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martyb writes:

Far-Right Platform Gab Has Been Hacked:

Donald Trump and a slew of other far-right users in January, many of them became digital refugees, migrating to sites like Parler and Gab to find a home that wouldn't moderate their hate speech and disinformation. Days later, Parler was hacked, and then it was dropped by Amazon web hosting, knocking the site offline. Now Gab, which inherited some of Parler's displaced users, has been badly hacked too. An enormous trove of its contents has been stolen—including what appears to be passwords and private communications.

On Sunday night the WikiLeaks-style group Distributed Denial of Secrets is revealing what it calls GabLeaks, a collection of more than 70 gigabytes of Gab data representing more than 40 million posts. DDoSecrets says a hacktivist who self-identifies as "JaXpArO and My Little Anonymous Revival Project" siphoned that data out of Gab's backend databases in an effort to expose the platform's largely right-wing users.

[...] DDoSecrets cofounder Emma Best says that the hacked data includes not only all of Gab's public posts and profiles—with the exception of any photos or videos uploaded to the site—but also private group and private individual account posts and messages, as well as user passwords and group passwords. "It contains pretty much everything on Gab, including user data and private posts, everything someone needs to run a nearly complete analysis on Gab users and content," Best wrote in a text message interview with WIRED.

[...] DDoSecrets says it's not publicly releasing the data due to its sensitivity and the vast amounts of private information it contains. Instead the group says it will selectively share it with journalists, social scientists, and researchers. WIRED viewed a sample of the data, and it does appear to contain Gab users' individual and group profiles—their descriptions and privacy settings—public and private posts, and passwords.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Want to Buy a Scrunchie Mask? Great. But Forget About That N95.:

It was the ad on Facebook — for a mask that doubles as a hair scrunchie — that pushed Dan Castle to despair.

His company, CastleGrade, makes a reusable, high-filtration face mask that has been popular among dentists, teachers and those who work in proximity to others — and willing to pay $44.99.

But he has been unable to sell his wares on Facebook since August, when the company abruptly blocked his ads, citing a policy aimed at ensuring medical-grade masks are reserved for health care workers. Since then, he said, sales have plummeted to $5,000 a day from $40,000. And yet, he sees ads for nonmedical grade masks all of the time.

[...] Mr. Castle's experiences with Facebook echoed those of other small mask producers who have recently began making N95s and other medical grade masks. Largely shut out by hospital networks, they had hoped to sell their high-filtration products online, where Americans do much of their shopping. But the tech giants have not made it easy, even as scientists have urged people to upgrade their face coverings to those that can block the tiny pathogens that cause infection.

Google and Facebook ban the sale of medical-grade masks, and Amazon limits their availability to shoppers — policies born during the early months of the pandemic, when hospitals were scrambling to obtain protective gear.

But some public health experts and mask manufacturers say these rules are outdated, especially given the spread of more infectious coronavirus variants and the abundance of domestically made masks that are gathering dust in warehouses across the country. The restrictions, they say, may hinder the country's ability to limit new infections in the months before vaccinations become more widely available.

Where do you get your masks? How did you learn of the provider?

Original Submission

canopic jug writes:

The Free Software Foundation Europe(FSFE) (no connections to the Free Software Foundation(FSF), despite the name) has logged a win in Italy in court for the freedom to choose the operating system on new computers. Luca Bonissi won after two years of court battles. He won the first round in a kind of small claims court, but Lenovo responded by lawyering up and attacking. The court eventually rejected all of Lenovos argument, confirming that the right to reimbursment for pre-installed software is due. Further, an additional 20k EUR in damages were awarded to Bonissi.

In a historic judgment in Italy, in a case initiated by FSFE supporter Luca Bonissi, Lenovo was ordered to pay 20,000 euros in damages for abusive behaviour in denying to refund the price of a pre-installed Windows licence. In a motivating gesture for the Free Software cause, Luca donated 15,000 euros to the FSFE.

[...] It should go without saying that everyone should be able to freely choose the operating system to run on their personal computers. Free Software is about granting the liberty for people to freely run software they desire and, consequently, decline the software not respecting their freedom. But Microsoft and the vast majority of hardware manufacturers dishonour this principle by dictating which operating system their customers must use, forcing them to run Windows even when they simply do not want to.

See also the FSFE Windows Refund Guide and the Racketware Guide about how to avoid the Windows Tax.

Previously:
(2014) Windows Tax now Illegal in Italy

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for c0lo:

AT&T spinning off DirecTV after losing millions of customers:

AT&T is spinning off its DirecTV into a new company for a fraction of the $48.5 billion it paid for the satellite TV service in 2015. DirecTV has lost millions of customers on AT&T's watch, and is valued in the deal at just $16.25 billion, including debt.

Private equity firm TPG will own 30% of the business, while AT&T holds the rest. The telecom company will receive $7.8 billion in cash, including $1.8 billion from TPG and and $5.8 billion from the new DirecTV firm, which is borrowing that sum. The new DirecTV will also take on $200 million in debt from AT&T.

[...] "It's fair to say that some aspects of the (DirecTV) transaction have not played out as we had planned, such as pay TV households in the U.S. declining at a faster pace across the industry than anticipated," AT&T wrote.

Fnord666 added the following:

Interestingly, Apollo Global Management approached AT&T about spinning off DirecTV in 2019.

Private equity powerhouse Apollo Global Management, working with an outside banker, is pitching AT&T, Inc. a deal that would allow the telecom conglomerate to offload some of the risk of its troubled DirecTV unit while still maintaining control of the satellite service provider, FOX Business has learned.

At that time, AT&T COO John Stankey apparently said that

DirecTV is a crucial piece of his company's video strategy, and that it's not for sale. But the company reportedly hasn't entirely ruled out Apollo's plan.

Wikipedia entry on DirecTV.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Hard-coded key vulnerability in Logix PLCs has severity score of 10 out of 10:

Hardware that is widely used to control equipment in factories and other industrial settings can be remotely commandeered by exploiting a newly disclosed vulnerability that has a severity score of 10 out of 10.

The vulnerability is found in programmable logic controllers from Rockwell Automation that are marketed under the Logix brand. These devices, which range from the size of a small toaster to a large bread box or even bigger, help control equipment and processes on assembly lines and in other manufacturing environments. Engineers program the PLCs using Rockwell software called Studio 5000 Logix Designer.

On Thursday, the US Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Administration [(CISA)] warned of a critical vulnerability that could allow hackers to remotely connect to Logix controllers and from there alter their configuration or application code. The vulnerability requires a low skill level to be exploited, CISA said.

The vulnerability, which is tracked as CVE-2021-22681, is the result of the Studio 5000 Logix Designer software making it possible for hackers to extract a secret encryption key. This key is hard-coded into both Logix controllers and engineering stations and verifies communication between the two devices. A hacker who obtained the key could then mimic an engineering workstation and manipulate PLC code or configurations that directly impact a manufacturing process.

[...] Rockwell isn't issuing a patch that directly addresses the problems stemming from the hard-coded key. Instead, the company is recommending that PLC users follow specific risk mitigation steps. The steps involve putting the controller mode switch into run, and if that's not possible, following other recommendations that are specific to each PLC model.

[...] Claroty has issued its own writeup here.

CVE-2021-22681

Original Submission

aristarchus writes:

More details on Perseverance, at Gizmodo.

As we watched NASA put a rover on Mars last month, it definitely seemed like the agency had to be using some sort of high-tech processor in its machine. Surely the rover is built on something much more powerful than the components in devices us civilians use, right? But while NASA is technically using a specialized processor to power the Perseverance rover, it's not far removed from the world of consumer electronics—about 23 years ago.

NewScientist reports that the Perseverance rover is powered by a PowerPC 750 processor, which was used in Apple's original 1998 iMac G3—you remember, the iconic, colorful, see-through desktop. If the PowerPC name sounds familiar, it's probably because those are the RISC CPUs Apple used in its computers before switching to Intel. (Although now the company is back on the RISC train with its homegrown M1 processor.)

takyon writes:

Rocket Lab plans to merge with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), become a publicly traded company, and develop a medium-lift partially reusable rocket. "Neutron" would be competitive with SpaceX's Falcon 9 and capable of launching cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station.

The funding from the SPAC merger will enable another new initiative. Rocket Lab said it is working on a medium-class launch vehicle called Neutron, capable of placing up to 8,000 kilograms into low Earth orbit, more than 20 times the capacity of Electron. The company disclosed few technical details about Neutron, but said that it intends to make the first stage reusable through propulsive landing on an ocean platform, similar to SpaceX's recovery of Falcon 9 first stages.

The new vehicle is intended to support the growing interest in satellite megaconstellations. "Neutron's eight-ton lift capacity will make it ideally sized to deploy satellites in batches to specific orbital planes, creating a more targeted and streamlined approach to building out megaconstellations," Beck said in the statement.

Rocket Lab had previously resisted building a larger vehicle. "There's no market for it," Beck said during a side session of the Smallsat Conference in August 2020. "If you build a larger rocket, you relegate yourself to being purely rideshare, and rideshare is really well-served."

The first Neutron launch is scheduled for 2024 from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia. The vehicle will leverage the infrastructure the company built at Launch Complex 2 there for the Electron rocket, which will make its debut from that pad later this year. Rocket Lab said it's "assessing locations across America" for a factory that would handle large-scale production of Neutron.

Press release.

Also at The Verge and CNBC.

Previously (company history as seen on SN):

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

Rocket Lab Unveils "Electric" Rocket Engine
Moon Express and Rocket Lab Team Up for 2017 Lunar Mission
New Companies Begin to Target the Micro-Satellite Market
"Planet" Purchases 3 Launches from "Rocket Lab"
Rocket Lab Makes Suborbital Launch From New Zealand
Launch of Rocket Lab's Second "Electron" Rocket Due Dec. 7-8
Rocket Lab's Second "Electron" Rocket Launch Succeeds, Reaches Orbit
Rocket Lab's Electron Rocket Launched "Humanity Star", a Temporary Source of Light Pollution
Rocket Lab Set to Launch Commercial Payloads on April 20
NASA Awards Launch Contracts to Rocket Lab and Virgin Orbit
Rocket Lab Plans to Build its Next Launch Site in the US
Rocket Lab to Build U.S. Launch Site at Wallops Island, Virginia
Rocket Lab's Modest Launch is Giant Leap for Small Rocket Business
Rocket Lab Set to Launch its First Payloads for NASA
Rocket Lab Mission for NASA Successfully Launches 13 CubeSats
Rocket Lab Successfully Launches R3D2 Mission for DARPA
Rocket Lab Will Build Satellites for Launch Customers
Rocket Lab Will Attempt to Recover First Stages Using a Helicopter
Rocket Lab's Guided Reentry Test Moves Company Closer to Partially Reusable Rockets
NASA Selects 18 Research CubeSats as Secondary Payloads; Rocket Lab Will Send CubeSat to Lunar Orbit
After a Second Stage Failure, Rocket Lab Loses Seven Satellites
Rocket Lab Will Resume Missions in August Following Launch Failure
Rocket Lab Secretly Launched its Own Company-made Satellite on Latest Flight

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for c0lo:

Countries call on drug companies to share vaccine know-how:

Across Africa and Southeast Asia, governments and aid groups, as well as the WHO, are calling on pharmaceutical companies to share their patent information more broadly to meet a yawning global shortfall in a pandemic that already has claimed nearly 2.5 million lives. Pharmaceutical companies that took taxpayer money from the U.S. or Europe to develop inoculations at unprecedented speed say they are negotiating contracts and exclusive licensing deals with producers on a case-by-case basis because they need to protect their intellectual property and ensure safety.

Critics say this piecemeal approach is just too slow at a time of urgent need to stop the virus before it mutates into even deadlier forms. Last month, WHO called for vaccine manufacturers to share their know-how to "dramatically increase the global supply."

[...] All over the world, the supply of coronavirus vaccines is falling far short of demand, and the limited amount available is going to rich countries. Nearly 80% of the vaccines so far have been administered in just 10 countries, according to WHO. More than 210 countries with a collective population of 2.5 billion haven't received a single shot.

[...] "What we see today is a stampede, a survival of the fittest approach, where those with the deepest pockets, with the sharpest elbows are grabbing what is there and leaving others to die," said Winnie Byanyima, executive director of UNAIDS.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for c0lo:

Judge approves $650M Facebook privacy lawsuit settlement:

U.S. District Judge James Donato approved the deal in a class-action lawsuit that was filed in Illlinois in 2015. Nearly 1.6 million Facebook users in Illinois who submitted claims will be affected.

[...] "We are pleased to have reached a settlement so we can move past this matter, which is in the best interest of our community and our shareholders," Facebook, which is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, said in a statement.

The lawsuit accused the social media giant of violating an Illinois privacy law by failing to get consent before using facial-recognition technology to scan photos uploaded by users to create and store faces digitally.

[Illlinois'] Biometric Information Privacy Act allowed consumers to sue companies that didn't get permission before harvesting data such as faces and fingerprints.

Facebook privacy settlement approved: Nearly 1.6 million Illinois users will 'expeditiously' get at least $345:

A California federal judge issued final approval Friday in a $650 million Facebook class action privacy settlement, with an order to get at least $345 to each of nearly 1.6 million Illinois class members "as expeditiously as possible."

Chicago attorney Jay Edelson, who filed the initial lawsuit against Facebook nearly six years ago, said the checks could be in the mail within two months — barring an appeal over the court's decision.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for c0lo:

Self-Flying Drone Startup Skydio Hits $1 Billion Valuation After $170 Million Raise:

Based in Redwood City, California, Skydio has built its reputation as both the leader in autonomous flight with its small $999 drones as well as an alternative to the $15 billion valued industry lead DJI. It's selling not just to consumers, but infrastructure companies, the military, search and rescue, and the police too. Amongst its publicly-known customers are the U.S. Army, the Drug Enforcement Administration, various local police agencies, the North Carolina Department of Transportation and what it calls the "largest ever enterprise drone deal" with EagleView for residential roof inspection.

Founded in 2014, Skydio released its first device in 2017, with the second iteration coming out in 2020. The X2, a more advanced and expensive drone designed for enterprise and military use, is out this year. It comes with a thermal camera and the ability to see in the dark, which previous models did not feature. Its most significant milestone this year came when it was chosen for final deployment in the Army Short Range Reconnaissance Program, indicating it will be one of the main suppliers for such military surveillance missions.

"Autonomy is the key for drones to reach scale, and Skydio has established themselves as the defining company in this category. We're excited to continue to invest in this magical combination of breakthrough technology, rapid growth, and an incredible team in a market that's going through an inflection point," said David Ulevitch, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. (According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission late last week, Skydio has raised $96 million of the $170 million round to date.)

As federal government customers, some local police departments and other businesses move away from DJI due to fears over its Chinese origins, Skydio is swooping in to fill the coming void.

[...] "We're proving that a U.S. company can lead the way in this industry through AI and autonomy. Things are already pretty exciting, but we are just scratching the surface of what autonomous drones can do," said Adam Bry, CEO and Skydio cofounder.

Original Submission

Freeman writes:

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/02/report-stadia-undershot-to-the-tune-of-hundreds-of-thousands-of-users/

In the wake of Google shutting down its Stadia Games & Entertainment (SG&E) group, leaks about the underwhelming game-streaming service have started to emerge. A Friday Bloomberg report, citing unnamed Stadia sources, attaches a new number to the failures: "hundreds of thousands" fewer controllers sold and "monthly active users" (MAU) logging in than Google had anticipated.

[...] As part of his Stadia-launch mission, Harrison approved deals costing "tens of millions of dollars" to woo publishers like Take-Two and Ubisoft to launch their games on Stadia, Schreier reports. Exactly how many millions of dollars Stadia spent on these deals is unknown, but Schreier claims that "the amount of money Google was willing to spend came as a shock to veteran game developers," which implies a figure larger than $10 million.

[...] Also on Friday, Wired's Cecilia D'Anastasio published a report citing additional, unnamed sources on the woes of Stadia development. According to that report, Google forbade game developers in the SG&E group from "using certain game development software," which D'Anastasio likened to "roadblocks on the very fundamentals of game-making." Additionally, she reports that Stadia's ambitious goals for internal game studios were hamstrung by serious issues with Google infrastructure:

[...] Stadia continues to operate as a home for third-party games streamed from Google's servers to players' homes. Paid $10/mo Stadia Pro subscriptions include access to a library of over two dozen games, while "free" accounts can either buy Stadia game licenses à la carte or access free-to-play software like Destiny 2.

Original Submission

aristarchus writes:

She came to the U.S. with $300. Now she's part of NASA's Mars mission.

When NASA's Perseverance rover successfully landed on Mars last week, aerospace engineer Diana Trujillo, who is a flight director on the mission, said in an interview with CBS News that it took her some time to process that it had arrived on the red planet.

"I was very much on the mindset of 'What's happening?'" she said. Then as pictures and videos from Perseverance started to beam back, it became real.

"Are we safe? I think that watching the image was when I actually processed that we had actually landed," she added.

The landing only marked the beginning of Perseverance's stop on Mars, but playing a leadership role in the historic mission to find life there was decades in the making for Trujillo. Her dreams of reaching space and wanting to understand the universe came as a young person in Cali, Colombia. Her parents were divorcing and as a 17-year-old, she decided to go to the United States, arriving with only $300 and not speaking any English. She worked housekeeping jobs to pay for her studies and later joined NASA in 2007.

[...] Trujillo is now part of NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab and worked on the team that created the robotic arm that will collect rock samples on Mars. "Understanding if we're alone in the universe is the ultimate question," she said. "I hope that within the one year of surface operations on Mars, we can answer that question soon."

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Plastic bottles holding 2.3 litres are least harmful to the planet:

Using plastic bottles that contain the most liquid for the lowest packaging weight could help reduce plastic waste.

Plastic pollution is a huge problem for the world, with much plastic waste reaching the oceans where it can affect marine life.

In recognition of this, many researchers are developing strategies to tackle the plastic waste problem. Now, Rafael Becerril-Arreola at the University of South Carolina and his colleagues have come up with a relatively simple method to make a difference: change the packaging size to maximise its capacity for a given weight of plastic.

"We realised we could establish a relationship between supermarket beverage sales and plastic waste," says Becerril-Arreola. "I saw the opportunity to create an impact, and I took it."

[...] Becerril-Arreola says he hopes these findings encourage consumers to switch to more efficient bottles to help reduce plastic waste. "It's going to be tricky," he says. "It's a matter of awareness. We cannot expect corporations to make plastic bottles more efficient themselves."

Journal Reference:
R. Becerril-Arreola, R. E. Bucklin. Beverage bottle capacity, packaging efficiency, and the potential for plastic waste reduction [open], Scientific Reports (DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-82983-x)

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

The Mac price crash of 2021 | ZDNet:

The impressive performance and battery life gains of the new M1 MacBooks have created a historic discontinuity in the normally placid resale market. Should you spend $800 for a one year old MacBook Air when for $200 more you could get a MacBook Air with several times the performance and 50 percent better battery life?

That's a question savvy buyers are asking themselves. Not surprisingly, the most common answer seems to be "Nope!"

[...] If you have an Intel MacBook Air or MacBook Pro and are thinking of trading up, you're likely to get more for your current 'Book by moving sooner rather than later. The Apple Silicon story is only going to get better. And the resale value of older Macs only worse.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Red Hat introduces free RHEL for open-source, non-profit organizations:

If your non-profit organization, project, standard body, or foundation is "engaged with open source," you can get a free RHEL subscription via this program. Earlier this year, Red Hat introduced no-cost RHEL for small production workloads and for customer development teams.

So where does this leave the Red Hat operating system family for open-source organizations? Currently, it looks like this:

• Fedora for driving leading-edge development of Linux operating system improvements and enhancements.
• CentOS Stream to test applications and workloads against the next release of the world's leading enterprise Linux platform.
• RHEL for Open Source Infrastructure to give open source communities, projects, foundations, and other organizations a stable foundation for creating and hosting innovative open-source software.

And, of course, you can always just pay for RHEL.

Original Submission