SoylentNews

takyon writes:

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 1650 GDDR6 Released: GDDR6 Reaching Price Parity With GDDR5

Tucked inside NVIDIA's announcement of their spring refresh of their mobile GPU lineup, the company included a new low-end mobile part, the GeForce GTX 1650 GDDR6. Exactly as it says on the tin, this was a version of the company's GTX 1650 accelerator, except with newer GDDR6 instead of the GDDR5 it launched with. Now, in one of NVIDIA's more poorly kept secrets, their desktop product stack is getting a version of the card as well.

[...] The entry-level card is the cheapest (and the slowest) of the Turing family, offering as much performance as NVIDIA can pack into a 75 Watt TDP.

[...] Overall, this low-key release should mark a more important turning point in the state of GDDR memory. If NVIDIA and its partners are now willing to release GDDR6 versions of low-end cards, then this is a strong indicator that GDDR6 has finally lost most of its new technology price premium, and that memory prices have fallen by enough to be competitive with 8Gbps GDDR5. GDDR6 prices were a sticking point for the profit-sensitive NVIDIA during the original Turing product stack launch, so while it has taken an extra year, the company is finally offering a top-to-bottom GDDR6-based product stack.

Let's see more GPUs and APUs with HBM already.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for chromas:

Mysteries of Uranus' oddities explained by Japanese astronomers:

The ice giant Uranus' unusual attributes have long puzzled scientists. All of the planets in our Solar System revolve around the Sun in the same direction and in the same plane, which astronomers believe is a vestige of how our Solar System formed from a spinning disc of gas and dust. Most of the planets in our Solar System also rotate in the same direction, with their poles orientated perpendicular to the plane the planets revolve in. However, uniquely among all the planets, Uranus' is tilted over about 98 degrees.

[...] How Uranus' unusual set of properties came to be has now been explained by a research team led by Professor Shigeru Ida from the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) at Tokyo Institute of Technology. Their study suggests that early in the history of our Solar System, Uranus was struck by a small icy planet - roughly 1-3 times the mass of the Earth - which tipped the young planet over, and left behind its idiosyncratic moon and ring system as a 'smoking gun'.

The team came to this conclusion while they were constructing a novel computer simulation of moon formation around icy planets. [...] There is strong evidence Earth's own single moon formed when a rocky Mars-sized body hit the early Earth almost 4.5 billion years ago. This idea explains a great deal about the Earth and its Moon's composition, and the way the Moon orbits Earth.

canopic jug writes:

SSH key forwarding is to be avoided when possible. When it is not possibile to avoid, it is a good idea to limit what gets forwarded. Software developer Vincent Bernat describes one way by putting a simple shell script wrapper around the SSH client to provide a session with a unique, ephemeral key agent.

ssh-agent is a program to hold in memory the private keys used by SSH for public-key authentication. When the agent is running, ssh forwards to it the signature requests from the server. The agent performs the private key operations and returns the results to ssh. It is useful if you keep your private keys encrypted on disk and you don't want to type the password at each connection. Keeping the agent secure is critical: someone able to communicate with the agent can authenticate on your behalf on remote servers.

ssh also provides the ability to forward the agent to a remote server. From this remote server, you can authenticate to another server using your local agent, without copying your private key on the intermediate server. As stated in the manual page, this is dangerous!

Perhaps another approach would be to embed the wrapper in the ProxyCommand configuration directive, thus obviating the need for either a shell alias or shell function.

How and why have soylentils had to deal with SSH agent forwarding?

Previously:
(2019) How SSH Key Shielding Works
(2019) SSH Gets Protection Against Side Channel Attacks
(2018) Default OpenSSH-Portable RSA Private Key Encryption is Poor
(2017) SSH vs OpenVPN for Tunneling
(2016) Upgrade Your SSH Keys
(2015) Why Aren't We Using SSH for Everything?

Original Submission

martyb writes:

NASA reveals the new wavy Martian wheels it thinks can crush the red planet:

NASA has revealed the wheels it's just bolted onto the Perseverance Rover, the new Mars assault robot it plans to send to the red planet in July as part of the Mars 2020 mission.

Wheels matter because NASA's Curiosity rover has had trouble keeping a grip on Mars. As we reported in 2017, Curiosity has been popping unintentional wheelies as its six wheels struggle over rocks and sand. While a software patch delivered the robot a new a traction control algorithm that keeps it grounded and lessens wear on wheels, the vehicle's wheels have holes and cracks thanks to pressure produced when rolling over sharp rocks.

Those holes are a worry because the rover doesn't carry a spare and even if it did, good luck finding someone to fit it!

NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover Gets Its Wheels and Air Brakes – NASA's Mars Exploration Program:

Final assembly and testing of NASA's Perseverance rover continues at Kennedy Space Center in Florida as the July launch window approaches. In some of the last steps required prior to stacking the spacecraft components in the configuration they'll be in atop the Atlas V rocket, the rover's wheels and parachute have been installed.

[...] Machined out of a block of flight-grade aluminum and equipped with titanium spokes, each wheel is slightly larger in diameter and narrower than Curiosity's, with skins that are almost a millimeter thicker. They also feature new treads, or grousers: In place of Curiosity's 24 chevron-pattern treads are 48 gently curved ones. Extensive testing in the Mars Yard at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which built the rover and manages operations, has shown these treads better withstand the pressure from sharp rocks and grip just as well or better than Curiosity's when driving on sand.

[...] The job of adding Perseverance's parachute to the back shell, where the rover will be stowed on the journey to the Red Planet, took several days and was finished on March 26. Tasked with slowing the heaviest payload in the history of Mars exploration from Mach 1.7 to about 200 mph (320 kph) during the rover's landing on Feb., 18, 2021, the 194 pounds (88 kilograms) of nylon, Technora and Kevlar fibers are packed so tightly into a 20-inch-wide (50-centimeter-wide) aluminum cylinder that it is as dense as oak wood. When deployed at about 7 miles (11 kilometers) above the Martian surface, the chute will take about a half-second to fully inflate its 70.5-foot-wide (21.5-meter-wide) canopy.

The Perseverance rover is a robotic scientist weighing 2,260 pounds (1,025 kilograms). It will search for signs of past microbial life, characterize the planet's climate and geology, collect samples for future return to Earth, and pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet. No matter what day Perseverance launches during its July 17-Aug. 5 launch period, it will land on Mars' Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021.

Original Submission

martyb writes:

Here's an "oldie but goodie" that made a lasting impression on me and I thought others would enjoy it. I still find the writing style to be humorous and engaging. "The Code of Abibarshim" -- which appears at the end of the linked page -- makes excellent recommendations, but I cannot say I entirely agree with all of them. Take the first one, for starters. I sense it is not so much that the name changed but that old names were allowed to persist, unchanged. As long as all instances of the old name are found and updated, I sense there is very little cause for concern. But I've already said too much. Do read the whole article! Why not take a few minutes and enjoy from some light-hearted reading? What did you like? What, if anything, would you recommend changing in his 10 conclusions?

Credit: As best I have been able to verify, this was originally credited to Paul Pendragon and published in "Production Engineering", July, 1981.

Beware the Wrath of Abibarshim!

I, Abibarshim, Great King, King of Kings, Ruler of Kish, Babil, Agade and Sankhar, and of the regions across the Hilla, conqueror of Ninevah, destroyer of Sepharia, having striven mightily and met with grief, lay down this Code that ye may not also strive mightily and meet with grief, nor fall flat on thy ass.

For I, Abibarshim, King of Kings, and all that, did buy many Aethyopeans and hire many artisans and scribes and masons and Makers of Engines and Designers of Buildings. And great was their craft and great their number, which was one hundred and forty four thousand, give or take a few job-shoppers. Yea, they did strive mightily, too, for they knew what would happen if they strove not mightily. And the name of my capital improvement project was the Tower of Babil.

Yea, great was their craft and wonderful to behold what the Designers of Buildings wrought on the papyrus. All who looked thereon did marvel at their genius. I, Abibarshim, did also look thereon and did declare their designs to have much nift.

But many days did pass, and many times did the moon wax and wane, and the tower was not yet builded.

So I, Abibarshim, King of Kings, did hie me to the palace by the Arakhtu where dwelt the Designers of Buildings and Makers of Engines. And there I found not Designers of Buildings and Makers of Engines, but Drinkers of Coffee and Tellers of Tales (whom men call hurlers of bull dung). So I vented my royal spleen, which did perturb them mightily.

"Look here, O King, etc.," said the Chief of the Makers of Engines. "Some things can't be rushed. If thou wantest us to get thy bloody tower builded on time, then thou hadst better give us a little respect. For canst thou build thy tower without us?"

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for SoyCow8162:

Jeff Bezos' space company is pressuring employees to launch a tourist rocket during the pandemic:

Employees at Jeff Bezos' aerospace firm Blue Origin are outraged that senior leadership is pressuring workers to conduct a test launch of the company's New Shepard rocket — designed to take wealthy tourists into space — while the COVID-19 pandemic devastates the United States.

To conduct the flight, Blue Origin officials are considering transporting employees from the company's main headquarters in Kent, Washington — a town near Seattle where COVID-19 cases have surged — to a small town in West Texas called Van Horn. The town, which has a population of just over 2,000, is home to Blue Origin's test launch facility where the company has conducted all past flights of the New Shepard rocket.

Many employees fear that traveling to Van Horn might expose them to the novel coronavirus and inadvertently introduce COVID-19 to the residents of the rural town where there is very little infrastructure to handle an outbreak. The Verge spoke exclusively with four Blue Origin employees who all asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from the company. They say they are frustrated by the company's desire to conduct a launch, as it could unnecessarily jeopardize the health of employees at Blue Origin and residents of Van Horn.

"It feels like the company is prioritizing its business goals and schedule above the safety of its employees and the community," one employee tells The Verge.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:

Older people generally more emotionally healthy, better able to resist daily temptations:

The stereotype of grumpy old people apparently doesn't hold up under closer inspection. A new study from Duke and Vanderbilt University psychologists finds that older people are generally more emotionally stable and better able to resist temptations in their daily lives.

"There is evidence here that emotional health and regulation improve with age," said Daisy Burr, a Duke PhD student who led the study with Gregory Samanez-Larkin, an assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience. Their work appeared March 23 in the journal Emotion.

[...] The researchers said their findings are a better reflection of real-world conditions because they surveyed participants in their own time and space, rather than having them respond to cues in a laboratory setting. Burr added that older people are better at regulating their emotional state when allowed to do what they want.

In the end, Burr's analysis of the data found people experiencing more negative affect are worse at resisting desires. Younger study participants who had higher levels of life satisfaction were better able to resist desires.

But older adults were better at resisting temptation, regardless of their life satisfaction.

Daisy A. Burr, Jaime J. Castrellon, David H. Zald, Gregory R. Samanez-Larkin. Emotion dynamics across adulthood in everyday life: Older adults are more emotionally stable and better at regulating desires.. Emotion, 2020; DOI: 10.1037/emo0000734

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for SoyCow8162:

OneWeb goes bankrupt, lays off staff, will sell satellite-broadband business:

OneWeb has filed for bankruptcy and intends to sell its business, bringing an abrupt end to the company's plan to offer high-speed satellite Internet service around the world.

OneWeb announced Friday that it "voluntarily filed for relief under Chapter 11 of the [US] Bankruptcy Code," and "intends to use these proceedings to pursue a sale of its business in order to maximize the value of the company." OneWeb made the decision "after failing to secure new funding from investors including its biggest backer SoftBank," largely because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Financial Times wrote. OneWeb also "axed most of its staff on Friday," the FT article said.

OneWeb previously raised $3 billion over multiple rounds of financing and was seeking more money to fund its deployment and commercial launch. "Our current situation is a consequence of the economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis," OneWeb CEO Adrián Steckel said in the bankruptcy announcement. "We remain convinced of the social and economic value of our mission to connect everyone everywhere."

The bankruptcy announcement came a week after OneWeb said it expected "delays to our launch schedule and satellite manufacturing due to increasing travel restrictions and the disruption of supply chains globally."

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for SoyCow8162:

This Xbox creator baked ancient bread with 4,000-year-old-yeast:

As more people are faced with endless hours at home due to self-quarantine and social distancing, there's been a surge in home bread baking show-and-tell on the internet over the past few days. But it's safe to say that no one has been baking bread quite like Seamus Blackley, who finally has achieved his goal to re-create ancient Egyptian bread using yeast cultivated from samples that were over 4,000 years old and traditional tools and techniques dating back to that time period.

Today I achieved* something that I've been trying to do for a year. The slice of bread here was made with leavening cultures sampled from ancient Egyptian baking vessels, using ancient Emmer wheat, with an ancient Egyptian recipe, using ancient Egyptian baking tools, and NO OVEN. pic.twitter.com/msZpvlyK0F

— Seamus Blackley (@SeamusBlackley) March 30, 2020

The thread is actually a culmination of Blackley's year-long efforts to bake bread using yeast cultivated by samples obtained from ancient pottery since their porous structures helped preserve some of the original microorganisms. (Blackley, when not trying to re-create ancient breads, is better known as one of the creators of the original Xbox and the man behind the infamous "Duke" controller.)

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for SoyCow8162:

Everlane customer experience workers say they were illegally laid off:

Last week, Everlane's consumer experience team was gutted by layoffs in the middle of its union drive, a huge blow to the nascent organizing effort. Now, the former employees are fighting back, accusing the CEO of retaliation and threatening a legal challenge if the employees aren't reinstated.

The team, which primarily operates remotely, announced plans to unionize in late December, as reported by Anna Merlan in Vice. They said the direct-to-consumer clothing company treated them as "disposable" and failed to adequately compensate them for the work they did.

The team spent months gathering the number of signatures needed to form a strong majority — a requirement for unionizing efforts. Finally, on March 23rd, they sent Everlane CEO Michael Preysman a letter announcing they had enough support and asking for voluntary recognition. Four days later, 42 team members — including all of the vocal union supports — were laid off.

Representatives from the Communications Workers of America (CWA) linked the terminations to the team's organizing efforts. "This was not only disappointing, but also unlawful," wrote CWA's San Francisco chapter president Orange Richardson IV in the letter to Preysman (read the full text of the letter here). "We know that Everlane has as its mission radical transparency and ethical treatment and so in light of this we are asking you to reconsider this action, re-hire the terminated remote CX workers, make them whole, and recognize their Union." The letter says the union stands "ready to take appropriate action to defend the rights of remote CX workers." Former employees confirmed to The Verge that this means possibly suing for wrongful termination.

In an Instagram post, Everlane said the decision to lay off the team members was not about union-busting. "The COVID-19 pandemic is unlike anything we could have predicted, and it has left no person or business untouched," the company's CEO wrote. "Everlane is no exception." He added that "firing as a form of union busting is unethical and illegal" and said the company supports workers who wish to unionize.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for SoyCow8162:

This fingerprint-verified smart lock can be foiled by a magnet:

Tapplock, a company that makes fingerprint-verified locks, has had a rough time with its locks' security. The company's flagship lock, which has been available since 2019, is apparently easy to pop open with a magnet. YouTuber LockPickingLawyer published a video last week showing how he could use a powerful magnet to turn the motor inside the Tapplock One Plus, causing it to open. The entire process takes less than 30 seconds.

The Tapplock One Plus costs $99 and features a fingerprint sensor. It also has built-in Bluetooth, so people can unlock it using an app. In response to the video, Tapplock commented: "Wow! Shout out to LPL for finding this exploit. Working on a fix with magnetic shielding, will be back."

This is a commendable reply, although it doesn't do much for people who already bought the lock. Most companies ignore bug reports or fail to fix the flaw. It at least seems like Tapplock wants to figure out how to prevent this kind of attack.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for SoyCow8162:

Amazon executives privately insulted a warehouse worker, then attacked him on Twitter:

After firing Chris Smalls, who helped organize a warehouse worker strike at Amazon's Staten Island, New York facility over novel coronavirus safety, Amazon executives publicly attacked him on Twitter. Now we might know why. Leaked meeting notes obtained by Vice Newslay out a plan for executives to smear Smalls and make him the focus of the company's effort to discredit a growing labor movement inside the company.

"He's not smart, or articulate, and to the extent the press wants to focus on us versus him, we will be in a much stronger PR position than simply explaining for the umpteenth time how we're trying to protect workers," said David Zapolsky, Amazon's general counsel, in the meeting notes, which Vice News reports were forwarded throughout the company.

"We should spend the first part of our response strongly laying out the case for why the organizer's conduct was immoral, unacceptable, and arguably illegal, in detail, and only then follow with our usual talking points about worker safety," Zapolsky continued. "Make him the most interesting part of the story, and if possible make him the face of the entire union/organizing movement."

Zapolsky confirmed the authenticity of the memo by explaining his comments: "I let my emotions draft my words and get the better of me," he said in a statement given to the The Verge.But instead of apologizing for denigrating Smalls, he continued to attack him using the same strategy outlined in his memo. "I was frustrated and upset that an Amazon employee would endanger the health and safety of other Amazonians by repeatedly returning to the premises after having been warned to quarantine himself after exposure to virus Covid-19," Zapolsky said.

An Amazon spokesperson said the company could not confirm or comment on the authenticity of any email or memo from Zapolsky.

Smalls helped organize the warehouse walkout that took place on Monday to protest the company's handling of COVID-19. Smalls and other workers were upset at how Amazon has been dealing with unsanitary warehouse working conditions in the event a worker is diagnosed with the illness.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Temporarily rolling back SameSite Cookie Changes

With the stable release of Chrome 80 in February, Chrome began enforcing secure-by-default handling of third-party cookies as part of our ongoing effort to improve privacy and security across the web. We've been gradually rolling out this change since February and have been closely monitoring and evaluating ecosystem impact, including proactively reaching out to individual websites and services to ensure their cookies are labeled correctly.

However in light of the extraordinary global circumstances due to COVID-19, we are temporarily rolling back the enforcement of SameSite cookie labeling, starting today. While most of the web ecosystem was prepared for this change, we want to ensure stability for websites providing essential services including banking, online groceries, government services and healthcare that facilitate our daily life during this time. As we roll back enforcement, organizations, users and sites should see no disruption.

Also at The Verge, Android Police, Engadget, and Forbes.

Previously: WTF is Chrome's SameSite Cookie Update?
Promiscuous Cookies and their Impending Death via the SameSite Policy

Original Submission

"exec" writes:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

The rolling hills northwest of Johannesburg are famous for fossils of human-like creatures called hominins. Because of this, the area is known as the Cradle of Humankind.

"During our field school excavations at Drimolen, a student began uncovering a cluster of fragments. We could see that they were parts of a skull. But they weren't immediately identifiable," says Ms Stephanie Baker.

[...] Fossils that are millions of years old often come out of the soil in fragments. The fragments need to be rebuilt before researchers can confidently identify what kind of animal they came from.

"Over the course of the field season, more and more fragments were uncovered. We began piecing them together. No one could decide what this skullcap was from, until one night it all came together—and we realized we were looking at a hominin," she says. They named the skullcap DNH 134.

The next question was—what kind of hominin? The Cradle of Humankind has several different species of human ancestors and the Drimolen site had at least two kinds.

"This find really challenged us. We compared the assembled skullcap to all of the other examples of hominins in the Cradle area. Eventually, its teardrop shape and relatively big brain cavity meant we were looking at Homo erectus," says Baker.

martyb writes:

Typing By Slamming Your Laptop Closed. Repeatedly:

Do you sometimes feel that your custom mechanical keyboard is not quite loud enough to proclaim your superior hacking powers? Or do you need a more forceful way shout in all caps at someone who is wrong on the internet? For all this and more, [Jesse Li] has got you covered, with a set of bash scripts that allows you to type by slamming your laptop closed repeatedly, using Morse code.

The scripts are quite simple, and work receiving the lid open/close events from ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface), recording the open and close timestamp and converting the timing to dots and dashes. After slamming to the required rhythm, you keep the lid open to see the character appear.

Yes, I see no practical use for this. Yes, I think it is a neat "hack". Had an itch and scratched it. Any soylentils here done their own Morse transceiver? How about on your smart phone? Transmit by long- or short-press anywhere on the screen for dits and dahs. Receive by phone vibration. Nearly silent communication while never needing to look at the screen!

Previously:
(2020-02-29) Learning Morse Code The Ludwig Koch Way
(2016-06-22) Ham it up! 2016 ARRL Field Day is June 25-26
(2015-02-27) Verizon Issues Furious Response to FCC, in Morse Code, Dated 1934
(2014-05-11) First Covert Communication System with Lasers
(2014-04-03) The POW Who Blinked "Torture" In Morse Code

Original Submission