Light Start – Tracking Trump, SpaceX recycles, Note 7’s reasons, and lady gamers
Brett Venter
If you want to see how Donald Trump keeps his promises, here’s where to do that
We don’t really get involved in politics, unless it has some bearing on the technology world or it’s really, really funny. This one falls under the first category, sort of. America has a new president in Donald Trump, who was inaugurated over the weekend. So here’s the deal. The first 100 days of a new administration are typically closely watched, no matter where you are in the world. Promises made while on the campaign trail are usually set in motion (or ignored, in the hopes that people will forget about them) and a new website, called Track Trump, will allow people to do just that. A range of categories, from Healthcare to Immigration, are being watched, with a simple bullet list showing what was promised and what is being done where. As of now the Affordable Care Act repeal, expansion of military investment and a federal regulation change have had some kind of action taken. Keep tabs at the link below.
SpaceX will be using one of its last expendable rockets for their next launch
If you are SpaceX, what do you do with your older rockets? You use them, obviously, because those things are freaking expensive. That’s what the company will be doing for its next launch: using one of its older-model Falcon9 rockets to launch a 5.5 ton EchoStar 23 satellite into orbit. The rocket probably could be landed, if this was another mission, but the company considers this one expendable. That’s because it won’t have enough fuel to land safely, because the payload is 5.5 tons. This is going to be one of its last expendable rockets, however, as the company plans to try and recover most of them in future. Later missions that require extra thrust will be using either an upgraded Falcon9 or the Falcon Heavy rockets. The upgraded Falcon9, according to Elon Musk, will be known as Block 5 and this final version of the rocket will feature improved “performance & ease of reusability.” We should see it in use at the end of the year.
Here’s why the Note 7 was so explosive, according to Samsung
Samsung promised to let us all know just what happened to the Galaxy Note 7, once its investigation was finished, and that’s just what it’s done. Long story short, the battery was the problem, but there was a little more to it than that. According to the company, there were two sets of batteries from two different sources. And those sets both had different issues that led to the same result — combustion. The first battery featured a deformity that would warp electrodes, eventually leading to ignition. The battery was also just a touch too large for its casing, amplifying the problem. The second battery has issues during the manufacturing process, resulting in “…internal cell faulting between positive electrode tab welding defects and the copper foil of the negative electrode directly opposite the defective welds”. These defects were overlooked in the rush to get new batteries out and, unfortunately for Samsung, led to issues for supposedly ‘fixed’ Note 7 handsets. So… now you know. What happens next? We’ll see at MWC 2017 in Barcelona next month.
Which games do women play? We’ve got a much better idea now, thanks to a new survey
You know there are women gamers out there, right? Right, and there are a lot of stereotypes about what woman gamers play. Facebook games good, first-person shooters, bad. That sort of thing. As it happens, some of the stereotypes are true. At least, among the sort of people willing to take a survey about it. But some stereotypes have also been broken in a new survey by Quantic Foundry on gender splits in gaming genres. Woman, according to the survey, really are not fond of sports games, making up just 2% of players. They also make up 69% of match-three gamers (think Candy Crush, et al) and Facebook-style games but the middle ground, where Japanese and Western RPGs, platformers and Action RPGs live, are more balanced. Women make up between 18% and 36% of the player base but there are some games that offer much higher splits. Games like Dragon Age: Inquisition, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate are just a few examples. All games with female, or possibly female, leads. Just sayin’. Check out the full study here.
