Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and NASA make supercomputer, installed on International Space Station, available for Earth-based scientists

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) built and installed a supercomputer on the International Space Station last year. It was designed specially to tolerate the extreme conditions of space. The company recently announced that it will be making the computer available to earth-based scientists and programmers to conduct experiments.

Technology Officer at HPE, Mark Fernandez, said that the computer was built to withstand extreme travel conditions in space if they plan to go to Mars. Earlier space computers performed some of the calculations in the space and sent the rest of data to Earth for computation. This approach was however not feasible at Mars due to the distance involved therefore a computer was needed that could perform all the calculations in real time without sending any data back to Earth.

Initially they built a one teraflop supercomputer with Intel Broadwell processors - the best available processors – in 2017 and sent it to space via a SpaceX rocket. The computer has flown around the earth 6000 times since.

Now, the HPE and NASA have decided to make this computer available to earth-based scientists, programmers and developers to perform high-latency jobs. The computer would be available next year. Interested people need to apply to HPE and NASA for getting the computer.

What is the Future of “Facebook Portal”?

Last month Facebook launched Portal and Portal+, a device for the home that offers video chat. People can use that device to talk to other portal owners as well as people who use Facebook and Messenger. These devices are equipped with 12 megapixel camera and microphones. You don’t need to sit at one place for video call, its latest AR technology allows the device to follow the movement of the person. Facebook states that the product will be available for shipment in November.

This product has somehow failed to get the instant attention of the users because this news came in same days when 50 million Facebook accounts were hacked and there was a breach of privacy of the account users. Due to this, privacy conscious people are hesitant to try this service as they think this will bring Facebook right into their homes. Facebook can look upon them and what sort of information they will retain from this device and most importantly, the device can be hacked too.

Facebook is trying to calm these people by emphasizing that people can disable their camera and microphones but still people are reluctant to use this service. Facebook has since reached out to change its answer: Portal doesn’t have ads, but data about who you call and data about which apps you use on Portal can be used to target you with ads on other Facebook-owned properties.

Facebook has started taking pre-orders in US. The 10 inch version is of $199 while 15 inch version costs $349. Will this device win the trust of consumers or not? Let’s wait till the launch.

Tesla introducing its Navigate on Autopilot feature

“Tesla Autopilot Drive on Navigation going to wide release in North America tonight,” CEO Elon Musk tweeted last Friday. Tesla Autopilot Drive on Navigation is described by the company as its most advanced driver assistance feature to date. The company released latest version of its car software i.e. 9.0 but decided not to release navigate with it.

Tesla announced that customers who purchased enhanced autopilot and full self-driving capability will be able to use this feature in the coming month. Tesla has offered enhanced Autopilot and FSD capability as upgrades that cost, $5,000 and $3,000, respectively.

It is important to note that Tesla’s cars are not self-driving. This feature is only a driver assistance system. Other features introduced in the 9.0 software update include a dash cam and Atari games that can be played while the car is parked.

Navigate on Autopilot will make suggestions for two different kinds of lane changes: route-based lane changes that allow the driver to stick with the navigation route, and speed-based lane changes, which are designed to keep the vehicle moving as close to the driver’s set speed as possible.

The speed-based lane changes have four settings, including disabled, mild, average, or Mad Max. This will suggest transitions into other lanes that are moving faster if, for example, the driver approaches a slow-moving car or truck ahead. The “mild” setting suggests lane changes when the driver is traveling significantly slower than the set speed. Mad Max will suggest lane changes when traveling just below the driver’s set speed.