Category: reader

A Look Inside the 8K Theater Technology At the Newly Renovated Fiske Planetarium

An anonymous reader writes “Sky gazers at CU-Boulder’s Fiske Planetarium are getting better, clearer and deeper views. And not just of astronomy anymore. The planetarium has been upgraded, transforming it into a digital IMAX-like theater that’s open to the public every Saturday and Sunday with a variety of programs including shows for children. ‘Fiske’s refurbished video system projects ultra high-definition pictures at 8, 000 by 8, 000 pixels in size, giving audience members a crystal-clear 360-degree view on the dome’s 65-foot screen. “The size and quality is the equivalent of 40 Blu-ray players projecting 40 sections of one video image at once, ” said [Doug Duncan, director of Fiske]. This gallery of images shows a behind-the-scenes look at the Planetarium’s brand new 8k Fulldome projection system. ‘ In addition to space odysseys and laser shows — longtime favorites of audiences — movies are now part of the Fiske lineup. ‘Just like at an IMAX theater, we can take you near a black hole, through the Grand Canyon, under the ocean, or up to a super volcano, ‘ said Duncan. “The sky is no longer the limit.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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A Look Inside the 8K Theater Technology At the Newly Renovated Fiske Planetarium

How To Lose $172,222 a Second For 45 Minutes

An anonymous reader writes “Investment firm Knight Capital made headlines in 2012 for losing over $400 million on the New York Stock Exchange because of problems with their algorithmic trading software. Now, the owner of a Python programming blog noticed the release of a detailed SEC report into exactly what went wrong (PDF). It shows how a botched update rollout combined with useless or nonexistent process guidelines cost the company over $172, 000 a second for over 45 minutes. From the report: ‘When Knight used the Power Peg code previously, as child orders were executed, a cumulative quantity function counted the number of shares of the parent order that had been executed. This feature instructed the code to stop routing child orders after the parent order had been filled completely. In 2003, Knight ceased using the Power Peg functionality. In 2005, Knight moved the tracking of cumulative shares function in the Power Peg code to an earlier point in the SMARS code sequence. Knight did not retest the Power Peg code after moving the cumulative quantity function to determine whether Power Peg would still function correctly if called. … During the deployment of the new code, however, one of Knight’s technicians did not copy the new code to one of the eight SMARS computer servers. Knight did not have a second technician review this deployment and no one at Knight realized that the Power Peg code had not been removed from the eighth server, nor the new RLP code added. Knight had no written procedures that required such a review.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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How To Lose $172,222 a Second For 45 Minutes

US carbon emissions hit lowest level since 1994 despite economic growth

US EIA Last year, the US saw its lowest carbon emissions since 1994, continuing a downward trend that began in 2008 during the economic crisis. It marks the second year in a row that carbon emissions have dropped despite a growth in gross domestic product. Prior to the last few years, economic growth had been closely tied to increased carbon emissions. The US Energy Information Administration released the data yesterday after having taken a bit of an unwanted break during the government shutdown. In analyzing the data, it identified a variety of causes for the drop in carbon emissions. As shown above, population size and economic activity both grew last year, which would normally push emissions up. But the energy required for that economic activity dropped, and the carbon intensity of the energy supply dropped as well. Combined, those two factors more than offset the economic growth. One of the simplest factors behind the lower energy use was a relatively warm winter at the start of 2012, which lowered residential energy demand significantly. Transportation also managed to contribute. Although miles travelled held steady, the turnover in the vehicle fleet brought more energy-efficient cars onto the road, meaning that it took less fuel to do all that travel. Another contributor is the turnover in electrical generation. Coal use dropped dramatically, replaced by a combination of natural gas and wind power. A drop in manufacturing contributed to a slight drop in overall energy use. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments        

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US carbon emissions hit lowest level since 1994 despite economic growth

Promising work on diabetes vaccine

Researchers at Finland’s Tampere University have identified a set of viruses they believe to be responsible for Type 1 diabetes , and they have formulated a vaccine for it that has had promising results in mice. The enterovirus in question attacks the pancreas, and is similar to the virus that causes polio. They’re forming a research syndicate to raise the €700m needed for human trials. Researchers have looked at more than a hundred different strains of the virus and pinpointed five that could cause diabetes. They believe they could produce a vaccine against those strains. ”We have identified one virus type that carries the biggest risk,” said professor Heikki Hyöty. ”A vaccine could also protect against its close relatives, to give the best possible effect.” Finnish team makes diabetes vaccine breakthrough ( via /. )        

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Promising work on diabetes vaccine

eBay buys Shutl, plans for same-day delivery in 25 cities by the end of 2014

While eBay’s same-day shipping is a beautiful thing for impulse buyers, its expansion has been slow. The company is speeding things up today by acquiring Shutl , a British startup focused on quick e-commerce deliveries. The deal will help eBay bring its speedy eBay Now service to a total of 25 cities in 2014, including London. Customers won’t have to wait to take advantage of the site’s growing ambitions, however. eBay Now is launching in Chicago today, and Dallas in the near future; the firm has also introduced product curators and collections to help web visitors who want expert shopping advice. Filed under: Internet Comments Via: GigaOM Source: Shutl , eBay

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eBay buys Shutl, plans for same-day delivery in 25 cities by the end of 2014

The ultimate tablet comparison chart, with the new iPads

Today Apple unveiled significant updates to both of its tablets: the iPad was reborn as the slimmer, lighter iPad Air , and the flagship iPad mini is now available with a densely packed retina display. Below we have the numerical breakdowns of some of the most popular tablets, all of them recent releases that will be competing with Apple’s entries. A handful of iPad minis with retina display, in silver and space gray. 7-8 Inch Tablets iPad mini (2nd gen) Nexus 7 Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 Kindle Fire HDX 7 Screen size (in) 7.9 7.02 7.0 8.0 7.0 Screen type IPS IPS TFT TFT IPS Resolution  2048×1536 1920×200 1024×600 1280×800 1920×1200 PPI  326 323 170 189 323 Dimensions (in) 7.87×5.3×0.29 7.87×4.48×0.34 7.4×4.37×0.39 8.26×4.87×0.29 7.3×5.0×0.35 Weight (lb)  0.73 0.64 0.666 0.692 0.688 Camera (front) 0.9MP 1.2MP 1.3MP 1.3MP 0.9MP Camera (back) 5MP 5MP 5MP 5MP none Processor Apple A7 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro 1.2 GHz dual-core Cortex A9 1.5 GHz dual-core Samsung Exynos 2.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 RAM  unknown 2GB 1GB 1.5GB 2GB Storage options  16/32/64/128GB 16/32GB 8/16GB 16/32GB 16/32/64GB Battery size (mAh)  unknown 3950 4000 4450 4550 Estimated battery life (hours)  10 9 8 11 11 OS iOS 7 Android 4.3 Android 4.1.2 Android 4.2.2 Fire OS 3.0 Mojito Starting price  $399 $229 $179.99 $279.99 $229.99 The retina iPad mini now bests all of its competitors in pixel density at 323ppi, barely edging out Google’s latest Nexus 7 . It ties the Galaxy Tab 8.0 for thinness, though it’s the heaviest of the bunch (the 4G LTE version is still a hair heavier, at 0.75 pounds). The iPad mini with retina falls to the middle of the pack for battery life, and its front-facing camera is among the lowest in resolution. For the rear-facing camera, it appears the tablet gods have decided the 5MP shall be the number of the counting of megapixels for this generation. Per usual, Apple has been tight-lipped about both the mini’s and Air’s internals, save to say that they are both packing a version of Apple’s 64-bit A7 processor. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments        

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The ultimate tablet comparison chart, with the new iPads

Amazon increases free shipping minimum order to $35, pushes Prime membership as an alternative

The minimum order amount needed to qualify for free Super Saver Shipping from Amazon has remained set at $25 for US customers for quite some time — over a decade, actually. Now, the outfit is pushing the requisite cart total to $35 . As part of the announcement, the online retailer was quick to point out that Prime members receive unlimited free two-day shipping on any order as part of their annual $79 dues in addition to unlimited streaming of TV and movies through Prime Instant Video and access to the Kindle Lending Library. Of course, you can try it out for 30 days before committing as the outfit makes the push for Prime. Comments Via: Lifehacker Source: Amazon

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Amazon increases free shipping minimum order to $35, pushes Prime membership as an alternative

Google is adding handwriting input to Gmail and Docs.

Google is adding handwriting input to Gmail and Docs. Starting today, you can use your trackpad or mouse to hand-draw characters in a variety of languages. [ Gmail Blog via 9to5Google ] Read more…        

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Google is adding handwriting input to Gmail and Docs.

Apple App Store hits 60 billion cumulative downloads

Over 64% of compatible devices are already running iOS 7, according to Apple, making it by far the company’s most successful mobile operating system. In all, iOS 7 was downloaded over 200 million times in the first five days after it was released. Apple also reported paying developers over $13 billion to date, thanks to the over 1 million apps available in the App Store, which have hit over 60 billion cumulative downloads. (Apple still has the edge over Android; there are about 900, 000 apps available in the Google Play store.) Some other notable milestones: More than 20 million people have checked out iTunes Radio, listening to over a billion songs — in the U.S. alone. Over 9 million iPhones were sold in one weekend after the 5c and 5s launched, making it the biggest iPhone launch in history. Developing… Comments

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Apple App Store hits 60 billion cumulative downloads

Apple releases iOS 7.0.3 update with iCloud Keychain support, bug fixes aplenty

Turns out it’s not just Macs getting an OS update today. Apple has now also released version 7.0.3 of iOS — a decidedly less major upgrade, but one that will no doubt be welcome to anyone having some technical issues since updating to iOS 7. It’s not all bug fixes, though. The update also brings with it support for iCloud Keychain to let you share passwords and credit card info across your various devices, along with a new password generator for Safari that will help you choose more secure passwords. Filed under: Cellphones , Mobile , Apple Comments Via: 9 to 5 Mac

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Apple releases iOS 7.0.3 update with iCloud Keychain support, bug fixes aplenty