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Hardware

The Alienware Area-51m's Upgradable Dream Has Failed in Just One Year (theverge.com) 76

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
Alienware has announced the second generation of its flagship Area-51m gaming laptop, the Area-51m R2. It's largely similar on the outside to the original Area-51m, but the specs are almost completely overhauled on the inside, with 10th Gen Intel processors, new Nvidia GPUs, faster RAM, and better display options. From a report: All of those upgrades will be limited to the new R2 model, though. Despite Alienware's goals for future-proofed upgradable parts, the Area-51m has failed to live up to its potential. One of the biggest draws of the Area-51m was the option for user-replaceable parts. Most modern laptops have nearly all of their internal components sealed in place in an effort to cut down on size. But the Area-51m took a different approach. It was big, easy to disassemble, and made it simple to replace nearly every internal component, from RAM to the CPU to the GPU to even the thermal cooling components. The idea was to make something more portable than any other desktop but more customizable than any laptop. Alienware's parent company, Dell, even built its own system for replaceable GPUs in laptops, called DGFF (Dell Graphics Form Factor) to make it easier to upgrade in the future.
Security

Huawei Denies Involvement in Buggy Linux Kernel Patch Proposal (zdnet.com) 109

Posted by msmash from the he-said,-she-said dept.
Huawei denied on Monday having any official involvement in an insecure patch submitted to the Linux kernel project over the weekend; patch that introduced a "trivially exploitable" vulnerability. From a report: The buggy patch was submitted to the official Linux kernel project via its mailing list on Sunday. Named HKSP (Huawei Kernel Self Protection), the patch allegedly introduced a series of security-hardening options to the Linux kernel. Big tech companies that heavily use Linux in their data centers and online services, often submit patches to the Linux kernel. Companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and others have been known to have contributed code. On Sunday, the HKSP submission sparked interest in the Linux community as could signal Huawei's wish to possibly contribute to the official kernel. Due to this, the patch came under immediate scrutiny, including from the developers of Grsecurity, a project that provides its own set of security-hardening patches for the Linux kernel. In a blog post published on the same day, the Grsecurity team said that it discovered that the HKSP patch was introducing a "trivially exploitable" vulnerability in the kernel code -- if the patch was to be approved.
Media

Podcaster Luminary Seeks Fresh Cash To Buoy Struggling Business (bloomberg.com) 18

Posted by msmash from the struggle-continues dept.
Luminary Media, the money-losing podcasting startup, has raised more than $30 million in a new round and is seeking more funding as it tries to ride out the global pandemic, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. From the report: The funds were raised at a level below last year's $200 million valuation, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the process is private. The company, which is also cutting costs after struggling to attract subscribers, plans to use the money to fund operations and future programming. This current round of investment would bring Luminary's total fundraising to more than $160 million, comparable to the value of the entire company. Luminary, backed by investors such as Sinai Ventures, NEA and former HBO executive Richard Plepler, previously raised at least $130 million to build what it said would be the Netflix of podcasts -- a subscription service packed with top-notch, exclusive shows from journalists, TV hosts and celebrities. Its slate of original shows includes Guy Raz's "Wisdom From the Top" and "The Trevor Noah Podcast." But the app has struggled to find an audience since its debut in April 2019. Only about 80,000 people who tried the app have remained paying subscribers, said the people.
Science

New Solar Panels Suck Water From Air To Cool Themselves Down (sciencemag.org) 59

Posted by BeauHD from the what-will-they-think-of-next dept.
sciencehabit shares a report from Science Magazine: Like humans, solar panels don't work well when overheated. Now, researchers have found a way to make them "sweat" -- allowing them to cool themselves and increase their power output. In recent years, researchers have devised materials that can suck water vapor from the air and condense it into liquid water for drinking. Among the best is a gel that strongly absorbs water vapor at night, when the air is cool and humidity is high. The gel -- a mix of carbon nanotubes in polymers with a water-attracting calcium chloride salt -- causes the vapor to condense into droplets that the gel holds. When heat rises during the day, the gel releases water vapor. If covered by a clear plastic, the released vapor is trapped, condenses back into liquid water, and flows into a storage container.

Peng Wang, an environmental engineer at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and his colleagues thought of another use for the condensed water: coolant for solar panels. So, the researchers pressed a 1-centimeter-thick sheet of the gel against the underside of a standard silicon solar panel. Their idea was that during the day, the gel would pull heat from the solar panel to evaporate water it had pulled out of the air the previous night, releasing the vapor through the bottom of the gel. The evaporating water would cool the solar panel as sweat evaporating from the skin cools us down. The researchers found that the amount of gel they needed depended primarily on the environment's humidity. In a desert environment with 35% humidity, a 1-square-meter solar panel required 1 kilogram of gel to cool it, whereas a muggy area with 80% humidity required only 0.3 kilograms of gel per square meter of panel. The upshot in either case: The temperature of the water-cooled solar panel dropped by as much as 10C. And the electricity output of the cooled panels increased by an average of 15% and up to 19% in one outdoor test, where the wind likely enhanced the cooling effect, Wang and his colleagues report today in Nature Sustainability.
The Almighty Buck

Telegram Abandons Its TON Blockchain Platform (techcrunch.com) 26

Posted by msmash from the end-of-road dept.
Messaging service Telegram said on Tuesday it is abandoning its blockchain platform Telegram Open Network (TON) after a lengthy battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). From a report: "Today is a sad day for us here at Telegram. We are announcing the discontinuation of our blockchain project," wrote Pavel Durov, the founder and chief executive of Telegram, on his channel. A U.S. court made it impossible for the messaging service, used by more than 400 million users, to continue development of Telegram Open Network, he wrote in a blog post. "How? Imagine that several people put their money together to build a gold mine -- and to later split the gold that comes out of it," he wrote.

"Then a judge comes and says: 'These people invested in the gold mine because they were looking for profits. And they didn't want that gold for themselves, they wanted to sell it to other people. Because of this, they are not allowed to get the gold.' If this doesn't make sense to you, you are not alone -- but this is exactly what happened with TON (the mine) and Grams (the gold). A judge used this reasoning to rule that people should not be allowed to buy or sell Grams like they can buy or sell Bitcoins," he added.

Submission + - Uber In Talks To Buy GrubHub (wsj.com)

Submitted by phalse phace
phalse phace writes: The WSJ is reporting that Uber Technologies is in talks with GrubHub to acquire the company.

Uber Technologies Inc. is seeking to acquire GrubHub Inc. in an all-stock deal that would unite two of the biggest players in meal delivery at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has sparked a surge in demand for their services.

Uber, which in addition to its flagship ride business operates a big meal-delivery unit known as Uber Eats, earlier this year approached GrubHub with a takeover offer and the companies continue to discuss a possible combination, according to people familiar with the matter.

Grubhub recently proposed a deal in which its shareholders would receive 2.15 Uber shares for each Grubhub share, some of the people said.
United States

Fauci Warns 'Little Spikes' of Coronavirus Might Turn Into Outbreaks if States Reopen Too Soon (nbcnews.com) 401

Posted by msmash from the PSA dept.
Dr. Anthony Fauci on Tuesday warned of serious consequences if governors reopen state economies prematurely, saying he fears spikes in coronavirus infections could morph into further outbreaks of the disease. From a report: Testifying by videoconference before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, ticked through the criteria that the White House said states should meet before reopening. "My concern [is] that if some areas, city, states, or what have you, jump over those various checkpoints and prematurely open up without having the capability of being able to respond effectively and efficiently, my concern is that we will start to see little spikes that might turn into outbreaks," Fauci said in response to a question from Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.

Fauci and two of the other witnesses -- Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Stephen Hahn, the head of the Food and Drug Administration -- are testifying by videoconference Tuesday because they self-quarantining after possible exposure to COVID-19. The fourth witness, Adm. Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for health and the administration's coronavirus testing coordinator, also testified remotely but is not in self-quarantine. Murray, the top Democrat on the committee, said in her opening statement that the U.S. needs "dramatically more testing," but added that testing "alone won't be enough to reopen our country."
Facebook

Facebook is Quietly Helping To Set Up a New Pro-tech Advocacy Group To Battle Washington (washingtonpost.com) 35

Posted by msmash from the shape-of-things-to-come dept.
Facebook is working behind the scenes to help launch a new political advocacy group that would combat U.S. lawmakers and regulators trying to rein in the tech industry, escalating Silicon Valley's war with Washington at a moment when government officials are threatening to break up large companies. From a report: The organization is called American Edge, and it aims through a barrage of advertising and other political spending to convince policymakers that Silicon Valley is essential to the U.S. economy and the future of free speech, according to three people familiar with the matter as well as documents reviewed by The Washington Post. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the group because it hasn't officially been announced. In December, American Edge formed as a nonprofit organization, and last month, it registered an accompanying foundation, according to incorporation documents filed in Virginia. The setup essentially allows it to navigate a thicket of tax laws in such a way that it can raise money, and blitz the airwaves with ads, without the obligation of disclosing all of its donors. Many powerful political actors -- including the National Rifle Association -- similarly operate with the aid of "social welfare" groups.

Submission + - New solar panels suck water from air to cool themselves down (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Like humans, solar panels don’t work well when overheated. Now, researchers have found a way to make them “sweat”—allowing them to cool themselves and increase their power output.

In recent years, researchers have devised materials that can suck water vapor from the air and condense it into liquid water for drinking. Among the best is a gel that strongly absorbs water vapor at night, when the air is cool and humidity is high. The gel—a mix of carbon nanotubes in polymers with a water-attracting calcium chloride salt—causes the vapor to condense into droplets that the gel holds. When heat rises during the day, the gel releases water vapor. If covered by a clear plastic, the released vapor is trapped, condenses back into liquid water, and flows into a storage container.

Peng Wang, an environmental engineer at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and his colleagues thought of another use for the condensed water: coolant for solar panels. So, the researchers pressed a 1-centimeter-thick sheet of the gel against the underside of a standard silicon solar panel. Their idea was that during the day, the gel would pull heat from the solar panel to evaporate water it had pulled out of the air the previous night, releasing the vapor through the bottom of the gel. The evaporating water would cool the solar panel as sweat evaporating from the skin cools us down.
Security

Ransomware Hit ATM Giant Diebold Nixdorf (krebsonsecurity.com) 36

Posted by BeauHD from the here-we-go-again dept.
Brian Krebs reports that Diebold Nixdorf, a major provider of ATMs and payment technology to banks and retailers, recently suffered a ransomware attack that disrupted some operations. Thankfully, the intrusion only affected the company's corporate network and not its ATMs or customer networks. From the report: Canton, Ohio-based Diebold is currently the largest ATM provider in the United States, with an estimated 35 percent of the cash machine market worldwide. The 35,000-employee company also produces point-of-sale systems and software used by many retailers. According to Diebold, on the evening of Saturday, April 25, the company's security team discovered anomalous behavior on its corporate network. Suspecting a ransomware attack, Diebold said it immediately began disconnecting systems on that network to contain the spread of the malware. Sources told KrebsOnSecurity that Diebold's response affected services for over 100 of the company's customers. Diebold said the company's response to the attack did disrupt a system that automates field service technician requests, but that the incident did not affect customer networks or the general public.

An investigation determined that the intruders installed the ProLock ransomware, which experts say is a relatively uncommon ransomware strain that has gone through multiple names and iterations over the past few months. Diebold claims it did not pay the ransom demanded by the attackers, although the company wouldn't discuss the amount requested. But Lawrence Abrams of BleepingComputer said the ransom demanded for ProLock victims typically ranges in the six figures, from $175,000 to more than $660,000 depending on the size of the victim network.

Submission + - Court Fines YouTuber For Posting IPTV Piracy Tutorials (torrentfreak.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Operated by Bruno Gustavo Januario, the ‘Jorge Dejorge’ channel is packed with technology-focused videos offering reviews, unboxing videos, tips and tutorials, most of which are entirely non-problematic. However, a decision to publish advice on how to obtain TV channels via pirate IPTV services attracted the attention of ABTA, the powerful Brazilian Pay TV Association. ABTA, which represents the main cable TV and channel operators in the country, including Globosat, Sky, NBC Universal, Fox and Discovery, filed a lawsuit against Bruno Gustavo claiming that his instructional videos infringed their rights.

In his response, the channel owner described himself as an “ordinary person” with a YouTube channel and denied that he’d named any of the TV operators in his videos. In any event, he argued, they were informative in nature and did not aim to instruct people on how to break the law. Nevertheless, in April 2018 a judge at a São Paulo court handed down an order that required hosting and search companies, including Google, to remove the videos in question and Bruno Gustavo was told to stop publishing such content in the future. Failure to comply would result in a fine equivalent to US$1,740 for each offense. However, according to a Globo report, the judge held back from compensating the TV companies as he believed their trademarks had not been infringed. This resulted in an appeal from both sides to the Court of Justice of São Paulo which was heard in April 2020. In its ruling, the Court found that the operator of the Jorge Dejorge channel must pay compensation to ABTA for breaching its members’ rights with his “fraudulent” videos.
Privacy

Slack Now Strips Location Data From Images (techcrunch.com) 21

Posted by msmash from the moving-forward dept.
Slack has started to strip uploaded photos of their metadata. What may seem like an inconsequential change to how the tech giant handles storing files on its servers, it will make it far more difficult to trace photos back to their original owners. From a report: Almost every digital file -- from documents on your computer to photos taken on your phone -- contains metadata. That's data about the file itself, such as how big the file is, when it was created, and by whom. Photos and videos often include the precise coordinates of where they were taken. But that can be a problem for higher-risk Slack users, like journalists and activists, who have to take greater security precautions to keep their sources safe. The metadata inside photos can out sources, deanonymize whistleblowers, or otherwise make it easier for unfriendly governments to target individuals. Even if a journalist removes the metadata from a photo before publishing, a copy of the photo -- with its metadata -- may remain on Slack's servers. Whether a hacker breaks in or a government demands the data, it can put sources at risk.
Businesses

Newton Mail is Being Resurrected Again, This Time by Superfans (inputmag.com) 14

Posted by msmash from the third-time's-the-charm dept.
Newton Mail, a subscription-based email client with an impressively large fanbase, is being reincarnated by new owners: long-time fans Maitrik Kataria and Justin Mitchell. From a report: After Newton's owner Essential announced it would be shutting down in February -- for the second time, Kataria and Mitchell reached out to the company to figure out how they could save their favorite email client. And somehow they've done it. Newton, which was originally produced under the name CloudMagic, has been shut down and given new life more times than most companies are afforded. CloudMagic rebranded as Newton in 2016 and did pretty well for itself -- by the time it first shut down in the summer of 2018, the service had more than 40,000 paid subscribers. The purchase of Newton Mail by Kataria and Mitchell brings the mail client back to its roots as a company free of venture capital funding. Newton will need to bank on its long-standing fan base's willingness to pay subscription fees for a mail client if it wants to survive. Otherwise, history is doomed to repeat itself once again.

Submission + - How Are Slashdot Users Handling COVID-19?

Submitted by turp182
turp182 writes: What's your story? How are you doing? What do you predict?

Below is a summary of the stats I've been following, some assumptions, and an overview of my personal situatoin.

Anyway, how you all doing?

Current Situation:
1. 2.415 million active reported infected (reported cases — deaths — recoveries, John Hopkins data)
2. 7% infected death rate globally
3. 6% infected death rate in US
4. Very high infected to death rates in Europe, (France, Spain, and Italy, 12-17% infected die) — has to be a combination of older people getting sick, overwhelmed health system, public transit, late lockdown.
5. Daily infection rates are stable at around 3,500 per hour (globally)
6. Daily death rates are stable around 200 per hour (globally)
7. Daily recoveries is increasing linerally and is around 1,700 per hour (globally)
8. The US has 5% of global population but 30%+ cases/deaths of global COVID-19.

My Assumptions:
1. This will be with us for at least a couple of years.
2. Vaccince will be a year or more away
3. Most everyone will be exposed or contract the virus.
4. This will cull the elderly and also low wage workers.
4.1 — Fodd supply is already an issue and will get worse.
5. Fabric of Society will decay
5.1 — More shootings and then home invasions as people run out of survival options
5.2 — Local efforts have gone a long way to preventing this, but it seems inevitable to me on some level

My Situation:
1. Working from home, well paid IT job
2. Wife unemployed (she was set to start a new job the day of the lockdowns)
3. Kids doing 3.5 hours/day of schooling viz Zoom (reasonably effective if a parent is present)
4. I camp at a friend's farm about every two weeks (the Sanity Maker!).
5. Started smoking again, I realize it's the worst time to do so, but f*ck it.
6. Haven't needed gas for the car in 2 months, I go out about once a week, my wife does more times for groceries and basics.
7. No idea how the summer is going to play out when the kids get out of school in a couple of weeks.
8. Bug out location identified and being stocked.

John Hopkins Data for Reference (I've been tracking since March 4):
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/op...

Submission + - Telsa Files Lawsuit Against Alameda County, Threatens To Move HQ To Nevada Texas (twitter.com) 1

Submitted by phalse phace
phalse phace writes: In response to a Twitter user who stated that Alameda county will not be giving Tesla permission to reopen their factory for production until June 1, Elon Musk said that Tesla has filed a lawsuit against the county.

"Tesla is filing a lawsuit against Alameda County immediately. The unelected & ignorant “Interim Health Officer” of Alameda is acting contrary to the Governor, the President, our Constitutional freedoms & just plain common sense!"

Musk also tweeted that Tesla would be moving their headquarters to Texas and Nevada immediately.

"Frankly, this is the final straw. Tesla will now move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately. If we even retain Fremont manufacturing activity at all, it will be dependen on how Tesla is treated in the future. Tesla is the last carmaker left in CA."

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