Lattepanda: Windows-10-Bastelcomputer in Raspberry-Pi-Größe

Per Crowdfunding soll ein Intel-basierter Bastelrechner verkauft werden. Auf der Platine sitzt auch noch ein kleiner Atmega32u4. Windows-10-Home wird vorinstalliert. (Windows 10, USB 3.0)

Per Crowdfunding soll ein Intel-basierter Bastelrechner verkauft werden. Auf der Platine sitzt auch noch ein kleiner Atmega32u4. Windows-10-Home wird vorinstalliert. (Windows 10, USB 3.0)

The new Cessna 172p

by Gilberto Agostinho

FlightGear’s default aircraft, the Cessna 172P, went through a major makeover. This post will show some of these improvements.

The aircraft exterior is now much more detailed, with new higher resolution liveries (as well as several cockpit and interior themes).

The cockpit is now fully textured and fully functional. All switches, buttons and levers are operable (try pulling out some circuit breakers!). When using ALS, the new interior shadow effect is very immersive.

There are six variants avilable now (default, two bush tire variants, amphibian, pontoon and skis) as well as two types of engine (160 HP …
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by Gilberto Agostinho

FlightGear’s default aircraft, the Cessna 172P, went through a major makeover. This post will show some of these improvements.

The aircraft exterior is now much more detailed, with new higher resolution liveries (as well as several cockpit and interior themes).

The cockpit is now fully textured and fully functional. All switches, buttons and levers are operable (try pulling out some circuit breakers!). When using ALS, the new interior shadow effect is very immersive.

There are six variants avilable now (default, two bush tire variants, amphibian, pontoon and skis) as well as two types of engine (160 HP and 180 HP). Below, the amphibian variant at San Francisco bay.

The cockpit has now a glass effect, making the windows reflective. The instruments can also be illuminated if the sunlight is getting weak.

If the conditions are just right, the cockpit glass will get foggy or display some frost, as in the image below. To control that, use the air vent and air heat levers (as well as cracking the windows!).

Pre-flight inspection has now been implemented. It’s possible now to add and remove tie-downs, wheel chocks and the pitot tube cover. On top of that, one has to keep an eye for the oil level and possible fuel contamination. The plane has a tutorial explaining how all these new features work.

The aircraft can now get damaged. Land too hard and the front wheel will collapse; dive and pull the yoke at once and the wings will break. But there is no need to worry if your plane gets damaged: a repair button has been added to the aircraft menu.

Regarding sounds, some major improvements have been done: these include not only new cockpit sounds (switches, levers) but also environment sounds: water sounds for the amphibian and pontoon variants, new wind, rain and thunder sounds for all of them.

The aircraft comes with two flashlights (one white, one red) for night flights, allowing one to start the plane from cold and dark regardless of the amount of sunlight.

Among other improvements, we have now a better flight dynamics model, with better stall and spin behaviour, and new hydrodynamics for the float variations.

If you run the FG development version and want to track the latest developments for this plane, you can find the development repository here. There is also a forum thread for discussion and feedback.

4,5G Mobilfunk: Vodafone Deutschland will 1,2 GBit/s einführen

Vodafone wird in Kürze die Mobilfunktechnologie 4,5G in Deutschland einführen. Livebetrieb mit 1,2 GBit/s ist nach Angaben des Unternehmens bereits 2017 geplant. (Vodafone, Mobilfunk)

Vodafone wird in Kürze die Mobilfunktechnologie 4,5G in Deutschland einführen. Livebetrieb mit 1,2 GBit/s ist nach Angaben des Unternehmens bereits 2017 geplant. (Vodafone, Mobilfunk)

Kickstarter: Vallerret-Fotohandschuh mit SD-Kartenslot

Für im Winter draußen arbeitende Fotografen ist der Vallerret-Fotohandschuh entwickelt worden. Er besitzt abklappbare Spitzen für Daumen und Zeigefinger sowie ein Fach für SD-Karten. (Kickstarter, Foto)

Für im Winter draußen arbeitende Fotografen ist der Vallerret-Fotohandschuh entwickelt worden. Er besitzt abklappbare Spitzen für Daumen und Zeigefinger sowie ein Fach für SD-Karten. (Kickstarter, Foto)

Smartwatch: Große Nachfrage nach TAG Heuer Connected

Der schweizerische Uhrenhersteller TAG Heuer muss Sonderschichten einlegen, weil die Nachfrage nach der Luxus-Smartwatch Connected Watch größer als erwartet ist. Dem Unternehmen liegen Bestellungen für 100.000 Geräte vor. (Android Wear, Mobil)

Der schweizerische Uhrenhersteller TAG Heuer muss Sonderschichten einlegen, weil die Nachfrage nach der Luxus-Smartwatch Connected Watch größer als erwartet ist. Dem Unternehmen liegen Bestellungen für 100.000 Geräte vor. (Android Wear, Mobil)

Commercial space station resupply launch success—Cygnus blasts off

Orbital ATK’s capsule headed to ISS with food, parts, and science stuff.

HOUSTON—After days of delay, Orbital ATK's CRS Orb-4 (for “commercial resupply services”) launched successfully from Space Launch Complex 41 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida this afternoon. The Cygnus spacecraft took flight atop a ULA-produced Atlas V rocket—an older launch vehicle with a relatively high success rate.

The launch is the first for Orbital since their disastrous CRS-3 launch last year, where a turbopump fault in one of the Soviet-built NK-33 engines powering the rocket’s first stage triggered an explosion that destroyed the launch vehicle and its cargo and also caused significant damage to the launch pad at Wallops Island, Virginia. Orbital switched its launch plans over to utilize an Atlas rocket (which uses more modern, but still Russian-sourced, RD-180 engines) while retrofitting its Atlas rocket design.

Sunday’s successful launch was the fourth attempt this week to get CRS Orb-4 into space. Three previous launch attempts—one per day since Thursday—were scrubbed due to foul weather at Cape Canaveral. The CRS-4 Cygnus capsule is currently en route to the ISS, carrying about 7300 pounds (about 3300kg) of food, hardware, and scientific equipment for the Expedition 44 crew on board the ISS (which includes US astronaut Scott Kelly, who is more than halfway through a year-long stay aboard the station).

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How nerve cells end up in the right place

Redundancy and cross talk boost the accuracy of cell guidance.

(credit: UC Berkeley)

The human nervous system is a complex network of cells, all working together. The intense specialization of this network starts during development, when cells must talk to each other to carefully coordinate wiring up neural circuitry.

The wiring relies on the neural cells themselves. They have rounded cell bodies surrounded by short spines called dendrites, and longer tails, called axons. Each neuron only has one axon, which connects to dendrites on other nerve cells.

Sending that axon to the right place—a process called neural pathfinding—is the subject of an entire field of study. Researchers have identified a variety of specialized signaling molecules that instruct neurons on where they should go. It's not always clear, however, how these signaling networks interact to send axons to the right place. A recent paper published in Science helps to clarify some of these unknowns.

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Amazon Fire TV Game Controller (second-gen) review: It can listen, it can talk

2015 Fire TV converts will love its features—though other platforms already had them.

Sam Machkovech

The brand-new Fire TV Game Controller...

13 more images in gallery

We've been smitten with the second-gen Amazon Fire TV streaming-media box ever since its October launch. Its speedy content loads, especially with rewinds and fast forwards, has made it this author's favorite streaming device currently on the market, and its voice search and gaming capabilities are solid, functional bonuses.

That being said, we haven't exactly tossed our Xbox One or PlayStation 4 systems to the curb in favor of the 2015 Amazon Fire TV's game selection, but it's a decent Android-based gaming system—thanks in part to Amazon finally landing a few quality TV-minded games on its platform (Shovel Knight, Hotline Miami 2, etc).

The set-top box wasn't the only thing to get an update this year; last year's cheap-feeling, Amazon-branded controller got an update as well, and in our October review of the Fire TV box, we expressed our hopes that the updated, $50 pad would, at the very least, outdo last year's clunker. We finally got a review unit in our hands, and we can confirm that our low expectations have been topped—but is that reason enough to go with Amazon's new pad, and its perks, over compatible options like a wired Xbox 360 pad?

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Nvidia Inadvertently Endorses Site Offering ‘Pirate’ Kodi Addons

Nvidia has backtracked after publishing an article which advised customers to use a site known for ‘pirate’ addons in order to boost the capabilities of the popular Kodi media player. Nvidia, an official sponsor of Kodi, published the article last week but after contact with the Kodi team rewrote and then republished the piece in question.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

kodi-nvidiaFor millions of people around the world, Kodi – or XBMC as it used to be known – is one of the best pieces of software for viewing pirate content online. However, this capability is certainly not available ‘out of the box’.

Kodi, which is simply a media player at heart, is compatible with third-party addons that can turn it into a piracy powerhouse providing free access to movies, TV shows and live sports. This has made it one of the most popular tools for viewing streaming content.

For the XBMC Foundation, the people behind the legitimate Kodi app, this pirate association has developed into a thorn in the side. Last November the foundation began taking action against infringers, filing complaints with eBay over members who sold Kodi-loaded hardware for the purpose of viewing pirate content.

But no matter how hard the foundation tries to distance itself from piracy there are constant reminders, sometimes from the most unexpected of directions. Most recently it was the turn of Nvidia, one of the world’s largest graphics technology companies.

In an article titled ‘How to Install Kodi Add-ons on NVIDIA SHIELD’ and published late last month, Nvidia revealed that Kodi is “hands down” one of the most popular apps on the SHIELD Android TV.

“Where Kodi really shines is in the world of user-created add-ons,” Nvidia said.

“We’ll be posting a follow-up article soon highlighting the best Kodi add-ons. Until then, here is a quick How to on installing Kodi Add-ons.”

To be clear, Nvidia did not specifically advise users to install illegal software. What it did do, however, was to point its readers to a tool on TVaddons, a site that has become known not only for the promotion and development of totally legitimate software, but also a range of ‘pirate’ addons for Kodi.


The screenshot provided by Nvidia

kodi-fusion

Nvidia then proceeded to offer instructions on how to install Fusion, a package containing addons which allow the viewing of anything from user-uploaded content to the latest movies. Again, there is no indication that the company intended to directly advise people on how to access pirate content (note:in countries such as the Netherlands, facilitating the viewing of pirate streams is yet to be made illegal) but the software being installed certainly provided that capability in spades.

The faux pas might have gone unnoticed but soon complaining posts began to appear on Kodi’s official forums, made worse by the fact that Nvidia is an official Kodi sponsor.

“Didn’t want to post this, but since Nvidia is a sponsor and apparently Team Kodi does have a rapport with them, maybe someone should tell them that this isn’t helpful,” wrote one user while linking to Nvidia’s article.

These concerns were quickly addressed by Kodi Project Manager Nate Thomas.

“Already taken care of,” Thomas wrote.

By Tuesday this week the piece had gone (cache copy) but it soon reappeared in heavily edited form. Gone were the references to Fusion and TVaddons.ag to be replaced by a cautionary tale about staying legal.

“You can find Kodi add-ons in ‘repositories’ and we highly recommend only using the add-ons in the official Kodi repository as that’s the best way to make sure that you’ll not only have add-ons that the company trusts, but you’ll also find yourself on the right side of the law,” the new variant reads.

While the misstep by Nvidia has now been corrected, it appears the whole thing could’ve been avoided. Just recently the company was cautioned by the Kodi team against connecting its product with those who use the software for infringement.

“Only a few weeks ago we visited Nvidia and during the meeting we actually clearly discussed this topic on what they should include in their blog posts to stay out of the gray area and if they had any doubts or questions they could always ask. Still this happened,” Martijn from Team Kodi reports.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.