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.
New Scientist – News » Are panda sex lives being sabotaged by the wrong gut microbes?
Conservationists think tweaking pandas’ diets might shift their gut microbiomes in a way that could encourage them to mate [Link]
Slashdot » Google Threatens To Cut Off News After California Proposes Paying Media Outlets
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Google says it will start removing links to California news websites in a "short term test for a small percentage of California users." The move is in response to the pending California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA), which would require Google to pay a fee for linking Californians to news articles. "If … [Link]
Slashdot » China Tells Telecom Carriers To Phase Out Foreign Chips in Blow To Intel, AMD
China's push to replace foreign technology is now focused on cutting American chip makers out of the country's telecoms systems. From a report: Officials earlier this year directed the nation's largest telecom carriers to phase out foreign processors that are core to their networks by 2027, a move that would hit American chip giants Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, people … [Link]
Slashdot » Intel Axes 13th Gen Core i5, i7, i9 K-series CPUs
Tom's Hardware: Intel is discontinuing its boxed overclockable Core i5, i7, and i9 Raptor Lake CPUs. Every K-series chip in the lineup will be discontinued on May 24th, 2024, after which vendors will no longer be able to purchase them. Intel's product change document states that the last product discontinuance order date and non-cancelable/non-returnable cut-off points will start on May … [Link]
Slashdot » Your Anonymous OpenTable Reviews Will Soon Display Your First Name
OpenTable's restaurant pages still feature a lot of reviews left by anonymous diners at the moment, but that will not be the case starting next month. From a report: The online restaurant reservation service is changing its policy around reviews so that they're not as anonymous — and it's even applying the new rule retroactively. As BleepingComputer reports, it told … [Link]
Slashdot » Adobe Is Buying Videos for $3 Per Minute To Build AI Model
Adobe has begun to procure videos to build its AI text-to-video generator, trying to catch up to competitors after OpenAI demonstrated a similar technology. From a report: The software company is offering its network of photographers and artists $120 to submit videos of people engaged in everyday actions such as walking or expressing emotions including joy and anger, according to … [Link]
Slashdot » Apple Loses Bid To Throw Out UK Lawsuit Over App Store Fees
Apple on Friday lost a bid to throw out a mass lawsuit valued at just under $1 billion, brought in London on behalf of more than 1,500 app developers over its App Store fees. Reuters: The case, worth up to 785 million pounds ($979 million) and one of several faced by the U.S. tech giant in the United Kingdom, alleges … [Link]
Slashdot » Many AI Products Still Rely on Humans To Fill the Performance Gaps
An anonymous reader shares a report: Recent headlines have made clear: If AI is doing an impressively good job at a human task, there's a good chance that the task is actually being done by a human. When George Carlin's estate sued the creators of a podcast who said they used AI to create a standup routine in the late … [Link]
New Scientist – News » See inside an endangered California condor egg just before it hatches
The hatching of the 250th California condor chick at the San Diego Zoo marks a notable milestone for a species that narrowly evaded extinction [Link]
Slashdot » Discord is Nuking Nintendo Switch Emulator Devs and Their Entire Servers
Discord has shut down the Discord servers for the Nintendo Switch emulators Suyu and Sudachi and has completely disabled their lead developers' accounts. The Verge: Both Suyu and Sudachi began as forks of Yuzu, the emulator that Nintendo sued out of existence on March 4th. "Discord responds to and complies with all legal and valid Digital Millennium Copyright Act requests. … [Link]
New Scientist – News » ‘Peaceful’ male bonobos may actually be more aggressive than chimps
Bonobos have long been regarded as the peaceful ape, in sharp contrast with violent chimpanzees, but a study based on thousands of hours of observations suggests the real story is more nuanced [Link]
Slashdot » Irish Power Crunch Could Be Prompting AWS To Ration Compute Resources
Datacenter power issues in Ireland may be coming to a head amid reports from customers that Amazon is restricting resources users can spin up in that nation, even directing them to other AWS regions across Europe instead. From a report: Energy consumed by datacenters is a growing concern, especially in places such as Ireland where there are clusters of facilities … [Link]
Slashdot » Walmart Will Deploy Robotic Forklifts in Its Distribution Centers
An anonymous reader shares a report: The story of warehouse robotics is a story of attempting to keep up with Amazon. It's been more than a decade since the online giant revolutionized its delivery services through its Kiva Systems acquisition. As Walmart works to remain competitive, it's taking a more piecemeal approach to automation, through partnerships with a range of … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Arctic permafrost is now a net source of major greenhouse gases
An Arctic-wide survey has found that the permafrost region is emitting more carbon into the atmosphere than it absorbs, causing the planet to heat even further [Link]
Slashdot » Epic Games Proposes Google App Store Reforms After Antitrust Win
Epic Games, the maker of the popular "Fortnite" video game, has urged a U.S. judge to compel Google to open up its Play Store to more competition following a jury verdict that found the tech giant had abused its power over Android app distribution. In a court filing on Thursday [PDF], Epic proposed requiring Google to allow the distribution of … [Link]
Slashdot » We Never Agreed To Only Buy HP Ink, Say Printer Owners
HP "sought to take advantage of customers' sunk costs," printer owners claimed this week in a class action lawsuit against the hardware giant. The Register: Lawyers representing the aggrieved were responding in an Illinois court to an earlier HP motion to dismiss a January lawsuit. Among other things, the plaintiffs' filing stated that the printer buyers "never entered into any … [Link]
Slashdot » Canadian Legislators Accused of Using AI To Produce 20,000 Amendments
sinij shares a report: Members of Parliament in Canada are expected to vote for up to 15 hours in a row Thursday and Friday on more than 200 Conservative amendments to the government's sustainable jobs bill. The amendments are what's left of nearly 20,000 changes the Conservatives proposed to Bill C-50 last fall at a House of Commons committee. Liberals … [Link]
Slashdot » Google Is Killing Its VPN Service
An anonymous reader shares a report: If you're — apparently, one of the few people — using the VPN service that comes with Google One, we've got bad news for you. In an email you're going to receive from Google if you haven't gotten it yet, it revealed that it's phasing out the perk sometime later this year. The company … [Link]
Slashdot » OpenAI Makes ChatGPT 'More Direct, Less Verbose'
Kyle Wiggers reports via TechCrunch: OpenAI announced today that premium ChatGPT users — customers paying for ChatGPT Plus, Team or Enterprise — can now leveraged an updated and enhanced version of GPT-4 Turbo, one of the models that powers the conversational ChatGPT experience. This new model ("gpt-4-turbo-2024-04-09"~ brings with it improvements in writing, math, logical reasoning and coding, OpenAI claims, … [Link]
Slashdot » Apple To Expand Presence In Florida With New Miami Office
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 9to5Mac: Following moves of other tech giants like Amazon and Microsoft, Apple is reportedly set to open a new office space in a Miami suburb. This won't be the first corporate space for Apple in the city, but it will be larger than the existing office. Reported by Bloomberg, anonymous sources close to … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Chatbots can persuade conspiracy theorists their view might be wrong
After a short conversation with an artificial intelligence, people’s belief in a conspiracy theory dropped by about 20 per cent [Link]
New Scientist – News » Untangling the enigmatic origins of the human family’s newest species
Five years ago, a fossil found in the Philippines was determined to be from a new species of hominin called Homo luzonensis. Since then, we’ve learned a bit more about the newest member of the human family [Link]
New Scientist – News » Water purifier is powered by static electricity from your body
A 10-minute walk can build up enough static electricity to power a battery-free water purifier, which could be especially helpful during disasters or in regions that lack access to clean water and stable power supplies [Link]
Slashdot » New Advances Promise Secure Quantum Computing At Home
Scientists from Oxford University Physics have developed a breakthrough in cloud-based quantum computing that could allow it to be harnessed by millions of individuals and companies. The findings have been published in the journal Physical Review Letters. Phys.Org reports: In the new study, the researchers use an approach dubbed "blind quantum computing," which connects two totally separate quantum computing entities … [Link]
Slashdot » China Moving At 'Breathtaking Speed' In Final Frontier, Space Force Says
China is rapidly advancing its space capabilities to challenge the United States' dominance in space, as evidenced by its significant increase in on-orbit intelligence and reconnaissance satellites and the development of sophisticated counterspace weapons. Space.com reports: "Frankly, China is moving at a breathtaking speed. Since 2018, China has more than tripled their on-orbit intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance satellites," Gen. Stephen … [Link]
Slashdot » Why CISA Is Warning CISOs About a Breach At Sisense
An anonymous reader quotes a report from KrebsOnSecurity: The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said today it is investigating a breach at business intelligence company Sisense, whose products are designed to allow companies to view the status of multiple third-party online services in a single dashboard. CISA urged all Sisense customers to reset any credentials and secrets that … [Link]
Slashdot » Students Are Likely Writing Millions of Papers With AI
Amanda Hoover reports via Wired: Students have submitted more than 22 million papers that may have used generative AI in the past year, new data released by plagiarism detection company Turnitin shows. A year ago, Turnitin rolled out an AI writing detection tool that was trained on its trove of papers written by students as well as other AI-generated texts. … [Link]
Slashdot » Harvard Reinstates Standardized Testing Requirement
Harvard College is reinstating the requirement for standardized testing, reversing course on a pandemic-era policy that made them optional. It follows similar moves from elite universities like Yale, Dartmouth, and MIT. Axios reports: At Harvard, the mandate will be in place for students applying to begin school in fall 2025. Harvard had previously committed to a test-optional policy for applicants … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Embryos pause development when nutrients are low — and now we know how
Embryos seem to have a sensor that picks up when nutrients are scarce, prompting them to pause their development until resources become more abundant again [Link]
Slashdot » Amazon Owes $525 Million In Cloud-Storage Patent Fight, US Jury Says
A federal jury in Illinois on Wednesday said Amazon Web Services owes tech company Kove $525 million for violating three patents relating to its data-storage technology. From the report: The jury determined (PDF) that AWS infringed three Kove patents covering technology that Kove said had become "essential" to the ability of Amazon's cloud-computing arm to "store and retrieve massive amounts … [Link]
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