The Category5.TV Newsroom

Here are the stories we're following for the week of Wednesday August 26, 2020

An update to Adobe's Lightroom app for iOS has wiped user photos with no chance to recover.

The latest update to Adobe's Lightroom app for iOS inadvertently wiped users’ photos and presets that were not already synced to the cloud, and Adobe has confirmed that there is no way to get them back.

The issue first cropped up on the Photoshop feedback forums last week, when the Lightroom app on iOS was updated to version 5.4. A user posted asking why all of his photos, presets, and watermark data had been removed after updating to the most recent version through the iOS app store.

This was followed by replies from other users saying that the same thing happened to them, whether or not they were subscription based or free. One user posted to Reddit’s r/Lightroom subreddit saying that they had lost “2+ years of edits” after the update.

Having spent more than 4 hours speaking with Adobe customer service, they report that adobe finally said "the issue has no fix and that these lost photos are unrecoverable." Adobe provided nothing more than an apology.

Confirming the user's claims, Adobe officially confirmed the issue on Wednesday, explaining that customers who updated to Lightroom 5.4 on iPhone and iPad “may be missing photos and presets,” that those photos and presets are “not recoverable,” and that they “sincerely apologize” to users who have been affected by the issue. Version 5.4.1 has already been released, fixing the issue, but it can do nothing about the lost data.

This serves as a strong reminder for photographers to always have a backup of your images, in multiple places, so you’re never subject to a single point of failure. Mistakes like this happen, even at some of the world’s largest companies.

Source: petapixel.com

Sent to us by: Robbie Ferguson

WSL2 is now available for Windows 10 1903 and 1909 users.

Microsoft is easing the requirement for Windows Subsystem for Linux 2. Instead of only working on Windows 10 2004 or higher, WSL also is now available for Windows 10 1903 and 1909 users.

Windows 10 users who wanted to work with the new Windows Subsystem for Linux version 2 needed to have the latest feature update for Windows: The Windows 10 May 2020 Update (a k a, Windows 10 2004). But on August 20, Microsoft made a surprise announcement: WSL2 has been backported to Windows 10 1903 and 1909, as well.

As it turns out, Microsoft has been working on bringing WSL2 to 1903 and 1909 for the last few months. They said in a blog post that the goal is for the backport to make WSL2 available to more Windows users. The backport will be for x64 systems only though; those using ARM64 still need to use Windows 10 2004 to get WSL2.

WSL2 is a much-reworked version of the original WSL. It changes how Linux distributions interact with Windows. As officials noted in today's post, each Linux distribution running on Windows 10 can run as WSL1 or WSL2 and can be switched at any time.

According to Microsoft, WSL2 provides a full Linux kernel built into WSL2; improved system call support for all Linux apps, including Docker, FUSE, rsync and more; and improved file system performance.

To get WSL2 for 1903 and 1909, users simply need to check for updates via Windows Update.

Source: www.zdnet.com

Sent to us by: Robbie Ferguson

The world's fastest Internet can download the entire Netflix library in less than a second.

A team of University College London engineers have set a new world record internet speed, and you won't believe how fast it is.

They've been able to achieve internet transmission speed a fifth faster than the previous record.

The research team led by Dr. Lidia Galdino, achieved a data transmission rate of 178 terabits a second. That's 178 million megabits a second. Compare that to the 50 megabits you're getting at home. At 178 terabits per second, it would be possible to download the entire Netflix library in less than a second.

The record, which is double the capacity of any system currently in use worldwide, was achieved by transmitting data through a much wider range of colors of light, or wavelengths, than is typically used in optical fiber. Current infrastructure uses a limited spectrum bandwidth of 4.5 Terahertz, with 9 Terahertz commercial bandwidth systems entering the market, whereas the researchers used a bandwidth of 16.8 Terahertz.

To do this, researchers combined different amplifier technologies needed to boost the signal power over this wider bandwidth and maximized speed by developing new patterns of signal combinations that make best use of the phase, brightness and polarization properties of the light. In this way, they were able to manipulate the properties of each individual wavelength.

A huge benefit of the technique is that it can be deployed on already existing infrastructure by simply upgrading the amplifiers that are located on optical fiber routes at 40-100km intervals. It would be shockingly cheap to perform such an upgrade. Upgrading an amplifier would cost around $21,000, or about $420 per kilometer if we upgraded every 50 kilometers. Compare that to installing new optical fibers, which can, in urban areas, cost up to 3/4 million dollars per kilometer.

Lead author Dr. Galdino, a Lecturer at UCL and a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellow, said: "While current state-of-the-art cloud data-center interconnections are capable of transporting up to 35 terabits a second, we are working with new technologies that utilize more efficiently the existing infrastructure, making better use of optical fiber bandwidth and enabling a world record transmission rate of 178 terabits a second."

The speed achieved is close to the theoretical limit of data transmission set out by American mathematician Claude Shannon in 1949.

Source: techxplore.com

Sent to us by: Robbie Ferguson

Hands-free driving could be made legal on UK roads by spring.

The UK government has said hands-free driving could be legal by spring next year.

The Department for Transport has issued a call for evidence into automated lane keeping systems.

Such technology controls a car's movements and can keep it in lane for extended periods, although drivers need to be ready to take back control.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders claims it could reduce the number of accidents.

The technology for a car to steer itself and stay in lane - even around curves - already exists in some modern cars, but the law says that drivers must remain alert and ready to take over instantly.

Tesla's so-called "Autopilot" is one well-known example. It is considered "level two" on the five defined levels of self-driving cars.

The next step - level three - would not need the driver's attention at all times, and in theory, the driver could do other things such as check email or even watch a movie - until the car prompts them to take over again.

Introducing those systems would require changes to current legal framework, something the DfT says it is now considering.

While the technology has been approved by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, it is limited to traffic jams, at speeds of up to 37mph.

The change could give the go ahead for speeds of up to 70mph in the UK, potentially making long stretches of tedious motorway driving a thing of the past.

The UK government wants to hear from people within the motoring industry to decide how to safely implement the technology. The consultation closes on October 27.

Source: www.bbc.com

Sent to us by: Roy W. Nash

A hyperloop may be coming to Alberta.

The government in Alberta Canada is backing the development of a high-speed hyperloop between Edmonton and Calgary.

Albertans could be among the first Canadians to travel by high-speed pods between cities, after the government of Alberta signed an agreement with Canadian transportation tech company TransPod to develop and test a high-speed hyperloop between Edmonton and Calgary.

Though no financial commitments have been made by the government, Alberta will support Toronto-based TransPod by sharing data, identifying land and participating in discussions with potential investors, according to the news release.

The project involves a short-term feasibility study ending in 2022; research and development ending in 2024; test track construction and use between 2024 and 2027; and the construction of a line between downtown Edmonton and downtown Calgary, to begin in 2025.

There are a handful of companies developing this technology — which allows pods to travel at high speeds in a low-pressure tube — with various projects in the early stages around the world. This would be the first such project in Canada.

The vehicles would travel up to 1,000 kilometres per hour, with an average speed of between 400 and 600 kilometres per hour.

Alberta’s hyperloop line would stop at the Edmonton and Calgary airports as well as Red Deer, he said, and the total moving time of the full line would be a half-hour.

The system would be powered by a mix of solar panels and electricity, and would mainly transport passengers and time-sensitive goods like mail or e-commerce products.

The $6-billion to $10-billion-dollar project would create jobs in a province where many oil and gas workers have lost their jobs in recent years, and position Alberta as a potential hub for technology.

Source: www.thestar.com

Sent to us by: Bekah Ferguson