Tech Nerd Here

GLEE - Full Performance of “Glad You Came” airing...

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 16:14:18 -0400

GLEE - Full Performance of “Glad You Came” airing TUE 2/21 (by GleeOnFox)

laughingsquid: Horror Vacui Photo Project Imagines Movie...

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:05:05 -0400

laughingsquid:

Horror Vacui Photo Project Imagines Movie Villains in Their Old Age

8bitfuture: The Lesser Known Uses Of Portals. This may only...

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 20:00:05 -0400

8bitfuture:

The Lesser Known Uses Of Portals.

This may only make sense if you’ve played the video game Portal.

Photo

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 16:05:05 -0400

The Light Cycle - Hammacher Schlemmer

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 16:05:06 -0500

The Light Cycle - Hammacher Schlemmer:

Another birthday present? only 5 months away…

8bitfuture: First SpaceX mission to the ISS could launch this...

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 20:05:06 -0500

8bitfuture:

First SpaceX mission to the ISS could launch this month.

SpaceX have released this photo showing the Dragon capsule fully assembled on top of a Falcon 9 rocket, inside their Cape Canaveral facility. While the company had earlier announced they were hoping for a launch in early February, it now looks set to be at least a few more weeks away:

In a press conference earlier this month, NASA’s Mike Suffredini said SpaceX’s launch would be no earlier than March 20. “There are no big problems being worked but a lot of little things to wrap up,” he said. “I wouldn’t hold my breath, as it is a challenging date, but I would guess we’ll fly within a couple of weeks of that date. We’ll hold that date as we work towards the launch.”

The mission will see the Dragon capsule become the first commercially built spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station. While they will only carry cargo to the ISS on this mission, problems with the Russian Soyuz capsule could mean SpaceX will be used to bring the next crew to the ISS.

Check out a cool panorama of the inside of the Dragon capsule, here.

Password Authentication Scheme with Secured Login Interface.

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 16:05:05 -0500

Password Authentication Scheme with Secured Login Interface. :

arxiv-cs:

Authors: A.T. Akinwale, F.T. Ibharalu

This paper presents a novel solution to the age long problem of password security at input level. In our solution, each of the various characters from which a password could be composed is encoded with a random single digit integer and presented to the user via an input interface form. A legitimate user entering his password only needs to carefully study the sequence of code that describe his password, and then enter these code in place of his actual password characters. This approach does not require the input code to be hidden from anyone or converted to placeholder characters for security reasons. Our solution engine regenerates new code for each character each time the carriage return key is struck, producing a hardened password that is convincingly more secure than conventional password entry system against both online and offline attackers. Using empirical data and a prototype implementation of our scheme, we give evidence that our approach is viable in practice, in terms of ease of use, improved security, and performance.

Stem cells can repair a damaged cornea

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 20:00:05 -0500

Stem cells can repair a damaged cornea:

singularitarian:

A new cornea may be the only way to prevent a patient going blind — but there is a shortage of donated corneas and the queue for transplantation is long. Scientists at the Sahlgrenska Academy have for the first time successfully cultivated stem cells on human corneas, which may in the long term remove the need for donators.

laughingsquid: (Almost)Save the world

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 16:05:05 -0500

laughingsquid:

(Almost)Save the world

We're Underestimating the Risk of Human Extinction

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 20:00:05 -0500

We're Underestimating the Risk of Human Extinction:

singularitarian:

Unthinkable as it may be, humanity, every last person, could someday be wiped from the face of the Earth. We have learned to worry about asteroids and supervolcanoes, but the more-likely scenario, according to Nick Bostrom, a professor of philosophy at Oxford, is that we humans will destroy ourselves.

Bostrom, who directs Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute, has argued over the course of several papers that human extinction risks are poorly understood and, worse still, severely underestimated by society. Some of these existential risks are fairly well known, especially the natural ones. But others are obscure or even exotic. Most worrying to Bostrom is the subset of existential risks that arise from human technology, a subset that he expects to grow in number and potency over the next century.

Photo

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 16:05:05 -0500

8bitfuture: Why QR codes won’t last. Mashable has an...

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 20:06:06 -0500

8bitfuture:

Why QR codes won’t last.

Mashable has an interesting post up about why QR codes supposedly won’t last.

Consider a recent study by comScore, which states that only 14 million American mobile device users have have interacted with a QR code. In essence, less than 5% of the American public has scanned a QR code. So where’s the disconnect?

Inadequate technology, lack of education and a perceived dearth of value from QR codes are just three of the reasons mobile barcodes are not clicking with Americans. But it goes deeper than that.

Humans are visual animals. We have visceral reactions to images that a QR code can never evoke; what we see is directly linked to our moods, our purchasing habits and our behaviors. It makes sense, then, that a more visual alternative to QR codes would not only be preferable to consumers, but would most likely stimulate more positive responses to their presence.

The article suggests that Mobile Visual Search (MVS) will be the next big thing, where you simply point your smartphone’s camera at a logo or graphic, which then links to further information or a sales screen on your phone. It’s a much more user-friendly way to interact with with the technology, and the security procedures used by MVS mean there’s less risk of a QR code sending you to a malicious link.

Photo

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 16:05:05 -0500

New computers respond to students' emotions, boredom

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 20:05:06 -0500

New computers respond to students' emotions, boredom:

singularitarian:

Emotion-sensing computer software that models and responds to students’ cognitive and emotional states — including frustration and boredom — has been developed by University of Notre Dame Assistant Professor of Psychology Sidney D’Mello, Art Graesser from the University of Memphis and a colleague from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. D’Mello also is a concurrent assistant professor of computer science and engineering.

NSA builds Android phone for top secret calls

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 16:10:06 -0500

NSA builds Android phone for top secret calls :

singularitarian:

The National Security Agency (NSA) has developed an ultra-secure Android phone built using off-the-shelf kit that allows US Government staff to discuss top secret materials.

About 100 of the Fishbowl phones were developed and released to government staff. They were designed to comply with the NSA’s tough information security rules yet be as cheap as possible and easy to use.

Photo

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 20:07:05 -0500

^_^

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 16:11:05 -0500

^_^

Hipster kitty

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 13:49:03 -0500

Hipster kitty:

Can you build a human body?

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 22:28:04 -0500

Can you build a human body?:

singularitarian:

Technology has always strived to match the incredible sophistication of the human body. Now electronics and hi-tech materials are replacing whole limbs and organs in a merger of machine and man.

8bitfuture: Jaguar computer receives upgrade. The Jaguar...

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 22:26:46 -0500

8bitfuture:

Jaguar computer receives upgrade.

The Jaguar supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is currently ranked number 3 out of the world’s fastest supercomputers. Now the first phase of an upgrade has been completed, which will be aiming to improve speed to as much as 20 petaflops. It currently runs at up to 3.3 petaflops, up from 2.3 before the first stage of the upgrade. One petaflop is 1,000 trillion operations per second.

During the latest upgrade, its memory was doubled to 600 terabytes (puts my 8GB to shame!), and 960 NVIDIA GPUs were installed alongside 18,688 new 16-core processors. Once the upgrade is complete, it will be renamed the Titan supercomputer.