ICT news

• The US Is Among the Most Expensive Countries For Mobile Data Plans, Israel the Cheapest

  30-09-2023 23:34 via mobile.slashdot.org
  
  Slashdot reader jjslash writes: The average cost of a gigabyte of mobile data in the U.S. is $6, while the most expensive data plan in the country offers a gig for $83.33. That makes the U.S. one of the most expensive countries in the world for mobile data, even though some plans can still get you a gig for as low as $0.75. The situation in Canada isn't much better, with an average price of $5.37 per GB, but it's much cheaper to surf mobile internet in the U.K., thanks to an average price of $0.
  
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• Microsoft To Excel Users: Be Careful With That Python

  30-09-2023 22:34 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  Long-time Slashdot reader theodp spotted a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) this week with the Microsoft engineering team that created Python in Excel, a new feature that makes it possible to natively combine Python and Excel analytics in Excel workbooks. (Copilot integration is coming soon).Redditors expressed a wish to be able to run Python in environments other than the confines of the locked down, price-to-be-determined Microsoft Azure cloud containers employed by Python in Excel. But "There wer
  
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• Mosquitoes Are a Growing Public Health Threat, Reversing Years of Progress

  30-09-2023 21:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The New York Times reports that a "squadron of young scientists and an army of volunteers" are "waging an all-out war on a creature that threatens the health of more people than any other on earth: the mosquito."
  They are testing new insecticides and ingenious new ways to deliver them. They are peering in windows at night, watching for the mosquitoes that home in on sleeping people. They are collecting blood — from babies, from moto-taxi drivers, from goat herders and from their goats &mda
  
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• GNU Celebrates Its 40th Anniversary

  30-09-2023 20:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Wednesday the Free Software Foundation celebrated "the 40th anniversary of the GNU operating system and the launch of the free software movement," with an announcement calling it "a turning point in the history of computing.
  "Forty years later, GNU and free software are even more relevant. While software has become deeply ingrained into everyday life, the vast majority of users do not have full control over it... "On September 27, 1983, a computer scientist named Richard Stallman announced the p
  
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• Heat Pumps Twice As Efficient As Fossil Fuel Systems In Cold Weather

  30-09-2023 19:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Long-time Slashdot reader AmiMoJo shared this report from the Guardian:
  Heat pumps are more than twice as efficient as fossil fuel heating systems in cold temperatures, research shows. Even at temperatures approaching -30C, heat pumps outperform oil and gas heating systems, according to the research from Oxford University and the Regulatory Assistance Project thinktank...Reports have spread that they do not work well in low temperatures despite their increasing use in Scandinavia and other cold
  
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• Republican Presidential Candidates Criticize TikTok as 'Dangerous', 'Controlled by Communist China'

  30-09-2023 18:34 via politics.slashdot.org
  
  Wednesday seven U.S. Republican candidates for President held their second debate before the 2024 primary — during which TikTok led to some surprisingly heated attacks against entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy:
  Moderator: Mr. Ramaswamy, TikTok is banned on government-issed devices because of its ties to the Chinese government. Yet you joined TikTok at the dinner with boxer and influencer Jake Paul. Should the commander in chief be so easily persuaded by an influencer?Vivek Ramaswamy: So the ans
  
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• New in Firefox 118: Private Local, Browser-Based Website Translating

  30-09-2023 17:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shared this report from Liliputing.com:
  Web browsers have had tools that let you translate websites for years. But they typically rely on cloud-based translation services like Google Translate or Microsoft's Bing Translator. The latest version of Mozilla's Firefox web browser does things differently. Firefox 118 brings support for Fullpage Translation, which can translate websites entirely in your browser. In other words, everything happens locally on your computer without an
  
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• Canonical's Snap Store Restricts Uploads Following Possible Security Issue

  30-09-2023 16:34 via linux.slashdot.org
  
  Yesterday the "temporary suspension" of automatic Snap registrations was announced on Canonical's Snapcraft forum by developer advocate Igor Ljubuncic, after what was described as a "security incident".On September 28, 2023, the Snap Store team was notified of a potential security incident. A number of snap users reported several recently published and potentially malicious snaps. As a consequence of these reports, the Snap Store team has immediately taken down these snaps, and they can no longe
  
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• People Experience 'New Dimensions of Reality' When Dying, Groundbreaking Study Reports

  30-09-2023 15:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Scientists have witnessed brain patterns in dying patients that may correlate to commonly reported "near-death" experiences (NDEs) such as lucid visions, out-of-body sensations, a review of one's own life, and other "dimensions of reality," reports a new study. The results offer the first comprehensive evidence that patient recollections and brain waves point to universal elements of NDEs. During an expansive multi-year study led by Sam Parni
  
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• NSA Is Starting an AI Security Center

  30-09-2023 12:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  The Associated Press reports: The National Security Agency is starting an artificial intelligence security center -- a crucial mission as AI capabilities are increasingly acquired, developed and integrated into U.S. defense and intelligence systems, the agency's outgoing director announced Thursday. Army Gen. Paul Nakasone said the center would be incorporated into the NSA's Cybersecurity Collaboration Center, where it works with private industry and international partners to harden the U.S. def
  
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• NASA Opens OSIRIS-REx's Asteroid-Sample Canister

  30-09-2023 09:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Mike Wall writes via Space.com: OSIRIS-REx's asteroid-sample canister just creaked open for the first time in more than seven years. Scientists at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston lifted the canister's outer lid on Tuesday (Sept. 26), two days after OSIRIS-REx's return capsule landed in the desert of northern Utah. "Scientists gasped as the lid was lifted," NASA's Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) division, which is based at JSC, wrote Tuesday in a post on X (for
  
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• Six Young People Take 32 Countries To Court Over Climate Change

  30-09-2023 05:30 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: What I felt was fear," says Claudia Duarte Agostinho as she remembers the extreme heatwave and fires that ripped through Portugal in 2017 and killed more than 100 people. "The wildfires made me really anxious about what sort of future I would have." Claudia, 24, her brother Martim, 20, and her sister Mariana, 11, are among six young Portuguese people who have filed a lawsuit against 32 governments, including all EU member states, the UK, Norway,
  
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• Linux Interoperability Is Maturing Fast Thanks To a Games Console

  30-09-2023 03:25 via linux.slashdot.org
  
  Liam Proven writes via The Register: Steam OS is the Arch-based distro for a handheld Linux games console, and Valve is aggressively pushing Linux's usability and Windows interoperability for the device. Two unusual companies, Valve Software and Igalia, are working together to improve the Linux-based OS of the Steam Deck handheld games console. The device runs a Linux distro called Steam OS 3.0, but this is a totally different distro from the original Steam OS it announced a decade ago. Steam OS
  
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• $260 Million AI Startup Releases 'Unmoderated' Chatbot Via Torrent

  30-09-2023 02:45 via slashdot.org
  
  "On Tuesday of this week, French AI startup Mistral tweeted a magnet link to their first publicly released, open sourced LLM," writes Slashdot reader jenningsthecat. "That might be merely interesting if not for the fact that the chatbot has remarkably few guardrails." 404 Media reports: According to a list of 178 questions and answers composed by AI safety researcher Paul Rottger and 404 Media's own testing, Mistral will readily discuss the benefits of ethnic cleansing, how to restore Jim Crow-s
  
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• Kia and Hyundai Blame TikTok and Instagram For Their Cars Getting Stolen

  30-09-2023 02:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Aaron Gordon writes via Motherboard: Kia and Hyundai say it is not their fault that their cars are being stolen in an unprecedented theft surge made possible by the vehicles lacking a basic anti-theft technology virtually every other car has, according to a recent court filing. Instead, the companies point the finger at social media companies, such as TikTok and Instagram, where instructions on how to steal the cars have been widely shared and thieves show off their stolen cars.The lawyers repre
  
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• Supreme Court To Decide If State Laws Limiting Social Media Platforms Violate Constitution

  30-09-2023 01:20 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: The Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide whether state laws that seek to regulate Facebook, TikTok, X and other social media platforms violate the Constitution. The justices will review laws enacted by Republican-dominated legislatures and signed by Republican governors in Florida and Texas. While the details vary, both laws aim to prevent the social media companies from censoring users based on their viewpoints. The court's announc
  
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• Netflix Ships Its Last DVD

  30-09-2023 00:40 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  It's official: Netflix has shipped its last DVD. "For 25 years, we redefined how people watched films and series at home, and shared the excitement as they opened their mailboxes to our iconic red envelopes," says Netflix in a blog post. "It's the end of an era, but the DVD business built our foundation for the years to come -- giving members unprecedented choice and control, a wide variety of titles to choose from and the freedom to watch as much as they want."Netflix announced the shut down of
  
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• Norway Wants Facebook Behavioral Advertising Banned Across Europe

  30-09-2023 00:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Jude Karabus writes via The Register: Norway has told the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) it believes a countrywide ban on Meta harvesting user data to serve up advertising on Facebook and Instagram should be made permanent and extended across Europe. The Scandinavian country's Data Protection Authority, Datatilsynet, had been holding back Facebook parent Meta from scooping up data on its citizens with the threat of fines of one million Kroner (about $94,000) per day if it didn't comply.In
  
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