ICT news

• Something Pretty Right: a History of Visual Basic

  18-03-2023 23:34 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes: In Something Pretty Right: A History of Visual Basic, Retool's Ryan Lucas has a nice round-up of how Visual Basic became the world's most dominant programming environment, its sudden fall from grace, and why its influence is still shaping the future of software development.
  Visual Basic (or VB) burst onto the scene at a magical, transitional moment, presenting a radically simpler alternative for Windows 3.0 development. Bill Gates' genuine enthusiasm for
  
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• 400,000 Gallons of Radioactive Water Leaked from a Nuclear Plant in Minnesota

  18-03-2023 22:34 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  "Minnesota regulators said Thursday they're monitoring the cleanup of a leak of 400,000 gallons of radioactive water from Xcel Energy's Monticello nuclear power plant," reports the Associated Press, "and the company said there's no danger to the public.""Xcel Energy took swift action to contain the leak to the plant site, which poses no health and safety risk to the local community or the environment," the Minneapolis-based utility said in a statement. While Xcel reported the leak of water conta
  
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• Small Near-Earth Asteroid Surfaces Have Few Precious Metals, Study Finds

  18-03-2023 21:34 via science.slashdot.org
  
  RockDoctor (Slashdot reader #15,477) writes:A recent paper on ArXiv reports new spectroscopic analyses of the surfaces of 42 asteroids. The main result for space enthusiasts is that there is not one "M" class asteroid (metal-rich) surface in the collection.
  The imagery that (many) people grow up with from Hollywood and TV "science" "documentaries" is that the Solar system is full of asteroids which are made of metal ready for mining to produce solid ingots of precious metals. That's Hollywood, n
  
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• Livestreaming Now: Free Software Foundation's 'LibrePlanet' Conference

  18-03-2023 20:31 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Slashdot reader DevNull127 writes: It's happening now — and you can watch it live online.
  Saturday is the beginning of the fifteenth edition of the Free Software Foundation's conference on ethical technology and user freedom. And they're livestreaming the talks — with three different livestreams available online from the conference's Jupiter Room, Saturn Room, and Neptune Room.
  This year's theme is "Charting the Course" — here's a complete schedule of the talks. Topics will inc
  
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• Teenage Pranks at Japan's Restaurants Lead to AI-Powered Sushi Monitors, Arrests

  18-03-2023 19:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Rest of World reports on viral teenage pranks at conveyor-belt sushi chain restaurants across Japan, which snowballed into a societal phenomenon that social media users and the Japanese press have named "sushi terrorism."
  It began January 9th when a video showed a customer adding a pile of wasabi onto sushi on a conveyor belt. Another video shows a giggling teenager touching sushi on a conveyor belt at the sushi chain Sushiro after first licking that finger. The stock of the parent company that
  
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• Peter Thiel Says $50M of His Own Money Was Temporarily Frozen When SVB Failed

  18-03-2023 18:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Axios remembers that it was just nine days ago that there were "concerns" about Silicon Valley Bank at venture capital firm. And soon Founders Fund's top operations executives "were on the phone, quickly deciding to move firm capital to a number of bigger banks."Firm founder Peter Thiel was not part of the conversation. One source says that the assumption was that they'd return the money to SVB after the crisis had ended....
  Founders Fund wasn't the only venture capital firm giving this sort of
  
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• Amazon's AWS Releases Fedora-Based, Cloud-Optimized 'Amazon Linux 2023'

  18-03-2023 17:34 via linux.slashdot.org
  
  "AWS has provided you with a cloud-optimized Linux distribution since 2010," notes the cloud service's blog. This week they announced the third generation of Amazon's Linux distro: 'Amazon Linux 2023'.Every generation of Amazon Linux distribution is secured, optimized for the cloud, and receives long-term AWS support.... Deploying your workloads on Amazon Linux 2023 gives you three major benefits: a high-security standard, a predictable lifecycle, and a consistent update experience.
  Let's look a
  
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• Elon Musk Says Twitter Will Open Source Its Recommendation Code on March 31

  18-03-2023 16:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  BGR reports:
  Elon Musk seems to be close to making good on his promise to open-source Twitter's code. Well, at least part of it.
  In a post on the social media platform, the Twitter CEO announced that the company will open-source the code used to recommend tweets on March 31. Musk did not provide any other details about how that will work or specifically when on that date the code will be provided.Musk has been teasing and promising open-sourcing Twitter's code for a while now, so it'll be intere
  
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• New Data Found Linking Covid-19's Origins to Wuhan Market. WHO Demands China Release It

  18-03-2023 15:34 via science.slashdot.org
  
  "The World Health Organization on Friday called on China to release new data linking the Covid pandemic's origins to animal samples at Wuhan Market after the country recently took down the research," reports CNBC.
  The existence of the new data was revealed by the Atlantic earlier this week, in an article reporting that the newly-discovered samples showed the virus was present in creatures for sale there near the very beginning of the pandemic:
  A new analysis of genetic sequences collected from t
  
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• Dark Web 'BreachForums' Operator Charged With Computer Crime

  18-03-2023 14:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Federal agents have arrested a Peekskill, New York, man they say ran the notorious dark web data-breach site "BreachForums" under the name "Pompompurin." Conor Brian Fitzpatrick was arrested by a team of investigators at his home around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, an FBI agent said in a sworn statement filed in court the next day. Fitzpatrick is charged with a single count of conspiracy to commit access device fraud.BreachForums hosted the stolen data
  
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• Brazil Looks To Regulate Monetized Content On Internet

  18-03-2023 11:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  The Brazilian government is studying whether to regulate Internet platforms with content that earns revenue such as advertising, its secretary for digital policies, Joao Brant, said on Friday. Reuters reports: The idea would be for a regulator to hold such platforms, not consumers, accountable for monetized content, Brant told Reuters. Another goal is "to prevent the networks from being used for the dissemination and promotion of crimes and illegal content" especially after the riots by supporte
  
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• UK Backs Rolls-Royce Project To Build a Nuclear Reactor On the Moon

  18-03-2023 08:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  The UK Space Agency said Friday it would back research by Rolls-Royce looking at the use of nuclear power on the moon. CNBC reports: In a statement, the government agency said researchers from Rolls-Royce had been working on a Micro-Reactor program "to develop technology that will provide power needed for humans to live and work on the Moon." The UKSA will now provide [around $3.52 million] of funding for the project, which it said would "deliver an initial demonstration of a UK lunar modular nu
  
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• Brazilian Researchers Find 'Terrifying' Plastic Rocks On Remote Island

  18-03-2023 04:30 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: The geology of Brazil's volcanic Trindade Island has fascinated scientists for years, but the discovery of rocks made from plastic debris in this remote turtle refuge is sparking alarm. Melted plastic has become intertwined with rocks on the island, located 1,140 km (708 miles) from the southeastern state of Espirito Santo, which researchers say is evidence of humans' growing influence over the earth's geological cycles. "This is new and terrifyi
  
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• Microsoft Is Testing a Built-In Cryptocurrency Wallet For the Edge Browser

  18-03-2023 03:02 via slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft appears to be testing a built-in cryptocurrency wallet for Edge, according to screenshots pulled from a beta build of the browser. Ars Technica reports: The feature, which the screenshots say is strictly for internal testing, was unearthed by Twitter user @thebookisclosed, who has a history of digging up present-but-disabled features in everything from new Windows 11 builds to ancient Windows Vista betas. According to the screenshots, the crypto wallet is "embedded in Edge, making it e
  
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• Godot Arrives In the Epic Games Store

  18-03-2023 02:25 via games.slashdot.org
  
  The open-source, cross-platform Godot Engine has arrived in the Epic Games store. "Starting today, you can choose to use EGS to download the engine and keep it up to date with every release," writes the company in a blog post. From the release: Epic Games is a long-time supporter of Godot, and thanks to their contributions we have been able to improve our rendering pipeline as well as our built-in scripting language, GDScript -- the fruits of that work are now visible in the newly released Godot
  
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• AI Fools Voice Recognition Used To Verify Identity By Australian Tax Office

  18-03-2023 01:45 via it.slashdot.org
  
  A voiceprint program used by millions of Australians to access data held by government agencies can be fooled by an AI-generated voice, reports the Guardian. From the report: Centrelink and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) both give people the option of using a "voiceprint", along with other information, to verify their identity over the phone, allowing them to then access sensitive information from their accounts. Using just four minutes of audio, a Guardian Australia journalist was able to
  
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• Cancer Patient Sues Hospital After Ransomware Gang Leaks Her Nude Medical Photos

  18-03-2023 01:02 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: A cancer patient whose nude medical photos and records were posted online after they were stolen by a ransomware gang, has sued her healthcare provider for allowing the "preventable" and "seriously damaging" leak. The proposed class-action lawsuit stems from a February intrusion during which malware crew BlackCat (also known as ALPHV) broke into one of the Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) physician's networks, stole images of patients und
  
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• TomTom Joins the OpenStreetMap Foundation As Its First Platinum Member

  18-03-2023 00:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  TomTom, the Dutch navigation software company most known for its GPS navigation systems, announced that it's support the OpenStreetMap Foundation (OSMF) as a Platinum Member. It's a U-turn for the company, which launched an article in 2012 on what they called the "negative aspects" of open data projects such as OpenStreetMap. From the press release: Last year, the geolocation company explained the instrumental role that OpenStreetMap (OSM) data is playing in its efforts to build the smartest map
  
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• New Zealand To Ban TikTok On Devices Linked To Parliament

  18-03-2023 00:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  New Zealand will ban TikTok on devices with access to the parliamentary network because of cybersecurity concerns, a government official said on Friday. CNBC reports: TikTok will be banned on all devices with access to New Zealand's parliamentary network by the end of March, said Parliamentary Service Chief Executive Rafael Gonzalez-Montero. Gonzalez-Montero, in an email to Reuters, said the decision was taken after advice from cybersecurity experts and discussions within government and with oth
  
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