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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story for those wondering how to design and code their next IoT project:

Both Facebook and Netflix implemented their eponymous apps with Web. Despite spending millions of dollars, neither of them could achieve an iPhone-like user experience (60 frames per second and less than 100ms response to user inputs) on anything less powerful than a system-on-chip (SoC) with four ARM Cortex-A9 cores.

In contrast, numerous products like infotainment systems, in-flight entertainment systems, harvester terminals and home appliances prove that you can achieve an iPhone-like user experience (UX) on single-core Cortex-A8 SoCs. Our above-mentioned manufacturer HAM Inc. (renamed for the sake of confidentiality) verified these results by building both a Web and Qt prototype.

In this white paper, Burkhard Stubert explains how he could save one of the world's largest home appliance manufacturers millions of Euros by choosing Qt over HTML. The secret? Qt scales down to lower-end hardware a lot better, without sacrificing user experience.

With a five times smaller footprint, four to eight times lower RAM requirements and a more efficient rendering flow than HTML, Qt provides faster start-up times and maintains the cherished 60fps and 100ms response time, where HTML would struggle. The calculations show that being able to just downgrade your SoC by just one tier like this, Qt can reduce your hardware costs by over 53%.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

The Case Against Google: Critics say the search giant is squelching competition before it begins. Should the government step in?

[...] might have been surprised when headlines began appearing last year suggesting that Google and its fellow tech giants were threatening everything from our economy to democracy itself. Lawmakers have accused Google of creating an automated advertising system so vast and subtle that hardly anyone noticed when Russian saboteurs co-opted it in the last election. Critics say Facebook exploits our addictive impulses and silos us in ideological echo chambers. Amazon's reach is blamed for spurring a retail meltdown; Apple's economic impact is so profound it can cause market-wide gyrations. These controversies point to the growing anxiety that a small number of technology companies are now such powerful entities that they can destroy entire industries or social norms with just a few lines of computer code. Those four companies, plus Microsoft, make up America's largest sources of aggregated news, advertising, online shopping, digital entertainment and the tools of business and communication. They're also among the world's most valuable firms, with combined annual revenues of more than half a trillion dollars.

In a rare display of bipartisanship, lawmakers from both political parties have started questioning how these tech giants grew so powerful so fast. Regulators in Missouri, Utah, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere have called for greater scrutiny of Google and others, citing antitrust concerns; some critics have suggested that our courts and legislatures need to go after tech firms in the same way the trustbusters broke up oil and railroad monopolies a century ago. But others say that Google and its cohort are guilty only of delighting customers. If these tech leviathans ever fail to satisfy us, their defenders argue, capitalism will punish them the same way it once brought down Yahoo, AOL and MySpace.

[...] There's a loose coalition of economists and legal theorists who call themselves the New Brandeis Movement (critics call them "antitrust hipsters"), who believe that today's tech giants pose threats as significant as Standard Oil a century ago. "All of the money spent online is going to just a few companies now," says [Gary Reback] (who disdains the New Brandeis label). "They don't need dynamite or Pinkertons to club their competitors anymore. They just need algorithms and data."

Related: Microsoft Relishes its Role as Accuser in Antitrust Suit Against Google
Google Faces Record 3 Billion Euro EU Antitrust Fine: Telegraph
Antitrust Suit Filed Against Google by Gab.Ai
India Fines Google $21.17 Million for Abusing Dominant Position
Google's Crackdown on "Annoying" and "Disruptive" Ads Begins

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aristarchus writes:

According to Ars Technica

A number of "alt-right," pro-Trump, and self-described conservative social media personalities awoke this morning to find that they had a lot fewer followers on Twitter than they had the night before. The apparent cause was the latest culling by Twitter of accounts that in some way violated the company's terms of service, a Twitter spokesperson told Ars, including "behaviors that indicate automated activity or violations of our policies around having multiple accounts, or abuse." The sweep has some on the right accusing Twitter of politically motivated censorship.

"Twitter's tools are apolitical, and we enforce our rules without political bias," a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement emailed to Ars. The accounts were targeted as part of "our ongoing work in safety," the spokesperson said. "We also take action on any accounts we find that violate our terms of service, including asking account owners to confirm a phone number so we can confirm a human is behind it. That's why some people may be experiencing suspensions or locks. This is part of our ongoing, comprehensive efforts to make Twitter safer and healthier for everyone."

And at Vanity Fair:

Renewed fears of censorship have once again led some users to talk about leaving to join Gab, the so-called free-speech social network that cropped up in 2016 as an alternative to Twitter. And Gab couldn't be more pleased. Utsav Sanduja, the company's chief operating officer, told me on Wednesday that the company had seen "a surge of donations, Gab memberships, [and] user sign-ups" since Tuesday night.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward provides the following news from this Cisco white paper:

● Hyperscale data centers will grow from 338 in number at the end of 2016 to 628 by 2021. They will represent 53 percent of all installed data center servers by 2021.

● Traffic within hyperscale data centers will quadruple by 2021. Hyperscale data centers already account for 39 percent of total traffic within all data centers and will account for 55 percent by 2021.

● Annual global data center IP traffic will reach 20.6 Zettabytes (ZB) (1.7 ZB per month) by the end of 2021, up from 6.8 ZB per year (568 exabytes [EB] per month) in 2016.

● Global data center IP traffic will grow 3-fold over the next 5 years. Overall, data center IP traffic will grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 25 percent from 2016 to 2021.

● By 2021, 94 percent of workloads and compute instances will be processed by cloud data centers; 6 percent will be processed by traditional data centers.

Original Submission

canopic jug writes:

Member of the European Parliament Julia Reda writes an update to what has been going on with with proposed changes to copyright law as they make their way from the European Commission and over to the European Parliament:

Ever since the European Commission presented its hugely controversial proposal to force internet platforms to employ censorship machines, the copyright world has been eagerly awaiting the position of the European Parliament. Today, the person tasked with steering the copyright reform through Parliament, rapporteur Axel Voss, has finally issued the text he wants the Parliament to go forward with.

It's a green light for censorship machines: Mr. Voss has kept the proposal originally penned by his German party colleague, former Digital Commissioner Günther Oettinger, almost completely intact.

She walks through the following points to notice in the so-called compromise:

• Obligation to license
• The censorship machine is here to stay
• A tiny problem with fundamental rights
• Very specific general monitoring
• A few exceptions
• Critical parts remain unchanged

She closes with encouragement that it's not too late to stop the Censorship Machines:

Now it's time to call upon your MEPs to reject Mr. Voss' proposal! You can use tools such as SaveTheMeme.net by Digital Rights NGO Bits of Freedom or ChangeCopyright.org by Mozilla to call the Members of the Legal Affairs Committee free of charge. Or look for MEPs from your country and send them an email. But most importantly, spread the words! Ask you local media to report on this law. The Internet as we know it is at stake.

Source : Green light for upload filters: EU Parliament's copyright rapporteur has learned nothing from year-long debate
See also : Proposal for a Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market : Draft compromise [sic] amendments on Article 13 and corresponding recitals (warning for PDF)

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Turkey aims to produce unmanned tanks: Erdoğan

Turkey is targeting the production of unmanned tanks for its armed forces, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has stated. "We will carry it a step further [after domestically produced unmanned aerial vehicles] ... We should reach the ability to produce unmanned tanks as well. We will do it," Erdoğan said at a meeting held at the presidential complex in Ankara on Feb. 21.

Five Turkish soldiers were recently killed in a tank near the Sheikh Haruz area of Syria's Afrin district, where Turkey has been carrying on a military operation against the People's Protection Units (YPG) since Jan. 20.

[...] The Turkish president has repeatedly criticized certain foreign countries for allegedly being reluctant to sell unmanned aerial vehicles, armed or unarmed, stressing that unmanned systems could decrease casualties.

Also at ABC.

Related: U.N. Starts Discussion on Lethal Autonomous Robots
UK Opposes "Killer Robot" Ban

Original Submission

takyon writes:

ARM wants mobile or IoT devices to include a tiny integrated SIM card:

Every millimeter of space matters when you're trying to build increasingly complex electronics into increasingly tiny packages, and the relatively spacious SIM card has long been an area of frustration for hardware manufacturers. Now, the chip design company ARM may have an answer: an integrated component called an iSIM that's built into the same chip as the processor.

ARM says the iSIM will take up a "fraction of a millimeter squared," whereas the current SIM standard — Nano SIMs — are about 12.3 x 8.8mm in size, not including the hardware usually needed to house them. Not only will that save space, but ARM says it'll more importantly save on costs, too: instead of paying "tens of cents" per card, manufacturers will be paying single-digital cents.

Also at CNET, Tom's Hardware, and Wccftech.

Related: Infineon Demos a 1.65 mm^2 eSIM Chip

Original Submission

AnonTechie writes:

Normally, autonomous computer programmes known as bots trawl the internet, for example, to help search engines. However, there are also programmes known as social bots which interfere in social media, automatically generating replies or sharing content. They are currently suspected of spreading political propaganda. Scientists at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) have investigated the extent to which such autonomous programmes were used on the platform Twitter during the general elections in Japan in 2014. By using methods taken from corpus linguistics, they were able to draw up a case study on the activity patterns of social bots. At the same time, the FAU researchers gained an insight into how computer programmes like these were used, and recognised that nationalistic tendencies had an important role to play in the election, especially in social media. The results of the investigation have been published in the journal Big Data.

"Arthur T Knackerbracket" writes:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

American investigators are looking into Mercedes maker Daimler's use of engine management software that is alleged to help its vehicles pass emissions tests, according to reports.

German tabloid Bild am Sonntag splashed yesterday (behind paywall) that US investigators had found "several software functions that helped Daimler cars pass emissions tests".

The report included several references to documents from US investigators, though none of the English-language translations state which agency these investigators or documents are from.

Another feature outlined in the documents allegedly detected whether the car was on a stationary test rig based on a comparison of speed and acceleration data.

A Daimler spokesman told Reuters the company was cooperating under a confidentiality agreement with the US Department of Justice: "The authorities know the documents and no complaint has been filed."

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

The tech-loving characters on "The Big Bang Theory" are about to find themselves severely star-struck. The comedy series has booked Microsoft founder Bill Gates to guest star as himself in an upcoming episode, CBS and Warner Bros. tell CNN.

In the episode, Penny (Kaley Cuoco) will find herself hosting Gates at work, and her friends go to great lengths in their effort to meet the billionaire innovator. The episode is set to air in late March.

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/02/20/entertainment/bill-gates-big-bang-theory/index.html

https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/21/17035236/bill-gates-the-big-bang-theory-appearance

Original Submission

DeathMonkey writes:

On the one hand, drinking alcohol may make you live longer.

Drinking could help you live longer—that's the good news for happy-hour enthusiasts from a study presented last week at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. According to the study, people who live to 90 or older often drink moderately.

On the other, you might not remember who you are any more.

Heavy drinkers are putting themselves at risk of dementia, according to the largest study of its kind ever conducted.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Apple is looking to ensure that it has the steady supply of cobalt it needs to produce iPhones and other electronics:

Apple Inc. is in talks to buy long-term supplies of cobalt directly from miners for the first time, according to people familiar with the matter, seeking to ensure it will have enough of the key battery ingredient amid industry fears of a shortage driven by the electric vehicle boom.

The iPhone maker is one of the world's largest end users of cobalt for the batteries in its gadgets, but until now it has left the business of buying the metal to the companies that make its batteries.

The talks show that the tech giant is keen to ensure that cobalt supplies for its iPhone and iPad batteries are sufficient, with the rapid growth in battery demand for electric vehicles threatening to create a shortage of the raw material. About a quarter of global cobalt production is used in smartphones.

Also at Ars Technica and TechCrunch.

Original Submission

canopic jug writes:

ShmooCon, an American hacker convention, has its 2018 presentations online over at the Internet Archive, or on Youtube maybe. Each year original material on subjects related to computer security and cyberculture is presented. ShmooCon 2018 ran from January 19^th through the 21^st in Washington, D.C. with about 2,200 attendees.

ShmooCon website.

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for FatPhil

An amateur astronomer has captured the birth of a supernova while trying out his new camera. Scientists believe this could be the first time anyone has photographed the initial flashing of a supernova—a phase which can last just minutes.

Researchers think the serendipitous snaps offer unique insights into the evolution of supernova, which are usually only pictured after this brief "shock breakout" phase. A new analysis of the surge of light is published in Nature this week.

[...] The discovery was monumental not just for Buso but astronomy as a whole. Researchers Melina Bersten and Gastón Folatelli, part of the team investigating the supernova in the Nature paper, told Newsweek these chance photos could be the first of their kind.

"We actually think this is the first time an observer recorded the appearance of a supernova literally on camera. Some supernova have been discovered hours after explosion. But, Victor Buso caught the exact minutes when the supernova was being born," Bersten said. Not only that, she added, but he had captured the evolution of this elusive phase.

Source: http://www.newsweek.com/supernova-birth-photograph-amateur-815041

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Mitsutoki Shigeta: 'Baby factory' dad wins paternity rights

A Bangkok court has awarded paternity rights to a Japanese man over 13 babies he fathered through Thai surrogate mothers. The ruling allows Mitsutoki Shigeta, 28, to pursue custody of the children.

The son of a wealthy entrepreneur, he caused controversy in 2014 when he was revealed to have fathered at least 16 babies via surrogates in Thailand. His so-called "baby factory" case and others led to Thailand banning commercial surrogacy for foreigners.

Mr Shigeta, who was not present at the trial, was awarded "sole parent" rights after the Thai surrogates forfeited their rights, according to the court, which did not name him.

"For the happiness and opportunities which the 13 children will receive from their biological father, who does not have a history of bad behaviour, the court rules that all 13 born from surrogacy to be legal children of the plaintiff," Bangkok's Central Juvenile Court said in a statement.

Also at Newsweek and ABC.

Related: Medical Ethics of Multiples, Surrogacy, and Abortion

Original Submission