Telecom Behind AI Biden Robocall Settles With FCC For $1 Million

New submitter ElimGarak000 shares a report from CyberScoop: The Texas-based voice service provider that sent AI-generated robocalls of President Joe Biden to New Hampshire voters ahead of its Democratic presidential primary has agreed to pay a $1 million fine and implement enhanced verification protocols designed to prevent robocalls and phone number spoofing in a settlement with the Federal Communications Commission. The fine represents half the amount the FCC was originally seeking in an enforcement action proposed against Lingo Telecom in May. Despite that, agency leaders characterized the settlement (PDF) as a successful effort to defend U.S. telecommunications networks and election infrastructure from nascent AI and deepfake technologies. [...]

In addition to the fine, the settlement requires Lingo Telecom to follow regulatory protocols that were put in place in 2020 to ensure telecommunications carriers authenticate caller identities using their networks. The protocols, known as STIR/SHAKEN, require carriers like Lingo to digitally verify and formally attest to the FCC that callers are legitimate and own the phone number they display on Caller ID. In the New Hampshire robocall case, Kramer and Life Corporation spoofed the phone number of Kathy Sullivan, a former state Democratic party official who was running a write-in campaign for Biden.

The FCC cited Lingo's inability to properly implement and enforce STIR/SHAKEN as a key failure in a February cease-and-desist letter, and again in May when the agency proposed a $2 million enforcement action. The company was also named in a civil lawsuit filed by the League of Women Voters and New Hampshire residents, seeking damages over the incident. Per terms of the settlement, Lingo Telecom must hire a senior manager knowledgeable in STIR/SHAKEN protocols and develop a compliance plan, new operating procedures and training programs. They must also report any incidents of non-compliance with STIR/SHAKEN within 15 days of discovery. "Every one of us deserves to know that the voice on the line is exactly who they claim to be," FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement. "If AI is being used, that should be made clear to any consumer, citizen, and voter who encounters it. The FCC will act when trust in our communications networks is on the line."

https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/08/22/2325253/telecom-behind-ai-biden-robocall-settles-with-fcc-for-1-million?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/08/22/2325253/telecom-behind-ai-biden-robocall-settles-with-fcc-for-1-million?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Trump Promotes Family's New Crypto Platform, 'The DeFiant Ones'

Former President Donald Trump is about to launch a crypto platform called "The DeFiant Ones," according to a post of his on Truth Social. "For too long, the average American has been squeezed by the big banks and financial elites," Trump wrote. "It's time we take a stand -- together." From a report: The post marks the first time the Republican nominee for president has used his personal platform to promote the as yet unactivated digital bank. Within minutes, his son Donald Trump Jr., shared the post with his 12 million X followers. Trump's post includes a link to a Telegram channel called "The DeFiant Ones," which had approximately 29,000 followers as of Thursday morning, and climbing. An Aug. 15 post describes the group chat as "the only official Telegram channel for the Trump DeFi project" which is building "the future of finance."

Two of Trump's sons, Eric Trump and and Donald Jr., have spent weeks teasing the forthcoming platform, which Eric recently described as "digital real estate." "It's equitable. It's collateral anyone can get access to and do so instantly," Eric told the New York Post earlier this month. "I don't know if people realize what a shake up that is for the world of banking and finance. I hope we can help change that." The Trump brothers have also promoted the project with posts declaring that "decentralized finance is the future" and asking people to "stay tuned for a big announcement."

The mention of digital real estate could be a reference to selling digitized versions of assets in the metaverse, a concept which peaked in popularity in 2021 during the last bull market cycle in crypto. Digitized real estate could also mean that the project would tokenize real-world assets. [...] Trump's eldest son recently said that the family wasn't launching a memecoin and instead, was working to develop a crypto platform that would rival the traditional banking system. "What we want to do is take on a lot of the banking world," he said Aug. 8. "I think there has been a lot of inequality in that only certain people can get financing [...] so this notion of decentralized finance is obviously very appealing to guys like me who have been debanked," Donald Trump Jr. said in the interview on Locals.

https://slashdot.org/story/24/08/22/2254242/trump-promotes-familys-new-crypto-platform-the-defiant-ones?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://slashdot.org/story/24/08/22/2254242/trump-promotes-familys-new-crypto-platform-the-defiant-ones?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Brazil's Grid Caps Power From Wind and Solar, Threatening Renewable Projects

Wind and solar energy producers in Brazil have warned they are reconsidering future investments there after the national grid operator repeatedly capped how much energy they could deliver in the past year, which squeezed their profits. From a report: Brazil has made big strides encouraging companies to invest in wind, solar and other renewable power generation sources, offering generous financing and subsidies. But all the electricity they generate has taxed the grid.
More than a dozen executives and industry representatives said renewable energy investments were less viable under the National Electric System Operator's (ONS) current "curtailments" policy, which temporarily caps how much power ONS accepts from wind and solar plants.

The pressure has been most acute in northeast Brazil, a hot spot for renewable energy investment. There are bottlenecks in transmission lines carrying electricity to Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and elsewhere in the more populous southeast region.
ONS has managed the grid more cautiously since August 2023, when a power outage in the northeast spread over most of the country. That has meant more curtailments when electricity generation exceeds consumption or there is a lack of transmission capacity. ONS has said curtailments were not excessive, and were necessary for safety. The operator said its data shows only 3% of electricity generated was lost to curtailments last month.Volt Robotics, a power sector consultancy, analyzed ONS numbers.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/08/22/2117215/brazils-grid-caps-power-from-wind-and-solar-threatening-renewable-projects?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/08/22/2117215/brazils-grid-caps-power-from-wind-and-solar-threatening-renewable-projects?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Hydrogels Can Learn To Play Pong

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Pong will always hold a special place in the history of gaming as one of the earliest arcade video games. Introduced in 1972, it was a table tennis game featuring very simple graphics and gameplay. In fact, it's simple enough that even non-living materials known as hydrogels can "learn" to play the game by "remembering" previous patterns of electrical stimulation, according to a new paper published in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science. "Our research shows that even very simple materials can exhibit complex, adaptive behaviors typically associated with living systems or sophisticated AI," said co-author Yoshikatsu Hayashi, a biomedical engineer at the University of Reading in the UK. "This opens up exciting possibilities for developing new types of 'smart' materials that can learn and adapt to their environment." [...]

The experimental setup was fairly simple. The researchers hooked up electroactive hydrogels to a simulated virtual environment of a Pong game using a custom-built electrode array. The games would start with the ball traveling in a random direction. The hydrogels tracked the ball's position via electrical stimulation and tracked the paddle's position by measuring the distribution of ions in the hydrogels. As the games progressed, the researchers measured how often the hydrogel managed to hit the ball with the paddle. They found that, over time, the hydrogels' accuracy improved, hitting the ball more frequently for longer rallies. They reached their maximum potential for accuracy in about 20 minutes, compared to 10 minutes for the DishBrain. The authors attribute this to the ion movement essentially mapping out a "memory" of all motion over time, exhibiting what appears to be emergent memory functions within the material itself. Perhaps the next step will be to "teach" the hydrogels how to align the paddles in such a way that the rallies go on indefinitely.

https://games.slashdot.org/story/24/08/22/212239/hydrogels-can-learn-to-play-pong?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://games.slashdot.org/story/24/08/22/212239/hydrogels-can-learn-to-play-pong?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Google Play Will No Longer Pay To Discover Vulnerabilities In Popular Android Apps

Android Authority's Mishaal Rahman reports: Security vulnerabilities are lurking in most of the apps you use on a day-to-day basis; there's just no way for most companies to preemptively fix every possible security issue because of human error, deadlines, lack of resources, and a multitude of other factors. That's why many organizations run bug bounty programs to get external help with fixing these issues. The Google Play Security Reward Program (GPSRP) is an example of a bug bounty program that paid security researchers to find vulnerabilities in popular Android apps, but it's being shut down later this month. Google announced the Google Play Security Reward Program back in October 2017 as a way to incentivize security searchers to find and, most importantly, responsibly disclose vulnerabilities in popular Android apps distributed through the Google Play Store. [...]

The purpose of the Google Play Security Reward Program was simple: Google wanted to make the Play Store a more secure destination for Android apps. According to the company, vulnerability data they collected from the program was used to help create automated checks that scanned all apps available in Google Play for similar vulnerabilities. In 2019, Google said these automated checks helped more than 300,000 developers fix more than 1,000,000 apps on Google Play. Thus, the downstream effect of the GPSRP is that fewer vulnerable apps are distributed to Android users.

However, Google has now decided to wind down the Google Play Security Reward Program. In an email to participating developers, such as Sean Pesce, the company announced that the GPSRP will end on August 31st. The reason Google gave is that the program has seen a decrease in the number of actionable vulnerabilities reported. The company credits this success to the "overall increase in the Android OS security posture and feature hardening efforts."

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/08/22/2042250/google-play-will-no-longer-pay-to-discover-vulnerabilities-in-popular-android-apps?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/08/22/2042250/google-play-will-no-longer-pay-to-discover-vulnerabilities-in-popular-android-apps?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Bug in Apple Devices Crashes UI With Four-Character Input

A newly discovered bug causes iPhones and iPads to briefly crash. All you need to trigger the bug are just four characters. From a report: On Wednesday, a security researcher found that typing "":: can cause the Apple mobile user interface, called Springboard, to crash. TechCrunch verified those characters do crash Springboard when typed into the Search bar in the Settings app, as well as if you swipe all the way to the right on your home screen and type them into the App Library search bar.

As others noted, all that's needed is actually "": and any other character. Triggering the bug briefly crashes Springboard, then reloads to your lock screen. In other tests, the bug flashed the screen black for a second. Researchers tell TechCrunch the bug does not appear to be a security issue. "It's not a security bug," said Ryan Stortz, an iOS security researcher who analyzed the bug. Patrick Wardle, who also researches iOS and founded security startup DoubleYou, agreed.

https://it.slashdot.org/story/24/08/22/1829253/bug-in-apple-devices-crashes-ui-with-four-character-input?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://it.slashdot.org/story/24/08/22/1829253/bug-in-apple-devices-crashes-ui-with-four-character-input?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Humans To Push Further Into Wildlife Habitats Across More Than 50% of Land by 2070, Study Says

Over the next 50 years, people will push further into wildlife habitats across more than half the land on Earth, scientists have found, threatening biodiversity and increasing the chance of future pandemics. From a report: Humans have already transformed or occupied between 70% and 75% of the world's land. Research published in Science Advances on Wednesday found the overlap between human and wildlife populations is expected to increase across 57% of the Earth's land by 2070, driven by human population growth.

[...] As humans and animals share increasingly crowded landscapes, the bigger overlap could result in higher potential for disease transmission, biodiversity loss, animals being killed by people and wildlife eating livestock and crops, the researchers said. Biodiversity loss is the leading driver of infectious disease outbreaks. About 75% of emerging diseases in humans are zoonotic, meaning they can be passed from animals to humans, and many diseases concerning global health authorities -- including Covid-19, mpox, avian flu and swine flu -- likely originated in wildlife.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/08/22/187237/humans-to-push-further-into-wildlife-habitats-across-more-than-50-of-land-by-2070-study-says?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/08/22/187237/humans-to-push-further-into-wildlife-habitats-across-more-than-50-of-land-by-2070-study-says?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Apple Will Allow EU Users To Delete Safari, Messages and App Store Apps

Apple will change how users choose browser options in the European Union, add a dedicated section for changing default apps, and make more apps deletable, the company said on Thursday. From a report: The iPhone maker came under pressure from regulators to make changes after the EU's sweeping Digital Markets Act took effect on March 7, forcing it to offer mobile users the ability to select from a list of available web browsers on a "choice screen" the first time they open Safari. In an update later this year, Apple users will be able to select a default browser directly from the choice screen after going through a mandatory list of options.

A randomly ordered list of 12 browsers per EU country will be shown to the user with short descriptions, and the chosen one will be automatically downloaded, Apple said. The choice screen will also be available on iPads through an update later this year. Apple released a previous update in response to the new rules in March, but browser companies criticized the design of its choice screen, and the Commission opened an investigation on March 25 saying it suspected that the measures fell short of effective compliance. [...] Users will also be able to delete certain Apple-made apps such as App Store, Messages, Camera, Photos and Safari.

https://apple.slashdot.org/story/24/08/22/1720209/apple-will-allow-eu-users-to-delete-safari-messages-and-app-store-apps?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://apple.slashdot.org/story/24/08/22/1720209/apple-will-allow-eu-users-to-delete-safari-messages-and-app-store-apps?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Peloton To Start Charging Subscribers With Used Equipment $95 Activation Fee

Peloton on Thursday said it will start charging new subscribers a one-time $95 activation fee if they bought their hardware on the secondary market as more consumers snag lightly used equipment for a fraction of the typical retail price. From a report: The used equipment activation fee for subscribers in the U.S. and Canada comes as Peloton starts to see a meaningful increase in new members who bought used Bikes or Treads from peer-to-peer markets such as Facebook Marketplace. During its fiscal fourth quarter, which ended June 30, Peloton said it saw a "steady stream of paid connected fitness subscribers" who bought hardware on the secondary market. The company said the segment grew 16% year over year.

"We believe a meaningful share of these subscribers are incremental, and they exhibit lower net churn rates than rental subscribers," the company said in a letter to shareholders. "It's also worth highlighting that this activation fee will be a source of incremental revenue and gross profit for us, helping to support our investments in improving the fitness experience for our members," interim co-CEO Christopher Bruzzo later added on a call with analysts.

https://slashdot.org/story/24/08/22/1447234/peloton-to-start-charging-subscribers-with-used-equipment-95-activation-fee?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://slashdot.org/story/24/08/22/1447234/peloton-to-start-charging-subscribers-with-used-equipment-95-activation-fee?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Ryzen 9 9950X Performs 16% Faster On Intel-Optimized Linux Distro

Phoronix's Michael Larabel benchmarked AMD's latest Ryzen 9 9950X in several different Linux distros and found that the Zen 5 chip performs up to 16% faster with the Intel-optimized Clear Linux distro. Here's an excerpt from the report: The Linux distributions for this round of testing on the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X included Arch Linux, CachyOS, Clear Linux, Fedora Workstation 40, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, and a recent daily snapshot of Ubuntu 24.10 in its current development form. Intel's Clear Linux is the one most interesting for looking at on the new AMD Zen 5 hardware. While there hasn't been so much Clear Linux news in recent times, it remains the most well optimized x86_64 Linux distribution out of the box. Clear Linux makes use of compiler function multi versioning, performance-minded defaults, aggressive compiler CFLAGS/CXXFLAGS defaults, optional AVX-512 usage for more libraries, and many other patches and optimizations in the name of delivering the greatest x86_64 Linux performance. And while not Intel's focus, it works typically on AMD hardware too. [...]

Using the same Ryzen 9 9950X system, all of these Linux distributions were tested in their default / out-of-the-box state. [...] When taking the geometric mean of 59 benchmarks run across all of the Linux distributions on this AMD Ryzen 9 9950X system, Intel's Clear Linux easily took the crown. Ubuntu 24.04 LTS -- which was used for all of the Ryzen 9000 series Linux testing so far on Phoronix -- was the slowest. Tapping Intel's Clear Linux netted a 16% improvement on top of the performance offered by Ubuntu 24.04 LTS! Ubuntu 24.04 with the Ryzen 9000 series was already looking great generationally, but as shown today the performance can be even better with further software optimizations.

The Arch Linux powered CachyOS that is tuned out-of-the-box with a similar aim to Clear Linux also performed great. CachyOS was 7% faster than Ubuntu 24.04 LTS based on the geo mean and 3% faster than upstream Arch Linux itself. For different workloads though the CachyOS advantage over Arch Linux varied from a minimal difference to quite significant advantages. From the performance of PHP and Python scripts atop Clear Linux to compiling various server and HPC minded software, Intel's Clear Linux -- and a commendable second place for CachyOS -- were showing that even greater performance can be achieved on the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X. Even for devoted Ubuntu Linux users, these results did show some nice advantages of the upcoming Ubuntu 24.10 release over Ubuntu 24.04 LTS thanks to the GCC 14 compiler. Ubuntu 24.10 performance is also still subject to change since the current daily ISOs haven't yet moved past the Linux 6.8 kernel while Ubuntu 24.10 in October will be shipping with Linux 6.11.

https://linux.slashdot.org/story/24/08/21/1958234/ryzen-9-9950x-performs-16-faster-on-intel-optimized-linux-distro?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://linux.slashdot.org/story/24/08/21/1958234/ryzen-9-9950x-performs-16-faster-on-intel-optimized-linux-distro?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Second Human To Receive Neuralink Brain Chip Uses It To Play Counter-Strike 2

In a blog post on Wednesday, Neuralink said its second human recipient is using the brain chip to play Counter-Strike 2 and develop 3D designs in CAD software. "Alex" was given the brain chip last month to help restore his autonomy after a spinal cord injury. PCMag reports: Like the first Neuralink patient, Noland Arbaugh, Alex has also been using the brain chip to play his favorite computer games, such as Counter-Strike 2. Before, Alex had to use a mouth-operated controller, called a QuadStick, to play the first-person shooter. But even then, the controller limited him to only moving or aiming his weapon at a single time, never simultaneously like a normal Counter-Strike player. In other words, Alex had to essentially switch back and forth between the mouse and keyboard functions while playing the game. But thanks to Neuralink, he can now aim with the implant, and simultaneously move while using the QuadStick. [...]

In the blog post, Neuralink also addressed a problem the company faced when placing the chip in Arbaugh, the first patient. Despite a successful surgery, about 85% of the thread-based electrodes attached to his brain later became displaced, undermining the full potential of the chip to read neural signals. Although Arbaugh can still use his implant effectively, Neuralink wanted to avoid a repeat with Alex. In response, the company developed several "mitigations," which include reducing the chance of an air pocket forming during surgery and placing the implant deeper into the brain tissue. "Promisingly, we have observed no thread retraction in our second participant," the company said of Alex.

Whether Alex's implant outperforms the brain chip in Arbaugh was left unclear. In the meantime, Neuralink says it's working on ways to enhance the controls on the technology "to deliver full mouse and video game controller functionality." "Additionally, we plan to enable the Link [brain chip] to interact with the physical world, allowing users to feed themselves and move more independently by controlling a robotic arm or their wheelchair," the company said. You can watch Alex playing Counter-Strike 2 on YouTube.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/08/22/0136248/second-human-to-receive-neuralink-brain-chip-uses-it-to-play-counter-strike-2?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/08/22/0136248/second-human-to-receive-neuralink-brain-chip-uses-it-to-play-counter-strike-2?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Top US Oilfield Firm Halliburton Hit By Cyberattack, Source Says

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: U.S. oilfield services firm Halliburton on Wednesday was hit by a cyberattack, according to a person familiar with the matter. Halliburton said it was aware of an issue affecting certain systems at the company and was working to determine the cause and impact of the problem. The company was also working with "leading external experts" to fix the issue, a spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

The attack appeared to impact business operations at the company's north Houston campus, as well as some global connectivity networks, the person said, who declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak on the record. The company has asked some staff not to connect to internal networks, the person said. Houston, Texas-based Halliburton is one of the largest oilfield services firms in the world, providing drilling services and equipment to major energy producers around the globe. It had nearly 48,000 employees and operated in more than 70 countries at the end of last year.

https://it.slashdot.org/story/24/08/21/2250229/top-us-oilfield-firm-halliburton-hit-by-cyberattack-source-says?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://it.slashdot.org/story/24/08/21/2250229/top-us-oilfield-firm-halliburton-hit-by-cyberattack-source-says?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


110K Domains Targeted in 'Sophisticated' AWS Cloud Extortion Campaign

A sophisticated extortion campaign has targeted 110,000 domains by exploiting misconfigured AWS environment files, security firm Cyble reports. The attackers scanned for exposed .env files containing cloud access keys and other sensitive data. Organizations that failed to secure their AWS environments found their S3-stored data replaced with ransom notes.

The attackers used a series of API calls to verify data, enumerate IAM users, and locate S3 buckets. Though initial access lacked admin privileges, they created new IAM roles to escalate permissions. Cyble researchers noted the attackers' use of AWS Lambda functions for automated scanning operations.

https://it.slashdot.org/story/24/08/22/0214202/110k-domains-targeted-in-sophisticated-aws-cloud-extortion-campaign?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://it.slashdot.org/story/24/08/22/0214202/110k-domains-targeted-in-sophisticated-aws-cloud-extortion-campaign?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Sonos CEO Says the Old App Can't Be Rereleased

The old Sonos app won't be making a return to replace the buggy new version. According to Sonos CEO Patrick Spence, rereleasing the old app would make things worse now that updated software has already been sent out to the company's speakers and cloud infrastructure. The Verge reports: In a Reddit AMA response posted Tuesday, Sonos CEO Spence says that he was hopeful "until very recently" that the company could rerelease the app, confirming a report from The Verge that the company was considering doing so. [...] Since the new app was released on May 7th, Spence has issued a formal apology and announced in August that the company would be delaying the launch of two products "until our app experience meets the level of quality that we, our customers, and our partners expect from Sonos." "The trick of course is that Sonos is not just the mobile app, but software that runs on your speakers and in the cloud too," writes Spence in the Reddit AMA. "In the months since the new mobile app launched we've been updating the software that runs on our speakers and in the cloud to the point where today S2 is less reliable & less stable then what you remember. After doing extensive testing we've reluctantly concluded that re-releasing S2 would make the problems worse, not better. I'm sure this is disappointing. It was disappointing to me."

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/08/21/231243/sonos-ceo-says-the-old-app-cant-be-rereleased?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/08/21/231243/sonos-ceo-says-the-old-app-cant-be-rereleased?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Google Agrees To $250 Million Deal To Fund California Newsrooms, AI

Google has reached a groundbreaking deal with California lawmakers to contribute millions to local newsrooms, aiming to support journalism amid its decline as readers migrate online and advertising dollars evaporate. The agreement also includes a controversial provision for artificial intelligence funding. Politico reports: California emulated a strategy that other countries like Canada have used to try and reverse the journalism industry's decline as readership migrated online and advertising dollars evaporated. [...] Under the deal, the details of which were first reported by POLITICO on Monday, Google and the state of California would jointly contribute a minimum of $125 million over five years to support local newsrooms through a nonprofit public charity housed at UC Berkeley's journalism school. Google would contribute at least $55 million, and state officials would kick in at least $70 million. The search giant would also commit $50 million over five years to unspecified "existing journalism programs."

The deal would also steer millions in tax-exempt private dollars toward an artificial intelligence initiative that people familiar with the negotiations described as an effort to cultivate tech industry buy-in. Funding for artificial intelligence was not included in the bill at the core of negotiations, authored by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks. The agreement has drawn criticism from a journalists' union that had so far championed Wicks' effort. Media Guild of the West President Matt Pearce in an email to union members Sunday evening said such a deal would entrench "Google's monopoly power over our newsrooms." "This public-private partnership builds on our long history of working with journalism and the local news ecosystem in our home state, while developing a national center of excellence on AI policy," said Kent Walker, chief legal officer for Alphabet, the parent company of Google.

Media Guild of the West President Matt Pearce wasn't so chipper. He criticized the plan in emails with union members, calling it a "total rout of the state's attempts to check Google's stranglehold over our newsrooms."

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/08/21/2228258/google-agrees-to-250-million-deal-to-fund-california-newsrooms-ai?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/08/21/2228258/google-agrees-to-250-million-deal-to-fund-california-newsrooms-ai?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Rotten Tomatoes Introduces a New Audience Rating For People Who Actually Bought a Ticket

Rotten Tomatoes and Fandango are rolling out a new "Verified Hot" rating for users who actually bought a ticket to the movie being reviewed. "The designation is only given to theatrical movies that have reached an audience score above 90 percent among user ratings," adds IndieWire. From the report: Movie ticketing app Fandango is the parent company to Rotten Tomatoes, so if you bought your ticket through Fandango and then rated a movie using that same user info on Rotten Tomatoes, RT is able to confirm you bought a ticket and can filter out anyone else who may just be rating things blindly. A rep for RT tells IndieWire the goal is to work with other partners so that other people who don't use Fandango can still be considered verified.

Rotten Tomatoes also expanded its Popcornmeter designations. Anything with an audience score above 60 percent of people rating it as 3.5 stars or higher will be labeled "Hot," and movies below that 60 percent threshold are now "Stale." The "Certified Fresh" badge for movies that achieve a strong enough critics score has been around for a while, but in 2020 RT introduced a "Top Critics" feature such that you could filter out the dozens or hundreds of aggregated critics from unreliable sources who could be skewing a film's score. Anyone can vote or rate movies on Rotten Tomatoes if you're an audience member, but you can also filter out ratings from those not considered "verified."

Rotten Tomatoes made some other tweaks too under the hood: Both the Popcornmeter and Tomatometer need to meet a new minimum number of reviews published for a score to appear. Not everything gets reviewed widely, so the threshold varies depending on a film's total projected domestic box office forecast. A full list of "Verified Hot" films can be found here.

https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/24/08/21/1937201/rotten-tomatoes-introduces-a-new-audience-rating-for-people-who-actually-bought-a-ticket?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/24/08/21/1937201/rotten-tomatoes-introduces-a-new-audience-rating-for-people-who-actually-bought-a-ticket?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Google Can't Defend Shady Chrome Data Hoarding As 'Browser Agnostic,' Court Says

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Chrome users who declined to sync their Google accounts with their browsing data secured a big privacy win this week after previously losing a proposed class action claiming that Google secretly collected personal data without consent from over 100 million Chrome users who opted out of syncing. On Tuesday, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals reversed (PDF) the prior court's finding that Google had properly gained consent for the contested data collection. The appeals court said that the US district court had erred in ruling that Google's general privacy policies secured consent for the data collection. The district court failed to consider conflicts with Google's Chrome Privacy Notice (CPN), which said that users' "choice not to sync Chrome with their Google accounts meant that certain personal information would not be collected and used by Google," the appeals court ruled.

Rather than analyzing the CPN, it appears that the US district court completely bought into Google's argument that the CPN didn't apply because the data collection at issue was "browser agnostic" and occurred whether a user was browsing with Chrome or not. But the appeals court -- by a 3-0 vote -- did not. In his opinion, Circuit Judge Milan Smith wrote that the "district court should have reviewed the terms of Google's various disclosures and decided whether a reasonable user reading them would think that he or she was consenting to the data collection." "By focusing on 'browser agnosticism' instead of conducting the reasonable person inquiry, the district court failed to apply the correct standard," Smith wrote. "Viewed in the light most favorable to Plaintiffs, browser agnosticism is irrelevant because nothing in Google's disclosures is tied to what other browsers do."

Smith seemed to suggest that the US district court wasted time holding a "7.5-hour evidentiary hearing which included expert testimony about 'whether the data collection at issue'" was "browser-agnostic." "Rather than trying to determine how a reasonable user would understand Google's various privacy policies," the district court improperly "made the case turn on a technical distinction unfamiliar to most 'reasonable'" users, Smith wrote. Now, the case has been remanded to the district court where Google will face a trial over the alleged failure to get consent for the data collection. If the class action is certified, Google risks owing currently unknown damages to any Chrome users who opted out of syncing between 2016 and 2024. According to Smith, the key focus of the trial will be weighing the CPN terms and determining "what a 'reasonable user' of a service would understand they were consenting to, not what a technical expert would."

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/08/21/1921221/google-cant-defend-shady-chrome-data-hoarding-as-browser-agnostic-court-says?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

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CrowdStrike Unhappy With 'Shady Commentary' From Competitors After Outage

CrowdStrike's president hit out at "shady" efforts by its cyber security rivals to scare its customers and steal market share in the month since its botched software update sparked a global IT outage. From a report: Michael Sentonas told the Financial Times that attempts by competitors to use the July 19 disruption to promote their own products were "misguided." After criticism from rivals including SentinelOne and Trellix, the CrowdStrike executive said no vendor could "technically" guarantee that their own software would never cause a similar incident.

"Our industry is built on trust," Sentonas said. For rivals to take advantage of the meltdown to push their own products "lets themselves down because, ultimately, people know really quickly fact from, possibly, some shady commentary." Texas-based CrowdStrike had a reputation as many major companies' first line of defense against cyber attacks, but the high-profile nature of its clients exacerbated the impact of July's global disruption that shut down 8.5 million Windows devices. Insurers have estimated that losses from the disruption, which grounded flights and shut down hospital systems, could run into billions of dollars. Delta Air Lines, which canceled more than 6,000 flights, has estimated that the outages will cost it $500 million and has threatened litigation.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/08/21/1611202/crowdstrike-unhappy-with-shady-commentary-from-competitors-after-outage?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/08/21/1611202/crowdstrike-unhappy-with-shady-commentary-from-competitors-after-outage?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Slack AI Can Be Tricked Into Leaking Data From Private Channels

Slack AI, an add-on assistive service available to users of Salesforce's team messaging service, is vulnerable to prompt injection, according to security firm PromptArmor. From a report: The AI service provides generative tools within Slack for tasks like summarizing long conversations, finding answers to questions, and summarizing rarely visited channels.

"Slack AI uses the conversation data already in Slack to create an intuitive and secure AI experience tailored to you and your organization," the messaging app provider explains in its documentation. Except it's not that secure, as PromptArmor tells it. A prompt injection vulnerability in Slack AI makes it possible to fetch data from private Slack channels.

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/08/21/1448249/slack-ai-can-be-tricked-into-leaking-data-from-private-channels?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/08/21/1448249/slack-ai-can-be-tricked-into-leaking-data-from-private-channels?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


China Is Backing Off Coal Power Plant Approvals

Approvals for new coal-fired power plants in China dropped by 80% in the first half of this year compared to last, according to an analysis from Greenpeace and the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies. The Associated Press reports: A review of project documents by Greenpeace East Asia found that 14 new coal plants were approved from January to June with a total capacity of 10.3 gigawatts, down 80% from 50.4 gigawatts in the first half of last year. Authorities approved 90.7 gigawatts in 2022 and 106.4 gigawatts in 2023, a surge that raised alarm among climate experts. China leads the world in solar and wind power installations but the government has said that coal plants are still needed for periods of peak demand because wind and solar power are less reliable. While China's grid gives priority to greener sources of energy, experts worry that it won't be easy for China to wean itself off coal once the new capacity is built.

"We may now be seeing a turning point," Gao Yuhe, the project lead for Greenpeace East Asia, said in a statement. "One question remains here. Are Chinese provinces slowing down coal approvals because they've already approved so many coal projects ...? Or are these the last gasps of coal power in an energy transition that has seen coal become increasingly impractical? Only time can tell." [...] Gao said that China should focus its resources on better connecting wind and solar power to the grid rather than building more coal power plants. Coal provides more than 60% of the country's electricity. "Coal plays a foundation role in China's energy security," Li Fulong, an official of National Energy Administration, said at a news conference in June. The report notes that China is also looking to nuclear power to help reach its carbon reduction targets. The country approved five nuclear power projects on Monday with 11 units and a total cost of $28 billion.

https://slashdot.org/story/24/08/21/0045249/china-is-backing-off-coal-power-plant-approvals?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://slashdot.org/story/24/08/21/0045249/china-is-backing-off-coal-power-plant-approvals?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


US Birthrate Hits New Low, CDC Data Shows

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Hill: Births in the United States dropped again between 2022 and 2023, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The national birth rate has been steadily declining for the last 17 years, with a particularly steep drop in births between 2007 and 2009 during the Great Recession. Between 2007 and 2022, the U.S. birth rate fell by nearly 23 percent, according to CDC data. There were 3,596,017 registered births in 2023, about 2 percent fewer than in 2022, when there were 3,667,758 registered births, according to CDC data.

The general fertility rate fell by nearly 3 percent last year to 54.5 births per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44. That's down from the 2022 rate of 56 births per 1,000 women, CDC data shows. Teen births have declined almost every year since the 1990s and are continuing to fall. The teenage birth rate dropped by 4 percent between 2022 and 2023, from 13.6 to 13.1 births per 1,000 girls aged 15 to 19, according to the CDC. And the birth rate for teens between the ages of 15 and 17, specifically, declined by 2 percent from 5.6 to 5.5 births per 1,000 girls. In 2007, the general fertility rate reached a height not seen since the 1990s at 69.5 births per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44, 1 percentage point higher than the year before, according to CDC data.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/08/21/0038231/us-birthrate-hits-new-low-cdc-data-shows?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/08/21/0038231/us-birthrate-hits-new-low-cdc-data-shows?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


'Something Has Gone Seriously Wrong,' Dual-Boot Systems Warn After Microsoft Update

Ars Technica's Dan Goodwin writes: Last Tuesday, loads of Linux usersâ"many running packages released as early as this year -- started reporting their devices were failing to boot. Instead, they received a cryptic error message that included the phrase: "Something has gone seriously wrong." The cause: an update Microsoft issued as part of its monthly patch release. It was intended to close a 2-year-old vulnerability in GRUB, an open source boot loader used to start up many Linux devices. The vulnerability, with a severity rating of 8.6 out of 10, made it possible for hackers to bypass secure boot, the industry standard for ensuring that devices running Windows or other operating systems don't load malicious firmware or software during the bootup process. CVE-2022-2601 was discovered in 2022, but for unclear reasons, Microsoft patched it only last Tuesday. [...]

With Microsoft maintaining radio silence, those affected by the glitch have been forced to find their own remedies. One option is to access their EFI panel and turn off secure boot. Depending on the security needs of the user, that option may not be acceptable. A better short-term option is to delete the SBAT Microsoft pushed out last Tuesday. This means users will still receive some of the benefits of Secure Boot even if they remain vulnerable to attacks that exploit CVE-2022-2601. The steps for this remedy are outlined here (thanks to manutheeng for the reference).

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/08/21/0031243/something-has-gone-seriously-wrong-dual-boot-systems-warn-after-microsoft-update?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/08/21/0031243/something-has-gone-seriously-wrong-dual-boot-systems-warn-after-microsoft-update?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Toyota Confirms Breach After Stolen Data Leaks On Hacking Forum

Toyota confirmed a breach of its network after 240GB of data, including employee and customer information, was leaked on a hacking forum by a threat actor. The company has not provided details on how or when the breach occurred. BleepingComputer reports: ZeroSevenGroup (the threat actor who leaked the stolen data) says they breached a U.S. branch and were able to steal 240GB of files with information on Toyota employees and customers, as well as contracts and financial information. They also claim to have collected network infrastructure information, including credentials, using the open-source ADRecon tool that helps extract vast amounts of information from Active Directory environments.

"We have hacked a branch in United States to one of the biggest automotive manufacturer in the world (TOYOTA). We are really glad to share the files with you here for free. The data size: 240 GB," the threat actor claims. "Contents: Everything like Contacts, Finance, Customers, Schemes, Employees, Photos, DBs, Network infrastructure, Emails, and a lot of perfect data. We also offer you AD-Recon for all the target network with passwords." While Toyota hasn't shared the date of the breach, BleepingComputer found that the files had been stolen or at least created on December 25, 2022. This date could indicate that the threat actor gained access to a backup server where the data was stored. "We are aware of the situation. The issue is limited in scope and is not a system wide issue," Toyota told BleepingComputer. The company added that it's "engaged with those who are impacted and will provide assistance if needed."

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/08/20/2214213/toyota-confirms-breach-after-stolen-data-leaks-on-hacking-forum?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/08/20/2214213/toyota-confirms-breach-after-stolen-data-leaks-on-hacking-forum?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


'Civilization 7 Captures the Chaos of Human History In Manageable Doses'

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian, written by Julian Benson: It's been eight years since Civilization 6 -- the most recent in a very long-running strategy game series that sees you take a nation from the prehistoric settlement of their first town through centuries of development until they reach the space age. Since 2016 it has amassed an abundance of expansions, scenario packs, new nations, modes and systems for players to master -- but series producer Dennis Shirk at Firaxis Games feels that enough it enough. "It was getting too big for its britches," he says. "It was time to make something new."

"It's tough to even get through the whole game," designer Ed Beach says, singling out the key problem that Firaxis aims to solve with the forthcoming Civilization 7. While the early turns of a campaign in Civilization 6 can be swift, when you're only deciding the actions for the population of a single town, "the number of systems, units, and entities you must manage explodes after a while," Beach says. From turn one to victory, a single campaign can take more than 20 hours, and if you start falling behind other nations, it can be tempting to restart long before you see the endgame. That's why Civilization 7's campaign has been split into three ages -- Antiquity, Exploration and Modern -- with each ending in a dramatic explosion of global crises. "Breaking the game into chapters lets people get through history in a more digestible fashion," Beach says.

When you start a new campaign, you pick a leader and civilization to govern, and direct your people in establishing their first settlements and encounters with the other peoples populating a largely undeveloped land. You'll choose the technologies they research, the expansions they make to their cities, and whom they try to befriend or conquer. Every turn you complete or scientific, economic, cultural and military milestone you pass adds points to a meter running in the background. Once that meter hits 200, you and all the other surviving civilizations on the map will transition into the next age. When moving from Antiquity to Exploration and later Exploration to Modern, you select a new civilization to lead. You'll retain all the cities you controlled before but have access to different technologies and attributes. This may seem strange, but it's built to reflect history: think of London, which was once run by the Romans before being supplanted by the Anglo-Saxons. No empire lasts for ever, but they don't all collapse, either.

Breaking Civilization 7 into chapters also gives campaigns a new rhythm. As you approach the end of an age, you'll begin to face global crises. In Antiquity, for instance, you can see a proliferation of independent powers similar to the tribes that tore down Rome. "We're not calling them barbarians any more," Beach says. "It's a more nuanced way to present them." These crises multiply and strengthen until you reach the next age. "It's like a sci-fi or fantasy series with a huge, crazy conclusion, and then the next book starts nice and calm," Beach says. "There's a point where getting to the next age is a relief." Here's a round-up of thoughts on Civilization 7 from some of the most respected gaming outlets and reviewers:

Civilization VII hands-on: This strategy sequel rethinks the long game -- Ars Technica's Samuel Axon
Civilization 7 pairs seismic changes with a lovably familiar formula -- Eurogamer's Chris Tapsell
Civilization 7 hands-on: Huge changes are coming to the classic strategy series - PC Gamer's Tyler Wilde
Civilization 7 lets you mix and match history -- and it's a blast - The Verge's Ash Parrish
Civilization 7 Hands-On Preview: Creating Your Legacy - Game Rant's Joshua Duckworth
Sid Meier's Civilization VII preview -- possibly the freshest sequel yet - GamesHub's Jam Walker
How Civilization 7 Rethinks The Series' Structure - GameSpot's Steve Watts

https://games.slashdot.org/story/24/08/20/224251/civilization-7-captures-the-chaos-of-human-history-in-manageable-doses?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://games.slashdot.org/story/24/08/20/224251/civilization-7-captures-the-chaos-of-human-history-in-manageable-doses?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Federal Judge Strikes Down Ban On Worker 'Noncompete' Agreements

U.S. District Judge Ada Brown in Dallas blocked the FTC's rule banning noncompete agreements, arguing the FTC lacks authority to implement such broad regulations and did not adequately justify the sweeping prohibition. Reuters reports: Brown had temporarily blocked the rule in July while she considered a bid by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the country's largest business lobby, and tax service firm Ryan to strike it down entirely. The rule was set to take effect Sept. 4. Brown in her ruling said that even if the FTC had the power to adopt the rule, the agency had not justified banning virtually all noncompete agreements. "The Commission's lack of evidence as to why they chose to impose such a sweeping prohibition ... instead of targeting specific, harmful non-competes, renders the Rule arbitrary and capricious," wrote Brown, an appointee of Republican former President Donald Trump.

FTC spokesperson Victoria Graham said the agency was disappointed with the ruling and is "seriously considering a potential appeal."
"Today's decision does not prevent the FTC from addressing noncompetes through case-by-base enforcement actions," Graham said in a statement. The Democratic-controlled FTC approved the ban on noncompete agreements in a 3-2 vote in May. The commission and supporters of the rule say the agreements are an unfair restraint on competition that violate U.S. antitrust law and suppress workers' wages and mobility.

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/08/20/2226217/federal-judge-strikes-down-ban-on-worker-noncompete-agreements?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/08/20/2226217/federal-judge-strikes-down-ban-on-worker-noncompete-agreements?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Smartphone Maker Nothing Mandates Full-Time Office Return, Urges Dissenters To Quit

Nothing, a British startup seeking to challenge Apple's smartphone dominance, is hauling its employees back to the office full-time in the quest for growth. From a report: In a lengthy email disparaging remote work, which had been a tenet of Nothing CEO Carl Pei's workplace policy since its creation four years ago, Pei explained why his 450 employees needed to come to the office five days a week. "Remote work is not compatible with a high ambition level plus high speed," Pei said in an email to staff, which he shared on LinkedIn.

Pei gave three reasons for the strict return-to-office mandate. First, he said, the logistics of developing a smartphone, where design, engineering, and manufacturing departments collaborate, weren't conducive to remote working. He added that creativity and innovation worked better in person, allowing the company to do more with fewer resources. Third, Pei said Nothing's ambitions to scale to become a "generation-defining company" wouldn't be achievable with remote work.

According to Pei's email, the new mandate will take effect in two months, and he intends to hold a town hall in London to answer employees' questions. In his email, the Nothing CEO also suggested that employees who could not commit to five days in the office look for other employment. "We know it's not the right type of setup for everybody, and that's okay. We should look for a mutual fit. You should find an environment where you thrive, and we need to find people who want to go the full mile with us in the decades ahead."

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/08/20/1912236/smartphone-maker-nothing-mandates-full-time-office-return-urges-dissenters-to-quit?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/08/20/1912236/smartphone-maker-nothing-mandates-full-time-office-return-urges-dissenters-to-quit?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Disney Gives Up On Trying To Use Disney+ Excuse To Settle a Wrongful Death Lawsuit

An anonymous reader shares a report: Disney has now agreed that a wrongful death lawsuit should be decided in court following backlash for initially arguing the case belonged in arbitration because the grieving widower had once signed up for a Disney Plus trial. "With such unique circumstances as the ones in this case, we believe this situation warrants a sensitive approach to expedite a resolution for the family who have experienced such a painful loss," chairman of Disney experiences Josh D'Amaro said in a statement to The Verge. "As such, we've decided to waive our right to arbitration and have the matter proceed in court."

The lawsuit was filed in February by Jeffrey Piccolo, the husband of a 42-year-old woman who died last year due to an allergic reaction that occurred after eating at a restaurant in the Disney Springs shopping complex in Orlando. The case gained widespread media attention after Piccolo's legal team challenged Disney's motion to dismiss the case, arguing that a forced arbitration agreement Piccolo signed was effectively invisible.

https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/24/08/20/1643254/disney-gives-up-on-trying-to-use-disney-excuse-to-settle-a-wrongful-death-lawsuit?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/24/08/20/1643254/disney-gives-up-on-trying-to-use-disney-excuse-to-settle-a-wrongful-death-lawsuit?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Authors Sue Anthropic For Copyright Infringement Over AI Training

AI company Anthropic has been hit with a class-action lawsuit in California federal court by three authors who say it misused their books and hundreds of thousands of others to train its AI-powered chatbot Claude. From a report: The complaint, filed on Monday, by writers and journalists Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber and Kirk Wallace Johnson, said that Anthropic used pirated versions of their works and others to teach Claude to respond to human prompts.

The lawsuit joins several other high-stakes complaints filed by copyright holders including visual artists, news outlets and record labels over the material used by tech companies to train their generative artificial intelligence systems. Separate groups of authors have sued OpenAI and Meta over the companies' alleged misuse of their work to train the large-language models underlying their chatbots.

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/08/20/1524250/authors-sue-anthropic-for-copyright-infringement-over-ai-training?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/08/20/1524250/authors-sue-anthropic-for-copyright-infringement-over-ai-training?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


GoPro To Cut 15% of Workforce In Restructuring Push

GoPro has announced a restructuring plan that involves cutting about 15% of its workforce. "The company expects to take charges in the range of $5 million to $7 million for the restructuring plan, with cash expenses of $1 million to be recognized in the third quarter and about $4 million to $6 million in the fourth quarter of 2024," reports Reuters. From the report: The layoffs - around 139 jobs - are expected to begin in the third quarter and would be completed by the end of 2024. Shares of the company, which had 925 full-time employees at the end of the second quarter ended June 30, were up 1.5% after the layoffs were announced. Earlier this month, GoPro reported revenue of $186 million for second quarter, down 22.7% compared to last year and operating expenses of $103 million, an increase of 5% from a year ago.

https://slashdot.org/story/24/08/20/0522241/gopro-to-cut-15-of-workforce-in-restructuring-push?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://slashdot.org/story/24/08/20/0522241/gopro-to-cut-15-of-workforce-in-restructuring-push?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Incompatible Starliner Spacesuits Could Stall Astronauts' Return From the ISS

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are facing challenges returning to Earth due to compatibility issues between their Boeing-designed spacesuits and SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft. Inc. Magazine reports: The space suits in question are the "intra-vehicular activity" outfits now worn by astronauts. They're simpler than the bulky extra-vehicular space suits used on space walks, and are designed to keep astronauts safe in the capsule in the very unlikely case there's a problem that causes the capsule's atmosphere to be lost. The problem is simple: Should Butch and Suni need to fly back aboard SpaceX's vehicle, their suits won't fit in Dragon's seats. [...]

Boeing and SpaceX suits evolved under totally different design sensibilities. If Boeing and NASA deem Starliner unsafe for humans to fly home in, Butch and Suni must head earthward aboard a SpaceX Dragon, but their suits won't be able to plug into Dragon's systems. Like trying to plug an essentially outdated USB A socket into an iPhone's charge port, the suit connectors have different shapes, styles, and functions. The suits themselves have different systems that integrate with their own capsules for purposes like air leak checks during pre-flight testing.

So if an emergency situation presents itself and astronauts have to come back to Earth before proper plans are finalized, Butch and Suni will have to return inside the cargo section of a Dragon space capsule "unsuited," according to NASA leadership who spoke on the matter in a press conference last week. Other plans include flying up suitable Dragon-connecting space suits for the two astronauts on a later mission, should Starliner be deemed incapable of bringing them back.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/08/20/0515214/incompatible-starliner-spacesuits-could-stall-astronauts-return-from-the-iss?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/08/20/0515214/incompatible-starliner-spacesuits-could-stall-astronauts-return-from-the-iss?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


National Public Data Published Its Own Passwords

Security researcher Brian Krebs writes: New details are emerging about a breach at National Public Data (NPD), a consumer data broker that recently spilled hundreds of millions of Americans' Social Security Numbers, addresses, and phone numbers online. KrebsOnSecurity has learned that another NPD data broker which shares access to the same consumer records inadvertently published the passwords to its back-end database in a file that was freely available from its homepage until today. In April, a cybercriminal named USDoD began selling data stolen from NPD. In July, someone leaked what was taken, including the names, addresses, phone numbers and in some cases email addresses for more than 272 million people (including many who are now deceased). NPD acknowledged the intrusion on Aug. 12, saying it dates back to a security incident in December 2023. In an interview last week, USDoD blamed the July data leak on another malicious hacker who also had access to the company's database, which they claimed has been floating around the underground since December 2023.

Following last week's story on the breadth of the NPD breach, a reader alerted KrebsOnSecurity that a sister NPD property -- the background search service recordscheck.net -- was hosting an archive that included the usernames and password for the site's administrator. A review of that archive, which was available from the Records Check website until just before publication this morning (August 19), shows it includes the source code and plain text usernames and passwords for different components of recordscheck.net, which is visually similar to nationalpublicdata.com and features identical login pages. The exposed archive, which was named "members.zip," indicates RecordsCheck users were all initially assigned the same six-character password and instructed to change it, but many did not. According to the breach tracking service Constella Intelligence, the passwords included in the source code archive are identical to credentials exposed in previous data breaches that involved email accounts belonging to NPD's founder, an actor and retired sheriff's deputy from Florida named Salvatore "Sal" Verini.

Reached via email, Mr. Verini said the exposed archive (a .zip file) containing recordscheck.net credentials has been removed from the company's website, and that the site is slated to cease operations "in the next week or so." "Regarding the zip, it has been removed but was an old version of the site with non-working code and passwords," Verini told KrebsOnSecurity. "Regarding your question, it is an active investigation, in which we cannot comment on at this point. But once we can, we will [be] with you, as we follow your blog. Very informative." The leaked recordscheck.net source code indicates the website was created by a web development firm based in Lahore, Pakistan called creationnext.com, which did not return messages seeking comment. CreationNext.com's homepage features a positive testimonial from Sal Verini.

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/08/20/0021202/national-public-data-published-its-own-passwords?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/08/20/0021202/national-public-data-published-its-own-passwords?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Waymo's New Robotaxi Will Feature Fewer Sensors To Help Lower Costs

Waymo has unveiled its sixth-generation robotaxi, an electric minivan made by Chinese automaker Zeekr. While the company claims it's more advanced than previous generations, it features fewer sensors to help reduce costs. The Verge reports: [W]ithin its high-powered computer, it contains all the learnings of the previous five generations of Waymo's autonomous vehicles, meaning it won't have to do as much real-world testing as past models before it can be rolled out to the public. But looming over Waymo's assertion that its new robotaxi will be cheaper to produce is the possibility that it could also be subject to costly new tariffs against Chinese-made electric vehicles. Earlier this year, the Biden administration said it would quadruple tariffs on EVs from China to 100 percent, from the current 25 percent, as a way to "protect American workers and American companies from China's unfair trade practices." [...]

Waymo says the sixth-gen robotaxi will feature a streamlined sensor suite of "16 cameras, 5 lidar, 6 radar, and an array of external audio receivers (EARs)." These sensors will help provide "overlapping fields of view, all around the vehicle, up to 500 meters away, day and night, and in a range of weather conditions." That's the equivalent of over five football fields of visible range. Waymo's use of multiple sensors is important for redundancy, in which multiple sensors and cameras can ensure the vehicle can continue to detect and respond to its surroundings if something fails. It's unclear where and when the new sixth-gen robotaxis will first appear. "Waymo currently operates in Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, with plans to launch commercial service in Austin, Texas," notes the report. "The company has been manually testing the Zeekr-made minivans on public roads, with the goal of adding them to its commercial fleet sometime soon."

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/08/20/0010258/waymos-new-robotaxi-will-feature-fewer-sensors-to-help-lower-costs?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/08/20/0010258/waymos-new-robotaxi-will-feature-fewer-sensors-to-help-lower-costs?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Hyundai Hits Double-Digit EV Market Share In the US

Hyundai Motor Group, which includes Kia and Genesis, accounted for 10% of the U.S. EV market through the first seven months of 2024, outpacing Ford (7.4%) and GM (6.3%). Electrek reports: Although IONIQ 5 and 6 sales slipped last month, they are still up 25% and 54% year-to-date, respectively. Meanwhile, sister company Kia continued its record-setting performance in July after EV sales nearly doubled YTD. Kia's new EV9, its first three-row electric SUV, is a major part of its growth. According to Kelley Blue Book, Kia EV9 sales outpaced the Toyota bZ4X, VW ID.4, Nissan Ariya, Rivian R1T, and Tesla Model S in the US through the first half of 2024. It even topped Kia's Niro EV sales.

Hyundai's luxury brand, Genesis, remains a dark horse in the US EV market. Genesis is quickly expanding in the US. After adding 21 dedicated retailers in the US this year, including in eight new states, Genesis recently announced it now has 56 standalone facilities. "In two short years, Genesis' retail footprint has grown rapidly from one dedicated retail facility in Louisiana to 56 retail facilities nationwide," Genesis North America COO Claudia Marquez said.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/08/19/2357230/hyundai-hits-double-digit-ev-market-share-in-the-us?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/08/19/2357230/hyundai-hits-double-digit-ev-market-share-in-the-us?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Wyoming Voters Face Mayoral Candidate Who Vows To Let AI Bot Run Government

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Voters in Wyoming's capital city on Tuesday are faced with deciding whether to elect a mayoral candidate who has proposed to let an artificial intelligence bot run the local government. Earlier this year, the candidate in question -- Victor Miller -- filed for him and his customized ChatGPT bot, named Vic (Virtual Integrated Citizen), to run for mayor of Cheyenne, Wyoming. He has vowed to helm the city's business with the AI bot if he wins. Miller has said that the bot is capable of processing vast amounts of data and making unbiased decisions. In what AI experts say is a first for US political campaigns, Miller and Vic have told local news outlets in interviews that their form of proposed governance is a "hybrid approach." The AI bot told Your Wyoming Link that its role would be to provide data-driven insights and innovative solutions for Cheyenne. Meanwhile, Vic said, the human elected office contender, Miller, would serve as the official mayor if chosen by voters and would ensure that "all actions are legally and practically executed."

"It's about blending AI's capabilities with human judgment to effectively lead Cheyenne," the bot said. The bot said it did not have political affiliations -- and its goal is to "focus on data-driven practical solutions that benefit the community." During a meet-and-greet this summer, the Washington Post reported that the AI bot was asked how it would go about making decisions "according to human factor, involving humans, and having to make a decision that affects so many people." "Making decisions that affect many people requires a careful balance of data-driven insights and human empathy," the AI bot responded, according to an audio recording obtained and published by the Washington Post. Vic then ran through a multi-part plan that suggested using AI technology to gather data on public opinion and feedback from the community, holding town hall meetings to listen to residents' concerns, consulting experts in relevant fields, evaluating the human impact of the decision and providing transparency about the decision-making. According to Wyoming Public Media, Miller has also pledged that he would donate half the mayoral salary to a non-profit if he is elected. The other half could be used to continually improve the AI bot, he said. Miller has faced some pushback since announcing his mayoral campaign. Wyoming's Secretary of State, Chuck Gray, launched an investigation to determine if the AI bot could legally appear on the ballot, citing state law that says only real people that are registered to vote can run for office. City officials clarified that Miller is the actual candidate, so he was allowed to continue. However, Laramie County ruled that only Miller's name would appear on the ballot, not the bot's.

OpenAI later shut down Miller's account, but he quickly created a new one and continued his campaign.

https://politics.slashdot.org/story/24/08/19/2156233/wyoming-voters-face-mayoral-candidate-who-vows-to-let-ai-bot-run-government?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://politics.slashdot.org/story/24/08/19/2156233/wyoming-voters-face-mayoral-candidate-who-vows-to-let-ai-bot-run-government?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Apple Podcasts Launches On the Web

Apple's Podcasts app is now available on all major web browsers, allowing you to stream episodes directly from the web at www.podcasts.apple.com. TechCrunch reports: The new dedicated web experience aims to make it easier for anyone with a web browser on any device to access podcasts. Web listening has been available for some time; however, in order to listen to an episode, users had to look up a show on a search engine and go to the show's Apple Podcasts Preview page.

Now Apple Podcasts on the web has launched a new interface, allowing users to access features that were previously only available on the app. These include browsing millions of shows, accessing sections like Library and Top Charts, purchasing premium podcast subscriptions, and more. Listeners can sync their Apple Accounts to be able to pause a podcast and save their play progress to listen to later, as well as see their followed shows and subscriptions. Users without an Apple Account can also use the web experience but can only browse and listen. You can try it out by listening to the latest episode of the SourceForge Podcast!

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/08/19/2136218/apple-podcasts-launches-on-the-web?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/08/19/2136218/apple-podcasts-launches-on-the-web?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Virginia's Datacenters Guzzle Water Like There's No Tomorrow, Says FOI-based Report

Concerns over the environmental impact of datacenters in the US state of Virginia are being raised again amid claims their water consumption has stepped up by almost two-thirds since 2019, and AI could make it worse. From a report: Virginia is described as the datacenter capital of the world, particularly Northern Virginia where it is understood there are about 300 facilities. According to the Financial Times, water consumption by bit barns in some areas has increased markedly over the past five years by almost two-thirds. It cites data gathered by freedom of information requests to claim that more than 1.85 billion US gallons was used in 2023, up from 1.13 billion gallons in 2019.

Those figures came from water authorities in Northern Virginia in Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William, and Fauquier counties. Water is typically used in datacenters for cooling, and the FT points to anxiety over expected increases in demand for computing infrastructure due to AI, which is particularly power intensive during processing for training of large models. It reported that some existing facilities are in water-stressed regions, including parts of Virginia suffering from droughts.

https://slashdot.org/story/24/08/19/1758209/virginias-datacenters-guzzle-water-like-theres-no-tomorrow-says-foi-based-report?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://slashdot.org/story/24/08/19/1758209/virginias-datacenters-guzzle-water-like-theres-no-tomorrow-says-foi-based-report?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


VPN Apps Vanish from Brazilian App Store

Dozens of VPN apps have vanished from Brazil's Apple App Store, including popular services NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and Surfshark. Simone Magliano, Head of Research at Top10VPN, reports that at least 30 VPN apps have become unavailable, though their store listings remained visible. Proton VPN, a major free VPN provider, confirmed the App Store issues, speculating it could be "a bug, or Apple implementing a secret censorship order." The move follows X, formerly Twitter, announcing over the weekend that it was shutting its Brazil operations, citing a "secret order" to arrest its legal representative if X didn't "comply with his [Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Morae] censorship orders."

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/08/19/176211/vpn-apps-vanish-from-brazilian-app-store?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/08/19/176211/vpn-apps-vanish-from-brazilian-app-store?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Procreate's Anti-AI Pledge Attracts Praise From Digital Creatives

An anonymous reader shares a report: Many Procreate users can breathe a sigh of relief now that the popular iPad illustration app has taken a definitive stance against generative AI. "We're not going to be introducing any generative AI into our products," Procreate CEO James Cuda said in a video posted to X. "I don't like what's happening to the industry, and I don't like what it's doing to artists."

The creative community's ire toward generative AI is driven by two main concerns: that AI models have been trained on their content without consent or compensation, and that widespread adoption of the technology will greatly reduce employment opportunities. Those concerns have driven some digital illustrators to seek out alternative solutions to apps that integrate generative AI tools, such as Adobe Photoshop. "Generative AI is ripping the humanity out of things. Built on a foundation of theft, the technology is steering us toward a barren future," Procreate said on the new AI section of its website. "We think machine learning is a compelling technology with a lot of merit, but the path generative AI is on is wrong for us."

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/08/19/1523223/procreates-anti-ai-pledge-attracts-praise-from-digital-creatives?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/08/19/1523223/procreates-anti-ai-pledge-attracts-praise-from-digital-creatives?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Internet Archive Streams Re-Discovered 1980s Radio Show About Early Computers

In the 1980s, a radio show about home computers was broadcast on a handful of California radio stations. 40 years later, reel-to-reel tapes of the shows were re-discovered — and digitized — by an Internet Archive special collections manager.

An Internet Archive blog post tells the story:
Earlier this year archivist Kay Savetz recovered several of the tapes in a property sale, and recognizing their value and worthiness of professional transfer, launched a GoFundMe to have them digitized, and made them available at Internet Archive with the permission of the show's creators...

Interviews in the recovered recordings include Timothy Leary, Douglas Adams, Bill Gates, Atari's Jack Tramiel, Apple's Bill Atkinson, and dozens of others. The recovered shows span November 17 1984 through July 12, 1985.

Many more of the original reel-to-reel tapes — including shows with interviews with Ray Bradbury, Robert Moog, Donny Osmond, and Gene Roddenberry — are still lost, and perhaps are still waiting to be found in the Los Angeles area. [Though there appears to be a transcript of the Gene Roddenberry interview.]

The stories of how The Famous Computer Cafe was created — and saved, 40 years later — is explored in an episode of the Radio Survivor podcast. The podcast interviewed show co-creator Ellen Fields and archivist Kay Savetz, providing a dual perspective of how the show was created and how it was recovered.

The recovery of these interviews, 40 years after their original airing, holds out hope that many more relics and treasures still await discovery.

You get another perspective on the past from the show's advertisements for 1980s software (and from the production values of 1980s-era radio technology).

Bill Gates was just 29 when he recorded his interview. And Douglas Adams was 32.

https://idle.slashdot.org/story/24/08/19/0454252/internet-archive-streams-re-discovered-1980s-radio-show-about-early-computers?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://idle.slashdot.org/story/24/08/19/0454252/internet-archive-streams-re-discovered-1980s-radio-show-about-early-computers?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


DOS's Last Stand? On a Modern Thinkpad X13 with an Intel 10th-Gen Core CPU

Slashdot reader yeokm1 is the Singapore-based embedded security researcher whose side projects include installing Linux on a 1993 PC and building a ChatGPT client for MS-DOS.

Today he writes:

When one thinks of modern technologies like Thunderbolt, 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet and modern CPUs, one would associate them with modern operating systems. How about DOS?

It might seem impossible, however I did an experiment on a relatively modern 2020 Thinkpad and found that it can still run MS-DOS 6.22. MS-DOS 6.22 is the last standalone version of DOS released by Microsoft in June 1994. This makes it 30 years old today.

 I'll share the steps and challenges in locating a modern laptop capable of doing so — and the challenge of making the 30-year-old OS work on it with audio and networking functions. This is likely among the final generation of laptops able to run DOS natively.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/08/19/0324207/doss-last-stand-on-a-modern-thinkpad-x13-with-an-intel-10th-gen-core-cpu?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/08/19/0324207/doss-last-stand-on-a-modern-thinkpad-x13-with-an-intel-10th-gen-core-cpu?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


India's Influencers Fear a New Law Could Make them Register with the Government

Indian influencers

It's the largest country on earth — home to 1.4 billion people. But "The Indian government has plans to classify social media creators as 'digital news broadcasters,'" according to the nonprofit site RestofWorld.org.

While there's "no clarity" on the government's next move, the proposed legislation would require social media creators "to register with the government, set up a content evaluation committee that checks all content before it is published, and appoint complaint handlers — all at their own expense. Any failures in compliance could lead to criminal charges, including jail term."

On July 26, the Hindustan Times reported that the government plans to tweak the proposed Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill, which aims to combine all regulations for broadcasters under one law. As per a new version of the bill, which has been reviewed by Rest of World, the government defines "digital news broadcaster" as "any person who broadcasts news and current affairs programs through an online paper, news portal, website, social media intermediary, or other similar medium as part of a systematic business, professional or commercial activity."

Creators and digital rights activists believe the potential legislation will tighten the government's grip over online content and threaten the last bastion of press freedom for independent journalists in the country. Over 785 Indian creators have sent a letter to the government seeking more transparency in the process of drafting the bill. Creators have also stormed social media with hashtags like #KillTheBill, and made videos to educate their followers about the proposal.

One YouTube creator told the site that if the government requires them to appoint a "grievance redressal officer," they might simply film themselves, responding to grievances — to "make content out of it".

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/08/18/2259244/indias-influencers-fear-a-new-law-could-make-them-register-with-the-government?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/08/18/2259244/indias-influencers-fear-a-new-law-could-make-them-register-with-the-government?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Can the Linux Foundation's 'Open Model Initiative' Build AI-Powering LLMs Without Restrictive Licensing?

"From the beginning, we have believed that the right way to build these AI models is with open licenses," says the Open Model Initiative. SD Times quotes them as saying that open licenses "allow creatives and businesses to build on each other's work, facilitate research, and create new products and services without restrictive licensing constraints."

Phoronix explains the community initiative "came about over the summer to help advance open-source AI models while now is becoming part of the Linux Foundation to further their cause."

As part of the Linux Foundation, the OMI will be working to establish a governance framework and working groups, create shared standards to enhance model interoperability and metadata practices, develop a transparent dataset for training and captioning, complete an alpha test model for targeted red teaming, and release an alpha version of a new model with fine-tuning scripts before the end of 2024.

The group was established "in response to a number of recent decisions by creators of popular open-source models to alter their licensing terms," reports Silicon Angle:

The creators highlighted the recent licensing change announced by Stability AI Ltd., regarding its popular image-generation model Stable Diffusion 3 (SD3). That model had previously been entirely free and open, but the changes introduced a monthly fee structure and imposed limitations on its usage. Stability AI was also criticized for the lack of clarity around its licensing terms, but it isn't the only company to have introduced licensing restrictions on previously free software. The OMI intends to eliminate all barriers to enterprise adoption by focusing on training and developing AI models with "irrevocable open licenses without deletion clauses or recurring costs for access," the Linux Foundation said.
InfoWorld also notes "the unavailability of source code and the license restrictions from LLM providers such as Meta, Mistral and Anthropic, who put caveats in the usage policies of their 'open source' models."

Meta, for instance, does provide the rights to use Llama models royalty free without any license, but does not provide the source code, according to [strategic research firm] Everest Group's AI practice leader Suseel Menon. "Meta also adds a clause: 'If, on the Meta Llama 3, monthly active users of the products or services is greater than 700 million monthly active users, you must request a license from Meta.' This clause, combined with the unavailability of the source code, raises the question if the term open source should apply to Llama's family of models," Menon explained....

The OMI's objectives and vision received mixed reactions from analysts. While Amalgam Insights' chief analyst Hyoun Park believes that the OMI will lead to the development of more predictable and consistent standards for open source models, so that these models can potentially work with each other more easily, Everest Group's Malik believes that the OMI may not be able to stand before the might of vendors such as Meta and Anthropic. "Developing LLMs is highly compute intensive and has cost big tech giants and start-ups billions in capital expenditure to achieve the scale they currently have with their open-source and proprietary LLMs," Malik said, adding that this could be a major challenge for community-based LLMs.

The AI practice leader also pointed out that previous attempts at a community-based LLM have not garnered much adoption, as models developed by larger entities tend to perform better on most metrics... However, Malik said that the OMI might be able to find appropriate niches within the content development space (2D/3D image generation, adaptation, visual design, editing, etc.) as it begins to build its models... One of the other use cases for the OMI's community LLMs is to see their use as small language models (SLMs), which can offer specific functionality at high effectiveness or functionality that is restricted to unique applications or use cases, analysts said.
Currently, the OMI's GitHub page has three repositories, all under the Apache 2.0 license.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/08/18/2127243/can-the-linux-foundations-open-model-initiative-build-ai-powering-llms-without-restrictive-licensing?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/08/18/2127243/can-the-linux-foundations-open-model-initiative-build-ai-powering-llms-without-restrictive-licensing?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Matt Damon and Ben Affleck Acquire 'Killing Gawker' Screenplay

"Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have acquired a screenplay called Killing Gawker," reports TechCrunch, for a film which "presumably delves into billionaire VC Peter Thiel's campaign to bury the media outfit for posting excerpts from a Hulk Hogan sex tape."
The film is based on a book that details the 2016 court case in which Hogan won a $140 million judgment against a Gawker editor, Gawker founder Nick Denton, and Gawker itself, whose Valleywag site long chronicled Silicon Valley personalities and routinely zeroed in on Thiel.

While casting hasn't been announced, it's "been rumored" Hulk Hogan will be played by Ben Affleck, writes Variety. "Gus Van Sant, who previously helmed Affleck and Damon's Good Will Hunting, is set to direct".

The script was adapted from the book Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker and the Anatomy of Intrigue, they report — though the movie currently "has no formal start date or production schedule."

https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/08/18/1938238/matt-damon-and-ben-affleck-acquire-killing-gawker-screenplay?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/08/18/1938238/matt-damon-and-ben-affleck-acquire-killing-gawker-screenplay?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Ask Slashdot: What Network-Attached Storage Setup Do You Use?

"I've been somewhat okay about backing up our home data," writes long-time Slashdot reader 93 Escort Wagon.

But they could use some good advice:

We've got a couple separate disks available as local backup storage, and my own data also gets occasionally copied to encrypted storage at BackBlaze. My daughter has her own "cloud" backups, which seem to be a manual push every once in a while of random files/folders she thinks are important. Including our media library, between my stuff, my daughter's, and my wife's... we're probably talking in the neighborhood of 10 TB for everything at present. The whole setup is obviously cobbled together, and the process is very manual. Plus it's annoying since I'm handling Mac, Linux, and Windows backups completely differently (and sub-optimally). Also, unsurprisingly, the amount of data we possess does seem to be increasing with time.
I've been considering biting the bullet and buying an NAS [network-attached storage device], and redesigning the entire process — both local and remote. I'm familiar with Synology and DSM from work, and the DS1522+ looks appealing. I've also come across a lot of recommendations for QNAP's devices, though. I'm comfortable tackling this on my own, but I'd like to throw this out to the Slashdot community.

What NAS do you like for home use. And what disks did you put in it? What have your experiences been?

Long-time Slashdot reader AmiMoJo asks "Have you considered just building one?" while suggesting the cheapest option is low-powered Chinese motherboards with soldered-in CPUs. And in the comments on the original submission, other Slashdot readers shared their examples:

 destined2fail1990 used an AMD Threadripper to build their own NAS with 10Gbps network connectivity. DesertNomad is using "an ancient D-Link" to connect two Synology DS220 DiskStations Darth Technoid attached six Seagate drives to two Macbooks. "Basically, I found a way to make my older Mac useful by simply leaving it on all the time, with the external drives attached."

But what's your suggestion? Share your own thoughts and experiences. What NAS do you like for home use? What disks would you put in it?
And what have your experiences been?

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/24/08/17/1848207/ask-slashdot-what-network-attached-storage-setup-do-you-use?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/24/08/17/1848207/ask-slashdot-what-network-attached-storage-setup-do-you-use?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


Refueling Hydrogen Cars in California is So Annoying, Drivers are Suing Toyota

The Los Angeles Times spoke to Ryan Kiskis, an environmentally-conscious owner of a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle (the Toyota Mirai):

He soon learned that hydrogen refueling stations are scarce and reliably unreliable. He learned that apps to identify broken stations hand out bad information. He learned that the state of California, which is funding the station buildout, is far behind schedule — 200 stations were supposed to be up and running by 2025, but only 54 exist. And since Kiskis bought his car, the price of hydrogen has more than doubled, currently the equivalent of $15 a gallon of gasoline.

With fueling so expensive and stations so undependable, Kiskis — who lives in Pacific Palisades and works at Google in Playa Vista — drives a gasoline Jeep for everything but short trips around the neighborhood. "I've got a great car that sits in the driveway," he said. Bryan Caluwe can relate. The retired Santa Monican bought a Mirai in 2022. He likes his car too. "But it's been a total inconvenience." Hydrogen stations "are either down for mechanical reasons, or they're out of fuel, or, in the case of Shell, they've rolled up the carpet and gone home." And don't get Irving Alden started. He runs a commercial print shop in North Hollywood. He leases a Mirai. He too loves the car. But the refueling system? "It's a frickin' joke."

The three are part of a class action lawsuit filed in July against Toyota. They claim that Toyota salespeople misled them about the sorry state of California's hydrogen refueling system. "They were told the stations were convenient and readily available," said lawyer Nilofar Nouri of Beverly Hills Trial Attorneys. "That turned out to be far from reality." The class action now amounts to two dozen plaintiffs and growing, Nouri said. "We have thousands of these individuals in California who are stuck with this vehicle." Kiskis believes Toyota sales staff duped him — but says, "I'm just as irritated with the state of California" for poor oversight of the program it's funding...
Hyundai also sells a fuel cell car in California called the Nexo, and although the the suit is aimed only at Toyota, the hydrogen station situation affects Hyundai too.

Toyota told The Times it's "committed to customer satisfaction and will continue to evaluate how we can best support our customers. We will respond to the allegations in this lawsuit in the appropriate forum."

The article does note that the California Energy Commission awarded an extra $9.4 million to hydrogen station operators this year to cover "operations and maintenance" — and that hydrogen cars have their advantages. "The full tank range is 350 to 400 miles. A fill-up usually takes no more than five or 10 minutes.

"But unlike electric vehicles, you can't fill up at home. You have to travel to a dedicated fueling station...."

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/24/08/18/0023218/refueling-hydrogen-cars-in-california-is-so-annoying-drivers-are-suing-toyota?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/24/08/18/0023218/refueling-hydrogen-cars-in-california-is-so-annoying-drivers-are-suing-toyota?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed


'AI-Powered Remediation': GitHub Now Offers 'Copilot Autofix' Suggestions for Code Vulnerabilities

InfoWorld reports that Microsoft-owned GitHub "has unveiled Copilot Autofix, an AI-powered software vulnerability remediation service."
The feature became available Wednesday as part of the GitHub Advanced Security (or GHAS) service:

"Copilot Autofix analyzes vulnerabilities in code, explains why they matter, and offers code suggestions that help developers fix vulnerabilities as fast as they are found," GitHub said in the announcement. GHAS customers on GitHub Enterprise Cloud already have Copilot Autofix included in their subscription. GitHub has enabled Copilot Autofix by default for these customers in their GHAS code scanning settings.

Beginning in September, Copilot Autofix will be offered for free in pull requests to open source projects.

During the public beta, which began in March, GitHub found that developers using Copilot Autofix were fixing code vulnerabilities more than three times faster than those doing it manually, demonstrating how AI agents such as Copilot Autofix can radically simplify and accelerate software development.

"Since implementing Copilot Autofix, we've observed a 60% reduction in the time spent on security-related code reviews," says one principal engineer quoted in GitHub's announcement, "and a 25% increase in overall development productivity."

The announcement also notes that Copilot Autofix "leverages the CodeQL engine, GPT-4o, and a combination of heuristics and GitHub Copilot APIs."
Code scanning tools detect vulnerabilities, but they don't address the fundamental problem: remediation takes security expertise and time, two valuable resources in critically short supply. In other words, finding vulnerabilities isn't the problem. Fixing them is...

Developers can keep new vulnerabilities out of their code with Copilot Autofix in the pull request, and now also pay down the backlog of security debt by generating fixes for existing vulnerabilities... Fixes can be generated for dozens of classes of code vulnerabilities, such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting, which developers can dismiss, edit, or commit in their pull request.... For developers who aren't necessarily security experts, Copilot Autofix is like having the expertise of your security team at your fingertips while you review code...

As the global home of the open source community, GitHub is uniquely positioned to help maintainers detect and remediate vulnerabilities so that open source software is safer and more reliable for everyone. We firmly believe that it's highly important to be both a responsible consumer of open source software and contributor back to it, which is why open source maintainers can already take advantage of GitHub's code scanning, secret scanning, dependency management, and private vulnerability reporting tools at no cost. Starting in September, we're thrilled to add Copilot Autofix in pull requests to this list and offer it for free to all open source projects...

While responsibility for software security continues to rest on the shoulders of developers, we believe that AI agents can help relieve much of the burden.... With Copilot Autofix, we are one step closer to our vision where a vulnerability found means a vulnerability fixed.

https://developers.slashdot.org/story/24/08/17/0532221/ai-powered-remediation-github-now-offers-copilot-autofix-suggestions-for-code-vulnerabilities?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed
 at Slashdot.

https://developers.slashdot.org/story/24/08/17/0532221/ai-powered-remediation-github-now-offers-copilot-autofix-suggestions-for-code-vulnerabilities?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed