Microsoft is testing low-carbon concrete for its data centers

A worker uses a concrete smoother on top of a metal canister — *A worker smooths a sample of concrete mix in a canister that contains materials to lower the overall embodied carbon in concrete.* | Image: Dan DeLong for Microsoft

To clean up some of the pollution stemming from its supply chain and data centers, Microsoft is experimenting with new kinds of concrete.

Cement, a key ingredient in concrete, happens to be a big culprit in climate change. It’s responsible for around 8 percent of carbon dioxide emissions globally. Avoiding that pollution is no easy task, especially since concrete is the most widely consumed material in the world after water. A host of startups are looking for just the right recipe to make concrete minus the carbon dioxide emissions. And Microsoft wants to be a buyer.

“Something that we can do right now and we are doing right now is shopping around. You know, concrete supplier A might have lower embodied carbon [emissions] than concrete...

from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/D1Sn63C

Comments

Pandora Stories lets artists add commentary to their own playlists

Pandora launched Stories today, a tool that lets artists and creators add voice commentary to their own playlists. The Stories feature merges podcasts with music playlists, and is meant for artists to add context to an album, or for podcasters to experiment with new storytelling formats. The feature is part of Pandora AMP, the streaming service’s free Artist Marketing Platform that helps creators promote their work. To kick off the launch, Pandora’s prepared some Stories by artists like John Legend and Daddy Yankee, who tell listeners their personal stories interspersed between their own songs. There’s also a Stories playlist called Love Songs That Aren’t Really Love Songs , which includes commentary on individual songs like a podcast... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2Xz1oNc

Android Addition Opens FIDO Password Killer to Billions

The FIDO Alliance hammered another nail into the passwords coffin with the announcement that devices running Android 7.0 or higher will be compatible with FIDO2. Certification of Android 7.0+ means devices running those versions of Google's mobile operating system will support FIDO2 out of the box or through a software update. FIDO2, introduced last year, provides a FIDO Web authentication standard that combines the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Authentication specification with FIDO's Client-to-Authenticator protocol. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2GQVG4f

Nintendo Switch Online reaches more than 100 retro games

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Nintendo has hit a milestone with the ever-growing library of retro games included in its Nintendo Switch Online service. The next batch will take the number of available games past 100, with five new titles resulting in a total of 104. In keeping with recent form , the latest additions are, well, not necessarily blockbuster releases. Here’s the list: Caveman Ninja: Joe & Mac , a prehistoric action game released in arcades and ported to the SNES by Data East in 1991 Magical Drop 2 , a 1996 Data East puzzle game for the SNES that was originally on the Neo Geo but never previously got a Western release Super Baseball Simulator 1.000 , a SNES baseball game released by Culture Brain in 1991 Spanky’s Quest , a 1991 SNES action game by Natsume... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3eXBE7D

Latest Technology

Search This Blog