Internet Explorer Project Spartan shows large performance gains With the release of build 9926 of Windows 10, I have had some time to get to know the new build. One of the things discussed at the Windows 10 event in Redmond was an update to the browser, codenamed Project Spartan, which is a new fork of Microsoft's browser. There will be a lot of features coming to Spartan, such as the ability to annotate web pages with digital ink or keyboard text input, a new reading experience, and Cortana integration. AnandTech

Fixed that for you: DualShock 4 With the new generation of consoles there comes a new wave of controllers too, and thePlayStation 4's DualShock 4 is arguably the most feature-packed of the lot, even if it doesn't have a screen like the Nintendo Wii U's gamepad. It even works with your PC, and the tinyPlayStation TV too. With its curved frame and thin handles it's the best Sony pad to date, but more than a year on from launch there are still a few teething issues that could be tweaked to make it the best game controller ever. Red Bull (also, use your PS4 as a media streamer without DLNA)

Barrett Brown sentenced to 5 years in prison in connection to Stratfor hack Barrett Brown, who became a cause célèbre after he was charged with crimes related to the 2011 Stratfor hack, will not go free as his supporters hoped. He was sentenced today in Texas to five years and three months in prison. Brown was facing a possible eight-and-a-half years in prison after pleading guilty earlier this year to two charges related to aiding-and-abetting and obstruction of justice and a separate charge involving threats he made to an FBI agent. Wired

What Google Glass 2.0 needs to succeed As previously rumored, Google has discontinued selling Google Glass, its augmented-reality headset. The company put a positive spin on its decision: "Glass was in its infancy, and you took those very first steps and taught us how to walk," reads a posting on the Google+ page for Glass. "Well, we still have some work to do, but now we're ready to put on our big kid shoes and learn how to run." Dice

This battery has lasted 175 years and no one knows how There sits, in the Clarendon Laboratory at Oxford University, a bell that has been ringing, nonstop, for at least 175 years. It's powered by a single battery that was installed in 1840. Researchers would love to know what the battery is made of, but they are afraid that opening the bell would ruin an experiment to see how long it will last. Vice

Cuba's pending tech revolution Cuba is on the threshold of getting, potentially, a massive technology upgrade, thanks to a U.S. decision to ease economic sanctions. But this tiny island nation needs a lot of work. Cuba's entry into the modern high-tech era will require improvements to its electrical grid, a buildout and upgrade of its wireless networks and IT workforce training. This will not be easy, and it may not happen swiftly. Computerworld

Scientists slow the speed of light  A team of Scottish scientists has made light travel slower than the speed of light. They sent photons – individual particles of light – through a special mask. It changed the photons' shape - and slowed them to less than light speed. The photons remained travelling at the lower speed even when they returned to free space. The experiment is likely to alter how science looks at light. BBC

Extra lives: Can GameStop avoid Blockbuster's fate Tim Brooks claims to know 98 percent to 100 percent of the people who visit his store, a GameStop on a scruffy city block in northern Philadelphia. On an October afternoon, it doesn't seem like he's exaggerating. Brooks, a thin 25-year-old with thick-framed glasses and an aura of perpetual enthusiasm, has been working for the video game chain since he was 16. Businessweek

The worst games on The Internet Archive If you haven't heard, the Internet Archive has over 2,200 classic DOS gamesavailable to play right in your web browser. Nothing to download, just click and go. This collection of titles includes fan-favorites like The Oregon Trail, Prince of Persia, Wolfenstein 3D, Dune 2, and Sim City. It also hosts some of the earliest games from your favorite developers of today... US Gamer

Ars' small taste of no-tech travel As I drove toward the final meal of my overnight stay in Portland, I saw a distraught man gesturing wildly at the car I was driving. Having no idea whether he was hailing help or pointing out a flat tire, I rolled the driver's side window down. "Really, man?" he said, pausing to huff at the ground. "You have your phone out! You can't do that!" Ars Technica

Using lasers to create super-hydrophobic materials Scientists at the University of Rochester have used lasers to transform metals into extremely water repellent, or super-hydrophobic, materials without the need for temporary coatings. Super-hydrophobic materials are desirable for a number of applications such as rust prevention, anti-icing, or even in sanitation uses. However, as Rochester's Chunlei Guo explains, most current hydrophobic materials rely on chemical coatings. University of Rochester

Seeing without crosshairs: a survey of the first-person non-shooter The center of gravity around the first-person shooter genre cannot be over-emphasized. Shooters function as more than a pop cultural phenomenon with astonishingly wide appeal. To some they are the main event of video game competition, in more than one sense. Competitive FPS play, both online and in eSports tournaments, demands harsh training and discipline that combines the attitude of athletics with kinesthetic repetition, not unlike learning a musical instrument. AV Club

Less is exponentially more I was asked a few weeks ago, "What was the biggest surprise you encountered rolling out Go?" I knew the answer instantly: Although we expected C++ programmers to see Go as an alternative, instead most Go programmers come from languages like Python and Ruby. Very few come from C++. We -- Ken, Robert and myself -- were C++ programmers when we designed a new language to solve the problems that we thought needed to be solved for the kind of software we wrote. It seems almost paradoxical that other C++ programmers don't seem to care. Rob Pike

The current state of video editing for Linux I often ask myself what the current state of video editing is for free and open source software (FOSS). Here are my thoughts. I've spent many years in the visual effects (VFX) industry from the perspective of being either an artist, compositor, video editor, or systems engineer. (I've even got film creds on IMDB!) OpenSource.com