entertainment – Page 234 – Tech Today w/ Ken May

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

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

The Pirate Party Now the Biggest Party In Iceland

jrepin writes The Pirate Party now measures as the largest political party in Iceland, according to a new servey from the Icelandic market and research company MMR which regularly surveyes the support for the political parties in Iceland. Support for political parties and the government was surveyed in the period between the 13thand 18th of March. The results show that The Pirate Party has gained increased support. Now, support for The Pirate Party totals 23.9%, compared to their previous 12.8% in the last MMR survey. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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The Pirate Party Now the Biggest Party In Iceland

"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)

First look at the Office 2016 Preview for Windows

Hot on the heels of Office 2016 for Mac , Microsoft today released a preview of Office 2016 for the operating system that it actually earns money from. You know—Windows. In fairness, Windows isn’t in such desperate need for an updated Office. Office 2013 is fresher than Office 2011 was, and so it’s not altogether surprising that Office 2016 is to Office 2013 much the same as what Office 2013 was to Office 2010. This is a minor update with some small new features and a visual refresh. The preview is currently aimed at IT professionals and developers, and as such it requires an active Office 365 subscription. A consumer-oriented preview should be released later in the year, but it’s pretty clear that Microsoft wants people to subscribe to Office 365, and the company is going to continue to offer small perks for having a subscription. Last year’s Outlook for Mac update was similarly an Office 365-only benefit. Read 18 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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First look at the Office 2016 Preview for Windows

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.

Lawsuit Over Quarter Horse’s Clone May Redefine Animal Breeding

schwit1 sends this report from the LA Times: “Lynx Melody Too, a clone of a renowned quarter horse, is at the center of a lawsuit that could change the world of animal breeding and competition. Texas horse breeder Jason Abraham and veterinarian Gregg Veneklasen sued the American Quarter Horse Assn., claiming that Lynx Melody Too should be allowed to register as an official quarter horse. A Texas jury decided in their favor in 2013, but a three-judge panel of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that ruling in January, saying there was ‘insufficient’ evidence of wrongdoing by the association. The suit is among the first to deal with the status of clones in breeding and competition, and its outcome could impact a number of fields, including thoroughbred horse racing and dog breeding. The quarter horse association is adamant that clones and their offspring have no place in its registry. “It’s what AQHA was founded on — tracking and preserving the pedigrees of these American quarter horses, ” said Tom Persechino, executive director of marketing for the association. “When a person buys an American quarter horse, they want to know that my quarter horse has the blood of these horses running through it, not copies of it.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Rendering a Frame of Deus Ex: Human Revolution

An anonymous reader writes “Video games are among the most computationally intensive applications. The amount of calculation achieved in a few milliseconds can sometimes be mind-blowing. This post about the breakdown of a frame rendering in Deus Ex: Human Revolution takes us through the different steps of the process. It explains in detail the rendering passes involved, the techniques as well as the algorithms processed by a computer — 60 times per second.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.