The basis of Moore’s Law is that the number of transistors on a silicon chip will double approximately every two years.
via Moore’s Law turns 50 | Analysis | Information Age | Australian Computer Society.
Australia: When pranks break the law: hoax conversations
There are many prank phone calls that can be considered criminal offences: Threatening to kill or cause serious harm to someone – and not just the person on the phone; Making a hoax bomb threat is a crime; Making prank calls to 000 pretending there is an emergency is open to jail time of up to three years. Even if the prankster doesn’t threaten their victim, repeated calls can amount to harassment, stalking or bullying. Under the Criminal Code it is illegal to use “a carriage service” (that includes phones, emails, texts and social media) to menace, harass or be offensive – with a penalty of up to three years jail.
via When pranks break the law: hoax conversations – Media, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment – Australia.
Stanford invention could lead to better, cheaper chips :: ElectronicsOnline
Silicon and gallium arsenide both begin their progression from raw crystal to electronic device similarly. Both materials are fashioned into what electronics manufacturers call wafers. These are flat, circular platters of purified material. Subsequent manufacturing steps create computer chips, solar cells or other electronic devices on top of these wafers. But it can cost about $5000 to make a wafer of gallium arsenide 8″ in diameter, versus $5 for a silicon wafer … The new Stanford process seeks to lessen this thousand-to-one cost differential by re-using that $5000 wafer.
via Stanford invention could lead to better, cheaper chips :: ElectronicsOnline.
•Product safety is more important to consumers than a well known brand
•Product safety is more important to consumers than a well known brand.
•Consumers are willing to pay a 16% price premium for products whose safety has been independently verified by a credible, independent third-party as exceeding applicable government safety standards.
•Unsafe Products: 50% consumers had an experience with an unsafe product in past 5 yrs.
•Product Recalls: More than 2/3rds of consumer electronics companies (73%) had a recall in past 5yrs and 22% had more than 20 recalls.
•There is significant concern for the safety of consumer electronics, more so than food or toys.
•90% of consumers rate third-party testing as important or VERY important.
•84% of management believes product safety issues existing in the consumer electronics industry
see the article at
http://www.tuv-sud-america.com/us-en/services-by-activity/focus-topics/safety-gauge-s
All-electric cars may be worse for environment
The key is where the source of the electricity all-electric cars. If it comes from coal, the electric cars produce 3.6 times more soot and smog deaths than gas, because of the pollution made in generating the electricity, according to the study that is published in PNAS. They also are significantly worse at heat-trapping carbon dioxide that worsens global warming, it found.
The study examines environmental costs for cars’ entire lifecycle, including where power comes from and the environmental effects of building batteries.
“Unfortunately, when a wire is connected to an electric vehicle at one end and a coal-fired power plant at the other end, the environmental consequences are worse than driving a normal gasoline-powered car,” said Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution for Science, who wasn’t part of the study but praised it.
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But if the power supply comes from natural gas, the all-electric car produces half as many air pollution health problems as gas-powered cars do. And if the power comes from wind, water or wave energy, it produces about one-quarter of the air pollution deaths.
Hybrids and diesel engines are cleaner than gas, causing fewer air pollution deaths and spewing less heat-trapping gas.
But ethanol isn’t, with 80 percent more air pollution mortality, according to the study.
“If we’re using ethanol for environmental benefits, for air quality and climate change, we’re going down the wrong path,” Hill said.
UNSW’s solar cell achieves 40% efficiency :: ElectronicsOnline
“This is the highest efficiency ever reported for sunlight conversion into electricity,” UNSW Scientia Professor and Director of the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics (ACAP) Professor Martin Green said.
“We used commercial solar cells, but in a new way, so these efficiency improvements are readily accessible to the solar industry,” added Dr Mark Keevers, the UNSW solar scientist who managed the project.
“The new results are based on the use of focused sunlight and are particularly relevant to photovoltaic power towers being developed in Australia,” Professor Green said.
via UNSW’s solar cell achieves 40% efficiency :: ElectronicsOnline.
Mortality and Morbidity: Children’s Accidents and Injurie Australian Social Trends, 2005
Boys are more likely than girls to experience and die as a result of an injury. While half of all children are boys (at 30 June 2001, 51% of 1-14 year olds were boys), nearly two-thirds of injury deaths for this age group between 1999 and 2003 were boys (62%). This difference between girls and boys in relation to injury and deaths exists regardless of the child’s age, and across all OECD countries.
via 4102.0 – Australian Social Trends, 2005.
Squirrel cuts off power to part of Silicon Valley
A power outage that left part of Silicon Valley in the dark early Saturday was caused by a squirrel, an electric company spokesperson told The San Francisco Chronicle. Nearly 2,000 customers in Cupertino were without power for about two hours. Power was restored around 8:30 a.m., said the paper on its website.
3-in-1 USB Chargers Recalled Due to Fire Hazard | In Compliance Magazine
(profiled for USA)
Tectron International has issued a recall for approximately 55,000 USB chargers because the chargers can overheat while in use, posing a fire hazard. The 3-in-1 chargers feature a 10-foot white cord with a USB plug on one end and 30-pin plug, lightning plug, and a mini USB plug on the other end. The chargers are compatible with different models iPhone, iPads, and android phones. The chargers were sold during school fundraisers from July 2014 to August 2014.
via 3-in-1 USB Chargers Recalled Due to Fire Hazard | In Compliance Magazine.
The Great Lightbulb Conspiracy – IEEE Spectrum
The Phoebus cartel engineered a shorter-lived lightbulb and gave birth to planned obsolescence. Phoebus expended considerable technical effort into engineering a shorter-lived lightbulb.
How exactly did the cartel pull off this engineering feat? It wasn’t just a matter of making an inferior or sloppy product; anybody could have done that. But to create one that reliably failed after an agreed-upon 1,000 hours took some doing over a number of years. The household lightbulb in 1924 was already technologically sophisticated: The light yield was considerable; the burning time was easily 2,500 hours or more. By striving for something less, the cartel would systematically reverse decades of progress.
Browser Beware: Wi-Fi Users Sign Over First-Born Children – IEEE Spectrum
The results of a social experiment in London suggest that on-the-go Internet users are not being as careful as they should be when connecting to unfamiliar networks. In order to connect to a rigged Wi-Fi network set up by mobile security firm F-Secure, six users agreed to sign over their first born children to the company. … “and during the experiment a lawyer supervised all our activities to avoid breaching any laws.”
Presumably, F-Secure does not intend to enforce the clause assigning them custody of users’ children, either.
via Browser Beware: Wi-Fi Users Sign Over First-Born Children – IEEE Spectrum.
How Google’s Autonomous Car Passed the First U.S. State Self-Driving Test – IEEE Spectrum
How Google’s Autonomous Car Passed the First U.S. State Self-Driving Test – IEEE Spectrum.
“Perhaps overly cautious approaching some lights,” he wrote. The other column shows that Google’s car was not tested on roundabouts. There were similar checks for railroad crossings, unpaved roads, school zones, and shopping centers. In communication with the Nevada DMV before the test, Google said its policy was to prohibit autonomous operation at railroad crossings that lack signals and for human drivers to take over. It also noted: “[Roundabouts are] particularly challenging, where many drivers don’t know the proper rules in the first place.” In an e-mail to colleagues at the DMV, Breslow wrote, “We can’t fail an applicant for not being able to navigate a traffic circle if they say that there [sic] vehicle can’t yet do it.”
…
What would the Prius do when confronted by something unexpected? That happened several times during the 22-km test drive. At one point, a bicycle weaved in front of the car. The car backed off before passing the cyclist safely. The Prius also correctly anticipated a pedestrian running across the street. Construction work, however, proved trickier. When faced with a partially blocked-off road, the car switched between autonomous and manual modes and then braked to a halt, requiring the safety driver to take control. Wojcik also recorded that the car needed driver assistance with some turns, although she did not note the circumstances.
World data transfer record back in Danish hands – Technical University of Denmark
… proving that it is possible to transfer fully 43 terabits per second with just a single laser in the transmitter. This is an appreciable improvement on the German team’s previous record of 26 terabits per second.
via World data transfer record back in Danish hands – Technical University of Denmark.
IBM Research: Neurosynaptic chips
IBM Research: Neurosynaptic chips.
IBM built a new chip with a brain-inspired computer architecture powered by an unprecedented 1 million neurons and 256 million synapses. It is the largest chip IBM has ever built at 5.4 billion transistors, and has an on-chip network of 4,096 neurosynaptic cores. Yet, it only consumes 70mW during real-time operation — orders of magnitude less energy than traditional chips.
IBM Security: “Heartbleed” internet SSL vulnerability
Heartbleed has the potential to be one of the biggest, most widespread vulnerabilities in history. Learn more about it, how it manifests itself and how you can protect yourself from being compromised. – http://lnkd.in/btrVPVy
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