Month: April 2019

Google shuttered its source-code hosting service Google Code in 2015. Like Facebook, Twitter, and most other major technology companies, Google primarily shifted to a similar service called GitHub to host its own open source projects. Microsoft followed suit and closed its CodePlex service in 2017. It acquired GitHub the next year. Thanks to its slick collaboration features and free hosting for public-facing projects, GitHub has become by far the most popular place to host open source code on the web. But until recently there was one major holdout: the Apache Software Foundation.

You might not have heard of the ASF, but if you’ve ever used the web, you’ve used software stewarded by the nonprofit organization. The ASF was founded in 1999 as the home of the Apache HTTP Server, which is still the world’s most popular web server. The foundation has about 200 other crucial behind-the-scenes software programs under its umbrella, including the popular data-crunching tools Hadoop and Spark and the cloud management tool Mesos. But as other popular open source projects flocked to GitHub, ASF project developers were stuck using the foundation’s aging platform.

That’s beginning to change. On Monday, the ASF announced that it had migrated the majority of its projects to GitHub, including Hadoop, Spark, and Mesos. Many projects, including its venerable HTTP Server, that use the code management software Subversion will still use Apache’s platform. But most newer projects are now on GitHub, and most new projects the organization adopts will be hosted there too.

ASF infrastructure administrator Greg Stein says the move was motivated by Apache developers who wanted to use GitHub’s features. The ASF has long supported the code-management tool Git, which is GitHub’s namesake but isn’t related to the company. But the ASF had its own Git server that didn’t have all of GitHub’s features.

The most requested feature, Stein says, was probably “pull requests,” which make it easy for developers to submit bug fixes and other changes to open source code. Any GitHub user can clone, or fork, any public code repository on the service. You can use your fork to develop and test bug fixes or new features and then use the pull-request feature to submit those changes to the project’s maintainers. If a maintainer approves the submission, the change is automatically incorporated into the original code base. If it’s rejected, you can still keep the changes in your copy, and the original remains unchanged. It may sound trivial, but this streamlined process makes life easier for project maintainers who might otherwise receive these sorts of submission by email and integrate changes manually.

Other users wanted to make it easier to highlight the open source work they’ve done in a single place. “A lot of people point to their GitHub profile these days to say ‘This is the sort of thing I work on,'” Stein says.

The ASF started the transition by allowing projects that wanted to use GitHub to use that instead of relying exclusively on the foundation’s Git server. Then, in December, the organization asked that all Git-based projects move to GitHub. Stein says that migration finished in February.

Stein says ASF will keep copies of all the code hosted on GitHub on its own servers, and contributors who don’t agree to GitHub’s terms of service will be able to submit code changes through ASF’s own Git server, which Stein says isn’t going anywhere. But the bulk of the organization’s projects will now be developed on GitHub.

The migration cements GitHub’s role as the biggest and most important host of open source code in the world. But it still has competition from the older hosting platform SourceForge and the newer platform GitLab. And a few major projects, most notably the Linux operating system, still host their own code. But if anyone still thought open source developers might flee GitHub after Microsoft’s acquisition, this week’s announcement should put those fears to rest.

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Evidently registering that no one wants to be stared down by a camera for the entirety of their flight, United and Delta are now covering the tiny in-unit cameras in the back-of-seat entertainment units on their planes. American Airlines may be considering a similar move.

BuzzFeed News last week reported on the small, black stickers that now cover these cameras on United’s planes, adding that the airline “will continue to cover the cameras as it adds premium seats on additional aircraft,” per a spokesperson for the carrier. A photo of the sticker was snapped by Sri Ray, a former BuzzFeed site reliability engineer.

Indeed, the cameras have been seen on the entertainment units of several carriers, though all have said that the cameras were not operational. A spokesperson for United Airlines told Gizmodo in a statement on Monday that the cameras on its units, which it says are only found on United Premium Plus seatbacks, “are a standard feature that manufacturers of the system included for possible future purposes such as video conferencing.”

“As with many other airlines, some of our premium seats have in-flight entertainment systems that came with cameras installed by the manufacturer,” the spokesperson said. “None of these cameras were ever activated and we had no plans to use them in the future, however we took the additional step to cover the cameras.”

Likewise, a Delta Air Lines spokesperson confirmed to Gizmodo that it too is now covering the cameras.

“A limited number of Delta in-flight entertainment screens have non-functional cameras, included by the manufacturer,” the spokesperson said by email. “Though Delta does not have plans to install the necessary software to use them, we have added covers as a visible way to reassure customers.”

American Airlines told Gizmodo in a statement that it is “reviewing” the situation, emphasizing (as other carriers did) that the in-unit cameras on its own planes “have never been activated and American is not considering using them.”

A minor uproar sparked up around the cameras after a passenger aboard a Singapore Air flight asked the airline in a February tweet to explain “how it is used.” BuzzFeed News reported later that month that United and Delta planes also have the camera-equipped in-flight devices.

A spokesperson for Panasonic Avionics Corporation, which makes the entertainment units used by United and Delta, did not immediately return a request for comment about the covers being used by the carriers. However, a spokesperson for Panasonic told BuzzFeed News in February that it would “never activate any feature or functionality within an IFE system without explicit direction from an airline customer.”

These in-flight cameras are the just latest example of airlines introducing tech—or in this case potential tech—and failing to properly communicate to their customers how or why it’s there. Another recent example is the JetBlue Airways face recognition fiasco, which, as Gizmodo reported last week, is not limited to JetBlue and is already being used at more than a dozen airports across the country.

Like both Delta and United noted in their statements, the sticker-over-camera system—suggested by a number of Twitter users back in February—is really just a gesture to ensure their customers that they aren’t being monitored. It is annoying, however, that they didn’t do more to curb suspicion about them right out of the gate, perhaps by letting their customers know that they weren’t operational or communicating what their purpose was, to begin with. But if stickers do the job for peace of mind, then hey, I get it.

Last Thursday, on a green expanse at the edge of the Texas Hill Country, Firefly Aerospace prepared to test the second stage of its Alpha rocket. After years of development, engineers bolted the rocket stage to a vertical test stand and began to feed kerosene and liquid oxygen into the engine.

Then, for 300 seconds, the rocket’s Lightning-1 engine fired, blowing white and yellow flame out of its exhaust nozzle. The five-minute test demonstrated the performance of the engine and upper stage over an entire cycle of flight in space, during which the upper stage would boost a satellite and insert into orbit.

During the test, all of the second stage’s flight avionics, structures, and propulsion systems were subjected to a sustained firing consistent with a normal flight mission. According to Firefly, preliminary analysis of data from the test show that all of the rocket’s systems performed nominally, and a post-test inspection revealed no observable degradation of the stage systems.

Firefly is attempting to complete development of its Alpha rocket, which has a capacity of up to 1 ton to low-Earth orbit, for a launch by the end of this year from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The company could reach another milestone as early as August, when Firefly anticipates performing the first long-duration test of the Alpha rocket’s first stage.

Thanks to about $100 million in funding from a Ukrainian entrepreneur, Max Polyakov, Firefly has come roaring back into the small-launch space race. It was left for dead in 2016, when its funding dried up, and Firefly had to let got its 159 employees crashed hard. But since returning in 2017 with ample funds, Firefly has hired many of those workers back and expanded its staff beyond its original number.

While launching the Alpha rocket this year seems like an enormous challenge, with the successful second stage test it at least seems like its still possible.

Listing image by Edwards Media

Pedestrian safety has emerged as a huge issue in the United States, with pedestrian fatalities at nearly the

highest levels in more than two decades

in 2017, the most recent year for which data are available. Experts say that’s thanks in part to the

prevalence of SUVs

and their higher, more blunt front ends, and probably increased distraction from smartphones and in-car touchscreens.

In suburban Boston, two 10-year-olds decided to do something about it. Isa and Eric (their last names were not given) spent months researching ways to get drivers to slow down near Brooks Elementary School in Medford, Mass., after Eric’s brother was nearly struck by a car. Their solution was to paint a

trompe-l’oeil

image of traditional crosswalk hash marks rendered as three-dimensional blocks to fool drivers.

“When you’re walking across, you can tell that it’s painted,” Isa

told CBS affiliate WBZ-TV

. “But what we hope is when you’re driving down, you’ll see it as 3-D — three dimensional. So it looks real.”

The design technique has been used for years by

advertisers

at soccer venues to make the logos they paint in the grass beside the goals pitches pop visually for TV cameras, and it’s been used for crosswalks in other countries such as China and Great Britain. Here’s an

incredible example

from Iceland in which the stripes appear to be rectangular blocks floating above the road surface, courtesy of some creative “shadows.”

Isa and Eric, who participate in the city’s

Center for Citizenship and Social Responsibility

, reportedly lobbied local officials for a year before they got the OK. The city plans to install similar 3D crosswalks at three other elementary schools by summer.

Google has begun purging the Play Store of apps made by DO Global, a Chinese firm that makes Android apps and is partially backed by Baidu, after a BuzzFeed News report indicated it was committing massive ad fraud.

According to a separate report by BuzzFeed this Friday, dozens of DO Global apps had disappeared from the Play Store (46 at the time of the article) and its its apps also “no longer offer ad inventory for purchase via Google’s AdMob network, suggesting the ban has also been extended to the internet giant’s ad products.” BuzzFeed wrote:

Google would not comment specifically on the removals, but a source with knowledge of the action said the company was moving to ban DO Global overall, and that more app removals would follow.

“We actively investigate malicious behavior, and when we find violations, we take action, including the removal of a developer’s ability to monetize their app with AdMob or publish on Play,” a Google spokesperson said.

DO Global had around 100 apps on the Play Store with over 600 million installations before the bans began, and it claims to have more than 250 million monthly active users, according to BuzzFeed. This is thus one of the biggest crackdowns Google has ever launched against an app developer.

The company sent BuzzFeed a statement in which it acknowledged “irregularities” with its ad business and said they “fully understand and accept Google’s decision”:

“First of all, we would like to extend our thanks to Buzzfeed for your articles. We fully understand the seriousness of the allegations. Therefore, after reading the reports about our apps, we immediately conducted an internal investigation on this matter. We regret to find irregularities in some of our products’ use of AdMob advertisements. Given this, we fully understand and accept Google’s decision. Moreover, we have actively cooperated with them by doing a thorough examination of every app involved,” the statement said in part.

Researchers with security and ad fraud firms Check Point and Method Media Intelligence originally told BuzzFeed that they had discovered at least six of DO Global’s apps contained code designed to fraudulently click on ads (such as its popular Selfie Camera and Total Cleaner apps), which could additionally drain users’ batteries and run up data. Most of those apps also hid the developer’s identity from end users, displaying that they were developed by “Pic Tools Group (Photo Editor& Photo Grid&Collage)”. According to BuzzFeed, researchers also said the Selfie Camera app had code that could enable app attribution ad fraud, which would allow the developers to falsely claim reward payments for enabling downloads of other apps, and a bevy of other unrelated functions not revealed to users.

BuzzFeed had previously alleged that Chinese companies Cheetah Mobile and Kika Tech, which collectively claimed over 700 million monthly active mobile users, were engaging in ad fraud schemes at a massive scale. Another one of its investigations uncovered what it called a sophisticated ad fraud scheme “involving more than 125 Android apps and websites connected to a network of front and shell companies in Cyprus, Malta, British Virgin Islands, Croatia, Bulgaria, and elsewhere,” with losses potentially in the hundreds of millions.

In March 2019, some 200 apps on the Play Store were found to have been infected with a strain of malware dubbed “SimBad” by Check Point, with over 150 million reported downloads.

[BuzzFeed News]

Norwegian fishermen discovered a beluga whale wearing a harness off the country’s northern coast last week. The fishermen were fascinated with how tame it was, but there might be a good reason that it was comfortable around humans. Scientists from Norway’s Institute of Marine Research suspect the whale and its harness may be part of an operation cooked up by the Russian military.

The scientists tracked down the whale near the town of Ingoy and attempted to remove its harness. Just as the fishermen had reported, the harness looked way too tight, according to Norwegian news outlet NRK.

The white whale was enticed with fishy snacks but proved evasive at every turn, forcing them to get in the water to remove it. When the scientists finally got the harness off they saw that the inside read, “Equipment of St. Petersburg.”

“I have been in contact with some Russian researchers and they can confirm that there is nothing they are doing. They tell me that most likely is the Russian Navy in Murmansk,” Audun Rikardsen, professor at the Norwegian Arctic University in Tromsø, told Norwegian news site VG.

Curiously, the harness also had an attachment that might be able to fit a GoPro camera, according to VG. No camera was discovered.

There’s a long history of both the American and Russian military using animals for experiments. And as recently as 2017, the Russian Defense Ministry’s own TV station, Zvezda, reported that dolphins, seals, and white whales were all being trained for military applications.

As the Guardian points out, these animals are trained to do everything from carrying equipment for divers to actually guarding military bases. The U.S. military uses dolphins to hunt for underwater mines under the US Navy Marine Mammal Program and they’re also quite helpful for finding missing persons. According to the most sensationalistic reports, some of the animals trained by the Russian military are even taught to kill potential enemies.

But killer aquatic creatures are still the realm of science fiction, at least for now. There’s a campy 1973 movie called Day of the Dolphin about a dolphin that’s trained to assassinate the President of the United States. And it’s every bit as goofy as you’d imagine.

But don’t tell President Trump. He’s likely to nuke the ocean. Or, at the very least, send the dolphins to Gitmo. You never know these days. We all might be shipped off to Guantanamo Bay soon if the Trump regime has its way.