How the pandemic is revolutionising art galleries and museums

What have covid-19 closures done to art galleries and museums? From virtual tours of mothballed shows to advanced tech like lidar, they are finding new, more personal ways to wow audiences Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24933202-100-how-the-pandemic-is-revolutionising-art-galleries-and-museums/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…

Microsoft Joins $2 Billion Deal With GM To Roll Out Self-Driving Cars

Microsoft is joining GM, Honda and others in a $2 billion investment round in Cruise to help commercialize its self-driving cars. The deal bumps Cruise’s valuation to $30 billion, from $19 billion last year. From a report: The investment is part of a broader commitment by GM and Cruise to use Microsoft’s Azure cloud-computing platform across their companies, especially as they…

Arecibo telescope receiver platform crashes onto dish

The telescope has been inoperable since mid-November, when multiple engineering companies reported that safety in and around it could not be guaranteed. Now their fears have come to pass. No one was injured. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/arecibo-telescope-receiver-platform-crashes-onto-dish…

Will ‘Vision AI’ Be The Next Frontier for Developers?

A partner at an early-stage investment firm argues that “in the 2000s everyone was learning HTML and making a website. In the 2010s everyone was learning to develop mobile apps. In the 2020s all the developers are going to build Vision AI.” Where the web had its impact was by digitizing manual paper-based processes… I believe the next big wave is…

NSF says Arecibo telescope will be dismantled

Heartbreaking news. After 57 years as a world-class resource for astronomy, the iconic Arecibo telescope is to be decommissioned, or withdrawn from service, the NSF announced today. The dish-type radio telescope – built into a natural depression in the landscape in Puerto Rico – appears to be headed for a “controlled disassembly.” Source: https://earthsky.org/space/arecibo-telescope-to-be-decommissioned…

ClipDrop Lets You ‘Cut-and-Paste’ Real Life Objects Using Your Phone Camera Into Desktop Apps

An anonymous reader shares a report: Apple has boasted a lot about the AR capabilities of its new LiDAR equipped iPhone 12 Pro. It means that your new iPhone will be able to ‘map’ the room better to place objects. However, I hadn’t found an AR app that I might use regularly — until now. A few months ago, developer Cyril…

ClipDrop Lets You ‘Copy-and-Paste’ Real Life Objects Using Your Phone Camera Into Desktop Apps

An anonymous reader shares a report: Apple has boasted a lot about the AR capabilities of its new LiDAR equipped iPhone 12 Pro. It means that your new iPhone will be able to ‘map’ the room better to place objects. However, I hadn’t found an AR app that I might use regularly — until now. A few months ago, developer Cyril…

Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Beta Rolls Out To Rave Reviews

Rei writes: “Oh, it’s going dude!” “But there’s no lanes — there’s cars on the side of the road!” “DUDE, it’s navigating through it ALL, bro!” … “It paused to look DUDE!” “There’s NO LANES! Elon, you madman!” Such was one of the many reaction videos to come out overnight as Tesla released a major upgrade of Autopilot to a limited…

Are Tesla’s Data-Gathering Cars Secretly Improving Autopilot’s Algorithms?

“When the history of autonomous cars is written, the winner will be Tesla,” speculates long-time technology pundit Robert Cringely. “Heck, I think they’ve already won.” But his article includes a disclaimer that it’s “based pretty much on logic, not knowledge, which is to say I might again be too frigging stupid to read, much less write.” Tesla has more than a…

LIDAR over Antarctica

A laser shoots into the sky to study the atmosphere at Concordia research station in Antarctica. Source: https://earthsky.org/todays-image/lidar-antarctica-aug202-image…