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upstart writes:

See Mercury up close as BepiColombo space mission beams back sweet image:

[...] A new image of the planet, beamed back by the joint European-Japanese BepiColombo mission, lets you fantasize about listening to some sweet tunes while strolling across Mercury's Rudaki Plains or kicking back with a good book while chilling on the rim of the Lermontov crater.

"The region shown is part of Mercury's northern hemisphere including Sihtu Planitia that has been flooded by lavas," the European Space Agency said Saturday on its site. "A round area smoother and brighter than its surroundings characterizes the plains around the Calvino crater, which are called the Rudaki Plains. The 166 km-wide Lermontov crater is also seen, which looks bright because it contains features unique to Mercury called 'hollows' where volatile elements are escaping to space. It also contains a vent where volcanic explosions have occurred."

A joint project of the ESA and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, the BepiColombo mission is looking to learn more about how the closest planet to the sun formed, what it's made of and what it tells us about the birth of our solar system.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Dutch legend has been running his campsite since 1986 using an Atari ST:

If there's one thing YouTuber Viktor Bart likes, it's retro computers: his channel is dedicated to videos about building old machines, their functions, cool oddities, and just generally the joy of these beige things. Even Mr. Bart, however, was surprised by what he found in Koningsbosch, in the Dutch province of Limburg: a campsite that's been run since 1986 on an Atari ST.

[Ed note: Is there anybody here who has an Atari ST? Please share your experience in the comments.

I bought its predecessor, an Atari 800, in 1980. Even got an expansion cartridge to boost memory from the on-board 8 KB RAM. Yes, I spent countless hours playing Star Raiders. It was not as capable as the Atari ST, but it was a fun system that booted up instantly!]

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

On October 1st, 2021, HexChat version 2.16.0 was released along with a, "help wanted" plea from the developer.

This release also comes with some bad news; The HexChat project has been undermaintained for quite a while now. I've been involved with this project since I was a high school student but that is long past and I simply don't have the time to dedicate to it any longer. The Windows builds in particular are very draining and in a poor state which has kept smaller releases from happening more frequently. If anybody out there doesn't mind building things on Windows or wants to help with maintainance contact @TingPing on Libera.Chat.

- 2.16.0 Changelog

Original Submission

owl writes:

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/09/the-rise-of-one-time-password-interception-bots/

In February, KrebsOnSecurity wrote about a novel cybercrime service that helped attackers intercept the one-time passwords (OTPs) that many websites require as a second authentication factor in addition to passwords. That service quickly went offline, but new research reveals a number of competitors have since launched bot-based services that make it relatively easy for crooks to phish OTPs from targets.

Many websites now require users to supply both a password and a numeric code/OTP token sent via text message, or one generated by mobile apps like Authy and Google Authenticator. The idea is that even if the user's password gets stolen, the attacker still can't access the user's account without that second factor — i.e. without access to the victim's mobile device or phone number.

[...] I hope these OTP interception services make clear that you should never provide any information in response to an unsolicited phone call. It doesn't matter who claims to be calling: If you didn't initiate the contact, hang up. Don't put them on hold while you call your bank; the scammers can get around that, too. Just hang up. Then you can call your bank or whoever else you need.

[...] When was the last time you reviewed your multi-factor settings and options at the various websites entrusted with your most precious personal and financial information? It might be worth paying a visit to 2fa.directory (formerly twofactorauth[.]org) for a checkup.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Understanding just how big solar flares can get:

Flares that are powerful enough to disrupt our power grid probably occur, on average, a few times a century, Love says. "Looking at 1859 kind of helps put it in perspective, because what's happened in the space-age era, since 1957, has been more modest." The Sun hasn't aimed a Carrington-like flare at us in quite a while. A repeat of 1859 in the 21st century could be disastrous.

Humanity is far more technologically dependent than it was in 1859. A Carrington-like event today could wreak havoc on power grids, satellites and wireless communication. In 1972, a solar flare knocked out long-distance telephone lines in Illinois, for example. In 1989, a flare blacked out most of Quebec province, cutting power to roughly 6 million people for up to nine hours. In 2005, a solar storm disrupted GPS satellites for 10 minutes.

The best prevention is prediction. Knowing that a coronal mass ejection is on its way could give operators time to safely reconfigure or shut down equipment to prevent it from being destroyed.

upstart writes:

Astronomers may have discovered first planet to orbit 3 stars:

In a distant star system — a mere 1,300 light years away from Earth — UNLV researchers and colleagues may have identified the first known planet to orbit three stars.

[...] Using observations from the powerful Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope, UNLV astronomers analyzed the three observed dust rings around the three stars, which are critical to forming planets.

But they found a substantial, yet puzzling, gap in the circumtriple disc.

The research team investigated different origins, including the possibility that the gap was created by gravitational torque from the three stars. But after constructing a comprehensive model of GW Ori, they found that the more likely, and fascinating, explanation for the space in the disc is the presence of one or more massive planets, Jupiter-like in nature. Gas giants, according to Jeremy Smallwood, lead author and a recent Ph.D. graduate in astronomy from UNLV, are usually the first planets to form within a star system. Terrestrial planets like Earth and Mars follow.

GW Orionis.

Journal Reference:
Jeremy L. Smallwood, Rebecca Nealon, Cheng Chen, et al. GW Ori: circumtriple rings and planets, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stab2624)

Original Submission

LabRat writes:

Windows 11 will hobble gaming performance by default on some prebuilt PCs:

Despite Microsoft's claims that "if you're a gamer, Windows 11 was made for you" you will need to watch out for future prebuilt PCs with the new OS factory installed. That's because the Big M is enabling more security features in PCs by default, and one in particular can seriously tank gaming performance.

In our testing, that can add up to as much as a 28% drop in average frame rates. And you thought the TPM 2.0 restrictions were a pain...

That sort of frame rate delta is like dropping down an entire tier of graphics card and, in these days where GPUs are so hard to come by, Microsoft gimping the performance of the chip in your newbuild machine would surely be hard for gamers to stomach.

The issue is Virtualization-Based Security (VBS), a setting introduced into Windows 10 which uses hardware and software virtualisation to enhance the security of your system. It basically creates an isolated subsystem that helps prevent malware from screwing your PC.

takyon writes:

Samsung Electronics close to finalising $17 bln Texas chip plant -sources

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) is close to finalising the construction of a $17 billion semiconductor factory in Williamson County in the U.S. state of Texas, three people with knowledge of the matter said.

Samsung told Reuters that it is continuing due diligence in multiple locations, and that it has yet to make a decision.

The factory will make advanced logic semiconductor chips and is likely to create about 1,800 jobs, Samsung previously said in filings to state officials.

One of the people said though no decision has been made, the Austin suburb of Williamson County is the frontrunner due to the subsidies on offer as well as the likelihood of stable sources of electricity and water.

A winter storm shutdown at Samsung's existing chip plant in Austin during the first quarter caused the equivalent of 300 billion to 400 billion won ($254 million to $339 million) of damage to wafer production.

The $10 billion "3nm" fab plan mentioned earlier in the year may be referring to a different fab.

Also at Wccftech.

Previously: Samsung Reportedly Planning $10 Billion Investment to Build "3nm" Fab in Austin, Texas
Samsung Considers Austin for $17 Billion Chip Plant, Eyes Tax Breaks of at Least $806 Million

Original Submission

owl writes:

WSJ link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-led-bulbs-dont-always-live-up-to-the-hype-about-their-life-spans-11633080602

Archive link: https://archive.is/VtKFt

When LED lightbulbs supplanted old-fashioned Edisons, it was with a promise of greater energy efficiency and remarkable longevity.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, LEDs use at least 75% less power than incandescent bulbs and last up to 25 times longer.

But it's not clear how long the modern lights last outside of ideal laboratory conditions, and in certain circumstances, they might not outlive the traditional bulbs they bumped off the shelf.

"A lot of expectations have been created that if you buy an LED lightbulb, you don't have to change it ever," said Nadarajah Narendran, director of research at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Lighting Research Center. "It's time for us to reset those expectations."

Original Submission

upstart writes:

S.Korea broadband firm sues Netflix after traffic surge from 'Squid Game':

SEOUL, Oct 1 (Reuters) - South Korean Internet service provider SK Broadband has sued Netflix (NFLX.O) to pay for costs from increased network traffic and maintenance work because of a surge of viewers to the U.S. firm's content, an SK spokesperson said on Friday.

The move comes after a Seoul court said Netflix should "reasonably" give something in return to the internet service provider for network usage, and multiple South Korean lawmakers have spoken out against content providers who do not pay for network usage despite generating explosive traffic.

Netflix said it will review SK Broadband's claim, and seek dialogue and explore ways in the meantime to work with SK Broadband to ensure customers are not affected.

The popularity of the hit series "Squid Game" and other offerings have underscored Netflix's status as the country's second-largest data traffic generator after Google's YouTube, but the two are the only ones to not pay network usage fees, which other content providers such as Amazon, Apple and Facebook are paying, SK said.

Netflix's data traffic handled by SK jumped 24 times from May 2018 to 1.2 trillion bits of data processed per second as of September, SK said, riding on the success of several Netflix productions from Korea including "Squid Game" and "D.P."

Wait what?

Original Submission

DannyB writes:

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin: Allegations of safety issues at company

The US Federal Aviation Authority[sic][*] (FAA) has said it will review safety concerns raised by whistleblowers at Blue Origin, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' space company.

The announcement comes after 21 current and former employees claimed the company had ignored safety concerns to gain an advantage in the space race.

Staff also complained of a culture of sexism within the company.

Blue Origin rejected the charges and said it stands by its safety record.

[...] Raising concerns over the standard of the company's flagship New Shepard rocket, which Mr Bezos travelled into space on in July, the essay writers said: "In the opinion of an engineer who has signed on to this essay, 'Blue Origin has been lucky that nothing has happened so far'."

[...] The FAA, which regulates rocket launches in the US, said that it "takes every safety allegation seriously, and the agency is reviewing the information".

In addition to the safety concerns, staff also claimed that the company's management embraces a "particular brand of sexism" under which numerous managers and senior staff displayed consistently inappropriate behaviour towards women.

[*] Federal Aviation Administration.

I'm sure the New Shepard joyride for rich people meets the same high safety standards as other amusement park rides.

Original Submission

owl writes:

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/10/fcc-proposal-targets-sim-swapping-port-out-fraud/

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is asking for feedback on new proposed rules to crack down on SIM swapping and number port-out fraud, increasingly prevalent scams in which identity thieves hijack a target's mobile phone number and use that to wrest control over the victim's online identity.

In a long-overdue notice issued Sept. 30, the FCC said it plans to move quickly on requiring the mobile companies to adopt more secure methods of authenticating customers before redirecting their phone number to a new device or carrier.

"We have received numerous complaints from consumers who have suffered significant distress, inconvenience, and financial harm as a result of SIM swapping and port-out fraud," the FCC wrote. "Because of the serious harms associated with SIM swap fraud, we believe that a speedy implementation is appropriate."

The FCC said the proposal was in response to a flood of complaints to the agency and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) about fraudulent SIM swapping and number port-out fraud. SIM swapping happens when the fraudsters trick or bribe an employee at a mobile phone store into transferring control of a target's phone number to a device they control.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Spain: Roman Gold Coins Found by Amateur Divers Clearing Trash:

Freedivers off the coast of Spain have uncovered a treasure trove of 53 perfectly preserved gold coins from the Roman Empire, one of the largest collections ever found in Europe.

Brothers-in-law Luis Lens and César Gimeno were freediving in the Mediterranean Sea while on vacation in Xàbia, Spain. Cleaning up trash, according to The Times, as they explored the underwater scenery they came across a shiny object that resembled a "10-cent-coin," newspaper El Pais said.

After retrieving the object, they noticed an inscription with an ancient Greek or Roman face and assumed it was from jewelry.

Using the corkscrew of a Swiss Army knife, they discovered another seven coins embedded in a rock crevice.

After reporting their discovery to local authorities, a team of scuba divers and archaeologists uncovered a total of 53 gold coins, three nails, and some remains of what appeared to be a chest.

[...] "It's incredible. It's every child's dream to find a treasure," Luis Lens told El Pais.

Original Submission

Freeman writes:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/09/understanding-neuromorphic-computing-and-why-intels-excited-about-it/

Despite their name, neural networks are only distantly related to the sorts of things you'd find in a brain. While their organization and the way they transfer data through layers of processing may share some rough similarities to networks of actual neurons, the data and the computations performed on it would look very familiar to a standard CPU.

But neural networks aren't the only way that people have tried to take lessons from the nervous system. There's a separate discipline called neuromorphic computing that's based on approximating the behavior of individual neurons in hardware. In neuromorphic hardware, calculations are performed by lots of small units that communicate with each other through bursts of activity called spikes and adjust their behavior based on the spikes they receive from others.

On Thursday, Intel released the newest iteration of its neuromorphic hardware, called Loihi.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Louisiana's missing moon rock found in Florida thanks to broken gun:

A long-lost piece of the moon belonging to the state of Louisiana may have remained missing — if not also been discarded or destroyed — had the plaque on which it was mounted not attracted the eye of a Florida gun collector.

The man, who was looking for wood samples to use in the repair or replacement of his damaged gunstocks, purchased the Apollo 17 goodwill moon rock display without realizing what it was. The buyer, who requested to remain anonymous but resides in Merritt Island, near Cape Canaveral, said that he had likely purchased the plaque at a garage sale sometime over the past 15 years.

"I can't even tell you how long I owned it for," the man told collectSPACE.com after reaching out for information through a common contact. "I'm not even sure how much I paid for it. I buy plaques because I take the wood from the plaques and I send it over to my gunstock guy and he makes grips for my Colts and so forth."

"The wood [in the plaques] is such nice wood — that is what I buy them for," he said.

It was not until the past two years, when he was seeking a particular color wood for a repair, that he pulled the moon-rock-adorned plaque from one of the 15 to 16 boxes of plaques that he had amassed for his hobby.

"What the hell is this?" he recalled thinking after taking a good look at what was on the plaque for the first time. "Before I start stripping things off, I generally take a moment to read them."