Tag: facebook

In 26 Hours, Sick Newborns Go From Genome Scan To Diagnosis

the_newsbeagle writes: Parsing the first human genome took a decade, but times have changed. Now, within 26 hours, doctors can scan a sick baby’s entire genome and analyze the resulting list of mutations to produce a diagnosis. Since genetic diseases are the top cause of death for infants (abstract), rapidly diagnosing a rare genetic disease can be life-saving. The 26-hour pipeline results from automated technologies that handle everything from the genome sequencing to the diagnosis, says the doctor involved: “We want to take humans out of the equation, because we’re the bottleneck.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

View article:
In 26 Hours, Sick Newborns Go From Genome Scan To Diagnosis

"E-mailable" House Snaps Together Without Nails

MikeChino writes: Your next house could snap together like a jigsaw puzzle without the use of any power tools. Clemson University students designed and built Indigo Pine, a carbon-neutral house that exists largely as a set of digital files that can be e-mailed to a wood shop anywhere in the world, CNC cut, and then assembled on-site in a matter of days. “Indigo Pine has global application, ” says the Clemson team. “Because the house exists largely as a set of digital files, the plans can be sent anywhere in the world, constructed using local materials, adapted to the site, and influenced by local culture.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

See original article:
"E-mailable" House Snaps Together Without Nails

Open-Source Doom 3 Advances With EAX Audio, 64-bit ARM/x86 Support

An anonymous reader writes: Dhewm3, one of the leading implementations of the Doom 3 engine built off the open-source id Tech 4 engine, has released a new version of the GPL-licensed engine that takes Doom 3 far beyond where it was left off by id Software. The newest code has full SDL support, OpenAL + OpenAL EFX for audio, 64-bit x86/ARM support, better support for widescreen resolutions, and CMake build system support on Linux/Windows/OSX/FreeBSD. This new open-source code can be downloaded from Dhewm3 on GitHub but continues to depend upon the retail Doom 3 game assets. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

See more here:
Open-Source Doom 3 Advances With EAX Audio, 64-bit ARM/x86 Support

See the Sketches J.R.R. Tolkien Used To Build Middle-Earth

Esther Schindler writes: In addition to writing the story of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien drew it. The maps and sketches he made while drafting it “informed his storytelling, allowing him to test narrative ideas and illustrate scenes he needed to capture in words, ” reports Ethan Gilsdorf at Wired. “For Tolkien, the art of writing and the art of drawing were inextricably intertwined.” It’s all coming out in a new book, but here we get a sneak preview, along with several cool observations, such as: “If Tolkien’s nerdy use of graph paper feels like a secret message to future Dungeons & Dragons players, then so does his ‘Plan of Shelob’s lair.’ Tolkien’s map of tunnels stocked with nasties—here, a spider named Shelob—would be right at home in any Dungeon Master’s campaign notes. He even marks the place for a classic dungeon crawl feature: ‘trap.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

View the original here:
See the Sketches J.R.R. Tolkien Used To Build Middle-Earth

World’s First 5G Field Trial Delivers Speeds of 3.6Gbps Using Sub-6GHz

Mark.JUK writes: Global Chinese ICT firm Huawei and Japanese mobile giant NTT DOCOMO today claim to have conducted the world’s first large-scale field trial of future 5th generation (5G) mobile broadband technology, which was able to deliver a peak speed of 3.6Gbps (Gigabits per second). Previous trials have used significantly higher frequency bands (e.g. 20-80GHz), which struggle with coverage and penetration through physical objects. By comparison Huawei’s network operates in the sub-6GHz frequency band and made use of several new technologies, such as Multi-User MIMO (concurrent connectivity of 24 user devices in the macro-cell environment), Sparse Code Multiple Access (SCMA) and Filtered OFDM (F-OFDM). Assuming all goes well then Huawei hopes to begin a proper pilot in 2018, with interoperability testing being completed during 2019 and then a commercial launch to follow in 2020. But of course they’re not the only team trying to develop a 5G solution. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Read More:
World’s First 5G Field Trial Delivers Speeds of 3.6Gbps Using Sub-6GHz

Amazon launches “Etsy-killer” Handmade at Amazon, a marketplace for handmade goods

Online retail giant Amazon is launching a marketplace for handcrafted goods: Handmade at Amazon . It’s “an arts-and-crafts bazaar online that squarely takes aim at a niche but growing market dominated by the Brooklyn-based Etsy,” as the New York Times puts it . Handmade at Amazon went live early Thursday more than 80,000 items from roughly 5,000 sellers in 60 countries around the world. Crafters can sell their crocheted pants or 3D-printed succulent cozies on the new Amazon marketplace, just as they’ve been able to for years at Etsy, a $2bn-a-year business. Amazon’s business is a lot bigger: $75 billion in annual sales. And Amazon’s is growing, while some recent changes at Etsy have been followed by challenged growth. Is this the end of Etsy? Amazon will start out with six categories — home, jewelry, artwork, stationery and party supplies, kitchen and dining, and baby — Mr. Faricy said. One distinct advantage Amazon will bring is reach. Its 285 million active customer accounts dwarf Etsy’s 22 million, giving artisans access to far more traffic and potential customers. And Amazon is also offering logistical backing to its sellers, allowing them to ship products, in lots, to one of the company’s many fulfillment centers around the country. Amazon will then ship out those products as part of its Prime service, which offers members unlimited free shipping for an annual fee. Most sellers are likely to give Amazon a bigger cut of their sales for that reach, however. Etsy charges a 20-cent fee for each item a seller lists on its site and takes a 3.5 percent cut of the sales. For now, Amazon will charge no listing fee but take 12 percent of sales, which it says covers all costs, including payment processing, marketing and fraud protection. ” Amazon Challenges Etsy With Strictly Handmade Marketplace ” [nytimes]

View post:
Amazon launches “Etsy-killer” Handmade at Amazon, a marketplace for handmade goods

This video proves China has the most insane traffic jams on Earth

“This is what happens when people come back from vacation in China and try to get into Beijing. And you thought your puny traffic jams were crazy.” (more…)

Read More:
This video proves China has the most insane traffic jams on Earth

Voodoo Manufacturing Taps The Power Of 3D Printing To Make Things On Demand

 Four ex-Makerbot employees, Max Friefled, Oliver Ortlieb, Patrick Deem, and Jonathan Schwartz, have come together to create a Brooklyn-based rapid manufacturing system using – what else? – Makerbots. The group, called Voodoo Manufacturing raised $300, 000 to build their 3D printing shop and are currently profitable, a testament to the power of making things quickly. The company has… Read More

Excerpt from:
Voodoo Manufacturing Taps The Power Of 3D Printing To Make Things On Demand

Japan Display Squeezes 8K Resolution Into 17-inch LCD, Cracks 510 PPI At 120Hz

MojoKid writes: By any metric, 8K is an incredibly high resolution. In fact, given that most HD content is still published in 1080p, the same could be said about 4K. 4K packs in four times the pixels of 1080p, while 8K takes that and multiplies it by four once again; we’re talking 33, 177, 600 pixels. We’ve become accustomed to our smartphones having super-high ppi (pixels-per-inch); 5.5-inch 1080p phones are 401 ppi, which is well past the point that humans are able to differentiate individual pixels. Understanding that highlights just how impressive Japan Display’s (JDI) monitor is, as it clocks in at 510 ppi in a 17-inch panel. Other specs include a 2000:1 contrast ratio, a brightness of 500cd/m2, and a 176 degree viewing angle. While the fact that the company achieved 8K resolution in such a small form-factor is impressive in itself, also impressive is the fact that it has a refresh rate of 120Hz. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

See the original article here:
Japan Display Squeezes 8K Resolution Into 17-inch LCD, Cracks 510 PPI At 120Hz

Vostochny Launch Building Built To the Wrong Size

schwit1 writes: The Russians have just discovered that their Soyuz 2 rocket does not fit in the building just finished at their new spaceport at Vostochny: “The cutting-edge facility was meant be ready for launches of Soyuz-2 rockets in December, but an unidentified space agency told the TASS news agency late Thursday that the rocket would not fit inside the assembly building where its parts are stacked and tested before launch. The building ‘has been designed for a different modification of the Soyuz rocket, ‘ the source said, according to news website Medusa, which picked up the story from TASS.” The rocket had just been delivered to Vostochny for assembly, so this report, though unconfirmed at this time, fits well with current events. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Read the article:
Vostochny Launch Building Built To the Wrong Size