Just another WordPress site
On this episode of TFBTV, Miles Vining takes a look at how the U.S. Marine Corps goes about the annual rifle qualification process that every Marine undertakes every year. Qualification is not only important for keeping up the fundamentals of marksmanship, but also plays into a Marine’s cutting score, or a number that is calculated, […]
The post TFBTV: USMC Rifle Range Qualification appeared first on The Firearm Blog.
Enterprises over the last decade have devoted large portions of their IT budgets to collecting, securing and analyzing huge volumes of big data. Or at least trying to. But heading into 2016, the increasing complexity of networks, and the sheer number of connected devices that are constantly streaming data over those networks, will create a paradigm shift in how enterprises secure and manage… Read More
via TechCrunch
If You’re Launching A Tech Startup In 2016, Focus On Privacy And Fast Data
(PG-13: Language) For The Onion, film critic Peter Rosenthal, Star Wars: The Force Awakens will never be as good as the first movie in the series. But he knows that for many horny teens, it – and heck, potentially any movie – will be their best movie ever.
via The Awesomer
The Onion Reviews The Force Awakens
The fella in the cubicle next to you has terrific download speed and the woman on the opposite side can run online multi-user games all day –– and you can barely pick up your emails. We’d suggest you have a word with both of these people about just how much bandwidth they’re using but if they look innocent, then call in NetSpot 2.4 to check out the whole wifi network….
via MacNN | The Macintosh News Network
Hands On: NetSpot 2.4 (OS X)
(PG-13) Gary the stormtrooper takes his daughter to work, Anakin goes to his happy place, Pruneface dreams of having more screen time and more in this look back at the funniest Robot Chicken: Star Wars scenes.
via The Awesomer
Robot Chicken: Star Wars Top 10
Researchers in France have developed a self-setting foam that can repair defects in bones and assist growth. Eventually, this advanced biomaterial could be used to quickly regenerate bone growth and treat degenerative diseases such as osteoporosis.
Injectable calcium phosphate cements (CPCs) have been around for nearly a hundred years, and they’re frequently used in orthopedics and traumathology as bone substitutes during surgery. These biomaterials allow surgeons to fix and harden defective bones “in situ” with relative ease and flexibility. What’s more, they’re biocompatible, self-setting, and non-toxic.
But as James Urquhart reports at Chemistry World, scientists haven’t been able to introduce macroporosity into these materials, which means these injectable cements don’t have pores, or cavities, larger than 50 nanometers. This makes it difficult to treat bone degeneration, or to strengthen cancellous bone—a porous, flexible and spongy tissue that gets progressively weaker once osteoporosis sets in.
Now, Pierre Weiss and his colleagues at the University of Nantes have achieved an important breakthrough in this area. By applying a sophisticated hydrogen as a foaming agent to create air bubbles in the mixture, the researchers have created an effective macroporous, self-setting CPC. The results of their work appears in the latest edition of Acta Biomaterialia.
The key to the breakthrough was in applying a silanized hydrogel as a foaming agent. James Urquhart explains:
Previously, the team had attempted to improve the mechanical properties [0f] CPC by adding a Si-HPMC hydrogel. But during the process of preparing the Si-HPMC hydrogel with an acidic buffer using syringes – which lowers the pH of the solution causing it to self-cross link and gel – air bubbles appeared in the mixture and they were hard to remove. But Weiss’ postdocs Jingtao Zhang and Weizhen Liu wondered if this drawback might be useful for giving macroporosity to CPC and so they set out to develop a CPC foam.
The team made the foam by putting Si-HPMC and CPC solutions in separate syringes, and then pumping air into the CPC syringe. Both syringes were then joined by a connector and plunged to rapidly mix the solutions and air, which formed a homogenous foam.
‘We knew that both biomaterials are biocompatible separately but we didn’t know how the body would react with a combination of both,’ explains Weiss. To find an answer, and also to test the biofunctionality of the foam, they conducted preliminary in vivo tests by making tiny defects in the thigh bones of two live rabbits and injected the foam into the cavities.
Their follow-up tests showed that new bone did indeed form at the implant sites, and with no toxic effects. The researchers would like to use the foam to treat certain bone defects and diseases, so their next step will be to determine the proof of concept in animal models.
Read more at Chemistry World. And check out the study at Acta Biomaterialia: “A simple and effective approach to prepare injectable macroporous calcium phosphate cement for bone repair: Syringe-foaming using a viscous hydrophilic polymeric solution”.
via Gizmodo
Scientists Create Injectable Foam To Repair Degenerating Bones
Less than two weeks after Microsoft introduced its hands-free AI helper, Cortana, to Android mobile devices, the company has yanked the feature from the US market. Users used to be able to say "Hey, Cortana" and then issue a command, just like "OK, Google" natively does for Google Now. However, the feature appears to be incompatible with Google’s voice recognition system and, in some cases, could make the phone unusable for commons tasks — like making phone calls.
As such, Microsoft updated the app on Sunday to disable Cortana’s voice activation. The company could well reinstate it once the interference issues are resolved but until then, the only way to talk to Microsoft’s robo-helper in the states for the time being is on a Windows Phone. The feature is, however, still active for non-US customers.
[Image Credit: FLickr]
Via: Win Beta
Source: Google Play
via Engadget
Microsoft’s AI no longer listens to ‘Hey Cortana’ on Android
Entrepreneur and Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadive sat down with TechCrunch to discuss how he’ll be allocating the University of California’s $250 million investment. The venture fund will be used to invest in innovative “value-driven” startups, many stemming from the UC ecosystem. The University of California and its ten campuses have been granted more patents than… Read More
via TechCrunch
Vivek Ranadive On How He’ll Invest UC’s $250 Million
The Washington Post made a recap of Star Wars in the style of Ken Burns’ documentary The Civil War. But YouTuber OneNerdShow already had the exact same idea and he executed it way better too.
via The Awesomer
The Galactic Civil War
OS X: NetSpot is a free utility that makes it easy to map out your wireless network, do a site survey if you have a particularly large one to manage, and to visualize where signal is strong and weak, and what might be getting in the way.
We’ve mentioned NetSpot before, but the app has come a long way since then. For one, the app fully supports Wireless AC routers and access points, makes it easy to manage those access points if you want, and includes a channel and strength analyzer that can run in the background. One click and you can see how strong your network is, and watch it in real time as you move across your house or apartment, or between rooms.
The app also builds a live heatmap of your network (or the network you’re connected to—you don’t have to use it on yours, obviously) so you can see the strong and weak points, ideal if you’re somewhere where the network is spotty, or you can’t pinpoint where the access points are physically located, but you are free to move around. You also get built-in speed tests, support for multiple networks so you can see how your Wi-Fi and your neighbor’s overlap (and if there’s channel interference), and more.
NetSpot is completely free, but there are professional versions with more features for network administrators or companies looking to outfit their admins with solid survey tools. You can read the differences here, but the free version will be fine for most people. Hit the link below to check it out.
via Lifehacker
NetSpot Maps Your Wi-Fi Network and Diagnoses Signal Problems for Free