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Computers/Internet (General/Chat)

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  • A New Kind of Eternal Life: The Growing Christian Transhumanism Movement [Hebrews 9]

    08/19/2015 5:56:14 AM PDT · by Jan_Sobieski · 4 replies
    Outer Places ^ | 8/14/2015 | Janey Tracey
    Transhumanism, the movement which aims to use science fiction-esque methods such as brain uploading, cyborgism, and cryogenics to achieve immortality and/or a higher state of evolution, is strongly associated with atheism. Not only is there a strong emphasis on science, which is often considered to be at odds with religion to a certain extent, but this particular brand of science seems particularly opposed to the notion that God should have control over life and death. But according to transhumanist Micah Redding, there's a growing contingent of Christians in the transhumanist movement who are seeking a slightly different type of eternal...
  • Upstarts Raid Giants for Talent in Silicon Valley: The Expensive Tech Recruitment Battle

    08/19/2015 5:03:11 AM PDT · by SeekAndFind · 7 replies
    New York Times ^ | 08/19/2015 | Mike Isaac
    For the last year, Google’s work force has increasingly been under attack from a herd of unicorns. The unicorns, a class of hot start-ups valued at $1 billion or more, are all aggressively pursuing the best and brightest minds in Silicon Valley with promises of talked-about workplaces and eye-popping payouts. Amid a general scramble for talent, Google, the Internet search company, has undergone specific raids from unicorns for engineers who specialize in crucial technologies like mapping. In particular, Uber — the largest unicorn, with a valuation of more than $50 billion — has plundered Google’s mapping unit over the last...
  • How to make a movie with an iPhone: An interview with Tangerine director Sean Baker

    08/18/2015 10:33:55 PM PDT · by Swordmaker · 10 replies
    Macworld.com ^ | August 18, 2015 | By Caitlin McGarry
    Plus the five tools you need to make your iPhone footage look cinematic. Shih-Ching TsouTangerine is a movie so vivid and real that you feel like you’re walking the streets of Los Angeles with its main characters. The film takes place on Christmas Eve, which in Hollywood is just another warm day, and the cinematography radiates that heat. But as you trail behind best friends Sin-Dee and Alexandra as they search for Sin-Dee’s cheating boyfriend, you’d never realize that with an iPhone, you too could create that scene. Tangerine director Sean Baker used his iPhone 5s to direct the movie,...
  • Apple CarPlay Review: Siri’s Finally on the Right Road

    08/18/2015 8:15:23 PM PDT · by Swordmaker · 3 replies
    Wall Street Journal ^ | August 18, 2015 | By JOANNA STERN
    -->Video review on the website: “Siri, are we there yet?” “You should be there in about 25 minutes.”“Siri, please play the top hits from 1990.”“Also, Siri, text Dad and tell him I’ll be there soon.”I take back all—OK most—of the expletives I’ve ever hurled at Siri. Apple’s personal assistant has finally found a place in my life: riding shotgun.For the last week, I have been testing Apple’s CarPlay in a 2016 Corvette Stingray. Oh yes, that’s the brand new model with a 455-horsepower V-8 engine, a camera that can capture your laps around the track (or the New Jersey Turnpike,...
  • TPWN OS X "Exploit" (vulnerability): What you need to know

    08/18/2015 5:36:57 PM PDT · by Swordmaker · 4 replies
    imore ^ | August 18, 2015 | By Rene Ritchie
    tpwn is a vulnerability that affects OS X 10.9.5 Mavericks through OS X 10.10.5 Yosemite, but does not affect the currently-in-beta OS X 10.11 El Capitan. With tpwn, malicious code on your Mac could escalate its privileges—gain "root" access—and potentially exploit the system. The vulnerability was released without warning—also known as a 0day—and without prior disclosure to Apple. That means Apple learned about it pretty much when the rest of the world did. What does tpwn do? tpwn is a privilege escalation exploit, which means, to use a bad analogy, it's like a thief that can't break into your house...
  • USPTO finds Apple iPhone design patent invalid in court fight against Samsung

    08/18/2015 4:51:54 PM PDT · by Swordmaker · 8 replies
    Apple Insider ^ | August 17, 2015 | By Mikey Campbell
    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office earlier this month found an iPhone design patent successfully leveraged by Apple against Samsung in its first court action invalid on multiple counts, bringing Apple's $548 million damages award into question. Apple's D'677 patent (right) shows a design different from two previous applications. Spotted by FOSS Patents' Florian Mueller, the non-final decision regarding Apple's U.S. Patent No. D618,677, known as the D'677 patent, was handed down by the USPTO's Central Reexamination Division on Aug. 5. The decision follows an anonymous ex parte examination request -- likely filed by Samsung -- calling the design patent's...
  • WHOIS WeBeSisters.com

    08/18/2015 3:51:06 PM PDT · by sonrise57 · 27 replies
    Howdy--I have been interested in the Stump for the Trump girls. Wonder who they are and if they are a product of trumps campaign. Here is an interesting fact. Their website--webesisters.com has this whois listing: Domain Name: WEBESISTERS.COM Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com Registrant Name: Registration Private Registrant Organization: Domains By Proxy, LLC Name Server: NS25.DOMAINCONTROL.COM Name Server: NS26.DOMAINCONTROL.COM DNSSEC: unsigned This tells me the girls are sophisticated enough to hide the identity of who their domain name is registered to. Any thoughts. Just really curious because they are so good, such a phenom and really if they are a trump product...
  • The Imperative of Technological Progress: Why Stagnation Will Necessarily Lead to Disaster & how...

    08/18/2015 11:37:37 AM PDT · by Mellonkronos · 1 replies
    Wave Chronicle ^ | August 18, 2015 | G. Stolyarov II
    [Another pro-technology piece. Of course, we need free markets so entrepreneurs can do great things!] The Imperative of Technological Progress: Why Stagnation Will Necessarily Lead to Disaster and How Techno-Optimism Can Overcome It“He who moves not forward, goes backward.” -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe If the approximate technological and economic status quo persists, massive societal disintegration looms on the horizon. A Greece-style crisis of national-government expenditures may occur as some have predicted, but would only be a symptom of a greater problem. The fundamental driver of crisis since at least September 11, 2001, and more acutely since the Great Recession...
  • DIY Tractor Repair Runs Afoul Of Copyright Law

    08/18/2015 11:31:17 AM PDT · by Theoria · 35 replies
    NPR ^ | 18 Aug 2015 | Laura Sydell
    The iconic image of the American farmer is the man or woman who works the land, milks cows and is self-reliant enough to fix the tractor. But like a lot of mechanical items, tractors are increasingly run by computer software. Now, farmers are hitting up against an obscure provision of copyright law that makes it illegal to repair machinery run by software. Take Dave Alford. He fits that image of the iconic farmer. "I do farming on the family ranch," says Alford, standing on a piece of grassy earth with a white barn behind him. "I've been farming for the...
  • Project Titan and the Apple Self-Driving Car: The story so far

    08/18/2015 8:30:26 AM PDT · by SeekAndFind · 20 replies
    International Business Times ^ | 08/18/2015 | Alistair Charlton
    Since we last published an in-depth report into Apple's Project Titan autonomous car project seven months ago, the company's bank balance has grown by £15bn ($23bn) – enough to fund the entire development process of a completely new car several times over. Now, after a small misfire in the rumour mills, talk of an Apple car is back on the front pages. But let us rewind briefly to that small misfire and look at where we are at today. Rumours of Apple producing its own car began at the start of 2015; they escalated quickly as talk of a secret...
  • Android vulnerability allows hackers to install malware through MMS

    08/18/2015 5:41:07 AM PDT · by ThunderSleeps · 7 replies
    Tech Worm ^ | 8/17/15 | Vijay
    Stagefright vulnerability in Google’s Android operating system has been in headlines recently due to the fact that a large number of (1 billion+) smartphones are vulnerable to this attack. Since Zimperium discovered the the 6 Stagefright vulnerabilities related to Mediaserver in Android devices, Trend Microlabs has found another vulnerability called Silent Attack which can render Android smartphones to go silent or in a reboot loop after a hacker sends a specially crafted multimedia text.
  • M is for Marshmallow: Google names its next Android update

    08/17/2015 10:50:55 PM PDT · by Swordmaker · 15 replies
    C-Net News ^ | August 17, 2015 | by Richard Nieva
    The search giant unveils the name of its next update for smartphones and tablets. Some key features include a new mobile payments system and some tricks for the company's digital assistant, Google Now. Google's update for Android, its mobile software for smartphones and tablets, officially has a name: Marshmallow.The software, previously only referred to as Android M, was announced in May during Google I/O, the search giant's annual developer conference.The moniker follows Google's whimsical naming convention for new versions of Android. The company typically names its software updates alphabetically and after sweets. For example, the most current version of Android...
  • How to preserve fleeting digital information with DNA for future generations

    08/17/2015 4:40:44 PM PDT · by BenLurkin · 7 replies
    One team has demonstrated that DNA they encapsulated can preserve information for at least 2,000 years, and they're now working on a filing system to make it easier to navigate. ... "A little after the discovery of the double helix architecture of DNA, people figured out that the coding language of nature is very similar to the binary language we use in computers," says Grass, who is with ETH Zurich. "On a hard drive, we use 0s and 1s to represent data, and in DNA, we have four nucleotides A, C, T and G." But DNA has two major advantages...
  • Watch Google's terrifying humanoid robot running through a forest as firm pledges it will soon [tr]

    08/17/2015 1:38:28 PM PDT · by C19fan · 58 replies
    UK Daily Mail ^ | August 17, 2015 | Mark Prigg
    It may have fared badly in the recent robo-olympics, causing hilarity with a series on unexpected falls, but Google has revealed its humanoid robot has been set free in the woods to learn how to run through terrain. The Atlas robot created by Google-owned firm Boston Dynamics is a formidable figure at 6ft 2in tall and weighing in at 330lb. In the video, it is shown struggling to stay upright - but managing to traverse a forest path without falling.
  • Windows 10 reportedly reaches 53 million downloads [Three weeks after launch]

    08/17/2015 10:00:57 AM PDT · by SeekAndFind · 39 replies
    WinBeta ^ | 08/17/2015 | BY SEAN MICHAEL
    We reported over the weekend that Windows 10 is running on over 50 million devices. A new report from Neowin backs up our initial statistic and clarifies that Windows 10 has reached 53 million installs according to their sources. Additionally, StatCounter states that number of devices running Windows 10 constitutes 4.95% of the operating system market.Windows 10 is a free upgrade to many users and is easy to upgrade to from Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. The instillation is rolling out in waves so its download numbers will likely continue to rise. Additionally, it will take some time for enterprises...
  • New privilege escalation exploit discovered in OS X Yosemite, also affects just-released 10.10.5

    08/16/2015 10:01:46 PM PDT · by Swordmaker · 4 replies
    Apple Insider ^ | August 16, 2015 | By Sam Oliver
    Just days after patching the DYLD_PRINT_TO_FILE vulnerability with a new OS X point release, Apple's desktop operating system has been hit with yet another zero-day exploit that would allow an attacker to gain root access without using a password. Luca Todesco on Twitter The exploit was discovered by Italian developer Luca Todesco, who relies on a combination of attacks — including a null pointer dereference in OS X's IOKit — to drop a proof-of-concept payload into a root shell. It affects every version of OS X Yosemite, but seems to have been mitigated in OS X El Capitan, which is nearing release....
  • Top 5 Free Home Security Apps for Android 2015

    08/16/2015 4:38:02 PM PDT · by ThunderSleeps · 12 replies
    Tech Manik ^ | 3/15/15 | Fakharuddin Manik
    You will find lots of home security apps for your Android device for free and premium. Some apps help to monitor your home and family 24 hours in a day. You can monitor from anywhere you want, even when you are in office or travel. Just choose a perfect security app, install it on your Android device and configure it perfectly to make your family more secure. So here. I’m going to share some best and Free Home Security Apps for Android device that you can use on your smartphone or tablet. Let’s check the list to find a perfect...
  • Apple's Project Titan Is Getting Closer To Reality [Their self-driving car]

    08/16/2015 7:27:04 AM PDT · by SeekAndFind · 18 replies
    Information Week ^ | 08/16/2015 | Nathan Eddy
    A newly published report in the Guardian suggests that not only is Apple planning a self-driving car, but that the so-called Project Titan prototype is ready for testing. Documents revealed by British newspaper The Guardian strongly indicate the long-rumored self-driving car program by Apple, codenamed Project Titan, is indeed a reality. The correspondence reveals Apple's interest in GoMentum Station, a 5,000-acre, former navy weapons station in California that features 20 miles of paved roadway, which other companies have used for the testing, validation, and commercialization of connected vehicle (CV) applications and autonomous vehicles (AV) technologies. "We would ... like to...
  • Need help with Outlook

    08/16/2015 6:40:38 AM PDT · by pabianice · 13 replies
    8/16/15
    For years I have been running Outlook 2003 Mail on my PC with Windows XP. I recently bought a used PC running Windows 7 and installed Office 365, which includes Outlook 2013. I have used the same settings in Outlook 2013 as in the 2003 version, yet the mail function does not work. Sometimes "cannot connect," sometimes "test message failed." I use a POP/SMTP server where it says POP3. All other settings are identical. Occasionally the 2013 mail works; usually not. The other Office utilties work ok. Can someone help? Thanks.
  • Vanity: FIOS Encryption

    08/16/2015 6:26:34 AM PDT · by markomalley · 17 replies
    8/16/15
    Question for FReepers who are more knowledgeable than myself on this: Verizon encrypts all of the channels on FIOS. You must either use a [rented] cable box or a cable card on TVs so equipped. Frankly, the cost of the FIOS cable service is not that bad, but the box rental can end up doubling it. Two questions: 1) Do any of you know if there are third party boxes for purchase that would serve the same purpose? 2) Do any of you know if there are any open source algorithms that would accomplish the decryption of the stream? Links...