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Idiosyncratic use of punctuation - which of these annoys you the most?

  • Declarations and assignments that end with }; (C, C++, Javascript, etc.)
  • (Parenthesis (pile-ups (at (the (end (of (Lisp (code))))))))
  • Syntactically-significant whitespace (Python, Ruby, Haskell...)
  • Perl sigils: @array, $array[index], %hash, $hash{key}
  • Unnecessary sigils, like $variable in PHP
  • macro!() in Rust
  • Do you have any idea how much I spent on this Space Cadet keyboard, you insensitive clod?!
  • Something even worse...

[ Results | Polls ]
Comments:34 | Votes:74

posted by janrinok on Tuesday September 24, @07:51PM   Printer-friendly
from the when-politics-and-science-collide dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Since its founding in 1954, high-energy physics laboratory CERN has been a flagship for international scientific collaboration. That commitment has been under strain since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. CERN decided to cut ties with Moscow late last year over deaths resulting from the country's "unlawful use of force" in the ongoing conflict.

With the existing international cooperation agreements now lapsing, the Geneva-based organization is expected to expel hundreds of scientists on November 30 affiliated with Russian institutions, Nature reports. However, CERN will maintain its links with the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, an intergovernmental center near Moscow.

CERN was founded in the wake of World War II as a place dedicated to the peaceful pursuit of science. The organization currently has 24 member states and, in 2019 alone, hosted about 12,400 users from institutions in more than 70 countries. Russia has never been a full member of CERN, but collaborations first began in 1955, with hundreds of Russia-affiliated scientists contributing to experiments in the ensuing decades. Now, that 60-year history of collaboration, and Russia's long-standing observer status, is ending. As World Nuclear News reported earlier this year:

The decision to end the cooperation agreement was taken in December 2023 when CERN's Council passed a resolution "to terminate the International Cooperation Agreement between CERN and the Russian Federation, together with all related protocols and addenda, with effect from 30 November 2024; To terminate ... all other agreements and experiment memoranda of understanding allowing the participation of the Russian Federation and its national institutes in the CERN scientific programme, with effect from 30 November 2024; AFFIRMS That these measures concern the relationship between CERN and Russian and Belarusian institutes and do not affect the relationship with scientists of Russian nationality affiliated with other institutes." The cooperation agreement with Belarus will come to an end on 27 June, before the Russian one ends.

It's unclear how this decision will impact scientific research at CERN. Russia's 4.5 percent contribution to the combined budget for ongoing experiments at the Large Hadron Collider has already been covered by other collaboration members. Some think the effects will be minimal since researchers have had plenty of time to prepare for the exit. Certain essential staff members have successfully found employment outside of Russia so that they can stay on.

Others are less confident. “It will leave a hole. I think it’s an illusion to believe one can cover that very simply by other scientists,” particle physicist and CMS member Hannes Jung of the German Electron Synchrotron in Hamburg told Nature. He's also a member of the Science4Peace Forum, which opposes restrictions on scientific cooperation.


Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Tuesday September 24, @03:08PM   Printer-friendly

The Arc browser that lets you customize websites had a serious vulnerability:

The Arc browser's 'Boosts' feature would've allowed bad actors to edit a website and add a malicious payload that their target could download to their computer.

One of the feature that separates the Arc browser from its competitors is the ability to customize websites. The feature called "Boosts" allows users to change a website's background color, switch to a font they like or one that makes it easier for them to read and even remove an unwanted elements from the page completely. Their alterations aren't supposed to be be visible to anyone else, but they can share them across devices. Now, Arc's creator, the Browser Company, has admitted that a security researcher found a serious flaw that would've allowed attackers to use Boosts to compromise their targets' systems.

The company used Firebase, which the security researcher known as "xyzeva" described as a "database-as-a-backend service" in their post about the vulnerability, to support several Arc features. For Boosts, in particular, it's used to share and sync customizations across devices. In xyzeva's post, they showed how the browser relies on a creator's identification (creatorID) to load Boosts on a device. They also shared how someone could change that element to their target's identification tag and assign that target Boosts that they had created.

If a bad actor makes a Boost with a malicious payload, for instance, they can just change their creatorID to the creatorID of their intended target. When the intended victim then visits the website on Arc, they could unknowingly download the hacker's malware. And as the researcher explained, it's pretty easy to get user IDs for the browser. A user who refer someone to Arc will share their ID to the recipient, and if they also created an account from a referral, the person who sent it will also get their ID. Users can also share their Boosts with others, and Arc has a page with public Boosts that contain the creatorIDs of the people who made them.

In its post, the Browser Company said xyzeva notified it about the security issue on August 25 and that it issued a fix a day later with the researcher's help.


Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Tuesday September 24, @10:18AM   Printer-friendly

Google employees' attempts to hide messages from investigators might backfire:

Google employees liberally labeled their emails as "privileged and confidential" and spoke "off the record" over chat messages, even after being told to preserve their communications for investigators, lawyers for the Justice Department have told a Virginia court over the past couple of weeks.

That strategy could backfire if the judge in Google's second antitrust trial believes the company intentionally destroyed evidence that would have looked bad for it. The judge could go as far as giving an adverse inference about Google's missing documents, which would mean assuming they would have been bad for Google's case.

Documents shown in court regularly display the words "privileged and confidential" as business executives discuss their work, occasionally with a member of Google's legal team looped in. On Friday, former Google sell-side ad executive Chris LaSala said that wasn't the only strategy Google used. He testified that after being placed on a litigation hold in connection with law enforcers' investigation, Google chat messages had history off by default, and his understanding was that needed to be changed for each individual chat that involved substantive work conversations. Multiple former Google employees testified to never changing the default setting and occasionally having substantive business discussions in chats, though they were largely reserved for casual conversations.

LaSala also used that default to his advantage at times, documents shown by the government in court revealed. In one 2020 chat, an employee asked LaSala if they should email two other Google employees about an issue and, soon after, asked, "Or too sensitive for email so keep on ping?" LaSala responded, instructing the employee to "start a ping with history turned off." In a separate 2020 exchange, LaSala again instructed his employee to "maybe start an off the record ping thread with Duke, you, me."

"It was just how we spoke. Everyone used the phrase 'off the record ping,'" LaSala testified. "My MO was mostly off the record, so old tricks die hard."

Still, LaSala said he "tried to follow the terms of the litigation hold," but he acknowledged he "made a mistake." Shortly after a training about the hold, he recalled receiving a chat from a colleague. Though LaSala said he turned history on, he wasn't sure the first message would be preserved. LaSala said he put that message in an email just in case. In general, LaSala said, "We were really good at documenting ... and to the extent I made a mistake a couple times, it was not intentional."

Brad Bender, another Google ad tech executive who testified earlier in the week, described conversations with colleagues over chat as more akin to "bumping into the hall and saying 'hey we should chat.'" The DOJ also questioned former Google executive Rahul Srinivasan about emails he marked privileged and confidential, asking what legal advice he was seeking in those emails. He said he didn't remember.

Google employees were well aware of how their written words could be used against the company, the DOJ argued, pointing to the company's "Communicate with Care" legal training for employees. In one 2019 email, Srinivasan copied a lawyer on an email to colleagues about an ad tech feature and reminded the group to be careful with their language. "We should be particularly careful when framing something as a 'circumvention,'" he wrote. "We should assume that every document (and email) we generate will likely be seen by regulators." The email was labeled "PRIVILEGED and CONFIDENTIAL."

While the many documents shown by the DOJ demonstrate that Google often discussed business decisions in writing, at other times, they seemed to intentionally leave the documentation sparse. "Keeping the notes limited due to sensitivity of the subject," a 2021 Google document says. "Separate privileged emails will be sent to folks to follow up on explicit [action items]."

"We take seriously our obligations to preserve and produce relevant documents," Google spokesperson Peter Schottenfels said in a statement. "We have for years responded to inquiries and litigation, and we educate our employees about legal privilege. In the DOJ cases alone, we have produced millions of documents including chat messages and documents not covered by legal privilege."

The judge in Google's first antitrust battle with the DOJ over its search business declined to go as far as an adverse inference,even though he ruled against Google in most other ways. Still, he made clear he wasn't "condoning Google's failure to preserve chat evidence" and said, "Any company that puts the onus on employees to identify and preserve relevant evidence does so at its own peril. Google avoided sanctions in this case. It may not be so lucky in the next one."


Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Tuesday September 24, @05:33AM   Printer-friendly

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The Linux kernel is 33 years old. Its creator, Linus Torvalds, still enjoys an argument or two but is baffled why the debate over Rust has attracted so much heat.

"I'm not sure why Rust has been such a contentious area," Torvalds said during an on-stage chat this week with Dirk Hohndel, Verizon's Head of Open Source.

"It reminds me of when I was young and people were arguing about vi versus Emacs," said the software engineer. Hohndel interjected, "They still are!"

Torvalds laughed, "Maybe they still are! But for some reason, the whole Rust versus C discussion has taken almost religious overtones."

Getting Rust into the Linux kernel has been a hot topic for some time. In 2022, developers were arguing over the language, with some calling the memory safety features of Rust an "insult" to some of the hard work that had gone into the kernel over the years. At the beginning of September, one of the maintainers of the Rust for Linux projects stepped down, citing frustration with "nontechnical nonsense" as a reason for resignation.

During the conversation at the Linux Foundation's Open Source Summit in Vienna this week, Torvalds continued, "Clearly, there are people who just don't like the notion of Rust, and having Rust encroach on their area.

"People have even been talking about the Rust integration being a failure … We've been doing this for a couple of years now so it's way too early to even say that, but I also think that even if it were to become a failure – and I don't think it will – that's how you learn," he said.

"So I see the whole Rust thing as positive, even if the arguments are not necessarily always [so]."

Keen to pull those positives from the row, Torvalds added, "One of the nice parts about Rust has been how it's livened up discussions," before acknowledging, "some of the arguments get nasty, and people do actually - yes - decide 'this is not worth my time,' but at the same time it's kind of interesting, and I think it shows how much people care."

"C is, in the end, a very simple language. It's one of the reasons I enjoy C and why a lot of C programmers enjoy C, even if the other side of that picture is obviously that because it's simple it's also very easy to make mistakes," he argued.

With impressive diplomacy, considering his outbursts of years past, Torvalds went on, "There's a lot of people who are used to the C model, and they don't necessarily like the differences... and that's ok.

"Some people care about specific architectures, and some people like file systems, and that's how it should be. That's how I see Rust."


Original Submission

posted by hubie on Tuesday September 24, @12:51AM   Printer-friendly
from the dystopia-is-now! dept.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/09/dead-internet-theory-comes-to-life-with-new-ai-powered-social-media-app/

For the past few years, a conspiracy theory called "Dead Internet theory" has picked up speed as large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT increasingly generate text and even social media interactions found online. The theory says that most social Internet activity today is artificial and designed to manipulate humans for engagement.

On Monday, software developer Michael Sayman launched a new AI-populated social network app called SocialAI that feels like it's bringing that conspiracy theory to life, allowing users to interact solely with AI chatbots instead of other humans. It's available on the iPhone app store, but so far, it's picking up pointed criticism.

After its creator announced SocialAI as "a private social network where you receive millions of AI-generated comments offering feedback, advice & reflections on each post you make," computer security specialist Ian Coldwater quipped on X, "This sounds like actual hell." Software developer and frequent AI pundit Colin Fraser expressed a similar sentiment: "I don't mean this like in a mean way or as a dunk or whatever but this actually sounds like Hell. Like capital H Hell."
[...]
As The Verge reports in an excellent rundown of the example interactions, SocialAI lets users choose the types of AI followers they want, including categories like "supporters," "nerds," and "skeptics." These AI chatbots then respond to user posts with brief comments and reactions on almost any topic, including nonsensical "Lorem ipsum" text.

Sometimes the bots can be too helpful. On Bluesky, one user asked for instructions on how to make nitroglycerin out of common household chemicals and received several enthusiastic responses from bots detailing the steps, although several bots provided different recipes, none of which may be wholly accurate.
[...]
None of this would be possible without access to inexpensive LLMs like the kind that power ChatGPT. So far, SocialAI creator Sayman has said he is using a "custom mix" of AI models

[...] On Bluesky, evolutionary biologist and frequent AI commentator Carl T. Bergstrom wrote, "So I signed up for the new heaven-ban SocialAI social network where you're all alone in a world of bots. It is so much worse than I ever imagined. It's not GPT-level AI; it's more like ELIZA level, if the ELIZAs were lazily written stereotypes of every douchebag on ICQ circa 1999."
[...]
As a piece of prospective performance art, SocialAI may be genius. Or perhaps you could look at it as a form of social commentary on the vapidity of social media or about the harm of algorithmic filter bubbles that only feed you what you want to see and hear. But since its creator seems sincere, we're unsure how the service may fit into the future of social media apps.

For now, the app has already picked up a few positive reviews on the app store from people who seem to enjoy this taste of the hypothetical "dead Internet" by verbally jousting with the bots for entertainment: "5 stars and I've been using this for 10 minutes. I could argue with this AI for HOURS 😭 it's actually so much fun to see what it will say to the most random stuff 💀."


Original Submission

posted by hubie on Monday September 23, @08:04PM   Printer-friendly
from the redundant-redundant dept.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/09/microsoft-releases-a-new-windows-app-called-windows-app-for-running-windows-apps/

Microsoft announced today that it's releasing a new app called Windows App as an app for Windows that allows users to run Windows and also Windows apps (it's also coming to macOS, iOS, web browsers, and is in public preview for Android).

On most of those platforms, Windows App is a replacement for the Microsoft Remote Desktop app, which was used for connecting to a copy of Windows running on a remote computer or server—for some users and IT organizations, a relatively straightforward way to run Windows software on devices that aren't running Windows or can't run Windows natively.
[...]
Microsoft says that aside from unifying multiple services into a single app, Windows App's enhancements include easier account switching, better device management for IT administrators, support for the version of Windows 365 for frontline workers, and support for Microsoft's "Relayed RDP Shortpath," which can enable Remote Desktop on networks that normally wouldn't allow it.
[...]
For connections to your own Remote Desktop-equipped PCs, Windows App has most of the same features and requirements as the Remote Desktop Connection app did before, including support for multiple monitors, device redirection for devices like webcams and audio input/output, and dynamic resolution support (so that your Windows desktop resizes as you resize the app window).

[Obligatory: Which Windows App did you want?]


Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Monday September 23, @06:45PM   Printer-friendly
from the free-speech-absolutist dept.

Earlier we reported that Twitter has been blocked in Brasil after non-compliance with court orders. Good news for everyone trying to fevereshy switch to competitors, it seems that Twitter will indeed comply with the orders, pay fines and appoint a legal representative to be unblocked in the country. Based on reporting from New York Times, Musk Backs Down In Brazil: X May Return After Complying With Court Orders

X's lawyers said in a Friday court filing cited by the Times that X complied with the orders asking the social network to remove accounts accused of engaging in disinformation, as well as demands from the Supreme Court regarding fines and the assignment of a new legal representative for X in Brazil. The Brazilian Supreme Court confirmed the compliance in its own filing Saturday, though it noted X has yet to file the proper documents to move forward with its case and will have five days to do so, the Times reported. André Zonaro Giacchetta, one of X's new lawyers in Brazil, told the Times the conditions for X's return in Brazil "have already been met, but it depends on the assessment of" the country's supreme court.

[Editor's Note: Thanks, gnuman.]


Original Submission

posted by hubie on Monday September 23, @03:16PM   Printer-friendly

https://hackaday.com/2024/09/12/review-ifixits-fixhub-may-be-the-last-soldering-iron-you-ever-buy/

Like many people who solder regularly, I decided years ago to upgrade from a basic iron and invest in a soldering station. My RadioShack digital station has served me well for the better part of 20 years. It heats up fast, tips are readily available, and it's a breeze to dial in whatever temperature I need. It's older than both of my children, has moved with me to three different homes, and has outlived two cars and one marriage (so far, anyway).

As such, when the new breed of "smart" USB-C soldering irons started hitting the scene, I didn't find them terribly compelling. Oh sure, I bought a Pinecil. But that's because I'm an unrepentant open source zealot and love the idea that there's a soldering iron running a community developed firmware. In practice though, I only used the thing a few times, and even then it was because I needed something portable. Using it at home on the workbench? It just never felt up to the task of daily use.

So when iFixit got in contact a couple weeks back and said they had a prototype USB-C soldering iron they wanted me to take a look at, I was skeptical to say the least. But then I started reading over the documentation they sent over, and couldn't deny that they had some interesting ideas. For one, it was something of a hybrid iron. It was portable when you needed it to be, yet offered the flexibility and power of a station when you were at the bench.

Question from the editor: Has anyone used the Pinecil and how do you think this compares?


Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Monday September 23, @10:31AM   Printer-friendly

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

On Tuesday, Chief US District Judge Robert Shelby granted a preliminary injunction to block Utah from limiting the social media usage of minors. Republican Governor Spencer Cox had signed the Utah Minor Protection in Social Media Act earlier in March. It was supposed to take effect on October 1, but the court’s decision to block the law is a victory for young social media users in Utah.

This isn’t the first time Utah’s governor has attempted to limit social media use among the youths in the state. Last year, he signed two bills that required parents to grant permission for teens to create social media accounts, and these accounts had limitations like curfews and age verification. He replacing the older laws in March due to lawsuits challenging their legality.

Under the law, social media companies would have been forced to verify the age of all users. If a minor registers for an account, they are subject to various limitations. The content they share would be seen only by connected accounts. Additionally, minor accounts could not be searched for or messaged by non-followers or friends, effectively nonexistent to strangers.

The primary reason for the preliminary injunction is due to NetChoice’s claim that the law constitutes a violation of the First Amendment. NetChoice is a trade association formed by tech giants such as X (formerly Twitter), Snap, Meta and Google. The association has managed to win in court battles and block similar laws entirely or in part in states like Arkansas, California and Texas.


Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Monday September 23, @05:43AM   Printer-friendly
from the like-sands-through-the-hourglass dept.

Plenty of ups-and-downs are key to a great story, new research finds:

Since at least Aristotle, writers and scholars have debated what makes for a great story. One of them is Samsun Knight, a novelist who is also an economist and assistant professor of marketing at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. With a scientist's tools, he's done what previous theorizers have failed to: put theory to the test and demonstrate the key factor for empirically predicting which stories will be snore fests and which will leave audiences hungry for more.

It turns out to be "narrative reversals" -- lots of them and the bigger the better. Commonly known as changes of fortune or turning points, where characters' fortunes swing from good to bad and vice versa, Prof. Knight and fellow researchers found that stories rich in these mechanisms boosted popularity and engagement with audiences through a range of media, from television to crowdfunding pitches.

"The best-written stories were always either 'building up' a current reversal, or introducing a new plot point," says Prof. Knight. "In our analysis, the best writers were those that were able to maintain both many plot points and strong build-up for each plot point across the course of the narrative."

The researchers analyzed nearly 30,000 television shows, movies, novels, and crowdfunding pitches using computational linguistics, a blend of computer science and language analysis. This allowed them to quantify not only the number of a reversals in a text but also their degree or intensity by assigning numerical values to words based on how positive or negative they were.

Movies and television shows with more and bigger reversals were better rated on the popular ratings site IMDb. Books with the most and biggest reversals were downloaded more than twice as much as books with the fewest reversals from the free online library Project Gutenberg. And GoFundMe pitches with more and larger reversals were more likely to hit their fundraising goal, by as much as 39 per cent.

The Greek philosopher Aristotle was the first to identify peripeteia, the sudden reversal of circumstances, as a key feature of a good story. Other thinkers have added their ideas since then, including American playwright and dramaturg Leon Katz whose scholarship particularly inspired Prof. Knight's research. Katz "described the reversal as the basic unit of narrative, just as a sentence is the basic unit of a paragraph, or the syllogism is the basic unit of a logical proof," says Prof. Knight.

In addition to helping psychologists understand how narrative works to educate, inform and inspire people, the findings may also benefit storytellers of all kinds.

"Hopefully our research can help build a pedagogy for writers that allows them to rely on the accumulated knowledge of Aristotle et al. without having to 'reinvent the wheel' on their own every time," says Prof. Knight.

Journal Reference:Samsun Knight, Matthew D. Rocklage, and Yakov Bart, Narrative reversals and story success, Sci. Adv., 21 Aug 2024
Vol 10, Issue 34. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adl2013


Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Monday September 23, @01:02AM   Printer-friendly

Plan would power new Microsoft AI data center with electricity from Pa.'s Three Mile Island nuclear reactor:

One of the two nuclear reactors at Three Mile Island, the Pennsylvania site of a notorious partial meltdown 45 years ago, could be brought back online in the coming years to provide power to a new Microsoft artificial intelligence data center, officials said Friday.

Constellation Energy, the Baltimore-based provider that spun off Exelon two years ago, has signed a 20-year power purchasing agreement with the tech giant to draw electricity generated at the plant along the Susquehanna River outside Harrisburg and about 85 miles west of Philadelphia.

Pending regulatory approvals, the newly created Crane Clean Energy Center would become the first nuclear plant in the United States to return to service after being shut down.

The $1.6 billion project will restart Three Mile Island Unit 1, which stopped generating power five years ago because it could not compete with cheaper energy being produced by Pennsylvania's natural gas industry. The reactor can be run independently from Unit 2, where the plant's partial meltdown occurred resulting in the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history on March 28, 1979. That reactor is still in the process of being decommissioned by owner Energy Solutions.

"Before it was prematurely shuttered due to poor economics, this plant was among the safest and most reliable nuclear plants on the grid, and we look forward to bringing it back with a new name and a renewed mission to serve as an economic engine for Pennsylvania," Joe Dominguez, president and CEO of Constellation, said in a statement.

[...] In the race to develop artificial intelligence applications, tech companies are scrambling to build data centers, which require enormous amounts of electricity to operate. Such facilities are forecast to make up a growing share of the nation's electricity use in the years to come, prompting companies to look at tapping into existing infrastructure to help meet their needs.

Nuclear power is being touted as a cost-effective solution for these data centers that also limits reliance on carbon-producing power sources. Building and directly connecting data centers to nuclear plants is known as co-location, a strategy that industry leaders favor because it's cheaper and faster to do. Proponents also claim it reduces stress on the transmission grids.

During the years the 837-megawatt unit operated at Three Mile Island, the reactor powered about 830,000 homes and businesses. Constellation officials did not say how much of the reactor's power-producing capacity would be dedicated to powering Microsoft's AI data center, but it's not uncommon for such facilities to have energy demands of 1,000 megawatts – or 1 gigawatt.

An economic impact study commissioned by the Pennsylvania Building & Construction Trades Council estimates the restart of Three Mile Island would create 3,400 jobs directly and indirectly related to the plant and generate about $3 billion in state and federal tax revenue.

[...] When Constellation signaled interest in restarting Three Mile Island in July, doubts surfaced about the technical feasibility of the project. Not only would it be the first of its kind, but it will have to be accomplished next to another reactor whose clean-up and decommissioning is expected to continue through 2078.

The site also remains politically contentious due to the lasting memory of the 1979 accident, which displaced surrounding communities and left a legacy of fear over whether the radiation released contributed to increased cancer rates in the vicinity. About 2 million people were exposed to radioactive fallout as a result of the meltdown.

Public health researchers from Temple, Penn State and the University of Pittsburgh published a report last year finding that long-term studies into the impact of the meltdown were limited by research flaws.

Despite these concerns, Constellation cited a statewide poll showing strong support for restarting Three Mile Island. The poll conducted by Susquehanna Polling & Research found Pennsylvania residents approve of restarting Three Mile Island by more than 2-1 and 70% favor the ongoing use of nuclear energy in the state.


Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Sunday September 22, @08:13PM   Printer-friendly

NHS scientists find new blood group solving 50-year mystery:

Thousands of lives could be saved around the world after NHS scientists discovered a new blood group system - solving a 50-year-old mystery.

The research team, led by NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) scientists in South Gloucestershire and supported by the University of Bristol, found a blood group called MAL.

They identified the genetic background of the previously known AnWj blood group antigen, which was discovered in 1972 but unknown until now after this world-first test was developed.

Senior research scientist at NHSBT Louise Tilley said the discovery means better care to rare patients can be offered.

Ms Tilley, who has worked on the project for 20 years, told the BBC it is "quite difficult to a put a number" on how many people will benefit from the test. However, the NHSBT is the last resort for about 400 patients across the world each year.

Everyone has proteins outside their red blood cells known as antigens, but a small number might lack them.

Using genetic testing, NHSBT's International Blood Group Reference Laboratory in Filton have for the first time developed a test that will identify patients missing this antigen.

The test could prove a lifesaver for those who would react against a blood transfusion, and will make it easier to find potential blood developers for this rare blood type.

Philip Brown, who works at the laboratory, was diagnosed with a form of leukaemia about 20 years ago.

He had blood transfusions and a bone marrow transplant - without that, he would have died.

"Anything we can do to make our blood much safer and a better match for patients is a definite step in the right direction," he said.

Head of the laboratory Nicole Thornton said: "Resolving the genetic basis for AnWj has been one of our most challenging projects.

"There is so much work that goes into proving that a gene does actually encode a blood group antigen, but it is what we are passionate about, making these discoveries for the benefit of rare patients around the world.

"Now genotyping tests can be designed to identify genetically AnWj-negative patients and donors.

"Such tests can be added to the existing genotyping platforms."


Original Submission

posted by hubie on Sunday September 22, @03:22PM   Printer-friendly
from the ein-klein-Verlorenemusik dept.

A music historian at the Austrian state archives, Paul Duncan, has completed the final component of an investigation into a lost Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) piece. It was determined the authentic Mozart manuscript originated from a Vienna-based copyist named Johannes Traeg and was written by Mozart when still a teen.

An obscure piano manuscript that had been ignored for centuries is now believed to have been authored by one of the world's most famous composers: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The sensational discovery was revealed by Austrian officials on Sept. 8, following an extensive investigation into the document.

The manuscript has been housed in an state archive since 2005 but was donated by a private collector to the Styrian Music Association in 1877.

Previously:
(2016) Lost Mozart-Salieri Composition Performed


Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Sunday September 22, @10:34AM   Printer-friendly
from the Better-on-time-than-never dept.

By committing the Kconfig knobs, Linux is now capable of being configured into a Real-time Operating System. The result, due to an ongoing effort of just over 20 years, now allows for the all developers and users to utilize real-time computing without having to target a completely separate OS. Embedded systems and live processing will likely see more immediate improvements. This support is limited to X86, X86_64, ARM64, and RISCV and only capable of hard real time on hardware that supports it. However, the new competition and interest will likely spur on more developments in Real-Time Computing the future.

One final note is that enabling PREEMPT_RT is not a panacea leading to better performance. Real time computing and real-time OSes sacrifice maximum throughput for guaranteed latency with minimal jitter. Real time does not mean "as fast as possible." Real time means "not too slow." In the wrong situation, it can actually make your performance worse.


Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Sunday September 22, @05:47AM   Printer-friendly

U.S. finds the golden hydrogen in this region: trillions of dollars of this futuristic energy here:

The search for the energy of the future continues in all parts of the world, from Antarctica to outer space (yes, also outside our planet). However, it seems that this new race has been won by America, where we have found what all countries are looking for: this is the region that is going to earn trillions of dollars for the energy of the future: the enigmatic golden hydrogen.

The United States has recently, as you know discovered rich hydrogen resources within the country that would alter the current energy situation. The use of hydrogen is gradually becoming an indispensable measure in the shift towards the non-utilization of fossil resources.

The DoE has noted massive under ground pool of hydrogen energy in various places across the country. Hydrogen, the first, lightest element on the periodic table of elements, is the most abundant element in the universe and yet, the discovery of hydrogen in concentrated form in this planet has been a task.

New assessments hence show the prospect that these domestic supplies can be used to fuel automobiles, factories and even electrification. Promising innovation and development in infrastructure, hydrogen is capable of powering America's tomorrow.

Scientists in United States have found that there exist very huge resources of hydrogen gaseous fuel trapped beneath the surface of the earth, that can sustain all consumers for hundreds of years. The Department of Energy has claimed that the resources of hydrogen in some parts of the country to be in trillions of dollars.

This natural hydrogen was generated through geo-chemical processes, it has been confined within underlying rocks and sediments. Though hydrogen is present in immensely massive quantities in the universe, localized, denser sources here on Earth are relatively scarce.

If one uses the correct technology then one can know that this enormous source of clean energy could fuel the society for ages. A key advantage here is that the hydrogen does not have to be produced, which means there is no environmental and economic cost associated with its production.

Accessing these hydrogen resources is one of the prospects for shifting the oil and gas industry to a new level of energy production. However, it must be noted that there are technical issues that can be associated with scaling of hydrogen release and the efficient harvesting of hydrogen in a safe and sustainable manner.

Signs of huge deposits of hydrogen have known to exist underground in different sedimentary basins in the United States of America. They contain the world's largest deposits mainly in the western part of the USA in Texas, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado.

These areas contain trillions of cubic feet of hydrogen gas dislocated in rock structures at depths of the earth crust. These hydrogen sources were generated from deposits of natural gas that over millions of years interacted with water and rock to create whatis referred to as hydrostatic hydrogen or hydrostatic pressure.

The largest Onshore Basin in the View of Oil and Gas Resources is the Gulf Coast Basin which Texas possesses some of the greatest extents. San Juan Basin is endowed with the major natural resources in New Mexico. Another region that holds extensive amounts is the Uinta Basin of Utah.

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