Behold, the world’s fastest memory card. Lexar’s 3333x CFast 2.0 ratchets up the read speed of Compact Flash cards to a dizzying 500MB/s—and that is very, very fast. Read more…
Read the original post:
This Is the World’s Fastest Memory Card (For a Little While)
Lucas123 writes “Even though production of 75W and 100W incandescent lamps were phased out earlier this year, many U.S. consumers remain blissfully unaware of The Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007, an energy efficiency standard that requires an initial 30% reduction in energy use for screw-in bulbs. By 2020, the federal standard requires bulbs to use 65% less energy. According to a new survey, only 40% of Americans are aware that incandescent bulbs are being phased out. However, the federal regulations are about to impact the most popular bulbs of all — 40W and 60W lamps. As of Jan. 1, 2014, the bulbs will no longer be produced. A significant portion of those who are aware of the phase out have been hoarding the bulbs in anticipation of the ban.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Read More:
60% of Americans Unaware of Looming Incandescent Bulb Phase Out
Web: To beat the pressure of gift-buying, we recommend you give experiences instead of objects . So how do you find these experience-based gifts, and which one is right for whom? Unstuff Gifts makes it easy by aggregating, sorting and recommending the best “non-stuff” gifts for the holidays. Read more…
Originally posted here:
Unstuff Gifts Picks Experiences, Not Stuff, for Holiday Presents
Sockatume writes “The IEC, the standards body which wrote the phone charger specification used in the EU, has approved a standardised laptop charger. While the ‘DC Power Supply for Portable Personal Computer’ doesn’t have a legal mandate behind it, the IEC is still optimistic that it will lead to a reduction in electronics waste and make it easier to find a replacement charger. Unfortunately the technical documentation does not seem to be available yet, but previous comments indicate that it will be a barrel plug of some kind.” I wish they’d push a yank-resistant and positive-connecting plug along the lines of Apple’s MagSafe. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Continue reading here:
Standardized Laptop Charger Approved By IEC
SonicSpike writes “Light bulb manufacturers will cease making traditional 40 and 60-watt light bulbs — the most popular in the country — at the start of 2014. This comes after the controversial phasing out of incandescent 75 and 100-watt light bulbs at the beginning of 2013. In their place will be halogen bulbs, compact fluorescent bulbs, LED bulbs and high efficiency incandescents — which are just regular incandescents that have the filament wrapped in gas. All are significantly more expensive than traditional light bulbs, but offer significant energy and costs savings over the long run. (Some specialty incandescents — such as three-way bulbs — will still be available.) … The rules were signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2007. They are designed to address gross inefficiencies with old light bulbs — only 10% of the energy they use is converted into light, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, which has a handy fact sheet about the changes. The rest is wasted as heat. But the rules have drawn fire from a number of circles — mainly conservatives and libertarians who are unhappy about the government telling people what light bulbs they can use. They argue that if the new ones really are so good, people will buy them on their own without being forced to do so.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
New submitter ghack writes “NuScale power, a small nuclear power company in Corvallis Oregon, has won a Department of Energy grant of up to $226 million dollars to enable deployment of their small modular reactor. The units would be factory built in the United States, and their small size enables a number of potential niche applications. NuScale argues that their design includes a number of unique passive safety features: ‘NuScale’s 45-megawatt reactor, which can be grouped with others to form a utility-scale plant, would sit in a 5 million-gallon pool of water underground. That means it needs no pumps to inject water to cool it in an emergency – an issue … highlighted by Japan’s crippled Fukushima plant.’ This was the second of two DOE small modular reactor grants; the first was awarded to Babcock and Wilcox, a stalwart in the nuclear industry.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
See the article here:
NuScale Power Awarded $226 Million To Deploy Small Nuclear Reactor Design
An anonymous reader writes “Michael Nielsen has written a detailed article describing the nuts and bolts of a Bitcoin transaction. He builds the concepts from the ground up, starting with a basic, no-frills digital currency. He then examines it for flaws and tweaks the currency to patch up areas where we run into technical or security problems. Eventually, he ends up with Bitcoin, and explains how a transaction works. It’s an interesting, technical read; much more in-depth than any explanation I’ve heard. Here’s a brief snippet from a walkthrough of the transaction data: ‘One thing to note about the input is that there’s nothing explicitly specifying how many bitcoins from the previous transaction should be spent in this transaction. In fact, all the bitcoins from the n=0th output of the previous transaction are spent. So, for example, if the n=0th output of the earlier transaction was 2 bitcoins, then 2 bitcoins will be spent in this transaction. This seems like an inconvenient restriction – like trying to buy bread with a 20 dollar note, and not being able to break the note down. The solution, of course, is to have a mechanism for providing change. This can be done using transactions with multiple inputs and outputs…'” Bitcoin is going through another period of heavy fluctuation: it fell from a high of around $1, 200 per bitcoin to roughly half that, and as of this writing trade around $760 per bitcoin. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Follow this link:
How a Bitcoin Transaction Actually Works
This brawny futuristic mini tank on two wheels is supposedly the world’s most powerful electric motorcycle. The battery-powered beast can re-charge its 12.8kWh juice pack in 30 minutes and has the power of a 1000cc motorcycle. Called the Voxan Wattman , the bike can hit 0-60mph in less than 3.4 seconds and reach a top speed of over 100mph. Vroom freaking vroom. Read more…
Visit link:
World’s most powerful electric motorcycle looks like the future
An anonymous reader writes “Intel’s open-source Linux graphics driver is now running neck-and-neck with the Windows 8.1 driver for OpenGL performance between the competing platforms when using the latest drivers for each platform. The NVIDIA driver has long been able to run at similar speeds between Windows and Linux given the common code-base, but the Intel Linux driver is completely separate from their Windows driver due to being open-source and complying with the Linux DRM and Mesa infrastructure. The Intel Linux driver is still trailing the Windows OpenGL driver in supporting OpenGL4.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Follow this link:
Intel Linux Driver Now Nearly As Fast As Windows OpenGL Driver
Forget sneaking contraband into prison in your butt. Some creative crooks have taken to the skies with new technology in an effort to get some precious tobacco to their compatriots in prison.This takes the drone delivery service trend to a new level. Read more…
More:
Drone-Wielding Criminals Busted Dropping Tobacco Into Prison Yard