Daily Archives: September 8, 2023

Kokoon / Philips Sleep Headphones (Designed for Ultimate Comfort)

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Philips and sleep specialists Kokoon have partnered to create an unparalleled sleep headphone.

The Philips Sleep Headphones, powered by Kokoon, blends sleep science and ergonomic know-how with Philips’ century-long reputation for crafting top-notch products.

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Experience a comfort revolution. After numerous nights of testing, our team has crafted an earbud that flawlessly conforms to the shape of your ear for maximum comfort during side sleeping.

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Sleep soundly with advanced biosensors that detect when you drift off and adjust sound levels accordingly, ensuring a peaceful and uninterrupted night.

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Our biosensors introduce white noise during the night to assist with blocking out disruptive sounds such as snoring or external noise. Discover a more peaceful sleeping environment.

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Get a better night’s sleep with sounds backed by science. Select from a variety of options including meditations, soundscapes, binaural beats, and more to ease into slumber.

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Source: Kokoon Sleep Headphones (Designed for Ultimate Comfort) | Kokoon

The Grammys will consider that viral song with Drake and The Weeknd AI vocals for awards after all

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The person behind an AI-generated song that went viral earlier this year has submitted the track for Grammy Awards consideration. The Recording Academy has stated that such works aren’t eligible for certain gongs. However, Ghostwriter, the pseudonymous person behind “Heart on My Sleeve,” has submitted the track in the best rap song and song of the year categories, according to Variety. Both of those are songwriting honors. The Academy has suggested it’s open to rewarding tracks that are mostly written by a human, even if the actual recording is largely AI-generated.

Ghostwriter composed the song’s lyrics rather than leaving them up to, say, ChatGPT. But rather than sing or rap those words, they employed a generative AI model to mimic the vocals of Drake and The Weeknd, which helped the song to pick up buzz. The artists’ label Universal Music Group wasn’t happy about that and it filed copyright claims to remove “Heart on My Sleeve” from streaming services. Before that, though, the track racked up hundreds of thousands of listens on Spotify and more than 15 million on TikTok.

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It seems there’s one major roadblock as things stand, though. For a song to be eligible for a Grammy, it needs to have “general distribution” across the US through the likes of brick-and-mortar stores, online retailers and streaming services. Ghostwriter is reportedly aware of this restriction, but it’s unclear how they plan to address that.

In any case, this may well be a canary in the coal mine for rewarding the use of generative AI in art.

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Source: The Grammys will consider that viral song with Drake and The Weeknd AI vocals for awards after all

This is like saying that any song with a guitar or any song with a synthesizer won’t be considered for a Grammy

A US senator has a grip on the Confirmation Process for Military Officers and is using it to blackmail the government

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Senator Tuberville’s blanket hold on general officer nominations reaches its six-month anniversary this week. This all seems to have started with a reckless idea dreamed up by a staffer with no experience in the Senate who then left the Senator’s employment after taking credit for it in a Washington Post exposé. From its shaky foundations, the hold strategy has now morphed into a take-no-prisoners stand against federal funding of abortion and “wokeness” in the military. Tuberville appears to have no concept of an end game except total victory. Barring capitulation by the Senator, which doesn’t seem to be in the cards, the rest of the Senate needs to come up with a Plan B.

There are now 301 general and flag officer positions, including five spots on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which are impacted by these holds. By year’s end, that number may rise to 650. Tuberville argues that there is no readiness impact for having acting officers in place. He may eventually be right in the sense that the military is a mission-driven organization and will adjust whether or not the Senate acts. Since military rotations are on a two-year cycle, fairly soon every general and admiral in the military will be in an acting position. This may be the likeliest future outcome.

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Regular order and unscripted debates on amendments died long ago and as a result, the Senate can’t pass annual authorization bills except for the defense policy bill. The civilian nominations process is broken with over 180 confirmed positions still unfilled two and a half years into the current administration, and now the military nominations process has come unglued.

Trying to convince Senator Tuberville to withdraw his holds has been an exercise in futility. There is equally no appetite to modify the rules for holds and bundle these confirmations as that might set undesirable precedents. That leaves the option of doing nothing or altering what positions the Senate is required to confirm. The latter should be considered.

Until the Tuberville holds, the Senate routinely considered 50,000 military nominees a year primarily by unanimous consent. The biggest question one must ask is why? All military officers above the O-4 level (a major or lieutenant commander) must go through Senate confirmation for each promotion. This is referred to as a constitutional responsibility and yet an O-4 is the equivalent to a GS-13 in the civil service, while general officers are the equivalent of the Senior Executive Service (SES). The Senate does not confirm the nearly 490,000 federal employees at the GS-13 level or above nor the over 8,000 members of the SES even though they are all technically officers of the federal government as defined by the Constitution.

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What would parity look like? Currently, 61 civilians at the Department of Defense (DoD) require Senate confirmation. That is a good starting point to consider for military generals, but just focusing on the 41 four-star generals in service according to the latest DoD data is probably enough. Confirming just these officers could take over four months of floor time if holds were placed on them. Still, the Senate now needs to structure its rules and plan its calendar around standing holds on all nominations—civilian or military. That means limiting the number of individuals that require confirmation.

Source: The Senate Can No Longer Have Nice Things: Ending the Confirmation Process for Military Officers | American Enterprise Institute – AEI

Grasping entropy: Teachers and students investigate thermodynamics through a hands-on model

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Though a cornerstone of thermodynamics, entropy remains one of the most vexing concepts to teach budding physicists in the classroom. As a result, many people oversimplify the concept as the amount of disorder in the universe, neglecting its underlying quantitative nature.

 

In The Physics Teacher, researcher T. Ryan Rogers designed a hand-held model to demonstrate the concept of for students. Using everyday materials, Rogers’ approach allows students to confront the topic with new intuition—one that takes specific aim at the confusion between entropy and disorder.

“It’s a huge conceptual roadblock,” Rogers said. “The good news is that we’ve found that it’s something you can correct relatively easily early on. The bad news is that this misunderstanding gets taught so early on.”

While many classes opt for the imperfect, qualitative shorthand of calling entropy “disorder,” it’s defined mathematically as the number of ways energy can be distributed in a system. Such a definition merely requires students to understand how particles store energy, formally known as “degrees of freedom.”

To tackle the problem, Rogers developed a model in which small objects such as dice and buttons are poured into a box, replicating a simple thermodynamic system. Some particles in the densely filled box are packed in place, meaning they have fewer degrees of freedom, leading to an overall low-entropy system.

As students shake the box, they introduce energy into the system, which loosens up locked-in particles. This increases the overall number of ways energy can be distributed within the box.

“You essentially zoom in on entropy so students can say, ‘Aha! There is where I saw the entropy increase,'” Rogers said.

As students shake further, the particles settle into a configuration that more evenly portions out the energy among them. The catch: at this point of high entropy, the particles fall into an orderly alignment.

“Even though it looks more orientationally ordered, there’s actually higher entropy,” Rogers said.

All the who participated in the lesson were able to reason to the correct definition of entropy after the experiment.

Next, Rogers plans to extend the reach of the model by starting a conversation about entropy with other educators and creating a broader activity guide for ways to use the kits for kindergarten through college. He hopes his work inspires others to clarify the distinction in their classrooms, even if by DIY means.

“Grapes and Cheez-It crackers are very effective, as well,” Rogers said.

The article, “Hands-on Model for Investigating Entropy and Disorder in the Classroom,” is authored by T. Ryan Rogers and is published in The Physics Teacher.

More information: T. Ryan Rogers, Hands-on Model for Investigating Entropy and Disorder in the Classroom, The Physics Teacher (2023). DOI: 10.1119/5.0089761

Source: Grasping entropy: Teachers and students investigate thermodynamics through a hands-on model

Microsoft to stop forcing Windows 11 users into Edge in EU countries

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Microsoft will finally stop forcing Windows 11 users in Europe into Edge if they click a link from the Windows Widgets panel or from search results. The software giant has started testing the changes to Windows 11 in recent test builds of the operating system, but the changes are restricted to countries within the European Economic Area (EEA).

“In the European Economic Area (EEA), Windows system components use the default browser to open links,” reads a change note from a Windows 11 test build released to Dev Channel testers last month. I asked Microsoft to comment on the changes and, in particular, why they’re only being applied to EU countries. Microsoft refused to comment.

Microsoft has been ignoring default browser choices in its search experience in Windows 10 and the taskbar widget that forces users into Edge if they click a link instead of their default browser. Windows 11 continued this trend, with search still forcing users into Edge and a new dedicated widgets area that also ignores the default browser setting.

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Source: Microsoft to stop forcing Windows 11 users into Edge in EU countries – The Verge

Big Tech failed to police Russian disinformation: EU study

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The independent study of the DSA’s risk management framework published by the EU’s executive arm, the European Commission, concluded that commitments by social media platforms to mitigate the reach and influence of global online disinformation campaigns have been generally unsuccessful.

The reach of Kremlin-sponsored disinformation has only increased since the major platforms all signed a voluntary Code of Practice on Disinformation in mid-2022.

“In theory, the requirements of this voluntary Code were applied during the second half of 2022 – during our period of study,” the researchers said. We’re sure you’re just as shocked as we are that social media companies failed to uphold a voluntary commitment.

Between January and May of 2023, “average engagement [of pro-Kremlin accounts rose] by 22 percent across all online platforms,” the study said. By absolute numbers, the report found, Meta led the pack on engagement with Russian misinformation. However, the increase was “largely driven by Twitter, where engagement grew by 36 percent after CEO Elon Musk decided to lift mitigation measures on Kremlin-backed accounts,” researchers concluded. Twitter, now known as X, pulled out of the disinformation Code in May.

Across the platforms studied – Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube – Kremlin-backed accounts have amassed some 165 million followers and have had their content viewed at least 16 billion times “in less than a year.” None of the platforms we contacted responded to questions.

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The EU’s Digital Services Act and its requirements that VLOPs (defined by the Act as companies large enough to reach 10 percent of the EU, or roughly 45 million people) police illegal content and disinformation became enforceable late last month.

Under the DSA, VLOPs are also required “to tackle the spread of illegal content, online disinformation and other societal risks,” such as, say, the massive disinformation campaign being waged by the Kremlin since Putin decided to invade Ukraine last year.

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Now that VLOPs are bound by the DSA, will anything change? We asked the European Commission if it can take any enforcement actions, or whether it’ll make changes to the DSA to make disinformation rules tougher, but have yet to hear back.

Two VLOPs are fighting their designation: Amazon and German fashion retailer Zalando. The two orgs claim that as retailers, they shouldn’t be considered in the same category as Facebook, Pinterest, and Wikipedia.

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Source: Big Tech failed to police Russian disinformation: EU study • The Register

TV Museum Will Die in 48 Hours Unless Sony Retracts YouTube Copyright Strikes on 40 – 60 year old TV shows

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Rick Klein and his team have been preserving TV adverts, forgotten tapes, and decades-old TV programming for years. Now operating as a 501(c)(3) non-profit, the Museum of Classic Chicago Television has called YouTube home since 2007. However, copyright notices sent on behalf of Sony, protecting TV shows between 40 and 60 years old, could shut down the project in 48 hours.

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After being reborn on YouTube as The Museum of Classic Chicago Television (MCCTv), the last sixteen years have been quite a ride. Over 80 million views later, MCCTv is a much-loved 501(c)(3) non-profit Illinois corporation but in just 48 hours, may simply cease to exist.

In a series of emails starting Friday and continuing over the weekend, Klein began by explaining his team’s predicament, one that TorrentFreak has heard time and again over the past few years. Acting on behalf of a copyright owner, in this case Sony, India-based anti-piracy company Markscan hit the MCCTv channel with a flurry of copyright claims. If these cannot be resolved, the entire project may disappear.

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No matter whether takedowns are justified, unjustified (Markscan hit Sony’s own website with a DMCA takedown recently), or simply disputed, getting Markscan’s attention is a lottery at best, impossible at worst. In MCCTv’s short experience, nothing has changed.

“Our YouTube channel with 150k subscribers is in danger of being terminated by September 6th if I don’t find a way to resolve these copyright claims that Markscan made,” Klein told TorrentFreak on Friday.

“At this point, I don’t even care if they were issued under authorization by Sony or not – I just need to reach a live human being to try to resolve this without copyright strikes. I am willing to remove the material manually to get the strikes reversed.”

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Complaints Targeted TV Shows 40 to 60 years old

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Two episodes of the TV series Bewitched dated 1964 aired on ABC Network and almost sixty years later, archive copies of those transmissions were removed from YouTube for violating Sony copyrights, with MCCTv receiving a strike.

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Given that copyright law locks content down for decades, Klein understands that can sometimes cause issues, although 16 years on YouTube suggests that the overwhelming majority of rightsholders don’t consider his channel a threat. If they did, the option to monetize the recordings can be an option.

No Competition For Commercial Offers

Why most rightsholders have left MCCTv alone is hard to say; perhaps some see the historical value of the channel, maybe others don’t know it exists. At least in part, Klein believes the low quality of the videos could be significant.

“These were relatively low picture quality broadcast examples from various channels from various years at least 30-40 years ago, with the original commercial breaks intact. Also mixed in with these were examples of ’16mm network prints’ which are surviving original film prints that were sent out to TV stations back in the day from when the show originally aired. In many cases they include original sponsorship notices, original network commercials, ‘In Color’ notices, etc.,” he explains.

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Klein says the team is happy to comply with Sony’s wishes and they hope that given a little leeway, the project won’t be consigned to history. Perhaps Sony will recall the importance of time-shifting while understanding that time itself is running out for The Museum of Classic Chicago Television.

Source: TV Museum Will Die in 48 Hours Unless Sony Retracts YouTube Copyright Strikes * TorrentFreak

Mozilla investigates 25 major car brands and finds privacy is shocking

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The foundation, the Firefox browser maker’s netizen-rights org, assessed the privacy policies and practices of 25 automakers and found all failed its consumer privacy tests and thereby earned its Privacy Not Included (PNI) warning label.

If you care even a little about privacy, stay as far away from Nissan’s cars as you possibly can

In research published Tuesday, the org warned that manufacturers may collect and commercially exploit much more than location history, driving habits, in-car browser histories, and music preferences from today’s internet-connected vehicles. Instead, some makers may handle deeply personal data, such as – depending on the privacy policy – sexual activity, immigration status, race, facial expressions, weight, health, and even genetic information, the Mozilla team found.

Cars may collect at least some of that info about drivers and passengers using sensors, microphones, cameras, phones, and other devices people connect to their network-connected cars, according to Mozilla. And they collect even more info from car apps – such as Sirius XM or Google Maps – plus dealerships, and vehicle telematics.

Some car brands may then share or sell this information to third parties. Mozilla found 21 of the 25 automakers it considered say they may share customer info with service providers, data brokers, and the like, and 19 of the 25 say they can sell personal data.

More than half (56 percent) also say they share customer information with the government or law enforcement in response to a “request.” This isn’t necessarily a court-ordered warrant, and can also be a more informal request.

And some – like Nissan – may also use this private data to develop customer profiles that describe drivers’ “preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes.”

Yes, you read that correctly. According to Mozilla’s privacy researchers, Nissan says it can infer how smart you are, then sell that assessment to third parties.

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Nissan isn’t the only brand to collect information that seems completely irrelevant to the vehicle itself or the driver’s transportation habits.

“Kia mentions sex life,” Caltrider said. “General Motors and Ford both mentioned race and sexual orientation. Hyundai said that they could share data with government and law enforcement based on formal or informal requests. Car companies can collect even more information than reproductive health apps in a lot of ways.”

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the Privacy Not Included team contacted Nissan and all of the other brands listed in the research: that’s Lincoln, Mercedes-Benz, Acura, Buick, GMC, Cadillac, Fiat, Jeep, Chrysler, BMW, Subaru, Dacia, Hyundai, Dodge, Lexus, Chevrolet, Tesla, Ford, Honda, Kia, Audi, Volkswagen, Toyota and Renault.

Only three – Mercedes-Benz, Honda, and Ford – responded, we’re told.

“Mercedes-Benz did answer a few of our questions, which we appreciate,” Caltrider said. “Honda pointed us continually to their public privacy documentation to answer your questions, but they didn’t clarify anything. And Ford said they discussed our request internally and made the decision not to participate.”

This makes Mercedes’ response to The Register a little puzzling. “We are committed to using data responsibly,” a spokesperson told us. “We have not received or reviewed the study you are referring to yet and therefore decline to comment to this specifically.”

A spokesperson for the four Fiat-Chrysler-owned brands (Fiat, Chrysler, Jeep, and Dodge) told us: “We are reviewing accordingly. Data privacy is a key consideration as we continually seek to serve our customers better.”

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The Mozilla Foundation also called out consent as an issue some automakers have placed in a blind spot.

“I call this out in the Subaru review, but it’s not limited to Subaru: it’s the idea that anybody that is a user of the services of a connected car, anybody that’s in a car that uses services is considered a user, and any user is considered to have consented to the privacy policy,” Caltrider said.

Opting out of data collection is another concern.

Tesla, for example, appears to give users the choice between protecting their data or protecting their car. Its privacy policy does allow users to opt out of data collection but, as Mozilla points out, Tesla warns customers: “If you choose to opt out of vehicle data collection (with the exception of in-car Data Sharing preferences), we will not be able to know or notify you of issues applicable to your vehicle in real time. This may result in your vehicle suffering from reduced functionality, serious damage, or inoperability.”

While technically this does give users a choice, it also essentially says if you opt out, “your car might become inoperable and not work,” Caltrider said. “Well, that’s not much of a choice.”

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Source: Mozilla flunks 25 major car brands for data privacy fails • The Register

Experts Fear Crooks are Cracking Keys Stolen in LastPass Breach

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In November 2022, the password manager service LastPass disclosed a breach in which hackers stole password vaults containing both encrypted and plaintext data for more than 25 million users. Since then, a steady trickle of six-figure cryptocurrency heists targeting security-conscious people throughout the tech industry has led some security experts to conclude that crooks likely have succeeded at cracking open some of the stolen LastPass vaults.

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Since late December 2022, Monahan and other researchers have identified a highly reliable set of clues that they say connect recent thefts targeting more than 150 people, Collectively, these individuals have been robbed of more than $35 million worth of crypto.

Monahan said virtually all of the victims she has assisted were longtime cryptocurrency investors, and security-minded individuals. Importantly, none appeared to have suffered the sorts of attacks that typically preface a high-dollar crypto heist, such as the compromise of one’s email and/or mobile phone accounts.

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Monahan has been documenting the crypto thefts via Twitter/X since March 2023, frequently expressing frustration in the search for a common cause among the victims. Then on Aug. 28, Monahan said she’d concluded that the common thread among nearly every victim was that they’d previously used LastPass to store their “seed phrase,” the private key needed to unlock access to their cryptocurrency investments.

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Bax, Monahan and others interviewed for this story say they’ve identified a unique signature that links the theft of more than $35 million in crypto from more than 150 confirmed victims, with roughly two to five high-dollar heists happening each month since December 2022.

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But the researchers have published findings about the dramatic similarities in the ways that victim funds were stolen and laundered through specific cryptocurrency exchanges. They also learned the attackers frequently grouped together victims by sending their cryptocurrencies to the same destination crypto wallet.

A graphic published by @tayvano_ on Twitter depicting the movement of stolen cryptocurrencies from victims who used LastPass to store their crypto seed phrases.

By identifying points of overlap in these destination addresses, the researchers were then able to track down and interview new victims. For example, the researchers said their methodology identified a recent multi-million dollar crypto heist victim as an employee at Chainalysis, a blockchain analysis firm that works closely with law enforcement agencies to help track down cybercriminals and money launderers.

Chainalysis confirmed that the employee had suffered a high-dollar cryptocurrency heist late last month, but otherwise declined to comment for this story.

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I’ve been urging my friends and family who use LastPass to change all of their passwords and migrate any crypto that may have been exposed, despite knowing full well how tedious that is.”

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Source: Experts Fear Crooks are Cracking Keys Stolen in LastPass Breach – Krebs on Security