Ars Technica Live: California’s floods and droughts are just the beginning

Environmental scientist Lynn Ingram describes the storms and droughts coming this century.

Ars Live #10, filmed by Chris Schodt and produced by Jennifer Hahn. (video link)

UC-Berkeley environmental scientist Lynn Ingram joined us for the one-year anniversary episode of Ars Technica Live, and she gave us a broad historical perspective on climate change. Ingram's special focus is paleoclimatology, or the study of Earth's ancient ecosystems. She explained that she spends a lot of time in the lab dissolving rocks, bones, and shells in acid to get good carbon dates on them. Working with other researchers, she has found that California's climate has always been subject to dramatic fluctuations, but now those are being exacerbated by human activity.

California history has always been one of drought and flood. Ingram told us about the southwestern region's great medieval warming period roughly 800 years ago, which may have caused drought for over a century. People living in the region abandoned their settlements and moved away, while plant life struggled to hold on. In the more recent past, California's central valley became an inland sea after 40 days of rain in 1862. This is the sort of megaflood that is due to happen again, Ingram told us, because they seem to occur roughly every two centuries. Even without humans contributing to rapid climate change, we should be preparing for another flood of this magnitude—but now, with atmospheric rivers becoming more common, they will probably happen more often.

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The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer has a problem with its cooling system

“They have come to us and said we want to look at some … corrective action.”

Enlarge / A view of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the station. (credit: NASA)

Launched to the International Space Station in 2011 on the penultimate flight of the Space Shuttle, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer has quietly been collecting data during the last six years, observing more than 100 billion cosmic ray events. Although it has yet to produce any major scientific findings, physicists believe the steady accumulation of data will eventually yield insights about dark matter and other cosmic mysteries.

But for that to happen, the instrument has to continue to take data. In recent months, scientists monitoring the $2 billion AMS instrument have noticed an increase in the "degradation" of one of several pumps that operate its thermal cooling system. The AMS has redundant systems, however, and could switch to a different pump if needed.

Nevertheless, there appears to be an overall concern that if this degradation is not an isolated incident, it could begin to affect other cooling pumps within the AMS thermal system. (Despite several requests for information in recent weeks from Ars, NASA officials have remained cagey about the overall threat this problem presents to the instrument. The scope of repairs they're contemplating suggests that the problem could eventually become serious, however.)

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Ohne Flash und Silverlight: Netflix schließt HTML5-Umzug ab

Linux-Nutzer können künftig auch mit dem Firefox Netflix schauen. Der Umzug auf einen HMTL5-Player auf allen unterstützten Browsern und Systemen ist damit abgeschlossen. Wichtiger Fokus der Arbeiten bleiben nun UHD und HDR im Browser. (Netflix, Browser)

Linux-Nutzer können künftig auch mit dem Firefox Netflix schauen. Der Umzug auf einen HMTL5-Player auf allen unterstützten Browsern und Systemen ist damit abgeschlossen. Wichtiger Fokus der Arbeiten bleiben nun UHD und HDR im Browser. (Netflix, Browser)

Hands on with Android O—A million new settings and an awesome snooze feature

A tour of Android’s latest: snoozing notifications, settings revamp, lots of customization.

Android O is actually here! After diving into Google's blog post, we fired up our developer tools and got Android O loaded on a sacrificial device. There are a few new interesting features, lots of UI tweaks, and plenty of odd bugs and unfinished areas. Let's dive in!

Notifications: Snooze, channels, and a terrible new ambient mode

My favorite new feature in Android O is the ability to do system-wide notification snoozing. If you don't want to deal with a notification right now, just pull it to the side a bit, which will unveil a new "clock" icon. Tap it and the notification will be automatically snoozed for 15 minutes, and you can tap on the drop down menu to up it to 30 minutes or an hour. This is really handy, but I'd like to be able to customize the times here. I'm sure some people would like a few hours, or maybe a "tomorrow" option. A "type in your time" option would be fine, too.

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Mass Effect Andromeda im Technik-Test: Frostbite für alle Rollenspieler

Bioware hat die Frostbite-Engine für Mass Effect Andromeda so angepasst, dass sie auf schwachem System läuft und dennoch sechs Kerne ausnutzt. Bei den Voreinstellungen sollten Spieler aber hinschauen. Geforce-Besitzer freuen sich über die Ansel-Integration, Radeon-Nutzer über ein Tessellation-Profil. Ein Test von Marc Sauter (Mass Effect Andromeda, Bioware)

Bioware hat die Frostbite-Engine für Mass Effect Andromeda so angepasst, dass sie auf schwachem System läuft und dennoch sechs Kerne ausnutzt. Bei den Voreinstellungen sollten Spieler aber hinschauen. Geforce-Besitzer freuen sich über die Ansel-Integration, Radeon-Nutzer über ein Tessellation-Profil. Ein Test von Marc Sauter (Mass Effect Andromeda, Bioware)

Corsair One review: The best small form factor PC we’ve ever tested

So good it almost makes you forget about the horror that was the Bulldog. Almost.

Enlarge (credit: Mark Walton)

Specs at a glance: Corsair One
Lowest Middle Best (as reviewed)
OS Windows 10 Home 64-bit
CPU Intel Core i7-7700 (liquid cooled) Intel Core i7-7700K (liquid cooled) Intel Core i7-7700K (liquid cooled)
RAM 16GB DDR4 2,400MHz (8GBx2) 16GB DDR4 2,400MHz (8GBx2) 16GB DDR4 2,400MHz (8GBx2)
GPU Nvidia GTX 1070 (air cooled) Nvidia GTX 1080 8GB (liquid cooled) Nvidia GTX 1080 8GB (liquid cooled)
HDD 240GB SATA SSD, 1TB HDD 480GB SATA SSD, 2TB HDD 960GB SATA SSD
PSU 400W SFX 400W SFX 400W SFX
NETWORKING Gigabit Ethernet, AC Wi-Fi
PORTS 3 x USB 3.1 Type-A, 1 x USB-3.1 Type-C, 2 x USB 2.0, 2 x DisplayPort, 2x HDMI, headphone jack, microphone jack
SIZE Height: 380mm (18.6 inches), depth: 200mm (14.19 inches), width: 176mm (8.35 inches)
WEIGHT 7.4kg
WARRANTY Two years with 24/7 support and five day repair turnaround
PRICE £1800/$1800 £2200/$2200 £2300/$2300

It's hard to believe that the Corsair One comes from the same company that designed the Bulldog, a small form factor PC so monstrously ugly that the mere thought of placing it in a living room was enough to set off a spousal gag reflex. Where the Bulldog was a confused mishmash of jaunty, l33t gamer angles, the One is sleek, sophisticated, and—dare I say it—even a little grown up.

That Corsair continues to sell a slightly updated version of the Bulldog is something of mystery considering just how good the Corsair One is. Of all the small form factor (SFF) PCs I've tried—and there have been quite a few over the past year—it is by far the best. I'd even go as as to say it's one of the best pre-built PCs you can buy, full stop.

At £2,300 for a fully loaded version, the Corsair One isn't cheap by any means—and as always, going the DIY route can lead to substantial savings—but few homebrew PCs have such a tiny footprint. Fewer still do so while being entirely liquid cooled, graphics card and all. It's a combo that results in a PC that doesn't just fit into the living room environment aesthetically, but acoustically too.

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Apple snaps up Workflow, an iOS automation app for power users

Apple will keep the app and its developers around, makes it a free download.

Enlarge / The Workflow app. (credit: Workflow)

Late yesterday, Apple closed a deal to acquire Workflow, an app for iOS power users that lets you string a series of repetitive actions together to make them easier and quicker to accomplish. In many ways, the app accomplishes for iOS what the Automator app does for macOS. Late last year Apple laid off Sal Soghoian, the product manager in charge of automation-related products like Automator and AppleScript, and eliminated his position; the purchase of Workflow suggests that it could be the future of Apple's automation-related efforts.

Workflow's developers—Ari Weinstein, Conrad Kramer, Ayaka Nonaka, and Nick Frey—are all being hired by Apple, and they'll continue to develop Workflow which will continue to exist in the App Store. It used to cost $2.99, but it's now available to all users free of charge. The amount Apple paid for Workflow hasn't been disclosed, but TechCrunch reports that it was a "solid payday" for both the developers of the app and its investors.

Apple's statement about the acquisition highlighted that it had won an Apple Design Award in 2015 for its use of iOS' accessibility features, which suggests that the Workflow team could also help Apple develop and implement new accessibility features in future versions of iOS.

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Hannover: Die Sommer-Cebit wird teuer

Die Cebit wird in den Sommer verlegt. Das ist ein mutiger, richtiger, aber auch riskanter Schritt. Noch ist nämlich völlig unklar, wer die Kosten für den Eventcharakter der Großveranstaltung tragen soll. Ein IMHO von Nico Ernst (Cebit, CRM)

Die Cebit wird in den Sommer verlegt. Das ist ein mutiger, richtiger, aber auch riskanter Schritt. Noch ist nämlich völlig unklar, wer die Kosten für den Eventcharakter der Großveranstaltung tragen soll. Ein IMHO von Nico Ernst (Cebit, CRM)

Android O: Alte Crypto raus und neuer Datenschutz rein

Google will die Sicherheit von Android verbessern und setzt dafür einige interessante Konzepte um. Das größte Problem bleibt aber die mangelnde Updatekultur der Hersteller. Auch der Datenschutz soll verbessert werden. (Android O, Google)

Google will die Sicherheit von Android verbessern und setzt dafür einige interessante Konzepte um. Das größte Problem bleibt aber die mangelnde Updatekultur der Hersteller. Auch der Datenschutz soll verbessert werden. (Android O, Google)

Streaming: Akamai macht Videos mit Quic schneller

Das von Google initiierte Internetprotokoll Quic wird künftig auch von Akamai zum Beschleunigen von Video-Streaming genutzt. Eine Testphase mit Vimeo zu dem Produkt Media Acceleration lief bereits sehr erfolgreich. (Akamai, Film)

Das von Google initiierte Internetprotokoll Quic wird künftig auch von Akamai zum Beschleunigen von Video-Streaming genutzt. Eine Testphase mit Vimeo zu dem Produkt Media Acceleration lief bereits sehr erfolgreich. (Akamai, Film)