MELBOURNE - The influential Committee for Melbourne on Tuesday called for a "mega-region" to be formed along Australias eastern coast. Martine Letts, chief of the committee, said that a rapid transport link between Melbourne and Sydney could see the "mega-region" become reality within a decade. She said she believes the region, which would also include regional centers, could rival others in the world such as the Shanghai district and San Francisco-Los Angeles in the United States. The proposal by Letts came after the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University announced it believed a hyperloop could provide the link between Melbourne and Sydney. Championed by Teslas Elon Musk, hyperloop works by propelling a pod-like vehicle through a reduced-pressure tube at the speed of sound. Zac McLelland, chief executive officer (CEO) of VicHyper, said the technology already existed to make hyperloop a reality, and it just needed to be supported by governments. "If we really wanted to do it, we could do it now, and be built within three to five years," McLelland told Australian media on Tuesday. He said that they would investigate the cost of hyperloop in 2017 and estimated it would cost around 30 billion U.S. dollars. Letts said that if hyperloop was built, Melbourne and Sydney could become one region that shares an economy and co-hosted major events. "The time for rivalry is over. To compete on the global stage and to deliver the best for our economy and people, it is imperative that Melbourne and Sydney work together," she said. "A critical component for a successful eastern seaboard region is to bridge the geographical divide via an efficient intercity link. "A rapid intercity link will support the vision. We have the technology to conquer the distance." personalized silicone wristbandswoven wristbandsmake your own rubber braceletadjustable wristbandsblack rubber wristbands24 hour wristbands
BEIJING - The recent launch of the futuristic iPhone X has triggered a hot-button global debate on Facial Identification (Face ID) technology, citing potential safety risks the fledgling technology could pose. APPLE: FACE ID DEBUT Having abandoned its most iconic Home button's Touch ID function, iPhone X optimizes its customers' experience by allowing them to unlock their iPhones simply by scanning their faces through the Face ID function. Concerns over security and privacy were immediately raised since a person's face contains large mounts of private information, which might be exposed in the internet database through Face ID function, adding odds of being the victim of fraud. "We do not gather customer data when you enroll in Face ID, it stays on your device, we do not send it to the cloud," said Craig Federighi, Apple's Senior Vice President of Software Engineering. But a bigger worry lies in the possibility of Face ID's being attacked by its owner's picture or other impersonative faces with make-up or masks. "Your passcode can be hacked, but your face is yours and yours alone," Apple Inc responded, adding that Apple X is designed to resist spoofing by photos or masks. "Face ID is enabled by the TrueDepth camera, which projects and analyzes more than 30,000 invisible dots to create a precise depth map of your face," according to a statement of Apple Inc. Inevitably, of course, twins or people who look naturally alike can be a potential problem for iPhone X. But Apple Inc has stressed that with Touch ID, Apple's fingerprint technology, the chance that a random person could unlock your phone with his or her fingerprint is one in 50,000, while with Face ID, it is one in one million, which makes it so secure that you can use it with Apple Pay and check out with just a glance. "With just a glance? So the fraud can just install a payment machine inside a public mirror, and people will be paying for whatever he buys when they look at themselves in the mirror?" asked a customer. Perhaps not that easy. For additional security, Face ID is attention aware, meaning it unlocks your iPhone X only when you look toward the device to make sure you are actively trying to use it, heading off chances of being hacked in such situations as taking a nap in public. Over this function, some netizens come up with more practical concerns saying that "the lack of any fingerprint reader could cause problems for blind people who can't focus their eyes on anything." If you are blind or vision impaired, Federighi said, you may just turn off the "attention detection" feature at a lower level of overall security. Moreover, a netizen called Kandee Johnson said, "I'm not sure how the iPhone X face recognition will distinguish between me with make-up and without make-up. Because the difference is real." And, more seriously, what about cosmetic surgery? Netizens are also showing deep concerns for China's internet celebrities and those South Korean beauties, who have extremely similar faces after accepting cosmetic surgery with the same aesthetic trend. Apple explained by saying, "Once it knows you, it knows you," adding that the A11 Bionic chip uses machine learning to recognize changes in your appearance as you change hair styles, grow a beard, wear sunglasses, wear a hat, or have plastic surgery. How about people who either cover their faces for religious or professional reasons? Will Face ID system recognize them? Apple made a response saying that Face ID is not going to be a viable option for people who wear a mask for work or wear a niqab, which means they would need to use a passcode. "This limitation is similar to Touch ID, which simply don't work if you wore gloves or had wet hands," Federighi said. In other tricky scenarios as being asked by a thief or your wife to hand over your device, you can "quick disable" Face ID by gripping either volume button plus the power button, holding them a little while to get back the passcode authentication.
