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fliptop writes:

Days after Georgia Democrats warned that the state's new online portal for canceling voter registrations could be abused, officials have confirmed misuse attempts — including efforts to cancel the registrations of prominent Republicans:

On Friday (August 2), four days after Georgia Democrats began warning that bad actors could abuse the state's new online portal for canceling voter registrations, the Secretary of State's Office acknowledged to ProPublica that it had identified multiple such attempts — including unsuccessful efforts to cancel the registrations of two prominent Republicans, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

The confirmation of the attempts to misuse the portal follows separate discoveries by The Associated Press and The Current that the portal suffered at least two security glitches that briefly exposed voters' dates of birth, the last four digits of their Social Security numbers and their full driver's license numbers — the exact information needed to cancel others' voter registrations.

[...] The official X account for Georgia Senate Democrats posted that the voter registration cancellation portal "empowers conspiracy theorists and other bad actors to deny Georgians the right to vote." In response, one commenter replied with the birthdays of Republican officials, including Greene and Raffensperger, noting: "​​Lots of people have their birthday in the public domain." One user posted, "Overwhelm them with cancelled well-known Republican's registrations!"

To start the cancellation process on the portal, all users need is a voter's name, date of birth and county of residence. To finalize the cancellation request, they also must provide the last four digits of the voter's Social Security number or their full driver's license number. There's also an option to fill out a form with that information and print and send it to the voter's county election office or the Georgia Secretary of State's Office. Hassinger said that election workers would not approve any paper request that lacked a Social Security number or driver's license number.

Originally spotted on Schneier on Security.

Related:

• GOP Candidate Improperly Purged 340,000 From Georgia Voter Rolls, Investigation Claims
• Georgia Defends Voting System Despite 243-Percent Turnout in One Precinct

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Just like Boeing, once upon a time, Intel was the darling of the engineering world. Both companies were the premier tech companies in their day, but those days are long gone now.

[...] Intel hasn't experienced such speculator public failures, but it is tripping over its own feet a lot lately. As everyone knows, Intel's 13th and 14th Gen processors, particularly the Raptor Lake series, have been failing… a lot.

[...] Today, adding insult to injury, these problems appear most often in its top-of-the-line Core i9-13900K and Core i9-14900K CPUs. When you pay north of $500 or £400 for a single processor, you're not likely to take it kindly when the video flips out. Funny that.

[...] In addition, Intel has been struggling with yields on its new chip families. Now, Intel hopes to catch up with AMD and TSMC by 2026 with its next-generation 2nm CPUs. I hate to tell you this, Intel, but it's not like they'll be sitting around waiting for you.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger referred to this struggle as a “death march" back in 2022. I don't think I would have used that phrase, but it appears to be more apt than ever.

Numerous soon-to-be ex-Intel employees doubtlessly would agree with me. Recently, Intel announced it would soon be laying off 16,000 staffers. That's 15 percent of its workforce if you're playing the stock market.

The market wasn't impressed. Between the layoffs, missing its guidance numbers, and chopping back its dividend, Intel's share price is dropping like it's in a, well, death march.

Why is all this happening? I think it's the result of poor management decisions and underinvestment in critical manufacturing technologies. In particular, it was how Intel prioritized business strategies and financial performance over engineering excellence.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

A groundbreaking study has revealed new insights into the Earth’s crust’s immediate behavior following earthquakes. Researchers have utilized sub-daily Global Positioning System (GPS) solutions to accurately measure the spatial and temporal evolution of early afterslip following the 2010 Mw 8.8 Maule earthquake. This innovative approach marks a significant advancement in seismic analysis, offering a more precise and rapid depiction of ground deformations, which is essential for assessing seismic hazards and understanding fault line activities.

The aftermath of an earthquake is marked by intricate postseismic adjustments, particularly the elusive early afterslip. Daily seismic monitoring has struggled to capture the rapid and complex ground movements occurring in the critical hours post-quake. The intricacies of these initial activities and their profound implications for seismic hazard assessment highlight an urgent need for more refined and immediate monitoring techniques.

Wuhan University researchers, in a paper published on July 29, 2024, in Satellite Navigation, unveil their meticulous examination of the Maule earthquake’s early afterslip. Utilizing sub-daily GPS solutions, the study delivers a comprehensive narrative of the ground surface deformations occurring in the pivotal hours following the earthquake.

Reference: “Rapid early afterslip characteristics of the 2010 moment magnitude (Mw) 8.8 Maule earthquake determined with sub-daily GPS solutions” by Kai Liu, Yangmao Wen, Jing Zeng, Jianghui Geng, Zhao Li and Caijun Xu, 29 July 2024, Satellite Navigation.
  DOI: 10.1186/s43020-024-00145-6

Original Submission

upstart writes:

'Sinkclose' Flaw in Hundreds of Millions of AMD Chips Allows Deep, Virtually Unfixable Infections:

Security flaws in your computer's firmware, the deep-seated code that loads first when you turn the machine on and controls even how its operating system boots up, have long been a target for hackers looking for a stealthy foothold. But only rarely does that kind of vulnerability appear not in the firmware of any particular computer maker, but in the chips found across hundreds of millions of PCs and servers. Now security researchers have found one such flaw that has persisted in AMD processors for decades, and that would allow malware to burrow deep enough into a computer's memory that, in many cases, it may be easier to discard a machine than to disinfect it.

At the Defcon hacker conference tomorrow, Enrique Nissim and Krzysztof Okupski, researchers from the security firm IOActive, plan to present a vulnerability in AMD chips they're calling Sinkclose. The flaw would allow hackers to run their own code in one of the most privileged modes of an AMD processor, known as System Management Mode, designed to be reserved only for a specific, protected portion of its firmware. IOActive's researchers warn that it affects virtually all AMD chips dating back to 2006, or possibly even earlier.

Nissim and Okupski note that exploiting the bug would require hackers to already have obtained relatively deep access to an AMD-based PC or server, but that the Sinkclose flaw would then allow them to plant their malicious code far deeper still. In fact, for any machine with one of the vulnerable AMD chips, the IOActive researchers warn that an attacker could infect the computer with malware known as a "bootkit" that evades antivirus tools and is potentially invisible to the operating system, while offering a hacker full access to tamper with the machine and surveil its activity. For systems with certain faulty configurations in how a computer maker implemented AMD's security feature known as Platform Secure Boot—which the researchers warn encompasses the large majority of the systems they tested—a malware infection installed via Sinkclose could be harder yet to detect or remediate, they say, surviving even a reinstallation of the operating system.

"Imagine nation-state hackers or whoever wants to persist on your system. Even if you wipe your drive clean, it's still going to be there," says Okupski. "It's going to be nearly undetectable and nearly unpatchable." Only opening a computer's case, physically connecting directly to a certain portion of its memory chips with a hardware-based programming tool known as SPI Flash programmer and meticulously scouring the memory would allow the malware to be removed, Okupski says.

See also:

• x.com

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

It is hoped a new "toolkit" will help people separate truth from lies and unsubstantiated opinion, and prevent the spread of misinformation.

The checklist, published in the journal Experimental Physiology, was written by scientists from the Universities of Portsmouth and Edinburgh.

They warn the "truth is under attack" and have highlighted the urgent need for critical thinking and scientific literacy to combat the rise of unfounded, misleading and often damaging claims which the experts say are amplified by social media.

From political debates to claims for new products or health-enhancing interventions, claims are frequently presented as "scientific findings" supported by "expert" opinions.

[...] "At the very least, the next time you hear phrases like 'they say this is great' or 'this is scientifically proven' start by asking 'who are they?' and 'which scientists, using which methods?' Be cautious and questioning; snake oil and its vendors still exist, and they come in many guises."

Provided by University of Portsmouth

More information: G. Drummond et al, How to spot the truth, Experimental Physiology (2024). DOI: 10.1113/EP092160

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Texas is one of eight states that have enacted laws that force adults to prove their age before accessing porn sites. Soon it will try to persuade the Supreme Court that its law doesn’t violate the First Amendment. 

Good luck with that. 

These laws are unconstitutional: They deny adults the well-established right to access constitutionally protected speech.

Texas’ H.B. 1181 forces any website made up of one-third or more adult content to verify every visitor’s age. Some adult sites have responded to the law by shutting down their services in Texas. The Free Speech Coalition challenged the law on First Amendment grounds, arguing that mandatory age verification does more than keep minors away from porn — the law nannies adults as well, barring them from constitutionally protected speech. 

The district court agreed with the challengers. Laws regulating speech because of its content (i.e., because it is sexually explicit) are presumed invalid. Under strict scrutiny, the state must show that its regulation is narrowly tailored to serve a compelling government interest. In other words, the government needs an exceptionally good reason to regulate, and it can’t regulate more speech than necessary. 

The case will turn on what level of scrutiny applies. Protecting minors from obscene speech is a permissible state interest, as the Fifth Circuit court established when it applied the lowest form of scrutiny — rational basis review — to uphold the law. But not all speech that is obscene to minors is obscene to adults. Judge Higginbotham, dissenting from the Fifth Circuit’s decision, pointed out that kids might have no right to watch certain scenes from Game of Thrones — but adults do.

There’s just one problem: Adults do care about age verification.

H.B. 1181 bars age verification providers from retaining “identifying” information. But nothing in the law stops providers from sharing that same info, and people are rightly concerned about whether their private sexual desires will stay private. That you visited an adult site is bad enough. Getting your personal Pornhub search history leaked along with your government ID is enough to make even the most shameless person consider changing their name and becoming a hermit. 

Texas swears up and down that age verification tech is secure, but that doesn’t inspire confidence in anyone following cybersecurity news. Malware is out there. Data leaks happen. 

A bored employee glancing at your driver’s license as you walk into the sex shop is not the same thing as submitting to a biometric face scan and algorithmic ID verification, by order of the government, before you can press play on a dirty video. Just thinking about it kills the mood, which may be part of the point. 

A new report finds Boeing's rockets are built with an unqualified work force

DannyB writes:

From Ars Technica:
new report finds Boeing's rockets are built with an unqualified work force

The NASA program to develop a new upper stage for the Space Launch System rocket is seven years behind schedule and significantly over budget, a new report from the space agency's inspector general finds. [Here is a direct link to PDF of NASA report] However, beyond these headline numbers, there is also some eye-opening information about the project's prime contractor, Boeing, and its poor quality control practices.

[....] "We found an array of issues that could hinder SLS Block 1B's readiness for Artemis IV including Boeing's inadequate quality management system, escalating costs and schedules, and inadequate visibility into the Block 1B's projected costs," [...]

[....] Boeing's quality control issues are largely caused by its workforce having insufficient aerospace production experience," the report states. "The lack of a trained and qualified workforce increases the risk that the contractor will continue to manufacture parts and components that do not adhere to NASA requirements and industry standards. [...]

[....] we found Boeing's quality management system at Michoud does not adhere to these standards or NASA requirements. NASA engages DCMA to conduct surveillance of Boeing's core and upper stage manufacturing efforts at Michoud, and when deficiencies in quality are found, DCMA issues Corrective Action Requests (CAR) to the contractor. CARs are labeled Level I through IV, with Level I the least serious deficiency. From September 2021 to September 2023, DCMA issued Boeing 71 Level I and II CARs, as well as a draft Level III CAR. According to DCMA officials, this is a high number of CARs for a space flight system at this stage in development and reflects a recurring and degraded state of product quality control. Boeing's process to address deficiencies to date has been ineffective, and the company has generally been nonresponsive in taking corrective actions when the same quality control issues reoccur.

Quality control issues at Michoud are largely due to the lack of a sufficient number of trained and experienced aerospace workers at Boeing. To mitigate these challenges, Boeing provides training and work orders to its employees. Considering the significant quality control deficiencies at Michoud, we found these efforts to be inadequate. For example, during our visit to Michoud in April 2023, we observed a liquid oxygen fuel tank dome—a critical component of the SLS Core Stage 3—segregated and pending disposition on whether and how it can safely be used going forward due to welds that did not meet NASA specifications. According to NASA officials, the welding issues arose due to Boeing's inexperienced technicians and inadequate work order planning and supervision. The lack of a trained and qualified workforce increases the risk that Boeing will continue to manufacture parts and components that do not adhere to
NASA requirements and industry standards,

upstart writes:

Experts Uncover Severe AWS Flaws Leading to RCE, Data Theft, and Full-Service Takeovers:

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered multiple critical flaws in Amazon Web Services (AWS) offerings that, if successfully exploited, could result in serious consequences.

"The impact of these vulnerabilities range between remote code execution (RCE), full-service user takeover (which might provide powerful administrative access), manipulation of AI modules, exposing sensitive data, data exfiltration and denial of service," cloud security firm Aqua said in a detailed report shared with The Hacker News.

Following responsible disclosure in February 2024, Amazon addressed the shortcomings over several months from March to June. The findings were presented at Black Hat USA 2024.

Central to the issue, dubbed Bucket Monopoly, is an attack vector referred to as Shadow Resource, which, in this case, refers to the automatic creation of an AWS S3 bucket when using services like CloudFormation, Glue, EMR, SageMaker, ServiceCatalog, and CodeStar.

The S3 bucket name created in this manner is both unique and follows a predefined naming convention ("cf-templates-{Hash}-{Region}"). An attacker could take advantage of this behavior to set up buckets in unused AWS regions and wait for a legitimate AWS customer to use one of the susceptible services to gain covert access to the contents of the S3 bucket.

Based on the permissions granted to the adversary-controlled S3 bucket, the approach could be used to escalate to trigger a DoS condition, or execute code, manipulate or steal data, and even gain full control over the victim account without the user's knowledge.

To maximize their chances of success, using Bucket Monopoly, attackers can create unclaimed buckets in advance in all available regions and store malicious code in the bucket. When the targeted organization enables one of the vulnerable services in a new region for the first time, the malicious code will be unknowingly executed, potentially resulting in the creation of an admin user that can grant control to the attackers.

However, it's important to consider that the attacker will have to wait for the victim to deploy a new CloudFormation stack in a new region for the first time to successfully launch the attack. Modifying the CloudFormation template file in the S3 bucket to create a rogue admin user also depends on whether the victim account has permission to manage IAM roles.

owl writes:

Three part story. And, as it is on Medium (yuck), archive links are provided should the Medium links go hidden or disappear:

Part 1: The Cocainemaker, Reefer Madness, and the Vice-President of The Coca-Cola Company
https://rmcortes.medium.com/the-cocainemaker-reefer-madness-and-the-vice-president-of-the-coca-cola-company-e1b39e65b63c#.b43mv3bzh
Archive Link: https://archive.is/rdUt2

Part 2: How Coca-Cola Changed the World for Coca
https://rmcortes.medium.com/how-coke-changed-the-world-for-coca-95ccec58193b#.xa0rcxrdi
Archive link: https://archive.is/gbQeo

Part 3: I Wasn't the First Person to Find the NJ Cocaine Factory
https://rmcortes.medium.com/i-wasnt-the-first-to-find-the-nj-cocaine-factory-5f37aed74776
Archive link: https://archive.is/XypPx

In 1886, a pharmacist named Dr. John Pemberton mixed extract of the green coca leaf — containing the recently discovered marvel of cocaine — with the caffeine kick of West African kola nuts, making a "Brain Workers' Panacea" tonic called Coca-Cola.

Touted to relieve mental and physical exhaustion, "Coke" arrived alongside a wave of cocaine products advertised to ease toothaches and labor pains. Cocaine was said to cure fatigue, nervousness, impotence, even addiction to morphine.

But the medical miracle soon changed into the story of a crime epidemic. Cocaine's addictive properties were discovered and its increased availability fueled racial fears: cocaine made Negroes insane and murderous; Jewish doctors were identified as its peddlers.

The United States began prohibition of coca leaf, along with the cocaine it produces, with the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Amid fears of a US recession, there seems to be growing impatience among investors when it comes to the massive investment Big Tech has made into their AI products.

It has been a tough time for Big Tech in the stock market, as some of the biggest companies in the world have shed hundreds of billions in value after their latest earnings failed to meet the growing demands of investors.

[...] The value of some of these companies has soared in recent years, thanks to the major focus on AI technology, which has been a hot topic in the tech industry. But recent shifts in the stock market meant these companies were on track to lose roughly $800bn in value, Reuters reports.

The reason for the plunge is tied to fears of a potential recession in the US. For example, recent jobs data for the country was worse than expected. These concerns have caused a knock-on effect, with stock markets facing turmoil in Europe, Japan and Ireland.

But another concern among investors is the heavy financing many of these companies have put in AI technology, with the payoff coming too slowly for some Wall Street investors. This is despite the major boost this focus has had – Microsoft and Nvidia in particular saw their valuations grow massively over the past couple of years thanks to the recent AI boom.

[...] In a recent letter from activist investor group Elliot Management referenced by the Financial Times, the group described AI as overrated and claimed Nvidia is “in bubble land”.

One looming concern in the AI sector is the future of OpenAI, one of the key sparks of the generative AI hype since the launch of its product ChatGPT. Microsoft has been a major investor into OpenAI. But recent reports suggest OpenAI is burning through billions of dollars to stay afloat.

Original Submission

fliptop writes:

Battery maker LG Energy Solution's second-quarter profit dropped 58% year-on-year to 195.3 billion won ($141m), the company said on Monday (8 July), as demand for electric vehicles (EVs) slows:

The South Korean-based battery company also saw its revenue drop 30% to 6.2 trillion won ($4.4bn).

The company also faces increased competition from its Chinese rivals, which has weakened its share of the market.

Car manufacturers have been calling for battery companies to create cheaper cells to lower EV prices, which has applied pressure to companies like LG Energy.

This led to LG Energy's chief technology officer, Kim Je-Young, stating that the company would commercialise dry-coating technology by 2028, a technology which makes battery manufacturing cheaper and more efficient.

Battery maker SK On declares 'emergency' as EV sales disappoint. Supplier to Ford and Volkswagen may have to be rescued by its South Korean parent as losses mount:

A leading South Korean producer of electric vehicle batteries has declared itself in crisis as its customers struggle with disappointing EV sales in Europe and the US.

SK On, the world's fourth-largest EV battery maker behind Chinese giants CATL and BYD and South Korean rival LG Energy Solution, has recorded losses for 10 consecutive quarters since being spun off by its parent company in 2021. Its net debt has increased more than fivefold, from Won2.9tn ($2.1bn) to Won15.6tn over the same period, as western EV sales have fallen far short of its expectations.

With losses snowballing, chief executive Lee Seok-hee announced a series of cost-cutting and working practice measures last Monday, describing them as a state of "emergency management".

[...] SK On has made a series of aggressive investments in the US and Europe in recent years, betting on a widely predicted boom in demand for EVs. However, it has since announced extended lay-offs for workers at its plant in the US state of Georgia and delayed launching a second plant in Kentucky, a joint venture with its principal US customer Ford.

Previously:

• LG Energy Solution to Spend $3 Billion to Expand EV Battery Production in South Korea
• Honda and LG are Investing $3.5 Billion in New Ohio Battery Factory
• Ford Motor Company is Planning a Big EV Future

Original Submission

ElizabethGreene writes:

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a new type of 3D printer that knits 3-dimensional solid objects, according to a new paper published in ACM Transactions on Graphics. From the introduction:

Unlike standard knitting, which makes hollow surfaces, solid knitting makes dense volumes by layering knit sheets—much as 3D printers layer plastic sheets. We envision a future where everyday objects like furniture or shoes—including soles—can be knit as one piece. Since the layers are topologically intertwined during fabrication, solid dense volume knitting requires no adhesives, allowing fabricated objects to be unraveled easily to recover the constituent yarn

Summary Article: https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/solid-knitting-a-different-spin-on-3d-printing-that-can-make-furniture-out-of-yarn/
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVRXWlpiyAc
Research:
  Yuichi Hirose, Mark Gillespie, Angelica M. Bonilla Fominaya, and James McCann. 2024. Solid Knitting. ACM Trans. Graph. 43, 4 (July 2024)
  https://doi.org/10.1145/3658123
Alternate source (PDF): https://markjgillespie.com/Research/solid-knitting/SolidKnitting.pdf

This begs the question[sic], "Would you download a couch?"

Original Submission

Elon sues advertisers for boycotting X

c0lo writes:

The Verge has a better perspective:

X files antitrust lawsuit against advertisers over 'illegal boycott'

X is suing a group of major advertisers over accusations that they held an "illegal boycott" against the platform formerly known as Twitter. In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday, X claims Unilever, Mars, CVS, Ørsted, and dozens of other brands conspired to "collectively withhold billions of dollars in advertising revenue" through a World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) industry initiative.

To join the WFA's initiative, called the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), companies must agree to withhold advertising from social platforms that aren't compliant with the organization's safety standards. X alleges GARM "organized an advertiser boycott of Twitter" to coerce the company into following the initiative's safety standards. The lawsuit is being filed despite X announcing that it was "excited" to rejoin GARM last month.

"The evidence and facts are on our side," X CEO Linda Yaccarino said in a video posted to X. "They conspired to boycott X, which threatens our ability to thrive in the future. That puts your global Town Square — the one place that you can express yourself freely and openly — at long-term risk."

[...] It's not clear how well X's lawsuit will fare in court because, as pointed out by Techdirt, the ability to choose where to advertise is protected under the First Amendment. The ad tech watchdog group Check My Ads similarly states that advertisers have the right "to not send money to a platform that promotes hate and conspiracies."

Elon sues advertisers for boycotting X

Elon Musk sues Unilever and Mars over X 'boycott'

X claims they have deprived it of "billions of dollars" in revenue.

Legal experts say the case is unlikely to succeed as any collusion or agreement between companies will be hard to prove.

Elon Musk can't force advertisers to spend

[...] Musk's lawsuit is based on a recent investigation of Garm led by the judiciary committee of the Republican-controlled US House of Representatives. It was filed in an obscure federal court branch in Texas known for a particular conservative judge. X's lawyer is a well-known rightwing legal figure, not a big national law firm.

[...] X's business issues are real enough. According to the New York Times, X ad revenue in the US has collapsed to $114mn in a recent quarter. Total group global revenue for Twitter in 2021 was $5bn. The company has a $13bn debt pile where annual interest expense is well above $1bn.

[...] Advertisers decided that, since there were only a handful of dominant social networks, they needed to band together in order to enforce standards. Garm and the companies will have to show that while they perhaps co-ordinated on some matters, there was nothing binding about their alliance when it came to economic decisions. It would be decidedly odd for any company to surrender their autonomy to a trade association. Musk's burden is higher, explaining exactly why profit-seeking companies would irrationally avoid his product.

Other links:

Al-Jazeera: Musk declares 'war' on advertisers as X sues ad alliance, companies

The Guardian: Musk's X sues Unilever, Mars and CVS over 'massive advertiser boycott'

The Slate

Original Submission #1  Original Submission #2 

canopic jug writes:

As you all know, I [Robert J. Sawyer] continue to use WordStar for DOS 7.0 as my word-processing program. It was last updated in December 1992, and the company that made it has been defunct for decades; the program is abandonware.

There was no proper archive of WordStar for DOS 7.0 available online, so I decided to create one. I've put weeks of work into this. Included are not only full installs of the program (as well as images of the installation disks), but also plug-and-play solutions for running WordStar for DOS 7.0 under Windows, and also complete full-text-searchable PDF versions of all seven manuals that came with WordStar — over a thousand pages of documentation.

I've also included lots of my own explanations on how to use and customize WordStar, many WordStar-related utility programs, and numerous other goodies.

Carolyn Clink kindly did the scanning of the manuals. When she was done, I said to her, "Countless WordStar users will thank you." She replied, "Oh, I think I can count them." ;)

And it's true that the WordStar die-hard community is pretty small these days (George R.R. Martin still uses the even-older WordStar 4.0). But the program has been a big part of my career — not only did I write all 25 of my novels and almost all of my short stories with it (a few date back to the typewriter era), I also in my earlier freelance days wrote hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles with WordStar.

I wanted there to be a monument to this, the finest word-processing program ever created. As Anne Rice said, "WordStar was magnificent. I loved it. It was logical, beautiful, perfect. Compared to it, Microsoft Word is pure madness."

And, I suppose I'm thinking a bit about my legacy, too. Once I'm gone, my literary estate will need to deal with my electronic manuscripts, and my executor should be able to work with them on her own computer rather than just mine. Also, there are countless other writers who are no longer with us who wrote with WordStar, including Arthur C. Clarke; I hope this archive I've created will be of use to scholars.

Anyone can have WordStar for DOS 7.0 up and running on a Windows computer in a matter of minutes using this archive; with just a little bit more work, WordStar for DOS 7.0 also runs just fine under Linux and Mac OS.

Here's the link to the full 680-megabyte archive:

https://sfwriter.com/ws7.htm

Rich writes:

Raspberry Pi have released the small Pico 2 as an improvement to the original Pico: https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/raspberry-pi-pico-2-our-new-5-microcontroller-board-on-sale-now/.

The small single board computer looks virtually unchanged from its predecessor. All improvement is in a new microcontroller unit, the RP2350, which replaces the old RP2040. Most notable features are twice the memory, low power sleep options, and two added Risc-V cores. The two ARM cores are still there, but upgraded to Cortex-M33 from M0+.

Unlike the RP2040, the new MCU is available in different packages, with more pins and flash memory in-package. Top of the line will be the RP2354B with 80 pins and 2MB integrated flash.

(Ed note: My first computer ran at 1 MHz and had only 4K bytes of memory. We've come a long way since then! --MartyB)! )

Original Submission