Day: February 23, 2017

Vanden robotics squad preps for regional competitions

Richard Bammer – The Reporter The RoboVikes’ robot, Ragnarok, a word taken from Norse mythology, meaning a series of future events, including a great battle, a story that predicted the death of major Norse figures, Odin and Thor among them. Will Ragnarok – a motorized, whirring, ball-shooting machine that scoots across a floor like a Tasmanian devil – take down the competition in Sacramento and Boise? A name derived from Norse mythology, the Vanden High School robotics team’s creation certainly looked formidable, that’s for sure, in a practice round earlier this week in a nondescript portable building on the Markeley Lane campus in Fairfield.

The SHA1 hash function is now completely unsafe

Security researchers have achieved the first real-world collision attack against the SHA-1 hash function, producing two different PDF files with the same SHA-1 signature. This shows that the algorithm’s use for security-sensitive functions should be discontinued as soon as possible.

Telefonica-Sigfox deal is a big win for diverse IoT networks

The global partnership announced Wednesday between Telefonica and IoT specialist Sigfox could ensure the latter’s long-term success while accelerating the overall growth of LPWANs . Telefonica said it will integrate Sigfox’s energy-sipping, low-data-rate radios into millions of devices used for things like smart metering and asset tracking.

H&R Block turns to AI to tackle your tax return

H&R Block , the tax services company, is betting that customers will be willing to have A.I. assist their human tax preparers in getting them the biggest refunds possible or at least reduce how much they owe. The company, which has about 12,000 offices in the U.S. and prepares 24.2 million tax returns worldwide, is using IBM’s A.I.-based Watson to do it.

Ransomware ‘customer support’ chat reveals criminals’ ruthlessness

Ransomware criminals chatting up victims, offering to delay deadlines, showing how to obtain Bitcoin, dispensing the kind of customer support that consumers lust for from their cable and mobile plan providers, PC and software makers? Finnish security vendor F-Secure yesterday released 34 pages of transcripts from the group chat used by the crafters of the Spora ransomware family . The back-and-forth not only put a spotlight on the gang’s customer support chops, but, said a company security advisor, illustrated the intertwining of Bitcoin and extortion malware.

Node.js 7.6.0 tackles asynchronous operations

The Node.js Foundation this week has released Node.js 7.6.0, an experimental version of the server-side JavaScript platform that moves forward with async/await capabilities for handling asynchronous operations. But the Foundation advises enterprise users to skip using the new release in production and instead wait for Node.js 8 to arrive in April.

Google-bred company accuses Uber of self-driving car theft

A self-driving car company founded by Google is colliding with ride-haling service Uber in a court battle revolving around allegations of betrayal, high-tech espionage and greed. The brewing showdown emerged late Thursday in a lawsuit filed in a San Francisco federal court by Waymo, a once-secretive self-driving company hatched by Google eight years ago.

Public trust in Google COLLAPSING as millions of natural health…

Google’s insidious censorship of the entire NaturalNews.com website has set off a firestorm of outrage across the independent media, with a wave of readers expressing astonishment and disgust at Google’s indiscriminate banning of the entire NaturalNews.com website for no justifiable reason. NEW: Sign this White House petition to halt Google’s outrageous censorship of Natural News, InfoWars and other independent media publishers.

Cybersecurity of the power grid: A growing challenge

Called the “largest interconnected machine,” the U.S. electricity grid is a complex digital and physical system crucial to life and commerce in this country. Today, it is made up of more than 7,000 power plants, 55,000 substations, 160,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines and millions of miles of low-voltage distribution lines.

Swimmable target for 2040

The target, announced yesterday , is estimated to cost the Government, farmers and councils $2 billion over the intervening 23 years. Other additions to the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management include replacing “wadeable” with “swimmable”, adding macroinvertebrate monitoring for ecological health and requiring instream limits for nitrogen and phosphorus.

Xenex Secures $38 Million In Funding Led By & Company??’s…

February 24, 2017 – Xenex Disinfection Services, the manufacturer of LightStrike Germ-Zapping Robotsa , today announced the investment of $38 million in a funding round led by Essex Woodlands , one of the country’s leading healthcare private equity firms. The financing, which includes new participation from Piper Jaffray Merchant Banking and continued investment from existing investors Malin Corporation and Tectonic Ventures, will be used for growing its sales force, product development, scientific research and international expansion.

Marketlend Appoints Brad Pattelli as Non-Executive Director

Marketlend , Australia’s leading peer-to-peer trade credit platform, today announced that it has appointed Brad Pattelli as a non-executive member of its board of directors. Pattelli brings decades of experience as an investor in a broad range of businesses, multiple prior public and private board roles, and significant expertise in the P2P arena as the former President of LC Advisors, a subsidiary of LendingClub, the award-winning online platform.

Voyager 1 captured first image of Enceladus plume in 1980

Researchers have discovered the Voyager 1 probe captured a tantalising image of giant plumes on the surface of Saturn’s moon Enceladues in 1980 – but it wasn’t spotted until today. Ted Stryke, a philosophy professor at Roane State Community College in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, revealed the discovery on the Planetary Society’s blog.

New display lets you see 3D iamges without 3D glasses

The display itself is three-dimensional, allowing viewers to see a 3D image from all angles without the use of 3D glasses or virtual reality headsets. Researchers foresee this technology being used to help doctors visualize a patient’s anatomy prior to surgery or let the military study terrain before missions.

Atari Announces RollerCoaster Tycoon Toucha Available Now On iPhone, iPad, iPod touch

Following the success of RollerCoaster TycoonA 4 Mobile a , which has garnered over 18 million downloads and 295 million sessions globally, comes the latest entry of the beloved RCT series, where players can design, customize and share their greatest park creations in full 3D with friends from around the world. RollerCoaster Tycoon Touch has already received early acclaim and is now featured as one of the App Store’s ‘New games we love.’

Research institute retains gene editing patent rights

The Broad Institute, a biological and genomic research centre affiliated with MIT and Harvard, will keep valuable patents on a revolutionary gene-editing technology known as CRISPR, a U.S. patent agency ruled recently.a The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board in Alexandria, Virginia, rejected a claim by a rival team, associated with the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Vienna in Austria, that it invented the technology first.a The patent rights could be worth billions of dollars because the technology could revolutionize treatment of genetic diseases and the genetic modification of crops.a Intellia Therapeutics Inc., which has a licensing deal with the University of California, said it would work on legal strategy with the University of California but that it was too early to comment on next steps.a The … (more)

T-Mobile to launch LTE-U this spring

Mobile, has announced today its intention to extend network capabilities with the addition of LTE-U, starting this spring. According to the official press release, the FCC has granted the US operator certification for use on its network of equipment developed in partnership with Nokia and Ericcson.

Canada’s Cosmo Professional Services Counts on QSC K Family…

Today, Cosmo Professional Services provides full scale audio, video, lighting staging and backline services to an expansive client base which includes individuals, musicians, producers, concerts, festivals and shows of every size and scale. “Our rental department offers everything from a pair of speakers over the counter to accommodate someone having a backyard barbeque to full scale concert production for 10,000 people,” says Ryan McLeod, Manager of Professional Services at Cosmo Professional.

Crytpocurrency bitcoin reaches all-time high

Crytpocurrency bitcoin reaches all-time high Bitcoin were worth $1,163.59 for the first time on Thursday. Check out this story on USATODAY.com: http://usat.ly/2mcA0Fc SAN FRANCISCO – What’s backed by no government, created by a mysterious, unknown inventor and reached an all-time high Thursday? If you said the cryptocurrency bitcoin, you’re clearly in the know.

Listen to your bearings

Analytics, remote monitoring enabled by IIoT enable new, more effective maintenance strategies that move users from reactive or condition-based to predictive and prescriptive maintenance With the emergence of Industrial IoT , collecting data from equipment is moving from paper-based, manual inspections to automated systems. This improves both data quality and quantity.

Water regulators tell Oakland to remove Ghostship fire debris from bayside dump

Regional clean-water regulators have told Oakland officials to remove charred debris from December’s Ghost Ship fire that the city dumped near San Leandro Bay and haul it to a landfill. That decision came without testing the material at the dump site, but regulators want the city to clean up the debris quickly and don’t plan on taking regulatory action, Dale Bower, of the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board Watershed Division, said Thursday.

Oakland: Homeless man to sue after police encounter over shooting suspect

A homeless man has hired a prominent civil rights attorney in advance of a likely lawsuit over treatment by Oakland police during his attempt to warn officers about an encounter with a suspect days before a fatal officer-involved shooting last week. In a statement Thursday, John Burris said he plans to file a claim against the city of Oakland on behalf of Patrick Reddic, 29, who says he was detained and threatened by officers he sought to warn about Jesse Ross Enjaian.