Month: May 2013

Can China Really Build the World’s Tallest Building in 90 Days?

The race to build the world’s tallest building has taken on an urgent tone these past few years. Like the mountaineers of the 1930s, or the astronauts of the 1960s, the developers struggling to out-build each other are also struggling to articulate something deeper—something that smacks of national (or maybe economic) pride. But a Chinese plan to build the world’s tallest building in mere months takes the latest salvo in this architectural arms race to new heights. Read more…        

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Can China Really Build the World’s Tallest Building in 90 Days?

Schools and the cloud: will schools allow students to be profiled and advertised to in the course of their school-day?

Kate sez, “Technology companies are moving rapidly to get tools like email and document creation services into schools. This link to a recent survey of schools in the UK shows that use of such technology is expected to bring significant educational and social benefits. However, it also reveals that schools have deep concerns that providers of these services will mine student emails, documents or web browsing behaviour to build profiles for commercial purposes, such as serving advertisements. When data mining is done for profit, the relationship between the data miner and the consumer is simply a market transaction. As long as both parties are free to choose whether and when they wish to engage in such transactions, there is no reason to forbid them or place undue obstacles in their path. However, when children are using certain services at school and can neither consent to, control or even properly understand the data mining that is taking place, a clear line against such practices must be drawn, particularly when their data will be used by businesses to make a profit.” UK School Opinions of Cloud Services and Student Privacy [PDF] ( Thanks, Kate ! )        

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Schools and the cloud: will schools allow students to be profiled and advertised to in the course of their school-day?

Casting a Harsh Light On Chinese Solar Panels

New submitter Eugriped3z writes with an article in the New York Times that “indicates that manufacturing defect rates for solar panels manufactured in China vary widely, anywhere from 5-22%. Secrecy in the terms of settlements negotiated by attorneys representing multi-million dollar installations perpetuate the problem by masking the identity of unscrupulous or incompetent actors. Meanwhile, Reuters reports that unit labor costs in Mexico are now lower than in China.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Casting a Harsh Light On Chinese Solar Panels

Windows 8.1: Little Fixes, Same Big Ideas (Oh, and a Start Button)

The good news: If you liked Windows 8, its first major update is going fix a ton of the little things that bothered you. The bad news: You might not like Windows 8. And there’s nothing here that will change that. At least there’s a Start button! Read more…        

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Windows 8.1: Little Fixes, Same Big Ideas (Oh, and a Start Button)

How to Boost Your Internet Security with DNSCrypt

When you use HTTPS or SSL, your web browsing traffic is encrypted . When you use a VPN, all of your traffic is encrypted (usually). Sometimes even with HTTPS and VPNs in play, DNS requests—or the way your computer translates “lifehacker.com” into numbers that your computer understands, like “199.27.72.192,” are completely unencrypted, leaving you open to spoofing and man-in-the-middle attacks. DNSCrypt can lock that down. Here’s how. Read more…        

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How to Boost Your Internet Security with DNSCrypt

Curious travellers rejoice: Wikipedia has launched an official Nearby page, which will provide you w

Curious travellers rejoice: Wikipedia has launched an official Nearby page , which will provide you with articles based on location. Read more…        

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Curious travellers rejoice: Wikipedia has launched an official Nearby page, which will provide you w

Musk: $35,000 Teslas might be three years away, will be 20 percent smaller

We can’t argue that the Tesla Model S is not only a great achievement in the EV industry but a looker as well, but there are still a lot of people unconvinced by the $70,000 sticker price ($60k, if you count the tax credits). CEO Elon Musk is definitely aware of that particular concern, and stated tonight at D11 that there’s a very good chance we’ll see Teslas in three years for half the price — and 20 percent smaller, to boot. Speaking with Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg, Musk mentioned he started the company with a three-step strategy to get to mass market, with the Roadster and Model S being the first two steps. The third step, naturally, would be to offer options that are more affordable: according to Musk, “I think every major product needs at least three iterations to get to the mass market — I know cellphones have had much more than that.” While we wait for 2016-17, we’ll start saving some of our pennies, but fortunately we may not have to pinch all of them. Comments

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Musk: $35,000 Teslas might be three years away, will be 20 percent smaller

Gene Therapy May Protect Against Flu

sciencehabit writes “In 2009, a global collaboration of scientists, public health agencies, and companies raced to make a vaccine against a pandemic influenza virus, but most of it wasn’t ready until the pandemic had peaked. Now, researchers have come up with an alternative, faster strategy for when a pandemic influenza virus surfaces: Just squirt genes for the protective antibodies into people’s noses. The method—which borrows ideas from both gene therapy and vaccination, but is neither—protects mice against a wide range of flu viruses in a new study.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Gene Therapy May Protect Against Flu