Shameless Plug

SpaceX's Starlink Internet Dishes Arrive In Ukraine Published on March 01, 2022 at 04:10AM A shipment of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet dishes arrived in Ukraine on Monday, less than 48 hours after CEO Elon Musk announced the company would send support, according to a top official in the nation's government. CNBC reports: Ukraine digital minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who tagged Musk in a request on Twitter on Saturday, posted that Starlink was "here" in Ukraine -- with a photo showing more than dozen boxes of the company's user kits in the back of a truck. How many kits SpaceX is sending to support Ukraine is unknown. Each Starlink kit includes a user terminal to connect to the satellites, a mounting tripod and a Wi-Fi router. Musk responded to Fedorov, said: "you are most welcome." Ukraine-based Oleg Kutkov tweeted a screenshot of an internet speed test, saying "Starlink is working in Kyiv" and thanked SpaceX for the company's sup

DisplayPort 2.0 Labels Specify Bandwidth To Avoid HDMI 2.1-Like Confusion Published on March 01, 2022 at 03:32AM An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: VESA, which makes the DisplayPort spec, today announced a certification program aimed at helping consumers understand if a DisplayPort 2.0 cable, monitor, or video source can support the max refresh rates and resolutions the spec claims. VESA's latest certification is around DisplayPort 2.0. The spec can support a max throughput of 80Gbps compared to DisplayPort 1.4's 32.4Gbps. This enables extreme uses, like 16K resolution with display stream compression (DSC), 10K without compression, or two 8K HDR screens at 120 Hz. But just because a monitor or cable, for example, is DisplayPort 2.0-certified doesn't mean that's the performance you'll get. The Ultra-high Bit Rate (UHBR) Certification is what you'll have to check for if you want to be certain about these figures. VESA's new "DP80 UHB

New Qualcomm Chips Tease CD-quality Audio for Earbuds and Faster 5G Published on March 01, 2022 at 02:53AM Qualcomm is using Mobile World Congress to show off some new technology that should improve 5G connectivity and wireless audio. From a report:The Snapdragon X70 5G modem-RF system attempts to improve your phone's 5G connection with the help of an AI processor. This helps it maximize 5G signal for better coverage -- particularly important for mmWave signals, which are short-range compared to the broader coverage of low and mid-band frequencies. Qualcomm says this improvement is limited to situations like stadiums and city blocks, and that it doesn't address one of mmWave's key weaknesses: the signal's inability to travel from outdoors to indoors. But where there's no mmWave signal, the new AI processor should boost sub-6GHz coverage and speeds, too. The new audio features, wrapped up in a platform called Snapdragon Sound, include a feature teased last year: wi

Ukraine Says Its 'IT Army' Has Taken Down Key Russian Sites Published on March 01, 2022 at 02:15AM Key Russian websites and state online portals have been taken offline by attacks claimed by the Ukrainian cyber police force, which now openly engages in cyber-warfare. From a report: As the announcement of the law enforcement agency's site details, specialists from the force have teamed with volunteers to attack the web resources of Russia and Belarus. The three countries are currently involved in an ongoing and large-scale armed forces conflict that includes a cyber frontline, which manifested even before the invasion. The Ukrainian cyber police have announced having targeted the websites of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, the FSB (Federal Security Service), and the Sberbank, Russia's state-owned bank. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Lenovo's Newest ThinkPads Feature Snapdragon Processors and 165Hz Screens Published on March 01, 2022 at 01:44AM An anonymous reader shares a report: Lenovo has dumped a whole bunch of new ThinkPads into the world, and there's some exciting stuff in there. We're getting a brand-new ThinkPad X13s powered by Snapdragon chips, a fifth-generation ThinkPad X1 Extreme with a WQXGA 165Hz screen option, and new additions to the P-series and T-series as well. The news I'm personally most excited about is the screen shape. A few months ago, Lenovo told me that much of its portfolio would be moving to the 16:10 aspect ratio this year. They appear to be keeping their word. Across the board, the new models are 16:10 -- taller and roomier than they were in their 16:9 eras. Some news that's a bit more... intriguing is the all-new ThinkPad X13s, which is the first laptop to feature the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 compute platform. Qualcomm made some lofty claims about this platform upon

MSCHF Just Turned the SATs Into a Battle Royale With a Big Cash Prize Published on March 01, 2022 at 01:05AM It'll cost $52 for you to enter, but you could take home thousands -- at least. This is the latest project from art collective MSCHF: a one-off, winner-takes-all, massively multiplayer version of the SATs named the MSAT. From a report: The SAT -- for non-US readers -- is a multiple-choice test taken across the United States for college admissions. Because it's so widely taken, it's something of an object of cultural horror. "I actually took the ACT, but as 95 percent of my friends took the SAT, I remember them being out of their minds stressed and spending almost a full 12 months preparing with private tutors and study classes," MSCHF founder Daniel Greenberg tells The Verge. So, Greenberg and his colleagues made the MSAT. Registration is open for the rest of the week, and the test itself will take place at noon ET on Saturday, March 5th, with all entrant

Microsoft Detected 'Destructive Cyberattacks' Against Ukraine Hours Before Russian Invasion Published on March 01, 2022 at 12:39AM Microsoft says it began detecting "destructive cyberattacks directed against Ukraine's digital infrastructure" several hours before the Russian military began launching missiles or moving tanks into the country last week. From a report: The disclosure Monday, part of a larger blog post about Ukraine by Microsoft President Brad Smith, provides a glimpse of how cyber-warfare is being used as part of the ongoing invasion. The company says it is giving ongoing guidance to the Ukrainian government about cyberthreats as the situation unfolds. Smith also outlined the company's efforts to combat state-sponsored disinformation campaigns, ensuring that its platforms are not displaying or distributing any content or apps from Russia's state-sponsored RT and Sputnik news organizations, in line with a recent European Union decision. He wr

Why Swift Creator Chris Lattner Stepped Down From Its Core Team This Week Published on February 28, 2022 at 06:29AM The creator of Apple's Swift programming language stayed involved in the Swift core team and Evolution community... until this week. Though he'd left Apple more than five years ago, "Swift is important to me, so I've been happy to spend a significant amount of time to help improve and steer it," Lattner wrote in an explanatory comment on the Swift community forum. "This included the ~weekly core team meetings (initially in person, then over WebEx)..." The tech news site DevClass notes Lattner is also "the mind behind compiler infrastructure project LLVM," but reports that "Apparently, Lattner hasn't been part of the [Swift] core team since autumn 2021, when he tried discussing what he perceived as a toxic meeting environment with project leadership after an especially noteworthy call made him take a break in summer.&quo

Australia's Standoff Against Google and Facebook Worked - Sort Of Published on February 28, 2022 at 05:12AM Remember when Google threatened to leave Australia if the country implemented a "news media bargaining code" forcing social media platforms to pay news publishers? Wired reports: Google and Facebook did not leave; they paid up, striking deals with news organizations to pay for the content they display on their sites for the first time. The code was formally approved on March 2, 2021... One year after the media code was introduced, Google has 19 content deals with news organizations and Facebook has 11, according to [Australia's communications minister Paul] Fletcher. Now countries around the world are looking at Australia's code as a blueprint of how to subsidize the news and stop the spread of "news deserts" — communities that no longer have a local newspaper. Canada is expected to propose its own version in March. Media associations in both the

'Windowless Bunker': First Reviews Come In for Disney's $5,000 'Star Wars Hotel Published on February 28, 2022 at 03:36AM Disney World's "Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser" hotel will be expensive and immersive, writes SFGate. ("For two adults, the starting price is about $5,000. For three adults and one child, it's nearly $6,000.") And while the hotel doesn't open to paid guests until Tuesday, free previews have already been given to online influencers: Reviews so far are generally positive — particularly praised are the character actors who carry the experience — with a few caveats. Because the hotel itself, called the Halcyon, is supposed to be a luxury cruise ship in space, the biggest complaint is that rooms are small and cramped... For some, the lack of windows may add to a sense of claustrophobia. Hotel rooms have a digital display showing outer space and no view of the real outside world. Folks needing some fresh air can, however,

Largest Plane Ever Built May Have Been Destroyed, Ukraine Foreign Minister Says Published on February 28, 2022 at 02:41AM SFGate reports: The largest plane ever built has been destroyed at an airport outside Kyiv, Ukraine Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba said Sunday.... The Antonov An-225 Mriya was built in Ukraine in 1985 when the nation was still controlled by the Soviet Union. It has six turbofan engines and is the heaviest aircraft ever built. It was created as a strategic airlift cargo craft, carrying Soviet space orbiters, but was later purchased by Antonov Airlines. It's since been used to airlift oversized cargo and large loads of emergency aid during natural disasters.... Although Kuleba's tweet confirmed the plane's demise, Antonov says it is still gathering information on the massive plane's fate. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

NASA Assures ISS Will Continue Orbiting Despite Sanctions on Russia Published on February 28, 2022 at 02:04AM On Thursday the head of Russia's space agency "warned that new sanctions imposed on his country could have dire consequences for the International Space Station program," reports Space.com (in an article shared by Slashdot reader Hmmmmmm): "Do you want to destroy our cooperation on the ISS?" read one of the tweets from Roscosmos Director-General Dimitry Rogozin, which was translated by Rob Mitchell for Ars Technica senior space editor Eric Berger, who shared Mitchell's translation on Twitter. Russia and the United States are the major partners in the ISS program, which also includes Canada, Japan and multiple European nations... NASA, however, told Space.com later Thursday that civil cooperation between the U.S. and Russia in space will continue, particularly with regard to the ISS. But Rogozin struck a much different tone, suggesting that the new

Epstein-Barr Virus May Be Leading Cause of Multiple Sclerosis Published on February 28, 2022 at 01:04AM Harvard's School of Public Health has an announcement... "Multiple sclerosis (MS), a progressive disease that affects 2.8 million people worldwide and for which there is no definitive cure, is likely caused by infection with the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), according to a study led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health researchers." Epstein-Barr virus has already been linked to some forms of cancer. But now, as the New York Times put it, "New research proves a virus — one that almost all of us have — 'causes' multiple sclerosis." (More than 90% of adults have the Epstein-Barr virus, and "The very ubiquity of Epstein-Barr has made it especially difficult to isolate as a causal factor...") Researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and elsewhere, however, devised a novel way to carry out that study, and they published

Programming in Rust is Fun - But Challenging, Finds Annual Community Survey Published on February 27, 2022 at 05:04AM Respondents to the annual survey of the Rust community reported an uptick in weekly usage and challenges, writes InfoWorld: Among those surveyed who are using Rust, 81% were using the language on at least a weekly basis, compared to 72% in last year's survey. Of all Rust users, 75% said they are able to write production-ready code but 27% said it was at times a struggle to write useful, production-ready code.... While the survey pointed toward a growing, healthy community of "Rustaceans," it also found challenges. In particular, Rust users would like to see improvements in compile times, disk usage, debugging, and GUI development... - For those who adopted Rust at work, 83% found it "challenging." But it was unclear how much of this was a Rust-specific issue or general challenges posed by adopting a new language. During adoption, only 13% of re

US, UK and Top EU Allies Begin Cutting Russia Out Of International Financial System SWIFT Published on February 27, 2022 at 04:07AM The Huffington Post reports on "the most drastic financial sanction yet on Russian President Vladimir Putin: The United States and key allies will cut Russian banks out of the global financial messaging system SWIFT and begin to target Russia's central bank, according to a White House statement on Saturday... The statement said the U.S., top European economies, Britain, and Canada would disconnect selected Russian banks from SWIFT, which will severely hurt their ability to operate internationally, and prevent Russia's central bank from using its foreign currency reserves to evade Western sanctions. The pro-Ukraine countries will also make it harder for wealthy Russians to obtain Western citizenship and launch a task force to freeze the assets of Russian elites — a bid to pressure Putin by hurting his friends.... It represents a significant e

New Research Argues It's 'Extraordinarily Clear' The Pandemic Started at the Wuhan Market Published on February 27, 2022 at 02:07AM The New York times reports that two extensive new studies released today "point to a market in Wuhan, China as the origin of the coronavirus pandemic." The researchers analyzed data from a range of sources to look for clues to how the pandemic arose. They concluded that the coronavirus was present in live mammals sold in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in late 2019. The research suggests that the virus very likely twice spilled over into people working or shopping at the market. The researchers said they found no support for an alternate hypothesis that the coronavirus escaped from a lab in Wuhan. "When you look at all of the evidence together, it's an extraordinarily clear picture that the pandemic started at the Huanan market," said Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona and a co-

CNN: 'Financial Sanctions are Easier Than Ever for Russians to Evade. Thank Bitcoin' Published on February 27, 2022 at 03:04AM Financial sanctions are easier than ever for Russians to evade. Thank Bitcoin CNN: 'Financial sanctions are easier than ever for Russians to evade. Thank Bitcoin' The senior editor of CNN Business writes: The West's initial salvo of financial sanctions against Russia failed to deter President Vladimir Putin from launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Now the United States is taking a punitive approach, announcing another round of sanctions meant to tighten the screws on Russian banks and "corrupt billionaires." But some experts say those measures, which so far do not target Putin himself, are becoming increasingly easy to evade, thanks in part to a surge of cryptocurrency adoption in Russia. The U.S. and EU sanctions rely heavily on banks to enforce the rules. If a sanctioned business or individual wants to make a transactio

New Research Argues It's 'Extraordinarily Clear' The Pandemic Stated at the Wuhan Market Published on February 27, 2022 at 02:07AM The New York times reports that two extensive new studies released today "point to a market in Wuhan, China as the origin of the coronavirus pandemic." The researchers analyzed data from a range of sources to look for clues to how the pandemic arose. They concluded that the coronavirus was present in live mammals sold in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in late 2019. The research suggests that the virus very likely twice spilled over into people working or shopping at the market. The researchers said they found no support for an alternate hypothesis that the coronavirus escaped from a lab in Wuhan. "When you look at all of the evidence together, it's an extraordinarily clear picture that the pandemic started at the Huanan market," said Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona and a co-a

Is There Hope in New Climate Science? Published on February 27, 2022 at 01:04AM Three climate scientists wrote an encouraging opinion piece for the Washington Post: One of the biggest obstacles to avoiding global climate breakdown is that so many people think there's nothing we can do about it. They point out that record-breaking heat waves, fires and storms are already devastating communities and economies throughout the world. And they've long been told that temperatures will keep rising for decades to come, no matter how many solar panels replace oil derricks or how many meat-eaters go vegetarian. No wonder they think we're doomed. But climate science actually doesn't say this. To the contrary, the best climate science you've probably never heard of suggests that humanity can still limit the damage to a fraction of the worst projections if — and, we admit, this is a big if — governments, businesses and all of us take strong action starting now. For many years,

Anonymous Launches Attacks Against Russia and Pledges Support For Ukraine Published on February 27, 2022 at 12:04AM A long-time Slashdot reader shares this report Friday from the Independent: Hacking group Anonymous has said that it will support Ukraine in its fight against Russia, and has already claimed an attack on the state-controlled TV network Russia Today.... While the fight on the ground was happening, Russia Today's servers were taken offline. The broadcaster has been criticised for putting out "propaganda" to the extent that the UK government has asked media regulator Ofcom to review its output. Anonymous claimed credit for the attack, posting on Twitter that it took down the "propaganda station... in response to Kremlin's brutal invasion". The group did not respond to The Independent's request for comment. At the time of the tweet RT was briefly unavailable, before returning online without images. Currently, the broadcaster is online and app

NATO Secretary-General Warns Cyberattacks Could Trigger Article 5 Published on February 26, 2022 at 04:10AM NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Friday that cyberattacks could trigger Article 5 of the organization's charter, the so-called "commitment clause" that considers an attack on any NATO ally an attack on all. NBC News reports: Stoltenberg's comment comes as national security professionals and cybersecurity industry professionals remain on high alert for any major attacks. While conflict on the ground in Ukraine continues to escalate, little has been seen thus far in terms of major cyberwar activities. Still, some hacker and activist groups have sprung into action. One ransomware group announced Friday that it supported the Russian government and would respond to cyberattacks on Russia by going after "critical infrastructures of an enemy." As for attacks on Ukraine, the country's computer emergency response team said Friday that it had s

NVIDIA Hit By Major Cyberattack That May Have 'Completely Compromised' Parts of Its Business Published on February 26, 2022 at 03:32AM An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wccftech: NVIDIA has seemingly been hit by a major cyberattack that may have completely compromised parts of its business, reports The Telegraph. In their exclusive report, The Telegraph reports that the cyberattack was initiated at the same time as the Russian cyber warfare division started their offensive against Ukraine. All Nato allies have announced major sanctions on Russia and this could potentially be why Russia has decided to target major companies such as NVIDIA. The report further states that the cyberattack on NVIDIA has completely compromised parts of their business and there are already reports from several users coming in regarding services disruption. The scale of this attack is currently unknown but it clearly seems to be a major one as NVIDIA had to take several systems offline to paci

Children May Instinctively Know How To Do Division Even Before Hitting the Books, Study Finds Published on February 26, 2022 at 02:55AM An anonymous reader shares a report: We often think of multiplication and division as calculations that need to be taught in school. But a large body of research suggests that, even before children begin formal education, they possess intuitive arithmetic abilities. A new study published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience argues that this ability to do approximate calculations even extends to that most dreaded basic math problem -- true division -- with implications for how students are taught mathematical concepts in the future. The foundation for the study is the approximate number system (ANS), a well-established theory that says people (and even nonhuman primates) from an early age have an intuitive ability to compare and estimate large sets of objects without relying upon language or symbols. For instance, under this non-symbolic system, a child

UK Says It Will Work 'All Day' To Persuade Europe To Cut Russia Off From Swift Published on February 26, 2022 at 02:15AM The UK has said it will work "all day" to persuade fellow European states to cut Russia off from the international Swift payment system. From a report: The UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, ended the pretence that Britain was not at odds with its fellow European leaders over the issue. He said there was still time for Russia to be excluded, and the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, said: "The UK is working with allies to exclude Russia from the Swift financial system." Wallace added: "We will work all the magic, do everything we can in diplomacy." Truss is to undertake a round of shuttle diplomacy to try to rally support for the British position after the EU refused to adopt what has been billed as the "nuclear option" of sanctions. The story adds: Swift is incorporated under Belgian law and, although supervised by a com

Radiation Spike at Chernobyl's Nuclear Power Plant Seized by Russian Forces Published on February 26, 2022 at 01:30AM A radiation spike has been recorded near Chernobyl's nuclear power plant which has been seized by Russian forces, monitoring data shows. BBC: Invading Russian troops took control of the plant - the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster in 1986 - on Thursday, Ukraine said. Radiation levels increased about 20-fold on Thursday, monitoring stations there reported. But experts say another major nuclear disaster there is "extremely unlikely." The rise was caused by heavy military vehicles stirring contaminated soil in the 4,000-sq-km (2,485 sq-mile) exclusion zone surrounding the abandoned plant, Ukraine's State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate reported. The biggest spike was recorded close to the damaged reactor. Radiation levels are continuously monitored there -- measured as a dose that you would receive per hour in a location. Close to the