Those who upgraded to Windows 8 aren't the only ones unhappy with the new touch-driven operating system - Wall Street is too. Just don't expect any of the criticism hurled at Steve "Teflon" Ballmer, Microsoft's shy and retiring boss, to stick.

But all roads leads to Windows, and version 8 of the operating system is actually Microsoft's second major disaster in something it's supposed to be able to do with its eyes shut: its second "New Coke moment", if you will. The first was Windows Vista, Microsoft's last big bet to reinvent the software industry with a brand new user interface, web communications layer and storage subsystem.

A new Reason-Rupe poll finds that an otherwise gun control-weary American public thinks owners of 3D printers ought not be allowed to make their own guns or gun parts.

Supporters of restrictions, such as Slate's Farhad Manjoo, have pointed to the technology that limits DVD players to DVDs from a specified region, or the technology that's supposed to prevent photocopiers, printers and graphics software from replicating U.S. currency, as examples to follow for 3D printers.

Their system uses detectors which have a single pixel to sense light instead of the millions of pixels used in the imaging sensors of digital cameras.

"However, digital camera sensors have a very limited sensitivity beyond the spectrum of visible light, whereas a single-pixel detector can easily be made to capture information far beyond the visible, reaching wavelengths from X-ray to TeraHertz."

Young people are now much more likely to prefer to read on a computer screen rather than a printed book or magazine, according to a UK survey.

Of those surveyed, 52% preferred to read on screen compared with 32% who preferred print, with the remainder having no opinion or preferring not to read at all.

1bir (1 Block Interactive Raycaster) is a simple ray casting engine implemented only in 254 bytes to run on a stock, unexpanded Commodore 64.

The source code in 6502 assembly is available, with extensive comments. A YouTube video showcases 1bir in a detailed manner with both kind of maps and more information, while a Vimeo video presents a shorter demonstration.

“The 400 gigabytes of data is still being analysed but early results show the use of companies and trusts in a number of territories around the world including Singapore, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and the Cook Islands,” HM Revenue & Customs said in a statement.

The ICIJ reckons the files show cash transfers, incorporation dates and links between companies and individuals that illustrate how "offshore financial secrecy has spread aggressively around the globe, allowing the wealthy and the well-connected to dodge taxes and fueling corruption and economic woes in rich and poor nations alike".

In a decision issued today, the US Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that Monsanto must be allowed to patent its seeds—and it must be able to punish farmers who try to dodge the patents.

Bowman bought Roundup Ready each year for his first crop and observed that restriction. But for his riskier second crop, he bought "commodity" soybeans that were intended for consumption, not planting. Still, he found that most of the soybeans had the Roundup Ready resistance trait because Monsanto's product is everywhere.

It is noteworthy and a bit worrisome that the court upheld a finding that Bowman was "copying" the soybeans by simply planting seeds and applying herbicide. In the court's view, that counts as "making" a new item—a patented item in this case—and so it is barred by the patent laws.

A mother was arrested and charged after she allegedly turned to WebMD.com, instead of seeking professional medical attention, when her 14-year-old son was shot by a friend playing with a gun, Santa Fe police said.

Police said the teen and his mother initially looked up gunshots on WebMD.com. Then, seven hours later, the teen’s mother drove him to Mainland Center hospital, police said.

During a keynote speech at Interop, Barrett said: "Our intention is to really obliterate, within a certain number of years, both passwords and PINs and see the whole internet — including internally in enterprises — obliterate user IDs and passwords and PINs from the face of the planet."

These devices could be USB keys, fingerprint sensors or embedded hardware, and require some user interaction, such as swiping a card, stroking their finger over a sensor or scanning their eyes.

Richard Hickman of Decipher Forensics found that it’s possible to pull Snapchat photos from Android phones simply by downloading data from the phone using forensics software and removing a “.NoMedia” file extension that was keeping the photos from being viewed on the device.

He says they have grabbed 60 to 70 deleted Snapchats from phones so far, with at least 40 photos taken from just one phone.