Geek News

One Night One Telescope One Camera Taken on the same night, from the same place, with the same telescope and camera, these postcards from our Solar System are shown at the same scale to provide an interesting comparison of apparent sizes. Spanning about half a degree in planet Earth's sky, the Moon is a stitched mosaic of six images. The others are the result of digitally stacked frames or simple single exposures, with the real distances to the objects indicated along the bottom of each insert. Most of the Solar System's planets with their brighter moons, and Pluto were captured during the telescopic expedition, but elusive Mercury was missed because of clouds near the horizon. The International Space Station was successfully hunted, though. The night was July 21st. Telescope and ca mera were located at the Centro Astronomico de Tiedra Observatory in Spain. July 28, 20...

The US Army is getting in on the esports craze too , but the game isn't one you might expect. Instead of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds or Rainbow Six Siege , the military is hosting a tournament for Street Fighter V . The competition will be broadcast on Twitch starting tomorrow from Fort Bliss. The winner from each garris on (tournaments run through the 25th) will go on to the sold-out Grand Finals at PAX West in Seattle on September 1st. What will the winning soldier get for their efforts? A two-night stay at the Mandalay Bay resort in Las Vegas along with a $500 gift card, an Army esports jersey, commemorative coin and Twitch gear. "The competition will develop soldiers' outlook and overall fitness using current technology," the Army writes . "Soldiers train for the competition by improving hand-eye coordination, mental focus and reactio...

Do you use Chase Pay for your retail shopping? No? We won't blame you -- its insistence on using QR codes for purchases makes it far less convenient than tap-to-pay services, not to mention less common. Now, however, it's admitting that it needs to get with the times. Chase has introduced an option to link its payment app to Samsung Pay, letting you use either NFC or stripe-simulating MST tech to clinch the deal. It's much easier when you're in a hurry, of course, and makes the Chas e Pay app useful in millions more places. Moreover, there's strong financial incentive -- linking the two will help you earn both Chase Ultimate and Samsung reward points , and it should be easier to redeem your Chase points in the process. The feature is available today so long as you have a supporting Samsung Galaxy smartphone. In some ways, Chase didn...

Launched earlier this year as a PSVR exclusive and eventually released for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive last month, adorable adventure game Moss is getting an update to support Windows Mixed Reality headsets. In addition to the great Moss Soundtrack news, @polyarcgames is excited to announce that with today's Moss update, we're now supporting the @Windows Mixed Reality headsets. Now Moss can be played on all four major VR platforms. #Moss #WindowsHMD #Dell pic.twitter.com/Nm5AyTCY9Y — Moss now on Rift | Vive | PSVR (@PolyarcGames) July 27, 2018 Now players on all four major VR platforms can get into the immersive, lush, Zelda -esque world of Polyarc's Moss with its charming little mouse heroine. Players will control Quill and her magical orb to navigate dynamic platforms, solve environmental puzzles and even fight bad guys across several...

Animals Understanding your pet's real age can be vital to keeping them healthy. It may seem like sort of a silly thing to ponder, born out of owners’ love for their pets and the human-animal bond between them. But determining a pet’s “real” age is… via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2LUQ87m"

The CBS board of directors will investigate allegations of sexual misconduct laid against CEO Les Moonves. The New Yorker published an exposé from investigative reporter Ronan Farrow detailing the accusations of six women who say that between the 80s and mid-aughts, the executive sexually harassed them. Four of them, including the actress Illeana Douglas said they were forcibly touched or kissed during business meetings, while two accused him of employing physical intimidation and threats to derail their careers. The report also contains claims of harassment against other men in the CBS and CBS News divisions, including 60 Minutes executive producer Jeff Fager. The board is hiring an independent company to conduct the investigation. "All allegations of personal misconduct are to be taken seriously. The Independent Directors of CBS have committed to investigating ...

A group of scientists in Russia claim to have revived a pair of frozen nematodes , or roundworms, that were between 30,000 and 42,000 years old. One of the specimens was found in a soil sample collected from a ground squirrel burrow located around 100 feet underground, and other burrows nearby have been radiocarbon dated to be around 32,000 years old. A second viable nematode was found in a permafrost sample approximately 41,700 years old collected around 11 feet below the surface. The samples were stored in a laboratory at around -4 degrees Fahrenheit. Isolated nematodes were then later brought up to 68 degrees and surrounded by food. After several weeks of cultivation, the nematodes began showing signs of life and reportedly began moving and eating. "Thus, our data demonstrate the ability of multicellular organisms to survive long-term (tens of thousands of year...

Gadgets Friendly robots, Lady Gaga’s camera glasses, and other products we’ll never get to buy. Hardware is hard. Here are some concrete examples. via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2LsdpBw"

Inmates in five Idaho prisons exploited a vulnerability on their JPay tablets to steal almost $225,000 worth of credits, according to officials. The Idaho Department of Correction said 364 prisoners boosted their JPay account balances, according to The Associated Press . The department unearthed the issue earlier this month, and noted taxpayer dollars were not affected. Prisoners can use credits to buy music, ebooks, stamps (to pay for email and inbound video messages), games and even the JPay tablets themselves. They can use the tablets to catch up on the news, access educational materials and view photos and videos. Inmates' loved ones can buy the tablets for them, and talk to the prisoners with a video chat visitation. After prisoners seemingly communicated with each other on how to exploit the vulnerability, one inmate transferred almost $10,000 to their ...

Black Hat researchers plan on open sourcing a new framework they say can help organizations get a better rein on vulnerability fixes for kernel bugs. via Dark Reading: https://ift.tt/2LGxlQs If New feed item from http://www.darkreading.com/rss/all.xml , then send

Star Wars: Episode IX will begin production on August 1st, Lucasfilm announced today . The film will also feature a surprising cast member: Carrie Fisher will reprise the role of Leia, using footage she previously shot for The Force Awakens . We heard that Lucasfilm would potentially use Fisher's old material last year, but producer Kathleen Kennedy shot those rumors down, claiming at the time that Leia wouldn't be in the next film. But of course, that was before we knew J.J. Abrams would be returning to direct and re-write the film (together with Chris Terrio), following Collin Trevorrow's ousting . "We desperately loved Carrie Fisher," Abrams said in a statement. "Finding a truly satisfying conclusion to the Skywalker saga without her eluded us. We were never going to recast, or use a CG character. With the support and blessing from her daughte...

After including the WNBA roster for the first time in last year's game, EA Sports is going a step further in its embrace of female athletes in NBA Live 19 by bringing women to its create-a-player feature. EA says this marks the first time a basketball game has let players create female characters. Using the NBA Live Companion app on iOS and Android, you can scan your face and import it onto your player. EA has also added some Icon Abilities based on some of the greatest players in women's basketball, including Candace Parker of the Los Angeles Sparks. Once you've created a future women's basketball megastar, you can play as her in NBA Live 's career mode "The One," and access the same challenges, skills, gear and career progression as male characters. Men and women can play on the same team in that mode too. You can judge for yours...