Google wants a patent on splitting the restaurant bill

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Google Patent Application, October 2013: “For example, continuing with the example of FIG. 4, assume that Users A-C have drinks at a bar and User B pays a bill of $45 for the drinks. User B adds the payment transaction as an expenditure of the group and allocates $15 of the transaction to User A, $20 to User B, $10 to User C. In this example, the balance module 308 would update the individual balances of Users A-C to indicate that User B now owes $115 to User A ($130-$15) and User C owes $10 to User B ($0+$10).”

via No joke: Google wants a patent on splitting the restaurant bill – GeekWire.

I didn’t think one could patent a mathematical formula.

Linux-capable Arduino TRE debuts at Maker Faire Rome

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As Zoe Romano puts it in an Arduino blog post, “the Arduino TRE is two Arduinos in one.” Basically, the new ARM Cortex-A8-based Sitara AM335x’s job is to run Linux applications and manage the SBC’s PC-style interfaces (video, audio, Ethernet, USB, optional WiFi, etc.), while an Atmel ATmega microcontroller takes care of the SBC’s real-world I/O (analog inputs, digital I/O, PWM outputs, etc) and handles the interface to shields (Arduino expansion modules) in a fully AVR-compatible manner. Best of all, Romano points out, the 1GHz TI ARM processor offers up to “100 times more performance” than Arduino’s earlier Leonardo and Uno boards, writes Romano.

via Linux-capable Arduino TRE debuts at Maker Faire Rome ·  LinuxGizmos.com.

What’s unique about the TRE, however, is that its Linux OS runs on an ARM processor that’s truly integrated into the SBC’s basic architecture, as opposed to being a collateral benefit of a WiFi add-on module. As a result, the TRE will support a “full Linux” OS in contrast to the Yun’s Linino OS, a custom version of the lightweight OpenWRT embedded Linux distribution.

Cerowrt

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CeroWrt is a project built on the OpenWrt firmware to resolve the endemic problems of bufferbloat in home networking today, and to push forward the state of the art of edge networks and routers. Projects include proper IPv6 support, tighter integration with DNSSEC, and most importantly, reducing bufferbloat in both the wired and wireless components of the stack.

via Cerowrt – Overview – Bufferbloat.

From their wiki page on buffer bloat:

Bufferbloat is a huge drag on Internet performance created, ironically, by previous attempts to make it work better. The one-sentence summary is “Bloated buffers lead to network-crippling latency spikes.”

The bad news is that bufferbloat is everywhere, in more devices and programs than you can shake a stick at. The good news is, bufferbloat is relatively easy to fix. The even better news is that fixing it may solve a lot of the service problems now addressed by bandwidth caps and metering, making the Internet faster and less expensive for both consumers and providers.

Text Analyser Reveals Emotional Temperature of Novels and Fairy Tales

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Beyond that, once an entire corpus of work has been analysed in this way, it becomes possible to compare them in unprecedented depth and detail. For example, Mohammad has analysed all of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales and arranged them in order of negative word density. The darkest turns out to be a tale called Gambling Hansel.

via Text Analyser Reveals Emotional Temperature of Novels and Fairy Tales  — The Physics arXiv Blog — Medium.

5 Reasons Every Company Should Have A Honeypot

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While honeypots have been used widely by researchers to study the methods of attackers, they can be very useful to defenders as well. Here are five advantages that the digital sandboxes can bring to companies.

via 5 Reasons Every Company Should Have A Honeypot — Dark Reading.

Honeypots fill the gap, because attackers have a much more difficult time predicting their use and countering the defenses, Strand says. Because production honeypots are machines that no legitimate user should be accessing, they also have a low false positive rate.

Ciena Packs New 10-Gig Punch

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The 5160 and 5142 Service Aggregation Switches are aimed at making it more economical for service providers to offer 10-Gig Ethernet services, a rapidly growing category of Ethernet today, says Mike Adams, VP of Product & Technical Marketing at Ciena. The new boxes also target the internal bandwidth needs of large enterprises in datacenters, and they are designed for outdoor deployment so service providers can push more bandwidth closer to their customers and use these switches as aggregation points.

via Ciena Packs New 10-Gig Punch | Light Reading.

By deploying pairs of 5160s in core network locations such as Central Offices, Ritter has been able to have carrier-grade redundancy with dual homing for fiber-optic rings while achieving the same throughput as a much more expensive 10 Gig core switch, he says.

Open source desktop lowers TCO by 40%

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In 2011, the Gendarmerie added 20,000 Ubuntu desktops, and in 2012 added another 10,000. This year, it added 2000 so far. Between March and June of 2013, the police force also performed an update of Ubuntu, upgrading to version 12.04 from 10.04, over its network. “This January, the last constraints will disappear, and we will replace the last proprietary desktop PCs by Ubuntu.”

via French Gendarmerie: “Open source desktop lowers TCO by 40%” | Joinup.

Choosing a Journaling File System

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A journaling file system is a special type of file system that maintains a tracking file, called a journal. The journal enables the system to repair any inconsistencies that may arise as a result of a system halted abnormally. It does this by keeping track of changes that are made before committing them to the main file system. In the event that the computer is not shut down properly, any data loss can be recreated. This type of file system is therefore less likely to suffer from corruption, and brings file systems back online quickly.

via Choosing a Journaling File System – Linux Links – The Linux Portal Site.

Private Cygnus Spacecraft Makes Historic 1st Rendezvous with Space Station

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Orbital officials initially aimed for Cygnus to arrive at the space station on Sunday, Sept. 22, but a data format issue between the spacecraft and orbiting lab forced the company to abort that first rendezvous attempt. Troubleshooting efforts with that glitch and the impending arrival of a new space station crew aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, which launched and docked on Wednesday (Sept. 25), pushed Cygnus’ arrival to today.

via Private Cygnus Spacecraft Makes Historic 1st Rendezvous with Space Station | Space.com.

The other firm is SpaceX of Hawthorne, Calif., which has a $1.9 billion contract for 12 supply missions using its Dragon space capsules and Falcon 9 rockets. SpaceX has flown two of those delivery missions already, and is expected to test fly an upgraded version of its Falcon 9 rocket later today in a launch from California. Unlike Cygnus, SpaceX’s Dragon capsules are equipped with a heat shield and can return science experiments and gear to Earth from the station.

Matchstick-sized sensor can record your private chats

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Conventional microphones work when sound waves make a diaphragm move, creating an electrical signal. Microflown’s sensor has no moving parts. It consists of two parallel platinum strips, each just 200 nanometres deep, that are heated to 200 °C. Air molecules flowing across the strips cause temperature differences between the pair. Microflown’s software counts the air molecules that pass through the gap between the strips to gauge sound intensity: the more air molecules in a sound wave, the louder the sound. At the same time, it analyses the temperature change in the strips to work out the movement of the air and calculate the coordinates of whatever generated the sound.

via Matchstick-sized sensor can record your private chats – 26 September 2013 – New Scientist.