Woensdagmorgen.nl: Niet meer afhankelijk van je energieleverancier

[~Time Published March 01, 2014 at 11:36PM]

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'Ik geloof dat water op een dag dienst zal doen als brandstof. Dat de waterstof en zuurstof waar het uit bestaat een onuitputtelijke bron van warmte en licht zullen vormen', schreef de wereldberoemde schrijver Jules Verne al in 1874 in The Mysterious Island. En daar zou hij best eens gelijk in kunnen hebben.



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'Science' publisher is launching a free-to-read journal

[~Time Published February 13, 2014 at 12:28AM]

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One of the most prestigious scientific publishers is launching a new journal that will be open for everyone to read. Titled Science Advances, it will be the first open-access journal from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the nonprofit publisher behind Science — a journal generally considered to be among the very best in its field. The new publication will debut early next year and cover a broad scope of disciplines, and AAAS plans to broaden Science's scope as well to allow both journals to serve an increasingly broad audience.

Where the two journals will differ distinctly is their publication process. While both journals will make use of peer review and employ editors, Science will continue to publish...

Continue reading…



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What Xbox One and PS4 can learn from Steam's social capital (and why they won't)

[~Time Published February 12, 2014 at 12:19AM]

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Steam has changed the way we process and consume video games.

Continue reading…



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Dyson invests over $8 million into robot research lab (and it’s not just for vacuums)

[~Time Published February 09, 2014 at 11:23AM]

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Dyson has announced that it’ll invest £5 million into a robotics labs at Imperial College London, aimed at developing vision systems to help robots “understand and adapt to the world around them.” The company had in fact planned to launch a robotic vacuum cleaner way back in 2001, but Sir Dyson said the prototype was too heavy and expensive… and it never hit stores. This time, research won’t only concern itself with automated vacuums but other domestic robots, according to the BBC. Dyson has apparently been working on robotics with Imperial College since 2005: the university’s Professor Andrew Davison is set to head up the new lab.

“We now have the mechanical and electronic capabilities, but robots still lack understanding”

James Dyson says there’s still a lot of work to be done: “My generation believed the world would be overrun by robots by the year 2014. We now have the mechanical and electronic capabilities, but robots still lack understanding… mastering this will make our lives easier and lead to previously unthinkable technologies.” — and probably some new Dyson hardware that’s harder to imitate.

Filed under: Household, Robots

Comments

Source: BBC

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Ford testing plug-in hybrid that charges via rooftop solar panels

[Time Published January 02, 2014 at 08:47PM]

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Not shown: the giant lens that makes this all worthwhile.

Ford

The efficiency of solar panels and electric drivetrains has reached the point where the Sun can easily send cars across Australia. But fully solar-powered vehicles involve a lot of compromises in terms of performance, carrying capacity, and driver comfort. Such vehicles are not something you could use for your daily commute, while commuter cars simply don't have enough surface area to host the panels it would take to run them. But Ford has come up with some clever compromises that will let solar panels partially power one of its concept cars.

The design is based on its C-MAX Energi plug-in hybrid, which has enough battery capacity to cut into its use of an internal combustion engine on shorter trips. The result is a car that the EPA rates at roughly 100MPG. To that, Ford has added an array of solar panels on the roof, enough to generate about 300W of power—nice, but not enough to fully recharge the car's batteries during the daytime.

To get there, Ford added an additional part: a canopy you park the car under. The roof of the canopy is a Fresnel lens, a compact, thin lens that can be manufactured out of inexpensive and light materials; in this case, Ford will use acrylics. The lens will focus light from a broad area onto the roof of the C-MAX Solar Energi, boosting the amount of power it generates.

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[ Author: | Source: http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/index/~3/4R_Kwf_RqIU/] | Image URL: http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/cq5dam.web_.480.480.jpeg] [IFTTTautoSHAREv1.002 | Shared with ifttt.com More shared news etc on: http://bit.ly/Schavuiten_blog ]

Lebanon and Pakistan Receive IAEA imPACT Missions

[Author: ]

[Time Published December 19, 2013 at 01:43AM]

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Concluding an active year of imPACT Review Assessment missions in IAEA Member States, the IAEA Programme of Action for Cancer Therapy (PACT) conducted successive missions in Lebanon and Pakistan in late November and early December 2013.

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[Source: http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/2013/cancerlebanonpakistan.html] | Image URL: http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png]

Japan koopt Ospreys en drones

[Author: ]

[Time Published December 17, 2013 at 04:59PM]

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TOKIO - Japan gaat de komende vijf jaar zijn defensie-uitgaven flink opschroeven en vooral investeren in nieuwe vliegtuigen en drones. Dit heeft de regering van premier Shinzo Abe dinsdag bekendgemaakt. Abe heeft tot 2019 een bedrag van omgerekend 175 miljard euro ter beschikking gesteld voor militaire doeleinden, zeven miljard meer dan de afgelopen vijf jaar. Japan breekt daarmee ook een trend: de afgelopen tien jaar daalde het defensiebudget juist.

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[Source: http://www.luchtvaartnieuws.nl/nl-NL/Article.cms/Militair/Japan_koopt_Ospreys_en_drones] | Image URL: http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png]

Universiteit Twente meldt doorbraak met kabels voor kernfusie

[Author: ]

[Time Published December 15, 2013 at 03:52PM]

[ < - - Content ] De Universiteit Twente heeft kabels ontwikkeld die veel minder opwarmen dan verwacht waardoor de supergeleiding intact blijft bij gebruik bij een kernfusie-energiecentrale. De verwachting is dat het Twentse systeem een wereldwijde standaard zal worden [ - - > ]



[Source: http://tweakers.net/nieuws/93193/universiteit-twente-meldt-doorbraak-met-kabels-voor-kernfusie.html] | Image URL: http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png]

Iran sends monkey into space for second time

[Author: ]

[Time Published December 15, 2013 at 01:24AM]

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According to state-run media outlet Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), Iran successfully launched its second monkey to space and back, the country's latest step toward sending humans into orbit. The monkey, named Fargam, was flown on Iran's liquid-fueled Pajohesh rocket for a 15-minute mission that took him approximately 72 miles into space. Scientists on the ground measured vital signs and signals from the rocket before before it returned to Earth safely.

Iranian president Hassan Rouhani congratulated the scientists, Iran, and Iran's religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Twitter this morning:

Continue reading…

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[Source: http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/14/5210382/iran-sends-monkey-into-space-for-second-time] | Image URL: http://cdn0.sbnation.com/entry_photo_images/9565103/monkey_eyes__1_of_1__large.jpg]

BlinkScan is a flexible, fast and high-fidelity scanning solution

[Author: ]

[Time Published November 09, 2013 at 01:56AM]

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Your scanner is stupid. You might not know that, but it is. Thankfully, Expand NY Insert Coin semi-finalist BlinkScan is here to give you what you never knew you needed. It’s a device that scans images, documents or even objects like many other scanners out there, but unlike those dumb machines, BlinkScan tailors its output. Instead of producing a single image with everything lumped together, it crops out the individual items scanned (so that the background is completely eliminated), straightens the resulting images and exports them as separate files to your photo editing software of choice — all in about three seconds. BlinkScan also delivers super-high-quality pictures thanks to its unique image-capture method, which the company calls “perfect color capture.” To get such fidelity, the device takes three separate 10-megapixel monochromatic images (red, blue and green) and combines them into a 36-bit, 30-megapixel image. %Gallery-slideshow119582%

Filed under: Misc

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[Source: http://www.aivanet.com/2013/11/blinkscan-is-a-flexible-fast-and-high-fidelity-scanning-solution/] | Image URL: http://www.aivanet.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/blinkhedimg_618px.jpg]

India launches its first Mars mission, joins the interplanetary space race

[Author: ]

[Time Published November 06, 2013 at 12:06AM]

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India is now well on its way to having an interplanetary presence. The country has successfully launched the Mars Orbiter Mission, a satellite that will search the Martian atmosphere for elusive chemicals like methane. The spacecraft should take about 300 days to reach the Red Planet, but it’s relatively cheap at $72 million; the MOM team is saving money by building up speed in Earth’s orbit. While the mission faces daunting odds when less than half of all Mars missions have been successful, the potential for prestige is high. India’s space agency would be just the fourth to reach the planet — a symbolic win over countries like China, whose efforts have fallen short.

Filed under: Science, Alt

Comments

Via: BBC, The Inquirer

Source: Satish Dhawan Space Centre

The post India launches its first Mars mission, joins the interplanetary space race appeared first on AIVAnet.

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[Source: http://www.aivanet.com/2013/11/india-launches-its-first-mars-mission-joins-the-interplanetary-space-race/] | Image URL: http://www.aivanet.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/india-mars-orbiter-mission.jpg]

Universeel griepvaccin op komst

[Author: ]

[Time Published October 26, 2013 at 06:32AM]

[ < - - Content ] Over vier jaar is er vrijwel zeker een vaccin dat mensen beschermt tegen alle vormen van griep, zegt hoogleraar farmaceutische technologie Frijlink van de universiteit in Groningen. Hij leidt een internationale onderzoeksgroep die op zoek is naar een universeel vaccin. [ - - > ]



[Source: http://nos.nl/tekst/567137-universeel-griepvaccin-op-komst.html] | Image URL: http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png]

The Verge Book Club Podcast: 'Ship Breaker' with Paolo Bacigalupi

[Author: ]

[Time Published October 26, 2013 at 02:04AM]

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September's book club was Ship Breaker, a young adult novel set in a world ravaged by the effects of global warming. It's a fast-paced, thoughtful story about family, environmental disaster, and parasailing clipper ships. A month later, Adi and Laura sat down with the book's author, Paolo Bacigalupi. Among other things, Bacigalupi is known for The Windup Girl, which won the Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel in 2009 and was named one of the top ten fiction books of the year by Time magazine.

With October almost behind us, we'll be meeting again soon to discuss Doctor Sleep, and there's still time to vote for our November pick.

Continue reading…

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[Source: http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/25/5029492/the-verge-book-club-podcast-ship-breaker-with-paolo-bacigalupi] | Image URL: http://cdn2.sbnation.com/entry_photo_images/9183431/bookclub-frontgraphic_large.jpg]

How a video game could help children with food allergies

[Author: ]

[Time Published October 26, 2013 at 12:12AM]

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Elizabeth McQuaid, a psychologist at Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center, is overseeing the trial launch of a video game designed to help children with food allergies.

McQuaid teamed up with developer Virtually Better to test a web-based game for children 8-12. Researchers hope the software, which puts players in scenes intended to help them learn more about food allergies, symptoms and reaction management, will reduce the risk of allergic reactions.

During the trial, 32 children and their families will use the software three times a week for four weeks. Participants will then be questioned about their overall knowledge and confidence about food allergy management.

"Pediatric food allergy is a serious health issue that now...

Continue reading…

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[Source: http://www.polygon.com/2013/10/25/5028342/video-game-children-food-allergies] | Image URL: http://cdn0.sbnation.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/21758875/8483070167_1a90af12df_b.0_cinema_720.0.jpg]

Insert Coin semifinalist: iOximeter is a simple, cross-platform wellness tool

[Author: ]

[Time Published October 23, 2013 at 01:08AM]

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Pulse oximeters that connect to your smartphone aren’t exactly new. In fact, a super-hackable Bluetooth model called smARtPULSE wound up as a finalist in our Insert Coin competition early this year out in San Francisco. What sets the iOximeter apart is its cross-platform compatibility and extremely low power requirements. In fact, it’s able to draw all the juice it needs from the headphone jack on your phone. The appropriate data is also transferred over a standard issue audio cable and presented in an app on your iOS or Android device. That leaves you free to charge your phone while watching your the oxygen saturation levels in you blood climb. Data is not only presented in real time, but recorded for later analysis.

You can see all of the Insert Coin semifinalists here.

Filed under: Peripherals

Comments

The post Insert Coin semifinalist: iOximeter is a simple, cross-platform wellness tool appeared first on AIVAnet.

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[Source: http://www.aivanet.com/2013/10/insert-coin-semifinalist-ioximeter-is-a-simple-cross-platform-wellness-tool/] | Image URL: http://aivanet.cdn.aivanet.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/ioximeter-ic-lead.jpg]

Nederlandse QuTech onderzoekt quantumcryptografie

[Author: ]

[Time Published October 23, 2013 at 01:06AM]

[ < - - Content ] Behalve het bouwen van een quantumcomputer, richt QuTech in Delft zich ook op quantumcryptografie. [ - - > ]



[Source: http://webwereld.nl/beveiliging/79776-nederlandse-qutech-onderzoekt-quantumcryptografie] | Image URL: http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png]

V-22 Osprey tiltrotor landt in Den Helder

[Author: ]

[Time Published October 21, 2013 at 08:03PM]

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DEN HELDER - Vliegveld De Kooy had maandag een primeur. Voor het eerst in de geschiedenis landde er een Amerikaans V-22 Osprey tiltrotor. Het vliegtuig was afkomstig van een Britse luchthaven en had als doel te verkennen of De Kooy geschikt is voor landen en opstijgen met dit vliegtuig. Als de rapportage gunstig uitvalt voor Den Helder, vindt vermoedelijk nog dit jaar een oefening plaats waaraan zowel de Nederlandse als de Amerikaanse luchtmacht zullen deelnemen.

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[Source: http://www.luchtvaartnieuws.nl/nl-NL/Article.cms/Militair/V-22_Osprey_tiltrotor_landt_in_Den_Helder] | Image URL: http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png]

Will machines ever be able to think?

[Author: ]

[Time Published October 20, 2013 at 12:29PM]

[ < - - Content ] Will computers ever be able to think? [ - - > ]



[Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24565995#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa] | Image URL: http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png]

'Airbus over vijf jaar groter dan Boeing'

[Author: ]

[Time Published October 14, 2013 at 07:01PM]

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TOULOUSE - Airbus topman Fabrice Brégier zegt in een interview met het Duitse Welt am Sonntag dat zijn bedrijf, binnen vier tot vijf jaar, de 'nummer 1' positie in de productie van vliegtuigen overneemt van rivaal Boeing. De vliegtuigbouwer gaat volgens Brégier de oplevering van de A320neo en A350-modellen opvoeren.

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[Source: http://luchtvaartnieuws.nl/nl-NL/Article.cms/Technologie/Airbus_over_vijf_jaar_groter_dan_Boeing] | Image URL: http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png]

Never mind Retina Displays: Get ready for 4K on the new Mac Pro

[Author: ]

[Time Published October 10, 2013 at 10:26PM]

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Last year Apple introduced MacBook Pros with Retina Displays, and many folks watching the Mac market have assumed that it’s only a matter of time before the rest of the line has them too. That may be true, but the newly redesigned Mac Pro is going to leapfrog that by offering something that so far, no other Mac can handle – 4K video. And not just 4K video, but 4K video on three screens.

The Mac Pro doesn’t have a built-in display, of course. What it does have is Thunderbolt 2 and dual AMD FirePro graphics processing units with up to six gigabytes of dedicated VRAM. That’s enough horsepower to drive three 4K displays simultaneously – ideal for pro video workstations, visual effects work in cinema, and film editing.

That only scratches the surface of what the Mac Pro will be able to do. It even has a dedicated HDMI port that conforms to the 1.4 specification, which supports 4K video, so you’ll be able to connect it directly to a 4K “broadcast monitor” to see how the images you’re working on will look in real life.

Now, 4K processing on the Mac is nothing new. Blackmagic Design, for example, makes switchers, capture and playback cards designed to work with Macs that do 4K. But having 4K native support is an entirely different story.

What is 4K?

4K is also known UHDTV, or Ultra High Definition TV. 4K operates at 3840 x 2160 resolution, four times what today’s HDTVs do. That sounds like a lot, and it is. It’s 8.3 million individual pixels, compared to 2.0 million pixels for a standard 1080p HD signal. As a point of comparison, Apple’s Thunderbolt Display sports a resolution of 2560 x 1440, or about 3.3 million pixels.

4K is a lot of pixels to push, which is why you need something like Thunderbolt 2 or HDMI 1.4 to push them all. It’s also why you need powerful graphics processors like the FirePro to process that data.

Some companies have garnered a fair degree of publicity for themselves by introducing 4K televisions for home use, but so far, they’re the rarified domain of people with big media rooms who can afford really gargantuan TVs. 84-inch UHD sets were the first to appear; now they’ve gone down in size to 55-inch or smaller.

Blu-ray Disc (BD) resolution maxes out at 1920 x 1080, for example – that’s “standard” HD resolution. Some companies have introduced BD players that will “upscale” to 4K resolution (and 4K TVs will upscale HD content themselves, as well); Sony’s also shown off a 4K video player and a download service that provides native 4K content.

Why is 4K important?

4K is used in cinema. The past decade has seen a big switch in most movie theaters from traditional film projection to digital film projection. No longer are movie theater projectionists rolling big spools of film from reels – they’re showing movies using LCD projectors, Digital Micromirror Devices (DMDs) and similar technology.

The benefit for you is that the days of seeing scratches and dust are over: you watch a pristine “print” of the movie whether you show up on opening weekend or three weeks later. Digital movies don’t wear out like film prints do. The advantage for the film distributors and the movie theaters is that there’s no actual bulky, fragile film to transport or maintain – movies can be downloaded, depending on the connection to the theater, or delivered on a hard drive.

Video and film editing, special effects and post-production is still a vital business for Apple, and it’s a place where the Mac Pro had done well over the years – but the Mac Pro hasn’t aged well for the new era of digital filmmaking. By incorporating the massive bandwidth of Thunderbolt 2 (six ports, each operating at 20 Gbps bandwidth), the prodigious parallel processing power of the Mac Pro’s CPUs and GPUs, and by streamlining the throughput as much as possible, Apple’s tried to optimize the new Mac Pro to be a digital filmmaking powerhouse.

Still pricy

Small form-factor 4K displays are still pretty expensive. To get a 32-inch 4K monitor, you’re still going to spend upwards of $3,000 at the moment. That price will come down as the technology is more broadly used, though.

But Apple’s never been known to skimp on monitors. The company advertises only one model at present – the 27-inch Thunderbolt Display. It’s available at a wallet-crushing $999. It has some nice features that make it particularly convenient for a Thunderbolt-equipped Apple computer user, like built in MagSafe power adapter for laptops, USB, FireWire, Thunderbolt and Gigabit Ethernet – but it’s also squarely in the high end of the 27-inch display market.

Apple probably won’t compete on price with any new 4K display right out of the gate. But given the dearth of 4K monitors available today (Asus is one of the few companies to have one in production), it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see Apple offer a new screen for the Mac Pro.

Apple is not just making the new Mac Pro ready for 4K but is really pushing the capability as one of the device’s big selling points. That should give you some idea of who they think is a key market for the new device – it’s squarely aimed at creative professionals in film, television and video. People who are working with 4K content today or preparing to do so, and need a computer that can keep up with them.

4K isn’t something that every Mac owner should want or need. In fact, it’s going to remain a pretty specialized technology for a while, until the price comes down and programming becomes available for it.

Back to the Retina Display

“Retina Display” is a marketing term invented by Apple to describe displays that have high enough resolution so you don’t notice individual pixels at a typical viewing distance. That’s a bit subjective, and the pixel density of devices labeled with Retina Displays has varied. The iPhone, for example, sports a 326 pixel per inch density. The 15-inch MacBook Pro has a pixel density of about 220 pixels per inch, while the 13-inch rMBP has about a 227 PPI density.

Right now, Apple’s 27-inch Thunderbolt Display has a 109 PPI density. Even Asus’ 31.5-inch 4K-native display, the PQ321Q, sports a pixel density of only about 140 pixels per inch. If we accept that you have to go well north of 200 pixels per inch for a screen to be a “Retina Display,” none of these even come close. Any way you slice it, it appears that we’re still a fair distance still from a Retina Display in a larger form factor.

Retina Display or no, the new Mac Pro is set to push video editing and processing on the Mac in new directions. We’ll have to wait to see the fruits of that effort for a while, but make no mistake – the new Mac Pro is set to change things in a big way.

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[Source: http://www.aivanet.com/2013/10/never-mind-retina-displays-get-ready-for-4k-on-the-new-mac-pro/] | Image URL: http://aivanet.cdn.aivanet.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/mac_pro_closed_ports_hero.jpg]