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Appalbarry writes:

I date back to the days before HTTPS was a thing, when web sites were written in Notepad. Since then I've worked through various editors and programs including Dreamweaver, Joomla, WordPress (of course) and on-line things like Wix.com and Substack. Now we find that we have a half dozen small web sites to manage or update, in different platforms, and all which are small enough that WordPress et al are serious overkill. I've done some research and have come up with no sure solution to get us out of this mess. Here's what we need.

• Open source, hosted in our own web space. No cloud based things
• Simple interface - for a couple of dozen pages without the need for massive database backends we don't need a Joomla or WordPress. Plus a non-techy user can update stuff easily.
• Obviously has to work for desktop browsers and on the phone.
• Has to handle some media like images and present YouTube hosted videos well.
• SIMPLE Has to be SIMPLE to update and manage.

I'm needing suggestions, and even better, URLs for sites that use simple packages. Please folks, save me hundreds of hours of trial and error.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Graphical desktop system X Window turns 38:

The X window system turned 38 years old this week, and although it has more rivals than ever, it is still the go-to for a graphical desktop on Unix.

The first public release of the X window system, according to Robert W. Scheifler's announcement, was 19 June 1984.

X itself was a rewrite of an older windowing system called W, which ran on a research microkernel OS called the V-System (V→W→X, you see.) Both the V-System and the W window system seem to have now been lost, although Bryan Lunduke has an interesting history.

About the only relic that you can see today, if you're curious, is the V-System manual [PDF].

Just two years after launch, X had already reached version 10 – the oldest point release showing in the release history on the X.org Foundation web page. X11R1 was introduced in 1987, and with some modifications, that's what the world is still using today.

hubie writes:

Scientists are developing artificial photosynthesis to help make food production more energy-efficient here on Earth, and one day possibly on Mars:

Photosynthesis has evolved in plants for millions of years to turn water, carbon dioxide, and the energy from sunlight into plant biomass and the foods we eat. This process, however, is very inefficient, with only about 1% of the energy found in sunlight ending up in the plant. Scientists at UC Riverside and the University of Delaware have found a way to bypass the need for biological photosynthesis altogether and create food independent of sunlight by using artificial photosynthesis.

The research, published in Nature Food, uses a two-step electrocatalytic process to convert carbon dioxide, electricity, and water into acetate, the form of the main component of vinegar. Food-producing organisms then consume acetate in the dark to grow. Combined with solar panels to generate the electricity to power the electrocatalysis, this hybrid organic-inorganic system could increase the conversion efficiency of sunlight into food, up to 18 times more efficient for some foods.

[...] Experiments showed that a wide range of food-producing organisms can be grown in the dark directly on the acetate-rich electrolyzer output, including green algae, yeast, and fungal mycelium that produce mushrooms. Producing algae with this technology is approximately fourfold more energy efficient than growing it photosynthetically. Yeast production is about 18-fold more energy efficient than how it is typically cultivated using sugar extracted from corn.

[...] By liberating agriculture from complete dependence on the sun, artificial photosynthesis opens the door to countless possibilities for growing food under the increasingly difficult conditions imposed by anthropogenic climate change. Drought, floods, and reduced land availability would be less of a threat to global food security if crops for humans and animals grew in less resource-intensive, controlled environments. Crops could also be grown in cities and other areas currently unsuitable for agriculture, and even provide food for future space explorers.

Journal Reference:
Hann, E.C., Overa, S., Harland-Dunaway, M. et al. A hybrid inorganic–biological artificial photosynthesis system for energy-efficient food production. Nat Food 3, 461–471 (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s43016-022-00530-x

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Neuroscientists uncovered an energy-saving mode in vision-system neurons that works at the cost of being able to see fine-grained details:

When our phones and computers run out of power, their glowing screens go dark and they die a sort of digital death. But switch them to low-power mode to conserve energy, and they cut expendable operations to keep basic processes humming along until their batteries can be recharged.

Our energy-intensive brain needs to keep its lights on too. Brain cells depend primarily on steady deliveries of the sugar glucose, which they convert to adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to fuel their information processing. When we're a little hungry, our brain usually doesn't change its energy consumption much. But given that humans and other animals have historically faced the threat of long periods of starvation, sometimes seasonally, scientists have wondered whether brains might have their own kind of low-power mode for emergencies.

Now, in a paper published in Neuron in January, neuroscientists in Nathalie Rochefort's lab at the University of Edinburgh have revealed an energy-saving strategy in the visual systems of mice. They found that when mice were deprived of sufficient food for weeks at a time — long enough for them to lose 15%-20% of their typical healthy weight — neurons in the visual cortex reduced the amount of ATP used at their synapses by a sizable 29%.

But the new mode of processing came with a cost to perception: It impaired how the mice saw details of the world. Because the neurons in low-power mode processed visual signals less precisely, the food-restricted mice performed worse on a challenging visual task.

upstart writes:

SpaceX ramps up FCC battle over broadband usage the company says poses an existential threat to Starlink:

Elon Musk's SpaceX on Tuesday ramped up a battle over broadband regulations with Dish Network and an affiliate of billionaire Michael Dell, calling for the FCC to address lingering disputes over broadband use that could interfere with its Starlink satellite internet network.

[...] In January 2021, the Federal Communications Commission issued a notice asking for comment on how to best use the 12-gigahertz band. Dish and RS Access, funded by Dell's investment firm, published studies arguing that ground-based 5G networks could share the frequency with low Earth orbit satellite networks, such as Starlink or OneWeb.

SpaceX filed its analysis of the Dish and RS Access studies on Tuesday, claiming it needed to correct what it called "some of the most egregious assumptions" in the reports, arguing Starlink users would see interference to the point of causing service outages for customers "74% of the time."

Musk's company called on the FCC "to investigate whether DISH and RS Access filed intentionally misleading reports," noting that the studies did not match findings from Dish two years earlier that called sharing usage "not viable."

upstart writes:

The country is the seventh nation capable of launching practical satellites:

South Korea successfully launched and put its homegrown space rocket into orbit Tuesday, becoming the seventh nation capable of launching practical satellites using a self-developed propulsion system.

"The Nuri rocket launch was a success," Lee Sang-ryul, director of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute told the press after the launch. "After the launch, Nuri's flight process proceeded according to the planned flight sequence."

KARI set off its 200-ton homegrown space rocket from the Naro Space Center in the Southern coastal village of Goheung. The launch was delayed from the original test date last Thursday due to weather conditions and a technical glitch.

Loaded with a 162.5-kilogram (358-pound) performance-verification satellite -- as well as four cube satellites for academic research and a 1.3-ton dummy satellite -- Nuri reached its target orbit of 700 kilometers (435 miles) above the Earth. All three stages of its engine were combusted according to plan, separating the mounted satellites at the arranged moment.

[...] "The Nuri spacecraft is fired up by not just one engine but a clustering of four 75-ton grade liquid engines. This gives potential to build larger projectiles with more engines in the future," Cho said.

[...] "We have set the stage for us to travel to space whenever we'd like, without having to rent a launchpad or a projectile from another country," Minister of Science and ICT Lee Jong Ho said. "The South Korean government plans to enhance the technical reliability of the Nuri rocket through four additional launches until 2027."

Original Submission

upstart writes:

A new study shows that yeast, an abundant waste product from breweries, can filter out even trace amounts of lead:

Inactive yeast could be effective as an inexpensive, abundant, and simple material for removing lead contamination from drinking water supplies, according to a new analysis by scientists at MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA). The study shows that this approach can be efficient and economical, even down to part-per-billion levels of contamination. Serious damage to human health is known to occur even at these low levels.

The method is incredibly efficient. In fact, the research team has calculated that waste yeast discarded from a single brewery in Boston would enough to treat the city's entire water supply. Such a fully sustainable system would not only purify the water but also divert what would otherwise be a waste stream needing disposal.

[...] "We don't just need to minimize the existence of lead; we need to eliminate it in drinking water," says Stathatou. "And the fact is that the conventional treatment processes are not doing this effectively when the initial concentrations they have to remove are low, in the parts-per-billion scale and below. They either fail to completely remove these trace amounts, or in order to do so they consume a lot of energy and they produce toxic byproducts."

[...] Because the yeast cells used in the process are inactive and desiccated, they require no particular care, unlike other processes that rely on living biomass to perform such functions which require nutrients and sunlight to keep the materials active. What's more, yeast is abundantly available already, as a waste product from beer brewing and from various other fermentation-based industrial processes.

upstart writes:

More AMD GPUs are selling under MSRP in Europe as mining tanks:

GPU mining is becoming less profitable with every passing month, and with a bit of luck, Ethereum's transition to a proof of stake consensus will render the activity useless for profit-seekers. Retail stocks are also improving and next-gen graphics cards are set to launch in the coming months, so prices for current-gen hardware are under the pressure to drop to more sane levels.

For the past 18 months, Ethereum miners spent a whopping $15 billion to scoop up graphics cards from Nvidia and AMD, leaving gamers at the mercy of scalpers and second-hand sellers for almost any model from the past two generations of graphics hardware.

Add to that a storm of logistical problems, factory lockdowns, and component and material shortages, and you get GPUs that are only now approaching the retail prices they should have had at launch.

According to a report from 3DCenter, prices in some parts of Europe are finally touching MSRP levels. In the case of AMD cards, prices for models like the Radeon RX 6900 XT, RX 6700 XT, and RX 6600 XT, as well as refreshed models like the 6750 XT and 6650 XT can now be found between seven and 16 percent below MSRP.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

The world's biggest surveillance company you've never heard of:

For example, the research found 55,455 Hikvision networks in London. "From my experience of just walking around London, it would probably be several times over that. They're in almost every supermarket," says Samuel Woodhams, a researcher at Top10VPN who carried out the study.

The prevalence of Hikvision cameras overseas has caused anxieties around national security, even though it hasn't been proved that the company transfers its overseas data back to China. In 2019, the US passed a bill banning Hikvision from holding any contracts with the federal government.

What really made Hikvision infamous on the global stage was its involvement in China's oppressive policies in Xinjiang against Muslim minorities, mostly Uyghurs. Numerous surveillance cameras, many equipped with advanced facial recognition, have been installed both inside and outside the detention camps in Xinjiang to aid the government's control over the region. And Hikvision has been a big part of this activity. The company was found to have received at least $275 million in government contracts to build surveillance in the region and has developed AI cameras that can detect physical features of Uyghur ethnicity.

Presented with questions about Xinjiang by MIT Technology Review, Hikvision responded with a statement that did not address them directly but said the company "has and will continue to strictly comply with applicable laws and regulations in the countries where we operate, following internationally accepted business ethics and business standards."

Adding Hikvision to the SDN (Specially Designated Nationals List) would do more than ratchet up tensions between the US and China—it would open up a new front in international sanctions, one in which tech companies increasingly find themselves embroiled in geopolitical power struggles.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

When the world of nanotechnology and microbreweries meet: Researchers succeed in synthesizing carbon quantum dots from brewery wastes:

Often considered as "artificial atoms," quantum dots are used in the transmission of light. With a range of interesting physicochemical properties, this type of nanotechnology has been successfully used as a sensor in biomedicine or as LEDs in next generation displays. But there is a drawback. Current quantum dots are produced with heavy and toxic metals like cadmium. Carbon is an interesting alternative, both for its biocompatibility and its accessibility.

The choice of brewery waste as a source material came from Daniele Benetti, a postdoctoral fellow at INRS, and Aurel Thibaut Nkeumaleu, the master's student at ÉTS who conducted the work. [...]

"The use of spent grain highlights both an eco-responsible approach to waste management and an alternative raw material for the synthesis of carbon quantum dots, from a circular economy perspective," says Professor Rosei.

The advantage of using brewery waste as a source of carbon quantum dots is that it is naturally enriched with nitrogen and phosphorus. This avoids the need for pure chemicals.

"This research was a lot of fun, lighting up what we can do with the beer by-products," says Claudiane Ouellet-Plamondon, Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Multifunctional Construction Materials at ÉTS. "Moreover, ÉTS is located on the site of the former Dow brewery, one of the main breweries in Quebec until the 1960s. So there is a historical and heritage link to this work."

[...] The next steps will be to characterize these carbon quantum dots from brewery waste, beyond proof of concept. The research team is convinced that this nanotechnology has the potential to become sophisticated detection sensors for various aqueous solutions, even in living cells.

Journal Reference:
Aurel Thibaut Nkeumaleu, Daniele Benetti, Imane Haddadou, et al. Brewery spent grain derived carbon dots for metal sensing [open], RSC Advances (DOI: 10.1039/D2RA00048B)

Original Submission

upstart writes:

NASA, SpaceX to test satellite crash-prevention strategies - SpaceNews:

Swarms of autonomously maneuvering satellites promise to make space operations far more efficient. But they also pose collision risks.

Through the Starling mission, NASA and SpaceX will begin testing strategies for preventing autonomous satellites from crashing into each other. NASA originally planned to send the Starling mission into an orbital altitude of 555 kilometers. Because SpaceX Starlink broadband satellites operate in that orbit, the space agency's Conjunction Assessment Risk Analysis (CARA) group advised Starling mission managers to send the four Starling cubesats 10 kilometers higher.

"Realizing that these two constellations are close to each other gave us an opportunity to look at how we will deal with space traffic management in the future, when there are even more spacecraft in low Earth orbit," said Howard Cannon, NASA Starling project manager at the NASA Ames Research Center. "How can we avoid collisions given the number of spacecraft that will be up there?"

After Starling completes a six-month series of experiments to demonstrate swarm communications, navigation and autonomy, CARA, Starling and Starlink will test collision-avoidance strategies.

The spacecraft will report their positions to the ground systems. "Then, conjunction-analysis software on the ground will automatically say, 'Hey, you're going to run into each other if you don't do something,'" Cannon said. The warning will be sent to the satellites, which will plan maneuvers. Before carrying out the maneuvers, though, the satellites will seek approval from the ground systems.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Poliovirus may be spreading in London; virus detected in sewage for months:

A vaccine-derived version of poliovirus has repeatedly surfaced in London sewage over the past several months, suggesting there may be a cryptic or hidden spread among some unvaccinated people, UK health officials announced Wednesday. No polio cases have been reported so far, nor any identified cases of paralysis. But sewage sampling in one London treatment plant has repeatedly detected closely related vaccine-derived polioviruses between February and May. This suggests "it is likely there has been some spread between closely-linked individuals in North and East London and that they are now shedding the type 2 poliovirus strain in their feces," the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said.

Though the current situation raises alarm, the agency notes that it's otherwise common to see a small number of vaccine-like polioviruses pop up in sewage from time to time, usually from people who have recently been vaccinated out of the country. This is because many countries use oral polio vaccines that include weakened (attenuated) polioviruses, which can still replicate in the intestines and thus be present in stool. They can also spread to others via poor hygiene and sanitation (i.e., unwashed hands and food or water contaminated by sewage), which can become concerning amid poor vaccination rates.

upstart writes:

Privacy-focused Brave Search grew by 5,000% in a year:

Brave Search, the browser developer's privacy-centric Internet search engine, is celebrating its first anniversary after surpassing 2.5 billion queries and seeing almost 5,000% growth in a year.

To celebrate this success, Brave Software announced that Brave Search is finally exiting its beta phase and will become the default search engine for all users of the Brave browser.

Additionally, a new search results curation feature called "Goggles" will be released in beta and made available to those who wish to test it.

[...] Brave says that independence has remained at the epicenter of the company's focus, with Brave Search users receiving 92% of their queries directly from Brave's independent search index rather than through Bing and Google indexes.

"Search engines that depend too much or exclusively on Big Tech are subject to censorship, biases, and editorial decisions," explains Brave in the blog post.

"Brave Search is committed to openness in search. It does not manipulate its algorithm to bias, filter, or down-rank results (unless it's compelled by law to do so)."

upstart writes:

This capability could unlock new possibilities in medicine:

Artificial intelligence has altered the practise of science by enabling researchers to examine the vast volumes of data generated by current scientific instruments. Using deep learning, it can learn from the data itself and can locate a needle in a million haystacks of information. AI is advancing the development of gene searching, medicine, medication design, and chemical compound synthesis.

To extract information from fresh data, deep learning employs algorithms, often neural networks trained on massive volumes of data. With its step-by-step instructions, it is considerably different from traditional computing. It instead learns from data. Deep learning is far less transparent than conventional computer programming, leaving vital concerns unanswered: what has the system learnt and what does it know?

[...] For fifty years, computer scientists have unsuccessfully attempted to solve the protein-folding issue. Then in 2016, DeepMind, an AI subsidiary of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, launched its AlphaFold programme. It utilised the protein databank, which contains the empirically determined structures of over 150,000 proteins, as its training set.

In fewer than five years, AlphaFold had solved the protein-folding issue, or at least the most important aspect of it: identifying the protein structure from its amino acid sequence. AlphaFold can not explain how proteins may fold so rapidly and precisely. It was a tremendous victory for AI since not only did it earn a great deal of scientific reputation, but it was also a major scientific breakthrough that may touch everyone's life.

hubie writes:

The stellar structures are thought to be created when galaxies collide with hot gas in a process that could be likened to doing a belly flop in a swimming pool:

University of Arizona astronomers have identified five examples of a new class of stellar system. They're not quite galaxies and only exist in isolation.

The new stellar systems contain only young, blue stars, which are distributed in an irregular pattern and seem to exist in surprising isolation from any potential parent galaxy.

The stellar systems – which astronomers say appear through a telescope as "blue blobs" and are about the size of tiny dwarf galaxies – are located within the relatively nearby Virgo galaxy cluster. The five systems are separated from any potential parent galaxies by over 300,000 light years in some cases, making it challenging to identify their origins.

[...] "We observed that most of the systems lack atomic gas, but that doesn't mean there isn't molecular gas," Jones said. "In fact, there must be some molecular gas because they are still forming stars. The existence of mostly young stars and little gas signals that these systems must have lost their gas recently."

[...] The fact that the new stellar systems are abundant in metals hints at how they might have formed.

"To astronomers, metals are any element heavier than helium," Jones said. "This tells us that these stellar systems formed from gas that was stripped from a big galaxy, because how metals are built up is by many repeated episodes of star formation, and you only really get that in a big galaxy."

There are two main ways gas can be stripped from a galaxy. The first is tidal stripping, which occurs when two big galaxies pass by each other and gravitationally tear away gas and stars.

The other is what's known as ram pressure stripping.

"This is like if you belly flop into a swimming pool," Jones said. "When a galaxy belly flops into a cluster that is full of hot gas, then its gas gets forced out behind it. That's the mechanism that we think we're seeing here to create these objects."

The team prefers the ram pressure stripping explanation because in order for the blue blobs to have become as isolated as they are, they must have been moving very quickly, and the speed of tidal stripping is low compared to ram pressure stripping.

Journal Reference:
Michael G. Jones, David J. Sand, Michele Bellazzini et al., Young, blue, and isolated stellar systems in the Virgo Cluster. II. A new class of stellar system, arXiv:2205.01695 [astro-ph.GA]

Original Submission