Tag: open source

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.

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Lawsuit Over Quarter Horse’s Clone May Redefine Animal Breeding

Electrical Engineering Employment Declines Nearly 10%, But Developers Up 12%

dcblogs writes The number of people working as electrical engineers declined by 29, 000 last year, continuing a long-standing trend, according to government data. But the number of software developers, the largest IT occupational category, increased by nearly 12%, or a gain of 132, 000 jobs. There were 1.235 million people working as software developers last year, and 271, 000 electrical engineers, according U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Electrical Engineering Employment Declines Nearly 10%, But Developers Up 12%

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.

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Rendering a Frame of Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Steam On Linux Now Has Over a Thousand Games Available

An anonymous reader writes: This week the Steam Linux client has crossed the threshold of having more than 1, 000 native Linux games available while Steam in total has just under 5, 000 games. This news comes while the reported Steam Linux market-share is just about 1.0%, but Valve continues brewing big plans for Linux gaming. Is 2015 the year of the Linux gaming system? Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Steam On Linux Now Has Over a Thousand Games Available

Scientists Insert a Synthetic Memory Into the Brain of a Sleeping Mouse

the_newsbeagle writes: Scientists are learning how to insert fake memories into the brain via precise electrical stimulation (abstract). In the latest experiment, they gave sleeping mice a synthetic memory that linked a particular location in a test chamber to a pleasurable sensation. (At least they gave the mice a nice memory.) The researchers first recorded the electrical signals from the mice’s brains while the mice were awake and exploring the test chamber, until the researchers identified patterns of activity associated with a certain location. Then, when the mice slept, the researchers watched for those neural patterns to be replayed, indicating that the mice were consolidating the memory of that location. At that moment, they zapped a reward center of the mice’s brains. When the mice awoke and went back into the chamber, they hung around that reward-associated location, presumably expecting a dose of feel-good. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Scientists Insert a Synthetic Memory Into the Brain of a Sleeping Mouse

Gigaom Closes Shop

Presto Vivace writes “What a loss for the tech community, ” linking to this announcement at Gigaom that the site is shutting down: Gigaom recently became unable to pay its creditors in full at this time. As a result, the company is working with its creditors that have rights to all of the company’s assets as their collateral. All operations have ceased. We do not know at this time what the lenders intend to do with the assets or if there will be any future operations using those assets. The company does not currently intend to file bankruptcy. We would like to take a moment and thank our readers and our community for supporting us all along. — Gigaom management Reader bizwriter adds a link to this story on the shutdown. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Gigaom Closes Shop

MH370 Beacon Battery May Have Been Expired

New submitter Limekiller42 writes Malaysia’s transport ministry released its preliminary report on the disappearance of MH370 that disappeared almost a year ago during flight and has yet to be located. The report states that the maintenance records for the solid state flight data recorder underwater locater beacon [indicate that its battery] expired in December of 2012 and there is no evidence it was replaced prior to aircraft going missing. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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MH370 Beacon Battery May Have Been Expired

Mesa 10.5 Updates Open-Source Graphics Drivers

An anonymous reader writes Mesa 10.5 has been released to update the open-source Linux graphics driver stack. This quarterly update to Mesa has initial support for Intel’s next-generation Skylake graphics, Qualcomm Adreno A4xx support, EGL support on the BeOS-inspired Haiku, the new NIR intermediate representation, and other changes. While new GL4 extensions were implemented, the Intel/Radeon/Nouveau drivers only have enough support right now to expose OpenGL 3.3, but GL4.2 is expected out of the open-source drivers by the end of the year. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Mesa 10.5 Updates Open-Source Graphics Drivers

Facebook Rant Lands US Man In UAE Jail

blindbat writes While back home in the U.S., a man working in the United Arab Emirates posted negative comments about the company he worked for. Upon returning to the country to resign, he was arrested and now faces up to a year in prison under their strict “cyber slander” laws designed to protect reputation. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Facebook Rant Lands US Man In UAE Jail

Lost City Discovered In Honduran Rain Forest

jones_supa writes: An expedition to Honduras has emerged from the jungle with the discovery of a previously unknown culture’s lost city. The team was led to the remote, uninhabited region by long-standing rumors that it was the site of a storied “White City, ” also referred to in legend as the “City of the Monkey God.” Archaeologists surveyed and mapped extensive plazas, earthworks, mounds, and an earthen pyramid belonging to a culture that thrived a thousand years ago, and then vanished. The team also discovered a remarkable cache of stone sculptures that had lain untouched since the city was abandoned. The objects were documented but left unexcavated. To protect the site from looters, its location is not being revealed. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Lost City Discovered In Honduran Rain Forest