ICT news

• Amazon To Close Book Depository Online Shop

  05-04-2023 23:02 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The online shop Book Depository is due to close at the end of April, vendors and publishing partners have been told. This comes after the bookseller's parent company Amazon announced it had decided to "eliminate" a number of positions across its Devices and Books businesses. The Guardian reports: The Gloucester-based bookseller was founded in 2004 by Stuart Felton and Andrew Crawford, a former Amazon employee, with the mantra of "selling 'less of more' rather than'more of less'". It aimed to sel
  
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• Open Garage Doors Anywhere In the World By Exploiting This 'Smart' Device

  05-04-2023 22:24 via it.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A market-leading garage door controller is so riddled with severe security and privacy vulnerabilities that the researcher who discovered them, Sam Sabetan, is advising anyone using one to immediately disconnect it until they are fixed. Each $80 device, used to open and close garage doors and control home security alarms and smart power plugs, employs the same easy-to-find universal password to communicate with Nexx servers. The controllers
  
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• Google Says Its AI Supercomputer is Faster, Greener Than Nvidia A100 Chip

  05-04-2023 21:20 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Alphabet's Google released new details about the supercomputers it uses to train its artificial intelligence models, saying the systems are both faster and more power-efficient than comparable systems from Nvidia. From a report: Google has designed its own custom chip called the Tensor Processing Unit, or TPU. It uses those chips for more than 90% of the company's work on artificial intelligence training, the process of feeding data through models to make them useful at tasks such as responding
  
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• Google Will Require That Android Apps Let You Delete Your Account and Data

  05-04-2023 20:42 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Google wants to make it as easy to scrub an app account as it is to create one. The company has announced that Android apps on the Play Store will soon have to let you delete an account and its data both inside the app and on the web. Developers will also have to wipe data for an account when users ask to delete the account entirely. From a report: The move is meant to "better educate" users on the control they have over their data, and to foster trust in both apps and the Play Store at large. I
  
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• US-Backed VCs Are Funding China's Answer To OpenAI

  05-04-2023 20:03 via news.slashdot.org
  
  A boom in artificial intelligence startup funding sparked by OpenAI has spilled over to China, the world's second-biggest venture capital market. Now American institutional investors are indirectly financing a rash of Chinese AI startups aspiring to be China's answer to OpenAI. From a report: The American investors, including U.S. endowments, back key Chinese VC firms such as Sequoia Capital China, Matrix Partners China, Qiming Venture Partners and Hillhouse Capital Management that are striking
  
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• India Opts Against AI Regulation

  05-04-2023 19:20 via slashdot.org
  
  India does not plan to regulate the growth of AI within the South Asian market, identifying the sector as a "significant and strategic" area for the nation. This stance arrives at a time when numerous voices are calling for increased scrutiny of the rapidly advancing technology. From a report: The Ministry of Electronics and IT said in a long written response on Wednesday that it has assessed the ethical concerns and risks of bias and discrimination associated with AI. The ministry said it's imp
  
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• South Africa Fights To Keep Phone Networks Up as Lights Go Out

  05-04-2023 18:55 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: On a recent Friday morning north of Johannesburg, the head of South Africa's largest telecoms company surveyed the arsenal of backup systems keeping just one of his 15,000 network towers online amid the worst power cuts on record. A diesel generator. Solar panels. A bank of expensive backup batteries, theft-proofed within a block of concrete. "Our costs have gone through the roof," lamented Sitho Mdlalose, managing director of Vodacom South Africa. As the nat
  
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• Klaus Teuber, Creator of the Board Game Catan, Dies at 70

  05-04-2023 18:05 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Klaus Teuber, who 28 years ago created The Settlers of Catan, an enduringly popular board game that has spawned college intramural teams and international tournaments, been name-checked on "South Park" and "Parks and Recreation," inspired a novel and sold some 40 million copies worldwide, died on Saturday. He was 70. From a report: Catan GmbH, which publishes and licenses the game, now known simply as Catan, posted news of his death on its website. It said only that he died after a short illness
  
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• AWS and Microsoft's Azure Face Antitrust Probe in UK

  05-04-2023 17:27 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The UK's communications watchdog has called for a probe into Microsoft and Amazon's dominance of the country's cloud computing market in the latest challenge to the tech giants from global regulators. From a report: Ofcom said on Wednesday it was "particularly concerned" by the practices of Amazon Web Services and Microsoft, which together control between 60 and 70 per cent of the UK cloud market. It has proposed referring the sector to the Competition and Markets Authority for further investiga
  
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• Bob Lee, Creator of Cash App and Former CTO of Square, Stabbed To Death

  05-04-2023 16:49 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Bob Lee, the chief product officer at MobileCoin, was killed in a fatal stabbing in San Francisco. From a report: On Tuesday morning, at 2:35 a.m., the San Francisco Police Department responded to a report of a stabbing near the 300 block of Main Street in SoMa. He was taken to a hospital but succumbed to his injuries. Shortly after, NBC Bay Area reported that the victim of the stabbing was Bob Lee, 43. MobileCoin confirmed the information in a statement sent to Bloomberg and ABC7 News. Before j
  
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• Meta To Debut Ad-Creating Generative AI this Year, CTO Says

  05-04-2023 16:04 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Facebook owner Meta intends to commercialize its proprietary generative artificial intelligence by December, joining Google in finding practical applications for the tech. From a report: The company, which began full-scale AI research in 2013, stands out along with Google in the number of studies published. "We've been investing in artificial intelligence for over a decade, and have one of the leading research institutes in the world," Andrew Bosworth, Meta's chief technology officer, told Nikke
  
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• Alcohol Recovery Startups Shared Patients' Private Data With Advertisers

  05-04-2023 15:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: For years, online alcohol recovery startups Monument and Tempest were sharing with advertisers the personal information and health data of their patients without their consent. Monument, which acquired Tempest in 2022, confirmed the extensive years-long leak of patients' information in a data breach notification filed with California's attorney general last week, blaming their use of third-party tracking systems developed by ad giants includin
  
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• Microsoft and Jeff Bezos Tap Excel, Not Python Or R, To Teach Kids Data Science

  05-04-2023 12:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  theodp writes: Are you ready to rock it with #datascience?" asks a tweet from Club for the Future, the tax-exempt foundation founded and funded by Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin, which is partnering with Microsoft's Hacking STEM to show how data science is used to determine a Go/No-Go launch of a Blue Origin New Shepard rocket. Interestingly, while Amazon founder Bezos and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella are big backers of nonprofit Code.org and joined other tech CEOs for CS last fall to get the nation's
  
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• Rhode Island Considering Solar For All New Construction and Parking Lots

  05-04-2023 09:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Rhode Island representative Jennifer Boylan has submitted legislation that would mandate the inclusion of solar power in all newly constructed single-family dwellings, multi-family dwellings, large commercial buildings, and parking lots exceeding 16,000 sq. ft. From a report: The legislation, titled the Solar Neighborhoods Act (PDF), calls for the Rhode Island Building Code Commission to establish new code requirements for each of the aforementioned construction types. The document specifies tha
  
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• Inside the Bitter Campus Privacy Battle Over Smart Building Sensors

  05-04-2023 05:30 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from MIT Technology Review: When computer science students and faculty at Carnegie Mellon University's Institute for Software Research returned to campus in the summer of 2020, there was a lot to adjust to. Beyond the inevitable strangeness of being around colleagues again after months of social distancing, the department was also moving into a brand-new building: the 90,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art TCS Hall. The hall's futuristic features included carbon
  
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• FBI Seizes Bot Shop 'Genesis Market'

  05-04-2023 04:02 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Several domain names tied to Genesis Market, a bustling cybercrime store that sold access to passwords and other data stolen from millions of computers infected with malicious software, were seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) today. KrebsOnSecurity reports: Sources tell KrebsOnsecurity the domain seizures coincided with "dozens" of arrests in the United States and abroad targeting those who allegedly operated the service, as well as suppliers who continuously fed Genesis Market
  
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• A Collection of Fun Databases For Programming Exploration

  05-04-2023 03:25 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  Longtime Slashdot reader Esther Schindler writes: When you learn a new tool/technology, you need to create a sample application, which cannot use real in-house data. Why not use something fun for the sample application's data, such as a Star Wars API or a data collection about World Cup contests? Esther Schindler, Slashdot user #16185, assembled a groovy collection of datasets that may be useful but also may be a source of fascinating internet rabbit holes. For those interested in datasets, Esth
  
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• Chrome 112 Released With WASM Garbage Collection Trial, CSS Nesting

  05-04-2023 02:45 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Google today promoted the Chrome 112 web browser to their stable channel on all supported platforms. Phoronix reports: Starting as an origin trial with Chrome 112 is WebAssembly (WASM) Garbage Collection support. Yes, garbage collection to allow for efficient support for high-level managed languages with WebAssembly. This trial support allows for compilers targeting WASM to integrate with a garbage collector in the host VM. Also on the WebAssembly front with today's Chrome browser update is maki
  
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• Stanford Releases 386-Page Report On the State of AI

  05-04-2023 02:02 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Writing a report on the state of AI must feel a lot like building on shifting sands: by the time you hit publish, the whole industry has changed under your feet. But there are still important trends and takeaways in Stanford's 386-page bid to summarize this complex and fast-moving domain. The AI Index, from the Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, worked with experts from academia and private industry to collect information an
  
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• IRS-Authorized eFile.com Tax Return Software Caught Serving JS Malware

  05-04-2023 01:20 via it.slashdot.org
  
  eFile.com, an IRS-authorized e-file software service provider used by many for filing their tax returns, has been caught serving JavaScript malware. BleepingComputer reports: eFile.com was caught serving malware, as spotted by multiple users and researchers. The malicious JavaScript file in question is called 'popper.js'. The development comes at a crucial time when U.S. taxpayers are wrapping up their IRS tax returns before the April 18th due date. BleepingComputer can confirm, the malicious Ja
  
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• Music Labels Win Legal Battle Against Youtube-dl's Hosting Provider

  05-04-2023 00:40 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  A German court has ordered hosting provider Uberspace to take the website of the open-source youtube-dl software offline. The ruling is the result of a copyright infringement lawsuit, filed by Sony, Warner and Universal last year. Uberspace will appeal the verdict and, meanwhile, youtube-dl's code remains available on GitHub. TorrentFreak reports: After hearing both sides, the district court of Hamburg ruled on the matter last week, handing a clear win to the music companies. The verdict wasn't
  
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• Amazon, Despite Climate Pledge, Fought To Kill Emissions Bill In Oregon

  05-04-2023 00:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Washington Post: Amazon has branded itself as a climate crusader, touting its commitment to renewable energy and sustainable practices. But in Oregon, it helped quietly quash a climate bill that would have regulated its data centers. The bill would have set a 100 percent carbon emissions reduction deadline of 2040 for high energy users. Its goal was to rein in industries with outsize carbon footprints, like cryptocurrency mines and data centers, of wh
  
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