Month: November 2021

How do death rates from COVID-19 differ between people who are vaccinated and those who are not?

Posted on by Robin Edgar

To understand how the pandemic is evolving, it’s crucial to know how death rates from COVID-19 are affected by vaccination status. The death rate is a key metric that can accurately show us how effective vaccines are against severe forms of the disease. This may change over time when there are changes in the prevalence Read more about How do death rates from COVID-19 differ between people who are vaccinated and those who are not?[…]

Replacement Motherboard Brings New Lease Of Life To Classic T60 / T61 Thinkpads

Posted on by Robin Edgar

[…]Even the best hardware eventually becomes obsolete when it can no longer run modern software: with a 2.0 GHz Core Duo and 3 GB of RAM you can still browse the web and do word processing today, but you can forget about 4K video or a 64-bit OS. Luckily, there’s hope for those who are Read more about Replacement Motherboard Brings New Lease Of Life To Classic T60 / T61 Thinkpads[…]

Hitting the Books: How Amazon laundered the ‘myth of the founder’ into a business empire

Posted on by Robin Edgar

We’ve heard the fable of “the self-made billionaire” a thousand times: some unrecognized genius toiling away in a suburban garage stumbles upon The Next Big Thing, thereby single-handedly revolutionizing their industry and becoming insanely rich in the process — all while comfortably ignoring the fact that they’d received $300,000 in seed funding from their already Read more about Hitting the Books: How Amazon laundered the ‘myth of the founder’ into a business empire[…]

3D-printed ‘living ink’ could lead to self-repairing buildings

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Phys.org reports scientists have developed a “living ink” you could use to print equally alive materials usable for creating 3D structures. The team genetically engineered cells for E. Coli and other microbes to create living nanofibers, bundled those fibers and added other materials to produce an ink you could use in a standard 3D printer. Read more about 3D-printed ‘living ink’ could lead to self-repairing buildings[…]

Testing social scientists with replication studies shows them capable of changing their beliefs

Posted on by Robin Edgar

A team of researchers from the University of Alabama, the University of Melbourne and the University of California has found that social scientists are able to change their beliefs regarding the outcome of an experiment when given the chance. In a paper published in the journal Nature Human Behavior, the group describes how they tested Read more about Testing social scientists with replication studies shows them capable of changing their beliefs[…]

BreakthroughCreates Laser In Silicon

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Long sought-after, and previously thought impossible — a McMaster University PhD student in Hamilton Canada demonstrates a cost-effective and simple laser in silicon. This could have dramatic consequences for the SiP (Silicon Photonics) — a hot topic for those working in the field of integrated optics. Integrated optics is a critical technology involved in advanced Read more about BreakthroughCreates Laser In Silicon[…]

Researchers Defeat Randomness to Create perfect local testability for information

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Suppose you are trying to transmit a message. Convert each character into bits, and each bit into a signal. Then send it, over copper or fiber or air. Try as you might to be as careful as possible, what is received on the other side will not be the same as what you began with. Read more about Researchers Defeat Randomness to Create perfect local testability for information[…]

The UK Just Banned Default Passwords and We Should Too

Posted on by Robin Edgar

UK lawmakers are sick and tired of shitty internet of things passwords and are whipping out legislation with steep penalties and bans to prove it. The new legislation, introduced to the UK Parliament this week, would ban universal default passwords and work to create what supporters are calling a “firewall around everyday tech.” Specifically, the Read more about The UK Just Banned Default Passwords and We Should Too[…]

Rolls Royce flies electric aircraft making it fastest EV in the world

Posted on by Robin Edgar

We believe our all-electric ‘Spirit of Innovation’ aircraft is the world’s fastest all-electric aircraft, setting three new world records. We have submitted data to the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) – the World Air Sports Federation who control and certify world aeronautical and astronautical records – that at 15:45 (GMT) on 16 November 2021, the aircraft Read more about Rolls Royce flies electric aircraft making it fastest EV in the world[…]

WhatsApp privacy policy tweaked in Europe after record fine

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Following an investigation, the Irish data protection watchdog issued a €225m (£190m) fine – the second-largest in history over GDPR – and ordered WhatsApp to change its policies. WhatsApp is appealing against the fine, but is amending its policy documents in Europe and the UK to comply. However, it insists that nothing about its actual Read more about WhatsApp privacy policy tweaked in Europe after record fine[…]

Short of Suspension: How Suspension Warnings Can Reduce Hate Speech on Twitter

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Debates around the effectiveness of high-profile Twitter account suspensions and similar bans on abusive users across social media platforms abound. Yet we know little about the effectiveness of warning a user about the possibility of suspending their account as opposed to outright suspensions in reducing hate speech. With a pre-registered experiment, we provide causal evidence Read more about Short of Suspension: How Suspension Warnings Can Reduce Hate Speech on Twitter[…]

GoDaddy Managed WordPress compromised, 1.2m peoples data exposed – sftp, ssl keys, admin passwords, etc

Posted on by Robin Edgar

GoDaddy has admitted to America’s financial watchdog that one or more miscreants broke into its systems and potentially accessed a huge amount of customer data, from email addresses to SSL private keys. In a filing on Monday to the SEC, the internet giant said that on November 17 it discovered an “unauthorized third-party” had been Read more about GoDaddy Managed WordPress compromised, 1.2m peoples data exposed – sftp, ssl keys, admin passwords, etc[…]

Cancer Cells Use “Tiny Tentacles” To Suck Mitochondria Out of Immune Cells

Posted on by Robin Edgar

To grow and spread, cancer cells must evade the immune system. Investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and MIT used the power of nanotechnology to discover a new way that cancer can disarm its would-be cellular attackers by extending out nanoscale tentacles that can reach into an immune cell and pull out its powerpack. Slurping Read more about Cancer Cells Use “Tiny Tentacles” To Suck Mitochondria Out of Immune Cells[…]

Launch startup Astra reaches orbit for the first time

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The ranks of orbit-capable spaceflight companies just grew ever so slightly. TechCrunch reports Astra has reached orbit for the first time when its Rocket 3 booster launched shortly after 1AM Eastern today (November 20th). The startup put a mass simulator into a 310-mile-high orbit as part of a demonstration for the US Air Force’s Rapid Read more about Launch startup Astra reaches orbit for the first time[…]

The Amazon lobbyists who kill U.S. consumer privacy protections

Posted on by Robin Edgar

In recent years, Amazon.com Inc has killed or undermined privacy protections in more than three dozen bills across 25 states, as the e-commerce giant amassed a lucrative trove of personal data on millions of American consumers. Amazon executives and staffers detail these lobbying victories in confidential documents reviewed by Reuters. In Virginia, the company boosted political Read more about The Amazon lobbyists who kill U.S. consumer privacy protections[…]

Linux has a serious security problem that once again enables DNS cache poisoning using ICMP / ping information

Posted on by Robin Edgar

As much as 38 percent of the Internet’s domain name lookup servers are vulnerable to a new attack that allows hackers to send victims to maliciously spoofed addresses masquerading as legitimate domains, like bankofamerica.com or gmail.com. The exploit, unveiled in research presented today, revives the DNS cache-poisoning attack that researcher Dan Kaminsky disclosed in 2008. Read more about Linux has a serious security problem that once again enables DNS cache poisoning using ICMP / ping information[…]

Discord is quietly building an app empire of bots – The Verge

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Discord has been quietly building its own app platform based on bots over the past few years. More than 30 percent of Discord servers now use bots, and 430,000 of them are used every week across Discord by its 150 million monthly active users. Now that bots are an important part of Discord, the company Read more about Discord is quietly building an app empire of bots – The Verge[…]

Apple magnanimously launches Self Service Repair for DIY iPhone, Mac fixes

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Apple, having long stood in the way of customers who want to fix their own devices, now says it wants to help those who feel they have the right to repair their own products. On Wednesday the iBiz announced Self Service Repair, “which will allow customers who are comfortable with completing their own repairs access Read more about Apple magnanimously launches Self Service Repair for DIY iPhone, Mac fixes[…]

South Korea Is Giving Millions of Photos of all foreign travelers since 2019 to Facial Recognition Researchers

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The South Korean Ministry of Justice has provided more than 100 million photos of foreign nationals who travelled through the country’s airports to facial recognition companies without their consent, according to attorneys with the non-governmental organization Lawyers for a Democratic Society. While the use of facial recognition technology has become common for governments across the Read more about South Korea Is Giving Millions of Photos of all foreign travelers since 2019 to Facial Recognition Researchers[…]

Big tech fined 2% revenue if they force their own in-app payment system in S Korea

Posted on by Robin Edgar

South Korean has again imposed new regulations on app stores, this time with a regime that will see operators fined up to two per cent of revenue if they force their proprietary in-app payment systems on developers. “Considering that certain payment methods compulsory acts are serious illegal acts of app market operators, an enforcement ordinance Read more about Big tech fined 2% revenue if they force their own in-app payment system in S Korea[…]

Project Collects ‘Every’ NFT In One Giant 20TB Download

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Hours ago, a website appeared online with the express purpose of hosting a nearly 20TB torrent (that’s terabytes, folks, the big boys of digital data measurement) containing every NFT available through the Ethereum and Solana blockchains. The NFT Bay, whose name and overall design riff on iconic torrent database The Pirate Bay, is the work Read more about Project Collects ‘Every’ NFT In One Giant 20TB Download[…]

Canadian teen arrested for stealing $36.5m of cryptocurrency

Posted on by Robin Edgar

A Canadian teenager has been arrested for allegedly stealing $37 million worth of cryptocurrency ($46M Canadian) via a SIM swap scam, making it the largest virtual cash heist affecting a single person yet, according to police. Together with the FBI and the US Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Force, Hamilton Police in the Canadian province Read more about Canadian teen arrested for stealing $36.5m of cryptocurrency[…]

Thousands of Firefox users accidentally commit login cookies on GitHub

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Thousands of Firefox cookie databases containing sensitive data are available on request from GitHub repositories, data potentially usable for hijacking authenticated sessions. These cookies.sqlite databases normally reside in the Firefox profiles folder. They’re used to store cookies between browsing sessions. And they’re findable by searching GitHub with specific query parameters, what’s known as a search Read more about Thousands of Firefox users accidentally commit login cookies on GitHub[…]

Warhammer 40K’s Imperium Is Genocidal – not a Good Thing, Maker Reminds Players

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Some Warhammer 40,000 players think the game’s fascist Imperium of Man faction is awesome, and actually has a few good ideas. It does not. To clarify this point—which more than one Warhammer 40K fan appears to have missed—maker Games Workshop put out a statement saying that you do not, under any circumstances, “gotta hand it Read more about Warhammer 40K’s Imperium Is Genocidal – not a Good Thing, Maker Reminds Players[…]