Tag: korea

Japan Launches the World’s Smallest Satellite-Carrying Rocket

Japan has launched the world’s smallest satellite-carrying rocket. Long-time Slashdot reader hey! writes: Last week Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) successfully placed a three-kilogram cubesat into an 180 x 1, 500 kilometer orbit at 31 degrees inclination to the equator. The payload was launched on a modified sounding rocket, called the SS-520-5. The assembled rocket weighed a mere 2600 kilograms [2.87 tons] on the launchpad, making the SS-520-5 the smallest vehicle ever to put an object into orbit. Note that the difference in the SS-520’s modest orbital capacity of four kilograms and its ability to launch 140 kilograms to 1000 kilometers on a suborbital flight. That shows how much more difficult it is to put an object into orbit than it is to merely send it into space. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Japan Launches the World’s Smallest Satellite-Carrying Rocket

Samsung leapfrogs Intel again with 8-nanometer chips

Samsung has qualified its 8-nanometer chip-making process for production three months ahead of schedule. It’s the same “low power plus” (LPP) process used for its current 10-nanometer silicon , not the next-gen extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography for its future 7-nanometer tech. That’ll yield chips that are ten percent more energy efficient and ten percent smaller than the 10-nanometer ones it’s making right now. At the same time, since the 8-nanometer chips use the same process, Samsung will be able to “rapidly ramp up, ” it said . Samsung said that the new process will be ideal for “mobile, cryptocurrency and network/server” applications. It notably worked again with Qualcomm, its 10-nanometer chip launch customer, to perfect the new tech. Rumors in Korea had it that Qualcomm would switch its 7-nanometer production to TMSC, which is reportedly slightly ahead of Samsung in developing that tech. However, Samsung confirmed with ZDNet that Qualcomm will be using its 8-nanometer process, without providing any specific details. Given that information, it seems likely that Qualcomm will build its next-gen Snapdragon chips with Samsung, using the tried-and-true LPP process instead of bleeding-edge 7-nanometer tech, which necessitates a switch to extreme ultraviolet lithography. By that time, Samsung should have its own 7-nanometer EUV process up to speed, with 6-nanometer chips set to follow after that. Anyway, Samsung Mobile is probably Qualcomm’s biggest customer with its Galaxy S8 and Note 8 phones, so it would have been pretty awkward to split off to another foundry. Though they don’t compete much in the same markets, the news puts Intel even further behind Samsung, at least in terms of chip trace sizes. Intel has yet to release any 10-nanometer chips, though it has said that when it does ( in 2018 or 2019 ), it will be ” generations ahead ” of Samsung thanks to better feature density. By then, however, Samsung might have closed that gap by being two or three actual generations ahead of Intel in terms of lithography. Samsung is expected to reveal its roadmap for 8- and 7-nanometer chips later today. Source: Samsung

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Samsung leapfrogs Intel again with 8-nanometer chips

Samsung made a giant 34-foot LED TV for movie theaters

So you just spent $120, 000 on a 120-inch 4K HDR screen and think you’ve got the biggest, baddest TV around? Nope! Samsung has unveiled the Cinema LED Screen that’s an epic 10.3 meters (33.8 feet, or 406 inches). It runs at full 4K (4, 096 x 2, 160) resolution, features an (unnamed) HDR and peaks out at 146 fL of brighntess, “ten times greater than that offered by standard projector technologies, ” Samsung said in a news release. The set offers a “distortion-free” presentation with deep blacks, accurate whites and bright colors “at a nearly infinite contrast ratio, ” Samsung says. While it didn’t say so, the extra brightness might improve 3D films, which normally look dim with projection systems due to the polarized glasses. To complement the image quality, Samsung worked with JBL by Harman on the sound tech. That system features speakers around the screen, proprietary audio processing tech, and “Sculpted Surround Sound” from JBL to provide dramatic and faithful audio. Samsung Electronics unveiled the model at the Lotte Cinema in Korea, saying it’s the “first ever commercial Cinema LED Screen” it has installed. The average cinema screen size is around 50 feet, but the 33.8-foot Cinema Screen would be a good fit in smallish multiplex rooms. Samsung says it adapts to a wider range of dark and ambient lighting situations, making it work well for corporate events, sports viewing and gaming competitions. For films, it would certainly offer a very different experience than a projector, but might feel too much like you’re watching TV in public for some cinephiles. Samsung is obviously one of the few companies out there, perhaps along with LG, that could even create such a giant LED screen. The model was certified by the Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI), meaning it can showcase films in theaters with unaltered color spectrum accuracy. As for the price, unless you’ve got an 80-foot yacht parked in the harbor, it’s probably best not to ask. Source: Samsung

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Samsung made a giant 34-foot LED TV for movie theaters

Police Searching for This Man Who Allegedly Posted a Murder Live on Facebook

The Cleveland Police Department is searching for a man named Steve “Stevie Steve” Stephens in connection with the murder of an elderly man that was broadcast live on Stephens’ Facebook page. In earlier posts, he claimed to be perpetrating an “Easter day slaughter.” Read more…

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Police Searching for This Man Who Allegedly Posted a Murder Live on Facebook

US hopes cyberattacks will stall North Korea’s missile program

The US might not have had much success with cyberattacks against North Korea’s nuclear program , but that apparently hasn’t stopped officials from further efforts… not that they’re having much success. The New York Times has learned that then-President Obama ordered escalated cyberwarfare against North Korea in 2014 a bid to thwart its plans for intercontinental ballistic missiles. However, it’s not clear that this strategy has worked — and there may be problems if it does. The newspaper understands that Obama pushed both intelligence agencies and the military to “pull out all the stops” on cyberwarfare efforts to wreck missiles either before they launch or in the first seconds afterward. While evidence shows that North Korean missiles started floundering at a very high rate (the mid-range Musudan missile has an 88 percent failure rate) soon after, it’s not certain how much of that was due to American efforts versus the inherent riskiness of the missile designs. The US effort “accented the failures, ” according to the Times , but the launch rate has improved lately — and proper intercontinental missile tests might not be far off, if you believe North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. A large part of this comes from the natures of both the country and its missile efforts. North Korea is notoriously isolated from the internet (not to mention computing technology as a whole), and its missile systems are both mobile and shuffled around to confuse enemies. It’s not so simple as slipping malware into the computers at a fixed location, like with the Stuxnet attack against Iran — you need to find out where and when a launch will take place. President Trump hasn’t signaled if or how his administration might change this approach. Everything is still on the table, according to the Times . However, it might not want to press much harder. If a digital campaign is successful, it might give China, Russia and other nuclear-armed nations tacit permission to attack American nuclear launch systems. A belligerent country might be more tempted to launch a nuke if it knows that the US can’t respond in kind. Source: New York Times

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US hopes cyberattacks will stall North Korea’s missile program

Watch Korea’s Real Gundam Take Its First Steps With A Human Pilot

It’s a little hard to believe at first sight, but Korea’s Hankook Mirae Technology company has released video of their human piloted mech walking. It’s called the Method-2, and the 13 foot 1.3 ton machine looks like something CG plucked out of a movie. Though untrue, this isn’t terribly wrong, since its lead designer, Vitaly Bulgarov, has a professional background in SFX. The Method-2 is being conceived of as an option for emergency response in dangerous conditions, but it’ll need a better power pack before it gets unleashed. In the meantime, it’s already handling well upright, both in forward and backward modes, and its arms function well too. Here’s the first video of the mega mech walking, posted to Facebook by Bulgarov. IS THIS THE REAL LIFE In this video Bulgarov himself enters and pilots the arms:  IS THIS JUST FANTASYYY At this point, it sounds like the team’s short term plan is to modify a legless version for faster response time in industrial settings. That sounds wise, but now that I’ve seen this awesome walker in action, I’ll be sitting on my (puny flesh) hands until we see more of it.

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Watch Korea’s Real Gundam Take Its First Steps With A Human Pilot

Satellite Images Show the Extent of Puerto Rico’s Huge Blackout

Earlier this week, a fire at a power plant in Puerto Rico set off a series of failures across the island’s aging electrical grid. These before-and-after pics from space show what it looks like when 1.5 million customers suddenly lose power. Read more…

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Satellite Images Show the Extent of Puerto Rico’s Huge Blackout

Reddit Brings Down North Korea’s Entire Internet

After a North Korean system administrator misconfigured its nameserver allowing anyone to query it and get the list of the domains that exist for .kp, it was revealed that the secretive country only has 28 websites. That’s 28 websites for a country with nearly 25 million people. Naturally, the story was published all across the web, including on Reddit, which resulted in a high number of users visiting North Korea’s websites. Mirror.co.uk reports: When a list of North Korea’s available websites was posted on Reddit, the surge of visitors to the reclusive state’s online offering overloaded the servers. North Korea runs a completely locked-down version of the internet that consists of only 28 “websites” that the population is allowed to view. However, a technical slip-up allowed a GitHub user to work their way into the country’s computer network and view the websites from the outside. As the GitHub user puts it: “One of North Korea’s top level name servers was accidentally configured to allow global [Domain Name System] transfers. This allows anyone who performs [a zone transfer request] to the country’s ns2.kptc.kp name server to get a copy of the nation’s top level DNS data.” Pretty soon, links to all the websites were posted on Reddit, where thousands of visitors took the opportunity to see what the web looks like from Pyongyang. Reddit’s surge of traffic isn’t the first time North Korea’s internet has been knocked out. In 2014, the country suffered a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack that was believed to have originated from the U.S. Redditor BaconBakin points out that while North Korea has 28 websites, GTA V has 83 websites. They added, “I think it’s safe to say that San Andreas is more technologically advanced than North Korea.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Reddit Brings Down North Korea’s Entire Internet

North Korea’s ‘Manbang’ is a state-approved streaming service

You can’t watch Netflix in North Korea , but the Democratic People’s Republic now has something , at least: Manbang — a state-approved set-top box that streams live TV, on-demand video content and newspaper articles over the internet. It’s a step forward for digital media delivery for North Korea , but it’s still fairly limited. Manbang, which ironically translates to “everywhere, ” is only available to citizens in Pyongynag, Siniju and Sariwon. The service’s limited availability is hardly a surprise. North Korea isn’t exactly known for having widespread internet access — and what it does have is fairly limited. That seems to be the case here, too: the service’s on-demand content seems to focus on Juche ideology and documentaries about North Korean leaders (we’re guessing The Interview won’t arrive on this service anytime soon). Viewers will also be able to call up educational programs designed to learn English and Russian. Naturally, the device isn’t being marketed so much as a propaganda delivery system as a convenience — North Korea’s KCTV describes Manbang as a respite from the “radio interference” that makes television broadcasts unwatchable in border cities. That sounds all well and good for citizens who want to watch what the state wants them to watch. As for everybody else? Well, there are options . Source: NK News

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North Korea’s ‘Manbang’ is a state-approved streaming service