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Submission + - "Father of GPS" receives the IEEE Medal of Honor today (eetimes.com)

Submitted by dkatana
dkatana writes: A former paperboy from Wisconsin passionate about maps led the team in the Air Force responsible of designing the navigation system we use everyday.

From IoT Times:

'At the IEEE honors ceremony today in San Francisco, Bradford Parkinson, a retired Air Force colonel who spent his life between maps and navigation systems, will be awarded the 2018 IEEE Medal of Honor, “For fundamental contributions to and leadership in developing the design and driving the early applications of the Global Positioning System.”'

The current Global Positioning System (GPS) did not exist until 1995, just 22 years ago, and the engineer who led the project for the US Department of Defense (DOD) was Mr. Parkinson.

Submission + - SPAM: Trump Announces Unprecedented Support for Legalizing Marijuana 1

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: President Trump is preparing to support far-reaching legislation to reform federal marijuana prohibition so that states can enact their own cannabis laws without interference.

"Since the campaign, President Trump has consistently supported states' rights to decide for themselves how best to approach marijuana," U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner (D-CO) said in a statement. "Late Wednesday, I received a commitment from the President that the Department of Justice's rescission of the Cole memo will not impact Colorado's legal marijuana industry. Furthermore, President Trump has assured me that he will support a federalism-based legislative solution to fix this states' rights issue once and for all."

In a briefing with reporters on Friday afternoon, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed the development, calling Gardner's statement "accurate."

"We're always consulting Congress about issues including states' rights, of which the president is a firm believer," she said.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - SPAM: Viagra Has a Shocking Effect on Cancer, And Could Save Thousands of Lives

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Researchers studying the effects of Viagra (aka sildenafil) on mice have discovered a small, daily dose of the medication in the animals' drinking water significantly reduces their risk of developing colorectal cancer.

"Giving a baby dose of Viagra can reduce the amount of tumours in these animals by half," says biochemist Darren D. Browning from Augusta University.

The next step the team wants to pursue, saying a clinical trial with patients considered at high risk of colorectal cancer – or with a family history of the disease – should be a research priority. If the effects can be replicated in humans, it could be a huge step forward in saving lives lost to cancer.

In people, colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer worldwide, causing in excess of 1 million cases annually – some 50,000 of which end in death in the US each year.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - SPAM: Referendum to Split Calif. Into 3 States Will Be on Ballot

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: One of several proposals aiming to split California into multiple smaller states has reportedly reached an important new goal thanks in large part to the efforts of its billionaire champion.

According to a press release this week, the CAL 3 initiative surpassed the number of signatures needed to present the measure to voters in this year's election. If state officials determine the documents are genuine, it would then qualify as an initiative to be added this November.
Link to Original Source

Comment Re:GOOGLE, STOP. *GOOGLE* STOP. (Score 1) 52

by jbridges (#56207597) Attached to: Google's Slack Competitor 'Hangouts Chat' Comes Out of Beta

I do like WhatsApp, but it does NOT have a desktop client, and does NOT have a web client.

The pseudo desktop client actually links to your phone, so you must keep WhatsApp active on your phone to use the Desktop app.

Same with web client, it's just an echo of the phone app.

Also you cannot have more than one desktop/web client active at a time, frustrating.
Science

Global Warming Predictions May Now Be a Lot Less Uncertain (wired.com) 384

Posted by msmash from the perfecting-things dept.
An anonymous reader shares a report: Humanity must not pass a rise of 2 degrees Celsius in global temperature from pre-industrial levels, so says the Paris climate agreement. Cross that line and the global effects of climate change start looking less like a grave situation and more like a catastrophe. The frustrating bit about studying climate change is the inherent uncertainty of it all. Predicting where it's going is a matter of mashing up thousands of variables in massive, confounding systems. But today in the journal Nature, researchers claim they've reduced the uncertainty in a key metric of climate change by 60 percent, narrowing a range of potential warming from 3C to 1.2C. And that could have implications for how the international community arrives at climate goals like it did in Paris. The metric is called equilibrium climate sensitivity, but don't let the name scare you.

Submission + - DMCA Used to Remove Ad Server URL From Easylist Ad Blocklist (torrentfreak.com) 2

Submitted by Joe_Dragon
Joe_Dragon writes: Easylist, the popular adblock filter list used by millions of subscribers, appears to be under attack. Github, where the project is maintained, has recently received a DMCA notice requiring a domain URL to be removed from the list. That domain appears to be owned by US-based anti-adblocking company Admiral.

The default business model on the Internet is “free” for consumers. Users largely expect websites to load without paying a dime but of course, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. To this end, millions of websites are funded by advertising revenue.

Sensible sites ensure that any advertising displayed is unobtrusive to the visitor but lots seem to think that bombarding users with endless ads, popups, and other hindrances is the best way to do business. As a result, ad blockers are now deployed by millions of people online.

In order to function, ad-blocking tools – such as uBlock Origin or Adblock – utilize lists of advertising domains compiled by third parties. One of the most popular is Easylist, which is distributed by authors fanboy, MonztA, Famlam, and Khrinunder, under dual Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike and GNU General Public Licenses.

With the freedom afforded by those licenses, copyright tends not to figure high on the agenda for Easylist. However, a legal problem that has just raised its head is causing serious concern among those in the ad-blocking community.

Two days ago a somewhat unusual commit appeared in the Easylist repo on Github. As shown in the image below, a domain URL previously added to Easylist had been removed following a DMCA takedown notice filed with Github.

Domain text taken down by DMCA?

The DMCA notice in question has not yet been published but it’s clear that it targets the domain ‘functionalclam.com’. A user called ‘ameshkov’ helpfully points out a post by a new Github user called ‘DMCAHelper’ which coincided with the start of the takedown process more than three weeks ago.

A domain in a list circumvents copyright controls?

Aside from the curious claims of a URL “circumventing copyright access controls” (domains themselves cannot be copyrighted), the big questions are (i) who filed the complaint and (ii) who operates Functionalclam.com? The domain WHOIS is hidden but according to a helpful sleuth on Github, it’s operated by anti ad-blocking company Admiral.

Ad-blocking means money down the drain.

If that is indeed the case, we have the intriguing prospect of a startup attempting to protect its business model by using a novel interpretation of copyright law to have a domain name removed from a list. How this will pan out is unclear but a notice recently published on Functionalclam.com suggests the route the company wishes to take.

“This domain is used by digital publishers to control access to copyrighted content in accordance with the Digital Millenium Copyright Act and understand how visitors are accessing their copyrighted content,” the notice begins.

Combined with the comments by DMCAHelper on Github, this statement suggests that the complainants believe that interference with the ad display process (ads themselves could be the “copyrighted content” in question) represents a breach of section 1201 of the DMCA.

If it does, that could have huge consequences for online advertising but we will need to see the original DMCA notice to have a clearer idea of what this is all about. Thus far, Github hasn’t published it but already interest is growing. A representative from the EFF has already contacted the Easylist team, so this battle could heat up pretty quickly.

Submission + - SPAM: Google Hosts Nonprofit That Says Research Shows Boys a STEM Buzzkill for Girls

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: After abruptly canceling a 4 p.m. town hall meeting on Thursday that was intended to address fallout from the James Damore memo, Google and CEO Sundar Pichai hosted a 6 p.m. girls-only coding event at the Googleplex. "I want you to know there's a place for you in this industry," Pichai told young women at the Technovation World Pitch Summit, which honored all-girl teams of coders from all over the world "There's a place for you at Google. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. You belong here and we need you." Interestingly, the Technovation FAQ explains why boys don't belong in the Google-sponsored Technovation challenges: "[Q.] Can boys participate in the program? [A.] Anyone can use Technovation's free online curriculum, but participation in Technovation's official competition is limited to girls. Women are highly underrepresented in the technology fields. Research shows that women are more enthusiastic and engaged in STEM courses when they are in an all-girls environment because they feel comfortable participating and asking questions. We aim to provide that safe environment and provide the girls with role models so they can see themselves in technology careers. Other technology and entrepreneurship initiatives are co-educational such as FIRST, SMASH, and BUILD, but Technovation is just for young women." So, is separating boys and girls in the name of STEM learning a good or bad thing?

Submission + - Is adblocking a DMCA violation? (torrentfreak.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Easylist, the popular AdBlock filter list has been the target of a DMCA takedown notice. Two days ago, a commit appeared in the Easylist repo on Github, removing the domain "functionalclam.com" from Easylist, following a DMCA takedown notice filed with Github.

That domain appears to be owned by US-based anti-adblocking company Admiral who claims that publishers have lost $13.4 Billion so far this year, due to AdBlock.

According to a comment on the EasyList repo, functionalclam.com is not actually an ad server but is part of Admiral's "copyright access control platform" that they provide to publishers. Admiral claims that blocking functionalclam.com amounts to "circumventing a publisher’s copyright access control technology" in violation of the DMCA.

Submission + - SPAM: After Abruptly Canceling Town Hall, Google CEO Hosted All-Girls Coding Event 1

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "After canceling a town hall meeting [reportedly scheduled for 4 PM] intended to address the fallout from an anti-diversity memo," Fortune reports, "Google CEO Sundar Pichai emphasized the importance of women in tech jobs while speaking at a coding event for girls at the company's campus [scheduled for 6 PM]. "I want you to know there’s a place for you in this industry," Pichai told a crowd of young women on Thursday, according to the Verge. "There’s a place for you at Google. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. You belong here and we need you." Pichai was speaking at the Technovation awards that honored teams of young women coders from all over the world." Technovation 2017 was sponsored by Google's Made With Code girls initiative. The all-girls coding competition is a fave of YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, who penned a column for Fortune on Wednesday that injected her daughter into the James Damore controversy. In 2015, Fortune reported that it was the urging of Wojcicki and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg that prompted iD Tech Camps — which Wojcicki's and Sandberg's kids had attended — to spin off a girls-only chain of tech camps that Wojcicki's daughter went on to attend..

Submission + - Microsoft Surface reliability problems (reuters.com)

Submitted by gmfeier
gmfeier writes: Reuters reports that Consumer Reports has pulled its "recommended" designation from Microsoft Surface products due to a significantly higher rate of problems reported by users. The article describes the Surface products as a "statistical outlier" compared to other brands.

Submission + - Fired Google Engineer James Damore Takes His Case To YouTube (fastcompany.com) 2

Submitted by tedlistens
tedlistens writes: James Damore, the engineer fired by Google on Monday for circulating a controversial memo questioning the company’s diversity efforts and “ideological echo chambers,” has made at least two appearances on right-wing YouTube channels in the past 24 hours. In interviews with University of Toronto Professor Jordan B. Peterson and conservative personality Stefan Molyneux, Damore argues that his writing wasn’t meant to critique particular female engineers’ skills, but to explain why women are underrepresented in the field. “I’m not saying that any of the female engineers at Google are in any way worse than the average male engineer,” he says. “I’m just saying this may explain some of the disparity in representation in the population.”

Submission + - VIDEO: Interview with James Damore, Google Diversity Memo Author (youtube.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Former Google employee James Damore describes the intense media backlash to his Google diversity memo, intolerance shown towards political diversity in the company, the importance of discussing gender differences and why he wrote the memo in the first place.

Submission + - New Amiga to go on sale in late 2017 (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: From Apollo Accelerators, emerged last week: the company's forthcoming “Vampire V4” can work as a standalone Amiga or an accelerator for older Amigas.

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