ICT news

• Hong Kong's Crypto Ambitions Get a Boost From US Crackdown

  03-04-2023 23:20 via slashdot.org
  
  Hong Kong's attempt to attract cryptocurrency companies is getting help from an intensifying crackdown by American regulators. From a report: The city was once home to a number of prominent companies, including Crypto.com, BitMEX and now-bankrupt FTX. But increasing competition from Singapore, concerns about China's tough approach to crypto and Hong Kong's prolonged and strict response to Covid-19 meant many companies in the sector left. Hong Kong is now determined to bring some of that action b
  
  Read more

• Google Brings 'Nearby Share' To Windows, Making It Easy To Transfer Files

  03-04-2023 22:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Google is bringing Android's "Nearby Share" feature to the desktop with a new Windows app. Google says the new program will make sharing between Windows and Android easier, letting you send files over in just a few clicks and taps. From a report: Google's Nearby Share has been built into Android for a few years now and allows you to locally transfer files over Wi-Fi, with the initial device-pairing happening over Bluetooth. Nearby share has been kind of tough to use in real life, since most peop
  
  Read more

• Chemicals Banned From Air Conditioners and Refrigerators Are Making a Comeback

  03-04-2023 22:01 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Chemicals that were banned after they punched a hole in Earth's ozone layer are still building up at an alarming rate in our atmosphere, according to research published today in the journal Nature Geoscience. The chemicals were once widely used in air conditioning and refrigeration but were supposed to be phased out globally by 2010. From a report: Scientists were surprised to find that concentrations of several types of those chemicals have climbed since then, reaching a record high in 2020. Th
  
  Read more

• Less Than Half of US Workers Use All Their Vacation Days

  03-04-2023 21:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Spring break is here, and summer vacations are just around the bend. But while increasingly stressed-out US workers say having paid time off is critical, many still don't even take all that they're allowed. From a report: Only 48% of US workers say they use all their vacation days, according to a new survey from Pew Research Center. Those who don't take all their time off say it's because they don't need it, or they worry about falling behind at work or feel badly about co-workers carrying their
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Scientists Film Deepest Ever Fish on Seabed Off Japan

  03-04-2023 20:40 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Cruising at a depth of 8,336 meters (over 27,000 feet) just above the seabed, a young snailfish has become the deepest fish ever filmed by scientists during a probe into the abyss of the northern Pacific Ocean. From a report: Scientists from University of Western Australia and Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology released footage of the snailfish on Sunday filmed last September by sea robots in deep trenches off Japan. Along with the filming the deepest snailfish, the scientists phy
  
  Read more

• Dogecoin Jumps After Token's Symbol Replaces Blue Bird as Twitter Logo

  03-04-2023 20:02 via slashdot.org
  
  Dogecoin (DOGE) rose 12% after the Shiba Inu symbol representing the token replaced the familiar blue bird atop the Twitter homepage. From a report: Elon Musk in the past has suggested the meme coin may offer better payments functionality than bitcoin.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
  Read more

• Google To Cut Down on Employee Laptops, Services and Staplers for 'Multi-Year' Savings

  03-04-2023 19:23 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Google's finance chief Ruth Porat recently said in a rare companywide email that the company is making cuts to employee services. From a report: "These are big, multi-year efforts," Porat said in a Friday email titled: "Our company-wide OKR on durable savings." Elements of the email were previously reported by the Wall Street Journal. In separate documents viewed by CNBC, Google said it's cutting back on fitness classes, staplers, tape, and the frequency of laptop replacements for employees. One
  
  Read more

• Australia To Ban TikTok on Government Devices

  03-04-2023 18:47 via slashdot.org
  
  Australia will announce a ban on TikTok on government phones this week, following other countries in barring the Chinese-owned video app over security concerns, Australian newspapers reported late on Monday. From a report: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese agreed to a government-wide ban on the use of TikTok after the completion of a review by the Home Affairs department, The Australian newspaper reported. Victoria state will also ban the short video app from government phones, The Age newspaper r
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• NASA Unveils 4 Astronauts Who Will Fly To the Moon on Artemis II Mission

  03-04-2023 18:01 via science.slashdot.org
  
  A Canadian astronaut and three NASA veterans, including one of the world's most experienced female spacewalkers, will fly around the moon next year in the first piloted voyage beyond Earth orbit since the Apollo program ended 50 years ago, the space agency announced Monday. From a report: NASA's Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch and Victor Glover will join Canadian rookie Jeremy Hansen aboard an Orion crew capsule for the Artemis program's second fight, the first carrying a crew bound for the moon. T
  
  Read more

• Western Digital Says Hackers Stole Data in Network Security Breach

  03-04-2023 17:26 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Data storage giant Western Digital has confirmed that hackers exfiltrated data from its systems during a "network security incident" last week. From a report: The California-based company said in a statement on Monday that an unauthorized third party gained access to "a number" of its internal systems on March 26. Western Digital hasn't confirmed the nature of the incident or revealed how it was compromised, but its statement suggests the incident may be linked to ransomware. [...] Western Digit
  
  Read more

• Tor Project's New Privacy-Focused Browser Doesn't Use the Tor Network

  03-04-2023 16:40 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  The Tor Project, the organization behind the anonymous network and browser, is helping launch a privacy-focused browser that's made to connect to a VPN instead of a decentralized onion network. From a report: It's called the Mullvad browser, named after the Mullvad VPN company it's partnered with on the project, and it's available for Windows, Mac, or Linux. The Mullvad browser's main goal is to make it harder for advertisers and other companies to track you across the internet. It does this by
  
  Read more

• Paris Votes To Ban Rental E-scooters

  03-04-2023 16:00 via slashdot.org
  
  Paris voted overwhelmingly Sunday to banish for-hire electric scooters from the streets of the French capital, delivering a blow to operators and a victory for road safety campaigners. From a report: The referendum means the City of Light, once a pioneer in embracing e-scooter services, is set to become the only major European capital to outlaw the widespread devices booked on apps such as Lime. The city's residents were asked to weigh in for or against them in a public consultation organised by
  
  Read more

• ACM Magazine Criticizes Latest Draft of New C Standard, 'C23'

  03-04-2023 13:34 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  The ACM's software engineering magazine Queue delves into the latest draft for "a new major revision of the C language standard, C23... due out this year," noting the highs, lows, and several useful new features.The most important, if not the most exciting, make it easier to write safe, correct, and secure code. For example, the new header standardizes checked integer arithmetic:int i =...; unsigned long ul =...; signed char sc =...;bool surprise = ckd_add(&i, ul, sc);The type-generic macro
  
  Read more

• Will Wikipedia Be Written by AI? Jimmy Wales is Thinking About It

  03-04-2023 09:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The Evening Standard interviewed Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, in a piece headlined "Will Wikipedia be written by AI?""The discussion in the Wikipedia community that I've seen so far is...people are cautious in the sense that we're aware that the existing models are not good enough but also intrigued because there seems like there's a lot of possibility here," Wales said. "I think we're still a way away from: 'ChatGPT, please write a Wikipedia entry about the empire state building', but I don't
  
  Read more

• What If Social Media Were Not for Profit?

  03-04-2023 06:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  "What would it look like if we called time on Big Tech's failed experiment?" asks the co-editor of the Oxford-based magazine New Internationalist:A better social media would need to be decentralized... As well as avoiding a single point of failure (or censorship), this would help with other goals: community ownership, and democratic control, would be facilitated by having many smaller, perhaps more local, sites. Existing social media giants must be brought into public (and transnational) ownersh
  
  Read more

• AM Radio to Be Dropped in All Ford New Models Except Commercial Vehicles

  03-04-2023 03:38 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  It's not just the Ford Mustang that's losing its AM radio. The Detroit Free Press reports:"We are transitioning from AM radio for most new and updated 2024 models," Ford spokesman Wes Sherwood told the Free Press. "A majority of U.S. AM stations, as well as a number of countries and automakers globally, are modernizing radio by offering internet streaming through mobile apps, FM, digital and satellite radio options. Ford will continue to offer these alternatives for customers to hear their favor
  
  Read more

• Planned NFT-Based Private Club in San Francisco Stalled by Uncompleted Permitting Steps

  03-04-2023 01:38 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Remember that entrepreneur planning an ostentatious NFT-based restaurant/members-only club in San Francisco? Seven months later it's still "an empty husk of a building, hindered by construction delays and unfulfilled crypto dreams," reports SFGate:Last August, Joshua Sigel held a "groundbreaking" event at what he said would be the future home of Sho Restaurant, located atop Salesforce Park in San Francisco. He told the gathered media that construction of the proposed Japanese fine dining restaur
  
  Read more

• Vandals Cut 2,000 Fiber Optic Cables in Connecticut, Knocking 16,000 Offline

  03-04-2023 00:38 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  "Connecticut police have charged two people with cutting more than 2,000 fiber optic cables" on March 24, reports the Associated Press — leaving more than 15,000 people without internet access.Norwalk police said they arrested Asheville, North Carolina, residents Jillian Persons and Austin Geddings on Saturday during a surveillance operation. Both were charged with larceny and criminal mischief crimes, as well as interfering with police. Persons also was accused of giving a false statement
  
  Read more

Follow @newslocke_ict on Twitter!