But enough with the animal analogies. I wrote an article a bit over six months ago where I took a look at the progress of some of the key hyperloop companies. Following the news of Virgin’s pivot from people carrying to cargo, I decided to provide a bit of an update and my verdict on the respective companies. Let’s take a look: Hyperloop TT (US) Last year I predicted Hyperloop TT would be the first to bring its cargo solutions to market due to integration with existing ports....

The six-foot-ten machine rolled onto the court during half-time of the US’ defeat to France and started swishing jump shots like a red-hot Steph Curry. Known as CUE, the droid was developed by Toyota engineers as a demonstration of machine learning. The bot uses inbuilt sensors and 3D mapping to locate the basket. Algorithms then calculate the optimum trajectory for the balls. Finally, motors in CUE’s arms and legs generate the power and accuracy required to find the net....

Unfortunately, time travel hasn’t been invented. Yet. But we do have the next best thing: whip-smart people with tons of business and life experience. So, in order to get a smidgen more wisdom in my life, I contacted a selection of tech executives and business leaders, and asked them what advice they wish they could give to their younger selves. One of the first people I spoke with was Dr....

Since the start of 2014, the price of a premium Netflix subscription has risen from $8 a month up to the current $16 a month. Yep, the price has doubled in five years. So…let’s gaze into the future, shall we? If you extrapolate out, even without any inflation adjustments or other statistical gymnastics, that means your monthly Netflix bill could be almost $50 by 2049. Now, in a world likely dominated by artificial intelligence, crippled by climate change and food shortages and overrun by biohacked superhumans, do you really wanna be dropping almost $600 a year to watch TV?...

Still, speculating about how contact with an alien race might go is something we tend to enjoy. Here are some fictional first contact scenarios and some thoughts on whether they are, at all, plausible. The massive invasion — Independence Day I can’t believe this movie was made in 1996. Or rather, I can’t believe how long it’s been since 1996. (Yes, I’m talking about the original. The sequel doesn’t exist in my reality)....

Some of the results are hilarious and completely nonsensical, such as the inelegant: “2017 Rugboat 2-tone Neck Tie Shirt”. But some of them turned out pretty well. At least, if you’re a robot: But how were these lines generated, and why do the results vary so much in terms of quality and cohesiveness? That’s down to the types of neural networks Shane worked with: all based on GPT-3, the world’s largest language model to date....

Tweet of the week: And that’s why it’s damn near impossible to tell a compelling story about him without invoking one of his two great weaknesses: kryptonite and loving humans. My favorite superhero stories are the ones where the heroes fight their alternate-dimension doppelgangers. Ultraman (pictured above) is Superman’s evil alternate from Earth 3. He’s the opposite of Superman. Where Superman is allergic to kryptonite, Ultraman likes to ride the green pony....

Swine flu circulated around the world in two waves until August 10 2010, when the WHO officially declared the pandemic over. By comparing the coronavirus pandemic with the 2009-2010 H1N1 pandemic and looking at modern forecast models, we might be able to better assess what to expect over the coming weeks to months. As of March 22, we are in week 16 of the COVID-19 pandemic, roughly equivalent to July 8 2009 of the H1N1 pandemic....

It might sound like the kind of thing you’d ask while sitting around a campfire with two kinds of smoke lingering in the air, but that doesn’t mean it’s not an important question. At the center of our capacity for scientific inquiry lies a simple query: are we alone in the universe? For millennia we’ve gazed at the skies with a binary perspective. Either they’re out there and we haven’t found them, or all life in the universe is confined to Earth....

But we finally got to hear something about recent developments from Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s co-founder, ex-CEO, and outgoing board member, who weighed in on the issue with some non-direct tweets. Some of them were directed toward the company’s board, and how it has operated over the years, and some of them talked about the potential decentralization of social media. While the Bitcoin evangelist doesn’t fully agree with Musk on how Twitter should be operated, there’s some similarity in their vision....

Per Tuesday’s announcement: “To unlock the potential of cloud computing for self-driving vehicles, Cruise will leverage Azure, Microsoft’s cloud and edge computing platform, to commercialize its unique autonomous vehicle solutions at scale. Microsoft, as Cruise’s preferred cloud provider, will also tap into Cruise’s deep industry expertise to enhance its customer-driven product innovation and serve transportation companies across the globe through continued investment in Azure.” So, Cruise will get the much-needed funds to conduct research and (possibly discounted) access to Microsoft’s cloud computing resources and move closer toward its goal of launching a purpose-built self-driving car....

OnlyFans may have suspended its plans to ban porn, but the U-turn hasn’t dispelled the concerns of sex workers. Adult performers fear that the move has merely been postponed. They also worry that other platforms will enact similar restrictions. “It was a wake-up call that I need to diversify where I’m hosting content, and make sure my fans know where to find me if something like that happens again,” Ela Darling, an adult performer and tech entrepreneur, tells TNW....

The campaign reflected a mature and professional organization. But it also looked like it could fit any organization. It was polished, clean, and corporate. But not original, emotional and personal. As you can tell, I’m not a big fan of professionalism. I’m much more into amateurs, and I think you are, too. See, the word amateur comes from the Latin word ‘amare,’ which means ‘to love.’ An amateur is someone who’s mainly driven by their love for a subject, not money....

But until when will that trend continue? When will Python eventually be replaced by other languages, and why? Putting an exact expiry date on Python would be so much speculation, it might as well pass as Science-Fiction. Instead, I will assess the virtues that are boosting Python’s popularity right now, and the weak points that will break it in the future. What makes Python popular right now Python’s success is reflected in the Stack Overflow trends, which measure the count of tags in posts on the platform....

Let’s point and laugh at Samsung for a bit: — Nicuri (@Nicuriq) June 18, 2019 What are they making? Retro TV’s? Any self respecting malware creator would make the scanner actually launch the attack! https://t.co/ZR6ZloWVNQ — Greg Price (@ObscureBug) June 17, 2019 Now we’ve got that out of the way, let’s talk about where Samsung went wrong. To be fair, the company is right to take security seriously. But its implementation of its solution presents a poor user experience, to the point that it sounds absurd....

“But my cat does nothing all day except sleep, eat and wash herself,” you may think. And yet your cat knows how to walk, run, jump (and land on her feet), hear, see, watch, learn, play, hide, be happy, be sad, be afraid, dream, hunt, eat, fight, flee, reproduce, educate her kittens – and the list is still very long. Each of these actions requires processes that are not directly “intelligence” in the most common sense but are related to cognition and animal intelligence....

These are a few of the perks tech companies commonly dangle in front of current and prospective employees. In a COVID-19 world, however, budgets are being cut, people are being laid off and these shiny office perks are no longer within reach. Shelter-in-place orders have accelerated the adoption of remote work by years but it also leveled the playing field to eliminate the work perks that are costly and unimpactful....

A cartoon drawing of a cat-turtle named Honu raised US$25,000 (£18,485) for ocean conservation charities in 2018. Rewilder is a non-profit organization using NFT auctions to raise funds to buy land for reforestation. The charity claims to have raised US$241,700. There have been various cartoon apes sold for US$850,000, with the money going to orangutan conservation charities. The most expensive NFT to date, a picture of some small grey balls, sold to multiple buyers for US$92 million in December 2021....

The new band packs a lot of features, including a 0.95-inch color AMOLED display (120 x 240 resolution). That’s a solid upgrade from the Mi Band 3 which had a 0.78-inch display with lower resolution (80 x 120). The Mi Band 4 retains the waterproofing till 50 meters (5 ATM pressure) and adds the ability to record swimming laps. Plus, it can also identify different swimming styles like freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly, and mixed-style....

In the world of mobility there are two main types of insurances: motor vehicle and travel insurance. And while, I’m sure, you all know the basics of what each of them covers, let me surprise you here by saying that travel insurance will expand to… space. Yes, you read that correctly. Travel insurance company Battleface has launched its services for space tourists, Travel Daily News reports. So, what does a space travel insurance cover?...