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takyon writes:

Oppo's 10x optical zoom system really works

Oppo has come to Mobile World Congress this year not with a phone, but with a promise. That promise is a lossless 10x optical zoom that you'll be able to obtain from a new triple-lens cameraphone system the company just unveiled. I tried it out from myself, and while I wouldn't say that the results are quite as pristine as having a dedicated camera with a true optical zooming system, this is definitely the closest we've yet come to conquering the seemingly insurmountable challenge of injecting real zoom into the tight confines of a smartphone.

The key component to Oppo's system is a periscope setup inside the phone: light comes in through one lens, gets reflected by a mirror into an array of additional lenses, and then arrives at the image sensor, which sits perpendicular to the body of the phone. That's responsible for the telephoto lens in Oppo's array, which has a 35mm equivalence of 160mm. Between that lens, a regular wide-angle lens, and a superwide-angle that's 16mm-equivalent, you get the full 10x range that Oppo promises.

Also at TechCrunch and Android Police.

See also: Galaxy S10 shows us that triple-rear camera phones are taking over

Previously: Oppo Smartphone Camera System Includes 10x "Hybrid Zoom"

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takyon writes:

Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime Announces His Body is Ready for Retirement

Nintendo of America's well-loved president Reggie Fils-Aime is retiring after 15 years with the company. April 15 will be his last day on the job. Reggie will be replaced as NOA President by Doug Bowser, who's currently the company's senior VP of sales and marketing. So, yes, Nintendo of America will soon by led by (Doug) Bowser. I can't imagine Mario will be happy about this.

Related: Nintendo to More Than Double Production of Switch; Success Rooted in Wii U's Failure
A Year Ago, the NES Classic Flew Off the Shelves—Now It's Coming Back

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upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for fyngyrz

Navy files for patent on room-temperature superconductor

A scientist working for the U.S. Navy has filed for a patent on a room-temperature superconductor, representing a potential paradigm shift in energy transmission and computer systems.

Salvatore Cezar Pais is listed as the inventor on the Navy's patent application made public by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday.

The application claims that a room-temperature superconductor can be built using a wire with an insulator core and an aluminum PZT (lead zirconate titanate) coating deposited by vacuum evaporation with a thickness of the London penetration depth and polarized after deposition.

An electromagnetic coil is circumferentially positioned around the coating such that when the coil is activated with a pulsed current, a non-linear vibration is induced, enabling room temperature superconductivity.

"This concept enables the transmission of electrical power without any losses and exhibits optimal thermal management (no heat dissipation)," according to the patent document, "which leads to the design and development of novel energy generation and harvesting devices with enormous benefits to civilization."

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takyon writes:

Jeff Bezos just gave a private talk in New York. From utopian space colonies to dissing Elon Musk's Martian dream, here are the most notable things he said.

• Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, gave a talk to a members-only event at the Yale Club in New York on Tuesday.
• During the 30-minute lecture, Bezos said his private aerospace company, Blue Origin, would launch its first people into space aboard a New Shepard rocket in 2019.
• Bezos also questioned the capabilities of a space tourism competitor, Virgin Galactic, and criticized the goal of Elon Musk and SpaceX to settle Mars with humans.
• Ultimately, Bezos said he wants Blue Origin to enable a space-faring civilization where "a Mark Zuckerberg of space" and "1,000 Mozarts and 1,000 Einsteins" can flourish.
• Bezos advised the crowd to hold a powerful, personal long-term vision, but to devote "the vast majority of your energy and attention" on shorter-term activities and those ranging up to 2- or 3-year timeframes.

[...] Bezos: I don't think we'll live on planets, by the way. I think we'll live in giant O'Neal[sic]-style space colonies. Gerard O'Neil, decades ago, came up with this idea. He asked his physics students at Princeton a very simple question, but a very unusual one, which is: Is a planetary surface the right place for humanity to expand in the solar system? And after doing a lot of work, they came back and decided the answer was "no." There's a fascinating interview with Isaac Asimov, Gerard O'Neill, and their interviewer that you can find on YouTube from many decades ago. And to Asimov, the interviewer says, "Why do you think we're so focused, then, on expanding onto other planetary surfaces?" And Asimov says, "That's simple. We grew up on a planet, we're planet chauvinists."

Phoenix666 writes:

Considering that the premise of Altered Carbon is about people who can change into different bodies called "sleeves," it makes sense that some of the characters from season 1 will have new faces.

Anthony Mackie -- best known for his role as Sam Wilson/Falcon in Captain America: Civil War and the Avengers movies -- will play the lead character, mercenary Takeshi Kovacs. Actor Joel Kinnaman originally played the character in season 1.

Simone Missick -- who played Detective Misty Knight in the Netflix Marvel shows The Defenders, Luke Cage and Iron Fist -- joins as the character Trepp.

Dina Shihabi, who played Neda Kazemi in Daredevil, is a new character named Dig 301.

Will the erstwhile Marvel actors augment the show, or drag it down?

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takyon writes:

Venezuela soldiers abandon posts at Colombia border

Soldiers from the Venezuelan national guard have left their posts ahead of an opposition-led effort to bring aid into the country, Colombia's migration agency said. In a separate development, Venezuelan troops have fired tear gas at people looking to cross into Colombia to work. Tensions have been rising over a row about the delivery of humanitarian aid.

President Nicolás Maduro said the border with Colombia is partly closed to stop aid being delivered. But self-declared interim president Juan Guaidó has vowed that hundreds of thousands of volunteers will help bring in the aid deliveries, which include food and medicine, on Saturday. The first delivery of aid has already entered Venezuela through Brazil, Mr Guaidó tweeted. The delivery of aid to the stricken country has proven to be a key area of contention between the two men who see themselves as Venezuela's leader.

National Guard fires tear gas amid Venezuela border tension

Venezuela's National Guard fired tear gas on opposition activists at a barricaded border bridge to Colombia on Saturday, and two protesters were killed near the border in Brazil, as the opposition tried to execute a high-risk plan to deliver humanitarian aid over the obstinate refusal of President Nicolas Maduro.

takyon writes:

After Child Video Scandal, YouTube Says Ad-Friendly Videos Can Be Demonetized For Inappropriate Comments

In light of a potential second coming of the Adpocalypse, in which a number of major marketers have pulled YouTube ads after discovering that campaigns had run against ostensibly innocent videos of young children where pedophiles were exchanging fetishizing remarks in the comments, YouTube is taking severe pains to stamp out the behavior — but not all creators are thrilled with its sweeping response.

On Twitter, Christian family vlogger Jessica Ballinger — who shares videos with her husband, Christopher, and their four children (pictured above), including Parker, a five-year-old gymnast — expressed dismay that a handful of recent vlogs had been demonetized. YouTube acknowledged that while the clips themselves were ad-friendly, in light of the recent controversy, "even if your video is suitable for advertisers, inappropriate comments could result in your video receiving limited or no ads (yellow icon)." (According to YouTube's monetization icon guide, a yellow icon means that videos are not suitable for most advertisers).

Ballinger, whose channel counts 1.2 million subscribers, countered that she monitors her comment section stringently, and suggested that rather than punishing channels like hers, YouTube remove the offending comments and ban the users. However, the company said its "recent actions are due to an abundance of caution related to content that may endanger minors." It continued, "Not all channels do moderate, and we've had to take an aggressive approach and more broad action at this time. We're also investing in improving our tools to detect/remove this content, so we rely on your moderation less."

YouTube has backtracked, with a representative saying that videos that seem likely to attract predatory comments could have advertising restricted. But the damage is probably done, and YouTube creators may start disabling comment sections and doing outreach off-site in order to avoid the "someone sneezes and the video is demonetized" problem. That or they will write off monetization entirely, turning to Patreon and other platforms to supplement their income.

takyon writes:

Germany's wolves are on the rise thanks to a surprising ally: the military

Wolves are an impressive success story for wildlife recovery in central Europe, bouncing back from near extermination in the 20th century to a population of several thousand today. And in Germany, where populations have been growing by 36% per year, military bases have played a surprisingly central role in helping the animals reclaim habitat, a new analysis finds.

[...] The population growth "is quite impressive," says Ilka Reinhardt, a biologist with Lupus, the German Institute for Wolf Monitoring and Research in Spreewitz, who has been involved in efforts to study the wolves since they returned to Germany. The latest data suggest the country has 73 packs and 30 pairs of wolves. "Twenty years ago, no one would have expected this," she adds, noting Germany's fragmented habitat and the prevalence of roads and humans. "It shows how adaptable wolves are."

Reinhardt was particularly struck by their occurrence in military areas. "This was surprising to us," she says. She and her colleagues noticed that the first pair of wolves to show up in a new state always settled on a military training ground. The second pair, and usually the third also sought out military lands. After that, subsequent breeding pairs would be detected in protected areas or other habitats, the team reports online this week [open, DOI: 10.1111/conl.12635] [DX] in Conservation Letters.

The military training grounds were clearly a desired location for pioneers, but what was the appeal? Reinhardt could find no sign that habitat was better there than in nature reserves, as measured by the amount of forest and density of roads. But when they compiled the death records, they were shocked to find that wolf mortality rates were higher in protected areas than in the military training grounds.

The difference seems to be poaching. Although the military training grounds are not fenced—which means wolves and deer can enter and leave at will—they are closed to the public and posted with many signs. The deer populations are managed by federal foresters, so when private hunting occurs, it is strictly regulated. This means fewer opportunities for poaching wolves, Reinhardt says.

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takyon writes:

New Horizons Spacecraft Returns Its Sharpest Views of Ultima Thule

The most detailed images of Ultima Thule -- obtained just minutes before the spacecraft's closest approach at 12:33 a.m. EST on Jan. 1 -- have a resolution of about 110 feet (33 meters) per pixel. Their combination of higher spatial resolution and a favorable viewing geometry offer an unprecedented opportunity to investigate the surface of Ultima Thule, believed to be the most primitive object ever encountered by a spacecraft. This processed, composite picture combines nine individual images taken with the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), each with an exposure time of 0.025 seconds, just 6 ½ minutes before the spacecraft's closest approach to Ultima Thule (officially named 2014 MU₆₉). The image was taken at 5:26 UT (12:26 a.m. EST) on Jan. 1, 2019, when the spacecraft was 4,109 miles (6,628 kilometers) from Ultima Thule and 4.1 billion miles (6.6 billion kilometers) from Earth. The angle between the spacecraft, Ultima Thule and the Sun – known as the "phase angle" – was 33 degrees.

[...] Project Scientist Hal Weaver, of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, noted that the latest images have the highest spatial resolution of any New Horizons has taken – or may ever take – during its entire mission. Swooping within just 2,200 miles (3,500 kilometers), New Horizons flew approximately three times closer to Ultima than it zipped past its primary mission target, Pluto, in July 2015.

This was from about 6,628 km away rather than the 3,500 km of the closest approach. Will we get to see ~17.5 meters per pixel from the moment of the flyby (about 4 times the quality)?

Previously: New Horizons Departing View of Ultima Thule Reveals Flattened Shape

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Phoenix666 writes:

Phys.org:

The far-flung Marshall Islands needs to raise its islands if it is to avoid being drowned by rising sea levels, President Hilda Heine has warned.

Plans are underway for national talks on which of the 1,156 islands, scattered over 29 coral atolls, can be elevated in a dramatic intervention to ensure safety on the islands.
...
Most of the islands are less than two metres (6.5 feet) above sea level and the government believes physically raising the islands was the only way to save the Marshall Islands from extinction.

Is the solution a viable one, or are the Marshallese more likely to join the Sea Gypsies?

Original Submission

takyon writes:

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Review, Feat. EVGA XC GAMING: Turing Sheds RTX for the Mainstream Market

When NVIDIA put their plans for their consumer Turing video cards into motion, the company bet big, and in more ways than one. In the first sense, NVIDIA dedicated whole logical blocks to brand-new graphics and compute features – ray tracing and tensor core compute – and they would need to sell developers and consumers alike on the value of these features, something that is no easy task. In the second sense however, NVIDIA also bet big on GPU die size: these new features would take up a lot of space on the 12nm FinFET process they'd be using.

The end result is that all of the Turing chips we've seen thus far, from TU102 to TU106, are monsters in size; even TU106 is 445mm², never mind the flagship TU102. And while the full economic consequences that go with that decision are NVIDIA's to bear, for the first year or so of Turing's life, all of that die space that is driving up NVIDIA's costs isn't going to contribute to improving NVIDIA's performance in traditional games; it's a value-added feature. Which is all workable for NVIDIA in the high-end market where they are unchallenged and can essentially dictate video card prices, but it's another matter entirely once you start approaching the mid-range, where the AMD competition is alive and well.

Consequently, in preparing for their cheaper, sub-$300 Turing cards, NVIDIA had to make a decision: do they keep the RT and tensor cores in order to offer these features across the line – at a literal cost to both consumers and NVIDIA – or do they drop these features in order to make a leaner, more competitive chip? As it turns out, NVIDIA has opted for the latter, producing a new Turing GPU that is leaner and meaner than anything that's come before it, but also very different from its predecessors for this reason.

That GPU is TU116, and it's part of what will undoubtedly become a new sub-family of Turing GPUs for NVIDIA as the company starts rolling out Turing into the lower half of the video card market. Kicking things off in turn for this new GPU is NVIDIA's latest video card, the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti. Launching today at $279, it's destined to replace NVIDIA's GTX 1060 6GB in the market and is NVIDIA's new challenger for the mainstream video card market.

Compared to the RTX 2060 Founders Edition, GTX 1660 Ti has fewer CUDA[*] cores, lower memory clock, and the same amount of VRAM (6 GB), but it has higher core/boost clocks and lower TDP (120 W vs. 160 W). GTX 1660 Ti has roughly 85% the performance of the RTX 2060, at 80% the MSRP ($279 vs. $349).

takyon writes:

18 TB HDDs: Toshiba Collaborates with Showa Denko for MAMR HDDs

Showa Denko K.K. (SDK) announced on Thursday that it had completed the development of its microwave assisted magnetic recording (MAMR) platters for next-gen hard drives. The company is set to ship platters to Toshiba, which plans to start sampling of its new 18 TB nearline HDDs later this year. In addition to MAMR media, Showa also plans to release disks based on the heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology in the future.

The new 3.5-inch platters from SDK feature a 2 TB capacity and a new magnetic recording layer whose coercivity can be lowered using microwaves (see our brief description of the MAMR technology). SDK is not specifying which magnetic alloy or substrate it's using for its 2 TB media, but according to Western Digital, both should be very similar to those used for today's platters based on the perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology. Which for Toshiba and its consumers means predictable pricing and reliability.

SDK says that Toshiba is set to use nine 2 TB platters for its 18 TB MAMR-based nearline HDDs, which will begin sampling later this year (and which will probably be commercially available in 2020).

Previously: Toshiba Will Adopt Western Digital's Microwave-Assisted Magnetic Recording Approach for Hard Drives

Related: Western Digital to Use Microwave Assisted Magnetic Recording to Produce 40 TB HDDs by 2025
Toshiba Announces the First 16 TB Hard Drive

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janrinok writes:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have "flash-frozen" a flat crystal of 150 beryllium ions (electrically charged atoms), opening new possibilities for simulating magnetism at the quantum scale and sensing signals from mysterious dark matter.

Many researchers have tried for decades to chill vibrating objects that are large enough to be visible to the naked eye to the point where they have the minimum motion allowed by quantum mechanics, the theory that governs the behavior of matter at the atomic scale. The colder the better, because it makes the device more sensitive, more stable and less distorted, and therefore, more useful for practical applications. Until now, however, researchers have only been able to reduce a few types of vibrations.

In the NIST experiment, magnetic and electric fields cooled and trapped the ions so that they formed a disc less than 250 micrometers (millionths of a meter) in diameter. The disc is considered a crystal because the ions are arranged in a regularly repeating pattern.

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upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Hackers Use Compromised Banks as Starting Points for Phishing Attacks

Cybercriminals attacking banks and financial organizations use their foothold in a compromised infrastructure to gain access to similar targets in other regions or countries.

In a report released today and shared with BleepingComputer, international security company Group-IB specialized in preventing cyber attacks describes a so called cross-border domino-effect that can lead to spreading an infection beyond the initial target. The report is based on information from incident response work conducted in 2018 by the company's team of computer forensics experts.

The incident response activities at various financial institutions revealed that in some cases the attacker used their access to send emails to other banks and payment systems.

"So the threat actor definitely carried out attacks beyond its initial targets," a company representative told us.

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takyon writes:

NASA-Funded Research Creates DNA-like Molecule to Aid Search for Alien Life

In a research breakthrough funded by NASA, scientists have synthesized a molecular system that, like DNA, can store and transmit information. This unprecedented feat suggests there could be an alternative to DNA-based life, as we know it on Earth – a genetic system for life that may be possible on other worlds.

This new molecular system, which is not a new life form, suggests scientists looking for life beyond Earth may need to rethink what they are looking for. The research appears in Thursday's edition of Science Magazine.

[...] The synthetic DNA includes the four nucleotides present in Earth life – adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine – but also four others that mimic the structures of the informational ingredients in regular DNA. The result is a double-helix structure that can store and transfer information.

[Steven] Benner's team, which collaborated with laboratories at the University of Texas in Austin, Indiana University Medical School in Indianapolis, and DNA Software in Ann Arbor, Michigan, dubbed their creation "hachimoji" DNA (from the Japanese "hachi," meaning "eight," and "moji," meaning "letter"). Hachimoji DNA meets all the structural requirements that allow our DNA to store, transmit and evolve information in living systems.

Also at NYT, Discover Magazine, and ScienceAlert.

Hachimoji DNA and RNA: A genetic system with eight building blocks (DOI: 10.1126/science.aat0971) (DX)

Related: Scientists Add Letters X and Y to DNA Alphabet
Scientists Engineer First Semisynthetic Organism With Three-base-pair DNA
How Scientists Are Altering DNA to Genetically Engineer New Forms of Life
Synthetic X and Y Bases Direct the Production of a Protein With "Unnatural" Amino Acids

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