ICT news

• Watch SpaceX's Falcon Heavy Launch - the First of Its Five Missions This Year

  15-01-2023 23:38 via science.slashdot.org
  Watch a rare launch of SpaceX's massive Falcon Heavy rocket livestreamed on SpaceX's YouTube channel."Nearly five years have passed since the massive Falcon Heavy rocket made its successful debut launch in February 2018," writes Ars Technica.
  "Since then, however, SpaceX's heavy lift rocket has flown just three additional times."Why? It's partly because there is simply not all that much demand for a heavy lift rocket. Another factor is that SpaceX has increased the performance of its Falcon 9 ro
  
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• Boring Company Gave Free Rides Through Its Underground Vegas Tunnel During CES

  15-01-2023 22:15 via tech.slashdot.org
  "Thousands of CES 2023 attendees tested out the Las Vegas Convention Center Loop tunnel transit system," reports Fierce Electronics, "for quick 1.7-mile trips offering them a prelude of more of the efficient tunnels to come."The service was free during the early January event, offering 115,000 CES attendees a chance to reduce a 45-minute LVCC cross-campus walk time down to 2 minutes, not including short waits for Tesla vehicles with drivers. "I call shotgun!" one gleeful CES attendee said while
  
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• Gen Z's New Fascination With Flip Phones

  15-01-2023 21:15 via mobile.slashdot.org
  Slashdot reader quonset writes: In what is becoming a recurring theme, Gen Z keeps harkening back to nostalgia. Whether low-rise jeans or disposable cameras, they can't seem to get enough of vintage technology from the past. Their latest obsession? Flip phones.Why this fascination? Several reasons. Flip phones are far less expensive than any smart phone, easier to operate as they have few, if any, software included, there isn't the incessant need to see who messaged you or who said what and, per
  
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• CNET Used AI to Write 75 Articles

  15-01-2023 19:35 via news.slashdot.org
  From BuzzFeed News:Technology news outlet CNET has been found to be using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to write articles about personal finance without any prior announcement or explanation. The articles, which numbered at 73, covered topics such as "What Is Zelle and How Does It Work?" and had a small disclaimer at the bottom of each reading, "This article was generated using automation technology and thoroughly edited and fact-checked by an editor on our editorial staff." The bylines on these
  
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• Harvard's 'RoboBee' Project Finally Lifts Off as a Surgical-Tech Company

  15-01-2023 18:34 via science.slashdot.org
  "When Robert Wood came to Harvard University 17 years ago, he wanted to design an insect-sized robot that could fly," reports the Boston Globe. And finally Last month, technology from Wood's "RoboBee" project was commercialized for the first time, "spinning out as a surgical-robot startup backed by venture capital firm 1955 Capital.
  "RoboBee was funded by $10 million in grants from the National Science Foundation. Its evolution into a company says a lot about how schools like Harvard are doing m
  
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• Linux Preparing To Disable Drivers For Microsoft's RNDIS Protocol

  15-01-2023 17:34 via linux.slashdot.org
  Phoronix reports:With the next Linux kernel cycle we could see upstream disable their driver support for Microsoft's Remote Network Driver Interface Specification (RNDIS) protocol due to security concerns.
  RNDIS is the proprietary protocol used atop USB for virtual Ethernet functionality. The support for RNDIS outside of Microsoft Windows has been mixed. RNDIS isn't widely used today in cross-platform environments and due to security concerns the upstream Linux kernel is looking to move the RNDI
  
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• Contrails Cause 57% of a Plane's Climate Impact. Can That Be Changed?

  15-01-2023 16:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  Contrails — the wispy ice clouds trailing behind flying jets — "are surprisingly bad for the environment," reports CNN:A study that looked at aviation's contribution to climate change between 2000 and 2018 concluded that contrails create 57% of the sector's warming impact, significantly more than the CO2 emissions from burning fuel. They do so by trapping heat that would otherwise be released into space.
  And yet, the problem may have an apparently straightforward solution. Contrails
  
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• JavaScript, Java, and Python are Most In-Demand Skills, Survey Finds

  15-01-2023 13:34 via developers.slashdot.org
  InfoWorld reports:
  JavaScript, Java, and Python skills are most in-demand by recruiters, according to a report published this week by tech hiring platforms CodinGame and CoderPad. But while the supply of those skills exceeds demand, the demand for TypeScript, Swift, Scala, Kotlin, and Go skills all exceed supply.
  The State of Tech Hiring in 2023, a CodinGame-CoderPad report published January 10, draws on a survey of 14,000 professionals and offers insights into what 2023 may hold for tech indust
  
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• GitHub Copilot Labs Add Photoshop-Style 'Brushes' for ML-Powered Code Modifying

  15-01-2023 09:34 via developers.slashdot.org
  "Can editing code feel more tactile, like painting with Photoshop brushes?"
  Researchers at GitHub Next asked that question this week — and then supplied the answer. "We added a toolbox of brushes to our Copilot Labs Visual Studio Code extension that can modify your code.... Just select a few lines, choose your brush, and see your code update."
  The tool's web page includes interactive before-and-after examples demonstrating:Add Types brushFix Bugs brushAdd Debugging Statements brushMake Mor
  
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• America's Renewables Surpassed Coal in 2022 - But Greenhouse Gas Emissions Still Increased

  15-01-2023 05:34 via news.slashdot.org
  Last year in America, "Renewable energy surpassed coal power nationwide for the first time in over six decades," reports the New York Times. Wind, solar and hydropower generated 22% of America's electricity, compared with 20% from coal.
  But unfortunately, America's greenhouse gas emissions still increased from the year before, "according to preliminary estimates published Tuesday by the Rhodium Group, a nonpartisan research firm."
  The New Yorker supplies some context:
  This increase, according to
  
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• How NASA's Planned Moon Presence Will Practice Living in Space

  15-01-2023 03:34 via science.slashdot.org
  NASA's plans for a presence on the moon "will allow the program to practice how to live in space sustainably," writes the Washington Post. "It will allow scientists to tap into the moon's considerable scientific value to learn more about how Earth was formed. And perhaps, it would also serve as a steppingstone to Mars and other deep-space destinations years in the future."
  First, unlike in the 1960s — we now know that the moon has water.Water is not only key to sustaining human life, but i
  
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• Will Digital Signatures Replace Handwritten Ones?

  15-01-2023 00:34 via slashdot.org
  The Toronto Star notes "the near-elimination of cursive from the school curriculum and a move to paperless commerce" over the past two decades. So where does that leave handwritten signatures?
  Then the pandemic hit, and with it came an accelerated adoption of technology, including the electronic signature, which helped us through forcibly distant transactions. Overnight, companies like Docusign and Adobe became vital lifelines as people shifted to relying on e-signatures. Docusign, for example,
  
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