Month: February 2023

Enlarge / A Russian Rokot launcher is seen on April 25, 2018, at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. (credit: Stephane Corvaja/ESA via Getty Images)

On Christmas Day, 2013, the relatively small Russian Rokot rocket launched from the Plesetsk site in the northern part of the country. The mission carried three small military communications satellites, but observers noted that the mission appeared to eject a fourth object into orbit.

A few months later Russia confirmed that this object was a satellite, and it came to be known as Cosmos 2491. To the surprise of many sky watchers, this satellite then began to perform novel orbital maneuvers, such as raising and lowering its orbit, that demonstrated rendezvous and proximity operations.

Then it happened again. In May 2014 another Rokot booster carried three communications satellites into orbit as well as a fourth object, which was designated Cosmos 2499. Finally, this happened a third time in April 2015, with a third mystery satellite known as Cosmos 2504.

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ChatGPT has taken the world by storm. Within two months of its release it reached 100 million active users, making it the fastest-growing consumer application ever launched. Users are attracted to the tool’s advanced capabilities—and concerned by its potential to cause disruption in various sectors.

A much less discussed implication is the privacy risks ChatGPT poses to each and every one of us. Just yesterday, Google unveiled its own conversational AI called Bard, and others will surely follow. Technology companies working on AI have well and truly entered an arms race.

The problem is, it’s fueled by our personal data.

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It's the middle of the week, and you know what that means. It's time for another Dealmaster. In this week's roundup of the web's best tech deals, we have a new low on the latest Amazon Kindle, a record-matching low on Google's Pixel 7, and a pair of iPads headlining our roundup.

In our review, we found Amazon's latest Kindle e-reader and Kindle Paperwhite to be neck-and-neck competitors as two of Amazon's best low-end Kindles. They have few frills and do what they're meant to do well: help you consume books textually or audibly. It's particularly great for kids even without the Kids version perks (a case, two-year warranty, and one-year subscription to Amazon Kids+) because of its size and ability to play audiobooks.

The Pixel 7 is also discounted to match its record-low price of $399. Its top-tier camera, snappy, bloat-free software, and sleek, functional design are standout features we've come to expect of the Pixel lineup year after year. We don't feel that the 7 and 7 Pro are substantially better than the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro. But this discount brings the 7 down to the 6's price, while gaining you a macro camera.

Enlarge / The Nintendo Switch (OLED model). (credit: Nintendo)

During its latest earnings report to investors, Nintendo revealed that its Switch game console sold 8.2 million units in the final three months of 2022, bringing the total number of Switch consoles sold to 122.55 million. That uptick slides the Switch—which launched in March 2017—into the slot for the third-bestselling game console in history.

The two consoles ahead of it are the Nintendo DS handheld, in second place with 154 million total units sold, and Sony's PlayStation 2 home console, in first place by a hair at a bit more than 155 million units. The recent series of sales allowed it to surpass the Game Boy and the Game Boy Color, which together sold 118.69 million, and Sony's PlayStation 4 (just over 117 million) for the top spot.

So the Switch is a distant third. Truth be told, it might not be around long enough to make it to the second- or first-place milestones.

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For almost five years, Booking.com customers have been on the receiving end of a continuous series of scams that clearly demonstrate that criminals have obtained travel plans and other personal information customers provided to the travel site.

One of the more recent shakedowns happened to an Ars reader who asked not to be identified by his real name. A few months ago, Thomas, as I’ll call him, reserved and paid for a two-night stay scheduled for this July in a hotel in Italy. Here’s the legitimate reservation:

The real reservation from Booking.com.

Last week, out of the blue, he received two emails. The headers show that the first message came from the genuine Booking.com domain. It purported to have been sent on behalf of the hotel in Italy and asked that he click a non-existent confirm button for his upcoming stay. It informed him that the hotel would “also transfer all bookings made from that address to your account.” As phishy as that sounds, the email included his full name, the confirmation number of his reservation, the correct name of the hotel, and the dates of his stay.

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The end-Triassic extinction, which happened 201 million years ago, was Earth’s third most severe extinction event since the dawn of animal life. Like today, CO₂ rise and global warming were present, but the similarities don’t end there. As with today, it was a time of wildfires, deforestation, downpours, erosion, ocean acidification, marine dead zones, vanishing coral reefs, sea-level rise, and even insect plagues. There was also pollution by mercury, sulfur dioxide, halocarbons, and methane—and possibly even a damaged ozone layer.

“Something very violent occurred 201 million years ago, with great similarity in terms of CO₂ with what we see is happening now,” said Dr. Manfredo Capriolo of the University of Oslo. That would seem to make it a good model to understand what’s going on now. But there are glaring differences—most notably the lack of humans.

Instead of the human pollution of today, the end-Triassic saw massive volcanic eruptions that emitted prodigious amounts of greenhouse gases and pollutants. There were other differences as well. During the Triassic, there was just one continent, called “Pangea,” and the climate started warmer and ice-free, with CO₂ levels much higher than those of today. Dinosaurs had yet to dominate the planet, and there was no grass or flowers.