ICT news

• Amazon Employees Are Fighting on Slack About Returning to the Office

  04-03-2023 23:54 via it.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares this report from Entrepreneur:Amazon employees are fighting it out about the company's planned return to the office in Slack channels, according to Insider. First, employees created a Slack channel to fight against the policy. Then, a pro-office return group was formed, the outlet reported....
  Per CNBC, "remote advocacy" became a common Slack channel status. However, some people who welcomed a return to office life fought back, Insider reported. Over 700 people joined
  
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• Apple's 'iMessage' Texts are Coming To Windows (with Limitations)

  04-03-2023 22:54 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft "is adding iPhone support to its Phone Link app on Windows 11," reports MacRumors. "The app allows iPhone users to make and receive phone calls, send and receive text messages, and view an iPhone's notifications directly on a PC."Notably, the app brings limited iMessage functionality to Windows. After pairing an iPhone with a PC via Bluetooth and granting some permissions on the iPhone, users can send and receive iMessages and SMS text messages in Phone Link, but there is no support fo
  
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• New Kickstarter Campaign Will Fund Documentary on Captain Crunch's Life and Impact on Technology

  04-03-2023 21:54 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  "What if we told you the history you've been told about modern technology isn't quite what it should be?" asks a new Kickstarter campaign for a film about the life of John "Captain Crunch" Draper.
  79-year-old Draper is often remembered for his influential early encounters with Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, and Draper's early association with Apple Computers is even recognized in the film's title — "Employee 13." But the trailer also promises the larger life story of Draper, "an eccentric g
  
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• Trash Headed for Oceans Blocked by the Ocean Cleanup Project's 'Trash Interceptor 007'

  04-03-2023 20:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Heavy rainfall "has left the Los Angeles' streets unusually clean," writes an editor at the Los Angeles Times.
  "But I can't help wondering where it all went... Does it all end up in the ocean?"
  To answer that question, I turned to the experts at L.A. County Public Works, who oversee storm drains and waterways across the region. The good news is that there are a number of ways that trash is caught before it reaches the open sea. All manner of filters and screens and basins — and something c
  
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• Code.org Celebrates 10th Anniversary With Fond Memories of Its Viral 2013 Video

  04-03-2023 19:44 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Long-time Slashdot reader theodp shares his perspective on the 10th anniversary of Code.org:Remember this?" asks tech-backed Code.org on Twitter as it celebrates its achievements.... "It's the viral video that launched Code.org back in 2013!" Code.org also reminds its 1M Twitter followers that What Most Schools Don't Teach starred tech leaders Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, Tony Hsieh, and Drew Houston.
  But 10 years later, the promise of unlimited tech jobs and crazy-fun workplaces pr
  
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• Fake DMCA Takedowns Blocking Journalists' Stories

  04-03-2023 18:34 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  The BBC reports:Journalists have been forced to temporarily take down articles critical of powerful oil lobbyists due to the exploitation of US copyright law, according to a new report.
  At least five such articles have been subject to fake copyright claims, including one by the respected South African newspaper Mail & Guardian, according to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). The claims — which falsely assert ownership of the stories — have been made by
  
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• A New Study Shows Seabirds Avoid Offshore Turbines

  04-03-2023 17:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Matt_Bennett (Slashdot reader #79,107) writes:
  Swedish power company Vattenfall released a study on the interactions of seabirds and offshore wind turbines. They used cameras and radar to record the tracks of the birds during daylight hours at Aberdeen Offshore Wind Farm over peak periods of bird activity in 2020 and 2021. The study observed no collisions or even narrow escapes between birds and rotor blades. In 97.7% of the recordings, the birds avoided the RSZ (rotor swept zone).
  The company (
  
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• Roald Dahl eBooks Reportedly Censored Remotely

  04-03-2023 16:34 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  "Owners of Roald Dahl ebooks are having their libraries automatically updated with the new censored versions containing hundreds of changes to language related to weight, mental health, violence, gender and race," reports the British newspaper the Times.
  Readers who bought electronic versions of the writer's books, such as Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, before the controversial updates have discovered their copies have now been changed.
  Puffin Books, the company which publishes D
  
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• Solar Geoengineering 'Only Option' To Cool Planet Within Years, UN Says

  04-03-2023 14:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) is investigating the potentials and dangers of solar geoengineering technologies, stating that these controversial interventions are humanity's "only option" to quickly cool the planet within years. An anonymous shares an excerpt from a Motherboard article: In a report published by UNEP in February, an independent panel describes what's currently known about so-called solar radiation modification, also called solar geoengineering, and concludes that,
  
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• First Look At Google Chrome's Blink Engine Running On an iPhone

  04-03-2023 11:00 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Google has begun the process of bringing Chrome's full Blink browser engine to iOS against current App Store rules, and now we have our first look at the test browser in action. 9to5Google reports: In the weeks since the project was announced, Google (and Igalia, a major open source consultancy and frequent Chromium contributor) have been hard at work getting a simplified "content_shell" browser up and running in iOS and fixing issues along the way. As part of that bug fixing process, some devel
  
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• Europe Pushing For Lunar Time Zone

  04-03-2023 08:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  With more lunar missions than ever on the horizon, the European Space Agency wants to give the moon its own time zone. The Associated Press reports: This week, the agency said space organizations around the world are considering how best to keep time on the moon. The idea came up during a meeting in the Netherlands late last year, with participants agreeing on the urgent need to establish "a common lunar reference time," said the space agency's Pietro Giordano, a navigation system engineer. "A j
  
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• 2 Drug Companies Can Legally Start Selling Cocaine, Heroin, and MDMA

  04-03-2023 04:30 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: At least two companies in British Columbia, Canada, say they've received exemptions from the federal government allowing them to produce and distribute cocaine, heroin, MDMA, or magic mushrooms. But it's not clear under what circumstances the companies will be able to sell the drugs, and B.C. Premier David Eby said he was "astonished" to hear the announcement. On Thursday, Sunshine Earth Labs, a psychedelics manufacturer announced that Health
  
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• Universal Hydrogen's 40-Passenger Hydrogen Electric Plane Completes Maiden Flight

  04-03-2023 03:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Mere weeks after achieving experimental airworthiness certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Universal Hydrogen has successfully taken its 40-passenger regional hydrogen electric plane to the skies. Electrek reports: Universal Hydrogen is celebrating today following the first successful flight of the hydrogen electric plane this morning, which took off in Grant County, Washington, at 8:41 a.m. PST and flew for 15 minutes. For this initial flight, one of the airplane's engi
  
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• Stable Diffusion AI Art Generator Now Has an Official Blender Plug-In

  04-03-2023 02:25 via slashdot.org
  
  A popular app for 3D artists just received an accessible way to experiment with generative AI: Stability AI has released Stability for Blender, an official Stable Diffusion plug-in that introduces a suite of generative AI tools to Blender's free 3D modeling software. The Verge reports: The add-on allows Blender artists to create images using text descriptions directly within the software -- just like the Stable Diffusion text-to-image generator. You can also create images using existing renders,
  
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• Scooter Startup Lime Sues Hertz For Poaching Engineers

  04-03-2023 01:45 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Urban scooter company Lime sued Hertz Corp on Thursday alleging unfair competition and accusing the rental car giant of improperly hiring the startup's senior engineers. Reuters reports: San Francisco-based Neutron Holdings Inc, which does business as Lime, filed the lawsuit (PDF) in California federal court seeking unspecified monetary damages and an injunction "to recover and protect its trade secrets." It also named Charlie Fang, who previously was Lime's head of engineering, and another engi
  
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• Mississippi Passes Bill To Stop EV Dealers

  04-03-2023 01:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Electrek: The Mississippi Senate has passed a bill that will stop electric car companies from opening their own dealerships in the state [...]. The bill started as House Bill 401, which you can see on the Mississippi Legislature's website. It amends Mississippi law related to car dealerships, clarifying that EV manufacturers can't get around the state's dealership laws, an exception that has been used by some manufacturers who have never opened a licensed
  
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• Zoom Fires Its President After Only 10 Months

  04-03-2023 00:20 via slashdot.org
  
  Zoom has sacked its president, Greg Tomb, a former Google employee who only began working at the company around 10 months ago. Insider reports: Zoom said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that Tomb's termination was effective as of Friday. He will receive severance benefits in line with his employment arrangements, which are payable upon a "termination without cause," according to the SEC filing. The filing was signed off by Aparna Bawa, the chief operating officer at Zoom.
  
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