Shameless Plug

Brave Browser Claims 69x Better Performance For Its Ad-Blocker After Switching From C++ To Rust Published on July 01, 2019 at 09:19AM The Brave web browser "claims to have delivered a '69x average improvement' in its ad-blocking technology using Rust in place of C++" reports ZDNet. They cite a blog post by Brave performance researcher Dr. Andrius Aucinas and Brave's chief scientist Dr. Ben Livshits: The improvements can be experienced in its experimental developer and nightly channel releases... "We implemented the new engine in Rust as a memory-safe, performant language compilable down to native code and suitable to run within the native browser core as well as being packaged in a standalone Node.js module," the two Brave scientists said. The new engine means the Chromium-based browser can cut the average request classification time down to 5.6 microseconds, a unit of time that's equal to a millionth of one second. Aucinas and Livshits argue that

An Automation Tipping Point? The Rise of 'Robotics as a Service' Published on July 01, 2019 at 07:04AM "Robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) is about to eat the world of work" argues Hooman Radfar, a partner at the startup studio Expa who's been "actively investing in and looking for new companies" catalyzing the change." Companies buy massive robots and software solutions that are customized -- at great cost -- to their specific needs. The massive conglomerates that sell these robots have dominated the field for decades, but that is about to change. One major factor driving this change is how dramatically globalization has reduced hardware production costs and capabilities. At the same time, cheap and powerful computing and cloud infrastructure are now also readily available and easy to spin up. As a result, vertical-specific, robotic-powered, solutions can today be offered as variable cost services versus being sold at a fixed cost. Just as cable compan

Ask Slashdot: What's Your 'Backup' Browser? Published on July 01, 2019 at 05:04AM Slashdot's gotten over 17,000 votes in its poll about which web browser people use on their desktop. (The current leader? Firefox, with 53% of the vote, followed by Chrome with 30%.) But Slashdot reader koavf asks an interesting follow-up question: "What's everyone's go-to Plan B browser and why?" To start the conversation, here's how James Gelinas (a contributor at Kim Komando's tech advice site) recently reviewed the major browsers: He calls Chrome "a safe, speedy browser that's compatible with nearly every page on the internet" but also says that Chrome "is notorious as a resource hog, and it can drastically slow your computer down if you have too many tabs open." "Additionally, the perks of having your Google Account connected to your browser can quickly turn into downsides for the privacy-minded among is. If you're uncomfort

How The Advance Weather Forecast Got Good Published on July 01, 2019 at 04:04AM NPR notes today's "supercomputer-driven" weather modelling can crunch huge amounts of data to accurately forecast the weather a week in advance -- pointing out that "a six-day weather forecast today is as good as a two-day forecast was in the 1970s." Here's some highlights from their interview with Andrew Blum, author of The Weather Machine: A Journey Inside the Forecast : One of the things that's happened as the scale in the system has shifted to the computers is that it's no longer bound by past experience. It's no longer, the meteorologists say, "Well, this happened in the past, we can expect it to happen again." We're more ready for these new extremes because we're not held down by past expectations... The models are really a kind of ongoing concern. ... They run ahead in time, and then every six hours or every 12 hours, they compare their own

Researchers Claim Robust 'Universal Computer Memory' Breakthrough Published on July 01, 2019 at 03:04AM Lancaster University has announced a "universal computer memory" breakthrough combining the fast, low-energy storage of DRAM memory with the robustness of flash memory. They're now envisioning ultra-low energy consumption computers which would never need to boot up -- and can "instantaneously and imperceptibly" slip into an energy-saving sleep mode. Long-time Slashdot reader Hrrrg pointed us to this announcement: A U.S. patent has been awarded for the electronic memory device with another patent pending, while several companies have expressed an interest or are actively involved in the research. The inventors of the device used quantum mechanics to solve the dilemma of choosing between stable, long-term data storage and low-energy writing and erasing... [Specifically, "by exploiting the quantum-mechanical properties of an asymmetric triple reson

Former Equifax CIO Sentenced to 4 Months in Prison for Insider Training Published on July 01, 2019 at 02:04AM An anonymous reader quotes CNET: A former Equifax executive who sold his stock in the consumer credit reporting firm before it announced a massive data breach has been sentenced to four months in federal prison for insider trading. Jun Ying, former chief information officer for the company's US Information Solutions, was also ordered to pay about $117,000 in restitution and a $55,000 fine, the US Attorney's Office said Thursday... Ying sold all his shares in Equifax, making more than $950,000. Ying's insider trading happened 10 days before Equifax publicly announced its breach. Ying, 44, is the second Equifax employee convicted of insider trading related to the data breach. Sudhakar Reddy Bonthu, a former Equifax software development manager, pleaded guilty in 2018 to using the insider information to make more than $75,000 on the stock market. Bonthu was ordered t

Leaked Internal Intel Memo Acknowledges 'Resurgent', 'Formidable' AMD Published on July 01, 2019 at 01:04AM Slashdot reader MojoKid writes: AMD announced its 3rd Gen Ryzen 3000 series processors at Computex earlier this month and the company's Zen 2 architecture is promised to bring single threaded performance parity with Intel but exceedingly better multithreaded throughput in content creation and other high-end workloads. Intel has obviously taken notice of AMD's Zen 2 advancements and nowhere is its renewed keen focus more evident than in an internal memo that just leaked out to public venues. The memo was originally posted on Intel's internal "Circuit News" employee portal and it's quite revealing. The memo, which is entitled, "AMD competitive profile: Where we go toe-to-toe, why they are resurgent, which chips of ours beat theirs", is a surprisingly frank look at how AMD has managed to get the best of Intel, at least currently,

44 US States Still Allow 'Religious Exemptions' For Vaccines Published on July 01, 2019 at 12:04AM An anonymous reader quotes the Pew Research Center: New York recently became the fifth state -- after California, Maine, Mississippi and West Virginia -- to enact a law requiring children in public school to be vaccinated unless they have a valid medical reason. Legislatures in several other states are considering similar legislation. Most states (44), however, allow children to be exempt from vaccinations due to religious concerns, according to a Pew Research Center analysis. And one state, Minnesota, allows for a broader exemption based on personal beliefs but does not explicitly mention religion... Among the states that specifically allow religious exemptions to vaccinations, 15 also allow exemptions for any type of nonreligious personal belief, according to the Center's analysis... The action in New York came after the state became the center of a nationwide measles outb

Wikipedia Co-Founder Calls For a Social Media Strike July 4-5 Published on June 30, 2019 at 11:04PM Wikpedia co-founder Larry Sanger is also Slashdot reader #936,381. He has an announcement: "Humanity has been contemptuously used by vast digital empires," says my new Declaration of Digital Independence, which you can sign. So I'm calling a massive social media strike for July 4-5 to raise awareness of the possibility of decentralizing social media, which is wildly popular whenever proposed. Read the FAQ use the resources to learn and spread the word far and wide. Look for lots of news about this soon. And get ready! Maybe we can make a long-held geek dream finally come true. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

What Bill Gates Wishes More People Knew About Paul Allen Published on June 30, 2019 at 10:04PM Microsoft's original co-founder Paul Allen was honored posthumously with a lifetime achievement award for philanthropy this week at the Forbes Philanthropy summit. Bill Gates remembers Allen as "one of the most intellectually curious people I've ever known," adding "I wish more people understood just how wide-ranging his giving was," and shared his remembrances at the ceremony: Later in life, Paul gave to a huge spectrum of issues that seem unrelated at first glance. He wanted to prevent elephant poaching, improve ocean health, and promote smart cities. He funded new housing for the homeless and arts education in the Puget Sound region. In 2014 alone, he supported research into the polio virus and efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak in West Africa -- all while standing up an amazing new institute for studying artificial intelligence. If you knew him, the logic

Linus Torvalds Sees Lots of Hardware Headaches Ahead Published on June 30, 2019 at 09:04PM Linux founder Linus Torvalds "warns that managing software is about to become a lot more challenging, largely because of two hardware issues that are beyond the control of DevOps teams," reports DevOps.com. An anonymous reader shares their report about Torvalds remarks at the KubeCon + CloudNative + Open Source Summit China conference: The first, Torvalds said, is the steady stream of patches being generated for new cybersecurity issues related to the speculative execution model that Intel and other processor vendors rely on to accelerate performance... Each of those bugs requires another patch to the Linux kernel that, depending on when they arrive, can require painful updates to the kernel, Torvalds told conference attendees. Short of disabling hyperthreading altogether to eliminate reliance on speculative execution, each patch requires organizations to update both the Linux kernel

Nokia's CTO Accuses Huawei of Both 'Sloppiness' and 'Real Obfuscation' Published on June 30, 2019 at 08:04PM Nokia's CTO Marcus Weldon "told the BBC that the UK should be wary of using the Chinese hardware" -- though Nokia rushed to assure the BBC that Weldon's remarks do "not reflect the official position of Nokia." Forbes reports: On the security front, Weldon referred to analysis suggesting Huawei equipment was far more likely to have vulnerabilities than technology from Nokia or Ericsson. "We read those reports and we think okay, we're doing a much better job than they are," Weldon said, describing Huawei's failings as serious and claiming Nokia's alternatives to be a safer bet. "Some of it seems to be just sloppiness, honestly, that they haven't patched things, they haven't upgraded. But some of it is real obfuscation, where they make it look like they have the secure version when they don't..

SpaceX Tests Broadband Satellite Network, Claims 'First To Operate' Status Published on June 30, 2019 at 07:04PM SpaceX says 57 of its 60 broadband data satellites are now communicating with their ground stations -- and that this grants them special privileges when other companies launch their own satellite telecommunication networks. An anonymous reader quotes GeekWire: In an emailed update, SpaceX said Starlink is ready to go into a testing phase that involves streaming videos and playing video games via satellite.... "Now that the majority of the satellites have reached their operational altitude, SpaceX will begin using the constellation to start transmitting broadband signals, testing the latency and capacity by streaming videos and playing some high-bandwidth video games using gateways throughout North America," SpaceX said... SpaceX said "Starlink is now the first NGSO [non-geosynchronous satellite orbit] system to operate in the Ku-band and communicate

Is Streaming TV About To Get Really Expensive? Published on June 30, 2019 at 04:04PM "The golden age of streaming is over," writes Stuart Heritage in the Guardian, arguing that TV "will become more elitist, tiered and fragmented than it already is." One report last year said that The Office accounts for 7% of all U.S. Netflix viewing. So, naturally, NBC wants it back. This week, it was announced that Netflix had failed to secure the rights to The Office beyond January 2021. The good news is that it will still be available to watch elsewhere. The bad news is that "elsewhere", means "the new NBCUniversal streaming platform". As a viewer, you are right to feel queasy. The industry-disrupting success of Netflix means that everybody wants a slice of the pie... Friends is likely to disappear behind a new WarnerMedia streaming service -- along with Lord of the Rings films, the Harry Potter films, anything based on a DC comic and everything on HBO -- t

Sting Finds Ransomware Data Recovery Firms Are Just Paying The Ransom Published on June 30, 2019 at 01:04PM "ProPublica recently reported that two U.S. firms, which professed to use their own data recovery methods to help ransomware victims regain access to infected files, instead paid the hackers. Now there's new evidence that a U.K. firm takes a similar approach." An anonymous reader quotes their report: Fabian Wosar, a cyber security researcher, told ProPublica this month that, in a sting operation he conducted in April, Scotland-based Red Mosquito Data Recovery said it was "running tests" to unlock files while actually negotiating a ransom payment. Wosar, the head of research at anti-virus provider Emsisoft, said he posed as both hacker and victim so he could review the company's communications to both sides. Red Mosquito Data Recovery "made no effort to not pay the ransom" and instead went "straight to the ransomware author literally wi

Microsoft Store's eBooks Will Soon 'Stop Working' When It Closes Their DRM Server Published on June 30, 2019 at 09:04AM Cory Doctorow writes at BoingBoing: "The books will stop working": That's the substance of the reminder that Microsoft sent to customers for their ebook store, reminding them that, as announced in April, the company is getting out of the ebook business because it wasn't profitable enough for them, and when they do, they're going to shut off their DRM servers, which will make the books stop working. Almost exactly fifteen years ago, I gave an influential, widely cited talk at Microsoft Research where I predicted this exact outcome. I don't feel good about the fact that I got it right. This is a fucking travesty. We're just days away from the "early July" shutdown. And Doctorow elaborated on his feelings in a blog post in April: This puts the difference between DRM-locked media and unencumbered media into sharp contr

Massive Lithium Ion Battery Fire/Explosion Shows Challenges of Renewable Energy Storage Published on June 30, 2019 at 07:04AM Pursuing a renewable energy strategy, Arizona's largest electric company "installed massive batteries near neighborhoods with a large number of solar panels, hoping to capture some of the energy from the afternoon sun to use after dark," reports the Associated Press. Slashdot reader pgmrdlm shares their report on what happened next: But an April fire and explosion at a massive battery west of Phoenix that sent eight firefighters and a police officer to the hospital highlighted the challenges and risks that can arise as utilities prepare for the exponential growth of the technology. With an investigation ongoing and no public word on the fire's cause, the incident is being closely watched by energy storage researchers and advocates... "Absent battery storage, the whole value proposition of intermittent renewable energy makes no sense at a