ICT news

• Facing Mounting Criticism, Instagram Launches Notification-Pausing 'Quiet' Mode

  21-01-2023 23:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Thursday Instagram launched "Quiet mode" to "help people focus, and to encourage people to set boundaries with friends and followers.... Once enabled, you won't receive any notifications, your profile's activity status will change to 'In quiet mode' and we'll automatically send an auto-reply when someone DMs you.... and once the feature is turned off, we'll show you a quick summary of notifications so you can catch up on what you missed."
  A report from the Verge notes the move "comes as Instagra
  
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• Rust Safety Is Not Superior To C++, Bjarne Stroustrup Says

  21-01-2023 22:34 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  guest reader writes: The Open Standards site contains a new paper from Bjarne Stroustrup titled A call to action: Think seriously about "safety"; then do something sensible about it.Bjarne reacts to an NSA report about Software Memory Safety since the report excludes C and C++ as unsafe. Bjarne does not consider any of the report's choices for "safe" languages as superior to C++ for the range of uses he cares about.
  From Bjarne's response:
  I have worked for decades to make it possible to write b
  
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• 93-Year-Old Retired Astronaut Buzz Aldrin Marries His 'Longtime Love'

  21-01-2023 21:34 via science.slashdot.org
  
  CNN reports:Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, who became the second person to ever set foot on the moon in 1969, following crewmate Neil Armstrong, married his "longtime love" on his 93rd birthday on Friday.
  The former astronaut announced his nuptials on Twitter.... "We were joined in holy matrimony in a small private ceremony in Los Angeles & are as excited as eloping teenagers...." Aldin also thanked fans for their birthday wishes in another Friday tweet. "It means a lot and I hope to continue serving
  
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• Apple Agrees to Audit of Its Labor Practices After Pressure from Investors

  21-01-2023 20:34 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  The New York Times reports:
  Apple will conduct an asessment of its U.S. labor practices under an agreement with a coalition of investors that includes five New York City pension funds. The assessment will focus on whether Apple is complying with its official human rights policy as it relates to "workers' freedom of association and collective bargaining rights in the United States," the company said in a filing last week with the Securities and Exchange Commission.The audit comes amid complaints
  
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• Streaming Free: 'Three-Body Problem' Sci-Fi Novel Adaptation by Tencent Video

  21-01-2023 19:34 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  "One of the most beloved sci-fi novels of the 21st century finally has been adapted for television to huge acclaim," writes Esquire, "and it's out now." Their article includes embedded videos of Tencent Video's live-action adaptation of Three-Body Problem, which is streaming free on YouTube with English subtitles. "They're already getting great reviews online, with an 8.7 IMDb score for the adaptation that is being acclaimed for its faithfulness to the original bestselling novel."
  Long-time Slas
  
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• FCC Nomination Stalled for One Year, Preventing Restoration of US Net Neutrality

  21-01-2023 18:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Why hasn't America restored net neutrality protections? "President Biden's nomination to serve on the Federal Communications Commission has been stalled in the Senate for more than a year," complain the editorial boards of two Silicon Valley newspapers:Confirming Gigi Sohn would end the 2-2 deadlock on the FCC that is keeping Biden from fulfilling his campaign promise to restore net neutrality, ensuring that all internet traffic is treated equally. Polls show that 75% of Americans support net ne
  
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• Satoshi Matsuoka Mocks 12 Myths of High-Performance Computing

  21-01-2023 17:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  insideHPC reports that Satoshi Matsuoka, the head of Japan's largest supercomputing center, has co-authored a high-performance computing paper challenging conventional wisdom.In a paper entitled "Myths and Legends of High-Performance Computing" appearing this week on the Arvix site, Matsuoka and four colleagues offer opinions and analysis on such issues as quantum replacing classical HPC, the zettascale timeline, disaggregated computing, domain-specific languages (DSLs) vs. Fortran and cloud sub
  
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• Documents Show 15 Social Media Companies Failed to Adequately Address Calls for Violence in 2021

  21-01-2023 16:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  The Washington Post has obtained "stunning new details on how social media companies failed to address the online extremism and calls for violence that preceded the Capitol riot."
  Their source? The bipartisan committee investigating attacks on America's Capitol on January 6, 2021 "spent more than a year sifting through tens of thousands of documents from multiple companies, interviewing social media company executives and former staffers, and analyzing thousands of posts. They sent a flurry of s
  
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• TikTok Confirms That Its Own Employees Can Decide What Goes Viral

  21-01-2023 14:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: TikTok has confirmed to Forbes that some of its US employees have the ability to boost videos in order to "introduce celebrities and emerging creators to the TikTok community." The statement comes as part of a report about TikTok's "Heating" button, which Forbes says can be used to put selected videos onto users' For You pages, helping boost views by sidestepping the algorithm that supposedly drives the TikTok experience.Jamie Favazza, a spokes
  
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• Microsoft Kills Off AltspaceVR Amid Major Layoffs

  21-01-2023 11:00 via slashdot.org
  
  AltspaceVR is shutting down in March as Microsoft decimated its teams working in VR & AR this week as part of a major workforce reduction across the entire company. Upload VR reports: Altspace was one of the early VR-based social networking services alongside others like Rec Room and VRChat. As an independent startup Altspace ran out of money, but in 2017 Microsoft acquired it and continued the effort. Microsoft says it is shifting "our focus to support immersive experiences powered by Micro
  
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• First Small Modular Nuclear Reactor Certified For Use In US

  21-01-2023 08:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has certified the design for what will be the United States' first small modular nuclear reactor. The Associated Press reports: The rule that certifies the design was published Thursday in the Federal Register. It means that companies seeking to build and operate a nuclear power plant can pick the design for a 50-megawatt, advanced light-water small modular nuclear reactor by Oregon-based NuScale Power and apply to the NRC for a license. It's the final dete
  
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• Google Calls In Help From Larry Page and Sergey Brin For AI Fight

  21-01-2023 04:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Last month, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google's founders, held several meetings with company executives. The topic: a rival's new chatbot, a clever A.I. product that looked as if it could be the first notable threat in decades to Google's $149 billion search business.
  Mr. Page and Mr. Brin, who had not spent much time at Google since they left their daily roles with the company in 2019, reviewed Google's artificial intelligence produc
  
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• CNET Pauses Publishing AI-Written Stories After Disclosure Controversy

  21-01-2023 03:02 via news.slashdot.org
  
  CNET will pause publication of stories generated using artificial intelligence "for now," the site's leadership told employees on a staff call Friday. The Verge reports: The call, which lasted under an hour, was held a week after CNET came under fire for its use of AI tools on stories and one day after The Verge reported that AI tools had been in use for months, with little transparency to readers or staff. CNET hadn't formally announced the use of AI until readers noticed a small disclosure. "W
  
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• IBM Top Brass Accused Again of Using Mainframes To Prop Up Watson, Cloud Sales

  21-01-2023 02:25 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  IBM, along with 13 of its current and former executives, has been sued by investors who claim the IT giant used mainframe sales to fraudulently prop up newer, more trendy parts of its business. The Register reports: In effect, IBM deceived the market about its progress in developing Watson, cloud technologies, and other new sources of revenue, by deliberately misclassifying the money it was making from mainframe deals, assigning that money instead to other products, it is alleged. The accusation
  
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• Microsoft Has Copied the Best Windows Audio App

  21-01-2023 01:45 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  In the latest test build of Windows 11, a new volume mixer can be enabled that looks a lot like EarTrumpet. The Verge's Tom Warren reports: The new Windows 11 feature provides quick access from the taskbar to switch audio outputs and control individual app volumes. That's exactly what EarTrumpet was built for nearly five years ago. The awesome utility has improved audio in Windows for years, and I once called it "the Windows 10 volume control app Microsoft should have created." How ironic.Former
  
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• US Airline Accidentally Exposes 'No Fly List' On Unsecured Server

  21-01-2023 01:02 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Daily Dot: An unsecured server discovered by a security researcher last week contained the identities of hundreds of thousands of individuals from the U.S. government's Terrorist Screening Database and "No Fly List." Located by the Swiss hacker known as maia arson crimew, the server, run by the U.S. national airline CommuteAir, was left exposed on the public internet. It revealed a vast amount of company data, including private information on almost 1
  
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• Six Years Later, HPE and Oracle Quietly Shut Door On Solaris Lawsuit

  21-01-2023 00:20 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  HPE and Oracle have settled their long-running legal case over alleged copyright infringement regarding Solaris software updates for HPE customers, but it looks like the nature of the settlement is going to remain under wraps. The Register reports: The pair this week informed [PDF] the judge overseeing the case that they'd reached a mutual settlement and asked for the case to be dismissed "with prejudice" -- ie, permanently. The settlement agreement is confidential, and its terms won't be made p
  
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