A joint project involving NASA and MIT researchers had demonstrated technology that could supply a lunar colony with broadband via lasers (“faster Internet access than many U.S. homes get”) and has already demonstrated its worth in communications with spacecraft. From ComputerWorld’s article: “The Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD) kicked off last September with the launch of NASA’s LADEE (Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer), a research satellite now orbiting the moon. NASA built a laser communications module into LADEE for use in the high-speed wireless experiment. LLCD has already proved itself, transmitting data from LADEE to Earth at 622Mbps (bits per second) and in the other direction at 19.44Mbps, according to MIT. It beat the fastest-ever radio communication to the moon by a factor of 4, 800.” Communicating at such distances means overcoming various challenges; one of the biggest is the variability in Earth’s atmosphere. The LLCD doesn’t try to power through the atmosphere at only one spot, therefore, but uses four separate beams in the New Mexico desert, each aimed “through a different column of air, where the light-bending effects of the atmosphere are slightly different. That increases the chance that at least one of the beams will reach the receiver on the LADEE. Test results have been promising, according to MIT, with the 384, 633-kilometer optical link providing error-free performance in both darkness and bright sunlight, through partly transparent thin clouds, and through atmospheric turbulence that affected signal power.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Quad Lasers Deliver Fast, Earth-Based Internet To the Moon
MojoKid writes “Benchmarks are serious business. Buying decisions are often made based on how well a product scores, which is why the press and analysts spend so much time putting new gadgets through their paces. However, benchmarks are only meaningful when there’s a level playing field, and when companies try to ‘game’ the business of benchmarking, it’s not only a form of cheating, it also bamboozles potential buyers who (rightfully) assume the numbers are supposed mean something. 3D graphics benchmark software developer Futuremark just ‘delisted’ a bunch of devices from its 3DMark benchmark results database because it suspects foul play is at hand. Of the devices listed, it appears Samsung and HTC in particular are indirectly being accused of cheating 3DMark for mobile devices. Delisted devices are stripped of their rank and scores. Futuremark didn’t elaborate on which specific rule(s) these devices broke, but a look at the company’s benchmarking policies reveals that hardware makers aren’t allowed to make optimizations specific to 3DMark, nor are platforms allowed to detect the launch of the benchmark executable unless it’s needed to enable multi-GPU and/or there’s a known conflict that would prevent it from running.” Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
Be honest: when was the last time you opened your iPhone’s Stocks app? Yeah, us neither. Everyone has their own habits when it comes to iOS apps, and fortunately, YouTube user macmixing has posted a wonderful little hack that lets you get rid of any offending stock apps from your home screen— without actually deleting them altogether. Read more… 
vikingpower writes “Today, at 14:00 Western European Time (9:00 am Eastern), Professor Mark Post of Maastricht University ( the Netherlands ) will present a world first: he will cook and serve a burger made from Cultured Beef in front of an invited audience in London. The event will include a brief explanation of the science behind the burger. You can witch the event live, online. The project’s fact sheet is to be found here (pdf).”e Read more of this story at Slashdot.