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martyb writes:

Pac-Man: The Untold Story of How We Really Played The Game:

Released in America in October 1980 yet arriving in arcades closer to late November, Pac-Man rolled in like a guest at the wrong address. Since America was right in the middle of “the shooter craze”, when the competitive gaming scene was focused exclusively on mastering difficult multi-buttoned games, Pac-Man’s debut quite literally looked like a birthday party arriving on the front lines of World War III. Aesthetically, it didn’t fit in. Although some people migrated to it quickly, the press paid it little attention until full “Pac-Mania” finally hit in the Summer of 1981, its shift from a fad to a full-blown craze delayed by a historically brutal sub-arctic winter in many parts of America which kept millions of grade school gamers out of the arcades until things warmed up.

[...] If it’s been a while since you played Pac-Man on an original arcade game cabinet, let me refresh your memory:  Put in your quarter, hit the one-player button and grab the joystick. All you have to do is move Pac-Man through a series of tight cornered mazes, trying to eat all the dots and fruit on screen while also trying to out-maneuver a group of ghosts who will kill you as soon as they touch you. If you eat one of the energizer dots, though, you’ll have a short period of gameplay where the ghosts slow down and stop chasing you so you can eat the ghosts and pick up extra points. But something else happens, something I’ve never seen anyone ever mention in any article or video before.  It’s a physical response and it always occurs by the time the player reaches the second screen…

Pac-Man is more of a driving game than a maze game. As you’re playing, you’re jamming that joystick left  and right, up and down, movements that shifts your right shoulder forward and back, rocking your body side to side. When the going gets tough, and the ghosts start closing in, all of this rocking motion compels you to lean into the game and, whether you realize you’re doing it or not, you’re going to grab onto the game.  You actually need to get a grip…on something. You’re either going to lean hard against your left palm as it rests on the control panel which isn’t comfortable for very long or, like most people, you’re going to grab the side of the game and hold on tight.  You have to or you’ll lose your balance. You can’t take the sharp corners smoothly and quickly without doing this, ether. You need the extra stabilization to move Pac-Man around the corners accurately.

It's one of those things that I never thought of before, but seeing it pointed out, it seems obvious in retrospect. (The linked story has a plethora of pics showing the left-hand death grip. Get a load of the fashions back then, too.) I wonder how many other "obvious" things happen each day that I also fail to notice. Also, I rarely got past the second screen; how well could YOU play?

Original Submission

mrpg writes:

Six of the eight border IT systems viewed as critical for a no-deal Brexit are at risk of failure, compounded by their reliance on each other and the fact delivery partners aren't ready.

[...] The report, prepared before Prime Minister Theresa May said she would allow Parliament to vote on a possible delay, treats 29 March 2019 as Brexit day – but it is clear some of the issues won't be resolved by a delay of just weeks.

The NAO said that six of the eight IT systems ranked as most critical for no deal by the cross-government Border Delivery Group are "at risk of not being delivered to time and to acceptable quality".

These include Defra's Import of Products, Animals, Food and Feed System (IPAFFS) and Automatic Licence Verification System (ALVS), both of which have their IT components listed as amber-red, and HMRC's CHIEF (Customs Handling of Import and Export Freight), which is ranked as amber.

Source: Three-quarters of crucial border IT systems at risk of failure? Bah, it's not like Brexit is *looks at watch* err... next[*] month

[*] Linked story was dated 2019-02-28, so it's this month. --Ed.

Original Submission

realDonaldTrump writes:

The Washington Post has an editorial by Vice President Pence, asking Congress to pass our National Defense Authorization Act for, or of 2020. Which will create a 6th branch of the United States military, called the United States Space Force. It's going to be part of the Air Force, but, this one won't be in the air. It will be in space. And there's no air, there. An excerpt:

Under this proposal, the Space Force would be within the Air Force, similar to the placement of the Marine Corps within the Navy. More than any other organization, the Air Force has been at the vanguard of building the world’s best military space programs. So, creating the Space Force within the Air Force is the best way to minimize duplication of effort and eliminate bureaucratic inefficiencies.

Just as the Air Force began within the Army before becoming a separate military department, so too will this first step in establishing the Space Force pave the way for a separate military department in the future. The Space Force is the next and the natural evolution of U.S. supremacy in space.

Also at Chicago Tribune.

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956__

A lawsuit filed against Google by consumers who claimed the search engine's photo sharing and storage service violated their privacy was dismissed on Saturday by a U.S. judge who cited a lack of "concrete injuries."

U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang in Chicago granted a Google motion for summary judgment, saying the court lacked "subject matter jurisdiction because plaintiffs have not suffered concrete injuries."

The suit, filed in March 2016, alleged Alphabet Inc's Google violated Illinois state law by collecting and storing biometric data from people's photographs using facial recognition software without their permission through its Google Photos service.

[...] Google had argued in court documents that the plaintiffs were not entitled to money or injunctive relief because they had suffered no harm. The case is Rivera v Google, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, No. 16-02714.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-google-lawsuit-illinois/u-s-judge-dismisses-suit-versus-google-over-facial-recognition-software-idUSKCN1OT001

Original Submission

canopic jug writes:

Back in 2017 two high-powered GNU/Linux computers were sent into orbit and are still running. They are long overdue for retrieval but are, more than 530 days later, still working. The goal of the project was to test the durability of such systems in preparation for travel to Mars, where data must be processed on site because of the delay in sending it to Earth and then transmitting the results back to Mars. So far autonomous management software has handled all of the hardware problems.

The servers were placed in an airtight box with a radiator that is hooked up to the ISS water-cooling system. Hot air from the computers is guided through the radiator to cool down and than circulated back.

Mr Kasbergen said there had been problems with the redundancy power supply as well as some of the redundant solid-state drives.

But he said the failures were handled by the autonomous management software that was part of the experiment.

The devices will need to be inspected back on Earth to find out what went wrong.

Earlier on SN:
Supercomputer on ISS will soon be Available for Science Experiments (2018)
HPE "Supercomputer" on the ISS Survives for 340 Days and Counting (2018)
HPE Supercomputer to be Sent to the ISS (2017)

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Mexican craft beer: Coming from south of the border for your taste buds

While overall U.S. beer industry sales remain flat, Americans' thirst for craft beer continues to grow and Mexican beers such as Corona Extra and Modelo Especial have unquenched market appeal. Could craft beer made by Mexican brewmasters be the next big beverage trend in the U.S.? A trio of former Anheuser-Busch executives and a Mexican entrepreneur are betting on it with a new venture, Quest Beverage. The company has already introduced four beers into Houston and St. Louis and throughout Missouri, and the beers are now hitting markets in California, Illinois and Texas.

The beers currently being imported are a citrusy Crossover IPA and crisp Blonde Ale from Cerveza Urbana, based in Mexicali, Mexico, and a light, dry Kölsch ale and a malty, mildly bitter London-style ale from Monterrey, Mexico's Cerveza Rrëy.

A trio of trends points to potential success:

• A growing Hispanic population in the U.S. now makes up 18 percent of Americans.

• Mexican imports are hot. Corona Extra and Modelo Especial each owned 5 percent of the retail market last year, according to IRI, a Chicago-based market research firm. Modelo Especial sales rose 18 percent, dollar-wise, from 2017.

• Growth in craft beer, brewed by small, independent breweries, has slowed, but its share of the overall $111 billion-plus U.S. beer industry is expected to increase beyond the 23.4 percent it captured in 2017, according to the Brewers Association.

Related: Congress May Lower Beer Taxes, Sam Adams Could Cease to be "Craft Beer"
Kettle Souring Makes Sour Beers on the Cheap
Playing Small is Okay, Says Judge in "Craft Beer" Case
Asahi Buys SABMiller's Eastern European Beers for $7.8 Billion
Kelp in Craft Beer

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Gateway Moon station: Canada joins Nasa space project

Canada will contribute US$1.4bn to a proposed Nasa space station that will orbit the Moon and act as a base to land astronauts on its surface.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the step would "push the boundaries of innovation".

The space station, called Gateway, is a key element in Nasa's plan to return to the Moon with humans in the 2020s.

As part of the 24-year commitment, Canada will build a next-generation robotic arm for the new lunar outpost.

"Canada is going to the Moon," Mr Trudeau told a news conference at Canadian Space Agency's headquarters near Montreal, according to AFP.

*Canada is going near the Moon.

Also at CBC and Popular Mechanics.

Previously: Russia Assembles Engineering Group for Lunar Activities and the Deep Space Gateway
China Will Focus on a Lunar Surface Station Rather than a Lunar Orbiting Station
SpaceX's Falcon Heavy Could Launch Japanese and European Payloads to Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway
Head of Russian Space Agency Roscosmos Wavers on Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway
Is the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway the Right Way to the Moon?

Related: Future of U.S.-Russian Space Cooperation in Doubt
ESA Plans to Send Mining Equipment to the Moon

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Steven Spielberg to propose Oscar rules that could keep streaming films out of contention

In the wake of "Roma's" three Oscar wins on Sunday, director Steven Spielberg is taking aim at streaming films' chances at future Academy Awards.

Spielberg will present his case to peers at an upcoming annual board of governors meeting at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where the award-winning auteur will propose rule changes that would prevent streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon and Hulu from competing in the Oscars without its projects getting a full theatrical run first. The news was first reported on Indiewire. "Steven feels strongly about the difference between the streaming and theatrical situation," a representative of Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment told the site.

[...] "Once you commit to a television format, you're a TV movie," Spielberg said last year during a conversation with ITV News about the increasingly blurry line that separates various media. "You certainly — if it's a good show — deserve an Emmy, but not an Oscar."

[...] Spielberg had the topic on his mind when he accepted the filmmaker award at the Cinema Audio Society Awards last month. "I'm a firm believer that movie theaters need to be around forever," he said, according to Variety. Stressing that he very much admired the state of contemporary television, both for its stories and its tech advances, Spielberg conceded that "the sound is better in homes more than it ever has been in history." But, he added, "there's nothing like going to a big dark theater with people you've never met before and having the experience wash over you."

Also at Movieweb, Observer, and A.V. Club.

See also: The Spielberg vs. Netflix battle could mean collateral damage for indies at the Oscars

Previously: Targeting Netflix, Cannes Will Ban Streaming-Only Movies From Competition
Netflix Won't be Going to Cannes After All
Local Product Quotas for Netflix, Amazon to Become Law, EU Official Says

Original Submission

RandomFactor writes:

A paper published wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine details a pair of semi-identical twins born in Australia that occupy an extremely rare middle ground between Fraternal and Maternal twins.

In maternal or identical twins, a normally fertilized egg splits into two 100% genetically identical embryos.

In fraternal twins, two sperm fertilize two different eggs leading to two ~50% genetically similar twins.

These sibling are semi-identical or "sesquizygotic" twins however, and

the authors theorize, two sperm cells simultaneously fertilized the same egg. Ordinarily, that sort of mistake quickly results in a miscarriage, since humans usually can’t develop with three different sets of chromosomes. Somehow, though, the resulting zygote incorporated an equal split of DNA from all three sets, with three groups of cells forming afterward: Cells containing the mother’s DNA and DNA from sperm 1; cells with the mother’s DNA and DNA from sperm 2; and cells containing DNA from only sperm 1 and 2. Over time, the third group of sperm-only cells was effectively crowded out by the cells containing DNA from both parents. Then, even more unexpectedly, the bundle of cells divided into two embryos, creating the twins.

The resulting twins have 100% identical genetic material from the mother and in this case 78% identical from the father, which makes them genetically ~89% identical.

The rare occurrence was discovered because

“The mother’s ultrasound at six weeks showed a single placenta and positioning of amniotic sacs that indicated she was expecting identical twins,” [co-author Nicholas Fisk, an obstetrician and deputy vice-chancellor of research at the University of New South Wales] said in a statement. “However, an ultrasound at 14 weeks showed the twins were male and female, which is not possible for identical twins.”

The twins are now 4 years old. The sister ran into complications resulting in the loss of an arm and her ovaries but both the male and female chimeric twins are now developing normally.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Phone-Hacking Tool Law Agencies Use Cost Just $100 on eBay

When smartphone companies refuse to help law enforcement agencies access encrypted devices, investigators often turn to companies like Cellebrite, which offers its Universal Forensic Extraction Device (UFED) to help them hack the phone in question to access secure data The problem? This week, Forbes reported that UFEDs--which normally cost between $5,000 and $15,000--can now be bought on eBay for as little as $100.

In addition to letting anyone with a likeness of Benjamin Franklin break into other people's devices, these used UFEDs were also found to contain data from previous investigations.

Forbes said Hacker House co-founder Matthew Hickey bought a dozen UFEDs to see what secrets they might contain. He reportedly found that the "secondhand kit contained information on what devices were searched, when they were searched and what kinds of data were removed," as well as the searched phones' IMEI (international mobile equipment identity) codes.

Related: Washington Post: The FBI Paid "Gray Hat(s)", Not Cellebrite, for iPhone Unlock
Meeting Cellebrite - Israel's Master Phone Crackers
Cellebrite Appears to Have Been Hacked
Federal Court Rules That the FBI Does Not Have to Disclose Name of iPhone Hacking Vendor

Original Submission

aristarchus writes:

In the continuing confusion over 5G mobile phone networks, it appears that someone wants to make something Great!

From Politico:

President Donald Trump's reelection team is backing a controversial plan to give the government a role in managing America's next-generation 5G wireless networks — bucking the free market consensus view of his own administration and sparking wireless industry fears of nationalization.

The plan — embraced by Trump 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale and adviser Newt Gingrich — would involve the government taking 5G airwaves and designing a system to allow for sharing them on a wholesale basis with wireless providers. The idea is also being pushed by a politically connected wireless company backed by venture capitalist Peter Thiel that could stand to benefit.

It's already getting pushback from industry, which dismisses the concept as untested and unworkable.

But the Trump campaign is now fully embracing the model in a bid to woo rural voters who have long lacked decent internet service because wireless companies don't have a financial incentive to offer affordable broadband to all Americans, including those outside the biggest cities.

“A 5G wholesale market would drive down costs and provide access to millions of Americans who are currently underserved,” Kayleigh McEnany, national press secretary for Trump’s 2020 campaign, told POLITICO. “This is in line with President Trump’s agenda to benefit all Americans, regardless of geography."

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Intel Lakefield SoC With Foveros 3D Packaging Previewed – 10nm Hybrid CPU Architecture Featuring Sunny Cove, Gen 11 Graphics and More

Intel Lakefield is based around Foveros technology which helps connect chips and chiplets in a single package that matches the functionality and performance of a monolithic SOC. Each die is then stacked using FTF micro-bumps on the active interposer through which TSVs are drilled to connect with solder bumps and eventually the final package. The whole SOC is just 12×12 (mm) which is 144mm².

Talking about the SOC itself and its individual layers, the Lakefield SOC that has been previewed consists of at least four layers or dies, each serving a different purpose. The top two layers are composed of the DRAM which will supplement the processor as the main system memory. This is done through the PoP (Package on Package) memory layout which stacks two BGA DRAMs on top of each other as illustrated in the preview video. The SOC won't have to rely on socketed DRAM in this case which saves a lot of footprint on the main board.

The second layer is the Compute Chiplet with a Hybrid CPU architecture and graphics, based on the 10nm process node. The Hybrid CPU architecture has a total of five individual Cores, one of them is labeled as the Big Core which features the Sunny Cove architecture. That's the same CPU architecture that will be featured on Intel's upcoming 10nm Ice Lake processors. The Sunny Cove Core is optimized for high-performance throughput. There are also four small CPUs that are based on the 10nm process but optimized for power efficiency. The same die [has] Intel's Gen 11 graphics engine with 64 Execution Units.

[...] [Last] of all is the base die which serves as the cache and I/O block of the SOC. Labeled as the P1222 and based on a 22FFL process node, the base die comes with a low cost and low leakage design while providing a feature-rich array of I/O capabilities.

It would be nice to finally see some consumer CPUs with stacked DRAM, although the amount was not specified (8 GB?).

Intel video (1m48s). Also at Notebookcheck.

Previously: Intel Announces "Sunny Cove", Gen11 Graphics, Discrete Graphics Brand Name, 3D Packaging, and More
Intel Promises "10nm" Chips by the End of 2019, and More

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

The spread of antimicrobial resistance in hospitals can be limited by sanitation methods that remodulate the hospital microbiota, leading to lower antimicrobial consumption and costs, according to a paper in Infection and Drug Resistance co-authored by two Bocconi University scholars (for the part related to costs) with University of Ferrara and colleagues from University of Udine.

In particular, an experiment conducted in five Italian hospitals using the Probiotic Cleaning Hygiene System (PCHS), a trademarked probiotic-based sanitation method, coordinated by the CIAS research centre of the University of Ferrara (www.cias-ferrara.it) , led to a 52% decrease in healthcare associated infections (HAI, a kind of infection that tend to exhibit higher resistance to antibiotics than community-acquired infections), a 60.3% reduction in associated drug consumption and a 75.4% decrease in the related costs. «The results», Bocconi University's Rosanna Tarricone, co-author of the study, says, «suggest that the introduction of probiotic-based sanitation methods can be considered as a useful component of infection prevention strategies. Money saving are only a part of the story, as HAIs affect 3.2 million people in Europe every year, resulting in 37,000 deaths».

The Internal Medicine wards of the hospitals enrolled in the study were surveyed for six months while using the conventional chemical-based sanitation method and, then, for a further six months using ecologically sustainable detergents containing spores of three Bacillus species. Overall 12,000 patients were included in the study and over 30,000 environmental samples from hospital surfaces were analyzed.

takyon writes:

Amazon is reportedly planning a new, low-cost grocery chain

Amazon is reportedly planning to open dozens of grocery stores in major US cities, which will be under different branding from its Whole Foods chain. The first location may open in Los Angeles before the end of this year, while it's signed leases for at least two other stores, according to Wall Street Journal sources.

[...] Amazon already has a grocery delivery service, and the reported chain would expand its retail footprint beyond Whole Foods, 4-Star stores and self-service Amazon Go outlets. It's not clear whether the planned stores will also be cashierless, though the report suggests they'll have a strong focus on customer service and pick-up options.

Original Submission

karthikaqpt writes:

Transplanting pancreatic islet cells into patients with diabetes is a promising alternative to the daily insulin injections that many of these patients now require. These cells could act as a bioartificial pancreas, monitoring blood glucose levels and secreting insulin when needed.

For this kind of transplantation to be successful, scientists need to make sure that the implanted cells receive enough oxygen, which they need in order to produce insulin and to remain viable.

MIT engineers have now devised a way to measure oxygen levels of these cells over long periods of time in living animals, which should help them predict which implants will be most effective.

In a paper appearing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of Feb. 25, the researchers demonstrated that they could use this method, a specialized type of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), to track how oxygen levels of implanted cells in the intraperitoneal (IP) cavity of mice change as they move through the cavity over a prolonged period of time.

https://news.mit.edu/2019/oxygen-tracking-method-bioartificial-pancreas-diabetes-0225

Original Submission