ICT news

• Balaji Srinivasan Closes Out $1 Million Bitcoin Bet Early

  03-05-2023 23:20 via slashdot.org
  
  Balaji Srinivasan, the former chief technology officer of Coinbase Global, said he closed out what appeared to be a losing bet that Bitcoin would rise to $1 million within 90 days. From a report: Srinivasan said he gave $1 million to two organizations, including Bitcoin Core development team at researcher Chaincode Labs, as well as paying $500,000 to someone who goes by James Medlock on Twitter, and who won the wager. The goal of the bet, Srinivasan reiterated in a Twitter post and a short video
  
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• Unity Lays Off 600 Staff Members, Prepares To Close Half of its Offices

  03-05-2023 22:40 via slashdot.org
  
  Unity announced today that it's having its third round of layoffs, with this one affecting 600 staff members. It's also reducing its number of offices from 58 to 30 or less within the next few years. Allegedly these cuts are prompted by fears of a recession. From a report: Unity CEO John Riccitiello told the Wall Street Journal that the company was cutting the number of layers within the company. He said, "It's all about setting ourselves up for higher growth." The 600 employees laid off represe
  
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• Passwordless Google Accounts Are Here - You Can Now Switch To Passkey-Only

  03-05-2023 22:01 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Google is taking a big step toward our supposedly passwordless future by enabling passkey-only Google accounts. From a report: In the blog post, titled "The beginning of the end of the password," Google says: "We've begun rolling out support for passkeys across Google Accounts on all major platforms. They'll be an additional option that people can use to sign in, alongside passwords, 2-Step Verification (2SV), etc." Previously, you've been able to use a passkey with a Google account as part of t
  
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• Intel: Just You Wait. Again

  03-05-2023 21:21 via slashdot.org
  
  Analyst Jean-Louis Gassee, writing at Monday Note about Intel's habit of requesting investors that they wait for the company to catch up to the competition: Concurrently, the company's revenue for its new IFS foundry business decreased by 24% to an insignificant $118M, with a $140M operating loss gingerly explained as "increased spending to support strategic growth." Other Intel businesses such as Networking (NEX) products and Mobileye -- yet another Autonomous Driving Technology -- add nothing
  
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• Fed Raises US Rates by a Quarter Point, Signaling Possible Pause

  03-05-2023 20:09 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter percentage point and hinted it may be the final move in the most aggressive tightening campaign since the 1980s as economic risks mount. From a report: "The committee will closely monitor incoming information and assess the implications for monetary policy," the Federal Open Market Committee said in a statement Wednesday. It omitted a line from its previous statement in March that said the committee "anticipates that some additional policy f
  
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• Microsoft is Forcing Outlook and Teams To Open Links in Edge, and IT Admins Are Angry

  03-05-2023 20:01 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft has now started notifying IT admins that it will force Outlook and Teams to ignore the default web browser on Windows and open links in Microsoft Edge instead. Reddit users have posted messages from the Microsoft 365 admin center that reveal how Microsoft is going to roll out this change. "Web links from Azure Active Directory (AAD) accounts and Microsoft (MSA) accounts in the Outlook for Windows app will open in Microsoft Edge in a single view show
  
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• AMD Posts First Loss in Years as Consumer Chip Sales Plummet by 65%

  03-05-2023 19:20 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  AMD has posted its first quarterly loss in years due to weak sales of processors for client PCs. From a report: Overall, AMD's chip sales dropped 64%. AMD's data center and gaming hardware shipments remained strong and were flat year-over-year, which is quite an achievement given the slowing purchases of servers and weak demand for gaming hardware among consumers. While AMD's management expects the CPU market to start recovering in the second half of the year, the company's outlook for Q2 is not
  
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• Amazon 'Aggregators' Who Raised $16 Billion Are Now Teetering

  03-05-2023 18:41 via slashdot.org
  
  During the pandemic, Wall Street banks and private equity firms invested billions of dollars in startups rolling up popular brands sold on Amazon.com. The bet was that these upstarts, fueled by an online sales boom, would become the next consumer product conglomerates -- like Procter & Gamble or Unilever. Then the pandemic ended, consumers returned to the stores, and Amazon's sales growth cratered -- erasing almost half of its market value. Now the reckoning has arrived for these so-called b
  
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• Chrome To Drop Lock Icon Showing HTTPS Status

  03-05-2023 18:04 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Google will remove the familiar lock icon that allows users to check a website's Transport Layer Security status for the connection, citing research that only a few users correctly understood its precise meaning. From a report: The lock icon has been displayed by web browsers since the 1990s, indicating that the connection to web sites is secured and authenticated with encryption. However, Google said its 2021 research showed that only 11 percent of participants in a study correctly understood t
  
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• ChatGPT-related Malware on the Rise, Meta Says

  03-05-2023 17:22 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Facebook owner Meta said on Wednesday it had uncovered malware purveyors leveraging public interest in ChatGPT to lure users into downloading malicious apps and browser extensions, likening the phenomenon to cryptocurrency scams. From a report: Since March, the social media giant has found around 10 malware families and more than 1,000 malicious links that were promoted as tools featuring the popular artificial intelligence-powered chatbot, it said in a report. In some cases, the malware deliver
  
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• AI 'Will Cause Real Damage,' Microsoft Chief Economist Warns

  03-05-2023 16:41 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Artificial intelligence will be dangerous in the hands of unscrupulous people, according to Microsoft Chief Economist Michael Schwarz. From a report: "I am confident AI will be used by bad actors, and yes it will cause real damage," Schwarz said during a World Economic Forum panel in Geneva on Wednesday. "It can do a lot damage in the hands of spammers with elections and so on." AI "clearly" must be regulated, he said, but lawmakers should be cautious and wait until the technology causes "real h
  
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• Anti-Porn Lobbyists Pressure Reddit To Shut Down Its NSFW Communities

  03-05-2023 15:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: An anti-pornography group that claims all adult content is unhealthy is taking aim at Reddit, one of the biggest online platforms for sharing porn and sex worker resources. The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), formerly Morality in Media, celebrated changes to policy that resulted in adult performers losing their incomes, taken credit for pressuring Instagram to ban Pornhub from the platform, and encouraged its followers to help
  
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• Experimental Alzheimer's Drug Slows Cognitive Declines in Large Trial, Drugmaker Eli Lilly Says

  03-05-2023 12:13 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An experimental Alzheimer's medication slowed declines in patients' ability to think clearly and perform daily tasks by more than a third in a large clinical trial, drugmaker Eli Lilly said Wednesday. From a report: Based on the results, in people with early symptomatic Alzheimer's disease, Lilly said it plans to file for approval from the US Food and Drug Administration by the end of June. The medicine, donanemab, works by removing plaque buildups in the brain known as amyloid that are a hallma
  
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• James Webb Space Telescope Detects Water Vapor Around Alien Planet

  03-05-2023 12:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has detected water vapor around a distant rocky planet located 26 light-years away. "The water vapor could indicate the presence of an atmosphere around the extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, a discovery that could be important for our search for habitable worlds outside the solar system," reports Space.com. "However, the scientists behind the discovery caution that this water vapor could be coming from the world's host star rather than the planet itself." Fro
  
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• 'Star Trek' Fans Can Now Virtually Tour Every Starship Enterprise Bridge

  03-05-2023 09:00 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  A new web portal allows "Star Trek" fans to explore the iconic bridge of the starship Enterprise through 360-degree, 3D models and learn about its evolution throughout the franchise's history. Smithsonian Magazine reports: The site features 360-degree, 3D models of the various versions of the Enterprise, as well as a timeline of the ship's evolution throughout the franchise's history. Fans of the show can also read detailed information about each version of the ship's design, its significance to
  
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• Promising Jobs At the US Postal Service, 'US Job Services' Leaks Customer Data

  03-05-2023 05:30 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from KrebsOnSecurity: A sprawling online company based in Georgia that has made tens of millions of dollars purporting to sell access to jobs at the United States Postal Service (USPS) has exposed its internal IT operations and database of nearly 900,000 customers. The leaked records indicate the network's chief technology officer in Pakistan has been hacked for the past year, and that the entire operation was created by the principals of a Tennessee-based tel
  
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• Co-Founders of Google DeepMind and LinkedIn Launch Chatbot

  03-05-2023 04:02 via slashdot.org
  
  The co-founders of Google DeepMind and LinkedIn have launched an AI chatbot called Pi (Warning: source paywalled; alternative source), which aims to provide relaxed and supportive conversations rather than information or specific tasks, distinguishing itself by encouraging dialogue and inquiry from users. The Financial Times reports: The first product from the year-old AI start-up behind Pi, Inflection AI, comes as the growing hype around generative AI drives a surge of investor and consumer int
  
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• Colorado Kills Law That Made It Harder For Cities To Offer Internet Service

  03-05-2023 03:25 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Yesterday, Colorado eliminated a 2005 law that required local governments to hold an election before offering cable television or telecommunications service, "a process that pitted city and town leaders against well-funded broadband industry lobbying campaigns," reports Ars Technica. From the report: Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, signed a bill to eliminate that law yesterday. The bill had been approved by the State House in a 48-14 vote and in the Senate by a 31-4 vote. Both chambers have Democr
  
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• Grimes Unveils Software To Mimic Her Voice

  03-05-2023 02:45 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  Canadian singer-songwriter Grimes went viral late last month when she invited her fans to create music using her voice, stating that should would split 50% of royalties for any successful AI-generated song. Now, the artist has unveiled an AI voice software, called Elf.Tech, to make it even easier for users to deepfake her voice for their own AI songs. Pitchfork reports: Artists can commercially release the results in exchange for half of any master-recording royalties. Grimes announced a pair of
  
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• Microsoft Broke a Chrome Feature To Promote Its Edge Browser

  03-05-2023 02:02 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: Microsoft issued a Windows update that broke a Chrome feature, making it harder to change your default browser and annoying Chrome users with popups, Gizmodo has learned. An April Windows update borked a new button in Chrome -- the most popular browser in the world -- that let you change your default browser with a single click, but the worst was reserved for users on the enterprise version of Windows. For weeks, every time an enterprise user ope
  
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• Vice Media Group Prepares For Bankruptcy

  03-05-2023 01:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  "Vice Media Group appears to be the latest digital media company in trouble," writes longtime Slashdot reader DesScorp. "The New York Times reports that the company is preparing for bankruptcy after being unable to find a buyer. Vice canceled Vice News Tonight only four days ago. The company, once valued at over $5.7 billion, has been bleeding cash, and major investors such as Disney will take a huge loss." From the report: In the event of a bankruptcy, Vice's largest debt holder, Fortress Inves
  
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• Samsung Bans Use of AI Like ChatGPT For Employees After Misuse of the Chatbot

  03-05-2023 00:40 via slashdot.org
  
  Samsung told CNBC that it is temporarily restricting the use of generative AI for employees after the company discovered such services were being misused. From the report: Employees of one of Samsung's biggest divisions were informed of the move in a memo at the end of April after there had been cases of misuse of the technology. Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that some staff had uploaded sensitive code to ChatGPT. Samsung does not have its own generative AI product yet. ChatGPT is developed by U
  
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• NYPD Urges Citizens To Buy AirTags To Fight Surge In Car Thefts

  03-05-2023 00:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The New York Police Department (NYPD) and New York City's self-proclaimed computer geek of a mayor are urging resident car owners to equip their vehicles with an Apple AirTag. During a press conference on Sunday, Mayor Eric Adams announced the distribution of 500 free AirTags to New Yorkers, saying the technology would aid in reducing the city's surging car theft numbers. Adams held the press conference at the 43rd precinct in the Bronx, whe
  
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