Category: reader

A Smaller Version of Raspberry Pi 3 Is Coming Soon

An anonymous reader quotes a report from PCWorld: A smaller version of the popular Raspberry Pi 3 will go on sale in a few months. Raspberry Pi is developing a new version of its Compute Module, a single-board computer that plugs into specific on-board memory slots. The new Pi will be more like a mini-computer inside a computer, and it won’t come with a power supply. The Compute Module will have similar circuitry to that of Raspberry Pi 3, a wildly successful computer that can be a PC replacement. But it will be smaller, with the memory, CPU, and storage embedded tightly on a board. While the Compute Module will have a 64-bit ARM processor like the Pi 3, it won’t have Wi-Fi, Eben Upton, founder of Raspberry Pi, said in an interview with IDG News Service. The Compute Module could ship as soon as this quarter, Upton said. It will be priced similar to its predecessor, the 2-year-old Compute Module, available from reseller RS Components for about $24. The older Compute Module is based on the original Raspberry Pi. Like Raspberry Pi 3, the new Compute Module will work with Linux and Microsoft’s Windows 10 IoT Core, Upton said. A Compute Module Development Kit, in which the Compute Module can be slotted for testing, may also be sold. The Development Kit could have multiple connectivity and port options, much like the Raspberry Pi 3. Last month, the biggest manufacturer of the Raspberry Pi, Premier Farnell, was acquired by Swiss industrial component supplier Daetwyler Holding AG for roughly $871 million. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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A Smaller Version of Raspberry Pi 3 Is Coming Soon

New 3D Map of the Universe Features a Whopping 1.2 Million Galaxies

The astronomical map you see here doesn’t depict stars, it shows galaxies— 1.2 million of them, to be exact, a new record for astronomers. This extraordinary new 3D scan of the universe provides yet more evidence that a mysterious substance known as dark energy is likely causing the universe to expand at an accelerating rate. Read more…

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New 3D Map of the Universe Features a Whopping 1.2 Million Galaxies

Dropbox’s Lepton lossless image compression really uses a ‘middle-out’ algorithm

 The “middle-out” algorithm that has its roots in the most infamous (and probably funniest) scene in HBO’s “Silicon Valley” may have been fictional, but something like it can be found in Lepton, a cool new lossless image compressor created by Dropbox. Read More

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Dropbox’s Lepton lossless image compression really uses a ‘middle-out’ algorithm

Underwater microscope offers a brand new look at sea life

Scientists have a hard time studying microscope sea life , and for good reason. Underwater scientific equipment can’t study things at that scale, and bringing samples up to the surface frequently deprives them of that all-important natural context. Enter UC San Diego: its researchers have crafted the Benthic Underwater Microscope, the first undersea microscope that can study “millimeter-scale” activity in its native habitat. It combines a water-friendly computer with an imaging system that revolves around both a high magnification lens and a flexible, tunable lens that can see shapes in 3D. Combined with an LED ring light and fluorescence imaging, the system shouldn’t be daunted by most water conditions or unusual specimens. The technology is already paying dividends. Divers have already studied coral species fighting each other with chemicals, coral polyps hugging each other and algae invading in the midst of coral bleaching (when coral polyps eject as a result of hot ocean temperatures, leaving the coral vulnerable). And of course, there’s a ton of potential. Scientists already want to study particles above the coral to see how water flow keeps it alive, and it’s easy to see the microscope coming into play whenever lab studies just aren’t enough. Source: UC San Diego , Nature

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Underwater microscope offers a brand new look at sea life

Programming Bug Costs Citigroup $7M After Legit Transactions Mistaken For Test Data For 15 Years

An anonymous reader shares a report on The Register:A programming blunder in its reporting software has led to Citigroup being fined $7m. According to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), that error [PDF] resulted in the financial regulator being sent incomplete “blue sheet” information for a remarkable 15 years — from May 1999 to April 2014. The mistake was discovered by Citigroup itself when it was asked to send a large but precise chunk of trading data to the SEC in April 2014 and asked its technical support team to help identify which internal ID numbers they should run a request on. That team quickly noticed that some branches’ trades were not being included in the automated system and alerted those above them. Four days later a patch was in place, but it wasn’t until eight months later that the company received a formal report noting that the error had affected SEC reports going back more than a decade. The next month, January 2015, Citigroup fessed up to the SEC.The glitch resided in new alphanumeric branch codes that the bank had introduced in the mid-1990s. The program code filtered out any transactions that were given three-digit branch codes from 089 to 100 and used those prefixes for testing purposes. The report adds, “But in 1998, the company started using alphanumeric branch codes as it expanded its business. Among them were the codes 10B, 10C and so on, which the system treated as being within the excluded range, and so their transactions were removed from any reports sent to the SEC.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Programming Bug Costs Citigroup $7M After Legit Transactions Mistaken For Test Data For 15 Years

Pokemon Go Becomes Biggest Mobile Game In US History

An anonymous reader writes: Pokemon Go is now the biggest mobile game of all time in the U.S. Not only has it surpassed Twitter’s daily users, but it is seeing people spend more time in its app than in Facebook. An earlier report from SimilarWeb says Pokemon Go has surpassed Tinder in terms of installations — the app surpassed Tinder on July 7th. Today, the tracking firm says Pokemon Go has managed to surpass Twitter in terms of daily active users on Monday. It says almost 6% of the entire U.S. Android population is engaging with the app on a daily basis. A new report from SurveyMonkey intelligence indicated that Pokemon Go has claimed the title “biggest mobile game in U.S. history.” The game saw just under 21 million daily active users in the U.S. on Monday. It’s reportedly closing in on Snapchat on Android, and could surpass Google Maps on Android as well. According to app store intelligence firm SensorTower, the average iPhone user on iOS spent 33 minutes catching Pokemon, which is more than any other apps it analyzed, including Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, and Slither.io. The app with the second-most average usage at 22 minutes, 8 seconds, was Facebook. SurveyMonkey did note that Pokemon Go still falls short of other games when it comes to time spent in games. Game of War sees nearly 2 hours of total daily usage for the average user, while Candy Crush Saga sees daily usage of about 43 minutes. In just two days, Pokemon Go brought Nintendo’s market value to $7.5 billion. It’s worth noting that it remains to be seen whether or not the game will continue to break records or turn into a ghost town like Nintendo’s first mobile game, Miitomo. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Pokemon Go Becomes Biggest Mobile Game In US History

Porsche screws up

Legendary automaker Porsche may have mistakenly swapped two screws in its 918 Spyder hybrid-hypercar’s seat belt system. Thinking of the customer, Porsche has voluntarily recalled their $850k practical, about town race car. Via Autoevolution : A mistake in the original parts catalog for the Porsche 918 Spyder has led to a recall of the hybrid hypercard. Porsche 918 SpyderAccording to Porsche, the printed document unwittingly transposed the locations for the screws which tighten the seat belt mount and the belt reel mount. Since those screws are one-time-use only, and are also not the same, technicians who had to work on them might have unintentionally installed the wrong screw in the wrong position. Because of this mishap in the original parts catalog, which has since been corrected, there is a risk of some Porsche 918 Spyder models having wrong screws fitted to their seatbelt mounts and seat belt reel mounts.

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Porsche screws up

20-year-old Windows bug lets printers install malware—patch now

Enlarge (credit: Vectra Networks) For more than two decades, Microsoft Windows has provided the means for clever attackers to surreptitiously install malware of their choice on computers that connect to booby-trapped printers, or other devices masquerading as printers, on a local area network. Microsoft finally addressed the bug on Tuesday during its monthly patch cycle. The vulnerability resides in the Windows Print Spooler, which manages the process of connecting to available printers and printing documents. A protocol known as Point-and-Print allows people who are connecting to a network-hosted printer for the first time to automatically download the necessary driver immediately before using it. It works by storing a shared driver on the printer or print server and eliminates the hassle of the user having to manually download and install it. Researchers with security firm Vectra Networks discovered that the Windows Print Spooler doesn’t properly authenticate print drivers when installing them from remote locations. The failure makes it possible for attackers to use several different techniques that deliver maliciously modified drivers instead of the legitimate one provided by the printer maker. The exploit effectively turns printers, printer servers, or potentially any network-connected device masquerading as a printer into an internal drive-by exploit kit that infects machines whenever they connect. Read 9 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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20-year-old Windows bug lets printers install malware—patch now