Paypal founder Elon Musk unveils 760mph transport concept

Elon Musk has unveiled a near-supersonic transport concept to link Los Angeles and San Francisco, cutting the 380-mile journey to less than half an hour.

The blueprints reveal how the US-based billionaire wants to use magnets and fans to fire passenger-carrying capsules floating on a cushion of air through pressurised tubes. The plans were released as part a 57-page document outlining the project.

"Short of figuring out real teleportation, which would of course be awesome ... the only option for super-fast travel is to build a tube over or under the ground that contains a special environment," he wrote.

The SpaceX, Tesla and Paypal founder said the capsules would travel at speeds of up to 760mph or nearly the speed of sound. Musk claimed the solar-powered shuttle would be a quicker, safer, cheaper, and more efficient mode of transport between Los Angeles and San Francisco than the high-speed train line that is currently being built.

The pods could arrive every 30 seconds and even accommodate cars onboard.

Last week Musk described the concept as a cross between a "Concorde, a railgun, and an air hockey table".

He said on a conference call that passengers in the cabins would experience a little bit more than the force of gravity and compared the experience to being on an aeroplane as opposed to a rollercoaster.

He said the concept would work best between destinations less than 1,000km, adding that anything beyond that would be more suited to supersonic air travel.

In order to avoid minimal disputes over land, Musk envisions building the project on an elevated platform alongside an existing Californian motorway. He said the structure holding it up would be designed to withstand earthquakes.

Musk estimated that linking the two Californian cities in this way would cost $6bn (£3.9bn) and said fares could be in the region of about $20 (£13) for a one-way ticket.

Musk has said he is currently too busy to develop the project himself and is therefore making it “open source” so that anyone can improve it, or try to create it.

PayPal opens up bug bounty program to minors

PayPal is opening up its bug bounty program to individuals aged 14 and older, a move intended to reward younger researchers who are technically ineligible to hold full-fledged PayPal accounts.

PayPal's program, which is a year old this month, only applied to those 18 years and older. Under the old rule, participants in the program were required to hold valid accounts, which excluded minors, said Gus Anagnos, PayPal's director of information security.

In May, 17-year-old Robert Kugler, a student in Germany, said he'd been denied a reward for finding a vulnerability. PayPal said the bug had already been found by two other researchers, which would have made Kugler ineligible for bounty.

In an apparent miscommunication, Kugler said he was initially told he was too young rather than the bug had already been discovered. Nonetheless, PayPal said it would look to bring younger people into its program, which pays upwards of US$10,000 for remote code execution bugs on its websites.

Those who are under 18 years old can receive a bug bounty payment through a PayPal student account, an arrangement where a minor can receive payments via their parent's account, Anagnos said.

Anagnos said other terms and conditions have been modified to make its program more transparent, such as clarifying which PayPal subsidiaries and partner sites qualify for the program.

PayPal pays much less for vulnerabilities on partner websites, which have a URL form of "www.paypal-__.com." A remote execution bug found on that kind of site garners only $1,500 rather than up to $10,000 on the company's main sites.

Like other bug bounty programs run by companies such as Microsoft and Google, PayPal will publicly recognize researchers on its website with a "Wall of Fame" for the top 10 researchers in a quarter. Another "honorable mention" page lists anyone who submitted a valid bug for the quarter.

Eusebiu Blindu, a testing consultant from Romania, was one of the researchers listed on the Wall of Fame for the first quarter of this year.

"I think Paypal is the best bug bounty program, and I am glad I participated in it from the first days of its launching," he wrote on his blog.

PayPal eyes opportunities in outer space

PayPal, which claims more than 128 million active accounts in 193 markets and 25 currencies around the globe, is now looking at outer space.

 

As space tourism is expected to take off, PayPal is exploring what payment systems will be like in outer space.

 

The payments processor is launching Thursday with the SETI Institute and others an initiative called PayPal Galactic, which will bring together leaders in the space industry to discuss the issues surrounding the commercialization of space.

 

The need for a payment system beyond earth already exists, the payments processor said in a blog post on Wednesday. Astronauts on space stations need, for example, to pay for bills back on earth and for entertainment, like music and e-books, while in space, it added.

 

"Creating a secure and functional commerce system that can operate in space at scale will not be easy, but with the support of the scientific community, other technology companies and the public at large, we hope to find the solutions to address these challenges," PayPal wrote in the blog post.

 

The eBay unit admits that it is just at the beginning.

 

Some of the issues to be addressed by PayPal Galactic in tandem with scientists and researchers are how will standard currency look like in a "truly cash-free interplanetary society," how will banking systems have to adapt, how customer support needs to develop, regulations in the new environment, and developing risk and fraud management systems.

 

The initiative brings together scientists and space industry leaders from SETI in Mountain View, California and Space Tourism Society in Los Angeles, and former astronaut Buzz Aldrin.

 

A number of companies have been set up to offer space tourism. Virgin Galactic, for example, said in May that it is on track to be the world's first "commercial spaceline." Some companies plan to set up space hotels, according to reports.

 

Follow me on Twitter @sajilpl

PayPal boldly ponders what no payment processor has pondered before: space

PayPal, which claims more than 128 million active accounts in 193 markets and 25 currencies around the globe, is now looking at outer space.

 

As space tourism is expected to take off, PayPal is exploring what payment systems will be like in outer space.

 

The payments processor is launching Thursday with the SETI Institute and others an initiative called PayPal Galactic, which will bring together leaders in the space industry to discuss the issues surrounding the commercialization of space.

 

The need for a payment system beyond earth already exists, the payments processor said in a blog post on Wednesday. Astronauts on space stations need, for example, to pay for bills back on earth and for entertainment, like music and e-books, while in space, it added.



"Creating a secure and functional commerce system that can operate in space at scale will not be easy, but with the support of the scientific community, other technology companies and the public at large, we hope to find the solutions to address these challenges," PayPal wrote in the blog post.

 

The eBay unit admits that it is just at the beginning.

 

Some of the issues to be addressed by PayPal Galactic in tandem with scientists and researchers are how will standard currency look like in a "truly cash-free interplanetary society," how will banking systems have to adapt, how customer support needs to develop, regulations in the new environment, and developing risk and fraud management systems.

 

The initiative brings together scientists and space industry leaders from SETI in Mountain View, California and Space Tourism Society in Los Angeles, and former astronaut Buzz Aldrin.

 

A number of companies have been set up to offer space tourism. Virgin Galactic, for example, said in May that it is on track to be the world's first "commercial spaceline." Some companies plan to set up space hotels, according to reports.

 

Follow me on Twitter @sajilpl