If you can watch this and not desperately wish that there was an Indiana Jones cartoon to accompany it, then you are a stronger person than I.
In his free time over the past five years, artist Patrick Schoenmaker has been putting together this wonderful trailer for an animated Indiana Jones adventure, and now the final thing is here and we desperately, desperately want there to be more..
It’s got the Indy vibe down to a pat (even without the stirring John Williams music), but the best part is the awesomely slick transitions between different scenarios as Indy whips, dodges, and rolls his way through various perils. It really sells the “globetrotting adventurer†vibe in a brilliant way.
Ran Park is a graphic designer from Ulsan, a coastal city in South Korea. Not long ago, she visited her home country after five years of studying in London and Los Angeles, and noticed something strange: the local language had changed. “People had started using English words as if they were Korean,†she says. Local fruit vendors sold “바나나,†pronounced “banana.†Electronics stores had posted advertisements for “컴퓨터,†pronounced “keomp-yut-eo,†or “computer.†The words looked Korean, but they sounded distinctly English.
Park’s observations inspired her latest art project, a zine filled with artfully smudged definitions of English words that have burrowed their way into the Korean language. She calls it “Lost in Konglish,†after the macaronic form of English sweeping through South Korea.
But Konglish does follow the rules of the highly phonetic Korean alphabet. Known in South Korea as “Hangul,†the language’s phonemic and syllabic characteristics, and even the shape one’s tongue makes when pronouncing specific sounds, are encoded into the structure of the written characters, themselves. If that strikes you as exceptionally cool, it’s because it is; linguistslove the Hangulalphabet for how it marries the form and function of its letters. It is a simultaneously beautiful and practical system.
It also accommodates, and morphs around, other languages—particularly English, the cultural cachet of which is evident in the rise of Konglish throughout South Korea. In Seoul, luxury apartments go by names like “Luxtige†(a portmanteau of “luxury†and “prestigeâ€), or “Forestige.†According to The Korea Herald, these Konglish names help promote a “premium brand image.†When the City of Seoul selected a new promotional slogan, “I.Seoul.U,†Koreans mocked it on social media, saying it didn’t make sense in English. Park, too, acknowledges the ascendency of the English language in her home country: “It is really important for going out and getting a job,†she says.
But Park is also skeptical of English’s increasing influence on the Korean language. For one thing, she says, pseudo-anglicisms often lack the descriptiveness of native words. (In North Korea, for example, people don’t call donuts “donutsâ€; they say “ga-lack ji bbang,†which translates loosely to “a ring of bread.â€) “People haven’t really realized that there’s a phenomenon, that we are losing our own language,†she says.
To that end, she designed “Lost in Konglish†to become less and less legible as you flip through it. She also created graphics of new letterforms that fuse the shape of Korean Hangul letters with English ones. The artful distortions and smudges grow more intense, until the text becomes indecipherable. “It becomes more chaotic, because the phenomenon is more serious,†she says. “There is communication missing.â€
The shipping industry is large, complex, and relatively unchanging. So it’s perhaps only natural that tech companies are eying it as a sector ripe for innovation.
Amazon’s most famous shipping aspirations are, admittedly, airborne. It’s desperate to develop a drone delivery service, and it also leases 40 Boeing 767-300 cargo airplanes to airfreight goods. But the company is used to moving stuff around on the ground, too. It has thousands of tractor-trailers that it uses to ferry its inventory between warehouses, and it’s been experimenting with an Uber-style network called Flex which allows people to deliver packages for it in order to make a buck.
But according to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Amazon’s ambitions go far beyond its current logistics operations. Despite much protestation by Jeff Bezos that Amazon isn’t seeking to supplant the likes of UPS and FedEx, the newspaper cites over 20 past and present executives from the company as sources confirming that its plan “is to one day haul and deliver packages for itself as well as other retailers and consumers.â€
According to those sources, Amazon seeks to build a more flexible kind of shipping service, with, for instance, out-of-hours deliveries. Its desire to decrease reliance on established delivery firms is understandable—in 2015, it spent 10.8 percent of its sales revenue on shipping. Building a UPS or FedEx rival from the ground up is surely complex and expensive, but Citigroup estimates that it could save it as much as $1.1 billion per year.
Amazon isn’t alone in eyeing up the industry. Uber also has plans to move more than just people. It announced on Wednesday that it was massively expanding its Uber Eats food delivery service into 22 new countries around the world. It currently serves just six.
But perhaps more interesting from Uber is the news that its newly acquired self-driving truck startup, Otto, is set to expand its fleet of vehicles and start hauling freight to warehouses and stores next year. The move will help Otto test out the autonomous driving systems that it’s developing in more realistic use-cases, as well as allowing Uber to experiment with another kind of shipping. According to Reuters, the long-term plan is to “compete with the brokers who connect truck fleets and shippers.â€
Uber knows that, and Amazon is aware that its own logistics wing could allow it to assert its dominance in retail even further. Both organizations are approaching their plans like any self-respecting Silicon Valley company would, with confidence that daring business models and large investment can successfully upend the incumbents. They may yet deliver on that goal.
The Raspberry Pi’s main operating system, Raspbian, just got a brand new look from the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Dubbed PIXEL, it’s a skin for Raspbian that modernizes the interface, adds some new programs, and makes it much more pleasant to use. Let’s take a closer look at your Pi’s new appearance.
The New Splash Screen Replaces the Old Cryptic Boot Messages
The first big change you’ll see is the lack long strings of text when you boot up your Raspberry Pi. In their place is a splash screen that shows the operating system and version number, just like you’d find on any other modern computer. Otherwise, the overall boot time and process remains the same.
PIXEL Comes Preloaded with RealVNC, Chromium, and More
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PIXEL also adds a few notable new default programs. The biggest new app is Chromium, which replaces the aging Epiphany web browser. This is the first version of Chromium built specifically for the Pi and uses the Pi’s hardware to accelerate video playback. Chromium comes with a couple extensions installed, including uBlock Origin for blocking ads as well as the h264ify extension for improving YouTube video quality on the Pi. Chromium is best suited for the Raspberry Pi 2 and 3, but still works on the Pi 1 and the Pi Zero.
RealVNC is included so you can easily use the Raspberry Pi from a remote desktop right out of the box. If you’ve never used a RealVNC on your Pi before, set up is very simple. RealVNC is a nice way to access your Pi if you only own a laptop and don’t feel like buying a keyboard, mouse, and monitor.
There’s also a new SenseHAT emulator that makes it so you can test ideas for the SenseHAT peripheral. The emulator allows you to adjust the gyroscope, temperature, screen, and tons more.
PIXEL Comes with a Bunch of Good-Looking Wallpapers
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This might not sound like much, but considering that Raspbian’s default background has always been either blank or the Raspberry Pi logo, it’s really nice that PIXEL comes with a bunch of wallpapers. Included are 16 photos from one of the Raspberry Pi developers, Greg Annandale. You can get to them by clicking the Pi Logo > Preferences > Appearance Settings.
Of course, you’ve always been able to use your own wallpapers, but it’s much nicer when you’re greeted by a photograph on your first boot.
PIXEL Features All New Application Icons, New Temperature and Voltage Icons
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You likely don’t think about the quality of an icon very often, but the icons in Rapsbian were always a bit lacking. They were drab, sometimes pixelated and blurry, and looked a bit muddy. Now, they’re much more vibrant and easier see at a glance.
Also gone is the cryptic rainbow display that warned if your Pi was under voltage or over temperature. In its place is a lightning bolt for voltage and a thermometer for temperature, which should make troubleshooting a ton easier.
Each Window Sports a Cleaner, Rounded Title Bar
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In previous iterations of Raspbian, the windows were blocky squares that always made the system look outdated. Now, it’s much more modern looking with rounded corners, a new title bar, and new close/minimize/maximize buttons. It’s a minor change but looks a lot better overall.
You Can Easily Disable Wi-Fi or Bluetooth
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If you don’t need Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, having them on can drain power quickly, which is a problem if you’re working on a project that uses a battery pack. PIXEL adds in a new menu for both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth that makes it a lot easier to turn either off. Just click the icon, click the off button, and you’re all set.
How to Update Your Current Version of Raspbian
PIXEL will ship as the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s main operating system from here on out. If you already have a copy of Raspbian up and running, you can update it to this version by loading up the command line and typing the following commands:
Just days after Samsung began replacing defective Galaxy Note 7s due to a risk of exploding batteries, the company faces another major product issue. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a warning today after multiple reports of top-loading washing machines exploding. Owners of Samsung appliances in Georgia, Indiana and Texas say that they were doing a load of laundry when they heard a loud boom.
ABC News reports 21 people have submitted cases to the CPSC since early 2015 of washers exploding or blowing apart. One customer in Texas said the explosion had so much force it went through the wall of her garage. Samsung is also facing a class-action lawsuit in New Jersey over the issue.
Following the reports, the CPSC made the formal warning for top-loading Samsung units made between March 2011 and April 2016, but it didn’t get specific with model numbers. In a statement on its website, the company says that it’s working with US regulators "to address potential safety issues." Samsung says that "in rare cases," the washing machines "may experience abnormal vibrations" when customers are washing bulky items like bedding. Those vibrations might pose a safety risk or could cause property damage, the company explained.
"It is important to note that Samsung customers have completed hundreds of millions of loads without incident since 2011," the statement said.
For now, Samsung recommends that owners use the low-speed delicate cycle when washing "bedding, bulky or water-resistant materials." So far, there haven’t been any issues reported while using that setting. Front-loading models aren’t affected, but if you own one of Samsung top-loading appliances, you can check to see if you need to take precautions by entering the serial number here.
Despite the dream of the self-driving car, most autonomous vehicles still have a steering wheel, giving passengers the option to take control at a moments notice. Komatsu’s latest dump truck is a bit different — it doesn’t even have a cab for a human operator to sit in. The company calls it the Komatsu Innovative Autonomous Haulage Vehicle. It’s a 2,700 horsepower autonomous truck designed to increase productivity by taking drivers out of the equation. Specifically, the company is trying to eliminate the three-point turn by developing a vehicle that doesn’t need to see where it’s going.
That may seem like an odd practice to eliminate, but it makes a lot of sense — human drivers can only pilot a vehicle by looking out of the front window, requiring them to turn around once they get to a dump site to deposit materials. A self driving hauler doesn’t have that setback: it can simply reverse course without turning. The autonomous design is also more balanced than a normal truck, with the load equally distributed on its four-wheel drive chassis. The company is hoping the balanced load will help the new hauler better negotiate slippery terrain.
The Innovative Autonomous Haulage Vehicle was only just unveiled in Vegas, but Komatsu says it’s planning to get the rig on the market (and into mining operations) soon.
