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Submission + - The Growing Need For Human Robot-Minders Could Juice the Remote Workforce (wsj.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Across industries, engineers are building atop work done a generation ago by designers of military drones. Whether it’s terrestrial delivery robots, flying delivery drones, office-patrolling security robots, inventory-checking robots in grocery stores or remotely piloted cars and trucks, the machines that were supposed to revolutionize everything by operating autonomously turn out to require, at the very least, humans minding them from afar. Until the techno-utopian dream of full automation comes into effect—and frankly, there’s no guarantee that will ever happen—there will be plenty of jobs for humans, just not ones their parents would recognize. Whether the humans in charge are in the same city or thousands of miles away, the proliferation of not-yet-autonomous technologies is driving a tiny but rapidly growing workforce.

Companies working with remote-controlled robots know there are risks, and try to mitigate themin a few ways. Some choose only to operate slow-moving machines in simple environments—as in Postmates’s sidewalk delivery—so that even the worst disaster isn’t all that bad. More advanced systems require “human supervisory control,” where the robot or vehicle’s onboard AI does the basic piloting but the human gives the machine navigational instructions and other feedback. Prof. Cummings says this technique is safer than actual remote operation, since safety isn’t dependent on a perfect wireless connection or a perfectly alert human operator. For every company currently working on self-driving cars, almost every state mandates they must either have a safety driver present in the vehicle or be able to control it from afar. Guidelines from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration suggest the same. Phantom Auto is betting the shift to remote operation might become an important means of employment for people who used to drive for a living.

Submission + - Wearable Robot Tail Helps You Balance (ieee.org)

Submitted by Ken McE
Ken McE writes: Researchers from Keio University in Japan have a working prototype of a wearable tail that tries to help you with your balance.

(Scroll down to fourth image for video)

Comment The Potential for Abuse (Score 1) 94

by Ken McE (#58948236) Attached to: Amazon's Most Ambitious Research Project Is a Convenience Store

is staggering. As a technological tour de force it is magnificent. In the high trust USA of the 1940's and 50's it might have been useful. In the fracturing diversity/failing trust society of 21'st C. America it has no utility for most of the country.

By the end of the first day in (Fill in name of any city you dislike) I would expect people to swirl a scarf or sleeve or piece of paper over their hand as they reach into the display, so as to block any possible camera angle, mess up the display a little so the machine has trouble counting after you remove your hand, drop a piece of trash on the display to confuse the scales, and be blocks away before the system could bring in an actual human to figure out what happened.

They have built a perfect system, assuming you can limit it to perfect customers. When people start get caught walking off with half the store in their bag they can say: "it says take it and walk out. I did that. Now get off me"

Submission + - Social Media, But Not Video Games, Linked To Depression In Teens, Says Study (www.cbc.ca)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Screen time — and social media in particular — is linked to an increase in depressive symptoms in teenagers, according to a new study by researchers at Montreal's Sainte-Justine Hospital. The researchers studied the behaviour of over 3,800 young people from 2012 until 2018. They recruited adolescents from 31 Montreal schools and followed their behaviour from Grade 7 until Grade 11. The teenagers self-reported the number of hours per week that they consumed social media (such as Facebook and Instagram), video games and television. Conrod and her team found an increase in depressive symptoms when the adolescents were consuming social media and television. The study was published on Monday in JAMA Pedatrics, a journal published by the American Medical Association.

Comment Re:More Junk (Score 1) 132

by Ken McE (#58884454) Attached to: Amazon Seeks Permission To Launch 3,236 Internet Satellites

Aighearach:
They don't really need a stingray if possession of the device is illegal, they can just triangulate with mobile ground stations.

It ought to be possible to put your ground antenna inside a metal hemisphere or ring and limit the signal so it can only be seen from above.

The Chinese could put up drones to counter this. China is a big country so they'd need a lot of drones.

The aerial signal could be observed from the ground but I don't believe they could tell where it was aimed with any accuracy.

If the person on the ground was communicating through an imposter satellite, that satellite would of course know exactly where it was pointed at.

Comment Re:More Junk (Score 1) 132

by Ken McE (#58882014) Attached to: Amazon Seeks Permission To Launch 3,236 Internet Satellites

>by kackle
>Aren't there already dozens [wikipedia.org] of >unused satellites up there?

It's not sufficient that there be a piece of metal floating by. It needs to be able to stabilize and orient itself, accept commands, receive and relay data in the appropriate bands at certain minimum levels of power.

I'm going to guess that many of those satellites are abandoned because the owners can't fix them any more.

>Keeping track of all of it, and its debris, sounds >like a monumental mess that corporate >competition won't handle properly in the distant
> future.

The US government already tracks all the larger pieces of debris in real time. I don't know who all else keeps track, but I expect they could be persuaded to share.

>My vote is no.

Space is big. Satellites are small. Low orbits tend to decay over time. If Amazon wants to contribute to the task of industrializing space, I say let them.

People here are concerned about how Amazon will collect and use data from their shiny new system. It's their system, it will play by their rules. If I don't like that, I can approach them about buying a seat at the table.

As for China and bypassing the Great Firewall? No need to shoot down other peoples property when you can use it for bait. They'll probably make it a felony to have an unregistered or unmonitored satellite dish in your possession. After that they can put up "Stingray" style fake Amazon satellites and let you connect, then send the police to your door with a full transcript of what you did.

Submission + - Google sued for conspiring to share medical records against patient consent (chicagomaroon.com) 1

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: A former University of Chicago medical patient filed a class-action lawsuit against the University of Chicago and Google, claiming that the University of Chicago Medical Center is giving private patient information to the tech giant without patients consent.

About two years ago, the university medical center partnered with Google with the hope of identifying patterns in patient health records to help predict future medical issues.

Now, former patient Matt Dinerstein is filing a lawsuit on behalf of the medical center's patients, alleging that the university violated privacy laws by sharing sensitive health records with Google from 2009 to 2016, aiding Google's goal of creating a digital health record system, according to the Chicago Maroon .

Submission + - This former playwright aims to turn solar and wind power into gasoline (sciencemag.org) 1

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Last month, Rob McGinnis fired up a new machine that runs combustion in reverse, using electricity to weld carbon dioxide and water into liquid fuels. McGinnis, a chemical engineer and entrepreneur, has launched a new start-up called Prometheus, in hopes that he will be able to synthesize fuels more cheaply than energy giants can drill for oil, ship it and refine it. If powered by solar, wind, or other renewable power sources, McGinnis’ machine will churn out carbon neutral fuels, eliminating the fossil from fossil fuels. At the heart of McGinnis’ machine is proprietary carbon nanotube-based filter that separates fuel molecules from water without the large energy input normally required for this job. Can a former Yale University theater major remake the $2 trillion liquid fuels industry?

Submission + - Researchers have eliminated HIV in mice for the first time. (usatoday.com)

Submitted by pgmrdlm
pgmrdlm writes: Is a cure for humans next?

Researchers say they've successfully eliminated HIV from the DNA of infected mice for the first time, bringing them one step closer to curing the virus in humans.

Scientists from Temple University and the University of Nebraska Medical Center were able to eliminate the virus using a combination of gene-editing technology and a slow-release antiviral drug, according to a study published Tuesday in Nature Communications.

"The possibility exists that HIV can be cured," Howard Gendelman, chairman of UNMC's pharmacology and experimental neuroscience department and study author. "It’s going to take a little bit of time but to have the proof of concept gets us all excited."

Nearly 37 million people are living with HIV, according to UNAIDS, which if left untreated can develop into AIDS. Current HIV treatment involves daily, lifelong antiretroviral therapy (ART) which suppresses the virus' ability to replicate, but doesn't eliminate the virus from the body.

If a patient stops taking the drugs, HIV is able to rebound because the virus is able to "integrate its DNA sequence into the genomes of cells of the immune system, where it lies dormant and beyond the reach of antiretroviral drugs," according to a press release.

Researchers used a new form of ART called LASER ART on 23 "humanized mice," animals genetically modified to bear similarities to the human immune response. They were able to control the release and metabolism of the drug which allowed it to suppress virus replication for longer period of time.

The team then excised the remaining integrated HIV genome using a gene-editing tool called CRISPR-Cas9 which allows scientists to operate on DNA to add or disable certain genes.

Submission + - New Flaw Discovered On Boeing 737 Max (cnn.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A new flaw has been discovered in the computer system for the Boeing 737 Max that could push the plane downward, according to two sources familiar with the testing, an issue that is expected to further delay the aircraft's return to service. A series of simulator flights to test new software developed by Boeing revealed the flaw, according to one of the sources. The latest versions of Boeing's popular jet were grounded in March after two crashes — Lion Air flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 — that killed 346 people.

While the crashes remain under investigation, preliminary reports showed that a new stabilization system pushed both planes into steep nosedives from which the pilots could not recover. The issue is known in aviation vernacular as runaway stabilizer trim. In simulator tests, government pilots discovered that a microprocessor failure could push the nose of the plane toward the ground. It is not known whether the microprocessor played a role in either crash. When testing the potential failure of the microprocessor in the simulators, "it was difficult for the test pilots to recover in a matter of seconds," one of the sources said. "And if you can't recover in a matter of seconds, that's an unreasonable risk." Boeing engineers are now trying to address the issue, which has led to another delay in recertifying the 737 Max.

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.

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