Monthly Archives: November 2017

Colin Furze Built A Replica Of Kylo Ren's TIE Silencer Spacecraft

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This is a video of Colin Furze showing off the full-steel replica he built of Kylo Ren’s TIE Silencer spacecraft. He built the ship by scaling everything up from a toy that he bought and says it’s actual size, although his measures 46-feet long, 23-feet wide, and-14 feet high, and the Star Wars wiki says Kylo Ren’s is 57-feet long, 25-feet wide and 12.5-feet tall, so I suspect there’s a little discrepancy between the dimensions of the toy and Kylo’s actual ship. He also shows off the very impressive and fully mobile BB-9E droid that fan and robotics expert James Bruton built, and explains how it works. Great job, guys, and let me know if you need any help next time — I’m a great project manager. “You just drink beer and yell at people.” I was a born leader.

Keep going for the video.

Source: Geekologie – Colin Furze Built A Replica Of Kylo Ren’s TIE Silencer Spacecraft

The state of video journalism on Ars Technica—and its future

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Enlarge / Watch the birdie! (credit: Aurich Lawson / Getty Images)

Ars Technica will soon be celebrating its 20th birthday—an eternity online. In those two decades, we’ve experimented with different formats of reporting and blogging, with each experiment aimed at better serving our readers. It has been a fun and wild ride: those 20 years have spanned some of the most turbulent and fast-paced years in the entire history of tech. We’ve witnessed the death of dial-up Internet access, the transformation of Apple from a punchline to one of the most valuable companies on earth, the end of the megahertz wars, and the rise of the smartphone. We’ve watched the online media landscape evolve, too, and that’s why we are eager to tell you about our plans for video.

Video is not really new to Ars (remember data bears, anybody?), but most of our past efforts have been ad hoc, infrequent, and noticeably below the grade established by our written content (and sometimes they’ve just been very, very silly). We are now laying the groundwork for a bolder, more central video unit within Ars, capable of turning out video that truly improves upon the Ars experience as a whole, from the professionalism of the cut to the importance of the topics covered. In the past couple of months, many have noticed that our on-site video skillz were getting sincere. Next week, you’ll know it! There’s more detail on next week’s big debut below, but first we want to share some thoughts on video and the mission here at Ars.

Tools for the job

In 2018, you’re going to see much more video on the Ars front page—at least one or two videos per week. Some videos will be secondary to the stories they’re attached to, while some will be the story. In situations where the video is the primary focus of the story, you’ll notice a big “play” button on that article’s listing image on the Ars homepage. We want to make sure that the medium is serving the message and that when we put in the time and effort to produce a video, it’s because that video needed to be made to deliver what we had to say (in our judgement, of course).

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Source: Ars Technica – The state of video journalism on Ars Technica—and its future

Elon Musk's Boring Company Bids On Chicago Airport Transit Link

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On Wednesday, the city of Chicago opened a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for an express train that would take passengers from the city’s O’Hare airport to downtown. The system would have to be completely privately funded — Chicago says no taxpayer money would be used for it. Elon Musk’s Boring Company — a tunneling company that the SpaceX and Tesla CEO started last year — will respond to the request. Musk hopes to get to the second round when bidding will take place. On Wednesday evening, he tweeted that his company “will compete to fund, build & operate a high-speed Loop connecting Chicago O’Hare Airport to downtown.”

Musk’s reference to a “Loop” is explained more clearly on The Boring Company’s FAQ page: “Loop is a high-speed underground public transportation system in which passengers are transported on autonomous electric skates traveling at 125-150 miles per hour. Electric skates will carry between 8 and 16 passengers (mass transit), or a single passenger vehicle.” Unlike Musk’s idea for a Hyperloop, a Loop won’t draw a vacuum. “For shorter routes, there is no technical need to eliminate air friction,” The Boring Company states. The company also clarifies the concept of an “electric skate:” that is “a platform on wheels propelled by multiple electric motors.” The platform would operate autonomously without a rail or rails to which the skate would connect. The skate would operate in the tunnel’s main artery, and it would enter and exit from side tunnels. With this system, The Boring Company says, the skate’s average speed would theoretically be able to operate close to maximum speed.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – Elon Musk’s Boring Company Bids On Chicago Airport Transit Link

Use These Search Tricks to Take Control of Your Gmail Inbox

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Gmail is one those things that I could never live without, but that’s also made my life a lot more annoying. I gave up on inbox zero years ago (I’d be happy with inbox 1,000 at this point) and I get dozens of useless, spammy emails every day, making it all the more difficult to find any important messages that are…

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Source: LifeHacker – Use These Search Tricks to Take Control of Your Gmail Inbox

Real wish or drunken regret? A “Do Not Resuscitate” tattoo throws doctors

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Source: Ars Technica – Real wish or drunken regret? A “Do Not Resuscitate” tattoo throws doctors

Woman Screams During Orchestra Performance When Bass Drum Hits

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This is a video of the North State Symphony performing Stravinsky’s The Firebird at the Cascade Theatre in Redding, California when a loud change in the music and bass drum blast causes a female audience member to scream. Most people are reporting she was asleep and the drum woke her, but I suspect she’s just an easily frightened old lady. I mean the bass hits so hard it shakes the mounted camera, so it’s no surprise it could shock an old woman. Hell, I got scared and I was just watching the video on my laptop with its shitty speakers and already knew the bass drop was coming. I’m a delicate flower. “You’re poison ivy.” Wipe with me, do it I dare you.

Keep going for the video.

Source: Geekologie – Woman Screams During Orchestra Performance When Bass Drum Hits

Sorry, Dogs: Store-Bought Bones Are Bad for You 

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You shouldn’t give your dog your leftover chicken bones because they can break into splinters. You shouldn’t give them large raw bones because they can be full of germs (and if they weren’t at first, they will be once your dog has dragged them all over the yard.) Now, more bad news: the FDA says store-bought dog bone…

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Source: LifeHacker – Sorry, Dogs: Store-Bought Bones Are Bad for You 

Facebook Judge Frowns on Bid To Toss Biometric Face Print Suit

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Facebook faced a skeptical judge over its second request to get out of a lawsuit alleging its photo scanning technology flouts users’ privacy rights. From a report: “The right to say no is a valuable commodity,” U.S. District Judge James Donato said Thursday during a hearing in San Francisco. The case concerns the “most personal aspects of your life: your face, your fingers, who you are to the world.” The owner of the world’s largest social network faces claims that it violated the privacy of millions of users by gathering and storing biometric data without their consent. Alphabet’s Google is fighting similar claims in federal court in Chicago.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – Facebook Judge Frowns on Bid To Toss Biometric Face Print Suit

A Clever Tesla Owner Is Using His Model S to Mine Cryptocurrency for Free

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A creative Tesla owner managed to fit a legitimate mining rig inside the trunk of his shiny Model S, and not only that, all the electricity needed to keep the mining rig running is coming from Tesla’s free Superchargers — or so the inventor says.



Another member of Tesla Owners Worldwide jokingly suggested fitting a miner inside a Model S could help avoiding huge energy bills by relying on electricity from the free Supercharger network. Well, someone thought this is indeed a good idea. Judging by the images, the mining rig in question uses GPUs to solve puzzles.

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Source: [H]ardOCP – A Clever Tesla Owner Is Using His Model S to Mine Cryptocurrency for Free

Employee Uses Snack Bags as "Faraday Cage" to Hide His Whereabouts

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A 60-year-old electrician in Perth, Western Australia had been abusing his position and technical knowledge to squeeze in some recreation during working hours. Tom Colella used mylar snack bags to block GPS tracking via his employer-assigned personal digital assistant to go out to play a round of golf — more than 140 times — while he reported he was offsite performing repairs.



The tribunal found that the packet was deliberately used to operate as an elaborate “Faraday cage” – an enclosure which can block electromagnetic fields – and prevented his employer knowing his location. The cage set-up was named after English scientist Michael Faraday, who in 1836 observed that a continuous covering of conductive material could be used to block electromagnetic fields.

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Source: [H]ardOCP – Employee Uses Snack Bags as “Faraday Cage” to Hide His Whereabouts

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds to Run at 60 FPS on Xbox One X

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Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene has confirmed that PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, at least on the Xbox One X, will run at 60FPS. It’s something that many of us suspected with Microsoft’s most powerful console, but it’s good to get a confirmation from the creator himself.



“Definitely on Xbox One X, 60 FPS. On Xbox One, we’re not sure. We may have to limit it at 30 FPS, maybe, but the last time I saw it, it was running at about 30 to 40. We’re still constantly improving it so, you know, the aim is to get to 60.”

Discussion

Source: [H]ardOCP – PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds to Run at 60 FPS on Xbox One X