April 2017 – Page 78 – news.buyenne.com

Startup says it can make compressed-air energy-storage scheme dirt cheap

Hydrostor digs its own storage tanks, stores heat for reuse.

Hydrostor Terra

A Canadian company called Hydrostor has a new compressed-air energy-storage system that it says is half the cost of grid-scale batteries and on-par with adding a new natural gas plant to a grid.

The system, called Hydrostor Terra, uses electricity when it’s plentiful to compress air and send it underneath the ground into a specially-constructed tank. While the system is compressing the air, it also takes the heat generated by the compressors and stores it in a thermal management system. Then, when electricity is in short supply, the Terra system sends that compressed air back up from underground and heats the surfacing air stream using the heat that was captured in the compressing process. The heated air moves a turbo-expander connected to a generator, which creates electricity.

Hydrostor’s method of capturing heat from the compression process is what sets the Terra project apart from other compressed-air energy systems (or CAES systems). Traditionally, CAES systems burn natural gas to heat compressed air as it's brought up to the surface to make electricity. But burning natural gas detracts from the system’s overall efficiency and creates greenhouse gases. Hydrostor says Terra won’t burn any natural gas in its adiabatic system, that is, a system in which heat doesn’t leave. (Note that, a search of Ars Technica reveals five pages of results including the word "adiabatic," all of which pertain to quantum computing. Well, until today. Today we talk about energy.)

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Uploaded.net Terminates Accounts of Persistent Pirates

Popular file-hosting service Uploaded.net terminated the accounts of many users this week, citing frequent copyright infringements. The account holders in question, many of which used the site to generate revenue, are no longer able to share their files and are actively looking for alternatives.

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

With millions of visitors per month, Uploaded is one of the largest file-hosting services on the Internet.

Like many of its ‘cloud-hosting’ competitors, the service is also used to share copyright-infringing material, which is a thorn in the side of various copyright holder groups.

This has already led to legal trouble for Uploaded’s parent company Cyando AG, which is currently involved in a legal battle with copyright holders in Germany.

The rightsholders believe that Uploaded is not doing enough to prevent repeat infringements and argue that the company should therefore be held liable for the infringing actions of its users.

While Uploaded hasn’t commented on the accusations out of court, recent developments show that something has definitely changed behind the scenes.

This week, Uploaded terminated the accounts of a large group of users who presumably used the site to share infringing material. The German news outlet Tarnkappe suggests that this is likely a direct response to the legal proceedings.

On several forums, including WJunction, users are reporting that their accounts have been permanently suspended by the file-hosting service.

“Due to the high frequency of reported copyright notifications and evaluation of our compliance department, we regret to inform you that – according to our Terms and Conditions – your account with ID ***, was deactivated,” the message sent by uploaded reads.

Those who login to their account will see a similar notice, confirming that their account has been suspended. “This account has been permanently suspended due to violations of the Terms and Conditions,” it reads.

Suspended…

While Uploaded has terminated accounts for similar reasons in the past, the number of complaints this week is unusual. Some even suggest that the site may not be around for much longer.

“So all our accounts are banned on the same day? I think very soon they will close the site!” one uploader wrote.

For now there is no indication that Uploaded is shutting down anytime soon. However, the recent terminations suggest that the site is getting tougher on users whose files are frequently flagged by rightholders.

The suspensions will mostly impact people who upload and share many pirated files on the site, often for profit. This is also the group of users copyright holders are most concerned about.

Uploaded’s actions are reminiscent of Rapidshare, which also took measures to ban frequent copyright infringers from its service. The company adopted one of the most restrictive sharing policies, but had to shut down after a while, as the company became less profitable.

TorrentFreak reached out to Uploaded to find out more about the apparent suspension spree, but we have yet to hear back from the company. The affected users, meanwhile, are looking for alternatives to share their files.

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

Ghost Recon Wildlands: 15 Missionen auf dem Weg zu El Invisible

Die erste kostenpflichtige Erweiterung für Ghost Recon Wildlands trägt den Titel Narco Road und bietet weitere 15 Missionen für die Kampagne. Außerdem gibt es ein kostenloses Update mit neuen Herausforderungen, auch für den Solomodus. (Ghost Recon, Ubisoft)

The world’s two most powerful telescopes are glorious—and vulnerable

Maybe it’s the lower oxygen levels, but Mauna Kea’s summit feels otherworldly.

NEAR THE SUMMIT OF MAUNA KEA, Hawaii—Bill Healy stares into the primary mirror of the largest telescope in the world, and, for a second, he pauses. Even now, after nearly two decades of looking after this titanic instrument on top of a mountain, the immensity of the mirror still arrests him. “It sure is a hell of a view,” Healy marvels. “A hell of a view.”

It is. We’ve just ascended the tallest mountain in the Hawaiian islands, Mauna Kea, to see the pair of 10-meter Keck Telescopes, the largest and most powerful optical telescopes in the world. Hawaii lies 4,000km away from the closest continent, North America, making this the most remote archipelago on Earth. With clear skies, therefore, Mauna Kea has arguably the best “seeing” of any telescope site in the world.

The combination of big mirrors and dark skies has proven nothing short of revelatory. Since the first of the two Keck telescopes began observing the heavens in 1993, astronomers have used the instruments to discover dark energy, find outer Solar System objects that led to Pluto’s demotion, and more. On a given night, an astronomer might point a telescope toward volcano eruptions on the Jovian moon Io or study faint galaxies at the edge of the visible universe.

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RAM-Overclocking getestet: Ryzen profitiert von DDR4-3200 und Dual Rank

Wer einen von AMDs Ryzen-Prozessoren kauft, sollte sich schnellen DDR4-Speicher mit in den Warenkorb legen. Die CPUs laufen schon mit günstigem Speicher ziemlich flott – der Trick heißt Dual Rank. Mit hochtaktenden Modulen bei niedrigen Latenzen gibt es noch ein paar Prozent obendrauf, das kostet aber. Ein Bericht von Marc Sauter (AMD Zen, Prozessor)

Wer einen von AMDs Ryzen-Prozessoren kauft, sollte sich schnellen DDR4-Speicher mit in den Warenkorb legen. Die CPUs laufen schon mit günstigem Speicher ziemlich flott - der Trick heißt Dual Rank. Mit hochtaktenden Modulen bei niedrigen Latenzen gibt es noch ein paar Prozent obendrauf, das kostet aber. Ein Bericht von Marc Sauter (AMD Zen, Prozessor)

Gezielte Werbung: Deutsche Post testet Gesichtserkennung in Filialen

Die Werbung in den Warteschlangen von Postfilialen soll personalisierter werden. Die verwendete Gesichtserkennungssoftware ist umstritten, auch wenn sie Menschen nicht identifiziert. (Gesichtserkennung, Datenschutz)

Astronomie: Forscher entdecken riesigen kalten Fleck auf dem Jupiter

Forscher haben eine große kalte Zone in der Jupiter-Atmosphäre gefunden. Entstanden ist sie mutmaßlich durch die Polarlichter des Planeten. Und sie ist wie alles auf dem Jupiter: riesig. (Astronomie, Wissenschaft)

Creators Update: Die meisten Linux-Entwickler-Tools laufen auf Windows

Mit dem Creators Update für Windows 10 soll ein Großteil der üblichen Unix-Entwicklerwerkzeuge auch von dem Windows-Subsystem für Linux genutzt werden können. Trotzdem ist die Technik offiziell immer noch im Beta-Stadium. (Windows 10, Ubuntu)

Garmin unveils $139 Vivosmart 3 with rep counting, guided breathing features

It’s $10 cheaper than Fitbit’s Charge 2.

The battle between Fitbit and Garmin continues as Garmin updates arguably its most valuable Fitbit competitor device. The company announced the Vivosmart 3 today, an update to the Vivosmart HR that came out in 2015. At $139, Garmin slightly undercuts Fitbit on price while taking some notes from Fitbit's playbook: Garmin has added guided breathing exercises, easy-to-understand fitness level scores, and more to its new device.

The differences between the Vivosmart HR and the Vivosmart 3 are immediately noticeable, but not because they're garish deviations from Garmin's design language. The new device is thinner, lighter, and has a Chroma display "hidden" behind the band. "Hidden" here only means that the soft-touch material of the band extends over the display and gives the entire device a universal texture. The display on the Vivosmart HR was exposed and clearly separate from the band, but the new device takes a different approach. The display still responds to taps and swipes for navigation, and it will automatically turn on when it senses your wrist turns upward to check the time. The bands are not interchangeable, so you're stuck with the color that you choose when you buy the device. But the Vivosmart 3 comes in different colors and in small, medium, and large sizes.

New features

Garmin adds three new features to the Vivosmart 3, and arguably the biggest is automatic rep counting. Now the device can count reps and sets of strength-training exercises like lifting weights. Garmin representatives told me that, when you choose the strength-training workout option on the device, it automatically senses every rep you do. Once that activity is uploaded into the Garmin Connect mobile app, the company's software divides up your sets and tries to decipher which exercises you did.

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SV-G-Serie: Sonys Video-SSDs bieten einen sehr hohen TBW-Wert

Sony hat für den professionellen Videomarkt zwei SSDs vorgestellt, die ihrem Einsatzzweck entsprechend oft Daten aufnehmen können. Die SATA-SSDs sind dabei gar nicht so teuer. (Solid State Drive, Sony)