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 » Warner Bros. Issues DMCA's After 'Suicide Squad' Game Cracked to Allow Playing as Unreleased Characters

Sunday 7 April 23:04:00 UTC 2024

"It appears the live-service shooter Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League is, once again, suffering from a hacker problem," reports Kotaku: Instead of doing absolutely absurd amounts of damage, this time hackers have figured out how to gain access to unreleased characters and skins. And publisher WB Games is reportedly issuing DMCA takedown notices against any assets that have found … [Link]

Slashdot » Rust, Python, Apache Foundations and Others Announce Big Collaboration on Cybersecurity Process Specifications

Sunday 7 April 21:26:00 UTC 2024

The foundations behind Rust, Python, Apache, Eclipse, PHP, OpenSSL, and Blender announced plans to create "common specifications for secure software development," based on "existing open source best practices." From the Eclipse Foundation: This collaborative effort will be hosted at the Brussels-based Eclipse Foundation [an international non-profit association] under the auspices of the Eclipse Foundation Specification Process and a new working … [Link]

Slashdot » Boeing Engine Cover Rips Apart During Takeoff This Morning

Sunday 7 April 19:35:00 UTC 2024

"Scary moments for passengers on a Southwest flight from Denver to Houston," tweets an ABC News transportation reporter, "when the engine cover ripped off during flight, forcing the plane to return to Denver Sunday morning." "Think that big circular metal panel surrounding the engine," writes QZ — adding that after it ripped off, the engine cowling "struck the 737-800's wing … [Link]

New Scientist – News » Eclipse 2024 live: Watch the full NASA broadcast – latest

Sunday 7 April 19:30:41 UTC 2024

The eclipse is about to begin. Totality will arrive at Mexico’s west coast around 11.07am local time, moving east until it leaves Newfoundland, Canada, around 5.16pm there [Link]

Slashdot » Professors Are Now Using AI to Grade Essays. Are There Ethical Concerns?

Sunday 7 April 18:35:00 UTC 2024

A professor at Ithaca College runs part of each student's essay through ChatGPT, "asking the AI tool to critique and suggest how to improve the work," reports CNN. (The professor said "The best way to look at AI for grading is as a teaching assistant or research assistant who might do a first pass … and it does a pretty … [Link]

Slashdot » Mozilla Asks: Will Google's Privacy Sandbox Protect Advertisers (and Google) More than You?

Sunday 7 April 16:34:00 UTC 2024

On Mozilla's blog, engineer Martin Thomson explores Google's "Privacy Sandbox" initiative (which proposes sharing a subset of private user information — but without third-party cookies). The blog post concludes that Google's Protected Audience "protects advertisers (and Google) more than it protects you." But it's not all bad — in theory: The idea behind Protected Audience is that it creates something … [Link]

Slashdot » In America, A Complex Patchwork of State AI Regulations Has Already Arrived

Sunday 7 April 15:34:00 UTC 2024

While the European Parliament passed a wide-ranging "AI Act" in March, "Leaders from Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI have all called for AI regulations in the U.S.," writes CIO magazine. Even the Chamber of Commerce, "often opposed to business regulation, has called on Congress to protect human rights and national security as AI use expands," according to the article, while the … [Link]

Slashdot » Have Scientists Finally Made Sense of Stephen Hawking's Famous Black Hole Formula?

Sunday 7 April 14:34:00 UTC 2024

Slashdot reader sciencehabit shares this report from Science magazine: Fifty years ago, famed physicist Stephen Hawking wrote down an equation that predicts that a black hole has entropy, an attribute typically associated with the disordered jumbling of atoms and molecules in materials. The arguments for black hole entropy were indirect, however, and no one had derived the famous equation from … [Link]

Slashdot » Retro Computing Enthusiast Tries Running Turbo Pascal On a 40-Year-Old Apple II Clone

Sunday 7 April 11:34:00 UTC 2024

Four months ago long-time Slashdot reader Shayde tried restoring a 1986 DEC PDP-11 minicomputer. But now he's gone even further back in time. Shayde writes: In 1984, Apple II's were at the top of their game in the 8 bit market. A company in New Jersey decided to get in on the action and built an exact clone of the … [Link]

Slashdot » Wait, Does America Suddenly Have a Record Number of Bees?

Sunday 7 April 7:44:00 UTC 2024

"America's honeybee population has rocketed to an all-time high," reports the Washington Post: We've added almost 1 million bee colonies in the past five years. We now have 3.8 million, the census shows. Since 2007, the first census after alarming bee die-offs began in 2006, the honeybee has been the fastest-growing livestock segment in the country! And that doesn't count … [Link]

Slashdot » Is Microsoft Working on 'Performant Sound Recognition' AI Technologies?

Sunday 7 April 4:44:00 UTC 2024

Windows Report speculates on what Microsoft may be working on next based on a recently-published patent for "performant sound recognition AI technologies" (dated April 2, 2024): Microsoft's new technology can recognize different types of sounds, from doorbells to babies crying, or dogs barking, but not limited to them. It can also recognize sounds of coughing or breathing difficulties, or unusual … [Link]

Slashdot » Four Baseball Teams Now Let Ticket-Holders Enter Using AI-Powered 'Facial Authentication'

Sunday 7 April 1:44:00 UTC 2024

"The San Francisco Giants are one of four teams in Major League Baseball this season offering fans a free shortcut through the gates into the ballpark," writes SFGate. "The cost? Signing up for the league's 'facial authentication' software through its ticketing app." The Giants are using MLB's new Go-Ahead Entry program, which intends to cut down on wait times for … [Link]

John Gordon Ross

A Man for All Reasons