Webtagr - Technology News Summarizer

Open-Source Software's $8.8 Trillion Economic Impact: A Revolution Fueled by 3,000 Developers

2025-03-21

A Harvard Business School study reveals open-source software holds an $8.8 trillion economic value. Without it, companies would spend 3.5 times more on software. Around 3,000 developers globally contribute to 95% of this value, with open source present in 96% of all codebases. Researchers calculated value by assessing development costs (supply value: $4.15 billion) against the cost for companies to rebuild it themselves (demand value: $8.8 trillion). Go stands out with a demand value exceeding $5 trillion. The study highlights open source as a modern common good, urging corporate and governmental contributions and promotion.

(www.heise.de)

Tech economic value

Baltic Sea GPS Jamming: Ships Suspected as Culprits

2025-03-05

Polish researchers have linked massive GPS disruptions in the eastern Baltic Sea to ships operating in the region. Between June and December 2024, they detected 84 hours of GNSS interruptions in the Bay of Gdansk, primarily caused by jamming, not spoofing. October saw the peak of activity, with two types of interference identified, suggesting increasingly sophisticated techniques. The study highlights the urgent need for a dedicated GNSS interference monitoring network along the Baltic coast to address these growing threats to maritime navigation and safety.

(www.heise.de)

Tech GPS jamming Ships

Used Seagate Drives Masquerading as New: A Global Hard Drive Scam

2025-02-09

Online retailers are unknowingly selling used Seagate hard drives as new. Fraudsters have reset the SMART values of drives, often with an average runtime of 25,000 hours, and reintroduced them into the supply chain. While SMART values can be manipulated, the FARM values (Field Accessible Reliability Metrics) remain, revealing the drives' true age. The issue is global, affecting official dealers and impacting customers worldwide. Suspicion points to decommissioned Chia cryptocurrency farms as the source of these drives. Many drives are sold as OEM, lacking manufacturer warranties, making consumer recourse difficult. Buyers are urged to verify warranty status immediately upon receiving drives.

(www.heise.de)

Hardware hard drive scam Chia farms

Hacker Remotely Revives Dormant Satellite: Beesat-1 Back Online

2024-12-30

The TU Berlin's Beesat-1 test satellite, launched in 2009, fell silent in 2013. However, at the 38C3 conference, hacker PistonMiner revealed how they remotely resurrected the satellite. Identifying a software bug, not hardware failure, as the culprit, PistonMiner used a 'Frankenstein-Beesat' ground test model for debugging. A software update restored functionality, even reactivating a presumed-broken onboard camera. This feat not only brought the small satellite back to life but also offers a potential model for reviving other defunct satellites.

(www.heise.de)

Tech satellite repair software bug