Anyone who works as a freelancer these days has to be at least a bit familiar with techie things. But it isn’t just that. When I was a kid and those vaguely SF puppet shows were on the television and all the other kids wanted to be Greg Gogetem or Steve Savetheuniverse, I wanted to be the guy in a white coat and glasses called Doc or Brains. Here are some technology-related feeds I find useful and/or entertaining.
Slashdot » The Government Wants Your Fingerprint To Unlock Phones
schwit1 quotes this report from the Daily Gazette: "As the world watched the FBI spar with Apple this winter in an attempt to hack into a San Bernardino shooter's iPhone, federal officials were quietly waging a different encryption battle in a Los Angeles courtroom. There, authorities obtained a search warrant compelling the girlfriend of an alleged Armenian gang member to … [Link]
Mashable » 'Call of Duty' team hypes the 2016 game, confirms Monday reveal
Meet some of the new gatekeepers at Infinity Ward, the studio leading the charge on 2016's new Call of Duty game and the banner under which the series was originally created. There aren't a lot of specifics to draw on in this peek behind the scenes at Infinity Ward — there's an ARG scratching that itch right now — but you … [Link]
Mashable » CIA marks Bin Laden mission anniversary by 'live-tweeting' operation
As Sunday marked the fifth anniversary of the covert operation that resulted in the death of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden at the hands of U.S. Navy SEALs, the CIA decided to relive the event by "live-tweeting" the operation as if it were happening in real time. SEE ALSO: The CIA is very interested in your tweets and Instagram … [Link]
Slashdot » Windows Desktop Market Share Drops Below 90%
An anonymous reader quotes VentureBeat's new article about desktop operating systems: Windows 7 is still the king, but it no longer holds the majority. Nine months after Windows 10's release, Windows 7 has finally fallen below 50 percent market share and Windows XP has dropped into single digits. While this is good news for Microsoft, April was actually a poor … [Link]
Mashable » 10 tips for planning a vegan wedding
Once considered a fringe movement, veganism is now mainstream and options are more available than ever before. Beyond food, couples can now opt for non-animal product versions of nearly anything you'd find at a wedding. There are currently hundreds of boards and pins on Pinterest dedicated to "vegan weddings", and "vegan" weddings were searched 11% more than "vegetarian" weddings in 2016. … [Link]
Mashable » Radiohead mystifies, excites fans by erasing online presence
It wouldn't be a new Radiohead album cycle without a lot of mystery, intrigue, and strange behavior by the band. SEE ALSO: Radiohead announces world tour, shares mysterious new artwork On Sunday, the rock band sent fans into a tizzy when the group seemed to "erase" its online presence, including blank, white avatars on social media and turning its website … [Link]
Slashdot » What Happened to Google Maps?
Google Maps has reduced the number of cities it shows by up to 83% over the past few years, according to Justin O'Beirne. Maps, in addition, has increased the number of roads it showcases. O'Beirne, who writes about digital maps, in a blog post outlines the changes Google has made to its mapping and navigation service over the years. The … [Link]
Mashable » Kate Middleton took these precious new photos of Princess Charlotte
Ahead of Princess Charlotte's first birthday, the Royal Palace released a new set of photos meant to remind us how cute she is. Professional baby photographer/Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton took the photos herself at the family's home in Norfolk, England. SEE ALSO: 9-month-old Princess Charlotte has her own Marc Jacobs lipstick shade This latest batch of photos feature Princess … [Link]
Slashdot » CV of Failures: Princeton Professor Publishes Resume of His Career Lows
An anonymous reader shares a Guardian report: A professor at Princeton University has published a CV listing his career failures (PDF), in an attempt to "balance the record" and encourage others to keep trying in the face of disappointment. Johannes Haushofer, who is an assistant professor of psychology and public affairs at the university in New Jersey, posted his unusual … [Link]
Slashdot » RIP Kuro5hin
themusicgod1 writes: Can we please get a moment of silence? Long-time sister site to Slashdot, Kuro5hin has finally gone offline. 
Read more of this story at Slashdot. [Link]
Slashdot » Government Could Ban BBC From Showing Top Shows at Peak Times
An anonymous reader writes: The BBC is on a collision course with the government over reported efforts to bar it from showing popular shows at peak viewing times. The culture secretary, John Whittingdale, is widely expected to ban the broadcaster from going head-to-head with commercial rivals as part of the BBC charter review. He is due to publish a white … [Link]
Mashable » 13 celebrity Instagrams from inside the White House Correspondents' Dinner
Sure, we tune in to the White House Correspondents' Dinner to see two groups of people with little sense of humor about themselves — politicians and press members — grimace through jokes at their expense. But really, we also tune in for rare glimpses of celebrities downing flutes of champagne in the background. SEE ALSO: Obama can't wait to wear … [Link]
Mashable » You can chat with 'Call of Duty' on Facebook for info on the 2016 game
The Call of Duty hype machine rolls forward with yet another tease that makes inventive use of Facebook and chatbots. Earlier on Sunday, the official Call of Duty Instagram feed shared a brief video featuring snippets of the "Know Your Enemy" tease intercut with images of a young soldier — possibly named Lt. Reyes — wearing a "S.A.T.O." uniform. A subsequent tweet … [Link]
Slashdot » Apple's Smartwatch Draws Competition And A Very Bad Review
Apple's share of the smartwatch market actually started declining in 2016, dropping down to just 52.4% (down from 63%), according to Business Insider. And following up on Apple's first drop in earnings in over 10 years, Slashdot reader Zanadou shares a Gizmodo's latest story about the Apple Watch. "I stopped wearing it two months ago, and I'm not sure if … [Link]
ProgrammableWeb.com » DuraSpace Aims to Formalize Fedora RESTful API into Testable Specification
DuraSpace, a provider of several open source digital repository and storage platforms, has announced that the Fedora community is currently working on the initial phases of drafting a Fedora RESTful API specification. Fedora currently has a stable, RESTful API and an associated reference implementation.
[Link]
Mashable » Snapchat is the star of Ingrid Michaelson's video for 'Hell No'
Behold, the first music video ever produced using nothing more than Snapchat filters. Ingrid Michaelson subjects her face to a dizzying array of transformations in the video for "Hell No," a catchy paean to defiantly blowing off those who mistreat us. All the greatest hits you love are here, from puke rainbows to big nose face to painted lion face. … [Link]
Mashable » Larry Wilmore pulls no punches at the White House Correspondents' Dinner
The Nightly Show's Larry Wilmore's White House Correspondents' Dinner wasted few words before getting to the real reason people voluntarily tune into C-SPAN once a year: The cut-throat media jokes. No one was safe, from Fox News to CNN to MSNBC. One example: "I am a black man who replaced a white man who pretended to be a TV newscaster. … [Link]
Mashable » Nothing can stop 'Captain America' or 'Jungle Book' at the box office
Three weeks after its April 15 release, Disney's The Jungle Book continues to be unstoppable. Disney estimates a $42.4 million weekend for the live-action adaptation. That's a drop-off of just 31% after last weekend's $61.5 million box officeThe Jungle Book opened at $103.2 million, shedding roughly 40% of its audience in the second weekend. SEE ALSO: 'The Jungle Book' magic revealed: Behind … [Link]
Mashable » McLaren is selling one of the rarest and fastest supercars ever built
Here's your chance to own a piece of automotive history: British supercar maker McLaren Automotive has announced that it will be selling one of the last F1 supercars ever built. SEE ALSO: Joe Biden lost $10 betting a Cadillac was quicker than a Tesla This is momentous for several reasons. First, only 64 F1 road cars were ever produced during … [Link]
Mashable » Apple's new ad shows motherhood through the lens of the iPhone
Apple on Sunday posted a new ad celebrating Mother's Day. The 30-second spot, which is a continuation of the "Shot on iPhone" campaign, shows motherhood as seen through the iPhone lens of its users. Set to the song "Because You Are Who You Are" by K.S. Rhodes, the ad is comprised of iPhone photos from Apple users, all showing different … [Link]
Slashdot » New Chip Offers Artificial Intelligence On A USB Stick
An anonymous reader writes: "Pretty much any device with a USB port will be able to use advanced neural networks," reports PC Magazine, announcing the new Fathom Neural Compute Stick from chip-maker (and Google supplier) Movidius. "Once it's plugged into a Linux-powered device, it will enable that device to perform neural network functions like language comprehension, image recognition, and pattern … [Link]
Mashable » #BroadwaySoDiverse: How theater is leading the industry in representation
It seems like you can't turn around these days without seeing another award for, reference to, joke about or thinkpiece examining Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton.The new musical about America's "ten dollar founding father" has struck a chord with audiences who are taken with the way it reimagines America's founding, retelling the story with a hip-hop score and diverse casting. The show has been lauded for … [Link]
Slashdot » Engineers Plan The Most Expensive Object Ever Built
HughPickens.com writes: Ed Davey has an interesting story at BBC about the proposed nuclear plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset, UK which at $35 billion will be the most expensive object ever put together on Earth. For that sum you could build a small forest of Burj Khalifas — the world's tallest building, in Dubai, which each cost $1.5 billion. … [Link]
Mashable » Pearl Jam wows Philadelphia with a full playthrough of 'Ten'
Pearl Jam dug deep for a Friday night performance in Philadelphia, kicking off the show with the 11 songs making up the band's 1991 debut album, Ten. It's the second time during the current tour that a full album playthrough has happened. The band also played the 1993 release Vs. in its entirety on April 16, in South Carolina. SEE ALSO: Pearl … [Link]
Mashable » Malia Obama is headed to Harvard University
Go Crimson: Malia Obama is headed to Harvard. "The President and Mrs. Obama announced today that their daughter Malia will attend Harvard University in the fall of 2017 as a member of the Class of 2021," a White House press statement issued Sunday reads. "Malia will take a gap year before beginning school." SEE ALSO: Malia Obama giving Sasha and … [Link]
Slashdot » Ask Slashdot: How Could You Statistically Identify The Best Sci-Fi Books?
jimharris writes: Over at SF Signal I wrote a piece "How Well-Read Are You in Science Fiction?" There are three databases that collect lists of popular science fiction books that try to statistically identify the best books of the genre, [offering] combined list that shows which books were cited the most. They use different sets of best-of lists, but their … [Link]
Mashable » Samsung's svelte 15-inch Notebook 9 is one mighty Windows 10 laptop
For the past week I’ve been using Samsung’s 15-inch Notebook 9. This Windows 10 machine has been put through its paces, replacing my iMac. While I will stop short of declaring my love for Windows, my view of the current Windows laptop landscape has been changed. In a world focused on the battle between Samsung and Apple in the smartphone … [Link]
Mashable » Dog double-crosses best friend for sweet, sweet pizza
Benji — the maltese-shih tzu puppy with more than 45,000 Instagram followers — and his plush toy moose are the best of friends. Or, as we should probably clarify, were the best of friends until a cheese-covered third party wedged itself between the pair. Fame changes you. Apple's new ad shows motherhood through the lens of the iPhone Snapchat is … [Link]
Slashdot » Can Quantum Entanglement Create Faster-Than-Light Communication?
Slashdot reader StartsWithABang writes: If you were to send a space probe to a distant star system, gather information about it and send it back to Earth, you'd have to wait years for the information to arrive. But if you have an entangled quantum system — say, two photons, one with spin +1 and one with spin -1 — you … [Link]
Mashable » Summer love and time travel, a romance made in YA heaven
Summer-set YA romances are starting to arrive, and the familiar tropes are in bloom: young love, beach trips, bonfires, theoretical physics. That last one may not seem like it fits in with the more common plot points of a YA romance, but Harriet Reuter Hapgood's debut novel The Square Root of Summer proves that time travel and young love go … [Link]
Mashable » Check out Obama's full White House Correspondents' Dinner speech
"Good evening, everybody. It is an honor to be at my last — and perhaps the last — White House Correspondents' Dinner." President Barack Obama was in good spirits when he stepped up to the podium at the annual gathering, joking that "the end of the Republic has never looked better." In the video above, you can watch the whole … [Link]
WIRED » On Outlander, How Much Violence Is Too Much?
The Starz time-travel drama seems hellbent on demonstrating the infinite nature of suffering, and it may finally be wearing thin. The post On Outlander, How Much Violence Is Too Much? appeared first on WIRED. [Link]
Slashdot » Flexible Floating Football-Field Sized Solar Panels
mdsolar writes: Offshore wind farms are growing in popularity as energy providers look for different ways of harvesting power from the sun without using valuable land resources. One unique idea being developed by engineers at Vienna University of Technology is a floating platform called a Heliofloat that would function as a sea-based solar power station…. an open-bottom, flexible float as … [Link]
Mashable » Cryptic 'Call of Duty' teaser turns RoboCop into a terrorist
We can't confirm that Mr. Bald Terrorist Man in the above video is actually Peter Weller, the star of RoboCop, but it sure does look like him. The video surfaced on the official Call of Duty Instagram feed, further fueling the excitement that's built up around rumors of the game's 2016 release, which is said to be titled Call of Duty: Infinite … [Link]
Popular Science » 10 Embarrassing Animal Photos Captured By Camera Traps
Animals You're on candid camera! Does a bear poop in the woods? Yes. Sometimes, it even does it right in front of a camera. [Link]
Slashdot » Drones Being Used By Peeping Toms, The Military, And Terrorists
An anonymous reader writes: A 19-year-old woman called Massachusetts police about a drone peeking through her second-story window at 3 a.m. — and was told no laws had been violated. Kansas is now passing an anti-harassment law after a woman reported her neighbor's drone was hovering over their pool and outside the window where her 16-year-old daughter was washing dishes. … [Link]
WIRED » While You Were Offline: We Need to Know Who Becky Is. Right. Now.
This week Beyoncé dropped a new visual album and Edward Snowden released a music video. Yeah, it was weird. The post While You Were Offline: We Need to Know Who Becky Is. Right. Now. appeared first on WIRED. [Link]
WIRED » Your Simple (Yes, Simple) Guide to Quantum Entanglement
Quantum entanglement is thought to be one of the trickiest concepts in science, but the core issues are simple. The post Your Simple (Yes, Simple) Guide to Quantum Entanglement appeared first on WIRED. [Link]
WIRED » In the New Wireless Universe, You’re Finally at the Center
We’re gradually moving towards a world where you—yes, you—are the center of the wireless universe, not the big carriers. The post In the New Wireless Universe, You're Finally at the Center appeared first on WIRED. [Link]
Mashable » 6 ways to honor the like-a-moms in your life
Sometimes people in our lives are like mothers but may not have raised us in the traditional sense. Grandmas, aunts, maybe even a high school teacher — we're calling these special individuals our "like-a-moms." SEE ALSO: 7 Mother's Day Alternatives to Your Fallback Gifts Whether they mentor you, care for you or just always seem to be there when you … [Link]
Slashdot » The Future of Shopping: Trapping You in a Club You Didn't Know You Joined
Just a word of caution: the next time you spot a great deal on a shopping portal, you will want to carefully look for all the radio buttons, and tick boxes — and perhaps also skim through the ToS — before placing the order. Bloomberg has an in-depth piece on the ordeal of a customer who purchased a lingerie item … [Link]
Mashable » How to talk to your babysitter about online privacy
My first date night out with my husband after our daughter was born was nerve wracking. Would she be fed? Would she sleep? I constantly checked my phone for updates from the sitter. Nothing Then, I logged into Facebook. In my feed I saw three pictures of my adorable baby being snuggled by the sitter. It was reassuring but also … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Thou shalt not tell us how to behave any more
The latest research suggests the decline of moralising religions is inevitable, but that is not a cause for wailing and gnashing of teeth [Link]
Mashable » Car bomb in southern Turkey kills policeman and leaves 13 wounded
ANKARA, Turkey — A car bomb struck the entrance of a Turkish police station Sunday in the southern city of Gaziantep, killing a policeman and injuring 13 other people, an official said. Gov. Ali Yerlikaya of Gaziantep province said those injured in the blast include at least nine policemen. The city is near the border with Syria. SEE ALSO: 72-year-old … [Link]
Slashdot » Google Helps Police With Child Porn WebCrawler
The San Jose Mercury News is reporting that the Internet Watch Foundation, "an organization that works with police worldwide to remove images of child sexual abuse from the Internet, has credited Google with helping it develop a 'Web crawler' that finds child pornography." The pilot project makes it easier to identify and remove every copy of specific images online, and … [Link]
Mashable » Because she's a boss, Helen Mirren wore purple and body art for Prince
Sorry Obama, Helen Mirren almost stole the White House Correspondents' Dinner out from under you. The British actress strolled down the red carpet at the annual event in Washington, D.C. Saturday in a shimmering purple gown that she wore to honor Prince. The beloved singer died suddenly on April 22 at the age of 57. Not done with just the … [Link]
Mashable » Obama's 'Red Wedding' joke proves he deserved that early look at 'Game of Thrones'
Tired of Senate Republicans refusing to approve his Supreme Court nominee, President Barack Obama may be compelled to take extreme measures. Westeros-style. At his final White House Correspondents' Dinner Saturday, Obama, a Game of Thrones fan, noted there were quite a few Republican senators seated in the cavernous Washington Hilton ballroom during his speech, making it the perfect time to … [Link]
Mashable » Obama can't wait to wear mom jeans after he leaves the White House
President Barack Obama is feeling a little unanchored as he prepares to leave the White House. To get better prepared for life after 1600 Pennsylvania, he has decided to seek some advice. What he comes away with: Leaving office isn't so bad if you get to sport rocking aviators like Vice President Joe Biden and go back to wearing mom … [Link]
Mashable » 72-year-old man pulled from rubble 2 weeks after Ecuador earthquake
A 72-year-old man has been found alive amid rubble in Ecuador almost two weeks after an earthquake devastated the country on April 16, according to the Venezuelan embassy in Quito. The man was rescued Friday local time by Venezuelan rescuers after they were alerted to sounds coming from a partially collapsed building in the town of Jaramijó, the embassy said on its … [Link]
Slashdot » US Spy Court Didn't Reject a Single Government Surveillance Request In 2015
schwit1 shares news from ZDNet's security blog: In more than three decades years, the FISA Court has only rejected 12 requests. A secret court that oversees the US government's surveillance requests accepted every warrant that was submitted last year, according to new figures.The Washington DC.-based Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court received 1,457 requests from the National Security Agency and the Federal … [Link]
Popular Science » Fall(out) Guy Part 12
From Our Blogs: Boxplot It's time to cleanup some radioactive fallout! What do Dr. Seuss and radiation cleanup have in common? [Link]
Mashable » Kid shows hungry pug a beautiful butterfly, disaster ensues
Sometimes, the pug you trust most is the very pug that betrays you. Such was the case for this poor child, who only wanted to show Bentley the pug a lovely butterfly in the yard. Nature is beautiful, right? But Bentley the pug had other plans. Bentley was hungry. Bentley wanted a snack. SEE ALSO: Diva dog demands human give … [Link]
Slashdot » Australia: VPN Users Aren't Breaching Copyright
Slashdot reader Zanadou writes: The Australian Government Productivity Commission in a draft report recommended that Australian consumers should be able to legally circumvent geoblocking restrictions that have prevented them from using foreign online streaming services like Netflix, and that the Australian Government needs to send a clear message that it is not an infringement of copyright for consumers to be … [Link]
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