Watch SpaceX try a picture-perfect rocket landing at 7AM ET (updated)
Many SpaceX rocket landings have gotchas for viewers. Drone ship landings frequently mean shaky satellite video feeds, and nighttime launches just aren't very photogenic. You're about to have a much better look, however. SpaceX is launching a US spy satellite (NROL-76) on April 30th in circumstances that are about as good as you could hope for. The 7AM Eastern launch window opening is definitely early (especially if you're on the West coast), but it guarantees daylight at Cape Canaveral. And more importantly, there will be a ground landing -- you should get unfettered, high-quality video of the whole affair.
Article source: https://www.engadget.com/2017/04/29/watch-spacex-attempt-picture-perfect-rocket-landing/
Apple adds one more year of warranty to first-gen Watches
Apple will still repair your first-gen Apple Watch if it breaks due to battery issues even if it's already older than two years. The tech titan has extended its wearable's repair coverage related to battery woes to last two years instead of one, according to a note Apple sent to authorized repair centers that 9to5mac got its hands on. If you include its first year with limited warranty, the device's owners can enjoy three years of coverage, and it's all thanks to a several reports complaining of batteries ballooning inside their timepieces.
Article source: https://www.engadget.com/2017/04/29/apple-extends-watch-warranty/
MIT fires a rocket motor made using 3D-printed plastic
This wasn't just a because-we-can experiment. Metal 3D printing is expensive (the printers alone cost hundreds of thousands of dollars). MIT's printer, a Markforged Mark Two, costs "just" $13,499. That's not exactly an impulse purchase, but it could give small teams a chance at building rockets that would otherwise be impossible with a relatively modest budget. And while it's not stated, it's easy to see larger space agencies using this to keep costs down, especially for rockets that are unlikely to be used more than once or for long durations.
There's a lot to accomplish before that happens. The scientists are researching larger, more resilient motors. Eventually, they're aiming for plastic-hulled rockets powerful enough for flight. Don't be surprised if you one day see lighter, cheaper rockets that only use metal sparingly.
Article source: https://www.engadget.com/2017/04/30/mit-fires-3d-printed-plastic-rocket-motor/
Ben Heck’s logic gate board game: Fun with LCD displays
With Karen's laser cutting design skills and Felix's soldering, the team has created a prototype of the logic board game using Karen's magnetic clasp design. Now it's time to give the concept a test run with help from The Game Craft proprietor JT Smith, whose experience with game design includes The Captain is Dead. JT says creating a game that's both educational and fun is one of the hardest concepts to pull off, and usually the design includes some compromises -- but where? While Karen contemplates JT's input, Ben and Felix hack an LCD display with the Pic32 Microcontroller and a DE0-Nano FPGA. Hopefully this will lead to a design that doesn't rely solely on LEDs! What do you think the team can compromise on? Or do you have experience driving an LCD screen with a microcontroller? Weigh in on build design over at the element14 Community.
Article source: https://www.engadget.com/2017/04/30/ben-hecks-logic-gate-board-game-fun-with-lcd-displays/
Elon Musk gives us a glimpse of Tesla’s electric semi truck
Elon Musk made a few revelations about some his newer projects this week, including the electric semi-truck Tesla has been working on since 2016. The automaker promised to unveil the big rig this September, but the Tesla-slash-SpaceX chief has given us a shadowy first look during his TED talk on April 28th. Based on what little we can see in the image above, it looks smoother than your average truck, with headlights and general design that seem to take cues from the company's cars.
Article source: https://www.engadget.com/2017/04/29/elon-musk-tesla-electric-semi-truck/
Recommended Reading: The genetics of better beer
You Want Better Beer?
Good. Here's a Better
Barley Genome
Adam Rogers,
Wired
The beer industry certainly isn't hurting for money these days, but a group of scientists are trying to figure out how to make the beverage even better. They're doing so by breaking down the genome of barley, a key ingredient in the brewing process that that turns starch into sugar for yeast to transform into alcohol during fermentation. Wired has the story of how the geneticists could be on the way to improving suds for all of us to enjoy.
Article source: https://www.engadget.com/2017/04/29/recommended-reading-the-genetics-of-better-beer/
‘The Circle’ takes anti-tech paranoia to ludicrous heights
Spoilers for The Circle novel and film ahead.
Black Mirror does a fine job of portraying the downsides of technology. but even though it's now readily available on Netflix, it's still something that's targeted at a media and tech-savvy niche audience. A big-budget, wide-release film starring Tom Hanks and Emma Watson has more potential to reach a broader group of people who might not think as deeply about the privacy issues surrounding their Facebook accounts. Sadly, all the film really does is shout, as loudly as possible, that technology is bad and will inevitably lead us towards a totalitarian state.
The basic premise of the film feels like a modern day Charlie in the Chocolate Factory. Mae (Emma Watson) is a twenty-something with a dead-end job who miraculously receives a job with The Circle, a beloved company whose religion is sharing and who now controls the vast majority of the web. You can think of it as the lovechild of Google and Facebook.
Its earliest innovation was "TruYou," a unified account that controls everything you do on the web and ties you to your real identity. TruYou was heralded as a major convenience win for consumers, which was somehow steamrolled pass regulators and critics. Even more unbelievable, the film claims that it sanitized the web by killing off anonymous comments. Seriously, all it takes is a quick look at any site with Facebook-powered commenting to see that's false.
The company's follow-up product -- tiny and inexpensive high-definition cameras that can be placed just about anywhere -- is a bit more believable. But that's only until you learn that they also upload video directly to satellites from anywhere on Earth (for free, I guess?). And no, there's no talk of battery life either. As Eamon Bailey (Tom Hanks), The Circle's affable figurehead, describes it, the "SeaChange" cameras will lead to a world where nothing is hidden.
It's easy to see how such a product could be useful, but it's even easier to grasp how it could lead to a reckless surveillance state. Of course, few people within the company question the cameras. That duty is left up to a mysterious stranger working for The Circle, who warns Mae of the company's troubling privacy issues, and Mae's hometown ex-boyfriend, who goes off the grid to avoid tech's infiltration into his life. All other Circle employees basically seem like idiot children who lap up everything the company does.
Eventually, Mae gleefully embraces the idea of the SeaChange cameras by "going transparent," which involves wearing a camera all day and broadcasting to an online audience of millions. It never occurs to her that this could lead to issues -- even when she broadcasts her parents having sex (because, of course, she helpfully had cameras installed in their house too). The film raises some interesting questions about a generation of online users who document and share every aspect of their lives. But it's more interested in portraying that as something that's inherently wrong, instead of trying to find any deeper meaning.
Article source: https://www.engadget.com/2017/04/29/the-circle-review/
EPA pulls climate science web pages to reflect White House views
The Washington Post notes that the EPA has pulled a nearly 20-year-old page explaining the fundamentals of climate change and how it affects the US. While updates to the site were frozen and closely scrutinized under President George W. Bush's administration, his White House was still content to leave the page running -- clearly, even that was too much under the new presidency.
The EPA stresses that it will use "proper archiving procedures" to preserve the previous version of its website. That information won't disappear if you're really looking for it. However, the very fact that it's going away from the current site is problematic. While the EPA website is bound to reflect administration policies, the basic climate science content was a valuable source of information for students and anyone else who needs to know how climate change works. Curious minds will have to turn to the archives or third-party sources to get the facts. And of course, it's hard to escape the irony of an environmental agency that avoids mentioning science that helps the environment.
Article source: https://www.engadget.com/2017/04/29/epa-pulls-climate-science-web-pages/
Watch SpaceX try a picture-perfect rocket landing at 7AM ET
Many SpaceX rocket landings have gotchas for viewers. Drone ship landings frequently mean shaky satellite video feeds, and nighttime launches just aren't very photogenic. You're about to have a much better look, however. SpaceX is launching a US spy satellite (NROL-76) on April 30th in circumstances that are about as good as you could hope for. The 7AM Eastern launch window opening is definitely early (especially if you're on the West coast), but it guarantees daylight at Cape Canaveral. And more importantly, there will be a ground landing -- you should get unfettered, high-quality video of the whole affair.
Article source: https://www.engadget.com/2017/04/29/watch-spacex-attempt-picture-perfect-rocket-landing/
Turkey blocks Wikipedia over an alleged ‘smear campaign’
Accordingly, the Wikimedia Foundation tells us that it's "committed" to keeping Wikipedia available in Turkey. It's pushing for a "judicial review" of the decision. You can read the full statement below.
The ban may not hold forever, even if the Wikipedia team refuses to budge. The ban has to go to a court within 24 hours of taking effect, and that court has two days to decide on whether or not the ban sticks. There have been successful challenges to bans in the past. However, it's hard not to see this as part of a chilling trend of online censorship in Turkey -- particularly in the aftermath of a referendum that, if upheld, grants President Erdogan sweeping powers. The country's leadership is determined to hold on at all costs, and that means suppressing any internet content (true or not) that might question its legitimacy.
"The Wikimedia Foundation has learned that access to Wikipedia has been blocked in Turkey as of Saturday, April 29th. Wikipedia is a rich and valuable source of neutral, reliable information in hundreds of languages, written by volunteers around the world. We are committed to ensuring that Wikipedia remains available to the millions of people who rely on it in Turkey. To that end, we are actively working with outside counsel to seek judicial review of the decision affecting access to Wikipedia. We hope the issue can be resolved promptly."
Article source: https://www.engadget.com/2017/04/29/turkey-blocks-wikipedia/