Pan-droids: Futuristic "Automated Kitchen" Robo-Chef To Debut In 2017

Many classically-popular visions of the future are starting to pick up steam, but one in particular is really cooking.  No, seriously, it's a robot that cooks...

Just don't let it drink too much of that wine as it works.
(Image courtesy digitaltrends.com.)

TAX ATTACKS! Your Guide To Online Tax Filing

Alright, Americans, it's time to pony up your pennies to Uncle Sam again.  It's one of those necessary evils, like death, except it happens to you every year.  Fortunately, like so many other aspects of modern life, we have computers that are here to help with this issue...

Keep as much of your hard-earned loot as possible!
(Image courtesy bostinno.streetwise.co.)


PyGest: A Python Tkinter Tutorial, Part 5

This is part five in our Python tkinter tutorial series, in which we are building a simple GUI app to process and check file hash digests. In the previous two articles (part 3 and part 4), we configured the input and output widgets for our app. In this post, we're going to build out our app's two primary buttons and hook them into the appropriate input and output fields.


Space Station Sunday: New Experiments And A Fresh Dragon

Good afternoon, space fans!  It's been another fascinating week aboard our favorite orbital outpost.  Here's what's up...

Chilling over the Himalayas earlier this week.
(Image courtesy Scott Kelly / NASA.)

Peppery Pacification: New Crowd-Control Drones In India Feature Pepper Spray

Some police departments used to strive for "less-lethal" weaponry, leading to an influx of options like bean-bag guns, LRAD sound cannons, and all varieties of sprays and chemicals to subdue (but not kill) their targets.  Now, that premise has taken flight on a whole new level: pepper-spray drones.

We can't even control cops that over-use pepper spray...will machines do any better?
(Image courtesy politicalblindspot.com.)

Bodies And Oddities: New "Figure 1" Medical Photo-Sharing App Offers Different Doctors' Opinions, Crazy Pics

One of the most popular social media apps, Instagram, has been growing in popularity so much that some users have even been abandoning their Facebook for it.  Now, an Instagram-type app has found a niche community for people who need to use the photos for research that goes further than what you're wearing or what you ate today.  Enter Figure 1, a photo-sharing app for doctors.

Physical graffitti?
(Image courtesy linkedin.com.)

Bugs, Drugs, and Thugs: DEA Phone Tap Protocol From 1992 Onward Paved Way For Current NSA Programs

Many compelling arguments have been offered as evidence to stop the NSA and other agencies from spying on American (and others') phone calls.  Constitutional rights infringement, invasion of privacy, and simply wasting time and manpower are all noteworthy points that the programs should be stopped.  However, nothing justifies the removal of this century's scaled-up security state better than history itself:  powers-that-be have been monitoring calls for decades, and it didn't stop terrorists one bit...

It didn't really stop drug dealers that much, either.
(Image courtesy anyclip.com.)