Researchers from the University of Southampton "have developed a fast and energy-efficient laser-writing method for producing high-density nanostructures in silica glass," reports Optica. "These tiny structures can be used for long-term five-dimensional (5D) optical data storage that is more than 10,000 times denser than Blue-Ray optical disc storage technology." ExtremeTech reports: This type of data storage uses three layers of nanoscale dots in a glass disc. The size, orientation, and position (in three dimensions) of the dots gives you the five "dimensions" used to encode data. Researchers say that a 5D disc could remain readable after 13.8 billion years, but it would be surprising if anyone was even around to read them at that point. In the shorter term, 5D optical media could also survive after being heated to 1,000 degrees Celsius.

The technique devised by doctoral researcher Yuhao Lei uses a femtosecond laser with a high repetition rate. The process starts with a seeding pulse that creates a nanovoid, but the fast pulse doesn't need to actually write any data. The repeated weak pulses leverage a phenomenon known as near-field enhancement to sculpt the nanostructures in a more gentle way. The researchers evaluated laser pulses at a variety of power levels, finding a level that sped up writing without damaging the silica glass disc. The study reported a maximum data rate of one million voxels per second, but each bit requires several voxels in 5D optical systems. That works out to a data rate of about 230 kilobytes per second. At that point, it becomes feasible to fill one of the discs, which have an estimated capacity of 500TB. It would take about two months to write this much data, after which it cannot be changed.

This work is still in the early stages, but the team managed to write and retrieve 5GB of text data using a 5D optical medium. All you need to read the stored data is a microscope and polarizer, and it should be readable for eons. The findings appear in Optica, Optica Publishing Group's journal for high-impact research.

Shiba Inu has entered into the top ten most valuable digital assets by market value, "hitting $40 billion and surpassing its cousin and inspiration, Dogecoin," reports Bloomberg. From the report: Shiba was up another 10% at midday on Monday and has doubled in value in the past week. Most of that gain came in a flurry of trading last Wednesday, when it gained a whopping 66%. Even with its recent meteoric rise -- it's up about 900% in the past month -- each Shiba coin costs just a tiny fraction of one cent. If you bought $1,000 worth of Shiba in late September, your 20 million coins would now be worth around $9,000.

Shiba's rise is similar to Dogecoin's ascent in the spring, when it caught fire and rose jumped from around 5 cents to 57 cents between April 7 and May 7. Like many other crypto currencies, Shiba is shrouded in mystery. According to its white paper -- or "Woof Paper," in this case -- the token was started in 2020 by an anonymous person or group named "Ryoshi." The paper, which describes how Shiba and its progeny works, is also peppered with soaring-but-vague platitudes about community, freedom, revolution and destroying traditional paradigms. A person with limited background knowledge of technology and blockchain vernacular would be hard pressed to decipher much of the technical wording in the white paper.

"Virtually all compilers -- programs that transform human-readable source code into computer-executable machine code -- are vulnerable to an insidious attack in which an adversary can introduce targeted vulnerabilities into any software without being detected," warns cybersecurity expert Brian Krebs in a new report. An anonymous reader shares an excerpt: Researchers with the University of Cambridge discovered a bug that affects most computer code compilers and many software development environments. At issue is a component of the digital text encoding standard Unicode, which allows computers to exchange information regardless of the language used. Unicode currently defines more than 143,000 characters across 154 different language scripts (in addition to many non-script character sets, such as emojis). Specifically, the weakness involves Unicode's bi-directional or "Bidi" algorithm, which handles displaying text that includes mixed scripts with different display orders, such as Arabic -- which is read right to left -- and English (left to right). But computer systems need to have a deterministic way of resolving conflicting directionality in text. Enter the "Bidi override," which can be used to make left-to-right text read right-to-left, and vice versa.

"In some scenarios, the default ordering set by the Bidi Algorithm may not be sufficient," the Cambridge researchers wrote. "For these cases, Bidi override control characters enable switching the display ordering of groups of characters." Bidi overrides enable even single-script characters to be displayed in an order different from their logical encoding. As the researchers point out, this fact has previously been exploited to disguise the file extensions of malware disseminated via email. Here's the problem: Most programming languages let you put these Bidi overrides in comments and strings. This is bad because most programming languages allow comments within which all text -- including control characters -- is ignored by compilers and interpreters. Also, it's bad because most programming languages allow string literals that may contain arbitrary characters, including control characters.

"So you can use them in source code that appears innocuous to a human reviewer [that] can actually do something nasty," said Ross Anderson, a professor of computer security at Cambridge and co-author of the research. "That's bad news for projects like Linux and Webkit that accept contributions from random people, subject them to manual review, then incorporate them into critical code. This vulnerability is, as far as I know, the first one to affect almost everything." The research paper, which dubbed the vulnerability "Trojan Source," notes that while both comments and strings will have syntax-specific semantics indicating their start and end, these bounds are not respected by Bidi overrides. [...] Anderson said such an attack could be challenging for a human code reviewer to detect, as the rendered source code looks perfectly acceptable. "If the change in logic is subtle enough to go undetected in subsequent testing, an adversary could introduce targeted vulnerabilities without being detected," he said. Equally concerning is that Bidi override characters persist through the copy-and-paste functions on most modern browsers, editors, and operating systems.

Ahead of a key city council vote on a $28.5 million water pact with Google, the city of The Dalles filed suit in state court Friday in an effort to keep the tech giant's water use a secret. The Oregonian/OregonLive reports: The city is seeking to overturn a ruling earlier this month from Wasco County's district attorney, who found Google's water use is a public record and ordered The Dalles to provide that information to The Oregonian/OregonLive. The city sued the news organization Friday, asking a judge to intervene.

Google is contemplating two new server farms on the site of a former aluminum smelter in The Dalles, where it already has an enormous campus of data centers on its property along the Columbia River. Google says it needs more water to cool its data centers, but neither the company nor the city will say how much more -- only that The Dalles can't meet Google's needs without expanding its water system. The deal calls for Google to pay for the upgrade. Even so, the proposed water pact has attracted scrutiny and skepticism in The Dalles, a riverfront city of about 15,000 approximately 80 miles east of Portland.

Residents and nearby farmers are concerned about the city's water long-term water supply amid an ongoing drought. They complain they don't know enough about Google's actual water use. The city is now going to court to keep that information under wraps, arguing it's a Google "trade secret" exempt from disclosure under Oregon law. Regardless of how the city's suit plays out, the litigation won't be resolved before the city council votes on Google's water deal on the evening of Nov. 8. That means the public won't have access to that information, though city council members do. This new agreement "could boost property tax collections by several million dollars a year but still figure to save Google tens of millions of dollars over the 15-year life of the tax breaks," the report notes. "It doesn't appear Google can proceed without more water, however."

Tesla launched a pilot project in the Netherlands this week in which non-Tesla electric vehicles will be allowed to use its Supercharger network, representing the first time that the automaker is opening up its proprietary charging stations to EVs from other companies. The Verge reports: Tesla's Supercharger network is often held up as the best possible example of an EV charging network: fast, reliable, and plentiful. But Tesla's network is also exclusive to Tesla owners, meaning someone driving a Volkswagen or Ford EV wouldn't be able to use it. But that's now starting to change. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has, for years, talked about opening up his company's vast Supercharger network to other electric vehicles. And over this past summer, he started revealing key details about how it would actually work. Now the company is ready to start the process by announcing its first pilot project.

Initially, only 10 Supercharger stations in the Netherlands will be available to non-Tesla EVs. Vehicle owners will need to download the most recent version of Tesla's smartphone app (version 4.2.3 or higher) in order to access the stations. After downloading the app, customers will be prompted to select "Charge Your Non-Tesla" in order to find the closest participating Supercharger site. Tesla owners can still use the stations just as normal. "We will be closely monitoring each site for congestion and listening to customers about their experiences," the company said in a blog post. "It's always been our ambition to open the Supercharger network to Non-Tesla EVs and, by doing so, encourage more drivers to go electric," the company said. "This move directly supports our mission to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy."

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: The anonymous hucksters behind a Squid Game cryptocurrency have officially pulled the rug on the project, making off with an estimated $2.1 million. [...] The SQUID cryptocurrency peaked at a price of $2,861 before plummeting to $0 around 5:40 a.m. ET., according to the website CoinMarketCap. This kind of theft, commonly called a "rug pull" by crypto investors, happens when the creators of the crypto quickly cash out their coins for real money, draining the liquidity pool from the exchange.

The SQUID crypto coin was launched just last week and included plenty of red flags, including a three-week old website filled with bizarre spelling and grammatical errors. The website, hosted at SquidGame.cash, has disappeared, along with every other social media presence set up by the scammers. You can see an archived version of the website here. Other red flags included the fact that SQUID's Telegram channel, set up by the unknown scammers, didn't allow comments from outsiders. And the Twitter account made it impossible for anyone to reply to posts.

Stablecoins, a popular type of digital asset pegged to traditional currencies, could transform the way Americans pay for everything from cell phones and gasoline to haircuts and cups of coffee, according to a long-awaited report released by the Biden administration. From a report: When regulated, stablecoins could "support faster, more efficient, and more inclusive payments options," said the President's Working Group on Financial Markets, which includes several top economic advisors to President Joe Biden. "Moreover," the report reads, "the transition to broader use of stablecoins as a means of payment could occur rapidly due to network effects or relationships between stablecoins and existing user bases or platforms."

Still, Biden's economic advisors said Congress must introduce regulatory oversight and formal market structure as soon as possible to both protect and inform investors, issuers and exchanges. Specifically, the Biden team recommended Congress pass legislation that limits stablecoin issuance to insured banks, a move that would give regulators far greater jurisdiction over the industry. Senior administration officials told CNBC that their report focuses on risks but that the nation's top regulators think stablecoins offer a compelling digital payments option that needs far more oversight from lawmakers.

Epic Games announced today that its work to bring video game mega-title Fortnite to the Chinese market is shutting down. From a report: The company said in an official announcement that the long-running test of the popular shooter title in China will conclude on November 15th. New users won't be accepted starting today. Tencent, a Chinese Internet giant, owns a stake in Epic Games, along with complete ownership of Riot Games, another American gaming company with an international gaming hit in its portfolio. China's gaming industry has been undergoing refreshed regulatory scrutiny in recent months, with the domestic government working to limit gaming time amongst youths. The impact of the Chinese Communist Party's move to lower hours-played amongst its younger population is not yet clear, but the decision could have made the economics of building Fortnite for China.

President Joe Biden on Monday sought to assure world leaders the United States would keep its promise to slash greenhouse gas emissions by more than half by the end of the decade, even as the key policies to ensure those reductions remain uncertain. From a report: Biden joined leaders from over 100 countries in Glasgow for the start of the COP26 climate conference, which kicked off on the heels of the G20 summit in Rome that concluded with a statement that urged "meaningful and effective" action on climate change but left huge work for negotiators to ensure an ambitious outcome. Biden, who succeeded former president Donald Trump in January, acknowledged that the United States had not always led by example on climate change. "That's why my administration is working overtime to show that our climate commitment is action, not words," Biden said. Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris climate accord; Biden returned it when he took office.

Starlink, part of Elon Musk's SpaceX company, has formed a subsidiary in India and is preparing to apply for licenses from the local government, according to a top official. From a report: "Pleased to share that SpaceX now has a 100% owned subsidiary in India," Sanjay Bhargava, India director for Starlink, said in a LinkedIn post Monday. Starlink's local India unit is registered with the name Starlink Satellite Communications Private Limited. A local unit is required for an internet company to offer its services in India, where Starlink -- assuming that it gets the license -- plans to offer 200,000 active terminals in over 160,000 districts by December 2022, the company representatives said. That's an ambitious goal for the company, which as of August had shipped 100,000 user terminals in 14 countries.

Apple's long-rumored AR-VR headset may be arriving next year. According to a new report from notable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the iPhone-maker is aiming to put Wi-Fi 6 and 6E support into the device, which could arrive at some point towards the end of 2022. From a report: In a note to investors, spotted by MacRumors, Kuo writes that Meta (formerly Facebook), Sony and Apple will all have new virtual reality or augmented reality headsets of some kind next year, which will support the latest Wi-Fi standards. He expects that Meta's product will launch in the second half of the year, Apple's in the fourth quarter of 2022 and Sony's sometime in the second quarter. Last week during its Facebook Connect event Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg teased a new, higher-end headset dubbed Project Cambria that the company says will arrive next year. Sony, meanwhile, has been teasing a successor to its PlayStation VR headset that is designed for the PlayStation 5. It too is aiming to launch its VR product in 2022. Kuo writes that using Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 6E will be a "basic requirement for head-mounted displays to improve the wireless experience," adding that "Wi-Fi 6 is significantly better than Wi-Fi 5 in transmission speed and power consumption."

macOS Monterey, released last week as the latest version of macOS, is bricking older Mac computers, rendering them unusable and unable to even turn on, according to a number of reports from users across social media and online forums. From a report: If this sounds oddly familiar, it may be because last year, with the launch of macOS Big Sur, similar reports surfaced about that update bricking older MacBook Pro models. Less than a year later, similar issues are now seemingly taking place once again. At least ten separate posts on Apple Support Communities contain users complaining that as they were attempting to update their Mac to macOS Monterey, the Mac went completely black and they're unable to turn it on. One post in specific includes several comments from users also reporting similar issues. Reports on Twitter are also plentiful.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the world's third-biggest emitter will zero out pollution by 2070, the boldest statement of intent at the opening of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow. From a report: The country will increase its non-fossil fuel power capacity to 500 gigawatts by the end of the decade, he said, raising the country's goal from 450GW. He said half of India's electricity will come from renewable sources by 2030 Modi also committed to increasing India's 2030 carbon intensity goal -- measured as carbon dioxide emissions per unit of gross domestic product -- from 35% to 45%. It will also strive to produce half of its electricity using renewable energy and cut carbon-dioxide emissions 1 billion tons from business as usual by 2030. The Indian leader also demanded that rich countries ramp up their contributions to help less developed nations decarbonize. "It is India's expectation that the world's developed nations make $1 trillion available as climate finance as soon as possible," Modi said. "Justice would demand that those nations that have not kept their climate commitments should be pressured."

All over the country, hardware from Huawei and ZTE keeps American telecom networks humming. In the coming months, many of those networks are going to start ripping it all out. From a report: On Friday, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission officially kicked off the reimbursement program for replacing equipment from the two Chinese companies, both of which have been deemed a threat to national security. That means that telecoms can apply for subsidies to purge the hardware from their networks. A lot has been made of the geopolitical connotations of the technology blacklist, which includes Huawei and ZTE, but the physical logistics of overhauling the nation's connectivity infrastructure is just as complicated given how much banned equipment is currently in the wild.

The process that started last week allows telecoms to file expenses for wiping out the hardware. Whenever those funds are approved and sent, "the clock starts ticking," says John Nettles, president of Alabama-based Pine Belt Communications Inc. "You're expected to complete it within one year after receiving your first reimbursement." For the target recipients of the program, small and usually rural carriers with no more than 10 million customers, that means 2022 is going to be an insanely busy year. Without expansive subsidies, these telecoms have said they would not have been able to afford to comply with the government mandate, but now with federal reimbursements, they'll soon be under the gun to source enough labor and eligible replacement gear to meet the FCC's deadline. Nettles estimates it'll likely take a four-person crew a week to overhaul each of his 67 towers.

PC pioneer Michael Dell is set to cap his climb back to the top of the computing world on Monday with one of the largest corporate spin-offs. Dell Technologies will shed its 81 percent stake in publicly traded VMware, creating an independent software company with a stock market value of nearly $64 billion. Dell's remaining hardware operations have an implied value of $33 billion, based on its latest share price. From a report: The transaction, first disclosed in April, completes an eight-year saga in which the Texan entrepreneur turned his $3.8 billion interest in an out-of-favor PC maker into a personal stake in a broader data center hardware and software empire worth $40 billion. Beginning with the buyout of his PC company, Dell went on to devour server and storage company EMC for $67 billion before taking the group public again in 2018. Along the way, he fought heated battles with dissident shareholders over claims that he bought Dell on the cheap and used complex financial engineering in the EMC deal to short-change investors. Silver Lake, the Silicon Valley private equity group that helped mastermind the dealmaking, will be left with stakes in Dell and VMware worth $11 billion.