ICT news

• Videogame Studio Called 'Proletariat' Declines to Recognize Union

  14-01-2023 23:34 via games.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report from the Washington Post:Staff at Activision Blizzard-owned video game studio Proletariat — whose name is a term for the working class — announced their intention to form a union in December of last year. "Well, what'd you expect?" the Proletariat Workers Alliance wrote on Twitter at the time. Earlier this week, however, Proletariat leadership shared an update: Instead of voluntarily recognizing the union, it will conduct an anonymous vote through
  
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• Scientists Invent an Entirely New Way To Refrigerate Things

  14-01-2023 22:34 via science.slashdot.org
  "Say hello to ionocaloric cooling: a new way to lower the mercury that has the potential to replace existing methods with something that is safer and friendlier to the planet," writes ScienceAlert.
  It's all based on the idea that melting absorbs heats."The landscape of refrigerants is an unsolved problem," says mechanical engineer Drew Lilley, from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. "No one has successfully developed an alternative solution that makes stuff cold, works effi
  
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• 'Job Interviews are a Nightmare - and Only Getting Worse'

  14-01-2023 21:34 via it.slashdot.org
  "It often feels like you're tossing your resume into the abyss and praying to the recruitment gods for a response," writes Vox.
  But then the real ordeal begins:
  Companies are seemingly coming up with new, higher, and harder hoops to jump through at every turn. That translates to endless rounds of interviews, various arbitrary tests, and complex exercises and presentations that entail hours of work and prep. There can be good reasons for firms to do this — they really want to make sure they
  
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• Old Mice Grow Young Again in Study. Can People Do the Same?

  14-01-2023 20:34 via science.slashdot.org
  "In Boston labs, old, blind mice have regained their eyesight, developed smarter, younger brains and built healthier muscle and kidney tissue," reports CNN:On the flip side, young mice have prematurely aged, with devastating results to nearly every tissue in their bodies. The experiments show aging is a reversible process, capable of being driven "forwards and backwards at will," said anti-aging expert David Sinclair, a professor of genetics in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School a
  
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• 2022 Was One of Earth's Hottest Years

  14-01-2023 19:34 via news.slashdot.org
  Planet earth "has now warmed at least 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) compared with preindustrial levels," reports the Washington Post, "and nearly every year in the past decade ranks near the top."
  "On Thursday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ranked 2022 as the sixth-hottest year on record and reported that the 10 warmest have all occurred since 2010...."Twenty-eight countries set national record-high annual averages last year, including Britain, Spain, France, G
  
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• Mabox Linux Called 'Throwback to Old-School Linux'

  14-01-2023 18:34 via linux.slashdot.org
  "If you've been itching to try an Arch Linux distribution and want something outside of the usual GNOME/KDE/Xfce desktop environments, Mabox Linux is an outstanding option...." writes ZDNet's Jack Wallen.
  "It reminded me of my early days using Linux, only with a bit of a modern, user-centric twist...."Linux was hard in its infancy. So, when I see a Linux distribution that reminds me of those days but manages to make it easy on users without years of experience under their belts, it reminds me ho
  
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• Virgin Orbit's Sixth Launch Became a 'Fireball' on Monday

  14-01-2023 17:34 via science.slashdot.org
  It was meant to be the first-ever orbital mission to take off from the United Kingdom — carried by a Virgin Orbit rocket launched from a private jumbo jet Monday over the Atlantic ocean, according to the BBC.
  But instead "at an altitude of approximately 180km (111 miles), the upper stage experienced an anomaly which 'prematurely ended' the first burn. The company said this event ended the mission, with the rocket components and payload falling back to Earth within the approved safety corri
  
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• 'This Film Does Not Exist': AI Imagines Jodorowsky's 'Tron'

  14-01-2023 16:34 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  In the mid-1970s, Chilean filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky tried to film Dune (working with artists including H.R. Giger). A documentary about that attempt was filmed by Frank Pavich, who now writes in the New York Times that "The cast would have included Mick Jagger, Orson Welles, Salvador Dalí and Alejandro's 12-year-old son, Brontis, in the lead role. The soundtrack would have been composed and recorded by Pink Floyd.... It will forever be the greatest film never made, because it exists
  
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• Bitcoin Retakes $20K, Leading As Broad Crypto Rally Continues

  14-01-2023 14:00 via news.slashdot.org
  Bitcoin's (BTC) 2023 surge continues, with the crypto now above $20,000 for the first time since the FTX collapse in early November. CoinDesk reports: The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization started the week near the $17,000 mark after hovering in the mid-$16,000 area since mid-December. Now at $20,250, bitcoin has gained more than 20% in the opening two weeks of this year. Still, the crypto -- which topped $65,000 in Nov. 2021 -- remains near the low end of a brutal bear market. Ind
  
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• Leaker Releases Valve Assets From Repository

  14-01-2023 11:00 via games.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Game Rant: A Discord user has just released various development assets from Valve's repository. It is not an isolated case as Valve is a constant target of hackers and the like. There have been multiple instances wherein concept images or artwork randomly surface on the internet. Valve is a globally recognized company whose games such as Half-Life, Portal, and Team Fortress have grown its large fan base. Its games go through a lengthy development process,
  
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• Airbus Close To Landing Fully Automated Passenger Jets

  14-01-2023 08:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  UpNext, Airbus's future technology-focused subsidiary, reported on Thursday that it has entered the final three months of testing tech it hopes will automate the process of getting a plane from the air to the gate. The Register reports: The system, called DragonFly, tackles automated operations like diversions, landings, and taxi procedures through a combination of sensors, computer vision algorithms and robust guidance calculations. Airbus pitches the system as an extra layer of safety for emer
  
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• Research Summaries Written By AI Fool Scientists

  14-01-2023 04:30 via science.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Scientific American: An artificial-intelligence (AI) chatbot can write such convincing fake research-paper abstracts that scientists are often unable to spot them, according to a preprint posted on the bioRxiv server in late December1. "I am very worried," says Sandra Wachter, who studies technology and regulation at the University of Oxford, UK, and was not involved in the research. "If we're now in a situation where the experts are not able to determine
  
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• Climate Startup Removes CO2 From the Air In Industry First

  14-01-2023 03:02 via news.slashdot.org
  Swiss company Climeworks announced Thursday that it has successfully taken carbon dioxide out of the air and put it in the ground where it will eventually turn into rock in a process that has been verified by an independent third-party auditor. It the first time a company has successfully taken carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, put it underground to be locked away permanently and delivered that permanent carbon removal to a paying customer. CNBC reports: The development has been a long time
  
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• Android TV Box On Amazon Came Pre-Installed With Malware

  14-01-2023 02:25 via it.slashdot.org
  A Canadian systems security consultant discovered that an Android TV box purchased from Amazon was pre-loaded with persistent, sophisticated malware baked into its firmware. BleepingComputer reports: The malware was discovered by Daniel Milisic, who created a script and instructions to help users nullify the payload and stop its communication with the C2 (command and control) server. The device in question is the T95 Android TV box with an AllWinner T616 processor, widely available through Amazo
  
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• Sam Bankman-Fried's Secret 'Backdoor' Discovered, FTX Lawyer Says

  14-01-2023 01:45 via news.slashdot.org
  Sam Bankman-Fried instructed his FTX cofounder Gary Wang to create a "secret" backdoor to enable his trading firm Alameda to borrow $65 billion of clients' money from the exchange without their permission, the Delaware bankruptcy court was told Wednesday. Insider reports: Wang was told to create a "backdoor, a secret way for Alameda to borrow from customers on the exchange without permission," said FTX lawyer Andrew Dietderich. "Mr. Wang created this back door by inserting a single number into m
  
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• NortonLifeLock Warns That Hackers Breached Password Manager Accounts

  14-01-2023 01:02 via it.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from BleepingComputer: Gen Digital, formerly Symantec Corporation and NortonLifeLock, is sending data breach notifications to customers, informing them that hackers have successfully breached Norton Password Manager accounts in credential-stuffing attacks. According to a letter sample shared with the Office of the Vermont Attorney General, the attacks did not result from a breach on the company but from account compromise on other platforms. "Our own systems w
  
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• Google's Stadia Controller Is Getting Bluetooth Support

  14-01-2023 00:20 via games.slashdot.org
  Google is launching its final Stadia game today and is promising to release a tool next week to enable Bluetooth connections on its Stadia Controller. The Verge reports: The last Stadia game to launch on the service is Worm Game, a test game that was technically available on Stadia before Stadia launched publicly in November 2019. Developers at Google have decided to release the game just before the streaming service disappears next week. [...] Alongside the new game, Google is also committing t
  
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• New Sony Walkman Music Players Feature Stunning Good Looks, Android 12

  14-01-2023 00:00 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  Sony has a pair of new Android Walkmans out, the NW-A300 and NW-ZX700. Ars Technica reports: We'll start with the most consumer-friendly of the two, the NW-A300. This basic design debuted in 2019 with the NW-A105, but that shipped with Android 9. This is an upgraded version of that device with a less-ancient version of Android, a new SoC, and a scalloped back design. In Sony's home of Japan, the 32GB version is 46,000 yen (about $360), while in Europe, it's 399 euro (about $430). The NW-A300 is
  
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