ICT news

• Fiji's New Pro-Bitcoin Prime Minister Ponders Legal Tender Bill

  29-12-2022 23:50 via slashdot.org
  Pro-Bitcoin politician Sitiveni Rabuka recently took office as the new Prime Minister of the Pacific Islands of Fiji. Now, it seems the new PM is actively considering the adoption of bitcoin as legal tender there. Bitcoin Magazine reports: While Rabuka himself hasn't been very public about his opinions on Bitcoin thus far, Lord Fusitu'a, a noble and former member of parliament of neighboring nation Tonga, has reportedly confirmed that the Fijian politician is a bitcoin bull. "The new PM is defin
  
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• Suit Accusing YouTube of Tracking Children Is Back On After Appeal

  29-12-2022 23:10 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: An appeals court has revived a lawsuit against that accuses Google, YouTube, DreamWorks, and a handful of toymakers of tracking the activity of children under 13 on YouTube. In an opinion (PDF) released Wednesday, the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act does not bar lawsuits based on individual state privacy laws.Passed in 1998 and amended in 2012, COPPA requires websites to obtain parent
  
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• HandBrake 1.6.0 Debuts AV1 Transcoding Support for the Masses

  29-12-2022 22:30 via it.slashdot.org
  HandBrake, the popular free and open source video transcoder, has been updated to version 1.6.0. This major point upgrade is notable for facilitating AV1 video encoding for the first time in a general release. Moreover, those with Intel Quick Sync Video (QSV) enabled processors, and those with Intel Arc GPUs will be able to encode AV1 video with hardware acceleration. From a report: HandBrake 1.6.0 can encode AV1 videos on any of its supported systems. In the current release its SVT-AV1 encoder
  
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• Britain's Renewable Power Hits New Peak, Fossil Fuel Also Rises

  29-12-2022 21:40 via news.slashdot.org
  Renewable power sources generated 40% of Britain's electricity in 2022, up from 35% in 2021, while the share of fossil fuel in the energy mix also rose, a report by academics from Imperial College London for Drax Electric Insights showed on Thursday. From a report: Overall generation from renewables has more than quadrupled over the last decade. Wind, solar, biomass and hydro are the main sources of renewable power. Fossil fuel still has a larger share, providing 42% of Britain's power in 2022,
  
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• Department of Homeland Security Can't Even Secure Its Buildings Against People It Fired

  29-12-2022 20:50 via news.slashdot.org
  For the fourth time since 2007, an internal audit shows the Department of Homeland Security isn't deactivating access cards in the hands of ex-employees, leaving its secure facilities vulnerable to intruders. From a report: A new report by Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General shows that the department is systemically failing to revoke tens of thousands of "personal identity verification" cards that allow staff to enter sensitive, secure facilities and access internal data networks, de
  
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• Europe Taps Tech's Power-Hungry Data Centers To Heat Homes

  29-12-2022 20:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  With an energy crisis hitting Europe, governments are exploring ways to recycle electricity used on social-media scrolling, conference calls and video streaming to help heat homes and offices. From a report: Electricity-hungry data centers are seeing huge growth in usage, leading to pressure from European officials to funnel the excess heat generated by their computer chips into municipal heating networks. After years of discussions about putting residual heat to work rather than simply venting
  
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• Intel Settles To Escape $4 Billion Patent Suit with VLSI

  29-12-2022 19:10 via yro.slashdot.org
  Intel and SoftBank-backed VLSI Technology have agreed to end a $4 billion patent dispute, according to documents filed in Delaware District Court this week. From a report: The decision marks a victory for Intel, which has already lost $3 billion in failed patent disputes to VLSI over the past few years. The case in question dates back to 2018 and alleged that Intel had infringed on five VLSI-owned patents governing things like secure communications, power optimization and delivery, and flip-chip
  
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• New York Breaks the Right To Repair Bill as It's Signed Into Law

  29-12-2022 18:20 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: New York governor Kathy Hochul signed the Digital Fair Repair Act on December 28th, 2022, and the law will go into effect on July 1st, 2023 -- a full year after it was originally passed by the NY State legislature. The bill establishes that consumers and independent repair providers have a right to obtain manuals, diagrams, diagnostics and parts from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in order to repair their own devices. However, the bill was meaningful
  
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• Group Shaping US Nutrition Receives Millions from Big Food Industry

  29-12-2022 17:30 via news.slashdot.org
  Newly released documents show an influential group that helps shape US food policy and steers consumers toward nutritional products has financial ties to the world's largest processed food companies and has been controlled by former industry employees who have worked for companies like Monsanto. From a report: The documents reveal the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics has a record of quid pro quos with a range of food giants, owns stock in ultra-processed food companies and has received million
  
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• FTX Diverted $200 Million of Customer Money For Two Venture Deals, SEC Says

  29-12-2022 16:40 via yro.slashdot.org
  Of the billions of dollars in customer deposits that disappeared from FTX in a flash, $200 million was used to fund investments in two companies, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which charged founder Sam Bankman-Fried with "orchestrating a scheme to defraud equity investors." From a report: Through its FTX Ventures unit, the crypto firm in March invested $100 million in Dave, a fintech company that had gone public two months earlier through a special purpose acquisition comp
  
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• Solana Founders Scramble To Move Past FTX's Stain on Their Token

  29-12-2022 15:50 via news.slashdot.org
  Solana, the blockchain network once championed by Sam Bankman-Fried, is drawing intense scrutiny as industry watchers wonder whether its former close ties to the disgraced crypto mogul and his now-defunct FTX empire will jeopardize its future. From a report: Its founders are doing everything they can to break that connection. The price of Solana's crypto token, SOL, has plummeted 96% from its all-time high of $260 in November 2021 to about $10, hurt first by a year-long crypto rout that engulfed
  
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• TSMC Starts Volume Production of Most Advanced Chips in Taiwan

  29-12-2022 15:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company began mass production of its most advanced chips in southern Taiwan on Thursday and the company's chairman said it would continue to expand capacity on the island. From a report: The long-awaited mass production of chips with 3-nanometre technology comes as attention focuses on the world's largest contract chipmaker's investment plans at home and abroad. TSMC has a dominant position as a maker of advanced chips used in technology from cellphon
  
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• EarSpy: Spying On Phone Calls Via Ear Speaker Vibrations Captured By Accelerometer

  29-12-2022 14:00 via it.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from SecurityWeek: As smartphone manufacturers are improving the ear speakers in their devices, it can become easier for malicious actors to leverage a particular side-channel for eavesdropping on a targeted user's conversations, according to a team of researchers from several universities in the United States. The attack method, named EarSpy, is described in a paper published just before Christmas by researchers from Texas A&M University, Temple Universit
  
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• Metaverse Off To Ominous Start After VR Headset Sales Shrank In 2022

  29-12-2022 11:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Sales of VR headsets in the U.S. this year declined 2% from a year earlier to $1.1 billion as of early December, according to data shared with CNBC by research firm NPD Group. CNBC reports: [D]ata from analyst firm CCS Insight reveals that worldwide shipments of VR headsets as well as augmented reality devices dropped more than 12% year over year to 9.6 million in 2022. Taken together, the estimates of VR headset sales and shipments create a problematic picture for Meta, whose stock price has lo
  
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• NASA Mulls SpaceX Backup Plan For Crew of Russia's Leaky Soyuz Ship

  29-12-2022 08:00 via science.slashdot.org
  NASA is exploring whether SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft can potentially offer an alternative ride home for some crew members of the International Space Station after a Russian capsule sprang a coolant leak while docked to the orbital lab. Reuters reports: NASA and Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, are investigating the cause of a punctured coolant line on an external radiator of Russia's Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, which is supposed to return its crew of two cosmonauts and one U.S. astronaut to Ea
  
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• Every Planet In the Solar System Will Be Visible Tonight

  29-12-2022 04:30 via science.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Space.com: Take a grand tour of the solar system tonight (Dec. 28) as each of the planets in the solar system will be visible at the same time. As 2022 comes to an end, skywatchers can take in the rare sight of all of the planets in our solar system (aside from Earth) together in the sky. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are all currently visible simultaneously with the naked eye. The two outermost planets, Uranus and Neptune, can meanwhile be obs
  
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• The LastPass Disclosure of Leaked Password Vaults Is Being Torn Apart By Security Experts

  29-12-2022 03:02 via it.slashdot.org
  Last week, LastPass announced that attackers stole customer vault data after breaching its cloud storage earlier this year using information stolen during an August 2022 incident. "While the company insists that your login information is still secure, some cybersecurity experts are heavily criticizing its post, saying that it could make people feel more secure than they actually are and pointing out that this is just the latest in a series of incidents that make it hard to trust the password man
  
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• Amazon Planning Standalone App For Sports Content

  29-12-2022 02:25 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  According to the Information, Amazon is working on a standalone app for watching sports content. Reuters reports: Sports remains one of the biggest attractions for live viewing as U.S. audiences increasingly switch from pay TV subscriptions to streaming apps. The move will likely complement Amazon's effort to double down on sports programming through its Prime Video service, a key channel to attract consumers to its shopping platform.Amazon already owns the rights to stream games including Natio
  
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• Toronto-Waterloo Tech Workforce Expected To Surpass Silicon Valley In 2023

  29-12-2022 01:45 via news.slashdot.org
  Thanks in part to Canada's immigration policies, the tech sector in the Toronto Waterloo Corridor will soon have more workers than the San Francisco Bay area. The Record reports: During 2021, the San Francisco Bay area added 14,000 jobs, increasing total tech employment there to 378,870. During 2021, the Toronto Waterloo Corridor added 88,000 jobs, increasing total tech employment to 313,700. "We are on a tear," said Chris Albinson, the chief executive officer at Communitech. "Canada admitted 40
  
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• Twitter Rival Mastodon Rejects Funding To Preserve Nonprofit Status

  29-12-2022 01:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Twitter rivalMastodon has rejected more than five investment offers from Silicon Valley venture capital firms in recent months, as its founder pledged to protect the fast-growing social media platform's non-profit status. Mastodon, an open-source microblogging site founded in 2016 by German software developer Eugen Rochko, has seen a surge in users since Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in October amid concerns over the billionaire's
  
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• Alameda Wallets Become Active Days After SBF Bail, Community Mulls Foul Play

  29-12-2022 00:20 via slashdot.org
  The crypto wallets associated with now-bankrupt trading firm Alameda Research, the sister company of FTX, were seen transferring out funds just days after the former CEO Sam Bankman Fried was released on a $250 million bond. CoinTelegraph reports: The transfer of funds from Alameda wallets raised community curiosity, but more than that, the way in which these funds were transferred grabbed the community's attention. The Alameda wallet was found to be swapping bits of ERC-20s for Ether/Tether, an
  
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