SoylentNews

takyon writes:

Experts advising NASA are not impressed with SpaceX's plan to fuel rockets while astronauts are aboard, particularly in the wake of the September 1st explosion:

"This is a hazardous operation," Space Station Advisory Committee Chairman Thomas Stafford, a former NASA astronaut and retired Air Force general, said during a conference call on Monday. Stafford said the group's concerns were heightened after an explosion of an unmanned SpaceX rocket while it was being fueled on Sept. 1. Causes of that explosion remain under investigation.

Members of the eight-member group, including veterans of NASA's Gemini, Apollo and space shuttle programs, noted that all previous rockets carrying people into space were fueled before astronauts got to the launch pad. "Everybody there, and particularly the people who had experience over the years, said nobody is ever near the pad when they fuel a booster," Stafford said, referring to an earlier briefing the group had about SpaceX's proposed fueling procedure.

SpaceX needs NASA approval of its launch system before it can put astronauts into space. NASA said on Tuesday it was "continuing its evaluation of the SpaceX concept for fueling the Falcon 9 for commercial crew launches. The results of the company's Sept. 1 mishap investigation will be incorporated into NASA's evaluation."

SpaceX posted updates about the explosion on Oct. 28. The helium loading system appears to have caused the problem. SpaceX wants to resume launches before the end of the year.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

http://qz.com/823820/carnegie-mellon-made-a-special-pair-of-glasses-that-lets-you-steal-a-digital-identity/

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

A Queens gambler thought she hit it big until managers at the Resorts World Casino said her $43 million slot machine win was a technical glitch — and tried to pay her off with a steak dinner. Katrina Bookman was already thinking about what she would do with all that money back in August as she took a selfie beside the slot machine that said: Printing Cash Ticket. $42,949,672.76.

[...] "Upon being notified of the situation, casino personnel were able to determine that the figure displayed on the penny slot was the result of an obvious malfunction - a fact later confirmed by the New York State Gaming Commission," a Resorts statement said. "Machine malfunctions are rare, and we would like to extend our apologies to Ms. Bookman for any inconvenience this may have caused."

Money from the casino, like state lottery proceeds, help grow the state's educaton[sic] fund. Officials said payout maximums are put in place to protect that money.

Although the machine's screen displayed the multimillion-dollar jackpot, the printed ticket showed $2.25.

Is it a coincidence that 2^32=4294967296? Full story at NY Daily News.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Raytheon has scored nearly US$175 million to work on DARPA's ongoing research into hypersonics.

This time, it's not about a hypersonic plane: the program that got its contract announcement on the United States Federal Business Opportunities register today is for a hypersonic weapons system.

HAWC – the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept – is a joint project with the US Air Force to "develop and demonstrate critical technologies to enable an effective and affordable air-launched hypersonic cruise missile", the DARPA project page says.

Raytheon's latest contract is for a scramjet HAWC, for which $3.4 million has already been committed.

While rocket-based systems routinely reach hypersonic speeds, a Mach 5 capable cruise missile would be faster to deploy and offer longer ranges than current military systems, DARPA reckons.

The next time you are on a long flight, just think that at Mach 5, you could take a lap around the Earth at the equator in 6.5 hours.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

You may have thought that if you owned your digital devices, you were allowed to do whatever you like with them. In truth, even for possessions as personal as your car, PC, or insulin pump, you risked a lawsuit every time you reverse-engineered their software guts to dig up their security vulnerabilities—until now.

Last Friday, a new exemption to the decades-old law known as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act quietly kicked in, carving out protections for Americans to hack their own devices without fear that the DMCA's ban on circumventing protections on copyrighted systems would allow manufacturers to sue them. One exemption, crucially, will allow new forms of security research on those consumer devices. Another allows for the digital repair of vehicles. Together, the security community and DIYers are hoping those protections, which were enacted by the Library of Congress's Copyright Office in October of 2015 but delayed a full year, will spark a new era of benevolent hacking for both research and repair.

Unfortunately, the exemptions are only temporary and will need to be re-approved the next time the Copyright Office reviews its exemptions, in 2018.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

A deal that would have expanded the U.S.'s largest newspaper publisher has fallen apart:

Gannett, owner of USA TODAY and more than 100 local news properties, said Tuesday it has ended its pursuit of Tronc, owner of The Los Angeles Times, an acquisition that would have created the country's largest newspaper publisher. In a statement, Gannett CEO Robert Dickey said the deal would no longer make financial sense to complete. Tronc said the talks fell through because Gannett couldn't secure financing.

The news has not helped Tronc's stock:

Gannett's stock rose 0.7% to $7.83 in morning trading as Tronc shares fell 19% to $9.75. The news that a deal is off comes after The Wall Street Journal reported in August that Gannett had privately sweetened its bid for Tronc, which in May rejected a boosted $15 a share offer. Gannett first made a bid for Tronc in April, when it was then called Tribune Publishing.

A transaction would have been the latest amid a flurry of newspaper deals. Gannett has been seeking to build scale in a newspaper industry suffering from steep declines in advertising revenue. A combined company would have joined titles such as Gannett's USA Today with the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times. Gannett's public offers were fiercely and publicly rebuked by Tronc Chairman Michael W. Ferro Jr., who repeatedly said the company is worth more than Gannett was willing to pay. Mr. Ferro and Chief Executive Justin C. Dearborn announced a rebranding effort amid Gannett's pursuit, and Mr. Ferro asked investors to believe in his course for Tronc as a stand-alone, more digitally-focused company.

Also at NYT and Bloomberg.

[Tronc — Tribune Online Content, according to: Tribune Publishing Just Changed Its Name to ‘tronc’ - WSJ. -Ed.]

Original Submission

Appalbarry writes:

In a move that should surprise no-one, The Guardian reports that :

One of the biggest insurance companies in Britain is to use social media to analyse the personalities of car owners and set the price of their insurance.

The unprecedented move highlights the start of a new era for how companies use online personal data and will start a debate about privacy.

Admiral Insurance will analyse the Facebook accounts of first-time car owners to look for personality traits that are linked to safe driving. For example, individuals who are identified as conscientious and well-organised will score well.

The insurer will examine posts and likes by the Facebook user, although not photos, looking for habits that research shows are linked to these traits. These include writing in short concrete sentences, using lists, and arranging to meet friends at a set time and place, rather than just "tonight".

As usual the insurer claims that this is "voluntary," where "voluntary" means you'll pay an extra amount up to £350 if you choose to protect your privacy.

The long term goal is to add other social media platforms, and yes, "...we've been working closely with Facebook in Europe to get the service ready"

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

The New Yorker wonders:

My children know how to print their letters. And they type frighteningly well. Still, I can't escape the conviction that cursive—writing it and knowing how to read it—represents some universal value. I'm not the only one who thinks so. Every year, there are worried articles about the decline of cursive and its omission from school curricula. And there's a backlash, one that I secretly cheer for. When I read that Washington state is now considering Senate Bill 6469, "an act related to requiring that cursive writing be taught in common schools," I gave a little fist pump in the air.

Cursive and handwriting are dead. Communication of the future will be done with pure emoticons.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

A photo series on CNET shows the tech advances that have occurred since the Cubs last won the World Series:

The Chicago Cubs are back in the World Series for the first time since 1945. They haven't won it since 1908.

Man managed to conquer the skies before the Cubs could conquer another World Series. On January 1, 1914, the first scheduled commercial airline flight soared across Florida, from St. Petersburg to Tampa. As the Cubs remain grounded in their World Series hopes over the next century, flight developed to the point where Uber just released its plans for on-demand urban air transportation.

The Cubs in the World Series--A sure sign of the Apocalypse?

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Google has reportedly made the Chrome web browser significantly faster by using a feature of Microsoft's Visual Studio compiler:

Starting with the Chrome 53 release of 64-bit Chrome and version 54 of the 32-bit version, Google started using Microsoft's so-called Profile Guided Optimization technology to speed up startup times (by 17 percent), new tab page load times (by almost 15 percent), and overall page load times (by 6 percent) in Chrome.

Profile Guided Optimization (PGO) is a feature of Microsoft's Visual Studio developer tools that measures how users actually interact with an application. It then uses this training data and re-compiles the application with a focus on optimizing the most often used functions of the application.

Also at ZDNet.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Microsoft continues to phase out Windows 7 and 8.1:

Out with the old, and in with the new. Microsoft yesterday stopped providing Windows 7 Professional and Windows 8.1 licenses to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), including its PC partners and systems builders. This means that, as of today, the only way you can buy a computer running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 is if you can still find one in stock.

Two years ago, Microsoft stopped selling Windows 7 Home Basic, Windows 7 Home Premium, and Windows 7 Ultimate licenses to OEMs. Now Windows 7 Professional and Windows 8.1 are also out of the picture, leaving Windows 10 as the only remaining option, assuming you want a PC with a Microsoft operating system.

This is Microsoft's way of slowly phasing out old operating systems. The Windows Lifecycle chart for sales doesn't have an end date for Windows 10, since that operating system doesn't have a successor.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

The next President of the United States will inherit the keys to the social media kingdom:

What happens to President Barack Obama's 11.1 million Twitter followers on Inauguration Day? The White House says Obama's official @POTUS account will be taken over by the next president, who will start with a huge following but a clean slate of tweets. Obama's tweets will move over to a new handle, @POTUS44, by the National Archives and Records Administration.

The same will take place with Obama's Facebook and Instagram accounts, along with other Twitter accounts including Michelle Obama's @FLOTUS and Joe Biden's @VP accounts.

You can read all about it on the White House weblog.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

The Shadow Brokers are back, and they have a treat for you:

"TheShadowBrokers is having special trick or treat for Amerikanskis tonight," said the Monday morning post, which was signed by the same encryption key used in the August posts. "Many missions into your networks is/was coming from these ip addresses." Monday's leak came as former NSA contractor Harold Thomas Martin III remains in federal custody on charges that he hoarded an astounding 50 terabytes of data in his suburban Maryland home. Much of the data included highly classified information such as the names of US intelligence officers and highly sensitive methods behind intelligence operations. Martin came to the attention of investigators looking into the Shadow Brokers' August leak. Anonymous people with knowledge of the investigation say they don't know what connection, if any, Martin has to the group or the leaks.

[...] According to analyses from researchers here and here, Monday's dump contains 352 distinct IP addresses and 306 domain names that purportedly have been hacked by the NSA. The timestamps included in the leak indicate that the servers were targeted between August 22, 2000 and August 18, 2010. The addresses include 32 .edu domains and nine .gov domains. In all, the targets were located in 49 countries, with the top 10 being China, Japan, Korea, Spain, Germany, India, Taiwan, Mexico, Italy, and Russia. Vitali Kremez, a senior intelligence analyst at security firm Flashpoint, also provides useful analysis here. [...] Other purported NSA tools discussed in Monday's dump have names including DEWDROP, INCISION, JACKLADDER, ORANGUTAN, PATCHICILLIN, RETICULUM, SIDETRACK, AND STOCSURGEON. Little is immediately known about the tools, but the specter that they may be implants or exploits belonging to the NSA is understandably generating intrigue in both security and intelligence circles.

Previously:

"The Shadow Brokers" Claim to Have Hacked NSA
NSA 'Shadow Brokers' Hack Shows SpyWar With Kremlin is Turning Hot
Cisco Begins Patching an NSA Exploit Released by the Shadow Brokers
Probe of Leaked U.S. NSA Hacking Tools Examines Operative's 'Mistake'
NSA Contractor Harold Martin III Arrested
NSA Contractor Accused of "Stealing" Terabytes of Information, Charged Under Espionage Act

Original Submission

takyon writes:

The best science CO₂ can buy:

Do studies show that soft drinks promote obesity and Type 2 diabetes? It depends on who paid for the study.

Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, looked at studies of soft drink consumption and its relationship to obesity and diabetes published between 2001 and 2016. They found about 60 studies that were fairly rigorous in their methodology. When the studies were led by independent researchers, they showed a clear link between soda consumption and obesity or metabolic disease. But notably, 26 of the studies reported no link between sugary soft drinks and poor health.

What was different about the studies that found no connection to health problems? They were all carried out by researchers with financial ties to the beverage industry. The findings were published Monday [DOI: 10.7326/L16-0534] [DX] in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Also at LA Times and Houston Chronicle.

Previously: Sugar Industry Secretly Paid for Favorable Harvard Research in 1960s

Original Submission

takyon writes:

BlackBerry's QNX operating system will power some of Ford's new vehicles:

BlackBerry Ltd has signed a deal to work directly with Ford Motor Co to expand the carmaker's use of its QNX secure operating system, the Canadian technology company said on Monday, as Ford develops increasingly automated vehicles.

The deal with Ford is the first BlackBerry has done directly with a major automaker, though it currently sells its technology to auto industry suppliers. The company is betting its future on expanding sales of software products, including to automakers and other manufacturers, after largely ceding the smartphone market to rivals including Apple Inc, Alphabet's Google and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.

Panasonic Automotive currently uses QNX software in the Sync 3 infotainment console that it supplies to Ford. BlackBerry is hoping the new deal will expand use of BlackBerry's software in Ford vehicles as the two companies identify other systems where it might be used. "We can form the basis of the entire vehicle all the way from autonomous drive through to infotainment," John Wall, the head of BlackBerry's QNX unit, said in a phone interview.

Also at WSJ and USA Today.

Original Submission