Lifeboat Foundation

The concept that we are all computer-generated characters occupying a world as real as the ones gamers explore on their PlayStation consoles isn’t exactly a new one.

As far back as 1999, Morpheus was entering “The Matrix” to break Neo and a few other chosen few out of a simulated reality created by advanced machines in order to use humans as an energy source. But as the idea permeates not just the realm of science fiction and popular culture, but academia as well, every now and then a philosopher or physicist has something new to say about it.

That’s what happened this week when a physicist at the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom proposed that a new law of physics could support the theory that what we see as our reality is in fact a complex virtual simulation running on a cosmic computer. The theory stems from previous research that Dr. Melvin Vopson has conducted looking into whether information has mass.

https://informatech.co/3Ff6TaR by @wirelesswench

Microsoft flagged two zero-day security vulnerabilities under active attack in October’s Patch Tuesday update, which affect Microsoft WordPad and Skype for Business. The release also features a critical-rated, wormable bug in Message Queuing that could instill terror for admins of vulnerable systems.

The two bugs are part of a cadre of 103 total CVEs addressed by the computing giant this month. The patches run the gamut of Microsoft’s portfolio, including Azure, ASP.NET, Core, and Visual Studio; Exchange Server; Office, Microsoft Dynamics, and Windows.

Continue reading “Microsoft Patch Tuesday Haunted by Zero-Days, Wormable Bug” »

The scent of coffee. The clarity of sunlight dappling through the trees. The howl of the wind in the dark of night.

All this, according to a philosophical argument published in 2003, could be no more real than pixels on a screen. It’s called the simulation hypothesis, and it proposes that if humanity lives to see a day it can repeatedly simulate the Universe using come kind of computer, chances are we are living in one of those many simulations.

If so, everything we experience is a model of something else, removed from some kind of reality.

Caltech researchers have discovered Hubbard excitons, which are excitons bound magnetically, offering new avenues for exciton-based technological applications.

In art, the negative space in a painting can be just as important as the painting itself. Something similar is true in insulating materials, where the empty spaces left behind by missing electrons play a crucial role in determining the material’s properties. When a negatively charged electron is excited by light, it leaves behind a positive hole. Because the hole and the electron are oppositely charged, they are attracted to each other and form a bond. The resulting pair, which is short-lived, is known as an exciton [pronounced exit-tawn].

Excitons are integral to many technologies, such as solar panels, photodetectors, and sensors. They are also a key part of light-emitting diodes found in televisions and digital display screens. In most cases, the exciton pairs are bound by electrical, or electrostatic, forces, also known as Coulomb interactions.

Heads up, Linux users! A new critical vulnerability in the libcue library exposes GNOME Linux systems to remote code execution (RCE) attacks.

A University of Portsmouth physicist has explored whether a new law of physics could support the much-debated theory that we are simply characters in an advanced virtual world.

The simulated universe hypothesis proposes that what humans experience is actually an artificial reality, much like a computer simulation, in which they themselves are constructs.

The theory is popular among a number of well-known figures including Elon Musk, and within a branch of science known as information physics, which suggests physical reality is fundamentally made up of bits of information.

The M5Dial features a 1.28-inch round TFT touchscreen, a rotary encoder, an RFID detection module, an RTC circuit, a buzzer, and under-screen buttons, enabling users to easily implement a wide range of creative projects.

The main controller of M5Dial is M5StampS3, a micro module based on the ESP32-S3 chip known for its high performance and low power consumption. It supports Wi-Fi, as well as various peripheral interfaces such as SPI, I2C, UART, ADC, and more. M5StampS3 also comes with 8MB of built-in Flash, providing sufficient storage space for users.

Intel has been in the semiconductor chip manufacturing game for a while. Recently, it’s been looking to expand its foundries and production to the point where it could make cutting-edge chips for other companies, a territory we normally associate with TSMC and Samsung.

Currently, Intel is building and ramping up manufacturing in North America, Mexico, and Germany — and these foundries will be doing a lot more than simply creating chips for the latest generation of Core processors. Earlier this year, Intel and Arm announced a partnership to build mobile SoCs on Intel’s 18A process node, and we’ve even heard from the likes of NVIDIA stating that it’s open to working with Intel to produce its hardware.

All of this makes the recent statement from Darren Grasby, the executive vice president for strategic partnerships and president of AMD EMEA, a little shocking. His words were harsh when asked if Intel would succeed in its ambitious plans to build global foundries and develop and create chips for multiple companies. To say the least!

Continue reading “Asked if Intel can succeed in developing foundries and chips, AMD exec says, ‘Of course not’” »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nNiUBVwF-o

In the year 2001, the spaceship Discovery is betrayed by its on-board computer, HAL, while on a mission to Jupiter. Nine years later, with the United States and Russia on the brink of war, the superpowers launch a joint mission to return to the Discovery in 2010: The Year We Make Contact. During the three-year voyage to Jupiter, world war breaks out on Earth, threatening to extend to the spaceship. But the ghostly presence of Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea) of the Discovery crew intervenes, warning that something grand, dangerous and wonderful is about to occur…