ICT news

• Epic's Hyperrealistic MetaHumans Can Soon Be Animated Using an iPhone

  24-03-2023 23:40 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  During its State of Unreal keynote at GDC 2023, the company showed off new animation tools that make it possible to create realistic facial animations using only video captured from an iPhone. The Verge reports: Epic showed this off with a live demonstration featuring the actor behind the upcoming game Senua's Saga: Hellblade II. It was a short clip, with the actor speaking directly into the camera, but it appeared to be rendered both quickly and accurately. Even more impressive, the company the
  
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• Sex Worker-Led Payment Platform Shuts Down After Being Cut Off By Processor

  24-03-2023 23:02 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Adult industry cryptocurrency payment platform SpankPay announced on Monday that it is closing down, after facing the same banking discrimination it aimed to help sex workers avoid. "After a long and difficult consideration, we have decided to close down SpankPay, our crypto payment processor that we built as a safe haven for our community," SpankPay tweeted. "Rest assured your money is safe and we'll get it to you as soon as possible."SpankP
  
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• Google Bard is Worse Than ChatGPT, Say Early Testers

  24-03-2023 22:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: On Tuesday, Google initiated the process of opening up Bard to the world by inviting users in the US and UK to sign up for access. It first demoed Bard in February, in a clear response to seeing ChatGPT take the world by storm over the holiday period, but is only now opening up access. Unfortunately for the search giant, the beta-ness of Bard is clear, with a first batch of adopters seemingly underwhelmed by its capabilities when compared with OpenAI's GPT-4
  
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• UK Regulator Sides With Microsoft Over Call of Duty on PlayStation Concerns

  24-03-2023 21:40 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has now sided with Microsoft over concerns the software giant could remove Call of Duty from PlayStation if its proposed Activision Blizzard deal is approved. From a report: The regulator still has concerns about the deal's impact on the cloud gaming market and will complete its investigation by the end of April. "Having considered the additional evidence provided, we have now provisionally concluded that the merger will not result in a substantia
  
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• 'Docker is Deleting Open Source Organisations'

  24-03-2023 21:00 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  Alex Ellis: Earlier this month, Docker sent an email to any Docker Hub user who had created an "organisation", telling them their account will be deleted including all images, if they do not upgrade to a paid team plan. The email contained a link to a tersely written PDF (since, silently edited) which was missing many important details which caused significant anxiety and additional work for open source maintainers. As far as we know, this only affects organisation accounts that are often used b
  
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• Meta Slams Telco Fee Proposal, Says ISPs Should Pay Their Own Network Costs

  24-03-2023 20:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Proposals to pay for broadband networks by imposing new fees on Big Tech companies "are built on a false premise," Meta executives wrote in a blog post today. From a report: "Network fee proposals do not recognize that our investments in content drive the business model of telecom operators," Meta executives Kevin Salvadori and Bruno Cendon Martin wrote. Meta's comments came a few weeks after Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters spoke out against the proposal being reviewed by European regulators. Meta ex
  
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• Biden Broadband Plan Runs Headlong Into 'Buy American' Mandate

  24-03-2023 19:40 via news.slashdot.org
  
  President Joe Biden made clear in his State of the Union address last month that as the US spends billions of dollars on new broadband connections, "we're going to buy American." But that aspiration is easier said than done. From a report: While there seems to be enough domestic fiber optic cable to connect communities, the electronic components such as routers that transform glass strands into data highways are made mainly in other countries. Cable providers, chip makers and wireless carriers a
  
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• Pets Could Be Gene-Edited Under New English Law, Says RSPCA

  24-03-2023 19:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Pets could be subjected to gene editing under a new UK government act, the RSPCA has warned. From a report: The animal charity has said that the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act applies to all vertebrate animals, not only farmed animals, and that it could lead to cats and dogs being gene-edited to include extreme features. The law allows the creation and marketing of "precision-bred" or genome-edited plants and vertebrate animals in England. The government said it would allow farmers
  
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• FAA is Laying Out Steps for Air Traffic Controllers To Avoid More Close Calls

  24-03-2023 18:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The head of the nation's air traffic controllers said there have been too many near collisions at airports and laid out steps to avoid more -- including more supervisor oversight in control towers and extra controller training for "unusual circumstances." From a report: "Even though we all know that multiple levels of safety are built into our system, there is no question that we are seeing too many close calls," said Tim Arel, chief operating officer of the Federal Aviation Administration's Air
  
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• More Americans Are Using 'Buy Now, Pay Later' Services To Pay for Groceries

  24-03-2023 17:41 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The concept of "buy now, pay later" has exploded in popularity in recent years. Americans have been using this form of lending -- in which the cost of a purchase is typically divided into four payments over several weeks or months -- to buy everything from clothes to Peloton bikes. But now there is a new trend: People are using the payment method for smaller items, like groceries. From a report: Buy now, pay later -- referred to in the payments industry as BNPL -- is a new spin on the concept of
  
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• Startup Invents Long-Distance Kissing Machine

  24-03-2023 17:00 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  A Chinese startup has invented a long-distance kissing machine that transmits users' kiss data collected through motion sensors hidden in silicon lips, which simultaneously move when replaying kisses received. From a report: MUA -- named after the sound people commonly make when blowing a kiss -- also captures and replays sound and warms up slightly during kissing, making the experience more authentic, said Beijing-based Siweifushe. Users can even download kissing data submitted via an accompany
  
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• Domino's Eight-Year Foray Into Italy Ends in Liquidation

  24-03-2023 16:21 via slashdot.org
  
  Domino's Pizza's franchise in Italy has entered into liquidation, after a short-lived struggle to win over customers in the birthplace of pizza. From a report: A Milan-based judge opened liquidation proceedings for Domino's franchise partner, ePizza, last week, according to a filing with the local chamber of commerce seen by Bloomberg News. A court-ordered liquidation could result in a recovery for creditors of 5% of their exposure, according to a draft restructuring plan seen by Bloomberg News
  
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• A Tech Job Still Pays $120 an Hour Despite Mass Layoffs

  24-03-2023 15:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Mass layoffs across the US technology industry have now claimed well over 300,000 jobs. And yet, companies are still hiring in areas they see as mission-critical. Contract positions are still commanding $120-an-hour wages. From a report:The industry hasn't seen cuts this deep since the dot-com bubble burst, but Linda Lutton, who has been recruiting for tech firms since 1987, says it doesn't feel like a bust. For one, she said, firms are still taking her calls. "I'm in constant contact with my te
  
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• France Sets EU Precedent With 2024 Olympics Surveillance Arsenal

  24-03-2023 15:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  France's AI-powered array of surveillance cameras for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics cleared a final legislative hurdle on Thursday. From a report: The French government wants to experiment with large-scale, real-time camera systems supported by an algorithm to spot suspicious behavior, including unsupervised luggage and triggering alarms to warn of crowd movements like stampedes, for the mega-sports event next year. In a sparsely-attended chamber, French members of parliament approved the contr
  
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• El Salvador President Readies Bill To Eliminate Taxes On Tech

  24-03-2023 14:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele said on Thursday he will send to the country's Congress next week a bill to eliminate all taxes on technology innovations as well as computing and communications hardware manufacturing. "Next week, I'll be sending a bill to congress to eliminate all taxes (income, property, capital gains and import tariffs) on technology innovations, such as software programming, coding, apps and AI development," he said on Tw
  
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• Interstellar Object 'Oumuamua Probably Moved Strangely Due To Gas, Study Says

  24-03-2023 11:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Scientists have come up with a simple explanation for the strange movements of our solar system's first known visitor from another star. NPR reports: Now, though, in the journal Nature, two researchers say the answer might be the release of hydrogen from trapped reserves inside water-rich ice. That was the notion of Jennifer Bergner, an astrochemist with the University of California, Berkeley, who recalls that she initially didn't spend much time thinking about 'Oumuamua when it was first discov
  
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• Relativity Space Launches World's First 3D-Printed Rocket On Historic Test Flight

  24-03-2023 08:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Longtime Slashdot reader destinyland shares a report from Space.com: The Relativity Space rocket, called Terran 1, lifted off from Launch Complex 16 at Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 8:25 p.m. EST (0025 GMT on March 23), kicking off a test flight called "Good Luck, Have Fun" (GLHF). Terran 1 performed well initially. For example, it survived Max-Q -- the part of flight during which the structural loads are highest on a rocket -- and its first and second stages separated successf
  
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• FDA Clears Lab-Grown Chicken As Safe To Eat

  24-03-2023 04:30 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBS News: The Food and Drug Administration on Monday cleared cultured "cultured chicken cell material" made by GOOD Meat as safe for use as human food. While the FDA said the lab-grown chicken was safe to eat, GOOD Meat still needs approval from the Agriculture Department before i can sell the product in the U.S. If approved, acclaimed chef Jose Andres plans to serve GOOD Meat's chicken to customers at his Washington, D.C. restaurant. He's on GOOD Meat's
  
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• Humans Have Reclaimed 'Land Size of Luxembourg' Since 2000

  24-03-2023 03:02 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Land reclamation is nothing new, but during this century there has been a significant rise in the creation of artificial land by humans, with a recent study showing that developers have added more than 2,500 sq km -- an area equivalent to the size of Luxembourg -- to coastlines since 2000. The Guardian reports: Using satellite imagery, Dhritiraj Sengupta, from the University of Southampton, and his colleagues analysed land changes in 135 large cities. Their results, published in the journal Eart
  
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• The Writers Guild of America Would Allow AI In Scriptwriting, As Long as Writers Maintain Credit

  24-03-2023 02:25 via slashdot.org
  
  The Writers Guild of America has proposed allowing artificial intelligence to write scripts, as long as it does not affect writers' credits or residuals. Variety reports: The guild had previously indicated that it would propose regulating the use of AI in the writing process, which has recently surfaced as a concern for writers who fear losing out on jobs. But contrary to some expectations, the guild is not proposing an outright ban on the use of AI technology. Instead, the proposal would allow
  
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• Utah Passes Laws Requiring Parental Permission For Teens To Use Social Media

  24-03-2023 01:45 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Utah's governor has signed two bills that could upend how teens in the state are able to use social media apps. Engadget reports: Under the new laws, companies like Meta, Snap and TikTok would be required to get parents permission before teens could create accounts on their platforms. The laws also require curfew, parental controls and age verification features. The laws could dramatically change how social platforms handle the accounts of their youngest users. In addition to the parental consen
  
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• License Plate Surveillance, Courtesy of Your Homeowners Association

  24-03-2023 01:02 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Intercept: At a city council meeting in June 2021, Mayor Thomas Kilgore, of Lakeway, Texas, made an announcement that confused his community. "I believe it is my duty to inform you that a surveillance system has been installed in the city of Lakeway," he told the perplexed crowd. Kilgore was referring to a system consisting of eight license plate readers, installed by the private company Flock Safety, that was tracking cars on both private and public
  
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• Ford Says EV Unit Losing Billions, Should Be Seen As Startup

  24-03-2023 00:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Ford's electric vehicle business has lost $3 billion before taxes during the past two years and will lose a similar amount this year as the company invests heavily in the new technology. The Associated Press reports: The figures were released Thursday as Ford rolled out a new way of reporting financial results. The new business structure separates electric vehicles, the profitable internal combustion and commercial vehicle operations into three operating units. Company officials said the electri
  
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