Category: reader

The World’s Biggest Fiber LAN Lives at a Nuclear Weapons Research Lab

Sandia National Laboratories is the nation’s premiere nuclear weapons research facility, and for more than 60 years, its researchers have poked and prodded the interiors of atoms to suss out their secrets—a task that has produced mountains of data that the facility’s copper network struggles to contain. But now, even the most remote building’s on Sandia’s campuses have access to the biggest bandwidth modern technology can muster. More »

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The World’s Biggest Fiber LAN Lives at a Nuclear Weapons Research Lab

Sodium-air battery shows potential

Pete Slater With battery technology being critical for so many things, interest in building better batteries just keeps on growing. The recent Tesla Model S testing debacle, explosive laptop batteries , and Boeing battery problems give us hints at how close to the edge engineers operate batteries. Volume, weight, and energy are key. Minimize the first two and maximize the last to obtain energy storage nirvana. Lithium-ion batteries rule the roost at the moment, but as capacities are already on the order of 200Wh/kg, we’re pushing up against their limits—basic chemical reactions provide a fixed amount of energy. The search for alternatives is being pursued by a rapidly growing field of eyebrow-less engineers (just kidding; battery mishaps don’t happen that often ). A recent publication on a sodium-air battery shows promise, but it also demonstrates what a huge amount of work still needs to be done. The key to a battery is a simple chemical reaction that, at its heart, is the exchange of an electron. During the exchange, a certain amount of energy is released, usually in the form of heat. That’s why, when you drop some sodium metal in water, the energy released is enough to cause explosions. The role of the battery is to intercept that electron and release its energy in the form of useful work. Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Sodium-air battery shows potential

“Download this gun”: 3D-printed semi-automatic fires over 600 rounds

The white portion of this AR-15, known as the “lower,” was manufactured using 3D printing. Defense Distributed Cody Wilson, like many of his Texan forebears, is fast-talkin’ and fast-shootin’—but unlike his predecessors in the Lone Star State, he’s got 3D printing technology to further his agenda. Wilson’s non-profit organization, Defense Distributed , released a video this week showing a gun firing off over 600 rounds—illustrating what is likely to be the first wave of semi-automatic and automatic weapons produced by the additive manufacturing process. Last year, his group famously demonstrated that they could use a 3D-printed “lower” for an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle—but the gun failed after six rounds. Now, after some re-tooling, Defense Distributed has shown that it has fixed the design flaws and can seemingly fire for quite awhile. (The AR-15 is the civilian version of the military M16 rifle.) Read 34 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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“Download this gun”: 3D-printed semi-automatic fires over 600 rounds

Bing Maps revamped with ocean topography, updated satellite imagery

Ballmer an Co. have loaded up Bing Maps with yet another batch of images , and though they’re staying quiet about the update’s file size this time, they say it includes 13,799,276 square kilometers of fresh high-res satellite shots and a better view of the ocean floor. Brand-new “straight down” photos give the base map a resolution of 15 meters per pixel, and the introduction of bathymetric imagery changes the ocean’s hue depending on its depth. The refresh even contains fewer clouds, giving users a less obstructed view of Earth. Thanks to additional aerial photos covering 203,271 square kilometers, Microsoft’s map service now covers the entirety of the US and 90 percent of Western Europe with pictures taken from aircraft. Armchair cartographers ready to explore the world remotely can find the revamped visuals already baked into Bing Maps online and within the service’s Windows 8 app. Filed under: Internet , Software , Microsoft Comments Via: TechCrunch Source: Bing Maps Blog

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Bing Maps revamped with ocean topography, updated satellite imagery

Sony’s 4K Movie Streaming Will Work on PS4—At 100GB a Pop

While there’s still little known about Sony’s efforts to pioneer the first 4K movie download service , one thing we can say almost definitely now is that the service will in fact be compatible with its ( supposedly ) upcoming PS4. In an interview with The Verge , Sony President and COO Phil Molyneux almost sort of definitely confirmed that the service would be compatible with the ethereal console by promising that we “will not be disappointed.” Oh, and by the way, a typical 4K movie download will chew up more than 100 GB of bandwidth. More »

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Sony’s 4K Movie Streaming Will Work on PS4—At 100GB a Pop

Bach, played on two pianos at the same time, by Evan Shinners

” deux-al pianos .” The amazing and gifted musician Evan Shinners demonstrates how to play Bach’s double manual keyboard music. Evan’s new album of Bach compositions is available as an MP3 download at Amazon: ” Evan Plays Seven .” (thanks, Joe Sabia !)

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Bach, played on two pianos at the same time, by Evan Shinners

3D? Feh. MIT has already moved on to 4D printing (video)

The bad news: just as much of the world is starting to get excited about the prospects of 3D printing , science is moving on to the world of 4D. The good news: in the future, you might not have to assemble that Ikea chair yourself. “4D printing” is the term cientists are using to refer to a technology that MIT’s Skylar Tibbits talked up during a recent TED appearance. The fourth “d” here is time, referring to an object that, once printed, is capable of changing shape (over time, naturally). “Essentially the printing is nothing new,” Tibbits told the BBC. “It is about what happens after.” So far the concept has been demonstrated with thin strands of plastic, which, once added to water, form into a predetermined shape, using energy from the absorption. Suggested future applications involve furniture, pipes, bikes and buildings. First, however, scientists will have to demonstrate the technology on a larger structure, of course, and they’ll explore the possibility of other energy sources, like heat, sound and vibration. Filed under: Science , Alt Comments Source: BBC

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3D? Feh. MIT has already moved on to 4D printing (video)