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-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

Eric Hameleers blogs once again:

It took me a while to get to a level where I could do another public update of my "liveslak" scripts for the Slackware Live Edition. The previous two articles about the Live OS generated quite some feedback and I think I was able to address a lot of those remarks and suggestions in the updated code. My TODO has however only shrunk [by] one item...

A "Beta3"[1] is what we have now. My milestone for emitting a new Beta was to have a working UEFI boot. And I hope I managed that. Works here... for what it's worth.

  - What is Slackware Live Edition?

[...] We're talking about a "live OS" here, which you can run off a CDROM, a DVD, or a USB stick and does not have to be installed to a computer hard drive. You can carry the USB stick version with you in your pocket. You'll have a pre-configured Slackware OS up & running in a minute wherever you can get your hands on a computer with a USB port. The USB version is "persistent" meaning that the OS stores your updates on the stick. The CD/DVD versions (and the USB stick if you configure it accordingly) run without persistence, which means that all the changes you make to the OS are lost on reboot.

[1] The link in TFA for "Beta3" doesn't appear to be what was intended (DIY rather than ready-to-go ISOs).

Previous: Slackware Live Edition Beta Available

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-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

Adweek reports:

There's a long and not-very-proud tradition of anti-drug advertising that gets ridiculed for missing the mark with young audiences. Australia's New South Wales government just added a classic new entry to that hall of shame with #StonerSloth, a campaign designed to shame teens who get high--but who are finding the ads hilariously delightful instead.

In three short videos, marijuana has turned teens into giant sloths--and the metaphor is made literal, as the kids are actually depicted as giant hairy beasts with long, curved claws. Socially, they're utterly useless. All they can do is moan, since they're so high. And they can't take tests at school, make small talk at parties, or--most comically, if unintentionally so--even pass the salt at dinner.

[...] The campaign is so cartoony and weird that teens, rather than learning any lessons from it, are embracing it as one big joke. There are already parody videos, endless Twitter jokes--and even a "Pass the salt" sloth T-shirt for sale.

takyon: Denver Post: After two years, debate remains over marijuana legalization's impacts
The best kept banking secret in the marijuana industry (Oregon)

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After the big accounting scandal that came to light earlier this year, now they have announced ~7000 layoffs at Toshiba, mostly in Japan, but some worldwide.

http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2015-12-21/scandal-hit-toshiba-cuts-jobs-sells-plant-projects-red-ink

This article says that the PC division will continue. Another source suggests that the PC division may be sold off. Anyone want to speculate about potential buyers?

Also at BBC, NYT.

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fliptop writes:

It's been 15 years in the making. Unveiled in October, Perl 6 has been officially released:

On behalf of the Rakudo[1] development team, I'm proud to announce the Christmas release (December 2015) of Rakudo Perl 6 #94 "коледа"[2]. Rakudo is an implementation of Perl 6 on the Moar Virtual Machine.

[...] Together, we've built a language that:

• Retains the core values of Perl: expressiveness, getting the job done, taking influences from natural language, and pushing the boundaries of language design
• Has clean, modern syntax, rooted in familiar constructs but revisiting and revising the things that needed it

[...] While we are extremely happy to ship an official Perl 6 release, this is not the end of Rakudo's development. We will continue to ship monthly releases, which will continue to improve performance and our users experience. We'll also continue our work on the specification, with feedback from the community.

Related: Perl 6 Gets Beta Compiler, Modules and an Advent Calendar

[1] According to Wikipedia:

The name "Rakudo" for the Perl 6 compiler was first suggested by Damian Conway.[7] "Rakudo" is short for "Rakuda-dō" (with a long 'o'; 駱駝道), which is Japanese for "Way of the Camel". "Rakudo" (with a short 'o'; 楽土) also means "paradise" in Japanese.

[2] According to Wikipedia:

Koliada or koleda (Cyrillic: коляда, коледа, колада, коледе) is an ancient pre-Christian winter ritual/festival. It was later incorporated into Christmas.

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Arthur T. Knackerbracket writes in with this story from CNET:

Apple asked Samsung for a very big Christmas present this year: $180 million more in damages stemming from a long-running patent case.

Just weeks after Samsung agreed to pay Apple $548 million for infringing iPhone patents and designs, Apple filed papers in court Wednesday claiming its rival owes an additional $180 million in supplemental damages and interest.

The Cupertino, California-based Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment. South Korea-based Samsung declined to comment. The news was first reported Thursday by patent expert Florian Mueller on his FOSS Patents blog.

The trial in the case, which ended in 2012, cast a bright light on the designs behind some of the most popular smartphones. It captivated Silicon Valley and the tech industry because it exposed the inner workings of two notoriously secretive companies. A jury ultimately found that Samsung had violated key Apple patents and at the time came up with an award of more than $1 billion, which later got whittled down to almost half the amount.

Samsung has appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that it sets a precedent that could stifle innovation because it heightens companies' fears of legal challenges. The high court hasn't decided whether to accept the case for review.

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Phoenix666 writes:

Brought to you by the Department for Understanding Humans:

Men are more likely to go missing -- with a fatal outcome -- during a night out in the UK in December than at any other time of year, a new study led by an expert from London's Kingston University has revealed.

Preliminary findings released in the run-up to the festive period show that, of 97 cases recorded between January 2010 and August 2015 more than half the fatal disappearances occurred during winter, with a fifth in December alone. Five men were described as having been on a Christmas party and a further five as going missing on New Year's Eve or in the early hours of 1 January. The perils of waterways were a significant factor in the demise of 86 missing men found dead after last being seen socialising.

The release of the data has led to renewed calls for males to look after friends and colleagues when out celebrating during the Christmas party season -- with a particular focus on taking care when walking home near rivers, canals and docks.

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mendax writes:

The New York Times is reporting that Sweden is getting close to eliminating cash as a method of payment:

Parishioners text tithes to their churches. Homeless street vendors carry mobile credit-card readers. Even the Abba Museum, despite being a shrine to the 1970s pop group that wrote "Money, Money, Money," considers cash so last-century that it does not accept bills and coins.

Few places are tilting toward a cashless future as quickly as Sweden, which has become hooked on the convenience of paying by app and plastic.

This tech-forward country, home to the music streaming service Spotify and the maker of the Candy Crush mobile games, has been lured by the innovations that make digital payments easier. It is also a practical matter, as many of the country's banks no longer accept or dispense cash. [...]

Bills and coins now represent just 2 percent of Sweden's economy, compared with 7.7 percent in the United States and 10 percent in the euro area.

But, as anyone with a brain can predict:

Not everyone is cheering. Sweden's embrace of electronic payments has alarmed consumer organizations and critics who warn of a rising threat to privacy and increased vulnerability to sophisticated Internet crimes. Last year, the number of electronic fraud cases surged to 140,000, more than double the amount a decade ago, according to Sweden's Ministry of Justice.

My take: With cash, identify theft and credit card fraud becomes more difficult. But more importantly, I like the anonymity of cash. It lets those of us who pay too much in taxes cheat on sales tax by buying expensive things in a tax-free state when we visit. I also like using cash to tip underpaid servers at restaurants so they don't have to report that portion of their gratuity. But there is a civil liberties element to it as well. The government has no business knowing or being able to know where I spend my money or how much I spend.

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HughPickens.com writes:

Christopher Ingraham reports at The Washington Post that the Department of Justice has announced that it's suspending a controversial asset forfeiture program that allows local police departments to keep a large portion of assets seized from citizens under federal law and funnel it into their own coffers.

Asset forfeiture has become an increasingly contentious practice in recent years. It lets police seize and keep cash and property from people who are never convicted — and in many cases, never charged with wrongdoing. Recent reports have found that the use of the practice has exploded in recent years, prompting concern that, in some cases, police are motivated more by profits and less by justice.

Criminal justice reformers are cheering the change. "This is a significant deal," says Lee McGrath, legislative counsel at the Institute for Justice. "Local law enforcement responds to incentives. And it's clear that one of the biggest incentives is the relative payout from federal versus state forfeiture. And this announcement by the DOJ changes the playing field for which law state and local [law enforcement] is going to prefer."

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xpda writes:

The Hyatt hotel chain discovered credit-card stealing malware in its payment system on November 30 and announced it December 23, in an apparent attempt to spread holiday cheer.

Hyatt's notice to customers has very few details about the investigation, such as how long the breach lasted or how many consumers may have had their card data stolen as a result. Hyatt did say that it has taken steps to strengthen its systems, and that "customers can feel confident using payment cards at Hyatt hotels worldwide."

Hilton, Starwood, and Trump hotels have enjoyed similar data breaches over the past few months.

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xpda writes:

Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play, Tidal and Amazon Prime Music began streaming 224 Beatles tracks on December 24. Other services that have secured the band's catalogue include Deezer, Microsoft Groove, Napster and Slacker Radio. The Beatles as a corporate entity have been notoriously slow in adapting to new technology. They waited five years to issue their albums on CD, and didn't talk about the download Revolution until 2010 - seven years after the iTunes store launched.

The Beatles announcement comes as a number of high-profile artists - including Neil Young, Prince, and Radiohead's Thom Yorke - have questioned the value of streaming services.

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Arthur T. Knackerbracket writes in with this story from The New York Times :

FARGO, N.D. - "California and New York want what we've got," said Shawn Muehler, a 30-year-old Fargo resident, gazing at a horizon of empty fields, silos, windbreak trees and hardly any people. A winged craft traces the air, mapping a field with pinpoint accuracy for his start-up, a drone software company called Botlink. They like drones, but they've got a steep learning curve ahead.

For years, entrepreneurs have come here to farm and to drill for oil and natural gas. Now a new, tech-savvy generation is grabbing a piece of the growing market for drone technology and officials want to help them do it here, where there is plenty of open space and - unlike in other sparsely populated states - lots of expertise already in place.

Silicon Valley has the big money and know-how, Mr. Muehler and others say, but North Dakota can take unmanned aerial vehicles, as the officials prefer to call drones, from a fast-growing hobby to an industry. And just as Silicon Valley got its start with military contracts, entrepreneurs and cooperative universities, they believe they can do the same with drones.

"The potential up here is tremendous," said Jack Dalrymple, the state's governor. "It's not about supporting a company or two; it's creating the leading edge of an industry.

[More after the break.]

Arthur T. Knackerbracket writes in with a story from ArsTechnica:

When Norway announced plans to expand its Ørland Airport this year, archaeologists got excited. They knew that pre-construction excavation was likely to reveal ancient Viking artifacts. But they got far more than they had hoped.

Ørland Airport is located in a region of Norway that changed dramatically after the last ice age ended. The area was once completely covered by a thick, heavy layer of ice whose weight caused the Earth's crust to sink below sea level. When the glaciers melted, much of this region remained underwater, creating a secluded bay where today there is nothing but dry land. At the fringes of this vanished bay, archaeologists with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology Museum found the remains of what appears to have been a large, wealthy farming community.

Surveying an area of roughly 91,000 square meters, the researchers uncovered post holes for three large "longhouses" arranged in a U-shape, where villagers would have gathered, honored their chieftain, and possibly stored food. Over the next year, the team plans to unearth more of the village layout—with help from the Norwegian government, which funds scientific excavations at sites set for development.

Perhaps the most exciting discoveries so far have come from large middens, or garbage piles. By sifting through trash, scientists can learn about everything from what the Vikings ate (lots of fish and seabirds) to what they wore. Among the garbage finds were a few pieces of jewelry, like the blue bead pictured above. They also found a shard of green glass from a goblet, most likely made in Germany's Rhine Valley. Ingrid Ystgaard, an archaeologist with [the NTNU University] museum, noted in a release that this finding is incredibly significant because it reveals that "[these] people had enough wealth to trade for glass." She added that the now-inland region was once a port, situated ideally "at the mouth of Trondheim Fjord, which was a vital link to Sweden and the inner regions of mid-Norway."

Midden materials of this age, roughly 1500 years old, have never been found before in Norway. They were preserved so well at this site because the ancient villagers buried them in sand with low acidity. As a result, the midden didn't decay as quickly as garbage tossed aside by Iron Age villagers elsewhere. What's emerging from this ongoing excavation is a rare look at a culture that's long gone, along with the lost coastline that once nourished it.

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Arthur T. Knackerbracket writes in with this story from phys.org:

If governments are serious about the global warming targets they adopted in Paris, scientists say they have two options: eliminating fossil fuels immediately or finding ways to undo their damage to the climate system in the future.

The first is politically impossible—the world is still hooked on using oil, coal and natural gas—which leaves the option of a major cleanup of the atmosphere later this century.

Yet the landmark Paris Agreement, adopted by 195 countries on Dec. 12, makes no reference to that, which has left some observers wondering whether politicians understand the implications of the goals they signed up for.

"I would say it's the single biggest issue that has to be resolved," said Glen Peters of the Cicero climate research institute in Oslo, Norway.

Scientists refer to this envisioned cleanup job as negative emissions—removing more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere than humans put in it.

Right now we're putting in a lot—about 50 billion tons a year, mostly carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels for energy.

There are methods to achieve negative emissions today but they would need to be scaled up to a level that experts say could put climate efforts in conflict with other priorities, such as eradicating hunger. Still, if the Paris climate goals are to be achieved, there's no way to avoid the issue, said Jan Minx of the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate change in Berlin.

"My view is, let's have this discussion," he said. "Let's involve ourselves in developing these technologies. We need to keep learning."

The Paris Agreement was historic. For the first time all countries agreed to jointly fight climate change, primarily by reducing the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

Governments vowed to keep global warming "well below" 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) compared with preindustrial times. But even 2 degrees of warming could threaten the existence of low-lying island nations faced with rising seas. So governments agreed to try to limit warming to 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F), which is just half-a-degree above the global average temperature this year.

That goal is so ambitious—some would say far-fetched—that there's been very little research devoted to it. In Paris, politicians asked scientists to start studying how it can be done.

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Arthur T. Knackerbracket writes in with a story from Computerworld:

If you work in finance or accounting and receive an email from your boss asking you to transfer some funds to an external account, you might want to think twice.

That's because so-called "whaling" attacks -- a refined kind of phishing in which hackers use spoofed or similar-sounding domain names to make it look like the emails they send are from your CFO or CEO -- are on the rise, according to security firm Mimecast.

If fact, 55 percent of the 442 IT professionals Mimecast surveyed this month said their organizations have seen an increase in the volume of whaling attacks over the past three months, the firm reported on Wednesday.

Those organizations spanned the U.S., U.K., South Africa and Australia.

Domain-spoofing is the most popular strategy, accounting for 70 percent of such attacks, Mimecast said; the majority pretend to be the CEO, but some 35 percent of organizations had seen whaling emails attributed to the CFO.

"Whaling emails can be more difficult to detect because they don't contain a hyperlink or malicious attachment, and rely solely on social engineering to trick their targets," said Orlando Scott-Cowley, a cybersecurity strategist with Mimecast.

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Max Hyre writes:

Well, not precisely calling a supernova, but good enough to be exciting. A massive cluster is between us and the supernova, resulting in gravitational lensing. An article in astronomy.com says:

Many stars end their lives with a with a bang, but only a few of these stellar explosions have been caught in the act. When they are, spotting them successfully has been down to pure luck — until now. On 11 December, 2015, astronomers not only imaged a supernova in action, but saw it when and where they had predicted it would be. As the matter in the cluster [bending the light] — both dark and visible — is distributed unevenly, the light creating each of these images takes a different path with a different length [and taking a different time to reach Earth].

The supernova was seen in one of the images a year ago. It implies that the watchers were able to calculate the paths the light took, and predict when the supernova would appear in another image — and got it right. So, the takeaway is that no, they weren't able to make the prediction based on the instablility of the star, but they were able to calculate gravitational effects and predict the supernova would show elsewhere this month. Isn't that enough?

[Editor's Note: I realize that this covers much of the same material as this story from November, but in reading over the links provided here, they were more understandable to those of us with little understanding of the subject matter. - CMN]

[Editor's Note: Changed title from "The First Predicted Supernova" to "The First Predicted Supernova Appearance by Gravitational Lensing" - CMN]

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