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Technology

A Computer-based Smart Rifle With Incredible Accuracy, Now On Sale 551

Posted by samzenpus
from the buy-now-shoot-later dept.
WheezyJoe writes "A story on NPR reports that the TrackingPoint rifle went on sale today, and can enable a 'novice' to hit a target 500 yards away on the first try. The rifle's scope features a sophisticated color graphics display (video). The shooter locks a laser on the target by pushing a small button by the trigger... But here's where it's different: You pull the trigger but the gun decides when to shoot. It fires only when the weapon has been pointed in exactly the right place, taking into account dozens of variables, including wind, shake and distance to the target. The rifle has a built-in laser range finder, a ballistics computer and a Wi-Fi transmitter to stream live video and audio to a nearby iPad. Every shot is recorded so it can be replayed, or posted to YouTube or Facebook."
EU

Europe Needs Genetically Engineered Crops, Scientists Say 586

Posted by samzenpus
from the feed-me-seymour dept.
First time accepted submitter Dorianny writes in with a story about the ongoing battle over genetically engineered crops in Europe. "The European Union cannot meet its goals in agricultural policy without embracing genetically engineered crops (GMOs). That's the conclusion of scientists who write in Trends in Plant Science, a Cell Press publication, based on case studies showing that the EU is undermining its own competitiveness in the agricultural sector to its own detriment and that of its humanitarian activities in the developing world. 'Failing such a change, ultimately the EU will become almost entirely dependent on the outside world for food and feed and scientific progress, ironically because the outside world has embraced the technology which is so unpopular in Europe, realizing this is the only way to achieve sustainable agriculture,' said Paul Christou of the University of Lleida-Agrotecnio Center and Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats in Spain."

Comment: The protection racket is still going on ... (Score 2) 168

by slb (#43471421) Attached to: Foxconn Signs Massive Android Patent Agreement With Microsoft

I can see why they agreed to pay.

Foxcon legal department assessed the cost of litigation to fight against bogus patents potentially higher than just pay those damn mafioso.

Also the behavior of the US justice in Apple vs Samsung may have told them that the mafioso business of extortion through patents is somewhat tolerated in this country. Well not much different finally than doing business in China, but at least in China the extortion by the members of the army or the Central Committee is not hiding behind patent laws and China never pretended to be a free market.

Communications

European Researchers Propose Quantum Network Between Earth and ISS 209

Posted by Unknown Lamer
from the accidentally-unleashes-cthulhu dept.
New kalalau_kane writes with this tidbit from Extreme Tech: "A group of European researchers has proposed the largest quantum network yet: Between Earth and the International Space Station. Such a network would see entangled photons transmitted over a distance of 250 miles — two or three times greater than previous quantum communication experiments. Not only will this be the first quantum experiment in space, but it will allow the scientists to see if entanglement really is instantaneous over long distances, and whether it's affected by gravity." The proposal (licensed CC BY).
Transportation

Samoa Air Rolling Out "Pay As You Weigh" Fares 587

Posted by Unknown Lamer
from the swim-instead dept.
cylonlover writes "Thrifty Samoans looking to take a trip may want to shed a few pounds before booking a flight with Samoan Air after the airline announced the implementation of a 'pay as you weigh' system. Unlike some other airlines that have courted controversy by forcing some obese passengers to purchase two seats, Samoa's national carrier will charge passengers based on their weight." They have a demo fare calculator for the curious.
Communications

How To Communicate Faster-Than-Light 265

Posted by Unknown Lamer
from the tiny-wormholes-of-course dept.
higuita writes "With faster technologies showing up everyday, people need to prepare in advance the problems of faster-than-light communication. The main problem is that packages will arrive to the destination before they are sent, forcing a huge redesign of most protocols. Read here the first draft RFC. Any network expert is free to help fine tune this draft."
United Kingdom

Britain Could Switch Off Airport Radar and Release 5G Spectrum 175

Posted by samzenpus
from the open-up dept.
judgecorp writes "Britain is considering switching off air traffic control radar systems and using "passive radar" instead. A two year feasibility study will consider using a network of ground stations which monitor broadcast TV signals and measure echoes from aircraft to determine their location and velocity. The system is not a new idea — early radar experiments used BBC shortwave transmitters as a signal source before antenna technology produced a transceiver suitable for radar — but could now be better than conventional radar thanks to new antenna designs and signal processing techniques. It will also save money and energy by eliminating transmitters — and release spectrum for 5G services."
Google

Tesla, Ford, Amazon Hint At Cloudy Future For Cars 231

Posted by samzenpus
from the where-the-processor-meets-the-road dept.
Nerval's Lobster writes "The automobile, once the most analog of technologies, is rapidly becoming a smartphone on wheels: Amazon announced Feb. 13 that Ford SYNC Applink-equipped vehicles will include the Amazon Cloud Player, allowing drivers to access their music libraries via voice command or dashboard controls. Ford isn't the only automotive company seeking to integrate cloud computing into the driving experience. Tesla Motors' Model S electric sedan boasts a 17-inch capacitive touch-screen in place of the usual dashboard buttons and dials. And who could forget Google's self-driving car? This isn't a future everybody wants—there are more than a few wannabe Steve McQueens who won't feel complete unless they can stomp on a pedal connected to an internal-combustion engine, flick a physical dashboard knob to the radio station of their choice, and peel out their driveway in a cloud of burning rubber. But as the latest technology migrates into automobiles, it could well be the future we're going to receive."
Shark

Researchers Use Lasers For Cooling 132

Posted by samzenpus
from the keeping-it-cool dept.
MatthewVD writes "Infrared cameras on satellites and night vision goggles could soon use lasers to cool their components. According to the study published in Nature, researchers in Singapore were able to cool the semiconductor cadmium sulfide from 62 degrees fahrenheit to -9 degrees by focusing a green laser on it and making it fluoresce and lose energy as light. Since they require neither gas nor moving parts, they can be more compact, free from vibration and not prone to mechanical failure."
Biotech

Hidden Viral Gene Discovered In GMO Crops 391

Posted by Soulskill
from the food-is-tasty-in-proportion-to-how-much-it's-trying-to-kill-you dept.
Jeremiah Cornelius writes "Researchers with the European Food Safety Authority discovered variants of the Cauliflower mosaic virus 35S in the most widely harvested varieties of genetically-modified crops, including Monsanto's RoundupReady Soy and Maze. According to the researchers, Podevin and du Jardin, the particular 'Gene VI' is responsible for a number of possible consequences that could affect human health, including inhibition of RNA silencing and production of proteins with known toxicity. The EFSA is endorsing 'retrospective risk assessment' of CaMV promoter and its Gene VI sequences — in an attempt to give it a clean bill of health. It is unknown if the presence of the hidden viral genes were the result of laboratory contamination or a possible recombinant product of the resultant organism. There are serious implications for the production of GMO for foodstuffs, given either possibility."

Comment: Re:"Grid Parity" ... on sunny days only (Score 1) 735

by slb (#42291883) Attached to: Solar Panels For Every Home?

> WTF is a "feed-in tarif"?
In Europe that's a guaranteed purchase price by the utilities for home producers of "green" energy. You can also call that a subsidy. Now If you really believe that when WE Energy buy your PV electricity at $.25 per kWh they will be able to recoup these costs by selling it at a premium, this is were you enter the delusional category.

FYI WE Energy do have an offer at 100% renewable energy[1]: with a rate of $.14 (0.12611+0.01388 [2]) ! So basically all their customers are subsiding the purchase price of PVs, and the taxpayers subsidizing your installation. And you have the balls to tell me that I'm the one working from inaccurate or obsolete information ...

Also, if you did this installation recently, double-check your contract I am not sure that this scam will go for long, even in Germany the government is starting to see the stupidity of all this and is reducing the feed-in tariff.

[1] http://www.we-energies.com/business/wisconsin_service_rates/eft_smbus.htm
[2] http://www.we-energies.com/business/elec/std_rateplan.htm

Comment: Re:"Grid Parity" ... on sunny days only (Score 3, Interesting) 735

by slb (#42288551) Attached to: Solar Panels For Every Home?

Your installation cost for a residential system is extremely cheap ! On average in the USA a 3kW system would be a $17000 investment [1]. Also your annual savings are quite incredible: with the average household cost of electricity in the USA at 11.72c per kWh [2], it would mean that your system produced around 13413 kWh [12x(163-32)/0.1172] over a year ! For a 3kW system this would mean that your magic installation as a capacity factor of 51% !!!! [13413/ (3 x 24 x 365)].

So yes, I don't know if you're delusional but you have been most likely lying by forgetting to speak about the subsidies you received for the installation and feed-in tarif. Oh and if you want to prove your case, please state your location and the supplier of your system...

What is far more annoying than your convenient omission of subsidies is all the idiots solar fanboys moderating you informative when they have absolutely no clue about the real cost of Solar PV energy....

[1] http://www.irena.org/DocumentDownloads/Publications/RE_Technologies_Cost_Analysis-SOLAR_PV.pdf
[2] http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.cfm?t=epmt_5_03

Comment: "Grid Parity" ... on sunny days only (Score -1, Troll) 735

by slb (#42286961) Attached to: Solar Panels For Every Home?
This is quite incredible that people continue to tout Solar PV as an economically viable energy when it is completely ineffective most of the time. And when the sun does not shines, one still need the energy from the Local Distribution Company. Saying that Solar PV is at the retail cost of grid power is either a lie or a complete delusion.

Comment: This is hype: NTLM is broken by design (Score 5, Insightful) 330

by slb (#42189893) Attached to: New 25-GPU Monster Devours Strong Passwords In Minutes
This is well known and no sane people uses NTLM auth anymore, even Microsoft recommend to deactivate this authentication method. The idiots at Microsoft used a DES ECB implementation instead of CBC that anyone with two ounce of crypto knowledge would choose. The practical impact of this very bad design choice is that a 14 character password has as much complexity as two independant 7 characters passwords ! So when the authors brag about cracking a 14 character password in 6 minutes, what they're really doing is cracking two 7 character passwords in 6 minutes, this is entirely different and not impressive at all.

Q: What do you say to a Puerto Rican in a three-piece suit? A: Will the defendant please rise?

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