The Technology Thread

[Teelie]

And more of that Elon Musk goodness.

FTC sides with Tesla, says it should be allowed to sell directly to consumers

Even as Tesla Motors plans on expanding its manufacturing efforts and selling more cars, the company's direct-to-consumer business model continues to draw fire from entrenched car dealership business interests. State legislatures are still throwing up roadblocks intended to make it harder for Tesla to sell cars to customers unless the company adopts the local franchise dealership model—something Tesla founder Elon Musk has said he will never do.

The latest salvo in the fight comes from the federal government, though: the Federal Trade Commission has published a heavily critical analysis of the state-by-state legislation that protects car dealerships from competition.

Automobile manufacturers are generally prohibited from selling directly to consumers in most states, with the actual details of the prohibition varying by state (some states, like Texas, have extremely tough and detailed restrictions on auto manufacturers; others, like California, have looser rules). The post on the FTC's official blog levels a number of criticisms at the patchwork of laws that force carmakers to sell through dealerships instead of marketing directly to customers, including this particularly damning paragraph:

Instead of “protecting,” these state laws became “protectionist,” perpetuating one way of selling cars—the independent car dealer. Such blanket bans are an anomaly in the broader economy, where most manufacturers compete to respond to consumer needs by choosing from among direct sales to consumers, reliance on independent dealers, or some combination of the two.

Pro-dealership lobbying organizations like the National Automobile Dealers Association typically respond to criticisms by saying that the current legislative landscape is necessary in order to help small businesses prosper without being crushed by large corporate interests (i.e., the auto manufacturers), who might use their large resources to undercut dealerships' pricing and drive them out of business. The FTC's blog post cuts this objection off at the knees:

Dealers contend that it is important for regulators to prevent abuses of local dealers. This rationale appears unsupported, however, with respect to blanket prohibitions of direct sales by manufacturers. And, in any event, it has no relevance to companies like Tesla. It has never had any independent dealers and reportedly does not want them.

The blog post closes with a call to action for state legislatures to embrace more consumer-friendly legislative options that give customers the ability to buy what they want, when they want: "Regulators should differentiate between regulations that truly protect consumers and those that protect the regulated."

Customers themselves seem to be willing to do whatever they need to do in order to buy Tesla vehicles. A White House petition from last June asking for the elimination of dealership franchise requirements got more than 130,000 signatures, though it remains unanswered. Tesla Motors continues to sell cars even to people living in states where sales are prohibited, too. In Texas, for example, buying a Tesla Model S isn't difficult at all, in spite of the legislative prohibition—it simply requires a few additional steps that mostly boil down to extra paperwork.

Ars Technica

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Burger King to Bring Back Bizarre "Subservient Chicken" Campaign

In an attempt to boost sales through social media buzz and to advertise a chicken product they've created, Burger King is bringing back its bizarre "Subservient Chicken" campaign, originally launched in 2004.

The campaign was centered around a website that featured a human-sized chicken dressed in garters who performed pre-recorded tasks that visitors commanded. (Yum!) It was considered groundbreaking ten years ago, and is being brought back during a time when Burger King is struggling to boost sales, presumably in an attempt to remember brighter, more profitable, and much weirder times. (The AP gets in a pretty good dig, saying, "As for attention on social media, the chain's most memorable recent moment in the spotlight may have been when its Twitter account was hacked.")

The "Subservient Chicken" website is already live, and a new video will be posted there on Wednesday. Eric Hirschhorn, chief marketing officer for Burger King North America, declined to share many details with the AP, but did say that the chicken will be "turning the tables" on people and that the video will include an appearance by Dustin Diamond.

"I don't want to spoil it, but he's an incredible addition to the film," Hirschhorn said.

An incredible addition to the film.

Wow, BK, man. Times are rough for these guys eh?

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

How Google's Self-Driving Car Is Tackling the Chaos of City Streets

We've all heard about how well Google's self-driving car does on the highway. But is that so impressive? Heck, put on cruise control and an audiobook, and any car seems like it can drive itself on an Interstate. The latest update from Mountain View, however, suggests that this miracle vehicle is entering a new phase of development.

In an official Google Blog post, the director of the self-driving car program, Chris Urmson, brags about some of the vehicle's latest capabilities. Thanks to software upgrades, the self-driving car can now "detect hundreds of distinct objects simultaneously—pedestrians, buses, a stop sign held up by a crossing guard, or a cyclist making gestures that indicate a possible turn." As these capabilities improve, Google says the car will one day be able to navigate the hectic streets of New York City with ease.

[YT]dk3oc1Hr62g[/YT]

How the car pulls off these sorts of feats is a matter of some serious algorithms. The basic principle that guides the software is simple, though. The recognizable spinning silver bucket on top of the self-driving cars contains 64 lasers that collects three-dimensional information in all directions, while a radar bounces waves off every object within about 500 feet. There's also a camera that looks through the windshield and reads everything from traffic signals to street signs. Meanwhile, GPS and mapping data help the car find its route and decide where to go.

Ultimately, the self-driving car software generates an image that represents all of these variables. It looks like this:

The Google car is fully rendered in red. The purple lines represent other cars on street, while red represents cyclists. Pedestrians are yellow, and street signs and signals look just like they normally do. As the software watches what all of these different players are doing at any given moment, it reacts to their movements and adjusts its driving plan accordingly. As Dmitri Dolgov from Google's self-driving car team recently told The Atlantic Cities, "The car is capable of a lot of things, but unless it's absolutely sure that it can handle some situation well, it will err on the conservative side."

The Atlantic Cities has a full report of what it's like to ride in the latest iteration of the self-driving car, and it's pretty neat. A car reading a cyclist's hand signals, for instance, is really cool. It's not yet perfect, though. The self-driving car cannot hear car horns, and it cannot turn right on red. It sometimes hesitates longer than the engineers would like, but again, this is all supposed to get better. At least, so say the Google employees showing off the technology.

When you think back to DARPA's early self-driving car experiments a decade ago, the progress is pretty incredible. It wasn't too long that these things were just driving into embankments. Pretty soon, it's not going to be the technology keeping self-driving cars from bringing us closer towards fatality-free highways. It'll be the legal mess.

I really want a self driving car

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Comcast Will Drop 3.9 Million Customers To Merge With TWC

The Comcast-TWC merger is a terrifying prospect, but there's the small chance it might not go through. Comcast is doing everything it can to make sure to minimize that chance though. In a new proposal, it's offered to drop nearly 4 million customers, so long as the merger goes through.

If the merger is approved, then after its completion Comcast will sell 1.4 million newly acquired Time Warner customers directly to Charter Communications, proud owner of 4.4 million customers of its own. The addition 2.5 million customers Comcast-TWC would be shedding—mostly located in the midwest and south—would be spun off into an as-yet-unnamed company, one third of which would be owned by Charter.

All this, of course, is to assuage fears that this merger will turn Comcast into some unholy monstrosity of a cable company with its horrible tendrils secured tightly around the throats of cable subscribers around the country. This deal makes that outcome ever-so-slightly less true, but also more certain than ever.

http://www.cnet.com/news/comcast-to-shed-3-9-million-subscribers-to-hasten-twc-deal/

I hate this so much, so glad I'm not going to be in there territory

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

A Gorgeous Wooden Kitchen Scale That Masquerades as a Cutting Board

Successful baking requires strict adherence to a recipe and precise measurements, which is made easier with a scale at your disposal. But if the last thing you want is another ugly appliance cluttering up your kitchen counters, feast your eyes on the lovely GKILO scale (pronounced kilo) which when not in use looks like another wooden cutting board.

But thanks to a set of cleverly hidden white LEDs on one side, the GKILO displays the weight of whatever you set on it. And when it's upside-down, it displays the time instead. Since there are no buttons, resetting the scale, taring, and setting the time are all accomplished through simple hand gestures.

If you can't get enough of the GKILO's wooden minimalism, there's a matching clock and timer available too called the CLOGK that functions in a similar fashion. White LEDs on its angled surface create the illusion of analog hands moving, displaying the time, or time left, if you've got a countdown running.

Both devices also offer wireless connectivity to an accompanying iOS or Android app, which then allows them to work together. So for example, if you weigh a squash and then let the app know what vegetable it is, it will tell you the recommended cooking time by weight, and then automatically program the CLOGK's timer for you.

Thingk is currently trying to raise $50,000 on Indiegogo to put both devices into production, with a hopeful delivery date of sometime this August. If the company succeeds—both in fundraising and manufacturing—the GKILO and CLOGK will sell for $225 a piece. But earlybird donators to Thingk's Indiegogo cause will be able to buy them for just $100 each, which is a little easier to swallow. Even with the risk they may never see the light of day.

http://www.thin-gk.com/

I like it

 

[Teelie]

Burger King to Bring Back Bizarre "Subservient Chicken" Campaign

Spoiler

Wow, BK, man. Times are rough for these guys eh?

Dustin Diamond? Times are desperate and poor.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

The Price of Electricity In The U.S. Is About to Skyrocket

Here's the sad, dark truth about our aging electrical grid: The way we generate power is not sustainable and needs to change. Here's the other sad, dark truth: As the U.S. becomes more reliant on renewable energy like solar and wind, our electricity bills are going to go up. Way up.

In fact, you might have already seen some rate spikes on your bill. A cold, snowy winter is to blame for some high electricity prices in much of the country, while a drought is driving up prices in the West. But according to this insightful Los Angeles Times article, those temporary shifts are evidence of a larger trend pointing towards increasing "fragility" in the grid:

There is a growing fragility in the U.S. electricity system, experts warn, the result of the shutdown of coal-fired plants, reductions in nuclear power, a shift to more expensive renewable energy and natural gas pipeline constraints. The result is likely to be future price shocks. And they may not be temporary.
Many of the changes are good moves, or at least they will be in the long run: Coal and nuclear plants are being shut down due to environmental concerns, which will reduce carbon emissions, airborne pollution, and the risk of a disaster. But it's getting more expensive to operate those kind of plants in the meantime. The ones that are still around are being taxed heavily or forced to comply with new regulations at a great cost. Some coal plants are being replaced by natural gas, which is less reliable and can fluctuate in price.

But the real problem lies in switching those old systems off and getting the renewable systems—wind power, solar farms—online. Many states have a mandate to convert a certain percentage of their energy production to renewable energy by a certain date, but they still haven't figured out exactly how that plan will work. Plus all these renewable systems need to have access to a backup system, adding still more costs.

California, which is seen as a leader for renewable energy, has the most aggressive mandate: 33 percent of its power must be renewable by 2020. But that means the cost of electricity could rise 47 percent over the next 16 years.

In the long run, this will all be for the best, of course—if we build the infrastructure for renewable energy, eventually the cost-savings will be evident (and hopefully the impact on our environment even more so). Plus, the antiquated tech that brings that coal/nuclear blend to our homes certainly needs to be eradicated—it's old, inefficient and dangerous.

But if customers start seeing their bills go up, they'll freak out and blame the renewable energy sources, says Alex Leupp, of the Northern California Power Agency. "If power gets too expensive, there will be a revolt," Leupp said. "If the state pushes too fast on renewables before the technology is viable, it could set back the environmental goals we all believe in at the end of the day."

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-power-prices-20140426,0,6329274.story#axzz3024QCO00

It's a double edged sword but we have to make this change if we want to survive

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

New Vulnerability Found in Every Single Version of Internet Explorer

According to a confirmation by Microsoft late last night, a new zero day vulnerability has been found to affect every version of Internet Explorer. In other words—over a quarter of the entire browser market.

Attacks taking advantage of the vulnerability are largely targeting IE versions 9, 10, and 11 in something called a "use after free" attack. Essentially, the attack corrupts data as soon as memory has been released, most likely after users have been lured to phony websites. Microsoft explains:

The vulnerability exists in the way that Internet Explorer accesses an object in memory that has been deleted or has not been properly allocated. The vulnerability may corrupt memory in a way that could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code in the context of the current user within Internet Explorer. An attacker could host a specially crafted website that is designed to exploit this vulnerability through Internet Explorer and then convince a user to view the website.
Microsoft is currently investigating the issue and will likely release an out-of-cycle security patch to take care of the problem. Let's just hope it comes soon, because according to security firm Fire Eye, this means that about 26 percent of the entire browser market is at risk.

And since Windows XP users won't be getting the patch for this fairly threatening bug, anyone still running the now-unsupported software is going to have to cough up some big bucks to stay safe. Anyone like—oh, the IRS, for instance.

http://www.cnet.com/news/new-zero-day-vulnerability-identified-in-all-versions-of-ie/

Does anyone here actually use IE?

 

[Teelie]

I use IE strictly as a last resort for certain websites with an inability to properly render in Firefox or Chrome. Luckily that's a rarity these days.

 

[Bran The Man]

I've been using IE for years. I've never had problems with it. But then again, I wasn't aware of the other browsers like Chrome or Firefox until recently. Should I switch over to one of those?

 

[KevanG]

My mother uses it and refuses to use anything else. I use Firefox since when I used IE it was always crashing at least 3-4 times a day when I had multiple tabs open.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

I've been using IE for years. I've never had problems with it. But then again, I wasn't aware of the other browsers like Chrome or Firefox until recently. Should I switch over to one of those?

Go with Chrome it is an infinitely better browser and if you have gmail you can connect with everything. Also if your an android user you can use all of your bookmarks and such on the phone without having to do it all on the phone. Plus when you get a new computer and such you just install Chrome and everything is right there for you. I would highly advise getting away from IE

 

[Bran The Man]

Go with Chrome it is an infinitely better browser and if you have gmail you can connect with everything. Also if your an android user you can use all of your bookmarks and such on the phone without having to do it all on the phone. Plus when you get a new computer and such you just install Chrome and everything is right there for you. I would highly advise getting away from IE

OK. I'll definitely check that out. Thanks!

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Oh I forgot, if your an Iphone user you can still get the Chrome app for your phone too

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Netflix and Verizon Just Signed a Traffic Deal, And That's Bad

Remember how Netflix and Comcast signed a peering deal? And how that could cost us all? Well now, the chickens are coming home to roost because Verizon's making the same deal.

Details are scarce, but presumably, like Comcast's deal, this deal involves Netflix paying Verizon for the luxury of transmitting its data in a more direct fashion. This is (just barely kind of) good because it cuts out the middleman and means better service, but (very very) bad because it establishes the practice of a streaming service like Netflix paying ISPs for higher speeds.

When Comcast muscled Netflix into paying for better connection speeds, it side-stepped other more complicated but pervasive infrastructure problems that will only get worse as more data-heavy services like Netflix pop up. This solution fixes Netflix by letting Netflix pay to avoid the bandwidth choke-points. Meanwhile, those choke-points continue to exist. That initial deal opened the door on pay-to-play juuuust a crack. This follow-up deal with Verizon however, straight-up kicks it down.

And as more and more deals like this happen—and they will—it only becomes harder for upstarts to shoulder the cost of getting in good with ISPs. Not to mention that the price of these deals are an added expense to Netflix and whoever else is up next. An expense you can damn well expect to trickle down to you, sooner or later.

Now that this practice is becoming more firmly established, the only way to stop the slide would be for the FCC to lay down some really stringent rules that prevent exactly this sort of behavior. And while the FCC's latest "net neutrality" proposal isn't out yet, it doesn't look like it will be that stringent at all, and might even explicitly OK this kind of thing.

Get ready for a brave new world.

http://gigaom.com/2014/04/28/verizon-inks-paid-peering-deal-with-netflix/

Well there goes the neighborhood

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

AT&T Plans to Bring You LTE on Airplanes

With the FCC blessing the use of smartphones—and their wireless plans—on planes, perhaps it was only a matter of time until carriers started designing services tailored for the skies. Re/code reports that AT&T wants to bring you 4G/LTE connectivity at 35,000 feet.

While Re/code's report is thin on details, it does contain official quotes from two AT&T executives who confirm that the company is developing an in-flight product that works on 4G/LTE spectrum standards. We don't know how the heck that's supposed to work, but connectivity in the skies is hardly a new idea. The service would pit AT&T against in-flight Wi-Fi providers like GoGo. In-flight wireless coverage is already a reality in parts of the world with more relaxed regulatory structures.

Being able to use your existing data plan on planes would be a godsend for frequent travelers—unless of course it ends up being just as expensive as GoGo was anyways.

http://recode.net/2014/04/28/att-to-take-on-gogo-with-in-flight-lte-service/

That's cool

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

Want some free and legal Adobe software?

It's old but free...

http://gizmodo.com/5973730/grab-photoshop-and-cs2-for-absolutely-free-right-here

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Brain-inspired Microchips Simulate One Million Neurons In Real Time

By modeling a circuit board on the human brain, Stanford bioengineers have developed microchips that are 9,000 times faster than a typical PC. Called Neurogrid, these energy-efficient circuits could eventually power autonomous robots and advanced prosthetic limbs.

Bioengineers are smart to take inspiration from the human brain. It's a highly efficient information processor capable of crunching 100 million instructions per second (MIPS). Astoundingly, it only uses about 20 watts to power its 100 billion neurons. Today, our best supercomputers require a million watts to simulate a million neurons in real time (measured in terraflops). A standard desktop computer requires about 40,000 times more power to run and operates about 9,000 times slower.

The goal, therefore, is to produce information technologies with the power of the human brain. There are several initiatives underway that are working to achieve this goal, including IBM's neurosynaptic chips (and accompanying programming language), the University of Heidelberg's HICANN Chip, and brain-mapping initiatives like the European Human Brain Project.

We can now add another project to the list: Stanford's Neurogrid. But unlike other current efforts, this "neuromorphic" system boasts some incredible energy-saving features.

An Analog State of Mind

The new circuit board, developed by Kwabena Boahen and his colleagues at Stanford, consists of 16 custom-designed "Neurocore" chips working in a tree network configuration. Each of the 16 Neurocores supports 65,536 neurons. Together, these chips can simulate one million neurons and billions of synaptic connections. And incredibly, Neurocore needs just three watts of power to get the job done.

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The designers used traditional transistors, but instead of using digital logic, they used them as analog circuits. To mimic the functions of the human brain (albeit on a drastically reduced scale), the researchers emulated all neural elements (except the soma) with shared electronic circuits — a design decision that maximized the number of synaptic connections. To maximize energy efficiency, the researchers used analog circuits. And to maximize throughput, they interconnected the neural arrays in a tree network.

It's considered the most cost-effective way to simulate neurons. But at $40,000 a piece, the researchers are going to have to figure out a way to drive the costs down.

Miniaturization, Autonomy, Power

Ramped-up and refined versions of this technology could be put to good use. In addition to improving our understanding of how the human brain works, it could be used to interpret signals from the brain and, in real time, use those signals to drive prosthetic limbs for paralyzed people.

These chips could also be used in robotics. A robot implanted with a Neurocore-like chip wouldn't have to be tethered to a power supply, thus increasing its autonomy.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?reload=true&arnumber=6805187

Well this is a big leap forward

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Rick Perry Is a Domestic Financial Terrorist

Toyota is moving most of its U.S. operations from California to Texas. The state of Texas is paying the company $40 million to relocate. This represents an utterly stupid and useless case of corporate welfare detrimental to the public interest.

Texas governor and swaggering moron Rick Perry could be heard bragging to the Wall Street Journal about his pro-business policies paying off: "It is the biggest win we've had in a decade," the slick-haired glad-hander said. "Ten years of tax, regulatory, legal and educational policies have now put Texas at the top of the heap." The paper says that the state of Texas is paying Toyota $10,000 for each job they're moving to the state, the highest per-job rate of corporate welfare in a decade. About 3,000 jobs from California, and another 1,000 from Kentucky, are relocating to Texas.

Is Rick Perry a patriot? I would argue that, to the contrary, Rick Perry is engaged in domestic financial terrorism. These sorts of corporate welfare programs—that use public money in the form of tax breaks and financial incentives to lure businesses from one state to another—sound good, if you pretend that only your state matters, and furthermore, that your state is at war with all of the other states in America, and that you can only win by cannibalizing the resources of another state. If you see America as a nation, though, it quickly becomes clear that these programs are counterproductive and downright idiotic. Here is what the United States of America as a whole has gotten with this deal, which is typical of countless others of this nature:

California (-3,000 jobs) + Kentucky (-1,000 jobs) + Texas (+4,000 jobs)= 0 net jobs.

Financial cost to the public: -$40 million.

So our nation as a whole, thanks to politicians like Rick Perry, has gained zero jobs at a cost of $40 million. Great patriotic financial management there, you swaggering moron. If our federal government was rational it would ban these sorts of state vs. state corporate giveaways, because they only benefit one state at the expense of another state, and they cost public money, so on the whole they represent nothing more than a transfer of public funds into the pockets of corporations. If companies have actual compelling business reasons for moving their operations to a different state, they will do so even without public subsidies; if they don't have an actual compelling business reason to move their operations to a different state, then paying them public money to do so is the opposite of "efficiency" or "common sense." It is a desperate move by suckers (us).

Is Rick Perry pro-business? He sure is. He's pro-business, and anti-American.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303939404579529672654374090

Of course multi-billion dollar companies deserve giant tax breaks for this kind of thing, it's as american as apple pie

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Is Google Getting Ready to Ditch the Nexus Name?

Google is reportedly getting ready to ditch its Nexus branding in favor of a new stringent "Silver"certification program, which would encourage hardware partners to make sick flagships with limited bloatware.

The Information has a (paywalled) report with a lot of details about Google's supposed plans. In short, it sounds like Google wants to set the rules for flagship hardware without having to be so hands-on with its actual development. For consumers, however, the plan might not look too different from the arrangements that already exist, with the exception of the new naming scheme.

According to the report, the prime partners would be Motorola and LG, whereas Samsung and HTC would probably not play along. That mimics the arrangement that exists right now. LG has manufactured that last few Nexus smartphones, and Motorola's Moto X was designed under Google's tutelage. HTC and Samsung, meanwhile, continue to insist on loading their phones with horrid skins that are inferior to stock Android.

We've heard speculation in recent months that Nexus might not continue to exist—and given how far Android has come over the last few years, maybe it makes sense for Google to take a step back.

https://www.theinformation.com/Goog...rogram?token=b46ea9567dd5d5e284d10232f760498e

Well I guess it wont have much effect on us casual users but I could see how this would make an impact at the larger companies

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Disney Researchers Can 3D Print Speakers Into Any Object

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Last year researchers at Cornell University figured out a way to 3D print a functional speaker cone. But now researchers at Disney have one-upped them with a new printing technique that lets any 3d-printed object work like a speaker—no matter its shape.

The secret involves using electrostatic loudspeaker technology that actually dates back to the 1930s, instead of the electromagnetic approach that is far more common these days. The special 3D printing process creates layers of electrodes and insulators in the object, which vibrate when a current is applied.

The sound quality never really comes close to what you'd get from the delicate paper cones used in your home stereo's speaker. But, depending on the size of the object, they can be extremely loud. And they're durable, too, meaning you could 3D print an interactive toy for kids that makes noises when placed on a conducting base, and not have to worry about them destroying it minutes later.

Is there anything the House of Mouse can't do?

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Sprint and Harman's HTC One M8: The Smartphone Made For Music Lovers

Sprint just announced a new Sprint-specific HTC One M8 that harnesses all the goodness of Harman's audio tech. Think of it as a phone for music lovers.

For context, Harman uses sophisticated technology that analyzes the quality of the audio and attempts to rebuild what was lost in lossy compression. Harman Kardon demoed the technology a few weeks ago and it definitely makes a difference. And it certainly makes sense to try develop technology that acknowledges the way people actually listen to music.

So what's in this HTC One that makes it so good for music? And how is it different from the regular ol' HTC One? First of all, it's made with Harman's Clari-Fi tech, which is music restoration technology. One of the merits of the HTC One is its high-fi audio. The Sprint flavor sounds (pun intended for sure) just a little bit better.

Well if Sprint's service didn't suck so bad where I live I would be all over this phone

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

A Plane Fueled By Garbage Could Soon Fly You From New York to London

British Airways has an ambitious and smelly plan: convert municipal waste into 120,000 metric tons of jet fuel. By 2017, they say, the first factory in the world to turn garbage into jet fuel will be up and running. Waste-fueled transatlantic flights could come soon after.

It's all part of a plan that will make flying a little more environmentally friendly, reports ClimateWire. According to British Airways' head of environment Jonathan Counsell, turning trash into biofuel generates twice as much energy as incinerating it for trash.

To that end, British Airways has partnered with Solena Fuels to build a trash-to-jet fuel conversion facility at, appropriately enough, a former oil refinery just east of London. The facility will take the waste cities already collect and turn it into fuel. ClimateWire explains the process:

Once the waste has been cleaned of any hazardous or recyclable materials, it will be combusted in a low-oxygen environment that produces a synthesis gas of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, a process known as gasification. The gas will then be converted to liquid fuel, in a process called Fischer-Tropsch.

While trash-to-jet fuel has been floated as an idea, this new facility represents a large-scale commitment to putting that idea into practice. British Airways has said it will buy 50,000 metric tons of jet fuel a year from this facility. Elsewhere, Boeing has partnered with the USDA and FAA for a "Farm to Fly" program to accelerate the development of turning farm waste into jet fuel. Other airlines have been experimented with algae-based fuels.

Airlines are all into alternative fuels these days because jet fuel has become so expensive, eating up over a third of their operating costs. That sucks for their bottom line, but perhaps it'll end up being just a little better for the Earth.

http://www.eenews.net/stories/1059998443

Well that is a novel approach to fueling the fleet. Less garbage and eco-friendly, seems like a win-win in my book

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Microsoft's Infrared Keyboard Gives Gesture Control to an Average PC

Your laptop's trackpad gestures are great, but they make your desktop computer's keyboard-and-mouse combo feel old-fashioned. Microsoft's prototype keyboard changes that, cramming infrared sensors between the keys to allow hand gesture control without ever leaving the home keys.

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The 64 infrared proximity sensors powering the prototype keyboard have a very low resolution, but with a super-fast refresh rate of 300Hz, they can track rapid hand movement without difficulty. As seen in the video above, the keyboard (which looks like an Apple, rather than Microsoft product) recognizes swipe-to-scroll, pinch-to-zoom, and gestures to switch between programs.

The research project, "Type-Hover-Swipe in 96 Bytes," was presented at this week's Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Toronto. While Microsoft doesn't indicate any concrete plans for production, it definitely looks more practical than Leap Motion, which seemed super-cool, but ended up being kind of clunky in real-world use. In the future, your keyboard will be your mouse.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/29/5664110/microsoft-research-hover-swipe-keyboard-concept

Seems cool but I'd have to get my hands on it to see if it really works as advertised before I would buy one

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

This Sticker Adds Four Customizable Buttons To Your Android Device

Most Android devices don't have a physical home button like the iPhone or iPad, and while it reduces manufacturing costs and is one less thing to break, sometimes it's nice to have that tactile feedback. So not only does the Dimple give you a real home button, it also gives you three others that can be customized to do whatever you need.

And best of all it doesn't require any kind of sketchy hacks or permanent modifications to your device. Using the magic of NFC, it literally just sticks to almost anywhere on your Android smartphone or tablet without the need for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or even its own battery.

[YT]sJ773vbkU3I[/YT]

Each of the four buttons have their own unique NFC ID so that the Dimple's accompanying app and the Android OS can tell them apart when they're pressed. And while the simple accessory should work with any device that comes with NFC, smartphones with metal cases like the HTC One unfortunately don't make the cut.

If you're already sold on the idea, you might be dismayed to hear that the Dimple will actually be launching an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign on May 6—so you can't buy it just yet. But if the campaign is successful, the Dimple's creators are optimistic it will be available as early as August of this year. And for a donation of just $27, it's a surprisingly cheap way to add a lot of extra functionality to your devices.

http://www.ubergizmo.com/2014/04/di...e-buttons-on-your-android/?utm_source=mainrss

Good idea unfortunately I have an HTC One