Microsoft and Canonical partner to bring Ubuntu to Windows 10 According to sources at Canonical, Ubuntu Linux's parent company, and Microsoft, you'll soon be able to run Ubuntu on Windows 10. This will be more than just running the Bash shell on Windows 10. After all, thanks to programs such as Cygwin or MSYS utilities, hardcore Unix users have long been able to run the popular Bash command line interface (CLI) on Windows. ZDNet (also, The First Ubuntu tablet, BQ Aquaris M10, is available for pre-order now)
Bitcoin could consume as much electricity as Denmark by 2020 I'm an engaged environmental researcher and have recently become a bitcoin enthusiast. These are two possibly conflicting fascinations, as previously pointed out by Christopher Malmo here at Motherboard. That's because bitcoin is incredibly energy intensive: at the time of Malmo's piece, he calculated that a single bitcoin transaction requires as much electricity as the daily consumption of 1.6 American households... Vice
Microsoft launches HoloLens emulator so developers can test holographic apps, no headset required As promised, Microsoft today started shipping its $3,000 HoloLens development kits. In addition to sharing that bots are coming to the new platform, the company also released a HoloLens emulator, which lets developers testholographic apps on their PC without the need for a physical HoloLens. VentureBeat (also Starting today, anyone can turn their Xbox One into a dev kit for free)
Hacker reveals $40 attack that steals police drones from 2km away Black Hat Asia IBM security guy Nils Rodday says thieves can hijack expensive professional drones used widely across the law enforcement, emergency, and private sectors thanks to absent encryption in on-board chips. Rodday says the €25,000 (US$28,463, £19,816, AU$37,048) quadcopters can be hijacked with less than $40 of hardware, and some basic knowledge of radio communications. The Register
How to hack an election It was just before midnight when Enrique Peña Nieto declared victory as the newly elected president of Mexico. Peña Nieto was a lawyer and a millionaire, from a family of mayors and governors. His wife was a telenovela star. He beamed as he was showered with red, green, and white confetti at the Mexico City headquarters of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which had ruled for more than 70 years before being forced out in 2000. Bloomberg
Apple Turns 40: Reflecting on Four Decades of History Apple, co-founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne on April 1, 1976, celebrates its 40th anniversary today. The company hung up a pirate flag at its One Infinite Loop campus to pay homage to the Jobs-led team that worked on the original Macintosh, which was viewed as rebellious at a time when Apple was focusing on the Lisa. From near-bankruptcy to becoming the world's most valuable public company, Apple has been through a series of highs and lows over the past four decades. Macrumors
He always had a dark side For a man who built an empire in pixels, Paul Le Roux seemed like a digital phantom. After his name surfaced in the press in late 2014, I spent the better part of a year trying to understand him through the same means by which he'd directed his massive pharmacy business: the Internet. Late at night, I would open my laptop and plunge into an online wormhole, searching for clues about who Le Roux had been and what he became. Atavist
A programming language for living cells MIT biological engineers have created a programming language that allows them to rapidly design complex, DNA-encoded circuits that give new functions to living cells. Using this language, anyone can write a program for the function they want, such as detecting and responding to certain environmental conditions. They can then generate a DNA sequence that will achieve it. MIT
One gamer's quest to achieve the lowest graphics settings When Skyrim came out I played it on a pretty sweet rig, running it on its highest settings and eventually adding high-res mods so I could see every twist in every peasant's rope belt. Now I'm going back to it on a laptop with an Intel HD 4000 graphics card that struggles to run it on 'low,' dropping below 30 fps whenever a fight breaks out or I absorb a dragon soul in that swooshy display of lights and effects. Fortunately, there are mods for this situation too. PC Gamer
Tobii's EyeX eye-tracking controller reviewed When I volunteered to review the Tobii EyeX eye-tracking controller, I had no idea I was signing up for over a month of experimentation and frustration. I never would have guessed that I'd be thinking back on multiple trips to my optometrist and optician, plus the experience of trying out contacts for the first time in my life. I believe that it's important to note up front that part of what you're about to read is clearly not a typical EyeX experience. The Tech Report
Meet the blind gamer with a Killer Instinct Killer Instinct is a fighting game that requires expert timing and split second reactions to succeed online. Oh and sight. You need to see what's going on on your screen to win. Right? Wrong. "Sightless Kombat" is a completely blind gamer who in January hit the "Killer" rank in the Xbox One - and now PC - fighting game. That means he battled his way to the top bracket of Killer Instinct's online ranked play without the benefit of sight. But how? EuroGamer
Ethernet controller discovered in the ESP8266 The venerable ESP8266 has rocked the Internet of Things world. Originally little more than a curious $3 WiFi-to-serial bridge, bit by bit, the true power of the ESP has become known, fully programmable, with a treasure trove of peripherals it seemed that the list of things the ESP couldn't do was short. On that list, at least until today was Ethernet. Hackaday
Wireless tech means safer drones, smarter homes and password-free WiFi We've all been there, impatiently twiddling our thumbs while trying to locate a WiFi signal. But what if, instead, the WiFi could locate us? According to researchers at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory(CSAIL), it could mean safer drones, smarter homes, and password-free WiFi. MIT
Taiwan's TSMC signs deal to build $3 billion wafer plant in China Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC), the world's top contract chip maker, said on Monday it has signed an agreement with the Nanjing City Government to invest $3 billion building an advanced wafer manufacturing facility in China. Reuters
To SQL or NoSQL? That's the database question Poke around the infrastructure of any startup website or mobile app these days, and you're bound to find something other than a relational database doing much of the heavy lifting. Take, for example, the Boston-based startup Wanderu. Ars Technica