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upstart writes:

Apple's macOS Ventura leaves trusty 2015 MacBook Pro behind:

A new version of macOS means a new collection of Macs can no longer run Apple's latest desktop operating system. Perhaps most notably, the new macOS Ventura update won't be available for the 2015 MacBook Pro.

[...] Another notable change compared to the compatibility list for macOS Monterey is the end of major OS updates for Apple's 2013 Mac Pro (aka the "Trashcan"). But given the age of the machine, not to mention its much derided design, I can't imagine as many will be mourning its passing. With its Ventura update, Apple is no longer offering updates for any pre-2017 Macs, which means it's offering up to five years of major macOS updates for these machines.

macOS Ventura is currently only available as a beta update for developers, but is due to launch as a public beta next month. Like previous major macOS updates, expect a full release this fall.

Obsolete macs to be obsoleted!

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owl writes:

California-based Huy Fong Inc says the shortage is due to drought affecting its peppers – will it lead to battles in condiment aisles?

A looming Sriracha shortage has hot sauce lovers feeling fiery, after the maker of the popular condiment said it was suspending sales over the summer due to a shortage of chili peppers.

Southern California-based Huy Fong Inc confirmed that its beloved products, including Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce, Chili Garlic and Sambal Oelek, would be affected, according to Bloomberg.

In an April email to customers, the company described the pepper shortage as "severe" and related to the climate. The company sources its peppers from various farms in California, New Mexico and Mexico, and said that weather conditions were affecting the quality of the peppers and deepening the chili pepper shortage.

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

I was browsing my media and decided to rewatch this, as I hadn't looked at it in fifteen years or so.

I was mainly struck by the unalloyed optimism of pretty much everyone who contributed, including Linus, Richard Stallman, Eric Raymond, Alan Cox, Ted T'so, Eric Allman and many other original neckbeards (I use that appellation affectionately, and in a bunch of cases, literally).

In the 20-plus years since the film was released, much has changed.

I think much of the optimism embodied by RMS and the FSF has waned a good deal (and more's the pity), and the complete reversal of Microsoft from Ballmer's "Free Software is communism" to Nadella's embrace of GNU/Linux in both Azure and WSL, to the co-opting of Linux for Google/Android, as well as aging and slow drift towards retirement/death/irrelevance of those who championed Free Software for nearly four decades have really hurt the movement, while boosting Open Source.

I think that refocusing on "free as in beer" instead of "free as in freedom" across the development community may have been inevitable as GNU/Linux (although I guess it could have been GNU/Hurd or one of the BSDs) became mainstream a couple decades after the commoditization of IBM PC-like hardware.

That got me thinking, where does that leave us and "who are the new neckbeards tht can carry the vision of Free Software into the middle of the century?" Are there really any such folks with the passion and drive to champion Free Software moving forward?

Or is Free Software (as originally defined and advocated for by RMS and the FSF) dying a slow death in favor of "Open Source" and more permissive licenses like MIT and Apache?

What will Open Source look like in 2050, 52 years after Bruce Perens and the OSI's Open Source definition?

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upstart writes:

NASA is assembling a team to gather data on unidentifiable events in the sky:

The team will gather data on "events in the sky that cannot be identified as aircraft or known natural phenomena -- from a scientific perspective," the agency said.

NASA said it was interested in UAPs from a security and safety perspective. There was no evidence UAPs are extraterrestrial in origin, NASA added. The study will begin this fall and is expected to take nine months.

"NASA believes that the tools of scientific discovery are powerful and apply here also," said Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC.

"We have access to a broad range of observations of Earth from space -- and that is the lifeblood of scientific inquiry. We have the tools and team who can help us improve our understanding of the unknown. That's the very definition of what science is. That's what we do."

NASA to Set Up Independent Study on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena:

NASA is commissioning a study team to start early in the fall to examine unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) – that is, observations of events in the sky that cannot be identified as aircraft or known natural phenomena – from a scientific perspective. The study will focus on identifying available data, how best to collect future data, and how NASA can use that data to move the scientific understanding of UAPs forward.
[...]
The study is expected to take about nine months to complete. It will secure the counsel of experts in the scientific, aeronautics, and data analytics communities to focus on how best to collect new data and improve observations of UAPs.

"Consistent with NASA's principles of openness, transparency, and scientific integrity, this report will be shared publicly," said Evans. "All of NASA's data is available to the public – we take that obligation seriously – and we make it easily accessible for anyone to see or study."

Statistically, we are probably not alone. But do you think that we will make contact with another 'intelligent' life form in the future or never?

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Freeman writes:

You may want to think twice before giving the parking attendant your Tesla-issued NFC card.

Last year, Tesla issued an update that made its vehicles easier to start after being unlocked with their NFC key cards. Now, a researcher has shown how the feature can be exploited to steal cars.

For years, drivers who used their Tesla NFC key card to unlock their cars had to place the card on the center console to begin driving. Following the update, which was reported here last August, drivers could operate their cars immediately after unlocking them with the card. The NFC card is one of three means for unlocking a Tesla; a key fob and a phone app are the other two.k

Martin Herfurt, a security researcher in Austria, quickly noticed something odd about the new feature: Not only did it allow the car to automatically start within 130 seconds of being unlocked with the NFC card, but it also put the car in a state to accept entirely new keys—with no authentication required and zero indication given by the in-car display.
[...]
The official Tesla phone app doesn't permit keys to be enrolled unless it's connected to the owner's account, but despite this, Herfurt found that the vehicle gladly exchanges messages with any Bluetooth Low Energy, or BLE, device that's nearby. So the researcher built his own app, named Teslakee, that speaks VCSec, the same language that the official Tesla app uses to communicate with Tesla cars.

A malicious version of Teslakee that Herfurt designed for proof-of-concept purposes shows how easy it is for thieves to surreptitiously enroll their own key during the 130-second interval.

Related, but different BLE attack: New Bluetooth hack can unlock your Tesla—and all kinds of other devices

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upstart writes:

New Chip Can Process and Classify Nearly Two Billion Images per Second - Technology Org:

In traditional neural networks used for image recognition, the image of the target object is first formed on an image sensor, such as the digital camera in a smartphone. Then, the image sensor converts light into electrical signals, and ultimately into binary data, which can then be processed, analyzed, stored, and classified using computer chips. Speeding up these abilities is key to improving any number of applications, such as face recognition, automatically detecting text in photos, or helping self-driving cars recognize obstacles.

[...] The current speed limit of these technologies is set by the clock-based schedule of computation steps in a computer processor, where computations occur one after another on a linear schedule.

To address this limitation, [...] have removed the four main time-consuming culprits in the traditional computer chip: the conversion of optical to electrical signals, the need for converting the input data to binary format, a large memory module, and clock-based computations.

They have achieved this through direct processing of light received from the object of interest using an optical deep neural network implemented on a 9.3 square millimeter chip.

[...] "Our chip processes information through what we call 'computation-by-propagation,' meaning that, unlike clock-based systems, computations occur as light propagates through the chip," says Aflatouni. "We are also skipping the step of converting optical signals to electrical signals because our chip can read and process optical signals directly, and both of these changes make our chip a significantly faster technology."

upstart writes:

Car tyres produce vastly more particle pollution than exhausts, tests show:

Emissions from tailpipes in developed countries are much lower in new cars, with those in Europe far below the legal limit.A

Almost 2,000 times more particle pollution is produced by tyre wear than is pumped out of the exhausts of modern cars, tests have shown.

The tyre particles pollute air, water and soil and contain a wide range of toxic organic compounds, including known carcinogens, the analysts say, suggesting tyre pollution could rapidly become a major issue for regulators.

Air pollution causes millions of early deaths a year globally. The requirement for better filters has meant particle emissions from tailpipes in developed countries are now much lower in new cars, with those in Europe far below the legal limit. However, the increasing weight of cars means more particles are being thrown off by tyres as they wear on the road.

The tests also revealed that tyres produce more than 1tn ultrafine particles for each kilometre driven, meaning particles smaller than 23 nanometres. These are also emitted from exhausts and are of special concern to health, as their size means they can enter organs via the bloodstream. Particles below 23nm are hard to measure and are not currently regulated in either the EU or US.

upstart writes:

'Make VPN Detection Tools Mandatory to Fight Geo-Piracy' * TorrentFreak:

The United States is actively exploring options to update copyright law to bring it into line with the current online environment.

Most recently, the Copyright Office is looking into the option of making certain standard technical measures (STMs) mandatory for online platforms. This could include upload filters to block pirated content from being reuploaded.

[...] Most copyright holders are supportive of the idea. They feel that without proper incentives, some online services will fail to address the piracy problem. Opponents of the idea, meanwhile, point out that it may lead to all sorts of problems and may negatively affect free expression.

Much of the discussion thus far has focused on tools and technologies that detect and filter copyright-infringing content. However, this week we spotted another submission that promotes a different type of measure, which isn't necessarily less controversial.

In a letter to the Copyright Office, GeoComply CEO Anna Sainsbury suggests that VPN detection tools can play an important role as well.

Twitter reportedly will give Musk the full "firehose" of user data he demanded

Freeman writes:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/06/twitter-reportedly-will-give-musk-the-full-firehose-of-user-data-he-demanded/

Twitter now plans to comply with Elon Musk's demand for user data that he says is needed to determine whether the company's spam estimates are accurate, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

"After a weeks-long impasse, Twitter's board plans to comply with Elon Musk's demands for internal data by offering access to its full 'firehose,' the massive stream of data comprising more than 500 million tweets posted each day, according to a person familiar with the company's thinking, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the state of negotiations," the Post wrote.

Twitter declined comment on the Post report when contacted by Ars today but pointed to its statement from Monday that "Twitter has and will continue to cooperatively share information with Mr. Musk to consummate the transaction in accordance with the terms of the merger agreement."

Whether Twitter has to give all the user data to Musk is under dispute. The Post report comes two days after Musk's legal team sent a letter to Twitter claiming the company violated the merger agreement by refusing to provide the data behind its spam estimates.

Twitter Set to Comply With Elon Musk Demand for Data on Fake Accounts

upstart writes:

Twitter set to comply with Elon Musk demand for data on fake accounts:

Elon Musk warned he might walk away from Twitter if it fails to provide the data on spam and fake accounts he seeks.

Twitter is preparing to comply with Elon Musk's demand for data on fake accounts, after the Tesla chief executive threatened to walk away from buying the business if it refused.

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upstart writes:

Ad-block developers fear end is near for their extensions:

Seven months from now, assuming all goes as planned, Google Chrome will drop support for its legacy extension platform, known as Manifest v2 (Mv2). This is significant if you use a browser extension to, for instance, filter out certain kinds of content and safeguard your privacy.

Google's Chrome Web Store is supposed to stop accepting Mv2 extension submissions sometime this month. As of January 2023, Chrome will stop running extensions created using Mv2, with limited exceptions for enterprise versions of Chrome operating under corporate policy. And by June 2023, even enterprise versions of Chrome will prevent Mv2 extensions from running.

The anticipated result will be fewer extensions and less innovation, according to several extension developers.

Browser extensions such as Ghostery Privacy Ad Blocker, uBlock Origin, and Privacy Badger, along with scripting extensions including TamperMonkey, which are each designed to block adverts and other content and/or protect one's privacy online, are expected to function less effectively, if they can even make the transition from Mv2 to the new approach: Manifest v3.

Freeman writes:

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/06/microsoft-wont-say-if-it-will-patch-critical-windows-vulnerability-under-exploit/

CERT Ukraine also said it was tracking exploits on targets in that country that use email to send a file titled "changes in wages with accruals.docx" to exploit Follina.
[...]
The simple act of the document appearing in the preview window, even while protected view is turned on, is enough to execute malicious scripts.

"It's more serious because it doesn't matter if macros are disabled and it can be invoked simply through preview," Jake Williams, director of cyber threat intelligence at the security firm Scythe, wrote in a text chat. "It's not zero-click like a 'just delivering it causes the exploit' but the user need not open the document."

Researchers developing an exploit module for the Metasploit hacking framework referred to this behavior as a low-interaction remote code execution. "I was able to test this using both the .docx and rtf formats," one of them wrote. "I was able to gain execution with the RTF file by just previewing the document in Explorer."

Original Submission

upstart writes:

HP Dev One is the first non-System76 computer offered with Pop!_OS:

HP released its Dev One Linux laptop today. Aimed at coders, the 14-inch clamshell comes at a lower price than previous Ubuntu-based HP clamshells.

Starting at $1,099, the Dev One begins to keep costs low by opting for an AMD, rather than Intel, CPU and skipping the discrete graphics card. HP's last Linux laptops, part of its ZBook workstation lineup, went well over $2,000 and offered up to Intel Xeon processors and Nvidia RTX GPUs.

[...] The previous workstations used Ubuntu 20.04 preloaded with software packages aimed at data scientists. However, the Dev One runs Pop!_OS, an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution from System76.

System76 also makes its own laptops, desktops, servers, and the Launch mechanical keyboard. HP's Dev One marks the first laptop to run Pop!_OS without "System76" stamped on the lid—although, you can download Pop!_OS and install it on your own system.

upstart writes:

All patients treated with the drug are in remission, a result that seems unprecedented in cancer research:

A cancer treatment has shown astounding results in a small clinical trial. All of the treated patients, who had a specific form of mid-stage rectal cancer, have since experienced complete remission. Though the findings are based on a sample size of just 18 people, they could hold important implications for treating these particular cancers.

The trial enrolled volunteers diagnosed with stage II or III rectal cancer, meaning their tumors had begun to grow larger and spread to nearby parts of the body. Their cancer was also determined to be caused by a particular mechanism known as a deficiency in mismatch repair.

The researchers theorized that their treatment, a lab-made antibody called dostarlimab, might be able to help this subset of patients. It works by inhibiting a protein known as programmed death receptor-1 (PD-1) found in many cancer cells. This inhibition then allows the immune system to recognize the cancer cells as harmful and target them for destruction. [...]

That said, the findings are still very early, and it will take much more research with larger-sized studies to confirm the drug's effectiveness, especially over the long term. [...] And the drug doesn't come cheap, costing $11,000 per dose out of pocket.

At $11,000/pill, from some halfway house in an undisclosed location, Pharma Bro smiles with approval.

Journal Reference:
Andrea Cercek et al., PD-1 Blockade in Mismatch Repair–Deficient, Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer, NEJM, 2022. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2201445

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Microsoft could finally kill HDD boot drives for good:

Microsoft could have plans to scrap its use of hard disk drives (HDD) among its main storage components on PCs running Windows 11, according to a recent report by industry analyst firm Trendfocus, as reported by Tom's Hardware.

If Microsoft goes through with its plans, consumers could begin to see solid-state hard drives (SSD) instead, with the exception of dual-drive desktop PCs and gaming laptops, which require multiple types of storage, as Tom's Hardware noted.

While Microsoft has declined to comment on the matter, the current trends indicate a complete market transition to SSD by 2023. Many PC makers already use SSD as their main storage option; however, it is still not a set standard, especially in emerging markets.

[...] Trendfocus Vice President John Chen told Tom's Hardware that 2023 is still not a hard date for the transition to SSD. Some suggestions considered in talks with Microsoft include holding off the transition of emerging markets until 2024 or pausing the desktop switch until that time.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

The space telescope's mirror was hit by a micrometeoroid, but it's still in great shape to carry out its mission:

NASA said today that one of the Webb Space Telescope's primary mirror segments was hit by a micrometeoroid, a small asteroid fragment, between May 23 and May 25. Initial assessments of the telescope found that the spacecraft was still performing exceptionally well, though the effects of the impact were noticeable in recent data readouts.

Micrometeoroids are extremely small (dust-sized), fast-moving space debris. They're a regular part of a hostile space environment that will bombard the Webb telescope throughout its years in operation.

"With Webb's mirrors exposed to space, we expected that occasional micrometeoroid impacts would gracefully degrade telescope performance over time," said Lee Feinberg, Webb optical telescope element manager at NASA, in an agency release. "Since launch, we have had four smaller measurable micrometeoroid strikes that were consistent with expectations and this one more recently that is larger than our degradation predictions assumed."

[...] Thankfully, Paul Geithner, a technical deputy project manager at NASA, said in the release that "We designed and built Webb with performance margin – optical, thermal, electrical, mechanical – to ensure it can perform its ambitious science mission even after many years in space."

See also: Webb: Engineered to Endure Micrometeoroid Impacts

Original Submission