Scientists freeze molecule to almost absolute zero

Thanks to Elsa's freezing powers lasers and some advanced techniques, a team of MIT scientists has managed to freeze a molecule to 500 nanokelvins: a temp that's nearly absolute zero. Not zero degrees Fahrenheit, but absolute zero, which is around -459.67 degrees F -- a lot colder than the cold parts of space. See, in their natural state, molecules vibrate, rotate and generally move in a frantic pace like interns working for Miranda Priestly. By cooling them down to the point that they're barely able to move, scientists can form previously unseen states of matter. According to MIT physics professor Martin Zwierlein: "...with ultracold molecules, you can get a huge variety of different states of matter, like superfluid crystals, which are crystalline, yet feel no friction, which is totally bizarre. This has not been observed so far, but predicted. We might not be far from seeing these effects, so we're all excited."
For this particular study, the scientists decided to freeze clouds of sodium and potassium using lasers and evaporative cooling. Then they glued individual atoms together to form sodium potassium (NaK) molecules, which were again subject to laser beams to effectively suck out 7,500 Kelvins of energy in all. To get those superfluid crystals Zwierlein mentioned, though, the scientists have to go even lower than 500 nanokelvins. They also have to experiment with other atoms and molecules, but this is definitely a promising start.
MIT

Former Nokia CEO Elop Leaving Microsoft

Microsoft Corp. CEO Satya Nadella continues to put his stamp on the company, announcing Wednesday an executive shuffle that involves the departure of former Nokia Corp. chief Stephen Elop.
Mr. Elop was the biggest surprise departure in the executive shuffle. Two other Microsoft executives, Kirill Tatarinov and Eric Rudder, will, like Mr. Elop “leave Microsoft after a designated transition period,” the company said in a news release. Separately, Mark Penn, who had served in a senior strategist role, is leaving Microsoft as well.
Mr. Elop’s departure is the latest sign Microsoft is hitting the reset button on its struggling smartphone hardware business. The more than $9 billion purchase of Nokia’s handset business—a deal struck by Mr. Nadella’s predecessor Steve Ballmer in late 2013—was supposed to make Microsoft a relevant player in smartphones.

PlayStation still not considering backward compatibility for PS4

News during Microsoft's E3 press conference this week that limited Xbox 360 backward compatibility was coming to the Xbox One was met with a roar of approval.
The surprise announcement, coming so long after the launch of the Xbox One, also caught the attention of Sony. But not enough to get the company to reconsider its take on PlayStation backward compatibility.
"The backward compatibility news was interesting," said Shuhei Yoshida, head of Sony Computer Entertainment's head of world wide studios. "The technology involved must be very challenging.
"I'm interested in seeing the list of titles."
Earlier in the week, Xbox head of publishing Shannon Loftis said the Xbox One will essentially be running an Xbox 360 emulator and that the decision to create support on the Xbox One for a number of 360 titles — a hundred by this holiday — was driven by that company's desire to offer more options to gamers.
"I still play some Xbox 360 titles," she said. "I love them and I have a big investment in them, both emotionally and financially."

Reddit is moving to total encryption

As of June 29th, Reddit will be serving all of its pages over SSL encryption, the company announced in a recent post. The site is already available over SSL at https://www.reddit.com, but the new system will direct all connections to the SSL-protected version of the site. The result is a lot more privacy for users. Users connecting over SSL will be visible to networks as Reddit visitors, but any communication with the site will be entirely private. That means network operators can't see what username they're logged in under or which posts they're submitting to the site, an important feature for a site based on pseudonymous communities.
A number of sites have switched over to default encryption in recent weeks, including Wikipedia and all federal websites, driven largely by security concerns. SSL also prevents attackers from injecting malware into an otherwise legitimate data stream, an increasing concern in the wake of the Snowden leaks. At the same time, there are growing material incentives for companies that make the switch. In August, Google announced it would give a small boost in search rankings to sites using SSL, as a way of recognizing the appeal of a secure connection.

Methane in Mars Meteorites Suggests Possibility of Life

Methane, a potential sign of primitive life, has been found in meteorites from Mars, adding weight to the idea that life could live off methane on the Red Planet, researchers say.
This discovery is not evidence that life exists, or has ever existed, on Mars, the researchers cautioned. Still, methane "is an ingredient that could potentially support microbial activity in the Red Planet," study lead author Nigel Blamey, a geochemist at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, told Space.com.
Methane is the simplest organic molecule. This colorless, odorless, flammable gas was first discovered in the Martian atmosphere by the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft in 2003, and NASA's Curiosity rover discovered a fleeting spike of methane at its landing site last year.
Much of the methane in Earth's atmosphere is produced by life, such as cattle digesting food. However, there are ways to produce methane without life, such as volcanic activity.
To shed light on the nature of the methane on Mars, Blamey and his colleagues analyzed rocks blasted off Mars by cosmic impacts that subsequently crash-landed on Earth as meteorites. About 220 pounds (100 kilograms) of Martian meteorites have been found on Earth.
The scientists focused on six meteorites from Mars that serve as examples of volcanic rocks there, collecting samples about one-quarter of a gram from each — a little bigger than a 1-carat diamond. All the samples were taken from the interiors of the meteorites, to avoid terrestrial contamination.
The researchers found that all six released methane and other gases when crushed, probably from small pockets inside.

The past, present, and future of Xbox according to its Head of Publishing

Shannon Loftis has played a role in many of Microsoft's most audacious, forward-thinking, and occasionally troubled gaming projects. She produced online card and roleplaying games in the mid-1990s; participated in the launch of the original Xbox; shepherded some of the consoles first online multiplayer games; led the studio that helped create Kinect and many of its early titles; managed Xbox Entertainment Studios, the defunct production company that sought to merge television and interactive media; and is now the Head of Publishing for Microsoft Games Studios.
If there's one person within Microsoft that should have a sense of what's to come for the company's games division, it's Loftis. She's eight-months in to her role shaping what games Microsoft will bring to its video game consoles and, thanks to an recalibration on PC gaming, Windows 10.
© Provided by The Verge At E3 2015, we spoke with Landis about Microsoft's plans for augmented and virtual reality, the future of Kinect, the commercial purpose of video game remasters, and the practical value of diversity in games.

The Verge: I've heard members of the Kinect team have transitioned to the HoloLens team. I'm curious if that's true.

Nasa scientists: 'Life outside of Earth is probably going to be really hard to find'

Nasa scientists previewed several missions in the search for life off Earth on Tuesday, including a plan to scoop up minerals from an asteroid and one to drill into the surface of Mars.
The missions described by researchers included satellites, spacecraft, landers and work concentrated on Mars, Jupiter moons, an asteroid and on Earth itself.
“Sciences are being unified by the search for life in the universe,” said Dr John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for science at Nasa, before conceding that “life outside of earth is probably going to be really hard to find”.
“We can’t even agree on a definition of what life detection is.”
Grunsfeld said missions to Mars in the next few years will have greater capabilities than the Curiosity rover, which continues to explore Mars and in April discovered water on below the surface of the red planet. The European Space Agency’s ExoMars mission, for instance, aims to specifically search for signs of life.
The lander will have a “deeper drill than any lander”, Grunsfeld said, able to reach down into the Martian crust “a couple of meters” where the deadly radiation that bombards the planet would not be as able to affect life.

The paleontologist who worked on 'Jurassic World' is trying to create a real dinosaur within 5 to 10 years

Yes, this is for real.
No, there isn't dinosaur DNA trapped in amber, waiting to be replicated and cloned.
But that's not the only way to make a dino, said Jack Horner, the paleontologist who worked on "Jurassic World" (and the rest of the "Jurassic Park" films), and he wants to make it happen.
How did we get to this point, where Horner — one of the main inspirations for Michael Crichton's "Jurassic Park" character Alan Grant — thinks we can make a live dinosaur within five to 10 years?
"It all started with 'Jurassic Park,'" Horner told Business Insider in an interview.
In 1993, the same year the first movie came out, he and then-graduate student Mary Schweitzer, who has continued to make some amazing discoveries in the field of paleontology, tried to extract DNA from dinosaur bones.
They failed. DNA basically starts coming apart as soon as a cell dies, says Horner, and no one has ever found intact dinosaur DNA — he doesn't think it's possible. "If you did the thing they did in 'Jurassic Park,'" says Horner (referring to the story's solution of filling in dino DNA gaps with frog DNA), "you'd basically have a frog."

Airbus to build the world's biggest satellite constellation

The OneWeb startup founded by Richard Branson's Virgin and Qualcomm, has announced that it has awarded European aerospace giant Airbus a multi-billion dollar production contract for internet-beaming satellites. The company aims provide connectivity to underserved communities around the world through an enormous constellation of small satellites -- each one only weighing about 150kg and costing under $500,000 to produce. Of the 900 units that Airbus is contracted to create, 700 of them will be launched by 2018. Once in orbit they'll create a constellation 10 times larger than any other satellite set currently in orbit. The other 200 will be held on-planet as replacements and backups. Airbus will reportedly produce 10 initial satellites at its Toulouse manufacturing facility before moving the operation to an undisclosed American facility for the remainder of the program.

AT&T hit with $100M fine for 'unlimited' data plans

WASHINGTON — AT&T Mobility LLC has been slapped with a record $100 million fine for offering consumers "unlimited" data, but then slowing their Internet speeds after they reached a certain amount.
The Federal Communications Commission said Wednesday that the company misled consumers into buying plans they believed would give them unlimited ability to send and receive data, including Web browsing, GPS navigation and streaming videos. But the FCC said that once the consumer hit a certain level, the data on unlimited plans would be slowed down significantly, at speeds lower than advertised.
AT&T said it would "vigorously dispute" the fine, which was the largest proposed in FCC history. If AT&T can provide evidence that the FCC allegations are wrong, the fine could be reduced.
"The FCC has specifically identified this practice as a legitimate and reasonable way to manage network resources for the benefit of all customers, and has known for years that all of the major carriers use it," the company said in a statement released to reporters. "We have been fully transparent with our customers, providing notice in multiple ways and going well beyond the FCC's disclosure requirements."

The Moon's Puzzling Dust Cloud Finally Yields an Answer

The moon is surrounded by a permanent dust cloud likely caused by comet particle collisions, new observations reveal.
Data from NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE), a spacecraft whose specialties include dust observations, reveals a dust cloud that is different than what may have been observed by astronauts on Apollo 15 and 17. The crews saw a "glow" on the moon that some believe was caused by hovering dust.
"LADEE was the first mission to carry a dedicated dust instrument in low-altitude orbit. All other attempts were either remote sensing imaging – struggling with line-of-sight issues," lead researcher Mihaly Horanyi, a physics professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder's laboratory for atmospheric and space physics, said in an e-mail to Space.com. [Moon's Dust Cloud Explained (Infographic)]

A huge security flaw has been discovered in Apple devices that could allow hackers to steal your passwords and data

A group of security researchers have discovered an alarming vulnerability in Apple’s mobile and desktop operating systems.

In a newly-released paper, the research group explained how they tested a series of attacks that were able to bypass security checks, steal passwords, and even critical app data.

The vulnerability was discovered to exist on Apple devices including the iPhone, iPad, and Mac computers.

Due to the way Apple built apps to communicate with each other, the paper writes, researchers were able to "steal such confidential information as the passwords for iCloud, email and bank, and the secret token of Evernote."

Basically, these researchers were able to build a malware that was uploaded to Apple’s App Store in the form of a typical app, which was then able to steal credentials from the existing apps on the researchers' phones. These credentials include passwords and other precious app data that's supposed to be off-limits.

Oculus out to let people touch virtual worlds

Behind closed doors on the show floor of the world's premier video game show, Facebook-owned Oculus was letting people touch virtual worlds.
Oculus provided a select few with an early peek at how it is trying to tackle the challenge of letting people intuitively interact with faux objects in fantasy realms.
Prototype Oculus Touch Half Moon controllers that can be gripped as easily as clasping a pistol gave in-world hands to people wearing the company's Rift virtual reality head gear.
Words such as "awesome" and "cool" sprang from the lips of those immersed in a sample virtual world where Touch controllers let them play ping pong, detonate fireworks, blast targets with ray guns, and even sock robots.

Planes face ever-evolving cyberterrorist threats

Hackers and cyber-terrorists present an ever-evolving threat to airlines, with experts constantly testing for new vulnerabilities -- including the fear that drones could be used to throw a plane off course.
Most agree hacking a plane would be a near-impossible feat, but some professional hackers have claimed airline computer systems are riddled with weaknesses that could allow someone to break in, perhaps even through the in-flight entertainment system.
US computer security expert Chris Roberts recently claimed to have hacked into a plane's controls through the entertainment console and to have issued a "climb" command.
But speaking at the Paris Air Show this week, Alain Robic of Deloitte Consulting, an expert on cybersecurity, said the claims were not credible.
Robic was working for Airbus in 2005 when a hacker showed them how he could penetrate the flight controls from a passenger seat while they were designing the new A380.
"The bosses were shocked. It was a revolutionary moment. They re-engineered everything to separate the systems so it could never happen again," said Robic.
But there are plenty of other risks -- and although they are unlikely, companies such as Airbus and Boeing take them very seriously.

The original Super Mario game was designed on graph paper

Thirty years ago, an Italian-American plumber from Brooklyn first saved a princess from a tyrannical turtle monster, using only mushrooms and guile. Since then, he’s gone on to get a doctorate, appear in more than 250 video games, and earn a spot in the hall of fame. But Mario had an arduous beginning. For the first Super Mario video game released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985, its designers had to draw every pixel by hand.

Keeping Your Classic Tech Devices Running

What if planned obsolescence does not fit into your personal plans? Because of pragmatism, frugality, nostalgia or all of the above, some people just do not — or cannot — upgrade the latest version of a device or program, even when the manufacturer stops supporting its old products to focus on developing sleek new hardware and state-of-the-art software to sell.
For those who fall into that group, there’s good news. There are mechanics who can keep your gear going. Solutions include experts who will pay a visit to fix devices like iPods, as well as mail-in repair services. Plus there are a host of how-to sites so you can solve problems yourself.
Fans of the iPod Classic may feel particularly concerned by the obsolescence trend, especially since Apple quietly discontinued the model last year. If Genius Bar service at a nearby Apple Store is not an option, the company’s support site still offers battery replacement and repairs, but said services for “vintage and obsolete iPod products” were limited to California customers — leaving owners elsewhere to find their own way through an inevitable future of dying batteries, failing hard drives and other symptoms of electronic old age.

Apple is fixing a bug that crashes your iPhone with a text message

 

 

 

 

Beware if you have any jokester friends with iOS devices -- they might just have a way to ruin your day if you have any iOS gadgets of your own. Apple has confirmed that it's fixing a recently discovered bug that crashes iPhones and other iOS 8 hardware the moment you get a carefully crafted set of Unicode characters in iMessage and other communication apps with notification previews. It's not clear when that fix will be available, but the only existing safeguard is to turn off those previews. Otherwise, you may have to bend over backwards to make sure that those rogue messages don't cause further chaos. While this isn't the biggest iOS glitch we've seen lately, it's definitely the most annoying.

Back to the Future! Real-Life Hoverboard Breaks Record

A hoverboard rider recently soared into Guinness World Records after flying a record distance on the futuristic, flying skateboard.
Catalin Alexandru Duru, the inventor of the prototype hoverboard, traveled the length of two-and-a-half football fields (about 905 feet or 375 meters) to achieve the world record title before landing gently in the sparkling water of Quebec's Lake Ouareau. Duru reached a height of 16.4 feet (5 m), but the flying board is allegedly capable of much greater altitudes, said Duru, who told Guinness World Records that his machine could reach "scary heights."
"The prototype can be used anywhere but is usually tested over water because of how dangerously high it can fly (which is ironic considering that the movie joked that it can't)," Duru wrote in a description of a YouTube video of the hoverboard's record-breaking flight. [Hyperloop, Jetpacks & More: 9 Futuristic Transit Ideas]

Doctors Warn Certain Tattoo Ink Colors Are Extremely Harmful

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many “inked up” Americans experience tattoo regret as their skin begins to age, but some experience that regret immediately after getting their new body art. A recent study conducted at NYU Langone Medical Center has revealed that six percent of New Yorkers with a tattoo have experienced long-term medical complications related to their ink, including tattoo-related rash, severe itching, or swelling.

"We were rather alarmed at the high rate of reported chronic complications tied to getting a tattoo," Dr. Marie Leger, an assistant professor in NYU Langone's Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology, said in a statement. "Given the growing popularity of tattoos, physicians, public health officials, and consumers need to be aware of the risks involved."
Leger and her colleagues conducted survey interviews with around 300 adults in New York’s Central Park in June 2013. Survey respondents were between the ages of 18 and 69, the majority of which had no more than five tattoos. Sixty-seven percent of tattoos were located on the arm, making it the most popular tattoo site. Leger estimates that one in five adults in the United States has at least one tattoo.

Ten percent of respondents experience some type of short-term complication, such as delayed healing, pain, swelling, and infection, within weeks of getting their tattoo. Among the respondents who did experience a reaction, only a third sought help or advice from a medical professional. Long-term medical complications, including rashes, severe itching, and swelling, lasted longer than four months in some cases and even years.
"It is not yet known if the reactions being observed are due to chemicals in the ink itself or to other chemicals, such as preservatives or brighteners, added to them, or to the chemicals' breakdown over time," Leger explained. "The lack of a national database or reporting requirements also hinders reliable monitoring."
Researchers involved with the study were surprised to find out how much of an impact the ink’s color can have on long-term medical risks. Long-term complications occurred around areas of the skin that were injected with the two most common ink colors, red and black. Although 36 percent of respondents had tattoos with red ink, 44 percent of reactions were associated with red ink. A third of complications were tied to black ink, which accounted for 90 percent of tattoos.
"The skin is a highly immune-sensitive organ, and the long-term consequences of repeatedly testing the body's immune system with injected dyes and colored inks are poorly understood," Leger added. "Some of the reactions appear to be an immune response, yet we do not know who is most likely to have an immune reaction to a tattoo."
Leger plans on devoting further research to exploring what colored inks and possible dye components lead to adverse reactions. She also noted that most reactions can be treated with anti-inflammatory steroid drugs; however, in some cases laser surgery is required.
Source: Contact Dermatitis. 2015.

Killer Robots Need Regulation, Expert Warns

It's a familiar theme in Hollywood blockbusters: Scientist develops robot, robot becomes sentient, robot tries to destroy humanity. But with seemingly sci-fi technological advances inching closer to reality, artificial intelligence and robotics experts face an important question: Should they support or oppose the development of deadly, autonomous robots?
"Technologies have reached a point at which the deployment of such systems is — practically, if not legally — feasible within years, not decades," Stuart Russell, a computer scientist and artificial intelligence (AI) researcher of the University of California, Berkeley, wrote in a commentary published today (May 27) in the journal Nature. These weapons "have been described as the third revolution in warfare, after gunpowder and nuclear arms," Russell wrote.

Lethal autonomous weapons systems could find and attack their targets without human intervention. For example, such systems could include armed drones that are sent to kill enemies in a city, or swarms of autonomous boats sent to attack ships.
Deadly robots
Some people argue that robots may not be able to distinguish between enemy soldiers and civilians, and so may accidentally kill or injure innocent people. Yet other commentators say that robots may cause less collateral damage than human soldiers, also aren't subject to human emotions like aggression. "This is a fairly new moral ground we're getting into," Russell said.

Apple CEO Tim Cook Commencement Speech George Washington University: 'This Is Your World To Change'

Citing personal heroes Martin Luther King Jr., Presidents John F. Kennedy and Jimmy Carter, and the late Steve Jobs, Apple CEO Tim Cook Sunday told George Washington University graduates the world is theirs "to change." Cook spoke of the importance of personal values and finding work with meaning during the ceremony on the National Mall in Washington.
"This is your world to change," Cook told the estimated crowd of 25,000, Business Insider reported.
"Steve was an idealist," Cook said of Jobs, one of the co-founders of Apple and the visionary who guided the company. "He convinced me that if we worked hard, and made good products, we too could change the world.

The 9 most highly-anticipated features in Windows 10

Back in February, Business Insider's Steve Kovach declared that after years of being an Apple kind of guy, he was ready to love Microsoft Windows again.
"Even though we're months away from the final version, Windows 10 already feels seamless, friendly, familiar, and actually kind of fun to use," he wrote after trying Microsoft's free Windows 10 preview.
Now, we're a few months closer to the launch of Windows 10, and the anticipation is building.
In my own tests with Windows 10, there's a lot to like — I'm still not sure if it'll be enough to get me to switch from my own Mac and go Windows full-time, but there's a lot to like in Windows 10, and the heat is on.
Here are some of the coolest features you should be looking forward to in Windows 10.

Lenovo’s new laptops are ready to scan your face in Windows 10

Lenovo has announced a pair of new mid-range laptops that are unremarkable apart from one detail. The Lenovo Z51 — a 15-inch device with a price tag starting at $499 — offers Intel's RealSense 3D camera as an optional extra. RealSense uses a trio of lenses (a conventional camera, an infrared camera, and an infrared laser) to measure depth, allowing users to control their laptop using hand gestures, or even scan objects for 3D printing. The camera costs an additional $100, but with a free upgrade to Windows 10 coming this summer (the Z51 ships with Windows 8.1), users will be able to sign in using their face as a password.

Google Confirms ‘Buy Button’ Is Coming

 

 

 

Google’s next commerce effort will be a “buy button” to help people purchase products featured in its shopping ads, said chief business officer Omid Kordestani.

“There’s going to be a buy button. It’s going to be imminent,” Kordestani said onstage at the Code Conference Wednesday.
Kordestani described the product launch as a way to remove friction for users so they buy more things online. Some 90 percent of commerce is still offline, he noted.
Kordestani was Google’s first business hire and last October was tapped by CEO Larry Page to return to the leadership after a five-year break.
News of the buy button was first reported by the Wall Street Journal earlier this month. As Re/code’s Jason Del Rey described it, the button would appear on Google’s paid product listing ads. Shoppers who click on the ads on their phones will be directed to a Google webpage to make a purchase of that single item.
As Del Rey wrote,

A nagging issue for online retailers paying for PLAs is conversion — getting someone who clicked on a product image to complete the purchase. Google is positioning the experiment as a way to help retailers fix that by reducing the number of steps between viewing the ad and completing an order. It arrives shortly after Google introduced a series of ad enhancements inside mobile search in a bid to claim more of the transactions and ad dollars that have gravitated to rivals like Amazon and Facebook.

It's Easier Than You Think To Track Your Facebook Friends

 

Want to creep out your friends with a map of their recent whereabouts? Well, if they have ever used Facebook Messenger and have left their location tracking within their phone on, you’re in luck.
A new Chrome extension called Marauder’s Map (aptly named after the magic map from Harry Potter) lets anyone pull the location data tied to individual messages sent via phone with location turned on and visualize it in a map.

Best Concept Car of 2015

 

 

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The Bold and the Beautiful

Auto shows can be very exciting — experiencing all the shiny new production cars under one roof is a rush, although concept cars grab most of the attention. Often conceived without safety systems, emission controls or other mass-production requirements, concept cars allow designers to color outside the lines and engineers to stretch their minds, fueling our fantasies about what cars could be. That said, some concepts look like they could hit the highway tomorrow with little alteration, while others are so advanced or unique there’s no way we’ll see them on the road anytime soon. Let’s look at the latest concept cars making the rounds at auto shows in 2015 — and what their future holds.

What does the future hold for these eye-catching concepts?

GM CEO: Robot Cars Coming, but Don’t Hold Your Breath

Will we eventually see cars that fully drive themselves on the road? And if so, when?

That was the question that Walt Mossberg posed to GM CEO Mary Barry at the Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. “I absolutely see it,” she said. But when asked for a realistic time frame: “It will be a journey.”
She didn’t say how long it might take, but implied that she believes the wait will be long.
There’s a lot that has to happen both in the areas of infrastructure on the roads to support cars that drive themselves, and new laws at the federal and state level. “Autonomous is a word that scares a ton of people,” Barra said. “It’s coming but there’s a ton that needs to come together.”
In the shorter term she said consumers are more interested in “intelligent driving systems” that allow drivers to take their hands off the wheel and their feet off the pedals more than they do now. One feature includes a “super cruise” mode that’s coming to Cadillac cars next year.

Yahoo to face class action lawsuit

Yahoo will face a US class action lawsuit for allegedly accessing the content of emails sent to its mail users from non-Yahoo Mail accounts.
A Californian judge ruled that people who sent emails to or received emails from Yahoo Mail users from 2 October 2011 can sue the company as a group, granting it class action status.
There is estimated to be over one million members in the privacy lawsuit.
Yahoo is accused of using the data to boost advertising revenue.
The non-Yahoo Mail users said the company intercepted and analyzed their emails, along with attachments with the goal of creating "targeted advertising" for its 275 million mail subscribers.
Last year, nearly 80% of Yahoo's revenue came from its search and display advertising.
The judge also ruled that a group of holders of non-Yahoo accounts in California since 2 October 2012 may also sue as a group for privacy infringement.
The accusers sought an injunction banning Yahoo from allegedly spying on emails, along with damages.
In its defence, Yahoo argued that some of the plaintiffs continued to email Yahoo subscribers, despite being aware of Yahoo's activities and in doing so consented to Yahoo accessing their emails.
A class action lawsuit can make it easier for the group to receive larger damages and more wide-ranging resolutions at a lower cost.

difference between LCD and LED

LCD stands for “liquid crystal display” and technically, both LED and LCD TVs are liquid crystal displays. The basic technology is the same in that both television types have two layers of polarized glass through which the liquid crystals both block and pass light. So really, LED TVs are a subset of LCD TVs.
LED, which stands for “light emitting diodes,” differs from general LCD TVs in that LCDs use fluorescent lights while LEDs use those light emitting diodes. Also, the placement of the lights on an LED TV can differ. The fluorescent lights in an LCD TV are always behind the screen. On an LED TV, the light emitting diodes can be placed either behind the screen or around its edges. The difference in lights and in lighting placement has generally meant that LED TVs can be thinner than LCDs, although this is starting to change. It has also meant that LED TVs run with greater energy efficiency and can provide a clearer, better picture than the general LCD TVs.
LED TVs provide a better picture for two basic reasons. First, LED TVs work with a color wheel or distinct RGB-colored lights (red, green, blue) to produce more realistic and sharper colors. Second, light emitting diodes can be dimmed. The dimming capability on the back lighting in an LED TV allows the picture to display with a truer black by darkening the lights and blocking more light from passing through the panel. This capability is not present on edge-lit LED TVs; however, edge-lit LED TVs can display a truer white than the fluorescent LED TVs.

Learn About Electronics grows and grows

Learnabout-electronics was initially designed as a small website, part of a degree course in web technology at the University of Lincoln, UK. It developed further as a study into international on-line learning at Stanford University, California.

Now with around 250 pages and over 1000 illustrations and animations on a wide range of electronics topics, the website has grown into a major international educational site, with millions of independent learners, and students from colleges and universities all over the world finding the electronics information on learnabout-electronics among the best available.
Learnabout-electronics continues to develop with new topics and new modules being developed continually. The aim of the site remains constant however. To provide the best possible on-line learning experience, freely available to all. Learnabout electronics modules can be easily translated using Google Translate, making them available in over 50 languages.

From 2013 all new modules, beginning with the modules on Oscillators, are being developed in HTML5 and designed with new responsive pages to display better on mobile devices, so now it will be easier to learnabout electronics on the go!

Please use the Contacts page to let us know how the new style pages, now with space saving drop down menus and responsive layouts, work for you. Whether you view learnabout-electronics on mobile devices or on desktops your, experience of the site is important.

U.S. Investments Surge For African Tech Entrepreneurs

From the largest technology companies to early stage investors, American high tech companies and venture capitalists are increasingly supporting startups across the African continent.Whether it’s the 16 mobile apps in Botswana that Jim Goetz mentioned in his take on Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp; the launch of IBM’s new innovation centers in Lagos and Casablanca; Microsoft’s partnership with three incubators in Africa, or the African Development Bank’s recent summit on how to engage the private sector more effectively, African entrepreneurship is on investors minds.In fact, 2013 was the most active year for technology investment on the continent, according to data from CrunchBase.
And Africa’s community of entrepreneurs is only growing. Those IBM Innovation Centers in Lagos and Casablanca will give founders of new tech companies access to IBM technology and expertise around big data, analytics, and cloud computing, as well as skills training and business and marketing support.

“In the last decade we’ve seen a lot of transformation [in Africa]. There’s increased stability and a lot of bandwidth that’s come on line, tremendous economic growth, plus a lot of infrastructure being built and a lot of foreign investment,” said Solomon Assefa, an IBM researcher and vice president of Science and Technology.Assefa, who also currently serves as a Program Manager for Growth Markets and Strategic Initiatives in Science and Technology at IBM, said the goal is to create an ecosystem where entrepreneurs can create new products using existing technologies. “We believe Africa is vital and we think IBM is going to be very very essential for productive growth and development.”

Network Security Software Engineer eBay

The Hardware Engineering Group within ebay Inc.’s Global Foundation Services (GFS) is responsible for innovation, disruption, and architectural excellence across ebay Inc’s global infrastructure. The Information & Network Security Software Engineer will work be responsible for the design and development of software to support the Network Security Team. The position will focus on automation, security data analytics, security event correlation, reporting and customized security software tools specific to eBay Inc. needs. Candidates should possess a strong understanding of TCP/IP, IPv4, IPv6 and the OSI model. Additionally, candidates should have expert skills in relevant programming languages such as perl, python, java, c/c++ and javascript as well as some understand of network security attacks and patterns.

Job Requirements

• Technology Oversight: Maintain an ongoing awareness of emerging developments and trends in security software technology that could impact current infrastructure security projects and influence decisions
• Vendor / Tool / Environment Analysis: Lead the evaluation of the eBay Network Security software environment for automation and integration into the eBay systems and environments, including strategic security software environments, frameworks, tools and utilities
• Evangelism of software security architectural vision, strategy, and principles
• Leadership of software security architectural alignment implementation efforts