What technologies and innovations will shape our lives after few decades.
How much will your career advance in one or ten years. Where will your kids go to college, be brave and predict here.
How much will the Bitcoin be worth in 2015? How much will the Dogecoin be next month? Post your predictions.
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Inflatable Venus plane VAMP enters the competition for next NASA New Frontiers mission
The hot and hostile surface environment of Venus poses unique challenges to scientific missions to explore the planet. In an effort to deal with these challenges, Northrop Grumman conducted a feasibility study in 2012 of an inflatable propeller-powered aircraft called the Venus Atmospheric Maneuverability Platform (VAMP). The aircraft would fly the skies above Venus at an altitude between 55 and 70 kilometers. According to Space News, Northrop Grumman plans to enter the concept in NASA’s next New Frontiers that is set to begin during the federal government’s 2016 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. The winning mission will have to be ready to launch by about 2021.
On Friday, May 15, Northrop Grumman announced the formation of a science advisory board of prominent American and European planetary scientists. The board will be tasked with defining specific scientific goals, measurement requirements, and identifying possible instruments for future VAMP missions. The board will also analyze existing Venus data that may be useful in planning the VAMP mission.
“The board is a community-based, interdisciplinary science forum that the VAMP development team may interact with, ask questions of and request analyses to help resolve design and performance issues during these early stages of the mission’s development,” said Ronald Polidan, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems VAMP Project Scientist. “They will be incredibly helpful in designing the vehicle for maximum science data collection.”
VAMP would be the first application of Northrop Grumman’s family of Lifting Entry/Atmospheric Flight (LEAF) aircraft that could fly the skies of any planetary body with an atmosphere, including Venus, Earth, Mars, and Saturn’s moon Titan.
The VAMP aircraft would be delivered to Venus by an orbiting spacecraft which would later serve as a communications link between VAMP and Earth. VAMP would inflate outside the atmosphere and its large surface area would help manage the heat loads of atmospheric entry. Vamp will have a wingspan of nearly 150 feet (45.7 m) and a payload capacity of 100 pounds (45.4 kg). VAMP will be able to stay airborne for nearly a year as it studies Venus and its atmosphere by using a combination of powered flight and passive floating.
VAMP will certainly face stiff competition for the $1 billion in funding that NASA is offering for the next New Frontiers mission. Several finalists from the 2011 competition that may return for 2016 include the MoonRiser lunar sample return mission and a Venus lander called the Surface and Atmospheric GeoChemical Explorer. To win, Northrop Grumman will have to convince NASA that they can demonstrate a working prototype within about four years and that VAMP can carry enough scientific instruments to fulfill key science objectives set forth by the most recent decadal survey.
Northrop Grumman is partnering on the project with L. Garde Inc. of Tustin, California, who previously collaborated on a DARPA initiative to create a collapsible, rocket-deployed drone called RAPID EYE. L. Garde built two collapsible wings before the project was cancelled in 2010. The larger of the two wings was about 2 meters long. An operational VAMP prototype would have a 55 meter wingspan.
In addition to the company’s experience during the Rapid Eye project, Northrop Grumman will also draw on the development of the semi-buoyant Long Endurance Multi-intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) airship and its long heritage of delta-winged aircraft, from the flying wing of the late 1940s to the B-2 Spirit bomber and the X-47B unmanned aerial vehicle.
Source: http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/
Grissom comes back for the last CSI. The Two Hours Finale airs on CBS
CBS has made it official: One of the longest-running crime dramas will come to a close next season.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation will wrap its 15 seasons with a two-hour TV movie on Sept. 27, the network announced Wednesday morning. The movie will include—as EW was first to report last week—the return of original series star William Petersen. Former co-star Marg Helgenberger will appear in the film as well. In addition, current CSI star Ted Danson will continue to stay with the franchise by moving over to the show’s latest spinoff, CSI: Cyber.
Broadcast networks always announce a slew of cancelations this time of year in preparation for their upfront presentation to advertisers in New York this week. But CBS ending CSI, along with Fox announcing the conclusion of American Idol next year, represents the retirement of two 21st century programming icons that were once massive hits and spawned many imitators.
In the weeks running up to the announcement, CSI was considered likely to score some kind of renewal despite struggling mightily in the ratings this year. The show averaged 11.2 million viewers and a 2.1 rating among adults 18-49 (including seven days of DVR playback). Those numbers could have been potentially survivable for a freshman series, but shows tend to get more expensive to produce as they age. Indeed CSI: Cyber starring Patricia Arquette, will continue on for a second season despite having the same audience as the flagship.
CSI ushered in a wave of gritty procedural crime dramas with an ensemble cast that used technology-based murder-solving methods. The slick production and intriguing mysteries made the show a hit when it launched in 2000, and eventually spawned several spinoffs—CSI: Miami, CSI: New York and the recently launched CSI: Cyber. The broadcaster’s other hit franchises, like NCIS (a spin-off of the CSI-pre-dating JAG) and Criminal Minds, flourished in CSI’s wake, and collectively established CBS as a network for crime dramas. While critics often mocked CBS for spinning off CSI, one can’t argue with the strategy’s success—and now nearly every hit show with a procedural element is eyed for a spinoff.
Source: http://www.ew.com/article/2015/05/13/csi-canceled
Hope you get into uni + get everything sorted by then.
From me in January. :)
UFC Fight Night 75: Barnett vs. Nelson MMA Octagon Predictions
Heavyweight: Roy Nelson def. Josh Barnett via TKO (punches)
Middleweight: Gegard Mousasi def. Uriah Hall via Submission (rear-naked choke)
Flyweight: Kyoji Horiguchi def. Chico Camus via TKO (punches)
Bantamweight: Takeya Mizugaki def. George Roop via Decision (unanimous)
Welterweight: Keita Nakamura def. Li Jingliang via TKO (knees)
Bantamweight: Norifumi Yamamoto def. Matt Hobar via KO (flying knee)
KO of the Night: Norifumi Yamamoto
Submission of the Night: Gegard Mousasi
Admins—get ready for Office 2016, rollout begins
In March, we announced the Office 2016 IT Pro and Developer Preview. Since then, we’ve been listening to your feedback and continuing to build, refine and improve Office 2016 for Windows. This is a seminal release for Office and one you won’t want to wait to deploy to your users, and thanks to the many new IT management enhancements, you don’t need to wait!
You may have heard the rumors, but today I’m happy to confirm that Office 2016 will be broadly available starting on September 22nd. If you have a volume licensing agreement in place, you can download Office 2016 from the Volume Licensing Service Center starting October 1st.
This post is your one-stop shop for the tools, guidance and resources needed to get ready for Office 2016. We’ve enhanced the upgrade and installation experience, and for Office 365 subscribers, we’ve made changes to how the 2016 apps are updated moving forward. We’re also delivering new tools and resources to help you prepare, deploy and manage Office.
Improvements to the Office update model
For customers who currently use Office 365 ProPlus, (the subscription version of Office apps for companies and organizations), you can continue to receive monthly feature and security updates just as you have been over the past few years. Moving forward, this always up-to-date approach is called Current Branch and means that you always have the most current Office apps and capabilities deployed. The next Current Branch will release on September 22nd and will have all of the new Office 2016 app updates included.
Based on feedback from many organizations running Office 365 ProPlus, I am excited to announce that we are adding a new option for updating Office called Current Branch for Business. If your organization typically waits a few months prior to rolling out a new version of Office or needs more time to test Office 2016 and your customizations between feature updates, this will be welcomed news.
Consistent with Windows 10 approach, the new Current Branch for Business update model delivers three cumulative feature updates per year, while continuing to offer monthly security updates. You’ll see the first Current Branch for Business build in February 2016—which is effectively the same feature set as the September 22nd release, but with four additional months of security updates also included. This tri-annual update model offers an additional way for Office 365 ProPlus to stay current moving forward. You can find out about the new servicing options on TechNet.
More IT capabilities in the new Office
We’ve also addressed a number of the other top IT requests in Office 365 ProPlus, including deployment support for Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) to help control network traffic when deploying updates and new reports on Office activation and usage available in the Office 365 admin portal.
Beyond the new deployment and management options, the new Office also adds support for Data Loss Prevention across the Office 2016 apps, Multi-factor Authentication and other mission critical control capabilities.
Also, back in March we pledged our commitment to compatibility with your existing Office customization by not making changes to the extensibility model for macros or add-ins. If you’ve been evaluating the preview, you would have seen that most of the tools and processes for managing and deploying Office 365 ProPlus (15.x) versions are very consistent with Office 2016. In August, we published guidance for updating Office 365 ProPlus to the Office 2016 version and kicked off the Office IT Pro Deployment Script project.
If you haven’t checked out the new Office capabilities, it’s time! Speaking of which, let’s talk about all of the ways to get ready for Office 2016…
New events, tools and resources for admins
In November, we’re kicking off a new IT and developer-focused event series—the Microsoft Cloud Roadshow—where we’ll provide free, two-day technical trainings in 12 cities around the world for topics spanning Office, Azure and Windows. These are free to attend, and we’ll be bringing top engineers from Microsoft to lead the training sessions. Registration is now open for the in-person events, and coming soon, we’ll publish the presentations for on-demand viewing along with hands-on labs and additional training resources.
The Office 365 Community is also a great place to go if you have questions about Office 2016; the experts from Microsoft, our MVPs, and the broader community are all there to help. We’ll be promoting Office 2016 on the network in the coming weeks and will have a YamJam with the Office engineering team on September 24th to answer your questions following the September 22nd release.
We’ll continue highlighting new capabilities in Office 2016 for tech enthusiasts via Office Mechanics shows and short demos from our engineers in the coming weeks. You can see highlights of what’s coming in Office 2016 for Windows on Office Mechanics now.
Check back on September 22nd
This captures a few of the highlights of what we’re working on to support admins with the upcoming Office 2016 release. You’ll see a lot more coming on September 22nd and beyond. Of course, you can still download the Office 2016 Preview now to experience what’s coming, and don’t forget to register for a Microsoft Cloud Roadshow near you to learn more.
—Julia White
Source: https://blogs.office.com/
Releasing of iOS 9 - Picture-in-Picture feature is finally available in the iPad world
SAN FRANCISCO — June 8, 2015 — Apple® today unveiled iOS 9, giving a preview of new iPhone®, iPad® and iPod touch® software that will be available this fall. In this upcoming release, iOS devices become more intelligent and proactive with powerful search and improved Siri® features — all without compromising users’ privacy. New multitasking features designed specifically for iPad allow you to work with two apps simultaneously, side-by-side or with the new Picture-in-Picture feature, to keep watching a video while browsing the web, composing email or using any other app. Built-in apps become more powerful in iOS 9 with detailed transit information in Maps*, a redesigned Notes app with new ways to capture ideas, and an all-new News app for the best news reading experience on any mobile device.
“iOS 9 is packed with more intelligence throughout, and delivers big updates to the apps customers use most — Maps supports public transit, a redesigned Notes app provides great new ways to capture ideas, and a beautiful News app delivers content that’s personalized to your interests,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “With our new iPad features, users can take advantage of the power of iPad, working in two apps at the same time with Split View, Slide Over or Picture-in-Picture.”
Intelligence
Siri features an all-new design in iOS 9, contextual reminders and new ways to search photos and videos. Proactive assistance presents the most relevant information without compromising users’ privacy and suggests actions at a particular moment — even before you start typing — automatically suggesting apps to launch or people to contact based on usage patterns, and notifying you when you need to leave for appointments, taking into account traffic conditions. iOS 9 can even learn what you typically listen to in a certain location or at a particular time of day, so when you plug in headphones at the gym or hop in the car before work, it can automatically display playback controls for your preferred app. Typed search queries deliver more relevant results from more categories, including sports scores and schedules, videos and simple math calculations.
New iPad Features
With a simple swipe, the new Slide Over feature lets you simultaneously work in a second app without leaving the first. And with a quick tap, you can access the new Split View feature so you can work in two apps at the same time, side-by-side. Picture-in-Picture lets you continue a FaceTime® call or video while using your favorite apps. These new multitasking features are supported by built-in Apple apps, and APIs make it easy for third-party developers to add support into their own apps. Typing is faster and easier with an all-new Shortcut Bar that displays actions tailored for the app you are in, and new Multi-Touch™ gestures make it even easier to select and edit text.
Built-In Apps
In iOS 9, Maps adds support for metropolitan transit systems and schedules, and subway station entrances and exits are precisely mapped, providing every step of your trip. When you plan your trip, Maps can offer a combination of trains, subways, buses and walking, and with the new Nearby feature, quickly see what’s around by searching for food, drinks, shopping and more.
New features of the completely redesigned Notes app include the ability to draw a quick sketch using your finger, easily create checklists to keep track of your to-dos, or snap a photo directly in a note. Easily save important items to your notes directly from other apps, and keep them in sync across all your enabled devices with iCloud®.
The News app delivers a reading experience that combines the rich, immersive design of a print magazine with the interactivity of digital media. News can learn your interests and suggest relevant content that’s easily shareable with friends or saved for later. News delivers the best articles from a variety of publishers and over one million topics to help you personalize your reading experience, all presented in an elegant, uncluttered design. News is powered by the new Apple News Format™, a digital publishing format supporting custom typography, galleries, audio, video and interactive animations, allowing publishers like Condé Nast, ESPN and The New York Times to create beautiful editorial layouts for iOS users.
With iOS 9, Apple Pay™ adds support for Discover, rewards programs from merchants such as Walgreens and Kohl’s Department Stores, and participating store-issued credit and debit cards. Shoppers will be able to manage their cards in the new Wallet app. Apple Pay will also be available to users in the UK starting next month.
*Transit information in Maps will be available in select major cities this fall, including Baltimore, Berlin, Chicago, London, Mexico City, New York City, Philadelphia, the San Francisco Bay Area, Toronto and Washington D.C., as well as over 300 cities in China, including Beijing, Chengdu and Shanghai.
**Battery life depends on usage and settings.
Source: https://www.apple.com
MMA Prediction: The return of the Last Emperor Fedor Emelianenko
Russian mma heavyweight legend Fedor Emelianenko revealed during an appearance on the FightSpirit Championship 5 broadcast in Russia that he will announce his promotional signing in 2-3 weeks.
The return of Fedor Emelianenko continues to be a topic that attracts attention from pundits and fans alike, as many eagerly anticipate the end of the sweepstakes for the Russian heavyweight to determine where he will fight in the near future.
According to a recent report from CombatPress.com, Emelianenko has already signed with the UFC and is awaiting an official announcement from the promotion. However, according to the Russian heavyweight, he remains fixed in negotiations for the time being.
Fedor was present at FightSpirit Championship 5 in Russia as the guest of honor and revealed during a quick interview that he would announce his potential signing in the next couple of weeks.
"I can not say exactly, but negotiations with the leading promoters are in place," said Fedor. "In the next two or three weeks everything will become clear."
While rumours and reports have suggested that Fedor's first fight could take place at the UFC's anticipated stadium show in Melbourne, Australia, the Russian wants his first fight to be in either Japan or the United States. He also added that he will also take a fight in Russia shortly thereafter.
"I want to spend my return fight abroad, in Japan or the United States," Fedor confirmed (h/t Sovsport.ru). "But later I will definitely schedule a fight in my homeland, Russia"
With negotiations seemingly ongoing, it will be interesting where the legendary mma fighter settles over the coming weeks.
Source: http://www.bloodyelbow.com/
My MMA Prediction: He’s gonna end up in this new org in Japan thats being created or in M 1, bet on it.
Fighting Kenny Garner or Sergei Kharitonov in Russia and Ishii rematch in Japan.
We all get our hopes up for Fedor in the UFC for rematch with BigFoot and Verdum revenge,but its probably not gonna happen cause thats just the way UFC/Fedor is destined to play out.
GoPro Inc. steps on the Drone market with their own extreme line customer drones
GoPro Inc. is developing its own line of consumer drones to expand from its core business of making wearable video cameras popular with surfers and other sports enthusiasts, according to people familiar with its plans.
The company intends to start selling multirotor helicopters equipped with high-definition cameras late next year, aiming for a price tag between $500 and $1,000, these people said.
The entry of a big consumer-electronics brand to the drone market signals how mainstream—and lucrative—the industry has become in just a few years.
Consumers have flocked to unmanned aircraft in recent years as technological advances have made them smaller, cheaper and easier to fly, leaving regulators scrambling to keep up.
Consumer drones are typically lightweight helicopters with cameras that can be controlled with a tablet computer or smartphone. U.S. regulators allow their use by hobbyists. The devices are expected to be hot sellers this holiday season and have even inspired their own version of the selfie, or self-portrait photo, called a “dronie.” . . . . . . . . . . . . More info: http://online.wsj.com/articles/gopro-developing-line-of-consumer-drones-1417020883 . . . . . . . . . . . . GoPro Official website: http://gopro.com/ . . . . . . . . . . . . GoDron - my prediction for name of the drone line
BitTorrent's first tv series "Children of the Machine "(COTM) are available to free download
BitTorrent Inc. is taking on Amazon and Netflix in 2015 with its own original television content platform, dubbed BitTorrent Originals. The first programming to roll out under BitTorrent's banner will be Children of the Machine (COTM), a Sci-Fi television series first announced in July.
COTM will be available in the fall as an ad-supported download or you can purchase a premium version for $9.95. All content for BitTorrent Originals will be produced under an exclusive partnership between BitTorrent and Rapid Eye Studios.
In addition to the series, BitTorrent and Rapid Eye also have a COTM-themed video game planned that will be distributed as a separate BitTorrent Bundle. The company did not announce further details about the game, such as pricing or whether it too will be under the BitTorrent Originals banner.
All BitTorrent Originals content will be distributed for the first 30 to 60 days after its release as a BitTorrent Bundle. After that, it may show up in other distribution platforms around the world, including regular television broadcasts and online streaming. Originals content will be targeted at 14-to-25 year-olds who, the company says, make up the majority of BitTorrent's user base.
Whither the crowd?
BitTorrent had originally planned to introduce COTM using a crowd-funding component. Viewers were supposed to get the first episode for free and then choose to pay $9.95 to support the series. If the supporter list hit 250,000 people then COTM would be considered funded and the first season would be produced. It appears those original plans have been discarded with the introduction of BitTorrent Originals.
The story behind the story: BitTorrent Inc. is on a mission to legitimize file-sharing technology and remove the stigma that the BitTorrent protocol is only for online piracy. In recent years the company has introduced apps that make novel use of the BitTorrent protocol, such as the chat app Bleep and Sync for distributing files across multiple devices. In 2013, BitTorrent rolled out the Bundle program to show how BitTorrent could be used as a distribution platform for original content that isn't pirated. It also introduced paid downloads in 2014 with Radiohead front man Thom Yorke's latest solo effort, Tomorrow's Modern Boxes.
The online trend
BitTorrent Originals is rolling out just as online distribution for high-quality content is becoming the norm. Netflix and Amazon are receiving accolades for original shows like House of Cards and Transparent. Now original content heavyweights like HBO and Showtime intend to introduce standalone online streaming packages this year.
While BitTorrent Originals sounds intriguing, it's still far too early to know whether it will be a success, since the platform's first series is still months away from release.
Nevertheless, BitTorrent has high hopes for the debut of Children of the Machine. The company predicts the series will reach 60-80 million fans for the first season of eight hour-long episodes. "With 170 million monthly active users, we have an audience larger than Amazon and Netflix combined," BitTorrent's content chief Matt Mason told me.
BitTorrent's 170 million users statistic is based on the number of monthly active users for the company's two BitTorrent file-sharing apps—BitTorrent and uTorrent—and is not about how many people regularly download the company's content bundles. Nevertheless, there's no doubt that BitTorrent Bundles are popular too. In June, the company announced its (mostly free) bundles of music and video content had already racked up 100 million downloads.
BitTorrent has yet to announce plans for future Originals titles but says it will have more news in the coming months.
Source: http://www.techhive.com/
This new $2.50 Batteriser, which extends disposable battery life by 800%, is on the energy market
A new device is set to give any disposable battery - from AAA to D - eight times its usual lifespan by keeping its voltage boosted to just above what most appliances consider 'dead'. Developed by US-based start-up, Batteroo, the so-called 'Batteriser' is a stainless steel sleeve that you can clip onto any battery, and because it’s just 0.1 mm thick, it can fit into any kind of device, including TV remotes, torches, bluetooth keyboards, and console controllers.
The idea behind the Batteriser is that a new alkaline battery will be able to generate 1.5 Volts for some time, but as soon as its voltage drops to 1.4 Volts or below, most devices write it off as dead. This means that when we’re throwing out what we think are spent batteries, we’re throwing out something that still has 80 percent of its energy left inside. And that’s where this new voltage booster technology comes into play.
"The Batteriser has boost circuitry that will boost the voltage from 0.6 volts to 1.5 volts and will maintain voltage at 1.5 - which is a brand new battery," one of the team behind the invention, electrical engineer Bob Roohparvar, told Jon Phillips at PCWorld.
While this technology behind the Batteriser voltage booster has been around for many years, the difference here is that Roohparvar and his team have managed to shrink it down enough so it will fit inside any battery compartment you throw at it. "The key is we’ve been able to miniaturise the boost circuit to a point that no one else has been able to achieve," Roohparvar said.
Testing the performance of the Batteriser is easy - Roohparvar just needs to take some 'dead’ batteries with a 1.3-Volt output, and slot them into a Bluetooth keyboard. Naturally, the keyboard doesn’t recognise these batteries as functional, and will not operate. The batteries are then fitted with Batteriser sleeves to boost the voltage back to 1.5 Volts, slotted back inside the Bluetooth keyboard, and "Voila: The Mac reported the battery level at 100 percent," Phillips reports.
"We tested the Batteriser sleeve in our lab and we confirmed that the Batteriser taps into 80 percent of energy that is usually thrown away," said physicist Kiumars Parvin from San Jose State University, who was asked to independently verify the results.
Roohparvar says the Batteriser will also work with rechargeable batteries that have slipped to a 1.2-Volt output, and will be sold in packs of four for $10. They’re planning on having them on the market by September this year, and will launch a crowd-funding Indiegogo campaign later this month.
It’s the kind of technology that just might put a dent in the 15 billion batteries that end up in landfill around the world each year, so hopefully we’ll see these helpful little devices in stores soon.
Source: http://www.sciencealert.com/
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