ICT news

• Merriam-Webster Acquires Wordle Clone Quordle

  20-01-2023 23:40 via games.slashdot.org
  
  Merriam-Webster, the Encyclopaedia Britannica subsidiary best known for its online dictionary, has acquired a popular Wordle clone called Quordle. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed. TechCrunch reports: Little fanfare has been made around the acquisition, but the Quordle website now redirects to its own space on the Merriam-Webster website, while Quordle creator Freddie Meyer quietly issued this statement at the top of the Quordle tutorial section: "I'm delighted to announce that Quordle
  
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• Drupal Releases Security Advisories to Address Multiple Vulnerabilities

  20-01-2023 23:30 via us-cert.cisa.gov
  Original release date: January 20, 2023
  Drupal has released security advisories to address vulnerabilities affecting multiple products. An attacker could exploit these vulnerabilities to access sensitive information.CISA encourages users and administrators to review Drupal’s security advisories SA-CORE-2023-001, SA-CONTRIB-2023-002, SA-CONTRIB-2023-003, and SA-CONTRIB-2023-004 and apply the necessary updates. This product is provided subject to this Notification and this Privacy & Use
  
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• Supreme Court Allows Reddit Mods To Anonymously Defend Section 230

  20-01-2023 23:02 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Over the past few days, dozens of tech companies have filed briefs in support of Google in a Supreme Court case that tests online platforms' liability for recommending content. Obvious stakeholders like Meta and Twitter, alongside popular platforms like Craigslist, Etsy, Wikipedia, Roblox, and Tripadvisor, urged the court to uphold Section 230 immunity in the case or risk muddying the paths users rely on to connect with each other and discov
  
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• Amazon To Plow Extra $35 Billion Into Virginia Data Centers in Cloud Race

  20-01-2023 22:22 via slashdot.org
  
  Amazon's cloud unit will spend $35 billion on new data centers in Virginia by 2040, underscoring its determination to stay ahead of rivals Microsoft and Alphabet. From a report: The investments at multiple locations will create an estimated 1,000 jobs in Virginia, the state said in a news release Friday. Virginia is Amazon Web Services' most important hub, where dozens of data centers power applications for customers across the Eastern US. A number of sites are under consideration and will be se
  
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• Shadow Acquires Android Emulation Startup Genymobile

  20-01-2023 21:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Shadow is making its first acquisition as it announced that it would snatch up Genymobile, the company behind Genymotion. From a report: Shadow is better known for its cloud computing service that works particularly well for cloud gaming. It also offers a cloud storage service based on Nextcloud. As for Genymobile, the French startup has been around for more than a decade. It has specialized in low-level Android development. And in particular, it has developed a popular Android emulator so that
  
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• Intel, AMD Just Created a Headache for Datacenters

  20-01-2023 21:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: In pursuit of ever-higher compute density, chipmakers are juicing their chips with more and more power, and according to the Uptime Institute, this could spell trouble for many legacy datacenters ill equipped to handle new, higher wattage systems. AMD's Epyc 4 Genoa server processors announced late last year, and Intel's long-awaited fourth-gen Xeon Scalable silicon released earlier this month, are the duo's most powerful and power-hungry chips to date, sucki
  
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• Cisco Releases Security Advisory for Unified CM and Unified CM SME

  20-01-2023 20:58 via us-cert.cisa.gov
  Original release date: January 20, 2023
  Cisco released a security advisory for a vulnerability affecting Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Unified CM) and Cisco Unified Communications Manager Session Management Edition (Unified CM SME). A remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability to cause a denial-of-service condition. For updates addressing lower severity vulnerabilities, see the Cisco Security Advisories page.CISA encourages users and administrators to review the advisories and
  
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• Game Devs Remain Skeptical About Metaverse and Blockchain Projects

  20-01-2023 20:20 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  Game developers are more skeptical of metaverse and blockchain projects, according to a new survey by the Game Developers Conference. From a report: "So much happened during 2022 for ups and downs, and I know crypto had a lot of issues mid year as well," said Alissa McAloon, publisher of Gamedeveloper.com, in an interview with GamesBeat. She noted it's not surprising to see the hype die down. In that respect, the skeptical view of the metaverse and blockchain is not so different from the view of
  
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• Telecom Giants Head To Court To Kill NY State's Demand They Give Poor People $15 Broadband

  20-01-2023 19:41 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Karl Bode, reporting for TechDirt: Recently, New York State passed a new law demanding that regional broadband providers (Verizon, Charter Spectrum, and Altice) provide low-income consumers $15, 25 Mbps broadband tiers to help them survive COVID. The goal: to try and help struggling Americans afford the high cost of broadband during an historic health crisis. Under the proposal ISPs are also allowed to offer $20, 200 Mbps tiers, with any price increases capped at two percent per year. U.S. Regul
  
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• Capital One Scraps 1,100 Tech Positions

  20-01-2023 19:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Consumer lending firm Capital One has cut 1,100 positions in its technology segment, Reuters is reporting citing a source familiar with the matter, a move that comes as its digital transformation matures. From the report: The company plans to eliminate its "Agile" job family and integrate it into existing engineering and product manager roles, it said in a statement. The affected employees have been invited to apply for other roles in the bank. "The Agile role in our Tech organization was critic
  
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• Google To Demo an AI Search Chatbot Amid Pressure From ChatGPT

  20-01-2023 18:21 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: It seems Google is feeling the heat from OpenAI's ChatGPT. The artificial intelligence-powered chatbot has taken the tech world by storm over the last couple months, as it can provide users with information they're looking for in an easy-to-understand format. Google sees ChatGPT as a threat to its search business and has shifted plans accordingly over the last several weeks, according to The New York Times. The report claims CEO Sundar Pichai has declared a "
  
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• Meta, Twitter, Microsoft and Others Urge Supreme Court Not To Allow Lawsuits Against Tech Algorithms

  20-01-2023 17:42 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  A wide range of businesses, internet users, academics and even human rights experts defended Big Tech's liability shield in a pivotal Supreme Court case about YouTube algorithms, with some arguing that excluding AI-driven recommendation engines from federal legal protections would cause sweeping changes to the open internet. From a report: The diverse group weighing in at the Court ranged from major tech companies such as Meta, Twitter and Microsoft to some of Big Tech's most vocal critics, incl
  
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• PayPal Accounts Breached in Large-Scale Credential Stuffing Attack

  20-01-2023 17:03 via it.slashdot.org
  
  PayPal is sending out data breach notifications to thousands of users who had their accounts accessed through credential stuffing attacks that exposed some personal data. From a report: Credential stuffing are attacks where hackers attempt to access an account by trying out username and password pairs sourced from data leaks on various websites. This type of attack relies on an automated approach with bots running lists of credentials to "stuff" into login portals for various services. Credentia
  
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• Light Pollution Rapidly Reducing Number of Stars Visible To Naked Eye, Study Finds

  20-01-2023 16:21 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Research suggests if trend continues, view of Orion's belt will disappear due to glow from artificial lighting. From a report: "There is no light in earth or heaven / But the cold light of stars," wrote the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. But for myriad writers and artists, that source of inspiration could be fading as research has revealed light pollution is rapidly reducing the number of stars visible to the naked eye. The study, published in the journal Science, suggests locations with 250 v
  
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• FAA Says Contractor Unintentionally Caused Outage That Disrupted Flights

  20-01-2023 15:53 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The Federal Aviation Administration has said that a contractor working for the air-safety regulator had unintentionally deleted computer files used in a pilot-alert system, leading to an outage that disrupted U.S. air traffic last week. From a report: The agency, which declined to identify the contractor, said its personnel were working to correctly synchronize two databases -- a main one and a backup -- used for the alert system when the files were unintentionally deleted. The FAA said it had t
  
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• Pioneering Apple Lisa Goes 'Open Source' Thanks To Computer History Museum

  20-01-2023 14:00 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: As part of the Apple Lisa's 40th birthday celebrations, the Computer History Museum has released the source code for Lisa OS version 3.1 under an Apple Academic License Agreement. With Apple's blessing, the Pascal source code is available for download from the CHM website after filling out a form. Lisa Office System 3.1 dates back to April 1984, during the early Mac era, and it was the Lisa equivalent of operating systems like macOS and Wind
  
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• Google Axes 12,000 Jobs

  20-01-2023 13:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Google is laying off 12,000 workers, or about 6% of its workforce, becoming the latest tech company to trim staff as the economic boom that the industry rode during the COVID-19 pandemic ebbed. From a report: CEO Sundar Pichai informed staff Friday at the Silicon Valley giant about the cuts in an email that was also posted on the company's news blog. The firings adds to tens of thousands of other job losses recently announced by Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook parent Meta and other tech companies as
  
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• The First 'Bored Ape' NFT Game Costs $2,300+ For Three Weeks of Play

  20-01-2023 11:00 via games.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Owners of Yuga Labs' infamous "Bored Ape" non-fungible tokens (and related crypto tokens) get free access to a simple endless runner/tunnel racing game called Dookey Dash today. But some members of the "exclusive" Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) are already selling a chance to play the time-limited game for thousands of dollars on the secondary market. Listings on the OpenSea exchange show a current floor price of 1.49 ETH (about $2,293) for a "
  
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• The Incessant Whine of Crypto Mining

  20-01-2023 08:00 via slashdot.org
  
  "When people talk about crypto mining the first thing usually mentioned is the amount of electricity it uses," writes Slashdot reader quonset. "What few realize is how loud rack after rack of servers and fans for cooling running 24/7 can be. The people of Murphy, North Carolina found out, and are not happy about it." From a report: When Judy Stines first heard about cryptocurrency, "I always thought it was smoke and mirrors," she said. "But if that's what you want to invest in, you do you." But
  
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• UV-Emitting Nail Polish Dryers Damage DNA and Cause Mutations In Cells, Study Finds

  20-01-2023 04:30 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Phys.Org: The ultraviolet nail polish drying devices used to cure gel manicures may pose more of a public health concern than previously thought. Researchers at the University of California San Diego have studied these ultraviolet (UV) light emitting devices, and found that their use leads to cell death and cancer-causing mutations in human cells. The devices are a common fixture in nail salons, and generally use a particular spectrum of UV light (340-395
  
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• D&D Will Move To a Creative Commons License, Requests Feedback On a New OGL

  20-01-2023 02:30 via games.slashdot.org
  
  A new draft of the Dungeons & Dragons Open Gaming License, dubbed OGL 1.2 by publisher Wizards of the Coast, is now available for download. Polygon reports: The announcement was made Thursday by Kyle Brink, executive producer of D&D, on the D&D Beyond website. According to Wizards, this draft could place the OGL outside of the publisher's control -- which should sound good to fans enraged by recent events. Time will tell, but public comment will be accepted beginning Jan. 20 and will
  
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• Android 13 Is Running On 5.2% of All Devices Five Months After Launch

  20-01-2023 01:50 via devices.slashdot.org
  
  According to the latest official Android distribution numbers from Google, Android 13 is running on 5.2% of all devices less than six months after launch. 9to5Google reports: According to Android Studio, devices running Android 13 now account for 5.2% of all devices. Meanwhile Android 12 and 12L now account for 18.9% of the total, a significant increase from August's 13.5% figure. Notably, while Google's chart does include details about Android 13, it doesn't make a distinction between Android 1
  
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• The Lights Have Been On At a Massachusetts School For Over a Year Because No One Can Turn Them Off

  20-01-2023 01:10 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from NBC News: For nearly a year and a half, a Massachusetts high school has been lit up around the clock because the district can't turn off the roughly 7,000 lights in the sprawling building. The lighting system was installed at Minnechaug Regional High School when it was built over a decade ago and was intended to save money and energy. But ever since the software that runs it failed on Aug. 24, 2021, the lights in the Springfield suburbs school have been o
  
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• EU's Breton To TikTok CEO: Comply With New Digital Rules Or Face Ban

  20-01-2023 00:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: The European Union's digital policy chief warned TikTok's boss Thursday that the social media app will have to fall in line with tough new rules for online platforms set to take effect later this year. EU Commissioner Thierry Breton held a video call with Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of TikTok, the popular Chinese-owned video sharing app that's coming under increasing scrutiny from Western authorities over fears about data privacy, cybersec
  
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• Microsoft Starts Testing Tabs In Notepad

  20-01-2023 00:10 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft has started testing Tabs in Notepad with Windows Insiders on the Dev Channel today. Thurrott reports: The update to the Notepad will start rolling out to all Dev Channel testers today alongside the new Windows 11 preview build 25281, which brings a couple of other changes. Tabs in Notepad was "a top requested feature from the community," the Windows Insider team emphasized today. The app now supports dragging a tab out into a separate window, and a new setting also lets users choose wh
  
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