Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Company Wants to Mine the Moon’s Resources and Leave Trash Behind
December 12th, 2011Via: Los Angeles Times: Most people don’t take it literally when they’re told to shoot for the moon — but thinking small isn’t Naveen Jain’s way. The 52-year-old Internet entrepreneur is a co-founder of Moon Express Inc., one of several companies in the Google Lunar X Prize competition, in which privately funded teams will try […]
British Police to Test Riot Control Laser
December 12th, 2011Via: Telegraph: A shoulder-mounted laser that emits a blinding wall of light capable of repelling rioters is to be trialled by police under preparations to prevent a repeat of this summer’s looting and arson. The technology, developed by a former Royal Marine commando, temporarily impairs the vision of anyone who looks towards the source. It […]
Predator Drone from U.S. Air Force Base Used in North Dakota Police Operation
December 11th, 2011Via: Los Angeles Times: Armed with a search warrant, Nelson County Sheriff Kelly Janke went looking for six missing cows on the Brossart family farm in the early evening of June 23. Three men brandishing rifles chased him off, he said. Janke knew the gunmen could be anywhere on the 3,000-acre spread in eastern North […]
Sound-Triggered Smartphone Ads
December 10th, 2011The really terrifying aspect of this is not the technology itself, but that some group of troglodytes will actually install this on their phones on purpose. Related: shewhomeasures.com: How about genitalia couplers (like in the video above—yes, watch closely) that communicate with the phone via Bluetooth? You know, for those extra special notifications, like when […]
Learning High-Performance Tasks with No Conscious Effort
December 9th, 2011Via: Medical Express: New research published today in the journal Science suggests it may be possible to use brain technology to learn to play a piano, reduce mental stress or hit a curve ball with little or no conscious effort. It’s the kind of thing seen in Hollywood’s “Matrix” franchise. Experiments conducted at Boston University […]
Microsoft Can Remotely Kill Purchased Apps
December 9th, 2011Microsoft has had this capability for years, but it was related to pirated software and they would just kill certain functionality (see Office Genuine Advantage program). What you’ll be reading below is Microsoft taking another page out of Apple’s locked-down-vending-machine playbook. Via: PC Magazine: Microsoft’s terms of service for its Windows Store allows the company […]
U.S. Air Force Funds SETI, Will Investigate Using Radio Telescope Array to Detect and Track Orbiting Space Objects
December 7th, 2011Via: SETI Institute: The Allen Telescope Array (ATA) is once again searching planetary systems for signals that would be evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence. Among its first targets are some of the exoplanet candidates recently discovered by NASA’s Kepler space telescope. “This is a superb opportunity for SETI observations,” said Jill Tarter, the Director of the […]
Eight Companies Hit with Lawsuit Over Carrier IQ Software
December 7th, 2011Via: Computerworld: Apple is one of eight companies that have been named in another class-action lawsuit filed over the use of Carrier IQ software in mobile handsets. The lawsuit was filed last Friday in U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware and accuses Carrier IQ, three wireless carriers, and four handset makers of violating […]
Alabama: Inmates Can Replace Hispanic Farmhands
December 7th, 2011Via: Politico: Alabama farmers frantically looking for workers to replace those that have fled the state in the wake of its tough new immigration law should just stop by their local prison, according to the head of Alabama’s agriculture department. John McMillan, commissioner of the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries, told the Montgomery Advertiser […]
Library of Congress to Receive Entire Twitter Archive
December 7th, 2011Via: Federal News Radio: The Library of Congress and Twitter have signed an agreement that will see an archive of every public Tweet ever sent handed over to the library’s repository of historical documents. “We have an agreement with Twitter where they have a bunch of servers with their historic archive of tweets, everything that […]
