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Submission + - Samsung Unveils First PCIe 3.0 x4-based M.2 SSD, Delivering Speeds Of Over 2GB/s

Submitted by Deathspawner
Deathspawner writes: With its SM951 SSD, Samsung ticks all of the right boxes. It might be an unassuming gumstick SSD — it has no skulls or other bling — but it's what's underneath that counts: PCIe 3.0 x4 support. With that support, Samsung is able to boast about cable-melting speeds of 2,150MB/s read and 1,550MB/s write. But with such speeds comes an all-too-common caveat: you'll probably have to upgrade your computer to take true advantage of it.

Submission + - Ansel Adams Act Would Allow Photographs in Public Spaces (congress.gov) 1

Submitted by davidannis
davidannis writes: Photographers have been harassed for taking pictures in public places since 9/11. One was arrested for participating in an Amtrak contest. The park service is charging fees. Representative Steve Stockman (R, Texas) addresses the problem with the Ansel Adams Act which he introduced today. It says "It is contrary to the public policy of the United States to prohibit or restrict photography in public spaces, whether for private, news media, or commercial use." The act prohibits government agencies from prohibiting photography for National Security Reasons without a court order, from charging photographers fees, and prohibits equipment from being confiscated.

Federal law enforcement officers or private contractors shall not seize any photographic equipment or their contents or memory cards or film, and shall not order a photographer to erase the contents of a camera or memory card or film.

Submission + - My Secret Weapon to End Procrastination (katiehumphrey.com)

Submitted by Katie Humphrey
Katie Humphrey writes: Are you constantly making comments about wanting to lose weight, eat healthy, exercise more, take out time for yourself (need I go on?), but you find that you procrastinate more than taking action?

Don’t worry. It’s in our nature to put things off that aren’t part of our daily routine. It’s easier to talk about what you want than do something about it, or take massive action once and never follow through.

So I’m going to share my SECRET WEAPON with you. It’s what gets lazy-old-me (yes, my natural inclination is to watch movies all day than be productive) who burns out easily (I get stressed about the most minor things) to consistently take care of my health, family, personal needs and business even when I don’t want to.

It’s what helps me reach my goals and “start fresh” every day, even when I’ve been off the grid, on vacation or on a not-so-healthy rampage (hey, I’m human!). I never worry about being motivated or finding the inspiration to follow through on the goals I set because of what I’m going to share.

Find out my secret weapon in today’s video (play below), plus learn the “3 W’s” for getting back on track to a healthier, happier you

Submission + - Human skeleton has become lighter over time (sciencemag.org) 1

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Compared to those of other primate, human bones are weak, with a relative lack of spongy bone that makes our skeletons lighter and increases our risk of fractures and osteoporosis. The the driving force behind the change might be modern human’s sedentary lifestyle, free of the bone-strengthening exercise of chasing down prey and spending hours foraging for food. A second study further supports that hypothesis by comparing the density of spongy bone in the hip joints of nonhuman primates, ancient hunter-gatherers, and ancient farmers. The hunter-gatherers’ hip joints were about as strong as those of the apes, whereas the ancient farmers’ hips showed a significant loss of spongy bone. The researchers conclude that a lack of rigorous exercise, rather than any evolutionary pressure toward lighter skeletons, is the reason for modern human’s weak bones.

Submission + - Energy Saving Cellphones (micromaxinfo.com)

Submitted by Samiarman
Samiarman writes: Every decision you make – no matter how large or small – is an opportunity to make a difference. Celebrate Earth Day this month or any day by helping the environment from the friendly confines of your cell phone. Here are 13 simple tips to easily turn your cell phone green. 1. Unplug Your Phone Charger When Unused Did you know your phone’s charger still draws energy even when it’s not plugged into your phone? Unplug it when it’s not in use. 2. Minimize Your Phone’s Backlight If your phone’s backlight is illuminated for longer than you need, you’re wasting energy. Reduce it so you’re only using what’s necessary. Your phone’s battery will thank you. 3. Power Off Your Phone Entirely If you’re in a movie, an airplane or somewhere else you know you can’t be reached, why not power off your phone? Just keeping it on vibrate uses its battery when you don’t need it. Your voicemails and texts will come later. 4. Use GPS Instead of Driving If your cell phone has the capability, use GPS navigation from your phone for directions to save driving time and gas. 5. Only Replace Your Phone When Necessary Don’t buy a new phone until you need it. Recycle your old phone when you do. 6. Use Your Phone’s Alarm Clock Chances are your phone has an alarm clock. Unplug and retire your traditional alarm clock at home and use your cell phone for this function instead. 7. Use Your Phone’s Backlight at Night By your bed at night, use your phone’s backlight as your flashlight instead of a traditional night-light. 8. Only Charge Your Phone When Necessary Many people are accustomed to charging their cell phones every night whether or not the battery has been depleted. To be less wasteful, don’t charge your phone until the battery really needs it. 9. Read News on Your Phone If your phone can, save paper by reading your news and magazine content from your cell phone. 10. Save Paper With Your Phone Your phone can be used as a digital notepad of sorts. Instead of using paper, make cell phone lists by texting or emailing yourself. If u want to more useful tips and know more about cellphones just click on Energy Saving Cellphones.

Submission + - NYC to replace most of its payphones with free gigabit WiFi in 2015

Submitted by mrspoonsi
mrspoonsi writes: NYC announced its plans: LinkNYC — a network of 10,000 gigabit WiFi hotspots that will line the streets of all five boroughs of New York City. The project will replace all but a small handful of historic payphones with "Links," small towers equipped with WiFi, an Android tablet with select city-service apps and, of course, the ability to make phone calls. What's missing? The word pay: it's all free.

Submission + - HTML5 Has A Dirty Little Secret: It's Already Everywhere, Even In Mobile

Submitted by electronic convict
electronic convict writes: Tom Dale has never been shy, and in a Q&A with Matt Asay on ReadWrite, the EmberJS co-founder and JavaScript evangelist makes the outspoken claim that open Web technologies are already everywhere, even in native mobile apps, and that it's only a matter of time before they catch up to "all the capabilities of a native, proprietary platform." Take that, Web-is-dead doomsayers.

Dale has plenty more to say, calling Google an "adolescent behemoth" that's belatedly embracing open-Web technologies in mobile, lauding Apple's Nitro JS engine and belittling the idea that Web apps have to look and feel the same as native apps for the open Web to triumph. His bottom line: "[I]t's not hard to see that the future of the Web on mobile is a happy one."

Comment Re:"Revitalizing"? (Score 1) 47

by X-Ray Artist (#48321273) Attached to: Revitalizing Medical Imaging With Ultrasound-On-a-Chip

"If he really wanted to help, he would make MRI cheaper, because it is far more informative than ultrasound."

Not necessarily. Each medical imaging modality has its purpose. Ultrasound shows what is happening in real time. Eventually mainstream MRI will, too. Because of the required magnetic fields, I doubt MRI will ever be as portable as Ultrasound.

Submission + - New Clock May End Time As We Know It (npr.org) 1

Submitted by SonicSpike
SonicSpike writes: At the heart of this new clock is the element strontium. Inside a small chamber, the strontium atoms are suspended in a lattice of crisscrossing laser beams. Researchers then give them a little ping, like ringing a bell. The strontium vibrates at an incredibly fast frequency. It's a natural atomic metronome ticking out teeny, teeny fractions of a second.

This new clock can keep perfect time for 5 billion years.

"It's about the whole, entire age of the earth," says Jun Ye, the scientist here at JILA who built this clock. "Our aim is that we'll have a clock that, during the entire age of the universe, would not have lost a second."

But this new clock has run into a big problem: This thing we call time doesn't tick at the same rate everywhere in the universe. Or even on our planet.

Right now, on the top of Mount Everest, time is passing just a little bit faster than it is in Death Valley. That's because speed at which time passes depends on the strength of gravity. Einstein himself discovered this dependence as part of his theory of relativity, and it is a very real effect.

The relative nature of time isn't just something seen in the extreme. If you take a clock off the floor, and hang it on the wall, Ye says, "the time will speed up by about one part in 1016."

That is a sliver of a second. But this isn't some effect of gravity on the clock's machinery. Time itself is flowing more quickly on the wall than on the floor. These differences didn't really matter until now. But this new clock is so sensitive, little changes in height throw it way off. Lift it just a couple of centimeters, Ye says, "and you will start to see that difference."

This new clock can sense the pace of time speeding up as it moves inch by inch away from the earth's core.

Submission + - iPhone-size scanner -- hold to someone's chest, see 3D images of what's inside

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Entrepreneur Jonathan Rothberg says he has raised $100 million to create a medical imaging device that’s nearly “as cheap as a stethoscope” and will “make doctors 100 times as effective.” The technology, which according to patent documents relies on a new kind of ultrasound chip, could eventually lead to new ways to destroy cancer cells with heat, or deliver information to brain cells. Butterfly’s patent applications describe its aim as building compact, versatile new ultrasound scanners that can create 3-D images in real time. Hold it up to a person’s chest, and you would look through “what appears to be a window” into the body, according to the documents. Rothberg says his first goal will be to market an imaging system cheap enough to be used even in the poorest corners of the world. He says the system will depend heavily on software, including techniques developed by artificial intelligence researchers, to comb through banks of images and extract key features that will automate diagnoses. “When I have thousands of these images, I think it will become better than a human in saying ‘Does this kid have Down syndrome, or a cleft lip?’ And when people are pressed for time it will be superhuman,” says Rothberg. “I will make a technician able to do this work.”To read the full story by Antonio Regalado in MIT Technology Review, go to: http://tinyurl.com/q8bb2ma

Submission + - Integrated Circuit Amplifier Breaches Terahertz barrier

Submitted by jenningsthecat
jenningsthecat writes: DARPA's Terahertz Electronics program has created "the fastest solid-state amplifier integrated circuit ever measured". The TMIC, (Terahertz Monolithic Integrated Circuit), boasts a gain of 9dB — previously unheard of for a monolithic device in this frequency range. Plus, the status of "fastest" has been certified by Guinness — seriously! ('Cause you might not trust DARPA, but you gotta trust Guinness — right?).

In related news, DARPA has also created a micro-machined vacuum power amplifer operating at 850 GHz, or 0.85 THz.

Submission + - Most planets in the Universe are homeless

Submitted by StartsWithABang
StartsWithABang writes: We like to think of our Solar System as typical: a central star with a number of planets — some gas giants and some rocky worlds — in orbit around it. Yes, there's some variety, with binary or trinary star systems and huge variance in the masses of the central star being common ones, but from a planetary point of view, our Solar System is a rarity. Even though there are hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy for planets to orbit, there are most likely around a quadrillion planets in our galaxy, total, with only a few trillion of them orbiting stars at most. Now that we've finally detected the first of these, we have an excellent idea that this picture is the correct one: most planets in the Universe are homeless. Now, thank your lucky star!

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Understanding is always the understanding of a smaller problem in relation to a bigger problem. -- P.D. Ouspensky

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