Holy crap, the new Star Wars game looks incredibly realistic

Even while you can only see a few glimpses of the in-game engine of Star Wars Battlefront, the new game by Swedish studio DICE seems impossibly good. They say they are making the game that, as Star Wars fans, they always wanted to play. I think they may succeed. Read more…

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Holy crap, the new Star Wars game looks incredibly realistic

Google will flag search results erased due to “right to be forgotten”

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is a vocal critic of the new ruling. Jimmy Wales/ Wikipedia In the wake of a controversial European high court ruling last month that search providers like Google must remove “inadequate, irrelevant, or no longer relevant” materials from search results upon request by EU citizens, the US search giant has expressed a desire to alert users to when such results have been altered. Google’s plan to flag censored search results will likely be similar to how the company notifies users that links have been removed due to a copyright takedown request. The search giant aims to place such notifications at the bottom of pages that would have contained links that have been erased in order to alert users of the change, reports The Guardian. The company also plans to include statistics regarding “right to be forgotten” link removal requests in its biannual transparency report. Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Google will flag search results erased due to “right to be forgotten”

The Tallest Elevators On Earth Are Being Tested In an Old Mineshaft

Jeddah’s Kingdom Tower will be taller than any other structure ever built. At more than one kilometer high, this supertall will require feats of engineering that, until now, have been the stuff of science fiction. Like the world’s tallest, longest, and fastest elevators—which are being developed in a mine shaft in Finland. Read more…

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The Tallest Elevators On Earth Are Being Tested In an Old Mineshaft

Record Any Streaming Audio from Your Computer Using Audacity

For whatever reason, recording the audio streaming through your computer—whether that’s an internet radio station, video game music, or an online presentation—is always a pain to do. Digital Inspiration shows off a way to do it easily with Audacity and a couple cables. Read more…

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Record Any Streaming Audio from Your Computer Using Audacity

Amazon takes on PayPal with subscription-based payments

With plenty of third-party sellers populating its online store, Amazon is well accustomed to playing the middleman for processing transactions. Now the e-tailer’s taking that middleman role one step further; it will now manage monthly subscription payments for companies such as wireless service provider Ting. It’s just the latest move in Amazon’s ongoing effort to overtake PayPal . Amazon users will be able to use their stored credit-card information to make monthly payments at participating sites. For anyone who’s used PayPal, the process will be very familiar; you’ll see a payment button that will pull in your billing info from Amazon to process a transaction. Beyond Ting, it isn’t clear which companies will take advantage of the service, but we’d expect to see digital music services, additional wireless providers and gaming sites. Naturally, Amazon will get a fee for each transaction. For partners, the benefit comes in the form of Amazon’s name, which will theoretically make you feel safer when shopping at little-known web merchants. For many customers, though, privacy concerns remain. VP of seller services Tom Taylor told Reuters that Amazon will only collect the dollar amount of customers’ transactions, rather than information about which items were purchased. In any case, it all depends on customer trust – and a long list of partner merchants – for Amazon to make a dent in PayPal’s business. Filed under: Internet , Amazon Comments Source: Reuters

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Amazon takes on PayPal with subscription-based payments

Amtrak wants 25Mbps per train

A familiar dialogue box for riders on the Northeast corridor. Amtrak is looking to build a trackside Wi-Fi network on its Northeast corridor that would bump its trains’ connections to broadband-level speeds. The increase is meant to accommodate busy trains with hundreds of customers crowding the Wi-Fi, a common scenario that results in slow or no connections for some customers. Amtrak has offered Wi-Fi on trains running between Boston and Washington, DC for several years now , but currently, the connection is 10Mbps shared among everyone on the train. In this reporter’s experience on crowded trains, this means you can only get on the Wi-Fi long enough to re-establish a connection through the network’s dialog boxes before the process resets. The company has requested proof-of-concept bids to bump the connection speed to 25Mbps per train “to meet growing customer data usage demands.” The bids will be used to see if it is “technically and financially feasible” to bring network improvements to the entire stretch of the Northeast corridor. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Amtrak wants 25Mbps per train

Nano barcodes can trace bombs even after they’ve exploded

You may not pay much notice to product trackers like barcodes and RFID tags, but they’re absolutely vital in some fields; they cut back on bootlegging and help police determine the origins of bombs. Worcester Polytechnic Institute may have just delivered a major breakthrough, then, by developing nanoparticle barcodes . The minuscule tracers identify an object by producing a unique thermal signature (those colored lines you see in the photo) when they reach their melting point. As they don’t participate in any chemical reaction, you can integrate them into any item and get a positive ID whenever you like, even if you’re dealing with exploded TNT. The substance would most likely be used to stop counterfeiters, thieves and other shady dealers by making it impossible to erase evidence without destroying any ill-gotten goods. However, the technology might be particularly handy for fighting terrorism. Investigators could easily pinpoint the suppliers of not just explosives, but the chemicals used to make explosives — they could identify the manufacturer (and even the individual store) for the fertilizer in a homemade bomb. The scientists’ stealthy barcodes are a long way from reaching store shelves, if they do at all, but there could be a day when it’s possible to trace virtually any high-value product. [Image credit: Ming Su/Worcester Polytechnic Institute] Filed under: Science Comments Via: BBC , Geek.com Source: Scientific Reports

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Nano barcodes can trace bombs even after they’ve exploded

The World’s Tallest Roller Coaster Will Tower 55 Stories Above the Earth

Coaster enthusiasts are always on the hunt for their next big thrill, and come 2016 they may be drawn back to Orlando. That’s when the Skyplex complex is set to open, featuring the world’s tallest roller coaster wrapped around its 570-foot tall tower. Read more…

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The World’s Tallest Roller Coaster Will Tower 55 Stories Above the Earth

Tesla Makes Improvements To Model S

An anonymous reader writes “In a lull between product launches Tesla intends to keep making improvements to the Model S according to Elon Musk. Tesla will automatically push software to the Model S fleet that will help the car learn the driver’s habits and the navigation system will offer directions to avoid traffic jams. ‘This year, Tesla is offering only the single model, the Model S that is EPA rated at up to 265 miles on a single charge, the most of any electric car. The company’s next model won’t come until next year, when the delayed Model X crossover goes on sale. Musk says the holdup has centered on making sure its signature design element, gullwing doors to make it easier to get in the rear, works properly and is leak-proof. “Getting the door right is extremely difficult, ” he says.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Tesla Makes Improvements To Model S