Daily Archives: August 19, 2022

South Korea to pardon Samsung’s Lee, other corporate giants

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Samsung’s de-facto leader secured a pardon Friday of his conviction for bribing a former president in a corruption scandal that toppled a previous South Korean government, an act of leniency that underscored the tech company’s huge influence in the nation.

Lee Jae-yong’s pardon is partially symbolic since he was released on parole a year ago after serving 18 months of a prison term that would have ended in July, and critics say the billionaire has remained in control of Samsung even while behind bars. Still, the pardon will allow the heir to the electronics juggernaut to fully resume his management duties and could make it easier for the company to pursue investments and mergers.

The Justice Ministry said President Yoon Suk Yeol, who as a prosecutor investigated the corruption scandal involving Lee, will issue the pardon Monday, a national holiday when some 1,700 people are set to receive clemency, including other top business leaders.

Lee, 54, was convicted in 2017 of bribing former President Park Geun-hye and her close confidante to win government support for a merger between two Samsung affiliates that tightened Lee’s control over the corporate empire. Park and the confidante were also convicted in the scandal, which enraged South Koreans, who staged massive protests for months demanding an end to the shady ties between business and politics. The demonstrations eventually led to Park’s ouster from office.

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Lee still faces a separate trial on charges of stock price manipulation and auditing violations related to the 2015 merger.

Among others set to be pardoned is Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin, who received a suspended prison term in 2018 on similar charges of bribing Park, whom then-President Moon Jae-in pardoned in December. Chang Sae-joo, chairman of Dongkuk Steel Mill, and former STX Group Chairman Kang Duk-soo will also receive clemency.

A coalition of civic groups, including People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, issued a statement criticizing the move to pardon the business leaders, accusing Yoon of cozying up to “chaebol,” referring to the family-owned conglomerates that dominate the country’s economy.

“President Yoon Suk Yeol’s sell-out (to business) sends a signal to chaebol chiefs that they are free to commit all the crimes they want,” the groups said, accusing Yoon of damaging the rule of law.

Former President Park was convicted of a broad range of corruption crimes, including colluding with her longtime confidante, Choi Soon-sil, to take millions of dollars in bribes and extortion from Samsung and other major companies while she was in office.

She faced a prison term of more than two decades before Moon pardoned her in December, citing a need to promote unity in the politically divided nation. Choi remains in jail. Chang, of Dongkuk Steel Mill, was released on parole in 2018 with about six months left on a 3 1/2-year prison term on charges that he embezzled millions of dollars in corporate funds and used some of it to gamble in Las Vegas.

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Han, the justice minster, said that the government did not consider the pardons of any convicted politicians or government employees this time, saying that the focus was on the economy

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Source: South Korea to pardon Samsung’s Lee, other corporate giants | AP News

One rule for the rich, the law for the rest

Australia fines Google $42.5 million over misleading location settings

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Google is being ordered to pay A$60 million ($42.5 million) in penalties to Australia’s competition and national consumer law regulator regarding the collection and use of location data on Android phones.

The financial slap on the wrist relates to a period between January 2017 and December 2018 and follows court action by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

According to the regulators, Google misled consumers through the “Location History” setting. Some users were told, according to the ACCC, that the setting “was the only Google account setting that affected whether Google collected, kept and used personally identifiable data about their location.”

It was not. Another setting titled “Web & App Activity” also permitted data to be collected by Google. And it allowed the collection of “personally identifiable location data when it was turned on, and that setting was turned on by default,” the ACCC said.

The “misleading representations,” according to the ACCC, breach Australian consumer law and could have been viewed by the users of 1.3 million Google accounts in Australia. The figure is, however, a best estimate. We’re sure Google doesn’t collect telemetry showing where Android users navigate to either.

Privacy issues aside, the data could also be used by Google to target ads to consumers who thought they’d said no to collection.

Google “took remedial steps” and addressed the issues by December 20, 2018, but the damage was done and the ACCC instituted proceedings in October 2019. In April 2021, the Federal Court found that Google LLC (the US entity) and Google Australia Pty Ltd had breached Australian consumer law.

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Google has come under fire from other quarters regarding the obtaining of customer location data without proper consent. A group of US states sued the search giant earlier this year over “dark patterns” in the user interface to get hold of location information. Then there was the whole creepy Street View Wi-Fi harvesting debacle.

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Source: Australia fines Google over misleading location settings • The Register

Ring surveillance camera footage exploited for “funny clip” show

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[…]Ring Nation, a new twist on the popular clip show genre, from MGM Television, Live PD producer Big Fish Entertainment and Ring.

The series, which will launch on September 26, will feature viral videos shared by people from their video doorbells and smart home cameras.

It’s a television take on a genre that has been increasingly going viral on social media.

The series will feature clips such as neighbors saving neighbors, marriage proposals, military reunions and silly animals.

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Source: Wanda Sykes To Host Syndicated Viral Video Show Featuring Ring – Deadline

How this is not a really scary way to try to normalise the constant and low visibility surveillance enacted by these cameras is a puzzle to me. Making it funny that you’re being spied upon from the doors in the streets.

AI laser probe for prostate cancer enters clinical trials

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AI software capable of mapping tumor tissue more accurately to help surgeons treat and shrink prostate cancer using a laser-powered needle will soon be tested in real patients during clinical trials.

The National Cancer Institute estimated that approximately 12.6 percent of men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point in their life. The risk for developing the disease rises over time for men over the age of 50. It’s one of the most curable forms of cancer, considering most cases are caught in the early stages due to regular screening tests.

Treatment for prostate cancer varies depending on the severity of the disease. Patients can undergo hormone therapy, chemotherapy, or surgery to remove tissue. Avenda Health, a medical startup founded in 2017, is developing a new type of treatment that is less invasive. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted an investigational device exemption (IDE) to the company’s invention this week, meaning it can now be used in a clinical study.

Patients will need to have an MRI scan and a targeted fusion biopsy performed first. The data is processed by Avenda’s AI algorithms in its iQuest software to map where the cancerous cells are located within the prostate. Next, the computer vision-aided model will simulate where best to insert FocalPoint, a probe armed with a laser, to help surgeons treat the patient’s tumor. The heat from the laser gently heats the cancerous cells and kills them with goal of shrinking and removing the whole tumor.

focal_point_iquest_avenda

MRI images where cancer is mapped using iQuest software before and after treatment. Image Credit: Avenda Health

“Historically, prostate cancer treatments of surgery or radiation impacts critical structures like the urethra and nerves which control sexual and urinary function,” Avenda’s CEO and co-founder Shyam Natarajan told The Register. “Our focal laser ablation system, FocalPoint, which is powered by our AI-driven cancer margin software, iQuest, specifically targets tumor tissue and avoids healthy tissue. This means patients no longer lose control over these functions that are so common with traditional treatments, so quality of life is significantly improved.”

The treatment is only effective for men diagnosed with intermediate risk of prostate cancer, a classification that describes tumors being confined within the prostate only. Patients are considered high risk in cases where the cancer has spread beyond the prostate.

“This is one of the benefits of the iQuest software. Not only can it map the cancer, but it also provides decision support for the physician as they determine the best course of treatment for an individual patient. Not every patient is going to be eligible for focal therapy, and it is important for the physician to distinguish between good focal therapy candidates and not.  iQuest provides useful insights for that decision making process,”  Natarajan said.

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Source: AI laser probe for prostate cancer enters clinical trials • The Register

Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough Confirmed: California Team Achieved Ignition

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A major breakthrough in nuclear fusion has been confirmed a year after it was achieved at a laboratory in California.

Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL’s) National Ignition Facility (NIF) recorded the first case of ignition on August 8, 2021, the results of which have now been published in three peer-reviewed papers.

Nuclear fusion is the process that powers the Sun and other stars: heavy hydrogen atoms collide with enough force that they fuse together to form a helium atom, releasing large amounts of energy as a by-product. Once the hydrogen plasma “ignites”, the fusion reaction becomes self-sustaining, with the fusions themselves producing enough power to maintain the temperature without external heating.

Ignition during a fusion reaction essentially means that the reaction itself produced enough energy to be self-sustaining, which would be necessary in the use of fusion to generate electricity.

If we could harness this reaction to generate electricity, it would be one of the most efficient and least polluting sources of energy possible. No fossil fuels would be required as the only fuel would be hydrogen, and the only by-product would be helium, which we use in industry and are actually in short supply of.

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In this latest milestone at the LLNL, researchers recorded an energy yield of more than 1.3 megajoules (MJ) during only a few nanoseconds. For reference, one MJ is the kinetic energy of a one tonne mass moving at 100mph.

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In the experiments performed to reach this ignition result, researchers heat and compress a central “hot spot” of deuterium-tritium (hydrogen atoms with one and two neutrons, respectively) fuel using a surrounding dense piston also made from deuterium-tritium, creating a super hot, super pressurized hydrogen plasma.

“Ignition occurs when the heating from absorption of α particles [two protons and two neutrons tightly bound together] created in the fusion process overcomes the loss mechanisms in the system for a duration of time,” said the authors in a paper publishing the results in the journal Physical Review E.

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Source: Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough Confirmed: California Team Achieved Ignition

Scientists discover how mosquitoes can ‘sniff out’ humans despite masking scents

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esearchers at the Rockefeller University, in New York, were baffled when mosquitoes were somehow still able to find people to bite after having an entire family of human odour-sensing proteins removed from their genome.

The team then examined odour receptors in the antennae of mosquitoes, which bind to chemicals floating around in the environment and signal to the brain via neurons.

“We assumed that mosquitoes would follow the central dogma of olfaction, which is that only one type of receptor is expressed in each neuron,” said Younger. “Instead, what we’ve seen is that different receptors can respond to different odours in the same neuron.”

This means losing one or more receptors does not affect the ability of mosquitoes to pick up on human smells. This backup system could have evolved as a survival mechanism, the researchers say.

“The mosquito Aedes aegypti is specialised to bite humans, and it is believed that they evolved to do that because humans are always close to fresh water and mosquitoes lay their eggs in fresh water. We are basically the perfect meal, so the drive to find humans is extremely strong,” said Younger.

Ultimately, the researchers say, understanding how the mosquito brain processes human odour could be used to intervene in biting behaviour and reduce the spread of mosquito-borne diseases, such as malaria, dengue and yellow fever.

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Source: Scientists discover how mosquitoes can ‘sniff out’ humans | Animal behaviour | The Guardian

Physical buttons outperform touchscreens in new cars, test finds

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Vi Bilägare gathered eleven modern cars from different manufacturers at an airfield och measured the time needed for a driver to perform different simple tasks, such as changing the radio station or adjusting the climate control. At the same time, the car was driven at 110 km/h (68 mph). We also invited an ”old-school” car without a touchscreen, a 17-year-old Volvo V70, for comparison.

One important aspect of this test is that the drivers had time to get to know the cars and their infotainment systems before the test started.

The screens in modern cars keep getting bigger. Design teams at most car manufacturers love to ditch physical buttons and switches, although they are far superior safety-wise.

That is the conclusion when Swedish car magazine Vi Bilägare performed a thurough test of the HMI system (Human-Machine Interface) in a total of twelve cars this summer.

Inspiration for the screen-heavy interiors in modern cars comes from smartphones and tablets. Designers want a ”clean” interior with minimal switchgear, and the financial department wants to lower the cost. Instead of developing, manufacturing and keeping physical buttons in stock for years to come, car manufacturers are keen on integrating more functions into a digital screen which can be updated over time.

So in what way have these screens affected safety? Vi Bilägare gathered eleven modern cars from different manufacturers at an airfield och measured the time needed for a driver to perform different simple tasks, such as changing the radio station or adjusting the climate control. At the same time, the car was driven at 110 km/h (68 mph). We also invited an ”old-school” car without a touchscreen, a 17-year-old Volvo V70, for comparison.

One important aspect of this test is that the drivers had time to get to know the cars and their infotainment systems before the test started.

Each moment during the test is timed separately.

No backlighting

Tesla was not the first to introduce a touchscreen, but the American carmaker has always offered bigger touchscreens than most manufacturers, containing more of the car’s features. Even the windshield wipers are controlled through the touchscreen.

BMW iX also offers a touchscreen, but not as big as Tesla’s, and also more physical buttons. But that’s no guarantee for a system which is easy to use. The BMW’s infotainment system has lots of features, but it also has one of the most complex and complicated user interfaces ever designed.

Another sin is committed by Volkswagen and Seat. In order to save money, the touch-sensitive climate controls below the screen in the ID.3 and Leon are not backlit which make them completely invisible at night.

Voice control

The carmakers are keen to point out that many features now can be activated by voice. But the voice control systems are not always easy to use, they can’t control every function and they don’t always work as advertised, which is why the voice control systems were not tested in this experiment.

The results speak for themselves. The worst-performing car needs 1,400 meters to perform the same tasks for which the best-performing car only needs 300 meters.

Big differences

  • The easiest car to understand and operate, by a large margin, is the 2005 Volvo V70. The four tasks is handled within ten seconds flat, during which the car is driven 306 meters at 110 km/h.
  • At the other end of the scale, Chinese electric car MG Marvel R performs far worse. The driver needs 44.6 seconds before all the tasks are completed, during which the car has travelled 1,372 meters – more than four times the distance compared to the old Volvo.
  • BMW iX and Seat Leon perform better, but both are still too complicated. The driver needs almost a kilometer to perform the tasks. Lots can happen in traffic during that time.
  • Dacia Sandero and Volvo C40 perform well although they both have touchscreens. However, they are not overloaded with features. Volvo shows that a touchscreen doesn’t need to be complicated.

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The results

Car Time to perform four tasks, seconds Score, 1–5
BMW iX 30.4 4.0
Dacia Sandero 13.5 3.75
Hyundai Ioniq 5 26.7 3.5
Mercedes GLB 20.2 3.25
MG Marvel R 44.9 2.5
Nissan Qashqai 25.1 4.25
Seat Leon 29.3 3.25
Subaru Outback 19.4 4.0
Tesla Model 3 23.5 3.75
Volkswagen ID.3 25.7 2.25
Volvo C40 13.7 3.5
Volvo V70 (2005) 10.0 4.5

Click to view results

 
  distance to perform task

Source: Physical buttons outperform touchscreens in new cars, test finds | Vi Bilägare

e-HallPass Monitors How Long Kids Are in the Bathroom Is Now in 1,000 American Schools, normalises surveillance

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e-HallPass, a digital system that students have to use to request to leave their classroom and which takes note of how long they’ve been away, including to visit the bathroom, has spread into at least a thousand schools around the United States.

The system has some resemblance to the sort of worker monitoring carried out by Amazon, which tracks how long its staff go to the toilet for, and is used to penalize workers for “time off task.” It also highlights how automated tools have led to increased surveillance of students in schools, and employees in places of work.

“This product is just the latest in a growing number of student surveillance tools—designed to allow school administrators to monitor and control student behavior at scale, on and off campus,”

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increased scrutiny offered by surveillance tools “has been shown to be disproportionately targeted against minorities, recent immigrants, LGBTQ kids,” and other marginalized groups.

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Eduspire, the company that makes e-HallPass, told trade publication EdSurge in March that 1,000 schools use the system. Brian Tvenstrup, president of Eduspire, told the outlet that the company’s biggest obstacle to selling the product “is when a school isn’t culturally ready to make these kinds of changes yet.”

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Admins can then access data collected through the software, and view a live dashboard showing details on all passes. e-HallPass can also stop meet-ups of certain students and limit the amount of passes going to certain locations, the website adds, explicitly mentioning  “vandalism and TikTok challenges.” Many of the schools Motherboard identified appear to use e-HallPass specifically on Chromebooks, according to student user guides and similar documents hosted on the schools’ websites, though it also advertises that it can be used to track students on their personal cell phones.

EdSurge reported that some people had taken to Change.org with a petition to remove the “creepy” system from a specific school. Motherboard found over a dozen similar petitions online, including one regarding Independence High School signed nearly 700 times which appears to have been written by a group of students.

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Source: A Tool That Monitors How Long Kids Are in the Bathroom Is Now in 1,000 American Schools

FIFA 23 Accidentally Sells For Six Cents, EA Honors The Mistake

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FIFA 23 is currently up for preorder around the world, and is supposed to be a full-price retail release, but in one particular market on one particular store, customers could get one hell of a bargain.

Last month, anyone browsing the Epic Games Store in India would have seen that while the standard edition of FIFA 23 cost ₹3,499 (USD$44), the Ultimate Edition—which should have been ₹4,799 (USD$60) was instead listed at ₹4.80.

The error was first discovered in late July
The error was first discovered in late July
Image: Twitter

That is not a sale price, that is an error, one where the store has clearly put the decimal point in the wrong spot. ₹4.80 works out to be six cents, and as word spread about the savings, users flocked to the store and bought the game. And not just Indian gamers, either; once news got out, fans were sharing across social media ways for players outside the region to set their accounts to the Indian Epic Games Store so they could get in on the error as well.

Now, this kind of thing isn’t exactly rare in the realms of online shopping, but often stores will cancel orders when the discrepancy is this great, so I don’t think too many people would have been expecting to have actually got hold of the more expensive version of FIFA 23 for six cents.

But they have! Via PC Gamer, EA Sports have this week issued a statement saying:

A few weeks back, we scored a pretty spectacular own-goal when we inadvertently offered FIFA 23 pre-purchase on the Epic Games Store at an incorrect price. It was our mistake, and we wanted to let you know that we’ll be honoring all pre-purchases made at that price.

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Source: FIFA 23 Accidentally Sells For Six Cents, EA Honors The Mistake