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takyon writes:

Nintendo's Switch just outsold the GameCube

The Switch's lifetime sales, as of this writing, have reached over 22 million units, which surpasses not only the Wii U's 13.6 million units, but the GameCube's 21.7 million units. For reference, the next most successful Nintendo console was the Nintendo 64 at 33 million units and the most successful (in non-handhelds) is the Wii at 101 million units.

Before crucial holiday season, Nintendo struggles as Sony shines

As 2017 came to a close, Nintendo was busy reveling in Switch sales that were exceeding expectations while Sony's PlayStation 4 was showing signs that its strong sales had peaked. Leading into the all important 2018 holiday season, the companies' comparative console war outlooks seem to have changed a bit.

Let's start with Nintendo, which recently announced worldwide shipments of 3.2 million Switch systems in the July through September quarter. The good news is, that's up slightly from the 2.93 million sold in the same period a year ago. The bad news is that slight increase doesn't put Nintendo on track to meet its long-standing projection for 20 million Switch units sold during the fiscal year (which ends in March 2019). Overall, Nintendo's quarterly profits and revenues both came in significantly below analyst estimates as well, though both were up from a year prior.

[...] Sony, meanwhile, is seeing surprising resilience for the PS4 during its fifth full year on the market. The console shipped 3.9 million units in the last quarter, down slightly from 4.2 million a year ago, but not down nearly as much as might be expected for a platform that launched in late 2013. Overall, the PlayStation division's quarterly profits were up 65 percent year over year, with sales up 22 percent; both figures exceeded analyst expectations.

See also: Nintendo chief says beefing up Switch sales is the main task in his strategy

Previously: Nintendo Sells at Least 10 Million Switch Consoles in 2017, 64 GB Game Cards Delayed to 2019

Related: Video Game Consoles are Doing Better than Ever
Hidden "VrMode" Found in Nintendo Switch Firmware

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Feel free to ignore these Halloween-themed stories. But remember, there is a skeleton inside you, and it wants out.

CoolHand writes:

Spooky Skull-Shaped Dead Comet To Zip Past Earth This Halloween

A comet that, in certain lights, resembles a human skull will zip right past Earth just in time for Halloween. Scientists have been observing the space rock from the Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii. It is expected to safely flyby Earth on Nov. 11.

The comet was first discovered back in October 2015 by the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System or Pan-STARRS-1, part of Near-Earth Object Observations Program funded by NASA. The space rock called Asteroid 2015 TB145 is more likely a dead comet, which has already shed its volatiles after repeated close encounters with the Sun.

Scientists also found that it only reflects about six percent of light, slightly higher than a typical comet that reflects about 3 to 5 percent of light.

"That suggests it could be cometary in origin — but as there is no coma evident, the conclusion is it is a dead comet," explained Vishnu Reddy, a research scientist from the Planetary Science Institute."

Asteroid 2015 TB145 will fly by the Earth at a distance of about 25 million miles. Its first observed flyby happened on Oct. 31, 2015, prompting scientists at NASA to call it the "Great Pumpkin."

Phoenix666 writes:

Phys.org:

In a newly published study, researchers dug into how fertilizing with manure affects soil quality, compared with inorganic fertilizer.

Ekrem Ozlu of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his team studied two fields in South Dakota. From 2003 to 2015, the research team applied either manure or inorganic fertilizer to field plots growing corn and soybeans. They used low, medium, and high manure levels, and medium and high inorganic fertilizer levels. They also had a control treatment of no soil additives to provide a comparison.

In the summer of 2015, they collected soil samples at a variety of depths using a push probe auger. Then they analyzed the samples.

• Manure helped keep soil pH—a measure of acidity or alkalinity—in a healthy range for crops. Inorganic fertilizer made the soil more acidic.
• Manure increased soil organic carbon for all the measured soil depths compared to inorganic fertilizer and control treatments. More carbon means better soil structure.
• Manure significantly increased total nitrogen compared to fertilizer treatments. Nitrogen is key to plant growth.
• Manure increased water-stable aggregates. These are groups of soil particles that stick to each other. Increased water-stable aggregates help soil resist water erosion. Inorganic fertilizer application decreased these aggregates.

Is it time to re-purpose the world's sewage into fertilizer?

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Phoenix666 writes:

El Reg:

A mostly-unused slice of radio spectrum set aside for connected cars in 1999 could soon be shared with Wi-Fi, with the Federal Communications Commission seeking comment on the future of the 5.9 GHz band.

On Monday, the FCC presented the results of tests conducted by Cisco, Qualcomm, KEA Tech, Broadcom, and CAV technologies to see how well Wi-Fi devices (in regulatory-speak "unlicensed national infrastructure", U-NII, devices) can share spectrum with Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) systems for the Intelligent Transportation Service (ITS).

Since vendors have worked for years learning how to "play nice" with other spectrum – for example, in the "LTE unlicensed versus Wi-Fi" debate resolved last year – it should come as no surprise to learn that Wi-Fi kit can obey "detect and vacate" rules in the 5.9 GHz band.

The tweets must flow...

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takyon writes:

Google employees will walk out on Thursday to protest company's

Days after a New York Times investigation revealed Google gave Android creator Andy Rubin a $90 million exit package despite multiple relationships with other Google staffers and accusations of sexual misconduct, some 200 employees at the search giant are planning a walkout, per BuzzFeed News.

We've reached out to Google for comment.

The walkout, or "women's walk," as it's been referred to in internal company forums, is planned for Thursday.

Following the NYT report, Google chief executive officer Sundar Pichai and its vice president of people operations Eileen Naughton co-signed a company memo admitting that 48 people had been terminated at the company for sexual harassment in the past two years, 13 of which held a senior management position or higher. None of them, according to the memo, received an exit package.

[...] Rubin left Google in 2014 after an internal investigation found accusations of sexual misconduct against him to be credible. The details of his exit, however, were never disclosed. It wasn't until The Information published its own bombshell report on Rubin's wrongdoings last fall that details of his history of sexual harassment began to emerge. In the wake of The Information's story, Rubin took a leave of absence from Essential to "deal with personal matters."

See also: Google is 'bold and inspired' for coming clean about its 'Game of Thrones' culture of sex and power

Update: Alphabet exec Rich DeVaul resigns after harassment allegation

Just days after a New York Times report dug into sexual misconduct by executives within Google and its parent company Alphabet, one of the men named has resigned. Rich DeVaul was a director of Alphabet's X research division (formerly known as Google X), and cofounded Project Loon. As first reported by Axios, DeVaul resigned, and did not receive an exit package.

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upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Humanity has wiped out 60% of animal populations since 1970, report finds.

Humanity has wiped out 60% of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles since 1970, leading the world's foremost experts to warn that the annihilation of wildlife is now an emergency that threatens civilisation.

The new estimate of the massacre of wildlife is made in a major report produced by WWF and involving 59 scientists from across the globe. It finds that the vast and growing consumption of food and resources by the global population is destroying the web of life, billions of years in the making, upon which human society ultimately depends for clean air, water and everything else.

"We are sleepwalking towards the edge of a cliff" said Mike Barrett, executive director of science and conservation at WWF. "If there was a 60% decline in the human population, that would be equivalent to emptying North America, South America, Africa, Europe, China and Oceania. That is the scale of what we have done."

"This is far more than just being about losing the wonders of nature, desperately sad though that is," he said. "This is actually now jeopardising the future of people. Nature is not a 'nice to have' – it is our life-support system."

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MichaelDavidCrawford writes:

Budget 2018: UK goes it alone on digital sales tax for tech giants

UK chancellor Philip Hammond has used today's budget to take aim at tech giants who he says aren't paying their fair share of tax in the nation and is promising to introduce a digital sales levy in 2020 to rectify this.

[...] Hammond said that, as the UK evolves for a digital age, "so too must our tax system to ensure it remains fair and robust" – with the key announcement being on digital tax for tech giants. "There is one standout example of where the rules of the game must evolve now if they are to keep up with the emerging digital economy," Hammond said: digital platforms delivering search engines, social media and online marketplaces. Tax rules have "simply not kept pace with changing business models", he said, adding that it as "clearly not sustainable or fair that digital platforms businesses can generate substantial value in the UK without paying tax here". As such, the UK will, in April 2020, introduce a digital services tax on search engines, social media platforms and online marketplaces.

[...] The move comes as the OECD is trying to thrash out a global agreement on digital sales tax. Hammond – who hinted that the UK might go it alone earlier this month – said a global deal would be the ideal long-term solution, but that progress had been "painfully slow" and that "we cannot simply talk forever". EU member states are also pressing for an interim deal as the OECD deliberates.

The government said it will not be a "generalised tax on online advertising or the collection of data" – and will put a levy of 2 per cent on the revenues that can be attributed to the business models linked to UK-based users.

Companies with global revenue over 500 million pounds will have their local revenue taxed at 2%. I strongly oppose taxing any company's gross revenue. Profit taxes are reasonable, but there are lots of companies that have very thin margins.

Also at The Guardian, FT, The Washington Post, The Hill, MIT, and WSJ.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

NASA is still holding out hope for the Mars Opportunity rover

NASA's Mars Opportunity rover has had a rough year. A sustained dust storm on Mars caused the rover to lose contact with NASA and things have been on struggle street ever since.

In August NASA gave Opportunity, the little Mars rover that could, 45 days to get back in contact. That time frame has come and gone, but NASA has once again made the call to not abandon hope.

In mid-October, NASA said it was hopeful strengthening winds would blow up the dust it thinks is interfering with Opportunity's ability to get back in contact.

"A windy period on Mars -- known to Opportunity's team as 'dust-clearing season' -- occurs in the November-to-January time frame and has helped clean the rover's panels in the past," explained NASA. "The team remains hopeful that some dust clearing may result in hearing from the rover in this period."

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Dolphins Are Simplifying Their Calls to Be Heard Over Shipping Noise

The world's oceans are getting noisier, humming with the near-constant sounds of ship engines, seafloor mining, and oil and gas exploration. Now, a new study [open, DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2018.0484] [DX] published in the journal Biology Letters has found that dolphins are being forced to simplify their calls in order to be heard over the noise.

A team of researchers, led by marine biologists Helen Bailey and Leila Fouda from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, analyzed some 200 recordings of bottlenose dolphin calls collected over a three-month period in the North Atlantic using underwater microphones. They found that in noisy parts of the ocean, dolphins communicated using less-complex, higher-frequency whistles than in quieter areas.

"It's kind of like trying to answer a question in a noisy bar and after repeated attempts to be heard, you just give the shortest answer possible," Bailey said. "Dolphins simplified their calls to counter the masking effects of vessel noise."

Original Submission

takyon writes:

NASA Retires Kepler Space Telescope

After nine years in deep space collecting data that indicate our sky to be filled with billions of hidden planets - more planets even than stars - NASA's Kepler space telescope has run out of fuel needed for further science operations. NASA has decided to retire the spacecraft within its current, safe orbit, away from Earth. Kepler leaves a legacy of more than 2,600 planet discoveries from outside our solar system, many of which could be promising places for life.

"As NASA's first planet-hunting mission, Kepler has wildly exceeded all our expectations and paved the way for our exploration and search for life in the solar system and beyond," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "Not only did it show us how many planets could be out there, it sparked an entirely new and robust field of research that has taken the science community by storm. Its discoveries have shed a new light on our place in the universe, and illuminated the tantalizing mysteries and possibilities among the stars."

takyon writes:

Apple announces A12X with a 7-core GPU, 90% better multicore performance

It's been just a few short weeks since Apple unveiled the A12 Bionic, but at an event in New York City, the Cupertino company upstaged it with a more powerful model: the A12X Bionic. It's the chip in the new iPad Pro.

Apple's A12X is similarly built on a 7-nanometer process, but bigger than the A12.

"No other tablet, laptop, or even desktop has been able to make this leap forward," John Ternus, vice president of hardware engineering, said onstage.

It has 10 billion transistors and comprises a seven-core GPU and eight-core CPU, the latter of which has four performance cores and four efficiency cores. Single-core CPU performance is up to 35 percent faster compared to last year's iPad Pro chip, and 90 percent faster in terms of multicore performance.

[...] Apple says it delivers "Xbox One S-class" graphics performance in a package that is much smaller, and claims it's faster than 92 percent of all portable PCs.

Also at Wccftech.

Related: Apple Wants to Ship More ARM Chips in Macs
Apple to Include its Own Chips Inside More Macs
Apple Plans to Use Its Own Chips in Macs From 2020, Replacing Intel
Snapdragon 1000 ARM SoC Could Compete With Low-Power Intel Chips in Laptops
ARM Aims to Match Intel 15-Watt Laptop CPU Performance

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takyon writes:

SLS contractor gets real, says program needs to focus on "affordability"

For the most part, the presentations [at the American Astronautical Society's Wernher von Braun Memorial Symposium] went as usual for these kinds of events—corporate vice presidents talking about the progress they were making on this or that component of the rocket and spacecraft. Although the Space Launch System rocket is going to launch three years later than originally planned, and its program is over budget and was recently admitted by NASA's own inspector to be poorly managed, you would not have known it from these presentations.

However, one panelist did offer a warning of sorts to his colleagues. Former astronaut and Vice President and General Manager of Propulsion for Northrop Grumman Charlie Precourt spoke about his company's contributions to the rocket (Northrop Grumman recently acquired Orbital ATK). They are building the large, solid rocket boosters that will provide a kick off the launch pad. Yet Precourt prefaced his update with a message about affordability—as the exploration program moves from development into operations with the first flight of SLS and Orion in 2020 or so, costs must come down, he said.

[...] "We have to execute, but we also have to be planning for the future in terms of survivability, sustainability, and affordability," Precourt said. "I used all three of those words intentionally about this program. We've got to make sure we've got our mindset on affordability, and I don't think it's too early for all of us on this panel, as well as our counterparts at NASA, to start thinking about that."

[...] Precourt said contractors should consider a future in which NASA's present multibillion expenditures on rocket development costs need to be cut in half in order for the SLS vehicle to have a robust future. "All of us need to be thinking about [how] our annual budget for this will not be what it is in development," he said. "That's a very serious problem that we have to look forward to, and to try to rectify, so that we are sustainable."

If the other speakers had thoughts about Precourt's comments, they did not share them during the ensuing discussion.

Related: NASA Opens Door to Possibly Lowering SLS Cost Using Blue Origin's Engines
NASA Administrator Ponders the Fate of SLS in Interview
There's a New Report on SLS Rocket Management, and It's Pretty Brutal
Damage Control: Boeing-Sponsored Newsletter Praises Space Launch System (SLS), Trashes Saturn V

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canopic jug writes:

Brian Krebs has posted in his blog that "the convicted co-author of the highly disruptive Mirai botnet malware strain has been sentenced to 2,500 hours of community service, six months home confinement, and ordered to pay $8.6 million in restitution".

He avoided jail time because he and his two conspirators cooperated fully with the investigation. The Mirai malware peaked in the autumn of 2016. It tested devices against a table of more than 60 common factory-set default user names and passwords for Internet of Things products, using those credentials to log in and take over the vulnerable devices and exploit their resources for powerful distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

New Signal privacy feature removes sender ID from metadata

Plenty of messaging apps use strong encryption to make it next to impossible for law enforcement officers or other potential adversaries to read communications sent between parties. Often, however, unencrypted metadata—such as the sender, receiver, and time a message is sent—is all the sensitive data an adversary needs. Now, the Signal app is testing a new technique called "sealed sender" that's designed to minimize the metadata that's accessible to its servers.

A beta release announced Monday will send messages that remove most of the plain-text sender information from message headers. It's as if the Signal app was sending a traditional letter through the postal service that still included the "to" address but has left almost all of the "from" address blank.

takyon writes:

Building a Time Machine for Radio

[Thomas] Witherspoon's time machine is The Radio Spectrum Archive. The technological advance that makes it possible is the proliferation in recent years of cheap software-defined radios (SDRs), which can digitize enormous swaths of radio spectrum. The SDR's software can be used to select individual transmissions and listen to them live. Or the swath of spectrum can be recorded and played back through the software later, letting listeners tune into broadcasts just as if they were live.

Shortwave listeners and amateur radio enthusiasts have been using SDRs mainly to find interesting signals, "but not a lot of people thought about saving the spectrum and archiving it. But there were those who had," says Witherspoon. Part of their motivation was to capture how radio has been evolving in the Internet era: "The AM broadcast band here in the States, the FM broadcast band, and...the shortwave broadcast band, are going through a lot of changes, especially the shortwave bands. A lot of stations are going off the air."

[...] It's the large size of the recordings that poses the biggest obstacle to Witherspoon's plan to gather more recordings and make them publicly accessible online. One way the team is tackling the problem is by focusing on preserving recordings associated with newsworthy events. For example, "when the North Korea talks were happening, we were doing AM broadcast-band recordings. But since the news didn't change a lot during the day, we chose to preserve only a 2-hour segment." Witherspoon estimates that they currently have about 150 terabytes of recordings "curated to the point that it's worth uploading them."

[...] The Radio Spectrum Archive is currently working with the nonprofit Internet Archive to host recordings and make them publicly available. One issue is the need to settle on a standardized spectrum-storage format. Once that is done, then it's hoped a Web-based interface can be created to browse and play back the recordings. Witherspoon is seeking volunteer developers to work on this interface.

Original Submission