This article, which talks about a recent article in Nature, got me thinking ( Read more... )

This is a rather scary patent filed by Verizon. It's entitled "METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR PRESENTING AN ADVERTISEMENT ASSOCIATED WITH AN AMBIENT ACTION OF A USER". Okay, so what's an "ambient action"? Well, according to the patent, it could include "eating, exercising, laughing, reading, sleeping, talking, singing, humming, cleaning, playing a ( Read more... )

At a conference last week, NASA physicist Harold White gave a talk about ongoing experiments at the space agency, designed to see if "warp drive" (essentially, faster-than-light travel without violating the laws of physics) is feasible, among other things.

Miguel Alcubierre, a Mexican Physicist, first proposed a model for warp drive way back in ( Read more... )

Some of you may be aware that, way back in 2009, Microsoft reached a deal with the European Commissioner for Competition Policy. In essence, Microsoft agreed that for the next 5 years (i.e. until 2014), whenever anyone in Europe installs a fresh copy of Windows, they'll get a choice of browsers, rather than just getting good (?) old Internet ( Read more... )

Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, recently spoke to Harvard University's graduating class of business students. In her speech, she urged them to work for fast-growing companies, communicate honestly and address inequality in the workplace. At the end of the speech, she said, "We're public now, so could you please click on an ( Read more... )

A vice-president in charge of of German-based SAP's Integration and Certification Center in Palo Alto, CA, has been charged with stealing LEGO sets.

(Thomas) Langenbach was formally charged with four counts of burglary totaling seven boxes of LEGOs worth about $1,000 ( Read more... )

A new study, commissioned by CompTIA(*), says that 90% of business managers think there's a "gap" between what their IT workers know and what they should know with regards to the technology they support ( Read more... )

News today from Symantec that members of "hacktivist" group Anonymous may have themselves been hacked, exposing them to the risk of revealing e-mail logins or even Internet banking credentials.

It seems that some clever monkey has modified the group's PasteBin guide (which members use to download and install their "Slowloris" denial-of-service ( Read more... )

Schools in Georgia were locked down yesterday after someone texted their friend "gunna be at west hall today". Except that (a) they didn't notice that auto-correct had changed "gunna" to be "gunman", and (b) they didn't check the number they sent it to ( Read more... )

The future just got a little closer, methinks. The Pirate Bay (better known for illegal downloads of the latest Hollywood schlock-busters and whatever drivel passes for music these days) has started a new category of downloads for what it calls "physibles" - object definition files for 3D printers. The idea is that some day (hopefully soon), when ( Read more... )