Month: May 2021

Enlarge / Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VA) speaks outside the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union headquarters in Birmingham, Alabama, on Friday, March 26, 2021. (credit: Andi Rice / Bloomberg / Getty Images)

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders inserted himself into the debate about NASA's Artemis Program on Monday.

The independent and two-time presidential candidate did so by submitting an amendment to the Endless Frontier Act, which is now under consideration by the full Senate. Sanders' amendment, No. 1925, has a simple purpose, "To eliminate the multi-billion dollar Bezos Bailout."

The "bailout" in question refers to an earlier amendment filed to the Endless Frontier Act during a committee meeting earlier this month. Overall, the Endless Frontier Act is primarily about advancing US scientific and research efforts, but it has become fettered with modifications by US senators. Sanders is seeking to strip language from an amendment that has already been successfully attached to the scientific act.

Freenode currently ranges between roughly 75,000 and 90,000 users—that's a far cry from the 240,000 users fellow IRC network QuakeNet had back in 2005, but it's still quite a lot of people. (credit: netsplit.de)

Freenode has been the world's largest IRC network since 2013, with roughly three times as many users as its closest competitor, IRCnet. Last week, the massive IRC network was taken over by Korean Crown Prince Andrew Lee—a move that the network's staff has apparently unanimously classified as a "hostile takeover," although Lee himself claims these are only "rumors" and "simply untrue."

At first blush, it's tempting for an outside observer—someone who isn't already familiar with the history of the network's ownership and management—to shrug and say "well, who knows." Lee lays out several hundred words of explanation in a blog post currently featured on Freenode's front page—most of which sounds reasonable.

But the one question Lee never addresses—let alone answers—is why at least 14 separate staff members would quit en masse, all disagreeing with the story he tells.

Enlarge (credit: CHUYN / Getty Images)

Malicious hackers have been exploiting a vulnerability in fully updated versions of macOS that allowed them to take screenshots on infected Macs without having to get permission from victims first.

The zeroday was exploited by XCSSET, a piece of malware discovered by security firm Trend Micro last August. XCSSET used what at the time were two zerodays to infect Mac developers with malware that stole browser cookies and files; injected backdoors into websites; stole information from Skype, Telegram, and other installed apps; took screenshots; and encrypted files and showed a ransom note.

A third zeroday

Infections came in the form of malicious projects that the attacker wrote for Xcode, a tool that Apple makes available for free to developers writing apps for macOS or other Apple OSes. As soon as one of the XCSSET projects was opened and built, TrendMicro said, the malicious code would run on the developers’ Macs. An Xcode project is a repository for all the files, resources, and information needed to build an app.

Enlarge / inside page. (credit: Shou-Hui Wang / Flickr)

Over the past decade, it became apparent that a number of fields of research had some issues with replication. Published results didn't always survive attempts at repeating experiments. The extent of the problem was a matter of debate, so a number of reproducibility projects formed to provide hard numbers. And the results were not great, with most finding that only about half of published studies could be repeated.

These reproducibility projects should have served a couple of purposes. They emphasize the importance of ensuring that results replicate to scientific funders and publishers, who are reluctant to support what could be considered repetitive research. They should encourage researchers to incorporate internal replications into their research plans. And, finally, they should be a caution against relying on research that's already been shown to have issues with replication.

While there's some progress on the first two purposes, the last aspect is apparently still problematic, according to two researchers at the University of California, San Diego.

Enlarge / A vial and boxes of the Sinopharm Group Co Ltd. Covid-19 vaccine. (credit: Getty | Bloomberg)

Officials in Beijing are reportedly planning to roll out third doses of China’s COVID-19 vaccines. These shots have long been dogged by doubts of their efficacy.

According to a report by The Washington Post, health experts in China say that protection from the vaccines may not last after six months and that people who are at high risk of COVID-19 should get a third dose. Now, state-run media outlets suggest Beijing is on board with the suggestion and is preparing to offer the third doses.

Last week, both the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain said they would offer third doses of China’s Sinopharm vaccine to try to boost protection. UAE is offering the extra shots to anyone who was vaccinated six or more months ago. Bahrain is offering third doses to high-risk groups.

Enlarge / A Fortnite loading screen displayed on an iPhone in 2018, when Apple and Epic weren't at each other's legal throats. (credit: Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images)

After three weeks of wide-ranging (and often meandering) witness testimony and questioning, today's closing arguments in the Epic Games Inc. v. Apple Inc. trial focused on two crucial and highly technical legal questions: what is the relevant competitive market and what should the court do if Apple is found to be unfairly monopolizing that market?

For Epic, the market in question in this case is simply the market for apps on iOS. In this market, Epic argues, Apple clearly has monopoly control, since iOS users can't legitimately download apps or make in-app purchases without using Apple's App Store.

But Apple said that's the wrong way to look at the world iOS operates in and that the company already faces "massive competition on a worldwide scale." That includes mobile competition from Android (which has a much larger worldwide market share) and gaming competition from consoles, PC storefronts like Steam, and more.

Enlarge / The 2020 iPhone lineup. From left to right: iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12, iPhone SE, and iPhone 12 mini. (credit: Samuel Axon)

Apple released a plethora of operating system updates today, including iOS 14.6, iPadOS 14.6, tvOS 14.6, watchOS 7.5, and macOS Big Sur 11.4. Generally, today's software updates add new features and not just bug fixes—though some new features won't actually be available until later.

Those features are spatial audio with Dolby Atmos and the accompanying support for lossless streaming audio formats on Apple Music. These abilities were announced a week ago, but Apple says they're not going live until sometime in June. Those audio features are the only new features in tvOS 14.6, so that update isn't much to write home about.

However, there's a lot more to the other updates. Starting with watchOS 7.5, users will not be able to subscribe to podcasts within the Podcasts app. And watchOS now supports Apple Card Family, a shared credit card system meant to help couples build credit together while managing their dependents' spending. watchOS 7.6 also enables ECG and irregular heart-rate rhythm notifications in two new regions: Malaysia and Peru.

Last month, we got the first teaser for Marvel Studios' upcoming film, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the second feature film in the MCU's planned Phase Four. (Black Widow will be the first when it premieres in July.) Now we have our first real look at Eternals, in which members of an immortal alien race with cosmic powers reunite to protect the Earth from their malevolent counterparts.

The film is based on the comic book series of the same name created by Jack Kirby in 1976. The storyline tells of alien Celestials who visited Earth a million years ago, creating two divergent races—the Eternals and the Deviants—by way of genetic experiments. Those experiments were also responsible for the rare emergence of mutations in certain humans, giving them super powers. The Eternals protect the human race from the Deviants, and the two races engage in recurrent violent clashes. The Eternals' immortality and powers come from cosmic energy and their ability to channel it.

Kirby was partly inspired by Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End (1953)—which featured Overlords who controlled Earth's fate—and the 1968 nonfiction bestseller Chariots of the Gods by Erich von Daniken, postulating the concept of alien gods. Eternals also owes something to New Gods, Kirby's own earlier series for DC Comics, circa 1970. When that epic saga series was cancelled (and left incomplete), he wrote Eternals for Marvel Comics. A new Eternals comic series was launched in January of this year, written by Kieron Gillen with art by Esad Ribić.