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Phoenix666 writes:

BBC:

A Facebook engineer has quit the firm, saying they "can no longer stomach" being part of an organisation "profiting off hate".

Ashok Chandwaney is the latest employee to go public with concerns about how the company deals with hate speech.

The engineer added it was "choosing to be on the wrong side of history".

Facebook responded by saying it had removed millions of hate-related posts. Another of its ex-engineers has also come to its defence.

The thrust of the post by Ashok Chandwaney - who uses "they" and "them" as personal pronouns - is that Facebook moves quickly to solve certain problems, but when it comes to dealing with hate speech, it is more interested in PR than implementing real change.

Can [or should] Facebook successfully purge its platform of speech it considers harmful?

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Phoenix666 writes:

ScienceDaily:

Newly discovered deep seabed channels beneath Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica may be the pathway for warm ocean water to melt the underside of the ice. Data from two research missions, using aircraft and ship, are helping scientists to understand the contribution this huge and remote glacier is likely to make to future global sea level rise.

[...] Over the past 30 years, the overall rate of ice loss from Thwaites and its neighbouring glaciers has increased more than 5-fold. Already, ice draining from Thwaites into the Amundsen Sea accounts for about four percent of global sea-level rise. A run-away collapse of the glacier could lead to a significant increase in sea levels of around 65 cm (25 inches) and scientists want to find out how quickly this could happen.

Lead author Dr Tom Jordan, an aero-geophysicist at British Antarctic Survey (BAS), who led the airborne survey, says:

"It was fantastic to be able to map the channels and cavity system hidden beneath the ice shelf; they are deeper than expected -- some are more than 800 metres deep. They form the critical link between the ocean and the glacier.

The researchers hope the additional data will improve models projecting ice loss in Antarctica.

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Phoenix666 writes:

ArsTechnica:

Microsoft has finally revealed a $499 "estimated retail price" for its top-end Xbox Series X. That system will launch alongside the $299 Xbox Series S on November 10, the company confirmed this morning.

Microsoft is also expanding its existing "All Access" subscription program to give customers access to its next-gen hardware with no upfront cost. Qualifying players who commit to a $25/month subscription for the Series S (or $35/month for the Series X) for two years get the console as well as access to all the games available on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (and its attendant xCloud streaming options).

Are consoles like the Xbox still the cutting edge of gaming, or are VR platforms like Oculus?

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Phoenix666 writes:

ArsTechnica:

For years, the lidar business has had a lot of hype but not a lot of hard numbers. Dozens of lidar startups have touted their impressive technology, but until recently it wasn't clear who, if anyone, was actually gaining traction with customers.

That's starting to change. This summer, three leading lidar makers have done major fundraising rounds that included releasing public data on their financial performance.

The latest lidar maker to release financial data is Ouster, which announced a $42 million fundraising round in a Tuesday blog post. That blog post also revealed a striking statistic: the company says it now has 800 customers.

LIDAR has been responsible for innovation in industries from architecture to archaeology.

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Phoenix666 writes:

ScienceDaily:

As California aims to provide 60% of its energy from renewable sources by 2030 and 100% by 2045, a study from California Polytechnic State University provides some good news. Offshore winds along the Central Coast increase at the same time that people start using more energy -- in the evening.

[...] The greatest wind speeds, which would produce the most energy, are found farther from the coast. Most existing offshore wind farms are installed close to shore in shallow water less than 160 feet deep. However, several floating wind farms in deeper water farther from shore are now in operation in Europe, with more in the planning stages.

"Floating offshore wind farms are now a proven technology and game-changer in many respects," Walter said. "These floating platforms make offshore wind farms a new reality in many locations, with a single turbine having the potential to power more than 10,000 homes."

Can offshore wind farms prevent brownouts as California suffers record heat waves?

Journal Reference:
Yi-Hui Wang, Ryan K Walter, Crow White, et al. Spatial and temporal variation of offshore wind power and its value along the Central California Coast - IOPscience, Environmental Research Communications (DOI: 10.1088/2515-7620/ab4ee1)

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for RandomFactor:

git in mah belly

There can be only one: Visual Studio Codespaces 'consolidating' into GitHub Codespaces:

Formerly Visual Studio Online, Visual Studio Codespaces brought forth Azure-powered development environments, with either a browser-based version of Visual Studio Code or its desktop equivalent. A private preview using the full-fat Visual Studio IDE was also made available.

GitHub Codespaces popped out shortly after, looking suspiciously similar to its Visual Studio-branded sibling. Linux lurks under the hood of both, although the Visual Studio incarnation required hooking up to an Azure subscription the alternative enjoyed a GitHub-native experience.

[...] The solution, according to Microsoft, is a "consolidation" of Visual Studio Codespaces into GitHub Codespaces. And so cometh the Microsoft axeman.

Developers have until 17 February 2021 to shift off the Azure incarnation and into the loving embrace of GitHub Codespaces. At that point the Visual Studio Codespaces portal will be retired and "all plans and codespaces remaining in the service will be deleted," according to Microsoft.

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Freeman writes:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/09/another-chinese-rocket-falls-near-a-school-creating-toxic-orange-cloud/

On Monday, a Long March 4B rocket launched from China's Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center carrying a remote-sensing satellite. This 50-year-old spaceport is located in north-central China, about 500km to the southwest of Beijing.

As often happens with the first stages of Chinese rockets launching from the inland Taiyuan facility, the spent Long March 4B booster fell downstream of the spaceport. In this case, it landed near a school, creating a predictably large cloud of toxic gas.

Unlike most of the world's spaceports, several of China's launch sites are located at inland locations rather than near water to avoid such hazards. For security purposes, China built three of its major launch centers away from water during the Cold War, amid tensions with both America and the Soviet Union.

Twitter video of rocket falling and orange cloud: https://twitter.com/i/status/1302933386990891008

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Phoenix666 writes:

ScienceDaily:

Gen Z are the new kids on the block. As a cohort of 5 million people born between 1995-2015 encompassing 20 percent of the Australian population and 2 billion people globally -- they're consumers to be reckoned with.

New research by the University of Sydney and Curtin University to published on 8 September in Frontiers in Nutrition, found that, despite having a great concern for the environment and animal welfare, 72 percent of Generation Z were not ready to accept cultured meat -- defined in the survey as a lab-grown meat alternative produced by in-vitro cell cultures of animal cells, instead of from slaughtered animals.

However, despite their lack of enthusiasm for the new meat alternative, 41 percent believed it could be a viable nutritional source because of the need to transition to more sustainable food options and improve animal welfare.

9 percent rejected cultured meat but accepted eating insects.

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for guy_:

Google's Taking on Robocallers With a New Kind of Caller ID:

The rise of text-based messaging has caused the public to treat every voice call as potential spam, and the robocall industry has responded by increasing its attempts to get us on the line. It’s an untenable arms race that arguably makes our devices less useful. On Tuesday, Google announced a new program that seeks to rectify the situation by offering a verification service for companies that you might actually want to hear from.

Verified Calls is a pretty simple program that’ll require broad corporate buy-in to be successful. Any legitimate party that’s approved for the program will be able to submit the phone number of the customer they are contacting along with a reason for the call. Google will then use the Google Phone App on Android devices to display the name of the company that’s calling along with a verified check, brand logo, and the reason for the call, such as “potential fraud on Chase Bank account.”

[...] Any company that wants to join Verified Calls will need to submit an application to become a partner or work with one of the existing partners to sign up.

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

China's secretive 'space plane' makes successful return to Earth:

China's "reusable experimental spacecraft" has successfully returned to Earth after spending two days in low-Earth orbit. The secretive mission released an unknown object during its time in space and marks an "important breakthrough" in the country's reusable spacecraft research program, according to Chinese state-run Xinhua media outlet.

The spacecraft launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Friday, atop a Long March 2F rocket. It is believed to be a space plane similar to the US Air Force X-37B but no images of the launch or return have been released. The veil of secrecy have led some space-watchers to suggest it could be a military space plane.

Previously:
China Launches Experimental Reusable Space Plane

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takyon writes:

Microsoft has confirmed that it will launch a lower-priced version of its next-generation Xbox console following several leaks.

It was confirmed that the Xbox Series S would be launched in November for $299 (£249.99 in the UK). The leaks are pinning the release date for both of the new Xbox consoles as November 10th, and the price of the larger Xbox Series X console at $499.

The Xbox Series S will have a smaller SSD (512 GB vs. 1 TB), and will not include a disc drive, like Sony's PlayStation 5 Digital Edition. The console will target a 1440p resolution at up to 120 FPS (likely less in practice), but can use "4K upscaling for games". It includes hardware-accelerated DirectX raytracing, variable rate shading, and variable refresh rates.

Previously: Sony's Next PlayStation Will Include an AMD Zen 2 CPU and Navi GPU
Microsoft Announces New Xbox Console and xCloud Streaming Game Service
PlayStation 5 Includes AMD Hardware-Based Ray Tracing, Supports 100 GB Blu-ray Discs
Microsoft Announces Xbox Series X for Late 2020 Release
Microsoft's Next-Gen Xbox Will Use AMD's RDNA 2 GPU Architecture, 12 TeraFLOPS

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canopic jug writes:

The Mozilla Corporation is known for among other things the Firefox web browser and the Thunderbird e-mail client, and its current CEO has written an open letter to the European Commission on the upcoming Digital Services Act (DSA) (warning for PDF). In it she vaguely addresses transparency, accountability, online advertising, and digital markets for a European internet, without addressing The Internet itself. The DSA appears to include proposals to split off a European internet from The Internet at large and model it after the great firewall of China in regards to control and isolation.

In the document, New Developments in Digital Services: Short-(2021), medium-(2025) and long-term (2030) perspectives and the implications for theDigital Services Act, the great firewall of China gets praised repeatedly as something to emulate should the EU split of an internet from The Internet:

To make sure these predictions become reality and to prevent the misuse of digital tools, we advise the European Parliament to take a le ading stance in the global digitalisation. Three main recommendations are given in the study: A European cloud / European internet could secure a reliable, trustworthy digital ecosystem in Europe. Funding programmes for eGovernment would use the innovative capabilities of start-ups throughout Europe to create the most digital and advanced government in the world. And all this should be communicated in a visionary and exciting way, making sure the right regulations are in place, but also encouraging boldness and showing a willingness to change (see Figure 2).

[...] Action Plan 1: European Cloud / European Internet

A European firewall/cloud/ internet would foster a digital ecosystem in Europe based on data and innovation. It would drive competition and set standards, similar to what has happened in China in the past 20 years. The foundations of such a European cloud are democratic values, transparency, competition and data protection.

[...] Technologically, it would require a top-level infrastructure, high-speed 5G or a 6G data network and a firewall. Setting up such a network would promote many European companies and therefore boost business and drive innovation.

Like the Chinese firewall, this European internet would block off services that condone or support unlawful conduct from third party countries.

[...] As e-commerce and remote working solutions became widely used and even smartphone tracking to prevent infections met very little scepticism. Now in the aftermath of this pandemic it's the perfect time to act and to push for ambitious goal in digitalising Europe.

[...] Update 2 of the Visionary Communication Programme: i.e. crypto, quantum computing. Here it is important to include visionaries, think tanks and influences to communicate the update to the public.

Phase 2 of the eGovernment Venture Programme: Testing and evaluating first technologies and ideas developed in the programme.

Initialising the European internet: setting up think tanks to creating the cornerstones and possible pitfalls of such a project.

Long term 2025 – 2030

Update 3 of the Visionary Communication Programme: i.e. 6G, European internet, DNA products. Further communication within the Europe of the new digital goals.

The EFF has also responded to the EU Commission on the Digital Services Act, with a request in the opposite direction, that of putting the citizens back in control and avoiding a situation where there are gatekeepers consisting of only a handful of large corporations.

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takyon writes:

Western Digital is trying to redefine the word "RPM"

[...] new complaint is that Western Digital calls 7200RPM drives "5400 RPM Class"—and the drives' own firmware report 5400 RPM via the SMART interface.

[...] At first blush, this might seem like a non-issue—who wouldn't prefer a drive with a faster spindle speed? Unfortunately, faster spindles don't just mean potentially lower seek latency—they also come with a sharp increase in both noise generation and power consumption.

That increase in noise and power is what got many users on the trail of Western Digital's fake 5,400rpm spindle speed in the first place—those users purchased drives which they expected to roll low and slow, but they got more noise, heat, and power consumption than they expected.

[...] When we reached out to Western Digital in the course of researching this story, a representative confirmed the various forum-goers' and Redditor's conclusions—that is to say, "5400 RPM class" does not actually mean that a drive spins at 5,400rpm.

For select products, Western Digital has published RPM speed within a "class" or "performance class" for numerous years rather than publishing specific spindle speeds. We also fine-tune select hard drive platforms and the related HDD characteristics to create several different variations of such platforms to meet different market or application needs. By doing so, we are able to leverage our economies of scale and pass along those savings to our customers. As with every Western Digital product, our product details, which include power, acoustics and performance (data transfer rate), are tested to meet the specifications provided on the product's data sheet and marketing collateral.

RPM means revolutions (or rotations) per minute, in some circles.

I detect another class action lawsuit forming. Save your receipts.

Previously: Seagate Caught Using SMR in Barracuda Compute and Desktop Drives
Western Digital Shingled Out in Class Action Lawsuit

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Camcopter S-100 helicopter drone makes world-first oil rig delivery:

Aviation history was made off the coast of Norway recently as a Camcopter S-100 drone rotorcraft delivered a 3D-printed part to an oil rig after a 100-km (55-nm, 62-mi) flight over the North Sea, potentially opening up a path towards safer, cheaper and lower-emissions servicing of these massive off-shore operations.

The array of North and Norwegian Sea oil platforms built mainly by Britain and Norway are among the most impressive engineering projects of the late 20th century. A vital part of the world's energy economy, they are also very hazardous to operate, having to endure some of the worst weather and sea conditions on Earth.

To service these platforms, the oil companies operate the world's largest fleet of heavy Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) helicopters. These carry two million passengers a year and some of these machines were built especially for North Sea work. Each of these trips is very expensive and dangerous, which is why the least popular part of employee training is suiting up in survival suits and being subject to a simulated helicopter crash in a tank of ice-cold water.

It's a small wonder, then, that the oil companies are taking a hard look at unmanned rotorcraft to take over some of the cargo flights and other missions. According to Nordic Unmanned, the use of drones is not only safer but reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 55 times and lowers operating costs.

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

NASA Discovered a Faster, Cheaper Way of Getting to The Moon... And Patented It:

The Moon is both seductively close to Earth and cosmically far away: Decades after the end of the space race, it remains extraordinarily expensive and difficult to actually get there.

The journey just got a bit easier, however, thanks to a freshly published NASA invention.

The agency's patent doesn't cover a new piece of equipment or lines of code, but a trajectory – a route designed to save a lunar-bound mission time, fuel, and money, and boost its scientific value.

On June 30, the US Patent and Trademark Office granted and published NASA's patent for a series of orbital manoeuvres, which Business Insider first learned about via a tweet by a lawyer named Jeff Steck.

The technique isn't meant for large spaceships that carry astronauts or rovers, but for smaller, more tightly budgeted missions tasked with doing meaningful science.

[...] By taking time to swing around the Earth, for instance, a spacecraft can steal some of the planet's momentum and slingshot out to the Moon in a series of long orbits that cost it little to no fuel.

Fuel remains necessary to correct orbits and manoeuvre through space, but every ounce a spacecraft carries is mass that an engineer can't dedicate toward other components, including scientific instruments.

[...] [The new trajectory] enlists the help of Earth and the Moon's gravity to speed up and slow down Dapper [Dark Ages Polarimeter Pathfinder] at the right moments, cutting down on the amount of propellant required.

NASA says this new spin on the gravity assist keeps the flight time to about 2 1/2 months, whereas similar options can take six months.

The trajectory also comes with numerous options to slip a spacecraft into an orbit of any angle around the Moon, at practically any time. And it avoids a zone of radiation around Earth called the Van Allen belts, which can damage sensitive electronics.

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