Author: kenmay

Watch Korea’s Real Gundam Take Its First Steps With A Human Pilot

It’s a little hard to believe at first sight, but Korea’s Hankook Mirae Technology company has released video of their human piloted mech walking. It’s called the Method-2, and the 13 foot 1.3 ton machine looks like something CG plucked out of a movie. Though untrue, this isn’t terribly wrong, since its lead designer, Vitaly Bulgarov, has a professional background in SFX. The Method-2 is being conceived of as an option for emergency response in dangerous conditions, but it’ll need a better power pack before it gets unleashed. In the meantime, it’s already handling well upright, both in forward and backward modes, and its arms function well too. Here’s the first video of the mega mech walking, posted to Facebook by Bulgarov. IS THIS THE REAL LIFE In this video Bulgarov himself enters and pilots the arms:  IS THIS JUST FANTASYYY At this point, it sounds like the team’s short term plan is to modify a legless version for faster response time in industrial settings. That sounds wise, but now that I’ve seen this awesome walker in action, I’ll be sitting on my (puny flesh) hands until we see more of it.

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Watch Korea’s Real Gundam Take Its First Steps With A Human Pilot

FBI says DNC wouldn’t give it direct access to hacked servers

The FBI has spent months trying to persuade people that Russia was behind the DNC hack , but we’re now learning that it didn’t get much help from the DNC itself. The bureau tells Buzzfeed News that the Democrats’ organization reportedly “rebuffed” multiple requests for physical access to the hacked servers, forcing investigators to depend on the findings of the third-party security firm CrowdStrike (which the DNC contacted after the hack). The FBI would have tackled the breach earlier if the DNC hadn’t “inhibited” the investigation, according to its statement. The claims directly contradict earlier claims from the DNC, which maintained that the FBI had never asked for access. The DNC says it handed over CrowdStrike info “without any limits, ” but that’s not very reassuring when the Committee wouldn’t let FBI agents skip the middleman. It doesn’t look good even if there were innocuous reasons. Does the FBI need direct access to the servers to scrutinize the information? Not necessarily. As The Verge observes after consulting with security firms, this arrangement is still business as usual for interactions with law enforcement: private firms conduct the initial study and clear the security threat, while official investigators focus on the actions they should take as a result. And so long as CrowdStrike can supply the raw server data, the FBI doesn’t need in-person access to double-check conclusions. Moreover, the FBI was already suspicious of Russian involvement well before CrowdStrike got involved, and had access to information that a private company wouldn’t see. This isn’t to let the FBI off the hook. It still has to trust that CrowdStrike is both accurate and divulging everything it can. Also, the bureau’s most recent report on the hack include mistakes (such as listing “malicious” internet addresses that include Tor exit nodes, which doesn’t really say anything). And while multiple intelligence agencies are pointing the finger at Russia , there’s no publicly available smoking gun that will sway you if you’re skeptical. One thing’s for sure: the he-said-she-said between the FBI and DNC will have to be addressed if both sides are going to remove doubt that Russia was to blame. LATEST: FBI says they asked DNC for servers, and DNC refused, “inhibited” the investigation. pic.twitter.com/AfkAPlJsYZ — Ali Watkins (@AliWatkins) January 5, 2017 Source: BuzzFeed News , The Verge , Ali Watkins (Twitter)

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FBI says DNC wouldn’t give it direct access to hacked servers

LG’s 14-inch ‘Gram’ laptop is the world’s lightest

LG’s big computing reveal for CES was a refreshed 14-inch “Gram” laptop . It’s said to be the lightest in its class, weighing in at only 2.13 pounds (that’s a sub-kilogram weigh-in). That, combined with the promise of between 21 and 24 hours of battery life sounds like an incredible combination. Unfortunately, it may be too good to be true. CNET notes that LG was using battery rundown tests from 2007, which assumed no WiFi use and was just generally less taxing than the sort of tests reviewers are likely to use today. That’s almost definitely how LG got such great runtime. That said, the laptop still packs a 60Wh battery that’s almost double the capacity of the company’s older 14-inch Gram laptop. (That’s also bigger than the 13-inch MacBook Pro’s battery.) LG says it saw 17 hours on a charge during more realistic (read: modern) rundown tests, which is still pretty damn impressive. Aside from that probably-overrated battery life, the Gram is a stylish ultraportable, albeit one made mostly of plastic. It’s not… terrible, but my preferences skew toward metal builds. They feel more reassuringly solid. Yes, the Gram is light, but that comes with some flimsiness. That said, despite some other super thin and light laptops, the laptop’s 14-inch IPS screen does still support touch. Under the hood, you get either an Intel Core i7 or i5 processor. There are also both USB 3.0 and USB-C ports, as well as HDMI-out if you’re looking to connect to projectors or bigger screens. Despite all those battery life statistics, LG isn’t offering a launch date or price, but judging by the cost of both the last-gen 14-inch Gram and the 15-inch version when they landed in the US, you could expect to pay over $1, 000 depending on the configuration. Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.

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LG’s 14-inch ‘Gram’ laptop is the world’s lightest

The Game Boy’s Being Brought Back From the Dead With Some Awesome Upgrades

Though there were several iterations and updates to Nintendo’s insanely popular handheld gaming system, the Game Boy was officially retired just over a decade ago. And while Nintendo has no plans to revive the portable console, a company called Retro-Bit is stepping up to bring the Game Boy back from the dead. Read more…

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The Game Boy’s Being Brought Back From the Dead With Some Awesome Upgrades

Mixing Liquids Under a Microscope Creates Wildly Colorful Worlds

Wenting Zhu mixed together paint, alcohol, water, soda, and ink remover in weird combinations, stuck them under a microscope, and ended up with awesomely mesmerizing effects. Sometimes it’s beautiful and feels like you’re watching a kaleidoscope take focus, or seeing a star burst in a distant galaxy. Other times it… Read more…

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Mixing Liquids Under a Microscope Creates Wildly Colorful Worlds

China To Plow $361 Billion Into Renewable Fuel By 2020

China will invest $361 billion in renewable power generation between 2016 and 2020, the National Energy Administration (NEA) said Thursday, as the world’s largest energy market pushes to shift away from coal power. From a report: The investment will create over 13 million jobs in the sector, the NEA said in a blueprint document that lays out its plan to develop the nation’s energy sector in a five-year period. The NEA repeated its goal to have 580 million tonnes of coal equivalent of renewable energy consumption by 2020, accounting for 15 percent of overall energy consumption. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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China To Plow $361 Billion Into Renewable Fuel By 2020

Netflix’s first original Korean series is based on a web comic

Netflix is eager to court South Korea now that it has a foothold in the country , and it’s finally readying its first original series to match… with a decidedly technological twist. It’s readying Love Alarm , a 12-episode show based on a popular Korean web comic — no, not a book or another country’s TV programming . Even the premise is appropriately techy. The story centers around a mysterious mobile app that lets you know if someone nearby is attracted to you, which invariably causes chaos. The show won’t debut until 2018, but it’ll be available worldwide. That may sound odd for something that’s clearly designed to suit local tastes, but Netflix is clearly counting on the West’s surge in interest for all things Korean (think everything from K-pop to Oldboy ) as a draw. In theory, it’s the company’s dream show: it’s intensely relevant in its home country, but accessible enough that it could attract an international fan base. Via: Tech Crunch Source: Netflix

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Netflix’s first original Korean series is based on a web comic

Sony’s Gigantic Space Wall Is Actually Hundreds of Tiny LED Tiles

That image above appears to show one giant seamless LED display, but Sony’s new CLEDIS system, presumably intended for use in convention centers like the one hosting CES in Las Vegas, is actually hundreds of LED tiles smooshed together. Read more…

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Sony’s Gigantic Space Wall Is Actually Hundreds of Tiny LED Tiles

Bitcoin Is Crashing

An anonymous reader writes: Bitcoin is getting smashed. The cryptocurrency was down 18% to about $892 per coin as of 8:17 a.m. ET on Thursday. It is the biggest drop in two years. Earlier this week, on its first trading day of the new year, Bitcoin crossed above the $1, 000 mark for the first time since 2013, but it has now tumbled below that level. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Bitcoin Is Crashing

NVIDIA brings GeForce Now cloud gaming to Mac and PC

Ever wanted to be a PC gamer, but didn’t want to buy a gaming PC? NVIDIA’s Jen-Hsun Haung wants your number. Taking the stage at CES today, NVIDIA’s CEO announced GeForce Now for PC and Mac — an offshoot of its cloud gaming service aimed at prospective PC gamers. Despite sharing the same name as the streaming service it offers to NVIDIA Shield users, GeForce Now for PC isn’t a gaming subscription service. It’s a server rental program. Users of GeForce Now for PC won’t load up a streaming app and pick through a list of games — they’ll load up Steam, Origin, UPlay or other PC game providers and purchase games directly from the distributor. Then they’ll run that game on NVIDIA’s GRID servers through GeForce Now for an hourly fee. The result is a setup that, in the stage demo, looks remarkably like running games on a local machine. The idea seems neat, but offloading your gameplay to the cloud isn’t cheap: NVIDIA says GeForce Now will charge $25 for 20 hours of play, and that doesn’t include the cost of the games. If you only played two hours a day, you’d spend $912 for a year of NVIDIA GeForce Now gaming. Still, if you really don’t want to buy a gaming machine with that cash, GeForce Now for PC and Mac will start rolling out in March.

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NVIDIA brings GeForce Now cloud gaming to Mac and PC