ICT news

• Can Open Source Speed the Adoption of Clean-Energy Microgrids?

  04-06-2023 22:59 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  This week the Linux Foundation announced the publication of The Open Source Opportunity for Microgrids: Five Ways to Drive Innovation and Overcome Market Barriers for Energy Resilience. "The research informs readers about microgrids — groups of distributed energy resources designed to improve energy resiliency, with the ability to operate as part of a larger electrical grid, or separately as an island."
  The report highlights the current state of the microgrid market and explores the potent
  
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• Amazon's AWS is 'Retiring' Its Open-Source-and-on-GitHub Documentation

  04-06-2023 21:36 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes: On the AWS News Blog, AWS Chief Evangelist Jeff Barr has published a kind of obituary for AWS Documentation on GitHub (RIP, 2018-2023). From the blog post: "About five years ago I announced that AWS Documentation is Now Open Source and on GitHub. After a prolonged period of experimentation we will archive most of the repos starting the week of June 5th, and will devote all of our resources to directly improving the AWS documentation and website."
  "The pri
  
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• In Hawaii, GPS Keeps Sending Drivers Into the Ocean

  04-06-2023 20:34 via idle.slashdot.org
  
  Slashdot reader DevNull127 writes: In April a tourist in Hawaii followed GPS driving directions straight into a harbor. And one month later, another tourist did the exact same thing — driving into the same harbor. One onlooker remembers "screaming the whole time to get her attention but her GPS had told her to go there, so she drove right in."
  When asked if they'd add warning signs, a state government spokeperson said no. "It's really clear that it is a ramp and it leads directly into the
  
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• Lung Cancer Pill Cuts Risk of Death by Half, Study Finds

  04-06-2023 19:34 via science.slashdot.org
  
  The Guardian reports:A pill taken once a day cuts the risk of dying from lung cancer by half, according to "thrilling" and "unprecedented" results from a decade-long global study. Taking the drug osimertinib after surgery dramatically reduced the risk of patients dying by 51%, results presented at the world's largest cancer conference showed...
  Everyone in the trial had a mutation of the EGFR gene, which is found in about a quarter of global lung cancer cases, and accounts for as many as 40% of
  
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• Progressive Web Apps 'Don't Spy or Clog Your Phone'. Do You Use Them?

  04-06-2023 18:34 via mobile.slashdot.org
  
  "It's worth questioning the status quo of technology," argues the Washington Post's Tech Friend newsletter, "including apps as we know them."Then they tout the benefits of the "non-app app... a hybrid of a website and a conventional app, with features of each" — the unappreciated Progressive Web App (which many still don't know can be installed on your phone's home screen):Web apps look and function pretty much like the conventional apps for your phone or computer, but they clog less space
  
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• Big Tech Isn't Prepared for AI's Next Chapter: Open Source

  04-06-2023 17:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Security guru Bruce Schneier and CS professor Jim Waldo think big tech has underestimated the impact of open source principles on AI research:In February, Meta released its large language model: LLaMA. Unlike OpenAI and its ChatGPT, Meta didn't just give the world a chat window to play with. Instead, it released the code into the open-source community, and shortly thereafter the model itself was leaked. Researchers and programmers immediately started modifying it, improving it, and getting it to
  
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• System76's Open Firmware 'Re-Disables' Intel's Management Engine

  04-06-2023 16:34 via linux.slashdot.org
  
  Linux computer vendor System76 shared some news in a recent blog post. "We prefer to disable the Intel Management Engine wherever possible to reduce the amount of closed firmware running on System76 hardware. We've resolved a coreboot bug that allows the Intel ME (Management Engine) to once again be disabled."
  Phoronix reports that the move will "benefit their latest Intel Core 13th Gen 'Raptor Lake' wares as well as prior generation devices."Intel ME is disabled for their latest Raptor lake lap
  
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• What Stops Millions of Americans From Going Green: Their Landlords

  04-06-2023 13:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The Washington Post looks at "Americans who want to lower their carbon footprints — but are stymied by their landlords."Homes and apartments burn oil and gas, suck up electricity, and account for about one-fifth of the United States' total greenhouse gas emissions. But current attempts to green America's homes, including billions of dollars in tax credits for energy efficient appliances and retrofits, seem aimed at the affluent owners of detached, single-family homes — in short, Mad-
  
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• NYT: It's the End of Computer Programming As We Know It

  04-06-2023 09:34 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  Long-time Slashdot theodp writes: Writing for the masses in It's the End of Computer Programming as We Know It. (And I Feel Fine.), NY Times opinion columnist Farhad Manjoo explains that while A.I. might not spell the end of programming ("the world will still need people with advanced coding skills"), it could mark the beginning of a new kind of programming — "one that doesn't require us to learn code but instead transforms human-language instructions into software.""Wasn't coding supposed
  
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• Nigeria's Central Bank Explains Its 2021 Ban on Cryptocurrency Transactions at Banks

  04-06-2023 05:57 via news.slashdot.org
  
  In 2020 Nigeria had the third-most cryptocurrency transactions in the world (behind the U.S. and Russia). But "Nigeria's history with crypto has been a bittersweet one where the citizens have embraced digital assets with open arms but the government remains vehemently against it," writes the site Bitcoinist.
  In early 2021 the BBC reported that "In an effort to regulate the market, Nigeria's central bank banned banks from facilitating cryptocurrency-related transactions in 2017, but the ban remai
  
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• ARM Joins Linux Foundation's 'Open Programmable Infrastructure' Project

  04-06-2023 03:34 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  ARM has joined the Linux Foundation's Open Programmable Infrastructure project, "a community-driven initiative focused on creating a standards-based open ecosystem for next-generation architectures and frameworks" based on programmable processor technologies like DPUs (Data Processing Units) and IPUs (Infrastructure Processing Units).
  From the Linux Foundation's announcement:
  Launched in June 2021 under the Linux Foundation, the project is focused on utilizing open software and standards, as wel
  
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• CS50, the World's Most Popular Online Programming Class, Turns to AI for Help

  04-06-2023 00:59 via news.slashdot.org
  
  "The world's most popular online learning course, Harvard University's CS50, is getting a ChatGPT-era makeover," reports Bloomberg:CS50, an introductory course in computer science attended by hundreds of students on-campus and over 40,000 online, plans to use artificial intelligence to grade assignments, teach coding and personalize learning tips, according to its Professor David J. Malan... Even with more than 100 real-life teaching assistants, he said it had become difficult to fully engage wi
  
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