August 2016 – Page 89 – news.buyenne.com

Hydrogen molecule falls to quantum computer

Quantum computer calculates ground state of hydrogen with just two qubits.

We are at the beginning of a revolution. I've been going on about quantum computing for as long as I've been writing, but it has always been in the future tense. Nothing useful could be done as researchers stepped through all the foothills on their way to the peaks, but now the summit is in view. Just two months ago, we reported on a quantum computer that mashed digital aspects of quantum computing together with analog aspects. In doing so, the researchers came up with a more robust architecture. While this is promising, it's not much more than what others have done with different types of quantum computers.

Now, the same device has been used to do real quantum chemistry calculations, and it seems scarily accurate.

Chemistry? I came here for physics

As any physicist will tell you, chemistry is just physics. And as any chemist will tell you, unsolvable equations are worthless when you're staring down the barrel of a synthesis that has gone wrong (I've paraphrased what a chemist would actually say, which Ars editorial standards would not allow me to print).

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Deals of the Day (8-10-2016)

The Lenovo IdeaPad 710S is a 13.3 inch laptop that measures 0.5 inches thick and weighs 2.6 pounds. Unveiled in January, the notebook went on sale this summer and you can currently pick one up from Lenovo for about $750 and up.
That entry-level price g…

That entry-level price gets you a model with a Core i5 Skylake processor, a full HD display, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of solid state storage.

But right now Adorama is selling a model for $50 more that features a faster processor and twice as much storage.

Continue reading Deals of the Day (8-10-2016) at Liliputing.

Sicherheitslücke im Forum: Daten von 1,9 Millionen Dota-2-Spielern kopiert

Wer im Dota-2-Forum aktiv ist, muss kreativ werden und sich ein neues Passwort ausdenken. Ein Fehler in der Datenbanksoftware ermöglichte den Zugriff auf die Datenbank. (Dota 2, Verschlüsselung)

Predictive Policing: Berliner Polizei testet selbst entwickelte Prognosesoftware

Der Nutzen von Predictive Policing ist umstritten. Die Berliner Polizei hofft dennoch darauf, mit einer neuen Software Einbrüche besser bekämpfen zu können. (Data-Mining, Vorratsdatenspeicherung)

Zu viele Sicherheitslücken: Microsoft entledigt sich des Windows Journals

Microsoft hat eine nützliche, wenn auch selten genutzte Anwendung für Stiftbenutzer gestrichen. Angeblich wegen zu vieler Sicherheitslücken muss das Windows Journal für Tablet-PCs aus Windows 10, 8.1 und 7 entfernt werden. Der Anwender bemerkt das allerdings nicht unbedingt. (Tablet-PC, Windows 7)

FTTH: Stadtwerke bieten Gigabit-Zugang für 80 Euro

Stadtwerke machen vor, was die Deutsche Telekom nicht schafft: 1 GBit/s im Download und Upload für 80 Euro mit FTTH. Das ist natürlich auf das Ausbaugebiet beschränkt. (Glasfaser, Internet)

Meizu M3E smartphone launches in China for $195

Just weeks after launching the $298 Meizu MX6 smartphone in China, Meizu has unveiled a new phone with less impressive specs, but a design that’s reminiscent of the MX6 and a price that’s more than $100 lower.

The new Meizu M3E is priced at 1,299 yuan, or $195. The phone has a 5.5 inch full HD display, 3GB of RAM, and a fingerprint sensor, among other semi-premium features.

The Meizu M3E has a MediaTek Helio P10 octa-core processor with four 1.8 GHz ARM Cortex-A53 CPU cores, four 1 GHz Cortex-a53 cores, and ARM Mali-T860 graphics.

Continue reading Meizu M3E smartphone launches in China for $195 at Liliputing.

The new Meizu M3E is priced at 1,299 yuan, or $195. The phone has a 5.5 inch full HD display, 3GB of RAM, and a fingerprint sensor, among other semi-premium features.

The Meizu M3E has a MediaTek Helio P10 octa-core processor with four 1.8 GHz ARM Cortex-A53 CPU cores, four 1 GHz Cortex-a53 cores, and ARM Mali-T860 graphics.

Continue reading Meizu M3E smartphone launches in China for $195 at Liliputing.

US broadband: Still no ISP choice for many, especially at higher speeds

If you can choose from two high-speed ISPs, consider yourself lucky.

The latest Federal Communications Commission statistics show that Americans still have little choice of high-speed broadband providers.

On the surface, the numbers appear to show that the broadband market has gotten slightly less competitive since 2013. But what has really happened is the FCC is collecting more granular data that better illustrates the lack of choice for most Americans. Things are probably getting a little better as providers boost speeds and new entrants like Google Fiber and municipal ISPs offer service. But the FCC's improved statistical analysis shows how far there is to go.

This is the key competition graphic from the FCC's latest Internet Access Services report, which was released last week and contains data through June 30, 2015:

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Russia Plans Social Media Piracy Crackdown

Authorities in Russia are planning new legislation that could see a crackdown on users uploading pirated content to social networks. Also under consideration are measures to ban advertising from infringing sites and block subscription-based platforms from processing user payments.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Despite a reputation for not doing enough to thwart online piracy, Russian authorities have become unusually keen to make amends in recent years.

Site-blocking, for example, is now a common occurrence, with sites that infringe multiple times now being subjected to a permanent lifetime injunction, actioned by local ISPs.

But while users continue to flock to torrent sites and streaming portals, copyright holders and local authorities are concerned that social networking platforms are a potentially more serious threat.

In many cases, users are allowed to upload content at will, thereby creating huge libraries of infringing material, a serious headache for copyright holders.

To tackle this problem, authorities and entertainment industry groups are now in the process of drafting fresh legislation aimed at those social media platforms that allow users to upload content.

According to Izvestia, the Ministry of Culture and groups including the National Federation of the Music Industry (NFMI) and the Association of Producers of Cinema and Television (APKIT), believe that a change in the law will make it harder for social platforms to evade liability.

Under Article 1253.1 of the Civil Code, social media sites are considered “information brokers”, meaning that sites like vKontakte (Russia’s Facebook) can avoid being held liable for infringing content uploaded by their users.

Rightsholders would like that legislation to be removed or rewritten in a way that would provide them with more useful options to enforce their intellectual property rights.

Also under consideration are changes to the law that would further punish sites that have already been ordered to be blocked by the Moscow City Court. Currently, local ISPs currently put Internet blockades in place but rightsholders foresee a situation where the finances of infringing sites are put under pressure too.

On the table are proposals to ban those sites from carrying advertising. In the West, advertisers are working on voluntary schemes that aim to keep their funding away from ‘pirate’ sites but it appears that Russia is considering enshrining those principles into law.

Additionally, rightsholders are asking for sites that run on a subscription basis to be forbidden from accepting payments from their users. Again, voluntary agreements with companies such as Visa, MasterCard and PayPal are already in place in the United States and Europe, but legislation could compel Russian companies to comply.

Also continuing its path through the system is another bill designed to tackle the rise of so-called mirrors, sites that crop up after a site is blocked in order to facilitate access to the same content.

The draft bill, which also proposes an obligation to have search engines strip content from results and measures to tackle VPNs and proxies, has already been sent to the Ministry of Communications.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Patchday: PDF-Sicherheitslücke betrifft Microsoft-Browser

Das mittlerweile im Browser übliche direkte Anzeigen von PDF-Dokumenten kann zu einem Sicherheitsproblem werden, wie ein aktueller Fall zeigt. Der Anwender muss bei Microsofts Edge-Browser auch ohne Adobe Reader auf Schad-PDFs achten. (Windows 10, PDF)