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upstart writes:

US regulator rules that Google infringed on Sonos speaker patents:

The US International Trade Commission has agreed with Sonos' claims that Google had infringed on its speaker and cast patents. It issued its initial decision back in August, and this finalizes its ruling, which prohibits Google from importing products found to have violated Sonos' intellectual properties. Since Google manufactures its products in China, that means it won't be able to gets them shipped to the US when the import ban takes effect in 60 days.

Sonos sued Google in 2020 over five patents, which include one that details a technology allowing wireless speakers to sync with one another. As The New York Times notes, the products affected include Google's Home smart speakers, Pixel phones and computers, as well as Chromecast devices. While Google is facing an import ban, a spokesperson said that the tech giant doesn't expect the ruling to interrupt its ability to import and sell devices.

"While we disagree with today's decision, we appreciate that the International Trade Commission has approved our modified designs," the spokesperson told Protocol. "We will seek further review and continue to defend ourselves against Sonos' frivolous claims about our partnership and intellectual property." The commission didn't challenge those alternative designs in its final decision, which means Google can implement them.

Original Submission

Giant dying star explodes as scientists watch in real time — a first for astronomy

owl writes:

https://lite.cnn.com/en/article/h_a6c9307a6c1df0d4cc9e84ee945f232c

The death of a star is one of the most dramatic and violent events in space -- and astronomers had an unprecedented front-row seat to the explosive end of a stellar giant.

Ground-based telescopes provided the first real-time look at the death throes of a red supergiant star. While these aren't the brightest or most massive stars, they are the largest in terms of volume.

One popular red supergiant star is Betelgeuse, which has captured interest due to its irregular dimming. While it was predicted that Betelgeuse may go supernova, it's still around.

However, the star at the heart of this new research, located in the NGC 5731 galaxy about 120 million light-years away from Earth, was 10 times more massive than the sun before it exploded.

Explosion of supergiant star captured by UH telescope | University of Hawaiʻi System News

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for boru

For the first time, telescopes imaged the self-destruction and final death throes of a massive star.

A team of researchers used the UH Institute for Astronomy-operated Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) on Maui and W. M. Keck Observatory on Hawaiʻi Island observe the red supergiant during its last 130 days leading up to its deadly detonation. The observations were part of their ongoing Young Supernova Experiment (YSE) transient survey.

"This is a breakthrough in our understanding of what massive stars do moments before they die," said Wynn Jacobson-Galán, a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow at University of California, Berkeley and lead author of the study. "Direct detection of pre-supernova activity in a red supergiant star has never been observed before in an ordinary Type II supernova. For the first time, we watched a red supergiant star explode!"

Source: https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2022/01/06/explosion-of-supergiant-star-captured-by-uh-telescope

owl writes:

The case of the programs that were launched with impossible command line options

Several years ago, a bug was filed automatically due to a spike in failures in the Start menu with a new crash profile. Investigation of this bug was rather complicated, because the crash was "impossible".

Then again, a lot of failures seem to be "impossible", but the fact that they're happening proves that it's possible, and you just have to do some sleuthing and adopt a more creative mindset to figure them out.

One of the tools for investigating these types of failures is seeing what other programs are running at the time, or what other programs crashed shortly before or after the failure occurred. In this case, whenever the crash occurred, there was one specific third-party program running. This program billed itself as a utility that boosts your system's gaming performance by terminating all processes it deemed to be non-essential. Its advertising copy calls out useless "productivity apps" as one of those non-essential processes. (Yeah, how dare you let a computer be used for productivity? Can't you see I'm playing a game?)

Apparently, what happens that when the program detects that you're playing a game, it runs around and simply terminates all the non-essential processes.

Were any Soylentils bit by this?

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Global chip shortage: Samsung expects its profits to jump by 52%:

Technology giant Samsung Electronics has said it expects to post a 52% jump in profit for the last three months of 2021, amid the global chip shortage.

The world's biggest memory chip maker estimates that it made 13.8tn won ($11.5bn; £8.5bn) in the period. That would be its highest fourth quarter operating profit in four years. The company's earnings were boosted by strong demand for server memory chips and higher profit margins in its chip contract manufacturing business.

[...] Samsung's spending on such things as employees' bonuses and marketing for its smartphone business were seen as reasons for it missing the market forecast.

In recent months, the global shortage of semiconductors has been causing major disruptions for manufacturers, from carmakers that have had to suspend production to Apple warning that iPhone shipments would be delayed.

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takyon writes:

Apple gets Cydia app store lawsuit dismissed, for now

A US District Judge has dismissed Cydia's lawsuit claiming that Apple's App Store unfairly forced it out of business, but will allow Cydia to amend its complaint.

Originally filed in December 2020, the lawsuit by Jay Freeman, creator of Cydia, says that Apple used its monopoly position against the alternative jailbreaking store. Cydia claimed that it was forced to shut down because of Apple's allegedly unlawful control of app distribution on iOS.

Now U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has granted Apple's motion to dismiss the case. However, she has granted Freeman leave to amend his suit.

Should Freeman choose to proceed, he has until January 19, 2022, to file the amended suit. Then Apple will have until February 2, 2022, to respond.

Also at MacRumors and Wccftech.

Previously: Original Jailbreak App Store Cydia Sues Apple for its Monopoly

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Coming to a laptop near you: A new type of security chip from Microsoft:

In November 2020, Microsoft unveiled Pluton, a security processor that the company designed to thwart some of the most sophisticated types of hack attacks. On Tuesday, AMD said it would integrate the chip into its upcoming Ryzen CPUs for use in Lenovo's ThinkPad Z Series of laptops.

[...] Now, Pluton is evolving to secure PCs against malicious physical hacks designed to install malware or steal cryptographic keys or other sensitive secrets. While many systems already have trusted platform modules or protections such as Intel's Software Guard Extensions to secure such data, the secrets remain vulnerable to several types of attacks.

One such physical attack involves placing wires that tap the connection between a TPM and other device components and extract the secrets that pass between the machines. Last August, researchers disclosed an attack that took only 30 minutes to obtain the BitLocker key from a new Lenovo computer preconfigured to use full-disk encryption with a TPM, password-protected BIOS settings, and UEFI SecureBoot. The hack—which worked by sniffing the connection between the TPM and the CMOS chip—showed that locking down a laptop with the latest defenses isn't always enough.

A similar attack unveiled three months later showed it was possible to exploit a vulnerability (now fixed) in Intel CPUs to defeat a variety of security measures, including those provided by BitLocker, TPMs, and anti-copying restrictions. Attacks known as Spectre and Meltdown have also repeatedly underscored the threat of malicious code pulling secrets directly out of a CPU, even when the secrets are stored in Intel's SGX.

upstart writes:

Students Are Learning To Resist Surveillance: Year in Review 2021:

As schools have shuffled students from in-person education to at-home learning and testing, then back again, the lines between "school" and "home" have been blurred. This has made it increasingly difficult for students to protect their privacy and to freely express themselves, as online proctoring and other sinister forms of surveillance and disciplinary technology have spread. But students have fought back, and often won, and we're glad to have been on their side.

Early in the year, medical students at Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine were blindsided by an unfounded dragnet cheating investigation conducted by the administration. The allegations were based on a flawed review of an entire year's worth of student log data from Canvas, the online learning platform that contains class lectures and other substantive information. After a technical examination, EFF determined that the logs easily could have been generated by the automated syncing of course material to devices logged into Canvas.

When EFF and FIRE reached out to Dartmouth and asked them to more carefully review the logs—which Canvas' own documentation explicitly states should not be used for high-stakes analysis—we were rebuffed. With the medical careers of seventeen students hanging in the balance, the students began organizing. At first, the on-campus protest, the letter to school administrators, and the complaints of unfair treatment from the student government didn't make much of an impact. In fact, the university administration dug in, instituting a new social media policy that seemed aimed at chilling anonymous speech that had appeared on Instagram, detailing concerns students had with how these cheating allegations were being handled.

upstart writes:

French regulators to fine Google and Facebook combined $235 million for cookie tracking: report:

Google and Facebook are facing major fines in France for not making it easy enough for French users to reject technology that tracks cookies, according to a report from Politico on Wednesday.

Reporters from the outlet obtained documents that showed French tech regulator Commission Nationale de I'informatique et Des Libertés (CNIL) is planning to fine Google 150 million euros and Facebook 60 million euros for violating French data privacy rules.

CNIL says in the document that both companies will be fined another 100,000 euros per day if they do not resolve the issues within three months of the decision being issued. Politico noted that this applies to google.fr, youtube.fr and all of Facebook's platforms in France.

[...] European regulators have fined Google more than 8 billion euros for a variety of alleged anticompetitive practices and Google lost an appeal for one of the 2.42 billion euro fines in September.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Chrysler to go all-electric by 2028, starting with the Airflow in 2025:

Not much appeared to be happening at Chrysler in the past few years, though that's about to change. Its parent company, Stellantis, announced yesterday that Chrysler will become its vanguard electric brand. By 2028, the 96-year-old automaker's entire lineup will be all-electric.

That's not too much of a stretch. Chrysler only sells two vehicles right now, the decade-old 300C sedan and the Pacifica minivan, which is available as a plug-in hybrid. Today, at the Consumer Electronics Show, the company shared more details on the Airflow, a concept crossover that appears to be close to ready for production—so close, in fact, that the announcement was probably a thinly veiled preview of the company's first EV due in 2025.

The Airflow is powered by two 150 kW (201 hp) electric motors, one for each axle, and while Chrysler hasn't disclosed the size of the battery, it said it is targeting 350–400 miles of range. If the company can achieve that, it would be quite the coup, rivaling the best from Tesla. Good thing it has a few years before it has to deliver.

In resurrecting the Airflow name, Chrysler isn't just giving a nod to its aerodynamicists. It's saying that the storied brand still has what it takes to lead the pack. The original 1934 Airflow was a revolutionary teardrop of a car, designed using extensive wind tunnel testing and made with an all-steel, unibody frame. It drew inspiration from the contemporary Streamline Moderne movement, and though the car was a commercial flop, its design and features were nonetheless influential.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Report: Meta pulls the plug on its AR/VR operating system ambitions:

Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, has pulled the plug on its current efforts to develop an operating system for AR and VR devices, The Information reported today.

Citing "two people familiar with the decision," the article claims that Meta will return to the status quo of running Oculus devices—and perhaps future mixed reality devices—on a modified version of Google's Android operating system for mobile phones.

The project, which was internally called XROS, had reportedly been underway for years and "involved hundreds of employees." Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was talking up its potential only a few short months ago. The reasons for Meta's decision to pull the plug are not publicly known at this time.

From the outside, the decision appears to be a major setback in a brewing war over mixed reality between Meta, Apple, and potentially other tech giants. Apple's upcoming VR or AR headsets will without a doubt run a custom-made operating system that is designed to leverage tight integration with the hardware for strong performance and a stable experience.

It could be difficult for Facebook to compete with that without its own, ground-up software. That said, Facebook and Apple may end up targeting very different use cases for AR and VR; their ultimate strategies remain a mystery to most.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Judges to decide whether Assange can appeal against extradition as he reaches 1,000 days in jail:

High Court judges are expected to decide within weeks whether to grant WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange leave to appeal to the UK Supreme Court against a decision allowing his extradition to the US.

Ian Duncan Burnett, who is the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, and Lord Justice Holroyd are expected to decide whether to grant Assange leave to appeal extradition before the end of January.

The 50 year old today marked his 1,000th day in Belmarsh high security prison in South East London fighting extradition, and faces a maximum of 175 years in jail in the US if the extradition goes ahead – though prosecutors argue that jail time is likely to be lower.

Assange has been charged with 17 counts under the US Espionage Act 1917 for receiving and publishing classified government documents, and one count under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Assange's defence lawyers and press organisations argue that the case would set a precedent that would have a chilling effect on the freedom of the press if Assange is extradited, exposing journalists to the threat of extradition for publishing government documents.

Original Submission

Apple Becomes First Company to Reach $3 Trillion Market Value

upstart writes:

Apple becomes first company to reach $3 trillion market value:

It's official.

Shares of Apple Inc rose as much as 3 percent on Monday to trade at $182.88 – enough to secure the iPhone maker the coveted crown of becoming the first publically traded company on the planet to cross the $3 trillion market capitalization mark.

To put that into perspective, Apple's value now surpasses the nominal gross domestic products (GDPs) of six of the world's top 10 economies including the United Kingdom, India, France, Italy, Canada and South Korea.

Apple's rise has been relentless in recent years. Back in August 2018, it became the first United States firm to surpass $1 trillion in market value. It blew past the $2 trillion mark only two years later in August 2020. And thanks to the turbo-charged pandemic appetite for tech shares, it took roughly 17 months for Apple to reach the $3 trillion mark.

Apple Becomes World's First $3 Trillion Company

Do You Have a Cold, the Flu or Covid-19? Experts Explain How to Tell the Difference

upstart writes:

Do you have a cold, the flu or Covid-19? Experts explain how to tell the difference:

Do you have a cold, the flu or Covid-19? Experts explain how to tell the difference

[...] Case rates of Covid-19 have been on the rise as the Omicron variant has spread, but hospitalization numbers appear to be staying relatively low. For vaccinated people, evidence suggests that infection with this variant seems less likely to be severe, epidemiologist and former Detroit Health Department executive director, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed said.

[...] "The important thing to remember is a vaccine is like giving a 'be on the lookout' call to your immune system. So its capacity to identify, target and destroy viruses is so much higher every time we take another boost of the vaccine," El-Sayed said. "It makes sense that the symptoms you would experience are milder if you have been vaccinated."

Coronavirus + Flu = 'Flurona': Should You be Worried About It?

upstart writes:

Coronavirus + Flu = 'Flurona': Should You Be Worried About It?:

upstart writes:

Arctic hunter-gatherers were advanced ironworkers more than 2,000 years ago:

Hunter-gatherers who lived more than 2,000 years ago near the top of the world appear to have run ironworking operations as advanced as those of farming societies far to the south.

Excavations in what's now northeastern Sweden uncovered ancient furnaces and fire pits that hunter-gatherers used for metalworking. A mobile lifestyle did not prevent hardy groups based in or near the Arctic Circle from organizing large-scale efforts to produce iron and craft metal objects, say archaeologist Carina Bennerhag of Luleå University of Technology in Sweden and colleagues. In fact, hunter-gatherers who moved for part of the year across cold, forested regions dotted with lakes and swampy patches apparently exchanged resources and knowledge related to metallurgy, the extraction of metals from ores, the researchers report in the December Antiquity.

Ancient hunter-gatherers at two Swedish sites "probably manufactured more iron and steel, and were more socially organized and sedentary than we previously thought," says Luleå archaeologist and coauthor Kristina Söderholm.

owl writes:

How to Grow Green Potassium Ferrioxalate Crystals from Iron Rust:

Potassium ferrioxalate[*] produces striking green crystals that are both beautiful and easy to grow.

Potassium ferrioxalate is a chemical that can be made from relatively common materials. You can prepare it by dissolving rust in oxalic acid, which is often used in cleaning, and then neutralizing the brown solution with potash (potassium carbonate).

The resultant solution will look bright green, and when it evaporates, crystals start to grow.

[*] Potassium ferrioxalate on Wikipedia which notes that it is: "Corrosive. Eye, respiratory and skin irritant."

Go on - try something different (carefully!) with the young ones.

Original Submission