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canopic jug writes:

The Verge bids farewell to tech writer and editor Walt Mossberg by talking to him about his favorite bits of gadgetry.

Walt Mossberg is retiring this year — he's already written his last column, hosted his last Code Conference, and taped the final episode of Ctrl-Walt-Delete in front of a live audience in New York. But Walt's also assembled an impressive collection of notable gadgets over his two-decade run as a reviewer and columnist, and we asked him to talk us through some of the more notable items as he cleared out of his office.

This isn't everything — there's far too much for that. But there's nothing quite like Walt talking about gadgets and what they mean, and we tried to pick a few that defined their moments in a way few products now seem to do.

[There are 16 tech items in the linked story's photo — how many can you identify? --martyb]

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-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

El Reg reports

Computer Science has lost a titan: Charles P. "Chuck" Thacker died on Monday, June 12th, aged 74.

As the Association for Computing Machinery's In Memoriam records, Thacker's early career saw him join Xerox's famed Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), where he worked on the Xerox Alto, the first personal computer to offer a graphical interface. Source code for the Alto was released in 2014.

Thacker was responsible for the Alto's hardware and while developing it got to thinking about how the computer might communicate with the outside world. Those musings eventually turned into Ethernet, with Thacker acknowledged as a co-inventor beside Robert Metcalfe, David Boggs, and Butler Lampson.

Thacker also worked on early laser printers and, after time at DEC where he worked on a pen-based computer, he later headed for Microsoft Research where he was once rumoured to be working on a "wireless e-book", but probably the design for hardware to run Windows XP Tablet PC Edition (one of which we evaluated way back in the year 2002.

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takyon writes:

TVAddons, one of the leading add-on libraries for the Kodi platform, has disappeared:

TVAddons, the leading library for unofficial Kodi add-ons, has mysteriously disappeared. The site's domain names have become unresponsive after the DNS entries were removed. It's unclear why these drastic actions were taken, but since TVAddons was sued last week, some fear the worst.

Last week we broke the news that third-party Kodi add-on ZemTV and the TVAddons library were being sued in a federal court in Texas. Since then, the 'pirate' Kodi community has been in turmoil. Several popular Kodi addons decided to shut down, and now TVAddons itself appears to be in trouble as well.

TVAddons is one of the largest repositories of Kodi add-ons, many of which allow users to watch pirated content. The site has grown massively in recent years and reported that nearly 40 million unique users connected to the site's servers in March.

[...] Based on the current downtime issues, it's no surprise that people are getting worried. If TVAddons doesn't return, the Kodi-addon community has lost what's arguably its biggest player. The site's extensive library listed 1,500 different add-ons, of which the community-maintained Exodus addon was one of the most popular. Now that the site is no longer available, people may run into issues while updating these.

Previously: Kodi Panic in the UK and Popularity in North America

Original Submission

kaszz writes:

Germany is planning a new law giving authorities the right to look at private messages and fingerprint children as young as 6, the interior minister said on Wednesday after the last government gathering before a national election in September.

Ministers from central government and federal states said encrypted messaging services, such as WhatsApp and Signal, allow militants and criminals to evade traditional surveillance.

"We can't allow there to be areas that are practically outside the law," interior minister Thomas de Maiziere told reporters in the eastern town of Dresden.

It's not even certain that messages will be obvious to be... anything like they don't want to. A quick look how this can be done is the movie "The Saint" from 1997 where the contractor gets jobs that way. The hard quote is "where authorities install software on phones to relay messages before they are encrypted". Suppose the phone contains nothing of value. Not even the destination for the message because another unit transmits this via a analog transmission junk voice modulated with the actual real bits.

This panopticon idea is incredibly stupid technology-wise and a dangerous setup of society. The last time themes like this were current, neighbors told people in Armani uniforms that so-and-so did bad things so they could snatch their belongings or houses for themselves. And the whole society went down the drain. Oh wait, actually it was repeated after the mustache times with the sickle times. Both failed. This also shows why bootloader locking computer phones is detrimental to real security for real users. Because without it, enforced and silent installation will be hard.

And as for the motivation behind these moves. For some mysterious reason Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech, Slovakia, and Hungary seem to have been spared the latest string of violent attacks. How can that be? Nobel prize awaits! ;)

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Following the release of an Ultra HD (3840×2160 resolution) copy of Smurfs 2 last month, two new Ultra HD Blu-ray films have been released. Ultra HD Blu-ray discs can store 50-100 GB of H.265 encoded content, with 10-bit color depth, high dynamic range, and a wider color gamut. While the AACS 2 encryption protecting these discs may not have been cracked, it seems to be ineffective:

There's quite a buzz among movie pirates who have an eye for high-quality video. After the first Ultra HD Blu-Ray disc leaked last month, two more releases have now followed. While some have rumored that AACS 2 encryption may have been cracked, a bypass is just as likely. And with the leakers themselves staying quiet, the mystery remains.

Up until a few weeks ago, full copies of UHD Blu-Ray Discs were impossible to find on pirate sites. Protected with strong AACS 2 encryption, it has long been one of the last bastions movie pirates had to breach.

While the encryption may still be as strong as before, it's clear that some pirates have found a way through. After the first pirated Ultra HD Blu-Ray Disc leaked early last month, two new ones have appeared in recent days.

Following the historic "Smurfs 2" release, a full UHD copy of "Patriots Day" surfaced online little over a week ago, followed by a similar copy of "Inferno" this past weekend. The latter two were both released by the scene group TERMiNAL and leaked to various torrent sites.

First there was Smurfs 2. Now there are three.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

An AI created by a Microsoft-owned machine/deep learning team has completely conquered Ms. Pac-Man, achieving a perfect score:

At long last, the perfect score for arcade classic Ms. Pac-Man has been achieved, though not by a human. Maluuba — a deep learning team acquired by Microsoft in January — has created an AI system that's learned how to reach the game's maximum point value of 999,900 on Atari 2600, using a unique combination of reinforcement learning with a divide-and-conquer method.

AI researchers have a documented penchant for using video games to test machine learning; they better mimic real-world chaos in a controlled environment versus more static games like chess. In 2015, Google's DeepMind AI was able to learn how to master 49 Atari games using reinforcement learning, which provides positive or negative feedback each time the AI attempts to solve a problem.

Though AI has conquered a wealth of retro games, Ms. Pac-Man has remained elusive for years, due to the game's intentional lack of predictability. Turns out it's a toughie for humans as well. Many have tried to reach Ms. Pac-Man's top score, only coming as close as 266,330 on the Atari 2600 version. The game's elusive 999,900 number though, has so far only been achieved by mortals via cheats.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

A report has favored a simpler design for China's next large space telescope:

China's astronomers are united in wanting a world-class giant optical telescope, one that would serve notice that they are ready to compete on the global stage. But a squabble has opened up over the telescope's design. On one side is an established engineering team, led by a veteran optics expert responsible for the nation's largest existing telescope, that is eager to push ahead with an ambitious design. On the other are astronomers reveling in a grassroots priority-setting exercise—unprecedented for China—who have doubts about the ambitious design and favor something simpler.

Now, a panel of international experts has reviewed the designs and come out squarely in favor of the simpler proposal, according to a copy of the review obtained by Science. But the conclusion has not ended what one Chinese astronomer calls "an epic battle" between the high-ranking engineers accustomed to top-down control over projects and the nascent grassroots movement.

Features on the wishlist include a total of four mirrors, one primary and three secondary:

[...] In most large telescopes, a large primary mirror captures light and reflects it off one or two secondary mirrors to the telescope's instruments. The daring NIAOT design calls for four mirrors—one primary and three secondary. The fourth mirror allows for exquisite control of the streams of photons so that they fall almost perpendicular to the instrument's focal plane, ensuring "very good image quality," [optics specialist Xiangqun] Cui says. She adds that, because the TMT and other telescopes would eventually surpass the LOT's sensitivity, the NIAOT design needed to provide a wide field of view that would enable the telescope to act as a spotter for the bigger scopes. "This is a new century, we need new optical systems," Cui says.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Here's a movie that made my day, might do similar for you. No story, just visuals. 3 minutes long. Worth every second. Stitched together from latest PeriJove (closest point to Jupiter) images of the Juno Jupiter orbiter. Music taken from the movie: 2001: A Space Odyssey and was composed by György Ligeti.. Hope you enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kQbTBt418o

[Ed. addition follows.] Seán Doran constructed the "movie" — titled "Juno Perijove 06" — by combining a series of photos taken by the JunoCam and stitching them together into this sequence. According to the JunoCam mission page:

The camera has 4 filters: red, green, blue and near-infrared. We get red, green and blue strips on one spacecraft rotation (the spacecraft rotation rate is 2 revolutions per minute, or 2 rpm), and the near-infrared strips on the second rotation.

To get the final image product the strips must be stitched together and the colors lined up.

And then each of those images needs to be aligned, rotated, scaled, etc. and then sequenced so as to provide the "movie".

According to the above Wikipedia link:

JunoCam is not one of the probe's core scientific instruments; it was put on board primarily for public science and outreach, to increase public engagement, and all images will be available on NASA's website.[4][5] It is capable of being used for science, and does have some coordinated activities in regards to this, as well as to engage amateur and as well as professional infrared astronomers.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Firefox has improved its multi-process architecture in order to isolate more content while keeping memory use low:

Firefox 54 launched with a more advanced multi-process architecture than the one we saw implemented in Firefox 48 last year. The improved architecture raises the number of processes enabled by default from two to five, which Mozilla argues is a "just right" compromise between low memory usage on one side and performance and security on the other.

[...] Switching to a simpler extension model allows Firefox to enable multiple processes and also isolate them in sandboxes. Mozilla previously enabled only two processes, one for the UI and one for content, last year, in Firefox 48. This ensured that the browser wouldn't hang as much due to web pages affecting the performance of the browser interface. It also brought partial sandboxing by keeping the content isolated from the browser (as much as possible).

Mozilla is now taking it to the next level by implementing one process for the browser interface and four for content. Why four? The organization believes that this is the "just right" amount of processes to have for the majority of users, and also in terms of optimizing memory usage.

[...] Mozilla ran its own memory usage benchmarks, which showed significant memory usage reduction compared to Chrome:

• Windows 10 — Chrome used 1.77X memory as Firefox (64-bit), and 2.44X as Firefox (32-bit)
• macOS — Chrome used 1.36X memory as Firefox (64-bit)
• Linux — Chrome used 1.42X memory as Firefox (64-bit)

Original Submission

Lagg writes:

The Secret Service will be relaxing the rules for marijuana users to an extent in the hopes that it will increase their pool of candidates. It's becoming impossible for the agency to track down people who have not used due to the wide acceptance and acknowledged medical benefits for things like addiction, stress and depression.

Meanwhile, Jeff Sessions is looking to crack down on medical providers. Citing things such as: psychosis, respiratory issues, IQ loss and that it has no accepted medical use in the united states.

[Credit for the secret service article and scribd source to takyon]

Original Submission

frojack writes:

Fortune reports:

Nokia is introducing the Model 7950, a petabit-class router aimed at the core routing market to help it win new customers such as Facebook and Google. A petabit is capable of transmitting 5,000 two-hour-long high-definition videos every second.

For edge network customers, Nokia is introducing its 7750 router, offering the highest traffic capacity on the market.

The Nokia 7750 can deliver speeds of up to 4.8 terabits per slot, compared with Juniper's 3 terabit edge router speeds, which had been the industry's fastest. A terabit can transfer a high-definition Netflix TV episode in one second.

We are left to do our own math to determine how many Libraries of Congress fit in a petabit.

Original Submission

kaszz writes:

China plans to send a 3 kg miniature ecosystem biosphere to the surface of the moon by using Chang'e 4 mission, incorporating a robotic lander and rover. When it departs in 2018.

The container will send potatoes, arabidopsis seeds and silkworm eggs to the surface of the moon. The eggs will hatch into silkworms, which can produce carbon dioxide, while the potatoes and seeds emit oxygen through photosynthesis. Together, they can establish a simple ecosystem on the Moon, says Zhang Yuanxun, chief designer of the container.

[...] Suitable temperature for plants and insects to survive and thrive is between +1 .. +30 ⁰C. But the moon's surface temperature ranges between -170 ⁰C at night to +120 ⁰C in the day. To get around this problem, the container will be equipped with a[n] insulation layer and light pipes to ensure the growth of the plants and insects inside. Specially designed batteries will be used to provide a consistent energy supply.

[...] The whole event with the development of plants and insects on lunar surface will be live-streamed to the world, says the project's chief designer Xie [Gengxin].

Meanwhile researchers at the International potato center (CIP) and UTEC, Peru technical university in Lima, investigates if it's possible to grow potato on the planet Mars.

In the future all you base are owned by China?

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oakgrove writes:

Google has hired key chip designer Manu Gulati from Apple to work on future Pixel models. Manu Gulati has been working at Apple since 2009 helping develop the custom CPUs used in iPads and iPhones and has now moved on to Google as lead chip architect. Pixel and Pixel XL have so far relied on Snapdragon chips from Qualcomm which lag considerably behind Apple's SOCs. Googles appears to be reconsidering this strategy in an effort to better integrate it's software and hardware improving performance and battery life. Android makers have long foregone the lead to Apple in mobile performance but this may signal a turning point in this strategy.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

A survey searching for objects in the Kuiper Belt has found two undiscovered moons of Jupiter. Jupiter now has 69 known moons:

Until recently the cataloged satellites totaled 67 in number. But only the innermost 15 of these orbit Jupiter in a prograde sense (in the direction of the planet's spin). The rest are retrograde, and are likely captured objects - other pieces of the solar system's solid inventory that strayed into Jupiter's gravitational grasp.

That population of outer moons is mostly small stuff, only a few are 20-60 kilometers in diameter, most are barely 1-2 kilometers in size, and increasingly difficult to spot. Now astronomers Scott Sheppard, David Tholen, and Chadwick Trujillo have added two more; bringing Jupiter's moon count to 69.

These additions are also about 1-2 km in size, and were spotted in images that were part of a survey for much more distant objects out in the Kuiper Belt. Jupiter just happened to be conveniently close in the sky at the time. The moons are S/2016 J1 and S/2017 J1, and are about 21 million km and 24 million km from Jupiter.

The moons are also known as Jupiter LIV and Jupiter LIX, and are members of the Pasiphae group. They are estimated to be about 3 and 2 km in diameter respectively.

Also at Popular Mechanics.

Original Submission

DeathMonkey writes:

The Republican-led Senate voted decisively to punish Moscow for interfering in the 2016 election by approving a wide-ranging sanctions package that targets key sectors of Russia's economy and individuals who carried out cyber attacks.

Senators on Wednesday passed the bipartisan sanctions legislation 97-2, underscoring broad support among Republicans and Democrats for rebuking Russia after U.S. intelligence agencies determined Moscow had deliberately interfered in the presidential campaign. Lawmakers who backed the measure also cited Russia's aggression in Syria and Ukraine.

Source: USNews.com

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