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 » No. 1 best-selling book on Amazon is some very light reading

Saturday 11 March 23:44:56 UTC 2017

Michael J. Knowles' newest book has reached the top of the charts. SEE ALSO: Everywhere you look there’s a massive Trump bump The actor and conservative news site The Daily Wire correspondent's 266-page political overview of the Democratic party is, well, quite the page-turner. And a surprisingly quick read, given the subject matter. Here's a quick flip through the book, Reasons … [Link]

Slashdot » Munich's IT Lead: 'No Compelling Reason' To Switch Back To Windows From Linux

Saturday 11 March 23:34:00 UTC 2017

"The man who runs Munich's central IT says there is no practical reason for the city to write off millions of euros and years of work to ditch its Linux-based OS for Windows," reports TechRepublic. Long-time Slashdot reader Qbertino summarizes a German-language article: Karl-Heinz Schneider, lead of Munich's local system house company IT@M, goes on to claim, "We do not … [Link]

Mashable » The augmented reality headset wars have begun

Saturday 11 March 23:32:08 UTC 2017

Floating just inches from my face was a semi-translucent brain. It was, this being Austin, missing a few pieces. To my left floated the frontal lobe. I reached out with my virtual left hand, tapped it and the lobe floated into place. The brain and my first taste of Meta 2 augmented reality were complete. The experience was not wholly unfamiliar. … [Link]

Mashable » So it looks like Winter's preparing one final insult for the East Coast

Saturday 11 March 22:52:06 UTC 2017

After basking in 70-degree temperatures in February, residents of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast are in for one heck of a rude awakening early this week, as a powerful storm takes shape off the East Coast. In all, almost 50 million people could see a foot or more of snow from this storm. While there is still some uncertainty in the details, … [Link]

Slashdot » A Prenda Copyright Troll Finally Pleaded Guilty

Saturday 11 March 22:34:00 UTC 2017

"One of the attorneys behind the Prenda Law 'copyright trolling' scheme has pleaded guilty to federal charges of fraud and money laundering," reports Ars Technica. Long-time Slashdot reader Freshly Exhumed shares this article from the law blog Popehat: The factual basis section — which Steele admits is true (as to facts he knows) or that the government can prove (as … [Link]

Mashable » This is probably the only way you'll ever get to visit the Space Station, but it's pretty damn good

Saturday 11 March 22:27:22 UTC 2017

We never tire of seeing amazing new footage from the International Space Station (ISS), but it would be even better if most of us could get a VIP ticket to visit. Well, now we can, thanks to virtual reality on the Oculus Rift. SEE ALSO: SpaceX wants to send 2 people around the moon in 2018 Mission: ISS is a completely … [Link]

Mashable » These IRL 'Handmaids' are creeping people out

Saturday 11 March 22:15:00 UTC 2017

Keep South By weird. On Friday and Saturday — the first two days of the Austin tech and entertainment festival — attendees spotted women dressed as Handmaids and almost entirely naked men and women walking around in the rain. The Handmaids were there to promote Hulu's upcoming dystopian show The Handmaid's Tale and the naked models were there promoting cable network … [Link]

Slashdot » New 'USG' Firewalls Protect USB Drives From Malicious Attacks

Saturday 11 March 21:34:00 UTC 2017

A developer has created the USG, "a small, portable hardware USB firewall…to prevent malicious USB sticks and devices laden with malware from infecting your computer." An anonymous reader quotes ZDNet: The problem is that most computers automatically trust every USB device that's plugged in, which means malicious code can run without warning… Cars, cash registers, and some ATMs also come … [Link]

Mashable » Republican bill would let employers demand workers’ genetic test results

Saturday 11 March 21:12:57 UTC 2017

A little-noticed bill moving through Congress would allow companies to require employees to undergo genetic testing or risk paying a penalty of thousands of dollars, and would let employers see that genetic and other health information. Giving employers such power is now prohibited by legislation including the 2008 genetic privacy and nondiscrimination law known as GINA. The new bill gets around … [Link]

Mashable » The SEC just dashed the Winkelvoss twins' bitcoin dreams

Saturday 11 March 21:03:42 UTC 2017

The Winklevoss twins lost out on Facebook, and now they've lost out on bitcoin. The Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday denied an application from brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss — depicted by Armie Hammer in The Social Network — to create an exchange-traded fund for bitcoin. An ETF would track the price of bitcoin and make investing in the cryptocurrency … [Link]

Mashable » Native Americans bring the fight for Indigenous rights to the White House gates

Saturday 11 March 20:55:28 UTC 2017

“We exist. We resist. We rise." This powerful statement was boldly brought to the White House, through protest signs and spirit, on March 10 as part of the Native Nations Rise protests. SEE ALSO: These barbed wire dreamcatchers help support the resistance at Standing Rock Thousands of Native Americans from tribes across North America marched to the White House to rally … [Link]

Mashable » Printable gender-inclusive bathroom signs you can put up anywhere that needs it

Saturday 11 March 20:39:04 UTC 2017

All across the country, schools and states want to dictate where people can go to the bathroom. That doesn't mean folks have to listen. For the trans and gender non-conforming community, the right to use the bathroom of their choice is increasingly under attack. North Carolina requires people use the bathroom assigned on their birth certificates, and Texas is preparing a … [Link]

Slashdot » Will WebAssembly Replace JavaScript?

Saturday 11 March 20:34:00 UTC 2017

On Tuesday Firefox 52 became the first browser to support WebAssembly, a new standard "to enable near-native performance for web applications" without a plug-in by pre-compiling code into low-level, machine-ready instructions. Mozilla engineer Lin Clark sees this as an inflection point where the speed of browser-based applications increases dramatically. An anonymous reader quotes David Bryant, the head of platform engineering … [Link]

Mashable » Word of the Day: Cory Booker explains 'freedom' to Bert

Saturday 11 March 20:21:34 UTC 2017

Two of your favorite SXSW attendees, Senator Cory Booker and Sesame Street's Bert, just shared a touching moment live on Twitter. After his eventful panel, Booker stopped by Day Two of "The Mashable Show" – an exclusive 90-minute Twitter live stream of all things SXSW – to chat with Co-host Bert about the Word of the Day: freedom. SEE ALSO: Cory … [Link]

Mashable » Cory Booker and Bert take the selfie of your childhood dreams

Saturday 11 March 20:18:23 UTC 2017

Cory Booker and Bert became BFFs on The Mashable Show at SXSW — and made it official with a glorious selfie. The Sesame Street muppet and the uber popular U.S. senator hung out in Austin, Texas on Saturday and captured the blooming relationship in the only worthy way. It followed a deep discussion about sidekicks, head shaving and the meaning of … [Link]

Mashable » 'The Mashable Show' is going out with a bang at SXSW

Saturday 11 March 20:00:00 UTC 2017

The Mashable Show is back for its third and final day of SXSW coverage, and we're going out with a bang. In case you haven't heard, Mashable and Twitter have teamed up to create The Mashable Show, live streaming the best of SXSW 2017 straight to your personal timeline. The exclusive 90-minute stream of all things Interactive, Film and Music at … [Link]

Mashable » Frank Ocean has a brand new solo track and – sorry, we just need a minute

Saturday 11 March 19:43:21 UTC 2017

Looks like we don't have to wait four years for new tracks from Frank Ocean. The artist debuted a new solo song "Chanel" on his Beats 1 radio show Blonded Friday night. It's his first solo track since Endless and Blonde, and it's delightful and groundbreaking for all kinds of reasons. SEE ALSO: Ed Sheeran would like to do a digital … [Link]

Slashdot » Jeff Bezos' Spaceflight Company Blue Origin Gets Its First Paying Customer

Saturday 11 March 19:34:00 UTC 2017

Long-time Slashdot reader nickovs writes: Blue Origin was started as a "moon shot" company by Jeff Bezos and recently claimed that it would be offering an "Amazon-like" delivery service to the moon by 2020. In the mean time it seems their customers will be slightly closer to Earth: this week they announced that they now have a paying customer in … [Link]

Mashable » These hijabi self-defense videos aren't the tutorials we want, but they're the ones we need

Saturday 11 March 19:29:18 UTC 2017

At anti-Trump rallies around the country, a popular chant often reverberates among the crowd: “When Muslim lives are under attack, what do we do? Stand up. Fight back.” A new video series called Self Defense Starter Kit is hoping to allow Muslim women to do just that, empowering them with self-defense techniques. The series — produced by directors Robie Flores and … [Link]

Mashable » Jeff Bridges brings back 'Big Lebowski' to honor John Goodman

Saturday 11 March 19:18:49 UTC 2017

It’s been almost 20 years since The Big Lebowski graced us with its slacker bible in film form, but even now, The Dude still abides, as Jeff Bridges proved on Friday. Yesterday, Bridges broke out his iconic character (Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski) to honor John Goodman, his co-star from the film, as Goodman received a star on the Hollywood Walk of … [Link]

Mashable » Will Smith gets flipped, turned upside down while bungee jumping at Victoria Falls

Saturday 11 March 19:08:13 UTC 2017

Now this is a story all about how Will Smith got flipped, turned upside down. No, seriously. The award-winning actor recently checked a 20-year-old item off his bucket list by bungee jumping off of Victoria Falls in southern Africa. The falls are one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, giving Smith quite the view on the way … [Link]

ProgrammableWeb.com » Daily API RoundUp: Voysis, Radar, Monique.io, Minio

Saturday 11 March 18:34:07 UTC 2017

Every day, the ProgrammableWeb team is busy, updating its three primary directories for APIs, clients (language-specific libraries or SDKs for consuming or providing APIs), and source code samples. [Link]

Slashdot » Report: Up To 15% Of Twitter Accounts Are Bots

Saturday 11 March 18:34:00 UTC 2017

A team of researchers claim they can identify Twitter account activity that's posted by bots through their new web portal — "Bot or Not?" — leveraging "more than a thousand features extracted from public data and meta-data." And it turns out there are a lot of bots. An anonymous reader writes: "A study released by the University of Southern California … [Link]

Mashable » Barack and Michelle Obama enjoy a stylish lunch with Bono in NYC

Saturday 11 March 18:21:53 UTC 2017

From backwards baseball caps to leather jackets, the Obamas have looked good since Jan. 20. Their post-presidential reign as style icons continued on Friday when the pair joined U2 frontman Bono for lunch at Upland in New York. Everyone cheered for the former president and first lady when they arrived at the Gramercy Park restaurant: Former President Obama greeted with cheers … [Link]

Popular Science » A Himalayan salt cooking block for 82 percent off? I'd buy it.

Saturday 11 March 17:45:00 UTC 2017

Himalayan Salt Cooking Block Gadgets It's $11. A big ol' slab of salt for $11? Read on. [Link]

Slashdot » IEEE-USA Criticizes Failure To Reform The H-!B Program

Saturday 11 March 17:34:00 UTC 2017

Slashdot reader Tekla Perry writes: IEEE USA says H-1B visas are a tool used to avoid paying U.S. wages. "For every visa used by Google to hire a talented non-American for $126,000, ten Americans are replaced by outsourcing companies paying their H-1B workers $65,000," says the current IEEE USA president, writing with the past president and president-elect. The outsourcing companies, … [Link]

Mashable » 'Alien: Covenant' faux advert shows you the birth of the robot apocalypse

Saturday 11 March 17:08:49 UTC 2017

The next installment of the Alien franchise, Alien: Covenant, just added another cool piece of backstory to the film series, this time focusing on Walter, the humanoid robot played by Michael Fassbender, with a little help from AMD, the processor company. In a short clip posted on YouTube, we see the "birth" of Walter as his parts are assembled (a … [Link]

Mashable » An 1895 photo album offers a gentleman's guide to self-defense moves

Saturday 11 March 17:00:00 UTC 2017

Image: Metropolitan Museum of ArtThese images come from an untitled turn-of-the-century album which catalogued numerous maneuvers a person can use if suddenly engaged in hand-to-hand combat.Following the revolutionary advancements in motion photography made by Étienne-Jules Marey and Eadweard Muybridge in the 1880s, many similar handbooks of bodies in motion were produced, with purposes ranging from artistic and scientific reference to achieving … [Link]

Slashdot » Microsoft Continues Porting Visual C++ To Linux

Saturday 11 March 16:34:00 UTC 2017

Long-time Slashdot reader Billly Gates shared some news from Microsoft's Visual C++ blog: Visual Studio 2017 now lets developers write C++ code for Linux desktops, servers, and other devices without an extension, targeting specific architectures, including ARM: Visual Studio will automatically copy and remotely build your sources and can launch your application with the debugger… Today Visual Studio only supports … [Link]

Mashable » This is what actually makes your Kickstarter successful (Hint: Not $)

Saturday 11 March 16:19:51 UTC 2017

Every Kickstarter project wants to meet its fundraising goal. But a new study suggests that raising a ton of money doesn't predict how much success a crowdfunding project will ultimately find. Researchers at North Carolina State University found that the number of people who supported a project on Kickstarter — rather than how much money the project raked in — was … [Link]

Mashable » Los Angeles' LGBTQ pride will be replaced by a protest march

Saturday 11 March 15:37:34 UTC 2017

If you've been to Los Angeles' gay pride parade before, chances are you've seen just as many glistening butts covered by glitter thongs as you have traditional protest signs. That's a beautiful thing, but it's going to change a little bit this June. This year, pride prganizers have teamed up with LGBT Resist March planned for June 11th in major cities … [Link]

Mashable » How to use Gmail templates to answer emails faster

Saturday 11 March 15:36:00 UTC 2017

What’s more of a time-suck than spending all day writing email? You could probably name a few things like vacuuming, getting lost in subreddits, and browsing through Instagram. But still, nothing is worse than wasting your life away responding to emails. SEE ALSO: How to order a pizza with Amazon Alexa or Google Home Just look at this statistic from an … [Link]

Slashdot » Police Allegedly Threaten A UK Photographer With Seizure Of All His Computers

Saturday 11 March 15:34:00 UTC 2017

Andy Smith is a Scotland-based news photographer (and a long-time reader of Slashdot). He writes Recently the police wanted to seize some of my work photos to use as evidence in a prosecution… Rather than trying (and likely failing) to get a warrant to seize the photos, the prosecutor used a tactic that nobody had heard of before: He got … [Link]

Mashable » There's now a 'She persisted' energy bar because this is what we've come to

Saturday 11 March 15:28:21 UTC 2017

American progressives now face a nearly insurmountable task: Manage one of the largest social protest movements in history, while refusing to lapse into cheesiness. Their latest challenge comes in the form of a "She Persisted" energy bar. Chef and blogger Lentine Alexis developed a recipe for Mother Jones that she hopes will sustain people for a long day of protesting. It's … [Link]

Mashable » Terrence Malick is just embarrassing movie stars with weird sex stuff now

Saturday 11 March 15:11:36 UTC 2017

Terrence Malick apparently isn't making movies anymore, he's making elaborate excuses to put our hottest movie stars into extremely awkward sex-fetish scenarios that are about as titillating as invasive dentistry. Only two reasons I can think for why he might be doing this: To thoroughly embarrass famous people without anyone realizing it, or to gratify his own bizarro, wildly inaccurate notions … [Link]

Mashable » 12 unbearably cute macaron shops that cause extreme dessert envy

Saturday 11 March 15:00:00 UTC 2017

Let’s talk about Instagram's biggest darling: macarons. It feels like every couple of weeks, another wave of cutely-decorated macarons becomes a new hot trend and gets everyone in a tizzyAngry Bird macarons were the "it" dessert item for a while. Then there were macaron donuts. The most recent obsession is with unicorn macarons. We've seen macaron trends pop up so often … [Link]

Mashable » Finally, a VR chair that won't make you nauseous

Saturday 11 March 14:48:03 UTC 2017

Tom Cruise lied and told me I'd feel like I was floating in zero gravity. OK, Cruise didn't really lie to me IRL, but he did in VR, after I strapped on an Oculus Rift VR headset and sat down in a Positron Voyager VR cinema chair to try out the The Mummy: Zero Gravity VR Experience at SXSW 2017. SEE … [Link]

Mashable » This week in apps: Facebook's latest Snapchat clone, Barbie's Sparkle Blast and Astro's AI powered email

Saturday 11 March 14:00:00 UTC 2017

With the latest WikiLeaks dump, Mark Zuckerberg's announcement of his second child and tech companies celebrating International Women's Day, you may have missed some of this week's best new apps. We've kept up for you. Each week, we round up the latest app news, along with a few of our favorite new and updated apps, to keep you in the loop … [Link]

Mashable » The innovative photos that proved no two snowflakes are alike

Saturday 11 March 14:00:00 UTC 2017

Image: Metropolitan Museum of ArtRaised on a farm in Jericho, Vermont, Wilson Alwyn Bentley became fascinated with the crystalline patterns of snowflakes at a young age.As a teenager, he began trying to sketch the delicate formations with the aid of an old microscope, but found them melting or sublimating into vapor before he could draw them in any detail.After much tinkering, … [Link]

Slashdot » California Says Autonomous Cars Don't Need Human Drivers

Saturday 11 March 13:00:00 UTC 2017

Currently, California law requires that all self-driving cars used for testing purposes be done with a human behind the wheel, so that they can take control if necessary. While California has been fairly strict on how self-driving cars are to be used in the state, they appear to be relaxing several of the rules. "The state's Department of Motor Vehicles … [Link]

Slashdot » Malware Found Preinstalled On 38 Android Phones Used By 2 Companies

Saturday 11 March 10:00:00 UTC 2017

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: An assortment of malware was found on 38 Android devices belonging to two unidentified companies. This is according to a blog post published Friday by Check Point Software Technologies, maker of a mobile threat prevention app. The malicious apps weren't part of the official ROM firmware supplied by the phone manufacturers … [Link]

Mashable » How teens are pranking your Facebook News Feeds with random events

Saturday 11 March 9:30:00 UTC 2017

Seen any strange events popping up in your Facebook News Feed lately? Maybe something very mundane, like a niche event at a school you've never heard of? Or perhaps something a bit more unusual, like worm-charming or mushroom-growing classes? SEE ALSO: This British man's email exchange with a scammer escalated hilariously Well it's not advertising, and it's not an accident. It's … [Link]

Slashdot » US Army Unveils 3D-Printed Grenade Launcher Called RAMBO

Saturday 11 March 7:00:00 UTC 2017

New submitter drunkdrone quotes a report from International Business Times: The U.S. Military has a new firearm in its itinerary: Meet RAMBO, the 3D printed grenade launcher that could revolutionize the way soldiers are equipped for battle. RAMBO, or the Rapid Additively Manufactured Ballistics Ordnance to give it its proper name, is based on the U.S. Army's M203 underslung grenade … [Link]

Slashdot » Samsung Pay Could Come To More Non-Premium Smartphones

Saturday 11 March 5:30:00 UTC 2017

Gordon Gottsegen, writing for CNET: Samsung Pay could end up on even more devices, starting with the Galaxy J series phones in India, Mashable reports. Samsung Pay lets you save credit cards, gift cards, and other payment methods onto your smartphone and then use it when paying. Your phone mimics your cards right down to the magnetic signal, so it … [Link]

Slashdot » New Bill Would Allow Employers To Demand Genetic Testing From Workers

Saturday 11 March 3:30:00 UTC 2017

capedgirardeau quotes a report from Business Insider: A little-noticed bill moving through the U.S. Congress would allow companies to require employees to undergo genetic testing or risk paying a penalty of thousands of dollars, and would let employers see that genetic and other health information. Giving employers such power is now prohibited by U.S. law, including the 2008 genetic privacy … [Link]

Mashable » Gee, wouldn't it be just too bad if someone leaked the March Madness bracket on Selection Sunday again?

Saturday 11 March 1:53:36 UTC 2017

March Madness is arguably the most glorious annual event in sports, and it all centers around a simple tournament bracket that's most easily and enjoyably digested at one time. That's why the tournament's annual "Selection Sunday" reveal is so egregious. It's a two-hour TV program (thankfully, "only" 90 minutes this year) that lards copious amounts of bloviation and advertising around something … [Link]

Mashable » Cruise ship crashes into one of the most biodiverse coral reefs in the world

Saturday 11 March 1:31:54 UTC 2017

The dreamy beauty of a coral reef in Southeast Asia has been partially damaged by a massive, 4,290-ton cruise ship called the Caledonian Sky. On Saturday, the ship crashed into a popular diving site called Crossover Reef, which holds some of the most biodiverse coral reefs in the world, located in West Papua province, environmental news outlet Mongabay reports. SEE ALSO: … [Link]

Slashdot » Scientists Create 'Designer Yeast' In Major Step Toward Synthetic Life

Saturday 11 March 1:25:00 UTC 2017

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Washington Post: In a significant advance toward creating the first "designer" complex cell, scientists say they are one-third of the way to synthesizing the complete genome of baker's yeast. In seven studies published Thursday in the journal Science, the researchers describe how they built six of the 16 chromosomes required for the yeast … [Link]

Mashable » Adele generously grants Elmo's plea to hang out in Australia

Saturday 11 March 1:21:10 UTC 2017

Elmo begged. He pleaded. Then his wish was granted: Elmo met Adele. SEE ALSO: Let Cookie Monster teach you about the illustrious true history of cookies Elmo's dreams have come true! Elmo loves you, Miss @adele! #adelmo pic.twitter.com/0TmkCJxJRE — Elmo (@elmo) March 10, 2017 The Sesame Street resident first laid the foundation for a meet-and-greet on Wednesday when he gave Adele … [Link]

Mashable » Sorry, iPhone fans, the latest Snapchat Bitmoji feature is Android only

Saturday 11 March 1:11:42 UTC 2017

Snapping your friends is now a bit more whimsical. If you're an Android user with the beta Snapchat app, that is. An observant member of the Twitterverse noticed that Snap Inc. has rolled out a new feature further integrating Bitmoji into its service for some users. Specifically, you can now plop friends' Bitmoji straight onto your home screen and tap the … [Link]

Slashdot » 3D-Printed House Constructed On-Site In One Day

Saturday 11 March 0:45:00 UTC 2017

Heffenfeffer writes: Russian company Apis Cor has manufactured a 3D printed concrete house on-site in 24 hours in Stupino Town, Russia. Using a tower crane-shaped concrete extruder that can rotate 360 degrees, the 38 square meter (408.88 square foot) rotor-shaped home walls were constructed in one day. Voids left in the manufacturing process were filled by hand, installing windows, doors, … [Link]

Mashable » Miley Cyrus, if you really got married this time, please nod your head like YEAH

Saturday 11 March 0:11:52 UTC 2017

Did Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth get married? What is marriage but a way of letting our broken government control matters of the heart? Is monogamy a construct? Are we meant to be free? Who knows! But Cyrus was photographed at some point wearing what could very well be a white dress and that Cyrus family patriarch, Billy Ray Cyrus, is … [Link]

Mashable » Michelle Obama casually shows up at school and gives students surprise of a lifetime

Saturday 11 March 0:11:19 UTC 2017

Twelve high school girls in Washington, DC got the surprise of a lifetime on International Women's Day when Michelle Obama showed up unannounced. The beloved former FLOTUS walked through the doors of Cardozo Education Campus on Wednesday to a classroom filled with 12 female students in a visit that came as a total surprise to everyone — even the school itself. … [Link]

Slashdot » Intel Security Releases Detection Tool For EFI Rootkits After CIA Leak

Saturday 11 March 0:05:00 UTC 2017

After WikiLeaks revealed data exposing information about the CIA's arsenal of hacking tools, Intel Security has released a tool that allows users to check if their computer's low-level system firmware has been modified and contains unauthorized code. PCWorld reports: The release comes after CIA documents leaked Tuesday revealed that the agency has developed EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface) rootkits for Apple's … [Link]

John Gordon Ross

A Man for All Reasons