ICT news

• How an Apple AirTag Tracked Lost Luggage Much Better Than United

  06-08-2023 22:34 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  CNN tells the story of Sandra Shuster, who'd included an airtag with her daughter's $2,000 lacrosse kit on a flight to Denver (with a stop-over in Chicago's O'Hare airport):When they arrived at Denver after midnight, the bag wasn't on the belt. United representatives at Denver gave them a case number and told them the bag should arrive on the 8.30 a.m. flight from Chicago in just a few hours. When it didn't, Shuster called the toll-free number for lost baggage that she'd been given. "They said,
  
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• AI-Generated Art Banned from Future 'Dungeons & Dragons' Books After Fan Uproar

  06-08-2023 21:34 via games.slashdot.org
  
  A Dungeons & Dragons expansion book included AI-generated artwork. Fans on Twitter spotted it before the book was even released (noting, among other things, a wolf with human feet). An embarrassed representative for Wizards of the Coast then tweeted out an announcement about new guidelines stating explicitly that "artists must refrain from using AI art generation as part of their creation process for developing D&D art." GeekWire reports:The artist in question, Ilya Shkipin, is a Califor
  
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• New (Deep Learning-Enhanced) Acoustic Attack Steals Data from Keystrokes With 95% Accuracy

  06-08-2023 20:34 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Long-time Slashdot reader SonicSpike quotes this article from BleepingComputer:A team of researchers from British universities has trained a deep learning model that can steal data from keyboard keystrokes recorded using a microphone with an accuracy of 95%...
  Such an attack severely affects the target's data security, as it could leak people's passwords, discussions, messages, or other sensitive information to malicious third parties. Moreover, contrary to other side-channel attacks that requir
  
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• Zoom Demands Workers Return to Office Two Days a Week. Is The Remote-Working Revolution Dead?

  06-08-2023 19:34 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Even Zoom is now telling its 8,400 employees to stop working remotely at least two days a week and return to the office. The policy applies to employees within 50 miles of a Zoom office ith a Zoom spokesperson calling this hybrid approach the "most effective".
  Business Insider quips that Zoom making the move means "The remote work revolution is officially dead."
  And earlier this week The Los Angeles Times argues that "After watching and waiting, some chaotic back-and-forth and a few false starts
  
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• UK Woman Fitted With AI-Powered Bionic Arm

  06-08-2023 18:34 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Long-time Slashdot reader destinyland writes: This is straight out of science fiction. The technology is absolutely incredible..." says a woman who received an AI-powered bionic arm. "I'm just absolutely in awe of the technology and excited about the future prospects this will give me."
  The short video clip (produced by the BBC) also features the woman's doctor explaining that "the top section is customized to fit...with electrodes there recording the unique pattern of movement, that then talk t
  
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• What Role Does Intuition Play in Science?

  06-08-2023 17:34 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Recently science author Sam Kean reviewed In a Flight of Starlings, a "slender, uneven collection of essays by Giorgio Parisi about his life in physics, from his student days in Rome to the work that won him a share of the 2021 Nobel Prize in physics."But the reviewer makes an interesting point:
  As someone who writes about science history, I have long grumbled about how misleading modern scientific papers are. I understand the need to present scientific findings in a clean, concise way, but the
  
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• California Will Probe Data-Collecting, Internet-Connected Cars

  06-08-2023 16:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  The Washington Post reports:California's newly empowered privacy regulators announced their first case Monday, a probe of the data practices of newer-generation cars that are often or always connected to the internet. The California Privacy Protection Agency said its enforcement division would review manufacturer's treatment of data collected from vehicles, including locations, smartphone connections and images from cameras.
  The agency was established by a 2020 ballot initiative that toughened t
  
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• Is Natural Gas Actually On Par With Coal for Greenhouse Gas Emissions?

  06-08-2023 13:34 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Is natural gas really a cleaner alternative to coal and oil? That claim "is facing increasing scrutiny," writes Slashdot reader sonlas:
  One significant concern with natural gas is the release of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, during its extraction, production, transportation, and processing. Methane is approximately 30 times more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than CO2 over a 100-year period. (And methane leaks can occur at various stages of the gas supply chain, from wellhead
  
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• America's Offshore Wind Potential is Huge but Untapped

  06-08-2023 06:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  A new analysis "shows that over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential is available along the U.S. coastline," capable of fulfilling up to 25% of U.S. energy demand in 2050. (And it could also add $1.8 trillion in economy-boosting investment, while employing up to 390,000 workers.)
  This new analysis comes from Berkeley researchers, who worked with nonprofit clean energy research firm GridLab and climate policy think tank Energy Innovation, reports the Verge:The Biden administration has
  
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• Jon 'maddog' Hall Defends Red Hat's Re-Licensing of RHEL

  06-08-2023 05:34 via linux.slashdot.org
  
  In February of 1994 Jon "maddog" Hall interviewed a young Linus Torvalds (then just 24). Nearly three decades later — as Hall approaches his 73rd birthday — he's shared a long essay looking back, but also assessing today's controversy about Red Hat's licensing of RHEL. A (slightly- condensed] excerpt:[O]ver time some customers developed a pattern of purchasing a small number of RHEL systems, then using the "bug-for-bug" compatible version of Red Hat from some other distribution. This
  
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• Some Wells Fargo Customers Say Their Deposits Aren't Showing Up in Their Accounts

  06-08-2023 03:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  "For the second time this year, Wells Fargo acknowledged that deposits were not showing up in customers' accounts," reports NBC News:In an emailed statement Friday morning, a Wells Fargo representative said the issue was affecting a "limited number of customers," and that "the vast majority" of instances had been resolved before noon, while the "few remaining" would be resolved soon. This week's incident mirrored one encountered by Wells Fargo customers in March, which the company then blamed on
  
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• Ask Slashdot: What's the Best (Encrypted) Password Manager?

  06-08-2023 00:34 via it.slashdot.org
  
  For storing passwords, Slashdot reader eggegick has a simple, easy solution: "I use Vim to keep my passwords in an encrypted file."
  But what's the easiest solution for people who don't use Vim?My wife is not a Linux geek like I am, so she's using [free and open-source] KeePass. It's relatively simple to install and use, but I seem to recall it used to be even much simpler... Does anybody know of a really simple password manager or encrypting notepad?
  I've looked at a number of them, and they use
  
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