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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow9228

As of this month, the US satellite Vanguard I has spent 60 years in orbit and it remains the oldest man-made object in space. Vanguard I was the fourth satellite launched into orbit -- following the USSR's Sputnik I and II and the US' Explorer I. But none of the first three remain in orbit today and though Vanguard I can't send signals back to Earth anymore, it's still providing valuable data for researchers.

The first two attempts to launch the first Vanguard satellite failed, but on March 17th, 1958, Vanguard I was successfully placed into orbit. It was manufactured by the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), which published a lookback this week honoring the satellite's 60 years of service, and was part of a project that aimed to study Earth's geophysical phenomena from space. The Vanguard Project was established as part of the US contribution to the International Geophysical Year -- a multi-national effort to study geophysical phenomena during a period of time when the sun's sunspot activity would be at a peak.

Once in orbit, Vanguard I began collecting a trove of data. "Vanguard's orbital data proved invaluable toward the understanding of upper atmospheric physics, geodesy, geodynamics, solar terrestrial relationships, dynamical astronomy and exospheric structure," said the NRL. "Additionally, Vanguard I returned a wealth of information on air density, temperature ranges and micrometeorite impacts as well as revealing that the earth is slightly pear-shaped rather than round."

Vanguard I was the first satellite with solar electric power and while its batteries lasted just 20 days, its solar cells kept the satellite powered for seven years. Vanguard I stopped sending signals back to Earth in 1964, but since then, researchers have still used it to glean insight into how the sun, moon and Earth's atmosphere affect orbiting satellites.

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2018/03/16/vanguard-i-six-decades-orbit-oldest-man-made-object/

Original Submission

Fnord666 writes:

On Wednesday, the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) ruled that municipal power companies could charge higher electricity rates to cryptocurrency miners who try to benefit from the state's abundance of cheap hydroelectric power.

Over the years, Bitcoin's soaring price has drawn entrepreneurs to mining. Bitcoin mining enterprises have become massive endeavors, consuming megawatts of power on some grids. To minimize the cost of that considerable power draw, mining companies have tried to site their operations in towns with cheap electricity, both in the US and around the world. In the US, regions with the cheapest energy tend to be small towns with hydroelectric power. (Politico recently wrote extensively about the Bitcoin mining boom in Washington state's mid-Columbia valley, a hotspot for cheap hydro.)

But mining booms in small US towns are not always met with approval. A group of 36 municipal power authorities in northern and western New York petitioned the PSC for permission to raise electricity rates for cryptocurrency miners because their excessive power use has been taxing very small local grids and causing rates to rise for other customers.

[...] Ultimately, the PSC decided that municipal power authorities will be allowed to increase rates for customers whose maximum demand exceeds 300kW or whose load density "exceeds 250kWh per square foot per year."

Singling out a power-hungry industry for rate increases isn't without precedent. In Boulder County, Colorado, for example, marijuana growers are charged an extra $0.0216 per kWh because they use so much power to run grow lights, ventilation systems, and air conditioners for their plants.

Source: Ars Technica

Original Submission

takyon writes:

The Myst series will be re-released for Windows 10 for the 25th anniversary of the original game:

Last week, we reported on developer Cyan teasing an announcement for the 25th anniversary of Myst. Today, that [tease] turned into a reveal.

If you were looking forward to a new Myst game, then I have some bad news: you aren't getting one, at least not anytime soon. Rather developer Cyan revealed that it will be releasing updated (for Windows 10) versions for every game in the series.

[...] The American developer notes that it has been working hard the last few years to procure the rights to make all the Myst games available (Myst III and Myst IV have been unavailable, legally, for years). However, given that Cyan is a small indie team, resources are limited for development, and acquiring rights wasn't easy. But after a series of talks and arrangement over years, it now can finally bring the entire collection together for a modern release. It's not as exciting as a new entry in the series, or even a remake of the first game, but it is nice to know a classic series will be updated with modern touches to allure old fans and newcomers alike.

I'd rather have The Journeyman Project 4.

Also at PCGamesN and Destructoid.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Tinder's parent company, Match Group, wants to acquire Bumble, which rejected a $450 million offer from Match Group last year. Match Group appears to be forcing the issue with a patent infringement lawsuit:

Match Group, the online dating company that owns services like Tinder and Match.com, wants to buy Bumble, another popular dating app that lets women make the first move.

But Match may be trying to push the deal along in an unconventional way: A new patent infringement lawsuit filed late Friday in U.S. District court in Waco, Texas.

Match Group is suing Bumble, which was founded by one of Tinder's co-founders, for infringing on two of its patents, including a design patent for Tinder's now-famous swipe-to-connect feature, according to the suit.

Original Submission

canopic jug writes:

Jon Brodkin at Ars Technica has written briefly about the three trade organizations pushing against net neutrality and in favor of the FCC's repeal. The repeal is set to kick in on April 23, which will be when the requisite 60 days after its publication in the Federal Register are through:

Yesterday, three trade groups that collectively represent every major home Internet and mobile broadband provider in the US filed motions to intervene in the case on behalf of the FCC. The motions for leave to intervene were filed by NCTA–The Internet & Television Association, CTIA–The Wireless Association, and USTelecom–The Broadband Association. (Yes, those are the organizations' correct names.)

NCTA, CTIA, and USTelecom efforts against net neutrality are not new and go back a long time.

From Ars Technica : Entire broadband industry will help FCC defend net neutrality repeal

Original Submission

canopic jug writes:

Jamaica's Minister of Science, Energy and Technology, Dr. Andrew Wheatley, M.P., has announced a move towards greater emphasis on Free and Open Source Software within the Jamaican government:

Minister of Science, Energy and Technology today outlined the Government of Jamaica’s intention to pursue greater use of Open Source Software as part of its thrust to transform ICT within government while at the same time reducing the attendant costs associated with the use of proprietary software.

Open Source Software is computer software that is distributed with its source code made available with a license in which the copyright holder provides the rights to study, change, and distribute the software to anyone and for any purpose

Several agencies will draft a plan together for the adoption and migration of the government platforms to FOSS.

From the Jamaican government's Jamaica Information Service : Government of Jamaica to Actively Pursue Greater Use of Open Source Software – Wheatley

Original Submission

Fnord666 writes:

The five-person team behind a simple WordPress plugin, which took three hours to code, never expected to receive worldwide attention as a result. But NRKbeta, the tech-testing group at Norway's largest national media organization, tapped into a meaty vein with the unveiling of last February's Know2Comment, an open source plugin that can attach to any WordPress site's comment section.

"It was a basic idea," NRKbeta developer Ståle Grut told a South By Southwest crowd on Tuesday. "Readers had to prove they read a story before they were able to comment on it."

[...] NRKbeta took its own advice when a staffer's 2016 article about "pictures of young girls shared on a 'boys forum'" exploded with "shouting and poor discussion" in the comment section. These posts came from readers who don't traditionally visit the NRK's tech-specific subsite, Grut noticed, and his team members decided to write about the rare eruption by asking readers, "What can you learn from meeting the comments section from hell?"

Commenters offered a variety of ideas, which included everything from comment voting to more active moderation. The staff mulled over what they could implement that would be low cost and low impact to its community, and Grut had his own eureka moment while showering before biking to the office: why not a quiz? A WordPress plugin could force users to correctly answer a few multiple-choice questions before the page's comment field would appear. Once he got to the office, he and fellow staffers spent three hours building the plugin, which Grut reminded the crowd is wholly open source.

Source: ArsTechnica

Original Submission

canopic jug writes:

Talks and Plenary Sessions from both AsiaBSDCon 2016 and AsiaBSDCon 2017 are now available online via YouTube, while supplies last. Both events were hosted at the Tokyo University of Science, in Tokyo, Japan. The former took place March 10-13, 2016, and the latter March 9-12, 2017.

• AsiaBSDCon 2016 videos
• AsiaBSDCon 2017 videos

Just last weekend, AsiaBSDCon 2018 just took place on March 8-11 at the same excellent venue. Rumor is that the videos are already being worked on and that the delay will be much shorter. It's not too early to start planning ahead for AsiaBSDCon 2019. Or, wait, maybe it is.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

The idea that it might be possible to be overweight or obese but not at increased risk of heart disease, otherwise known as the "obesity paradox," has been challenged by a study of nearly 300,000 people published in in the European Heart Journal today (Friday).

This latest research shows that the risk of heart and blood vessel problems, such as heart attacks, strokes and high blood pressure, increases as body mass index (BMI) increases beyond a BMI of 22-23 kg/m². Furthermore, the risk also increases steadily the more fat a person carries around their waist.

[...] Although it is already known that being overweight or obese increases a person's risk of CVD [cardiovascular disease], as well as other diseases such as cancer, there have also been studies that have suggested that, particularly in the elderly, being overweight or even obese might not have any effect on deaths from CVD or other causes, and may even be protective, especially if people maintain a reasonable level of fitness. This is known as the "obesity paradox."

However, the authors of the EHJ study say their results refute these previous, conflicting findings. "Any public misconception of a potential 'protective' effect of fat on heart and stroke risks should be challenged," said Dr Iliodromiti.

She continued: "This is the largest study that provides evidence against the obesity paradox in healthy people. It is possible that the story may be different for those with pre-existing disease because there is evidence that in cancer patients, for instance, being slightly overweight is associated with lower risk, especially as cancer and its treatments can lead to unhealthy weight loss.

[...] The researchers suggest that the previous confusion over the "obesity paradox" may be due to many factors that can confound results of studies. For instance, smoking changes the distribution of fat in the body, smokers may have lower weight as smoking depresses appetites and so BMI tends to be lower. Another reason could be that some people have existing but undiagnosed disease, which can often lower their weight but also makes them more likely to die prematurely.

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

During the hours of sleep the memory performs a cleaning shift. A study led by a Spanish scientist at the University of Cambridge reveals that when we sleep, the neural connections that collect important information are strengthened and those created from irrelevant data are weakened until they get lost.

Throughout the day, people retain a lot of information. The brain creates or modifies the neural connections from these data, elaborating memories. But most of the information we receive is irrelevant and it does not make sense to keep it. In such a case, the brain would be overloaded.

So far there have been two hypotheses about how the sleeping brain modifies the neural connections created throughout the day: while one of them argues that all of them are reinforced during sleep hours, the other maintains that their number is reduced.

[...] According to the expert, in the event that all these links were reinforced equally during sleep, the brain would be saturated by an extreme overexcitement of the nervous system.

In the study, published in the Neuron journal, the researchers stimulated the neuronal connections of mice subjected to a type of anesthesia that achieves a brain state similar to the slow wave sleep phase in humans.

[...] The results show that during slow wave sleep, the largest connections are maintained while the smaller ones are lost. This brain mechanism improves the signal-to-noise ratio -- important information remains and the dispensable is discarded -- and allows the storage of various types of information from one day to the next without losing the previous data. That is, those that have already been considered relevant are kept in that state without having to reinforce them. According to González Rueda, the brain "puts order" during the hours of sleep, discarding the weakest connections to ensure stronger and consolidated memories.

Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180315110640.htm

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Microsoft is trying a new brute-force tactic to boost adoption of its Edge browser. In the latest preview version of Windows 10, Microsoft’s Mail app will automatically open web links in Edge, even for users who’ve set a different browser as their default. Doing so, Microsoft says, will ensure “the best, most secure and consistent experience on Windows 10 and across your devices.”

That’s not exactly true. Although Edge has gotten a lot better since it replaced Internet Explorer as the main Windows browser in 2015, and is now available on iOS and Android, it doesn’t yet sync tabs across devices like Chrome and Mozilla Firefox can. Also, the iPad version is still in beta, and the Android version isn’t compatible with tablets.

Besides, ignoring people’s default browser choice only makes the experience less consistent, because users end up with open web pages scattered across multiple browsers.

CNET has the following to say:

In a note to testers published on Microsoft's website Friday, the company seems to acknowledge it's a bit heavy-handed, and an unusual shift. But, the company believes it's worth doing anyway.

"We will begin testing a change where links clicked on within the Windows Mail app will open in Microsoft Edge, which provides the best, most secure and consistent experience on Windows 10 and across your devices," the company said in a note to "Windows Insider" testers. 

The move struck some people as odd, particularly because of Microsoft's colorful history with web browsers. Two decades ago, the company chose to offer its Internet Explorer web browser for free with Windows, effectively beating its rival Netscape. But it also attracted the attention of regulators, kicking off one of the most high-profile antitrust suits in the industry's history.

Industry watchers and users raised concerns about Microsoft repeating similar mistakes with this move, noting that the company has touted diversity of apps by different developers as a selling point.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

The UK's Video Standards Council Rating Board has refused to issue a UK Certificate of Classification (archive) for the JRPG game Omega Labyrinth Z, due to it "clearly [promoting] the sexualisation of children". The publisher's appeal of the decision was rejected. This is the first game to be banned in the UK since Manhunt 2, which was initially refused classification by the British Board of Film Classification, but eventually classified "18" after censorship, a second refusal, and an appeal.:

The game is explicit in its setting within a "school" environment and the majority of the characters are young girls - one child is referred to as being a "first year" student and is seen holding a teddy bear. The game clearly promotes the sexualisation of children via the sexual interaction between the game player and the female characters. The style of the game is such that it will attract an audience below the age of 18.

There is a serious danger that impressionable people, i.e. children and young people viewing the game would conclude that the sexual activity represented normal sexual behaviour. There is a constant theme of sexual innuendo and activity throughout the game that suggests behaviour likely to normalise sexual activity towards children. As a means of reward gained by successfully navigating the game, the player has the means to sexually stimulate the female characters by using either a hand held remote device or touch screen software.

The VSC Rating Board believes this content in a game, which would have strong appeal to non-adult players, is an issue which would be unacceptable to the majority of UK consumers and, more importantly, has the potential to be significantly harmful in terms of the social and moral development of younger people in particular.

Omega Labyrinth Z was released in Japan on July 6, 2017 for the PlayStation Vita and PS4 platforms, and will be released in North America and Europe in early 2018. The game was also refused classification in Australia and Germany, and will not be released in New Zealand or Ireland.

The UK's Digital Economy Act 2010 shifted responsibility for classifying most video games from the British Board of Film Classification to the Video Standards Council.

In unrelated news, Luigi may or may not have a penis.

Also at BBC, Gamasutra, and Kotaku.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Back in 43AD, after the Roman conquest of Britain, the Emperor Vespasian sent governor Quintus Petilius Cerialis to what's now Lancashire, Yorkshire and Cumbria to wrestle control of the north of England from a Celtic tribe called the Brigantes and put down a rebellion that had erupted after the breakdown of the marriage between Queen Cartimandua and her husband Venetius (she eloped with a 'common soldier'). These roads were an important part of connecting buildings and settlements to consolidate territory up north.

LiDAR mapping has helped to find four lost Roman roads so far, and there are hopes it will enable archaeologists to find many more - this 'light detection and ranging' laser mapping technology can be used to 'prove' the course a road took where before it was only suspected. LiDAR enables them to spot 'aggers' - Roman ramparts - running straight for a few kilometres, where a road must have been.

At present, about 75 per cent of England is mapped in this way, with limited knowledge of upland areas – the Environment Agency began LiDAR scanning 20 years ago as a means of tracking changing coastlines and performing flood modelling.

They have just announced plans to map the entire of England – which they say is the equivalent of about 32 million football pitches - by the end of 2020.

To create LiDAR maps, aircraft with laser scanners measure the distance between the plane and objects it encounters. Instead of radio or sound waves, as in the case of Radar or Sonar, LiDAR - wait for it - uses light waves and 'velocity of time' to calculate the time it takes to hit an object and be sent back, building up a detailed picture of what is out there.

[...] Beyond assessing flood risk, planning defences and understanding the natural landscape for varied purposes including those of archaeologists, the agency also hopes to fight "waste crime," which James Bevan, chief executive of the environment agency, has dubbed "the new narcotics".

Waste dumping reportedly costs £1 billion a year, with 1,000 sites discovered in 2015 - the process involves fraudsters dumping skip-loads of rubbish onto a piece of land and leaving it there to fester, while charging customers for the pleasure. LiDAR data enables authorities to discover sudden changes in the landscape quickly and crack down on the practice.

Original Submission

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

El Reg reports

The March edition of Patch Tuesday lands just hours before researchers are expected to flaunt their latest and greatest exploits at the CanSecWest Pwn2Own hacking competition in Vancouver.

Hopefully nobody was planning to use any of the 75 CVE-listed vulnerabilities Microsoft addressed today, including several for the Edge and Internet Explorer browsers that would allow remote code execution.

The fixed bugs include nine remote code execution (RCE) flaws in the Chakra scripting engine in Edge. Microsoft says the scripting bugs (such as CVE-2018-0874[1]) would allow an infected webpage to run code with the logged-in user's clearance level.

The Edge scripting engine was also the subject of four memory corruption RCE flaws, as well as an information disclosure bug, CVE-2018-0839[1], that allows an attack page to view objects in memory.

Just two of the 75 Microsoft bugs squashed this month have been publicly disclosed. They include an elevation of privilege bug in Exchange (CVE-2018-0940[1]) exploited via email. Dustin Childs of the Zero Day Initiative said that the bug is perfectly set up to facilitate a spear phishing attack.

[1] All content at portal.msrc.microsoft.com is behind scripts. Attempts to have archive.is run the scripts results in a EULA page.

Original Submission

"exec" writes:

An appeals court threw out part of a Federal Communications Commission regulation aimed at reducing automated telephone solicitations, weakening a 2015 effort to squelch the scourge of so-called robocalls.

The rule was aimed at calls generated by auto-dialing devices. But its language was too broad, and could be construed to prohibit calls from any smartphone, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in a unanimous opinion Friday.

[...] Unwanted calls, including robocalls, are the top consumer complaint to the FCC, with more than 200,000 such comments received annually, according to the agency. Some private analyses estimate that U.S. consumers received about 2.4 billion robocalls per month in 2016.

[...] Because under the FCC's rule "any uninvited call or message from the device is a statutory violation," regular smartphone users could face a $500 penalty for calls -- such as inviting a person to a party -- without first getting consent to contact them, the judges said.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-16/u-s-robocall-limits-partly-tossed-out-by-federal-appeals-court

-- submitted from IRC

Original Submission