Month: February 2023

Enlarge / Prior to this, Quaoar (lower left) looked like a very average Kuiper belt object. (credit: NASA)

Many bodies in the Solar System have rings—gas giants, dwarf planets, even an asteroid. These examples have allowed us to get a good picture of their physics, leading to models for how rings form and what keeps the material there from falling into the planet or condensing into a moon.

But a discovery described in a paper released today suggests we've gotten something (or maybe more than one something) seriously wrong. A dwarf planet called 50000 Quaoar that orbits beyond Neptune appears to have a ring that shouldn't be there, at 7.4 times more distant than the planet's radius. There are a couple of ideas about why the ring might survive in this location, but nothing definitive at this point.

Ring signals

Quaoar resides in the Kuiper belt, an area beyond the orbit of Neptune. With a low density of icy material and no giant planets around to sweep it up, the Kuiper belt is home to a sparse population of dwarf planets like Pluto. Despite its low density, the Kuiper belt is large enough that there are a lot of bodies out there, and we've only recently developed the telescope hardware necessary to catalog them.

Enlarge / Prior to this, Quaoar (lower left) looked like a very average Kuiper belt object. (credit: NASA)

Many bodies in the Solar System have rings—gas giants, dwarf planets, even an asteroid. These examples have allowed us to get a good picture of their physics, leading to models for how rings form and what keeps the material there from falling into the planet or condensing into a moon.

But a discovery described in a paper released today suggests we've gotten something (or maybe more than one something) seriously wrong. A dwarf planet called 50000 Quaoar that orbits beyond Neptune appears to have a ring that shouldn't be there, at 7.4 times more distant than the planet's radius. There are a couple of ideas about why the ring might survive in this location, but nothing definitive at this point.

Ring signals

Quaoar resides in the Kuiper belt, an area beyond the orbit of Neptune. With a low density of icy material and no giant planets around to sweep it up, the Kuiper belt is home to a sparse population of dwarf planets like Pluto. Despite its low density, the Kuiper belt is large enough that there are a lot of bodies out there, and we've only recently developed the telescope hardware necessary to catalog them.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Carol Yepes)

Hackers have devised a way to bypass ChatGPT’s restrictions and are using it to sell services that allow people to create malware and phishing emails, researchers said on Wednesday.

ChatGPT is a chatbot that uses artificial intelligence to answer questions and perform tasks in a way that mimics human output. People can use it to create documents, write basic computer code, and do other things. The service actively blocks requests to generate potentially illegal content. Ask the service to write code for stealing data from a hacked device or craft a phishing email, and the service will refuse and instead reply that such content is “illegal, unethical, and harmful.”

Opening Pandora’s Box

Hackers have found a simple way to bypass those restrictions and are using it to sell illicit services in an underground crime forum, researchers from security firm Check Point Research reported. The technique works by using the ChatGPT application programming interface rather than the web-based interface. ChatGPT makes the API available to developers so they can integrate the AI bot into their applications. It turns out the API version doesn’t enforce restrictions on malicious content.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Carol Yepes)

Hackers have devised a way to bypass ChatGPT’s restrictions and are using it to sell services that allow people to create malware and phishing emails, researchers said on Wednesday.

ChatGPT is a chatbot that uses artificial intelligence to answer questions and perform tasks in a way that mimics human output. People can use it to create documents, write basic computer code, and do other things. The service actively blocks requests to generate potentially illegal content. Ask the service to write code for stealing data from a hacked device or craft a phishing email, and the service will refuse and instead reply that such content is “illegal, unethical, and harmful.”

Opening Pandora’s Box

Hackers have found a simple way to bypass those restrictions and are using it to sell illicit services in an underground crime forum, researchers from security firm Check Point Research reported. The technique works by using the ChatGPT application programming interface rather than the web-based interface. ChatGPT makes the API available to developers so they can integrate the AI bot into their applications. It turns out the API version doesn’t enforce restrictions on malicious content.

Enlarge (credit: Getty)

The end is near for a bunch of old telecommunications tech in China. On Monday, the country's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) announced that as of March 1, it will no longer issue permits for fax machines, pagers, or integrated services digital network (ISDN) terminals to access Chinese networks.

The announcement, spotted by The Register, also applies to "fixed telephone terminals, cordless telephone terminals, [and] group telephones," as well as modems, "multimedia terminals connected to mobile communication networks," and "frame relay for 11 types of telecommunications equipment," including switches and call center equipment, per a Google translation.

While existing products will still be able to connect to Chinese networks, the country will not issue permits for new products that rely on these dated technologies.

Enlarge (credit: Hertz)

In 2021, after the pandemic destroyed its business and forced it into bankruptcy, Hertz unveiled a bold new plan to add hundreds of thousands of new electric vehicles to its fleet. In October 2021, the rental car company announced it would add 100,000 Tesla Model 3s and Model Ys to its fleet by the end of 2022, the first of several EV purchase announcements.

But the company's recently filed annual financial results show that it fell well short of its goal to have Teslas comprise 20 percent of its rental fleet by the end of 2022. Hertz's North American fleet peaked at 428,700 vehicles in 2022, and while it added EVs to the mix, by year's end Tesla only represented 9 percent of the overall fleet and 11 percent of the North American fleet, suggesting fewer than half of the 100,000 Model 3s have been delivered.

That said, a quick check on Hertz's booking site shows plenty of Teslas available to rent here in Washington, DC, and Hertz says that it has EVs for rent at 500 locations in 38 states.

Enlarge / There's a new, improved Home system coming for Apple's smart home users—for the second time. (credit: nurPhoto / Getty Images)

An upgraded architecture for Apple's Home smart home system, one that would potentially make device-packed networks faster and more reliable, is coming back to iOS soon after a failed launch late last year.

Apple originally pushed a Home app update in iOS 16.2, one that, separate from the OS itself, offered "improved performance and reliability of the accessories in your home." The upgrade required that every single Apple device connected to the home—iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, MacBooks, HomePods, and Apple TVs—updates to the latest OS version or not have access. A number of people who clicked all those Settings icons and waited through reboots ended up with unresponsive devices, slow responses to commands and scene changes, and devices stuck in a "Configuring" stage.

Apple later pulled the Home architecture upgrade from 16.2, gave Home owners advice on how to regain control of their Home, and reportedly added the problems to an internal list of major hardware and software issues, seen by Apple, Apple Store, and Authorized Service Providers. The visual refresh given to the Home app was still in place, providing easier access to multiple devices and rooms from the home screen and adding widgets to the lock screen. But those who didn't jump to upgrade (and complete it) were held back. Apple listed the "Upgrade to the new Home architecture" as "temporarily removed" but noted it would "return soon."

Enlarge / Android 14 has this lovely mission patch logo. (credit: Google)

Android 14 is here—or the first preview is, at least.

Google is kicking off the months-long developer preview process for Android's latest version, which will get a final release in the second half of the year. Even with multiple previews, Google likes to keep the final set of Android features under wraps at least until its I/O conference in May, so we can't look at the features here to determine the scope of Android 14. These are just some of the features Google wants developers to have a head start on.

The biggest news is that Android 14 will block the installation of old Android apps. As Android changes over the years, new APIs and increased security, privacy, or background processing restrictions could break old apps, but Android's backward-compatibility system keeps these old apps running. Apps can declare the newest version of Android they support via a "Target SDK" flag.

Enlarge / An electron micrograph of norovirus. (credit: Getty| BSIP)

While cold-weather waves of flu, RSV, and COVID-19 are on a merciful decline, another common pathogen seems to be having its moment: norovirus.

The percentage of positive norovirus tests at the end of January has surpassed the peak percentage seen last year in March, according to surveillance data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Though the data suggests the virus may have peaked on a national level, regional data shows cases are still floating upward in the Northeast, Midwest, and Western US, with numbers in the South seemingly sinking.

Like many infectious diseases, norovirus cases bottomed out amid the pandemic health restrictions and disruptions. But in 2022, the US saw a resurgence to pre-pandemic levels—and by one metric, surpassed them. The CDC's Norovirus Sentinel Testing and Tracking (NoroSTAT) network, which collects data on norovirus outbreaks from 14 collaborating state health departments, reported that the number of norovirus outbreaks at the end of February 2022 hit a season peak exceeding that of any previous season since surveillance began in 2012.