funny – Page 183

China Plans Massive Sea Lab 10,000 Feet Underwater In the South China Sea

An anonymous reader writes: In an effort to hunt for materials, China is planning to build a manned deep-sea platform in the South China Sea. The lab may also serve for military purposes in the disputed waters as well. The lab would be located as much as 3, 000 meters (9, 800 ft) below sea level, according to a recent Science Ministry presentation viewed by Bloomberg. Bloomberg writes: “The project was mentioned in China’s current five-year economic plan released in March and ranked number two on a list of the top 100 science and technology priorities.” There are few public details specifying the timeline of the project, any blueprints, costs or where exactly it will be located. China’s President Xi Jinping considers more than 80 percent of the waters its sovereign territory. The country has even created several artificial islands in the South China Sea covering 3, 200 acres. Last year, the NYT posted a fascinated piece showing clear satellite imagery of the new islands being built. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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China Plans Massive Sea Lab 10,000 Feet Underwater In the South China Sea

Oklahoma State Troopers Use New Device To Seize Bank Accounts During Traffic Stops

mi writes from a report via news9.com KWTV: KWTV writes, “You may have heard of civil asset forfeiture. That’s where police can seize your property and cash without first proving you committed a crime; without a warrant and without arresting you, as long as they suspect that your property is somehow tied to a crime. Now, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol has a device that also allows them to seize money in your bank account or on prepaid cards. If a trooper suspects you may have money tied to some type of crime, the highway patrol can scan any cards you have and seize the money.” But do not worry: “If you can prove that you have a legitimate reason to have that money it will be given back to you. And we’ve done that in the past, ” said Oklahoma Highway Patrol Lt. John Vincent. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Yahoo Preps Auction For 3,000 Patents Worth $1 Billion

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Wall Street Journal reports that bids are being accepted for nearly 3, 000 Yahoo patents and pending applications. In April, Yahoo moved 2, 659 patents into a patent-holding company called Excalibur IP LLC, which was seen as a first step toward a patent sale. “This represents a unique opportunity for companies operating in the Internet industry to acquire some of the most pioneering and foundational patents related to Web search and advertising, ” Yahoo said in a statement. Those invited to join the auction include “strategic buyers, private-equity firms, and investment firms focused on intellectual property, ” according to the Journal. Preliminary bids are due by the middle of this month, and the patents are expected to fetch more than $1 billion, according to “people familiar with the matter” who spoke to the Journal. Bloomberg, which also reported on the patent sale, said there was no official reserve price or bidding guidelines. Yesterday, Verizon submitted a $3 billion bid for Yahoo’s core internet business. The sale will include 500 U.S. patents and more than 600 pending applications, but will not include the larger collection of patents going in the patent sale. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Yahoo Preps Auction For 3,000 Patents Worth $1 Billion

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14361 Released

An anonymous reader writes from a report via BetaNews: Windows Insider chief Dona Sarkar announced in a blog post that they are releasing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14361 for both PC and Mobile to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring. This new release includes new features, some improvements to existing features, and various bug fixes that the company hopes to iron out before the Windows 10 Anniversary Update. A LastPass extension for the Microsoft Edge browser, and Hyper-V Container, which will let you use Docker natively on Windows 10, has been added. A series of improvements have been made to Windows Ink, and the Settings app, which includes changes to the colors so it’s more obvious where you are. The Blu-ray icon and Network Quick Action icon have also been updated. You can read the full list of improvements and fixes for PC here. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14361 Released

Google To Deprecate SSLv3, RC4 in Gmail IMAP/POP Clients

Michael Mimoso, reporting for Threatpost: Google said that it will initiate on June 16 a gradual deprecation of SSLv3 and RC4 for Gmail IMAP/POP mail clients. Both the crypto protocols cipher are notoriously unsafe and are being phased out in big chunks of the Internet. Google, for its part, had already announced in May that it would no longer support SSLv3 and RC4 connections for Gmail SMTP. Google does note that most mail clients already default to safer TLS connections, and most will not be affected by the impending changes.”Unlike Gmail SMTP, this change will be rolled out as a gradual change, where it may take longer than 30 days for users to be fully restricted from connecting to Gmail from SSLv3 or RC4 connections; however, we recommend updating your clients soon in order to avoid any potential disruption, ” Google said in an announcement. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

North Korea Restarts Plutonium Production For Nuclear Bombs

New submitter ReginaldBryan45 quotes a report from Reuters: North Korea has restarted production of plutonium fuel, a senior State Department official said on Tuesday, showing that it plans to pursue its nuclear weapons program in defiance of international sanctions. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAE) said on Monday that it had seen signs based on satellite imagery that show that the secretive country had re-activated the nuclear fuel production reactor at Yongbyon. The analysis by the IAEA pointed to “resumption of the activities of the five megawatt reactor, the expansion of centrifuge-related facility, [and] reprocessing — these are some of the examples of the areas [of activity indicated at Yongbyon].” U.S. Intelligence tried to infect the Yongbyon site with a variant of the Stuxnet malware last year but ultimately failed. Experts at the U.S.-Korea Institute at John Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in Washington predicted last year that the country’s nuclear arsenal could grow to as many as 100 bombs within five years, from an estimated 10 to 16. Naturally, this news is a cause for concern as North Korea had four (failed) test launches in the last two months. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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North Korea Restarts Plutonium Production For Nuclear Bombs

Firefox 47 Arrives With Synced Tabs Sidebar, Better YouTube Playback

An anonymous reader quotes a report from VentureBeat: Mozilla today launched Firefox 47 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. The browser has gained a sidebar for synced tabs from other devices, improvements to YouTube playback and HTML5 support, and is seeing the end of support for Android Gingerbread. [If you’re logged in with your Firefox Account, the sidebar will show all your open tabs from your smartphone and other computers. The sidebar even lets you search for specific tabs. Next, Firefox 47 supports the open source VP9 video codec on machines with powerful multiprocessors. VP9 is the successor to VP8, both of which fall under Google’s WebM project of freeing web codecs from royalty constraints.] Firefox 47 is available for download on Firefox.com, and will be slowly released on Google Play. You can view the full Firefox 47 changelog here. If you’re a developer, Firefox 47 for developers offers more details for you. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Firefox 47 Arrives With Synced Tabs Sidebar, Better YouTube Playback

The US Army Is Rolling Out Superhuman Hearing to Soldiers

An anonymous reader writes: The U.S. Army has developed an all-in-one hearing system that not only boosts the hearing of troops in the field, it also acts to cut down the noise of battle. The system, known as Tactical Communication and Protective System (TCAPS), is currently rolling out to units in the field. TCAPS is $2, 000 pair of earbuds designed to limit battlefield noise exposure, cutting off noise that reaches a set decibel threshold. The wearer can still hear gunshots and estimate their direction, but the noise is dampened to a non-damaging level thanks to microphones that detect the noise, and internals that use sound canceling technology to modify it for a wearer’s ears. At the same time, the decibel cap allows TCAPS-equipped soldiers to hear the voices of others around him, including through radios and other communications equipment. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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The US Army Is Rolling Out Superhuman Hearing to Soldiers

Finnish Mail System Abandons Tuesday Delivery

Reader jones_supa writes: In a world moving to electronic communications, the snail mail traffic has seen a huge drop. Because of this, Posti, the mail delivery organization of Finland will not be delivering letters and magazines on Tuesdays anymore. Tuesday was selected because it generally has the lowest volume of mail. For example, magazines and advertisements are targeted to the end of the week, so that people have more time for shopping dreams in the weekend. Another reason is that Posti recently launched a lawn mowing service which operates on Tuesdays. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Finnish Mail System Abandons Tuesday Delivery

Microsoft Could Turn Every PC Into an Xbox

For the past few years, Microsoft has been trying to mold Xbox One system’s user interface and functionalities to resemble that of Windows 8 and Windows 10’s Modern UI. But the company has also hinted that we will be seeing a closer integration in the coming months. It is expected to unveil some of that at E3 tradeshow next week. Long-time Microsoft watcher Tom Warren reports for The Verge: Microsoft is currently working on a secret project internally, codenamed Helix. Kotaku originally reported on the Project Helix name, and the work is designed to more closely combine Xbox and Windows 10. Some of that work has started, but more of it is due later this year and next year with future upgrades to Windows 10. Microsoft wants to enable features like streaming PC games to the Xbox One, but sources familiar with the company’s plans also tell us there are greater ambitions to make Xbox One games playable on a PC without needing a console for streaming. Part of this could involve bringing the full Xbox One UI and system directly into desktop versions of Windows 10. The latest Xbox One dashboards are built on top of Windows 10, so most of the work involved would be customizing the interface towards keyboard and mouse. Bringing the Xbox One UI over to Windows 10 machines would effectively turn every PC into an Xbox One, especially if they’re also capable of running the latest console games. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Microsoft Could Turn Every PC Into an Xbox

Ken May

Tag: funny