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Submission + - Solar activity predicted to fall 60% in 2030s

Submitted by sycodon
sycodon writes: A new model of the Sun's solar cycle is producing unprecedentedly accurate predictions of irregularities within the Sun's 11-year heartbeat. The model draws on dynamo effects in two layers of the Sun, one close to the surface and one deep within its convection zone. Predictions from the model suggest that solar activity will fall by 60 per cent during the 2030s to conditions last seen during the 'mini ice age' that began in 1645.

Submission + - Airbus first to Fly across English Channel, after dirty tricks delay rival. 1

Submitted by wolfguru
wolfguru writes: Airbus claimed the technical coup of being the first to fly and electrically powered plane across the English Channel today, with great fanfare. Unfortunately for Airbus, even though they were able to get rival Pipistrel denied the opportunity earlier this week, by behind-the-scenes pressure on Siemans to de-certify the electric motors Pipistrel uses for flight over water, another electric plane was able to make the flight about 12 hours earlier. French pilot Hugues Duval took his two-engine, one-seat Cricri plane from Calais to Dover and back. Because he was denied authorization to take off from Calais, another fuel-driven plane towed his 100-kilogram (220-pound) Cricri for the start of the trip. He then flew back to Calais and landed safely.
So what does Airbus get to actually claim, other than to have duplicated the acheivement with more media in attendance?

Submission + - Adblock Plus Reduces University Network Bandwidth Use By 40 Percent

Submitted by Mickeycaskill
Mickeycaskill writes: Simon Fraser University in British Colombia, Canada claims it saved between 25 and 40 percent of its network bandwidth by deploying Adblock Plus across its internal network.

The study tested the ability of the Adblock Plus browser extension in reducing IP traffic when installed in a large enterprise network environment, and found that huge amounts of bandwidth was saved by blocking web-based advertisements and video trailers.

The experiment carried out over a period of six week, and involved 100 volunteers in an active enterprise computing environment at the university. The study’s main conclusions were that Adblock Plus was not only effective in blocking online advertisements, but that it “significantly” reduced network data usage.

Although the university admits there are some limitations of the study, it suggests that the reduced network data demand would lead to lower infrastructure costs than a comparable network without Adblock Plus.

Submission + - Iowa Makes a Bold Admission: We Need Fewer Roads

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: During a recent Urban Land Institute talk, the director of the Iowa Department of Transportation Paul Trombino told an audience that the overbuilt and unsustainable road network in Iowa was probably going to "shrink". Calling for fewer highways isn't what you'd normally expect from a government transportation official but since per capita driving has peaked in the U.S., it might make sense for states to question whether or not to spend their transportation budgets on new roads.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Have You Tried a Standing Desk?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Evidence is piling up that sitting down all day is really bad for you. I work primarily from home, and as I grow older, I'm starting to worry about long term consequences of riding a desk full-time. We talked about this a few years ago, but the science has come a long way since then, and so have the options for standing desks. My questions: do you use a standing desk? What kind of setup do you have? There are a lot of options, and a lot of manufacturers. Further studies have questioned the wisdom of standing all day, so I've been thinking about a standing/sitting combo, and just switching every so often. If you do this, do you have time limits or a particular frequency with which you change from sitting to standing? I'm also curious about treadmills — slowly walking could work during parts of my work, and the health benefits there are easy to measure. Also, any ergonomic tips? A lot of places seem to recommend: forearms parallel to the ground, top of monitor at eye level, and get a pad for under your feet. Has your experience been the same? Those of you who have gone all-out on a motorized setup, was it worth the cost? The desks are dropping in price, but I can still see myself dropping upward of $1k on this, easily.

Submission + - 'It's a graveyard': The software devs leaving Greece for good (zdnet.com)

Submitted by TheHawke
TheHawke writes: "In the last three years, almost 80 percent of my friends, mostly developers, left Greece," Panagiotis Kefalidis told ZDNet. He's now a software developer in Vancouver, Canada. "When I left for North America, my mother was not happy, but... it is what it is."

Submission + - Supercomputing Cluster Immersed in Oil Yields Extreme Efficiency (datacenterfrontier.com)

Submitted by 1sockchuck
1sockchuck writes: A new supercomputing cluster immersed in tanks of dielectric fluid has posted extreme efficiency ratings. The Vienna Scientific Cluster 3 combines several efficiency techniques to create a system that is stingy in its use of power, cooling and water. VSC3 recorded a PUE (Power Usage Efficiency) of 1.02, putting it in the realm of data centers run by Google and Facebook. The system avoids the use of chiillers and air handlers, and doesn't require any water to cool the fluid in the cooling tanks. Limiting use of water is a growing priority for data center operators, as cooling towers can use large volumes of water resources. The VSC3 system packs 600 teraflops of computing power into 1,000 square feet of floor space.

Submission + - What goes into a decision to take software from proprietary to open source

Submitted by Lemeowski
Lemeowski writes: It's not often that you get to glimpse behind the curtain and see what led a proprietary software company to open source its software. Last year, the networking software company Midokura made a strategic decision to open source its network virtualization platform MidoNet, to address fragmentation in the networking industry. In this interview, Midokura CEO and CTO Dan Mihai Dumitriu explains the company's decision to give away fours years of engineering to the open source community, how it changed the way its engineers worked, and the lessons learned along the way. Among the challenges was helping engineers overcome the culture change of broadcasting their work to a broader community.

Submission + - First Windows 10 RTM candidate is build 10176 (betanews.com)

Submitted by Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson writes: With just over three weeks until the launch of Windows 10, preview builds are still popping out left, rights, and center — some more official than others. Microsoft is beavering away on the final build which will start to roll out on 29 July, and it seems that the RTM version could be signed off as early as this week.

Build tracking site BuildFeed shows that Windows 10 Build 10176 from the th1 branch (a reference to threshold, Windows 10's codename) is now being tested as a release candidate. With a full build string of 10.0.10176.16384.th1.150705-0552, the appearance of this version ties in neatly with a rumor that RTM might be reached this week — perhaps as early as Thursday.

Submission + - EasyDNS removes site after Andy Lehrer wins CausePimps defamation case (easydns.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A Canadian online defamation case against Canadian ISP EasyDNS and Tim Rourke has concluded. The plaintiff, Andy Lehrer was awarded $25,000 in damages against Tim Rourke and his website and EasyDNS took the website down in accordance with an earlier out of court settlement. (URL fixed)

Submission + - Chinese stock market sees biggest single day loss since dot com bubble (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Two biggest stock exchanges in mainland China, the Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange, were seeing dramatic drop in tech companies stock prices this week. The biggest loss occurred on Shenzhen Stock Exchange, that is knows as Chinese analog of NASDAQ, on Friday, June 26 as its composite index dropped by 8%.

Analysts are concerned as this crash may cause a domino effect in tech industry as the capital loss follows the path of Chinese investments and devaluation of company shares given as collateral to Western creditors.

Submission + - AppleCare+ now covers batteries that drop to 80% (betanews.com)

Submitted by Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson writes: For anyone concerned about their new Apple device, AppleCare+ protection can sound appealing — even if it might seem expensive in some instances. Today Apple has updated the terms of AppleCare+ for iPhone, iPad, iPod and Apple Watch giving a better deal for people worried about their batteries.

Previously, the extended warranty only covered batteries that would hold 50 percent charge or less. Now this has been updated so that you can request a free replacement within the coverage period is your device's battery is only able to hold 80 percent of full charge. The new terms to no apply to everyone — it all depends on when you bought your Apple device.

If you bought your iPhone, iPad, iPod or Apple Watch before April 10 2015, you're stuck with the old terms.

Submission + - NIST Updates Random Number Generation Guidelines (phys.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Encryption weighs heavily on the public consciousness these days, as we've learned that government agencies are keeping an eye on us and a lot of our security tools aren't as foolproof as we've thought. In response to this, the National Institute of Standards and Technology has issued a formal update to its document on how to properly generate a random number — crucial in many types of encryption. The update (as expected) removes a recommendation for the Dual_EC_DRBG algorithm. It also adds extra options for CTR_DRBG and points out examples for implementing SP 800-90A generators. The full document (PDF) is available online.

Submission + - Charter Hires Net Neutrality Activist To Make Policy (wired.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Federal Communications Commission has been at loggerheads with many ISPs lately, after the agency pushed through net neutrality rules that have now gone into effect. The defeat of Comcast's attempted acquisition of Time Warner Cable was hailed by many net neutrality activists as a victory, but then came the news that Charter was looking to buy TWC instead — which brought the worries back. But now Charter has taken the unusual step of hiring one of those activists to help develop its policy: Marvin Ammori. He says, "Charter hired me—which, to be honest, took some humility on its part since I have helped lead public campaigns against cable companies like Charter—to advise it in crafting its commitment to network neutrality. After our negotiation, I can say Charter is offering the strongest network neutrality commitments ever offered—in any merger or, to my knowledge, in any nation. In fact, in the end, I personally wrote the commitments." Put briefly, Charter agreed to abide by the interconnection mandates and prohibition of pair prioritization — regardless of the outcome of pending litigation from the ISPs fighting it — for a minimum of three years. The company has also committed to no data caps and no usage-based billing.

Submission + - Lexus' Hoverboard: What Does Physics Tell Us About It? (insidescience.org)

Submitted by benonemusic
benonemusic writes: Lexus' hoverboard may never become commercially available, but is it scientifically feasible? You'd need to place a superconducting material in a magnetic field powerful enough to support the board and the rider. Steve Gourlay of Lawrence Berkeley Lab's Superconductor Magnet Group provides insights, including the possibility that Lexus put some very strong rare-earth magnets underneath the sidewalk in the video.

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