Ben Kersey | The Verge

Is Bilbo Baggins’ contract in ‘The Hobbit’ legally binding?

2013-01-18T07:23:32-05:00

The Hobbit

Bilbo Baggins is made to sign a lengthy contract before setting out on his adventure with the company of dwarves in The Hobbit, and as it turns out, that contract isn’t entirely without legal merit. Lawyer James Daily has taken a look at the contract for Wired, breaking down the various clauses and waivers to see exactly what issues lie within. There are definitely some problems with the legal script: unusually, the company can decide on its own arbitrator in the event of any disputes, and it’s unclear whether the laws of The Shire or the laws of the Dwarven Kingdom apply to the contract. Daily does note, however, that it’s a surprisingly robust and well written contract given that the audience barely even sees it.

Embodied Avatar project can detect lies with remarkable accuracy

2013-01-18T05:44:08-05:00

Embodied Avatar kiosk

Detecting lies and deception is no easy feat for even the most seasoned agent, but once again technology is helping to solve such problems. Wired takes a look at the Embodied Avatar project, a computer kiosk designed for Customs and Border Protection that’s able to detect liars after asking subjects a series of short questions. The “yes” or “no” answers are judged against feedback from the sensors on board the kiosk: the microphone, for example, picks up subtle variations in speech, while the two cameras help to detect flicking eye movement or dilated pupils. The machine is only being used on a limited basis in Arizona, but the high success rate — 94 percent during one trial in Poland — has the Department of Homeland Security extremely interested in the technology.

UK carrier EE to close 78 retail stores

2013-01-17T06:55:06-05:00

Everything Everywhere

UK LTE carrier EE has announced that it will close 78 of its retail locations across the country in order to cut costs. The company found itself with numerous outlets located within close proximity to each other after the Orange and T-Mobile merger — some even side by side — so the reduction in numbers shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. EE says there are other practical considerations, though, such as low footfall in certain areas as well as the decision not to renew specific leases that are due to expire.

Staff members at the affected stores won’t be losing their jobs either. Front line employees will be moved to different locations, which EE says should help “boost service levels significantly.” The situation is somewhat murkier for managers, however. Only one manager is present in each retail location, so the ones affected by the closures can’t simply be moved across to a new store. Instead, EE says that it will “redeploy” managers where necessary, but it’s currently unclear as to what that will entail.

StumbleUpon cuts 30 percent of its staff as it seeks profits

2013-01-17T06:07:00-05:00

StumbleUpon Beta

StumbleUpon, once the premier destination for wasting time on the internet, has cut 30 percent of its workforce in an effort to bring the company to profitability. TechCrunch reports that the layoffs have brought the employee count of StumbleUpon down to just 75, with interim CEO Mark Bartels saying that the move should make the company “more streamlined.” The majority of the cuts occurred in the marketing and product departments of the company, but some of StumbleUpon’s desktop engineers were also let go — most likely due to the fact that 40 percent of traffic to the site now comes from mobile devices.

As TechCrunch points out, falling traffic has been StumbleUpon’s main problem ever since its redesign in December 2011, with the visual changes failing to resonate with users. Competition from the likes of Pinterest has also aided the decline in traffic, so much so that StumbleUpon launched yet another redesign in October 2012 that closely mirrored its competitor. Despite everything, the site is still in a “healthy financial state,” according to Bartels, with revenue continuing to grow thanks to a slew of advertisers. The company has failed to hire a new CEO since Garrett Camp left the position in May 2012, however, so the site could be shopping for a buyer by focusing on profitability. A potential acquisition is an option that Bartels rejects, though: “The board and the leadership team here want to be an independent entity. We’re not looking at strategic options right now.”

Seven short stories about drones told through Twitter

2013-01-16T06:05:06-05:00

drone 765

The US continues its practice of using tactical drones to take out targets in foreign countries, but there are those out there trying to highlight the issue the best way they can. Teju Cole, writer and art historian, is one such person, using Twitter to succinctly post short stories about such drones. Gawker has rounded up all seven, with each confined to its own tweet while serving to underline the gravity of the situation. The writer closes by pointing readers towards more information about drone strikes, detailing who uses them as well as how they’re used. The collection goes to show just how compelling Twitter can be when used in such an effective manner.

1. Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself. Pity. A signature strike leveled the florist’s.
— Teju Cole (@tejucole) January 14, 2013

How Lenovo rose to the top of the PC industry

2013-01-15T07:35:03-05:00

Gallery Photo: Lenovo S-Series hands-on pictures

Lenovo has turned itself into one of the largest PC manufacturers in just a few short years, but how did the company do it? The Economist has profiled the Chinese OEM, looking at its humble beginnings, the acquisition of IBM’s PC business, and its “Protect and Attack” strategy. The manufacturer managed to gain a strong foothold in China and the international market thanks to a constant barrage of new products along with aggressive retail sales partnerships. Lenovo may have climbed to the top despite the declining PC market, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t still challenges to overcome. The manufacturer is still jousting for first place with HP in worldwide PC shipments, and its long term goal is still to generate some healthier profit margins with a wider range of products.

Astronomers have found the largest structure in the universe

2013-01-15T06:01:05-05:00

Quasar (Nasa)

An international team of astronomers led by the University of Central Lancashire in the UK has discovered “the largest known structure in the universe.” The team says that the recently observed large quasar group — comprised of dozens of highly energetic star-like objects — has a typical size of 500 Megaparsecs, but the size of the cluster is closer to 1200 Mpc at its widest point. To put that into perspective, the distance between our own Milky Way galaxy and Andromeda is about 0.75 Mpc.

The discovery has larger implications for the study of cosmology too. Albert Einstein’s Cosmological Principle states that the universe looks the same regardless of the observation point when viewed at a large enough scale. Einstein’s principle — combined with modern cosmological theories — suggests that astronomers shouldn’t be able to find structures larger than 370 Mpc. This particular large quasar group isn’t the only structure to question Einstein’s theory either: the team is also looking at “similar cases which add further weight to [the] challenge.” The group of astronomers say that they will continue their research in the meantime.

Doctors develop a pill-sized 3D camera to help them diagnose cancer

2013-01-14T06:39:46-05:00

Tethered pill camera

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have developed a new pill camera that will help to detect ailments such as Barrett’s esophagus by generating 3D renders of internal organs. Current pill cameras are only able to take quick pictures of the esophagus before making their way through the intestines, but a thin wire has been attached to the new camera that allows doctors to move it up and down the body at will. The new device doesn’t just take simple pictures, either. It can also provide a full 3D rendering of the esophagus through optical frequency domain imaging, a technique that uses infrared light as opposed to ultrasound waves.

The new devices should help doctors to avoid typical endoscopies, which normally involve inserting flexible cameras through the throat while the patient is sedated. The less invasive method will open up screenings to a wider range of patients as a result, allowing doctors to check for early signs of cancer — as well as other diseases — in the esophagus.

BlackBerry 10 sees 15,000 app submissions in less than two days

2013-01-14T04:46:25-05:00

Gallery Photo: BlackBerry 10 SDK Beta 3 photos

RIM will be facing an uphill battle when it does eventually launch BlackBerry 10, but the company is making sure it’ll have a healthy selection of apps from the get-go by incentivizing developers. RIM recently hosted two Port-a-Thon events to encourage developers to submit their games and general apps for BlackBerry 10, offering $100 for any app approved to the store. Naturally, the promise of cash seems to have worked: 15,000 apps were submitted over the course of 37.5 hours.

Money wasn’t the only incentive, though, as BlackBerry hardware was also on offer. The first developers submitting between two and five approved apps were promised a free PlayBook, while those writing more than five approved apps were entered into a random draw to receive a BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha device. It’s doubtful that every app will be approved for the store, but RIM needs as many submissions as possible if the company hopes for a successful launch.

US Department of Homeland Security advises disabling Java following fresh zero-day vulnerability

2013-01-12T07:16:03-05:00

Java logo

A new Trojan horse has been discovered that exploits a flaw found in Java, leaving computers running Windows, Mac OS, and Linux vulnerable to attack. Mal/JavaJar-B allows attackers to remotely trigger code once it infects a system, potentially leading to the installation of malware, or even ransomware. Oracle hasn’t yet patched the vulnerability, which targets even the latest version of Java.

US-CERT recommends that users disable Java in web browsers

The issue is so large that the Computer Emergency Readiness Team at the Department of Homeland Security has urged users to disable Java. The governmental organization says in a release that the vulnerability “is being actively exploited” and that “exploit code is publicly available.” US-CERT recommends that Java be disabled in the browser until an update is pushed out by Oracle.

In fact, Apple has already taken those very steps for Mac OS X users. The company has pushed a revision to its Xprotect.plist blacklist that updates the minimum required version of Java to a future version that hasn’t yet been released. The vulnerability works across all Java plug-in versions up to 1.7.0_10-b18, with Apple updating its blacklist to require b19. As a result, the anti-malware service installed on Mac OS X prevents the Java browser plug-in from running at all.