Microsoft patent aims to curb your enthusiasm in the office

By James Trew  posted Nov 21st 2011 5:48AM

You might think working for tech royalty out west is all beanbags and 20 percent time. And it might well be. But if your paychecks say Microsoft, you might want to be careful how you spend that extra down-time. A patent with the snappy title Organizational Behavior Monitoring Analysis and Influencedescribes a system devised by the company to monitor employee interactions. Everything from cutting people off in conversation, to the verbal phrases and mannerisms used over "multi-modal communications" (e-mail, phone and so on) is covered. The aim of the Orwellian system is "defining desired and undesired behaviors for enhancing organizational trust levels" and it's not the first timeMicrosoft has made such sinister sounding patent applications. OK, so there is nothing saying exactly what this might be for, or if this would ever be used to monitor its own employees. That said, if your parking space isn't there on Monday, you might want to backtrack through the previous week's water-cooler diatribes.

Minecraft Is Finished

Posted by timothy on Tuesday November 15, @09:35AM 

from the it's-never-finished dept.

SharkLaser writes"Minecraft, the most widely known and best selling indie game in the history, is now finished. Minecraft creator Notch tweeted yesterday that Minecraft has gone gold and will be released at the end of the week at the first Minecon, a gathering of Minecraft fans. So far over 4 million people have bought the game, generating over 50 million dollars in revenue. Minecraft has also had a rapid modding community around the game, developing gems like the Millenaire mod, Builders and Tornadoes. Minecraft also brought back the interest in voxel based engines, introducing games like Ace of Spades (build, make tunnels, capture the flag FPS) and Voxatron [note: you might want to turn down your volume for this video]. It also opened up many ways for new indie developers, as Minecraft showed development can be funded solely by making something new and giving out early access to the game for those who are interested in the project. The upcoming Steam-like IndieCity-platform will also employ similar feature where, in addition to normal indie game store, players can look at unfinished projects and choose to support their development."

Identifying Nuclear Scientists Willing To Sell Their Knowledge

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday November 17, @05:53AM 

from the update-your-resume dept.

Harperdog writes"This is an interesting piece on U.S. programs most people don't know about: programs to identify and win over nuclear scientists who might bewilling to sell their know-how to non-nuclear countries. Fascinating discussion, and points to the alleged Russian scientist who is reported to have sold information to Iran. How could he have been stopped?"

Has Apple Made Programmers Cool?

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday November 17, @04:31AM 

from the for-some-definition-of-cool dept.

An anonymous reader writes"CNET suggests that Apple has totally changed the general public's perception of programmers: It's now suddenly cool to code. No matter what platform you're on. They argue that App Store millionaire success stories have 'turned a whole generation of geek coders from social misfits into superheroes.' Apparently, gone are the days when a programmer was the last person you wanted to talk to at a party: 'Mention to someone that you make apps and their interest will pick up instantly. This is an astonishing change from what a programmer in the 80s could have expected in reaction to their job description.' The App Store millionaires, or 'Appillionaires', may have done all of us programmers a huge favor. Programming is now socially acceptable: 'Previous generations strapped on electric guitars and fought for super-stardom in sweaty dive bars, but today's youth boot up Xcode on their MacBook Pros.'"

Verizon begins collecting user data for targeted ads, is kind enough to offer 'opt-out' escape route

By Amar Toor  posted Nov 17th 2011 4:24AM

Verizon still wants to collect your personal information, but it'll understand if you decide to opt out. Really, it's cool. No hard feelings. The provider said as much yesterday, in an e-mail titled "Important notice about how Verizon Wireless uses information." The missive, sent to all VZW customers, essentially lays out the company's revamped privacy policy, originally unveiled last month. Under the new framework, Verizon will be able to monitor your browsing history, location, app usage, and demographic data, all in the name of targeted advertising and vaguely-titled "business and marketing reports." The good news is that you can always opt out of the scheme, either by phone or online. The bad news is that you'll probably have to explain the whole thing to your grandma.

California Making Headway in Battle Against Childhood Obesity but Successes Are Uneven

ScienceDaily (Nov. 9, 2011) — A new study offers hope that California may finally be getting a handle on its 30-year battle with childhood obesity, but it also showcases a patchwork of progress that leaves the majority of the state's counties still registering increases in obesity rates among school-age children.

Revolutionary Ultrasonic Nozzle That Will Change the Way Water Cleans

ScienceDaily (Nov. 9, 2011) — A team of scientists from the University of Southampton have developed a revolutionary ultrasonic attachment for taps, which massively enhances the ability of water to clean.

Diaspora Co-founder Dies At 22

Posted by samzenpus on Monday November 14, @02:18AM 

from the fare-thee-well dept.

phaedrus5001 writes"Tech Crunch is reporting that one of the co-founders of Diaspora, Ilya Zhitomirskiy, has passed away. He was only 22. At the moment, the cause of his death is unknown."

Netflix signs up Lionsgate UK films for its British debut

By Richard Lawler  posted Nov 14th 2011 3:16AM

Now that Netflix has made its plans to launch in the British Isles official, it's gotten busy signing content deals and the latest affiliation is with Lionsgate's UK arm. The deal makes Netflix the "exclusive subscription streaming service" in the UK and Ireland for the studios first-run movies, with upcoming titles like The Expendables 2, and the Dirty Dancing remake already on deck. The agreement also extends to catalog hits like Reservoir Dogs, 3:10 to Yuma and The Blair Witch Project, which should be available when the service launches early next year. Check the press release after the break for all the details, although there's still plenty of time to decide whether or not its worth your pounds, pence, or bank notes.

Man Calls 911 To Fix Broken iPhone

Posted by samzenpus on Monday November 14, @12:38AM 

from the and-bring-me-a-pizza-while-you're-at-it dept.

tekgoblin writes"For some reason Michael Skopec of Illinois thought that calling 911 would get his broken iPhone fixed. It got him arrested instead. From the article: 'After the five calls were made police traced the calls to his home in Illinois where they found him drunk and belligerent. He was arrested because he would not follow the police officers orders. It has yet to be made clear what he was actually trying to accomplish by calling 911 to get help with his iPhone. Although he was arrested he only faces misdemeanor charges and has to be in court next week.'"

Climate Policies Can Help Resolve Energy Security and Air Pollution Challenges ScienceDaily (Nov. 13, 2011) — Policies to protect the global climate and limit global temperature rise offer the most effective entry point for achieving energy sustainability, reducing air pollution, and improving energy security, according to an article published in the latest issue of Nature Climate Change (Vol 1 Dec 2011). By adopting an integrated perspective on energy and climate policy, one that simultaneously addresses three of the key objectives for energy sustainability, major synergies and cost co-benefits can be realized.

ScienceDaily (Nov. 13, 2011) — Policies to protect the global climate and limit global temperature rise offer the most effective entry point for achieving energy sustainability, reducing air pollution, and improving energy security, according to an article published in the latest issue of Nature Climate Change (Vol 1 Dec 2011). By adopting an integrated perspective on energy and climate policy, one that simultaneously addresses three of the key objectives for energy sustainability, major synergies and cost co-benefits can be realized.

Simulating Black Hole Radiation With Lasers: Lasers Produce the First Hawking Radiation Ever Detected ScienceDaily (Nov. 9, 2011) — A team of Italian scientists has fired a laser beam into a hunk of glass to create what they believe is an optical analogue of the Hawking radiation that many physicists expect is emitted by black holes.

ScienceDaily (Nov. 9, 2011) — A team of Italian scientists has fired a laser beam into a hunk of glass to create what they believe is an optical analogue of the Hawking radiation that many physicists expect is emitted by black holes.

New Test for Consciousness in 'Comatose' Patients

ScienceDaily (Nov. 9, 2011) — The Coma Science Group (CRCyclotron, University of Liège /Liège University Hospital), led by Dr Steven Laureys, has developed, along with its partners in London, Ontario, (Canada) and Cambridge (England), a portable test which will permit a simpler and less expensive diagnosis of 'vegetative' patients who still have consciousness, despite the fact that they do not have the means to express it.

Interesting thought

A Cognitive Teardown of Angry Birds

Posted by Unknown Lamer on Wednesday November 09, @01:15PM 

from the i-really-hate-birds dept.

Hugh Pickens writes"The 50 million individuals who have downloaded 'Angry Birds' play roughly 200 million minutes of the game a day, which translates into 1.2 billion hours a year, more than ten times the 100 million hours spent creating Wikipedia over the entire life span of the online encyclopedia. Why is this seemly simple game so massively compelling? Charles L. Mauro performs a cognitive teardown of the user experience of Angry Birds and concludes that the game is engaging, in fact addictive, due to the carefully scripted expansion of the user's mental model of the strategy component and incremental increases in problem/solution methodology. The birds are packed with clever behaviors that expand the user's mental model at just the point when game-level complexity is increased ... For example, why are tiny bananas suddenly strewn about in some play sequences and not in others? Why do the houses containing pigs shake ever so slightly at the beginning of each game play sequence? Why is the game's play space showing a cross section of underground rocks and dirt? One can spend a lot of time processing these little clues, consciously or subconsciously. 'Creating truly engaging software experiences is far more complex than one might assume, even in the simplest of computer games,' writes Mauro. 'You go Birds! Your success certainly makes others Angry and envious.'"

PSA: FEMA to test nationwide Emergency Alert System today, emphasis on 'test'

By Amar Toor  posted Nov 9th 2011 6:13AM

Don't freak out or anything, but at 2 PM EST today, the US government will sound a nationwide alarm. Barring a coincidence of cataclysmic proportion, however, it will only be a test. It's all part of FEMA and the FCC's Emergency Alert System (EAS), which is slated to be tried out on a nationwide level for the very first time. If, like us, you've spent a healthy portion of your life sitting in front of the TV, you're probably familiar with those monthly local alerts that tend to flash across the screen smack dab in the middle of a Saved by the Bell rerun. That's basically what's gonna happen today across the nation's television and radio networks. Some TV viewers will hear that familiar "this is a test" message during the trial, though most will simply see the word "test" run across their screens. The EAS would allow the president to disseminate information to the public in times of real emergency, which is why the government is so eager to make sure it actually works. All told, it'll last about 30 seconds, so plan your End of the World party accordingly. For more details, hit up the source links below.

Oil Executive: Military-Style 'Psy Ops' Experience Applied

Last week’s oil industry conference at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Houston was supposed to be an industry confab just like any other — a series of panel discussions, light refreshments and an exchange of ideas.


It was a gathering of professionals to discuss “media and stakeholder relations” in the hydraulic fracturing industry — companies using the often-controversial oil and gas extraction technique known as “fracking.”

But things took an unexpected twist.

CNBC has obtained audiotapes of the event, on which one presenter can be heard recommending that his colleagues download a copy of the Army and Marine Corps counterinsurgency manual. (Click below to hear the audio.) That’s because, he said, the opposition facing the industry is an “insurgency.”

NASA Proposes Orion Spacecraft Test Flight In 2014; Agency Moves to Implement Deep Space Exploration Plan

ScienceDaily (Nov. 8, 2011) — NASA plans to add an unmanned flight test of the Orion spacecraft in early 2014 to its contract with Lockheed Martin Space Systems for the multi-purpose crew vehicle's design, development, test and evaluation. This test supports the new Space Launch System (SLS) that will take astronauts farther into space than ever before, create U.S. jobs, and provide the cornerstone for America's future human spaceflight efforts.

NASA Develops Super-Black Material That Absorbs Light Across Multiple Wavelength Bands

ScienceDaily (Nov. 8, 2011) — NASA engineers have produced a material that absorbs on average more than 99 percent of the ultraviolet, visible, infrared, and far-infrared light that hits it -- a development that promises to open new frontiers in space technology.

Researchers Create Extra-Long Electrical Arcs Using Less Energy

ScienceDaily (Nov. 8, 2011) — Researchers at the University of Canterbury, in New Zealand, have developed a new, lower-voltage method of generating extra-long, lightning-like electrical arcs.

Directed Energy Weapon Downs Mosquitos

Posted by samzenpus on Friday February 12 2010, @03:36PM 

from the two-pound-hammer-and-ten-penny-nail dept.

wisebabo writes"Nathan Myhrvol demonstrated at TED a laser, built from parts scrounged from eBay, capable of shooting down not one but 50 to 100 mosquitos a second. The system is 'so precise that it can specify the species, and even the gender, of the mosquito being targeted.' Currently, for the sake of efficiency, it leaves the males alone because only females are bloodsuckers. Best of all the system could cost as little as $50. Maybe that's too expensive for use in preventing malaria in Africa but I'd buy one in a second!"We ran a story about this last year. It looks like the company has added a bit more polish, and burning mosquito footage to their marketing.

Light Barrier Repels Mosquitoes

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday November 03, @02:06AM 

from the raise-shields dept.

kodiaktau writes"Dr. Szabolcs Marka has received one of five $1M grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to continue his experiments with using light beams to create mosquito barriers. This is the second grant he has received from the foundation and proves to be a deviation from the previous and more dangerous use of lasers to control mosquitoes. A video of the light barrier in action can be seen here"

NASA Studying Ways to Make 'Tractor Beams' a Reality

ScienceDaily (Nov. 3, 2011) — Tractor beams -- the ability to trap and move objects using laser light -- are the stuff of science fiction, but a team of NASA scientists has won funding to study the concept for remotely capturing planetary or atmospheric particles and delivering them to a robotic rover or orbiting spacecraft for analysis.

New sensor can read your heart from afar, but knows not your feelings

By Jesse Hicks  posted Nov 3rd 2011 5:38AM

Are you fed up with your current ECG sensor? Tired of all the mess of electroconductive gels, sticky electrodes and tangled wires? How about this: Britain's Plessey Semiconductors offers an ECG sensor that promises heart-monitoring without the hassle. We've seen similar technology before, but according to the company, the Electric Potential Integrated Circuit -- or EPIC, as it's humbly called -- can read heartbeats even through a sweater; future versions might be embedded in hospital gurneys for constant, unobtrusive monitoring. Like an extremely sensitive voltmeter, it detects tiny changes in electric fields, which means it could also be used for Kinect-style motion interfaces. The company even imagines a future system where firefighters can use the EPIC to find humans in a smoke-filled room. If you're thinking, "My, that sounds just like my Deus Ex dreams" -- hey, we're right there with you.

Another Step Towards Graphene Semiconductors

Posted by samzenpus on Monday October 31, @08:10AM 

from the next-step dept.

derGoldstein writes"Ars has an article up about the two latest 'papers demonstrating that, if you change the way the graphene stacks, you obtain a voltage-controlled bandgap ... Between these two papers, a fairly complete understanding of the bandgap behavior in three-layer graphene has been obtained, leaving only the challenge of making the stuff.'"