Month: June 2023

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The Brave browser will take action against websites that snoop on visitors by scanning their open Internet ports or accessing other network resources that can expose personal information.

Starting in version 1.54, Brave will automatically block website port scanning, a practice that a surprisingly large number of sites were found engaging in a few years ago. According to this list compiled in 2021 by a researcher who goes by the handle G666g1e, 744 websites scanned visitors’ ports, most or all without providing notice or seeking permission in advance. eBay, Chick-fil-A, Best Buy, Kroger, and Macy's were among the offending websites.

(credit: https://nullsweep.com/why-is-this-website-port-scanning-me/)

Some sites use similar tactics in an attempt to fingerprint visitors so they can be re-identified each time they return, even if they delete browser cookies. By running scripts that access local resources on the visiting devices, the sites can detect unique patterns in a visiting browser. Sometimes there are benign reasons a site will access local resources, such as detecting insecurities or allowing developers to test their websites. Often, however, there are more abusive or malicious motives involved.

Enlarge / In this artist’s interpretation, a pair of supermassive black holes (top left) emits gravitational waves that ripple through the fabric of space-time. Those gravitational waves compress and stretch the paths of radio waves emitted by pulsars (white). (credit: Aurore Simonnet for the NANOGrav Collaboration)

Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of spacetime predicted by Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, first detected in 2015. But an expected corresponding low-frequency gravitational wave background—a kind of "hum" comprised of a chorus of gravitational waves, most likely emanating from binary pairs of supermassive black holes—has proven more elusive. Now the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) has announced the first evidence of this gravitational wave background. The results and related analyses are described in several new papers published in the The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The collaboration stopped short of claiming outright detection, opting to describe their results instead as strong evidence of the expected gravitational wave background. That said, "In our statistical analyses, there's a less than 1-in-1,000 chance of nature giving our results without gravitational waves being present," NANOGrav chair Stephen Taylor of Vanderbilt University said during a press briefing.

As previously reported, LIGO detects gravitational waves via laser interferometry, using high-powered lasers to measure tiny changes in the distance between two objects positioned kilometers apart. LIGO has detectors in Hanford, Washington, and in Livingston, Louisiana. (A third detector in Italy, Advanced VIRGO, came online in 2016.) On September 14, 2015, at 5:51 am ET, both detectors picked up signals within milliseconds of each other for the very first time—direct evidence for two black holes spiraling inward toward each other and merging in a massive collision event that sent powerful shockwaves across spacetime. That first direct detection was announced on February 11, 2016, spawned headlines worldwide, snagged the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics, and officially launched a new era of so-called "multi-messenger" astronomy.

Enlarge / Bags to hold clinical samples labeled with Sanford Health. (credit: Getty | Tom Pennington)

A medical waste disposal company operating in Fargo, North Dakota, has filed a scathing lawsuit against health care system Sanford Health. The lawsuit claims—among many things—that Sanford employees tried to surreptitiously unload a rotting human torso hidden in a plastic container at the facility, faking a signature accepting the delivery in the process. The facility, by law, is not authorized to handle human remains.

The torso incident was among a string of alleged brazen acts and "egregious conduct" by Sanford employees. The disposal company—Monarch Waste Technologies (MWT)—accuses Sanford employees of repeatedly and knowingly mishandling, mislabeling, and improperly delivering medical waste to its treatment facility in their short-lived relationship. That includes failing to sort medical waste, hiding hazardous waste bags in other, non-hazardous waste containers, and delivering waste in improper containers that could leak.

The two companies had signed two 10-year contracts in September 2020, a lease agreement for the treatment facility and a waste disposal agreement. Two years prior to that, Sanford's own medical waste incinerator was shut down after failing emissions standards. It had also allegedly raised complaints among residents, who accused Sanford of allowing medical waste, such as glass vials of blood, to be strewn around the incineration facility, sometimes ending up on residents' property.

Enlarge / A Google video promoted AR's translation potential with these normal-looking consumer AR glasses a year ago, but Google's reportedly quit developing AR specs. (credit: Google/YouTube)

Google has reportedly scrapped plans to release a pair of augmented reality (AR) glasses. The cancellation of the gadget, reportedly codenamed Project Iris, marks the third time the company's supposedly thrown in the towel on AR glasses. The most recent specs were expected to become Google's second foray into consumer tech and feature a more mainstream-friendly appearance than Google Glass.

In January 2022, the rumor mill churned out its first details on Project Iris, thanks to a report from The Verge citing anonymous sources "familiar with the project." Iris was reportedly wireless with external cameras and left heavy graphical processing duties to the cloud.

Last year's report also described prototypes in development as being ski goggle-like, but Business Insider's report Monday claimed that those prototypes were actually for Google's AR partnership with Samsung and Qualcomm to make a mixed reality (MR) platform. Google announced the project alongside minimal details in February 2023.

Enlarge / Sharpies are great for many things—labeling leftovers, writing "bedroom" on packing boxes, ruining dry erase boards. They're not the best tool for sensitive documents submitted in a federal hearing. (credit: Aurich Lawson)

Most people know AAA games cost a lot to make, but they can also be cash cows if they're hits. Now, because Sharpies can fail to fully redact paper documents if you scan them, we can quantify some of Sony's PlayStation game budgets, earnings, headcounts, and other figures.

As reported by The Verge, the documents were supplied by Sony's CEO of PlayStation Jim Ryan. Ryan's submission is part of the ongoing FTC v. Microsoft hearing resulting from the Federal Trade Commission's attempt to block Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard on antitrust grounds. By giving the FTC confidential numbers on AAA game performance, Sony aimed to show how Microsoft having Call of Duty as an exclusive franchise could hurt Sony (despite emails to the contrary).

But because of the interplay of paper, printer ink, Sharpie ink, and optical scanners, a lot more people, including journalists, can see those numbers. Some of the big ones are:

Enlarge (credit: Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Late last year, Waze faced serious questions about its future at Google when, as part of Google's company-wide efforts at cost-cutting, Waze lost its status as an independent company. The mapping app was forced to merge with Google Geo (aka the Google Maps division) even though the two apps supposedly remain mostly independent. Six months later, CNBC's Jennifer Elias reports the job cuts have arrived, and Waze will be losing some employees.

Google Geo's VP and general manager, Chris Phillips, announced that Waze's ad platform would be shut down in favor of Google ads and reportedly told employees that the move "will result in a reduction of Waze Ads monetization-focused roles in sales, marketing, operations, and analytics." It's not clear how many of Waze's 500 employees will be affected. Google has been doing all sorts of layoffs lately, with the biggest batch—12,000 jobs—announced in January.

If there's anything Google is good at, it's advertising, so it certainly makes sense for Waze to adopt Google's ad platform. Waze has a lot of redundancy compared to Google Maps, and it's unclear how far Google wants to take this logic. Right now, the company maintains two separate mapping apps with similar features and similar layouts. Waze has 140 million monthly active users, but that's not much compared to the billion-plus users of Google Maps. You could certainly argue for a full-blown merger, but Google told CNBC it "remains deeply committed to growing Waze’s unique brand, its beloved app and its thriving community of volunteers and users," which should calm the fears of Waze users a bit. Remember, though, mergers and shutdowns come at you fast at Google, like when the company most recently said Stadia "is not shutting down" two months before announcing Stadia would be shut down.

Enlarge (credit: SOPA Images / Contributor | LightRocket)

TikTok is funding the lawsuit filed by TikTok users to combat Montana's state-wide ban of the app, a New York Times report confirmed yesterday.

And not for the first time. Back in 2020, TikTok secretly supported TikTok users who sued over the federal TikTok ban introduced by President Donald Trump. A Wall Street Journal report noted that the 2020 lawsuit was a key part of TikTok's efforts to overturn Trump's ban.

Once again, TikTok sees its users as useful for challenging a ban. Legal experts told the Times that the new lawsuit takes the focus off TikTok's ties to China. Montana TikTokers have a personal First Amendment interest in the case, making it more about how a TikTok ban would harm Americans. Jameel Jaffer, the executive director of Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute, told the Times that he wouldn’t be surprised if the courts struck down Montana's ban.

Enlarge / You can tell you're looking at an AMG S-Class because instead of the normal grille, there's a three-pointed star on the grille. This also conceals the forward-looking sensors much more elegantly than the normal S-Class. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)

SANTA MONICA, CALIF.—What happens when you stick a whole load of F1-spec lithium-ion cells in a big luxury sedan? That's the question that Mercedes-AMG decided to answer with its latest plug-in hybrid, the S 63 E Performance. It's a rare example of direct technology transfer from racing to a road car, albeit one that indulges its occupants with massages and even a beverage fridge.

This is the second S-Class we've tested recently; in 2022, we tried out the mild hybrid S500 4Matic, which impressed us with its technology and its comfort. And this is actually the second plug-in hybrid S-Class to be offered on the W223 platform—the $123,700 S580e combines a straight-six gasoline engine and electric motor and should be starting to appear in dealerships already.

This is not that car. No, this is a Mercedes-AMG, which means it's been worked over by the company's in-house tuning division to make it all a little bit... extra. AMG started as an independent tuning operation in 1971 and rose to fame by building hotted-up road and racing versions of Mercedes models. It's also not due out until the end of the year, so we can't tell you how much it will cost, though with options, you can probably expect to get close to (or exceed) $200,000.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | NurPhoto)

Apple has joined the growing number of organizations opposed to the UK's pending Online Safety Bill, saying the proposed law threatens the end-to-end encryption that protects private messages.

"End-to-end encryption is a critical capability that protects the privacy of journalists, human rights activists, and diplomats," Apple said in a statement reported by the BBC yesterday. "It also helps everyday citizens defend themselves from surveillance, identity theft, fraud, and data breaches. The Online Safety Bill poses a serious threat to this protection, and could put UK citizens at greater risk. Apple urges the government to amend the bill to protect strong end-to-end encryption for the benefit of all."

The BBC quoted a government spokesperson as saying that "companies should only implement end-to-end encryption if they can simultaneously prevent abhorrent child sexual abuse on their platforms."