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The Mighty Buzzard writes:

In further gaming news Master of Orion has added linux support to their third Steam Early Access release. Highlights of this release are as follows:

• New playable races: Silicoid and Darlok
• Espionage: Train spies and assign them to offensive and defensive missions
• Minor Civilizations: interact with non-starfaring races to gain rewards, including influencing your diplomatic and economic victory paths
• New Victory condition: Fill your coffers and claim economic supremacy by controlling the Galactic Monetary Fund
• Weapon Miniaturization: Improve your legacy weapons by making them smaller and cheaper
• Support for Linux and SteamOS
• New galaxy size: HUGE
• More AI improvements
• Improved Multiplayer
• Improved Tactical Battles
• Improved overall balance: Better suited for both tall and wide empires and with a smoother progression in the late game
• Improved performance (faster turn processing and less hickups when zooming in and out of the galaxy)
• New and improved GNN gags
• By popular demand, we added the option to mute your advisors while still retaining other voiceover audio
• Over 400 bug fixes

we'll see...
Well, Linux-friendly titles have been appearing regularly for a while now. I guess we'll start to see if a dent can be made in Windows's market share on the gaming front. I'm personally not holding my breath but I wouldn't mind being surprised.

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The Mighty Buzzard writes:

So, it appears Microsoft is serious about this whole running Linux binaries on Windows. They've been shy on the details up until now but that's apparently ending:

We recently announced Bash on Ubuntu on Windows which enables native Linux ELF64 binaries to run on Windows via the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). This subsystem was created by the Microsoft Windows Kernel team and has generated a lot of excitement. One of the most frequent question we get asked is how is this approach different from a traditional virtual machine. In this first of a series of blog posts, we will provide an overview of WSL that will answer that and other common questions. In future posts we will dive deep into the component areas introduced.

Since its inception, Microsoft Windows NT was designed to allow environment subsystems like Win32 to present a programmatic interface to applications without being tied to implementation details inside the kernel. This allowed the NT kernel to support POSIX, OS/2 and Win32 subsystems at its initial release.

Early subsystems were implemented as user mode modules that issued appropriate NT system calls based on the API they presented to applications for that subsystem. All applications were PE/COFF executables, a set of libraries and services to implement the subsystem API and NTDLL to perform the NT system call. When a user mode application got launched the loader invoked the right subsystem to satisfy the application dependencies based on the executable header.

Later versions of subsystems replaced the POSIX layer to provide the Subsystem for Unix-based Applications (SUA). This composed of user mode components to satisfy:

1. Process and signal management
2. Terminal management
3. System service requests and inter process communication

The primary role of SUA was to encourage applications to get ported to Windows without significant rewrites. This was achieved by implementing the POSIX user mode APIs using NT constructs. Given that these components were constructed in user mode, it was difficult to have semantic and performance parity for kernel mode system calls like fork(). Because this model relied on the need for programs to be recompiled it required ongoing feature porting and was a maintenance burden.

Over time these initial subsystems were retired. However, since the Windows NT Kernel was architected to allow new subsystem environments, we were able to use the initial investments made in this area and broaden them to develop the Windows Subsystem for Linux.

They go on into a little bit more depth in TFA if your employer hasn't blocked microsoft.com subdomains on principle.

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martyb writes:

How did life get started on Earth? Some of the answer to this age-old question have come to light in research recently performed at Georgia Institute of Technology.

The crucibles that bore out early building blocks of life may have been, in many cases, modest puddles.

Now, researchers working with that hypothesis have achieved a significant advancement toward understanding an evolutionary mystery -- how components of RNA and DNA formed from chemicals present on early Earth before life existed.

In surprisingly simple laboratory reactions in water, under everyday conditions, they have produced what could be good candidates for missing links on the pathway to the code of life.

And when those components joined up, the result even looked like RNA.

As the researchers' work progresses, it could reveal that much of the original chemistry that led to life arose not in fiery cataclysms and in scarce quantities, but abundantly and gradually on quiet, rain-swept dirt flats or lakeshore rocks lapped by waves.

In turn, their work could increase our understanding of the probability of life's existence elsewhere in the universe.

The research from the NSF/NASA Center for Chemical Evolution (CCE), headquartered at the Georgia Institute of Technology, is generously funded through a grant from the National Science Foundation and NASA. The recent results were published on April 25, 2016 in Nature Communications.

The researchers go on to list several nucleotides and similarly-structured molecules that could have readily formed in puddles on a prebiotic Earth.

The full Nature Communications journal article is available at: Spontaneous formation and base pairing of plausible prebiotic nucleotides in water.

My chemistry studies were limited and are long-since behind me. How close ARE we to figuring out how life got started? Thinking ahead, if we could recreate these primordial circumstances and create life from inanimate molecules, what consequences do you foresee on science, society, and politics?

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martyb writes:

According to Ars Technica, Apple is expected to report its first year-over-year decline since 2003. Today's report is in the shadows of a surge in sales of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus last year which boosted revenue in Q2 2015 to $58 billion. Apple's forecasts of between $50-$53 billion are still higher than the $45.6 billion it reported for Q2 of 2014.

Though I am not personally interested in Apple's products, there are a great many people who are, and their responses to this news can have a major effect on other vendor's plans, as well. It will be interesting to see what comes of it.

For those who can't wait, Ars will be holding a live stream (Javascript required) of the report.

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

Neutron scattering and computational modeling have revealed unique and unexpected behavior of water molecules under extreme confinement that is unmatched by any known gas, liquid or solid states.

In a paper published in Physical Review Letters, researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory describe a new tunneling state of water molecules confined in hexagonal ultra-small channels - 5 angstrom across - of the mineral beryl.

"At low temperatures, this tunneling water exhibits quantum motion through the separating potential walls, which is forbidden in the classical world," said lead author Alexander Kolesnikov of ORNL's Chemical and Engineering Materials Division. "This means that the oxygen and hydrogen atoms of the water molecule are 'delocalized' and therefore simultaneously present in all six symmetrically equivalent positions in the channel at the same time. It's one of those phenomena that only occur in quantum mechanics and has no parallel in our everyday experience."

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takyon writes:

The U.S. Director of National Intelligence may decide to publish a "rough estimate" of the number of U.S. citizens impacted by the PRISM program, in response to a query from lawmakers:

National Intelligence Director James Clapper said Monday that he is looking at "several options" to make public the number of U.S. citizens caught up in online surveillance of foreign targets by the U.S. government.

Clapper was responding to a question about a letter sent last week from 14 members of the House Judiciary Committee. The letter, signed by six Republicans and eight Democrats, presses Clapper for information about a law that governs the data-mining program known as PRISM.

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

What do all of you think is most important about long-term job satisfaction?

https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/25-highest-paying-companies-america-2016/

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-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

Motherboard at Vice Media reports

You may have seen a viral headline floating around over the last few days: Apple recycled $40 million worth of gold last year, which was extracted from iPhones. Almost none of what was reported is true.

The story was everywhere [...] uniformly misreported.

[...] The most egregious and inaccurate storyline goes something like this: Apple, out of the goodness of its heart or perhaps fueled by monetary incentives, took old iPhones and iPads that were brought back into its stores, took them apart, melted down the roughly 30 milligrams of gold in each phone, and ended up with 2,204 total pounds of gold.

In this version of the story, Apple pocketed a cool $40 million for its efforts, and lots of this recycling was done by Liam, its just-revealed recycling robot which is capable of disassembling 1.2 million iPhones per year. Simple math shows that Apple would have had to have collected 33.3 million iPhones to recover that much gold. In other words, in this alternate reality, rather than refurbish and resell these iPhones for hundreds of dollars a piece in developing nations, Apple decided to destroy them to harvest roughly $1 worth of gold per device.

[...] Here is the truth: Apple paid independent recyclers to recycle old electronics--which were almost never Apple products, by the way--because it's required by law to do so. Far from banking $40 million on the prospect, Apple likely ended up taking an overall monetary loss. This is not because Apple is a bad actor or is hiding anything, it's simply how the industry works.

All electronics manufacturers that sell products in the United States are required to do e-waste recycling under laws enacted in 25 states. The laws are different in each state, but none of them require Apple to recycle Apple products. Instead, they usually require manufacturers to recycle a certain amount of pounds of e-waste, which is linked to either their market share or to the overall weight of products they sell. That's why you see Apple noting that it recycled "71 percent of the total weight of products we sold seven years earlier".

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takyon writes:

A new Kevlar-based body armor fitted with sensors could enable safe, "full contact", martial arts competitions in which combatants use blunted swords and other weapons:

The armoured body suit which Mr Söderström and his opponent are wearing is called the Lorica. It has been developed by Chiron Global, an Australian firm. At just 19 kilos, it is neither too heavy nor cumbersome to prevent even aerial cartwheels, but it is tough enough to render painless a powerful sword strike to the head or the chest, says Mr Söderström.

That protection comes from Kevlar, a tough synthetic material invented almost 50 years ago by DuPont and now extensively employed in protective clothing. In a Lorica, however, it is reinforced with carbon-fibre composites, a lightweight material that is stronger than steel and widely used in aerospace. On top of that are various polymers and other materials, which Chiron is keeping secret.

Some of the areas around the body's joints are protected only by a dense foam without a rigid shell. This allows mobility for moves like kicks, but it also means that strikes to certain areas of the body are banned and that the edges of weapons must be blunted. The company says its helmet can protect against the concussive injuries that now worry many in contact sports, but that remains to be seen.

It can get hot inside the suits, so fighters use a Lorica for 90-second bouts and then rest while they are cooled by compressed air blasted into a network of silicone tubes contained in the suit. The air passes out through thousands of tiny holes held against the skin by an undergarment.

Scoring is done by 52 sensors, which 10,000 times a second measure various forces, including blows, accelerations and vibrations, generated by the impact of hands, feet and weapons. The data are wirelessly transmitted to a computer to calculate the fractures, tissue damage and other injuries which are likely to have been sustained had the fighters been unprotected. Because there is little published information on wounds inflicted by blows from certain edged weapons on different body parts, Chiron's researchers plan to carry out their own experiments, attacking pig cadavers with weapons such as flails, arrows and ninja stars.

What this all adds up to, reckons Justin Forsell, one of Chiron's co-founders, is a telegenic new sport. A series of test fights using the system was staged in Wellington, New Zealand, in March. The first official fights, which are being branded as the Unified Weapons Master, will begin later this year in Australia, with competitions expanding to America in 2017.

Found at NextBigFuture. Here is a dissenting view about the viability of Unified Weapons Master.

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takyon writes:

The merger of Charter Communications with Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks has been approved, but there are some conditions:

Federal regulators on Monday moved to approve Charter Communications' $65.5 billion acquisitions of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, enabling the creation of a new cable giant as the industry focuses more on broadband as traditional TV declines.

Yet, the orders to approve the deals were coupled with many restrictions that illustrate how regulators are increasingly using their power to further policy goals that are not covered by current regulations for the industry. The Federal Communications Commission and Justice Department imposed mandates on the acquisitions aimed at protecting streaming video companies and providing cheaper broadband services to low-income families, some of which go far beyond regulations for the entire cable and Internet sectors.

[...] In the last year, the F.C.C. has also increasingly used conditions imposed on merger approvals to advance its regulatory goals. In approving the merger between AT&T and DirecTV last year, for instance, regulators required a building out of more broadband services to millions of households and the offering of cheaper broadband option for low-income homes.

Here is a statement (pdf) from FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler about the merger.

Previously:
Charter Communications Agrees to Buy Time Warner Cable for $55B
Time Warner Cable Raises Rates After NY Approves Merger

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GungnirSniper writes:

Sneaky user interfaces, such as unwanted bundleware default checkboxes are now expanding into digital newspaper subscriptions. The Boston Globe's site uses lightly-colored close buttons and increases the price as the user goes through the sales process, as well as includes some newsletter-signup defaults. These dishonest-by-design interface elements that are intended to trick or obfuscate users are called dark patterns.

What are some of the most egregious examples you have seen? Have you even been asked to implement a design you found morally distasteful?

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takyon writes:

Researchers investigating undercooled metals have found a method for soldering without heat:

Researchers have created new liquid particles that can solder metals at room temperature. The project started as a search for a way to stop liquid metal from returning to a solid—even below the metal's melting point. That's something called undercooling and it has been widely studied for insights into metal structure and metal processing. But it had been a challenge to produce large and stable quantities of undercooled metals.

Researchers at Iowa State University thought if tiny droplets of liquid metal could be covered with a thin, uniform coating, they could form stable particles of undercooled liquid metal. The engineers experimented with a new technique that uses a high-speed rotary tool to sheer liquid metal into droplets within an acidic liquid. And then nature lends a hand: The particles are exposed to oxygen and then an oxidation layer is allowed to cover the particles, essentially creating a capsule containing the liquid metal. That layer is then polished until it is thin and smooth.

Also at Iowa State University.

Mechanical Fracturing of Core-Shell Undercooled Metal Particles for Heat-Free Soldering (DOI: 10.1038/srep21864)

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

Current Affairs published an in-depth editorial on recent revelations about a $1 million astroturfng campaign by Correct the Record:

takyon: For some additional context, "Hillary-supporting super PAC invests $1 million to hit back at online Clinton critics":

Correct the Record, a super PAC supporting Hillary Clinton's bid to become US president, has promised to invest more than $1 million to respond to users criticizing its candidate on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Instagram, and other social media services. The super PAC says its new "Barrier Breakers digital task force" will to respond "quickly and forcefully to negative attacks and false narratives found online," in addition to thanking major supporters and "committed superdelegates" directly.

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takyon writes:

Researchers have found evidence of cheesemaking in the Swiss Alps dating back to the 1st millennium BC:

An international team led by the University of York and Newcastle University looked at the composition of residues left on fragments of ceramic pots found at six sites in the Swiss Alps. The shards of pottery were known to date from Neolithic times to the Iron Age. The researchers found that the residue on those from the 1st millennium BC - the Iron Age - had the same chemical signatures associated with heating milk from animals such as cows, sheep and goats, as part of the cheesemaking process.

The ceramic fragments examined as part of this study were found in the ruins of stone buildings similar to those used by modern alpine dairy managers for cheese production during the summer months.

Although there is earlier evidence for cheese production in lowland settings, until now virtually nothing was known about the origins of cheesemaking at altitude due to the poor preservation of archaeological sites.

Also at Futurity. Mirrored at Newcastle University.

Chemical Analysis of Pottery Demonstrates Prehistoric Origin for High-Altitude Alpine Dairying (open, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0151442)

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-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

The European Union's interoperability page reports

The primary school in Saint Léger en Yvelines (France) has nearly completely switched to using free software reports the village's deputy mayor Olivier Guillard. "Do not underestimate the task", he advises others on the forum of Etalab, France's open government portal, "and, most of all, persist".

Saint Léger en Yvelines is a commune some 50 km west of Paris. The village has one school, with 6 classes, and includes pre-school. The Jean Moulin school is attended by all of the around 30 children in the commune up to the age of 11. On [April 15], deputy mayor Guillard published his recommendations for others that want to "free their schools from the commercial agenda of proprietary software vendors". Free software is unhindered by the constraint of financial profitability, he argues: there is no planned obsolescence and no lock-in to specific hardware.

Olivier Guillard urges rigorous testing of solutions before suggesting them to teachers. Just as important is to convince the teachers of the benefits of free software. He also recommends being proactive on maintenance and monitoring.

He cautions patience. The school's transition to free software took years, he writes. "Seven years of convincing. Seven years to find free software alternatives for each new commercial offering. Seven years of creating a dialogue and building communication channels with teachers dedicated to digitisation of education."

The school has not rid itself of proprietary software completely. Whiteboard solutions and office documents exchanged in France's education sector forces teachers to use proprietary software, for which the school keeps apart two PCs with proprietary office tools, the deputy mayor writes.

Blogger, Linux advocate, and retired 1-man school IT staff Robert Pogson has a short (two paragraph) post. [It offers several open-source software alternatives as well as hardware recommendations — fair use precludes including the whole post here. -Ed.]

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