SoylentNews

fliptop writes:

The Internet of Things (IoT) may have a somewhat bad rap on SN, but big companies are forging alliances and appliance manufacturers are in the mix. From GE's May 11 press release:

Canonical is collaborating with some of the world's smartest technology brands, including GE's FirstBuild, Acer, Microsoft and DataArt, to reveal a slew of new and innovative IoT devices; all built on 'Snappy' Ubuntu Core and designed to delight developers and consumers alike.

ChillHub is a refrigerator with two USB ports, Wi-Fi and an open-source iOS-compatible app:

Developed by FirstBuild community members, ChillHub is not only a refrigerator, but an open development platform designed for makers, hackers, tinkerers and developers. FirstBuild community members continue to collaborate on products and features to customize and create new uses for their refrigerators. ChillHub, an 18-cubic-foot top-freezer refrigerator, will retail for $999 and can be ordered through FirstBuild.com. Limited pre-orders will also be available at an early-bird price of $799.

Hopefully no one will keep spam in their fridge. Spotted on ZDNet.

CoolHand writes:

Verizon has announced that it will be acquiring AOL for $4.4 billion. Those of us that remember AOL from the dial-up days when all noobs used it might wonder what it possibly has worth that kind of cash today. Lowell McAdam, Verizon chairman and CEO, said:

"AOL has once again become a digital trailblazer, and we are excited at the prospect of charting a new course together in the digitally connected world. At Verizon, we've been strategically investing in emerging technology, including Verizon Digital Media Services and OTT, that taps into the market shift to digital content and advertising. AOL's advertising model aligns with this approach, and the advertising platform provides a key tool for us to develop future revenue streams."

A NPR blog has an excerpt from a paywalled WSJ article which further explains:

"Verizon has said it plans to launch a video service focused on mobile devices this summer. The company has offered few details, but last month Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo said the service will offer a mix of paid, free and ad-supported content and won't try to replicate traditional TV.

"The service will feature shorter snippets rather than 30 or 60 minute shows. It also could include multicast programming—a sort of broadcast service that uses cellular airwaves—for delivering live content like sports and concerts, along with on-demand viewing."

NPR also notes:

Many people probably still associate AOL as one of their first Internet service providers. But more than two decades later, AOL is more of a media company: It owns The Huffington Post, TechCrunch, MapQuest and Moviefone. According to the company, it is the fourth largest online property in the U.S. with 200 million monthly visitors to its sites.

What does SN think? Can this deal possibly be worth it?

takyon writes:

The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program awards researchers $100,000 grants to help them prepare feasibility studies of their space exploration and aerospace ideas. The Phase I selections for 2015 are listed here.

Mason Peck of Cornell University has proposed a "robotic squid" (or eel) that could be used to explore the oceans of Europa. Other proposals include "In-Space Manufacture of Storable Propellants", asteroid mining, and directed energy propulsion. From NASA's press release:

NIAC Phase I awards are valued at approximately $100,000, providing awardees the funding needed to conduct a nine-month initial definition and analysis study of their concepts. If the basic feasibility studies are successful, awardees can apply for Phase II awards, valued up to $500,000 for two additional years of concept development.

One of the selected proposals calls for the use of a soft-robotic rover for missions that can't be accomplished with conventional power systems. This rover would resemble an eel with a short antenna on its back that harvests power from locally changing magnetic fields. The goal is to enable amphibious exploration of gas-giant moons like Europa.

Another proposal will look at using two glider-like unmanned aerial vehicles connected by an ultra-strong cable at different altitudes that sail without propulsion. The vehicle would use wind shear in the lower stratosphere (approximately 60,000 ft.), similar to a kite surfer, where the upper aircraft provides lift and aerodynamic thrust, and the lower aircraft provides an upwind force to keep it from drifting downwind. If successful, this atmospheric satellite could remain in the stratosphere for years, enabling NASA's Earth science missions, monitoring capabilities or aircraft navigation at a fraction of the cost of orbital satellite networks.

Also at Wired and The Register.

takyon writes:

Microsoft has invested in two new undersea cables that will connect North America with Ireland, and plans to extend investment to new cables connecting America and Asia:

"Over the past 9 months, Microsoft has been significantly investing in subsea and terrestrial dark fiber capacity by engaging in fiber partnerships that span multiple oceans and continents," Redmond network enablement bigwig David Crowley said in a blog post. On Monday, the software giant announced partnerships with Hibernia and Aqua Comms, each of which will provide a cable that links Microsoft's North American infrastructure with data centers in Ireland, and from there to the UK.

In addition, Crowley said Microsoft has joined a consortium of companies that are working to build the first-ever physical landing station connecting North America to Asia, in what will be known as the New Cross Pacific (NCP) Cable Network. Besides Microsoft, other NCP consortium members include Chinese firms China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom; Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom; South Korea's KT Corporation; and Japan's SoftBank Mobile. The undersea cables for the effort will be supplied by New Jersey–based TE SubCom.

Microsoft isn't the only US tech firm investing in undersea network cables, though. Last August, Google said it would invest $300m in a set of six fiber pairs linking the US West Coast with Chikura and Shima in Japan. Those cables are expected to go online in the second quarter of next year, offering hypothetical total bandwidth of 60Tbps. The NCP consortium, meanwhile, claims its cables will supply up to 80Tbps.

Facebook has invested millions in Asia Pacific Gateway undersea cables. The Register is also reporting on a new land link between Perth and Sydney in Australia. Here's a map of submarine cables across the world.

Hugh Pickens writes:

From a marketing point of view, using treated sewage to create drinking water is a proposition that has proved difficult to sell to customers. Now John Schwartz writes in the NYT that as California scrambles for ways to cope with its crippling drought and the mandatory water restrictions imposed last month by Gov. Jerry Brown, enticing people to drink recycled water is requiring California residents to get past what experts call the “yuck” factor.

Efforts in the 1990s to develop water reuse in San Diego and Los Angeles were beaten back by activists who denounced what they called, devastatingly, “toilet to tap.” Orange County swung people to the idea of drinking recycled water with a special purification plant which has been operating since 2008 avoiding a backlash with a massive public relations campaign that involved more than 2,000 community presentations. The county does not run its purified water directly into drinking water treatment plants; instead, it sends the water underground to replenish the area’s aquifers and to be diluted by the natural water supply. This environmental buffer seems to provide an emotional buffer for consumers as well.

In 2000, Los Angeles actually completed a sewage reclamation plant capable of providing water to 120,000 homes — the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant in Van Nuys. The plan was abandoned after public outrage. Angelenos, it seemed, were too good to drink perfectly safe recycled water — dismissed as “toilet to tap.” But Los Angeles is ready to try again, with plans to provide a quarter of the city’s needs by 2024 with recycled water and captured storm water routed through aquifers. ”The difference between this and 2000 is everyone wants this to happen,” says Marty Adams. The inevitable squeamishness over drinking water that was once waste ignores a fundamental fact, says George Tchobanoglous: “When it comes down to it, water is water. Everyone who lives downstream on a river is drinking recycled water.”

takyon writes:

The Federal Communications Commission has denied petitions from telecommunications industry trade groups to stop implementation of Open Internet rules while legal challenges move forward:

In its ruling, the FCC declared that the petitioners could not establish reasonable grounds to stay the rules, even with the court appeal currently ongoing. In order to do so, the FCC said, a petitioner must not only show that they are likely to win the case and would suffer irreparable harm absent a stay, but also show that a stay is in the public interest and would not harm other parties.

"Petitioners have failed to demonstrate that they are likely to succeed on the merits," the FCC said. "The Commission’s classification of fixed and mobile [broadband internet access service] as telecommunications services falls well within the Commission’s statutory authority, is consistent with Supreme Court precedent, and fully complies with the Administrative Procedure Act."

Though it wasn't what opponents were hoping to hear, the ruling is far from the end of the road in the fight over the FCC rules. Even as the commission moves forward, legal challenges could still roll back the regulations.

Ars Technica adds:

The move to dismiss the broadband industry petitions for a stay is no surprise, but the FCC's denial sets up the next phase in the net neutrality legal battle. Now the groups will ask a court to halt the reclassification pending a final outcome. If they can't get a stay from a judge, they will have to abide by the reclassification until their full challenge of the FCC's ruling gets its day in court, which could take years.

CoolHand writes:

CNN reports another major earthquake in Nepal:

This was another major earthquake, the kind where you run for your life, where you seek any open area so nothing falls on your head and you don't get trapped under the rubble.

This is on top of the recent magnitude 7.8 quake there.

The Washington Post reports more than 50 dead:

NEW DELHI — A major earthquake rocked Nepal on Tuesday, killing more than 50 people, collapsing homes and buildings and triggering a panicked rush into the streets less than three weeks after the country’s most devastating quake in decades. The temblor, with a preliminary magnitude of 7.3, was the largest jolt in the Himalayan nation since the April 25 earthquake that claimed more than 8,000 lives and left more than half a million homes flattened or damaged. The latest quake struck near the Chinese border not far from the base camp at Mount Everest. The camp was engulfed by an avalanche during last month’s earthquake that left 20 climbers dead. Tremors were felt in major cities around the region Tuesday — as far as 600 miles to the east in New Delhi.

AnonTechie writes:

We know that bacteriophages are viruses that infect and replicate within bacteria. We know that they are the most abundant organisms on Earth. But we don’t know much about their genetic architecture.

A team of professional scholars and budding scientists–chiefly college freshmen–have joined forces under the aegis of SEA-PHAGES (Science Education Alliance-Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science), which is run jointly by the University of Pittsburgh and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, to study the little-known genetics of bacteriophages. In a new paper recently published in the journal eLife, the authors show that phages do not form discrete populations as previously suggested but are rampantly exchanging genes with each other to generate a broad spectrum of genetic diversity, albeit with some types being a lot more prevalent than others.

Of the nearly 3,000 authors, 2,664 were students from among 81 colleges and universities that participate in the SEA-PHAGES undergraduate science program, created by Pitt’s Graham Hatfull and colleagues and funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. This paper is believed to have the second-highest number in history of authors on a scientific paper, trailing only that which describes the discovery of the Higgs boson. That paper has more than 6,000 authors.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/05/150511114422.htm

[Abstract]: http://elifesciences.org/content/4/e06416

canopic jug writes:

Sweden's highest court has thrown out Julian Assange's appeal against his arrest warrant where he is wanted for questioning. Prosecutor Marianne Ny changed her mind earlier about questioning Assange in London. Assange has repeatedly requested that the questioning take place over the phone or in London as per common practice, to avoid traveling to Sweden where he fears he risks extradition to the US. Sweden has also repeatedly refused to give assurances regarding possible extradition.

takyon writes:

Former CIA agent Jeffrey Sterling has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison for sharing classified information with New York Times reporter James Risen:

Sterling's lawyers had asked the judge not to abide by sentencing guidelines calling for 19 to 24 years behind bars. They argued Sterling should be treated with the same leniency shown to former Gen. David Petraeus, who was allowed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor and avoid prison after admitting to leaking classified information to his biographer and then-girlfriend, Paula Broadwell. Sterling's lawyers also pointed to the case of former CIA agent John Kiriakou, who was recently released from jail after a 30-month sentence for disclosing the name of a covert agent to a reporter, and to the 13-month-sentence handed down to Stephen Kim, who pled guilty to talking about a classified document with a Fox News reporter.

Sterling, a 47-year-old former case officer in the agency's Iran Task Force, was a handler of a Russian-scientist-turned-spy who was the focal point of a complicated effort to provide Iran with faulty blueprints for nuclear centrifuges that, if used, would disrupt the nation's effort to build its own nuclear weapons. According to James Risen, the Times reporter who wrote a book in 2006 disclosing the operation, the Iranians realized the blueprints were faulty and extracted accurate information from them. The prosecution disputes Risen's reporting, contending that the operation was a success.

Though lighter than expected, Sterling's sentence continues a trend of what appears to be highly selective punishment of leakers. Classified information is regularly leaked by government officials who want to make themselves or the government look good. Such "authorized leaks" are rarely prosecuted. For instance, an array of highly classified information about the killing of Osama bin Laden — which made the Obama Administration look resolute and militarily effective — was leaked to the press and no one was punished in connection with the leaks. It tends to be only unauthorized leaks, particularly those that highlight wrongdoing or ineptitude, that the Department of Justice takes an interest in.

fliptop writes:

Tor is shutting down Tor Cloud due to lack of programmers helping keep the software maintained:

Launched in 2011 the Tor Cloud Project acted as a conduit to bring extra users to the fold. However, according to the Tor network blog, there simply are not enough developers contributing to the project to run it effectively.

"The main reason for discontinuing Tor Cloud is the fact that software requires maintenance, and Tor Cloud is no exception," Tor says.

Without a pool of Tor developers to keep the software up-to-date and bug free, the service has become little more than a risk to the security and privacy of users.

Also on TechWorm.net.

takyon writes:

The Moscow Center for SPARC Technologies has released a quad-core chip built on a 65 nm process:

Despite the company's own name, the chip is actually built on the proprietary "Elbrus" instruction set architecture and not on SPARC. The CPU cores are clocked only at 800 MHz each, and the chip is manufactured on a rather old 65 nm process. The chip has a TDP of 45 W, which isn't too bad considering its target market [of high-performance PCs and servers].

However, the performance may be lacking. Going by the MCST's own benchmarks (shown above and below), the CPU is only compared with older Atom chips that used to target netbooks or (also old) "Pentium-M" notebook processors. Even if the Elbrus-4C wins by a large margin in the floating point score, it does so against obsolete processors. When it is compared against the others for integer performance, the difference is much smaller.

The Register speculates that this chip may be the first effort to wean Russia off of "compromised" Intel and AMD processors.

The Elbrus 4c used in the PCs and servers is said to support two instruction sets: very long instruction word and SPARC. It's also said to be capable of x86 emulation, and to run Linux natively, after one performs binary translation.

The Elbrus ARM-401 PC is a minitower packing a version of Linux also called Elbrus and boasts four USB 2.0 ports, a PCI-express slot, gigabit ethernet and not much more. The CPU is apparently capable of running Doom 3, enabling Russian gamers to go fragging like it's 2004.

The Server Elbrus 4.4 is a four-socket affair and four of the machines fit into a 1U chassis. Gigabit ethernet, SATA and plenty of PCI slots connect it to other kit and the rest of the worlds.

MCST has announced the products are on sale, but don't expect an online configurator at which you can run up a rig and get a live price: the outfit offers just the sales@mcst.ru email address for would-be buyers.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

How would you like to work for the Free Software Foundation (FSF)? Now could be your chance! Get paid to write free software!

The FSF is looking for a full-time Web Developer with good knowledge of modern household names like MediaWiki, Plone/Zope and Drupal. The duties will be mostly related to 'back end' systems but also 'front end' experience is valued. The position is located in downtown Boston. Apply by Wednesday, May 27th.

ps. If that was not your kettle of fish, perhaps one of these might be https://www.fsf.org/resources/jobs/listing

Hugh Pickens writes:

Kate Murphy writes at NYT about John Urschel whose latest contribution to the mathematical realm was a paper for the Journal of Computational Mathematics with the impressively esoteric title, "A Cascadic Multigrid Algorithm for Computing the Fiedler Vector of Graph Laplacians". "I have a Bachelor's and Master's in mathematics, all with a 4.0, and numerous published papers in major mathematical journals."

But as an offensive guard for the Baltimore Ravens, John Urschel regularly goes head to head with the top defensive players in the NFL and does his best to keep quarterback Joe Flacco out of harm's way. "I play because I love the game. I love hitting people," Urshel writes. "There's a rush you get when you go out on the field, lay everything on the line and physically dominate the player across from you. This is a feeling I'm (for lack of a better word) addicted to, and I'm hard-pressed to find anywhere else."

Urschel acknowledges that he has faced questions from NFL officials, journalists, fans and fellow mathematicians about why he runs the risk of potential brain injury from playing football when he has "a bright career ahead of me in mathematics," but he doesn't feel able to quit. "When I go too long without physical contact I'm not a pleasant person to be around. This is why, every offseason, I train in kickboxing and wrestling in addition to my lifting, running and position-specific drill work."

"gewg_" writes:

Josh Boyer of the Fedora Project reports

[In Linux kernel 4.0], there is one feature that people (and various media sites) seem to have keyed in on and that is the live patching functionality. This holds the promise of being able to patch your running kernel without rebooting. Indeed, this could be very useful, but it isn't quite there yet. And it also doesn't make a whole lot of sense for Fedora at this time. The Fedora kernels have this functionality disabled, both in Fedora 22 and Rawhide.

What was merged for 4.0 is the core functionality that is shared between two live patching projects, kPatch and kGraft. kPatch is being led by a development team in Red Hat whereas kGraft is being developed by a team from SuSE. They both accomplish the same end result, but they do so via a different approach internally. The two teams met at the Linux Plumbers conference last year and worked on some common ground to make it easier to merge into mainline rather than compete with each other. This is absolutely awesome and an example of how new features should be developed upstream. Kudos to all those involved on that front.

The in-kernel code can accept patches from both methods, but the process and tools to create those patches are still being worked on in their upstream communities. Neither set are in Fedora itself, and likely won't be for some time as it is still fairly early in the life of these projects. After discussing this a bit with the live patching maintainer, we decided to keep this disabled in the Fedora kernels for now. The kernel-playground COPR does have it enabled for those that want to dig in and generate their own patches and are willing to break things and support themselves.

In reality, we might not ever really leverage the live patching functionality in Fedora itself.

Related: Kernel Live-Patching Moving into the Linux Kernel

sigma writes:

Wired reports that more than 4,000 OpenStreetMap volunteers mapped out 13,199 new miles of road and 110,681 buildings in Nepal following the earthquake. They quadrupled the road mileage covered and adding 30 percent more buildings within 48 hours to provide critical information about road networks, hiking trails, relief camps, footpaths, and river crossings to governments and aid organizations.

Almost all work is done remotely from satellite and GPS data, often by volunteers with little or no experience with mapping. OSM has organized similar efforts in other crises and their system is simple enough that a quick online tutorial can get the beginners started. Their efforts are then reviewed by more experienced users.

http://www.wired.com/2015/05/the-open-source-maps-that-made-rescues-in-nepal-possible/