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 » FCC To Vote To Restore Net Neutrality Rules
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: The U.S. Federal Communications Commission will vote to reinstate landmark net neutrality rules and assume new regulatory oversight of broadband internet that was rescinded under former President Donald Trump, the agency's chair said. The FCC told advocates on Tuesday of the plan to vote on the final rule at its April 25 … [Link]
Slashdot » Yahoo Is Buying Artifact, the AI News App From the Instagram Co-Founders
Yahoo is acquiring Artifact, the AI news app from Instagram's co-founders that failed to make it big on its own. The Verge reports: The two sides declined to share the cost of the acquisition, but both made clear Yahoo is acquiring Artifact's tech rather than its team. Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom, Artifact's co-founders, will be "special advisors" for Yahoo … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Babies recognise spoken nursery rhymes they heard in the uterus
Previous research suggests that babies can recognise nursery rhymes that were sung to them while they were in the uterus. Now, scientists have found they also seem to remember nursery rhymes that are spoken with no tune [Link]
Slashdot » New XZ Backdoor Scanner Detects Implants In Any Linux Binary
Bill Toulas reports via BleepingComputer: Firmware security firm Binarly has released a free online scanner to detect Linux executables impacted by the XZ Utils supply chain attack, tracked as CVE-2024-3094. CVE-2024-3094 is a supply chain compromise in XZ Utils, a set of data compression tools and libraries used in many major Linux distributions. Late last month, Microsoft engineer Andres Freud … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Showing AI just 1000 extra images reduced AI-generated stereotypes
Researchers made an AI image generator produce less offensive images by feeding it a tiny amount of additional training data [Link]
Slashdot » VMware By Broadcom Plots Pair of Cloud Foundation Releases
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: VMware by Broadcom will deliver a significant update to its flagship Cloud Foundation bundle in the middle of this year and follow it up with a major update early in 2025. Both releases will show off Broadcom's plan to make the package easier to implement and operate, and hopefully assuage customer … [Link]
Slashdot » PC, Console Growth To Lag Pre-pandemic Levels as Gamers Clock in Fewer Hours
Personal computing and console gaming revenue growth is expected to remain below pre-pandemic levels through 2026 as gamers record fewer hours of playtime, according to research firm Newzoo. From a report: The market is expected to grow 2.7% from 2023-end to 2026, below the 7.2% growth rate from 2015 to 2021, according to the report. Gamers have been recording fewer … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Planet caught in a gravitational 'tidal storm' is so hot that it glows
A strange world is being stretched out of shape by its neighbouring planets, heating it up so intensely that it probably has a molten surface [Link]
Slashdot » California Introduces 'Right To Disconnect' Bill That Would Allow Employees To Possibly Relax
An anonymous reader shares a report: Burnout, quiet quitting, strikes — the news (and likely your schedule) is filled with markers that workers are overwhelmed and too much is expected of them. There's little regulation in the United States to prevent employers from forcing workers to be at their desks or on call at all hours, but that might soon … [Link]
Slashdot » White House Makes Last-ditch Push for Internet Subsidy Program
The White House plans to renew a push in April to convince Congress to extend an internet subsidy program used by 23 million American households just weeks before it runs out of money, officials said. From a report: In October, the White House asked for $6 billion to extend the program through December 2024, but Congress has not funded it, … [Link]
New Scientist – News » I went hunting for a zombie fungus worth more than its weight in gold
The fungus yartsa gunbu, which grows by turning caterpillars into zombies, is prized in traditional medicine, but its harvest is having an increased ecological impact on its native Himalayan home [Link]
Slashdot » Amazon Ditches 'Just Walk Out' Checkouts at Its Grocery Stores
Amazon is phasing out its checkout-less grocery stores with "Just Walk Out" technology. The company's senior vice president of grocery stores says they're moving away from Just Walk Out, which relied on cameras and sensors to track what people were leaving the store with. From a report: Just over half of Amazon Fresh stores are equipped with Just Walk Out. … [Link]
Slashdot » Top Musicians Among Hundreds Warning Against Replacing Human Artists With AI
More than 200 musical artists — including Billie Eilish, Katy Perry and Smokey Robinson — have penned an open letter to AI developers, tech firms and digital platforms to "cease the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to infringe upon and devalue the rights of human artists." From a report: Unlike other advocacy efforts from creators around AI, this letter specifically … [Link]
Slashdot » Shrinking Arctic Ice Redraws the Map For Internet Cable Connections
Thawing ice in the Arctic may open up new routes for internet cables that lie at the bottom of the ocean and carry most international data traffic. And more routes matter when underwater infrastructure is at risk of attack. From a report: Baltic Sea gas and telecoms cables were damaged last year, with a Chinese vessel a potential suspect. Red … [Link]
Slashdot » Amazon Offers Free Credits For Startups To Use AI Models Including Anthropic
AWS has expanded its free credits program for startups to cover the costs of using major AI models. From a report: In a move to attract startup customers, Amazon now allows its cloud credits to cover the use of models from other providers including Anthropic, Meta, Mistral AI, and Cohere. "This is another gift that we're making back to the … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Therapy that turns lymph nodes into livers gets first human trial
An experimental therapy that grows miniature livers inside a person’s lymph nodes has been used in a human for the first time, but it will be months before we know if it fully replaces their liver function [Link]
Slashdot » Microsoft is Working on an Xbox AI Chatbot
Microsoft is currently testing a new AI-powered Xbox chatbot that can be used to automate support tasks. From a report: Sources familiar with Microsoft's plans tell The Verge that the software giant has been testing an "embodied AI character" that animates when responding to Xbox support queries. I understand this Xbox AI chatbot is part of a larger effort inside … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Astronomers have found what may be the smallest galaxy ever
A tiny clump of stars orbiting our galaxy should have been ripped apart by the Milky Way, but its continued existence hints it may be held together by a massive amount of dark matter [Link]
Slashdot » Researchers Unlock Fiber Optic Connection 1.2 Million Times Faster Than Broadband
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Popular Science: In the average American house, any download rate above roughly 242 Mbs is considered a solidly speedy broadband internet connection. That's pretty decent, but across the Atlantic, researchers at UK's Aston University recently managed to coax about 1.2 million times that rate using a single fiber optic cable — a new … [Link]
Slashdot » TikTok Is Bringing Its Dedicated STEM Feed To Europe
As political pressure mounts, TikTok says it's committed to fostering educational content on its app. "The company announced on Tuesday that it's expanding its dedicated STEM feed across Europe, starting in the U.K. and Ireland, after first launching it in the U.S. last year," reports TechCrunch. From the report: The STEM feed will begin to automatically appear alongside the "For … [Link]
Slashdot » Trash From the ISS May Have Hit a House In Florida
A nearly two-pound piece of trash from the International Space Station may have hit a house in Florida. Alejandro Otero said it "tore through the roof and both floors of his two-story house in Naples, Florida," reports Ars Technica. "Otero wasn't home at the time, but his son was there." From the report: A Nest home security camera captured the … [Link]
Slashdot » India Hydropower Output Records Steepest Fall In Nearly Four Decades
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: India's hydroelectricity output fell at the steepest pace in at least 38 years during the year ended March 31, a Reuters analysis of government data showed, as erratic rainfall forced further dependence on coal-fired power amid higher demand. The 16.3% drop in generation from the country's biggest clean energy source coincided with … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Bird flu confirmed in person who had contact with infected dairy cows
A person in Texas has been infected with bird flu after exposure to dairy cows who had the virus – it is the first time a human has contracted the disease from a mammal [Link]
Slashdot » Databricks Claims Its Open Source Foundational LLM Outsmarts GPT-3.5
Lindsay Clark reports via The Register: Analytics platform Databricks has launched an open source foundational large language model, hoping enterprises will opt to use its tools to jump on the LLM bandwagon. The biz, founded around Apache Spark, published a slew of benchmarks claiming its general-purpose LLM — dubbed DBRX — beat open source rivals on language understanding, programming, and … [Link]
Slashdot » Telegram Challenges Meta With the Launch of New 'Business' Features, Revenue-Sharing
Telegram is enhancing its platform for businesses with the introduction of Telegram Business, offering specialized features like customizable start pages, business hours, and chat management tools, while also initiating an ad-revenue sharing model for public channels with at least 1,000 subscribers. "As a whole, the features could introduce competition into a market where Meta's apps like Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp … [Link]
Slashdot » Discord To Start Showing Ads This Week After History of Shunning Them
Starting this week, Discord will show ads on the site from video game companies, some of which will offer users gifts for carrying out in-game tasks. According to the Wall Street Journal, Discord said users will be able to turn off the ads in their settings. From a report: The sources said Discord aims to hire more than a dozen … [Link]
Slashdot » Record Heat in Europe, Asia Closes Another Extremely Warm Month For Planet
Earth has a long-running fever that shows little signs of easing. The planet has set high temperature records in each of the last nine months, and March is poised to become the 10th. From a report: Multiple locations around the world observed unprecedented heat on the month's final weekend, as if to put an exclamation mark on this exceptional run … [Link]
Slashdot » Rust Developers at Google Twice as Productive as C++ Teams
An anonymous reader shares a report: Echoing the past two years of Rust evangelism and C/C++ ennui, Google reports that Rust shines in production, to the point that its developers are twice as productive using the language compared to C++. Speaking at the Rust Nation UK Conference in London this week, Lars Bergstrom, director of engineering at Google, who works … [Link]
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