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 » Can Apps Turning Us Into Unpaid Lobbyists?
"Today's most effective corporate lobbying no longer involves wooing members of Congress…" writes the Wall Street Journal. Instead the lobbying sector "now works in secret to influence lawmakers with the help of an unlikely ally: you." [Lobbyists] teamed up with PR gurus, social-media experts, political pollsters, data analysts and grassroots organizers to foment seemingly organic public outcries designed to pressure … [Link]
Slashdot » Major Mobile NFT Shooter Game 'MadWorld' Uses Linux Foundation Subsidiary's Game Engine
A Linux Foundation subsidiary has developed a free and open-source 3D game engine distributed under the Apache license. And last week the Open 3D Foundation announced "a big step forward, showcasing the power of open-source technologies in giving gamers around the globe unforgettable gaming experiences." "We are proud to unveil MadWorld as the first mobile title powered by O3DE," said … [Link]
Slashdot » More AI Safeguards Coming, Including Right to Refuse Face-Recognition Scans at US Airports
This week every U.S. agency was ordered to appoint a "chief AI officer". But that wasn't the only AI policy announced. According to CNN, "By the end of the year, travelers should be able to refuse facial recognition scans at airport security screenings without fear it could delay or jeopardize their travel plans." That's just one of the concrete safeguards … [Link]
Slashdot » AI Hallucinated a Dependency. So a Cybersecurity Researcher Built It as Proof-of-Concept Malware
"Several big businesses have published source code that incorporates a software package previously hallucinated by generative AI," the Register reported Thursday "Not only that but someone, having spotted this reoccurring hallucination, had turned that made-up dependency into a real one, which was subsequently downloaded and installed thousands of times by developers as a result of the AI's bad advice, we've … [Link]
Slashdot » America's DHS Is Expected to Stop Buying Access to Your Phone Movements
America's Department of Homeland Security "is expected to stop buying access to data showing the movement of phones," reports the U.S. news site NOTUS. They call the purchasers "a controversial practice that has allowed it to warrantlessly track hundreds of millions of people for years." Since 2018, agencies within the department — including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and … [Link]
Slashdot » Researchers Develop New Material That Converts CO2 into Methanol Using Sunlight
"Researchers have successfully transformed CO2 into methanol," reports SciTechDaily, "by shining sunlight on single atoms of copper deposited on a light-activated material, a discovery that paves the way for creating new green fuels." Tara LeMercier, a PhD student who carried out the experimental work at the University of Nottingham, School of Chemistry, said: "We measured the current generated by light … [Link]
Slashdot » Bill Gates Says Texas Shows America's Clean-Energy Future
"If you want to see what the cutting edge of next-gen clean energy innovation looks like, it'd be hard to find a place better than Texas," Bill Gates wrote recently on his blog," saying "amazing companies" are breaking ground across the state. "Each one represents a huge boon for the local economy, America's energy security, and the fight against climate … [Link]
Slashdot » Henrietta Leavitt, Cosmology Pioneer, Receives Belated Obituary
Longtime Slashdot reader necro81 writes: The New York Times has an occasional series called "Overlooked," whereby notable people whose deaths were overlooked at the time receive the obituary they deserve. Their latest installment eulogizes Henrietta Swan Leavitt, who passed away in 1921 at age 53. From the report: "In the early 20th century, when Henrietta Leavitt began studying photographs of … [Link]
Slashdot » Are State Governments Slowing the Build-Out of America's EV Charging Stations?
In November of 2021 America passed a "Bipartisan Infrastructure Law" which included $7.5 billion for up to 20,000 EV charging spots, or around 5,000 stations, notes the Washington Post (citing an analysis from the EV policy analyst group Atlas Public Policy). And new stations are now already open in Hawaii, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania, "and under construction in four … [Link]
Slashdot » Playboy Image From 1972 Gets Ban From IEEE Computer Journals
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On Wednesday, the IEEE Computer Society announced to members that, after April 1, it would no longer accept papers that include a frequently used image of a 1972 Playboy model named Lena Forsen. The so-called "Lenna image," (Forsen added an extra "n" to her name in her Playboy appearance to aid … [Link]
Slashdot » Russia Is Making Its Own Gaming Consoles
Vladimir Putin has ordered Russia's government to explore the development of a series of homegrown consoles to compete with PlayStation and Xbox. Game Rant reports: Russia has taken issue with Western games and developers in recent years, leading the country to threaten the banning of certain titles like Apex Legends and The Last of Us Part 2. This is due … [Link]
Slashdot » 'Security Engineering' Author Ross Anderson, Cambridge Professor, Dies at Age 67
The Record reports: Ross Anderson, a professor of security engineering at the University of Cambridge who is widely recognized for his contributions to computing, passed away at home on Thursday according to friends and colleagues who have been in touch with his family and the University. Anderson, who also taught at Edinburgh University, was one of the most respected academic … [Link]
Slashdot » New Pollution Rules Aim To Lift Sales of Electric Trucks
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: The Biden administration on Friday announced a regulation designed to turbocharge sales of electric or other zero-emission heavy vehicles, from school buses to cement mixers, as part of its multifront attack on global warming. The Environmental Protection Agency projects the new rule could mean that 25 percent of new … [Link]
Slashdot » Congress Bans Staff Use of Microsoft's AI Copilot
The U.S. House has set a strict ban on congressional staffers' use of Microsoft Copilot, the company's AI-based chatbot, Axios reported Friday. From the report: The House last June restricted staffers' use of ChatGPT, allowing limited use of the paid subscription version while banning the free version. The House's Chief Administrative Officer Catherine Szpindor, in guidance to congressional offices obtained … [Link]
Slashdot » Chromebooks Are About To Change
Google is preparing to introduce a significant change to its ChromeOS platform by decoupling the Chrome browser from the operating system, AndroidCentral writes. The project, known as "Lacros" (Linux And Chrome OS), aims to solve several issues, including the inability to receive browser updates after a Chromebook reaches its Auto Update Expiration (AUE) date. This change will allow users to … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Physicists have worked out how to melt any material
A new equation shows a surprisingly simple relationship between pressure and the temperature needed to melt any solid substance into a liquid [Link]
Slashdot » 'Garbage Lasagna': Dumps Are a Big Driver of Warming, Study Says
Decades of buried trash is releasing methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, at higher rates than previously estimated, the researchers said. From a report: 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 published Thursday in the journal Science. The study measured methane emissions at … [Link]
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