10 Years In, Mars Rover Opportunity Suffers From Flash Memory Degradation

astroengine writes Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has been exploring the Martian surface for over a decade — that’s an amazing ten years longer than the 3-month primary mission it began in January 2004. But with its great successes, inevitable age-related issues have surfaced and mission engineers are being challenged by an increasingly troubling bout of “amnesia” triggered by the rover’s flash memory. “The problems started off fairly benign, but now they’ve become more serious — much like an illness, the symptoms were mild, but now with the progression of time things have become more serious, ” Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager John Callas, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., told Discovery News. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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10 Years In, Mars Rover Opportunity Suffers From Flash Memory Degradation

Belize’s "Blue Hole" Reveals Clues To Maya’s Demise

An anonymous reader writes The collapse of the Mayan civilization has been a mystery for decades, but now new research suggests that the blue hole of Belize could provide an answer. Studying minerals from Belize’s famous underwater cave, researchers have discovered that an extreme drought occurred between AD 800 and AD 900, which is when the Mayan civilization collapsed. From the article: “Although the findings aren’t the first to tie a drought to the Mayan culture’s demise, the new results strengthen the case that dry periods were indeed the culprit. That’s because the data come from several spots in a region central to the Mayan heartland, said study co-author André Droxler, an Earth scientist at Rice University.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Belize’s "Blue Hole" Reveals Clues To Maya’s Demise

The Best Command Line Replacements for Bloated Desktop Apps

Command line utilities are often reserved for only the geekiest amongst us, but many of them are actually a lot better than desktop alternatives. In fact, many are easier to use, waste less resources, and often have more keyboard shortcuts. Let’s take a look at a few of the best. Read more…

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The Best Command Line Replacements for Bloated Desktop Apps

Know Your Type: Five Mechanical Keyboards Compared

MojoKid writes As a power user, you notice certain things that the average person might not. One of those is the difference between typing on a sweet mechanical keyboard with luxurious key action, versus pounding away on a run-of-the-mill squishy plank that relies on membrane switches to register your keystrokes. The difference may seem subtle to the uninitiated, though even casual typists can recognize that there’s something inherently superior about a mechanical keyboard. Of course, it’s the mechanical key switches that are responsible for elevating the typing experience. These are better than the rubber domes found in membrane keyboards in a number of ways, including feel, responsiveness, and durability. Mechanical keyboards are growing in popularity, as word is spreading about how good they are. In turn, keyboard manufacturers have responded by feeding more mechanical models into what was once a niche market. If you go out in search of a mechanical keyboard, you’ll now find a mountain of options. This roundup further reinforced something we’ve known for a long time, which is that mechanical keyboards are the superior choice for both gaming and daily typing chores. That doesn’t mean they’re all created equal — there are different key switches to choose from, and features vary from one plank to the next. The choice of key switch type is highly subjective but we can say that Cherry MX key switches are indeed of higher quality than knock-offs like the Kailh switch. That’s not to say Kailh switches are bad, just that you can discern a difference when going from one to the other. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Know Your Type: Five Mechanical Keyboards Compared

Wall.e Restaurant Staffed With Robots Opens in China

Yet another new restaurant with robot servers has opened in China. And the owners seem determined to test Disney’s patience with intellectual property laws. Why? The name of the restaurant is apparently Wall.e — just like the cute little robot worker from the 2008 Pixar film. Read more…

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Wall.e Restaurant Staffed With Robots Opens in China

13,000 Passwords, Usernames Leaked For Major Commerce, Porn Sites

The Daily Dot reports that yesterday a “group claiming affiliation with the loose hacker collective Anonymous released a document containing approximately 13, 000 username-and-password combinations along with credit card numbers and expiration dates.” Most of the sites listed are distinctly NSFW, among other places, but the list includes some of the largest retailers, too, notably Amazon and Wal-Mart. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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13,000 Passwords, Usernames Leaked For Major Commerce, Porn Sites

Crowds (and Pirates) Flock To ‘The Interview’

Rambo Tribble writes: Many of the 300+ theaters showing The Interview on Christmas were rewarded with sell-out crowds. While reviews of the comedy have been mixed, many movie-goers expressed solidarity with the sentiment of professor Carlos Royal: “I wanted to support the U.S.” Despite sellout crowds, the movie’s limited release meant it only brought in about $1 million on opening day (compared to $10M+ for the highest-grossing films). Curiosity about the film seems high, since hundreds of thousands rushed to torrent the film, and others figured out an extremely easy way to bypass Sony’s DRM. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Crowds (and Pirates) Flock To ‘The Interview’

Worst Demolition Team Screws Up Same Explosion Twice

How hard can it be to blow up a building? My childhood experience with knocking over waist-high towers of cardboard blocks leads me to say “not hard, ” but this botched job by a demolition team in Sevastopol suggests otherwise. I mean, come on guys. Read more…

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Worst Demolition Team Screws Up Same Explosion Twice

​The First Tesla With Nearly A 400-Mile Range Is The Old Roadster

Tesla’s earliest adopters were promised an update to the Roadster before the end of the year and Elon Musk is delivering with less than a week to spare. Read more…

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​The First Tesla With Nearly A 400-Mile Range Is The Old Roadster