Information Technology

The US military hopes recording human behavior can replace the traditional password. The US military is investing millions of dollars in a biometric identification system which could replace the traditional password for web users. As reported by Sky News , the US military has signed a multimillion-dollar deal for researchers at West Point, the home of the agency's military academy. The team is working on what are called "cognitive fingerprints," which do not use physical characteristics to identify someone, but behavioral traits. West Point hopes to develop cognitive fingerprint algorithms which learn and recognize patterns of behavior based on how someone uses a mobile device. Whether this relates to how someone swipes their smartphone screen or moves a cursor, patterns are identified and applied to a user in order to verify who they are.

On Tuesday KDE has released first beta of the upcoming Plasma 5.2 . Plasma 5.2 is adding many new features and improvements and we would welcome testers to help find and fix bugs before the final release.   Fedora users are welcome to try out Plasma 5.2 beta, either by running Fedora Plasma 5.2 beta live ISO , or by installing packages from plasma-5-beta Copr (see Installation Instructions on the Copr page) Check out the release announcement to see what new features and improvements are waiting for you in Plasma 5.2. Final release will be in two weeks on January 27, after that we will update the plasma-5 Copr to get the update to all our users :-)

BY  BILL GATES    ON NOVEMBER 18, 2014 I went to Arizona earlier this month to see what the college of the future might look like. What I found taking shape is an exciting new era of higher education that will help more students get a great, personalized education at an affordable price. This future may not always include the lecture halls, dormitories, football teams and other features of the traditional college experience. Instead, the colleges I visited are experimenting with ways for students to get their degrees online, allowing them to take courses anyplace and at any time. These “colleges without walls,” as they are sometimes called, are at the forefront of the effort to broaden access to higher education, especially for low-income students juggling their studies with full-time jobs and families. During my visit, I heard inspiring stories of students who are taking advantage of these flexible learning models t...

Google  today announced  a new take on email, dubbed Inbox. The free app/service includes reminders, bundles similar messages together and highlights important messages. Inbox looks like a cross between Mailbox and Google Now. An Assists feature attaches relevant information, such as telephone numbers, opening hours and maps, to your reminders and emails. Inbox is invite-only at the moment, but you can request one from  inbox@google.com  or get one from a friend who has invites to spare. The service will be available on the Web (Chrome only), iOS 7+ and Android 4.1+. Versions for tablets and other modern browsers are also in the works. Google doesn’t intend for Inbox to replace Gmail. Actions you take in either product will show up in the other. Inbox uses your existing Gmail and Google usernames.

Do you have math homework? Are you in a hurry to finish that page of 30 algebra problems? Worry no more, check out this app –  PhotoMath . Basically, it just uses your phone’s camera to look at your math problem and BOOM. Problem sovled. It’s a really cool idea – even if it doesn’t always work perfectly. However, it shows the potential of smart phone with math homework. Soon, there will be some app (or this one) that can figure out all your homework. Not just math. I, for one, welcome that day. But won’t students just use this to cheat on their homework? Yes. Well, probably yes. I guess an instructor could make it “illegal” to use a phone on the homework, but how could they enforce this rule? Students have always been able to cheat on homework. They could get their friends to help them, they could get a tutor to give the solutions. If you type an equation into  Wolfram Alpha , it will give an excellent solution. Really, the only new thing here is that the level of ef...

Mozilla is working on an app for Android, iOS and Firefox OS that gives smartphone users the ability to easily create and share Web apps. It’s called Webmaker, after the initiative that Mozilla created to promote Web literacy. The app is still in development and won’t be released until early 2015, but Mozilla’s  Andrew Sliwinski  gave me a short demo of the current build. The home feed offers a series of template options aimed at “personas” or particular professions, such as teachers, medics, journalists and small business owners. Users can customise any of them with Webmaker “blocks” which include text, forms, geolocations and more. “Basically, everything that you would need to build a rich, simple Web app,” Sliwinski explained. Most of Mozilla’s existing Webmaker tools are designed for desktop browsers.  X-Ray Goggles , for instance, allows anyone to “remix” their favorite sites and webpages – changing text, images and other clearly defined elements. The...

Spotify has announced new plans designed for families of up to five members, which was one of its most requested features. Pretty much anyone in a family has experienced fighting over a shared account that stops playing music when someone else starts listening elsewhere, so the company is encouraging families to get an account for each family member. The new pricing is slightly cheaper than buying each family member a full subscription but still offers all the features of a premium subscription, such as offline support and no ads while allowing each family member to have their own playlists and favorited tracks. In the United States, it’ll cost $14.99 for two users, $19.99 for three users, $24.99 for four users and $29.99 for five users. Spotify Family isn’t immediately available but will be rolling out around the world over the coming weeks. It’s also worth noting here that Rdio already offers a similar family plan for up to 5 people, so i...