ReHacked #42: 35 years from Chernobyl disaster, Tamagochi cemetery and Answer to the Ultimate Question...

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Exclusive Photos Inside the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant 35 years since the disaster. #history

An Interview With Linus Torvalds: Linux and Git #software #history

Thirty years ago, Linus Torvalds was a 21 year old student at the University of Helsinki when he first released the Linux Kernel. His announcement started, “I’m doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional…)”. Three decades later, the top 500 supercomputers are all running Linux, as are over 70% of all smartphones. Linux is clearly both big and professional.

For three decades, Linus Torvalds has led Linux Kernel development, inspiring countless other developers and open source projects. In 2005, Linus also created Git to help manage the kernel development process, and it has since become the most popular version control system, trusted by countless open source and proprietary projects.

Cisco says computer chip shortage to last six months #technology #hardware

The boss of networking giant Cisco has said the shortage of computer chips is set to last for most of this year.

Many firms have seen production delayed because of a lack of semiconductors, triggered by the Covid pandemic and exacerbated by other factors.

Cisco chief Chuck Robbins told the BBC: "We think we've got another six months to get through the short term.

"The providers are building out more capacity. And that'll get better and better over the next 12 to 18 months."

Tesla admits its Full Self-Driving technology is a Level 2 system #technology

Tesla began recruiting more beta testers for its Full Self-Driving technology in March 2021, but it privately confirmed the feature is not nearly as autonomous as its name suggests. Documents sent to officials in California in 2019 and in 2020 describe the extra-cost option as a Level 2 feature, meaning Full Self-Driving is certainly not fully driverless.

The Armenian Genocide (1915-16): In Depth #history

The Armenian genocide refers to the physical annihilation of ethnic Armenian Christian people living in the Ottoman Empire from spring 1915 through autumn 1916. There were approximately 1.5 million Armenians living in the Empire. At least 664,000 and possibly as many as 1.2 million died during the genocide. Armenians call these events Medz Yeghern (the great crime) or Aghet (catastrophe).

Logins for 1.3 million Windows RDP servers collected from hacker market #security

The login names and passwords for 1.3 million current and historically compromised Windows Remote Desktop servers have been leaked by UAS, the largest hacker marketplace for stolen RDP credentials.

With this massive leak of compromised remote access credentials, researchers, for the first time, get a glimpse into a bustling cybercrime economy and can use the data to tie up loose ends on previous cyberattacks.

Network admins will also benefit from a new service launched by cybersecurity firm Advanced Intel called RDPwned that allows organizations to check whether their RDP credentials have been sold in the marketplace.

A ransomware gang made $260,000 in 5 days using the 7zip utility #security

A ransomware gang has made $260,000 in just five days simply by remotely encrypting files on QNAP devices using the 7zip archive program.

Starting on Monday, QNAP NAS users from all over the world suddenly found their files encrypted after a ransomware operation called Qlocker exploited vulnerabilities on their devices.

While most ransomware groups put considerable development time in their malware to make it efficient, feature-rich, and have strong encryption, the Qlocker gang didn't even have to create their own malware program.

Money for Nothing #blockchain #crypto #nft

The recent hullabaloo over NFTs has mostly produced a lot of confusion. In nearly every article about them they are framed as an incredibly complicated technological phenomenon requiring careful explanation, rather than an incredibly boring one that tends to repel one’s focus. This dissonance produces doubt: You may say to yourself, “Okay, what I am understanding about this seems ridiculous, but it’s pretty high-tech and there’s apparently a lot of money in it, so maybe I’m missing something?” Reader, you are not. NFTs are just as absurd and banal as you probably believe.

Pfizer is testing a pill that, if successful, could become first-ever home cure for COVID-19 #health

Classed as a 'protease inhibitor', it has been formulated to attack the "spine" of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and stop it replicating in our nose, throats and lungs

The molecule being tested is a bespoke antiviral code-named PF-07321332. Classed as a “protease inhibitor”, it has been formulated to attack the “spine” of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and stop it replicating in our nose, throats and lungs. It was protease inhibitors that turned the tide on the spread of HIV in the UK and around the world. Now researchers hope they may be on the brink of a similar pandemic-busting breakthrough.

A Very 90s Death: The Tamagotchi Cemetery #culture #history

“I thought it would be better for him here because I didn’t really want to reset him because it would be like a different thing and I was really close to him. I know that sounds stupid, but I was. But you can bury your pets and if you love something else, you can bury them as well.”

So said young mourner Danielle Perren in 1997.

Interring her pet into the beautiful farmland of Pontsmill, Cornwall, Danielle’s beloved friend was placed into a tiny wooden coffin and buried in a small square grave, there to rest in peace. Danielle’s grief was very real, but her pet? Not so much. That was a Tamagotchi.

Nobody cares about your beautiful code #programming

Users couldn’t care less about the programming language you used or how beautiful, clean, modular and maintainable your code is. In fact, they don’t give a crap about it.

Why a surprisingly small amount of alcohol might affect heart rate variability (HRV)

Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant

When stimulated, an area in the brain called the amygdala (specifically, the central nucleus of the amygdala) can cause excitation of the sympathetic pathways and inhibition of the parasympathetic pathways affecting the heart.

Under normal circumstances, this area is being constantly suppressed by other structures in the brain. This means the sympathetic system (stress pathway) is kept at bay. In 2009, researchers Thayer and Lane proposed that specific areas in the frontal lobe of the brain are responsible for the suppression of the amygdala.

According to their model, anything that dampens activity in the neurons of the frontal lobe may lead to a reduction in the inhibitory effect on the Amygdala. Simply, it inhibits the brakes the frontal lobe naturally uses to stop over stimulation of the sympathetic pathway. This in turn means more sympathetic stimulation and less parasympathetic activity. Ultimately, this leads to a decreased HRV. Alcohol depresses the central nervous system including the frontal cortex (which is also where we make our rational decisions) which explains its effects on HRV.

GitHub Pages: Permissions-Policy: interest-cohort=() Header added to all pages sites #privacy

Vertical turbines far more efficient in large-scale wind farms #engineering

A study from Oxford Brookes University researchers has found that vertical wind turbine design is considerably more efficient than the traditional form factor in large-scale wind farms, and in a certain arrangement can increase performance by up to 15 per cent.

Facebook approves alcohol, vaping, gambling and dating ads targeting teens, lobby group finds #socialnetworks

The findings were revealed in a report, released today, by lobby group Reset Australia — the local arm of a global initiative working to "counter digital threats to democracy".

The group last year set up a fake account, Ozzie News Network, to test whether Facebook treated the data of teenagers differently to adults.

How the Immune System Protects the Brain #science #health #nature

A hundred years ago, the Japanese scientist Y. Shirai published a mysterious finding: When Shirai transplanted tumor tissue into a mouse’s body, the tissue was destroyed by its immune system. But when tumors were grafted in various places in the mouse’s brain, they grew. Tumors seemed to be able to safely hide in the brain, escaping the immune system’s notice. Similar results soon piled up, and scientific consensus accepted the brain as having “immune privilege” — a kind of separation from the immune system.

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Dainius