Geek News

Central Cygnus Skyscape Supergiant star Gamma Cygni lies at the center of the Northern Cross , famous asterism in the constellation Cygnus the Swan. Known by its proper name, Sadr , the bright star also lies at the center of this gorgeous skyscape , featuring a complex of stars, dust clouds, and glowing nebulae along the plane of our Milky Way galaxy . The field of view spans almost 4 degrees (eight Full Moons) on the sky and includes emission nebula IC 1318 and open star cluster NGC 6910. Left of Gamma Cygni and shaped like two glowing cosmic wings divided by a long dark dust lane, IC 1318's popular name is understandably the Butterfly Nebula. Above and left of Gamma Cygni, are the young, still tightly grouped stars of NGC 6910. Some distance estimates for Gamma Cygni place it at around 1,800 light-years while estimates for IC 1318 and NGC 6910 range from 2,000 to 5,000 light-...

Around a month ago, SpaceX launched one of its Dragon cargo capsules into space, loading it up with supplies destined for the International Space Station . Now, it has made it safely back to Earth, splashing into the Pacific Ocean just after 6PM Eastern. SpaceX tweeted the capsule's progress throughout the day, noting its successful departure burns that separated it from the ISS and when to expect its arrival. Dragon has been released from the @Space_Station ! Three departure burns are now underway. — SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 3, 2018 The three departure burns to move Dragon away from the @Space_Station are complete. — SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 3, 2018 Dragon will re-enter Earth's atmosphere in ~5 hours. Splashdown at 3:17 p.m. PDT. — SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 3, 2018 Splashdown of Dragon confirmed. Recovery team en route....

On August 1st, Defense Distributed was set to upload designs of 3D-printed guns for the public to buy and download. But the day before, a Seattle judge temporarily blocked their release after seven states and Washington, DC sued the company and State Department. Today, eleven more states have joined the legal battle to stop the firearm plans from being sold online. According to the filing, amended complaint added California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Virginia to the list of states Attorneys General opposing the release of the files. Per the Brady Campaign and Center to Prevent Gun Violence, the preliminary injunction hearing has been scheduled for August 21st and the temporary restraining order has been extended until August 28th. The lawsuit and temporary block are the latest in a years-long ...

The Democratic National Committee is warning Democrats not to use Huawei or ZTE devices, after the committee learned that one of its associated organizations was thinking of purchasing ZTE phones for members. "It's very important that party and campaign workers not use ZTE or Huawei devices, even if the price is low or free," DNC chief security officer Bob Lord wrote in an internal memo, as reported by CNN . Lord said people shouldn't be using devices from either Chinese company for work or personal use. The words echo what federal officials have already said about Huawei and ZTE posing possible security threats to the US. In February , CIA, NSA, and FBI chiefs testified in front of a Senate committee that the two companies were beholden... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts https://ift.tt/2KrjcSr ...

At its annual F8 conference in May, Facebook revealed that it was working on a dating service for its users. Now, app researcher Jane Manchun Wong discovered evidence that the company has begun internally testing the feature among its employees. Facebook confirmed to multiple outlets that it started testing, but didn't elaborate further. Facebook is internally testing Facebook Dating. I can't go past the signup screen because they are not activating all non-employee Dating profiles because, well, it's "pre-launch" ;) pic.twitter.com/VQFHUJIkuX — Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) August 3, 2018 Per Wong's screenshots, it seems Facebook is encouraging (but not requiring) its American employees to participate in the test by filling in profiles with fake data, which it will purge prior to public launch: "This product is fo...

Environment A new proposal wants to cut fuel efficiency standards, and it's going after California to do it. If you'd like to buy a more fuel-efficient car or pickup truck after 2020, think again. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Environmental… via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2OG3GWc"

Lab-grown organ transplants aren't right around the corner, but they may considerably closer than you think. University of Texas Medical Branch researchers have successfully tested bioengineered lungs in adult pigs, with no signs of medical complications. While it's not certain how effective the lungs were at oxygenating the pigs, they developed the sturdy network of blood vessels needed to survive. The challenge, as you might guess , was producing a full structure that the pigs' bodies would accept. The team accomplished this by creating a lung scaffold from the organ of another animal using both detergent and sugar to wipe out all the cells and blood -- only the proteins were left. After that, they immersed the scaffold in a tank filled with nutrients, and added the pigs' own lung tissue cells using a "carefully designed protocol or recipe...

Cartoon Network and Outright Games will release a boxed set bundling both Steven Universe: Save the Light and OK K.O.! Let's Play Heroes to the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One for $40 on October 30th. Currently available as digital downloads on the latter two consoles, this will be the first time the games are on the Switch. They'll also launch as standalone titles for Nintendo's eShop on October 30th. Steven Universe: Save the Light by Grumpyface Studios is a sequel to the mobile RPG Attack the Light , and offers up an original storyline made with the input of series creator Rebecca Sugar. It will run $25 for the new Switch version, the same as on the PS4 and Xbox One . The game is also slated to release onto Steam for Windows and Mac later this month. OK K.O.! Let's Play Heroes is a wacky action RPG made by Capybara Games with its ...

Earlier this week, reports emerged that Google was working on tailoring its search and news apps for China in order to comply with the country's censorship laws. Now, it appears the tech giant is also taking steps to bring its cloud business to the country. According to an unnamed source who spoke to Bloomberg , Google is looking to partner with major Chinese cloud and server providers to deliver services such as Google Drive and Google Docs to the country. The goal, they say, is to run these services through China-based data centers and servers, similar to the way Apple runs its iCloud operations inside the country. Candidates for the partnership were narrowed to three firms this past March — those companies include Tencent and Inspur... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts https://ift.tt/2nbNsYq ...

* Fixed various charged abilities not consistently being affected by cooldown reduction properly * Fixed a bug where non-stun interrupts did not reliably cancel channeled abilities if cast an instant before the end of the channel; for example Vengeful Spirit's Nether Swap cast on a target at the last tick of channeling a Town Portal scroll. * Hero voice lines for picking up bounty runes no longer play in the first 30 seconds of game time. * Fixed an uncommon client crash with Morphling's Morph ability. * Fixed a bug in the interaction of Lycan's Howl and units with low max HP, which sometimes created uncontrollable and unkillable units. via Steam RSS News Feed "https://ift.tt/2OETdua"

The Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission today requested that the Supreme Court vacate an appeals court decision upholding net neutrality in 2016. If the court decides to grant the motion, the previous decision to support the rules would be removed, clearing the path for re-litigation in the future when it comes to classifying broadband. In December, the FCC voted to undo the 2015 Open Internet Order which established net neutrality rules by forbidding broadband providers from throttling users' internet speed and blocking legal online content. Months before the Commission voted to roll back the rules last year, telecommunications companies like AT&T were already working the Supreme Court in order to remove the... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts https://ift.tt/2OHDWsC ...

It's been a busy year or so for Sonos. Since last April, the company has launched three hardware products (the Playbase , Sonos One and Beam ), added AirPlay 2 and Alexa support and became a publicly-traded company just yesterday. It's a milestone for any company, but Sonos says its fans shouldn't worry that the pressure of answering to investors will change its music-focused mission. The company's chief product officer Nick Millington told Engadget that Sonos is staying focused on delivering music throughout y our home. In fact, the company points to the busy year it had as what we should expect going forward. "In the last year, we have definitely focused on increasing our velocity of product development and product releases," Millington said. "I'm really proud of having launched the Playbase , the Sonos One and now the Beam in a ...