John Gordon Ross

A Man for All Reasons

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Geekish

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 » World Poker Tour Bets on AI Dubbing of Tournaments for Latin America

Tuesday 26 March 23:20:00 UTC 2024

Georg Szalai reports via the Hollywood Reporter: The World Poker Tour (WPT) is betting on AI-powered dubbing tools under a partnership with Papercup, a London-based AI dubbing company, that will replace WPT's traditional localization methods in Latin America. Papercup will work with the World Poker Tour to translate 184 of the franchise's 44-minute-long episodes into Brazilian Portuguese, the companies said. … [Link]

Slashdot » Xbox Cloud Gaming Now Has Mouse and Keyboard Support In Select Games

Tuesday 26 March 22:40:00 UTC 2024

Tom Warren reports via The Verge: Microsoft is starting to preview mouse and keyboard support for Xbox Cloud Gaming today. Xbox Insiders will be able to start playing with their mouse and keyboard in Edge, Chrome, or the Xbox app on Windows PCs, nearly two years after Microsoft announced it was preparing to add mouse and keyboard support to its … [Link]

Slashdot » US Sanctions Spree Continues With 15 More For Russian Entities

Tuesday 26 March 22:00:00 UTC 2024

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: It's sanctions central at the US Treasury this week as a further 15 are slapped on organizations and individuals in Russia. The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated 13 organizations and two individuals — all concerning financial services organizations, including cryptocurrency exchanges that offered services to already-sanctioned dark web … [Link]

New Scientist – News » Bird flu detected in US dairy cows – here’s what you need to know

Tuesday 26 March 21:57:31 UTC 2024

The US Department of Agriculture has detected bird flu in dairy cows from Texas and Kansas – the first time the virus has been found in cattle [Link]

Slashdot » Canva Acquires Affinity To Fill the Adobe-Sized Holes In Its Design Suite

Tuesday 26 March 21:20:00 UTC 2024

Web-based design platform Canva has acquired the Affinity creative software suite for an undisclosed sum, though Bloomberg reports that it's valued at "several hundred million [British] pounds." The Verge reports that the acquisition helps the company "[position] itself as a challenger to Adobe's grip over the digital design industry." From the report: Canva announced the deal on Tuesday, which gives … [Link]

Slashdot » Adam Neumann Makes a $500 Million Bid For WeWork

Tuesday 26 March 20:40:00 UTC 2024

Adam Neumann has submitted a $500 million bid to acquire WeWork out of bankruptcy. According to CNBC, it "could go up to $900 million pending due diligence." From the report: Neumann's financing was not immediately clear, although people familiar with the matter told CNBC that Dan Loeb's Third Point was not involved in the offer. Neumann's counsel had previously said … [Link]

Slashdot » Apple Announces WWDC 2024 Event For June 10

Tuesday 26 March 20:24:00 UTC 2024

Apple today announced that its 35th annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is set to take place June 10 through 14, 2024. It'll be an online event open to all developers at no cost. MacRumors reports: Apple will hold a WWDC 2024 keynote event on Monday, June 10 to show off iOS 18, iPadOS 18, tvOS 18, macOS 15, watchOS 11, … [Link]

Slashdot » Florida Braces For Lawsuits Over Law Banning Kids From Social Media

Tuesday 26 March 20:00:00 UTC 2024

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On Monday, Florida became the first state to ban kids under 14 from social media without parental permission. It appears likely that the law — considered one of the most restrictive in the US — will face significant legal challenges, however, before taking effect on January 1. Under HB 3, apps … [Link]

Slashdot » Vinyl Records Outsell CDs For the Second Year Running

Tuesday 26 March 19:20:00 UTC 2024

People bought 43 million vinyl records last year, according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). From a report: That's 6 million more than the number of CDs sold in 2023, marking the second time since 1987 that's happened and reflecting the steady 17-year-running growth of vinyl sales. Vinyl, which tends to be pricier than the newer format, also … [Link]

Slashdot » Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2 Releases Early In France

Tuesday 26 March 18:44:00 UTC 2024

AmiMoJo writes: In a major surprise, all twenty episodes of the second season of the animated series 'Star Trek: Prodigy' have suddenly been made available in France thanks to broadcaster France Televisions. According to TrekCentral it seems France.TV, the online streaming service for the national public broadcaster, has released the entirety of the second season all at once and without … [Link]

New Scientist – News » How to make an eclipse viewer

Tuesday 26 March 18:30:08 UTC 2024

Some basic equipment can help you safely enjoy the eclipse on 8 April – here's how to easily make what you need [Link]

Slashdot » Facebook Accused of Using Your Phone To Wiretap Snapchat

Tuesday 26 March 18:07:00 UTC 2024

Court filings unsealed last week allege Meta created an internal effort to spy on Snapchat in a secret initiative called "Project Ghostbusters." Gizmodo: Meta did so through Onavo, a Virtual Private Network (VPN) service the company offered between 2016 and 2019 that, ultimately, wasn't private at all. "Whenever someone asks a question about Snapchat, the answer is usually that because … [Link]

Slashdot » A Native Version of Chrome Arrives for Arm-based Windows PC

Tuesday 26 March 17:39:00 UTC 2024

Google is releasing an optimized version of its Chrome browser for Windows on Arm this week, the search giant has announced alongside chipmaker Qualcomm. From a report: The official release comes two months after an early version of the browser was spotted in Chrome's Canary channel. Qualcomm says the release "will roll out starting today." The release will be a … [Link]

Slashdot » Dell Reduces Workforce as Part of Broader Cost Cuts

Tuesday 26 March 16:54:00 UTC 2024

Dell reduced its workforcereduced its workforce as part of a broader initiative to cut costs that included limiting external hiring and employee reorganizations, it said in a filing on Monday. From a report: As of Feb. 2, 2024, it had nearly 120,000 employees, down from about 126,000 a year earlier. The layoffs come after sluggish demand for its personal computers … [Link]

New Scientist – News » Flavour-predicting AI can tell brewers how to make beer taste better

Tuesday 26 March 16:30:31 UTC 2024

An AI model trained on chemical and perceptual data on 250 Belgian beers can predict the flavour profile of a brew – and how to make it tastier [Link]

Slashdot » Portugal Orders Altman's Worldcoin To Halt Data Collection

Tuesday 26 March 16:01:00 UTC 2024

Portugal's data regulator has ordered Sam Altman's iris-scanning project Worldcoin to stop collecting biometric data for 90 days, it said on Tuesday, in the latest regulatory blow to a venture that has raised privacy concerns in multiple countries. From a report: Worldcoin encourages people to have their faces scanned by its "orb" devices, in exchange for a digital ID and … [Link]

New Scientist – News » AI forecaster can predict the future better than humans

Tuesday 26 March 15:30:39 UTC 2024

An AI forecaster based on the language model GPT-4 can predict the outcome of future events more accurately than single humans. In some cases, it can even outperform the “wisdom of crowds” [Link]

Slashdot » Cloudflare Says It's Automated Empathy To Avoid Fixing Flaky Hardware Too Often

Tuesday 26 March 15:21:00 UTC 2024

The Register: Cloudflare has revealed a little about how it maintains the millions of boxes it operates around the world — including the concept of an "error budget" that enacts "empathy embedded in automation." In a Tuesday post titled "Autonomous hardware diagnostics and recovery at scale," the internet-taming biz explains that it built fault-tolerant infrastructure that can continue operating with … [Link]

Slashdot » Telegram's Peer-to-Peer Login System is a Risky Way To Save $5 a Month

Tuesday 26 March 14:40:00 UTC 2024

Telegram is offering a new way to earn a premium subscription free of charge: all you have to do is volunteer your phone number to relay one-time passwords (OTP) to other users. This, in fact, sounds like an awful idea — particularly for a messaging service based around privacy. From a report: X user @AssembleDebug spotted details about the new … [Link]

New Scientist – News » Heat pumps: How to speed up the switch to low-carbon home heating

Tuesday 26 March 14:30:00 UTC 2024

The rollout of heat pumps and other green heating technologies is going far too slowly in the UK – here’s what’s needed to get it moving [Link]

Slashdot » AI Will Suck Up 500% More Power in UK in 10 Years, Grid CEO Says

Tuesday 26 March 14:00:00 UTC 2024

Electricity demand from UK data centers will jump sixfold over the next 10 years as a boom in AI requires increased computing power, according to the head of National Grid. From a report: That will ramp up pressure on the country's electricity network, which must move vast quantities of renewable energy from as far away as Scottish wind farms to … [Link]

Slashdot » Reddit May Need To Ramp Up Spending On Content Moderation, Analysts Say

Tuesday 26 March 13:00:00 UTC 2024

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Reddit will need to spend heavily on content moderation as it may face greater scrutiny as a public company, analysts said, threatening its longstanding policy of relying on an army of volunteers to maintain order on its platform. The newly listed company warned in its initial public offering (IPO) paperwork that its … [Link]

New Scientist – News » Paper planes made by a robot fly better than ones made by humans

Tuesday 26 March 12:28:38 UTC 2024

A robot that can design, build and test objects made from folded paper can make paper planes that fly further than ones made by a human having the same number of attempts [Link]

New Scientist – News » Ancient people carved mysterious symbols near dinosaur footprints

Tuesday 26 March 11:28:46 UTC 2024

A unique site in Brazil features rock carvings closely associated with dinosaur tracks, suggesting prehistoric people saw the footprints as meaningful [Link]

Slashdot » Microsoft Has a New Windows and Surface Chief

Tuesday 26 March 10:00:00 UTC 2024

Tom Warren reports via The Verge: Microsoft is naming Pavan Davuluri as its new Windows and Surface chief today. After Panos Panay's surprise departure to Amazon last year, Microsoft split up the Windows and Surface groups under two different leaders. Davuluri took over the Surface silicon and devices work, with Mikhail Parakhin leading a new team focused on Windows and … [Link]

New Scientist – News » Huge crater in India hints at major meteorite impact 4000 years ago

Tuesday 26 March 9:00:18 UTC 2024

The Luna structure, a 1.8-kilometre-wide depression in north-west India, may have been caused by the largest meteorite to strike Earth in the past 50,000 years [Link]

Slashdot » BBC Will Stop Using AI For 'Doctor Who' Promotion After Receiving Complaints

Tuesday 26 March 7:00:00 UTC 2024

The BBC says it has stopped using AI to promote Doctor Who after receiving complaints from viewers. Deadline reports: The BBC's marketing teams used the tech "as part of a small trial" to help draft some text for two promotional emails and mobile notifications, according to its complaints website, which was intended to highlight Doctor Who programming on the BBC. … [Link]

New Scientist – News » Your nationality may influence how much you talk with your hands

Tuesday 26 March 6:00:59 UTC 2024

When recounting an episode of the children's TV show Pingu, people from Italy made an average of 22 gestures per 100 words, compared with 11 for Swedish people [Link]

Slashdot » Ubuntu Linux LTS Releases Get Up To 12 Years of Support

Tuesday 26 March 3:30:00 UTC 2024

BrianFagioli shares a report from BetaNews: Canonical, the company behind the popular Ubuntu operating system, has announced a significant extension to the support lifecycle of its long-term support (LTS) releases. The new paid Legacy Support add-on for Ubuntu Pro subscribers will now provide security maintenance and support for an impressive 12 years, extending the previous 10-year commitment. This enhancement is … [Link]

Slashdot » As AI Booms, Land Near Nuclear Power Plants Becomes Hot Real Estate

Tuesday 26 March 2:02:00 UTC 2024

Tobias Mann reports via The Register: The land surrounding a nuclear power plant might not sound like prime real estate, but as more bit barns seek to trim costs, it's poised to become a rather hot commodity. All datacenters are energy-hungry but with more watt-greedy AI workloads on the horizon, nuclear power has fresh appeal, especially for hyperscalers. Such a … [Link]

Slashdot » Binance Executive Detained In Nigeria Escapes Custody

Tuesday 26 March 1:25:00 UTC 2024

A top executive from the crypto exchange Binance has escaped custody in Nigeria after being arrested for allegedly destabilizing the country's national currency. The Associated Press reports: Nadeem Anjarwalla, the regional manager for Binance in Africa, "fled Nigeria using a smuggled passport," the office of Nigeria's National Security Adviser said in a statement, calling for "whatever information that can assist … [Link]

Slashdot » US, UK Announce Sanctions Over China-Linked Election Hacks

Tuesday 26 March 0:45:00 UTC 2024

Earlier today, the U.S. and U.K. accused hackers linked to the Chinese state of being behind "malicious" cyber campaigns targeting political figures. The U.K. government also blamed China for a 2021 cyberattack that compromised the personal information of millions of U.K. voters. In response, PBS reports that the U.S. and British government announced sanctions against a company and two people … [Link]

Slashdot » 'Federation Is the Future of Social Media'

Tuesday 26 March 0:02:00 UTC 2024

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge, written by Nilay Patel: Today, I'm talking to Jay Graber, the CEO of Bluesky Social, which is a decentralized competitor to Twitter, er, X. Bluesky actually started inside of what was then known as Twitter — it was a project from then-CEO Jack Dorsey, who spent his days wandering the earth … [Link]

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