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What was highest label on your first car speedometer?

  • 80 mph
  • 88 mph
  • 100 mph
  • 120 mph
  • 150 mph
  • it was in kph like civilized countries use you insensitive clod
  • Other (please specify in comments)

[ Results | Polls ]
Comments:46 | Votes:100

posted by Fnord666 on Monday October 18 2021, @10:37PM   Printer-friendly
from the enter-your-PIN-using-your-nose dept.

Credit card PINs can be guessed even when covering the ATM pad:

Researchers have proven it's possible to train a special-purpose deep-learning algorithm that can guess 4-digit card PINs 41% of the time, even if the victim is covering the pad with their hands.

The attack requires the setting up of a replica of the target ATM because training the algorithm for the specific dimensions and key spacing of the different PIN pads is crucially important.

Next, the machine-learning model is trained to recognize pad presses and assign specific probabilities on a set of guesses, using video of people typing PINs on the ATM pad.

[...] This experiment proves that covering the PIN pad with the other hand is not sufficient to defend against deep learning-based attacks, but thankfully, there are some countermeasures you can deploy.


Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Monday October 18 2021, @07:42PM   Printer-friendly

Password Auditing Tool L0phtCrack Released as Open Source:

The password auditing and recovery tool L0phtCrack is now open source and the project is looking for both maintainers and contributors.

First released in 1997, L0phtCrack can be used to test password strength and recover lost Windows passwords via dictionary, brute-force, and other types of attacks.

L0phtCrack was originally developed by Peiter Zatko, also known as Mudge, of the L0pht hacker think tank. L0pth [sic - L0pht] then merged with @stake, which was acquired by Symantec in 2004. It was owned by Symantec between 2004 and 2009, when it was acquired from the cybersecurity firm by Zatko and other original authors. By that time, Symantec had stopped selling the tool.

Terahash announced buying L0phtCrack in 2020, but it was repossessed in July 2021 after Terahash defaulted on its instalment sale loan.

When the announcement was made in July, its owners said L0phtCrack would no longer be sold or supported.

[...] The L0phtCrack source code is available on GitLab.


Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Monday October 18 2021, @04:54PM   Printer-friendly
from the Second-Life?-Pr0n?-WALL-E? dept.

Facebook investing millions in vr internet replacement

Facebook plans to hire 10,000 people in the EU to build its vision for a 'metaverse'. Facebook said it plans to create 10,000 highly-skilled jobs in the EU over the next five years. The recruitment drive is part of Facebook's ambition to create a digital world known as the "metaverse." A number of other companies, including Microsoft, Roblox and Epic are investing in their own versions of a metaverse.

The "metaverse" is a set of virtual spaces where you can create and explore with other people who aren't in the same physical space as you. You'll be able to hang out with friends, work, play, learn, shop, create and more. It's not necessarily about spending more time online — it's about making the time you do spend online more meaningful.

The metaverse isn't a single product one company can build alone. Just like the internet, the metaverse exists whether Facebook is there or not. And it won't be built overnight. Many of these products will only be fully realized in the next 10-15 years. While that's frustrating for those of us eager to dive right in, it gives us time to ask the difficult questions about how they should be built.

So the next internet, a VR-nightmare. One of many.

https://about.fb.com/news/2021/09/building-the-metaverse-responsibly/
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/17/facebook-to-create-10000-jobs-in-eu-for-metaverse-vision.html
https://www.pocket-lint.com/apps/news/facebook/157854-what-is-facebook-metaverse-the-potential-future-of-the-internet-explained

Facebook Disputes Report That its AI Can't Detect Hate Speech or Violence Consistently

Facebook Disputes Report That its AI Can't Detect Hate Speech or Violence Consistently

Facebook vice president of integrity Guy Rosen wrote in blog post Sunday that the prevalence of hate speech on the platform had dropped by 50 percent over the past three years, and that "a narrative that the technology we use to fight hate speech is inadequate and that we deliberately misrepresent our progress" was false.

"We don't want to see hate on our platform, nor do our users or advertisers, and we are transparent about our work to remove it," Rosen wrote. "What these documents demonstrate is that our integrity work is a multi-year journey. While we will never be perfect, our teams continually work to develop our systems, identify issues and build solutions."

The post appeared to be in response to a Sunday article in the Wall Street Journal, which said the Facebook employees tasked with keeping offensive content off the platform don't believe the company is able to reliably screen for it.


Original Submission #1Original Submission #2

posted by Fnord666 on Monday October 18 2021, @02:12PM   Printer-friendly
from the scalpers-incorporated dept.

Best Buy’s new $200/yr membership locks PS5, hot holiday items behind sign-up"

If you're still searching for a PS5 and are a Best Buy customer, your ship may have just come in—that is, if you're willing to spend an extra $200 a year for access.

That's because the big-box electronics retailer is locking stock of in-demand holiday items like Sony's console behind membership of its new Totaltech program. The expensive customer service package was recently rolled out nationwide.

The $200 annual service—which has benefits like round-the-clock tech support, up to two years of protection on Best Buy purchases (including AppleCare+ insurance, which can cost $200 on its own), and member discounted prices—is throwing in exclusive access to "the season's hardest-to-find products" as a bonus perk for the holidays, the company said in a statement. The Best Buy retail site had the $500 disc drive model PS5s available for Totaltech members to buy Monday morning, with the consoles gated behind an "exclusive access event" paywall. Instead of selling out instantly, its stock lasted between 90 minutes and two hours—a relatively glacial sales pace compared to the insane demand for the hardware that consumers have faced since it hit stores last November.


Original Submission

posted by Fnord666 on Monday October 18 2021, @11:27AM   Printer-friendly

Treasury defends IRS plan to track most bank accounts:

The Treasury is defending its proposal to track banking information for nearly all Americans, after pushback from the finance industry and Congressional Republicans made the proposal a subject of heated debate in Congress.

A senior Treasury official told CBS News that tracking a small amount of information for nearly every bank account in the U.S. would help the IRS spot high-income people who are skipping out on taxes. Tracking the information would also provide additional verification that low-income workers are meeting their obligations.

The Treasury's proposal has been criticized for a cutoff that appears exceedingly low — just $600 in a bank account, or a single $600 purchase, would be enough to trigger disclosure of that account's existence, according to an initial plan released in May. It now seems likely that number will rise to $10,000. But the financial industry claims that small business owners and independent contractors would be caught in a "dragnet" of surveillance — rather than the wealthy.

"While the stated goal of this vast data collection is to uncover tax dodging by the wealthy, this proposal is not remotely targeted to that purpose or that population," the American Bankers Association and a coalition of business groups wrote last month.

However, according to a senior Treasury official, the reason for setting the cutoff at such a low amount is not to trap low-income earners but rather to block wealthy people from sidestepping scrutiny. That's because a high threshold for disclosure — say, $100,000 — could easily be avoided if wealthy people simply moved money between several smaller bank accounts. After all, it's not uncommon for one person to have multiple bank accounts.


Original Submission

posted by FatPhil on Monday October 18 2021, @08:42AM   Printer-friendly
from the don't-even-think-about-editing-the-URL dept.

Confused governor says looking at webpage's HTML is criminal hacking:

Gov. Mike Parson is sick and tired of all these sophisticated, no-good hackers and he's not going to take it any more. It's too bad the Missouri Republican has no idea what he's talking about.

During a Thursday press conference, the confused elected official lashed out at a journalist who reported a vulnerability in an official Department of Elementary and Secondary Education website. The reporter, notably, waited until officials fixed the error before publishing the story. The flaw? The website apparently included teachers' Social Security numbers in the HTML.

"Though no private information was clearly visible nor searchable on any of the web pages, the newspaper found that teachers' Social Security numbers were contained in the HTML source code of the pages involved," reported the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

Parson, who apparently has never heard of "view source," obliquely threatened the Post reporter with prosecution.

"The state is committing to bring to justice anyone who hacked our system and anyone who aided or encouraged them to do so — in accordance with what Missouri law allows AND requires," wrote Parson.

[... - plenty snipped - ...] Parson, in other words, has no idea what he's talking about.

canopic jug augments that with the following other sources:

Governor Mike Parson wishes that ctrl-u or f12 will become illegal. This was actually a breach of personal information, including SSANs, for over 100,000 people.

https://text.npr.org/1046124278
https://www.salon.com/2021/10/14/missouri-governor-threatens-criminal-prosecution-of-reporter-found-security-flaw-in-state-site_partner/
https://itwire.com/security/missouri-goes-after-man-who-looked-at-source-code-on-state-site.html
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/missouri-governor-teacher-data-hacking-1242493/
https://coldstreams.com/2021/10/14/no-it-isnt-missouri-governor-says-viewing-html-source-code-containing-private-data-the-state-published-on-every-page-is-a-crime/
https://abc17news.com/news/missouri/2021/10/14/gov-parson-threatens-legal-action-against-reporter-who-exposed-flaw-on-state-education-departments-website/
https://heavy.com/news/gov-mike-parson-html-source-code-decoded-ssn/


Original Submission

posted by martyb on Monday October 18 2021, @05:41AM   Printer-friendly
from the check-with-your-doctor-or-clinician-before-making-any-decision;-this-is-not-medical-advice dept.

US task force proposes adults 60 and older should not start daily aspirin to prevent heart disease or stroke:

US task force proposes adults 60 and older should not start daily aspirin to prevent heart disease or stroke

On Tuesday, the task force posted a draft statement recommending that adults ages 40 to 59 who are at a higher risk for cardiovascular disease -- but do not have a history of the disease -- decide with their clinician whether to start taking aspirin, based on their individual circumstances.

This is the first time the task force has recommended that adults in their 40s talk to their doctors about whether to take aspirin for heart health.

[...] The draft also says that adults 60 and older should not start taking aspirin to prevent heart disease and stroke because new evidence shows that potential harms cancel out the benefits, according to the task force.

"The latest evidence is clear: starting a daily aspirin regimen in people who are 60 or older to prevent a first heart attack or stroke is not recommended," Task Force member Dr. Chien-Wen Tseng said in a statement. "However, this Task Force recommendation is not for people already taking aspirin for a previous heart attack or stroke; they should continue to do so unless told otherwise by their clinician."


Original Submission

posted by martyb on Monday October 18 2021, @02:52AM   Printer-friendly
from the worth-a-[Canon]-shot dept.

Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink:

Canon USA is being sued for not allowing owners of certain printers to use the scanner or faxing functions if they run out of ink.

David Leacraft, a customer of Canon, filed the class action lawsuit on Tuesday alleging deceptive marketing and unjust enrichment by the printer manufacturer.
Refusing to scan when out of ink

[...] While using his Pixma MG6320 printer from Canon, the plaintiff was surprised to discover that the "all-in-one" machine would refuse to scan or fax documents if the printer ran out of ink.

As ink is not necessary to perform scans or faxes, the argument is that the printer features should continue to work even if there is no ink in the device.

"Plaintiff Leacraft would not have purchased the device or would not have paid as much for it had he known that he would have to maintain ink in the device in order to scan documents," reads the complaint for the class action lawsuit.

Since at least 2016, other customers have contacted Canon about this exact problem and were told by support agents that ink cartridges must be installed and contain ink to use the printer's features, as shown by the agent's response below [*]."

[*] Image is embedded in linked story; it can be viewed without buying ink. ;)


Original Submission

posted by martyb on Sunday October 17 2021, @10:02PM   Printer-friendly
from the zoom-zoom-boom dept.

Launch in August of nuclear-capable rocket that circled the globe took US intelligence by surprise

China tested a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile in August that circled the globe before speeding towards its target, demonstrating an advanced space capability that caught US intelligence by surprise.

Five people familiar with the test said the Chinese military launched a rocket that carried a hypersonic glide vehicle which flew through low-orbit space before cruising down towards its target.

The missile missed its target by about two-dozen miles, according to three people briefed on the intelligence. But two said the test showed that China had made astounding progress on hypersonic weapons and was far more advanced than US officials realised.

The test has raised new questions about why the US often underestimated China's military modernisation.

"We have no idea how they did this," said a fourth person.

[...] Two of the people familiar with the Chinese test said the weapon could, in theory, fly over the South Pole. That would pose a big challenge for the US military because its missiles defence systems are focused on the northern polar route.

[Source]: The Financial Times (May be Paywalled for Some)

[Alternative Source]: archive.today


Original Submission

posted by martyb on Sunday October 17 2021, @05:15PM   Printer-friendly
from the how-does-that-compare-to-the-Cray-1? dept.

TSMC delivers first batch of Baikal BE-M1000 CPUs based on ARM Cortex-A57 cores

Baikal Electronics confirms they received the first batch of 5000 BE-M1000 CPUs from their foundry, TSMC. These are second-generation processors based on ARM architecture.

[...] Baikal BE-M1000 is based on eight ARM Cortex A57 cores all clocked up to 1.5 GHz at TDP at 30-35W. The CPU has 4MB of L2 cache and 8MB of L3 cache. It comes with an integrated ARM Mali-T682 GPU clocked at 700 to 750 MHz.

The processor offers a performance level of Intel Core i3-7300T, which should be good enough for standard office use.

The Intel Core i3-7300T was a dual-core Kaby Lake CPU launched in 2017, with a similar TDP (35 Watts).

Previously: Desktop and All-in-One Arm Linux Computers Launched with Baikal-M Processor

Related: Russia to Build RISC-V Processors for Laptops: 8-core, 2 GHz, 12nm, 2025


Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Sunday October 17 2021, @12:32PM   Printer-friendly
from the now-that's-aged-cheese dept.

'Sophisticated': ancient faeces shows humans enjoyed beer and blue cheese 2,700 years ago:

It's no secret that beer and blue cheese go hand in hand – but a new study reveals how deep their roots run in Europe, where workers at a salt mine in Austria were gorging on both up to 2,700 years ago.

Scientists made the discovery by analysing samples of human excrement found at the heart of the Hallstatt mine in the Austrian Alps. Frank Maixner, a microbiologist at the Eurac Research Institute in Bolzano, Italy, who was the lead author of the report, said he was surprised to learn salt miners more than two millennia ago were advanced enough to "use fermentation intentionally."

"This is very sophisticated in my opinion," Maixner said. "This is something I did not expect at that time."

The finding was the earliest evidence to date of cheese ripening in Europe, according to researchers. And while alcohol consumption is certainly well documented in older writings and archaeological evidence, the salt miners' faeces contained the first molecular evidence of beer consumption on the continent at that time.

"It is becoming increasingly clear that not only were prehistoric culinary practices sophisticated, but also that complex processed foodstuffs as well as the technique of fermentation have held a prominent role in our early food history," Kerstin Kowarik, of the Museum of Natural History Vienna, said. The town of Hallstatt, a Unesco World Heritage Site, has been used for salt production for more than 3,000 years.

Journal Reference:
Frank Maixner, Mohamed S. Sarhan, Kun D. Huang, et al. Hallstatt miners consumed blue cheese and beer during the Iron Age and retained a non-Westernized gut microbiome until the Baroque period. Current Biology, 2021 (DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.09.031)


Original Submission

posted by martyb on Sunday October 17 2021, @07:49AM   Printer-friendly

Vienna museums launch OnlyFans account to display 'explicit' artworks:

The city of Vienna is taking an offbeat approach to the censorship of art and has turned to using the adults-only online platform OnlyFans to put its most "explicit" artworks on full display.

The tourism board for the Austrian capital is now presenting art from four of Vienna's most revered museums on the adults-only platform in response to the blocking of some artistic content containing nudity on social media.

[...] In July, the Albertina Museum's TikTok account was suspended -- and later blocked -- for displaying works by the Japanese artist and photographer Nobuyoshi Araki that showed a partially-obscured breast.

Back in 2019, Instagram said that a painting by the legendary Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens violated its community guidelines. Earlier this year, when the Leopold Museum marked its 20th anniversary, a video uploaded to Facebook and Instagram which contained work by Koloman Moser was rejected because it was flagged as "potentially pornographic" by the platforms.

Now, these works and more of Vienna's "18+ content" can be found on full, unfiltered display on OnlyFans -- a subscription-based website best known as a platform for sharing and viewing pornographic content.

[...] "And the battle against censorship still rages on: with the rise of social media, bans like these are back in headlines once again. Major social media channels like Instagram and Facebook have nudity and 'lewd' content firmly in their sights."

[...] Any subscribers to the account will receive either a free Vienna city card or a free ticket to any of the featured museums where the city's tourism board has said "uncensored works of art in question can be seen in the flesh."


Original Submission

posted by martyb on Sunday October 17 2021, @03:02AM   Printer-friendly
from the core-elation? dept.

Intel published a developer guide confirming details of its upcoming Alder Lake processors.

Desktop "Alder Lake-S" processors will include up to 8 "Golden Cove" performance cores (P-cores), 8 "Gracemont" (Atom) efficiency cores (E-cores), and 32 graphics execution units (Gen 12.2 EUs). A smaller die will include only up to 6 P-cores and no E-cores, to be used in lower-end products such as a 6-core Intel Core i5-12400 or a quad-core i3.

Mobile "Alder Lake-P" processors will include up to 6 P-cores, 8 E-cores, and 96 graphics EUs. A smaller "ultra mobile" die will include up to 2 P-cores and 8 E-cores.

AVX-512 is physically present on Golden Cove cores, but disabled in Alder Lake.

The guide mainly focuses on software implementations for hybrid CPUs. It provides various optimization strategies for Alder Lake, including lack of optimization, a "Good Scenario", and the "Best Scenario". According to the document, lack of optimization will not mean that the CPU will be unable to distribute workloads for hybrid CPUs, which should be handled by ThreadDirector anyway, but some may be distributed to the wrong types of cores, should the scheduling algorithm not recognize the task.

In the "Good Scenario," Intel assumes that the application will be aware of the hybrid architecture. The primary tasks should target Performance cores, whereas non-essential and background threads with lower priority should target Effcieent cores.

The "Best Scenario" goes into further detail about which workloads specifically should target Efficient cores: Shader Compilation, Audio Mixing, Asset Streaming, Decompression, Any other non-critical work.

Intel's Thread Director combines a microcontroller with software-based scheduling:

Intel's Thread Director controller puts an embedded microcontroller inside the processor such that it can monitor what each thread is doing and what it needs out of its performance metrics. It will look at the ratio of loads, stores, branches, average memory access times, patterns, and types of instructions. It then provides suggested hints back to the Windows 11 OS scheduler about what the thread is doing, whether it is important or not, and it is up to the OS scheduler to combine that with other information about the system as to where that thread should go. Ultimately the OS is both topologically aware and now workload aware to a much higher degree.

Inside the microcontroller as part of Thread Director, it monitors which instructions are power hungry, such as AVX-VNNI (for machine learning) or other AVX2 commands that often draw high power, and put a big flag on those for the OS for prioritization. It also looks at other threads in the system and if a thread needs to be demoted, either due to not having enough free P-cores or for power/thermal reasons, it will give hints to the OS as to which thread is best to move. Intel states that it can profile a thread in as little as 30 microseconds, whereas a traditional OS scheduler may take 100s of milliseconds to make the same conclusion (or the wrong one).

On top of this, Intel says that Thread Director can also optimize for frequency. If a thread is limited in a way other than frequency, it can detect this and reduce frequency, voltage, and power. This will help the mobile processors, and when asked Intel stated that it can change frequency now in microseconds rather than milliseconds.

[...] On the question of Linux, Intel only went as far to say that Windows 11 was the priority, and they're working upstreaming a variety of features in the Linux kernel but it will take time. An Intel spokesperson said more details closer to product launch, however these things will take a while, perhaps months and years, to get to a state that could be feature-parity equivalent with Windows 11.

See also: Intel 12th gen Alder Lake-P and Alder Lake-M mobile SKUs to enter production between Q4 2021 and Q1 2022; Up to 14 cores, Xe GT3, PCie Gen5, and DDR5 on the anvil
Linux 5.16 To Add Intel Encrypted PXP, Alder Lake S Declared Stable & Ready
Alder Lake Support Added To Intel's TCC Driver In Linux 5.15
Scheduler Changes For Linux 5.15 - Still No Sign Of Any Intel Thread Director Optimizations

Previously: Windows 11 Bashes Some AMD Procs; Boosts Some Intel Core i7 Alder Lake


Original Submission

posted by martyb on Saturday October 16 2021, @10:21PM   Printer-friendly

UN declares access to a clean environment a human right:

GENEVA, Oct 8 (Reuters) - The U.N. Human Rights Council on Friday recognised access to a clean and healthy environment as a fundamental right, formally adding its weight to the global fight against climate change and its devastating consequences.

The vote passed with overwhelming support, despite criticism in the lead-up from some countries, notably the United States and Britain. read more

The resolution, first discussed in the 1990s, is not legally binding but has the potential to shape global standards. Lawyers involved in climate litigation say it could help them build arguments in cases involving the environment and human rights.

"This has life-changing potential in a world where the global environmental crisis causes more than nine million premature deaths every year," said David Boyd, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights and the environment, who called the decision a "historic breakthrough".

The text, proposed by Costa Rica, the Maldives, Morocco, Slovenia and Switzerland, was passed with 43 votes in favour and 4 abstentions from Russia, India, China and Japan, prompting a rare burst of applause in the Geneva forum.

[...] Critics had raised various objections, saying the Council was not the appropriate forum and citing legal concerns.

Environmental defenders had said Britain's earlier critical stance was undermining its pledges ahead of the global climate conference it is hosting in Glasgow next month.


Original Submission

posted by martyb on Saturday October 16 2021, @05:48PM   Printer-friendly
from the iodine? dept.

Sweeping FDA guidance would drastically cut salt in American foods:

The Food and Drug Administration is asking food manufacturers and restaurants to cut the salt in their products over the coming 2½ years, hoping to reduce Americans' overall sodium intake by 12 percent.

The sweeping recommendation, announced Wednesday, is expected to cover a wide variety of foods — from chain restaurant meals to processed food on grocery store shelves and even baby food.

"What we'd like to see is the food industry gradually lower the sodium content" in the most common foods, Dr. Janet Woodcock, the acting FDA commissioner, told NBC News.

The goal, Woodcock said, is to slash rates of heart disease, the country's No. 1 killer. Reducing sodium in the diet ultimately "would have a major impact on hypertension, heart disease and stroke," she said.

Current dietary guidelines recommend that adults consume no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day. That equates to about one teaspoon of table salt.

But the average person in the U.S. consumes about 3,400 mg of sodium a day,according to the FDA. The majority of that comes from processed foods, not table salt.

"We recognize that cutting down on sodium in your diet is hard to do on your own, because about 70 percent of the sodium we eat comes from processed, packaged and prepared foods," Susan Mayne, director of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition said on a media call Wednesday.

The new recommendations aim to cut the average salt intake by 12 percent, down to 3,000 mg a day, Woodcock said. That is the equivalent of consuming 60 fewer teaspoons of salt a year.


Original Submission