Transhumanist
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Micro stories - small news bits too small to have their own thread
- Thread starter SvenSvensonov
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SvenSvensonov
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What's Up With These Flaming Halos Around This Osprey's Rotors?
Combat controllers from the 21st Special Tactics Squadron work with Chilean military personnel as they fast-rope from a CV-22 Osprey during the Emerald Warrior exercises near Hurlburt Field in Florida. While the fast-rope, repelling warfare exercise is fascinating, the begging question is where do the glowing rings come from?
Most helicopter blades are equipped with an abrasion strip along the leading edge to reduce degradation. This strip is typically made from a strong, lightweight metal like titanium or nickel and prevents the edge of the blade from being worn down by particles in the atmosphere like sand, dust, and even water.
So intense are the forces at which the particles collide with this strip that tiny bits of metal will erode away and fly into the air. These metallic particles will literally spontaneously combust due to the extreme pressure. The resulting flaming cloud of metallic dust creates a phenomenon known as the Kopp-Etchells Effect which was first documented during combat operations in Afghanistan.
Footage from on the ground and behind the night vision goggles displays an equally impressive show as military personnel drop fast-rope from the CV-22 Osprey during both the day and night.
Exercise Emerald Warrior leverages lessons learned from Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom to provide trained and ready soldiers to combatant commanders. The Department of Defense’s irregular warfare exercise uses both live and virtual forces allowing joint and combined partners to train together and prepare for real-world contingency operations.
The exercise provides tactical airlift, fires support and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets, including 90 live aircraft players and 17 virtual aircraft players from active-duty, guard and reserve units on the ground and in command and control elements.
You can also check out theses cool scenes of Emerald Warrior exercises as UH-60 Black Hawks and CH-47 Chinooks drop troops into the Santa Rosa Sound during helocast training.
Combat controllers from the 21st Special Tactics Squadron work with Chilean military personnel as they fast-rope from a CV-22 Osprey during the Emerald Warrior exercises near Hurlburt Field in Florida. While the fast-rope, repelling warfare exercise is fascinating, the begging question is where do the glowing rings come from?
Most helicopter blades are equipped with an abrasion strip along the leading edge to reduce degradation. This strip is typically made from a strong, lightweight metal like titanium or nickel and prevents the edge of the blade from being worn down by particles in the atmosphere like sand, dust, and even water.
So intense are the forces at which the particles collide with this strip that tiny bits of metal will erode away and fly into the air. These metallic particles will literally spontaneously combust due to the extreme pressure. The resulting flaming cloud of metallic dust creates a phenomenon known as the Kopp-Etchells Effect which was first documented during combat operations in Afghanistan.
Footage from on the ground and behind the night vision goggles displays an equally impressive show as military personnel drop fast-rope from the CV-22 Osprey during both the day and night.
Exercise Emerald Warrior leverages lessons learned from Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom to provide trained and ready soldiers to combatant commanders. The Department of Defense’s irregular warfare exercise uses both live and virtual forces allowing joint and combined partners to train together and prepare for real-world contingency operations.
The exercise provides tactical airlift, fires support and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets, including 90 live aircraft players and 17 virtual aircraft players from active-duty, guard and reserve units on the ground and in command and control elements.
You can also check out theses cool scenes of Emerald Warrior exercises as UH-60 Black Hawks and CH-47 Chinooks drop troops into the Santa Rosa Sound during helocast training.
SvenSvensonov
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BAE's New Goggles Roll Together Night Vision and Thermal Imaging
In the dark, soldiers have two options if they’re to see: night vision or thermal imaging. Both have their advantages and disadvantages—but now, BAE’s new goggles mean there’s no need to choose.
Usually night vision goggles are used to understand the immediate environment—they amplify the small amounts of available light—while thermal imaging is used to identify people (or targets) at a distance, because heat shows up in stark contrast to the surroundings. With the U.S Army Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate, though BAE has created a set of goggles that combine both technologies.
Currently being readied for use in the field, the new goggles overlay thermal and nightvision images for the soldier. Meanwhile, a wireless link to a weapon’s scope also means that the user can see their sight imagery inside the goggles. In turn, that means that aiming lasers are no longer required, allowing soldiers to remain covert. Details of how the technology works remain scant, but BAE claims the devices are light and low-power, making them efficient for use in the field.
In the dark, soldiers have two options if they’re to see: night vision or thermal imaging. Both have their advantages and disadvantages—but now, BAE’s new goggles mean there’s no need to choose.
Usually night vision goggles are used to understand the immediate environment—they amplify the small amounts of available light—while thermal imaging is used to identify people (or targets) at a distance, because heat shows up in stark contrast to the surroundings. With the U.S Army Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate, though BAE has created a set of goggles that combine both technologies.
Currently being readied for use in the field, the new goggles overlay thermal and nightvision images for the soldier. Meanwhile, a wireless link to a weapon’s scope also means that the user can see their sight imagery inside the goggles. In turn, that means that aiming lasers are no longer required, allowing soldiers to remain covert. Details of how the technology works remain scant, but BAE claims the devices are light and low-power, making them efficient for use in the field.
SvenSvensonov
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Here's The First-Ever Picture Of Thunder
During a thunderstorm, it’s normally the lightning bolts that take over Instagram — after all, it’s a little difficult to apply the X-Pro II filter to a soundwave. That is, if you’re a heliophysicist armed with rockets, your own lightning bolt, and some heavy science.
In a paper presented today at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union, Maher Dayeh from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio revealed detailed acoustic maps he’d made of a lightning bolt — an image of thunder, in other words.
To get the data, Dayeh went to a U.S. military installation in Florida, and fired a rocket trailling a copper wire into a cloud during a thunderstorm. The rocket triggered a lightning bolt, which travelled down the wire, allowing the team to record the thunder with 15 microphones set a meter apart. That produced the acoustic maps you can see above.
The experiments allowed Dayeh to map the acoustics of a thunderclap with “surprising detail” — and they also discovered that the loudness of a thunderclap depends on the peak electric current flowing through the lightning bolt. Plus, people got to shoot rockets into clouds and make lightning bolts. Science.
During a thunderstorm, it’s normally the lightning bolts that take over Instagram — after all, it’s a little difficult to apply the X-Pro II filter to a soundwave. That is, if you’re a heliophysicist armed with rockets, your own lightning bolt, and some heavy science.
In a paper presented today at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union, Maher Dayeh from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio revealed detailed acoustic maps he’d made of a lightning bolt — an image of thunder, in other words.
To get the data, Dayeh went to a U.S. military installation in Florida, and fired a rocket trailling a copper wire into a cloud during a thunderstorm. The rocket triggered a lightning bolt, which travelled down the wire, allowing the team to record the thunder with 15 microphones set a meter apart. That produced the acoustic maps you can see above.
The experiments allowed Dayeh to map the acoustics of a thunderclap with “surprising detail” — and they also discovered that the loudness of a thunderclap depends on the peak electric current flowing through the lightning bolt. Plus, people got to shoot rockets into clouds and make lightning bolts. Science.
Transhumanist
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Watch the SpaceX Dragon Pad Abort Test
At 9 AM Wednesday morning SpaceX successfully tested the launch abort system for its new commercial crew capsule, which is designed to carry astronauts to the International Space Station by 2017. Everything went as planned, and you can watch the replay of the event here:
Pad Abort Test on Livestream
Today’s critical flight test at SpaceX’s Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) was basically a trial run for the 8-ton prototype spacecraft’s launch escape system. It consists of eight 3D-printed SuperDraco rocket thrusters built into the bottom half of the capsule, that are used in the case of a launch emergency.
Such systems are crucial for the safety of the astronauts: The launch abort system drags the crew and spacecraft away from the rocket as far and as quickly as possible if something goes wrong during the launch. Think of it as an astronauts ejector seat.
“We’re proud to have a launch escape system in case the Falcon 9 is having a bad day, the Dragon crew can get to safety. It’s a capability we had on Gemini and Apollo, and we have it on the Soyuz, but we did not enjoy that on the shuttle. We’re bringing that back to try and make sure our crews are super safe,” said Garrett Reisman, a former astronaut and current director of crew operations at SpaceX to Spaceflight Now. “It doesn’t last long. The boost phase is only a few seconds, and it’s pulling almost 5 G’s when it’s coming off the pad, so it’s going to get out of here in a hurry. My advice to you, if you go outside to watch it, is don’t blink.”
This graphic explains what happened during the event.
According to SpaceX there was a dummy on board the spacecraft, which experienced nearly 5 G’s at takeoff, when the Crew Dragon spacecraft traveled nearly 100 meters (328 ft) in 2 seconds, and more than half a kilometer (1/3 mi) in just over 5 seconds.
Update 1: less than 5 minutes until the test, all weather conditions are perfect for the launch.
Update 2: all systems are “go” for the launch.
Update 3: pad abort test was conducted successfully!
Update 4: Parachutes deployed, Dragon capsule is now floating in the water as expected. Now it is confirmed: pad abort test was successful.
@Nihonjin1051 @AMDR @Peter C @C130 @SvenSvensonov
At 9 AM Wednesday morning SpaceX successfully tested the launch abort system for its new commercial crew capsule, which is designed to carry astronauts to the International Space Station by 2017. Everything went as planned, and you can watch the replay of the event here:
Pad Abort Test on Livestream
Today’s critical flight test at SpaceX’s Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) was basically a trial run for the 8-ton prototype spacecraft’s launch escape system. It consists of eight 3D-printed SuperDraco rocket thrusters built into the bottom half of the capsule, that are used in the case of a launch emergency.
Such systems are crucial for the safety of the astronauts: The launch abort system drags the crew and spacecraft away from the rocket as far and as quickly as possible if something goes wrong during the launch. Think of it as an astronauts ejector seat.
“We’re proud to have a launch escape system in case the Falcon 9 is having a bad day, the Dragon crew can get to safety. It’s a capability we had on Gemini and Apollo, and we have it on the Soyuz, but we did not enjoy that on the shuttle. We’re bringing that back to try and make sure our crews are super safe,” said Garrett Reisman, a former astronaut and current director of crew operations at SpaceX to Spaceflight Now. “It doesn’t last long. The boost phase is only a few seconds, and it’s pulling almost 5 G’s when it’s coming off the pad, so it’s going to get out of here in a hurry. My advice to you, if you go outside to watch it, is don’t blink.”
This graphic explains what happened during the event.
According to SpaceX there was a dummy on board the spacecraft, which experienced nearly 5 G’s at takeoff, when the Crew Dragon spacecraft traveled nearly 100 meters (328 ft) in 2 seconds, and more than half a kilometer (1/3 mi) in just over 5 seconds.
Update 1: less than 5 minutes until the test, all weather conditions are perfect for the launch.
Update 2: all systems are “go” for the launch.
Update 3: pad abort test was conducted successfully!
Update 4: Parachutes deployed, Dragon capsule is now floating in the water as expected. Now it is confirmed: pad abort test was successful.
@Nihonjin1051 @AMDR @Peter C @C130 @SvenSvensonov
SvenSvensonov
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Watch the SpaceX Dragon Pad Abort Test
At 9 AM Wednesday morning SpaceX successfully tested the launch abort system for its new commercial crew capsule, which is designed to carry astronauts to the International Space Station by 2017. Everything went as planned, and you can watch the replay of the event here:
Pad Abort Test on Livestream
Today’s critical flight test at SpaceX’s Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) was basically a trial run for the 8-ton prototype spacecraft’s launch escape system. It consists of eight 3D-printed SuperDraco rocket thrusters built into the bottom half of the capsule, that are used in the case of a launch emergency.
Such systems are crucial for the safety of the astronauts: The launch abort system drags the crew and spacecraft away from the rocket as far and as quickly as possible if something goes wrong during the launch. Think of it as an astronauts ejector seat.
“We’re proud to have a launch escape system in case the Falcon 9 is having a bad day, the Dragon crew can get to safety. It’s a capability we had on Gemini and Apollo, and we have it on the Soyuz, but we did not enjoy that on the shuttle. We’re bringing that back to try and make sure our crews are super safe,” said Garrett Reisman, a former astronaut and current director of crew operations at SpaceX to Spaceflight Now. “It doesn’t last long. The boost phase is only a few seconds, and it’s pulling almost 5 G’s when it’s coming off the pad, so it’s going to get out of here in a hurry. My advice to you, if you go outside to watch it, is don’t blink.”
This graphic explains what happened during the event.
According to SpaceX there was a dummy on board the spacecraft, which experienced nearly 5 G’s at takeoff, when the Crew Dragon spacecraft traveled nearly 100 meters (328 ft) in 2 seconds, and more than half a kilometer (1/3 mi) in just over 5 seconds.
Update 1: less than 5 minutes until the test, all weather conditions are perfect for the launch.
Update 2: all systems are “go” for the launch.
Update 3: pad abort test was conducted successfully!
Update 4: Parachutes deployed, Dragon capsule is now floating in the water as expected. Now it is confirmed: pad abort test was successful.
@Nihonjin1051 @AMDR @Peter C @C130 @SvenSvensonov
I didn't get the tag though
...
Watch an awesome lightning bolt get captured in a box
What we’re seeing is Lichtenberg Figures form from an electron beam getting zapped into an acrylic prism. The electric trail of the lightning strike is so badass. It’s like trapping a lightning bolt in a glass box forever, a force of nature on display.
Lichtenberg Figures can be created within solid insulating materials, such as acrylic or glass by injecting them with a beam of high speed electrons from a linear electron beam accelerator. Inside the accelerator, electrons are focused and accelerated to form a beam of high speed particles. Electrons emerging from the accelerator have energies up to 10MeV and are moving an appreciable fraction (95 - 99+ percent) of the speed of light (relativistic velocities). If the electron beam is aimed towards an acrylic specimen, the electrons easily penetrate the surface of the acrylic, rapidly slowing down as they collide with molecules inside the plastic.
Transhumanist
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Transhumanist
FULL MEMBER
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NASA's Radar Found 4 Men Trapped in Rubble in Nepal By Their Heartbeats
A couple years ago, NASA and DHS unveiled a portable radar unit based on technology used to detect alien life on distant exoplanets. This radar unit, though, would be used closer to home—to find people burried under rubble. In the first real-world demonstration of its use, the device helped save 4 men trapped under earthquake rubble in Nepal.
After the earthquake hit, rescuers in the village of Chautara got two prototype units of the device called FINDER, or Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response. The core of the device is a system that bounces microwaves around to “see.” Crucially, it can discern faint heartbeats and breaths in people buried under several feet of rubble.
In this case, FINDER was apparently able to detect the heartbeats of two men each in two different collapsed buildings. The men had been trapped for days, under as much as 10 feet of rubble.
The details of the rescues are otherwise scant, so it’s hard to say exactly what would have happened without FINDER. Still, it shows the FINDER works out in the field and not just in controlled test situations. We hear about the potential in new technologies all the time—with FINDER, some of that potential just became reality.
===
How to make your own powerful vortex cannon that boom blasts the air
Let’s say you’re bored. Let’s say you’ve always dreamed of firing a cannon. Let’s say you like blowing things up. Let’s say you spend a free night building this kick a** vortex cannon that can blast the air silly. Let’s say it’d be totally worth it just to see these giant smoke ring explosions in real life.
A couple years ago, NASA and DHS unveiled a portable radar unit based on technology used to detect alien life on distant exoplanets. This radar unit, though, would be used closer to home—to find people burried under rubble. In the first real-world demonstration of its use, the device helped save 4 men trapped under earthquake rubble in Nepal.
After the earthquake hit, rescuers in the village of Chautara got two prototype units of the device called FINDER, or Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response. The core of the device is a system that bounces microwaves around to “see.” Crucially, it can discern faint heartbeats and breaths in people buried under several feet of rubble.
In this case, FINDER was apparently able to detect the heartbeats of two men each in two different collapsed buildings. The men had been trapped for days, under as much as 10 feet of rubble.
The details of the rescues are otherwise scant, so it’s hard to say exactly what would have happened without FINDER. Still, it shows the FINDER works out in the field and not just in controlled test situations. We hear about the potential in new technologies all the time—with FINDER, some of that potential just became reality.
===
How to make your own powerful vortex cannon that boom blasts the air
Let’s say you’re bored. Let’s say you’ve always dreamed of firing a cannon. Let’s say you like blowing things up. Let’s say you spend a free night building this kick a** vortex cannon that can blast the air silly. Let’s say it’d be totally worth it just to see these giant smoke ring explosions in real life.
Transhumanist
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A Lynx Doing A Loop Over Stonehenge Is About As Crazy Cool As It Gets
This incredible photo of a British Army Air Corps Westland Lynx doing a roll over Stonehenge is just all sorts of amazing. Not only is the perspective just dizzying but the tension between new technology and the mystery of old technology is palpable.
This incredible photo of a British Army Air Corps Westland Lynx doing a roll over Stonehenge is just all sorts of amazing. Not only is the perspective just dizzying but the tension between new technology and the mystery of old technology is palpable.
Hamartia Antidote
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Tencent stripped of antivirus rankings for cheating on tests • The Register
Antivirus ratings firms AV‐Comparatives, AV-Test, and Virus Bulletin have stripped another company of its rankings for trying to game their tests.
This time the culprit was Chinese giant Tencent, which is accused of compromising its own security systems for the sake of speed credits in testing.
"After in-depth investigations, certain optimizations have been identified in Tencent products which are clearly designed to improve their ratings in AV-Test's performance testing," Virus Bulletin explained in a statement.
"These optimizations, which have been found in all recent public versions of the products, provide minimal benefit to normal users and could even degrade the level of protection offered by the products."
John Hawes, chief of operations at Virus Bulletin, told The Register that Tencent had sped up its AV engine by whitelisting the applications and files used AV-Test's testing procedure. This allowed the software to whip through the tests much faster and achieve higher grades.
The downside of Tencent's hack is that malware writers, if they got smart to it, could then hide malware in these whitelisted files; it would just be a matter of sticking an innocuously named piece of malware in the right file and the software wouldn't bother to scan it.
"The whitelist appeared to change at the same time as we changed the types of applications being checked with each different test," he explained. "It's very difficult to keep anything secret. Their software has so many feedback systems and each user was pumping the data back to Tencent's labs."
As a result of the trio's finding, Tencent is to be stripped of any antivirus awards or rankings it received in 2015. That's a serious blow to Tencent's credibility, since AV‐Comparatives, AV-Test, and Virus Bulletin are together considered the gold standard of anti-malware testing.
This is the second time in as many weeks that the testing firms have punished a company for trying to game their tests. Chinese antivirus vendor Qihoo 360 was barred last week after it was found to have used another vendor's engine in its software when it submitted it for testing – an option not available by default to ordinary users.
In retaliation, Qihoo 360 then fingered fellow Chinese firms Baidu and Tencent for gaming the antivirus tests in similar fashion, and an investigation led to Tencent's censure. Researchers are still looking at Baidu to see if there is any truth to cheating claims.
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Intel Unleashes Haswell-EX Xeon E7 V3 Processors - Up to 18 Cores, 45 MB L3 Cache, 12 TB DDR4 Memory Support and 5.7 Billion Transistors
Intel has officially launched their Haswell-EX Xeon E7 V3 processor lineup aimed at the enterprise and server market. The launch lineup includes 12 new processors, all of which are derived from a single 18 core flagship Xeon part which is a beast in terms of specifications that include 18 cores, 45 MB of L3 cache, a die size of 662 mm2 and a total of 5.6 billion transistors.
Intel’s Haswell-EX Xeon E7 V3 Processors Launched – Xeon E7-8890 V3 With 18 Cores Leads The Pack
The latest Haswell-EX Xeon E7 V3 lineup is based on the same Haswell architecture which was released in 2013, however, Intel has spent some time updating the performance and enhancing task specific loads which leads to better gains in server based scenarios on their existing architecture. Being 22nm, the Haswell-EX processors are massive in die size but they incorporate beefy performance due to higher number of cores, threads and overall cache available on the chips. Other similarities between the platform is that the Haswell-EX and Haswell-EP are same when looked upon from specifications but one is aimed at 2S solutions (Haswell-EP Xeon E5 V3) while the Haswell-EX is based on 4S and 8S solutions which leads to bigger server and enterprise setups. On the chipset and platform support side, Intel keeps the Haswell-EX processors compatible to their Patsburg C600 series chip sets which means they will be supported by existing platforms on LGA 2011 socket (Socket R1). This brickland platform has been running Intel’s past two generation of Xeon processors including Sandy Bridge-EX, Ivy Bridge-EX and will run up to Broadwell-EX generation of Xeon processors.
Some features of the processors include up to 18 cores and 36 threads. The same flagship design ends up being scaled down to more cost effective models. These chips feature up to 45 MB of L3 cache (2.5 MB / Slice) since it is a multi-chip module and carries the integrated voltage regulator (IVR) to allow voltage and power regulation to save power consumption. There are a total of 12 processors which include the Xeon E7-8890 V3, Xeon E7-8800 V3, Xeon E7-8870 V3, Xeon E7-8860 V3 which are positioned as advanced offerings that can allow up to 8S designs, have 9.6 GT/s interconnects, feature hyper threading/ turbo boost support and come with DDR4 and DDR3 memory support (1867 MHz / 1600 MHz). The standard offerings include the Xeon E7-4850 V3 and Xeon E7-48300 V3 which allow 4S designs while basic level Xeon E7-4820 V3 and Xeon E7-4809 V3 processors allow 4S scalable designs with skimmed down specs and a cut down interconnect path. Last but not least, there are four segment optimized offerings which include Xeon E7-8891 V3 and Xeon E7-8893 V3 for enterprise and database markets, Xeon E7-8880L V3 for low power market and Xeon E7-8867 V3 for HPC market.
Summing up the specifications for the flagship Xeon E7-8890 V3 processor, we are looking at 18 cores, 36 threads and 45 MB of L3 cache (LLC). Clock speeds range from 2.5 GHz base and 3.3 GHz boost while in AVX workloads, the clock speeds are throttled down to 2.1 GHz base and 3.3 GHz boost. The processor features a massive 165W TDP on a 22nm process which is due to the large die size that is 662mm2 in size and holds up to 5.6 Billion transistors. The chip is priced at $7175 US.
A complete platform can allow up to 24 DIMMs per socket (3DPC/ 96 DIMMs) with DDR3/DDR4 memory support. A full 8S server rack will be able to allow up to 12 TB of DDR4 memory support which is just insane and something completely magical for mainstream consumers. RSA capabilities include Enhanced MCA Gen2, rank sparing, address based memory mirroring, DDR4 recovery for command/address parity errors. There are also power states to allow efficient control over power resources. Following are some basic features as mentioned by Intel themselves:
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Google says it's now bigger on mobile than desktop in 10 countries | The Verge
Google is focusing more firepower than ever before on meeting the demands of mobile users, and with good reason: the company has confirmed it's now serving more Google searches on smartphones than desktop computers in 10 countries — including the US and Japan. Google told Search Engine Landthat these figures bundled together searches made on tablets with those on desktops, but refused to reveal the eight other countries where mobile was king — or give a hint as to the global ratio of mobile to desktop searches.
Google is responding to this change by rolling out new, smartphone-optimized ad formats that give users more reason to tap than its traditional AdWords. These include picture-heavy automobile ads that show users a gallery of their dream ride before directing them to dealerships, and hotel ads that sandwich together availability, prices, user reviews, and pictures into a compact mobile format. Last month, Google also tweaked its search algorithm to favor mobile-optimized sites, even releasing a tool that lets developers check how their site appears on smartphones. The message is clear: if you're not building for mobile, then you're going to be left behind.
Antivirus ratings firms AV‐Comparatives, AV-Test, and Virus Bulletin have stripped another company of its rankings for trying to game their tests.
This time the culprit was Chinese giant Tencent, which is accused of compromising its own security systems for the sake of speed credits in testing.
"After in-depth investigations, certain optimizations have been identified in Tencent products which are clearly designed to improve their ratings in AV-Test's performance testing," Virus Bulletin explained in a statement.
"These optimizations, which have been found in all recent public versions of the products, provide minimal benefit to normal users and could even degrade the level of protection offered by the products."
John Hawes, chief of operations at Virus Bulletin, told The Register that Tencent had sped up its AV engine by whitelisting the applications and files used AV-Test's testing procedure. This allowed the software to whip through the tests much faster and achieve higher grades.
The downside of Tencent's hack is that malware writers, if they got smart to it, could then hide malware in these whitelisted files; it would just be a matter of sticking an innocuously named piece of malware in the right file and the software wouldn't bother to scan it.
"The whitelist appeared to change at the same time as we changed the types of applications being checked with each different test," he explained. "It's very difficult to keep anything secret. Their software has so many feedback systems and each user was pumping the data back to Tencent's labs."
As a result of the trio's finding, Tencent is to be stripped of any antivirus awards or rankings it received in 2015. That's a serious blow to Tencent's credibility, since AV‐Comparatives, AV-Test, and Virus Bulletin are together considered the gold standard of anti-malware testing.
This is the second time in as many weeks that the testing firms have punished a company for trying to game their tests. Chinese antivirus vendor Qihoo 360 was barred last week after it was found to have used another vendor's engine in its software when it submitted it for testing – an option not available by default to ordinary users.
In retaliation, Qihoo 360 then fingered fellow Chinese firms Baidu and Tencent for gaming the antivirus tests in similar fashion, and an investigation led to Tencent's censure. Researchers are still looking at Baidu to see if there is any truth to cheating claims.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Intel Unleashes Haswell-EX Xeon E7 V3 Processors - Up to 18 Cores, 45 MB L3 Cache, 12 TB DDR4 Memory Support and 5.7 Billion Transistors
Intel has officially launched their Haswell-EX Xeon E7 V3 processor lineup aimed at the enterprise and server market. The launch lineup includes 12 new processors, all of which are derived from a single 18 core flagship Xeon part which is a beast in terms of specifications that include 18 cores, 45 MB of L3 cache, a die size of 662 mm2 and a total of 5.6 billion transistors.
Intel’s Haswell-EX Xeon E7 V3 Processors Launched – Xeon E7-8890 V3 With 18 Cores Leads The Pack
The latest Haswell-EX Xeon E7 V3 lineup is based on the same Haswell architecture which was released in 2013, however, Intel has spent some time updating the performance and enhancing task specific loads which leads to better gains in server based scenarios on their existing architecture. Being 22nm, the Haswell-EX processors are massive in die size but they incorporate beefy performance due to higher number of cores, threads and overall cache available on the chips. Other similarities between the platform is that the Haswell-EX and Haswell-EP are same when looked upon from specifications but one is aimed at 2S solutions (Haswell-EP Xeon E5 V3) while the Haswell-EX is based on 4S and 8S solutions which leads to bigger server and enterprise setups. On the chipset and platform support side, Intel keeps the Haswell-EX processors compatible to their Patsburg C600 series chip sets which means they will be supported by existing platforms on LGA 2011 socket (Socket R1). This brickland platform has been running Intel’s past two generation of Xeon processors including Sandy Bridge-EX, Ivy Bridge-EX and will run up to Broadwell-EX generation of Xeon processors.
Some features of the processors include up to 18 cores and 36 threads. The same flagship design ends up being scaled down to more cost effective models. These chips feature up to 45 MB of L3 cache (2.5 MB / Slice) since it is a multi-chip module and carries the integrated voltage regulator (IVR) to allow voltage and power regulation to save power consumption. There are a total of 12 processors which include the Xeon E7-8890 V3, Xeon E7-8800 V3, Xeon E7-8870 V3, Xeon E7-8860 V3 which are positioned as advanced offerings that can allow up to 8S designs, have 9.6 GT/s interconnects, feature hyper threading/ turbo boost support and come with DDR4 and DDR3 memory support (1867 MHz / 1600 MHz). The standard offerings include the Xeon E7-4850 V3 and Xeon E7-48300 V3 which allow 4S designs while basic level Xeon E7-4820 V3 and Xeon E7-4809 V3 processors allow 4S scalable designs with skimmed down specs and a cut down interconnect path. Last but not least, there are four segment optimized offerings which include Xeon E7-8891 V3 and Xeon E7-8893 V3 for enterprise and database markets, Xeon E7-8880L V3 for low power market and Xeon E7-8867 V3 for HPC market.
Summing up the specifications for the flagship Xeon E7-8890 V3 processor, we are looking at 18 cores, 36 threads and 45 MB of L3 cache (LLC). Clock speeds range from 2.5 GHz base and 3.3 GHz boost while in AVX workloads, the clock speeds are throttled down to 2.1 GHz base and 3.3 GHz boost. The processor features a massive 165W TDP on a 22nm process which is due to the large die size that is 662mm2 in size and holds up to 5.6 Billion transistors. The chip is priced at $7175 US.
A complete platform can allow up to 24 DIMMs per socket (3DPC/ 96 DIMMs) with DDR3/DDR4 memory support. A full 8S server rack will be able to allow up to 12 TB of DDR4 memory support which is just insane and something completely magical for mainstream consumers. RSA capabilities include Enhanced MCA Gen2, rank sparing, address based memory mirroring, DDR4 recovery for command/address parity errors. There are also power states to allow efficient control over power resources. Following are some basic features as mentioned by Intel themselves:
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Google says it's now bigger on mobile than desktop in 10 countries | The Verge
Google is focusing more firepower than ever before on meeting the demands of mobile users, and with good reason: the company has confirmed it's now serving more Google searches on smartphones than desktop computers in 10 countries — including the US and Japan. Google told Search Engine Landthat these figures bundled together searches made on tablets with those on desktops, but refused to reveal the eight other countries where mobile was king — or give a hint as to the global ratio of mobile to desktop searches.
Google is responding to this change by rolling out new, smartphone-optimized ad formats that give users more reason to tap than its traditional AdWords. These include picture-heavy automobile ads that show users a gallery of their dream ride before directing them to dealerships, and hotel ads that sandwich together availability, prices, user reviews, and pictures into a compact mobile format. Last month, Google also tweaked its search algorithm to favor mobile-optimized sites, even releasing a tool that lets developers check how their site appears on smartphones. The message is clear: if you're not building for mobile, then you're going to be left behind.
Hamartia Antidote
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Ames Laboratory scientists create new lower cost magnetic alloy
Karl A Gschneidner and fellow scientists at the US Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory, Iowa, USA, have created a new magnetic alloy that is an alternative to traditional rare-earth permanent magnets.
The new alloy, a potential replacement for high-performance permanent magnets found in automobile engines and wind turbines, eliminates the use of one of the scarcest and costliest rare earth elements, dysprosium, and instead uses cerium, the most abundant rare earth.
The result, an alloy of neodymium, iron and boron co-doped with cerium and cobalt, is a less expensive material with properties that are competitive with traditional sintered magnets containing dysprosium.
Experiments performed at Ames Laboratory by post-doctoral researcher Arjun Pathak and Mahmud Khan (now at Miami University) demonstrated that the cerium-containing alloy’s intrinsic coercivity - the ability of a magnetic material to resist demagnetisation - far exceeds that of dysprosium-containing magnets at high temperatures. The materials are at least 20 to 40% cheaper than the dysprosium-containing magnets.
“This is quite exciting result. We found that this material works better than anything out there at temperatures above 150° C,” stated Gschneidner. “It’s an important consideration for high-temperature applications.”
Previous attempts to use cerium in rare-earth magnets failed because it reduces the Curie temperature, the temperature above which an alloy loses its permanent magnet properties. The research team discovered, however, that co-doping with cobalt allowed them to substitute cerium for dysprosium without losing desired magnetic properties.
Finding a comparable substitute material is key to reducing manufacturing reliance on dysprosium as the current demand for it far outpaces mining and recycling sources for it.
The paper, “Cerium: An Unlikely Replacement of Dysprosium in High Performance Nd-Fe-B Permanent Magnets” was published in Advanced Materials, and co-authored by Arjun K. Pathak, Mahmud Khan, Karl. A. Gschneidner, Ralph W. McCallum, Lin Zhou, Kewei Sun, Kevin W. Dennis, Matthew J. Kramer and Vitalij Pecharsky of the Ames Laboratory; Chen Zhou of MEDA Engineering and Technical Services LLC; and Frederik E. Pinkerton of General Motors R&D Center.
The research was supported by the US Department of Energy’s ARPA-E REACT program (Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy–Rare Earth Alternatives in Critical Technologies) which develops cost-effective alternatives to rare earths, the naturally occurring minerals with unique magnetic properties that are used in electric vehicle (EV) motors and wind generators. The REACT projects identify low-cost and abundant replacement materials for rare earths while encouraging existing technologies to use them more efficiently.
Karl A Gschneidner and fellow scientists at the US Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory, Iowa, USA, have created a new magnetic alloy that is an alternative to traditional rare-earth permanent magnets.
The new alloy, a potential replacement for high-performance permanent magnets found in automobile engines and wind turbines, eliminates the use of one of the scarcest and costliest rare earth elements, dysprosium, and instead uses cerium, the most abundant rare earth.
The result, an alloy of neodymium, iron and boron co-doped with cerium and cobalt, is a less expensive material with properties that are competitive with traditional sintered magnets containing dysprosium.
Experiments performed at Ames Laboratory by post-doctoral researcher Arjun Pathak and Mahmud Khan (now at Miami University) demonstrated that the cerium-containing alloy’s intrinsic coercivity - the ability of a magnetic material to resist demagnetisation - far exceeds that of dysprosium-containing magnets at high temperatures. The materials are at least 20 to 40% cheaper than the dysprosium-containing magnets.
“This is quite exciting result. We found that this material works better than anything out there at temperatures above 150° C,” stated Gschneidner. “It’s an important consideration for high-temperature applications.”
Previous attempts to use cerium in rare-earth magnets failed because it reduces the Curie temperature, the temperature above which an alloy loses its permanent magnet properties. The research team discovered, however, that co-doping with cobalt allowed them to substitute cerium for dysprosium without losing desired magnetic properties.
Finding a comparable substitute material is key to reducing manufacturing reliance on dysprosium as the current demand for it far outpaces mining and recycling sources for it.
The paper, “Cerium: An Unlikely Replacement of Dysprosium in High Performance Nd-Fe-B Permanent Magnets” was published in Advanced Materials, and co-authored by Arjun K. Pathak, Mahmud Khan, Karl. A. Gschneidner, Ralph W. McCallum, Lin Zhou, Kewei Sun, Kevin W. Dennis, Matthew J. Kramer and Vitalij Pecharsky of the Ames Laboratory; Chen Zhou of MEDA Engineering and Technical Services LLC; and Frederik E. Pinkerton of General Motors R&D Center.
The research was supported by the US Department of Energy’s ARPA-E REACT program (Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy–Rare Earth Alternatives in Critical Technologies) which develops cost-effective alternatives to rare earths, the naturally occurring minerals with unique magnetic properties that are used in electric vehicle (EV) motors and wind generators. The REACT projects identify low-cost and abundant replacement materials for rare earths while encouraging existing technologies to use them more efficiently.
SvenSvensonov
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Dry Ice Is the Perfect Choice When You Have to Clean Your Space Mirror
Here are two engineers practicing “snow cleaning” on a test telescope mirror for the James Webb Space Telescope. I’m not exaggerating when I say this is the coolest way to dust off any surface without scratching it.
The photo above was taken at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Carbon dioxide gas turns into solid below −78.5 °C (−109.3 °F) temperature at Earth atmospheric pressures, and by shooting the soft, snowy material at the surface, engineers clean gently large telescope mirrors, if they are contaminated during integration and testing.
“The snow-like crystals (carbon dioxide snow) knock contaminate particulates and molecules off the mirror,” explained Lee Feinberg, NASA optical telescope element manager. Pretty chill.
This can be a major plus for the US as it dramatically limits China's rare-Earth advantage. Interestingly, almost all nations, including the US, have large deposits of "rare-Earth" metals, they're just hard and expensive to extract.
Here are two engineers practicing “snow cleaning” on a test telescope mirror for the James Webb Space Telescope. I’m not exaggerating when I say this is the coolest way to dust off any surface without scratching it.
The photo above was taken at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Carbon dioxide gas turns into solid below −78.5 °C (−109.3 °F) temperature at Earth atmospheric pressures, and by shooting the soft, snowy material at the surface, engineers clean gently large telescope mirrors, if they are contaminated during integration and testing.
“The snow-like crystals (carbon dioxide snow) knock contaminate particulates and molecules off the mirror,” explained Lee Feinberg, NASA optical telescope element manager. Pretty chill.
This can be a major plus for the US as it dramatically limits China's rare-Earth advantage. Interestingly, almost all nations, including the US, have large deposits of "rare-Earth" metals, they're just hard and expensive to extract.
SvenSvensonov
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"Curtain Eruptions" on Enceladus Give Us a New Look at Saturn's Moon
Enceladus, Saturn’s sixth largest moon, is a cold ball encrusted almost entirely in ice. One of its defining features are geyser-like jets of water vapor that shoot out of its surface. But a new analysis suggests those jets are not jets after all, but something odder: curtain eruptions.
The jets may have just been an illusion, write scientists in Nature. Joseph Spitale of the Planetary Science Institute and colleagues noticed that photos of the “jets” taken by the spacecraft Cassini often had a faint glow in the background. When they looked more closely at the data, they realized there was an alternative explanation: The bright “jets” were actually folds within curtain eruptions that spew out of miles-long cracks on Enceladus’s surface. What looked like discrete plumes was an illusion from 2D photos—scientists may have been wrong this whole time, which just shows how difficult it is to draw conclusions for the little data we have.
These eruptions matter because they are clues to what lies in the ocean below the ice. Enceladus’s ocean, in fact, might harbor molecules that could support life. A second study out this week uses Cassini data to probe the contents of the eruptions. Their best guess is soda- and salt-rich water with a high pH. The high pH might be the result of serpentinization, a process in which certain rocks dissolve in the water, raising the pH and also creating hydrogen gas (H2). In turn, H2 can support the formation of organic molecules.
All of these are just tantalizing hints as to what lies beneath the surface on a moon far away. Before Cassini, we didn’t even know that Enceladus had a large salty ocean—now it’s one of the leading places to look for alien life in our solar system.
Enceladus, Saturn’s sixth largest moon, is a cold ball encrusted almost entirely in ice. One of its defining features are geyser-like jets of water vapor that shoot out of its surface. But a new analysis suggests those jets are not jets after all, but something odder: curtain eruptions.
The jets may have just been an illusion, write scientists in Nature. Joseph Spitale of the Planetary Science Institute and colleagues noticed that photos of the “jets” taken by the spacecraft Cassini often had a faint glow in the background. When they looked more closely at the data, they realized there was an alternative explanation: The bright “jets” were actually folds within curtain eruptions that spew out of miles-long cracks on Enceladus’s surface. What looked like discrete plumes was an illusion from 2D photos—scientists may have been wrong this whole time, which just shows how difficult it is to draw conclusions for the little data we have.
These eruptions matter because they are clues to what lies in the ocean below the ice. Enceladus’s ocean, in fact, might harbor molecules that could support life. A second study out this week uses Cassini data to probe the contents of the eruptions. Their best guess is soda- and salt-rich water with a high pH. The high pH might be the result of serpentinization, a process in which certain rocks dissolve in the water, raising the pH and also creating hydrogen gas (H2). In turn, H2 can support the formation of organic molecules.
All of these are just tantalizing hints as to what lies beneath the surface on a moon far away. Before Cassini, we didn’t even know that Enceladus had a large salty ocean—now it’s one of the leading places to look for alien life in our solar system.
SvenSvensonov
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This fish camouflage is so amazing that it's pretty much invisibile
The camouflage on this fish is so impressive that you can barely see it, I mean, it’s essentially invisible. Anytime it stops, I lose track of it because it blends in so perfectly with the ground. Even when it’s moving, it looks more like a pile of dirt than an animal. Amazing.
The camouflage on this fish is so impressive that you can barely see it, I mean, it’s essentially invisible. Anytime it stops, I lose track of it because it blends in so perfectly with the ground. Even when it’s moving, it looks more like a pile of dirt than an animal. Amazing.
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Hamartia Antidote
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http://www.popsci.com/first-self-driving-truck-takes-streets-nevada
The First Self-Driving Truck Takes To The Streets Of Nevada
But can it fight the Decepticons?
Last night at the Hoover Dam, the first licensed self-driving truck was unveiled to the world, begging the question: are there Autobots among us?
Not quite, though the Freightliner Inspiration does aspire to transform the trucking industry. The new truck is able to drive on highways with the rest of us, keeping to the speed limit, staying in its lane, and slowing down when construction or traffic jams clog up the works.
The truck uses two kinds of radar and numerous cameras to figure out where to go and where other cars on the road are. The long-range radar keeps an eye on what's happening on the road up to 830 feet away, while the short-range radar tracks movements of other cars within a 230 foot range. A camera in the front of the truck can detect lane lines on the road.
But even with all that technology, a driver with a commercial license still has to be in the cab, ready to take over if driving conditions get bad, or the truck has to exit the highway--because the truck can only be driven in autonomous mode on highways, not local roads.
By diverting some of the more monotonous tasks of driving to a machine, Freightliner (owned by Daimler) hopes that truck drivers can be less stressed and more alert, even on long hauls. But it might be a while before you see one of the Freightliner Inspirations on the road. There are only two licensed, and both are operating in Nevada, one of just four states (plus the District of Columbia) that has developed laws regulating autonomous vehicles.
The First Self-Driving Truck Takes To The Streets Of Nevada
But can it fight the Decepticons?
Last night at the Hoover Dam, the first licensed self-driving truck was unveiled to the world, begging the question: are there Autobots among us?
Not quite, though the Freightliner Inspiration does aspire to transform the trucking industry. The new truck is able to drive on highways with the rest of us, keeping to the speed limit, staying in its lane, and slowing down when construction or traffic jams clog up the works.
The truck uses two kinds of radar and numerous cameras to figure out where to go and where other cars on the road are. The long-range radar keeps an eye on what's happening on the road up to 830 feet away, while the short-range radar tracks movements of other cars within a 230 foot range. A camera in the front of the truck can detect lane lines on the road.
But even with all that technology, a driver with a commercial license still has to be in the cab, ready to take over if driving conditions get bad, or the truck has to exit the highway--because the truck can only be driven in autonomous mode on highways, not local roads.
By diverting some of the more monotonous tasks of driving to a machine, Freightliner (owned by Daimler) hopes that truck drivers can be less stressed and more alert, even on long hauls. But it might be a while before you see one of the Freightliner Inspirations on the road. There are only two licensed, and both are operating in Nevada, one of just four states (plus the District of Columbia) that has developed laws regulating autonomous vehicles.
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