Zen Browser: a New Firefox-based Alternative to Chromium Browsers

First released on July 11th, the Firefox-based Zen browser is "taking a different approach to the user interface," according to the blog It's FOSS.

The Register says the project "reminds us strongly of Arc, a radical Chromium-based web browser... to modernize the standard web browser UI by revising some fundamental assumptions."
[Arc] removes the URL bar from front and center, gets rid of the simple flat list of tabs, and so on. Zen is trying to do some similar things, but in a slightly more moderate way — and it's doing it on the basis of Mozilla's Firefox codebase... Instead of the tired old horizontal tab bar you'll see in both Firefox and Chrome, Zen implements its own tab bar... By default, this tab bar is narrow and just shows page icons — but there are some extra controls at the bottom of the sidebar, one of which expands the sidebar to show page titles too. For us, it worked better than Vivaldi's fancier sidebar.

The article concludes it's "a new effort to modernize web browsing by bringing tiling, workspaces, and so on — and it's blissfully free of Google code." One Reddit comment swooned over Zen's "extraordinary" implementation of a distraction-free "Compact Mode" (hiding things like the sidebar and top bar). And It's Foss described it as a "tranquil," browser, "written using CSS, C++, JavaScript, and a few other programming languages, with a community of over 30 people contributing to it."

The layout of the interface felt quite clean to me; there were handy buttons on the top to control the webpage, manage extensions, and a menu with additional options... The split-view functionality allows you to open up two different tabs on the same screen, allowing for easy multitasking when working across different webpages... I split two tabs, but in my testing, I could split over 10+ tabs... If you have a larger monitor, then you are in for a treat... The Zen Sidebar feature... can run web apps alongside any open tabs. This can be helpful in situations where you need to quickly access a service like a note-taking app, Wikipedia, Telegram, and others.

On the customization side of things, you will find that Zen Browser supports everything that Firefox does, be it the settings, adding new extensions/themes/plugins, etc.

The Register points out it's easy to give it a try. "Being based on Firefox means that as well as running existing extensions, it can connect to Mozilla's Sync service and pick up not just your bookmarks, but also your tabs from other instances."

And beyond all that, "There's just something satisfying about switching browsers every now and again..." argues the tech site Pocket-Lint:

Zen Browser's vertical tabs layout is superb and feels much better than anything available in standard Firefox. [Firefox recently offered vertical tabs and a new sidebar experience in Nightly/Firefox Labs 131.] The tab bar can be set to automatically hide and show up whenever you hover near it, and it also contains quick access buttons to bookmarks, settings, and browsing history. The tab bar also contains a profile switcher...
One of the greatest parts of the Zen Browser is the community that has popped up around it. At its heart, Zen Browser is a community-driven project... Zen Browser themes are aesthetic and functional tweaks to the UI. While there aren't a ton available right now, the ones that are show a lot of promise for the browser's future... I've personally gotten great use out of the Super URL Bar theme, which makes your URL bar expand and become the focus of your screen while typing in it... There's a lot you can do to make Zen Browser feel nearly exactly like what you want it to feel like.

"Where Zen truly shines is it offers a range of customisation, tab management, and workspace management..." writes the Business Standard

Their theme store offers a range of options, including modifications to the bookmark toolbar, a floating URL bar, private mode theming, and removal of browser padding. In addition to these, users can also choose from custom colour schemes and built-in theming options... The Sidebar is another neat feature which allows you to open tabs in a smaller, smartphone-sized window. You can view websites in mobile layout by using this panel.

It's "focused on being always at the latest version of Firefox," according to its official site, noting that Firefox is known for its security features. But then, "We also have additional security features like https only built into Zen Browser to help keep you safe online." And it also promises automated Releases "to ensure security."

It's FOSS adds that you can get Zen Browser for Linux, Windows, and macOS from its official website (adding "They also offer it on the Flathub store for further accessibility on Linux.")
And its source code is available on GitHub.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/09/23/0353206/zen-browser-a-new-firefox-based-alternative-to-chromium-browsers?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/09/23/0353206/zen-browser-a-new-firefox-based-alternative-to-chromium-browsers?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Germany Seizes 47 Crypto Exchanges Used By Ransomware Gangs

German law enforcement seized 47 cryptocurrency exchange services "that facilitated illegal money laundering activities for cybercriminals," according to BleepingComputer, "including ransomware gangs."

Long-time Slashdot reader Arrogant-Bastard shares their report:
The platforms allowed users to exchange cryptocurrencies without following applicable "Know Your Customer" regulations, meaning that users remained completely anonymous when making transactions. This created a low-risk environment for cybercriminals to launder their proceeds without fearing prosecution or being tracked. "Exchange services that enable such anonymous financial transactions and thus money laundering represent one of the most relevant building blocks in the criminal value chain of the cybercrime phenomenon," reads a Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) announcement...

When visiting any of the seized exchanges, you are now redirected to a warning page titled "Operation Final Exchange," which warns visitors that they have been deceived by the promises of anonymity by the operators of these platforms.
The new site notes years-long promises from the exchanges "that their hosting cannot be found, that they do not store any customer data and that all data is deleted immediately after the transaction...

"We have found their servers and seized them — development servers, production servers, backup servers. We have their data — and therefore we have your data. Transactions, registration data, IP addresses.

"Our search for traces begins. See you soon."

https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/09/23/0018238/germany-seizes-47-crypto-exchanges-used-by-ransomware-gangs?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/09/23/0018238/germany-seizes-47-crypto-exchanges-used-by-ransomware-gangs?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


How Cyprus Became a World Leader In Solar Heating

The republic of Cyprus "has outstripped all other EU member states in embracing hot-water solar systems," reports the Guardian, "with an estimated 93.5 % of households exploiting the alternative energy form for domestic needs."

EU figures show the eastern Mediterranean island exceeding renewable energy targets set in the heating and cooling of buildings thanks to the widespread use of the solar thermal technology... [First introduced in the late 1960s], the solar thermal systems not only collected solar energy as heat — usually generated through electricity and the burning of fossil fuels — they were extremely cost-effective and had helped spawn an entire industry [says Charalampos Theopemptou, the island's first environment commissioner and the head of the Cypriot parliament's environment committee].

"It's been great for low-income families and then there's the jobs: so many have been generated," the MP says. "There are the local manufacturers who produce the parts and then all the people who are trained to install them. It's big business." In his role as environment commissioner, Theopemptou pushed hard to make the solar systems obligatory on all newly constructed residential and commercial buildings... The popularity of the water heaters is such that a union of local solar thermal industrialists was established in 1977. Since then, more than 962,564 square cubic metres of "solar [panel] collectors" have been installed, the union says. Increasingly, the country's vibrant tourist industry has also resorted to the green solution with solar-powered hot water systems deployed in, they say, close to 100% of hotels...

For Demetra Asprou, a retired engineer, it's obvious that a region blessed with more than 300 days of sunshine a year should embrace solar energy. "It reduces electricity costs, increases the efficiency with which hot water is provided and is kind to the environment," she says. "Why would anyone use other, more traditional means to heat up water when only a few hours of sunlight, between 11am and 2pm, is enough for a 200-litre [44-gallon] tank to be filled with warm water that will last 48 hours? On days when there is no sunlight, which is rare, you always have electricity as a backup if necessary... Installation costs may be three times higher today, but there are EU-funded grants that the government hands out and within a year it's all paid off," she says. "After that, you basically have free hot water and see your electricity bills greatly reduced. In a country like Cyprus, it's a no-brainer."
Thanks to Slashdot reader votsalo for sharing the article.

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/24/09/23/000233/how-cyprus-became-a-world-leader-in-solar-heating?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/24/09/23/000233/how-cyprus-became-a-world-leader-in-solar-heating?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Windows PowerShell Phish Uses Fake CAPTCHA, Downloads Credential Stealer

"Many GitHub users this week received a novel phishing email warning of critical security holes in their code," reports Krebs on Security — citing an email shared by one of his readers:

"Hey there! We have detected a security vulnerability in your repository. Please contact us at https://github-scanner[.]com to get more information on how to fix this issue...." Clicking the "I'm not a robot" button generates a pop-up message asking the user to take three sequential steps to prove their humanity. Step 1 involves simultaneously pressing the keyboard key with the Windows icon and the letter "R," which opens a Windows "Run" prompt that will execute any specified program that is already installed on the system.

Step 2 asks the user to press the "CTRL" key and the letter "V" at the same time, which pastes malicious code from the site's virtual clipboard. Step 3 — pressing the "Enter" key — causes Windows to launch a PowerShell command, and then fetch and execute a malicious file from github-scanner[.]com called "l6e.exe...." According to an analysis at the malware scanning service Virustotal.com, the malicious file downloaded by the pasted text is called Lumma Stealer, and it's designed to snarf any credentials stored on the victim's PC.

Even though this might fool some users, Krebs points out that Microsoft "strongly advises against nixing PowerShell because some core system processes and tasks may not function properly without it. What's more, doing so requires tinkering with sensitive settings in the Windows registry..."

Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader sinij for sharing the article.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/09/22/2322247/windows-powershell-phish-uses-fake-captcha-downloads-credential-stealer?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/09/22/2322247/windows-powershell-phish-uses-fake-captcha-downloads-credential-stealer?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Amazon Ads Launches a New AI Video Generator

Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes: On Thursday, Amazon Ads announced Video Generator and Live Image, "our first generative AI-powered technology designed to remove creative barriers and enable brands to produce lifestyle imagery that enhances ad performance."

Amazon's blog post calls it "a new feature that uses generative AI technology to make it easier for advertisers to create more interesting and relevant video ads for customers. The new feature, Video generator, creates visually rich video content in a matter of minutes and at no additional cost. Using a single product image, Video generator curates custom AI-generated videos tailored to a product's distinct selling proposition and features, leveraging Amazon's unique insights to vividly bring a product story to life." An accompanying video demonstrates how Amazon's AI-powered tech can be used to animate still images, making it appear that steam is rising from a coffee mug, flowers are being blown in the wind, the night sky is changing breathtakingly behind a telescope, and that waves are breaking behind a smart speaker at the beach.

https://slashdot.org/story/24/09/22/2023205/amazon-ads-launches-a-new-ai-video-generator?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://slashdot.org/story/24/09/22/2023205/amazon-ads-launches-a-new-ai-video-generator?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Internal Google Emails Presented at Antitrust Trial

In the antitrust trial alleging Google had an ad-selling monopoly, "government lawyers have said some of their strongest evidence is in Google's own internal communications," reports the Wall Street Journal:
[In 2010] a new crop of ad-tech companies were threatening Google's bottom line. "One way to make sure we don't get further behind in the market is picking up the one with the most traction and parking it somewhere..." [wrote YouTube Chief Executive Neal Mohan, who previously ran Google's display-ads business]. Google ended up buying one such company, AdMeld, for $400 million in 2011. Google shut down AdMeld two years later, after incorporating some of the startup's technology into its ad exchange, known commonly as AdX.

The Justice Department argued that AdMeld was part of a larger trend: Google acquiring nascent rivals to corner the market and then locking customers into using its products by conditioning access to one software tool on them paying for another... In a 2016 email introduced by the government, Google executive Jonathan Bellack asked colleagues: "Is there a deeper issue with us owning the platform, the exchange, and a huge network? The analogy would be if Goldman or Citibank owned the NYSE [New York Stock Exchange]...." The Justice Department also cited a 2018 email from another then-executive, Chris LaSala, who raised concerns internally over the 20% cut that Google takes from many of its AdX customers, saying Google was extracting "irrationally high rent" from users. "I don't think there is 20% of value in comparing two bids," wrote LaSala. "AdX is not providing additional liquidity to the market. It is simply running the auction."

Another former Google executive, Eisar Lipkovitz, testified that Google's omnipresence in ad-tech gives rise to conflicts of interest. Lipkovitz was rebuffed when he tried to get Google to lower the cut it took from AdX, he testified in a prerecorded deposition. The Justice Department finished presenting its case on Friday. Other witnesses included Google customers. One was Stephanie Layser, a former News Corp executive, who said she felt she had no choice but to use Google technology because the search giant has such market power that switching to another ad server would have meant losing out on millions in advertising revenue.
Google's lawyer countered that "There will be no witness in this case who can say with clarity where this industry is going in the next five years."

Or, as the Wall Street Journal puts it, "It makes no sense to focus on display ads, Google argues, when the industry is shifting to apps, social media and streaming services. Far from monopolizing the space, Google is actually losing ground, Google lawyer Karen Dunn said in her opening trial statement..."

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/09/22/1949223/internal-google-emails-presented-at-antitrust-trial?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/09/22/1949223/internal-google-emails-presented-at-antitrust-trial?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


AI Smackdown: How a New FTC Rule Also Fights Fake Product Reviews

Salon looks closer at a new $51,744-per-violation AI regulation officially approved one month ago by America's FTC — calling it a financial blow "If you're a digital media company whose revenue comes from publishing AI-generated articles and fake product reviews.

But they point out the rules also ban "product review suppression."

Per the ruling, that means it's a violation for "anyone to use an unfounded or groundless legal threat, a physical threat, intimidation, or a public false accusation in response to a consumer review... to (1) prevent a review or any portion thereof from being written or created, or (2) cause a review or any portion thereof to be removed, whether or not that review or a portion thereof is replaced with other content."

Finally... The rule makes it a violation for a business to "provide compensation or other incentives in exchange for, or conditioned expressly or by implication on, the writing or creation of consumer reviews expressing a particular sentiment, whether positive or negative, regarding the product, service or business...." [T]he new rule also prevents secretly advertising for yourself while pretending to be an independent outlet or company. It bars "the creation or operation of websites, organizations or entities that purportedly provide independent reviews or opinions of products or services but are, in fact, created and controlled by the companies offering the products or services."

In 	an earlier statement, FTC Consumer Protection Bureau head Sam Levine, said the new rule "should help level the playing field for honest companies. We're using all available means to attack deceptive advertising in the digital age," he said.

Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader mspohr for sharing the article.

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/09/22/1910230/ai-smackdown-how-a-new-ftc-rule-also-fights-fake-product-reviews?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/09/22/1910230/ai-smackdown-how-a-new-ftc-rule-also-fights-fake-product-reviews?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


California Drivers May Soon Get Mandatory In-Car Speed Warnings Like the EU

"Exceed the speed limit in one of the 27 European Union countries, and you may get some pushback from your vehicle," reports Car and Driver. "As of July, new cars sold in the EU must include a speed-warning device that alerts drivers if they exceed the posted limit."

The warnings can be ither acoustic or haptic, "though the European Commission gives automakers the latitude to supplant those passive measures with either an active accelerator pedal that applies counterpressure against the driver's foot or a governor that restricts the vehicle's speed to the legal limit."

Drivers can override or deactivate these admonishments, but the devices must default to their active state at startup.

Now California is looking to emulate the EU with legislation that would mandate in-car speed-warning devices [for driving more than 10 miles per hour over the speed limit — in "just about every 2030 model-year vehicle equipped with either GPS or a front-facing camera"].
The article cites statistics that 18% of those drivers involved in fatal crashes were speeding.
Although the projects director at the European Transport Safety Council also acknowledges the systems may struggle to identify speed limits from passing signs — and that their testing shows the systems generally irritate drivers, who often deactivate the systems...
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader sinij for sharing the article.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/09/22/0238234/california-drivers-may-soon-get-mandatory-in-car-speed-warnings-like-the-eu?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/09/22/0238234/california-drivers-may-soon-get-mandatory-in-car-speed-warnings-like-the-eu?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Scientists Again Link Covid Pandemic Origin to Wuhan Market Animals

The Washington Post reports:

An international team of scientists published a peer-reviewed paper Thursday saying genetic evidence indicates the coronavirus pandemic most likely originated with a natural spillover from an animal or animals sold in a market in Wuhan, China, where many of the first human cases of covid-19 were identified. The paper, which appears in the journal Cell, does not claim to prove conclusively that the pandemic began in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, and it is unlikely to end the acrimonious and politicized debate over the coronavirus's origin... "The results we see are consistent with infected animals, but we cannot prove that they were," said Florence Débarre, an evolutionary biologist at the French National Center for Scientific Research and a co-author of the new paper...

Many of the 23 authors of the paper are known to have long supported a market origin for the virus. In an informal report in March 2023, they presented a central feature of the genetic data — the confirmation that animals potentially capable of triggering a pandemic were in the market... The new paper in Cell is longer, more comprehensive, probes a broader range of questions, and includes more data from the market and early-patient cases than the international team's informal 2023 report, Débarre said. Both the earlier and the new reports document that traces of the virus were found clustered in a section of the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market where genetic traces of animals were also found. Several of those species — raccoon dogs, rabbits and dogs — are known to be susceptible to infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes covid. Raccoon dogs have also been shown experimentally to be capable of transmitting the virus. A significant element of the new paper is an analysis of when the pandemic began. Scientists can study mutations of the coronavirus, which evolves at a relatively steady rate, to estimate when the millions of genomes deposited in databases had the most recent common ancestor. That genetic evidence points to mid-November 2019 as the most likely time the virus spilled into humans and began spreading, and there could have been two or more spillover events, the researchers said.

"The timing of the origin of the market outbreak is genetically indistinguishable from the timing of the origin of the pandemic as a whole," the report states. There are many independent lines of evidence pointing to the market as the epicenter of the pandemic, said Kristian Andersen, an infectious-disease researcher at Scripps Research in La Jolla, Calif., and a co-author of the report in Cell. No previous virus spillover has been so well-documented, he said. "Of any previous outbreak, pandemic, you name it, we don't have this level of granularity," he said. "We can narrow it down to a single market, and narrow it down to a section in that market, and maybe even narrow it down to a single stall in that market. That is mind-boggling...." The genetic evidence, the new report contends, supports the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 emerged in the same way that SARS-CoV-1 — which sickened people in 2002-2003 but was extinguished before it could cause a full-blown pandemic — is widely believed to have started, from animals sold in a market.

The authors contend the world needs to take more aggressive action to shut down the illegal trade in wildlife to lower the risk of another catastrophic pandemic... There is no evidence that the virus, or its progenitor, was inside a laboratory before the outbreak.... "To the question — Did it come from a lab or come from a market? — I think we already knew the answer to that," Andersen said. "Yep, it's the market. It's natural, as we've previously seen happen."

One co-author posted a summary on X.com "If you don't want to read the papers."

"Early cases centered around the market (not a lab)"
"Environmental swabs that tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 clustered in the corner of the market where animals were sold."
"There were 2 lineages of SARS2 that spilled over separately at Huanan."

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/09/21/0354252/scientists-again-link-covid-pandemic-origin-to-wuhan-market-animals?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/09/21/0354252/scientists-again-link-covid-pandemic-origin-to-wuhan-market-animals?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


'Butterfly Emergency' Declared as UK Summer Count Hits Record Low

A national "butterfly emergency" has been declared by Butterfly Conservation after the lowest Big Butterfly Count since records began. From a report: An average of just seven butterflies per 15-minute count were recorded by participants in this summer's butterfly count, the lowest in the survey's 14-year history. It was the worst year on record for once-ubiquitous species, including the common blue, small tortoiseshell, small white and green-veined white. Eight out of the 10 most-seen species have declined -- in many cases dramatically -- over the count's history. Previous lowest-ever numbers of butterflies-per-count were logged in 2022, 2021 and 2020.

Butterfly Conservation is calling for the government to declare a "nature emergency" and ban insect-killing neonicotinoid pesticides, with no exceptions. Britain and the EU banned neonicotinoids in 2018 but the UK government has authorised an exemption for the pesticides to be used on sugar beet every year since 2021. Before the election, Labour promised to ban all neonicotinoids. Further reading: UK Nature Chief Sounds Alarm Over Ecosystem Collapse as Butterfly Numbers Halve.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/09/20/180221/butterfly-emergency-declared-as-uk-summer-count-hits-record-low?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/09/20/180221/butterfly-emergency-declared-as-uk-summer-count-hits-record-low?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Project Analyzing Human Language Usage Shuts Down Because 'Generative AI Has Polluted the Data'

The creator of an open source project that scraped the internet to determine the ever-changing popularity of different words in human language usage says that they are sunsetting the project because generative AI spam has poisoned the internet to a level where the project no longer has any utility. 404 Media: Wordfreq is a program that tracked the ever-changing ways people used more than 40 different languages by analyzing millions of sources across Wikipedia, movie and TV subtitles, news articles, books, websites, Twitter, and Reddit. The system could be used to analyze changing language habits as slang and popular culture changed and language evolved, and was a resource for academics who study such things. In a note on the project's GitHub, creator Robyn Speer wrote that the project "will not be updated anymore."

"Generative AI has polluted the data," she wrote. "I don't think anyone has reliable information about post-2021 language usage by humans." She said that open web scraping was an important part of the project's data sources and "now the web at large is full of slop generated by large language models, written by no one to communicate nothing. Including this slop in the data skews the word frequencies." While there has always been spam on the internet and in the datasets that Wordfreq used, "it was manageable and often identifiable. Large language models generate text that masquerades as real language with intention behind it, even though there is none, and their output crops up everywhere," she wrote.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/09/20/1745236/project-analyzing-human-language-usage-shuts-down-because-generative-ai-has-polluted-the-data?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/09/20/1745236/project-analyzing-human-language-usage-shuts-down-because-generative-ai-has-polluted-the-data?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Automatic Takeoffs Are Coming For Passenger Jets

New submitter LazarusQLong shares a report: In late 1965, at what's now London Heathrow airport, a commercial flight coming from Paris made history by being the first to land automatically. The plane -- A Trident 1C operated by BEA, which would later become British Airways -- was equipped with a newly developed extension of the autopilot (a system to help guide the plane's path without manual control) known as "autoland." Today, automatic landing systems are installed on most commercial aircraft and improve the safety of landings in difficult weather or poor visibility.

Now, nearly 60 years later, the world's third largest aircraft manufacturer, Brazil's Embraer, is introducing a similar technology, but for takeoffs. Called "E2 Enhanced Take Off System," after the family of aircraft it's designed for, the technology would not only improve safety by reducing pilot workload, but it would also improve range and takeoff weight, allowing the planes that use it to travel farther, according to Embraer. "The system is better than the pilots," says Patrice London, principal performance engineer at Embraer, who has worked on the project for over a decade. "That's because it performs in the same way all the time. If you do 1,000 takeoffs, you will get 1,000 of exactly the same takeoff."

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/09/20/1739235/automatic-takeoffs-are-coming-for-passenger-jets?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/09/20/1739235/automatic-takeoffs-are-coming-for-passenger-jets?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


CERN To Expel Hundreds of Russian Scientists

An anonymous reader shares a report: CERN, the European particle-physics collaboration that operates the Large Hadron Collider, will expel hundreds of Russian-affiliated scientists from its laboratories. The Geneva-based organization decided to cut ties with Moscow after Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, ending nearly 60 years of collaboration, and the agreements are now lapsing.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/09/20/171232/cern-to-expel-hundreds-of-russian-scientists?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/09/20/171232/cern-to-expel-hundreds-of-russian-scientists?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Ukraine has banned use of Telegram on official devices used by state officials, military personnel and critical workers because it believes its enemy Russia can spy on both messages and users, a top security body said on Friday. Reuters: The National Security and Defence Council announced the restrictions after Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine's GUR military intelligence agency, presented the Council with evidence of Russian special services' ability to snoop on the platform, it said in a statement. But Andriy Kovalenko, head of the security council's centre on countering disinformation, posted on Telegram that the restrictions apply only to official devices, not personal phones.

Telegram is heavily used in both Ukraine and Russia and has become a critical source of information since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. But Ukrainian security officials had repeatedly voiced concerns about its use during the war. Based in Dubai, Telegram was founded by Russian-born Pavel Durov, who left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with demands to shut down opposition communities on his social media platform VKontakte, which he has sold.

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/09/20/1538239/ukraine-bans-official-use-of-telegram-app-over-fears-of-russian-spying?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/09/20/1538239/ukraine-bans-official-use-of-telegram-app-over-fears-of-russian-spying?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Microsoft Taps Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant To Power AI

The data centers that train all the large language models behind AI consume unimaginable amounts of energy, and the stakes are high for big tech companies to ensure they have enough power to run those plants. That's why Microsoft is now throwing its weight behind nuclear power. From a report: The tech giant on Friday signed a major deal with nuclear plant owner Constellation Energy to restart its closed Three Mile Island plant by 2028 to power its data centers. The Constellation plant, infamous for melting down in 1979, closed in 2019 after failing to garner enough demand for its energy amid competition with cheaper alternatives like natural gas, and solar and wind power. Constellation said it plans to spend $1.6 billion to revive its reactor, pending regulatory approval. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Microsoft agreed to purchase all of the power from the reactor over the next 20 years, a Constellation spokesperson told TechCrunch. Once restored, the reactor promises a capacity of 835 megawatts.

https://slashdot.org/story/24/09/20/156206/microsoft-taps-three-mile-island-nuclear-plant-to-power-ai?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://slashdot.org/story/24/09/20/156206/microsoft-taps-three-mile-island-nuclear-plant-to-power-ai?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Apple, Google Wallets Now Support California Driver's Licenses

Residents of California can now store their driver's license or state ID in Apple or Google Wallet, according to an announcement today. Apple also shared the news. TechCrunch reports: Californians with an ID in the Apple Wallet or Google Wallet app can use their mobile devices to present their ID in person at select TSA security checkpoints and businesses. They can also use the app to verify their age or identity in select apps. Other states that already support digital driver's licenses and state IDs include Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, and Ohio.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/09/19/2114223/apple-google-wallets-now-support-california-drivers-licenses?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/09/19/2114223/apple-google-wallets-now-support-california-drivers-licenses?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Microsoft Launches a Windows App For iPhones, Macs, and Android Devices

Microsoft has launched a new Windows app that serves as a hub for streaming Windows environments from services like Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop. However, it's limited to Microsoft work and school accounts with "no signs that Microsoft plans to support consumer accounts," notes The Verge's Tom Warren. From the report: This new unified app has been in testing for nearly a year, and includes a customizable home screen, multi-monitor support, and USB redirection so you can use local devices like webcams, storage devices, and printers as if they were plugged directly into a cloud PC. This Windows app is limited to Microsoft work and school accounts, as it's primarily designed for existing users of Remote Desktop clients for Windows and other operating systems to move to. Microsoft has had similar apps for connecting to PCs remotely in Windows for decades, including the Remote Desktop Connection app that still ships as part of Windows 11. These apps, including the new Windows one, are useful for connecting to work PCs from a personal laptop or PC. The Windows app is available from the Microsoft Store and Apple App Store. An Android version enters public preview mode today.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/09/19/175230/microsoft-launches-a-windows-app-for-iphones-macs-and-android-devices?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/09/19/175230/microsoft-launches-a-windows-app-for-iphones-macs-and-android-devices?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


ISPs Tell Supreme Court They Don't Want To Disconnect Users Accused of Piracy

Joe_Dragon shares a report: Four more large Internet service providers told the US Supreme Court this week that ISPs shouldn't be forced to aggressively police copyright infringement on broadband networks. While the ISPs worry about financial liability from lawsuits filed by major record labels and other copyright holders, they also argue that mass terminations of Internet users accused of piracy "would harm innocent people by depriving households, schools, hospitals, and businesses of Internet access."

The legal question presented by the case "is exceptionally important to the future of the Internet," they wrote in a brief filed with the Supreme Court on Monday. The amici curiae brief was filed by Altice USA (operator of the Optimum brand), Frontier Communications, Lumen (aka CenturyLink), and Verizon. The brief supports cable firm Cox Communications' attempt to overturn its loss in a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by Sony. Cox petitioned the Supreme Court to take up the case last month.

Sony and other music copyright holders sued Cox in 2018, claiming it didn't adequately fight piracy on its network and failed to terminate repeat infringers. A US District Court jury in the Eastern District of Virginia ruled in December 2019 that Cox must pay $1 billion in damages to the major record labels. Cox won a partial victory when the US Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit vacated the $1 billion verdict, finding that Cox wasn't guilty of vicarious infringement because it did not profit directly from infringement committed by users of its cable broadband network. But the appeals court affirmed the jury's finding of willful contributory infringement and ordered a new damages trial.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/09/19/1811237/isps-tell-supreme-court-they-dont-want-to-disconnect-users-accused-of-piracy?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/09/19/1811237/isps-tell-supreme-court-they-dont-want-to-disconnect-users-accused-of-piracy?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Torvalds Weighs in On 'Nasty' Rust vs C For Linux Debate

The Rust vs C battle raging in Linux circles has left even Linus Torvalds scratching his head. "I'm not sure why Rust has been such a contentious area," the Linux creator mused at this week's Open Source Summit, likening the fervor to ancient text editor wars. "It reminds me of when I was young and people were arguing about vi versus Emacs."

The spat over integrating Rust into Linux has been brewing since 2022, with critics slamming it as an "insult" to decades of kernel work. One maintainer recently quit, fed up with the "nontechnical nonsense." Torvalds struck a surprisingly diplomatic tone. He praised how Rust has "livened up discussions" while admitting some arguments get "nasty." "C is, in the end, a very simple language," Torvalds said, explaining its appeal and pitfalls. "Because it's simple it's also very easy to make mistakes. And Rust is not." Torvalds remains upbeat about Rust's future in Linux, nonetheless. "Even if it were to become a failure -- and I don't think it will -- that's how you learn," he said.

https://linux.slashdot.org/story/24/09/19/183200/torvalds-weighs-in-on-nasty-rust-vs-c-for-linux-debate?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://linux.slashdot.org/story/24/09/19/183200/torvalds-weighs-in-on-nasty-rust-vs-c-for-linux-debate?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


1 In 10 Orgs Dumping Their Security Vendors After CrowdStrike Outage

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: Germany's Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) says one in ten organizations in the country affected by CrowdStrike's outage in July are dropping their current vendor's products. Four percent of organizations have already abandoned their existing solutions, while a further 6 percent plan to do so in the near future. It wasn't explicitly said whether this referred to CrowdStrike's Falcon product specifically or was a knee-jerk reaction to security vendors generally. One in five will also change the selection criteria when it comes to reviewing which security vendor gets their business. The whole fiasco doesn't seem to have hurt the company much though, at least not yet.

The findings come from a report examining the experiences of 311 affected organizations in Germany, published today. Of those affected in one way or another, most said they first heard about the issues from social media (23 percent) rather than CrowdStrike itself (22 percent). The report also revealed that half of the 311 surveyed orgs had to halt operations -- 48 percent experienced temporary downtime. Ten hours, on average. Aside from the obvious business continuity impacts, this led to various issues with customers too. Forty percent said their collaboration with customers was damaged because they couldn't provide their usual services, while more than one in ten organizations didn't even want to address the topic. The majority of respondents (66 percent) said they will improve their incident response plans in light of what happened, or have done so already, despite largely considering events like these as unavoidable. The report highlights a curious finding that over half of CrowdStrike customers wanted to install updates more regularly, even though that would have been worse for an organization.

"Regardless, with the number of urgent patch warnings we and the infosec community dish out every week, it's probably a net positive, even if it's slightly misguided," concludes The Register.

https://it.slashdot.org/story/24/09/19/1721236/1-in-10-orgs-dumping-their-security-vendors-after-crowdstrike-outage?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://it.slashdot.org/story/24/09/19/1721236/1-in-10-orgs-dumping-their-security-vendors-after-crowdstrike-outage?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Google Passkeys Can Now Sync Across Devices On Multiple Platforms

Google is updating its Password Manager to allow users to sync passkeys across multiple devices, including Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android, with iOS and ChromeOS support coming soon. Engadget reports: Once saved, the passkey automatically syncs across other devices using Google Password Manager. The company says this data is end-to-end encrypted, so it'll be pretty tough for someone to go in and steal credentials. [...] Today's update also brings another layer of security to passkeys on Google Password Manager. The company has introduced a six-digit PIN that will be required when using passkeys on a new device. This would likely stop nefarious actors from logging into an account even if they've somehow gotten ahold of the digital credentials. Just don't leave the PIN number laying on a sheet of paper directly next to the computer.

https://it.slashdot.org/story/24/09/19/1657213/google-passkeys-can-now-sync-across-devices-on-multiple-platforms?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://it.slashdot.org/story/24/09/19/1657213/google-passkeys-can-now-sync-across-devices-on-multiple-platforms?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


'Dead Internet Theory' Comes To Life With New AI-Powered Social Media App

A conspiracy theory known as "Dead Internet Theory" has gained traction in recent years, positing that most online social activity is artificial and designed to manipulate users. This theory has grown alongside the rise of large language models like ChatGPT. On Monday, software developer Michael Sayman launched SocialAI, an app that seems to embody aspects of this theory. ArsTechnica: SocialAI's 28-year-old creator, Michael Sayman, previously served as a product lead at Google, and he also bounced between Facebook, Roblox, and Twitter over the years. In an announcement post on X, Sayman wrote about how he had dreamed of creating the service for years, but the tech was not yet ready. He sees it as a tool that can help lonely or rejected people.

"SocialAI is designed to help people feel heard, and to give them a space for reflection, support, and feedback that acts like a close-knit community," wrote Sayman. "It's a response to all those times I've felt isolated, or like I needed a sounding board but didn't have one. I know this app won't solve all of life's problems, but I hope it can be a small tool for others to reflect, to grow, and to feel seen." As The Verge reports in an excellent rundown of the example interactions, SocialAI lets users choose the types of AI followers they want, including categories like "supporters," "nerds," and "skeptics." These AI chatbots then respond to user posts with brief comments and reactions on almost any topic, including nonsensical "Lorem ipsum" text.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/09/19/171258/dead-internet-theory-comes-to-life-with-new-ai-powered-social-media-app?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/09/19/171258/dead-internet-theory-comes-to-life-with-new-ai-powered-social-media-app?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Amazon's New 'Shark Tank'-Style Show Gives Winners Top Billing in Its Store

Coming soon: Amazon sellers duking it out on TV to get their wares prime placement at the world's largest online retailer. Think "Shark Tank" meets Home Shopping Network. From a report: The e-commerce giant plans to introduce a new competition show next month in which entrepreneurs pitch their products to a studio audience as well as to judges including Amazon executives and celebrities like Goop founder Gwyneth Paltrow and designer Christian Siriano. Finalists will have their inventions sold in a new Amazon "Buy It Now" online store, and the winner of each episode will earn $20,000.

The show is the retailer's latest attempt to marry content and commerce. Persuading consumers to shop through Internet-enabled televisions has long been a goal of traditional entertainment companies, but getting viewers to scan the QR code can be difficult. By creating shows that highlight its sellers and their products, Amazon has a better shot at getting viewers to shop -- especially younger audiences who are already doing this on apps like TikTok, said Bernstein analyst Mark Shmulik. "This feels more elegant than QR codes," Shmulik said of Amazon's new game show. Over the past few years, Amazon has introduced ads with QR codes in about 100 shows and movies, including "The Summer I Turned Pretty," "The Boys" and, more recently, NFL football games.

https://slashdot.org/story/24/09/19/149223/amazons-new-shark-tank-style-show-gives-winners-top-billing-in-its-store?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://slashdot.org/story/24/09/19/149223/amazons-new-shark-tank-style-show-gives-winners-top-billing-in-its-store?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Cisco's Second Layoff of 2024 Affects Thousands of Employees

U.S. tech giant Cisco has let go of thousands of employees following its second layoff of 2024. From a report: The technology and networking company announced in August that it would reduce its headcount by 7%, or around 5,600 employees, following an earlier layoff in February, in which the company let go of about 4,000 employees. As TechCrunch previously reported, Cisco employees said that the company refused to say who was affected by the layoffs until September 16. Cisco did not give a reason for the month-long delay in notifying affected staff. One employee told TechCrunch at the time that Cisco's workplace had become the "most toxic environment" they had worked in. TechCrunch has learned that the layoffs also affect Talos Security, the company's threat intelligence and security research unit.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/09/19/0743238/ciscos-second-layoff-of-2024-affects-thousands-of-employees?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/09/19/0743238/ciscos-second-layoff-of-2024-affects-thousands-of-employees?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Kenya, US Sign Historic Pact On Nuclear Plans

Kenya signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the U.S. on nuclear technology cooperation during the 2024 IAEA General Conference in Vienna, with the aim of safely integrating nuclear power into Kenya's energy mix by 2035. The agreement focuses on collaboration in nuclear safety, regulatory experience, and research. The Standard reports: The historic pact came a day after Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi addressed the general session of the conference. Mudavadi had outlined Kenya's ambitious plans to integrate nuclear power into the country's energy mix by 2035, as part of a broader strategy to meet its growing energy demand. Kenya's current installed energy capacity, as of 2023, totals 3,321 MW, with significant contributions from geothermal (863 MW), hydroelectric power (838 MW), wind (436 MW), solar (173 MW), biomass (2 MW), and thermal energy (678 MW). However, despite these sources, the country still faces a shortfall in its energy supply. Experts say nuclear energy will be crucial in addressing this deficit and supporting Kenya's long-term industrialization goals.

The MoU was signed by the Kenya Nuclear Regulatory Authority (KNRA) and the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC), with both parties expressing optimism about the future of nuclear cooperation between the two nations. [...] Areas of cooperation will include sharing of operating experience and regulatory experience, cooperation in joint programs of nuclear safety research and trainings. Kenya, along with several other developing nations, is exploring the potential use of nuclear energy beyond electricity generation, including its applications in health and agriculture. As the country moves forward with its nuclear aspirations, experts highlight the importance of robust regulatory frameworks and international cooperation to ensure the safe and effective deployment.

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/24/09/19/0048203/kenya-us-sign-historic-pact-on-nuclear-plans?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/24/09/19/0048203/kenya-us-sign-historic-pact-on-nuclear-plans?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


20 Years Later, Real-Time Linux Makes It To the Kernel

ZDNet's Steven Vaughan-Nichols reports: After 20 years, Real-Time Linux (PREEMPT_RT) is finally -- finally -- in the mainline kernel. Linus Torvalds blessed the code while he was at Open Source Summit Europe. [...] The real-time Linux code is now baked into all Linux distros as of the forthcoming Linux 6.12 kernel. This means Linux will soon start appearing in more mission-critical devices and industrial hardware. But it took its sweet time getting here. An RTOS is a specialized operating system designed to handle time-critical tasks with precision and reliability. Unlike general-purpose operating systems like Windows or macOS, an RTOS is built to respond to events and process data within strict time constraints, often measured in milliseconds or microseconds. As Steven Rostedt, a prominent real-time Linux developer and Google engineer, put it, "Real-time is the fastest worst-case scenario." He means that the essential characteristic of an RTOS is its deterministic behavior. An RTOS guarantees that critical tasks will be completed within specified deadlines. [...]

So, why is Real-Time Linux only now completely blessed in the kernel? "We actually would not push something up unless we thought it was ready," Rostedt explained. "Almost everything was usually rewritten at least three times before it went into mainline because we had such a high bar for what would go in." In addition, the path to the mainline wasn't just about technical challenges. Politics and perception also played a role. "In the beginning, we couldn't even mention real-time," Rostedt recalled. "Everyone said, 'Oh, we don't care about real-time.'" Another problem was money. For many years funding for real-time Linux was erratic. In 2015, the Linux Foundation established the Real-Time Linux (RTL) collaborative project to coordinate efforts around mainlining PREEMPT_RT.

The final hurdle for full integration was reworking the kernel's print_k function, a critical debugging tool dating back to 1991. Torvalds was particularly protective of print_k --He wrote the original code and still uses it for debugging. However, print_k also puts a hard delay in a Linux program whenever it's called. That kind of slowdown is unacceptable in real-time systems. Rostedt explained: "Print_k has a thousand hacks to handle a thousand different situations. Whenever we modified print_k to do something, it would break one of these cases. The thing about print_k that's great about debugging is you can know exactly where you were when a process crashed. When I would be hammering the system really, really hard, and the latency was mostly around maybe 30 microseconds, and then suddenly it would jump to five milliseconds." That delay was the print_k message. After much work, many heated discussions, and several rejected proposals, a compromise was reached earlier this year. Torvalds is happy, the real-time Linux developers are happy, print_K users are happy, and, at long last, real-time Linux is real.

https://linux.slashdot.org/story/24/09/18/2151240/20-years-later-real-time-linux-makes-it-to-the-kernel?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://linux.slashdot.org/story/24/09/18/2151240/20-years-later-real-time-linux-makes-it-to-the-kernel?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


OpenAI Threatens To Ban Users Who Probe Its 'Strawberry' AI Models

OpenAI truly does not want you to know what its latest AI model is "thinking." From a report: Since the company launched its "Strawberry" AI model family last week, touting so-called reasoning abilities with o1-preview and o1-mini, OpenAI has been sending out warning emails and threats of bans to any user who tries to probe how the model works.

Unlike previous AI models from OpenAI, such as GPT-4o, the company trained o1 specifically to work through a step-by-step problem-solving process before generating an answer. When users ask an "o1" model a question in ChatGPT, users have the option of seeing this chain-of-thought process written out in the ChatGPT interface. However, by design, OpenAI hides the raw chain of thought from users, instead presenting a filtered interpretation created by a second AI model. Nothing is more enticing to enthusiasts than information obscured, so the race has been on among hackers and red-teamers to try to uncover o1's raw chain of thought using jailbreaking or prompt injection techniques that attempt to trick the model into spilling its secrets.

https://slashdot.org/story/24/09/18/1858224/openai-threatens-to-ban-users-who-probe-its-strawberry-ai-models?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://slashdot.org/story/24/09/18/1858224/openai-threatens-to-ban-users-who-probe-its-strawberry-ai-models?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


23andMe Board Resigns in New Blow To DNA-Testing Company

All seven independent directors of DNA-testing company 23andMe resigned Tuesday, following a protracted negotiation with founder and Chief Executive Anne Wojcicki over her plan to take the company private. WSJ: It is the latest challenge for 23andMe, which has struggled to find a profitable business model. The stock price fell to $0.30 per share after hours on Tuesday. At that price the company is worth less than the cash on its balance sheet. In a letter addressed to Wojcicki, the directors wrote that "after months of work, we have yet to receive from you a fully financed, fully diligenced, actionable proposal that is in the best interests of the non-affiliated shareholders."

It is very rare for a publicly traded company to see so many directors resign simultaneously. The board members wrote that they differ with Wojcicki on the "strategic direction for the company" and because of her voting power, it was best that they resign. Wojcicki controls 49% of 23andMe votes, giving her a level of control that blocked board members from shopping the company to other potential bidders. She is the only remaining board member after the resignations. Further reading: 23andMe's Fall From $6 Billion To Nearly $0 (January 2024)

https://slashdot.org/story/24/09/18/1931220/23andme-board-resigns-in-new-blow-to-dna-testing-company?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://slashdot.org/story/24/09/18/1931220/23andme-board-resigns-in-new-blow-to-dna-testing-company?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


LinkedIn Is Training AI on User Data Before Updating Its Terms of Service

An anonymous reader shares a report: LinkedIn is using its users' data for improving the social network's generative AI products, but has not yet updated its terms of service to reflect this data processing, according to posts from various LinkedIn users and a statement from the company to 404 Media. Instead, the company says it will update its terms "shortly." The move is unusual in that LinkedIn appears to have gone ahead with training AI on its users' data, even creating a new option in its settings, without updating its terms of service, which is traditionally one of the main documents that can explain how users' data is collected or used.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/09/18/1643230/linkedin-is-training-ai-on-user-data-before-updating-its-terms-of-service?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/09/18/1643230/linkedin-is-training-ai-on-user-data-before-updating-its-terms-of-service?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Walkie-Talkies Explode Across Lebanon in Second Wave After Pager Attack

An anonymous reader shares a report: Israel blew up thousands of two-way personal radios used by Hezbollah members in Lebanon in a second wave of an intelligence operation that started on Tuesday with the explosions of pager devices, two sources with knowledge of the operation told Axios. The second wave of clandestine attacks is another serious security breach in Hezbollah's ranks and increases the pressure on the militant Lebanese group.

Lebanon's official news agency reported that at least three people were killed and dozens wounded in the explosions across the country. The walkie-talkies were booby-trapped in advance by Israeli intelligence services and then delivered to Hezbollah as part of the militia's emergency communications system, which was supposed to be used during a war with Israel, the sources said.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/09/18/1522246/walkie-talkies-explode-across-lebanon-in-second-wave-after-pager-attack?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/09/18/1522246/walkie-talkies-explode-across-lebanon-in-second-wave-after-pager-attack?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


New Research Finds Microplastics In the Brain's Olfactory Bulb

An anonymous reader quotes a report from NBC News: Scientists in Brazil found microplastics in the brain tissue of cadavers, according to a new study published Monday in the journal JAMA Network Open. Mounting research over the last few years has found microplastics in nearly every organ in the body, as well as in the bloodstream and in plaque that clogs arteries. Whether these ubiquitous pollutants can reach the human brain has been a primary concern for scientists. The latest research looked at a part of the brain called the olfactory bulb, which processes information about smell. Humans have two olfactory bulbs, one above each nasal cavity. Connecting the olfactory bulb and the nasal cavity is the olfactory nerve.

Some researchers worry the olfactory pathway may also be an entry point for microplastics getting into the brain, beyond the olfactory bulb. "Previous studies in humans and animals have shown that air pollution reaches the brain, and that particles have been found in the olfactory bulb, which is why we think the olfactory bulb is probably one of the first points for microplastics to reach the brain," said lead study author Dr. Thais Mauad, an associate professor of pathology at the University of Sao Paulo Medical School in Brazil.

Mauad and her team took samples of olfactory bulb tissue from 15 cadavers of people who died between the ages of 33 and 100. Samples from eight of the cadavers contained microplastics -- tiny bits of plastic that ranged from 5.5 micrometers to 26.4 micrometers in size. In total, the researchers found 16 plastic fibers and particles in the tissues. The smallest were slimmer than the diameter of a human red blood cell, which measures about 8 micrometers. The most common type of plastic they found was polypropylene, followed by polyamide, nylon and polyethylene vinyl acetate. "The nose is a major point of defense to keep particles and dust out of the lungs," Campen wrote in an email. "So seeing some plastics in the olfactory system, especially given how they are being found everywhere else in the body, is completely expected." [...] "There is evidence that very small airborne particles can move to the brain via the olfactory bulb, but this is not known to be a major route of trafficking material to the brain," Campen said. Campen notes it's more likely that nanoplastics enter the brain through the bloodstream, which picks up plastic bits from the lungs or digestive tract, rather than the olfactory bulb. "However, it's extremely difficult for particles, even those in pharmaceuticals, to enter the brain through the blood," notes NBC News. "That's because the brain is surrounded by a semipermeable membrane called the blood-brain barrier."

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/09/17/2320251/new-research-finds-microplastics-in-the-brains-olfactory-bulb?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/09/17/2320251/new-research-finds-microplastics-in-the-brains-olfactory-bulb?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Apple Pulls iPadOS 18 For M4 iPad Pro After Bricking Complaints

Apple's iPadOS 18 update is no longer available after some iPad Pro owners found that it bricked their devices. MacRumors reports: There are reports on Reddit from iPad Pro users who had an interruption in the installation process, leading to an iPad that refused to turn on. A total replacement was required for affected users. Not all M4 iPad Pro owners have had an issue installing the update, and it could be linked to installing the new iOS 17.7 update before installing iOS 18. Apple will make the software available again when the underlying problem has been addressed.

https://apple.slashdot.org/story/24/09/17/2251254/apple-pulls-ipados-18-for-m4-ipad-pro-after-bricking-complaints?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://apple.slashdot.org/story/24/09/17/2251254/apple-pulls-ipados-18-for-m4-ipad-pro-after-bricking-complaints?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Final Fantasy 16 Producer Asks Fans Not To Make 'Offensive Or Inappropriate' Mods

An anonymous reader quotes a report from IGN: Final Fantasy 16 producer Naoki Yoshida has asked fans to please not make "offensive or inappropriate" mods upon the game's PC release tomorrow, September 17. Yoshida wouldn't comment on any specific mods he wants to see in Final Fantasy 16 in an interview with PC Gamer, though made clear what he doesn't want to see. "If we said, 'it'd be great if someone made X, Y, Z,' it might come across as a request, so I'll avoid mentioning any specifics here," Yoshida said. "The only thing I will say is that we definitely don't want to see anything offensive or inappropriate, so please don't make or install anything like that."

Mods allow players to create custom content for games, often resulting in incredibly useful gameplay changes such as the ability to play Elden Ring with friends seamlessly, or major additions such as an entire new expansion for Fallout 4 or the ability to play as custom characters in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Due to the nature of the internet, however, many mods are also, as Yoshida put it, "offensive or inappropriate." While cheating is one thing, fellow publisher Capcom expressed concern in November 2023 that "there are a number of mods that are offensive to public order and morals" which cause damage to the property itself.

https://games.slashdot.org/story/24/09/17/2132210/final-fantasy-16-producer-asks-fans-not-to-make-offensive-or-inappropriate-mods?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://games.slashdot.org/story/24/09/17/2132210/final-fantasy-16-producer-asks-fans-not-to-make-offensive-or-inappropriate-mods?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


TCL Accused of Selling Quantum Dot TVs Without Actual Quantum Dots

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica, written by Scharon Harding: TCL has come under scrutiny this month after testing that claimed to examine three TCL TVs marketed as quantum dot TVs reportedly showed no trace of quantum dots. [...] Earlier this month, South Korean IT news publication ETNews published a report on testing that seemingly showed three TCL quantum dot TVs, marketed as QD TVs, as not having quantum dots present. Hansol Chemical, a Seoul-headquartered chemicals company, commissioned the testing. SGS, a Geneva-headquartered testing and certification company, and Intertek, a London-headquartered testing and certification company, performed the tests. The models examined were TCL's C755, said to be a quantum dot Mini LED TV, the C655, a purported quantum dot LED (QLED) TV, and the C655 Pro, another QLED. None of those models are sold in the US, but TCL sells various Mini LED and LED TVs in the US that claim to use quantum dots. According to a Google translation, ETNews reported: "According to industry sources on the 5th, the results of tests commissioned by Hansol Chemical to global testing and certification agencies SGS and Intertek showed that indium... and cadmium... were not detected in three TCL QD TV models. Indium and cadmium are essential materials that cannot be omitted in QD implementation." The testing was supposed to detect cadmium if present at a minimum concentration of 0.5 mg per 1 kg, while indium was tested at a minimum detection standard of 2 mg/kg or 5 mg/kg, depending on the testing lab. [...]

In response to the results from SGS and Intertek, a TCL representative told ETNews and The Korea Times that TCL is "manufacturing TV sets with QD films supplied by three companies" and that "the amount of quantum dots... in the film may vary depending on the supplier, but it is certain that cadmium is included." TCL also published testing results on May 10 commissioned by Guangdong Region Advanced Materials, one of TCL's quantum dot film suppliers. Interestingly, SGS, one of the companies that found that TCL's TVs lacked quantum dots, performed the tests. This time, SGS detected the presence of cadmium in the TV films at a concentration of 4 mg/kg (an image of the results can be seen via ETNews here). TCL also said that it "confirmed the fluorescent characteristics of QD," per Google's translation, and provided a spectrogram purportedly depicting the presence of quantum dots in its TVs' quantum dot films. [...]

TCL obviously has reason to try to push results that show the presence of cadmium. However, some analysts and publications have pointed out that Hansol could have reason to push results claiming the opposite. As mentioned above, Hansol is in the chemical manufacturing and distribution business. It notably does not sell to TCL but does have a customer in TCL rival Samsung. Taking a step back further, Hansol is headquartered in Seoul and is considered a chaebol. TV giants Samsung and LG are also chaebols, and the South Korean government has reported interest in Samsung and LG continuing to be the world's biggest TV companies—titles that are increasingly challenged by Chinese brands. It has previously been reported that the South Korean government urged Samsung and LG to meet with each other to help ensure their leadership. The talks resulted in a partnership between the two companies reportedly centered on counteracting high prices that Samsung was facing for TV components sold by Chinese companies. With this background in mind, Hansol could be viewed as a biased party when it sought testing for TCL quantum dot TVs. "I'm really puzzled by Hansol's results," said Eric Virey, principal displays analyst at Yole Intelligence. "I have a very hard time believing that TCL would go through the troubles of making ... 'fake' QD films without QDs: this would cost almost as much as making a real QD films but without the performance benefits."

Ars Technica concludes: "As previously stated, it's possible that TCL is indeed using quantum dots but is using them in a small amount alongside phosphor. If true, the performance may not be as high as it would be with other designs, but it would also mean that TCL's quantum dot TVs aren't bogus. As it stands, the situation could benefit from more, preferably third-party, testing..."

https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/24/09/17/2058255/tcl-accused-of-selling-quantum-dot-tvs-without-actual-quantum-dots?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/24/09/17/2058255/tcl-accused-of-selling-quantum-dot-tvs-without-actual-quantum-dots?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Desktop Hypervisors Are Like Buses: None for Ages, Then Four at Once

An anonymous reader shares a report: September has been a big month for desktop hypervisors, with the field's big players all delivering significant updates. Oracle delivered VirtualBox version 7.1, billed as a major upgrade thanks to its implementation of a UI with a "modernized look and feel, offering a selection between Basic and Experienced user level with reduced or full UI functionality."

[...] Parallels also released a desktop hypervisor update last week. Version 20 of the eponymous tool now offers a VM that's packed with tools developers may find handy as they work on generative AI applications. Among those tools are the Docker community edition, lmutils, the OpenCV computer vision library, and the Ollama chatbot interface for AI models. [...] The other big player in desktop hypervisors is VMware, with its Fusion and Workstation products for macOS and Windows respectively. Both were recently updated.

https://it.slashdot.org/story/24/09/17/1835235/desktop-hypervisors-are-like-buses-none-for-ages-then-four-at-once?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://it.slashdot.org/story/24/09/17/1835235/desktop-hypervisors-are-like-buses-none-for-ages-then-four-at-once?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


FDIC Unveils Rule Forcing Banks To Keep Fintech Customer Data in Aftermath of Synapse Debacle

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Tuesday proposed a new rule forcing banks to keep detailed records for customers of fintech apps after the failure of tech firm Synapse resulted in thousands of Americans being locked out of their accounts. From a report: The rule, aimed at accounts opened by fintech firms that partner with banks, would make the institution maintain records of who owns it and the daily balances attributed to the owner, according to an FDIC memo. Fintech apps often lean on a practice where many customersâ(TM) funds are pooled into a single large account at a bank, which relies on either the fintech or a third party to maintain ledgers of transactions and ownership.

That situation exposed customers to the risk that the nonbanks involved would keep shoddy or incomplete records, making it hard to determine who to pay out in the event of a failure. That's what happened in the Synapse collapse, which impacted more than 100,000 users of fintech apps including Yotta and Juno. Customers with funds in these "for benefit of" accounts have been unable to access their money since May.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/09/17/1631214/fdic-unveils-rule-forcing-banks-to-keep-fintech-customer-data-in-aftermath-of-synapse-debacle?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/09/17/1631214/fdic-unveils-rule-forcing-banks-to-keep-fintech-customer-data-in-aftermath-of-synapse-debacle?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


UK Business Secretary Says Right To Work From Home Boosts Productivity

Bruce66423 writes: Allowing flexible working and working from home creates a more productive, loyal workforce, the business secretary has said. In an interview with the Times, Jonathan Reynolds said employers "need to judge people on outcomes and not a culture of presenteeism." Labour is poised to unveil its Employment Rights Bill, which includes measures such as a right to "disconnect" outside working hours, a ban on zero-hours contracts and allowing workers to compress their contracted hours into fewer working days.

Business groups have raised concerns about the plans, warning it could push up the cost of hiring staff and have the unintended consequence of ending overtime. However, Reynolds said Labour's plans to address workers' rights should not be alarming for business leaders. Since April, workers have had the right -- introduced under the previous government -- to ask for flexible working as soon as they start a job, but firms do not have to agree.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/09/17/157254/uk-business-secretary-says-right-to-work-from-home-boosts-productivity?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/09/17/157254/uk-business-secretary-says-right-to-work-from-home-boosts-productivity?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Former MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe Pleads Guilty to Securities Fraud Conspiracy

Former MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe pleaded guilty to securities fraud, admitting he misled investors about the viability of the company's $9.95-a-month movie subscription service, and faces up to five years in prison. His co-defendant, former Helios and Matheson CEO Ted Farnsworth, faces similar charges and is scheduled for trial in March 2025; Farnsworth has been in federal custody since August 2023 due to bond violations involving misuse of company funds. Variety reports: Farnsworth and Lowe were the architects of MoviePass' doomed all-you-can-watch offering, which resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in investor losses in 2017 and 2018. Investigators found that Lowe tried to stem the losses by throttling the service, forcing high-volume users to reset their passwords and verify their tickets. The two men were charged in November 2022 on counts of wire fraud and securities fraud. According to Lowe's plea agreement, the government estimates the total losses from the scheme at $303 million -- though Lowe contends it is less than that. Lowe remains free on bond, and is due back in court in Miami on March 21 for a status conference. Lowe published a memoir in 2022 in which he reflected on the downfall of MoviePass, entitled "Watch and Learn: How I Turned Hollywood Upside Down with Netflix, Redbox, and Moviepass."

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/09/16/2221244/former-moviepass-ceo-mitch-lowe-pleads-guilty-to-securities-fraud-conspiracy?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/09/16/2221244/former-moviepass-ceo-mitch-lowe-pleads-guilty-to-securities-fraud-conspiracy?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Intel Plans To Turn Foundry Business Into Subsidiary, Allow For Outside Funding

Intel shares surged 8% after announcing plans to make its foundry business an independent unit with its own board and potential for outside capital, part of CEO Pat Gelsinger's strategy to restructure the company amid financial challenges. The company is also exploring the possibility of spinning off the foundry business, pausing some European manufacturing projects, and expanding its AI chip production partnership with Amazon Web Services to regain market share in the growing AI server chip industry. CNBC reports: As part of CEO Pat Gelsinger's effort to turn around the struggling chipmaker, Intel said in a memo to employees that it will also sell off part of its stake in Altera. Gelsinger said the restructuring would allow the foundry business to "evaluate independent sources of funding,â and comes days after Intel's board met to assess the direction and future of the company. The foundry business, which Intel plans to use to manufacture chips for other customers, has been a big drag on its bottom line, with the company spending roughly $25 billion on it in each of the last two years. Beyond just considering outside funding, Intel is weighing whether to spin off the foundry business, possibly into a separate publicly traded company, according to a person with knowledge of the matter who declined to be named in order to discuss confidential information. With a standalone "operating board" and a cleaner corporate structure, the mechanics of a separation become far easier than trying to turn a fully integrated unit into a separate company. [...] Intel will also pause its fabrication efforts in Poland and Germany "by approximately two years based on anticipated market demand," Gelsinger said, and pull back on its plans for its Malaysian factory. U.S. manufacturing projects will remain unaffected, the company said.

In addition to the foundry announcement, Intel said it entered into a deal with Amazon Web Services to produce custom chips for AI, extending a long-running partnership between the two companies. Amazon is a big customer of Intel chips to power its AWS servers, and will buy a custom Xeon processor from Intel as well, Intel said. The move will potentially give Intel a new foothold in the growing industry for AI server chips. While Intel has several products that can be used for AI, including Gaudi 3, Nvidia has largely taken control of the market. Amazon has been developing its own AI chips, including one called Trainium, for over five years. Microsoft and Google have also invested heavily in custom chips to run AI, aiming to offer less expensive processors than Nvidia's general-purpose graphics processing units. Intel said that it would carry out its most advanced manufacturing, including the AI chip for AWS, at its plant in Ohio that's currently under construction. "All eyes will remain on us," Gelsinger said. "We need to fight for every inch and execute better than ever before. Because that's the only way to quiet our critics and deliver the results we know we're capable of achieving."

https://slashdot.org/story/24/09/16/2214216/intel-plans-to-turn-foundry-business-into-subsidiary-allow-for-outside-funding?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://slashdot.org/story/24/09/16/2214216/intel-plans-to-turn-foundry-business-into-subsidiary-allow-for-outside-funding?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Apple Watch Sleep Apnea Detection Gets FDA Approval

The FDA has approved sleep apnea detection on the Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and Watch Ultra 2. "The green light comes four days ahead of the Series 10's September 20 release date," notes TechCrunch. From the report: The feature, announced at last week's iPhone 16 event, will arrive as part of the imminent watchOS 11 release. Once enabled, it requires 10 nights of sleep tracking data spread out over a 30-day span to determine whether a user may have the condition. During that time, it also offers insights into nightly sleeping disturbances, utilizing the on-board accelerometer.

The FDA classes the feature as an "over-the-counter device to assess risk of sleep apnea." Apple is quick to note that the addition is not a diagnostic tool. Rather, it will prompt users to seek a formal diagnosis from a healthcare provider. The condition, which causes breathing to become shallower or repeatedly stop during the night, is associated with a variety of different symptoms. The Mayo Clinic notes that it can cause insomnia, headaches, daytime sleepiness, and other longer-term conditions.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/09/16/227236/apple-watch-sleep-apnea-detection-gets-fda-approval?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/09/16/227236/apple-watch-sleep-apnea-detection-gets-fda-approval?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Ellison Declares Oracle 'All In' On AI Mass Surveillance

Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison envisions AI as the backbone of a new era of mass surveillance, positioning Oracle as a key player in AI infrastructure through its unique networking architecture and partnerships with AWS and Microsoft. The Register reports: Ellison made the comments near the end of an hour-long chat at the Oracle financial analyst meeting last week during a question and answer session in which he painted Oracle as the AI infrastructure player to beat in light of its recent deals with AWS and Microsoft. Many companies, Ellison touted, build AI models at Oracle because of its "unique networking architecture," which dates back to the database era.

"AI is hot, and databases are not," he said, making Oracle's part of the puzzle less sexy, but no less important, at least according to the man himself - AI systems have to have well-organized data, or else they won't be that valuable. The fact that some of the biggest names in cloud computing (and Elon Musk's Grok) have turned to Oracle to run their AI infrastructure means it's clear that Oracle is doing something right, claimed now-CTO Ellison. "If Elon and Satya [Nadella] want to pick us, that's a good sign - we have tech that's valuable and differentiated," Ellison said, adding: One of the ideal uses of that differentiated offering? Maximizing AI's pubic security capabilities.

"The police will be on their best behavior because we're constantly watching and recording everything that's going on," Ellison told analysts. He described police body cameras that were constantly on, with no ability for officers to disable the feed to Oracle. Even requesting privacy for a bathroom break or a meal only meant sections of recording would require a subpoena to view - not that the video feed was ever stopped. AI would be trained to monitor officer feeds for anything untoward, which Ellison said could prevent abuse of police power and save lives. [...] "Citizens will be on their best behavior because we're constantly recording and reporting," Ellison added, though it's not clear what he sees as the source of those recordings - police body cams or publicly placed security cameras. "There are so many opportunities to exploit AI," he said.

https://developers.slashdot.org/story/24/09/16/213256/ellison-declares-oracle-all-in-on-ai-mass-surveillance?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://developers.slashdot.org/story/24/09/16/213256/ellison-declares-oracle-all-in-on-ai-mass-surveillance?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Apple Charging 20% More To Replace Batteries in iPhone 16 Pro Models

Apple has increased its out-of-warranty battery replacement fee for iPhone 16 Pro models. From a report: Apple Stores can replace the battery inside an iPhone 16 Pro or iPhone 16 Pro Max for $119 in the U.S., which is up from $99 for the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. This is a 20% increase to the fee, which includes the cost of a new battery and service by an Apple Store. The fee may vary at third-party Apple Authorized Service Providers. The fee remains $99 for the standard iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus. Customers with AppleCare+ can still get an iPhone 16 Pro battery replaced for free, but only if the battery retains less than 80% of its original capacity.

Apple says all four iPhone 16 models are equipped with larger batteries, and all of the devices received an internal redesign for improved heat dissipation, according to the company. A metal enclosure was rumored for at least some iPhone 16 batteries, but we are still waiting for teardowns to get a proper look inside of the devices.

https://apple.slashdot.org/story/24/09/16/1425237/apple-charging-20-more-to-replace-batteries-in-iphone-16-pro-models?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://apple.slashdot.org/story/24/09/16/1425237/apple-charging-20-more-to-replace-batteries-in-iphone-16-pro-models?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Stephen Hawking Was Wrong - Extremal Black Holes Are Possible

"Even black holes have edge cases," writes Astronomy magazine contributing editor Steve Nadis, in an article in Quanta magazine (republished today by Wired):

Black holes rotate in space. As matter falls into them, they start to spin faster; if that matter has charge, they also become electrically charged. In principle, a black hole can reach a point where it has as much charge or spin as it possibly can, given its mass. Such a black hole is called "extremal" — the extreme of the extremes. 	 These black holes have some bizarre properties. In particular, the so-called surface gravity at the boundary, or event horizon, of such a black hole is zero. "It is a black hole whose surface doesn't attract things anymore," said Carsten Gundlach, a mathematical physicist at the University of Southampton. But if you were to nudge a particle slightly toward the black hole's center, it would be unable to escape.

In 1973, the prominent physicists Stephen Hawking, James Bardeen and Brandon Carter asserted that extremal black holes can't exist in the real world — that there is simply no plausible way that they can form. Nevertheless, for the past 50 years, extremal black holes have served as useful models in theoretical physics. "They have nice symmetries that make it easier to calculate things," said Gaurav Khanna of the University of Rhode Island, and this allows physicists to test theories about the mysterious relationship between quantum mechanics and gravity. Now two mathematicians have proved Hawking and his colleagues wrong. The new work — contained in a pair of recent papers by Christoph Kehle of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Ryan Unger of Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley — demonstrates that there is nothing in our known laws of physics to prevent the formation of an extremal black hole.

Their mathematical proof is "beautiful, technically innovative and physically surprising," said Mihalis Dafermos, a mathematician at Princeton University (and Kehle's and Unger's doctoral adviser). It hints at a potentially richer and more varied universe in which "extremal black holes could be out there astrophysically," he added. That doesn't mean they are. "Just because a mathematical solution exists that has nice properties doesn't necessarily mean that nature will make use of it," Khanna said. "But if we somehow find one, that would really [make] us think about what we are missing." Such a discovery, he noted, has the potential to raise "some pretty radical kinds of questions." Before Kehle and Unger's proof, there was good reason to believe that extremal black holes couldn't exist.

Hawking, Bardeen, and Carter believed there was no way an extremal black hole could form, according to the article, and "in 1986, a physicist named Werner Israel seemed to put the issue to rest."
But the two mathematicians, studying the formation of electrically charged black holes, stumbled into a counterexample — and along the way "also constructed two other solutions to Einstein's equations of general relativity that involved different ways of adding charge to a black hole.

Having disproved Bardeen, Carter and Hawking's hypothesis in three different contexts, the work should leave no doubt, Unger said... "This is a beautiful example of math giving back to physics," said Elena Giorgi, a mathematician at Columbia University....

In the meantime, a better understanding of extremal black holes can provide further insights into near-extremal black holes, which are thought to be plentiful in the universe. "Einstein didn't think that black holes could be real [because] they're just too weird," Khanna said. "But now we know the universe is teeming with black holes."
For similar reasons, he added, "we shouldn't give up on extremal black holes. I just don't want to put limits on nature's creativity."

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/09/15/2220209/stephen-hawking-was-wrong---extremal-black-holes-are-possible?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/09/15/2220209/stephen-hawking-was-wrong---extremal-black-holes-are-possible?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Microsoft Axed 650 Gaming Employees Two Days After Hosting 'AI Labor Summit'

"A two-day AI Labor Summit between AFL-CIO leaders and Microsoft executives this week reflects the tech giant's revamped approach to unions," writes GeekWire, "which includes a pledge by the company to incorporate feedback from labor unions and their members into the development of artificial intelligence."

But just two days later, "Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer announced it was game over for the jobs of another 650 Microsoft staffers (on top of an earlier 1,900 employee staff reduction)," writes long-time Slashdot reader theodp, "cuts that Spencer made clear were related to Microsoft's $69B acquisition of Activision Blizzard in 2023."

Interestingly, Microsoft's Smith in October 2023 affirmed a "groundbreaking neutrality agreement" with the Communications Workers of America union (CWA) — designed to go into effect if Microsoft was successful in its acquisition of Activision Blizzard — in which Microsoft acknowledged the rights of its employees to unionize and pledged to work constructively with any who did. At the same time, Microsoft made it clear that it hoped its employees wouldn't feel the need to form or join unions, saying they would "never need to organize to have a dialogue with Microsoft's leaders."

In July 2023, the AFL-CIO applauded Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition and the Microsoft-CWA agreement, which AFL-CIO union federation president Liz Shuler said "sets a new standard for respecting workers' rights in the video game industry and the larger technology sector." And in December 2023, Shuler thanked Smith for Microsoft's "absolutely historic partnership" on AI and the Future of the Workforce, which Shuler suggested "can be mutually beneficial for workers, for businesses, and for our country as a whole."

Thursday the CWA union issued critical remarks about the layoffs at Microsoft Gaming (which were later retweeted by the @AFLCIO Twitter account).

"While we would hope that a company like Microsoft with $88 billion in profits last year could achieve 'long-term success' without destroying the livelihoods of 650 of our colleagues, heartless layoffs like these have become all too common."

https://it.slashdot.org/story/24/09/14/1423258/microsoft-axed-650-gaming-employees-two-days-after-hosting-ai-labor-summit?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://it.slashdot.org/story/24/09/14/1423258/microsoft-axed-650-gaming-employees-two-days-after-hosting-ai-labor-summit?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Amazon Fight Calls to Pay More for Electric Grid Updates

The Washingon Post reports that a regulatory dispute in Ohio may help answer a big question about America's power grid: who will pay for the huge upgrades needed to meet soaring energy demand "from the data centers powering the modern internet and artificial intelligence revolution?"

Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta are fighting a proposal by an Ohio power company to significantly increase the upfront energy costs they'll pay for their data centers, a move the companies dubbed "unfair" and "discriminatory" in documents filed with Ohio's Public Utility Commission last month. American Electric Power Ohio said in filings that the tariff increase was needed to prevent new infrastructure costs from being passed on to other customers such as households and businesses if the tech industry should fail to follow through on its ambitious, energy-intensive plans. The case could set a national precedent that helps determine whether and how other states force tech firms to be accountable for the costs of their growing energy consumption... The energy demands of data centers have created similar concerns in other hot spots such as Northern Virginia, Atlanta and Maricopa County, Arizona, leaving experts concerned that the U.S. power grid may not be capable of dealing with the combined needs of the green energy transition and the computing boom that artificial intelligence companies say is coming...

Energy customers must sometimes make a monthly payment to a utility that is a percentage of the maximum amount of electricity they predict that they could need. In Ohio, data center companies had agreed to pay 60 percent of the projected amount. But in May, the power company proposed a new, 10-year fee structure raising the charges to 90 percent of the expected load, even if they don't end up using that much. The major tech companies — all of whom are increasing spending on data center infrastructure to compete in AI — strenuously opposed the proposed contract in documents filed last month... According to testimony from AEP Ohio Vice President Lisa Kelso, there are 50 pending requests from data center customers seeking electric service at more than 90 sites, a potential 30,000 megawatts of additional load — enough to power more than 20 million households. That additional demand would more than triple the utility's previous peak load in 2023, she said. Between 2020 and 2024, the data center energy load in central Ohio increased sixfold, from 100 to 600 megawatts, her testimony reads. By 2030, that amount will reach 5,000 megawatts, according to the utility's signed agreements, she testified...

Meeting that demand will require AEP Ohio to build new transmission lines, an expensive and time-consuming process... Chief among the power company's concerns, according to the documents, is what will happen if it invests billions of dollars into new grid infrastructure only for the data centers to leave for greener pastures, or for the AI bubble to burst and the facilities to need much less power than initially projected. If the power company spends big on new infrastructure but the power demand it was built to serve doesn't materialize, other customers — including business and residential payers — will be stuck with the bill, the utility said... AEP Ohio's testimony in the case also questions whether data centers bring as much to local communities as factories or other high-energy-load businesses. Since 2019, non-data center businesses have created approximately 25 jobs for every megawatt of power requested, while data centers have created less than one job per megawatt, according to Kelso's testimony.

The tech companies rejected this criticism, saying the number of jobs they create is not relevant to how much power they have a right to purchase, and highlighted their other contributions to local economies... Amazon said in filings that it pays fees as high as 75 percent of projected demand in some states but that Ohio's proposal to bill it 90 percent goes too far.
"Should the Ohio tariff be approved, Microsoft and Google both threatened in their testimony to leave Ohio." (Although at the same time, "pressure on the electric grid is mounting all over the country...")

And the article points out that on Thursday, "the White House announced measures intended to speed up data center construction for AI projects, including by accelerating permitting."

https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/09/14/0128258/microsoft-google-meta-and-amazon-fight-calls-to-pay-more-for-electric-grid-updates?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/09/14/0128258/microsoft-google-meta-and-amazon-fight-calls-to-pay-more-for-electric-grid-updates?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


US Takes Aim At Shein and Temu With New Import Rule Proposal

The Biden administration is proposing new rules to limit the "de minimis" exemption, which some Chinese e-commerce companies like Shein and Temu use to ship low-cost goods under $800 to U.S. customers without tariffs. The changes would subject certain shipments to closer inspection and tariffs, aiming to protect American consumers and businesses by ensuring a level playing field against Chinese platforms that have exploited this loophole. The Verge reports: Under the proposed rules, the US will prevent companies from claiming the de minimis exemption if their goods are covered by Section 301, Section 232, and Section 201 tariffs, which apply to products from China, steel, and aluminum, as well as washing machines and solar panels. In addition to slapping these shipments with tariffs, the rule change would subject them to closer inspection by US Customs and Border Protection.

The Biden administration said the proposal would help "protect consumers from goods that do not meet regulatory health and safety standards." Even though Shein is headquartered in Singapore, it's known for cheap fast fashion that's mainly manufactured in China. The China-based Temu sells clothes, household items, electronics, and a variety of other goods made in the country as well.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/09/13/2129249/us-takes-aim-at-shein-and-temu-with-new-import-rule-proposal?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/09/13/2129249/us-takes-aim-at-shein-and-temu-with-new-import-rule-proposal?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed