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What was highest label on your first car speedometer?

  • 80 mph
  • 88 mph
  • 100 mph
  • 120 mph
  • 150 mph
  • it was in kph like civilized countries use you insensitive clod
  • Other (please specify in comments)

[ Results | Polls ]
Comments:43 | Votes:95

posted by janrinok on Sunday September 15 2019, @09:48PM   Printer-friendly
from the be-still-my-beating-heart dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow2718

A finger on the pulse of sensor developments

Once upon a time, fingerprint sensors were only associated with law enforcement and corporate security. Now, they've become so commonplace that they are even used in mobile phones. The biometric technologies found in such sensors are mostly based on optical or silicon devices. However, these are hampered by various limitations. Optical sensors are bulky, inflexible and costly. While not as expensive, silicon sensors are also inflexible and have a small acquisition surface.

The EU PYCSEL project overcame these drawbacks using flexible electronics, also known as thin, organic and large-area electronics (TOLAEs). TOLAE sensors are thin (less than 200 μm), flexible and low-cost, with a high resolution (500 ppi) and a large active area (76 mm x 81 mm). With this technology, the project team developed a thermal fingerprint sensor that isn't bulky and which provides high-resolution fingerprint images at a reduced cost. This makes it well suited for applications such as smart cards and automotive contexts like steering wheels or gears.

The device is a one-finger sensor with 256 x 256 pixels at 500 ppi. It is also the first fingerprint sensor in the world that combines printed pyroelectric polyvinylidene fluoride-based layers above an indium gallium zinc oxide thin-film transistor active matrix on a flexible plastic foil. The device is an active thermal fingerprint sensor. It has ridges touching the pixels, pumping heat and therefore creating a temperature difference with valleys that don't touch the sensor.


Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Sunday September 15 2019, @07:25PM   Printer-friendly
from the gets-back-under-duvet-regardless dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Once or twice weekly daytime nap linked to lower heart attack/stroke risk: But no such association found for greater frequency or duration of naps

The impact of napping on heart health has been hotly contested. Many of the published studies on the topic have failed to consider napping frequency, or focused purely on cardiovascular disease deaths, or compared regular nappers with those not opting for a mini siesta, say the researchers.

In a bid to try and address these issues, they looked at the association between napping frequency and average nap duration and the risk of fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular disease 'events,' such as heart attack, stroke, or heart failure, among 3462 randomly selected residents of Lausanne, Switzerland.

Each participant was aged between 35 and 75, when recruited between 2003 and 2006 to the CoLaus study. This has been looking at the factors behind the development of cardiovascular disease. Participants' first check-up took place between 2009 and 2012, when information on their sleep and nap patterns in the previous week was collected, and their health was then subsequently monitored for an average of 5 years.

Over half (58%, 2014) of the participants said they didn't nap during the previous week; around one in five (19%, 667) said they took one to two naps; around one in 10 (12%, 411) said they took three to five; while a similar proportion (11%, 370) said they took six to seven.

Frequent nappers (3-7 naps a week) tended to be older, male, smokers, weigh more, and to sleep for longer at night than those who said they didn't nap during the day. And they reported more daytime sleepiness and more severe obstructive sleep apnea -- a condition in which the walls of the throat relax and narrow during sleep, interrupting normal breathing.

During the monitoring period, there were 155 fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular disease 'events'.

Occasional napping, once to twice weekly, was associated with an almost halving in attack/stroke/heart failure risk (48%) compared with those who didn't nap at all.


Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Sunday September 15 2019, @05:08PM   Printer-friendly
from the didn't-see-it-coming dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow2718

While Apple and Microsoft strain to sell augmented reality as the next major computing platform, many of the startups aiming to beat them to the punch are crashing and burning. Daqri, which built enterprise-grade AR headsets, has shuttered its HQ, laid off many of its employees and is selling off assets ahead of a shutdown, former employees and sources close to the company tell TechCrunch.

In an email obtained by TechCrunch, the nearly 10-year-old company told its customers that it was pursuing an asset sale and was shutting down its cloud and smart-glasses hardware platforms by the end of September.

"I think the large majority of people who worked [at Daqri] are sad to see it closing down," a former employee told TechCrunch. "[I] wish the end result was different."

[...] Daqri faced substantial challenges from competing headset makers, including Magic Leap and Microsoft, which were backed by more expansive war chests and institutional partnerships. While the headset company struggled to compete for enterprise customers, Daqri benefited from investor excitement surrounding the broader space. That is, until the investment climate for AR startups cooled.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/12/another-high-flying-heavily-funded-ar-headset-startup-is-shutting-down/


Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Sunday September 15 2019, @02:44PM   Printer-friendly
from the perhaps-not-as-old-as-she-looks dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow2718

Study finds the universe might be 2 billion years younger

New calculations suggest the universe could be a couple billion years younger than scientists now estimate, and even younger than suggested by two other calculations published this year that trimmed hundreds of millions of years from the age of the cosmos.

The huge swings in scientists' estimates—even this new calculation could be off by billions of years—reflect different approaches to the tricky problem of figuring the universe's real age.

"We have large uncertainty for how the stars are moving in the galaxy," said Inh Jee, of the Max Plank Institute in Germany, lead author of the study in Thursday's journal Science .

Scientists estimate the age of the universe by using the movement of stars to measure how fast it is expanding. If the universe is expanding faster, that means it got to its current size more quickly, and therefore must be relatively younger.

The expansion rate, called the Hubble constant , is one of the most important numbers in cosmology. A larger Hubble Constant makes for a faster moving—and younger—universe.

The generally accepted age of the universe is 13.7 billion years, based on a Hubble Constant of 70.


Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Sunday September 15 2019, @12:23PM   Printer-friendly
from the get-off-our-lawn! dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow2718

Stormclouds gather for Facebook's Libra currency

International outcry is mounting over Facebook's Libra—with central banks, governments and regulators railing against the social media giant's upstart cryptocurrency. Facebook unveiled plans in June for Libra—which will roll out in 2020—to be backed by a basket of currency assets to avoid the wild swings of Bitcoin and other virtual units. Facing staunch opposition in Europe, Libra's boss admitted to AFP late on Thursday that it could yet decide not to operate in the region.

"We do not want to play at being pirates," said Bertrand Perez, managing director of the Libra Association, on the sidelines of a cryptocurrency event in Paris. "If the European Central Bank refuses us permission to operate in Europe, then we will not operate there," Perez said, describing regulatory concerns as "legitimate" but not insurmountable.

The Libra Association, a nonprofit organisation based in Geneva, has been formed to oversee the digital currency's network.

France has become the latest vocal opponent, warning it would block Libra's development in Europe because the proposed currency threatens the "monetary sovereignty" of governments. "I want to be absolutely clear: in these conditions, we cannot authorise the development of Libra on European soil," French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Thursday.

The Silicon Valley giant wants to tap into its two billion Facebook users around the world, which it hopes will use Libra for online shopping, financial services and payments. Yet Le Maire fired back: "The monetary sovereignty of countries is at stake" from a "possible privatisation of money ... by a sole actor with more than two billion users on the planet." A top ECB official recently warned that Libra could harm both the institution and the euro.

"I sincerely hope that the people of Europe will not be tempted to leave behind the safety and soundness of established payment solutions and channels in favour of the beguiling but treacherous promises of Facebook's siren call," said ECB board member Yves Mersch. Nevertheless, Emilien Bernard-Alzias, a London-based lawyer who specialises in financial markets and cryptomoney, talked down the impact of growing global opposition to Libra.

He told AFP that such "political statements have no real legal meaning" and their "alarmist" arguments were unlikely to stop the birth of Libra—even if the possibility of an outright ban cannot be completely ruled out.


Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Sunday September 15 2019, @10:06AM   Printer-friendly
from the can't-do-that dept.

As reported by CBC's Liz Thompson here

The House of Commons will review all MP websites after an investigation by CBC News revealed that dozens of them have trackers that can be used to target advertising to people who have visited the sites.

... at least 99 had one or more trackers used to target advertising.

In a follow-up announcement, all MPs have now had links from the Canadian House of Commons website to their websites cut for the duration of the election.

The House of Commons has cut its links to the websites of all 334 outgoing members of Parliament after it discovered the sites of some MPs were being used to campaign for re-election.

A review by CBC News late Wednesday found that 87% of the websites for NDP MPs were automatically redirecting to the NDP.ca campaign site or MP re-election campaign sites with donation buttons.

It is illegal to use any government resources to get yourself (re-)elected in Canada. That includes web sites hosted by the House of Commons for sitting MPs.

My bet is that most MPs probably don't know that all those social media sharing icons are themselves trackers.


Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Sunday September 15 2019, @07:42AM   Printer-friendly
from the ziggy-approves dept.

Small nuclear towers several stories high and 100 meters wide are being considered as an option to replace coal as Australia's energy plans for the future are reviewed. The design is based on nuclear plants used in submarines but with the prime minister of Australia labelling the idea as being 'loopy' it may not get off the ground.

Dr Ziggy Switkowski, former chair of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, told a parliamentary inquiry hearing on August 29 in Sydney that small modular reactors could have a role in powering small towns with populations of about 100,000 to support mining sites and desalination plants.

"On paper, they look terrific," Dr Switkowski said. "They are small and they can be built subsurface. They can be gas cooled, so the demand for water cooling is reduced.

"The nuclear fuel rods are designed as a nuclear battery that needs to be replaced perhaps only every 10 years or so, and the level of radioactive by-product is low."

Dr Switkowski said the capital cost was much lower than the cost of large-scale nuclear.

"All of that, to me, is irresistibly attractive. And the technology starts with proven applications such as nuclear submarines, although obviously there are differences to that," he said.

However, Dr Switkowski said it could take five to 10 years for enough reactors to be rolled out so Australia can assess their feasibility and whether it can make them work.


Original Submission

posted by Fnord666 on Sunday September 15 2019, @05:25AM   Printer-friendly
from the how-do-you-anchor-it-to-green-cheese? dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow2718

Fans of sci-fi and fringe tech may already be familiar with the idea of the "space elevator," which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like — and totally impossible with today's technology. But a pair of scientists think they've found an alternative: a Moon elevator. And it's slightly less insane... technically.

The idea of the space elevator, first explored in detail by Arthur C. Clarke in his novel "The Fountains of Paradise," is essentially a tower so tall it reaches space. Instead of launching ships and materials from the surface of the Earth to orbit, you just put them in the elevator of this tower and when they reach the top, somewhere about 26,000 miles up in geosynchronous orbit, they're already beyond gravity's pull, for all intents and purposes.

It's a fun idea, but the simple fact is that this tower would need to be so strong to support its own weight, and that of the counterweight at the far end, that no known material or even reasonably hypothetical one will do it. Not by a long shot. So the space elevator has remained well on the "fiction" side of science fiction since its first proposal. Hasn't stopped people from patenting it, though.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/12/scientists-propose-spaceline-elevator-to-the-moon/


Original Submission

posted by Fnord666 on Sunday September 15 2019, @03:04AM   Printer-friendly
from the hello-pot-it's-kettle dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Russia has complained to both Facebook and Google, claiming adverts they circulated "interfered" with elections in the country.

The adverts were seen on social media and the web while local elections were under way in Russia this weekend.

Facebook said Russia should talk to advertisers, who were responsible for complying with local laws.

Google said it supported "responsible" political advertising that complied with Russian laws.

Russia's communications watchdog Roskomnadzor said Google and Facebook had flouted its demand to ban political advertising while voting was under way across the country.

"Such actions can be seen as interference in Russia's sovereign affairs and hindering the conduct of democratic elections in the Russian Federation," it said in a statement.

Russian laws put strict limits on when political adverts can be run and demands they are not seen while elections are ongoing.


Original Submission

posted by Fnord666 on Sunday September 15 2019, @12:43AM   Printer-friendly
from the disinformation-aggravation dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow2718

The best medicine against online disinformation is an informed society that's thinking critically. The problem is there are no shortcuts to universal education.

Enter Finnish Public Broadcasting Company, Yle, which is hoping to harness the engagement power of gamification to accelerate awareness and understanding of troll tactics and help more people spot malicious internet fakes. It has put together an online game, called Troll Factory, that lets you play at being, well, a hateful troll. Literally.

The game begins with a trigger warning that it uses "authentic social media content" that viewers may find disturbing. If you continue to play you'll see examples of Islamophobic slogans and memes that have actually been spread on social media. So the trigger warning is definitely merited.

The game itself takes the form of a messaging app style conversation on a virtual smartphone in which you are tasked by the troll factory boss to whip up anti-immigrant sentiment. You do this by making choices about which messages to post online and the methods used to amplify distribution.

Online disinformation tactics intended to polarize public discourse which are depicted in the game include the seeding of conspiracy theory memes on social media; the exploitation of real news events to spread fake claims; microtargeting of hateful content at different demographics and platforms; and the use of paid bots to amplify propaganda so that hateful views appear more widely held than they really are.

After completing an inaugural week's work in the troll factory, the game displays a rating and shows how many shares and follows your dis-ops garnered. This is followed by contextual information on the influencing methods demonstrated — putting the activity you've just participated in into wider context.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/13/this-game-uses-troll-tactics-to-teach-critical-thinking/


Original Submission

posted by Fnord666 on Saturday September 14 2019, @08:01PM   Printer-friendly
from the business-as-usual dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Microsoft's build 18362.356 (KB4515384​​​​​) for its Windows 10 May 2019 Update (version 1903) rolled out on Tuesday with security improvements for Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, networking tech and input devices – and a CPU usage fix that, for some, has broken desktop search.

The security tweaks address a variety of speculative execution side-channel vulnerabilities known as microarchitecture data sampling (MDS) for 32-bit x86 versions of Windows. Intel dealt with the CVEs at issue – CVE-2019-11091, CVE-2018-12126, CVE-2018-12127, CVE-2018-12130 – in May.

The update, released concurrently with Build 17763.737 for the Windows 10 October 2018 Update (v1809), also includes security enhancements for assorted Windows components.

Microsoft says its update fixes a high CPU usage problem associated with SearchUI.exe reported by a small number of users who disabled searching the web via Windows Desktop Search.

But its fix has nixed SearchUI.exe for some. Those griping claim SearchUI.exe, a part of Cortana, won't launch after installing KB4515384.

"What a mess – I had the original issue with SearchUI.exe and it sending my CPU to unparalleled heights and showing a big black pane of nothing," wrote Reddit user cyrenaic101 in a complaint thread. "So I uninstalled that turd. And then here comes the 'fix' KB4515384. Search completely broken..."

-- submitted from IRC


Original Submission

posted by Fnord666 on Saturday September 14 2019, @05:39PM   Printer-friendly
from the so-it-begins dept.

The Japanese environment minister says Japan may have to dump the radioactive water from the destroyed nuclear power plants at Fukushima into the sea.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-fukushima-water/japan-will-have-to-dump-radioactive-fukushima-water-into-pacific-minister-says-idUSKCN1VV0CC

Tokyo Electric, or Tepco, has collected more than 1 million tonnes of contaminated water from the cooling pipes used to keep fuel cores from melting since the plant was crippled by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

"The only option will be to drain it into the sea and dilute it," the minister, Yoshiaki Harada, told a news briefing in Tokyo.

"The whole of the government will discuss this, but I would like to offer my simple opinion."

The government is awaiting a report from an expert panel before making a final decision on how to dispose of the radioactive water.

[...] The utility says it will run out of room to store the water by 2022. Harada did not say how much water would need to be dumped into the ocean.

Any green light from the government to dump the waste into the sea would anger neighbors such as South Korea, which summoned a senior Japanese embassy official last month to explain how the Fukushima water would be dealt with.

An unreliable source noted that Cthulhu have muttered something along the lines of "fools ... godzilla ..." something or other.


Original Submission

posted by Fnord666 on Saturday September 14 2019, @03:18PM   Printer-friendly
from the it's-a-start dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow2718

Most of the robocalls you get aren't coming from AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile numbers

Most of the robocalls you get aren't coming from AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile numbers

A new report suggests that the United States' top mobile carriers are making headway in the fight against annoying robocalls.

The data analytics company Transaction Network Services (TNS) released its bi-annual "Robocall Report" on Thursday, and some of the emerging unwanted call trends included an increase in hijacking mobile numbers and a shift to spoofing toll-free numbers.

However, the most promising news for consumers was that only 12% of high-risk calls received during the first six months of 2019 originated from numbers owned by AT&T, CenturyLink, Comcast, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon.

These carriers account for 70% of the nation's overall call volume.

Bill Versen, the chief product officer at TNS, said in a statement that means top-tier carriers are successfully blocking more robocalls. He added that regulatory and policy action, as well as the adoption of AI and advanced data analytics, have made it "more difficult for bad actors to place scam and fraud robocalls."

Versen also warns that it's too soon to call that a victory.

"The report suggests the need for diligence as the battlefront may shift to smaller regional and rural carriers further behind on their path to a call authentication framework and utilizing call data analytics," Versen said.


Original Submission

posted by Fnord666 on Saturday September 14 2019, @12:57PM   Printer-friendly
from the black-is-the-new-black dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Now with even greater light-absorbing ability!

Engineers develop 'blackest black' material to date

With apologies to "Spinal Tap," it appears that black can, indeed, get more black.

MIT engineers report today that they have cooked up a material that is 10 times blacker than anything that has previously been reported. The material is made from vertically aligned carbon nanotubes, or CNTs—microscopic filaments of carbon, like a fuzzy forest of tiny trees, that the team grew on a surface of chlorine-etched aluminum foil. The foil captures more than 99.96 percent of any incoming light, making it the blackest material on record.

The researchers have published their findings today in the journal ACS-Applied Materials and Interfaces. They are also showcasing the cloak-like material as part of a new exhibit today at the New York Stock Exchange, titled "The Redemption of Vanity."

The artwork, a collaboration between Brian Wardle, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, and his group, and MIT artist-in-residence Diemut Strebe, features a 16.78-carat natural yellow diamond, estimated to be worth $2 million, which the team coated with the new, ultrablack CNT material. The effect is arresting: The gem, normally brilliantly faceted, appears as a flat, black void.

Wardle says the CNT material, aside from making an artistic statement, may also be of practical use, for instance in optical blinders that reduce unwanted glare, to help space telescopes spot orbiting exoplanets.

"There are optical and space science applications for very black materials, and of course, artists have been interested in black, going back well before the Renaissance," Wardle says. "Our material is 10 times blacker than anything that's ever been reported, but I think the blackest black is a constantly moving target. Someone will find a blacker material, and eventually we'll understand all the underlying mechanisms, and will be able to properly engineer the ultimate black."

Wardle's co-author on the paper is former MIT postdoc Kehang Cui, now a professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.


Original Submission

posted by Fnord666 on Saturday September 14 2019, @10:36AM   Printer-friendly
from the at-least-it's-not-a-meat-dress dept.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49550263

It's a short article describing the strange materials people are experimenting with to make clothing. There is mushrooms, pineapple, PVC, and others. It's light on details (maybe there are other better articles with more technical information), but I thought it was interesting and worth sharing and discussing.


Original Submission