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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

The human brain is organized into circuits that develop from childhood through adulthood to support executive function -- critical behaviors like self-control, decision making, and complex thought. These circuits are anchored by white matter pathways which coordinate the brain activity necessary for cognition. However, little research exists to explain how white matter matures to support activity that allows for improved executive function during adolescence -- a period of rapid brain development.

Researchers from the Lifespan Brain Institute of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia applied tools from network science to identify how anatomical connections in the brain develop to support neural activity underlying these key areas. The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"By charting brain development across childhood and adolescence, we can better understand how the brain supports executive function and self-control in both healthy kids and those with different mental health experiences," said the study's senior author Theodore Satterthwaite, MD, an assistant professor of Psychiatry at Penn. "Since abnormalities in developing brain connectivity and deficits in executive function are often linked to the emergence of mental illness during youth, our findings may help identify biomarkers of brain development that predict cognitive and clinical outcomes later in life."

[...] "These results suggest that executive functions like impulse control -- which can be particularly challenging for children and adolescents -- rely in part on the prolonged development of structure-function coupling in complex brain areas like the prefrontal cortex," explained lead author Graham Baum, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, who was a Penn neuroscience PhD student during the time of the research. "This has important implications for understanding how brain circuits become specialized during development to support flexible and appropriate goal-oriented behavior."

Journal Reference:
Graham L. Baum, Zaixu Cui, David R. Roalf, Rastko Ciric, Richard F. Betzel, Bart Larsen, Matthew Cieslak, Philip A. Cook, Cedric H. Xia, Tyler M. Moore, Kosha Ruparel, Desmond J. Oathes, Aaron F. Alexander-Bloch, Russell T. Shinohara, Armin Raznahan, Raquel E. Gur, Ruben C. Gur, Danielle S. Bassett, Theodore D. Satterthwaite. Development of structure–function coupling in human brain networks during youth. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2019; 201912034 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1912034117

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for chromas:

2019 Was the Year When Windows 10 Conquered the Desktop:

Windows 10, the operating system that Microsoft officially launched in mid-2015, became the number one desktop platform in 2020 after it managed to overtake its predecessor Windows 7.

[...] NetMarketShare [reports] Windows 10 started the year with 40.90% market share before dropping to 40.30% the next month. It reached a market share of 54.30% in November and ended 2020 with a personal record of 54.62%.

Windows 7, on the other hand, lost market share throughout the year, obviously because of the approaching end of support set for January 14. Windows 7 was running on 37.19% of the devices worldwide 12 months ago and then dropped gradually to a market share of 26.64% in December. With less than two weeks left until the end-of-life is reached, the market share of Windows 7 is very likely to continue going down, albeit not all devices will be upgraded before this milestone is reached.

Needless to say, the rest of the operating systems are far behind and pose no threat to the dominance of Windows 10. For example, Windows 8.1 is running on just 3.63% of the systems worldwide, while macOS 10.14 has a market share of 3.50%.

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:

Cogent cut off from ARIN Whois after scraping net engineers' contact details and sliding them to sales staff:

There are still corners of the internet that function like the old days, and US regional internet registry ARIN has just proved it – much to the joy of network engineers.

[...] "ARIN has repeatedly informed Cogent that their use of the ARIN Whois for solicitation is contrary to the terms of use and that they must stop," ARIN's CEO John Curran posted to a mailing list this week.

"Despite ARIN's multiple written demands to Cogent to cease these prohibited activities, ARIN has continued to receive complaints... For this reason, ARIN has suspended Cogent Communications' use of ARIN's Whois database effective today and continuing for a period of six months."

[...] So what's being going on? Well, according to the longer letter [PDF] sent to Cogent's CEO Dave Schaeffer from ARIN's Curran, the regional Internet registry (RIR) has received "numerous complaints of Cogent personnel repeatedly using the database to solicit customers" – largely emails and phone calls offering internet engineers bandwidth and similar services.

No one likes sales reps calling, especially engineers who go out of their way to make sure they are not easily contactable.

And that, [it] seems, was Cogent's downfall because – being engineers – many of them have set up specific emails just for ARIN correspondence and others never gave out their phone numbers except to ARIN because, well, they had to. So when the sales reps came calling the engineers knew straight away where they had culled their information.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

The Linux kernel has around 27.8 million lines of code in its Git repository, up from 26.1 million a year ago, while systemd now has nearly 1.3 million lines of code, according to GitHub stats analysed by Michael Larabel at Phoronix.

There were nearly 75,000 code commits to the kernel during 2019 which is actually slightly down on 2018 (80,000 commits), and the lowest number since 2013. The top contributors by email domain were Intel and Red Hat (Google's general gmail.com aside) and the top contributing individuals were Linus Torvalds, with 3.19 per cent of the commits, followed by David Miller (Red Hat) and Chris Wilson (Intel). There were 4,189 different contributors overall.

Another point of interest is that systemd, a replacement for init that is the first process to run when Linux starts, is now approaching 1.3 million lines of code thanks to nearly 43,000 commits in 2019. Top contributor was not systemd founder Lennart Poettering (who was second), but Yu Watanabe with 26.94 per cent of the commits.

[...] Larabel has published statistics on coding activity for the Linux kernel here and for systemd here.®

Original Submission

Freeman writes:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/01/amazons-ring-fired-at-least-four-employees-for-snooping-on-user-videos/

Amazon's Ring line of consumer home surveillance products has drawn quite a bit of attention in recent weeks for how easily bad actors outside the company have been able to access users' accounts. But for Ring, as with many other firms, some of the greatest security risks may come from inside the company

In response to congressional questioning, Amazon this week admitted to four incidents in the past four years where employees accessed video data they were not supposed to.

[...]Ring fired all those employees following "swift action to investigate" and told Congress that following each incident, the company "has taken multiple actions to limit such data access to a smaller number of team members." Additionally, the company said, it "periodically reviews" employees' access to data "to verify they have a continuing need for access" in order to do their jobs.

[...]"publicly available" Ring video may include more information than the customers who generated it intend. Previous reports found footage online from tens of thousands of Ring cameras nationwide sharing extremely granular coordinates that allowed reporters and researchers to generate maps of their locations.

[...]Amazon was first called on to provide answers to Congress about Ring late last fall, following news that the company had developed close partnerships with more than 400 law enforcement agencies nationwide. (As of today, the list includes 770 agencies.)

Original Submission

Freeman writes:

The New York City government has released an "Internet Master Plan" that calls for universal broadband throughout the five boroughs, relying on open-access fiber networks that can be used by multiple ISPs.

[...]There's often a big difference between municipal plans and reality, of course. Los Angeles announced a universal fiber plan in November 2013. But the plan stalled after striking many experts as unrealistic—the city wanted to find a private company that would build the network at its own cost, offer free Internet to all residents (while charging for faster speeds), and make the infrastructure available to any other service provider on a wholesale basis.

[...]The New York City plan has raised excitement, though. Gigi Sohn, a consumer advocate and former Federal Communications Commission official, called NYC's plan "the most thoughtful and comprehensive blueprint by any major city to ensure that every resident and small business has affordable and open access to high-performance broadband." Sohn argued that states and municipalities must act because the "federal government has failed to meet the broadband needs of tens of millions of Americans."

[...]Importantly, the plan calls for wiring up parts of the city with the worst broadband access first. "The Master Plan prioritizes infrastructure development for neighborhoods that have low levels of commercial fiber service and where new construction opens the way for new providers and services," the document says.

[...]It's not clear how long the plan would take to implement, although it would certainly be at least a few years if the city does everything it aims to. Instead of charting out construction for the entire city in a single bidding round, the plan calls for an iterative process with multiple "procurement cycles to address infrastructure and service goals in new batches of neighborhoods or for new bundles of assets."

[...]The city's commitment to invest money instead of relying solely on the private sector is promising, Bergmayer said. "Substantial public investment will be necessary for truly universal service," he added. "The plan's focus on public investment in shared infrastructure is a good start."

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/01/nyc-broadband-plan-calls-for-fiber-everywhere-with-isps-sharing-network/

Original Submission

RandomFactor writes:

The European Patent Office has rejected two patent applications filed on behalf of an AI by researchers. The AI is named DABUS ('device for the autonomous bootstrapping of unified sentience'),

DABUS created two unique, usable ideas that were submitted to [the] patent office: the first was a new kind of beverage container; and the second was a signal device to help search and rescue teams locate a target.

One of the researchers, Ryan Abbot of the University of Surrey, argues that this should have been handled differently

'If I teach my Ph.D. student that and they go on to make a final complex idea, that doesn't make me an inventor on their patent, so it shouldn't with a machine,' he said in October.

He believes the best approach would be to credit the AI as the inventor of the patents, and then credit the AI's human owner as the assignee given license to make decisions about the patent or draw benefit from it.

The EPO rejected the patent applications on the grounds that "there was no human inventor." This is a constraint built into European Copyright law, but until now not part of European Patent law.

Also at Techdirt

Original Submission

Freeman writes:

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/01/paul-krugmans-no-good-very-bad-internet-day/

Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, professor at the City University of New York, and New York Times columnist, experienced a chain of what appear to be Internet scam mishaps based on posts to Twitter that he later deleted.

[...]it appears that Krugman finally realized it was a scam—with the New York Times security team responding to assist him.

[...]It's not clear whether the call to Krugman was a targeted scam or if he was simply the target of an arbitrary robocall scam similar to those Ars has reported on in the past (and this reporter has received three calls from in the last two days).

Despite his field expertise, Krugman is a prime candidate for such attacks, given his public presence and previously demonstrated unease with technology.

[...]So it's critical that people with some technical know-how and experience educate family members and people in their communities about these types of criminal activity. Tell them that they should not click on that link in an email or a Facebook message, that Windows will not call them, and show them the Federal Trade Commission website report on phone scams.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Testosterone treatment should be given only for sexual dysfunction, guideline suggests

The only scientifically proven use for the hormone in older men with age-related low testosterone levels is for sexual dysfunction, according to a new recommendation from the American College of Physicians published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

[...] Millions of men seek a quick health fix with testosterone replacement, both from prescriptions and over-the-counter supplements. The new analysis showed that there's no evidence that long-term testosterone supplementation improves — or damages — health, said Dr. Robert McLean, president of the APA and a rheumatologist at Yale New Haven Health's Northeast Medical Group. The only benefit is a short-term treatment for men with sexual issues.

Other issues, such as "general vitality and cognition do not seem to be symptoms that improve with testosterone replacement," McLean said. There's nothing in the data, he added, "that shows that testosterone is a fountain of youth."

And that means, doctors shouldn't even bother to check testosterone levels unless their older male patient "says my libido is in the tank," McLean said.

The new recommendation applies only to men in their 60s who have been diagnosed with a decline in testosterone.

Testosterone Treatment in Adult Men With Age-Related Low Testosterone: A Clinical Guideline From the American College of Physicians (open, DOI: 10.7326/M19-0882) (DX)

Original Submission

takyon writes:

What Is Thunderbolt 4? Tiger Lake Tech Isn't Faster, Thunderbolt 3 With a New Name

UPDATE: Intel confirmed it referenced USB 3.1 in the presentation, meaning Thunderbolt 4 is in fact not faster than Thunderbolt 3. We updated the text accordingly.

Intel's press conference at CES 2020 last night was underwhelming given its lack of hardware announcements, but the company did partially pull the covers off of its new Tiger Lake processors and included vague slides that touted a "new" integrated Thunderbolt 4 connection. Given this is the first mention of the new interface, it has generated quite a bit of interest.

However, we followed up with a well-placed industry source who claims Thunderbolt 4 isn't new at all: It is largely an Intel re-branding campaign that signifies both the USB 4 and Thunderbolt 3 connections have been fully certified by Intel. That means this connection is not faster than the existing interface.

We followed up with Intel, which initially provided this response:

"Thunderbolt 4 continues Intel leadership in providing exceptional performance, ease of use and quality for USB-C connector-based products. It standardizes PC platform requirements and adds the latest Thunderbolt innovations. Thunderbolt 4 is based on open standards and is backwards compatible with Thunderbolt 3. We will have more details to share about Thunderbolt 4 at a later date."

Winning hearts and minds at CES 2020.

Also at AnandTech, GSMArena, and Wccftech.

Original Submission

hendrikboom writes:

Thought the Y2K bug was over and done with? Read the New Scientist article A lazy fix 20 years ago means the Y2K bug is taking down computers now and think again!

Parking meters, cash registers and a professional wrestling video game have fallen foul of a computer glitch related to the Y2K bug.

The Y2020 bug, which has taken many payment and computer systems offline, is a long-lingering side effect of attempts to fix the Y2K, or millennium bug.

Both stem from the way computers store dates. Many older systems express years using two numbers – 98, for instance, for 1998 – in an effort to save memory. The Y2K bug was a fear that computers would treat 00 as 1900, rather than 2000.

Programmers wanting to avoid the Y2K bug had two broad options: entirely rewrite their code, or adopt a quick fix called "windowing", which would treat all dates from 00 to 20, as from the 2000s, rather than the 1900s. An estimated 80 per cent of computers fixed in 1999 used the quicker, cheaper option.

"Windowing, even during Y2K, was the worst of all possible solutions because it kicked the problem down the road," says Dylan Mulvin at the London School of Economics.

I seem to remember that credit card companies instead kicked the can on to 2050.

-- hendrik

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

How a chunk of human brain survived intact for 2600 years:

Nearly 2600 years ago, a man was beheaded near modern-day York, U.K.—for what reasons, we still don't know—and his head was quickly buried in the clay-rich mud. When researchers found his skull in 2008, they were startled to find that his brain tissue, which normally rots rapidly after death, had survived for millennia—even maintaining features such as folds and grooves (above).

Now, researchers think they know why. Using several molecular techniques to examine the remaining tissue, the researchers figured out that two structural proteins—which act as the "skeletons" of neurons and astrocytes—were more tightly packed in the ancient brain. In a yearlong experiment, they found that these aggregated proteins were also more stable than those in modern-day brains. In fact, the ancient protein clumps may have helped preserve the structure of the soft tissue for ages, the researchers report today in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.

Clearly the reason his brain survived is he lived before the age of television.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

China has sent armed vessels and fishing boats into Indonesian waters fueling tensions between the nations in another move by China to try to claim ownership of the region. With China now deliberately sending vessels into the waters of other countries, their actions may be seen as the start of armed hostilities. For years China has made political and financial maneuvers to claim control over other nations through debt and intimidation. Indonesia has refused to negotiate with China on the matter as they see the actions as China invading their territory. With both sides bringing both sky and sea vehicles into the region the outcome of this issue may be a deciding point to determine whether or not China will be pushed out of the region. While the ruling by the UN is very clear about the region, China refuses to accept it.

China appears to have forgotten why the UN was formed in the first place. Japan learned a hard lesson in 1945.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Researcher promoting red meat, sugar failed to disclose industry ties—again:

A controversial researcher known for bucking the well-established dietary advice that people should limit their sugar and red meat intake has, once again, failed to disclose his financial ties to the food industry.

Epidemiologist Bradley Johnston failed to report funding from a research agency backed by the beef industry when he published a high-profile review on red meat consumption, according to the journal that published the review last year, Annals of Internal Medicine. The review concluded that consumers should continue—not reduce—their consumption of red and processed meats, which has been fiercely criticized by nutrition experts.

Annals issued a correction on the review last week, updating the review's accompanying disclosure forms.

In the correction notice, Annals editors stated that Johnston's industry-linked grant money was specifically for studying saturated and polyunsaturated fats. The Washington Post reported further detail on the grant money, saying that Johnston and his former employer Dalhousie University received $76,863 to conduct a new meta-analysis on saturated fat.

That grant money came from AgriLife Research, a part of Texas A&M University that is partially funded by the beef industry. According to Patrick Stover, vice-chancellor and dean of AgriLife, the Texas research agency received more than $2 million in funding from the beef industry in 2019 alone.

Stover was also a co-author on the Annals study with Johnston, along with an international team of researchers. Stover has since hired Johnston as an associate professor of community health and epidemiology at Texas A&M.

All of this raises questions about whether Johnston had an agenda to downplay the health risks of red and processed meats—which can be high in saturated fats.

Are any researchers on diet less tied to monied interests?

Original Submission

canopic jug writes:

Digital Rights/Restrictions Management (DRM) technologies affecting new tractors are behind the continuing rise in popularity of the models. Particularly in the midwest, farmers are finding that 40-year-old tractors do the job with less trouble and expense.

Tractors manufactured in the late 1970s and 1980s are some of the hottest items in farm auctions across the Midwest these days — and it's not because they're antiques.

Cost-conscious farmers are looking for bargains, and tractors from that era are well-built and totally functional, and aren't as complicated or expensive to repair as more recent models that run on sophisticated software.

"It's a trend that's been building. It's been interesting in the last couple years, which have been difficult for ag, to see the trend accelerate," said Greg Peterson, the founder of Machinery Pete, a farm equipment data company in Rochester with a website and TV show.

Previously;
Reeducating Legislators on the Right to Repair (2019)
John Deere Just Swindled Farmers Out of Their Right to Repair (2018)
US Copyright Office Says People Have the Right to Hack their Own Cars' Software (2015)

Original Submission