Tag: events

Stunning 7,000-Image Satellite Mosaic of African Doesn’t Have a Single Cloud

If you like jigsaws, you’d love to be on the team at the European Space Agency that created this image. Made up of 7, 000 separate files—totalling 32 TB of data—the picture provides a completely cloud-free view of the whole of Africa. Read more…

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Stunning 7,000-Image Satellite Mosaic of African Doesn’t Have a Single Cloud

Google’s Tensor Processing Unit Could Advance Moore’s Law 7 Years Into The Future

An anonymous reader writes from a report via PCWorld: Google says its Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) advances machine learning capability by a factor of three generations. “TPUs deliver an order of magnitude higher performance per watt than all commercially available GPUs and FPGA, ” said Google CEO Sundar Pichai during the company’s I/O developer conference on Wednesday. The chips powered the AlphaGo computer that beat Lee Sedol, world champion of the game called Go. “We’ve been running TPUs inside our data centers for more than a year, and have found them to deliver an order of magnitude better-optimized performance per watt for machine learning. This is roughly equivalent to fast-forwarding technology about seven years into the future (three generations of Moore’s Law), ” said Google’s blog post. “TPU is tailored to machine learning applications, allowing the chip to be more tolerant of reduced computational precision, which means it requires fewer transistors per operation. Because of this, we can squeeze more operations per second into the silicon, use more sophisticated and powerful machine learning models, and apply these models more quickly, so users get more intelligent results more rapidly.” The chip is called the Tensor Processing Unit because it underpins TensorFlow, the software engine that powers its deep learning services under an open-source license. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Google’s Tensor Processing Unit Could Advance Moore’s Law 7 Years Into The Future

New 3D Printer Draws in Midair Like Magic

Lasers and metal were part of 3D printing for decades before the machines became affordable for personal use. But researchers at Harvard are demonstrating a new technique by which 3D metal structures can be printed in midair , without the need for anything supporting them. Read more…

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New 3D Printer Draws in Midair Like Magic

Metro Engineers Unearth 10,000 Square Feet of Ruins Beneath Rome

If you build a new Metro line in Rome, you have to worry about more than just engineering. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the construction team working on the Metro C, which will run through the center of the city, has now unearthed a huge suite of ancient barracks. Read more…

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Metro Engineers Unearth 10,000 Square Feet of Ruins Beneath Rome

Divers Discover an Ancient Roman Treasure Trove Inside an Untouched Shipwreck

More than 1, 600 years ago, a Roman ship full of carved statues, bronze lamps, and loads of coins was lost at sea. Just recently a group of divers stumbled upon the wreckage—and what they found is magnificent. Read more…

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Divers Discover an Ancient Roman Treasure Trove Inside an Untouched Shipwreck

Mac Users Reporting Widespread System Freezes With OS X El Capitan 10.11.4 Update

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Mac Rumors: A large number of MacBook Pro owners running OS X El Capitan are reporting widespread system freezes since installing the 10.11.4 update to Apple’s Mac OS. The problem appears to be concentrated on 13-inch Retina MacBook Pros (Early 2015) running 10.11.4. Users report that their system becomes totally unresponsive at seemingly random times, with no way to regain access to their Mac other than to force a hard reboot. The issue was initially reported by MacRumors forum member Antonnn on March 25, four days after Apple released what is the third update to the Mac OS. In Antonnn’s case, the freezes have been occurring “about once a week, ” first when browsing in Safari, but then also during the use of other Mac apps, including Adobe Photoshop and several third-party browsers. The freeze seems to affect not only the screen and mouse cursor but also the Mac’s Force Touch trackpad, which completely loses feedback. Apple Support is apparently aware of the issue but have so far offered no concrete solution. Meanwhile, some users have resorted to downgrading their system to 10.11.3 by restoring from a Time Machine backup or performing a clean install. Hundreds of others have posted to a dedicated thread discussing the issue. Bill Mattheis posted a video on YouTube of the freezing he has experienced on his MacBook Pro. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Mac Users Reporting Widespread System Freezes With OS X El Capitan 10.11.4 Update

Dung Beetles Navigate by Storing Star Maps in Their Tiny Brains

Dung beetles have this really neat trick by which they’re able to use the positions of the stars to orient themselves along a straight line, making them the only known animal to use the Milky Way for navigation. Exactly how they do this has remained a mystery—until now. Read more…

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Dung Beetles Navigate by Storing Star Maps in Their Tiny Brains