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Submission + - Hyperloop Technology Tested Successfully In Nevada Desert

Submitted by Dave Knott
Dave Knott writes: Hyperloop One (formerly known as Hyperloop Technologies) conducted a successful test of its high speed transportation technology Wednesday in the desert outside Las Vegas. The seconds-long, outdoor demonstration featured what appeared to be a blip of metal gliding across a small track before disappearing into a cloud against the desert landscape. A fully operational hyperloop would whisk passengers and cargo in pods through a low pressure tube at speeds of up to 1,207 kph (750 mph). Maglev technology would levitate the pods to reduce friction in the city-to-city system, which would be fully autonomous and electric powered. A day earlier, the company had announced the closing of $80 million in financing and said it plans to conduct a full system test before the end of the year.

Comment Re:Crap, the sky is falling (Score 3, Insightful) 334

by Chris_Jefferson (#43708339) Attached to: Last Forking Warning For Bitcoin

However, other currencies don't have this problem where the currency just "breaks" suddenly, and basically stops working.

Imagine if bitcoin had been more popular, if everyone had bitcoin applications on their phone which take months to get updated, where half the world if running v7 and half v8. This would have (as I understand it, and I think I do) just fundamentally broken bitcoin, possibly beyond reasonable repair.

Submission + - Own every SNES game ever made - for $24,999 (polygon.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A game collector has decided to put his entire collection of SNES games up for sale — at the low price of $24,999USD. The collection covers *every* game ever made for SNES, all in the original covers.
Intel

Submission + - Intel unveils 22nm SoC transistors, while TSMC and GloFo plan risky process jump (extremetech.com)

Submitted by
MrSeb
MrSeb writes: "Transistor announcements aren’t the sexiest occasions on the block, but Intel’s 22nm SoC unveil is important for a host of reasons. As process nodes shrink and more components move on-die, the characteristics of each new node have become particularly important. 22nm isn’t a new node for Intel; it debuted the technology last year with Ivy Bridge, but SoCs are more complex than CPU designs and create their own set of challenges. Like its 22nm Ivy Bridge CPUs, the upcoming 22nm SoCs rely on Intel’s Tri-Gate implementation of FinFET technology. According to Intel engineer Mark Bohr, the 3D transistor structure is the principle reason why the company’s 22nm technology is as strong as it is. Other evidence backs up this point. Earlier this year, we brought you news that Nvidia was deeply concerned about manufacturing economics and the relative strength of TSMC’s sub-28nm planar roadmap. Morris Chang, TSMC’s CEO, has since admitted that such concerns are valid, given that performance and power are only expected to increase by 20-25% as compared to 28nm. The challenge for both TSMC and GlobalFoundries is going to be how to match the performance of Intel’s 22nm technology with their own 28nm products. 20nm looks like it won’t be able to do so, which is why both companies are emphasizing their plans to move to 16nm/14nm ahead of schedule. There’s some variation on which node comes next; both GlobalFoundries and Intel are talking up 14nm; TSMC is implying a quick jump to 16nm. Will it work? Unknown. TSMC and GlobalFoundries both have excellent engineers, but FinFET is a difficult technology to deploy. Ramping it up more quickly than expected while simultaneously bringing up a new process may be more difficult than either company anticipates."
Microsoft

Submission + - Outrage at Microsoft offshoring tax in the UK (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by Master Of Ninja
Master Of Ninja writes: After the ongoing row about companies not paying a fair share of tax in the United Kingdom, and with companies such as Starbucks, Amazon and Google being in the headlines, focus has now turned to Microsoft. Whilst the tax arrangements are strictly legal, there has been outrage on how companies are avoiding paying their fair share of tax generated in the country.
Software

Submission + - Jolla Confirms MeeGo App Store is Coming (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by
DavidGilbert99
DavidGilbert99 writes: "Jolla Mobile's MD, Jussi Hurmola has confirmed that it's first smartphone will be backed up by an app store at launch later this year — pointing out that a version of Angry Birds is already available on MeeGo.

And really, all you need to make an app store successful is Angry birds right?"
Earth

Submission + - Small, big-brained animals dodge extinction (nature.com)

Submitted by
ananyo
ananyo writes: "Large-brained animals may be less likely to go extinct in a changing world, perhaps because they can use their greater intelligence to adapt their behavior to new conditions, according to an analysis presented to a meeting of conservation biologists this week.
Plotting brain size against body size creates a tidy curve. But some species have bigger or smaller brains than the curve would predict for their body size. And a bigger brain-to-body-size ratio usually means a smarter animal.
The researchers looked at the sizes of such deviations from the curve and their relationships to the fates of two groups of mammalian species — ‘palaeo’ and ‘modern’. Analysis of each group produced similar results: species that weighed less than 10 kilograms and had big brains for their body size were less likely to have gone extinct or be placed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list for endangered species. For species larger than about 10 kilograms, the advantage of having a large brain seems to be swamped by the disadvantage of being big — such as attracting the unwelcome attention of humans."
Mars

Mars Mission Back In the Cards After Budget Cuts 146

Posted by Soulskill from the dependent-on-the-success-of-john-carter dept.
ananyo writes "NASA has said it will re-design its Mars exploration program, and that the new architecture would include input — and money — from the human program as well as the space technology division. Orlando Figueroa, the former deputy director for space and technology at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is to head up a seven or eight person committee, and to start developing mission concepts in the next month. One of those concepts would be a possible $700 million mission launching in 2018. The news offers a grain of comfort to a community still reeling from massive cuts to the Mars program."
Idle

Submission + - Orangutans to Skype between zoos with iPads (extremetech.com)

Submitted by
MrSeb
MrSeb writes: "For the last six months, orangutans — those great, hairy, orange apes that go “ook” a lot — at Milwaukee zoo have been playing games and watching videos on Apple’s (seemingly ubiquitous) iPad, but now their keepers and the charity Orangutan Outreach want to go one step further and enable ape-to-ape video chat via Skype or FaceTime. "The orangutans loved seeing videos of themselves — so there is a little vanity going on — and they like seeing videos of the orangutans who are in the other end of the enclosure," Richard Zimmerman of Orangutan Outreach said. "So if we incorporate cameras, they can watch each other." And thus the idea of WiFi video chat between orangutans — and eventually between zoos — was born. It might seem like folly, but putting (ruggedized!) iPads into the hands of apes could really revolutionize our understanding of great ape behavior — and thus our own behavior, too."
Programming

Submission + - Ideally Bare Numeric Impression giZmo (blogspot.com)

Submitted by jones_supa
jones_supa writes: Ville 'viznut' Heikkilä presents us with an interesting project. As demonstrated by the video, IBNIZ (Ideally Bare Numeric Impression giZmo) is a virtual machine and a programming language that generates video and audio from very short strings of code. Technically, it is a two-stack machine somewhat similar to Forth, but with the major execption that the stack is cyclical and also used at an output buffer. The main goal of IBNIZ is to provide a new platform for the demoscene. Something that would have the potential to displace MS-DOS as the primary platform for sub-256-byte productions.
Facebook

Submission + - Open Source Increasingly Replaced by Open APIs (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by SharkLaser
SharkLaser writes: Open APIs might be the way to get rich in 2012. At the same time it can also be what ultimately hinders open source development. Wide range of companies, including Google, Facebook, Amazon and Twitter, are building open APIs for other developers to use and build upon. Open APIs can be used by companies to grow their user base and introduce new interesting features on top of their platform. At the same time independant developers can utilize established services and their users to grow their own business. Perfect example of open APIs is Facebook Apps, which lets individuals and companies develop applications and games on top of Facebook platform. Developers gain access to Facebook's established user base and Facebook gains new features and fun stuff to do on their site. Instead of open sourcing their platforms, companies like Google and Facebook are providing Open APIs and data access to outside developers. The actual source code for the services sits safely inside the company's network and never needs to be disclosed to outside parties, thus hindering open source development.
Government

Submission + - Running Great Britain? There's An App For That! (techweekeurope.co.uk)

Submitted by
judgecorp
judgecorp writes: "Britain's Prime Minister, David Cameron will get a personalised iPad app to help him run the country. The "government dashboard" will include health waiting list figures, crime statistics, economic statistics and a real-time news feed. Cameron is a committed Apple user — but British members of Parliament have only been allowed iPads in the House of Commons since March 2011."

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