All the News that Matters

• RedHat: RHSA-2018-0629:01 Important: Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application
  `bbLinuxSecurity.com`/bb: An update is now available for Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.1 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7. Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having a security impact of Important. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score,

• RedHat: RHSA-2018-0630:01 Important: Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application
  `bbLinuxSecurity.com`/bb: Updated packages that provide Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 6.4 and fix three security issues, several bugs, and add various enhancements are now available from the Red Hat Customer Portal. Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having a security impact

• Debian: DSA-4164-1: apache2 security update
  `bbLinuxSecurity.com`/bb: Several vulnerabilities have been found in the Apache HTTPD server. CVE-2017-15710

• Debian LTS: DLA-1338-1: beep security update
  `bbLinuxSecurity.com`/bb: It was discovered that there was a local privilege escalation vulnerability in beep, an "advanced PC speaker beeper". For Debian 7 "Wheezy", this issue has been fixed in beep version

• Debian LTS: DLA-1337-1: jruby security update
  `bbLinuxSecurity.com`/bb: Multiple vulnerabilities were found in the rubygems package management framework, embedded in JRuby, a pure-Java implementation of the Ruby programming language.

• Debian: DSA-4163-1: beep security update
  `bbLinuxSecurity.com`/bb: It was discovered that a race condition in beep (if configured as setuid via debconf) allows local privilege escalation. For the oldstable distribution (jessie), this problem has been fixed

• Ubuntu 3614-1: OpenJDK 7 vulnerabilities
  `bbLinuxSecurity.com`/bb: Several security issues were fixed in OpenJDK 7.

• Ubuntu 3613-1: OpenJDK 8 vulnerabilities
  `bbLinuxSecurity.com`/bb: Several security issues were fixed in OpenJDK 8.

• Ubuntu 0036-1: Linux kernel vulnerability
  `bbLinuxSecurity.com`/bb: Several security issues were fixed in the kernel.

• Ubuntu 3587-2: Dovecot vulnerabilities
  `bbLinuxSecurity.com`/bb: Several security issues were fixed in Dovecot.

• Debian: DSA-4162-1: irssi security update
  `bbLinuxSecurity.com`/bb: Multiple vulnerabilities have been discovered in Irssi, a terminal-based IRC client which can result in denial of service. For the stable distribution (stretch), these problems have been fixed in

• Debian LTS: DLA-1336-1: rubygems security update
  `bbLinuxSecurity.com`/bb: Multiple vulnerabilities were found in rubygems, a package management framework for Ruby. CVE-2018-1000075

• How to Install and Use Docker on CentOS 7
  Docker is an application used to manage application processes in containers. Containers run applications in resource-isolated process. By using docker you can build, test and deploy applications that can run anywhere as portable and self-sufficient containers.

• WriteFreely: Start a blog, build a community
  As more of our lives move online, we become dependent on large services with millions (or billions) of users to communicate with each other. Although we tend to notice problems only when these platforms change a policy, erect a paywall, or suffer a data breach, we can often feel how these mass-broadcast platforms don't always have our best interests in mind and often don't "connect" us in the ways they purport to.read more

• Fun Little Tidbits in a Howling Storm (Re: Intel Security Holes)
  Some kernel developers recently have been trying to work around themassive, horrifying, long-term security holes that have recentlybeen discovered in Intel hardware. In the course of doing so, therewere some interesting comments about coding practices.

• How to Automatically Change WallPaper based on time of day in Ubuntu with Wallch
  In this article, we will explain how to automatically change wallpapers depending on the time of the day. For this purpose, we will make use of a very helpful software called Wallch.

• 5 things to master to be a DevOps engineer
  There's an increasing global demand for DevOps professionals, IT pros who are skilled in software development and operations. In fact, the Linux Foundation's Open Source Jobs Report ranked DevOps as the most in-demand skill, and DevOps career opportunities are thriving worldwide.read more

• How to install Vagrant on Debian 9
  Vagrant is an open source command line tool for building and managing virtual machine environments. By default Vagrant can provision machines on top of VirtualBox, Hyper-V and Docker but many other providers such as Libvirt (KVM), VMware and AWS can be installed via the Vagrant plugin system.

• Redis Labs Changing Its Licensing for Redis Modules Again, Raspberry Pi Rolling Out the Linux 4.19 Kernel, Windows Subsystem for Linux Updates Coming, Facebook Removing Its Spyware Onavo VPN from the
  News briefs for February 22, 2019.

• How To Install FFmpeg on Ubuntu 18.04 / Ubuntu 16.04 & Linux Mint 19
  FFmpeg is an open source software (also a command line tool) for transcoding multimedia files. It is a suite, contains a set of shared libraries such as libswresample, libavcodec, libavformat, and libavutil and programs for handling video, audio, and other multimedia files and streams.

• Developer happiness: What you need to know
  A person needs the right tools for the job. There's nothing as frustrating as getting halfway through a car repair, for instance, only to discover you don't have the specialized tool you need to complete the job. The same concept applies to developers: you need the tools to do what you are best at, without disrupting your workflow with compliance and security needs, so you can produce code faster.read more

• Basic dig Command Usage and Detailed Explanation of its Output.
  In this tutorial we examine the very useful dig command. We cover basic usage, some advanced techniques and provide a detailed line by line explanation of digs cryptic output.

• How to Use Zsync to Transfer Part of a File in Linux
  Zsync is a simple tool for Linux that lets you automatically update files that you've already downloaded, saving valuable time and drive space.

• Using the NetworkManager’s DNSMasq plugin
  The dnsmasq plugin is a hidden gem of NetworkManager. When using the plugin, instead of using whatever DNS nameserver is doled out by DHCP, NetworkManager will configure a local copy of dnsmasq that can be customized. You may ask, why would you want to do this? For me personally, I have two use cases: First, […]

• qoob – excellent foobar-like music player
  Are you debilitated by the countless music players that use web technologies with a massive RAM footprint? Maybe you want a lean yet slick audio player with a good range of features?

• Swim Open Sources Its Machine Learning Platform for Edge Computing
  Taking the "open core" route, the startup wants the open source community to take its platform in more directions than it's been able to so far.

• How to Install Wiki.js on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
  In this tutorial, we will walk you through the Wiki.js version 1 installation process on a Ubuntu 18.04 LTS operating system by using NGINX as a reverse proxy server, MongoDB as a database server, PM2 as a process manager and optionally you can secure transport layer by using acme.sh client and Let's Encrypt certificate authority to add SSL support.

• Tiny, $29 IoT gateway SBC packs in WiFi and dual LAN ports
  FriendlyElec’s open-spec, 60 x 55.5mm “NanoPi R1” SBC runs mainline Linux on a quad -A7 Allwinner H3 and offers GbE and Fast Ethernet ports, WiFi/BT, 3x USB ports, and a standard metal case with antenna. FriendlyElec has launched a hacker board aimed at low-cost IoT gateway duty. The open-spec, Linux-driven NanoPi R1 combines 10/100 and […]

• Install Any Oracle Java (JDK) Version In Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint Or Fedora With install-java.sh
  "install-java.sh" is a Bash script for installing and setting up any Oracle Java Development Kit (JDK) version that works on Debian, Ubuntu and Fedora. Using it, you can install Oracle Java 11, any Oracle Java 8 version, as well as its demos and JCE policy, and Oracle Java versions that are now only available to Oracle Customers through My Oracle Support (requires support login).

• GNOME 3.31.91 Beta Released, Cisco's Duo Security Launching a Beta of Its CRXcavator Tool to Find Risky Chrome Extensions, Fedora 30 Now Has Flicker Free Boot, Qt Creator 4.9 Beta Now Available and Fo
  News briefs for February 21, 2019.

• How to Install MySQL on Ubuntu 18.04
  In this tutorial, we will show you how to install and improve the security of MySQL on Ubuntu 18.04. MySQL is one of the most popular and widely-used open-source relational database management systems. It is used for building web applications such as WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and Magento, and is an important part of the LAMP/LEMP open-source web application software stacks. At the moment of writing this tutorial, the latest supported version from the official Ubuntu package repository is MySQL 5.7.

• ST announces Cortex-A7/M4 hybrid SoC and OpenSTLinux distro
  ST unveiled a Linux-driven “STM32MP1” SoC, which is its first Cortex-A chip and the first to run Linux. The STM32MP1 combines dual -A7 cores with a Cortex-M4 and will be available with several RPi compatible dev boards. STMicroelectronics announced its first Cortex-A SoC and first Linux- and Android-driven processor. The STM32MP1 SoC intends to ease [[he]#8230[/he]]

• Japan's Hayabusa 2 Successfully Touches Down On Ryugu Asteroid, Fires Bullet Into Its Surface
  Japan's Hayabusa 2 spacecraft has successfully touched down on the asteroid Ryugu at around 11:30 GMT on Thursday. "Data from the probe showed changes in speed and direction, indicating it had reached the asteroid's surface, according to officials from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)," reports The Guardian. From the report: The probe was due to fire a bullet at the Ryugu asteroid, to stir up surface matter, which it will then collect for analysis back on Earth. The asteroid is thought to contain relatively large amounts of organic matter and water from some 4.6 billion years ago when the solar system was born. The complicated procedure took less time than expected and appeared to go without a hitch, said Hayabusa 2 mission manager Makoto Yoshikawa. The spacecraft is seeking to gather 10g of the dislodged debris with an instrument named the Sampler Horn that hangs from its underbelly. Whatever material is collected by the spacecraft will be stored onboard until Hayabusa 2 reaches its landing site in Woomera, South Australia, in 2020 after a journey of more than three billion miles. UPDATE: JAXA says it successfully fired a "bullet" into Ryugu, collecting the disturbed material. "JAXA scientists had expected to find a powdery surface on Ryugu, but tests showed that the asteroid is covered in larger gravel," reports CNN. "As a result the team had to carry out a simulation to test whether the projectile would be capable of disturbing enough material to be collected by [the Sampler Horn]. The team is planning a total of three sampling events over the next few weeks."
          
  
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• Researchers Make Coldest Quantum Gas of Molecules
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Phys.Org: JILA researchers have made a long-lived, record-cold gas of molecules that follow the wave patterns of quantum mechanics instead of the strictly particle nature of ordinary classical physics. The creation of this gas boosts the odds for advances in fields such as designer chemistry and quantum computing. As featured on the cover of the Feb. 22 issue of Science, the team produced a gas of potassium-rubidium (KRb) molecules at temperatures as low as 50 nanokelvin (nK). That's 50 billionths of a Kelvin, or just a smidge above absolute zero, the lowest theoretically possible temperature. The molecules are in the lowest-possible energy states, making up what is known as a degenerate Fermi gas.   In a quantum gas, all of the molecules' properties are restricted to specific values, or quantized, like rungs on a ladder or notes on a musical scale. Chilling the gas to the lowest temperatures gives researchers maximum control over the molecules. The two atoms involved are in different classes: Potassium is a fermion (with an odd number of subatomic components called protons and neutrons) and rubidium is a boson (with an even number of subatomic components). The resulting molecules have a Fermi character. Before now, the coldest two-atom molecules were produced in maximum numbers of tens of thousands and at temperatures no lower than a few hundred nanoKelvin. JILA's latest gas temperature record is much lower than (about one-third of) the level where quantum effects start to take over from classical effects, and the molecules last for a few seconds -- remarkable longevity. These new ultra-low temperatures will enable researchers to compare chemical reactions in quantum versus classical environments and study how electric fields affect the polar interactions, since these newly created molecules have a positive electric charge at the rubidium atom and a negative charge at the potassium atom. Some practical benefits could include new chemical processes, new methods for quantum computing using charged molecules as quantum bits, and new precision measurement tools such as molecular clocks.
          
  
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• Frontier Demands $4,300 Cancellation Fee Despite Horribly Slow Internet
  Frontier Communications reportedly charged a cancellation fee of $4,302.17 to the operator of a one-person business in Wisconsin, even though she switched to a different Internet provider because Frontier's service was frequently unusable. From the report: Candace Lestina runs the Pardeeville Area Shopper, a weekly newspaper and family business that she took over when her mother retired. Before retiring, her mother had entered a three-year contract with Frontier to provide Internet service to the one-room office on North Main Street in Pardeeville. Six months into the contract, Candace Lestina decided to switch to the newly available Charter offering "for better service and a cheaper bill," according to a story yesterday by News 3 Now in Wisconsin. The Frontier Internet service "was dropping all the time," Lestina told the news station. This was a big problem for Lestina, who runs the paper on her own in Pardeeville, a town of about 2,000 people. "I actually am everything. I make the paper, I distribute the paper," she said. Because of Frontier's bad service, "I would have times where I need to send my paper -- I have very strict deadlines with my printer -- and my Internet's out."   Lestina figured she'd have to pay a cancellation fee when she switched to Charter's faster cable Internet but nothing near the $4,300 that Frontier later sent her a bill for, the News 3 Now report said. Charter offered to pay $500 toward the early termination penalty, but the fee is still so large that it could "put her out of business," the news report said. [...] Lestina said the early termination fee wasn't fully spelled out in her contract. "Nothing is ever described of what those cancellation fees actually are, which is that you will pay your entire bill for the rest of the contract," she said. Lestina said she pleaded her case to Frontier representatives, without success, even though Frontier had failed to provide a consistent Internet connection. "They did not really care that I was having such severe problems with the service. That does not bother them," she said. Instead of waiving or reducing the cancellation fee, Frontier threatened to send the matter to a collections agency, Lestina said.
          
  
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• NVIDIA Turing-Based GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Launched At $279
  MojoKid writes: NVIDIA has launched yet another graphics card today based on the company's new Turing GPU. This latest GPU, however, doesn't support NVIDIA's RTX ray-tracing technology or its DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) image quality tech. The new GeForce GTX 1660 Ti does, however, bring with it all of the other GPU architecture improvements NVIDIA Turing offers. The new TU116 GPU on board the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti supports concurrent integer and floating point instructions (rather than serializing integer and FP instructions), and it also has a redesigned cache structure with double the amount of L2 cache versus their predecessors, while its L1 cache has been outfitted with a wider memory bus that ultimately doubles the bandwidth. NVIDIA's TU116 has 1,536 active CUDA cores, which is a decent uptick from the GTX 1060, but less than the current gen RTX 2060. Cards will also come equipped with 6GB of GDDR6 memory at 12 Gbps for 288GB/s of bandwidth. Performance-wise, the new GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is typically slightly faster than a previous gen GeFore GTX 1070, and much faster than a GTX 1060. Cards should be available at retail in the next few days, starting at $279.
          
  
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• Microsoft Workers' Letter Demands Company Drop $479 Million HoloLens Military Contract
  A group of Microsoft workers have addressed top executives in a letter demanding the company drop a controversial contract with the U.S. army. The Verge reports: The workers object to the company taking a $479 million contract last year to supply tech for the military's Integrated Visual Augmentation System, or IVAS. Under the project, Microsoft, the maker of the HoloLens augmented reality headset, could eventually provide more than 100,000 headsets designed for combat and training in the military. The Army has described the project as a way to "increase lethality by enhancing the ability to detect, decide and engage before the enemy." "We are alarmed that Microsoft is working to provide weapons technology to the US Military, helping one country's government 'increase lethality' using tools we built," the workers write in the letter, addressed to CEO Satya Nadella and president Brad Smith. "We did not sign up to develop weapons, and we demand a say in how our work is used."   The letter, which organizers say included dozens of employee signatures at publication time, argues Microsoft has "crossed the line into weapons development" with the contract. "Intent to harm is not an acceptable use of our technology," it reads. The workers are demanding the company cancel the contract, stop developing any weapons technology, create a public policy committing to not build weapons technology, and appoint an external ethics review board to enforce the policy. While the letter notes the company has an AI ethics review process called Aether, the workers say it is "not robust enough to prevent weapons development, as the IVAS contract demonstrates." "As employees and shareholders we do not want to become war profiteers," the letter sent today concludes. "To that end, we believe that Microsoft must stop in its activities to empower the U.S. Army's ability to cause harm and violence."
          
  
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• Instagram Code Reveals Public 'Collections' Feature To Take On Pinterest
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Instagram is threatening to attack Pinterest just as it files to go public the same way the Facebook-owned app did to Snapchat. Code buried in Instagram for Android shows the company has prototyped an option to create public "Collections" to which multiple users can contribute. Instagram launched private Collections two years ago to let you Save and organize your favorite feed posts. But by allowing users to make Collections public, Instagram would become a direct competitor to Pinterest. Instagram public Collections could spark a new medium of content curation. People could use the feature to bundle together their favorite memes, travel destinations, fashion items, or art. That could cut down on unconsented content stealing that's caused backlash against meme "curators" like F*ckJerry by giving an alternative to screenshotting and reposting other people's stuff. Instead of just representing yourself with your own content, you could express your identity through the things you love -- even if you didn't photograph them yourself.   The "Make Collection Public" option was discovered by frequent TechCrunch tipster and reverse engineering specialist Jane Manchun Wong. It's not available to the public, but from the Instagram for Android code, she was able to generate a screenshot of the prototype. It shows the ability to toggle on public visibility for a Collection, and tag contributors who can also add to the Collection. Previously, Collections was always a private, solo feature for organizing your bookmarks gathered through the Instagaram Save feature Instagram launched in late 2016. Currently there's nothing in the Instagram code about users being able to follow each other's Collections, but that would seem like a logical and powerful next step.
          
  
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• Once Hailed As Unhackable, Blockchains Are Now Getting Hacked
  schwit1 shares a report from MIT Technology Review: Early last month, the security team at Coinbase noticed something strange going on in Ethereum Classic, one of the cryptocurrencies people can buy and sell using Coinbase's popular exchange platform. Its blockchain, the history of all its transactions, was under attack. An attacker had somehow gained control of more than half of the network's computing power and was using it to rewrite the transaction history. That made it possible to spend the same cryptocurrency more than once -- known as "double spends." The attacker was spotted pulling this off to the tune of $1.1 million. Coinbase claims that no currency was actually stolen from any of its accounts. But a second popular exchange, Gate.io, has admitted it wasn't so lucky, losing around $200,000 to the attacker (who, strangely, returned half of it days later).   Just a year ago, this nightmare scenario was mostly theoretical. But the so-called 51% attack against Ethereum Classic was just the latest in a series of recent attacks on blockchains that have heightened the stakes for the nascent industry. [...] In short, while blockchain technology has been long touted for its security, under certain conditions it can be quite vulnerable. Sometimes shoddy execution can be blamed, or unintentional software bugs. Other times it's more of a gray area -- the complicated result of interactions between the code, the economics of the blockchain, and human greed. That's been known in theory since the technology's beginning. Now that so many blockchains are out in the world, we are learning what it actually means -- often the hard way.
          
  
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• YouTube Is Heading For Its Cambridge Analytica Moment
  Earlier this week, Disney, Nestle and others pulled its advertising spending from YouTube after a blogger detailed how comments on Google's video site were being used to facilitate a "soft-core pedophilia ring." Some of the videos involved ran next to ads placed by Disney and Nestle. With the company facing similar problems over the years, often being "caught in a game of whack-a-mole to fix them," Matt Rosoff from CNBC writes that it's only a matter of time until YouTube faces a scandal that actually alienates users, as happened with Facebook in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. From the report: To be fair, YouTube has taken concrete steps to fix some problems. A couple of years ago, major news events were targets for scammers to post misleading videos about them, like videos claiming shootings such as the one in Parkland, Florida, were staged by crisis actors. In January, the company said it would stop recommending such videos, effectively burying them. It also favors "authoritative" sources in search results around major news events, like mainstream media organizations. And YouTube is not alone in struggling to fight inappropriate content that users upload to its platform. The problem isn't really about YouTube, Facebook or any single company. The problem is the entire business model around user-generated content, and the whack-a-mole game of trying to stay one step ahead of people who abuse it.   [T]ech platforms that rely on user-generated content are protected by the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which says platform providers cannot be held liable for material users post on them. It made sense at the time -- the internet was young, and forcing start-ups to monitor their comments sections (remember comments sections?) would have exploded their expenses and stopped growth before it started. Even now, when some of these companies are worth hundreds of billions of dollars, holding them liable for user-generated content would blow up these companies' business models. They'd disappear, reduce services or have to charge fees for them. Voters might not be happy if Facebook went out of business or they suddenly had to start paying $20 a month to use YouTube. Similarly, advertiser boycotts tend to be short-lived -- advertisers go where they get the best return on their investment, and as long as billions of people keep watching YouTube videos, they'll keep advertising on the platform. So the only way things will change is if users get turned off so badly that they tune out. Following Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal, people deleted their accounts, Facebook's growth largely stalled in the U.S., and more young users have abandoned the platform. "YouTube has so far skated free of any similar scandals. But people are paying closer attention than ever before, and it's only a matter of time before the big scandal that actually starts driving users away," writes Rosoff.
          
  
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• Apple To Close Retail Stores In the Patent Troll-Favored Eastern District of Texas
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Apple has confirmed its plans to close retail stores in the Eastern District of Texas -- a move that will allow the company to better protect itself from patent infringement lawsuits, according to Apple news sites 9to5Mac and MacRumors which broke the news of the stores' closures. Apple says that the impacted retail employees will be offered new jobs with the company as a result of these changes. The company will shut down its Apple Willow Bend store in Plano, Texas as well as its Apple Stonebriar store in Frisco, Texas, MacRumors reported, and Apple confirmed. These stores will permanently close up shop on Friday, April 12. Customers in the region will instead be served by a new Apple store located at the Galleria Dallas Shopping Mall, which is expected to open April 13. "The Eastern District of Texas had become a popular place for patent trolls to file their lawsuits, though a more recent Supreme Court ruling has attempted to crack down on the practice," the report adds. "The court ruled that patent holders could no longer choose where to file." One of the most infamous patent holding firms is VirnetX, which has won several big patent cases against Apple in recent years. A spokesperson for Apple confirmed the stores' closures, but wouldn't comment on the company's reasoning: "We're making a major investment in our stores in Texas, including significant upgrades to NorthPark Center, Southlake and Knox Street. With a new Dallas store coming to the Dallas Galleria this April, we've made the decision to consolidate stores and close Apple Stonebriar and Apple Willow Bend. All employees from those stores will be offered positions at the new Dallas store or other Apple locations."
          
  
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• A Philosopher Argues That an AI Can't Be an Artist
  Sean Dorrance Kelly, a philosophy professor at Harvard, writes for MIT Technology Review: Human creative achievement, because of the way it is socially embedded, will not succumb to advances in artificial intelligence. To say otherwise is to misunderstand both what human beings are and what our creativity amounts to. This claim is not absolute: it depends on the norms that we allow to govern our culture and our expectations of technology. Human beings have, in the past, attributed great power and genius even to lifeless totems. It is entirely possible that we will come to treat artificially intelligent machines as so vastly superior to us that we will naturally attribute creativity to them. Should that happen, it will not be because machines have outstripped us. It will be because we will have denigrated ourselves.   [...] My argument is not that the creator's responsiveness to social necessity must be conscious for the work to meet the standards of genius. I am arguing instead that we must be able to interpret the work as responding that way. It would be a mistake to interpret a machine's composition as part of such a vision of the world. The argument for this is simple. Claims like Kurzweil's that machines can reach human-level intelligence assume that to have a human mind is just to have a human brain that follows some set of computational algorithms -- a view called computationalism. But though algorithms can have moral implications, they are not themselves moral agents. We can't count the monkey at a typewriter who accidentally types out Othello as a great creative playwright. If there is greatness in the product, it is only an accident. We may be able to see a machine's product as great, but if we know that the output is merely the result of some arbitrary act or algorithmic formalism, we cannot accept it as the expression of a vision for human good.
          
  
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• 'Netflix Is the Most Intoxicating Portal To Planet Earth'
  Instead of trying to sell American ideas to a foreign audience, it's aiming to sell international ideas to a global audience. From an op-ed: In 2016, the company expanded to 190 countries, and last year, for the first time, a majority of its subscribers and most of its revenue came from outside the United States. To serve this audience, Netflix now commissions and licenses hundreds of shows meant to echo life in every one of its markets and, in some cases, to blend languages and sensibilities across its markets. In the process, Netflix has discovered something startling: Despite a supposed surge in nationalism across the globe, many people like to watch movies and TV shows from other countries. "What we're learning is that people have very diverse and eclectic tastes, and if you provide them with the world's stories, they will be really adventurous, and they will find something unexpected," Cindy Holland, Netflix's vice president for original content, told me.   The strategy may sound familiar; Hollywood and Silicon Valley have long pursued expansion internationally. But Netflix's strategy is fundamentally different. Instead of trying to sell American ideas to a foreign audience, it's aiming to sell international ideas to a global audience. A list of Netflix's most watched and most culturally significant recent productions looks like a Model United Nations: Besides Ms. Kondo's show, there's the comedian Hannah Gadsby's "Nanette" from Australia; from Britain, "Sex Education" and "You"; "Elite" from Spain; "The Protector" from Turkey; and "Baby" from Italy. I'll admit there's something credulous and naive embedded in my narrative so far. Let me get this straight, you're thinking: A tech company wants to bring the world closer together? As social networks help foster misinformation and populist fervor across the globe, you're right to be skeptical. But there is a crucial difference between Netflix and other tech giants: Netflix makes money from subscriptions, not advertising.
          
  
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• Linus Torvalds on Why ARM Won't Win the Server Space
  Linus Torvalds: I can pretty much guarantee that as long as everybody does cross-development, the platform won't be all that stable. Or successful. Some people think that "the cloud" means that the instruction set doesn't matter. Develop at home, deploy in the cloud. That's bullshit. If you develop on x86, then you're going to want to deploy on x86, because you'll be able to run what you test "at home" (and by "at home" I don't mean literally in your home, but in your work environment). Which means that you'll happily pay a bit more for x86 cloud hosting, simply because it matches what you can test on your own local setup, and the errors you get will translate better. This is true even if what you mostly do is something ostensibly cross-platform like just run perl scripts or whatever. Simply because you'll want to have as similar an environment as possible.   Which in turn means that cloud providers will end up making more money from their x86 side, which means that they'll prioritize it, and any ARM offerings will be secondary and probably relegated to the mindless dregs (maybe front-end, maybe just static html, that kind of stuff). Guys, do you really not understand why x86 took over the server market? It wasn't just all price. It was literally this "develop at home" issue. Thousands of small companies ended up having random small internal workloads where it was easy to just get a random whitebox PC and run some silly small thing on it yourself. Then as the workload expanded, it became a "real server". And then once that thing expanded, suddenly it made a whole lot of sense to let somebody else manage the hardware and hosting, and the cloud took over. Do you really not understand? This isn't rocket science. This isn't some made up story. This is literally what happened, and what killed all the RISC vendors, and made x86 be the undisputed king of the hill of servers, to the point where everybody else is just a rounding error. Something that sounded entirely fictional a couple of decades ago. Without a development platform, ARM in the server space is never going to make it. Trying to sell a 64-bit "hyperscaling" model is idiotic, when you don't have customers and you don't have workloads because you never sold the small cheap box that got the whole market started in the first place.
          
  
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• Norwich's Fortnite Live Festival Was a Complete Disaster
  An anonymous reader shares a report: A festival designed to recreate Fortnite on the outskirts of Norwich has, somewhat predictably, not lived up to expectations. Event organisers flogged 2500 tickets to kids and parents. Entry cost upwards of $15 and unlimited access wristbands a further $26. In return, families got what amounted to a few fairground attractions. Photos from the event show a climbing wall for three people, archery for four people, and four go-karts. An attraction dubbed a "cave experience" was a lorry trailer with tarpaulin over it. An indoors area where you could play actual Fortnite was probably the best thing there -- although it cost money to access and you had to queue to do so. So much for free-to-play. And all of that was if you could actually get into the event to start with. Hundreds of people were left queuing for hours due to staff shortages.
          
  
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• Inside Elizabeth Holmes's Chilling Final Months at Theranos
  In the final months of Theranos, before the blood testing start-up was debunked and its founders charged with fraud, then-CEO Elizabeth Holmes brought a puppy, who she insisted was a wolf to others, with a penchant for peeing into the mix, according to Vanity Fair, which has detailed the chaos that ensued in the waning days of the startup, once valued at $9 billion. The 35-year-old Stanford University dropout has also met with filmmakers who she hopes would make a documentary about her "real story," the outlet reported. She also "desperately wants to write a book." An excerpt from the story: Holmes brushed it off when the scientists protested that the dog hair could contaminate samples. But there was another problem with Balto (name of the dog), too. He wasn't potty-trained. Accustomed to the undomesticated life, Balto frequently urinated and defecated at will throughout Theranos headquarters. While Holmes held board meetings, Balto could be found in the corner of the room relieving himself while a frenzied assistant was left to clean up the mess. [...]   By late 2017, however, Holmes had begun to slightly rein in the spending. She agreed to give up her private-jet travel (not a good look) and instead downgraded to first class on commercial airlines. But given that she was flying all over the world trying to obtain more funding for Theranos, she was spending tens of thousands of dollars a month on travel. Theranos was also still paying for her mansion in Los Altos, and her team of personal assistants and drivers, who would become regular dog walkers for Balto. But there were few places she had wasted so much money as the design and monthly cost of the company's main headquarters, which employees simply referred to as "1701," for its street address along Page Mill Road in Palo Alto. 1701, according to two former executives, cost $1 million a month to rent. Holmes had also spent $100,000 on a single conference table. Elsewhere in the building, Holmes had asked for another circular conference room that the former employees said "looked like the war room from Dr. Strangelove," replete with curved glass windows, and screens that would come out of the ceiling so everyone in the room could see a presentation without having to turn their heads.
          
  
  Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  

• Lessons From Six Software Rewrite Stories
  A new take on the age-old question: Should you rewrite your application from scratch, or is that "the single worst strategic mistake that any software company can make"? Turns out there are more than two options for dealing with a mature codebase. Herb Caudill: Almost two decades ago, Joel Spolsky excoriated Netscape for rewriting their codebase in his landmark essay Things You Should Never Do . He concluded that a functioning application should never, ever be rewritten from the ground up. His argument turned on two points: The crufty-looking parts of the application's codebase often embed hard-earned knowledge about corner cases and weird bugs. A rewrite is a lengthy undertaking that keeps you from improving on your existing product, during which time the competition is gaining on you.   For many, Joel's conclusion became an article of faith; I know it had a big effect on my thinking at the time. In the following years, I read a few contrarian takes arguing that, under certain circumstances, it made a lot of sense to rewrite from scratch. For example: Sometimes the legacy codebase really is messed up beyond repair, such that even simple changes require a cascade of changes to other parts of the code. The original technology choices might be preventing you from making necessary improvements. Or, the original technology might be obsolete, making it hard (or expensive) to recruit quality developers.   The correct answer, of course, is that it depends a lot on the circumstances. Yes, sometimes it makes more sense to gradually refactor your legacy code. And yes, sometimes it makes sense to throw it all out and start over. But those aren't the only choices. Let's take a quick look at six stories, and see what lessons we can draw.
          
  
  Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  

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• YouTube prevents anti-vaccine channels from running ads
  YouTube is killing anti-vaccine channels' ability to earn from advertisements following a vaccine hesitancy" that clearly describes it as "one of the top ten global health threats of 2019." The platform received a lot flak of after the original report was published, especially since Facebook already started "exploring additional measures" to fight the spread of anti-vaccine disinformation by then. Facebook was under tremendous pressure to squash the rampant spread of anti-vax sentiments in Groups, seeing as it may have contributed to a measles outbreak in the US.
  
  The original report also found that the platform tends to add anti-vaccine videos to the "Up Next" section and to auto-play them right after pro-vaccination content. Due to the fact that pro-vaccination videos aren't as common -- people who've never had measles or any vaccine-preventable illness won't be shooting videos extolling the benefits of vaccination, after all -- YouTube's algorithm lines up anti-vax content instead. The company told TechCrunch
  
  Source: BuzzFeed News
  

• Japanese safety video teaches cats the rules of the road
  As a species, we've done a pretty bang up job making the rest of the planet incredibly dangerous for other animals. Ask any badger and they'll tell you, "humans are the worst." Roadways are particularly treacherous to the rest of the animal kingdom. But a Japanese auto parts and service chain, Yellow Hat is doing its part to help some of our four-legged companions on this big blue orb navigate the dangers of the streets.
  
  In a video that according to Yellow Hat has gone to great lengths to share with felines the dangers of the road. While I don't speak Japanese (or cat, but I'm taking classes), I think I have the general gist of what's happening.
  
  
  
  A police cat (probably a captain), lectures three cats about what you shouldn't do (as a cat) on the road. Officer Whiskers (I'm guessing that's the cat's name. If it isn't, it should be) warns the assembled kittens via meows that, "there are many dangers."
  
  The kitty constable then shares important pearls of wisdom like "don't jump out into the street!" which are accompanied by videos of cats behaving badly on and near roadways. Some of these felines are played by people dressed as cats and some are puppets. I know, I'm also disappointed in Yellow Hat for giving cat roles to humans.
  
  According to the fine humans over at Fast Company, Sora News24
  
  Source: Yellow Hat
  

• Virgin Galactic sends its first passenger to the edge of space
  Virgin Galactic sent its first test passenger into sub-space today. The company's chief astronaut instructor Beth Moses accompanied two pilots on a flight 55.85 miles above the Earth, just a few miles below the internationally recognized space boundary, 62 miles. This will likely come as good news to the more than 600 people from 58 countries who have paid or put down deposits for suborbital flights with Virgin Galactic -- some of those passengers have been queuing for as many as 14 years.
  SpaceShipTwo in its natural habitat 🚀 🌎 pic.twitter.com/P5cUiwFg0b
  — Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) February 22, 2019
  Moses and the company's pilots took off just after 11am ET onboard the SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity. Moses, who will train future space tourists, was there to evaluate customer experience and the cabin, actively pushing the boundaries, flying higher and faster with heavier loads to simulate the weight of passengers. Just a few months ago, SpaceShipTwo reached space for the first time. And as Reuters notes, Branson hopes to be the first passenger on SpaceShipTwo's inaugural commercial flight as early as this summer. If the company succeeds, it will offer 90-minute flights at the bargain price of $250,000.
  Our Chief Astronaut Trainer, Beth Moses, experienced zero-g float time as SpaceShipTwo reached apogee today. Three new @virgingalactic Commercial Astronauts. pic.twitter.com/OrVSm1PAvE
  — Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) February 22, 2019
  Via: Reuters
  
  Source: Virgin Galactic
  

• Huawei’s billboard may have just leaked its foldable phone
  Huawei's big reveal at next week's Mobile World Congress may have been scooped by a billboard. An advertisement on display at the event, spotted by Twitter user @gimme2pm, shows a yet-to-be-announced folding smartphone called the Huawei Mate X. Engadget has reached out to Huawei to confirm the advertisement is from Huawei and the product in it is real. We will update this story if we hear back.
  #Huawei #MWC2019 #MWC19 huawei Mate X pic.twitter.com/cUV7POgF6r
  — 红军第十九冠 (@gimme2pm) February 22, 2019
  Even without the billboard apparently outing Huawei's plans, a folding smartphone from the company was expected at MWC 2019. Rumors of the device have been floating around since the start of the year, and Huawei said last October that it planned to release a folding device at some point during 2019. At a meeting with investors last month, Huawei CEO Richard Yu confirmed the company's plans to bring a folding smartphone to the annual event. "We look forward to seeing you in Barcelona in February, where we will launch the world's first 5G smartphone with foldable screen," he said.
  
  Huawei's folding smartphone will be revealed just days after Samsung showed off its first ever folding device, the Galaxy Fold. Folding screens are expected to be the next big trend in smartphones, with companies like LG and Xiaomi also experimenting with the feature. Royole, meanwhile, have already revealed its efforts to the public -- earlier than everyone else.
  
  Source: Gimme2pm
  

• Intel's 5G modems won't be in phones until 2020
  Intel has said that while it will send out sample versions of its 5G modems to its clients this year, the chips won't be in phones before 2020. Apple uses Intel modems in its iPhones, so the timeline suggests we might not see a 5G iPhone until next year, which falls in line with previous reports.
  
  Apple has spoken with Samsung and MediaTek about using their 5G modems in this year's slate of iPhones, according to Reuters, but it's not clear whether those discussions resulted in any concrete agreements. If it sticks with Intel, Apple's initial 5G iPhone may arrive more than a year after some of its rivals start selling 5G-ready phones.
  
  Samsung revealed its first 5G phone this week, and the Galaxy S10 5G will start shipping in the next few months. We'll almost certainly learn about more 5G phones from Mobile World Congressover the next week too.
  
  Source: Reuters
  

• Snapchat is in the middle of an identity crisis
  There was a time a year or so ago when, if a friend wanted to send me a meme or a funny selfie, it would be on Snapchat. But I don't remember the last time that happened; at some point Instagram became our go-to messaging app. And apparently I'm not alone: Snapchat lost as many as 3 million daily users in 2018. Meanwhile, Instagram has grown so fast over the past two years that its Stories feature alone is much bigger than Snapchat, with more than 500 million daily users. This has arguably come at Snapchat's expense. But it's not as if Snap isn't looking to turn things around. The company wants to reinvent itself by trying a bunch of different things, like augmented reality shopping, being more open and teaming up with brands such as Nike on AR workshops.
  Snap Inc.'s struggles have been well-documented. From Snapchat's sluggish Android app to a revolving door of executives, it's easy to see why the app's user base has remained flat since 2017. Its biggest problem right now, though, is that it seems to be having an identity crisis. It's hard to tell what it wants to be: One day Snapchat reveals augmented reality lenses for dogs, the next it adds more hockey highlights to its app.
  
  Snapchat is still making amajor push into short-form original content too, an effort that began with the launch of Discover in 2015. Just last month, it announced a new show called Bringing Up Bhabie, featuring 15-year-old rapper Bhad Bhabie (whose real name is Danielle Bregoli). Bhad Bhabie became an internet celebrity after an appearance on Dr. Phil in 2017, where her family troubles were aired and she dared the taunting audience to "cash me ousside, how 'bout dat?" if they had something to say to her face. Since then, she's been in videos with controversial YouTube star Logan Paul and was nominated for a Billboard Music Award.
  
  
  
  For Snapchat, having a show with Bhad Bhabie means reaching the young audiences it desperately needs, and so far that bet seems to be paying off. Bringing Up Bhabie racked up 10 million viewers in 24 hours during its debut in January, making it the biggest premiere in Snapchat's history. For comparison, E!'s Keeping Up With The Kardashians brings in about 1.5 million viewers per episode, and that's a popular series going into its 16th season.
  
  The viewership numbers from Bringing Up Bhabie bode well for Snap, especially as it continues to invest heavily in original scripted shows. With the launch of Snapchat Originals in 2018, the company plans to roll out a slate of programming that offers one five-minute episode a day for every title it launches, including Bringing Up Bhabie. There are also others like Class of Lies, Co-Ed and Endless Summer, for people who are interested in romance or true crime stories instead of a a 15-year-old rapper.
  
  Of course, those originals are on top of what Snapchat is already doing with shows, such as during an earnings call in February that "30 percent more people" are now watching Snapchat Shows compared to last year. He said a series like Dead Girls Detective Agency, created by Snapchat and NBCUniversal, is reaching 14 million unique viewers on its own.
  
  
  
  Still, if Snapchat hopes to grow its user base in the years to come, original video alone won't be its saving grace. Although Spiegel's hope is that these efforts will help Snap "get back on track and achieve its goal of full-year profitability" in 2019, only time will tell if his strategy will work. Jason Keath, Founder and CEO of SocialFresh (a social media training and analytics firm), told Engadget that at this moment Snapchat is "on the precipice of whether it will survive" as a public company. "[Snapchat] has seen Facebook and Instagram [do what works], but it believes it can go its own path, and that's hurt it," he said.
  
  There are many reasons why Snapchat hasn't caught up to Facebook or Instagram, Keath said, but the lack of public profiles and embeddable content on the web are the main ones to blame for its growth troubles. Another big issue has been the app's janky user interface, particularly on Android, which Snapchat has been vowing to fix for a couple of years now.
  
  "[Snapchat] is the best free R&D department Facebook could have ever asked for."
  
  Then there's Snapchat's dependence on ephemeral posts, though rumors suggest it may soon allow public Stories that don't disappear. If Snapchat were to come up with a way to make Stories last longer or be permanent on someone's account, it could help it better compete with Instagram and other social networks.
  
  "You can never deny Snapchat is a huge innovator when it comes to social platforms," Keath said. "If it had gotten a larger scale [audience] more quickly before it started to hit some of these roadblocks, it might be in a better position." What's helped Snapchat, he added, is that it's managed to hold onto its younger demographics. But Snapchat can't get too comfortable there, because newcomer social media apps like TikTok are increasingly becoming the first choice for millions of teenagers.
  Snap Camera
  Snap Inc.
  
  It's no surprise, then, that Snap is also trying to lure in new users with standalone products that feature what made Snapchat popular in the first place: augmented reality. With the launch of Lens Studio in 2017, Snapchat basically made it easy for anyone to create their own AR filters in a matter of minutes, no coding required. That free-to-use software has been quite a hit: Snapchat says there are now more than 300,000 Lenses created by independent users, and those have been viewed over 35 billion times.
  
  The goal with projects like this, according to Snapchat, is to educate people on augmented reality and make it easy for them to personalize filters or lenses. By using Lens Studio to team up with brands such as Nike on AR workshops, the first of which we saw at NBA All-Star Weekend 2019, Snapchat believes it can reach fresh audiences. Beyond that, Snapchat told Engadget that the partnership with Nike could pave the way for similar augmented reality studios with other brands in the future.
  
  Snap is also focusing on launching standalone products like Snap Camera, a free application that brings Snapchat Lenses to the Mac and Windows desktop. One of the most interesting parts about Snap Camera, which works with video-chatting apps including Google Hangouts and Skype, is that it doesn't require a Snapchat login to use. Snap Camera, the company said, is part of its vision to become more open and expand its AR ecosystem beyond smartphones.
  
  Now the challenge for Snapchat is to connect all these dots, which seem to be part of its master plan to grow and keep competing with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok -- a task that hasn't been easy thus far. Whether doubling down on original shows or becoming more open will actually work for Snapchat -- and Snap Inc. as a whole -- that remains to be seen. Right now, it just doesn't seem as if it has a clear, coherent strategy: It wants to be a social network and, at the same time, a video entertainment platform.
  There's no doubt the company is at a crucial point, and it needs to quickly figure out who is its ideal demographic. Is it teenagers? Is it millennials? Both? "Snapchat is tweens," said Jasmine Sandler, CEO of JS Media (a digital social media marketing agency). "High schoolers are on Instagram." She said Snapchat needs to realize this fast and "create a user experience just for [tweens]." Considering the success of Bringing Up Bhabie, you'd think Snapchat would want to keep going after younger kids.
  
  That said, you can't blame it for working with Nike and Adidas to try to connect with older generations who are into the NBA or sneakers. After all, these are the people more likely to buy whatever Snapchat wants to sell with an AR ad. But there's no more time for Snapchat to waste. Otherwise, as Keath puts it, the company may just end up being "the best free R&D department Facebook could have ever asked for."
  
  Images: Snap Inc./Bhad Bhabie ("Bringing Up Bhabie"); Chesnot via Getty Images (Social media apps); Engadget (Snap/Nike)
  

• Analogue’s mini-Genesis will include an unreleased game from 1994
  If you needed another reason to consider buying Analogue's Mega SG console, you might just have one: the chance to play Hardcore, a 1994 Sega Genesis game that was previewed but never published. After 25 years in the dark, Hardcore will see the light of day, now that Analogue has chosen to bundle the game with its upcoming hardware.
  
  Analogue, the company behind the 2017 Super NT SNES clone, announced plans to release a Sega Genesis clone last fall. The console will simulate Sega Genesis hardware, while adding HD-output and audio that meets today's standards. Now, it's as if they said to themselves, "Why not throw in a spruced-up version of an original Sega Genesis game?" And better yet, one that few ever got to play.
  
  The publisher Strictly Limited planned to bring Hardcore, a run-and-gun or shoot-'em-up game, to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita this year, but now, following Analogue's announcement, it looks like we'll see the game in April, when the Mega SG ships. This isn't the first time Analogue has bundled a never-released game with its hardware -- as Polygon notes, Super NT revived Super Turrican Director's Cut, around this time last year. Considering Analogue's focus on revitalizing the bygone 16-bit era, Hardcore feels like a fitting choice for its latest act of video game necromancy.
  
  Source: Polygon
  

• YouTube is proactively blocking ads on videos prone to predatory comments
  Earlier this week, multiple brands pulled their advertisements from YouTube in response to what one YouTuber called a "soft-core pedophilia ring" being fostered via video comments. In response, YouTube removed hundreds of channels and disabled comments on millions of videos, but it appears the company doesn't have a handle on things just yet — and its latest move has angered some creators.
  
  A tweet from the company last night noted that even if a user's video was "suitable for advertisers," YouTube might still make it so it received "limited or no ads" if the video fostered inappropriate comments. That caused an immediate backlash among YouTubers, given that bad actors could simply trash a video's comment section with the hopes that YouTube would pull ads, costing that creator revenue. Given how online cesspools like 4Chan have banded together in the past to troll others online, it's easy to imagine this being used to attack innocent videos that some simply don't agree with.
  
  Engadget reached out to YouTube and a spokesperson said that the company is proactively limiting ads on videos that it has identified as being particularly at risk for predatory comments. The company also pointed out that this was being done to specific videos, not across entire channels. It would seem this confirms some creators' worries; indeed, some videos are losing monetization before bad comments sections have appeared. YouTube said it's doing so as a precautionary measure, and it seems this won't be the new permanent policy, but that's of little help to those losing money from something that may or may not take place.
  
  On the positive side, it sounds like YouTube is making this determination based on posts that are at risk for these specific types of predatory comments. That means that trolls might not be able to simply wade into a video they disagree with, muck up the comments and have ads removed from a video. Unfortunately, YouTube has yet to issue a clear, declarative statement about the issue and what specifically it's doing, opting instead for a few tweets and brief, somewhat vague statements. Here's hoping that the company gets a handle on the issue quickly and does a better job of communicating with it users.
  
  Source: YouTube (Twitter)
  

• Smart glasses maker North reportedly lays off 150
  North, the makers of the Focals smart glasses, has laid off a portion of its workforce. The company confirmed the layoffs to Engadget but would not specify how many people lost their jobs. quickly cut the price from $999 to $599.99. It's not clear if that price adjustment was a response to slow sales.
  
  Source: The Verge
  

• Here's Bethesda's plan to keep 'Fallout 76' relevant in 2019
  After a few very rough months, Bethesda is ready to show where Fallout 76 is headed next... and it might just inject some needed variety into the online action RPG. The company has published a 2019 roadmap that starts on March 12th with Wild Appalachia, a bundle of features, modes and quests to mark the spring. I'll start out modestly with a quest that opens up brewing and distilling at your home base, but it'll also include a seasonal event (the Fasnacht Parade on March 19th), the high-stakes Survival mode (March 26th), base decoration and player vending (April 9th), the Shear Terror storyline (also April 9th) and an Ever Upwards quest (May 7th) that includes Scouts-style merit badges and a customizable backpack. On May 23rd, a Purveyor vendor will scrap your legendary gear in return for fresher equipment.
  
  The company's strategy for later in the year is vague, but still offers some promise. The Nuclear Winter update due this summer will include a namesake mode that aims to change "the rules of the Wasteland," new raids on Vaults 94 and 96 and a prestige system that lets players above level 50 achieve a Legendary status with new abilities. The fall update, Wastelanders, will be the "biggest and most ambitious update" yet with a new main story line as well as more events, factions and features.
  
  It's too soon to say if this will help Fallout 76 turn a corner and entice people put off by the game's early reputation. The greater variety in gameplay might help address common complaints about a lack of things to do, though. If nothing else, Bethesda appears to be learning a lesson or two Bethesda
  

• Multiple iOS apps are reportedly sharing sensitive data with Facebook
  At least 11 popular apps are reportedly sharing people's sensitive data with Facebook, even if they don't have an account on the social network. The Wall Street Journal found that apps which can help track personal information such as body weight, menstrual cycles and pregnancy are sending such details to Facebook.
  
  The apps that were found to share personal data include Flo Period & Ovulation Tracker, BetterMe: Weight Loss Workouts, Breethe, Realtor.com and Instant Heart Rate: HR Monitor. The report suggests none of these apps had an option for users to prevent them from sharing personal data with Facebook, nor do they necessarily make it clear to people their data is making its way to Facebook's servers. The publication was only able to specifically decipher the types of data that iOS apps send Facebook, but a third-party test determined at least one Android fitness app shares weight and height data too.
  
  Thousands of apps use a Facebook analytics tool called App Events that lets developers track user activity. Developers can set up "custom app events," which can be used for ad targeting. That's how the apps identified in the report are sending data to Facebook. While the data is apparently anonymized in some cases, there are sometimes markers that could let Facebook match some of it to users.
  
  The social network doesn't seem to be directly at fault here. It instructs developers not to share "health, financial information or other categories of sensitive information" with it. The company told the WSJ developers have to make it clear to users what data they're handing Facebook, and that some of the reported information-sharing practices seem to violate its terms.
  
  Facebook said it will force the apps mentioned in the report to stop sharing sensitive data and take action against developers if they don't comply. It also claimed it doesn't use sensitive data captured in custom app events to personalize products like ads and the News Feed, and it automatically deletes some types of intimate data it receives, including social security numbers.
  
  Meanwhile, Apple requires app developers to obtain consent from users before collecting their data and to take measures to stop unauthorized third parties from gaining access to that information. Google's policies state apps have to "disclose the type of parties to which any personal or sensitive user data is shared." The app-makers might also face repercussions under privacy rules like the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation.
  
  Source: The Wall Street Journal
  

• Tune in to our Microsoft MWC liveblog Sunday at 12PM ET!
  MWC doesn't officially begin until Monday, but a few companies are revealing the goods this weekend ahead of the show. Microsoft is one of those, and we'll be there on Sunday (February 24th) to bring you all the news as it's announced in liveblog form. Tune into our live coverage right here at 12PM ET/6PM CET as we find out what CEO Satya Nadella and HoloLens creator and Microsoft technical fellow Alex Kipman have to discuss here in Barcelona. We could see the official introduction of HoloLens 2, or perhaps some Windows Mixed Reality news. But no matter what's on tap, we'll have the details from Spain as they're unveiled on stage. If you want to watch live, head over to Microsoft's event page for the livestream when the time comes.
  

• BMW and Daimler invest $1 billion in their joint mobility services
  German automakers BMW and Daimler AG provided a host of details on their partnerhsip that will that will invest more than $1 billion into mobility services. The companies, which agreed to pool their services last year, plan to invest in handful of programs designed to help simplify and improve transportation in urban areas. The pair have created five joint ventures focused on everything from ride sharing to parking and expect the initiatives will produce around 1,000 new jobs.
  
  The five programs that will be operated by BMV and Daimler AG include Reach Now, Charge Now, Free Now, Park Now and Share now. Reach Now is a service that shows users different ways to get to their destination when traveling, including public transportation, car sharing, and bike rentals. Charge Now will create a massive network of charging stations designed to improve access for electric vehicles. A competitor to Uber and Lyft, Free Now is a ride-hailing app that is already offering services in 17 countries in Europe and Latin America. Park Now lets people plan and pay for parking spots in advance to cut down on time spent driving around looking for open spaces. Finally, Share Now offers shared electric vehicles that serve as an alternative to owning a car.
  
  Most of the ventures under the umbrella of BMV and Daimler are already up and running in some capacity, and the companies claim they already serve more than 60 million customers. Last year, BMV and Daimler decided to operate their mobility services as a 50/50 joint venture to expand their reach and help to future-proof their business models. The automakers won approval from regulators for their plan in December. The initiatives should expand considerably with the new influx of cash as the automakers focus on what the future of transportation might look like.
  
  Source: BMW Group
  

• The best bag and cable organizers
  By Kaitlyn Wells
  
  This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, Wirecutter and Engadget may earn affiliate commission. Read the full bag and cable organizers guide here.
  
  Whether you commute to the office or the coffee shop, you probably need a way to organize the pens, tech accessories, and toiletries you take with you every day. To find the best options to carry what different people might need with them, we spent over a week researching 65 bag organizers and testing 27 of them, and we found seven organizers we liked for their style, durability, and usability.
  
  Some backpacks and purses come with all the pockets and loops you'd need, but others are black holes, swallowing charging cables and tubes of lip balm. For those people (and I count myself among them), the right bag organizer simplifies grabbing accessories while on the go, or moving gear from one bag to another. But everyone has different carrying needs, which is why we have picks to suit a variety of situations: a tech-forward cable organizer that zips closed, a customizable mesh-pouch setup, picks that prioritize toiletries (while making room for tech), and a stylish duo of cosmetic travel pouches made of premium materials—as well as some alternatives where applicable.
  Best for chargers and cables: Incase Nylon Accessory Organizer
  Photo: Michael Hession
  Get this if: You want a sturdy, lightweight, waterproof organizer to corral all of your gadgets and chargers as well as some toiletries or cosmetics in one place.
  
  Why it's great: The Incase Nylon Accessory Organizer has plenty of room for everyday gear; it zips closed, so items won't get lost or fall out; and it's water-repellent.
  
  The Incase bag is roughly the size and shape of a large paperback, and like a book it opens flat from a spine. It's 2 inches thick, which is among the slimmest we found for this type of bag, but it still has enough space to stash most of what we carried for a day. It has two medium-sized loops that can hold two 5 W USB power adapters or multiple pens. It has an external zip pocket with a cable-sized hole leading to the inside. We love this feature because it's great for charging a phone without removing the external battery pack from the main compartment. It also has a large, padded pocket lined in faux fur that won't scratch delicate phone screens. The bag's inside flaps have a mesh pocket that is big enough to store a MacBook power adapter (with the cord in a different pocket), five more mesh or solid pockets of various sizes, a small zip pocket ideal for SD cards, a pen loop, and three small elastic loops that are the right size for earbuds.
  
  The Incase Accessory Organizer has a loop or pocket for everything you need to carry for a day. Photo: Michael Hession
  With all of the organization slots, your gear stays neatly in place, even if you drop your bag. None of the items got tangled or moved about when we shook and flipped this Incase bag around. This wasn't the largest bag we looked at, due to its slim design, but it will hold most of what you need for the course of a day.
  
  The combination of mesh and opaque pockets are a good match for carrying a variety of objects. Photo: Michael Hession
  This bag is a poly-nylon blend, so it's durable. In our tests, some bags, like one from Bagsmart, ended up scuffed and discolored from rubbing against the cables we loaded into the bags—but the Incase stayed pristine. The Incase was one of two cable-organizer bags we tested for our 2019 update that successfully repelled water—not just from the exterior material, but also along the piping, which is where other cases often failed and liquid soaked through, potentially damaging your important gear.
  
  Flaws but not dealbreakers: The Incase cable organizer is a soft-shell bag, so its contents can distort the bag's shape when full. But the bag's edges remain rigid—so the seams don't pucker—it's contents don't fall out, and zipping and unzipping the bag is still easy.
  
  Sizes: 9½ by 6 by 2 inches
  
  Colors: mulberry, olive
  Also consider: Aer Cable Kit
  Photo: Sarah Kobos
  Get this if: You want to keep smaller tech gear organized while having the freedom to stash power adapters, unruly cables, and cosmetics in an open compartment.
  
  Why we like it: The Aer Cable Kit has dual padded compartments that hold more accessories than similar designs like the Incase Nylon Accessory Organizer or Bagsmart tech bags, it's also tough, and it repels water.
  
  This bag has plenty of loops and pockets for packing delicate gear, as well as a large open compartment for bulky items. One side opens flat, like the Incase Nylon Accessory Organizer, and has six elastic loops; five open pockets that can hold a mobile phone or Bluetooth earbuds case; two zip pockets for stashing small cables, flash drives, and a contacts case; and a pen loop in the spine.
  
  The Aer Cable Kit has one side that's ideal for storing smaller cables, pens, and tech gear. Photo: Sarah Kobos
  The other side resembles a wide zip pouch side and has two internal pockets for smaller items and an open space that's big enough for a charging brick, small notepad, cosmetics, or travel lotions. There's an exterior pocket for storing last-minute additions, like a train ticket or loose change for that coworking-space vending machine.
  
  The variety of elastic loops, mesh pockets, and opaque pockets make it easier to find the ideal spot for all of your gear. Photo: Sarah Kobos
  The dual design holds all of your commuting essentials, even more than the Incase, but this bag isn't bulky. It's 9 by 6½ by 2½ inches, compared with Incase's 9½ by 6 by 2 inches—still slim enough to grip with one hand even when full.
  
  The open compartment offers additional space space for stashing bulky charging bricks or cosmetics. Photo: Sarah Kobos
  The Aer Cable Kit is wrapped in tightly woven ballistic nylon, which protects against scratches and tears better than the fabric on most bags. We scraped cable plugs and ink pens against the fabric and couldn't make a dent. The shell is water-resistant and the zippers are reinforced with nylon piping so leaks won't damage expensive gear.
  
  Where it falls short: The Aer's ballistic nylon cover makes it durable, but not as attractive as the Incase's soft nylon shell or Cuyana's leather. It's also missing microfleece lining in the ripstop nylon pockets, which we find useful for protecting delicate phone screens. It's a soft-shell bag, so it may distort when full of gear—but the seams are strong and didn't break in our tests.
  
  Size: 9 by 6½ by 2½ inches
  
  Color: black
  Most customizable: The Container Store Black Micro Mesh Pouches
  Photo: Michael Hession
  For more colors, visit containerstore.com.
  
  Get this if: You prefer to have different bags for different kinds of gear—phone cables, cosmetics, pens and notepads—so you can grab only what you're going to need.
  
  Why it's great: The Container Store Micro Mesh Pouches are a no-frills solution for keeping your cables and toiletries organized while being able to clearly see what's inside. These pouches are made of a finer mesh than other mesh bags we tested, so smaller items, such as pens and hairpins, won't fall through the holes. The material also has some give, so you can stuff the bag without fear of splitting a seam. And we found the zipper to be the smoothest among those of all the pouches we tested.
  
  Mesh bags make it easy to identify their contents. Photo: Michael Hession
  These pouches are great for mixing colors and sizes to match your organizational needs. They come in three sizes and four colors; we recommend the two smaller bags because they're easier to carry and load into a backpack or tote bag. We also like assigning each bag's contents a different color, so it's easier to grab the right items in an instant. That way you can have one bag for gadgets and accessories you take when flying, say, and another for the makeup you bring to work for touch-ups, and you can easily know which one to grab on the way out the door. (Jada Yuan, writer of The 52 Places Traveler at The New York Times, parent company of Wirecutter, also uses these bags.)
  
  Flaws but not dealbreakers: Because the bags are covered in tiny holes, liquids will spill in and out of them, and they're not ideal if you want complete privacy for your toiletry items. As a workaround, we recommend storing your toiletries in a black micro-mesh bag because the darker color will mask the bag's contents better than the lighter ones.
  
  Sizes: 7¾ by 4 inches; 7½ by 3 by 5 inches; or 14¼ by 10½ inches (but we think this bag is too big for most people)
  
  Colors: aqua, black, pink, or silver
  Also consider: Vaultz Mesh Storage Bags
  Photo: Michael Hession
  Get this if: You like the idea of organizing your stuff into a collection of mesh bags, but you don't want to spend a lot—and you don't tend to carry very, very small items.
  
  Why we like it: Wirecutter senior editor Dan Frakes likes the Vaultz Cord Storage Bags as modular storage at a fraction of the cost of other bags. The mesh bags are sold in a pack of four for just $8 at the time of writing, while The Container Store pick starts at $5 each. These zip pouches are lighter and more pliant than any other bag we tested, and can scrunch into a tight ball when not in use and still rebound to their original shape. Each pack comes in a combination of four different sizes and colors. This makes it easy to organize your gear and grab the right pouch from your travel bag in an instant. You can separate daily tech and toiletry supplies into two bags, keep a driving kit in your car for phone mounts, pack charging cables and adapters in another, and save the last one for important documents when you're traveling out of town.
  
  A multipack of different colors lets you easily assign different gear to each bag. Photo: Michael Hession
  Where it falls short: These mesh bags aren't great for storing smaller items (such as earbuds and pens) because it's easier for them to get caught in the holes or fall out. And because the bags are made of mesh they're not waterproof.
  
  Sizes: 9 by 9¼ inches; 5½ by 9 inches; 5 by 8 inches; 5 by 7 inches
  
  Colors: black, red, orange, and yellow; or mint, pink, purple, and blue (for $6 more)
  Best for toiletries (and tech): Dsptch Dopp Kit
  Photo: Michael Hession
  For more colors, visit dsptch.com.
  
  Get this if: You want a not-too-big bag that can keep both toiletries and cables in their place—and you need it to be waterproof.
  
  Why it's great: We found that traditional cable organizers, like our Incase pick, aren't ideal for carrying toiletries around because they're designed for holding gadgets rather than tubes of lotion. (To some of us, it just feels weird fitting moisturizer and lip balm in elastic loops designed for cords.) The Dsptch Dopp Ki is better suited for carrying both cables and lotions because the main compartment has three wide elastic loops that comfortably fit bulky toiletries (like sunscreen) and tech accessories (like charging bricks) beside each other. It also has plenty of room to stash all of the gear used in our tests. And it's about half the size of the Herschel Supply Co. Chapter Travel Kit that we tested, so it's easier to fit into a backpack or tote.
  
  The Dsptch toiletry bag is covered in ballistic nylon, so it's tough and resists scratches and scrapes more than most bags we tested. The Dsptch bag's material is also completely waterproof, making it one of only five bags (and the only dedicated toiletry bag) we tested that didn't leak.
  
  The Dsptch toiletry bag has large elastic loops, equally suited to bulky toiletries or chargers. Photo: Michael Hession
  This bag also has two unique storage features. The first is a two-way pocket that's accessible from the outside or inside the main compartment. So important items, like an ID card or cash, are easier to reach from the outside when in a rush. The bag also comes with a removable, padded valet tray that snaps into the secondary compartment. You'll probably want to store delicate items (like a dress watch) in this slimmer compartment, away from bulky tech accessories.
  
  The removable valet tray gives you a nice platform to store fragile items, but it takes up a lot of space. Photo: Michael Hession
  Flaws but not dealbreakers: The Dopp Kit's main compartment unzips down only an inch on the sides, so it's harder to peer into and harder for larger hands to dig inside the bag. The black version of this bag's black interior compounds the issue, because it's very dark inside. (If you have limited vision, we recommend purchasing a bag with a lighter interior, such as the grey, grey speckled twill, moss, or navy, which have matching linings.)
  
  The side compartment's padded valet tray takes up valuable space and we had trouble quickly grabbing an item from the section when the tray is in place without fully unzipping the bag. It's a minor annoyance—we prefer keeping the valet in the bathroom or on a nightstand to fully take advantage of the bag's storage space.
  
  Sizes: 9 by 4 by 4 inches; valet tray is 7 by 3 inches
  
  Colors: black, black camo, grey, navy, moss, grey speckled twill, and charcoal speckled twill
  Also consider: Osprey UltraLight Roll Organizer
  Photo: Michael Hession
  Get this if: You want a bag that packs slim and lets you see most of your stuff at a glance, but you don't need it to be waterproof, and you don't mind unrolling the whole bag to remove a single item.
  
  Why we like it: The Osprey UltraLight Roll Organizer is what Wirecutter deputy editor Michael Zhao uses to organize his cables and gear. Its dimensions (6 by 3 by 9 inches) make it the slimmest toiletry bag we tested, but it still packs plenty of storage space and organization features. Its combination of full-width, slimmer mesh compartments—great for cables, adapters, and pens—and a deeper pocket for accommodating bulkier chargers, batteries, and toiletries give you a lot of packing flexibility. You can see almost everything inside when the bag is fully opened and it folds into thirds like a letter for packing away.
  
  The Osprey's tri-fold design lets you pack a lot of gear in a limited space, though unrolling the whole pack to get out a single item can be awkward. Photo: Michael Hession
  The bag is also easier to spot-clean than other toiletry bags we tested. Both sides are made of ripstop nylon, which is slicker than canvas or ballistic-nylon bathroom bags, so it's painless to wipe off lotions and liquid makeup foundation spills.
  
  The Osprey's tri-fold design lets you pack a lot of gear in a limited space, though unrolling the whole pack to get out a single item can be awkward. Photo: Michael Hession
  Where it falls short: In our tests, we found the Osprey cumbersome to both unbuckle and unroll to access a particular item. It's not as intuitive to use as other picks, which you can just unzip. On the other hand, it has the benefit of letting you see what's in each pocket at a glance without having to rummage through any dark compartments.
  
  This toiletry bag also isn't waterproof (the Dsptch Dopp Kit was the only truly waterproof toiletry bag we looked at). And a very, very small number of Amazon reviewers reported seams and mesh pockets ripping after just a couple months of use.
  
  If you want a dedicated toiletry bag that's compact and spill-proof, check out our guide to the best toiletry bags.
  
  Size: 6 by 3 by 9 inches
  
  Colors: electric lime; poppy orange
  For luxe organizers: Cuyana Leather Travel Case Set
  Photo: Michael Hession
  Get this if: You want a nicer-looking, more elegant way of carrying your accessories—and won't miss individual compartments and lots of internal organization.
  
  Why it's great: We like the Cuyana Leather Travel Case Set because they're a pair of two beautiful leather bags that are big enough to hold our essentials, and they have a broad base that keeps them upright when opened up. The clamshell bags come in 13 different jewel and pastel colors, and are made of Argentine leather with synthetic leather linings. The exterior leather is pebbled, which is easier to maintain a good grip on than the smooth, soft leathers of some other bags we tested. Each bag has gold- or silver-toned zippers that run effortlessly across their teeth. And the stitching throughout the bags is clean, and we didn't find any signs of loose seams.
  
  If you want a more luxurious way to organize your gear, Cuyana's leather bags are gorgeously constructed. Photo: Michael Hession
  The Cuyana set is sold with a large (7 by 12 by 3½ inches) and small bag (5 by 8 by 2½ inches small). We easily fit our daily essentials in both cases, and closed them without having to force them like some other bags we tested. The organizers are spacious and the leather shell is thick, so they don't warp when full. And the wide base makes each bag sturdy, so it won't tip over either. Thanks to the clamshell design, the duo open wide enough to store bulky chargers and power adapters, along with everything else. The bags' wide mouths also make it easier to search for objects that get lost in the bottom of the bag.
  
  The larger bag of the pair has an internal pocket—which is useful—but the clamshell is too big to fit into many purses and backpacks. Photo: Michael Hession
  Flaws but not dealbreakers: We like that the Cuyana set comes with two bags, but feel that the larger one is too big to cart around daily with our other commuting gear. The large Cuyana is 7 by 12 by 3½ inches, which could be challenging to stuff into a backpack, messenger bag, or tote. The smaller clutch is a more manageable size at 5 by 8 by 2½ inches, and can easily fit into another bag. Both Cuyana bags lack multiple pockets and loops, so unsecured cords may tangle. (The large bag has one pocket; the small bag doesn't have any). If you don't plan on using both bags regularly, the $110 to $125 price may be prohibitive.
  
  The Argentine leather requires delicate care, so if you're rough with your accessories or are prone to spilling liquids and lotions, this bag isn't for you. Cuyana recommends wiping small blotches with a damp cloth or leather cleaner, and consulting a leather-cleaning professional for serious stains.
  
  Sizes: 7 by 12 by 3½ inches (large); 5 by 8 by 2½ inches (small)
  
  Colors: pebbled leather is black, blue, blush, burgundy, ecru, jade, navy/black, olive, pearl grey, pistachio, red, soft rose, or stone; shimmer leather is champagne.
  How to choose a bag organizer system
  Photo: Michael Hession
  The easiest way to decide what type of organizer you need is to inventory the accessories you cart to and from work each day, then look at how you transport those items already, and how that systems works for you. For example, if you prefer to have many small bags for different situations, and you carry your gear in sandwich bags, a pouch system might work. Or, if you want to have everything with you at all times, and tend to just throw everything into in a big void in your backpack, the way to go may be a toiletry bag, traditional cable organizer, or makeup clutch.
  
  Here's a look at the different types of bag organizers we reviewed.
  
  Pencil pouches are ideal if you prefer a minimalist and modular approach. They lack pockets and loops, and you can purchase as many as you need without paying for pockets you have no need for. These bags are often sold in different sizes so that you can divide your gear among them to your personal preference. They are likely to hold less gear per pouch and less likely to be waterproof than other bags we tested.
  
  Cosmetic bags and toiletry/Dopp kits are pretty similar. They typically have a large main compartment and minimal organizational features—often a sole pocket or limited elastic loops. Unlike pencil pouches, most cosmetic bags and toiletry kits are opaque, so no one will know you're packing a menstrual cup next to a multiport adapter. Most of the bags we tested in the category weren't waterproof, including most toiletry bags.
  
  Traditional cable organizers come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and styles. They can fold closed like a book, roll flat like a blanket, or have a flat, open grid system like a placemat. Our favorite style is a zippered book, which allows you to store gear in both covers, as well as the spine. They also come with more pockets and elastic loops than roll or grid organizers, and smaller gear won't fall out of the bags like they can with the other styles. Many of these bags are marketed as water-repellent, but in our tests, those claims didn't always live up to the hype.
  How we picked and tested
  We researched dozens of bags by browsing everything from manufacturer websites to bag enthusiast blogs. We compiled a list of more than 65 options and divided them into four categories: pencil pouches and mesh bags, cosmetic bags, traditional cable organizers (which includes zip books, roll bags, and grid sheets), and toiletry bags. (For this guide, we didn't review purse organizer inserts because that's a different category entirely.) We considered each bag's design, size, organizational features, materials used, price, and online owner reviews. Then we shrunk the list by consulting a small panel of Wirecutter staffers about what they prefer in a bag, and considered some bags that staff members loved. That left us with a spread of 27 bags to accommodate various tastes. We tested the bags based on the following criteria:
  
  Overall design: We reviewed each bag's materials; the elasticity of elastic loops; the smoothness of zippers; and advanced features, like customizable compartments.
  
  Bag configurations: We filled each bag with a day's worth of the accessories (below) a person might need when traveling to work each day, looking for bags that could hold more gear and were easier to organize:
  1 USB flash drive 1 SD card 1 Lightning–to–3.5-mm headphone jack adapter 1 earbud set 1 laptop multiport adapter 1 external battery 1 USB power cord and adapter 1 lip balm 1 travel-size bottle of lotion 1 bottle of hand sanitizer 1 small notepad 1 small pill bottle 1 makeup brush 1 makeup compact 2 tampons 2 condoms 3 hair ties 2 pens 1 ID badge and a partridge in a pear tree
  Shape retention: We tried closing the bags when stuffed with gear, and noted which bags deformed under the pressure.
  
  Contents retention: We zipped each bag, shook it around, and opened it again to see if its contents had flown about.
  
  Waterproofing: We ran each closed bag under a kitchen faucet with a spray setting for five seconds. We took any bags that remained dry, filled them with 2 tablespoons of water, and checked them for leaks.
  
  Community review: We asked 18 people to share their thoughts on their favorite bags from our test pool.
  The competition
  Assorted bags/pencil pouches
  
  The Custom Leathercraft 3 Multi-Purpose Clip-on Zippered Bags are better suited for your home toolbox than an everyday gadget bag. The trio of pouches are made of canvas, so they're tough, and sharp nails and needle-nose pliers won't damage them. The canvas was rougher than our panelists preferred, and most staffers found the dark colors unattractive. Many of us also prefer pouches that are transparent because we don't like guessing what's stored in each bag in the set.
  
  The IPOW BD02 pencil pouches are sold in a set of four. We liked the fun floral patterns and traditional pencil pouch shape. But the bags weren't big enough to hold more than a single bulky item, such as a laptop charger. The zippers also stuck and some broke during our tests.
  
  The five bags in the Modern Bethel Travel Pouch Set are covered in vinyl, so they're waterproof. But in our tests, the seams weren't stitched cleanly and the bags leaked water. We also found that the larger bags (13¾ by 10½ inches and 11 by 8¼ inches) are so big that they're as bad as just leaving things loose in your backpack or purse to begin with.
  
  The Muji Double Fastener Case (medium) was great for storing the small gear on our list. But it couldn't hold our bulkier items without permanently deforming the polyester bag. It's also not waterproof, so a spilled soda or leaking lotion bottle would damage its contents.
  
  Cosmetic bags
  
  The BUBM cord and cosmetic organizer is a two-way makeup and brush bag that's convertible to store tech gear as well. The top is a traditional makeup bag, and the bottom unzips horizontally to store brushes, tablet pens, and skinny cable cords. But the main compartment isn't big enough to carry most of the accessories on our list. And the padded chamber absorbed leaking water, which means that it could retain the stinky odors of other spilled liquids over time.
  
  The Chiceco Handy Makeup Pouch offers better privacy than our pick from The Container Storebecause it's made of 100D Oxford nylon and not micro mesh. It's small enough to carry with one hand, and is flexible and durable enough to cram full with gear without fear of it tearing. But the zipper broke during testing, making the bag virtually impossible to use.
  
  The Leatherology Clamshell Makeup Bag is sold in two sizes (medium and large) or as a set. Both sizes were great for splitting the storage of our tech gear and personal hygiene items. We liked that both bags have zip pockets, and the clamshell design was ideal for finding small items hiding at the bottom of the bag. But the leather was too soft, and it was easy to scratch and scuff during normal use. Leatherology allows only a 30-day return window and only for unused gear, which isn't ideal for a product that costs $85 to $180. The company also doesn't offer a warranty, but a spokesperson said "we stand behind our products and take care of our customers." Yet, we called the customer service line twice and never spoke with a live person (once we were on hold for 30 minutes before giving up and ended the call).
  
  Toiletry bags
  
  The Herschel Supply Co. Chapter Travel Kit measures 18 by 4½ by 6 inches, so it holds our essentials with plenty of room to spare. But its large size also means it was way too big to carry each day. This Dopp kit also isn't waterproof.
  
  Traditional cable organizers
  
  2019 testing:
  
  The Bond Travel Gear Escapade Pouch has a rough nylon exterior, inconsistent stitching quality, and zippers that catch, making it hard to open and close.
  
  Eagle Creek Etool Organizer Pro lacks a microfiber lining and padding to protect delicate objects, and there's limited space to secure smaller items, like thumb drives. Water also leaks through the zippers.
  
  The Native Union Stow Accessory Organizer's leather exterior shows wear and tear easily, and the zippers are difficult to use.
  
  The Peak Design Tech Pouch opens like an accordian-style file folder, so gear won't fall out when you open it. But this was the hardest bag to open that we tested, as the zipper frequently got stuck on the thick piping that was designed to prevent leaks.
  
  The Tom Bihn Snake Charmer is an upright bag with dual mesh compartments (like a dopp kit). But it's surprisingly bulky (up to 5 inches deep), and it's also not waterproof, so tech gear won't survive a soda spill. For non-water-resistant options, we prefer our Vaultz Mesh Storage Bags because they're sold in a pack of four for just $8 at the time of writing, are modular and big enough for larger cables, and pack down flat for easy storage.
  
  The Welden Nylon Accessory Organizer is well-made and stylish, featuring a modern hexagonal weave pattern on the exterior that's sure to attract attention. But its small size (4.7 by 7.78 by 2.75 inches) has limited storage space, which won't work for most people commuting with all of their gear. It's also pricey ($80 at the time of writing), and we think our luxe pick, the Cuyana Leather Travel Case Set, is a better deal (currently two bags for $110).
  
  2018 testing:
  
  Leatherology Small Tech Bag Organizer has three elastic loops, but the loops loosened after just a couple of uses. The bag is made of soft full-grain leather, which scratches easier than what we would like from a $65 bag. (You can upgrade to the firm, full-grain German leather bag for $100.) This bag is also subject to Leatherology's limited 30-day return window (described above).
  
  Both Bagsmart bags we looked at have plenty of loops and slots for our gear, but it felt weird putting toiletries in such a techie-looking pouch. Model Travel Universal Cable Organizer (BM0200044B001) wasn't waterproof. And though the Thicken Cable Organizer (BM0200064A001) model did repel water, its inside wasn't very durable and got scuffed up by our bulky laptop cable.
  
  Our packing cube pick, the Eagle Creek Pack It Quarter Cube (extra-small) was too flimsy to hold our gear.
  
  The Hynes Eagle Travel Accessories Organizer was too small to hold even half the gear on our list. The floral pattern on the bag was grainy and looked cheap. The bag also wasn't waterproof.
  
  The Power Packer is durable, looks nice, and is big enough to store bulky cables, external power packs, and travel adapters. Although that's exactly what it's designed to carry, most of our testers found it big for everyday use. And the knitted fabric accents absorbed and leaked water to other sections of the bag.
  
  The Skooba Design Cable Stable DLX that we recommend in our guide The Best Gear for Travel is, at 12 by 9 inches (compared with the 9½ by 6 inches of the Incase), a bit too big to take with you daily, and its smaller sibling the Skooba Cable Stable Mini lacks internal zippered pockets for keeping small items like SD cards in check.
  
  Our former budget pick from that same guide, the AmazonBasics Universal Travel Case, has a hard shell that makes it awkward to fit in some bags and less accommodating to big and small loads, and its internal pockets are loose and prone to objects moving around in transit.
  
  This guide may have been updated by Wirecutter. To see the current recommendations, please go here.
  
  When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, Wirecutter and Engadget may earn affiliate commissions.
  

• Watch the premiere of Showtime's 'Desus & Mero' talk show for free
  Showtime's late-night talk show premiered Thursday, and while you'll typically need a subscription to check out the series, the network has shared the debut episode for free. Desus Nice and The Kid Mero, who gained a following with their Bodega Boys podcast before landing shows on MTV and Viceland, had a big-name guest for their first night: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
  
  The duo also parodied the Oscar-nominated Green Book in the episode, which is available on YouTube, along with Showtime's website and on-demand channels. Thanks to the magic of embed codes, you can check it out right here, "boo-boo" words included.
  
  
  
  Source: Desus & Mero (YouTube)
  

• 85 percent of Chrome apps and extensions lack a privacy policy
  There's a good chance you use or have used Chrome, so there's good reason for you to be disturbed by new data from Duo Security that shows just how vulnerable the 180,000-plus Chrome apps and extensions are. For starters, 85 percent of them don't have a privacy policy, meaning developers can essentially handle your data however they want.
  
  In the process of building a free tool that analyzes Chrome extensions and produces security reports, Duo analyzed 120,000 apps and extensions in the Chrome Web Store, and the results are unsettling. Duo found that 35 percent of Chrome apps and extensions can read data on any site you visit. Nearly 32 percent use third-party libraries with known vulnerabilities, and 77 percent have no support site.
  
  As Duo points out in its blog post, people often grant permissions to extensions without much consideration -- and however well intentioned those permissions are, they do little good if an extension is purchased or hacked by a malicious third party. That's not unheard of. In October, Chrome extension developers were the target of a mass phishing attack, in which hackers tried to access login credential for developers' Google accounts.
  
  Since permissions alone don't give a full picture of the security properties of an extension, Duo's new extension tool also builds a list of sites each extension's code likely makes external requests to, analyzes third-party Javascript libraries for vulnerabilities, analyzes each extension content security policy and more. The company details how the tool works on its blog.
  
  Google has taken steps to improve Chrome security, blocking Chrome extensions installs outside of its Web Store and setting extension rules aimed at improving privacy and security. But Duo's data shows there's still a lot of work to be done. In the meantime, you'll probably want to avoid using Chrome extensions that aren't from well-known and reputable developers, or at least check their security policies first.
  
  Via: ZDNet
  
  Source: Duo Security
  

• Samsung will let you remap the Bixby button on older phones too
  If the Bixby button on your Samsung Galaxy phone doesn't get much use, you might prefer to make it open another app. Samsung noted the remapping option when it revealed the S10 lineup this week, but if you have a slightly older Galaxy phone (namely, Note 9, S9, Note 8 or S8), you can customize the button too if your device is running Android Pie.
  
  Samsung will enable the Bixby Key Customization feature with an upcoming software update. You'll be able to open a specific app or run a quick command with a single or double press, and the other method will still activate Bixby.
  
  While there have been workarounds to reassign the button, this is a straightforward, official way to make it more useful. If you're feeling cheeky, you might even remap it to open Google Assistant or Alexa if you prefer those to Samsung's own assistant.
  
  Source: Samsung
  

• The first 'Fortnite' World Cup kicks off April 13th
  Epic entered the world of eSports with a bang last year when it unveiled its $100 million Fortnite tournaments. It made waves again last month by staging its latest showdown at the Australian Open. Not everything went according to plan, however, with complaints by pros that Fortnite's abrupt updates were affecting their strategies. But after some fine-tuning to the game proper, Epic is now preparing for the final chapter in its debut season: the Marshmello concert did result in Fortnite's best event day ever, with 10.7 million players showing up for the glitter-bomb rave. And last Saturday, the game saw its best non-event day ever with 7.6 million players taking part concurrently.
  

• Google fans: Tell us what you think about the Pixel Slate
  A few months ago, we reviewed Google's Pixel Slate, a Chrome OS tablet poised to take on the 'Pro' versions of the iPad and Microsoft Surface. It... did not go very well. While our reviewer Nate Ingraham was taken with the bright display, comfortable keyboard folio and healthy battery life, the Slate failed to impress on the software side. Chrome OS tried too hard to do too many things for too many users in tablet mode. In particular, multitasking slowed down the user experience and the majority of Android apps were unable to take advantage of the 12.3-inch screen, making the device frustrating to work on. In the end, despite the gorgeous hardware, solid speakers and a reliable fingerprint sensor, the Slate earned a humbling score of 69.
  
  But just because the Pixel Slate didn't knock it out of the park for our reviewer, that doesn't mean it's a terrible choice for everyone. If you own or use a Pixel Slate, tell us what there is to love by leaving a user review in our buyer's guide. And if you, too, found the software experience buggy, or had any other issues with your device, we want to hear from you as well.
  
  Note: Comments have been turned off for this post; please contribute your opinions and impressions on our Google Pixel Slate product page!
  

• NVIDIA's GTX 1660 Ti offers gaming power without ray-tracing for $279
  NVIDIA has officially unveiled the much-leaked GTX 1660 Ti. It's a next-gen Turing card that lacks the RTX-series' ray tracing, but costs less and boosts performance over the last-generation GTX 1060. The new cards come with 6GB of GDDR6 RAM running at 12Gbps, 1,536 CUDA cores and a 1.8GHz boost clock speed that allows further overclocking. It'll deliver 1.5 times the performance of the GTX 1060 6GB card, with 1.4 times the power efficiency -- fast enough to power games like Fortnite, PUBG and Apex Legends at 120 fps/1080p.
  
  
  
  NVIDIA has been criticized a fair bit over the pricing of its RTX 20-series GPUs. They don't offer a significant boost over the last generation and the main feature you're paying for -- ray tracing -- is only available in a couple of games. At the same, time, they're pricier than the last generation. For instance, the RTX 2060 cost $100 more than the GTX 1060 did at launch.
  
  NVIDIA's pitch for the new cards, then, is value. The GTX 1660 Ti should offer about the same performance as a GTX 1070, while costing less. At the same time, the $349 RTX 2060 will outperform it, though, as it has more CUDA cores (1,920) and a higher 14 Gbps memory speed. NVIDIA has promised that "plenty" of GTX 1660 Ti boards will be available at launch today from ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, PNY and other manufactures. They'll start at $279, or £260 in the UK.
  

• Tesla trumps Audi and Jaguar EVs in independent efficiency test
  Tesla has had no end of production troubles in recent times. Even the roll-out of the Model 3 in Europe was marred by logistical issues. But there's a reason its EVs are still so widely-lauded despite these challenges: they're efficient. And that efficiency in comparison to Tesla's competitors has now been confirmed in a test conducted by German electric car rental company nextmove.
  
  
  
  
  
  The experiment saw three premium EVs -- a pre-release Audi e-tron, a Tesla Model X 90D and a Jaguar I-Pace -- pitted against one another over an 87km stretch of German Autobahn, at an average speed of 120km/h (75mph). The vehicles were tested for consumption, range and cost per 100km, and the Model X came out on top every time.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The results showed that the Audi and Jaguar models consumed a quarter more energy than Tesla's, have less than half the range and cost around a quarter more to charge per 100km. Nextmove said it used the Model X P90D because of its comparative battery size, even though it isn't on sale any more. It also listed the newer 100D model to provide more perspective.
  
  In Audi's case, what it lacks in these metrics it makes up for in charging speed -- it achieves an impressive charge rate of over 150kW (at supported fast-charging locations). So if you're regularly doing longer journeys, the fast recharge time helps to even the playing field a little and gives Audi an edge when consumers might not have Model X P90D money to spend on an EV.
  
  Via: electrek
  
  Source: nextmove
  

• SpaceX launches the first private moon lander on Israel's behalf
  A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has ferried Israel's first lunar lander outside our atmosphere, setting it free to make its way to its ultimate destination: the moon. If it reaches its target successfully, Israel would be joining the US, China and the former Soviet Union in the list of nations to have sent a lander to our planet's trusty companion. Unlike the three other countries in that list, Israel's robotic spacecraft named "Beresheet" was created by a non-profit group called SpaceIL. It's the first private moon lander and was previously a finalist for Google's Lunar XPrize.
  
  The organization had the most developed project among the finalists, but it still wasn't able to make deadline. While the competition ended with no winners, SpaceIL clearly still found a way to give its creation a shot at doing what it was designed to do. The group just won't win $20 million even if its lander accomplishes Google's original requirements, which include being able to drive up to 500 meters (1,640 feet) on the lunar surface and to transmit HD videos and images back to Earth.
  Successful deployment of the SpaceIL lunar lander confirmed, starting the spacecraft's two-month voyage to the Moon pic.twitter.com/iMlVYJHef3
  — SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 22, 2019
  Beresheet will spend the next couple of months orbiting the Earth and then letting the moon's gravity pull it into the lunar orbit. It will then decrease its orbit until it finally lands on the northern lunar hemisphere sometime in April. You could say that the lander is taking the scenic route by employing that method, but SpaceIL isn't in a hurry. Besides, the technique is effective and fuel-efficient.
  
  According to SpaceX (Twitter)
  

• First 'Angry Birds 2' trailer warns that winter is coming
  Depending on your age, the Angry Birds movie was either cool beans or just a cynical ploy to sell more plush toys. But nobody really expected it to silence the haters by raking in over $352 million on a $73 million budget. And so a sequel was inevitably greenlit and today marks the release of its first trailer. The clip stars new antagonist Zeta (voiced by Leslie Jones), a tropical bird who decides to fling snowballs from her frozen island at the paradise those green pigs and feathered friends call home.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  There's fun winks to Game of Thrones and Jaws ("we're going to need a bigger slingshot!") along the way. And the whole thing is set to the tune of Ice Ice Baby. The likes of Peter Dinklage, Josh Gad, and Bill Hader are also back to reprise their roles, with new additions to the cast including Nicki Minaj and Awkwafina. Angry Birds 2 hits theatres August 16th to coincide with the tenth anniversary of the original game. But it's not the only family-friendly video game adaptation heading to the big screen this year, with Detective Pikachu due in May and Sonic the Hedgehog to follow in November.
  
  Over 20 mobile games later, you'd think a series about tossing birds at pigs would start to sag. But developer Rovio's franchise is clearly still evolving thanks to forays into VR (Angry Birds FPS: First Person Slingshot for Magic Leap), TV, and movies.
  
  Source: Sony Pictures Entertainment (YouTube)
  

• The Morning After: What to expect at MWC 2019
  So Samsung's shown off everything it's got to show, and after a day to think it over, we have some feels about those S10 phones. Expect more phones, too: MWC kicks off this weekend, and we've got a full preview.
  
  
  
  
  
  Samsung Unpacked was a masterclass in showing your good side.Technically impressive? Yes? Desirable? Perhaps. No complaints? Wait a second.
  
  
  Technically impressive? Yes? Desirable? Perhaps. No complaints? Wait a second.
  
  
  
  Flagship, foldable and 5G phones.
  
  
  There's always plenty of news from Mobile World Congress, and it's either entirely expected or word gets out early. This year is shaping up to be slightly different. From foldable designs to 5G and more, this year's MWC won't only be jam-packed with news, but it should, perhaps, be exciting once again.
  
  
  
  Light will use Sony lenses in its computational imaging tools.
  
  
  
  
  Camera startup Light, best known for its multi-lens cameras, has announced it's teaming up with Sony to put its tech to work in new ways. The partnership will focus on developing new versions of Light's multi-image sensors using Sony lenses. Perhaps crucially, the companies will be working on a smartphone that uses four or more cameras. You know, like that Nokia leak...
  
  
  
  
  
  Welcome to the post-'Fortnite' era of mobile gaming.
  'Gaming phones' are just flagship phones now
  
  The specs on Samsung's Galaxy S10+ are bonkers. This baby has up to 12GB of RAM and 1TB of internal storage, with the option to add 512GB more via microSD and a vapor-chamber cooling system a lot like the one in the Xbox One X. Samsung is talking up the S10+'s Adreno 640 GPU and Infinity-O display, and it's happily comparing the new phone to a laptop in marketing materials. And gaming has become a critical aspect of the smartphone experience. Mobile is easily the largest segment of the overall video-game market, generating $63.2 billion in 2018, or 47 percent of the industry's global revenue, according to Newzoo. Meanwhile, PCs and consoles brought in a bit more than $30 billion each. This is a new reality for the industry.
  But wait, there's more... Varjo's human-eye resolution VR headset costs a mere $6,000 What's coming to Netflix in March: 'Triple Frontier' and 'Arrested Development' Apple will reportedly launch a credit card this year Verizon plans to roll out its 5G mobile network in 30 cities this year Don't buy a phone just for 5G The UK government finally pins down Mark Zuckerberg
  
  The Morning After is a new daily newsletter from Engadget designed to help you fight off FOMO. Who knows what you'll miss if you don't Subscribe.
  
  Craving even more? Like us on Facebook or Follow us on Twitter.
  
  Have a suggestion on how we can improve The Morning After? Send us a note.
  

• Apple hopes interest-free iPhones will boost slow Chinese sales
  As smartphones get more expensive, and the innovation in new devices gets less grand, there's less reason to upgrade your device every two years. It's a problem for all device manufacturers which rely upon handset sales to grease the wheels of their business, but Apple thinks it has a solution. The company has teamed up with a number of Chinese banks to offer interest free credit on a number of new iPhone purchases.
  
  With a newly-emerging middle class and massive population, China is a big market for the whole technology industry. But the country's economic woes, a trade war and zero-margin homegrown rivals has made it tough for all the big names to do business there. In Apple's case, the company recently had to tell investors that it wasn't going to sell as many devices in Asia as it had done before due to "trade tensions."
  
  According to discounting its products, will knock some cash off the price if users trade-in an older iPhone. It's hoped that these measures will be enough to juice the slower sales of the new handsets.
  
  It's worth saying that a bad time for Apple is not the same as for other companies, since it still makes billions on a monthly basis. The company does, however, fall victim to the law of large numbers, since any slight dip on its explosive profitability looks worse by comparison.
  
  Apple's certainly keeping an eye on the world of financial services as it looks to broaden its revenue beyond device sales. The company is reportedly working with Goldman Sachs to launch a credit card for Apple Pay users that'll offer cash back perks when you buy new Apple devices and services.
  

• Redis Labs Changing Its Licensing for Redis Modules Again, Raspberry Pi Rolling Out the Linux 4.19 Kernel, Windows Subsystem for Linux Updates Coming, Facebook Removing Its Spyware Onavo VPN from the Google Store and openSUSE Leap 15.1 Beta Pizza Party
  
  News briefs for February 22, 2019.
  
  Redis Labs has changed its licensing for Redis Modules again. According to TechCrunch, the new license is called the Redis Source Available license, and as with the previous Commons Clause license, applies only to certain Redis Modules created by Redis Labs. With this license, "Users can still get the code, modify it and integrate it into their applications—but that application can't be a database product, caching engine, stream processing engine, search engine, indexing engine or ML/DL/AI serving engine." The TechCrunch post notes that by definition, an open-source license can't enforce limitations, so this new license technically isn't open source. It is, however, similar to other "permissive open-source licenses", which "shouldn't really affect most developers who use the company's modules".
  
  Raspberry Pi has started rolling out the Linux 4.19 kernel. According to Phoronix, RPi is moving from kernel 4.14 to the 4.19 long-term support release. This change marks about a year of updates, and as Phoronix notes, "For Linux 4.19 alone on the Raspberry Pi front was updates to its voltage driver, under-voltage issue reporting, and the VC4 DRM changes we see each cycle. Over the span of 4.14 to 4.19 are a lot of improvements upstream and now less patches that need to be re-based and carried by the Raspberry Pi crew."
  
  The Windows 10 April Update will let you access Linux files from Windows. TechCrunch reports that following TechCrunch's investigation into the app and how it "sucked up data about teens" and the ensuing backlash, the "app will eventually shut down, and will immediately cease pulling in data from users for market research though it will continue operating as a Virtual Private Network in the short-term to allow users to find a replacement."
  
  The openSUSE Leap release manager has announced that Leap 15.1 has entered the Beta phase this week, and now it's time for a Beta Pizza Party. Geeko in Nuremberg is holding a Beta Pizza Party on March 1st for testing. If you're not in Nuremberg, visit the wiki for details on how to hold your own and test away. You can download the Beta from here.
        News  Redis  licensing  open source  Raspberry Pi  kernel  Windows  Facebook  VPN  Privacy  openSUSE                   

• Taking System Monitoring to the Next Level: an Interview with Scalyr CEO Steve Newman
  by Petros Koutoupis   
  As computing ecosystems become more complex, monitoring and analyzing those often disconnected moving parts becomes increasingly challenging.
  
  Today's data center has evolved from a single supplier producing and selling all-in-one offerings, such as the days when EMC, NetApp, HP or even Sun owned your data center and you chose a vendor and stuck with it. Those same vendors provided you with the required tools to monitor, analyze and troubleshoot their entire stack.
  
  Shifting focus to the present, the landscape now appears to be quite different. Instead, you will find environments of mixed offerings provided by an assortment of vendors, both large and small. Proprietary machines work side by side with off-the-shelf commodity devices hosting software-defined software. Half of your applications may be hosted in virtual machines over a hypervisor or just spun up in a container. How does a modern data-center administrator or DevOps professional manage such an environment?
  
  An assortment of platforms and frameworks exist that provide such capabilities, but they're not all one and the same. In some cases, those same tools will need to be coupled with others to produce something useful (for example, ELK: Elasticsearch + Logstash + Kibana). Unfortunately, this arrangement just adds to the complication and frustration when attempting to diagnose or discover problems in your computing environment.
  
  Putting an end to this level of complexity, one company stands out among the rest: Scalyr. Scalyr develops and offers a complete suite of server monitoring, log management, visualization and analysis tools, which integrate with cloud services. I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Scalyr CEO Steve Newman.
  
  His is not a household name, like Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, but you will be familiar with his work and contributions to cloud-enabled technologies. Although this is likely to change with Scalyr, Steve is best known for his work with Writely, a technology that later was acquired by Google and relabeled as Google Docs. In our conversation, Steve and I took the opportunity to discuss Scalyr, its solution and the problem it solves.
  
  Steve Newman, Scalyr CEO
  
  Petros Koutoupis: Tell me a bit about yourself. Who is Steve Newman?
  
  Steve Newman: I am an engineer by both training and background and have spent most of my career in the startup environment. This is because I enjoy building things. I was at Google for a number of years following an acquisition, and while the experience itself was great, the startup bug in me drove me to Scalyr.
  
  PK: So, now you founded a company called Scalyr. Please tell us, what is Scalyr?
      Go to Full Article          

• GNOME 3.31.91 Beta Released, Cisco's Duo Security Launching a Beta of Its CRXcavator Tool to Find Risky Chrome Extensions, Fedora 30 Now Has Flicker Free Boot, Qt Creator 4.9 Beta Now Available and Four New openSUSE Tumbleweed Snapshots
  
  News briefs for February 21, 2019.
  
  GNOME 3.31.91 beta was released this morning. This is the second beta of the 3.32 release cycle and also the start of the string freeze. See the list of all the changes and updates here. The BuildStream project snapshot is here, or you can get the source packages from here.
  
  Cisco's Duo Security division is launching a public beta of its CRXcavator tool to help discover risky Google Chrome web extensions. According to the Flicker Free boot. Hans de Goede's blog reports that "Last week a new version of plymouth landed which implements the new theme for this and also includes a much improved offline-updates experience, following this design. At boot the display will seamlessly transit from the firmware boot-splash into the new plymouth theme, which uses the firmware boot-splash as background." See the post for screenshots and more details.
  
  Qt Creator 4.9 Beta was released today. Improvements include generic programming language support, the QML parser was updated to Qt 5.12, the UI for diagnostics from the Clang analyzer tools has many improvements, and much more. You can get the open-source version from the Qt downloads page.
  
  Four openSUSE Tumbleweed snapshots were released this week, bringing updates for Kerberos, GNOME, KDE, YaST and Mozilla Firefox.
        News  GNOME  Cisco  Security  Chrome  Fedora  Qt Creator  openSUSE                   

• Fun Little Tidbits in a Howling Storm (Re: Intel Security Holes)
  by Zack Brown   
  Some kernel developers recently have been trying to work around the massive, horrifying, long-term security holes that have recently been discovered in Intel hardware. In the course of doing so, there were some interesting comments about coding practices.
  
  Christoph Hellwig and Jesper Dangaard Brouer were working on mitigating some of the giant speed sacrifices needed to avoid Intel's gaping security holes. And, Christoph said that one such patch would increase the networking throughput from 7.5 million packets per second to 9.5 million—a 25% speedup.
  
  To do this, the patch would check the kernel's "fast path" for any instances of dma_direct_ops and replace them with a simple direct call.
  
  Linus Torvalds liked the code, but he noticed that Jesper and Christoph's code sometimes would perform certain tests before testing the fast path. But if the kernel actually were taking the fast path, those tests would not be needed. Linus said, "you made the fast case unnecessarily slow."
  
  He suggested that switching the order of the tests would fix it right up. He added:
  
  In fact, as a further micro-optimization, it might be a good idea to just specify that the dma_is_direct() ops is a special pointer (perhaps even just say that "NULL means it's direct"), because that then makes the fast-case test much simpler (avoids a whole nasty constant load, and testing for NULL in particular is often much better).
  
  But that further micro-optimization absolutely *requires* that the ops pointer test comes first. So making that ordering change is not only "better code generation for the fast case to avoid extra cache accesses", it also allows future optimizations.
  
  Regarding Linus' micro-optimization, Christoph explained:
  
  I wanted to do the NULL case, and it would be much nicer. But the arm folks went to great lengths to make sure they don't have a default set of dma ops and require it to be explicitly set on every device to catch cases where people don't set things up properly, and I didn't want to piss them off....But maybe I should just go for it and see who screams, as the benefit is pretty obvious.
  
  Linus also suggested that for Christoph's and Jesper's tests, the dma_is_direct() function should be sure to use the likely() call. And this was interesting because likely() is used to alert the compiler that a block of code is more "likely" to be run than another in order to optimize it. And, Christoph wasn't sure this was true. He said, "Yes, for the common case, it is likely. But if you run a setup where you say always have an iommu, it is not, in fact, it is never called in that case, but we only know that at runtime."
      Go to Full Article          

• KDE Adding Matrix to Its Instant Messaging Infrastructure, E3D Launches New 3D Printing Slicer, digiKam Announces Major 6.0.0 Release, Google to Acquire Alooma and KDE Plasma Bugfix Update 5.15.1 Is Out
  
  News briefs for February 20, 2019.
  
  KDE announces it's adding Matrix to its instant messaging infrastructure. Matrix "is an open protocol and network for decentralised communication, backed by an open standard and open source reference implementations for servers, clients, client SDKs, bridges, bots and more. It provides all the features you'd expect from a modern chat system: infinite scrollback, file transfer, typing notifications, read receipts, presence, search, push notifications, stickers, VoIP calling and conferencing, etc. It even provides end-to-end encryption (based on Signal's double ratchet algorithm) for when you want some privacy." For more information and how to get started, see the wiki page.
  
  E3D, the UK hot-end manufacturer, has officially launched a beta of its new 3D printing slicer. Pathio website to try out the beta.
  
  digiKam  6.0.0 was released recently. This major release follows two years of intensive development and lots of work from students during the Summer of Code. New features include full support of video file management, raw file decoding engine supporting new cameras, simplified web service authentication using OAuth, new export tools and much more. Go here to download.
  
  Google yesterday announced it intends to acquire Alooma, which "helps enterprise companies streamline database migration in the cloud". According to the announcement, "the addition of Alooma, subject to closing conditions, is a natural fit that allows us to offer customers a streamlined, automated migration experience to Google Cloud, and give them access to our full range of database services, from managed open source database offerings to solutions like Cloud Spanner and Cloud Bigtable".
  
  KDE yesterday released a bugfix update to KDE Plasma 5: 5.15.1. This release adds "a month's worth of new translations and fixes from KDE's contributors" to the release announced a little more than one week ago. See the Plasma 5.15.1 changelog for the full list of changes and updates.
        News  KDE  Matrix  instant messaging  3D Printing  digiKam  Google  Cloud  Alooma  Plasma                   

• Cat-Proofing Your Screen Locker with Bash
  by Mitch Frazier   
   
  
  I have a computer in my bedroom. I also have cats. Unfortunately, cats and screen lockers don't mix well, particularly at night. To be accurate, it's more a problem with the display power management than the actual screen locking. Here's the way it works: I run a script to "shut the lights off at night" (that is, lock the screen and force the display to power down), and that works great, until one of the cats jumps on the desk and causes the mouse to move and turn the display back on. And the cats don't even have to touch the mouse; the slight movement of the desk is enough to cause the mouse to react. Recently, I'd had enough of it and figured there had to be a way to disable the mouse and "refactor" the script.
      Go to Full Article          

• Google Makes Revisions to Avoid Breaking Ad-Blocking Extensions in Chrome, Kali Linux 2019.1 Released, New Version of Cutelyst Is Out, Ubuntu Posts Security Notice for systemd Vulnerability and Applications Open for Outreachy Summer 2019 Internships
  
  News briefs for February 19, 2019.
  
  Google rethinks its planned changes to Chrome's extension API that would have broken many ad-blocking extensions. Kali Linux 2019.1 was released yesterday. This is the first release of 2019, bringing the kernel to version 4.19.13. This release fixes many bugs and includes several updated packages. The release announcement notes that "the big marquee update of this release is the update of Metasploit to version 5.0, which is their first major release since version 4.0 came out in 2011." You can download Kali Linux from here.
  
  A new version of the Cutelyst Qt/C++ Web Framework is now available. According to Dantti's Blog, Cutelyst 2.7.0 brings back proper async support and includes a few other new features.
  
  Ubuntu posted a security notice of a new systemd vulnerability yesterday. USN-3891-1 affects the following versions of Ubuntu and its derivatives: Ubuntu 18.10, Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. The details: "systemd incorrectly handled certain D-Bus messages. A local unprivileged attacker could exploit this in order to crash the init process, resulting in a system denial-of-service (kernel panic)." See the security notice for instructions on how to update.
  
  Applications for the Outreachy Summer 2019 round of internships is open now to April 2, 2019. The program "provides three-month internships to work in Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). Interns are paid a stipend of $5,500 and have a $500 travel stipend available to them." Outreachy "expressly invite women (both cis and trans), trans men, and genderqueer people to apply. We also expressly invite applications from residents and nationals of the United States of any gender who are Black/African American, Hispanic/Latin@, Native American/American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander. Anyone who faces under-representation, systemic bias, or discrimination in the technology industry of their country is invited to apply." Visit here for more information on the application process.
        News  Google  Chrome  Kali Linux  Metasploit  Security  Cutelyst  Ubuntu  systemd  Outreachy                   

• Open Science, Open Source and R
  by Andy Wills   
  Free software will save psychology from the Replication Crisis.
  
  "Study reveals that a lot of psychology research really is just 'psycho-babble'".—Open Science Collaboration had been quietly re-running 100 published psychology experiments. Now, finally, they were ready to share their findings. The results were shocking. Less than half of the re-run experiments had worked.
  
  When someone tries to re-run an experiment, and it doesn't work, we call this a failure to replicate. Scientists had known about failures to replicate for a while, but it was only quite recently that the extent of the problem became apparent. Now, an almost existential crisis loomed. That crisis even gained a name: the Replication Crisis. Soon, people started asking the same questions about other areas of science. Often, they got similar answers. Only half of results in economics replicated. In pre-clinical cancer studies, it was worse; only 11% replicated.
   Open Science
  Clearly, something had to be done. One option would have been to conclude that psychology, economics and parts of medicine could not be studied scientifically. Perhaps those parts of the universe were not lawful in any meaningful way? If so, you shouldn't be surprised if two researchers did the same thing and got different results.
  
  Alternatively, perhaps different researchers got different results because they were doing different things. In most cases, it wasn't possible to tell whether you'd run the experiment exactly the same way as the original authors. This was because all you had to go on was the journal article—a short summary of the methods used and results obtained. If you wanted more detail, you could, in theory, request it from the authors. But, we'd already known for a decade that this approach was seriously broken—in about 70% of cases, data requests ended in failure.
      Go to Full Article          

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• Debian 9.8 Released, Kernel 5.0-rc7 Is Out, Creative Commons Update on the EU Copyright Changes, Slax 9.8 Available and Mozilla Testing Picture-in-Picture Mode in Firefox
  
  News briefs for February 18, 2019.
  
  Debian 9.8 was released over the weekend. This release mostly addresses security issues and bug fixes. See the post for the full list of changes and visit the mirror list to upgrade an existing installation.
  
  Linux kernel 5.0-rc7 was released yesterday. Linus writes "A nice and calm week, with statistics looking normal. Just under half drivers (gpu, networking, input, md, block, sound, ...), with the rest being architecture fixes (arm64, arm, x86, kvm), networking and misc (filesystem etc). Nothing particularly odd stands out, and everything is pretty small. Just the way I like it."
  
  Creative Commons publishes update on the EU copyright changes that the European Parliament will vote on this spring. The final text of Articles 13 and 11 has been changed somewhat, but according to the Creative Commons post, "With Article 13, it's no exaggeration to say that it'll fundamentally change the way people are able to use the internet and share online. And the European copyright changes will affect how copyright develops in the rest of the world. Even with some of the minor improvements to other aspects of the copyright file, it's hard to see how the reform—taken as a whole—will be a net gain except for the most powerful special interests." If you live in Europe, visit www.saveyourinternet.eu for more information and to contact your MEPs before the vote.
  
  Slax 9.8 was released yesterday. This point release updates some of the included packages; it doesn't include new features. To download the new version, go here.
  
  Mozilla has started testing picture-in-picture mode in Firefox Nightly. According to Softpedia News, "the current implementation of picture-in-picture mode in Firefox is very limited, and I expect Mozilla to accelerate work on it as we approach its target release date. No specifics in this regard are available, however." Picture-in-picture mode is already available in other browsers, such as Google Chrome and Vivaldi.
        News  Debian  Security  kernel  creative commons  EU  Copyright Law  Slax  Mozilla  Firefox