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Phoenix666 writes:

Silicon Valley youngster Pi on Monday claimed it had developed the world's first wireless charger that does away with cords or mats to charge devices.

Pi chargers, about the size of a small table vase, operate on standard charging technology used in Apple or Android smartphones designed to be powered up wirelessly.

But instead of cords or mats, the conical creation charges smartphones with magnetic waves.

Magnetic fields are an ideal way to safely send energy to portable electronics, said Pi chief technology officer Lixin Shi, who co-created the charger with John MacDonald.

The trick was bending magnetic waves to find smartphones, the co-founders said during a presentation for an AFP journalist at the TechCrunch Disrupt startup scrum in San Francisco.

[...] The pair figured out how to shape the magnetic field so energy could be beamed to smartphones placed or in use within a foot of a Pi.

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Phoenix666 writes:

Toys 'R' Us has filed for bankruptcy protection in the US and Canada as it attempts to restructure its debts.

The firm was once a dominant player in the US toy market, but has struggled against larger rivals such as Amazon.

The move casts a shadow over the future of the company's nearly 1,600 stores and 64,000 employees.

The firm's European operations are not part of the bankruptcy proceedings and Toys R Us says it does not expect any immediate impact on its UK stores.

Toys R Us's operations in Australia, about 255 licensed stores and a joint venture partnership in Asia are also not included in the bankruptcy move.

[...] The bankruptcy filing is more evidence that traditional retailers are struggling in the US, as online retailers continue to capture market share.

Amazon marches on, or we're just at 'Peak Toy'?

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Phoenix666 writes:

Fujitsu Laboratories today announced the development of the world's first wearable, hands-free speech translation device, suitable for tasks in which the users' hands are often occupied, such as in diagnoses or treatment in healthcare.

In recent years, with an increase in the number of visitors to Japan, more and more non-Japanese patients are going to hospitals, creating issues in supporting communication in multiple languages. In 2016, Fujitsu Laboratories developed hands-free technology that recognizes people's voices and the locations of speakers, and that automatically changes to the appropriate language without physical manipulation of the device. That same year, it also worked with the University of Tokyo Hospital and the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) to conduct a field trial of multilingual speech translation in the medical field using stationary-type tablets. Based on the results, Fujitsu Laboratories learned that, as there are many situations in which healthcare providers have their hands full, such as when providing care in a hospital ward, there was a great need for a wearable speech translation device that could be used without being physically touched.

In order to expand the usability of multilingual speech translation, Fujitsu Laboratories has developed the world's first compact, wearable, hands-free speech translation device by developing technology to differentiate speakers using small omnidirectional microphones. This is possible through an ingenious modification of the shape of the sound channel, and by improving the accuracy of speech detection technology that is highly resistant to background noise. Use of this device is expected to reduce the burden on healthcare providers whose hands are often constrained by other tasks.

Alas, the JET Program did not solve this problem.

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takyon writes:

IC Insights has predicted that DRAM prices will continue to increase this year:

According to IC Insights, DRAM prices will continue to increase even though they have more than doubled (+111%) over the last 12 months. IC Insights predicts that by the end of the calendar year DRAM's price per bit will have jumped a record 40% (or more).

[...] Of course, the record pricing levels are great for our friends at the major foundries. Samsung, Micron, and Sk Hynix are also raking in their own record profits and enjoying healthy margins. We have both DRAM and NAND shortages occurring at the same time, which is great for the foundries, and unless a player breaks ranks to gain market share, we can expect more foot-dragging before any of the foundries increases output.

The booming mobile industry and server markets are exacerbating the issue, so you would expect that the fabs would boost DRAM output. Unfortunately, the three primary fabs (Micron bought Elpida, reducing the number of players) don't share the same vision.

IC Insights indicates that Micron will not increase production capacity, instead relying upon improvements in yields and shrinking down to smaller nodes to boost its DRAM bit output. Sk Hynix has expressed its desire to boost DRAM output but hasn't set a firm timeline for fab expansion (unlikely to occur in the near term). Samsung is as tight-lipped as usual, so we aren't sure of its intentions.

In the 1980s there were 23 major DRAM suppliers, but cutthroat pricing and continual oversupplies eventually led to the wave of consolidation that left us with the current three suppliers.

Previously:

December 2015: DDR4 Memory Prices Declined 40% in 6 Months

May 2017:
DRAM Price Surge Continues
Samsung Set to Outpace Intel in Semiconductor Revenues

July 2017:
Micron Temporarily Suspends Operation of DRAM Production Facility
Samsung Increases Production of 8 GB High Bandwidth Memory 2.0 Stacks

August 2017:
DRAM Prices Continue to Climb
Samsung & SK Hynix Graphics Memory Prices Increase Over 30% In August

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

http://westhawaiitoday.com/news/local-news/jim-channon-corporate-shaman-and-basis-hollywood-character-dies-77

Channon, whose work with the U.S. military was featured in the book "The Men Who Stare at Goats," and served as the basis for a character in the film of the same name, died Sept. 10 at his ecohomestead in Hawi. He was 77.

[...] In 1979, Channon returned from a two-year research trip, presenting Pentagon leaders with the "First Earth Battalion Operations Manual," according to a report from The Boston Globe.

The book, a copy of which can be found at Channon's online archive, is the man's vision for "warrior monks" in the U.S. Army.

"The First Earth wants the action orientation of the warrior, but tempered with the patience and sensitivity and ethics of the monk," reads a page from the manual. "These are the soldiers who have the power to make paradise. Why go for anything less?"

Channon later pivoted to consulting work for corporations, becoming the first "corporate shaman," consulting with the likes of AT&T, Du Pont and Whirlpool, according to an article published in Fortune.

"I think for him it was the collision of the two worlds," Dee said of the corporate shaman moniker. "You know, very straight, stiff corporate guys. And here's this wild medicine man talking to them not just about numbers and spreadsheets but also heart and soul and vision and corporate values and just kind of turning up the color on that part of their work."

Parker Channon said he believes his father's attitude and clear position as an intelligent, curious explorer got people to give him their attention.

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Phoenix666 writes:

Biochemical engineers at Johns Hopkins University used sequences of DNA molecules to cause water-based gels to change shape, demonstrating a new tactic to produce soft robots and "smart" medical devices that don't rely on cumbersome wires, batteries, or tethers.

[...] The team members reported that their process used specific DNA sequences called "hairpins" to cause a centimeter-sized hydrogel sample to swell to 100 times its original volume. The reaction was then halted by a different DNA sequence, dubbed a "terminator hairpin." This approach could make it possible to weave moving parts into soft materials, which, the researchers said, could someday play a role in creating smart materials, metamorphic devices, complex programmed actuators, and autonomous robots with potential marine and medical applications.

To control how shape-shifting occurs in different parts of the target hydrogel, the researchers took a cue from the computer industry. They employed a photo-patterning technique similar to the one used to make tiny but intricate microchips. Various biochemical patterns embedded in different regions of the gel were designed to respond to specific DNA instructions to cause bending, folding, or other responses.

I, for one, welcome our gelatinous robotic overlords!

Angelo Cangialosi et al. DNA sequence–directed shape change of photopatterned hydrogels via high-degree swelling, Science (2017). DOI: 10.1126/science.aan3925

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Gloomy octopuses—also known as common Sydney octopuses, or octopus tetricus—have long had a reputation for being loners. Marine biologists once thought they inhabited the subtropical waters off eastern Australia and northern New Zealand in solitude, meeting only to mate, once a year. But now there's proof these cephalopods sometimes hang out in small cities.

In Jervis Bay, off Eastern Australia, researchers recently spotted 15 gloomy octopuses congregating, communicating, dwelling together, and even evicting each other from dens at a site the scientists named "Octlantis." The international team of marine biologists, led by professor David Scheel of Alaska Pacific University, filmed these creatures exhibiting complex social behaviors that contradict the received wisdom that these cephalopods are loners. Their study was published in the journal Marine and Freshwater Behavior and Physiology (paywall).

The discovery was a surprise, Scheel told Quartz. "These behaviors are the product of natural selection, and may be remarkably similar to vertebrate complex social behavior. This suggests that when the right conditions occur, evolution may produce very similar outcomes in diverse groups of organisms."

Octopus cities suck.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Chinese authorities have detained a software developer for selling computer services that allow internet users to evade China's "Great Firewall," which blocks access to thousands of websites, from Facebook to Twitter to some news outlets, a media report said Monday.

The software developer, who is from the coastal province of Jiangsu, near Shanghai, was arrested in late August and held for three days for building a small business to sell virtual private networks, the Global Times newspaper reported, citing the official Xinhua news agency. VPNs create encrypted links between computers and allow Chinese web users to see blocked sites by hiding the address from government filters.

Subscribers paid 10 yuan, or about $1.50, for one month of the developer's service. Authorities also seized the developer's earnings, which totaled 1,080 yuan, or about $165.

Some internet businessmen have faced far harsher punishments: Earlier this year, a 26-year-old entrepreneur who sold VPN services in Dongguan, near Hong Kong, was sentenced to nine months in prison.

How far away from having this happen in the West are we, really?

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Phoenix666 writes:

Currently, making products such as fuels, synthetic materials or pharmaceuticals from renewable raw materials lacks efficiency because the microorganisms process the raw materials very slowly and generate many unwanted by-products. Biotechnologists at Goethe University Frankfurt have now succeeded in optimizing sugar utilization in baker's yeast.

Microorganisms such as baker's yeast can be compared to miniature factories: The raw materials (generally sugar) are conducted through gates (transport proteins) and converted in a multi-stage process with the help of enzymes. Microbes produce technologically desirable products, while also many by-products. This is due to the fact that various enzymes compete for sugar so that different building blocks important for the cell's survival are formed.

Thomas Thomik and Dr. Mislav Oreb from the Institute of Molecular Biosciences at Goethe University Frankfurt have now succeeded in channeling the metabolism of baker's yeast in such a way that sugar can be used more productively. In the latest issue of the renowned scientific journal Nature Chemical Biology, the researchers present a new mechanism by which the raw materials are delivered directly to the desired enzymes by transport proteins.

Transport proteins injected inside the cells cause them to more efficiently export the desired compounds.

Reference: Thomas Thomik et al. An artificial transport metabolon facilitates improved substrate utilization in yeast, Nature Chemical Biology (2017). DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.2457

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takyon writes:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-slack-fundraising/slack-valued-at-5-1-billion-after-new-funding-led-by-softbank-idUSKCN1BT0KO

Software startup Slack Technologies Inc said it raised $250 million from SoftBank Group Corp and other investors in its latest funding round, boosting the company's valuation to $5.1 billion.

The latest fund-raising, led by SoftBank through its giant Vision Fund and joined by Accel and other investors, lifted Slack's total funds raised to $841 million, the enterprise messaging operator said in an emailed statement.

The fund provides resources which will help Slack to run as a cash-generating company and the raise will reduce its dependence on outside financing, Slack Chief Executive Stewart Butterfield said.

Also at TechCrunch and Bloomberg.

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Phoenix666 writes:

A giant starfish-eating snail could be unleashed to help save the Great Barrier Reef, officials said Monday, with a trial underway to breed thousands of the rare species.

Predatory crown-of-thorns starfish, which munch coral, are naturally-occurring but have proliferated due to pollution and agricultural run-off at the struggling World Heritage-listed ecosystem.

Their impact has been profound with a major study of the 2,300-kilometre (1,400-mile) long reef's health in 2012 showing coral cover halved over the past 27 years, with 42 percent of the damage attributed to the pest.

Now Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) research has shown they avoid areas where the Pacific triton sea snail—also known as the giant triton—is present.

The snails—which can grow to half a metre—have a well developed sense of smell and can hunt their prey by scent alone.

Research showed they were particularly fond of crown-of-thorns, but only eat a few each week, and with the snail almost hunted to extinction for their shells, there are not many left.

The snails are expected to move quickly to counter the starfish.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Goldenrod soldier beetles are common in Arkansas, Steinkraus said. They feed on the pollen of flowering frost aster, common boneset and Canada goldenrod. The beetles produce one brood each mating season and are known to use flowers as leks—gathering places where males display behavior aimed at attracting mates.

This is where E. lampyridarum plants its zombie curse.

The pathogen causes an infected beetle to land on a flower and latch on tightly with its mandibles. The insect then dies, firmly locked onto the flower by its jaws.

Steinkraus said latching onto flowers with their mouths is not typical behavior for healthy soldier beetles. Normally, they cling to the plants with their feet. After dying from this fungal infection, however, the beetles remain anchored to the flowers only by their mandibles. Neither their legs nor fungal rhizoids are involved in the attachment.
...
Roughly 12 to 22 hours after death, the zombeetle opens its wing covers and spreads its wings. Somehow, Steinkraus said, the fungus is acting upon the wing muscles—which more closely resemble origami than, say, biceps—and making them move even though the beetle is dead.
...
The insect's posture begins to change dramatically as fungal tissue growth swells its abdomen. More than 24 hours after death—usually on the night of the following day—spores erupt through the membranes separating the abdominal segments.
...
The spores do not explode out of the beetles, Steinkraus said. In observations, including under stereomicroscopes, the spores are not found on the opened wings or on collection plates in the laboratory. The spores remain on the abdomen and appear to transfer to other beetles through passive contact.

You have to touch the zombeetle to become a zombeetle.

The fungus causes the zombie beetle to move after it's dead.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

The four-lane highway leading out of the Sri Lankan town of Hambantota gets so little traffic that it sometimes attracts more wild elephants than automobiles. The pachyderms are intelligent — they seem to use the road as a jungle shortcut — but not intelligent enough, alas, to appreciate the pun their course embodies: It links together a series of white elephants, i.e. boondoggles, built and financed by the Chinese. Beyond the lonely highway itself, there is a 35,000-seat cricket stadium, an almost vacant $1.5 billion deepwater port and, 16 miles inland, a $209 million jewel known as "the world's emptiest international airport."

Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport, the second-largest in Sri Lanka, is designed to handle a million passengers per year. It currently receives about a dozen passengers per day. Business is so slow that the airport has made more money from renting out the unused cargo terminals for rice storage than from flight-related activities. In one burst of activity last year, 350 security personnel armed with firecrackers were deployed to scare off wild animals, the airport's most common visitors.

Projects like Mattala are not driven by local economic needs but by remote stratagems. When Sri Lanka's 27-year civil war ended in 2009, the president at the time, Mahinda Rajapaksa, fixated on the idea of turning his poor home district into a world-class business and tourism hub to help its moribund economy. China, with a dream of its own, was happy to oblige. Hambantota sits in a very strategic location, just a few miles north of the vital Indian Ocean shipping lane over which more than 80 percent of China's imported oil travels. A port added luster to the "string of pearls" that China was starting to assemble all along the so-called Maritime Silk Road.

Sadly, no travelers came, only the bills. The Mattala airport has annual revenues of roughly $300,000, but now it must repay China $23.6 million a year for the next eight years, according to Sri Lanka's Transport and Civil Aviation Ministry. Over all, around 90 percent of the country's revenues goes to servicing debt. Even a new president who took office in 2015 on a promise to curb Chinese influence succumbed to financial reality.

Empire building is expensive, even when you're Chinese, and is especially expensive for the junior partners in the process.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

https://www.anandtech.com/show/11832/tsmc-teams-up-with-arm-and-cadence-to-build-7-nm-chip-in-q1-2018

TSMC has announced plans to build its first test chips for data center applications using its 7 nm fabrication technology. The chip will use compute cores from ARM, a Cache Coherent Interconnect for Accelerators (CCIX), and IP from Cadence (a DDR4 memory controller, PCIe 3.0/4.0 links). Given the presence of the CCIX bus and PCIe 4.0 interconnects, the chip will be used to show the benefits of TSMC's 7 nm process primarily for high-performance compute (HPC) applications. The IC will be taped out in early Q1 2018.

The 7 nm test chips from TSMC will be built mainly to demonstrate capabilities of the semiconductor manufacturing technology for performance-demanding applications and find out more about peculiarities of the process in general. The chip will be based on ARMv8.2 compute cores featuring DynamIQ, as well as a CMN-600 interconnect bus for heterogeneous multi-core CPUs. ARM and TSMC do not disclose which cores they are going to use for the device - the Cortex A55 and A75 are natural suspects, but that's speculation at this point. The new chip will also have a DDR4 memory controller as well as PCI Express 3.0/4.0 links, CCIX bus and peripheral IP buses developed by Cadence. The CCIX bus will be used to connect the chip to Xilinx's Virtex UltraScale+ FPGAs (made using a 16 nm manufacturing technology), so in addition to implementation of its cores using TSMC's 7 nm fabrication process, ARM will also be able to test Cadence's physical implementation of the CCIX bus for accelerators, which is important for future data center products.

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for boru

Dear Jeff, Tim, and colleagues, In 2013, EFF was disappointed to learn that the W3C had taken on the project of standardizing "Encrypted Media Extensions," an API whose sole function was to provide a first-class role for DRM within the Web browser ecosystem. By doing so, the organization offered the use of its patent pool, its staff support, and its moral authority to the idea that browsers can and should be designed to cede control over key aspects from users to remote parties.

[...] The W3C is a body that ostensibly operates on consensus. Nevertheless, as the coalition in support of a DRM compromise grew and grew — and the large corporate members continued to reject any meaningful compromise — the W3C leadership persisted in treating EME as topic that could be decided by one side of the debate. In essence, a core of EME proponents was able to impose its will on the Consortium, over the wishes of a sizeable group of objectors — and every person who uses the web. The Director decided to personally override every single objection raised by the members, articulating several benefits that EME offered over the DRM that HTML5 had made impossible.

[...] We believe they will regret that choice. Today, the W3C bequeaths an legally unauditable attack-surface to browsers used by billions of people. They give media companies the power to sue or intimidate away those who might re-purpose video for people with disabilities. They side against the archivists who are scrambling to preserve the public record of our era. The W3C process has been abused by companies that made their fortunes by upsetting the established order, and now, thanks to EME, they'll be able to ensure no one ever subjects them to the same innovative pressures.

[...] Effective today, EFF is resigning from the W3C.

Thank you,

Cory Doctorow
Advisory Committee Representative to the W3C for the Electronic Frontier Foundation

Source: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/09/open-letter-w3c-director-ceo-team-and-membership

Original Submission