Archive for the 'Technology' Category
ALTA 8 – Moving Pictures
September 19th, 2016When I was in photography school more than a couple of decades ago, I used to hang out with the extreme slow mo and bullet-slicing-playing-cards-in-half weirdos. We used to wonder what tech would exist in 20 years along these lines, and we all chuckled and agreed that film would mostly be gone… Nobody guessed that […]
“Disruptive Tidal Wave”: Robots Will Eliminate 6% of All U.S. Jobs by 2021
September 19th, 2016Via: Guardian: By 2021, robots will have eliminated 6% of all jobs in the US, starting with customer service representatives and eventually truck and taxi drivers. That’s just one cheery takeaway from a report released by market research company Forrester this week. These robots, or intelligent agents, represent a set of AI-powered systems that can […]
‘The Going Rate for Self-Driving Talent Is $10 Million Per Person’
September 17th, 2016The business of eliminating millions of jobs is today’s version of the moonshot or the Manhattan Project. Via: Recode: “Uber has just bought a half-a-year-old company [Otto] with 70 employees for almost $700 million,” Thrun said. “If you look at GM, they spent $1 billion on its acquisition of Cruise. These are mostly talent acquisitions. […]
Tesla Wins Massive Contract to Help Power the California Grid
September 16th, 2016Via: Bloomberg: Tesla just won a bid to supply grid-scale power in Southern California to help prevent electricity shortages following the biggest natural gas leak in U.S. history. The Powerpacks, worth tens of millions of dollars, will be operational in record time—by the end of this year. Tesla Motors Inc. will supply 20 megawatts (80 […]
Facebook Censored Live Stream Video Posted by Dakota Pipeline Protesters
September 15th, 2016Via: The Verge: Facebook has admitted to censoring a video posted by activists protesting the Dakota Access pipeline, with the social network blaming the removal on its automated spam filter. The live stream video, published on Tuesday by the media collective Unicorn Riot, showed police arresting around two dozen protesters at a Dakota pipeline site. […]
Pittsburgh: Fears of Uber’s Human Drivers Become a Reality
September 14th, 2016Obviously, the mass deployment of this technology is still at least a few years out, but I’d be very surprised if it didn’t happen within a decade in major cities. I think LIDAR will have to be used. Currently, LIDAR is very expensive and cumbersome. Once the MIT/DARPA LIDAR-on-a-chip gadget emerges in bulk, watch out. […]
HUD Video of Auto-GCAS Saving Unconscious F-16 Pilot
September 13th, 2016Via: Aviation Week: This newly declassified video footage from the head-up-display of a U.S. Air Force Arizona Air National Guard F-16 records the dramatic moment when its unconscious pilot is saved from certain death by the aircraft’s Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System (Auto-GCAS).
China Will Resurrect The World’s Largest Plane
September 11th, 2016Via: Popular Science: On August 30, members of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AICC) and the Antonov Corporation, the leading Ukrainian aviation company, signed an agreement to restart production of the AN-225, the world’s largest cargo aircraft.
Google Drones Will Deliver Chipotle Burritos at Virginia Tech
September 8th, 2016Via: WTVR: Project Wing, a drone project in Google’s X lab, will begin testing drone delivery of burritos at Virginia Tech later this month. Google expects to conduct a few hundred deliveries over the course of several days or potentially weeks. Burritos won’t be delivered just anywhere on campus. Testing will be confined to a […]
Pentagon Working Through ‘Terminator Conundrum’
September 6th, 2016Via: USNI News: The Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said the Defense Department is working through the problems of future robotic weapon systems – so-called thinking weapons. “We’re not talking about cruise missiles or mines,” but “robotic systems to do lethal harm… a Terminator without a conscience,” a reference to the 1984 […]
