Finally, There Is An “Eternal Storage” That Lasts For Over 1,000 Years

Do you want to be remembered for a long time? This new data storage tech can preserve information about you for as long as 1,000 years. It stores binary data in the form of metal nanodots placed on a silicon wafer, which is then sealed. The data can be read wirelessly. The researchers who created the storage tested it under artificial conditions, and it did last for a millennium.

team of Japanese researchers at the Kobe University has created, what we can call, an ‘eternal storage’ that’s capable of holding data safely for 1,000 years.

A Nikkei Technology post says the storage tech was announced at the ISSCC 2017 by the group led by Makoto Nagata and Noriyuki Miura. It involves metal nanodots placed at specific locations on a silicon wafer, arranged in a grid fashion and depicting binary 0 and 1 depending on their position.

After placing the metal nanodots on the silicon wafer, it can be sealed using an insulating material. The data present on the silicon wafer can be read without any physical interaction by wirelessly transmitting power to the wafer to access the information.

It is possible to stack multiple layers of silicon wafers, thus, increasing the amount of data per square unit of area. The team created a test chip with four recording layers using an 180nm CMOS fabrication process. It enables a density of 10 gigabits per square inch.

However, with modern fabrication processes, more memory can be stuffed. A density of 1 Tb per square inch is possible in the case of the 14nm process. That’s equivalent to the hard drives we use in our daily lives.

The researchers predict that their data storage tech can last for 1,000 years. Well, nobody would be able to live that long. But the researchers showed the real potential of their storage by creating an artificial test environment.

Using necessary pressure and stress, they were able to reduce one year of the human calendar down to an hour. So, thousand years were equivalent to 1000 hours. They were to read the data off the chip after 1000 years.

With all the excitement and fascination for the eternal storage, one thing that isn’t pleasing at the moment is the data reading speed. It is currently limited to 40Kbps. But, we can expect an increase with time, as it would be the case of the chip’s storage density.

SOURCES: FOSSBYTES

Apple To Kill Lightning Connector From Next iPhone For USB Type-C, Reports Suggest(APPLE roumor)

According to report by the Wall Street Journal, Apple might prefer the USB Type-C port for the next iPhone. However, the report is unclear and it may be pointing towards a change on the power adapter side of the iPhone Lightning cable currently featuring USB Type-A connector.

Do you want an iPhone rumor? It’s been a while, so, here is one. According to a report by the WSJ,  Apple might do away with the Lightning connector for the universal Type-C USB. Yeah, Lightning, it’s the same port that ate the 150-year-old dino audio jack on the iPhone 7.

The report says that the next iPhones will have an “USB-C port for the power cord and other peripheral devices instead of the company’s original Lightning connector.”

However, on the other hand, there can be a replacement of the USB Type-A with the newer USB Type-C on the other side of iPhone charging cable that connects to the power adapter. Just it is the case for the new MacBook adapters.

An USB-C iPhone might not be more than just a dream. Under its MFi program, Apple has already launched the Ultra Accessory Connector (UAC) that could give some satisfaction to the users having devices and accessories with both USB-C and Lightning connectors.

SOURCES: FOSSBYTES

YouTube Launches Its Own Live TV Streaming Service With 40 Channels

YouTube has launched its own live TV service called YouTube TV. Initially rolling out in the US, it’s planned to include more than 40 channels from different networks. YouTube TV would be priced at $35/mo, and users can use it on six accounts across different devices. It also includes a cloud DVR option with unlimited storage.

People might prefer streaming service, but live TV has its own place which is reserved for the TV only. Even YouTube, where people watch 1 billion hours of content every day, knows the importance.

On Tuesday, YouTube announced its live TV service. YouTube TV has more than 40 channels from leading networks including FOX, CBS, ESPN, ABC, etc. The streaming giant’s existing rental YouTube Red is also part of the YouTube TV subscription.

For $35, YouTube streams live TV on six accounts. YouTube says the live TV services would be available across various device platforms, including Chromecast. They have put the DVR on the cloud, and they are offering unlimited storage for recording multiple live TV streams which will be stored for nine months

The live TV service would first roll out at a limited number of locations in the US. Eventually, it might spread its legs across the globe. And hopefully, they would come up with a cheaper plan.

What do you think about YouTube TV? Drop your thoughts and feedback.
SOURCES: FOSSBYTES

Morgan: IBM Watson Creates World’s First Movie Trailer Using AI

The 20th Century Fox teamed up with IBM Research to create the world’s first cognitive movie trailer with the help of the AI bot IBM Watson. It chose 10 moments out of the horror flick Morgan and then a human editor stitched them to come up with a trailer.

The IBM Watson is getting better every day. Last time, we heard about it when it detected a rare form of leukemia in a patient’s body and when it was used to drive a bus. Now, doctor IBM Watson is preparing for a Hollywood debut. The supercomputer IBM Watson was used to create the trailer of the 20th Century Fox horror movie Morgan.
For a scary movie, an important thing is how a person digests it. “Our team was faced with the challenge of not only teaching a system to understand, “what is scary”, but then to create a trailer that would be considered “frightening and suspenseful” by a majority of viewers,” writes Michael Zimmerman for IBM.

Over 100 horror movie trailers were fed to the IBM Watson in order to give IBM Watson the “feel” of a horror movie. Though in reality, it is just some binary numbers for the AI bot.
The trailer videos were segmented into small moments on which IBM Watson performed an analysis of audio, video, and how each scene was composed. It helped Watson detect what scenes were depicting, for example, a frightened person or an eerie moment.
After watching the 90-minute Morgan, IBM Watson came up with 10 moments (6-minutes of total length) that “would be the best candidate for the trailer”.
The final trailer, however, required the help of a human as the AI-bot didn’t have editing capabilities. “Our system could select the moments, but it’s not an editor. We partnered with a resident IBM filmmaker to arrange and edit each of the moments together into a comprehensive trailer.”
An average time of ten to thirty days is required for the creation of a movie trailer. The editing team manually analyses every moment of the movie that could become a part of the trailer. The eligible candidates are then stitched together in such a way that it gives an overview of the movie. Watson’s involvement shrunk down the whole process to a matter of around 24 hours.
“Reducing the time of a process from weeks to hours –that is the true power of AI.”

The combination of machine intelligence and human expertise is a powerful one. This research investigation is simply the first of many into what we hope will be a promising area of machine and human creativity. We don’t have the only solution for this challenge, but we’re excited about pushing the possibilities of how AI can augment the expertise and creativity of individuals.

Source: IBM,fossbytes

Open Source Office Suite Apache OpenOffice Could Shut Down Soon

Apache OpenOffice, the open source office suite, is considering retirement. An email by the VP of OpenOffice has thrown light on the possible retirement of the office suite in the coming future. The project has not been able to push regular updates due to lack of volunteer developers, who have shifted to LibreOffice.

One of the major OpenOffice.org derivatives Apache OpenOffice may be packing its bags soon. The news is floating around that the open source office suite backed by the Apache Software Foundation won’t see the light of the day in the coming future. An email sent by the Apache OpenOffice VP Dennis Hamilton is serving as the wellspring of speculations regarding the retirement of the OpenOffice.

“I have regularly observed that the Apache OpenOffice project has limited capacity for sustaining the project in an energetic manner. It is also my considered opinion that there is no ready supply of developers who have the capacity, capability, and will to supplement the roughly half-dozen volunteers holding the project together. It doesn’t matter what the reasons for that might be.”

— Hamilton wrote in the email.

Hamilton has listed a roadmap of how the retirement process will continue. The source code has been put on The Attic and the external libraries are not a part of the source code. The list also includes termination of the Apache OpenOffice blogs, social media accounts, and any future official release claims won’t be related to the Apache OpenOffice.

Don’t worry, LibreOffice is here to stay

OpenOffice has been on a downward popularity track ever since anotherOpenOffice.org spin-off LibreOffice is being considered as an alternative to Microsoft Office.

The LibreOffice is being widely adopted, being a pre-installed office suite on many Linux distros. This has changed the minds of the contributing developers and many of them have started investing their efforts on the LibreOffice. The lack of contributors has disabled Apache OpenOffice project’s ability to push regular updates and bug fixes.

— Via Softpedia

If you have something to add, tell us in the comments below.

Also Read: Facebook Open Sources MyRocks DB Engine And ZStandard Compression Algorithm

SOURCES: FOSSBYTES.COM

27-year-old Programmer Arrested For Hacking Linux Kernel Website

The man, who hacked the Linux Kernel Foundation’s website and servers in the year 2011, was arrested by the police on Monday in Miami, Florida. Donald Ryan Austin, currently out on bail, has been ordered to appear in front of the San Fransico court on September 21, 2016.

Florida-based man was booked by the police for a traffic offense in Miami. What’s so special about it? In 2011, the man named Donald Ryan Austin compromised the website kernel.org. It is a website run by the Linux Kernel Foundation for the development and distribution of the Linux Kernel. The police arrested Austin on August 28 when they came to know about his identity after stopping him.

“Austin was arrested pursuant to a four-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in the Northern District of California on June 23, 2016, and unsealed Tuesday,” reads the US Attorney’s Office press release.

The 27-year old Austin has been indicted with gaining unauthorized access to four servers after obtaining login details of a person related to Linux Kernel Foundation. Austin utilized the opportunity to install rootkits and trojans on the servers. This allowed him to harvest the login credentials of other people associated with the organization. The sole intention of his solo hacking performance was to get access to early Linux builds.

The repair process continued for days and some Linux servers had to be shut down for a month.

Austin paid $50,000 to get the bail and he has been ordered to appear in front of the San Fransisco court on September 21. Possibly, he would have to serve a 40-year prison sentence and pay a fine of $2 million.

— Via The Register

SOURCES: FOSSBYTES.COM

How To Build Your Own VR Headset By Spending Less Than $10?

When Google open sourced its Cardboard VR designs, many companies built their variants of Cardboard. Using Google’s designs, a pair of biconvex lenses, and some cardboard, you can build your own VR headset in less than $10. This simple DIY only needs household items and a couple of other cheap materials.

urrently, there is no specific VR headset that can fulfill the needs of all people. As more VR headsets are arriving in the market, the users are getting extra choices. However, if you want a cheap headset to get acquainted with the idea of virtual reality and experience it, there are way too many options.

You might be knowing about Google Cardboard, a cheap virtual reality headset that’s made from cardboard and a pair of lenses. Since its arrival, different companies have prepared their own versions of Cardboard. You can buy them from an online store easily in $20-$30.

What if I told you that you can build your own VR headset by spending $10 or lesser. Using Google’s open source designs and grabbing cardboard sheet and lenses, you are good to go.

How To Build Your Own Google Cardboard?

Before starting to build your own version of Google Cardboard VR headset, download Google’s open source technical specifications from here. If you are good at building things and following instructions, Google’s guide would be enough for you. You can also follow a simple guide by Instructables that will make your job easier.

You simply need to take a print of the template on paper, stick it to cardboard, and cut it. Now you need to arrange and fold everything together according to the instructions.

The tools needed to complete the job are a utility knife, ruler, and scissors. Here are the materials that you need:

• A 2’x3′ sheet of thin (2mm) cardboard. You can grab it from a shoebox or a pizza box.
• A pair of 45mm focal length biconvex plastic lenses–either 25mm in diameter (GC 1.0) or 37mm (GC 2.0). You can grab it from Amazon or eBay.
• Copper foil for conductive touch screen buttons.
• A small piece of dense foam. You can get it from some electronics packaging.
• Velcro patches that you can get from Amazon.

After getting all these things, you need just a couple of hours to assemble your own DIY VR headset. Good luck!

SOURCES: FOSSBYTES.COM