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.

Slashdot » Steve Wozniak's Biographer Pranked By Woz's Mom?

Saturday 1 April 23:34:00 UTC 2017

An anonymous reader writes: Gina Smith is the co-author of Steve Wozniak's 2006 biography. On the day that Steve Jobs died, she posted a poignant story Woz had shared about their early days in Silicon Valley, remembering how Jobs sold his Volkswagen van while Woz sold his calculator to raise funds to build the first Apple 1 computer kit. The … [Link]

Mashable » New 'Pirates of the Caribbean' trailer finally shows us Orlando Bloom's return

Saturday 1 April 22:54:59 UTC 2017

The latest Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales trailer has been released, and along with it we see one of our favorite (albeit transformed) faces of the franchise: Orlando Bloom aka William Turner.  We only get a brief glimpse Bloom, but now that we've seen him, along with bits of Geoffrey Rush, Javier Bardem and, of course, … [Link]

Slashdot » Connecticut May Become First US State To Allow Deadly Police Drones

Saturday 1 April 22:34:00 UTC 2017

According to Reuters, Connecticut lawmakers are considering a new bill that would allow police to equip drones with potentially lethal weapons. The bill, which was approved overwhelmingly by the state legislature's judiciary committee on Wednesday, actually aims to ban weaponized drones, but exempts the ban from law enforcement agencies. From the report: Connecticut would become the first U.S. state to … [Link]

Mashable » People applied to work for Hub, a fake startup whose smart home device doesn't do anything

Saturday 1 April 22:08:34 UTC 2017

This April Fools' Day, one joke long in the making about Silicon Valley got kind of out of hand.  An Indiegogo campaign for "Hub: the ultimate IOT smart device" got the attention of students at Yale University — so much so that some applied to work at the burgeoning campus startup.  But the entire project was a joke, meant to … [Link]

Mashable » Tech hipster augmented reality monocles are coming, this prank proves it

Saturday 1 April 21:44:29 UTC 2017

If it looks silly and appears within 24 hours of April Fools' Day, it's a fair target. Therefore, our latest object of scorn is the hipster-ready augmented reality concept device called the MonoLens.  SEE ALSO: Okay, fine fine, Google's April Fool's Day pranks are pretty great this year, here are all of them The device is exactly what it sounds like: … [Link]

Slashdot » Trump Extends Obama Executive Order On Cyberattacks [Flagged]

Saturday 1 April 21:34:00 UTC 2017

"U.S. President Donald Trump is extending by one year special powers introduced by former President Barack Obama that allow the government to issue sanctions against people and organizations engaged in significant cyberattacks and cybercrime against the U.S.," according to InfoWorld. An anonymous reader quotes their report: Executive Order 13694 was introduced on April 1, 2015, and was due to expire … [Link]

Mashable » New app will finally let you be your best emoji self

Saturday 1 April 21:10:57 UTC 2017

What came first, the face or the emoji? Okay, there's a clear answer here — but Facetune's new Memoji app by Lightrick lets you make photos and selfies look more like classic emojis. Forget the real tears and slap on a cartoon water droplet! Why make a kissy face at the camera when the app can do it for you? Also, … [Link]

Slashdot » Flatbed Scanners Used As Relay Point For Controlling Malware

Saturday 1 April 20:34:00 UTC 2017

An anonymous reader writes: "Scientists from two Israeli universities have come up with a way to use flatbed scanners as relay points when sending commands to malware installed on an air-gapped computer," reports BleepingComputer. "Further research also revealed the scanner could also be used to relay stolen data to a nearby attacker. The technique they came up with revolves around … [Link]

Mashable » Pornhub scares everyone to death with its terrifying April Fools' Day prank

Saturday 1 April 20:18:26 UTC 2017

Pornhub just took five years off a lot of people's lives.  The porn site played a pretty mean and also hilarious April Fools' Day joke on its users.  SEE ALSO: The Most Popular Time for Porn: America's Handy Infographic Anyone who clicked on a Pornhub video on Saturday got this message:  Image: screenshot/pornhubHow kind of them! "No need to manually share … [Link]

Mashable » Elon Musk's rant on aliens and chemtrails is your April Fools' Day science treat

Saturday 1 April 20:01:15 UTC 2017

Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk may not be the best comedian among tech moguls, but he's pretty good at making fun of himself.  That's why it surprised no one on Saturday when he tweeted out a couple of April Fools' Day space travel rants that included one of his favorite topics: alien life!  SEE ALSO: Elon Musk just took advice … [Link]

Mashable » Things we wish our pets could say

Saturday 1 April 20:00:00 UTC 2017

Pets are magical, whimsical mysteries that come into our lives to make us less miserable. Without pets, we'd just live with humans and honestly, who really wants to do that?  If you're like us, whenever you look at your cat or dog (or ferret, if that's your thing) and stare into those big eyes, you can't help but wonder what they're … [Link]

Slashdot » Google Maps Adds 'Ms. Pac-Man' Feature

Saturday 1 April 19:34:00 UTC 2017

An anonymous reader quotes a blog post by Google Maps: Starting now until April 4, you can chomp fruit, avoid ghosts, and collect PAC-Dots along city streets in Google Maps worldwide — all as Ms. PAC-Maps. Just tap on the Ms. PAC-Maps icon on iOS and Android, or click the Ms. PAC-Maps button at the bottom left on desktop, to … [Link]

Mashable » Will we see Professor X in 'Legion' Season 2?

Saturday 1 April 19:16:01 UTC 2017

Have you wrapped your head around that epic Legion finale? Did you walk away feeling as mentally empowered as David Haller, or was it crazy-making enough to have you ready to check into an asylum?   Either way, star Dan Stevens and showrunner Noah Hawley are satisfied with the results, even if the finale's surprising mid-credits sequence might leave you with … [Link]

Mashable » Even Russia's got jokes on April Fools' Day. Oh, and they're about the election.

Saturday 1 April 19:15:38 UTC 2017

Russia, it will always be too soon.  The Russian Foreign Ministry actually posted an April Fools' joke making fun of its alleged involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.  SEE ALSO: Lyft made these goofy wearables as a prank but they're actually kind of cool An audio file on the ministry's Facebook page played the joke, which sounded like an answering … [Link]

Slashdot » Ask SN: Seen Any Good April Fool's Pranks Today?

Saturday 1 April 18:34:00 UTC 2017

An anonymous reader writes: It's that special time of year where sites around the net celebrate April Fool's Day with parodies of their own product offerings. Google Home announces a new companion service for smart yards called Google Gnome. Stack Overflow announces Dance Dance Authentication. The Russian foreign ministry changed their voicemail to include new menu options like "Press 2 … [Link]

Mashable » 'Ghost in the Shell' VR, like the film, misses opportunity to be great

Saturday 1 April 18:21:45 UTC 2017

I don't care if you're tired of hearing it, it bears repeating: The studio behind the new Ghost in the Shell movie got the casting wrong.  Nevertheless, if you're among the many longtime fans of the franchise who may be feeling apprehension about spending cash to see the movie, there's a way to get a taste of it for free — … [Link]

Mashable » 12 tweets that simultaneously drag April Fools and the Trump presidency

Saturday 1 April 17:59:25 UTC 2017

“The Trump Presidency" is a pretty obvious, easy setup for an April Fools joke. Many people aren't fans of starting the month off with lies and pranks (we're among them), but at least there's some quality, topical work being done about how stupid this "holiday" is. SEE ALSO: Snapchat drags Instagram so hard with its April Fools' Day filter Everyday since … [Link]

Mashable » Okay, fine fine, Google's April Fool's Day pranks are pretty great this year, here are all of them

Saturday 1 April 17:38:09 UTC 2017

April Fools' Day is the only "fake news" day that's almost welcomeAlmost. And one of the longstanding masters of the tech prank, Google, is at it again with a fresh batch of trickery.  This year, the jokes are more obviously fake this time around in what appears to be an effort to avoid anyone actually thinking these products actually exist.   … [Link]

Slashdot » Someone on Medium Just Said C++ Was Better Than C

Saturday 1 April 17:34:00 UTC 2017

Developer David Timothy Strauss is publishing a call to code "straightforward, easy-to-reason-about approaches" — in an essay titled "Choosing 'Some C++' Over C". (Alternate title: "C++ for Lovers of C." The problem with just picking C++ is that most criticism of it is legitimate. Whether it's the '90s-era obsession with object orientation and exceptions or the template errors that take … [Link]

ProgrammableWeb.com » Daily API RoundUp: Authentimate, OneLogin, Odd Networks

Saturday 1 April 17:09:21 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]

Mashable » 1937: Alabama farmers find community in a good old-fashioned square dance

Saturday 1 April 17:00:00 UTC 2017

Image: Library of CongressIn the 1930s, the federal government established dozens of experimental cooperative farm settlements across the United States in an effort to provide relief and employment to farmers displaced by the Great Depression.One of these was Skyline Farms, located on 13,000 acres in Jackson County, Alabama. The settlement was divided into 181 farms, with government-supplied housing and farming equipment … [Link]

Mashable » Snapchat drags Instagram so hard with its April Fools' Day filter

Saturday 1 April 16:39:22 UTC 2017

Every April Fools' Day joke this year is pretty bad. Snapchat's, however, isn't.  It's true. Snapchat has an actually hilarious prank in a year when it's pretty much impossible to outdo the jokes of our daily lives.  The app is offering a filter that lets you make any Snapchat look like an Instagram post. If that weren't enough of a prank … [Link]

Slashdot » Robots Could Solve the Lionfish Ecological Disaster

Saturday 1 April 16:34:00 UTC 2017

"Lionfish are an invasive species that are destroying our coral reefs and fisheries," writes SkinnyGuy. "The non-profit RISE (from iRobot's Colin Angle) has a plan to use robots to fish these Lionfish and serve them up to us on a delicious, golden platter." Mashable reports: This was not as crazy of an idea as it sounds and Angle had already … [Link]

Mashable » All the terrible April Fools pranks brands want you to laugh at this year

Saturday 1 April 16:25:57 UTC 2017

In a year when every day feels like a cruel joke, it isn't really the time for April Fools' Day.  Maybe brands subconsciously realize that, because their April Fools' Day pranks this year are pretty tame. At least they're amusing themselves with fake ways to watch TV and hail cars.  Here are the notable ones so far:  Amazon Petlexa Petlexa: … [Link]

Mashable » George Takei joked about running for Congress but we want it to be real

Saturday 1 April 15:42:34 UTC 2017

Sometimes an April Fools joke makes you sad — not because you fall for it, but because you really wanted it to be trueStar Trek icon George Takei tweeted an article on April 1st that listed him as running for Congress in 2018, which will sadly not happen, according to Takei himself. SEE ALSO: We don't need April Fools' Day anymore … [Link]

Mashable » Fancy cats make their owners give them food by ringing bells

Saturday 1 April 15:38:16 UTC 2017

The Japanese cat Twitter account @b_ru_ru has a whole lot of adorable cat content that deserves your undivided attention, but one tweet stands out among the rest. This video of two cats ringing bells for their dinner was posted on Thursday and has been really blowing up ever since, for good reason. It shows two cats adorably chiming to get their … [Link]

Slashdot » There's A New New JavaScript Framework

Saturday 1 April 15:34:00 UTC 2017

An anonymous reader quotes InfoWorld: Mithril, an open source JavaScript framework for single-page applications, is looking to best Facebook's React, Google's Angular, and Vue JavaScript tools in performance and ease of use. The framework is small and fast, and it provides routing and XHR (XMLHttpRequest) out of the box. Mithril also offers benefits in relative density, lead developer Leo Horie … [Link]

Mashable » 'Planet Earth II' is the best 4K Blu-Ray ever made

Saturday 1 April 15:20:30 UTC 2017

4K Blu-Ray disks are what you go for if you absolutely have to have the best TV experience available on the market right now. This new format offers 2,160 lines of resolution, which is double what you get in regular Blu Ray HD. It can also support the more lifelike 60 frames per second.  Sorry, streaming services: For crispness, color and … [Link]

Mashable » April Fools' Day pranks to play on your gullible kids

Saturday 1 April 14:48:26 UTC 2017

April Fools' day as an adult (or like, semi-adult) can be a real drag: you've seen it all. You've seen the thumbtack on the chair, and the stapler in the Jell-o. You know who hasn't seen it all? Kids. Babies. Children. Innocent li'l kids who have no idea what fiendish delights are out there, waiting to at first embarrass them, but … [Link]

Slashdot » OS/2-Based 'Arcanos 5.0' Has Finally Been Releas — Oh Wait, No It Wasn't. Never Mind.

Saturday 1 April 14:34:00 UTC 2017

"Because we want ArcaOS 5.0 to be the best that it can be, Arca Noae has made the difficult decision to delay release two weeks, with a new projected delivery date of April 15, 2017," reads a new announcement on the Arca Noae web site. Because we don't believe in selling anything we are not ready to ship, we will … [Link]

Mashable » Homeless? Starving? Cheer up! These Great Depression billboards told poor Americans how lucky they were

Saturday 1 April 14:00:00 UTC 2017

1937African-Americans displaced by the Great Ohio River Flood line up at a relief station in Louisville, Kentucky.Image: Margaret Bourke-White/Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesIn January 1937, while covering the disastrous flooding of the Ohio River in Louisville, Kentucky for LIFE Magazine, Margaret Bourke-White captured an image that quickly became famous and eventually rose to become an icon of the Great Depression.The photo … [Link]

Mashable » 4 tech tips to epically prank your friends on April Fools' Day

Saturday 1 April 14:00:00 UTC 2017

Want to mess with your friends on April 1st? Get creative and hack into their phones.  Read more…More about Technology, Tech, Trick, Tricks, and Iphone Hack [Link]

Mashable » The first zero emissions ship looks pretty badass

Saturday 1 April 14:00:00 UTC 2017

The Energy Observer is the first ship to run on hydrogen gas and will sail around the world to promote the development of renewable energies. Read more…More about Renewable Power, Renewable Energy, Science, Technology, and Coal [Link]

Slashdot » Show SN: I Wrote A CGI Script

Saturday 1 April 13:48:00 UTC 2017

An anonymous reader writes: I wrote a CGI script that displays a random Slashdot story! Every time you refresh the page, it displays a different story from the year 2016. And you can also just load stories from a specific editor — whipslash, BeauHD, msmash, and EditorDavid. Read more of this story at Slashdot. [Link]

Mashable » Never gonna give you up: The surprising resilience of the Rickroll, 10 years later

Saturday 1 April 13:30:00 UTC 2017

Against all odds, the Rickroll still hasn't turned around and deserted us. The prank meme, ancient by internet standards, has had plenty of reasons to say goodbye, of course: the internet's short attention span, YouTube autoplay ads that ruin the surprise, and a live performance at the 2008 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, to name a few. But it hasn't. Armed with … [Link]

Slashdot » Telcos Gear Up To Fight Facebook and Google Over How You Log Into Websites

Saturday 1 April 13:16:00 UTC 2017

Mashable has an interesting article that talks about the penetration of "social authentication" services: There are two ways to log in on websites: try to recall the email address and password you registered with — or simply hit the "Facebook Login" button. The convenience of the latter underscores the popularity of social authentication options. You'll see Facebook and Google login … [Link]

Mashable » 5 pages from 'The Art of the Deal' that explain exactly what Trump's doing

Saturday 1 April 13:00:00 UTC 2017

President Trump has called his 1987 book, The Art of The Deal, the best selling business book of all time. Unsurprisingly, that is not true. What is true, however, is that the book (that POTUS did not himself write) could give readers a better idea of how Trump thinks and where his ideas come from. SEE ALSO: Wow, some stranger just … [Link]

Slashdot » Simulation Suggests 68 Percent of the Universe May Not Actually Exist

Saturday 1 April 10:00:00 UTC 2017

boley1 quotes a report from New Atlas: According to the Lambda Cold Dark Matter (Lambda-CDM) model, which is the current accepted standard for how the universe began and evolved, the ordinary matter we encounter every day only makes up around five percent of the universe's density, with dark matter comprising 27 percent, and the remaining 68 percent made up of … [Link]

Mashable » We don't need April Fools' Day anymore because we're living a fake news nightmare

Saturday 1 April 7:30:00 UTC 2017

I remember the halcyon days when April Fools' Day was a bit of harmless fun. We'd read fake stories from the newspaper over our cornflakes and have a good chuckle. Fake news was just something that happened once a year. But, those days are goneWe are now living in the age of fake news; where mistruths are presented as truths, and … [Link]

Slashdot » New UBI Program Launches In Canada To 'Define Our Future'

Saturday 1 April 7:08:36 UTC 2017

As automation continues to replace human workers, a universal basic income program will begin paying $1,689 per month to select Ontario residents later this year, as Canada joins other countries testing a UBI (which include America, Scotland, the Netherlands, Finland, India, Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda). An anonymous reader quotes the Toronto Star: Public support in Ontario for the province's three-year … [Link]

Slashdot » Net Neutrality Is Trump's Next Target, Administration Says [Flagged]

Saturday 1 April 5:39:51 UTC 2017

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Fierce Telecom: During a press event yesterday, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said that next up on President Trump's telecom agenda is to roll back the FCC's 2015 Open Internet net neutrality rules. However, according to some reports, that might not happen as quickly as Congress' recent move to rescind rules that prevented … [Link]

Mashable » Amazon is recruiting social media celebrities to start their own stores on its site

Saturday 1 April 5:14:01 UTC 2017

Amazon is seeking social media celebrities. The online shopping giant quietly launched a new program this week in which influencers with "large followings" can apply to host their own stores on its site in exchange for a commission on products sold. TechCrunch first reported the news on Friday. SEE ALSO: The latest crop of #Influencers are lurking at your local Best … [Link]

Mashable » MashTalk: Samsung's Galaxy S8 is here, but does it live up to all the hype?

Saturday 1 April 5:10:52 UTC 2017

After months of daily leaks, Samsung finally announced its next flagship Android phones, the Galaxy S8 and S8+. Do the new phones live up to their hype and can they restore confidence in Samsung after the disastrous Galaxy Note 7? Mashable Tech Editor Pete Pachal, Chief Correspondent Lance Ulanoff, and Senior Tech Correspondent Raymond Wong weigh in on this week's … [Link]

Slashdot » Y Combinator-Funded Startup To Do Quantum Computing — Only Better

Saturday 1 April 3:34:00 UTC 2017

An anonymous reader writes: A "spaceshot" company that emerged from Y Combinator three summers ago and is targeting a revolutionary change in the way computers work has landed $64 million to help it in the race against much bigger tech giants. Rigetti Computing, which operates out of Berkeley and Fremont, is tackling quantum computing and going up against research being … [Link]

Slashdot » Net Neutrality Is Trump's Next Target, Administration Says

Saturday 1 April 2:05:00 UTC 2017

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Fierce Telecom: During a press event yesterday, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said that next up on President Trump's telecom agenda is to roll back the FCC's 2015 Open Internet net neutrality rules. However, according to some reports, that might not happen as quickly as Congress' recent move to rescind rules that prevented … [Link]

Mashable » What happened to our 'Grimm' favorites after the series finale?

Saturday 1 April 1:00:00 UTC 2017

Spoiler warning: This interview contains plot details for the series finale of Grimm. After six seasons and 123 episodes, Grimm came to a close Friday night. As a fan throughout the show's run, I was sad to see it go, especially since so many other genre shows are wrapping up this season (The Vampire Diaries, Bates Motel, Teen Wolf). But Grimm … [Link]

Slashdot » Study Shows Laptop Batteries Often Don't Last As Long As They Say

Saturday 1 April 0:45:00 UTC 2017

A new study conducted by Which? magazine has found that "the battery life claimed by laptop manufacturers rarely lives up to reality. "Although Apple's battery life claims were the closest to reality, in the case of some other manufacturers, their laptops lasted hours less than the stated time," reports Digital Trends. From the report: In its testing, Which looked at … [Link]

Mashable » Major ISPs now say they won't sell your browsing history. Yeah. Right.

Saturday 1 April 0:44:47 UTC 2017

Internet service providers are in an awkward spot. After getting all dressed up for the sell-your-data dance, it turns out they'll be staying home.  Or so they claim. Reuters reports that representatives from Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T all came out today to assure worried consumers that the companies will not in fact sell customers' browsing histories to the highest bidder.  "We … [Link]

Slashdot » USB Canary Sends An SMS When Someone Tinkers With Your USB Ports

Saturday 1 April 0:05:00 UTC 2017

An anonymous reader quotes a report from BleepingComputer: A new tool released on GitHub last week can help paranoid sysadmins keep track of whenever someone plugs in or disconnects an USB-based device from high-value workstations. Called USB Canary, this tool is coded in Python and currently, works only on Linux (versions for Windows and Mac are in the works). The … [Link]

Archive

26 Apr 2024  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