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upstart writes:

UK businesses struggling to support flexible work:

The challenges of the pandemic have driven and are continuing to drive employees restless, yet just over three in five employees in the UK don't believe their company's policies and technologies effectively enable flexible work, according to research from SAP Concur.

The Employee Experience Campaign research questioned 1,700 employees, taking a closer look at the way employee expectations have shifted.

It revealed that 90% of respondents indicated that their work can be done virtually, and that 87% prefer to work virtually most of the time, feeling that they should be able to decide where and when they work. Employers would like to follow suit, as more than 50% of executives expect to work remotely at least some of the time in the next two years, but only 42% agree that the technology their company has in place will be able to support flexible work.

In addition, 60% of employees agree that the pandemic caused them to re-evaluate what they want in the workplace. An overwhelming majority of staff (78%) now believe that employers are responsible for their job satisfaction and well-being, meaning that creating a better employee experience is essential to support flexible work while also increasing employee productivity.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

German government advises against using Kaspersky antivirus:

Germany's Federal Office for Information Security, BSI, is warning companies against using Kaspersky antivirus products due to threats made by Russia against the EU, NATO, and Germany.

Kaspersky is a Moscow-based cybersecurity and antivirus provider founded in 1997, that has a long history of success, but also controversy over the company's possible relationship with the Russian government.

[...] Kaspersky is also believed to offer its cybersecurity protection services to Russian state IT infrastructure, making it a concern that the company cannot stay completely neutral.

[...] As the BSI statement explains, antivirus software typically has higher-level privileges on Windows systems, maintaining a permanent, encrypted, and non-verifiable connection to the vendor's servers for constant virus definition updates.

Furthermore, as real-time protection from almost all antivirus vendors can upload suspicious files to remote servers for further analysis, there is concern that antivirus developers could use their software to exfiltrate sensitive files. While Kaspersky is likely trustworthy and ethical, it still has to abide by Russian laws and regulations, including allowing state agents to access private firm databases.

upstart writes:

LLNL constructing high-power laser for new experimental facility at SLAC - Technology Org:

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's decades of leadership in developing high-energy lasers is being tapped to provide a key component of a major upgrade to SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory's Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS).

Over the next several years, LLNL's Advanced Photon Technologies (APT) program will design and construct one of the world's most powerful petawatt (quadrillion-watt) laser systems for installation in an upgraded Matter in Extreme Conditions (MEC) experimental facility at LCLS, funded by the Department of Energy's Office of Science-Fusion Energy Sciences program.

The new laser will pair with the LCLS X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) to advance the understanding of high-energy density (HED) physics, plasma physics, fusion energy, laser-plasma interactions, astrophysics, planetary science and other physical phenomena.

owl writes:

https://blog.jgc.org/2022/03/resurrecting-dataman-s4-prom-programmer.html

The Dataman S4 is a lovely piece of 90s' kit: a PROM programmer and emulator launched in 1992. I recently bought one from a seller on eBay and needed to resurrect it. It was in perfect working order but needed a little awakening to get it going. Happily, Dataman are still around, still provide online support for the S4 and still sell accessories for it.

With a little work I have a fully functional S4 and recently used it to burn new firmware for a Minitel 2 (that also dates from 1992), but that's another story.

I enjoy reading about the efforts of those who resurrect old equipment - but, apart from Minitel 2, who uses the 128Kb ROMs nowadays? Minitel was a system showing block graphics (similar to CeeFax) that was popular in France and there were similar systems throughout western Europe in the 1980/90s. Whereas CeeFax used data hitching a ride on TV transmissions, Minitel used a telephone connection.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Benefits of Taking Statins Called Into Question: Link Between High Cholesterol and Heart Disease "Inconsistent":

New research from RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences has revealed that the link between 'bad' cholesterol (LDL-C) and poor health outcomes, such as heart attack and stroke, may not be as strong as previously thought. Published in JAMA Internal Medicine, the research questions the efficacy of statins when prescribed with the aim of lowering LDL-C and therefore reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Previous research has suggested that using statins to lower LDL-C positively affects health outcomes, and this is reflected in the various iterations of expert guidelines for the prevention of CVD. Statins are now commonly prescribed by doctors, with one third of Irish adults over the age of 50 taking statins, according to previous research.

The new findings contradict this theory, finding that this relationship was not as strong as previously thought. Instead, the research demonstrates that lowering LDL-C using statins had an inconsistent and inconclusive impact on CVD outcomes such as myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, and all-cause mortality.

In addition, it indicates that the overall benefit of taking statins may be small and will vary depending on an individual's personal risk factors.

Journal Reference:
Paula Byrne, Maryanne Demasi, Mark Jones, et al. Association Between Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Reduction and Relative and Absolute Effects of Statin Treatment, JAMA Internal Medicine (DOI: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2022.0134)

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

As Russia's invasion of Ukraine nears its three-week mark, repercussions are being felt around the world as the prices of oil and grain climb. But a less common consumer product has also become a hot commodity as the war raises fears of global nuclear conflict: potassium iodide.

Twenty tablets of ThyroSafe, whose active ingredient is potassium iodide, can fetch as much as $175 on eBay. ThyroSafe's official distributor has stopped taking new orders from its website, and existing ones will see a delay in shipping.

Expecting a run on toilet rolls and tinned goods any time soon in the US?

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Chip giant Arm set to axe 15% of its staff after deal fails:

UK computer chip designer Arm Holdings has said it plans to cut up to 15% of its workforce. The redundancies have emerged just a month after the collapse of the firm's $40bn sale to US chipmaker Nvidia. If the proposals go ahead most job losses would be in the UK and the US, the Cambridge-based company said.

Arm's chip designs are licensed to brands including Apple and Samsung and are used in most smart phones and other products around the world.

Arm employs close to 6,400 people worldwide. The company said in a statement: "Like any business, Arm is continually reviewing its business plan to ensure the company has the right balance between opportunities and cost discipline.

"Unfortunately, this process includes proposed redundancies across Arm's global workforce."

Original Submission

takyon writes:

AMD has announced the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, which is an 8-core 5800X Zen 3 desktop CPU with additional "3D V-Cache" (96 MiB total L3 cache) and slightly lower clock speeds (and no ability to overclock by manually adjusting frequency or voltage). The CPU will launch on April 20 at an MSRP of $449. Previously released Zen 3 CPUs have gotten price cuts in recent months.

AMD also announced official support for Ryzen 5000 CPUs on older motherboards, provided that they receive a BIOS update:

[In] a move as equally unexpected as launching new Zen 2 SKUs in 2022, AMD is also finally relenting on enabling official support for Ryzen 5000 processors on AMD's older 300 series chipsets. Though the company has long declined to support the newest Zen 3 chips on these older chipsets, almost a year and a half later AMD is finally changing their tune, and will be releasing (and supporting) the necessary code to motherboard manufacturers to add support for the chips in new BIOSes. To that end, Ryzen 5000 support should start appearing in beta BIOSes in April and May.

AMD claims that the Ryzen 7 5800X3D will be 15% faster at gaming on average than the Ryzen 9 5900X:

In either case, AMD has decided to go after the gaming market with their beefy 8-core CPU. As detailed by the company back at CES 2022 and reiterated in today's announcement, AMD has found that the chip is 15% faster at gaming than their Ryzen 9 5900X. As our own Dr. Ian Cutress noted at the time: "The extra cache is meant to help with communications with discrete graphics cards, offering additional performance above the regular R7 5800X. Productivity workloads are less likely to be affected, and for those users the regular Ryzen CPUs are expected to be better."

In addition to the 5800X3D, AMD announced 6 "new" CPUs ranging from $100 to $300 in order to combat Intel's Alder Lake desktop CPU lineup.

Ryzen 7 5700X ($299): 8-core Zen 3, 32 MiB L3 cache
Ryzen 5 5600 ($199): 6-core Zen 3, 32 MiB L3 cache
Ryzen 5 5500 ($159): 6-core Zen 3, 16 MiB L3 cache (may be a Cezanne APU with graphics disabled)
Ryzen 5 4600G ($154): 6-core Zen 2, Vega 7 graphics, 8 MiB L3 cache (this was previously an OEM-only Renoir APU)
Ryzen 5 4500 ($129): 6-core Zen 2, 8 MiB L3 cache
Ryzen 3 4100 ($99): 4-core Zen 2, 4 MiB L3 cache

Original Submission

upstart writes:

CD sales rose for the first time in 17 years:

While streaming is the music industry's cash cow these days, CDs aren't dead yet. According to the Recording Industry Association of America's annual sales report, revenue from CDs grew by 21 percent to $584 million in 2021. That marked the first annual increase in CD revenue in the US since 2004. The RIAA notes that many record stores opened back up and artists sold music at shows again after COVID-19 put everything on hold in 2020.

As has been the case for the last 15 years, vinyl sales are continuing to grow too. Revenue rose by a whopping 61 percent in 2021 to $1 billion. It's the first time vinyl sales have reached that milestone since 1986. Including other formats, physical music sales totaled $1.66 billion in the US last year.

The RIAA notes that the only major recorded music format to see a revenue decline last year was digital downloads. Sales dropped by 12 percent to $587 million — only $3 million more than CD revenue for 2021.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Making bug-checking in software and hardware design cheaper and more efficient:

The development of complex hardware and software is error-prone and costly. Testing can detect the presence of bugs in these designs, but it cannot prove their absence. One technique that can provide worthful feedback on the correctness of system designs is model checking. Model checking is an automated reasoning technique to find flaws in hardware and software systems. Ph.D. candidate Muhammad Mahmoud has redesigned algorithms to make them more suitable for model checking using GPUs, which allow for parallel computing at low cost.

Model checking is used to catch potential bugs as early as possible—preferably at the design phase—to make the necessary modifications quickly and cost-effectively. Successful examples of model checking include verifying CERN controllers, railway interlockings, nuclear control systems, and medical imaging. Companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Facebook use and develop model checking technology to ensure their products behave functionally correct.

[...] In this thesis, Muhammad Mahmoud, of the research group Software Engineering and Technology at the department of Mathematics and Computer Science, investigated how Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) can be employed effectively for [bounded model checking (BMC)], focusing on the reasoning on SAT. GPUs offer great potential for parallel computation, while keeping power consumption low.

upstart writes:

Lyft follows Uber in adding temporary fuel surcharge:

Lyft will soon add a temporary fuel surcharge to rides. The company will give the fees to drivers to offset the cost of gas, which has increased sharply following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The company hasn't revealed how much the surcharge will cost users per ride, how long the measure will likely be in place or whether rides in electric vehicles will be affected.

The addition of a surcharge follows a similar move by Uber. Starting this Wednesday, customers who take an Uber ride will pay a fuel surcharge of between 45 cents and 55 cents. Uber Eats deliveries will cost between 35 cents and 45 cents more too. Uber says it will reevaluate the fee after 60 days and, as with Lyft, all of the surcharge fees will go to drivers and couriers.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Google "hijacked millions of customers and orders" from restaurants, lawsuit says:

Google is being sued by a Florida restaurant group alleging that the tech company has been setting up unauthorized pages to capture food orders rather than directing them to the restaurant's own site.

Google uses "bait-and-switch" tactics to get customers to place takeout or pickup orders through "new, unauthorized, and deceptively branded webpages," according to the lawsuit, filed on behalf of Left Field Holdings, a restaurant company that runs Lime Fresh Mexican Grill franchises. On those pages, customers are prompted with large buttons to order with food delivery companies like GrubHub, DoorDash, or Seamless.

"Google never bothered to obtain permission from the restaurants to sell their products online," the lawsuit says. "Google purposefully designed its websites to appear to the user to be offered, sponsored, and approved by the restaurant, when they are not—a tactic, no doubt, employed by Google to increase orders and clicks."

In a statement to Ars, Google disputed "the mischaracterizations of our product" and said it would be defending itself against the lawsuit. "Our goal is to connect customers with restaurants they want to order food from and make it easier for them to do it through the 'Order Online' button," spokesperson José Castañeda told Ars. "We provide tools for merchants to indicate whether they support online orders or prefer a specific provider, including their own ordering website. We do not receive any compensation for orders or integrations with this feature."

Original Submission

upstart writes:

As China quietly joins sanctions against Russia, Xi might be too rational to risk arming Putin:

The protracted war in Ukraine has plainly caught China off guard and led to some confusion and mixed reports about the extent to which President Xi Jinping's regime supports Moscow's offensive. China continues to withhold explicit criticism of the Russian invasion and may still be working to formulate a coherent response. But beyond the rhetoric out of Beijing, the evidence suggests China is not acting to undermine the economic and financial sanctions on Russia and indeed has moved to support the drive to isolate Russia economically.

We believe this is the result of a cost-benefit calculation by Xi, who appears to be far more rational than Russia's President, Vladimir Putin.

Consider the following. From the outset of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, two major Chinese state-controlled banks have reportedly refused to provide US dollar-denominated letters of credit to finance imports from Russia. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, in which China is the largest shareholder, announced a suspension of any new lending to Russia. The New Development Bank (the so-called BRICS Bank), which is headquartered in Shanghai, made a similar announcement.

upstart writes:

Wormholes – Shortcuts Connecting Two Points in Spacetime – Help Resolve Black Hole Information Paradox:

A RIKEN physicist and two colleagues have found that a wormhole—a bridge connecting distant regions of the Universe—helps to shed light on the mystery of what happens to information about matter consumed by black holes.

Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts that nothing that falls into a black hole can escape its clutches. But in the 1970s, Stephen Hawking calculated that black holes should emit radiation when quantum mechanics, the theory governing the microscopic realm, is considered. "This is called black hole evaporation because the black hole shrinks, just like an evaporating water droplet," explains Kanato Goto of the RIKEN Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences.

This, however, led to a paradox. Eventually, the black hole will evaporate entirely—and so too will any information about its swallowed contents. But this contradicts a fundamental dictum of quantum physics: that information cannot vanish from the Universe. "This suggests that general relativity and quantum mechanics as they currently stand are inconsistent with each other," says Goto. "We have to find a unified framework for quantum gravity."

[...] When physicists simply combine quantum mechanics with the standard description of a black hole in general relativity, Page appears to be wrong—the entropy continually grows as the black hole shrinks, indicating information is lost.

upstart writes:

QNAP warns severe Linux bug affects most of its NAS devices:

Taiwanese hardware vendor QNAP warns most of its Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices are impacted by a high severity Linux vulnerability dubbed 'Dirty Pipe' that allows attackers with local access to gain root privileges.

The 'Dirty Pipe' security bug affects Linux Kernel 5.8 and later versions, even on Android devices. If successfully exploited, it allows non-privileged users to inject and overwrite data in read-only files, including SUID processes that run as root.

[...] Dirty COW, a similar Linux vulnerability fixed in 2016, was previously used by malware to root Android devices and plant backdoors, although it was harder to exploit.

While a patch was released for the security flaw one week ago with Linux kernels versions 5.16.11, 5.15.25, and 5.10.102, QNAP says that its customers will have to wait until the company releases its own security updates.

Original Submission