John Gordon Ross

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.

Mashable » 3 guys happen to catch SpaceX launch from an airplane

Sunday 15 January 23:53:22 UTC 2017

SpaceX successfully launched — and landed! — its Falcon 9 rocket on Saturday, it's first launch since another one of its rockets exploded last fall.  Luckily for us, some adventurous guys caught the whole thing on camera from nearly two miles up in the air.  SEE ALSO: SpaceX's Saturday rocket launch is a big freaking deal As the rocket, carrying 10 … [Link]

Slashdot » How A Professional Poker Player Conned a Casino Out of $9.6 Million

Sunday 15 January 23:39:00 UTC 2017

Phil Ivey is a professional poker player who's won ten World Series of Poker bracelets — but he's also got a new game. An anonymous reader write: In 2012, Ivey requested that the Borgata casino let him play baccarat with an assistant named Cheng Yin Sun while using a specific brand of playing cards — purple Gemaco Borgata playing cards … [Link]

Mashable » Hauntingly beautiful images emerge from deadly ice storms

Sunday 15 January 23:16:44 UTC 2017

Winter storms left large swaths of the central U.S. encased in sheets of ice this weekend. Across the Midwest and southern Plains, roads, power lines, trees and windows glistened with an icy glaze. On Sunday, a third wave of sleet and drizzle continued to bear down on areas where temperatures hovered around freezing.  SEE ALSO: Mysterious light pillars light up Canada's … [Link]

Mashable » Uber wants to build a better map. Next stop? Australia.

Sunday 15 January 22:25:43 UTC 2017

Like Google and even Tesla, Uber wants to map the world down to the right-hand lane and Australia is the focus of its latest effort. Following mapping projects in the U.S., Canada and the UK, as well as Mexico and South Africa, the transport giant is launching locally on the Gold Coast Monday, with a wider rollout to follow.  SEE ALSO: … [Link]

Mashable » Miley Cyrus had a weed bar at Liam Hemsworth and Wayne Coyne's birthday party

Sunday 15 January 22:11:47 UTC 2017

Hey, did you know Miley Cyrus likes smoking pot? The singer celebrated more of her favorite things — Liam Hemsworth, the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne and her kid sister, Noah — by throwing them a "joint" birthday party in the USA. The bash featured a weed bar from Snoop Dogg's marijuana company, Merry Jane, naturally.  SEE ALSO: Liam Hemsworth makes an … [Link]

Slashdot » Apple/Samsung Patent Case Returns To Court To Revisit Infringement Damages

Sunday 15 January 22:02:00 UTC 2017

An anonymous reader quotes MacRumors: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Thursday reopened a longstanding patent lawsuit related to Samsung copying the design of the iPhone nearly six years ago…according to court documents filed electronically this week… Apple's damages were calculated based on Samsung's entire profit from the sale of its infringing Galaxy smartphones, but the … [Link]

Mashable » Rare photos show Obama girls on their first visit to the White House

Sunday 15 January 20:45:19 UTC 2017

For nearly all American children, shimmying around the White House in your tights or roaming its historic, hidden rooms will always remain a fantasy. But a handful of kids really have made the presidential residence their playground. A series of rare 2008 photos, posted by NBC's TODAY show, capture the Obama daughters sliding down a wooden ramp, peering inside the Lincoln … [Link]

Mashable » 'Pharma bro' Martin Shkreli says he wasn't hit in the face by dog poop

Sunday 15 January 20:32:37 UTC 2017

UPDATED (4:19 p.m. ET): Updated with additional comment from Shkreli with regards to the substance thrown at him. A scheduled joint appearance by nefarious pharma bro Martin Shkreli and Breitbart writer Milo Yiannopoulos went sideways on Friday due to protests, during which Shkreli was hit in the face by something thrown by a protester.  SEE ALSO: Alt-right troll Milo Yiannopoulos got … [Link]

Slashdot » Google-Funded Project Envisions Nation's Librarians Teaching Kids to Code

Sunday 15 January 19:56:00 UTC 2017

"We're excited to double down on the findings of Ready to Code 1," says one Google program manager, "by equipping librarians with the knowledge and skills to cultivate computational thinking and coding skills in our youth." theodp writes: Citing the need to fill "500,000 current job openings in the field of computer science," the American Library Association argues in a … [Link]

Mashable » Newspaper bills Donald Trump's inauguration as an episode of 'The Twilight Zone'

Sunday 15 January 19:42:17 UTC 2017

Wouldn’t it be nice if the election results themselves were fake news?  The Sunday Herald's TV listings offer a review of Donald Trump's impending inauguration as if it were an episode of The Twilight Zone and not our chilling reality.  SEE ALSO: Can we please stop branding compassion as 'liberal elitism?' The Sunday Herald TV Section wins todaypic.twitter.com/OanCZdznGJ — George Takei … [Link]

Mashable » Hippies can go electric with this groovy Microbus from Volkswagen

Sunday 15 January 19:00:00 UTC 2017

Volkswagen has redesigned the Microbus for the 21st century, with an autonomous pilot mode and all-electric driving. Read more…More about Vw Bus, Real Time Video, Real Time, Energy, and Automotive [Link]

Slashdot » Driverless Electric Shuttle Deployed In Downtown Las Vegas

Sunday 15 January 18:57:00 UTC 2017

schwit1 quotes the Associated Press: There's a new thrill on the streets of downtown Las Vegas, where high- and low-rollers alike are climbing aboard what officials call the first driverless electric shuttle operating on a public U.S. street. The oval-shaped shuttle began running Tuesday as part of a 10-day pilot program, carrying up to 12 passengers for free along a … [Link]

Mashable » Thanks to Trump, Rep. John Lewis is dominating Amazon's bestsellers list

Sunday 15 January 17:57:20 UTC 2017

Well, something good actually happened because of Donald Trump's tweets, but don't get used to it.  Following a couple early morning tweets dismissing Rep. John Lewis, March, the Georgia congressman's graphic novel memoir, leaped to the top of Amazon's bestsellers list.  SEE ALSO: Can we please stop branding compassion as 'liberal elitism?' Presumably after Trump heard Lewis' assertion that he's not … [Link]

Slashdot » Meet Lux, A New Lisp-like Language

Sunday 15 January 17:55:00 UTC 2017

Drawing on Haskell, Clojure, and ML, the new Lux language first targeted the Java Virtual Machine, but will be a universal, cross-platform language. An anonymous reader quotes JavaWorld: Currently in an 0.5 beta release, Lux claims that while it implements features common to Lisp-like languages, such as macros, they're more flexible and powerful in Lux… [W]hereas Clojure is dynamically typed, … [Link]

Mashable » 'Deadshot Mary': The undercover cop who became a tabloid sensation

Sunday 15 January 17:00:00 UTC 2017

Image: Library of CongressMary Shanley was born in Ireland in 1896, and after immigrating to America with her family, made the bold choice to join the NYPD.Along with a handful of other woman cops, she went to work on undercover beatsIn her first year on the force, she was assigned to nab fortune-tellers and psychics. These professions were illegal at the … [Link]

Slashdot » Hackers Corrupt Data For Cloud-Based Medical Marijuana System

Sunday 15 January 16:36:00 UTC 2017

Long-time Slashdot reader t0qer writes: I'm the IT director at a medical marijuana dispensary. Last week the point of sales system we were using was hacked… What scares me about this breach is, I have about 30,000 patients in my database alone. If this company has 1,000 more customers like me, even half of that is still 15 million people … [Link]

Mashable » Why being a 'weekend warrior' is still good for your health

Sunday 15 January 16:34:00 UTC 2017

If going to the gym during the workweek sounds daunting to you, fear not: Working out only on the weekends has health benefits too, a new study suggests. In the study, researchers examined so-called weekend warriors, who cram a week's worth of exercise into just one or two days. SEE ALSO: A deer decided to stop by the gym for an … [Link]

Mashable » 7 can't-miss apps: Duobook, Forest, AlarmMon and more

Sunday 15 January 16:21:09 UTC 2017

With the tech world recovering from a CES hangover, you may have missed some of this week's best apps. Each weekend, we round up a few of our favorite new and updated apps. This week's list includes an app that allows you to switch seamlessly between ebooks and audio books, two apps that help you focus better and an app that … [Link]

Mashable » Tina Fey crashes Felicity Jones' 'SNL' monologue to beg for a 'Star Wars' gig

Sunday 15 January 15:41:34 UTC 2017

Hologram Tina Fey stopped by Saturday Night Live to give Felicity Jones some tips on hosting the show ("If Steven Seagal can do it, so can you") and tell her to disregard whatever tweet storm from the president-elect that follows.  But more importantly, Fey pleaded with Jones to relay the message that she is "technically available to act in films" … [Link]

Slashdot » Thousands Of Cubans Now Have Internet Access

Sunday 15 January 15:34:00 UTC 2017

There's been a dramatic change in one of the world's least-connected countries. An anonymous reader quotes the AP: Since the summer of 2015, the Cuban government has opened 240 public Wi-Fi spots in parks and on street corners across the country… The government estimates that 100,000 Cubans connect to the internet daily. A new feature of urban life in Cuba … [Link]

Mashable » The Ringling Bros. circus is shutting down after 146 years

Sunday 15 January 15:26:06 UTC 2017

A circus without elephants might be more humane, but apparently it's far less enticing. The owners of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus said they will permanently end their 146-year-old show this spring. "The Greatest Show on Earth" saw a steep decline in ticket sales after removing elephants from performances in May 2016. SEE ALSO: China announces a 'game-changing' step … [Link]

Mashable » Someone designed a notebook that can last forever

Sunday 15 January 15:00:00 UTC 2017

This notebook xxx  Read more…More about Real Time Video, Real Time, Smart Tech, Notebooks, and Us World [Link]

Mashable » A breathtaking 1915 photo tour of the mountains of the Holy Land

Sunday 15 January 14:00:00 UTC 2017

The reputed location of Abraham's offering of Isaac on Mount Gerizim.IMage: Oregon State University Visual Instruction DepartmentMountains around the world often have deep spiritual significance to the cultures that emerge in their shadows, and the peaks of the Holy Land are no exception.Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Palestine and Jordan are dominated by summits of Biblical import, from the cedar-covered slopes of Mount … [Link]

Slashdot » Will The Death of the PC Bring 'An End To Openness'?

Sunday 15 January 11:04:00 UTC 2017

Slashdot reader snydeq shared "11 Predictions For the Future of Programming" by InfoWorld's contributing editor — and one prediction was particularly dire: The passing of the PC isn't only the slow death of a particular form factor. It;s the dying of a particularly open and welcoming marketplace… Consoles are tightly locked down. No one gets into that marketplace without an … [Link]

Slashdot » Ask Slashdot: What's The Best Place To Suggest New Open Source Software?

Sunday 15 January 7:04:00 UTC 2017

dryriver writes: Somebody I know has been searching up and down the internet for an open source software that can apply GPU pixel shaders (HLSL/GLSL/Cg/SweetFX) to a video and save the result out to a video file. He came up with nothing, so I said "Why not petition the open source community to create such a tool?" His reply was … [Link]

Mashable » PSA: Here's a video of Donald Trump playing an accordion. That is all.

Sunday 15 January 6:54:09 UTC 2017

Sometimes it's really hard to understand what Donald Trump is getting at, you know? Add an accordion though, and all those big league hand gestures just make a lot more sense.  Russian hacks and Mexican walls all sound a tad more relaxing (but still horrible) when accompanied by the dulcet tones of a squeezebox. The ABC's Huw Parkinson put this … [Link]

Mashable » 'SNL' asks Trump about 'big Russian pee-pee parties' in first cold open of 2017

Sunday 15 January 6:44:10 UTC 2017

As if they needed a setup beyond the "failing pile of garbage" that’s been the last few weeks of current events, Saturday Night Live took on President-elect Donald Trump’s controversial press conference last week — and unsubstantiated reports of his "big Russian pee-pee party" — for its first cold open of the new year.  And just like that much-maligned newser, the sketch … [Link]

New Scientist – News » Gadget boom sees e-waste in Asia spike 63 per cent in 5 years

Sunday 15 January 6:15:40 UTC 2017

A boom in gadgets and a growing middle class has contributed to a spike in e-waste in East and South-East Asia, raising environmental concerns [Link]

Mashable » Makeup blogger's dad nails anti-LGBTQ bigot with perfect response

Sunday 15 January 4:33:53 UTC 2017

Manny Gutierrez is a makeup YouTuber with millions of subscribers and a Maybelline ambassadorship. He also has a dad who does not seem to take haters lightly. In early January, the conservative blogger Matt Walsh, who often shares anti-LGBTQ messages on Twitter, posted a picture of Gutierrez wearing makeup, writing "Dads, this is why you need to be there to … [Link]

Slashdot » Debian 8.7 Released

Sunday 15 January 3:04:00 UTC 2017

Debian 8.7 has been released. An anonymous reader quotes Debian.org: This update mainly adds corrections for security problems to the stable release, along with a few adjustments for serious problems. Security advisories were already published separately and are referenced where available. Please note that this update does not constitute a new version of Debian 8 but only updates some of … [Link]

Mashable » Samantha Bee on media responsibility in Trump's America: 'They're coming for all of us'

Sunday 15 January 2:07:27 UTC 2017

Samantha Bee thought she'd be telling very different stories on Full Frontal after Nov. 8. The Daily Show alumna's TBS show has become synonymous with scathing, satirical takedowns of the political system, but she admits that she and her team were preparing for a different world back when it seemed Hillary Clinton had the presidency in the bag.  "One of the … [Link]

Mashable » Democrats vow to skip inauguration on Twitter after latest Trump attack

Sunday 15 January 1:44:13 UTC 2017

Donald Trump's inauguration may be sparsely attended. Not only has the president-elect struggled to find a single (genuine) celebrity to perform, but a growing number of Democratic congresspeople are declaring they will not show up at his swearing in on Jan. 20. Following Trump's harsh words on Saturday about Representative John Lewis of Georgia, Democrats from across the country are taking … [Link]

Slashdot » SpaceX Returns To Flight, And Nails Another Drone Landing

Sunday 15 January 0:34:00 UTC 2017

Applehu Akbar writes: SpaceX successfully launched a 10-satellite Iridium NEXT package, and then landed on a drone ship — this time from Vandenburg AFB in California. The launch had been delayed several days by this week's record rainfall and flooding. CNN has video of the launch, and points out its obvious significance. "Because rockets are worth tens of millions of … [Link]

Archive

25 Apr 2024  24 Apr 2024  23 Apr 2024  22 Apr 2024  21 Apr 2024  20 Apr 2024  19 Apr 2024  18 Apr 2024  17 Apr 2024  16 Apr 2024  15 Apr 2024  14 Apr 2024  13 Apr 2024  12 Apr 2024  11 Apr 2024  10 Apr 2024  09 Apr 2024  08 Apr 2024  07 Apr 2024  06 Apr 2024  05 Apr 2024  04 Apr 2024  03 Apr 2024  02 Apr 2024  01 Apr 2024  31 Mar 2024  30 Mar 2024  29 Mar 2024  28 Mar 2024  27 Mar 2024  26 Mar 2024  25 Mar 2024