Google’s AIY Vision Kit Augments Pi With Vision Processor

Adventure Time open-world game comes to consoles and PC next year

Microsoft Considers Adding Python As an Official Scripting Language in Excel

An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft is considering adding Python as one of the official Excel scripting languages, according to a topic on Excel's feedback hub opened last month. Since it was opened, the topic has become the most voted feature request, double the votes of the second-ranked proposition. "Let us do scripting with Python! Yay! Not only as an alternative to VBA, but also as an alternative to field functions (=SUM(A1:A2))," the feature request reads, as opened by one of Microsoft's users. The OS maker responded yesterday by putting up a survey to gather more information and how users would like to use Python inside Excel. If approved, Excel users would be able to use Python scripts to interact with Excel documents, their data, and some of Excel's core functions, similar to how Excel currently supports VBA scripts. Python is one of the most versatile programming languages available today. It is also insanely popular with developers. It ranks second on the PYPL programming languages ranking, third in the RedMonk Programming Language Rankings, and fourth in the TIOBE index.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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‘PUBG’ rival ‘Fortnite’ adds 50 v. 50 team deathmatch

Fortnite: Battle Royale may have caught some flak from the makers of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, but that didn't stop it from becoming an instant hit. To build on that success (and steal some of PUBG's thunder, ahead of its arrival on Xbox One), the free-to-play title is adding an insane new game mode. Instead of a 100 player free-for-all, it will be two squads of 50 scrapping it out till one team is left standing. The free mode is available until December 17th on PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Mac.

The game continues to amass fans as well. Epic Games latest numbers reveal Battle Royale has added 20 million additional players since October, bringing its grand total to 30 million. As long as it doesn't alienate any more (14-year-old) gamers with lawsuits, its star could keep rising -- even as the battle royale field gets a little more crowded with upcoming The Darwin Project.

Read the full article here by Engadget

France To Ban Mobile Phones In Schools

The French government is planning to ban students from using mobile phones in the country's primary, junior and middle schools. While children will be permitted to bring their phones to school, they will not be allowed to get them out at any time until they leave, even during breaks. The Guardian reports: Jean-Michel Blanquer, the French education minister, said the measure would come into effect from the start of the next school year in September 2018. It will apply to all pupils from the time they start school at age of six -- up to about 15 when they start secondary school. Blanquer said some education establishments already prohibited pupils from using their mobiles. "Sometimes you need a mobile for teaching reasons [...] for urgent situations, but their use has to be somehow controlled," he told RTL radio. The minister said the ban was also a "public health message to families," adding: "It's good that children are not too often, or even at all, in front of a screen before the age of seven." The French headteachers' union was skeptical that the ban could be enforced.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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The new ‘Portal’ game is a ‘Bridge Constructor’ spin-off

Fans have been waiting with little hope for a third entry in the beloved Portal franchise since the second game came out in 2011. It seems Valve has answered their prayers -- kind of. Instead of another first-person teleporting puzzle adventure, the next Portal-branded title is a standalone spin-off of the popular Bridge Constructor game. If a marriage of both those franchises is up your alley, snag it for desktop or mobile on December 20th.

As the trailer illustrates, the game packs in the endearingly wild physics of Bridge Constructor with the titular teleporting ovals of Portal. Sure, it's not the Portal 3 everyone really wants, but it's probably the closest we'll get since Valve doesn't really make games anymore (they handed this one off to studios Headup and ClockStone Software).

Bridge Constructor Portal will cost $10 for the PC, MacOS and Linux versions and $5 for the iOS and Android apps, all of which come out December 20th. Console editions will follow in early 2018.

Via: Ars Technica

Source: 'Bridge Constructor Portal' trailer (YouTube)

Read the full article here by Engadget

'Black Mirror' season four hits Netflix on December 29th

After months of hype, Netflix has finally set a release date for the fourth season of Black Mirror. A trailer for Charlie Brooker's technology-gone-wrong anthology has revealed that the six new episodes will premiere on December 29th. You already have an inkling of what to expect through previous trailers: "Arkangel" (directed by Jodie Foster) shows the perils of overprotective parenting, "Crocodile" explores recovering memories from a car crash and "USS Callister" reflects a Star Trek gone horribly wrong. Other episodes include "Hang the DJ" (about a system that finds love matches), "Black Museum" (a museum of terrifying tech) and "Metalhead" (a terrifying robotic hound, from the sounds of it).

The fourth season appears to be an even darker turn for Black Mirror, but the themes are as consistent ever. The show isn't so much a condemnation of tech (Brooker is nothing if not tech-savvy) as it is an exploration of where tech might go and its possible repercussions. It'll certainly give you something to think about while you're on your end-of-year break.

Source: Netflix (YouTube)

Read the full article here by Engadget

60 percent of organizations aren't ready for GDPR

With the deadline of May 2018 looming closer, a new survey shows 60 percent of respondents in the EU and 50 percent in the US say they face some serious challenges in being GDPR compliant. The study by data protection specialist Varonis polled 500 cyber security professionals in organizations with over 1000 employees in the UK, Germany, France and the US and finds more than half (57 percent) of professionals are concerned about compliance with the standard. 38 percent of respondents report that their organizations do not view compliance with GDPR by the deadline as a priority. 74 percent believe… [Continue Reading]

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Bad Code

Read the full article here by xkcd.com

FIA: Massa eletto presidente commissione karting

Gif: cat

cat..(Read...)

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Google Is Giving Away AI That Can Build Your Genome Sequence

Chrome for business isolates websites for added security

Google handed more security controls to G Suite admins in July, now it's bolstering its browser's defenses for business users too. Today's Chrome 63 rollout brings with it site isolation, Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.3 for Gmail, and granular settings for extensions.

Last year, Microsoft claimed that Edge leapfrogged rivals in terms of protections by adding Virtualization Based Security (VBS) -- which basically keeps the browser within a virtual "PC" and separate from other processes, among them the Windows 10 kernel. Google, on the other hand, is sticking with its sandbox tech.

With site isolation, Chrome can now render content for open websites in an individual process that is kept separate from other pages. If you don't want a blanket approach, you can create a preset list of sites you want to isolate instead -- Google suggests using it for your company intranet. The cost of the extra layer of protection is 10 to 20 percent increased memory usage.

Google's browser already lets all-powerful admins blacklist specific extensions. Chrome 63 takes things a step further by allowing IT admins to restrict access to extensions based on the permissions required (like the use of webcam or microphone).

Chrome's latest version also heralds the arrival of TLS 1.3 for Gmail: a protocol for secure communications on the internet. Google claims the previous version, standardized in 2008, is in need of an overhaul. And TLS 1.3 makes for a faster and more secure experience, with plans to bring it to the entire web in 2018. Google is recommending admins check its feedback forum to ensure your system is interoperable with it.

Looking ahead, there's news that the next update (Chrome 64) will include support for the NTLMv2 authentication protocol, which is already the default in the Windows browser. It will become the default NTLM protocol in Chrome 65.

Source: Google

Read the full article here by Engadget

Volunteers Around the World Build Surveillance-Free Cellular Network Called 'Sopranica'

dmoberhaus writes: Motherboard's Daniel Oberhaus spoke to Denver Gingerich, the programmer behind Sopranica, a DIY, community-oriented cell phone network. "Sopranica is a project intended to replace all aspects of the existing cell phone network with their freedom-respecting equivalents," says Gingerich. "Taking out all the basement firmware on the cellphone, the towers that track your location, the payment methods that track who you are and who owns the number, and replacing it so we can have the same functionality without having to give up all the privacy that we have to give up right now. At a high level, it's about running community networks instead of having companies control the cell towers that we connect to." Motherboard interviews Gingerich and shows you how to use the network to avoid cell surveillance. According to Motherboard, all you need to do to join Sopranica is "create a free and anonymous Jabber ID, which is like an email address." Jabber is slang for a secure instant messaging protocol called XMPP that let's you communicate over voice and text from an anonymous phone number. "Next, you need to install a Jabber app on your phone," reports Motherboard. "You'll also need to install a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) app, which allows your phone to make calls and send texts over the internet instead of the regular cellular network." Lastly, you need to get your phone number, which you can do by navigating to Sopranica's JMP website. (JMP is the code, which was published by Gingerich in January, and "first part of Sopranica.") "These phone numbers are generated by Sopranica's Voice Over IP (VOIP) provider which provides talk and text services over the internet. Click whichever number you want to be your new number on the Sopranica network and enter your Jabber ID. A confirmation code should be sent to your phone and will appear in your Jabber app." As for how JMP protects against surveillance, Gingerich says, "If you're communicating with someone using your JMP number, your cell carrier doesn't actually know what your JMP number is because that's going over data and it's encrypted. So they don't know that that communication is happening."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Dell Begins Offering Laptops With Intel's 'Management Engine' Disabled

An anonymous reader quotes Liliputing.com Linux computer vendor System76 announced this week that it will roll out a firmware update to disable Intel Management Engine on laptops sold in the past few years. Purism will also disable Intel Management Engine on computers it sells moving forward. Those two computer companies are pretty small players in the multi-billion dollar PC industry. But it turns out one of the world's largest PC companies is also offering customers the option of buying a computer with Intel Management Engine disabled. At least three Dell computers can be configured with an "Intel vPro -- ME Inoperable, Custom Order" option, although you'll have to pay a little extra for those configurations... While Intel doesn't officially provide an option to disable its Management Engine, independent security researchers have discovered methods for doing that and we're starting to see PC makers make use of those methods. The option appears to be available on most of Dell's Latitude laptops (from the 12- to 15-inch screens), including the 7480, 5480, and 5580 and the Latitude 14 5000 Series (as well as several "Rugged" and "Rugged Extreme" models). Dell is charging anywhere from $20.92 to $40 to disable Intel's Management Engine.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Google Will Block Third-Party Software From Injecting Code Into Chrome

Catalin Cimpanu, writing for BleepingComputer: Google has laid out a plan for blocking third-party applications from injecting code into the Chrome browser. The most impacted by this change are antivirus and other security products that often inject code into the user's local browser process to intercept and scan for malware, phishing pages, and other threats. Google says these changes will take place in three main phases over the next 14 months. Phase 1: In April 2018, Chrome 66 will begin showing affected users a warning after a crash, alerting them that other software is injecting code into Chrome and guiding them to update or remove that software. Phase 2: In July 2018, Chrome 68 will begin blocking third-party software from injecting into Chrome processes. If this blocking prevents Chrome from starting, Chrome will restart and allow the injection, but also show a warning that guides the user to remove the software. Phase 3: In January 2019, Chrome 72 will remove this accommodation and always block code injection.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Fernando Alonso is the first F1 driver with an eSports team

You've seen basketball and soccer (aka football) teams dive into eSports, and now it's the turn for individual Formula One drivers to get in on the action. McLaren Honda driver Fernando Alonso has launched an eSports team in partnership with Logitech, with Alonso serving as a team principal. The FA Racing G2 Logitech G team -- yes, it's a mouthful -- will compete in a slew of games across multiple platforms, and has already enlisted F1 eSports league finalist Cem Bolukbasi.

The team creation came shortly after McLaren appointed Rudy van Buren as an official sim driver following a "World's Fastest Gamer" competition. McLaren is also the first racing team with its own eSports director.

Alonso explained the move as a logical extension. Each F1 driver is a "gamer at heart," he said, and virtual racing opens doors for a younger audience that might not get a chance to race in the real world. There's also the simple matter of marketing: virtual racing serves as a promotional tool that can get fans excited and might even lead to some taking up motorsport as a career.

The next question is whether or not other teams follow suit. The jury's still out on whether or not eSports teams ultimately help, but it's hard to see other F1 drivers and teams sitting by the wayside. If there's even a hint of success, don't be surprised if a large chunk of F1 eventually fields eSports outfits.

Via: Reuters

Source: G2 eSports (Twitter)

Read the full article here by Engadget

Google’s New Files Go App: Everything You Need to Know

Running With Epilepsy

Katie Cooke is a 20-year-old competitive runner from Dublin. Due to an aggressive form of epilepsy, she experiences up to 14 seizures a day. Despite her condition, Cooke hasn’t let anything stand in the way of her love for running. With the help of her neurologist, who doubles as her running partner, Cooke is never steered off course. With each seizure, she is able to bounce back and keep on going...(Read...)

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Qt 3D Studio 1.0 Released, Powered By NVIDIA's Open-Source Code

The Qt Company is today shipping Qt 3D Studio, its new 3D user-interface authoring system for both developers and designers.

Qt 3D Studio 1.0 has a Studio Editor for creating interactive 3D presentations and applications, the Qt 3D Studio Viewer for testing new 3D designs in action, and is supported across Windows / macOS / Linux.

Of course, this new 3D Studio is powered by the Qt5 tool-kit. This new software package is made possible and based upon

NVIDIA's huge code contribution

to Qt earlier this year of opening the NVIDIA DRIVE Design Studio that became the basis for Qt 3D Studio.

Looking ahead to next year, The Qt Company has already been

planning greater improvements to Qt 3D Studio

including the replacement of NVIDIA's renderer/runtime with a new Qt 3D renderer, better hardware/OS support, and more.

More details on today's Qt 3D Studio 1.0 release via

The Qt Blog

.

Read the full article here by Phoronix