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Bugs reduce pollution, increase nutrition, and should seriously be considered as a food source: This is according to a UN report with University of Copenhagen contribitions by Victor Yakimov What is nutritious, delicious, and has six legs? If we could collectively get over our disgust at the six legged critters, insects could become a staple of the human diet, along with fish, and other kinds of meat, a new UN report argues. The Food and Agriculture organisation FAO hailed members of the insect world as an under-utilised resource, in the report which was released this Monday. By 2050, world population...

Google has unveiled a project that offers web users the option to pay to visit sites rather than see adverts. Dubbed Contributor, users can pay a monthly fee of between $1 to $3 for ad-free sites. When those who have paid their subscriptions visit a participating site they will see pixelated patterns replacing the adverts. It has so far signed up a handful of websites, including ScienceDaily and Urban Dictionary, to test the system. Others in the current trial include WikiHow, Mashable and Imgur. Access to the service is currently by invitation only and interested websites can sign up to...

Software engineering is one of the most in-demand and best paying careers, but learning computer science can also pay off even if you don't do it professionally. Google has a guide on the courses and experiences future software engineers should consider. --SNIP-- Although intended for college students, anyone can follow these recommendations, which include skills like coding in C++, Java, or Python and learning cryptography (along with online resources to aquire those skills). It's not as in-depth as the bachelor's level computer science curriculum we've seen before, but it covers the basics, and the non-academic suggestions such as contributing to...

Intel CEO Brain Krzanich has announced, in an email sent to employees on Monday, new company plans to merge its loss-making mobile chip unit with its profitable PC business early next year, writes the Wall Street Journal. "The market continues to evolve rapidly, and we must change even faster to stay ahead," Krzanich asserted in the email. It is well known that Intel has struggled to gain a foothold in mobile computing, but even worse for the business its tablet and smartphone chip-making division has lost billions in the recent months. Intel's mobile communication group posted a $1 billion operating...

... Calibrating your HDTV doesn't have to cost as much as the TV itself. A calibration disc is a thrifty way to get professional-grade results for less. What's a calibration disc? It's a disc that holds information for tweaking your HDTV's color and brightness levels. You don't have to buy a calibration disc, though - you can make your own with a free download from AVS. Not only is it free, it comes with a support staff in AVS's knowledgeable forum ...

Human rights group Amnesty International released free software on Thursday that allows users to determine if their computers are bugged by government intelligence agencies. The program, Detekt, was designed specifically for human rights activists and journalists, whose computers governments regularly target, Amnesty said. “Governments are increasingly using dangerous and sophisticated technology that allows them to read activists and journalists’ private emails and remotely turn on their computer’s camera or microphone to secretly record their activities,” said Marek Marczynski of Amnesty International. “They use the technology in a cowardly attempt to prevent abuses from being exposed,” he added. In many place,...

  Windows 1.0 was launched 29 years ago24 photosVIEW ALL  Windows was, is, and will continue to be the world's number one operating system for the desktop for many years from now, as neither Mac OS X nor Linux have what they need to overtake Microsoft's key player in the PC war. But have you ever wondered how everything actually started? Today is the best moment to ask such a question, because this is the day when Microsoft's Windows celebrates its 29th anniversary. While we're not going to get through the whole Windows history, because both Microsoft's official website...

Elon Musk worries Skynet is only five years off The Tesla and SpaceX CEO voices fears that artificial intelligence could become dangerous by the end of the decade.

A recent Wall Street Journal report confirms my working hypothesis about what went wrong at GTAT's Mesa Plant. The 2000 sapphire furnaces GTAT constructed produced defective sapphire about half the time. The high risk inherent in the furnace approach justified Apple's decision not to purchase the furnaces. However, questions remain as to why Apple embarked on such a risky venture, and what might be done to salvage it. A recent report by The Wall Street Journal makes clear that GT Advanced Technologies' Mesa plant was incapable of economically producing sapphire for Apple. The report also makes clear exactly what...

If your New Year's resolution is to land a new gig, you may want to consider one of CareerBuilder's top 10 jobs for 2015. CareerBuilder partnered with Economic Modeling Specialists Intl. (EMSI) to compile its new list of the hottest jobs, which is based on supply and demand. It features professions for which the number of jobs companies post each month significantly outpaces the number of people they actually hire — showing where companies are most hungry for talent and how much the positions pay. "Whether you're a seasoned worker or a college student deciding on a career path, this...

The Wall Street Journal has revealed key details of the failed deal between Apple and sapphire supplier GT Advanced Technologies that show why the agreement collapsed and how GT managed to run itself into bankruptcy while trying to meet Apple’s standards. A previous report from the Journal revealed that GTAT had been unable to provide the iPhone 6 displays it had promised Apple, but now we have even more information on why that demand was so hard to meet. Originally Apple intended to buy the massive new sapphire furnaces GTAT had designed, but eventually Apple decided to simply ask GTAT...

“The No. 2 official at the Justice Department recently warned top Apple executives that stronger encryption protections added to iPhones would lead to a horrific tragedy, such as a child dying, because police couldn’t access a suspect’s device, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday,” Dan Goodin reports for Ars Technica. “The beefed up protections, Apple recently disclosed, mean that even when company officials are served with a court order, they will be unable to retrieve potentially crucial evidence such as photos, messages, or contacts stored on iPhones and iPads,” Goodin reports. “Instead, the data can be accessed only by people...

“Just months after selling its ailing handsets business to Microsoft, the Finnish company is planning to go back into the consumer market with a new tablet,” Matti Huuhtanen reports for The Associated Press. “It will launch a 7.9-inch device early next year in China, the world’s biggest market, before selling it elsewhere.” “The device will be manufactured by Foxconn, which makes Apple’s handsets. And it will operate Android instead of the Windows software Nokia used on its cellphones when it began a partnership with Microsoft in 2011. That partnership ended unsuccessfully — in April, Nokia sold its cellphones unit to...

Attacks on Apple iOS devices are rising sharply, with 87 percent of the top 100 paid-for iOS apps now having been cracked and cloned - up from just 53 percent in 2013, according to a new report.87% of top Apple iOS apps have been cracked Arxan's 2014 ‘State of Mobile App Security' study also highlights the widespread targeting of Android apps. It finds 97 percent of the top 100 paid-for Android apps have been cloned, similar to previous years.The report, which was released on Monday, also reveals widespread copying of financial services, healthcare/medical and retail/merchant apps: 95 percent of Android-based...

A French left-wing MEP has hit out at the creators of video game Assassin's Creed over their portrayal of Maximilien de Robespierre. A slight artistic liberty from the creators sees the character of Robespierre presented as a psychopathic mass-murderer, which has enraged the French left, Jean-Luc Melenchon claims the depiction of Robespierre, considered by many to have been the architect of the French Revolution, in the latest installation of the game is 'propaganda against the people'.

Apple today released iOS 8.1.1 which includes bug fixes and increased stability and performance improvements for both the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4s. iOS 8.1.1 is available immediately as an over the air (OTA) update or as a download from iTunes. If your device does not have enough space, you need to connect to iTunes, back up your device and delete data from your device to make space for the update. For information on the security content of this update, visit: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222 _____________________________________________ Apple today also released: Apple TV 3 version 7.0.2 which includes general performance and stability improvements....

The air is beginning to get a bit thin for the Redmond tech giant, as reports released Friday showed Microsoft climbing to the number two spot on the list of most valuable companies in the world, bumping out Exxon by roughly $9 billion. The cause for Microsoft and Exxon swapping places is two-fold, in that while the price of oil has been dropping, along with Exxon’s share price, Microsoft has been on the rise since October following reports of strong fiscal first-quarter gains with its cloud computing business at its heart. Microsoft has also been making waves recently with its...

The state that served as a template for President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act had so much trouble coordinating with the federal government that it became a model of another sort: ineptitude. […] Massachusetts was one of several states where the ambition of running their own health insurance marketplace inside a new federal system ran into a harsh reality. Some, like Oregon and Nevada, folded and decided to go with the federal exchange for the second round of open enrollment, which began Saturday. Others, like Maryland and Massachusetts, fired their technology contractors and are hoping for better results this time....

John Batchelor interviews Tim Wu author of The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires audio 20:03

The tracking mechanism - Relevant Advertising - put in place by AT&T essentially added an undetectable identification number to all Internet traffic on the cellphones of the users. Since the identification number helped mark all the sites visited by AT&T customers, advertisers could build up profiles on users by following the website trail he or she would visit. ... Revealing that the use of the controversial technology has been stopped by AT&T, company spokeswoman Emily Edmonds said that AT&T subscribers who do not want to be included in the carrier's new smartphone tracking system have the choice of opting out...