New submitter Joiseybill writes "Now that the election is over, any voters that may have been influenced can rest easy. Space.com reports that the agency has been 'thinking about setting up a manned outpost beyond the moon's far side, both to establish a human presence in deep space and to build momentum toward a planned visit to an asteroid in 2025.' Space policy expert John Logsdon said, 'NASA has been evolving its thinking, and its latest charts have inserted a new element of cislunar/lunar gateway/Earth-moon L2 sort of stuff into the plan. They've been holding off announcing that until after the election.' According to the article, 'Rumors currently point toward parking a spacecraft at the Earth-moon L2 gateway, so NASA (and perhaps international partners) can learn more about supporting humans in deep space. Astronauts stationed there could also aid in lunar exploration — by teleoperating rovers on the moon's surface, for example.'"
cheesecake23 writes "Many talking heads have attributed Obama's success to an unmatched 'ground game.' Now, inside reports from campaign volunteers suggest that Project Orca, a Republican, tech-based voter monitoring effort with 37,000 volunteers in swing states, turned out to be an epic failure due to dismal IT. Problems ranged from state-wide incorrect PINs, to misleading and delayed information packets delivered to volunteers, to a server outage and missing redirection of secure URLs."
holy_calamity writes "PCs will inevitably shift over to ARM-based chips because efficiency now matters more than gains in raw performance, the CEO of chip designer ARM tells MIT Technology Review. He also says the increasing adoption of ARM-based suppliers is good for innovation (and for prices) because it spurs a competitive environment. 'There’s been a lot more innovation in the world of mobile phones over the last 15-20 years than there has been in the world of PCs.'"
MassDosage writes "In a remarkable show of good timing Presentation Patterns turned up on my desk for review within days of me having been asked to give a presentation at a large tech conference. So I decided to read the book as I worked on my presentation and apply any lessons learned as I worked my way through it. The word "patterns" in the book's title will be known to most software developers as a reference to the seminal 'Gang of four' software design patterns book which codified common solutions to software problems. The concept of patterns originated in building architecture with the idea being that by categorizing and naming solutions to problems, a common vocabulary could be built up that allowed practitioners in a certain field to communicate more effectively. This was hugely successful and has spawned the idea of looking for patterns in many other areas which is where this book comes in." Read on for the rest of Mass Dosage's review.
"Reverberation is the persistence of sound in a particular space after the original sound is produced," says Wikipedia. More often than not, in studio recordings reverb is added digitally; virtually every FOSS or proprietary sound-editing program has a built-in reverb utility. But what if you're the sort of purist who prefers the analog sound of vinyl records to the digital sound of MP3s or CDs? What if you're the kind of musician who records at the original Sun Studio in Memphis to get that original rock and roll sound? That may be overly picky for most musicians, but there are some who would rather sound like Johnny Cash than Flavor Flav, and they're the ones who are going to insist on real analog reverb instead of twiddling a setting in Audacity. There are many types of analog reverbs, of course. One of the purest types, preferred by many audio purists, is the adjustable plate reverb, and Jim Cunnigham's Ecoplate is considered by many to be the best plate reverb ever -- which brings us to Mike Storey, who wanted an Ecoplate-type plate reverb so badly that he spent eight months building one. He'll run your audio files through it for a (highly negotiable) fee, and maybe give you a bit of advice if you want to build your own, although his biggest piece of advice for you (at the end of the video) to think long and hard before you become a home-brew reverberator, with or without advice and components from Jim Cunningham.
New submitter Mephistophocles writes "Japan Times reports today that Sony Entertainment Chief Tim Schaaf has stepped down. Schaaf's division has recently drawn the ire of users and governments alike after multiple hacks which resulted in the theft of millions of users' personal information. Schaaf joined Sony after a stint at Apple, and had ambitious plans for unifying the end-user's entertainment experience on Sony products, as well as having some big words for how to help out Sony's music division. Tim will be replaced by Andrew House, currently of Sony's Game Division. One wonders — is this a continued sign of deterioration in Sony's Entertainment house?"
cylonlover writes "Our ears work by converting the vibrations of the eardrum into electrochemical signals that can be interpreted by the brain. The current for those signals is supplied by an ion-filled chamber deep within the inner ear – it's essentially a natural battery. Scientists are now looking at using that battery to power devices that could be implanted in the ear, without affecting the recipient's hearing. The 'battery chamber' is located in the cochlea. It is internally divided by a membrane, some of the cells of which are designed to pump ions. The arrangement of those specialized cells, combined with an imbalance of potassium and sodium ions on opposite sides of the membrane, are what creates the electrical voltage. A team of scientists from MIT, the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, and the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology have recently succeeded in running an ultra-low-power radio-transmitting chip using power from these battery chambers – in guinea pigs' ears."
DavidGilbert99 writes "In an extraordinary move, the Chinese authorities have blocked access to Google.com, Gmail, Google Maps, Google Docs, and many more Google services as the Communist Party of China holds the 18th Party Congress. The blocking of these sites was reported by Chinese web monitoring site GreatFire.org, which said, 'Never before have so many people been affected by a decision to block a website.' The latest move in a long line of disputes between the Chinese government and Google, it is unclear yet whether this denial will be temporary (like a similar one in 2010) or permanent."
crookedvulture writes "Last October, Thailand was hit by massive flooding that put much of the world's hard drive industry under water. Production slowed to a crawl as drive makers and their suppliers mopped up the damage, and prices predictably skyrocketed. One year later, production has rebounded, with the industry expected to ship more drives in 2012 than it did in 2011. For the most part, though, hard drive prices haven't returned to pre-flood levels. Although 2.5" notebook drives are a little cheaper now than before the flood, the average price of 3.5" desktop drives is up 35% from a year ago. Prices have certainly fallen dramatically from their post-flood peaks, but the rate of decline has slowed substantially in recent months, suggesting that higher prices are the new norm for desktop drives."
snydeq writes "'If Windows 8 and the Surface tablet flop, you'll see a shareholder revolt that will send Steve Ballmer packing by this time next year,' writes InfoWorld's Bill Snyder. 'First it was the netbook, then it was the Ultrabook. Microsoft, Intel, and the PC makers keep looking for a way to convince buyers they don't need an iPad or Android tablet. Neither initiative gained much traction, so Microsoft bet big on Windows 8 and the Surface. ... Maybe we're wrong, and buyers will decide that the new OS and the Microsoft's first serious venture into hardware are what they want. It would be a huge boost for the industry if it happens, but I'm not optimistic. ... There's been a string of bad quarters, and the stock has been frozen for nine years. At some point — I think we're getting really close — investors are going to demand a shakeup. When they do, it's going to be good-bye, Ballmer."
MojoKid writes "Intel has unveiled details of their new Itanium 9500 family, codenamed Poulson, and the new CPU appears to be the most significant refresh Intel has ever done to the Itanium architecture. Moving from 65nm to 32nm technology substantially reduces power consumption and increases clock speeds, but Intel has also overhauled virtually every aspect of the CPU. Poulson can issue 11 instructions per cycle compared to the previous generation Itanium's six. It adds execution units and re-balances those units to favor server workloads over HPC and workstation capabilities. Its multi-threading capabilities have been overhauled and it uses faster QPI links between CPU cores. The L3 cache design has also changed. Previous Itanium 9300 processors had a dedicated L3 cache for each core. Poulson, in contrast, has a unified L3 that's attached to all its cores by a common ring bus. All told, the new architecture is claimed to offer more than twice the performance of the previous generation Itanium."
thomst writes "Cnet's Greg Sandoval is reporting that Lucy Koh the Federal judge in the Apple v. Samsung patent infringement case is reviewing whether jury foreman Velvin Hogan failed to disclose his own patent suit v. Seagate during the jury selection process. Samsung, which lost the suit filed by Apple, has complained that Hogan's failure to disclose his own status as a former patent case plaintiff constituted misconduct serious enough to invalidate the jury's verdict in the case."
An anonymous reader writes "Der Spiegel reports that Germany has exported more electricity this year than ever before, despite beginning to phase out nuclear power. In the first three quarters of 2012, Germany sent 12.3 terawatt hours of electricity across its borders. The country's rapid expansion into renewable energy is credited with the growth. However, the boost doesn't come without a price. The German government's investments into its new energy policy will end up costing hundreds of billions of dollars over the next two decades, and it still relies on imports for its natural gas needs. It also remains to be seen whether winter will bring power shortages. Is Germany a good example of forward-looking energy policy?"
Rumors of a 7-inch tablet with Xbox branding and a gaming-centric spec sheet and the downfall of console game publisher THQ are the big topics on this week's Game|Life audio podcast.
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to review a major genetic-privacy case testing whether authorities may take DNA samples from anybody arrested for serious crimes.
Cosmo, the teenage hacker and social engineer from Long Beach, California, was sentenced in court this week after pleading guilty to multiple felonies.
If you need your USB drives to make more of a statement (and be ridiculously expensive), consider the Apophis, from Polish firm Zana Design. The outer case is made of rare 200-year-old black African wood with either silver or 18-karat gold and, for extra flair, chunks of 4.5-billion-year-old meteorite.
David Petraeus, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, has resigned. Petraeus told CIA employees Friday in a letter that he was stepping down "for personal reasons... After being married for over 37 years, I showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair. Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours."
A urine-powered generator created by four teenage girls made its debut at Maker Faire Africa 2012 in Lagos, Nigeria.According to the Maker Faire blog, the girls' invention takes the urine and uses urea electrolysis to generate hydrogen, which can then be used to power a generator.
Nate Silver is yet another example of data reinventing the world we live in. But let's take the next step. What we really need is an open source version of Silver's methods.
Judge Lucy Koh has agreed to consider concerns raised by Samsung over juror misconduct in the landmark U.S. case .
The zombies in the first trailer seem to be exhibiting -- gulp -- smart behavior. Are they intelligent? Wired asked a neuroscientist to find out.
Four indie game developers have launched a Kickstarter campaign to help take four cult prototype multiplayer games to PlayStation 3, in what they are calling the indie answer to .
The Supreme Court of Canada is invalidating Pfizer's patent on the popular erectile-dysfunction drug Viagra for failing to openly disclose the drug's active ingredient required by intellectual property law. The 7-0 decision Thursday to open Viagra to generic competition ahead of its 2014 patent expiration in Canada underscores a major difference in how the Canadian and United States courts are interpreting patent laws.
Two years after the original founders died in a plane crash, Oklahoma-based US Highland is set to begin making custom engines and complete motorcycles.
Ask anyone to name an iconic scientists and most people will say Albert Einstein. He was his generation's greatest physicist as well as a international celebrity and humanitarian. Many people can tell you at least something about his renowned Theory of Relativity, though the details probably elude them right now.
Someone inside Cisco is leaking corporate documents, and however innocuous these documents may seem, Cisco vice president Mike Quinn has vowed to hunt down the perpetrator. His threats are worth taking seriously. He's a 20-year Cisco veteran who used to be an operations officer with the Central Intelligence Agency, according to his Linkedin Profile.
Responsive image solutions are great for photos, but for single-color graphics, icons and vector images that look good on any screen there's a better way -- icon fonts.
Being a British secret agent has its perks ? an Aston Martin, unlimited martinis, a license to pun, and of course, an endless array of gadgets from Q. If you want to get geared up like special agent but are on a budget, Division Furtive is the quartermaster for the creative class.
After two years as the new third rail of American politics, climate change is poised for a return to Capitol Hill. Washington insiders say the cost of extreme weather are too big and obvious for politicians to ignore. What form will legislation take? Nobody knows, but there's a demand for new ideas -- and those ideas will be heard.
Want to see what happens when the sun wakes up? This amazing compilation shows every energetic X-ray outburst from the last five and a half years as our local star ramps up toward the most active part of its cycle.
Parts for the rocket engines of NASA's Space Launch System will be created using a method of 3D-printing known as selective laser melting.
Genes are going mobile. In September, consumer genomics company 23andMe announced it was opening its API, the program that allows other applications to interact with its data, for the first time. Since then, the Google-backed company has received more than 200 applications from developers. For consumers, 23andMe?s open API could work like ?an operating system for your genome, a way that you can authorize what happens with your genome online,? said Mike Polcari, the company's director of engineering.
For over a year, the U.S. military has pimped out its elite Navy SEALs to Hollywood, and is preparing for a major movie about the bin Laden raid, directed by an Oscar winner. Yet it may have just ended the careers of seven SEALs, including some who helped take out bin Laden, for consulting on a videogame the military says is too realistic for its comfort.
Primatologist Richard Wrangham and neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel talk about the role of diet in human evolution.
Several new Windows Phone 8 devices hit the market this week, bringing with them a new mobile web browser -- Internet Explorer 10 for Windows Phone 8. That's good news for web developers since the mobile version of IE 10 is leaps and bounds ahead of previous releases. But there are still a few differences web developers need to know about.
Karin Tidbeck's short story collection Jagannath is weird in all the right ways.
Aston Martin has remained consistent for most of its 99-year history, producing sharply designed, poshly appointed and distinctly British sports cars for the luxury market. The company has stuck to the formula with its new range-topping Vanquish.
With the havoc wrought by superstorm Sandy still fresh, and winter storms Athena and Brutus threatening, it's a safe bet that sailing a luxury yacht across the Aegean sounds downright heavenly. Sure the economy may be in shambles in that part of the world, but the highs are in the 70s this week in Athens, ...
Patent disputes are a natural characteristic of a vigorously competitive industry. And they?re nothing new: similar skirmishes have historically occurred in areas as diverse as sewing machines, winged flight, agriculture, and telegraph technology. Each marked the emergence of incredible technological advances, and each generated similar outcries about the patent system.
Cameron Oehler learned about woodworking from his cabinet maker father, but also has a deeply ingrained passion for video games and digital culture. Luckily, he found a way to dovetail his two interests and started a company called "1337 Motif" that combines old world craftsmanship with pop culture icons.
My daughter, who is not quite two, loves to talk to Siri. She will grab my phone, press the home button until it beeps, and then holler into the phone, ?Hi Siri! Hi Siri! Hi Siri!? Siri never understands. Ever. And yet, my daughter keeps on trying. This seems like a metaphor.I was an early ...