MatthewVD - Slashdot User

Submission + - The Improbable Story of the 184 MPH Jet Train (youtube.com)

Submitted by MatthewVD on Wednesday July 16, 2014 @12:20PM

MatthewVD writes: Almost half a century ago, New York Central Railroad engineer Don Wetzel and his team bolted two J47-19 jet engines, throttled up the engines and tore down a length of track from Butler, Indiana to Stryker, Ohio at almost 184 mph. Today, the M-497 still holds the record for America's fastest train. This is the story of how it happened.

Submission + - Where Can You Find An Electric Vehicle Charging Network? In Estonia (txchnologist.com)

Submitted by

MatthewVD

on Tuesday March 19, 2013 @11:44AM

MatthewVD writes: "How hard can it be to find an electric car charger? So hard that New York Times reporter David Broder had to drive in circles and drain his Tesla's battery. Charging infrastructure has been ultimate chicken or egg problem for electric cars adoption but finally, there's a good test case. In Estonia, drivers need to travel only 37 miles to reach a CHAdeMO quick charger. There are 165 of the direct current plug-in chargers, that can charge a car’s lithium battery in 30 minutes for an average cost of $3.25. The question now is, will the electric vehicles follow?"

Submission + - Glasses That Cure Colorblindness? (txchnologist.com)

Submitted by

MatthewVD

on Monday February 04, 2013 @03:24PM

MatthewVD writes: "In 2006, researcher Mark Changizi came up with a novel theory for why humans evolved with color vision: to detect social cues and emotions in others. He built glasses called 02Amps to enhance perception of blood pooling. Some hospitals have tried using the glasses to see bruising that's not visible unaided, or help nurses find veins. But it turns out now that the glasses might be able to fix some forms of colorblindness, too."

Submission + - Researchers Use Lasers for Cooling (txchnologist.com)

Submitted by

MatthewVD

on Wednesday January 23, 2013 @03:30PM

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."

Submission + - Atlantic Hurricane Season 30 Percent Stronger Than Normal (txchnologist.com)

Submitted by MatthewVD on Thursday November 01, 2012 @08:01PM

MatthewVD writes: The National Hurricane Center reported today that the combined energy and duration of all the storms in the Atlantic basin hurricane season was 30 percent above the average from 1981 to 2010. In the Weather Underground, Jeff Masters blogs that record low levels of arctic ice caused the "Greenland blocking" that pushed Hurricane Sandy west. As Bloomberg Businessweek notes, "it's global warming, stupid."

Submission + - Researchers Hack Google's Search Algorithms to Fight Cancer (txchnologist.com)

Submitted by

MatthewVD

on Thursday May 17, 2012 @05:46PM

MatthewVD writes: "German scientists have modified Google's PageRank algorithm to scan tumors and learn more about how cancers progress. PageRank orders results based on how other web pages are connected to them via hyperlinks; the modified algorithm, NetRank, scans how genes and proteins in a cell are similarly connected through a network of interactions with their neighbors. This approach could also yield new therapies to help combat tumors."

Submission + - Researchers Push Implanted User Interfaces (txchnologist.com)

Submitted by

MatthewVD

on Thursday May 03, 2012 @05:57AM

MatthewVD writes: "A new, user interface-enabled generation of electronics that you wear under your skin could be used for convenience, or even pleasure, rather than medical reasons. Scientists at Autodesk Research in Toronto have implanted electronics with user buttons, pressure sensors and LEDs under the skin of a cadaver's arm and wrapped in artificial skin. The electronics could buzz you when you have an appointment, carry memory cars with data or connect you in a social network with others wearing electronics. "It's a way of letting someone under your skin," says one expert. The researchers will be presenting at the Association of Computing Machinery Conference next week."

Submission + - Researchers Model Pluto's Atmosphere, Find 225 mph Winds (txchnologist.com)

Submitted by

MatthewVD

on Tuesday May 01, 2012 @10:12AM

MatthewVD writes: "Pluto may have been downgraded to a dwarf planet, but researchers modeling its wisp of an atmosphere continue to find that it is asurprisingly complex world, particularly when it comes to weather patterns. Howling winds that sweep clockwise around the planet at up to 225 mph — though the atmosphere is so thin, it would only feel like 1 mph hour on Earth. The algorithms used to model the atmosphere will be helpful in studying far more complex atmospheres, like Earth's."

Submission + - Voyager and the Coming Great Hiatus in Deep Space (txchnologist.com)

Submitted by

MatthewVD

on Friday April 13, 2012 @10:52AM

MatthewVD writes: "Some time in the next decade, the Voyager probes will run out of juice and finally go silent after almost a half century of exploration. John Rennie writes that the lack of any meaningful effort to follow up with a mission to interstellar space shows the "fragile, inconsistent state of space exploration." It's particularly frustrating since the Voyagers have tantalized astronomers with a glimpse into about how the sun's magnetic field protects us from (or exposes us to) cosmic rays. Have we gone as far as we’re willing to go in space?"

Submission + - New Zealand Developers Building Open Source Code for Electric Cars (txchnologist.com)

Submitted by

MatthewVD

on Tuesday April 10, 2012 @09:15AM

MatthewVD writes: "New Zealand electric racecar developer Greenstage is close to finishing an open source project called "Tumanako," that would allow electric cars and motorcycle owners to tweak the code in their vehicles. Electric vehicle gearheads grouse about proprietary code that keeps current, torque and speed within very conservative limits. "In racing, you need the system to push all those parameters to the limits. You only need the system to survive until just past the finish line,” says Bill Dube, the owner of the record-setting KillaCycle. Open source code could also be used to build any type of electric vehicle, from cars and submarines to motor-launched aerial gliders, from scratch. It's like Linux for your Chevy Volt."

Submission + - Mercedes Can Now Update Car Software Remotely (txchnologist.com)

Submitted by

MatthewVD

on Friday April 06, 2012 @10:50AM

MatthewVD writes: "Our cars run millions of lines of code that need constant and, often, critical updates. Jim Motavalli writes that Mercedes-Benz's new mbrace2 "cloud infotainment system" has a secret capability: it can update software automatically and wirelessly. In a process called "reflashing,’" the Mercedes system turns on the car operating system (CU), downloads the new application, then cuts itself off. With companies like Fisker paying dearly for constant recalls for software problems, automakers will likely rush to embrace this technology. No more USBs in the dashboard!"

Submission + - 1.9 Billion Digits: Brazil's Bid for Biometric Voting (txchnologist.com)

Submitted by

MatthewVD

on Thursday March 29, 2012 @09:39AM

MatthewVD writes: "Brazil is on a massive fingerprinting spree, with the goal of collecting biometric information from each of its 190 million citizens and identifying all voters by their biological signatures by 2018. The country already has a fully electronic voting system and now officials are trying to end fraud, which was rampant after the military dictatorship ended. Dissenters complain that recounts could be impossible and this opens the door for new kinds of fraud. Imagine this happening in the U.S."

Submission + - Hoover Dams for Lilliput: Does Small Hydroelectric Power Have a Future? (txchnologist.com)

Submitted by

MatthewVD

on Tuesday March 27, 2012 @10:04AM

MatthewVD writes: "Boing Boing's Maggie Koerth-Baker, author of Before The Lights Go Out, writes that the era of giant hydroelectric projects like the Hoover Dam has passed. But the Department of Energy has identified 5,400 potential sites for small hydro projects of 30 MWs or less. The sites, in states as dry as Kansas, represent a total 18,000 MW of power — enough to increase by 50 percent America's hydro power. Even New York City's East River has pilot projects to produce power from underwater turbines. As we stare down global warming and peak oil, could small hydroelectric power be a key solution?"

Slashdot Top Deals