The Verge - Quick reads

AMD moves away from Intel with its first ARM processor

2013-06-18T08:44:33Z

AMD is finally set to release an all-ARM processor next year, but rather than a low-power chip made for smartphones and tablets, "Seattle" is a 64-bit processor intended for use in servers. The American chipmaker, which has been Intel's understudy in the x86 market for decades, previously announced it would integrate ARM into its processors, and has already done so with an x86-ARM hybrid chip meant for the "embedded " market. "Seattle," however, represents the first time the company has moved away from x86 entirely for a processor. It's set to debut in 2014.

NSA vets praise Snowden as a whistleblower, but fear he may take things too far

2013-06-17T21:20:39Z

Edward Snowden, the federal contractor who exposed the NSA's controversial PRISM surveillance program, has delivered a bit of vindication for three former top NSA officials who were once whistleblowers themselves. In a round-table interview with USA Today, Thomas Drake, William Binney, and J. Kirk Wiebe said that Snowden's leaks have been a public service — but the trio also criticized Snowden for telling the press that the US launches cyber attacks against China. "I don't think he had access to those programs, but somebody talked to him about it," Binney, an ex-NSA technical director, said in the interview. "He's transitioning from whistle blower to a traitor."

Oracle CEO plans resorts, restaurants, and EV chargers for Hawaiian island overhaul

2013-06-17T19:16:07Z

Most of Larry Ellison's treasures — from Bono's guitar to a collection of surrealist artwork — don't require much in the way of maintenance. But the 68-year-old Oracle CEO's latest prize has become both a business venture and a hobby: He's trying to revitalize the entire island of Lanai, a Hawaiian locale that he nearly owns in its entirety. The Wall Street Journal reports that since Ellison purchased the island in June of last year, he's been busy revamping everything from resorts, to restaurants, to community pools. The island now thrives or flounders on Ellison's word, and so far he's apparently been a success. "As far as I'm concerned, he has not made a single misstep," said Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie.

Ellison's latest focus has been to significantly overhaul water desalination plants on Lanai, boosting their daily capacity by 150 percent. The WSJ has more on Ellison's purchase and plans, including how he's gaining Lanai residents' favor, and his hopes for installing electric vehicle charging stations on the island.

Federal, state police use driver's license photos in searchable, biometric databases

2013-06-17T18:33:19Z

Law enforcement agencies are building what critics say is becoming a de facto national, searchable database of ID photos — with pictures of both those with and without a criminal past — that uses state driver's licence photos as a foundation, according to The Washington Post. Currently, 26 states are allowing local law enforcement to tap into databases of state ID photos, collected by their local motor vehicle departments, so police can use facial recognition software to cross reference driver's license photos with mugshots to identify suspects. The majority of those states, the Post says, are granting access to these databases to federal agencies, such as the FBI. This sharing of ID photos, and related biometric data, between state and federal law enforcement is causing concern among state lawmakers, privacy activists, and civil rights lawyers.

How do you build a 'Fast & Furious' car chase? With Hot Wheels and lots of special effects

2013-06-17T16:19:13Z

What goes on behind the scenes of one of the Fast & Furious series' elaborate, physics-stretching car chases? Car and Driver took a look at a seven-minute, $20 million sequence from Fast & Furious 6, from the first written draft to the finished product. The dozens of cars involved are choreographed with Hot Wheels models, and the shooting is done only after the locations have been surveyed and measured with lidar — so that they can be spliced together convincingly and digitally extended to seem larger. At the center of it all, stunt drivers must master dangerous, difficult-to-control vehicles like the "flip cars" used in Fast & Furious 6, though more effects make the cars look faster and sound beefier. There's probably no better example of how much work goes into a summer popcorn movie.

Will you smile back when human holograms greet you at the airport?

2013-06-16T20:18:22Z

How does the airport of the future preoccupy customers as they wait in never-ending lines? A handful of companies think the answer is an always-smiling, always-working human hologram. The virtual assistants are projected onto form-fitting cutouts that can almost look real, and several airports have already begun installing them to help passengers make their way through security. But according to Joanne McNeil at Domus, the hologram manufacturers aren't content to stop at airports. They want to enable Siri-like interactivity and bring the assistants to museums, retailers, and even doctors' offices to serve as friendly customer service agents. Domus has more on how such holograms are moving into the common workplace and what they might be used for in the future.

Deep inside James Turrell's Roden Crater, an art exhibit made in an extinct volcano

2013-06-14T16:02:01Z

James Turrell is known in the art world for creating pieces that can be both spectacularly innovative and highly disorienting. Take his Perceptual Cells — a large sphere where a person can lay down and be bombarded by lights so bright you can see the biological structure of your own eye. The New York Times has just published an in-depth look at Turrell's career as the artist prepares for three huge exhibitions planned to launch simultaneously in New York, Los Angeles, and Houston. The extensive profile digs deep into Turrell's polarizing art, and the author is even invited to visit Roden Crater — an extinct volcano on his own massive ranch in Arizona. Turrell has spent decades excavating it in an effort to turn it into a massive art installation and naked-eye observatory; it's never been opened to the public and invites are extremely hard to come by. As most of us won't get a chance to see it for ourselves, writer Wil S. Hylton's depiction of the "perfect, and incomplete" Roden Crater does a good job of summing up the impact of Turrell's work.

Anonymous for over 60 years, a World War II war criminal emerges in Minnesota

2013-06-14T15:53:01Z

Before the Associated Press placed the worst type of spotlight imaginable on 94-year-old Michael Karkoc, the Ukraine native had spent more than 60 years quietly living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. But as the AP's in-depth reporting reveals, Karkoc's background is one of sinister evil. He's been identified as a commander of various Nazi SS-affiliated units and is believed to have personally ordered the massacre of innocent civilians.

Now, after lying to immigration officials to gain refuge in the US back in 1949, he could face deportation and prosecution for the war crimes he's spent decades hiding from. Despite no clear evidence showing that he directly partook in mass slaughter, German authorities may still have enough to prove Karkoc commanded those beneath him to carry out the unthinkable acts. A self-published Ukrainian memoir links him to Nazi forces, though it wasn't until the AP received a tip and pursued a Freedom of Information Act request that the whole, disheartening truth was learned.

The quest to make synthetic human blood

2013-06-14T15:25:53Z

Scottish scientists have been given the go-ahead to start trials on synthetic blood developed from stem cells. After years of denials, the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) gave researchers at the Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine the all-clear to manufacture blood on an "industrial scale". Scientists will use stem cell technology to create a new compound that could end blood shortages and eradicate infections passed on in blood transfusions. Wired investigates the potential challenges researchers will face when culturing cells to manufacture synthetic blood, also considering the effect it could have on the medical industry if the compound is patented.

The dark side of the SkyMall catalog

2013-06-14T13:33:47Z

If you've taken a US flight in the last couple decades, there's a pretty good chance you've encountered the ubiquitous SkyMall catalog. It's like the in-flight version of a train wreck — you know there's almost nothing in the pages that should interest you, but you can't look away. But despite the fact that the company has been reasonably successful over the last decade, with an estimated yearly revenue of $130 million and high rates for placement in its catalog, SkyMall recently merged with a company that Rohin Dhar of The Atlantic called "more of a parody of a tech company than a real company at all." Dhar's report digs into SkyMall's relationship with Xhibit Corp., a company that throws lots of trendy terms like "cloud based technology" and "online and mobile social media management" around without actually showing off any products. "Most of how the company presents itself is vaporware," Dhar says, and it actually makes most of its money from selling sketchy weight-loss products. The question remains: How did SkyMall get tied up with Xhibit, and does it stand a chance of surviving this merger?