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If you ever wanted to watch to virtual assistants argue with each other for hours on end, well, you’re in luck. Some maniac is live streaming two Google Homes arguing with each other, so of course thousands of people are watching it.
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New York City taxis, they ain’t so smart — yet.
A new study from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) estimates that just 3,000 ride-sharing cars guided by an algorithm could serve the needs of busy New Yorkers. That’s compared to the roughly 13,500 taxis currently in operation in the city, famous for its frenzied rush hours.
May I Have This Ride?
The researchers used taxi data from the University of Illinois spanning 2010-2013 for their analysis, and co
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A radio in Norway, photographed in 2009. The country is shutting down its FM network this year and switching to digital radio.
Starting next week, Norway will become the first country to switch off its nationwide FM radio network and convert completely to digital signals.
The change was announced in 2015, and will take months to be fully implemented.
The Norwegian government decided to make the transition in part because digital radio can provide many more channels for the same price — eight times as many, to be precise.
Norway currently has room for just five national radio stations on its FM system — three public broadcasting channels, and two commercial channels. Other national radio stations, as well as some regional and local stations, are already using the digital system.
Supporters of the switch also say digital radio will sound clearer than FM, or frequency modulation, and that the signal will be clearer in places where fjords and mountains interfere with FM signals.
As we reported in 2015, the Norwegian government also says that digital radio is less likely to fail in extreme conditions, which lawmakers saw as an advantage for emergency preparedness.
The CEO of Digitalradio Norway says the country’s FM network is antiquated and would need massive investments to maintain — so, to allow investment in digital radio, the FM network needs to be shut down.
But NPR’s Frank Langfitt reports that the public in general isn’t happy about the decision to abandon FM entirely.
“A recent poll shows that two-thirds of Norwegians are against ditching FM,” he reports.
“Among the concerns: people may miss warnings for emergencies that are broadcast on FM.
“In addition, two million cars in Norway — a country of just five million people — don’t have digital audio broadcasting receivers.
“A digital adapter for an FM car radio costs about $170.”
Reuters reports that the shutdown of FM signals will begin in the northern city of Bodø on Jan. 11, and extend across the country by the end of the year.
Some local stations, however, will continue to transmit over FM signals until 2022, The Local reports.
Norway’s transition to an all-digital radio will be closely watched by other countries considering the same move.
“Among other nations, the U.K. plans to review the need for a switchover once digital listening reaches 50 per cent,” the CBC reports. “That could be reached by the end of 2017 on current trends, Digital Radio U.K. spokeswoman Yvette Dore said.”
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Keeping a motorcycle upright at high speeds is simple. Mostly you just have to hang on. Yet, when a bike is slowly cruising through a parking lot, in traffic, or at a stop, balance is handled by the rider. That can be difficult on larger, heavier cycles like cruisers. Honda’s trying to make bike stability easier with its new Riding Assist technology.
But it’s not just showing off a bike that helps a person keep a bike upright. Instead, the motorcycle keeps its balance even without a rider. The researchers even have the bike drive itself without a person. If you’re thinking that Honda has outfitted their research bike with gyroscopes you would be mistaken. Instead the company has taken its Uni-Cub mobility research and applied it to a real-world problem.
When the bike transforms from regular riding mode to balance mode, the forks (the metal bars that connect the front wheel to the rest of the motorcycle) extend the front tire away from the rest of the cycle. No word on when the a bike with the Riding Assist technology will actually end up in production, but we’re hoping it happens soon for the sake of our side mirrors and grips.
Source: Honda
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T-Mobile announced its Uncarrier Next plan today at CES, detailing an “all-in†move for the T-Mobile ONE plans. Beginning January 22, T-Mobile will only offer the T-Mobile ONE plan and there are a few changes being made to the plan itself.Â
T-Mobile announced new “rulesâ€Â for the industry during its press event, claiming customers should no longer have to pay taxes and monthly fees. Essentially, the company feels that you should only pay for what is advertised with no hidden fees, taxes, or future price hikes. With that said, with the new ONE plan, T-Mobile customers will be charged exactly what is advertised, not a penny more as all taxes and fees have been wrapped into the advertised price of the plan.
On top of that, T-Mobile also doesn’t appreciate folks paying for data they don’t use. With the newly announced KickBack program, as long as customers don’t go over 2GB of data on a ONE plan, T-Mobile will give you cash in the form of a monthly bill credit.
Below is a rundown of T-Mobile’s new rules, which also describe exactly what’s taking place.
Coupled with the announcement of its all in move with T-Mobile ONE, the company is also announcing a promotion for anyone debating on making the switch from a different carrier. Starting tomorrow, customers will get $150 per line (up to $600 for a family of four) for every line you switch to T-Mobile ONE up to 12 lines, for a limited time. There’s no trade-in or equipment financing required, and customers can spend the money however they see fit.
Again, all of the changes T-Mobile has detailed will take place January 22, and for existing customers, they can choose whether to accept these changes or keep what they have. However, T-Mobile does state anyone using a plan could potentially save money if they make the change.
For all of the details, and there’s a ton of them, check out T-Mobile’s site by following the via link.
T-Mobile All In With ONE Plan, Intros KickBack and Flat Rate Pricing is a post from: Droid Life
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Jared Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump have played key roles in Donald Trump’s campaign, his transition team and his family businesses.
Richard Drew/AP
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Richard Drew/AP
Jared Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump have played key roles in Donald Trump’s campaign, his transition team and his family businesses.
Richard Drew/AP
President-elect Donald Trump has suggested he may give his daughter and son-in-law some roles in his new administration, but a 1967 anti-nepotism law makes doing so a lot more complicated.
The law bars presidents from hiring relatives to Cabinet or agency jobs, although a federal judge has ruled that it doesn’t apply to White House staff jobs.
Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, have played key roles in Trump’s campaign and his transition team, and reportedly are preparing to move to a house in the Kalorama section of Washington, D.C.
Either or both of them is also said to be considering some sort of White House job, perhaps in an informal or unpaid role.
The anti-nepotism law was passed by Congress in response to President John F. Kennedy’s decision to appoint his brother Robert as attorney general, says Darrell West, vice president and director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution.
“It was very controversial at the time. Lyndon Johnson in particular did not like that, and when he became president he helped shepherd this anti-nepotism law through the U.S. Congress,” West says.
Not many presidents have sought to hire relatives since then, so the law hasn’t often been tested. But when President Bill Clinton appointed his wife, first lady Hillary Clinton, to head his health care task force, the move was challenged in court.
A federal judge ruled that the law didn’t apply to White House staff jobs, making the appointment legal.
The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment from NPR, but spokeswomen Kellyanne Conway cited that ruling when she was asked whether Trump would hire his children during an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe last month.
“The anti-nepotism law apparently has an exception if you want to work in the West Wing, because the president is able to appoint his own staff,” Conway said. “… the president does have discretion to choose a staff of his liking.”
But just because it might be legal for Trump to hire his own children doesn’t mean it’s good politics, West says. West warned that it could spark a public backlash, much as Kennedy’s appointment of his brother did.
“People might accept the fact that it was legal, but they would not necessarily view it as ethical or wise,” West says.
Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, notes that the anti-nepotism statute was one of a series of laws passed in the 1960s and ’70s, at a time of growing mistrust of the presidency.
“We shouldn’t forget why we have these [laws]. It was to try to purify the presidency to a certain respect, or to create more accountability in the people that they appoint,” he says.
Americans need to know that presidents are not listening to people just because they’re related to them but because they’re the best people they can find, Zelizer says.
Moreover, it can be hard for other staff members to say no to a president’s relatives, Zelizer says.
“And so you create an environment where people might be less willing to take on and challenge someone because they’re related to the president,” he says.
Hiring the Trump children would also be complicated because they have played big roles in the Trump family businesses, he adds.
“If you load up the White House with family members, all of whom are working for this business, that problem will certainly not look good to many Americans. And the politics are as important as the law in this issue. How things look, how things appear matter very much,” Zelizer says.
For Ivanka Trump and her husband, taking jobs in the White House would also come at some financial cost.
Unlike Trump himself, they would almost certainly be subject to federal conflict-of-interest laws, which would bar them from participating in decisions that would affect their financial interests. That could force them to divest themselves of some of their assets.
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Ever wanted to be a PC gamer, but didn’t want to buy a gaming PC? NVIDIA’s Jen-Hsun Haung wants your number. Taking the stage at CES today, the CEO announced GeForce Now for PC and Mac — an offshoot of its cloud gaming service aimed at prospective PC gamers. Despite sharing the same name as the streaming service it offers to NVIDIA Shield users, GeForce Now for PC isn’t a gaming subscription service. It’s a server rental program.
Users of GeForce Now for PC won’t load up a streaming app and pick through a list of games — they’ll load up Steam, Origin, UPlay or other PC game providers and purchase games directly from the distributor. Then they’ll run that game on NVIDIA’s GRID servers through GeForce Now for an hourly fee. The result is a setup that, in the stage demo, looks remarkably like running games on a local machine.
The idea seems neat, but offloading your gameplay to the cloud isn’t cheap: NVIDIA says GeForce Now will charge $25 for 20 hours of play, and that doesn’t include the cost of the games. If you only played two hours a day, you’d spend $912 for a year of NVIDIA GeForce Now gaming. Still, if you really don’t want to buy a gaming machine with that cash, GeForce Now for PC and Mac will start rolling out in March.
Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.
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