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This Incredible Animation Was Made By Code That Could Fit on a Floppy

This is no 20 GB video file, painstakingly pulled from a render farm. All of it was generated in real time by one tiny algorithm. And it’s amazing. Read more…

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This Incredible Animation Was Made By Code That Could Fit on a Floppy

This Faucet Sprayer’s Flat Blade of Water Scrapes Dishes Clean

If you’re lucky enough to have a retractable sprayer attached to your kitchen faucet, you’ve probably noticed that its circular blast often isn’t powerful enough to really scrape dishes clean. To fix that, Kohler is introducing what it calls Sweep spray technology that blasts stuck-on food with a wide blade of water that works like a liquid scraper. Read more…

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This Faucet Sprayer’s Flat Blade of Water Scrapes Dishes Clean

Drones help find World War II’s missing soldiers

The BentProp Project has spent years finding American soldiers who went missing in the Pacific during World War II, but available technology has limited its success. Team members have frequently had to scan wide areas themselves, slowing down their efforts to find downed aircraft and unexploded bombs that might hide human remains. However, the outfit’s searches have just taken a big step forward after it got cutting-edge drones from both the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the University of Delaware. BentProp can now automate much of its scanning, and CNET notes that the organization’s latest expedition found two Navy airplanes . That’s a breakthrough for a group that only occasionally makes a big discovery. The biggest breakthrough this year was underwater . Instead of towing a side-scanning sonar device behind a boat, BentProp used Remus robots that generated 3D sonar maps of search areas on their own. If the machines found clues to a wreck, a diver with a GoPro action camera could provide visual proof. The team also has a better idea of where to look in the first place; it now uses accurate LIDAR imagery and statistical models to determine where aircraft went down. On both land and sea, BentProp used 3D Robotics octocopter drones equipped with both GoPros and infrared cameras. The machines both mapped environments and picked out heat signatures from metal that might represent still-active bombs. While the team still had to comb ground sites with metal detectors, the drones gave workers a better idea of where to begin. Searches are still slow, and there’s no certainty that the efforts will be completely successful. Stephen Ballinger, whose Cleared Ground Demining group has been working with BentProp, tells CNET that it’s unlikely we’ll completely prevent old explosives from threatening both MIA recovery efforts and local residents. However, the newer technology could give lost soldiers’ families some closure sooner than expected — and it might just save a few lives in the process. [Image credit: Greg Bishop, Flickr ] Filed under: Robots Comments Via: CNET (1) , (2) , (3) Source: BentProp

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Drones help find World War II’s missing soldiers

Samsung data center fire causes outage, errors on smart TVs and phones (update: fixed)

Seeing an error message on your Samsung phone, tablet or Smart TV today? You’re not alone, as the Samsung.com website appears to be down and owners worldwide have reported anything from error messages to being unable to access apps on their smart TVs. Reports have spread on Twitter, mostly from a community news site called Wikitree , that a fire at a Samsung SDS building in Gwacheon, South Korea is the culprit. We’ve contacted Samsung but haven’t heard anything back yet, and while some of its social media pages have noted the outage, there isn’t an official explanation posted. Update : Naturally now that we’ve mentioned it, the outage that lasted several hours appears to have ended around 6:15AM ET. The same users who were having problems with their smart TVs and phones seem to have full access again. A Samsung SDS blog post confirms the fire and subsequent outage, while apologizing for the inconvenience. The big question left? Why a fire at one location seemed to have such a wide ranging affect on the company’s devices and services. 오늘 ICT 과천센터 화재로 심려를 끼쳐 드려 사과드립니다. – ICT story (@ICTstory) April 20, 2014 Photo of Yonhap showing materials of Samsung SDS building is falling off because of fire, . pic.twitter.com/E1gzO9t3ff – Jaehwan Cho 조재환 (@hohocho) April 20, 2014 Samsung’s website been down for 3+ hours, and this is the global site. Things are normal, I assume? – Evan Hindra (@evanhindra) April 20, 2014 헐. 과천 삼성 SDS 건물에 불났네. 사상자가 없었으면 좋겠는데. pic.twitter.com/uwefIMgDI1 – Joshua (@shbaik82) April 20, 2014 @SamsungUK the smart hub is down. Is there really no support or information?!! – Cromerty York (@Cromerty) April 20, 2014 #Fail http://t.co/aTeVEzEaDJ is down, all ‘Smart’ devices – TV, Bluray – boned. Obv the internet is down if http://t.co/xDtqnPOYIq is down! – Ed S (@iMiMiMx) April 20, 2014 @Micko3 Hi! Thanks for reaching out. We are currently looking into this. We’ll let you know once we have the information. ^Jonah – Samsung Support USA (@SamsungSupport) April 20, 2014 Filed under: Cellphones , Home Entertainment , HD , Mobile , Samsung Comments Source: Wikitree , Samsung.com , Is It Down Right Now? , ICT Story

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Samsung data center fire causes outage, errors on smart TVs and phones (update: fixed)

OpenSSL Cleanup: Hundreds of Commits In a Week

New submitter CrAlt (3208) writes with this news snipped from BSD news stalwart undeadly.org: “After the news of heartbleed broke early last week, the OpenBSD team dove in and started axing it up into shape. Leading this effort are Ted Unangst (tedu@) and Miod Vallat (miod@), who are head-to-head on a pure commit count basis with both having around 50 commits in this part of the tree in the week since Ted’s first commit in this area. They are followed closely by Joel Sing (jsing@) who is systematically going through every nook and cranny and applying some basic KNF. Next in line are Theo de Raadt (deraadt@) and Bob Beck (beck@) who’ve been both doing a lot of cleanup, ripping out weird layers of abstraction for standard system or library calls. … All combined, there’ve been over 250 commits cleaning up OpenSSL. In one week.'” You can check out the stats, in progress. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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OpenSSL Cleanup: Hundreds of Commits In a Week

Closing Surgical Incisions With a Paintbrush and Nanoparticles

New submitter BiancaM (3582365) writes “A group of chemists has shown the power of nanoparticles for closing and healing surgical wounds [abstract]. Using no more than a paintbrush they are able to close surgical openings as well as classical techniques such as sutures. However in fragile deep tissues such as liver even more remarkable results were found- normally fatal damage to internal organs is repaired in seconds using a nanoparticle glue. The results show that closing after surgery can be faster and simpler using nanomaterials to glue wounds shut.” For something between the above linked abstract and the research paper, there’s this write-up at PhysOrg, and a video of the technique in action. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Closing Surgical Incisions With a Paintbrush and Nanoparticles

Zentai: full-body masked spandex subculture from Japan

Zentai (short for “zenshintaitsu,” Japanese for “full body suit”) is a largely obscure Japanese subculture whose adherents go out wearing full-body patterned spandex suits that cover their faces. In a relatively unsensational article in the Japan Times, Harumi Ozawa talks to a few zentais about their hobby, and learns that for some proponents, being completely covered is a liberating experience. The zentais in the article describe the suit as an anonymizer that frees them from the judging gaze of society, which is a fascinating study in contradictions, since the suits undoubtably attract lots of judgmental looks, but these seem to adhere to the suit without penetrating to the wearer within. Some zentais wear their suits in superhero fashion, and do good deeds in public, while others wear the suits for sexual kicks. They are often mocked in Japanese pop culture. One academic cited in the article believes that the wearers use the suits to hide their appearance in order to force others to deal with their “true” underlying identity. By night, she dresses in a skin-tight, all-in-one Spandex body suit that covers everything — including her eyes — and sits in bars, alone but liberated, she believes, from the judgment of others. “With my face covered, I cannot eat or drink like other customers,” said the woman, who is in her 20s and says her name is Hokkyoku Nigo (North Pole No. 2). “I have led my life always worrying about what other people think of me. They say I look cute, gentle, childish or naive,” she said, her lips ruffling the tight, red shiny material. “I always felt suffocated by that. But wearing this, I am just a person in a full body suit.” ‘Zentai’ fans search for identity in fetish suits [Harumi Ozawa/Japan Times] ( via JWZ ) ( Image: Zentai.jpg , MonkeyMyshkin, CC-BY )

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Zentai: full-body masked spandex subculture from Japan

Russia Writes Off 90 Percent of North Korea Debt

jones_supa (887896) writes “In Russia, the State Duma (lower house) on Friday ratified a 2012 agreement to write off the bulk of North Korea’s debt. It said the total debt stood at $10.96 billion as of Sept. 17, 2012. Russia sees this lucrative in advancing the plans to build a gas pipe and railroad through North to South Korea. The rest of the debt, $1.09 billion, would be redeemed during the next 20 years, to be paid in equal installments every six months. The outstanding debt owed by North Korea will be managed by Russia’s state development bank, Vnesheconombank. Moscow has been trying to diversify its energy sales to Asia away from Europe, which, in its turn, wants to cut its dependence on oil and gas from the erstwhile Cold War foe. Russia’s state-owned top natural producer Gazprom is dreaming shipping 10 billion cubic meters of gas annually through the Koreas. Russia has written off debts to a number of impoverished Soviet-era allies, including Cuba. North Korea’s struggling communist economy is just 2 percent of the size of neighboring South’s.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Russia Writes Off 90 Percent of North Korea Debt

DARPA Developing the Ultimate Auto-Pilot Software

coondoggie (973519) writes “Call it the ultimate auto-pilot — an automated system that can help take care of all phases of aircraft flight-even perhaps helping pilots overcome system failures in-flight. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will in May detail a new program called Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) that would build upon what the agency called the considerable advances that have been made in aircraft automation systems over the past 50 years, as well as the advances made in remotely piloted aircraft automation, to help reduce pilot workload, augment mission performance and improve aircraft safety.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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DARPA Developing the Ultimate Auto-Pilot Software