160099029
submission
bbsguru writes:
Sony / Playstation has been taking a lot of heat for making the new Gran Tourismo 7 more dependent on micro transactions. Gamers say the well reviewed game had taken advantage of those reviews by waiting until after it was released to jack up the cost of playing the game. Acceptance wasn't improved by the more-than-a-day outage that accompanied the changes. After several tentative responses, Sony is paying out: One Million Credits to make us all feel better, along with "numerous playability improvements".
131135832
submission
bbsguru writes:
The Federally funded Pandemic Unemployment Assistance plan caused many State systems to need software revisions. The system in the state of Arkansas went through a major update, opening with new capabilities just a week ago. Perhaps a result of the pressure to get that change made quickly, another unintended 'feature' was included: The ability to share personal information, including Social security and bank account numbers and employment data for more than 30,000 people. Oops!
The system has been shut down for repairs
106889600
submission
bbsguru writes:
As reported in The Independent:
Scientists have managed to turn CO2 from a gas back into solid “coal”, in a breakthrough which could potentially help remove the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere.
The research team led by RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, developed a new technique using a liquid metal electrolysis method which efficiently converts CO2 from a gas into solid particles of carbon.
Published in the journal Nature Communications, the authors say their technology offers an alternative pathway for “safely and permanently” removing CO2 from the atmosphere.
To convert CO2, the researchers designed a liquid metal catalyst with specific surface properties that made it extremely efficient at conducting electricity while chemically activating the surface.
106831908
submission
bbsguru writes:
Windstream Holdings Inc. of Arkansas filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday, less than two weeks after a federal court judge found that the 2015 spinoff of its fiber and copper assets into a separate company ran afoul of bond covenants, exposing the company to a $310 million judgment. Windstream, a spinoff of the old Alltel Corp. of Arkansas, reported $5.8 billion in revenue in 2017. It employs about 13,000 companywide
103442992
submission
bbsguru writes:
Slow-motion video has always been fun to watch, with the best rigs usually shooting on the scale of thousands of frames per second. But now the world's fastest camera , developed by researchers at Caltech and INRS, blows them out of the water, capturing the world at a mind-boggling 10 trillion frames per second – fast enough to probe the nanoscale interactions between light and matter.
58272935
submission
bbsguru writes:
Wi-Fi networks will soon be improving thanks to a vote by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today.
The FCC voted unanimously to open 100 MHz of wireless spectrum in an unlicensed 5GHz block . The move will increase the number of frequencies available to unlicensed wireless networks (such as those set up through Wi-Fi routers) by nearly 15 percent, and in turn, allow them to handle a greater level traffic at higher speeds.
In English: Private Wi-Fi networks in your homes, businesses, convention centers, airports, music venues, etc., are about to get a lot faster.
“Today’s action represents the largest amount of spectrum suitable for mobile broadband that the Commission has made available for auction since the 700MHz band was auctioned in 2008,” the FCC wrote in a statement.
“Access to these bands will help wireless companies meet growing consumer demand for mobile data by enabling faster wireless speeds and more capacity.”
The increased spectrum should mean that Wi-Fi networks will be less congested, and next-gen routers will be able to take better advantage of gigabit broadband speeds that are cropping up all over the country.
11682346
submission
bbsguru writes:
A court settlement has ended a controversial case of medical privacy abuse. From the NYTimes: "SUPAI, Ariz. — Seven years ago, the Havasupai Indians, who live in the deepest part of the Grand Canyon, issued a "banishment order" to keep Arizona State University employees from setting foot on their reservation, an ancient punishment for what they regarded as a genetic-era betrayal.
Members of the tiny tribe had given DNA samples to university researchers starting in 1990, hoping they might provide genetic clues to the tribe's high rate of diabetes.
But members learned their blood samples also had been used to study many other things, including mental illness and theories of the tribe's geographical origins that contradict their traditional stories.
