Month: November 2020

Hotels.com, Booking.com Expedia provider exposed data from 2013 for millions of guests on open AWS bucket

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Website Planet reports that Prestige Software, the company behind hotel reservation platforms for Hotels.com, Booking.com and Expedia, left data exposed for “millions” of guests on an Amazon Web Services S3 bucket. The 10 million-plus log files dated as far back as 2013 and included names, credit card details, ID numbers and reservation details. It’s not Read more about Hotels.com, Booking.com Expedia provider exposed data from 2013 for millions of guests on open AWS bucket[…]

UK Company House Demands Company Stop Using Name Which Includes an HTML Closing Tag

Posted on by Robin Edgar

A British software engineer came up with “a fun playful name” for his consulting business. He’d named it: “”> Unfortunately, this did not amuse the official registrar of companies in the United Kingdom (known as Companies House). The Guardian reports that the U.K. agency “has forced the company to change its name after it belatedly Read more about UK Company House Demands Company Stop Using Name Which Includes an HTML Closing Tag[…]

To Prevent Free, Frictionless Access To Human Knowledge, Publishers Want Librarians To Be Afraid, Very Afraid

Posted on by Robin Edgar

After many years of fierce resistance to open access, academic publishers have largely embraced — and extended — the idea, ensuring that their 35-40% profit margins live on. In the light of this subversion of the original hopes for open access, people have come up with other ways to provide free and frictionless access to Read more about To Prevent Free, Frictionless Access To Human Knowledge, Publishers Want Librarians To Be Afraid, Very Afraid[…]

Nasal spray might prevent COVID-19 infections – it does in ferrets

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Many hopes for a return to a semi-normal life after COVID-19 revolve around vaccines, but those injections have limits — they’re harder to deploy in low-income and rural areas where there’s no guarantee of easy distribution. Science may offer a more accessible alternative, though. Columbia University researchers have developed a nasal spray that has successfully Read more about Nasal spray might prevent COVID-19 infections – it does in ferrets[…]

Android v 7.1.1 and lower Won’t Support Many Secure Certificates in 2021

Posted on by Robin Edgar

One of the world’s top certificate authorities warns that phones running versions of Android prior to 7.1.1 Nougat will be cut off from large portions of the secure web starting in 2021, Android Police reported Saturday. The Mozilla-partnered nonprofit Let’s Encrypt said that its partnership with fellow certificate authority IdenTrust will expire on Sept. 1, Read more about Android v 7.1.1 and lower Won’t Support Many Secure Certificates in 2021[…]

AST & Science wants to launch 243 mobile broadband satellites into space used by the A Train – and NASA’s quite worried about crashes into scientific craft

Posted on by Robin Edgar

AST & Science, a Texas-based company, has applied for approval to build SpaceMobile, which claims to be the “first and only space-based cellular broadband network to be accessible by standard smartphones.” Its proposed network is under review by the FCC. However, NASA reckons it will heighten the risk of contact between spacecraft within a region Read more about AST & Science wants to launch 243 mobile broadband satellites into space used by the A Train – and NASA’s quite worried about crashes into scientific craft[…]

Uncle Sam’s legal eagles hope to get their claws on $1bn in Bitcoin ‘stolen by hacker’ from dark-web souk Silk Road

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The US Department of Justice on Thursday filed a legal request to formally take control of more than $1bn in Bitcoin (BTC) generated from the sales of illicit goods at Silk Road. It is believed the crypto-coins were stolen from the dark-web market at some point, and now the Feds want to take ownership of Read more about Uncle Sam’s legal eagles hope to get their claws on $1bn in Bitcoin ‘stolen by hacker’ from dark-web souk Silk Road[…]

Network driver issue shaves 12 more hours off Microsoft’s ‘365’ infrastructure, and yeah, it was Exchange Online again

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Traditionally a night for fireworks, 5 November saw some sort of detonation within the Microsoft 365 infrastructure in the form of a borked update or, as the company delicately put it: “an issue wherein some users may be unable to access their mailboxes through Exchange Online via all connection methods.” There was good news, however, Read more about Network driver issue shaves 12 more hours off Microsoft’s ‘365’ infrastructure, and yeah, it was Exchange Online again[…]

Police Will Pilot a Program to Live-Stream Amazon Ring Cameras

Posted on by Robin Edgar

This is not a drill. Red alert: The police surveillance center in Jackson, Mississippi, will be conducting a 45-day pilot program to live stream the Amazon Ring cameras of participating residents. Since Ring first made a splash in the private security camera market, we’ve been warning of its potential to undermine the civil liberties of its Read more about Police Will Pilot a Program to Live-Stream Amazon Ring Cameras[…]

Carbon footprint for ‘training GPT-3’ AI same as driving to the moon and back

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Training OpenAI’s giant GPT-3 text-generating model is akin to driving a car to the Moon and back, computer scientists reckon. More specifically, they estimated teaching the neural super-network in a Microsoft data center using Nvidia GPUs required roughly 190,000 kWh, which using the average carbon intensity of America would have produced 85,000 kg of CO2 Read more about Carbon footprint for ‘training GPT-3’ AI same as driving to the moon and back[…]

Supermarket giant Iceland sends chicken nugget into space to mark 50th anniversary

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Supermarket chain Iceland has launched a chicken nugget into space to celebrate its 50th anniversary of trading. The breaded snack was launched into the stratosphere from a location close to the company’s head office in Deeside, North Wales, as part a joint venture with Sent Into Space, a team of experts in the field of Read more about Supermarket giant Iceland sends chicken nugget into space to mark 50th anniversary[…]

‘Sleeping giant’ Arctic methane deposits starting to release, scientists find

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Scientists have found evidence that frozen methane deposits in the Arctic Ocean – known as the “sleeping giants of the carbon cycle” – have started to be released over a large area of the continental slope off the East Siberian coast, the Guardian can reveal. High levels of the potent greenhouse gas have been detected Read more about ‘Sleeping giant’ Arctic methane deposits starting to release, scientists find[…]

X.Org is now pretty much an ex-org: Maintainer declares the open-source windowing system largely abandoned

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Red Hat’s Adam Jackson, project owner for the X.Org graphical and windowing system still widely used on Linux, said the project has been abandoned “to the extent that that means using it to actually control the display, and not just keep X apps running.” Jackson’s post confirms suspicions raised a week ago by Intel engineer Read more about X.Org is now pretty much an ex-org: Maintainer declares the open-source windowing system largely abandoned[…]

AI has cracked a key mathematical puzzle for understanding our world – Partial Differential Equations

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Unless you’re a physicist or an engineer, there really isn’t much reason for you to know about partial differential equations. I know. After years of poring over them in undergrad while studying mechanical engineering, I’ve never used them since in the real world. But partial differential equations, or PDEs, are also kind of magical. They’re Read more about AI has cracked a key mathematical puzzle for understanding our world – Partial Differential Equations[…]

Unusual molecule found in atmosphere on Saturn’s moon Titan, precursor to life

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, is the only moon in our solar system that has a thick atmosphere. It’s four times denser than Earth’s. And now, scientists have discovered a molecule in it that has never been found in any other atmosphere. The particle is called cyclopropenylidene, or C3H2, and it’s made of carbon and hydrogen. Read more about Unusual molecule found in atmosphere on Saturn’s moon Titan, precursor to life[…]

Artificial intelligence model detects asymptomatic Covid-19 infections through cellphone-recorded coughs

Posted on by Robin Edgar

MIT researchers have now found that people who are asymptomatic may differ from healthy individuals in the way that they cough. These differences are not decipherable to the human ear. But it turns out that they can be picked up by artificial intelligence. In a paper published recently in the IEEE Journal of Engineering in Read more about Artificial intelligence model detects asymptomatic Covid-19 infections through cellphone-recorded coughs[…]