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H-1B visa applications cap out in just five days

Enlarge / The Chet Holifield Federal Building in Laguna Niguel, California. Tens of thousands of visa applications were delivered to the building last week, which is home to one of several USCIS service centers. Last Monday, the government began accepting applications for H-1B visas that are often granted to foreign tech workers. Trucks full of thick Fedex applications lined up before dawn to get their applications in. By Friday, the door was shut. US Customs and Immigration Service (USCIS) said on Friday they have already maxed out , hitting the limit of 65,000 H-1B visas set by Congress and an additional 20,000 visas that are reserved for applicants who have masters degrees. It’s the fifth year in a row that the cap has been met within five days. Some H-1B employers aren’t subject to the visa cap, including universities and some non-profits. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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H-1B visa applications cap out in just five days

AT&T paid $1.6 billion to own the next generation of wireless

For all intents and purposes, it looks like AT&T is going to own a majority of 5G wireless connections in the US. The company has announced that it has acquired Straight Path Communications for $1.6 billion. Not familiar with the name? That’s totally understandable. “Straight Path is the largest commercial holder of the 39 GHz spectrum, with about 95 percent of the total licenses commercially available, as well as a significant holder of 28 GHz in major markets, including New York and San Francisco, ” the company’s website reads. “This acquisition will support AT&T’s leadership in 5G, which will accelerate the delivery of new experiences for consumers and businesses like virtual and augmented reality, telemedicine, autonomous cars, smart cities and more, ” according to the statement from AT&T . Specifically, the telco pointed to beaming DirecTV Now to customers over a fixed 5G connection as an example of what’s capable here. Last July, FierceWireless pointed out that while the 37/39 GHz spectrum had bandwidth advantages over the more commonly used 28 GHz range, anyone licensing the former would need “between 44 and 46 percent more spectrum” to offer the same type of coverage the latter provides. With this acquisition that shouldn’t be an issue for AT&T. That’s assuming the purchase is green-lit by the Federal Communications Commission, of course. Given the FCC’s newly frigid stance on net neutrality, the approval likely won’t be much of an issue. So maybe the folks in Austin and Indianapolis will get to give the network a try when the speedy (400Mbps or better) service starts testing there later this year. Source: PR Newswire , Straight Path

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AT&T paid $1.6 billion to own the next generation of wireless

New ‘Spray-On’ Memory Could Turn Everyday Items Into Digital Storage Devices

Researchers at Duke University have developed “spray-on” digital memory using only an aerosol jet printer and nanoparticle inks. An anonymous reader quotes Duke Today: The device, which is analogous to a 4-bit flash drive, is the first fully-printed digital memory that would be suitable for practical use in simple electronics such as environmental sensors or RFID tags. And because it is jet-printed at relatively low temperatures, it could be used to build programmable electronic devices on bendable materials like paper, plastic or fabric… The new material, made of silica-coated copper nanowires encased in a polymer matrix, encodes information not in states of charge but instead in states of resistance. By applying a small voltage, it can be switched between a state of high resistance, which stops electric current, and a state of low resistance, which allows current to flow. And, unlike silicon, the nanowires and the polymer can be dissolved in methanol, creating a liquid that can be sprayed through the nozzle of a printer. Amazingly, its write speed is three microseconds, “rivaling the speed of flash drives.” The information can be re-written many times, and the stored data can last for up to 10 years. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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New ‘Spray-On’ Memory Could Turn Everyday Items Into Digital Storage Devices

Ford’s hybrid cop car has electric boost for high-speed chases

You may see hybrids as dull econo-vehicles , but as Lamborghini and others have shown, electrons can boost a gas car into another dimension . You’d think there would already be economical hybrid cop cars that can go batshit fast when needed, but Ford has become the first with its Police Responder Hybrid Sedan. It gets twice the mileage of the current Interceptor, but “switches to maximum performance — with the engine and battery working at peak acceleration levels — when needed, ” Ford said in a press release . Based on the Ford Fusion Hybrid, it has “full pursuit” capabilities, and runs on the battery only below 60 mph, depending on the charge (Ford didn’t specify the lithium-ion battery’s capacity, but it doesn’t appear to be the plug-in model). That’s backed up by an Atikinson-cycle 2.0-liter engine that puts out 141 horsepower in the stock Fusion configuration. It will go into pursuit mode when the throttle is held down for five seconds, engaging both the gas and electric motors. While not as quick as the 3.7-liter turbocharged Taurus-based Interceptor, Ford figures it’ll be fast enough to earn law enforcement’s “pursuit” rating. With a 38 mpg rating compared to 18 mpg combined for the current car, Ford figures it’ll save around a quarter-gallon of gas per hour, amounting in up to $3, 900 a year in savings. At the same time, it’s “certified by police agencies to be tough enough to handle police pursuits for longer periods at different speeds and over obstacles such as curbs and flooded intersections, ” Ford writes. Law enforcement groups are interested in the Police Responder’s economy, but concerned about its reliability. “Anytime you can save money it is good, ” Michigan-based Police Chief Thomas Korabik told the Associated Press. “I’d want to see the car first and see how it would hold up.” He also wondered whether it’s big enough to handle the computers and other equipment now hosted by most police cars. Via: Autoblog Source: Ford

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Ford’s hybrid cop car has electric boost for high-speed chases

Tesla reveals a sleek solar panel built for your existing roof

Tesla’s home energy efforts might be centered around its solar roofs , but it knows that not everyone can (or wants to) rip up their roof just to bring renewable energy to their home. To that end, the company is offering a first glimpse at Panasonic-made solar panels that would go on top of your existing roof. Unlike many aftermarket options, this would be relatively slick and unintrusive — the panels have “integrated front skirts and no visible mounting hardware.” While it’ll be patently obvious that you have solar energy on your roof, it shouldn’t be the eyesore you sometimes get with conventional designs. The company is taking requests for custom price quotes right now, but it tells Electrek that production for the 325W modules should start sometime in the summer. You’ll have to be patient if you’re determined to escape the conventional power grid. However, this is definitely not a secondary project for Tesla. The firm says that it’ll use these panels for all new residential projects (outside of tiles), so you’re really looking at the future of Tesla’s mainstream energy tech. Via: Electrek Source: Tesla

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Tesla reveals a sleek solar panel built for your existing roof

How to Copy Your Favorite Instagram Filters in Photoshop

Before it started obsessing about copying Snapchat , Instagram’s main goal was getting your phone photos looking their best. The app’s smart image processing doesn’t have to stay locked on your mobile though—you can replicate the effects in Photoshop or any photo editor with similar tools. Read more…

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How to Copy Your Favorite Instagram Filters in Photoshop

Japan’s Scientists Believe They’ll Be the First to Reach Earth’s Mantle

Once again, scientists are looking inward to explore the next frontier. Researchers at Japan’s Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) announced this week that an excavation is planned in which the team will attempt to successfully drill all the way through Earth’s crust for the first time in history. Read more…

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Japan’s Scientists Believe They’ll Be the First to Reach Earth’s Mantle

US Hacker Sets Off 156 Sirens At Midnight

“I had the displeasure of being awoken at midnight to the sounds of civil-defense/air-raid sirens, ” writes very-long-time Slashdot reader SigIO, blaming “some schmuck with a twisted sense of humor.” The Dallas News reports: Rocky Vaz, director of Dallas’ Office of Emergency Management, said that all 156 of the city’s sirens were activated more than a dozen times… Dallas officials blame computer hacking for setting off emergency sirens throughout the city early Saturday… It took until about 1:20 a.m. to silence them for good because the emergency system had to be deactivated. The system remained shut down Saturday while crews safeguarded it from another hack. The city has figured out how the emergency system was compromised and is working to prevent it from happening again, he said… The city said the system should be restored Sunday or Monday. City officials reported 4, 400 calls to their 9-1-1 emergency phone number in the first four hours of Saturday morning, with over 800 occurring in that first 15 minutes when all 156 sirens started going off simultaneously. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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US Hacker Sets Off 156 Sirens At Midnight

Hackers hijacked a bank’s DNS and spent 5 hours raiding its customers’ accounts

Kaspersky Labs reports that an unnamed large Brazilian financial institution with $27B in assets was compromised by hackers who took over its DNS — by hijacking its NIC.br account — and for 5 hours were able to impersonate the bank to all its online customers (and possibly to control its ATMs) in order to plunder their accounts and steal their credit card details. (more…)

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Hackers hijacked a bank’s DNS and spent 5 hours raiding its customers’ accounts

Concern growing for brain-invading worms, spread by slugs and rats

Adult female worm of Angiostrongylus cantonensis recovered from rat lungs with characteristic barber-pole appearance (anterior end of worm is to the top). Scale bar = 1 mm. (credit: Lindo et al. ) There have been six cases of a rare parasitic infection called “rat lungworm” in Maui in the last three months, health officials reported this week. The number is small, but it’s a dramatic jump from the normal number of cases. In the decade before this period, the island had only seen two other cases. The surprising uptick has health officials and residents alike worried about the rise of the worm, which can invade the human brain. In infected people, the infection may be symptomless and resolve on its own. But for others, rat lungworm moves into the brain and can cause inflammation, pain, and other neurological problems such as tremors. In those cases, it can be fatal. In all cases, rat lungworm is very difficult to diagnose, and there is no treatment. So far, at least three of the six cases have been confirmed by the state. There’s also a seventh possible case. Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Concern growing for brain-invading worms, spread by slugs and rats