Seagate Releases 6TB Hard Drive Sans Helium

Lucas123 (935744) writes “Seagate has released what it said is the industry’s fastest hard drive with up to a 6TB capacity, matching one released by WD last year. WD’s 6TB Ultrastar He6 was hermetically sealed with helium inside, something the company said was critical to reducing friction for additional platters, while also increasing power savings and reliability. Seagate, however, said it doesn’t yet need to rely on Helium to achieve the 50% increase in capacity over it’s last 4TB drive. The company used the same perpendicular magnetic recording technology that it has on previous models, but it was able to increase areal density from 831 bits per square inch to 1, 000. The new drive also comes in 2TB, 4TB and 5TB capacities and with either 12Gbps SAS or 6Gbps SATA connectivity. The six-platter, enterprise-class drive is rated to sustain about 550TB of writes per year — 10X that of a typical desk top drive.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Seagate Releases 6TB Hard Drive Sans Helium

The Untold History of Where Barcodes Come From

When George Laurer goes to the grocery store, he doesn’t tell the check-out people that he invented the barcode, but his wife used to point it out. “My husband here’s the one who invented that barcode, ” she’d occasionally say. And the check-out people would look at him like, “you mean there was a time when we didn’t have barcodes?” Read more…        

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The Untold History of Where Barcodes Come From

NSA System Can Record Entire Countries’ Calls for 30 Days at a Time

Remember all that business about the NSA saying it only collects phone metadata ? Yeah, that’s not true. Not only can the NSA listen in on foreigners’ phone calls. It can record “every single” conversation in an entire country and store the recordings for 30 days at a time, according to a new Washington Post report . Read more…        

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NSA System Can Record Entire Countries’ Calls for 30 Days at a Time

Scientists just created some of the most powerful muscles in existence

In a surprising breakthrough for the world of materials science, researchers have created some of the world’s most powerful artificial muscles we’ve ever seen. And they did it with simple fishing line. These freakishly strong and cheap muscles could revolutionize robotics, and perhaps one day our own bodies. Read more…        

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Scientists just created some of the most powerful muscles in existence

The Most Detailed Saturn V Cutaway We’ve Ever Seen

NASA’s Saturn V remains the only launch vehicle in history to catapult humans beyond low-Earth orbit. In this beautiful cutaway – what appears to be an original diagram from Boeing’s Space Division – the legendary rocket’s internal workings are laid bare in captivating detail. Read more…        

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The Most Detailed Saturn V Cutaway We’ve Ever Seen

Whatever Happened To the IPv4 Address Crisis?

alphadogg writes “In February 2011, the global Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) allocated the last blocks of IPv4 address space to the five regional Internet registries. At the time, experts warned that within months all available IPv4 addresses in the world would be distributed to ISPs. Soon after that, unless everyone upgraded to IPv6, the world would be facing a crisis that would hamper Internet connectivity for everyone. That crisis would be exacerbated by the skyrocketing demand for IP addresses due to a variety of factors: the Internet of Things (refrigerators needing their own IP address); wearables (watches and glasses demanding connectivity); BYOD (the explosion of mobile devices allowed to connect to the corporate network); and the increase in smartphone use in developing countries. So, here we are three years later and the American Registry for Internet Numbers is still doling out IPv4 addresses in the United States and Canada. Whatever happened to the IPv4 address crisis?” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Whatever Happened To the IPv4 Address Crisis?

And now, a pangolin cavorting in the mud

Did you all know yesterday was World Pangolin Day ? Somehow we overlooked it, and we’re kind of ashamed about that. Because look at this thing. It’s an armor-plated mammal, for crying out loud. To make up for the oversight, here’s a video of a pangolin wallowing merrily in a pool of mud. Read more…        

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And now, a pangolin cavorting in the mud

What Are "Smart" Credit Cards, and Why Are They Coming to America?

It only took the theft of 40 million Target customer credit card details to spur Congress into finally joining the rest of the world in abandoning the highly insecure credit cards you’re used to. Starting late next year, every credit card in the United States will adopt a more secure system. Here’s what it is, and how it works. Read more…        

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What Are "Smart" Credit Cards, and Why Are They Coming to America?

Coca-Cola Reserves a Massive Range of MAC Addresses

An anonymous reader writes “GNU MacChanger’s developer has found by chance that The Coca-Cola company got a range of MAC addresses allocated at the OUI, the IEEE Registration Authority in charge of managing the MAC addresses spectrum. What would Coca-Cola want around 16 million MAC addresses reserved? What are they planning to use them for? Could this part of a strategy around the Internet-of-things concept?” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Coca-Cola Reserves a Massive Range of MAC Addresses