Geekly Update - 30 September 2022
When she was very busy, my mother used to say that she was “running around like a chicken with its head cut off.” I wondered how fast a headless chicken could run. Have robots answered the question? Will SSDs soon be less expensive than HDDs? Is there a flying car in your future? And is the Robot Overlord actually a human? Get answers in today's Geekly Update... it's jam-packed with the latest tech news. This issue is guaranteed to make you 146% smarter -- you'll see why. Read, think, and, comment! |
The AskBobRankin Geekly Update
The good news: Humans (most of them, anyway) can outrun robots. The bad news: ROBOTS CAN RUN! Cassie, a bipedal robot that resembles a headless chicken, clocked a time of 24.7 seconds on a 100 meter track. That's a world records for robots, but still far shy of Usain Bolt's time of 9.58 seconds. Cassie started from an upright position and finished without falling.
In a less glorious robotic outing, a Wing food-delivery drone accidentally landed on electric power lines, causing an outage for 2,000 customers near Brisbane Australia. The 11,000 volt shock caused the drone to catch fire and fall to the ground. The silver lining: An Energex spokesman said "The meal was still hot inside the drone's delivery box when the crew got there."
It turns out Elon Musk might be the Robot Overlord. The Tesla CEO is planning to use "thousands" of the company's humanoid Optimus robots in his factories. Musk is promising to demo a working prototype of Optimus at the AI Day event later today.
Physicists at Leiden University in the Netherlands have discovered a new type of telomeric DNA. The discovery will improve our understanding of telomeres, which could be the key to living longer and fighting diseases such as cancer.
So you upgraded your computer with an all-digital SSD hard drive, and now you miss the "aural ambience" of your old-school mechanical hard drive? HDD Clicker v0.2 is a microcontroller that will simulate those comforting clicking sounds, and let you know your SSD is hard at work.
Solid-state hard drives (SSDs) are faster (and quieter) than traditional spinning platter magnetic hard drives (HDDs), but they've always been quite a bit more expensive. However, Techradar is predicting that the price of SSDs will drop far enough in 2023 to achieve parity with HDDs. If that prediction is solid, it's enough to make my head spin.
Jay Bowles created an ionic thruster that uses specialized electrodes and 40,000 volts of electricity to accelerate air. How soon will we see a flying car with no moving parts?
Cloudflare's Turnstile is a replacement for those annoying CAPTCHA popups that make you click on boats, traffic signals or crosswalks to prove you're a human. It "just works" without any user input, by running a series of tests under the hood to detect the telltale signs of human/browser interaction.
How well does Apple's crash detection feature work in the new Apple Watch and iPhone 14? The Wall Street Journal pitted the new gadgets against a demolition derby driver and came away disappointed.
And finally, this week's Just Here For The Headline entry: Scientists Create AI-Powered Laser Turret That Kills Cockroaches. Wake me up when you've got something for raccoons.
Your thoughts on these topics are welcome. Post your comment or question below...
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This article was posted by Bob Rankin on 30 Sep 2022
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Most recent comments on "Geekly Update - 30 September 2022"
Posted by:
Bryan Smith
30 Sep 2022
If the next generation do not get educated to take care of themselves, growing their own food supplies, they will be pron to running around with no heads and will not beat the NorthAmerican system that Biden and Trudeau will get just what they want -communism and people always looking for a job. The reason for this is all the mechanical robots we now have building autos and checking you out at WALMART as well as other stores. as well as other building. done by robots. In Canada the next generation will never afford a house or cars. Cost of necessities will be beyond normal costs.
Posted by:
Robert
30 Sep 2022
I for one, welcome our new robot overlords.
Posted by:
Lon Johnson
30 Sep 2022
Bob, you are my FAVORITE internet poster of all time - I hesitate to use the term G O A T - altho IMHO you are the GREATEST !!! I get such a charge out of your droll posts on Ask Bob. And, sometimes, the comments on your articles make me laugh almost as much as your own humorous digs tickle my funny bone !!! Thanks for all your invaluable ideas and suggestions, as well as the incidental entertainment !!!
Posted by:
Vulcan
01 Oct 2022
DARPA makes things to use on others -- and now that our govt is almost under NWO control via Obama (Trudeau in Canada), one day when perfected these will be more advanced and come for us.
Also no doubt more groundwork for the future droid soldier and sentry that never gets tired.
Enjoy your site, computer info and grabs like this one. Takes a lot of computing power and programming to make this steel fella run.
Posted by:
Kenneth H
01 Oct 2022
So has this become Right-Wing conspiracy forum?
So disappointing!
Posted by:
Egbok
02 Oct 2022
A conspiracy conspiracy, will the fun never stop! the future is bright, a laser powered roach zapper will give us all inspiration to carry on.
Posted by:
SamG
02 Oct 2022
Yay! No more time wasted on captchas. Captcha, Gotcha! About as time wasting as installing a Windoz operating system. Restart. Error. And when will this occur? About as quick as phasing out internet explorer? Or websites created with Java?
Just renewed my Pa. car tags. The state had discontinued the yearly plate sticker in 2017. So like 33% of vehicle owners didn't renew their yearly registration because of no year sticker displayed. Who'd have thought? And the last year I had a motor home (2 years ago) renewal cost $110 for a 12,000 lbs. vehicle. Car- $44. Register any new-to-you trailer, cost is over $100 and add 6% sales tax on top. Florida's cheaper.
Posted by:
Linda
03 Oct 2022
I agree with Lon Johnson in general about all things "AskBob", but please - no death wishes on raccoons! As annoying as they can sometimes be, we love our little trash pandas up here in Toronto. Happy to zap cockroaches into eternity, but please leave our little masked buddies alone.