You’ve probably never given much thought to the design of a pop-up birthday card after first opening it, but you will after watching this compilation of Peter Dahmen’s creations. He somehow manages to turn sheets of paper into intricately engineered architectural masterpieces.
Matthew Reinhart and Emiliano Santalucia have created what is easily the most impressively…
If you opened a birthday card and had one of these designs pop-up in your face, any follow-up gifts would probably be a disappointment. You can head on over to Dahmen’s site where he’s posted several tutorials on how to recreate some of his simpler pop-ups, but you’ll want to make sure you’re skilled with scissors or a hobby knife before even attempting some of these.
This is a short, slow-motion physics simulation created by Youtuber Xepher of 55,000 individual Jenga-style planks collapsing. It took twelve days to render. I’m not sure if that’s because it’s so complex, or if Xepher was using a pocket calculator to do the rendering. Is that really how all those planks would collapse? I’m not sure, I haven’t finished my own calculations yet. Although right now I’m leaning towards only pretending to solve some equations while I actually doodle a penta-breasted alien chick and just say yes. What can I say, I’m a mathematician at heart. But only at heart, not at all in real life.
When Google’s standalone video calling app Duo came out last year, we wondered if it would become another niche app, a flash in the pan. Why do we need another communication app in a crowded market? Today’s news shows us that we can’t always be right, as Google takes the first steps to integrating Duo into its Android operating system, much like Apple’s FaceTime is an integral part of iOS.
According to a Google blog post, the company is rolling out integrated video calling to first-generation Pixel, Android One and Nexus devices. It will also show up on the Pixel 2. "We’re working with our carrier and device partners to bring this experience to more Android devices over time," wrote product manager Jan Jedrzejowicz. If you (and the call recipient) have a carrier that supports ViLTE, your video calls will go through that service. If not, Duo will connect you to anyone with the app installed.
Are you ready for the world’s first giant robot fight? (If your answer to that was "No," who even are you?) We’ve been waiting for a date for the MegaBots vs. Suidobashi duel, and now it’s finally here. The fight will take place on October 17th, 2016 at 10:00 PM ET. It will be streamed worldwide on Twitch. If you miss the live stream, you can catch it on YouTube and Facebook immediately after the event concludes.
This giant robot battle has been in the works for almost two years and was originally supposed to take place in August. The 16-foot-tall, 12-ton MegaBots Eagle Prime robot was built a team of American engineers, while Kuratas, a 13-footer that weighs 6.5 tons, was built by the Japanese company Suidobashi Heavy Industries. And now they will do battle for our enjoyment; the question is, who will reign supreme?
The power and affordability of the Raspberry Pi has given rise to a new type of computer. One that goes beyond the credit-sized board, with colorful shells and displays that make it feel like a normal laptop or PC. The latest is the all-new Pi-Top, a modular laptop with a unique sliding keyboard. Pull it toward you and a large tray is revealed underneath with a Raspberry Pi 3 board and space for additional parts. The idea is to tweak and upgrade its innards for different coding projects designed by the Pi-Top team, thereby learning about code and electronics simultaneously.
Pi-Top has experimented with this concept before. In December 2014, the company raised $193,000 on Indiegogo for its first do-it-yourself laptop. It was a functional, but unattractive machine with a cramped keyboard and small, right-aligned trackpad. A large, horizontal panel sat between the keyboard and the hinge, taking up valuable space. (You could keep your lunch there, I suppose.) To access the Pi and modular tray underneath, you had to slide the panel out through a slot hidden on the right-hand side of the machine. It worked, but clearly the design had room for improvement. One year later, the company returned to Indiegogo and raised $220,000 for the pi-topCEED, a $99 desktop computer powered by the Raspberry Pi.
The new Pi-Top is a slicker machine. It’s a drastically easier build — six steps, rather than 23 — which might sound like a step backwards, but in return you’re getting a design that feels more competitive with cheap Chromebooks and Windows laptops. It has a full-size keyboard and a centrally positioned trackpad. Above the hinge is a 14-inch, full HD screen that can tilt up to 180 degrees, besting the original’s 13.3-inch display and 125-degree opening angle. Around the back, you’ll find one ethernet and three USB 2.0 ports, a regular 3.5mm audio jack and a place for power.
Slide the keyboard down and you’ll gain access to the tray. This is where the Raspberry Pi sits, alongside a custom cooling system that Pi-Top claims will improve your productivity. If a Raspberry Pi runs too hot, it will start closing applications automatically. The Pi-Top’s extra cooling should, therefore, stop this from happening, allowing you to multitask with fewer restrictions and sudden app closures. Each laptop also comes with an "inventor’s kit" which includes a Pi-Top Proto Plus add-on board, LED lights, a microphone and motion sensor. Unlike the previous laptop, which required a screwdriver, they all snap into place magnetically.
The inventor’s kit unlocks three coding activities, or "journeys," inside the Pi-Top Coder app: Smart Robot, Music Maker and Space Race. The "Robot," for instance, is a boxy cardboard shell that sits on top of the Proto Plus. Using code, you’ll adjust his blinking speed, teach him to talk as you walk by, or make him think that he’s being fed whenever you cover the proximity sensor. Each Pi-Top also comes with CEEDUniverse, a space exploration game that tests your creativity and problem-solving skills. You will, of course, be using and learning about code at the same time.
The Pi-Top runs a custom operating system called Pi-TopOS Polaris. It runs some basic software including Google Chromium, LibraOffice and Minecraft Pi Edition. So while it can’t compare to a Windows machine, it’s possible that a child or student could use it as their first laptop. The sticking point is the price: the new Pi-Top costs $320, or $285 without a Raspberry Pi. That’s expensive for an arguably underpowered laptop. In exchange, of course, you’re getting a device that’s easily customisable. You can upgrade the Pi board whenever you like and use external components in the tray (I’m told it’s possible to add a BBC micro:bit, for instance).
The laptop faces fierce competition from Kano, however. The London startup, which has a range of built-it-yourself coding kits, announced a "laptop" bundle last month that includes an all-in-one display unit and wireless keyboard. It doesn’t offer much in the way of hardware customisation, but is powered by Pi and offers similar learn-to-code software. (It’s also compatible with Kano’s standalone coding kits, such as the Pixel.) The "Computer Kit Complete" is also $50 cheaper than the Pi-Top, which might give parents pause while browsing for Christmas gifts.
The release cites Five Guys, Panera, Chipotle and Papa John’s as a few of the chains that are participating in their program. The really interesting aspect of this, though, is that Facebook isn’t just partnering with individual restaurants and fast food joints to get this done. They are combining various delivery services such as ChowNow, EatStreet, Delivery.com, Olo and DoorDash. This provides the user with a one-stop shop to look at everything you can have delivered to your home, rather than having to visit individual apps and websites. Note that some of the larger delivery providers, such as Seamless and Caviar, do not appear to be working with Facebook on this feature.
If Facebook’s goal is to allow users to do pretty much everything from within their service, which keeps users engaged, then they’re doing a solid job of it with this new development. You do have to create an account with an individual delivery provider if you’re ordering through their service on Facebook (say Delivery.com), but you don’t have to leave the social network to do it. It’s a pretty easy, low effort way to have food delivered right to your doorstep.
Researchers have discovered a key flaw in the WPA2 WiFi encryption protocol that could allow hackers to intercept your credit card numbers, passwords, photos and other sensitive information. The flaws, dubbed "Key Reinstallation Attacks," or "Krack Attacks," are in the WiFi standard and not specific products. That means that just about every router, smartphone and PC out there could be impacted, though attacks against Linux and Android 6.0 or greater devices may be "particularly devastating," according to KU Leuven University’s Mathy Vanhoef and Frank Piessens, who found the flaw.
Here’s how it works. Attackers find a vulnerable WPA2 network, then make a carbon copy of it and impersonate the MAC address, then change the WiFi channel. This new, fake network acts as a "man in the middle," so when a device attempts to connect to the original network, it can be forced to bypass it and connect to the rogue one.
Normally, WPA2 encryption requires a unique key to encrypt each block of plain text. However, the hack described in the Krack Attack paper forces certain implementations of WPA2 to reuse the same key combination multiple times.
The problem is made worse by Android and Linux, which, thanks to a bug in the WPA2 standard, don’t force the client to demand a unique encryption key each time. Rather, they allow a key to be cleared and replaced by an "all-zero encryption key," foiling a key part of the handshake process. In some cases, a script can also force a connection to bypass HTTPS, exposing usernames, passwords and other critical data.
The system takes advantage of a flaw in the "handshake" method to direct users to the malicious network. Neither WiFi passwords nor secret keys can be obtained, the researchers say, as the hack works by forging the entire network. As such, it can’t be used to attack routers, but hackers can still eavesdrop on traffic, making it particularly dangerous for corporations.
As shown above, the researchers did a proof-of-concept attack on Android, and were able to decrypt all the victim’s transmitted data. They point out that this will "not work on a properly configured HTTPS site," but will work on a "significant fraction" that are poorly set up. Other devices, like those running MacOS, Windows, OpenBSD and other operating systems, are affected to a lesser extent. "When attacking other devices, it is harder to decrypt all packets, although a large number of packets can nevertheless be decrypted," say the researchers.
After earlier, more limited hacks, the WPA2 protocol has been suspect for a while, so many security folks were already bracing themselves for something bad. If you still doubt the seriousness of it, Alex Hudson, for one, is actually advising Android users to "turn off WiFi on these devices until fixes are applied." He adds that "you can think of this a little bit like your firewall being defeated."
As such, you can protect yourself to a great extent by sticking with sites that have solid, proven HTTPS security. And of course, the attack won’t work unless the attacker is nearby and can physically access your network.
The problem should be relatively easy to fix. A firmware change can force routers to require a dedicated certificate for each handshake, instead of relying on the one already generated. And, as the security researchers who discovered it say, "implementations can be patched in a backwards-compatible manner."
That means if you patch your Android device and not your router, you can still communicate and be safe, and vice-versa. Nevertheless, they also advise to patch all your devices as soon as security updates are available. For more details about the hack, check this very detailed FAQ from Aruba Networks.
