Lifeboat Foundation

Driven by the needs of the financial industry, researchers are working on ways to manage vast computer systems down to 100 billionths of a second.

I get this question a lot. Today, I was asked to write an answer at Quora.com, a Q&A web site at which I am the local cryptocurrency expert. It’s time to address this issue here at Lifeboat.

Question

I have many PCs laying around my home and office.
Some are current models with fast Intel CPUs. Can
I mine Bitcoin to make a little money on the side?

Answer

Other answers focus on the cost of electricity, the number of hashes or teraflops achieved by a computer CPU or the size of the current Bitcoin reward. But, you needn’t dig into any of these details to understand this answer.

You can find the mining software to mine Bitcoin or any other coin on any equipment. Even a phone or wristwatch. But, don’t expect to make money. Mining Bitcoin with an x86 CPU (Core or Pentium equivalent) is never cost effective—not even when Bitcoin was trading at nearly $20,000. A computer with a fast $1500 graphics card will bring you closer to profitability, but not by much.

Continue reading “Extra PCs laying around? Why not mine Bitcoin?” »

Gradually automating the entire grocery store process. From initial delivery of products to the store/warehouse. To a store that will be optional to go to, but if you do want to go into the store it will be almost fully automated, to delivery drones and self driving vehicles that will bring you your order in under an hour. That is what Amazon is really up to.

Self-driving delivery startup Nuro scores major deal with Kroger.

What else do you think is hiding up there?

One day, 3D bioprinting will be used for printing out entire new organs to replace our old, knackered ones. This week, Chicago-based biotech startup Biolife4D announced a milestone on the road to this goal: Its ability to bioprint human cardiac tissue. Here’s why that’s important.

A neural network from Google’s DeepMind has impressive spatial reasoning skills.

B oeing, one of the world’s biggest aircraft manufacturers, is poised to unveil a “robust” new plane that will be “changing the future of air power”, the company claims.

The secret aircraft has a ‘Batmobile’ style, according to a teaser video posted on Twitter of the plane by Phantom Works, Boeing’s advanced design division, which has focussed on several highly classified projects.

#Stars #Astronomy

Houston, we’ve got mice.

20 astronaut mice en route to the International Space Station (ISS) could shed light on the effect on long-term space exposure on the human body.