An anonymous reader writes: It’s generally known that if you call 911 from a cell phone in the USA, you will be connected to the nearest Public Safety Access Point, whether or not the phone has an active account. This is the basis for programs that distribute donated phones for emergency-only use. However, the FCC has proposed a rule change that would eliminate the requirement for telephone companies to connect 911 calls made by NSI (non-service-initialized) phones. The main reason for the proposed rule change are the problems caused by fraudulent 911 calls made through NSI phones. Yet respondents cited by the FCC show that as may as 30% of 911 calls from NSI phones are for legitimate emergencies. The comment period for the proposed rule change ends on June 6th, 2015. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Meta analysis finds self-braking cars reduce collisions by 38 percent
While we’re still some way off seeing full-blown, self-driving cars winding their way across continental Europe, a more modest autonomous technology has found approval with safety bods. Research conducted by the European road safety research organisation Euro NCAP concluded that having a car automatically slam on the brakes to avoid low-speed accidents leads to a 38 percent reduction in rear-end crashes. The notable statistic was the result of a meta-analysis of various Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) cars, comparing them to cars without the technology in accidents where the car either struck a car in front, or was being struck from behind. Euro NCAP, with support of Australian safety organisation ANCAP, pooled data from five European countries and Australia using a standard analysis format, as well as a prospective meta-analysis approach. In non-AEB cars, the split between striking and being struck was close to 50/50, improving significantly for cars with AEB. However, despite the apparent success of the study, the researchers noted that in order to get the best results out of the technology, widespread adoption was required; slamming on the brakes to avoid an accident requires following traffic to be alert enough to react to the situation and not cause a cascade. They also noted that AEB cars might be more likely to be struck from behind, as an unintended consequence of AEB’s better reaction time, compared to a human driver. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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Meta analysis finds self-braking cars reduce collisions by 38 percent
Shipments of ‘white box’ tablets overtake iPads
The hottest-selling tablets aren’t likely to be iPads or Galaxy Tabs these days — if anything, they’re the cut-rate slabs you see in the back of the drug store . Strategy Analytics estimates that shipments of generic “white box” tablets (which typically run Android) overtook iPads in the first quarter of this year, claiming 28.4 percent of the market versus Apple’s 24.3. The analysts largely chalk this up to consistently tepid iPad sales , but they also suggest that small, budget-minded tablet makers are having a field day. That’s not totally surprising. Low-cost Android gear also dominates the smartphone market , and a lot of these tiny outfits operate in China, where price is more of a concern. You don’t need a $500 slate just to watch video in bed, after all. That shift is partly borne out by what’s happening with other big-name competitors. Cost-conscious Chinese brands like Huawei and Lenovo are thriving, while higher-end rivals that don’t do so well in China (such as ASUS and Samsung) are struggling. If these relative outsiders are going to come back, they may need to either compete more on price or give buyers a reason to pony up. There are signs that this is happening (see Samsung’s Galaxy Tab A and rumors of a giant iPad ), but you may not see the results of these efforts until later in the year. [Image credit: AP Photo/Koji Sasahara] Filed under: Tablets , Apple , Samsung , ASUS , Lenovo Comments Source: Strategy Analytics
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Shipments of ‘white box’ tablets overtake iPads
The Most Extreme Body Hacks That Actually Change Your Physical Abilities
Biohacking is one of those buzzy blanket terms used to describe a whole spectrum of ways that people modify or improve their bodies, from fairly tame experiments like drinking nasty butter coffee to more intense modifications like growing extra ears out of their arms . Read more…
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The Most Extreme Body Hacks That Actually Change Your Physical Abilities
Microsoft Hyperlapse Builds Time-Lapse Highlight Reels from Long Videos
Windows/Windows Phone/Android: Microsoft Hyperlapse gives you the power to shoot tons of video and then combine, condense, and edit it all into a short, time-lapse highlight reel on your PC, Windows Phone, or Android device, for free. Read more…
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Microsoft Hyperlapse Builds Time-Lapse Highlight Reels from Long Videos
The Himalayas Dropped 3 Feet After the Nepal Earthquake
The earthquake in Nepal was so violent it moved mountains. Satellite imagery shows that the parts of the Himalayas sank three feet—and the area around it as much as five feet—as tectonic plates snapped under extreme pressure. But the mountains will regain their height, slowly but surely, thanks to the geologic forces at work. Read more…
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The Himalayas Dropped 3 Feet After the Nepal Earthquake
House votes 338-88 to stop bulk phone surveillance
Nearly two years after the US government’s collection of telephone calls became public following the Edward Snowden leaks, the US House of Representatives has passed, by a vote of 338-88, a bill that would end the program. An exact roll call of votes is not yet available, but votes opposing the USA Freedom Act were generally split between Democrats and Republicans, many of whom argue the proposal doesn’t go far enough to protect civil liberties. Policymakers on all sides of the surveillance debate were under pressure to make some kind of move, with relevant portions of the Patriot Act set to expire at the end of this month. The USA Freedom Act ends the bulk phone database but doesn’t include many other wished-for reforms, such as a privacy advocate at the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which was in an earlier version of the bill. Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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House votes 338-88 to stop bulk phone surveillance
Intel NUC5i7RYH Broadwell Mini PC With Iris Pro Graphics Tested
MojoKid writes: In addition to ushering in a wave of new notebooks and mobile devices, Intel’s Broadwell microarchitecture has also found its way into a plethora of recently introduced small form factor systems like the company’s NUC platform. The new NUC5i7RYH is a mini-PC packing a Core i7-5557U Broadwell processor with Iris Pro graphics, which makes it the most powerful NUC released to date. There’s a 5th-gen Core i7 CPU inside (dual-core, quad-thread) that can turbo up to 3.4GHz, an Iris Pro 6100 series integrated graphics engine, support for dual-channel memory, M.2 and 2.5″ SSDs, 802.1ac and USB 3.0. NUCs are generally barebones systems, so you have to build them up with a drive and memory before they can be used. The NUC5i7RYH is one of the slightly taller NUC systems that can accommodate both M.2 and 9.5mm 2.5 drives and all NUCs come with a power brick and VESA mount. With a low-power dual-core processor and on-die Iris Pro 6100-series graphics engine, the NUC5i7RYH won’t offer the same kind of performance as systems equipped with higher-powered processors or discrete graphics cards, but for everyday computing tasks and casual gaming, it should fit the bill for users that want a low profile, out-of-the-way tiny PC. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Intel NUC5i7RYH Broadwell Mini PC With Iris Pro Graphics Tested
Typedrummer: type out your drum beats
Kyle Stetz’s typedrummer is a fun web app where you program drum beats by typing letters.
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Typedrummer: type out your drum beats
Watch gravity waves ripple through Earth’s atmosphere
You might think of gravity as an invisible force here on Earth, but that’s not entirely true… if you have the right computer simulation, that is. Researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research have developed a climate model that shows the gravity waves in the upper atmosphere, where their amplitude is strong enough to create huge ripples. The trick is a higher-resolution model that replicates the waves at their source, and follows them on their way up. As you can see here, the results are dramatic — gravity is virtually invisible near the surface, but it’s impossible to miss when you’re 60 miles up. The model isn’t just for show, of course. NCAR’s discovery will help it understand how gravity affects atmospheric behavior on a global scale, and how it messes with radios and satellite communications. And since the Sun isn’t producing many solar storms at the moment, the modelling gives scientists a good sense of how Earth affects its own skies. Scientists will have to study this data to known what it ultimately means, but you should soon have a good idea of what space weather really does to the planet. Filed under: Science Comments Via: Phys.org Source: NCAR/UCAR