ICT news

• Violent Protests Break Out At Foxconn's 'iPhone City'

  23-11-2022 23:40 via apple.slashdot.org
  Protests have broken out at Foxconn's vast iPhone factory in Zhengzhou, central China, as footage circulating on social media shows workers clashing with baton-wielding riot police and hazmat-suited officials. The Verge reports: The protests started after workers, who have been under strict covid lockdown for weeks, learned bonus payments would be delayed, reports The Wall Street Journal. Zhengzhou, known locally as "iPhone city," is home to an estimated 200,000 workers who are responsible for t
  
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• Windows 10 Users With Windows Subsystem For Linux Can Now Use GUI Apps

  23-11-2022 23:02 via linux.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: Microsoft's Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) for running GNU/Linux environments on Windows 10 and Windows 11 has reached version 1.0.0 and is now generally available. Microsoft has been building WSL, including its own custom Linux kernel, for several years now. At first, WSL and WSL2 were an optional component within Windows, but last October Microsoft made the preview WSL available in the Microsoft Store as a separate app. The Store version could
  
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• Twitch Says It's Getting Better at Detecting and Blocking Young Users

  23-11-2022 22:21 via tech.slashdot.org
  Twitch is cracking down on accounts belonging to users under the age of 13 as part of its efforts to protect children on the platform. From a report: In a post on Twitch's safety center, the Amazon-owned company announced that it's improving its methods for detecting and terminating the accounts belonging to young users and is also working on ways to block users who were previously suspended for being under 13. These changes come after a report from Bloomberg revealed rampant child predation on
  
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• Chinese Children's Addiction To Gaming 'Resolved', Says Industry Body

  23-11-2022 21:42 via games.slashdot.org
  China's top gaming industry association declared that the problem of children's video gaming addiction has been "resolved," the clearest signal so far that Beijing will ease its curbs on the approval of new titles. From a report: China's Game Industry Group Committee, which is affiliated with the government's gaming regulatory body, released a report on Tuesday that found 70 per cent of minors played less than three hours of games a week. "Minors' gaming addiction has been basically resolved," t
  
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• Storms Can Cause Landslides Days Later, Scientists Find

  23-11-2022 21:01 via science.slashdot.org
  Can a change in the weather trigger a landslide? Sometimes, yes, according to research. From a report: Most landslides are set in motion by an earthquake or torrential rain, but some have no obvious trigger. In 2009, scientists were stunned to discover that the stop-start Slumgullion landslide in the Rocky Mountains -- which has been inching down the hillside for 700 years -- is triggered by changes in atmospheric pressure. So is Slumgullion a rare exception? To find out, scientists fed weather
  
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• US Renewable Energy Will Surge Past Coal and Nuclear by Year's End

  23-11-2022 20:21 via news.slashdot.org
  Renewables are on track to generate more power than coal in the United States this year. But the question is whether they can grow fast enough to meet the country's climate goals. From a report: Supply chain constraints and trade disputes have slowed wind and solar installations, raising questions about the United States' ability to meet the emission reductions sought by the Inflation Reduction Act. The Biden administration is banking on the landmark climate law cutting emissions by 40 percent b
  
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• GPU Market Nosedives, Sales Lowest In a Decade

  23-11-2022 19:42 via hardware.slashdot.org
  Shipments of integrated and discrete graphics processing units dropped to a 10-year low in the third quarter as PC OEMs reduced procurements of CPUs, and gamers lowered their purchases of existing graphics cards while waiting for next-generation products. From a report: In contrast, miners ceased to buy graphics boards due to changes that happened to Ethereum. In general, sales of standalone graphics cards for desktops hit a multi-year low. Usually, PC makers increase procurement of PC hardware
  
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• Parents Welcome Twins From Embryos Frozen 30 Years Ago

  23-11-2022 19:01 via science.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: In April 1992, Vanessa Williams' "Save the Best for Last" topped the Billboard 100, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton was running for the White House, "Who's the Boss?" aired its final episode, and the babies born to Rachel and Philip Ridgeway a couple of weeks ago were frozen as embryos. Born on October 31, Lydia and Timothy Ridgeway were born from what may be the longest-frozen embryos to ever result in a live birth, according to the National Embryo Donation Cente
  
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• Congressmembers Tried to Stop the SEC's Inquiry Into FTX

  23-11-2022 18:20 via news.slashdot.org
  The Securities and Exchange Commission was seeking information from collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX earlier this year, the Prospect reported Wednesday, bringing a new perspective to an effort by a bipartisan group of congressmembers to slow down that investigation. From the report: The March letter [PDF] from eight House members -- four Democrats and four Republicans -- questioned the SEC's authority to make informal inquiries to crypto and blockchain companies, and intimated that the requ
  
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• Mercedes Locks Faster Acceleration Behind a $1,200 Annual Paywall

  23-11-2022 17:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  Mercedes is the latest manufacturer to lock auto features behind a subscription fee, with an upcoming "Acceleration Increase" add-on that lets drivers pay to access motor performance their vehicle is already capable of. From a report: The $1,200 yearly subscription improves performance by boosting output from the motors by 20-24 percent, increasing torque, and shaving around 0.8 to 0.9 seconds off 0-60 mph acceleration when in Dynamic drive mode. The subscription doesn't come with any physical h
  
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• What Has Technology Done To Soccer?

  23-11-2022 17:01 via tech.slashdot.org
  Perfect referees are a soccer fan's nightmare, it is increasingly appearing. From a report: The past four years have smoothed out some of those early kinks. Offside calls are now hyper-accurate and semiautomated. And VAR really has done some good: It has eliminated the worst officiating mistakes and ensured that we will not see another hand of God-type abomination, in which a particularly egregious bit of foul play somehow goes unspotted and changes the course of a match. Even so, you'd be hard-
  
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• Crypto and NFTs Aren't Welcome in Grand Theft Auto Online

  23-11-2022 16:22 via games.slashdot.org
  Cryptocurrencies and NFTs have been formally disallowed from Grand Theft Auto Online's popular role-playing (RP) servers. That's according to a new set of guidelines posted on Rockstar's support site last Friday. From a report: In the note, the game's publisher says its new RP server rules are aligned with Rockstar's existing rules for single-player mods. Both sets of rules prohibit content that uses third-party intellectual property, interferes with official multiplayer services, or makes new "
  
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• Cisco Faces Resistance To Software Bundles from Cost-Conscious Companies

  23-11-2022 15:48 via slashdot.org
  For years, Cisco has relied on a widely used tactic to drive sales: The enterprise tech giant pitches customers on large bundles of products that include everything from its core networking products to more peripheral offerings from its sprawling portfolio, such as security software and its Webex videoconferencing app. But now customers are starting to resist buying the company's bundles, The Information reported Wednesday, citing current and former Cisco employees. From the report: Corporate IT
  
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• New York Enacts 2-Year Ban on Some Crypto-Mining Operations

  23-11-2022 15:03 via tech.slashdot.org
  New York became the first state to enact a temporary ban on new cryptocurrency mining permits at fossil fuel plants, a move aimed at addressing the environmental concerns over the energy-intensive activity. From a report: The legislation signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday was the latest setback in a bruising month for the cryptocurrency industry, which had lobbied fiercely against the bill but was unable to overcome a successful push by a coalition of left-leaning lawmakers and environmental
  
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• Meta Researchers Create AI That Masters Diplomacy, Tricking Human Players

  23-11-2022 14:00 via meta.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On Tuesday, Meta AI announced the development of Cicero, which it clams is the first AI to achieve human-level performance in the strategic board game Diplomacy. It's a notable achievement because the game requires deep interpersonal negotiation skills, which implies that Cicero has obtained a certain mastery of language necessary to win the game. [...] Cicero learned its skills by playing an online version of Diplomacy on webDiplomacy.net.
  
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• Pale Moon Becomes First Browser To Support JPEG-XL Image Format

  23-11-2022 11:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Longtime Slashdot reader BenFenner writes: While Chromium recently abandoned the JPEG-XL format (to much discussion on the feature request), it seems the Pale Moon browser quietly became the first to release support for the much-awaited image format. For those unfamiliar with Pale Moon, it is a Goanna-based web browser available for Windows, Linux and Android, focusing on efficiency and ease of use. Pale Moon 31.4.0 also adds support for MacOS 13 "Ventura" and addresses a number of performance-
  
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• Artemis Takeoff Causes Severe Damage To NASA Launch Pad

  23-11-2022 08:00 via science.slashdot.org
  SonicSpike shares a report from Futurism: It appears that NASA's Artemis 1 rocket launch pad caught way more damage than expected when it finally took off from Kennedy Space Center last week. As Reuters space reporter Joey Roulette tweeted, a source within the agency said that damage to the launchpad "exceeded mission management's expectations," and per his description, it sounds fairly severe. "Elevator blast doors were blown right off, various pipes were broken, some large sheets of metal left
  
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• Last.fm Turns 20

  23-11-2022 04:30 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  Last.fm turned 20 years old over the weekend and users are still tracking their music playback hundreds of thousands of times a day. The Verge's Jacob Kastrenakes writes: Last.fm felt just a little bit revolutionary when it was first introduced in the early 2000s. The site's plug-ins -- which were originally created for a different service called Audioscrobbler -- tapped into your music player, took note of everything you listened to, and then displayed all kinds of statistics about your listeni
  
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• Zoom Shares Plunge 90% From Peak As Pandemic Boom Fades

  23-11-2022 03:02 via news.slashdot.org
  Shares of Zoom have tumbled about 90% from their pandemic peak in October 2020 as the former investor darling struggles to adjust to a post-COVID world. Reuters reports: The stock was down nearly 10% on Tuesday after the company cut its annual sales forecast and posted its slowest quarterly growth, prompting at least six brokerages to cut their price targets. The company, which became a household name during lockdowns due to the popularity of its video-conferencing tools, is trying to reinvent i
  
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• iFixit Put Up a Right To Repair Billboard Along New York Governor's Drive To Work

  23-11-2022 02:25 via yro.slashdot.org
  Right to Repair website iFixit put up a billboard in Albany, New York, calling for Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign the landmark Right to Repair law, which was passed overwhelmingly nearly six months ago by the state legislature. PIRG reports: Supported by Repair.org, U.S. PIRG and NYPIRG, Consumer Reports, Environment New York, the Story of Stuff Project, Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter, NRDC, Environmental Action and EFF, calls for the governor to sign the bill have increased The legislation must advanc
  
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• Amazon Launches Second Cloud Region In India, Pledges $4.4 Billion Investment

  23-11-2022 01:45 via slashdot.org
  Amazon has set up its second AWS region in India and says the cloud unit will invest more than $4.4 billion in the South Asian market by 2030, part of the company's attempts to widen its growing cloud tentacles across the globe. TechCrunch reports: The retailer said Tuesday that it has launched an AWS infrastructure region in the city of Hyderabad, its second cloud region in the country. An additional AWS datacenter cluster will allow the firm to offer "greater choice" in the country and support
  
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• Android TV Will Require App Bundles In 2023, Should Reduce App Size By 20%

  23-11-2022 01:02 via hardware.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Google announced that Android's space-saving app file format, Android App Bundles (AABs), will finally be the standard on Android TV. By May 2023 -- that's in six months -- Google will require all Android TV apps to switch to the new file format, which can cut down on app storage requirements by 20 percent.Android App Bundles were announced with Android 9 in 2018 as a way to save device storage by breaking an app up into modules, rather than
  
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• HP Will Cut Up To 6,000 Jobs Over Next Three Years

  23-11-2022 00:20 via slashdot.org
  Computer and printer maker HP said Tuesday it will cut between 4,000 and 6,000 jobs by the end of 2025 as part of a restructuring. Axios reports: HP said the move will save it at least $1.4 billion annually by the end of fiscal 2025. However, it expects to incur $1 billion in costs due to the restructuring, with $600 million in fiscal 2023 and the rest split over the remaining two years. It made the announcement alongside its quarterly earnings report.As part of that report, HP said to expect pe
  
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