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takyon writes:

Chinese Tech Giant on Brink of Collapse in New U.S. Cold War (archive)

Not Apple. Not Huawei. The first casualty of the high-tech cold war between the United States and China might be the biggest electronics maker you've never heard of.

The Chinese firm ZTE said on Wednesday [PDF] it had ceased "major operating activities" after the Trump administration banned the company last month from using components made in the United States. With manufacturing halted at the ZTE plant in Shenzhen, factory workers have been getting called in for training sessions every other day or so — a snooze, they say. The rest of the time, they loaf around in nearby dorms.

Trading in the company's shares has been suspended for weeks. Staff members have been instructed, in new guidelines reviewed by The New York Times, to reassure anxious clients, while being sure to avoid discussing with them the American technology from which the firm is cut off for the next seven years.

One of China's most internationally successful technology suppliers, with about $17 billion in annual revenue, ZTE is facing a death sentence. The Commerce Department has blocked its access to American-made components until 2025, saying the company failed to punish employees who violated trade controls against Iran and North Korea.

Update: President Trump has vowed to get ZTE "back into business, fast" (archive):

President Xi of China, and I, are working together to give massive Chinese phone company, ZTE, a way to get back into business, fast. Too many jobs in China lost. Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 13, 2018

Also at Fortune, WSJ, USAToday and CNN.

Previously: U.S. Intelligence Agency Heads Warn Against Using Huawei and ZTE Products
Huawei CEO Still Committed to the U.S. Market
Rural Wireless Association Opposes U.S. Government Ban on Huawei and ZTE Equipment
ZTE Responds to U.S. Ban on Sales by American Companies to ZTE

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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

A small community in northern Michigan believes it has been touched by an angel after a motion-sensor camera captured a mysterious object apparently looming over a parked vehicle. People online, however, remain unconvinced.

Please, that's so obviously Arthur.

Source: https://www.rt.com/usa/426544-angel-vision-moth-debate/

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takyon writes:

NASA's next big Mars rover will include a helicopter designed to work in Mars's thin atmosphere:

When NASA launches its next rover to Mars, the vehicle will have a small helicopter along for the ride. NASA announced today that it will be sending a small autonomous flying chopper — aptly named the Mars Helicopter — with the upcoming Mars 2020 rover. The helicopter will attempt to fly through the Martian air to see if vehicles can even levitate on Mars, where the atmosphere is 100 times thinner than that of Earth.

The design for the Mars Helicopter has been in the works for the last four years at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, but the space agency had yet to decide if it was actually going to send the vehicle to Mars. NASA needed to determine if this technology was actually feasible and if the agency had enough money in its budget to include the copter, according to Spaceflight Now. Now it seems that the agency has decided that this copter idea could actually work.

One much better place in the solar system for a flying vehicle is Titan, which has lower surface gravity and a denser atmosphere than Earth.

Also at NASA and NYT.

Related: Titan Ripe for Drone Invasion
NASA New Frontiers Finalists: Comet 67P Sample Return and a Titan Drone

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takyon writes:

Origins of amphibian-killing fungus uncovered

A deadly fungus that has ravaged amphibian populations worldwide probably originated in East Asia, new research suggests. A study in Science journal [open, DOI: 10.1126/science.aar1965] [DX] supports an idea that the pet trade helped spread killer strains of the chytrid fungus around the globe.

The fungus is a major cause of the devastating declines experienced by frogs, toads, newts and salamanders. There is no known effective measure for controlling the disease.

The authors of the report highlight the need to tighten biosecurity along country borders, including a potential ban on the trade in amphibians as pets.

The chytrid fungus, known as Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or Bd, was first identified as a problem in the 1990s, said co-author Dr Simon O'Hanlon, from Imperial College London.

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Today's baleen whales (Mysticetes) support their massive bodies by filtering huge volumes of small prey from seawater using comb-like baleen in their mouths much like a sieve. But new evidence reported in the journal Current Biology on May 10 based on careful analysis of a 34-million-year-old whale skull from Antarctica -- the second-oldest "baleen" whale ever found -- suggests that early whales actually didn't have baleen at all. Their mouths were equipped instead with well-developed gums and teeth, which they apparently used to bite large prey.

"Llanocetus denticrenatus is an ancient relative of our modern gentle giants, like humpback and blue whales," says Felix Marx of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. "Unlike them, however, it had teeth, and probably was a formidable predator."

"Until recently, it was thought that filter feeding first emerged when whales still had teeth," adds R. Ewan Fordyce at the University of Otago in New Zealand. "Llanocetus shows that this was not the case."

Like modern whales, Llanocetus had distinctive grooves on the roof of its mouth, the researchers explain, which usually contain blood vessels that supply the baleen. In Llanocetus, however, those grooves cluster around tooth sockets, where baleen would have been useless and at risk of being crushed.

"Instead of a filter, it seems that Llanocetus simply had large gums and, judging from the way its teeth are worn, mainly fed by biting large prey," Marx says. "Even so, it was huge: at a total body length of around 8 meters, it rivals some living whales in size."

Materials provided by Cell Press.

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

At its Build developer conference this year, Microsoft revealed a new “Your Phone” application that it hopes will make iOS and Android devices work better with Windows 10 PCs. The app bring things such as photos, texts, and more directly from your smartphone to your Windows PC.

One key missing feature, however, is iMessage support – but Microsoft says it would love to work with Apple to change that…

In a thorough interview with The Verge, Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore and Shilpa Ranganathan explain that some things are harder to bring to the new Your Phone application than others. Messages is one of those.

While the Your Phone application will work with photos and notifications, Ranganathan says Apple makes it challenging to add support for Messages. Essentially, the vision that she offers is full support for iMessage on Windows via the Your Phone application.

Ranganathan explains that she wants to bring iMessage support to Windows 10 in a way that is respectful to the ecosystem, but also one that makes for an enjoyable experience for users:

“Apple does make it a tad harder for messages, but we’re very willing to work with Apple,” Ranganathan says.

[...] Nevertheless, as The Verge notes, it certainly seems that the new Your Phone platform will launch with better support for Android than iPhone – but something tells me Apple doesn’t care.

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takyon writes:

TSMC Details 5 nm Process Tech: Aggressive Scaling, But Thin Power and Performance Gains

At a special event last week, TSMC announced the first details about its 5 nm manufacturing technology that it plans to use sometime in 2020. CLN5 will be the company's second fabrication process to use extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, which is going to enable TSMC to aggressively increase its transistor density versus prior generations. However, when it comes to performance and power improvements, the gains do not look very significant.

Just like other fabs, TSMC will gradually ramp up usage of ASML's Twinscan NXE:3400 EUV step and scan systems. Next year TSMC will start using EUV tools to pattern non-critical layers of chips made using its second-gen 7 nm fabrication technology (CLN7FF+). Usage of EUV for non-critical layers will bring a number of benefits to the CLN7FF+ vs. the original CLN7FF process, but the advantages will be limited: TSMC expects the CLN7FF+ to offer a 20% higher transistor density and a 10% lower power consumption at the same complexity and frequency when compared to the CLN7FF. TSMC's 5 nm (CLN5) technology will increase the usage of EUV tools and this will bring rather massive advantages when it comes to transistor density: TSMC is touting a 1.8x higher transistor density (~45% area reduction) when compared to the original CLN7FF, but it will only enable a 15% frequency gain (at the same complexity and power) or a 20% power reduction (at the same frequency and complexity). With the CLN5, TSMC will also offer an Extremely Low Threshold Voltage (ELTV) option that will enable its clients to increase frequencies of their chips by 25%, but the manufacturer has yet to describe the tech in greater detail.

1.8x higher transistor density and up to 15% frequency gain or 20% power reduction? You should be thankful you're getting anything!

Related: TSMC to Build 7nm Process Test Chips in Q1 2018
TSMC Holds Groundbreaking Ceremony for "5nm" Fab, Production to Begin in 2020

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requerdanos writes:

Researchers have learned to send inaudible commands embedded in white noise, music, or even completely different speech, that can fool the ubiquitous voice-recognition phone-home spy devices that are all the rage lately. Inaudible to you, but indelible commands for the devices.

Per The New York Times:

Over the last two years, researchers in China and the United States have begun demonstrating that they can send hidden commands that are undetectable to the human ear to Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa and Google's Assistant. Inside university labs, the researchers have been able to secretly activate the artificial intelligence systems on smartphones and smart speakers, making them dial phone numbers or open websites. In the wrong hands, the technology could be used to unlock doors, wire money or buy stuff online — simply with music playing over the radio.

Nicholas Carlini, a fifth-year Ph.D. student in computer security at U.C. Berkeley...and his colleagues at Berkeley have incorporated commands into audio recognized by Mozilla's DeepSpeech voice-to-text translation software, an open-source platform. They were able to hide the command, "O.K. Google, browse to evil.com" in a recording of the spoken phrase, "Without the data set, the article is useless." Humans cannot discern the command. The Berkeley group also embedded the command in music files, including a four-second clip from Verdi's "Requiem."

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[janrinok] For those of you who do not want to read about the 'extremes' of US politics (alt-right or left-wing) I suggest that you skip this story and wait for the next one. If you feel that we shouldn't publish any story that does not accord with your own, probably less extreme, views then perhaps you should remind yourself that we try to give everyone in our community the benefit of free speech and we do not intentionally censor or promote any particular view or political leaning. Of course, you are welcome to contribute your own comments in the subsequent discussion that will follow.

This MSNBC Guest Just Showed Why The Intellectual Dark Web Exists

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

On Tuesday, The New York Times’ Bari Weiss appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe to discuss her new in-depth piece on the so-called Intellectual Dark Web – an agglomeration of thinkers from all sides of the political aisle who have been cast out by political correctness and now converse with one another regularly and publicly (full disclosure: I’m a charter member, along with friends including Sam Harris, Eric Weinstein, Joe Rogan, Jordan Peterson, and others). The entire premise of the IDW is that many on the Left refuse to acknowledge good-natured disagreement; instead, all disagreement must be due to nefarious evil on the part of those who disagree.

Proving the point on MSNBC was guest Eddie Glaude Jr., chair at the Center for African-American Studies at Princeton. When Weiss cited the discussions between me and Sam as evidence for the diversity of the movement, Glaude responded, “What allows you to describe these folks as intellectuals of sort? Let me say it differently. They’re connected intellectually by what common commitments? So you might have different ideological spaces, but when you talk about Sam Harris and Ben Shapiro in one sentence, I can see the connection between those two.” Weiss responded, logically enough, “Which is?” And Glaude explained:

Having something to do with how they think about race, having something to do with how they think about diversity in the country and the ways in which diversity is talked about, right? The way in which they think about political correctness. Weiss responded, “Yeah, they’re anti-identity politics, for sure.”

To which Glaude launched into a full defense of identity politics: “Identity politics is a phrase that kind of is a red herring. Identity politics is just simply questions of justice, right?”

At this point, Joe Scarborough jumped in and hit the nail directly on the head:

Eddie, you have just made Bari Weiss's point, that you disagree with the way Bari Weiss views the world, so you're going to help her view the world more the way you view the world. The entire purpose of the exercise is to have honest conversations with people, and to not question their morality, or their wisdom just because they don't view the world exactly the same way that you do.

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow3941

Nature is full of clues to help you find your way – if you know where to look. Stuart Heritage lets go of the GPS to learn the art of natural navigation from pioneer Tristan Gooley

[...] How to navigate in a city

Look for satellite dishes. They all point towards the equator. In London, that is roughly south-southeast.

Find an 'invisible handrail' and use it to remember your bearings. In the countryside, this might be a river. In a city, it could be a main road.

Look at a tree. Do the branches point a certain way? That's probably south. Are the leaves on those branches smaller than the leaves on the opposite side? That's definitely south.

Use the sun. It rises in the east, sets in the west and moves through the southern sky, giving you a very basic compass.

Need to get home? Head against the flow of people at the start of the day or with the flow at the end and you are pretty much guaranteed to find a station.

Source: Ditching the satnav: the lost secrets of natural navigation

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

[...] The possibility of "financial and reputational" damage if staff lost or misused the devices prompted the decision, reported The Register.

Instead, IBM staff who need to move data around will be encouraged to do so via an internal network.

[...] Some IBM departments had been banned from using removable portable media for some time, said Ms Naidoo, but now the decree was being implemented worldwide. IBM staff are expected to stop using removable devices by the end of May.

[...] Security expert Kevin Beaumont said: "It is a brave move by IBM, as USB devices do present a real risk - often it is very easy to extract data from a company via these devices, and introduce malicious software."

[...] Sumir Karayi, chief executive of security company 1E, said IBM's ban was an "overreaction" by security staff who had not realised the many different ways data flowed in and out of an organisation.

[...] On 25 May, the GDPR rules are enacted, which impose heavy fines on organisations that do not do enough to protect sensitive information.

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow8317

Somewhere, government-linked hackers might be panicking. A digital vigilante has struck back against what researchers believe is a cyberespionage group connected to a nation state. The hacker has allegedly stolen, rather ironically, a cache of data that the government-linked hackers lifted from their own victims across the Middle East.

The news provides a rare instance of someone targeting a so-called advanced persistent threat, or APT, as well as an opportunity for a behind-the-scenes look at a government hacking campaign.

"10 minutes of effort; intel on Iranian APTs," the anonymous hacker told Motherboard in an online chat, saying which nation they believe may be linked to the hacking group. Some cybersecurity experts tentatively agreed. But Kaspersky, which originally reported on the hacking group it dubbed "ZooPark" earlier this month, told Motherboard it could not currently link the outfit to a known actor.

Source: Vigilante Hacks Government-Linked Cyberespionage Group

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

For many years, Windows Notepad only supported text documents containing Windows End of Line (EOL) characters - Carriage Return (CR) & Line Feed (LF). This means that Notepad was unable to correctly display the contents of text files created in Unix, Linux and macOS.

[...] Starting with the current Windows 10 Insider build, Notepad will support Unix/Linux line endings (LF), Macintosh line endings (CR), and Windows Line endings (CRLF) as usual. New files created within Notepad will use Windows line ending (CRLF) by default, but it will now be possible to view, edit, and print existing files, correctly maintaining the file's current line ending format.

It's about damned time.

Source: Introducing extended line endings support in Notepad

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

[...] Play time is in short supply for children these days and the lifelong consequences for developing children can be more serious than many people realize.

An article in the most recent issue of the American Journal of Play details not only how much children's play time has declined, but how this lack of play affects emotional development, leading to the rise of anxiety, depression, and problems of attention and self control.

[...] Gray describes this kind of unstructured, freely-chosen play as a testing ground for life. It provides critical life experiences without which young children cannot develop into confident and competent adults. Gray's article is meant to serve as a wake-up call regarding the effects of lost play, and he believes that lack of childhood free play time is a huge loss that must be addressed for the sake of our children and society.

Parents who hover over and intrude on their children's play are a big part of the problem, according to Gray. "It is hard to find groups of children outdoors at all, and, if you do find them, they are likely to be wearing uniforms and following the directions of coaches while their parents dutifully watch and cheer." He cites a study which assessed the way 6- to 8-year-olds spent their time in 1981 and again in 1997.

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow8317

Imagine winning the lottery and having an ATM spit huge amounts of cash at you. That's exactly what some cyber criminals are after. They're targeting ATMs and launching "jackpotting" attacks, forcing them to dispense bills like a winning slot machine. Already this year, the U.S. Secret service has warned financial institutions of such attacks.

Security researcher Barnaby Jack demonstrated such an attack and amazed attendees at Black Hat when he made two unpatched ATMs spit out cash on stage. For the most part, however, jackpotting was little more than a hypothetical until recently.

Now, with confirmed strains of malware like Ploutus.D being used in ATM jackpotting attacks on U.S. soil, jackpotting can be added to the growing list of popular ATM attack types, including skimming, shimming and network-based attacks. Here we examine various ATM attack techniques and offer security recommendations to protect against them.

Source: ATM attacks: How hackers are going for gold

Original Submission