Author: Robin Edgar

Organisational Structures | Technology and Science | Military, IT and Lifestyle consultancy | Social, Broadcast & Cross Media | Flying aircraft

China Bitcoin Crackdown Leads To BTC Price Plummet and also Cheaper Graphics Cards

Posted on by Robin Edgar

With graphics cards seeming harder to get than ever, China’s stricter measures against Bitcoin mining have led to lower prices online in the country. In Yunnan, the country’s fourth-largest Bitcoin-producing province, authorities have been investigating illegal electrical power use tied to Bitcoin mining and are threatening to cut power to those involved in the practice. Read more about China Bitcoin Crackdown Leads To BTC Price Plummet and also Cheaper Graphics Cards[…]

Turn One of the Nurburgring Nordschleife Named for Sabine Schmitz

Posted on by Robin Edgar

It’s only fitting that Sabine is paid tribute at the track itself, after her much-too-young death back in March, following a fight with cancer. Turn 1 of the Nordschleife has been renamed, becoming Sabine Schmitz Kurve, to honor her at the start of every lap taken at a circuit that is, without doubt, hers. Porsche Read more about Turn One of the Nurburgring Nordschleife Named for Sabine Schmitz[…]

‘Atomically thin’ transistors could help make electronic skins a reality

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Stanford researchers have developed a new technique that produces “atomically-thin” transistors under 100 nanometers long. That’s “several times” shorter than the previous best, according to the university. The team accomplished the feat by overcoming a longstanding hurdle in flexible tech. While ‘2D’ semiconductors are the ideal, they require so much heat to make that they’d Read more about ‘Atomically thin’ transistors could help make electronic skins a reality[…]

Koenigsegg, the Maker of $3 Million Supercars, Experiments With Volcano Fuel – Bloomberg

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Hypercars with $3 million price tags aren’t usually synonymous with environmental sustainability. Christian von Koenigsegg, founder and chief executive of Koenigsegg Automotive, wants to change that. The Ängelholm, Sweden-based company is experimenting with ultra-high-voltage battery packs and biofuels using emissions from volcanoes to build environmentally “benign” and potentially even carbon-neutral cars, without sacrificing performance. […] Read more about Koenigsegg, the Maker of $3 Million Supercars, Experiments With Volcano Fuel – Bloomberg[…]

Hyperion’s New Hydrogen-Powered XP-1 Supercar Has 1000 Miles of Range, recharges in 5 minutes, 0-60mpg in 3 seconds

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Southern California–based Hyperion Companies, Inc., and its Hyperion Motors division, is banking on cutting-edge, space-grade hydrogen fuel-cell technology to help consumers embrace the electric car market with much more vigor. Hyperion’s first salvo in the battle against combustion is the XP-1 prototype—a futuristic supercar with a claimed 1,016-mile range and the ability to haul to Read more about Hyperion’s New Hydrogen-Powered XP-1 Supercar Has 1000 Miles of Range, recharges in 5 minutes, 0-60mpg in 3 seconds[…]

Hackers Are Selling Data Stolen From Audi and Volkswagen

Posted on by Robin Edgar

On Friday, Volkswagen disclosed a data breach that it said affected 3.3 million customers and interested buyers. On Monday, hackers put the data stolen from the car maker on sale on a notorious hacking forum. In the sales listing reviewed by Motherboard, a hacker that goes by 000 wrote that the data included email addresses Read more about Hackers Are Selling Data Stolen From Audi and Volkswagen[…]

Bombshell Report Finds Phone Network Encryption Was Deliberately Weakened

Posted on by Robin Edgar

It was a closed source backdoored system. This goes to show that weakening encryption for political reasons and trusting software that can’t be audited independently is a Bad Idea ™ A weakness in the algorithm used to encrypt cellphone data in the 1990s and 2000s allowed hackers to spy on some internet traffic, according to Read more about Bombshell Report Finds Phone Network Encryption Was Deliberately Weakened[…]

New ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ Game Has Game Streamers Worried Over Integral Music In The Game, shows you how stupid copyright and DMCA is nowadays

Posted on by Robin Edgar

With streaming games and “let’s plays” becoming a dominant force of influence in the gaming world, one of the sillier trends we’ve seen is video games coming out with “stream safe” settings that strip out audio content for which there is no broadcast license. We’ve talked already about how this sort of thing is not Read more about New ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ Game Has Game Streamers Worried Over Integral Music In The Game, shows you how stupid copyright and DMCA is nowadays[…]

Recent US Antitrust Push Is Weirdly Narrow, Pretends Telecom And Banking Don’t Exist

Posted on by Robin Edgar

[…] The U.S. is dominated by anticompetitive giants in banking, telecom, insurance, health care, air travel, and countless other sectors. And generally, we’ve historically encouraged them by underfunding our regulators, steadily weakening antitrust enforcement, rubber stamping merger after terrible merger, and replacing competent Judges with bobble head dolls. All under the pretense that doing anything Read more about Recent US Antitrust Push Is Weirdly Narrow, Pretends Telecom And Banking Don’t Exist[…]

Meringue-like material could make aircraft as quiet as a hairdryer

Posted on by Robin Edgar

An incredibly light new material that can reduce aircraft engine noise and improve passenger comfort has been developed at the University of Bath. The graphene oxide-polyvinyl alcohol aerogel weighs just 2.1kg per cubic metre, making it the lightest sound insulation ever manufactured. It could be used as insulation within aircraft engines to reduce noise by Read more about Meringue-like material could make aircraft as quiet as a hairdryer[…]

In Brazil, Criminals Steal Phones to Empty Victims’ Bank Account

Posted on by Robin Edgar

São Paulo pickpockets are increasingly stealing people’s smartphones not to pawn off the device, but rather to gain access to their bank account. That’s according to a report from Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo this week. As first spotted by 9to5 Mac, the report claims this kind of theft has been going on since the Read more about In Brazil, Criminals Steal Phones to Empty Victims’ Bank Account[…]

China has an inhabited space station: Shenzhou-12 delivers first crew to Tianhe module

Posted on by Robin Edgar

China has launched three astronauts into orbit to begin occupation of the country’s new space station. The three men – Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo – are to spend three months aboard the Tianhe module some 380km (236 miles) above the Earth. It will be China’s longest crewed space mission to date and Read more about China has an inhabited space station: Shenzhou-12 delivers first crew to Tianhe module[…]

‘GTA Online’ will shut down on PS3 and Xbox 360 on December 16th

Posted on by Robin Edgar

It’s almost the end of the line for those who’ve been causing havoc in Los Santos with their friends on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Rockstar Games says it will shut down the Grand Theft Auto Online servers for those consoles on December 16th, bringing an end to the multiplayer mode as well as website Read more about ‘GTA Online’ will shut down on PS3 and Xbox 360 on December 16th[…]

FB, Uni of Michigans latest AI doesn’t just detect deep fakes, it knows where they came from

Posted on by Robin Edgar

On Wednesday, Facebook and Michigan State University debuted a novel method of not just detecting deep fakes but discovering which generative model produced it by reverse engineering the image itself. Beyond telling you if an image is a deep fake or not, many current detection systems can tell whether the image was generated in a Read more about FB, Uni of Michigans latest AI doesn’t just detect deep fakes, it knows where they came from[…]

Android, Apple Mobile Ecosystems Face UK Antitrust Probe Amid Competition Fears

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Google and Apple Inc. face a sweeping probe into the “duopoly” power of their mobile ecosystems, in the U.K. antitrust watchdog’s latest attack on Silicon Valley. The increasingly tech-focused Competition and Markets Authority opened a 12-month market study into broad aspects of the iOS and Android systems, saying it feared the companies’ dominance is stifling Read more about Android, Apple Mobile Ecosystems Face UK Antitrust Probe Amid Competition Fears[…]

Southwest Airlines cancels 500 flights after computer glitch grounds fleet – for 2nd time in 24 hours

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Southwest Airlines (LUV.N) said on Tuesday it canceled about 500 flights and delayed hundreds of others after it was forced to temporarily halt operations over a computer issue — the second time in 24 hours it had been forced to stop flights. The Federal Aviation Administration said it had issued a temporary nationwide groundstop at Read more about Southwest Airlines cancels 500 flights after computer glitch grounds fleet – for 2nd time in 24 hours[…]

Amazon is blocking Google’s FLoC

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Most of Amazon’s properties including Amazon.com, WholeFoods.com and Zappos.com are preventing Google’s tracking system FLoC — or Federated Learning of Cohorts — from gathering valuable data reflecting the products people research in Amazon’s vast e-commerce universe, according to website code analyzed by Digiday and three technology experts who helped Digiday review the code. Amazon declined to comment on this story. As Google’s system Read more about Amazon is blocking Google’s FLoC[…]

Open-source projects glibc and gnulib look to sever copyright ties with Free Software Foundation

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The GNU C Library (glibc) and GNU Portability Library (gnulib) are laying the groundwork to divorce themselves from the troubled Free Software Foundation by removing the requirement for copyright assignment. This move follows in the footsteps of the same shift by the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) on 2 June. Like many projects under the GNU Read more about Open-source projects glibc and gnulib look to sever copyright ties with Free Software Foundation[…]

Ukraine police collar six Clop ransomware gang suspects in joint raids with South Korean cops

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Ukrainian police have arrested six people, alleged to be members of the notorious Clop* ransomware gang, seizing cash, cars – and a number of Apple Mac laptops and desktops. “It was established that six defendants carried out attacks of malicious software such as ‘ransomware’ on the servers of American and [South] Korean companies,” alleged Ukraine’s Read more about Ukraine police collar six Clop ransomware gang suspects in joint raids with South Korean cops[…]

Alibaba suffers billion-item data leak including usernames and mobile numbers

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Alibaba’s Chinese shopping operation Taobao has suffered a data breach of over a billion data points including usernames and mobile phone numbers. The info was lifted from the site by a crawler developed by an affiliate marketer. Chinese outlet 163.com reported the case last week and today it was picked up by the Wall Street Read more about Alibaba suffers billion-item data leak including usernames and mobile numbers[…]

Finding next-gen space tech: DASA launches the Space to Innovate Campaign

Posted on by Robin Edgar

[..] To promote space resilience and operational effectiveness, the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) is pleased to announce that we have teamed up with the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) Space Programme to launch the Space to Innovate Campaign. […] The first challenge drop, called the “Alpha challenge drop” in the Space to Innovate Read more about Finding next-gen space tech: DASA launches the Space to Innovate Campaign[…]

Tracking China’s Sudden Airpower Expansion Along Its Western Border

Posted on by Robin Edgar

[…] China’s heavy investment in airpower-related facilities in the region is already being leveraged by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF), as evidenced by an unprecedented level of activity along the Sino-Indian border as of late. This is in addition to massive growth in ground-based air defenses, as well as the construction of Read more about Tracking China’s Sudden Airpower Expansion Along Its Western Border[…]

Use of PFAS in cosmetics ‘widespread,’ new study finds – not a good thing

Posted on by Robin Edgar

According to the study, 56% of foundations and eye products, 48% of lip products and 47% of mascaras tested were found to contain high levels of fluorine, which is an indicator of PFAS use in the product. . Credit: University of Notre Dame Many cosmetics sold in the United States and Canada likely contain high levels Read more about Use of PFAS in cosmetics ‘widespread,’ new study finds – not a good thing[…]

Scientists Create Enzyme That Can Destroy Plastic Within Days, Not Years

Posted on by Robin Edgar

[…] it looks like researchers have developed the perfect thing to combat this problem. They’ve developed a cocktail of plastic-eating enzymes which can actually degrade plastic in a matter of days — something that normally takes hundreds of years to degrade. The enzyme cocktail includes PETase and MHETase. These are produced by a type of Read more about Scientists Create Enzyme That Can Destroy Plastic Within Days, Not Years[…]

House introduces five antitrust bills targeting Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Lawmakers in the House have introduced five new bills that would place significant limits on major tech companies, including Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon.The proposed legislation is part of a broader effort to step up antitrust enforcement against tech giants.The bills would place new limits on the companies’ ability to acquire new business and change Read more about House introduces five antitrust bills targeting Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon[…]