Curie, a 10,500-kilometer-long undersea cable, now connects Google data centers in the US and Chile. Today, Google announced that the fiber optic cable has been successfully installed and tested. It is expected to begin transmitting data in the second quarter of 2020, and Google is already working on a branch into Panama.
Curie (named after scientist Marie Curie) contains four 18 terabit per second (Tbps) fiber-optic pairs, which allow it to deliver 72 Tbps of bandwidth. As Google points out, 98 percent of its traffic travels through fiber optic cables, and in areas like Chile, Google cannot grow using existing cables, which are nearing end-of-life and don't have enough capacity. Submarine cable systems like Curie offer an alternative.
GitHub, the software collaboration platform recently acquired by Microsoft, will store 6,000 software repositories in long-term storage.
The open-source software will be stored at Piql's data center in Svalbard, known as the Arctic World Archive. Instead of hard drives or tape, the company uses its own proprietary film which is designed to last for 1,000 years.
The selected collection includes the source code for the Linux and Android operating systems; the programming languages Python, Ruby, and Rust; web platforms Node, V8, React, and Angular; cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Ethereum; AI tools TensorFlow and FastAI; and more. GitHub will store all active public repositories as of February 2, 2020.
As with its other models, Tesla gave Cybertruck some thoughtful goodies. It has 120-volt and 240-volt power outlets and an onboard air compressor, turning the truck into a mobile power station for work sites. According to previous Twitter reveals from Musk, it can parallel park itself (now a common feature in new cars) should it ever wander into a city. And, for unclear reasons, it’s bulletproof, at least to a 9-millimeter handgun. Though when Musk invited Tesla designer Franz von Holzhausen to throw a metal ball at the window, the result was major cracking, and a somewhat embarrassed CEO.
But other electric pickups are coming. Startup Rivian has attracted hundreds of millions of dollars of investment and has repurposed an old Mitsubishi factory in Normal, Ill. Its R-1T pickup is slated to go on sale in late 2020 starting at $69,000. Michigan-based Bollinger is promising a muscular-looking 614-hp pickup for $125,000. Lordstown Motors, a fledgling truckmaker, is taking over the GM factory outside Youngstown, Ohio, to make electric pickups. It said Thursday that its first truck, the Endurance, would go on sale next fall starting at $52,500.
MotorTrend on potential manufacturing efficiencies
If the Cybertruck is a shock to the eyes, it's a jump-start to reimagining the foundational assumptions about vehicle appearance, engineering, and manufacturing. Remember Elon Musk's plans to leapfrog car assembly with a high-speed, robotic, alien dreadnaught "machine-that-builds-the-machine" that would fire-hose Model 3s out its tailpipe? He had to sheepishly remove some of the robots and conveyor belts to speed things up. Now, the "machines-that-will-build" the Cybertruck will go dramatically skinnier, scaling the dreadnaught down to simple dinghies that groove and bend (with the $200 million paint shop getting an auditor's line drawn through it). Real progress is assembled from the debris of failures.
Autoblog on why the concept car will likely evolve
Given how extreme the design is, don't expect that the Cybertruck as presented last night will reach production unchanged. In fact, it’s about as concept car-like as any previous Tesla reveal to date.
In true concept car fashion, there are no mirrors or wipers, and the lighting is also questionable. This concept doesn’t even appear to have camera mirrors installed anywhere, and who knows when those will be greenlit by U.S. regulators anyway. The Cybertruck has just one light bar in the front and another light bar in back. We’re not sure where the third brake light is yet either. It looks like the turn signals may be hiding down by the bumper, but the light bar across the front appears to house both the headlights and one massive DRL.
Enter the Mustang Mach-E, a gamble so great for the world’s sixth-largest automaker that the galloping horse on the vehicle’s grille is one of the few things in common with its predecessor. The Mustang’s slinky silhouette—long hood, short rear deck—has been altered to accommodate the bulbous curves of a four-door, albeit still rear-wheel-drive, utility vehicle. Its signature snarl, courtesy of the internal combustion engine, has been replaced by the subtle whine of a battery-powered electric motor. (Ford will add an artificial sound for the benefit of unwary pedestrians and U.S. regulators.) It’s expected to retail in the $40,000 range with a $7,500 federal rebate, a substantial premium over the $27,000 gasoline-powered base Mustang but competitive with electric-auto maker Tesla’s popular Model 3 sedan. Its range is approximately 300 miles, also on par with the Model 3.
One particularly interesting feature is not digital at all. It is its "frunk" - the front trunk. It has 4.8 cubic feet of storage, big enough to hold a carry-on-size suitcase, but it's being tipped as a tailgating or picnic-basket carrier, since it also has a drain located at the bottom of the storage compartment. With such, Ford says that the frunk can be packed full of ice and used as a cooler for camping or tailgating. It also sounds like the perfect place for dirty or muddy things, since the frunk could be easily rinsed out.
The airline has tested dual boarding and deplaning in Sacramento and a couple of other cities on and off for the past few years to gauge how much faster it gets passengers on and off planes and reduces the turnaround time between flights.
Southwest's so-called turn times – a measure of the time from when the plane locks at the gate and leaves again – were as low as 10 minutes in the scrappy carrier's early days and have long been a financial boon and competitive advantage for Southwest.
Today, they average 42 minutes. The airline's flights in Burbank and Long Beach, California, older airports where dual boarding and deplaning has long been the standard for airlines due to the airport facilities, have among the quickest turnaround times in the company.
Goldberg said the Sacramento experiment is just one piece of a puzzle Southwest is working on to make its operation more efficient as it approaches its 50th birthday in a couple of years.
It comprises of a traditionally-looking cane, completed by a handle. The innovative device features dual sensors which vibrate to alert the user of upcoming danger at ground & chest level. The battery can be charged via a USB and it functions up to five hours.
WeWALK is mobile-integrated: connecting to apps via Bluetooth, it enables control with a touchpad or voice command, with no need to hold the phone in one’s hand.
The integration of apps like Uber and Lyft means access to easy urban mobility, while Google Maps provides an accurate navigation system when walking. WeWALK also features an LED light to assist partially sighted people.
Due to the rising interest in the segment WeWALK faces direct competition with other products such as the MIT awarded Smart Cane Device, the Malaysian engineered BAWA cane and the GPS integrated SmartCane.
"Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the Bill Gates–backed fund, has made long-duration storage one of its highest priorities. In addition to Form, it has backed Quidnet and Malta, another thermal startup that relies on molten salt as the storage medium (see “Alphabet is in talks to spin out its molten-salt storage play”).
Meanwhile, Japanese conglomerate SoftBank recently invested $110 million in the Swiss mechanical storage startup Energy Vault, which uses cranes and wires to stack up concrete blocks when renewables are generating excess electricity. It then drops those blocks back to the ground on those same wires, using their momentum to turn motors in the cranes in reverse and pump out electricity."
Tobii was founded in 2001 after John Elvesjö, then an engineering student, built a computerized camera that could count bubbles in liquids. After realizing it could also track his pupils, he began developing an eye-tracking system that could control a computer. The team initially positioned its system for use in scientific research but quickly identified a market in health care. “We had experts approach us at trade shows and conferences saying, ‘Do you understand how much good this could do for people with disabilities?’” said Henrik Eskilsson, chief executive and co-founder.
Eye-tracking technology has been around for decades, but the devices were complicated, said Werner Goertz, senior director at the market research firm Gartner Inc. Today, companies such as Tobii are selling technology that allows other companies to add eye-tracking capabilities to their own products, allowing startups in industries including health care, retail, automotive and consumer electronics to test it out. “You just buy it off the shelf and stick your own application on top of it,” said Mr. Goetz.
In its mission to claw its way back from bankruptcy and reestablish itself in the hypercompetitive toy market, the brand has a new high-tech angle. Toys “R” Us, or rather Tru Kids (the company that is helping to manage the brand names left in the wake of the liquidation last year), has teamed up with b8ta, a software company that specializes in immersive retail experiences, and will each own 50% of the new endeavor. According to CNBC, the company hopes to open 10 stores around the U.S. in 2020 and may even bring back its New York City flagship.
Evolution gave the Burmese python a nearly infallible camouflage, but technology is catching up.
A new camera developed by University of Central Florida researchers and the non-profit company Imec uses a special wavelength of light to expose the snake as an ethereal slither against black, a ghostly coil in the river of grass.
Because pythons are cold-blooded and adopt the temperature of their surroundings, thermal imaging proved useless in hunting the invasive species.
But the camera uses a near infrared 850 nanometer wavelength (humans see between 400 and 700 nanometers) to detect the snakes, which reflect light at that level differently than the flora and waterways of South Florida.
“This is a game-changer,” said Orges, noting that they also are working on mounting the camera on drones. “The way the hunters operate now, they drive the roads and look out the sides, so having a drone system would allow them to cover a bigger area.”
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