Month: September 2016

IT'S LIL' BUB (credit: The Wirecutter)

This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer’s guide to the best technology. Read the full article with more details and background information here.

After spending 37 hours researching 22 4K monitors and testing eight finalists, we’ve found that the Dell P2715Q is the best 4K monitor. Recent improvements in technology and drops in pricing make a 4K monitor a good buy if you’re willing to live with some quirks, but it still isn’t something most people need.

The Dell P2715Q has everything you'd want in a 4K monitor. As a 27-inch IPS monitor with a 3840×2160 resolution, it offers lots of desktop space and fantastic image quality for 4K movies, YouTube videos, and gaming. Because it’s factory-calibrated, you won’t have to do anything to it to benefit from its accurate colors. On the hardware side, it has a highly adjustable stand, it’s VESA-compatible for use with a monitor arm, and it comes with a built-in USB 3.0 hub. And in contrast to the technology on earlier 4K monitors, its single-stream DisplayPort connection can run the monitor at its full resolution at 60Hz.

Visualization of the polarization of the CMB over the entire sky, as seen by the Planck satellite. (credit: ESA and the Planck Collaboration)

The standard model of Cosmology makes an important assumption: that the Universe is essentially isotropic, the same in all directions. This is a pretty good assumption, and so far isotropy seems to be the case. The Cosmic Microwave Background radiation we see coming from all directions has some small blips in it, indicating minor deviations from isotropy, but nothing to write home about. So far so good.

But we don’t know for sure just how far that isotropy extends. If there were huge deviations, it would mean we live in a wholly different universe from the one we thought we did. This class of alternative universes is known as Bianchi cosmologies, and only a few of them have been tested against the data. That leaves plenty that haven’t. If our Universe turns out to be a Bianchi universe, it would rule out our standard cosmology and associated ideas, such as inflation.

In an attempt to find out what kind of universe we live in, a group of researchers constructed a more general test. If the Universe is truly anisotropic (different in different directions), it would mean it’s expanding at different rates. If so, light traveling through these differently expanding regions would be red-shifted differently. That's because the wavelength of light is stretched as it moves through expanding space, so if space were expanding at different rates, the redshift would be altered accordingly.

Enlarge / No, not that sort of fuzzing for bugs. (credit: Micha L. Rieser)

At Microsoft's Ignite conference in Atlanta yesterday, the company announced the availability of a new cloud-based service for developers that will allow them to test application binaries for security flaws before they're deployed. Called Project Springfield, the service uses "whitebox fuzzing" (also known as "smart fuzzing") to test for common software bugs used by attackers to exploit systems.

In standard fuzzing tests, randomized inputs are thrown at software in an effort to find something that breaks the code—a buffer overflow that would let malicious code be planted in the system's memory or an unhandled exception that causes the software to crash or processes to hang. But the problem with this random approach is that it's hard to get deep into the logic of code. Another approach, called static code analysis (or "whiteboxing"), looks instead at the source code and walks through it without executing it, using ranges of inputs to determine whether security flaws may be present.

Whitebox fuzzing combines some of the aspects of each of these approaches. Using sample inputs as a starting point, a whitebox fuzz tester dynamically generates new sets of inputs to exercise the code, walking deeper into processes. Using machine learning techniques, the system repeatedly runs the code through fuzzing sessions, adapting its approach based on what it discovers with each pass. The approach is similar to some of the techniques developed by competitors in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Cyber Grand Challenge to allow for automated bug detection and patching.

(credit: Sanofi Pasteur)

Mosquito-borne illnesses are a considerable burden on human and animal health, so understanding what influences the behavior of mosquitos could be useful. A recent study published in PLOS Genetics suggests that there may be a genetic component to mosquito behavioral preferences, including what they choose to bite.

The control of malaria depends on the propensity of mosquitos to bite humans versus other hosts—if mosquitos prefer humans, then they’re more likely to spread diseases between humans, but if they prefer to feed on other animals (like cows, for example), then mosquitos may not be contributing as significantly to the human burden of disease. Additionally, control of malaria depends on the tendency of mosquitos to rest in places where we can ensure they are likely to come into contact with insecticides. Mosquitos are more likely to encounter insecticides indoors, because homes in countries where malaria is endemic are more likely to have long-lasting, insecticide-treated nets, which will kill mosquitos if they come into contact with them. These nets are highly effective and have pared down the number of dangerous mosquito species in many parts of Africa.

For this PLOS study, some researchers were interested in investigating the potential that the surviving mosquitos may have adapted their behavior to avoid control measures like nets. And, if this were occurring through evolution, it should have left a mark in the pests’ genomes. So they investigated the genetic basis for mosquito host and resting area choices.

(credit: samazgor)

Facebook has been ordered to delete all the data that it currently holds of Germany’s 35 million WhatsApp users.

Johannes Caspar, the data protection commissioner of Hamburg, where Facebook Germany is headquartered, said Tuesday there was no legal basis for Facebook to use WhatsApp's user information.

“Facebook and WhatsApp are independent companies that process their user's data on the basis of their own terms and conditions and data privacy policies. After the acquisition of WhatsApp by Facebook two years ago, both parties have publicly assured that data will not be shared between them. The fact that this is now happening is not only a misleading of their users and the public, but also constitutes an infringement of national data protection law,” said Caspar in a statement, adding that “It has to be [users’] decision as to whether they want to connect their account with Facebook. Therefore, Facebook has to ask for their permission in advance. This has not happened.”