ReHacked vol. 209: Smachnogo Brings Together the People and Cuisines of Ukraine and Japan, ISRO successfully conducts landing experiment of the Reusable Launch Vehicle and more

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Hey, did you know inkjet cartridges are region-locked? - The Verge #copyrights #hardware

How to change the region on an HP OfficeJet printer in 57 easy steps (printer companies hate this!)

ISRO successfully conducts landing experiment of the Reusable Launch Vehicle - The Hindu #engineering

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Sunday successfully carried out the landing experiment of the Reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstration (RLV-TD) programme at the Aeronautical Test Range in Challakere, Chitradurga.

An Indian Air Forces (IAF) Chinook helicopter was used to drop the RLV-TD from a 4.5 km altitude and ISRO executed the landing experiment of the RLV-TD as planned.

“The RLV took off at 7:10 a.m. by a Chinook helicopter of the IAF as an underslung load and flew at a height of 4.5 km. Once the predetermined pillbox parameters were attained, based on the RLV’s Mission Management and Computer command, the RLV has released mid-air, at a down range of 4.6 km,” ISRO said.

Ryuichi Sakamoto Has Died; Cause Of Death | News | Clash Magazine Music News, Reviews & Interviews #promemoria #culture #music

Reports came in from Japan earlier today regarding his passing, sparking a wave of tributes online. A few moments ago, the death of Ryuichi Sakamoto was confirmed over his social channels. He was 71 years old.

Ryuichi Sakamoto was first diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014.

Work-from-home is the new normal in Canada. Just accept it | National Post #career

Be careful what you wish for: you might actually get it. In the spring of 2020, in the early days of the pandemic, governments around the world, including Canada, pushed harsh measures that have rarely been used in peacetime, including lockdowns and the closing of offices and businesses, except the most essential services. As a consequence, people used to working in offices were told they had to work from home. It was widely seen as an essential but temporary measure to keep people safe during the pandemic. With the benefit of hindsight, we now know that the science behind lockdowns was tenuous at best. Sweden, widely pilloried at the time for refusing to lock down and for allowing people to interact with each other based on common sense, has ended up with an excess mortality rate that is lower than most countries that locked down hard, including Canada.

Analysis of code for Twitter algorithm reveals social medium down-ranks tweets about Ukraine / The New Voice of Ukraine #freespeech #internet #censorship

Twitter users have long suspected Twitter reduced the visibility of tweets about Ukraine after new owner Elon Musk took over the social medium last year, but now they have some proof.

After Twitter made the code for its algorithm open source at noon Pacific Time on March 31, users began to pick through it, and discovered that tweets judged to be about Ukraine were down-ranked – meaning users were less likely to see them in their feed.

Deepest ever fish caught on camera off Japan - BBC News #nature

The juvenile Pseudoliparis was filmed by a camera system attached to a weighted frame released from over the side of a ship, the DSSV Pressure Drop. Bait was added to the frame to attract sea life.

Although a specimen was not caught to fully identify its species type, several fish were trapped slightly higher up in the water column in the nearby Japan Trench at a depth of 8,022m.

These, again, were snailfish, Pseudoliparis belyaevi, and set a record for the deepest fish ever caught.

Italian privacy regulator bans ChatGPT – POLITICO #privacy #copyrights

The Italian privacy regulator Friday ordered a ban on ChatGPT over alleged privacy violations.

The national data protection authority said it will immediately block and investigate OpenAI, the U.S. company behind the popular artificial intelligence tool, from processing the data of Italian users. The order is temporary until the company respects the EU's landmark privacy law, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

"There is no prosecution at any cost." #privacy

The spokeswoman Elina Eickstädt of the Chaos Computer Club says:

"What we are getting is the blueprint for a surveillance structure that is unprecedented." The draft is based on a "gross overestimation of the capabilities of technologies," especially with regard to the recognition of unknown material.

Smachnogo Brings Together the People and Cuisines of Ukraine and Japan | Tokyo Weekender #culture #economy #japan #slavaukraini

They say that the Ukrainian flag, which consists of two horizontal blue and yellow bars, represents a vast, calm sky over an endless field of wheat. Freedom and food. Peace and prosperity. Those are the things that Russia’s brutal invasion of the country has taken from the people of Ukraine. However, a small number of Ukrainian nationals have managed to regain a sense of home at Tokyo’s Smachnogo restaurant. Opened in September 2022, the eatery, which takes its name from the Ukrainian word for “bon appétit,” is the brainchild of actor, artist and designer Takane Ezoe.

Carl Braun on Communicating Like a Grown-Up #society #psychology #personaldevelopment

“Man is a gregarious animal. We work in herds, in teams. The bear can do exactly as he pleases, for he works alone. We do not work alone. We depend throughout our lives on the goodwill of other men. If a man does not learn to bend, to be friendly and considerate, and to respect his brother’s ego—in things both big and little—he’ll find himself disliked and locked up in his own unhappiness.”

— C.F. Braun

'Ultramassive' black hole discovered by Durham astronomers - BBC News #nature #astronomy #science

The academics said the black hole was 30 billion times the size of our Sun and was the first to be measured using gravitational lensing.

The discovery began in 2004 when Durham University Professor Alastair Edge noticed a giant arc of light when reviewing images of a galaxy survey.

The study, which also involved Germany's Max Planck Institute, used extremely high-resolution images from NASA's Hubble telescope and the university's DiRAC COSMA8 supercomputer facilities to explore further and confirm the black hole's existence.

Italy moves to ban lab-grown meat to protect food heritage - BBC News #culture #society

Italy's right-wing government has backed a bill that would ban laboratory-produced meat and other synthetic foods, highlighting Italian food heritage and health protection.

If the proposals go through, breaking the ban would attract fines of up to €60,000 (£53,000).

Francesco Lollobrigida, who runs the rebranded ministry for agriculture and food sovereignty, spoke of the importance of Italy's food tradition.

The farmers' lobby praised the move.

But it was a blow for some animal welfare groups, which have highlighted lab-made meat as a solution to issues including protecting the environment from carbon emissions and food safety.

Judge finds Google destroyed evidence and repeatedly lied to the court [pdf] #bigcorp #crime

The age of average — Alex Murrell #culture #art #architecture

Justin Fox writing for Bloomberg:

“Cheap stick framing has led to a proliferation of blocky, forgettable mid-rises. (…) These buildings are in almost every U.S. city. They range from three to seven stories tall and can stretch for blocks. They’re usually full of rental apartments, but they can also house college dorms, condominiums, hotels, or assisted-living facilities. Close to city centers, they tend toward a blocky, often colorful modernism; out in the suburbs, their architecture is more likely to feature peaked roofs and historical motifs. Their outer walls are covered with fiber cement, metal, stucco, or bricks.”

This Mirror Reverses How Light Travels in Time - IEEE Spectrum #science #nature

Light can reflect off mirrors, and sounds off surfaces. However, scientists have long theorized about time reflections, where a signal passing through a time “interface” would act like it was traveling backward in time. Now a new study for the first time demonstrates time reflections with light waves. This discovery could lead to new, unusual ways to control light, such as photonic time crystals, for potential applications in wireless communications, radar technologies and photonic computing.

A standard reflection occurs when a signal bounces off a boundary in space. In contrast, time reflections can happen when the entire medium in which a light or sound wave is traveling suddenly and drastically changes its optical or sonic properties.

Alibaba to split into 6 companies, pursue IPOs in major shakeup - Nikkei Asia #economy

Chinese e-commerce group Alibaba Group Holding will reorganize into six business groups and pursue public listings for five of them, in the most significant governance overhaul since the company was established 24 years ago.

The company announced the move on Tuesday, a day after founder Jack Ma's surprise return to China following a lengthy stint abroad. The six business groups will focus on sectors such as cloud computing, e-commerce and logistics.

Following the announcement, Alibaba's American depositary receipts surged more than 10% to over $95 in morning trading in New York.

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION DOES NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT IS WRITTEN IN ITS OWN CHAT CONTROL BILL - Blog | Mullvad VPN #privacy #internet

Ylva Johansson is the EU Commissioner in charge of the Chat Control Bill. In recent days she has taken part in several interviews in Swedish media and also spoken in front of EU parliament members.

It’s obvious during the interviews that Ylva Johansson does not understand her own bill and what consequences it would have. She constantly repeats misleading and incorrect arguments. Above all, she continues to claim that it’s possible to scan end-to-end encrypted communication without breaking the encryption. It’s remarkable that the responsible EU Commissioner gets away with this, without tremendous criticism from media and members of the EU Parliament (we know, there are some speaking up, but it’s not enough).

Android app from China executed 0-day exploit on millions of devices | Ars Technica #security #software #internet

Android apps digitally signed by China’s third-biggest e-commerce company exploited a zero-day vulnerability that allowed them to surreptitiously take control of millions of end-user devices to steal personal data and install malicious apps, researchers from security firm Lookout have confirmed.

The malicious versions of the Pinduoduo app were available in third-party markets, which users in China and elsewhere rely on because the official Google Play market is off-limits or not easy to access. No malicious versions were found in Play or Apple’s App Store. Last Monday, TechCrunch reported that Pinduoduo was pulled from Play after Google discovered a malicious version of the app available elsewhere. TechCrunch reported the malicious apps available in third-party markets explo

How John Glenn's $40 Camera Forced NASA to Rethink Space Missions | PetaPixel #history #engineering #space

We’re about to take a trip back in time to the early 1960s and learn how a $40 drugstore camera forced NASA to rethink its space missions. Yes, it’s true. A simple camera purchased at the local drugstore played a pivotal role in shaping the future of space exploration and set the stage for space photography in a non-scientific domain.

Let’s set the scene: It’s 1962, and NASA is focused on one primary goal, getting a human into space and back to Earth safely. It was, after all, the Cold War, and America was losing the space race to Russia. Photography was the last thing on NASA’s mind. Heck, they weren’t even planning on putting windows in their space vehicles at the time! Can you imagine?

Cryptocurrencies add nothing useful to society, says chip-maker Nvidia | Cryptocurrencies | The Guardian #blockchain #ai #hardware

The US chip-maker Nvidia has said cryptocurrencies do not “bring anything useful for society” despite the company’s powerful processors selling in huge quantities to the sector.

Michael Kagan, its chief technology officer, said other uses of processing power such as the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT were more worthwhile than mining crypto.

Nvidia never embraced the crypto community with open arms. In 2021, the company even released software that artificially constrained the ability to use its graphics cards from being used to mine the popular Ethereum cryptocurrency, in an effort to ensure supply went to its preferred customers instead, who include AI researchers and gamers.

Kagan said the decision was justified because of the limited value of using processing power to mine cryptocurrencies.

The first version ChatGPT was trained on a supercomputer made up of about 10,000 Nvidia graphics cards.

Utah is first US state to limit teen social media access - BBC News #socialnetworks #internet #health #psychology

The bills also impose a social media curfew that blocks children's access between 22:30 and 06:30, unless adjusted by their parents.

Under the legislation, social media companies will no longer be able to collect a child's data or be targeted for advertising.

The two bills - which are also designed to make it easier to take legal action against social media companies - will take effect on March 1, 2024.

Governor Spencer Cox, a Republican, wrote on Twitter: "We're no longer willing to let social media companies continue to harm the mental health of our youth.

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Dainius