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Fluffeh writes:

When it arrives later in the year, Microsoft are going to gift free upgrades of Windows 10 not only to those who purchased Windows 7 and Windows 8, but also to those who pirated them. "We are upgrading all qualified PCs, genuine and non-genuine, to Windows 10," Myerson told Reuters. "The plan is to 're-engage' with the hundreds of millions of users of Windows in China." he said. The move is an unprecedented attempt by Microsoft to get legitimate versions of its software onto the machines of the hundreds of millions of Windows users in China. Recent studies show that three-quarters of all PC software is not properly licensed there.

TorrentFreak later stated that Microsoft have updated the statement to include ALL folk who are running pirated versions of the software, not only those in China. Techreport.com have also published confirmation of this claim, saying "it looks like Microsoft is ready to offer just about everyone a free copy of Windows 10".

"gewg_" writes:

Live Science reports

Low vaccination rates are likely responsible for the large measles outbreak that began at Disneyland in California last December, a new analysis suggests.

The researchers estimated that the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccination rate among the people who were exposed to measles in that outbreak may be as low as 50 percent, and is likely no higher than 86 percent. Since the beginning of this year, 127 cases of measles in the United States have been linked to the Disneyland outbreak, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

"While researchers have certainly speculated that low vaccine rates might be to blame for the 2015 Disneyland measles outbreak, our study confirms this suspicion in a scientifically rigorous way," said study author Maimuna Majumder, a research fellow at Boston Children's Hospital.

Because measles is such a highly contagious virus, vaccination rates of 96 percent to 99 percent are necessary to prevent outbreaks, Majumder said.

[...]In the analysis, which was published online [on Monday (March 16)] in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, the researchers created a mathematical model using data from both the official measles case counts collected by the California Department of Public Health during the outbreak and media-reported case counts. By using these two data sources, researchers were able to capture the transmission of the virus as the measles outbreak spread beyond California.

[...]Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine [...] said that the measles vaccine is so effective that it had eliminated measles from the entire Western Hemisphere--which was considered a public health triumph.

Related: Most US Pediatricians Have Banned the Kids of Anti-Vaxxers

Phoenix666 writes with a TreeHugger report:

A major factor contributing to global climate change is the emissions from transporting food from where it's grown to far way where people eat it. The agriculture industry is also the largest consumer of water worldwide. Not only is the practice not sustainable, but trends suggest that by 2050, 2.5 billion more people will live on the planet, 80 percent of them will live in cities and 70 percent more food will be required.

That means that not only will more people need more food, but the vast majority will be living away from rural agricultural centers. The current agricultural model of large food miles just won't cut it.

But what if we could grow our food within or just outside our cities? Obviously, there isn't space in cities for large sprawling farms, but a new idea being led by LED manufacturers proves that food can be grown vertically in warehouses using the bulbs requiring less water and very little energy.

One of these in every neighborhood that you could walk to would make a big difference in the carbon footprint of agriculture and food transportation. Would they help make arcologies and urbmons a reality?

An Anonymous Coward writes:

West Hawaii Today reports:

The Hawaii Supreme Court ruled today that nine online travel companies, including Expedia, Orbitz, Priceline and Travelocity, owe up to tens of millions of dollars in back taxes to the state for selling Hawaii hotel rooms over the Internet, the state Department of the Attorney General announced.

“This landmark ruling is the first time the Supreme Court ruled that online commerce may be just as subject to pay general excise taxes as local brick-and-mortar businesses,” said Attorney General Doug Chin. “It is the result of years of effort by the Attorney General’s office to collect state taxes from national companies who profited from selling Hawaii hotel rooms.”

http://westhawaiitoday.com/community-bulletin/hawaii-supreme-court-rules-online-travel-companies-must-pay-millions-state

We had this interesting juxtaposition of submissions in our queue today. On the one hand, pols in Australia are on the verge of passing a law that would "herald the ISP-level blocking of 'oversease pirate sites.'" And, on the other hand, it appears that in the UK, The Pirate Bay has found a way to bypass UK-mandated ISP filters. It will be interesting to see how these play out over time.

Aussie Site Blocking Law to Be Passed

Fluffeh writes:

The Copyright Amendment (Online Infringement) Bill was today cleared for introduction into the Australian parliament. In a whirlwind of activity it's expected to be passed this week and will herald the ISP-level blocking of "overseas pirate sites". The body representing the country's ISPs has expressed disappointment at the complete lack of consultation.

Early December 2014, Attorney-General George Brandis and Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull asked the Cabinet to approve the development of a new legal mechanism which would allow rightsholders to obtain site blocking injunctions against ISPs. And now, just three months later, it is all systems go.

"The power will only apply to websites outside Australia as rights holders are not prevented from taking direct action against websites operated within Australia," the Government said.

Full coverage over on Torrentfreak and ITNews.

TPB (and others) Amusingly Unblocked in the UK

Fluffeh writes:

After The Pirate Bay switched to CloudFlare's SSL service it is no longer being blocked by most UK Internet providers. Subscribers of BT, EE, Virgin and TalkTalk can reach the site without problems via the default https address. The "bug" also affects secure versions of other blocked sites, but not all.

"I believe it's because of how CloudFlare works, Simply put when you enable HTTPS Strict on CloudFlare they remove the HTTP Header from the request during HTTPS Connections, thus when they try to inspect the header to a list of 'banned' websites it won't register." Rainbows' (a TPB proxy) operator tells TF. "So any site that uses CloudFlare, has a properly configured and signed SSL Certificate and enables HTTPS-Strict under CloudFlare should be able to evade the ban that's imposed by Virgin and perhaps other providers."

What further complicates the matter is the fact that it's harder to block The Pirate Bay by its IP-address, as the true location is hidden by CloudFlare's network of addresses now.

Phoenix666 writes:

HuffingtonPost reports:

[Apple] is planning to launch a web-based TV service this fall, with a small package of roughly 25 channels.

A TV service from Apple, which has been rumored for years, could shake up the TV industry, forcing other pay TV providers to drop prices, improve customer service and offer smaller packages to compete.

“If nothing else, it should put some pressure on the traditional pay TV players and get them to up their game,” said Jan Dawson, an independent telecom analyst. “Most of them don't have much competition today, and as a result they have high prices, poor customer service, lousy interfaces and complex offerings.”

AppleTV has been around for a while now, but this announcement seems like it's moving from concept or trial balloon to a serious effort to disrupt cable. A lot of the content industry is based on relationships, but Apple has such a cult following in TV/film it could probably break in if anyone could.

What does Soylent think?

danomac writes:

A new device exists to forcibly break iOS device passcodes, completely bypassing the option to erase the device after x attempts. The device is not terribly expensive, priced around $300-$400 depending where you look.

There's a video clip showing the device in action at MDSec.

It basically works by being attached by USB, and having power to the iOS device controlled by the hacking device. On an incorrect attempt, the device cuts power to the iOS device before the incorrect keycode attempt is committed to flash memory. Using this method, it takes about 40 seconds per keycode attempt, meaning it can take up to approximately 111 hours to force the phone open.

Doctor writes:

ZDNet has an article on the newest Windows "security" feature.

"At the WinHEC conference in China today, Microsoft showed off a new biometric authentication feature called Windows Hello. The ambitious technology, which uses fingerprint and iris recognition to replace passwords, will debut in Windows 10 devices later this year."

I have used fingerprint devices for security purposes and I was personally underwhelmed with the product. Do you know that old people don't read well on fingerprint readers? Skin is too dry. People with manual labor type jobs have trouble with them as well as they can scour the fingerprint off their fingers. I found them to be much more trouble than they were worth.

Does anyone really think this is a good idea? I know passwords are a problem, but my experience with biometric security tells me this is not the answer.

AnonTechie writes:

A team of Columbia Engineering researchers has invented a technology—full-duplex radio integrated circuits (ICs)—that can be implemented in nanoscale CMOS to enable simultaneous transmission and reception at the same frequency in a wireless radio. Up to now, this has been thought to be impossible: transmitters and receivers either work at different times or at the same time but at different frequencies. The Columbia team, led by Electrical Engineering Associate Professor Harish Krishnaswamy, is the first to demonstrate an IC that can accomplish this. The researchers presented their work at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in San Francisco on February 25.

“This is a game-changer,” says Krishnaswamy, director of the Columbia high-Speed and Mm-wave IC (CoSMIC) Lab. “By leveraging our new technology, networks can effectively double the frequency spectrum resources available for devices like smartphones and tablets.”

http://engineering.columbia.edu/new-technology-may-double-radio-frequency-data-capacity-0

tonyPick writes:

From IEEE Spectrum is a report that the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Mitsubishi have demonstrated progress on wireless power transmission technology, as part of the development roadmap to space based solar power.

On Thursday, JAXA was able to deliver 1.8 kilowatts “with pinpoint accuracy” to a receiving antenna (rectenna) 55 meters away using carefully directed microwaves. According to JAXA, this is the first time that anyone’s been able to send such a high power output with this level of direction control. Also on Thursday, Mitsubishi (in partnership with JAXA) managed to send 10 kilowatts of power over a distance of 500 meters, using larger antennas with more of an emphasis on power over precision.
...
Within the next five years or so, Mitsubishi is hoping that they’ll be able to use this system for short range high power delivery (like electric car charging), and medium range delivery of small amounts of power (like powering warning lights on transmission towers). Meanwhile, JAXA is planning on testing the technology in space by 2018, with a small satellite transmitting several kilowatts from low Earth orbit to a microwave receiver on the ground.

Although there are reasons to be sceptical of the practicality of space based solar, JAXA plan to produce a 1GW orbital solar farm in the next 25 years (previously covered on SN), and developing wireless power distribution is an important step towards this goal.

sigma writes:

With the iPhone's US market share declining rapidly from 47.7% in December to 42.8% in January, and similar slumps across the globe, Apple has started a trade-in program for Android phones. The company experienced a brief peak driven by the introduction of the large-screen iPhone 6 models, but now their market share is leveling off and looks set to revert to traditional seasonal patterns.

According to Bloomberg, Apple’s current iPhone trade-in program is a partnership with Brightstar Corp., which resells the devices to overseas customers for a profit. It’s not clear whether the new Android trade-in program will include Brightstar.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-17/apple-said-to-start-first-trade-in-program-for-android-phones

Phoenix666 writes:

Digital Journal reports:

Microsoft's marketing chief confirmed at the company's Convergence conference yesterday that the long ill-spoken Internet Explorer web browser brand will be killed off with Windows 10 and replaced with the company's new "Project Spartan."
...

Codenamed Project Spartan, Microsoft's new web browser is currently under very active development for Windows 10. Although not available yet to Windows Insiders, it is expected to be included in the next released builds for both desktop and phone.


Spartan includes a number of new features designed to make browsing easier and more enjoyable. It sports an all-new, more modern interface that looks good regardless of screen size and has thrown away much of the legacy Internet Explorer code so that it is faster and more responsive. In some leaked benchmarks, Javascript performance in Spartan has been the best of any browser available today.

Personally, nothing tops Lynx!.

MIT HITTER writes:

Stress is a natural part of college life, but some students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say it can seem overwhelming at the elite school teeming with overachievers who are strangers to failure.

Now, the suicides of four students within the past year—including two this month—have prompted fresh soul-searching among students, administrators, and faculty about stress and how to tame it at a college that, statistics suggest, has an above-average rate of students taking their own lives.

MIT is encouraging students to talk about the psychological phenomenon called “impostor syndrome,” a frequent feeling of being a failure despite a record of accomplishment. Students’ battle against stress is reflected in a new Twitter hashtag circulating around campus: #peoplebeforePsets, or “people before problem sets.”

Phoenix666 writes:

Alternet reports:

Paypal billionaire Peter Thiel...has teamed up with the grandson of libertarian icon Milton Friedman, Patri Friedman, to try and develop a “seastead,” or a permanent and autonomous dwelling at sea. Friedman formed the “Seasteading Institute” in 2008, and Thiel has donated more than a million dollars to fund its creation...

they claim a floating city could be just years away. The real trick is finding a proper location to build this twenty-first century Atlantis. Currently, they are attempting to find a host nation that will allow the floating city somewhat close to land, for the calm waters and ability to easily travel to and from the seastead.

In recent years there have been reports of similar efforts, like the Freedom Ship, a floating city designed to house 50,000 people, with a landing strip on top of the vessel.

Such concepts raise the questions, "Can these communities create new social structures when the subconscious societal norms we all grow up with have such a powerful influence on our expectations?" and "Is the ocean really the best place to site these communities, given how powerful, treacherous, and corrosive an environment the sea is?"

AnonTechie writes:

Liberal societies such as the UK, USA, and Australia are among the most harmful to their citizens, according to new research from the University of Birmingham.

And the austerity programmes unfolding across Europe are likely to increase the 'social harms' experienced by people in those countries.

A new book by Dr Simon Pemberton, an expert on social harm — defined as the avoidable injuries caused by the way a society is organised &mdas; looks at measures such as suicide, road traffic accidents, obesity, poverty and unemployment across 31 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. The book, Harmful Societies: Understanding social harm, is published by Policy Press at the University of Bristol. ( http://www.policypress.co.uk/display.asp?K=9781847427946&dtspan=0:90&ds=Forthcoming%20Titles&m=2&dc=32 )

http://phys.org/news/2015-03-british-society-citizens.html

[Source]: http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/latest/2015/03/harmful-societies-16-03-15.aspx