Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the rockets-are-hard department: Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from Behind The Black: According to information at this tweet from anonymous sources, parts of Starship will likely require a major redesign due to the spacecraft's break-up shortly after stage separation on its last two test flights. These are the key take-aways, most of which focus on the redesign of the first version of Starship (V1) to create the V2 that flew unsuccessfully on those flights:
- Hot separation also aggravates the situation in the compartment.
- Not related to the flames from the Super Heavy during the booster turn.
- This is a fundamental miscalculation in the design of the Starship V2 and the engine section.
- The fuel lines, wiring for the engines and the power unit will be urgently redone.
- The fate of S35 and S36 is still unclear. Either revision or scrap.
- For the next ships, some processes may be paused in production until a decision on the design is made.
- The team was rushed with fixes for S34, hence the nervous start. There was no need to rush.
- The fixes will take much longer than 4-6 weeks.
- Comprehensive ground testing with long-term fire tests is needed. [emphasis mine]
It must be emphasized that this information comes from leaks from anonymous sources, and could be significantly incorrect. It does however fit the circumstances, and suggests that the next test flight will not occur in April but will be delayed for an unknown period beyond.
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the next-gen-power department: An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: There's a power crunch looming as AI and cloud providers ramp up data center construction. But a new report suggests that a solution lies beneath their foundations. Advanced geothermal power could supply nearly two-thirds of new data center demand by 2030, according to an analysis by the Rhodium Group. The additions would quadruple the amount of geothermal power capacity in the U.S. -- from 4 gigawatts to about 16 gigawatts -- while costing the same or less than what data center operators pay today. In the western U.S., where geothermal resources are more plentiful, the technology could provide 100% of new data center demand. Phoenix, for example, could add 3.8 gigawatts of data center capacity without building a single new conventional power plant.
Geothermal resources have enormous potential to provide consistent power. Historically, geothermal power plants have been limited to places where Earth's heat seeps close to the surface. But advanced geothermal techniques could unlock 90 gigawatts of clean power in the U.S. alone, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. [...] Because geothermal power has very low running costs, its price is competitive with data centers' energy costs today, the Rhodium report said. When data centers are sited similarly to how they are today, a process that typically takes into account proximity to fiber optics and major metro areas, geothermal power costs just over $75 per megawatt hour. But when developers account for geothermal potential in their siting, the costs drop significantly, down to around $50 per megawatt hour.
< This article continues on their website >
Posted by from MMO Champion
Cataclysm Classic - Presence of the Dragon Soul Begins March 18
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
Starting next Tuesday, March 18, with the weekly content reset, all enemies in Dragon Soul will be affected by the “Presence of the Dragon Soul” aura, reducing their health and damage by 5%.
Every two weeks thereafter, this health and damage reduction will increase by an additional 5%, culminating in a total 30% reduction by the end of May.
If players wish for an extra challenge and want to fight the enemies of the Dragon Soul raid without the aid of this aura, they may speak to Lord Devrestrasz inside the raid at the entrance and request that he remove it.
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the what-to-expect department: Sphere Entertainment Co, the company behind the Las Vegas Sphere, said they are considering opening scaled-down versions of the immersive venue in other cities. AV Magazine reports: While this has been been feasible for its high-profile residencies such as U2, the Eagles, Dead & Company and Anyma, smaller venues could attract a broader range of artists who might not have the budget or demand to fill the flagship Las Vegas location. By scaling down the size while retaining the signature technology, Sphere Entertainment Co can offer a similar spectacle at a more sustainable cost for artists and spectators.
The possibility of mini-Spheres follows news that a full-scale venue will open in the UAE as a result of a partnership between Sphere Entertainment Co and the Department of Culture and Tourism -- Abu Dhabi. Beyond concerts, the Las Vegas Sphere has proven successful with immersive films such as V-U2: An Immersive Concert Film and the Sphere Expeience featuring Darren Aronofsky's Postcard from Earth, which In January passed 1,000 screenings. "As we enter a new fiscal year, we see significant opportunities to drive our Sphere business forward in Las Vegas and beyond," said Dolan. "We believe we are on a path toward realizing our vision for this next-generation medium and generating long-term shareholder value."
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the not-too-shabby department: MojoKid writes: AMD just launched its latest flagship desktop processors, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D. Ryzen 9 9950X3D is a 16-core/32-thread, dual-CCD part with a base clock of 4.3GHz and a max boost clock of 5.7GHz. There's also 96MB of second-gen 3D V-Cache on board. Standard Ryzen 9000 series processors feature 32MB of L3 cache per compute die, but with the Ryzen 9 9950X3D, one compute die is outfitted with an additional 96MB of 3D V-Cache, bringing the total L3 up to 128MB (144MB total cache). The CCD outfitted with 3D V-Cache operates at more conservative voltages and frequencies, but the bare compute die is unencumbered.
The Ryzen 9 9950X3D turns out to be a high-performance, no-compromise desktop processor. Its complement of 3D V-Cache provides tangible benefits in gaming, and AMD's continued work on the platform's firmware and driver software ensures that even with the Ryzen 9 9950X3D's asymmetrical CCD configuration, performance is strong across the board. At $699, it's not cheap but its a great CPU for gaming and content creation, and one of the most powerful standard desktop CPUs money can buy currently.
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the moving-forward department: A new chapter has begun for two of the world's most popular preprint platforms, bioRxiv and medRxiv, with the launch of a non-profit organization that will manage them, their co-founders announced today. From a report: The servers allow researchers to share manuscripts for free before peer review and have become an integral part of publishing biology and medical research. Until now, they had been managed by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) in New York. The new organization, named openRxiv, will have a board of directors and a scientific and medical advisory board. It is supported by a fresh US$16-million grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), the projects' main financial backer.
"It's just exciting to see this key piece of infrastructure really get the attention that it deserves as a dedicated initiative," says Katie Corker, executive director of ASAPbio, a scientist-driven non-profit organization, which is based in San Francisco, California. Preprints are "the backbone of the scientific publishing ecosystem, maybe especially at the current moment, when there's a lot of worries about who has control of information."
The launch of openRxiv "reflects a maturation of the projects," which started as an experiment at CSHL, says Richard Sever, a co-founder of both servers and chief science and strategy officer at openRxiv. It has "become so important that they should have their own organization running them, which is focused on the long-term sustainability of the servers, as opposed to being a side project within a big research institution," says Sever.
Posted by from MMO Champion
WoW Hotfixes - March 11, 2025
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
Classes
Hunter
Marksmanship Hunters will no longer have their pet summoned upon resurrecting in Battlegrounds, Dungeons, Raids, or other content unless talented into Unbreakable Bond.
Priest
Holy
When Benediction triggers on a target, it will now extend the duration of Renew if a Renew is already active instead of replacing it.
Delves
Brann Bronzebeard
Developers’ notes: Over the first few days of Season 2, Brann’s Tank specialization has become the best choice for completing Delves by a lot. While we’re excited to support a true healing-focused playstyle in Delves for players who prefer that gameplay, we must address this situation where healer + Tank Brann was much too effective compared to every other combination of player role and Brann specialization. Our goal is for Brann’s specs to be roughly balanced against each other, and for the difficulty of Delves to offer a satisfying progression whatever a player’s preferred playstyle is.
Electro-Charged Gadgets damage buff now grants 30% increased damage per stack (was 25%).
Electro-Charged Gadgets damage buff will no longer stack with DPS and Tank specialization heal over time or passive off healing effects.
Electro-Charged Gadgets damage buff now has a 5 second Heal over Time/Passive healing internal cooldown for Healer specializations. Does not affect beneficial spell casts that are not heal over time or passive.
Electro-Charged Gadgets damage buff now stacks up to 12 times (was 20).
Tank Brann Boomstick Blitz damage reduced by 35%.
< This article continues on their website >
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the PSA department: The Ballista botnet is actively exploiting a high-severity remote code execution flaw (CVE-2023-1389) in TP-Link Archer AX-21 routers, infecting over 6,000 devices primarily in Brazil, Poland, the UK, Bulgaria, and Turkey. Tom's Hardware reports: According to a new report from the Cato CTRL team, the Ballista botnet exploits a remote code execution vulnerability that directly impacts the TP-Link Archer AX-21 router. The botnet can lead to command injection which then makes remote code execution (RCE) possible so that the malware can spread itself across the internet automatically. This high severity security flaw (tracked as CVE-2023-1389) has also been used to spread other malware families as far back as April 2023 when it was used in the Mirai botnet malware attacks. The flaw also linked to the Condi and AndroxGh0st malware attacks.
Ballista's most recent exploitation attempt was February 17, 2025 and Cato CTRL first detected it on January 10, 2025. Of the thousands of infected devices, the majority of them are concentrated in Brazil, Poland, the United Kingdom, Bulgaria and Turkey; with the botnet targeting manufacturing, medical/healthcare, services and technology organizations in the United States, Australia, China and Mexico.
Posted by from MMO Champion
Rextroy: One Shotting The Underpin
Rextroy has returned with another video, this time showcasing the potential of
The Blood is Life, a talent with broken scaling that enabled one shotting The Underpin, world bosses, and bosses in battlegrounds.
Originally Posted by Rextroy
This one shot started with an email, that showed me a video of someone experiencing an odd
The Blood is Life hit inside a delve. A whole 1.2 billion...
So I started experimenting with the talent, and noticed that it has broken scaling against certain mobs (not lowbie mobs, but other ones) such as the
Turnip Punching Bag and
Black Dragon's Challenge Dummy training dummy.
It must be that some NPCs in this game is recieving hidden scaled up damage "in the background" that adds to the talents damage output... or something. I really wonder how many layers of scaling they have added ontop of eachother in the code...
Anyway the one shot is fairly simple, just get a spawn of the Blood Beast from the Hero talent, and let it auto hit training dummies for a massive explosion.
This works to one shot hordes, to destroy world bosses, the underpin challenge turns into a walk in the park... and even Battleground bosses are easily dealt with (such as High Warlord Volrath in Ashran).
Also the Damage Cap in WoW is still intact, even if it looks like you are doing more than 536 million damage, it is not the case (or well it is but only as long as the NPC you are hitting is "scaling" its HP as you get gear).
< This article continues on their website >
Anonymous Sources: Starship Needs a Major Rebuild After Two Consecutive Failures 2025-03-12 00:35:02
The next Battlefield game—referred to unofficially as Battlefield 6—is currently holding an early beta and despite players having to sign an NDA to participate, footage has leaked online. Encouragingly, the reactions are overwhelmingly positive as players seem excited about new features, details, and the return to the…
Occasionally the stars align and a once-in-a-generation group of creatives come together to make something spectacular and ahead of its time. That’s how Chrono Trigger was made, an RPG for the SNES that came out 30 years ago this week and still blows me away. Playing it was a formative gaming moment for me and one I’m…
Magic: The Gathering owner Wizards of the Coast and Paramount have announced the next big crossover coming to the popular card game. Are you ready, kids? Yeah, its SpongeBob meme cards.
