Category: Uncategorised

Windows 10 already includes ways to clear out applications and data to repair misbehaving systems or prepare them to be sold, courtesy of the Refresh and Reset features added in Windows 8. Microsoft is now adding a third option: a new refresh tool.

Currently available only for Windows Insiders, the new tool fetches a copy of Windows online and performs a clean installation. The only option is whether or not you want to preserve your personal data. Any other software that's installed will be blown away, including the various applications and utilities that OEMs continue to bundle with their systems.

The tool is currently in preview and has some quirks; it installs a preview build from the fast track, but Microsoft notes that the new tool can sometimes install a version older than the one currently installed. When this kind of version mismatch occurs, the option to preserve your files is removed.

Birds are smart. They use tools, engage in social learning, plan for the future, and do a variety of other things that were once thought to be exclusively the stuff of primates. But hundreds of millions of years of evolution separate mammals and birds, and structurally, their brains look very distinct. Plus there's the whole size thing. If you look at a bird's head, it's clear that there's not a whole lot of space for mental hardware in it. So how do the birds manage with smaller brains?

While other studies have tackled a lot of the structural differences, a new one released this week in PNAS shows that, to some extent, size doesn't matter. Its authors show that birds pack neurons into their brains at densities well above densities in mammals' brains, putting some relatively compact bird brains into the same realm as those of primates when it comes to total cell counts.

And the funny thing is, we probably should have known this was the case.

Mark and Sam discussing the PlayStation VR launch games lineup at E3. (video link)

Sony has recruited the fledgling indie studio Impulse Gear to build a game for the company's new PS VR "Aim" controller. After spending some time with Farpoint, it's one of those rare, solid demos that made me seriously contemplate buying an unnecessary accessory. As someone who has grown weary of useless plastic tat cluttering up my living room, that’s no small praise.

You may recall the PS3's Sharp Shooter attachment, which was mostly a shell that players would stick a PlayStation Move wand into to resemble a gun, but this new VR Aim accessory is its own dedicated, wholly moulded piece of kit. As a result, the gun feels really sturdy—and has more comfortable button placement (plus, it now has two analogue sticks, as opposed to the Sharp Shooter's single joystick).

When it comes to cats and physics, most people don't get much further than Erwin Schrödinger and his gedankenexperiment involving a feline locked in a box. But research from Saho Takagi and her colleagues at Kyoto University in Japan suggests that cats don't just star in physics thought experiments, they may also have an innate understanding of (some of) the physics, too.

We're not suggesting that SpaceX or Blue Origin is looking to hire feline rocket scientists any time soon or that the cats know what to do with Schrödinger's wave function. But Takagi's study provides evidence that our furry little friends might have a better understanding of causal relationships than previously thought, and they may also have a "rudimentary understanding of gravity."

The study involved 30 Japanese cats—eight house pets and 22 residents of cat cafes. The researchers tested the cats using a plastic box containing some iron balls. Normally the balls were free to rattle around in the container, falling out when the box was inverted. But on the opposite side to the box's open end, they added an electromagnet. When turned on, the magnet stopped the balls from rattling or falling out.

New emoji are typically proposed by the Unicode Consortium and approved for the next version of the spec without much fuss, but a rifle emoji proposed for Unicode 9.0 apparently ran into opposition from two major members of the consortium: Apple and Microsoft.

According to a report from Buzzfeed, Apple objected to the idea of introducing a second gun emoji on its platforms, and Microsoft joined in. The decision to remove the rifle emoji, as well as a second "pentathlon" emoji depicting a man holding a pistol among other athletes, was apparently unanimous.

“Nobody in the room seemed to mind not encoding the rifle,” said a Unicode Consortium member present during the discussion.

When making up your mind, going with your gut can be a safe bet. And according to a new study, leaving your gut in charge all the time might not be a bad idea—it may actually help dodge neurodevelopmental disorders.

While microbial mind control might sound far-fetched, one common gut microbe can singlehandedly reverse autism-like social behaviors in mice, researchers report in the journal Cell. Though the study is not yet applicable to human health, it highlights the strength of connections that can build between the gut and the brain—known as the gut-brain axis.

If the findings do hold up in more animal studies and human trials, it could mean that treatments as simple and unfussy as probiotic foods could relieve some symptoms of neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder, the authors conclude.