ICT news

• SpaceX Launches Another 60 Starlink Satellites, Sets Two Rocket Reuse Records

  11-11-2019 23:20 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: SpaceX launched another 60 of its internet satellites on Monday morning from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in a mission that set two new company records for reusing its rockets. Starlink represents SpaceX's ambitious plant to create an interconnected network of as many as 30,000 satellites, to beam high-speed internet to consumers anywhere in the world. This was the second full launch of Starlink satellites, as SpaceX launched the first batch of 60 in Ma
  
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• WeWork In Talks To Hire T-Mobile CEO John Legere

  11-11-2019 23:00 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  According to The Wall Street Journal, WeWork is in discussions with T-Mobile CEO John Legere to take over leadership of the troubled office-sharing startup (Warning: source paywalled; alternative source). From the report: WeWork's parent, formally known as We Co., is searching for a CEO who can stabilize the company following the erratic tenure of its co-founder Adam Neumann. After WeWork's failed attempt at an initial public offering, SoftBank Group Corp. bought a majority stake in the company
  
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• Twitter Proposes Flagging Deepfakes, But Would Only Remove Content That Threatens Harm

  11-11-2019 22:40 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  Twitter is proposing a handful of new features designed to help its users spot "synthetic" or "manipulated" media, including deepfake videos. From a report: The social networking giant last month announced plans to implement a new policy around media assets that have been altered to mislead the public. Today heralds Twitter's first draft proposal, alongside a public consultation period, as it works to refine the rules and how they will be enforced. "When you come to Twitter to see what's happeni
  
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• Study of Over 11,000 Online Stores Finds 'Dark Patterns' on 1,254 sites

  11-11-2019 22:00 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  A large-scale academic study that analyzed more than 53,000 product pages on more than 11,000 online stores found widespread use of user interface "dark patterns" -- practices meant to mislead customers into making purchases based on false or misleading information. from a report: The study -- presented last week at the ACM CSCW 2019 conference -- found 1,818 instances of dark patterns present on 1,254 of the ~11K shopping websites (~11.1%) researchers scanned. "Shopping websites that were more
  
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• Google Chrome To Identify and Label Slow Websites

  11-11-2019 21:20 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  Is it the web page that's slow or is it your network connection? In the future, Google's Chrome web browser may have an answer for you. From a report: Google announced today a plan to identify and label websites that typically load slowly by way of clear badging. The company says it may later choose to identify sites that are likely to be slow based on the user's device and current network conditions, as well. Google hasn't yet determined how exactly the slow websites will be labeled, but says i
  
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• Google Wants Chrome To Offer Instantaneous and Native App-Like Experiences

  11-11-2019 20:41 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader writes: At Chrome Dev Summit in San Francisco today, Google shared its latest vision for the web. First, the company is trying to make loading disappear via instantaneous experiences. The company demoed Web Bundles, a new platform primitive that lets developers distribute their content across any format without a constant connection, and Portals, an experimental API that lets developers instantly give users access to their web experiences. Secondly, Google wants to have Chrom
  
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• Amazon Will Open its Own Grocery Store Next Year

  11-11-2019 20:04 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  Amazon on Monday said it plans to open its first new brand of grocery store in California next year, as it amps up its ambitious push to become a bigger name in food. From a report: "Amazon is opening a grocery store in Woodland Hills in 2020," an Amazon spokesperson confirmed to CNET on Monday morning, soon after the company published four new jobs postings for the location. Woodland Hills is a neighborhood in Los Angeles. The store will be different from Amazon-owned Whole Foods, the company s
  
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• Google's Secret 'Project Nightingale' Gathers Personal Health Data on Millions of Americans

  11-11-2019 19:40 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  Google is teaming with one of the country's largest health-care systems on a secret project to collect and crunch the detailed personal health information of millions of Americans across 21 states, WSJ reported Monday, citing people familiar with the matter and internal documents. From the report: The initiative, code-named "Project Nightingale," appears to be the largest in a series of efforts by Silicon Valley giants to gain access to personal health data and establish a toehold in the massive
  
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• YouTube Says it Has 'No Obligation' To Host Anyone's Video

  11-11-2019 18:43 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  Speaking of YouTube and moderation, the Google-owned video service is rolling out updated terms of service on December 10th, and a new line acts as a reminder that the company doesn't have to keep any video up that it doesn't want to. From a report: "YouTube is under no obligation to host or serve content," the new terms of service policy reads. It's another way of saying that just because YouTube is a relatively open platform, it doesn't mean that the company is required to keep videos up. YouT
  
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• Apple To Launch AR Headset in 2022 with Smart Glasses To Follow in 2023, Report Claims

  11-11-2019 18:13 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  According to a report by The Information, Apple is planning to launch an augmented reality (AR) headset in 2022, followed by a sleeker pair of AR glasses in 2023. From a report: While we've heard loads of similar reports over the years, this one -- if accurate -- is different. First, The Information claims that Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke about the project at an internal gathering of as many as 1,000 Apple employees, which is an uncommonly large number. Second, the report contains loads of details,
  
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• Alibaba's Singles' Day Sales Top $38 Billion

  11-11-2019 17:35 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  After 24 hours of frenzied buying and selling, and weeks of advertising and promotions before it, the Alibaba Group said today its sales hit another record high on Singles' Day, the biggest shopping day on the planet. From a report: The Chinese e-commerce giant said its 11th Singles' Day event sold goods worth 268 billion yuan, or $38.3 billion, easily exceeding last year's record $30.7 billion haul. Electronics gadgets and fashion items were among the most sold goods this year, company executiv
  
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• Surgeons Transplanted Pig Skin Onto Humans for the First Time

  11-11-2019 16:25 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  In a pathogen-free facility in Grafton, Massachusetts, a small town about 40 miles west of Boston, genetically engineered miniature pigs are being bred to donate their skin to humans. From a report: Their skin, which looks remarkably similar to the human variety and is referred to as Xeno-Skin, will be transplanted by surgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital to a small group of burn victims in an attempt to speed up the healing process. It's the first experiment approved by the U.S. Food and D
  
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• Facebook Co-founder Chris Hughes Doesn't Recall Zuckerberg Discussing the Iraq War at Harvard

  11-11-2019 15:45 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes has said that he doesn't recall Mark Zuckerberg ever discussing the Iraq War during the early days of the company, contradicting recent comments from the CEO tying the war to his views on free speech. From a report: "I had never heard that before, and the internet had never heard that before," Hughes said an event with the Bay Area Chapter of the American Constitution Society. "I don't remember ever talking about that with Mark." Last month, Zuckerberg told an au
  
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• Uber CEO Calls Saudi Murder of Khashoggi 'a Mistake', Scrambles To Backtrack

  11-11-2019 15:05 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told "Axios on HBO" that the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi was "a mistake" by the Saudi government, and then he compared it to Uber's self driving accident in which a woman died. From a report: An hour later, Khosrowshahi called Axios to express regret for the language he used. The next day he sent the following statement: "I said something in the moment that I do not believe. When it comes to Jamal Khashoggi, his murder was reprehensible and should not be forgo
  
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• Carrie Fisher Was Originally Going To Be 'The Last Jedi' In the Final Star Wars Movie

  11-11-2019 13:34 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  Luke Skywalker wasn't going to be the only Jedi in the final Star Wars movie, reports Yahoo Entertainment:
  In the original version of the ninth and final installment, The Rise of Skywalker, his sister, Leia (played by Carrie Fisher), was going to emerge as a full-fledged Jedi warrior, complete with her very own lightsaber. That's according to no less an authority than Fisher's real-life brother, Todd Fisher, who filled us in on what the plan was for his sister's iconic character prior to her sud
  
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• Thousands of Bots Are Retweeting Claims of Voter Fraud In Kentucky

  11-11-2019 09:34 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  "It's deeply concerning to see shady coordinated disinformation campaigns trying to undermine our democracy," says the man who apparently defeated Kentucky's Republican governor Bevin in a close election last Tuesday.
  The New York Times reports on what happened in the hours after Twitter user "Overlordkraken1" decided to tweet to his 19 followers that he'd "just shredded a box of Republican mail-in ballots."
  [H]yperpartisan conservatives and trolls were pushing out a screenshot of the message, b
  
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• How Tech From Australia Could Prevent California Wildfires and PG&E Blackouts

  11-11-2019 06:34 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  "Technology developed to combat Australia's deadly bushfires could slash California's fire risk and reduce the need for PG&E's 'public safety power shutoffs'," reports IEEE Spectrum.
  "See the video to watch an advanced power diverter cut off 22,000 volts of power in less than 1/20th of a second, preventing ignition of dry brush," writes Slashdot reader carbonnation.
  IEEE Spectrum reports:California utility Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) delivered a bitter pill last month when it said
  
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• Reactions To the News That Microsoft's Edge Browser Is Coming to Linux

  11-11-2019 03:53 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  "Microsoft is bringing Edge to Linux, for all the Microsoft fans running Linux," jokes the headline at the Inquirer. ("We can just imagine the amount of bunting and party poppers that the Linux community has just ordered. After all, why wouldn't you want a browser from the company that you joined Linux to get away from?") And the headline at Liliputting quips that the Edge browser "is coming to Linux (whether you want it or not)," calling the move "the latest evidence that Microsoft's relationsh
  
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• Struggling 'Terminator' Movie Has An Even Worse Second Weekend

  11-11-2019 01:37 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  "The news just keeps getting worse for Terminator: Dark Fate," reports CinemaBlend:It had a disappointing opening last week and a sharp drop in its second weekend at the box office. It also had the worst Friday-to-Friday drop of any other Terminator sequel in the franchise... According to Forbes, it made only $2.8 million on Friday, November 8, marking a 73% drop from opening day on November 1...
  [A]t this point, Terminator: Dark Fate is only expected to make just over $10 million this weekend,
  
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• How Some Fast Rood Restaurant Chains Are Confronting the Threat of Antibiotic Resistance

  11-11-2019 00:34 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  "Many of our favorite fast food and restaurant chains continue to contribute to the growing threat of antibiotic resistance, according to a report released Thursday by advocacy groups," reports CNN:Fifteen of America's favorites received an "F" for their lack of action in reducing the use of beef raised with antibiotics, including Burger King, DQ, Jack In the Box, Pizza Hut, Olive Garden, Chili's, Sonic, Applebee's and the pizza chains of Domino's, Little Caesars and Pizza Hut. Only Chipotle and
  
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