It plans to operate the tethered wings in small groups of six with each one anchored at the points of a hexagon. The wings operate between 250m (820ft)and 600m above ground.
Why Tumblr Was a Massive Steal for Yahoo
Everyone’s Facebook feed is pretty much the same as everyone else’s of the same age. Twenty-year-olds pose in the club, 30-year-olds share wedding photos, by age 40 you’re looking at a lot of cute pictures of your friends’ kids. But with Tumblr, you never know what you’re going to get — even with people you know personally. That, in a nutshell, is the difference between a social graph and an interest graph.
via Why Tumblr Was a Massive Steal for Yahoo – Adam Rifkin – Voices – AllThingsD.
Here’s an interesting tidbit from TechCrunch written Feb 2013. From Tumblr Is Not What You Think
Pop quiz: what is the favorite social networking site of Americans under age 25? If you guessed Facebook you are way behind the eight-ball, because Tumblr now enjoys more regular visits from the youth of America. That figure struck me while reading Garry Tan’s January 2013 survey and I wondered why? So I delved deeper; this article describes what I discovered while exploring the Tumblr network.
Scientists growing new crystals to make LED lights useful for office, home
Technically the LEDs produce light by passing electrons through a semiconductor material, in combination with materials called phosphors that glow when excited by radiation from the LED. “But it’s hard to get one phosphor that makes the broad range of colors needed to replicate the sun,” said John Budai, a scientist in ORNL’s Materials Science and Technology division in a release. “One approach to generating warm-white light is to hit a mixture of phosphors with ultraviolet radiation from an LED to stimulate many colors needed for white light.”
via Scientists growing new crystals to make LED lights useful for office, home.
BT Lights Up World’s First 800Gbps Fibre Super Channel
Laboratory tests have reached 800Gbps before, but this is the first time it’s gone long distance, covering the 410km between BT’s Adastral Park research centre, near Ipswich in Suffolk, and the BT Tower in London, using equipment from network kit vendor Ciena. The surprising thing is that the test was successful on fibre which was previously not considered good enough to carry 10Gbps.
AT&T’s new monthly stealth fee has some crying foul
Because the fee is so small, some call it a below-the-line charge because customers aren’t likely to notice it. That aside, it is also provides a way for carriers to advertise a lower fee than customers are actually charged. Presently, AT&T already charges about 50 cents as regulatory cost recovery charge per phone line, something that has been part of the carrier’s bills for about a decade.
via AT&T’s new monthly stealth fee has some crying foul – SlashGear.
Get An Inside Look At The Rackspace ‘Castle’ Via Google Street View
Recently, we had a photographer come out to create an inside Google Street View of our HQ so our customers, friends and family – anyone, really – can get a virtual feel for what it is like to work at Rackspace. There’s a ton to see.
via Get An Inside Look At The Rackspace ‘Castle’ Via Google Street View – The Official Rackspace Blog.
3-D Printing Will Soon Become a Routine Manufacturing Tool
Additive manufacturing—the industrial version of 3-D printing—is already used to make some niche items, such as medical implants, and to produce plastic prototypes for engineers and designers. But the decision to mass-produce a critical metal-alloy part to be used in thousands of jet engines is a significant milestone for the technology. And while 3-D printing for consumers and small entrepreneurs has received a great deal of publicity, it is in manufacturing where the technology could have its most significant commercial impact
via 3-D Printing Will Soon Become a Routine Manufacturing Tool | MIT Technology Review.
Kim Dotcom Threatens To Sue Google, Facebook And Twitter Over 2-Factor Authentication Patent If They Don’t Help Him
So, a lot of people are talking about Kim Dotcom’s latest gambit, which was to point out that he holds a patent (US 6,078,908 and apparently others in 12 other countries as well) that covers the basics of two-factor authentication, with a priority date of April of 1997. While interesting, he goes on to point out that he’s never sued over the patent because “I believe in sharing knowledge and ideas for the good of society.”
Matternet Building Quadcopter Drone Network To Transport Supplies
Whereas the internet is an information transporter, the “matternet” will transport…well, matter. These robotic “drones for good” will fly food, medicine, and other essentials to villages seasonally stranded by stormy weather and low quality road infrastructure.
via Matternet Building Quadcopter Drone Network To Transport Supplies | Singularity Hub.
MariaDB vs. MySQL: A Comparison
And what about compatibility between MySQL and MariaDB? The MariaDB team works hard to continue with full compatibility with MySQL, and they continue to pull in bug fixes from the source. But the new features (and numbering scheme) suggest that, despite best efforts, the two platforms will increasingly diverge.