Tag: science

Emails Cast Unflattering Light On Internal Politics of Obamacare Website Rollo

An anonymous reader writes with this report from The Verge linking to and excerpting from a newly released report created for a committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, including portions of eight “damning emails” that offer an unflattering look at the rollout of the Obamacare website. The Government Office of Accountability released a report earlier this week detailing the security flaws in the site, but a report from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released yesterday is even more damning. Titled, “Behind the Curtain of the HealthCare.gov Rollout, ” the report fingers the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversaw the development of the site, and its parent Department of Health and Human Services. “Officials at CMS and HHS refused to admit to the public that the website was not on track to launch without significant functionality problems and substantial security risks, ” the report says. “There is also evidence that the Administration, to this day, is continuing its efforts to shield ongoing problems with the website from public view.” Writes the submitter: “The evidence includes emails that show Obamacare officials more interested in keeping their problems from leaking to the press than working to fix them. This is both both a coverup and incompetence.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Emails Cast Unflattering Light On Internal Politics of Obamacare Website Rollo

Scientists Twist Radio Beams To Send Data At 32 Gigabits Per Second

concertina226 writes Scientists from three international universities have succeeded in twisting radio beams in order to transfer data at the speed of 32 gigabits per second, which is 30 times faster than 4G LTE wireless technology in use today. The researchers, led by Alan Willner, an electrical engineering professor with the University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering, successfully demonstrated data transmission rates of 32 gigabits per second across 2.5m of free space in a basement laboratory. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Scientists Twist Radio Beams To Send Data At 32 Gigabits Per Second

TRONify Anything With This New Colorful Glowing Thread

Forget about all the company’s work on its incredibly durable Gorilla Glass . No one’s going to care if their smartphone’s screen gets scratched when Corning’s other major innovation hits consumers. Because when their device is covered in Fibrance , a fiber-optic thread-like material that glows in any color and looks like a prop straight out of the TRON universe, they’ll be too distracted to care. Read more…

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TRONify Anything With This New Colorful Glowing Thread

What To Expect With Windows 9

snydeq writes: Two weeks before the its official unveiling, this article provides a roundup of what to expect and the open questions around Windows 9, given Build 9834 leaks and confirmations springing up all over the Web. The desktop’s Start Menu, Metro apps running in resizable windows on the desktop, virtual desktops, Notification Center, and Storage Sense, are among the presumed features in store for Windows 9. Chief among the open questions are the fates of Internet Explorer, Cortana, and the Metro Start Screen. Changes to Windows 9 will provide an inkling of where Nadella will lead Microsoft in the years ahead. What’s your litmus test on Windows 9? Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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What To Expect With Windows 9

Malware Distributed Through Twitch Chat Is Hijacking Steam Accounts

An anonymous reader writes If you use Twitch don’t click on any suspicious links in the video streaming platform’s chat feature. Twitch Support’s official Twitter account issued a security warning telling users not to click the “csgoprize” link in chat. According to f-secure, the link leads to a Java program that asks for your name and email. If you provide the info it will install a file on your computer that’s able to take out any money you have in your Steam wallet, as well as sell or trade items in your inventory. “This malware, which we call Eskimo, is able to wipe your Steam wallet, armory, and inventory dry, ” says F-Secure. “It even dumps your items for a discount in the Steam Community Market. Previous variants were selling items with a 12 percent discount, but a recent sample showed that they changed it to 35 percent discount. Perhaps to be able to sell the items faster.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Malware Distributed Through Twitch Chat Is Hijacking Steam Accounts

Original 11′ Star Trek Enterprise Model Being Restored Again

NormalVisual (565491) writes The original 11-foot U.S.S. Enterprise studio model from the original series has gone back into the shop again. The Smithsonian owns the model and has had it on display in a gift shop at the National Air and Space Museum for the last 13 years, but will be placed on display in the Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall in 2016, to coincide with the museum’s 40th anniversary. In the meantime, the model will be undergoing its fourth restoration to address a number of issues. The last restoration in 1991 was performed by Ed Miarecki, a professional modelmaker well known for his work in “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, as well as films such as “Event Horizon”. This previous restoration had Trek fans up in arms owing to the paint job, which many feel doesn’t represent the way the model looked originally. Hopefully this next restoration will bring her back to her former glory. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Original 11′ Star Trek Enterprise Model Being Restored Again

L.A. TV Stations Free Up Some Spectrum For Wireless Broadband

alphadogg (971356) writes An effort to free up some of the airwaves used by TV broadcasts and make them available for wireless broadband took a big step forward this week in the U.S. Two TV stations in Los Angeles, KLCS and KCET, have agreed to share a single frequency to deliver their programming freeing up a channel that can be auctioned off to wireless carriers next year. The change, which the Federal Communications Commission calls “repackaging, ” is possible because digital TV broadcasts don’t need the full 6MHz of broadcast spectrum that was used for analog TV. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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L.A. TV Stations Free Up Some Spectrum For Wireless Broadband

Induced Stem Cells Will Be Tested on Humans for the First Time

Back in 2006, when controversy over embryonic stem cell funding was still raging, a piece of research came along that would make the debate essentially obsolete: normal adult cells can actually be reprogrammed into stem cells. No embryos necessary. The technique went on to win its inventor the Nobel Prize. And now, after many years in the lab, a Japanese patient will the first person to receive the next-gen treatment, called induced pluripotent stem cells. Read more…

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Induced Stem Cells Will Be Tested on Humans for the First Time

GM To Introduce Hands-Free Driving In Cadillac Model

cold fjord notes that drivers will be able to switch a new Cadillac model to partial auto-pilo. General Motors Co. (GM), the largest U.S. automaker, will introduce a Cadillac model in two years that can travel on the highway without the driver holding the steering wheel or putting a foot on a pedal. The 2017 Cadillac model will feature “Super Cruise” technology that takes control of steering, acceleration and braking at highway speeds of 70 miles per hour or in stop-and-go congested traffic, Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra said yesterday in a speech at the Intelligent Transport System World Congress in Detroit. GM declined to release the name of the model that will carry the feature. Barra also said GM in two years will become the first automaker to equip a model with so-called vehicle-to-vehicle technology that enables the car to communicate with other autos with similar abilities to warn of traffic hazards and improve road safety. GM will make the V2V feature standard on its 2017 Cadillac CTS sedan, debuting in the second half of 2016, she said. The Super Cruise feature will be on a different Cadillac model and goes beyond similar technology available on some Mercedes-Benz models that operates only at low speeds. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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GM To Introduce Hands-Free Driving In Cadillac Model