Month: February 2017

Western Digital Unveils First-Ever 512Gb 64-Layer 3D NAND Chip

BrianFagioli quotes a report from BetaNews: As great as these solid state drives are now, they are only getting better. For example, SATA-based SSDs were once viewed as miraculous, but they are now looked at as slow — PCIe-based NVMe drives are all the rage. To highlight the steady evolution of flash storage, Western Digital today unveiled the first-ever 512 gigabit 64-layer 3D NAND chip. “The launch of the industry’s first 512Gb 64-layer 3D NAND chip is another important stride forward in the advancement of our 3D NAND technology, doubling the density from when we introduced the world’s first 64-layer architecture in July 2016. This is a great addition to our rapidly broadening 3D NAND technology portfolio. It positions us well to continue addressing the increasing demand for storage due to rapid data growth across a wide range of customer retail, mobile and data center applications, ” says Dr. Siva Sivaram, executive vice president, memory technology, Western Digital. Western Digital further explains that it did not develop this new technology on its own. The company shares, “The 512Gb 64-layer chip was developed jointly with the company’s technology and manufacturing partner Toshiba. Western Digital first introduced initial capacities of the world’s first 64-layer 3D NAND technology in July 2016 and the world’s first 48-layer 3D NAND technology in 2015; product shipments with both technologies continue to retail and OEM customers.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Western Digital Unveils First-Ever 512Gb 64-Layer 3D NAND Chip

Unprecedented: Japan’s population has declined by 1 million in 5 years

Rich countries have low birthrates (in part because they have more rights for women, and women who can control their bodies and fates choose to have fewer children on average than women who live in poor countries with fewer rights for women); Japan, one of the most xenophobic of all the rich countries, has the killer combination of a near-total ban on immigration from poor countries (where all the young people are) and a high standard of living. (more…)

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Unprecedented: Japan’s population has declined by 1 million in 5 years

Uber’s latest option is a personal chauffeur

If you’re traveling, or flitting about from one business meeting to another, it can be annoying to arrange a ride for very stop on the journey. Uber is looking to remedy the issue by launching UberHire, a service that lets you rent a car (and driver) for a day. The service is launching in a handful of Indian cities, including New Delhi, Mumbai and Pune, amongst others. Uber users in India can access the service simply by swiping across to UberHire and selecting the first part of your trip. Mashable reports that the minimum fare will set you back around $10 for two hours and 30 kilometers worth of travel. Afterward, you’ll be charged a flat fee for every minute and kilometer afterward, apparently up to a top limit of 12 hours. The company has found life in India to be complicated, and has had to tweak its business several times to better suit the market. Car rentals, for instance, was offered by local rival Ola last year, and the service had to implement cash payments in the country. In addition, users can book rides from their browsers and had to suspend surge pricing after pressure from regulators. Via: Mashable Source: Uber

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Uber’s latest option is a personal chauffeur

Scientists map every atom inside a nanoparticle

Even the smallest defects can create serious problems. It’s a good thing, then, that researchers have found a way to map nanoparticles at an “unprecedented” level of detail — they’ve located the 3D positions of all 23, 000 atoms in an iron-platinum particle. The group used an extremely high-resolution transmission electron microscope (TEAM I) to capture 2D projections of the nanoparticle’s structure, and used an algorithm to stitch those together into a 3D reconstruction. If there’s a missing or misplaced atom, you could easily spot it. The work could help spot consistent flaws in nanoparticle products, which could be vital in health care and other areas where you can’t afford a mistake. And even if it doesn’t, there are numerous other practical purposes. Scientists hope to create an internet database that illustrates atom-level material properties, and the 3D algorithm could be used for CT scans and other imaging tech. In short, this clearer look at the nano-scale world could have a tremendous effect on many fields — it may just be a matter of time. Source: Berkeley Lab , UCLA

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Scientists map every atom inside a nanoparticle

10 hours of ambient noise from an icebreaker in the frozen arctic

Imagine the horror being trapped in a hostile landscape surrounded by snowflakes that were one objects of amusement but now form a blizzard of menacing proportions. Then smile because you’re not a fascist, and are merely stuck on a polar icebreaking vessel for 10 hours. 10 hours video of Arctic ambience with frozen ocean, ice craking, snow falling, icebreaker idling and distand howling wind sound. Natural white noise sounds generated by the wind and snow falling, combined with deep low frequencies with delta waves from the powerful icebreaker idling engines, recorded at 96 kHz – 24 bit and designed for relaxation, meditation, study and sleep.

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10 hours of ambient noise from an icebreaker in the frozen arctic

US Navy decommissions the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier

It’s the end of an era for the US sea power, in more ways than one: the Navy has decommissioned the USS Enterprise (CVN-65), the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. The vessel launched in 1961 and is mainly known for playing a pivotal role in several major incidents and conflicts, including the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War and the 2003 Iraq War. However, it also served as the quintessential showcase for what nuclear ships could do. Its eight reactors let it run for years at a time, all the while making more room for the aircraft and their fuel. As you might guess, the decommissioning process (which started when the Enterprise went inactive in 2012) is considerably trickier than it would be for a conventional warship. It wasn’t until December 2016 that crews finished extracting nuclear fuel, and the ship will have to be partly dismantled to remove the reactors. They’ll be disposed of relatively safely at Hanford Site, home of the world’s first plutonium reactor. It’s hard to know what the long-term environmental impact of the ship will be — while there’s no question that the radioactive material is dangerous, this isn’t the same as shutting down a land-based nuclear power plant . Whatever you think of the tech, the ship leaves a long legacy on top of its military accomplishments. It proved the viability of nuclear aircraft carriers, leading the US to build the largest such fleet in the world. Also, this definitely isn’t the last ( real-world ) ship to bear the Enterprise name — the future CVN-80 will build on its predecessor with both more efficient reactors and systems designed for modern combat, where drones and stealth are as important as fighters and bombers. It won’t be ready until 2027, but it should reflect many of the lessons learned over the outgoing Enterprise’s 55 years of service. Source: US Navy

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US Navy decommissions the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier

Mozilla To Drop Support For All NPAPI Plugins In Firefox 52 Except Flash

The Netscape Plugins API is “an ancient plugins infrastructure inherited from the old Netscape browser on which Mozilla built Firefox, ” according to Bleeping Computer. But now an anonymous reader writes: Starting March 7, when Mozilla is scheduled to release Firefox 52, all plugins built on the old NPAPI technology will stop working in Firefox, except for Flash, which Mozilla plans to support for a few more versions. This means technologies such as Java, Silverlight, and various audio and video codecs won’t work on Firefox. These plugins once helped the web move forward, but as time advanced, the Internet’s standards groups developed standalone Web APIs and alternative technologies to support most of these features without the need of special plugins. The old NPAPI plugins will continue to work in the Firefox ESR (Extended Support Release) 52, but will eventually be deprecated in ESR 53. A series of hacks are available that will allow Firefox users to continue using old NPAPI plugins past Firefox 52, by switching the update channel from Firefox Stable to Firefox ESR. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Mozilla To Drop Support For All NPAPI Plugins In Firefox 52 Except Flash

Denuvo forgets to secure server, leaks years of e-mails from game makers

Enlarge The developers at Denuvo have been in the news thanks to cracks  against their notoriously tough digital rights management (DRM) tools , which are normally used to lock down video games from leaking online. On Sunday, the company faced a different kind of crack—not against a high-profile video game, however, but of its depository of private web-form messages. A significant number of these appear to come from game makers, with many requesting information about applying Denuvo’s DRM to upcoming games. The first proof of this leak appears to come from imageboard site 4chan, where an anonymous user posted a link to a log file hosted at the denuvo.com domain. This 11MB file (still online as of press time) apparently contains messages submitted via Denuvo’s public contact form dating back to April 25, 2014. In fact, much of Denuvo’s web database content appears to be entirely unsecured, with root directories for “fileadmin” and “logs” sitting in the open right now. Combing the log file brings up countless spam messages, along with complaints, confused “why won’t this game work” queries from apparent pirates, and even threats (an example: “for what you did to arkham knight I will find you and I will kill you and all of your loved ones, this I promise you CEO of this SHIT drm”). But since Denuvo’s contact page does not contain a link to a private e-mail address—only a contact form and a phone number to the company’s Austrian headquarters—the form appears to also have been used by many game developers and publishers. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Denuvo forgets to secure server, leaks years of e-mails from game makers

The state of residential solar power

Don’t panic, but we will need to generate approximately 15TW of usable energy from renewable (carbon-neutral) sources by 2050 in order to stabilize the atmospheric CO 2 concentration. And purely in terms of available energy, solar power has the greatest potential for meeting this requirement. Solar is “probably the only long-term supply-side energy solution that is both large enough and acceptable enough to sustain the planet’s long term requirements,”  according to Richard Perez, senior research associate at the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center at SUNY-Albany. Perez’ analysis includes geothermal, wind, all other significant renewable sources, nuclear fission, and all forms of fossil fuels. So while wind, hydropower, and geothermal extraction may work well on a local or regional scale in certain areas, today the potential of solar exceeds any other renewable energy source by several orders of magnitude . It’s simply the only contender, besides nuclear power, for a global solution to supply civilization with the massive amount of energy it demands. Read 68 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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The state of residential solar power