| Mapping the Whole IPv4 Internet with Hilbert Curves Posted: 23 Apr 2018 08:14 AM PDT |
| WikiLeaks Loses Access to a Key Cryptocurrency Account Posted: 23 Apr 2018 06:40 AM PDT Fnord666 writes: This hasn't been the best week for WikiLeaks, to put it mildly. Coinbase has shut off the WikiLeaks Shop's account for allegedly violating the cryptocurrency exchange's terms of service. In other words, the leak site just lost its existing means of converting payments like bitcoin into conventional money. While Coinbase didn't give a specific reason (it declines to comment on specific accounts), it pointed to its legal requirement to honor "regulatory compliance mechanisms" under the US' Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. This doesn't prevent WikiLeaks from accepting cryptocurrency, but it will have to scramble to find an alternative if it wants to continue taking digital money from customers buying shirts and coffee cups. Unsurprisingly, the organization is less than thrilled -- it's calling for a "global blockade" of Coinbase, claiming that the exchange is reacting to a "concealed influence."
Source: https://www.engadget.com/2018/04/21/wikileaks-loses-coinbase-account/
Original Submission Read more of this story at SoylentNews. |
| Microsoft Ports Anti-Phishing Technology to Google Chrome Extension Posted: 23 Apr 2018 05:03 AM PDT |
| Teenager Charged for Nova Scotia Freedom of Information Web Portal Breach Posted: 23 Apr 2018 03:31 AM PDT |
| Improved Stability of Plastic Light-Emitting Diodes Posted: 23 Apr 2018 01:59 AM PDT Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story: Monitor screens and smartphones that can be rolled and folded up are applications that could become possible in the future thanks to the development of polymer (plastic) based semiconductors. Electronics from these conducting plastics pave the way for affordable, flexible and printable electronic components. A major obstacle hindering the market introduction of plastic based light-emitting diodes (PLEDs) is their relatively limited stability. After a few months of continuous operation their light-output starts to decrease. In spite of many investigations in both industry and academic laboratories the cause of this degradation effect is only poorly understood. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research have recently discovered the mechanism causing the PLED degradation. [...] The research results are published in the latest edition of the scientific journal Nature Materials. By using a mixture of two polymers (plastics) the effect of the defects can be strongly suppressed, leasing[sic] to improved stability of the PLEDs.
See also: http://www.mpip-mainz.mpg.de/5308521/PM2018-10
Original Submission Read more of this story at SoylentNews. |
| Zippo Keeps Your Bits Safe Posted: 22 Apr 2018 11:28 PM PDT MrPlow writes: Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard [Laura Kampf] found a new use for an old Zippo lighter by turning it into a carrier for her screwdriver bits. There are several multitools out there which can accept standard screwdriver bits. The problem is carrying those bits around. Leaving a few bits in your pocket is a recipe for pocket holes and missing bits. [Laura's] solution uses her old Zippo lighter. All she needs is the case, the lighter element itself can be saved for another project. A block of aluminum is cut and sanded down to a friction fit. Laura uses a band saw and bench sander for this. The aluminum block is then drilled out to fit four bits. Small neodymium magnets are taped into the holes with double-sided tape. These magnets retain the bits, ensuring none will fall out when the lighter is opened.
Does this mean we can start calling four bits a Zippo instead of a nibble now? Source: https://hackaday.com/2018/04/20/zippo-keeps-your-bits-safe/
Original Submission Read more of this story at SoylentNews. |
| Food Allergy Linked to Skin Exposure and Genetics Posted: 22 Apr 2018 09:17 PM PDT |
| SmugMug Acquires Flickr Posted: 22 Apr 2018 06:56 PM PDT MrPlow writes: Submitted via IRC for fyngyrz Two photo-sharing services are teaming up, as SmugMug buys Flickr from Verizon’s digital media subsidiary Oath. USA Today broke the news and interviewed SmugMug CEO Don MacAskill, who said he hopes to revitalize Flickr . At the same time, he said he's still figuring out his actual plans: "It sounds silly for the CEO to not to totally know what he's going to do, but we haven't built SmugMug on a master plan either. We try to listen to our customers and when enough of them ask for something that's important to them or to the community, we go and build it." [...] In an FAQ about the deal, SmugMug says it will continue to operate Flickr as a separate site, with no merging of user accounts or photos: "Over time, we'll be migrating Flickr onto SmugMug's technology infrastructure, and your Flickr photos will move as a part of this migration — but the photos themselves will remain on Flickr."
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/20/smugmug-acquires-flickr/
Original Submission Read more of this story at SoylentNews. |
| New Electronic Book Format Unveiled: WebBook Posted: 22 Apr 2018 04:39 PM PDT Apparition writes: Daniel Glazman believes that EPUB has reached a technical dead end. - It is impossible to aggregate a set of web pages into a EPUB book through a trivial zip, and it is impossible to unzip an EPUB book and make it readable inside a Web browser even with graceful degradation.
- Despite the International Digital Publishing Forum merging with W3C in January 2017, EPUB continues to diverge from web standards.
- The EPUB 3.1 specification has been rescinded because it is too costly and complex for the eBook industry to adopt.
Mr. Glazman's solution? The WebBook format. From the announcement: I have then decided to work on a different format for electronic books, called WebBook. A format strictly based on Web technologies and when I say "Web technologies", I mean the most basic ones: html, CSS, JavaScript, SVG and friends; the class of specifications all Web authors use and master on a daily basis. Not all details are decided or even ironed, the proposal is still a work in progress at this point, but I know where I want to go to. [...] I have started from a list of requirements, something that was never done that way in the EPUB world:
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| Robots Assemble IKEA Furniture - Humans Are Now Completely Superfluous Posted: 22 Apr 2018 02:35 PM PDT theronb writes: The hardest known human task has now been mastered by robots... assembling IKEA furniture (archive): A team from Nanyang Technological University programmed a robot to create and execute a plan to piece together most of Ikea's $25 solid-pine Stefan chair on its own, calling on a medley of human skills to do so. The researchers explained their work in a study published on Wednesday in the journal Science Robotics. "If you think about it, it requires perception, it requires you to plan a motion, it requires control between the robot and the environment, it requires transporting an object with two arms simultaneously," said Dr. Quang-Cuong Pham, an assistant professor of engineering at the university and one of the paper's authors. "Because this task requires so many interesting skills for robots, we felt that it could be a good project to push our capabilities to the limit." He and his Nanyang colleagues who worked on the study, Francisco Suárez-Ruiz and Xian Zhou, aren't alone. In recent years, a handful of others have set out to teach robots to assemble Ikea furniture, a task that can mimic the manipulations robots can or may someday perform on factory floors and that involves a brand many know all too well. "It's something that almost everybody is familiar with and almost everybody hates doing," said Ross A. Knepper, an assistant professor of computer science at Cornell University, whose research focuses on human-robot interaction.
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| Loud Sound From Fire Alarm System Shuts Down Nasdaq's Scandinavian Data Center Posted: 22 Apr 2018 11:50 AM PDT |
