SoylentNews

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for chromas:

Wanna force granny to take down that family photo from the internet? No problem. Europe's GDPR to the rescue:

A court in the Netherlands ruled this month that a grandmother must remove pictures of her grandchildren from her social media accounts after her daughter filed a privacy complaint.

The grandmother, according to a Gelderland District Court summary, has not been in contact with her daughter for more than a year due to a family argument.

Her daughter has three minor children who appear in pictures the grandmother posted to social media accounts on Facebook and Pinterest. In February, the daughter wrote to her mother, noting that her requests made via the police to remove the photos of her children from social media have been ignored and giving her mother until March 5 to comply or face legal action.

After the grandmother failed to take the photos down, the mother took her complaint to court.

The Dutch implementation of Europe's General Data Protection Act requires that anyone posting photos of minors obtain consent from their legal guardians.

When the court took up the matter in April, the grandmother had removed photos, except for one from Facebook. She wanted that one picture, of the grandson she had cared for from April 2012 through April 2019 while the boy and his father, separated from the mother, lived with her.

The father in the instance of the Facebook image also did not consent to the publication of the image.

[...] Accordingly, the judge gave the grandmother ten days to remove the picture. If it isn't not removed by then, a fine of €50.00 (£45, $55) will be imposed each day the images remain in place, up to a maximum of €1,000 (£900, $1,095).

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Experts predict that an upcoming ruling from the EU's European Food Safety Authority, in which the sale of insect-based food products will be liberalized, could see them finally hit the mainstream.

Accordingly, interest in mass rearing systems and technologies is growing. Within the SCALIBUR project, researchers are developing a new circular economy concept whereby flies are reared on food waste from restaurants, before being processed into food, feed and other products.

[...] Of the 90 million tons of food wasted each year in the EU, about 10 comes from food services, so called HORECA (hotels, restaurants, and cafés). This is a huge amount of still quite high-value organic substances which is going to waste. The black soldier fly (BSF) naturally feeds on these kinds of organic substrates.

UNIMORE has teamed up with Italian company Kour Energy to develop a start-to-end insect rearing process to obtain valuable products (protein, lipids and chitin) in a very efficient way, using high-tech chemical fractionation. We are merging biological knowledge for the best rearing practices, with chemical expertise for a high-yield extraction of products, and design and engineering practices to develop two pilot plants able to perform the whole transformation from waste to valuable materials.

[...] In the EU it is currently not allowed to use anything that is defined as 'waste' (including, by extension, insects reared on food waste) as feed for animals.

We expect the results of SCALIBUR will prove that it is possible to use insect larvae for effective and safe biowaste conversion, and then show the relevance of the technology for industrial scale use.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

On Wednesday, Intel announced its acquisition of Rivet Networks—makers of the Killer AC-brand line of gamer-oriented Wi-Fi gear—for an undisclosed price.

Intel Vice President Chris Walker describes the acquisition as "a terrific complement to our existing Wi-Fi products," going on to praise Rivet's products—the best known of which is the Killer Wireless-AC line of gaming-targeted Wi-Fi cards—and declare its intent to integrate the Killer line into Intel's broader PC Wi-Fi portfolio.

[...] Most gamers using Killer Wireless-AC products can get two potential benefits out of the stack—first, if their router and their gaming system both use Killer AC Wi-Fi interfaces, the router recognizes the Killer card in the gaming PC as a first priority and will ensure its traffic goes into the "lowest latency" bucket when shaping traffic.

Second, the Killer stack can recognize most AAA game traffic automatically and prioritize that traffic over the PC's own interface. This does nothing to alleviate congestion caused by a second device wanting to use the network—but it does, at least, allow the gamer's own PC to prioritize game traffic over Web browsing, email clients, and so forth running on the gamer's own PC.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Hacker Mods Old Calculator to Access the Internet, CASIO Files DMCA Complaint

A hobbyist electronics hacker who took a cheap standard calculator and modified it to access the Internet has been hit with a DMCA copyright complaint. According to CASIO, the project uses its copyrighted source code but the developer informs TorrentFreak that his code was written entirely from scratch.

Hobbyist electronics hacker and YouTuber 'Neutrino' only has 10 videos on his channel but many are extremely popular. [...] After a not inconsiderable amount of work, Neutrino's device was able to communicate with similar devices nearby and even connect to the Internet. Pretty impressive for a supposed amateur.

As standard, the CASIO calculator chosen for the project can be picked up on eBay for just a few dollars but other components are also required, as listed on Neutrino's YouTube channel. After desoldering the solar panel and various other steps, Neutrino managed to squeeze an OLED display into the space, along with a WiFi module and other goodies.

[...] But now, just a couple of weeks after winning plenty of praise, the project has also attracted the attention of an anti-counterfeiting organization working for CASIO. REACT describes itself as a not-for-profit organization with over 30 years experience in fighting counterfeit trade. "One of our main objectives is to keep the costs of anti-counterfeiting actions affordable," its site reads. A wide range of high-profile companies are listed as members, from Apple to Yves Saint Laurent and dozens in between. This week REACT wrote to Github, where Neutrino has his 'Hack-Casio-Calculator' repository, with a demand that it should be completely taken down for infringing its client's intellectual property rights.

looorg writes:

Berlin WW2 Bombing Survivor Saturn the Alligator Dies in Moscow Zoo:

"Yesterday morning, our Mississippi alligator Saturn died of old age. He was about 84 years old - an extremely respectable age," the [Moskow Zoo] said.

Saturn was gifted to Berlin Zoo in 1936 soon after he was born in the US. He escaped the zoo being bombed in 1943.

British soldiers found him three years later and gave him to the Soviet Union.

[...] "Moscow Zoo has had the honour of keeping Saturn for 74 years," the zoo said in a statement.

"For us Saturn was an entire era, and that's without the slightest exaggeration... He saw many of us when we were children. We hope that we did not disappoint him."

[...] The zoo reported that Saturn knew his keepers, loved being massaged with a brush - and was able to crack steel feeding tongs and bits of concrete with his teeth if irritated.

Mississippi alligators usually live to 30-50 years in the wild, it added.

Saturn may even have been the world's oldest alligator - it's impossible to say. Another male alligator, Muja who is at Belgrade Zoo in Serbia, is also in his 80s and still alive.

takyon writes:

Anti-Piracy Lawyer Sues Torrent Sites for 'YTS' Trademark Infringement

Pirate sites regularly get into trouble for breaching copyright law. However, a new case filed in Hawaii is of an entirely different order. A well-known anti-piracy lawyer has filed a lawsuit against several YTS[*] sites because the company he represents obtained a similarly-named trademark this year. The complaint mostly targets 'clones' and the real YTS is not named.

The Hawaiian company '42 Ventures' doesn't immediately ring a bell with most torrent users. However, when we say that it owns the trademarks for 'YTS' and 'Popcorn Time,' interests will pique. Founded last year, the company doesn't operate a pirate site. On the contrary, it's represented by Kerry Culpepper, a well-known anti-piracy lawyer who works with several Hollywood film companies.

Following its inception, 42 Ventures registered several piracy-related trademarks which it uses to target pirate sites and apps, including a popular Popcorn Time fork. The lawyer has used trademark complaints to suspend Twitter accounts, offering to lift the claims in return for a settlement.

As the trademark owner 42 Ventures can do this. However, the method is unusual, to say the least, and some wonder whether it would hold up in court. The Popcorn Time dispute was never litigated though and the developers didn't pay a settlement either. The Twitter handle remains suspended.

A few days ago another trademark issue popped up. This time, 42 Ventures went directly to court where it filed an infringement lawsuit against the operators of YTS.ws, YTS.ms, YST.lt, YTS.tl, YTSag.me, YTS.ae, YTSmovies.cc and YTS-ag.com.

[*] YTS:

YIFY Torrents or YTS was a peer-to-peer release group known for distributing large numbers of movies as free downloads through BitTorrent. YIFY releases were characterised through their HD video quality in a small file size, which attracted many downloaders. The original YIFY/YTS website was shut down by the MPAA in 2015; however, numerous websites imitating the YIFY/YTS brand still receive a significant amount of traffic. 'YIFY' is derived from the name of the website's founder, Yiftach Swery.

Previously: Anti-Piracy Copyright Lawyer Decides to Abuse Trademarks to Shut Down Pirates

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Microsoft Solitaire Turned 30 Years Old Friday and Still has 35 Million Monthly Players:

35 million people still play Solitaire monthly, according to Microsoft, with more than 100 million hands played daily around the world.

Microsoft Solitaire was originally included as part of Windows 3.0 back in 1990, designed specifically to teach users how to use a mouse. Grabbing virtual cards and dropping them in place taught the basics of drag-and-drop in Windows, which we still use today in many parts of the operating system.

[...] originally known as Windows Solitaire, [it] is one of the most played games in the world as it shipped in every version of Windows for more than two decades. That means it has shipped on more than a billion PCs, and it only stopped being a dedicated part of Windows with the release of Windows 8 in 2012.

Microsoft intern Wes Cherry initially programmed the game, and pixel art and Mac GUI pioneer Susan Kare designed the original card deck. Cherry initially programmed a "boss mode" into Windows Solitaire, with a fake spreadsheet designed to fool bosses and coworkers. Microsoft made Cherry remove the boss mode from the game before its release. If it had remained, it could have saved one man from being fired by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

UK reportedly planning to phase out Huawei equipment from its 5G networks

After resisting pressure from the US for months, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is apparently preparing to phase out the use of Huawei equipment from the UK's 5G networks, the Financial Times reported. Citing national security concerns, members of the UK's Conservative party have pushed for Huawei technology to be removed from the UK's 5G infrastructure and the rest of its telecom network by 2023.

[...] Trump reportedly called Johnson earlier this year to discuss the matter, and at least one member of Congress said the US was reconsidering its intelligence partnership with the UK.

Johnson had limited how much Huawei equipment could be used for 5G networks in the UK, banning the use of the company's technology in the most sensitive parts of the network. He said in January that there were not a lot of other options available for the UK's 5G infrastructure, and telecom Vodafone said removing Huawei equipment from its networks would be extremely costly.

See also: Reports: UK to cut Huawei's involvement in 5G network
Boris Johnson forced to reduce Huawei's role in UK's 5G networks

Previously:

*SPOILER* (click to show) *SPOILER* (click to hide)

U.S. Intelligence Agency Heads Warn Against Using Huawei and ZTE Products
Huawei's Equipment Removed from UK Telecom BT's Network for Emergency Services
EU to Drop Threat of Huawei Ban but Wants 5G Risks Monitored
UK to Toughen Telecoms Security Controls to Shrink 5G Risks
How China Is Building A World-Beating Phone Network
Using Huawei in UK 5G Network 'Madness', Says US
Getting Huawei Out of US Networks Requires Gov't Funding, Senators Say
Huawei Fires Back, Points To US' History Of Spying On Phone Networks
TSMC Dumps Huawei

Original Submission

martyb writes:

Riding the State Unemployment Fraud ‘Wave’:

When a reliable method of scamming money out of people, companies or governments becomes widely known, underground forums and chat networks tend to light up with activity as more fraudsters pile on to claim their share. And that’s exactly what appears to be going on right now as multiple U.S. states struggle to combat a tsunami of phony Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) claims. Meanwhile, a number of U.S. states are possibly making it easier for crooks by leaking their citizens’ personal data from the very websites the unemployment scammers are using to file bogus claims.

Last week, the U.S. Secret Service warned of “massive fraud” against state unemployment insurance programs, noting that false filings from a well-organized Nigerian crime ring could end up costing the states and federal government hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.

Since then, various online crime forums and Telegram chat channels focused on financial fraud have been littered with posts from people selling tutorials on how to siphon unemployment insurance funds from different states.

[...] Although, at the rate people in these channels are “flexing” — bragging about their fraudulent earnings with screenshots of recent multiple unemployment insurance payment deposits being made daily — it appears some states aren’t doing a whole lot of fraud-flagging.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for chromas:

Ransomware deploys virtual machines to hide itself from antivirus software:

The operators of the RagnarLocker ransomware are installing the VirtualBox app and running virtual machines on computers they infect in order to run their ransomware in a "safe" environment, outside the reach of local antivirus software.

This latest trick has been spotted and detailed today by UK cyber-security firm Sophos and shows the creativity and great lengths some ransomware gangs will go to avoid detection while attacking a victim.

[...] The "trick" is actually pretty simple and clever when you think of it.

Instead of running the ransomware directly on the computer they want to encrypt, the RagnarLocker gang downloads and installs Oracle VirtualBox, a type of software that lets you run virtual machines.

[...] The next step is to boot up the virtual machine, running a stripped-down version of the Windows XP SP3 operating system, called MicroXP v0.82.

The final phase is to load the ransomware inside the virtual machine (VM) and run it. Because the ransomware runs inside the VM, the antivirus software won't be able to detect the ransomware's malicious process.

From the antivirus software's point of view, files on the local system and shared drives will suddenly be replaced with their encrypted versions, and all the file modifications appear to come from a legitimate process -- namely the VirtualBox app.

Mark Loman, director of engineering and threat mitigation at Sophos told ZDNet today that this is the first time he's seen a ransomware gang abuse virtual machines during an attack.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for carny:

Rocket Report: NASA's stunning Falcon 9 bargain, Ariane 6 delayed:

Ars Technica routinely runs an infodump about all things rocket-related. Of note in this edition are details regarding the Falcon 9 and the Ariane 6, but many others are covered as well.

Welcome to Edition 2.45 of the Rocket Report! We're looking ahead to a monumental week of rocket launches with the first LauncherOne mission potentially taking flight on Sunday and the possible launch of Crew Dragon next Wednesday.

[...] NASA got a stunning value in the Falcon 9. With the first flight of humans atop a Falcon 9 rocket coming as early as next Wednesday, Ars takes a look back at the origins of NASA's commercial crew and cargo programs. As part of its initial investment of $396 million into SpaceX, NASA got development of the Cargo Dragon, Falcon 9, and a launch site at Cape Canaveral.

A cost of 50 times more ... At the same time, NASA was developing the Ares I rocket to fly crew into low Earth orbit. Independent estimates placed the cost of Ares I at about $20 billion. President Obama ultimately canceled the Ares I, projected to have a similar lift capacity to the modern Falcon 9 booster, because it was behind schedule and over budget. The agency, in turn, got a bargain.

Ariane 6 inaugural launch likely delayed until 2021. The first launch of Europe's next-generation large rocket appears all but certain to slip into 2021 because of development delays the European Space Agency and the rocket's manufacturer ArianeGroup attribute to the coronavirus pandemic, SpaceNews reports. Before the crisis, Arianespace had planned on Ariane 6 making its debut between October and December.

More clarity will come ... "ESA is working intensely, and very closely with all actors involved, industry and CNES, to stabilize and consolidate the planning," Daniel Neuenschwander, the director of space transportation at the European Space Agency, told the publication. "Today we are daily addressing the preliminary impacts and preparing to return to a stable level of activity. We will fully consolidate the planning and assess the full impact of COVID-19 on Ariane 6 once we have more clarity on how the European economy will be able to function in the coming months." (submitted by JohnCarter17, Ken the Bin, and platykurtic)

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

The US Government Just Invested Big in Small-Scale Nuclear Power:

Amid the coronavirus lockdowns around the world, one of few positive pieces of news we've heard is that carbon emissions have dropped dramatically. The clearer skies and cleaner air have led to a renewed vigor behind calls for retiring fossil fuels and investing more heavily in renewable energy. Proponents of renewables tend to focus on solar and wind as the best green energy sources, leaving out a lingeringly controversial yet crucial player: nuclear power.

Last week, the US Department of Energy (DOE) shone a light on nuclear's potential in the most effective possible way: by dumping a bunch of money on it. The DOE launched its Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program to the tune of $230 million. That sum is broken down into $160 million for scientists currently working on nuclear reactors that could be operational in 5 to 7 years, and another $70 million for additional research and development down the road.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Millions of cicadas to emerge after living underground for 17 years:

If you'd rather not think about murder hornets ruining your summer, you can always worry about swarms of cicadas invading the outdoors with their deafening buzz and molted brown husks.

This year, 1.5 million cicadas per acre will be popping up in parts of Virginia, North Carolina and West Virginia, according to scientists at Virginia Tech University. People who live in these areas will see a unique natural phenomenon that hasn't happened since 2004.

Depending on the species, cicadas either show up every year, or periodically (every 13 or 17 years). These particular periodical cicadas belong to a group called Brood IX.

"The timing of a 13- or 17-year cycle is one of the great mysteries of the insect world," scientists said in a Virginia Tech statement.

[...] "Communities and farms with large numbers of cicadas emerging at once may have a substantial noise issue," predicts Eric Day, an entomologist at Virginia Tech. "Hopefully, any annoyance at the disturbance is tempered by just how infrequent -- and amazing -- this event is."

Luckily, cicada broods tend to have short lifespans. They have four-to-six weeks of activity before they start dying off. So the cicadas' symphony of noise shouldn't last for the entire summer.

Original Submission

martyb writes:

Revelations about Rembrandt's masterpiece captured on camera:

At 9am on Tuesday the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam posted an image of Rembrandt's The Night Watch (1642) on its website. Nothing particularly unusual about that, you might think. After all, the museum frequently uploads pictures of its masterpieces from Dutch Golden Age. But there was something about this particular photo that made it stand out just like the little girl in a gold dress in Rembrandt's famous group portrait of local civic guardsmen.

The web image presents the painting unframed on a dark grey background. It looks sharp and well-lit but not exceptional in terms of photography.

Until, that is, you click on it, at which point you're zoomed in a bit closer.

Click again and you're propelled towards the outstretched hand of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq. Another click, and you're face-to-face with the leader of this group of not-so-merry-men.

Once more, and you can see the glint in his eye and the texture of his ginger beard.

At no point does the image start to pixelate or distort, it's pin-sharp throughout.

And it remains so as you continue to click, getting further and further into the painting until the Captain's paint-cracked eyeball is the size of a fist, and you realise that tiny glint you first saw isn't the result of one dab of Rembrandt's brush, but four separate applications, each loaded with a slightly different shade of paint.

And then you stop and think: Crikey, Rembrandt actually used four different colours to paint a minuscule light effect in the eye of one of the many life-sized protagonists featured in this group portrait, which probably wouldn't be seen by anybody anyway.

Or, maybe, this visionary 17th Century Dutchman foresaw a future where the early experiments with camera obscura techniques, in which he might have dabbled, would eventually lead to a photographic technology capable of recording a visual representation of his giant canvas to a level of detail beyond the eyesight of even the artist himself!

It is, quite frankly, amazing.

For instance, I've always liked the ghostly dog that turns and snarls at the drummer situated at the edge of the painting. I'd assumed the hound was unfinished and therefore unloved by Rembrandt, but now I can see by zooming in that the artist not only gave the dog a stylish collar, but also added a gold pendant with a tiny flash of red paint to echo the colour of the trousers worn by the drummer.

The story notes the painting is so large that the people in it are basically life-sized.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for chromas:

Microsoft Has Now Open-Source Their BASIC Code From 1983 - Phoronix:

Microsoft GW-BASIC is now open-source following their prior open-sourcing of older MS-DOS versions. This original Microsoft BASIC version being open-sourced is from 1983 and is simply being open-sourced for historical purposes.

This Microsoft BASIC interpreter is written in Assembly, to no surprise considering the ivntage[sic] of the software. But Microsoft did push this code through a translator in order to make use of newer x86 ISA capabilities. As such, the code being open-sourced is that derived from their original source code.

More details on this Microsoft BASIC open-sourcing via their dev blog while the code is on GW-BASIC via GitHub.

Original Submission