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Comment Maintenance and upkeep? (Score 1) 237

by Random2 (#45706085) Attached to: Next-Gen Windshield Wipers To Be Based On Jet Fighter "Forcefield" Tech
This sounds like it could be incredibly expensive to fix/replace. What happens if one of the frequency generators goes out? Will current repair shops be able to service the vehicles? How precise does the alignment have to be? What about microfractures?

Not having to deal with water and snow would be nice, but only if it doesn't interfere with/cause more maintenance....

Submission + - Physicists Solve Mystery of Tea Kettle's Whistle (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: A team of researchers has emerged with an accurate mathematical model of a teakettle’s whistle. It has not one but two phases, they tell us. The first begins as the steam is forced into a jet by the kettle’s narrow spout; as the rushing air is compressed and then escapes into your kitchen, it vibrates with the frequency of a welcoming whistle. But the water inside the kettle is still boiling, sending more and more steam through the spout at faster and faster speeds. When the flow speed passes a certain point, tiny whirlpools form in the steam and radiate sound waves that eventually overtake the original vibrations. The new model is so accurate that physicists can now predict the pitch of any kettle’s whistle.

Submission + - 3D Systems And Motorola Team Up To Deliver Customizable 3D Printed Smartphones (hothardware.com)

Submitted by MojoKid
MojoKid writes: Motorola is forging ahead with the concept of modular, customizable smartphones first put forth by designer Dave Hakkens with his Phonebloks concept. The company said recently that it was officially pursuing such an idea with Project Ara, and Motorola is already putting together important partnerships to make it happen. 3D Systems, a maker of 3D printers and other related products, has signed on to create a “continuous high-speed 3D printing production platform and fulfillment system” for it. In other words, 3D Systems is going to print parts for the project, and what’s more, the company has what appears to be an exclusive agreement to make all the enclosures and modules for Project Ara.

Submission + - NASA's Next Frontier: Growing Plants On The Moon (forbes.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In 2015, NASA will attempt to make history by growing plants on the Moon. If they are successful, it will be the first time humans have ever brought life to another planetary body.

Submission + - What's on your hardware lab bench?

Submitted by 50000BTU_barbecue
50000BTU_barbecue writes: I made a comment a few days ago in a story basically saying the oscilloscope is dead. While that's a bit dramatic, I've found that over the last 20 years my oscilloscopes have been "on" less and less. Instead, I use a combination of judicious voltage measurements, a logic analyzer and a decent understanding of the documentation of the gadget I'm working on.
Stuff is just more and more digital and microcontroller based, or just so cheap yet incredibly integrated that there's no point in trying to work on it. (I'm thinking RC toys for example. Undocumented and very cheap. Doesn't work? Buy another.)
While I still do old-school electronics like circuit-level troubleshooting (on old test gear), that's not where the majority of hobbyists seem to be.
Yet one thing I keep hearing is how people want an oscilloscope to work on hardware. I think it's just not that necessary anymore.
What I use most are two regulated DC lab supplies, a frequency counter, a USB logic analyzer, a USB I2C/SPI master, and a USB-RS-232 dongle. That covers a lot of modern electronics.
I have two oscilloscopes, a 100MHz two-channel stand-alone USB unit and a 1960s analog plug-in based mainframe that is a '70s hacker dream scope. But I rarely use them anymore.
What equipment do hardware folks out there use the most? And would you tell someone trying to get into electronics that they need a scope?

Submission + - Macy's Uses iBeacon for New In-Store Rewards Program

Submitted by cagraham
cagraham writes: Macy's is preparing to test a new in-store rewards program using Apple's iBeacon standard, reports the WSJ's Digits blog. The program, run through rewards company Shopkick, will detect nearby customers and send them targeted discount offers based on which department they're in. iBeacon currently works with Apple devices and Samsung's Android phones. If the initial tests in New York and San Francisco prove successful, the program will be rolled out nationwide.

Submission + - US Considering Mandate That New Cars Broadcast Location, Direction & Speed (cnsnews.com) 1

Submitted by cold fjord
cold fjord writes: CNS News reports, "Before the end of this year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will decide whether or not to begin the rulemaking process to mandate that newly manufactured cars include what is being called “vehicle-to-vehicle” (V2V) communications technology that constantly broadcasts via radio wave the car’s location, direction, speed and, possibly, even the number of passengers it is carrying. ... NHTSA sees this technology as the first step on a “continuum” of automotive evolution that will ultimately lead to fully automated vehicles navigated by internal electronics linked to external infrastructure, communications and database systems. The upside of a government-mandated movement toward cars that are not controlled by the people riding in them is that it could make transportation safer, allow people to use time spent in a vehicle for work, rest or entertainment, and give people who are currently incapable of driving because of age or disability the opportunity to move as freely as those who can now drive. The downside is that such a transportation system would give the government at least the capability to exert increasing control over when, where, if — or for how much additional taxation — people are allowed to go places in individually owned vehicles. It could also give government the ability to track where people go and when. "

Submission + - Facebook Admins Each Manage 20,000 Servers (datacenterknowledge.com)

Submitted by 1sockchuck
1sockchuck writes: Each Facebook data center operations staffer can manage at least 20,000 servers, the company said this week at the 7x24 Exchange conference. This performance appears to break new ground in the server-to-admin ratio, which has rarely exceeded 10,000 to 1, according to High Scalability. Facebook says its admin productivity is the result of software-driven automation, communication between internal teams, and a hardware design process that focuses on serviceability and tool-less maintenance.

Submission + - Glitch 2-D MMO released completely into the public domain (glitchthegame.com)

Submitted by c0d3g33k
c0d3g33k writes: Glitch, a collaborative, web-based, massively multiplayer game developed by Tiny Speck, Inc. (tinyspeck.com) has been released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal License. I'm not at all familiar with this game, but it is rare that both source code *and* all game assets are released into the public domain, which makes this announcement noteworthy.

An excerpt from the announcement:

"The entire library of art assets from the game, has been made freely available, dedicated to the public domain. Code from the game client is included to help developers work with the assets. All of it can be downloaded and used by anyone, for any purpose. (But: use it for good.)"

Submission + - AMD to Launch a Windows 8.1 Gaming Tablet

Submitted by SmartAboutThings
SmartAboutThings writes: Chip maker AMD has announced that it’s won 2 CES Innovation Awards for a gaming tablet the company plans to show off at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. The device is called “Project Discovery” and will come with AMD’s Mullins chip that is a 64-bit, x86-based chip, perfectly suitable for Windows 8.1. The low-power Mullins APU (accelerated processing unit) is AMD’s answer to Intel, Nvidia and Qualcomm, aimed at fanless tablets, ultrathin notebooks, and 2-in-1 devices. The 28nm processor is expected to consume as little as 2 watts of energy while in use. The obtained images show that the upcoming AMD tablet is quite similar to Razer Edge.

Comment Re:Where are the other countries (Score 1) 152

by Random2 (#45463493) Attached to: How Perl and R Reveal the United States' Isolation In the TPP Negotiations
It's because they didn't want to apparently

"The negotiations to set up the TPSEP initially included three countries (Chile, New Zealand and Singapore), and Brunei subsequently joined the agreement. The original TPSEP agreement contains an accession clause and affirms the members' "commitment to encourage the accession to this Agreement by other economies".

In January 2008 the United States agreed to enter into talks"

Basically most of the current countries joined after-the-fact, it was originally only Chile, New Zealand, and Singapore.

Submission + - Accidental Discovery Dramatically Improves Electrical Conductivity

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Quite by accident, Washington State University researchers have achieved a 400-fold increase in the electrical conductivity of a crystal simply by exposing it to light. The effect, which lasted for days after the light was turned off, could dramatically improve the performance of devices like computer chips.

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