Saturday, January 21, 2017

SpaceCast Notes - 1/21/2017

Notez 1/21/2017


Linkz
ZTE’s CSX Concept Phone’s Kickstarter Campaign Begins
  • ZTE has started their Kickstarter campaign for their CSX “Hawkeye” concept phone
  • ZTE has been running a program to “Crowdsource” ideas from the public
    • Idea is to make it so the consumers wants and ideas are what design the phone
  • Phone is expected to be around $200 at launch
    • Campaign is hoping to raise $500,000
  • Two primary features of the new device
  1. Eye controlled navigation
  2. Included adhesive case
Tesla aims for 90% crash reduction via autopilot software
  • The original release of first-gen Autosteer resulted in a 40% crash reduction
    • 1.3 crashes per million miles down to 0.8 crashes per million miles
    • Numbers verified by the NHTSA
  • Tesla aims to hit a 90% reduction following release of “Enhanced Autosteer”
  • Crash reductions account for all mileage, even when Autosteer is not engaged
    • This is due to other Tesla safety features, such as Automatic Emergency Braking and Collision Warnings, which are always on
  • Current Autopilot hardware consists of a forward-facing camera & radar, and all-around ultrasonic sensors
  • A 90% reduction will only be possible with new hardware
    • includes a triple front-facing camera and a new onboard computer capable of supporting “Tesla Vision” (image processing software)
    • Standard on all Teslas since Oct. 2016, including Model 3
Google begins penalization of popup ads
  • Any mobile site using popup ads or interstitials (full-page ads appearing before a webpage) will be ranked lower on Google
    • The algorithm update went live January 10
  • Targets “problematic transitions”, of which 3 specific examples were given
    • Pages that show popups after a user clicks a link or scrolls, hiding content
    • Pages that show an interstitial ad that must be closed to reach desired content
    • Pages which display an interstitial at the top of the page
  • Some caveats exist, Google only penalizes the first click to a page and required interstitials do not affect rankings
Links from Last Week’s Canceled Show (Old News)
SpaceX Iridium NEXT launch
  • Everything worked perfectly
    • 10 Iridium NEXT communications satellites released into their orbits
    • Falcon 9 landed successfully on JRTI
Nintendo Switch Specs Revealed
  • Specs:
    • 6.2-in 720p display, can output 1080p to a TV via HDMI
    • Nvidia tegra GPU
    • 32GB memory w/ microSD card capability
    • Between 2.5-6hr battery life depending on game, charges w/ USB-c
  • Can connect to internet or up to 7 other Switch consoles via wifi, or ethernet
  • The sides of the console act as controllers and can detach
  • The Switch will be released in March 2017

Musicz:
Rage Inc. - Need You


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Tuesday, January 10, 2017

SpaceCast Notes - 1/7/2017

Notes 1/7/2017
CES 2017
HP makes a laptop thicker to add 3 hr battery life
  • Didnt write notes here cus #lazy
Razer unveils triple monitor laptop
  • Razer unveils Project Valerie at CES this week
    • Design is essentially a Razer Blade Pro
    • Two extra monitors slide out from behind the primary monitor
Zotac shows off their tiny new GTX 1080
  • Zotac has a new GTX 1080 with a tiny cooler shroud that is on display at CES
  • Full desktop grade 1080 GPU in a miniature form factor
  • Intended to bring lots of power into small form factor pc’s
Moar Linkz
SpaceX RTF? Hopefully?
  • Targeting January 8 RTF from Vandenberg AFB
    • Will be carrying the first “batch” of Iriduim Next satellites
    • Part of a series of 10 launches
  • The hold-down firing of the Falcon 9 has been successfully completed
  • The FAA has approved the RTF
Clothing designed to fool facial recognition
  • The project is called Hyperface, and consists of printed patterns on textiles
    • designed to emulate mouths, eyes, and other patterns a computer can detect
  • A previous project involved using makeup and styling to try to fool facial recognition
  • Modifies the environment around a person’s face, overloading the recognition algorithm with potential hits
  • Researchers can discern around 47 data points from a 100x100 px image
    • Includes traits such as “calm” or “kind”, or demographics
    • This facial data would probably be used for advertising/marketing
KabyLake CPU Overclocket to 7GHz????
Current price of Bitcoin
http://www.coindesk.com/price/
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Friday, December 23, 2016

SpaceCast Notes - 11/23/2016

Notez 12/23/2016
Linkz
Canada declares goal of 50mbps internet & unlimited data for everyone
  • Broadband internet considered a “basic telecommunications service”
  • All canadians should be able to purchase 50/10 broadband and unlimited data
    • A $750 million fund will be set up to make this possible
    • Money will be distributed competitively, and can be spent on improving broadband networks
  • 18% of canadians don’t have access to 50/10 internet, the CRTC (equivalent to the US FCC) aims to bring this down to 10% by 2021
  • The CRTC did not set targets for pricing, but it already requires telecoms to sell wholesale access and sets wholesale rates
  • According to https://www.fcc.gov/reports-research/reports/broadband-progress-reports/2016-broadband-progress-report, 10% of Americans lack access to 25/3 internet (no data on 50/10, also the existing data is from January 2016)
Tesla update requires Autopilot to follow speed limits (not on highway)
  • Previously, autopilot could be set to 5mph over speed limit on roads
  • Now the speed limit must be followed exactly on roads & non-divided highways
    • Of course, this can be avoided by driving manually
  • The restriction does not apply to divided highways, although Autopilot is still limited at 90mph overall
  • Received a mixed response from consumers, like most Tesla updates
China Launches carbon-monitoring satellite into orbit
  • TanSat mission took off aboard a Long March 2D rocket Image
    • Launched wednesday at 1:22 PM CST
  • TanSat satellite will use a near-infrared spectrometer to monitor carbon dioxide in atmosphere
  • Will track regional and global concentrations down to four ‘parts per million?’ (<- idk exactly what that means)  
    • if you have 1 million “parts” of atmosphere, 4 of them will be CO2; like with our rocket fuel we had 20 “parts” total, 13 oxidizer and 7 fuel
    • Right now the atmospheric CO2 concentration is just over 400 ppm
  • Will generate monthly maps of greenhouse gasses
  • Satellite operates in a polar orbit
    • Altitude of 700km and nearly circular
  • Will “enhance China’s voice in international climate change” according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences
Elon Musk brings up idea of using tunnels to combat road congestion

  • Series of tweets (see article) imply that Elon wishes to start a tunnel-boring company to get rid of traffic
  • Multiple layers of tunnels could be housed under large cities
  • This isn’t the first time Elon has brought up the idea
  • (try not to get political) perhaps constructing tunnels could be part of Trump’s infrastructure plan, especially since Elon is a part of Trump’s Strategic and Policy forum
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SpaceCast Notes - 12/17/2016

Notes 12/17/2016
Links
Windows 10 coming to ARM
  • At its WinHEC hardware conference in Shenzhen today, Microsoft announced a range of hardware-driven initiatives to modernize the PC and address two big goals
    • 1. Expanded support for mixed reality
    • 2. Produce a range of even more power efficient, mobile, always-connected PCs powered by ARM processors
(note: ARM stands for Advanced RISC Machines and RISC stands for Reduced Instruction Set Computer)
  • Qualcomm-powered Windows 10 PCs will hit the market in 2017
  • A full desktop Windows 10 variant is coming to ARM
    • Will be a 64-bit version, running on Qualcommès latest and greatest processors (probably the Snapdragon 835)
  • The way Microsoft describes it, it will offer a full Windows experience
    • With the ability to run not only Universal Windows Platform apps from the store, but regular Win32 desktop applications
  • It will also include built-in emulation for 32-bit x86 applications
    • Emulation will be used only for application code, but the OS itself and all system libraries being native 64-bit ARM binaries
  • Devices will offer cellular connectivity using a virtual/embedded SIM, with data plans sold directly within the Windows Store
iPhone 6s exploding
  • Apple also announced that it will be releasing an iOS update next week that would allow them to better diagnose any battery issues
    • On Dec 6th, reports of exploding iPhones surfaced in China
  • “Apple should be responsible for consumers. A lot of consumer complaints are not solved effectively,” the council said in its official statement.
  • It had allegedly received at least 8 separate reports of iPhones exploding
    • Adding that it had seen a big rise in the number of complaints against iPhones in the past two months
  • On Friday, a customer’s iPhone 6s started spewing immediately after it was unplugged from charging
    • Then went up in flames
    • Similar events have been reported, such as a case of an iPhone exploding in a student’s pocket in New Jersey
      • Or another one exploding in Australia, burning down the person's car
  • Apple blames the problem on ambient air during the manufacturing process
    • Said the problem is limited to a small number of iPhone 6S devices manufactured between Sep and Oct 2015
Facebook partners with fact checkers to stop fake news
  • Facebook has begun rolling out new tools designed to prevent the spread of misinformation
    • Introducing tools designed to make it easier to report links shared in the News Feed as fake news
    • Working with four independent fact-checking organizations to assess the accuracy of viral stories
  • Facebook users who share a story that’s been marked as false will be warned that “independent fact-checkers have disputed its accuracy”
  • Facebook will use a variety of signals to identify stories that are likely to be false
    • Include stories that people post but later delete
    • And include lots of comments in them about being fake
  • They will use these and other signals to populate a dashboard of dubious stories
    • Fact-checking partners will get access to the dashboard
    • They will then investigate the articles claims, and mark it as disputed and link to their own article debunking it
  • If at least two fact-checking organizations mark a story as disputed, users will begin seeing a banner under the article if it appears in their news feed
  • Facebook’s Product Management Lead Adam Mosseri says they are focusing their “efforts on the worst of the worst”
    • “Clear hoaxes spread by spammers for their own gain”
  • Facebook also said they’re testing several new ways to more easily report a hoax
  • Also said they’re doing more to eliminate financial incentives behind fake news
Game modding illegal in South Korea
  • South Korean gov’t has passed an amendment into law with intent of shutting down video game hacks and modifications
  • Based on the law, manufacturing and distributing programs that are not allowed by the game company and its Terms of service are directly illegal
    • Would include aimbotters, hacking programs, scripters, or anything not allowed by the ToS
  • Punishment is a maximum of 5 years jail time, or $43,000 (USD) in fines
  • Overwatch in particular, has seen hacking run rampant in South Korea
    • With Blizzard fighting back against players utilizing the hacks
    • Now they’ll have the backing of the Korean gov’t
Galaxy S8 not including headphone jack :(

  • Sources have confirmed to SamMobile the Galaxy S8 will remove the 3.5mm headphone jack
  • If you want to use existing headphones, you’ll require a USB Type-C adapter
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