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 » Kim Kardashian tweets about 'life changing' robbery before 'KUWTK' episode

Sunday 19 March 23:58:45 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookKim Kardashian used the few hours prior to Sunday night's episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians to tell her fans it's going to be a "tough" one. The episode will center around Kardashian's robbery at gunpoint in Paris last October — an event she says changed her life. SEE ALSO: Social media influencers, it's time to be truthful about your … [Link]

The Joy of Tech » JoT #2397: Earth's crust!

Sunday 19 March 23:48:04 UTC 2017

JoT thumbScience: sometimes you're better off not knowing! The Joy of Tech is helped made possible with the support of the fine geeks at Woozy Moo – a toy store where geeks, collectors, and aspiring superheroes can have fun without discrimination! Check out their offerings, I think you'll find something you like! [Link]

Slashdot » O'Reilly Site Lists 165 Things Every Programmer Should Know

Sunday 19 March 23:46:00 UTC 2017

97 Things Every Programmer Should Know was published seven years ago by O'Reilly Media, and was described as "pearls of wisdom for programmers collected from leading practitioners." Today an anonymous reader writes: All 97 are available online for free (and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3), including an essay by "Uncle Bob" on taking personal responsibility and "Unix Tools … [Link]

Mashable » Another day, another Samsung Galaxy S8 leak. But this time, there's colors.

Sunday 19 March 23:37:10 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookCurious about the Samsung Galaxy S8? Let us direct you to all the leaks, leaks, and leaks. We're just over one week away from the actual launch of the flagship smartphone, and still, the leaks keep coming. SEE ALSO: Here's what the home screen on Samsung's Galaxy S8 might look like On Sunday, mobile reporter Evan Blass shared some purported front … [Link]

Mashable » These parents left a camera on their twins. What happened next is beyond cute.

Sunday 19 March 22:52:07 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookChildren will do whatever the heck they want, whenever the heck they want. That's the lesson these parents learned when they took a look at some home security footage and saw their twin toddler boys sneak out of their cribs and play in the middle of the night. Andrew and Ryan Balkin are twin 2-year-old boys, and they have plenty of … [Link]

Slashdot » Maryland Legislator Wants To Keep State University Patents Away From Trolls

Sunday 19 March 22:46:00 UTC 2017

The EFF's "Reclaim Invention" campaign provided the template for a patent troll-fighting bill recently introduced in the Maryland legislature to guide public universities. An anonymous reader writes: The bill would "void any agreement by the university to license or transfer a patent to a patent assertion entity (or patent troll)," according to the EFF, requiring universities to manage their patent … [Link]

Mashable » This crazy buzzer-beater from 70 feet doesn't even make sense

Sunday 19 March 22:44:50 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookI’ve seen a lot of buzzer-beaters over the years, but this is might be the best ever.  I mean, look at this shot from Destiny Slocum. She shoots from 70 feet out with seconds left in the half … with two hands over her head like a damn soccer throw-in. I didn't even know that was a thing. Let's see Steph … [Link]

Slashdot » America's Most Affordable Cities For Tech Workers: Seattle, Austin, and Pittsburgh

Sunday 19 March 21:46:00 UTC 2017

"Seattle tech workers who own their homes can expect to have about $2,000 more in disposable income each month than tech workers in the Bay Area," according to a new study from LinkedIn and Zillow. An anonymous reader writes: "For technology workers who rent, Seattle, Austin and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania came out on top among the housing markets analyzed, with the … [Link]

Mashable » Some LGBTQ+ videos are being filtered on YouTube and vloggers want answers

Sunday 19 March 21:31:49 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookSeveral popular LGBTQ+ YouTube vloggers have claimed that YouTube is using the site's "restricted mode" to hide some of their videos. SEE ALSO: How you can help protect trans kids right now The restricted mode for YouTube, according to Google, enables users to filter out "potentially objectionable content," leading some LGBTQ+ vloggers to accuse YouTube of implicitly categorizing their material as … [Link]

Mashable » Uber president Jeff Jones just went full on #DeleteUber and resigned: Recode

Sunday 19 March 21:06:41 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookDifferent day, but the same tough times at Uber. Uber President Jeff Jones has quit, Recode reported Sunday. The decision to leave directly relates to Uber's last two months of PR hell, anonymous sources told Recode. SEE ALSO: This Uber executive sure sounds defensive about not taking the fall for Uber's harassment crisis Uber PR provided this statement: “We want to … [Link]

Slashdot » WikiLeaks Won't Tell Tech Companies How To Patch CIA Zero-Days Until Demands Are Met

Sunday 19 March 20:35:00 UTC 2017

"WikiLeaks has made initial contact with us via secure@microsoft.com," a Microsoft spokesperson told Motherboard — but then things apparently stalled. An anonymous reader quotes Fortune: Wikileaks this week contacted major tech companies including Apple and Google, and required them to assent to a set of conditions before receiving leaked information about security "zero days" and other surveillance methods in the … [Link]

Mashable » This fiery video captures Mount Etna's magical oozing lava

Sunday 19 March 20:31:26 UTC 2017

Twitter Facebook Italy's Mount Etna is still fired up. The Sicilian volcano has been spewing lava and belching ash on and off for nearly three months now. After the latest eruption on March 16, fiery-hot lava began flowing down the volcano's slopes. The video shown above captures the flow only two days later. SEE ALSO: Watch this Mexican volcano blow some serious … [Link]

Mashable » Ultimate Zelda superfan rigs smart home to respond to ocarina

Sunday 19 March 20:09:50 UTC 2017

Twitter Facebook Zelda fan Allen Pan has taken home automation to the next level.  Pan set up his home so that different automations are triggered when he plays tunes from the Nintendo 64 hit Zelda: Ocarina of Time on his own ocarina. It's amazing not just for the fan dedication, but for the amount of work that went into the project. SEE … [Link]

Slashdot » NY Bill Would Require Removal of Inaccurate, Irrelevant Or Excessive Statements

Sunday 19 March 19:35:00 UTC 2017

schwit1 writes: In a bill aimed at securing a "right to be forgotten," introduced by Assemblyman David I. Weprin and (as Senate Bill 4561 by state Sen. Tony Avella), New York politicians would require people to remove "inaccurate," "irrelevant," "inadequate" or "excessive" statements about others… Failure to comply would make the search engines or speakers liable for, at least, statutory … [Link]

Mashable » Earth just had its second-warmest February on record

Sunday 19 March 19:27:02 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookAs the saying goes: Another month, another disconcerting report from top U.S. climate agencies. Last month was Earth's second-hottest February on record since at least 1880, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently reported.  At the same time, the extent of sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctica hit record monthly lows. SEE ALSO: Here’s why it's so … [Link]

Mashable » Neil deGrasse Tyson unleashes hot fire on Trump in angry tweetstorm

Sunday 19 March 19:00:27 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookNeil deGrasse Tyson took a break from sharing science facts and nerdy dad jokes on Sunday to blast Donald Trump in a raging tweetstorm.  SEE ALSO: Maybe the GOP will finally get to kill Big Bird after all Specifically, Tyson targeted Trump's proposed slashing of federal funding for programs that support the arts, education, and the EPA, which has long been … [Link]

Slashdot » Your Hotel Room Photos Could Help Catch Sex Traffickers

Sunday 19 March 18:35:00 UTC 2017

100,000 people people have already downloaded an app that helps fight human trafficking. dryriver summarizes a report from CNN: Police find an ad for paid sex online. It's an illegally trafficked underage girl posing provocatively in a hotel room. But police don't know where this hotel room is — what city, what neighborhood, what hotel or hotel room. This is … [Link]

Mashable » Ellen has the best reaction to 5-year-old's unexpected Trump burn

Sunday 19 March 18:10:21 UTC 2017

Twitter Facebook It was supposed to be a cute moment The Ellen DeGeneres Show show is known for. Instead, 5-year-old geography genius Nate Seltzer laid down some hot fire on President Donald Trump. SEE ALSO: Stephen Colbert unravels Trump's ties to Putin with his handy dandy 'Figure-It-Out-A-Tron' While answering a gamut of questions from Ellen about his self-drawn world map, he was … [Link]

Slashdot » The First Practical Use For Quantum Computers: Chemistry

Sunday 19 March 17:34:00 UTC 2017

"The first quantum computer to start paying its way with useful work in the real world looks likely to do so by helping chemists," writes MIT Technology Review, "trying to do things like improve batteries or electronics." An anonymous reader quotes their report: So far, simulating molecules and reactions is the use case for early, small quantum computers sketched out … [Link]

Mashable » Artist says she got death threats over anti-Trump billboard with mushroom clouds and swastika dollar signs

Sunday 19 March 16:58:39 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookThere are subtle ways to protest Donald Trump. Then there's putting up a billboard with mushroom clouds and dollar signs that look like swastikas. This happened today in Phoenix, AZ. My anti-Trump billboard at 1022 Grand Ave. Thanks to Hugh Gran for letting me use his dollar swastikas in my design! #antitrump #theresistance #resist #impeachtrump #dumptrump #trump #donaltrump #trump💩 A post … [Link]

Slashdot »  1.6 Billion-Year-Old Plant Fossil Found In India

Sunday 19 March 16:34:00 UTC 2017

Complex multicellular life began 400 million years earlier than we thought, according to a Phys.org article shared by Slashdot reader William Robinson: Scientists found two kinds of fossils resembling red algae in uniquely well-preserved sedimentary rocks at Chitrakoot in central India. One type is thread-like, the other one consists of fleshy colonies. The scientists were able to see distinct inner … [Link]

Slashdot » Company's Former IT Admin Accused of Accessing Backdoor Account 700+ Times

Sunday 19 March 15:34:00 UTC 2017

An anonymous reader writes: "An Oregon sportswear company is suing its former IT administrator, alleging he left backdoor accounts on their network and used them more than 700 times to search for information for the benefit of its new employer," reports BleepingComputer. Court papers reveal the IT admin left to be the CTO at one of the sportswear company's IT … [Link]

Mashable » Tale as old as time: Disney's 'Beauty and the Beast' debuts at $170 million

Sunday 19 March 15:29:01 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookI hope you like seeing Disney's animated classics turned into live-action features. They're not going away anytime soon. We have Beauty and the Beast to thank for that. Disney's flesh-and-blood (and CG) remake of the 1991 hit opened at the top of the domestic box office with an estimated $170 million. That's more than the animated feature earned during its entire … [Link]

Mashable » Not everyone's thrilled Cheerios gave away 1.5 billion wildflower seeds to save the bees

Sunday 19 March 15:04:21 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookCheerios’ recent campaign to give away flower seeds was both wildly popular and, no surprise, controversial. General Mills, maker of the O-shaped oat cereal, said it initially planned to dole out 100 million wildflower seeds to customers who requested them.  The goal? Boost the ranks of North America's imperiled bees. Cheerios instead gave away 1.5 billion seeds, depleting its entire stockpile. … [Link]

Mashable » Wow, some stranger just gave us Trump's tax return and it's really weird

Sunday 19 March 15:00:00 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookViewers tuning into The Rachel Maddow Show on March 14 were disappointed to see, after much hype and 20 minutes of on-air build up, that an expected bombshell turned out to be a giant dud. Maddow saw a surge of viewers to her program, following teaser tweets about obtaining President Trump's tax returns. Maddow eventually revealed two pages of Trump's 2005 … [Link]

Slashdot » The US Army Finally Gets The World's Largest Laser Weapon System

Sunday 19 March 14:34:00 UTC 2017

It's been successfully tested on trucks, as well as UAVs and small rockets, according to a video from Lockheed Martin, which is now shipping the first 60kW-class "beam combined" fiber laser for use by the U.S. Army. An anonymous reader quotes the Puget Sound Business Journal: Lockheed successfully developed and tested the 58 kW laser beam earlier this year, setting … [Link]

Mashable » Shaq is a flat-Earther too, apparently

Sunday 19 March 14:18:16 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookNow Shaq is doing it. Is it possible that current and former members of the NBA have mutually agreed to troll the planet — which is provably spherical in shape — with preposterous flat-Earth theories? The only other explanation is that they believe it, and just … noNo. SEE ALSO: Check out this glorious map of lightning striking around the globe … [Link]

Mashable » Before email, there was V-mail: The WWII program that scanned letters onto microfilm

Sunday 19 March 14:00:00 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookImage: Fort Missoula MuseumShortly after entering World War II, the United States military found that shipping and delivering immense volumes of mail to and from servicemen overseas would be a challenge, especially given the need to reserve cargo space for critical weapons and supplies.The solution, based on the British Airgraph Service, was called Victory Mail — V-Mail for short.The Eastman Kodak-designed … [Link]

Mashable » Why itchiness is contagious

Sunday 19 March 13:00:00 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookMice, just like humans and monkeys, will start itching if they see a compatriot scratching itself, a new study finds. The finding is the first evidence that "socially contagious itching" exists in rodents, the researchers said. Moreover, the researchers' neural analysis revealed that socially contagious itching is hardwired into the mouse brain. SEE ALSO: Lazy little pig happily rolls over for … [Link]

Mashable » This one hack lets you post Live Photos on Instagram

Sunday 19 March 12:00:00 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookOne of the coolest additions to the iPhone 6S was Live Photos. The moving pictures inhabit the space between GIF and video but act more like something out of the wizarding world of Harry Potter, giving iPhone users even more of an excuse to take album upon album of pics. While social networks like Facebook, Tumblr and Google Photos supported the … [Link]

Slashdot » Ask Slashdot: How Would You Implement Site-Wide File Encryption?

Sunday 19 March 11:34:00 UTC 2017

Recently-leaked CIA documents prove that encryption works, according to the Associated Press. But how should sys-admins implement site-wide file encryption? Very-long-time Slashdot reader Pig Hogger writes: If you decide to implement server-level encryption across all your servers, how do you manage the necessary keys/passwords/passphrases to insure that you have both maximum uptime (you can access your data if you need … [Link]

Mashable » Sports betting is starting to look a lot more like Wall Street

Sunday 19 March 11:00:00 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookYour March Madness office pool is like the Charles Schwab of sports betting. Beyond those hastily chosen brackets, there’s an entire cottage industry of sports betting that’s increasingly resembling Wall Street. In 2016, total sports wagers in Nevada were $4.5 billion, according to the Nevada Gaming Control Board. With that much at stake, gamblers are turning to more sophisticated tools that … [Link]

Slashdot » Edge, VMWare, Safari, And Ubuntu Linux Hacked at Pwn2Own 2017

Sunday 19 March 7:34:00 UTC 2017

The 10th annual Pwn2Own hacking competition ended Friday in Vancouver. Some of the highlights: Ars Technica reports one team "compromised Microsoft's heavily fortified Edge browser in a way that escapes a VMware Workstation virtual machine it runs in… by exploiting a heap overflow bug in Edge, a type confusion flaw in the Windows kernel and an uninitialized buffer vulnerability in … [Link]

Slashdot » RedMonk Identifies 2017's Most Popular Languages: JavaScript, Java, And Python

Sunday 19 March 4:34:00 UTC 2017

Twice a year the tech analysts at RedMonk attempt to gauge adoption trends for programing languages based on data from both GitHub and Stack Overflow. Here's their top 10 list for 2017: JavaScript, Java, Python, and PHP, followed by a two-way tie between C# and C++, a two-way tie between Ruby and CSS, and then C at #9, and Objective-C … [Link]

Mashable » Of course Drake admits to drunk texting J-Lo on 'More Life'

Sunday 19 March 4:08:03 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookFor a fleeting, exquisite moment in December, we all thought Drake and J-Lo might be dating or at least collaborating. They cuddledThey selfied. They reminded us we are on this Earth for only a heartbeat; there is only loving and being loved. And yet, when Drake's new "playlist" More Life appeared on Saturday, there was no new track featuring Ms. Lopez. … [Link]

Mashable » 'The Flash' will face a very different kind of villain in Season 4

Sunday 19 March 2:58:25 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookAfter three seasons of speedy villains, The Flash will hit the brakes in Season 4. "Next season we're not going to have a speedster [as the main villain]," showrunner Andrew Kreisberg revealed during a panel at Los Angeles' PaleyFest on Saturday, where the stars and producers of The Flash, Arrow, Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow were gathered to celebrate the four … [Link]

Mashable » This week in apps: Alexa on your iPhone and yet another Snapchat clone

Sunday 19 March 2:25:55 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookWith news that Netflix is changing up reviews, Google Home is playing unwanted ads and Spotify is hinting at premium-only albums, 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 … [Link]

Mashable » Drake dropped a bunch of new music and we have A LOT to talk about

Sunday 19 March 1:49:01 UTC 2017

Twitter FacebookPlease don't call it an album. Drake's latest "project" or "playlist," titled More Life, premiered unexpectedly Saturday on OVO Sound Radio, sending the internet into a spin. Surprising and delighting the masses, More Life was not an Apple Music exclusive like 2015's Views. It was immediately available to stream on Spotify and other services. SEE ALSO: Chance the Rapper has some … [Link]

Slashdot » Google Glass Enters The Manufacturing Sector

Sunday 19 March 1:34:00 UTC 2017

NPR recently profiled one of the 100 factory workers now using Google Glass at the agricultural equipment manufacturer AGCO. An anonymous reader quotes their report: Google Glass tells her what to do should she forget, for example, which part goes where. "I don't have to leave my area to go look at the computer every time I need to look … [Link]

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