Ajit Pai Is Apparently a Comedy Vlogger Now

Ajit Pai Is Apparently a Comedy Vlogger Now

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Telecom shill and FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is on some sort of Mark Zuckerberg-style tour of America’s heartland, and he’s uploaded his first vlog that he’s labeled as “comedy.”

On Thursday, the man who spearheaded the death of net neutrality uploaded this strange clip of himself hanging out in Twin Falls, Idaho. The 44-second clip is the only video on Pai’s channel. Among the questions it raises is, why is it titled “Twin Falls 2?” We know Pai is a film buff, so maybe he was making a subtle reference to the little-remembered indie flick, Twin Falls, Idaho. Then again, there’s the perplexing fact that it’s labeled in the “comedy” category and the only funny thing about it is Pai’s ever-amusing goon face. It’s possible that Twin Falls 1 was the setup and this is the hilarious punchline. We’d ask Pai what’s going on here, but considering he’s been working hard to abandon efforts to get better access to broadband in rural areas, there’s no telling when he’ll get our message.

In the video, Pai talks about the beautiful scenery and highlights some project that Idahoans are working on to improve their own networks as the government hands more and more power to a few private pseudo-monopolies. I guess the message is supposed to be along the lines of, “See, even though the FCC isn’t helping, taxpayers can do the job for us.” Heh, I guess that is kind of funny.

You can watch the clip below and make sure to leave a comment on his YouTube page.

[Motherboard, Chris Welch]

Tech

via Gizmodo http://gizmodo.com

June 21, 2018 at 04:57PM

AI and Carbon Nanotubes Are Now Being Used to Improve the World’s… Keyboards?

AI and Carbon Nanotubes Are Now Being Used to Improve the World’s… Keyboards?

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Photo: American Chemical Society

When it comes to groundbreaking research, there are two fields that seem to occupy the newscycle: carbon nanotubes and artificial intelligence. The potential combination of those two fields of study seems like it could radically change the word as we know it, or, as South Korean scientists have discovered, at least change how we type.

The carbon atom, one of the building blocks of life, gains radical new abilities when assembled into long, thin chains, known as carbon nanotubes. Think ultra-flexible films that are better at stopping bullets than kevlar vests, or bio-engineered plants that can detect land mines and explosives. And AI, trained using deep learning techniques, is soon going to make it almost impossible to discern fake videos from real ones.

But researchers from South Korea’s Sejong University, Chung-Ang University, and Kyungpook National University are instead merging those burgeoning technologies to create an ultra-thin portable keyboard that can be crumpled up like paper without breaking it. A sheet of soft silicone rubber was embedded with conductive carbon nanotubes that create electrical resistance where a finger is pressed against the material.

The individual keys were simply drawn on to the keyboard using a marker—that was the easy part. To allow apps to determine where finger presses were actually happening on the material, and what keys a user was typing on, an artificial neural network was trained to pinpoint where the interactions were happening, and with how much pressure. based on the changes in electrical resistance. It sounds like a shortcut, but in this case it’s not cutting corners, it’s simply using a new tool to quickly, and cheaply, improve an existing process. Why do all that testing and coding by hand when you don’t have to?

The researchers claim the flexible keyboard they’ve created is far more durable than any other keyboard on the market, and because mass production could bring the per unit price down to as little as a dollar, even if something did happen, tossing it away and buying a replacement is a cheap option. They don’t address the fact that typing on a soft blob of silicone without defined keys makes touch typing incredibly difficult. But this approach to the hardware could be combined with existing ones, resulting in cheaper and more durable keyboards that still provide a satisfying experience for your fingertips.

[EurekaAlert! via New Atlas]

Tech

via Gizmodo http://gizmodo.com

June 22, 2018 at 09:27AM

Get It Out Of Here: A Robotic Flying Snake

Get It Out Of Here: A Robotic Flying Snake

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This is a video demonstration of the University Of Tokyo’s relatively terrifying DRAGON (‘Dual-rotor embedded multilink Robot with the Ability of multi-deGree-of-freedom aerial transformatiON’ — that was a stretch) aerial robot, a snake-like robot made of interconnected sections that can fly thanks to a pair of ducted motors attached to each segment. It was designed to be able to change shape to squeeze through narrow passages, and will be able to manipulate objects thanks to finger-like pincers on each end. Now just imagine this thing a hundred times larger and weaving its way between skyscrapers. Scary, right? Now imagine it a hundred times smaller and trying to fly its way into your anus. Neither one sounds fun, does it? “I say the butt one is a maybe.” Ugh, I knoooow, but we hate robots, remember?

Keep going for the video.

Thanks to Trent BEE, who informed me if they made one large enough to saddle, he would ride it.

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Tech

via Geekologie – Gadgets, Gizmos, and Awesome http://geekologie.com/

June 22, 2018 at 12:40PM

Google’s AR “Measure” app comes to all ARCore Android phones

Google’s AR “Measure” app comes to all ARCore Android phones

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Back when I tested Google’s first augmented reality product, Project Tango, one of my favorite use cases was the Google Measure app. This would turn Tango’s bevy of extra sensors into a virtual tape measure, allowing you to roughly pick any two points in the world and get the distance between them. When Project Tango died, I figured the Measure app was done for too, but Google has resurrected the app for ARCore, its new, post-Tango augmented reality framework that works on many high-end Android phones.

Tech

via Ars Technica https://arstechnica.com

June 22, 2018 at 11:22AM