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requerdanos writes:

Gizmodo and Digitaltrends are among those reporting that electronics retail website Newegg has been sued by South Korean Banks, who say that Newegg and the South Korean Hardware company Moneual conspired to defraud the banks of "hundreds of millions of dollars."

The lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, claims that Newegg and computer wholesaler ASI Corp. made false orders for home-theater computers from Moneual. The banks claim that Moneual organized the scheme and used the fake orders to obtain funds from the four banks. Newegg and ASI allegedly received a cut of the money in exchange for their cooperation.

[...] The computers that Moneual ordered were allegedly priced at 300 times their actual retail value, which is why the banks believe Newegg and ASI were part of the scam.

"No such business would have [paid] such an inflated price, unless it intended to create the illusion of extensive, profitable, high-value commerce... for the purpose of defrauding lenders into supporting the transactions," the lawsuit alleges.

The four banks are demanding a jury trial and monetary damages. They say that $230 million is still owed from the faulty loans that Moneual obtained.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

FBI failed to access 7,000 encrypted mobile devices

Agents at the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have been unable to extract data from nearly 7,000 mobile devices they have tried to access, the agency's director has said.

Christopher Wray said encryption on devices was "a huge, huge problem" for FBI investigations. The agency had failed to access more than half of the devices it targeted in an 11-month period, he said.

One cyber-security expert said such encryption was now a "fact of life". Many smartphones encrypt their contents when locked, as standard - a security feature that often prevents even the phones' manufacturers from accessing data. Such encryption is different to end-to-end encryption, which prevents interception of communications on a large scale.

Cyber-security expert Prof Alan Woodward at the University of Surrey said device encryption was clearly frustrating criminal investigations but it would be impractical and insecure to develop "back doors" or weakened security.

In a time when the government is committing criminal acts, is it not advisable for citizens to do what they can to protect themselves from that crime?

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martyb writes:

Researchers have found at least 46 genes that were at least twice as likely to have mutations in those with breast cancer:

"When you know which gene is conferring the risk of breast cancer, you can provide a more precise estimate of risk, know what to expect and watch out for, and tailor risk management strategies to the patient," said Dr. Campbell. Unfortunately, in about half of these high-risk patients, no known genetic cause was found, suggesting a more complicated explanation. In such cases, cancer geneticists had long suspected that polygenic risk (risk conferred by a combination of genetic variants) was involved.

Genes do not work on their own, but rather as part of one's overall genetic context, explained Dr. Li. "That 'polygenic risk' background is like a landscape full of hills and valleys, with each risky variant like a house on top of it," she said. "If you inherit a high-risk variant -- a tall house -- but live in a valley, your overall risk of breast cancer may end up being average because your genetic landscape pulls it down."

The concept of background genetic risk is not new, but for many years, scientists did not have the tools to collect and analyze the thousands of genomes needed to quantify it. Recent improvements in next-generation sequencing technology have addressed this challenge. As a result, Dr. Li and colleagues were able to sequence up to 1,400 candidate breast cancer genes in 6,000 familial breast cancer patients and 6,000 cancer-free controls. In this large sample, they searched for potential cancer-associated genes suggested by the literature, collaborators, and their own previous results, and identified at least 46 genes that were at least twice as likely to have mutations among participants with breast cancer than in those without.

They also used the data to calculate a polygenic risk score for each patient, and combined this score with data on their high and moderate-risk variants to estimate each patient's overall risk of developing breast cancer. In the coming years, the researchers plan to expand the study internationally to further test and refine their findings across populations. They also hope to bring these more precise risk estimates into the clinic, to more accurately reassure women about their personal risk of cancer, or -- if risk is high -- advise preventive strategies such as screening at a younger age.

[...] Reference: Li N et al. (2017 Oct 20). Abstract: The contribution of rare variants, polygenic risk, and novel candidate genes to the hereditary risk of breast cancer in a large cohort of breast cancer families. Presented at the American Society of Human Genetics 2017 Annual Meeting. Orlando, Florida.

Original Submission

"exec" writes:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Just when it was looking like the underdog, classical computing is striking back. IBM has come up with a way to simulate quantum computers that have 56 quantum bits, or qubits, on a non-quantum supercomputer – a task previously thought to be impossible. The feat moves the goalposts in the fight for quantum supremacy, the effort to outstrip classical computers using quantum ones.

It used to be widely accepted that a classical computer cannot simulate more than 49 qubits because of memory limitations. The memory required for simulations increases exponentially with each additional qubit.

The closest anyone had come to putting the 49-qubit limit to a test was a 45-qubit simulation at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, which needed 500 terabytes of memory. IBM's new simulation upends the assumption by simulating 56 qubits with only 4.5 terabytes.

The simulation is based on a mathematical trick that allows a more compact numerical representation of different arrangements of qubits, known as quantum states.

A quantum computing operation is typically represented by a table of numbers indicating what should be done to each qubit to produce a new quantum state. Instead, researchers at IBM's T. J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, used tensors – effectively multidimensional tables augmented with axes beyond rows and columns.

[...] they've upped the ante in the race to outperform classical computers with quantum systems. Google previously said they were on track to build a working 49-qubit processor by the end of 2017, but that will no longer win them the achievement of quantum supremacy.

[...] IBM's goal is to build a quantum computer that can "explore practical problems" such as quantum chemistry, says Wisnieff. He hopes to check the accuracy of quantum computers against his simulations before putting real quantum computers to the test.

"I want to be able to write algorithms that I know the answers for before I run them on a real quantum computer," he says.

-- submitted from IRC

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takyon writes:

Tesla has reached an agreement to build a factory in Shanghai, China:

Tesla Inc. has reached an agreement with the Shanghai government to set up its own manufacturing facility in the city, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, citing people briefed on the plan.

The Palo Alto, California-based carmaker is working with the local government on the timing and details of an announcement, the people told the newspaper. The deal, which without a local partner likely won't negate China's 25 percent import tax, will still allow Tesla to reduce its production costs drastically, according to the report.

China is the world's largest market for automobiles.

Also at The Verge and WSJ.

Previously: Tesla's Big China Chances on Indefinite Hold

Original Submission

martyb writes:

Researchers at University College London have developed a new receiver technology that promises data rates in excess of 10 Gbps to home users.

Slow internet speeds and the Internet 'rush hour' – the peak time when data speeds drop by up to 30% – could be history with new hardware designed and demonstrated by UCL researchers that provides consistently high-speed broadband connectivity.

[...] "To maximise the capacity of optical fibre links, data is transmitted using different wavelengths, or colours, of light. Ideally, we'd dedicate a wavelength to each subscriber to avoid the bandwidth sharing between the users. Although this is already possible using highly sensitive hardware known as coherent receivers, they are costly and only financially viable in core networks that link countries and cities.

"Their cost and complexity has so far prevented their introduction into the access networks and limits the support of multi‑Gb/s (1 Gb/s=1000 Mb/s) broadband rates available to subscribers," said co-author and Head of the Optical Networks Group, Professor Polina Bayvel (UCL Electronic & Electrical Engineering).

The new, simplified receiver retains many of the advantages of coherent receivers, but is simpler, cheaper, and smaller, requiring just a quarter of the detectors used in conventional receivers.

Simplification was achieved by adopting a coding technique to fibre access networks that was originally designed to prevent signal fading in wireless communications. This approach has the additional cost-saving benefit of using the same optical fibre for both upstream and downstream data.

"This simple receiver offers users a dedicated wavelength, so user speeds stay constant no matter how many users are online at once. It can co-exist with the current network infrastructure, potentially quadrupling the number of users that can be supported and doubling the network's transmission distance/coverage," added Dr Erkılınç.

The full report is available:
M. S. Erkılınç, D. Lavery, K. Shi, B. C. Thomsen, R. I. Killey, S. J. Savory, P. Bayvel. Bidirectional wavelength-division multiplexing transmission over installed fibre using a simplified optical coherent access transceiver. Nature Communications, 2017; 8 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-00875-z

Original Submission

c0lo writes:

The Guardian, The New York Times, Al-Jazeera over the decision of USA and Israel to withdraw from UNESCO over 'anti-Israel bias'

The Guardian

The United States has formally notified the UN's world heritage body Unesco that it is withdrawing its membership of the organisation citing "continuing anti-Israel bias".
The announcement by the Trump administration was followed a few hours later by news that Israel was also planning to quit the financially struggling cultural and educational agency.
...
The body is best known for its world heritage listings of outstanding cultural and natural sites but has often drawn the ire of Israel and the Trump administration for a series of decisions, including the listing of Hebron, a city in the southern part of the occupied Palestinian territories, as a Palestinian world heritage site.
...
Disclosing the US government's decision, the state department said in a statement it would seek to "remain engaged ... as a non-member observer state in order to contribute US views, perspectives and expertise".

The statement added: "This decision was not taken lightly, and reflects US concerns with mounting arrears at Unesco, the need for fundamental reform in the organisation, and continuing anti-Israel bias at Unesco," the US state department said. The withdrawal will take effect on 31 December 2018.

takyon writes:

Elon Musk's Boring Company has received permission to dig 10.1 miles of tunnel in Maryland:

On Thursday, Maryland officials gave Elon Musk's Boring Company permission to dig a 10.1-mile tunnel "beneath the state-owned portion of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, between the Baltimore city line and Maryland 175 in Hanover," according to the Baltimore Sun.

According to Maryland Transportation Secretary Pete Rahn, The Boring Company (which Tesla and SpaceX CEO Musk founded to advance tunneling technology) wants to build two 35-mile tunnels between Baltimore and Washington, DC. The federal government owns about two-thirds of the land that Musk's company would need to dig underneath. As of Friday, it was unclear whether that permission had been granted. (A Department of Transportation spokeswoman told Ars that the land in question was owned by the National Park Service, which did not immediately respond to request for comment.)

But the 10 miles that have been approved by the state of Maryland will for the first leg of an underground system that could contain a Hyperloop system. Musk first floated the idea of a Hyperloop—which would ferry passengers through a low-pressure tube in levitating pods floating above a track using air-bearings—in 2013. But the CEO determined that he didn't have time to see his idea through to fruition, so he issued a white paper and challenged startups and students alike to make headway on the concept.

Also at The Washington Post (archive).

Previously: Elon Musk Claims to Have "Verbal Approval" to Build New York to Washington, D.C. Hyperloop

Original Submission

MIT is reporting developments in skyrmion science (not quite ready for engineering yet). Initially they could only make them in random places, now they can position them precisely.
http://news.mit.edu/2017/fast-moving-magnetic-particles-new-form-data-storage-1002

Rather than reading and writing data one bit at a time by changing the orientation of magnetized particles on a surface, as today's magnetic disks do, the new system would make use of tiny disturbances in magnetic orientation, which have been dubbed "skyrmions." These virtual particles, which occur on a thin metallic film sandwiched against a film of different metal, can be manipulated and controlled using electric fields, and can store data for long periods without the need for further energy input.

In 2016, a team led by MIT associate professor of materials science and engineering Geoffrey Beach documented the existence of skyrmions, but the particles' locations on a surface were entirely random. Now, Beach has collaborated with others to demonstrate experimentally for the first time that they can create these particles at will in specific locations, which is the next key requirement for using them in a data storage system. An efficient system for reading that data will also be needed to create a commercializable system.

The new findings are reported this week in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, in a paper by Beach, MIT postdoc Felix Buettner, and graduate student Ivan Lemesh, and 10 others at MIT and in Germany.

The system focuses on the boundary region between atoms whose magnetic poles are pointing in one direction and those with poles pointing the other way. This boundary region can move back and forth within the magnetic material, Beach says. What he and his team found four years ago was that these boundary regions could be controlled by placing a second sheet of nonmagnetic heavy metal very close to the magnetic layer. The nonmagnetic layer can then influence the magnetic one, with electric fields in the nonmagnetic layer pushing around the magnetic domains in the magnetic layer. Skyrmions are little swirls of magnetic orientation within these layers, Beach adds.

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

The popular content blocking extension uBlock Origin blocks CSP reporting on websites that make use of it if it injects neutered scripts.

CSP, Content Security Policy, can be used by web developers to whitelist code that is allowed to run on web properties. The idea behind the feature is to prevent attackers from injecting JavaScript on websites protected by CSP.

CSP reports any attempt of interfering with the site's policies in regards to scripts to the webmaster. This happens when users connect to the site, and is used by webmasters to analyze and resolve the detected issues.

[...] Raymond Hill, the developer of uBlock Origin, replied stating that this was not a bug but by design. The extension blocks the sending of CSP reports if it injects a neutered Google Analytics script.

Source: https://www.ghacks.net/2017/10/19/ublock-criticized-for-blocking-csp/

Original Submission

Andrey_Karpov writes:

I am really astonished by the capabilities of static code analysis. The tool surprised me the other day as it turned out to be smarter and more attentive than I am. I found I must be careful when working with static analysis tools. Code reported by the analyzer often looks fine and I'm tempted to discard the warning as a false positive and move on. I fell into this trap and failed to spot bugs...Even I, one of the PVS-Studio developers.

So, appreciate and use static code analyzers! They will help save your time and nerve cells.

[Ed note: I debated running this story as there was an element of self-promotion (aka Bin Spam), but the submitter has been with the site for a while and has posted informative comments. Besides, I know there have been far too many times when I've seen a compiler complain about some section of my code and I'm thinking there is nothing wrong with it — and then I, finally, see my mistake. Anyone have samples of code where you just knew the compiler or static analyzer was wrong, only to find out otherwise? --martyb]

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Apple has been sued over its use of the "Animoji" trademark. Apple uses the name for its iPhone X feature that allows users to control and send emoji using their own facial expressions. Apple claims that the trademark is invalid:

A Japanese company, which owns the trademark for "Animoji" in the US, is suing Apple for using the word to name its iPhone X feature. The Tokyo-based company, Emonster, filed the suit on Wednesday in US federal court, saying, "Apple made the conscious decision to try to pilfer the name for itself." The company's CEO, Enrique Bonansea, is a US citizen living in Japan.

Emonster owns an iOS app called Animoji that launched in 2014, which lets people send emoji that are animated in a loop like GIFs. The app asks you to compose the message kind of like how you would format a line of code in Python or Javascript, with parentheses and brackets that separate the kinds of effects you want to add to text or emoji. The app costs $0.99 on iTunes.

Emonster claims that Apple knew about the trademark and offered to buy it, but was turned down. Emonster has owned the "animoji" trademark since 2015, but Apple filed a petition to cancel the trademark on the grounds that EMONSTER, INC. was dissolved in the State of Washington in 2004 and did not exist when the trademark application was filed on August 20, 2014 by Enrique Bonansea, who identified himself as the President of EMONSTER, INC.

Also at Reuters and AppleInsider.

Previously: Apple's New iPhone X will let You Control the Poo Emoji with Your Face

Original Submission

Arik writes:

Iran Doesn't Have a Nuclear Weapons Program. Why Do Media Keep Saying It Does?

When it comes to Iran, do basic facts matter? Evidently not, since dozens and dozens of journalists keep casually reporting that Iran has a "nuclear weapons program" when it does not—a problem FAIR has reported on over the years (e.g., 9/9/15). Let's take a look at some of the outlets spreading this falsehood in just the past five days:

Business Insider (10/13/17): "The deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), aims to incentivize Iran to curb its nuclear weapons program by lifting crippling international economic sanctions."

New Yorker (10/16/17): "One afternoon in late September, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called a meeting of the six countries that came together in 2015 to limit Iran's nuclear weapons program."

Washington Post (10/16/17): "The administration is also considering changing or scrapping an international agreement regarding Iran's nuclear weapons program."

CNN (10/17/17): "In reopening the nuclear agreement, [Trump] risks having Iran advance its nuclear weapons program at a time when he confronts a far worse nuclear challenge from North Korea that he can't resolve."

The problem with all of these excerpts: There is no documentation that Iran has a nuclear weapons program.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Dogs have pet facial expressions to use on humans, study finds

Dogs really do turn on the puppy eyes when humans look at them, according to researchers studying canine facial expressions. Scientists have discovered that dogs produce more facial movements when a human is paying attention to them – including raising their eyebrows, making their eyes appear bigger – than when they are being ignored or presented with a tasty morsel.

The research pushes back against the belief that animal facial expressions are largely unconscious movements, that reflect internal sentiments, rather than a way to communicate. "Facial expression is often seen as something that is very emotionally driven and is very fixed, and so it isn't something that animals can change depending on their circumstances," said Bridget Waller, professor of evolutionary psychology at the University of Portsmouth, and an author of the study.

Also at Popular Science.

Human attention affects facial expressions in domestic dogs (open, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-12781-x) (DX)

Earlier research: Paedomorphic Facial Expressions Give Dogs a Selective Advantage (open, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0082686) (DX)

Related: Ethiopian Wolves and Gelada Monkeys Show Signs of Cooperation
Your Dog Remembers More Than You Might Think
STSR Tests Confirm That Dogs Have Self-Awareness

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Find a bug in Tinder or Dropbox? You may be able to get paid by Google:

According to HackerOne, Google's new bug bounty program now incentivizes hackers to unearth software vulnerabilities in some of the more popular third-party apps on the Play Store. The new program will presumably result in more secure Android apps while also limiting the damage whenever a serious issue is discovered. While perhaps not a common occurrence, it's not all that unusual to see reports of malware infecting widely downloaded Android apps.

[...] Notably, the new bug bounty program, as it stands now, only applies to Google-developed Android apps and the following third-party apps: Alibaba, Dropbox, Duolingo, Headspace, Line, Mail.Ru, Snapchat, and Tinder. Down the line, though, the program may open up to include additional third-party apps.

Original Submission