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 » ISPs Can Charge Extra For Fast Gaming Under FCC's Internet Rules, Critics Say
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Some net neutrality proponents are worried that soon-to-be-approved Federal Communications Commission rules will allow harmful fast lanes because the plan doesn't explicitly ban "positive" discrimination. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's proposed rules for Internet service providers would prohibit blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization. The rules mirror the ones imposed by the FCC … [Link]
Slashdot » Apple's iOS 18 AI Will Be On-Device Preserving Privacy, and Not Server-Side
According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple's initial set of AI-related features in iOS 18 "will work entirely on device," and won't connect to cloud services. AppleInsider reports: In practice, these AI features would be able to function without an internet connection or any form of cloud-based processing. AppleInsider has received information from individuals familiar with the matter that suggest the … [Link]
Slashdot » Judge Refuses To Ctrl-Z Divorce Order Made By a Misclick
Richard Currie reports via The Register: A simple misclick at a London law firm led to a surprise divorce for an unsuspecting couple. An employee at Vardags, self-described specialists in high-net-worth marital breakdowns, opened the wrong file when applying for a divorce in His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) online portal. With a click more potent than Cupid's arrow, … [Link]
Slashdot » A New Generation Is Uncovering the Tiny Doodles Left By Engineers On Old Microchips
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: An owl. A sharky looking bullet. The Hindu deity Ganesh. The Yin and Yang sign. All painstakingly selected and etched onto a microchip that measures about an inch square. Each microscopic silicon doodle was the handiwork of engineers at Qualcomm Incorporated, a San Diego-based company that creates wireless technology-related products and services. … [Link]
Slashdot » Creating Sexually Explicit Deepfake Images To Be Made Offense in UK
Creating a sexually explicit "deepfake" image is to be made an offence under a new law in the UK, the Ministry of Justice has announced. The Guardian: Under the legislation, anyone who creates such an image without consent will face a criminal record and an unlimited fine. They could also face jail if the image is shared more widely. The … [Link]
Slashdot » A Crypto Wallet Maker's Warning About an iMessage Bug Sounds Like a False Alarm
A crypto wallet maker claimed this week that hackers may be targeting people with an iMessage "zero-day" exploit — but all signs point to an exaggerated threat, if not a downright scam. From a report: Trust Wallet's official X (previously Twitter) account wrote that "we have credible intel regarding a high-risk zero-day exploit targeting iMessage on the Dark Web. This … [Link]
Slashdot » US Senate To Vote on a Wiretap Bill That Critics Call 'Stasi-Like'
The United States Senate is poised to vote on legislation this week that, for the next two years at least, could dramatically expand the number of businesses that the US government can force to eavesdrop on Americans without a warrant. From a report: Some of the nation's top legal experts on a controversial US spy program argue that the legislation, … [Link]
Slashdot » Change Healthcare's Ransomware Attack Costs Edge Toward $1 Billion So Far
UnitedHealth, parent company of ransomware-besieged Change Healthcare, says the total costs of tending to the February cyberattack for the first calendar quarter of 2024 currently stands at $872 million. From a report: That's on top of the amount in advance funding and interest-free loans UnitedHealth provided to support care providers reeling from the disruption, a sum said to be north … [Link]
Slashdot » Apple Opens Web Distribution Option for iOS Devs Targeting EU
Apple is opening up web distribution for iOS apps targeting users in the European Union starting Tuesday. Developers who opt in — and who meet Apple's criteria, including app notarization requirements — will be able to offer iPhone apps for direct download to EU users from their own websites. From a report: It's a massive change for a mobile ecosystem … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Starfish have hundreds of feet but no brain – here's how they move
Starfish feet are coordinated purely through mechanical loading, enabling the animals to bounce rhythmically along the seabed without a central nervous system [Link]
New Scientist – News » Our plans to tackle climate change with carbon storage don't add up
Modelling that shows how the world can remain below 1.5°C of warming assumes we can store vast amounts of carbon dioxide underground, but a new analysis reveals that achieving this is extremely unlikely [Link]
Slashdot » Justice Department To File Antitrust Suit Against Ticketmaster-Parent Live Nation
The Justice Department is preparing to sue Live Nation as soon as next month [non-paywalled link], an antitrust challenge that could spur major changes at the biggest name in concert promotion and ticketing. WSJ: The agency is preparing to file an antitrust lawsuit against the Ticketmaster parent in the coming weeks that would allege the nation's biggest concert promoter has … [Link]
New Scientist – News » How to destroy a black hole
A black hole would be tough to destroy, but in the season two premiere of Dead Planets Society our hosts are willing to go to extremes, from faster-than-light bombs to time travel [Link]
Slashdot » Boston Dynamics Retires Its Hydraulic Humanoid Robot
Robotics firm Boston Dynamics, owned by Hyundai, has retired its humanoid robot Atlas after a decade, despite significant funding pouring into the category. TechCrunch adds: Boston Dynamics has been focused on commercializing technologies for a number of years now. Hyundai's 2021 acquisition of the firm, coupled with the appointment of Rob Playter as its second-ever CEO, has further accelerated that … [Link]
Slashdot » Microsoft Takes Down AI Model Published by Beijing-Based Researchers Without Adequate Safety Checks
Microsoft's Beijing-based research group published a new open source AI model on Tuesday, only to remove it from the internet hours later after the company realized that the model hadn't gone through adequate safety testing. From a report: The team that published the model, which is comprised of China-based researchers in Microsoft Research Asia, said in a tweet on Tuesday … [Link]
Slashdot » Alleged Cryptojacking Scheme Consumed $3.5 Million of Stolen Computing To Make Just $1 Million
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Federal prosecutors indicted a Nebraska man on charges he perpetrated a cryptojacking scheme that defrauded two cloud providers — one based in Seattle and the other in Redmond, Washington — out of $3.5 million. The indictment, filed in US District Court for the Eastern District of New York and unsealed on … [Link]
Slashdot » YouTube's Ad Blocker Crackdown Now Includes Third-Party Apps
YouTube has updated its policies to no longer allow "third-party apps to turn off ads." The Verge reports: This appears to target mobile ad blockers like AdGuard, which lets you open YouTube within the ad blocking app, where you'll get to view videos interruption-free. "We only allow third-party apps to use our API when they follow our API Services Terms … [Link]
Slashdot » World's Coral Reefs Hit By a Fourth Mass Bleaching Event, NOAA Says
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Monday declared that Earth is in the midst of a "4th global coral bleaching event" that's been documented over the last 14 months in every major ocean basin, including off Florida in the United States, in Australia's Great Barrier Reef and in the South Pacific. "As the world's oceans continue to warm, coral … [Link]
Slashdot » Ask Slashdot: Are Movies Becoming More Derivative?
Film data researcher Stepehen, writing on his blog: This may surprise some, but since 2000, just over half of all movies released have been original screenplays. The most common source for adapted screenplays was real-life events, accounting for almost a fifth of movies made between 2000 and 2023. (Typically, in these cases, the filmmakers will have paid for the rights … [Link]
Slashdot » NASA Says New Plan Needed To Return Rocks From Mars; Current Mission Design Can't Deliver Before 2040
SonicSpike shares a report: The quest to return rock materials from Mars to Earth to see if they contain traces of past life is going to go through a major overhaul. The US space agency says the current mission design can't return the samples before 2040 on the existing funds and the more realistic $11bn needed to make it happen … [Link]
Slashdot » Baidu Says AI Chatbot 'Ernie Bot' Has Attracted 200 Million Users
China's Baidu says its AI chatbot "Ernie Bot" has amassed more than 200 million users as it seeks to remain China's most popular ChatGPT-like chatbot amid increasingly fierce competition. From a report: The number of users has roughly doubled since the company's last update in December. The chatbot was released to the public eight months ago. Baidu CEO Robin Li … [Link]
New Scientist – News » Watch a swarm of cyborg cockroaches controlled by computers
Remote-controlled cockroaches with computers mounted on their backs can move as a swarm towards a target location, and could be used for search missions [Link]
New Scientist – News » A surprisingly enormous black hole has been found in our galaxy
A black hole 33 times the mass of the sun is the largest stellar black hole ever spotted, and its strange companion star could help explain how it got so huge [Link]
Slashdot » California Exceeds 100% of Energy Demand With Renewables Over a Record 30 Days
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Electrek: In a major clean energy benchmark, wind, solar, and hydro exceeded 100% of demand on California's main grid for 30 of the past 38 days. Stanford University professor of civil and environmental engineering Mark Z. Jacobson has been tracking California's renewables performance, and he shares his findings on Twitter (X) when the … [Link]
Slashdot » T-Mobile Employees Across The Country Receive Cash Offers To Illegally Swap SIMs: Report
T-Mobile employees from around the country are reportedly receiving text messages offering them cash in exchange for swapping SIMs. SIM swapping is when cybercriminals trick a cellular service provider into switching a victim's service to a SIM card that they control, essentially hijacking the victim's phone number and gaining access to two-factor authentication codes. From the Mobile Report: The texts … [Link]
Slashdot » Meta To Close Threads In Turkey To Comply With Injunction
Meta plans to "temporarily" shut down Threads in Turkey from April 29, in response to an interim injunction prohibiting data sharing with Instagram. TechCrunch reports: The Turkish Competition Authority (TCA), known as Rekabet Kurumu, noted on March 18 that its investigations found that Meta was abusing its dominant market position by combining the data of users who create Threads profiles … [Link]
Slashdot » Adobe Premiere Pro Is Getting Generative AI Video Tools
Adobe is using its Firefly machine learning model to bring generative AI video tools to Premiere Pro. "These new Firefly tools — alongside some proposed third-party integrations with Runway, Pika Labs, and OpenAI's Sora models — will allow Premiere Pro users to generate video and add or remove objects using text prompts (just like Photoshop's Generative Fill feature) and extend … [Link]
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