By Tamoor Hamid
Cover photo courtesy of arnnet.com.au
While November was not as jam-packed with tech releases and breakthroughs as previous months, major events still occured. Some events will largly impact how we interact with technology and the internet in general. From lasers to government, this month has definitely left its mark.
5. Pew Pew Pew
Lasers were first developed in the 1960. They have become one of the most useful tools humanity posseses. From entertainment to medicine, lasers have helped a great deal. Now, the world’s largest weapons maker wants make them full-fledged weapons. Lockheed Martin received 26 million dollars to make a laser weapon that can be attached to a plane for the U.S. Air Force. Lasers are already used to do things like detonating live explosives from afar. This development could can change warfare. No news on the development of the Death Star—yet.
Article: https://goo.gl/AAcHNR
4. YouTube
If you’re like me, then you’ve probably spent thousands of hours on youtube. Launched in 2005 as a dating site, Youtube has grown into one of the most visited sites on the internet. Now that the internet is everywhere, YouTube’s audience has expanded to little kids. Youtube can be a disturbing place; one wrong click and you can see some messed up stuff. This was the reason for Youtube Kids, a version of the site that is censored so that children are not exposed to inappropriate content. It’s not perfect—videos have slipped through that are very inappropriate for kids. To make the situation even worse, these kinds of videos are titled to be easily found when someone searches for Spider-Man or Frozen. On top of that, child predators have been targeting kids in the comments. All of this caused advertisers to pull out and stop using the site. Youtube is starting to deal with this. They have already removed thousands of videos and taken down thousands of channels. The company is changing its rules to make it harder for people to post inappropriate content targeted at children. This problem is in no way over yet.
Article: https://goo.gl/xRkEuZ
3. Tesla Roadster and Semi Truck
This month, Elon Musk was supposed to reveal an electric semi truck. But in the “Musken” way, he also revealed what will be the fastest consumer car ever—and it is beautiful. The new Tesla Roadster will go from 0 to 60 in 1.9 seconds. That is a record. There hasn’t been much revealed on the new car set to release in 2020, but its price will start at $200,000. The truck is also amazing. If done correctly, it could help to greatly lower emissions. Tesla has said that the semi will have a massive battery that can go 500 miles. Another interesting feature is it will be able to drive itself on the highway. The Tesla semi will start production in 2018.
Articles-
Roadster: https://goo.gl/T59TvE
Truck: https://goo.gl/aUsXtK
2. The World’s Biggest Battery
Elon Musk is a very productive man. Breaking the record for the fastest consumer car this month was apparently not enough. In March of this year, Musk made a bet with fellow billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes on building the world’s biggest battery in 100 days or it would be free. Musk won the bet this month with 40 days to spare. The battery is a massive help in battling the power outages that have plagued the country for the past few months. This is a great step for the world of renewable energy.
Articles:
1. Telling the Internet to go FCC itself
The biggest change that occurred this month will affect the future of the entire internet. FCC chairman Ajit Pai has made another proposal to repeal net neutrality. The infographic above explains how the internet will be without the rules of net neutrality in place. NN is a safeguard to keep the internet free and open so that if you go to any (legal) site, your ISP (Internet Service Provider) cannot slow down or stop you from visiting. Without NN, your ISP can affect the way you interact with the Internet. They can force you to pay to go to certain sites or just slow down competitor sites. The Internet is a place of free speech and expression. This could stop that.
Article: https://goo.gl/C5VFB4
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