ICT news

• US Focuses on Invigorating 'Chiplet' Production in the US

  13-05-2023 23:34 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  More than a decade ago engineers at AMD "began toying with a radical idea," remembers the New York Times. Instead of designing one big microprocessor, they "conceived of creating one from smaller chips that would be packaged tightly together to work like one electronic brain."
  But with "diminishing returns" from Moore's Law, packaging smaller chips suddenly becomes more important. [Alternate URL here.] As much as 80% of microprocessors will be using these designs by 2027, according to an estimat
  
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• Scientists Discover 62 More Moons Orbiting Saturn, Bringing Total to 145 Moons

  13-05-2023 22:34 via science.slashdot.org
  
  "Astronomers have discovered 62 new moons orbiting the ringed planet Saturn," reports Space.com.
  So while Jupiter remains the largest planet orbiting our sun — and shaped our solar system with its gravitational bulk — nonetheless the New York Times reports that "the fight over which planet has the most moons in its orbit has swung decisively in Saturn's favor."This month, the International Astronomical Union is set to recognize 62 additional moons of Saturn based on a batch of object
  
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• How the NFL Scheduled 272 Football Games Using 4,000 Virtual AWS Servers

  13-05-2023 21:34 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes: AWS offered A Look Inside the Making of an NFL Football Schedule in conjunction with Thursday's release of the 2023 NFL Schedule Powered by AWS. AWS notes that producing the schedule required the use of 4,000+ AWS EC2 Spot Instances. An AWS promotional video claims they "saved the NFL an estimated $2 million each season" by leveraging AWS Spot Instances for a discount of up to 90% off compared to AWS On-Demand pricing.."In just three months," AWS explains
  
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• Despite Layoffs, Open Source and Linux Skills are Still in Demand

  13-05-2023 20:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  ZDNet reports that Jim Zemlin, executive director at the Linux Foundation, recently noted rounds of tech-industry layoffs "in the name of cost-cutting."But then Zemlin added that "open source is countercyclical to these trends. The Linux Foundation itself, for instance, had its best first quarter ever."
  As Hilary Carter, SVP of research and communications at the Linux Foundation, said in her keynote speech at Open Source Summit North America in Vancouver, Canada: "In spite of what the headlines
  
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• Qbits 30 Meters Apart Maintain Entanglement Across Refrigeration Systems

  13-05-2023 19:34 via science.slashdot.org
  
  "A new experiment uses superconducting qubits to demonstrate that quantum mechanics violates what's called local realism," reports Ars Technica, "by allowing two objects to behave as a single quantum system no matter how large the separation between them."The experiment wasn't the first to show that local realism isn't how the Universe works — it's not even the first to do so with qubits. But it's the first to separate the qubits by enough distance to ensure that light isn't fast enough to
  
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• Three Companies Faked Millions of Comments Supporting 2017 Repeal of 'Net Neutrality' Rules

  13-05-2023 18:34 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Three companies "supplied millions of fake public comments to influence a 2017 proceeding by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to repeal net neutrality rules," announced New York's attorney general this week.Their investigation "found that the fake comments used the identities of millions of consumers, including thousands of New Yorkers, without their knowledge or consent," as well as "widespread fraud and abusive practices"Collectively, the three companies have agreed to pay $615,000
  
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• Former ByteDance Exec Claims CCP 'Maintained' Access to US Data

  13-05-2023 17:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous Slashdot reader shared this report from Axios:The Chinese Communist Party "maintained supreme access" to data belonging to TikTok parent company ByteDance, including data stored in the U.S., a former top executive claimed in a lawsuit Friday...
  In a wrongful dismissal suit filed in San Francisco Superior Court, Yintao Yu said ByteDance "has served as a useful propaganda tool for the Chinese Communist Party." Yu, whose claim says he served as head of engineering for ByteDance's U.S.
  
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• HP Updates Firmware, Blocks Its Printers From Using Cheaper Ink Cartridges from Rivals

  13-05-2023 16:04 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Hewlett-Packward printers recently got a firmware update that "blocks customers from using cheaper, non-HP ink cartridges," reports the Telegraph:Customers' devices were remotely updated in line with new terms which mean their printers will not work unless they are fitted with approved ink cartridges. It prevents customers from using any cartridges other than those fitted with an HP chip, which are often more expensive. If the customer tries to use a non-HP ink cartridge, the printer will refuse
  
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• US Aims To Turn Middle-American Cities Into New Tech Hubs With $500 Million Investment

  13-05-2023 15:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: The U.S. government is seeking to turn metro areas in middle America into the next hot spots of tech innovation with an initial $500 million investment. The Department of Commerce announced Friday its first notice of funding opportunity, or NOFO, for the Regional Technology and Innovation Hub program, known as Tech Hubs. It kicks off the process for eligible groups around the country to apply to be designated as Tech Hubs. That designation gives the
  
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• Google Makes Its Text-To-Music AI Public

  13-05-2023 12:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Google [on Wednesday] released MusicLM, a new experimental AI tool that can turn text descriptions into music. Available in the AI Test Kitchen app on the web, Android or iOS, MusicLM lets users type in a prompt like "soulful jazz for a dinner party" or "create an industrial techno sound that is hypnotic" and have the tool create several versions of the song. Users can specify instruments like "electronic" or "classical," as well as the "vibe,
  
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• US Pay-TV Subscriptions Fall To Lowest Levels Since 1992

  13-05-2023 09:00 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  TV providers in the U.S. collectively lost 2.3 million customers in the first quarter of 2023. "With the Q1 decline, total pay-TV penetration of occupied U.S. households (including for internet services like YouTube TV and Hulu) dropped to 58.5% -- its lowest point since 1992," reports Variety, citing a report from MoffettNathason. "As of the end of Q1, U.S. pay-TV services had 75.5 million customers, down nearly 7% on an annual basis." From the report: Cable TV operators' rate of decline in Q1
  
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• Societal Cost of 'Forever Chemicals' About $17.5 Trillion Across Global Economy

  13-05-2023 05:30 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: The societal cost of using toxic PFAS or "forever chemicals" across the global economy totals about $17.5 trillion annually, a new analysis of the use of the dangerous compounds has found. Meanwhile, the chemicals yield comparatively paltry profits for the world's largest PFAS manufacturers -- about $4 billion annually. The report, compiled by ChemSec, a Sweden-based NGO that works with industry and policymakers to limit the use of toxic che
  
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• Millions of Mobile Phones Come Pre-Infected With Malware, Say Researchers

  13-05-2023 04:02 via mobile.slashdot.org
  
  Trend Micro researchers at Black Hat Asia are warning that millions of Android devices worldwide come pre-infected with malicious firmware before the devices leave their factories. "This hardware is mainly cheapo Android mobile devices, though smartwatches, TVs, and other things are caught up in it," reports The Register. From the report: This insertion of malware began as the price of mobile phone firmware dropped, we're told. Competition between firmware distributors became so furious that eve
  
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• Discord Discloses Data Breach After Support Agent Got Hacked

  13-05-2023 03:25 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Discord has informed users of a data breach that occurred after a third-party support agent's account was compromised, exposing user email addresses, messages exchanged with Discord support, and any attachments sent as part of the tickets. Discord immediately disabled the account and worked with the customer service partner to prevent similar incidents in the future, but users are advised to stay vigilant for any suspicious activity. BleepingComputer reports: "Due to the nature of the incident,
  
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• Apple Silicon Macs Now Natively Support Unreal Engine 5

  13-05-2023 02:45 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Epic Games has released a new update for Unreal Engine 5 that allows it to run natively on Apple Silicon. With the recent update, Mac users will no longer have to rely on Rosetta technology in order to run the software, resulting in a significant boost in performance on M1 and M2 Macs. Engadget reports: There's more news for Apple users as well. Epic unveiled a new iPad app (below) for virtual productions that works with the Unreal Engine's ICVFX (In-Camera VFX) editor. It offers "an intuitive t
  
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• Bluetooth Tags For Android's 3 Billion-Strong Tracking Network Are Here

  13-05-2023 02:02 via mobile.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: After the release of Apple's AirTags, Google suddenly has interest in the Bluetooth tracker market. The company has already quietly rolled out what must be the world's largest Bluetooth tracking network via Android's 3 billion active devices, and now trackers are starting to plug in to that network. Google is taking the ecosystem approach and letting various companies plug in to the Android Bluetooth tracking network, which has the very deri
  
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• Microsoft Wants Firefox To Make Bing Its Default Search Engine

  13-05-2023 01:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  According to The Information, Microsoft wants to bid to make Bing Firefox's default search engine. Android Police reports: The browser's contract with Google is set to expire this year, at which point Mozilla could either renew it or switch to a different search engine. Microsoft would very much like to take Google's place in Firefox. It's not a guarantee that it will actually help boost Bing's usage -- after all, Firefox users who don't want to use Bing could just switch to a different search e
  
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• Reddit Will Allow Users To Upload NSFW Images From Desktop

  13-05-2023 00:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Ahead of Imgur's ban of sexually explicit content, Reddit announced Thursday that it will allow users to upload NSFW images from desktops in adult subreddits. The feature was already available on the social network's mobile app. TechCrunch reports: "This now gives us feature parity with our mobile apps, which (as you know) already has this functionality. You must set your community to 18+ if your community's content will primarily be not safe for work (NSFW)," the company said.Reddit's announcem
  
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• Microsoft Will Take Nearly a Year To Finish Patching New 0-Day Secure Boot Bug

  13-05-2023 00:00 via it.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Earlier this week, Microsoft released a patch to fix a Secure Boot bypass bug used by the BlackLotus bootkit we reported on in March. The original vulnerability, CVE-2022-21894, was patched in January, but the new patch for CVE-2023-24932 addresses another actively exploited workaround for systems running Windows 10 and 11 and Windows Server versions going back to Windows Server 2008. The BlackLotus bootkit is the first-known real-world malw
  
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