Month: May 2022

Semi-trucks are the fuel line of our economic structure, transporting goods to and from retailers and manufacturers all around the world. Operators of these massive vehicles often come face-to-face with nature’s wrath, more specifically, high winds. Axicle Engineering developed an anti-rollover fifth wheel system designed to prevent semi-truck operators from fully rolling over due to these high winds. The Tractor Anti Rollover System (TARS) would keep the driver and truck on the road while it unlatches and detaches the trailer when met with an “unrecoverable rollover condition.” Axicle claims a 99.99% accuracy with the help of its algorithm and sensors. Currently, TARS is designed for class-8 trucks. Earlier this year, Axicle used a Boeing 777 to test out its TARS system by using the jet engines to knock down the semi-truck and its load. The system worked just as promised, keeping the truck upright while the trailer was tipped over. If you’re a semi-truck driver, what do you think of this technology? Let us know in the comments.

Click here to watch the Boeing 777 engine demonstration: https://youtu.be/XCpRjwpwAVc

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A federal judge has ordered all internet service providers in the United States to block three pirate streaming services operated by Doe defendants who never showed up to court and hid behind false identities.

The blocking orders affect Israel.tv, Israeli-tv.com, and Sdarot.tv, as well as related domains listed in the rulings and any other domains where the copyright-infringing websites may resurface in the future. The orders came in three essentially identical rulings (see here, here, and here) issued on April 26 in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Each ruling provides a list of 96 ISPs that are expected to block the websites, including Comcast, Charter, AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. But the rulings say that all ISPs must comply even if they aren’t on the list:

It is further ordered that all ISPs (including without limitation those set forth in Exhibit B hereto) and any other ISPs providing services in the United States shall block access to the Website at any domain address known today (including but not limited to those set forth in Exhibit A hereto) or to be used in the future by the Defendants (“Newly Detected Websites”) by any technological means available on the ISPs’ systems. The domain addresses and any Newly Detected Websites shall be channeled in such a way that users will be unable to connect and/or use the Website, and will be diverted by the ISPs’ DNS servers to a landing page operated and controlled by Plaintiffs (the “Landing Page”).

That landing page is available here and cites US District Judge Katherine Polk Failla’s “order to block all access to this website/service due to copyright infringement.”

“If you were harmed in any way by the Court’s decision you may file a motion to the Federal Court in the Southern District of New York in the above case,” the landing page also says.

“Gone to Great Lengths to Conceal Themselves”

The three lawsuits were filed by Israeli TV and movie producers and providers against Doe defendants who operate the websites. Each of the three rulings awarded damages of $7.65 million. TorrentFreak pointed out the rulings in an article Monday.

The orders also contain permanent injunctions against the defendants themselves and other types of companies that provided services to the defendants or could do so in the future. That includes companies like Cloudflare, GoDaddy, Google, and Namecheap.

In all three cases, none of the defendants responded to the complaints or appeared in court, the judge’s rulings said. “Defendants have gone to great lengths to conceal themselves and their ill-gotten proceeds from Plaintiffs’ and this Court’s detection, including by using multiple false identities and addresses associated with their operations and purposely deceptive contact information for the infringing Website,” the rulings say.

The defendants are liable for copyright infringement and violated the anti-circumvention provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the judge wrote, describing the infringement as follows:

Through the Website, Defendants have been re-broadcasting and streaming Plaintiffs’ original content, broadcasting channels and TV services which are only authorized for broadcasting and/or viewing in the territory of the State of Israel and under a license. The Infringing Broadcasting includes original content produced and owned by Plaintiffs, mostly in Hebrew, and also from major studios in the United States and elsewhere, licensed to Plaintiffs for broadcasting exclusively in Israel (except as expressly licensed for broadcast in the United States).

Rulings Further Target Web Hosts and Banks

The plaintiffs are United King Film Distribution, D.B.S. Satellite Services (1998), HOT Communication Systems, Reshet Media, and Keshet Broadcasting. While the plaintiffs “transmit their programming in an encrypted form,” the defendants’ “various services and hardware permit end-user consumers to bypass the Plaintiffs’ encryption to view Plaintiffs’ content,” the rulings said.

The judge ordered domain registrars and registries to transfer the domain names to the plaintiffs. The rulings include injunctions against “third parties providing services used in connection with Defendants’ operations,” including web hosts, content delivery networks, DNS providers, VPN providers, web designers, search-based online advertising services, and others.

Financial institutions face similar bans on doing business with the blocked websites. The rulings directly target the defendants’ monetary accounts, saying that plaintiffs “shall have the ongoing authority to serve this Order on any party controlling or otherwise holding such accounts” until they have “recovered the full payment of monies owed to them by any Defendant under this Order.” This applies to PayPal, banks, and payment providers in general.

This story originally appeared on Ars Technica.

Technology is ever-advancing throughout virtually every industry, and while some four-wheeled-gadgets such as lunar rovers and health-monitoring electric cars tend to get most of the attention, segments like farm robotics can often be just as cool. One interesting piece of tech in particular is the InsightTRAC, a robot that autonomously roams almond orchards seeking and shooting down pest-infested almonds. 

The bug-zapping bot was created for the sole purpose of improving tree health and increasing harvesting. Almonds that remain on trees after harvest become a key food source for many pests, especially Navel Orangeworms. These lingering almonds are called mummies. InsightTRAC was invented to combat the frustrating traditional removal process of mummies; whacking them using long sticks or violently shaking a tree to remove them. This new patent-pending rover, however, is designed to seek mummies autonomously, and shoot them down using earth-friendly biodegradable pellets. The system is used for winter sanitation to prep for the budding season. 

InsightTRAC can operate 24/7 identifying and tracking trees and can provide farmers with data to optimize their tree profitability. InsightTRAC is currently focusing on almond growers with plans to expand to other branches of the industry and beyond. Learn more at insighttrac.com 

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Rocket Lab just did something we’ve never seen before.

Rocket Lab sent 34 satellites to orbit today (May 2) with its two-stage Electron launcher, which lifted off from the company’s New Zealand site at 6:49 p.m. EDT (2249 GMT). Impressive enough, but it was the action in the downward direction that was unprecedented.

After sending the satellites on their way, the Electron’s first stage came back down to Earth under parachutes. About 15 minutes after liftoff, as the booster glided toward the Pacific Ocean, a Sikorsky S-92 helicopter sidled up close to it and snagged the parachute line with a hook. The chopper later hauled the booster to a recovery ship, which will transport the hardware back to terra firma for inspection and analysis. 

“Absolutely incredible stuff there!” Rocket Lab Senior Communications Advisor Murielle Baker said during today’s launch webcast. “We have successfully caught that Electron booster underneath the parachute!” 

Related: Rocket Lab and its Electron booster (photos)

This dramatic action is all part of Rocket Lab’s effort to make Electron first stages reusable, an achievement that would reduce costs and increase launch frequency, company representatives have said.

Space fans are already familiar with reusable rockets thanks to SpaceX, which commonly lands and reflies the first stages of its Falcon 9 rocket (as well as those of its Falcon Heavy, which has launched just three times to date). Falcon 9 first stages land propulsively, using engine burns to steer themselves to soft, vertical touchdowns on land or “droneship” platforms at sea. 

But the 59-foot-tall (18 meters) Electron is too small to do that; the first-stage boosters cannot carry sufficient fuel to have enough left over for landing operations, Rocket Lab representatives have said. So the company settled on the helicopter-snag strategy.

Rocket Lab has been steadily building up to today’s historic catch. The company recovered Electron first stages after soft ocean splashdowns on three recent missions, and it has caught falling dummy boosters with a helicopter during a series of drop tests.

Today’s mission — the 26th overall for Rocket Lab and Electron — was delayed several times as Rocket Lab waited for weather to clear in the catch zone, which was about 170 miles (275 kilometers) off the New Zealand coast. The company has a history of giving its flights playful names, and it dubbed this one “There And Back Again.”  

The 34 satellites that flew on “There And Back Again” — more than on any previous Electron mission — were provided by a variety of customers, including Alba Orbital, Astrix Astronautics, Aurora Propulsion Technologies, E-Space, Spaceflight Inc. and Unseenlabs, Rocket Lab wrote in a mission description. 

All were deployed as planned into a sun-synchronous orbit about 323 miles (520 kilometers) above Earth by an hour after liftoff, Rocket Lab representatives announced via Twitter this evening. Once that happens, the total number of satellites lofted by Electron to date will rise to 146. 

Electron won’t be the only launcher in Rocket Lab’s stable for much longer, if all goes according to plan. The company is developing a larger rocket called Neutron, which is scheduled to fly for the first time in 2024. Neutron is designed to be partially reusable from the outset; its first stage will make Falcon 9-like propulsive landings, Rocket Lab representatives have said.

Mike Wall is the author of “Out There” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or on Facebook.  

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