Dominique Luchart's Blog, page 625
May 12, 2021
Amazon and WNBA strike multi-year streaming deal, Sam Byford
Photo by Jeff Bottari/NBAE via Getty ImagesAmazon and the Women’s National Basketball Association have announced a multi-year deal that’ll see several games streamed live on Prime Video. It’s the first time Amazon has ever secured exclusive Prime Video rights to pro basketball, following earlier forays into streaming sports content like Thursday Night Football and the Premier League. Amazon’s Twitch has also partnered with USA Basketball to stream international games from events like the FIBA World Cup.
The WNBA deal includes exclusive international streaming rights for 16 regular season games, as well as the inaugural Commissioner’s Cup game taking place on August 12. The WNBA says this “marks the first time Prime Video has exclusive global streaming rights to a women’s…
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Amazon and WNBA strike multi-year streaming deal,
Amazon and the Women’s National Basketball Association have announced a multi-year deal that’ll see several games streamed live on Prime Video. It’s the first time Amazon has ever secured exclusive Prime Video rights to pro basketball, following earlier forays into streaming sports content like Thursday Night Football and the Premier League. Amazon’s Twitch has also partnered with USA Basketball to stream international games from events like the FIBA World Cup.
The WNBA deal includes exclusive international streaming rights for 16 regular season games, as well as the inaugural Commissioner’s Cup game taking place on August 12. The WNBA says this “marks the first time Prime Video has exclusive global streaming rights to a women’s professional sports league,” but the rights don’t extend to every country — China, Japan, the UK, Italy, Spain, Finland, and Germany are all left out.
Here’s the schedule of regular season games coming to Prime Video this year:
Saturday, May 29 – Atlanta @ New York, 2 p.m. ETFriday, June 4 – Dallas @ Seattle, 10 p.m. ETSaturday, June 12 – Chicago @ Indiana, 1 p.m. ETWednesday, June 16 – Phoenix @ Los Angeles, 10:30 p.m. ETTuesday, June 22 – Chicago @ New York, 7 p.m. ETWednesday, June 30 – Las Vegas @ Los Angeles, 10:30 p.m. ETThursday, July 1 – Connecticut @ Indiana, 7 p.m. ETWednesday, July 7 – Phoenix @ Las Vegas, 10 p.m. ETSaturday, July 10 – Washington @ Chicago, 8 p.m. ETTuesday, August 17 – Minnesota @ Connecticut, 7 p.m. ETFriday, August 20 – Seattle @ New York, 7 p.m. ETThursday, August 26 – Dallas @ Washington, 7 p.m. ETTuesday, August 31 – New York @ Minnesota, 8 p.m. ETThursday, September 2 – New York @ Seattle, 10 p.m. ETTuesday, September 7 – Connecticut @ Dallas, 8 p.m. ETThursday, September 16 – Los Angeles @ Atlanta, 7 p.m. ETThe WNBA has experimented with several streaming platforms, as well as offering access to live games through its own League Pass service, which is similar to the NBA’s. Beyond Prime Video, the upcoming season will feature games streaming on platforms as diverse as Oculus, Facebook Watch, Paramount Plus, and ESPN’s various apps and networks.
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‘Misogynistic’ Apple hire is out hours after employees call for investigation, Zoe Schiffer
Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeAntonio García Martínez is no longer working at Apple hours after employees circulated a petition calling for an investigation into his hiring. Martínez, a former Facebook product manager on the ad targeting team, authored a controversial book about Silicon Valley where he expressed misogynistic views on women.
“We are deeply concerned about the recent hiring of Antonio García Martínez,” employees wrote in the petition. “His misogynistic statements in his autobiography — such as ‘Most women in the Bay Area are soft and weak, cosseted and naive despite their claims of worldliness, and generally full of shit’ (further quoted below this letter) — directly oppose Apple’s commitment to Inclusion & Diversity.”
More than 2,000 employees signed…
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‘Misogynistic’ Apple hire is out hours after employees call for investigation,
Antonio Garcia Martinez is no longer working at Apple hours after employees circulated a petition calling for an investigation into his hiring. Martinez, a former Facebook product manager on the ad targeting team, authored a controversial book about Silicon Valley where he expressed misogynistic views on women.
“We are deeply concerned about the recent hiring of Antonio Garcia Martinez,” employees wrote in the petition. “His misogynistic statements in his autobiography — such as ‘Most women in the Bay Area are soft and weak, cosseted and naive despite their claims of worldliness, and generally full of shit’ (further quoted below this letter) — directly oppose Apple’s commitment to Inclusion & Diversity.”
More than 2,000 employees signed the petition before it was published by The Verge.
Shortly after the petition began circulating internally at Apple, Martinez’s Slack account was deactivated. The ad platforms team was called into an emergency meeting where it was confirmed Martinez would no longer be working at the company.
In a statement emailed to The Verge, an Apple spokesperson said: “At Apple, we have always strived to create an inclusive, welcoming workplace where everyone is respected and accepted. Behavior that demeans or discriminates against people for who they are has no place here.”
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Watch an innovative robotic gripper snatch a single tiny grain of sand – CNET, Leslie Katz
Scientists create a gripper that could give robot hands a softer, more dexterous touch.
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Watch an innovative robotic gripper snatch a single tiny grain of sand – CNET,
If it’s true time slips through our fingers like sand, these soft robot grippers might be able to stop the clock.
GIF by CNETThe grippers cushion objects as they grasp, allowing the pincers to handle fragile, irregularly configured and slippery items. They can also be scaled up or down to conform to a range of shapes and sizes, making them capable of picking up everything from a plastic water bottle, a rock and a large binder clip down to a tiny grain of sand.
The researchers behind the grippers, engineers from Boston University, envision a number of potential applications. Perhaps most promising, the grabbers could attach to assistive devices like robotic hands to more closely mimic human fingers. Dexterity, especially when it comes to squishy objects, has proven a challenge in the quest to create lifelike robotic appendages.
“One benefit of these structures is that a very coarse movement can result in rather fine grasping,” says Douglas Holmes, a BU mechanical engineering professor and co-author of a new paper on the grippers that appears in Wednesday’s issue of the journal Science Robotics.
The BU boffins found inspiration for their grippers in the ancient Japanese art of kirigami, a type of origami that permits cutting paper rather than merely folding it into shapes. While they were studying the properties of flat kirigami sheets to better understand the potential engineering applications of shape-shifting structures, a happy accident occurred.
GIF by CNETMost kirigami sheets come on a roll, like wrapping paper. As anyone who’s wrapped a present knows, gift wrap comes off its cardboard roll slightly curved. So does kirigami paper.
“For one experiment we forgot to flatten the sheet, and when we pulled on the kirigami structure, much to our surprise, it made a grasping motion,” Holmes says.
That motion led the researchers to conceive of a flexible gripper made with a bendable thin elastic shell shaped like a four-petal flower and patterned with carefully positioned linear cuts like you’d see in a kirigami creation.
The pattern results in a scalable cell that can bend in 3D to pick up objects. It can function alone or be connected in a series to create kirigami gripper arrays capable of simultaneously grasping multiple delicate and slippery things.
Handy indeed.
Multiple gripper units can work together as an array to pick up a long object like a pencil.BU video screenshot by Leslie Katz/CNET
Sci-Tech
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A security researcher found Wi-Fi vulnerabilities that have existed since the beginning,
The security researcher who discovered the Krack Wi-Fi vulnerability has discovered a slew of other flaws with the wireless protocol most of us use to power our online lives (via Gizmodo). The vulnerabilities relate to how Wi-Fi handles large chunks of data, with some being related to the Wi-Fi standard itself, and some being related to how it’s implemented by device manufacturers.
The researcher, Mathy Vanhoef, calls the collection of vulnerabilities “FragAttacks,” with the name being a mashup of “fragmentation” and “aggregation.” He also says the vulnerabilities could be exploited by hackers, allowing them to intercept sensitive data, or show users fake websites, even if they’re using Wi-Fi networks secured with WPA2 or even WPA3. They could also theoretically exploit other devices on your home network.
There are twelve different attack vectors that fall under the classification, which all work in different ways. One exploits routers accepting plaintext during handshakes, one exploits routers caching data in certain types of networks, etc. If you want to read all the technical details on how exactly they work, you can check out Vanhoef’s website.
According to The Record, Vanhoef informed the WiFi Alliance about the vulnerabilities that were baked-in to the way Wi-Fi works so they could be corrected before he disclosed them to the public. Vanhoef says that he’s not aware of the vulnerabilities being exploited in the wild. While he points out in a video that some of the vulnerabilities aren’t particularly easy to exploit, he says others would be “trivial” to take advantage of.
Vanhoef points out that some of the flaws can be exploited on networks using the WEP security protocol, indicating that they’ve been around since Wi-Fi was first implemented in 1997 (though if you’re still using WEP, these attacks should be the least of your concerns).
[embedded content]Vanhoef says that the flaws are wide-spread, affecting many devices, meaning that there’s a lot of updating to do.
The thing about updating Wi-Fi infrastructure is that it’s always a pain. For example, before writing this article I went to check if my router had any updates, and realized that I had forgotten my login information (and I suspect I won’t be alone in that experience). There’s also devices that are just plain old, whose manufacturers are either gone or not releasing patches anymore. If you can, though, you should keep an eye on your router manufacturer’s website for any updates that are rolling out, especially if they’re in the advisory list.
Some vendors have already released patches for some of their products, including:
MicrosoftEeroArubaCisco RuckusIntelJuniperLancom LenovoLinux WirelessMistNetgearSamsungSynologyZyxelAs for anything else you need to do, Vanhoef recommends the usual steps: keep your computers updated, use strong, unique passwords, don’t visit shady sites, and make sure you’re using HTTPS as often as possible. Other than that, it’s mostly being thankful that you’re not in charge of widespread IT infrastructure (my deepest condolences if you, in fact, are).
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A security researcher found Wi-Fi vulnerabilities that have existed since the beginning, Mitchell Clark
Illustrator by Alex Castro / The VergeThe security researcher who discovered the Krack Wi-Fi vulnerability has discovered a slew of other flaws with the wireless protocol most of us use to power our online lives (via Gizmodo). The vulnerabilities relate to how Wi-Fi handles large chunks of data, with some being related to the Wi-Fi standard itself, and some being related to how it’s implemented by device manufacturers.
The researcher, Mathy Vanhoef, calls the collection of vulnerabilities “FragAttacks,” with the name being a mashup of “fragmentation” and “aggregation.” He also says the vulnerabilities could be exploited by hackers, allowing them to intercept sensitive data, or show users fake websites, even if they’re using Wi-Fi networks secured with WPA2 or even WPA3. They…
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Intel is using machine learning to make GTA V look incredibly, unsettlingly realistic,
One of the more impressive aspects of Grand Theft Auto V is how closely the game’s San Andreas approximates real-life Los Angeles and Southern California, but a new machine learning project from Intel Labs called “Enhancing Photorealism Enhancement” might take that realism in a unsettlingly photorealistic direction (via Gizmodo).
Putting the game through the processes researchers Stephan R. Richter, Hassan Abu Alhaija, and Vladlen Kolten created produces a surprising result: a visual look that has unmistakable similarities to the kinds of photos you might casually take through the smudged front window of your car. You have to see it in motion to really appreciate it, but the combination of slightly washed-out lighting, smoother pavement, and believably reflective cars just sells the fact you’re looking out at the real street from a real dashboard, even if it’s all virtual.
[embedded content]The Intel researchers suggest some of that photorealism comes from the datasets they fed their neural network. The group offers a more in-depth and thorough explanation for how image enhancement actually works in their paper (PDF), but as I understand it, the Cityscapes Dataset that was used — built largely from photographs of German streets — filled in a lot of the detail. It’s dimmer and from a different angle, but it almost captures what I imagine a smoother, more interactive version of scrolling through Google Maps’ Street View could be like. It doesn’t entirely behave like it’s real, but it looks very much like it’s built from real things.
The researchers say their enhancements go beyond what other photorealistic conversion processes are capable of by also integrating geometric information from GTA V itself. Those “G-buffers,” as the researchers call them, can include data like the distance between objects in the game and the camera, and the quality of textures, like the glossiness of cars.
While you might not see an official “photorealism update” roll out to GTA V tomorrow, you may have already played a game or watched a video that’s benefited from another kind of machine learning — AI upscaling. The process of using machine learning smarts to blow up graphics to higher resolutions doesn’t show up everywhere, but has been featured in Nvidia’s Shield TV and in several different mod projects focused on upgrading the graphics of older games. In those cases a neural network is making predictions to fill in missing pixels of detail from a lower resolution game, movie, or TV show to reach those higher resolutions.
Photorealism probably shouldn’t be the only graphical goal for video games to have (artistry aside, it looks kind of creepy), but this Intel Labs project does show there’s probably as much room to grow on the software side of things as there is in the raw GPU power of new consoles and gaming PCs.
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Abundant harvest in Antarctic greenhouse shows promise for moon agriculture, ,
A team of scientists overwintering at a remote station in Antarctica has harvested crops grown in a high-tech greenhouse designed to test technologies that could one day feed explorers on the moon and Mars.
The greenhouse, called EDEN ISS, is run by the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), which cooperates with NASA on space agriculture research. Currently in its fourth season, the greenhouse grows plants aeroponically, which means that the roots of the plants are suspended in air; nutrients and water are delivered in the form of a specially formulated mist, without the presence of soil.
The greenhouse is part of the Neumayer Station III, an Antarctic research station operated by Germany’s Alfred Wegener Institute of the Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven.
Every day, NASA botanist Jess Bunchek, one of the 10 crew members of the current 14-month mission, has to venture out 1,300 feet (400 meters) to the 40-foot (12 m) container to check on the crops.
Related: Could space greenhouses solve Earth’s food crisis?
During a joint DLR/NASA news conference held on Tuesday (May 4), Bunchek connected right from the greenhouse, admitting that the trek might not always be pleasant. With temperatures plunging as low as minus 58 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 50 degrees Celsius), winds that often match those of a hurricane, and frequent whiteouts, the greenhouse keeper sometimes only has a handrail to guide her to her workplace.
However, Bunchek said, the work pays off: Both eating fresh vegetables and being in the presence of green plants have an enormously uplifting effect on the isolated explorers.
“I have been here for a few months and I can say that this is the favorite part of my day. I find that my energy gets lifted up in here,” Bunchek reported from the greenhouse. “We don’t have a lot of stimulation for the senses: no trees, no greenery. In fact, our day length right now is heavily decreasing. Being here for over a year, we go through a lot of sensory deprivation.”
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NASA scientist Jess Bunchek harvesting arugula grown in the German Aerospace Centre’s EDEN ISS greenhouse in Antarctica, which tests technologies for Martian and lunar agriculture. (Credit: AWI/Baden) (Image credit: AWI/Baden) As close to Mars as one can getDLR chose to locate the experimental module at the Neumayer Station exactly because of the unforgiving environment, which is as close as one can get to lunar or Martian conditions on Earth, Daniel Schubert, EDEN ISS project leader at the DLR Institute of Space Systems in Bremen, said during the same news conference.
The greenhouse features 130 square feet (12 square meters) of growing area, enough to provide the crew with plentiful fresh produce to spice up their diet of long shelf-life food.
“We are implementing three major technologies to cultivate the plants,” Schubert said. “We use water-cooled LED lights to provide the light, we spray the plant roots every five minutes with a nutrient solution and we inject carbon dioxide into the atmosphere around the crops and control humidity and temperature.”
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The German Aerospace Centre’s EDEN ISS greenhouse is located 1,300 feet away from the Neumayer Station III in Antarctica. (Credit: DLR/NASA/Bunchek) (Image credit: DLR/NASA/Bunchek)Flight-ready by 2030The irrigation and nutrient delivery systems run completely autonomously, Schubert said, allowing Bunchek to focus on her scientific work, which involves studying the nutrient profiles of the crops to help select the best, most nutritious varieties to send to space.
Autonomy is an important requirement for a future greenhouse on the surface of the moon or Mars, as crew members on such missions will not have time for burdensome gardening.
Schubert said DLR is already working on technologies that would further improve the autonomy of the greenhouse as the agency moves towards building an Earth-based lunar greenhouse demonstrator by 2025.
“We are working on the development of a robotic arm that could, with the help of artificial intelligence, harvest cucumbers, treat the plants and cut leaves,” Schubert said. “We are also developing big-data applications that would help mitigate risks inside the container.”
By 2030, Schubert said, the space agency hopes to have a ready-to-use design for building an actual lunar greenhouse.
A greenhouse on the moon or Mars will have to be part of a closed-loop system that will recycle human waste and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to provide food and oxygen for the crew. So far, EDEN ISS runs in what Schubert described as a semi-closed loop mode, collecting evaporating water through a dehumidification system.
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The Neumayer Station III, located on the Ekstrom Ice Shelf in Antarctica, faces extreme weather conditions most of the year. (Credit: DLR) (Image credit: DLR)Best arugula I have ever eatenBunchek, who also works on the NASA Vegetable Production System (Veggie), a mini-garden producing fresh greens on the International Space Station, said the plants seem to thrive in the high-tech greenhouse and don’t lag behind conventionally grown crops.
“The rucola [arugula] that we harvested has been the best I have ever had,” Bunchek said. “Wonderful flavor.”
The expedition scientists are already looking forward to the crop of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, broccoli and cauliflower.
“There are hundreds of tomatoes forming, although nothing has ripened yet,” Bunchek said. “This is also the first time that we have grown broccoli and cauliflower inside the greenhouse, which is very exciting because we didn’t expect the cauliflower to put out any heads. We just expected it to be leaves, so that was a really nice surprise.”
How to feed a crew on MarsTo fully meet the nutritional needs of a crew on Mars or the moon, such a greenhouse would need an area of 430 to 540 square feet (40 to 50 square meters) per crew member, according to Ray Wheeler, a plant biologist at NASA Kennedy Space Center, who also spoke at the news conference.
Schubert, however, added that the space agencies are looking at what they call hybrid food strategy, which combines freshly grown crops with supplies from Earth.
“We will produce the high water-content crops, like those we have in the EDEN ISS container, directly on site, on the Martian surface,” Schubert said. “And we will take stuff like rice, wheat, corn and potato powder with us, because that you can store very easily, you don’t have to freeze-dry it and it’s very easy to transport.”
Wheeler added that some researchers are studying the possibility to add a source of animal-based protein into a future space agriculture facility in the form of insects that would feed on the inedible parts of the harvested plants.
“You could recover some food from this inedible plant material that might be considered waste,” Wheeler said. “There are ways of generating and recovering some food using some sort of secondary consumers of the inedible biomass. If you choose the right organisms, you might get high value food. You could also use fungi and mushrooms.”
The technology could also be used in the future in urban greenhouses and vertical farms to help boost agricultural productivity across the world, Bunchek added.
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