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Comment Whatever. (Score 3, Interesting) 114

by neiras (#65164119) Attached to: Is It Time For a Change In GNOME Leadership?

I've used GNOME since early 2.x. GNOME 3 was a big shift. But so what?

Current GNOME looks and works great on my desktop and laptop. I can launch whatever I need quickly. I can manage workspaces and windows and files. It gets out of the way. Do I think their insistence on no tray icons is stupid? Yep, but it doesn't matter, there's an extension for that. Does it work with touch devices? Yep. But I don't care because I don't use touch devices with it. Does their Online Accounts thing work in a corp environment? Not really. Oh well.

Like, I barely think about GNOME. It's just there doing its job. It's FINE. It works. It looks nice. I have no major complaints.

The only people it "left behind" were users who thought early Windows was peak UI, didn't have the neuroplasticity to try something new, and thought the project owed them something in return for using it.

Again, oh well.

Submission + - Multiple nations enact mysterious export controls on quantum computers (newscientist.com)

Submitted by MattSparkes
MattSparkes writes: Secret international discussions have resulted in governments across the world imposing identical export controls on quantum computers, while refusing to disclose the scientific rationale behind the regulations. Although quantum computers theoretically have the potential to threaten national security by breaking encryption techniques, even the most advanced quantum computers currently in public existence are too small and too error-prone to achieve this, rendering the bans seemingly pointless.

New Scientist reached out to dozens of nations to ask what the scientific basis for these matching legislative bans on quantum computer exports was, but was told it was kept secret to protect national security.

Submission + - Over 14 Million Servers May Be Vulnerable To OpenSSH's RegreSSHion RCE Flaw (zdnet.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Hold onto your SSH keys, folks! A critical vulnerability has just rocked OpenSSH, Linux's secure remote access foundation, causing seasoned sysadmins to break out in a cold sweat. Dubbed "regreSSHion" and tagged as CVE-2024-6387, this nasty bug allows unauthenticated remote code execution (RCE) on OpenSSH servers running on glibc-based Linux systems. We're not talking about some minor privilege escalation here — this flaw hands over full root access on a silver platter. For those who've been around the Linux block a few times, this feels like deja vu. The vulnerability is a regression of CVE-2006-5051, a bug patched back in 2006. This old foe somehow snuck back into the code in October 2020 with OpenSSH 8.5p1. Thankfully, the Qualys Threat Research Unit uncovered this digital skeleton in OpenSSH's closet. Unfortunately, this vulnerability affects the default configuration and doesn't need any user interaction to exploit. In other words, it's a vulnerability that keeps security professionals up at night.

It's hard to overstate the potential impact of this flaw. OpenSSH is the de facto standard for secure remote access and file transfer in Unix-like systems, including Linux and macOS. It's the Swiss Army knife of secure communication for sysadmins and developers worldwide. The good news is that not all Linux distributions have the vulnerable code. Old OpenSSH versions earlier than 4.4p1 are vulnerable to this signal handler race condition unless they are patched for CVE-2006-5051 and CVE-2008-4109. Versions from 4.4p1 up to, but not including, 8.5p1 are not vulnerable. The bad news is that the vulnerability resurfaced in OpenSSH 8.5p1 up to, but not including, 9.8p1 due to the accidental removal of a critical component. Qualys has found over 14 million potentially vulnerable OpenSSH server internet instances. The company believes that approximately 700,000 of these external internet-facing instances are definitely vulnerable. A patch, OpenSSH 9.8/9.8p1 is now available. Many, but not all, Linux distributions have made it available. If you can get it, install it as soon as possible.

Submission + - Nybolt 35kWh Li-ion battery charged from 10% to 80% in just over 4.5 min. (cnn.com)

Submitted by fahrbot-bot
fahrbot-bot writes: CNN reports that Nybolt, based in Cambridge, has developed a new 35kWh lithium-ion battery that was charged from 10% to 80% in just over four and a half minutes in its first live demonstration last week.

Nyobolt’s technology builds on a decade of research led by University of Cambridge battery scientist Clare Grey and Cambridge-educated Shivareddy, the company said. Key to its batteries’ ability to be charged super-fast without a big impact on their longevity is a design that means they generate less heat. It also makes them safer as overheating can cause a lithium-ion battery to catch fire and explode. In addition, the materials used to make the batteries’ anodes allow for a faster transfer of electrons.

Nyobolt is currently in talks to sell its batteries to eight electric car manufacturers. At 35 kWh, the battery is much smaller than the 85 kWh in a more typical American electric vehicle (EV). Yet the technology may be used in larger battery packs in the future.

Independent testing of Nyobolt’s batteries by what it called a leading global manufacturer found that they can achieve over 4,000 fast-charge cycles, equivalent to 600,000 miles (965,600 kilometers), while retaining more than 80% of capacity, Nyobolt said in its Friday statement.

A crucial chemical element in Nyobolt’s batteries is niobium but, as Kephart pointed out, last year only an estimated 83,000 tonnes (94,500 tons) was mined worldwide. Compare that with graphite, commonly used as anode material in lithium-ion batteries: an estimated 1.6 million tonnes (1.8 million tons) was produced in 2023.

In addition, there are currently “a lot of unknowns” with the niobium battery technology, he told CNN. “The industry will work it out (but) it’s not seen by the industry as a scalable technology just yet,” he added.

Submission + - Bruce Bastian, WordPerfect cocreator, dies at 76 (wsj.com)

Submitted by regoli
regoli writes: Bruce Wayne Bastian was born in Twin Falls, Idaho, to Arlon and Una Bastian on March 23, 1948. Along with Alan Ashton, a computer-science professor at Brigham Young University in the mid-1970s, Bastian and Ashton went on to create WordPerfect, the dominant word-processing software in the 1980s and early ’90s and one of the first pieces of software many Americans bought when they brought home their first PCs.

Submission + - Antarctic Anomaly: 2023's Record-Breaking Cold Contrasts Global Warming (scitechdaily.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: “Record cold temperatures were observed in our Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) network as well as other locations around the region,” said Matthew A. Lazzara of the Antarctic Meteorological Research and Data Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison). “These phases were marked by new record low temperatures recorded at both staffed and automatic weather stations, spanning East Antarctica, the Ross Ice Shelf, and West Antarctica to the Antarctic Peninsula.”

Submission + - FedEx installing license plate reader cameras on their trucks (dailymail.co.uk)

Submitted by SonicSpike
SonicSpike writes: FedEx is using AI-powered cameras installed on its trucks to help aid police investigations, a new report has revealed.

The popular postal firm has partnered with a $4billion surveillance startup based in Georgia called Flock Safety, Forbes reported.

Flock specializes in automated license plate recognition and video surveillance, and already has a fleet of around 40,000 cameras spanning 4,000 cities across 40 states.

FedEx has teamed up with the company to monitor its facilities across the US, but under the deal it is also sharing its Flock surveillance feeds with law enforcement. And it is believed to be one of four multi-billion dollar private companies with this arrangement.

It's led critics to liken the move to rolling out a mass surveillance network — as it emerged that some local police forces are also sharing their Flock feeds with FedEx.

Jay Stanley, a policy analyst with the ACLU, told the Virginian Pilot: 'There's a simple principle that we've always had in this country, which is that the government doesn't get to watch everybody all the time just in case somebody commits a crime.'

'The United States is not China,' he continued. 'But these cameras are being deployed with such density that it's like GPS-tracking everyone.'

In response to Forbes' report that FedEx was part of Flock's surveillance system, he told the outlet: 'It raises questions about why a private companywould have privileged access to data that normally is only available to law enforcement.'

He went on to bill it as 'profoundly disconcerting'.

Flock Safety's cameras are used to track vehicles by their license plates, as well as the make, model, and color of their cars. Other identifying characteristics are also monitored, such as dents and even bumper stickers.

Lisa Femia, staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, warned that FedEx's participation could prove problematic because private firms are not subject to the same transparency laws as cops.

This, she told Forbes, could '[leave] the public in the dark, while at the same time expanding a sort of mass surveillance network.'

Comment Keeps on happening (Score -1, Flamebait) 55

by neiras (#64431498) Attached to: How Einstein Lost the Battle To Explain Quantum Reality

You see this kind of dogma pushing in so many places where you'd expect scientific objectivity to rule the day.

For example, we all know COVID is airborne. But the WHO put the word out that it wasn't, made up a "droplets" narrative that conveniently avoided triggering workplace safety rules in most countries, and sent forth legions of credentialed people to beat back any uncomfortable questions.

Now, years later, they've been embarrassed into addressing the misinformation they put out. But instead, they've just invented new terms: "infectious respiratory particles" that "spread through the air". They won't say "airborne", again because that would trigger workplace safety laws and public health rules.

On and on it goes, in so many fields.

Comment School has become a sickness merry-go-round (Score 2) 119

by neiras (#64354184) Attached to: Chronic Student Absenteeism Soars Across US

My kids and I have been sick so much this year. We had two more rounds of COVID across our family since September. Other families we know are seeing the same thing. Before the pandemic a few colds and MAYBE a stomach flu type thing were the norm in a school year.

All I can take away from this is that the pandemic isn't over and being sick has made us more vulnerable. Not that anyone cares.

Comment Careful now (Score 1) 68

by neiras (#64308567) Attached to: What's the highest dollar price will Bitcoin reach in 2024?

Retail investors are just exits for people who've been holding for the last couple of years.

Holders need a mania so they have someone to sell their worthless tokens to.

So a few whales make the price climb and get some media coverage going, retail storms in with the FOMO craze, and the smart money happily sells to retail. Demand dries up, the price falls, the dejected retail bagholders wait a few months and sell at a loss, and the game starts again.

Don't be the greater fool. You've missed this round.

Comment The legal side shows what's up (Score 1) 501

Where I am (Canada), COVID-19 is categorized as a Risk Group 3 human biopathogen , along with HIV, Monkeypox, SARS-1, West Nile, Yellow Fever, mad cow, Creutzfeldt-Jakob, rabies, chikungunya.

Legally, the RG3 pathogen is "a category of human pathogens that pose a high risk to the health of individuals and a low risk to public health and includes the human pathogens listed in Schedule 3. They are likely to cause serious disease in a human." Here is the text of the law with that definition.

Notice the legal difference between "public health" and "individual health"? Public health is mostly about managing group behaviors so that society can keep on doing what it does without being wiped out by disease.

What individuals should care about is individual health.

Just because COVID presents as a cold during its acute phase doesn't mean it's not doing heart or lung damage. I personally know three people who will likely never be the same after being infected. I have zero interest in ending up like them.

The pandemic is still raging - 1 in 19 people are estimated to be infected in Canada this week ) - but public health has decided it's under control "enough." If you're happy to be fuel for the economy, go nuts, I guess. If there were outbreaks of West Nile or Yellow Fever (same RG3 classification!) at work or schools, we sure as hell wouldn't be going there. But since really sick people vanish from public view, this is easy to keep a lid on.

We know that aerosolized COVID can float in enclosed spaces for hours, and that you can get infected by walking into a room long after an infected person was present if ventilation/filtration are poor. A decent FFP2 or N95 that fits you properly will significantly reduce your chances of getting sick. It's such a simple and easy thing to do.

Everyone thinks they aren't susceptible to propaganda, but no one is wearing a mask.

Submission + - Intel To Start Shipping a Quantum Processor (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Intel does a lot of things, but it's mostly noted for making and shipping a lot of processors, many of which have been named after bodies of water. So, saying that the company is set to start sending out a processor called Tunnel Falls would seem unsurprising if it weren't for some key details. Among them: The processor's functional units are qubits, and you shouldn't expect to be able to pick one up on New Egg. Ever. Tunnel Falls appears to be named after a waterfall near Intel's Oregon facility, where the company's quantum research team does much of its work. It's a 12-qubit chip, which places it well behind the qubit count of many of Intel's competitors—all of which are making processors available via cloud services. But Jim Clarke, who heads Intel's quantum efforts, said these differences were due to the company's distinct approach to developing quantum computers.

Intel, in contrast, is attempting to build silicon-based qubits that can benefit from the developments that most of the rest of the company is working on. The company hopes to "ride the coattails of what the CMOS industry has been doing for years," Clarke said in a call with the press and analysts. The goal, according to Clarke, is to make sure the answer to "what do we have to change from our silicon chip in order to make it?" is "as little as possible." The qubits are based on quantum dots, structures that are smaller than the wavelength of an electron in the material. Quantum dots can be used to trap individual electrons, and the properties of the electron can then be addressed to store quantum information. Intel uses its fabrication expertise to craft the quantum dot and create all the neighboring features needed to set and read its state and perform manipulations.

However, Clarke said there are different ways of encoding a qubit in a quantum dot (Loss-DiVincenzo, singlet-triplet, and exchange-only, for those curious). This gets at another key difference with Intel's efforts: While most of its competitors are focused solely on fostering a software developer community, Intel is simultaneously trying to develop a community that will help it improve its hardware. (For software developers, the company also released a software developer kit.) To help get this community going, Intel will send Tunnel Falls processors out to a few universities: The Universities of Maryland, Rochester, Wisconsin, and Sandia National Lab will be the first to receive the new chip, and the company is interested in signing up others. The hope is that researchers at these sites will help Intel characterize sources of error and which forms of qubits provide the best performance.

Submission + - US Judge Orders Lawyers To Sign AI Pledge, Warning Chatbots 'Make Stuff Up' (reuters.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A federal judge in Texas is now requiring lawyers in cases before him to certify that they did not use artificial intelligence to draft their filings without a human checking their accuracy. U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr of the Northern District of Texas issued the requirement on Tuesday, in what appears to be a first for the federal courts. In an interview Wednesday, Starr said that he created the requirement to warn lawyers that AI tools can create fake cases and that he may sanction them if they rely on AI-generated information without verifying it themselves. "We're at least putting lawyers on notice, who might not otherwise be on notice, that they can't just trust those databases. They've got to actually verify it themselves through a traditional database," Starr said.

In the notice about the requirement on his Dallas court's website, Starr said generative AI tools like ChatGPT are "incredibly powerful" and can be used in the law in other ways, but they should not be used for legal briefing. "These platforms in their current states are prone to hallucinations and bias. On hallucinations, they make stuff up—even quotes and citations," the statement said. The judge also said that while attorneys swear an oath to uphold the law and represent their clients, the AI platforms do not. "Unbound by any sense of duty, honor, or justice, such programs act according to computer code rather than conviction, based on programming rather than principle," the notice said.

Starr said on Wednesday that he began drafting the mandate while attending a panel on artificial intelligence at a conference hosted by the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, where the panelists demonstrated how the platforms made up bogus cases. The judge said he considered banning the use of AI in his courtroom altogether, but he decided not to do so after conversations with Eugene Volokh, a law professor at the UCLA School of Law, and others. Volokh said Wednesday that lawyers who use other databases for legal research might assume they can also rely on AI platforms. "This is a way of reminding lawyers they can't assume that," Volokh said.

Submission + - US to stop giving Russia some New START nuclear arms data (reuters.com)

Submitted by terrorubic
terrorubic writes: WASHINGTON, June 1 (Reuters) — The United States said it will stop providing Russia some notifications required under the New START arms control treaty from Thursday, including updates on its missile and launcher locations, to retaliate for Moscow's "ongoing violations" of the accord.

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