Category: reader

Casting a Harsh Light On Chinese Solar Panels

New submitter Eugriped3z writes with an article in the New York Times that “indicates that manufacturing defect rates for solar panels manufactured in China vary widely, anywhere from 5-22%. Secrecy in the terms of settlements negotiated by attorneys representing multi-million dollar installations perpetuate the problem by masking the identity of unscrupulous or incompetent actors. Meanwhile, Reuters reports that unit labor costs in Mexico are now lower than in China.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Casting a Harsh Light On Chinese Solar Panels

Windows 8.1: Little Fixes, Same Big Ideas (Oh, and a Start Button)

The good news: If you liked Windows 8, its first major update is going fix a ton of the little things that bothered you. The bad news: You might not like Windows 8. And there’s nothing here that will change that. At least there’s a Start button! Read more…        

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Windows 8.1: Little Fixes, Same Big Ideas (Oh, and a Start Button)

How to Boost Your Internet Security with DNSCrypt

When you use HTTPS or SSL, your web browsing traffic is encrypted . When you use a VPN, all of your traffic is encrypted (usually). Sometimes even with HTTPS and VPNs in play, DNS requests—or the way your computer translates “lifehacker.com” into numbers that your computer understands, like “199.27.72.192,” are completely unencrypted, leaving you open to spoofing and man-in-the-middle attacks. DNSCrypt can lock that down. Here’s how. Read more…        

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How to Boost Your Internet Security with DNSCrypt

Curious travellers rejoice: Wikipedia has launched an official Nearby page, which will provide you w

Curious travellers rejoice: Wikipedia has launched an official Nearby page , which will provide you with articles based on location. Read more…        

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Curious travellers rejoice: Wikipedia has launched an official Nearby page, which will provide you w

Musk: $35,000 Teslas might be three years away, will be 20 percent smaller

We can’t argue that the Tesla Model S is not only a great achievement in the EV industry but a looker as well, but there are still a lot of people unconvinced by the $70,000 sticker price ($60k, if you count the tax credits). CEO Elon Musk is definitely aware of that particular concern, and stated tonight at D11 that there’s a very good chance we’ll see Teslas in three years for half the price — and 20 percent smaller, to boot. Speaking with Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg, Musk mentioned he started the company with a three-step strategy to get to mass market, with the Roadster and Model S being the first two steps. The third step, naturally, would be to offer options that are more affordable: according to Musk, “I think every major product needs at least three iterations to get to the mass market — I know cellphones have had much more than that.” While we wait for 2016-17, we’ll start saving some of our pennies, but fortunately we may not have to pinch all of them. Comments

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Musk: $35,000 Teslas might be three years away, will be 20 percent smaller

Gene Therapy May Protect Against Flu

sciencehabit writes “In 2009, a global collaboration of scientists, public health agencies, and companies raced to make a vaccine against a pandemic influenza virus, but most of it wasn’t ready until the pandemic had peaked. Now, researchers have come up with an alternative, faster strategy for when a pandemic influenza virus surfaces: Just squirt genes for the protective antibodies into people’s noses. The method—which borrows ideas from both gene therapy and vaccination, but is neither—protects mice against a wide range of flu viruses in a new study.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Gene Therapy May Protect Against Flu

Facebookers beware: Profile posts can get you job rejections

A new study shows that one in ten people from the ages 16 to 34 have been turned down from potential employment because of something they posted on social media. [Read more]        

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Facebookers beware: Profile posts can get you job rejections

Planetary Resources To Build Crowdfunded Public Space Telescope

kkleiner writes “Planetary Resources, the company that set its sights on mining asteroids, has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $1M to crowdsource the world’s first publicly accessible space telescope. In an interview, co-founder and co-chairman Peter Diamandis stated that the ARKYD 100 telescope is a means of ‘extending the optic nerve of humanity.’ The company hopes that the campaign, which is supported by Richard Branson, Bill Nye the Science Guy, and Seth Green, will make an orbiting telescope available to the public to help schools and museums in their educational efforts to inspire great enthusiasm in space.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Planetary Resources To Build Crowdfunded Public Space Telescope

Researchers build machine that identifies music after hearing only three notes

Can you identify Beethoven’s Sonata No. 9 after hearing a mere three notes? Probably not, but a group of computer scientists and music scholars have built a machine that can do just that. The team — composed of Pablo Rodriguez Zivic, Favio Shifres and Guillermo Cecchi — has developed an algorithm capable of identifying patterns across distinct periods of Western music based on semi-tones and notes. Beyond its musical application, the machine represents tantalizing possibilities for research into disorders that affect speech. For example, current mechanical methods are already capable of recognizing vocal patterns common in the early stages of Parkinson’s , but the trio hopes to utilize their project for even earlier detection. Such an algorithm could also be instrumental in identifying psychiatric conditions that impact the speech centers of the brain. Unfortunately, the lack of a comprehensive database of different types of speech patterns stands in the way of wider implementation. Even so, the team is hopeful that verbal tests might someday be used in place of invasive diagnostic procedures to identify certain illnesses. Filed under: Science , Alt Comments Via: IBM Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

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Researchers build machine that identifies music after hearing only three notes