SpaceX performs historic first spacewalk with Polaris Dawn crew

September 12, 2024

SpaceX pulled off its first spacewalk in the early hours of Thursday morning, Sept. 12. The marquee event of the private Polaris Dawn mission went smoothly, with two of the crew members stepping outside of SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, “Resilience.” It’s the first time civilians, rather than government astronauts, have performed a spacewalk.

Tags: astronauts, event, government, hours, privacy, SpaceX

⛑️ Tech to the rescue: A quick-thinking 4-year-old girl saved her mom’s life during an epileptic seizure. With mom’s phone locked and out of reach, she remembered the Amazon Alexa upstairs. She asked Alexa to call her great-grandmother, who rushed over to help. Let this be your reminder to teach your kiddos how to use technology in emergencies.

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2 years

Time since becoming the Prince of Wales that Prince William began using the Duolingo app to learn Welsh. Makes me wonder why he didn’t learn it before that happened. Bore da! (That’s “Good morning” in Welsh.) Go ahead and try to pronounce this 58-letter Welsh town’s name: lanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyllllantysiliogogogoch.

$700 PlayStation 5 Pro

Isn’t worth it for most gamers. It’s 75% more expensive than the PS5 was when it launched. What’s the big deal? A larger GPU, advanced ray tracing and AI-driven upscaling. Translation: Sharper images with more detail.

Good enough for government work: Instead of requiring a four-year degree for federal cyber jobs, they’re looking for experience, certifications and aptitude tests to fill 500,000 open cybersecurity positions. If you’re smart, we need you to help protect us.

Real-time help: Pennsylvania emergency call centers now let people share live video during 911 calls. With a platform called Prepared, callers get a link that starts a live feed and pinpoints their location on a map. AI even transcribes and translates calls made in foreign languages. Look for this in more towns and cities across the country.

⚡ Power play: Ford is partnering with utility company Southern California Edison to pay EV owners for sending power back to the grid. Drivers can earn $1 per kilowatt-hour (kWh). Sweet deal, considering fast-charging costs about $0.50 per kWh. The catch: You’ll need V2G (vehicle-to-grid) tech that costs anywhere from $10,000 to $30,000.

I pita the fool: Amazon just launched its own food brand: Amazon Saver. They say it’s to fight high grocery prices, but it’s really meant to take on Target and Walmart brands. Most Amazon Saver items are under $5. For example, a pound of smoked ham is $3.79, but dang … there are a ton of preservatives in there. Be sure to check the ingredients. Prime members score an extra 10% off.

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🔄 Patch Tuesday: Microsoft rolled out fixes for 79 flaws, including four zero-days. One of the worst is a Windows Update that could roll back security fixes. Yikes. Go to Start > Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update, then click Check for updates.

$200,000 machine

For creating diamonds, now listed for sale on Alibaba. The two main methods for making lab-grown diamonds are the HPHT process and chemical vapor deposition. Sadly, it’s not as easy as just shelling out for the machine. Making your own lab-grown diamonds requires a whole lot of money and expertise. Talk about a gem of a job!

Update Chrome now: Google just dropped an update that fixes four high-severity vulnerabilities. No details yet on whether hackers have exploited them, but don’t wait to find out. In Chrome, go to Settings > About Chrome, download the latest patch, and hit Relaunch. You should be on version 128.0.6613.137 or 128.0.6613.138, depending on your OS.