SoylentNews

upstart writes:

Google Launches New Open Source Bug Bounty to Tackle Supply Chain Attacks:

Google on Monday introduced a new bug bounty program for its open source projects, offering payouts anywhere from $100 to $31,337 (a reference to eleet or leet) to secure the ecosystem from supply chain attacks.

Called the Open Source Software Vulnerability Rewards Program (OSS VRP), the offering is one of the first open source-specific vulnerability programs.

With the tech giant the maintainer of major projects such as Angular, Bazel, Golang, Protocol Buffers, and Fuchsia, the program aims to reward vulnerability discoveries that could otherwise have a significant impact on the larger open source landscape.

Other projects managed by Google and hosted on public repositories such as GitHub as well as the third-party dependencies that are included in those projects are also eligible.

[...] Beefing up open source components, especially third-party libraries that act as the building block of many a software, has emerged a top priority in the wake of steady escalation in supply chain attacks targeting Maven, NPM, PyPI, and RubyGems.

[...] "Last year saw a 650% year-over-year increase in attacks targeting the open source supply chain, including headliner incidents like Codecov and the Log4j vulnerability that showed the destructive potential of a single open source vulnerability," Google's Francis Perron and Krzysztof Kotowicz said.

[...] Earlier this May, the internet behemoth announced the creation of a new "Open Source Maintenance Crew" to focus on bolstering the security of critical open source projects.

Original Submission

Freeman writes:

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/09/pixel-art-comes-to-life-fan-upgrades-classic-ms-dos-games-with-ai/

Last night, a Reddit user by the name of frigis9 posted a series of six images that feature detailed graphical upgrades to classic MS-DOS computer games such as Commander Keen 6 and The Secret of Monkey Island. The most interesting part is how they did it: by using an image synthesis technique called "img2img" (image to image), which takes an input image, applies a written text prompt, and generates a similar output image as a result. It's a feature of the Stable Diffusion image synthesis model released last week.

[...] Art quality in image synthesis currently requires much trial and error with prompts and cherry-picking to achieve the kinds of results frigis9 posted—likely hours of work. But with some incremental advances in image synthesis techniques and GPU power, we could imagine an emulator upgrading vintage game graphics in real time within a few years.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Commercial underwater datacenter goes online this year:

A company called Subsea Cloud is planning to have a commercially available undersea datacenter operating off the coast of the US before the end of 2022, with other deployments planned for the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea.

Subsea, which says it has already deployed its technology with "a friendly government faction," plans to put its first commercial pod into the water before the end of this year near Port Angeles, Washington.

The company claims that placing its datacenter modules underwater can reduce power consumption and carbon dioxide emissions by 40 percent, as well as lowering latency by allowing the datacenter to be located closer to metropolitan areas, many of which are located near the coast.

However, according to Subsea founder Maxie Reynolds, it can also deploy 1MW of capacity for as much as 90 percent less cost than it takes to get 1MW up and running at a land-based facility.

[...] But what happens if something goes wrong, or a customer wants to replace their servers? According to Subsea, customers can schedule periodic maintenance, including server replacement, and the company says that would take 4-16 hours for a team to get to the site, bring up the required pod(s), and replace any equipment.

Original Submission

DeathMonkey writes:

OSTP Issues Guidance to Make Federally Funded Research Freely Available Without Delay

Today, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) updated U.S. policy guidance to make the results of taxpayer-supported research immediately available to the American public at no cost. In a memorandum to federal departments and agencies, Dr. Alondra Nelson, the head of OSTP, delivered guidance for agencies to update their public access policies as soon as possible to make publications and research funded by taxpayers publicly accessible, without an embargo or cost. All agencies will fully implement updated policies, including ending the optional 12-month embargo, no later than December 31, 2025.

This policy will likely yield significant benefits on a number of key priorities for the American people, from environmental justice to cancer breakthroughs, and from game-changing clean energy technologies to protecting civil liberties in an automated world.

[...] "When research is widely available to other researchers and the public, it can save lives, provide policymakers with the tools to make critical decisions, and drive more equitable outcomes across every sector of society," said Dr. Alondra Nelson, head of OSTP. "The American people fund tens of billions of dollars of cutting-edge research annually. There should be no delay or barrier between the American public and the returns on their investments in research."

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Quasars are a subclass of active galactic nuclei (AGNs), extremely luminous galactic cores where gas and dust falling into a supermassive black hole emit electromagnetic radiation across the entire electromagnetic spectrum. The gas and dust become luminous as a result of the extreme gravitational and frictional forces exerted on them as they fall into the black hole.

Quasars are some of the most luminous objects in the known Universe, typically emitting thousands of times more light than the entire Milky Way. They are distinguished from other AGNs by their tremendous luminosity, and their enormous distances from Earth. As the speed of light is finite, objects observed from Earth are seen as they were when the light we see left them. The nearest quasars to Earth are still several hundred million light-years away, which means that they are observed now as they were several hundred million years ago. The absence of quasars closer to Earth does not mean that there were never quasars in our region of the Universe, but instead means that quasars existed when the universe was younger. The study of quasars provides fascinating insights into the evolution of the Universe.

[...] Hubble has also imaged quasar ghosts — ethereal green objects which mark the graves of these objects that flickered to life and then faded. These unusual structures orbit their host galaxies and glow in a bright and eerie green hue, and offer insights into the pasts of these galaxies.

Original Submission

hubie writes:

Sharing on Social Media Makes Us Overconfident in Our Knowledge:

Sharing news articles with friends and followers on social media can prompt people to think they know more about the articles' topics than they actually do, according to a new study from researchers at The University of Texas at Austin.

Social media sharers believe that they are knowledgeable about the content they share, even if they have not read it or have only glanced at a headline. Sharing can create this rise in confidence because by putting information online, sharers publicly commit to an expert identity. Doing so shapes their sense of self, helping them to feel just as knowledgeable as their post makes them seem.

This is especially true when sharing with close friends, according to a new paper from Susan M. Broniarczyk, professor of marketing, and Adrian Ward, assistant professor of marketing, at UT's McCombs School of Business.

[...] The research also suggests there's merit to social media companies that have piloted ways to encourage people to read articles before sharing.

"If people feel more knowledgeable on a topic, they also feel they maybe don't need to read or learn additional information on that topic," Broniarczyk said. "This miscalibrated sense of knowledge can be hard to correct."

For more details about this research, read the McCombs Big Ideas feature story and watch the video explaining Broniarczyk and Ward's work.

Journal Reference:
Adrian F. Ward, Jianqing (Frank) Zheng, Susan M. Broniarczyk, I share, therefore I know? Sharing online content - even without reading it - inflates subjective knowledge, J Con Psych, 2022. DOI: 10.1002/jcpy.1321

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Nearly 100 million miles from Earth, on the red and dusty surface of Mars, an instrument the size of a lunchbox is proving it can reliably do the work of a small tree.

The MIT-led Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, or MOXIE, has been successfully producing oxygen from the Red Planet’s carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere since April 2021. That was about two months after it touched down on the Martian surface as part of NASA’s Perseverance rover and Mars 2020 mission.

In a study published today (August 31, 2022) in the journal Science Advances, researchers report that, by the end of 2021, MOXIE was able to produce oxygen on seven experimental runs. These were performed in a variety of atmospheric conditions, including during the day and night, and through different Martian seasons. In each experimental run, the instrument reached its target of producing six grams of oxygen per hour. This is about the rate of a modest tree on Earth.

Scientists envision that a scaled-up version of MOXIE could be sent to Mars ahead of a human mission, where it could continuously produce oxygen at the rate of several hundred trees. At that capacity, the system should produce enough oxygen to sustain humans after they arrive, and also fuel a rocket for returning astronauts back to Earth.

MOXIE’s consistent production so far is a promising first step toward that goal.

fliptop writes:

From the Associated Press:

Local law enforcement agencies from suburban Southern California to rural North Carolina have been using an obscure cellphone tracking tool, at times without search warrants, that gives them the power to follow people's movements months back in time, according to public records and internal emails obtained by The Associated Press.

Police have used "Fog Reveal" to search hundreds of billions of records from 250 million mobile devices, and harnessed the data to create location analyses known among law enforcement as "patterns of life," according to thousands of pages of records about the company.

Sold by Virginia-based Fog Data Science LLC, Fog Reveal has been used since at least 2018 in criminal investigations ranging from the murder of a nurse in Arkansas to tracing the movements of a potential participant in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. The tool is rarely, if ever, mentioned in court records, something that defense attorneys say makes it harder for them to properly defend their clients in cases in which the technology was used.

[...] "It's sort of a mass surveillance program on a budget," said Bennett Cyphers, a special adviser at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital privacy rights advocacy group.

[...] The documents and emails were obtained by EFF through Freedom of Information Act requests. The group shared the files with The AP, which independently found that Fog sold its software in about 40 contracts to nearly two dozen agencies, according to GovSpend, a company that keeps tabs on government spending. The records and AP's reporting provide the first public account of the extensive use of Fog Reveal by local police, according to analysts and legal experts who scrutinize such technologies.

The EFF's Web page has an inside look at Fog Data Science and also a guided tour on how authorities easily browse your location data.

Also at Chron and Apple Insider.

Original Submission

hubie writes:

An analysis shows that routine manual skills increases productivity and earnings in early career stages, while structured training and cognitive abstract skills have long-term effects:

A new study by Jeroma Adda (Department of Economics) finds that the acquisition of skills is the main contributor to higher salaries for workers, with the magnitude of the effect differing according to the type of skill and the career stage of the worker. Although workers can acquire skills on the job, those who undergo training before entering the job market generally obtain greater wages and are in unemployment less often.

To unpack their findings, it is first important to understand that research on labor markets distinguishes the tasks workers perform into two categories: routine-manual (RM) tasks, which follow well-defined and repetitive procedures that require a modest amount of training; and cognitive-abstract (CA) tasks, which require more technical and creative capabilities. [...] Their results indicate that the accumulation of RM and CA skills over the course of an individual's career is the most important driver of wage growth. RM skills contribute more significantly to increases in worker productivity and earnings in the first years of their careers, but once a set of basic skills has been acquired their contribution to wage growth reduces to zero. On the other hand, CA skills take a longer time to be accumulated, and thus take longer to affect earnings, but have a longer-lasting impact, sustained throughout the individuals' career. These differential returns translate to workers in the CA sector earning, on average, higher wages than those in predominantly RM sectors.

Such skills can also be accumulated through a training period that takes place before labor market entry, and the authors estimate the impact of undertaking such a program. When compared to untrained workers, trained individuals are able to accumulate more CA experience, which besides the direct wage benefits, also improves other aspects of job matching: trained workers become unemployed less often and receive competing job offers at a higher rate. [...]

The authors also find that mobility of workers across the labor market contributes to higher salaries. Switching between different jobs generates a significant increase in earnings, but this is concentrated in the early years of the worker's career, namely the first job move. Though this change produces large gains, these quickly decline and additional mobility does not seem to contribute to larger returns. However, the authors also observe the existence of lock-in effects: workers are initially allocated to a sector for which they are not the most suited, but the accumulation of experience specific to that sector disincentivizes them from moving to jobs in other sectors.

Journal Reference:
Jerome Adda and Christian Dustmann, Sources of Wage Growth, J Pol Econ, 2022. DOI: 10.1086/721657

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Japan's Digital Minister 'Declares a War' on Floppy Disks:

Japan, a country known for advancing some of the world's most innovative and quirky tech, is preparing to launch an all out "war" against the humble floppy disk.

Taro Kono, the country's newly appointed Digital Minister, bellowed out his battle cry on Tuesday, via Twitter. According to Kono, floppy disks—along with other dated tech like CDs and MiniDiscs —are still required for around 1,900 government procedures.

Kono's vow to purge the government of the 50 plus year old floppy tech comes amid a broader effort to modernize the way people in Japan submit applications and other forms. The digital minister said his crusade has the backing of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, according to a press conference viewed by Bloomberg.

This isn't the first time Kono's lashed out at perceived inefficiencies weighing down Japan's government bureaucracy. He's previously taken aim at fax machines and traditional hanko carved stamps.

"I'm looking to get rid of the fax machine, and I still plan to do that," Kono said.

Original Submission

canopic jug writes:

Multiple publishers are reporting that Micky Dolenz, the last surviving member of the made-for-tv band, The Monkees, is suing the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act. He aims to get as much of the FBI's file on The Monkees as possible with the goal of uncovering what they may have on higher priority surveillance targets of the era, such as John Lennon or the MC5. According to a limited file release from 2011, The Monkees are only mentioned in two FBI documents, one of which remains fully redacted.

The Monkees may not be seem like the kind of band that would attract the FBI's attention, especially during a time when groups like Country Joe and the Fish and the MC5 were leading the movement against the Vietnam War. But the Monkees were one of the most popular bands in America in 1966 and 1967, and they sprinkled anti-war sentiments into songs like "Ditty Diego-War Chant" and even "Last Train to Clarksville," a song about a man headed off to war that fears he'll never see his love again.

"The Monkees reflected, especially in their later years with projects like [their 1968 art house movie] Head, a counterculture from what institutional authority was at the time," Zaid tells Rolling Stone. "And [J. Edgar] Hoover's FBI, in the Sixties in particular, was infamous for monitoring the counterculture, whether they committed unlawful actions or not."

-- https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/the-monkees-micky-dolenz-fbi-1234584299/

In the intervening decades, making and distributing music has become highly centralized and corporate.

Covered at:
BBC: Micky Dolenz: Last living Monkees member sues FBI for secret files on band
Bloomberg: Last of the Monkees Wants Their FBI Records Turned Over
The Los Angeles Times: The FBI had a file on the Monkees, and now Micky Dolenz is suing to find out why
TMZ: Micky Dolenz Demanding FBI File on The Monkees!!! (Yes, There Actually Is One)
Rolling Stone: The Monkees' Micky Dolenz Would Like a Word With the FBI
NBC: Surviving Monkees member Micky Dolenz sues the FBI, asks for files on him and his bandmates

Previously:
(2019) The FBI "Can Neither Confirm Nor Deny" That It Monitors Your Social Media Posts
(2019) U.S. Government Using Secretive FISA Rules to Spy on Journalists
(2017) EFF Sues FBI to Obtain Records About Geek Squad/Best Buy Surveillance
(2016) Snowden Tried to Tell NSA About Surveillance Concerns, Documents Reveal
(2014) Already a Winner in EFF's "Most Outrageous Response to a FOIA Request" Contest?

Original Submission

owl writes:

https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/01/california_ev_heatwave/

One week after announcing plans to phase out autos powered by gasoline, California energy authorities are facing a heat wave so severe residents are being asked not to charge their electric vehicles during "flex alerts" designed to reduce stress on the grid.

According to a heat bulletin [PDF; 134kB] issued by the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), temperatures across the state are expected to be 10 to 20 degrees warmer than typical between August 30 and September 6. Load on the electrical grid peaks between 4-9 pm, during which time CAISO said it may issue flex alerts urging Californians to reduce their electricity consumption.

"The top three conservation actions are to set thermostats to 78 degrees [25˚C] or higher, avoid using large appliances and charging electric vehicles, and turn off unnecessary lights," CAISO said, noting that voluntary reduction in energy consumption could "prevent more drastic measures, including rotating power outages."

Original Submission

upstart writes:

NASA fixed the glitch that caused Voyager 1 to send back jumbled data:

Back in May, NASA reported that the Voyager 1 space probe was sending back jumbled or inaccurate telemetry data. The probe itself seemed to be in good shape, with a signal that's still strong enough to beam back information, and nothing was triggering its fault protection systems that would put it in "safe mode." According to NASA, the Voyager team has not only figured the problem out since then — it has also solved the issue.

Turns out we're getting jumbled data here on Earth, because the probe's attitude articulation and control system (AACS) has been sending back information through an onboard computer that had stopped working years ago. The computer was corrupting the data before it even went out. Voyager project manager Suzanne Dodd said that when her team suspected that this was the issue, they implemented a low-risk fix: They commanded the AACS to send its data through the probe's working computer again.

Previously:
Engineers Investigating NASA's Voyager 1 Telemetry Data

Original Submission

owl writes:

https://singularityhub.com/2022/08/31/robots-chop-a-few-bucks-off-the-price-of-lunch-at-this-fully-automated-restaurant/

Even before labor shortages and supply chain issues began plaguing the economy, the food service industry was bringing in robots. From flipping burgers to making pizzas, automation has been taking over a variety of food preparation tasks. A San Francisco restaurant has now taken it to the next level, opening what it claims is the world's first fully autonomous restaurant this past weekend (though the "world's first" title is likely not accurate; Pazzi Pizzeria in Paris, for one, has been serving up robot-made pies for just over a year).

The restaurant is located in an outdoor food court in San Francisco's Mission Bay neighborhood, alongside similar businesses. The similar businesses are namely food trucks, which is probably a more accurate label for Mezli than "restaurant," except for the important detail that it's not a truck. It is a lot like a shipping container in shape and size, though.

[...] To be fair, Mezli can only be called "fully automated" because the food served there is prepared by humans in a commercial kitchen then transferred to the robo-restaurant; machines aren't cooking food so much as selecting and mixing it.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

A recent study has found an association between the legalization of marijuana and an increased occurrence of car accidents.

According to a recent study published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, states that legalized recreational marijuana had an increase in traffic crashes and deaths.

“The legalization of marijuana doesn’t come without a cost,” says lead researcher Charles M. Farmer, Ph.D., of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in Ruckersville, Va.

After legalization and the launch of retail sales, there was a 5.8% rise in the incidence of traffic collision injuries and a 4.1% increase in the rate of fatal crashes, according to Farmer and colleagues’ analysis of five states that permit people age 21 and older to consume marijuana recreationally. In a comparative group of states without marijuana legalization, the researchers did not see any rise during the same period.

Overall, the first increase in the injury crash rate occurred after legalization but before retail sales began. Injury rates from car accidents increased 6.5% following legalization, however, they marginally declined (-0.7%) after retail sales started. However, fatal accident rates climbed both after legalization (+2.3%) and after retail sales were legalized (+1.8%).

“Legalization removes the stigma of marijuana use, while the onset of retail sales merely increases access,” says Farmer. “But access to marijuana isn’t difficult, even in places without retail sales. Users who previously avoided driving high may feel that it’s okay after legalization.”