‘Phenomenal’ 2,300-Year-Old Bark Shield Found In Leicestershire

pgmrdlm shares a report from The Guardian: An “astonishing and unparalleled” 2, 300-year-old shield made of tree bark has been discovered in Leicestershire, the only example of its kind ever found in Europe. The shield was discovered in 2015 by archaeologists from the University of Leicester Archaeological Service in a site close to the River Soar….
G2Reader / kenmay /

MIDI Association Explains ‘Capability Inquiry’ Features In MIDI 2.0

Friday the MIDI Association published an introduction to MIDI 2.0, describing updates to the already-evolving 36-year-old standard, including MIDI-CI, Profiles and Property Exchange: MIDI 2.0 updates MIDI with new auto-configuration, extended resolution, increased expressiveness, and tighter timing — all while maintaining a high priority on backwa…
G2Reader / kenmay /

Replacing JavaScript: How eBay Made a Web App 50x Faster With WebAssembly

“Online marketplace eBay has revealed how it boosted performance of a demanding web app by 50x using WebAssembly, ” reports TechRepublic: The “astonishing” speed-up after switching from a JavaScript-based to a largely WebAssembly-based web app was detailed by the eBay engineering team, who say the performance boost helped make it possible to build…
G2Reader / kenmay /

In A World First, Scientists Change Snail’s Shell-Coiling Direction With CRISPR

“Most snails are ‘righties’. Now scientists have found genes that can change the shell coiling direction, ” writes the New York Times. ( Non-paywalled version here ) Suren Enfiajyan shares their report: Studying these snails offers clues to the evolution of body plans in many animals. It also could be important for understanding why up to 10 perc…
G2Reader / kenmay /