Day: May 8, 2019

Radical Desalination Approach May Disrupt the Water Industry

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Columbia Engineering researchers design new desalination method for hypersaline brines that is low-cost, efficient, and effective; could address the growing water challenges across the globe About the Study The study is titled “Membrane-less and Non-evaporative Desalination of Hypersaline Brines by Temperature Swing Solvent Extraction.” A New Paradigm for Desalination New York, NY—May 6, 2019—Hypersaline brines—water Read more about Radical Desalination Approach May Disrupt the Water Industry[…]

Experimental device generates electricity from the coldness of the universe, good for night time

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The obvious drawback of solar panels is that they require sunlight to generate electricity. Some have observed that for a device on Earth facing space, which has a frigid temperature, the chilling outflow of energy from the device can be harvested using the same kind of optoelectronic physics we have used to harness solar energy. Read more about Experimental device generates electricity from the coldness of the universe, good for night time[…]

One of the World’s Largest Crypto Exchanges, Binance, Hacked to the Tune of $40 Million

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Cryptocurrency trading hub Binance, one of the world’s largest, has confirmed it lost about 7,000 Bitcoins (around $40 million) to hackers after its so-called “hot wallet,” i.e. one connected to the internet and used to process transactions, was breached, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. The hot wallet in question contained about two percent of Binance’s holdings Read more about One of the World’s Largest Crypto Exchanges, Binance, Hacked to the Tune of $40 Million[…]

Amazon Has Gone From Neutral Platform to Cutthroat Competitor, Say Open Source Developers

Posted on by Robin Edgar

March 11, a Vice President at Amazon Web Services, Amazon’s cloud computing behemoth, published a blog post announcing the release of its own version of Elasticsearch, a powerful open-source software search engine tool. Elastic is a public company founded in 2012 that is currently worth over $5 billion; the vast majority of its revenue is Read more about Amazon Has Gone From Neutral Platform to Cutthroat Competitor, Say Open Source Developers[…]

Hacker Finds He Can Remotely Kill Car Engines, take location and personal data After Breaking Into Fleet GPS Tracking Apps, because default account password is 123456

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The hacker, who goes by the name L&M, told Motherboard he hacked into more than 7,000 iTrack accounts and more than 20,000 ProTrack accounts, two apps that companies use to monitor and manage fleets of vehicles through GPS tracking devices. The hacker was able to track vehicles in a handful of countries around the world, Read more about Hacker Finds He Can Remotely Kill Car Engines, take location and personal data After Breaking Into Fleet GPS Tracking Apps, because default account password is 123456[…]

EU Votes to Amass a Giant Centralised Database of Biometric Data with 350m people in it

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The European Parliament has voted by a significant margin to streamline its systems for managing everything from travel to border security by amassing an enormous information database that will include biometric data and facial images—an issue that has raised significant alarm among privacy advocates. This system, called the Common Identity Repository (CIR), streamlines a number Read more about EU Votes to Amass a Giant Centralised Database of Biometric Data with 350m people in it[…]

Is Alexa Listening? Amazon Employees Can Access Home Addresses, telephone numbers, contacts

Posted on by Robin Edgar

An Amazon.com Inc. team auditing Alexa users’ commands has access to location data and can, in some cases, easily find a customer’s home address, according to five employees familiar with the program. The team, spread across three continents, transcribes, annotates and analyzes a portion of the voice recordings picked up by Alexa. The program, whose Read more about Is Alexa Listening? Amazon Employees Can Access Home Addresses, telephone numbers, contacts[…]

Amazon behaving as a monopoly is really affecting open source development and their income models, leading to changes in open sourcing (finally, but in the wrong way). An example from Elasticsearch which Amazon calls a kettle.

Posted on by Robin Edgar

March 11, a Vice President at Amazon Web Services, Amazon’s cloud computing behemoth, published a blog post announcing the release of its own version of Elasticsearch, a powerful open-source software search engine tool. Elastic is a public company founded in 2012 that is currently worth over $5 billion; the vast majority of its revenue is Read more about Amazon behaving as a monopoly is really affecting open source development and their income models, leading to changes in open sourcing (finally, but in the wrong way). An example from Elasticsearch which Amazon calls a kettle.[…]

Epic Games Boss Says They’ll Stop Doing Exclusives If Steam Gives Developers More Money because some people seem to be happy to live with a Steam monopoly

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Last night, Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney tweeted that his company would end its controversial exclusivity agreements if Steam raised its revenue cut for developers. It’s a strong statement, even if there are reasons to be skeptical of Sweeney’s position. “If Steam committed to a permanent 88% revenue share for all developers and publishers without Read more about Epic Games Boss Says They’ll Stop Doing Exclusives If Steam Gives Developers More Money because some people seem to be happy to live with a Steam monopoly[…]