Life as an academic is hard, if you discount the summers off and the whole tenure thing. Assuming you’ve ever submitted a piece of research for publication, chances are you’ve had to go through the process of peer review—an often soul-crushing ordeal during which you and your ideas are metaphorically flayed by a jury…
Source: Gizmodo – Russian University Lovingly Erects Giant Concrete Monument to Peer Review
Enlarge (credit: Icon Sportswire/Shaun Botterill/Brian Lawdermilk/BMW)
As we prepare to head into Memorial Day weekend, there’s a bumper crop of wheel-to-wheel action on offer for the motorsports fan*. Both IndyCar and Formula 1 have their biggest races of the year this Sunday, NASCAR has its 600-mile race at Charlotte, and over in Germany hundreds of thousands of fans are camping around (and possibly setting fire to) the mighty Nürburgring.
Despite not being broadcast here in the US, the last of these is probably the easiest for you to watch. That’s because the organizers have provided a free International livestream on YouTube:
The race starts at 11am ET (3pm CET) on Saturday (May 27) and runs for the next 24 hours. There’s also English language commentary from the always-excellent team at Radio Le Mans.
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Source: Ars Technica – Memorial Day weekend means F1, the Indy 500, NASCAR, and the Nürburgring 24
If you want to keep your iPhone looking pristine, Anker’s selling 2-packs of tempered glass screen protectors for the 7 and 7 Plus for just $4 today. Just be sure to buy the right size for your phone, and don’t forget the promo codes below.
Source: Gizmodo – Keep Your iPhone Safe With These Super-Affordable Anker Screen Protectors
In line with recent agreements to prune their internet content in certain countries, Google’s parent company Alphabet will now work with Vietnam’s government to remove “toxic” information from its sites. The announcement came today following a meetin…
Source: Engadget – Google will work with Vietnam to remove ‘toxic’ content
This is a video of a bunch of good dogs patiently waiting for their names to be called to leave the yard. I like how a couple of them have to be called in pairs. The buddy system: it’s alive and well. I also like how the last dog, Echo, is too busy staring into space to notice his name has been called. That is basically me in dog form. What’s that sound, anyways? “The fire alarm.” So…. “You should probably evacuate the building.” But it’s finally not freezing in here for once.
Keep going for the sweet video.
Source: Geekologie – Good Dogs!: Group Of Dogs All Wait For Their Names To Be Called To Leave The Yard
President Trump’s effort to track and prevent violence from undocumented immigrants has instead become a nightmare for domestic violence and human trafficking survivors, according to an advocacy group that helps immigrants suffering from abuse.
Source: Gizmodo – Trump’s Pointless, Racist Anti-Immigration Hotline Is Outing Domestic Violence Survivors to Their Abusers
You may remember Disney’s boss revealing that hackers had threatened to leak one of the studio’s new films unless it paid a ransom. Bob Iger didn’t name the film, but it was thought to be “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.” But now Iger says: “To our knowledge we were not hacked.” From a report: Disney chairman-CEO Bob Iger confirmed Thursday that a hacker claiming to have stolen an upcoming Disney movie and demanding a ransom didn’t appear to have the goods. “To our knowledge we were not hacked,” Iger told Yahoo Finance. “We had a threat of a hack of a movie being stolen. We decided to take it seriously but not react in the manner in which the person who was threatening us had required.” Iger continued, “We don’t believe that it was real and nothing has happened.” On May 15, as first reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Iger told ABC employees at a town hall meeting in New York that someone claiming to have stolen an upcoming movie would release the film on the internet unless the company paid a ransom. Iger told staff that the studio wouldn’t meet any such demands.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Disney Chief Bob Iger Doesn’t Believe Movie Hack Threat Was Real
Russian site habrahabr.ru has a story up regarding how a new bug found in NTFS allows malformed filenames to bluescreen Windows 7 and 8.1 boxes. (Those of us not of unusual linguistic inclination can access an English version courtesy of Google Translate.) Apparently this issue is made worse by the fact that malicious websites can embed images using this malformed filename format, causing browsers to save it in their image cache and crash.
If you are somewhat of an old-timer like me, this may sound familiar due to the late 90’s C:concon bug found in Windows 98.
When an attempt is made to open a file relative to the $ mft file, the NtfsFindStartingNode function will not find it, because This function performs a search somewhat differently, in contrast to the function NtfsOpenSubdirectory, which finds this file always. Therefore, the loop starts from the root of the file system. Next, the function NtfsOpenSubdirectory will open this file and grab it ERESOURCE exclusively. At the next iteration, the loop will find that the file is not a directory, and therefore will interrupt its operation with an error. And at the end of its work function NtfsCommonCreate through the function NtfsTeardownStructures will try to close it. Function NtfsTeardownStructures, in turn, will face the fact that it can not close the file, because It is opened by the file system itself when it is mounted. In this case, contrary to the expectations of the NtfsCommonCreate function, the NtfsTeardownStructures function will not free the ERESOURCE $ mft file. Thus, he will remain captured forever. Therefore, for example, when you try to create a file or read a volume file, the NTFS file system will try to grab the ERESOURCE $ mft file and hang at this stage forever.
Discussion
Source: [H]ardOCP – NTFS Bug Allows Malicious Websites to Bluescreen Windows 7 and 8.1 Systems
In AMD’s latest Community Update titled “Let’s Talk DRAM!” they tease some interesting updates coming up in AGESA v1.0.0.6. These updates add 26 new RAM parameters largely targeted towards improving the stability of overclocked RAM, and may allow for speeds as high as DDR4-4000, which is a considerable improvement over the seeming hard cap at 3200 today.
So why should we care? RAM speeds rarely have a huge impact on overall system performance, right? You may remember all the reports regarding Ryzen’s inter-CCX module performance from back when AMD first launched the CPU. It is often mentioned in our forums that inter-CCX performance seems to be related to RAM speed. If this holds true, and we can repeatably hit 4000Mhz with RAM after this update, it may alleviate one of the largest criticisms related to AMD’s Ryzen platform since launch.
AGESA is an acronym that stands for “AMD Generic Encapsulated System Architecture.” As a brief primer, the AGESA is responsible for initializing AMD x86-64 processors during boot time, acting as something of a “nucleus” for the BIOS for your motherboard. Motherboard vendors take the core capabilities of our AGESA updates and build on them with their own “secret sauce” to create the BIOS files you download and flash. Today, the BIOS files for AMD AM4 motherboards are largely based on AGESA version 1.0.0.4.
Discussion
Source: [H]ardOCP – New AGESA Parameters May Allow for Higher Ryzen RAM Speeds
Don’t know about you, but I am certainly looking forward to this.
Ubisoft has released the trailer for the Far Cry 5 today. The upcoming title will take place in the Montana wilderness changing the settings from the former exotic locale of the previous titles. New features include 2-player co-op for the story campaign, customizable character editor, and aerial dogfights. An interview with the developers was also released. The game is scheduled for release on Xbox One, PS4, and PC.
Welcome to Hope County, Montana. When your arrival incites the cult to violently seize control of the region, you must rise up and spark the fires of resistance to liberate a besieged community.
Freely explore Hope County’s rivers, lands, and skies with the largest customizable weapon and vehicle roster ever in a Far Cry game. You are the hero of the story in a thrilling world that hits back with every punch, and where the places you discover and the locals you ally with will shape your story in ways you’ll never see coming. – Available February 27, 2018.
Discussion
Source: [H]ardOCP – Far Cry 5 : Official Announce Trailer
Surprise: an overwhelming majority of adults still watch TV on a TV despite cord-cutting and the prevalence of mobile broadband. 92 percent of those aged 18 and older according to a recent report from Nielsen, to be exact. “Sure, viewers have more op…
Source: Engadget – Almost every adult still watches TV the old-fashioned way
Disney’s foundation may have been built on animation, but these days, Disney is powered by franchises. That’s especially true in the theme parks; where major expansions have recently been announced based on some of Disney’s newer, blockbuster franchises like Star Wars, Marvel and… Avatar. And while you may have no…
Source: Gizmodo – You May Not Care About Avatar, But Its New Theme Park Is a Glimpse Into Disney’s Future
Farmers pump livestock full of drugs to keep them ‘healthy’ and fatten them up quickly. Unfortunately this could be a global death sentence.
Source: TreeHugger – You can thank antibiotics for all the cheap meat
When Google’s engineers aren’t busy upgrading the serious stuff inside Google’s email apps or mobile OS, they like to leave little treats and games inside Google’s products—everything from humorous search results to hidden creatures. These are some of our favorites for when you’ve got five minutes or five hours to…
Source: Gizmodo – The Best Stuff to Do On the Google Homepage That Isn’t Googling
Dustin Volz, reporting for Reuters: Facebook, Amazon and more than two dozen other U.S. technology companies pressed Congress on Friday to make changes to a broad internet surveillance law, saying they were necessary to improve privacy protections and increase government transparency. The request marks the first significant public effort by Silicon Valley to wade into what is expected to be a contentious debate later the year over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, parts of which will expire on Dec. 31 unless Congress reauthorizes them. Of particular concern to the technology industry and privacy advocates is Section 702, which allows U.S. intelligence agencies to vacuum up vast amounts of communications from foreigners but also incidentally collects some data belonging to Americans that can be searched by analysts without a warrant.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Major US Tech Firms Press Congress For Internet Surveillance Reforms
Forget about 3D printing houses; digital fabrication using sustainable materials is a much bigger deal.
Source: TreeHugger – Lightweight prefab wood framing system goes together without nails
The FBI has reportedly launched an inquiry into an attempted cyberattack targeting members of the first family.
Source: Gizmodo – The Trump Organization Was Reportedly Hit by Overseas Hackers, Triggering an FBI Probe
This is a video of Ryan Belz setting a new daytime Price Is Right Plinko record, with $31,500 in winnings (people have won more playing the game, but only during special nighttime shows when the middle slot awards $20,000 instead of $10,000). He goes absolutely nuts, and at one point starts chanting his own name with the crowd. That was as bold move, and I liked it. The next chance I get I’m going to start chanting my own name, hopefully at a friend’s wedding during the vows.
Keep going for the video of Mr. Excitement.
Source: Geekologie – Guy Sets New Price Is Right Plinko Record, Goes Nuts
The current edition of Trumpcare is pretty awful for people with pre-existing conditions, the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis (the “CBO score”) confirmed this week. But do you know if you have a pre-existing condition? Does sexual assault count as one? Let’s take a look.
Source: LifeHacker – What You Need to Know About Pre-Existing Conditions Under Trumpcare
