Slashdot

Connecticut-based company LiquidPiston is developing a portable generator for the US Army that uses its X-Engine, a fresh and extremely powerful take on the rotary engine that'll deliver as much power as the Army's current-gen-set at one-fifth the size. New Atlas reports: We've written a few times before about the fascinating LiquidPiston rotary engine. It's not a Wankel -- indeed, it's closer to an inside-out Wankel -- and with only two moving parts, it's able to deliver extraordinary power density at up to 1.5 horsepower per pound (0.45 kg). According to co-founder and CEO Alec Schkolnik, the X Engine design combines the high compression ratio and direct injection of a diesel engine with the constant volume combustion process of an Otto cycle engine and the over-expansion abilities of an Atkinson cycle engine, while solving the lubrication and sealing issues of the Wankel rotary engine and delivering huge power and efficiency. Check out the design being used in a go-kart and an unmanned aircraft in the video below. LiquidPiston demonstrated the technology for the US Army by building a Compact Artillery Power System (CAPS) generator unit designed to power the digital fire control system on an M777 Howitzer artillery piece. It replaced a generator that needed a truck to move it around with something 20 percent the size: a 41-lb (18.6-kg), 1.5-cubic foot (28.3-L) box about the size of a gaming PC that can easily be carried by two men. Smartly designed to work in conjunction with a battery in a hybrid system, the 2-kW CAPS generator impressed the Army enough that LiquidPiston has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research contract to develop it further as a 2-5 kW Small Tactical Generator for a range of military use cases, running on diesel with compression ignition.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

On December 15, the United States Air Force successfully flew an AI copilot on a U-2 spy plane in California, marking the first time AI has controlled a U.S. military system. Dr. Will Roper, the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, reveals how he and his team made history: With call sign ARTUu, we trained uZero -- a world-leading computer program that dominates chess, Go, and even video games without prior knowledge of their rules -- to operate a U-2 spy plane. Though lacking those lively beeps and squeaks, ARTUu surpassed its motion picture namesake in one distinctive feature: it was the mission commander, the final decision authority on the human-machine team. And given the high stakes of global AI, surpassing science fiction must become our military norm. Our demo flew a reconnaissance mission during a simulated missile strike at Beale Air Force Base on Tuesday. ARTUu searched for enemy launchers while our pilot searched for threatening aircraft, both sharing the U-2's radar. With no pilot override, ARTUu made final calls on devoting the radar to missile hunting versus self-protection. Luke Skywalker certainly never took such orders from his X-Wing sidekick! The fact ARTUu was in command was less about any particular mission than how completely our military must embrace AI to maintain the battlefield decision advantage. Unlike Han Solo's "never-tell-me-the-odds" snub of C-3PO's asteroid field survival rate (approximately 3,720 to 1), our warfighters need to know the odds in dizzyingly-complex combat scenarios. Teaming with trusted AI across all facets of conflict -- even occasionally putting it in charge -- could tip those odds in our favor. But to trust AI, software design is key. Like a breaker box for code, the U-2 gave ARTUu complete radar control while "switching off" access to other subsystems. Had the scenario been navigating an asteroid field -- or more likely field of enemy radars -- those "on-off" switches could adjust. The design allows operators to choose what AI won't do to accept the operational risk of what it will. Creating this software breaker box -- instead of Pandora's -- has been an Air Force journey of more than a few parsecs...

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Fast Company: For just $25, Amazon wants to make you a custom T-shirt. And a virtual body double. This week, the company unveiled a brand called "Made for You" that creates made-to-measure clothes. The initial product, a T-shirt, can be personalized to your taste and measurements, and more products are coming. This is Amazon's latest bid to make itself a fashion destination, and if the company chooses to double down on this made-to-measure technology, it could have significant impacts throughout the industry. It took me five minutes to design a pink, long-sleeved cotton T-shirt. The process began with creating a virtual body double, which involves inputting details -- such as my height, weight, and skin tone -- then taking two photos on my phone using the 3D body scanner in the app. (Amazon has been incorporating body scanners into a number of its products lately, from its fitness band to its smart mirror.) The final 3D representation that appeared on the app looked uncannily like me. In the final step, I chose the color, sleeve length, and neckline of the tee. Then boom! I added it to my cart, and the custom shirt is set to arrive on Christmas Eve.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Elon Musk's tunneling venture, The Boring Company, is planning a massive citywide expansion of the currently modest underground transportation system it's building in Las Vegas. The Verge reports: The startup now wants to build a 10-mile sub-surface "loop" that serves the famous Las Vegas Strip of casino hotels and reaches the city's downtown area as well as McCarran International Airport, all with Tesla vehicles. The Boring Company also wants to build an additional loop that connects properties owned by Caesars Entertainment. The proposed new tunnels would make it possible to go from the Las Vegas Convention Center to Mandalay Bay in just three minutes, as opposed to 30 minutes by surface roads during peak traffic hours, the company claims. The plans, first reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, were detailed in proposals submitted to Clark County officials on Monday. The Boring Company's expansion push comes just days after the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) finished buying the Las Vegas Monorail, which filed for bankruptcy in September after shutting down in March. Following the acquisition, the LVCVA killed a noncompete agreement that had previously kept The Boring Company from digging any tunnels that served the same areas reached by the monorail. The monorail is not expected to reopen until at least May 2021.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

As many as 3 million people have been infected by Chrome and Edge browser extensions that steal personal data and redirect users to ad or phishing sites, a security firm said on Wednesday. Ars Technica reports: In all, researchers from Prague-based Avast said they found 28 extensions for the Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers that contained malware. The add-ons billed themselves as a way to download pictures, videos, or other content from sites including Facebook, Instagram, Vimeo, and Spotify. At the time this post went live, some, but not all, of the malicious extensions remained available for download from Google and Microsoft. Avast researchers found malicious code in the JavaScript-based extensions that allows them to download malware onto an infected computer. In a post, the researchers wrote: "Users have also reported that these extensions are manipulating their internet experience and redirecting them to other websites. Anytime a user clicks on a link, the extensions send information about the click to the attacker's control server, which can optionally send a command to redirect the victim from the real link target to a new hijacked URL before later redirecting them to the actual website they wanted to visit. User's privacy is compromised by this procedure since a log of all clicks is being sent to these third party intermediary websites. The actors also exfiltrate and collect the user's birth dates, email addresses, and device information, including first sign in time, last login time, name of the device, operating system, used browser and its version, even IP addresses (which could be used to find the approximate geographical location history of the user)." The researchers don't yet know if the extensions came with the malicious code preinstalled or if the developers waited for the extensions to gain a critical mass of users and only then pushed a malicious update. It's also possible that legitimate developers created the add-ons and then unknowingly sold them to someone who intended to use them maliciously. [...] The list Avast provides in its blog post includes links to download locations for both Chrome and Edge. Anyone who has downloaded one of these add-ons should remove it immediately and run a virus scan.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Android Police: Today, Google and Qualcomm announced what seemed like a big improvement to updates for Android smartphones. The headlines (ours included! We were confused, too) largely read as though Android phones with Qualcomm chipsets would now receive "four years" of Android updates, an additional year on top of what manufacturers like Google and now Samsung have offered on their top-tier smartphones. Except, that's not actually what it said. After confirming with both Google and Qualcomm (and chatting with AP alumnus Ron Amadeo), I received confirmation of what I suspected was the point of confusion about today's news, and that, in fact, very little is changing if you have a Google Pixel or high-end Samsung smartphone. Currently, Google and Samsung both offer three major OS updates on their well-known smartphones. Today's announcement from Google and Qualcomm does not add to that figure. Instead, the announcement merely makes policy what has long been an optional extra for smartphone OEMs who work with Qualcomm, and does not actually "extend" the lifespan of Qualcomm's highest-end chipsets in a meaningful way. If you're confused, I empathize. But Qualcomm and Google kind of hid the ball on this one in a way that was really, really easy to miss, and which most people (including me) didn't spot at first glance. Here's what's actually changing: — Qualcomm will support three major Android OS updates for its entire portfolio of smartphone chips going forward, starting with the Snapdragon 888 — Smartphone OEMs will likely be able to now offer four full years of Android security updates going forward (based on our reading of the announcement) That's it! So, where does all that "four years" and "four Android OS versions" business come from? It's really just a very generous marketing explanation of what was already the policy for Google's Pixel phones (and, again, now many of Samsung's), and it's a tad misleading. Right now, Google's Pixel phones get three years of Android OS and security updates from the time they are released. That means around 36 months of security patches and three major platform updates. Under the new system from Qualcomm, that could be extended to 48 months of security patches, but it would still be just three major platform updates. Neither Google nor Qualcomm is promising more major platform updates for high-end Android smartphones, they're only saying that all Android smartphones with Qualcomm's chips from the newly-announced Snapdragon 888 forward will be eligible for three major platform updates and, as far as we can tell, four years of security updates. As for the four versions business, Google's own slide from today's announcement makes clear that this includes the version of Android the phone shipped with. As in, your phone will, over its lifetime, run four versions of Android: the one it came with, and three subsequent platform updates.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Six Scottish National Party (SNP) politicians have put forward a motion for consideration in the UK parliament to prohibit the resale of games consoles and PC components at prices "greatly above" MSRP, and the resale of goods purchased using automated bots to be made illegal in these fair isles. PC Gamer reports: A motion on the "Resale of gaming consoles and computer components purchases by automated bots" has been tabled with UK Parliament, and it aims to outlaw resellers' usage of automated bots and make it difficult to sell in-demand tech at prices far exceeding the manufacturer's recommend retail price. The motion has no set date for debate in the Commons, and is what is known as an 'Early Day Motion.' These don't often receive much love in Parliament, often due to the sheer number of Early Day Motions going at any one time, but they are used to highlight specific issues present in society. That's hardly indicative of sweeping change in the near-future, but it's better than nothing.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This week, Google acquired a company called Neverware that allows users to turn their old PCs and Macs into a Chromebook with its CloudReady software. Now, Google is planning to make CloudReady into an official Chrome OS release. Engadget reports: When that happens, Neverware says its existing users will be able to seamlessly upgrade to the updated software. Moreover, once that transition is complete, Google will support CloudReady in the same way that it currently does Chrome OS. In the immediate future, Neverware says it's business as usual. The Home Edition of CloudReady isn't changing, and the company says it's committed to supporting its existing education and enterprise customers. Moreover, there's no plan to change pricing at the moment, and Google will honor any current multi-year licenses. Not only does this acquisition make a lot of sense from Google's perspective, but it's hard to see a downside for CloudReady users. The fact the operating system wasn't officially supported by Google was one of the few downsides to the software. It meant you couldn't install Android apps on CloudReady devices, even though it's based on Chromium OS. With this acquisition, support for Android apps becomes much more likely. Direct support from Google will also make the software more appealing to schools and businesses since they can get help directly from the company if they have any technical issues.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: A nine-year-old girl who died following an asthma attack has become the first person in the UK to have air pollution listed as a cause of death. Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, who lived near the South Circular Road in Lewisham, south-east London, died in 2013. Southwark Coroner's Court found that air pollution "made a material contribution" to Ella's death. Prof Gavin Shaddick, a government adviser on air pollution, called it "a landmark decision." At the conclusion of the two-week inquest, coroner Philip Barlow said Ella had been exposed to "excessive" levels of pollution. The inquest heard that in the three years before her death, she had multiple seizures and was admitted to hospital 27 times. Delivering a narrative verdict, Mr Barlow said levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) near Ella's home exceeded World Health Organization and European Union guidelines. He added: "There was a recognized failure to reduce the levels of nitrogen dioxide, which possibly contributed to her death. There was also a lack of information given to Ella's mother that possibly contributed to her death." Giving his conclusion over almost an hour, the coroner said: "I will conclude that Ella died of asthma, contributed to by exposure to excessive air pollution."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Wednesday that he will soon file a multistate antitrust lawsuit against Google and its advertising business, alleging that the company has stifled competition and enjoys "monopolistic power." From a report: In a tweet, Paxton said the lawsuit will be filed on Wednesday. "This goliath of a company is using its power to manipulate the market, destroy competition and harm you, the consumer," Paxton said in a video accompanying the tweet. The text of the complaint was not immediately available. But a court record shows that nine other states are participating in the suit, including Kentucky, South Dakota, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota and Utah. The lawsuit marks the second antitrust suit by government officials to hit Google in the US this year. The Justice Department took the search giant to court over similar allegations in October. Eleven states joined the suit at the time. It also follows a lawsuit by more than 40 attorneys general against Facebook alleging it has abused a monopoly in social media.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Google's cloud gaming service now supports the iPhone and iPad. As expected, the company is using a web app to access the service. From a report: Google also says that you need to update to iOS 14.3, the latest iOS update that was released earlier this week. If you want to try it out with a free or paid Stadia account, you can head over to stadia.google.com from your iOS device. Log in to your Google account, add a shortcut to your home screen and open the web app. After that, you can launch a game and start playing. Most games will require a gamepad, so you might want to pair a gamepad with your iPhone or iPad as well. Apple's iOS supports Xbox One and PlayStation 4 controllers using Bluetooth as well as controllers specifically designed for iOS. You can also play with the Stadia controller, but it's optional. If you just want to check your inventory quickly, Stadia on iOS also supports touch controls.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Hmmmmmm writes: Nestled among the mountains in southwest China, the world's largest radio telescope signals Beijing's ambitions as a global centre for scientific research. The Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) -- the only significant instrument of its kind after the collapse of another telescope in Puerto Rico this month -- is about to open its doors for foreign astronomers to use, hoping to attract the world's top scientific talent. The world's second-largest radio telescope, at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, was destroyed when its suspended 900-tonne receiver platform came loose and plunged 140 metres (450 feet) onto the radio dish below. Wang Qiming, chief inspector of FAST's operations and development centre, told AFP during a rare visit by the foreign press last week that he had visited Arecibo. "We drew a lot of inspiration from its structure, which we gradually improved to build our telescope."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Facebook told employees this week that it's developing a tool to summarize news articles so users won't have to read them. It also laid out early plans for a neural sensor to detect people's thoughts and translate them into action. From a report: [...] He [Facebook Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer] also detailed a neural sensor to read commandments from people's brains. Having acquired neural interface startup CTRL-labs in 2019, Facebook demonstrated its progress in the field with a sensor that takes "neural signals coming from my brain, down my spinal cord along my arm, to my wrist" and allows a user to make a physical action. Schroepfer noted that it could be used for typing, holding a virtual object, or controlling a character in a video game. "We all get the privilege of seeing the future because we are making it," he said. Still, Facebook's chief technology officer seemed to anticipate any criticisms of the products -- or past failures -- by touting safety measures. "We have to build responsibly to earn trust and the right to continue to grow," he said. "It's imperative that we get this right so that people around the world get all these amazing technologies ... without experiencing the downsides."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Facebook said it would assist the company behind popular videogame "Fortnite" in its high-profile legal battle with Apple, as the social-media giant ramps up its own counterattack against what it says are the iPhone maker's self-serving measures cloaked in the interest of privacy. From a report: Facebook has been feuding with Apple for months on issues ranging from prices for paid apps to privacy rule changes. As part of a pledge to assist challenges to what it called Apple's anticompetitive behavior, Facebook plans to provide supporting materials and documents to Epic Games Inc. The "Fortnite" parent sued Apple earlier this year, claiming the tech giant's App Store operates like a monopoly. Facebook said it isn't joining the lawsuit but helping with discovery as the case heads to trial next year.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Nigeria's telecommunications regulator ordered mobile-phone users to link their devices to their national identity numbers, raising the prospect of millions of lines being blocked. From a report: Subscribers have until Dec. 31 to comply with the requirement, the Nigerian Communications Commission said in a statement Tuesday on its website. Failure to do so will result in their phone lines being cut off in January, it said. Africa's largest economy had about 196 million active phone lines as of June 2020, NCC data shows. At the same time, only 41.5 million Nigerians had the required identity numbers, according to information on the website of the National Identity Management Commission, which is in charge of registrations. MTN Group's local unit is the biggest wireless operator in the West African country. Airtel Africa, which listed in Lagos and London last year, vies with local operator Globacom to be the country's second-biggest carrier.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Dutch prosecutors have found a hacker did successfully log in to Donald Trump's Twitter account by guessing his password -- "MAGA2020!" From a report: But they will not be punishing Victor Gevers, who was acting "ethically." Mr Gevers shared what he said were screenshots of the inside of Mr Trump's account on 22 October, during the final stages of the US presidential election. But at the time, the White House denied it had been hacked and Twitter said it had no evidence of it. Mr Gevers said he was very happy with the outcome. "This is not just about my work but all volunteers who look for vulnerabilities in the internet," he said. The well respected cyber-security researcher said he had been conducting a semi-regular sweep of the Twitter accounts of high-profile US election candidates, on 16 October, when he had guessed President Trump's password.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Australia's Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is suing Facebook over its use, in 2016 and 2017, of the Onavo VPN app to spy on users for commercial purposes. From a report: The ACCC's case accuses Facebook of false, misleading or deceptive conduct toward thousands of Australian consumers, after it had promoted the Onavo Protect app -- saying it would keep users personal activity data private, protected and secret and not use it for any other purpose, when it was being used to gather data to help Facebook's business. "Through Onavo Protect, Facebook was collecting and using the very detailed and valuable personal activity data of thousands of Australian consumers for its own commercial purposes, which we believe is completely contrary to the promise of protection, secrecy and privacy that was central to Facebook's promotion of this app," said ACCC chair Rod Sims in a statement. "Consumers often use VPN services because they care about their online privacy, and that is what this Facebook product claimed to offer. In fact, Onavo Protect channelled significant volumes of their personal activity data straight back to Facebook."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A group of major U.S. news publishers have joined the Coalition for App Fairness (CAF), the advocacy group pushing for increased regulation over app stores and fair treatment for all developers. The publisher trade association now joining CAF is Digital Content Next, a representative for the AP, The New York Times, NPR, ESPN, Vox, The Washington Post, Meredith, Bloomberg, NBCU, The Financial Times, and many others. The organization is now the 50th member for CAF and the first to represent the news and media business in the U.S. From a report: It joins other media organizations who are already CAF members, including the European Publishers Council, News Media Europe, GESTE, and Schibsted, as well as CAF founding members like Basecamp, Blix, Blockchain.com, Deezer, Epic Games, Match Group, Prepear, Protonmail, Skydemon, Spotify, and Tile, plus a growing number of smaller developers. DCN's members, combined, reach an audience over over 223 million unique visitors and 100% of the U.S. online population, it says. Its publishers provide access to content on a subscription-based model that, according to its statements, Apple "severely impacts" by serving as an intermediary.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Facebook attacked Apple in a series of full-page newspaper ads Wednesday, claiming the iPhone maker's anticipated mobile software changes around data gathering and targeted advertising are bad for small businesses. From a report: The ads, slated to run in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, carry the headline "We're standing up to Apple for small businesses everywhere." They home in on upcoming changes to Apple's iOS 14 operating system that will curb the ability of companies like Facebook to gather data about mobile users and ply them with advertising. Facebook previously told investors that Apple's changes, scheduled to go live early next year, will lead to significant headwinds because most of its advertisers are small businesses. Apple has pushed back, accusing Facebook in November of showing a "disregard for user privacy." "While limiting how personalized ads can be used does impact larger companies like us, these changes will be devastating to small businesses," Facebook claims. The social giant, citing its own data, says ads that disregard personalized targeting generate 60% fewer sales than ads that do target consumers. The newspaper ads are the latest in what has become a vicious and public battle between two of the world's most valuable companies.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Bitcoin breached the $20,000 level for the first time in history Wednesday, as crypto enthusiasts pointed to increased demand from institutional investors for the red-hot digital currency. From a report: The world's most-valuable virtual currency traded 4% higher to a price of around $20,327, according to market data from Coin Metrics, taking its year-to-date gains to more than 180%. Bitcoin has been on a tear this year. Analysts say it's gotten a boost from big-name investors such as Paul Tudor Jones and Stanley Druckenmiller moving their own assets into the cryptocurrency, while tech firms such as Square and MicroStrategy have also sought to flock into bitcoin.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.