Tag Archives: business

Business, Financial, Science, TechNews

SpaceX is already breaking the record from the previous year

At the weekend, SpaceX brought its number of rocket launches to 33 with two more missions. Elon Musk’s group broke its record from the previous year – and that in July. 

Elon Musk’s space company SpaceX launched 31 rockets last year. In 2022, the group already exceeded this number when the Falcon 9 rocket sent a load of 46 Starlink satellites into space on Friday, setting off on its 32nd mission. On Sunday, SpaceX added 53 satellites – rocket launch number 33.

The company has already broken its existing record for most rocket launches in a year, as confirmed by Elon Musk on Twitter , where he congratulated his team. In addition, there are still several months left to further expand the record.

Screenshot: Twitter

Elon Musk’s goal for 2022: 52 rocket launches

SpaceX intends to do the same, because at the beginning of the year the ambitious goal was announced of sending 52 rockets into space this year. So far, SpaceX is on track to meet its schedule. This is made possible by the reusable rocket stages of the Falcon 9. The rocket, which was launched on Sunday, has already completed four missions. Another rocket already has 13 missions under its belt. These cycles allow SpaceX to ramp up its rocket launch cadence every year except for 2019, when the number dropped.

In addition, SpaceX is its own customer for a large number of the rocket launches. The company is using the missions to increase its fleet of Starlink Internet satellites. Around 2,900 have been sent into orbit so far, of which around 2,600 are currently active. SpaceX has approval for a total of 12,000 but is seeking to relax international rules to allow up to 30,000 satellites into orbit.

SpaceX has big plans

But even without its Starlink project, SpaceX will not run out of work. Thanks to the cooperation with NASA, the company repeatedly sends off Dragon-type space capsules to send people and cargo to the ISS. There are also SpaceX’s commercial space flights, which take tourists into space, and launches for the US Department of Defense.

In the long term, Elon Musk is pursuing particularly ambitious plans with SpaceX. The billionaire has never made a secret of the fact that he has set himself the goal of populating Mars – and even wants to outperform NASA in the race for the red planet . 

Comes Next, Security, TechNews

Infineon introduces battery-free electronic lock

A new chip from Infineon is powered via NFC via the smartphone – enough to open and close small locks

Infineon’s new NAC1080 chip makes it possible to open and close digital locks without their own power supply. Instead of an internal power supply, the user’s smartphone – which is also the key – supplies the power to open it, as the chip manufacturer reports.

Both data and energy are exchanged via NFC – a process that is used, for example, for payment transactions via smartphone. Data transmission is encrypted thanks to an integrated AES128 accelerator and a random number generator.

To open the lock, the smartphone must be held directly against the lock equipped with the chip, as with other smart locks. The lock then draws energy from the built-in NFC technology through so-called energy harvesting. On average, different devices can transmit around 20 milliwatts, according to Infineon, and significantly more with some models.

Use with smaller locks

A capacitor collects the energy; the chip uses them to check whether the user is authorized and to open the lock with a small motor. According to Infineon, the technology is particularly suitable for smaller locks on office cabinets, lockers, parcel boxes or mailboxes. The duration of the opening process should be around two seconds – depending on the smartphone used and the energy transmitted.

Larger, harder-to-move locks require more energy to be transferred, which takes longer. It is therefore more conceivable to use it as an emergency option for house or hotel doors if the lock’s own energy supply fails. According to Infineon, one would then have to wait a little longer for the opening, but at least this could save the expensive key service. The first products with the chip could be on the market next year.

Business

Microsoft Responds to Critics of Store Policy for Open Source Software

The Microsoft Store has to deal with numerous plagiarisms. Popular and free open source software is price tagged under other names. From a purely legal point of view, this is permitted thanks to liberal software licenses. However, it is not nice to see when inexperienced users pay money for free software that does not go to the actual developers.

Image: Microsoft Store

Because of this, Microsoft introduced a new store policy, as we reported in a previous article . It completely prohibits the pricing of free open source software. From a purely formal point of view, no one should be able to earn money with their app as soon as it is available elsewhere free of charge and open source.

It was clear to us from the start that Microsoft’s goal was to fight annoying plagiarism. I found it very unlikely that the legitimate developers charging for their apps would also be subject to this policy. However, I have expressed concerns. Because it is not possible for the store team to understand whether the submission came from the actual developer or from a third party.

New Microsoft Store policy causes critics

However, the directive, taken literally, prohibits any financial gain from open source free software. Accordingly, it was foreseeable that Microsoft could reap massive critics for this. That’s how it happened.

Both in numerous news articles and on platforms such as Twitter and Reddit, many people are visibly disappointed with Microsoft. Because it gives the impression that Microsoft would have a problem with the fact that developers would be rewarded for their great work if they made it available open source. Mainly because many developers take this route of charging a small price in the store as it is a simple and straightforward payment interface.

Business, Financial

Microsoft Store completely bans the sale of open source software

Microsoft has now announced that it will ban the sale of open source software in the Microsoft Store. The change will officially come into effect on July 16.

Image: Microsoft Store

The Microsoft Store is known for its many illegitimate apps. Numerous open source programs have been offered for sale in the past without the rightful developers of the project being compensated or involved in any way. The group had announced that it would take action. And they seem to have opted for the worst possible compromise.

Microsoft bans the sale of all open source programs from its store. So that they can only be offered there for free or not at all. Many projects had previously used the store for funding by paying for the program on the store while at the same time making it available for free through the official site. Developers were disappointed with the move and have already given their opinion on Twitter. Projects like WinSCP or Krita make paid versions of their open source programs available in the store. They ask for a small sum in the store, which can be considered a donation, to support the development of the application.

Developers are asking Microsoft to revise the policy and provide actual open source developers with a way to make their apps available through the Store for a fee. In-store sales can help projects get better funding, which will also benefit the programs themselves.

Comes Next

Netflix is ​​said to be launching live streams soon

According to a recent report by Deadline , Netflix is ​​said to be working on starting live streams for the first time. The streaming provider had already confirmed the development in the past.

Live streaming will initially be used on Netflix for some of the shows and stand-up comedy. The live transmissions would then also make it possible to carry out viewer votes. In general, this would give you the same options as in linear television.

Of course, Netflix might also get involved in sports rights and related broadcasts. But you should wait and see: sports rights are very expensive and recently Netflix had to accept a massive loss in share value.

When Netflix could start live streaming is still completely open. Internally, the experiments should just run. It is also conceivable that you will only get started in the USA before you go to work internationally.