ICT news

• Bill Gates Urges High-Voltage, Long-Distance Power Lines for Clean Energy Future

  05-02-2023 22:55 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Bill Gates is calling for "high-voltage transmission lines that can carry electricity long distances," calling them the key to a clean-energy future:[M]any of the best places to generate lots of electricity are far away from urban centers... so to maximize clean energy's potential, we're going to need much longer lines to move that power from where it's made to where it's needed.... Beyond being old and outdated, there's another big problem making everything worse: Our grid is fragmented. Most p
  
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• ChatGPT Passes Google's Coding Interview, Answers Question About More Possible Layoffs

  05-02-2023 21:34 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  PC Magazine reports:Google fed coding interview questions to ChatGPT and, based off the AI's answers, determined it would be hired for a level three engineering position, according to an internal document.... And while level three is considered an entry-level position on the engineering team at Google, average total compensation for the job is about $183,000....
  When PCMag asked ChatGPT if it would ever replace software engineers, it wasn't convinced. "No, ChatGPT will not replace software engin
  
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• Google Working on Fix For SH1MMER Exploit That Can Unenroll Chromebooks

  05-02-2023 19:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Neowin reports on "a potentially dangerous exploit capable of completely unenrolling enterprise-managed Chromebooks from their respective organizations" called SH1MMER.
  The Register explains where the name came from — and how it works:
  A shim is Google-signed software used by hardware service vendors for Chromebook diagnostics and repairs. With a shim that has been processed and patched, managed Chromebooks can be booted from a suitably prepared recovery drive in a way that allows the devi
  
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• 'Dinosaur Comics' Celebrates 20th Anniversary with T-Rex Finally Stomping Past Sixth Panel

  05-02-2023 18:34 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  In 2003 a 20-year-old Ryan North began writing new dialogue, three days a week, for the exact same set of six drawings of talking dinosaurs. And twenty years later, he's still doing it!
  Interestingly, North found the original six drawings on a clip-art CD. So honoring this strange milestone, he's created a special edition in which the online comic strip finally continues beyond its sixth frame:I fired up a virtual machine running Windows XP which ITSELF was tweaking its settings to run Windows 9
  
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• Scientists Unexpectedly Discover Weird New Form of Ice During Experiment

  05-02-2023 17:34 via science.slashdot.org
  
  When shaken and chilled to minus 320 degrees Fahrenheit, ordinary frozen water "turns into something different," reports the New York Times, "a newly discovered form of ice made of a jumble of molecules with unique properties."
  The ice of our everyday lives consists of water molecules lined up in a hexagonal pattern, and those hexagonal lattices neatly stack on top of each other.... With permutations of temperature and pressure outside what generally occurs on Earth, water molecules can be pushe
  
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• Carbonyl: a New Graphical Web Browser in Your Linux Terminal

  05-02-2023 16:34 via linux.slashdot.org
  
  Long-time Slashdot reader destinyland writes: Someone made a Chromium fork... for your terminal. The terminal-based browser Carbonyl "adheres to, and is compatible with modern standards," writes MUO, "meaning that pages behave as they should, and you can even watch streaming video, within the Linux terminal!"
  But best of all, "Pages connect and render in an instant—seemingly quicker than a desktop GUI browser, and every page we visited was rendered correctly."
  From the article:There are a
  
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• Bing Users Claim a ChatGPT-assisted Bing Temporarily Appeared Friday

  05-02-2023 13:34 via slashdot.org
  
  Several Bing users say a ChatGPT-assisted version of Bing "mysteriously appeared (and disappeared) earlier today," the Verge reported Friday:Student and designer Owen Yin reported seeing the "new Bing" on Twitter this morning. He told The Verge via Twitter DM that he has Bing set as his homepage on Microsoft's Edge browser and the new UI just loaded up. "Didn't do anything to find it," said Yin. "After a couple of minutes it stopped working ... Jaw dropped when I realized what I was looking at..
  
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• Facebook Secretly Killed Users Batteries, Former Engineer Claims

  05-02-2023 09:44 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  The New York Post reports:
  Facebook can secretly drain its users' cellphone batteries, a former employee contends in a lawsuit.
  The practice, known as "negative testing," allows tech companies to "surreptitiously" run down someone's mobile juice in the name of testing features or issues such as how fast their app runs or how an image might load, according to data scientist George Hayward. "I said to the manager, 'This can harm somebody,' and she said by harming a few we can help the greater mass
  
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• Ubisoft's Launcher Broke Its Own Games on Linux and Steam Deck

  05-02-2023 06:34 via linux.slashdot.org
  
  Earlier this week NME reported:
  With an update to Ubisoft Connect, Ubisoft has broken Steam Deck and Linux compatibility for a number of its biggest games including The Division 2 and Assassin's Creed Valhalla. As reported by GamingOnLinux, the compatibility issues were caused by Ubisoft issuing an update for its Ubisoft Connect launcher. Even if Ubisoft's titles are bought through Steam, they still launch with Ubisoft Connect and require a connection with the third-party launcher to run.
  "Thank
  
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• 'Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past' Reverse-Engineered for Linux, Switch, Mac, and Windows

  05-02-2023 03:34 via games.slashdot.org
  
  More than 30 years ago Nintendo released the third game in its Legend of Zelda series — appropriately titled, "A Link to the Past."
  This week Neowin called it "one of the most beloved video games of all time," reporting that it's now been reverse-engineered by a GitHub user named Snesrev, "opening up the possibility of Link to the Past on other platforms, like Sega's 32X or the Sony Playstation."This reimplementation of Link to the Past is written in C and contains an astonishing 80,000 li
  
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• Apple Watches and iPhones are Placing Dozens of False Distress Calls About Skiers

  05-02-2023 00:44 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Dispatchers for 911 emergency calls "are being inundated with false, automated distress calls from Apple devices owned by skiers who are very much alive," reports the New York Times:"Do you have an emergency?" [911 emergency dispatcher] Betts asked. No, the man said, he was skiing — safely, happily, unharmed. Slightly annoyed, he added, "For the last three days, my watch has been dialing 911."
  Winter has brought a decent amount of snowfall to [Colorado]'s ski resorts, and with it an avalan
  
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