ICT news

• Terraforming Mars Could Be Easier Than Scientists Thought

  10-08-2024 23:46 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Slashdot reader sciencehabit shared this report from Science magazine:
  One of the classic tropes of science fiction is terraforming Mars: warming up our cold neighbor so it could support human civilization. The idea might not be so far-fetched, research published today in Science Advances suggests...Samaneh Ansari [a Ph.D. student at Northwestern University and lead author on the new study] and her colleagues wanted to test the heat-trapping abilities of a substance Mars holds in abundance: dust
  
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• Samsung's New EV Battery Tech: 600-Mile Ranges, and 9-Minute Charges?

  10-08-2024 22:46 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  "Samsung's latest solid-state battery technology will power up premium EVs first, giving them up to 621 miles of range," writes PC Magazine:
  The new batteries — which promise to improve vehicle range, decrease charging times, and eliminate risk of battery fires — could go into mass production as soon as 2027. Multiple automakers have been reportedly testing samples. Samsung did not list any by name but it's worked with Hyundai, Stellantis, and General Motors, among others. "We suppli
  
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• How America's FBI Sabotaged Tech-Stealing Spies from the USSR

  10-08-2024 21:46 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  FBI agent Rick Smith remembered seeing that Austrian-born Silicon Valley entrepreneur one year earlier — walking into San Francisco's Soviet Consulate in the early 1980s. Their chance reunion at a bar "would sow the seeds for a major counterintelligence campaign," writes a national security journalist in Politico, describing the collaboration as "an FBI-led operation that sold the Soviet Bloc millions in secretly sabotaged U.S. hi-tech."
  The Austrian was already selling American tech goods
  
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• North Korean Group Infiltrated 100-Plus Firms with Imposter IT Pros

  10-08-2024 20:46 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  "CrowdStrike has continued doing what gave it such an expansive footprint in the first place," writes CSO Online — "detecting cyber threats and protecting its clients from them."
  They interviewed Adam Meyers, CrowdStrike's SVP of counter adversary operations, whose team produced their 2024 Threat Hunting Report (released this week at the Black Hat conference).Of seven case studies presented in the report, the most daring is that of a group CrowdStrike calls Famous Chollima, an alleged DPRK
  
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• Google Just Lost a Big Antitrust Trial. But Now It Has To Face Yet Another.One

  10-08-2024 19:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Google's loss in an antitrust trial is just the beginning. According to Yahoo Finance's senior legal reporter, Google now also has to defend itself "against another perilous antitrust challenge that could inflict more damage."Starting in September, the tech giant will square off against federal prosecutors and a group of states claiming that Google abused its dominance of search advertising technology that is used to sell, buy, and broker advertising space online... Juggling simultaneous defense
  
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• A New Report Finds Boeing's Rockets Are Built With an Unqualified Work Force

  10-08-2024 18:34 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Slashdot reader echo123 shared this report from Ars Technica:
  The NASA program to develop a new upper stage for the Space Launch System rocket is seven years behind schedule and significantly over budget, a new report from the space agency's inspector general finds. However, beyond these headline numbers, there is also some eye-opening information about the project's prime contractor, Boeing, and its poor quality control practices... "We found an array of issues that could hinder SLS Block 1B's
  
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• Cannibal AIs Could Risk Digital 'Mad Cow Disease' Without Fresh Data

  10-08-2024 17:34 via slashdot.org
  
  A new article in ScienceAlert describes new research into the dangers of "heavily processed sources of digital nourishment" for generative AI:
  A new study by researchers from Rice University and Stanford University in the US offers evidence that when AI engines are trained on synthetic, machine-made input rather than text and images made by actual people, the quality of their output starts to suffer.
  The researchers are calling this effect Model Autophagy Disorder (MAD). The AI effectively consu
  
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• Are Fake Plastic Lawns Environmentally Irresponsible?

  10-08-2024 16:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  "The artificial turf industry has had a great deal of success convincing millions of people that its short-lived, nonrecyclable, fossil-fuel-derived product is somehow good for the environment," complains the head of Los Angeles' chapter of the advocacy nonprofit, the Climate Reality Project.In an opinion piece published in the Los Angeles Times, he argues that "In fact, it's clear that artificial turf is bad for our ecosystems as well as our health."
  The piece's title? "What's more environmenta
  
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• Scientists Mount Cameras On Endangered Sea Lions To Map Australia's Ocean Floor

  10-08-2024 15:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: The Australian sea lions glide and dart through underwater tunnels, over seagrass beds and rocky reefs, searching for a meal and dancing with dolphins around a giant bait ball of fish -- all the action captured by a camera stuck on their back. "I can watch this stuff for hours," says Prof Simon Goldsworthy. "It's like the best slow TV ever. You just don't know what you're going to see next." The Australian sea lion is in trouble. They were h
  
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• China's Long March 6A Rocket Is Making a Mess In Low-Earth Orbit.

  10-08-2024 12:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from Ars Technica: The upper stage from a Chinese rocket that launched a batch of Internet satellites Tuesday has broken apart in space, creating a debris field of at least 700 objects in one of the most heavily-trafficked zones in low-Earth orbit. US Space Command, which tracks objects in orbit with a network of radars and optical sensors, confirmed the rocket breakup Thursday. Space Command initially said the event created more than 300 pieces o
  
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• DARPA Wants To Bypass the Thermal Middleman In Nuclear Power Systems

  10-08-2024 09:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is exploring the possibility of directly converting radiation from nuclear reactors into electricity using radiovoltaics, a technology that could potentially revolutionize nuclear power generation by moving beyond traditional steam turbine methods. The agency is requesting information and suggestions on this topic in an RFI released on August 1st. Nuclear News reports: There's got to be a better way": Methods to convert the energy of nuclear
  
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• Mayonnaise Could Help Improve Fusion Energy Yields

  10-08-2024 05:30 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Inertial confinement fusion is one method for generating energy through nuclear fusion, albeit one plagued by all manner of scientific challenges (although progress is being made). Researchers at LeHigh University are attempting to overcome one specific bugbear with this approach by conducting experiments with mayonnaise placed in a rotating figure-eight contraption. They described their most recent findings in a new paper published in the j
  
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• Japan Issues First Ever 'Megaquake' Warning

  10-08-2024 03:25 via slashdot.org
  
  After a 7.1 tremor struck southwestern Japan on Thursday, the country's meteorological agency issued its first-ever alert for a possible "megaquake." It marks the first time the warning has been issued under new rules drawn up after a 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster killed almost 20,000 people. Phys.org reports: The JMA's "megaquake advisory" warns that "if a major earthquake were to occur in the future, strong shaking and large tsunamis would be generated." "The likelihood of a ne
  
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• FDA Rejects MDMA-Assisted Therapy For PTSD

  10-08-2024 02:45 via science.slashdot.org
  
  The FDA has rejected a first-of-its-kind proposal to use the psychedelic drug MDMA as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to drugmaker Lykos Therapeutics. NBC News reports: There had been intense political pressure on the FDA to approve the drug. Friday's decision was the first time the agency had considered a Schedule 1 psychedelic for medical use. If approved, it would have been the first new treatment for PTSD in more than two decades. Lykos Therapeutics had asked
  
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• Russia Blocks Signal Messaging App

  10-08-2024 02:02 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Russia has blocked access to the encrypted Signal messaging app to "prevent the messenger's use of terrorist and extremist purposes." YouTube is also facing mass outages following repeated slowdowns in recent weeks. The Associated Press reports: Russian authorities expanded their crackdown on dissent and free media after Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. They have blocked multiple independent Russian-language media outlets critical of the Kremlin, and cu
  
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• 'Sinkclose' Flaw in Hundreds of Millions of AMD Chips Allows Deep, Virtually Unfixable Infections

  10-08-2024 01:20 via it.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Security flaws in your computer's firmware, the deep-seated code that loads first when you turn the machine on and controls even how its operating system boots up, have long been a target for hackers looking for a stealthy foothold. But only rarely does that kind of vulnerability appear not in the firmware of any particular computer maker, but in the chips found across hundreds of millions of PCs and servers. Now security researchers have found one
  
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• Cisco To Lay Off Thousands More in Second Job Cut This Year

  10-08-2024 00:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Cisco will cut thousands of jobs in a second round of layoffs this year as the U.S. networking equipment maker shifts focus to higher-growth areas, including cybersecurity and AI, Reuters reported Friday, citing sources. From the report: The number of people affected could be similar to or slightly higher than the 4,000 employees Cisco laid off in February, and will likely be announced as early as Wednesday with the company's fourth-quarter results, said the sources, who were not authorized to s
  
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• Cow and Calf Die After Hackers Attack Farm's Milking Robot

  10-08-2024 00:00 via it.slashdot.org
  
  According to Agrarheute, hackers launched a cyberattack on a Swiss farmer's computer system, disrupting the flow of vital data from a milking robot. Tragically, this led to the death of a cow and her calf. From the report (translated from German into English): According to the CSO, hackers attacked the computers of a farmer from Hagendorn. The dairy farmer's milking robot was also connected to these computers. When the animal owner stopped receiving milking data, he initially suspected a dead zo
  
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