Researchers at the University of Tokyo have dusted off some E Ink technology originally developed back in the 1970s to create a new kind of easily erasable whiteboard technology that can be written on using magnetic pens instead of dry-erase markers. Read more…
Originally posted here:
New E Ink Whiteboards Work Like Grownup Magna Doodles
New submitter dfsmith writes: Apparently the “Flash Crash” of the stock market in May 2010 was perpetrated by a futures trader in the UK. The US Justice Department alleges that he used a “dynamic layering scheme” of large-volume sell orders to confuse other buyers, hence winning big in his futures trades. “By allegedly placing multiple, simultaneous, large-volume sell orders at different price points—a technique known as ‘layering’—Sarao created the appearance of substantial supply in the market. As part of the scheme, Sarao allegedly modified these orders frequently so that they remained close to the market price, and typically canceled the orders without executing them. When prices fell as a result of this activity, Sarao allegedly sold futures contracts only to buy them back at a lower price. Conversely, when the market moved back upward as the market activity ceased, Sarao allegedly bought contracts only to sell them at a higher price.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Read more here:
Futures Trader Arrested For Causing 2010 ‘Flash Crash’
The rhythmic beating of these clumps is mesmeric—but it could be life-saving, too. These are tiny 3D printed versions of hearts and lungs, which work just like the real thing. Read more…
See the original post:
These 3D Printed Organs Beat Just Like Your Heart
In 2010, divers rescued some amazingly old alcohol from a shipwreck off the coast of Finland. They’ve already published some detailed tasting notes about the beer —but now they’ve carried out an in-depth analysis of the champagne. Read more…
Taken from:
This Is What 170-Year-Old Champagne From a Shipwreck Tasted Like
Large in physical size, not in storage capacity. Computer enthusiast Christopher Parish modified a vintage “DEC RL02” drive—as big as a decent PC case—from the 70s so it can connect to modern PCs via USB. Technically this might be the largest and the heaviest USB storage device in the world. Read more…
Read the original post:
Now That’s A Large USB Drive
agent elevator writes Gehan Amaratunga and a group of engineers in England noted that the Guglielmo Marconi’s famous British patent application from 1900 had an interesting and little noticed detail. It depicted a transmitter linked to an antenna connected to a coil, which had one end dangling while the RF signal was fed to the middle of the coil. That detail inspired them to develop a way to reduce the size of a GHz antenna without significant transmission loss by using dielectrics as the radio wave emitting material instead of conductors. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Excerpt from:
Old Marconi Patent Inspires Tiny New Gigahertz Antenna
An anonymous reader writes Japan’s Riken research institute has suggested a new idea for dealing with space junk. They say a fiber optic laser mounted onto the International Space Station could blast debris out of the sky. From the article: “To combat the increasingly dense layer of dead satellites and miscellaneous space debris that are enshrouding our planet, no idea — nets, lassos, even ballistic gas clouds — seems too far-fetched to avoid. Now, an international team of researchers led by Japan’s Riken research institute has put forward what may be the most ambitious plan to date. They propose blasting an estimated 3, 000 tons of space junk out of orbit with a fiber optic laser mounted on the International Space Station.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
View article:
ISS Could Be Fitted With Lasers To Shoot Down Space Junk
As GameSpot reports, Valve has implemented a policy that reduces the privileges of Steam users unless those users have spent $5 through the service. Along the same lines as suggestions to limit spam by imposing a small fee on emails, the move is intended to reduce resource abuse as a business model. From the article: “Malicious users often operate in the community on accounts which have not spent any money, reducing the individual risk of performing the actions they do, ” Valve said. “One of the best pieces of information we can compare between regular users and malicious users are their spending habits as typically the accounts being used have no investment in their longevity. Due to this being a common scenario we have decided to restrict certain community features until an account has met or exceeded $5.00 USD in Steam.” Restricted actions include sending invites, opening group chats, and taking part in the Steam marketplace. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
More:
Whoah, Small Spender! Steam Sets Limits For Users Who Spend Less Than $5
MojoKid writes It has been a tremendous week for Star Wars fans. First we got to see Han Solo and Chewbacca make an emotional reappearance in the newest Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer (the second official trailer Disney has put out). Now, Electronic Arts is treating us to a visual smorgasbord of cinema-quality footage showing the forthcoming Star Wars Battlefront game. Battlefront will support to up 40 players divided between the Rebel Alliance and Galactic Empire, all shooting it out and playing with some of the coolest Star Wars vehicles and weapons around. We’re talking jetpacks, AT-AT war machines, AT-STs, TIE Fighters, X-wings, and more. Though the trailer allegedly shows actually “game engine footage, ” it’s questionable whether or not it’s actual gameplay or just pre-rendered cut scenes from the game engine. Either way, it’s still pretty impressive. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Originally posted here:
Star Wars Battlefront Game Trailer Is So Realistic It Looks Like Movie Footage
minstrelmike writes with this analysis from Nicholas Diakopoulos of the Washington Post: At the core of Uber’s wild success and market valuation of over $41 billion is its data and algorithmically fueled approach to matching supply and demand for cars. It’s classic economics, supposedly….but is Uber’s surge pricing algorithm really doing what they claim? Do surge prices really get more cars on the road? My analysis suggests that rather than motivating a fresh supply of drivers, surge pricing instead re-distributes drivers already on the road. Adds minstrelmike: The writer goes on to analyze 4 weeks of pricing info from 5 areas in D.C. and plotted prices versus wait times. “Price surging can work in any of three ways: by reducing demand for cars (less people want a car for a higher price), by creating new supply (providing an incentive for new drivers to hit the roads), or by shifting supply (drivers) to areas of higher demand.” It moves current drivers from one side of town to the other. It does not put new drivers on the road. It can’t because the prices change every 3-5 minutes.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Visit site:
How Uber Surge Pricing Really Works