Oregon
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Oregon's Right to Repair bill is now a law
Oregon's law is the first to prohibit "parts pairing," which prevents third-party repair services from using unauthorized components for replacement.
Oregon’s new Right to Repair bill targets anti-repair practices
The Right To Repair Act passed the house and senate in Oregon. It's the first of its kind to ban parts pairing.
Oregon is shutting down its controversial child welfare AI in June
Oregon's child welfare agency will shutter its controversial child abuse screening algorithm in June.
USGS earthquake warning system expands to cover entire West Coast
Washington residents will now receive mobile alerts about impending shaking.
Facebook takes down false claims of extremists starting Oregon wildfires
Facebook has cracked down against false claims extremists started the Oregon wildfires, including removals and warning labels.
Facebook ordered to clean up undersea drilling equipment in Oregon
Facebook has earned the ire of Oregon residents and officials for abandoning drilling equipment off the state’s coast, 50 feet under the sea floor. The company used all those for Facebook’s undersea fiber optic cable project but had to abandon them after an accident that snapped the drill pipe.
Oregon governor signs net neutrality bill into law
It's getting increasingly difficult for internet providers to take advantage of the FCC's looming net neutrality repeal. Oregon Governor Kate Brown has signed the state's recently passed net neutrality bill (HB 4155) into law, forcing ISPs to honor net neutrality if they want to secure government contracts. As with other states' legislative campaigns (including Kansas, Tennessee and Wisconsin), the measure is a creative workaround that enshrines equal treatment of internet traffic without directly overriding the FCC's order.
Oregon moves forward with its own net neutrality legislation
Oregon legislators just took a step towards protecting net neutrality in their state. The Oregon House of Representatives passed a proposal yesterday that would require state agencies to sign internet service contracts with providers that abide by net neutrality practices, meaning no blocking, throttling or paid prioritization. The bill now heads to the state Senate. While governors in Montana, New York, New Jersey, Hawaii and Vermont have signed executive orders that institute similar requirements on state agencies, a handful of states are pursuing comparable statutes through legislation.
The West Coast is finally getting an earthquake early warning system
On September 19th, 1985, Mexico City was devastated by an 8.0 magnitude earthquake that killed as many as 30,000 people and leveled buildings across the city, including the 12-story Hospital Juárez, one of the oldest hospital institutions in Mexico. In response, the government set about creating the world's first earthquake warning system. One that, when an 8.1 tremblor set in on the city September 7th of this year, and a second 7.1 less than two weeks later, saved potentially tens of thousands of lives by giving them more than a minute's notice to head to safety. So why doesn't America have one along its Pacific coast as well? Turns out we almost do.
Portland wants to get driverless cars on its roads this year
A new initiative from the city of Portland, Oregon hopes to attract the fast-growing self-driving car industry to the city's streets. According to Bloomberg, Mayor Ted Wheeler and the city's Bureau of Transportation are working to finalize a new set of rules governing autonomous vehicle pilot programs and hope to have driverless vehicles on the roads by the end of this year.
Oregon authorities are investigating Kickstarter darling Coolest (updated)
When Coolest debuted on Kickstarter back in 2014, it set a funding record. The do-it-all cooler campaing took in $13 million for an outdoor beverage option with blender, Bluetooth speaker, USB charging and more. The company asked its backers for more money back in April, saying that the price it offered during the crowdfunding campaign was too low. What's more, some backers still haven't received their coolers despite the company selling them for a discounted price on Amazon, its own website and other retailers. The Coolest website says that if you hand over $400 for a cooler right now, it will ship in 48 hours.
Hollywood studios begin suing Popcorn Time users
Popcorn Time may have won an army of fans with its "Netflix for Torrenting" service, but its rapid rise in popularity has also caught the attention of Hollywood and its legal teams. The Wall Street Journal reports that the studio behind The Expendables movies is suing 16 users of the Popcorn Time service, after they were allegedly found to have illegally downloaded and shared copies of straight-to-DVD Pierce Brosnan film Survivor.
Oregon State University's ATRIAS robot takes a walk in the park
We've seen Oregon State University's ATRIAS robot prove its mettle in a controlled environment, sure, but what changes when it goes for a stroll in the great outdoors? Perhaps unsurprisingly, not a whole lot. The biped doesn't have a problem going uphill, downhill, maintaining balance when dodgeballs hit it and even handles variations in terrain with aplomb. It doesn't seem to have any issues changing speed, either. Basically, this proves that the ATRIAS doesn't need perfect conditions to operate, which is important because let's face it: the real world is far from perfect.The upside to all of this is that unlike humans, robots don't quite get stage-fright so replicating these actions in front of a crowd at the DARPA Robotics Challenge come June likely won't be an issue.
Starbucks now lets you order and pay through mobile... if you're in Portland
The Starbucks app's mobile ordering feature is finally here after months of speculation and anticipation -- and it's landed first in Portland, Oregon. Naturally. If you want to buy, say, an eggnog latte, you merely have to scroll through or search the menu, pick your items and your store of preference (you can choose an outlet elsewhere instead of the one closest to you), and then pay for it through your phone. The app even lets you customize your drinks like you would in-store, because the company knows its customers' predilection for mixing things up (triple venti soy, non-fat, half-sweet, extra foam eggnog latte with caramel drizzle, anyone?). Once that's done, just swing by the Starbucks you chose, tell the barista your name and you've effectively skipped the mile-long line.
Apple wants to buy more land for Oregon data center
Apple is considering purchasing another 96 acres of land in Prineville, Ore., in hopes of expanding its data centers even further, The Oregonian reports. The assistant planning director for Crook County confirmed to the paper that a company code-named "Project Pillar" has expressed interest in buying the land -- and The Oregonian believes that "Project Pillar" is indeed Apple: The property awaiting transfer is covered by the same tax break agreement that Apple now operates under. And [Phil] Stenbeck said Pillar previously went by the code name Maverick -- that's the name Apple used last year when it paid US$5.6 million to buy 160 acres of Crook County land for its first Prineville data center... This time last year, Apple began construction of a 338,000-square-foot data center on the bluffs above Prineville, just down the highway from a similar facility owned by Facebook. Plans filed with Prineville show Apple contemplates a second data center of the same size -- 65 percent larger than the biggest Costco -- on the property it already owns. If Apple were to acquire the property, it would no doubt be used for data centers to power its ever-expanding selection of cloud services, including the iTunes Store, the company's App Stores, its mapping services and iCloud.
TriMet mobile ticketing app opens to all mass transit riders in Portland area
After a successful closed beta trial, mobile ticketing is now a reality for the multitude of mass transit riders in the Portland metropolitan area. The TriMet Tickets app is now available for iPhone and Android users, establishing TriMet as the nation's first multimodal transit agency to offer smartphone-based ticketing across all of its operations -- this includes the region's commuter rail, light rail, streetcar and bus lines. The free app allows users to purchase either one or multiple tickets, which extend from 2-hour fares to 30-day passes. Tickets are verified with QR codes and on-screen animations, making it difficult for riders to game the system with simple screenshots. The mobile payment system is made possible by GlobeSherpa, a Portland-based company that also provides service alerts and backend fleet optimization for the TriMet system. BlackBerry and Windows Phone users can look forward to forthcoming versions of the TriMet Tickets app, and for a quick overview, you'll find a tutorial video after the break.
MetroMile launches pay-per-mile car insurance, trades a sliver of privacy for savings
The notion of tracking cars for insurance purposes tends to polarize us: it's either a technical marvel that gives an honest appraisal of how we drive, or a dystopian nightmare that makes it impossible to have a little fun without a large bill. MetroMile is banking on more of us taking the optimistic view. It claims to have the first 'true' pay-per-mile car insurance, and combines a fixed base fee with mileage derived from a tracking device attached to a given vehicle. Weekend drivers can theoretically save 20 to 50 percent, and any customer can see detailed analytics online. The catch, of course, is having to be comfortable with an insurer as a silent copilot. MetroMile is careful to note that it's only watching mileage -- it doesn't care if motorists swing by the racetrack or across the border. Provided that they're happy with relaying a piece of their driving experience to outsiders, Oregonians can sign up for MetroMile's experiment today; who knows, it might just pay off.
Apple breaks ground for new Oregon data center
After spending the last few months putting together the paperwork and plans for its upcoming Oregon-based data center, Apple has finally broken ground on the project. The company will be transforming 160 acres of area near Prineville, Ore., into two big state-of-the-art data centers, and construction has started just recently. The initial cost of development was only $68 million, though as construction and upkeep go on, the expected cost of the structure is expected to run up to nearly a billion dollars. Not that Apple can't afford it -- the data center will help run associated services like iCloud, iTunes and all of the other various moneymakers the company from Cupertino has going. And of course, Apple picked up plenty of tax bonuses for building in Oregon: The local economy is booming, especially since Facebook has built facilities very close by. Presumably, the center should finally be up and running at some point next year.
Facebook to backup its servers with low-power storage devices at 'Sub-Zero' data center
Data backups come in all shapes and sizes. For some, they take the form of external hard drives or a slice of the amorphous cloud. As for Facebook, its upcoming solution is low-power deep-storage hardware contained within a 62,000 square-foot building in Prineville, Oregon near its existing Beaver State data center. Unofficially referred to as "Sub-Zero," the facility will store a copy of the social network's data in case its primary servers need to be restored in an emergency. Rather than continuously power HDDs that are only occasionally used, the new setup can conserve energy by lighting-up drives just when they're needed. One of the company's existing server racks eats up around 4.5 kilowatts, while those at Sub-Zero are each expected to consume approximately 1.5 kilowatts once they're up and running. Tom Furlong, Facebook's vice president of site operations, told Wired that there are hopes to create a similar structure alongside the firm's North Carolina data center. Since the Prineville project is still being planned, Zuckerberg & Co. have roughly six to nine months to suss out all the details before your photos are backed up at the new digs.
How 3D printing changed the face of 'ParaNorman'
We drive around in circles trying to find the place. There's no signage indicating our destination -- no giant, looming cartoon characters or even a logo, just a faceless building in a maze of industrial parks, about 17 miles outside of Portland. It's a beautiful drive of course, sandwiched on a vaguely winding highway by dense Pacific Northwest foliage, past Nike's global headquarters. Compared to the world-class tracks and fields dotting the shoemaker's campus, Laika's own offices are an exercise in modesty (in spite of financial ties to Phil Knight), virtually indistinguishable from the densely packed businesses that surround it. There are, perhaps, certain advantages to such anonymity -- for one thing, it helps the studio avoid random drop-ins by movie fans hoping to chew the ear off of their animation heroes. It also means that our cab driver does a good three passes before finally getting out of the car and asking a smoker standing outside a nearby building where to go. He thinks about it for a moment and indicates a building -- a large, but otherwise indistinguishable space. The lobby doesn't scream Hollywood either, but it certainly offers some less-than-subtle hints that we've found the place: a wall-sized black and white image of classic film cameras (ancient devices, someone tells me, that were utilized on the company's previous film), and in one corner, a tiny room encased in glass, with Coraline seated at a table in its center. This building is the house that she built -- or at least kept the lights on; "Coraline" was released after its planned successor "Jack & Ben's Animated Adventure" failed to materialize. Inside, the cavernous space in excess of 150,000 square feet has become a bustling small town of creatives, laboring away in its recesses, many having traveled through several time zones to be in its rank, like carnies hopping from town to town. Stop-motion animation, after all, isn't the most prevalent of professions, and while we've arguably entered a sort of golden age for the infamously labor-intensive art form, thanks in large part to the success of projects like "Coraline," the number of studios actually investing in the form can be counted on one hand.%Gallery-162720%
