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Mar 2, 2016

Coke and McDonald’s Are Now in the Virtual Reality Business

Posted by in categories: business, virtual reality

Both companies have new packaging that transforms into VR headsets.

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Mar 2, 2016

How Hackers Recruit New Talent

Posted by in category: cybercrime/malcode

I wanted to share this article; not to promote a career as a hacker, only to share how organized these groups have become.


It involves job postings on the dark web, Skype interviews, and digital voice-changing technology.

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Mar 2, 2016

Latest attack against TLS shows the pitfalls of intentionally weakening encryption

Posted by in categories: encryption, government, security

“For the third time in less than a year, security researchers have found a method to attack encrypted Web communications, a direct result of weaknesses that were mandated two decades ago by the U.S. government”

This could have more than just security gap ripple effects; it could actually be a loophole for any claims/ lawsuits that consumers and others have with various organizations.


For the third time in under a year, security researchers have found a method to attack encrypted Web communications, a direct result of weaknesses that were mandated two decades ago by the U.S. government.

Continue reading “Latest attack against TLS shows the pitfalls of intentionally weakening encryption” »

Mar 2, 2016

Western Digital’s 8TB hard drives mix helium with mammoth storage

Posted by in category: computing

Western Digital’s bringing big-time storage to NAS boxes and external drives with new helium-filled 8TB hard drives.

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Mar 2, 2016

Will people skip planes and trains for self-driving cars?

Posted by in categories: energy, robotics/AI, transportation

Driverless cars, like the one Google launched in 2012, are touted for their potential energy savings, but engineers say we should consider the possibility that the technology will intensify car use.

If people can work, relax, and even hold meetings in their cars, they may drive more.

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Mar 2, 2016

AT&T will start selling you cable TV over the Internet

Posted by in categories: internet, mobile phones

AT&T is going “over the top” with television.

In the fourth quarter of this year, AT&T will start selling cable-like bundles of TV to people across the country through a new app. Subscribers won’t need an AT&T wireless phone or an AT&T broadband connection at home.

It’ll be like Netflix — download the app, sign up, type in a credit card number, and start streaming a TV show.

Continue reading “AT&T will start selling you cable TV over the Internet” »

Mar 2, 2016

Why robots may not be coming for your job after all

Posted by in categories: economics, employment, robotics/AI

Matt O’Brien argues that we should look more carefully at the economy before panicking about robots taking our jobs.

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Mar 2, 2016

Scientists Create Functional Model of a Living and Breathing Supercomputer

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, energy, supercomputing

In what appears at first to be a storyline ripped from a sci-fi thriller, a multi-national research team spread across two continents, four countries, and ten years in the making have created a model of a supercomputer that runs on the same substance that living things use as an energy source.

Humans and virtually all living things rely on Adenosine triphosphate ( ATP ) to provide the energy our cells need to perform daily functions. The biological computer created by the team led by Professor Dan Nicolau, Chair of the Department of Bioengineering at McGill, also relies on ATP for power.

The biological computer is able to process information very quickly and operates accurately using parallel networks like contemporary massive electronic super computers. In addition, the model is lot smaller in size, uses relatively less energy, and functions using proteins that are present in all living cells.

Continue reading “Scientists Create Functional Model of a Living and Breathing Supercomputer” »

Mar 2, 2016

Mysterious Cosmic Radio Bursts Just Got Even More Interesting

Posted by in categories: energy, space

Fast radio bursts, or FRBs, are a source of endless fascination. But despite a decade of observations, not all astronomers are sure that they’re real. A study out in Nature today, which reports the very first recurring FRB, is now causing lingering skepticism to evaporate.

“I think this is pretty huge,” Peter Williams, an astronomer at Harvard’s Center for Astrophysics who was not involved with the study, told Gizmodo. “For awhile, I wasn’t sure these things were genuinely astrophysical. This paper settles the question.”

And Williams is not one to take splashy new claims about FRBs—high energy radio pulses of unknown origin, which flit across the sky for a fraction of a second—lightly. In fact, he’s spent the last week raising major doubts about another recent study, which, as Gizmodo and other outlets reported, claimed to have pinpointed the location of an FRB in space for the first time.

Continue reading “Mysterious Cosmic Radio Bursts Just Got Even More Interesting” »

Mar 2, 2016

Inside the Artificial Intelligence Revolution: A Special Report, Pt. 1

Posted by in categories: existential risks, innovation, robotics/AI

We may be on the verge of creating a new life form, one that could mark not only an evolutionary breakthrough, but a potential threat to our survival as a species.

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