ICT news

• SpaceX Successfully Test Fires Starship Booster

  09-02-2023 23:40 via science.slashdot.org
  
  SpaceX on Thursday test fired 31 of the 33 engines in the towering rocket booster of its Starship prototype, as the company prepares to launch the rocket to orbit for the first time. CNBC reports: Called a "static fire," the milestone test is the final major hurdle before SpaceX tries to launch the nearly 400-foot-tall rocket to space. The company said in a tweet shortly after the test that the engines at the base of the Super Heavy booster fired for "full duration," meaning the expected length
  
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• FCC Approves Amazon's Satellite Broadband Plan Over SpaceX's Objections

  09-02-2023 23:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Amazon's Kuiper division can start launching satellites to offer broadband service in the US, the Federal Communications Commission said yesterday. The FCC's International Bureau approved Kuiper's orbital debris mitigation plan. This approval was needed to satisfy a condition imposed in 2020 when the Amazon subsidiary received tentative approval for a network of 3,236 satellites in low-Earth orbit. "Our action will allow Kuiper to begin depl
  
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• Chip Suppliers Warn on EU Plan To Bar 'Forever Chemicals'

  09-02-2023 22:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Chip suppliers have warned that a European effort to impose a ban on "forever chemicals" will cause widespread disruption to already tight semiconductor supply chains. From a report: Five European countries, including Germany and the Netherlands, on Tuesday proposed that the EU phase out tens of thousands of so-called forever chemicals, known as PFAS, used in the production of semiconductors, batteries, aircraft, cars, medical equipment and even frying pans and ski wax.
  The ban would constitute
  
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• GitLab To Cut 7% of Workforce

  09-02-2023 21:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  GitLab CEO Sid Sijbrandij said in a message to employees Thursday that the company is reducing headcount by 7%, or about 130 positions. From a report: "The current macroeconomic environment is tough, and as a result, companies are still spending but they are taking a more conservative approach to software investments and are taking more time to make purchasing decisions," Sijbrandij said in his message to employees. GitLab had 1,860 employees according to PitchBook data.Read more of this story a
  
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• China's Balloon Was Capable of Spying on Communications, US Says

  09-02-2023 21:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  The alleged Chinese spy balloon that flew over the US was capable of collecting communications signals and was part of a broader People's Liberation Army intelligence-gathering effort that spanned more than 40 countries, a State Department official said Thursday. From a report: High-resolution imagery provided by U-2 spy planes that flew past the balloon revealed an array of surveillance equipment that was inconsistent with Beijing's claim that it was a weather device blown off course, the offic
  
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• GitHub is Laying Off 10% of Staff and Cutting Down Office Space

  09-02-2023 20:15 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft-owned GitHub is laying off 10% of its staff. From a report: In a message to staff on Thursday, GitHub's CEO Thomas Dohmke said that due to "new budgetary realignments" the company must reduce the workforce "by up to 10% through the end of FY23." The company is also going fully remote, Dohmke wrote, telling staff they're "seeing very low utilization rates" in their offices. "We are not vacating offices immediately, but will move to close all of our offices as their leases end or as we a
  
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• Three Arrows Capital Founders Launch Exchange Where You Can Trade 3AC Bankruptcy Claims

  09-02-2023 19:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Zhu Su and Kyle Davies, the founders of failed crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC), have teamed with the co-founders of crypto exchange CoinFlex on the creation of Open Exchange, touting it as the "world's first public market place for crypto claims trading and derivatives." From a report: Noting a $20 billion market of claimants "desperately searching" for resolution to money lost at bankrupt crypto firms like Celsius, Genesis, BlockFi, Mt. Gox and 3AC, Open Exchange promises the abili
  
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• #StopRansomware - Ransomware Attacks on Critical Infrastructure Fund DPRK Espionage Activities

  09-02-2023 19:02 via us-cert.cisa.gov
  Original release date: February 9, 2023
  CISA, the National Security Agency (NSA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and Republic of Korea’s Defense Security Agency and National Intelligence Service have released a joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA), Ransomware Attacks on Critical Infrastructure Fund DPRK Espionage Activities, to provide information on ransomware activity used by North Korean state-sponsored cyber to target various
  
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• New York Moves Against Stalkerware

  09-02-2023 19:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Stalkers and domestic abusers in the US for years have been able to access the kind of surveillance tools typically associated with foreign spies. That's all because of a pervasive industry that promises to help people who want to secretly monitor their family members. Now, because of an action brought by the New York Attorney General, one player in the so-called stalkerware industry has agreed to notify the people who were infected with its spyware. But it w
  
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• The Future Of Thunderbird

  09-02-2023 18:20 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Thunderbird blog: Before we really dig in, let's start with the future. We believe it's a bright one! With this year's release of Thunderbird 115 "Supernova," we're doing much more than just another yearly release. It's a modernized overhaul of the software, both visually and technically. Thunderbird is undergoing a massive rework from the ground up to get rid of all the technical and interface debt accumulated over the past 10 years. This is not an easy task, but it's necessary to guarantee the
  
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• Why Jupiter's Tally of Moons Keeps Going Up and Up

  09-02-2023 17:41 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Scientists have spotted 12 more moons around Jupiter, adding to an already-huge number that just seems to grow and grow. From a report: There's so many moons around this gas giant planet that astronomer Scott Sheppard struggles to keep track. "With this new haul, we're up to, I believe, 92 ... actually, I have to check that," he says, leaning over to type into his computer at the Carnegie Institution for Science, Earth and Planets Laboratory in Washington, DC. " Yeah, so 92 is the number that we
  
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• US Aims To Curtail Investment in Advanced Military Technology in China

  09-02-2023 17:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Growing concerns about China's military and economic ambitions have lawmakers and the White House weighing yet another effort to restrict Beijing's access to advanced technologies that could be used in war. From a report: This time, the U.S. government appears poised to extend its restrictions to a new area: American dollars that are used to finance the development of such technologies within Chinese borders. For months, the Biden administration has been preparing curbs on the investments that U
  
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• Comcast Gave False Map Data To FCC

  09-02-2023 16:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Matthew Hillier can't get Comcast service at his home in Arvada, Colorado. But that didn't stop Comcast from claiming it serves his house when it submitted data for the Federal Communications Commission's new broadband map. From a report: Comcast eventually admitted to the FCC that it doesn't serve the address -- but only after Ars got involved. Comcast will have to correct its submission for Hillier's house, and a bigger correction might be needed because it appears Comcast doesn't serve dozens
  
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• Coinbase CEO Armstrong Decries Rumors of Possible US SEC Ban on Crypto Staking

  09-02-2023 15:40 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Coinbase's head Brian Armstrong escalated his war of words with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, warning he'd heard rumors the agency wants to "get rid of" crypto staking by retail investors. Bloomberg: "I hope that's not the case as I believe it would be a terrible path for the U.S. if that was allowed to happen," he tweeted on Wednesday, while arguing that the practice of staking is "a really important innovation." The SEC declined to comment on Armstrong's tweets. The agency has rep
  
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• The End of Grading

  09-02-2023 15:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  How the irrational mathematics of measuring, ranking, and rating distort the value of stuff, work, people -- everything. From a report: More irrational even than pi, assessing people amounts to quantifying a relationship between unknown, usually unknowable things. Every measurement, the mathematician Paul Lockhart reminds us in his book Measurement, is a comparison: "We are comparing the thing we are measuring to the thing we are measuring it with." What thing do we use to measure undergraduates
  
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• Australia Orders Checks On Chinese-Made Cameras In Defense Offices

  09-02-2023 14:00 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: The Australian government will examine surveillance technology used in offices of the defense department, Defense Minister Richard Marles said on Thursday, amid reports that Chinese-made cameras installed there posed a security risk. "This is an issue and ... we're doing an assessment of all the technology for surveillance within the defense (department) and where those particular cameras are found, they are going to be removed," Marles told ABC
  
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• Wind Turbine Giant Develops Solution To Keep Blades Out of Landfills

  09-02-2023 11:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Vestas, the world's largest producer of wind turbines, says it has developed a chemical solution that allows the blades -- made with durable epoxy resin -- to be broken down and recycled. Bloomberg reports: "This signals a new era for the wind industry," Vestas said in a statement. If it's implemented at scale, the technology can be used on both old blades sitting in landfills and those in active wind farms, the company added. It's a potential solution for what could be a massive sustainability
  
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• Researchers Want To Launch Dust From the Moon To Help Cool Earth

  09-02-2023 08:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  In a study published Wednesday in PLOS Climate, a group of astrophysicists proposes shooting lunar dust into space to help partially shield sunlight to Earth. The Washington Post reports: The team used computer simulations to model various scenarios where massive quantities of dust (and we mean a lot of dust) in space can reduce the amount of Earthbound sunlight by 1 to 2 percent, or up to about six days of an obscured sun in a year. Their cheapest and most efficient idea is to launch dust from
  
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• Nestle's $6,000 Peanut Allergy Pill Has Been a Dud

  09-02-2023 04:30 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: When Nestle SA's peanut allergy medicine first hit the market in 2020, Robert Wood, the director of pediatric allergy at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, started preparing to offer it to the children he treats. But Covid-19 soon derailed in-person treatment, so over the next year and a half Wood and his colleagues told some 1,000 patients about the new drug instead, suggesting they consider it when the pandemic abated. Their responses came
  
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• Pulitzer-Winning Journalist Claims US Sabotaged Nord Stream Pipeline

  09-02-2023 03:10 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Seymour Hersh is a former New York Times and New Yorker reporter who won numerous awards for his investigative journalism, including a 1970 Pulitzer Prize for exposing the My Lai Massacre and its cover-up during the Vietnam War. In his first post to Substack, Hersh details the covert operation the United States conducted last year to blow up the Nord Stream 2 pipeline."In the immediate aftermath of the pipeline bombing, the American media treated it like an unsolved mystery," writes Hersh. "Russ
  
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• Bob Iger Announces 7,000 Layoffs As Disney+ Loses Subscribers

  09-02-2023 02:30 via slashdot.org
  
  Bob Iger, in his first earnings call since returning to the company, announced Walt Disney Co. will shed 7,000 jobs as part of a broader effort to save $5.5 billion in costs. Disney is facing pressure to control costs and boost profits as it continues to lose money from its key streaming business, which includes Disney+. The Los Angeles Times reports: The company's marquee streaming service Disney+ lost 2.4 million subscribers during the first quarter, bringing its total count to 161.8 million,
  
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• US NIST Unveils Winning Encryption Algorithm For IoT Data Protection

  09-02-2023 01:50 via it.slashdot.org
  
  The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced that ASCON is the winning bid for the "lightweight cryptography" program to find the best algorithm to protect small IoT (Internet of Things) devices with limited hardware resources. BleepingComputer reports: ASCON was selected as the best of the 57 proposals submitted to NIST, several rounds of security analysis by leading cryptographers, implementation and benchmarking results, and feedback received during workshops. The whole
  
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• Hasbro Dilutes the Value of Magic: the Gathering, Bank of America Says

  09-02-2023 01:10 via games.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Insider: Hasbro continues to dilute the brand value of its popular Magic: The Gathering card game, according to a Tuesday note from Bank of America, which said that the company faces a steep decline in its share price if it continues to "destroy customer goodwill." The bank reiterated its "Underperform" rating for Hasbro and its $42 price target, which represents potential downside of 29% from current levels. According to BofA, Hasbro continues to over-mo
  
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• Craig Wright Cannot Copyright Bitcoin File Format, Court Rules

  09-02-2023 00:30 via yro.slashdot.org
  UnknowingFool writes: UK Judge James Mellor has thrown out Craig Wright's cases against Bitcoin derivatives like Bitcoin Cash as Wright cannot claim copyright on the Bitcoin file format. Wright had sued forks of Bitcoin claiming they breached his copyrights to prevent them from operating. The judge disagreed noting that Wright had failed to meet a requirement of copyright called "fixation" detailing where/when/how the original expression was first recorded somewhere in any media."Whilst I accept
  
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