While Tron-Club sounds more like a weekly meeting of Tron enthusiasts who enjoy dressing up in unitards and making whooshing sounds as they pretend to ride invisible Lightcycles, it’s actually a service that sends circuits to your home. Why? Because you should learn electronics, that’s why. As hardware becomes easier to build and understand, programmers are finding themselves at… Read More
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Tron-Club Sends Circuits To Your Home In Jolly Packages
It’s supposed to be easier to email Congresspeople than it is to pick up the phone, but that’s not always how it works in practice. Just ask anyone who has navigated convoluted web forms just to voice opposition to a bill , for starters. You won’t have to put up with those technical hurdles after today, though. The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s new Democracy.io site helps you email House and Senate representatives without having to dig around their sites. You can even email all of your politicians at once, if there’s a concern that stretches across both legislative branches. There’s no guarantees that officials will listen when you fire off your messages, but you’ll at least get to say that you exercised your civic responsibility. [Image credit: TTarasiuk, Flickr ] Filed under: Internet Comments Via: EFF Source: Democracy.io
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Emailing your members of Congress just got much easier
Graphene seems to be the new millennium’s wonder material: it can be used to build more powerful processors , more efficient solar cells, better sounding headphones and, apparently, can even be deep-fried to create long-lasting batteries. Now, researchers at Rice University think that a “3D” variant of the material could change the way we cool our gadgets. Normal graphene is already a pretty good heat conductor, but it has limitations–heat moves easily across the surface of stacked graphene, but not so well across the material’s multiple layers. That problem, however, can be solved: according to simulations at Rice, creating 3D structures of white graphene with boron nitrade nanotubes can overcome these thermal limitations, allowing for unimpeded heat transfer in all directions. In laymen’s terms, that all means that this research could eventually lead to new, smaller, more efficient thermal solutions–making it possible for us to cool smaller and more powerful electronics in the future. Sounds good to me. [Image Credit: Sharsavari, Rice University] Filed under: Science Comments Via: Eureka Alert Source: ACS Publications
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‘3D’ white graphene could revolutionize gadget cooling
After restarting to run at higher power than ever , the Large Hadron Collider has made its first proper discovery. Today, a team of scientists announced that they’ve found a new class of sub-atomic particles known as pentaquarks. Read more…
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The LHC Has Discovered a New Sub-Atomic Particle Called a Pentaquark
You knew T-Mobile wasn’t going to let Sprint’s sweet family plan go unanswered, didn’t you? Sure enough, the magenta network has trotted out an upgraded Simple Choice family plan that gives two people unlimited calling, text and 10GB of full-speed data (each, not total) for the same $100 that Sprint is asking. That’s not as alluring if you regularly consume gigs upon gigs of internet content (Sprint’s data is also unlimited), but T-Mobile is also charging just $20 for every additional line instead of Sprint’s $40. If you have phone-toting kids, that could add up. This is also cheaper than what you’d get at AT&T or Verizon, where you’re looking at $140 or more to give a family of four 10GB of shared data. You’ll have to wait a day (until July 15th) to change plans if you’re already a T-Mo family subscriber, but it’s probably worth the short wait. Just don’t tell Marcelo Claure that. Filed under: Cellphones , Wireless , Mobile , T-Mobile Comments Source: T-Mobile Newsroom
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T-Mobile’s latest family plan gives everyone 10GB of full-speed data
About half of Texans are concerned about Jade Helm 15 , this week’s federal military exercise across the American southwest. Many conspiracy theories advanced by right-wing groups have driven these concerns. Read the rest
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Texans brace for Jade Helm 15, massive federal military exercise
You’ll frequently hear law enforcement complain that it can’t break the full-drive encryption in newer smartphone operating systems, but how often does the police run into that problem, really? Thanks to a US Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, you now have a better idea. The Manhattan District Attorney’s office has revealed that, out of the 92 cases where an iPhone with iOS 8 has been involved so far, the cops have been locked out 74 times. District Attorney Cyrus Vance portrays this as proof that officers need backdoors or other forms of guaranteed access, noting that there’s at least one case (in Illinois) where evidence from a victim’s iPhone led to a conviction. Police shouldn’t simply be told that there’s “nothing [they] can do, ” he says. Context is everything, however, and this isn’t quite as dire a situation as Vance made it out to be. The Manhattan DA typically handles 100, 000 cases a year — 0.0007 percent is a drop in the bucket. Moreover, there’s no records showing whether or not the encryption actually stopped the investigation cold. It’s possible that the security merely forced officers to rely on other forms of evidence. While there’s still a concern that clever criminals will take advantage of encryption, there’s also no data showing that there would be enough arrests to justify the reduced privacy. [Image credit: Shutterstock] Filed under: Cellphones , Mobile , Apple Comments Source: Wired
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iPhone encryption has locked out Manhattan cops just 74 times
We really, really hope you didn’t have to take a United Airlines flight this morning. The air carrier temporarily grounded all its flights due to a networking glitch that created “automation issues” across its fleet. United started returning things to normal around 9:20AM Eastern (initially for regional carriers), but not before it created serious chaos — there are reports of staff having to write boarding passes and baggage tickets , not to mention flight delays that will likely continue throughout the day. It’s not yet clear what exactly is at fault. However, this is the second time in as many months that the airline has had to bring everything to a screeching halt due to a network failure. That doesn’t mean that you’re looking at a systemic flaw, but it definitely underscores the importance of reliable transportation tech. [Image credit: Shutterstock] Filed under: Transportation , Networking Comments Via: NBC News Source: FAA
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United grounds all its flights due to a network glitch
If you’ve been looking forward to the day when you can watch Adam Sandler offend the Native American population from the comfort of your own home, pay attention: Netflix just announced release dates for its first four original feature films. You’ll be able to watch Sandler’s controversial contribution , The Ridiculous Six , on December 11th, exclusively on Netflix . Not a Happy Madison fan? Don’t worry: Netflix is actually kicking off its film line up two months earlier with Beasts of No Nation , on October 16th–a war drama about a child soldier caught up in an African civil war. That film is slated for a simultaneous theater release, despite threats from major theater chains to boycott Netflix films . Fans looking for something less cerebral will have to wait until March 2016, when Pee-Wee’s Big Holiday hits the streaming service. Not all of the films have a hard release date. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend is still only listed for release sometime in the first quarter of 2016–but when it does arrive, it’ll launch alongside an IMAX release and theatrical screenings in China. Filed under: Home Entertainment , HD Comments Source: Netflix
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Netflix’s first original feature film will debut on October 16th
Facebook is stepping up its commitment to renewable energy today. While announcing a new data center in Fort Worth (above), which happens to be entirely powered by wind energy, the social network also set a new goal of having 50 percent of its data centers relying on renewables by the end of 2018. That follows an earlier self-imposed goal to have 25 percent of its data centers powered by clean energy come the end of this year. Naturally, Facebook plans to have all of its operations powered by renewable energy eventually. It’s also working together with Greenpeace — which took today’s announcement as a chance to shame Amazon for its data center energy usage — to ensure that it’s exploring new energy options properly. Facebook teamed up with Citi Energy, Starwood Energy, and Alterra Power to bring a 17, 000 acre wind farm online for its new Fort Worth data hub, which should deliver around 200 MW of energy to Texas. Facebook plans to get that new data center online by the end of 2016. Filed under: Networking , Internet , Facebook Comments Source: Facebook
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Facebook says renewables will power 50% of its data centers by 2018