Topps Blog

Wednesday, 22 March 2017

Hacked-together Lego Mindstorms bot kit brings science to a classroom near you

With an off-the-shelf robotics toy and some inexpensive parts, Stanford researchers have used the LEGO Mindstorms platform as a springboard to create a liquid-handling robotics kit for kids and STEM classes.

The post Hacked-together Lego Mindstorms bot kit brings science to a classroom near you appeared first on ExtremeTech.

ET deals: Get three free ebooks from TradePub

Are you a life-long learner? Then you're likely well aware of just how expensive courses and one-on-one training can be. The written word can never be a substitute for hands-on learning, but reading up on your interests will pave the way for an easier path forward. And with these free ebooks on TradePub, the barrier to entry here is extremely low.

The post ET deals: Get three free ebooks from TradePub appeared first on ExtremeTech.

Farmers are pirating John Deere tractor software to stick it to the man

Many of us have downloaded cracked software from the darker corners of the internet over the years. Remember when the only way to get Photoshop was to buy a $700 license? Yeah, enough said. Some of the most prolific users of cracked software these days aren't who you think. Farmers across the USA are grabbing modified copies of tractor software from sketchy Eastern European websites to get around John Deere's draconian software restrictions. Large-scale farming is now a heavily mechanized industry, and some of these pieces of machinery can cost several times as much as your car. John Deere is becoming known as a particularly troublesome company to deal with when you need to make repairs on one of the expensive pieces of farm equipment you bought. Farmers explained to Motherboard recently how the software running on their tractors make even simple repairs a pain. John Deere's tractor firmware prevents the owners from making an unauthorized repairs. Whenever maintenance is needed, an authorized agent needs to swing by and connect to the tractor with diagnostic software. They okay the repair, and the tractor to works. Without that, it's a very big paperweight. John Deere charges several hundred dollars for service calls, plus $150 per hour for the technician. When techs aren't available, they have to wait. The alternative many are starting to turn to is pirating the diagnostic software themselves. Most of the cracked John Deere programs seem to be coming out of Poland and Ukraine. Gaining access involves finding one of the secretive invite-only forums and paying a membership fee. Once inside, farmers can buy John Deere's software kits for a few hundred dollars -- the cost of just a few maintenance checks. The legality of this is questionable. The Librarian of Congress has approved a temporary exemption to the DMCA that allows owners of land vehicles to circumvent locked down software. Doing it with cracked software is a different matter. The farm-heavy state of Nebraska is one of those pushing right-to-repair legislation, which would render John Deere's license agreement void. Then, it would have to sue individual customers for violating the contract if it wanted to enforce it. Naturally, it's fighting the legislation hard. Farmers fear what will happen if right to repair doesn't become law. Will John Deere get to decided when their tractors stop working by ending repair service? It's like when a game developer shuts down the online authentication server for that game you bought five years ago. Except instead a game that cost you $40, it's a tractor that cost $30,000 and should be able to run for years to come.

Farmers across the US are grabbing modified copies of tractor software from sketchy Eastern European websites to get around John Deere's draconian software restrictions.

The post Farmers are pirating John Deere tractor software to stick it to the man appeared first on ExtremeTech.

Teardowns confirm Nintendo Switch is built on standard Tegra X1 processor

Nvidia Maxwell chip (GM204?) - artist rendering

A new teardown of Nintendo's Switch confirms the system is based on a standard Tegra X1 processor, not the Pascal or customized architecture some fans speculated about.

The post Teardowns confirm Nintendo Switch is built on standard Tegra X1 processor appeared first on ExtremeTech.

AMD has a fix coming for Ryzen bug that hard-locks PCs

AMD's Ryzen has a bug in how it currently executes FMA3 code, but the problem is minor and the chances of encountering it in the wild are extremely small. The benchmark that caught it represents a valid corner case, but still a corner case. AMD is already working on a patch.

The post AMD has a fix coming for Ryzen bug that hard-locks PCs appeared first on ExtremeTech.

Tuesday, 21 March 2017

Everything you need to know about the Android O developer preview

We don't know what the official name is, or even what the version number will be. However, the feature set is out in the open with the release of a developer preview build for recent Google devices.

The post Everything you need to know about the Android O developer preview appeared first on ExtremeTech.

PSA: Starting a new game in Breath of the Wild will permanently delete your saves if you don’t switch accounts first

Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has been hailed as an amazing game by pretty much everyone, but don't forget to create a new account before you hand the console over to someone else to play.

The post PSA: Starting a new game in Breath of the Wild will permanently delete your saves if you don’t switch accounts first appeared first on ExtremeTech.