ICT news

• Microsoft Pulls OneDrive Update That Would Quiz You Before Letting You Quit

  10-11-2023 23:00 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Modern versions of Windows have become more annoying as time has gone on, pushing additional Microsoft products and services on users who are just trying to turn on their computers and get something done. Often, as we've covered, these notifications and reminders ignore or actively push back against user intent -- prompting you to sign up for Microsoft 365 if you already said no, or trying to make you use Edge or Bing after you've already in
  
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• Ottawa Paid Nearly $670,000 for KPMG's Advice on Cutting Consultant Costs

  10-11-2023 22:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The Canadian federal government hired KPMG consultants at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars for advice on how to save money on consultants, documents show. From a report: New spending details tabled in Parliament show the department of Natural Resources, led by minister Jonathan Wilkinson, approved $669,650 for KPMG, a global professional services company, to provide managing consulting advice. The department said this work involved developing "recommendations that could be considered a
  
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• How a Tiny Pacific Island Became the Global Capital of Cybercrime

  10-11-2023 21:40 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Despite having a population of just 1,400, until recently, Tokelau's .tk domain had more users than any other country. Here's why: Tokelau, a necklace of three isolated atolls strung out across the Pacific, is so remote that it was the last place on Earth to be connected to the telephone-- only in 1997. Just three years later, the islands received a fax with an unlikely business proposal that would change everything. It was from an early internet entrepreneur from Amsterdam, named Joost Zuurbier
  
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• The Evolutionary Reasons We Are Drawn To Horror Movies and Haunted Houses

  10-11-2023 21:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Scary play lets people -- and other animals -- rehearse coping skills for disturbing challenges in the real world. Scientific American: Our desire to experience fear, it seems, is rooted deep in our evolutionary past and can still benefit us today. Scary play, it turns out, can help us overcome fears and face new challenges -- those that surface in our own lives and others that arise in the increasingly disturbing world we all live in. The phenomenon of scary play surprised Charles Darwin. In Th
  
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• Does Gmail Want To Be Instant Messaging? New UI Experiment Says 'Yes'

  10-11-2023 20:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Does Gmail want to be an instant messaging client? From a report: Last month the popular webmail app shipped an emoji reactions bar in the mobile app, where a single tap would send a new email with your emoji response. Now, a wild new UI experiment spotted by Android Police goes another step further: a quick reply bar that looks just like instant messaging input. Rather than the usual input block you get for writing paragraphs of overly formal text, this new Gmail experiment has a one-line input
  
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• New 'Call of Duty' Draws Harsh Reviews After Rushed Development

  10-11-2023 19:40 via games.slashdot.org
  
  The latest entry in Activision Blizzard's popular Call of Duty video-game series was made in half the time of previous iterations, a fact that may be contributing to a spate of bad reviews about the game's storyline, Bloomberg reported Friday, citing people familiar with the development process. From the report: Critics have panned the game, the first big release since Microsoft closed its $69 billion acquisition of Activision last month, saying the storyline feels rushed. Most Call of Duty game
  
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• Qualcomm-Iridium Deal To Bring Satellite Connectivity To Phones Collapses

  10-11-2023 19:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  A partnership between Qualcomm and Iridium to bring satellite connectivity to Android phones has fallen apart, almost a year after the deal was announced. From a report: In January, the two companies debuted the Snapdragon Satellite platform, a way to bring satellite-based SMS and emergency messaging to high-end smartphones. But on Thursday, Iridium said Qualcomm will cancel the partnership, effective Dec. 3. "The companies successfully developed and demonstrated the technology; however, notwith
  
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• How SIM Swappers Straight-Up Rob T-Mobile Stores

  10-11-2023 18:20 via it.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: A young man sits in a car, pointing a cellphone camera out of the window, seemingly trying to remain undetected. As he breathes heavily in anticipation, he peers at a T-Mobile store across the road from where he is parked.
  Suddenly, there is some commotion inside. An accomplice grabs something off a table where a T-Mobile employee is sitting. The accomplice, dressed in a mask and black baseball cap, then bursts out of the store and clumsily sprints towards th
  
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• Tumblr is Downscaling After Failing To 'Turn Around' the Site

  10-11-2023 17:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Tumblr is downscaling its ambitions after failing to reach goals for a new audience, aiming to move some staff members to other divisions of parent company Automattic. From a report: A leaked memo, which circulated on Tumblr and was confirmed in a Verge comment by Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg, says that "the majority" of Tumblr's non-support, safety, and moderation staff will "switch to other divisions." In follow-up posts on Tumblr, Mullenweg stated that Automattic is planning "a more focused
  
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• US Debt Interest Bill Rockets Past a Cool $1 Trillion a Year

  10-11-2023 17:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader writes: US Treasuries may face renewed selling pressure into the new year if one measure of the nation's swelling debt repayment bill is any guide. Estimated annualized interest payments on the US government debt pile climbed past $1 trillion at the end of last month, Bloomberg analysis shows. That projected amount has doubled in the past 19 months from the equivalent figure forecast around the time. The estimated interest expense is calculated using US Treasury data which st
  
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• Generative AI Already Taking White Collar Jobs and Wages in Online Freelancing World

  10-11-2023 16:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: In an ingenious study published this summer, US researchers showed that within a few months of the launch of ChatGPT, copywriters and graphic designers on major online freelancing platforms saw a significant drop in the number of jobs they got, and even steeper declines in earnings. This suggested not only that generative AI was taking their work, but also that it devalues the work they do still carry out.
  Most strikingly, the study found that freelancers who
  
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• Microsoft Briefly Restricted Employee Access To OpenAI's ChatGPT, Citing Security Concerns

  10-11-2023 15:40 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI. But for a brief time on Thursday, employees of the software company weren't allowed to use the startup's most famous product, ChatGPT, CNBC reported. From a report: "Due to security and data concerns a number of AI tools are no longer available for employees to use," Microsoft said in an update on an internal website. "While it is true that Microsoft has invested in OpenAI, and that ChatGPT has built-in safeguards to prevent improper use, the
  
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• Cyber Attack Forces World's Biggest Bank to Trade via USB Stick

  10-11-2023 15:00 via it.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: On Thursday, trades handled by the world's largest bank in the globe's biggest market traversed Manhattan on a USB stick. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China's U.S. unit had been hit by a cyberattack, rendering it unable to clear swathes of U.S. Treasury trades after entities responsible for settling the transactions swiftly disconnected from the stricken systems. That forced ICBC to send the required settlement details to those parties by a messenger c
  
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• Signal Messaging App Now Testing Usernames

  10-11-2023 11:00 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Michael Kan reports via PCMag: Encrypted messaging service Signal is now testing usernames, which will offer people a more private way to share their contact details on the app. Signal kicked off the public test today through a new beta build available in its community forums. "After rounds of internal testing, we have hit the point where we think the community that powers these forums can help us test even further before public launch," says Signal VP of Engineering Jim O'Leary.The development
  
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• SpaceX Will Launch the Space Force's Mysterious X-37B Space Plane On Falcon Heavy

  10-11-2023 08:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  The U.S. Space Force's shadowy X-37B spaceplane is set to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket on Dec. 7. It'll mark the seventh mission for the X-37B, but the first time it'll fly on a heavy-lift launcher. Space.com reports: Little is known about the capabilities and operations of the space plane, but Space Force says the mission will follow previous flights that used the X-37B as a test bed for launching experimental payloads and returning them to Earth. "We are excited to expand the envel
  
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• Maine Government Says Data Breach Affects 1.3 Million Residents

  10-11-2023 04:30 via it.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: The government of Maine has confirmed over a million state residents had personal information stolen in a data breach earlier this year by a Russia-linked ransomware gang. In a statement published Thursday, the Maine government said hackers exploited a vulnerability in its MOVEit file-transfer system, which stored sensitive data on state residents. The hackers used the vulnerability to access and download files belonging to certain state agenc
  
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• First Planned Small Nuclear Reactor Plant In the US Has Been Cancelled

  10-11-2023 02:25 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Long-time Slashdot reader AmiMoJo writes: [O]n Wednesday, the company and utility planning to build the first small, modular nuclear plant in the U.S. announced it was cancelling the project. The U.S. has approved a single design for a small, modular nuclear reactor developed by the company NuScale Power. The government's Idaho National Lab was working to help construct the first NuScale installation, the Carbon Free Power Project. Under the plan, the national lab would maintain a few of the fir
  
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• Illinois Senate Approves Plan To Allow New Nuclear Reactors

  10-11-2023 01:45 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  The Illinois Senate has approved a plan to allow small modular reactors in the state, lifting a 36-year-old moratorium on new nuclear power installments. Proponents say the plan will ensure the state can meet its carbon-free power production promise by 2045. The Associated Press reports: Environmentalists have criticized the plan, noting that small modular reactors are a decade or more from viability. Sponsoring Sen. Sue Rezin, a Republican from Morris, said that's the reason, coupled with a fed
  
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• Mortgage Giant Mr. Cooper Shuts Down Systems Following Cyberattack

  10-11-2023 01:02 via it.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from SecurityWeek: Mortgage giant Mr. Cooper on Thursday announced that it has shut down certain systems after falling victim to a cyberattack, which resulted in its operations being suspended. The attack occurred on October 31 and prompted an immediate response, including containment measures that involved taking down some systems. The shutdown, the company says in an incident notice on its website, prevents it from processing customer payments temporarily, b
  
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• Tumblr Is Reportedly On Life Support As Its Latest Owner Reassigns Staff

  10-11-2023 00:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Tumblr may be nearing its end after its management sent memos to staff with the Lord Tennyson quote about having "loved and lost." Ars Technica reports: Internet statesman and Waxy.org proprietor Andy Baio posted what is "apparently an internal Automattic memo making the rounds on Tumblr" to Threads. The memo, written to employees at WordPress.com parent company Automattic, which bought Tumblr from Verizon's media arm in 2019, is titled or subtitled "You win or you learn." The posted memo states
  
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