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 » Nine of the 10 Most-Watched Streaming Programs Are Reruns

Monday 8 April 23:00:00 UTC 2024

Despite investing billions in new streaming services, media giants have failed to dethrone old favorites, according to Nielsen data. The 21-year-old legal drama "NCIS" tops the list, with viewers streaming 11.4 million episodes per week. Netflix dominates the top 10, with eight shows owing most of their viewership to the platform. Reruns from CBS and other networks make up the … [Link]

New Scientist – News » AI pop-ups can help you stop doomscrolling on your phone

Monday 8 April 22:05:27 UTC 2024

An AI program can learn from smartphone users' behaviours in order to send timely pop-up reminders about when to close attention-grabbing apps. The system effectively reduced how often people opened apps such as TikTok [Link]

Slashdot » Musk Predicts AI Will Overtake Human Intelligence Next Year

Monday 8 April 21:30:00 UTC 2024

The capability of new AI models will surpass human intelligence by the end of next year [non-paywalled link], so long as the supply of electricity and hardware can satisfy the demands of the increasingly powerful technology, according to Elon Musk. From a report: "My guess is that we'll have AI that is smarter than any one human probably around the … [Link]

Slashdot » FCC Chair Rejects Call To Impose Universal Service Fees on Broadband

Monday 8 April 20:52:00 UTC 2024

The Federal Communications Commission chair decided not to impose Universal Service fees on Internet service, rejecting arguments for new assessments to shore up an FCC fund that subsidizes broadband network expansions and provides discounts to low-income consumers. From a report: The $8 billion-a-year Universal Service Fund (USF) pays for FCC programs such as Lifeline discounts and Rural Digital Opportunity Fund … [Link]

New Scientist – News » Long covid linked to signs of ongoing inflammatory responses in blood

Monday 8 April 19:00:16 UTC 2024

People with long covid after a serious covid-19 infection have raised levels of many immune molecules in their blood. Better understanding how these molecules can vary could lead to more targeted treatments [Link]

Slashdot » Microsoft is Confident Windows on Arm Could Finally Beat Apple Silicon-Powered Macs

Monday 8 April 18:50:00 UTC 2024

An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft is getting ready to fully unveil its vision for "AI PCs" next month at an event in Seattle. Sources familiar with Microsoft's plans tell The Verge that Microsoft is confident that a round of new Arm-powered Windows laptops will beat Apple's M3-powered MacBook Air both in CPU performance and AI-accelerated tasks. After years … [Link]

Slashdot » Crypto Scam Criminal Trial Tests 'Code Is Law' Claim by Trader

Monday 8 April 16:00:00 UTC 2024

A jailed trader accused of stealing $110 million on the Mango Markets exchange faces a criminal trial this week that will test the reach of a US crackdown on cryptocurrencies. From a report: Prosecutors charged Avraham Eisenberg with manipulating Mango Markets futures contracts on Oct. 11, 2022, to boost the price of swaps by 1,300% in 20 minutes. He then … [Link]

Slashdot » Xbox Moving 'Full Speed Ahead' on Next Gen Console

Monday 8 April 15:03:00 UTC 2024

Microsoft is moving "full speed ahead" on its next generation console, an internal email from Xbox president Sarah Bond has revealed. From a report: The email, obtained by Windows Central and verified to be genuine by Microsoft, also announced the formation of a game preservation team at Xbox. "We are moving full speed ahead on our next generation hardware, focused … [Link]

New Scientist – News » Stone Age blades could have been used for butchery, not just hunting

Monday 8 April 14:40:06 UTC 2024

A modern butchery experiment using replicas of Stone Age tools raises new questions about how often prehistoric peoples hunted large animals such as bison or mammoths [Link]

Slashdot » Report: Boeing 'Put Wall Street First, Safety Second', Creating 'Yearslong Decline of Safety Standards'

Monday 8 April 11:34:00 UTC 2024

The Seattle Times has a Pulitzer Prize-winning aerospace journalist named Dominic Gates. Sunday he published an expose on "a yearslong decline of safety standards" at Boeing. After a 1997 merger, its new executive leaders "treated experienced engineers and machinists as expendable, ignoring the potential damage to Boeing's essential mission of designing and building high-quality airplanes…." The arc of Boeing's fall … [Link]

Slashdot » TSMC Wins $6.6 Billion US Subsidy for Arizona Chip Production

Monday 8 April 11:00:00 UTC 2024

The U.S. Commerce Department said on Monday it would award Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co's unit a $6.6 billion subsidy for advanced semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona and up to $5 billion in low-cost government loans. From a report: TSMC agreed to expand its planned investment by $25 billion to $65 billion and to add a third Arizona fab by 2030, … [Link]

New Scientist – News » Banning smartphones is tempting but it won't solve anxiety in children

Monday 8 April 10:24:07 UTC 2024

Anxiety is on the rise in young people but we need to follow the science – and the causes aren't clearly linked to social media [Link]

New Scientist – News » When is the next total solar eclipse visible from the UK?

Monday 8 April 9:30:50 UTC 2024

The next time a total solar eclipse will be visible from the UK is decades away, but there are other places nearby that will experience one sooner [Link]

New Scientist – News » Cannabis use in pregnancy may raise children’s risk of ADHD and autism

Monday 8 April 9:30:30 UTC 2024

A study of more than 220,000 people found that cannabis use during pregnancy was associated with their children having roughly twice the risk of ADHD, autism and intellectual disability [Link]

Slashdot » One of Disneyland's Longest-Running Attractions is Ditching Fossil Fuels

Monday 8 April 8:34:00 UTC 2024

When Disneyland opened in 1955, its car-themed attraction Autopia "represented the future of what would become America's multilane limited-access highways," according to Wikipedia, " which were still being developed. President Eisenhower had yet to sign the Interstate Highway legislation…" Wikipedia adds that the cars "generate a moderate level of exhaust from the Honda GX gasoline engines that propel the cars." … [Link]

Slashdot » NIST Blames 'Growing Backlog of Vulnerabilities' Requiring Analysis on Lack of Support

Monday 8 April 6:04:00 UTC 2024

It's the world's most widely used vulnerability database, reports SC Magazine, offering standards-based data on CVSS severity scores, impacted software and platforms, contributing weaknesses, and links to patches and additional resources. But "there is a growing backlog of vulnerabilities" submitted to America's National Vulnerability Database and "requiring analysis", according to a new announcement from the U.S. Commerce Department's National Institute … [Link]

Slashdot » VCs Invest $90M in Varda Space Industries' Microgravity Drug Manufacturing

Monday 8 April 3:34:00 UTC 2024

"Varda Space Industries has closed a massive tranche of funding," reports TechCrunch, "just weeks after its first drug manufacturing capsule returned from orbit." Varda has now raised $145 million to date, the article points out, and the $90 million in new Series B funding "marks an inflection point for the company, which is now gearing up to scale from the … [Link]

Slashdot » CNN Investigates 'Space Shuttle Columbia: The Final Flight'

Monday 8 April 0:54:00 UTC 2024

CNN revisits 2003's disastrous landing of the Space Shuttle Columbia tonight with two "immersive" specials co-produced by BBC and Mindhouse Productions "featuring exclusive interviews and revealing never-before-broadcast footage," according to an announcement — with two more specials airing next week. You can watch a trailer here. Across four episodes, the story of the ticking-clock of Columbia's final mission is told … [Link]

Slashdot » US Energy Department Announces 'Blueprint' for Slashing Emissions From Buildings and Reducing Energy Use

Monday 8 April 0:21:00 UTC 2024

This week America's Department of Energy announced "a comprehensive plan to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from buildings by 65% by 2035 and 90% by 2050." The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) led the Blueprint's development in collaboration with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Environmental Protection Agency, and other federal agencies. The Blueprint is the first sector-wide strategy for … [Link]

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