ICT news

• Intel Graphics Chief Leaves After Five Years

  21-03-2023 23:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  After five years attempting to make Intel into a competitor for Nvidia and AMD in the realm of discrete graphics for gamers and beyond -- with limited success -- Raja Koduri is leaving Intel to form his own generative AI startup. The Verge reports: Intel hired him away from AMD in 2017, where he was similarly in charge of the entire graphics division, and it was an exciting get at the time! Not only had Intel poached a chief architect who'd just gone on sabbatical but Intel also revealed that it
  
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• Hyundai Promises To Keep Buttons In Cars Because Touchscreen Controls Are Dangerous

  21-03-2023 23:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Drive: Sang Yup Lee, Hyundai's head of design, reiterated the company's commitment to buttons at the introduction of the new Hyundai Kona. As reported by CarsGuide, for the Korean automaker, it's a decision rooted in safety concerns. "We have used the physical buttons quite significantly the last few years. For me, the safety-related buttons have to be a hard key," said Lee. It's a design call that makes a lot of sense. In some modern vehicles, adjust
  
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• Russia's Space Program Is In Big Trouble

  21-03-2023 22:20 via science.slashdot.org
  
  schwit1 writes: Crippled by war and sanctions, Russia now faces evidence that its already-struggling space program is falling apart. In the past three months alone, Roscosmos has scrambled to resolve two alarming incidents. First, one of its formerly dependable Soyuz spacecraft sprang a coolant leak. Then the same thing happened on one of its Progress cargo ships. The civil space program's Soviet predecessor launched the first person into orbit, but with the International Space Station (ISS) nea
  
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• Microsoft Wins Dismissal of Gamers' Suit Over $69 Billion Activision Deal

  21-03-2023 21:40 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft has won dismissal of a private consumer antitrust lawsuit over its $69 billion proposed purchase of "Call of Duty" maker Activision Blizzard, but the plaintiffs were given 20 days to refine their legal challenge. From a report: A federal judge in San Francisco ruled that the lawsuit from a group of video game plaintiffs "lacks allegations" supporting their claim that the proposed acquisition would harm market competition. "Plaintiffs' general allegation that the merger may cause 'highe
  
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• Inside the Art and Science of Crafting the Perfect Movie Title

  21-03-2023 21:00 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  Variety has analyzed the often underappreciated process of selecting movie titles in Hollywood. As one of the most crucial aspects of a film's marketing strategy, the title serves as the first point of contact for potential audiences, shaping perceptions and driving intrigue. In a highly competitive industry, a captivating and effective title can be the difference between success and failure at the box office, the article argues.
  The naming process typically involves collaboration between a dive
  
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• Oracle Aims To Sustain Java's 27-Year Franchise With v20 Rollout

  21-03-2023 20:20 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  Oracle today announced the availability of Java 20, the latest version of the popular programming language and development platform. From a report: The latest version of the 27-year-old language includes thousands of performance, stability and security improvements and features seven enhancement proposals to the Java Development Kit that are aimed at increasing developer productivity and enhancing performance, stability and security. Oracle has coordinated a disciplined rollout of new Java relea
  
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• With Firefly, Adobe Gets Into the Generative AI Game

  21-03-2023 19:40 via slashdot.org
  
  Adobe is jumping into the generative AI game with the launch of a new family of AI models called Firefly. From a report: Focused on bringing AI into Adobe's suite of apps and services, specifically AI for generating media content, Firefly will be made up of multiple AI models "working across a variety of different use cases,' Adobe VP of generative AI Alexandru Costin told TechCrunch in an email interview. It's an expansion of the generative AI tools Adobe introduced in Photoshop, Express and Li
  
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• Nvidia DGX Cloud: Train Your Own ChatGPT in a Web Browser For $37K a Month

  21-03-2023 19:00 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader writes: Last week, we learned that Microsoft spent hundreds of millions of dollars to buy tens of thousands of Nvidia A100 graphics chips so that partner OpenAI could train the large language models (LLMs) behind Bing's AI chatbot and ChatGPT.
  Don't have access to all that capital or space for all that hardware for your own LLM project? Nvidia's DGX Cloud is an attempt to sell remote web access to the very same thing. Announced today at the company's 2023 GPU Technology Confe
  
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• Amazon-owned DPReview Shutting Down

  21-03-2023 18:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Photography and camera gear review site DPReview, writing in a blog post: After nearly 25 years of operation, DPReview will be closing in the near future. This difficult decision is part of the annual operating plan review that our parent company shared earlier this year. The site will remain active until April 10, and the editorial team is still working on reviews and looking forward to delivering some of our best-ever content. Everyone on our staff was a reader and fan of DPReview before worki
  
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• OpenAI and Microsoft Are Partners, Until They Vie for the Same Customers

  21-03-2023 17:40 via slashdot.org
  
  OpenAI's ChatGPT has enraptured the business world since its November release and OpenAI is signing up customers eager to pay to use its artificial intelligence models in their own products. But the Microsoft-backed startup faces a surprising rival: Microsoft itself. From a report: As part of its multibillion-dollar investment in OpenAI, Microsoft has the rights to sell the startup's software through its Azure cloud business, even as OpenAI licenses its own software directly to customers. Micros
  
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• Microsoft Brings OpenAI's DALL-E Image Creator To the New Bing

  21-03-2023 17:00 via search.slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft today announced that its new AI-enabled Bing will now allow users to generate images with Bing Chat. From a report: This new feature is powered by DALL-E, OpenAI's generative image generator. The company didn't say which version of DALL-E it is using here, except for saying that it is using the "very latest DALL-E models." Dubbed the "Bing Image Creator," this new capability is now (slowly) rolling out to users in the Bing preview and will only be available through Bing's Creative Mode
  
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• Anxiety Strikes $8 Trillion Mortgage-Debt Market After SVB Collapse

  21-03-2023 16:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Strains in the banking sector are roiling a roughly $8 trillion bond market considered almost as safe as U.S. government bonds. From a report: So-called agency mortgage bonds are widely held by banks, insurers and bond funds because they are backed by the mortgage loans from government-owned lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The bonds are far less likely to default than most debt and are easy to buy and sell quickly, a crucial reason they were Silicon Valley Bank's biggest investment before it
  
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• Google is Releasing Its Bard AI Chatbot To the Public

  21-03-2023 15:15 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Google says it's ready to let the public use its generative AI chatbot,Bard. The company will grant tens of thousands of users access to the bot in a gradual rollout that starting Tuesday. From a report: Google says people will use the chatbot, which will be available online and as a mobile app, for things like generating ideas ("Bard, how do I keep my plants alive?"), researching ideas (in combination with Search), and drafting first drafts of letters, invites, or proposals. Google originally a
  
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• India Won't Tolerate Abusive, Obscene Content on Streaming Services, Minister Warns

  21-03-2023 15:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  India will not tolerate use of abusive language and display of obscene content in movies and TV shows on on-demand video streaming services, a key minister has warned in a move that illustrates how the nation's IT rules have "handed over direct ministerial power for censorship." From the report: Anurag Thakur, Union Minister of Information Broadcasting and Sports and Youth Affairs, said at a press conference that use of abusive language in the name of creativity will not be tolerated and that th
  
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• Belgian Crypto Ads Must Warn of Risks Under New Rules

  21-03-2023 14:00 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from CoinDesk: Crypto ads in Belgium must be accurate and warn investors of the risks under new laws announced by the country's financial regulator Monday. Powers published in Belgium's Official Gazette on Friday mean any mass-media campaign to promote a digital currency would have to be submitted to the Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) 10 days in advance, allowing the regulator to intervene if needed."Virtual currencies are all the rage at the
  
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• CISA Releases Updated Cybersecurity Performance Goals

  21-03-2023 13:00 via cisa.gov
  Content: Today, we published stakeholder-based updates to the Cybersecurity Performance Goals (CPGs). Originally released last October, the CPGs are voluntary practices that businesses and critical infrastructure owners can take to protect themselves against cyber threats. The CPGs have been reorganized, reordered and renumbered to align closely with NIST CSF functions (Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover) to help organizations more easily use the CPGs to prioritize investments as pa
  
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• CISA and NSA Release Enduring Security Framework Guidance on Identity and Access Management

  21-03-2023 13:00 via cisa.gov
  As part of the Enduring Security Framework (ESF), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the National Security Agency (NSA) has released Identity and Access Management Recommended Best Practices Guide for Administrators. These recommended best practices provide system administrators with actionable recommendations to better secure their systems from threats to Identity and Access Management (IAM).
  IAM—a framework of business processes, policies, and technologies th
  
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• BBC Advises Staff To Delete TikTok From Work Phones

  21-03-2023 11:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The BBC has advised staff to delete TikTok from corporate phones because of privacy and security fears. From a report: The BBC seems to be the first UK media organisation to issue the guidance - and only the second in the world after Denmark's public service broadcaster. The BBC said it would continue to use the platform for editorial and marketing purposes for now. [...] The big fear is that data harvested by the platform from corporate phones could be shared with the Chinese government by TikT
  
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• Propellantless System For Satellites Will Get Tested In Space

  21-03-2023 08:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Longtime Slashdot reader drwho writes: A new type of propulsion system which uses no propellant, but rather only electricity, will be tested in a satellite to be launched from June 10's Falcon 9 launch. The IVO Quantum Drive utilizes an alternative theory of inertia known as "Quantum Inertia' by its originator Prof. Mike McCullough of U. Plymouth, which seeks to reconcile General Relativity (GR) with Quantum Field Theory (QFT). If successful, this would herald in a new era not only in satellite
  
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• HDD Average Life Span Misses 3-Year Mark In Study of 2,007 Defective Drives

  21-03-2023 04:30 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: An analysis of 2,007 damaged or defective hard disk drives (HDDs) has led a data recovery firm to conclude that "in general, old drives seem more durable and resilient than new drives." The statement comes from a Los Angeles-headquartered HDD, SSD, and RAID data recovery firm aptly named Secure Data Recovery that has been in business since 2007 and claims to have resolved more than 100,000 cases. It studied the HDDs it received in 2022. "Mos
  
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• PC Maker Acer Is Building a Fancy Electric Bike With Built-In AI

  21-03-2023 03:02 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Computer component maker Acer built a lightweight electric bike called the Acer ebii. Electrek reports: This lightweight 35 lb. (16 kg) e-bike features a number of gadgets and gizmos we have yet to spot in the industry, such as built-in AI designed to predictively control the transmission and make use of collision detection sensors for a safer ride. There's also proximity unlocking feature that the company says "automatically locks your bike when you leave and unlocks it again when you're nearby
  
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• Apple Pay Launches In South Korea

  21-03-2023 02:25 via news.slashdot.org
  
  After a years-long wait, Apple Pay today launched in South Korea, allowing those living in the country to use Apple's payment system to make contactless payments using the iPhone or Apple Watch. MacRumors reports: Apple has been working to bring Apple Pay to South Korea since 2017, but Apple was unable to be registered as an electronic financial business operator because regulators were investigating whether Apple Pay violated local regulations and laws. Apple was finally approved by financial r
  
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• IKEA Adds Stock-Counting Drones To More of Its Stores

  21-03-2023 01:45 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  In a blog post shared last week, Ingka, the legal entity responsible for most of Ikea's stores, says it now has a total of 100 autonomous drones counting stock in its warehouses during nonoperational hours. The Verge reports: Ikea first partnered with the drone-making company Verity in 2020 to deploy the drones in Switzerland, but now, the company says they're zipping around 16 locations across Belgium, Croatia, Slovenia, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. The Swedish furniture giant says the
  
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• Microsoft Wants Changing Default Apps In Windows To Be Less of a Mess

  21-03-2023 01:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: One of the enduring legacies of the '90s browser wars has been an outsize attention to how Microsoft handles default app settings in Windows, especially browser settings. The company plans to make it more straightforward to change your app defaults in future versions of Windows 11, according to a new blog post that outlines a "principled approach to app pinning and app defaults in Windows."The company's principled approach is a combination o
  
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• Indian Officials Cut Internet For 27 Million People Amid Search For Fugitive

  21-03-2023 00:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Indian authorities severed mobile internet access and text messaging for a second day Sunday across Punjab, a state of about 27 million people, as officials sought to capture a Sikh separatist and braced for potential unrest. The Washington Post reports: The statewide ban -- which crippled most smartphone services except for voice calls and some SMS text messages -- marked one of the broadest shutdowns in recent years in India, a country that has increasingly deployed the law enforcement tactic,
  
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