Android: If you suspect your roommate or anyone else has been reading your private messages on your phone, then PeeperPeeper can catch them red-handed. The app creates fake shortcuts for popular messaging apps and takes a photo when someone opens them. Read more…
See more here:
PeeperPeerer Catches Who Has Been Snooping on Your Private Messages
Rambo Tribble writes “The BBC reports that the U. S. government has agreed to pay software maker Apptricity $50 million to settle claims that the U.S. Army pirated thousands of copies of the firm’s provisioning software. The report indicates 500 licensed copies were sold, but it came to light an army official had mentioned that ‘thousands’ of devices were running the software.” $50 million in tax money could have paid for a whole lot of open source software development, instead. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Continue reading here:
US Military Settles Software Piracy Claims For $50M
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you never had to worry about germs crawling around on your kitchen countertop? Well, thanks to a new discovery by Australian scientists , that could soon be a reality. And it doesn’t require a drop of disinfectant. Read more…
Continue reading here:
Scientists Accidentally Discover Incredible Bacteria-Killing Surface
An anonymous reader writes with this bit from The Next Web “Bitcoin hit a new milestone today, passing the $1, 000 mark for the first time. The virtual currency is currently trading above the four-digit figure, with its highest at $1, 030 on Mt. Gox, one of the largest exchanges. Last week, Bitcoin’s high for the day was $632. That means its trading value has surged 62.83 percent in a week, assuming we’re looking at just its high points. That figure could of course rise even further if Bitcoin continues to push further up throughout the day.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
See more here:
Bitcoin Tops $1,000 For the First Time
In advance of the holidays, PayPal is rolling out support for those pesky pre-paid gift cards from credit companies like Visa. No more wondering whether your favorite online retailer will take your card. If they take PayPal, they take the lazy gift from your aunt. Read more…
Read More:
In advance of the holidays, PayPal is rolling out support for those pesky pre-paid gift cards from c
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes, quoting USA Today “The NASDAQ has topped 4000 for the first time in 13 years, but much has changed since then. … Tech investors in 2000 were right about the possibilities of the Internet and mobile computing. But they were dead wrong about which companies would be in the vanguard … The recovery of the NASDAQ has been a complex tale of creative destruction, where old companies that once fueled the index have been pushed aside by new players. Back in 2000, Microsoft, Cisco Systems, Intel, Oracle, and Sun accounted for 8.9%, 8.5%, 7.1%, 3.6% and 2.6%, respectively, of the value of the NASDAQ composite. Today, companies that were just starting out or didn’t even exist — think Google, Amazon, and Facebook — are in the top 10, accounting for 4.7%, 2.7% and 1.5% of NASDAQ’s value. Microsoft, Cisco and Intel’s weight has fallen sharply. Apple, which wasn’t in the top 10 in 2000, is a behemoth at 7.9%. So is the NASDAQ enjoying a long overdue catch-up with the rest of the market, or is the broad market overpriced, with the NASDAQ being pulled along for the ride? ‘The reality is that the only thing that’s the same from Nasdaq 4000 in 1999 and Nasdaq 4000 in 2013, ‘ says Doug Sandler, ‘is the number 4000.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
See more here:
Nasdaq 4000 — This Time It’s Different?
New submitter johnslater writes “The Chicago Transit Authority’s new ‘Ventra’ stored-value fare card system has another big problem. It had a difficult birth, with troubles earlier this fall when legitimate cards failed to allow passage, or sometimes double-billed the holders. Last week a server failure disabled a large portion of the system at rush hour. Now it is reported that some federal government employee ID cards allow free rides on the system. The system is being implemented by Cubic Transportation Systems for the bargain price of $454 million.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
ericgoldman writes “People often feel passionately about fonts, but government decisions shouldn’t depend on what font people choose for their written submissions. In Massachusetts, a sex offender overturned the decision of a hearing officer after it was determined that (among other possible biases) the hearing officer posted to Facebook that he ‘can’t trust someone who drafts a letter in arial font!’ and ‘I might be biased. I think arial is inappropriate for most things.’ This is just the latest example of how social media rants by government workers are causing problems for the workers — and the people they deal with.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Original post:
Sex Offender Gets New Hearing After Hearing Officer Rants Against Arial Font
The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics reports on the discovery of a “reverse shock wave racing inward at Mach 1000” in the Tycho’s supernova remnant, making its particles glow as you can see in the photograph above. If you think the idea of a shockwave traveling inward is counterintuitive, you aren’t alone. This is what’s happening: Read more…
Originally posted here:
This is a space shockwave traveling 1000 times faster than sound
An unopened bottle of beer recovered from the wreckage of the Hindenburg is up for auction . Again. The 1937 bottle of Lowenbrau sold for over $18, 000 back in 2009 . The bottle has fire damage, but since the airship had a smoking room , I suppose that could’ve happened before it crashed. Read more…
Follow this link:
You Can Own an Unopened Beer From the Hindenburg