Facebook is now experimenting with a storage prototype that uses racks of Blu-ray discs instead of hard drives. The discs are held in groups of 12 in locked cartridges and are extracted by a robotic arm whenever they're needed.

For one thing, the discs are more resilient: they're water- and dust-resistant, and better able to withstand temperature swings.

Because the Blu-ray system doesn't need to be powered when the discs aren't in use, it uses 80% less power than the hard-drive arrangement, cutting overall costs in half.

You might think the only reason to care about how fast your state’s Internet speed is so you can know how fast your YouTube videos load, but it turns out that states with faster speeds actually do better on standardized tests.

Whatever the case, the higher your state’s speed, the better, and not just because it lets you browse more cute cat videos than the rest of the United States.

In some countries, the long rise in IQ scores has come to a halt, and there are even signs of a decline. The reason, according to a few researchers, is that improving social conditions have obscured an underlying decline in our genetic potential. Perhaps we are evolving to be stupid after all.

Even though it might sound harsh and impolitic, here is the bottom line: if you don’t want to get shot, tased, pepper-sprayed, struck with a baton or thrown to the ground, just do what I tell you. Don’t argue with me, don’t call me names, don’t tell me that I can’t stop you, don’t say I’m a racist pig, don’t threaten that you’ll sue me and take away my badge.

“Now we’re going to give you what you deserve for meddling in our business and when we finish with you, you can sue the city for $5 million and get rich, we don’t care,” Lt. Dennis Ferber said, according to the suit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court.

n the wake of the phone video of Eric Garner’s fatal chokehold last month, the NYPD last month issued a memo reminding the entire force of the public’s right to record their activities on the street.

On 12 August Microsoft released 40 updates for Internet Exploder, Windows 7 and Windows 8 Pro.

Very shortly afterwards people began reporting their Windows machines bricking – while others glimpsed something they hadn't seen in a very long time: the Blue Screen of Death.

Sysadmins must decide whether to trust Microsoft one more time or to run the gauntlet of hackers and malware writers, applying patches late and infrequently to save their own sanity and their credibility in the workplace.

A quarantine centre for suspected Ebola patients in the Liberian capital Monrovia has been attacked and looted by protesters, police say.

A senior police officer said blood-stained mattresses, beddings and medical equipment were taken from the centre.

"This is one of the stupidest things I have ever seen in my life", he said.

For starters, it’s unlikely you’ll have the just-right experience an employer is looking for. So, what happens when entry-level jobs ask for relevant work experience, and you simply don’t have any?

Several LinkedIn Influencers weighed in the topic this week, with insights on how to optimize a lack of work experience — and get hired fast.

We can only assume this was implemented as a reaction to users believing that Onion links are nonfiction reports.

A Facebook representative issued the following statement to Ars Technica: "We are running a small test which shows the text '[Satire]' in front of links to satirical articles in the related articles unit in News Feed. This is because we received feedback that people wanted a clearer way to distinguish satirical articles from others in these units."

In an internal memo to staff, it’s been revealed that T-Mobile is going to clamp down on users taking advantage of their unlimited 4G/LTE plans for peer-to-peer file sharing and other misuse of their data allowance.

In short, if you’re downloading torrents or constantly broadcasting online using your unlimited plan, now would be a good time to stop.