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 » Red Hat Issues Urgent Alert For Fedora Linux Users Due To Malicious Code
BrianFagioli shares a report from BetaNews: In a recent security announcement, Red Hat's Information Risk and Security and Product Security teams have identified a critical vulnerability in the latest versions of the 'xz' compression tools and libraries. The affected versions, 5.6.0 and 5.6.1, contain malicious code that could potentially allow unauthorized access to systems. Fedora Linux 40 users and those … [Link]
Slashdot » LinkedIn Moves In On TikTok's Turf With Short-Form Videos
LinkedIn is testing support for short-form videos to help it compete with TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and other social media platforms. "[W]e are testing new ways to help members more easily discover timely, relevant videos to watch on LinkedIn," Suzi Owens, a company spokesperson, tells Axios in an email. From the report: A new "Video" option will appear next … [Link]
Slashdot » 20 Years of Gmail
Victoria Song reports via The Verge: When Gmail launched with a goofy press release 20 years ago next week, many assumed it was a hoax. The service promised a gargantuan 1 gigabyte of storage, an excessive quantity in an era of 15-megabyte inboxes. It claimed to be completely free at a time when many inboxes were paid. And then there … [Link]
Slashdot » NYC's Government Chatbot Is Lying About City Laws and Regulations
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: NYC's "MyCity" ChatBot was rolled out as a "pilot" program last October. The announcement touted the ChatBot as a way for business owners to "save … time and money by instantly providing them with actionable and trusted information from more than 2,000 NYC Business web pages and articles on topics such … [Link]
Slashdot » Microsoft, OpenAI Plan $100 Billlion 'Stargate' AI Supercomputer
According to The Information (paywalled), Microsoft and OpenAI are planning a $100 billion datacenter project that will include an artificial intelligence supercomputer called "Stargate." Reuters reports: The Information reported that Microsoft would likely be responsible for financing the project, which would be 100 times more costly than some of the biggest current data centers, citing people involved in private conversations … [Link]
Slashdot » Google Podcasts Service Shuts Down in the US Next Week
U.S. users have just a few more days to make the transition from Google Podcasts as the company moves forward with the process of discontinuing the service globally. From a report: Google is currently sending in-app notifications to users in the U.S. that starting April 2nd they will no longer be able to use Google Podcasts and is recommending to … [Link]
Slashdot » Half of Russian-Made Chips Are Defective
Anton Shilov reports via Tom's Hardware: About half of the processors packaged in Russia are defective. This has prompted Baikal Electronics, a Russian processor developer, to expand the number of packaging partners in the country, according to a report in Vedomosti, a Russian-language business daily newspaper published in Moscow (hat tip to Cnews). In addition to GS Group based in … [Link]
Slashdot » OpenAI Reveals AI Tool To Recreate Human Voices
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Axios: OpenAI said on Friday it's allowed a small number of businesses to test a new tool that can recreate a person's voice from just a 15-second recording. The company said it is taking "a cautious and informed approach" to releasing the program, called Voice Engine, more broadly given the high risk of … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Heatwaves now last much longer than they did in the 1980s
A global analysis of heatwaves over a span of 40 years shows that they are getting more frequent, moving slower and lasting longer [Link]
Slashdot » Negativity Drives Online News Consumption
Abstract of a paper on Nature: Online media is important for society in informing and shaping opinions, hence raising the question of what drives online news consumption. Here we analyse the causal effect of negative and emotional words on news consumption using a large online dataset of viral news stories. Specifically, we conducted our analyses using a series of randomized … [Link]
Slashdot » Memories Are Made By Breaking DNA – and Fixing It
When a long-term memory forms, some brain cells experience a rush of electrical activity so strong that it snaps their DNA. Then, an inflammatory response kicks in, repairing this damage and helping to cement the memory, a study in mice shows. Nature: The findings, published on 27 March in Nature, are "extremely exciting," says Li-Huei Tsai, a neurobiologist at the … [Link]
Slashdot » Algorithms Can Aid Price Collusion, Even If No Humans Actually Talk To Each Other, US Enforcers Say
Algorithms might help hotels illegally collude on prices, even if no humans from those businesses actually talk to each other about them, according to US antitrust enforcers. From a report: The Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission jointly submitted a statement of interest in Cornish-Adebiyi v. Caesars Entertainment, a case brought before the US District Court of New Jersey. … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Unprecedented GPS jamming attack affects 1600 aircraft over Europe
A 63-hour-long marathon of GPS jamming attacks disrupted global satellite navigation systems for hundreds of aircraft flying through the Baltic region – and Russia is thought to be responsible [Link]
Slashdot » Hillary Clinton, Election Officials Warn AI Could Threaten Elections
Hillary Clinton and U.S. election officials said they are concerned disinformation generated and spread by AI could threaten the 2024 presidential election [non-paywalled link]. WSJ: Clinton, a former secretary of state and 2016 presidential candidate, said she thinks foreign actors like Russian President Vladimir Putin could use AI to interfere in elections in the U.S. and elsewhere. Dozens of countries … [Link]
Slashdot » Chronic Student Absenteeism Soars Across US
The US has seen a significant increase in student absenteeism since the pandemic closed schools four years ago, with an estimated 26% of public school students considered chronically absent in the last school year, up from 15% before the pandemic, according to data from 40 states and Washington, D.C. A report adds: The increases have occurred in districts big and … [Link]
Slashdot » Larry Summers, Now an OpenAI Board Member, Thinks AI Could Replace 'Almost All' Forms of Labor
Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, now on the board of ChatGPT developer OpenAI, believes that while AI has the potential to revolutionize the economy, its impact will take time to materialize. However, Summers maintains that AI could be the biggest economic development since the Industrial Revolution, eventually replacing most forms of human labor, particularly cognitive tasks. He said: "If … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Tooth loss linked to early signs of Alzheimer’s disease
A brain region critical for memory is smaller in older adults with fewer than 10 teeth than in those who have most of their teeth, suggesting that tooth loss may precede the development of dementia [Link]
Slashdot » Red Hat Tries on a McKinsey Cap in Quest To Streamline Techies' Jobs
An anonymous reader shares a report: Mutterings of alarm are emerging from the cloisters of Red Hat after the world's largest management consultancy was hired to help the IBM subsidiary focus engineers on their highest-value work. Red Hat confirmed the partnership with McKinsey & Company to The Reg, sharing this extract from an email from CTO Chris Wright to the … [Link]
Slashdot » Canonical Now Doing Manual Reviews For New Packages Due To Scam Apps
An anonymous reader quotes a report from GamingOnLinux: After repeatedly suffering issues with scam apps making it onto the Snap Store, Canonical maker of Ubuntu Linux have now decided to manually look over submissions. I've covered the issues with the Snap Store a few times now like on March 19th when ten scam crypto apps appeared, got taken down and … [Link]
New Scientist – News » DNA sequencing may give hope to critically ill adults in hospital
Genome analysis as a way of helping people with baffling medical conditions has so far mainly been seen as a diagnostic tool for babies and children, but it also helps adults [Link]
Slashdot » Proxmox Import Wizard Makes for Easy VMware VM Migrations
Lyle Smith reports via StorageReview.com: Proxmox has introduced a new import wizard for Proxmox Virtual Environment (VE), aiming to simplify the migration process for importing VMware ESXi VMs. This new feature comes at an important time in the industry, as it aims to ease the transition for these organizations looking to move away from VMware's vSphere due to high renewal … [Link]
Slashdot » Apple Sues Former Employee For Leaking Journal App, Vision Pro Details
Apple has sued its former employee Andrew Aude for leaking information about more than a half-dozen Apple products and policies, including its then-unannounced Journal app and Vision Pro headset, product development policies, strategies for regulatory compliance, employee headcounts, and more. MacRumors reports: Aude joined Apple as an iOS software engineer in 2016, shortly after graduating college. He worked on optimizing … [Link]
Slashdot » Methane From Landfills Is a Big Driver of Climate Change, Study Says
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: They're vast expanses that can be as big as towns: open landfills where household waste ends up, whether it's vegetable scraps or old appliances. These landfills also belch methane, a powerful, planet-warming gas, on average at almost three times the rate reported to federal regulators, according to a study … [Link]
Slashdot » Michigan Nuclear Plant Aims To Be First Ever To Reopen In US
The Palisades Nuclear Plant in Michigan has won a $1.5 billion conditional federal loan to reopen after being closed for decommissioning in 2022. Canary Media reports: If the loan is granted (subject to Holtec meeting closing conditions) and the 800-megawatt reactor located on Lake Michigan is repowered, it would be the first nuclear plant in the U.S. to reopen after … [Link]
Slashdot » Cloud Server Host Vultr Rips User Data Ownership Clause From ToS After Web Outage
Tobias Mann reports via The Register: Cloud server provider Vultr has rapidly revised its terms-of-service after netizens raised the alarm over broad clauses that demanded the "perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free" rights to customer "content." The red tape was updated in January, as captured by the Internet Archive, and this month users were asked to agree to the changes by a pop-up … [Link]
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