The content below is taken from the original ( Southwest Show videos now online), to continue reading please visit the site. Remember to respect the Author & Copyright.
The recordings of the four talks given at the 2019 RISC OS Southwest Show are now available to view on YouTube. I planned to spend a little time looking at and editing these videos, but in the end – other than trimming the start and finish, and joining sections together – decided not to because […]
The content below is taken from the original ( Peloton’s new automated vehicle system gives one driver control of two trucks), to continue reading please visit the site. Remember to respect the Author & Copyright.
The trucking world has been inundated in recent years by startups and large companies alike pitching an array of automated driving technology and business strategies, all aiming to solve the big three problems with freight: safety, fuel costs and driver shortages.
For Peloton Technology, a Silicon Valley company that launched in 2011, the answer doesn’t strip out the human driver. Instead, it wants to augment a human truck driver’s ability with automated vehicle technology. The company, which has raised $78 million from BP Ventures, Intel Capital, Volvo Group and a dozen other venture and strategic investors, wants to commercialize a partially automated vehicle platooning system that enables two trucks (and someday, maybe a whole string of them) to operate at close following distances.
Peloton Technology already has a product called PlatoonPro that six customers are using in their freight operations. Now, the company has unveiled an advanced product called Level 4 Automated Following that it says will double the productivity of truck drivers. Peloton Technology revealed details on the new automated platooning system Wednesday at the Automated Vehicle Symposium 2019 in Orlando.
PlatoonPro is considered a “Level 1” driver assistance system that requires drivers in both the lead and follow trucks. In this system, the driver in the follow truck must steer the vehicle. The system controls the powertrain and brakes to allow a close following distance and immediately reacts to acceleration or braking by the lead truck. The system boosts fuel savings by an average of 7%, the company says.
With the The new Automated Following system, a human driver is in the lead truck. But this time, the follow truck won’t have a human driver. The system combines vehicle-to-vehicle communication with radar-based active braking and software. Together, the human driver in the lead vehicle is able to guide the steering, steering acceleration and braking of the follow truck and connects the safety systems between the trucks with minimal latency, according to Peloton Technology.
“We’ve taken a different approach to commercial introduction of automation in Class 8 vehicles,” class 8 vehicles.” Peloton Technology CEO Josh Switkes said. “We see the drivers as the world’s best sensors, and we are leveraging this to enable today’s drivers to be more productive through automated following platoons.”
And Switkes isn’t kidding. The human driver is front and center to this technology. The lead truck relies completely on the skill set of the professional truck driver. The system works alongside any of the driver assistance features like collision warnings or automatic emergency braking that might come with the Class 8 truck. But it does not provide additional driver assistance features.
The L4 Automated Following product, which is being tested internally, will double the amount of freight a truck driver can haul in a single trip, according to the company.
The content below is taken from the original ( ‘Cats’ movie trailer offers an odd look at the CG felines), to continue reading please visit the site. Remember to respect the Author & Copyright.
The content below is taken from the original ( How to use a Chromebook if you’ve switched from a PC), to continue reading please visit the site. Remember to respect the Author & Copyright.
Editor’s note:This is the second post in an ongoing tips series. If your company recently switched to Chrome OS, use these tips to get up to speed. If you’re an IT administrator, pass these tips along to your users to help them stay productive.
Last month, we shared tips on how to use a Chromebook if you switched from previously using a Mac. This month, we’ll explore similar topics for PC users, answering questions about keyboard shortcuts and finding files. If you’ve recently switched from using a PC with a Windows operating system to a Chromebook with Chrome OS, here are four must-read tips to help you get started.
1. How do I locate my apps and files?
You’re probably used to accessing files and apps via the Start Menu on the bottom left-hand side of your PC. On a Chromebook, you access files and apps from the Launcher, which is the button that looks like a circle with a dot in the bottom of your screen.
Here’s how to use the Launcher:
If you don’t have a touchscreen, click anywhere on the Launcher button. If you have a touchscreen, drag your finger up from the bottom part of your screen (we call this the “app shelf”). The Launcher will pop up—this is where you can access all of your apps, including Gmail, Google Drive, Docs, Sheets and Slides, as well as YouTube.
If you need to find a specific app, document or file, you can search in the search bar at the top of Launcher. Using predictive text based on machine learning, Google Search helps you find what you need quickly, whether it’s tracking down an app to use, searching the web, or finding a specific Doc you created.
2. How do I take a screenshot?
If you want to take a screenshot of your entire screen on a Chromebook, press Ctrl + the Show windows button (Ctrl + F5). To capture a partial screenshot, press Shift + Ctrl + Show windows (Shift + Ctrl + F5), then click and drag your cursor over the exact area you want to capture. To take a screenshot on tablets, press the Power button + the Volume down button at the same time.
While we’re on the topic, there are loads of ways to work more efficiently with keyboard shortcuts. Check out our Help Center for other shortcut ideas.
3. How do I change my settings?
For users familiar with a PC, the control panel is the place where you access settings like screen resolution, keyboard preferences, and privacy and security. On a Chromebook, you’ll find all of these options in Settings, which can be accessed in the bottom right of your screen.
Note: clicking “Advanced” at the bottom will get you even more options for settings. You can also enter keywords in the search bar to locate a specific setting.
4. How do I set up right-click?
Right-click works a little differently on a Chromebook than on a PC (where you typically hit Shift + F10). You can either press the touchpad with two fingers to open the right-click menu, or you can click “Alt” and use just one finger on the touchpad. Once you do, you can scroll, moving left and right to move horizontally or up and down to move vertically. You can also switch your scroll direction. This article explains how, along with other helpful touchscreen tips.
Resources for IT admins to help users
If you’re an IT admin, use these tips to help former PC users adjust to Chromebooks, or keep an eye out for more advice you can share—we’ll link new posts here as we publish them.
For former Mac users: “6 common questions (and answers) for new Chromebook users”
The content below is taken from the original ( Alphabet’s Wing introduces an air traffic control app for drones), to continue reading please visit the site. Remember to respect the Author & Copyright.
The content below is taken from the original ( 5 tips for onboarding your first employees using G Suite), to continue reading please visit the site. Remember to respect the Author & Copyright.
Hiring your business’s first employees is a big step—but it can also be a bit scary. There’s the time you spend on training and orientation, not to mention setting people up to be productive right away. On top of all that, you still need to run your business and keep customers happy.
If you’re worried about adding “human resources manager” to the many hats you wear, don’t be. From employee 1 to 1,000, G Suite’s easy-to-use tools can help you quickly hire and onboard new employees without adding too many more tasks to your already busy schedule.
Here’s your to-do list for onboarding new employees—once you’re done, find more onboarding tips here.
1. Create a business email address.
You’ll want your new hires to start emailing right away—but using their work email accounts, not their personal ones. It’s important to avoid having employees work from their personal accounts since it will be challenging to recover files. It also makes it harder to keep track of who has access to your company’s information.
When you’re ready, create email addresses in Gmail with a custom domain in order to project a professional image and show that you and your new hires are a team. It’s easy to do this using G Suite’s Admin console.
2. Share calendars.
Of course, you’ll need to coordinate schedules with your employees. Instead of sending emails back and forth to book meetings or to log out-of-office times, add the employees to a shared Google Calendar. In a shared Google Calendar, you can keep track of the entire team’s schedule, not just an individual. Since calendar changes and additions are instantly displayed to all employees, it’s an easy way to make sure that you and your new hires are on the same page right from the start.
3. Reduce paperwork clutter by creating shared folders online.
Keeping track of paper forms is a headache. Try moving routine forms and employee handbooks to a template in a digital document and storing those forms in a shared Drive folder for access by your new hires. Also, create online checklists in Google Keep or Docs so that your new team members can get up to speed on their jobs quickly. Your checklists could include orientation meetings for new employees or a list of forms to fill out for health coverage.
4. Create a training hub.
Your first hires are hopefully just the initial step in building out a bigger (potentially global) team. To prepare for the future, begin building orientation materials and storing them in your shared Drive. For example, you can use Slides tocreate a slide presentation on policies for handling cash or how to process customer orders.
As you build out your orientation materials, think about creating a mini-onboarding portal in Google Sites to store them. Don’t worry, you don’t need to be a coding expert to build a website in Sites—you’ll find tips herefor getting started.
5. Chat about business even when you’re on the go.
If you aren’t working in the same space as your new colleagues all day—maybe you both work from home, or you’re on the road a lot—chat and video meetings can help you quickly solve problems. It’s also a great way to keep your Gmail from filling up with low-priority emails.
You can set up Hangouts Chat on desktop computers, tablets, and phones so you’re always ready to send and receive messages. It’s also possible to search previous conversations for information, and start video meetings directly from chats.
If you’re considering adding more employees, you may be ready to take your human resources up a notch. Check out this article on the G Suite Learning Center for advice on how to create job descriptions, keep track of candidates, and interview by video.
The content below is taken from the original ( CloudJumper and ThinPrint Extend Partnership to Provide Remote Printing for Windows Virtual Desktop), to continue reading please visit the site. Remember to respect the Author & Copyright.
CloudJumper, a leading provider of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, Workspace as a Service, and Desktop as a Service solutions, and ThinPrint ,… Read more at VMblog.com.
The content below is taken from the original ( Arm’s new licensing option lets its partners experiment and test for free before they pay), to continue reading please visit the site. Remember to respect the Author & Copyright.
Arm today launched Flexible Access, a new licensing scheme in addition to its existing model, that will make it easier for startups to gain access to a wide range of Arm’s intellectual property (IP) without any upfront licensing costs.
Intellectual property licensing schemes for chips may not strike you as the most exciting thing. But as the number of companies that are building their own silicon, often for very specialized use cases, having access to the IP from companies like Arm is something that more companies than ever a looking to have. Until now, the only way to get access to Arm’s IP was to select the products you wanted to license upfront. That works for large companies that know exactly what they want, but for smaller companies, that’s a bit of a barrier, given that they are likely still trying to figure out what exactly they need.
Under the Flexible Access terms, partners get access to the IP and only pay a per-unit royalty fee once they go into production. Under the existing scheme, license fees were due before partners could access the IP.
“The reason we’re doing this is because we see that the industry is evolving quite significantly — lots of transformation that’s happening, new companies coming into doing custom silicon,” Dipti Vachani, Arm’s SVP and GM of its automotive and IoT business, told me. “We believe that enabling this is easy access to IP and experimentation allows for the growth and the usage of our IP across the trillion connected devices.”
Vachani stressed that the company believes that this move will allow a whole range of new companies to use Arm’s IP portfolio since it significantly lowers the barrier of entry.
“This allows for a lower barrier to entry for for anyone. It’s very straightforward. You go online, there’s a process to do so,” Vachani said. “And smaller companies that may not have the infrastructure that our traditional silicon companies have had — this makes this really simple and easy for them.”
That flexibility, the company hopes, will result in even more companies using its IP and hence driving more revenue as those companies sell their products. “I expect that this will
increase the scale,” Vachani said. “It’ll allow for the trillion connected devices that we internally talk about at ARM and enable those trillion connected devices to be on Arm and it builds on top of the ecosystem that we already have and that it will absolutely be accretive to our company and our business.”
Flexible Access includes about 75 percent of all Arm Cortex licenses from the past two years. This includes CPU architectures from the Arm Cortex A, R and M families, in addition to select GPUs, interconnects, security IP, system controllers and more — essentially everything you need to build your own system. It also includes software development tools and additional tools and models for building systems on a chip.
You’ll notice, though, that some of the newest high-end CPU architectures are not part of this license. This, Vachani said, is due to the fact that the companies that need a high-performance CPU — say an A75 — typically know what they are creating from the outset.
Flexible Access, it’s worth stressing, does not replace Arm’s existing licensing system. The two will live in parallel. “What we did here is we looked at what is necessary for these endpoints in the IoT market […]. That’s where there’s a disruption happening and where the transformation is happening. We looked at the portfolio of IP that’s absolutely necessary for that kind of testing in that plane. […] When you look at the low end, that’s where all the experimentation is – the mid- and low-end.”
The program is now live and available to all chip companies that want to move to this licensing model, no matter whether they are a large chipmaker or a startup that is only dipping its toes into this business.
The content below is taken from the original ( Who’s been copying AMD’s homework? Intel lifts the lid on its hip chip packaging to break up chips into chiplets), to continue reading please visit the site. Remember to respect the Author & Copyright.
With Moore’s so-called Law pretty much dead for now, and the shrinking of transistors proving more difficult, the name of the game today is packing multiple dies into chip packages rather than cramming more and more smaller transistors into more of less the same area of silicon.…
The content below is taken from the original ( News nybble: Southampton meeting – 9th July), to continue reading please visit the site. Remember to respect the Author & Copyright.
If you’re a RISC OS user and you’re within shouting distance of Southampton on 9th July, then why not consider meeting up with other like-minded people that evening? That’s the date the Southampton RISC OS User Group (SROUG) will next […]
The content below is taken from the original ( Cozycozy is an accommodation search service that works with hotels and Airbnb), to continue reading please visit the site. Remember to respect the Author & Copyright.
French startup Cozycozy.com wants to make it easier to search for accommodation across a wide range of services. This isn’t the first aggregator in the space and probably not the last one. But this time, it isn’t just about hotels.
When you plan a trip with multiple stops, chances are you end up with a dozen tabs of different services — on Airbnb to look at listings, on a hotel review platform and on a hotel booking platform. Each service displays different prices and has a different inventory.
While there are a ton of services out there, most of them belong to just three companies: Booking Holdings (Booking.com, Priceline, Kayak, Agoda…), Expedia Group (Expedia, Hotels.com, HomeAway, Trivago…) and TripAdvisor (TripAdvisor, HouseTrip, Oyster…). They all operate many different services in order to address as many markets and as many segments as possible.
Cozycozy.com wants to simplify that process by aggregating a ton of services in a single interface — you can find hotels, Airbnb listings, campsites, hostels, boats, home-exchanging apartments… You can filter your results by price or you can exclude some accommodation styles.
The company doesn’t work with hotels and doesn’t handle bookings directly. Instead, the service searches across all the usual suspects. When you want to book, you get redirected to the original listing on Airbnb, Booking.com, Hostelworld, etc.
The startup recently raised a $4.5 million funding round (€4 million) from Daphni, CapDecisif, Raise and many different business angels, such as Xavier Niel, Thibaud Elzière and Eduardo Ronzano.
Cozycozy.com co-founder and chairman Pierre Bonelli also previously founded Liligo.com. It is one of the most popular flight comparison website in France. It was acquired by SNCF in 2010 and then eDreams ODIGEO in 2013.
The content below is taken from the original ( Best free Email Finder tools for effective marketing), to continue reading please visit the site. Remember to respect the Author & Copyright.
Email is an important and effective channel to build a strong relationship. It is a productive way to foster business and boost efficiency. However, most of the people are not willing to divulge their personal or business email address to […]
This post Best free Email Finder tools for effective marketing is from TheWindowsClub.com.
The content below is taken from the original ( How to get back the classic Solitaire and Minesweeper on Windows 10), to continue reading please visit the site. Remember to respect the Author & Copyright.
Windows 10 came along a with a whole new set of improvements, but when it came to retaining the classics, it did take a step back. Referring to the classic Windows games from back in the day! For some reason, […]
This post How to get back the classic Solitaire and Minesweeper on Windows 10 is from TheWindowsClub.com.
The content below is taken from the original ( Adding a Default Photo to Azure Active Directory Guest User Accounts), to continue reading please visit the site. Remember to respect the Author & Copyright.
Last year I wrote about how to add photos to the Azure Active Directory accounts created for guest users to make contributions from those users in apps like Teams more attractive. The article prompted a reader to ask if it was possible to set a default photo for guest accounts to use instead of the two-initial logo (for example, TR for Tony Redmond) that apps otherwise display.
The answer is “yes” if you’re willing to use PowerShell and run the Set- AzureADUserThumbnailPhoto cmdlet to add a default photo to all guest accounts. Let’s see how it’s done.
The idea is to create a visual clue for tenant users that a person they communicate with in apps like Office 365 Groups, Planner, and Teams is not part of the company. In effect, we want to highlight the need for our users to be careful when sharing information with guests in case something confidential leaks.
In approaching the problem, it’s important not to overwrite photos that might already exist for guest accounts. If a photo has been uploaded for a guest account, it’s likely there for a good reason and we should leave it alone unless told otherwise.
The outline for our code is clear. Find guest accounts in the tenant and check each to see if it already has a photo. If not, update the account with the default photo. Here’s the PowerShell script that I came up with:
$Guests = Get-AzureADUser -Filter "Usertype eq 'Guest'" -All $True
ForEach ($Guest in $Guests) {
# Does a photo exist?
$PhotoExists = $Null
Try {$PhotoExists = Get-AzureADUserThumbnailPhoto -ObjectId $Guest[0].ObjectId }
Catch { # Nope - so update account with default picture
Write-Host "Photo does not exist for" $Guest.DisplayName "- updating with default guest logo"
Set-AzureADUserThumbnailPhoto -ObjectId $Guest.ObjectId -FilePath C:\Temp\DefaultGuestPicture.jpg }}
The script doesn’t take long to run. The longest part in the process is the background synchronization between Azure Active Directory and the Office 365 apps, which can take anything from a few minutes to many hours depending on service load and workcycle scheduling. Be patient and the default photos will make their way to the apps and start to appear.
Figure 1 shows the intended effect. In this case, I have an Office 365 Group used by 50 MVPs, all who are guests in my tenant. Photos are already present for some guests and now we see that OWA displays the default photo for the others. It would be nicer to have individual photos for each guest, but at least I now have a nice visual indicator of a guest’s status (everyone trusts an MVP, right?).
Figure 1: How a default photo for guest accounts show up in OWA (image credit: Tony Redmond)Running a script is a one-time operation to update guest accounts that don’t already have a photo. To be effective, you should run the script every week or so to find and update newly added guest accounts.
I’m always amazed when administrators tell me that they don’t like PowerShell and won’t use it to help manage Office 365. Scripts fill in the gaps left by Microsoft or improve functionality to make life just a little easier, as in this case.
The post Adding a Default Photo to Azure Active Directory Guest User Accounts appeared first on Petri.
The content below is taken from the original ( Nio recalls nearly 5,000 ES8 electric SUVs over fire risk), to continue reading please visit the site. Remember to respect the Author & Copyright.
Chinese automotive startup Nio is recalling nearly 5,000 of its ES8 high-performance electric SUVs after a series of battery fires in China and a subsequent investigation revealed a vulnerability that created a safety risk.
The recall affects a quarter of the ES8 vehicles it has sold since they went on sale in June 2018.
A Nio-led team of experts that included the supplier of the battery pack module, investigated a reported fire involving an ES8 in Shanghai. The team concluded there was a vulnerability in the design of the battery pack that could cause a short circuit.
The battery packs in the vehicles involved were equipped with a module specification NEV-P50. These packs were pressing up against voltage sampling cable harness due to improper positioning, Nio said. The insulation on the cable may wear out due to this repeated contact and cause a short circuit, Nio determined.
Nio said other ES8 vehicles that have experienced issues had the same battery pack.
The recall affects 4,803 models produced from April 02, 2018 to October 19, 2018 that are equipped with NEV-P50 batteries. The company will be replace the battery packs, a process that could take up to two months.
All NEV-P50 batteries in the battery swap network will also be replaced to ensure, Nio said.
Vehicles with 70kWh battery packs produced after October 20, 2018 are equipped with the NEV-P102 modules and have different internal structural designs. These packs don’t have the same risk, Nio said.
The recall comes at an inauspicious time for Nio. Nio began deliveries of the ES8 in China in June 2018. And while deliveries initially surpassed expectations, they have since slowed in 2019. The company reported loss of $390.9 million in the first quarter.
Nio said it would shift its vehicle production plans, reduce in R&D spending and cut to its workforce by 4.5% in response to the weak quarter.
Other automakers with electric vehicles have issued recalls over fire risk. Earlier this month, Audi issued a voluntary recall in the U.S. for the E-Tron SUV due to the risk of battery fire. No fires had been reported in the 1,644 E-Trons that Audi has sold. The company issued the recall after it found that moisture can seep into the battery cell through a wiring harness. There have been five cases worldwide where this has caused a battery fault warning.
In May, Tesla started pushing out a software update that will change battery charge and thermal management settings in Model S sedans and Model X SUVs following a fire in a parked vehicle in Hong Kong. The software update, which Tesla said at the time was being done out of “an abundance of caution,” is supposed to “protect the battery and improve its longevity.” The over-the-air software update will not be made to Model 3 vehicles.
The content below is taken from the original ( New PCI DSS Azure Blueprint makes compliance simpler), to continue reading please visit the site. Remember to respect the Author & Copyright.
I’m excited to announce our second Azure Blueprint for an important compliance standard with the release of the PCI-DSS v3.2.1 blueprint. The new blueprint maps a core set of policies for Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards (DSS) compliance to any Azure deployed architecture, allowing businesses such as retailers to quickly create new environments with compliance built in to the Azure infrastructure.
Azure Blueprints is a free service that enables customers to define a repeatable set of Azure resources that implement and adhere to standards, patterns, and requirements. Azure Blueprints allow customers to set up governed Azure environments that can scale to support production implementations for large-scale migrations.
Azure Blueprints is another reason why Azure is a strong platform for compliance, with the industry’s broadest and deepest portfolio of 91 compliance offerings. Azure is built using some of the most rigorous security and compliance standards in the world, and includes multi-layered security provided by Microsoft across physical datacenters, infrastructure, and operations. Azure is also built for the specific compliance needs of key industries, including over 50 compliance offerings specifically for the retail, health, government, finance, education, manufacturing, and media industries.
Compliance with regulations and standards such as ISO 27001, FedRAMP and SOC is increasingly necessary for all types of organizations, making control mappings to compliance standards a natural application for Azure Blueprints. Azure customers, particularly those in regulated industries, have expressed strong interest in compliance blueprints to help ease their compliance burdens. In March, we announced the ISO 27001 Shared Services blueprint sample which maps a set of foundational Azure infrastructure, such as virtual networks and policies, to specific ISO controls.
The PCI DSS is a global information security standard designed to prevent fraud through increased control of credit card data. Organizations that accept payments from credit cards must follow PCI DSS standards if they accept payment cards from the five major credit card brands. Compliance with PCI DSS is also required for any organization that stores, processes, or transmits payment and cardholder data.
The PCI-DSS v3.2.1 blueprint includes mappings to important PCI DSS controls, including:
We are committed to helping our customers leverage Azure in a secure and compliant manner. Over the next few months we will release new built-in blueprints for HITRUST, UK National Health Service (NHS) Information Governance (IG) Toolkit, FedRAMP, and Center for Internet Security (CIS) Benchmark. If you would like to participate in any early previews please sign up with this form, or if you have a suggestion for a compliance blueprint, please share it via the Azure Governance Feedback Forum.
Learn more about the Azure PCI-DSS v3.2.1 blueprint in our documentation.
The content below is taken from the original ( How to take full webpage screenshot in Chrome & Firefox), to continue reading please visit the site. Remember to respect the Author & Copyright.
Chrome and Firefox are not only popular because they are fast but also because they are readily customizable. Example, you can configure these browsers to take or capture a full webpage screenshot. So. Let’s see how to capture a full […]
This post How to take full webpage screenshot in Chrome & Firefox is from TheWindowsClub.com.
The content below is taken from the original ( Lightyear One debuts as the first long-range solar-powered electric car), to continue reading please visit the site. Remember to respect the Author & Copyright.
Electric cars are better for the environment than fossil fuel-burning vehicles, but they still rely on the grid, which can be variously dirty or clean depending on what sources it uses for its energy. The new Lightyear One is a prototype vehicle that would improve that by collecting the power it needs to run from the sun.
Lightyear, a startup from the Netherlands born as Stella, has come a long way since it won a Crunchie award in 2015, with a vehicle that now looks ready for the road. The Lightyear One prototype vehicle unveiled today has a sleek, driver-friendly design and also boasts a range of 450 miles on a single charge – definitely a first for a car powered by solar and intended for the actual consumer market.
© Twycer / http://bit.ly/2YfWXXx
The startup says that it has already sold “over a hundred vehicles” even though this isn’t yet ready to hit the road, but Lightyear is aiming to begin production by 2021, with reservations available for 500 additional units for the initial release. You do have to pay €119,000 up front (around $136,000 USD) to secure a reservation, however.
Lightyear One isn’t just a plug-in electric with some solar sells on the roof: Instead it’s designed from the ground up to maximize performance from a smaller-than-typical battery that can directly grab sun from a roof and hood covered with 16 square feet of solar cells, embedded in safety glass designed with passenger wellbeing in mind. The car can also take power directly from regular outlets and existing charging stations for a quick top-up, and again because it’s optimized to be lightweight and power efficient, you can actually get around 250 miles on just one night of charging from a standard (European) 230V outlet.
The car should supplement existing electric cars for buyers who are more conscious of range anxiety and nervous about having enough charge, the company says. It still have to actually enter production, however, and even when it does it’ll be a fairly expensive and small batch product, at least at first. But it’s an impressive feat nonetheless, and a potential new direction for EVs of the future.
The content below is taken from the original ( The OS/2 Operating System Didn’t Die… It Went Underground), to continue reading please visit the site. Remember to respect the Author & Copyright.
One problem with building things using state-of-the-art techniques is that sometimes those that look like they will be “the next big thing” turn out to be dead ends. Next thing you know, that hot new part or piece of software is hard to get or unmaintained. This is especially true if you are building something with a long life span. A case in point is the New York City subway system. Back in the 1990s the transit authority decided to adopt IBM’s new OS/2 operating system. Why not? It was robust and we used to always say “no one ever got fired for buying IBM.”
There was one problem. OS/2 was completely eclipsed by other operating systems, notably Windows and — mostly — has sunk from the public view. [Andrew Egan’s] post covers just how the conversion to a card-based system pushed OS/2 underground all over the Big Apple, and it is an interesting read.
The choice of OS/2 might seem odd today. However, you have to remember the operating system landscape back then. Unix wasn’t very commercial, for the most part, and the commercial versions like Xenix and SCO were often encumbered with odd and changing licensing arrangements. MSDOS was hardly suitable for any sort of reliable system, with a patchwork of hacks to get more memory, and multitasking including early versions of Windows which were little more than shells over MSDOS.
We might have suggested QNX, as both operating systems were robust and used a microkernel architecture which had many advantages, especially when fighting hardware limitations.
It seems OS/2 isn’t just the subway system, either. Some old ATM machines still use it and there are probably some other hold outs. In 2006, IBM discontinued the operating system and sold off OS/2 support to Serenity Systems and later acquired by Arca Noae.
While OS/2 doesn’t get the same retrocomputer love as some other operating systems, it was actually ahead of its time. Its failure to take hold wasn’t so much about the technology as it was about business decisions and the market conditions of the day.
If you want a look at modern OS/2 emulation, that does exist. If you think OS/2 is the oldest tech running the subway system, you’d be wrong about that.
The content below is taken from the original ( 6 common questions (and answers) for new Chromebook users), to continue reading please visit the site. Remember to respect the Author & Copyright.
Editor’s note:This is the first post in an ongoing tips series. If your company recently switched to Chrome OS, use these tips to get up to speed. If you’re an IT administrator, pass these tips along to your users to help them get the most out of their Chromebooks.
If you (or the end users you support) have switched from using a Mac with an OS X operating system to a Chromebook, you might have noticed a few differences. Perhaps you’ve caught yourself or heard others mumbling, “The keys are in a different spot!” or “Where is all my stuff?”
You’re not alone. Many businesses are switching to Chromebooks to help their employees stay productive. If you need help navigating your new device, here are six common questions we hear from folks who are new to Chromebooks.
1. Where’s the Command key?
You might be used to using the Command key for keyboard shortcuts. In Chrome OS, the equivalent is the Ctrl key, which you’ve probably noticed is a little farther west on your new keyboard. One great thing about Chromebooks is that you can customize them to help you be more productive. If you’re not used to having the Ctrl key far away, you can remap the Alt/Ctrl keys to bring the Ctrl key closer to your thumb for quick access.
Here’s how:
You can now do all of your copying and pasting just like you did before. Keep in mind that keyboard shortcuts will be reversed once you remap the Alt/Ctrl keys.
2. Why is scrolling upside down?
No matter your definition of “right side up,” you can change the direction that your keyboard scrolls on a Chromebook just like you can on a Mac.
Here’s how:
3. Where’s the Caps Lock key?
You may have noticed that Chromebooks do not have a Caps Lock key. To get capital letters, you can hold the Shift key as expected, but you can also press Alt + Launcher to turn Caps Lock on (Launcher is the new key where Caps Lock is on a Mac.).
The Launcher can help you search the internet, find other apps or track down files, and even do calculations. It might take some getting used to, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll be able to use it to work efficiently on projects.
4. Where are all of my files?
Because Chromebooks are built for the cloud, and local storage works a bit differently, your information gets saved within the Files app instead of on your desktop. Use the Launcher to access that app quickly and then search for what you need.
By default, everything you download will be saved automatically in the “Downloads” folder. Like other features in Chromebooks, you have the option to customize where you save documents within your settings.
Here’s how:
You can also add subfolders just like you would on any other device by right-clicking on “Downloads” and selecting “New folder” from the drop-down menu.
5. How can I see all my open browser windows?
We all struggle with browser clutter, with too many open tabs to count. To help teams stay focused, we’ve built features into Chromebooks to help workers navigate through tabs quickly.
For example, to switch between several tabs fast, you can swipe with three fingers to the right or left (or up or down depending on if you have Australian scrolling turned on). This feature makes it easy for you to get a sense of everything you’re working on. From there, you can organize and close windows.
6. Where do I download apps?
Switching to Chrome OS means thinking differently about the way we work. Chrome OS is built for cloud productivity, which means that many of your favorite productivity apps, like Gmail and Google Docs, are web-based.
In addition to web apps, more recent Chromebooks support the Android Play Store, which means you can download a whole host of applications to supplement your work, like Salesforce for CRM or QuickBooks for accounting. Both web apps and Android apps support shortcuts and are easy to access.
Helping IT admins help their users
If you’re an IT admin, you understand that change takes some getting used to—especially as your organization transitions to the cloud. These quick tips can help ease that transition and aid training. Look for more Chromebook advice you can share with end users in future blog posts. We’ll link them here as we publish them.
The content below is taken from the original ( India reportedly wants to build its own WhatsApp for government communications), to continue reading please visit the site. Remember to respect the Author & Copyright.
India may have plans to follow France’s footsteps in building a chat app and requiring government employees to use it for official communications.
The New Delhi government is said to be pondering about the need to have homegrown email and chat apps, local news outlet Economic Times reported on Thursday.
The rationale behind the move is to cut reliance on foreign entities, the report said, a concern that has somehow manifested amid U.S.’s ongoing tussle with Huawei and China.
“We need to make our communication insular,” an unnamed top government official was quoted as saying by the paper. The person suggested that by putting Chinese giant Huawei on the entity list, the U.S. has “set alarm bells ringing in New Delhi.”
India has its own ongoing trade tension with the U.S. Donald Trump earlier this month removed the South Asian nation from a special trade program after India did not assure him that it will “provide equitable and reasonable access to its markets.” India called the move “unfortunate”, and weeks later, increased tariffs on some U.S. exports.
The move to step away from foreign communication apps, if it comes to fruition, won’t be the first time a nation has attempted to cautiously restrict usage of popular messaging apps run by foreign players in government offices.
France launched an encrypted chat app — called Tchap — for use in government offices earlier this year. Only those employed by the French government offices can sign up to use the service, though the nation has open sourced the app’s code for the world to see and audit.
Of course, a security flaw in Tchap came into light within the first 24 hours of its release. Security is a real challenge that the government would have to tackle and it might not have the best resources — talent, budget, and expertise — to deal with it.
China, which has restricted many foreign companies from operating in the nation, also maintains customized versions of popular operating systems for use in government offices. So does North Korea.
It won’t be an unprecedented step for India, either. The nation has been trying to build and scale its own Linux-based desktop operating system called BOSS for several years with little success as most government agencies continue to use Microsoft’s Windows operating system.
Even as India has emerged as the third-largest startup hub in the world, the country has failed to build local alternatives for many popular services. Facebook’s WhatsApp has become ubiquitous for communication in India, while Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows power most smartphones and computers in the nation.
The content below is taken from the original ( Raspberry Pi 4 launched), to continue reading please visit the site. Remember to respect the Author & Copyright.
A few months after Pi Day, and a few days before 2Pi Day!1 A new version of the Raspberry Pi has been announced, at the customary price point of US$35 – which just happens to translate to a very similar […]
The content below is taken from the original ( This robot crawls along wind turbine blades looking for invisible flaws), to continue reading please visit the site. Remember to respect the Author & Copyright.
Wind turbines are a great source of clean power, but their apparent simplicity — just a big thing that spins — belie complex systems that wear down like any other, and can fail with disastrous consequences. Sandia National Labs researchers have created a robot that can inspect the enormous blades of turbines autonomously, helping keep our green power infrastructure in good kit.
The enormous towers that collect energy from wind currents are often only in our view for a few minutes as we drive past. But they must stand for years through inclement weather, temperature extremes, and naturally — being the tallest things around — lightning strikes. Combine that with normal wear and tear and it’s clear these things need to be inspected regularly.
But such inspections can be both difficult and superficial. The blades themselves are among the largest single objects manufactured on the planet, and they’re often installed in distant or inaccessible areas, like the many you see offshore.
“A blade is subject to lightning, hail, rain, humidity and other forces while running through a billion load cycles during its lifetime, but you can’t just land it in a hanger for maintenance,” explained Sandia’s Joshua Paquette in a news release. In other words, not only do crews have to go to the turbines to inspect them, but they often have to do those inspections in place — on structures hundreds of feet tall and potentially in dangerous locations.
Using a crane is one option, but the blade can also be orientated downwards so an inspector can rappel along its length. Even then the inspection may be no more than eyeballing the surface.
“In these visual inspections, you only see surface damage. Often though, by the time you can see a crack on the outside of a blade, the damage is already quite severe,” said Paquette.
Obviously better and deeper inspections are needed, and that’s what the team decided to work on, with partners International Climbing Machines and Dophitech. The result is this crawling robot, which can move along a blade slowly but surely, documenting it both visually and using ultrasonic imaging.
A visual inspection will see cracks or scuffs on the surface, but the ultrasonics penetrate deep into the blades, making them capable of detecting damage to interior layers well before it’s visible outside. And it can do it largely autonomously, moving a bit like a lawnmower: side to side, bottom to top.
Of course at this point it does it quite slowly and requires human oversight, but that’s because it’s fresh out of the lab. In the near future teams could carry around a few of these things, attach one to each blade, and come back a few hours or days later to find problem areas marked for closer inspection or scanning. Perhaps a crawler robot could even live onboard the turbine and scurry out to check each blade on a regular basis.
Another approach the researchers took was drones — a natural enough solution, since the versatile fliers have been pressed into service for inspection of many other structures that are dangerous for humans to get around: bridges, monuments, and so on.
These drones would be equipped with high-resolution cameras and infrared sensors that detect the heat signatures in the blade. The idea is that as warmth from sunlight diffuses through the material of the blade, it will do so irregularly in spots where damage below the surface has changed its thermal properties.
As automation of these systems improves, the opportunities open up: A quick pass by a drone could let crews know whether any particular tower needs closer inspection, then trigger the live-aboard crawler to take a closer look. Meanwhile the humans are on their way, arriving to a better picture of what needs to be done, and no need to risk life and limb just to take a look.
The content below is taken from the original ( Google Drive tests a full offline storage mode in Chrome), to continue reading please visit the site. Remember to respect the Author & Copyright.
The content below is taken from the original ( poshwal now has initial support for the new Windows Terminal – PowerShell in style!), to continue reading please visit the site. Remember to respect the Author & Copyright.
submitted by /u/jantari to r/PowerShell
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