Category: reader

Scientists discover living power cables made from bacteria

Three years ago, scientists discovered electric currents running through the seabed — but they had no idea what was causing it. But now, researchers from Denmark and the United States believe they have the answer: bacteria that function as living electric cables. In a remarkable case of biological engineering, scientists have confirmed that each tiny section of the bacteria contains a bundle of insulated wires that leads an electric current from one end to the other. More »

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Scientists discover living power cables made from bacteria

All-in-one Sable Complete PC, an Ubuntu-based desktop PC that competes on price and power

OMGUbuntu reviews the new System76 Sable Complete , a $799, expandable, open all-in-one computer that is price-competitive and performance-competitive with iMacs and other all-in-ones. I’ve owned some System76 laptops and have been generally impressed with both the build-quality and the support offered by the company — they’re always a good bet if you want to get a pre-installed GNU/Linux machine. The Sable is a gorgeous looking PC that (on paper at least) is faster, cheaper, more expandable, and better at running Ubuntu than the 2011 iMac I’m writing this article on. More impressively to my mind (and my wallet) is that although System76 are a niché retailer (meaning costs are often higher than those of mass-manufacturers) the all-in-one PC is competitively priced, even without WiFi, a disc drive, or input accessories. Compared against two similarly specc’d machines using other OSes – namely the Vizio and the 2011 iMac – the Sable stands up well. Meet The $799 All-in-One Ubuntu PC from System76 ( via Engadget )

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All-in-one Sable Complete PC, an Ubuntu-based desktop PC that competes on price and power

Australians Urged To Spoof IP Addresses For Better Prices

angry tapir writes “Choice, a prominent Australian consumer advocacy group, has urged Australians to obfuscate their IP address to avoid geo-blocking and use US forwarding addresses to beat high IT prices. Australia is currently in the middle of parliamentary inquiry into the country’s disproportionately high prices for technology. Choice also suggested setting up US iTunes accounts and using surrogate US addresses for forwarding packages from American stores. Choice has noted previously that Australians pay 52 per cent more for digital music downloads on iTunes compared to US users.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Australians Urged To Spoof IP Addresses For Better Prices

New PlayStation 3 Hack May Be One That Sony Can’t Stop

The PlayStation 3 has been around since 2006, and since roughly 2006 hackers have been trying to have their way with it. The system has proven a relatively tough nut to crack, though not an impossible one. The last major rooting incident was back in 2011 . More »

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New PlayStation 3 Hack May Be One That Sony Can’t Stop

The Hobbit Will Use Dolby’s Crazy 64-Speaker Atmos Sound

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is shaping up to be a groundbreaking event for film technology. First, we heard that Director Peter Jackson shot the film at 48 frames-per-second , and now he’s telling us that the film’s sound will be mixed for Dolby’s ultra-intense new Atmos system. More »

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The Hobbit Will Use Dolby’s Crazy 64-Speaker Atmos Sound

Boeing’s New Missile Remotely Disables Computers as It Flies By

This is CHAMP: Boeing’s new missile otherwise known as the Counter-electronics High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project. It automatically disables PCs and other electronic devices as it soars through the skies, using a burst of powerful radio waves—and it was successfully tested last week . More »

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Boeing’s New Missile Remotely Disables Computers as It Flies By

Increasing Wireless Network Speed By 1000% By Replacing Packets With Algebra

MrSeb writes “A team of researchers from MIT, Caltech, Harvard, and other universities in Europe, have devised a way of boosting the performance of wireless networks by up to 10 times — without increasing transmission power, adding more base stations, or using more wireless spectrum. The researchers’ creation, coded TCP, is a novel way of transmitting data so that lost packets don’t result in higher latency or re-sent data. With coded TCP, blocks of packets are clumped together and then transformed into algebraic equations (PDF) that describe the packets. If part of the message is lost, the receiver can solve the equation to derive the missing data. The process of solving the equations is simple and linear, meaning it doesn’t require much processing on behalf of the router/smartphone/laptop. In testing, the coded TCP resulted in some dramatic improvements. MIT found that campus WiFi (2% packet loss) jumped from 1Mbps to 16Mbps. On a fast-moving train (5% packet loss), the connection speed jumped from 0.5Mbps to 13.5Mbps. Moving forward, coded TCP is expected to have huge repercussions on the performance of LTE and WiFi networks — and the technology has already been commercially licensed to several hardware makers.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Increasing Wireless Network Speed By 1000% By Replacing Packets With Algebra