- China’s first stealth plane spotted on test runs, making China one of three nations with stealth jet technology
- Critics claim this is a rip-off of America’s F-22 jets, which cost $ 66.7billion to develop
By Eddie Wrenn
PUBLISHED: 05:42 EST, 18 May 2012 | UPDATED: 10:22 EST, 18 May 2012
Flying over the skies of Chengdu in southwest China, the Chinese’s latest stealth plane – the J-20 Might Dragon – is a testament to China’s growing prowess in military technology.
The debut flight of the plane may serve as a warning to the U.S. air force, which has been plagued by a list of problems in their jets – including the revelation that some of their jets have a faulty oxygen system which have slowly been poisoning their pilots.
Sightings of the black plane taking off have again led to claims that the plane was developed off the back of stolen U.S. or Russian plans, a claim strongly denied by China.
The Chinese J-20 stealth fighters take too the air for test runs: The planes mark China’s entry as the third nation to have stealth technology vehind the U.S. and Russia
See anything familiar? The F-22 Raptor has similar canted tail-fins, a similar bubble canopy and nose section, and both have no flat surfaces to help avoid radar detection
Wired claims that the current batch of U.S. fighter jets are struggling due to labour disputes, cost over-runs, and lethal design flaws.
First off, the U.S.’s Lockheed’s F-22 Raptor – the latest stealth fighter which cost $ 66.7 billion to develop – have been poisoning its pilots owing to a faulty oxygen system. Meanwhile, workers at Lockheed’s F-35 factory have gone on strike, with no end in sight.
The F-35 has also been delayed by several years due to design costs – and the delay means that the cost of building thousands of new jets has risen by hundreds of billions of dollars.
China originally claimed the J-20 would not be ready until 2017 at the earliest, and the U.S, countered and said it would likely be 2020 or later.
However, the test flight shows how close to completion the first models are, and Wired points out that China eschews the U.S. system of carefully testing new jets over a decade.
Instead, China holds preliminary tests and then passes the jets over to the military, and reply on feedback to improve the next generation.
The U.S. tried to emulate this model with the F-35 – but encountered design flaws which ended up costing the military billions of dollars.
Wired said the Chinese were using imported Russian engines to power the the J-20, and said this could lead to future issues and delays in rolling out the stealth jets.
And Russia makes three: The MiG jet was built to rival the U.S. stealth programme
Last year China was caught in an international row after the U.S. charged and jailed Indian-American Noshir Gowadia, a former B-2 stealth bomber engineer, for leaking secrets to China. He was jailed for 32 years.
And when the J-20 was unveiled, other nations – incredulous how quickly the Chinese has developed and tested the stealth fighter aircraft – said the technology must have been stolen.
One of the more extraordinary claims was that it had gained invaluable information from parts of an American F-117 Nighthawk stealth bomber that had been shot down over Serbia during the Kosovo War – the only F-117 ever shot down.
The Chinese insist that the country’s J-20 stealth fighter jet was the work of the country’s own designers and engineers.
An unnamed official was quoted as saying: ‘It’s not the first time foreign media has smeared newly unveiled Chinese military technologies. It’s meaningless to respond to such a speculation.’
Chinese pilot Xu Yongling said that the J-20 possesses an advanced supersonic cruise ability and powerful air mobility that are technological breakthroughs for the country.
He added it would have been impossible for China to glean technology from the F-117 as the ‘outdated’ technology was behind the current generation of fighters.
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Wrist watches today may no longer be as essential as they were before. People now have other ways to tell time via their other essential devices such as smartphones, media players and even tablets. What may still make wrist watches relevant is that they are worn more as a fashion statement nowadays. That is the very reason why unique looking watches like the Mutewatch are becoming more and more appealing.
The Mutewatch is simple and yet offers more unique features in terms of design and function. For some it may look like just a unique looking bracelet since it ordinarily just has a blank screen where the time should have been displayed. But that is where the Mutewatch may appeal to the ordinary user.
In order to display the time, the user may need to touch the display screen for the time to appear. Another option is by flicking the wrist 90 degrees. And to go through the different watch modes, users need to swipe through the screen, somewhat similar to swiping on smartphones nowadays. The Mutewatch comes with alarm, timer and clock modes. It can also be charged via USB using an accompanying cable. Quite an interesting and unique wrist watch to have, the Mutewatch is now available at Watchismo for US$ 258.
Image Source: Watchismo
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Data today has become a very valuable commodity. It can either make or break companies. That is why many companies today take data security very seriously. But it can be quite a challenge in trying to manage and secure sensitive data from getting into the wrong hands. One device that may help greatly in this task is the new Data Killer Secure Data Erasing Device from Platform of Japan.
The Data Killer is a device that can securely erase data found in magnetic storage devices such as tapes, discs and hard drives. It works by using a very powerful magnet to rearrange the magnetic alignments that make up the data on magnetic storage discs. Data Killer sets the magnetic alignment in the same direction, thereby effectively erasing the data that the storage devices contain. But what makes it useful is that the erased storage devices can immediately be reused and with the erased data unrecoverable.
The Data Killer Data Erasing Device comes in different models that can effectively erase data on magnetic storage devices one by one or several disks or tapes at the same time. There is also a model that can even accommodate a laptop or notebook to erase data found in its hard drive without having to detach it. Plartform of Japan, the maker of Data Killer is planning to develop the product overseas and not just in Japan, where it is currently available. There’s no indication on its website on how much these devices will cost.
Image Source: Platform of Japan
By Snejana Farberov
PUBLISHED: 12:48 EST, 19 May 2012 | UPDATED: 14:12 EST, 19 May 2012
Skeptic: Brian Wieser, an analyst at Pivotal Research Group in New York, urged investors not to buy Facebook shared, which he labeled ‘implausibly priced’
One day after Facebook rolled out its much-anticipated IPO, some less-than-enthused analysts are already warning their clients against buying the social media site’s shares.
Brian Wieser, an analyst at Pivotal Research Group in New York, said that Facebook’s shares were implausibly priced, leading him to put a ‘sell’ rating on the stock.
Facebook’s less-than-stellar debut saw its shares end the day on Friday just 23 cents, or 0.6 per cent, higher than its initial price, at $ 38.23, valuing the company at $ 104.2billion – even though it only made $ 3.7billion last year.
The shares opened up 11 per cent at a respectable price of $ 42.05 in the morning, and jumped as high as $ 45 at one point, only to fizzle out after initial technical difficulties delayed the start of the trading by about two hours.
‘While we like the company, we’re troubled by investors’ perception of the risks,’ Weiser told the Sunday Telegraph. ‘It’s priced for perfection and that’s clearly implausible.’
Fizzle: Facebook’s shares ended their first trading day only 0.6 per cent higher than the IPO of $ 38
Company filings after the market closed on Friday night revealed the extent to which the banks who underwrote Facebook’s massive $ 6 billion IPO were forced to move in and prop up Facebook’s shares to prevent them from nosediving below $ 38, the New York Post reported.
Morgan Stanley, Facebook’s lead financial adviser, ended the day with 162million Facebook shares worth $ 6.16billion. Other banks, including JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, ended the day with $ 3.2billion and $ 2.4billion holdings, respectively.
Debut: Facebook’s IPO was set at $ 38, which some experts said was unusually high for a company that made only $ 3.7billion in profits last year
According to Wall Street experts, without the ‘bank bailout,’ Facebook’s IPO would have been a dud on Friday.
The heavy buying, however, decreased the banks’ already small fees on the deal: the underwriters agreed to accept just 1.1 per cent of the $ 16 billion Facebook raised in the IPO.
After splitting $ 176 million in fees, the firms likely spent around $ 380 million on the shares, wiping out their already-meager profits.
Boost: Facebook shares climbed 11 per cent to $ 42.05 in the morning, and reached as high as $ 45 at one point
Doing a post-mortem of the disappointing IPO roll-out, many experts put the blame on the bankers for setting the price too high.
The banks were apparently wary of pricing the shares too low, aiming for a modest first-day gain of anywhere between 5 per cent and 10 per cent, which failed to materialize.
Bailout: Morgan Stanley, Facebook’s lead financial adviser, was forced to buy 162million Facebook shares worth $ 6.16billion to prop up the IPO
Facebook had increased the number of shares being sold in the IPO by 25 per cent, to 425million, with most of the additional float coming from early investors looking to cash out – a move that had raised a red flag among analysts.
It remains to be seen what the future holds for Facebook. The social media giant will be forced to balance the need to feature more advertisements on the site with the risk of alienating its 900million users, whose loyalty is integral to Facebook’s success.
Glitch: Facebook’s debut on the market was marred by technical problems that delayed the start of the trading by nearly two hours
The fact that Facebook will have to make further acquisitions, and has a still unproven advertising model, are two of the reasons why Pivotal argues Facebook stock should have been priced no higher than $ 30.
‘None of this is to take away from the fantastic success of the company,’ said Mr Wieser. ‘It’s just not consistent with the economics.’
When trading resumes at New York’s Nasdaq exchange on Monday morning, investors will be watching closely to see how Facebook shares perform in the heels of the lackluster first day.
Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the financial regulator, has said it will review the technical glitches that marred the roll-out of the IPO to determine the cause of the delay.
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Looks like iTunes 9.2.1 is available for download now. Nothing terribly exciting to be found in the update though, just a lot of bug fixes: More »
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