ICT news

• Why Are Vietnam's Schools So Good?

  10-07-2023 23:40 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Vietnam understands the value of education and manages its teachers well. From a report: Their children go through one of the best schooling systems in the world, a status reflected in outstanding performances in international assessments of reading, maths and science. The latest data from the World Bank show that, on aggregate learning scores, Vietnamese students outperform not only their counterparts in Malaysia and Thailand but also those in Britain and Canada, countries more than six times r
  
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• Big Tech Can Transfer Europeans' Data To US In Win For Facebook and Google

  10-07-2023 23:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The European Commission today decided it is safe for personal data to be transferred from the European Union to US-based companies, handing a victory to firms like Facebook and Google despite protests from privacy advocates who worry about US government surveillance. The commission announced that it "adopted its adequacy decision for the EU-US Data Privacy Framework," concluding "that the United States ensures an adequate level of protection
  
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• First US Ban on Sale of Cellphone Location Data Might Be Coming

  10-07-2023 22:19 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Massachusetts lawmakers are weighing a near total ban on buying and selling of location data drawn from consumers' mobile devices in the state, in what would be a first-in-the-nation effort to rein in a billion-dollar industry. From a report: The legislature held a hearing last month on a bill called the Location Shield Act, a sweeping proposal that would sharply curtail the practice of collecting and selling location data drawn from mobile phones in Massachusetts. The proposal would also instit
  
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• Windows 95, 98, and Other Decrepit Versions Can Grab Online Updates Again

  10-07-2023 20:41 via it.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: If you have any interest in retro-computing, you know it can be difficult to round up the last official bug fixes and updates available for early Internet-era versions of Windows like 95, 98, and NT 4.0. A new independent project called "Windows Update Restored" is aiming to fix that, hosting lightly modified versions of old Windows Update sites and the update files themselves so that fresh installs of these old operating systems can grab years' worth of fixe
  
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• Smuggler Nabbed with 306 CPUs Stuffed in Girdle

  10-07-2023 20:04 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  Chinese customs have apprehended a man attempting the biggest on-the-person CPU smuggling feat we have seen reported. From a report: The perp was stopped at Qingmao Port as he sought to cross from Macau to mainland China with 306 CPUs fashioned into a girdle around his waist. According to China's People's Daily, the smuggler gave himself away as he "was walking in an abnormal posture." We aren't surprised if the smuggler wasn't comfortable, as 306 CPUs weighing 50 g per unit would be over 15 kg
  
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• UK Battles Hacking Wave as Ransomware Gang Claims 'Biggest Ever' NHS Breach

  10-07-2023 19:31 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The U.K.'s largest NHS trust has confirmed it's investigating a ransomware incident as the country's public sector continues to battle a rising wave of cyberattacks. From a report: Barts Health NHS Trust, which runs five London-based hospitals and serves more than 2.5 million patients, was recently added to the dark web leak site of the ALPHV ransomware gang. The gang, also known as BlackCat, says it has stolen 70 terabytes of sensitive data in what it claims is the biggest breach of healthcare
  
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• The Disappearance of Classic Video Games

  10-07-2023 18:47 via games.slashdot.org
  
  The Video Game History Foundation: The Video Game History Foundation, in partnership with the Software Preservation Network, has conducted the first ever study on the commercial availability of classic video games, and the results are bleak. 87% of classic video games released in the United States are critically endangered. Imagine if the only way to watch Titanic was to find a used VHS tape, and maintain your own vintage equipment so that you could still watch it. And what if no library, not ev
  
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• 24 Central Banks Will Have Digital Currencies by 2030

  10-07-2023 18:17 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Some two dozen central banks across emerging and advanced economies are expected to have digital currencies in circulation by the end of the decade, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) found in a survey published on Monday. From a report: Central banks around the globe have been studying and working on digital versions of their currencies for retail use to avoid leaving digital payments to the private sector amid an accelerating decline of cash. Some are also looking at wholesale versio
  
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• China's Struggle To Make Advanced Chips Dramatized in New Series

  10-07-2023 17:24 via slashdot.org
  
  A new series in China tells the story of a scrappy startup developing the advanced chipmaking technology that multinational trade sanctions today are keeping out of the country. From a report: Airing on Alibaba's Netflix-like Youku from Monday, My Chinese Chip hits on a priority issue for the Beijing government -- semiconductor leadership and self-sufficiency -- and depicts a state-supported firm successfully building lasers for deep ultraviolet lithography machines. An escalating trade war betw
  
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• Sarah Silverman Sues Meta, OpenAI for Copyright Infringement

  10-07-2023 16:45 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Comedian Sarah Silverman and two authors have filed copyright infringement lawsuits against Meta and OpenAI for allegedly using their content without permission to train artificial intelligence language models. From a report: The proposed class action lawsuits filed by Silverman, Richard Kadrey and Christopher Golden in San Francisco federal court Friday allege Facebook parent company Meta and ChatGPT maker OpenAI used copyrighted material to train chat bots. The lawsuits underscore the legal ri
  
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• Foxconn Dumps $19.5 Billion Chip Plan in Blow To India

  10-07-2023 16:03 via slashdot.org
  
  Taiwan's Foxconn has withdrawn from a $19.5 billion semiconductor joint venture with Indian metals-to-oil conglomerate Vedanta, it said on Monday in a setback to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's chipmaking plans for India. From a report: Foxconn, the world's largest contract electronics maker, and Vedanta signed a pact last year to set up semiconductor and display production plants in Modi's home state of Gujarat. "Foxconn has determined it will not move forward on the joint venture with Vedanta,"
  
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• FTX's Celebrity Endorser Tom Brady Faces Worthless Stock, Lawsuits

  10-07-2023 13:01 via news.slashdot.org
  
  As an "ambassador" for FTX, football quarterback Tom Brady appeared at the company's conference in the Bahamas, and in TV commercials promoting the exchange as "the most trusted" institution in crypto, remembers the New York Times. And it was all about to go very bad...
  "His money was also at stake. As part of an endorsement agreement Brady signed in 2021, FTX had paid him $30 million, a deal that consisted almost entirely of FTX stock, three people with knowledge of the contract said. Brady's w
  
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• Big-Tech Cities Are Still 'Facing a Reckoning' from Remote Work

  10-07-2023 09:01 via it.slashdot.org
  
  "According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 73% of businesses reported that their workers rarely or never engaged in remote work in 2022 — closing in on pre-pandemic levels," writes a Seattle Times business columnist. "But this minority of the civilian workforce working remotely casts a large shadow over our economy, especially central business districts."
  The column's headline argues that Seattle "is still facing the reckoning from remote work" — which may also be t
  
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• SpaceX Makes Record-Breaking 16th Flight With a Falcon 9 Booster

  10-07-2023 06:01 via science.slashdot.org
  
  The booster just touched down on the droneship. "The Falcon 9 first-stage has now successfully launched and landed for a record-breaking 16th time," announced SpaceX's feed on YouTube. It was also SpaceX's 206th landing of an orbital-class rocket.Long-time Slashdot reader Amiga Trombone quotes Spaceflight Now on how SpaceX tested "the limits of its reusable Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday evening."The booster, tail number 1058, made its historic debut on May 20, 2020, carrying the first astronauts to
  
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• How An AI-Written 'Star Wars' Story Created Chaos at Gizmodo

  10-07-2023 04:26 via news.slashdot.org
  
  G/O Media is the owner of top sites like Gizmodo, Kotaku, Quartz, and the Onion. Last month they announced "modest tests" of AI-generated content on their sites — and it didn't go over well within the company, reports the Washington Post.
  Soon the Deputy Editor of Gizmodo's science fiction section io9 was flagging 18 "concerns, corrections and comments" about an AI-generated story by "Gizmodo Bot" on the chronological order of Star Wars movies and TV shows."I have never had to deal with th
  
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• Why Are There So Many Programming Languages?

  10-07-2023 02:26 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes:
  Recalling a past Computer History Museum look at the evolution of programming languages, Doug Meil ponders the age-old question of Why Are There So Many Programming Languages? in a new Communications of the ACM blog post.
  "It's worth noting and admiring the audacity of PL/I (1964)," Meil writes, "which was aiming to be that 'one good programming language.' The name says it all: Programming Language 1. There should be no need for 2, 3, or 4. [Meil expands
  
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• Study the Risks of Sun-Blocking Aerosols, Say 60 Scientists, the US, the EU, and One Supercomputer

  10-07-2023 00:51 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Nine days ago the U.S. government released a report on the advantages of studying "scientific and societal implications" of "solar radiation modification" (or SRM) to explore its possible "risks and benefits...as a component of climate policy."
  The report's executive summary seems to concede the technique would "negate (explicitly offset) all current or future impacts of climate change" — but would also introduce "an additional change" to "the existing, complex climate system, with ramific
  
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