ICT news

• Coastal Cities Priced Out Low-Wage Workers. Now College Graduates Are Leaving, Too.

  15-05-2023 23:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The college graduates who fill white-collar jobs in the San Francisco area began to leave in growing numbers about a decade ago. From a report: More and more have moved to other parts of the country -- an accelerating outflow of educated workers that, in a poorer part of America, might be thought of as brain drain. When the pandemic arrived, these departures surged so sharply that the San Francisco area has lately lost more educated workers than have moved in. Over this same time, a similar patt
  
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• Google: AI Should Not Be Considered an Inventor

  15-05-2023 22:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  AI technology should not be considered an "inventor" by U.S. patent law, Google argues in a new filing with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. From a report: USPTO is currently soliciting comments on AI technologies and inventorship -- asking people, among other things, how AI is being used in creating inventions and whether its contributions would qualify it for treatment as a joint inventor. Questions posed by USPTO include: "If an AI system contributes to an invention at the same level as
  
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• The Disappearing White-Collar Job

  15-05-2023 22:00 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader writes: A once-in-a-generation convergence of technology and pressure to operate more efficiently has corporations saying many lost jobs may never return. The jobs lost in a monthslong cascade of white-collar layoffs triggered by overhiring and rising interest rates might never return, corporate executives and economists say. Companies are rethinking the value of many white-collar roles, in what some experts anticipate will be a permanent shift in labor demand that will disru
  
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• Nigeria Mobile Operators To Bar Text Service for Banks Over $259 Million Debt

  15-05-2023 21:21 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Mobile-phone operators in Nigeria including MTN Group and Airtel Africa will stop providing dedicated text message services to banks until the lenders pay 120 billion naira ($259 million) in arrears. From a report: The operators will disconnect the so-called Unstructured Supplementary Service Data based on their contracts with the lenders, Gbenga Adebayo, chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria said in a telephone interview on Monday. Some banks will be di
  
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• Amazon Plans To Add ChatGPT-Style Search To Its Online Store

  15-05-2023 20:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Amazon plans to bring ChatGPT-style product search to its web store, rivaling efforts by Microsoft and Google to weave generative artificial intelligence into their search engines. From a report: The e-commerce giant's ambitions appear in recent job postings reviewed by Bloomberg News. One listing seeking a senior software development engineer says the company is "reimagining Amazon Search with an interactive conversational experience" designed to help users find answers to questions, compare pr
  
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• Microsoft Cloud Service Under Scrutiny From EU Antitrust Arm

  15-05-2023 20:02 via slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft's Azure cloud business has been targeted by the European Union's antitrust arm, amid concerns the US software firm is leveraging its market power to squeeze out rivals. From a report: As part of an informal probe, regulators are quizzing competitors and customers about how Microsoft may be abusing its access to business-sensitive information belonging to cloud firms it has commercial dealings with, according to documents seen by Bloomberg. EU antitrust enforcers want to know whether Mi
  
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• IRS Weighs Creating a Government-Run Tax-Prep Option

  15-05-2023 19:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The Biden administration is considering creating a government-run alternative to TurboTax and H&R Block, drawing resistance from Republicans and companies fearing a loss of business. From a report: Democrats and consumer advocates have been pushing for the Internal Revenue Service to offer free online tax filing on its website, particularly for people with straightforward returns. Their core argument: Tax-preparation companies charge middle-income Americans for what advocates think should be
  
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• EU Approves Microsoft's Deal To Buy Activision Blizzard

  15-05-2023 18:40 via slashdot.org
  
  European regulators have approved Microsoft's $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, handing the technology giant a victory at a time when the deal is being challenged in other countries. From a report: While the merger could harm competition in some respects, particularly in the fast-growing market for cloud gaming services, concessions by Microsoft were enough to mitigate antitrust concerns stemming from the deal, the European Commission said in a statement. Among Microsoft's offers w
  
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• US Crypto Tsar Promises Crackdown on Digital Platforms

  15-05-2023 18:01 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The top US cryptocurrency enforcement tsar is promising a crackdown on illicit behaviour on digital platforms, saying the scale of crypto crime has grown "significantly" in the past four years. From a report: The Department of Justice is targeting crypto exchanges along with the "mixers and tumblers" that obscure the trail of transactions, Eun Young Choi, who was appointed director of the agency's national cryptocurrency enforcement team last year, told the Financial Times in an interview. The D
  
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• TSA Tests Facial Recognition Technology To Boost Airport Security

  15-05-2023 17:20 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: A passenger walks up to an airport security checkpoint, slips an ID card into a slot and looks into a camera atop a small screen. The screen flashes "Photo Complete" and the person walks through -- all without having to hand over their identification to the TSA officer sitting behind the screen. It's all part of a pilot project by the Transportation Security Administration to assess the use of facial recognition technology at a number of airports across the c
  
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• Argentine Cenbank Hikes Interest Rate By 600 Basis Points To 97%

  15-05-2023 16:40 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Argentina's central bank on Monday hiked its benchmark interest rate by 600 basis points to 97%, according to an official announcement, as the country battles to bring down inflation that hit 109% on an annual basis in April. From a report: Reuters had reported the hike decision on Sunday, citing a source, as the government announced a package of measures to rein in soaring consumer prices and support the wobbly peso currency.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• Startup Plans To Give Away 500,000 Free 4K TVs. The Catch? The Sets Have a Second Screen That Constantly Shows Ads

  15-05-2023 16:04 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  Ilya Pozin made a bunch of money when Viacom bought Pluto TV, the free video-streaming company he co-founded, for $340 million four years ago. Since exiting Pluto about a year after that deal closed, Pozin has been working on another startup venture -- one he thinks will be a much bigger deal. From a report: On Monday, Pozin's brainchild, Telly, comes out of stealth after two years in development. Telly wants to ship out thousands (and eventually millions) of free 4K HDTVs, which would cost more
  
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• Red Hat's Layoffs Included Fedora Program Manager

  15-05-2023 13:34 via linux.slashdot.org
  
  When Red Hat laid off 4% of its global staff, Fedora Program Manager Ben Cotton was "a member of that 4%," according to a new post on Cotton's blog:I've received so much support from people since the news started spreading. It's like that end scene of "It's a Wonderful Life" and I'm George Bailey. I'm proud of the contributions I've made to the Fedora community over the last five years, and it feels good to have others recognize that.Cotton joined Red Hat in 2018, but "I was a Fedora contributor
  
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• Could Marine Energy Be the Final Frontier for Renewable Power?

  15-05-2023 09:40 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  CNET explores the potential of "marine energy," starting with "an ambitious endeavor nearing completion off the coast of Oregon, where 7 miles of conduit were laid under the floor of the Pacific Ocean using pioneering horizontal drilling techniques."Soon, thick cables will be run through that conduit to connect the mainland to PacWave, an offshore experimental testbed built to develop and demonstrate new technology that converts the power of waves into onshore electricity. Once fully operational
  
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• Saving AM Radio - the Case For and Against

  15-05-2023 05:50 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  This weekend the Washington Post updated the current status of AM radio:Automakers, such as BMW, Volkswagen, Mazda and Tesla, are removing AM radios from new electric vehicles because electric engines can interfere with the sound of AM stations. And Ford, one of the nation's top-three auto sellers, is taking a bigger step, eliminating AM from all of its vehicles, electric or gas-operated...Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Kia and Jaguar Land Rover — said they have no pla
  
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• Cloudflare CTO Predicts Coding AIs Will Bring More Productivity, Urges 'Data Fluidity'

  15-05-2023 03:50 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Serverless JavaScript is hosted in an edge network or by an HTTP caching service (and only runs when requested), explains Cloudflare. "Developers can write and deploy JavaScript functions that process HTTP requests before they travel all the way to the origin server."
  Their platform for serverless JavaScript will soon have built-in AI features, Cloudflare's CTO announced today, "so that developers have a rich toolset at their disposal.
  A developer platform without AI isn't going to be much use.
  
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• Apple Begins Testing Speedy M3 Chips That Could Feature 12 CPU Cores

  15-05-2023 02:47 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Engadget writes:Apple is testing an M3 chipset with a 12-core processor and 18-core GPU, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman reports a source sent him App Store developer logs that show the chip running on an unannounced MacBook Pro with macOS 14. He speculates the M3 variant Apple is testing is the base-level M3 Pro the company plans to release sometime next year...
  [T]he M3 Pro reportedly features 50 percent more CPU cores than its first-generation p
  
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• Somehow Amazon's Open Source Fork of ElasticSearch Has Succeeded

  15-05-2023 01:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Long-time open source advocate Matt Asay writes in InfoWorld:
  OpenSearch shouldn't exist. The open source alternative to Elasticsearch started off as Amazon Web Services' (AWS) answer to getting outflanked by Elastic's change in Elasticsearch's license, which was in turn sparked by AWS building a successful Elasticsearch service but contributing little back. In 2019 when AWS launched its then Open Distro for Elasticsearch, I thought its reasons rang hollow and, frankly, sounded sanctimonious. Th
  
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