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NotSanguine writes:

Jon Brodkin over at Ars Technica is reporting on Cox Cable's heavy-handed tactics in limiting upload speeds for entire neighborhoods, claiming network overuse by those who pay extra for "unlimited" access.

From the article:

Cox, a cable company with about 5.2 million broadband customers in the United States, has been sending notices to some heavy Internet users warning them to use less data and notifying them of neighborhood-wide speed decreases. In the case we will describe in this article, a gigabit customer who was paying $50 extra per month for unlimited data was flagged by Cox because he was using 8TB to 12TB a month.

Cox responded by lowering the upload speeds on the gigabit-download plan from 35Mbps to 10Mbps for the customer's whole neighborhood. Cox confirmed to Ars that it has imposed neighborhood-wide slowdowns in multiple neighborhoods in cases like this one but didn't say how many excessive users are enough to trigger a speed decrease.

[...] Comments in a Reddit thread last month confirm that Mike isn't the only Cox customer being warned to cut upload speeds in order to avoid being kicked off the network. Cox didn't tell Mike exactly how much data he'd have to shave off his monthly usage. There was "no magic number or threshold, just an arbitrary amount of decrease, a Cox-deemed 'good effort,'" or his service would be cut off, he said.

martyb writes:

A recent story on the BBC posed a question to its readers. If it ain't broke: You share your oldest working gadgets. Folks wrote in with their favorite, longest-lasting devices.

Besides being curious about the latest tech devices and advancements, I've noticed our community also seems to have a number of thrifty folk who thrive on getting the most out of their gadgets.

I'll count myself among those in that category. I'll start with a Sharp EL-510S solar-powered, scientific calculator from the early 1980s. I also have a JVC stereo receiver from the mid 1980s that is still going strong. The computer I am currently using is a Dell Latitude Core 2 Duo from about 2009.

So how well has your stuff held up? What was been your best acquisition for long-term durability?

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for RandomFactor:

IBM will no longer offer, develop, or research facial recognition technology:

IBM will no longer offer general purpose facial recognition or analysis software, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said in a letter to Congress today. The company will also no longer develop or research the technology, IBM tells The Verge. Krishna addressed the letter to Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Reps. Karen Bass (D-CA), Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), and Jerrold Nadler (D-NY).

"IBM firmly opposes and will not condone uses of any [facial recognition] technology, including facial recognition technology offered by other vendors, for mass surveillance, racial profiling, violations of basic human rights and freedoms, or any purpose which is not consistent with our values and Principles of Trust and Transparency," Krishna said in the letter. "We believe now is the time to begin a national dialogue on whether and how facial recognition technology should be employed by domestic law enforcement agencies."

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for AzumaHazuki:

Sweden welcomes its first wooden wind turbine tower:

The wheels have begun to turn on an interesting new form of wind turbine in Sweden, with the country's first wooden power-generation tower now complete. Built from sustainably sourced materials and said to offer comparable performance to traditional wind turbines, it's hoped the wooden power tower will be a harbinger of cheaper and greener solutions for renewable energy in the Nordic country, with commercial versions planned for a couple of years down the track.

Following in the footsteps of a similar creation in Germany, the new wooden wind tower is the brainchild of Swedish engineering firm Modvion, which is out to improve on what it sees as significant drawbacks when it comes to typical wind towers. These tall, steel towers demand thick bases to support their upper sections, which not only makes them very expensive to produce, but very expensive to transport to site, with rules around load size on public roads often proving problematic.

Modvion is instead working on a modular version that can be made out of cheaper and greener materials than steel, which requires huge amounts of energy to produce. The company's wooden wind towers are designed to reach heights of more than 120 m (393 ft), at significantly lower cost than those made out of steel, with the modular approach allowing for stackable sections to be transported on public roads without issue. They are also claimed to be carbon neutral from the day construction begins.

The 30-meter (100-ft) proof-of-concept tower was built together with wood construction company Moelven at its facility in Töreboda. The wooden sections of the turbine were then transported to Björkö, an island outside Gothenburg around 200 km (124 mi) away, with the final piece put into place in late April.

Original Submission

takyon writes in with a story which was slightly augmented to become:

Saturn's Moon Titan Drifting Away Faster Than Previously Thought

Just as our own Moon floats away from Earth a tiny bit more each year, other moons are doing the same with their host planets. As a moon orbits, its gravity pulls on the planet, causing a temporary bulge in the planet as it passes.

Over time, the energy created by the bulging and subsiding transfers from the planet to the moon, nudging it farther and farther out. Our Moon drifts 1.5 inches (3.8 centimeters) from Earth each year.[*]

Scientists thought they knew the rate at which the giant moon Titan is moving away from Saturn, but they recently made a surprising discovery: Using data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, they found Titan drifting a hundred times faster than previously understood - about 4 inches (11 centimeters) per year.

The findings may help address an age-old question. While scientists know that Saturn formed 4.6 billion years ago in the early days of the solar system, there's more uncertainty about when the planet's rings and its system of more than 80 moons formed. Titan is currently 759,000 miles (1.2 million kilometers) from Saturn. The revised rate of its drift suggests that the moon started out much closer to Saturn, which would mean the whole system expanded more quickly than previously believed.

"This result brings an important new piece of the puzzle for the highly debated question of the age of the Saturn system and how its moons formed," said Valery Lainey, lead author of the work published June 8 in Nature Astronomy. He conducted the research as a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California before joining the Paris Observatory at PSL University.

cf: tidal acceleration:

Tidal acceleration is an effect of the tidal forces between an orbiting natural satellite (e.g. the Moon), and the primary planet that it orbits (e.g. Earth). The acceleration causes a gradual recession of a satellite in a prograde orbit away from the primary, and a corresponding slowdown of the primary's rotation. The process eventually leads to tidal locking, usually of the smaller first, and later the larger body. The Earth–Moon system is the best-studied case.

Journal Reference:
Valéry Lainey, Luis Gomez Casajus, Jim Fuller, et al. Resonance locking in giant planets indicated by the rapid orbital expansion of Titan, Nature Astronomy (DOI: 10.1038/s41550-020-1120-5)

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Milkweed, only food source for monarch caterpillars, ubiquitously contaminated:

New evidence identifies 64 pesticide residues in milkweed, the main food for monarch butterflies in the west. Milkweed samples from all of the locations studied in California's Central Valley were contaminated with pesticides, sometimes at levels harmful to monarchs and other insects.

The study raises alarms for remaining western monarchs, a population already at a precariously small size. Over the last few decades their overwintering numbers have plummeted to less than 1% of the population size than in the 1980s—which is a critically low level.

[...] "We expected to find some pesticides in these plants, but we were rather surprised by the depth and extent of the contamination," said Matt Forister, a butterfly expert, biology professor at the University of Nevada, Reno and co-author of the paper. "From roadsides, from yards, from wildlife refuges, even from plants bought at stores—doesn't matter from where—it's all loaded with chemicals. We have previously suggested that pesticides are involved in the decline of low elevation butterflies in California, but the ubiquity and diversity of pesticides we found in these milkweeds was a surprise."

[...] While this is only a first look at the possible risks these pesticides pose to western monarchs, the findings indicate the troubling reality that key breeding grounds for western monarchs are contaminated with pesticides at harmful levels.

"One might expect to see sad looking, droopy plants that are full of pesticides, but they are all big beautiful looking plants, with the pesticides hiding in plain sight," Forister, who has been a professor int he University's College of Science since 2008, said.

Journal Reference
Halsch, Christopher A., Code, Aimee, Hoyle, Sarah M., et al. Pesticide Contamination of Milkweeds Across the Agricultural, Urban, and Open Spaces of Low-Elevation Northern California, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2020.00162)

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Elon Musk tells SpaceX employees that its Starship rocket is the top priority now

SpaceX launched astronauts for the first time barely a week ago but CEO Elon Musk does not want the company resting on its laurels.

Instead, Musk urged SpaceX employees to accelerate progress on its next-generation Starship rocket "dramatically and immediately," writing Saturday in a company-wide email seen by CNBC.

"Please consider the top SpaceX priority (apart from anything that could reduce Dragon return risk) to be Starship," Musk wrote in the email.

[...] So far, the company's Starship development program in Boca Chica, Texas has suffered four dramatic setbacks. While SpaceX has made progress on each iteration, the most recent prototype exploded shortly after an engine test on May 29.

Also at Teslarati.

takyon writes:

Jodrell Bank leads international effort which reveals 157 day cycle in unusual cosmic radio bursts

An investigation into one of the current great mysteries of astronomy has come to the fore thanks to a four-year observing campaign conducted at the Jodrell Bank Observatory.

Using the long-term monitoring capabilities of the iconic Lovell Telescope, an international team led by Jodrell Bank astronomers has been studying an object known as a repeating Fast Radio Burst (FRB), which emits very short duration bright radio pulses.

Using the 32 bursts discovered during the campaign, in conjunction with data from previously published observations, the team has discovered that emission from the FRB known as 121102 follows a cyclic pattern, with radio bursts observed in a window lasting approximately 90 days followed by a silent period of 67 days. The same behaviour then repeats every 157 days.

This discovery provides an important clue to identifying the origin of these enigmatic fast radio bursts. The presence of a regular sequence in the burst activity could imply that the powerful bursts are linked to the orbital motion of a massive star, a neutron star or a black hole.

[...] In a new paper published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the team confirm that FRB 121102 is only the second repeating source of FRBs to display such periodic activity. To their surprise, the timescale for this cycle is almost 10 times longer than the 16-day periodicity exhibited by the first repeating source, FRB 180916.J10158+56, which was recently discovered by the CHIME telescope in Canada.

Journal Reference:
Rajwade, K M, Mickaliger, M B, Stappers, B W, et al. Possible periodic activity in the repeating FRB 121102, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (DOI: 10.1093/mnras/staa1237)

Previously: A Fast Radio Burst Tracked Down to a Nearby Galaxy

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

The F-word's hidden superpower: repeating it can increase your pain threshold:

There have been a surprising number of studies in recent years examining the effects of swearing, specifically whether it can help relieve pain—either physical or psychological (as in the case of traumatic memories or events). According to the latest such study, published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, constantly repeating the F-word—as one might do if one hit one's thumb with a hammer—can increase one's pain threshold.

The technical term is the "hypoalgesic effect of swearing," best illustrated by a 2009 study in NeuroReport by researchers at Keele University in the UK. The work was awarded the 2010 Ig Nobel Peace Prize, "for confirming the widely held belief that swearing relieves pain." Co-author Richard Stephens, a psychologist at Keele, became interested in studying the topic after noting his wife's "unsavory language" while giving birth, and wondered if profanity really could help alleviate pain. "Swearing is such a common response to pain. There has to be an underlying reason why we do it," Stephens told Scientific American at the time.

[...] The result: "Only the traditional swear word (the F-word) had any effect on pain outcomes," said Stephens. They also measured the subjects' pain threshold, asking them to indicate when the ice water began to feel painful. Those who chanted the F-word waited longer before indicating they felt pain—in other words, the swearing increased their threshold for pain.

Journal Reference
Stephens, Richard, Robertson, Olly. Swearing as a Response to Pain: Assessing Hypoalgesic Effects of Novel "Swear" Words, Frontiers in Psychology (DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00723)

Does it work as well in other languages? What about [non]-English-speaking people?

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Researchers identify neurons responsible for memory consolidation during REM sleep:

In a study published this month in Neuron, researchers from University of Tsukuba and the University of Tokyo have revealed that adult-born neurons (ABNs) in the hippocampus, which is a brain region associated with memory, are responsible for memory consolidation during REM sleep.

Neurogenesis, the process by which new neurons are formed, takes place in the hippocampus throughout the lifespan of animals, including humans. At present, little is known about the contribution of ABNs to memory formation during sleep, something the researchers at University of Tsukuba and the University of Tokyo aimed to address.

[...] "We found that young ABNs that were most active during REM sleep after the memory task were most likely to have been active during learning," explains Professor Masashi Yanagisawa, the other senior author of the study. "Further, when we then examined the effects of optogenetic silencing on young ABN activity during sleep, we found that the consolidation of contextual fear memories was impaired."

Journal Reference: Deependra Kumar, Iyo Koyanagi, Alvaro Carrier-Ruiz, et al. Sparse Activity of Hippocampal Adult-Born Neurons during REM Sleep Is Necessary for Memory Consolidation. Neuron, 2020; DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2020.05.008

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Brave privacy browser 'mistake' added affiliate links to crypto URLs:

Brave, the open-source Chromium-based browser that promises elevated privacy, has been called out by users for potentially putting revenue over user trust. The company has been redirecting certain crypto company URLs typed in search bars to affiliate links and presumably taking a commission, Decrypt has reported. For instance, he typed in "binance.us" and the company replaced the term with "binance.us/en?ref=35089877," according to Twitter user Cryptonator.

[...] Some Brave users on Twitter (many from the crypto community) weren't mollified, but Eich offered a mea culpa. "Sorry for this mistake — we are clearly not perfect, but we correct course quickly. We will never revise typed in domains again, I promise."

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Since the beginning of 2020 Netflix has been waging a war against its own users to prevent them from using proxy, VPN and unblocker technology to access Netflix content even though this action is legal in many countries. In Australia Netflix has reported "connection errors" to paying customers, advising them to "check their network" including to "restart their router" in order to "fix" a problem accessing Netflix. The issue is that there was no such problem. It was Netflix deliberately blocking paying customers from accessing the service they paid for. As of June 2020 Netflix shows a proper error message and redirects users to a page stating that using a proxy or VPN is disallowed. While Netflix can set the terms of service it can't deceive customers or act fraudulently. Netflix did not post information to its customers that it was blocking VPN, for example, it just cut the connection. This deceptive behaviour could see Netflix run afoul of the ACCC Non-delivery of products & services which states that It is illegal for a business to accept payment for products or services they do not intend to supply.

What would you do if you were paying for a service and the vendor refused to provide the service and did not tell you why?

Original Submission

"exec" writes:

https://securityboulevard.com/2020/06/owners-of-ddos-for-hire-service-vdos-get-6-months-community-service/

The co-owners of vDOS, a now-defunct service that for four years helped paying customers launch more than two million distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks that knocked countless Internet users and websites offline, each have been sentenced to six months of community service by an Israeli court.

A judge in Israel handed down the sentences plus fines and probation against Yarden Bidani and Itay Huri, both Israeli citizens arrested in 2016 at age 18 in connection with an FBI investigation into vDOS.

Until it was shuttered in 2016, vDOS was by far the most reliable and powerful DDoS-for-hire or “booter” service on the market, allowing even completely unskilled Internet users to launch crippling assaults capable of knocking most websites offline.

vDOS advertised the ability to launch attacks at up to 50 gigabits of data per second (Gbps) — well more than enough to take out any site that isn’t fortified with expensive anti-DDoS protection services.

The Hebrew-language sentencing memorandum (PDF 379 KB) has redacted the names of the defendants, but there are more than enough clues in the document to ascertain the identities of the accused. For example, it says the two men earned a little more than $600,000 running vDOS, a fact first reported by this site in September 2016 just prior to their arrest, when vDOS was hacked and KrebsOnSecurity obtained a copy of its user database.

In addition, the document says the defendants were initially apprehended on September 8, 2016, arrests which were documented here two days later.

Also, the sentencing mentions the supporting role of a U.S. resident named only as “Jesse.” This likely refers to 23-year-old Jesse Wu, who KrebsOnSecurity noted in October 2016 pseudonymously registered the U.K. shell company used by vDOS, and ran a tiny domain name registrar called NameCentral that vDOS and many other booter services employed.

-- submitted from IRC

Original Submission

darkfeline writes:

As reported on LWN and Ars Technica, iXsystems — the company behind FreeNAS — is creating a new Debian/Linux distribution called TrueNAS SCALE.

FreeNAS is coming to Linux
TrueNAS isn’t abandoning BSD—but it is adopting Linux

FreeNAS is a popular FreeBSD-based FOSS NAS distribution. Recently, it has been merged with TrueNAS into TrueNAS CORE. TrueNAS is iXsystems's enterprise/commercial variant of the FOSS FreeNAS. After the merge, both FOSS and enterprise users will run the same distribution; enterprise users will, however, be able to access the enterprise features via some licensing scheme. (The submitter has not researched the FOSS licensing implications, but assumes it is implemented in a way that doesn't compromise the integrity for FOSS users.)

Moving forward, iXsystems is developing FreeNAS SCALE, which is based on Debian Linux. FreeNAS SCALE will be maintained alongside FreeNAS CORE, the FreeBSD version.

One of the motivations for using Debian could be that ZFS development is now happening primarily on Linux and getting backported/merged into FreeBSD. Also, as a FreeNAS user myself, being able to run Linux containers (which are now in widespread use) is a big advantage. Perhaps iXsystems thinks so as well.

From the announcement FreeNAS and TrueNAS are Unifying - iXsystems, Inc. - Enterprise Storage & Servers:

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Just a few weeks ago, we had a story about how SpaceX released a docking simulator that lets anyone try to safely connect the crew capsule with the ISS. SpaceX had a history of not taking itself too seriously. The drone ships for landing the Falcon-9 boosters are named Just Read the Instructions and Of Course I Still Love You (from Iain M. Banks' Culture fictional universe)... knowing full-well the ships' names would be announced every time there was a landing attempt. Then came the names of the fairing recovery ships: Ms. Tree and Ms. Chief. And, of course, there was the time Elon Musk launched his bright red Tesla Roadster (and star man) on as the payload the inaugural launch of the Falcon Heavy.

So, it should come as no surprise that an Anonymous Coward wrote in to tell us that SpaceX had been at it again; the docking simulator had an Easter Egg embedded in it! Here's a link to the simulator again:https://iss-sim.spacex.com/

Apparently, if you do a 180 and pitch down you can see Elons' Roadster. Extra points if you bump it into the atmosphere for burn up. Is this for real? Who will be the first Soylentil to achieve and confirm these?

Previously:
(2020-05-13) SpaceX Crew Dragon Simulator Challenges You to Dock with the ISS, and It's Not Easy

Original Submission