How To Encode 2.05 Bits Per Photon, By Using Twisted Light

Thorfinn.au writes Researchers at the University of Rochester and their collaborators have developed a way to transfer 2.05 bits per photon by using “twisted light.” [Abstract here.]This remarkable achievement is possible because the researchers used the orbital angular momentum of the photons to encode information, rather than the more commonly used polarization of light. The new approach doubles the 1 bit per photon that is possible with current systems that rely on light polarization and could help increase the efficiency of quantum cryptography systems. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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How To Encode 2.05 Bits Per Photon, By Using Twisted Light

OS X Users: 13 Characters of Assyrian Can Crash Your Chrome Tab

abhishekmdb writes No browsers are safe, as proved yesterday at Pwn2Own, but crashing one of them with just one line of special code is slightly different. A developer has discovered a hack in Google Chrome which can crash the Chrome tab on a Mac PC. The code is a 13-character special string which appears to be written in Assyrian script. Matt C has reported the bug to Google, who have marked the report as duplicate. This means that Google are aware of the problem and are reportedly working on it. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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OS X Users: 13 Characters of Assyrian Can Crash Your Chrome Tab

Arkansas Is Now the First State To Require That High Schools Teach Coding

SternisheFan writes Arkansas will be implementing a new law that requires public high schools to offer classes in computer science starting in the 2015-16 school year. Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who signed the bill, believes it will provide “a workforce that’s sure to attract businesses and jobs” to the state. $5 million of the governor’s proposed budget will go towards this new program. For the districts incapable of of administering these classes due to lack of space or qualified teachers, the law has provisions for online courses to be offered through Virtual Arkansas. Although students will not be required to take computer science classes, the governor’s goal is to give students the opportunity if they “want to take it.” Presently, only one in 10 schools nationwide offer computer science classes. Not only will Arkansas teach these classes in every public high school and charter school serving upper grades, the courses will count towards the state’s math graduation requirement as a further incentive for students. Training programs for teacher preparation will be available, but with the majority of the infrastructure already primed, the execution of this new law should hopefully be painless and seamless. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Arkansas Is Now the First State To Require That High Schools Teach Coding

Feds Fine Verizon $3.4 Million Over 911 Service Outage Issues

itwbennett writes The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has fined Verizon $3.4 million over its failure to notify police and fire departments during a 911 service outage last year. Under the commission’s rules, Verizon and other carriers were required to notify emergency call centers of a six-hour outage that occurred in April. The outage involved multiple carriers and affected over 11 million people in seven states. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Feds Fine Verizon $3.4 Million Over 911 Service Outage Issues

"Open Well-Tempered Clavier" Project Complete; Score and Recording Online

rDouglass writes Open source music notation software MuseScore, and pianist Kimiko Ishizaka, have completed the Open Well-Tempered Clavier project and released a new studio recording and digital score online, under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0, public domain) license. Their previous project, the Open Goldberg Variations (2012), has shown its cultural significance by greatly enhancing the Wikipedia.org article on J.S. Bach’s work, and by making great progress in supplying musical scores that are accessible to the visually impaired and the blind. The recording has also received very positive early reviews by music critics. Over 900 fans of J.S. Bach financed this project on Kickstarter.com, where a total of $44, 083 was raised. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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"Open Well-Tempered Clavier" Project Complete; Score and Recording Online

Project an Interactive Game on Your Floor or Wall (Video)

Lumo is an interactive projector. You can use it to bore people with PowerPoint slides or you can use it as a game machine. It has a built-in (low res) camera that can detect a kick (as shown at the beginning of the video) and make a (virtual) ball move as a result of that action. ‘But, ‘ you ask, ‘do they have an Indiegogo campaign?’ Not yet. It launches on March 23. The Lumo projector was originally designed for commercial use at children’s museums and as a trade show attention-getter — at $10, 000 a pop. The consumer version is expected to cost less than $500, according to Lumo CEO (and Slashdot interviewee) Meghan Athavale. And while she doesn’t talk much about it in the interview, if you already have a computer, a projector, and a Kinect or webcam, you can buy the a stripped-down version of the company’s ‘interactive-floor-wall projection’ software for $39, plus games or customizable game templates. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Project an Interactive Game on Your Floor or Wall (Video)

NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX TITAN X Becomes First 12GB Consumer Graphics Card

Deathspawner writes: When NVIDIA announced its GeForce GTX TITAN X at GTC, no one was surprised that it’d be faster than the company’s previous top-end card, the GTX 980. But what did impress many is that the company said the card would sport a staggering 12GB of VRAM. As Techgage found, pushing that 12GB is an exercise in patience — you really have to go out of your way to come even close. Additional reviews available at PC Perspective and AnandTech. The latter notes, “…from a technical perspective, the GTX Titan X and GM200 GPU represent an interesting shift in high-end GPU design goals for NVIDIA, one whose ramifications I’m not sure we fully understand yet. By building what’s essentially a bigger version of GM204, heavy on graphics and light on FP64 compute, NVIDIA has been able to drive up performance without a GM204-like increase in die size. At 601mm2 GM200 is still NVIDIA’s largest GPU to date, but by producing their purist graphics GPU in quite some time, it has allowed NVIDIA to pack more graphics horsepower than ever before into a 28nm GPU. What remains to be seen then is whether this graphics/FP32-centric design is a one-off occurrence for 28nm, or if this is the start of a permanent shift in NVIDIA GPU design.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX TITAN X Becomes First 12GB Consumer Graphics Card

New 3D Printing Process Claimed To Be 25X Faster Than Current Technology

ErnieKey writes: Carbon3D, a startup based in Redwood City, CA. has just announced a new breakthrough 3D printing technology called Continuous Liquid Interface Production technology (CLIP). The process works by using oxygen as an inhibiting agent as a UV light rapidly cures a photosensitive resin (abstract). “Conventional 3D printers usually take several hours to print an object — because with most printing methods, they need to individually treat each new layer of material after it’s put down so that the next layer can be put down on top of it. The new method is much faster because it works continually, instead of in layers, eliminating this step. As a result, it works in minutes, rather than hours — 25 to 100 times faster, its creators say, than conventional 3D printing.” The company has just emerged from stealth mode and announced that they have raised a staggering $41 million to further develop the process and bring it to market. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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New 3D Printing Process Claimed To Be 25X Faster Than Current Technology

Windows 10 Enables Switching Between Desktop and Tablet Modes

jones_supa writes: In Windows 8, you were trapped in either the Modern UI or using the desktop, and going back and forth between the two worlds was cumbersome. Windows 10 takes a hybrid approach, allowing the user to choose between a classic desktop and a full-screen mobile experience. The feature, which has been developed under the name “Continuum, ” is now simply called “Tablet mode”. In the build 9926 of Windows 10 Technical Preview, switching between the modes can finally be tried out. The leaked build 10036 shows that eventually you will also have the option to automate the process for dockable devices. Since Windows 10 is being positioned as the one OS for all of Microsoft’s devices, being able to control the desktop and tablet experiences like this is critical to appeasing the consumer. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Windows 10 Enables Switching Between Desktop and Tablet Modes

Microsoft Has Received 1 Million Pieces of Feedback For Windows 10

jones_supa writes Microsoft’s Windows Insider lead, Gabe Aul, has announced that the company has received one million pieces of feedback through the Windows 10 Technical Preview Feedback app. The app opens right from the Start Menu and it has been critical to the operating system’s development allowing testers to send details to Microsoft about what they think of Windows, problems they have been facing, and if there are any improvements they would like to see. The app has been part of both desktop and phone flavors of the OS. Microsoft seems to have made a real effort lately to listen to consumer feedback and has been opening up avenues to discuss new features for some time. Have you sent feedback through the app? Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Microsoft Has Received 1 Million Pieces of Feedback For Windows 10