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Feb 26, 2022

Ukraine’s Defense Ministry asks drone owners to help repel invading Russian troops

Posted by in category: drones

As battles erupt in Kyiv, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense appeals private drone owners to use or donate them to repel invading Russian troops.


Ukraine’s Defense Ministry has called upon citizens who own drones to use them in support of the country’s armed forces in their battle to prevent the invading Russian Army from capturing the capital, Kyiv.

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Feb 26, 2022

China’s ‘Laser Assault Rifle’ Can Silently Sear Flesh From a Half Mile Away

Posted by in category: futurism

The whole person will be set on fire.

Feb 26, 2022

James Webb Space Telescope is nearly halfway through its mirror alignment stages

Posted by in category: space

Stars are getting sharper in the James Webb Space Telescope’s field of view.

The team recently completed the third of seven planned steps to align the 18 hexagonal segments of Webb’s mirror, marking nearly the halfway point in a complex, weeks-long process.

Feb 26, 2022

Google’s Sundar Pichai Just Announced a $100 Million Educational Fund. It Might Mean the Beginning of the End for College

Posted by in categories: business, education

While college tuition rises, businesses like Google are offering their own credentials — for a lot less. It might be the educational model we’ve needed for decades.

Feb 26, 2022

Ukraine supplies 90% of U.S. semiconductor-grade neon (and what it means to chip supply chain)

Posted by in category: computing

Ukraine supplies more than 90% of the US’s semiconductor-grade neon, a gas integral to the lasers used in the chip-making process,. Now what?

Feb 26, 2022

Watch: Drones capture an epic new 360-degree video of SpaceX Starship

Posted by in categories: drones, space travel

SpaceX prepares its first orbital Starship flight.

Drone capture 360-degree video of SpaceX Starship.


SpaceX is currently developing its Starship rocket at the firm’s Starbase facility in Texas. The project could lead to a giant, fully-reusable rocket system.

Feb 26, 2022

Russia Intensifies Censorship Campaign, Pressuring Tech Giants

Posted by in category: law

Google, Apple and others were warned that they must comply with a new law, which would make them more vulnerable to the Kremlin’s censorship demands.

Feb 26, 2022

Ukraine appeals to Elon Musk for Starlink satellites to maintain Internet

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, internet, satellites

Vice Prime Minister Fedorov reached out to Elon Musk for Starlink internet service in a last-ditch effort to restore internet access. As Russian forces approach Kyiv, Ukraine has been suffering internet problems.

Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation contacted SpaceX CEO Elon Musk about the company’s Starlink satellite broadband service.

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Feb 26, 2022

Here’s How Those Battery-Free Flashing Phone Stickers Worked

Posted by in categories: computing, mobile phones

The late 90s and early 2000s were a breakout time for mobile phones, with cheap GSM handsets ushering in the era in which pretty much everybody had a phone. Back then, a popular way to customize one’s phone was to install a sticker that would flash when the phone rang. These required no batteries or any other connection to the phone, and [Big Clive] has dived in to explain how they worked.

It’s an old-fashioned teardown that requires a bit of cutting to get inside the sticker itself. A typical example had three LEDs in series for a total voltage drop of around 7V, hooked up to two diodes and a PCB trace antenna. A later evolution used raw unpackaged components bonded to the PCB. Future versions went down to a single diode, using the LEDs to serve as the second. The basic theory was that the PCB traces would pick up RF transmitted by the phone when a call was coming in, lighting the LEDs.

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Feb 26, 2022

Column: As 5G wireless arrives, older phones are about to become roadkill

Posted by in category: mobile phones