You Can Now Buy a Self-Drying Jacket to Go With Your Power Lace Sneakers

A few months ago, Nike made every Back to the Future fan’s dream come true by finally releasing sneakers with fully-functional power laces. And now, just weeks before 2015 draws to a close, it looks like Marty’s self-drying jacket from BTTF2 could also become a reality. Read more…

Visit link:
You Can Now Buy a Self-Drying Jacket to Go With Your Power Lace Sneakers

Theremin’s Bug Let Soviets Spy On USA For More Than 7 Years

szczys writes: Theremin, yes the same Theremin who built the instrument that made the Star Trek theme song famous, had a hand in espionage as well. Albeit not a willing one. Turns out his life is actually quite tragic. In addition to that story, Adam Fabio takes a trip through the details of “The Thing”, a bug installed in the US Embassy by the Soviet Union during the cold war. It used no batteries, instead depending on a carrier frequency transmitted by the “listener”, causing the resonant cavity to transmit back the audio from the room at a higher frequency. Pretty nifty, and so was the hiding place: a hand-carved wooden seal of the United States. Beware Greeks Bearing Gifts, right? Read more of this story at Slashdot.

See the original article here:
Theremin’s Bug Let Soviets Spy On USA For More Than 7 Years

Stretchable square of rubber doubles as a keyboard

There’s a whole branch of science that’s dedicated to turning flexible surfaces into sensors that can be used as an artificial substitute for skin. These materials could then be used to give robots a sense of touch , or even to restore feeling for people with artificial prostheses. Researchers at the University of Auckland have taken the concept in a slightly different direction after building a square of soft, stretchable rubber that pulls double-duty as a keyboard. It’s hoped that the technology can be used to create foldable, rollable input devices, which reminds us of Nokia’s twisty-stretchy phone concept from way back when. Via: EurekaAlert Source: Smart Materials

See the article here:
Stretchable square of rubber doubles as a keyboard

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Will Ship With Linux Kernel 4.4 LTS

prisoninmate writes: The current daily build of the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) remains based on the Linux 4.2 kernel packages of the stable Ubuntu 15.10 (Wily Werewolf) operating system, while the latest and most advanced Linux 4.3 kernel is tracked on the master-next branch of the upcoming operating system. In the meantime, the Ubuntu Kernel Team announced plans for moving to Linux kernel 4.4 for the final release of the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) operating system. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

See the original article here:
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Will Ship With Linux Kernel 4.4 LTS

Raspberry Pi Zero sells out within 24 hours

(credit: Wired) The Pi Zero—the new £4 Raspberry Pi —has sold out in under 24 hours. The Raspberry Pi Foundation says that around 20,000 individual Pi Zeroes have been sold in the last day, along with a further 10,000 copies of the MagPi  magazine which had a Pi Zero on the front. “You’d think we’d be used to it by now, but we’re always amazed by the level of interest in new Raspberry Pi products,” said Eben Upton, the founder of the foundation. “Right now it appears that we’ve sold every individual Zero we made… people are scouring the country for the last few Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury and Smiths branches that haven’t sold out [of the MagPi magazine],” Upton told Wired . Upton said they are producing more Zeroes “as fast as we can” at its factory in Pencoed, Wales, but didn’t specify when more stock would be available. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

View post:
Raspberry Pi Zero sells out within 24 hours

Critical Zen Cart Vulnerability Could Spell Black Friday Disaster For Shoppers

Mark Wilson writes: It’s around this time of year, with Black Friday looming and Christmas just around the corner, that online sales boom. Today security firm High-Tech Bridge has issued a warning to retailers and shoppers about a critical vulnerability in the popular Zen Cart shopping management system. High-Tech Bridge has provided Zen Cart with full details of the security flaw which could allow remote attackers to infiltrate web servers and gain access to customer data. Servers running Zen Cart are also at risk of malware, meaning that hundreds of thousands of ecommerce sites pose a potential danger. Technical details of the vulnerability are not yet being made public, but having notified Zen Cart of the issue High-Tech Bridge says the date of full public disclosure is 16 December. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

More:
Critical Zen Cart Vulnerability Could Spell Black Friday Disaster For Shoppers

New Wearable Tech Translates Sign Language Into Text

An anonymous reader writes: A new wearable technology developed by a team of biomedical engineers at Texas A&M University seeks to aid seamless communication between deaf people who use sign language and those who do not understand it. The arm device contains a network of sensors which track hand movements, as well as the electromyography (EMG) signals generated by the muscles in the wrist, and process and translate the different signals into text in real-time.The prototype currently uses Bluetooth to translate the sign language to a computer or smartphone. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Read more here:
New Wearable Tech Translates Sign Language Into Text

Circuit Board Tattoos That Actually Work Will Bring Your Cyborg Fantasies To Life

There’s a common misconception that tattoos are only a way to express your individuality (just like everyone else does), or only serve as loving tributes to moms. But they have practical medical applications too, especially now that circuit board temporary tattoos exist. Read more…

Original post:
Circuit Board Tattoos That Actually Work Will Bring Your Cyborg Fantasies To Life

One Family Suffering Through Years-Long Trolling Campaign

blottsie writes: Since 2010, the Straters have been under assault from an online campaign of ever-increasing harassment — prank deliveries, smear attacks, high-profile hacks, and threats of violence against schools and law enforcement officials in their name — and it’s slowly torn them apart. Masterminding it all is a teenage Lizard Squad hacker from Finland, at war with their son, Blair, over a seemingly minor dispute. “When the family started getting notices about their utilities being disconnected, they realized things were escalating out of control. Utility provider Commonwealth Edison once called the house to iron out the details about a request to have the power turned off after a supposed move. Something similar happened with their trash service. On Halloween 2013, Comcast shut off their cable and Internet service.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Excerpt from:
One Family Suffering Through Years-Long Trolling Campaign