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Phoenix666 writes:

Politicians and economists lament that certain alpha regions — SF, LA, NYC, Boston, Toronto, London, Paris — attract all the best jobs while becoming repellently expensive, reducing economic mobility and contributing to further bifurcation between haves and have-nots. But why don't the best jobs move elsewhere?

Of course, many of them can't. The average financier in NYC or London (until Brexit annihilates London's banking industry, of course...) would be laughed out of the office, and not invited back, if they told their boss they wanted to henceforth work from Chiang Mai.

But this isn't true of (much of) the software field. The average web/app developer might have such a request declined; but they would not be laughed at, or fired. The demand for good developers greatly outstrips supply, and in this era of Skype and Slack, there's nothing about software development that requires meatspace interactions.

[...]Some people will tell you that remote teams are inherently less effective and productive than localized ones, or that "serendipitous collisions" are so important that every employee must be forced to the same physical location every day so that these collisions can be manufactured. These people are wrong, as long as the team in question is small — on the order of handfuls, dozens or scores, rather than hundreds or thousands — and flexible.

Because the feedlot isn't hiring for Ruby?

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Phoenix666 writes:

Automaker Daimler AG and parts supplier Bosch Group are teaming up to make driverless cars that they say could be on city streets at the start of the next decade.

The companies would combine expertise in car making, sensors and software so that people in a specific part of town could order a shared car through their smart phone. The driverless car would then come pick them up and take them where they want to go.

The companies said Tuesday the system would let people make better use of their time in cars and help those who do not have driver's licenses.

The auto industry and tech firms have been investing heavily in autonomous driving technology. Many basic elements of autonomous driving are already in use, such as driver assistance systems that can keep cars in freeway lanes or detect pedestrians ahead. But legal issues surrounding driver responsibility remain to be solved.

Other automakers are also working on the concept. Competitor Volkswagen showed off an autonomous vehicle with no steering wheel and facing sofa-style seats at the Geneva auto show last month. Alphabet's Waymo, the former Google autonomous car project, is testing autonomous vehicles on public roads in the United States with test drivers aboard.

In Soviet Russia, a car you don't drive is called a "taxi."

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takyon writes:

Verizon. Yahoo! AOL. Oath:

Tim Armstrong, the head of Verizon's AOL division, announced Oath in a Twitter post on Monday afternoon: "Billion+ Consumers, 20+ Brands, Unstoppable Team. #TakeTheOath. Summer 2017."

The brand will apply to the digital media division of Verizon after it buys Yahoo's internet assets for $4.48 billion, a deal that is expected to close by the end of June. But do not count the legacy brands out just yet: Yahoo, AOL and The Huffington Post will continue to exist and operate with their own names — under the Oath umbrella.

[...] Many greeted the announcement with bewilderment, with some suggesting that Oath sounded like the name of a heavy metal band.

Also at Yahoo News (AFP) and Ars Technica.

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takyon writes:

Ousted South Korean leader Park Geun-hye was behind bars in the Seoul Detention Centre on Friday after her arrest, on charges including bribery, in a corruption scandal that has brought low some of the country's business and political elite.

In a dramatic fall from power, Park, 65, became South Korea's first democratically elected leader to be thrown out of office. She is accused of colluding with a friend, Choi Soon-sil, to pressure big businesses to contribute funds to foundations that backed her policy initiatives.

She and Choi, who is already in custody and on trial, deny any wrongdoing.

In the early hours of Friday, the Seoul Central District Court approved prosecutors' request for an arrest warrant for Park after she gave about eight hours of testimony.

Park and her lawyers had argued that she should not be arrested because she did not pose a flight risk and would not try to tamper with evidence. But the court disagreed, and said she might try to manipulate evidence.

Also at Straits Times, Korea Herald, and the Washington Post. Korea Times editorial.

Previously: South Korean President Park Geun-hye Impeached
President Park Geun-hye's Impeachment Upheld as South Korea's "Trial of the Century" Begins

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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard. Twice.

Now, according to BBC, Wikileaks has released another incredible piece of [the CIA] arsenal. Wikileaks reportedly released the code that the CIA uses to disguise the origins of a computer virus as a part of Vault 7.

These hacking tools reportedly include decoy languages like Russian to disguise the national origins of the cyber attack or malware. The release may disrupt the CIA's current operations and reveal previous cyber operations.

Source: https://milo.yiannopoulos.net/2017/04/wikileaks-disrupt-cia/

Also at Ars Technica

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

German industrial automation company Festo has come up with a bionic gripper, OctopusGripper. The company's focus areas include pneumatic, servo-pneumatic and electric automation technology and the Octopus Gripper is certainly drawing attention in the tech press.

The name is quite apt. The gripper has been modeled on an octopus tentacle. Its advantage lies in its ability to grip softly but securely. What is more, the OctopusGripper can pick up and hold a variety of different shapes. A video shows it taking canister-shaped objects, a ball, plastic water bottle and glass successfully.

[...] Well, not to be confused with the real creature with its water-based muscle, this is a Festo design where, as Samantha Cole in Motherboard explained, "compressed air bends the robot tentacle and controls its pliability. A combination of passive and vacuum-powered suction cups provides grip."

The soft silicone structure is pneumatically controlled. With compressed air applied, the tentacle bends inwards and wraps around an item. The team followed the natural model to come up with their design: two rows of suction cups are on the inside of the tentacle—small suction cups and larger suction cups.

-- submitted from IRC

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Developer unknownv2 has released a proof of concept exploit for the Xbox One. The exploit leverages a series of known vulnerabilities in the Microsoft Edge Browser (CVE-2016-7200 and CVE-2016-7241). We have not confirmed if this exploit works here at wololo.net (yup, I still don't have an Xbox One...).

The Xbox One uses Microsoft's Edge browser. Pretty much the same browser that you used once on Windows 10, to download google Chrome.

In November last year, several critical vulnerabilities were found in the Edge browser, and disclosed by Microsoft as they patched them. A proof of concept was released for these vulnerabilities by developer Brian Pak, demonstrating how to use them in an exploit. This is known as the Chakra exploit, and a good read on the topic can be found here.

Hacker unknownv2 has built his Xbox One exploit on top of Brian Pak's proof of concept. In the developer's words:

The POC itself was mostly complete, but the first bug (CVE-2016-7200) it used was patched on the console. I used Json.Parse bug (CVE-2016-7241) to leak addresses instead and after a bit of tweaking with the values, I was able to get the correct address for the chakra.dll. From there, I modified the POC by changing the code addresses for the gadgets and the VirtualProtect function call to make the shellcode executable.

This is a userland exploit, similar to webkit exploits that many of us are familiar with.

-- submitted from IRC

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takyon writes:

New cancer immunotherapies such as checkpoint inhibitors are showing success in treating cancer, but can cost well over $100,000 a year:

Newer cancer drugs that enlist the body's immune system are improving the odds of survival, but competition between them is not reining in prices that can now top $250,000 a year.

The drugs' success for patients is the result of big bets in cancer therapy made by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co, Merck & Co Inc and Roche Holding AG, among others in big pharma. The industry's pipeline of cancer drugs expanded by 63 percent between 2005 and 2015, according to the QuintilesIMS Institute, and a good number are reaching the market.

The global market for cancer immunotherapies alone is expected to grow more than fourfold globally to $75.8 billion by 2022 from $16.9 billion in 2015, according to research firm GlobalData.

[...] "Competition is key to lowering drug prices," Trump told pharmaceutical executives at an Oval Office meeting in January.

But that is not happening with new drugs called checkpoint inhibitors that work by releasing a molecular brake, allowing the immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells the same way it fights infections caused by bacteria or viruses.

butthurt writes:

News Corp's The Australian (archived copy) reports that:

Coke made from the coal is used for making steel in India, South Korea and Japan.

A report at ABC News elaborates:

Queensland's coking coal exports look set for weeks of major disruptions after Aurizon confirmed that some of its key rail lines had been seriously damaged by flooding associated with Cyclone Debbie.

Early reports from resources companies indicated that their mines had escaped serious damage, unlike the aftermath of Cyclone Yasi where many pits were flooded and out of production for months.

However, while the Bowen Basin's mines may be quick to return to production, many will not be able to get their coal to port and onto ships for more than a month due to flood damage to rail lines.

The worst damage appears to be to the key Goonyella rail line that connects a large number of the Bowen Basin's mines to the massive Dalrymple Bay and Hay Point coal terminals.

This line closed on March 28 and Aurizon has reported "significant landslips", with initial engineering assessments indicating that it will take approximately five weeks to repair the damage.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Remember the X-Com series? The Earth defense against the alien horde? Well it's all the rage again. Just this time it's free software and culture: GPL and Creative Commons. There is a strategic component and a tactical shooter. Sure it's a work in progress but it's getting there.

Try it tonight http://ufoai.org/

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission [FCC] has voted to reverse a requirement imposed under the Obama administration that Charter Communications Inc extend broadband service to 1 million households already served by a competitor, a source briefed on the matter said.

The decision was a win for a group representing smaller cable companies that petitioned to overturn the "overbuild" requirement and marked the latest reversal of Obama-era requirements by the new Republican-led FCC under President Donald Trump.

As a condition of approval for its acquisition of two cable companies, Charter in May 2016 agreed to extend high-speed internet access to 2 million customers within five years, with 1 million served by a broadband competitor. Under the revised FCC order expected to be made public on Monday, Charter can opt to add all 2 million additional potential subscribers in places without existing service.

Under the new order approved on Friday and disclosed Monday, Charter, the No. 2 U.S. cable company with 26 million residential and business customers in 41 states, must add service to 2 million additional potential subscribers in places without existing service, the FCC said.

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/fcc-reverses-charter-communications-overbuild-requirement-source-150458390--finance.html

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Phoenix666 writes:

Hundreds of millions of pounds have been wasted on plans to digitise the criminal justice system due to the mismanagement of a key programme that has so far delivered little value to the taxpayer, according to multiple insiders.

The Common Platform Programme (CPP) was supposed to be complete by March 2019. However, a spokeswoman from HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) said the programme will not be complete until 2020 at a revised cost of £270m.

The project began in 2014 with the intention of creating a unified platform across the criminal justice system to allow the Crown Prosecution Service and courts to more effectively manage cases. Programme director Loveday Ryder had described the project as a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" to modernise the criminal justice system.

But The Register understands that over the last 30 months, a series of independent and internal reviews have documented the programme's failings, with all the key milestones having been missed.

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Phoenix666 writes:

Tesla Inc. set a record for deliveries and production in the first quarter, beating analysts' estimates as Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk prepares to begin building the Model 3 in July.

The maker of electric cars and energy-storage devices shipped just over 25,000 vehicles in the year's first three months, Palo Alto, California-based Tesla said in a statement Sunday. That topped the average forecast of 24,200 from three analysts and should bolster confidence in Tesla's target of delivering as many as 50,000 autos in this year's first half.

"It's all about the Model 3 right now, but this is very good news," Ben Kallo, an analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co., said in an interview. "25,000 units is the best we could have thought, and people are looking at Model 3 for growth."

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butthurt writes:

CNET reports that two asteroids, 2017 FU102 and 2017 FT102, passed the Earth on 2 April and 3 April.

According to EarthSky,

The other object, 2017 FT102, is smaller and its approach to the Earth was at a greater distance. It was also discovered on 29 March.

[By comparison, the Chelyabinsk meteor was estimated to be 20 meters in diameter. --Ed.]

An Anonymous Coward writes:

The syringe slides in between the thumb and index finger. Then, with a click, a microchip is injected in the employee's hand. [...]

What could pass for a dystopian vision of the workplace is almost routine at the Swedish startup hub Epicenter. The company offers to implant its workers and startup members with microchips the size of grains of rice that function as swipe cards: to open doors, operate printers, or buy smoothies with a wave of the hand.

[...] "People ask me; 'Are you chipped?' and I say; 'Yes, why not,'" said Fredric Kaijser, the 47-year-old chief experience officer at Epicenter. "And they all get excited about privacy issues and what that means and so forth. And for me it's just a matter of I like to try new things and just see it as more of an enabler and what that would bring into the future."

The implants have become so popular that Epicenter workers stage monthly events where attendees have the option of being "chipped" for free.

Full article here:
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/03/start-up-epicenter-implants-employees-with-microchips.html

AC: There are so many things wrong with both the article and with those people I wouldn't know where to start.

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