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Cellphones

Early iPhone 6 Benchmark Results Show Only Modest Gains For A8 208

Posted by Soulskill from the find-a-way-to-make-this-fit-your-narrative dept.
MojoKid writes: Historically speaking, we typically see impressive performance gains each time Apple releases a new custom processor for its mobile products. Certainly that was true of the A7 SoC, the world's first 64-bit smartphone processor. So, can we expect the same kind of performance bump from the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, both of which sport the new custom A8 SoC? Maybe not. The iPhone 6 recently surfaced in results for the Basemark X benchmark and armed with a dual-core 1.4GHz Cyclone CPU and A8 GPU, the iPhone 6 scored 21,204.26 and a earned a place at the top of the chart, though not by much. By comparison, the iPhone 5s scored 20,253.80 in the same benchmark. In other words, the iPhone 6 is currently less than 5 percent faster than the iPhone 5s, at least as far as the Basemark X benchmark is concerned.
Transportation

California Declares Carpooling Via Ride-Share Services Illegal 288

Posted by Soulskill from the welcome-to-the-world-of-red-tape dept.
An anonymous reader writes: Ride-share companies like Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar got letters from the California Public Utilities Commission this week telling them that carpool features for their services are illegal. "Basically, the CPUC says that under California law it's illegal for these ride-sharing services to charge passengers an individual fare when carrying multiple people in one vehicle. If the companies would like to add a carpool feature, they first have to request an adjustment to their existing permits with the CPUC or petition the state legislature to modify the law. Uber, Lyft and Sidecar all unveiled carpool features last month. The three companies say the feature lets strangers in multiple locations, but heading the same direction, share rides and split fares — saving passengers up to 50 percent per ride." This news arrives just as Uber gave in to the demands of striking drivers who claim the company is undermining their ability to earn a livable wage.
Mars

Curiosity Rover Arrives At Long-Term Destination 33

Posted by Soulskill from the now-kicking-back-and-relaxing dept.
When NASA's Curiosity rover landed on Mars, the mission team had a particular destination in mind: Mount Sharp. Just over two years and about nine kilometers of driving later, Curiosity has arrived at Mount Sharp. It will now begin its ascent of the mountain (PDF), first analyzing basal rocks with a "paintbrush" texture, then moving further to observe hematite-bearing rocks further up the slope. It will then proceed into an area laden with clay-bearing rocks, and finally to the upper reaches of the foothills, which contain rocks with magnesium sulfate in them. The team has selected routes and driving modes that they hope will slow the steadily accumulating damage to the rover's wheels.

Submission + - California Declared Carpooling Via Ride-Share Services Illegal (cnet.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Ride-share companies like Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar got letters from the California Public Utilities Commission this week telling them that carpool features for their services are illegal. "Basically, the CPUC says that under California law it's illegal for these ride-sharing services to charge passengers an individual fare when carrying multiple people in one vehicle. If the companies would like to add a carpool feature, they first have to request an adjustment to their existing permits with the CPUC or petition the state legislature to modify the law. Uber, Lyft and Sidecar all unveiled carpool features last month. The three companies say the feature lets strangers in multiple locations, but heading the same direction, share rides and split fares — saving passengers up to 50 percent per ride."

Submission + - Amazon Is Killing Off Its Free P2P Money-Transfer Service WebPay On October 13

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Amazon WebPay, a free online money-transfer service, is shutting down October 13, 2014. This means you’ll no longer be able to send, receive, or request money using just your email address and the Amazon Payments webpage. There were hints back in June that the service would be going away soon. Amazon sent out an email this week to active Amazon Payments account users notifying them it is pulling the plug.

Submission + - House which doesn't take up real estates (businessinsider.com)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: In the future over-congested planet of ours fresh land may be hard to come by for building new houses. An Australian design firm has come out with a novel idea — The Cliff House

The Cliff House, as its name implies, hangs on a cliff, like barnacles hang off a ship’s hull. The house offers a gorgeous view of the sea and the sky, and there is always plenty of drafts to keep the air circulating

Looking out over the ocean, the five-story home has three bedrooms, a living area, kitchen, and gigantic floor-to-ceiling windows that display a breathtaking (or vertigo-inducing) view of the horizon

Submission + - Starfish are dying in drove on the West Coast (straight.com)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: Places that were normally teamed with starfish on the West Coast of America are now almost devoid of any starfish

Divers report piles of white goo and pieces of starfish arms on the ocean floor, where thousands used to live

Temporary known as "Starfish Wasting Syndrome", starfish infected by the yet to be identified disease suddenly developed an unnatural, twisted appearance, followed by their arms falling off, and their bodies dissolved quickly into a jellied mass

Starfish wasting syndrome is being tracked by the Pacific Rocky Intertidal Monitoring group at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Their interactive map shows that the syndrome reaches from Baja California to the Alaska panhandle

According to the Vancouver Aquarium, dead and dying starfish were first observed on the B.C. coast in early September 2013, at locations such as Bamfield and Ucluelet on the west coast of Vancouver Island

For a few winter months the disease died down, but then the outbreak restarted as the water warmed up. It reached the wildlife-rich waters around the San Juans and the southern Gulf Islands, and progressed northwards up the coast

At first it was the many-legged sunflower stars and sun stars that were most affected, but now a majority of starfish species have fallen prey to the disease, including the common purple ochre stars that live in rocky beaches all around the Salish Sea

Even aquaria are not immune, as they use ocean waters in their tanks

There are hundreds of intertidal species found along local beaches, yet none is more familiar than the colourful starfish, recognized from childhood and epitomizing the ocean shore. For such a common and well-known species to suddenly disappear is more than disconcerting: it is truly shocking. The speed with which it left the shores is mystifying. Yet the great die-off has not attracted that much media coverage, beyond the initial reports

Submission + - China eyes first space station around 2022 (voanews.com)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: According to the Voice of America, China is planning to get its first space station off the ground by around 2022

China's leaders have set a priority on advancing its space program, with President Xi Jinping calling for the country to establish itself as a space power

China is taking it by the step-by-step approach:

Yang Liwei, deputy head of China's Manned Space Agency and also the country's first man in space, said the follow-up Tiangong 2 was likely to be launched in about 2016

Then, in around 2018, the core of the space station would be launched with completion set for four years later, the official Xinhua news agency cited Yang as saying

The country insists that its space program is for peaceful purposes

Despite considerable advances, China's space program still lags behind those of the United States and Russia

As the Voice of America being the official propaganda mouthpiece of the government of the United States of America, it is thus no surprising to read the following paragraph from VoA's report:

" The U.S. Defense Department has highlighted China's increasing space capabilities, however, saying China was pursuing activities aimed at preventing its adversaries from using space-based assets during a crisis "

Comment Re:By Country (Score 3, Informative) 199

by Taco Cowboy (#47868523) Attached to: China's Island Factory

Following those same lines I predict China will build five more carriers amidst rising tensions in the Pacific

I was from China, and have been keeping a very close eye on what's happening in China. Please allow me to chime in

China is not America

Unlike America China does not have any ambition of global control, nor any need to become the world's policeman

China's immediate concern is the South China Sea and the Yellow Sea - open lanes to the Pacific and the Indian oceans

China will do everything it can to ensure that it gets a free passage way in both the abovementioned seas --- and China knows America/Japan are the two entities which will throw the monkey wrench into the clockwork whenever they got the chance

The floating military base concept is a concept started by ambitious countries which want global domination, like Japan, America, Great Britain, and since China does not share such ambition, China actually does not need aircraft carriers

And the fact that China has devoted a lot of research into anti-aircraft carrier weapons, like their scramjet powered missiles tells us that the "Liaoning" is but an experiment

Although China does not need any aircraft carrier it does need to understand how to operate one, and it does need its own military (Navy/Air Force) to be able to fly off/land on aircraft carriers, just in case

And another reason for having the Liaoning is psychological --- like everything else in China, everything is scripted according to the Art of War

China's intention on Aircraft Carriers is to force America into building more, and with more carrier groups, the massive expenditure will only bankrupt America faster

This "aircraft carrier game" is not the first game China plays with USA

When USA came out with its "stealth fighters" in the 1980's China had none, but China somehow gave the impression to the world that they are making their moves in that area (which include having a few photos of "made in China stealth bomber" online) and that essentially forced America to waste even more of its precious resources into obtaining even more advanced versions of stealth bombers/fighters to the tune of hundreds of billions (the hundreds of billions which could, theoretically, be used to improve the falling education system inside America, but I digress)

China knows too well that if WW3 is going to come it will a total wipe out - that is why if you guys pay attention to what China is doing, the aircraft carrier / stealth aircraft things are nothing but a big bluff crafted to lure the enemies into wasting their own resources into things that will turn out to be totally worthless

Comment 99.9999% of the researchers ... (Score 1) 74

Just because someone happens to be a "Researcher" does not mean he or she is automagically smart

Even after that Nina girl pulled off a single-atom layer of Boron Nitrite - which is structurally very similar to Graphene - without dousing it with strong oxydizing agents, she couldn't muster the confidence that it might be possible the same procedure would work with Graphene as well --- she rather trust the so-called consensus , instead

Submission + - Gamergate may impact the 4th quarter sales of consoles (digitimes.com)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: Slashdot had a report on the Gamergate — http://slashdot.org/index2.pl?... — but that report is a political correct and sanitized version of what has been going on

The truth is much messier than what has been portrayed

Gamers are getting very angry of being accused by the industry, the feminists, the bloggers and the politically correct media of being sexist, racist, misogynistic and the way they have been treated by many online sites, including a blatant and heavy handed silencing pogrom by reddit

The politically correct media, including BBC, has widely circulated the story of a female blogger threatened but conveniently omitting stories of others who have been similarly threatened — just because they were not of the female gender — in their exercise to portray the gamers as misogynistic, bas backfired

The 4th quarter sales of game consoles is traditionally the most important quarter as most parents would make the purchase for their children — but as this outrage goes on, and sparks fly, parents may opt to buy tablets for their kids instead

Submission + - Wikipedia publishes notices from search engines (wikimediafoundation.org)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: The recent "Right to be forgotten" decision by the European court has finally hit Wikipedia, and in response, Wikipedia has set up a page dedicated to the notices it received from search engines with intend to indefinitely remove links to Wikimedia projects from their results

The page is at https://wikimediafoundation.or...

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