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Archive for the ‘computing’ category: Page 343

Mar 6, 2022

New Linux Kernel cgroups Vulnerability Could Let Attackers Escape Container

Posted by in category: computing

Details have emerged about a now-patched high-severity vulnerability in the Linux kernel that could potentially be abused to escape a container in order to execute arbitrary commands on the container host.

The shortcoming resides in a Linux kernel feature called control groups, also referred to as cgroups version 1 (v1), which allows processes to be organized into hierarchical groups, thereby making it possible to limit and monitor the usage of resources such as CPU, memory, disk I/O, and network.

Tracked as CVE-2022–0492 (CVSS score: 7.0), the issue concerns a case of privilege escalation in the cgroups v1 release_agent functionality, a script that’s executed following the termination of any process in the cgroup.

Mar 6, 2022

These Bendy Plastic Chips Fit in Unusual Places

Posted by in category: computing

Circa 2021


Researchers think these flexible semiconductors will be able to monitor your heartbeat or tell you whether your milk has spoiled.

Mar 6, 2022

5D Optical Disc Could Store 500TB for Billions of Years

Posted by in categories: computing, internet, nanotechnology

Hard drives and flash storage have gotten more reliable over the years, but only on a human timescale. What if we need data storage that lasts longer? Decades? Millennia? The key to that vision might be 5D optical storage, which has a data density 10,000 times that of a Blu-ray disc. But it’s always been far too slow to write data onto glass plates in this way—until now. A new technique developed at the University of Southampton speeds up the process dramatically, without impacting the reliability of the data.

This type of data storage uses three layers of nanoscale dots in a glass disc. The size, orientation, and position (in three dimensions) of the dots gives you the five “dimensions” used to encode data. Researchers say that a 5D disc could remain readable after 13.8 billion years, but it would be surprising if anyone was even around to read them at that point. In the shorter term, 5D optical media could also survive after being heated to 1,000 degrees Celsius. You can see an earlier, smaller version of the disc above.

This is not the first time 5G optical data storage has popped up. It was just impractically slow before. Data is added to the discs with lasers, but if the laser moves too fast, the disc’s structural integrity is compromised. The technique devised by doctoral researcher Yuhao Lei uses a femtosecond laser with a high repetition rate. The process starts with a seeding pulse that creates a nanovoid, but the fast pulse doesn’t need to actually write any data. The repeated weak pulses leverage a phenomenon known as near-field enhancement to sculpt the nanostructures in a more gentle way.

Mar 6, 2022

Google is designing computers that respect your personal space

Posted by in category: computing

By understanding your body language, Google wants its products to offer you just what you want, just when you need it.

Mar 4, 2022

Are fault-tolerant quantum computers on the horizon?

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

Our new US2QC program aims to determine if an underexplored approach to quantum computing is capable of achieving operation much faster than conventional predictions. https://ow.ly/ABgY50I1qEq

Mar 4, 2022

Temperature variation could help new touchscreen technology simulate virtual shapes

Posted by in categories: computing, engineering

High-fidelity touch has the potential to significantly expand the scope of what we expect from computing devices, making new remote sensory experiences possible. The research on these advancements, led by a pair of researchers from the J. Mike Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University, could help touchscreens simulate virtual shapes.

Dr. Cynthia Hipwell is studying at the finger-device level, while Dr. Jonathan Felts is researching friction in the interaction between single skin cells and the glass of the touchscreen interface. The two are bringing together their respective areas of expertise to apply friction principles at the to finger-device interaction mechanics.

Continue reading “Temperature variation could help new touchscreen technology simulate virtual shapes” »

Mar 4, 2022

Brain-computer interface firm Neuroelectrics wants to eliminate surgery

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, neuroscience

Mar 4, 2022

Hackers Who Broke Into NVIDIA’s Network Leak DLSS Source Code Online

Posted by in category: computing

Hackers who penetrated the network of the American chip manufacturer NVIDIA have leaked DLSS source code on the Internet.

Mar 3, 2022

Scientists Reveal a Multidimensional Universe Inside the Human Brain

Posted by in categories: computing, neuroscience

A study published in Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience has revealed that the human brain’s structures operate in up to 11 dimensions.

The dimensions are not understood as the classic definition of a dimension, which most of us understand, the Blue Brain Project explains.

Continue reading “Scientists Reveal a Multidimensional Universe Inside the Human Brain” »

Mar 3, 2022

Dark energy: Neutron stars will tell us if it’s only an illusion

Posted by in categories: computing, cosmology, mathematics

A huge amount of mysterious dark energy is necessary to explain cosmological phenomena, such as the accelerated expansion of the Universe, using Einstein’s theory. But what if dark energy was just an illusion and general relativity itself had to be modified? A new SISSA study, published in Physical Review Letters, offers a new approach to answer this question. Thanks to huge computational and mathematical effort, scientists produced the first simulation ever of merging binary neutron stars in theories beyond general relativity that reproduce a dark-energy like behavior on cosmological scales. This allows the comparison of Einstein’s theory and modified versions of it, and, with sufficiently accurate data, may solve the dark energy mystery.

For about 100 years now, general relativity has been very successful at describing gravity on a variety of regimes, passing all experimental tests on Earth and the solar system. However, to explain cosmological observations such as the observed accelerated expansion of the Universe, we need to introduce dark components, such as and , which still remain a mystery.

Enrico Barausse, astrophysicist at SISSA (Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati) and principal investigator of the ERC grant GRAMS (GRavity from Astrophysical to Microscopic Scales) questions whether dark is real or, instead, it may be interpreted as a breakdown of our understanding of gravity. “The existence of dark energy could be just an illusion,” he says, “the accelerated expansion of the Universe might be caused by some yet unknown modifications of general relativity, a sort of ‘dark gravity’.”