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coolgopher writes:

China recovers Chang'e-5 moon samples after complex 23-day mission:

China has recovered precious lunar samples after a successful reentry and landing of the Chang'e-5 return capsule.

The roughly 300-kilogram Chang'e-5 return capsule performed a ballistic skip reentry at 12:33 p.m. Eastern Dec. 16, effectively bouncing off the atmosphere over the Arabian Sea before reentry.

The capsule containing around 2 kilograms of drilled and scooped lunar material landed in the grasslands of Siziwang Banner at 12:59 p.m. Recovery vehicles located the capsule shortly after.

Original Submission

c0lo writes:

States say federal government cutting COVID-19 vaccine allocations"

Officials in several states have said the federal government told them to expect fewer doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine next week than originally anticipated.

[...] Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) tweeted Thursday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "has informed us that WA's vaccine allocation will be cut by 40 percent next week — and that all states are seeing similar cuts."

[...] Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) said Wednesday that per "the direction of Operation Warp Speed's General Perna, that estimate was tightened significantly down to 4.3 million doses shipped nationally next week. The following week, originally projected for another 8.8 million, is also now also scheduled to be 4.3 million," NBC 5Chicago reported.

[...] A spokesperson for Michigan's Department of Health and Human Services told Axios that the state is expected to received fewer doses next week than it originally anticipated. "We were not provided an explanation," Lynn Sutfin said in an emailed statement.

[...] [and the list goes on]

Meanwhile Pfizer Says It Has Millions Of Vaccine Doses 'Sitting In Our Warehouse'—But Hasn't Been Told Where To Send Them

In a press release issued Thursday, Pfizer said that the company has millions of doses of its Covid-19 vaccines sitting in warehouses that have not been delivered because the company has not received shipping instructions from the federal government.

Somebody may have taken some stock market bets on Moderna, ummm?

Original Submission

The year is winding to a close so I thought it would be a good opportunity to catch up on a few things:

1. Milestones
2. Community questions answered
3. Background on site operations
4. Story Cadence
5. Site finances

For details, read on below the fold.

hendrikboom writes:

It seems that the language processing areas of the brain aren't much involved in reading computer code:

There are two schools of thought regarding how the brain learns to code, [Anna Ivanova, an MIT graduate student and the lead author of the study] says. One holds that in order to be good at programming, you must be good at math. The other suggests that because of the parallels between coding and language, language skills might be more relevant. To shed light on this issue, the researchers set out to study whether brain activity patterns while reading computer code would overlap with language-related brain activity.

The two programming languages that the researchers focused on in this study are known for their readability — Python and ScratchJr, a visual programming language designed for children age 5 and older. The subjects in the study were all young adults proficient in the language they were being tested on. While the programmers lay in a functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) scanner, the researchers showed them snippets of code and asked them to predict what action the code would produce.

The researchers saw little to no response to code in the language regions of the brain. Instead, they found that the coding task mainly activated the so-called multiple demand network. This network, whose activity is spread throughout the frontal and parietal lobes of the brain, is typically recruited for tasks that require holding many pieces of information in mind at once, and is responsible for our ability to perform a wide variety of mental tasks.

[...] Previous studies have shown that math and logic problems seem to rely mainly on the multiple demand regions in the left hemisphere, while tasks that involve spatial navigation activate the right hemisphere more than the left. The MIT team found that reading computer code appears to activate both the left and right sides of the multiple demand network, and ScratchJr activated the right side slightly more than the left. This finding goes against the hypothesis that math and coding rely on the same brain mechanisms.

Maybe learning C shouldn't be accepted for a foreign-language requirement in university.

-- hendrik

Journal Reference:
Anna A Ivanova, Shashank Srikant, Yotaro Sueoka, et al. Comprehension of computer code relies primarily on domain-general executive brain regions, (DOI: 10.7554/eLife.58906)

Original Submission

c0lo writes:

Google staff demand exec step aside after ethicist's firing:

Staff on Google's Ethical AI research team on Wednesday demanded the company sideline a vice president and commit to greater academic freedom, escalating a confrontation with management following this month's termination of scientist Timnit Gebru.

The personnel called on Vice President Megan Kacholia to be removed from the team's management chain after she allegedly excluded Gebru's boss from the decision to fire her, according to an internal document seen by Reuters.

[...] The document also demanded an explanation of the dismissal, transparency into reviews of staff papers, and an investigation into how Google handles employee complaints about working conditions, like those Gebru raised while at the company.

Separately, U.S. Representative Yvette Clarke, Senator Elizabeth Warren and seven other members of Congress wrote a public letter on Wednesday to Google-parent Alphabet Inc Chief Executive Sundar Pichai asking about plans to review Gebru's firing and policies for publishing research.

[...] It was unclear how many people authored the demands, which followed a prior petition for academic freedom that garnered signatures from more than 2,600 people at the company.

fliptop writes:

Over at ACM.org Yegor Bugayenko reviews how companies benefit from open source:

'Tis the season to be jolly, and many people around the world are getting those warm, fuzzy holiday feels. One of the things that makes us programmers feel warm and fuzzy is open source software. With open source, you can easily see the code and documentation, and better yet, you can use it too. A lot of companies support open source as well, providing funding, labor power, and code for free.

Why give something away for free? A lot of individuals contribute open source code out of a genuine sense of altruism. Yet when it comes to companies, it's often a strategic choice, and one they expect to benefit from.

[...] Why go through all the trouble? Let's take a look at the tangible benefits of supporting open source, especially from the perspective of tech giants like Google. Let's start by looking at how companies support open source.

The author goes on to list benefits for companies that support open source, citing Google, Microsoft, IBM and Adobe as examples. He also mentions how Red Hat benefited from its acquisition by IBM. He concludes:

So what's the take away for all of this? Open source is a great resource for the community, sure, but it's also a valuable resource for companies. Open source provides sales, influence, branding, retaining and training opportunities, among others, for companies. And for individual programmers, open source projects offer a way to build skills, increase knowledge, and make connections.

Previously:
CentOS Linux 8 Will End in 2021
Open Source's Eric Raymond: Windows 10 Will Soon be Just an Emulation Layer on Linux Kernel
Microsoft Releases Open-Source Process Monitor for Linux
Google Takes Down Repositories that Circumvent its Widevine DRM

Original Submission

DeathMonkey writes:

Russian government hackers are believed to be responsible for infiltrating computer systems at multiple U.S. agencies in recent months, including the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of the Treasury, according to government agencies and media reports. Russia has denied the accusations.

The hack hinged on a vulnerability on a software monitoring product from SolarWinds, a company based in Austin, Texas. The company works widely with the federal government and hundreds of large U.S. companies. Many use SolarWinds' Orion software to monitor their computer networks.

SolarWinds has some 300,000 customers but says "fewer than 18,000" installed the version of its Orion products earlier this year that now appears to have been compromised.

So far, the list of affected U.S. government entities includes the Commerce Department, Department of Homeland Security, the Pentagon, the Treasury Department, the U.S. Postal Service and the National Institutes of Health.

The incident is the latest in what has become a long list of suspected Russian electronic incursions into other nations – particularly the U.S. – under President Vladimir Putin. Multiple countries say Russia was previously found to have used hackers, bots and other means in attempts to influence elections in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Also at Krebs on Security, BBC, Mashable, and cnet.

What We Know About Russia's Latest Alleged Hack Of The U.S. Government

Original Submission

fliptop writes:

Scientists demonstrate an innovative e-skin with touch and proximity-sensing capabilities without using dedicated touch sensors:

Replicating the human sense of touch is complicated—electronic skins need to be flexible, stretchable, and sensitive to temperature, pressure and texture; they need to be able to read biological data and provide electronic readouts. Therefore, how to power electronic skin for continuous, real-time use is a big challenge.

To address this, researchers from Glasgow University have developed an energy-generating e-skin made out of miniaturized solar cells, without dedicated touch sensors. The solar cells not only generate their own power—and some surplus—but also provide tactile capabilities for touch and proximity sensing. An early-view paper of their findings was published in IEEE Transactions on Robotics.

When exposed to a light source, the solar cells on the s-skin generate energy. If a cell is shadowed by an approaching object, the intensity of the light, and therefore the energy generated, reduces, dropping to zero when the cell makes contact with the object, confirming touch. In proximity mode, the light intensity tells you how far the object is with respect to the cell. "In real time, you can then compare the light intensity...and after calibration find out the distances," says Ravinder Dahiya of the Bendable Electronics and Sensing Technologies (BEST) Group, James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, where the study was carried out. The team used infra-red LEDs with the solar cells for proximity sensing for better results.

Originally spotted on The Eponymous Pickle.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Runaway1956_:

Google reportedly could be hit with second antitrust lawsuit this week:

A group of states is preparing to file a second antitrust lawsuit against Google this week — setting the tech titan up for a tough court battle, according to new reports.

The coalition of states, led by Colorado and Nebraska, is putting the finishing touches on the antitrust complaint against Google that could be filed as soon as Thursday, Politico reported, citing two people close to the investigation.

The suit is expected to focus on Google's dominance in the online search market, particularly changes it has made to the designs of its signature search engine that put rivals at a disadvantage, according to the outlet.

[...] The states will bring their lawsuit in the same Washington, DC federal court where the feds filed theirs, according to Politico. The state attorneys general hope to eventually consolidate their case with the Justice Department's, Reuters reported.

Also at:
Google Hit With 2nd Lawsuit Testing Its Monopoly Power — This One Over Digital Ads
The latest multistate antitrust lawsuit targets Google's ad business
Ten States Sue Google, Alleging Deal With Facebook to Rig Online Ad Market

Original Submission

fliptop writes:

In a press release, security firm Avast has said around 3 million people are affected worldwide:

Threat Intelligence researchers from Avast (LSE:AVST), a global leader in digital security and privacy products, have identified malware hidden in at least 28 third party Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge extensions associated with some of the world's most popular platforms. The malware has the functionality to redirect user's traffic to ads or phishing sites and to steal people's personal data, such as birth dates, email addresses, and active devices. According to the app stores' download numbers, around three million people may be affected worldwide.

The extensions which aid users in downloading videos from these platforms include Video Downloader for Facebook, Vimeo Video Downloader, Instagram Story Downloader, VK Unblock, and other browser extensions on the Google Chrome Browser, and some on Microsoft Edge Browser. The researchers have identified malicious code in the Javascript-based extensions that allows the extensions to download further malware onto a user's PC.

[...] The Avast Threat Intelligence team started monitoring this threat in November 2020, but believe that it could have been active for years without anyone noticing. There are reviews on the Chrome Web Store mentioning link hijacking from as far back as December 2018. Rubín added, "The extensions' backdoors are well-hidden and the extensions only start to exhibit malicious behavior days after installation, which made it hard for any security software to discover."

[...] At this moment, the infected extensions are still available for download. Avast has contacted the Microsoft and Google Chrome teams to report them. Both Microsoft and Google confirmed they are currently looking into the issue. In the meantime, Avast recommends users disable or uninstall the extensions for now until the problem is resolved and then scan for and remove the malware.

Original Submission

fliptop writes:

Raspberry Pi has launched a program for approved design partners to help businesses integrate Raspberry Pi into new products:

As it has its best ever year for sales, Raspberry Pi wants to do more to help businesses that want to integrate its tiny computers into their devices.

The Cambridge-based single-board computer maker has sold seven million Raspberry Pi units during 2020. In March, Raspberry Pi CEO Eben Upton said it had its second highest monthly sales ever, reaching 640,000 units, with sales accelerating as people sought cheap computers for learning during lockdown.

[...] But a big chunk of its sales are destined for industrial applications. Raspberry Pi estimates 44% of the computers are sold to the industrial market each year. It bases this figure on the observation that large numbers of older models continue being bought after sales of the latest Raspberry Pi decline.

[...] To support industrial customers, Raspberry Pi has launched an Approved Design Partners program that other businesses match up with if they want to integrate the Raspberry Pi into their products.

It's also published a new 'for industry' website with resources for those who want to integrate the Pi into their products. The primary model for that is the Compute Module 4, which lacks the usual USB and HDMI ports and is compact enough to fit in small products.

Blog post.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Antikythera Mechanism : British Horological Institute:

New analysis of the Antikythera Mechanism presents evidence that the mechanism's front-dial ring is a 354-day lunar calendar, not a 365-day calendar as previously supposed.

The importance of the Antikythera Mechanism has been recognised since nearly the moment of its discovery on the Mediterranean Sea floor  in 1901. It is a complex mechanical computer that could be used to predict, amongst other things, solar and lunar motions and their eclipses. It links the craft of the clockmaker all the way back to the origins of mechanical devices 2100 years ago.

Scholars including Derek de Solla Price, Tony Freeth, Alexander Jones, Michael Wright, and Mike Edmunds have expanded our understanding of this device. The authors of this paper based their work on a new statistical analysis of the hole-spacing in the front calendar ring, combined with practical insights gained by experience in construction of traditional clocks and reconstruction of mechanisms from antiquity.

Download Antikythera Mechanism Full Paper

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Qualcomm promises three years of Android updates for its entire SoC lineup:

Google and Qualcomm are teaming up to enable a longer support window for flagship Android smartphones. Qualcomm, with Google's help, will now support its chipsets for three years of major OS updates and four years of security updates, enabling a better-than-Pixel level for all future Android phones, provided your OEM is willing to cooperate. This policy is starting with the flagship Snapdragon 888, but even lower-end chips will be supported. Qualcomm PR tells us "the plan is to roll this out to all Snapdragon chipsets, including lower-tier ones, but starting the new Snapdragon 888 platform."

Part of the challenge of Android updates is the continuous chain of software custody that has to be maintained, across several companies, from the Android repository to your phone. Google and Qualcomm now say they are willing to pass the update baton to OEMs for three major updates and four years of security updates, but OEMs will actually need to update their Android skins and ship working builds to each of their devices. If they don't, we at least know who to blame now.

Qualcomm and Google's blog posts both contain the same phrasing, that they will "support 4 Android OS versions and 4 years of security updates." Read that quote closely and you'll spot two different units of measurement happening there, which some people have misinterpreted. While there are four years of security updates, the two companies are counting the initial release of Android in their quote of "4 Android OS versions," so it's three years of major Android updates, not four years. We double-checked with Qualcomm and got back "Qualcomm will support the launch version + 3 OS upgrades, for a total of 4 major Android OS versions. Snapdragon 888 will support Android 11, 12, 13, and 14."

This is the same update plan Pixels have gotten and what Samsung has promised, but with one more year of security updates. Keep in mind, Qualcomm is also bringing this level of support to low-end devices, so while this is only a baby step for flagship phones, lower-end phones could see greatly increased support windows.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Ampere Altra Performance Shows It Can Compete With - Or Even Outperform - AMD EPYC & Intel Xeon

While the talk in recent weeks has been about the performance of Apple's M1 ARM chip and then rumors there might be a 32 core chip in the pipe, there is already something much stronger: Ampere Altra has begun shipping and its flagship 80-core SoC with up to two sockets per server can easily take on the AMD EPYC 7742 "Rome" and Intel Xeon Platinum 8280 "Cascade Lake" performance across a variety of workloads. Here is our initial look at the Ampere Altra performance on Linux in our independent performance benchmarks.

[...] Prior to receiving the Ampere Altra Mount Jade server and prior to seeing the performance potential with Apple's M1 chip on the desktop side, I figured the Ampere Altra performance would be like that of prior ARM server chips where in best case scenarios may put up a good fight against Intel/AMD but not outright exceed in both raw performance and performance-per-Watt for a variety of workloads. After seeing the results I was very surprised with how well the Ampere Altra Q80-33 2P performance is against the Xeon Platinum 8280 and EPYC 7742 servers. The performance exceeded my expectations where the Ampere Altra was able to collect wins in not only the performance-per-Watt but in the raw performance as well. Aside from software not yet optimized for the AArch64 architecture, the worst case was generally the Ampere Altra coming a bit behind the x86_64 competition but even then it enjoyed much lower power consumption than the x86_64 processors tested.

Previously: 80-Core Arm CPU To Bring Lower Power, Higher Density To A Rack Near You
Ampere Announces Altra ARM CPUs with Up to 80 Cores, Going to 128 Cores by 2021

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Revealed: China suspected of spying on Americans via Caribbean phone networks

China appears to have used mobile phone networks in the Caribbean to surveil US mobile phone subscribers as part of its espionage campaign against Americans, according to a mobile network security expert who has analysed sensitive signals data.

The findings paint an alarming picture of how China has allegedly exploited decades-old vulnerabilities in the global telecommunications network to route "active" surveillance attacks through telecoms operators.

The alleged attacks appear to be enabling China to target, track, and intercept phone communications of US phone subscribers, according to research and analysis by Gary Miller, a Washington state-based former mobile network security executive.

Original Submission