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 » Dutch Court Orders ISP To Block 'Anna's Archive' and 'LibGen'
The Dutch pirate site blocklist has expanded with two new targets, shadow libraries Anna's Archive and Library Genesis. The court order was obtained by local anti-piracy group BREIN, acting on behalf of major publishers. Interestingly, Z-Library isn't listed in the blocking order, despite explicit warnings previously issued by BREIN. TorrentFreak reports: All blocking requests were submitted by local anti-piracy group … [Link]
Slashdot » Boom's XB-1 Supersonic Demonstrator Makes First Flight
Boom Supersonic's first aircraft, the XB-1, completed its first flight today and met "all of its test objectives." From a report: This initial test only saw the aircraft 7,120 feet above sea level and fly at a top speed of 238 knots (274 mph) — far from Mach 1, the speed of sound. The first flight of XB-1 took place … [Link]
Slashdot » Mozilla Drops Onerep After CEO Admits To Running People-Search Networks
An anonymous reader quotes a report from KrebsOnSecurity: The nonprofit organization that supports the Firefox web browser said today it is winding down its new partnership with Onerep, an identity protection service recently bundled with Firefox that offers to remove users from hundreds of people-search sites. The move comes just days after a report by KrebsOnSecurity forced Onerep's CEO to … [Link]
Slashdot » DOJ Blames Apple For Failure of Amazon Fire Phone, Windows Phone and HTC
DOJ, in the court filing (PDF): Many prominent, well-financed companies have tried and failed to successfully enter the relevant markets because of these entry barriers. Past failures include Amazon (which released its Fire mobile phone in 2014 but could not profitably sustain its business and exited the following year); Microsoft (which discontinued its mobile business in 2017); HTC (which exited … [Link]
Slashdot » Cable ISP Fined $10,000 For Lying To FCC About Where It Offers Broadband
An Internet service provider that admitted lying to the FCC about where it offers broadband will pay a $10,000 fine and implement a compliance plan to prevent future violations. ArsTechnica: Jefferson County Cable (JCC), a small ISP in Toronto, Ohio, admitted that it falsely claimed to offer fiber service in an area that it hadn't expanded to yet. A company … [Link]
Slashdot » Google Testing AI Overviews in Search Results, Even If You Have Not Opted In
Search Engine Land: Google is now testing AI overviews in the main Google Search results, even if you have not opted into the Google Search Generative Experience labs feature. Google said this is an experience on a "subset of queries, on a small percentage of search traffic in the U.S.," a Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land. 
Read more of … [Link]
Slashdot » DOT Wants To Know How Big Airlines Use Passenger Data
The U.S. Department of Transportation has announced it will conduct a review of the data practices of the country's ten largest airlines, amid concerns over potential misuse of customer information for upselling, overcharging, targeted advertising, and third-party data sales, as well as the security of systems handling sensitive data such as passport numbers. From a report: The probe will look … [Link]
Slashdot » Security and Climate Change Drive a Return To Nuclear Energy as Over 30 Nations Sign Summit Pledge
In the shadow of a massive monument glorifying nuclear power, over 30 nations from around the world pledged to use the controversial energy source to help achieve a climate-neutral globe while providing countries with an added sense of strategic security. Associated Press: The idea of a Nuclear Energy Summit would have been unthinkable a dozen years ago after the 2011 … [Link]
New Scientist – News » NASA's mission to Europa isn't meant to find alien life – but it could
Later this year, NASA is launching its Europa Clipper spacecraft to the icy moon of Jupiter. Its mission is only to investigate whether the moon is habitable, but now researchers have found that one of its instruments could look for direct signs of life [Link]
New Scientist – News » Medieval horses buried in London had far-flung origins
Isotopic analysis of horse teeth from a medieval burial site suggest that the animals were imported to England from Scandinavia or the Alps, perhaps for use in battle or jousting [Link]
Slashdot » Switch Emulator Suyu Hit By GitLab DMCA, Project Lives on Through Self-hosting
Switch emulator Suyu — a fork of the Nintendo-targeted and now-defunct emulation project Yuzu — has been taken down from GitLab following a DMCA request Thursday. But the emulation project's open source files remain available on a self-hosted git repo on the Suyu website, and recent compiled binaries remain available on an extant GitLab repo. From a report: While the … [Link]
Slashdot » More Than Half of Chickenpox Diagnoses Are Wrong, Study Finds
An anonymous reader shares a report: Thanks to the vaccination program that began in 1995, chickenpox is now relatively rare. Cases of the miserable, itchy condition have fallen more than 97 percent. But, while children have largely put the oatmeal baths and oven mitts behind them, doctors have apparently let their diagnostic skills get a little crusty. According to a … [Link]
Slashdot » Geologists Reject Declaration of Anthropocene Epoch
The guardians of the world's official geological timescale have firmly rejected a proposal to declare an Anthropocene epoch, after an epic academic row. From a report: The proposal would have designated the period from 1952 as the Anthropocene to reflect the planet-changing impact of humanity. It would have ended the Holocene epoch, the 11,700 years of stable climate since the … [Link]
Slashdot » US Cyber Investors Pledge Spyware is Off Limits – With a Catch
An anonymous reader shares a report: On Monday, the Biden administration announced that six new countries had joined an international coalition to fight the proliferation of commercial spyware, sold by companies such as NSO Group or Intellexa. Now, some investors have announced that they too are committed to fighting spyware. But at least one of those investors, Paladin Capital Group, … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Dogs really do understand that words stand for objects
Pet dogs have different patterns of brain activity when they are shown an object that doesn’t match the word they hear, suggesting they have a mental representation of what words mean [Link]
Slashdot » Higher Temperatures Mean Higher Food and Other Prices
Food prices and overall inflation will rise as temperatures climb with climate change, a new study by an environmental scientist and the European Central Bank found. From a report: Looking at monthly price tags of food and other goods, temperatures and other climate factors in 121 nations since 1996, researchers calculate that "weather and climate shocks" will cause the cost … [Link]
Slashdot » DOJ Lawsuit Against Apple is Headline Grabber But Poses Limited Near-Term Impact
An anonymous reader shares a report: The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Apple Thursday, accusing the company led by CEO Tim Cook of engaging in anti-competitive business practices. The allegations include claims that Apple prevents competitors from accessing certain iPhone features and that the company's actions impact the "flow of speech" through its streaming service, Apple TV+. … [Link]
Slashdot » Apple Held Talks With China's Baidu Over AI for Its Devices
Apple has held preliminary talks with Baidu about using the Chinese company's generative AI technology in its devices in China, the latest example of the iPhone maker's efforts to widen its AI capabilities. From a report: The U.S. tech giant has been exploring using external partners to help accelerate its AI ambitions. It has held discussions with companies including Google … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Largest recorded solar storm was even bigger than we thought
Rediscovered magnetic recordings reveal just how extreme the largest recorded solar storm in history, the Carrington event in 1859, really was, highlighting the danger such storms could present to us nowadays [Link]
Slashdot » Texas Sues xHamster and Chaturbate
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton just sued two more porn sites, xHamster and Chaturbate, alleging they aren't complying with age verification laws. As first reported by local news outlet KXAN, the Office of the Attorney General filed two civil lawsuits on Tuesday afternoon against Hammy Media, which owns xHamster, and Multi … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Ant queens have good reasons for eating their own babies
Feasting on family members may be an unorthodox way for ant queens to keep their fledgling colonies from being overrun by lethal fungi [Link]
Slashdot » E-Waste Is Growing 5x Faster Than It Can Be Recycled, Says UN
According to a United Nations report, humans are producing electronic waste almost five times faster than we're recycling it. "While e-waste recycling has benefits estimated to include $23 billion of monetized value from avoided greenhouse gas emissions and $28 billion of recovered materials like gold, copper, and iron, it also comes at a cost — $10 billion associated with e-waste … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Male and female spiders pair up to look like a flower
Together, a dark-hued male crab spider and a larger, paler female resemble a flower, in what researchers suspect is the first case of cooperative mimicry [Link]
Slashdot » Vernor Vinge, Father of the Tech Singularity, Has Died At Age 79
"Vernor Vinge, who three times won the Hugo for best novel, has died," writes Slashdot reader Felix Baum. Ars Technica reports: On Wednesday, author David Brin announced that Vernor Vinge, sci-fi author, former professor, and father of the technological singularity concept, died from Parkinson's disease at age 79 on March 20, 2024, in La Jolla, California. The announcement came in … [Link]
Slashdot » UnitedHealth Group Paid More Than $2 Billion To Providers Following Cyberattack
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: UnitedHealth Group said Monday that it's paid out more than $2 billion to help health-care providers who have been affected by the cyberattack on subsidiary Change Healthcare. "We continue to make significant progress in restoring the services impacted by this cyberattack," UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty said in a press release. "We know … [Link]
Slashdot » Windows 11 Notepad Finally Gets Spellcheck and Autocorrect
Microsoft today announced a preview release of Windows Notepad, with built-in spellchecking and an autocorrect feature. BleepingComputer reports: Microsoft says they are rolling out this preview to Insiders in the Windows 11 Canary and Dev channels, but it may take some time before it's available for everyone. "With this update, Notepad will now highlight misspelled words and provide suggestions so … [Link]
Slashdot » Redis To Adopt 'Source-Available Licensing' Starting With Next Version
Longtime Slashdot reader jgulla shares an announcement from Redis: Beginning today, all future versions of Redis will be released with source-available licenses. Starting with Redis 7.4, Redis will be dual-licensed under the Redis Source Available License (RSALv2) and Server Side Public License (SSPLv1). Consequently, Redis will no longer be distributed under the three-clause Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). The new source-available … [Link]
Slashdot » Apple Launches All-In-One 'Manuals, Specs, and Downloads' Website
Apple has launched a new "Documentation" page to its website that provides links to user guides, repair manuals, tech specs, software downloads, and more for a variety of its products. MacRumors reports: Some of this information was previously found across separate pages on Apple's website, and it has now been combined in one place for convenient access. The page includes … [Link]
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