Microsoft has confirmed the acquisition of pen technology used in the Surface Pro 3 and Surface 3, from supplier and longtime partner N-trig. The Israeli company is a key patent-holder for digital stylus and writing recognition tech, as well as the supplier behind the pen input technologies used by both Microsoft and many of its OEM partners, so this brings in-house one of the technologies… Read More
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Microsoft Acquires Surface 3 Pen Tech From N-trig
mpicpp sends this report from The Independent: The United States Department of Defense has carried out what it says is its most successful test yet of a bullet that can steer itself towards moving targets. Experienced testers have used the technology to hit targets that were actively evading the shot, and even novices that were using the system for the first time were able to hit moving targets. The project, which is known as Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance weapon, or Exacto, is being made for the American government’s military research agency, DARPA. It is thought to use small fins that shoot out of the bullet and re-direct its path, but the U.S. has not disclosed how it works. Technology in the bullet allows it to compensate for weather and wind, as well as the movement of people it is being fired at, and curve itself in the air as it heads towards its target. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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US Successfully Tests Self-Steering Bullets
theodp writes: Citing statistics that showed a whopping 46 more boys than girls passed the AP Computer Science Exam in 2011-12, the 640, 000+ student Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) on Tuesday approved a waiver to enable the District to operate a single-gender, all-girls STEM School called the Girls Academic Leadership Academy (GALA). Students in GALA will follow a six year sequence of computer courses starting in middle school that will culminate in AP Computer Science Principles. “Fewer females take AP courses in math, science, or computer science, and they are not as successful as males in receiving passing scores of 3, 4 or 5, ” argued the General Waiver Request (PDF, 700+ pages). “An all girls environment is reasonably necessary for the school to improve the self-confidence of girls in their academic abilities, especially in STEM areas where an achievement gap currently exists. GALA’s admissions shall also comply with AB 1266 to ensure male students who identify as female are admitted to the school.” The school’s CS-related Partners include the UCLA Exploring Computer Science Program, as well as Google-bankrolled Girls Who Code, Black Girls Code, and NCWIT. One of the reasons the all-girls STEM school reportedly got the green light is that its backers satisfied federal regulations requiring a “substantially equal school” for excluded male students by submitting a plan for a companion all-boys school that would emphasize English Language Arts, where they often fall short of girls’ test scores, rather than GALA’s focus on STEM. One suspects the no-fan-of-gender-restricted-public-schools ACLU may call BS on this maneuver. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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LAUSD OKs Girls-Only STEM School, Plans Boys-Only English Language Arts School
Amazon is looking to end the practice of shady sellers paying money to receive positive four or five star reviews beneath their product listings, with the commerce giant aiming to smash some prolific review-sellers out of business using its immense legal cannons. Read more…
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Amazon Is Starting to Sue Sellers of Fake Five-Star Reviews
Amazon Instant Video is a surprisingly solid Netflix-competitor — particularly if you’re already an Amazon Prime member, which makes much of the content free. Until today, though, the service had one glaring fault: if you wanted to watch it on an Android tablet that wasn’t Amazon’s Fire HD, you were pretty much out of luck. That fault is finally fixed. Read More
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Amazon Instant Video Finally Comes To Android Tablets
schwit1 writes An industry of new cubesat builders can now build satellites for anyone for any reason for very little money. From the article: “The miniaturization of technology allows people to do more with less hardware, said Chad Anderson, the managing director of Space Angels Network, an investment house specializing in the space industry. That industry, he said, was worth $300bn (£200bn) last year. Constellations of smaller satellites, like those suggested as tracking devices for planes over oceans, are now a possibility. ‘The launch costs are coming down and people leveraging today’s technology are able to do more with less and launch less mass to orbit. The price point has come down to where start-ups and entrepreneurs can really make an impact on the scene for the first time, ‘ he said.” When the first tiny satellite launch companies arrive, expect this industry to blossom at an astonishing rate. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
On the heels of announcing the Surface 3, Microsoft trotted over to Reddit for its now-traditional AMA dance with the folks. The Surface 3 is a smaller, less expensive iteration of the Surface Pro 3, which was released last year. The Pro 3’s commercial performance has been superior to its predecessors, making its successor all the more interesting as a potential. In the AMA, Microsoft… Read More
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Microsoft Is Saying Exactly “Nothing” About The Surface Pro 4
Today Mozilla began rolling out Firefox version 37.0 to release channel users. This update mostly focuses on behind-the-scenes changes. Security improvements include opportunistic encryption where servers support it and improved protection against site impersonation. They also disabled insecure TLS version fallback and added a security panel within the developer tools. One of the things end users will see is the Heartbeat feedback collection system. It will pop up a small rating widget to a random selection of users every day. After a user rates Firefox, an “engagement” page may open in the background, with links to social media pages and a donation page. Here are the release notes and full changelist. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Firefox 37 Released
Bruce66423 writes: A fraudster used a mobile phone while inside a UK prison to email the prison a notice for him to be released. The prison staff then released him. The domain was registered in the name of the police officer investigating him, and its address was the court building. The inmate was in prison for fraud — he was originally convicted after calling several banks and getting them to send him upwards of £1.8 million. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Prison Inmate Emails His Own Release Instructions To the Prison
An anonymous reader sends word that President Obama is expected to announce more that $240 million in pledges to boost STEM educations at the White House Science Fair today. “President Barack Obama is highlighting private-sector efforts to encourage more students from underrepresented groups to pursue education in science, technology, engineering and math. At the White House Science Fair on Monday, Obama will announce more than $240 million in pledges to boost the study of those fields, known as STEM. This year’s fair is focused on diversity. Obama will say the new commitments have brought total financial and material support for these programs to $1 billion. The pledges the president is announcing include a $150 million philanthropic effort to encourage promising early-career scientists to stay on track and a $90 million campaign to expand STEM opportunities to underrepresented youth, such as minorities and girls.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Obama To Announce $240M In New Pledges For STEM Education