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Daiv writes:

In an unexpected move, the CEO of AT&T, credited as being "highly collaborative" with the US government and has installed far more surveillance equipment than its fellow US wireless carriers, has spoken with The Wall Street Journal, saying "I don't think it is Silicon Valley's decision to make about whether encryption is the right thing to do. I understand Tim Cook's decision, but I don't think it's his decision to make."

This statement is made at a time when US cellular phone companies are being targeted on both coasts with legislation demanding on-demand government access to all handsets.

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

Paul Meehl is responsible for what is probably the most apt explanation for why some areas of science have made more progress than others over the last 70 years or so. Amazingly, he pointed this out in 1967 and it had seemingly no effect on standard practices:

Because physical theories typically predict numerical values, an improvement in ex-perimental precision reduces the tolerance range and hence increases corroborability. In most psychological research, improved power of a statistical design leads to a prior probability approaching ½ of finding a significant difference in the theoretically predicted direction. Hence the corroboration yielded by "success" is very weak, and becomes weaker with increased precision. "Statistical significance" plays a logical role in psychology precisely the reverse of its role in physics. This problem is worsened by certain unhealthy tendencies prevalent among psychologists, such as a premium placed on experimental "cuteness" and a free reliance upon ad hoc explanations to avoid refuation.

Meehl, Paul E. (1967). "Theory-Testing in Psychology and Physics: A Methodological Paradox" (PDF). Philosophy of Science 34 (2): 103–115.
https://dx.doi.org/10.1086%2F288135 . Free here: http://cerco.ups-tlse.fr/pdf0609/Meehl_1967.pdf

There are many science articles posted to this site that fall foul of his critique probably because researchers are not aware of it. In short, this (putatively fatally flawed) research attempts to disprove a null hypothesis rather than a research hypothesis. Videos of some of his lectures are available online:
http://www.psych.umn.edu/meehlvideos.php

Session 7 starting at ~1hr is especially good.

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HughPickens.com writes:

In 1992 there were 847 bank robberies in the UK; by 2011 that had dropped to just 66. Now Lawrence Dobbs writes in the Telegraph about how technology is killing off this age old profession. "The development of more sophisticated alarm systems and CCTV, as well as supporting forensic developments such as DNA analysis and facial recognition software, all serve to assist police," says Jim Dickie, a former detective who spent more than 30 years with the Metropolitan Police. Those who do try are either feckless opportunists or "serial offenders" who have already served time and are easily found on police databases. "Hands-on heists are a dying art, because those who have a background in it are literally dying off."

In 2015 a gang of aging jewel thieves pulled off one last spectacular job. Using a diamond-tipped drill and a 10-ton hydraulic ram, they broke into the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd vault and made off with at least £14million in precious stones, gems, bullion and jewelry in the largest burglary in English history. But the Hatton Garden burglars were caught because they used one of their own cars within view of a security camera. According to David Kelly, it's CCTV which has changed things most. "It's now virtually impossible to travel through any public space in a major metropolitan area without being captured. They're everywhere, the image quality is better, and the ability to store images for longer has increased."

Then there are your physical alarm devices: motion sensors, window monitors which detect glass shattering, or devices which trigger when a door is opened. "These devices can now be deployed wirelessly – in an older building, where you might not have wires in place," says Kelly. "There are also tools at the disposal of the private sector, in cooperation with the public sector, which are perhaps not matters of common knowledge, and there's a tactical advantage to our clients in them remaining that way." Add to this the various technologies used to protect or track the loot itself – dye packs hiding inside stacks of banknotes, which explode when they leave a certain range; GPS tracking on security vans and inside cash containers – and you can see why even a hardened criminal might prefer to stay in bed.

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takyon writes:

It's Oscar season and there are unauthorized means for evaluating the nominees:

A few days ago the 2016 nominees were announced and as usual this triggered a spike in interest from box office visitors as well as online pirates. The latter group has been spoiled with a steady supply of pirated titles over the past several weeks. Ironically, many of these titles leaked from DVD screener copies which were sent out to reviewers, including Academy members who vote for the Oscars.

Inspired by the work of Andy Baio early 2015, we decided to take a look at this year's contenders, excluding short and foreign films, to see how many films are already available on pirate sites. To our surprise, all of the 37 nominated movies are widely available through unauthorized sites. Most are released in Blu-Ray or DVD quality, including several DVD screeners.

The list of leaked movies includes Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which is the only movie that's not available in a decent quality. The only copies of the blockbuster are so-called "Cams," recorded in the theater. Due to the low quality the number of Star Wars downloads pales in comparison to other nominees such as The Big Short and The Martian, which have both been downloaded millions of times.

Of all movies that leaked 17 were sourced from DVD screeners. This number of leaked nominee screeners is a record high for this decade. In recent years the number of leaked screener copies was significantly deceased due to increased security measures. However, this trends was broken this year thanks to Hive-CM8, who released 14 screeners last month.

This year's Oscars are again being criticized for not featuring a racially diverse selection of nominees:

Last week saw the unhappy reprise of #OscarSoWhite, a Twitter hashtag that's becoming something of an annual tradition skewering the lack of diversity in nominations for the Academy Awards. Many fans and critics are frustrated — to say the least — that all of this year's nominees in acting categories are white, citing Michael B. Jordan's performance in Creed as one of a handful of expected shoe-ins for recognition. Now, thousands are pledging to boycott watching the awards ceremony on television, and Jada Pinkett-Smith and Spike Lee have publicly stated that they will not attend.

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Thexalon informed us of a story on global warming.

Several scientific agencies, including NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), and the UK Met office are reporting that 2015 was the hottest year on record by the widest margin on record. These reports conclude that while El Nino was a part of the cause, a much greater cause was CO2 emissions.

According to Scentific American:

Data from U.S. space agency NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed that in 2015, the average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit (0.90 Celsius) above the 20th century average, surpassing 2014's previous record by 0.29 F (0.16 C).

This was the fourth time a global temperature record has been set this century, the agencies said in a summary of their annual report.

And a report at The Guardian notes:

Data released on Wednesday by the UK Met Office shows the average global temperature in 2015 was 0.75C higher than the long-term average between 1961 and 1990, much higher than the 0.57C in 2014, which itself was a record. The Met Office also expects 2016 to set a new record, meaning the global temperature records will have been broken for three years running.

Additional coverage at: CNN, CBS News, and The New York Times.

The NASA/NOAA summary can be found here: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/summary-info/global/201512

Depending on where you are; things are even worse.

According to a report from the University of New South Wales, the global average is one thing but the actual temperature increases in some areas will likely be much greater.

[Continues...]

takyon writes:

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has discovered more information about the U.S. government's policy on zero-day vulnerabilities, known as the Vulnerabilities Equities Process:

Until just last week, the U.S. government kept up the charade that its use of a stockpile of security vulnerabilities for hacking was a closely held secret. In fact, in response to EFF's FOIA suit to get access to the official U.S. policy on zero days, the government redacted every single reference to "offensive" use of vulnerabilities. To add insult to injury, the government's claim was that even admitting to offensive use would cause damage to national security. Now, in the face of EFF's brief marshaling overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the charade is over.

In response to EFF's motion for summary judgment, the government has disclosed a new version of the Vulnerabilities Equities Process, minus many of the worst redactions. First and foremost, it now admits that the "discovery of vulnerabilities in commercial information technology may present competing 'equities' for the [government's] offensive and defensive mission." That might seem painfully obvious—a flaw or backdoor in a Juniper router is dangerous for anyone running a network, whether that network is in the U.S. or Iran. But the government's failure to adequately weigh these "competing equities" was so severe that in 2013 a group of experts appointed by President Obama recommended that the policy favor disclosure "in almost all instances for widely used code." [.pdf].

The newly disclosed version of the Vulnerabilities Equities Process (VEP) also officially confirms what everyone already knew: the use of zero days isn't confined to the spies. Rather, the policy states that the "law enforcement community may want to use information pertaining to a vulnerability for similar offensive or defensive purposes but for the ultimate end of law enforcement."

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Phoenix666 writes:

Dreamt up by mechanical engineer and Harvard alumni Robert Flitsch, the Addibot is more than two years of research and development in the making. Where conventional 3D printing is generally limited to producing items of a specific size, restrained by the device's build area, the Addibot team is aiming to break down these barriers to allow for infinite 3D printing possibilities.

In simple terms, the Addibot is a 3D printer mounted onto a moving robot. The thinking is that with the ability to move to any desired location, the Addibot can print larger objects, potentially on any scale. So rather than 3D printing in the conventional sense, where an object is created within a workspace and then removed for use, the Addibot approach is to reinvent that workspace by allowing the technology to operate in just about any environment where there's a flat surface.

[...] While the team says there is[sic] many possibilities for Addibots in this space, it will initially focus on road engineering. To this end, it is now developing a new distribution array that can accommodate asphalt materials, with a view to tending to cracks, larger potholes and even the complete resurfacing of roads.

While maintaining roads in their current form is a worthy pursuit in itself, the company says that its technology could also pave the way for more advanced roadways in the future. The thinking is that to keep pace with advancements in transportation technologies, such as electric cars, we will need to rethink how the roads themselves are fabricated. By bringing 3D printing into the mix, it claims Addibots would be able to blend conductive materials into roadways for transmission of electrical power, for example, or add sensors to allow communication between vehicles. They could also make for more robust roads by printing materials for added strength, such as carbon fiber.

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AndyTheAbsurd writes:

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160114/06532833339/56-would-drop-espn-heartbeat-if-it-meant-saving-8-month-cable.shtml

What say you, Soylentils; how much would you have to save each month to give up ESPN?

For our non-USA guests, Wikipedia helpfully explains:

ESPN (originally an acronym for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is a U.S.-based global cable and satellite television channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which operates the network) and the Hearst Corporation (which owns a 20% minority share).

[...] As of February 2015, ESPN is available to approximately 94,396,000 paid television households (81.1% of households with at least one television set) in the United States. In addition to the flagship channel and its seven related channels in the United States, ESPN broadcasts in more than 200 countries, operating regional channels in Australia, Brazil, Latin America and the United Kingdom, and owning a 20% interest in The Sports Network (TSN) as well as its five sister networks and NHL Network in Canada.

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-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

Munich still uses 41 proprietary apps that will only run under XP or 2000. The city has estimated it will cost $18M to replace them over a 4-year span.

Nick Heath at TechRepublic reports

Windows XP and 2000 are used by fewer than 1,500 of the more than 16,000 staff at the council, which relies on the aged Microsoft systems to run 41 applications.

[...] In order to stop using Windows XP and 2000, these 41 applications will either be migrated to a newer, supported operating system, replaced with more modern software, or phased out--as part of a four year project costing €16.6M ($18.03M).

[...] Munich carried on using XP and 2000 due to these 41 applications being used for crucial work in the city, from monitoring emissions for air pollution to flood protection.

To secure the OSes, Munich ran them on virtual machines and on standalone computers, as well as using what it calls "restrictive data interchange", quarantine systems, and additional protective measures.

The council has decided to stop using these older unsupported versions of Windows now as, not only are they a security risk, but according to a report [PDF, Deutsch] they have limited support for network and data security features the council wants to use.

[...] Often it can be the case that organisations can't update the application to run on a newer OS because the people with the necessary skills are gone or the company that originally wrote the software no longer exists.

[...] The project at Munich will be split into two phases: The first will assess the work needed and the second will carry it out. Work got underway at the end of [2015] and is expected to be complete by the end of September 2019.

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AndyTheAbsurd writes:

http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/01/verizon-wireless-selling-data-cap-exemptions-to-content-providers/

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Phoenix666 writes:

Salk researchers and collaborators have achieved critical insight into the size of neural connections, putting the memory capacity of the brain far higher than common estimates. The new work also answers a longstanding question as to how the brain is so energy efficient and could help engineers build computers that are incredibly powerful but also conserve energy.

"This is a real bombshell in the field of neuroscience," says Terry Sejnowski, Salk professor and co-senior author of the paper, which was published in eLife. "We discovered the key to unlocking the design principle for how hippocampal neurons function with low energy but high computation power. Our new measurements of the brain's memory capacity increase conservative estimates by a factor of 10 to at least a petabyte, in the same ballpark as the World Wide Web."

Our memories and thoughts are the result of patterns of electrical and chemical activity in the brain. A key part of the activity happens when branches of neurons, much like electrical wire, interact at certain junctions, known as synapses. An output 'wire' (an axon) from one neuron connects to an input 'wire' (a dendrite) of a second neuron. Signals travel across the synapse as chemicals called neurotransmitters to tell the receiving neuron whether to convey an electrical signal to other neurons. Each neuron can have thousands of these synapses with thousands of other neurons.

Nanoconnectomic upper bound on the variability of synaptic plasticity (10.7554/eLife.10778)

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takyon writes:

Fake news is big business:

The publisher of satirical news site the Onion has been taken over by US Spanish-language broadcaster Univision.

Univision, which runs channels aimed primarily at the US's Hispanic population, has reportedly taken a 40% controlling stake in Onion Inc, which also runs viral publishing parody site Clickhole and digital culture site the AV Club. It also will reportedly have the option to buy the Onion outright.

Univision said Onion Inc would continue to be run independently, but will operate under the "oversight" of the cable network to help explore new ways of distributing Onion content.

The acquisition forms apart of Univision's attempts to reach younger audiences. In 2013 it launched a joint venture with Disney, Fusion, designed to reach younger audiences online and on TV. Univision chief news and digital officer Isaac Lee said comedy was "an incredibly engaging format" for so called millennials and would play "a key part in the 2016 presidential election process".

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VanderDecken writes:

As I once again switch from one long-term contract to another, I see again a fresh batch of new faces. As usual, there is a wide selection of capabilities and experiences with the new team.

As an architect and senior developer, it is part of my profession to mentor those with less experience. Often this is not part of the job formal description. That doesn't alter the fact that it is a benefit to the team to provide guidance here, give a nudge there, be a sounding board, get someone to step through their reasoning, and what-not.

One of the things I see, going from client to client, is that there is a wide spectrum of what organizations will do for their employees in the area of professional development. Unfortunately I see less and less professional development efforts as the years go by. And for those who are contractors as opposed to employees, there is (not surprisingly) typically none provided by the organization. Indeed, in chasing the bottom line, companies often force people into silos, use them for a narrow set of skills, and throw them away when that particular silo is no longer needed.

One thing I figured out years ago is that in this industry, if you aren't always learning something new, you will soon find that you are obsolete. That doesn't mean you always have to jump on the latest fad technology and force it into production on your project, but you should at least familiarize yourself with it. It doesn't even have to be in the area in which you're working. Do you develop web applications? Familiarize yourself with how to run an IPv6 network. Do you manage a DNS infrastructure? Learn about continuous integration. What it is doesn't matter too much: Find an interesting-looking thread and pull on it. Try to pick a new thread every three to six months.

[Continues...]

Phoenix666 writes:

Nearly 300 Chinese cities failed to meet national standards for air quality last year, Greenpeace said Wednesday, despite marginal improvements in some of the worst-hit areas.

China's cities are often hit by heavy pollution, blamed on coal-burning by power stations, heavy industry and vehicle use, and it has become a major source of discontent with the ruling Communist Party.

The average level of PM2.5 particulates—small enough to deeply penetrate the lungs—in the 366 cities monitored was more than five times the maximum recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), government data compiled by Greenpeace showed.

Of those monitored—which include all of the nation's major cities—a total of 293, or 80 percent, were higher than China's own looser national standards.

China allows for a yearly average of 35 micrograms per cubic metre, versus the annual WHO standard of 10 micrograms per cubic metre. None of the cities in the survey met WHO standards.

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takyon writes:

The BBC and The New York Times report that pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and diagnostics companies are demanding more money and/or new economic models to incentivize the development of new antibiotics:

In a declaration that is being released on Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the companies say that governments must work with companies to fight the problem of antimicrobial resistance, in which many germs are no longer killed by common antibiotics and in some cases even by last-ditch options, turning once-treatable infections into life-threatening events. The signers of the declaration include such big pharmaceutical companies as AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Merck and Pfizer as well as some smaller biotech companies and some generic manufacturers in India.

[...] "We support the increasing recognition that the value assigned to antibiotics and diagnostics often does not reflect the benefits they bring to society, nor the investment required for their creation," the document says. It calls for "prompt reimbursement" at prices that reflect such value. But it also says that other "transformational commercial models" might be needed to spur development and also to cut down on unnecessary use of antibiotics, which contributes to the development of antimicrobial resistance. One idea is to have governments or a global organization pay a drug company a big lump sum when an antibiotic is developed. That could reduce the need for pharmaceutical companies to promote their products to spur sales.

The Wall Street Journal adds:

Jim O'Neill, the former Goldman Sachs economist who is running a review on antimicrobial resistance for the U.K. government, called the declaration a "major step forward" in establishing a global response to the threat of drug resistance. "I'm really impressed that such a wide range of companies have been able to agree on a common set of principles and commitments across these important issues," he said. "This is a level of consensus that we have not previously seen from the industry on this topic."

The group said it would review and update the declaration every two years "to reflect progress and changing priorities," and invited other companies to add their signatures to the declaration.

Declaration by the Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology and Diagnostics Industries on Combating Antimicrobial Resistance (PDF)

Companion article linked by the BBC: Impact of antibiotic restrictions: the pharmaceutical perspective (DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-0691.2006.01528.x)

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