SoylentNews

upstart writes:

Yahoo pulls out of China over 'challenging' business conditions:

Yahoo has become the latest US tech company to end its presence in mainland China as tougher regulations are imposed there.

The firm said its decision was due to an "increasingly challenging business and legal environment" in the country".

Yahoo users in China are now greeted with a message saying its sites are no longer accessible.

The company says Yahoo products and services remain unaffected elsewhere around the world.

In a statement, it says: "Yahoo remains committed to the rights of our users and a free and open internet. We thank our users for their support."

Yahoo's move follows closely behind Microsoft's announcement last month that it was removing LinkedIn - its business-focused social network - from China, something it also blamed on "a significantly more challenging operating environment and greater compliance requirements".

China is in the midst of a large-scale crackdown on big tech companies - both those from the US and its own native giants.

Also at CNN.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

High-Speed Laser Writing Method Could Pack 500 Terabytes of Data into CD-Sized Glass Disc

Researchers have developed a fast and energy-efficient laser-writing method for producing high-density nanostructures in silica glass. These tiny structures can be used for long-term five-dimensional (5D) optical data storage that is more than 10,000 times denser than Blue-Ray optical disc storage technology.

[...] In Optica, Optica Publishing Group's journal for high-impact research, [Yuhao] Lei and colleagues describe their new method for writing data that encompasses two optical dimensions plus three spatial dimensions. The new approach can write at speeds of 1,000,000 voxels per second, which is equivalent to recording about 230 kilobytes of data (more than 100 pages of text) per second.

[...] The researchers used their new method to write 5 gigabytes of text data onto a silica glass disc about the size of a conventional compact disc with nearly 100% readout accuracy. Each voxel contained four bits of information, and every two voxels corresponded to a text character. With the writing density available from the method, the disc would be able to hold 500 terabytes of data. With upgrades to the system that allow parallel writing, the researchers say it should be feasible to write this amount of data in about 60 days.

5 GB / 230 KB/s = ~6 hours
500 TB / 230 KB/s = ~69 years
500 TB / 60 days = ~96.45 MB/s

Funding for the research was provided by the European Research Council (ENIGMA, 789116) and Microsoft (Project Silica).

Also at Guru3D and PetaPixel.

High speed ultrafast laser anisotropic nanostructuring by energy deposition control via near-field enhancement (open, DOI: 10.1364/OPTICA.433765) (DX)

Previously: "5D" Laser-Based Polarization Vortex Storage Could Hold Hundreds of Terabytes for Billions of Years (same university, Peter G. Kazansky on both research teams)
Microsoft Stores 75.6 GB on Glass Disc Designed to Last Thousands of Years

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/10/google-fi-is-getting-end-to-end-encrypted-phone-calls/

Google's MVNO cell phone service, Google Fi, is getting a surprise new feature: encrypted phone calls. Encrypted voice chats via messaging apps have been available for a while, but this is the first time we've seen a company hijack the regular phone system for end-to-end encrypted calls. Open the phone app, dial a number, and your call can be encrypted.

End-to-end encryption is not a normal phone standard, so both parties on the call will need to be firmly in the Google Fi ecosystem for the feature to work. Google's description says that "calls between two Android phones on Fi will be secured with end-to-end encryption by default." Google Fi works on the iPhone, too, but given that Google would have to use Apple's default phone app, it can't add encryption.

The Verge adds:

The feature is a little limited in its current form. Google's end-to-end encryption will only kick in for calls between two Android phones, where both users are Google Fi subscribers. So, for now, at least, iPhone Google Fi subscribers won't benefit. Google says you'll know when a call is end-to-end encrypted because it'll play a "unique dial tone" before it connects. There'll also be a lock icon shown on screen if you're making a call using Google's Phone app.

A couple of other things to note: calls made via the Messages by Google app won't be end-to-end encrypted, and it only works on one-on-one calls (so no conference calls). Leaving a voicemail is also not covered. The feature works over both Wi-Fi and cellular connections of LTE or greater, although somewhat confusingly, you turn it off by disabling the "Wi-Fi calling" option in the Google Fi app.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Student Cracks the High-Dimensional Quantum Code – Reveals Hidden Structures of Quantum Entangled States:

Isaac Nape, an emerging South African talent in the study of quantum optics, is part of a crack team of Wits physicists who led an international study that revealed the hidden structures of quantum entangled states. The study was published in the renowned scientific journal, Nature Communications.

Nape is pursuing his PhD at Wits University and focuses on harnessing structured patterns of light for high dimensional information encoding and decoding for use in quantum communication.

Earlier this year he scooped up two awards at the South African Institute of Physics (SAIP) conference to add to his growing collection of accolades in the field of optics and photonics. He won the award for 'Best PhD oral presentation in applied physics', and jointly won the award for 'Best PhD oral presentation in photonics'.

In May, he was also awarded the prestigious 2021 Optics and Photonics Education Scholarship from the SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, for his potential contributions to the field of optics, photonics or related field.

Now Nape and his colleagues at Wits, together with collaborators from Scotland and Taiwan offer a new and fast tool for quantum computing and communication. "Quantum states that are entangled in many dimensions are key to our emerging quantum technologies, where more dimensions mean a higher quantum bandwidth (faster) and better resilience to noise (security), crucial for both fast and secure communication and speed up in error-free quantum computing.

upstart writes:

https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/1/22757102/apple-iphone-car-crash-detection-feature-onstar

Apple is reportedly working on a new iPhone and Apple Watch feature that detects if you're in a car crash and dials 911 automatically. The current plan is to roll out such a feature next year, according to The Wall Street Journal [Paywalled].

Google's Personal Safety app on Pixel phones already includes a feature to call for help when it detects car crashes, just like connected car services in modern vehicles do, including GM's OnStar, Subaru's Starlink, and Fiat Chrysler's Uconnect. Many cars on the road today are not equipped with any connectivity features, so getting crash detection on an iPhone too means more drivers can get the help they need in an accident as long as they have one in their pocket or mounted to their dash.

Widely reported, including at:

• https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/apple-iphone-car-crash-automatic-911/
• https://www.engadget.com/apples-i-phone-could-soon-detect-a-car-crash-and-dial-911-automatically-134124164.html

What happens if you just drop your phone? Of course that never happens, but still I wonder...

Original Submission

Freeman writes:

John Carmack issues some words of warning for Meta and its metaverse plans:

Oculus consulting CTO John Carmack has been bullish on the idea of "the metaverse" for a long time, as he'll be among the first to point out. But the id Software co-founder spent a good chunk of his wide-ranging Connect keynote Thursday sounding pretty skeptical of plans by the newly rebranded Meta (formerly Facebook) to actually build that metaverse.

"I really do care about [the metaverse], and I buy into the vision," Carmack said, before quickly adding, "I have been pretty actively arguing against every single metaverse effort that we have tried to spin up internally in the company from even pre-acquisition times." The reason for that seeming contradiction is a somewhat ironic one, as Carmack puts it: "I have pretty good reasons to believe that setting out to build the metaverse is not actually the best way to wind up with the metaverse."

Today, Carmack said, "The most obvious path to the metaverse is that you have one single universal app, something like Roblox." That said, Carmack added, "I doubt a single application will get to that level of taking over everything." That's because a single bad decision by the creators of that walled-garden metaverse can cut off too many possibilities for users and makers. "I just don't believe that one player—one company—winds up making all the right decisions for this," he said.

[...] Carmack's full, hour-long keynote is worth a watch for anyone who wants to get into the head of a person who has been immersed in the conceptual and practical worlds of VR and the metaverse for years now. You can also skim through a copy of Carmack's notes for the speech if you don't have the time to listen for an hour.

Previously:
Meta Removing Facebook Login Requirement for Quest Headsets by Next Year
Facebook Changing Name to "Meta"
Two From Facebook - Investing Millions in VR Internet Replacement - AI Difficulties

Original Submission

owl writes:

CT scan of a pumpkin:

We performed a CT scan on a pumpkin, October 2016. The pumpkin was 28 cm [11 inches] in diameter, and weighed 5.9 kg [13 pounds].

If seeing this on your phone, I suggest bookmarking for viewing images later on a large screen; images on a phone may be limited.

It was scanned on a GE Revolution CT machine. The scan was performed using technique optimized for human extremities, and employed very thin slice thickness of 600 microns. The detail provided by these scans is exquisite. Why scan a pumpkin? Well, firstly, I enjoy occasionally scanning non-human things. I was also encouraged by Twitter user @Zedsquared who spontaneously asked me, "Does a CT scan of a pumpkin pick up nice patterns from the seeds?" Probably. I looked into it. A pumpkin has been scanned before, at a university in Wales. Here is a video, from 2012, moderate resolution. I decided to have a go at it as well, and thought we'd be able to produce some very good images with optimized parameters.

There are many more images at the linked site. Most appears to be color-enhanced, but extremely well done!

[NB: I was tangentially involved in an early GE research project which was investigating the feasibility of performing what were then called MRIs (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) in 1980. Our first scan took about 5(?) minutes to perform. Then it took another half-hour of processing on a VAX 11/780 to generate the black&white image!--Ed.]

Original Submission

progo writes:

Brian Krebs reports today on the biggest global information security freak-out since Heartbleed (2014). Or not -- I'm not sure.

Virtually all compilers -- programs that transform human-readable source code into computer-executable machine code -- are vulnerable to an insidious attack in which an adversary can introduce targeted vulnerabilities into any software without being detected, new research released today warns. The vulnerability disclosure was coordinated with multiple organizations, some of whom are now releasing updates to address the security weakness.

TL/DR: Because of Unicode string processing in all editors and compilers, and specifically how RTL [Right-to-Left][*] and LTR [Left-to-Right][*] control codes are supposed to affect the ordering of all characters regardless of whether or not they belong to an LTR language... Any source code processed by a Unicode-aware compiler is subject to hidden meaning where what's rendered in your editor or terminal is not what is actually read by the compiler. Re-ordering the display of characters in a block of code can change the meaning of comparison statements, string or number constants, and comments.

Krebs cites a paper (PDF) from researchers at the University of Cambridge, which contains some nifty code examples including changing "User is not in Admin group" to render as logic for "User is in Admin group" in every source control tool or editor you might use. This sort of supply chain attack can be inserted by anyone with commit access to the code you use from upstream sources -- disgruntled employees, open source contributors; virtually all software you use now could be a target.

Is this the end of the world, or just another Monday?

This post was written in pure ASCII, just to be safe.

[*] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-to-left_mark.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Goodbye Hadopi: France Will Launch New 'Arcom' Anti-Piracy Agency in 2022

After more than a decade of operations, France's Hadopi agency will now complete its merger with the Higher Audiovisual Council to create a new and powerful regulator. Following the French parliament's adoption of a new law last month, the Arcom body will launch in January 2022, tackling everything from illegal streaming and site blocking to the disruption of unlicensed sports broadcasts.

[...] The anti-piracy body pioneered the so-called "graduated response" system back in 2010, with Hadopi tracking down copyright infringers using mainly BitTorrent networks and then warning, fining, or even disconnecting them. Over time, however, more convenient methods of illicit consumption (such as streaming) gained traction, putting Hadopi a little behind the times.

[...] The new law "on the regulation and protection of access to cultural works in the digital age" was officially published this week.

[...] On January 1, 2022, Hadopi will be dissolved and the CSA will take the Arcom name. This new regulator will operate with expanded investigation powers and will be responsible not only for tackling piracy but also for the protection of minors and the fight against disinformation and hatred online.

On the anti-piracy front, Hadopi's 'graduated response' will be adopted by Arcom and the regulator will also focus on illicit streaming, direct download, and linking platforms that profit from the online publication of works in violation of creators' rights.

Arcom's key responsibilities will include the management of a "blacklist" of infringing sites. A site can find itself on this database after being labeled a "repeat infringer" in a yet-to-be detailed process. A site appearing on the list will act as a signal for search engines to carry out delistings, advertisers to curtail business deals, or be presented as support for rights holders engaged in legal action.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Revised budget reconciliation package reduces NASA infrastructure funds

A new, scaled-back version of a spending package released Oct. 28 sharply reduced the money allocated to NASA infrastructure and climate change projects, while continuing to exclude funding for a second Artemis lunar lander.

The House released the text of the Build Back Better Act, a $1.75 trillion spending bill that is a revised version of an original $3.5 trillion bill often known as the budget reconciliation package because of the process by which it would be used to win passage in the Senate. The bill's release came hours after President Joe Biden announced the revised proposal in a speech at the White House.

The bill includes $750 million for upgrades to NASA infrastructure, $140 million for Earth science research and applications, and $220 million for NASA's aeronautics program. By contrast, a portion of the original bill approved by the House Science Committee Sept. 9 included $4 billion for NASA infrastructure, $163 million for Earth science and $225 million for aeronautics. That earlier bill also included $7 million for NASA cybersecurity.

Original Submission

SomeGuy writes:

Action News Jax reports: Last chunk of Golden Ray Cargo ship removed from St. Simons Sound

It's the largest wreck removal in U.S. history and after two years, the last chunk of the Golden Ray has been removed from St. Simons Sound.

It took a multi-agency effort including the U.S. Coast Guard, wreckage removal crews, environmental groups and more.

The final piece of the Golden Ray was placed on this barge at the mayor's point terminal in Brunswick on Monday.

Salvage crews have been working tirelessly to get all eight pieces of the cargo ship out of St. Simons Sound.

[...] It was carrying more than 4,200 cars on board worth over $142 million.

The U.S. Coast Guard rescued four crew members trapped for 36 hours after the ship capsized.

Investigators found out that a chief officer on the Golden Ray had miscalculated the stability of the ship, causing the car carrier to tip over.

Wreckage removal crews finally began moving the ship piece by piece last fall.

Although the Golden Ray is no longer in the water, crews will continue cleaning the mess left over.

In September, the NTSB released the results of their investigation: NTSB Determines Inaccurate Stability Calculations Caused Capsizing of Vehicle Carrier Golden Ray

Car & Driver has an in depth article explaining the circumstances surrounding the ship's demise.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-59072745

ShotSpotter has garnered much negative press over the last year. Allegations range from its tech not being accurate, to claims that ShotSpotter is fuelling discrimination in the police.

In the wake of those negative news stories, the company gave BBC News access to its national incident-review centre.

[...] Microphones are fixed to structures around a neighbourhood. When a loud bang is detected, a computer analyses the sound and classifies it as either a gunshot or something else. A human analyst then steps in to review the decision.

In the incident-review room, former teacher Ginger Ammon allows me to sit with her as she analyses these decisions in real time.

Every time the algorithm flags a potential shot, it makes a "ping" sound.

Ms Ammon first listens to the recording herself and then studies the waveform it produces on her computer screen.

"We're looking to see how many sensors picked it up and if the sensors made a directional pattern, because, in theory, a gunshot can only travel in one direction," she says.

Once confident a shot has been fired, Ms Ammon clicks a button that dispatches police officers to the scene.

It all happens in under 60 seconds.

Original Submission

Update: 2021-11-01 13:25:28 UTC; added F@H history; elaborated on contest.--Bytram

martyb writes:

Welcome to November! Here's a quick update on the site.

Holiday
First off, Monday (November 1) is a National Holiday in France, which just happens to be where janrinok is located. He *just* returned today from a leave-of-absence. He still has quite a number of matters to attend to which limits his availability here. Dealing with loss takes time, so please take the time you need during this time.

In commemoration of the holiday, I am instructing the editorial staff to maintain a weekend/holiday story spacing schedule for the day.

Editorial Milestone
It gives me great pleasure to announce that TWO editors just achieved personal milestones: posting their 1,300th story

I can attest that that represents a great deal of time and effort. Please join me in thanking chromas and mrpg for their hard work and sacrifice for the site!

Folding@Home: Contest!
SoylentNews has a team that has been running for several years now. In fact, out of the over 200K teams in the world, we still rank in the top 300 teams! (Other teams include: Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, Google, Hewlett Packard... you get the idea.) Barring any surprises, I anticipate our team attaining 3 Billion Points in the next few weeks!

The contest? Logged-in SoylentNews users only. SoylentNews account must have been created on-or-before 2021-10-01 UTC. Entry must be submitted on-or-before Saturday 2021-11-06 UTC. One entry per account. Goal is to guess when the SoylentNews.org Folding@Home team first exceeds 3,000,000,000 (3 BILLION) points according to our IRC channel: #folding-rank. (N.B. That is an echo of results shown at https://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/team_summary.php?s=&t=230319). That channel is now logged (again) and will serve as the official channel-of-record.

Reference tallies to get you started (Added: 2021-11-01 13:25:28 UTC):

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

Rank: 396 | WUs: 172,775 | Score: 2,964,272,925 (Sun Oct 31 03:38:42 GMT 2021)
Rank: 396 | WUs: 172,780 | Score: 2,964,626,297 (Sun Oct 31 06:38:55 GMT 2021)
Rank: 396 | WUs: 172,783 | Score: 2,964,847,212 (Sun Oct 31 09:39:30 GMT 2021)
Rank: 396 | WUs: 172,787 | Score: 2,965,029,891 (Sun Oct 31 12:40:00 GMT 2021)
Rank: 396 | WUs: 172,789 | Score: 2,965,487,881 (Sun Oct 31 15:40:11 GMT 2021)
Rank: 396 | WUs: 172,795 | Score: 2,966,028,427 (Sun Oct 31 18:40:18 GMT 2021)
Rank: 396 | WUs: 172,798 | Score: 2,966,207,149 (Sun Oct 31 21:40:49 GMT 2021)
Rank: 396 | WUs: 172,802 | Score: 2,966,396,549 (Mon Nov 01 00:40:54 GMT 2021)
Rank: 396 | WUs: 172,804 | Score: 2,966,805,759 (Mon Nov 01 03:40:59 GMT 2021)
Rank: 396 | WUs: 172,805 | Score: 2,966,953,999 (Mon Nov 01 06:41:19 GMT 2021)
Rank: 396 | WUs: 172,810 | Score: 2,967,135,894 (Mon Nov 01 09:41:35 GMT 2021)
Rank: 396 | WUs: 172,814 | Score: 2,967,529,238 (Mon Nov 01 12:42:04 GMT 2021)

Important!
Each account's single entry is to be submitted as a comment to this story and is to be of the format "My entry is YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM UTC". Example: "My entry is 2021-11-01 13:16 UTC".

Winner receives a free, one-month subscription (extension) to SoylentNews.org!

Original Submission

upstart writes:

New synthesis process paves way for more efficient lasers, LEDs:

III-nitride semiconductor materials[*] are wide-bandgap semiconductors that are of particular interest in optic and photonic applications because they can be used to create lasers and LEDs that produce light in the visible bandwidth range. And when it comes to large-scale manufacturing, III-nitride semiconductor materials produced using a technique called metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD).

Semiconductor devices require two materials, a "p-type" and an "n-type." Electrons move from the n-type material to the p-type material. This is made possible by creating a p-type material that has "holes," or spaces that electrons can move into.

A challenge for people who make LEDs and lasers has been that there was a limit on the number of holes that you can make in p-type III-nitride semiconductor materials that are created using MOCVD. But that limit just went up.

"We have developed a process that produces the highest concentration of holes in p-type material in any III-Nitride semiconductor made using MOCVD," says Salah Bedair, co-author of a paper on the work and a distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State. "And this is high quality material -- very few defects -- making it suitable for use in a variety of devices."

In practical terms, this means more of the energy input in LEDs is converted into light. For lasers, it means that less of the energy input will be wasted as heat by reducing the metal contact resistance.

[*] Wikipedia: III-nitride semiconductor materials.

Journal Reference:
Evyn L. Routh, Mostafa Abdelhamid, Peter Colter, et al. P-type In_xGa_1-xN semibulk templates (0.02 < x < 16) with room temperature hole concentration of mid-10¹⁹ cm^-3 and device quality surface morphology, Applied Physics Letters (DOI: 10.1063/5.0065194)

Original Submission

Snotnose writes:

You'll never guess what the most back-ordered item in the Apple catalog is. Go on, guess. I promise you'll be wrong, because it's the inane thing you can think of.

Apple's Most Back-Ordered New Product Is Not What You Expect:

Apple this month unveiled an array of new gadgets: more powerful MacBook laptop computers, AirPod wireless headphones with longer battery life and HomePod Mini speakers in three more colors.

But a different and unheralded Apple release is garnering so much interest that it has become the company's most back-ordered new product: a $19, 6.3-by-6.3-inch cloth to wipe smudges and fingerprints off screens.

The cloth, imprinted with the Apple logo in the corner, is made with "soft, nonabrasive material" to clean the screens of iPhones, iPads and MacBooks "safely and effectively," according to the product page. The listing adds that the Polishing Cloth — capital P, capital C — is "compatible" with 88 different Apple products. For most U.S. shoppers, shipment is delayed until Jan. 11, at the earliest.

Charging $19 for a piece of cloth about the size of two stacked dollar bills is bold even by Apple's standards, a company whose legions of loyal customers are conditioned to stomach steep prices.

[...] But the Polishing Cloth stands out because it is far more expensive than widely available alternatives. MagicFiber, a popular brand of microfiber cloth that uses ultrafine fibers to clean glass without scratching the surface, offers a pack of six for $9 on Amazon.

[...] Even so, the price has not stopped Apple fans from rushing to be early adopters.

See also: iFixit actually tore down Apple's backordered $19 screen cloth

Original Submission