Category: reader

Nintendo mini NES modders figure out how to add new games

There was no doubt Nintendo’s miniature NES Classic Edition was going to be a hit , especially around the holiday season. The affordable retro console hit all the right nostalgic notes, but there’s a consensus Nintendo missed a trick by omitting any way to add new games to the system beyond the 30 preinstalled titles. Also, it shouldn’t be that hard — the mini NES is just an emulator in a pretty package, after all. Well, leave it up to the internet to do what Nintendo wouldn’t. The modding community has successfully cooked up ways to load additional games onto the system, and all you need is a PC and a micro-USB cable. Though no specialist equipment is required, a certain amount of technical knowhow is recommended. A post on the NESClassicmods subreddit links to an English translation of a method discovered by a Russian hacker (a Japanese modder has also published a guide) if you’re confident enough to give it a try. But be warned, you could irreparably fry the little console if anything goes wrong. The step-by-step is a little complex, but if you’re interested, you first need to have created a save file in Super Mario Bros. Then you have to hook the console up to a PC and boot it into special “FEL” mode while running an interfacing tool on your computer. You then have to copy data off the mini NES, unpack it, modify it, add any game ROMs you’ve downloaded — most of which are illegal if you don’t own the original cartridge, just FYI — before zipping it all back up again and overwriting the data on the console with this new package. The added games should then be listed in the regular UI if everything went to plan. It’s not the simplest of hacks and as it’s early days, there’s no definitive list of what ROMs will work (or not) when side-loaded onto the NES Classic Edition. But apparently, storage isn’t an issue, with the bravest of souls reporting smooth sailing after adding tens of extra titles to the little box. While the modding community is adding longevity to the NES Classic Edition, perhaps even persuading more people to give the hardware a look, Nintendo might have something to say about these hacking efforts. The company is notorious for taking issue with anything outside of its control, whether that be using its hardware in unintended ways or fan-made homages to classic characters . Via: Ars Technica Source: Reddit (NESClassicmods)

Originally posted here:
Nintendo mini NES modders figure out how to add new games

Iran censored porn so hard it broke the internet in Hong Kong

If you had trouble visiting explicit websites in the last few days, the fault may have come from an unexpected source: Iran. According to a new report from The Verge , a recent attempt to block pornography websites in the country’s borders hampered access in Russia, Hong Kong and other nations in the region. What happened? Apparently, Iran’s national telecom abused the honor system. The issue is an ancient, insecure and essential part of the internet called Border Gateway Protocol. It’s a commonly used method service provider use to exchange and distribute routing information — the insturctions your computer uses to find web addresses. The only problem is that BGP kind of works on the honor system : there’s no standard in place to stop someone from putting forth a false routing path and taking a site down. It happened in 2008, when Pakistan accidental blocked YouTube . Turkey once filtered the majority of traffic from Amazon, Microsoft, CNN and other sites through its own servers. When Iran used BGP to spoof traffic away from a few hundred porn sites, the false routes spread — blocking users as far away as Hong Kong. It’s not clear if it’s an honest mistake, or if the wider blocking was intentional, but it also wasn’t a careful solution. Iran’s networks are a major routing center for the region, and it’s easy for malicious or false BGP data to spread from Iran’s sources. The issue is mostly resolved down, with exterior networks blocking the false routes — but the event serves as a good reminder: the internet is fragile, and open to attack. Browse carefully, my friends. Source: Verge

Excerpt from:
Iran censored porn so hard it broke the internet in Hong Kong

The Markforged Metal X prints real metal parts

 The new Markforged Metal X is pretty great. It is a full metal 3D printer that generates real metal parts out of powdered metal which is then hardened under massive heat and allows for amazingly strong and light materials. The printer uses tubes of powered metal bound with plastic. The “extruder” first creates the shapes on a regular build plate and then you bond the material in… Read More

More:
The Markforged Metal X prints real metal parts

Etcher Is the Easiest Way to Make a Raspberry Pi SD Card

Windows/Mac/Linux: While it’s gotten easier over the years to make a Raspberry Pi SD card, it’s still a little confusing for people new to the idea of burning images. Etcher is a cross-platform tool that simplifies the process dramatically. Read more…

Read More:
Etcher Is the Easiest Way to Make a Raspberry Pi SD Card

Apps that rely on Google Hangouts won’t work after April 25th

When Google launched Allo and Duo last year, it recast hangouts as a cross-platform chat app for enterprise customers. Now it’s making changes to help ensure that fate. A quiet update to the Google Hangouts FAQ reveals that the sun will set on the platform’s API in late April. Effectively, this means any consumer app that integrates with Google Hangouts will be dead in a matter of months. “At the Google Horizon event in September 2016, we previewed a new experience for Hangouts focused on meetings, ” The updated FAQ reads. “In order to streamline our efforts furhter, we will be retiring the Google+ Hangouts API.” According to Google, the integration simply isn’t needed anymore. “Hangouts is now turning to focus on enterprise use cases.” This is hardly a surprise — Google outlined its vision for Hangouts’ new market early last year — but it is a bummer for apps that rely on the platform like PingPong Hangouts, Draw with your Face and Roll20 . Still, some apps will still have access to Hangouts, but only if they qualify as enterprise communication tools, like Slack. Bummer. Source: Techcrunch

More:
Apps that rely on Google Hangouts won’t work after April 25th

Fewer People Are Dying of Cancer Than Ever Before

The number of Americans dying of cancer has dropped to a 25-year low, equaling an estimated 2, 143, 200 fewer deaths in that period, says the new annual report from the American Cancer Society. In that time, the racial and gender disparities that exist in cancer rates have also narrowed somewhat, but they remain wide in many places. From a report on The Outline: Though the incidence of cancer remained stable for women and dropped slightly — by 2 percent — in men, rates remain overall 20 percent higher in men while rate of death for men is 40 percent higher than in women. The rates of both incidence and death vary wildly based on the type of cancer. The data that the ACS is using run through the end of 2014 for incidents of cancer and through 2013 for deaths. Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death in the United States for both men and women.. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Continued here:
Fewer People Are Dying of Cancer Than Ever Before

Amber’s sensors aim to save farmers’ grain from spoilage

CES is most known as a show for computers , cars and seriously strange stuff , but there’s no shortage of people here trying to solve big problems the rest of us have never heard of. Take Amber Agriculture for instance: run by students at the University of Illinois, the startup as developed a finger-sized sensor meant to be stuck inside silos to help farmers monitor the quality of their stored grain. What’s more, Amber’s approach falls in line with other big trends at the show. You’ve heard of the smart home — the Amber team is trying to help build the smart farm. The idea is simple enough — these sensors monitor temperature and humidity, along with the volatile compounds that signal how moist a farmer’s grain is. Since this is 2017, those farmers will be able to monitor that key data from their smartphones, and that sort of easy access should help them figure out the ideal time to sell and ship their crop. Here’s the thing, though: there’s more to this idea than just helping the world’s farmers demand the best possible prices. Amber co-founder Lucas Frye also believes that some serious long-term good could be possible if the company could work with farmers in countries where grain spoilage has been a pressing issue. Frye, a competent, low-key pitchman, said the startup’s vision is on some level about protecting our food supply. That said, smart moisture management won’t be able to fix every grain spoilage problem around the world. Consider India: spoilage and grain rot is a recurring problem there, but that’s thanks in large part to logistical issues like finding places to actually store those huge crop hauls. For now, though, global problems are taking a back seat while Amber makes sure everything works the way it’s supposed to. There’s no firm word on pricing yet, but that’s to be expected — after finalizing some design elements and striking some deals, the startup’s leaders are gearing up for its first set of field trials in early 2017. Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.

Continued here:
Amber’s sensors aim to save farmers’ grain from spoilage

DARPA tests buoy network for fallback military comms at sea

It doesn’t matter how many war machines you have under your command if you can’t relay orders to their operators. Maintaining communications is just as important as firepower, and DARPA wants the armed forces to have as many contingencies as possible when networks go down or are actively jammed. Setting up a fallback network is even trickier on the open ocean, but the agency’s Tactical Undersea Network Architecture (TUNA) program is well on its way to a solution. That solution being a collection of “node” buoys, deployed from ships or planes, that are tethered together by fiber optic cables to create a radio frequency data network. The fiber cables connecting the buoys may be thin, but are being developed to survive 30 days in challenging underwater environments, which should cover the time it takes to restore normal comms. Powering the network presents another problem, though the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Lab have created a concept buoy that draws energy from the constant ebb and flow of the ocean. The TUNA program has been in DARPA’s pipeline for the past few years , and with the first phase now complete, the next step is to build a fully working system and test it at sea. DARPA’s seafaring solution compliments another ongoing program called Dynamic Network Adaptation for Mission Optimization (DyNAMO) . Its goal is to develop a system that allows all different types of equipment found in different types of aircraft to talk to each other, creating something of a peer-to-peer communications network in the sky. Source: DARPA

See original article:
DARPA tests buoy network for fallback military comms at sea

Cadillac is renting vehicles as a subscription service for $1,500 a month

Variety is the spice of life, but reality is full of commitments. Buying a car typically means being stuck with a specific model for the duration of ownership . If you have enough money to burn, however, Cadillac has another option: don’t own a car. Subscribe to one. Today the company announced Cadillac Book, a “luxury vehicle subscription service” that lets you rent various Cadillac vehicles on the fly. Basically, it’s an app-based rental service that carries only one brand of vehicle and costs $1, 500 a month. Cadillac is selling the idea as a convenience service — Book members don’t own their car, but they aren’t responsible for insurance or maintenance either. They also have the option to trade it out for another vehicle at a drop of the hat. If the sedan you normally borrow from the service doesn’t have enough room for an upcoming road trip, all you have to do is tap a few buttons in the service’s app, and Book will deliver the SUV to your home lickity split. The trade off, of course, is Book users still don’t own that car, and they’re paying more for the service than they would in financing the vehicle. It’s like Spotify , but for cars. Do you care if you own the music if you have access to it whenever you want? It’s an interesting idea, but at $1, 500, it’s clearly only aimed at a wealthy demographic. Still, it’s a month to month service — so if you’re willing to pay $50 a day for your own personal fleet of luxury cars, you can have it for a shorter-term rental. The service is expected to launch in February in New York, and will expand to other markets later. Source: Cadillac

Follow this link:
Cadillac is renting vehicles as a subscription service for $1,500 a month

Check out the first Windows VR headsets from Dell, HP and Acer

Just a few days after Lenovo unveiled its Windows 10 VR headset , Microsoft showed off what HP, Dell and Acer are working on at a CES media event. Unfortunately, they were all under glass, so all we could do was ogle at the hardware. Still, the designs look pretty interesting. Acer’s looks like it comes straight from its gaming design crew, while HP’s has a cool black aesthetic. I was particularly surprised by Dell’s headset, which resembles the PlayStation VR in a few ways. There’s still a lot we don’t know about these headsets yet, unfortunately. We hear they’re all going to be available this year, with the cheapest going for around $300. Microsoft reps say they should work with integrated laptops in graphics, but of course, we’re taking that with a grain of salt. The only thing that’s certain right now is that it’s going to be a big year for Windows Holographic and VR in general.

Excerpt from:
Check out the first Windows VR headsets from Dell, HP and Acer