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upstart writes:

AMD's Ryzen 5000 CPUs Get Major Price Cuts, Up to 25 Percent:

AMD's Ryzen 5000 (Vermeer) processors are two years old, but the Zen 3 chips are still among some of the best CPUs on the market. If you're looking for your next upgrade, U.S. retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy, Micro Center, and Newegg, are currently selling the Ryzen 5000 lineup at reduced prices.

The Ryzen 5000 price cuts are probably an answer to the recently released Intel 12th Generation Alder Lake product stack that has helped Intel recover market share in the Japanese and German markets. While Ryzen 5000 still dominates the list of best-selling processors on Amazon and Newegg, Alder Lake has been creeping up to the Zen 3 parts. For example, the Core i7-12700KF is the seventh best-selling chip on Amazon, whereas the Core i7-12700K is in the third spot on Newegg's charts. Moreover, it's that time of the year when retailers start making space for the next wave of processors.

AMD has already confirmed that Ryzen 7000 (Raphael), Ryzen 5000's successor, will hit the market in the second half of the year, so retailers have likely started to offload Ryzen 5000 parts. Ryzen 7000 lives on the completely new AM5 platform with PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 support. The transition to the AM5 socket means consumers will have to invest in a new motherboard, although the topic of the memory remains in the air. Intel's Alder Lake supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory modules, but AMD hasn't confirmed if Ryzen 7000 will also have hybrid memory support.

The story continues with a chart of prices for various models and has links to vendors, too.

Random question: Is your primary computer a desktop or a laptop? I've been laptop-only for the last 15-20 years -- my computing needs have been relatively modest.

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upstart writes:

Raspberry Pi Competitor Ranks Swell With Orange Pi 4 LTS:

A new version of the Orange Pi, one of the Raspberry Pi competitor boards built around the hexa-core Arm-based Rockchip RK3399 SoC and with a distinctive Wi-Fi antenna, is now available for pre-order, with prices starting from $55, as spotted by CNX-Software.

The Orange Pi 4 LTS (not Long-Term Support, but LTS versions of Orange Pi boards tend to be more compact versions of previous releases) features a six-core processor that sees two Arm Cortex A72 cores matched with four A53 cores and a Mali T860 GPU. There's a choice of either three or four gigabytes of LPDDR4 RAM, and a 16GB eMMC chip can be specified.

The main difference between the Orange Pi 4 LTS and the 4 and 4B boards that preceded it is the GPIO. While previous boards contained 40 pins on their headers, the LTS houses just 26, just like the original Raspberry Pi. And while we can use some Raspberry Pi HATs designed for 40-pin GPIO with the original Pi. Don't expect true GPIO compatibility with the Orange Pi 4 LTS, a quick glance of the GPIO layout shows that I2C is mapped to different pins, effectively breaking compatibility with cards which use this protocol. The audio chip also seems to have been changed, from a Realtek ALC5651 to an ESS ES8316.

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upstart writes:

High Blood Pressure Linked With Certain Oral Bacteria in Older Women:

High blood pressure is typically defined by two measurements: systolic blood pressure (the upper number measuring pressure when the heart beats) of 130 mm Hg or higher, and diastolic blood pressure (the lower number indicating pressure between heart beats) of 80 mm Hg or higher.

While previous research has indicated that blood pressure tends to be higher in people with existing periodontal disease compared to those without it, researchers believe that this study is the first to prospectively examine the association between oral bacteria and developing hypertension.

"Since periodontal disease and hypertension are especially prevalent in older adults, if a relationship between the oral bacteria and hypertension risk could be established, there may be an opportunity to enhance hypertension prevention through increased, targeted oral care," said Michael J. LaMonte, Ph.D., M.P.H., one of the study's senior authors, a research professor in epidemiology at the University at Buffalo – State University of New York and a co-investigator in the Women's Health Initiative clinical center in the University's epidemiology and environmental health department.

Researchers evaluated data for 1,215 postmenopausal women (average age of 63 years old at study enrollment, between 1997 and 2001) in the Buffalo Osteoporosis and Periodontal Disease Study in Buffalo, New York. At study enrollment, researchers recorded blood pressure and collected oral plaque from below the gum line, "which is where some bacteria keep the gum and tooth structures healthy, and others cause gum and periodontal disease," LaMonte said. They also noted medication use and medical and lifestyle histories to assess if there is a link between oral bacteria and hypertension in older women.

NASA's Mars Helicopter Ingenuity Helicopter Aces 20th Flight on Red Planet

upstart writes:

NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity helicopter aces 20th flight on Red Planet:

NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity has now outflown its Red Planet expectations by a factor of four.

The 4-pound (1.8 kilograms) Ingenuity landed on the floor of Jezero Crater with NASA's life-hunting, sample-caching Perseverance rover on Feb. 18, 2021. The solar-powered chopper soon embarked on a five-flight technology-demonstrating mission designed to show that powered flight is possible in the Red Planet's thin air.

Ingenuity aced that initial mission and was granted an extension, during which it's been serving as a scout for Perseverance and pushing the limits of Red Planet flight. And on Friday (Feb. 25), Ingenuity notched yet another milestone, this one of the round-number variety — its 20th Martian sortie.

upstart writes:

Deciphering behavior algorithms used by ants and the internet:

Engineers sometimes turn to nature for inspiration. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Associate Professor Saket Navlakha and research scientist Jonathan Suen have found that adjustment algorithms—the same feedback control process by which the Internet optimizes data traffic—are used by several natural systems to sense and stabilize behavior, including ant colonies, cells, and neurons.

Internet engineers route data around the world in small packets, which are analogous to ants. As Navlakha explains, "The goal of this work was to bring together ideas from machine learning and Internet design and relate them to the way ant colonies forage."

The same algorithm used by internet engineers is used by ants when they forage for food. At first, the colony may send out a single ant. When the ant returns, it provides information about how much food it got and how long it took to get it. The colony would then send out two ants. If they return with food, the colony may send out three, then four, five, and so on. But if ten ants are sent out and most do not return, then the colony does not decrease the number it sends to nine. Instead, it cuts the number by a large amount, a multiple (say half) of what it sent before: only five ants. In other words, the number of ants slowly adds up when the signals are positive, but is cut dramatically lower when the information is negative. Navlakha and Suen note that the system works even if individual ants get lost and parallels a particular type of "additive-increase/multiplicative-decrease algorithm" used on the internet.

Journal Reference:
Jonathan Y. Suen and Saket Navlakha. A feedback control principle common to several biological and engineered systems, Journal of the Royal Society Interface [open CC BY 4.0] (DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2021.0711)

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upstart writes:

DDoS attackers have found this new trick to knock over websites:

Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attackers are using a new technique to knock websites offline by targeting vulnerable 'middleboxes', such as firewalls, to amplify junk traffic attacks.

Amplification attacks are nothing new and have helped attackers knock over servers with short busts of traffic as high as 3.47 Tbps. Microsoft last year mitigated attacks on this scale that were the result of competition between online-gaming players.

But there's a new attack on the horizon. Akamai, a content distribution network firm, says it has seen a recent wave of attacks using "TCP Middlebox Reflection", referring to transmission control protocol (TCP) – a founding protocol for secured communications on the internet between networked machines. The attacks reached 11 Gbps at 1.5 million packets per second (Mpps), according to Akamai.

The amplification technique was revealed in a research paper last August, which showed that attackers could abuse middleboxes such as firewalls via TCP to magnify denial of service attacks. [...]

Most DDoS attacks abuse the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) to amplify packet delivery, generally by sending packets to a server that replies with a larger packet size, which is then forwarded to the attacker's intended target. The TCP attack takes advantage of network middleboxes that don't comply with the TCP standard. The researchers found hundreds of thousands of IP addresses that could amplify attacks by over 100 times utilizing firewalls and content filtering devices.

So, what was a theoretical attack just eight months ago is now a real and active threat.

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upstart writes:

Ultrasound scan can diagnose prostate cancer:

Researchers at Imperial College London, University College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust have found that a new type of ultrasound scan can diagnose most prostate cancer cases with good accuracy in a clinical trial involving 370 men.

The ultrasound scans missed only 4.3 per cent more clinically important prostate cancer cases -- cancer that should be treated rather than monitored -- compared to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans currently used to detect prostate cancer.

MRI scans are expensive and time-consuming. The team believes that an ultrasound scan should be used as a first test in a community healthcare setting and in low and middle income countries which do not have easy access to high quality MRI scans. They say it could be used in combination with current MRI scans to maximise cancer detection. The study is published in Lancet Oncology.

"MRI scans are one of the tests we use to diagnose prostate cancer. Although effective these scans are expensive, take up to 40 minutes to perform and are not easily available to all. Also, there are some patients who are unable to have MRI scans such as those with hip replacements or claustrophobia fears. As cancer waiting lists build as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a real need to find more efficient and cheaper tests to diagnose prostate cancer.

upstart writes:

Teen who tracked Elon Musk's jet is now chasing Russian oligarchs:

The teenager who became famous for tracking the whereabouts of Elon Musk's private jet has a new target: Russian oligarchs.

Jack Sweeney, a 19-year-old IT student at the University of Central Florida, has set up a new Twitter account following the aircraft of Russia's billionaires as they face growing international pressure over the country's invasion of Ukraine.

The Twitter account, called Russian Oligarch Jets, shows times and maps for when and where the private jets of some of Russia's top billionaires take off and land. It had more than 100,000 followers by midday CET on Tuesday.

The automated feed launched on Sunday after the European Union and the United States announced new sanctions on the inner circle of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and pledged to freeze their assets, including jets, yachts and luxury homes.

The Russian Oligarch Jets Twitter account is currently following the movements of the helicopters and planes of prominent Russian tycoons, including Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich, Vladimir Potanin, Russia's richest person, and steel billionaire Alexander Abramov.

"I'm sure some people will try to kick some of these oligarchs out of the US or their country as they find out they're here," Sweeney told Euronews Next.

"I don't really expect much trouble since I'm here in the US," he added.

[Emphasis retained from original.]

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Rare "Tatooine-Like" Exoplanet That Orbits Around Two Stars at Once Spotted by Ground-Based Telescope:

A rare exoplanet that orbits around two stars at once has been detected using a ground-based telescope by a team led by the University of Birmingham.

The planet, called Kepler-16b, has so far only been seen using the Kepler space telescope. It orbits around two stars, with the two orbits also orbiting one another, forming a binary star system. Kepler-16b is located some 245 light years from Earth and, like Luke Skywalker's home planet of Tatooine, in the Star Wars universe, it would have two sunsets if you could stand on its surface.

The 193cm telescope used in the new observation is based at the Observatoire de Haute-Provence, in France. The team was able to detect the planet using the radial velocity method, in which astronomers observe a change in the velocity of a star as a planet orbits about it.

The detection of Kepler-16b using the radial velocity method is an important demonstration that it is possible to detect circumbinary planets using more traditional methods, at greater efficiency and lower cost than by using spacecraft.

upstart writes:

Valve has no plans to raise Steam Deck pricing:

Valve has announced that there are no plans to increase the price of its Steam Deck handheld despite the huge popularity of the system. In an interview with IGN, Gabe Newell (head of Valve) confirmed that while pricing the petite PC so low had been tricky, he anticipates that the current MSRP will remain fixed for now.

"I mean, part of what you do with pricing is you're making a promise to customers. [...] But we wouldn't expect to be adjusting the SKU pricing," Newell said during the interview, though he expressed surprise that the more expensive $649 (around £489 / AU$899) Steam Deck model that features 512GB of NVMe SSD internal storage and an anti-glare etched glass, had outsold the affordable $399 (around £299 / AU$550) entry-level model.

You're only getting 64GB of eMMC storage on the entry-level version of the handheld, a type of flash-based internal data storage that's often found in tablets and smartphones. This is typically cheaper than SSDs, but vastly inferior when working with large files like games, which may have swayed some folks to opt for the pricier flagship Steam Deck model.

Given its popularity, it's little wonder that Newell also expressed an interest in developing other variations with even higher specifications, confirming that Valve is considering additional models of the handheld.

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upstart writes:

Torvalds admits he's a bit worried about the next Linux build:

The speed at which Linux developers are working on version 5.17 of the popular kernel has gotten the OS' boss a bit worried.

In the weekly State of the kernel post, Linux creator (and the biggest developer) Linus Torvalds, said he believed the progress (or lack thereof) wasn't caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, or "whatever crazy things are going on in the world", as these things "don't seem to have affected the kernel much."

However, the number of known regressions that Torvalds is claiming have been out there since late January have affected the development cycle. Although these "don't seem all that big and scary", Torvalds did stress that some of them were reported right after the rc1 release, meaning they're getting somewhat stale.

"I'd hate to have to delay 5.17 just because of them, and I'm starting to be a bit worried here. I think all the affected maintainers know who they are," he concluded, before urging subsystem maintainers to make these regressions a priority.

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upstart writes:

Toyota forced to halt car production following supplier cyberattack:

Toyota has been forced to shut production at its Japanese factories following a suspected cyberattack.

The Japanese car giant has revealed that Kojima Industries Corporation, one of its central suppliers, had been affected by an attack that meant it had to shutter activity across its entire production line.

"Due to a system failure at a domestic supplier, we have decided to suspend the operation of 28 lines at 14 plants in Japan on Tuesday, March 1st (both 1st and 2nd shifts)," the company said in a statement. "We apologize to our relevant suppliers and customers for any inconvenience this may cause."

[...] It's not thought that the attack is linked to the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, with retaliation to sanctions recently imposed on Russia by the Japanese government a possible motive for hackers.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Ethernet co-inventor David Boggs dies at 71:

Pioneering Xerox PARC computer researcher David Boggs has died at 71, The New York Times has reported. He was best known for co-inventing the Ethernet PC connection standard used to link PCs in close proximity to other computers, printers and the internet — over both wired and wireless connections.

The Xerox PARC research lab in Palo Alto developed much of the PC tech we tech[sic] for granted today like the graphic user interface, mouse and word processor. Boggs joined the team in 1973, and started working with fellow researcher Bob Metcalfe on a system to send information to and from the lab's computer.

In about two years, they had designed the first version of Ethernet, a link that could transmit data at 2.94 Mbps over a coaxial cable. It borrowed in part from a wireless networking system developed at the University of Hawaii called ALOHAnet, tapping into Boggs' passion for HAM radio. "He was the perfect partner for me," Metcalfe told the NYT. "I was more of a concept artist, and he was a build-the-hardware-in-the-back-room engineer."

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upstart writes:

A slow-motion section of the San Andreas fault may not be so harmless after all: Where big quakes were thought unlikely, rocks deep down say otherwise:

Lesser known is the fact that the San Andreas comprises three major sections that can move independently. In all three, the plates are trying to move past each other in opposing directions, like two hands rubbing against each other. In the southern and the northern sections, the plates are locked much of the time -- stuck together in a dangerous, immobile embrace. This causes stresses to build over years, decades or centuries. Finally a breaking point comes; the two sides lurch past each other violently, and there is an earthquake. However in the central section, which separates the other two, the plates slip past each other at a pleasant, steady 26 millimeters or so each year. This prevents stresses from building, and there are no big quakes. This is called aseismic creep.

At least that is the story most scientists have been telling so far. Now, a study of rocks drilled from nearly 2 miles under the surface suggests that the central section has hosted many major earthquakes, including some that could have been fairly recent. The study, which uses new chemical-analysis methods to gauge the heating of rocks during prehistoric quakes, just appeared in the online edition of the journal Geology.

"This means we can get larger earthquakes on the central section than we thought," said lead author Genevieve Coffey, who did the research as a graduate student at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. "We should be aware that there is this potential, that it is not always just continuous creep."

Journal Reference:
Genevieve L. Coffey, Heather M. Savage, Pratigya J. Polissar, et al. History of earthquakes along the creeping section of the San Andreas fault, California, USA, Geology (DOI: 10.1130/G49451.1)

Original Submission

upstart writes:

New optical tweezers put on the pressure to change color:

Scientists demonstrate an optical trapping technique using nanotextured black silicon that can efficiently trap polymer chains. By adjusting the laser intensity, these 'optical tweezers' can control the florescence color emitted through a local concentration of a perylene-modified polymer solution. From a low intensity blue to high intensity orange, this reversible and fully remote technology can almost reach the entire RGB spectrum.

One big stumbling block in the field of photonics is that of color control. Until now, to control color, i.e. the wavelength of light emission, researchers would have to alter the chemical structure of the emitter or the concentration of the solvent -- all of which require direct contact, greatly limiting their application.

"Such conditions make it impossible to change color quickly, use it as a light source in microscopic spaces like a cell, or in closed systems where exchange is not an option," says Yasuyuki Tsuboi and professor of the Department of Chemistry, Osaka City University. With "optical tweezers," a technology he developed in previous research, Prof. Tsuboi led a team of researchers to show it possible to control the luminescence color remotely, using only the effect of light pressure.

[...] "We observed the color of the fluorescence emitted by the polymer aggregate change in response to this," explains Prof, Tsuboi, "with low intensities producing blue, and then changing to green, yellow, green yellow, to orange as the intensity increases." As the laser intensity is what is being controlled, the color change is fully reversible and able to be done remotely.

Journal Reference:
Ryota Takao, Kenta Ushiro, Hazuki Kusano,et al. Fluorescence Colour Control in Perylene‐Labeled Polymer Chains Trapped by Nanotextured Silicon. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2022; 61 (11) (DOI: 10.1002/anie.202117227)

Original Submission