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takyon writes:

Mnuchin on Google and tech monopolies: 'You have to look at the power they have'

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Monday joined the growing chorus of government officials concerned about tech monopolies. When asked if Google is a monopoly, Mnuchin said, "These are issues that the Justice Department needs to look at seriously — not for any one company — but obviously as these technology companies have a greater and greater impact on the economy, I think that you have to look at the power they have," Mnuchin told CNBC's "Squawk Box." Mnuchin acknowledged that antitrust matters don't fall under his jurisdiction, but said someone ought to be looking.

His comments come on the heels of a "60 Minutes" segment on Google's unparalleled market share in online search. The Sunday night spot included an interview with Jeremy Stoppelman, co-founder of Yelp, which he said "would have no shot" if it were being built today.

Also at Bloomberg.

Original Submission

canopic jug writes:

Ben Cartwright-Cox has written a blog post about building Yubikey/Smartcard backed TLS/HTTPS servers. Cryptographic hardware tokens such as the Yubikey can hold and verify keys but are set up not to be able to give the key itself back to the system. Although the hardware token's contents can be overwritten, the original key cannot be extracted even if the system it is on gets cracked. Thus moving the keys to the hardware token would make them more or less unstealable. Ben walks through the steps necessary to retrofit a Yubikey to provide for situations roles where keys would normally be in memory such as for an HTTPS server.

A Yubikey is a USB stick that acts like a two factor token, but can also act as a smart card.

Smart cards are neat, since they allow you to store sensitive cryptographic keys on another removable device, and they come with a guarantee that once they are programmed with a key they will not give it back to a system (they can be overwritten though)

This allows someone to separate a cryptographic key from the system it lives on. This is useful for things like SSH, since it means you can have a key that moves on your person, rather than a per machine key in the case that you use multiple machines to access systems.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

F.D.A. Approves First Drug Designed to Prevent Migraines

The first medicine designed to prevent migraines was approved by the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday, ushering in what many experts believe will be a new era in treatment for people who suffer the most severe form of these headaches. The drug, Aimovig, made by Amgen and Novartis, is a monthly injection with a device similar to an insulin pen. The list price will be $6,900 a year, and Amgen said the drug will be available to patients within a week.

Aimovig blocks a protein fragment, CGRP, that instigates and perpetuates migraines. Three other companies — Lilly, Teva and Alder — have similar medicines in the final stages of study or awaiting F.D.A. approval. "The drugs will have a huge impact," said Dr. Amaal Starling, a neurologist and migraine specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix. "This is really an amazing time for my patient population and for general neurologists treating patients with migraine."

Millions of people experience severe migraines so often that they are disabled and in despair. These drugs do not prevent all migraine attacks, but can make them less severe and can reduce their frequency by 50 percent or more. As a recent editorial in the journal JAMA [DOI: 10.1001/jama.2018.4852] [DX] put it, they are "progress, but not a panacea."

Sticker shock? The price is 30% less than Wall Street expected. Meanwhile, people are self-administering psychedelics such as LSD or psilocybin to treat migraines and cluster headaches.

See also: FDA just approved the first drug to prevent migraines. Here's the story of its discovery—and its limitations

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

ZDNet reports

A server stored teenagers' Apple ID email addresses and plaintext passwords [...] At least one server used by an app for parents to monitor their teenagers' phone activity has leaked tens of thousands of accounts of both parents and children.

[...] the Los Angeles, Calif.-based company left its servers, hosted on Amazon's cloud, unprotected and accessible by anyone without a password.

[...] The database stores the parent's email address associated with TeenSafe, as well as their corresponding child's Apple ID email address. It also includes the child's device name -- which is often just their name -- and their device's unique identifier. The data contains the plaintext passwords for the child's Apple ID. Because the app requires that two-factor authentication is turned off, a malicious actor viewing this data only needs to use the credentials to break into the child's account to access their personal content data.

"Technology has brought with it a world your child might not be ready for," the company tells us in a video. "Begin a free trial today!"

TeenSafe home page (archives and more archives)

Original Submission

takyon writes:

UK Prime Minister Theresa May is urging the use of artificial intelligence to help diagnose cancer:

The diagnosis of cancer and other diseases in the UK can be transformed by using artificial intelligence, Theresa May is to say. The NHS and technology companies should use AI as a "new weapon" in research, the PM will urge in a speech later.

Experts say it can be used to help prevent 22,000 cancer deaths a year by 2033 while aiding the fight against heart disease, diabetes and dementia.

High-skilled science jobs will also be created, Mrs May is to pledge. Speaking in Macclesfield, Mrs May will say: "Late diagnosis of otherwise treatable illnesses is one of the biggest causes of avoidable deaths. "And the development of smart technologies to analyse great quantities of data quickly and with a higher degree of accuracy than is possible by human beings opens up a whole new field of medical research."

Also at The Financial Times and The Guardian.

Original Submission

MichaelDavidCrawford writes:

Microsoft has secured a potentially lucrative agreement that makes the full suite of the tech giant's cloud-computing platform available to 17 U.S. intelligence agencies, executives said recently, moving agencies' computer systems onto Office 365 applications and adding certain cloud-based applications not previously available to them.

The agreement could strengthen Microsoft's prospects for winning government business at a time when it is locked in competition with some of the world's biggest tech companies for a Pentagon cloud-computing contract that is expected to be worth billions.

For years, Amazon Web Services, a subsidiary of Amazon.com that provides cloud computing for businesses and government agencies, has been the primary provider of cloud services to U.S. intelligence agencies, thanks to a $600 million contract with the CIA. (Amazon founder Jeffrey Bezos also owns The Washington Post.)

That remains the case after the recent agreement. Still, executives from Microsoft framed the contract agreement as an "awakening."

"This is a huge win from a Microsoft perspective," said Dana Barnes, vice president of the company's joint and defense agencies business unit. "It's kind of an awakening as far as the intelligence community is concerned that you can't be a one-cloud community."

http://www.oregonlive.com/today/index.ssf/2018/05/microsoft_makes_inroads_with_u.html

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

According to a press release carried by Eurekalert

In the first rigorously peer-reviewed article quantifying Bitcoin's energy requirements, a Commentary appearing May 16 in the journal Joule, financial economist and blockchain specialist Alex de Vries uses a new methodology to pinpoint where Bitcoin's electric energy consumption is headed and how soon it might get there.

The abstract of the article says

The Bitcoin network can be estimated to consume at least 2.55 gigawatts of electricity currently, and potentially 7.67 gigawatts in the future, making it comparable with countries such as Ireland (3.1 gigawatts) and Austria (8.2 gigawatts). [...]

The author offers a caveat:

[...] all of the methods discussed assume rational agents. There may be various reasons for an agent to mine even when this isn't profitable, and in some cases costs may not play a role at all when machines and/or electricity are stolen or abused.

[Other] reasons for an agent to mine Bitcoin at a loss might include [...] being able to obtain Bitcoin completely anonymously, libertarian ideology [...] or speculative reasons.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://boingboing.net/2018/05/18/orrin-fucking-hatch.html

https://www.wired.com/story/congress-latest-move-to-extend-copyright-protection-is-misguided/

Almost exactly 20 years ago, Congress passed the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, which extended the term of existing copyrights by 20 years. The Act was the 11th extension in the prior 40 years, timed perfectly to assure that certain famous works, including Mickey Mouse, would not pass into the public domain.

[...] Twenty years later, the fight for term extension has begun anew. Buried in an otherwise harmless act, passed by the House and now being considered in the Senate, this new bill purports to create a new digital performance right—basically the right to control copies of recordings on any digital platform (ever hear of the internet?)—for musical recordings made before 1972. These recordings would now have a new right, protected until 2067, which, for some, means a total term of protection of 144 years. The beneficiaries of this monopoly need do nothing to get the benefit of this gift. They don’t have to make the work available. Nor do they have to register their claims in advance.

That this statute has nothing to do with the constitutional purpose of “promot[ing] Progress” is clear from its very title. The “Compensating Legacy Artists for their Songs, Service, and Important Contributions to Society Act” (or CLASSICS) is as blatant a gift without any public return as is conceivable. And it's not just a gift through cash; it's a gift through a monopoly regulation of speech. Archives with recordings of music from the 1930s or 1940s would now have to clear permission before streaming their musical content even if the underlying work was in the public domain.

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Fnord666

Researchers have studied how a 'drumstick' made of light could make a microscopic 'drum' vibrate and stand still at the same time.

A team of researchers from the UK and Australia have made a key step towards understanding the boundary between the quantum world and our everyday classical world.

Quantum mechanics is truly weird. Objects can behave like both particles and waves, and can be both here and there at the same time, defying our common sense. Such counterintuitive behaviour is typically confined to the microscopic realm and the question "why don't we see such behaviour in everyday objects?" challenges many scientists today.

Now, a team of researchers have developed a new technique to generate this type of quantum behaviour in the motion of a tiny drum just visible to the naked eye. The details of their research are published today in New Journal of Physics.

Project principal investigator, Dr Michael Vanner from the Quantum Measurement Lab at Imperial College London, said: "Such systems offer significant potential for the development of powerful new quantum-enhanced technologies, such as ultra-precise sensors, and new types of transducers.

[...] In the quantum world, a drum can vibrate and stand still at the same time. However, generating such quantum motion is very challenging. lead author of the project Dr Martin Ringbauer from the University of Queensland node of the Australian Research Council Centre for Engineered Quantum Systems, said: "You need a special kind of drumstick to make such a quantum vibration with our tiny drum."

In recent years, the emerging field of quantum optomechanics has made great progress towards the goal of a quantum drum using laser light as a type of drumstick. However, many challenges remain, so the authors' present study takes an unconventional approach.

Source: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/186346/can-quantum-drum-vibrate-stand-still/

Generation of Mechanical Interference Fringes by Multi-Photon Counting‘’ by M Ringbauer, T J Weinhold, L A Howard, A G White & M R Vanner is published in New Journal of Physics 20, 053042 (2018)

Original Submission

requerdanos writes:

Electrek reports that Tesla is beginning compliance efforts with respect to their GPL redistribution of components such as Linux, Busybox, Buildroot, QT, and other components:

Tesla has been taking some flak for years now in the software community for using open source software without complying with the licenses. In a step toward compliance, Tesla is now releasing some parts of its software, which is going to be useful to Tesla hackers and security researchers.

Some of the copyright holders have been complaining that Tesla hasn't been complying with their licenses. Software Freedom Conservancy, a not-for-profit organization pushing for open source software, has been on Tesla's case for a while over the issue.

We had received multiple reports of a GPL violation regarding Tesla's Model S. Customers who purchased Tesla's Model S received on-board system(s) that contained BusyBox and Linux, but did not receive any source code, nor an offer for the source... We know that Tesla received useful GPL compliance advice from multiple organizations, in addition to us, over these years."

In beginning their compliance efforts, Tesla Motors has specifically established Github repositories for their distributed builds of Buildroot and Linux for version 2018.12 of their software stack. Tesla's e-mail announcement read in part:

"Currently the material that is there is representative of the 2018.12 release, but it will be updated with new versions corresponding to new releases over time. Work is underway on preparing sources in other areas as well, together with a more coordinated information page. We wanted to let you know about this material as it is available now while work continues on the other parts. For further questions, please contact opensource@tesla.com."

With the brilliance of Mr. Musk and his ample staff, one would think that they would have figured out their license obligations without literally years of outside help--many small all-volunteer projects do it seemingly effortlessly as a matter of course--but in that, one would be wrong.

Also submitted by canopic jug.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

http://money.cnn.com/2018/05/17/news/economy/us-middle-class-basics-study/index.html

"Nearly 51 million households don't earn enough to afford a monthly budget that includes housing, food, child care, health care, transportation and a cell phone, according to a study released Thursday by the United Way ALICE Project. That's 43% of households in the United States."

The figure includes the 16.1 million households living in poverty, as well as the 34.7 million families that the United Way has dubbed ALICE -- Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. This group makes less than what's needed "to survive in the modern economy."

"Despite seemingly positive economic signs, the ALICE data shows that financial hardship is still a pervasive problem," said Stephanie Hoopes, the project's director.

California, New Mexico and Hawaii have the largest share of struggling families, at 49% each. North Dakota has the lowest at 32%.

Many of these folks are the nation's child care workers, home health aides, office assistants and store clerks, who work low-paying jobs and have little savings, the study noted. Some 66% of jobs in the US pay less than $20 an hour.

See also: https://www.forbes.com/sites/noahkirsch/2017/11/09/the-3-richest-americans-hold-more-wealth-than-bottom-50-of-country-study-finds/

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Orbital ATK is launching its OA-9E Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station:

Early risers on the US East Coast might get a bit of a show tomorrow morning: private space company Orbital ATK will launch its Antares rocket with a Cygnus spacecraft at 4:39 AM EDT [08:39 UTC] from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

The mission is the company's ninth flight for NASA, and is headed to the International Space Station, where it will drop off a 7,400 pounds of scientific equipment and supplies when it docks on Thursday, May 24th.

Alongside CubeSats, the Cold Atom Laboratory, and other cargo, the rocket will carry seeds for Plant Habitat-01, which will evaluate several types of Arabidopsis:

This time, the astronauts will plant six different types of Arabidopsis, a flowering plant that's closely related to cabbage and mustard. Five of the plant varieties have been genetically altered, either to affect they way the plants capture carbon or affect their ability to produce lignin, a fibrous substance that provides structural support for plants. The same varieties will be grown under Earth-gravity conditions at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

After several weeks of growth, the zero-G plants will be harvested and shipped back to Earth for comparison. The plants' proteins will be analyzed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to see whether a particular genetic mix is better-suited for cultivation in space.

Live coverage at Spaceflight Now. Update: Launch has been pushed back 5 minutes (to the end of its launch window) at 4:44 AM EDT, 08:44 UTC. Update 2: Payload successfully separated around 08:51 UTC. NASA-TV coverage will include the solar panels being unfurled around 09:45 UTC, and a post-launch press conference.

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Fnord666

"It has been determined that it is no longer viable to continue operating the business."

Cambridge Analytica LLC, the American arm of the London-based data analytics firm of the same name, filed for bankruptcy in federal court in New York on Friday.

The company submitted a voluntary formal petition for Chapter 7 bankruptcy—liquidation. That document reveals the company has between $1 and $10 million in debt with very little assets. On May 2, SCL Elections Ltd. and its other British affiliates filed similar "insolvency" documents with UK authorities.

It was revealed last month that a 2014 survey app created at the behest of Cambridge Analytica required Facebook login credentials and provided the survey creator access to their friends' public profile data. In the end, this system captured data from 87 million Facebook users. This data trove wound up in the hands of Cambridge Analytica, the British data analytics firm, which worked with clients like the Donald Trump presidential campaign.

NBC News reported Friday that the company's May 2 shutdown hit employees abruptly, with many remaining employees filing out of their Fifth Avenue office in Manhattan directly to a nearby Irish pub.

[...] The Friday court document also notes that the attorney preparing the filing was paid for by Emerdata, a new data analytics firm founded by many of the same people who were formerly involved in Cambridge Analytica. Emerdata, like Cambridge Analytica, is largely funded by the Mercer family, who are well-known Republican donors and Trump supporters. Rebekah Mercer was named as a director to Emerdata in March 2018. What exactly Emerdata does or how it will operate going forward remains a bit of a mystery.

takyon writes:

NASA's new planet hunter snaps initial test image, swings by Moon toward final orbit

NASA's next planet hunter, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), is one step closer to searching for new worlds after successfully completing a lunar flyby on May 17. The spacecraft passed about 5,000 miles from the Moon, which provided a gravity assist that helped TESS sail toward its final working orbit.

As part of camera commissioning, the science team snapped a two-second test exposure using one of the four TESS cameras. The image, centered on the southern constellation Centaurus, reveals more than 200,000 stars. The edge of the Coalsack Nebula is in the right upper corner and the bright star Beta Centauri is visible at the lower left edge. TESS is expected to cover more than 400 times as much sky as shown in this image with its four cameras during its initial two-year search for exoplanets. A science-quality image, also referred to as a "first light" image, is expected to be released in June.

TESS will undergo one final thruster burn on May 30 to enter its science orbit around Earth. This highly elliptical orbit will maximize the amount of sky the spacecraft can image, allowing it to continuously monitor large swaths of the sky. TESS is expected to begin science operations in mid-June after reaching this orbit and completing camera calibrations.

Normal TESS images will have up to 30 minutes of exposure time.

Also at EarthSky and TechCrunch.

Previously: NASA's TESS Mission Set to Launch on Wednesday, April 18

Original Submission

takyon writes:

That NASA climate science program Trump axed? House lawmakers just moved to restore it

A U.S. House of Representatives spending panel voted today to restore a small NASA climate research program that President Donald Trump's administration had quietly axed. (Click here to read our earlier coverage.)

The House appropriations panel that oversees NASA unanimously approved an amendment to a 2019 spending bill that orders the space agency to set aside $10 million within its Earth science budget for a "climate monitoring system" that studies "biogeochemical processes to better understand the major factors driving short and long term climate change."

That sounds almost identical to the work that NASA's Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) was doing before the Trump administration targeted the program, which was getting about $10 million annually, for elimination this year. Critics of the move said it jeopardized numerous research projects and plans to verify the national emission cuts agreed to in the Paris climate accords.

"Likely" because it is part of a larger spending bill that needs to be voted on by the full House, and reconciled with the Senate's version.

Previously: Trump White House Quietly Cancels NASA Research Verifying Greenhouse Gas Cuts

Original Submission

A number of soylentils have written in to let us know that Google is opening up the possibility of being evil by eliminating it from their code of conduct. You've been warned.

"Don't be Evil" Starting to Disappear From Google's Code of Conduct

takyon writes:

Google Removes 'Don't Be Evil' Clause From Its Code of Conduct

Google's unofficial motto has long been the simple phrase "don't be evil." But that's over, according to the code of conduct that Google distributes to its employees. The phrase was removed sometime in late April or early May, archives hosted by the Wayback Machine show.

[...] The updated version of Google's code of conduct still retains one reference to the company's unofficial motto—the final line of the document is still: "And remember... don't be evil, and if you see something that you think isn't right – speak up!"

April 21 vs. May 4.

Related: Google vs Maven
Google Employees on Pentagon AI Algorithms: "Google Should Not be in the Business of War"
Google Duplex: an AI that Can Make Phone Calls on Your Behalf
About a Dozen Google Employees Have Resigned Over Project Maven