re Greek, Someone Probably Just Stole Your Identity
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Hacker steals entire nation’s identity
Prena Law, a notorious porno copyright troll sent out a blackmail letter to victims that included the URL of a TorrentFreak article describing one of the rare cases in which someone stood up to a troll and lost. TorrentFreak felt that this was misleading, and resented being used as part of a sleazy scheme, so they replaced the article with a page explaining how copyright trolls work, and how to defend yourself against them. Porno copyright trolls are companies that sends out legal threats to people, claiming they were downloading porn with embarrassing titles and demanding money not to permanently associate their names with porn by naming them in lawsuits. Thousands and thousands of people have been victimized by them. We redirected the URL referenced by Prenda to a page with information about these mass-BitTorrent lawsuits. So, instead of being scared by an article about a $1.5 million judgment, Internet bill payers can inform themselves about the steps they can take to respond to the settlement letter. The page in question explains that increasingly judges are condemning the practices of copyright trolls, and that many mass lawsuits have been thrown out. Just recently a judge designated Prenda’s ways as a “bad faith effort,” and dismissed one of their mass-BitTorrent lawsuits. In addition to some much-needed balance we also included links to attorneys who are familiar with these lawsuits, plus links to other useful resources. Hopefully, this will enable a few of the victims to respond properly and resolve the matter without having to pay up. TorrentFreak Trolls a Copyright Troll
Nick Getting the agencies responsible for national security to communicate better was one of the main reasons the Department of Homeland Security was created after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. But according to a recent report from the department’s inspector general, one aspect of this mission remains far from accomplished. DHS has spent $430 million over the past nine years to provide radios tuned to a common, secure channel to 123,000 employees across the country. Problem is, no one seems to know how to use them. Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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Homeland Security spent $430M on radios its employees don’t know how to use
Have you ever been playing around with molten metal salt, when you accidentally created hollow, soft-shelled particles that could one day increase hard disk storage or power future QLED displays ? Us neither, but that’s exactly what happened to scientists at Rice University when they were researching “tetrapods” to make solar panels more efficient. Through an apparently wacky coincidence, they removed a single ingredient from the tetrapod stew, which left behind tiny droplets of cadmium nitrate. Selenium then melted around those drops, which completely dissolved away, leaving a melted selenium ball with a hole in the middle. It turns out that those selenium “doughnuts” can be packed tightly onto a metal surface without touching, thanks to their soft shells, which could allow more bits to be packed onto a hard drive, or be used in quantum computers and next-gen displays. Since the dots are smaller than a living cell, it took the researchers an entire year to figure out what they’d made and how they did it — luckily they didn’t just bin the whole thing and start over. Filed under: Displays , Storage , Science , Alt Comments Via: Extreme Tech Source: IOP Science
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Researchers stumble onto ‘lava’ generated quantum dots, could power future peripherals
That didn’t take long: within one month, we got all of our screenwriters lined up for the new Disney-Lucasfilm Star Wars trilogy, and one of them is a pretty reliable man for the job. As we reported earlier, Michael Arndt will be taking Episode VII , and now it’s being reported that Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg will take on Episodes VIII and IX , though it’s unspecified who will take which script. If you recall, Kasdan wrote both Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi , and if I may make a wild prediction, I’m going to call the final episode for him. Let the veteran round out the new trilogy. Kinberg is also hardly a slouch, having written Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Sherlock Holmes , plus he’s currently writing the sequel to X-Men: First Class , on which he was a producer. (In other words, experience in sci-fi/fantasy franchises.) Both Kasdan and Kinberg will also join Kathleen Kennedy as producers on both films. All three of the new movies will be based on story notes from George Lucas , but will be written and directed by others. Probably the best thing for Star Wars that George Lucas could ever do at this point. The Hollywood Reporter (and several other sites) seem to have this news all but confirmed. Disney-Lucasfilm have not offered a comment yet, except to say that they will make an official announcement on StarWars.com , where they confirmed Arndt’s role. For the moment, that is still the most recent news item . Photo credit: Collider Sources: Lawrence Kasdan, Simon Kinberg Lock Deals to Write and Produce ‘Star Wars’ Installments [The Hollywood Reporter]
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Original Star Wars trilogy scribe Lawrence Kasdan reportedly attached to new trilogy, plus Simon Kinberg
A new update fixes keychain problems, but does not address the inability to install 10.8.2 on some Mac systems. [Read more]
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Apple issues supplemental OS X 10.8.2 update
Save some time (while wasting time) on Facebook with handy keyboard shortcuts for quickly getting around the social networking site, finding conversations, and composing messages. This Facebook Cheat Sheet offers up all the shortcuts plus a guide to emoticons. More »
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The Facebook Cheat Sheet Shows All the Keyboard Shortcuts to Use Facebook Faster
Do you have one of those universal remotes laying around that you can’t use with all your equipment? Over on the hacking blog Handya, Andy shows off how to hack a light switch so you can control it with the remote you already have sitting around. More »
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Hack a Universal Remote to Control Your Lights
If you’ve been wanting to upgrade to Windows 8 but baulk at paying then, firstly, you’re a bad person but, secondly, now your opportunity’s here. Microsoft just screwed up and handed out a free activation key for the OS. More »
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Microsoft Just Messed Up and Gave Out a Free Windows 8 Activation Key