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Submission + - Proton third stage design problem cause most recent failure

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The Russian investigation into the latest Proton rocket has concluded that the failure was caused by a design failure in the rocket's third stage.

The steering third stage engine failed due to excessive vibration as a result of an imbalance in a rotor of a pump unit

While it is always possible for new design issues to be discovered, I wonder why this problem hadn't been noticed in the decades prior to 2010, when the Proton began to have repeated failures.

Submission + - Rosetta team proposes landing on comet to finish mission

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Rather than simply turn off the spacecraft when its funding runs out at the end of 2015, Rosetta's science team have proposed that the mission get a nine month extension, during which they will slowly spiral into the comet and gently land.

Their proposal is similar to what American scientists did with their NEAR spacecraft, which hadn't been designed to land on an asteroid but was successfully eased onto the surface of Eros, where it operated for a very short time.

Submission + - The case for a muon collider succeeding the LHC just got stronger

Submitted by StartsWithABang
StartsWithABang writes: If you strike the upper atmosphere with a cosmic ray, you produce a whole host of particles, including muons. Despite having a mean lifetime of just 2.2 microseconds, and the speed of light being 300,000 km/s, those muons can reach the ground! That’s a distance of 100 kilometers traveled, despite a non-relativistic estimate of just 660 meters. If we apply that same principle to particle accelerators, we discover an amazing possibility: the ability to create a collider with the cleanliness and precision of electron-positron colliders but the high energies of proton colliders. All we need to do is build a muon collider. A pipe dream and the stuff of science fiction just 20 years ago, recent advances have this on the brink of becoming reality, with a legitimate possibility that a muon-antimuon collider will be the LHC’s successor.

Submission + - Scientists just automated light-based computers (vice.com)

Submitted by retroworks
retroworks writes: Integrated photonic devices are poised to play a key role in a wide variety of applications, ranging from optical interconnects and sensors to quantum computing. However, only a small library of semi-analytically designed devices is currently known. In the article in Nature Photonics, http://www.nature.com/nphoton/... researchers demonstrate the use of an inverse design method that explores the full design space of fabricable devices and allows them to design devices with previously unattainable functionality, higher performance and robustness, and smaller footprints than conventional devices. The designed a silicon wavelength demultiplexer splits 1,300nm and 1,550nm light from an input waveguide into two output waveguides, and the team has fabricated and characterized several devices. The devices display low insertion loss (2dB), low crosstalk (100nm). The device footprint is 2.8×2.8m2, making this the smallest dielectric wavelength splitter.

Submission + - Does a black hole have a shape? 1

Submitted by StartsWithABang
StartsWithABang writes: When you think about a black hole, you very likely think about a large amount of mass, pulled towards a central location by the tremendous force of gravity. While black holes themselves may be perfectly spherical (or for rotating black holes, almost perfectly spherical), there are important physical cases that can cause them to look tremendously asymmetrical, including the possession of an accretion disk and, in the most extreme case, a merger with another black hole.

Submission + - Kung Fury (80's Movie Themed Kickstarter project) released on YouTube

Submitted by Cutting_Crew
Cutting_Crew writes: Kung Fury was a Kickstarter Project back in late 2013 that was "...an over-the-top action comedy written and directed by David Sandberg. The movie features: arcade-robots, dinosaurs, nazis, vikings, norse gods, mutants and a super kung fu-cop called Kung Fury, all wrapped up in an 80s style action packed adventure."

Although it didn't raise the $1 Million for a full feature film, it raised $650,000 over the initial $200,000 goal and it was finally released on May 28th on Youtube as a 30 minute short feature film. It was created using mainly a green screen for all the fighting/backdrops/special effects in the Swedish basement of the Director and Writer David Sanberg . This was made by some of the same guys behind Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon and by 80's synth musicians such as Mitch Murder(Johan Bengtsson).

There was also a music video made for the movie and who wouldn't be a better front man for the video than the hoffman hoff David Hasselhoff . Seriously, its a good video, in a nostalgic, scary, awfully awesome cheesy way. How can you go wrong with Hoff mixed in with dinosaurs, a NES powerglove a hot barbarian chick and a computer hacker playing a keyboard that generates a hot neon pink pulse wave coming out the top? The video also gives a small nudge to the Texas Instruments Speak & Math when the hacker presses the keyboard with the powerglove.

The movie also does the justice of the 80's. Action, Deloreans, Lambos, Hot fighter chicks, Computer hacking, neon lights, arcade machines and cool synth music. It even incorporates distortions in the movie (and the music video) intentionally to give the effect of watching it on VHS. What other 80's references did you pick up on?

Submission + - Mandriva CEO: Employee lawsuits put us out of business (businessinsider.com)

Submitted by Julie188
Julie188 writes: As you probably heard by now, Linux company Mandriva has finally, officially gone out of business. The CEO has opened up, telling his side of the story. He blames employee lawsuits after a layoff in 2013, the French labor laws and the courts. "Those court decisions forced the company to announce bankruptcy," he said.

Submission + - There is a finite limit on how long intelligence can exist in our Universe 1

Submitted by StartsWithABang
StartsWithABang writes: The heat death of the Universe is the idea that increasing entropy will eventually cause the Universe to arrive at a uniformly, maximally disordered state. Every piece of evidence we have points towards our unfortunate, inevitable trending towards that end, with every burning star, every gravitational merger, and even every breath we, ourselves, take. Yet even while we head towards this fate, it may be possible for intelligence in an artificial form to continue in the Universe for an extraordinarily long time: possibly for as long as a googol years, but not quite indefinitely. Eventually, it all must end.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Best tool for website + mobile site construction (w e-comm later)

Submitted by kaladorn
kaladorn writes: I've built networked client-server apps in java/C/C++. I've built web services. I've built websites by hand (old school when browsers weren't compliant) and later with tools like RVSSiteBuilder.

The scenario I'm confronted with: My partner wants to open a small craft business initially on the side and I want to help her get an internet presence for that small business. I've read dubious things about the economics of Facebook Business Pages. We may take an Etsy presence.

I feel like we'd also want our own website. Initially, I just need forum/blog/social media widgets, galleries and static content but I'd like to have the site built by a tool so she can work on it and I can do minimal troubleshooting. I'd also like to either have the tool (or a tool) create the mobile site to match or at least make the site itself work well on mobiles. I'd like a later easy integration option for some e-commerce solution if we have a big enough success to justify that expense.

So: Too much to ask from a cheap or free tool suite? Or is there one out there that supports those goals and with which slashdotters have had good luck?

I've checked out some (DudaMobile, some of Google's tools, and some others offered by hosting companies) but what their PR never tells you is is the project going to implode later on because of some major issue or glitch they didn't mention. That's where it's nice to draw on collective experience.

If you have the experience with using tools to build small sites with mobile availability for the context (via a separate tool-generated mobile site or the main site just working well on mobiles) and/or with integrating e-commerce later, what would you recommend? (For ecommerce I"m just thinking of being able to take CC payments mostly, though debit would be nice too)

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: What interesting things can I power with an external usb battery?

Submitted by expert464
expert464 writes: I just purchased an external usb battery for the main purpose of charging smartphones. I've also thought of using it to power a usb lamp and charge a bluetooth speaker. What other things am I missing that would be useful and/or interesting to power when not near an electrical outlet?

Submission + - Google Photos Launches With Unlimited Storage, Completely Separate From Google+ 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: At its I/O 2015 developer conference today, Google launched Google Photos for Android, iOS, and the Web. The new service is completely separate from Google+, something Google users have been requesting for eons. Google is declaring that Google Photos lets you backup and store “unlimited, high-quality photos and videos, for free.” All of Google’s various photo offerings had storage limits based on your Google account (Gmail, Google Drive, and Google+).

Submission + - First Ultraviolet Quantum Dots Shine In An LED (acs.org)

Submitted by ckwu
ckwu writes: Researchers in South Korea have made the first quantum dots that emit ultraviolet light and used them to make a flexible, light-emitting diode. Until now, no one had succeeded in making quantum dots that emit wavelengths shorter than about 400 nm, which marks the high end of the UV spectrum. To get quantum dots that emit UV, the researchers figured out how make them with light-emitting cores smaller than 3 nm in diameter. They did it by coating a light-emitting cadmium zinc selenide nanoparticle with a zinc sulfide shell, which caused the core to shrink to 2.5 nm. The quantum dots give off true UV light, at 377 nm. An LED made with the quantum dots could illuminate the anticounterfeiting marks on a paper bill. If their lifetimes can be improved, these potentially low-cost UV LEDs could find uses in counterfeit currency detection, water sterilization, and industrial applications.

Submission + - Artist Uses 3D Printing To Preserve Artifacts Destroyed By ISIS (vice.com)

Submitted by tedlistens
tedlistens writes: From th burning of the Library of Alexandria to the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan by the Taliban to the Nazi's battle to burn as much “degenerate art” as they could find, mobs and soldiers have been quick to destroy what took societies centuries to create; what museums and collectors spent decades collecting, preserving, and documenting for the public.

The digital era looks different: files can be cheaply hosted in data centers spread across several states or continents to ensure permanence. Morehshin Allahyari, an Iranian born artist, educator, and activist, wants to apply that duplicability to the artifacts that ISIS has destroyed. Now, Allahyari is working on digitally fabricating the sculptures for a series called “Material Speculation” as part of a residency in Autodesk's Pier 9 program. The first in the series is “Material Speculation: ISIS,” which, through intense research, is modeling and reproducing statues destroyed by ISIS in 2015. Allahyari isn't just interested in replicating lost objects but making it possible for anyone to do the same: Embedded within each semi-translucent copy is a flash drive with Allahyari’s research about the artifacts, and an online version is coming.

Submission + - NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV Reviewed: Gaming And Possibly The Ultimate 4K Streamer (hothardware.com)

Submitted by MojoKid
MojoKid writes: NVIDIA officially launched its SHIELD Android TV set-top device today and it's sort of a "tweener" product, with far more horsepower than something like Roku or Apple TV, but on par with an average game console, and at a more affordable price tag of $199. What's interesting, however, is that it's powered by NVIDIA's Tegra X1 SoC which features a Maxwell-derived GPU and eight CPU cores; four ARM A57 cores and four A53s. The A57 cores are 64-bit, out-of-order designs, with multi-issue pipelines, while the A53s are simpler, in-order, highly-efficient designs. Which cores are used will depend on the particular workload being executed at the time. Tegra X1 also packs a 256-core Maxwell-derived GPU with the same programming capabilities and API support as NVIDIA's latest desktop GPUs. In standard Android benchmarks, the SHIELD pretty much slays any current high-end tablet or smartphone processor in graphics, but is about on par with the octal-core Samsung Exynos in terms of standard compute workloads but handily beating and octal-core Qualcomm Snapdragon. What's also interesting about the SHIELD Android TV is that it's not only an Android TV-capable device with movie and music streaming services like Netflix etc., but it also plays any game on Google Play and with serious horsepower behind it. The SHIELD Android TV is also the first device certified for Netflix's Ultra HD 4K streaming service.

Submission + - Untried murder accusations weigh on Ross Ulbricht's Silk Road sentencing (dailydot.com)

Submitted by Patrick O'Neill
Patrick O'Neill writes: Ross Ulbricht has never been tried for murder but tomorrow, when the convicted Silk Road creator is sentenced to prison, murder will be on the mind of the judge. Despite never filing murder for hire charges, New York federal prosecutors have repeatedly pushed for harsh sentencing because of, they told the judge, Ulbricht solicited multiple murders. The judge herself recently referred to Ulbricht's "commission of murders-for-hire" in a letter about the sentencing, painting an even grimmer picture of Ulbricht's sentencing prospects.

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