funny – Page 239 – Tech Today w/ Ken May

Update: At Least 31 People Feared Dead After Japan Volcano Erupts

An anonymous reader writes “More than 30 people may be dead in a volcanic eruption in central Japan, the nation’s second natural disaster in the past month. Nagano prefecture posted on its website that about 30 people had heart and lung failure, the customary way for Japanese authorities to describe a body until police doctors can examine it. At least four of the victims were being brought down from Mount Ontake on Sunday afternoon, one day after the volcano erupted.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Update: At Least 31 People Feared Dead After Japan Volcano Erupts

From the Maker of Arduboy: Tetris On a Bracelet

timothy writes: Kevin Bates showed off his tiny (“credit card sized”) homebrewed game-playing rig at OSCON this summer. Not content with merely wallet sized, he’s now squeezed enough display — three of them, lacking a curved display to wrap around the wrist — input sensors, and processing power (Atmega 328p) to play Tetris on a tiny, multi-segmented bracelet (video). Sure, there’s been Tetris on watches before, but from large-budget companies, not — at least not that I’ve ever seen — from hackers. Bates’ post gives some more technical details, too. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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From the Maker of Arduboy: Tetris On a Bracelet

Breakthrough In LED Construction Increases Efficiency By 57 Percent

Zothecula writes: With LEDs being the preferred long-lasting, low-energy method for replacing less efficient forms of lighting, their uptake has dramatically increased over the past few years. However, despite their luminous outputs having increased steadily over that time, they still fall behind more conventional forms of lighting in terms of brightness. Researchers at Princeton University claim to have come up with a way to change all that by using nanotechnology to increase the output of organic LEDs by 57 percent. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Breakthrough In LED Construction Increases Efficiency By 57 Percent

3D Bioprinter Creates "Living Bandage" Skin Grafts For Burn Victims

concertina226 writes Engineering students from the University of Toronto have developed a 3D bioprinter that can rapidly create artificial skin grafts from a patient’s cells to help treat burn victims. In severe burn injuries, both the epidermis (outer layer of the skin) and the dermis (inner layer) are severely damaged, and it usually takes at least two weeks for skin cells to be grown in a laboratory to be grafted onto a patient. As both layers of skin are made from completely different cells that have different structures, it is very difficult for the body to regenerate itself and burn victims can die if their wounds cannot be closed quickly enough. So instead of trying to replicate a real human skin graft, the PrintAlive Bioprinter creates a type of “living bandage” from hydrogel. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Emma Watson Leaked Photo Threat Was a Plot To Attack 4chan

ideonexus writes: After Emma Watson gave a speech on the need for feminism (video) to the United Nations, 4chan users threatened to release nude photos of the Harry Potter star in retaliation, setting up the emmayouarenext.com website with a countdown clock. Now it has been revealed that the site was an elaborate hoax intended publicize a movement to shut down 4chan. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

South Australia Hits 33% Renewal Energy Target 6 Years Early

ferrisoxide.com writes: South Australia has hit its target of 33% renewable energy by 2020, 6 years earlier than expected, delivering clean power to the state through investment in wind, solar and geothermal energy — mothballing one coal-fired power station in the process. Not content to rest on their laurels, the SA government has now announced a new “stretch” target of 50% by 2025. South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill declared that despite initial upfront costs to renewable energy generators such as wind farms, the 50 per cent target will not add one extra dollar to energy prices. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

To Fight $5.2B In Identity Theft, IRS May Need To Change the Way You File Taxes

coondoggie writes: Based on preliminary analysis, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) estimates it paid $5.2 billion in fraudulent identity theft refunds in filing season 2013 while preventing an additional $24.2 billion (based on what it could detect). As a result, the IRS needs to implement changes (PDF) in a system that apparently can’t begin verifying refund information until July, months after the tax deadline. Such changes could impact legitimate taxpayers by delaying refunds, extending tax season and likely adding costs to the IRS. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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To Fight $5.2B In Identity Theft, IRS May Need To Change the Way You File Taxes

Blizzard Has Canceled Titan, Its Next-gen MMO

Ptolemarch writes: Blizzard never officially announced it, but now it’s gone: Titan, the next-generation MMO that had been in development for seven years, has been canceled. Mike Morhaime said, “[W]e set out to make the most ambitious thing that you could possibly imagine. And it didn’t come together. We didn’t find the fun. We didn’t find the passion. We talked about how we put it through a reevaluation period, and actually, what we reevaluated is whether that’s the game we really wanted to be making. The answer is no.” Polygon adds an article detailing everything publicly known about Titan (which wasn’t much). MMO-Champion’s report mentions rumors of a new project at Blizzard called Prometheus. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Blizzard Has Canceled Titan, Its Next-gen MMO

Fedora 21 Alpha Released

An anonymous reader writes Fedora 21 Alpha has been released. After encountering multiple delays, the first development version is out for the Fedora.NEXT and Fedora 21 products. Fedora 21 features improved Wayland support, GNOME 3.14, many updated packages, greater server and cloud support, and countless other improvements with Fedora 20 already being nearly one year old. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Fedora 21 Alpha Released

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Premieres On Linux, 2 Years After Windows

An anonymous reader writes Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has finally been released for Linux two years after its Windows debut. The game is reported to work even on the open-source Intel Linux graphics drivers, but your mileage may vary. When it comes to the AMD and NVIDIA drivers, NVIDIA continues dominating for Linux gaming over AMD with Catalyst where there’s still performance levels and other OpenGL issues. Read more of this story at Slashdot.