gaming – Page 15 – Tech Today w/ Ken May

Run 500 hard-to-find Apple II programs in your web browser

Sure, it’s easy to find ways to run classic Apple II programs like The Oregon Trail or Prince of Persia . But what about that obscure educational title you remember using as a kid? Is it doomed to be forgotten? You might not have to worry. The Internet Archive has announced that its web-based emulation catalog now includes over 500 relatively tough-to-find Apple II programs that might otherwise have disappeared forever. If you remember using the likes of The Quarter Mile or The Observatory , you can fire it up without having to dig your old computer out of storage. In many cases, it’s almost surprising that the programs are available at all. They come from an era when copy protection frequently involved hardware-specific tricks, and attempts to crack them often broke code or included unsightly credits to the cracking teams involved. Here, that isn’t an issue — the goal is to preserve the software as faithfully as possible. The Internet Archive likely can’t save everything even it keeps expanding its library, but it could prevent large swaths of Apple II history from being reduced to memories. Source: Internet Archive

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Run 500 hard-to-find Apple II programs in your web browser

First known Mac ransomware reaches the wild

While ransomware has sadly been a reality on smartphones and Windows PCs for a while, you haven’t really had to worry about it on a Mac… until now, that is. Palo Alto Networks claims to have discovered the first known instance of OS X-oriented ransomware in the wild, “KeRanger.” If you install software infected with the code (in this case, a version of the BitTorrent client Transmission ), it’ll encrypt your files after three days and demand that you pay a digital currency ransom to regain control. In practice, you’re likely already safe from KeRanger. Transmission has released a new version of its app that should be safe, and Apple has revoked a security certificate from another developer that KeRanger used to slip past OS X’s native defenses. Even so, this is a not-so-friendly reminder that malware of all stripes can potentially infect any given platform — you can’t assume that your operating system’s inherent security features (or simply avoiding the most targeted platform) will keep you safe. Source: Reuters

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First known Mac ransomware reaches the wild

Quantum computer revolves around just 5 atoms

It’s no mean feat to find the factors of a very large number — even a supercomputer can take years to find all the multipliers. However, MIT researchers have found a way to clear this massive hurdle. They’ve built a quantum computer that discovers number factors using just five atoms. Four of the atoms are turned into logic gates using laser pulses that put them into superpositions (where they maintain two different energy states at once), while the fifth atom stores and delivers answers. The result is a computer that not only calculates solutions much more efficiently than existing quantum systems, but scales relatively easily. Need to get the factors for a larger number? Introduce more atoms. It’s a one-trick pony at the moment (it can only get factors for the number 15), and a truly complex computer would require “thousands” of simultaneous laser blasts to work. However, it could have big ramifications for the security world. A sufficiently powerful machine could end the use of any encryption that depends on factoring — a government agency or hacking team could easily crack codes that are otherwise near-impenetrable. On a basic level, this quantum factoring could also help solve math problems involving extremely large numbers (say, universe-scale calculations) that would normally be too daunting. Source: MIT News

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Quantum computer revolves around just 5 atoms

$350 million Nintendo land coming to Universal Japan’s park

When Nintendo announced it was granting Universal Studios the rights to some of its properties for theme park rides, it was anyone’s guess where they’d show up first. Now we know that they’ll debut in the gaming juggernaut’s back yard: Japan. Regional news outlet Sankei (Japanese) reports that the attraction is scheduled for completion by 2020, the year Tokyo is slated to host the Olympics. And lest you think this will be a simple statue of Princess Peach and a Mario Kart -themed go-kart track, the publication says this should be on par with the likes of Universal’s Harry Potter -themed zone but focused entirely on everyone’s favorite Italian plumber. Hell, it could even be called “Super Mario World.” Crazier things have happened! Need more evidence for how serious of a deal this is? Universal is putting up ¥40 billion ($351, 509, 200) — given Nintendo’s current financial woes , the company is probably happy someone else is footing the bill. For that amount, maybe we’ll see a full scale version of the entire Mushroom Kingdom in a few years. 4) Busy start of 2016 for Nintendo. See the picture below for details (from Sankei: https://t.co/NRejTXGL6Q ) // end pic.twitter.com/EMHunhgYFa — Dr. Serkan Toto (@serkantoto) March 5, 2016 Via: Dr. Serkan Toto (Twitter) Source: Sankei (Japanese)

Slack to start integrating native voice chat into its app

A couple of months ago, you could start making Skype calls from within Slack , an award-winning work chat app that’s pretty popular with a lot of companies (we certainly use it over here in the Engadget office). Now, however, voice calls are simply baked into the app itself, without you having to use an external service. The feature is in beta right now, and testing will roll out in Slack’s desktop apps as well as in Chrome. The voice calling feature actually comes from Slack’s acquisition of Screenhero over a year ago. If you have it, you’ll spot a phone icon at the top of your screen next to the info button. Click it and you can initiate a voice call much like most other chat apps out there. This doesn’t work with just individual folks either; you can also make channel-wide calls with up to 15 folks, but this is only for Slack users who pay for the service. And because this is Slack — known for its wide range of emoji — you can also respond to voice chats with one of several colorful reactions imposed over your user icon. This isn’t to say that Slack will stop supporting the aforementioned Skype or other voice chat services; it’s just another option. We should also note that rival Hipchat has had voice and video chat for awhile now. Still, for loyal Slack users, this is great news; here’s hoping that video support will be coming too. Via: The Verge Source: Slack

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Slack to start integrating native voice chat into its app

Business card with built-in ECG is perfect for cardiologists

Some people can make business cards that stand out and show off their skills. Take for example, that one engineer who created a card that lights up and that programmer who designed one that can play Tetris . But what if you’re a medical professional, specifically a cardiologist? A company called MobilECG has created a business card that’s directly connected to your field: it has a built-in ECG that actually works. According to its blog post , the device has sensors that measure “the real ECG signal between the users’ hands, ” so long as their thumbs are touching the finger pads. Of course, you’ll have to explain to patients that while it works, MobilECG created it as a toy. The Hungarian startup clearly states that it’s “not suitable for diagnostic purposes, ” so they can’t abstain from getting an actual ECG done. The company is gauging people’s interest in the card at the moment and is planning to sell it for a rather hefty price of $29 per if it ever decides to release it. If you have the skills to make small electronic devices from scratch, though, you can try to create your own version. The card is open source, and MobilECG posted all its codes and schematics (PDF) online. Via: Gizmodo , Damn Geeky Source: mobilecg

As of Tonight, 1900 Steam Games For Linux

New submitter KGIII writes: “After a recent Steam change, there were more than 1, 900 Steam Linux games listed as Valve ended up including yet-to-be-released Linux game ports. That total including unreleased Linux games is now up to 2, 009! But in terms of released Linux game titles available for download right now, the 1, 900 threshold was crossed tonight to end out February.” It’s getting there. All of you gamers might just be able to make the choice to move to Linux soon. It looks like there are quite a few more games coming down the pipe. This is a good thing as it gives gamers more options for their operating system. I imagine this bodes well for the SteamOS project and for the dedicated SteamOS devices. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Scientists built a book-sized, protein-powered biocomputer

Supercomputers are absurdly impressive in terms of raw power , but it comes at a price: size and energy consumption. A multi-university team of researchers might’ve sidestepped that, though, with protein-powered biocomputers . Lund University notes that where this should really be helpful is with cryptography and “mathematical optimization” because with each task it’s necessary to test multiple solution sets. Unlike a traditional computer, biocomputers don’t work in sequence, they operate in parallel — leading to much faster problem solving. The biocomputer in action, with proteins finding their way to the solution set at the bottom. Oh and about that energy efficiency? Lund’s Heiner Linke says that they require less than one percent of the power a traditional transistor does to do one calculation step. The CBC reports that the model biocomputer used in the experiment is only about the size of a book, rather than, say, IBM’s Watson (pictured above) that’s comprised of some 90 server modules. The ATP-powered biocomputer is admittedly limited for now (it’s only solved 2, 5, 9), but the scientists involved say that scalability is possible and we might not be far off from seeing the tech perform more complex tasks. “Our approach has the potential to be general and to be developed further to enable the efficient encoding and solving of a wide range of large-scale problems, ” the research paper says. Via: The CBC Source: PNAS , Lund University

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Scientists built a book-sized, protein-powered biocomputer

Facebook officially expands beyond the Like with Reactions

While the “Like” button on Facebook has traditionally been a quick and fun way to respond to a post, the truth is that it’s not always appropriate. “Liking” certain posts — say, the news of a pet’s death or a post about global warming — just feels wrong. Thankfully, starting today, that’s about to change. The social network has just announced a brand new feature called Reactions (which we’ve already heard about a few times ), which is essentially an extension of the Like button. Now, in addition to the thumbs-up Like we’re all familiar with, there’s Love, Haha, Wow, Sad and Angry. Love is signified by a heart symbol while the rest are animated emoji. To see them, simply press and hold on the Reactions button — it’s where the thumbs-up Like button is currently — select which one you want, and release. If the post has a slew of different reactions to it, you’ll see a summary of the three most frequent reaction icons. On the other end, the person receiving them will get notifications saying someone “reacted” to the post. Introducing Reactions from Facebook on Vimeo . “People come to Facebook and share all kinds of things, ” says Sammi Krug, the product manager behind Reactions. “And we kept hearing feedback from people that there wasn’t an easy way to express empathy for these different kinds of posts.” Zuckerberg in particular took the user feedback to heart and pulled a bunch of people together to start work on a solution about a year or so ago. From there, the team did a ton of research — from conducting surveys to analysis of the most popular stickers — to figure out just what reactions to add. When they whittled it down to about six, Facebook then began testing it — you can see we saw a sneak peek of Reactions as early as last October — in about seven different countries. “One of the things we really wanted to be careful of, is will this translate well” says Krug. “We wanted these reactions to be globally understood.” That’s one of the reasons Reactions is launching with just five additional icons instead of the original six that we saw in October. That’s because the “Yay” reaction just didn’t test well globally and was a little too vague in some markets. The rest, however, proved to be popular enough, with Love being the most popular out of all the new Reactions (The Like button, however, still reigned supreme). So does that mean we’re stuck with the six or so Reactions we have now? Not at all. “Once this actually rolls out, we’ll learn more about how people use the feature, ” says Krug. “We’ll continue to iterate it over time, based on user feedback.” Reactions will roll out globally starting today on iOS , Android , the desktop as well as the mobile browser. You’ll start to see the change occur over the next couple of days, though bear in mind that you do need to be on the latest version of the Facebook app to get the feature. Still, we had to ask, why isn’t there a “dislike” button? “It would have been too binary, ” says Krug. “This way, though, you’ll have more ways to express yourself. That’s the goal.” Source: Facebook

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Facebook officially expands beyond the Like with Reactions

Google is shutting down its car insurance comparison service

Google is sending one of its lesser-known tools called Compare to the slaughterhouse. We don’t blame you if you’ve never heard of it before — in the email sent to the service’s partners and posted by Search Engine Land , the big G said it “hasn’t driven the success [Google] hoped for.” Compare gives you a way to view several offers from car insurance, mortgage lending and credit card companies in the US and the UK. You only have to type in some info, such as your car’s make and model, to make it work. It’s still up and running if you want to try it out , but don’t expect too much. The tech giant has initiated the shutdown process today, and it will be completely offline by March 23rd. One of the difficulties Google encountered, according to The Wall Street Journal , is that auto insurance typically requires state-by-state approval. The publication also noted that Google failed to convince some big insurers and lenders to be part of Compare, leading to limited choices and people seeking answers elsewhere. Google didn’t reveal whether it plans to pursue the niche again in the future — Compare itself is the new version of Google Advisor — and only said that it’s focusing on AdWords for now. Here’s the full email to partners posted by Search Engine Land : Dear Partner, Beginning on February 23, 2016, we will start ramping down the Google Compare product, which is currently live in both the US and UK. We plan to terminate the service as of March 23, 2016. As you know, Google Compare (formerly Google Advisor in the U.S.) has been a specialized, standalone service that enables consumers to get quotes from a number of providers for financial products such as car and travel insurance, credit cards and mortgages. Despite people turning to Google for financial services information, the Google Compare service itself hasn’t driven the success we hoped for. We greatly appreciate your partnership and understand that this decision will be disappointing to some. But after a lot of careful consideration, we’ve decided that focusing more intently on AdWords and future innovations will enable us to provide fresh, comprehensive answers to Google users, and to provide our financial services partners with the best return on investment. We’re grateful for all the feedback that you have provided over the course of this product’s development, and we are looking forward to partnering with you to achieve greater success in the future. We will work with you during this transition and beyond. Please reach out to your Google representative if you have any questions and to discuss the next steps. The Google Compare Team Via: The Wall Street Journal Source: Search Engine Land

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Google is shutting down its car insurance comparison service