ICT news

• Cleaner Accidentally Ruins Decades of US College's Research By Turning Off Freezer

  27-06-2023 23:50 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: A cleaner at a college in New York state accidentally destroyed decades of research by turning off a freezer in order to mute "annoying alarm" sounds. The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), in Troy, is suing the cleaner's employer, alleging improper training. According to a lawsuit filed in the New York supreme court in Rensselaer county earlier this month, the university is seeking more than $1m in damages, the Times Union newspaper re
  
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• Red Hat Tries To Address Criticism Over Their Source Repository Changes

  27-06-2023 23:10 via linux.slashdot.org
  
  gatzke writes: Upsetting many in the open-source community was Red Hat's announcement last week that they would begin limiting access to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux sources by putting them behind the Red Hat Customer Portal and publicly would be limited to the CentOS Stream sources. In turn this causes problems for free-of-cost derivatives like AlmaLinux moving forward. Red Hat this week issued another blog post trying to address some of the criticism.
  Red Hat's blog this week featured a post b
  
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• Decentralized Social Networking App Damus To Be Removed From App Store

  27-06-2023 22:32 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Damus, a decentralized social networking app backed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, will be removed from the App Store due to Apple's strict payment rules. From a report: Apple had threatened to remove Damus earlier this month over the app's tips feature, claiming that it could be used by content creators to sell digital content on the platform. The tech giant has a long history of prohibiting developers from selling additional in-app content unless the transactions go through Apple, which ta
  
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• Supreme Court Guts Protections for Cyberstalking Victims

  27-06-2023 21:36 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that in order to find someone guilty of making a "true threat" courts must first determine that the person recklessly disregarded the fact that their words might be perceived as threats. From a report: Experts fear the decision will create new hurdles for victims of cyberstalking by requiring them to first prove that their stalkers understand the consequences of their actions. "The Supreme Court has just decreed that stalking is free speech protected by the First
  
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• Apple Joins Opposition in UK To Encrypted Message App Scanning

  27-06-2023 20:00 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Apple has criticised powers in the UK's Online Safety Bill that could be used to force encrypted messaging tools like iMessage, WhatsApp and Signal to scan messages for child abuse material. From a report: Its intervention comes as 80 organisations and tech experts have written to Technology Minister Chloe Smith urging a rethink on the powers. Apple told the BBC the bill should be amended to protect encryption. End-to-end encryption (E2EE) stops anyone but the sender and recipient reading the me
  
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• 3-Year Probe Into Encrypted Phones Led To Seizure of Hundreds of Tons of Drugs, Prosecutors Say

  27-06-2023 19:20 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Investigations triggered by the cracking of encrypted phones three years ago have so far led to more than 6,500 arrests worldwide and the seizure of hundreds of tons of drugs, French, Dutch and European Union prosecutors said Tuesday. From a report: The announcement underscored the staggering scale of criminality -- mainly drugs and arms smuggling and money laundering -- that was uncovered as a result of police and prosecutors effectively listening in to criminals using encrypted EncroChat phone
  
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• OpenAI Plans ChatGPT 'Supersmart Personal Assistant for Work,' Setting Up Microsoft Rivalry

  27-06-2023 18:40 via slashdot.org
  
  In the span of half a year, ChatGPT has become one of the world's best-known internet brands. Now its creator, OpenAI, has bigger plans for the chatbot: CEO Sam Altman privately told some developers OpenAI wants to turn it into a "supersmart personal assistant for work." From a report: With built-in knowledge about an individual and their workplace, such an assistant could carry out tasks such as drafting emails or documents in that person's style and with up-to-date information about their busi
  
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• Microsoft Exec Was Ready To 'Go Spend Sony Out of Business' To Strengthen Xbox

  27-06-2023 18:00 via games.slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft's Xbox Game Studios chief, Matt Booty, was encouraging Xbox CFO Tim Stuart to spend big money on acquiring game content in 2019 to set the company up to battle Sony in subscriptions. From a report: The revelation comes in an email thread that's part of the FTC v. Microsoft hearing. "We (Microsoft) are in a very unique position to be able to go spend Sony out of business," said Booty in a December 2019 email, referencing spending $2 billion or $3 billion in 2020 to avoid competitors get
  
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• Google Execs Admit Users Are 'Not Quite Happy' With Search Experience After Reddit Blackouts

  27-06-2023 17:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Google users who add "Reddit" to searches for specific topics found this ineffective when numerous Reddit forums went dark this month. This happened as many popular forum moderators turned pages private to protest Reddit's decision to charge developers for data access, resulting in inaccessible or unhelpful search results. The incident, CNBC reports, has prompted Google to search for a better fix. An anonymous reader shares a report: It's an issue that Google executives say is at least partially
  
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• Microsoft Wants To Move Windows Fully To the Cloud - Internal Presentation

  27-06-2023 16:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft has been increasingly moving Windows to the cloud on the commercial side with Windows 365, but the software giant also wants to do the same for consumers. From a report: In an internal "state of the business" Microsoft presentation from June 2022, Microsoft discuses building on "Windows 365 to enable a full Windows operating system streamed from the cloud to any device." The presentation has been revealed as part of the ongoing FTC v. Microsoft hearing, as it includes Microsoft's overa
  
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• Pickleball Injuries May Cost Americans Nearly $400 Million This Year, According To UBS

  27-06-2023 16:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Earlier this month, shares of big health insurance companies fell after UnitedHealth Group warned that healthcare utilization rates were up. At a conference the company had said that it was seeing a higher-than-expected pace of hip replacements, knee surgeries and other elective procedures. In a new note out Monday, UBS Group AG analysts led by Andrew Mok offer a surprising theory about one factor that could be driving a higher pace of injuries: pickleball.
  A
  
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• Indictment Details Plan To Steal Samsung Secrets For Foxconn China Project

  27-06-2023 15:00 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: When former Samsung executive Choi Jinseog won a contract with Taiwan's Foxconn in 2018, he tapped his former employer's supplier network to steal secrets to help his new client set up a chip factory in China, a sealed indictment by South Korean prosecutors alleges. Prosecutors announced the indictment on June 12, saying the theft caused more than $200 million in damages to Samsung Electronics, based on the estimated costs Samsung spent to develo
  
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• CISA Releases SCuBA TRA and eVRF Guidance Documents

  27-06-2023 14:00 via cisa.gov
  CISA has released several documents as part of the Secure Cloud Business Applications (SCuBA) project:The Technical Reference Architecture (TRA) document, previously released for public comment on April 19, 2022, is the final version of a security guide that agencies can use to adopt technology for cloud deployment, adaptable solutions, secure architecture, and zero trust frameworks. 
  The extensible Visibility Reference Framework (eVRF) guidebook provides an overview of the eVRF framew
  
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• Smartwatches Are Being Used To Distribute Malware

  27-06-2023 12:00 via it.slashdot.org
  
  "Smartwatches are being sent to random military members loaded with malware, much like malware distribution via USB drives in the past," writes longtime Slashdot reader frdmfghtr. "Recipients are advised not to turn them on and report the incident to their local security office." Defense News reports: The Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division, or CID, in an announcement last week warned the watches may contain malware, potentially granting whoever sent the peripherals "access to
  
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• Scientists Debut Lab Models of Human Embryos

  27-06-2023 09:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Carl Zimmer writes in The New York Times: In its first week, a fertilized human egg develops into a hollow ball of 200 cells and then implants itself on the wall of the uterus. Over the next three weeks, it divides into the distinct tissues of a human body. And those crucial few weeks remain, for the most part, a black box. "We know the basics, but the very fine details we just don't know," said Jacob Hanna, a developmental biologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. Dr. Hanna and
  
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• WinGPT Is a New ChatGPT App For Your Ancient Windows 3.1 PC

  27-06-2023 05:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Someone has created a ChatGPT app for Windows 3.1 PCs. WinGPT brings a very basic version of OpenAI's ChatGPT responses into an app that can run on an ancient 386 chip. It's built by the same mysterious developer behind Windle, a Wordle clone for Microsoft's Windows 3.1 operating system. "I didn't want my Gateway 4DX2-66 from 1993 to be left out of the AI revolution, so I built an AI Assistant for Windows 3.1, based on the OpenAI API," says the
  
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• Renewables Growth Did Not Dent Fossil Fuel Dominance In 2022, Report Says

  27-06-2023 03:40 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Fossil fuels continue to dominate the global energy market. According to the industry's Statistical Review of World Energy report, global energy demand rose 1% last year, but fossil fuels still accounted for 82% of supply. Reuters reports: The stubborn lead of oil, gas and coal products in covering most energy demand cemented itself in 2022 despite the largest ever increase in renewables capacity at a combined 266 gigawatts, with solar leading wind power growth, the report said. "Despite further
  
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• Reddit Mods Are Calling For An 'Affordable Return' For Third-Party Apps

  27-06-2023 03:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Moderators of popular Reddit communities have posted open letters to the company, requesting affordable API pricing for third-party apps, improved moderation tools and accessibility options, and a senior-level Moderator Advocate role at Reddit. The Verge reports: More than 8,000 subreddits went dark earlier this month in protest of the company's planned API pricing changes that will force apps like Apollo and rif is fun for Reddit to shut down on June 30th. Some subreddits continued to stay dark
  
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• Z-Library Releases Tor-Enabled Desktop Launcher To Improve 'Accessibility'

  27-06-2023 02:20 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Pirate ebook repository Z-Library has released a dedicated desktop application that should make it easier to access the site going forward. The service is at the center of a criminal crackdown and has lost hundreds of domain names, which in part triggered the development of this new software. TorrentFreak reports: Over the past few months, Z-Library users accessed the site through a dedicated URL, which redirected them to a 'personal' domain that provided access to the library. This worked well
  
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• 'AI is Killing the Old Web'

  27-06-2023 01:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Rapid changes, fueled by AI, are impacting the large pockets of the internet, argues a new column. An excerpt: In recent months, the signs and portents have been accumulating with increasing speed. Google is trying to kill the 10 blue links. Twitter is being abandoned to bots and blue ticks. There's the junkification of Amazon and the enshittification of TikTok. Layoffs are gutting online media. A job posting looking for an "AI editor" expects "output of 200 to 250 articles per week." ChatGPT is
  
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• Americans Hate ISPs Almost As Much As They Hate Gas Stations, Survey Finds

  27-06-2023 01:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from ExtremeTech: Americans hate their internet service providers (ISPs) more than any other segment of the consumer economy -- except gas stations. A fresh set of rankings from the American Consumer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) reveals that few consumers are happy with the way their ISPs conduct business, preferring them only over trips to the pump in a list of 43 major industries. The rankings come courtesy of the ACSI's most recent telecommunications study, wh
  
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• Meta Launches VR Subscription Service

  27-06-2023 00:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Meta has introduced a new VR subscription service called Meta Quest+ that costs $7.99 a month. Subscribers will get access to two new games each month, which they can play as long as the subscription is active. CNBC reports: Meta Quest+ costs $7.99 a month and is compatible with the Quest 2, the Quest Pro and the upcoming Quest 3. The subscription service marks Meta's latest effort to generate recurring revenue from its Reality Labs unit, which is developing virtual reality and augmented reality
  
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