February 2016 News Wire

Interesting stories about computer science, software programming, and technology for February 2016.

Your Kid Just Got a Drone. Should You Get Insurance?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-14/your-kid-just-got-a-drone-should-you-get-insurance-
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/12/faa-launches-drone-registration-website-gives-owners-february-deadline/
http://techcrunch.com/2015/12/23/45k-register-their-drones-with-the-faa-in-first-2-days/
https://www.faa.gov/uas/faq/
https://www.faa.gov/uas/registration/

Scientists devise algorithm that detects sarcasm better than humans

http://phys.org/news/2015-12-scientists-algorithm-sarcasm-humans.html

An algorithm can tell if your face is forgettable

http://www.engadget.com/2015/12/16/an-algorithm-can-tell-if-your-face-is-forgettable/
http://memorability.csail.mit.edu/index.html

A chief scientist at Microsoft says we’re less than five years away from computers understanding us perfectly

http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-chief-scientist-xuedong-huang-on-the-future-of-speech-recognition-2015-12

“Nemesis” malware hijacks PC’s boot process to gain stealth, persistence

http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/12/nemesis-malware-hijacks-pcs-boot-process-to-gain-stealth-persistence/

Google Computers Defeat Human Players at 2,500-Year-Old Board Game

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-27/google-computers-defeat-human-players-at-2-500-year-old-board-game

Amazon’s continual failure to protect user details could put your other accounts at risk

http://thenextweb.com/insider/2016/01/25/amazons-continual-failure-to-protect-user-details-could-put-your-other-accounts-at-risk/

Report: Robots, other advances will cost humans 5.1 million jobs by 2020

http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/01/report-robots-other-advances-will-cost-humans-5-1-million-jobs-by-2020/

17th century medical pop-up book digitised

http://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2016/01/17th-century-medical-pop-up-book.html
https://archive.org/details/ldpd_11497246_000
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-7jGz0hJjU

Could Super Metallic Glue Replace Soldering and Welding?

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a18975/mesoglue-metallic-glue-alternative-soldering-welding/

Supreme Court won’t force DHS to reveal secret plan to cut cell service

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/01/supreme-court-wont-force-dhs-to-reveal-secret-plan-to-cut-cell-service/

His dad came back from the war with PTSD. His friends built an app to help.

http://www.upworthy.com/his-dad-came-back-from-the-war-with-ptsd-his-friends-built-an-app-to-help

Charging a Smartphone While Driving Isn’t as Free as You Think

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-12/charging-a-smartphone-while-driving-isn-t-as-free-as-you-think

The Sorry Legacy of Internet Explorer

http://www.wired.com/2016/01/the-sorry-legacy-of-microsoft-internet-explorer/

These 3D Printed Trilobites Are Absolutely Stunning

http://gizmodo.com/these-3d-printed-trilobites-are-absolutely-stunning-1752002868

This Smartphone Microscope Can Diagnose Diseases For $1 Per Patient

http://www.fastcoexist.com/3054534/this-smartphone-microscope-can-diagnose-diseases-for-1-per-patient

Windows 95 on a Nintendo 3DS is as strange as you’d think

http://www.engadget.com/2016/01/03/windows-95-on-nintendo-3ds/

Microsoft may have your encryption key; here’s how to take it back

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/12/microsoft-may-have-your-encryption-key-heres-how-to-take-it-back/

Africa’s Tech Gold Rush

http://techcrunch.com/2016/01/31/africas-tech-gold-rush/

Author

  • Tim Slavin

    Tim is an award-winning writer and technologist who enjoys teaching tech to non-technical people. He has many years experience with web sites and applications in business, technical, and creative roles. He and his wife have two kids, now teenagers, who are mad about video games.

Also In The February 2016 Issue

Ideas for most young kids (and their families), from board games and more offline options to online games and apps.

Computers can be programmed to make intelligent decisions. Does that make a computer intelligent?

The many pieces that make up AI have been built and used for thousands of years in many cultures.

Math circles are groups of students who come together to have fun discussing and solving intriguing math questions.

Unit testing tests a set of code with data to test with the code and details about how the code is used and operated upon.

There are several places to go online to play classic video games like Donkey Kong and Castlevania.

How we manage limited resources and share costs is an important question far beyond software development.

For twenty years, since 1996, cars have used computers to control different parts of the car.

Danny Fenjves currently is the founder of Upperline, teaching students how to turn their ideas into reality through programming.

This Computational Fairy Tale explains how loops work through the sad tale of Simon, the hapless apprentice to a blacksmith.

Links from the bottom of all the February 2016 articles, collected in one place for you to print, share, or bookmark.

Interesting stories about computer science, software programming, and technology for February 2016.

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