ICT news

• Facebook Has 3 Billion Users. Many of Them Are Old.

  08-05-2023 23:22 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Facebook says it is not dead. Facebook also wants you to know that it is not just for "old people," as young people have been saying for years. From a report: Now, with the biggest thorn in its side -- TikTok -- facing heightened government scrutiny amid growing tensions between the U.S. and China, Facebook could, perhaps, position itself as a viable, domestic-bred alternative. There's just one problem: young adults like Devin Walsh (anecdote in the story) have moved on. [...] Today, 3 billion p
  
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• Nintendo, Ticked by Zelda Leaks, Does a DMCA Run on Switch Emulation Tools

  08-05-2023 22:40 via games.slashdot.org
  
  Perhaps woken by news of its next premier first-party title already looking really impressive on emulators, Nintendo has moved to take down key tools for emulating and unlocking Switch consoles, including one that lets Switch owners grab keys from their own device. From a report: Simon Aarons maintained a forked repository of Lockpick, a tool (along with Lockpick_RCM) that grabbed the encryption keys from a Nintendo Switch and allowed it to run officially licensed games. Aarons tweeted on Thursd
  
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• Apple Fails To Revive Copyright Case Over iPhone iOS Simulator

  08-05-2023 22:01 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Apple failed to revive a long-running copyright lawsuit against cybersecurity firm Corellium over its software that simulates the iPhone's iOS operating systems, letting security researchers to identify flaws in the software. From a report: The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on Monday ruled that Corellium's CORSEC simulator is protected by copyright law's fair use doctrine, which allows the duplication of copyrighted work under certain circumstances. Apple argued that Corellium's s
  
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• Gene Editing Makes Bacteria-killing Viruses Even More Deadly

  08-05-2023 21:20 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Broad-spectrum antibiotics are akin to nuclear bombs, obliterating every prokaryote they meet. They're effective at eliminating pathogens, sure, but they're not so great for maintaining a healthy microbiome. Ideally, we need precision antimicrobials that can target only the harmful bacteria while ignoring the other species we need in our bodies, leaving them to thrive. Enter SNIPR BIOME, a Danish company founded to do just that. Its first drug -- SNIPR001 --
  
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• Microsoft Could Cram More Ads Into Windows 11 - This Time in the Settings App

  08-05-2023 20:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Windows 11's Settings panel has been seen with a number of adverts in test builds of the OS, in what's becoming a sadly familiar theme for preview builds of late. From a report: As spotted by German tech site Deskmodder, this was flagged up by a respected source for Microsoft leaks, Albacore, on Twitter. Albacore shared some screenshots of the new home page for the Settings app, as uncovered by digging into a Windows 11 preview from the Canary channel (the earliest test builds). The first screen
  
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• Singapore Eyes Sweeping Powers To Police Online Content, Apps

  08-05-2023 20:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Singapore's government is taking the first steps toward codifying a new internet safety law that would grant it wide-ranging powers over content, access and communication online. From a report: The Online Criminal Harms Bill, introduced for a first reading in parliament on Monday, is aimed at cracking down on illicit activities like scams, misinformation, cybercrime drug trafficking and the spread of exploitative images. It is part of a wider "suite of legislation" to protect Singaporeans online
  
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• Intel Plans Fresh Round of Layoffs, Other Cost Cuts

  08-05-2023 19:21 via slashdot.org
  
  Intel plans a fresh wave of layoffs in the wake of a steep decline in revenue over the last six months. The chipmaker, Oregon's largest corporate employer, blames a weak global economy. From a report: "We are focused on identifying cost reductions and efficiency gains through multiple initiatives, including some business and function-specific workforce reductions in areas across the company," Intel said in a written statement. "These are difficult decisions, and we are committed to treating impa
  
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• Truecaller Aims To Help WhatsApp Users Combat Spam

  08-05-2023 18:42 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Truecaller will soon start making its caller identification service available over WhatsApp and other messaging apps to help users spot potential spam calls over the internet, the company told Reuters on Monday. From a report: The feature, currently in beta phase, will be rolled out globally later in May, Truecaller Chief Executive Alan Mamedi said. Telemarketing and scamming calls have been on the rise in countries like India, where users gets about 17 spam calls per month on average, according
  
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• ChatGPT Fever Has Investors Pouring Billions Into AI Startups, No Business Plan Required

  08-05-2023 18:09 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Amid broader venture-capital doldrums, it is boom times for startups touting generative artificial intelligence tech. From a report: Before their startup had customers, a business plan or even a formal name, former Google AI researchers Niki Parmar and Ashish Vaswani were fielding interest from investors eager to back the next big thing in artificial intelligence. At Google, Ms. Parmar and Mr. Vaswani were among the co-authors of a seminal 2017 paper that helped pave the way for the boom in so-c
  
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• China Races Ahead of US on AI Regulation

  08-05-2023 17:27 via news.slashdot.org
  
  While American leaders fret that China might eventually overtake the U.S. in developing artificial intelligence, Beijing is already way ahead of Washington in enacting rules for the new technology. From a report: Chinese officials will close consultation Wednesday on a second round of generative AI regulation, building on a set of rules governing deepfakes agreed in 2022. The Biden administration is behind both allies and adversaries on AI guardrails. While officials in Washington talk about del
  
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• Coinbase CEO says SEC is on 'lone crusade,'

  08-05-2023 16:44 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, Brian Armstrong, doubled down on his criticisms of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chief Gary Gensler Monday, but added the exchange would not leave the U.S. despite the regulatory uncertainty the company is facing in the country. From a report: The SEC earlier this year served Coinbase with a Wells Notice, a letter that the regulator sends to a company or firm at the conclusion of an SEC investigation that states the SEC is planning to br
  
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• Altman's Crypto Project, Worldcoin, Releases First Major Consumer Product

  08-05-2023 16:03 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: In the age of large language models (LLMs) and ChatGPT, AI is poised to make a weird internet even weirder -- turning the content-driven social media apps, news sites and media platforms of today into future uncanny valleys that blur the line between man and machine. As advances in AI make it more difficult to discern bots from humans, Sam Altman, the co-founder of Open AI -- the company behind ChatGPT -- thinks blockchains can help. Altman's crypto project,
  
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• Codon Compiler For Python Is Fast - but With Some Caveats

  08-05-2023 13:34 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  For 16 years, Rik Farrow has been an editor for the long-running nonprofit Usenix. He's also been a consultant for 43 years (according to his biography at Usenix.org) — and even wrote the 1988 book Unix System Security: How to Protect Your Data and Prevent Intruders.
  Today Farrow stopped by Slashdot to share his thoughts on Codon. rikfarrow writes:
  Researchers at MIT decided to build a compiler focused on speeding up genomics processing... Recently, they have posted their code on GitHub, a
  
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• Slack Announces 'AI-Powered' Conversation Summaries and Message-Writing Assistance

  08-05-2023 09:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Slack sees the future:
  Imagine if every time you hop into a channel, you'll be able to get up to speed on unread Slack messages in one click — whether you're jumping in midway through a project or catching up from being out of the office. In the future, with generative AI built seamlessly into the user experience, conversation summaries will be there when you need them, the moment you start scrolling through a channel.
  With AI assistance built natively into Slack's message composer and can
  
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• Elizabeth Holmes Speaks

  08-05-2023 05:34 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Elizabeth Holmes hasn't spoken to the media since 2016. Now convicted on criminal fraud charges — and counting down the days until she reports for prison — Holmes finally breaks the silence in a profile published today in the New York Times.
  "I made so many mistakes," Holmes says, "and there was so much I didn't know and understand, and I feel like when you do it wrong, it's like you really internalize it in a deep way,"Billy Evans, Ms. Holmes's partner and the father of their two yo
  
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• Why the Creator of Ruby on Rails Prefers Dynamic Typing

  08-05-2023 03:44 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  "I write all novel client-side code as JavaScript instead of TypeScript, and it's a delight," says the creator of Ruby on Rails. Posting on Twitter, David Heinemeier Hansson opined that TypeScript "sucked out much of the joy I had writing JavaScript. I'm forever grateful that Yukihiro 'Matz' Matsumoto didn't succumb to the pressure of adding similar type hints to Ruby."
  When it comes to static vs dynamic typing, "I've heard a million arguments from both sides throughout my entire career," Hansso
  
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• Yet Another Problem with Recycling: It Spews Microplastics

  08-05-2023 00:52 via news.slashdot.org
  
  "An alarming new study has found that even when plastic makes it to a recycling center, it can still end up splintering into smaller bits that contaminate the air and water," reports Wired:This pilot study focused on a single new facility where plastics are sorted, shredded, and melted down into pellets. Along the way, the plastic is washed several times, sloughing off microplastic particles — fragments smaller than 5 millimeters — into the plant's wastewater. Because there were mult
  
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