Rohingya refugees made permanent: A cycle repeated AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at August 27, 2018, 11:30 pm)

New infrastructure in Bangladesh's Rohingya camps, coupled with a stalled repatriation deal, spell out a permanent stay for refugees.
GlobalFoundries Stops All 7nm Development: Opts To Focus on Specialized Processes Slashdotby msmash on amd at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at August 27, 2018, 11:05 pm)

GlobalFoundries has made a major strategy shift announcement. The contract maker of semiconductors says it is ceasing development of bleeding edge manufacturing technologies and stop all work on its 7LP (7 nm) fabrication processes, which will not be used for any client. From a report: Instead, the company will focus on specialized process technologies for clients in emerging high-growth markets. These technologies will initially be based on the company's 14LPP/12LP platform and will include RF, embedded memory, and low power features. Because of the strategy shift, GF will cut 5% of its staff as well as renegotiate its WSA and IP-related deals with AMD and IBM. GlobalFoundries was on track to tape out its clients' first chips made using its 7 nm process technology in the fourth quarter of this year, but "a few weeks ago" the company decided to take a drastic strategical turn, says Gary Patton. The CTO stressed that the decision was made not based on technical issues that the company faced, but on a careful consideration of business opportunities the company had with its 7LP platform as well as financial concerns. On the heels of this announcement, AMD said today that it will move all of its 7nm production on both CPUs and GPUs to TSMC.

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Ethiopia arrests ex-Somali region head over rights abuses AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at August 27, 2018, 11:00 pm)

Abdi Mohamed Omar arrested on charges of human rights abuses and stoking deadly ethnic clashes in restive region.
Pakistan condemns blasphemous Dutch cartoon contest AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at August 27, 2018, 11:00 pm)

Senate passes resolution decrying Prophet Muhammad caricature competition planned by far-right Dutch politician.
US judge extends ban on release of 3-D printed gun blueprints AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at August 27, 2018, 11:00 pm)

Judge extends order blocking the online distribution of files for printing plastic guns until the case is resolved.
Will the largest dam in Africa ever be completed? AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at August 27, 2018, 11:00 pm)

The multi-billion dollar project has been dogged by disputes and delays.
Algeria's Bouteflika in Geneva for 'periodic medical checks' AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at August 27, 2018, 11:00 pm)

President Bouteflika has made similar trips in the past, including the Val-de-Grace hospital in Paris, for treatment.
Federal Judge Rules Against Trump Administration on 3-D Gun Blueprint Case Slashdotby msmash on usa at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at August 27, 2018, 10:35 pm)

A federal judge on Monday issued a preliminary injunction continuing a prohibition on the Trump administration proposal to make available blueprints for so-called ghost guns, untraceable weapons that can be manufactured on a 3-D printer, California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra said. From a report: California was one of 20 states led by Washington that won the decision from U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik in Seattle. The injunction extends a ruling last month that barred the Trump administration from taking steps that would allow the firm Defense Distributed to disseminate 3-D gun blueprints. "When the Trump Administration inexplicably gave the green light to distribute on the internet blueprints of 3D-printed, untraceable ghost guns, it needlessly endangered our children, our loved ones and our men and women in law enforcement," Becerra said in a statement. "The Trump Administration's actions were dangerous and incompetent."

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Report: Saudi's King Salman blocked public listing of Aramco AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at August 27, 2018, 10:00 pm)

Move to halt oil giant's $100bn initial public offering seen as king's way to keep the crown prince's power in check.
Journalists demand justice after Bosnian reporter badly beaten AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at August 27, 2018, 10:00 pm)

Media workers in Bosnia are routinely subjected to verbal attacks, threats and libel lawsuits.
Raspberry Pi's PoE HAT Ships For $20, Tosses in a Free Fan Slashdotby msmash on hardware at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at August 27, 2018, 9:35 pm)

Raspberry Pi is offering a Power-over-Ethernet HAT board for the RPi 3 Model B+ for $20 that ships with a small fan. Per blog LinuxGizmo, the "802.3af-compliant 'Raspberry Pi PoE HAT' allows delivery of up to 15W over the RPi 3 B+'s USB-based GbE port without reducing the port's up to 300Mbps bandwidth." From the report: The Raspberry Pi PoE HAT features a fully isolated switched-mode power supply with 37-57V DC, Class 2 input and 5V/2.5A DC output. The HAT connects to both the 40-pin header and a new PoE-specific 4-pin header introduced with the B+ located near the USB ports. To enable PoE, you need power sourcing equipment, which is either "provided by your network switch or with power injectors on an Ethernet cable," writes the foundation in a blog post.

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Ubuntu and CentOS Are Undoing a GNOME Security Feature Slashdotby msmash on gnome at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at August 27, 2018, 9:05 pm)

An anonymous reader writes: Current versions of Ubuntu and CentOS are disabling a security feature that was added to the GNOME desktop environment last year. The feature's name is Bubblewrap, which is a sandbox environment that the GNOME Project added to secure GNOME's thumbnail parsers in July 2017, with the release of GNOME 3.26. In recent years, security researchers have proven that thumbnail parses can be an attack vector [1, 2, 3]. Ubuntu Security Tech Lead Alex Murray said the Ubuntu team chose to disable Bubblewrap inside Ubuntu because they did not have the time to perform a security audit. Murray blamed the many CPU bugs (Spectre, Meltdown, etc.), which kept the team busy and prevented them to audit the feature.

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Egypt: Security forces kill 5 armed men in southern Egypt AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at August 27, 2018, 9:00 pm)

Interior ministry said attackers killed after they opened fire on security forces during an early morning raid.
US, Mexico reach NAFTA deal as attention turns to Canada AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at August 27, 2018, 9:00 pm)

Trump pledges to 'get rid' of NAFTA after months of negotiations over the trilateral trade deal.
Smart Tags Add Touch Controls To Ordinary Objects Slashdotby msmash on communications at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at August 27, 2018, 8:35 pm)

The idea of an inexpensive tag capable of transforming any object into a smart device is not necessarily new. But most cheap smart tags that lack batteries or complicated electronics can only perform simple functions, such as passively storing and sharing identifying information about an object. A new technology promises to change that. From a report: By comparison, new LiveTag technology allows for interactive controls or keypads that can stick onto objects, walls, or even clothing, and let people remotely operate music players or receive hydration reminders based on the amount of liquid remaining in a water bottle. "These tags can sense the status of everyday objects and humans, and also sense human interactions with plain everyday objects," says Xinyu Zhang, assistant professor in electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, San Diego. Zhang and his colleagues at the University of Wisconsin -- Madison developed the LiveTag technology after brainstorming about ways to easily incorporate ordinary objects into the Internet of Things without adding costly hardware and batteries. Their LiveTag designs and early prototypes are detailed in a paper [PDF] posted on the University of Wisconsin website. The basic LiveTag technology seems deceptively simple: copper foil printed onto lightweight paper-like materials without any batteries or discrete electronic components. The key is in the geometric copper foil patterns that are designed to absorb Wi-Fi signals of specific frequencies, even as the overall tag generally reflects 2.4/5 GHz signals from nearby Wi-Fi device transmitters.

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