ICT news

• Soon-to-Be US Ed Chief Was Almost FB CEO's Ed Chief

  03-10-2015 20:40 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  theodp writes: Before President Obama announced John B. King as his pick to replace outgoing U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan (who is returning to Chicago, where his kids now attend a $30K-a-year private school), King was Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's pick to lead Zuck's failed $100 million "reform" effort of Newark's Schools. From The Prize: Who's in Charge of America's Schools?: "[Newark Mayor Cory] Booker asked [NJ Governor Chris] Christie to grant him control of the schools by fiat, but
  
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• Law Student Claims Unfair Discipline After He Reported a Data Breach

  03-06-2024 05:36 via it.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous Slashdot reader shared this report from Computer Weekly:A former student at the Inns of Court College of Advocacy (ICCA) says he was hauled over the coals by the college for having acted responsibly and "with integrity" in reporting a security blunder that left sensitive information about students exposed. Bartek Wytrzyszczewski faced misconduct proceedings after alerting the college to a data breach exposing sensitive information on hundreds of past and present ICCA students...
  The
  
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• AI Researchers Analyze Similarities of Scarlett Johanssson's Voice to OpenAI's 'Sky'

  03-06-2024 03:34 via slashdot.org
  
  AI models can evaluate how similar voices are to each other. So NPR asked forensic voice experts at Arizona State University to compare the voice and speech patterns of OpenAI's "Sky" to Scarlett Johansson's...
  The researchers measured Sky, based on audio from demos OpenAI delivered last week, against the voices of around 600 professional actresses. They found that Johansson's voice is more similar to Sky than 98% of the other actresses.
  Yet she wasn't always the top hit in the multiple AI model
  
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• Male Birth Control Gel Continues to Show Promise

  03-06-2024 01:38 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Gizmodo reports there's been progress on a male birth-control gel "being developed with the help of several organizations, including the U.S. government's National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, part of the larger NIH."It's now being tested in a larger-scale Phase IIB trial, which involves around 400 couples. [Five milliliters of gel — about a teaspon — is applied to each shoulder blade once a day, reports NBC News.] That trial is still ongoing, but researchers have
  
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• 8BitDo's Reimagining of IBM's Model-M Keyboard Draws Reactions Online

  03-06-2024 00:38 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  "Few computer keyboards are as iconic, as influential, or as beige as the IBM Model-M," writes the blog OMG Ubuntu adding that it's "no surprise then that it's been given a modern reimagining by 8BitDo."Following on from their Nintendo NES and Famicom and Commodore 64 homages, 8BitDo has unveiled its latest retro-inspired mechanical keyboard. This one pays tribute to a true computing classic: the IBM Model-M keyboard.
  Lest anyone familiar with the real thing get too excited I'll mention up front
  
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• Amazon's Drones Gets Key Approval, Can Now Fly Farther to More Customers

  02-06-2024 23:10 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  The Associated Press reports that U.S. federal regulators "have given Amazon key permission that will allow it to expand its drone delivery program, the company announced Thursday."
  In a blog post published on its website, Seattle-based Amazon said that the Federal Aviation Administration has given its Prime Air delivery service the OK to operate drones "beyond visual line of sight," removing a barrier that has prevented its drones from traveling longer distances. With the approval, Amazon pilot
  
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• Ozempic-Like Drugs Could Lower Sales of Junk Food

  02-06-2024 22:10 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Will appetite-suppressing drugs hurt the sugar industry? Executives from Walmart warned that Ozempic and Zepbound "are impacting food sales," reports Bloomberg, "and multiple analyst surveys have showed that less-hungry customers are spending fewer dollars at grocery stores and restaurants."
  The drugs, which cut cravings, will result in a decline in calorie consumption in the US of 1.5% to 2.5% by 2035, with a drop of as much as 5% in the consumption of sweets such as baked goods, confectionery
  
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• Is the New 'Recall' Feature in Windows a Security and Privacy Nightmare?

  02-06-2024 21:03 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Slashdot reader storagedude shares a provocative post from the cybersecurity news blog of Cyble Inc. (a Ycombinator-backed company promising "AI-powered actionable threat intelligence").
  The post delves into concerns that the new "Recall" feature planned for Windows (on upcoming Copilot+ PCs) is "a security and privacy nightmare."Copilot Recall will be enabled by default and will capture frequent screenshots, or "snapshots," of a user's activity and store them in a local database tied to the use
  
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• College-Level Minecraft-Based CS Courses Approved for US High School Students

  02-06-2024 19:52 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes: "This is truly game-changing news!" exclaims Minecraft Education's Laylah Bulman in a LinkedIn post targeting high school CS educators. "We're thrilled to announce that the AP Computer Science Principles with Minecraft and MakeCode Curriculum has officially been approved by The College Board! And we are offering free professional learning for our inaugural cohort this summer...!
  "Minecraft's highly engaging environment makes complex coding concepts relata
  
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• A Simple Fix Could Double the Size of the U.S. Electricity Grid

  02-06-2024 18:34 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  "There is one big thing holding the United States back from a pollution-free electricity grid running on wind, solar and battery power," writes the Washington Post. "Not enough power lines... the nation's sagging, out-of-date power lines are being overwhelmed — slowing the transition to clean energy and the fight against climate change."
  But experts say that there is a remarkably simple fix: installing new wires on the high-voltage lines that already carry power hundreds of miles across th
  
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• Did the US Government Ignore a Chance to Make TikTok Safer?

  02-06-2024 17:34 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  "To save itself, TikTok in 2022 offered the U.S. government an extraordinary deal," reports the Washington Post.
  The video app, owned by a Chinese company, said it would let federal officials pick its U.S. operation's board of directors, would give the government veto power over each new hire and would pay an American company that contracts with the Defense Department to monitor its source code, according to a copy of the company's proposal. It even offered to give federal officials a kill switc
  
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• There's a Program to Cancel Some Private US Student Loans. Most Don't Know About It.

  02-06-2024 16:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The New York Times reports on a program to forgive U.S. student loans from private lenders — a kind of private parallel to a federal program which "allows those who were seriously misled by their schools to have their federal student loans eliminated."
  The problem? Eight U.S. senators complain the loan discharge process remains "burdensome and confusing" — and most students don't even know it exists.Navient, a large owner of private student loan debt, has created, but not publicized,
  
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• Are We Closer to a Cure for Diabetes?

  02-06-2024 13:34 via science.slashdot.org
  
  "Chinese scientists develop cure for diabetes," reads the headline from the world's second-most widely read English-language newspaper. ("Insulin patient becomes medicine-free in just 3 months.")
  The researchers' results were published earlier in May in Cell Discovery, and are now getting some serious scrutiny from the press. The Economic Times cites a University of British Columbia professor's assessment that the study "represents an important advance in the field of cell therapy for diabetes,"
  
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• China Successfully Lands Probe on the Moon's Far Side, Starts Collecting Samples

  02-06-2024 09:34 via science.slashdot.org
  
  China's Chang'e-6 probe successfully lands on far side of the moon
  China's moon probe has "successfully touched down on the far side of the moon," CNN reports, in "a significant step for the ambitious mission that could advance the country's aspirations of putting astronauts on the moon" by 2030.The mission's ultimate goal is to return to Earth the first samples from the moon's far side, CNN reports. And China's lunar lander "is now expected to use a drill and a mechanical arm to gather up to 2
  
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• Could AI Replace CEOs?

  02-06-2024 05:34 via it.slashdot.org
  
  '"As AI programs shake up the office, potentially making millions of jobs obsolete, one group of perpetually stressed workers seems especially vulnerable..." writes the New York Times.
  "The chief executive is increasingly imperiled by A.I."
  These employees analyze new markets and discern trends, both tasks a computer could do more efficiently. They spend much of their time communicating with colleagues, a laborious activity that is being automated with voice and image generators. Sometimes they
  
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• Boeing Starliner Launched Scrubbed Until at Least Wednesday After Redundant Computer Issue

  02-06-2024 03:34 via science.slashdot.org
  
  "The seemingly star-cross Boeing Starliner — within minutes of its long-delayed blastoff on the spacecraft's first piloted test flight — was grounded again Saturday," writes CBS News, "when one of three redundant computers managing the countdown from the base of the launch pad ran into a problem, triggering a last-minute scrub."More details from NPR:
  With 3:50 left in the countdown, the rocket's computer initiated a hold. The next launch attempt won't happen until at least Wednesday,
  
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• Federal Agency Warns (Patched) Critical Linux Vulnerability Being Actively Exploited

  02-06-2024 00:34 via linux.slashdot.org
  
  "The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has added a critical security bug in Linux to its list of vulnerabilities known to be actively exploited in the wild," reported Ars Technica on Friday.
  "The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-1086 and carrying a severity rating of 7.8 out of a possible 10, allows people who have already gained a foothold inside an affected system to escalate their system privileges."It's the result of a use-after-free error, a class of vulnerability that o
  
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• How Facial Recognition Tech Is Being Used In London By Shops - and Police

  01-06-2024 23:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  "Within less than a minute, I'm approached by a store worker who comes up to me and says, 'You're a thief, you need to leave the store'."
  That's a quote from the BBC by a wrongly accused customer who was flagged by a facial-recognition system called Facewatch. "She says after her bag was searched she was led out of the shop, and told she was banned from all stores using the technology."
  Facewatch later wrote to her and acknowledged it had made an error — but declined to comment on the inci
  
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• Vehicle Electrification Could Require 55% More Copper Mines in the Next 30 Years

  01-06-2024 22:34 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 shares the announcement of a new report from the International Energy Forum:The seemingly universal presumption persists that the copper needed for the green transition will somehow be available... This paper addresses this issue by projecting copper supply and demand from 2018 to 2050 and placing both in the historical context of copper mine output...
  Just to meet business-as-usual trends, 115% more copper must be mined in the next 30 years than has been mined
  
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• How Misinformation Spreads? It's Funded By 'The Hellhole of Programmatic Advertising'

  01-06-2024 21:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Journalist Steven Brill has written a new book called The Death of Truth. Its subtitle? "How Social Media and the Internet Gave Snake Oil Salesmen and Demagogues the Weapons They Needed to Destroy Trust and Polarize the World-And What We Can Do."
  An excerpt published by Wired points out that last year around the world, $300 billion was spent on "programmatic advertising", and $130 billion was spent in the United States alone in 2022. The problem? For over a decade there's been "brand safety" tec
  
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• Not 'Quiet Quitting' - Remote Workers Try 'Quiet Vacationing'

  01-06-2024 20:34 via it.slashdot.org
  
  A new article in the Washington Post argues that a phenomenon called "Quiet vacationing" has "joined 'quiet quitting' and 'quiet firing' as the latest (and least poetic) scourge of the modern workplace.
  "Also known as the hush trip, workcation, hush-cation, or bleisure travel — you get the idea — quiet vacationing refers to workers taking time off, even traveling, without notifying their employers."
  Taking advantage of work-from-anywhere technology, they are logging in from hotels, b
  
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• Apple's AI Plans Include 'Black Box' For Cloud Data

  01-06-2024 19:34 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  How will Apple protect user data while their requests are being processed by AI in applications like Siri?
  Long-time Slashdot reader AmiMoJo shared this report from Apple Insider:
  According to sources of The Information [four different former Apple employees who worked on the project], Apple intends to process data from AI applications inside a virtual black box.
  The concept, known as "Apple Chips in Data Centers" internally, would involve only Apple's hardware being used to perform AI processin
  
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• Electric Car Sales Keep Increasing in California, Despite 'Negative Hype'

  01-06-2024 18:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  This week the Washington Post reported that Americans "are more hesitant to buy EVs now than they were a year ago, according to a March Gallup poll, which found that just 44 percent of American adults say they'd consider buying an EV in the future, down from 55 percent last year. High prices and charging worries consistently rank as the biggest roadblocks for electric vehicles," they write, noting the concerns coincide with a slowdown in electric car and truck sales, while hybrids are increasing
  
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• World's First Bioprocessor Uses 16 Human Brain Organoids, Consumes Less Power

  01-06-2024 17:34 via science.slashdot.org
  
  "A Swiss biocomputing startup has launched an online platform that provides remote access to 16 human brain organoids," reports Tom's Hardware:
  FinalSpark claims its Neuroplatform is the world's first online platform delivering access to biological neurons in vitro. Moreover, bioprocessors like this "consume a million times less power than traditional digital processors," the company says. FinalSpark says its Neuroplatform is capable of learning and processing information, and due to its low pow
  
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• How an Apple AirTag Helped Police Recover 15,000 Stolen Power Tools

  01-06-2024 16:34 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shared this report from the Washington Post:
  Twice before, this Virginia carpenter had awoken in the predawn to start his work day only to find one of his vans broken into. Tools he depends on for a living had been stolen, and there was little hope of retrieving them. Determined to shut down thieves, he said, he bought a bunch of Apple AirTags and hid the locator devices in some of his larger tools that hadn't been pilfered. Next time, he figured, he would track them.
  It work
  
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• HP's MicroLED Monitors Stack Together Like Legos

  01-06-2024 15:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Digital Trends: HP researchers have published a paper detailing a new modular monitor design they call "composable microLED monitors." Using advancing microLED tech to make smaller screens with no bezels, they imagine a Lego-like system that allows customers to buy different monitor modules and slot them together at home. In the paper, diagrams show "core units" with a direct connection to the host computer being expanded both horizontally and vertically
  
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• Journalists 'Deeply Troubled' By OpenAI's Content Deals With Vox, The Atlantic

  01-06-2024 12:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Benj Edwards and Ashley Belanger reports via Ars Technica: On Wednesday, Axios broke the news that OpenAI had signed deals with The Atlantic and Vox Media that will allow the ChatGPT maker to license their editorial content to further train its language models. But some of the publications' writers -- and the unions that represent them -- were surprised by the announcements and aren't happy about it. Already, two unions have released statements expressing "alarm" and "concern." "The unionized me
  
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• 'Planetary Parade' Will See Six Planets Line Up In the Morning Sky

  01-06-2024 09:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  On June 3, a "planet parade" of six planets -- Jupiter, Mercury, Uranus, Mars, Neptune and Saturn -- will form a straight line through the pre-dawn sky. Astronomy.com reports: Some 20 minutes before sunrise, all six planets should be visible, though note that Uranus (magnitude 5.9) and Neptune (magnitude 7.8) will be too faint for naked-eye observing and, although they're present in the lineup, will need binoculars or a telescope to spot. But Jupiter (magnitude -2), Mercury (magnitude -1), Mars
  
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• Scientists Find the Largest Known Genome Inside a Small Plant

  01-06-2024 05:30 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Last year, Jaume Pellicer led a team of fellow scientists into a forest on Grande Terre, an island east of Australia. They were in search of a fern called Tmesipteris oblanceolata. Standing just a few inches tall, it was not easy to find on the forest floor. "It doesn't catch the eye," said Dr. Pellicer, who works at the Botanical Institute of Barcelona in Spain. "You would probably step on it and not even realize it." The scientists e
  
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• London's Evening Standard To End Daily Newspaper After Almost 200 Years

  01-06-2024 03:25 via news.slashdot.org
  
  London's famed Evening Standard newspaper has announced plans to end its daily outlet, "bringing an end to almost 200 years of publication in the capital," reports The Guardian. Going forward, the company plans to launch "a brand new weekly newspaper later this year and consider options for retaining ES Magazine with reduced frequency," while also working to increase traffic to its website. "In its 197-year history the Evening Standard has altered its format, price, content and distribution mode
  
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