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HughPickens.com writes:

Tucows began as a software downloads site nearly 25 years ago and has since evolved beyond that early core business and into domain names, mobile phone service (Ting) and symmetrical gigabit fiber Internet in select towns and cities in the US (Ting Internet). Now Tucows has announced that as a gesture of goodwill, Tucows has banned deceptive ads, hidden download buttons, pop-ups, flypaper, toolbars and other such Internet nastiness from the the nearly 40,000 software titles it hosts for users on it's download sites. "On the Tucows downloads site today, you'll find no flashing ads. No toolbars. No pop-ups," says CEO Elliot Noss. "You might see a few plugs for other Tucows services, but nothing too egregious... and certainly not anything that's pretending to be a download button." With Tucows' success in domain names, mobile phone service (Ting) and fiber Internet (Ting Internet), Tucows' revenue from downloads has become less relevant when looking at the balance sheet. "We don't lightly walk away from opportunities or revenue," says Noss. "In the end, though, we'd rather have the Tucows name associated with good; with a belief in the power of the Internet to affect positive change. An ad-heavy site that packages browser toolbars along with every download isn't something we want people to think of when they hear 'Tucows,'."

Original Submission

CoolHand writes:

An interesting discovery could lead to more methods for battling some diseases and prolonging life.

Researchers at IMBA – Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences have discovered that an enzyme called HACE1 is the key regulator of the death receptor TNFR1. The TNF receptor 1 is located on the cell membrane and decides whether a cell will live or die.

In the human body there is a constant balance between cell growth and cell death. Cells that are old or diseased must be eliminated. The destruction of diseased cells plays a major role especially in infectious diseases, chronic inflammatory diseases, and cancer.

The enzyme HACE1 acts like a railway switch. It decides whether a cell will live or die.

Signals coming from death receptors located on the cell surface tell the cells whether they can continue to live and divide, or if they must take the path of destruction. The orderly path is apoptosis, in which the cell dismantles itself into its individual components and is taken up by phagocytes.

But there is another path to cell destruction. It is regulated by distinct signals, and is called necroptosis. It starts via the same signals as apoptosis, but then the cells commence self-digestion. As in pathological necrosis, the cell components make their way into the extracellular space, causing an inflammatory reaction in the surrounding tissue.

The Tumor Suppressor Hace1 Is a Critical Regulator of TNFR1-Mediated Cell Fate (open, DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2016.04.032)

Original Submission

takyon writes:

The TOP500 and Green500 lists, measuring the fastest and most power efficient supercomputers respectively, are to be "merged" beginning in June 2016:

The TOP500 and Green500 lists will continue to remain separate, but all submission data will now be collected via a single online portal at http://top500.org/submit. Submission instructions are to be found on both the TOP500 and Green500 sites. The joint power submission rules are now online.

Going forward, the ISC Group will host and maintain the web presence of Green500, which is currently undergoing a re-design to reflect the integration. The new site will be officially launched at the ISC High Performance conference in Frankfurt, Germany this June. The 47th TOP500 list, and the 19th Green500 list, will be presented in a historical ceremony during this year's conference opening session.

While the TOP500 list has included estimated supercomputer power consumption for years, allowing you to perform a FLOPS/Watt calculation, the Green500 list has apparently used a different set of stricter rules. Both lists will now use the same joint power submission rules.

The integration of the two lists reflects the growing importance of power efficiency in supercomputing. The ideal target for the first 1 exaflops supercomputing systems is around 20-25 megawatts, but the first system may end up with a total power consumption of around 35 megawatts.

Here's our November 2015 TOP500 and Green500 reporting.

Original Submission

CoolHand writes:

An interesting article from UCSF on some misconceptions on CRISPR:

We have been able to edit genomes before, but CRISPR makes it unprecedentedly easy. Carl Zimmer of the New York Times has called it "Microsoft Word for gene editing" although a more stylish group might prefer "God's red pencil."

If CRISPR is a word processor, it is a remarkably bad one. Let's say you are drafting an email to your parents, explaining your newest tattoo. You have written: "the spider on my face looks pretty great." But you are reading it over and would like to be more descriptive: "The spider on my face looks pretty hairy." With a CRISPR word processor, a number of problems might arise.

The most common and thorny problems are off-target effects. In addition to changing that sentence, you might end up replacing "great" with "hairy" at other places in your email. You now find your email saying things like, "You have always been hairy at respecting my decisions" or "I'm so glad I met John on Tinder – he is just so hairy!"

Also, some locations are simply difficult to edit. Maybe you want to take out the part that the spider is "on my face," but you simply aren't allowed to make that change with the CRISPR word processor. In that particular case, it's just as well, since it will be hard to hide your face tattoo when you go home in December.

Overall, CRISPR works quite well, but there is distance between its reality and the image of it being as easy and precise as Microsoft Word. This is the same distance that exists between our idea of DNA as the genetic code of life and the reality of how DNA exists inside of a cell.

Nucleosomes impede Cas9 access to DNA in vivo and in vitro

Original Submission

CoolHand writes:

We can get some potential energy (or at least refrigerator space) savings from this discovery made by Tufts University:

Silk's unique crystalline structure makes it one of nature's toughest materials. Fibroin, an insoluble protein found in silk, has a remarkable ability to stabilize and protect other materials while being fully biocompatible and biodegradable.

For the study, researchers dipped freshly picked strawberries in a solution of 1 percent silk fibroin protein; the coating process was repeated up to four times. The silk fibroin-coated fruits were then treated for varying amounts of time with water vapor under vacuum (water annealed) to create varying percentages of crystalline beta-sheets in the coating. The longer the exposure, the higher the percentage of beta-sheets and the more robust the fibroin coating. The coating was 27 to 35 microns thick.

The strawberries were then stored at room temperature. Uncoated berries were compared over time with berries dipped in varying numbers of coats of silk that had been annealed for different periods of time. At seven days, the berries coated with the higher beta-sheet silk were still juicy and firm while the uncoated berries were dehydrated and discolored.

Tests showed that the silk coating prolonged the freshness of the fruits by slowing fruit respiration, extending fruit firmness and preventing decay.

Silk Fibroin as Edible Coating for Perishable Food Preservation (open, DOI: 10.1038/srep25263)

Original Submission

hubie writes:

Concealing messages with chemicals is an ancient idea going back to invisible inks developed in the days of Pliney the Elder. However, those messages are only hidden and are easily revealed with the application of light, heat, or other chemicals. Chemists from the Weizmann Institute of Science have used fluorescence to create a chemical encryption method:

In this case, Margulies' Enigma machine is a fluorescent amino acid scaffold that can bind to various compounds. First, the sender converts a message into a code, with each letter represented by a number. They then dissolve the fluorophore sensor in ethanol and record the fluorescence emission spectrum after adding a random chemical. The intensity values of the spectrum (measured at every 20nm) can be used as a unique encryption key, which, when added to the initial code numbers, can be sent as an encrypted message to the recipient.

'To be able to read the message, the receiver simply needs to add the same chemical to an identical molecular device,' Margulies explains. The added chemical and solvent are the initial conditions necessary for decryption, like the rotors in the Enigma machine. After adding the correct chemical, the recipient can measure the fluorescence emission spectrum and subtract the emission values from the cipher code to read the message.

Abstract from the open access article (DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11374):

Since ancient times, steganography, the art of concealing information, has largely relied on secret inks as a tool for hiding messages. However, as the methods for detecting these inks improved, the use of simple and accessible chemicals as a means to secure communication was practically abolished. Here, we describe a method that enables one to conceal multiple different messages within the emission spectra of a unimolecular fluorescent sensor. Similar to secret inks, this molecular-scale messaging sensor (m-SMS) can be hidden on regular paper and the messages can be encoded or decoded within seconds using common chemicals, including commercial ingredients that can be obtained in grocery stores or pharmacies. Unlike with invisible inks, however, uncovering these messages by an unauthorized user is almost impossible because they are protected by three different defence mechanisms: steganography, cryptography and by entering a password, which are used to hide, encrypt or prevent access to the information, respectively.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

SpaceX has successfully completed delivering JCSAT-14 to geosynchronous orbit. The Falcon 9 rocket launch started at 0530 UTC, with an experimental landing planned at ASDS (Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship) "Of Course I Still Love You" around 600km off the coast of Florida.

While it was expected that the first stage landing attempt from Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) would be a failure*, the first stage managed to land upright, marking the second successful attempt of the private space company to land the rocket on a drone barge (the first from the CRS-8 mission last April 2016).

*Due to GTO being at a higher altitude, the rocket would come back at a faster speed; approximately double that of the first successful barge landing.

SpaceX full launch videos:

• JCSAT-14 Hosted Webcast This is the full hosted webcast that was streamed live and which explains the JCSAT-14 mission, has shots of the rocket, and some countdown net audio.
• JCSAT-14 Technical Webcast This is the technical webcast and only includes shots of the pad, rocket, and our countdown net audio.

Other links:

• Landing footage
• Better view of the landed first stage from SpaceX
• Space.com submission
• Ars Technica
• The Verge

Original Submission

martyb writes:

There is a story at ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) Queue concerning what is the best practice on getting data from here to there: Should You Upload or Ship Big Data to the Cloud? -- The accepted wisdom does not always hold true.

There is an old adage to never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of magnetic tapes going down the highway. The challenge is knowing when it is better (cheaper/faster) to ship it vs send it. This analysis will help you to decide.

This article investigates the tradeoffs between speed of communications between your systems and the cloud provider, how fast you can store your data to removable media/drives, and shipping delays so as to help you decide the fastest way to get your data from your systems to a cloud storage provider.

I found the article to be generally in-depth and well done but I do have a couple of caveats.

First, I saw no analysis of the impact on having faster shipping/turnaround on the tradeoffs. The assumption is that it would take 48 hours for shipping and handling for physical media. I would have liked to see what impact it would have on the analysis if that were, say, 24 hours instead.

Also, an assumption is made that the cloud provider would need to copy from your media to put it on their systems. A variation I did not see explored was to have media that could be directly mounted at the cloud provider — whether the media was supplied in advance by the provider or met certain provider-required specs. In either case, that would avoid the need for another copying pass of the data. That, in turn might greatly change the analysis of whether it would be faster to ship media or just upload it over the internet.

Those quibbles aside, it is one of they better articles I've seen that investigates that actual tradeoffs.

Ed Note: Obligatory xkcd and another

Original Submission

martyb writes:

Reuters is reporting: Exclusive: Big data breaches found at major email services - expert:

Hundreds of millions of hacked user names and passwords for email accounts and other websites are being traded in Russia's criminal underworld, a security expert told Reuters. The discovery of 272.3 million stolen accounts included a majority of users of Mail.ru (MAILRq.L), Russia's most popular email service, and smaller fractions of Google (GOOGL.O), Yahoo (YHOO.O) and Microsoft (MSFT.O) email users, said Alex Holden, founder and chief information security officer of Hold Security.

[...] Holden was previously instrumental in uncovering some of the world's biggest known data breaches, affecting tens of millions of users at Adobe Systems (ADBE.O), JPMorgan (JPM.N) and Target (TGT.N) and exposing them to subsequent cyber crimes.

The latest discovery came after Hold Security researchers found a young Russian hacker bragging in an online forum that he had collected and was ready to give away a far larger number of stolen credentials that ended up totalling 1.17 billion records.

After eliminating duplicates, Holden said, the cache contained nearly 57 million Mail.ru accounts - a big chunk of the 64 million monthly active email users Mail.ru said it had at the end of last year. It also included tens of millions of credentials for the world's three big email providers, Gmail, Microsoft and Yahoo, plus hundreds of thousands of accounts at German and Chinese email providers.

"This information is potent. It is floating around in the underground and this person has shown he's willing to give the data away to people who are nice to him," said Holden, the former chief security officer at U.S. brokerage R.W. Baird. "These credentials can be abused multiple times," he said.

[...] Yahoo Mail credentials numbered 40 million, or 15 percent of the 272 million unique IDs discovered. Meanwhile, 33 million, or 12 percent, were Microsoft Hotmail accounts and 9 percent, or nearly 24 million, were Gmail, according to Holden.

Not only have I changed my passwords, but am encouraging family/friends to do the same -- it's a lot easier to help them BEFORE their e-mail account gets pwned.

Original Submission

n1 writes:

The Defense Department has farmed out to a private company much of the criminal investigation and trials of the men accused of plotting the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, according to federal records and sources affiliated with the trials who spoke to BuzzFeed News.

What's more, the government has hired the same firm, SRA International, to serve both the prosecution and defense teams, sparking concerns of a conflict of interest that could undermine the integrity of one of the most significant terrorism cases in modern history.

"Where did these people come from; how did they get selected?" asked David Nevin, a lawyer for alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. "I have no idea. And that's a problem, to say the least."

The role of contractors in the Gitmo investigations raises questions about accountability at the notoriously secretive war court.

"It does surprise me," Laura Dickinson, a professor of national security law at George Washington University, said of contracting out a major terrorism investigation. "It raises questions about who is running the investigation. The fact that there is so little transparency raises a red flag because we can't evaluate if there are adequate accountability measures in place."

The central role that SRA, a Virginia-based security logistics contracting firm, plays in staffing the prosecution and defense at GITMO has not been previously reported. BuzzFeed News obtained a contracting document dated November 2015, in which the Pentagon justifies using SRA and explains how much the government relies on the company.

Source: BuzzFeed

Original Submission

Scruffy Beard 2 writes:

"The software is functioning as intended," said Amber.
"Wait," I asked, "so it's supposed to delete my personal files from my internal hard drive without asking my permission?"
"Yes," she replied.

Apple Stole My Music. No, Seriously.

[...] For about ten years, I've been warning people, "hang onto your media. One day, you won't buy a movie. You'll buy the right to watch a movie, and that movie will be served to you. If the companies serving the movie don't want you to see it, or they want to change something, they will have the power to do so. They can alter history, and they can make you keep paying for things that you formerly could have bought. Information will be a utility rather than a possession. Even information that you yourself have created will require unending, recurring payments just to access."

This has apparently been making the rounds on IRC.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

New information has emerged about China's exascale plans, which are a part of China's 13th five-year plan for 2016-2020. Despite U.S.-imposed export restrictions on processors, two 100 petaflops systems will be launched sometime during 2016, possibly as soon as the 2016 International Supercomputing Conference in June. One of these systems will be an upgrade to Tianhe-2, and both may utilize homegrown accelerators.

At least one exascale prototype system will be built prior to a 1 exaflops system:

The exascale prototype will be about 512 nodes, offering 5-10 teraflops-per-node, 10-20 Gflops/watt, point to point bandwidth greater than 200 Gbps. MPI latency should be less than 1.5 µs, said [Beihang University Professor Depei] Qian. Development will also include system software and three typical applications that will be used to verify effectiveness. From there, work will begin on an efficient computing node and a scheme for high-performance processor/accelerator design.

"Based on those key technology developments, we will finally build the exascale system," said Qian. "Our goal is not so ambitious – it is to have exaflops in peak. We are looking for a LINPACK efficiency of greater than 60 percent. Memory is rather limited, about 10 petabytes, with exabyte levels of storage. We don't think we can reach the 20 megawatts system goal in less than five years so our goal is about 35 megawatts for the system; that means 30 Gflops/watt energy efficiency. The expected interconnect performance is greater than 500 Gbps."

Original Submission

butthurt writes:

AMD has begun selling a new line of solid-state drives (SSDs) bearing its name. The Radeon R3 devices are manufactured and serviced by Taiwan-based Galt Inc. They are 7 mm high and 2.5 inches wide. Read speeds are claimed to be ​510 MB/s to 520 MB/s and write speeds 360 MB/s to ​470 MB/s. The drives range in capacity from 120 GB to 960 GB; only the smallest is available so far. They are based on TLC flash.

Coverage:

• PC Gamer
• Yahoo News
• PC World
• CIO

Further information: AMD product page

[Ed. addition.]

There is an Amazon link on the AMD product page, which gives some details on pricing and availability, including:

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Late Wednesday, Brown signed the bill raising the age for tobacco use, including vaping, to 21, the Associated Press reports. He also vetoed a bill that would have asked voters to divert tobacco taxes to pay for the health expenses of those with tobacco-related ailments, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Source: NPR

Original Submission

butthurt writes:

Roboticists at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have fitted a pilotless helicopter with a system that injects an unspecified glycol (probably ethylene glycol) into hollow balls containing potassium permanganate, causing a hypergolic reaction. The flaming balls are dropped in a preprogrammed pattern, in order to start fires.

The drone, called the Unmanned Aerial System for Fire Fighting, is being trialled for bringing about "prescribed burns" for fire management and for limiting the spread of invasive organisms. Such work can pose a risk to people who perform it, and must sometimes be done in rugged terrain.

coverage:

• Popular Science (also covers a drone intended to drop dynamite for starting avalanches)
• The Daily Nebraskan
• Lincoln Journal-Star
• SlashGear
• Firefighter Nation
• ABC News

Original Submission