For some years now, the most satisfyingly passive-aggressive way of responding to a factual query on social media has been to reply with a link from the website "Let Me Google That For You". On opening the link, your pesterer sees an animation of their exact query being typed into the Google search field, the "I'm feeling lucky" box being clicked and a page showing what is almost certainly the answer to their question. It is a sadistically elaborate vehicle for a simple message: you are wasting both our time by asking a person something, when you could ask a search engine. But the search engine is hardly infallible. It is commonly assumed these days that all useful information is on the internet, but it isn't.

The life of a games console is brutish and short, but some live longer and brighter than others. Launched in 2005, the Xbox 360, which has recently been discontinued by Microsoft, will be remembered as a classic games machine. Powerful and well-supported by publishers, the console was also perfectly set up for the coming era of online multiplayer gaming – via the robust XBox Live infrastructure. Xbox 360 introduced the concept of Achievement Points to encourage greater player exploration of game worlds, and – through the Gamerscore - invented a way to rate every individual user, effectively turning the whole ecosystem into a giant high-score table. Sure, the Red Ring of Death fiasco will cast a long shadow over the machine's history and reputation, but this remains one of the most important and influential launches in the console timeline.

US politicians are considering new legislation that would allow authorities to intercept or shut down drones that get too close to airports. The US Senate passed the measures, part of a general aviation bill, on Tuesday in response to rising concerns about drone safety. It follows a suspected collision between a drone and a British Airways plane near London's Heathrow Airport. Start-ups are already lining up to offer solutions to the problem. The FAA (Federal Aviation Authority) reauthorisation legislation, passed by the US Senate, could also pave the way for the commercial deployment of drones in national airspace - but comes with several safety caveats.

Norway has violated the human rights of mass killer Anders Breivik by keeping him in solidarity confinement in a three-cell complex where he can play video games, watch TV and exercise, a court has ruled. The ruling found in Oslo on Wednesday that Breivik - who killed 77 people in twin attacks in 2011 - had been subjected to strip searches, had been woken up hourly by guards for long periods and that the authorities had done little to alleviate the effect of his isolation. "The prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment represents a fundamental value in a democratic society. This applies no matter what - also in the treatment of terrorists and killers," judge Helen Andenaes Sekulic said in her ruling. The state must pay Breivik's legal fees of more than 40,000, the judge ruled.

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display

When the draft version of a federal encryption bill got leaked this month, the verdict in the tech community was unanimous. Critics called it ludicrous and technically illiterate--and these were the kinder assessments of the "Compliance with Court Orders Act of 2016," proposed legislation authored by the offices of Senators Diane Feinstein and Richard Burr. The encryption issue is complex and the stakes are high, as evidenced by the recent battle between Apple and the FBI. Many other technology issues that the country is grappling with these days are just as complex, controversial, and critical--witness the debates over law enforcement's use of stingrays to track mobile phones or the growing concerns around drones, self-driving cars, and 3-D printing. Yet decisions about these technical issues are being handled by luddite lawmakers who sometimes boast about not owning a cell phone or never having sent an email.

LAS VEGAS: SAS has unveiled the new architecture on which all of its future software products will be based, which will include a suite of applications including a machine learning tool. The Viya architecture can be deployed on on-premise or in the cloud, and the company's aim is to make analytics more accessible to all users, including small and medium businesses. SAS founder and chief executive Jim Goodnight announced Viya in his keynote at SAS Global Forum 2016 in Las Vegas, saying that the architecture supports fewer procedures but is more powerful thanks to an in-memory analytics capability. The new architecture has four key applications from the outset, including a machine learning tool aimed at data scientists who want to easily apply machine learning and data mining techniques to structured and unstructured data in a bid to ease the development of algorithms. SAS has also updated its Visual Statistics application, claiming that it is much faster under Viya owing to the architecture's in-memory capabilities.

Today, INRIX is launching its completely redesigned GPS app, INRIX Traffic. The app uses machine learning to better plot your routes in addition to providing turn-by-turn navigation with maps from OpenStreetMap (OSM). The app uses smart algorithms to take most routing decisions out of your hands (although you can still manually adjust if you'd like to). "We designed INRIX Traffic with one specific vision: To help drivers move through their daily lives as quickly and efficiently as possible. The app uses our advanced traffic science to make even routine trips easier," said Bryan Mistele, President and CEO of INRIX.

Nadine, a robot receptionist at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), is staring at the visitor in front of her. "I remember you," she says. "You were here last Saturday." The long-haired, uncannily human-looking robot pauses as her software runs through past interactions to figure out the most appropriate thing to say. Finally, she settles on: "We talked about your job." At the National University of Singapore campus, a driverless cart attempts to navigate along a crowded walkway.