Wouldn’t it be cool to have something as hard as steel and still malleable? Researchers from Hokkaido University in Japan have gotten a one up on this thought, they’ve built a new hydrogel material that has been reinforced with fibres and according to them it is five times harder to break than carbon steel. Along with this use the material is also very easy to bend and stretch.The researchers made a material that’s super tough and flexible at the same time

The researchers developed the fabric which is called fibre-reinforced soft composite (or FRSC). They did this by combining hydrogels- containing very high levels of water- with glass fibre fabric. The process of combining two materials together to get the best mix of both their properties is something that has been going on for a long time. This is a useful technique and can be used to create some really wonderful things. The idea is that you end up with a better product than the two standalone source materials.

Creating a substance that could easily bear heavy loads and was also very resistant to fractures was something that the scientists set out to create. These traits were easily found in hydrogels while the extra rigidity and durability was provided through the glass fibre fabric.

Just imagine the uses that this material could have. One good use would be building artificial ligaments or tendons for people who have ruptured their original ones. It could also be alternatively used in the fashion industry for manufacturing a very elastic but tough material.

| Originally published wccftech |  March 07, 2017  ||

High-tech company Rapid Advanced Manufacturing (RAM3D) in New Zealand has opened a new facility in Tauranga’s Tauriko Business Park, with the aim of making metal additive manufacturing more accessible to the Australian and New Zealand markets. RAM has been collaborating with global engineering technologies company Renishaw and, as a result, is using several AM250 metal additive manufacturing systems in its Tauranga facility.

RAM3D was spun out of the research organisation Titanium Industry Development Association (now TiDA) and it has the biggest Australasian centre for 3D metal printing. RAM3D’s new facility allows companies from a range of sectors, including aerospace, defence, consumer and industrial, to explore the benefits of metal additive manufacturing.

RAM3D works with its clients to improve the design of production parts and prototypes. It also uses additive manufacturing to make these parts in a more efficient and cost-effective manner. RAM3D is collaborating with companies as far away as Singapore and the products manufactured at the Tauranga centre are used around the world.

The diversity of the parts RAM3D manufactures ranges from titanium knives used by the Team Emirates America's Cup crew to customised handlebar extensions for the New Zealand Olympics cycling team, as well as titanium lugs for high-end Australian custom bike maker Bastion Cycles.

“The additive manufacturing market is on the rise in New Zealand and Australia,” explained Warwick Downing, Managing Director of Rapid Advanced Manufacturing. “This growth is fuelled by realism, not hype; the enquiries we are getting show a clear understanding of the potential of design for additive manufacturing. This is an encouraging trend. We believe this trend is being driven by industry collaborations that facilitate a better understanding of the technology, such as the one between RAM3D and Renishaw.

“The key to the successful and sustainable implementation of additive manufacturing into the production process is to have a good understanding of the technology and work in partnership with suppliers and clients.”

“RAM3D strongly believes that additive manufacturing is a competitive production technology with an unprecedented potential for industry,” continued Mike Brown, Managing Director of Renishaw Oceania. “The company’s unique combination of skills, facilities and experience make it an industry leader in this part of the world. It is a privilege for Renishaw to collaborate with such a key player in the market to grow the region’s adoption of additive manufacturing.”

RAM3D is planning to continue its growth and accommodate for 20 metal additive manufacturing systems by the end of 2020. The company is keen to work with a wider range of clients from different industries who want to explore the benefits and potential of metal additive manufacturing.

| A RAM release  |  March 02, 2017  ||

After three years of developing a brand new rocket, aerospace startup Rocket Lab has finally transported a finished vehicle to the New Zealand launch pad where it will take its first flight. The rocket, called the Electron, has been tested on the ground over the last year but has never been flown to space before. Over the next couple of months, Rocket Lab will conduct a series of test launches of the vehicle to verify that it’s ready to carry payloads into orbit for commercial customers.

Compared to other major commercial rockets like the Falcon 9 or the Atlas V, the Electron is pretty small — only 55 feet tall and and around 4 feet in diameter. That’s because the vehicle is specifically designed to launch small satellites. The vehicle can carry payloads ranging from 330 to 500 pounds into an orbit more than 300 miles up. That’s a relatively light lift contrasted with the Falcon 9, which can carry more than 50,000 pounds into lower Earth orbit.

But Rocket Lab isn’t interested in competing with major players like SpaceX or the United Launch Alliance. The company wants to capitalize solely on what is being hailed as the small satellite revolution — a trend of making space probes as tiny as possible. Typically, aerospace manufacturers will spend years and millions of dollars developing a satellite that’s roughly the size of a bus. And then an entire rocket is needed just to get one thousand-pound satellite into space. But technology has advanced in recent years, and companies have come up with ways to miniaturize their satellites, making these space probes as small as a shoebox. Small satellites usually take less time and money to make, and since they’re so compact, multiple probes can be launched to space on a single rocket.

> > > Continue to read full article  |  February 16, 2017  ||

The company’s new tools let businesses manage several teams together

After a long wait, Slack has announced the version of its popular work chat application that is designed for enterprises. On Tuesday in San Francisco, the company unveiled its new Enterprise Grid product, aimed at helping companies administer and connect multiple chat instances.

Grid allows business administrators to set up each team inside their organization with their own centrally managed Slack instance. Those workspaces can then be linked together using shared channels, and all of the people inside an enterprise can direct- message one another, even if they’re not part of the same workspace.

Those features help deal with one of the biggest issues enterprises have encountered with Slack. The chat application isn’t really designed to support an entire business with thousands of people all working inside the same instance. But the only other option prior to the launch of Grid was to use a series of isolated Slack teams and give users membership to each one they needed to take part in.

Now, it’s possible for companies to create an archipelago of connected teams, which should be more useful for larger organizations.

> > > Continue to full article on CIO

Kodak is bringing back traditional film due to overwhelming consumer demand.  The photography company said that it plans to start selling its Ektachrome film before the end of the year, with others to follow.

Ektachrome was phased out in 2012 but among professional filmmakers there has been a 'resurgence' in sales, Kodak said.

More stories > > >

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4163944/Kodak-says-s-bringing-Ektachrome-film.html

http://www.telegiz.com/articles/14491/20170130/kodak-ektachrome-film-35mm-format.htm

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=11790937

An investment of over $270,000 in the technology mentoring programme Shadow Tech Days will help it inspire more young women into technology related careers, Youth Minister Nikki Kaye announced today.

“This programme, run by NZ Tech, connects participants with women working in the tech sector, as well as women studying technology at a tertiary level,” says Ms Kaye.

“By spending a day in the workforce, participants get to experience first-hand what it’s like to work in a technology role.

“Ongoing mentoring and advice is also provided through contact with a tertiary student, to help participants progress their studies towards a tech career.

“The investment announced today is being made under the Partnership Fund which sees the Government co-invest with business, philanthropic, iwi and other partners to grow youth development opportunities.

“The Government will invest $75,000 in Shadow Tech Days, complemented by around $25,000 from NZ Tech towards programme management, and over $170,000 of staff time from participating technology firms.”

To date, Shadow Tech Days has been run in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. The Partnership Fund investment will enable it to reach more young women in these areas, and also expand its reach to Hamilton, Tauranga, Palmerston North and Dunedin.

“Time spent with a mentor and seeing how things operate in the actual workforce can be hugely beneficial to inspiring young people’s potential career path,” says Ms Kaye.

“The experiences this programme delivers are about building the confidence of young women, and equipping them with the knowledge and support to make positive decisions about their future.”

Shadow Tech Days is scheduled to take place during Techweek (6-14 May 2017).

|  A Beehive release  |  January 27, 2017  ||

Fuss about citizenship reminiscent of Takaro Lodge Flap.

Midas Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel backed Facebook, Paypal, and Xero. But his founding of crime and insurgency systems developer Palantir currently valued at $20 billion can be considered less than helpful to floundering New Zealand law-and-order systems producer Wynyard Group.

On Wednesday, 02 November 2016 in:-  Wynyard Class Action Must Identify Litigation TargetsMSC Newswire reported: “Wynyard for example walked into this kind of Silicon Valley deep-pocket storm when it found itself confronted with sometime New Zealand resident and Tolkien buff Peter Thiel’s Palantir crime product.”

Underpinning Mr Thiel’s right to New Zealand citizenship is his passion for Tolkien.

The name Palantir comes from the Lord of the Rings in which the Palantir was a magical seeing stone that let you see what was happening in lands far off.

Mr Thiel’s skill has been to see what is about to happen in the rather closer internet era once described by Bill Gates as representing the epoch of “disintermediation” in which people dealt directly with the people and services they required.

Mr Thiel’s strong and highly visible support for the election of President Donald Trump can itself be seen now quite clearly.It was based on an understanding that the new President could communicate directly with voters rather than having to deal with them via the intermediary of the established media.

Mr Thiel’s activist support for President Trump can also be viewed as triggering pique from New Zealand’s Labour Party Opposition to the bestowing upon him of New Zealand citizenship.

Otherwise Mr Thiel is a photofit personified of all New Zealand’s activist yearnings.

He supports openly all major societal alternative and libertarian thrusts, notably the right for people to live on man-made islands beyond legal jurisdictions in a concept known as “seasteading.”

He is an ardent proponent of peoples’ right to privacy and put the pervasive celebrity tittle-tattle internet site Gawker out of business by financing the legal action against the site on grounds of intrusion by showman Hulk Hogan.

He is the leader of the second generation of California innovators who sprang up in the footsteps of Bill Gates and Steven Jobs.

This set is sometimes described as the Paypal Mafia, the network of former employees and co-founders that includes SpaceX’s Eion Musk and LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman.

Mr Thiel now stands identified as the jewel in the crown of the New Zealand government’s campaign to see installed here information technology disruptive-scale investors to seed development in the home-grown industry.

One of the reasons that the government is evasive about this whole daring strategy is that it also encompassed Kim Dotcom.

Like Mr Thiel who emigrated with his parents to the United States, Kim Dotcom was also born in Germany.

It is likely that the government will now informally approach Mr Thiel with a view to his outlining investments other than Xero that can be said to be in the national interest.

Mr Thiel, for example, is said to be actively engaged in life sciences, notably in the field of postponing or even eliminating death.

In some ways the fuss about Mr Thiel’s New Zealand citizenship resonates with the campaign in the 1970s against United States oilman Stockton Rush.

Mr Rush and his family moved to New Zealand to create Takaro Lodge, a hunting and fishing retreat with an emphasis on conservation and located coincidentally in the same Wanaka lakes region favoured by Mr Thiel.

However and all those years ago it became known that Takaro Lodge had been fitted in whole or part with gold plated plumbing fitments.

These gold taps now became a class warfare icon.

Bill Rowling was the first New Zealand Labour Party prime minister from a privileged background.

Newly installed he was determined to publicly demonstrate his working class credentials which now took the form of a campaign against Mr Rush and his lodge and of course his taps.

Meanwhile, out-of-pocket and patriotic New Zealand investors in the until quite recently NZX listed Wynyard Group will find themselves cherishing a singular and not unreasonable hope.

It is that Mr Thiel can be persuaded to put his shoulder to the wheel in restoring their forensic systems producer to solvency.

Mr Thiel is considered the major holder of Palantir.

Wynyard Group had its beginnings in Christchurch with the Jade organisation which in the 1970s invented one of the world’s first programming compilers, i.e. a programme that generated other programmes.

The Wynyard Group investor class action group is currently evaluating its options in regard to the now insolvent onetime NZX main board company.

On their agenda at their forthcoming meeting might now be a motion calling for a formal approach to their newly revealed fellow citizen, Peter Thiel.

|  From the MSCNewsWire reporters' desk  |  Thursday 26 January 2017  ||

More reading:  Wynyard Class Action Must Identify Litigation Targets

Robotic arms are moving out of large-scale factories and into homes or small businesses, and are increasingly used to help disabled people feed themselves and perform other tasks. Price is a problem though, so outside of some very specific use cases, they generally aren't worth it for interested tinkerers. But now, Ufactory has unveiled new versions of its consumer-level robot arms, the uArm Swift and Swift Pro, that are aimed at being cheap enough to splash out on, even if all you ever program it to do is stir your coffee for you.

Following the release of its first product, the uArm, back in 2014, Ufactory's next iterations – currently at the prototype stage and up for crowdfunding on Indiegogo – are reportedly smaller, stronger and more versatile. Both models can move across four axes, can lift 500 g (1.1 lb) and work between 5 and 32 cm (2 and 12.6 in) from the base.

Picking up and moving stuff is the uArm's specialty, and to that end it has a suction cup, gripper or a "Universal Holder" at its disposal. A modular attachment called a Seeed Grove socket adds other tools to its arsenal, including an electromagnet, RGB backlight, mini fan, and sensors for motion, color, temperature and humidity.With the help of an OpenMV Cam, the uArm Swift Pro can be taught to play...

They're powered by Arduino, and being open source, Ufactory is aiming to let the DIY crowd create their own programs and tasks for the arm through a visual programming language based on Blockly. These instructions can be relayed through USB and Bluetooth 4.0 connections, or the arm can be directly controlled through a keyboard-and-mouse setup or a smartphone app called uArm Play. There's a manual learning mode too, allowing you to guide the robot arm through a certain motion by physically moving it.

The base model uArm Swift is designed for beginners, packing this decent feature set into a frame that weighs 1.2 kg (2.6 lb) and measures 15 x 13.2 x 28.1 cm (5.9 x 5.2 x 11.1 in). The Swift Pro, on the other hand, is a little bulkier but far more precise, repeatable down to 0.2 mm, lending itself to more delicate tasks like drawing, 3D printing and laser engraving. With an OpenMV Cam, it can recognize, follow and respond to faces, colors and markers, allowing it to try its hand at chess or keep a fan aimed at your face.The uArm Swift robotic arm can be taught a movement by manually guiding the robot through...

Usually, playing around with all this tech comes with a hefty price tag. The Dobot M1, for example, which has an almost identical spec list, slugs your wallet for US$1,600, and more advanced options from bots like Rethink Robotics' Sawyer approach the $30,000 mark.

Spending thousands on a device that messily serves your breakfast or dynamically holds a lamp over your desk is excessive, but Ufactory is looking to make such things much more affordable. The company is currently seeking funding on Indiegogo, and is asking just $209 for basic model early bird pledge, representing a 51 percent saving on the expected retail price of $426. The Swift Pro, meanwhile, is currently up for a pledge of $339, and is expected to retail for $626. If all goes to plan, the uArm bots should be knocking on your door by May.

The uArm Swift can be seen in action in the campaign video.

|  Source: Ufactory and New Atlas  |  January 24, 2017  |

Auckland – Technology is at the heart of improving productivity of government services and the second annual NZTech Advance Government and Technology Summit in Wellington on February 28 will play a landmark role in helping New Zealand become a stronger digital nation, NZTech chief executive Graeme Muller says.

The summit is a high-level event that will host the key players from government, industry and technology to lead discussions on transformative technology aiding the delivery of better public services.

The event will offer insights from people working behind the scenes about the government’s ICT strategy framework and the complex issues behind the government adoption of the public cloud. The public sector is single largest customer of the tech sector.

“This year we focus on advancing the use of technology across the public sector and building stronger collaboration across government,” Muller says.

“Among those attending are leaders and executives from government and technology, senior policy makers, senior advisers, controllers and strategists from government agencies and enterprise architects, technology and operations managers from local and central government, health and education.

“The summit has also attracted risk officers, transformation leaders, performance leaders and business partners within government and industry and finally chief information officers and their top team members from NZ-based and international companies.

“New Zealanders need to understand the benefits and challenges of implementing the acceleration of public cloud services. We must realise the deeper implications of working with data and security in the cloud.

“We will discuss how government and industry leaders can build a culture within government to support tech transformation and become a strong digital nation.

“Transforming government services will lead to better outcomes for all New Zealanders, especially those in most need. With up to 40 percent of all money spent on tech in New Zealand spent by the public sector, enabling agencies to share innovative ways of using technology will drive better public services.

“Technology is at the heart of the transformation that government is looking for. NZTech is committed to working with government to enable this transformation.

“Productivity lies at the core of New Zealand’s long-term economic challenges. Hard won in a small isolated economy, productivity in New Zealand has declined over the past 40 years, compared to other small developed economies. With services making up 70 percent of New Zealand’s GDP, it is here that the greatest productivity challenge exists.

“Technology is at the heart of improving productivity of government services. Discussions between government and industry are now far more “gritty” and open, and able to grapple with real issues faced by agencies.

“But the environment in many government agencies does little to nurture innovation. While there is a proliferation of data in government agencies, a resistance, or inability, to share and collaborate is undermining the value of the data.”

Muller says next month’s summit at Te Papa is central to both the government’s aspiration for the economy and transforming the way government operates and delivers public services. The tech the industry believes that more can be done to work alongside government to help bring about positive outcomes, he says.

For further information contact New Zealand Technology Industry Association chief executive Graeme Muller on 021 02520767 or Make Lemonade media specialist Kip Brook on 0275 030188

|  A MakeLemonade release  |  January 24, 2017  |

Markforged announces a breakthrough technology in metal manufacturing - Atomic Diffusion Additive Manufacturing (ADAM), along with the introduction of the Metal X - the first ADAM 3D printer.

Extending the success of its revolutionary carbon fiber printing technology, Markforged now provides a rapid technique to produce metal parts for manufacturers in demanding industrial, automotive, medical and aerospace industries.

"Until today, the story of metal 3D printing has been million-dollar machines that fill a room," says CEO Greg Mark. "With the introduction of the Metal X, metal production is easier and more available than ever. Manufacturers and machine shops looking to augment CNC machining or find alternatives now have an answer. This revolution is not just about making metal parts - it's also about making plastic parts from a 3D printed metal mold created in days, instead of months," Mark continues. "Our mission is to help companies make better products, and get them to market faster." Not only does the Metal X printer make robust metal parts easy and inexpensive to produce, but it's now possible to create shapes and geometries that cannot be machined or produced with today's metal printers, opening up new possibilities for lighter parts with advanced built-in functionality.

> > > Continue to full article