John Gordon Ross

A Man for All Reasons

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Geekish

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 » 'The Great Wall' is a hit, just not in the U.S.

Sunday 19 February 23:40:12 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookThe Lego Batman Movie is #1 in the U.S. for the second straight weekend, but that's not the big story. Instead, eyes are on The Great Wall — a Zhang Yimou-directed blockbuster starring Matt Damon — which opened at #3 domestically, with an estimated $18.1 million at the box office. It's an underwhelming start for a movie said to be budgeted … [Link]

Slashdot » Serious Computer Glitches Can Be Caused By Cosmic Rays

Sunday 19 February 23:34:00 UTC 2017

The Los Alamos National Lab wrote in 2012 that "For over 20 years the military, the commercial aerospace industry, and the computer industry have known that high-energy neutrons streaming through our atmosphere can cause computer errors." Now an anonymous reader quotes Computerworld: When your computer crashes or phone freezes, don't be so quick to blame the manufacturer. Cosmic rays — … [Link]

Slashdot » Google Discloses An Unpatched Windows Bug (Again)

Sunday 19 February 22:34:00 UTC 2017

An anonymous reader writes: "For the second time in three months, Google engineers have disclosed a bug in the Windows OS without Microsoft having released a fix before Google's announcement," reports BleepingComputer. "The bug in question affects the Windows GDI (Graphics Device Interface) (gdi32.dll)…" According to Google, the issue allows an attacker to read the content of the user's memory … [Link]

Mashable » 'Overwatch,' but with cats (and a dog) returns for more

Sunday 19 February 22:22:21 UTC 2017

Twitter Facebook Meet Zarnya, Felinehardt, KI.T, Woofston, and Streetcat, the adorable kitty-cat versions of Overwatch tank heroes Zarya, Reinhardt, D.Va, Winston, and Roadhog. OK fine, Woofston is technically a dog. But Winston is technically a knockoff of Beast from the X-Men movies and comics. Much like the last "Katsuwatch" video from YouTuber dillongoo, this video runs through each cat-ified hero's various "highlight … [Link]

Slashdot » Some Recyclers Give Up On Recycling Old Monitors And TVs

Sunday 19 February 21:12:00 UTC 2017

An anonymous reader writes: "In many cases, your old TV isn't recycled at all and is instead abandoned in a warehouse somewhere, left for society to deal with sometime in the future," reports Motherboard, describing the problem of old cathode-ray televisions and computer monitors with "a net negative recycling value" (since their component parts don't cover the cost of dismantling … [Link]

Mashable » J.K. Rowling has the best response to Trump's non-existent Sweden attack

Sunday 19 February 21:00:22 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookThe internet can't get enough of President Donald Trump's "last night in Sweden" remarks, including, of course, J.K. Rowling. Never one to shy from a little fun at the expense of the U.S. president, the author joined in on Twitter's response to Trump's confusing reference to a terrorist attack that didn't actually happen. SEE ALSO: Internet turns to @Sweden on Twitter … [Link]

Mashable » Daniel Radcliffe embraces fact that he looks like 'a lot of old women in the past'

Sunday 19 February 20:31:55 UTC 2017

Twitter Facebook Daniel Radcliffe is perfectly comfortable with the fact that he resembles bespectacled women of the past.  During an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, he joked with Norton about his past-life doppelgängers, and the one trait they all share.  "These are all my past lives— I was, like, a slightly depressed lady."  [H/T: Vulture] Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint api production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fstory%2fthumbnail%2f37287%2fba47c5f0 b889 4829 98b0 f9e2374f6ad7Relive SpaceX's incredible daytime rocket landing with … [Link]

Mashable » The geekiest signs from the 'Stand up for Science' rally

Sunday 19 February 20:25:51 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookAt a rally full of scientists, things were bound to get a bit geeky. On Sunday, thousands scientists and supporters gathered in Boston's Copley Square to "stand up for science" under the Trump administration.  Their signs were, predictably, quite clever.  My favorite sign so far#standupforscience pic.twitter.com/2pSlU5UPdz — Tomas Green (@TomasWGreen) February 19, 2017 I can't tell you how many older people … [Link]

Slashdot » Self-Driving Car Speed Race Ends With A Crash

Sunday 19 February 19:38:00 UTC 2017

An anonymous reader writes:On a professional track in Buenos Aires, fans watched the first Formula E auto race with self-driving electric cars. "Roborace's two test vehicles battled it out on the circuit at a reasonably quick 115MPH," reports Engadget, "but one of the cars crashed after it took a turn too aggressively. The racing league was quick to tout the … [Link]

Mashable » Fox News anchor blasts Trump for calling media 'enemy of the American people'

Sunday 19 February 19:33:32 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookChris Wallace from Fox News isn't happy Donald Trump called the media an "enemy of the American people," and on Sunday, he let the president's chief of staff know it.  Talking on Fox News Sunday, the veteran news reporter — himself a former White House correspondent — pushed back against Trump's comments (made on Twitter, of course) to Reince Priebus. SEE … [Link]

Mashable » This transparent bowl swing is what cat dreams are made of

Sunday 19 February 19:00:00 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookThe 'Dim Dim' bubble is a chair, swing and bed for your cat. Read more…More about Real Time Video, Real Time Video, Bowl, Invention, and Kickstarter [Link]

Slashdot » Krebs: 'Men Who Sent SWAT Team, Heroin to My Home Sentenced'

Sunday 19 February 18:34:00 UTC 2017

An anonymous reader quotes KrebsOnSecurity: On Thursday, a Ukrainian man who hatched a plan in 2013 to send heroin to my home and then call the cops when the drugs arrived was sentenced to 41 months in prison for unrelated cybercrime charges. Separately, a 19-year-old American who admitted to being part of a hacker group that sent a heavily-armed police … [Link]

Mashable » The United Arab Emirates wants to build a city on Mars

Sunday 19 February 18:00:00 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookElon Musk isn't the only person who wants to build a city on Mars. Now the United Arab Emirates has announced that it wants to establish a "mini-city" on the red planet by 2117.  UAE prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum explained the monarchy's Mars plans in a series of tweets on Feb. 14. SEE ALSO: Dubai is bringing … [Link]

Mashable » Crazy storm has streets of L.A. swallowing cars whole

Sunday 19 February 17:49:02 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookCalifornians this weekend captured harrowing scenes of cars stuck in sinkholes, trucks toppling off a crumbling highway and muddy waters rushing through the streets of Los Angeles.  The Golden State is grappling with yet another punishing wave of atmospheric river storms, which dump vast amounts of rain in narrow corridors over a short period of time.  SEE ALSO: Insane drone footage … [Link]

Slashdot » New Free O'Reilly Ebook: 'Open Source In Brazil'

Sunday 19 February 17:34:00 UTC 2017

An anonymous reader writes: Andy Oram, who's been an editor at O'Reilly since 1992, has written a new free report about how open source software is everywhere in Brazil. The country's IT industry is booming in Brazil — still Latin America's most vibrant economy — with open source software popular in both startups and in cloud infrastructure. Oram attributes this … [Link]

Mashable » Relive SpaceX's incredible daytime rocket landing with this video

Sunday 19 February 17:08:04 UTC 2017

Twitter Facebook SpaceX did it again, and this time, with a whole lot of style.  Elon Musk's private spaceflight company managed to land yet another Falcon 9 first stage back at Cape Canaveral after launching a mission to orbit for NASA. SEE ALSO: SpaceX sticks daytime rocket landing back on Earth after launch to space The daytime landing marks the third time … [Link]

Mashable » Chelsea Clinton burns Trump on Twitter for his baffling Sweden remark

Sunday 19 February 16:52:25 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookPresident Donald Trump left many people — including former first daughter Chelsea Clinton — confused Saturday night when he suggested that something terrible had happened in Sweden the previous evening. No tragedy occurred that day in Sweden, which the internet had fun pointing out. On Sunday, Clinton made sure to highlight the Trump administration's penchant for inventing terrorist attacks. What happened … [Link]

Slashdot » Used Cars Can Still Be Controlled By Their Previous Owners' Apps

Sunday 19 February 16:34:00 UTC 2017

An IBM security researcher recently discovered something interesting about smart cars. An anonymous reader quotes CNN: Charles Henderson sold his car several years ago, but he still knows exactly where it is, and can control it from his phone… "The car is really smart, but it's not smart enough to know who its owner is, so it's not smart enough … [Link]

Slashdot » A Source Code Typo Allowed An Attacker To Steal $592,000 In Cryptocurrency

Sunday 19 February 15:34:00 UTC 2017

An anonymous reader writes: "A typo in the Zerocoin source code allowed an attacker to steal 370,000 Zerocoin, which is about $592,000 at today's price," reports BleepingComputer. According to the Zcoin team, one extra character left inside Zerocoin's source code was the cause of the bug. The hacker exploited the bugs for weeks, by initiating a transaction and receiving the … [Link]

Mashable » Trump thinks something terrible happened in Sweden, so here come the IKEA and ABBA jokes

Sunday 19 February 15:24:11 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookPresident Donald Trump has unintentionally turned the internet into one big celebration of Swedish pop culture. The U.S. president on Saturday alluded to a terrorist-related event in Sweden that, as far as Swedes can tell, didn't actually happen. SEE ALSO: Internet turns to @Sweden on Twitter after Trump appears to invent terror attack "We’ve got to keep our country safe," he … [Link]

Mashable » This keychain can take away that annoying jingle your keys make

Sunday 19 February 15:00:00 UTC 2017

Twitter Facebook‘KeyBolt’ can turn your bulky and jingly keys into a neat stack. You can quickly select the key you need with one hand.  Read more…More about Sleek, Compact, Swiss Army Knife, Keybolt, and Keyholder [Link]

Mashable » SpaceX sticks daytime rocket landing back on Earth after launch to space

Sunday 19 February 14:53:38 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookThere may come a time when SpaceX landing a rocket stage back on Earth after flying to space isn't news — when we can simply take these science-fiction looking landings for granted and brush them off as no big deal. But today is not that day.  The Elon Musk-founded spaceflight company stuck yet another beautiful landing of the first stage of … [Link]

Slashdot » Alaska Gets 'Artificial Aurora' As HAARP Antenna Array Listens Again

Sunday 19 February 14:34:00 UTC 2017

Freshly Exhumed quotes Hackaday: The famous HAARP antenna array is to be brought back into service for experiments by the University of Alaska. Built in the 1990s for the US Air Force's High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, the array is a 40-acre site containing a phased array of 180 high-frequency antennas and their associated high-power transmitters. Its purpose is … [Link]

Mashable » Newly uncovered photos capture the tense atmosphere outside a 1960 Tennessee sit-in

Sunday 19 February 14:00:00 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookFirefighters disperse protestors and onlookers with fire hoses.Image: Chattanooga History Center/PicnoogaIn February 1960, black activists kicked off a wave of protests against segregation across the South, beginning with sit-ins at a Woolworth’s in Greensboro, North Carolina.The sit-ins spread to Nashville and then to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where they were organized not by experienced or professional activists, but by the teenage students of … [Link]

Slashdot » Fans Choose A New Football Team's Plays With Their Smartphones

Sunday 19 February 12:34:00 UTC 2017

A new arena-league football team plays on a 50-yard field and uses a mobile app that allows fans to vote on the team's next play. An anonymous reader writes: Slate describes a receiver tackled for a short gain after the audience instructed the quarterback to throw a quick pass — as "shouts and cheers exploded from the stands, with phones … [Link]

Mashable » How the UK government can hack your personal data

Sunday 19 February 9:30:00 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookFrom the moment you set foot on British soil, your personal data could easily be accessed, or even hacked, by the government.  New invasive legislation has been dubbed by critics as one of the most extreme surveillance laws ever passed in a democracy.  SEE ALSO: Keep your texts private in Trump's America (and everywhere else, too) The Snoopers' Charter — aka … [Link]

Slashdot » Techdirt Asks Judge To Dismiss Another Lawsuit By That Guy Who Didn't Invent Email

Sunday 19 February 8:34:00 UTC 2017

Three months ago Shiva Ayyadurai won a $750,000 settlement from Gawker (after they'd already gone bankrupt). He'd argued Gawker defamed him by mocking Ayyadurai's claim he'd invented email, and now he's also suing Techdirt founder Michael Masnick — who is not bankrupt, and is fighting back. Long-time Slashdot reader walterbyrd quotes Ars Technica: In his motion, Masnick claims that Ayyadurai … [Link]

Mashable » Get your tissues 'cos Steve Irwin's son is basically a mini-Steve on 'Tonight Show'

Sunday 19 February 7:10:44 UTC 2017

Twitter Facebook Um, does the Irwin family have access to some kind of underground cloning technology? Because Robert Irwin, the late Steve Irwin's son, is the spitting image of his dad down to the khaki shorts and endless enthusiasm. A conservationist and TV personality, Steve died in 2006 after being struck by a stingray barb, but he clearly passed his media chops … [Link]

Mashable » Internet turns to @Sweden after Trump appears to invent terror attack

Sunday 19 February 5:03:40 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookEmma Johansson is a school librarian from Borås, Sweden, and on Saturday, she found herself fact-checking the President of the United States. The cross-border saga started at a rally in Melbourne, Florida that day, where Donald Trump defended his "Muslim immigration ban" before a crowd of thousands. "We've got to keep our country safe," he said. Trump, discussing terror, seamlessly mentions … [Link]

Slashdot » Slashdot Asks: Are Remote Software Teams More Productive?

Sunday 19 February 4:34:00 UTC 2017

A recruiter with 20 years of experience recently reported on the research into whether remote software teams perform better. One study of 10,000 coding sessions concluded it takes 10-15 minutes for a programmer to resume work after an interruption. Another study actually suggests unsupervised workers are more productive, and the founders of the collaboration tool Basecamp argue the bigger danger … [Link]

Slashdot » Web Comic 'Pokey The Penguin' Celebrates Its 19th Anniversary

Sunday 19 February 2:34:00 UTC 2017

It's one of the longest-running comics on the internet. (Slashdot is approaching its 20th anniversary, and in its first year ran two stories about Pokey.) Open source developer Steve Havelka of Portland, Oregon created the truly bizarre strip back in 1998 — one legend says it was originally a parody of another comic drawn with Microsoft Paint — and he's … [Link]

Mashable » Bill Gates isn't kidding around when he says bioterrorism could kill '30 million people'

Sunday 19 February 2:02:12 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookPresident Donald Trump may have the nuclear codes, but when it comes to things to be scared about, think biggerAccording to Bill Gates, bioterrorism could be even more deadly. The Microsoft cofounder warned the world is not paying enough attention to "health security and international security" in some decidedly grim remarks at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, the Guardian reported. … [Link]

Slashdot » Should International Travelers Leave Their Phones At Home?

Sunday 19 February 0:34:00 UTC 2017

Long-time Slashdot reader Toe, The sums up what he learned from freeCodeCamp's Quincy Larson: "Before you travel internationally, wipe your phone or bring/rent/buy a clean one." Larson's article is titled "I'll never bring my phone on an international flight again. Neither should you." All the security in the world can't save you if someone has physical possession of your phone … [Link]

Mashable » 'Lightseekers' puts the action back into action figures

Sunday 19 February 0:11:49 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookLightseekers, the role-playing game from Play Fusion and TOMY that seeks to bring video game action into the real world, has made the transition from Kickstarter to store shelves.  On Saturday, at the New York Toy Fair, the makers announced that the game will get Toys "R" Us distribution, with pre-sales starting in April. SEE ALSO: Please let 'Justice League' be … [Link]

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