Month: November 2024

We're nearing the end of the year, and there are typically a flood of announcements regarding quantum computers around now, in part because some companies want to live up to promised schedules. Most of these involve evolutionary improvements on previous generations of hardware. But this year, we have something new: the first company to market with a new qubit technology.

The technology is called a dual-rail qubit, and it is intended to make the most common form of error trivially easy to detect in hardware, thus making error correction far more efficient. And, while tech giant Amazon has been experimenting with them, a startup called Quantum Circuits is the first to give the public access to dual-rail qubits via a cloud service.

While the tech is interesting on its own, it also provides us with a window into how the field as a whole is thinking about getting error-corrected quantum computing to work.

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Z-Library is one of the largest shadow libraries on the Internet, hosting millions of books and academic articles that can be downloaded for free.

The site defied all odds over the past two years. It continued to operate despite a full-fledged criminal prosecution by the United States, which resulted in the arrest of two alleged operators in Argentina.

These two Russian defendants are wanted by the United States and earlier this year a judge approved their extradition. However, according to the most recent information we have, the defendants escaped house arrest and vanished into thin air.

The roles of the two Russians remain unclear, but they were not vital to the site’s survival. Z-Library continued to expand its reach despite their legal troubles.

Z-Library Motivations Research

Z-Library users don’t seem to be hindered by the criminal prosecution either, as they continue to support and use the site. For many, Z-Library is simply a convenient portal to download free books. For others, however, it’s a vital resource to further an academic career.

A recent study published in the Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice sheds light on the latter. It looks at the ‘piracy’ motivations of Redditors and students in higher education, specifically when it comes to Z-Library.

The paper

The paper, published by Dr. Michael Day of the University of Greenwich, labels the use of Z-Library as ‘Academic Cybercrime’. The findings, however, suggest that students are more likely to draw comparisons with “Robin Hood”.

The research looks at the motivations of two groups; Reddit users and Chinese postgraduate students. Despite the vast differences between these groups, their views on Z-Library are quite similar.

Redditors’ Responses

The 134 Reddit responses were sampled from the Zlibrary subreddit, which is obviously biased in favor of the site. However, the reasoning goes well beyond a simple “I want free stuff” arguments.

Many commenters highlighted that they were drawn to the site out of poverty, for example, or they highlighted that Z-Library was an essential tool to fulfill their academic goals.

“Living in a 3rd world country, 1 book would cost like 50%- 80% already of my daily wage,” one Redditor wrote.

The idea that Z-Library is a ‘necessary evil’ was also highlighted by other commenters. This includes a student who can barely make ends meet, and a homeless person, who has neither the money nor the space for physical books.

Some responses

The lack of free access to all study materials, including academic journal subscriptions at university libraries, was also a key motivator. Paired with the notion that journal publishers make billions of dollars, without compensating authors, justification is found for ‘pirate’ alternatives.

“They make massive profits. So stealing from them doesn’t hurt the authors nor reviewers, just the rich greedy publishers who make millions just to design a cover and click ‘publish’,” one Redditor wrote.

Chinese Students

The second part of the study is conducted in a more structured format among 103 postgraduate students in China. This group joined a seminar where Z-Library and the crackdown were discussed. In addition, the students participated in follow-up focus group discussions, while also completing a survey.

Despite not all being users of the shadow library, 41% of the students agreed that the site’s (temporary) shutdown affected their ability to study and find resources for degree learning.

In general, the students have a favorable view toward Z-Library and similar sites, and 71% admit that they have used a shadow library in the past. In line with China’s socialist values, the overwhelming majority of the students agreed that access to knowledge should be free for everyone.

While the students are aware of copyright law, they believe that the need to access knowledge outweighs rightsholders’ concerns. This is also reflected in the following responses, among others.

^{– Z-Library, or a similar website, is helpful to students living in poverty (82% agree).
– Academic textbooks are too expensive, so I can’t afford to buy them as a student (67% agree).
– I have limited access to English medium academic books in my country (63% agree)
– I prefer to download books without restrictions, like [paywalls etc.], as it is difficult (77% agree).}

All in all, Z-Library and other shadow libraries are seen as a viable option for expensive or inaccessible books, despite potential copyright concerns.

Robin Hood Mentality

This research sheds an intriguing light on key motivations to use shadow libraries. However, the small sample sizes, selection bias, and specific characteristics of the groups, means that these findings should be interpreted with caution.

Dr. Michael Day, nonetheless, notes that the responses show clear signs of a Robin Hood mentality. Z-Library users evade the publishers’ ‘tax’ on knowledge by downloading works for free.

Overall, the paper suggests that universities and publishers may want to reconsider the status quo and consider making more content freely accessible, taking a page from Z-Library.

“There is need for universities to re-consider the digital divides faced by socioeconomically and digitally disadvantaged students, alongside publishers, who must rethink their approach by making open access research more commonplace and thus pro-human,” the author concludes.

The paper provides a good example, as it is published under a Creative Commons license and is freely accessible to all.

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Day, M.J. (2024). Digital Piracy in Higher Education: Exploring Social Media Users and Chinese Postgraduate Students Motivations for Supporting ‘Academic Cybercrime’ by Shelving ebooks from Z-Library. Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice.

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

The first Windows laptops to ship with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Plus and Snapdragon X Elite chips sold for $1,000 and up when they first hit the streets earlier this year. But in September Qualcomm introduced a new a lower-cost (and lower performance) chip designed for laptops with prices starting as low as $700. Now the […]

The post Qualcomm plans to bring Snapdragon chips to $600 laptops appeared first on Liliputing.

"Updating our site reputation abuse policy" is how Google, in almost wondrously opaque fashion, announced yesterday that big changes have come to some big websites, especially those that rely on their domain authority to promote lucrative third-party product recommendations.

If you've searched for reviews and seen results that make you ask why so many old-fashioned news sites seem to be "reviewing" products lately—especially products outside that site's expertise—that's what Google is targeting.

"This is a tactic where third-party content is published on a host site in an attempt to take advantage of the host's already-established ranking signals," Google's post on its Search Central blog reads. "The goal of this tactic is for the content to rank better than it could otherwise on a different site, and leads to a bad search experience for users."

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Archaeologists have discovered numerous ceramic or clay whistles at Aztec sites, dubbed "death whistles" because of their distinctive skull shapes. A new paper published in the journal Communications Psychology examines the acoustical elements of the unique shrieking sounds produced by those whistles, as well as how human listeners are emotionally affected by the sounds. The findings support the hypothesis that such whistles may have been used in Aztec religious rituals, or perhaps as mythological symbols.

Archaeologists unearthed the first Aztec death whistles, also known as ehecachichtlis, in 1999 while excavating the Tlatelolco site in Mexico City. They found the body of a sacrificial victim, a 20-year-old male who had been beheaded, at the base of the main stairway of a temple dedicated to the wind god Ehecatl. The skeleton was clutching two ceramic skull-shaped whistles, one in each hand, along with other artifacts. More skull whistles were subsequently found, and they've found their way into popular culture. For instance, in Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021), Egon Spengler had such a whistle in his secret laboratory collection.

Scholars have puzzled over the purpose of the skull whistles, although given the dearth of concrete evidence, most suggestions are highly speculative. One hypothesis is that it was used in battle, with hundreds of warriors blowing their whistles simultaneously as a battle cry. Music archaeologist Arnd Adje Both has dismissed that idea, suggesting instead that the whistle's purpose was more likely tied to ceremonial or religious practices, like human sacrifice. Yet another hypothesis proposes that the whistles were intended as symbols of a deity. The skull shape, for instance, might allude to the Aztec god of the underworld, Mictlantecuhtli.

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The DS Pixel Keyboard is a customizable keyboard that uses a 14 inch, 3840 x 1100 pixel IPS LCD touchscreen display as its input surface. This allows you to use configure custom keyboard layouts, change languages, or use the “keyboard” as a different form of input device for audio or video editing, creating graphics, and […]

The post DS Pixel Keyboard is also a touchscreen display with removable keycaps (crowdfunding) appeared first on Liliputing.

Windows 10's free, guaranteed security updates stop in October 2025, less than a year from now. Windows 10 users with supported PCs have been offered the Windows 11 upgrade plenty of times before. But now Microsoft is apparently making a fresh push to get users to upgrade, sending them full-screen reminders recommending they buy new computers.

The reminders, which users have seen within the last few days, all mention the end of Windows 10 support but otherwise seem to differ from computer to computer. My Ars colleague Kyle Orland got one focused on Windows 11's gaming features, while posters on X (formerly Twitter) got screens that emphasized the ease of migrating from old PCs to new ones and other Windows 11 features. One specifically recommended upgrading to a Copilot+ PC, which supports a handful of extra AI features that other Windows 11 PCs don't, but other messages didn't mention Copilot+ specifically.

None of the messages mention upgrading to Windows 11 directly, though Kyle said his PC meets Windows 11's requirements. These messages may be intended mostly for people using older PCs that can't officially install the Windows 11 update.

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A day after SpaceX launched its Starship rocket for the sixth time, the company received good news from the Federal Aviation Administration regarding future launch operations from its Starbase facility in South Texas.

In a draft version of what is known as an "Environmental Assessment," the FAA indicated that it will grant SpaceX permission to increase the number of Starship launches in South Texas to 25 per year from the current limit of five. Additionally, the company will likely be allowed to continue increasing the size and power of the Super Heavy booster stage and Starship upper stage.

"FAA has concluded that the modification of SpaceX’s existing vehicle operator license for Starship/Super Heavy operations conforms to the prior environmental documentation, consistent with the data contained in the 2022 PEA, that there are no significant environmental changes, and all pertinent conditions and requirements of the prior approval have been met or will be met in the current action," the federal agency stated in its conclusion.

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A day after SpaceX launched its Starship rocket for the sixth time, the company received good news from the Federal Aviation Administration regarding future launch operations from its Starbase facility in South Texas.

In a draft version of what is known as an "Environmental Assessment," the FAA indicated that it will grant SpaceX permission to increase the number of Starship launches in South Texas to 25 per year from the current limit of five. Additionally, the company will likely be allowed to continue increasing the size and power of the Super Heavy booster stage and Starship upper stage.

"FAA has concluded that the modification of SpaceX’s existing vehicle operator license for Starship/Super Heavy operations conforms to the prior environmental documentation, consistent with the data contained in the 2022 PEA, that there are no significant environmental changes, and all pertinent conditions and requirements of the prior approval have been met or will be met in the current action," the federal agency stated in its conclusion.

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Das Bundesgesundheitsministerium soll den Partnern mitgeteilt haben, dass der Zeitplan gescheitert ist. Offiziell wird das bestritten. (Elektronische Patientenakte, Datenschutz)