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Phoenix666 writes:

A team at the Catalysis Institute at Cardiff University is hoping to make biofuel production more efficient and sustainable by recycling the leftovers from the process.

Currently, biofuel production uses methanol, which is combined with fats and oils. The process generates glycerol as a waste product, but the material is too full of impurities for cost effective reuse. This is where researchers spotted an opportunity to increase the yield, using a simple catalysis to recycle glycerol into methanol that can be used to produce more biodiesel.

They added water to glycerol as a source of hydrogen and used MgO (magnesium oxide) and CeO2 (cerium oxide) as catalysts. They experimented with different temperatures, catalysis periods and chemical combinations to test their idea. They say the results they achieved point the way to a new catalytic route from aqueous glycerol to methanol, with the potential to increase yield by an estimated 10 percent.

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frojack writes:

Department of Homeland Security CISO Paul Beckman thinks it's high time to ban those who flunk Phishing 101 from having access to sensitive government data by revoking their clearances.

In an ArsTechnica article Beckman is quoted as saying:

Beckman runs his own phishing tests, and those who fall for the fake phishing emails are required to take Internet security training classes. The test phishing emails contain a link, which takes users to fake pages requesting logins. By clicking on the enclosed link then entering usernames and passwords, the subject immediately fail Phishing 101.

Beckman plans to pursue including susceptibility to phishing tests part of evaluations of employees' fitness to handle sensitive information, by raising the issue with DHS chief security officer.

Most Soylentils are probably pretty savvy about phishing emails. My spam bin is chock full of them. Most never opened. Still there are those which are so well prepared that they require a peek at the headers, which I admit to doing with a text editor on a Linux platform. Am I foolish?

How many of you think you could pass a well prepared Phishing Test?

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mendax writes:

El Reg published a story about another one of those mainframe application upgrade snafus that American states regularly get themselves into:

Michigan is suing HP after the state government grew tired of waiting for the tech biz to fulfill an IT contract signed a decade ago. Hewlett Packard had agreed to replace the US state's aging computer systems that power so much of the local government. The tech firm signed a $49m contract back in 2005 to replace Michigan's 1960s-vintage mainframe with new computers in 131 offices. The project was supposed to take five years, but it's now five years late – and Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson's patience has run out.

What makes this story particularly unusual from others like it is the following:

Part of that contract stated that if the contract was terminated then HP would still provide technical support for the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget (DTMB) in the interim period. But after Johnson sent the firm a notice of termination in August, HP contractors have downed tools and refused to turn up for work.

This difficulty in upgrading these old green-screen mainframe applications to modern platforms leads one to ask the question: How were they developed in the first place?

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Medicine that costs $1 to make raised in price from $13.50 to $750.00

An Anonymous Coward suggests the following:

The head of a US pharmaceutical company has defended his company's decision to raise the price of a 62-year-old medication used by Aids patients by over 5,000%. Turing Pharmaceuticals acquired the rights to Daraprim in August.

CEO Martin Shkreli has said that the company will use the money it makes from sales to research new treatments. The drug is used treat toxoplasmosis, a parasitic affliction that affects people with compromised immune systems.

After Turning's acquisition, a dose of Daraprim in the US increased from $13.50 (£8.70) to $750. The pill costs about $1 to produce, but Mr Shkreli, a former hedge fund manager, said that does not include other costs like marketing and distribution.

Cost of Daraprim Medication Raised By Over 50 Times

takyon writes:

BBC is reporting on a massive price hike of an essential drug used by AIDS patients:

The head of a US pharmaceutical company has defended his company's decision to raise the price of a 62-year-old medication used by Aids patients by over 5,000%. Turing Pharmaceuticals acquired the rights to Daraprim in August. CEO Martin Shkreli has said that the company will use the money it makes from sales to research new treatments.

The drug is used treat toxoplasmosis, a parasitic affliction that affects people with compromised immune systems. After Turning's acquisition, a dose of Daraprim in the US increased from $13.50 (£8.70) to $750. The pill costs about $1 to produce, but Mr Shkreli, a former hedge fund manager, said that does not include other costs like marketing and distribution. "We needed to turn a profit on this drug," Mr Shkreli told Bloomberg TV. "The companies before us were just giving it away almost." On Twitter, Mr Shkreli mocked several users who questioned the company's decision, calling one reporter "a moron".

Why not switch to a generic pyrimethamine tablet? They don't exist right now, according to the New York Times (story includes examples of other recent price hikes):

With the price now high, other companies could conceivably make generic copies, since patents have long expired. One factor that could discourage that option is that Daraprim's distribution is now tightly controlled, making it harder for generic companies to get the samples they need for the required testing.

The switch from drugstores to controlled distribution was made in June by Impax, not by Turing. Still, controlled distribution was a strategy Mr. Shkreli talked about at his previous company as a way to thwart generics.

The drug is also used to treat malaria and appears on the World Health Organization Model List of Essential Medicines. Toxoplasmosis infections are a feline gift to the world.

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Apple has published a workaround after some iPhone and iPad users were left stranded in the middle of the iOS 9 update process.

The Cupertino giant has acknowledged multiple complaints that devices were unable to progress past the "Slide to Upgrade" screen when moving to the latest version of iOS. Apple's remedy: wipe your device and hope you made a backup.

Instructions posted to the Apple support site advised users to perform a factory reset on the frozen iThing and then restore from a previous backup.

This comes after users had been hitting Apple's support boards and other forums reporting the same problem; when installing iOS 9, their iPhones and iPads kept freezing up at the Slide to Upgrade screen.

"The setup order is 'passcode' – 'slide to upgrade' – ‘select Wi-Fi’ – 'slide to upgrade' at which point no further actions are possible."

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bitweeder writes:

Gamasutra and others report the following:

Over the weekend Kickstarter announced that it was reorganizing itself as a "public benefit corporation," a relatively new corporate designation that entails (among other things) spelling out a mission of public benefit in its corporate charter and making regular social impact reports to the public.

This will likely have little practical impact on game developers who use Kickstarter to fund their projects; the company is pitching the switch more as a visible example of its mission to be a transparent platform for creators to drum up support for their ideas.

"There’s a huge difference between a values document and the legal foundation of your company," Kickstarter co-founder Perry Chen told The New York Times."It’s allowed us to find people who have a similar idealism."

The Times goes on to note that Kickstarter has actually already begun making yearly public accountings of its operations due to its decision earlier this year to become a "B Corporation," outpacing the expectation that public benefits corporations (PBC) make public reports every two years.

Other relevant links :

• The New York Times
• Public-Benefit Corporation

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Phoenix666 writes:

Tesla will drive down battery-pack-level costs by 70% (down to around $38/kilowatt-hour) once the Gigafactory hits peak production via economies of scale, improved chemistry, supply chain optimization, and other factors, according to Jefferies analyst Dan Dolev.
...
The analyst in question is basing this prediction around an estimation that current Model S battery-pack costs hover somewhere around $250/kWh (kilowatt-hour) — and that the company "can bring the cost of the battery cells down to ~$88/kWh and the pack-level cost to ~$38/kWh."

We believe that Tesla's use of an efficient nickel cobalt aluminum (NCA) cathode (ie the positive electrode), use of a silicon synthetic graphene anode (ie the negative electrode) that has 2-6x the lithium-ion storage capacity of today's standard graphite anode, and a possible use of water-based anode solvent, are key advantages. [...] Our analysis details a potential path to a 30% cell-level cost reduction to ~$88/kWh by using a more efficient lithium-rich nickel cobalt manganese cathode (vs. NCA), doubling the percentage of silicon in the synthetic graphene anode, replacing the liquid electrolyte with an ionic gel electrolyte which eliminates the need for a separator, and using a water-based electrode solvent for the cathode. The Gigafactory, which is expected to begin production in early '16, should drive down pack-level costs by 70% to ~$38/kWh via economies of scale, supply chain optimization, increased automation, and production domestication.

As noted by Electrek, that puts things in the sorts of ranges that would probably allow for a very affordable electric vehicle (EV) with a 200–300 mile plus range.

It's a bold claim. Another story over the weekend about Tesla signing a deal with a lithium mine does indicate their Gigafactory could be the game changer Tesla claims it will be.

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Phoenix666 writes:

In case Soylentils were looking for other DIY projects that are NSFS (Not Safe For School), this project came up on the Featured list on Instructables:

The PiTank is a web controller tank built for a competition at my school's robotics club. The project took about two weeks to complete with all 5 team members participating in various aspects. Its main projectile are ping pong balls (up to 3).The firing mechanism is based on a spud gun. The PiTank is controlled using a web browser and is capable of real-time video streaming. It is powered by a Raspberry Pi and an Arduino, along with a few other components. Here is a picture of the completed project and a demonstration video.

The instructable itself will touch on every aspect of the build but will not go into the small details. However, links to other useful tutorials and reference guides will be provided.

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Phoenix666 writes:

The BBC is planning to launch a subscription-based video streaming service in the United States.

BBC director general Tony Hall said he wanted to "try out businesses that go direct to the public" to boost the income of BBC Worldwide.

The new service, which could launch in 2016, will not affect agreements with other services such as Amazon and Hulu.

One expert told BBC News the service would probably appeal to a "niche" audience.

Lord Hall said the new service would showcase the "best of British" television to audiences in the US.

"We're launching a new over-the-top video service in America offering BBC fans programmes they wouldn't otherwise get - showcasing British actors, our programme-makers - and celebrating our culture," he said in a speech on Thursday.

Will balkanization work for streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, HBO, and now the BBC?

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HughPickens.com writes:

Ed Regis writes in the New York Times that today we an witnessing an outburst of enthusiasm over the literally outlandish notion that in the relatively near future, some of us are going to be living, working, thriving and dying on Mars. But unfortunately Mars mania reflects an excessively optimistic view of what it actually takes to travel to and live on Mars, papering over many of the harsh realities and bitter truths that underlie the dream. "First, there is the tedious business of getting there. Using current technology and conventional chemical rockets, a trip to Mars would be a grueling, eight- to nine-month-long nightmare for the crew," writes Regis. "Tears, sweat, urine and perhaps even solid waste will be recycled, your personal space is reduced to the size of an SUV., and you and your crewmates are floating around sideways, upside down and at other nauseating angles." According to Regis every source of interpersonal conflict, and emotional and psychological stress that we experience in ordinary, day-to-day life on Earth will be magnified exponentially by restriction to a tiny, hermetically sealed, pressure-cooker capsule hurtling through deep space and to top it off, despite these constraints, the crew must operate within an exceptionally slim margin of error with continuous threats of equipment failures, computer malfunctions, power interruptions and software glitches.

But getting there is the easy part says Regis. "Mars is a dead, cold, barren planet on which no living thing is known to have evolved, and which harbors no breathable air or oxygen, no liquid water and no sources of food, nor conditions favorable for producing any. For these and other reasons it would be accurate to call Mars a veritable hell for living things, were it not for the fact that the planet's average surface temperature is minus 81 degrees Fahrenheit." These are only a few of the many serious challenges that must be overcome before anyone can put human beings on Mars and expect them to live for more than five minutes says Regis. "The notion that we can start colonizing Mars within the next 10 years or so is an overoptimistic, delusory idea that falls just short of being a joke."

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Phoenix666 writes:

An Apple 1 motherboard, a 79-year-old TV and the only surviving processor of the last supercomputer designed by Seymour Cray are being auctioned in New York.

The 1936 Baird television set may not work and delivers a huge electrical charge of 5000 volts.

But it could still fetch between $20,000 (£13,000) and $30,000, according to auctioneer Bonhams.

The Apple 1 has a starting price of $300,000.

Do you have any vintage pieces you'd like to sell in the auction? Are there any items you'd like to add to your collection?

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eof writes:

The former CEO of Peanut Corporation of American, Stewart Parnell, was sentenced to 28 years for knowingly selling salmonella tainted product. The ensuing salmonella outbreak killed at least 9 people in late 2008/early 2009.

Federal investigators found a leaky roof, roaches and evidence of rodents at the plant, all ingredients for brewing salmonella. They also uncovered emails and records showing food confirmed by lab tests to contain salmonella was shipped to customers anyway. Other batches were never tested at all, but got shipped with fake lab records saying salmonella screenings were negative.

Emails prosecutors presented at trial showed that Parnell once directed employees to "turn them loose" after samples of peanuts tested positive for salmonella and then were cleared in another test. Several months before the outbreak, when a final lab test found salmonella, Parnell expressed concern to a Georgia plant manager, writing in an Oct. 6, 2008, email that the delay "is costing us huge $$$$$."

[Parnell's] mother, Zelda Parnell, told the judge both of her sons "have suffered for years."

"They lost their income, all their material things and worst of all their pride," she said.

The other son, Michael Parnell, was previously sentenced to 20 years in prison. A former quality control manager has been sentenced to 5 years.

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Skype Outage Hassles Millions of Users

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Multiple sources are reporting that Microsoft's popular messaging and voice chat application Skype has been hit by a severe service outage.

The problem seems to be a bug in the application which affects users from seeing each other. Microsoft has stated that they have found the cause of the problem and is slowly working to restore service, however at the time of this writing it seems that a number of global users are still affected.

Link to official Skype status: Skype Heartbeat.

I've been planning to move away from Skype for a while, but its popularity is making it somewhat difficult (akin to the Facebook dilemma: everyone uses it, why switch?) and this outage has underscored the need for redundancy, especially for some things that users view as essential for connectivity. What other similar applications can Soylent recommend?

AWS knocks Amazon, Netflix, Tinder and IMDb offline in MEGA data collapse

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Amazon's Web Services (AWS) have been hit by a monster outage affecting the company's cloudy systems, bringing many sites down with it in the process.

The service disruption has hit AWS customers including Netflix, Tinder and IMDb, as well as Amazon's Instant Video and Books websites.

The outage may also explain Airbnb's current service woes. Airbnb is an AWS customer.

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takyon writes:

Marketplace has a story on Japan's "aversion to startups":

Silicon Valley appreciates a good failure. The Japanese — not so much. "People have the mentality of failure as not being an option. And if you fail, they will face social rejection," says Toshi Yamamoto, CEO and founder of software company ChatWork. When he was launching his company while still in college, says Yamamoto, he was constantly questioned. "All the time. They call me crazy – why do you do that? Why don't you go to a large corporation? Or, why don't you work for the company?" he says.

And while Japan's prime minister Shinzo Abe is pushing hard to reverse the country's economic slump, when it comes to tech and innovation, Japan is still behind — Especially reluctant, it would seem, to embrace the culture of start-ups.

Imagine, says William Saito, special adviser to the cabinet of Japan and its prime minister, two moms of recent college grads. One from Stanford, and one from Tokyo University. The Stanford mom would be proud to say her kid was going to work at a startup. But if the Tokyo University mom found out her young grad was going to work at a startup, the attitude would be more along the lines of "Oh no, poor guy. He couldn't get in to Mitsubishi." Says Saito, "Factories are still humming ... the government works relatively well. Crime is relatively low." What's changed, he says, is "kind of a disease." The country has lost confidence, leading to less risk taking, fear of failure and ultimately, a lack of innovation.

[...] You can see the problem right at the source. Or, really, the source code. When programmers, working on those hot new apps, crunch out lines of text they include comments — sort of digital post-it notes meant to help team members navigate their way through all that Java or C++. Even genius programmers from Stanford need collaboration in order to succeed. But in Japan, the willingness to do just that can be very tough to find. Instead of helpful messages, says Saito, comments left by a Japanese programmer, accustomed to working solo, may be more likely to send a message like "Do not touch this code or I will kill you." Notes Saito, "source code is very telling. You can the tell personality of a country this way. This is the one thing that is really holding back Japan."

A counterpoint from Bloomberg (Dec. 2014):

December is going to be a busy month for Japan's equity markets. The 28 initial public offerings from yesterday through Dec. 26 will push the 2014 total to 80, the most since 2007, bourse data compiled by Bloomberg show. More than half will list on the market for small, high-growth businesses known as TSE Mothers, where listing requirements were relaxed in March. The flurry of share sales is being led by technology entrepreneurs and underscores confidence in Japan's stock rally as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe heads to the polls in two days. Even with the world's third-biggest economy in recession, the unprecedented monetary easing under Abe that's spurred a 141 percent surge for the smallest listed companies sets the scene for more IPOs in 2015, says Kabu.com Securities Co. "I expect more IPOs next year," Tsutomu Yamada, a market analyst at Kabu.com Securities, said by phone from Tokyo yesterday. "Businesses have to list when the going is good, and investors want to put their money in companies that will grow. Internet, biotechnology and robotics companies are fresh, small and able to grab investors' attention."

[...] In an effort to lure smaller businesses, Japan Exchange Group Inc. lowered minimum shareholder requirements in March and is offering more consultation services to attract IPOs from its home market and countries such as South Korea and Malaysia, where accounting rules are similar to Japan, said Yasuyuki Konuma, an executive officer who oversees new listings and business development at the bourse. Since elections were called in November 2012 that brought Abe to power, the TSE Mothers Index has more than doubled, while the Topix soared 93 percent through yesterday. Abenomics, the premier's signature plan to end decades of deflation, has unleashed unprecedented monetary easing that weakened the yen and sparked a boom in stock prices and corporate earnings.

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Phoenix666 writes:

Apple has said it is taking steps to remove malicious code added to a number of apps commonly used on iPhones and iPads in China.

It is thought to be the first large-scale attack on Apple's App Store.

The hackers created a counterfeit version of Apple's software for building iOS apps, which they persuaded developers to download.

Apps compiled using the tool allow the attackers to steal data about users and send it to servers they control.

Cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks - which has analysed the malware dubbed XcodeGhost - said the perpetrators would also be able to send fake alerts to infected devices to trick their owners into revealing information.

It added they could also read and alter information in compromised devices' clipboards, which would potentially allow them to see logins copied to and from password management tools.

takyon: Affected apps include WeChat, NetEase's music downloading app, Didi Kuaidi's Uber-like car hailing app, the business card scanner CamCard, and more.

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Phoenix666 writes:

On Thursday, Congress advanced a bill which would allow European citizens to sue the US government if their data is misused in an international law enforcement investigation. The proposal is one of several cybersecurity bills currently in progress in the US and in Europe.

Known as the Judicial Redress Act, it's intended to address imbalances in how the US and international governments share data in criminal investigations, including terrorism cases. It's part of a larger "umbrella agreement" between the US and the European Union to further define how the two sides share information. Currently, US citizens can sue in European courts over the misuse of their data, but the US does not have similar protections.
...
"If we fail to pass the Judicial Redress Act, we will undermine several important international agreements, harm our businesses operating in Europe and severely limit the sharing of law enforcement information," Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R) of Wisconsin, who introduced the bill in March, said during the meeting.

Will Europeans fare better than the American citizens who already sued the US government for total surveillance?

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