Tag: Symbols

Astronomers spy a nearby, blazing hot super-Earth

Most exoplanets orbiting close to their stars don’t have atmospheres. But Gliese 486b – orbiting a red dwarf star only 24 light-years away – does. It’s close enough to see well. Astronomers will be watching it! Source: https://earthsky.org/space/gliese-486b-hot-super-earth-with-atmosphere…

GameStop, AMC Trading Now Being Restricted at TD Ameritrade, Schwab

Some major brokerage houses have begun to respond to a frenetic surge in the price of shares of companies that has been attributed to rabid buying by individual investors on social-media platforms. From a report: On Wednesday, TD Ameritrade said it was restricting trading for GameStop and AMC Entertainment Holdings, as well as other names, amid a triple-digit percentage surge in…

Study Finds Brain Activity of Coders Isn’t Like Language or Math

“When you do computer programming, what sort of mental work are you doing?” asks science/tech journalist Clive Thompson: For a long time, folks have speculated on this. Since coding involves pondering hierarchies of symbols, maybe the mental work is kinda like writing or reading? Others have speculated it’s more similar to the way our brains process math and puzzles. A group…

The Worst Passwords of 2020 Show We Are Just As Lazy About Security As Ever

After analyzing 275,699,516 passwords leaked during 2020 data breaches, NordPass and partners found that the most common passwords are incredibly easy to guess — and it could take less than a second or two for attackers to break into accounts using these credentials. Only 44% of those recorded were considered “unique.” ZDNet reports: On Wednesday, the password manager solutions provider published…

Is There a Better Way to Create Secure Passwords?

“Forget all the rules about uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols; your password just needs to be at least 12 characters, and it needs to pass a real-time strength test” developed by the passwords research group in Carnegie Mellon’s CyLab Security and Privacy Institute (according to the Lab’s web site). CNET reports:
After a user has created a password of at…

For U.S. Space Force Ranks, William Shatner Endorses ‘Starfleet Amendment’

America’s House of Representatives proposed a new structure for the U.S. Space Force in what’s being called “the Starfleet amendment”. Space News reports: Before the House passed the so-called “Starfleet” amendment, Space Force officials had been internally debating a new rank structure to set the space branch apart from its parent service the U.S. Air Force. The amendment in the House…

‘DiceKeys’ Creates a Master Password For Life With One Roll

Stuart Schechter, a computer scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, is launching DiceKeys, a simple kit for physically generating a single super-secure key that can serve as the basis for creating all the most important passwords in your life for years or even decades to come. Wired reports: With little more than a plastic contraption that looks a bit like…

Insights on Jupiter at opposition

Like so much in astronomy, Jupiter’s opposition happens in a way that’s cyclical. And the cycle of oppositions for Jupiter is especially pleasing to the mind. Astronomer Guy Ottewell offers his insights – and chart-making skills – to you during this 2020 opposition of our solar system’s largest planet. Source: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/jupiter-opposition-sagittarius-july-13-14-2020…

Where is Proxima Centauri?

You probably know the very nearest star to our sun is Proxima in the triple star system we call Alpha Centauri. Guy Ottewell shows you where in space Proxima is. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/where-is-proxima-centauri…