Month: November 2016

Every Year of Smoking Causes About 150 New DNA Mutations That Can Make Cancer More Likely, Says Study

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Los Angeles Times: For every year that you continue your pack-a-day habit, the DNA in every cell in your lungs acquires about 150 new mutations. Some of those mutations may be harmless, but the more there are, the greater the risk that one or more of them will wind up causing cancer. The threat doesn’t stop there, according to a study in Friday’s edition of the journal Science. After a year of smoking a pack of cigarettes each day, the cells in the larynx pick up roughly 97 new mutations, those in the pharynx accumulate 39 new mutations, and cells in the oral cavity gain 23 new mutations. Even organs with no direct exposure to tobacco smoke appear to be affected. The researchers counted about 18 new mutations in every bladder cell and six new mutations in every liver cell for each “pack-year” that smokers smoked. The findings are based on a genetic analysis of 5, 243 cancers, including 2, 490 from smokers and 1, 063 from patients who said they had never smoked tobacco cigarettes. The researchers used powerful supercomputers to compare thousands of cancer genome sequences. The computers grouped the sequences into about 20 distinct categories, or “mutational signatures.” Mutations tied to five of these signatures were more common in tumors from smokers than in tumors from nonsmokers. One of the signatures involves a specific DNA nucleobase change — instead of a C for cytosine, there was an A for adenine — that “is very similar” to the change that occurs in the lab when cells are exposed to benzo[a]pyrene, a compound that the International Agency for Research on Cancer says is carcinogenic to humans. Most of the lung and larynx cancers obtained from smokers had this type of mutation, the researchers reported. They also found that the signature was more common among smokers than nonsmokers. Another mutational signature was characterized by Cs that should have been Ts (thymine) and vice versa. Although these changes can be found in all kinds of cancers, the signature was 1.3 to 5.1 times more common in tumors from smokers than in tumors from nonsmokers, according to the study. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Every Year of Smoking Causes About 150 New DNA Mutations That Can Make Cancer More Likely, Says Study

After sagging sales numbers, Fitbit’s stock price collapses by over 33%

Enlarge / The Charge 2 is a slightly bigger version of Fitbit’s Alta. (credit: Valentina Palladino) In Thursday afternoon trading, Fitbit’s stock price lost more than one-third of its value after the company announced a significant drop in profits. According to its latest quarterly numbers , the company made $26.1 million in the third quarter of 2016 compared with $45.8 million during the same quarter a year ago. In mid-September, the company released the Fitbit Charge 2, a mid-range $150 device. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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After sagging sales numbers, Fitbit’s stock price collapses by over 33%

Japanese Craftsman Demonstrates Intricate Marquetry Technique

This is a crazy combination of low-tech production methods, precision hand craftsmanship, graphic design and utter patience. Here craftsman Noboru Honma demonstrates a fabrication technique that yields CNC-like visual complexity, yet has been executed for centuries, long before the discovery of electricity: The technique was developed in the Hakone region of Japan during the Edo period (1600s to 1800s). You can learn more about this Hakone Yosegi-Zaiku technique at the Japanese Traditional Culture Promotion and Development Organization’s website .

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Japanese Craftsman Demonstrates Intricate Marquetry Technique

Hackers hijack a Philips Hue lights with a drone

Surprise! The Internet of Things is a security nightmare. Anyone who was online a few weeks ago can attest to that. The massive internet blackout was caused by connected devices , and new research from white-hat hackers expounds upon those types of vulnerabilities. The target? Philips Hue smart lightbulbs. While they’ve been hacked in the past , Philips was quick to point out that it happening in a real-world situation would be pretty difficult. Digital intruders would need to already be on your home network with a computer of their own — the company claimed that directly attacking the lightbulbs wasn’t exactly feasible. But this new attack doesn’t require that sort of access. In fact, all it takes is tricking the bulbs into accepting a nefarious firmware update. By exploiting a weakness in the Touchlink aspect of the ZigBee Light Link system ( again! ), the hackers were able to bypass the built-in safeguards against remote access. From there, they “extracted the global AES-CCM key” that the manufacturer uses to encrypt and authenticate new firmware, the researchers write (PDF). “The malicious firmware can disable additional downloads, and thus any effect caused by the worm, blackout, constant flickering, etc.) will be permanent.” What’s more, the attack is a worm, and can jump from connected device to connected device through the air. It could potentially knock out an entire city with just one infected bulb at the root “within minutes.” “There is no other method of reprogramming these devices without full disassemble (which is not feasible). Any old stock would also need to be recalled, as any devices with vulnerable firmware can be infected as soon as the power is applied.” The result is that the hackers were able to turn lights on and off both from a van driving by a house and a drone flying outside an office building. For the home, the team was 70 meters (229.7 feet) away and caused lights to go on and off individually. The office building houses a few security companies including Oracle, and was hacked from 350 meters (1, 148 feet; about a quarter of a mile), and once under control, the lights started signaling “S.O.S.” in Morse code. “We used only readily available equipment costing a few hundred dollars, and managed to find this key without seeing any actual updates.” Not terrifying at all, right? The researchers say that they’ve contacted Philips and included all the details needed for a fix. Philips has confirmed the weaknesses and issued firmware updates to hopefully guard against this ever happening. Via: New York Times Source: Eyalro (1) , (2) (PDF)

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Hackers hijack a Philips Hue lights with a drone

Vimeo is working on a subscription streaming service

Vimeo plans to start a new Netflix-type streaming service and develop its own content, but its won’t spend Netflix dollars. Rather, the site (owned by Barry Diller’s IAC) will help its creator community develop original content and supplement it with licensed programming. “Vimeo has the once-in-a-generation opportunity to, following in Netflix’s footsteps, deliver compelling subscription viewing experiences for consumers in the market for pay TV, ” CEO Joey Levin said in a shareholder letter Levin didn’t give any specifics, but said that Vimeo will experiment with proprietary subscription services. To get the required content, the company will lean on its pro subscribers, who are often emerging filmmakers, directors and producers. He points out that High Maintenance , for instance, aired for two seasons on Vimeo before HBO picked it up, and that three of four Oscar-nominated shorts come from Vimeo directors. The site already offers video streaming services via its On Demand service, with content from independent producers and major studios like Lionsgate . However, users must purchase videos à la carte , whereas the new streaming service would be on a subscription basis. We will supplement our creators with original and licensed programming, and can fill out a robust slate of programming for tens of millions, not billions, of dollars. “[We] can fill out a robust slate of programming for tens of millions, not billions of dollars, ” Levin said. Noting that the site has 240 million monthly viewers “with a strong propensity to spend, ” he adds that “if we can convert just a small portion of our audience, we have a very large business.” Levin acknowledges that Vimeo is in tough against established sites like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu, and notes that the site is still losing money. But he said that profitability is not the near-term goal, and that the service has a unique niche. “It’s the combination of both the tools and the audience in one platform — a one-stop shop for creators to bypass the entire existing media infrastructure, ” he said. Of course, Barry Diller tried to beat the existing broadcast infrastructure with Aereo, and that didn’t work out so well. Via: Variety Source: Vimeo (shareholder letter)

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Vimeo is working on a subscription streaming service

Hacker sentenced to 29 months in devious Photobucket image plot

Enlarge (credit: Bill Hinton via Getty Images) A 41-year-old Colorado hacker was sentenced Tuesday to 29 months in prison for selling code enabling blackmailers and others to scan Photobucket’s 10 billion images. Some of those images are of nude Photobucket customers who thought their content was stored privately. Photobucket is an image and video hosting service with as many as 100 million users who keep their content in either public or private accounts. The company is headquartered in Denver. “I don’t think you really understand what you did to other people,” US District Judge Wiley Y Daniel said before sentencing defendant Brandon Bourret. “You reveled in what you did.” Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Hacker sentenced to 29 months in devious Photobucket image plot

Dell takes on Surface Studio with its dual-screen Smart Desk concept – it even has a dial

 Microsoft impressed a lot of people last week with its announcement of the Surface Studio, a desktop-tablet hybrid with a clever and elegant dial interface. Apparently Dell has been thinking along the same lines, because they just teased something very, very similar — right down to the dial. Read More

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Dell takes on Surface Studio with its dual-screen Smart Desk concept – it even has a dial

Facebook Officially Announces Gameroom, Its PC Steam Competitor

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: After losing mobile gaming to iOS and Android, Facebook is making a big push into playing on PC with today’s developer launch of its Gameroom Windows desktop gaming platform. After months of name changes, beta tests and dev solicitation, Facebook opened up the beta build for all developers and officially named it Gameroom. The app is openly available for users to download on Windows 7 and up. Gameroom let users play web, ported mobile and native Gameroom games in a dedicated PC app free from the distractions of the News Feed. Gameroom will have to fight a steep uphill battle again Valve’s Steam platform, which has well over 125 million active users, with millions actually playing at any given moment. Facebook will need to convince developers that Gameroom will share its social network’s massive reach and is therefore worth their while. Then it will have to persuade gamers that a more social experience is worth diving into a new platform. If Facebook succeeds, there are plenty of potential benefits to owning a gaming destination. Facebook announced the launch and name change from “Facebook Games Arcade” today at Unity’s game development platform conference. Unity 5.6 shipping next year will allow devs to export their games directly to Facebook Gameroom, as well as to the WebGL standard. Facebook’s director of global games platform, Leo Olebe, touted how Facebook will feature new games in the Gameroom to give developers a leg up. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Facebook Officially Announces Gameroom, Its PC Steam Competitor

Repurpose a Busted Wii U Controller as a Classic Game Emulator with a Raspberry Pi

We’re all well aware that the Raspberry Pi makes a fantastic game emulation machine , but sudomod user banjokazooie steps it up a notch by using a Wii U controller as a screen and controller combo for his little DIY system. Read more…

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Repurpose a Busted Wii U Controller as a Classic Game Emulator with a Raspberry Pi

Computer Virus Attack Forces Hospitals To Cancel Operations, Shut Down Systems

A hospital system in the United Kingdom has canceled all planned operations and diverted major trauma cases to neighboring facilities citing a computer virus outbreak. From a report on ZDNet: The Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust says a “major incident” has been caused by a “computer virus” which infected its electronic systems on Sunday. As a result of the attack, the hospital has taken the decision to shut down the majority of its computer networks in order to combat the virus. “A virus infected our electronic systems [on Sunday] and we have taken the decision, following expert advice, to shut down the majority of our systems so we can isolate and destroy it, ” said Dr Karen Dunderdale, the trust’s deputy chief executive. The use of a shared IT system also means the United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust has been taken offline as staff attempt to combat the attack. As a result of the attack, all outpatient appointments and diagnostic procedures that were set to take place at the infected hospitals on Monday and Tuesday have been canceled, while medical emergencies involving major trauma and women in high-risk labor are being diverted to neighboring hospitals. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Computer Virus Attack Forces Hospitals To Cancel Operations, Shut Down Systems