Orbital Sciences Cygnus spacecraft heads to ISS with supplies

Shane McGlaun | Science, Space, Health & Robotics | Jul 15, 2014 10:06 AM CDT

Typically, when we talk about missions to the ISS to resupply the crew aboard the space station, we are talking about SpaceX. The other company that has a contract in the US to resupply the ISS is Orbital Sciences, and it has just launched its third mission to the ISS.

Orbital put its Cygnus unmanned spacecraft into orbit yesterday with a cargo hold packed with supplies for the space station. Among the supplies aboard the spacecraft was food, science gear, and mini satellites. Cygnus launched and was successfully put into the required orbit to link up with the ISS after a "perfect" launch. Orbital has one more resupply mission set for this year with three to take place in 2015.

"Today's mission was the fourth successful launch of Antares in the past 15 months and the third deployment of Cygnus in less than year," said David W. Thompson, Orbital's president and CEO. "So far, our second operational CRS mission is off to a great start with Cygnus operating exactly as anticipated at this early stage of the mission. We are very pleased to be a reliable partner with NASA to meet their need for reliable, regularly scheduled cargo resupply for the ISS."

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Chromebooks outpace OS X and Windows in commercial sales

Shane McGlaun | Computer Systems | Jul 15, 2014 6:01 AM CDT

The Chromebook may not be putting a massive dent in the consumer market when it comes to outselling OS X and Windows machines to the public, but in the business and education market Chromebooks are growing massively. In the three weeks that ended on June 7, Chromebooks were a solid 40% of all computers sold in the commercial realm.

Commercial sales include sales to businesses, schools, governments, and other organizations. Beating out Mac and Windows machines in the education environment is a big deal as that is a very coveted market for all manufacturers. The reason so much weight is placed on educational sales is that when you get users when they are young, they are more likely to stick with a platform forever.

"Chrome's unit strength ahead of this year's education buying season shows how it has become a legitimate third platform alongside Windows and Mac OS X and iOS," Stephen Baker, NPD vice president of industry analysis, says. "The next test for Chrome will clearly be the most difficult, as both Apple and Microsoft get more aggressive in pricing and deal making over the next few months", Baker says. "By the end of the third quarter we will have a much clearer picture of the long-term impact Chromebooks will have in the commercial channel".

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Ferrari designer creates luxury train for Japan Rail East

Shane McGlaun | Business, Politics & Money | Jul 15, 2014 5:24 AM CDT

Many people get around by train all around the world, but Japan has some of the coolest trains in the world. The Japanese bullet trains can streak down the rails at very high speeds cutting transit times significantly. A Japanese rail service called Japan Rail East has had a Ferrari designer create a very cool luxury train.

The designer creating the sleek train is Ken Okuyama and the design is called the Cruise Titan and is set to go into service in the spring of 2017. The train will hold 34 passengers and is to feature ten carriages with five suites inside. One of the suites will be a deluxe unit and the train will feature two glass walled observation cars, a dining car, and a lounge.

The train will have an observation car in the front to allow the passengers to see down the tracks in front of the train. All of the suites will have a shower and toilet with space for four people to sleep. Cruise Titan will be able to operate on electric and non-electric rails.

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PC hardware market valued at over $21.5 billion, what consoles?

Anthony Garreffa | Business, Financial & Legal | Jul 15, 2014 4:30 AM CDT

Jon Peddie Research, or JPR, has a new report out that sees the PC hardware market valued at a huge $21.5 billion. This figure is over twice the amount of the console gaming market, which should see people finally seeing that the PC market is just as, if not more important than the console market.

JPR Senior Analyst Ted Pollak said: "We continue to see a shift in casual console customers moving to mobile. While this is also occurring in the lower-end PC gaming world, more money is being directed to mid- and high-range builds and upgrades by gamers". Pollak continued, saying that PC gamers simply aren't interested in gaming consoles, something he calls "pure content consumption platforms".

He added that PC gamers have no problems paying thousands of dollars for "the ability to play games at very high settings" while also having the ability to do other desktop tasks, such as content creation and video editing "with maximum horsepower at their disposal in a desktop ergonomic environment".

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Rift DK2 customer tries to sell his VR headset on eBay for $5,000

A US-based Oculus Rift DK2 pre-order customer had attempted to sell his Rift DK2 unit (once he received it) on eBay for $5,000 - but once the VR community saw what was going on, they contacted Oculus VR which swiftly cancelled this order.

This person claims to have made his pre-order on the morning that Oculus VR announced the Rift DK2 unit, and is based in Laguna Beach. He went to eBay to sell his pre-order for some $5,000 - but was shut down within hours. 'cyberreality' on the Oculus VR forums, who is the Community Manager for the Facebook-owned VR start up, said posted in the Oculus VR forums: "Don't worry guys. We found him and cancelled his order".

The forum exploded with praise from future Rift DK2 owners with posts such as "This was literally the highlight of my afternoon" from 'racerx2', and "AWESOME!! Thank you!" from the thread starter, 'kingzope'.

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Hacker involved in $14 million theft pleads guilty to bank fraud

Michael Hatamoto | Hacking, Security & Privacy | Jul 14, 2014 7:36 PM CDT

Qendrim Dobruna, 27, has pleaded guilty to bank fraud in a case stemming back to 2011, and could face up to 30 years in prison. Operating under the names "cL0sEd" and "cL0z," he played a part in an operation that lasted 48 hours and led to $14 million stolen - with criminals withdrawing the funds via ATMs in 20 different countries.

Dobruna initially decided to plead not guilty, but thought better of it before changing his plea to guilty - and will serve at least nine years. Dobruna and his accomplices chose to defraud "JPMorgan Chase, and to obtain moneys, funds, credits and other property owned by, and under the custody and control of said financial institution, by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises," according to the federal government's indictment.

It took a growing number of cybercrime-related cases before the federal government jumped into action - but criminals conducting fraud and theft on a large scale are increasingly being targeted by police and federal agencies.

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Scientists patent a new flexible nano-pixel bendable screen technology

Scientists were able to invent a nano-pixel ultra high definition. The researchers at the Oxford University were able to achieve this by using a very small layer of a phase-change material which also allows you to be bend while maintains thousandths of a millimetre thickness.

Phase change materials are used for heat management purposes, and is used in rewritable DVDs. The layer is kept between two transparent electrodes and were able to produce pixels are as small as 300 nanometers which is smaller than the width of a human hair.This technology and has a lot of usefulness especially for wearable technology that benefits from foldable or flexible screens while having minimum thickness, such as smart contact lenses.

This implementation will still time take to appear as ready-to-use products. As of now, they aren't able to use it to display movable pictures but it is able to produce different colour changes. Professor Harish Bhaskaran explained,"The cool part about this is that the functional part is very thin. Because of that you could actually have displays that are non-intrusive, because you can keep the electronics far away."

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Verizon blames Netflix for intentionally slowing down its own traffic

Roshan Ashraf Shaikh | Internet & Websites | Jul 14, 2014 5:04 AM CDT

Netflex and Verizon are having a catfight about allegedly capping internet bandwidth that affects the online streaming service. This time, Verizon is pointing its fingers at Netflix, claiming in its blog post that the streaming service is stifling its own subscriber's experience.

Verizon said that its subscriber complained of fetting bad Netflix performance even though he is using the 75Mbps FiOS connection plan. But Verizon defended its internet service by saying that there is no congestion from the company's broadband infrastructure, which offloads all the suspicion on Netflix.

Verizon's operations team conducted a study when it received a complaint from its customer when Netflix sent a mail to its Verizon's dastardly deed. Verizon explained that congestion happens when it reaches 100% capacity which usually happens during peak usage periods. However, when they compared with other services which uses non-Netflix traffic, there was no congestion at all.

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Pentagon studying 'neuroprosthetics' to help recall lost memories

The Pentagon is investing millions of dollars to develop technology that can be used for brain implants able to help patients recall memories. The surgically-installed implant is the latest idea from "neuroprosthetics," designed to help military personnel wounded and suffering from traumatic brain injuries (TBIs).

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has teamed up with the University of Pennsylvania and University of California at Los Angeles, working together on the Restoring Active Memory program. Geared towards declarative memory, which is the brain's method to "record and recall times, places and other facts necessary for daily living."

"We don't have the Rosetta Stone for the memory system," said Michael Kahana, University of Pennsylvania computational memory lab director, in a recent statement. "The DARPA project is trying to dramatically accelerate that effort to decipher that Rosetta Stone. We're poised to do it. With this multisite effort, we might just be able to pull it off."

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Internet helping prostitution thrive, using website marketing

Michael Hatamoto | Internet & Websites | Jul 13, 2014 4:22 PM CDT

Street walkers and criminals trying to exploit prostitution are finding great success by becoming more Internet savvy, promoting their activities with little risk of law enforcement interference. Higher-end escorts - generating $500+ per hour for their "company" - rely on websites and Internet advertising to generate interest.

A survey of sex workers found they gave an average response of 3.91 on a scale of 1-10 when asked about risk of arrest - and more than 31 percent of those asked rated risk just 1 or 2.5.

"If a prostitute invests in her website's copy editing, professional photographs, or video, this may signal to potential customers her quality, education level, or income (and thus popularity or success in the market)," said Scott R. Peppet, University of Colorado law professor, in a recent research paper. "Such signals matter: evidence suggests, for example, that sex workers proficient in English can charge higher prices and are more likely to attract customers, and that prostitutes willing to reveal an accurate picture of themselves command higher prices."

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