mikeebbbd - Slashdot User

Submission + - Muni bond market using geospatial data for climate risk evaluation (latimes.com)

Submitted by mikeebbbd on Friday February 07, 2020 @01:20PM

mikeebbbd writes: The $3.8-trillion municipal-bond market has found a new tool in its effort to understand the effects of climate change: satellites orbiting Earth. Assessing climate risks is a particularly vexing problem given that U.S. state and local governments tend to give investors information that’s too little or just too late. But the use of geospatial data and information from sources such as Google Earth could help municipal bond investors evaluate and price the risks posed from a warming climate, rising sea levels and natural disasters.

The article goes on to describe uses that analysts make of satellite data and GIS analysis. Is there a risk that this could create a modern version of "redlining?"

Submission + - US Attorney General says US, allies should invest in Nokia & Ericsson (reuters.com)

Submitted by mikeebbbd on Thursday February 06, 2020 @01:04PM

mikeebbbd writes: According to Reuters, US Attorney General William Barr, in a speech on February 6, 2020, said that the US and its allies should invest in Nokia and Ericsson to counter the Huawei threat.

One wonders: where and by what subsidiary/affiliate are those companies' equipment produced? "Nokia" retail cell phones, for instance, are produced in China (like early all cell phones) by HMD.

Submission + - 1-minute Power Glitch Shuts Down Samsung Chip Production (reuters.com)

Submitted by mikeebbbd on Wednesday January 01, 2020 @05:53AM

mikeebbbd writes: According to Reuters, a 1-minute power glitch on Tuesday, December 31 partially shut down Samsung chip production at its Hwaseong chip complex in South Korea for "two or three days". DRAM and NAND lines were affected. Preliminary inspections show "no major damage" but losses are still expected to be in the millions.

Submission + - Return of the Bubble Car? (reuters.com)

Submitted by mikeebbbd on Thursday August 16, 2018 @02:47PM

mikeebbbd writes: Back in the 1950s, many European carmakers (some even still existing, like BMW) made tiny cars for one or 2 people that ran on tiny amounts of gas, and make a Smart Car look huge. The remaining examples have become sort of a fetish. Now two Swiss brothers, according to Reuters, are trying to resurrect one of the more iconic designs — the BMW Isetta. One wonders how it could meet any kind of safety standards, but a prototype is shown in the article. Perhaps it might be registered as a Neighborhood Electric Vehicle, which gets it by a few standards?

Submission + - Xerox Cedes Control to Fujifilm, Ending Its Independence

Submitted by mikeebbbd on Wednesday January 31, 2018 @05:58PM

mikeebbbd writes: According to Bloomberg, Xerox Corp., a once-iconic American innovator that became synonymous with office copy machines, is ceding control to Japan’s Fujifilm Holdings Corp. Essentially, it's merging with Fuji; a former joint venture operating in the Asian-Pacific area essentially will become the parent company. So much for the company that actually invented the modern graphical user interface later popularized by Apple and Microsoft.

Submission + - FCC Approves New ATSC 3.0 TV Standard (reuters.com)

Submitted by mikeebbbd on Friday November 17, 2017 @02:56AM

mikeebbbd writes: Reuters notes: "U.S. regulators on Thursday approved the use of new technology that will improve picture quality on mobile phones, tablets and television, but also raises significant privacy concerns by giving advertisers dramatically more data about viewing habits."
ATSC3.0 will apparently make personal data collection and targeted ads possible. New TVs will be necessary, and broadcasters will need to transmit both ATSC 2 (the current standard) and 3 for 5 years before turning off the older system. For now, the conversion is voluntary. There appears to be no requirement (as there was when ATSC 2 came out) for low-cost adapter boxes to make older TVs work; once a channel goes ATSC 3-only, your current TV will not display it any more.

Submission + - Tesla temporarily boosts battery capacity in FL for Irma (sfgate.com)

Submitted by mikeebbbd on Sunday September 10, 2017 @07:03PM

mikeebbbd writes: From AP news feed about Irma:

4:30 p.m. Electric car maker Tesla says it has temporarily increased the battery capacity of some of its cars to help drivers escaping Hurricane Irma. The electric car maker said the battery boost was applied to Model S and X cars in the Southeast. Some drivers only buy 60 or 70 kilowatt hours of battery capacity, but a software change will give them access to 75 kilowatt hours of battery life until Saturday. Depending on the model, that could let drivers travel about 40 more miles before they would need to recharge their cars. Tesla said it made the change after a customer asked the company for help evacuating. The company said it's possible it will make similar changes in response to similar events in the future.

Interesting. Battery capacity is subject to software limit. Is this a hack waiting to happen?

Submission + - Cool Pavement Works in LA

Submitted by mikeebbbd on Saturday June 24, 2017 @01:52PM

mikeebbbd writes: As reported in the LA Daily News, during the current heatwave various officials swooped down on streets coated with an experimental light-gray sealer that makes the old asphalt into a "cool street" — and it works, with average temperature differences between coated streets and adjacent old asphalt around 10F. At a large parking lot, the temperature reduction was over 20F. If the material holds up and continues to meet other criteria, LA plans to use it on more pavement rehab projects, which could eventually make a difference in the heat island effect.

The "CoolSeal" coating is apparently proprietary to a company named GuardTop LLC, costs $25-40K/mile, and lasts 5-7 years. At that price, it's might not be used a lot, at least at first; typical slurry seals run $15-30K/mile.

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