Anyone who works as a freelancer these days has to be at least a bit familiar with techie things. But it isn’t just that. When I was a kid and those vaguely SF puppet shows were on the television and all the other kids wanted to be Greg Gogetem or Steve Savetheuniverse, I wanted to be the guy in a white coat and glasses called Doc or Brains. Here are some technology-related feeds I find useful and/or entertaining.
New Scientist – News » Odd quantum property may let us chill things closer to absolute zero
We can already cool objects with fridges and with lasers. Now there is a third cooling technique involving special quantum states – and it could, in theory, allow us to reach the lowest temperatures yet [Link]
Slashdot » The Justice Department Gets a Chief AI Officer
Princeton professor and technology law researcher Jonathan Mayer has been appointed as the Justice Department's first chief AI officer. The Verge reports: Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that appointing an AI officer was important for the department to "keep pace with rapidly evolving scientific and technological developments." One of Mayer's responsibilities will be to build a team … [Link]
Slashdot » Bluesky Now Open To Federation
Longtime Slashdot reader Rei writes: In a blog post today, Bluesky, the social media network founded by Jay Graber, announced that they have finally opened to federation. Users can now operate their own PDS (backend) servers. How to do so is discussed on the developers' blog and a new Discord channel for PDS administrators. As the blog notes, there are … [Link]
Slashdot » AT&T Restores Service After Massive, Nationwide Outage
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN Business: AT&T's network went down for many of its customers across the United States Thursday morning, leaving customers unable to place calls, text or access the internet. By a little after 3 pm ET, roughly 11 hours after reports of the outage first emerged, the company said that it had restored service … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Crucial chemical for life can form in conditions found on early Earth
Pantetheine, which helps enzymes to work and is found in every organism, can be formed by simple reactions and may have played a role in the origins of life [Link]
New Scientist – News » Famous supernova left a blazing hot neutron star at its centre
Observations from the James Webb Space Telescope have revealed that a nearby supernova researchers have been watching since it exploded in 1987 left behind a hot neutron star [Link]
New Scientist – News » Climate benefits of planting forests might be overestimated
The warming avoided by planting CO2-absorbing forests could be around 15 to 30 per cent lower than previously estimated due to feedbacks such as dark trees reflecting less sunlight [Link]
Slashdot » Can Any English Word Be Turned Into a Synonym For 'Drunk'? Not All, But Many Can.
An anonymous reader shares a report: British comedian Michael McIntyre has a standard bit in his standup routines concerning the many (many!) slang terms posh British people use to describe being drunk. These include "wellied," "trousered," and "ratarsed," to name a few. McIntyre's bit rests on his assertion that pretty much any English word can be modified into a so-called … [Link]
Slashdot » Supreme Court Seems Skeptical of EPA's 'Good Neighbor' Rule on Power Plant Pollution
The Supreme Court's conservative majority seemed skeptical Wednesday as the Environmental Protection Agency sought to continue enforcing an anti-air-pollution rule in 11 states while separate legal challenges proceed around the country. From a report: The EPA's "good neighbor" rule is intended to restrict smokestack emissions from power plants and other industrial sources that burden downwind areas with smog-causing pollution. Three … [Link]
Slashdot » GPay App and P2P Payments Will Stop Working in the US This June
An anonymous reader shares a report: When Google Wallet launched in 2022, Google kept the "GPay" app around in a handful of countries. The company announced today that the old Google Pay app is soon going away in the US. That app, which appears as "GPay" on your Android homescreen, was Google's previous vision for mobile payments and finance. It … [Link]
Slashdot » Instacart's AI Recipes Look Literally Impossible
An anonymous reader shares a report: I hate cookbooks without pictures. We eat with our eyes first, as chefs love to say, but what's more important to me is that if I'm making a dish for the first time, I want to see what the final product should look like to know I did it right. It's not so much … [Link]
New Scientist – News » GPT-4 developer tool can hack websites without human help
The developer version of OpenAI’s leading large language model can be repurposed as an AI hacking agent, researchers have found. That could make it far easier for anyone to launch certain cyberattacks online [Link]
New Scientist – News » AI can tell where a mouse is by reading its brain activity
An artificial intelligence can interpret a mouse's brain activity to tell scientists where the animal is located and the direction it is looking [Link]
New Scientist – News » The Taylor Swift 'psy op' conspiracy theory offers a troubling lesson
In the fire hose of online media, politics is getting mixed up with fandom. This problem is at the root of the Taylor Swift conspiracy theory – and it could take us into much more dangerous waters, says Annalee Newitz [Link]
Slashdot » Windows 11 Users Herded Toward 23H2 Via Automatic Upgrade
Windows 11 users still clinging to the past are to be dragged into a bright, 23H2-shaped future by Microsoft, whether they want to or not. From a report: Microsoft has added a notification to its Release Health dashboard warning Windows 11 users that it is time for the beatings automatic upgrades to begin. "We are starting to update eligible Windows … [Link]
New Scientist – News » A single atom could drive a piston in a quantum engine
In a quantum engine, a single atom can emit radiation that bounces around a reflective cavity and creates enough pressure to push down a piston [Link]
Slashdot » Amazon Says 'No Changes' Coming To Freevee Despite Reports of the Streamer Shuttering
Amazon is pushing back against reports that its Freevee service is shuttering. The Wrap: AdWeek reported the news, which it said is part of an effort by the tech giant to shift its focus to Prime Video. Sources familiar with the matter told the outlet that sunsetting Freevee could happen sometime within the second quarter. However, a spokesperson for Amazon … [Link]
Slashdot » Varda Space, Rocket Lab Nail First-of-Its-Kind Spacecraft Landing in Utah
A spacecraft containing pharmaceutical drugs that were grown on orbit has finally returned to Earth today after more than eight months in space. From a report: Varda Space Industries' in-space manufacturing capsule, called Winnebago-1, landed in the Utah desert at around 4:40 p.m. EST. Inside the capsule are crystals of the drug ritonavir, which is used to treat HIV/AIDS. It … [Link]
Slashdot » US Health Tech Giant Change Healthcare Hit by Cyberattack
U.S. healthcare technology giant Change Healthcare has confirmed a cyberattack on its systems. In a brief statement, the company said it was "experiencing a network interruption related to a cyber security issue." From a report: "Once we became aware of the outside threat, in the interest of protecting our partners and patients, we took immediate action to disconnect our systems … [Link]
Slashdot » Four-day Week Made Permanent For Most UK Firms In World's Biggest Trial
AmiMoJo writes: Most of the UK companies that took part in the world's biggest ever four-day working week trial have made the policy permanent, research shows. Of the 61 organisations that took part in a six-month UK pilot in 2022, 54 (89%) are still operating the policy a year later, and 31 (51%) have made the change permanent. More than … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Early drug treatment leads to better outcomes for Crohn’s disease
About 80 per cent of people who received infliximab straight after diagnosis with the inflammatory bowel condition had controlled their symptoms after a year, compared with just 15 per cent of those following a standard regime [Link]
Slashdot » Study Finds Anti-Piracy Messages Backfire, Especially For Men
jbmartin6 shares a report from Phys.Org: Threatening messages aimed to prevent digital piracy have the opposite effect if you're a man, a new study from the University of Portsmouth has found. According to the research, women tend to respond positively to this kind of messaging, but men typically increase their piracy behaviors by 18%. […] This paper studies how effective … [Link]
Slashdot » Google Pauses AI Image-generation of People After Diversity Backlash
Google has temporarily stopped its latest AI model, Gemini, from generating images of people (non-paywalled link) , as a backlash erupted over the model's depiction of people from diverse backgrounds. From a report: Gemini creates realistic images based on users' descriptions in a similar manner to OpenAI's ChatGPT. Like other models, it is trained not to respond to dangerous or … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Alarm over ultra-processed food shouldn't put us off plant-based diets
The concern over factory-made fare, especially many plant-based meat substitutes, is often misplaced and lacking evidence, says biologist Jenny Chapman [Link]
Slashdot » Popular Meditation App Must Pay 30% App Store Fee On 'Tips' Sent To Teachers
Sarah Perez reports via TechCrunch: The CEO of meditation app Insight Timer, Christopher Plowman, is frustrated. He doesn't think the teachers who leverage his app's marketplace to reach their students should have to share 30% of their income with Apple — its commission on in-app purchases — and for the past 12 months, Apple had also agreed. After Apple loosened … [Link]
Slashdot » FDA Warns Against Using Smartwatches and Smart Rings To Measure Blood Sugar
In a warning issued Wednesday, the FDA said it has not authorized or approved any smartwatch or smart ring to measure blood glucose levels. The use of these devices can lead to inaccurate measurements and errors in managing diabetes that can be life-threatening, the agency said. From a report: These unauthorized devices are different from smartwatch apps that display data … [Link]
Slashdot » Engineers Use AI To Wrangle Fusion Power For the Grid
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Princeton Engineering: In the blink of an eye, the unruly, superheated plasma that drives a fusion reaction can lose its stability and escape the strong magnetic fields confining it within the donut-shaped fusion reactor. These getaways frequently spell the end of the reaction, posing a core challenge to developing fusion as a non-polluting, … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Relatives of men with fertility issues may be at higher risk of cancer
The relatives of men who produce very little or no sperm may be more likely to develop certain types of cancer than the general population [Link]
Slashdot » University of Alabama Pauses IVF Services After Court Embryo Ruling
Following a recent ruling from the state supreme court, the University of Alabama at Birmingham health system said it is pausing all in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments for fear of criminal prosecution or punitive damages. On Friday, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are "children," entitled to full personhood rights, and anyone who destroys them could be liable … [Link]
Slashdot » Google Admits Gemini Is 'Missing the Mark' With Image Generation of Historical People
Google's Gemini AI chatbot is under fire for generating historically inaccurate images, particularly when depicting people from different eras and nationalities. Google acknowledges the issue and is actively working to refine Gemini's accuracy, emphasizing that while diversity in image generation is valued, adjustments are necessary to meet historical accuracy standards. 9to5Google reports: The Twitter/X post in particular that brought this … [Link]
Slashdot » Nvidia Posts Record Revenue Up 265% On Booming AI Business
In its fourth quarter earnings report today, Nvidia beat Wall Street's forecast for earnings and sales, causing shares to rise about 10% in extended trading. CNBC reports: Here's what the company reported compared with what Wall Street was expecting for the quarter ending in January, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv: Earnings per share: … [Link]
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