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takyon writes:

A years-old, one-letter typo led to Aliens: Colonial Marines' weird AI

History may never be kind to Aliens: Colonial Marines, but the present tense isn't looking so good for the lawsuit- and complaint-ridden Gearbox game, either. This week brought to our attention one of the weirdest coding typos we've ever seen in a game—which has apparently been hidden inside of A:CM's PC version since its 2013 launch.

[...] Upon researching [the game's fan-made patch] patch, ResetERA readers noticed something in the moddb.com notes that somehow escaped the gaming community at large in October 2017: the discovery of a one-letter typo in A:CM's INI files. As moddb.com user jamesdickinson963 pointed out last year, the game's "PecanEngine.ini" file references a "tether" system in assigning AI commands to the series' infamous monsters (which I'll call "xenomorphs" for brevity's sake, even though that term isn't necessarily the right one). However, one of its two mentions of the term "tether" is misspelled as "teather."

Dickinson's post alleges that this command, when spelled correctly, "controls tactical position adjustment, patrolling, and target zoning. When a xeno is spawned, it is attached to a zone tether. This zone tells the xeno what area is its fighting space and where different exits are. In combat, a xeno will be forced to switch to a new tether (such as one behind you) so as to flank or disperse so they aren't so grouped up, etc." Thanks to how the engine parsed this typo, it never caused any crashes; instead, the engine ignored the unfamiliar term. Thus, the game's monsters never received the smarter, useful information that had been programmed from the get-go. Instead, they often ran around like in the below, infamous image. [Image]

From the comments:

I can kinda see QA missing it, since the AI is nondeterministic, it'd be hard get a bug created to say "the AI seems... bad"

Aliens: Colonial Marines.

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takyon writes:

Atlanta is a scorching heat island, but can green roofs help?

It's midsummer, which means that perennial, suffocating, climatological sauna has befallen Atlanta. Like most urban places, Atlanta's status as a heat island is hardly surprising, what with all the heat-capturing concrete and carbon emissions, which spell hotter summer temps intown (2.4 degrees in the daytime, about 4 degrees at night) than surrounding rural areas. What's more surprising: The ATL's heat-island problem is actually getting better.

That's the word from Bill Lomel, Sentry Roof Services president, whose company has worked with Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and other major clients to implement green-roof practices that include reflective roof materials and energy-effecient insulation. The result, per Lomel, is that Atlanta's heat island footprint has been dramatically reduced in the past decade, as buildings implementing "cool roofs" throughout town are saving up to 20 percent in energy costs. Meanwhile, the tops of such buildings are more than a third cooler than standard roofs, which can reach July temperatures of a blazing 150 degrees.

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canopic jug writes:

Bruce Perens goes into some electrical theory regarding grounding of the new Cat 7 Ethernet cables.

The advent of Category 7 cable, which includes four individually shielded twisted pairs, has introduced grounding to the concerns of the network engineer. The general advice of wire manufacturers, and the general configuration of pre-manufactured cables, is for both ends to be grounded. This is contrary to common knowledge in electrical engineering regarding ground loops and the potential for lightning-induced current.

[...] So, I'll be using single-ended grounding for my application, if for no other reason than that it removes so many unknowns from the equation. I suggest that those who wish to do otherwise actually attempt to model the circuit for its RF resonance and potential for induction of lightning current, using NEC or similar software.

Original Submission

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

Jack Wallen reports via TechRepublic

If you are planning to roll out numerous Ubuntu-based servers, you can download the default ISO, install the operating system on each machine, and then install the necessary software. But what if each of those servers will need the same list of software packages installed? Why go through the hassle of manually adding those packages after you've installed the OS? If there were a way you could create a custom Ubuntu ISO, which includes all the necessary software, wouldn't that be the most efficient means of handling this task?

Good thing such a tool exists.

Cubic is a custom Ubuntu ISO creator. With it, you can take a standard Ubuntu ISO image, install all the third-party software you need, and then create a custom, bootable (and installable) image from that. In the end, you'll have a Ubuntu platform that includes all the software you need, without having to add everything post-install.

I'm going to walk you through the process of installing and using Cubic. Once you know this tool, you won't want to work without it.

[...] I highly recommend you giving Cubic a try. This easy-to-use software will save you time, especially when rolling out a data center filled with Ubuntu servers.

[Disclaimer: I have no experience in this realm, but the idea looks plausible for me, so I'm running the story. Does anyone here have experience with Cubic? How about any other similar tool? How has it worked for you? Any pitfalls to watch out for? Would you recommend it to others?--martyb]

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aristarchus writes:

Interesting legal site, Above the Law has a nice bit on the lawyers who defend the indefensible:

I get that Nazis need good lawyers, but good lawyers don't have to like it.

Alex Jones, the InfoWars guy, has lawyered-up anew, as Sandy Hook families pursue their lawsuits against him for defamation. Jones has claimed that the Sandy Hook shooting, where 27 people, including 20 children were murdered, was a "hoax."

The New York Times ran a profile on his new lawyers, in part because they're the same guys who defended the mainstream Republican — fine, "neo-Nazi" — publication, Daily Stormer. First Amendment lawyers Marc Randazza and Jay Wolman of the Las Vegas-based Randazza Legal Group are handling Jones's defense in Connecticut.

Full disclosure time: I know Marc Randazza. I've done podcasts with Marc Randazza. Marc Randazza has defended this website.

And I respect what he's doing. No, I don't agree. I don't think he should be doing it. Just because Nazis deserve a legal defense doesn't mean you're a good person for defending them. But, to contrast Randazza with another prominent legal defender of the alt-white takeover, Alan Dershowitz just says aggressive bunk on television to television hosts without the legal training to contradict him and then cries that his friends on Marthas Vineyard treat him like a pariah who supports baby kidnapping. Randazza does his Nazi dance in court, and he doesn't cry when decent people shun him. While Dershowitz only gets up if rich and famous people are in trouble, Randazza doesn't reserve an absolutist stand on the First Amendment solely for Nazis and other assorted Deplorables — if you think you live in a world where you can say anything you want without consequences, Randazza is there for you. I can respect that. I think of Randazza like the "evil Michael Avenatti," and I mean that as a compliment.

But you can defend deplorable people without adopting and promoting their deplorable logic. There's a difference. The legal community does not talk about that difference very much: lawyers shun deplorable lawyers, and deplorable lawyers put their heads so far up their own ass that they think any suggestion of restraint smells bad. But we can draw a line of demarcation around zealous legal defense and ridiculous alt-white dogma.

[...] If you want to represent detestable clients, fine. But when you go out into the media and don't just defend them but actually adopt their logic and moral arguments, that's different. Then, it looks like you agree with them. And if you agree with them, you can no longer avail yourself of the lawyerly presumption that you are just doing your job. Instead of being a mere part of the process, you become part of the problem.

Here I am on Jurassic SoylentNews, and the only one who agrees with me is the bloodsucking lawyer.

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takyon writes:

Elon Musk's Boring Company unveils bricks being produced from dirt dug in its tunnels

Elon Musk's Boring Company has been releasing side products mostly unrelated to the company's main purpose, like hats and flamethrowers. The latest product has more to do with boring tunnels since they plan on selling and/or giving away bricks made from dirt dug in the company tunnels.

The Boring Company is now showing a glimpse at how the bricks are being produced. They estimate that the cost of moving the dirt can represent up to 15% of the total cost of a tunnel, which is why they want to turn the dirt into a product itself.

Musk claimed that the bricks are more solid than cinderblocks and he suggested that the company could sell them for just 10 cents in order to get rid of the dirt.

Related: Company Proposes Giant Concrete 'Lego' Bricks to Build Houses 80% Faster
Washington, D.C. Granted Elon Musk's Boring Company an Excavation Permit for Possible Hyperloop
California's Efforts to Restrict Elon Musk's Flamethrowers Go Down in Flames
Elon Musk's Boring Company Wins Chicago O'Hare International Airport Transportation Contract

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takyon writes:

PC sales are growing for the first time in six years

Shipments of PCs are definitely growing, for the first time in six years. Market research firms Gartner and IDC both agree that the PC market grew in the second quarter of 2018, with IDC claiming an increase of 2.7 percent and Gartner recording a more modest 1.4 percent of growth. IDC first revealed the PC market was starting to flatten and show potential growth last year, but both Gartner and IDC track PC shipments differently.

IDC's data crucially includes Chromebooks and excludes Windows tablets including devices with a detachable keyboard like the Surface Pro. Gartner counts Windows-based tablets as PCs and excludes Chromebooks or any non-Windows-based tablets. Chromebooks appeared to be powering some PC growth last year, but now that Gartner is tracking overall growth it's clear this is also from regular Windows PCs or Macs, and not just from Android tablets or Chromebooks. This is the first year-over-year PC shipment growth since the first quarter of 2012.

Also at TechCrunch.

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takyon writes:

Ammonia—a renewable fuel made from sun, air, and water—could power the globe without carbon

For the past 4 years, [chemist Douglas MacFarlane] has been working on a fuel cell that can convert renewable electricity into a carbon-free fuel: ammonia. Fuel cells typically use the energy stored in chemical bonds to make electricity; MacFarlane's operates in reverse. In his third-floor laboratory, he shows off one of the devices, about the size of a hockey puck and clad in stainless steel. Two plastic tubes on its backside feed it nitrogen gas and water, and a power cord supplies electricity. Through a third tube on its front, it silently exhales gaseous ammonia, all without the heat, pressure, and carbon emissions normally needed to make the chemical. "This is breathing nitrogen in and breathing ammonia out," MacFarlane says, beaming like a proud father.

Companies around the world already produce $60 billion worth of ammonia every year, primarily as fertilizer, and MacFarlane's gizmo may allow them to make it more efficiently and cleanly. But he has ambitions to do much more than help farmers. By converting renewable electricity into an energy-rich gas that can easily be cooled and squeezed into a liquid fuel, MacFarlane's fuel cell effectively bottles sunshine and wind, turning them into a commodity that can be shipped anywhere in the world and converted back into electricity or hydrogen gas to power fuel cell vehicles. The gas bubbling out of the fuel cell is colorless, but environmentally, MacFarlane says, ammonia is as green as can be. "Liquid ammonia is liquid energy," he says. "It's the sustainable technology we need."

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

Common Dreams reports

Hundreds of thousands of anti-Trump demonstrators took to the streets of London and in separate protests across the U.K. on Friday [July 13] in a massive and historic show of opposition to a sitting U.S. president.

After Donald Trump was greeted with angry protesters as he arrived in London on Thursday to meet with U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May, a 20-foot-tall Trump baby blimp took flight over the city early on Friday as the massive "Carnival of Resistance" protests--which are slated[1] to last through the weekend--kicked off.

250,000 people are protesting #TogetherAgainstTrump in central London right now! #resist #carnivalofresistance

[...] Several of the events have been organized by the Stop Trump Coalition, which played a key role in Trump's previous canceled trips and [who] warns that "Trumpism directly threatens steps towards tackling" several issues including inequality, peace and disarmament, climate change, fighting discrimination--"particularly against already marginalized groups like migrants and Muslims"--and corporate greed. The Trump administration's family separation policy has further fueled widespread outrage and opposition to his visit.

[1] I'm not crazy about their page construction, but WOW! are they ever organized otherwise.

Metro News notes

Photos show incredible scale of protests against Donald Trump's visit

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takyon writes:

An ex-SpaceX engineer has a design for a nuclear-powered rocket that could beat SpaceX's BFR on $/kg and many other aspects:

John Bucknell says the nuclear turbo rocket technology and his designs are ready for development. The air-breathing nuclear thermal rocket will enable 7 times more payload fraction to be delivered to low-earth orbit and it will have 6 times the ISP (rocket fuel efficiency) as chemical rockets. The rocket will have two to three times the speed and performance of chemical rockets for missions outside of the atmosphere. [...] Besides being cheaper and vastly higher performing that the SpaceX BFR, the Bucknell Nuclear turbo rocket will to do things which the SpaceX BFR cannot.

Bucknell's proposed air-breathing nuclear thermal rocket propulsion cycle called the Nuclear Thermal Turbo Rocket (NTTR) improves payload fraction to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) by a factor of 5-7 relative to State of the Art chemical rockets.

Mission Average Specific Impulse: 1430 to 1788 sec (About 5-6 times better than 350-400 ISP chemical rockets)

The Nuclear Thermal Turbo Rocket (NTTR) is a supercharged air-augmented nuclear thermal combined cycle rocket architecture. Nuclear turbo rockets already offer the highest Specific Impulse (Isp) of launch-capable pure rocket propulsion systems, whereas launch to hypersonic turbine combined cycle systems offer far higher Isp. The NTTR combines both modes.

Also at Ars Technica.

See also: John Bucknell designer of the Nuclear Thermal Turbo Rocket is answering questions
Turbo Rocket Economics are $85/kg to LEO or $715/kg to Luna

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

Prominent whistleblowers and journalists defend Julian Assange at online vigil

Over the weekend, dozens of public figures, including prominent whistleblowers and journalists, took part in a 36-hour international online vigil in defence of WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange. The event was the third "Unity4J" vigil organised by independent journalist and New Zealand Internet Party leader, Suzie Dawson, since Assange's communications were cut-off by Ecuadorian authorities at their London embassy last March.

[...] Daniel Ellsberg, whose release of the Pentagon Papers in 1971 exposed the extent of US criminality in Vietnam, drew a parallel between his own activities and those of WikiLeaks. Referring to WikiLeaks' 2010 publication of US war logs in Iraq and Afghanistan, he stated: "I really waited almost 40 years, after the Pentagon Papers had come out, for someone to do what I had done."

Ellsberg pointed to similarities between the attacks that had been levelled against him, and the persecution of Assange. "I was charged with 12 felony counts, a possible 150 years in prison. Nixon had in mind for me what Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have had in mind for Julian Assange," he said.

takyon: #Unity4J. See also: Why I Stand With Julian Assange at The American Conservative.

Related: FBI Whistleblower on Pierre Omidyar and His Campaign to Neuter Wikileaks
Julian Assange has His Internet Access Cut Off by Ecuador
Ecuador Spent $5 Million Protecting and Spying on Julian Assange

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DeathMonkey writes:

A dozen Russian intelligence officers have been charged with conspiring to hack Democrats during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to a new indictment in the probe led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

The 12 were members of Russian military intelligence, known as the GRU, and are accused of engaging in a sustained effort to hack the computer networks of Democratic organizations and the Hillary Clinton campaign.

Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein detailed the new charges at a mid-day press conference. Mueller, as has been his practice, did not attend the announcement. Court records show a grand jury Mueller has been using returned an indictment Friday morning.

The announcement comes days before President Trump is due to meet with Russian President Vladi­mir Putin in Finland. Rosenstein said he briefed Trump earlier this week on the charges

[...] Rosenstein said the suspects worked to "hack into computers, steal documents, and release those documents with the intent to interfere with the election."

Mueller probe indicts 12 Russians for hacking Democrats in 2016

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Intel To Acquire eASIC: Lower Cost ASICs in FPGA Design Time

Intel is [...] announcing that it will acquire a company called eASIC which develops FPGA-like design tools to roll out 'structured ASICs'. These structured ASICs an intermediary between a full FPGA and a full ASIC that allow for a quick roll out time and cheaper production cost. Technically Intel has been using eASIC technology since at least 2015 in its custom Xeons, however today's announcement means that the eASIC team will become part of Intel's Programmable Solutions Group (PSG). The deal is expected to close within the next month.

eASIC.

Press release. Also at TechCrunch.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Observatories Team Up to Reveal Rare Double Asteroid

New observations by three of the world's largest radio telescopes have revealed that an asteroid discovered last year is actually two objects, each about 3,000 feet (900 meters) in size, orbiting each other.

Near-Earth asteroid 2017 YE5 was discovered with observations provided by the Morocco Oukaimeden Sky Survey on Dec. 21, 2017, but no details about the asteroid's physical properties were known until the end of June. This is only the fourth "equal mass" binary near-Earth asteroid ever detected, consisting of two objects nearly identical in size, orbiting each other. The new observations provide the most detailed images ever obtained of this type of binary asteroid.

On June 21, the asteroid 2017 YE5 made its closest approach to Earth for at least the next 170 years, coming to within 3.7 million miles (6 million kilometers) of Earth, or about 16 times the distance between Earth and the Moon. On June 21 and 22, observations by NASA's Goldstone Solar System Radar (GSSR) in California showed the first signs that 2017 YE5 could be a binary system. The observations revealed two distinct lobes, but the asteroid's orientation was such that scientists could not see if the two bodies were separate or joined. Eventually, the two objects rotated to expose a distinct gap between them.

2017 YE₅.

Related: Binary Asteroid May Have Been Torn Apart by "Planet Nine"
NASA to Redirect an Asteroid's Moon With Kinetic Impact
Hubble Telescope Observes Binary Asteroid With Comet-Like Features
ESA Plans "Hera" Follow-Up Mission to NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test

Original Submission

realDonaldTrump writes:

The Wall Street Journal (archive) reports:

"The Justice Department is trying to undo AT&T Inc.'s purchase of Time Warner Inc., appealing the ruling that last month struck down one of the era's highest-profile antitrust challenges.

The government initiated the appeal Thursday with a two-page notice in federal court, a month after U.S. District Judge Richard Leon rejected Justice Department arguments that the more than $80 billion cash-and-stock deal would suppress competition in the pay-TV industry.

[...] The matter now goes to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where a three-judge panel will consider the Justice Department's claims that Judge Leon was incorrect. The appeals process could take many months, leaving lingering uncertainty over AT&T's plans.

[...] In a more typical antitrust case, the government challenges horizontal deals involving two companies in the same business that compete head to head. The AT&T case marked the first time in 40 years that a court had seen a fully litigated challenge to a vertical merger. And it was the first major enforcement action by President Donald Trump's antitrust chief at the Justice Department, Makan Delrahim, who filed the lawsuit two months after receiving Senate confirmation."

Original Submission