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Total Solar Eclipse Shadow from a Balloon Where were you during the Great American Eclipse of 2017? A year ago last week, over 100 million of people in North America went outside to see a partial eclipse of the Sun, while over ten million drove across part of the USA to see the Sun completely disappear behind the Moon -- a total solar eclipse . An estimated 88 percent of American adults saw the eclipse either personally or electronically. One of the better photographed events in human history, images from the eclipse included some unusual vistas , such as from balloons floating in the Earth's stratosphere . About fifty such robotic balloons were launched as part of NASA's Eclipse Ballooning project . Featured is a frame taken from a 360-degree panoramic video captured by one such balloon set aloft in Idaho by students from Brazil in conjunction with NASA and Montana State...

Tesla's Semi truck has already made some city-to-city trips, but how does it fare on cross-country jaunts -- you know, what it'll be doing when it enters service? Just fine, if you ask Elon Musk. In response to an Electrek piece on the Semi's latest visit (to Arkansas trucking behemoth J.B. Hunt), the CEO noted that the Semi has been traveling thousands of miles entirely by itself, using the existing Supercharger network . The only necessary help is an "extension cord" to help the truck plug in. To be exact, it's a system of cords that plugs into multiple stations at once to top up the Semi's giant battery before the company's Megachargers come online. That solo travel is likely meant in part to reassure customers (including J.B. Hunt) that the Semi is already capable of handling long-distance trips without escorts. However, it do...

Can't pop-lock or Lindy Hop to save your life? Don't worry -- AI could soon make it look like you're a dance superstar. UC Berkeley researchers have developed a deep learning system that translates dance moves from a source video to less-than-experienced subjects. One algorithm creates a virtual skeleton to map poses, while two more algorithms square off against each other to both create the full picture and create a more realistic face for subjects as their virtual bodies twirl around. You do need the test subject to move around for a short while to get reference material, but the result is realistic enough to give an amateur the deftness of a ballet dancer. There's still work to be done before it's truly ready. You'll notice the occasional jittering, blurry details and even missing body pieces. The scientists sometimes needed subjects to move ...

Mercedes is nearly done with showing off concepts and prototypes for the EQC. The automaker has teased the production version of the electric SUV in a video that promises a full reveal at its September 4th event in Stockholm. While it's only the briefest peek, the clip makes clear that this won't be quite as futuristic as the concept you saw in t2016. The one-piece front section has been replaced with a more conventional arrangement that includes a grille -- unnecessary on an electric car, but likely there to appeal to a customer base that's likely looking for conventional styling cues. The performance estimates are already well-known. Mercedes is mating a roughly 400HP motor system with a 70kWh battery pack to provide both a 0-62MPH time under five seconds and an estimated 310-mile range (though realistically less). The finished EQC still isn...

Now that the UK likely won't be involved in the EU's Galileo positioning satellites, it's in a tough spot. How does it get the most accurate navigation technology it can once Brexit is official? By building its own satellite network, apparently. Sources talking to The Telegraph claim that Prime Minister Theresa May has ordered the creation of a UK-built satellite positioning system, with up to £100 million (about $128.5 million) set aside for "mapping out" how it would work. An official announcement could happen as early as this week, according to the insiders. It's not clear when the country would want an operational network, although that's likely to depend on the results of the initial study. Any self-developed network is likely to be expensive (one estimate put it at £3 billion), and it's easy to foresee opposition to th...

AMD's legal blitz against TV makers over graphics patents has claimed a major casualty. The US International Trade Commission has issued a final determination that Vizio and chip supplier Sigma Designs violated an AMD patent for a parallel pipeline graphics system. The Commission has ordered Vizio and Sigma to "cease and desist" making products that violate the patent, and has banned them from importing any existing products. Vizio is no longer al lowed to bring some of its TVs into the US, then, although it's not certain just how much damage this does to the company's bottom line. The import ban isn't likely to affect Vizio's latest sets . AnandTech pointed out that Sigma is in the midst of liquidation, so any affected TVs would have used chips from the supplier's sunnier days. The ITC hasn't named the exact models, howe...

Multiple people have been killed and others injured at a mass shooting during a Madden 19 tournament at the GLHF Game Bar in Jacksonville, Florida. Details of what happened are still incoming, but the incident took place in the middle of a qualifying round and reportedly left at least four dead, one of which includes a suspect who appears to have shot themselves. One of the wounded includes CompLexity Gaming competitor Drini Gjoka, who escaped with a grazed thumb. There was no confirmed motive as of this writing, although a competitor speaking to the LA Times claimed that the shooter was someone who had been knocked out of the tournament and sought revenge. A livestream of the tournament captured audio of the shooting shortly before the feed was cut off. Madden creator EA was aware of the shooting and said it was "working with authorities" to gather...

Didi Chuxing has suspended its Hitch carpooling service across all of China in the wake of a driver raping and killing a passenger on August 24th. The ridesharing company wanted time to address the "many deficiencies" with its customer service approach that appear to have cost the victim her life, including the "cumbersome and rigid" process of sharing information with police. A customer had complained to Didi about the the driver's sexually threatening behavior a day before, but the company didn't follow through with an investigation that might have banned the driver in time to prevent the tragedy. The crime has prompted an Uber-like backlash against Didi over its repeated safety problems , including criticism from state-backed outlets. Xinhua News suggested Didi should face legal repercussions if it didn't improve its safety r...

Artificial intelligence is proving to be a very capable tool when it comes to manipulating videos of people. Face-swapping deepfakes have been the most visible example, but new applications are being found every day. The latest? Call it deepfakes for dancing — it uses AI to read someone's dance moves and copy them on to a target body. The actual science here was done by a quartet of researchers from UC Berkley. As they describe in a paper posted on arXiV , their system is comprised of a number of discrete steps. First, a video of the target is recorded, and a sub-program turns their movements into a stick figure. (Quite of a lot of video is needed to get a good quality transfer; around 20 minutes of footage at 120 frames per second.)... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts https://ift.tt/2Lrvw5G ...

Coinciding with VMworld 2018 we have several updates to the VMware Validated Designs (VVDs) that I'm happy to announce. Hopefully, you caught the recent VMware Validated Design for SDDC 4.3 announcement from last month?  With the VVD for SDDC 4.3 we updated the software bill of materials (BOM), introduced support for using the vRealize Lifecycle The post VMware Validated Design Announcements at VMworld 2018 appeared first on Cloud Foundation . via Latest imported feed items on VMware Blogs https://ift.tt/2ocm3pT If New feed item from https://blogs.vmware.com/feed , then send me an email at kr ...

For all that changes in the tech industry, VMworld has been a mainstay for the tech community for more than a decade. As you might expect, Rubrik is doing a lot (we're more than double the size we were last year)…which means I'm a bit busy myself but also really looking forward to it. Packed … Continue reading Already? Yep, it's VMworld 2018! via Latest imported feed items on VMware Blogs https://ift.tt/2BKBEX2 If New feed item from https://blogs.vmware.com/feed , then send me an email at kr