Tag: station
Six Arrested After Manipulating Gas Station Pumps To Steal 30,000 Gallons of Gas
But local police arrested six men who, in a series of robberies, tricked the pumps out of 30,000 gallons of gasoline, reports the Mercury News, “a haul authorities estimated was worth at least $180,000.”
Upon further inspection of surveillance video, authorities said, police saw one of the suspects activate a gas-pump computer, allowing another suspect to pump fuel into his vehicle…. An employee from the Valero station, who declined to give their name, called the process the gas thieves used “nearly untraceable.”
“You must have a deep understanding of how the pump system works,” the person said. “There is a time frame anywhere from 75 seconds to two minutes for the authorization to go through the network [after sliding a credit card into a gas pump]. In this (time period), there’s an opportunity to manipulate the pump … You’re able to manipulate the pump and confuse the programming to an extent that the pump starts dispensing gas….”
In a Facebook post, authorities said the three suspects had been “conspiring together in a sophisticated operation to thwart security devices and pump electronics to steal large amounts of gasoline from the business….”
Authorities say $20,000 of damage was done to gas pumps.
Thanks to Slashdot reader k6mfw for submitting the story.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
NASA and Roscosmos still investigating cause of space station leak
The 10 best power station deals: December 2022
China’s Tiangong space station has a new three-person crew
Hands-On With the Zens 4-in-1 MagSafe Charging Station for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and AirPods
The stand delivers the fastest possible charging speeds for the latest Apple devices. A built-in MagSafe charger wirelessly charges the iPhone 12 and newer at up to 15W, and the Apple Watch magnetic puck extension supports fast charging for the Apple Watch Series 7, Series 8, and Ultra, allowing those Apple Watch models to wirelessly charge from 0% to 80% in around 45 minutes. The stand also has a 30W USB-C port on the right side that can charge any iPad or MacBook Air at the fastest speeds, along with a Qi-certified pad for an AirPods case. In my early testing, all charging speeds were as advertised.
Both the MagSafe charger and Apple Watch charging puck are certified by Apple, and the stand being sold on Apple’s online store is an additional stamp of approval from the company, so customers should feel confident about purchasing this accessory.
The stand has a modular design, with the Apple Watch charging puck attaching magnetically to the main charging station for the iPhone, iPad, and AirPods and sharing the same 65W power adapter. There are two additional magnetic pins for attaching other modular parts sold separately on the Zens website, such as additional Qi pads or a USB-A charger. The MagSafe charger is tilt adjustable for different iPhone viewing angles.
An LED light on the back of the main charging station appears white when the Qi-certified pad is charging AirPods or another device. It would have been nice if this indicator were placed on the front of the stand so that it were more easily visible.
While it’s certainly convenient to be able to charge an iPhone, iPad, AirPods, and Apple Watch all in one spot, the stand is priced at $179.95 on Apple’s online store in the United States, making it an expensive luxury. That said, I’m not aware of any other four-device charging stands with an Apple-certified MagSafe charger and a fast-charging Apple Watch puck, with other options that I’ve seen so far limited to three devices.
Zens says the stand is made with recycled plastic, although it’s unclear to what extent. The use of recycled ABS pellets gives the stand a speckled design that almost makes it look a bit dusty, which might be a downside for some people but isn’t a huge issue.
All in all, the Zens modular 4-in-1 charging stand is a versatile but costly accessory for those interested in a fast-charging hub for nearly all of their Apple devices. The stand can be purchased on Apple’s online store for delivery in early December.
Note: Zens provided MacRumors with the 4-in-1 charging stand for testing. No other compensation was provided.
This article, “Hands-On With the Zens 4-in-1 MagSafe Charging Station for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and AirPods” first appeared on MacRumors.com
Discuss this article in our forums
This Viral 3-in-1 Charging Station Is The Perfect Gift for Your Whole List
Gift shopping for acquaintances, co-workers, or white elephant events can get tricky. You might not know everyone well, but you still want people to receive a Christmas present they’ll use. Well, one viral find might be the answer for everyone on your list.
Read This Article on LifeSavvy ›
China Launches Astronauts To Newly Completed Space Station
With a sustained presence in low-Earth orbit aboard Tiangong, Chinese space officials are preparing to put astronauts on the moon, which NASA also intends to revisit before the end of the decade as part of its Artemis program. “It will not take a long time; we can achieve the goal of manned moon landing,” Zhou Jianping, chief designer of China’s crewed space program, said in an interview at the launch center. China has been developing a lunar lander, he added, without giving a date when it might be used. The launch of Shenzhou 15 comes less than two weeks after NASA finally launched its Artemis I mission following many delays. That flight has put its uncrewed Orion capsule into orbit around the moon.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
James Cameron Almost Visited the Space Station – and Helped Design a Camera Now Used On Mars
After James Cameron’s Avatar came out in 2009 and made $2.7 billion, the director found the deepest point that exists in all of earth’s oceans and, in time, he dove to it. When Cameron reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench, a couple of hundred miles off the southwest coast of Guam, in March 2012, he became the first person in history to descend the 6.8-mile distance solo, and one of only a few people to ever go that deep….
It would be fair to call him the father of the modern action movie, which he helped invent with his debut, The Terminator, and then reinvent with his second, Aliens; it would be accurate to add that he has directed two of the three top-grossing films in history, in Avatar (number one) and Titanic (number three). But he is also a scientist — a camera he helped design served as the model for one that is currently on Mars, attached to the Mars rover — and an adventurer, and not in the dilettante billionaire sense; when Cameron sets out to do something, it gets done. “The man was born with an explorer’s instincts and capacity,” Daniel Goldin, the former head of NASA, told me….
The original Avatar… required the invention of dozens of new technologies, from the cameras Cameron shot with to the digital effects he used to transform human actors into animated creatures to the language those creatures spoke in the film. For [his upcoming Avatar sequel] The Way of Water, Cameron told me, he and his team started all over again. They needed new cameras that could shoot underwater and a motion-capture system that could collect separate shots from above and below water and integrate them into a unified virtual image; they needed new algorithms, new AI, to translate what Cameron shot into what you see….
Among other things, Cameron said, The Way of Water would be a friendly but pointed rebuke to the comic book blockbusters that now war with Cameron’s films at the top of the box office lists: “I was consciously thinking to myself, Okay, all these superheroes, they never have kids. They never really have to deal with the real things that hold you down and give you feet of clay in the real world.” Sigourney Weaver, who starred in the first Avatar as a human scientist and returns for The Way of Water as a Na’vi teenager, told me that the parallels between the life of the director and the life of his characters were far from accidental: “Jim loves his family so much, and I feel that love in our film. It’s as personal a film as he’s ever made.”
Another interesting detail from the article: Cameron and his wife became vegetarians over a decade ago, built their own pea-protein facility in Saskatchewan, and though they later sold it Cameron says he “pretty much” loves farming and pea protein as much as movies. And he once suggested re-branding the word vegan as “futurevore,” since “We’re eating the way people will eat in the future. We’re just doing it early.”
But in a 29-minute video interview, Cameron also fondly discusses his earlier ground-breaking films, even as GQ’s writer notes their new trajectory. “It is a curious fact that Cameron has directed only two feature films in the last 25 years — and perhaps more curious that both are Avatar installments, and perhaps even more curious that the next three films he hopes to direct are also Avatar sequels….
“Cameron told me he’d already shot all of a third Avatar, and the first act of a fourth. There is a script for a fifth and an intention to make it, as long as the business of Avatar holds up between now and then. It seems entirely possible — maybe even probable — that Cameron will never make another non-Avatar film again.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.