peddhapati

When Netflix and its transit providers fought with cable companies and telcos over who should have to pay for network upgrades, it’s no secret that innocent bystanders were harmed. Companies that sent data over networks that were congested because of money disputes got poorer performance, despite having no direct role in the fight.

One new detail we learned today sheds some light on how customers were affected in that dark period earlier this year. The detail comes from Cogent, an IP transit provider whose paths into the networks of Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Verizon, and AT&T were congested when the ISPs refused to upgrade network connections unless they were paid to do so.

Cogent VP of IP Engineering Hank Kilmer wrote that Cogent deployed a Quality of Service (QoS) system that de-prioritized traffic from wholesale customers so that traffic from retail customers would get through without dropping packets.

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Sledgehammer Games

Every year, I play the latest Call of Duty installment in the hope of recapturing the thrill that I felt playing Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for the first time back in 2007. Every year, I come away disappointed.

Maybe it's because I've simply put the original Modern Warfare on an undeserved, nostalgia-tinged pedestal in my mind. Maybe it's because Modern Warfare just happened to be the right game at the right time, ushering in something that managed to feel fresh and new after so many World War II games. Maybe it's simply because I've changed and Call of Duty hasn't. Whatever the reason, that same magic is just never there.

The increasing complexity of the Call of Duty games has led Activision to take a three-pronged approach, with three studios (Infinity Ward, Treyarch, and Sledgehammer) developing three arcs in parallel. Treyarch will likely continue its Black Ops line, and one assumes that Infinity Ward will continue its mediocre Ghosts series. Sledgehammer, which contributed to Modern Warfare 3, is taking its first stab at a standalone Call of Duty game with Advanced Warfare.

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Today, Orbital Sciences announced both the results of its preliminary investigation of the explosion of its Antares rocket and its plans for moving forward with its launch contract with NASA. The launch vehicle, along with all the cargo destined for the International Space Station, went up in flames when a ground controller triggered a self-destruct sequence in response to indications that the rocket was not behaving as expected.

Early investigation results indicate that the problem can be traced back to problems with a turbopump that supplied one of the two main engines with fuel. These engines date back to the Soviet Union, and Orbital was planning on replacing them with something else in 2016. Now, it's accelerating its replacement (although it's not clear by how much) and it's unlikely that Antares will fly with the existing engines in the interim.

That still has the potential to leave a gap in NASA's resupply schedule but Orbital indicates it's got that covered, too. The Cygnus supply vehicle was designed from the start to ride to orbit on a variety of commercial launch vehicles, so Orbital will look to continue supplying the ISS by mating it to someone else's rocket.

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This article's author still fervently believes that Majora's Mask is way better than A Link Between Worlds. Sorry, Andrew.

On Wednesday, Nintendo took to its Nintendo Direct video channel to update fans about forthcoming games like Splatoon and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, along with Mario Kart 8 DLC, but the headliner announcement was The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D, a 3DS-exclusive remake of the 2000 N64 classic.

"Compared to other Zelda games, the world of Majora's Mask is extremely strange and somewhat spooky," Nintendo of Japan President Satoru Iwata said in the presentation. Fans were shown a few minutes of gameplay, which resembled last year's 3DS Ocarina of Time remake, in that small tweaks like updated textures were visible. Iwata appeared to hint at slight changes to gameplay, as well: "We set out to maintain the original level of challenge while leaving the game accessible for anyone," he said.

Fans have long clamored for a Majora's Mask remake and it makes particular sense as a portable game, considering its structure requires frequent replays of its "three days" time structure. That's probably why an elaborate fake trailer got so many fans' hopes up in 2012. Up until now, the game's most modern version came as a Zelda bonus compilation disc for the Nintendo GameCube, which players received if they pre-ordered that system's The Wind Waker.

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He's going to be mean to me, isn't he? NIH

Individuals with major depressive disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder have elevated levels of proteins linked to immune activity and inflammation called cytokines. It hasn’t been clear, however, whether depression increases cytokine levels, or if the cytokines themselves contribute to depression.

Figuring out the cytokine-depression link would be difficult to do in human subjects. However, depression can be induced in lab animals that have been exposed to repeated social stresses. Now, researchers have used this approach to reveal that elevated cytokine levels can be used to predict an animal’s susceptibility to depression.

In this study, researchers subjected mice to repeated social defeats by putting them in a cage with larger, more aggressive mice for short periods over a 10 day span. Each defeat event lasted only 5-10 minutes; however, the mice were also exposed to continued psychological stress by placing the aggressive mouse on the other side of a clear divider 24 hours a day. To make things worse, each day, a new aggressor was chosen. This protocol has previously been demonstrated to induce depression-like social avoidance behaviors in mice.

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This chatty Samsung phone is spilling all the goods on its owner's travels—without even being asked. Sean Gallagher

Every time you use Google or Apple mobile location services, you’re not just telling the services where you are. You’re also shouting many of the places you’ve been to anyone who happens to be listening around you—at least if you follow Google’s and Apple’s advice and turn on Wi-Fi for improved accuracy.

Wi-Fi is everywhere. And because of its ubiquity, Wi-Fi access points have become the navigational beacons of the 21st century, allowing location-based services on mobile devices to know exactly where you are. But thanks to the way Wi-Fi protocols work, mapping using Wi-Fi is a two-way street—just as your phone listens for information about networks around it to help you find your way, it is shouting out the name of every network it remembers you connecting to as long as it remains unconnected.

The problem with Wi-Fi “probe” requests is nothing new—Dan Goodin covered the vulnerability for Ars two years ago. The problem poses a significant security issue in some cases—particularly for AT&T customers, whose phones automatically join networks named “attwifi” when their probe requests are answered. That’s something we’ve demonstrated ourselves in controlled test at Ars’ security skunkworks.

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Cindy Cohn Dave Maass Cindy Cohn, the Electronic Frontier Foundation's legal director at the forefront of trying to dismantle the National Security Agency's domestic spying apparatus long before Edward Snowden became a household name, has been named the digital rights group's executive director.

Cohn's elevation, effective in April, is part of a major management overhaul to the San Francisco-based group whose budget has blossomed from $1 million annually in 1999 to about $9 million this year, the group announced Wednesday. Cohn, who has been litigating the constitutionality of the NSA's electronic eavesdropping since 2006, succeeds Shari Steele, the EFF's top executive the past 14 years.

"Cindy is one of the smartest lawyers I've ever known, and a great strategist," EFF co-founder John Gilmore said in a statement. "Cindy truly understands what makes EFF successful, and we're thrilled she will lead the organization."

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Dell World is on right now in Austin, and today Dell announced a refresh of the Venue 11 Pro 7000 Series tablet. The 7000 Series is a more expensive, more powerful version of their tablet, and until now has been sold with the Haswell Y series processors. The major change with the newest version of the tablet is that it will be equipped with a Broadwell Core-M processor, which enables it to become fanless.

The 7000 Series is aimed more at the business crowd, with additional features such as optional docking stations, keyboards, stylus, and two-factor authentication with integrated smartcard and fingerprint readers. With the tablet running Core processors instead of Atom, the price is also aimed higher than many other tablets, with a price closer to the Microsoft Surface Pro 3. It does undercut the Microsoft tablet on price though, with a starting price of $699.99.

Dell Venue Pro 7000 Series   Specifications CPU Intel Core-M 5Y10a/5Y70
(Dual-Core 0.8-2.0 GHz/1.1-2.6 GHz) GPU Intel HD 5300 RAM 4-8 GB DDR3L 1600 MHz SSD 64 to 128 GB Display 10.8" 1920x1080 HD IPS LCD Battery 38 Whr Connectivity Intel Wireless-AC 7265 (802.11ac/BT4.0/NFC)
Optional Intel XMM 7160 LTE Modem Height 176.4 mm Width 279.8 mm Depth 10.75 mm Weight 733.4g (Wi-Fi) 757.3g (LTE) Price $699 Starting

One of the most important parts of a tablet is likely the display, and the Venue Pro 11 7000 Series seems to keep the same 10.8” IPS (the press release says IPS while the tech specs say TN – most likely it is IPS) display from the previous version. Though not the highest resolution tablet display, it still has Full HD resolution which gives it right around 200 pixels per inch. The touch screen has 10-point capacitive touch, and likely has support for the same active stylus option as the previous version.

Powering the new fanless design is the Intel Core-M 5Y10a, with the 5Y70 possibly being offered at a later date. These are both dual-core designs, which also have hyper-threading enabled. Graphics are handled by the integrated Intel HD 5300 GPU. Also included in the package is vPro with the 5Y70, which should help sell the new tablet in the enterprise. Memory options are 4 or 8 GB of LPDDR3-1600, and connectivity is provided by the Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7265 chip. This is newer, smaller version of the Wireless-AC 7260 card which is available in the M.2 form factor only. Also available is the Intel XMM 7160 modem which supports 2G/3G/LTE. Storage is either a 64 or 128 GB SSD, and the battery is a 38 Whr model which Dell says should get through the work day – whatever that means.

Other miscellaneous features include a full size USB 3.0 port, Bluetooth 4.0, micro HDMI, NFC, a Sensor Hub (Gyro, G-sensor, Proximity), and a microSD slot which can accept up to 128 GB of extra storage.

The new model is 15 percent thinner than the outgoing version, which is expected with the move to Core-M. Intel did a lot of work to allow these thinner models, and not just the 4.5 watt TDP. If you have missed our previous coverage on this, I will refer you to Ryan’s Broadwell preview.

As this is marketed as a business machine, a lot of the design and focus was on accessories. Dell once again offers a multitude of accessories to allow this design to bridge the gap between a tablet and a PC in the office, with an optional docking station, as well as a snap on keyboard which transforms the tablet into a clamshell laptop. If you need extra battery life, they also have a Mobility Keyboard option which includes a supplemental battery. To specifically target the Healthcare industry, they even have a Healthcare Case which can be fully sanitized. Dell is even offering a Mobile Payment Solution with a 2D barcode scanner and magnetic stripe reader for retail and hospitality customers.

Core-M is just now starting to roll out, and it is great to see the number of new fanless devices which are hitting the market. At just 1.62 lbs, it is a bit heavier than an iPad Air 2, but with the power of a Core CPU. The Dell Venue 11 Pro 7000 Series will be available for purchase on www.dell.com beginning November 11th.

Source: Dell

 

Kaci Hickox, a Doctors Without Borders nurse, was forced into this New Jersey quarantine upon returning to the United States after treating Ebola victims in Sierra Leone. YouTube

"I'm not willing to stand here and let my civil rights be violated when it's not science-based."

Those were the recent words of nurse Kaci Hickox, who successfully fought Maine's 21-day home quarantine order last week after she returned from treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone.

Hickox first made headlines last month after she was detained in a plastic isolation tent near the Newark airport and later transferred to Maine. The 33-year-old Hickox then defied Maine's stay-at-home quarantine orders and went on a bike ride, prompting a showdown of sorts. Hickox's defiance highlighted the science, fear, hysteria, and politics surrounding a disease that has no cure but just arrived to the United States—with four known cases nationwide—from Ebola-ravaged West Africa.

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Violations of social norms can be rampant in crowded environments like this.

Humans are strangely nice. This seems an odd assertion given our ongoing concerns with war, inequality, and environmental degradation. But one thing really astonishing about us as a species is how many times a day we have completely cooperative encounters with each other—ones that uphold social norms, even in modern urban societies where interactions among strangers are common.

When people who interact often cooperate with one another, we can explain their politeness by looking at how much they stand to benefit from their ongoing relationship. When it comes to behaviors with strangers, like queue-jumping, the fact that norms are upheld more often than they are broken is puzzling. What reason is there to play nice if the strangers around you will have no impact on your life in the future?

The leading explanation for this cooperation is that people do actually punish strangers for not cooperating—and a recent paper in PNAS provides evidence that this happens in the real world. It also indicates that people prefer certain kinds of punishment over others.

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An unpatched vulnerability in Yosemite and some earlier versions of Apple's Mac OS X allows untrusted people to take full control of users' machines, a security researcher has warned.

Dubbed Rootpipe, the privilege escalation bug allows people to gain root access, a nearly unrestricted level of system privileges, without first entering the "sudo" password, according to a recent report published by MacWorld. Sudo is a mechanism that's designed to prevent code execution, file deletions, and other sensitive operations from being carried out by unauthorized people who have physical access to a computer.

"Normally there are 'sudo' password requirements, which work as a barrier, so the admin can't gain root access without entering the correct password," Emil Kvarnhammar, a researcher at Swedish security firm Truesec, told Macworld. "It took a few days of binary analysis to find the flaw, and I was pretty surprised when I found it."

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The 2015 Cadillac ATS coupe with integrated LTE. It's basically a big red smartphone. Ron Amadeo

Harman International, the car infotainment manufacturer, recently spilled the beans on a "next-gen" infotainment system it is building for General Motors. Automotive News has quotes from the company's CEO, Dinesh Paliwal, who describes an Android-based system with an app store and "instant" boot up. The report says that Harman is "working closely" with Google to make the system a reality.

This system isn't Android Auto. Unlike regular Android, Android Wear, and Android TV, Android Auto isn't an operating system. It doesn't live on the car's computer, it doesn't control peripherals, and it doesn't have an app store. Like Apple's CarPlay, Android Auto is just a "casted" interface. Your plugged-in smartphone sends a custom interface to the car's screen and receives touch events, but the car still has to run some other operating system.

Harman won a $900 million contract from GM to build the system, and judging by Harman CEO's description, this is an actual embedded Android system that will power the entire infotainment setup. That typically includes the audio system, air conditioning, navigation, voice recognition, phone calls, reverse cameras, and Internet access.

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The view from Jesse Walser's house in the country. Jesse Walser

Many Americans have just one good option for wireline broadband service. But even one good choice puts them ahead of people in some sparsely populated areas that Internet service providers neglect because they aren’t dense enough to provide huge profits.

Although progress is being made in rural America through a combination of private and public initiatives, there are still people like Jesse Walser of Pompey, a town of 7,000 residents in New York. Walser, who works as a laboratory analyst at a beer brewery, is one of the five percent of Americans who live in areas without any providers offering wired Internet service (excluding dialup). Walser’s only viable options are wireless.

Time Warner Cable’s (TWC) lines are a third of a mile from Walser’s house, and the company has received more than $10 million in state funding to bring broadband to underserved portions of New York over the past two years. But the company (which will be purchased by Comcast if the government approves the merger) told Walser they won’t do the construction unless he pays more than $20,000. That’s just to reimburse TWC for its troubles—the monthly access bill would be on top of that.

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This is how I've been spending my evenings. Lee Hutchinson

As a normal, competitive company, you'd think that Oculus would want the sea of competing virtual reality solutions in development to end up as poor as possible, making the eventual consumer version of the Rift look like the obvious choice. On the contrary, though, the Facebook subsidiary seems worried that bad experiences with competing products could sour the entire market on virtual reality before it really gets off the ground.

Speaking at Dublin's Web Summit conference (as reported by The Guardian and CNN), Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe expressed concern that inferior, motion-sickness-inducing headsets from other companies might "poison the well" for the re-emerging VR market, leading to a repeat of "the nuclear winter of virtual reality" in the mid-'90s.

"We're a little worried about some of the bigger companies putting out product that isn’t quite ready," Iribe said. "That elephant in the room is disorientation and motion sickness. ... We’re encouraging other companies, particularly the big consumer companies, to not put out a product until they’ve solved that problem."

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While smartphones have always had a strong need for quality voice processing, on the PC side such concerns have generally fallen to the wayside as voice was generally ignored, with only a few niche applications. However, as tablets and other formfactors have become more common on Windows x86, there is increasing demand for voice control and other features for a similar experience to Android and iOS tablets. To enable this, in conjunction with the eS800 Audience is announcing their S1.0 voice software, which delivers eS700-series voice and audio algorithms over Windows' audio interface.

There are a few key features that this enables, namely wideband noise suppression for VOIP, omnidirectional noise cancellation, key-click removal, and improved speech recognition. In the case of wideband noise suppression, this means that rather than artificially compressing the range of frequencies received to be able to cancel out noise, the software suite makes it possible to process incoming audio over almost the entire range of hearing for higher quality VOIP.

While omnidirectional noise cancellation seems to be a bit uninteresting, the real story here is that it's possible to enable a good voice experience without beamforming, which relies on two microphones that are aligned with each other. While this allows for effective noise cancellation of anything not collinear with the microphones, this makes it hard to avoid losing voice in multiple directions. As these algorithms enable noise cancellation without beamforming, this means that there's no need to drill holes in glass for microphone holes, which can be quite expensive as the holes cause yields on the cover lens to drop dramatically. This means that microphone placement in general can be more flexible, and only a pair of microphones is needed.

Although the eS800 line has more advanced voice processing features, the S1.0 suite still utilizes some level of artificial neural network technology to enable features like key-click removal. While details are a bit sparse on how speech recognition assist works, Audience emphasized that their solution had greatly improved recognition accuracy when compared to competitors. The S1.0 software will work on Windows 7 and 8.1 with Intel's Haswell and newer CPUs.

While voice calls have decreased in importance in the past few years, we've seen an increased need for voice processors that can properly isolate voice to enable features such as touchless controls of a phone or tablet, along with dictation and similar features. In order to better enable these features, Audience has introduced a new eS800 line of voice and audio processors. At a high level, there are a few key features that are enabled by this new audio processor, namely improved voice recognition at large distances, during media playback, and automatic focusing on the speaker.

There are also a few other features that this new line of ICs enables, namely improved always-on hotword detection as it can now train its detection to only activate to a specific person when using a user-trained keyword. On the previous eS700 series, this was only possible with an OEM-set keyword. There are also significant improvements to noise suppression overall, as the voice processor is better-equipped to deal with varying hand position and other challenging conditions. Audience noted that this level of noise suppression meant that their solution is one of the few to pass carrier testing for voice quality, as opposed to other popular solutions on the market. These features are enabled by the use of artificial neural network technology, which is definitely something I haven't seen before.

While both announced ICs of the eS800 have these voice capabilities, the eS804 is designed to be a voice processor, while the eS854 has an additional audio codec that supports universal headset detection and can enable more button signalling over the 3.5mm jack. There's also an integrated stereo amp, which can drive speakers although it's unclear how this compares with the popular NXP solutions on the market. The eS800 line of voice and audio processors should appear in smartphones and tablets in the coming months.

Greetings, Arsians! We have a ton of deals this week, courtesy of our partners at TechBargains. The top deal is an LG 47-inch, 1080p LED TV for just $479—that's $220 off the regular price. But even if a TV isn't at the top of your wishlist, there are plenty of other deals for your consideration.

Featured deal

Price Drop! LG 47LB5900 47" 1080p 120Hz LED TV for $479 plus free shipping (list price $699.99)

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Samsung has announced the availability of their Gear Circle Bluetooth headphones in the United States. The Gear Circle is a pair of Bluetooth earbuds that are worn around the neck and can gently vibrate when a notification arrives. When not in use, they can be attached together and worn as a necklace of sorts. It also supports voice notifications and voice commands through Samsung's S Voice software. Samsung promises up to nine hours of music playback and up to eleven hours of talk time. 

There are currently no details on pricing, but Samsung has stated that they are now available in black and blue at T-Mobile stores, and will be available at AT&T stores, Samsung.com, and Amazon.com later this month. A special white color will also be available through Best Buy.

If you have $500 to spend on this, I have a whole bunch of trash downstairs I'd be willing to sell you! eBay / City of Alamogordo

Video game collectors are known for spending tens of thousands of dollars for the rarest video game cartridges from decades past. But how much will they pay for real, honest-to-goodness historical trash?

We'll find out soon enough, as the city of Alamogordo, New Mexico started auctioning off 100 cartridges dug up from the Old Alamogordo landfill. That's the site where Atari infamously buried thousands of unsold and unsellable Atari 2600 cartridges in 1983, only to have them dug up earlier this year as part of a film project.

While the majority of the eBay listings are for horribly mangled Atari 2600 game boxes (presumably with mangled cartridges still inside), there are a few loose E.T. carts on the online auction block as well. Each auctioned item comes with a "city property I.D. tag, the Certificate of Authenticity, and a narrative with photos of the 1983 burial and the 2014 excavation proving the legend to be true." Somewhat hilariously, the auctions are listed in "Used" condition (even though the games were brand new when buried...) and come with the following caveat emptor warning: "The seller does not represent that this item is operable; it was buried for 30 years. SOLD AS IS."

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Home automation is emerging as one of the primary drivers in the rising popularity of the IoT (Internet of Things) concept. Popular home automation / smart home technologies include programmable thermostats (such as Nest and Honeywell Lyric) and remote controlled lights (such as the Philips Hue). IP cameras have been around as a security solution for quite some time, but they have not traditionally been included in the IoT discussions. As the smart home concept gains popularity, these three product categories are set to experience rapid growth.

Netgear is building upon their VueZone purchase by introducing the next generation wire-free cameras under the Arlo brand name. Simplicity and ease of use are primary drivers for the adoption of the VueZone family of cameras. Important updates (compared to the previous generation VueZone cameras) include high definition (720p) video clips and better configurability (such as schedules for turning off the camera completely).

Unlike the traditional IP cameras which stream video continuously, we are now seeing a sub-category where video is recorded and sent out only when there is movement. The Arlo IP cameras belong to this category. Since the units are battery powered, it does make sense to ensure that they don't run out of juice in a short time. The new design is also weather-proof, making it suitable for outdoor use. There are two models being introduced, one with IR LEDs for night vision, and the other suitable for day use or in illuminated locations.

As part of the smart home push, Netgear is introducing a hub to which up to four Arlo IP cameras can connect. Rules can be created for management of smart devices. Currently, the VueZone cameras (like Dropcam) allow for remote viewing, but recording to the cloud requires monthly plans. The new Arlo IP cameras will follow the same route. Fortunately, Netgear does realize that users would like to record to a local NAS. Since they also have the ReadyNAS product line, the Arlo team is definitely thinking about ensuring some sort of interoperability. However, cloud-free operation is not going to be a feature when the units ship to retail in January. Pricing for an Arlo-based security system (two IP cameras and a hub) is expected to be around $350. A standalone Arlo camera will retail for $170. However, it will not function without the hub.

In order to target the overall smart home ecosystem, Netgear is also announcing that they have joined the AllSeen Alliance and established a partnership with LIFX (a vendor of connected light bulbs).