New York City has purchased 184 all-electric Mustang Mach-Es, and they’re all going to be used for law enforcement and emergency response purposes. As Electrek noted, the move is part of the city’s plans to buy over 1,250 electric vehicles in 2022. That, in turn, is part of a larger endeavor to “drastically cut citywide climate emissions” with the help of a $420 million investment.
In its announcement, the local NYC government said the Mach-Es will be used by the New York Police Department (NYPD), the New York City Sheriff’s Office, the Department of Correction, the Department of Parks and Recreation, the Department of Environmental Protection, NYC Emergency Management, DCAS Police and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. They’ll be replacing those agencies’ gas-powered vehicles after the city receives them by June 30th, 2022.
NYC also said that its Mach-E purchase is part of its biggest EV purchase to date, though that may not be the case for long. The city has also approved the option to buy up to 250 Tesla Model 3 vehicles any time over the next five years.
Earlier this month, Ford announced that it’s increasing the production of the Mach-E to 200,000 vehicles per year in the US starting in 2022 and in Europe by 2023. Company CEO Jim Farley said there’s a huge demand for the electric vehicle, and Ford is reportedly delaying its Explorer and Aviator EVs to ensure that it can manufacture enough Mach-Es to keep up with the demand.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: Behind every TikTok, Zoom call, and cat meme is a data center that stores, processes, or reroutes that data around the world. The more we do online, the bigger these data centers and their energy footprint get. At full capacity, servers within a modern “hyperscale” (aka “massive”) data center can use as much power as 80,000 households. Although the data center industry is global, places with the right combination of stable climate and friendly regulations attract outsized attention from data center developers. Ireland is one of these places. The island nation hosts 70 data centers and is now the fastest-growing data center market in Europe. Unfortunately, supplying the equivalent of several extra cities worth of electricity to servers that aid your doomscrolling is starting to take a toll on Ireland’s power grid.
Data centers already use around 900 megawatts of electricity in Ireland. According to Paul Deane, an energy researcher working with the MaREI Environmental Research Institute in Ireland, this adds up to at least 11% of Ireland’s total electricity supply at present, a situation he described “as a serious energy systems problem.” As Deane outlined, meeting this demand is making Ireland’s current energy crisis worse and its target of halving greenhouse emissions by 2030 harder to reach. And things are only getting more challenging. A recent report from Eirgrid, Ireland’s state-owned grid operator, shows that data centers will consume almost 30% (PDF) of Ireland’s annual electricity supply by 2029.
Although, as Deane pointed out, data centers are essential to modern life, a small country with little grid power to spare hosting so many of them puts the sustainability of Ireland’s entire power supply at risk. Deane summed up Ireland’s issue with data centers as being a mismatch in size. “Data centers are large power users, and our power system is small, so plugging more of them into a small grid will start to have an outsized impact,” he said. In stark comparison, Germany, the EU’s biggest data center market overall, will use less than 5% of its grid capacity to power data centers in the same period. As well as stoking fears that the industry’s growth will create blackouts and power shortages for Irish consumers this winter, data centers may also derail Ireland’s drive to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
Not even an ongoing pandemic with a brand new ultra-contagious variant can stop the world’s biggest technology trade show. In January, CES will be held in person despite the omicron covid-19 variant rapidly spreading around the globe. Yes, CES 2022 will be a physical event, but only for some. Gizmodo (and various…
AMD this week released AMDVLK 2021.Q4.3 as their last open-source Vulkan driver version of the year and with it came finally fixing the poor performance seen by that driver when running under Wayland such as with Ubuntu 21.04 and newer. Indeed, my tests have confirmed the AMDVLK performance now being in far better shape under Wayland, but is it enough to better compete now with Mesa’s RADV alternative Vulkan driver? Here are fresh benchmarks.
When it comes to films in 2021, Ars Technica readers have been more likely to express their feelings about the logistics of seeing new offerings this year than about the films in question.
We get it. The past year-plus of world-shaking change has been a stern reminder that some stuff works just fine in our homes, which includes films—a fact that movie studios and massive theaters alike are uneasy about. Some companies embraced this reality for the entirety of 2021, committing to simul-launched films in theaters and on streaming platforms in the United States. Others toyed with the idea before backing off. Still others would rather not admit until at least 30 or 45 days after a film’s launch that you might have a masterfully calibrated 4K screen and spatial surround-sound system in your home, variants be damned.
Still, we get into such a tizzy because the films in question remain fascinating and exhilarating, no matter how, where, or when we watch them. At Ars, our critical eye continues drifting toward a substantial range of “nerd”-appropriate cinema. This year, the best stuff ranges from mainstream comic- and sci-fi-inspired blockbusters to meticulously designed cult/horror madness to documentaries that explore the dire consequences of travesties like pseudoscience or climate change.
LED strip lights, ribbons, or tapes have become one of the most popular LED products available on the market. They not only replace incandescent ribbons, but some of the fluorescent tubes as well, and definitely gave endless options for advertisements and decoration of bars, hotels, and other public places. With the fast development of LED technology, they are now available in very bright versions too, allowing users to apply it as a task, or in rare cases, even as a main source of lighting.
Focused on the main things to look out for when buying LED Strip Lights for the first time. Now we are going to take you through the next phase; installation. Installing your LED Strips can be anything from very simple to quite difficult, but ultimately it all depends on what end result you are trying to achieve with your lighting system. For example, introducing a 1-meter strip of LED lighting into your kitchen cabinet may be a lot more straightforward than using 20 meters of RGB LED Strip Lights to outfit a club and run this on DMX Control. Regardless of what you do, there are a few universal things to look out for and this article will take you through some of them.
Strips of little light-emitting diodes (LED) will go anywhere offering good illumination. These strips are especially useful in kitchens and adjacent eating areas. The low voltage LED strips are energy-efficient, lightweight and each tiny bulb works independently. They can be super bright or very subtle. LED strips also work with dimmers.
LED strips are available in bright white and softer yellow tones. A remote color change controller is available with thousands of different color tones that can be set and easily changed with the white lights.
LED Strip Lights offer a number of advantages over more traditional luminaries, such as incandescent, halogen, and fluorescent. Some of these are intrinsic to LED technology in general, such as a longer life expectancy, while others are unique to LED Strips, such as flexibility.
While I didn’t get it in time for our best buys of 2021, I am now the proud owner of an LG C1 OLED TV. It is beautiful, does 4K, HDR, variable refresh rates and more. Everything looks amazing on it.
As I bought it, I thought about how I’ve never been at the vanguard of TV tech, and how it would only last a couple of weeks until LG ruins it all with even newer TV models.
And like clockwork, here it comes. LG Display’s next generation of OLED tech, called “OLED EX,” that’s supposed to “enhance brightness up to 30 percent compared to conventional OLED displays,” The company also upgraded the TV’s designs too, reducing the thickness by 30 percent and bezel size from 6 to 4mm on 65-inch OLED displays.
In defense of my new 55-inch OLED, this is LG Display, not LG, the part of the multinational company that brings this new TV tech to stores, so that doesn’t mean it’s landing in a new TV immediately. It’s just, sigh, already on the horizon.
If you had tried to play Fortnite yesterday, you may have had issues. Many players were unable to log in to their accounts and play games. At 1:13PM ET, Epic Games said it was investigating “an issue,” and roughly six hours later, the battle royale hit was back online.
Epic Games said that it would have “more details next week on what we’re doing to help you make up for lost time.”
China has filed a complaint with the United Nations over two reported near-collisions between the in-progress Tiangong space station and Starlink vehicles. According to Chinese officials, the station had to perform evasive maneuvers on July 1st and October 21st this year to minimize the chance of a collision. In its complaint, the country asked the UN Secretary-General to remind countries (read: the US) that parties in the Outer Space Treaty are responsible for incidents beyond Earth, even if they involve private companies.
The accusations line up with astronomer Jonathan McDowell’s conjunction observations for both days. China further argued that SpaceX’s satellites weren’t always predictable. During the October incident, the Starlink craft was “continuously” maneuvering in a way that made it difficult to predict the orbital path.
Not just an impressive EV, but an impressive truck.
Announcing a vehicle is one thing, actually following through and building that vehicle at a factory and then selling it, that’s an almost impossible feat for a new company. But like Tesla before it, Rivian has pulled it off and in doing so has built one of the best trucks on the road today, EV or otherwise. Roberto Baldwin gives it a test drive.
They’re only available in some countries right now.
Jabra only just launched its Elite 3 wireless earbuds, but here’s their sequel. The Elite 4 Active is a step-up model that adds active noise cancellation and improved IP57 water resistance (up from IP55).
Expect to get a claimed seven hours of battery life from the buds themselves and 28 hours when you include the charging case. The Elite 4 Active is available now in the UK for £120 (about $161), but they haven’t been announced for the US just yet.
More audio devices will be able to automatically pair with Roku TVs.
Roku TVs will be able to pair quickly with even more audio products in the future. The company has expanded its TV Ready Certification Program, adding Element, JVC, Pheanoo and Philips this year, with Polk Audio and Westinghouse joining the list in 2022. Roku also opened the program internationally, and partners like Bose are expected to launch TV Ready devices in the United Kingdom, Canada and Mexico soon.
The TV Ready initiative makes it easy to connect soundbars and speakers to Roku TVs — so long as the audio device supports the feature, it will automatically be detected as soon as you plug it in.
Ubuntu and parent company Canonical had another great year not only on the Linux desktop but continuing its commercial successes around the server, cloud, and IoT sectors too. Ubuntu 21.04 and 21.10 delivered new features across all fronts this year and developers are now busy preparing for the Ubuntu 22.04 LTS release next spring…
As far as most years ago, 2021 has been an up and down year when it comes to the desktop CPU market. At the beginning of the year, the best CPUs on the market were almost impossible to find, and when they were in stock, it was only above the suggested pricing. Now at the end of the year, processors are plentiful, but the needle has swung in the other direction when it comes to performance. Here’s a rundown of the fun year that 2021 has been.
Tumblr has restricted what its users can see on its iOS app in an effort to make sure it doesn’t get kicked out of Apple’s App Store again. One of the steps it has taken to comply with Apple’s guidelines is to limit the results for certain tags or search terms that Tumblr says “may fall under the expanded definition of sensitive content.” The website will even completely block some of them — make that more than some, based on this pretty lengthy list of banned and limited terms collected by Tumblr users that TechCrunch posted.
While the inclusion of specific words in the list is self explanatory, it also has some curious entries, such as “Eugene Levy” and “Tony the Tiger.” The restriction will also make it harder to search for content related to mental health, such as PTSD, depression and anxiety, as well as issues like racism and transphobia. Those searching for a blocked tag will get a screen that says “This content has been hidden” instead of a page with results. They’ll see the same notification if they try to access a blog that’s been flagged as “explicit” on the app. Users may also see fewer suggestions under the “stuff for you” and “following” sections due to the new restrictions.
Tumblr has implemented these changes three years after it started completely blocking adult content on its platform. If you’ll recall, Tumblr prohibited adult content in 2018 after Apple pulled its app from iTunes in response to finding child exploitation photos on the website. The social network said these changes only apply to its iOS app and that they won’t affect anyone browsing Tumblr on the web or on Android. A spokesperson also told TechCrunch that the company is “working on more thoughtful solutions which will be rolled out in the near future.”
As one of the last major feature changes heading into Mesa Git this calendar year, RadeonSI Gallium3D as the open-source OpenGL driver for modern AMD Radeon GPUs there is now sparse texture support…
MySQL is probably the most famous Relational Database Management System (RDBMS). Developed as a free and open source software, it was originally backed by the MYSQL AB company, but is now owned by Oracle. In MySQL the “storage engine” used for a table determines how data is handled. There are several storage engines available, but the most used are InnoDB and MyISAM. In this article we see what are their distinctive features and the main differences between them.
It was another exciting year for Intel on the open-source/Linux front with countless contributions to the Linux kernel, Mesa, and other open-source projects. Intel’s oneAPI toolkits continue humming along and they continue maintaining tons of other projects from Clear Linux to SVT-AV1 to IWD and many more. Intel’s Linux graphics driver developers have also been extremely busy preparing the open-source support for next year’s discrete GPU launches. Here is a look at the most popular Intel articles on Phoronix during the course of 2021…
OpenRGB 0.7 is out as the newest feature release for this vendor-independent software that provides for RGB lighting controls for many different devices/brands and works across Linux / macOS / Windows…
Hmmmmmm shares a report from MIT News: Aerospace engineers at MIT are testing a new concept for a hovering rover that levitates by harnessing the moon’s natural charge. Because they lack an atmosphere, the moon and other airless bodies such as asteroids can build up an electric field through direct exposure to the sun and surrounding plasma. On the moon, this surface charge is strong enough to levitate dust more than 1 meter above the ground, much the way static electricity can cause a person’s hair to stand on end. Engineers at NASA and elsewhere have recently proposed harnessing this natural surface charge to levitate a glider with wings made of Mylar, a material that naturally holds the same charge as surfaces on airless bodies. They reasoned that the similarly charged surfaces should repel each other, with a force that lofts the glider off the ground. But such a design would likely be limited to small asteroids, as larger planetary bodies would have a stronger, counteracting gravitational pull.
The MIT team’s levitating rover could potentially get around this size limitation. The concept, which resembles a retro-style, disc-shaped flying saucer, uses tiny ion beams to both charge up the vehicle and boost the surface’s natural charge. The overall effect is designed to generate a relatively large repulsive force between the vehicle and the ground, in a way that requires very little power. In an initial feasibility study, the researchers show that such an ion boost should be strong enough to levitate a small, 2-pound vehicle on the moon and large asteroids like Psyche. The team predicted that a small rover, weighing about two pounds, could achieve levitation of about one centimeter off the ground, on a large asteroid such as Psyche, using a 10-kilovolt ion source. To get a similar liftoff on the moon, the same rover would need a 50-kilovolt source. “This kind of ionic design uses very little power to generate a lot of voltage,” [explains co-author Paulo Lozano]. “The power needed is so small, you could do this almost for free.”
In preparing for an exciting 2022, the OBS Studio open-source software that is popular with game streamers and for other screencasting purposes, is out with its first beta of OBS Studio 27.2. This next update to OBS Studio is bringing some exciting improvements for this leading cross-platform streaming solution…
The latest foldable Galaxy devices are a hit. Samsung shipped four times more foldables in 2021 than what it did in 2020, the tech giant has revealed. Further, it took only one month after they were released for the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and the Galaxy Z Flip 3 to exceed the total accumulative sales of their predecessors last year. The company also said that it saw a “massive increase” in consumers who jumped brands specifically for its foldable phones — in fact, more people switched to Samsung for the Flip 3 than for its flagship devices.
While Samsung didn’t rattle off specific numbers, it said it saw a 150 percent increase in consumers who switched brands for the Flip 3 compared to the Galaxy Note 20. It saw a 140 percent increase in people switching brands for the foldable compared to the Galaxy S21, as well. The Flip’s form factor is of course its main draw, along with its front screen that gives users a way to use their phone without having to open it. As for the Fold 3, people who responded to Samsung’s survey said they got it for its large screen, multitasking capabilities and S Pen support.
In its post, Samsung said foldables are expected to grow tenfold by 2023, and it’s heavily investing in research and development to be able to keep up with rival devices that will surely pop up. One of those competitors is Huawei’s P50 Pocket phone, which is the company’s first model that folds vertically like the Galaxy Z Flip.
After surgery, you need to take good care of yourself and ensure that the incision does not get infected when you are back home. Your doctor might have used staples, stitches, or tape strips to cover the incision. Dallas Wound Evolution – Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine can help you treat an infected wound.
However, certain habits can ruin the healing process and lead to infection. This infection can cause additional issues. In this blog, we have listed all the essential tips to take care of your wound to eliminate the risk of infections and complications.
Tips for Reducing the Risk of Infection:
Do not scrub or apply lotion or powder to the incision.
Avoid taking a shower unless your doctor recommends it.
Keep your incision away from sunlight.
Do not remove the tape strips from the incision until your doctor instructs you to remove them.
A patient may experience tenderness, soreness, tingling, and itching at the incision site. These symptoms are normal and do not pose a risk.
Incision Care Tips:
1. Changing the Dressing
Changing the dressing is essential to avoid infection. Usually, your caretaker can change the dressing without the need to visit a doctor. However, you must check with your doctor about the dressing changes for reliable advice. Before you begin, you must have medical gloves, surgical tape, gauze pads, scissors, and a plastic bag.
Wash your hands and wear medical gloves.
Detach the old dressing.
Clean the incision if your doctor recommends.
Place the gauze pads around your incision.
Tape the sides of the gauze pads.
Put all the waste and gloves in a plastic bag.
2. Cleaning the Incision
To remove any crust, wash it with water and soap.
Do not scrub the wound.
Do not use hydrogen peroxide or iodine. It may harm your tissue and can slow down your healing.
Before applying the dressing, air-dry the incision or pat dry with a clean towel.
3. Caring for Stitches, Staples, and Tissue Glue
Usually, stitches or staples cause redness and swelling, along with itching and irritation. It is normal to see drainage from the incision for the first few days. However, if it increases after a few days and becomes bright red with blood and includes pus in it, it could be a sign of infection, and you must consult your doctor.
When to See a Doctor?
Consult your doctor immediately if you notice any of these symptoms:
Redness or swelling
A bad smell
Bleeding or pus
Pain that gets worse
Increase in drainage from the wound.
Temperature goes above 100 F for more than 4 hours
There are a number of dangerous commands that can be executed to crash a Linux system. You may find a nefarious user executing these commands on a system you manage, or someone may send you a seemingly harmless command, hoping that you will run it and crash your computer.
