Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Submission + - WD My Book data deleted -- Disconnect from the Internet now! (arstechnica.com) 1

Submitted by PuceBaboon
PuceBaboon writes: Ars Technica is reporting that some owners of Western Digital "My Book" network connected disk drives are experiencing data loss on their devices. The as yet unverified problem appears to be an externally initiated factory-reset, resulting in a loss of all existing data. At this early stage, Western Digital is warning users that they should disconnect their devices from the Internet to protect their data.

Submission + - SPAM: Reverse Engineering the BioNTech/Pfizer Vaccine (C19 theory for computer geeks)

Submitted by PuceBaboon
PuceBaboon writes: Bert Hubert has put together a really nice write-up on reverse engineering the source code of the BioNTech/Pfizer Sars-CoV-2 vaccine, in language which is specifically directed at geeks (for instance, RNA becomes RAM and DNA a flash-drive in his analogies).

The original article is a great read and shouldn't be missed, but there's also a second part where Bert has created a little competition for said geeks to formulate an optimized algorithm for changing the virus RNA to mRNA. There's already a little "Leaders Table" at the top of that page and a GitHub repository with the data and example code.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - SPAM: Sustained teleportation of quantum information achieved in test 2

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The breakthrough, described this month in the journal PRX Quantum, suggests a viable quantum internet could soon be a reality.

In the first-of-its-kind demonstration, researchers at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory affiliated with the University of Chicago, successfully teleported quantum information, or qubits, over a fiber-optic network stretching 27 miles.

Researchers actually tested their quantum teleportation technology on two different networks: the Caltech Quantum Network and the Fermilab Quantum Network.

During their trips across the two networks, built using a combination of commercial equipment and state-of-the-art single-photon detectors, the teleported photon particles maintained their fidelity at a rate of 90 percent.

"This is a key achievement on the way to building a technology that will redefine how we conduct global communication," said Spentzouris, head of the Fermilab quantum science program.

Both networks are compatible with current telecommunication infrastructure, as well as with emerging quantum data processing and storage technologies.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - The Chang'e-5 Recovery Team Wore Powered Exoskeletons (universetoday.com)

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: Other worlds aren’t the only difficult terrain personnel will have to traverse in humanity’s exploration of the solar system. There are some parts of our own planet that are inhospitable and hard to travel over. Inner Mongolia, a northern province of China, would certainly classify as one of those areas, especially in winter. But that’s exactly the terrain team members from the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASTC) had to traverse on December 16th to retrieve lunar samples from the Chang’e-5 mission. What was even more unique is that they did it with the help of exoskeletons.

Strangely enough, the workers wearing the exoskeletons weren’t there to help with a difficult mountain ascent, or even pick up the payload of the lunar lander itself (which only weighed 2 kg). It was to set up a communications tent to connect the field team back to the main CASTC headquarters in Beijing.The exoskeletons were designed to help people carry approximately twice as much as they would be able to. Local state media described a single person carrying 50kg over 100m of the rough terrain without becoming tired. Setting up communications equipment isn’t all the exoskeletons are good for though. They were most recently used by Chinese military logistics and medical staff in the Himalayas, where the country has been facing down the Indian military over a disputed line of control.

Submission + - SPAM: New ESP32-C3 RISC-V Processor

Submitted by PuceBaboon
PuceBaboon writes: CNX-Software is reporting this morning that the latest ESP32 chip from maker Espressif will be a RISC-V based, WiFi/BLE-5 single core processor.

ESP32-C3 WiSoC is pin to pin compatible with ESP8266, works with ESP32 development framework (e.g. ESP-IDF), supports Wi-Fi & Bluetooth LE 5.0 connectivity, and integrates 400KB SRAM & 384KB ROM. It features a single32-bit RISC-V (RV32IMC) core @ 160 MHz, and consume as little as 5uA in deep sleep mode. Pricing will also be similar to ESP8266.

The ESP8266/ESP32 series chips have been with us for a few years now and have established themselves as the go-to solution for WiFi enabled hobby (and commercial) projects. This addition to the fold will be welcomed by makers if the price and quiescent current predictions pan out.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Woman Sheds Coronavirus For 70 Days Without Symptoms (livescience.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A woman with COVID-19 in Washington state shed infectious virus particles for 70 days, meaning she was contagious during that entire time, despite never showing symptoms of the disease, according to a new report. The 71-year-old woman had a type of leukemia, or cancer of the white blood cells, and so her immune system was weakened and less able to clear her body of the new coronavirus, known as SARS-CoV-2. Although researchers have suspected that people with weakened immune systems may shed the virus for longer than typical, there was little evidence of this happening, until now.

The findings contradict guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which say that immunocompromised people with COVID-19 are likely not infectious after 20 days. The new findings suggest "long-term shedding of infectious virus may be a concern in certain immunocompromised patients," the authors wrote in their paper, published in the journal Cell.

Submission + - Chrome will soon have its own dedicated certificate root store (zdnet.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Google has announced plans to run its own certificate root program/store for Chrome, in a major architectural shift for the company's web browser program. Currently, Chrome uses the certificate root store part of each operating system. Google plans to manage its own list of "approved" certificates from now on, similar to Firefox. The changes are expected to create some issues in enterprise environments, where system administrators will have to manage and keep in sync yet another certificate store.

Submission + - Russian Hackers Targeted California, Indiana Democratic Parties (reuters.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The group of Russian hackers accused of meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election earlier this year targeted the email accounts of Democratic state parties in California and Indiana, and influential think tanks in Washington and New York, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The attempted intrusions, many of which were internally flagged by Microsoft Corp over the summer, were carried out by a group often nicknamed “Fancy Bear.” The hackers’ activity provides insight into how Russian intelligence is targeting the United States in the run-up to the Nov. 3 election. The targets identified by Reuters, which include the Center for American Progress, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said they had not seen any evidence of successful hacking attempts.

Fancy Bear is controlled by Russia’s military intelligence agency and was responsible for hacking the email accounts of Hillary Clinton’s staff in the run-up to the 2016 election, according to a Department of Justice indictment filed in 2018. News of the Russian hacking activity follows last month's announcement here by Microsoft that Fancy Bear had attempted to hack more than 200 organizations, many of which the software company said were tied to the 2020 election. Microsoft was able to link this year's cyber espionage campaign to the Russian hackers through an apparent programming error that allowed the company to identify a pattern of attack unique to Fancy Bear, according to a Microsoft assessment reviewed by Reuters. The thrust of espionage operations could not be determined by Reuters. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in August here that Russian operations were attempting to undermine the campaign of presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Submission + - Waymo Pulls Back the Curtain On 6.1 Million Miles of Self-Driving Car Data (theverge.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In its first report on its autonomous vehicle operations in Phoenix, Arizona, Waymo said that it was involved in 18 crashes and 29 near-miss collisions during 2019 and the first nine months of 2020. These crashes included rear-enders, vehicle swipes, and even one incident when a Waymo vehicle was T-boned at an intersection by another car at nearly 40 mph. The company said that no one was seriously injured and “nearly all” of the collisions were the fault of the other driver. The report is the deepest dive yet into the real-life operations of the world’s leading autonomous vehicle company, which recently began offering rides in its fully driverless vehicles to the general public. Autonomous vehicle (AV) companies can be a black box, with most firms keeping a tight lid on measurable metrics and only demonstrating their technology to the public under the most controlled settings. Indeed, Waymo, which was spun out of Google in 2016, mostly communicates about its self-driving program through glossy press releases or blog posts that reveal scant data about the actual nuts and bolts of autonomous driving. But in this paper, and another also published today, the company is showing its work. Waymo says its intention is to build public trust in automated vehicle technology, but these papers also serve as a challenge to other AV competitors.

The two papers take different approaches. The first outlines a multilayered approach that maps out Waymo’s approach to safety. It includes three layers: Hardware, including the vehicle itself, the sensor suite, the steering and braking system, and the computing platform; The automated driving system behavioral layer, such as avoiding collisions with other cars, successfully completing fully autonomous rides, and adhering to the rules of the road; Operations, like fleet operations, risk management, and a field safety program to resolve potential safety issues.

The second paper is meatier, with detailed information on the company’s self-driving operations in Phoenix, including the number of miles driven and the number of “contact events” Waymo’s vehicles have had with other road users. This is the first time that Waymo has ever publicly disclosed mileage and crash data from its autonomous vehicle testing operation in Phoenix. Between January and December 2019, Waymo’s vehicles with trained safety drivers drove 6.1 million miles. In addition, from January 2019 through September 2020, its fully driverless vehicles drove 65,000 miles. Taken together, the company says this represents “over 500 years of driving for the average licensed US driver,” citing a 2017 survey of travel trends by the Federal Highway Administration.

Submission + - SPAM: Why False Positives Matter, Too

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: “Although false positives may seem relatively harmless in comparison with their false-negative cousins, ‘people can absolutely get hurt,’ said Dr. Benjamin Mazer, a pathologist and diagnostics expert at Johns Hopkins University. . . . In places where the virus is relatively scarce, false positives may even outnumber actual positives — eroding trust in tests and, under some circumstances, prompting outbreaks of their own. A positive result on a coronavirus test sets off a cascade of consequences. According to guidelines published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people who test positive should immediately isolate for at least 10 days after their symptoms start (if they experience symptoms at all). That is 10 days spent away from friends and family, and 10 days of potential productivity in a school or workplace lost. . . . False positives can also be disastrous from a treatment standpoint, said Linoj Samuel, a clinical microbiologist at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit. People with the flu or Covid-19, for example, often show similar symptoms, but may only be tested for one of them at a time. If a patient is given an incorrect diagnosis of Covid-19, that person could be deprived of treatment that could alleviate their illness, or be given a costly therapy that does little to speed their recovery.”

“As testing in the United States continues to increase, experts have expressed concerns that frequent and high-profile diagnostic errors could seed disillusionment among the general public.”
Link to Original Source

Submission + - All of South Australia's power comes from solar panels in world first for major (abc.net.au) 1

Submitted by Anonymouse Cowtard
Anonymouse Cowtard writes: South Australia's renewable energy boom has achieved a global milestone.

The state once known for not having enough power has become the first major jurisdiction in the world to be powered entirely by solar energy.

For just over an hour on Sunday, October 11, 100 per cent of energy demand was met by solar panels alone.

"This is truly a phenomenon in the global energy landscape," Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) chief executive Audrey Zibelman said.

"Never before has a jurisdiction the size of South Australia been completely run by solar power, with consumers' rooftop solar systems contributing 77 per cent."

Large-scale solar farms, like the ones operating at Tailem Bend and Port Augusta, provided the other 23 per cent.

Any excess power generated by gas and wind farms on that day was stored in batteries or exported to Victoria via the interconnector.

Submission + - Google AI Tech Will Be Used For Virtual Border Wall, CBP Contract Shows (theintercept.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: After years of backlash over controversial government work, Google technology will be used to aid the Trump administration’s efforts to fortify the U.S.-Mexico border, according to documents related to a federal contract. In August, Customs and Border Protection accepted a proposal to use Google Cloud technology to facilitate the use of artificial intelligence deployed by the CBP Innovation Team, known as INVNT. Among other projects, INVNT is working on technologies for a new “virtual” wall along the southern border that combines surveillance towers and drones, blanketing an area with sensors to detect unauthorized entry into the country.

Contracting documents indicate that CBP’s new work with Google is being done through a third-party federal contracting firm, Virginia-based Thundercat Technology. Thundercat is a reseller that bills itself as a premier information technology provider for federal contracts. The contract was obtained through a FOIA request filed by Tech Inquiry, a new research group that explores technology and corporate power founded by Jack Poulson, a former research scientist at Google who left the company over ethical concerns. Not only is Google becoming involved in implementing the Trump administration’s border policy, the contract brings the company into the orbit of one of President Donald Trump’s biggest boosters among tech executives.

Documents show that Google’s technology for CBP will be used in conjunction with work done by Anduril Industries, a controversial defense technology startup founded by Palmer Luckey. The brash 28-year-old executive — also the founder of Oculus VR, acquired by Facebook for over $2 billion in 2014 — is an open supporter of and fundraiser for hard-line conservative politics; he has been one of the most vocal critics of Google’s decision to drop its military contract. Anduril operates sentry towers along the U.S.-Mexico border that are used by CBP for surveillance and apprehension of people entering the country, streamlining the process of putting migrants in DHS custody. CBP’s Autonomous Surveillance Towers program calls for automated surveillance operations “24 hours per day, 365 days per year” to help the agency “identify items of interest, such as people or vehicles.” The program has been touted as a “true force multiplier for CBP, enabling Border Patrol agents to remain focused on their interdiction mission rather than operating surveillance systems.” It’s unclear how exactly CBP plans to use Google Cloud in conjunction with Anduril or for any of the “mission needs” alluded to in the contract document.

Submission + - FCC Defends Helping Trump, Claims Authority Over Social Media Law (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Federal Communications Commission's top lawyer today explained the FCC's theory of why it can grant President Donald Trump's request for a new interpretation of a law that provides legal protection to social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Critics of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's plan from both the left and right say the FCC has no authority to reinterpret Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which gives legal immunity to online platforms that block or modify content posted by users. FCC General Counsel Thomas Johnson said those critics are wrong in a blog post published on the FCC website today.

Johnson noted that the Communications Decency Act was passed by Congress as part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which was an update to the Communications Act of 1934 that established the FCC and provided it with regulatory authority. Johnson also pointed to Section 201(b) of the Communications Act, which gave the FCC power to "prescribe such rules and regulations as may be necessary in the public interest to carry out the provisions of this Act."

Johnson then explained why he believes this means the FCC can reinterpret Section 230: "The Supreme Court has twice considered whether the FCC's general rulemaking authority under Section 201(b), adopted in 1938, extends to the 1996 amendments to the Act. Both times, the Court held that it does. Writing for the Court in Iowa Utilities Board, and employing his trademark textualist method, Justice Scalia wrote that this provision 'means what it says: The FCC has rulemaking authority to carry out the 'provisions of [the 1934] Act.'' The Court explained that 'the clear fact that the 1996 Act was adopted, not as a freestanding enactment, but as an amendment to, and hence part of, [the 1934] Act' shows that Congress intended the Commission to have rulemaking authority over all its provisions. Likewise, in the later City of Arlington case, the Court confirmed that the Commission's rulemaking authority '[o]f course... extends to the subsequently added portions of the Act.' From these authorities, a simple conclusion follows: Because Section 230 is among the 'subsequently added portions of the Act,' it is subject to the FCC's Section 201(b) rulemaking authority."

Submission + - SPAM: New Community COVID-19 Cases In New Zealand

Submitted by Thelasko
Thelasko writes: New Zealand has 25 more cases of Covid-19 today, director general of health Ashley Bloomfield has revealed.

Two of them are community cases linked to the port worker who tested positive over the weekend, while the rest are imported cases including 18 foreign fishermen from Russia or the Ukraine.

But there was no reason to change alert levels, Bloomfield said, because the community cases appear to be well contained, with the source of infection likely known, while the imported cases were all contained in quarantine facilities.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - How This Uncrushable Beetle Can Survive Being Run Over by a Car (gizmodo.com)

Submitted by fahrbot-bot
fahrbot-bot writes: The diabolical ironclad beetle, in addition to having one of the coolest names in the animal kingdom, boasts one of the toughest natural exoskeletons. A team of scientists has finally figured out the secret behind this extra durable armor and how these insects can survive getting run over by a car.

"A reed that bends in the wind is stronger than a mighty tree that breaks during a storm."

New research published today in Nature suggests the diabolical ironclad beetle (Phloeodes diabolicus) is an adherent of these sage words. Their exoskeletons are extra tough, but when the pressure literally gets to be too much, their protective shells take on an elastic quality that results in a kind of stretching rather than breaking.

The team of scientists from Purdue University and the University of California-Irvine who made this discovery say the unique strategy employed by the diabolical ironclad beetle could inspire the creation of innovative materials, namely components capable of dissipating energy to prevent catastrophic breakage.

Slashdot Top Deals

Top Ten Things Overheard At The ANSI C Draft Committee Meetings: (5) All right, who's the wiseguy who stuck this trigraph stuff in here?

Close