Tag: technology

MuseScore 2.0 Released

rDouglass writes: MuseScore, the open source desktop application for music notation, has released version 2.0 for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. This release represents the culmination of four years of development, including technical contributions from over 400 people. In addition to a completely new UI, top features include linked parts (good for pieces with many instruments), guitar tablature, flexible chord symbols, and fret diagrams. The program integrates directly with the MuseScore.com online library of scores, and music written with the application can be displayed and played using the MuseScore mobile app. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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MuseScore 2.0 Released

First Prototype of a Working Tricorder Unveiled At SXSW

the_newsbeagle writes The $10 million Tricorder X-prize is getting to the “put up or shut up” stage: The 10 finalists must turn in their working devices on June 1st for consumer testing. At SXSW last week, the finalist team Cloud DX showed off its prototype, which includes a wearable collar, a base station, a blood-testing stick, and a scanning wand. From the article: “The XPrize is partnering with the medical center at the University of California, San Diego on that consumer testing, since it requires recruiting more than 400 people with a variety of medical conditions. Grant Campany, director of the Tricorder XPrize, said he’s looking forward to getting those devices into real patients hands. ‘This will be a practical demonstration of what the future of medicine will be like, ‘ said Campany at that same SXSW talk, ‘so we can scale it up after competition.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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First Prototype of a Working Tricorder Unveiled At SXSW

Pixar Releases Free Version of RenderMan

jones_supa writes: A year ago, animation studio Pixar promised its RenderMan animation and rendering suite would eventually become free for non-commercial use. This was originally scheduled to happen in the SIGGRAPH 2014 computer graphics conference, but things got delayed. Nevertheless, today Pixar is releasing the free version into the wild. Free, non-commercial RenderMan can be used for research, education, evaluation, plug-in development, and any personal projects that do not generate commercial profits. This version is fully featured, without a watermark or any kind of artificial limits. Featuring Pixar’s new RIS technology, RenderMan delivers extremely fast global illumination and interactive shading and lighting for artists. The software is available for Mac, Linux, and Windows. In conjunction with the release, Pixar has also launched a new RenderMan Community site where users can exchange knowledge and resources, showcase their own work, share assets such as shaders and scripts, and learn about RenderMan from tutorials. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Pixar Releases Free Version of RenderMan

Costa Rica Goes 75 Days Powering Itself Using Only Renewable Energy

An anonymous reader writes with news about an impressive renewable energy accomplishment in Costa Rica. Costa Rica has achieved a clean energy milestone by using 100 per cent renewable energy for a record 75 days in a row. The feat was achieved thanks to heavy rainfall, which powered four hydroelectric plants in the first three months of the year, the state-run Costa Rican Electricity Institute said. No fossil fuels have been burnt to generate electricity since December 2014, in the state which is renowned for its clean energy policies.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Costa Rica Goes 75 Days Powering Itself Using Only Renewable Energy

Your Tesla Is About to Become Autonomous

Earlier this week, we heard billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk describe his vision for the future of self-driving vehicles. Turns out, when Musk said “we’ll be there in a few years, ” what he actually meant was, his company, Tesla, will be there this summer. Slip of the tongue. Read more…

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Your Tesla Is About to Become Autonomous

DuckDuckGo Donates $100,000 Among Four FOSS Projects

jones_supa writes As is the search engine company’s annual habit, DuckDuckGo has chosen to advance four open source projects by donating to them. The primary focus this year was to support FOSS projects that bring privacy tools to anyone who needs them. $25, 000 goes to The Freedom of the Press Foundation to support SecureDrop, which is a whistleblower submission used to securely accept documents from anonymous sources. The Electronic Frontier Foundation was given $25, 000 to support PrivacyBadger, which is a browser add-on that stops advertisers and other third-party trackers from secretly tracking your surfing habits. Another $25, 000 arrives at GPGTools to support GPG Suite, which is a software package for OS X that encrypts files or messages. Finally, $25, 000 was donated to Riseup to support Tails, which is a live operating system that aims at preserving your privacy and anonymity. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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DuckDuckGo Donates $100,000 Among Four FOSS Projects

Feds Fine Verizon $3.4 Million Over 911 Service Outage Issues

itwbennett writes The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has fined Verizon $3.4 million over its failure to notify police and fire departments during a 911 service outage last year. Under the commission’s rules, Verizon and other carriers were required to notify emergency call centers of a six-hour outage that occurred in April. The outage involved multiple carriers and affected over 11 million people in seven states. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Feds Fine Verizon $3.4 Million Over 911 Service Outage Issues

"Open Well-Tempered Clavier" Project Complete; Score and Recording Online

rDouglass writes Open source music notation software MuseScore, and pianist Kimiko Ishizaka, have completed the Open Well-Tempered Clavier project and released a new studio recording and digital score online, under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0, public domain) license. Their previous project, the Open Goldberg Variations (2012), has shown its cultural significance by greatly enhancing the Wikipedia.org article on J.S. Bach’s work, and by making great progress in supplying musical scores that are accessible to the visually impaired and the blind. The recording has also received very positive early reviews by music critics. Over 900 fans of J.S. Bach financed this project on Kickstarter.com, where a total of $44, 083 was raised. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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"Open Well-Tempered Clavier" Project Complete; Score and Recording Online

Full-Duplex Radio Integrated Circuit Could Double Radio Frequency Data Capacity

Zothecula writes Full-duplex radio communication usually involves transmitters and receivers operating at different frequencies. Simultaneous transmission and reception on the same frequency is the Holy Grail for researchers, but has proved difficult to achieve. Those that have been built have proven complex and bulky, but to be commercially useful in the ever-shrinking world of communications technology, miniaturization is key. To this end, engineers at Columbia University (CU) claim to have created a world-first, full-duplex radio transceiver, all on one miniature integrated circuit. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Full-Duplex Radio Integrated Circuit Could Double Radio Frequency Data Capacity

Project an Interactive Game on Your Floor or Wall (Video)

Lumo is an interactive projector. You can use it to bore people with PowerPoint slides or you can use it as a game machine. It has a built-in (low res) camera that can detect a kick (as shown at the beginning of the video) and make a (virtual) ball move as a result of that action. ‘But, ‘ you ask, ‘do they have an Indiegogo campaign?’ Not yet. It launches on March 23. The Lumo projector was originally designed for commercial use at children’s museums and as a trade show attention-getter — at $10, 000 a pop. The consumer version is expected to cost less than $500, according to Lumo CEO (and Slashdot interviewee) Meghan Athavale. And while she doesn’t talk much about it in the interview, if you already have a computer, a projector, and a Kinect or webcam, you can buy the a stripped-down version of the company’s ‘interactive-floor-wall projection’ software for $39, plus games or customizable game templates. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Project an Interactive Game on Your Floor or Wall (Video)