ICT news

• Why the Laws of Physics Don't Actually Exist

  11-12-2022 22:34 via science.slashdot.org
  Theoretical physicist Sankar Das Sarma wrote a thought-provoking essay for New Scientist magazine's Lost in Space-Time newsletter:
  I was recently reading an old article by string theorist Robbert Dijkgraaf in Quanta Magazine entitled "There are no laws of physics". You might think it a bit odd for a physicist to argue that there are no laws of physics but I agree with him. In fact, not only do I agree with him, I think that my field is all the better for it. And I hope to convince you of this to
  
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• WSJ: Europe, US Need Grand Bargain on Chips and EVs to Counter China

  11-12-2022 21:34 via hardware.slashdot.org
  South Korea, Japan and the EU see America's electric-vehicle subsidies as discriminating against non-American manufacturers, and are "rebuffing" restrictions on exporting sensitive semiconductor technology to China, reports the Wall Street Journal. (Alternate URL here.)
  The EU's executive arm complains that newly-passed U.S. subsidies constitute "a market-distorting boost, tilting the global level playing field and turning a common global objective — fighting climate change — into a
  
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• Is This Nature App the Key To Saving Civilization?

  11-12-2022 20:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  Slashdot reader biobricks shares this report from the New York Times. (Alternate URLs here and here.)
  When Merav Vonshak wanted to identify the gelatinous blob she had photographed floating in a shallow pool of water on a family vacation, she bypassed a wildlife-related website too often beset by bickering. She gave no consideration to brand-name social media platforms known for snark or misinformation.
  Instead she uploaded the picture to a site called iNaturalist, where strangers have come toge
  
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• Linux Kernel Fixes Longstanding Bug in Its Handling of Floppy Disks

  11-12-2022 19:34 via linux.slashdot.org
  "Linux kernel 6.2 should contain fixes for some problems handling floppy disks," reports the Register, "a move which shows that someone somewhere is still using them."
  This isn't the only such fix in recent years. As a series of articles on Phoronixdetails, there has been a slow but steady flow of fixes for the kernel's handling of floppy drives since at least kernel 5.17, as The Register mentioned when it came out....
  Back in July 2016, SUSE kernel developer Jiri Kosina submitted a patch. The p
  
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• After 25 Days in Space, NASA's Orion Moon Capsule Successfully Splashes Down

  11-12-2022 18:34 via science.slashdot.org
  Splashdown successful. The announcer on NASA's livestream called it a "text-book entry" for "America's new ticket to ride -- to the moon and beyond."After flying over 239,000 miles — and 80 miles over the surface of the moon — NASA's uncrewed "Orion" capsule has returned from its 25-and-a-half day test flight in space.
  NASA is still streaming its coverage. And CNN had emphasized that "This final step will be among the most important and dangerous legs of the mission.""We're not out o
  
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• Sam Bankman-Fried: I Hope to Make Money to Pay People Back

  11-12-2022 17:34 via news.slashdot.org
  "Disgraced crypto boss Sam Bankman-Fried says he hopes to start a new business to make enough money to pay back victims of the FTX collapse," reports the BBC:Speaking in a luxury complex in the Bahamas, the former billionaire denies fraud but says he was "not nearly as competent as I thought I was".... It is estimated that more than a million FTX users are locked out of their crypto wallets and cannot access their funds.
  Mr Bankman-Fried invited the BBC to the residential complex in the Bahamas
  
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• No, Remote Employees Aren't Becoming Less Engaged

  11-12-2022 16:34 via it.slashdot.org
  "Employees have gotten more — not less — engaged over the past three years since remote work became the norm for many knowledge workers," argues an assistant professor of management from the business school at the University of Texas at Austin. He'd teamed up with a software company providing analytics to large corporations to measure the number of spontaneously-happening individual remote meetings:
  Given the anecdotal evidence of workers recently disengaging or quiet quitting, we ha
  
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• 'The 10 Most Promising Breakthrough Innovations of 2022'

  11-12-2022 13:34 via news.slashdot.org
  This week the Atlantic published its list of "the 10 Most Promising Breakthrough Innovations of 2022.""We didn't just get one 'unheard-of' cancer breakthrough; we got several in one year...."Is death reversible? It was this year for several pigs (or, at least, for their organs). By pumping an experimental substance into the veins and arteries of animals that had been lying deceased for an hour, Yale researchers got their hearts to start beating again. The technology is "very far away from use in
  
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• What Causes Alzheimer's? Scientists Are Rethinking the Answer

  11-12-2022 09:34 via science.slashdot.org
  "After decades in the shadow of the reigning model for Alzheimer's disease, alternative explanations are finally getting the attention they deserve," writes Quanta magazine — in a 10,000-word update on where we are now:Three decades ago, scientists thought they had cracked the medical mystery of what causes Alzheimer's disease with an idea known as the amyloid cascade hypothesis. It accused a protein called amyloid-beta of forming sticky, toxic plaques between neurons, killing them and tri
  
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• US Lawmakers Accuses Big Oil of a Long-Running Climate Disinformation Campaign

  11-12-2022 06:04 via news.slashdot.org
  A year-long investigation by a Congressional commitee is accussing the fossil fuel industry of spreading climate disinformation. CNN reports:The committee found the fossil fuel industry is "posturing on climate issues while avoiding real commitments" to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Lawmakers said it has sought to portray itself as part of the climate solution, even as internal industry documents reveal how companies have avoided making real commitments. "Today's documents reveal that the i
  
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• It's DOOM's 29th Anniversary. What's Your Favorite Story?

  11-12-2022 03:34 via games.slashdot.org
  It was 29 years ago today that DOOM was first released — and we're still using it! Here in 2022, the latest mod reportedly converts its demons into the zombies and creepers from Minecraft. This week Hackaday wrote about a simple emulated RISC-V processor that runs DOOM. Last month someone even got DOOM running in Notepad. And recently WebTV enthusiasts not only jerry-rigged a contemporary TV to a WebTV unit, but then actually got it to play a 1990s-era WebTV version of DOOM on their TV scr
  
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• Can a 'Virtual' Manual Transmission Bring the Stick Shift to Electric Cars?

  11-12-2022 00:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  Lexus is apparently working on a "virtual" manual transmission, reports the Verge, "to find out if the stick shift can survive the electric revolution..."
  British car enthusiast publication Evo reported this week that Lexus, which now leads Toyota's high-performance EV efforts, is developing a kind of shifting system that mimics the feel of a clutch and a stick shift in an electric car. Of course, it comes without the traditional mechanical connections for such a transmission because an EV doesn
  
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