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takyon writes:

AMD's Vega GPUs will be launching during the first half of 2017 (in 3-5 months). While AMD's previous Polaris chips were aimed at mainstream segments, AMD will aim for higher performance enthusiast users with Vega. Vega's next-generation compute unit will allow more lower precision instructions per clock cycle, such as FP16 and INT8 operations. The GPUs will also include High Bandwidth Memory 2.0. HBM2 allows up to 8 GB of DRAM per stack rather than the 1 GB limit imposed by HBM1 (used in AMD's Fury GPUs).

AMD has also announced FreeSync 2 for variable refresh displays, which apparently has more to do with high dynamic range (HDR) color than screen tearing and frame latency:

Trying to explain FreeSync 2 can get a bit tricky. Unlike the original FreeSync that it takes its name from, it's a multi-faceted technology: it's not just variable refresh, instead it's HDR as well. But it's also a business/platform play in a different way than FreeSync was. And while strictly speaking it's a superset of FreeSync, it is not meant to replace FreeSync wholesale. Perhaps the best way to think of FreeSync 2 is that it's a second, parallel initiative that is focused on what AMD, its monitor partners, and its game development partners can do to improve the state of high-end monitors and gaming.

In terms of features then, what is easily the cornerstone feature of [FreeSync 2] – and really its reason to be – is improving support for HDR gaming under Windows. As our own Brandon Chester has discussed more than once, the state of support for next-generation display technologies under Windows is mixed at best. HiDPI doesn't work quite as well as anyone would like it to, and there isn't a comprehensive & consistent color management solution to support monitors that offer HDR and/or color spaces wider than sRGB. The Windows 10 Anniversary Update has improved on the latter, but AMD is still not satisfied with the status quo on Windows 10 (never mind all the gamers still on Windows 7/8). As a result FreeSync 2 is, in part, their effort to upend the whole system and do better.

FreeSync 2 also at Tom's Hardware.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21712103-new-chips-will-cut-cost-laser-scanning-breakthrough-miniaturising

Smaller, cheaper lidars are being developed. One of the most promising comes in the minuscule form of a silicon chip. Prototypes have been delivered to several big automotive-component suppliers, including Delphi and ZF. If all goes well, within three years or so lidar chips should start popping up in vehicles.

[...] Typically, a lidar employs revolving mirrors to direct its laser beam, which is usually in the invisible near-infrared part of the spectrum, rather than the visible part. Commercial lidar can cost $50,000 or so a pop, but smaller, lower-powered versions are now available for $10,000 or less. A number of lidar makers, such as Velodyne, a Californian firm, are trying to develop what they call "solid-state" lidars, which are miniaturised versions with no moving parts. Some researchers are using a flash of laser light instead of a beam, and capturing the reflections with an array of tiny sensors on a chip.

Infineon, however, has taken a different tack and is using a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS). This particular MEMS was invented by Innoluce, a Dutch firm which Infineon bought in October 2016. The device consists of an oval-shaped mirror, just 3mm by 4mm, contained on a bed of silicon. The mirror is connected to actuators that use electrical resonance to make it oscillate from side to side, changing the direction of the laser beam it is reflecting. This, says Infineon, permits the full power of the laser to be used for scanning instead of its light being dispersed, as it would be in a flash-based system.

The MEMS lidar can scan up to 5,000 data points from a scene every second, and has a range of 250 metres, says Ralf Bornefeld, Infineon's head of automotive sense and control. Despite its moving mirror, he thinks it should prove as robust and reliable as any other silicon chip. In mass production and attached to, say, a windscreen, the MEMS lidar is expected to cost a carmaker less than $250. These tiny lidars would have other applications, too—in robots and drones, for example.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Diners waste far less food when they're schooled on the harm their leftovers can inflict on the environment. But if they know the food is going to be composted instead of dumped in a landfill, the educational benefit disappears.

When composting enters the picture, educated diners waste just as much as those who haven't learned about shrinking landfill space, dangerous greenhouse gas emissions and water and soil pollution, a new study found.

This presents a tricky situation for policymakers figuring out how to manage food waste, because the top tactics are prevention (through education) and diversion (through composting), said lead researcher Danyi Qi, a graduate student in agricultural economics at The Ohio State University.

"When you do both, they cancel each other out -- they work at cross purposes," said Qi, who is presenting the findings this week at the annual meeting of the Allied Social Science Associations in Chicago.

The original article information is available on OSU's web site.

People don't feed their scraps to the dogs & hogs?

Original Submission

takyon writes:

In Washington, D.C. to protest the results of a certain recent election? You may get the chance to light up at the same time:

Some activists in town for Inauguration Day are willing to risk arrest by planning to go "green." The DC Cannabis Coalition plans to hand out 4,200 free joints the day President-elect Donald Trump will take over the White House, in an effort to keep their hopes of federal marijuana legalization from taking a hit. The group will begin at 8 a.m. in Dupont Circle, then plans to march down to the National Mall in time for Mr. Trump's inauguration. At exactly 4 minutes and 20 seconds into Mr. Trump's inaugural address -- 420 is the commonly known code for marijuana -- thousands of protesters will light up.

[...] "The main message is it's time to legalize cannabis at the federal level," Adam Eidinger, the founder of DCMJ, a group of D.C. residents who introduced and helped get D.C.'s marijuana legalization initiative passed, told CBS affiliate WUSA.

[...] Eidinger also said the protest isn't explicitly anti-Trump; all are welcome, and organizers are happy for it to be a joint effort between supporters of different political parties. The joints themselves will be completely free. "We don't want any money exchanged whatsoever, this is really a gift for people who come to Washington, D.C.," he said.

CBSN is still running fake news segments about cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome (CHS) as of Jan. 5th.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

In a population-based study from Scotland, use of commonly-prescribed acid suppression medications such as proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) was linked with an increased risk of intestinal infections with C. difficile and Campylobacter bacteria, which can cause considerable illness.

Compared with individuals in the community who did not take acid suppression medications, those who did had 1.7-times and 3.7-times increased risks of C. difficile and Campylobacter, respectively. Among hospitalized patients, those using the medications had 1.4-times and 4.5-times increased risks, respectively.

Although acid suppression therapy is often considered relatively free from side effects, the findings suggest that there are significant adverse gastrointestinal consequences of their use. "Users of these medications should be particularly vigilant about food hygiene as the removal of stomach acid makes them more easily infected with agents such as Campylobacter, which is commonly found on poultry," said Prof. Thomas MacDonald, senior author of the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology study.

DOI: 10.1111/bcp.13205

Maybe they should cut back on haggis and chips instead.

Original Submission

randomerr writes:

The Federal Communications Commission has approved a measure that relaxes foreign ownership rules to enable Grupo Televisa of Mexico to claim a larger stake of the U.S. Spanish-language broadcasting giant Univision Communications.

The move comes just days before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

Univision's chairman, Haim Saban, has been lobbying the FCC for the waiver for more than three years. The measure, which was approved by the FCC's Media Bureau late Tuesday, will enable Univision's private equity owners to sell some of their shares in Univision to Televisa.

"We find that the public interest would not be served by refusing to grant Univision's petition for a declaratory ruling to permit foreign ownership of Univision Holdings," William T. Lake, chief of the FCC's Media Bureau, wrote in Tuesday's 11-page order.

The order noted that allowing Televisa to increase its stake in Univision would not jeopardize national security concerns. The move might also allow an increased financial investment in the Spanish-language media company.

Several of the private equity firms have been eager to unload their stakes in Univision, which is struggling with plummeting prime-time ratings and lower revenue.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

According to the latest figures available, US highway deaths increased by more than 10 percent year-over-year during the first half of 2016. One big reason? Distracted driving with mobile phones. It's a reality that now has one phone-maker in some unusual legal crosshairs.

Apple, maker of the ever-popular iPhone, is being sued on allegations that its FaceTime app contributed to the highway death of a 5-year-old girl named Moriah Modisette. In Denton County, Texas, on Christmas Eve 2014, a man smashed into the Modisette family's Toyota Camry as it stopped in traffic on southbound Interstate 35W. Police say that the driver was using the FaceTime application and never saw the brake lights ahead of him. In addition to the tragedy, father James, mother Bethany, and daughter Isabella all suffered non-fatal injuries during the crash two years ago.

The Modisette family now wants Apple to pay damages for the mishap. The family alleges the Cupertino, California-based technology company had a duty to warn motorists against using the app and that it could have used patented technology to prohibit drivers from utilizing the app. According to the suit (PDF) filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court:

Plaintiffs allege APPLE, INC.'s failure to design, manufacture, and sell the Apple iPhone 6 Plus with the patented, safer alternative design technology already available to it that would automatically lock-out or block users from utilizing APPLE, INC.'s 'FaceTime' application while driving a motor vehicle at highway speed, and failure to warn users that the product was likely to be dangerous when used or misused in a reasonably foreseeable manner and/or instruct on the safe usage of this and similar applications, rendered the Apple iPhone 6 defective when it left defendant APPLE, INC's possession, and were a substantial factor in causing plaintiffs' injuries and decedent's death.

The patent referenced, issued by the US patent office in April 2014, is designed to provide a "lock-out mechanism" to prevent iPhone use by drivers. The patent claims a "motion analyzer" and a "scenery analyzer" help prevent phone use. The reliability of such lock-out services, however, has come into question.

"The motion analyzer can detect whether the handheld computing device is in motion beyond a predetermined threshold level. The scenery analyzer can determine whether a holder of handheld computing device is located within a safe operating area of a vehicle. And the lock-out mechanism can disable one or more functions of the handheld computing device based on output of the motion analyzer, and enable the one or more functions based on output of the scenery analyzer," according to the patent.

Apple has not commented on the lawsuit, but it has said that drivers are responsible for their behavior.

Original Submission

n1 writes:

Global debt levels rose to more than 325 percent of the world's gross domestic product last year as government debt rose sharply, a report from the Institute for International Finance showed on Wednesday.

The IIF's report found that global debt had risen more than $11 trillion in the first nine months of 2016 to more than $217 trillion. The report also found that general government debt accounted for nearly half of the total increase.

Emerging market debt rose substantially, as government bond and syndicated loan issuance in 2016 grew to almost three times its 2015 level.

Source: Reuters

Original Submission

takyon writes:

AlphaGo has won another 50 games against the world's top Go players, this time with little fanfare:

DeepMind's AlphaGo is back, and it's been secretly crushing the world's best Go players over the past couple of weeks. The new version of the AI has played 51 games online and won 50 of them, including a victory against Ke Jie, currently the world's best human Go player. Amusingly, the 51st game wasn't even a loss; it was drawn after the Internet connection dropped out. [...] Following its single game loss [in a match against Lee Sedol], DeepMind has been hard at work on a new and improved version of AlphaGo—and it appears the AI is back bigger, better, and more undefeated than ever. DeepMind's co-founder Demis Hassabis announced on Twitter yesterday that "the new version of AlphaGo" had been playing "some unofficial online games" on the Tygem and FoxGo servers under the names Magister (P) and Master (P). It played 51 games in total against some of the world's best players, including Ke Jie, Gu Li, and Lee Sedol—and didn't lose a single one.

That isn't to say that AlphaGo's unofficial games went unnoticed, though. Over the last week, a number of forum threads have popped up to discuss this mystery debutante who has been thrashing the world's best players. Given its unbeaten record and some very "non-human" moves, most onlookers were certain that Master and Magister were being played by an AI—they just weren't certain if it was AlphaGo, or perhaps another AI out of China or Japan. It is somewhat unclear, but it seems that DeepMind didn't warn the opponents that they were playing against AlphaGo. Perhaps they were told after their games had concluded, though. Ali Jabarin, a professional Go player, apparently bumped into Ke Jie after he'd been beaten by the AI: "He [was] a bit shocked... just repeating 'it's too strong.'"

Will there still be "Go celebrities" once DeepMind has finished mopping the floor with them and turned their attention elsewhere?

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

If you've used Tor, you've probably used Tor Browser, and if you've used Tor Browser you've used Firefox. By lines of code, Tor Browser is mostly Firefox -- there are some modifications and some additions, but around 95% of the code in Tor Browser comes from Firefox. The Firefox and Tor Browser teams have collaborated for a long time, but in 2016, we started to take it to the next level, bringing Firefox and Tor Browser closer together than ever before. With closer collaboration, we're enabling the Tor Browser team to do their jobs more easily, adding more privacy options for Firefox users, and making both browsers more secure.

[...] In 2016, we started an effort to take the Tor Browser patches and "uplift" them to Firefox. When a patch gets uplifted, we take the change that Tor Browser needs and we add it to Firefox in such a way that it's disabled by default, but can be enabled by changing a preference value. That saves the Tor Browser team work, since they can just change preferences instead of updating patches. And it gives the Firefox team a way to experiment with the advanced privacy features that Tor Browser team is building, to see if we can bring them to a much wider audience.

Our first major target in the uplift project was a feature called First Party Isolation, which provides a very strong anti-tracking protection (at the risk of breaking some websites). Mozilla formed a dedicated team to take the First Party Isolation features in Tor Browser and implement them in Firefox, using the same technology we used to build the containers feature. The team also developed thorough test and QA processes to make sure that the isolation in Firefox is as strong as what's in Tor Browser -- and even identified some ways to add even stronger protections. The Mozilla team worked closely with the Tor Browser team, including weekly calls and an in-person meeting in September.

First Party Isolation will be incorporated in Firefox 52, the basis for the next major version of Tor Browser. As a result, the Tor Browser team won't have to update their First Party Isolation patches for this version. In Firefox, First Party Isolation is disabled by default (because of the compatibility risk), but Firefox users can opt in to using First Party Isolation by going to about:config and setting "privacy.firstparty.isolate" to "true".

We're excited to continue this collaboration in 2017. Work will start soon on uplifting a set of patches that prevent various forms of browser fingerprinting. We'll also be looking at how we can work together on sandboxing, building on the work that Yawning Angel has done for Tor Browser and the Firefox sandboxing features that are scheduled to start shipping in early 2017.

takyon: Where's the long-rumored Tor integration in default Firefox? Make Firefox useful again.

Previously: Some Tor Privacy Settings Coming to Firefox
Tor Project and Mozilla Making It Harder for Malware to Unmask Users

Original Submission

multixrulz writes:

George Brandis, Australia's Attorney General, is inviting submissions on the possible expansion of access to metadata retained under Australia's telco metadata retention laws. Under existing law, telcos are required to retain metadata for two years, which may be used for law enforcement and national security purposes.

However, the committee also indicated that it was aware of the potential for unintended consequences resulting from a prohibition on courts authorising access to data retained under the scheme and recommended that the Minister for Communications and the Attorney-General review this measure.

Rupert's empire published on this last year, the ABC was late to the party with a story on January 5. I wonder if the AG and the communications minster are aware of the potential for unintended consequences resulting from civil access to this metadata.

Original Submission

charon writes:

In personal finance, practically everything can turn on one's credit score. It's both an indicator of one's financial past, and the key to accessing necessities—without insane costs—in the future. But on Tuesday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced that two of the three major credit-reporting agencies responsible for doling out those scores—Equifax and Transunion—have been deceiving and taking advantage of Americans. The Bureau ordered the agencies to pay more than $23 million in fines and restitution.

In their investigation, the Bureau found that the two agencies had been misrepresenting the scores provided to consumers, telling them that the score reports they received were the same reports that lenders and businesses received, when, in fact, they were not. The investigation also found problems with the way the agencies advertised their products, using promotions that suggested that their credit reports were either free or cost only $1. According to the CFPB the agencies did not properly disclose that after a trial of seven to 30 days, individuals would be enrolled in a full-price subscription, which could total $16 or more per month. The Bureau also found Equifax to be in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which states that the agencies must provide one free report every 12 months made available at a central site. Before viewing their free report, consumers were forced to view advertisements for Equifax, which is prohibited by law.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

U.S. Navy-trained dolphins and their handlers will participate in a last-ditch effort to catch, enclose and protect the last few dozen of Mexico's critically endangered vaquita porpoises to save them from extinction.

International experts confirmed the participation of the Navy Marine Mammal Program in the effort, which is expected to start sometime this spring.

Jim Fallin of the U.S. Navy Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific said Tuesday that the dolphins' participation is still in the planning stage.

The dolphins will use their natural sonar to locate the extremely elusive vaquitas, then surface and advise their handlers.

"Their specific task is to locate" vaquitas, which live only in the Gulf of California, Fallin said. "They would signal that by surfacing and returning to the boat from which they were launched."

The dolphins have been trained by the Navy for tasks like locating sea mines.

The vaquitas, the world's smallest and most endangered porpoise species, have been decimated by illegal fishing for the swim bladder of a fish, the totoaba, which is a prized delicacy in China.

Original Submission

n1 writes:

The U.S. Department of Labor has just sued Google in an attempt to get the Mountain View tech giant to cough up compensation data for an audit of its compliance with federal labor laws.

The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs had in September asked Google to submit particular information, according to a news release Jan. 4 from the labor department.

"As a federal contractor, Google must agree to permit the federal government to inspect and copy records and information relevant to its compliance with the equal employment laws," the labor department said.

"Despite many opportunities to produce this information voluntarily, Google has refused to do so. We filed this lawsuit so we can obtain the information we need to complete our evaluation."

Source: Bay Area News Group

https://www.dol.gov/sites/default/files/newsroom/newsreleases/OFCCP20162406_0.pdf

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

[...] Facebook's naughty bits police have been active for some years.

They ensure, for example, that human eyes don't have to witness a doll's nipples or even works of art.

It seems, though, the company continues to struggle with the difference between real body parts and those that have been created by human hands.

As the Telegraph reports, Italian writer Elisa Barbari decided to use a picture of a local Bologna icon -- the statue of Neptune -- on her Facebook page.

Facebook, however, seems to have found it a touch too risqué.

Barbari said she received a message from Facebook's censors that said, in part, her image contained "content that is explicitly sexual and which shows to an excessive degree the body, concentrating unnecessarily on body parts."

[...] This is merely the latest brouhaha involving Facebook's censors. In September, the company removed an iconic image of a naked child during the Vietnam War that had appeared on a Norwegian newspaper's Facebook page.

The fountain in question.

-- submitted from IRC

Original Submission