SoylentNews

"upstart" writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Escher: Etch-a-Sketch As A Service

For better or for worse, the tech world has fully committed to pushing as many of their products into “The Cloud” as possible. Of course, readers of Hackaday see right through the corporate buzzwords. It’s all just a fancy way of saying you have to poke some server over the Internet every time you want to use the service. In a way, [Matt Welsh] has perfectly demonstrated this concept with Escher. It’s a normal Etch-a-Sketch, but since somebody else owns it and you’ve got to have an active Internet connection to use it, that makes it an honorary citizen of the Cloud.

Escher takes the form of a 3D printed mount and replacement knobs for the classic drawing toy that allow two NEMA 17 steppers to stand in for human hands. Thanks to the clever design, [Matt] can easily pull the Etch-a-Sketch out and use it the old fashioned way, though admittedly the ergonomics of holding onto the geared knobs might take a little getting used to. But who wants to use their hands, anyway?

[...] It probably will come as little surprise to hear this isn’t the first automatic Etch-a-Sketch that’s graced these pages over the years, but this might be the most fully realized version we’ve seen yet.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

On June 21, 2019, support for SSH key shielding was introduced into the OpenBSD tree, from which the OpenSSH releases are derived. SSH key shielding is a measure intended to protect private keys in RAM against attacks that abuse bugs in speculative execution that current CPUs exhibit.[0] This functionality has been part of OpenSSH since the 8.1 release. SSH private keys are now being held in memory in a shielded form; keys are only unshielded when they are used and re‐shielded as soon as they are no longer in active use. When a key is shielded, it is encrypted in memory with AES‐256‐CTR; this is how it works: [...]

https://xorhash.gitlab.io/xhblog/0010.html

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for chromas

AT&T ramps up its fight against robocalls with Call Validation feature

The Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission have been trying, at least in theory, to stop the robocalling scourge from spreading for many years now, but even though a recent survey estimated a mind-blowing 200 million unwanted calls go through every single day in the US, the nation's major carriers are finally taking action against the thing that threatens to kill the enjoyment of using a mobile phone in this day and age.

Well, at least two of the "big four" American wireless service providers are making a concerted effort to clean their networks of spammers, scammers, and number spoofers, as AT&T follows T-Mobile's suit in implementing the SHAKEN/STIR standard to offer its customers a little more peace of mind when receiving a call from someone they don't know.

[...] Unfortunately, both Call Protect and Call Validation are currently only available on three high-end Android devices. Namely, Samsung's Galaxy S10 and S10+, as well as the LG V40 ThinQ. If it makes you feel any better, you don't have to do anything special to get the newly released feature enabled on the aforementioned smartphones. You will simply start seeing a green checkmark and the words "Valid number" on your handset's display when an incoming call is authenticated. That's a small step forward for one carrier and... an even as a whole.

Original Submission

"upstart" writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

A soft robotic insect that survives being flattened by a fly swatter

Researchers at EPFL's School of Engineering have developed a soft robotic insect, propelled at 3 cm per second by artificial muscles.

The team developed two versions of this soft robot, dubbed DEAnsect. The first, tethered using ultra-thin wires, is exceptionally robust. It can be folded, hit with a fly swatter or squashed by a shoe without impacting its ability to move. The second is an untethered model that is fully wireless and autonomous, weighing less than 1 gram and carrying its battery and all electronic components on its back. This intelligent insect is equipped with a microcontroller for a brain and photodiodes as eyes, allowing it to recognize black and white patterns, enabling DEAnsect to follow any line drawn on the ground.

DEAnsect was developed by a team at EPFL's Soft Transducers Laboratory (LMTS), working with the Integrated Actuators Laboratory (LAI) and colleagues from the University of Cergy-Pontoise, France. The research was published in Science Robotics.

DEAnsect is equipped with dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs), a type of hair-thin artificial muscle that propels it forward through vibrations. These DEAs are the main reason why the insect is so light and quick. They also enable it to move over different types of terrain, including undulating surfaces.

An autonomous untethered fast soft robotic insect driven by low-voltage dielectric elastomer actuators [$], Science Robotics (DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.aaz6451)

Original Submission

"upstart" writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Chemical compound found in essential oils improves wound healing

IU scientists also reported that skin tissue treated with the chemical compound, beta-carophyllene -- which is found in lavender, rosemary and ylang ylang, as well as various herbs and spices such as black pepper -- showed increased cell growth and cell migration critical to wound healing. They also observed increased gene expression of hair follicle stem cells in the treated tissue. The scientists did not find any involvement of the olfactory system in the wound healing.

Their research was published Dec. 16 in the journal PLOS ONE.

"This is the first finding at the chemical-compound level showing improved wound healing in addition to changes in gene expression in the skin," said Sachiko Koyama, corresponding author on the paper, who, at the time of this research, was an associate scientist at the IU School of Medicine and is currently a visiting scientist in the IU College of Arts and Sciences' Department of Biology. "The way gene expression changed also suggests not only improved wound healing but also the possibility of less scar formation and a more full recovery.

"It's an example that essential oils work; however, it's not through our sense of smell."

Essential oils are natural, concentrated oils extracted from plants. Their use by humans dates back to ancient Egypt, but the scented oils have experienced a resurgence in popularity in the U.S. over the past few years, with many people using them for aromatherapy.

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow4408

A research team at the University of Central Florida used Machine Learning, aka Artificial Intelligence to optimize the materials used to make perovskite solar cells (PSC). The Organic-Inorganic halide perovskites material used in PSC converts photovoltaic power into consumable energy.

These perovskites can be processed in solid or liquid state, offering a lot of flexibility. Imagine being able to spray or paint bridges, houses and skyscrapers with the material, which would then capture light, turn it into energy and feed it into the electrical grid. Until now, the solar cell industry has relied on silicon because of its efficiency. But that's old technology with limits. Using perovskites, however, has one big barrier. They are difficult to make in a usable and stable material. Scientists spend a lot of time trying to find just the right recipe to make them with all the benefits -- flexibility, stability, efficiency and low cost. That's where artificial intelligence comes in.

The team's work is so promising that its findings are the cover story Dec. 13 in the Advanced Energy Materials journal

Source: https://www.ucf.edu/news/artificial-intelligence-may-help-scientists-make-spray-on-solar-cells/

Jinxin Li, Basudev Pradhan, Surya Gaur, Jayan Thomas. Perovskite Solar Cells: Predictions and Strategies Learned from Machine Learning to Develop High‐Performing Perovskite Solar Cells (Adv. Energy Mater. 46/2019). Advanced Energy Materials, 2019; 9 (46): 1970181 DOI: 10.1002/aenm.201970181

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow4408

Mitochondria are the "canary in the coal mine" for cellular stress:

Mitochondria, tiny structures present in most cells, are known for their energy-generating machinery. Now, Salk researchers have discovered a new function of mitochondria: they set off molecular alarms when cells are exposed to stress or chemicals that can damage DNA, such as chemotherapy. The results, published online in Nature Metabolism on December 9, 2019, could lead to new cancer treatments that prevent tumors from becoming resistant to chemotherapy.

"Mitochondria are acting as a first line of defense in sensing DNA stress. The mitochondria tell the rest of the cell, 'Hey, I'm under attack, you better protect yourself,'" says Gerald Shadel, a professor in Salk's Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory and the Audrey Geisel Chair in Biomedical Science.

Most of the DNA that a cell needs to function is found inside the cell's nucleus, packaged in chromosomes and inherited from both parents. But mitochondria each contain their own small circles of DNA (called mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA), passed only from a mother to her offspring. And most cells contain hundreds—or even thousands—of mitochondria.

"upstart" writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Remember Unrollme, the biz that helped you automatically ditch unwanted emails? Yeah, it was selling your data

If you were one of the millions of people that signed up with Unrollme to cut down on the emails from outfits you once bought a product from, we have some bad news for you: it has been storing and selling your data.

On Tuesday, America's Federal Trade Commission finalized a settlement [PDF] with the New York City company, noting that it had deceived netizens when it promised not to "touch" people's emails when they gave it permission to unsubscribe from, block, or otherwise get rid of marketing mailings they didn't want.

It did touch them. In fact, it grabbed copies of e-receipts sent to customers after they'd bought something - often including someone's name and physical address - and provided them to its parent company, Slice Technologies. Slice then used the information to compile reports that it sold to the very businesses people were trying to escape from.

[...] As the adage goes, if a product is free, you are the product. And so it was with Unrollme, which scooped up all that delicious data from people's emails, and provided it to Slice, which was then stored and compiled into market research analytics products that it sold.

Related:
Unroll.me, the Email Unsubscription Service, Has Been Collecting and Selling Your Data
Unroll.me Is Selling Your Information, Here's an Alternative

Original Submission

"upstart" writes:

Submitted via IRC for chromas

Not such a bright idea: why your phone's 'night mode' may be keeping you awake

"Night mode" is one of those features you may be aware of only because your phone keeps telling you about it. At some point while you are lying in bed at night sending texts, your screen may politely suggest you activate a function that shifts the colours of your screen from the colder to the warmer end of the spectrum. It is supposed to help you sleep better.

Findings in a study led by Dr Tim Brown and published in Current Biology suggest this is the very opposite of correct. The research, carried out on mice, appears to rubbish the notion that blue light disrupts sleep. All things being equal, warm yellow light is worse.

[...] According to the study, brightness levels are more important than colour when it comes to stimulating the body clock. However, when the light is equally dim, blue is more relaxing than yellow.

This makes basic sense: daylight is yellow, twilight is blue, and sunrise and sunset are pretty reliable ways to tell your body clock what time it is. Of course, at this point, we only know it works on mice – and mice don't have phones. "We think there is good reason to believe it's also true in humans," says Dr Brown.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Stung by an article mulling Amazon Web Services' market dominance on Monday, AWS VP Andi Gutmans fired back, complaining the reporter ignored flattering comments from AWS partners – and that "AWS is 'strip-mining' open source is silly and off-base."

"The journalist largely ignores the many positive comments he got from partners because it’s not as salacious copy for him," Gutmans said in a blog post, as if critical reporting carried with it an obligation to publish a specific quota of marketing copy.

And he insisted that Amazon "contributes mightily to open source projects," and "AWS has not copied anybody’s software or services."

In its recent lawsuit against AWS, open source biz Elastic, cited in the New York Times article and a business which is public in its disaffection with Amazon, did not accuse AWS of copying its open source search software – which anyone can copy by virtue of its open source license. Rather, the search biz objects to AWS' use of its trademark in its Amazon Elasticsearch Service.

But others have been more cutting. Following AWS' launch of DocumentDB, a cloud database compatible with the MongoDB API, CEO Dev Ittycheria suggested his company's product had been imitated and copied.

Indeed, among startups like Confluent, Elastic, MongoDB, Neo4J, and Redis Labs that have been trying to turn open source projects into revenue-generating businesses, concern about AWS - and to a lesser extent Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud - is quite common.

Original Submission

Freeman writes:

Employers can ban employees from using work email for personal purposes, including union organizing, the National Labor Relations Board ruled on Monday.
[...] Federal labor law protects employees' right to organize without interference from employers. That includes a limited right to engage in organizing activities in the workplace.
[...] Labor-rights advocates have long argued that this principle should extend to workplace email systems. They point out that email can be one of the most efficient ways for workers to contact one another and discuss workplace issues. And they note that the costs to employers from added email use is negligible.
[...] The latest ruling focuses on the casino operator Caesars Entertainment, which has broad policies prohibiting employees from using its email systems for personal use.
[...] The law merely requires that workers be given some reasonable means of communicating with one another, the board held. The law already protects the rights of workers to communicate via face-to-face conversations and the distribution of literature. That gives workers sufficient opportunities to communicate to satisfy the requirements of labor law, the board ruled.
[...] The board's lone Democrat, Lauren McFerran, dissented from the ruling, arguing that the majority had misinterpreted the law. She argued that property rights weren't relevant to the case because Caesars had already granted its employees access to the email system.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/12/trump-administration-says-employers-can-ban-organizing-via-company-email/

Additional Source:

Shortly after Google staffers engaged in the largest mass walkout at any tech firm in the United States, the company quietly lobbied the National Labor Relations Board in the hopes it would roll back a decision that safeguarded the only way protesters were able to organize that action as quickly as they did: email. Unfortunately, Google's hope has become a reality.

https://gizmodo.com/disastrous-nlrb-ruling-adds-another-hurdle-for-tech-wor-1840491764

Previous Stories:
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=19/12/17/1948215
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=19/12/04/0029250
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=19/11/26/1411249

Original Submission

Freeman writes:

Canada's biggest provider of specialty laboratory testing services said it paid hackers an undisclosed amount for the return of personal data they stole belonging to as many as 15 million customers.
[...]
The incident response, company President and CEO Charles Brown said in a statement, included "retrieving the data by making a payment." The executive added: "We did this in collaboration with experts familiar with cyber-attacks and negotiations with cyber criminals." The statement didn't say how much LifeLabs paid for the return of the data. Representatives didn't immediately respond to an email seeking the amount.
[...]
The LifeLabs statement said that company officials have fixed the system that led to the breach. The company is providing a year of free identity theft monitoring and identity theft insurance. Affected customers can sign up for the help here.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/12/clinical-lab-pays-hackers-for-the-return-of-d

Original Submission

"upstart" writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow4408

Satnav watching over rugby players

As France's top rugby players scrum, run and tackle they are being tracked by more than just TV cameras and the watching eyes of the crowd. Satnav-based tracking devices between their shoulder blades are keeping tabs on their position and performance—and helping to safeguard their health.

Rugby is inherently highly physical, but the sport is doing everything it can to limit players playing with concussion. The rules are strict: any player suspected of being concussed must leave the field and be tested .

The problem is that often referees, medics or even the players themselves cannot tell when they have experienced sufficiently high-force impacts to pose head injury risks.

Created in 2002, the French Rugby Federation's Performance Support Department set up wearable GPS-equipped devices to track players' positions, speed and physiological details such as their heart rates.

"These were useful in monitoring their performance and fatigue," comments ESA navigation engineer Nicolas Girault, "but in practice monitoring the movements of players could be patchy, especially on match days when they were needed most."

A new innovative project called GEONAV set out to design an improved monitoring system delivering enhanced monitoring and performance and safety. ESA teamed up with Thales and the French Rugby Federation.

hubie writes:

A memristor (memory resistor) is a hypothetical circuit element that, in principle, would make up the fourth basic circuit element joining the resistor, capacitor, and inductor. One of the more interesting properties of an ideal memristor is that there exists a non-liner relationship between the applied voltage and current which gives rise to non-volatile memory behavior. This has resulted in a lot of exciting research in the semiconductor industry for new and improved memory chips.

The hallmark of a memristor is that the non-linear relationship between the electric flux and charge gives rise to a voltage-current plot that exhibits a pinched hysteresis behavior, namely that it looks like a frequency-dependent Lissajous figure that always crosses the plot at the origin. If one takes a step back from solid state devices and defines memristors in terms of this voltage/current behavior, there are a number of biologic-based systems that qualify, including human skin. If skin is a memristor, does that mean that it acts like non-volatile memory? In a new paper published in Nature's open-access journal Scientific Reports, Pabst et al show that this is indeed the case. They applied direct current voltage pulses to various parts of the human skin and show that analog information can be stored for at least three minutes.

takyon writes:

Nvidia has announced its next chip for self-driving cars years in advance:

First outlined as part of NVIDIA's DRIVE roadmap at GTC 2018, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang took the stage at GTC China this morning to properly introduce the chip that will be powering the next generation of the DRIVE platform. Officially dubbed the NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Orin, the new chip will eventually succeed NVIDIA's currently shipping Xavier SoC, which has been available for about the last year now. In fact, as has been the case with previous NVIDIA DRIVE unveils, NVIDIA is announcing the chip well in advance: the company isn't expecting the chip to be fully ready for automakers until 2022.

What lies beneath Orin then is a lot of hardware, with NVIDIA going into some high-level details on certain parts, but skimming over others. Overall, Orin is a 17 billion transistor chip, almost double the transistor count of Xavier and continuing the trend of very large, very powerful automotive SoCs. NVIDIA is not disclosing the manufacturing process being used at this time, but given their timeframe, some sort of 7nm or 5nm process (or derivative) is pretty much a given. And NVIDIA will definitely need a smaller manufacturing process – to put things in comparison, the company's top-end Turing GPU, TU102, takes up 754mm² for 18.6B transistors, so Orin will pack in almost as many transistors as one of NVIDIA's best GPUs today.

[...] All told, NVIDIA expects Orin to deliver 7x the 30 INT8 TOPS performance of Xavier, with the combination of the GPU and DLA pushing 200 TOPS. It goes without saying that NVIDIA is still heavily invested in neural networks as the solution to self-driving systems, so they are similarly heavily investing in hardware to execute those neural nets.

[...] Finally, while NVIDIA hasn't disclosed any official figures for power consumption, it's clear that overall power usage is going up relative to Xavier. While Orin is expected to be 7x faster than Xavier, NVIDIA is only claiming it's 3x as power efficient. Assuming NVIDIA is basing all of this on INT8 TOPS as they usually do, then the 1 TOPS/Watt Xavier would be replaced by the 3 TOPS/Watt Orin, putting the 200 TOPS chip at around 65-70 Watts. Which is admittedly still fairly low for a single chip at a company that sells 400 Watt GPUs, but it could add up if NVIDIA builds another multi-processor board like the DRIVE Pegasus.

The design will include 12 ARM "Hercules" (Cortex-A78) cores rather than Nvidia-designed custom ARM cores.

Also at Wccftech.

Related: Nvidia Demos a Car Computer Trained with "Deep Learning"
Nvidia Announces Jetson Nano Single-Board Computer
Nvidia Supercomputer to Crunch Autonomous Vehicles Data

Original Submission