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Submission + - Tatooine was likely orbiting in the same plane as its twin suns

Submitted by The Bad Astronomer
The Bad Astronomer writes: A new study by astronomers of binary stars shows that exoplanets orbiting them (circumbinary planets) will orbit in the same plane as the stars if the two stars are relatively close together. If the stars are farther apart, the planets may have a perpendicular (polar) orbit around them. This study looked at the protoplanetary disks of dust and gas around binaries to draw this conclusion. Extrapolating to fiction, this means Tatooine in Star Wars was coplanar with its host stars.

Submission + - Remember that 70-solar-mass black hole announced last week? Yeah, not so much.

Submitted by The Bad Astronomer
The Bad Astronomer writes: Last week, scientists announced the discovery of a stellar-mass black hole with 70 times the Sun's mass, far heftier than theory predicts they can get. Within days, though, four separate papers have come out casting extreme doubt on the claim. They show that the data weren't processed correctly, and that the black hole is closer to Earth than first assumed, which changes the calculations and makes it a more normal 5 — 20 solar mass object.

Submission + - Nearby star is Sun's long-lost sibling

Submitted by The Bad Astronomer
The Bad Astronomer writes: A nearby star, HD 186302, was almost certainly born from the same cloud of gas the Sun was 4.6 billion years ago. Astronomers have found it has an almost identical chemical composition as the Sun, is on a similar orbit around the Milky Way, and has the same age (within uncertainties). Interestingly, it's only 184 light years away, implying statistically many more such stars are waiting to be discovered.
Movies

What Disney's Acquisition of Fox Means For the Future of Film and TV (qz.com) 139

Posted by BeauHD from the rich-get-richer-and-the-poor-get-poorer dept.
Disney announced on Thursday it had reached a $52 billion deal to buy most of the assets of 21st Century Fox. It is "the biggest and most consequential media merger in an era of big and consequential media consolidation deals," reports Quartz. "The deal will have a lasting effect on film, television, and the internet." From the report: If the merger is approved, Disney will own: All of Fox's film studios (20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight, and Fox 2000); Fox's television studio; FX Networks; National Geographic; Fox's stake in European broadcaster Sky; Fox's stake in North American streamer Hulu. Staying with the hollowed out 21st Century Fox is the Fox broadcast network, Fox News, Fox Sports, and Fox Business. With Fox's film and TV studios and its cable networks, Disney will acquire the rights to literally hundreds of popular television series and movies. (Some of which include Avatar, X-Men, Deadpool, Modern Family and The Simpsons.)

Imagine all of the properties mentioned above, plus all of Disney's existing franchises (Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar, etc.) combined into one internet streaming service. You won't have to imagine for long, because that's pretty much exactly why Disney CEO Bob Iger was so keen on buying all of Fox's biggest assets. Disney plans to release a streaming entertainment service in 2019. It would have been quite formidable on its own, even without Fox's help, but now it will likely be the first true rival to Netflix in the streaming space. Before today, Disney, Fox, and Comcast (NBCUniversal) all shared equal 30% stakes in Hulu (Time Warner owns 10%). But when Disney takes over Fox's share of the streaming service, it will own 60%, becoming a controlling majority owner, relegating Comcast to minority owner in the process.

20th Century Fox, we hardly knew ye. Okay, that may be a bit premature, but it's clear that Fox's film business won't be the same if the merger is approved. The deal marks the first time in modern history that one major film studio has purchased another, eliminating one of the "big six," and essentially giving Disney control of two-thirds of Hollywood. (The other four major movie studios are Universal, Warner Bros., Paramount, and Sony.)

Comment Re:WAT? Windows? Easy to maintain? (Score 1) 336

by deragon (#55620281) Attached to: Linux Pioneer Munich Confirms Switch To Windows 10
Why would the have hardware problems? They purchased hardware meant for Windows machines? Couldn't they purchase hardware from Dell or System76? Do they try to install Mac OS X on Asus laptops? Why then they try to install Linux on Windows hardware? Stick to vendors that provide support for your OS, and you will have less problems. That is why Macs are considered good; nobody really tries to set Mac OS X on a Windows machine.

Comment Re:Not enough (Score 1) 39

The good news is that all of this is voluntary. If you don't like the program or the rewards, there is no obligation to participate.

It should be noted that the reward from Google is on top of whatever the company in question may pay. Companies that develop Android apps can start their own programs with their own bounties. Google's program comes on top of that.

As a hacker, the more you submit valid vulnerability reports on HackerOne, the more skilled you will become and the higher your reputations score will go. This in turn will allow you to make money on many other programs.

It's not easy to become a top whitehat hacker, but if you do, the rewards are significant.

Here is how HackerOne celebrated the $500,000 milestone for a hacker: https://www.hackerone.com/blog/mlitchfield-Earned-500000-on-HackerOne

(Sorry for first posting this as Anonymous Coward. I had forgotten to sign in.)

Comment Re:Payouts are garbage, though (Score 1) 58

by martenmickos (#54290305) Attached to: Companies Are Paying Millions For White Hat Hacking

This is an interesting question. We don't really know what will happen long term. One possibility, as you point out, is that black markets will always outpay any other market. Another possibility is that the ethical hacker community will become so large and strong that they will find all those same vulnerabilities and deliver them to the system owners before the black market gets to build exploits and use them for nefarious purposes. It takes just one ethical hacker who finds a critical 0day to deliver it to a service like HackerOne, and the market for that vuln is over. Although asymmetry is usually in the favor of the criminal actor, in this case it is in the favor of ethical behavior. One ethical hacker can put an end to the sale of a 0day on the black market.

Submission + - Supermassive black hole rocketing out of distant galaxy at 5 million mph

Submitted by The Bad Astronomer
The Bad Astronomer writes: Astronomers have found a supermassive black hole barreling out of its home galaxy at 5 million mph. The 3 billion solar mass behemoth formed from the merger of two slightly smaller black holes after two galaxies collided and themselves merged. The resulting blast of gravitational waves is thought to have been asymmetric, causing a rocket effect which launched the resulting black hole away. It's currently 40,000 light years from the galaxy's core.

Comment Re:Obviously... (Score 4, Insightful) 255

by deragon (#53178285) Attached to: How Linux Saved A School's Failing Windows Laptop Program
Troll... But I'll bite and answer. You can say the same thing about schools going for tablets (Android & iPad) and Chromebooks. Also, there are some institutions, mainly gouvernemental institutions in Europe switching massively to LibreOffice and Linux... Ok, the story is about the USA, but it does show that the market could change. Beside, I expect someone to be able to adapt to a new OS and tool suite quiet easily. Even with a FOSS background, these kids will easily be able to adapt to any job requiring Windows and MS Office.

Comment Re:Snake oil salesman (Score 1) 49

by martenmickos (#53125361) Attached to: HackerOne CEO: Every Computer System is Subject To Vulnerabilities

Ha ha. That's a common joke about the security industry. There is some truth to it.

What's great with bug bounty programs is that customers pay for results. You pay for valid and useful vulnerability reports. You don't pay for reports that are not useful. For hackers to make money (and the best ones make a lot of money), they must produce useful and relevant vulnerability reports.

That's a HUGE difference compared to traditional security products and services and it explains why bug bounty programs are becoming so popular. They are much more effective than any other method of finding vulns in live software.

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