Windows Kernel Version Bumped To 10.0

jones_supa writes: In Windows, the kernel version number is once again in sync with the product version. Build 9888 of Windows 10 Technical Preview is making the rounds in a private channel and the kernel version has indeed been bumped from 6.4 to 10.0. Version 6.x has been in use since Windows Vista. Neowin speculates that this large jump in version number is likely related to the massive overhaul of the underlying components of the OS to make it the core for all of Microsoft’s products. The company is working to consolidate all of its platforms into what’s called OneCore, which, as the name implies, will be the one core for all of Microsoft’s operating systems. It will be interesting to see if this causes any software comparability issues with legacy applications. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Windows Kernel Version Bumped To 10.0

How You Can Get Temperatures Below Absolute Zero

It used to be that scientists all agreed that it was impossible to achieve temperatures below absolute zero, but now they realise that’s not entirely true. This video explains how you can reach temperatures below absolute zero. Read more…

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How You Can Get Temperatures Below Absolute Zero

Google Just Gave You a Good Reason to Quit Spotify

I signed up for Spotify three years ago, the day the service launched in the United States. $400 in subscription fees later, I’m still a member, and I’ve never regretted the money for a second. But for the first time since joining, I’m actually tempted to leave. YouTube Music Key might just win me over. Read more…

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Google Just Gave You a Good Reason to Quit Spotify

What Would Have Happened If Philae Were Nuclear Powered?

StartsWithABang writes After successfully landing on a comet with all 10 instruments intact, but failing to deploy its thrusters and harpoons to anchor onto the surface, Philae bounced, coming to rest in an area with woefully insufficient sunlight to keep it alive. After exhausting its primary battery, it went into hibernation, most likely never to wake again. We’ll always be left to wonder what might have been if it had functioned optimally, and given us years of data rather than just 60 hours worth. The thing is, it wouldn’t have needed to function optimally to give us years of data, if only it were better designed in one particular aspect: powered by Plutonium-238 instead of by solar panels. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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What Would Have Happened If Philae Were Nuclear Powered?

Millions of Spiders Seen In Mass Dispersal Event In Nova Scotia

Freshly Exhumed writes A bizarre and oddly beautiful display of spider webs have been woven across a large field along a walking trail in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada. “Well it’s acres and acres; it’s a sea of web, ” said Allen McCormick. Prof. Rob Bennett, an expert on spiders who works at the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria, BC, Canada, said tiny, sheet-web weaver spiders known as Erigoninae linyphiidae most likely left the webs. Bennett said the spiders cast a web net to catch the wind and float away in a process known as ballooning. The webs in the field are the spiders’ drag lines, left behind as they climb to the top of long grass to be whisked away by the wind. Bennett said it’s a mystery why these spiders take off en masse. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Millions of Spiders Seen In Mass Dispersal Event In Nova Scotia

Polyphonic Overtone Singing Explained Visually With Spectrograms

New submitter Tucano writes The overtone singer Anna-Maria Hefele can sing two notes at the same time. In her latest video, spectrograms and frequency filters are used to explain how she can produce two melody lines at the same time, and how she uses her mouth to filter the frequencies of her voice. When the voice produces a sound, many harmonics (or overtones) sound at the same time, and we normally hear this as a single tone. In overtone singing, the mouth filters out all harmonics but one, and the one that remains is amplified to become louder. This is then perceived as a separate tone, next to the fundamental. In her video, Anna-Maria shows techniques that become increasingly advanced. She shows the overtone scale (steady fundamental, moving overtone), the undertone scale (steady overtone, moving fundamental), parallel movement and opposing movement of overtone and fundamental, and even complex compositions with two separate melody lines. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Polyphonic Overtone Singing Explained Visually With Spectrograms

Court Rules Google’s Search Results Qualify As Free Speech

wabrandsma writes with this news from Ars Technica: The regulation of Google’s search results has come up from time to time over the past decade, and although the idea has gained some traction in Europe (most recently with “right to be forgotten” laws), courts and regulatory bodies in the U.S. have generally agreed that Google’s search results are considered free speech. That consensus was upheld last Thursday, when a San Francisco Superior Court judge ruled in favor of Google’s right to order its search results as it sees fit. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Court Rules Google’s Search Results Qualify As Free Speech

BitTorrent Now Lets Anyone Release an Album as a Paid-For Bundle

Earlier this year, Thom Yorke released his new album on BitTorrrent , selling it in a package that had to be paid for. Now, BitTorrent will let any artist release an album as a paid-for bundle. Read more…

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BitTorrent Now Lets Anyone Release an Album as a Paid-For Bundle

Inside the Blood Factory That Keeps Track of the World’s Rare Donors

When most of us think of “rare blood, ” we think of Type O-negative. But it turns out there are far, far rarer types than that. In Filton, England, there’s a lab that handles blood donations from across the UK—and identifies this super-rare blood. Read more…

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Inside the Blood Factory That Keeps Track of the World’s Rare Donors