ICT news

• VPN, Tor Use Increases in Iran After Internet 'Curfews'

  08-10-2022 23:34 via it.slashdot.org
  Iran's government is trying to limit internet access, reports CNBC — while Iranians are trying a variety of technologies to bypass the blocks:Outages first started hitting Iran's telecommunications networks on September 19, according to data from internet monitoring companies Cloudflare and NetBlocks, and have been ongoing for the last two and a half weeks. Internet monitoring groups and digital rights activists say they're seeing "curfew-style" network disruptions every day, with access b
  
  Read more

• How 'MythBusters' Helped a Wrongly Convicted Man Prove His Innocence

  08-10-2022 22:34 via yro.slashdot.org
  "John Galvan was arrested at 18 and spent 35 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit," writes the Innocence Project, a nonprofit specializing in legal exoneration.
  "In 2007, John Galvan was about 21 years into a life sentence for a crime he didn't commit when he saw something on the prison television he thought might finally help him prove his innocence and secure his freedom: A re-run of an episode of the Discovery Channel's MythBusters."
  At the time of his arrest, they write, Galvan had b
  
  Read more

• Mastercard Introduces New Tool Helping Banks Block Fraud-Prone Crypto Exchanges

  08-10-2022 21:34 via news.slashdot.org
  "Mastercard has launched software that allows banks to identify and potentially block customer purchases from cryptocurrency exchanges that have been linked to fraud..." reports Barron's:"Crypto Secure" allows card issuers to assess the regulatory risk of dealing with crypto exchanges and other digital asset platforms, as well as decide which purchases to approve, Mastercard said. The solution, which taps blockchain data, allows banks to see where cardholders are buying crypto and assess their o
  
  Read more

• Are Single-Use Plastics Also Contributing to Climate Change?

  08-10-2022 20:34 via news.slashdot.org
  Made from fossil fuels refined with "extreme temperatures and significant amount of water and energy," plastics are also a climate problem, warns CNN. So "by the time we start talking about recycling, the damage is already done."
  One former regional administrator for America's Environmental Protection Agency is now even calling plastics "the new coal."The process of making plastic is so energy intensive that if the plastics industry were a country, it would be the fifth largest emitter of greenh
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• French Court Slashes Apple Antitrust Fine in Blow to European Regulators

  08-10-2022 19:34 via apple.slashdot.org
  "Apple won a massive reduction in a 1.1 billion euro ($1.1 billion) antitrust fine from French competition regulators," reports CNBC, "in a blow to the ambitions of European authorities to crack down on the dominance of Big Tech companies."
  The Paris appeals court on Thursday lowered the fine to 371.6 million euros, roughly a third of the value of the original penalty and a reduction of 728.4 million euros, an Apple spokesperson confirmed.According to Reuters, the amount was slashed because the
  
  Read more

• 433 People Won the Philippines Lottery. Was it Luck - or Cheating?

  08-10-2022 18:34 via science.slashdot.org
  "After 433 gamblers won a lottery drawing in the Philippines last weekend, people across the country debated a thorny question," reports the New York Times. "At what point does randomness begin to look a little too much like a racket?"Some Filipinos accused the state-owned company behind the roughly $4 million prize drawing of fraud, a charge that was swiftly denied. Lawmakers said that they planned to investigate the winning draw as a way of securing the lottery's integrity. How was it possible
  
  Read more

• Rust Programming Language Announces New Team to Evolve Official Coding Style

  08-10-2022 17:34 via developers.slashdot.org
  "The Rust programming language is getting so popular that the team behind it is creating a team that's dedicated to defining the default Rust coding style," reports ZDNet:Each language has style guides and, if they're popular enough, may have multiple style guides from major users, like Google, which has its guide for C++ — the language Chrome is written in. Python's Guido van Rossum's posted his styling conventions here.
  Rust, which reached version 1.0 in 2015, has a style guide in the "r
  
  Read more

• Why Hurricane Ian Killed So Many People

  08-10-2022 16:34 via news.slashdot.org
  It was Florida's deadliest hurricane in 87 years, tied for the fifth-strongest hurricane to make landfall in the continental U.S. and killing more than 100 people after veering south into unexpected areas.But a Rutgers University health psychologist suggests other factors might've made Hurricane Ian more deadly:Ian also underwent rapid intensification, perhaps influenced by climate change, which meant that its wind speeds increased dramatically as it passed over the warm waters of the Gulf of Me
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• After 23 Years, Weather Channel's Iconic Computerized Channel Is Shutting Down

  08-10-2022 15:00 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: In the early 2000s, Americans who wanted to catch the local weather forecast at any time might turn on their TV and switch over to Weatherscan, a 24-hour computer-controlled weather forecast channel with a relaxing smooth jazz soundtrack. After 23 years, The Weather Channel announced that Weatherscan will be shutting down permanently on or before December 9. But a group of die-hard fans will not let it go quietly into the night.Launched in 1
  
  Read more

• Utility Security Is So Bad, US DoE Offers Rate Cuts To Improve It

  08-10-2022 12:00 via it.slashdot.org
  The US Department of Energy has proposed regulations to financially reward cybersecurity modernization at power plants by offering rate deals for everything from buying new hardware to paying for outside help. The Register reports: In a notice of proposed rulemaking published earlier this week (which nullified a similar 2021 plan), the DoE said the time was right "to establish rules for incentive-based rate treatments" for utilities making investments in cybersecurity technology. The DoE said th
  
  Read more

• UK Grid Operator: Plan For Three-Hour Power Blackouts In Event of Gas Shortages

  08-10-2022 09:00 via news.slashdot.org
  Shortages of gas, which generated 40 per cent of UK electricity last year, could mean planned three-hour blackouts in some areas to protect supplies for heating homes and buildings, system operators warned. From a report: The margins between peak demand and power supply are expected to be sufficient and similar to recent years in the National Grid Electricity System Operator's (ESO) base case scenario for this winter. But in the face of the "challenging" winter facing European energy supplies fo
  
  Read more

• William Shatner: My Trip To Space Filled Me With 'Overwhelming Sadness'

  08-10-2022 05:30 via science.slashdot.org
  In an exclusive excerpt from William Shatner's new book, "Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder," the Star Trek actor reflects on his voyage into space on Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin space shuttle on Oct. 13, 2021. Then 90 years old, Shatner became the oldest living person to travel into space, but as the actor and author details below, he was surprised by his own reaction to the experience. An anonymous reader shares an excerpt from the report: I looked down and I could see the hole th
  
  Read more

• New Windows 11 Insider Build Supports Third-Party Widgets, Slick New Teams Video Feature

  08-10-2022 04:10 via build.slashdot.org
  Microsoft is rolling out support for third-party widget development and new video calling functions for Chat from Microsoft Teams in its latest developer build of Windows 11. The new features in Preview Build 25217 are available for folks enrolled in the Windows Insider program. The Verge reports: Now, developers can create and test widgets that can be added to the Windows 11 widgets panel. New third-party widgets can only be tested locally on the latest Insider Preview build for now, but can la
  
  Read more

• EU Wants To Know If Microsoft Will Block Rivals After Activision Deal

  08-10-2022 03:30 via games.slashdot.org
  EU antitrust regulators are asking games developers whether Microsoft will be incentivized to block rivals' access to "Call of Duty" maker Activision Blizzard's best-selling games, according to an EU document seen by Reuters. From the report: EU antitrust regulators are due to make a preliminary decision by Nov. 8 on whether to clear Microsoft's proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision. The EU competition enforcer also asked if Activision's trove of user data would give the U.S. software g
  
  Read more

• China May Prove Arm Wrong About RISC-V's Role In the Datacenter

  08-10-2022 02:50 via slashdot.org
  Arm might not think RISC-V is a threat to its newfound foothold in the datacenter, but growing pressure on Chinese chipmaking could ultimately change that, Forrester Research analyst Glenn O'Donnell tells The Register. From the report: Over the past few years the US has piled on export bans and trade restrictions on Chinese chipmakers in an effort to stall the country's semiconductor industry. This has included barring companies with ties to the Chinese military from purchasing x86 processors an
  
  Read more

• Researchers Think a Key To Cooling Cities Lies in Naples' Ancient Aqueducts

  08-10-2022 02:10 via science.slashdot.org
  In the Italian city of Naples, some climate change solutions may be as ancient as the coastal outpost itself, according to researchers who are studying how the area's historic waterways could bring relief from extreme heat as the world warms. From a report: Architects and design students in Italy and the United States are collaborating on an initiative to map ancient aqueducts and water systems in Naples. Known as the Cool City Project, the goal is to assess how this existing infrastructure -- i
  
  Read more

• Decentralized Finance Pioneer, Set Up To Challenge Legacy Banking System, Moving $500 Million Into US Treasuries and Corporate Bonds

  08-10-2022 01:30 via news.slashdot.org
  One of the original decentralized-finance protocols that was set up to challenge the legacy banking system is moving $500 million into short-term US Treasuries and corporate bonds. From a report: MakerDAO, the so-called decentralized autonomous organization that supports the crypto stablecoin DAI, is shifting $500 million worth of the token to the fixed-income obligations, which have traditionally been havens for conventional investors during times of turmoil. The move aims to diversify MakerDAO
  
  Read more

• Twitter Knows You Took a Screenshot, Asks You To Share Instead

  08-10-2022 00:50 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Twitter is seemingly working to remind people that interesting tweets are something you should click, load, and view while logged into the company's ad-funded service, not merely see in a screenshot. That's why some users are seeing a "Share Tweet?" pop-up whenever the Twitter app notices them taking a screenshot. Social media analyst Matt Navarra noted the two kinds of nudge prompts in a tweet: "Copy link" and "Share Tweet." TechCrunch note
  
  Read more

• Tesla Starts Production of Electric Semi Truck

  08-10-2022 00:10 via tech.slashdot.org
  Tesla's long-delayed semi-truck has started production, and the company will begin making deliveries as soon as December 1st, Elon Musk has announced on Twitter. Engadget reports: The first batch of Semis will be delivered to Pepsi, which ordered 100 vehicles from the company back in December 2017. As TechCrunch notes, other big companies had also ordered trucks from the automaker, including Walmart and UPS. And in May this year, the automaker opened reservations to more customers for a deposit
  
  Read more

Follow @newslocke_ict on Twitter!