Month: June 2019

Enlarge (credit: unknown)

A recently patched vulnerability in text editors preinstalled in a variety of Linux distributions allows hackers to take control of computers when users open a malicious text file. The latest version of Apple’s macOS is continuing to use a vulnerable version, although attacks only work when users have changed a default setting that enables a feature called modelines.

Vim and its forked derivative, NeoVim, contained a flaw that resided in modelines. This feature lets users specify window dimensions and other custom options near the start or end of a text file. While modelines restricts the commands available and runs them inside a sandbox that’s cordoned off from the operating system, researcher Armin Razmjou noticed the source! command (including the bang on the end) bypassed that protection.

“It reads and executes commands from a given file as if typed manually, running them after the sandbox has been left,” the researcher wrote in a post earlier this month.

Enlarge / Gather some friends, kill some mobs, get some loot. (credit: Mojang / Xbox Game Studios)

LOS ANGELES—The years between Diablo II and Diablo III were ripe with isometric, dungeon-action clones, all trying to feed gamers' next-gen hunger for click-and-loot adventures. That era has long passed, but now that I've played Minecraft Dungeons, I wish I could go back in time and drop Mojang's very solid Diablo-like game into that late-'00s fray.

There's really no getting around it: this is Diablo through a Minecraft prism. The 20-person team behind this Windows 10, Xbox One, Switch, and PS4 game admits as much, calling Blizzard's legendary series "one source of inspiration, certainly." But after name-dropping other modern co-op games like Vermintide and Left 4 Dead, the Mojang developers at E3 2019 made one point emphatic to Ars Technica: "We want to make sure this is Minecraft."

No classes—and it’s classy

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  It sure looks like Diablo, and Mojang doesn't seem to mind. [credit: Mojang ]

Stop me if you've heard this Diablo-like sales pitch before. Players control a warrior as seen from an isometric, top-down perspective, then either click a mouse or move a joystick to explore procedurally generated dungeons. Defeat waves of enemies, contend with traps, solve simple puzzles, and pick up oodles of loot along the way. Play solo or team up with up to three other friends; the more players, the higher the difficulty.

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  The first hydrogen-powered commercial ferry under construction. [credit: Golden Gate Zero Emission Marine / Switch Maritime ]

On Wednesday, a plan to put hydrogen fuel cell-powered ferries in US waters moved forward as startup Golden Gate Zero Emission Marine (GGZEM) announced a partnership with Switch Maritime, an impact investment fund that will finance and operate a fleet of such vessels.

GGZEM received a $3 million grant from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) last November to build a 70-foot, 84-passenger, hydrogen fuel cell-powered boat. Named the Water-Go-Round, the vessel will be used to take passengers across the San Francisco Bay. The ferry, which is currently under construction in Alameda, Calif., is expected to be complete in September. After its completion, it will undergo three months of testing so researchers can gather data on its performance.

Switch Maritime (sometimes styled SW/TCH) is the new operator of the ferry, and it hopes to decarbonize water transport throughout the United States. The company recently announced another project in New York City to build a battery-powered ferry, which will be completed after the Water-Go-Round's debut. Switch says it "plans to work with existing ferry operators on both coasts to provide capital to accelerate the adoption of zero-emission modes of transit," according to a press release.

Enlarge / A 5G Intel logo is seen during the Mobile World Congress on February 26, 2019 in Barcelona. (credit: Miquel Benitez/Getty Images)

Apple is still looking into the possibility of acquiring Intel's Germany-based modem business, The Information claimed yesterday, citing sources familiar with Apple's plans.

Intel has reportedly considered selling off pieces of its modem business, and the heart of that business is in Germany, where Intel acquired and integrated Infineon for $1.4 billion in 2011. The engineers that ended up in that division previously worked on chips that ended up in the iPhone about a decade ago.

This is not the first we've heard of Apple's interest in Intel's business. A Wall Street Journal report in April claimed that Apple was looking into making an acquisition then. In a statement to CNET and others, Intel said that it has seen "significant interest" in its 5G modem business but did not name any specific companies or partners. The statement is further quoted in CNET and AppleInsider, saying:

Enlarge / This is how the braziers were placed in the tomb alongside the deceased. (credit: Xinhua Wu)

The broken wooden braziers, unearthed from 2,500-year-old tombs in Western China, contained burned, blackened stones, and the interior of the wooden vessels also looked charred. To find out what had been burned in them, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences archaeologist Yemin Yang and his colleagues used gas chromatography/mass spectrometry to analyze small samples of the charred wood and the residue from the stones.

Their analysis turned up a chemical called cannabinol, or CBN—an unmistakable chemical signature of cannabis. Those ancient chemical traces offer an important clue in the history of human drug use and the domestic history of cannabis.

In around 500 BCE, the ancient Greek historian Herodotus described people near the Caspian Sea gathering in small, enclosed tents to breathe in the smoke from cannabis burned atop a bowlful of red-hot stones. Yang says people did something similar at Jirzankou, probably as part of funeral ceremonies. Archaeologists there also found the remains of a musical instrument called an angular harp, which played an important role in later funeral rites in Western China.