Month: October 2017

Posted on

Amazon Echo Devices and Alexa Now Accept Multiple Voice Profiles

alexa your voice setup

One of Google Home’s coolest features has for a long time been its ability to present specific information to the voice that activated it. For example, if my wife were to ask Google Home for information from her calendar, it would give her just that – her calendar info. Should I ask the same request a minute later, Google would then switch and access my calendar because it can tell the difference between our voices. It’s a multi-user voice profile type thing and it’s awesome. In fact, it’s so awesome that it has been one of the few advancements that Google Home has had over Amazon’s Echo devices. Well, until this week.

Amazon pushed out an update to the Alexa app this week that activated Alexa Voice Profiles. With Voice Profiles, each user in your home now has the ability to teach Alexa their voice.

What would the benefit of that be beyond just calendar stuff? Let’s say you make a voice call through an Echo device or send a voice message. With a Voice Profile setup, Alexa could then tell the person on the other end specifically that it’s you calling or sending the message. It could also come in handy with notifications or messages that you want to access, since it could recognize your voice, plus a Voice Profile comes in handy when shopping or listening to music through Amazon Music Unlimited.

To get started with setup, head into the Alexa app, swipe out the side menu, tap on Settings, and then scroll down until you see “Your Voice.” Open that section and follow the instructions!

// Amazon

Amazon Echo Devices and Alexa Now Accept Multiple Voice Profiles is a post from: Droid Life

from Droid Life: A Droid Community Blog http://ift.tt/2i7FHmS
via IFTTT

Posted on

Flashback Friday: An Autopsy of Chicken Nuggets

Ever wondered what fast food chicken nuggets are actually made of? So did these researchers, and they actually went so far as to examine formalin-fixed sections of nugget under a microscope. If you enjoy eating these junk food favorites, we suggest you stop reading here. But if you really want to know the results, read on…
The Autopsy of Chicken Nuggets Reads “Chicken Little”
“PURPOSE: To determine the contents of chicken nuggets from 2 national food chains.
BACKGROUND: Chicken nugget

from Discover Main Feed http://ift.tt/2z3DgFe
via IFTTT

Posted on

How do you build the next-generation Internet?

The computers, that could solve the problems quicker that before are about to be developed.

Quantum computers are being developed around the world while scientists are taking the next step to develop a light-based quantum internet that will have to be just as fast.

 

Quantum communications is an attractive field of technology research that will enable us to send more secure messages.

 

Still there are problems with this technology that need to be solved in order to put a quantum internet to work:

–        Quantum computers must be able to talk to each other

–        Secure communications from hacking

–        Able to transmit long distances messages without losing parts of it

–        Routing messages across a quantum network

–         

This ultra –fast computer will be able to factor impossibly large numbers that the classical computers of today cannot solve.

 

There are four types of quantum computers currently being developed, which use: Light particles, Trapped ions, Superconducting qubits and Nitrogen vacancy centers in diamonds.  These four types of quantum computers that are being developed won’t be able to talk all to each other without help.

 

Joseph Fitzsimons, a principal investigator at the National University of Singapore’s Center of Quantum Technologies tells BBC “ Light is better for communications, bit matter qubits are better for processing,”  

 

There are two different approaches to building quantum networks – a land-based network and a space –based network, each of which has its own problems at the moment until the development is complete and ready for use.  

 

 

Scientists believe that if people want the global –scale quantum internet, it looks like a space-based solution is the only way but it is the most expensive.

 

Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences generated headlines in June when they succeeded in teleporting-entangled photons between tow towns in China located 1,200Km apart. They used a specially developed quantum satellite called Micius.

 

Recently the same Chinese scientists topped their own record on September 29th by demonstrating the world’s first intercontinental video call protected by a quantum key with researchers at the Austrian Academy of Sciences over a distance of 7,700Km.

 

The Scientists at the Austrian Academy of Sciences institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information believes the quantum internet will need land-based and space-based networks to operate in parallel.

 

At the present time all scientists around the world are working nonstop for putting the new technology to work.

Researchers from the Australian national University have developed a telecom compatible quantum memory chip using an erbium –doped crystal.

 

This device is able to store light in the right color and it is able to do so for longer than one second, which is 10,000 times longer than all other attempts so far. 

 

It has been told that this technology will take five years before it be comes practical.  

from DailyTech News Feed http://ift.tt/2gASQRV
via IFTTT

Posted on

50 years later, the Apollo 11 command module still dazzles


reader comments
3

  • CSM-107, more popularly known as Columbia, with LTA-8 lunar module in background.


    Lee Hutchinson

  • Columbia in repose.


    Lee Hutchinson

  • Another look at Columbia. Visible at bottom-left is the “steam duct,” where vapor from the capsule’s cooling evaporator was allowed to escape into space. Other openings include the roll motors for the CM’s RCS (oval openings), the urine and waste water dump valves (below the oval RCS openings), and, below the hatch, the CM RCS pitch motors.


    Lee Hutchinson

  • From the side, Columbia’s yaw thrusters are visible at bottom.

  • Detail on

    Columbia’s

    lower and upper ablative heat shields. The heat shield is made out of a material called

    AVCOAT

    , which is a phenolic resin fixed in a fiberglass honeycomb. The small, white, irregular marks indicate areas where assembly technicians had to drill out and re-apply the coating due to subsurface bubbles.

  • Detail on Columbia’s wide-field Scanning Telescope (left) and sextant (right), which were used for, among other things, aligning the spacecraft’s inertial guidance platform with the stars at various points throughout the mission.


    Lee Hutchinson

  • Detail on the utility connection between Columbia and her service module.


    Lee Hutchinson

  • Columbia’s hatch, displayed separately. In spite of the mechanism’s apparent complexity, it enabled crews to open the hatch in an emergency in only a few seconds, thanks to a gas-assist system.

  • Trying to push some light into Columbia’s dark interior with a speedlight. Center console’s controls are somewhat visible.


    Lee Hutchinson

  • Detail on LTA-8. Though it now hangs from Space Center Houston’s ceiling, LTA-8 was the first flight-rated production lunar module and used extensively for environmental testing on the ground. It was never flown.


    Lee Hutchinson


  • Lee Hutchinson

  • Rear view. The injector plate was positioned at the top of the rocket’s thrust chamber and sprayed fuel and oxidizer into the thrust chamber for combustion. Massive pumps shoved about one ton of refined RP-1 fuel and two tons of liquid oxygen through this plate… per second.


    Lee Hutchinson

  • A few items from Buzz Aldrin’s and Mike Collins’ private collections.


    Lee Hutchinson

  • An overhead view of the entire exhibit, which will remain open to the public until March 2018.


    Lee Hutchinson

HOUSTON—After carrying Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins to the Moon in 1969, the Apollo 11 command module splashed into the Pacific Ocean. The spacecraft then returned to Houston with the astronauts before embarking on a tour to all 50 states in 1970 and 1971. An estimated three million people visited the spacecraft along the way as it stopped in one city per state, usually the capital.

Following that tour, the historic capsule was installed at Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, and it remained there as one of the institution’s most prized artifacts. Now, finally, the 3.9-meter wide spacecraft is going on tour again. It won’t be visiting all 50 states but instead a select few cities—Houston, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and, lastly, for the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing in 2019, Seattle. The latter city gets the honor because Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is among those underwriting the tour.

The capsule makes its first public appearance on Saturday, October 14 at Space Center Houston. During a media preview, we got a look at the exhibit, which will let visitors get a little more than an arm’s length away from the capsule. This close, we could see how hard the return trip through the atmosphere was on the spacecraft’s heat shield, as well as the wear and tear from the reaction control system thrusters. The capsule is indeed an iconic sight to behold, and it looks all the better for a thorough cleaning and conservation effort before the tour began.

During its engagement until March 2018 at the visitor’s center near Johnson Space Center, space buffs can see both the Apollo 11 capsule and, in a nearby exhibit, the Apollo 17 capsule. Both vehicles have launched to the Moon and back and appear similar. “This is an opportunity to see the historic bookends of the Apollo program,” said William Harris, president and chief executive of Space Center Houston.

Other intriguing objects in the “Destination Moon” exhibit include the visor and gloves Aldrin wore on the Moon’s surface, a shiny lunar sample return container, Michael Collins’ Omega Speedmaster watch, and more. A 3D tour of the spacecraft also highlights graffiti left inside the “Columbia” module by the astronauts. There is also a Moon rock, of course.

This four-city tour, coming on the 50th anniversary of NASA’s Moon landings, is a welcome addition to efforts to highlight the amazing things humans can do in space with clear goals and the funding to accomplish them. In the coming months, Ars will launch its own ambitious series to commemorate the Apollo program, from its successes and travails, to a legacy that reverberates even today in the spaceflight community.

Listing image by Lee Hutchinson

from Ars Technica http://ift.tt/2ygCiX4
via IFTTT

Posted on

FCC chair “refused” to rebuke Trump over threat to take NBC off the air

Enlarge /

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai listens during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing in Washington, DC, on June 20, 2017.


reader comments
3

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai still hasn’t publicly responded to President Trump’s call for NBC and other networks to have their FCC licenses challenged, and Democratic lawmakers are stepping up the pressure.

Reps. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.) and Mike Doyle (D-Penn.) today called for a Congressional hearing in which Pai and the other FCC commissioners “can publicly disavow President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to revoke NBC’s broadcaster license due to its reporting.”

Trump made the threats on Twitter yesterday. Members of Congress and members of the media (including Ars) have been contacting the FCC since yesterday morning to get a response from Pai, but the chair has remained silent on the matter.

Pallone and Doyle issued this statement:

Over the past few days, the President has repeatedly attacked news outlets and their FCC licenses. This threat alone may already be chilling free speech across the country. That is why we and others have called on the FCC chairman to immediately condemn this intimidation and promise to the American public that he will not follow through on the directions he has received from the president. Despite our calls, the chairman has refused to say if he agrees with the president. We therefore ask for a hearing as soon as possible with all five FCC commissioners so that they can publicly and under oath commit that they will not threaten broadcasters or their licenses because of the content of their reporting.

FCC Democrats responded to Trump

Both Democratic members of the FCC, Jessica Rosenworcel and Mignon Clyburn, said they would not help Trump attack NBC by targeting its licenses. “Revoking a broadcast license on such grounds will only happen if we fail to abide by the First Amendment,” Clyburn said.

Republican members of the commission have not issued any statements on the topic yesterday or today.

Last month, Pai dismissed the idea of revoking FCC licenses in a speech:

On Twitter, for example, people regularly demand that the FCC yank licenses from cable news channels like Fox News, MSNBC, or CNN because they disagree with the opinions expressed on those networks. Setting aside the fact that the FCC doesn’t license cable channels, these demands are fundamentally at odds with our legal and cultural traditions.

But while Pai was previously willing to criticize unnamed people on Twitter for demanding license revocations, Democratic lawmakers want him to stand up to the president. Revoking licenses is unlikely from a procedural perspective, but the lawmakers said that the president’s threats themselves are harmful to free speech.

“Every day that goes by without comment from the FCC Chairman is a continued threat to the First Amendment,” Pallone and Doyle said.

Trump angry about NBC news story

Trump’s first tweet on the topic yesterday said, “With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!”

Trump’s threat came shortly after he claimed an NBC news story about his nuclear ambitions is “pure fiction.”

Hours later, Trump intensified his call for network licenses to be challenged and possibly revoked. “Network news has become so partisan, distorted and fake that licenses must be challenged and, if appropriate, revoked. Not fair to public!” Trump tweeted.

Trump did not walk back his threats today. “The Fake News Is going all out in order to demean and denigrate! Such hatred!” he tweeted.

The FCC doesn’t issue broadcast licenses to networks, but it does issue licenses to individual stations. The Comcast-owned NBC owns and operates numerous stations in major markets, but NBC content also airs on many affiliate stations that are not owned by NBC.

We contacted Pai’s office again after Pallone and Doyle issued their statement, and we will update this story if Pai offers a response.

from Ars Technica http://ift.tt/2gfNM8N
via IFTTT

Posted on

Supreme Court to decide if US has right to data on world’s servers

Enlarge /

Front row from left, US Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Associate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, and Associate Justice Stephen Breyer, back row from left, Associate Justice Elena Kagan, Associate Justice Samuel Alito Jr., Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch pose for a group portrait in the East Conference Room of the Supreme Court.

Alex Wong/Getty Images


reader comments
68

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to decide whether law enforcement authorities, armed with a valid search warrant from a federal judge, can demand that the US tech sector hand over data that is stored on overseas servers. In this case, which is now one of the biggest privacy cases on the high court’s docket, the justices will review a lower court’s ruling that US warrants don’t apply to data housed on foreign servers, in this instance, a Microsoft server in Ireland.

The US government appealed, contending it has the legal right, with a valid court warrant, to reach into the world’s servers with the assistance of the tech sector, no matter where the data is stored.

The case has huge foreign policy ramifications as well. Federal authorities sometimes demand that the US tech sector comply with court orders that conflict with laws of countries where the data is housed.

The dispute the Supreme Court chose to consider centers on the US government having obtained a valid warrant for e-mail messages as part of a drug investigation. Microsoft challenged the warrant and convinced a federal appeals court that US law does not apply to foreign data.

In agreeing to hear the case, the justices did not comment on their reasoning.

All the while, Congress is mulling legislation to enable the federal government to negotiate reciprocity agreements with like-minded foreign nations to give each side a right to data on foreign servers—with a valid warrant.

In its appeal to the high court, meanwhile, the US government said that the US tech sector should turn over any information requested with a valid court warrant. It doesn’t matter where the data is hosted, the government argues. What matters, the authorities maintain, is whether the data can be accessed from within the United States.

Brad Smith, Microsoft’s chief legal officer, said in a Monday blog post following the high court’s announcement: “If U.S. law enforcement can obtain the emails of foreigners stored outside the United States, what’s to stop the government of another country from getting your emails even though they are located in the United States?”

No oral argument date was immediately set.

from Ars Technica http://ift.tt/2gdqvAv
via IFTTT