Tech News

By analyzing 600,000 tweets sent on the night US Special Forces captured Osama bin Laden, researchers studied how Twitter broke the story and spread the news. Their data also shows that the Twitterverse was overwhelmingly convinced the news of bin Laden's death was true, even before it was confirmed on television.

Computer scientists are exploring whether machines can read the visual cues that give away deceit. Results so far are promising: In a study of 40 videotaped conversations, an automated system that analyzed eye movements correctly identified whether interview subjects were lying or telling the truth 82.5 percent of the time.

A developer has created a password analysis tool that examines patterns to determine password strength and concludes password-creation policies are the real enemy of solid passwords.

So, the OEMs make money from installing crapware onto PCs, and now Microsoft is making money removing it. Makes you realize why more and more people are buying Apple hardware.

Why is an artist about to sent tweets into space? Nathaniel Stern, associate professor at the University of Wisconsin, and Anu Ojha, Director of the National Space Academy in Leicester, explain.

The nervous questions ahead of Facebook's IPO

If people never did silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done. - Ludwig Wittgenstein

Less than 10% of the code has to do with the ostensible purpose of the system; the rest deals with input-output, data validation, data structure maintenance, and other housekeeping. - Mary Shaw