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Will we ever have enough programming languages?

  • Yes
  • No
  • More are needed to simplify things
  • We have too many already
  • There can be only one
  • I program directly in binary you insensitive clod
  • Other (please specify in comments)

[ Results | Polls ]
Comments:66 | Votes:86

posted by hubie on Tuesday March 19, @05:16AM   Printer-friendly
from the wash-rinse-repeat dept.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2024/03/heres-how-the-makers-of-the-suyu-switch-emulator-plan-to-avoid-getting-sued/

Last week, the developers behind the popular Switch emulator Yuzu took down their GitLab and web presence in the face of a major lawsuit from Nintendo. Now, a new project built from the Yuzu source code, cheekily named Suyu, has arisen as "the continuation of the world's most popular, open-source Nintendo Switch emulator, Yuzu."

Despite the name—which the project's GitLab page notes is "pronounced 'sue-you' (wink, wink)"—the developers behind Suyu are going out of their way to try to avoid a lawsuit like the one that took down Yuzu.
[...]
After consulting with an unnamed "someone with legal experience" (Sharpie would only say "they claimed three years of law school"), the Suyu development team has decided to avoid "any monetization," Sharpie said. The project's GitLab page clearly states that "we do not intend to make money or profit from this project," an important declaration after Nintendo cited Yuzu's profitability a few times in its recent lawsuit. Other emulator makers also told Ars that Yuzu's Patreon opened the project up to a set of pesky consumer demands and expectations.

The Suyu devs have also been warned against "providing step-by-step guides" like the ones that Yuzu offered for how to play copyrighted games on their emulator. Those guides were a major focus of Nintendo's lawsuit, as were some examples of developer conversations in the Yuzu Discord that seemed to acknowledge and condone piracy.
[...]
The Suyu GitLab page is upfront that the developers "do not support or condone piracy in any form," a message that didn't appear on Yuzu's GitLab page or website.

The No. 1 rule listed on the Suyu Discord is that "piracy is prohibited." That includes any talk about downloading games or "asking for system files, ROMs, encryption keys, shader caches, and discussion of leaked games etc." Even a mention of the word piracy with regard to legal questions is enough to earn a warning on the Discord, according to those rules.
[...]
Looking on the bright side, though, Sharpie added that outsized early attention for Suyu also "provide[s] ample opportunity to recruit the experienced developers we need to ensure this project actually gets somewhere." Potential contributors are required to sign a license agreement for copyright management reasons and are encouraged to follow some best practices regarding style and workflow.

Whether or not Suyu actually manages to "get somewhere," the project's quick emergence after Yuzu's shutdown shows how tough it can be for console makers to completely kill open source emulators via legal maneuvering.

Previously on SoylentNews:
Switch Emulator Makers Agree to Pay $2.4 Million to Settle Nintendo Lawsuit - 20240308
Emulation Community Expresses Defiance in Wake of Nintendo's Yuzu Lawsuit - 20240303


Original Submission

posted by mrpg on Tuesday March 19, @12:30AM   Printer-friendly
from the obliterates-deadly-tumor dept.

Breakthrough Therapy Obliterates Deadly Brain Tumor in Days:

Brain scans of a 72-year-old man diagnosed with a highly aggressive form of cancer known as a glioblastoma have revealed a remarkable regression in his tumor's size within days of receiving an infusion of an innovative new treatment.

Though the outcomes of two other participants with similar diagnoses were somewhat less positive, the case's success still bodes well for the search for a way to effectively cure what is currently an incurable disease.

Glioblastomas are typically about as deadly as cancers can get. Emerging from supporting cells inside the central nervous system, they can rapidly develop into malignant masses that claim up to 95 percent of patient lives within five years.

Researchers from Mass General Cancer Centre in the US suspected a treatment based on the patient's own immune system, known as CAR T-cell therapy, might succeed where other therapies fail.

Journal Reference:
Bryan D. Choi, Elizabeth R. Gerstner, Matthew J. Frigault, et al. Intraventricular CARv3-TEAM-E T Cells in Recurrent Glioblastoma, New England Journal of Medicine (DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2314390)


Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Monday March 18, @07:43PM   Printer-friendly

SpaceX is reportedly building hundreds of spy satellites for the US government:

According to a report from Reuters, SpaceX has been contracted by the Department of Defense's National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) to build a network of hundreds of low-orbiting spy satellites capable of operating as a swarm.

SpaceX has been contracted by the Department of Defense's National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) to build a network of hundreds of low-orbiting spy satellites capable of operating as a swarm and tracking targets on the ground, according to Reuters. The Reuters report, which cites five sources with knowledge of the program, builds on earlier reporting by The Wall Street Journal that revealed SpaceX had signed a $1.8 billion contract in 2021 with an unnamed agency.

This network, called Starshield, would reportedly be able to gather continuous imagery all over Earth for US intelligence, using a mix of large imaging satellites to collect data and relay satellites to transmit information. According to one source who spoke to Reuters, it has the potential to make it so "no one can hide." Neither SpaceX nor the NRO directly confirmed the company's involvement in the project, but an NRO spokesperson told Reuters, "The National Reconnaissance Office is developing the most capable, diverse, and resilient space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance system the world has ever seen."


Original Submission

posted by mrpg on Monday March 18, @03:01PM   Printer-friendly
from the 100/20 dept.

The FCC just quadrupled the download speed required to market internet as 'broadband':

The FCC has raised the speeds required to describe internet service as "broadband" for the first time since 2015. The agency's annual high-speed internet assessment concluded that 100 Mbps downloads and 20 Mbps uploads will be the new standard. The news will likely irk ISPs who would love to keep pointing to 25 Mbps / 3 Mbps speeds (the previous standards) and convincing people they're getting high-speed broadband.

[...] More specifically, the agency said fixed terrestrial broadband service (not including satellite) has yet to be deployed to around 24 million Americans, including about 28 percent of people in rural areas and over 23 percent of those living on Tribal lands. On the mobile front, it added that about nine percent of Americans (including 36 percent in rural areas and over 20 percent on Tribal lands) lack adequate 5G cellular speeds of at least 35 Mbps down / 3 Mbps up.

[...] The FCC can't police ISPs to force them to boost their speeds, but this type of move may be the best card it can play. What it can do is prevent them from marketing their services as "broadband" internet if they don't meet these thresholds. It remains to be seen whether the companies providing the infrastructure play ball or opt for other marketing buzzwords to sell customers on glacial and outdated internet speeds.


Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Monday March 18, @10:23AM   Printer-friendly
from the ah,-now-it-affects-them dept.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/03/ftc-and-doj-want-to-free-mcdonalds-ice-cream-machines-from-dmca-repair-rules/

Many devices have been made difficult or financially nonviable to repair, whether by design or because of a lack of parts, manuals, or specialty tools. Machines that make ice cream, however, seem to have a special place in the hearts of lawmakers. Those machines are often broken and locked down for only the most profitable repairs.

The Federal Trade Commission and the antitrust division of the Department of Justice have asked the US Copyright Office (PDF) to exempt "commercial soft serve machines" from the anti-circumvention rules of Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The governing bodies also submitted proprietary diagnostic kits, programmable logic controllers, and enterprise IT devices for DMCA exemptions.

"In each case, an exemption would give users more choices for third-party and self-repair and would likely lead to cost savings and a better return on investment in commercial and industrial equipment," the joint comment states. Those markets would also see greater competition in the repair market, and companies would be prevented from using DMCA laws to enforce monopolies on repair, according to the comment.

[...] Every three years, the Copyright Office allows for petitions to exempt certain exceptions to DMCA violations (and renew prior exemptions). Repair advocates have won exemptions for farm equipment repair, video game consoles, cars, and certain medical gear. The exemption is often granted for device fixing if a repair person can work past its locks, but not for the distribution of tools that would make such a repair far easier. The esoteric nature of such "release valve" offerings has led groups like the EFF to push for the DMCA's abolishment.


Original Submission

posted by mrpg on Monday March 18, @05:34AM   Printer-friendly
from the brighter-cheaper-and-bigger dept.

https://phys.org/news/2024-03-brighter-cheaper-blue-revolutionize-screen.html

Researchers have found a new way to simplify the structure of high-efficiency blue organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), which could lead to longer-lasting and higher definition television screens.

OLEDs are a class of organic electronics that are already found commercially in smartphones and displays and can be more efficient than competing technologies.

Although OLED television screens have vivid picture quality, they also have drawbacks such as high cost and comparatively short lifespans.

[...] An OLED is built like a sandwich, with organic semiconductor layers between two electrodes. In the middle of the stack is the emissive layer, which lights up when powered with electricity. Electrical energy goes into the molecules, which then release this extra energy as light.

More information: Hwan-Hee Cho et al, Suppression of Dexter transfer by covalent encapsulation for efficient matrix-free narrowband deep blue hyperfluorescent OLEDs, Nature Materials (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41563-024-01812-4


Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Monday March 18, @12:49AM   Printer-friendly

Uber and Lyft are quitting Minneapolis over a driver pay increase:

Uber and Lyft say they're ending services in Minneapolis over a city-mandated driver pay increase. The city council pushed through the measure to bring driver pay closer to the local minimum wage of $15.57 an hour.

[...] However, Uber and Lyft say they'll end services in the city before the pay rise takes effect on May 1. Lyft says the increase is "deeply flawed," citing a Minnesota study indicating that drivers could meet the minimum wage and still cover health insurance, paid leave and retirement savings at lower rates of $1.21 per mile and 49 cents per minute. "We support a minimum earning standard for drivers, but it should be done in an honest way that keeps the service affordable for riders," spokesperson CJ Macklin told The Verge.

An Uber spokesperson told the publication that the company was disappointed by the council's choice to "ignore the data and kick Uber out of the Twin Cities," putting around 10,000 drivers out of work. They noted Uber's confidence that by working with drivers, drivers and legislators, "we can achieve comprehensive statewide legislation that guarantees drivers a fair minimum wage, protects their independence and keeps rideshare affordable."


Original Submission

posted by hubie on Sunday March 17, @08:05PM   Printer-friendly
from the no-school-like-the-old-school dept.

A new IRC client (but don't call it an IRC client) is being developed by Linux Mint:

The Ubuntu-based distro currently includes Hexchat in its default software set. IRC isn't as trendy as Discord or Telegram but it is a free, open standard that no single entity controls, is relatively low-bandwidth, interoperable, and efficient.

But as I reported in February: Hexchat is no more.

Hexchat quitting the chat leaves —I so badly want to type leafs there— Linux Mint with a dilemma and an opportunity.

The dilemma being: "should we continue shipping an IRC client, and what role does it serve?" and the opportunity being: "could we replace it with something better?".

[...] Ever wondered why Linux Mint comes with an IRC client preinstalled? It's mainly to offer a way for users of the distro to talk to, ask questions, and get support from other users of the distro in (relative) real time.

[...] Since its official IRC channels remain active, with users and developers using them daily to answer questions, offer support, and connect over a shared interest, should the demise of Hexchat have to mean moating of IRC entirely?

As is, IRC isn't user-friendly. It's a kind of an arcane magic involving strange commands. Its onboarding is obtuse. And the protocol doesn't natively support things like media sharing (screenshots are useful when troubleshooting), clickable links, or other modern "niceties".

And yet, IRC is a fast, established, open, and versatile protocol. It's not as flashy as Discord but it's not encumbered by superfluous social excesses or corporate caveats. It's free and immediate (no sign-up required to use it) which makes it ideal for 'when you need it' use.

So work has begun on a new dedicated "chat room" app to replace Hexchat, called Jargonaut.

Linux Mint's goal is not to build a fully-featured IRC client, or even an IRC client at all. Jargonaut is a chat app that just happens to use IRC as its underlying chat protocol.


Original Submission

posted by hubie on Sunday March 17, @03:19PM   Printer-friendly
from the Phil-Swift-approved dept.

https://phys.org/news/2024-03-dont-materials-electricity.html

Is there a way to stick hard and soft materials together without any tape, glue or epoxy? A new study published in ACS Central Science shows that applying a small voltage to certain objects forms chemical bonds that securely link the objects together. Reversing the direction of electron flow easily separates the two materials. This electroadhesion effect could help create biohybrid robots, improve biomedical implants and enable new battery technologies.

When an adhesive is used to attach two things, it binds the surfaces either through mechanical or electrostatic forces. But sometimes those attractions or bonds are difficult, if not impossible, to undo. As an alternative, reversible adhesion methods are being explored, including electroadhesion (EA).

Though the term is used to describe a few different phenomena, one definition involves running an electric current through two materials causing them to stick together, thanks to attractions or chemical bonds. Previously, Srinivasa Raghavan and colleagues demonstrated that EA can hold soft, oppositely charged materials together, and even be used to build simple structures. This time, they wanted to see if EA could reversibly bind a hard material, such as graphite, to a soft material, such as animal tissue.

[...] For EA to occur, the authors found that the hard material needs to conduct electrons, and the soft material needs to contain salt ions They hypothesize that the adhesion arises from chemical bonds that form between the surfaces after an exchange of electrons. This may explain why some metals that hold onto their electrons strongly, including titanium, and some fruits that contain more sugar than salts, including grapes, failed to adhere in some situations.

A final experiment showed that EA can occur completely underwater, revealing an even wider range of possible applications. The team says that this work could help create new batteries, enable biohybrid robotics, enhance biomedical implants and much more.

Journal Reference:
Wenhao Xu, Faraz A. Burni, and Srinivasa R. Raghavan, Reversibly Sticking Metals and Graphite to Hydrogels and Tissues, ACS Central Science (2024). https://doi.org/10.1021/acscentsci.3c01593


Original Submission

posted by hubie on Sunday March 17, @10:32AM   Printer-friendly

Spike in new versions of an old Trojan — which mimic legitimate VMware domains — alarms security researchers:

A 20-year-old Trojan resurfaced recently with new variants that target Linux and impersonate a trusted hosted domain to evade detection.

Researchers from Palo Alto Networks spotted a new Linux variant of the Bifrost (aka Bifrose) malware that uses a deceptive practice known as typosquatting to mimic a legitimate VMware domain, which allows the malware to fly under the radar. Bifrost is a remote access Trojan (RAT) that's been active since 2004 and gathers sensitive information, such as hostname and IP address, from a compromised system.

There has been a worrying spike in Bifrost Linux variants during the past few months: Palo Alto Networks has detected more than 100 instances of Bifrost samples, which "raises concerns among security experts and organizations," researchers Anmol Murya and Siddharth Sharma wrote in the company's newly published findings.

Moreover, there is evidence that cyberattackers aim to expand Bifrost's attack surface even further, using a malicious IP address associated with a Linux variant hosting an ARM version of Bifrost as well, they said.

"By providing an ARM version of the malware, attackers can expand their grasp, compromising devices that may not be compatible with x86-based malware," the researchers explained. "As ARM-based devices become more common, cybercriminals will likely change their tactics to include ARM-based malware, making their attacks stronger and able to reach more targets."

[...] Though it may be an old-timer when it comes to malware, the Bifrost RAT remains a significant and evolving threat to individuals and organizations alike, particularly with new variants adopting typosquatting to evade detection, the researchers said.

[...] In their post, the researchers shared a list of indicators of compromise, including malware samples and domain and IP addresses associated with the latest Bifrost Linux variants. The researchers advise that enterprises use next-generation firewall products and cloud-specific security services — including URL filtering, malware-prevention applications, and visibility and analytics — to secure cloud environments.

Ultimately, the process of infection allows the malware to bypass security measures and evade detection, and ultimately compromise targeted systems, the researchers said.


Original Submission

posted by hubie on Sunday March 17, @05:45AM   Printer-friendly
from the bleeping dept.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2024/03/you-a-holes-court-docs-reveal-epic-ceos-anger-at-steams-30-fees/

Epic CEO Tim Sweeney has long been an outspoken opponent of what he sees as Valve's unreasonable platform fees for listing games on Steam, which start at 30 percent of the total sale price. Now, though, new emails from before the launch of the competing Epic Games Store in 2018 show just how angry Sweeney was with the "assholes" at companies like Valve and Apple for squeezing "the little guy" with what he saw as inflated fees.

The emails, which came out this week as part of Wolfire's price-fixing case against Valve (as noticed by the GameDiscoverCo newsletter), confront Valve managers directly for platform fees Sweeney says are "no longer justifiable."
[...]
The first mostly unredacted email chain from the court documents, from August 2017, starts with Valve co-founder Gabe Newell asking Sweeney if there is "anything we [are] doing to annoy you?" That query was likely prompted by Sweeney's public tweets at the time questioning "why Steam is still taking 30% of gross [when] MasterCard and Visa charge 2-5% per transaction, and CDN bandwidth is around $0.002/GB." Later in the same thread, he laments that "the internet was supposed to obsolete the rent-seeking software distribution middlemen, but here's Facebook, Google, Apple, Valve, etc."
[...]
The second email chain revealed in the lawsuit started in November 2018, with Sweeney offering Valve a heads-up on the impending launch of the Epic Games Store that would come just weeks later. While that move was focused on PC and Mac games, Sweeney quickly pivots to a discussion of Apple's total control over iOS, the subject at the time of a lawsuit whose technicalities were being considered by the Supreme Court.
[...]
In a follow-up email on December 3, just days before the Epic Games Store launch, Sweeney took Valve to task more directly for its policy of offering lower platform fees for the largest developers on Steam.
[...]
After being forwarded the message by Valve's Erik Johnson, Valve COO Scott Lynch simply offered up a sardonic "You mad bro?"

GameDiscoverCo provides a good summary of other legal tidbits offered in the (often heavily redacted) documents published in the case file this week. Wolfire is now seeking a class-action designation in the suit with arguments that largely rehash those that we covered when the case was originally filed in 2021 (and revived in 2022). While Epic Games isn't directly involved in those legal arguments, it seems Sweeney's long-standing position against Valve's monopoly might continue to factor into the case anyway.

Previously on SoylentNews:
Judge Brings Dismissed Steam Antitrust Lawsuit Back From the Dead - 20220513

Related stories on SoylentNews:
US DoJ, Microsoft and 35 States Support an Appeal of Epic Games-Apple Decision - 20200202
"Apple Must be Stopped" and Google is "Crazy" Says Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney - 20211117
Judge Denies Apple's Request to Delay App Store Changes in Epic Games Case - 20211110
Apple Turns Post-Lawsuit Tables on Epic, Will Block Fortnite on iOS - 20210924
Apple Can No Longer Force Developers to Use In-App Purchasing, Judge Rules - 20210913
Valve Gets Dragged into Apple and Epic's Legal Fight Over Fortnite - 20210219
Your iPhone Copy of Fortnite is About to Become Out of Date [Updated] - 20200826
Judge Issues Restraining Order Protecting Unreal Engine Development on iOS - 20200825
Microsoft Issues Statement in Support of Epic Games to Remain on Apple Ecosystem - 20200824
Epic-Apple Feud Could Also Affect Third-Party Unreal Engine Games - 20200819
Fortnite Maker Sues Apple after Removal of Game From App Store - 20200814
U.S. Video Game Sales Hit $43B in 2018, Eclipsing Record Year at the Box Office - 20190125
Netflix Claims Fortnite is Now a Bigger Competitor than HBO - 20190121


Original Submission

posted by hubie on Sunday March 17, @01:02AM   Printer-friendly
from the everything-is-fine dept.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/03/charges-against-journalist-tim-burke-are-a-hack-job/

Caitlin Vogus is the deputy director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation and a First Amendment lawyer. Jennifer Stisa Granick is the surveillance and cybersecurity counsel with the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. The opinions in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of Ars Technica.

Imagine a journalist finds a folder on a park bench, opens it, and sees a telephone number inside. She dials the number. A famous rapper answers and spews a racist rant. If no one gave her permission to open the folder and the rapper's telephone number was unlisted, should the reporter go to jail for publishing what she heard?

If that sounds ridiculous, it's because it is. And yet, add in a computer and the Internet, and that's basically what a newly unsealed federal indictment accuses Florida journalist Tim Burke of doing when he found and disseminated outtakes of Tucker Carlson's Fox News interview with Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, going on the first of many antisemitic diatribes.
[...]
According to Burke, the video of Carlson's interview with Ye was streamed via a publicly available, unencrypted URL that anyone could access by typing the address into your browser. Those URLs were not listed in any search engine, but Burke says that a source pointed him to a website on the Internet Archive where a radio station had posted "demo credentials" that gave access to a page where the URLs were listed.

The credentials were for a webpage created by LiveU, a company that provides video streaming services to broadcasters. Using the demo username and password, Burke logged into the website, and, Burke's lawyer claims, the list of URLs for video streams automatically downloaded to his computer.

And that, the government says, is a crime. It charges Burke with violating the CFAA's prohibition on intentionally accessing a computer "without authorization" because he accessed the LiveU website and URLs without having been authorized by Fox or LiveU. In other words, because Burke didn't ask Fox or LiveU for permission to use the demo account or view the URLs, the indictment alleges, he acted without authorization.

[...] Using a published demo password to get a list of URLs, which anyone could have used a software program to guess and access, isn't that big of a deal. What was a big deal is that Burke's research embarrassed Fox News. But that's what journalists are supposed to do—uncover questionable practices of powerful entities.

Journalists need never ask corporations for permission to investigate or embarrass them, and the law shouldn't encourage or force them to. Just because someone doesn't like what a reporter does online doesn't mean that it's without authorization and that what he did is therefore a crime.

Still, this isn't the first time that prosecutors have abused computer hacking laws to go after journalists and others, like security researchers. Until a 2021 Supreme Court ruling, researchers and journalists worried that their good faith investigations of algorithmic discrimination could expose them to CFAA liability for exceeding sites' terms of service.
[...]
If journalists must seek permission to publish information they find online from the very people they're exposing, as the government's indictment of Burke suggests, it's a good bet that most information from the obscure but public corners of the Internet will never see the light of day. That would endanger both journalism and public access to important truths. The court reviewing Burke's case should dismiss the charges.

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Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Saturday March 16, @08:16PM   Printer-friendly
from the opium-tiktok-vs-spinach-tiktok dept.

Multiple sites are covering H.R.7521 - Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act which aims to ban Bytedance's Tiktok, a platform for influence and surveillance, from the US.

The app has been a diplomatic hot potato between the United States and China since the administration of former president Donald Trump, who once wanted to ban the app.

Now, a bill in Congress aims to force the company to cut ties with ByteDance or be barred from the United States.

The bill's supporters say ByteDance as a Chinese firm simply cannot go against the wishes of Beijing, and can provide access to the data on more than 170 million American users for everything from spying to election influence campaigns.

And

But that glosses over the deeper TikTok security problem, which the legislation does not fully address. In the four years this battle has gone on, it has become clear that the security threat posed by TikTok has far less to do with who owns it than it does with who writes the code and algorithms that make TikTok tick.

Those algorithms, which guide how TikTok watches its users and feeds them more of what they want, are the magic sauce of an app that 170 million Americans now have on their phones. That's half the country.

But TikTok doesn't own those algorithms; they are developed by engineers who work for its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, which assembles the code in great secrecy in its software labs, in Beijing, Singapore and Mountain View, Calif. But China has issued regulations that appear designed to require government review before any of ByteDance's algorithms could be licensed to outsiders. Few expect those licenses to be issued — meaning that selling TikTok to an American owner without the underlying code might be like selling a Ferrari without its famed engine.

And many other sites:

Back in 2022, CBS 60 Minutes covered Bytedance's Tiktok and the differences between the domestic edition served to audiences in Red China versus the apparent psyops weapon served up to those outside Red China.


Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Saturday March 16, @03:32PM   Printer-friendly
from the so-the-prices-will-come-down,-right? dept.

https://newatlas.com/science/cows-low-cost-insulin-production/

A genetically modified cow has produced milk containing human insulin, according to a new study. The proof-of-concept achievement could be scaled up to, eventually, produce enough insulin to ensure availability and reduced cost for all diabetics requiring the life-maintaining drug.

Unable to rely on their own supply due to damaged pancreatic cells, type 1 diabetics need injectable insulin to live. As do some type 2 diabetics. The World Health Organization estimates that of those who require insulin, between 150 and 200 million people worldwide, only about half are being treated with it. Access to insulin remains inadequate in many low- and middle-income countries – and some high-income countries – and its cost and unavailability have been well-documented.

In a newly published study led by the Department of Animal Sciences in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the Universidade de São Paulo, researchers say they may have developed a way of eliminating insulin scarcity and reducing its cost using cows. Yep, cows.

"Mother Nature designed the mammary gland as a factory to make protein really, really efficiently," said Matt Wheeler, corresponding author of the study. "We can take advantage of that system to produce a protein that can help hundreds of millions of people worldwide."

[...] In the current study, the researchers inserted a segment of human DNA coding for proinsulin into the cells of ten cow embryos implanted into the uteruses of regular Brazilian cows. The implantation resulted in the birth of one transgenic calf. The term 'transgenic' describes an organism that contains artificially introduced DNA from an unrelated organism. Here, the human DNA used was targeted for expression in milk-producing, that is, mammary tissue only. Of course, a cow's mammary gland is more commonly called an udder.
...
When the calf matured, she was given hormones to stimulate her first lactation. While the volume of milk was less than would ordinarily be produced, the researchers found that it contained human proinsulin and – surprisingly – insulin.

"Our goal was to make proinsulin, purify it out to insulin, and go from there," said Wheeler. "But the cow basically processed it herself. She makes [a ratio of] about three-to-one biologically active insulin to proinsulin. The mammary gland is a magical thing."

The insulin and proinsulin were expressed at a few grams per liter of milk. Because lactation was induced by hormones and the milk volume was smaller than expected, the researchers are unable to say exactly how much insulin a cow would make during a typical lactation. But they're willing to hazard a (conservative) guess; if proven correct, the numbers are astounding.

[...] Wheeler said that if a cow produced one gram of insulin per liter of milk and a typical Holstein cow – which produces more milk than any other breed of dairy cow – made 40 to 50 liters a day, that adds up to a lot of insulin. This is especially true considering that one international unit (IU) of insulin is the biological equivalent of 0.0347 mg of pure crystalline insulin.

"That means each gram is equivalent to 28,818 units of insulin," Wheeler said. "And that's just one liter; Holsteins can produce 50 liters a day. You can do the math."

Journal Reference:
Monzani, P. S., Sangalli, J. R., Sampaio, R. V., et al. (2024). Human proinsulin production in the milk of transgenic cattle. Biotechnology Journal, 19, e2300307. https://doi.org/10.1002/biot.202300307


Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Saturday March 16, @10:48AM   Printer-friendly
from the all-your-pixels-belong-to-us dept.

https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/03/hackers-can-read-private-ai-assistant-chats-even-though-theyre-encrypted/

AI assistants have been widely available for a little more than a year, and they already have access to our most private thoughts and business secrets. People ask them about becoming pregnant or terminating or preventing pregnancy, consult them when considering a divorce, seek information about drug addiction, or ask for edits in emails containing proprietary trade secrets. The providers of these AI-powered chat services are keenly aware of the sensitivity of these discussions and take active steps—mainly in the form of encrypting them—to prevent potential snoops from reading other people's interactions.

But now, researchers have devised an attack that deciphers AI assistant responses with surprising accuracy. The technique exploits a side channel present in all of the major AI assistants, with the exception of Google Gemini.

[...] By carefully monitoring these sources, attackers can assemble enough information to recover encrypted keystrokes or encryption keys from CPUs, browser cookies from HTTPS traffic, or secrets from smartcards, The side channel used in this latest attack resides in tokens that AI assistants use when responding to a user query.


Original Submission