Month: July 2018

The Windows 7 console didn't support VT codes, so it completely garbles the output of applications that depend on VT codes. The Windows 10 console, however, does support VT codes, making it much more capable. (credit: The Windows console)

One of the sore points of the Windows command-line environment is that the command-line windows themselves, the "console" windows, have always been a bit strange. Back in Windows XP, for example, regular Windows apps were themed, with their blobby title bars and bulbous red X button. But command-line windows didn't get the theme; they had a regular Windows title bar and borders. That's because the console windows were "special." A special, rather delicate operating system process drew them, and if that process crashed, your computer would blue screen. So, no themes allowed.

Over the last few years, Microsoft has been working to improve the Windows console. Console windows now maximize properly, for example. In the olden days hitting maximize would make the window taller, but not wider. Today, it'll fill the whole screen, just like any other window. Especially motivated by the Windows subsystem for Linux, the console in Windows 10 supports 16 million colors and VT escape sequences, enabling much richer console output than has traditionally been possible on Windows.

Even with this work, however, the Windows console still leaves a lot to be desired when compared to its counterparts on Linux and macOS. Linux in particular has a wide range of console applications offering, for example, tabbed consoles. It also has applications like screen and tmux that allow multiple applications to share the same console. While there are third-party efforts to do the same on Windows (with programs such as ConEmu), they all tend to be quite limited: they work by creating a Windows console window, hiding it somewhere off-screen, and scraping the characters from that console window. This approach isn't robust; command-line applications that try to do complex things (such as showing full screen interfaces) often end up breaking.

Enlarge / No matter how many times you stick your head in a microwave, this probably won't happen. (credit: 20th Century Fox)

This week we’re serializing yet another episode of the After On Podcast here on Ars. The broader series is built around deep-dive interviews with world-class thinkers, founders, and scientists and tends to be very tech- and science-heavy. You can access the excerpts on Ars via an embedded audio player or by reading accompanying transcripts (both of which are below).

My guest this week is medical geneticist Robert Green, and our topic is the promise and peril that could come from reading your full genome. The cost of full-genome sequencing is falling so quickly and the actionable insights it can reveal are growing fast enough that this data will eventually be as widely collected as cholesterol levels (perhaps within a decade or so).

This will divulge the precise contents of your 20,000-ish genes to you and your doctor. Since some human genes literally have thousands of known mutations, that’s a lot of data—and on the day you first receive it, we still won't know how to interpret the crushing majority of it.

Enlarge / ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer joined Chinese colleagues in Yantai, China, to take part in their sea survival training on August 19, 2017. (credit: ESA)

This week, the European and Chinese space agencies held a workshop in Amsterdam to discuss cooperation between Europe and China on lunar science missions. The meeting comes as Europe seems increasingly content to work with China on spaceflight programs.

Although the meeting is not being streamed online, space systems designer and lunar exploration enthusiast Angeliki Kapoglou has been providing some coverage of the meeting via Twitter. Among the most interesting things she has shared are slides from a presentation by Pei Zhaoyu, who is deputy director of the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration.

Very very interesting statement by CNSA’s Pei Zhaoyu. “NASA will focus on building the LOPG. CNSA will build the lunar scientific research station on the surface” Moreover, according to Pei the LOPG has low economic effectiveness. #MoonVillage #ESA_ISRU pic.twitter.com/Tbg9SQ4LhZ

— Angeliki (@Capoglou) July 16, 2018

Overall, Pei does not appear to be a fan of NASA's plan to build a deep space gateway, formally known as the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway, at a near-rectilinear halo orbit. Whereas NASA will focus its activities on this gateway away from the Moon, Pei said China will focus on a "lunar scientific research station."

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Linda Braucht)

The congressional bill to reinstate net neutrality rules has finally received support from a House Republican.

US Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) today announced his support for the bill. Coffman is signing a discharge petition that would force the House to vote on a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution; the resolution would reverse the Federal Communications Commission's repeal of its net neutrality rules.

The US Senate approved the CRA resolution in May, with votes from all members of the Democratic caucus and three Republican senators. While 176 House Democrats have signed the discharge petition, Coffman is the first House Republican to do so.