Tag: jobs

Century Old Antarctic Expedition Notebook Found Underneath Ice

An anonymous reader writes During his second expedition to Antarctica, British explorer Robert Scott—and most of his team—died from overexposure to the elements. Over 100 years after their deaths, an artifact from his journey has surfaced. New Zealand’s Antarctic Heritage Trust reports that they have found a notebook which tracked Scott’s last Terra Nova Expedition. According to the Antarctic Heritage Trust, the notebook belonged to a surgeon, photographer and zoologist named George Murray Levick, who accompanied Scott at the unfortunate Terra Nova expedition. Executive Director Nigel Watson said, “It’s an exciting find. The notebook is a missing part of the official expedition record. After spending seven years conserving Scott’s last expedition building and collection, we are delighted to still be finding new artifacts.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Century Old Antarctic Expedition Notebook Found Underneath Ice

Why Sweden Commissioned Its Own Typeface

The idea of branding a place is a fairly new one, and the notion of place-based typefaces is even newer, with national and local governments from Qatar to Chattanooga commissioning their own fonts. The latest country to set its on typeface is Sweden—but it’s also questioning whether a national font is a bit too nationalistic for their progressive Scandinavian sensibilities. Read more…

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Why Sweden Commissioned Its Own Typeface

FTDI Reportedly Bricking Devices Using Competitors’ Chips.

janoc writes It seems that chipmaker FTDI has started an outright war on cloners of their popular USB bridge chips. At first the clones stopped working with the official drivers, and now they are being intentionally bricked, rendering the device useless. The problem? These chips are incredibly popular and used in many consumer products. Are you sure yours doesn’t contain a counterfeit one before you plug it in? Hackaday says, “It’s very hard to tell the difference between the real and fake versions by looking at the package, but a look at the silicon reveals vast differences. The new driver for the FT232 exploits these differences, reprogramming it so it won’t work with existing drivers. It’s a bold strategy to cut down on silicon counterfeiters on the part of FTDI. A reasonable company would go after the manufacturers of fake chips, not the consumers who are most likely unaware they have a fake chip.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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FTDI Reportedly Bricking Devices Using Competitors’ Chips.

What It Took For SpaceX To Become a Serious Space Company

An anonymous reader writes: The Atlantic has a nice profile of SpaceX’s rise to prominence — how a private startup managed to successfully compete with industry giants like Boeing in just a decade of existence. “Regardless of its inspirations, the company was forced to adopt a prosaic initial goal: Make a rocket at least 10 times cheaper than is possible today. Until it can do that, neither flowers nor people can go to Mars with any economy. With rocket technology, Musk has said, “you’re really left with one key parameter against which technology improvements must be judged, and that’s cost.” SpaceX currently charges $61.2 million per launch. Its cost-per-kilogram of cargo to low-earth orbit, $4, 653, is far less than the $14, 000 to $39, 000 offered by its chief American competitor, the United Launch Alliance. Other providers often charge $250 to $400 million per launch; NASA pays Russia $70 million per astronaut to hitch a ride on its three-person Soyuz spacecraft. SpaceX’s costs are still nowhere near low enough to change the economics of space as Musk and his investors envision, but they have a plan to do so (of which more later).” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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What It Took For SpaceX To Become a Serious Space Company

A German U-Boat From WWII Has Been Found Off The Coast of North Carolina

On July 15th, 1942—in the midst of World War II’s long-running Battle of the Atlantic—a German U-boat and a Nicaraguan freighter were wrecked a mere 30 miles off the coast of North Carolina’s Cape Hatteras. Now, over seven decades later, their watery resting places have been (re)discovered . Read more…

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A German U-Boat From WWII Has Been Found Off The Coast of North Carolina

Hackers Roamed Around JPMorgan Chase’s Financial Records for 2 Months

Earlier this month, approximate 76 million households—or roughly half of the households in America —were unhappy to hear their JPMorgan Chase accounts had been compromised . Those 76 million households will be equally unhappy to learn that the hackers who broke in were wandering around the bank’s servers for two months . Two whole months! Read more…

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Hackers Roamed Around JPMorgan Chase’s Financial Records for 2 Months

A Rare Tour Inside a Thousand-Year-Old High-Tech Winery

The Abbey Winery in Pannonhalma , Hungary, has one of the oldest wine making traditions in Europe. In 996, Benedictine monks settled on the Sacred Hill of Pannonia—and they’ve always been closely associated with viticulture and winemaking introduced by the Romans. Read more…

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A Rare Tour Inside a Thousand-Year-Old High-Tech Winery

Harley-Davidson goes electric

Before laughing off an electric Harley, read on. BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON—On June 18, 2014, Harley-Davidson shocked the motorcycle community by announcing an electric motorcycle prototype called Project LiveWire. The Project LiveWire teaser video showed a bike screaming down route 66, emitting a sound that vaguely resembled a turbine. I could barely believe what I saw, so I immediately spent time reading comments about LiveWire—naturally, the reaction was mixed. Some gave props to Harley-Davidson for thinking outside the box; others complained “this is no Harley.” The current trend for all-electric and hybrid vehicles is to assume a “quasi-futuristic,” sci-fi-infused look that pretty much leaves convention and tradition at the curb (think Nissan Leaf). Many automotive enthusiasts don’t see a lot of “soul” or “character” in these appliance vehicles. But enter Harley-Davidson, the company known for its shaking, rumbling, chrome-clad motorcycles that go beyond machinery and extend to a lifestyle. These bikes radiate tradition, heritage, and style. A Harley-Davidson is a Harley because it has a thumping, 45-degree, v-twin, air-cooled power plant breathing through pipes that emit a signature sound. Harley power must be transmitted to the rear wheel via a rubber belt, so now the company may also offer an electric bike. Really ? The motorcycle community may need a little time to adjust. And as for my own curiosity about what it would be like to ride LiveWire, I had no idea I would find out just a few weeks later. Next-generation design The Project LiveWire engineering team uses all of the latest design, prototyping, and manufacturing expertise that Harley-Davidson developed over the last century of building v-twin motorcycles. I learned about how the LiveWire team engineered and built their ground-breaking electric bike when I talked with lead project engineer Ben Lund. Lund studied Mechanical Engineering and—as you’d expect—loves riding. He’s got multiple motorcycles spanning dirt to street. Read 14 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Harley-Davidson goes electric