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Stretchable square of rubber doubles as a keyboard

There’s a whole branch of science that’s dedicated to turning flexible surfaces into sensors that can be used as an artificial substitute for skin. These materials could then be used to give robots a sense of touch , or even to restore feeling for people with artificial prostheses. Researchers at the University of Auckland have taken the concept in a slightly different direction after building a square of soft, stretchable rubber that pulls double-duty as a keyboard. It’s hoped that the technology can be used to create foldable, rollable input devices, which reminds us of Nokia’s twisty-stretchy phone concept from way back when. Via: EurekaAlert Source: Smart Materials

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Stretchable square of rubber doubles as a keyboard

Scientists use ‘spooky action’ to mail electron messages a mile

Researchers at Stanford University announced Tuesday that they had successfully leveraged the “spooky” interaction of entangled electrons to send a message between them over a span of 1.2 miles. This is by far the longest distance that scientists have managed to send entangled particles and provides the strongest evidence to date that quantum computing can have practical applications. Quantum computers exploit the phenomenon known as quantum entanglement , what Einstein famously referred to as ” spooky action over distance “, wherein two particles are connected regardless of the distance between them. That is, as in this case, if two electrons are entangled, the direction of their spin will always be the same. If one electron is spinning clockwise, the other will be too. If one reverses the direction of its spin, the other will as well. Doesn’t matter if they’re on the opposite sides of a molecule or on opposite sides of the galaxy, the two particles and their behaviors are inextricably linked. “Electron spin is the basic unit of a quantum computer, ” Stanford physicist Leo Yu said in a statement. “This work can pave the way for future quantum networks that can send highly secure data around the world.” The problem is that electrons are confined to atoms. And in order to get two electrons to entangle over long distances (and allow their quantum computer networks to communicate with one another) they need photons to act as the messengers. This is accomplished by “pairing” the photon and electron, a process called “quantum correlation”. But that runs into another issue: photons love to change the direction of their spin while travelling through fiber optic lines. So while you can get the first electron and the photon to correlate pretty easily, keeping the photon on task as it travels to the second electron is way more difficult. To overcome this, the Stanford team created “time-stamps” for the photons that act as reference points for the photons, allowing them to confirm that they arrived with the same spin orientation that they left with. Using this method, the team successfully entangled a pair of electrons over 2 kilometers of fiber optic line. Their research has been published in the journal Nature Communications . [Image Credit: L.A. Cicero] Via: Stanford University Source: Nature Communications

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Scientists use ‘spooky action’ to mail electron messages a mile

LG’s spending billions to make more OLED things

LG’s OLED 4K TVs are jaw-droppingly gorgeous , but the price still isn’t anywhere near the level it needs to be for mass consumer adoption . Hopefully the company’s new manufacturing plant can help that a bit thanks to economies of scale . A Reuters report says that the South Korean firm is spending some $8.71 billion (around 10 trillion Korean won) on a new manufacturing facility for the display panels in Paju, South Korea. Perhaps this can make up for some of the losses the tech giant suffered by halting production at one of its TV plants due to a gas leak earlier this year. Source: Reuters

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LG’s spending billions to make more OLED things

This crowdfunded router updates its own security

It’s really, really, really hard to make a router sound exciting , but the folks behind the Turris Omnia are betting the device’s focus on keeping your sensitive data secure might grab you. The manufacturer’s IndieGogo campaign still has 45 days to go, but it’s already proved incredibly popular: over a thousand backers have pledged some $274, 598 as of this writing. That’s 275 percent higher than the threshold for funding the project. The router itself runs Turris’ open source operating system (based on the OpenWRT project ) which auto updates as soon as any type of vulnerability is discovered by its cadre of developers. Via: Turris Source: IndieGogo

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This crowdfunded router updates its own security

Bill Gates is launching a multibillion-dollar clean energy fund

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is set to reveal a massive clean energy project on Monday, during the first day of the United Nations climate change summit in Paris. According to Reuters , which originally reported the news, the French government has confirmed that the ex-CEO-turned-philanthropist will launch the Clean Tech Initiative, a push to commit countries to double their budgets on clean energy tech research and developments by 2020. But Gates won’t be working on this multibillion dollar fund alone: The US, Australia, Canada, France, India, Indonesia, Norway, Saudi Arabia and South Korea will all be backing the plan, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters .

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Bill Gates is launching a multibillion-dollar clean energy fund

E-paper sneakers change your style on the fly

If you’re the sort to buy multiple pairs of sneakers just to make sure your footwear is always fashionable, you might soon have a way to save a lot of money. David Coelho is crowdfunding ShiftWear , or sneakers that have color e-paper displays in their sides. You only need a mobile app to change your look at a moment’s notice (there are promises of a shoe design store), and you can even use animations if you’re feeling ostentatious. The shoes are machine-washable, and the e-paper consumes virtually no power if you’re using static imagery — there’s even talk of walk-to-charge tech that would save you from ever having to plug in or swap batteries. Source: Indiegogo

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E-paper sneakers change your style on the fly

FBI Links a Single Hacker to the Theft of 1.2 Billion Stolen Log-Ins

The FBI has managed to link the theft of a frankly staggering 1.2 billion log-in credentials to a single hacker, after finding a Russian email address within reams of data obtained by security researchers. Read more…

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FBI Links a Single Hacker to the Theft of 1.2 Billion Stolen Log-Ins

An Army colonel is in trouble for complaining that a $500k gas station cost $43 million to build

Army Col. John Hope blew the whistle on a task force that spent $43 million to build a useless gas station in Afghanistan. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction says the useless gas station should have cost about $500,000. As a result of pointing out the doubly wasteful project, Hope has “been singled out for retaliation and retribution” for “speaking truth,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) in a letter to Defense Secretary Ashton Carter. The gas station is useless because it supplies natural gas to cars that have been converted to run on natural gas. But there are hardly any cars that run on natural gas in Afghanistan, and the cost to convert a car to run on natural gas is $700. The average annual income in Afghanistan is $690, according to the Washington Post . More from the Washington Post : The high cost of the gas station has angered many in Congress. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) has scheduled a hearing on it for next month. And Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said it was one of the worst cases of wasteful spending that she has ever seen. “There are few things in this job that literally make my jaw drop,” she said in a statement. “But of all the examples of wasteful projects in Iraq and Afghanistan that the Pentagon began prior to our wartime contracting reforms, this genuinely shocked me.” The contractor, Central Asian Engineering Construction Company, originally bid $3 million to build the gas station, which is already an order of magnitude too much to charge. How they ended up charging $43 million is a mystery. I wonder who owns Central Asian Engineering Construction Company?

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An Army colonel is in trouble for complaining that a $500k gas station cost $43 million to build

Windows 10 November Update: features, fixes, and enterprise readiness

The Windows 10 November update is available now to everyone running Windows 10. This first major update has a handful of visible features, a variety of bug fixes, and even some enterprise features. Microsoft’s message to businesses is that if they were following the traditional policy of waiting for the first Service Pack or major update to Windows before deploying it, this is it: time to take the plunge. It’s also the time for gamers to make the switch too—in parallel with this release, Microsoft is rolling out the new Xbox Experience, which is based on Windows 10, and gives the dashboard a big shake-up. The November Update build (10586) is already available to members of the Windows Insider program. With this update comes a slightly new way of describing Windows versions, and it’s one that we expect to feature in other Microsoft software, too. winver in the original release describes windows as being “Version 10.0 (Build 10240).” In the new release, it’s “Version 1511 (OS Build 10586.3)” as in, 11th month of 2015. This same versioning scheme is also used for the new “as-a-service” release of System Center Configuration Manager . Read 22 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Bill Gates Says Our Energy System Is Broken And He’s Giving $2 Billion To Fix It

Infectious diseases like polio and malaria might be gone in 15 years because the founder of Microsoft devoted a foundation to eradicating them. Now Bill Gates has turned his attention towards our global energy crisis, which he thinks can also be fixed with better R&D. And, yes, he’s going to fund it. Read more…

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Bill Gates Says Our Energy System Is Broken And He’s Giving $2 Billion To Fix It

Ken May

Tag: microsoft