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.
Slashdot » Hands Up If You Want To Volunteer For Layoffs, IBM Tells Staff
Paul Kunert writes in an exclusive report for The Register: IBM is asking staff who want to take voluntary redundancy to raise their hand as it embarks on a new round of global job cuts, though roles in Europe and within a handful of departments are expected to shoulder the brunt. The Resource Action, as Big Blue likes to euphemistically … [Link]
Slashdot » Police Now Need Warrant For IP Addresses, Canada's Top Court Rules
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled today that police must now have a warrant or court order to obtain a person or organization's IP address. CBC News reports: The top court was asked to consider whether an IP address alone, without any of the personal information attached to it, was protected by an expectation of privacy under the Charter. In … [Link]
Slashdot » A Leaky Database Spilled 2FA Codes For the World's Tech Giants
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: A technology company that routes millions of SMS text messages across the world has secured an exposed database that was spilling one-time security codes that may have granted users' access to their Facebook, Google and TikTok accounts. The Asian technology and internet company YX International manufactures cellular networking equipment and provides SMS … [Link]
Slashdot » Stack Overflow To Charge LLM Developers For Access To Its Coding Content
Stack Overflow has launched an API that will require all AI models trained on its coding question-and-answer content to attribute sources linking back to its posts. And it will cost money to use the site's content. From a report: "All products based on models that consume public Stack Overflow data are required to provide attribution back to the highest relevance … [Link]
Slashdot » The Business of Winding Down Startups is Booming
Startup wind-down services are seeing rapid growth as failed startups look for help shutting down. Pitchbook: On the phone with a founder who recently wound down his seed-stage software startup, I asked him what his plan was next. Having laid off all of his employees in autumn of last year, he was the last man standing: tasked with the thankless … [Link]
Slashdot » Nikon and NASA Are Putting a Mirrorless Camera on the Moon
Nikon is working with NASA to make a mirrorless camera that astronauts will use during the agency's incoming Artemis III mission to document their return to the Moon. From a report: On Thursday, NASA announced that it had entered a Space Act agreement with Nikon to develop the Handheld Universal Lunar Camera (HULC), a camera system designed to capture imagery … [Link]
New Scientist – News » AI could help replicate smells in danger of being lost to history
Artificial intelligence has been used to replicate fragrances more quickly than conventional methods, even taking into account how a scent fades over time [Link]
Slashdot » Worldwide Obesity Tops 1 Billion
Rates of obesity in the U.S. and around the world have more than doubled over the past three decades, according to a new study in The Lancet. From a report: More than 1 billion people worldwide now have obesity, a sign of worsening nutrition that's also raising the risk of leading causes of death and disease such as high blood … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Persistent pain after a UTI may be due to an overgrowth of nerve cells
Many people experience ongoing pain even after a urinary tract infection has supposedly passed. Now, research suggests this may be due to an overgrowth of nerve cells in their bladders [Link]
Slashdot » Carbon Emissions Reached Record High in 2023, IEA Says
Energy-related emissions of carbon dioxide hit a record high in 2023, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a report on Friday. The IEA analysis showed that it rose by 410 million tonnes, or 1.1%, in 2023 to 37.4 billion tonnes. From a report: "Far from falling rapidly — as is required to meet the global climate goals set out … [Link]
Slashdot » Russia Acknowledges Continuing Air Leak From Its Segment of Space Station
Russian space officials have acknowledged a continuing air leak from the Russian segment of the International Space Station, but said it poses no danger to its crew. From a report: The Roscosmos state corporation said that specialists were monitoring the leak and the crew "regularly conducts work to locate and fix possible spots of the leak." It said in a … [Link]
Slashdot » Apple Backtracks on Removing EU Home Screen Web Apps in iOS 17.4
Apple is reversing its previous decision to remove support for Home Screen web apps in iOS 17.4 for EU users. Apple's statement: Previously, Apple announced plans to remove the Home Screen web apps capability in the EU as part of our efforts to comply with the DMA. The need to remove the capability was informed by the complex security and … [Link]
Slashdot » HP Wants You To Pay Up To $36/Month To Rent a Printer That It Monitors
HP launched a subscription service this week that rents people a printer, allots them a specific amount of printed pages, and sends them ink for a monthly fee. From a report: HP is framing its service as a way to simplify printing for families and small businesses, but the deal also comes with monitoring and a years-long commitment. Prices range … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Why space dust is key to everything from star birth to life on Earth
Cosmic dust grains may be small, but they are mighty – it turns out dust is crucial to just about every process that occurs in space [Link]
New Scientist – News » Fear of predators may have helped us conceptualise the idea of zero
A fear of predators may have helped many animals recognise when they weren't there. Now, it seems humans built on this understanding of absence to utilise the concept of "zero" [Link]
Slashdot » Number of Government Agencies Have Concerns About 'Sideloading' on iPhone, Apple Says
A number of government agencies in the European Union and elsewhere have voiced concerns about security risks as Apple opens up its iPhones and iPads to rival app stores to comply with EU tech rules, Apple said on Friday. From a report: Under the Digital Markets Act, from March 7 Apple will be required to offer alternative app stores on … [Link]
Slashdot » Google is Blocking RCS on Rooted Android Devices
Google is cracking down on rooted Android devices, blocking multiple people from using the RCS message feature in Google Messages. From a report: Users with rooted phones — a process that unlocks privileged access to the Android operating system, like jailbreaking iPhones — have made several reports on the Google Messages support page, Reddit, and XDA's web forum over the … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Elon Musk asks court to decide if GPT-4 has human-level intelligence
As part of a lawsuit against OpenAI, billionaire Elon Musk has asked a court to determine whether GPT-4 is an artificial general intelligence, capable of human-level tasks [Link]
Slashdot » Google Pulls Popular Indian Apps From Store Over Fees Violation
An anonymous reader shares a report: Google pulled more than a dozen popular Indian apps including recruitment platform Naukri, matrimony service Shaadi, audio storytelling platforms Kuku FM and Stage and real-estate manager 99acres from Play Store on Friday after warning that it will be taking actions against developers who have persistently not complied with its billing policies, escalating a three-year … [Link]
New Scientist – News » UK spurns European invitation to join ITER nuclear fusion project
Since Brexit, the UK no longer has access to ITER, the world's largest nuclear fusion experiment, through the European Union. After an invitation to rejoin this week, the UK government has confirmed it prefers to go it alone [Link]
Slashdot » Elon Musk Sues OpenAI and Sam Altman
Elon Musk has sued OpenAI, its co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman and affiliated entities, alleging the ChatGPT makers have breached their original contractual agreements by pursuing profits instead of the non-profit's founding mission to develop AI that benefits humanity. TechCrunch: Musk, a co-founder and early backer of OpenAI, claims Altman and Brockman convinced him to help found and bankroll … [Link]
Slashdot » How the Pentagon Learned To Use Targeted Ads To Find Its Targets
An anonymous reader quotes an excerpt from a Wired article: In 2019, a government contractor and technologist named Mike Yeagley began making the rounds in Washington, DC. He had a blunt warning for anyone in the country's national security establishment who would listen: The US government had a Grindr problem. A popular dating and hookup app, Grindr relied on the … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Sinking plankton poo could help store more carbon in the ocean
When the faecal matter produced by plankton sinks, it carries carbon from shallow waters to long-term storage deep in the ocean – now, researchers want to make the stuff sink faster [Link]
Slashdot » Government Watchdog Hacked US Federal Agency To Stress-Test Its Cloud Security
In a series of tests using fake data, a U.S. government watchdog was able to steal more than 1GB of seemingly sensitive personal data from the cloud systems of the U.S. Department of the Interior. The experiment is detailed in a new report by the Department of the Interior's Office of the Inspector General (OIG), published last week. TechCrunch reports: … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Does 23andMe's decline show genetic-based medicine has been overhyped?
23andMe's DNA test was once named "invention of the year", but now the company is in dire financial straits. Is this a sign that genetically based medicine's promise has been exaggerated? [Link]
Slashdot » AI-Generated Articles Prompt Wikipedia To Downgrade CNET's Reliability Rating
Wikipedia has downgraded tech website CNET's reliability rating following extensive discussions among its editors regarding the impact of AI-generated content on the site's trustworthiness. "The decision reflects concerns over the reliability of articles found on the tech news outlet after it began publishing AI-generated stories in 2022," adds Ars Technica. Futurism first reported the news. From the report: Wikipedia maintains … [Link]
The Joy of Tech » Bon voyage, Apple car.
Driving into the mists of history… [Link]
Slashdot » ExxonMobil Is Suing Investors Who Want Faster Climate Action
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: ExxonMobil faces dozens of lawsuits from states and localities alleging the company lied for decades about its role in climate change and the dangers of burning fossil fuels. But now, ExxonMobil is going on the offensive with a lawsuit targeting investors who want the company to slash pollution that's raising global temperatures. … [Link]
Slashdot » Calendar Meeting Links Used To Spread Mac Malware
Hackers targeting individuals in the cryptocurrency sector are using a sophisticated phishing scheme that begins with a malicious link on Calendly. "The attackers impersonate established cryptocurrency investors and ask to schedule a video conference call," reports Krebs on Security. "But clicking the meeting link provided by the scammers prompts the user to run a script that quietly installs malware on … [Link]
Slashdot » Court Orders Maker of Pegasus Spyware To Hand Over Code To WhatsApp
Stephanie Kirchgaessner reports via The Guardian: NSO Group, the maker of one the world's most sophisticated cyber weapons, has been ordered by a US court to hand its code for Pegasus and other spyware products to WhatsApp as part of the company's ongoing litigation. The decision by Judge Phyllis Hamilton is a major legal victory for WhatsApp, the Meta-owned communication … [Link]
Slashdot » The FBI Is Using Push Notifications To Catch Sexual Predators
According to the Washington Post (paywalled), the FBI is using mobile push notification data to unmask people suspected of serious crimes, such as pedophilia, terrorism, and murder. Gizmodo reports: The Post did a little digging into court records and found evidence of at least 130 search warrants filed by the feds for push notification data in cases spanning 14 states. … [Link]
Slashdot » Self-Pay Gas Station Pumps Break Across NZ As Software Can't Handle Leap Day
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Today is Leap Day, meaning that for the first time in four years, it's February 29. That's normally a quirky, astronomical factoid (or a very special birthday for some). But that unique calendar date broke gas station payment systems across New Zealand for much of the day. As reported by numerous … [Link]
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