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takyon writes:

Intel sues Oregon engineer who left for Microsoft, allegedly taking trade secrets with him

Intel sued a former Oregon employee Friday, alleging he took trade secrets with him when he bolted for Microsoft and used the information to gain an advantage in subsequent business negotiations with Intel.

The engineer, Varun Gupta, worked for Intel for a decade before leaving for Microsoft in January 2020, according to the suit. He allegedly loaded Intel trade secrets onto two USB drives before quitting and later accessed them on his Microsoft-issued laptop.

[...] [The] litigation indicates Intel and Microsoft worked together to investigate the incident.

Intel's complaint claims that Gupta had denied knowing where the one of the USB drives was, but later turned it over to Microsoft for analysis. He claimed to have discarded a second USB drive that allegedly contained Intel secrets, according to the litigation.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Researchers in Southampton and San Francisco have developed the first compact 3D LiDAR imaging system that can match and exceed the performance and accuracy of most advanced, mechanical systems currently used.

3D LiDAR can provide accurate imaging and mapping for many applications; it is the "eyes" for autonomous cars and is used in facial recognition software and by autonomous robots and drones. Accurate imaging is essential for machines to map and interact with the physical world but the size and costs of the technology currently needed has limited LIDAR's use in commercial applications.

Now a team of researchers from Pointcloud Inc in San Francisco and the University of Southampton's Optoelectronic Research Centre (ORC) have developed a new, integrated system, which uses silicon photonic components and CMOS electronic circuits in the same microchip. The prototype they have developed would be a low-cost solution and could pave the way to large volume production of low-cost, compact and high-performance 3D imaging cameras for use in robotics, autonomous navigation systems, mapping of building sites to increase safety and in healthcare.

[...] The latest tests of the prototype, published in the journal Nature, show that it has an accuracy of 3.1 millimetres at a distance of 75 metres.

Amongst the problems faced by previous integrated systems are the difficulties in providing a dense array of pixels that can be easily addressed; this has restricted them to fewer than 20 pixels whereas this new system is the first large-scale 2D coherent detector array consisting of 512 pixels. The research teams are now working to extend the pixels arrays and the beam steering technology to make the system even better suited to real-world applications and further improve performance.

Original Submission

DannyB writes:

Fantastical News Everyone! Remember an earlier SN article about CELLMATE, a male chastity device that got hacked and would not unlock your hardware? Well, now the maker of that IoT device says it's now totally safe to put your equipment into their device once again! They promise! This time for sure! Nothing could go wrong!

Chastity Penis Lock Company That Was Hacked Says It's Now Totally Safe To Put Your Penis Back In That Chastity Lock

While we've covered the Internet of Broken Things for some time, where companies fail to secure the devices they sell which connect to the internet, the entire genre sort of jumped the shark in October of last year. That's when Qiui, a Chinese company, was found to have sold a penis chastity lock that communicates with an API that was wide open and sans any password protection. The end result is that users of a device that locks up their private parts could enjoy those private parts entirely at the pleasure of nefarious third parties. Qiui pushed out a fix to the API... but didn't do so for existing users, only new devices. Why? Well, the company stated that pushing it out to existing devices would again cause them to all lock up, with no override available. Understandably, there wasn't a whole lot of interest in the company's devices at that point.

But fear not, target market for penis chastity locks! Qiui says it's now totally safe to use the product again!

Since this device uses a proprietary API, there is still the issue of Vendor Lock In to be concerned about.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-55975052

South Africa has put its rollout of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine on hold after a study showed "disappointing" results against its new Covid variant.

Scientists say the variant accounts for 90% of new Covid cases in South Africa.

The trial, involving some 2,000 people, found that the vaccine offered "minimal protection" against mild and moderate cases.

(Submitter's Note: it's worth pointing out that mild and moderate cases are the less important things to prevent against. The big thing is to prevent severe cases. So even if this proves true, it may not be a huge deal.)

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://www.rtl-sdr.com/army-builds-wideband-dc-to-20-ghz-quantum-receiver/

Back in July 2019 we posted about a new development in radio technology known as "Atomic Radio" or "Quantum Radio". In that post we discussed an article that explained the concept and science behind the idea and noted how some researchers described the possibility of a very wideband capable receiver.

Recently the US Army has described how they built a quantum radio that can receive from DC to 20 GHz. If you're interested in the science, the paper is published in the Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics and it is available on sci-hub. The radio uses something called a Rydberg sensor which they describe below.

Journal Reference:
David H Meyer et al, Assessment of Rydberg atoms for wideband electric field sensing 2020 J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys, https://sci-hub.se/10.1088/1361-6455/ab6051

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

CD PROJEKT RED gaming studio hit by ransomware attack:

CD PROJEKT RED, the video game development studio behind Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher trilogy, has disclosed a ransomware attack that impacted its network.

The Polish gaming studio said in an official statement that the attackers breached the internal network and were able to collect CD PROJEKT capital group data before encrypting systems and leaving behind a ransom note.

"We have already approached the relevant authorities, including law enforcement and the President of the Personal Data Protection Office, as well as IT forensic specialists, and we will closely cooperate with them in order to fully investigate this incident," CD PROJEKT RED said.

This is the second time CD PROJEKT RED has been hit by ransomware, after a similar attack in 2017.

The attackers claim in the ransom note left on CD PROJEKT RED's encrypted systems that they were able to steal the full source code of Cyberpunk 2077, the Witcher 3, Gwent, as well as for an unreleased Witcher 3 version.

They also allegedly exfiltrated accounting, administration, legal, HR, and investor relations documents before encrypting the company's systems.

Systems compromised in the attack did not contain customers' personal data according to information available following an ongoing investigation.

"We are still investigating the incident, however at this time we can confirm that —to our best knowledge — the compromised systems did not contain any personal data of our players or users of our services," the company said.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for c0lo that was the inspiration for the following story:

Millions of Ford vehicles will run Google's Android operating system starting in 2023:

Ford and Google announced a six-year strategic partnership in which they will collaborate on new technologies and install Google's Android operating system as the primary system in its infotainment screens in millions of Ford and Lincoln cars and trucks starting in 2023.

Android's operating system will enable drivers to access Google Maps for in-vehicle navigation and Google's Voice Assistant for handling voice commands in the car without the use of an Android phone. Ford vehicles have come with the automaker's proprietary Sync system since 2007, which has been featured across its portfolio. It is not clear whether Ford will continue to use the Sync name on this new system.

Starting in 2023, Ford cars will also begin offering an in-car version of the Google Play Store to download apps for things like music, audiobooks and podcasts.

In addition, Google will also be Ford's preferred provider for cloud data storage, executives from Ford and Google said. Ford will also use Google's artificial intelligence and data analytics capabilities to better interpret the data it collects from vehicles and its own operations to improve upon things like customer service, manufacturing and marketing.

Also at TheNewsWheel.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for c0lo:

WB Games' Nemesis System Patent Was Approved This Week After Multiple Attempts - IGN:

Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment, publishers of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and its 2017 sequel, Shadow of War (both developed by Monolith Entertainment), have finally managed to secure a patent for the franchise's signature Nemesis System.

The US Patent and Trademark Office released an issue notice on February 3, 2021, stating that the patent would go into effect on February 23 of this year. Warner Bros. has the option to maintain the patent through 2035, providing they keep up with the necessary fees.

The patent, filed as "Nemesis characters, nemesis forts, social vendettas and followers in computer games," effectively codifies the functions of Monolith's Nemesis system and the sum of its parts as the property of WB.

While the language in the application is fairly obtuse - as most patent claims tend to be - the "short" version is that the patent covers a system featuring procedurally-generated NPCs that exist in a hierarchy and interact with and will remember the actions of players, have their appearance/behavior altered by players, and whose place in that hierarchy can change and affect the position of other NPCs in said hierarchy (and yes, that's the simplified version).

It also covers the Social Conquest battles from Shadow of War, wherein players can fortify or attack one another's strongholds to see how their army of orcs fares against their friends'.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Screen segfaults by displaying some UTF-8 character combination:

== How to reproduce ==
Open a screen and bring it to display the character sequence described below. (For example: paste them into bash)

[... ] == Additional Context ==
Some player joined a minecraft server i maintain and startet 10s after joining to type the UTF-8 characters above in multiple commands (very likely automated). As i log these commands in a screen, screen crashed and terminated my minecraft server. So this bug is already exploited, but very likely without knowing the origin in screen.

See the actual bug report for affected versions of screen as well as for the 1800+ characters long string of Unicode characters which triggered the bug.

Forewarned is forearmed.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

NASA Awards Contract to Launch Initial Elements for Lunar Outpost

NASA has selected Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, California, to provide launch services for the agency's Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) and Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO), the foundational elements of the Gateway. As the first long-term orbiting outpost around the Moon, the Gateway is critical to supporting sustainable astronauts missions under the agency's Artemis program.

After integration on Earth, the PPE and HALO are targeted to launch together no earlier than May 2024 on a Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The total cost to NASA is approximately $331.8 million, including the launch service and other mission-related costs.

The PPE is a 60-kilowatt class solar electric propulsion spacecraft that also will provide power, high-speed communications, attitude control, and the capability to move the Gateway to different lunar orbits, providing more access to the Moon's surface than ever before.

The HALO is the pressurized living quarters where astronauts who visit the Gateway, often on their way to the Moon, will work. It will provide command and control and serve as the docking hub for the outpost. HALO will support science investigations, distribute power, provide communications for visiting vehicles and lunar surface expeditions, and supplement the life support systems aboard Orion, NASA's spacecraft that will deliver Artemis astronauts to the Gateway.

The Falcon Heavy will use an extended payload fairing.

Also at Spaceflight Now, TechCrunch, Teslarati, and Wccftech.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

WHO team rejects lab origin of coronavirus, focuses on animals, frozen food:

After 12 days of field work in Wuhan, China, an international team of scientists assembled by the World Health Organization have wrapped up its investigation into the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that mushroomed out of the city in December of 2019.

The team's findings support researchers' previous leading hypothesis of how the pandemic began—that the virus used a still-elusive intermediate animal host as a bridge to infect humans from a distant reservoir host, such as horseshoe bats. But the team did fill in new, intriguing details of the pandemic's first, crucial month—and ruled out sensational theories that the pandemic was born from a laboratory incident.

"Our initial findings suggest that the introduction [to humans] through an intermediary host species is the most likely pathway," Peter Ben Embarek, WHO International Team Lead, said in a 3-hour press conference on the team's findings, livestreamed from Wuhan on February 9. Though researchers in China have already surveyed 11,000 animals around the country in search of that host, all have tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 so far, the team noted. Identifying the intermediary host "will require more studies and more specific, targeted research," Embarek added.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for c0lo:

Boeing to outsource IT work to Dell, eliminate 600 jobs:

Boeing Co. has said it will outsource a significant amount of information technology work to Dell starting in April, including support of cloud services, databases and information technology. The move is expected to eliminate 600 jobs.

Susan Doniz, vice president for information technology and data analytics for Boeing, told employees Thursday that the eliminated jobs represent about 10% of the company's IT staff, The Seattle Times reported.

Doniz said affected employees, most of whom are not unionized, must either find different work within the company, apply to work for Dell or be laid off.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for c0lo:

Scientists use trilayer graphene to observe more robust superconductivity:

In 2018, the physics world was set ablaze with the discovery that when an ultrathin layer of carbon, called graphene, is stacked and twisted to a "magic angle," that new double layered structure converts into a superconductor, allowing electricity to flow without resistance or energy waste. Now, in a literal twist, Harvard scientists have expanded on that superconducting system by adding a third layer and rotating it, opening the door for continued advancements in graphene-based superconductivity.

The work is described in a new paper in Science and can one day help lead toward superconductors that operate at higher or even close to room temperature. These superconductors are considered the holy grail of condensed matter physics since they would allow for tremendous technological revolutions in many areas including electricity transmission, transportation, and quantum computing. Most superconductors today, including the double layered graphene structure, work only at ultracold temperatures.

"Superconductivity in twisted graphene provides physicists with an experimentally controllable and theoretically accessible model system where they can play with the system's properties to decode the secrets of high temperature superconductivity," said one of the paper's co-lead authors Andrew Zimmerman, a postdoctoral researcher in working in the lab of Harvard physicist Philip Kim.

[...] One of those mechanisms has the theorists really excited. The trilayer system showed evidence that its superconductivity is due to strong interactions between electrons as opposed to weak ones. If true, this can not only help open a path to high temperature superconductivity but possible applications in quantum computing.

[...] Realizing strong coupling superconductivity in a simple and tunable system such as trilayer could pave the way to finally develop a theoretical understanding of strongly-coupled superconductors to help realize the goal of a high temperature, maybe even room temperature, superconductor."

Journal Reference:
Zeyu Hao, A. M. Zimmerman, Patrick Ledwith, et al. Electric field tunable superconductivity in alternating twist magic-angle trilayer graphene [$], Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.abg0399)

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Nvidia is requiring laptop makers to be more transparent about RTX 30-series specs:

Nvidia is now requiring, not just encouraging, companies selling laptops with its new RTX 30-series graphics chips to be more transparent about the kind of power people can expect. Nvidia tells The Verge these companies will have to disclose specific clock speed stats and total graphics power on online product pages — all of which tells people everything they need to know about a laptop's graphics potential, for better or worse.

[...] It's encouraging to see Nvidia no longer allows companies to hide this vital information from marketing materials. It should go far enough in helping buyers make an educated purchase without having to wait on reviewers and early adopters to report on the specs.

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

The GNU Network Utilities (inetutils) has seen its first major release in nine years or even the first release at all in six years since the prior point release. With GNU inetutils 2.0 are several updates to common programs like ping and ifconfig.

GNU's inetutils provides the commonly used command-line network utilities on Linux and other Unix-like systems. Given the significant time since the inetutils 1.9 release in 2011, there are a number of changes to find with today's inetutils 2.0 milestone.

[...] More details on the long overdue GNU inetutils 2.0 release via the GNU mailing list.

Source: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=GNU-inetutils-2.0

Original Submission