Category: reader

Japanese folk music glitch hop

Daniel Ryan describes his music as “a mix of Japanese folk music and glitch hop.” This isn’t normally my sort of thing — I pretty much only listen to music with words — but I played this one three times in a row this morning. There’s a lot of clever stuff going on here that I lack the vocabulary to describe but possess the aesthetic apparatus to appreciate. According to one redditor, the folk song is this track off the Samurai Champloo soundtrack. Nagasaki        

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Japanese folk music glitch hop

OS X 10.9 said to focus on the “power user”

OS X 10.9 will reportedly focus on the “power user,” according to sources speaking to 9to5Mac . The release, code-named “Cabernet,” isn’t expected to significantly overhaul how the operating system functions, but will reportedly bring over more iOS features that could benefit OS X. What might those features be? According to 9to5Mac’s sources, Apple has been “testing a new multi-tasking system” that’s similar to the app-switcher within iOS. “The multitasking feature will be functional for applications in the background, according to this person. Additionally, Apple could use app-pausing technologies from iOS to pause background application processes in OS X,” the site wrote, though apparently it’s unclear whether this feature will make the official 10.9 release. The other “power user” features reportedly include modifications to the Finder that would bring a tabbed browsing mode, an updated version of Safari with “a redesigned backend for improved page loading, speed, and efficiency,” and the ability to keep different Spaces open on separate monitors. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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OS X 10.9 said to focus on the “power user”

Buildings built by bacteria

Over at Fast Company, our pal Chris Arkenberg wrote about how advances in synthetic biology and biomimicry could someday transform how we build our built environments: Innovations emerging across the disciplines of additive manufacturing, synthetic biology, swarm robotics, and architecture suggest a future scenario when buildings may be designed using libraries of biological templates and constructed with biosynthetic materials able to sense and adapt to their conditions. Construction itself may be handled by bacterial printers and swarms of mechanical assemblers. Tools like Project Cyborg make possible a deeper exploration of biomimicry through the precise manipulation of matter. David Benjamin and his Columbia Living Architecture Lab explore ways to integrate biology into architecture. Their recent work investigates bacterial manufacturing–the genetic modification of bacteria to create durable materials. Envisioning a future where bacterial colonies are designed to print novel materials at scale, they see buildings wrapped in seamless, responsive, bio-electronic envelopes. ” Cities Of The Future, Built By Drones, Bacteria, And 3-D Printers ”        

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Buildings built by bacteria

Linux 3.9 brings SSD caching and drivers to support modern PCs

mtellin Linux creator Linus Torvalds last night announced the release of version 3.9 of the kernel. Available for download at kernel.org , Linux 3.9 brings a long list of improvements to storage, networking, file systems, drivers, virtualization, and power management. H-Online editor Thorsten Leemhuis has an excellent rundown of what’s new in Linux 3.9 . One new feature, listed as “experimental,” allows SSDs to act as caches for other storage devices. “This feature is able to speed up data writes, as it allows the faster SSD to first cache data and then, in a quiet moment, transfer it to the slower hard drive,” Leemhuis wrote. Linux maintainers have also done some driver work that might improve the sometimes questionable support for desktops and laptops. New drivers include support for Intel 802.11ac Wi-Fi components, as well as trackpads used in Samsung’s ARM-based Chromebook and the Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition Ultrabook . The Kernel’s driver for AMD Radeon graphics chips was updated to support Oland chips in the 8500 and 8600 Series Radeon video cards, in addition to AMD’s forthcoming Richland chips. The driver code for HD audio codecs is also now “leaner and more robust.” Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Linux 3.9 brings SSD caching and drivers to support modern PCs

Microsoft’s Crazy IllumiRoom: More Details About a Real-Life Holodeck

Not too long ago, Microsoft introduced its grand, pie-in-the-sky plans to maybe, someday turn your entire wall into an extension of your TV screen . Now, Microsoft Research has dropped some new details about how it all would work, and it’s shaping up to be pretty awesome . Read more…        

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Microsoft’s Crazy IllumiRoom: More Details About a Real-Life Holodeck

Opera claims former employee gave stolen trade secrets to Mozilla

Opera has been busy repositioning itself as a middleware player for the mobile Web recently, but that isn’t stopping the company from defending its investment in browser technology. The company has filed a 20 million Kronor ($3.4 million) lawsuit against a former employee and consultant, claiming that he stole company secrets and incorporated them into a mobile browser for Mozilla. According to a report by Norwegian IT site Digi.no , Opera has filed suit against Trond Werner Hansen, a Norwegian musician and designer who worked for Opera from 1999 to 2006 as a user interface designer and developer before  leaving to pursue his music career . Hansen also worked for Opera as an outside consultant from 2009 to 2010. Last year, Hansen was involved with the development of the Mozilla prototype “Junior” browser for Apple iOS . Hansen and Alex Limi —former Firefox UI head and now manager of Mozilla’s product design strategy—demonstrated the browser prototype in a video on Air Mozilla last June. Hansen said in the video, “I spent almost seven years trying to simplify Opera and didn’t really succeed. Simplification of something that already exists is really hard. That’s way beyond product design issues—it’s company issues. I feel like we failed in making something really easy.” Limi credited Hansen with the invention of a number of Mozilla UI features, including the browser search—”the source of all our revenue,” Limi said—and the “speed dial” feature that allows users to pick frequently visited pages from a new browser tab. “Pretty much everything he’s invented, they’re now in all browsers,” Limi continued. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Opera claims former employee gave stolen trade secrets to Mozilla

Linux 3.9 Released

hypnosec writes “After a week’s delay Linux 3.9 has finally been made available by Linus Torvalds. Last week Torvalds released the rc8 stating that he wasn’t ‘comfy’ releasing the final version yet and that ‘another week won’t hurt.’ Torvalds noted in this week’s announcement that last week had been very quiet as there were not many commits and the ones which were there were ‘really tiny’ so he went ahead with the release of Linux 3.9.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Linux 3.9 Released

Genetically Modified Plants To Produce Natural Lighting

kkleiner writes “A team has launched a crowdsourcing campaign to develop sustainable natural lighting by using a genetically modified version of the flowering plant Arabidopsis. Using the luciferase gene, the enzyme responsible for making fireflies glow, the researchers will design, print, and transform the genes into the target plant. The project, which was recently launched on Kickstarter, has already raised over $100k with over a month left to go.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Genetically Modified Plants To Produce Natural Lighting

Man accused of placing GPS device on victim’s car before burglarizing her home

A burglary suspect currently on trial in Johnson County, Kansas allegedly put a GPS tracking device on a victim’s car to determine whether anyone was home. The victim, an unnamed Overland Park woman, told her story to the  Kansas City Star on Friday. Overland Park police, Leawood police, and Johnson County prosecutors declined to comment on the GPS allegation to the newspaper. According to the Star , the suspect, Steven Alva Glaze, allegedly burglarized the woman’s home on March 25. The victim owns a jewelry business in the Kansas City suburb. Glaze is now on trial for 14 counts of criminal damage to property, theft, attempted burglary, and burglary for the alleged crimes. The use of GPS tracking devices surreptitiously installed on cars recalls the famous Jones v. United States case, in which the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in 2012 that law enforcement does not have the authority to warrantlessly place a device on a criminal suspect’s vehicle. However, the use of GPS by criminal suspects to track victims still seems to be quite rare. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Man accused of placing GPS device on victim’s car before burglarizing her home