When it’s hot out, buildings have a hard time staying cool: bombarded with ambient heat and generating yet more inside, their air conditioning systems have to work hard to keep temperatures down. Now, a new super-thin coating developed at Stanford could be applied to buildings to help them cool themselves more effectively. Read more…
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A New Super-Thin Coating Could Cool Buildings Without AC
Is o nly going up in the elevator getting you down? Not for much longer: ThyssenKrupp, the German steel and engineering company, has announced that it’s building the next generation of elevators that will use magnetic levitation to travel up, down and side-to-side at speed in the buildings of the future. Read more…
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Future Elevators Will Use Maglev to Go Up, Down—and Sideways
Midnight Thunder writes: The first trailer for Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens has been released. (YouTube link.) This is the first real opportunity to get a feeling for whether childhood dreams will be crushed or Disney, with the help of JJ Abrams, will be able to breath new life into the story without making it feel like a merchandising excuse. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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First Star War Episode 7 Trailer Released
When scanning a menu, are you justifying that Dame Blanche sundae in your mind rather than actually choosing a dessert? Pizza Hut wants to help you skip your super-ego middleman and just let your id order that triple-cheese bacon pepperoni pie directly. It’s ” Subconscious Menu ” uses Tobii’s eye-tracking tech to figure out which of 20 different ingredients you’re looking at on a screen (see the video below). It then takes all of three seconds to identify the pizza you really want based on which you looked at the longest. Pizza Hut says its Subconscious Menu is still in trials, but after testing to a 98 percent success rate, it may eventually appear in restaurants. [Image credit: Lexis Agency/Pizza Hut] Filed under: Cameras Comments Via: Telegraph Source: Tobii (YouTube)
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Pizza Hut’s eye-tracking menu knows what you want before you do
The 8.2 version of iOS is still in beta and unavailable to non-developers, but that hasn’t stopped Chinese-based outfit TaiG from breaking it free from Apple’s shackles (and also jailbreaking 8.1.1, the current release, in the process). Read more…
Well, would you look at that: scientists have discovered that DNA can make it through the hellish ordeal of atmospheric re-entry after all. German and Swiss researchers dotted a rocket’s grooves and screw heads with fragments of genetic blueprints to see how they’d fare in situations that could’ve led to the appearance of life on Earth. Scientific American notes that the 13-minute rocket trip might not perfectly represent how DNA might actually travel from one celestial body to the next (that’d be by meteor), but there is purpose here. What the experiment suggests is that even if the meteor’s been scorched, that the material can survive at higher temperatures than previously expected, and as such this paints a better picture of just how resilient DNA is. What’s next? Pushing the limits further and seeing exactly what it takes to kill the double helix — we’re pretty sure at least one rock band is itching to find out. [Image credit: Getty Images/OJO Images RF] Filed under: Science , Alt Comments Via: Scientific American Source: Plos One
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DNA smeared on a rocket survives re-entry and tells of life’s origins
This Samsung 28″ 4K is the most popular monitor we’ve ever listed. It was an amazing deal when it debuted at a $700 MSRP. It’s $400 right now , with no tax for most and free shipping. Read more…
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The Best Deal In 4K Monitors Gets Way Better
Large American internet service providers these days tend to operate under a ” six strikes ” approach to piracy — they’ll warn you if they catch copyright violations, but it’s unlikely that you’ll get the boot. However, that isn’t good enough for BMG or Round Hill Music. The two music publishers have sued Cox Communications for allegedly refusing to forward notices demanding settlements for copyright violations. According to the claim, the cable giant went out of its way to treat these messages like junk mail, letting about 200, 000 “repeat infringers” go scot-free. If the court agrees that Cox knowingly looked the other way, it could be in trouble. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act requires that networks have a policy for cutting off unrepentant pirates, and the lawsuit suggests that Cox doesn’t respect that rule. With that said, there’s no certainty that the company is on the hook. A person isn’t necessarily violating copyright just because they’re supposed to get a notice — it may be up to a judge to decide. Also, the agency handing out the alerts on the labels’ behalf (Rightscorp) doesn’t have a sterling track record. Internet providers have previously ignored Rightscorp notices with little consequence, and the firm is in dire financial straits after its aggressive approach to demanding copyright settlements (which includes using robocalls ) didn’t pan out. Even so, this case could set an important precedent. BMG and Round Hill would have more ammunition for future lawsuits if they win, and other labels may consider suing when they don’t believe that ISPs are taking piracy seriously. [Image credit: Dustin Gaffke, Flickr ] Filed under: Internet Comments Via: Electronista Source: Ars Technica
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Music labels sue Cox for not doing enough to stop piracy
There may now be some strong evidence that the Sony Pictures hackers came across a treasure trove of sensitive info when they broke into the movie studio’s networks. High-quality screener copies of Annie , Fury , Mr. Turner and Still Alice have reached torrent file sites well before you can get any of them at home — and, outside of Fury , before you can even see them in theaters. While there’s no direct evidence that the Sony Pictures attackers (the “Guardians of Peace”) are responsible, a tipster claiming to be the “boss of G.O.P.” has emailed many media outlets claiming that the group seeded the bootleg videos. That may be supported by the names of the torrents themselves, which start with “2014 Sony Movie” in a seeming attempt to highlight the source. If the GOP did pirate the movies, that suggests that there are far worse things to come. We’ve obtained a copy of the alleged email, and it claims that “under 100 terabytes” of data is going to reach the web in the near future. Suffice it to say that Sony doesn’t want to see that happen — it could reveal the personal information for legions of workers, not to mention production plans. If there’s any truth to the threats, the company could be dealing with the repercussions of the data breach for a long, long while. Filed under: Home Entertainment , Internet , HD , Sony Comments Source: TorrentFreak
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Unreleased Sony movies leak online following studio hack
When it comes to encryption, some of the Department of Justice’s views are… interesting . Now, it transpires that it’s been using laws that date back 225 years to get phones unlocked, too. Read more…
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The DOJ Used 225-Year-Old Law to Bypass a Phone’s Password