ICT news

• US Fighter Jets Shoot Down Spy Balloon With a Single Missile

  04-02-2023 23:30 via news.slashdot.org
  
  CNN reports:
  The US military used fighter jets from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia to take down the suspected Chinese spy balloon at 2:39 p.m. ET on Saturday, according to a senior US military official. A single missile was used, the official said....
  President Joe Biden said the mission to shoot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the East Coast Saturday was successful, and that he had ordered the Pentagon to knock the aircraft out of the sky as soon as it was safe to do so. "On Wednes
  
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• Before Chinese Spy Balloon, Classified US Report Highlighted Foreign Aerial Spying

  04-02-2023 22:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  That Chinese spy balloon floating over the continental U.S. "generated deep concern," reports the New York Times — "in part because it came on the heels of a classified report to Congress that outlined incidents of American adversaries potentially using advanced technology to spy on the country.
  "The classified report to Congress last month discussed at least two incidents of a rival power conducting aerial surveillance with what appeared to be unknown cutting-edge technology, according to
  
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• AI Models Spit Out Photos of Real People and Copyrighted Images

  04-02-2023 21:34 via slashdot.org
  
  MIT's Technology Review reports:
  Popular image generation models can be prompted to produce identifiable photos of real people, potentially threatening their privacy, according to new research. The work also shows that these AI systems can be made to regurgitate exact copies of medical images and copyrighted work by artists. It's a finding that could strengthen the case for artists who are currently suing AI companies for copyright violations. The researchers, from Google, DeepMind, UC Berkeley,
  
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• 79-Year-Old Vint Cerf Receives IEEE Medal of Honor

  04-02-2023 20:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Long-time Slashdot reader penciling_in shared this special report from CircleID:Vinton Cerf, widely known as the 'Father of the Internet,' has been awarded the IEEE Medal of Honor in 2023 for his contributions to the development of the Internet architecture and for his leadership in its growth as a critical infrastructure for society. In 1974, Robert Kahn and Cerf, who was working as program manager at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Information Processing Techniques O
  
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• After Cracking Another 'Secure' Messaging App, European Police Arrest 42

  04-02-2023 19:34 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Slashdot reader lexios shares this report from the French international news agency Agence France-Press:European police arrested 42 suspects and seized guns, drugs and millions in cash, after cracking another encrypted online messaging service used by criminals, Dutch law enforcement said Friday. Police launched raids on 79 premises in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands following an investigation that started back in September 2020 and led to the shutting down of the covert Exclu Messenger ser
  
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• Bitcoin's 2023 Price Rise 'Very Suspicious', Says Manipulation Researcher

  04-02-2023 18:34 via slashdot.org
  
  In 2017 the New York Times covered research co-authored by John Griffin, a finance professor at the University of Texas, into Hong Kong-based Bitfinex, "one of the largest and least regulated exchanges in the industry."Mr. Griffin looked at the flow of digital tokens going in and out of Bitfinex and identified several distinct patterns that suggest that someone or some people at the exchange successfully worked to push up prices when they sagged at other exchanges. To do that, the person or peop
  
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• Internet Archive Celebrates 1927 Works' Arrival in Public Domain with Short Film Contest

  04-02-2023 17:34 via idle.slashdot.org
  
  To celebrate this year's "Public Domain Day," the Internet Archive "asked people to submit short films highlighting anything that was going to be made available in the Public Domain in 2023."For the contest, vintage images and sounds were woven into creative films of 2-3 minutes. Many of the films were abstract while others educational, they all showcased the possibility when public domain materials are made openly available and accessible for download. "The Internet Archive has spent 24 years c
  
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• Proposed Linux Patch Allows Disabling CPU Security Mitigations at Build-Time

  04-02-2023 16:34 via linux.slashdot.org
  
  Phoronix reports:A proposed Linux kernel patch would provide a new Kconfig build time option of "CONFIG_DEFAULT_CPU_MITIGATIONS_OFF" to build an insecure kernel if wanting to avoid the growing list of CPU security mitigations within the kernel and their associated performance overhead.
  While risking system security, booting the Linux kernel with the "mitigations=off" option has been popular for avoiding the performance costs of Spectre, Meltdown, and the many other CPU security vulnerabilities t
  
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• Disney Explores the Sale of More Films and TV Series To Rivals

  04-02-2023 14:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Walt Disney Co. is exploring more licensing of its films and television series to rival media outlets as pressure grows to curb the losses in its streaming TV business. The Burbank, California-based entertainment giant is seeking to earn more cash from its content library, according to people familiar with the discussions who asked not to be identified as the talks are private. The move would represent a shift in strategy, as Disney has in rece
  
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• Google Is Working On Blink-Based iOS Browser, Contrary To Apple's WebKit Rule

  04-02-2023 11:00 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Longtime Slashdot reader Dotnaught writes: "Google's Chromium developers have begun work on an experimental web browser for Apple's iOS using the search giant's Blink engine," reports The Register. "That's unexpected because the current version of Chrome for iOS uses Apple's WebKit rendering engine under the hood. Apple requires every iOS browser to use WebKit and its iOS App Store Review Guidelines state, 'Apps that browse the web must use the appropriate WebKit framework and WebKit Javascript.
  
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• Blobs of Human Brain Planted In Rats Offer New Treatment Hope

  04-02-2023 08:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Blobs of human brain tissue have been transplanted into the brains of rats in work that could pave the way for new treatments for devastating brain injuries. The Guardian reports: The groundbreaking study showed that the "human brain organoids" -- sesame seed-sized balls of neurons -- were able to integrate into the rat brain, linking up with their blood supplies and communicating with the rat neurons. The team behind the work suggest that eventually doctors might be able to grow blobs of brain
  
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• Australia To Allow Prescription of MDMA and Psilocybin For Medical Use

  04-02-2023 04:30 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: After decades of "demonization", psychiatrists will be able to prescribe MDMA and psilocybin in Australia from July this year. The Therapeutic Goods Administration made the surprise announcement on Friday afternoon. The drugs will only be allowed to be used in a very limited way, and remain otherwise prohibited, but the move was described as a "very welcome step away from what has been decades of demonization" by Dr David Caldicott, a clinic
  
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• Startups Capture CO2 and Store It In Concrete

  04-02-2023 03:02 via news.slashdot.org
  
  A California startup using rocks to soak up carbon dioxide from the air has teamed up with a Canadian company to mineralize the gas in concrete, a technological tie-up that is a first and they say could provide a model for fighting climate change globally. Reuters reports: Heirloom Carbon Technologies delivered about 30 kg (66 lb) of CO2 collected from the air around its San Francisco Bay Area headquarters to neighboring Central Concrete, a Vulcan Materials' (VMC.N) subsidiary that on Wednesday
  
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• Dashlane Publishes Its Source Code To GitHub In Transparency Push

  04-02-2023 02:25 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Password management company Dashlane has made its mobile app code available on GitHub for public perusal, a first step it says in a broader push to make its platform more transparent. TechCrunch reports: The Dashlane Android app code is available now alongside the iOS incarnation, though it also appears to include the codebase for its Apple Watch and Mac apps even though Dashlane hasn't specifically announced that. The company said that it eventually plans to make the code for its web extension
  
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• Think Twice Before Using Google To Download Software, Researchers Warn

  04-02-2023 01:45 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Searching Google for downloads of popular software has always come with risks, but over the past few months, it has been downright dangerous, according to researchers and a pseudorandom collection of queries. Ars Technica reports: "Threat researchers are used to seeing a moderate flow of malvertising via Google Ads," volunteers at Spamhaus wrote on Thursday. "However, over the past few days, researchers have witnessed a massive spike affecting numerous famous brands, with multiple malware being
  
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• GitHub CEO On Why Open Source Developers Should Be Exempt From the EU's AI Act

  04-02-2023 01:02 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke says that open source developers should be made exempt from the European Union's (EU) proposed new artificial intelligence (AI) regulations, saying that the opportunity is still there for Europe to lead on AI. "Open source is forming the foundation of AI in Europe," Dohmke said onstage at the EU Open Source Policy Summit in Brussels. "The U.S. and China don't have to win it all." The regulations in question come via Th
  
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• Meta Soars by Most in Decade, Adding $100 Billion in Value

  04-02-2023 00:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Meta's stock surged on Thursday after the company reported better-than-expected earnings, said it would buy back billions of dollars in its stock, and overcame a court challenge to its ambitions in the so-called metaverse. The New York Times reports: Shares of the tech giant, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, climbed more than 23 percent, its biggest daily gain in nearly 10 years. And it was a huge move for a company its size, adding nearly $100 billion in market value in a single d
  
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• Judge Uses ChatGPT To Make Court Decision

  04-02-2023 00:20 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: A judge in Colombia used ChatGPT to make a court ruling, in what is apparently the first time a legal decision has been made with the help of an AI text generator -- or at least, the first time we know about it. Judge Juan Manuel Padilla Garcia, who presides over the First Circuit Court in the city of Cartagena, said he used the AI tool to pose legal questions about the case and included its responses in his decision, according to a court doc
  
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• YouTube Contractors To Strike Over Forced Return To Office

  04-02-2023 00:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  A group of YouTube contractors in Texas are currently on strike today "in protest of rules requiring such workers -- even those who have always worked remotely -- to report to the office," reports Axios. From the report: All of the 43-person team of contractors for YouTube Music voted to strike, following an edict that they report to an office in Austin starting on Monday. The workers, who are technically employed by Cognizant, were notified of the Feb. 6 return to office date in November. That
  
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