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An Anonymous Coward writes:

Georgia Republicans Push for State 'Journalism Ethics Board':

Six Republican state representatives in Georgia have moved to create an "ethics board" for journalists that would require news organizations to provide copies of pictures and audio and video recordings of interviews to subjects who request them or risk civil penalty.

The cost of meeting those requests would be paid by the news organizations.

The proposed legislation, House Bill 734, titled the "Ethics in Journalism Act," was sponsored Tuesday by Rep. Andy Welch, who represents the city of McDonough.

The bill would create a board of media professionals and academics that would produce"a canon of ethics" and "develop a voluntary accreditation process in journalism ethics," which would also allow for the investigation and sanctioning of journalists.

This bill isn't really about local news publishers (although they would be censored too) this is about censoring CNN which is headquartered in Atlanta.

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canopic jug writes:

Physicist and Linux geek Igor Ljubuncic has posted a detailed game review for Euro Truck Simulator 2. He includes lots of screen shots and descriptions of game dynamics.

I have to admit, when I first heard about a game that is essentially a truck simulator, my first reaction was, what the hell? Why would anyone bother developing - let alone playing - a game where you lug heavy workloads across Europe at moderate speeds, snail-pace acceleration, and with long, boring slogs of roads between your source and destination? Ah, little did I know how crazy and addictive this idea was.

[...] Euro Truck Simulator 2 is a fantastic game. I'm so happy to have found it - and decided to play, as I had it in my arsenal for a year or two. It's got everything - a need for speed, a need for skill, drama, tension, you actually care, and the devilishly simple premise turns out to be full of twists and turns - literally.

This title blends strategy and simulation in a unique fashion. Some games manage to pull this off, but most either focus too much on one or the other. Yet, somehow, the seemingly most boring concept that could be has been designed into a thrilling, captivating game. Really splendid. I hear there's also American Truck Simulator. Well, you know what that means. A real convoy!

He does not cover acquiring and installing the game which happens via Steam, with the advantages and disadvantages that brings.

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takyon writes:

Intel Launches Wi-Fi 6 AX200 Wireless Network Adapter

Intel has quietly launched its first Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) wireless network adapter, codenamed Cyclone Peak. The new WLAN adapter will deliver up to 2.4 Gbps network throughput when used with a compatible access point, but, like Wi-Fi 6 in general, its main advantage is that it will work better than existing adapters in RF-noisy environments where multiple Wi-Fi networks co-exist.

The Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 is a CNVi WLAN card that supports 802.11ax via 2x2 MU-MIMO antennas over the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. And never found too far from a Wi-Fi card, Intel's AX200 also supports Bluetooth 5.0.

[...] Intel's web-site says that the first Cyclone Peak wireless network adapter has been launched, so the device is available to makers of PCs. Depending on the order, the Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 costs Intel's customers from $10 to $17.

One of the commenters linked to this paper about 802.11be, a generation of Extremely High Throughput (EHT) Wi-Fi technology beyond 802.11ax that could offer a maximum throughput of at least 30 Gbps.

Previously: Netgear Introduces its First Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) Routers

Related: Wi-Fi Alliance Rebrands Wi-Fi Standards
Qualcomm Announces 802.11ay Wi-Fi Chips that Can Transmit 10 Gbps Within Line-of-Sight
Intel Promises "10nm" Chips by the End of 2019, and More

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takyon writes:

Amazon to offer broadband access from orbit with 3,236-satellite 'Project Kuiper' constellation

Amazon is joining the race to provide broadband internet access around the globe via thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit, newly uncovered filings show.

The effort, code-named Project Kuiper, follows up on last September's mysterious reports that Amazon was planning a "big, audacious space project" involving satellites and space-based systems. The Seattle-based company is likely to spend billions of dollars on the project, and could conceivably reap billions of dollars in revenue once the satellites go into commercial service.

It'll take years to bring the big, audacious project to fruition, however, and Amazon could face fierce competition from SpaceX, OneWeb and other high-profile players.

[...] The filings lay out a plan to put 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit — including 784 satellites at an altitude of 367 miles (590 kilometers); 1,296 satellites at a height of 379 miles (610 kilometers); and 1,156 satellites in 391-mile (630-kilometer) orbits.

In response to GeekWire's inquiries, Amazon confirmed that Kuiper Systems is actually one of its projects.

"Project Kuiper is a new initiative to launch a constellation of low Earth orbit satellites that will provide low-latency, high-speed broadband connectivity to unserved and underserved communities around the world," an Amazon spokesperson said in an emailed statement. "This is a long-term project that envisions serving tens of millions of people who lack basic access to broadband internet. We look forward to partnering on this initiative with companies that share this common vision."

Amazon said the satellites would provide data coverage for spots on Earth ranging in latitude from 56 degrees north to 56 degrees south. About 95 percent of the world's population lives within that wide swath of the planet.

canopic jug writes:

Depending on how it is measured, the market share for gaming on GNU/Linux is less than 1%. Jason Evangelho writes at Forbes about what is holding back gaming on GNU/Linux. He outlines three problem areas. First, there is inconsistency across the distros in how hardware — especially the graphics card — is dealt with. Second, major titles continue to ban the accounts of those who join from GNU/Linux hosts. Lastly, he figures that the gamers need to pull behind a single distro and get support for just that one distro because vendors are using the existence of multiple distros as an excuse to support none of them.

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RandomFactor writes:

In a cooperative project, University College London and Terracotta Army Museum researchers have published a study in Scientific Reports that sheds light on a forty year old mystery of why Terracotta weapons have not degraded over time as would have been expected.

The thousands of fantastic life-sized warriors in the Terracotta Army of Xi'an were armed with fully functional spears, lances, hooks, bows and arrows.

While the organic portions of these weapons such as wooden shafts and scabbards have deteriorated with time, the bronze components are in far better condition than they should be.

This was originally thought to be due to an ancient anti-rust treatment that was akin to modern chromate conversion coating technology, but the researchers indicate chrome found was due to a lacquer not even applied to the weapons

The terracotta warriors and most organic materials of the mausoleum were coated with protective layers of lacquer before being painted with pigments - but interestingly, not the bronze weapons.

We found a substantial chromium content in the lacquer, but only a trace of chromium in the nearby pigments and soil - possibly contamination. The highest traces of chromium found on bronzes are always on weapon parts directly associated to now-decayed organic elements, such as lance shafts and sword grips made of wood and bamboo, which would also have had a lacquer coating. Clearly, the lacquer is the unintended source of the chromium on the bronzes - and not an ancient anti-rust treatment.

The local soil composition, high-tin content of the bronze, and quenching technique were cited as contributing factors in the weapons' remarkable preservation.

Bronzes buried in Xi'an soil remained almost pristine after four months of extreme temperature and humidity, in contrast to the severe corrosion of the bronzes buried for comparison in British soil.

The researchers note that although their research largely explains the mysterious longevity of the weapons, there may still be a mysterious Qin Dynasty weapon preservation process in play as well, so further investigation is warranted.

Surface chromium on Terracotta Army bronze weapons is neither an ancient anti-rust treatment nor the reason for their good preservation (open, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-40613-7) (DX)

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NotSanguine writes:

According to Doug Lynch at xda-developers.com:

Android TV owners recently received an update across multiple platforms that have started to display sponsored content with a "Promotional Channels' title in the launcher of the Android TV software. We're currently seeing reports that it has shown up in Sony smart TVs, the Mi Box 3 from Xiaomi, NVIDIA Shield TV, and others. This has been an incredibly off-putting change for a lot of Android TV users. What makes matters worse is people were unable to disable the ads at first, but Reddit user Felisens seems to have figured out how to disable them.

[...] Update: Google's response

A Google spokesperson gave us the following statement:

Android TV is committed to optimizing and personalizing the entertainment experience at home. As we explore new opportunities to engage the user community, we're running a pilot program to surface sponsored content on the Android TV home screen.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Morningstar:

Freight railroads generally have operated the same way for more than a century: They wait for cargo and leave when customers are ready. Now railroads want to run more like commercial airlines, where departure times are set. Factories, farms, mines or mills need to be ready or miss their trips.

Called "precision-scheduled railroading," or PSR, this new concept is cascading through the industry. Under pressure from Wall Street to improve performance, Norfolk Southern and other large U.S. freight carriers, including Union Pacific Corp. and Kansas City Southern, are trying to revamp their networks to use fewer trains and hold them to tighter schedules. The moves have sparked a stock rally that has added tens of billions of dollars to railroad values in the past six months as investors anticipate lower costs and higher profits.

Calling all Railroad Tycoons...

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Phoenix666 writes:

Phys.org:

A Japanese probe began descending towards an asteroid on Thursday on a mission to blast a crater into its surface and collect material that could shed light on the solar system's evolution.

[...]The so-called "small carry-on impactor", a cone-shaped device capped with a copper bottom, will emerge from Hayabusa2 on Friday, after the probe has arrived just 500 metres above the asteroid Ryugu.

The probe will then depart the area, and the impactor is programmed to explode 40 minutes later, propelling the copper bottom towards Ryugu, where it should gouge a crater into the surface of the asteroid that sits 300 million kilometres from Earth.

Meh, not the same without a plucky crew of oil drillers.

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canopic jug writes:

Former Mozilla CTO Andreas Gal has filed a complaint against US customs agents for aggressive interrogation and demanding the passcodes for his phones and laptops and denying him access to an attorney. His expedited Global Entry status was revoked for allegedly refusing to comply with the search. Andreas and the ACLU are requesting an investigation into the incident. He works for Apple these days.

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canopic jug writes:

For the 25^th anniversary of the Linux Journal, Robert Young has interviewed Linus Torvalds again. Yes, it's the same Robert Young who is co-founder of the large multinational, Red Hat. This is a follow up interview to the one Robert Young, then a journal publisher, made with Linus Torvalds 25 years ago in Linux Journal. A lot has changed since 1994.

Original Submission

RandomFactor writes:

According to a technical report issued Friday, a new surveillance malware, aimed at Italian users and dubbed 'Exodus' has been infiltrating the Google Play store. It is also being reported that the software is contracted by the Italian Government from a surveillance company called eSurv based in Catanzaro, in Calabria, Italy.

According to Google,

nearly 25 variants of this spyware were uploaded on [the] Google Play Store. Google Play has removed the apps and they stated that "thanks to enhanced detection models, Google Play Protect will now be able to better detect future variants of these applications".

Although the software has built in checks to confirm the target is Italian, it is of limited effectiveness.

Exodus includes a function called CheckValidTarget function that supposedly exists to "validate" the target of a new infection, but the researchers suggest that not much "validation" is going on, given that the malware activated immediately on the burner phone they used, and stayed active throughout their tests.

The malware doesn't just violate your security, it more or less destroys it

binding a shell on all available interfaces will obviously make it accessible to anyone who is sharing at least a local network with an infected device. For example, if an infected device is connected to a public Wi-Fi network any other host will be able to obtain a terminal on the device without any form of authentication or verification by simply connecting to the port.

If the mobile operator doesn't enforce proper client isolation, it is possible that the infected devices are also exposed to the rest of the cellular network.

Obviously, this inevitably leaves the device open not only to further compromise but to data tampering as well.

Google indicated that all downloads of the malware were from Italy.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Counties with more trees and shrubs spend less on Medicare

A new study finds that Medicare costs tend to be lower in counties with more forests and shrublands than in counties dominated by other types of land cover. The relationship persists even when accounting for economic, geographic or other factors that might independently influence health care costs, researchers report.

The analysis included county-level health and environmental data from 3,086 of the 3,103 counties in the continental U.S.

Urban and rural counties with the lowest socioeconomic status appeared to benefit the most from increases in forests and shrubs, said University of Illinois graduate student Douglas A. Becker, who led the new research with Matt Browning, a professor of recreation, sport and tourism at the U. of I.

"At first, I was surprised by this," Becker said. "But then it occurred to me that low-income communities are getting the biggest bang for their buck because they probably have the most to gain."

The findings, reported in the journal Urban Forestry and Urban Greening, are observational and do not prove that having more trees and shrubs directly lowers health care costs, Becker said. But the study adds to a growing body of evidence linking green space -- in particular, forested areas -- to better health outcomes for those living nearby.

"Previous studies have looked at any health outcomes people think might be linked to nature: depression, cardiovascular disease, physical activity levels, even recovery from surgery," Becker said.

Several studies report no association between access to green space and health, he said.

"But there is also a lot of work -- including experimental work, which we consider to be the strongest -- showing a link between exposure to green space and beneficial health effects," Becker said.

Douglas A. Becker, Matthew H.E.M. Browning, Ming Kuo, Stephen K. Van Den Eeden. Is green land cover associated with less health care spending? Promising findings from county-level Medicare spending in the continental United States. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 2019; 41: 39 DOI: 10.1016/j.ufug.2019.02.012

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canopic jug writes:

In a commitment to software freedom, Chef, a configuration management tool written in Ruby and Erlang, has dropped its Open Core business model and has upgraded to 100% Open Source using the Apache License 2.0.

Introducing the New Chef: 100% Open, Always:

Going forward, we are doubling down on our commitment to OSS development as we extend our support for the needs of enterprise-class transformation. Starting today, we will expand the scope of our open source licensing to include 100% of our software under the Apache 2.0 license (consistent with our existing Chef Infra, Chef InSpec, and Chef Habitat license terms) without any restrictions on the use, distribution or monetization of our source code as long as our trademark policy is respected. We welcome anyone to use and extend our software for any purpose in alignment with the four essential freedoms of Free Software.

[...] To summarize the changes we are announcing today:

• Chef will move all of our product software development to an open source model with 100% of our product code available and licensed under Apache 2.0 to better align our business objectives with our community objectives.
• Chef will produce a new distribution (release), Chef Enterprise Automation Stack, built for commercial users with new terms and conditions of use.
• Chef will be the best in the world at delivering our enterprise distribution, content, updates, expertise, assurance, and support.
• Chef is committed to being the best steward of our open source community, welcoming anyone’s participation, however they see fit through our community-led governance model.

Goodbye Open Core — Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish:

This morning, Chef Software announced that it will be releasing 100% of its software as Open Source, under the Apache License. Going forward, all of its product development will be done in the open, with the community, and released as Open Source Software. Chef is done with being Open Core, and is now a Free Software Product company. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

As a Co-Founder of Chef, a board member, and a community member, I couldn't be more thrilled. [...]

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Researchers trick Tesla Autopilot into steering into oncoming traffic

Researchers have devised a simple attack that might cause a Tesla to automatically steer into oncoming traffic under certain conditions. The proof-of-concept exploit works not by hacking into the car's onboard computing system. Instead, it works by using small, inconspicuous stickers that trick the Enhanced Autopilot of a Model S 75 into detecting and then following a change in the current lane.

Tesla's Enhanced Autopilot supports a variety of capabilities, including lane-centering, self-parking, and the ability to automatically change lanes with the driver's confirmation. The feature is now mostly called "Autopilot" after Tesla reshuffled the Autopilot price structure. It primarily relies on cameras, ultrasonic sensors, and radar to gather information about its surroundings, including nearby obstacles, terrain, and lane changes. It then feeds the data into onboard computers that use machine learning to make judgements in real time about the best way to respond.

Researchers from Tencent's Keen Security Lab recently reverse-engineered several of Tesla's automated processes to see how they reacted when environmental variables changed. One of the most striking discoveries was a way to cause Autopilot to steer into oncoming traffic. The attack worked by carefully affixing three stickers to the road. The stickers were nearly invisible to drivers, but machine-learning algorithms used by by the Autopilot detected them as a line that indicated the lane was shifting to the left. As a result, Autopilot steered in that direction.

In a detailed, 37-page report, the researchers wrote:

Tesla autopilot module's lane recognition function has a good robustness in an ordinary external environment (no strong light, rain, snow, sand and dust interference), but it still doesn't handle the situation correctly in our test scenario. This kind of attack is simple to deploy, and the materials are easy to obtain. As we talked in the previous introduction of Tesla's lane recognition function, Tesla uses a pure computer vision solution for lane recognition, and we found in this attack experiment that the vehicle driving decision is only based on computer vision lane recognition results. Our experiments proved that this architecture has security risks and reverse lane recognition is one of the necessary functions for autonomous driving in non-closed roads. In the scene we build, if the vehicle knows that the fake lane is pointing to the reverse lane, it should ignore this fake lane and then it could avoid a traffic accident.

Original Submission