Government Technology reports: On July 16, Google Maps is going to make it more difficult and expensive to use its API, which could make custom maps that rely on the service less sustainable or even unfeasible for the people who made them… First, Google Maps is requiring all projects to have an official API key…

“Non-compete clauses are common among professionals, justified by a variety of innocuous-sounding and apparently reasonable business reasons,” writes Slashdot reader Beeftopia. “This story shows that, surprisingly, it is a very effective wage suppression mechanism as well, used in industries where it would seem unnecessary.” NPR reports: For many years, fast-food franchises agreed not to recruit…

When it was introduced in the late 90s, USB was the greatest achievement in all of computing. Gone were the PS/2 connectors for keyboards and mice, ADB ports, parallel ports, game ports, and serial ports. This was a Tower of Babel that would unite all ports under one standard universal bus. Then more ports were…

Long-time Slashdot reader reifman writes: If you’re eagerly awaiting your city’s selection for HQ2, you may want to check out GeekWire’s photo gallery of anti-Amazon graffiti images from around Seattle. Animosity towards Amazon has grown in the wake of its threats over a per head tax on employees, which the city council passed and then…

You might have heard that we found life on the Red Planet decades ago but burned it up. That’s not the real story. …read more Source:: CNet

schwit1 quotes CNN: In an experiment with global implications, Australian scientists have successfully wiped out more than 80% of disease-carrying mosquitoes in trial locations across north Queensland. The experiment, conducted by scientists from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization and James Cook University (JCU), targeted Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which spread deadly diseases such as…

An anonymous reader quotes VentureBeat: It’s been more than 20 months since our last browser benchmark battle, and we really wanted to avoid letting two years elapse before getting a fresh set of a results. Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge have all improved significantly over the past year and a half, and as…

GIK Acoustics offers a broad range of sound improving wall treatments. …read more Source:: CNet

With 3D-printing, cheap CNC machines, and the huge variety of hardware available these days, really slick-looking control panels are getting to be commonplace. We’re especially fond of those nice indicators with the chrome bezels, and the matching pushbuttons with LED backlighting; those can really make a statement on a panel. Sadly for [Proto G], though,…

MrBrklyn (Slashdot reader #4,775) writes: Artix Linux, the young systemd free OS based on arch, is reaching a critical point in it’s development and calling for new packagers. Here’s more from the ongoing thread on the project’s forum: You don’t have to be an expert in the occult arts for that; an elementary grasp of…