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Submission + - Swapping Spark Plugs For Nanopulses Could Boost Engine Efficiency By 20% (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Transient Plasma Systems has its roots in pulsed power technology developed for the Department of Defense at the University of Southern California, specifically nanosecond-duration pulses of power. Since 2009, it has been working on commercializing the technology for the civilian market in a number of applications, but obviously it's the automotive one that interests me. In a conventional four-stroke internal combustion gasoline engine, which works on the principle of suck-squeeze-bang-blow, the bang is created by a spark plug igniting the fuel-air mixture in the cylinder. That spark typically lasts several milliseconds, and although the control of that spark is now controlled electronically rather than mechanically, the principle is the same today as it was in 1910 when Cadillac added it to its engines.

TPS's system does away with the conventional coil-on-plug approach. Instead, much shorter pulses of plasma—several nanoseconds—are used to ignite the fuel-air mix inside the cylinder. These have a much higher peak power than a conventional spark; thanks to their much shorter duration, however, the ignition is actually still rather low-energy (and therefore lower temperature). Consequently, it's possible to achieve better combustion at high compression ratios, more stable lean burning, and lower combustion temperatures within the cylinder. And that means a more efficient engine and one that produces less nitrogen oxide. TPS says that using its system, it can increase the thermal efficiency of an already very efficient internal combustion engine like the one Toyota uses in the current Prius (which is ~41 percent) up to 45 percent — similar to the turbulent jet ignition systems that have recently seen Formula 1 gasoline engines reach that level.

Submission + - In letter to FTC, Microsoft calls Repair a Security Risk. It isn't. (securepairs.org)

Submitted by chicksdaddy
chicksdaddy writes: In comments submitted to the Federal Trade Commission, Microsoft Corp. is arguing that repairing its devices could jeopardize the cyber security of Trusted Platform Module (TPM) security chip. Don’t believe them.

The argument comes in an unsigned letter (https://securepairs.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/MSFT-COMMENT.pdf) to the FTC from Microsoft and dated May 31st. The statement was submitted ahead of Nixing the Fix (https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/events-calendar/nixing-fix-workshop-repair-restrictions), an FTC workshop on repair restrictions that is scheduled for mid-July.

Microsoft was one of a number of companies that submitted comments to the Commission critical of so-called “right to repair” laws proposed in 20 states (https://uspirg.org/news/usp/california-becomes-20th-state-2019-consider-right-repair-bill) this year. They would legally mandate that manufacturers make diagnostic information, tools and replacement parts available to owners and independent repair professionals.

“The unauthorized repair and replacement of device components can result in the disabling of key hardware security features or can impede the update of firmware that is important to device security or system integrity,” Microsoft wrote. “If the TPM or other hardware or software protections were compromised by a malicious or unqualified repair vendor, those security protections would be rendered ineffective and consumers’ data and control of the device would be at risk,” the company wrote. “Moreover, a security breach of one device can potentially compromise the security of a platform or other devices connected to the network.”

Firms like Microsoft, Lexmark, LG, Samsung and others use arguments like this all the time and then not too subtly imply that their authorized repair professionals are more trustworthy and honest than independent competitors. But that’s just hot air. They have no data to back up those assertions and there’s no way that their repair technicians are more trustworthy than owners, themselves.

As for the underlying argument about repair threatening Microsoft’s device security model? Well, that’s wrong, also, according to securepairs.org, a group of information security professionals who support the right to repair. (https://securepairs.org/)

There’s nothing inherent in repair or the things called for in right to repair laws like providing diagnostic software, diagnostic codes, schematics and replacement parts that puts the integrity of the TPM or the trust model it anchors at risk. Nor does the TPM require that the devices it secures remain pristine: using the same hardware and software configuration as when they were sold by the OEM.

After all, TPMs are in Dell computers. Dell makes diagnostic software and diagnostic codes (https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/quicktest) and schematics available for their hardware and I haven’t heard Microsoft or anybody else suggest that a TPM on a repairable Dell laptop is any less secure than the TPM on an unrepairable Microsoft Surface.

As securepairs points out: if Microsoft wants to make devices that nobody can service and repair without breaking their security model, they’re entitled to do that. They can make Surface Pros so hardened and tamper proof that merely opening them will destroy them. What they can’t do is make devices that are repairable, and then lock out everyone but their own service technicians. In short: if its safe and possible for a Microsoft authorized technician to service a Surface Pro, then it is safe and possible for an owner of the device to do so, or an independent repair technician. Full stop.

Submission + - Early Soyuz Spacecraft Had a Peculiar User Interface, Says Charles Simonyi (ieee.org)

Submitted by Tekla Perry
Tekla Perry writes: When WYSIWIG pioneer Charles Simonyi went to space, he couldn't but help notice the awkward user interface on the rocket's control panel. It was a case of legacy systems, not wanting to change training and documentation, and an emulator that ran Unix on a 386 chip, he reported during a recent discussion on space software held at the Computer History Museum.

Submission + - Lyme Disease Cases Are Exploding. And It's Only Going to Get Worse. (medium.com)

Submitted by Artem S. Tashkinov
Artem S. Tashkinov writes: First identified in 1975 in the leafy New England town of Old Lyme, Connecticut, Lyme disease has now reached what experts consider pandemic proportions. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the number of confirmed cases of Lyme disease in the U.S. has more than doubled in the two decades leading up to 2017 (the most recent year for which final figures are available) and increased 17% from 2016 to 2017 alone. More than half the counties in the U.S. are considered high-risk areas for Lyme, according to the CDC, and in some areas, as many as six out of 10 ticks carry the infection. It’s estimated that 300,000 people contract Lyme every year in the U.S., with victims found not just in traditionally tick-heavy areas like upstate New York and Maine, but also in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. In North America, news reports in Maine and southern Canada this spring featured a shocking number of sightings of what are called ghost moose—skeletal-looking, malnourished, denuded animals that have rubbed off their fur in response to tick irritation after hosting up to 75,000 feeding ticks through the winter. Many emerged anemic after being the source of so many blood meals, and a number of calves died after losing too much blood to ticks—a vampire-like end to life known as exsanguination.

Comment Re:pharmaceutical company benevolence (Score 1) 66

> by AndrewFlagg ( 753349 )
> has anyone ever looked at the word benevolence? has any
> pharmaceutical company had on this mission statement (?)

We have organizations that focus on benevolence. They're called non-profits. You don't get to become a Pfizer by focusing on benevolence. This is not a criticism of them. The company is a tool for making money by selling medical items. Just that, nothing more.

Anybody who has 80 Million $ (US) to spare is free to fund their own study. Pfizer knows the details of the study better than anybody and they don't seem to think it's worth looking into. At the very least, if they thought it was useful they could stick a harmless atom onto the molecule, give it a new name so they can patent it again, and then do a proper study.

Submission + - Chinese Retaliation Set To Block U.S. Technology Over National Security (forbes.com) 1

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear writes: In an apparent retaliation of US banning Huawei, China hit back against Washington on Friday, with the country's Cyberspace Administration issuing a draft set of beefed-up cybersecurity regulations for public consultation. The draft stated that "in order to improve the security and controllability of key information infrastructure and maintain national security," companies purchasing "network products and services that affect or may affect national security" will now need to evaluate the national security risk before doing so. The US National Security Agency (NSA) has been caught bugging Cisco equipments and spying on Chinese companies and universities .

Submission + - The First Usable Electric Car Was Invented In 1884 In Britain By Thomas Parker (historycollection.co)

Submitted by dryriver
dryriver writes: Thomas Parker, sometimes described as the "Edison of Britain", was a British engineer and electrical technologies inventor working in the 1800s who was also one of the world's first environmentalists — the amount of smoke and pollutants in the air in London and other coal burning cities worried him. Parker was very adept both at inventing new things and at siginificantly improving technologies that others had invented before him — he improved everything from steam pumps, to electrical batteries, electric motors, alternators and dynamos, invented the award winning “Kyrle Grate,” which was designed to allow anthracite coal to be burned inside of it, and was responsible for the electrification of London's "Underground" Subway system and tramways build in other British cities. There has been attempts at electrical cars before Parker's going back as far as the 1830s, but his was revolutionary in many aspects. The Elwell-Parker car was fitted with Parkers high-capacity rechargeable batteries and later vehicles had hydraulic brakes on all four wheels, as well as four-wheel steering. These features are even now being described as revolutionary. While Parker's electrical cars were quite popular in America and Britain ( read more here: http://www.elwellparker.com/ou... ) for a number of years, soon improved gas and diesel based vehicles caused public interest in electric cars to wane. Parker's company Elwell Parker, which survives to this day, then focused on making electrical speciality vehicles for factories and warehouses — electric carts for moving equipment and crates around, and precursors of modern forklifts for example. While everybody knows electrical inventors like Edison and Tesla today, Thomas Parker is barely known and barely remembered in relative terms.

Submission + - First American Site Bug Exposed 885 Million Sensitive Title Insurance Records (techcrunch.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Web site for Fortune 500 real estate title insurance giant First American Financial Corp. leaked hundreds of millions of documents related to mortgage deals going back to 2003, until notified this week by KrebsOnSecurity. The digitized records — including bank account numbers and statements, mortgage and tax records, Social Security numbers, wire transaction receipts, and drivers license images — were available without authentication to anyone with a Web browser.

Santa Ana, Calif.-based First American is a leading provider of title insurance and settlement services to the real estate and mortgage industries. It employs some 18,000 people and brought in more than $5.7 billion in 2018. Earlier this week, KrebsOnSecurity was contacted by a real estate developer in Washington state who said he’d had little luck getting a response from the company about what he found, which was that a portion of its Web site (firstam.com) was leaking tens if not hundreds of millions of records. He said anyone who knew the URL for a valid document at the Web site could view other documents just by modifying a single digit in the link. And this would potentially include anyone who’s ever been sent a document link via email by First American. KrebsOnSecurity confirmed the real estate developer’s findings, which indicate that First American’s Web site exposed approximately 885 million files, the earliest dating back more than 16 years. No authentication was required to read the documents.

Comment Those Curves Come With Drawbacks (Score 1) 212

I have a highly streamlined car, and there are drawbacks to it. The gentle slope of the front and the kammback on the rear make it impossible to see just where the car ends, which makes parking problematical.

The entire car is low to the ground to reduce air going under it and causing drag. This make it tend to scrape on anything bigger than a tennis ball, and puts the drivers seat uncomfortably low.

The roof line has been cleaned up, which is nice, until you go to mount a roof rack and there's nothing to connect to.

So, there are costs to changing around the car to optimize air flow, instead of optimizing the various activities that you do with the car.

Submission + - Group Seeks Investigation of Deep Packet Inspection Use by ISPs

Submitted by wiredmikey
wiredmikey writes: European Digital Rights (EDRi), together with 45 NGOs, academics and companies across 15 countries, has sent an open letter to European policymakers and regulators, warning about widespread and potentially growing use of deep packet inspection (DPI) by internet service providers (ISPs). DPI is far more than is required by the ISP to perform its basic purpose, and by its nature privacy invasive, and not strictly legal within the EU. Nevertheless, many are concerned that its practice and use within Europe is growing, and that "some telecom regulators appear to be pushing for the legalization of DPI technology." One of the drivers appears to be the growing use of 'zero-rating' by mobile operators. "A mapping of zero-rating offers in Europe conducted by EDRi member Epicenter.works identified 186 telecom services which potentially make use of DPI technology," writes (PDF) EDRi.

Submission + - Japanese Railway Company Starts Testing 249mph Bullet Train Speeds (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: This week, Japanese railway company JR East showed off its new Alfa-X, a high-speed bullet train that is designed to achieve a top speed of 400kph, or 249mph, which would make it the fastest commercial train in the world. In day-to-day operations, the train would shuttle passengers at 360kph, or roughly 224mph. On Friday, JR East will begin testing the Alfa-X, without passengers, on its railways. According to Bloomberg, the 10-car train will make the trip "between the cities of Aomori and Sendai at night" for the next three years during a testing phase. JR East hopes to use the Alfa-X commercially by 2030. Japan News says the line will eventually be extended to Sapporo.

Submission + - New Intel Firmware Boot Verification Bypass Enables Low-Level Backdoors (csoonline.com)

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: At the Hack in the Box conference in Amsterdam this week, researchers Peter Bosch and Trammell Hudson presented a new attack against the Boot Guard feature of Intel's reference UEFI implementation, Tianocore. The attack, which can give an attacker full, persistent access, involves replacing a PC's SPI flash chip with one that contains rogue code, reports Lucian Constantin for CSO. 'Even though such physical attacks require a targeted approach and will never be a widespread threat, they can pose a serious risk to businesses and users who have access to valuable information,' writes Constantin. Intel has patches available for Tianocore, but as we all remember from the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities, distributing UEFI patches isn't an easy process.

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