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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 364 declined, 387 accepted (751 total, 51.53% accepted)

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Submission + - Russia Moves from Summer Time to Standard Time (theguardian.com)

Submitted by jones_supa
jones_supa writes: Russia's legislature, often accused of metaphorically turning back the clock, has decided to do it literally – abandoning the policy of keeping the country on daylight-saving time all year. The 2011 move to impose permanent "summer time" in 2011 was one of the most memorable and least popular initiatives of Dmitry Medvedev's presidency. It forced tens of millions to travel to their jobs in pitch darkness during the winter. In the depths of December, the sun doesn't clear the horizon in Moscow until 10am. The State Duma, the lower house of parliament, voted 442-1 on Tuesday to return to standard time this autumn and stay there all year.

Submission + - Chimpanzees Develop A Grass-in-ear Fashion Trend

Submitted by jones_supa
jones_supa writes: Just in time for this year's primate-starring film event, the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, comes news from Zambia that also chimpanzees seem to form fashion trends. The behaviour appears to be "non-adaptive", i.e., motivated by frivolous rather than functional reasons. Dutch primate specialist Edwin van Leeuwen describes it as "quite unique". He first spotted the trend-setting chimp in 2010 when Julie, an elderly female, repeatedly popped long pieces of grass in her ear and left it there for several hours. The quirky idea was adopted by seven other chimps in her troop, who still continue to do it after her death. This may be the first fashion trend documented in the animal world, according to the study published recently in science journal Animal Cognition.

Submission + - Experimenting With Motivational Passwords

Submitted by jones_supa
jones_supa writes: At Mauricio Estrella's workplace, the Microsoft Exchange server is configured to ask thousands of employees around the planet to change their passwords every 30 days. Mauricio often approached the situation with an angry grandpa voice in his head: "The damn password has expired." This input field with a pulsating cursor, waiting for him to type a password that he will have to re-enter for the next 30 days. Many times during the day. Then a lightbulb went on inside his head: "I'm gonna use a password to change my life." His passwords became little motivational snippets, every one being a condensed phrase for a goal or dream. He set his first motivational password to be Save4trip@thailand. Guess where he went 3 months later. Mauricio kept doing this and found the method to work surprisingly consistently for various goals, which he lists in his blog post. To summarize, this might be one way to make your passwords a bit more fun and to remind about good habits. Just for added security he recommends scrambling the passwords a bit more than in his examples.

Submission + - KeyStore Vulnerability Affects 86% of Android Devices

Submitted by jones_supa
jones_supa writes: IBM security researchers have published an advisory about an Android vulnerability that may allow attackers to obtain highly sensitive credentials, such as cryptographic keys for some banking services and virtual private networks, and PINs or patterns used to unlock vulnerable devices. It is estimated that the flaw affects 86 percent of Android devices. Android KeyStore has a little bug where the encode_key() routine that is called by encode_key_for_uid() can overflow the filename text buffer, because bounds checking is absent. The advisory says that Google has patched only version 4.4 of Android. There are several technical hurdles an attacker must overcome to successfully perform a stack overflow on Android, as these systems are fortified with modern NX and ASLR protections. The vulnerability is still considered to be serious, as it resides in one of the most sensitive resources of the operating system.

Submission + - YouTube Introduces 60 fps Video Support (polygon.com)

Submitted by jones_supa
jones_supa writes: Google's YouTube announced that it's adding two new features that will especially benefit people who enjoy watching gameplays and those who stream games live. Most excitingly, the site is rolling out 60 frames per second video playback. The company has a handful of videos from Battlefield Hardline and Titanfall (embedded in the article) that show what 60 fps playback at high definition on YouTube looks like. As the another new feature, YouTube is also offering direct funding support for content creators — name-checking sites like Kickstarter and Patreon — and is allowing fans to "contribute money to support your channel at any time, for any reason." Adding the icing on the cake, the website has also a number of other random little features planned, including viewer-contributed subtitles, a library of sound effects and new interactive info cards.

Submission + - MH370 Was On Autopilot When It Crashed

Submitted by jones_supa
jones_supa writes: The Australian Transport Safety Bureau’s Chief Commissioner Martin Dolan explained that MH370’s “highest probability flight path” was a straight course such as one flown by an aircraft on autopilot. Authorities have not been able to assess the exact point at which autopilot was turned on but believe the Boeing 777 was operating on autopilot from the 1st arc — shortly after MH370 turned south past the tip of Sumatra — to the 7th arc in the southern Indian Ocean. The revelation that autopilot was activated raises further suspicion the plane’s disappearance was a mass atrocity committed by either the captain or copilot of the plane. The theory is also consistent with reports that an official police investigation into the mystery identified the captain as the prime suspect if it is proven human intervention was involved. As the result, the hunt for MH370 will now return near to the original search area. An expert satellite working group has reviewed all existing information in order to define a search zone of up to 60,000 square kilometres along the arc in the southern Indian Ocean. The new area is around 1,800 kilometres west of Perth and had previously been subject to an aerial search, which found no debris. This area shall now be scoured underwater.

Submission + - Improvements The Linux Desktop Needs (datamation.com)

Submitted by jones_supa
jones_supa writes: In the last fifteen years, the Linux desktop has gone from a collection of marginally adequate solutions to an unparalleled source of innovation and choice. Many of its standard features are either unavailable in Windows, or else available only as a proprietary extension. As a result, using Linux is increasingly not only a matter of principle, but of preference as well. Yet, despite this progress, gaps remain. Some are missing features, others missing features, and still others pie-in-the sky extras that could be easily implemented to extend the desktop metaphor without straining users' tolerance of change. DataMation begins the discussion by throwing some suggestions on the table: easy e-mail encryption, thumbnails for virtual workspaces, more workable menus, professional and affordable video editor, a proper document processor, color-coded title bars and, icon fences. There's probably dozens of other unspoken ideas out there, so what improvements to the Linux desktop would you add to the list?

Submission + - European iPhone Chargers Prone to Overheating

Submitted by jones_supa
jones_supa writes: Apple has announced a "replacement program" for European iPhone AC/DC adapters sold between October 2009 and September 2012 after discovering they may overheat and thus pose a safety risk. The affected adapter, model A1300, was bundled with European sales of the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPhone 4S, and was also sold separately. By a quick estimate, there must be millions of A1300s in the wild. The specific technical reason causing the overheating has not been detailed (a YouTube video shows a teardown of the device). The A1300 was replaced by an almost-identical adapter, A1400, in 2012, which is not affected by the safety issue. For more details on how to identify the affected adapter, and to arrange a replacement, visit Apple's dedicated portal for the issue.

Submission + - Eskimo Diet Lacks Support for Better Cardiovascular Health

Submitted by jones_supa
jones_supa writes: Monthly Prescribing Reference reports that the "Eskimo diet" hypothesis, suggested as a factor in the alleged low incidence of coronary artery disease (CAD) in Greenland Eskimos, seems not to be supported in the literature, according to a metastudy published in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology. Researchers found that only one study directly assessed the prevalence of CAD or CAD risk factors, and that study showed that CAD morbidity was similar among Inuit and American and European populations. In most studies, the prevalence of CAD was similar for Greenland Eskimos and Canadian and Alaskan Inuit and for non-Eskimo populations. The original studies from the 1970s that formed the basis of the supposed cardioprotective effect of the Eskimo diet did not examine the prevalence of CAD. 'The totality of reviewed evidence leads us to the conclusion that Eskimos have a similar prevalence of CAD as non-Eskimo populations,' the authors write. 'To date, more than 5,000 papers have been published studying the alleged beneficial properties of omega-3 fatty acids not to mention the billion dollar industry producing and selling fish oil capsules based on a hypothesis that was questionable from the beginning.'

Submission + - Grand Theft Auto V For Modern Platforms Confirmed

Submitted by jones_supa
jones_supa writes: Since the release of the extremely successful Grand Theft Auto V on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, rumors about PC — and later also an Xbox One and PlayStation 4 — version have been floating around. Now it's official: Grand Theft Auto V will be released on Windows PC and Xbox One, in addition to PlayStation 4, this fall, publisher Rockstar Games announced today with a trailer. A post on Rockstar Newswire tells us that the ports will offer visual and technical improvements such as 'increased draw distances, finer texture details, denser traffic and enhanced resolutions'. All of the new GTA Online content that has been created and released since launch will be available also on the modern platforms. The PC version will exclusively include a video editor to allow players to put together their own clips of in-game action.

Submission + - MH370: Australia Rules Out Main Search Zone

Submitted by jones_supa
jones_supa writes: The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has finished searching the area for flight MH370 where the underwater pings were detected, and declared that it can now be discounted as the final resting place of the aircraft. An underwater search vehicle, Bluefin-21, has scoured more than 850 square kilometers of the Indian ocean west of Perth since four acoustic signals – thought to have been emitted by the missing aircraft’s black box flight recorders – were detected by a towed pinger locator in April. Australia's deputy prime minister, Warren Truss, told parliament in Canberra on Thursday that the search would move into a new phase beginning in August that could take 12 months. The pings were the best information they had available, but they still very confident that the resting place of the aircraft is in the southern Indian Ocean and along the seventh ping line, he said, referring to an arc identified by analysis of satellite communications data from UK company Inmarsat. The search area would now be extended to a 60,000 square kilometer zone along the arc. The ocean floor would be mapped to help the search.

Submission + - Finnish Pair Planned to Kill 50 at University With Heavy Gear

Submitted by jones_supa
jones_supa writes: The beginning of this month unveiled a grimy plan of two University of Helsinki students regarding performing several murders. The prosecutor in the Helsinki University attack trial says the two accused were planning to kill 50 random people and were in possession of a large number of weapons and other equipment. These included devices for preparing poisonous gases, gas masks, hundreds of bullets, knives, handcuffs and a crossbow. Both of the suspects admitted discussing a mass killing, but claim never planning it. The male suspect said through his lawyer that he had been bullied at his upper secondary school, and had been considering various plans to kill people for years. According to the prosecutor, the two planned to steal more weapons from a Helsinki gun shop and then walk to the university campus and begin killing anyone they encountered. They also planned to prepare highly-lethal arsine gas at the university and to start fires and lock doors in order to hinder rescue efforts.

Submission + - Volunteers Wanted for KWin 5 Quality Assurance Testing

Submitted by jones_supa
jones_supa writes: The KDE developer Martin Gräßlin writes in his blog:

This week we had the beta release for our upcoming release of the next iterations of our Plasma workspaces. This also includes KWin 5.0 which has the first major transition since the introduction of Compositing back in 2008. The changes in KWin are huge as we ported to Qt 5 and with that also to XCB and QtQuick2. Personally I comare it to having exchanged the engine, the tires, adding new spoilers and getting a new finish for our car. But after such a huge change there will be the one or other screw which needs to be tightened to get the fastest car in the race. And that’s where we need YOU. We cannot find all the small issues. We need you as a tester to know what to fix. So please give a try to our beta, our daily packages and weekly isos and try as hard as possible to break KWin. I want that KWin 5.0 has at least the same quality as KWin 4.11 and I’m sure you want that, too.

Now is your chance to make open source software more robust. Head over to David Edmundson's blog post for general testing instructions. KWin bugs should be reported against product 'kwin' on bugzilla.

Submission + - VESA Standardizes Adaptive Sync

Submitted by jones_supa
jones_supa writes: At the end of last year, NVIDIA introduced a technology called G-SYNC, which makes the frame rate of a computer picture signal to be dynamic, allowing real-time graphics free of judder and tearing. The technology primarily targets games, but could provide accurately-timed video playback and other use cases. After that, AMD came out with its own implementation called FreeSync, which is based around the same idea. The problem with the two rivaling solutions, is of course that they are manufacturer-specific. Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) has stepped up to standardize the concept, which in practice means adding a feature called Adaptive-Sync to the DisplayPort 1.2a specification. A little known fact is that the technology has been a standard component of VESA's embedded DisplayPort (eDP) specification since its initial rollout in 2009. As a result, Adaptive-Sync technology is already incorporated into many of the building block components for displays that rely on eDP for internal video signaling. The new specification extends these capabilities to external monitors.

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