cylonlover writes "There are plenty of different 3D printers to choose from these days, from the popular Makerbot Thing-O-Matic to the budget-priced Solidoodle. These all have one drawback, however, in that they aren't exactly portable. Most need to be disassembled to be moved, and even the fully-assembled Cubify printer isn't really built for travel. But now, two MIT students have developed the PopFab, a machine that does 3D printing and more, all while fitting inside a small suitcase. With different heads, the machine could also be used for milling, vinyl cutting, drawing, and much more, to create a wide variety of objects. The creators have also tested its portability by traveling with it as a carry-on suitcase to Saudi Arabia, Germany, and within the U.S."
ptorrone writes "Open-source hardware company Adafruit has released a Linux Raspberry Pi distro for hardware hacking and teaching electronics. This distro comes with SPI, I2C, & OneWire WiFi. It also has some things to make overall hacking easier, such as sshd on startup (with key generation on first boot) and Bonjour (so you can simply ssh raspberrypi.local from any computer on the local network). The distro is called Occidentalis v0.1. Rubus occidentalis (the black raspberry) is derived from Raspbian Wheezy, and is available for download here."
Hugh Pickens writes "Since the beginning of the republic, politicians have resorted to half-truths and bald-faced lies. While tenacious reporters and informed citizens have tracked these falsehoods over the years, David Zweig writes that until now they've lacked the interconnectivity and real-time capabilities of the Web to amplify their findings. Today, sites like the Washington Post's Fact-Check column and the Annenberg Foundation Public Policy Center's FactCheck.org, which draws hundreds of thousands of unique visitors each month, often provide fodder for public fascination with fact-checking. And don't forget Snopes, the grandaddy of online truth-telling. But perhaps the biggest and easiest target for IEEs (Internet Error Exposers) are period piece television shows and films. Blogs like Prochronisms look at 'historical changes in language by algorithmically checking historical TV shows and movies.' They utilize tools like Google Ngram viewer to bust Mad Men, for example, for using terms or phrases in dialogue that didn't yet exist. Then there's sports, where Charley Casserly, a member of the NFL's competition committee, says he voted against releasing All-22 footage because he worried that if fans had access, it would open players and teams up to a level of criticism far beyond the current hum of talk radio. 'Perhaps the masses don't care about inaccuracies. Many Democrats and Republicans alike will believe what they want and ignore or disregard the truth,' writes Zweig. 'But there are enough experts within a variety of fields rabidly conversing about errors that content-creators — be they politicians, journalists, or filmmakers — are now forced to be on their toes in a way they never have been before. And that's a good thing.'"
Krau Ming writes "After about eight years spent in research, I've made the decision to go back to school — medical school. When I last spent the bulk of my days sitting in lectures, I took notes with paper, and if the professor wasn't technologically impaired, he/she would have posted powerpoint slides as a PDF online for us to print and make our notes on. Since it has been so long, I am looking for some options other than the ol' pen and paper. Is there an effective way of taking notes with a laptop? What about tablet options? Are there note-taking programs that can handle a variety of file types (eg: electronic textbooks, powerpoint slides, PDFs)? Or should I just sleep in and get the lectures posted online and delay learning the course material until the exam (kidding)?"
zacharye writes "RIM CEO Thorsten Heins's interview with the Telegraph on Thursday made headlines for his admission that the company can't keep up with Apple and Samsung without outside help. But there's another interesting nugget buried within the interview that didn't get quite as much attention: Heins says that RIM took a long, hard look at migrating to Android before deciding to plow forward with BlackBerry 10. Heins said, 'We took the conscious decision not to go Android. If you look at other suppliers’ ability to differentiate, there’s very little wiggle room. We looked at it seriously — but if you understand what the promise of BlackBerry is to its user base: it’s all about getting stuff done. Games, media, we have to be good at it, but we have to support those guys who are ahead of the game. Very little time to consume and enjoy content — if you stay true to that purpose you have to build on that basis. And if we want to serve that segment we can’t do it on a me-too approach.'"
An anonymous reader writes "John James Jr., director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, who is responsible for the nation's missile defense system, recently sent out a one-page memo warning employees and contractors to stop using agency computers to visit pornographic Web sites. That's right; apparently they were watching the wrong type of bombshells."
ananyo writes "Astronomers think they have seen the flare of a dying star being eviscerated by a black hole. The signal, spotted by three different satellites, could shed light on the relationship between the smaller black holes seen in our own galaxy and the supermassive ones in distant reaches of the Universe. The stellar victim was first seen in 2011 by Swift, a NASA satellite designed to spot bursts of high-energy photons known as gamma-rays. For more than a month, Swift watched a signal from a distant galaxy, which eventually faded from view. Subsequent analysis showed that the gamma-rays probably came from a star being ripped to pieces by a previously unknown black hole (abstract)."
sl4shd0rk writes "At present, several non-profit U.S. bodies oversee the Internet's specifications as well as DNS. The Unitied Nations, however, has expressed an interest in transferring control of the Internet from the United States. The UN's Dr. Toure says any change to the governance of the internet must be supported by all countries. The U.S. has refused, arguing that 'existing multi-stakeholder institutions, incorporating industry and civil society' will continue to oversee the 'health and growth of the interenet and all its benefits.' According to earlier reports, the push is backed not only by Russia, but China, Brazil and India as well."
jfruh writes "Dan Tynan is a tech writer and blogger who discovered, while trying to post links to his writing on his Google+ profile, that his account had been suspended. This despite the fact that he used his real name and didn't violate the terms of service in any other way. Upon appeal his account was reinstated, just as mysteriously as it was shut down, but along the way he discovered a rash of people with suspended Google+ accounts who can't figure out what they did to anger the Google gods."
coondoggie writes "NASA today continued its development of commercial space systems by splitting a little over $1.1 billion with Boeing, Space Exploration Technologies (Space X) and Sierra Nevada to develop and build advanced spaceships. 'Today's awards give a huge advantage to the three companies that got them, because competitors will need to fund their own development in its entirety. On the other hand, by partnering with the competitors, NASA has managed to seed the development of five different manned space vehicles for under $1B so far, a leap forward for the evolving space passenger market. They've paid for it on a reward-for-progress basis, handing out pre-agreed amounts of money for each specified milestone. SpaceX was well ahead of the other two competitors because of the unmanned Dragon, which has already berthed with the International Space Station. The company has borne the brunt of the development costs itself, putting in about $300 million of its own money in addition to about $75 million from NASA.'"
Full rollout to reach 38,000 scanners by end of 2013.
The petition asking for changes to Apple's Bonjour and Airplay technologies is now online and accepting digital signatures until Aug. 10.
On Sunday night, NASA will land a nuclear-powered six-wheeled rover the size of a Mini Cooper with a radioactive heart and rock-vaporizing laser to the surface of Mars. Here's how to follow along.
The judge in Apple's patent-infringement suit against Samsung Electronics turned down Apple's request that she rule in its favor as punishment for an improper...
A system configuration mistake caused the outage that affected Windows Azure customers in western Europe last week, according to Microsoft.
Enterprise app stores like the SAP Store can change the way enterprise software is bought and sold. Like any revolution, though, it won't be an easy process.
A leaked Lenovo document spills the beans on Lenovo's upcoming Windows 8 tablet, dubbed the ThinkPad Tablet 2.
Oracle is planning to unveil new migration tools that help customers port applications written for SAP's Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise product over to...
Electronic Arts has sued Zynga, developer of the popular -Ville brand of social media games, alleging that the company violated EA copyright pertaining to its...
Whether you're looking to vent or praise, Tell Your Boss Anything gives you the means to do it secretly. On the more practical side, it allows managers to collect anonymous feedback from employees.
PCWorld Editors discuss the Windows 8 final release, important Windows 8 dates and how the PCWorld Labs tests gear. We also talk about some gaming news, including Mechwarrior Tactics and Star Wars: The Old Republic going free to play.
Judge Koh rules that Samsung didn't make it clear in the preliminary injunction stage that the company wanted to cite the prop as evidence against Apple's patent.
Why reach for the coffee when you can game instead? Check out this sweet father-son project.
Microsoft froze the code for its revamped operating system on Wednesday, and by Thursday an apparently pirated version was found online.
The Cyber Security Act of 2012 may be a start, but Congress has a history of missing the mark when it comes to information security legislation.
Are low-budget, open-source consoles the next big thing? Over 48,000 people and six million dollars in Kickstarter funding say they are.
A keyboard flap, stylus support, and new display options are among the possible functions of this capable cover for Apple's tablet.
A new iOS app by Wolfram Alpha tells you everything you ever wanted to know about cats. It's purrfect for cat lovers, and gives headline writers an excuse to use bad puns.
A Jeter sex change and pit bull giveaway were among the outlaw posts to team pages until MLB restored the site with apologies.
Microsoft has released Attack Surface Analyzer 1.0, a free tool that can help system administrators, IT security professionals or software developers understand...
A trademark challenge is apparently prompting Microsoft to rename the colorful geometric interface featured in Windows 8 across platforms.
Cloud services promise low cost-of-entry and rapid return on investment, but those advantages make it easy to overlook associated investments. To find out the...
The Apple v. Samsung Case puts a spotlight on all that is wrong with the tech industry and the patent system.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted late Thursday to send a message to the United Nations' International Telecommunication Union.
A refreshed Galaxy Note smartphone is expected to follow the release of the Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet.
We’ve got a new game from Carnegie Mellon and Stanford in this week’s roundup of free games.
Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC said on Friday it needs to bolster its brand, forecasting a decline in revenue and profit in the third quarter.
Logitech's TV Cam HD is able to run Skype videoconferencing software on a high-definition TV without the need for a PC.
The Dolphin file manager and the Okular document viewer are among the components to receive key improvements in this latest update to the popular KDE Software Compilation.
The Japanese semiconductor industry is on a downward spiral as rival companies in Taiwan, South Korea and the U.S. made gains in chip, memory and integrated...
Samsung Electronics has asked a court in California to strike down Apple's "self-serving" recommendation of sanctions against the South Korean company for...
The dead can't speak for themselves. But they can apparently file U.S. tax returns.
Do clothes make the man or does the man make the clothes? Programmable, social-media friendly tshirtOS claims its the latter.
How do the specs for the upcoming Microsoft Surface for Windows RT and Surface for Windows Pro compare with the Apple iPad? Here's what we know.
The strongly worded order by a California judge saying Oracle has to keep porting its software to Hewlett-Packard's Itanium-based servers is not the end of the...
A new Facebook app lets users share protected, un-shareable photos on Facebook.
U.S. drivers seem to hold conflicting opinions on in-car Internet access, viewing the technology as a driving hazard and even a threat to privacy while praising...
SAP has agreed to pay Oracle US$306 million in connection with the corporate-theft case that Oracle filed against it and a former SAP subsidiary in 2007...
Twitter and Topsy launch a tool that reads every tweet for a sentiment about either candidate, and scores them on a daily basis.
New feature enables companies to identify and analyze "sentiment."
Fan favorites found through dissected code, and we have the scoop.
The point of the new feature is to showcase how Facebookers use the site in compelling ways. Entries are welcome.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have figured out a way of helping developers more easily rearrange their image processing code so that...
Turn your old Android phone into a smart security system controlled remotely, with a little bit of help from Lego.
Oracle's emphasis on cloud computing isn't going to wane anytime soon. To the contrary, on Thursday the vendor held the first in nearly 100 Cloud Builder Summit...
One DIYer builds the nerdiest motorized wheelchair using Lego and Mindstorm NXTs.
Is this new PlayBook RIM's last hurrah in the tablet competition?
The U.S. Senate on Thursday failed to end debate on a comprehensive cybersecurity bill, pushing action on the bill into September and potentially killing it.
AT&T plans to acquire NextWave Wireless, a holder of spectrum that could be used for mobile data services, for about $600 million.
Version 3.5.5 of the LibreOffice free personal productivity suite contains fixes for multiple security vulnerabilities that could be exploited to execute...