ICT news

• D&D Publisher Addresses Backlash Over Controversial License

  13-01-2023 23:40 via games.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: After a week of silence amid intense backlash, Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast (WoTC) has finally addressed its community's concerns about changes to the open gaming license. The open gaming license (OGL) has existed since 2000 and has made it possible for a diverse ecosystem of third-party creators to publish virtual tabletop software, expansion books and more. Many of these creators can make a living thanks to the OGL.
  
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• Crypto.com Cuts 20% Jobs Amid 'Unforeseeable' Industry Events

  13-01-2023 23:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Crypto exchange Crypto.com is cutting its global workforce by 20%, it said on Friday, as it navigates ongoing economic headwinds and "unforeseeable" industry events. From a report: This is the second major layoff at the Singapore-headquartered Crypto.com, which cut 250 jobs in mid-last year -- though a report suggested that more than 2,000 people were either let go or left at their own will. The company did not say what roles were being eliminated in the new round of layoff but blamed the collap
  
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• Nvidia Broadcast Can Now Deepfake Your Eyes To Make You Look at the Camera

  13-01-2023 22:21 via tech.slashdot.org
  Nvidia's streaming software now has an option to make it appear like you're making eye contact with the camera, even if you're looking somewhere else in real life. From a report: Using AI, the "Eye Contact" feature added to Nvidia Broadcast 1.4 will replace your eyes with "simulated" ones that are aligned with your camera -- an effect that worked really well when we tested it ourselves, except for all the times it didn't. In an announcement post, the company writes the feature is meant for "cont
  
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• Meta Sues Surveillance Company for Scraping Data With Fake Facebook Accounts

  13-01-2023 21:40 via yro.slashdot.org
  Meta has filed a legal complaint against a company for allegedly creating tens of thousands of fake Facebook accounts to scrape user data and provide surveillance services for clients. From a report: The firm, Voyager Labs, bills itself as "a world leader in advanced AI-based investigation solutions." What this means in practice is analyzing social media posts en masse in order to make claims about individuals. In 2021, for example, The Guardian reported how Voyager Labs sold its services to the
  
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• Google, Nvidia Express Concerns To FTC About Microsoft's Activision Deal

  13-01-2023 21:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Alphabet's Google and Nvidia have expressed concerns to the Federal Trade Commission about Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, adding fuel to the government's case against the $69 billion deal, Bloomberg News is reporting, citing people familiar with the matter. From the report: The companies joined Sony in raising issues with the transaction, which the FTC sued to block in December. The commission has argued that the deal would hinder competition in the video-game industry and has s
  
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• Jawbone Co-Founder's Health Startup Sued by Investor Alleging Fraud

  13-01-2023 20:20 via yro.slashdot.org
  All.health, a medical care startup that rose from the ashes of once-hot wearable company Jawbone, is being sued in San Francisco by one of its investors for alleged fraud, misrepresentation and breach of contract. From a report: All.health's co-founders, the former Jawbone Chief Executive Officer Hosain Rahman and Michael Luna, are also named in the complaint. While All.health, Rahman and Luna deny the claims, the dispute is an illustration of the rancor that can envelop fledgling tech companies
  
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• Google Says Supreme Court Ruling Could Potentially Upend the Internet

  13-01-2023 19:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  Speaking of Google, the company says in a court filing that a case before the Supreme Court challenging the liability shield protecting websites such as YouTube and Facebook could "upend the internet," resulting in both widespread censorship and a proliferation of offensive content. From a report: In a new brief filed with the high court, Google said that scaling back liability protections could lead internet giants to block more potentially offensive content -- including controversial political
  
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• Google Says India Antitrust Order Poses Threat To National Security

  13-01-2023 19:01 via tech.slashdot.org
  Google warned on Friday that if the Indian antitrust watchdog's ruling is allowed to progress it would result in devices getting expensive in the South Asian market and lead to proliferation of unchecked apps that will pose threats for individual and national security, escalating its concerns over the future of Android in the key overseas region. From a report: "Predatory apps that expose users to financial fraud, data theft and a number of other dangers abound on the internet, both from India a
  
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• New UFO Report Shows Hundreds More Incidents than Previously Thought

  13-01-2023 18:20 via news.slashdot.org
  The U.S. intelligence community says that the number of UFO reports involving U.S. military personnel is increasing, "enabling a greater awareness of the airspace and increased opportunity to resolve" what is actually being reported. From a report: Roughly half of the new incidents reported in the report had terrestrial explanations, the report said. The increase in reporting is being partially attributed to the continuing effort to destigmatize the reporting of such incidents and focusing on th
  
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• Gaming YouTube Is In Turmoil Thanks To New Violence and Profanity Rules

  13-01-2023 17:40 via news.slashdot.org
  AmiMoJo writes: Members of YouTube's gaming community are calling out the video hosting site for adding new regulations regarding profanity usage and violent content, disproportionately affecting gaming creators who produce unscripted videos such as let's plays of M-rated games. Worse, the policy is retroactively deeming their videos in violation of new rules and affecting their ability to make money on the platform.
  The rule changes in question was originally made in November of 2022, and the b
  
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• NSA Director Urges Congress To Renew Controversial Intelligence Authority

  13-01-2023 17:00 via news.slashdot.org
  NSA Director and head of U.S. Cyber Command Gen. Paul Nakasone said in remarks on Thursday that intelligence authorities up for renewal later this year have played a key role in protecting the United States against cyberattacks. From a report: Nakasone's remarks at a virtual meeting of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board offered a preview of what is expected to be an intense political fight later this year to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act -- a law tha
  
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• Vulnerability With 9.8 Severity in Control Web Panel is Under Active Exploit

  13-01-2023 16:20 via it.slashdot.org
  Malicious hackers have begun exploiting a critical vulnerability in unpatched versions of the Control Web Panel, a widely used interface for web hosting. ArsTechnica reports: "This is an unauthenticated RCE," members of the Shadowserver group wrote on Twitter, using the abbreviation for remote code exploit. "Exploitation is trivial and a PoC published." PoC refers to a proof-of-concept code that exploits the vulnerability. The vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2022-44877. It was discovered by Numa
  
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• Wall Street's New ESG Money-Maker Promises Nature Conservation - With a Catch

  13-01-2023 15:30 via slashdot.org
  Big global banks are eying some of the world's most fragile countries for a new experiment in financial engineering: debt relief in exchange for environmental protections. From a report: Called "debt-for-nature swaps," they present a tempting solution for the rising number of nations in distress, particularly those with ecosystems to protect. A country gets to avoid default and lower its debt burden, as long as it's willing to earmark some of the savings to salvage a coral reef, preserve a fores
  
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• Microsoft Investigating Windows Start Menu and Taskbar Shortcuts Disappearing

  13-01-2023 15:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Microsoft says it's investigating an issue in Windows that is causing application shortcuts in the Start menu or taskbar to disappear. From a report: Multiple IT admins have detailed the problem on Twitter and Reddit this morning, and it appears to be related to a recent update to the Microsoft Defender threat detections. The problem is affecting businesses and organizations using Microsoft 365 and Defender for protection against malware, viruses, and other threats. In a note to customers, Micro
  
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• UK Could Jail Social Media Bosses Who Breach Child Safety Rules

  13-01-2023 14:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  Downing Street has said it is considering a Tory-backed amendment to the online safety bill that would allow for the imposing of jail sentences on social media bosses who are found not to have protected children's safety. The Guardian reports: No 10 said on Thursday it was open to the proposal, which is backed by at least 36 Conservative MPs including the former home secretary Priti Patel and the former work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith. The amendment would give Ofcom, the communicat
  
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• Sweden Makes Regulatory Push To Allow New Nuclear Reactors

  13-01-2023 11:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  Sweden is preparing legislation to allow the construction of more nuclear power stations to boost electricity production in the Nordic country and bolster energy security, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Wednesday. Reuters reports: Kristersson has made expanding nuclear power generation a key goal for his right-wing government, seeking to reverse a process of gradual closures of several reactors in the past couple of decades that has left the country relying more heavily on renewable but
  
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• We Exist Inside a Giant Space Bubble, And Scientists Have Finally Mapped It

  13-01-2023 08:00 via science.slashdot.org
  Becky Ferreira writes via Motherboard: You may not realize it in your day-to-day life, but we are all enveloped by a giant "superbubble" that was blown into space by the explosive deaths of a dozen-odd stars. Known as the Local Bubble, this structure extends for about 1,000 light years around the solar system, and is one of countless similar bubbles in our galaxy that are produced by the fallout of supernovas. Cosmic superbubbles have remained fairly mysterious for decades, but recent astronomic
  
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• Woman Ordered To Repay Employer After Software Shows 'Time Theft'

  13-01-2023 04:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: A Canadian woman has been ordered by a civil tribunal to compensate her former employer for "time theft" after she was caught misrepresenting hours worked by controversial tracking software. Karlee Besse, who worked remotely as an accountant in British Columbia, initially claimed she was fired from her job without cause last year and sought $3,729 in compensation -- both in unpaid wages and severance. But the company, Reach CPA, told the tri
  
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• US Cancer Death Rate Falls 33% Since 1991, Report Says

  13-01-2023 03:02 via science.slashdot.org
  The rate of people dying from cancer in the United States has continuously declined over the past three decades, according to a new report from the American Cancer Society. CNN reports: The US cancer death rate has fallen 33% since 1991, which corresponds to an estimated 3.8 million deaths averted, according to the report, published Thursday in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. The rate of lives lost to cancer continued to shrink in the most recent year for which data is available, between 20
  
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• HDMI Alt Mode Is Dead

  13-01-2023 02:25 via hardware.slashdot.org
  According to the HDMI Licensing Administrator (LA), the HDMI Alt Mode feature is dead. Notebookcheck reports: According to HDMI LA, there are simply no more uses for Alt Mode. One of the reasons is that companies like Apple have begun putting HDMI ports on their products again. HDMI Alt Mode also no longer offers any advantages. As a result, the specification will not receive any further updates. This means an HDMI output has to come from somewhere else on a laptop. Besides the standard and mini
  
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• Google To Allow Rust Code In the Chromium Browser

  13-01-2023 01:45 via news.slashdot.org
  Google announced today that moving forward they will be allowing Rust code into the Chromium code-base, the open-source project that ultimately served as the basis for their Chrome web browser. Phoronix reports: Google is working to introduce a production Rust toolchain into their build system for Chromium and will be allowing Rust libraries for use within Chrome/Chromium. The timeframe for getting this all together is expected within the next year following a slow ramp. Google is backing Rust f
  
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• Apple Watch Patent Infringement Confirmed, As Masimo Seeks Import Ban

  13-01-2023 01:02 via yro.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from 9to5Mac: Apple has suffered a setback in its long-running Apple Watch patent infringement battle with medical technology company Masimo. A court has ruled that Apple has indeed infringed one of Masimo's patents in the Apple Watch Series 6 and up. Masimi is seeking a US import on all current Apple Watches. If granted, this would effectively end Apple Watch sales in the US, as the company would not be allowed to bring in the devices from China.The battle be
  
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• SEC Alleges Gemini, Genesis Sold Unregistered Securities

  13-01-2023 00:20 via yro.slashdot.org
  The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleged crypto exchange Gemini and crypto lender Genesis Global Capital sold unregistered securities in a lawsuit filed late Thursday. CoinDesk reports: The investment regulator took aim at Gemini Earn, the troubled yield-bearing product that hundreds of thousands of U.S. investors entrusted with their crypto. Gemini generated yield on billions of dollars in crypto by loaning deposits to Genesis, which loaned them out again. But Genesis' November
  
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