Northrup Grumman is among the companies tapped to make the US Army’s drone-killing lasers – TechCrunch

Northrop Grumman is going to be working on the U.S. Army’s long-planned drone-killing lasers. The Army wants to mount 50 kilowatt laser systems on top of its General Dynamics-designed Stryker vehicle as part of its U.S. Army Maneuver Short Range Air Defense (M-SHORAD) directed energy prototyping initiative. Basically, the army wants to use these lasers…

Enterprise this September – TechCrunch

In an era of massive data breaches, most recently the Capital One fiasco, the risk of a cyberattack and the costly consequences are the top existential threat to corporations big and small. At TechCrunch’s first-ever enterprise-focused event (p.s. early-bird sales end August 9), that topic will be front and center throughout the day. That’s why…

The SEC wants disgraced VC Mike Rothenberg to cough up more than $30 million – TechCrunch

Nearly three years ago, TechCrunch reported on suspected fraud committed by Mike Rothenberg, a self-described “millennial venture capitalist” who’d made a name for himself not only by eponymously branding his venture firm but for spending lavishly to woo startup founders, including on Napa Valley wine tours, at luxury boxes at Golden State Warriors games and…

This blockchain-themed maths puzzle can earn you a share of $100,000

There’s a (supposed) problem with blockchain: it’s too resource-intensive, so Amazon Web Services (AWS) has backed a $100,000 maths competition to “forever change” the technology. Given 1024-bit input x, compute the verifiable delay function ‘h=x^(2^t) mod N’ as fast as possible. t=2^30 N=124066695684124741398798927404814432744698427125735684128131855064976895337309138910015071214657674309443149407457493434579063840841220334555160125016331040933690674569571217337630239191517205721310197608387239846364360850220896772964978569683229449266819903414117058030106528073928633017118689826625594484331 If it helps, the puzzle above relates specifically to Verifiable Delay Functions…