E-Mail Hack Exposes Bush Family Pictures, Correspondence

New submitter rHBa sends this article about another high-profile email account breach: “The apparent hack of several e-mail accounts has exposed personal photos and sensitive correspondence from members of the Bush family, including both former U.S. presidents. The posted photos and e-mails contain a watermark with the hacker’s online alias, ‘Guccifer.’ … Included in the hacked material is a confidential October 2012 list of home addresses, cell phone numbers, and e-mails for dozens of Bush family members, including both former presidents, their siblings, and their children. … Correspondence obtained by the hacker indicates that at least six separate e-mail accounts have been compromised, including the AOL account of Dorothy Bush Koch, daughter of George H.W. Bush and sister of George W. Bush. Other breached accounts belong to Willard Heminway, 79, an old friend of the 41st president who lives in Greenwich, Connecticut; CBS sportscaster Jim Nantz, a longtime Bush family friend; former first lady Barbara Bush’s brother; and George H.W. Bush’s sister-in-law. ” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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E-Mail Hack Exposes Bush Family Pictures, Correspondence

And Now, a Tiny Japanese Roomba… for Your iDevice Screen

Although it seems that we’ve been soliciting your opinions with a simple “Yea or Nay” quite a bit lately—regarding this and this , for starters—we just as often herald instances of “hell in a handbasket” to connote examples of design or specific products that confound us. And while I’d surmise that a new product called the Automee S is an example of chindōgu , the fact that it will reportedly available for 1575 Yen (about $17) next month seems to be at odds with the spirit of ‘unuseless design.’ Unfortunately, the product page is in Japanese, so we’re relying on New Launches’ translation regarding details and specs. They write that “the little one has three tires for maneuvering and two made of paper which do the cleaning. The onboard sensors prevent the Automee S from falling off the edges and also lets it clean the entire surface evenly.” New Launches also notes that it takes four minutes to clean a phone and eight to clean a tablet, which makes it good for 45 and 22 complete cleans on a single AA battery. (more…)

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And Now, a Tiny Japanese Roomba… for Your iDevice Screen

Parcel Sensor Knows When Your Delivery Has Been Dropped

First time accepted submitter Hamsterdan writes “If you’re tired of finding that your stuff has been smashed during shipping after opening your package, this device is for you. ‘Called DropTag, the gadget combines a battery, a low-energy Bluetooth transmitter, an accelerometer and a memory chip. Stuck on a parcel as it leaves an e-commerce warehouse, it logs any g-forces above a set risky shock level that it experiences. The idea is that when the courier puts it in your hands, you turn on Bluetooth on a smartphone running a DropTag app and scan it before you sign for it.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Parcel Sensor Knows When Your Delivery Has Been Dropped

Magnetic Transistor Could Cut Power Consumption and Make Chips Reprogrammable

ananyo writes “Transistors, the simple switches at the heart of all modern electronics, generally use a tiny voltage to toggle between ‘on’ and ‘off.’ The voltage approach is highly reliable and easy to miniaturize, but has its disadvantages. First, keeping the voltage on requires power, which drives up the energy consumption of the microchip. Second, transistors must be hard-wired into the chips and can’t be reconfigured, which means computers need dedicated circuitry for all their functions. Now, researchers have made a type of transistor that can be switched with magnetism. The device could cut the power consumption of computers, cell phones and other electronics — and allow chips themselves to be ‘reprogrammed” (abstract).” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Magnetic Transistor Could Cut Power Consumption and Make Chips Reprogrammable

Multi-State AT&T U-Verse Outage Enters Third Day

SonicSpike writes “AT&T U-verse customers are reporting this morning that an outage that began Monday and is affecting at least 15 states is still not resolved. Some customers were told this morning that the problem will not be fixed for at least 24 hours.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Multi-State AT&T U-Verse Outage Enters Third Day

Swiss Federal Lab Claims New World Record For Solar Cell Efficiency

Zothecula writes “Scientists based at Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, have set a new efficiency record for thin-film copper indium gallium (di)selenid (or CIGS) based solar cells on flexible polymer foils, reaching an efficiency of 20.4 percent. This is an increase from a previous record of 18.7 percent set by the team back in 2011.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Swiss Federal Lab Claims New World Record For Solar Cell Efficiency

The World’s First 3D Printed Building Will Arrive In 2014 (And It Looks Awesome)

Sure, 3D printing is fun and cute. And products like the Makerbot and Form 1 will most certainly disrupt manufacturing, even if it’s only on a small scale. But the possibilities of 3D printing stretch far beyond DIY at-home projects. In fact, it could entirely replace the construction industry. We’ve already seen folks at MIT’s Research Labs working on ways to 3D print the frame of a home in a day, as opposed to the month it would take a construction crew to do the same. But it isn’t just geeks taking an interest; a Dutch architect is interested in 3D printing a home, with the hopes that it’ll be ready by 2014. The architect’s name is Janjaap Ruijssenaars of Universe Architecture, and his project is a part of the Europan competition, which lets architects in over 15 different countries build projects over the course of two years. Ruijssenaars will work with Italian inventor Enrico Dini, founder of the D-Shape 3D printer. The plan is to print out 6×9 chunks of frame, comprised of sand and inorganic binder. From there, they’ll fill the frame with fiber-reinforced concrete. The final product will be a single flowing design, a two-story building. Here’s the project in Ruijssenaars’ words: One surface folded in an endless möbius band. Floors transform into ceilings, inside into outside. Production with innovative 3D printing techniques. Architecture of continuity with an endless array of applicability. As I said, he doesn’t plan on realizing the dream until 2014. So just because he has plans to build the world’s first 3D printed building, it would appear that others have time to nab the title first. [via 3ders.org ]

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The World’s First 3D Printed Building Will Arrive In 2014 (And It Looks Awesome)

Archaeologists Mistake Viking Brewhouses For Bathhouses

For years, archaeologists studying Viking remnants and artifacts in Britain had assumed that certain stone structures were bathhouses, or a kind of primitive sauna. But a husband-and-wife team has now thrown this thinking into question by suggesting that they weren’t bathhouses at all — that they were brewhouses where the Vikings made their beer. More »

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Archaeologists Mistake Viking Brewhouses For Bathhouses

“Once-in-a-century” ISON comet could be visible from Earth during the daytime

Last year, astronomers using the Russian International Scientific Optical Network (ISON) spied something intriguing just beyond the orbit of Jupiter: a cometary body so large, and with a trajectory that will bring it so close to the Sun, that it could potentially be visible from Earth in the middle of the day (not unlike Comet McNaught, pictured above, was in 2007), and outshine the Moon at night. More »

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“Once-in-a-century” ISON comet could be visible from Earth during the daytime