Because they don’t have to germ a court order to make you decrypt and unlock your mobile any more
Police happy with iphone 5s fingerprint unlock
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Scientific evidence of what works in education often ignored
According to Gina Kolata in the New York Times, The Institute of Education Sciences in the Department of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, has supported 175 randomized controlled studies, like the studies used in medicine, to find out what works and doesn’t work, which are reported in the What Works Clearinghouse. Surprisingly, the choice of instructional materials — textbooks, curriculum guides, homework, quizzes — can affect achievement as much as teachers; poor materials have as much effect as a bad teacher, and good materials can offset a bad teacher’s deficiencies. One popular math textbook was superior to 3 competitors. A popular computer-assisted math program had no benefit. Most educators, including principals and superintendents, don’t know the data exists. 42% of school districts had never heard of the clearinghouse. Up to 90% of programs that seemed promising in small studies had no effect or made achievement scores worse. For example a program to increase 7th-grade math teachers’ understanding of math increased their understanding but had no effect on student achievement. Upward Bound had no effect.
http://m.slashdot.org/story/191103
Ghetto shield: Play PC Games on Your Android Phone with This DIY NVIDIA Shield Clone
New report ranks the happiest countries
This year’s report provides country-level happiness rankings and explains changes in national and regional happiness,” said Report editor John Helliwell. Professor Helliwell worked with other CIFAR researchers to analyze data from the Gallup World Poll. “The report reveals important trends and finds six key factors that explain much about national happiness
http://phys.org/news/2013-09-happiest-countries.html
3D-printable mini spectrometer
Osmocom
Osmocom (Open Source Mobile Communication) is a collection of Free Software / Open Source Software projects in the area of mobile communications.Our member projects implement a variety of public and private communications systems, ranging from GSM/GPRS mobile telephony to TETRA private mobile radio, DECT cordless telephony, GMR satellite telephony and many others.The goal of those implementations is to provide free software implementations available in source code, which we believe are key aspectsto encourage research, innovation and experimentation on widespread communications systemsto help interested engineers and students with practical insight into systems they normally only read about in booksto ensure that technical and implementation details of such vital communications systems are known outside the small group of manufacturers
http://openbsc.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/OsmocomOverview
This Equation Can Tell You How Successful a Reddit Post Will Be
Haptix: Multitouch Reinvented by Haptix Touch
Haptix turns ANY surface into a multitouch surface. It’s a sleek bar that you can place flat or clip on something elevated to enable multitouch on any flat surface, such as a table, window, or screen. You can then control any computer by tapping, pinching to zoom, or swiping to scroll on that surface itself. It’s as intuitive and natural as a multitouch screen, just without the actual screen.
via Haptix: Multitouch Reinvented by Haptix Touch — Kickstarter.
This kickstarter project is above it’s goal. Estimated retail price will be $ 70,- and shipping $ 20,-
Skanect by Occipital | 3D Scanning Made Easy
3D ScanningFast, Easy and Low-costWith Skanect, capturing a full color 3d model of an object, a person or a room has never been so easy and affordable. Skanect transforms your Microsoft Kinect or Asus Xtion camera into an ultra-low cost scanner able to create 3D meshes out of real scenes in a few minutes. Enter the world of 3D scanning now!
via Skanect by Occipital | 3D Scanning Made Easy.
Unpatched Mac bug gives attackers “super user” status by going back in time
You do need shell access for a user that has sudo’d before, but still, easy way to get root.
Synchronized virtual reality heartbeat triggers out-of-body experiences
Software Update to $20 Phones Could Topple 2G Cell Networks
In normal situations, when a call or SMS is sent over the network, a cellular tower “pages” nearby devices to find the one that should receive it. Normally, only the proper phone will answer—by, in effect, saying “It’s me,” as Seifert puts it. Then the actual call or SMS goes through.
The rewritten firmware can block calls because it can respond to paging faster than a victim’s phone can. When the network sends out a page, the modified phone says “It’s me” first, and the victim’s phone never receives it.
“If you respond faster to the network, the network tries to establish a service with you as an attacker,”
via Software Update to $20 Phones Could Topple 2G Cell Networks | MIT Technology Review.
ZMap · The Internet Scanner
ZMap is an open-source network scanner that enables researchers to easily perform Internet-wide network studies. With a single machine and a well provisioned network uplink, ZMap is capable of performing a complete scan of the IPv4 address space in under 45 minutes, approaching the theoretical limit of gigabit Ethernet.
via ZMap · The Internet Scanner.
Computer can read letters directly from the brain
Nijmegen researchers can use an fMRI to replicate what letter you’re looking at.
Computer can read letters directly from the brain – Radboud University.
MakerBot 3D Digitizer on sale
This machine uses lasers to scan a small object, allowing you to replicate it in a 3D Printer. It’s an early adopter thing that costs $1400,- but allows you to print stuff without any knowledge of 3D modelling.
Digitizer | 3D Scanner | 3D Scanning | MakerBot.
Five Best Video Converters
This is a usefull list if you don’t want to handle the command line ffmpeg. It recommends 5 other free utils that are easy to use in varying amounts:
MPEG Streamclip (which also works on OSX)
Format Factory
Handbrake (which is primarily a DVD ripper)
Freemake Video Converter
SUPER
NSA Officers Spy on Love Interests
How to Make the Perfect PCB
A very clear howto on creating your own PCB and how to plan and execute your design.
How to Make the Perfect PCB – Part 1 – Michael Leonard.
Microsoft Has Invented a Way To Embed Data in 3D Printed Objects
By printing layered objects within the structure of an object you can put more information inside it to be read with a millimetric radar.
Microsoft Has Invented a Way To Embed Data in 3D Printed Objects.
GPS spoofing for $3000,-
The researchers managed to control an $80 million 210 foot yacht using a cheaply built spoofer. Aircraft were a definite possible target too.
EXCLUSIVE: GPS flaw could let terrorists hijack ships, planes | Fox News.
Spotify: If musicians don’t give us their stuff they get pirated more • The Register
In a study encompassing torrents, releases to new media and concerts it truns out that if music is not released quickly on legal services like spotify, it is pirated much more often.
In Head-Hunting, Big Data May Not Be Such a Big Deal
It turns out that not much correlates with how good a candidate will be, especially at leadership. Test scores (eg GPA’s) and brainteaser questions are especially worthless for finding out how someone will do at an interview.
In Head-Hunting, Big Data May Not Be Such a Big Deal – NYTimes.com.
logstalgia – website access log visualization
What a way to view your website logs, a bit like pong!
logstalgia – website access log visualization – Google Project Hosting.
Vervanging F-16 : Algemene Rekenkamer
All the documentation pertaining to the replacement of the Dutch F-16 fleet has been put online in a website. True transparent democracy!
http://vervanging-f16.rekenkamer.nl/
PAL-V | Flying Gyrocopter
Flying cars have been around for some time in some form or other. This one – designed in the Netherlands – only requires a recreational pilot’s license.
