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Submission + - 17-year-old student builds 3D-printed drone in garage, interests DoD and MIT (thinkstewartville.com)

Submitted by Agnapot
Agnapot writes: While many teenagers devote their free time to social media or gaming, 17-year-old Taylor built a 3D-printed drone in his garage, and has already received an award from the Department of Defense, and is set to join MIT.

The journey began with a simple observation. When Taylor’s younger sister received a consumer drone that delivered only 30 minutes of flight time, the tech-savvy teenager saw room for improvement. Instead of accepting existing limitations, he immersed himself in VTOL mechanics – aircraft capable of helicopter-like takeoffs followed by airplane-style forward flight.

The 17-year-old American prodigy has engineered what experts are calling a game-changing drone innovation. This teenage genius developed a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) drone that operates more efficiently than commercial models while costing significantly less. His groundbreaking creation has captured the attention of the Pentagon, resulting in $23,000 in awards from the Department of Defense.

Submission + - China Halts Rare Earth Exports to U.S. (thegatewaypundit.com)

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: China has halted exports of seven critical rare earth elements to the United States, a move that threatens to disrupt supply chains across key American industries, including automotive, semiconductor, and aerospace sectors. China’s Ministry of Commerce recently added seven rare earth elements—including dysprosium, terbium, and lutetium—to its restricted export list. These elements are essential for manufacturing high-performance magnets used in electric vehicles, advanced weaponry, and consumer electronics.

Additionally: US chipmakers outsourcing manufacturing will escape China's tariffs

U.S. chipmakers that outsource manufacturing will be exempt from China's retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports, according to a notice by the main Chinese semiconductor association on Friday.
Given the highly specialized and multi-country nature of chip supply chains, there was uncertainty within the industry about how tariffs would be applied to chip imports.
"For all integrated circuits, whether packaged or unpackaged, the declared country of origin for import customs purchases is the location of the wafer fabrication plant," the state-backed China Semiconductor Industry Association (CSIA), which represents the country's largest chip companies, said in an "urgent notice" on its WeChat account.
For U.S. chip designers such as Qualcomm and AMD that outsource manufacturing to Taiwanese chipmaking giant TSMC 2330.TW, Chinese customs authorities will classify these chips' place of origin as Taiwan, according to EETop, an information platform and forum for Chinese chipmakers.
This means China-based companies importing such chips will not be forced to pay China's retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports, EETop said on its WeChat account.

https://www.reuters.com/techno...

Submission + - Car prices could jump $6,000 as Trump's 25% import tariff kicks in (techspot.com)

Submitted by jjslash
jjslash writes: President Trump has introduced a new 25% tariff on imported cars and auto parts, sparking debate about its effects on the U.S. auto industry. TechSpot reports:

While supporters argue that the policy will spur growth, attract investment, and create jobs domestically, critics warn that it will lead to significantly higher prices for shoppers.

The new tariff on imported cars will take effect on April 2, while the import duty on car parts will go into effect on May 3. The components subject to the new policy include engines and engine parts, transmissions and powertrain components, and electrical systems.

Under the plan, imported vehicles will be taxed only on their non-US content.

Submission + - China to publish policy to boost RISC-V chip use nationwide (reuters.com)

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: China plans to issue guidance to encourage the use of open-source RISC-V chips nationwide for the first time, two sources briefed on the matter said, as Beijing accelerates efforts to curb the country's dependence on Western-owned technology.
The policy guidance on boosting the use of RISC-V chips could be released as soon as this month, although the final date could change, the sources said.
It is being drafted jointly by eight government bodies, including the Cyberspace Administration of China, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the China National Intellectual Property Administration, they added.

Submission + - Free Software Foundation Speaks up Against Red Hat Source Code Announcement

Submitted by PAjamian
PAjamian writes: Two years ago Red Hat announced an end to its public source code availability. This caused a great deal of outcry from the Enterprise Linux community at large. Since then many have waited for a statement from the Free Software Foundation concerning their stance on the matter. Now, nearly two years later the FSF has finally responded to questions regarding their stance on the issue with the following statement:

Generally, we don't agree with what Red Hat is doing. Whether it constitutes a violation of the GPL would require legal analysis and the FSF does not give legal advice. However, as the stewards of the GNU GPL we can speak how it is intended to be applied and Red Hat's approach is certainly contrary to the spirit of the GPL. This is unfortunate, because we would expect such flagship organizations to drive the movement forward.

When asked if the FSF would be willing to intervene on behalf of the community they had this to say:

As of today, we are not aware of any issue with Red Hat's new policy that we could pursue on legal grounds. However, if you do find a violation, please follow these instructions and send a report to license-violation@gnu.org.

Following is the full text of my original email to them and their response:

Subject: Statement about recent changes in source code distribution for Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Date: 2023-07-16 00:39:51

> Hi,
>
> I'm a user of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Rocky Linux and other Linux
> distributions in the RHEL ecosystem. I am also involved in the EL
> (Enterprise Linux) community which is being affected by the statements
> and changes in policy made by Red Hat at
> https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/furthering-evolution-centos-stream and
> https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/red-hats-commitment-open-source-
> response-gitcentosorg-changes
> (note there are many many more links and posts about this issue which
> I
> believe you are likely already aware of). While a few of these
> questions are answered more directly by the license FAQ some of them
> are
> not and there are a not insignificant number of people who would very
> much appreciate a public statement from the FSF that answers these
> questions directly.
>
> Can you please comment or release a statement about the Free Software
> Foundation's position on this issue? Specifically:
>

Thank you for writing in with your questions. My apologies for the delay, but we are a small team with limited resources and can be challenging keeping up with all the emails we receive.

Generally, we don't agree with what Red Hat is doing. Whether it constitutes a violation of the GPL would require legal analysis and the FSF does not give legal advice. However, as the stewards of the GNU GPL we can speak how it is intended to be applied and Red Hat's approach is certainly contrary to the spirit of the GPL. This is unfortunate, because we would expect such flagship organizations to drive the movement forward.

> Is Red Hat's removal of sources from git.centos.org a violation of the
> GPL and various other Free Software licenses for the various programs
> distributed under RHEL?
>
> Is Red Hat's distribution of source RPMs to their customers under
> their
> subscriber agreement sufficient to satisfy the above mentioned
> licenses?
>
> Is it a violation if Red Hat terminates a subscription early because
> their customer exercised their rights under the GPL and other Free
> Software licenses to redistribute the RHEL sources or create
> derivative
> works from them?
>
> Is it a violation if Red Hat refuses to renew a subscription that has
> expired because a customer exercised their rights to redistribute or
> create derivative works?
>
> A number of the programs distributed with RHEL are copyrighted by the
> FSF, some examples being bash, emacs, GNU core utilities, gcc, gnupg
> and
> glibc. Given that the FSF has standing to act in this matter would
> the
> FSF be willing to intervene on behalf of the community in order to get
> Red Hat to correct any of the above issues?
>

As of today, we are not aware of any issue with Red Hat's new policy that we could pursue on legal grounds. However, if you do find a violation, please [follow these instructions][0] and send a report to <license-violation@gnu.org>.

[0]: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-violation.html

If you are interested in something more specific on this, the Software Freedom Conservancy [published an article about the RHEL][1] situation and hosted a [panel at their conference in 2023][2]. These cover the situation fairly thoroughly.

[1]: https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2023/jun/23/rhel-gpl-analysis/
[2]: https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2023/jul/19/rhel-panel-fossy-2023/

Submission + - Is Confirmation Bias Driving Elon Musk to Jump to Sensationalistic Conclusions? 2

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "According to the Social Security database," said Dept. of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Chief Elon Musk in a tweet that's been viewed 54.2+ million times (and counting), "these are the numbers of people in each age bucket with the death field set to FALSE! Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security." In lieu of presenting a thoughtful, evidenced-based audit report, Musk made his case with a couple of ROTFL icons and a single screenshot of a simple table that seems designed to suggest nearly 400 million people — more than the population of the United States — are receiving Social Security benefits. That "there are FAR more 'eligible' social security numbers than there are citizens in the USA," Musk added, "might be the biggest fraud in history." Never mind that Social Security Beneficiary Statistics published by the SSA are much lower than those floated without explanation by Musk. Or that non-citizens including students and workers are also issued Social Security Cards (including Tesla's non-citizen workers) and can be entitled to benefits.

There are undoubtedly big fraud problems to solve at Social Security, just as there are at Musk-founded PayPal and other organizations. But Musk may want to take steps to help ensure that DOGE's work is driven more by informed consideration of evidence and less by jumping to conclusions based on confirmation bias. "Narrowly pursuing an investigation into what you initially suspect doesn’t just trip up scientists," warns 5 Ways Auditors Can Overcome Confirmation Bias. "Confirmation bias—one of five common judgment biases—has the potential to lead auditors up the wrong path just as easily. [...] The deeper one gets into investigating a particular hypothesis, the more difficult it becomes to consider contradictory ones. Rather, it’s common to seek evidence that supports suspicions and overlook data that don’t. Result: You’ve confirmed your bias—bypassing both the scientific method and best practices in auditing."

Writing about the resignation of acting SSA Commissioner Michelle King after members of Musk's DOGE team sought access to the agency's data, the New York Times reports that Martin O’Malley, who served as commissioner of the SSA in the Biden administration, said the claims of Musk and his team about the agency were not true. “They’re just making” things up, he said, referring to Musk’s suggestion that more than a million people in the Social Security database are in the 150 to 159 age range.

Submission + - UK:customs controls to stop them 'bringing images and videos across our borders' (theguardian.com) 1

Submitted by Bruce66423
Bruce66423 writes: Seriously: the UK secretary of state is promising to close loopholes. 'These measures are the first of their kind in the world. We are going further than any other country in the battle against AI-generated child sexual abuse material.;

'If you are found in possession of a “paedophile manual”, you will now face years in jail. For the first time, we’ll imprison the people who are making the AI models that generate child sexual abuse material. Those who run or moderate websites where paedophiles share advice on how to groom children and avoid detection will spend a decade behind bars.

'we’re giving our border force the power to scan the devices of those they suspect to possess child sexual abuse material against the Child Abuse Images Database. This won’t just see more paedophiles put in prison; it will stop the tidal wave of illegal content inundating our country in its tracks.'

Which being translated means: UK customs gets to demand that you unlock your phone / laptop if they demand you do so. And just how do they propose to identify an AI manual teaching how to do child abuse images as opposed to other options?

Perhaps the headline should be 'UK cabinet minister demonstrates total ignorance of technology'.

Submission + - Breakthrough Battery Breaks Record Range And Lasts Over 20k Cycles And 5M miles (wonderfulengineering.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: With its remarkable ability to withstand more than 20,000 charge-discharge cycles while retaining 80 percent capacity, a novel lithium-ion battery with a single crystal electrode has raised the bar for electric vehicle (EV) technology. After six years of intense testing, Dalhousie University researchers reached this milestone, which correlates to an EV’s theoretical driving range of around five million miles (eight million kilometers).

This innovation addresses a key challenge in EV adoption: ensuring batteries can outlast the vehicle itself. Meeting U.S. regulations requiring batteries to retain 80 percent capacity after eight years of operation is already ambitious. However, extending battery lifespan could revolutionize energy storage systems, allowing used EV batteries to be repurposed for renewable energy projects.

Researchers worked with the University of Saskatchewan’s Canadian Light Source (CLS) to identify the processes underlying battery deterioration. The researchers, with support from NSERC and Tesla Canada, tested two types of lithium-ion batteries: one with a single crystal electrode and the other with a typical electrode. Without taking the batteries apart, they performed a microscopic analysis using CLS’s ultrabright synchrotron radiation.

The study revealed that traditional batteries suffer from microscopic cracks caused by lithium-induced expansion and contraction of electrode material, eventually leading to pulverization. In contrast, the single crystal electrode displayed no such degradation, with six-year-old cells virtually indistinguishable from new ones.

The breakthrough lies in the structural difference: conventional electrodes consist of fragile, snowball-like particles, while single crystal electrodes are robust, ice cube-like structures. This resilience ensures greater longevity, positioning these batteries to surpass other EV components in durability.

With commercial production underway, these advanced batteries are expected to hit the market soon, potentially transforming the future of transportation and renewable energy.

Submission + - At least one open source vulnerability found in 84% of code bases (csoonline.com)

Submitted by L.Kynes
L.Kynes writes: Almost all applications contain at least some open source code, and 48% of all code bases examined by Synopsys researchers contained high-risk vulnerabilities, which are those that have been actively exploited, already have documented proof-of-concept exploits, or are classified as remote code execution vulnerabilities.

At a time when almost all software contains open source code, at least one known open source vulnerability was detected in 84% of all commercial and proprietary code bases examined by researchers at application security company Synopsys.

The vulnerability data — along with information on open source license compliance — was included in Synopsys' 2023 Open Source Security and Risk Analysis (OSSRA) report, put together by the company's Cybersecurity Research Center (CyRC).

The annual OSSRA report represents CyRC findings from the previous year's data. Of the 1,703 codebases that Synopsys audited in 2022, 96% of them contained open source. Aerospace, aviation, automotive, transportation, logistics; EdTech; and Internet of Things are three of the 17 industry sectors included in the report that had open source in 100% of their audited codebases. In the remaining verticals, over 92% of the codebases contained open source.

Submission + - Signal accuses UK government of 'magical thinking' (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Bruce66423
Bruce66423 writes: The encrypted-messaging app Signal has said it would stop providing services in the UK if a new law undermined encryption.

If forced to weaken the privacy of its messaging system under the Online Safety Bill, the organisation "would absolutely, 100% walk" Signal president Meredith Whittaker told the BBC.

The government, and prominent child protection charities have long argued that encryption hinders efforts to combat online child abuse — which they say is a growing problem.

"It is important that technology companies make every effort to ensure that their platforms do not become a breeding ground for paedophiles," the Home Office said in a statement. "It is not a choice between privacy or child safety — we can and we must have both."

But Ms Whittaker told the BBC it was "magical thinking" to believe we can have privacy "but only for the good guys. Encryption is either protecting everyone or it is broken for everyone."

She said the Online Safety Bill "embodied" a variant of this magical thinking.

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