Computing

Ann Voorhees Baker writes: The lesson is that sometimes it's worth breaking the fourth wall, to borrow a term from the theater when an actor breaks the imaginary wall at the front of the stage and speaks directly to the audience as himself, not his character. Sometimes when the whole beautiful program or platform just gets messed up, or you mess it up, it's time to break that fourth wall and exit the system entirely and contact the humans who built it and say 'what the heck.' more »

Like fireworks bursting through a smoky haze, protostars ignite within colossal filaments of gas in a new supercomputer simulation of stars forming inside molecular clouds. The simulation covers 700,000 years, and is based on computer code created by UC Berkeley astrophysicist Richard Klein to capture the effects of radiation, magnetic fields, gravity and other physical phenomena and paint a realistic portrait of star formation. more »

Several tracking apps were marketed to individuals for the purpose of tracking or intercepting the communications of an intimate partner to determine if that partner was cheating. About one-third of the websites marketed their tracking apps as surreptitious, specifically to track the location and intercept the smartphone communications of children, employees, or intimate partners without their knowledge or consent. more »

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