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 » SWAT Team Raids Innocent Family Over Stolen AirPods, Inaccurate 'FindMy' App Tracking
A SWAT team in St. Louis County mistakenly raided the home of Brittany Shamily and her family, based on the inaccurate tracking of stolen AirPods by the "FindMy" app. The family is suing for damages stemming from embarrassment, unreasonable use of force, loss of liberty, and other factors. The Riverfront Times reports: Around 6:30 p.m. on May 26, Brittany Shamily … [Link]
Slashdot » FTX To Sell $884 Million of Anthropic Shares To Two Dozen Institutional Investors
The FTX bankruptcy estate has raised $884 million by selling the majority of its Anthropic shares to two dozen institutional investors. "The sale of the Anthropic shares is a big win for the FTX estate, which pledged in January to pay back the defunct exchange's customers 100% of the value of their holdings at the time of the exchange's collapse," … [Link]
Slashdot » Tennessee Becomes First State To Protect Musicians, Other Artists Against AI
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: Tennessee made history on Thursday, becoming the first U.S. state to sign off on legislation to protect musicians from unauthorized artificial intelligence impersonation. "Tennessee (sic) is the music capital of the world, & we're leading the nation with historic protections for TN artists & songwriters against emerging AI technology," Gov. Bill Lee … [Link]
Slashdot » Stability AI CEO Resigns, Says We Can't Beat Centralized AI With More Centralized AI
Stability AI founder and chief executive Emad Mostaque has stepped down from the top role and the unicorn startup's board, the buzzy firm said. From a report: Stability AI, which has been backed by investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners and Coatue Management, doesn't have an immediate permanent replacement for the CEO role but has appointed its COO Shan Shan Wong … [Link]
Slashdot » DeSantis Signs Bill Requiring Parental Consent For Kids Under 16 To Hold Social Media Accounts
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis just signed into law HB 3 [PDF], a bill that will give parents of teens under 16 more control over their kids' access to social media and require age verification for many websites. From a report: The bill requires social media platforms to prevent kids under 14 from creating accounts, and delete existing ones. It also … [Link]
Slashdot » China Blocks Use of Intel and AMD Chips in Government Computers
China has introduced new guidelines that will mean US microprocessors from Intel and AMD are phased out of government PCs and servers [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; non-paywalled source], as Beijing ramps up a campaign to replace foreign technology with homegrown solutions. From a report: The stricter government procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft's Windows operating system … [Link]
Slashdot » Landlines Are Dying Out
An anonymous reader shares a report: The number of landline users has plummeted with the rise of cellphones, and the 19th-century technology's days appear to be numbered. Providers like AT&T are looking to exit the business by transitioning customers to cellphones or home telephone service over broadband connections. But for many of the millions of people still clinging to their … [Link]
Slashdot » Bitcoin 'Halving' Spurs Exodus of Old US Mining Computers Abroad
An anonymous reader shares a report: About 6,000 older Bitcoin mining machines in the US will soon be idled and sent to a warehouse in Colorado Springs where they'll be refreshed and resold to buyers overseas looking to profit from mining in lower-cost environs. Wholesaler SunnySide Digital operates the 35,000 square-foot facility taking in the equipment from a mining client. … [Link]
Slashdot » Behind the Plot To Break Nvidia's Grip on AI By Targeting Software
An anonymous reader shares a report: Nvidia earned its $2.2 trillion market cap by producing AI chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from startups to Microsoft, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet. Almost as important to its hardware is the company's nearly 20 years' worth of computer code, which helps make competition with … [Link]
Slashdot » Atlas VPN To Shut Down, Transfers Paid Subscribers To NordVPN
Atlas VPN informed customers on Monday that it will discontinue its services on April 24, citing technological demands, market competition, and escalating costs as key factors in the decision. The company said it will transfer its paid subscribers to its sister company, NordVPN, for the remainder of their subscription period to ensure uninterrupted VPN services. 
Read more of this story … [Link]
Slashdot » Consumers Sue Apple, Taking Page From Justice Department Lawsuit
Apple has been hit with a flurry of new consumer lawsuits accusing the iPhone maker of monopolizing the smartphone market, piggybacking on a sweeping antitrust case lodged by the U.S. Justice Department and 15 states last week. From a report: At least three proposed class actions have been filed since Friday in California and New Jersey federal courts by iPhone … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Wildfire smoke may be deadliest effect of climate change in US
Smoke from wildfires made worse by climate change is set to cause thousands of additional deaths each year in the US [Link]
Slashdot » UK Blames China for Massive Breach of Voter Data
The U.K. government has blamed China for a 2021 cyberattack that compromised the personal information of millions of U.K. voters. From a report: In a statement to lawmakers in Parliament on Monday, U.K. deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden attributed the 2021 data breach at the Electoral Commission to hackers working for the Chinese government. Dowden told lawmakers that the U.K. … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Dust clouds from the Sahara are reaching Europe more frequently
Changes in wind patterns and desertification may be increasing the amount of dust from the Sahara desert blown over western Europe and the frequency of these events [Link]
Slashdot » DOJ Antitrust Lawsuit Says Apple Is Causing Android Users 'Social Stigma'
FrankOVD shares a report: Here's a paragraph from the DOJ's antitrust lawsuit against Apple in full: "In addition to degrading the quality of third-party messaging apps, Apple affirmatively undermines the quality of rival smartphones. For example, if an iPhone user messages a non-iPhone user in Apple Messages — the default messaging app on an iPhone — then the text appears … [Link]
Slashdot » Microsoft Dev's 30-Year-Old Temporary Code Still Lingers in Windows 11
Dave Plummer, a former Microsoft developer, has shared the story behind the Format drive dialog box in Windows, which has remained unchanged for nearly three decades. According to Plummer, the dialog box was created as a temporary solution during the porting of code from Windows 95 to Windows NT, due to differences between the two operating systems. Plummer jotted down … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Birds make an 'after you' gesture to prompt their mate to enter nest
Japanese tits sometimes flutter their wings in an apparent gesture of encouraging their mate to enter their shared nest first [Link]
Slashdot » Boeing CEO, Many Other Top Execs To Step Down in Leadership Shakeup at Embattled Plane Maker
Boeing announced a major leadership overhaul Monday, with CEO Dave Calhoun set to step down at the end of 2024 amid mounting pressure from airlines and regulators over quality and manufacturing issues. Chairman Larry Kellner will also resign and depart the board at Boeing's annual meeting in May, the company said. He will be replaced as chair by Steve Mollenkopf, … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Humans spread more viruses to other animals than they give to us
An analysis of viral genomes shows it is more common for viruses to jump from humans to other animals than the other way around [Link]
Slashdot » Boeing CEO, Many Other Top Execs To Step Down in Leadership Shakeup
Boeing announced a major leadership overhaul Monday, with CEO Dave Calhoun set to step down at the end of 2024 amid mounting pressure from airlines and regulators over quality and manufacturing issues. Chairman Larry Kellner will also resign and depart the board at Boeing's annual meeting in May, the company said. He will be replaced as chair by Steve Mollenkopf, … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Why we need to invoke philosophy to judge bizarre concepts in science
Theories of mind and cosmos are inevitably preposterous – knowing how to weigh competing implausibilities can help us decide which we should back [Link]
Slashdot » This Startup Wants to Fix the Housing Market – with Robots
In a state where housing is expensive to build, to rent, or to buy — and not especially energy efficient — can a big blue robot make a difference? The Boston Globe reports on Reframe Systems, one of the companies "trying robots to make construction more efficient" — in this case, "working alongside humans in an assembly line to build … [Link]
Slashdot » EU Launches Probes Into Apple, Meta, Google Under New Digital Competition Law
The European Union has launched investigations into Apple, Meta and Google under its sweeping new digital-competition law, adding to the regulatory scrutiny large U.S. tech companies are facing worldwide. From a report: The suite of probes [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; official press release here] announced Monday are the first under the EU's Digital Markets Act law, which … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Tiny deer from the dry valleys of Peru recognised as new species
A 38-centimetre-tall deer, found in an arid region in the central Andes, is the first new deer species found in South America for over 60 years [Link]
Slashdot » Tired of Streaming? Home-Grown 'Free Blockbuster' Libraries Are Trying to Offer Alternatives
In 2019 Los Angeles film/TV producer Brian Morrison painted Blockbuster's logo onto an old newspaper box — and then filled it up with used DVDs. "The Free Blockbuster movement slowly gained traction," reports the New York Times — aided at times by social media — "and eventually more than 200 other community boxes had opened from Louisiana to Canada and … [Link]
Slashdot » Say Hello To Biodegradable Microplastics?
Long-time Slashdot reader HanzoSpam shared an announcement from the University of California San Diego. The school's researchers teamed with materials-science company Algenesis to show "that their plant-based polymers biodegrade — even at the microplastic level — in under seven months." "We're trying to find replacements for materials that already exist, and make sure these replacements will biodegrade at the end … [Link]
Slashdot » Google Teams with 'Highlights', Shows How Goofus and Gallant Use the Internet
Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes: Last month there was a special Google-funded edition of Highlights for Children, the 77-year-old magazine targetting children between the ages of 6 and 12. This edition was based on Google's "Be Internet Awesome" curriculum, and 1.25 million copies of the print magazine were distributed to children, schools, and other organizations. It's all part of a … [Link]
Slashdot » Astronomers Demand Radio Silence at the Moon's Far Side, But Resistance May Be Futile
Gizmodo reports that increased activity on the Moon "may affect the unique radio silence on the lunar far side, an ideal location for radio telescopes to pick up faint signals from the cosmic past." This week, the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) held the first Moon Farside Protection Symposium in Italy to advocate for preserving radio silence on the far … [Link]
The Joy of Tech » DOJ VS Apple.
So this is what Merrick Garland has been working on! [Link]
Slashdot » California's Successful Dam-Removal Project Continues
The Los Angeles Times checks in on America's largest dam-removal project, which they say is now "revealing a stark landscape that had been underwater for generations." "A thick layer of muddy sediment covers the sloping ground, where workers have been scattering seeds and leaving meandering trails of footprints. In the cracked mud, seeds are sprouting and tiny green shoots are … [Link]
Slashdot » Has 'Silicon Valley-style Startup Disruption' Arrived for Book Publishing?
The Baffler says a new publishing house launched earlier this month "brings Silicon Valley-style startup disruption to the business of books." Authors Equity has "a tiny core staff, offloading its labor to a network of freelancers," and like a handful of other publishers "is upending the way that authors get paid, eschewing advances and offering a higher percentage of profits … [Link]
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