IEEE Sets New Ethernet Standard That Brings 5X the Speed Without Cable Ripping

Reader coondoggie writes: As expected the IEEE has ratified a new Ethernet specification — IEEE P802.3bz — that defines 2.5GBASE-T and 5GBASE-T, boosting the current top speed of traditional Ethernet five-times without requiring the tearing out of current cabling. The Ethernet Alliance wrote that the IEEE 802.3bz Standard for Ethernet Amendment sets Media Access Control Parameters, Physical Layers and Management Parameters for 2.5G and 5Gbps Operation lets access layer bandwidth evolve incrementally beyond 1Gbps, it will help address emerging needs in a variety of settings and applications, including enterprise, wireless networks. Indeed, the wireless component may be the most significant implication of the standard as 2.5G and 5G Ethernet will allow connectivity to 802.11ac Wave 2 Access Points, considered by many to be the real driving force behind bringing up the speed of traditional NBase-T products. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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IEEE Sets New Ethernet Standard That Brings 5X the Speed Without Cable Ripping

Elon Musk Proposes Spaceship That Can Send 100 People To Mars In 80 Days

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Today, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk unveiled the Mars vehicle — the spaceship his company plans to build to transport the first colonists to Mars. It will have a diameter of 17 meters. The plan is to send about 100 people per trip, though Musk wants to ultimately take 200 or more per flight to make the cost cheaper per person. The trip can take as little as 80 days or as many as 150 depending on the year. The hope is that the transport time will be only 30 days “in the more distant future.” The rocket booster will have a diameter of 12 meters and the stack height will be 122 meters. The spaceship should hold a cargo of up to 450 tons depending on how many refills can be done with the tanker. As rumored, the Mars vehicle will be reusable and the spaceship will refuel in orbit. The trip will work like this: First, the spaceship will launch out of Pad 39A, which is under development right now at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida. At liftoff, the booster will have 127, 800 kilonewtons of thrust, or 28, 730, 000 pounds of thrust. Then, the spaceship and booster separate. The spaceship heads to orbit, while the booster heads back to Earth, coming back within about 20 minutes. Back on Earth, the booster lands on a launch mount and a propellant tanker is loaded onto the booster. The entire unit — now filled with fuel — lifts off again. It joins with the spaceship, which is then refueled in orbit. The propellant tankers will go up anywhere from three to five times to fill the tanks of the spaceship. The spaceship finally departs for Mars. To make the trip more attractive for its crew members, Musk promises that it’ll be “really fun” with zero-G games, movies, cabins, games, a restaurant. Once it reaches Mars, the vehicle will land on the surface, using its rocket engines to lower itself gently down to the ground. The spaceship’s passengers will use the vehicle, as well as cargo and hardware that’s already been shipped over to Mars, to set up a long-term colony. At the rate of 20 to 50 total Mars trips, it will take anywhere from 40 to 100 years to achieve a fully self-sustaining civilization with one million people on Mars, says Musk. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Elon Musk Proposes Spaceship That Can Send 100 People To Mars In 80 Days

Sad BlackBerry Will Stop Making Phones

It’s the end of an era. BlackBerry, a name once synonymous with high-end smartphones, will no longer make mobile devices. Along with a dismal financial report, the company announced on Wednesday it “plans to end all internal hardware development and will outsource that function to partners.” Read more…

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Sad BlackBerry Will Stop Making Phones

How a Pythagoras Cup works

The legendary cup, designed to punish greedy drinkers, explained masterfully by Salad Fingers’ dad Sir Martyn Poliakoff. His YouTube channel is packed with similarly excellent videos wherein lab assistant Neil is persuaded to execute unnerving experiments . ( previously .) (more…)

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How a Pythagoras Cup works

Spotify’s Daily Mixes use your listening habits to make playlists

Spotify has been keen on adding new discovery features to its service for a while now . Today, the streaming option announced yet another tool that keeps your playlists fresh. The new feature is called Daily Mixes and it compiles six different playlists that are constantly updated based on your listening habits. Each mix contains over a dozen songs and more tracks load as you listen so you don’t have to worry about running out of material. Sitting atop the “Your Library” section of the Spotify app, Daily Mixes are a combination of tunes by the artists you listen to on the regular and other material you might not be as familiar with. As you might expect, there’s the option to “heart” a song to add it to your collection or “ban” a track to keep it from popping up in future playlists. Unlike the name suggests, the Mixes aren’t updated daily per se. Spotify says the name implies that you can enjoy them daily and while the track order may shuffle every day, the data that selects the songs will be updated on a weekly basis. Daily Mixes are divided by genre. For example, I have playlists for hardcore, hip hop, indie rock, electronic, metal and hard rock. Most of those are an equal mix of artists that I listen to often (or at least from time to time) and new songs that I hadn’t heard of yet. Not all the songs are new releases, so there’s a blend of old and new in each list as well. These new playlists work a lot like Pandora stations or Spotify’s own radio feature, only now the queue is automatically compiled for you and you can start wherever you want. You don’t even have to pick an a specific artist to get started. Spotify says the new playlists will be “consistently refreshed” and feature “near endless playback” to make listening to music on a daily basis a bit easier. Just like those aforementioned stations, Daily Mixes are based entirely on what you’re listening to and get better the more music you play. After a few days with Daily Mixes, the playlists seem useful at times when I have trouble deciding exactly what to play. I’m a big fan of both Discover Weekly and Release Radar for learning about new artists and keeping up new material from all of the acts I listen to often, but I don’t think I’ll use Daily Mixes quite as often. It’s still early though, so that may change. Spotify’s focus on discovery continues to provide its users with ways to keep their listening habit fresh. Multiple options mean you can find the one that you like best. If you want to give the new feature a shot, it’s available now on Spotify’s Android and iOS apps for both paid and free users. New to Spotify? You’ll need to use the service for about two weeks before Daily Mixes will show up for you. For faithful desktop users, the tool will be rolling out to other platforms “soon, ” so hopefully you won’t have to wait too long to employ the new goods there.

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Spotify’s Daily Mixes use your listening habits to make playlists

Oldest Proteins Ever Recovered Found in 3.8 Million-Year-Old Eggshell

Researchers working in Africa have uncovered 3.8 million-year-old protein fragments encased in an ostrich eggshell. These biological building blocks are millions of years older than the oldest DNA ever found, highlighting the possibility of recovering ancient proteins from extinct animals—and even the remains of early humans. Read more…

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Oldest Proteins Ever Recovered Found in 3.8 Million-Year-Old Eggshell

This Giant Autonomous Dump Truck Doesn’t Have a Front or Back

Autonomous vehicle technology is still in its infancy, which means that most self-driving vehicles still have a way for humans to take over when needed. But as Komatsu demonstrates with a design for a new autonomous dump truck, in some cases there are real advantages to eliminating humans altogether. Read more…

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This Giant Autonomous Dump Truck Doesn’t Have a Front or Back