If you’ve ever tried to send a large PDF over email, you know that email systems have file size limits. SmallPDF will combine and shrink PDFs from the cloud so you can send it along. Read more…
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SmallPDF Compresses PDFs From the Cloud
An anonymous reader writes Intelligence agency GCHQ has just accredited six UK universities to teach Master’s degrees in online security that meet the intelligence agency’s “stringent criteria.” From the press release: “The certification of six Master’s degrees in Cyber Security was announced by Rt.Hon Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office, when he visited GCHQ today. This marks another significant step in the development of the UK’s knowledge, skills and capability in all fields of Cyber Security as part of the National Cyber Security Programme. The National Cyber Security Strategy recognises education as key to the development of Cyber Security skills and, earlier in the year, UK universities were invited to submit their Cyber Security Master’s degrees for certification against GCHQ’s stringent criteria for a broad foundation in Cyber Security.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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UK Spy Agency Certifies Master’s Degrees In Cyber Security
BagoGames Few people know what to make of the Kim Kardashian: Hollywood mobile game. By reputation it’s boring, vapid, materialistic, and shallow—according to many serious gamers—and is deplorable not least because players can spend money to get ahead. The wails only grew louder when reports indicated that the game earned $1.6 million in its first five days and is on track to make $200 million in annual revenue , according to one analyst. While many gamers and gaming journalists struggled to figure out why anyone would spend money on a game made by and featuring a reality TV star, we aren’t totally in the dark. For one, casting shade on the subject matter is a value judgment of a certain set of interests and lifestyle. And on a meta level, how people use their leisure time . Let he who has lived every moment deliberately immersed in deep consideration of the universe cast the first Angry Bird. Materialism in games probably does not cause materialism in the streets . For another, Kim K is actually pretty self-aware of its own materialism and glorification of social climbing and has a sense of irony about the world it gives players to try and thrive in. To wit, one of the things you can spend in-game money on is new body parts. Read 25 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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What we judge when we judge freemium, and the money we’ve spent on Hearthstone
Welcome to Reading List , Gizmodo’s weekend collection of the best writing from around the web. Today we’ve got pieces from The Daily Dot, Motherboard, Medium, and more! Read more…
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How a Stoned Teen’s Wikipedia Hoax Is Still Fooling Scholars and Experts
The cops may be eager to experiment with drones for tracking bombs and (possibly) suspects, but they’re apparently not that keen on people turning the tables. The LAPD claims that activist Daniel Saulmon was trespassing when he flew a machine over a Hollywood police station’s parking lot. He was spying on “private property, ” Lieutenant Michael Ling claims. As you might imagine, Saulmon (who has a history of recording officers on the ground) disagrees. He didn’t step inside, after all, and he contends that law enforcement doesn’t have the same privacy rights as individuals. Saulmon wasn’t busted for his drone flight, and it’s not clear that the LAPD can do much at this stage. It’s a public institution, and the Hollywood location has a see-through fence — it’s not as if the police were guarding a secret operation. He wasn’t interfering with their activities, either. There’s a chance that California and other states will draft rules limiting what both civilians and cops can do with unmanned craft, but it looks like these confrontations between cops and accountability advocates could continue so long as a gray area exists. Filed under: Robots Comments Via: Ars Technica Source: LA Times , Tom Zebra (YouTube)
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Los Angeles police don’t want you flying drones over their stations
Big Bertha was all set to dig a nearly two-mile tunnel in Seattle, but just 1, 000 feet into her journey she hit a mysterious object that halted her progress. Now, crews are beginning the process of rescuing her, in what could be the world’s largest recovery mission . Read more…
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The Enormous Mission to Rescue the World’s Largest Tunneling Machine
hypnosec writes Lionsgate, the film company in charge of distribution for Expendables 3, has filed a lawsuit against unknown individuals who shared a DVD-level copy of the movie and six file-sharing sites known to have the links through which copies of the movies are being downloaded illegally. An advance copy of Expendables 3 was leaked online in July, and it was downloaded as many as 180, 000 times in just 24 hours. The movie, which is releasing on August 15, is said to have crossed two million downloads already. In addition to the lawsuit, the Dept. of Homeland Security is on the case. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Lionsgate Sues Limetorrents, Played.to, and Others Over Expendables 3 Leak
Trees are the most efficient oxygen-producing mechanisms known to man, so researchers have been trying to replicate them in order to produce breathable air in outer space. Julian Melchiorri, a student at the Royal College of Art, has created an artificial leaf that can produce endless oxygen using nothing more than light and water. The manmade leaves could be a game changer for space exploration, and they could also be used as biological air filters or oxygen producers back here on Earth. Trees do more than create oxygen; many of them also bear fruit. Artist Sam Van Aken has produced an amazing hybridized fruit tree that grows more than 40 different kinds of fruit , including peaches, apricots and almonds. Bees already do a lot of work for humans by pollinating crops and producing honey, but could they build our cities too? A pair of designers suggests that bees’ honey-making glands could be used to produce concrete instead, enabling them to 3D print structures . Even if that plan doesn’t work out, there’s still plenty to be learned from bees. Take honeycomb, for example: A team from the Stanford School of Engineering has made a breakthrough honeycomb lithium-ion battery design that could lead to more stable batteries for electric vehicles . And speaking of electric vehicles, this week Tesla and Panasonic signed a multimillion dollar deal for the world’s first battery-producing Gigafactory . What if you could build an entire house for just $3, 500 ? Architect Nicoló Bini, has developed a novel technique for doing just that — and it involves covering an inflatable balloon with concrete! In other green design news, Turkish architecture firm Autoban recently designed a set of futuristic wooden cocoons for Azerbaijan’s Baku Airport , lending the space a cozy, natural atmosphere. Cozier still, the Hanging Tent Company just unveiled a portable tent that hangs high in the treetops . The spherical tent features circular windows and a wood floor. And a 13-year-old from Georgia successfully built her own tiny house . The mini mansion features a kitchen, a lofted bed and a bathroom with a composting toilet. Looking ahead, Vo Trong Nghia has been selected to design the Vietnam Pavilion at the World Expo 2015 in Milan . The pavilion will be modeled after Vietnam’s national flower, the lotus. And filmmaker George Lucas has hired Studio Gang and MAD Architects to design a museum of narrative art in Chicago. In other green tech and innovation news, Amazon has launched an online store for 3D-printed objects . So far, the store offers 250 products, including pendants, toys, nylon wallets, cookie cutters and bobbleheads. A team from Australia obliterated a 26-year-old record for the world’s fastest long-range electric vehicle last week, traveling over 310 miles at an average speed of 62MPH. (The previous record was 45MPH.) Students from Goldsmiths, University of London created a pair of sneakers that are made entirely from plastic trash found on the beach . The Montreal-based media and entertainment studio Moment Studio has created a luminous forest wonderland in Quebec . A team from MIT has developed a simple graphite sponge that soaks up water and converts it to steam using solar energy. And digital tattoos could soon become a reality : The Silicon Valley firm VivaLnk has partnered with Motorola to offer up temporary tattoos that enable you to unlock your phone with a simple tap. And in case you still need a reason to say goodbye to your incandescent light bulbs, this infographic makes a bulletproof case . Filed under: Misc , Internet Comments
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Inhabitat’s Week in Green: concrete honey, hybridized fruit tree and a $3,500 house
In the first instance of tablets and mobile computing devices being used on the sidelines of NFL games, Microsoft Surface tablets will be used by coaches and players in the upcoming season as part of a reported $400 million multi-year deal between the NFL and Microsoft. The Sideline Viewing System is meant to help coaches and players study their opponents in realtime from the sideline, which… Read More
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NFL Will Let Teams Use Microsoft Surface Tablets On The Sidelines During Games
Ciaran McGuiggan Earlier this week, mobile payments company Square announced that it had developed a credit card reader that will verify purchases from an embedded chip on the card. Currently, US consumers primarily rely on swipe-and-sign credit cards, which give card details to a merchant through the magnetic stripe on the back. But because the swipe-and-sign system became overburdened with instances of fraud, MasterCard, Visa, and other financial groups decided in 2012 that they would transition their systems to a chip-based setup called EMV (eponymous for EuroPay, MasterCard, and Visa, the three primary developers of the standard) by October 2015. Square is hoping to capitalize on this transition by being one of the first companies out of the gate in the US to offer small and medium-sized business owners a smaller, less-expensive alternative to buying a whole new set of credit card terminals. The EMV standard works using a chip that’s embedded in a credit card, which effectively acts as a mini-computer. Instead of swiping quickly and having your card give its details to a merchant’s point of sale (POS) system, an EMV card creates a unique code for each transaction and (ideally) requires the consumer to enter a PIN associated with the card instead of relying on a signature. Because of this, EMV is often called chip-and-PIN. Making a purchase with an EMV card also requires the card to be present in the card reader throughout the transaction. Read 15 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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Chip-based credit cards are a decade old; why doesn’t the US rely on them yet?