SoylentNews

Phoenix666 writes:

A wave of startups [is] aiming to wean Americans off foods like burgers and eggs, and their efforts are attracting tens of millions of dollars from investors. The goal is to lessen the dependence on livestock for food, which they say isn't as healthy, affordable or environmentally friendly as plant-based alternatives.

[...] In its office in Southern California, Beyond Meat works on "chicken" strips made with pea and soy proteins that have been sold at places like Whole Foods since 2012. But founder Ethan Brown concedes the product needs work.

To give the "meat" its fat, for instance, canola oil is evenly mixed throughout the product.

[...] At Impossible Foods, the patty is made by extracting proteins from foods like spinach and beans, then combining them with other ingredients. The company, which has about 100 employees, expects the product to be available in the latter half of next year, initially through a food-service operator.

[...] Modern Meadow in New York City takes cells from a cow through a biopsy and cultures them to grow into meat. At a conference in February, company founder Andras Forgacs likened the process to culturing yogurt or brewing beer.

Boca Burgers do a pretty good job. What are Soylentils' favorite meat substitutes?

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Speaking to Windows Weekly, Microsoft Marketing chief Chris Capossela explained that users who choose Windows 7 do so “at your own risk, at your own peril” and he revealed Microsoft has concerns about its future software and hardware compatibility, security and more.

[...] There’s only one problem with Capossela’s statements: they are complete rubbish. Windows 7 is no less secure than Windows 10 (it will be supported until 2020) and no less compatible with new hardware and software. In fact its far greater market share means it is developers’ priority and has greater compatibility with legacy programmes and peripherals. If Fallout 4 won’t run on your Windows 7 computer, it will be upgrading your components not installing Windows 10 which fixes that.

As for fragmentation, the only issue that creates is for Microsoft and its target of getting one billion devices running Windows 10 within 2-3 years of release.

Original article from Forbes. Article is behind annoying ads and JavaScript.

Original Submission

frojack writes:

According to RT, Drone will have to be registered just as they are in the US.

Apparently, the registration allows the same exemption for light weight drones under 250 grams (.55 pounds) as the US law.

However that's where the similarity ends.

The new law also requires a flight plan be filed:

The article is not clear if the flight plan must be filed for EACH flight, or if one could file a generic plan to cover all photo flights, practice flights in specific areas, etc.

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HughPickens.com writes:

Volkswagen persuaded consumers it had created a new generation of so-called clean diesel cars — until investigators discovered that phony testing concealed the fact that its vehicles emitted up to 40 times the permitted levels of pollutants during regular use. Now Taras Grescoe writes in the NY Times that the public outrage over the fraud obscures the much larger issue that 'clean diesel' is causing a precipitous decline in air quality for millions of city-dwellers. Monitoring sites in European cities like London, Stuttgart, Munich, Paris, Milan and Rome have reported high levels of the nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, or soot, that help to create menacing smogs. Although automakers worked hard to convince consumers that a new generation of "clean diesel" cars were far less polluting, diesel has a fatal flaw: it tends to burn dirty, particularly at low speeds and temperatures. In cities, where so much driving is stop and start, incomplete diesel combustion produces pollution that is devastating for human health.

Fortunately, Volkswagen sold only half a million of its "clean diesel" cars to the American public before the emissions scandal broke. Today, fewer than 1 percent of the passenger vehicles sold in the United States run on diesel fuel. Europe is now scrambling to undo the damage. In London, Mayor Boris Johnson last year called for a national program to pay some drivers to scrap their diesel vehicles. In Paris, Mayor Anne Hidalgo has gained broad support for a proposed ban on diesel cars. "Last month, the signatories of the climate deal in Paris agreed that the world has to begin a long-term shift from fossil fuels to more sustainable forms of energy," concludes Grescoe. "Recognizing "clean diesel" for the oxymoron it is would be a good place to start."

Original Submission

takyon writes:

NPR is reporting on this tale of direct action:

A self-styled militia in eastern Oregon grabbed national headlines Saturday when they broke into the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. There the armed group remains Sunday, occupying the federal building in protest of what it sees as government overreach on rangelands throughout the western United States.

"We stand in defense," Ammon Bundy, the group's apparent leader and spokesperson, told Oregon Public Broadcasting. "And when the time is right we will begin to defend the people of Harney County, [Ore.,] in using the land and the resources."

Ammon's brother, Ryan, has reportedly used harsher rhetoric, saying members of the militia are willing to kill or be killed.

Their last name may ring a bell. Ammon and Ryan Bundy are sons of rancher Cliven Bundy, who notably took part in an armed standoff with the federal Bureau of Land Management, or BLM, in Nevada in 2014.

Ammon Bundy now is part of a group of 15 to 150 people — depending on which source you believe — who are protesting the arson convictions of two Oregon ranchers, Dwight Hammond Jr. and his son, Steven.

Also at Oregon Live, NYT, and the Associated Press.

Original Submission

Anti-ISIS Hacking Group Claims Responsibility for DDoS of the BBC's Website

takyon writes:

The BBC has this to say about a recent disruption of its website:

A group that says it targets online activity linked to so-called Islamic State (IS) has claimed it was behind an attack on the BBC's website. All the BBC's websites were unavailable for several hours on New Year's Eve after what a BBC source described as a "distributed denial of service" attack.

The group, calling itself New World Hacking, said it had carried out the attack as a "test of its capabilities". The BBC has not confirmed or denied such an attack caused the problems.

More coverage at NYT and ZDNet. Some additional (but unconfirmed) details were given to ZDNet:

Ownz, a self-described "hacktivist," sent ZDNet a screenshot of a web interface that was allegedly used to launch the attacks, indicating an assault of up to 602 Gbps, backing up similar claims the group made to the BBC. We were not able to verify the authenticity of the screenshot, or the alleged size of the attack.

If that attack size is proven true, it would vastly surpass the previous record for largest DDoS attack of 334 Gbps, recorded by Arbor Networks in mid-2015.

Ownz said the size of the attack was possible by using at least two "Amazon servers," but did not disclose additional details. Amazon has previously said that Amazon Web Services "employs a number of automated detection and mitigation techniques to prevent the misuse of our services," with the capability to stop denial-of-service attacks from being launched and to shut down such an attack quickly if one is detected.

"We have our ways of bypassing Amazon," said Ownz. "The best way to describe it is we tap into a few administrative services that Amazon is use to using. The [sic] simply set our bandwidth limit as unlimited and program our own scripts to hide it."

[More after the Break]

When Windows XP reached end of life (EOL) it was front page news and thousands of pages were written discussing what it means, what you should do, etc. However for Linux users this is a pretty common occurrence. For example, with Xubuntu you get 3 years tops before being out of support. In the past I would be keen on getting new functionality but these days I'm OK sticking with what I've got, however I still want to get security fixes. Ditto that for parents and work computers that I informally administer.

So I'm starting to look at longer supported Linuxes (e.g. Red Hat clones like Scientific Linux) as the go-to install. What do you guys do when facing EOL?

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Engadget reports that a prominent "professional esports" league has been bought by Activision Blizzard for $46 million:

Call of Duty and Hearthstone studio Activision Blizzard has acquired a majority of Major League Gaming's assets in a $46 million deal that essentially dissolves the professional gaming organization, eSports Observer reports. MLG Co-Founder and CEO Sundance DiGiovanni has left his role and is replaced by former CFO Greg Chisholm, the site says. Neither company has confirmed this report, though we've reached out to both and will update as we hear back.

MLG struck the deal without a stockholders' meeting and the sale has upset some investors, according to eSports Observer.

[...] MLG's relevance has waned in recent years and in October, it lost the hosting rights to the Call of Duty World League's Pro Division to the ESL. Sepso himself joined Activision that same month as Senior Vice President of its new eSports division, overseeing pro franchises including StarCraft, World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone.

$46 million buys a lot of WoW gold.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Charles Krauthammer has an editorial in the Washington Post (alt link) singing the praises of recent reusable rocket milestones achieved by Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos:

On Dec. 21, Elon Musk's SpaceX, after launching 11 satellites into orbit, returned its 15-story booster rocket, upright and intact, to a landing pad at Cape Canaveral. That's a $60 million mountain of machinery — recovered. (The traditional booster rocket either burns up or disappears into some ocean.)

The reusable rocket has arrived. Arguably, it arrived a month earlier when Blue Origin, a privately owned outfit created by Jeffrey P. Bezos (Amazon chief executive and owner of this newspaper) launched and landed its own booster rocket, albeit for a suborbital flight. But whether you attribute priority to Musk or Bezos, the two events together mark the inauguration of a new era in spaceflight.

Musk predicts that the reusable rocket will reduce the cost of accessing space a hundredfold. This depends, of course, on whether the wear and tear and stresses of the launch make the refurbishing prohibitively expensive. Assuming it's not, and assuming Musk is even 10 percent right, reusability revolutionizes the economics of spaceflight.

[More after the break.]

fliptop writes:

Link

A little while back, I saw the following tweet:

I can print mostly. My wifi works often. The Xbox usually recognises me. Siri sometimes works. But my self driving car will be *perfect*.

The tweet has since been deleted, so I won't name the author, but it's a thought-provoking idea. At first, I agreed with it. I'm a programmer and know full well just how shoddy is 99.9% of the code we all write. The idea that I would put my life in the hands of a coder like myself is a bit worrying.

[...] The reality is that self-driving cars don't need to be perfect. They just need to be better than the alternative: human-driven cars. And that is a much lower bar, as human beings are remarkably bad at driving.

[...] Self-driving cars don't get tired. They don't get drunk. They don't get distracted by friends or a crying baby. They don't look away from the road to send a text message. They don't speed, tailgate, brake too late, forget to show a blinker, drive too fast in bad weather, run red lights, race other cars at red lights, or miss exits. Self-driving cars aren't going to be perfect, but they will be a hell of a lot better than you and me.

Related: The High-Stakes Race to Rid the World of Human Drivers

Original Submission

takyon writes:

A team using data from the Kepler observatory has measured star surface gravity with more accuracy:

The pull of gravity on a distant star can now be measured more accurately, shedding light on other worlds, say astronomers. The method makes it possible to study even the faintest of stars. "Our technique can tell you how big and bright is the star, and if a planet around it is the right size and temperature to have water oceans, and maybe life," said Prof Jaymie Matthews.

[...] A team led by Thomas Kallinger of the University of Vienna used data from the Kepler space telescope - which is searching for other worlds like the Earth - to show that variations in the brightness of distant stars can give more accurate measurements of surface gravity. The timescale of turbulence and vibration at a star's surface, based on its brightness variations, tells you its surface gravity, say the researchers.

Precise stellar surface gravities from the time scales of convectively driven brightness variations (DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1500654)

Original Submission

takyon writes:

LG will show off a "Super UHD" 98-inch 8K resolution (7680×4320) TV set at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show (Jan. 6-9). It will also launch three 4K sets with high dynamic range (HDR) capability:

The super-slim design of the UH9500-series TVs have almost invisible bezels and a screen depth of just 6.6mm-that's less than a quarter-inch at its thinnest points. Screen sizes of the 4K models range from 49 to 86 inches. In addition to the three models, LG will also offer a standalone, attention-grabbing Super UHD TV with a huge 98-inch 8K screen.

[...] All sets will also include LG's IPS panel – noted for its advanced off-axis performance – further enhanced by two new LG technologies called True Black Panel and Contrast Maximizer, aimed at improving IPS' typically underwhelming black levels by reducing reflections and maximizing contrast by separating objects from their backgrounds, according to LG. The TVs also include SDR-to-HDR conversion to deliver near-HDR quality from standard sources.

CNET, SlashGear, The Verge.

Original Submission

cafebabe writes:

I had fun over Christmas writing error correction and barcode software. Some may say that I should get outside more often but perhaps it is a public service that I don't. I'm reliably informed, from a friend who works in retail, that an implementation of the EAN-13 encoding algorithm, running on a web server, accessed via a smartphone, allows havoc to be created at a self-service checkout.

Wanting a more substantial challenge along this line, and being inspired by a recent discussion about security, in which UID2339 noted:

As for hashes - I usually do check them for the software I download. I verify the first four or five digits, maybe the last four or five, with a quick glance.

Well, it occurs to me that even people who should know better (me included) rarely check more than 20 bits of a hash or fingerprint before relying upon the result indefinitely. Unfortunately, it is feasible to spoof 20 bits (or significantly more if MD5 is used). However, this does not get around the fastidiousness required to make such checks.

For the public good, I propose a visual hash in which 30 or more bits can be compared in a single glance. This is not perfect. This does not cover all cases. However, if it is possible to increase the number of bits which can be casually compared by end users then it reduces susceptibility to attack. Something along the line of a default Gravatar icon (grid of squares and triangles) mushed up with a CAPTCHA would be a good start. This would allow 40 or more bits to be compared in a manner in which discrepancies would be very obvious.

It would be desirable if such an image can be printed in monochrome but this is a secondary consideration. I don't claim any originality with this idea. Indeed, even from a selfish point of view, it would be counter-productive to make any intellectual claim. My only hope is that an encoding exists, can be trivially adapted or emerges from this suggestion.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

C++ bashing is a fashionable sport these days, but the middle-aged programming language is still often chosen for large (>1M LOC) system programming projects in user space, such as database systems or video games. Startup founder James Perry blogs about the decision to use C++/14 to code his company's cloud-based OLAP (multidimensional analytical database) system. His company using high-performance open source shared libraries and HTTP server technology from Facebook as a substitute or complement to those provided by either the C++ standard or by Boost (which could be considered a near-standard).

But why bother with the arcane syntax of C++ and the hassles of third party libraries, when there are other languages which provide comprehensive library support out of the box, and are much more developer friendly? Perry says the reason is performance:

Original Submission

HughPickens.com writes:

CNN reports that about 150 Muslims were fired from their jobs at a beef processing plant in Colorado for walking off the job to protest a workplace prayer dispute over how many Muslim workers are allowed to pray at the same time. "There are times where we have to sequence how many people are allowed to go [to pray] so that production is not slowed down," says Cargill spokesman Michael Martin adding that the company tried to work toward a solution with the workers, without success.

Ten days ago more than 200 workers walked off their jobs at Cargill Meat Solutions in Fort Morgan. Some workers later returned, but more than 100 of the Muslim employees who took part in the walkout, the majority of whom are of Somali heritage, have retained the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) to represent them regarding their religious accommodation request and to work with Cargill to implement a workable policy that meets the needs of all parties. Although some circumstances surrounding the prayer dispute remain vague, Jaylani Hussein, a spokesman and executive director of the CAIR, says that a plant policy allowing short prayer breaks at various times during the day was changed, and Muslim workers were told to "go home" if they wanted to pray. "They feel missing their prayer is worse than losing their job," says Hussein. "It's like losing a blessing from God."

Original Submission