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upstart writes in with a submission via IRC for Fnord666:

Amazon fixes security flaws allowing smart home hijacks

Some smart home device owners may have dodged a bullet. Amazon recently patched 13 security flaws in an operating system for the Internet of Things, FreeRTOS, as well as Amazon Web Services connection modules. The holes let intruders crash devices, leak the contents of their memory and remotely run code, effectively giving attackers full control. The flaws might have been far-reaching if they'd gone unfixed -- both FreeRTOS and its safety-oriented counterpart SafeRTOS are used in a wide range of devices inside and outside the home, including cars, aircraft and medical gear.

From the Zimperion Labs blog linked above:

Fluffeh writes:

The United Kingdom told Ecuador in August that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange would not be extradited if he left the country's London embassy, where he has lived under asylum since 2012, Ecuador's top government attorney said on Thursday.

[...] Salvador said Ecuador passed on the UK's response to Assange's lawyers, but noted that if Assange stayed in the embassy Ecuador would put new conditions on his stay. "Mr. Assange had a choice between turning himself in to British authorities with those assurances, or staying in the embassy of Ecuador, but given that the asylum had lasted six years with no signs of immediate resolution we were going to place certain rules." Salvador said at a news conference.

[...] The relationship between Assange and Ecuador has grown increasingly tense in the past year. Assange filed a lawsuit in an Ecuadorean court last week claiming the new asylum terms, which require him to pay for medical bills and telephone calls and to clean up after his pet cat, violate his rights.

Previously:
Julian Assange Sues Ecuador for "Violating His Fundamental Rights".

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upstart writes in with a submission via IRC for Fnord666:

Netflix to raise $2 billion in debt to fund more original content

Netflix’s commitment to growing its original content collection will see the company again returning to debt markets to raise more financing, the company announced today. According a release published to its investors site, Netflix says it plans to raise $2 billion to help fund new content, including “content acquisitions, production and development, capital expenditures, investments, working capital and potential acquisitions and strategic transactions.”

[...] “We recognize we are making huge cash investments in content, and we want to assure our investors that we have the same high confidence in the underlying economics as our cash investments in the past. These investments we see as very likely to help us to keep our revenue and operating profits growing for a very long time ahead,” the letter to shareholders read.

Netflix also pointed to the increasing competition in the industry as one of the reasons why original content investment was so critical, adding that it didn’t only compete with linear TV, YouTube, gaming, social media, DVDs and pay-per-view, but with a number of new and upcoming streaming services, as well.

“Content companies such as WarnerMedia and Disney/Fox are moving to self-distribute their own content; tech firms like Apple, Amazon and others are investing in premium content to enhance their distribution platforms,” the letter also stated. “Amid these massive competitors on both sides, plus traditional media firms, our job is to make Netflix stand out so that when consumers have free time, they choose to spend it with our service,” it had said.

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

Nurdles are small pellets of plastic that are created as a precursor for the making of a wide variety of plastic products. They have been travelling across the oceans for decades after shipping accidents drop them into the sea. While the ocean has millions of nurdles from shipping accidents, a recent spill from near the South African city of Durban saw over a billion nurdles dumped into the ocean. Due to nurdles having a distinct chemical fingerprint they can be traced to the place of origin. The University of Western Australia (UWA) has called for volunteers to help clear nurdles from Australian beaches.

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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd

A research team from Tsinghua University in Beijing has developed a fibre they say is so strong it could even be used to build an elevator to space.

They say just 1 cubic centimetre of the fibre – made from carbon nanotube – would not break under the weight of 160 elephants, or more than 800 tonnes. And that tiny piece of cable would weigh just 1.6 grams.

"This is a breakthrough," said Wang Changqing, a scientist at a key space elevator research centre at Northwestern Polytechnical University in Xian who was not involved in the Tsinghua study.

The Chinese team has developed a new "ultralong" fibre from carbon nanotube that they say is stronger than anything seen before, patenting the technology and publishing part of their research in the journal Nature Nanotechnology earlier this year.

"It is evident that the tensile strength of carbon nanotube bundles is at least 9 to 45 times that of other materials," the team said in the paper.

But hey, it's China, please consume with a medium-sized boulder of salt.

Source: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2170193/china-has-strongest-fibre-can-haul-160-elephants-and-space

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James Sanders writes:

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/new-lte-modem-add-on-board-for-raspberry-pi-eases-iot-deployments/

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upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

NYT: Chinese and Russian spies routinely eavesdrop on Trump's iPhone calls

Chinese and Russian spies routinely eavesdrop on personal phone calls President Trump makes on his iPhones, one of which is no different from the smartphone millions of other people use. The US president's casual approach to electronic security has several current and former officials so frustrated they leaked the details to The New York Times, which reported on the phone interceptions Wednesday evening.

Trump, Wednesday's article reported, has two official iPhones that have been altered by the National Security Agency to limit the types of hacks they're susceptible to. The president has a third iPhone with no modifications that he uses as a personal device, because unlike the official iPhones, he can store personal contacts on it. What's more, while Trump is supposed to swap out his two official phones every 30 days for new ones, he rarely does. Trump did agree to give up his Android phone, which most security experts believe is more vulnerable than Apple's iOS, and Trump has also agreed to the more cumbersome arrangement of having the two official iPhones. One is for Twitter and other apps, while the other handles calls.

Still, when Trump uses the cell phones to call friends, Chinese spies often listen in hopes of gaining insights about how to influence him on the long-simmering issue of trade. Russian spies also routinely eavesdrop on Trump's calls, although the Russian spies don't appear to be running as sophisticated an influence campaign as their Chinese counterparts. Aides have repeatedly warned the president that cell phone calls are especially susceptible to monitoring by adversaries. The aides have pressured him to use landlines instead, but he has refused to give up his devices.

[...] Wednesday's article contrasts Trump's approach to cell phone security with his predecessor. During his second term as president, according to Wednesday's report, Barack Obama used an iPhone, but it couldn't make calls and could receive email only from a special address given to a select group of staff members and close contacts. The iPhone had no camera or microphone and couldn't be used to download apps at will. Texting wasn't permitted because there was no way to collect and store messages as required by the Presidential Records Act. Often, when Obama needed a cell phone, he used one belonging to an aide.

Trump, on the other hand, has insisted on having a more capable device. The president typically uses his mobile phones when he doesn't want a call to be routed through the White House switchboard and logged for aides to see.

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upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Yes, Americans, you can break anti-piracy DRM if you want to repair some of your kit – US govt

The US Copyright Office has ruled that, in certain circumstances, folks can legally break a manufacturer's anti-piracy mechanisms – aka digital rights management (DRM) – if they want to repair their own gear.

The ruling, issued Thursday, states that from this Sunday onwards "the prohibition against circumvention of technological measures that effectively control access to copyrighted works shall not apply to persons who engage in noninfringing uses of certain classes of such works."

The new rules apply to smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, routers and other wireless hotspots, chatty gizmos like Amazon Alexa and Google Home, plus cars, trucks and tractors. Thus, within the next few days, they can all be repaired by anyone with the skills, and it's legal to break any DRM stopping you from doing so. Sadly the Copyright Office didn't include games consoles, aircraft, nor boats, and the copy protection systems on HDMI must remain untouched.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Phys.org:

[...] researchers at The University of Manchester have identified a new species of Archaeopteryx that is closer to modern birds in evolutionary terms.
...
Specimen number eight is the youngest of all the 12 known specimens by approximately half a million years. This age difference in comparison to the other specimens is a key factor in describing it as a new species.

Dr. Nudds explains: "By digitally dissecting the fossil we found that this specimen differed from all of the others. It possessed skeletal adaptations which would have resulted in much more efficient flight. In a nutshell we have discovered what Archaeopteryx lithographica evolved into—i.e. a more advanced bird, better adapted to flying—and we have described this as a new species of Archaeopteryx."

The more recent fossil was half a million years younger, but it's unknown if that entire timespan was required to evolve the new features.

Martin Kundrát et al. The first specimen of Archaeopteryx from the Upper Jurassic Mörnsheim Formation of Germany, Historical Biology (2018). DOI: 10.1080/08912963.2018.1518443

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takyon writes:

Western Digital has announced a 15 TB hard drive, beating the current crop of 14 TB drives before the release of 16 TB drives by itself or others (Seagate had planned to release a 16 TB drive by the end of 2018). The drive uses shingled magnetic recording (SMR) and is helium-filled:

Western Digital notes that its new 15TB Ultrastar DC HC620 HDD is the industry's highest capacity hard drive, and the company is aiming it at those who want to pack the most storage into as small a space as possible. The Ultrastar DC HC620 uses shingled magnetic recording to increase density, and while Western Digital notes that SMR requires some extra work on the part of the end user, that's worth it when it comes to overall cost per terabyte and total cost of ownership.

[...] Release date is another unknown at this point, too. Western Digital says that it's currently shipping qualification samples to some of its enterprise customers and that the HDD will become widely available later this quarter, but that's as specific as the company got with today's announcement.

Also at The Verge.

Related: Western Digital Announces 12-14 TB Hard Drives and an 8 TB SSD
Seagate's 12 TB HDDs Are in Use, and 16 TB is Planned for 2018
Western Digital Shipping 14 TB Helium-Filled Shingled Magnetic Recording Hard Drives
Toshiba Announces its Own Helium-Filled 12-14 TB Hard Drives, with "Conventional Magnetic Recording"
Seagate Announces a 14 TB Helium-Filled PMR Hard Drive
Seagate Launches 14 TB Hard Drive for Desktop Users

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

From a story at ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation):

To be perfectly frank, it's getting harder and harder to resist donning that tinfoil hat.

[...] My confidence that I know — mostly — what data is being recorded about me and what information my apps and devices are sharing has been slowly but surely eroding as the revelations keep coming.

As my doubt grew I decided I wanted to know for sure what my devices were actually sharing. Not just feel like I've got a pretty good idea — but really know. So I've hatched a plan to find out, and I'd like your help along the way.

For about a week I'm going to intercept and record every bit of data sent from my two most personal internet-connected devices: my phone and my laptop. It will include all manner of personal information being sent to companies around the world.

If you're into that kind of thing, you can read all the technical details about how that's going to work.

Has anyone done like TFA's author? What were the results?

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Forbes:

A few weeks ago during a time-sensitive 350GB file transfer, Windows 10 rebooted without warning. When the OS restarted I was greeted with an infuriating blue screen that had become all too familiar. No, not that infuriating blue screen. The one that declares "Working On Updates." It was, as they say, the last straw. After two decades of relying on Windows I finally decided it was time for the nuclear option.

[...] My surprises began with the speed of Ubuntu's installation. It took literally four minutes from start to finish, including selecting my region, a username and a WiFi network to download updates in the background. Four minutes you guys! That's extraction, installation, setup. Within four minutes I was ready to log in and get to work.

Beyond that, no additional drivers were needed. Ubuntu properly detected all of my XPS 13 hardware including WiFi adapter and the gorgeous 4K touchscreen. Function keys, touchpad, webcam, yep. On my first visit to the Gnome-based desktop environment, I even noticed that font scaling was set to 200% to compensate for the display's high resolution. And there was a "nightlight" option for reducing blue light in darker environments? Awesome!

Bonus points: on first boot, Ubuntu presents a screen to opt out of data collection.

Another in a long line of such stories, but it's in a mainstream publication and it sounds like some distros of linux are finally reaching the threshhold for ease-of-use for normies.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

SwRI team makes breakthroughs studying Pluto orbiter mission

A Southwest Research Institute [SwRI] team using internal research funds has made several discoveries that expand the range and value of a future Pluto orbiter mission. The breakthroughs define a fuel-saving orbital tour and demonstrate that an orbiter can continue exploration in the Kuiper Belt after surveying Pluto. These and other results from the study will be reported this week at a workshop on future Pluto and Kuiper Belt exploration at the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences meeting in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Associate Vice President and planetary scientist Dr. Alan Stern leads the SwRI study. The team first discovered how numerous key scientific objectives can be met using gravity assists from Pluto's giant satellite, Charon, rather than propellant, allowing the orbiter to change its orbit repeatedly to investigate various aspects of Pluto, its atmosphere, its five moons, and its solar wind interactions for up to several years. The second achievement demonstrates that, upon completing its science objectives at Pluto, the orbiter can then use Charon's gravity to escape the system without using fuel, slinging the spacecraft into the Kuiper Belt to use the same electric propulsion system it used to enter Pluto orbit to then explore other dwarf planets and smaller Kuiper Belt bodies.

"This is groundbreaking," said Stern. "Previously, NASA and the planetary science community thought the next step in Kuiper Belt exploration would be to choose between 'going deep' in the study of Pluto and its moons or 'going broad' by examining smaller Kuiper Belt objects and another dwarf planet for comparison to Pluto. The planetary science community debated which was the right next step. Our studies show you can do both in a single mission: it's a game changer."

Previously: Return to Pluto?
A Return to Pluto and Other Solar System Targets

Related: New Horizons Captures the Farthest Image From Earth Ever Made
New Horizons Spacecraft Approaches 2014 MU69; OSIRIS-REx Nears 101955 Bennu

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takyon writes:

Oracle puts AMD EPYC in the Cloud

The process of AMD ramping up its EPYC efforts involves a lot of 'first-step' vendor interaction. Having been a very minor player for so long, all the big guns are taking it slowly with AMD's newest hardware in verifying whether it is suitable for their workloads and customers. The next company to tick that box is Oracle, who is announcing today that they will be putting bare metal EPYC instances available in its cloud offering.

The new E-series instances will start with Standard E2, costing around $0.03 per core per hour, up to 64 cores per server, Oracle is stating that this pricing structure is 66% less than the average per-core instance on the market. One bare metal standard instance, BM.Standard E2.52, will offer dual EPYC 7551 processors at 2.0 GHz, with 512 GB of DDR4, dual 25GbE networking, and up to 1PB of remote block storage. Another offering is the E2.64 instance, which will offer 16 cores by comparison.

Related: AMD Epyc 7000-Series Launched With Up to 32 Cores
Data Centers Consider Intel's Rivals
Cray CS500 Supercomputers to Include AMD's Epyc as a Processor Option
AMD Returns to the Datacenter, Set to Launch "7nm" Radeon Instinct GPUs for Machine Learning in 2018
Chinese Company Produces Chips Closely Based on AMD's Zen Microarchitecture
More on AMD's Licensing of Epyc Server Chips to Chinese Companies
TSMC Will Make AMD's "7nm" Epyc Server CPUs

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Phoenix666 writes:

From the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA):

So far, the steel reinforcements in concrete structures are mostly prestressed hydraulically. This re-quires ducts for guiding the tension cables, anchors for force transfer and oil-filled hydraulic jacks. The space requirements of all these apparatuses created the geometric framework conditions for every prestressed concrete structure; the strengthening of older structures therefore sometimes fails due to the high space requirements of this proven method.

In around 15 years of research work, experts from Empa and refer AG have now brought an alter-native method to series production readiness: shape memory alloys based on iron, which contract during heating and thus permanently prestress the concrete structure. Hydraulic prestressing can thus be avoided -- it is sufficient to heat the steel shortly, for example by means of electric current or infrared radiators. The new building material will be marketed immediately under the name "memory-steel." Several pilot projects, such as the reinforcement of various reinforced concrete slabs, have already been successful.

Iron-based shape memory alloy strips for strengthening RC members: Material behavior and characterization (DOI: 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.04.057) (DX)

Original Submission