Tech Today w/ Ken May

The U.S. vs. Japan Giant Robot Duel Finally Happened, and These Guys Aren’t Messing Around

We’ve been waiting for this international giant robot fight since 2015 , and this month it finally happened. To refresh your memory, American robotics firm MegaBots challenged Japan’s Suidobashi Heavy Industries to a mecha-vs.-mecha fight, the challenge was accepted, and trash-talking ensued. To be honest, I was a little worried that this duel was going to suck. I figured there’s no way these guys would actually deploy giant chainsaw swords and fire projectiles that could do any kind of actual damage, and I also thought that a concern for safety would limit the fighting tactics they’d use. I was wrong. These guys aren’t messing around. And during the two duels, the fear of the pilots inside the cockpits is palpable. I don’t want to spoil anything, and I’ve cut the video into the two duels. Here’s the first, which is practically over before it begins: Here’s the second, which is filled with some surprises and OH SHIT moments: I eagerly await the rematch!

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The U.S. vs. Japan Giant Robot Duel Finally Happened, and These Guys Aren’t Messing Around

Air Force General: “We’d be dumb not to” fly on SpaceX’s reusable rockets

Enlarge / SpaceX launches the Air Force’s X-38B space plane in September, 2017. (credit: SpaceX) The increasingly warm relationship between the US Air Force and the rocket company SpaceX appears to be approaching full-on bromance levels. The latest words of lavish praise for SpaceX have come from Gen. John W. Raymond, commander of Air Force Space Command, which oversees launch operations for the US military and national security sectors. In an interview with Bloomberg, Raymond said the potential savings from reusable rockets like the Falcon 9 booster now being flown and reflown by SpaceX are irresistible. “The market’s going to go that way. We’d be dumb not to,” he said. “What we have to do is make sure we do it smartly.” It would be “absolutely foolish” to not begin using them, Raymond said. Before the military can fly its satellites and other payloads on a previously flown booster, the US military has to certify that SpaceX’s “flight proven” boosters are reliable enough. That process already appears to be underway. “I don’t know how far down the road we’ve gotten, but I am completely committed to launching on a reused rocket, a previously flown rocket, and making sure that we have the processes in place to be able to make sure that we can do that safely,” Raymond told Bloomberg. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Researchers craft an LED just two atoms thick

Enlarge / Hexagonal boron nitride, one of the materials used here. (credit: Wikimedia Commons ) Modern computers are, in many ways, limited by their energy consumption and cooling requirements. Some of that comes from the process of performing calculations. But often, the majority of energy use comes from simply getting data to the point where calculations are ready to be performed. Memory, storage, data transfer systems, and more all create power draws that, collectively, typically end up using more power than the processor itself. Light-based communications offers the possibility of dropping power consumption while boosting the speed of connections. In most cases, designs have focused on situations where a single external laser supplies the light, which is divided and sent to the parts of the system that need it. But a new paper in Nature Nanotechnology suggests an alternate possibility: individual light sources on the chip itself. To demonstrate this possibility, the team put together an LED just two atoms thick and integrated it with a silicon chip. Better still, the same material can act as a photodetector, providing a way of building all the needed hardware using a single process. Atomic The work relied on two different atomically thin materials. These materials consist of a planar sheet of atoms chemically linked to each other. While their study was pioneered using graphene, a sheet of carbon atoms, they developed a variety of other materials with similar structures. The materials being used here are molybdenum ditelluride (MoTe 2 ), a semiconductor, and hexagonal boron nitride. Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Researchers craft an LED just two atoms thick

21 years later, original developer works to fix 16-bit Sonic

The announcement video for Jon Burt’s Sonic 3D Blast: Director’s Cut At this point, retro-game lovers are well used to fan-made “hacks” of classic titles that can do anything from adding modern players to Tecmo Bowl to adding an egg-throwing Yoshi to Sonic the Hedgehog 2 . What we can’t recall seeing before, though, is the original developer of a decades-old console game returning to fix it via a downloadable, emulator-friendly patch. That’s exactly what Traveller’s Tales founder Jon Burton is planning for Sonic 3D Blast . Burton announced via video that he’s going to make a “Director’s Cut” that fixes gameplay problems and adds new features to the original Genesis and Saturn title. Burton’s roadmap includes fixing the game’s infamous slippery momentum (which often makes Sonic feel like he’s running around on ice), enabling a pre-existing hidden-level editor, adding Super Sonic, adding an in-game save system, and more. A follow-up video shows more specifically how Burton is removing many of the control and gameplay frustrations that helped lead to middling reviews for the 1996 release (and subsequent ports to more modern platforms). Burt notes explicitly that this is “something I’m doing on my own time, for fun, and not connected to Sega or anyone else,” so it’s hard to call this an “official” remastering of the original game. That said, Burton’s history with the title and his pedigree with Traveller’s Tales set this effort apart from other unofficial retro-game mods. And Sega’s wholesale embrace of 16-bit game modding via Steam is practically a stamp of support for this kind of modern rejiggering of classic titles. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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21 years later, original developer works to fix 16-bit Sonic

In 3-1 vote, LA Police Commission approves drones for LAPD

Enlarge (credit: Peter Linehan / Flickr ) The Los Angeles Police Department, one of the nation’s largest municipal police forces, approved a one-year pilot program for drones—making it the largest city in the nation to undertake such an evaluation. According to the Los Angeles Times , the LA Police Commission approved a set of policies that limits “their use to a handful of tactical situations, searches or natural disasters.” Each drone flight must also be signed off by a “high-ranking office on a case-by-case basis.” The drones are also not to be weaponized. The decision, which was announced Tuesday, was made despite vociferous protest. Already the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department uses drones, as do other agencies in California , including the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department and the Alameda County Sheriff’s Organization. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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In 3-1 vote, LA Police Commission approves drones for LAPD

‘Drive’ director debuts free streaming service for forgotten movies

Love him or hate him, you can’t deny that Drive and Neon Demon director Nicholas Winding Refn has an astute eye for style in his movies. He’s taking that and launching his own streaming service , dubbed “byNWR.” It’s different from Netflix in that its offerings will be tightly curated by Refn and others. Oh, and it’ll be free. The service describes itself as “an unadulterated expressway for the arts, ” and beta sign-ups are live right now. Per Indiewire , the website further states that “byNWR shares Nicholas WInding Refn’s passion for the rare, the forgotten and the unknown, breathing new life into the culturally intriguing and influential.” Each month will feature a different restored movie (thanks in part to Harvard Film Archive) that fits into a theme that’ll change every quarter. When it launches next February the theme will be “Regional Renegades: Exploitation Gems from the Southern USA, ” and the second will be “Restored and Rediscovered Classics of American Independent Cinema.” Vodzilla elaborates that the website will also offer essays, music and photos in addition to streaming video. Sounds a bit like what Apple wanted to do with Music at first . Want to watch the movies somewhere other than your computer? Apparently there will also be screenings for the restored films as well at select theaters across the globe. byNWR is one of the more niche streaming services we’ve come across, but if you’re a fan of obscure movies from Hollywood’s past, it might be your best place to watch them — all it’s missing is an app. Via: Vodzilla Source: byNWR

Surface Book 2: More cores, more GPU, and more screen

Just over two years ago, Microsoft unveiled its Surface Book hybrid laptop : a tablet with a detachable hinged keyboard base. It was a compelling concept , with Microsoft pulling off some clever tricks. The base contained a battery, boosting the life of the tablet portion substantially, and could optionally contain a discrete GPU, too. A little under a year ago, the Surface Book was partially refreshed: a new base was offered with a bigger battery and a faster GPU. The tablet portion, however, was left unchanged. Today, Microsoft unveiled not only a full refresh of the system—both tablet and base are being updated—but a whole new version of the machine. Surface Book 2 (Microsoft is using numerical version number suffixes here, even after abandoning the practice with the Surface Pro ) will come in two sizes. There’s a 13-inch model, same as before, but this is now paired with a 15-inch version. The broad concept of Surface Book remains the same. The screen half of the “laptop” is in fact a tablet computer, containing the processor, memory, mass storage, and a battery; the “keyboard” half is a larger battery, some expansion ports, and, optionally, a discrete GPU. The systems look essentially the same as the old versions, too, with the 15-inch version looking for all intents and purposes like a scaled-up version of the 13-inch one. Read 15 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Microsoft Has Already Fixed the Wi-Fi Attack Vulnerability; Android Will Be Patched Within Weeks

Microsoft says it has already fixed the problem for customers running supported versions of Windows. From a report: “We have released a security update to address this issue, ” says a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to The Verge. “Customers who apply the update, or have automatic updates enabled, will be protected. We continue to encourage customers to turn on automatic updates to help ensure they are protected.” Microsoft is planning to publish details of the update later today. While it looks like Android and Linux devices are affected by the worst part of the vulnerabilities, allowing attackers to manipulate websites, Google has promised a fix for affected devices “in the coming weeks.” Google’s own Pixel devices will be the first to receive fixes with security patch level of November 6, 2017, but most other handsets are still well behind even the latest updates. Security researchers claim 41 percent of Android devices are vulnerable to an “exceptionally devastating” variant of the Wi-Fi attack that involves manipulating traffic, and it will take time to patch older devices. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Microsoft Has Already Fixed the Wi-Fi Attack Vulnerability; Android Will Be Patched Within Weeks

Outlook for desktops will behave a lot like the mobile app

Outlook on computers can be overwhelming, to put it gently. The interface is loaded with buttons you probably aren’t using, and it generally isn’t as intuitive or fluid as the mobile and web versions . Thankfully, Microsoft knows this — and it’s planning a revamp that could give the email and calendar app a breath of fresh air. Microsoft recently previewed Outlook redesigns for Mac and Windows that are nearly as clean and intuitive as their mobile counterparts. You can still have a customizable “ribbon” at the top, but it’s stripped down and less intimidating to newcomers. The navigation panel (on the left) also takes its cues from Outlook’s mobile apps, making it much easier to switch folders or entire accounts. Mac users may notice the difference the most. This time around, Microsoft is aiming for an “authentically Mac” look instead of shoehorning the Windows interface into a Mac app. This won’t matter much if you’re interested in features above all else, but it could help you adjust if you’re switching from Apple Mail or another Mac-native email program. There’s no mention of when the new Outlook will hit your PC, although it wouldn’t be surprising if Microsoft rolls this into Office 2019’s release next year. Whenever it arrives, it’ll reflect how much Microsoft’s software priorities have changed in the past few years. Where Outlook’s desktop version has largely focused on business users circulating memos and scheduling meetings, it now has to court home users who may just be looking for an app similar to what they have on their phones. Microsoft’s challenge will be to please these relative newcomers without alienating the corporate crowd. Via: MSPowerUser , The Verge Source: Microsoft Ignite (YouTube)

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Outlook for desktops will behave a lot like the mobile app

Netflix could spend $8 billion on content next year

Once again, Netflix’s quarterly earnings report ( PDF ) shows it’s added even more customers (5 million in the US alone), and now boasts more than 115 million subscribers worldwide. The company is now five years into its “original content strategy” that first drew attention with House of Cards , which turned into a string of series including hits like Stranger Things and Orange is the New Black . Of course, with more competition turning up (Amazon, Hulu, CBS All Access and, eventually, Disney), things are getting more expensive, as the company says it will spend “$7-8 billion on content” next year — even if it’s off the hook for 30 Rock . That’s potentially a billion dollars more than what Ted Sarandos predicted in August, and up to two billion more than it spent this year. Those differences also explain why prices are going up on some of its plans , as it continues a push to become more profitable. The company is predicting it will add slightly fewer new customers next quarter than it did last year, although it’s unclear if that’s due to the price changes or simply running out of people who want Netflix but don’t have it yet. The company will broadcast the video from its quarterly earnings call on YouTube at 6 PM ET, if there are any interesting anecdotes, we’ll update this post. Source: Netflix Q3 2017 earnings report (PDF)

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Netflix could spend $8 billion on content next year