ICT news

• Can the Linux Foundation's 'Open Model Initiative' Build AI-Powering LLMs Without Restrictive Licensing?

  18-08-2024 23:30 via news.slashdot.org
  
  "From the beginning, we have believed that the right way to build these AI models is with open licenses," says the Open Model Initiative. SD Times quotes them as saying that open licenses "allow creatives and businesses to build on each other's work, facilitate research, and create new products and services without restrictive licensing constraints."
  Phoronix explains the community initiative "came about over the summer to help advance open-source AI models while now is becoming part of the Linu
  
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• Matt Damon and Ben Affleck Acquire 'Killing Gawker' Screenplay

  18-08-2024 22:02 via news.slashdot.org
  
  "Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have acquired a screenplay called Killing Gawker," reports TechCrunch, for a film which "presumably delves into billionaire VC Peter Thiel's campaign to bury the media outfit for posting excerpts from a Hulk Hogan sex tape."
  The film is based on a book that details the 2016 court case in which Hogan won a $140 million judgment against a Gawker editor, Gawker founder Nick Denton, and Gawker itself, whose Valleywag site long chronicled Silicon Valley personalities and r
  
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• Does Mozilla's New Logo Bring Back Its Dinosaur Mascot - in ASCII Art?

  18-08-2024 21:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  "A new Mozilla logo appears to be on the way," writes the blog OMG Ubuntu, " marking the company's first major update to its word-mark since 2017."The existing logo, which incorporates the internet protocol "://" and chosen based on feedback from the community, has become synonymous with the non-profit company. But German blogger Sören Hentzschel, an avid watcher of all things Mozilla, recently noticed that a different Mozilla word-mark was accompanying the (unchanged) Firefox logo on Mozil
  
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• Apple is Building a $1,000 Display on a Voice-Controlled Robot Arm

  18-08-2024 19:06 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Apple is building "a pricey tabletop home device" which uses "a thin robotic arm to move around a large screen," using actuators "to tilt the display up and down and make it spin 360 degree," according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Citing "people with knowledge of the matter," Gurman writes that Apple assigned "several hundred people" to the project:The device is envisioned as a smart home command center, videoconferencing machine and remote-controlled home security tool, said the people... The pr
  
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• Data Centers Are Consuming Electricity Supplies - and Possibly Hurting the Environment

  18-08-2024 17:34 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Data center construction "could delay California's transition away from fossil fuels and raise electric bills for everyone else," warns the Los Angeles Times — and also increase the risk of blackouts:Even now, California is at the verge of not having enough power. An analysis of public data by the nonprofit GridClue ranks California 49th of the 50 states in resilience — or the ability to avoid blackouts by having more electricity available than homes and businesses need at peak hours
  
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• Cancel Bill Gates? New Book Paints Philanthropist as Billionaire Villain

  18-08-2024 16:04 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The Washington Post reviews a new book about Microsoft's 68-year-old co-founder Bill Gates:
  "He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy." That immortal line from Monty Python's Life of Brian kept running through my head as I was reading "Billionaire, Nerd, Savior, King: Bill Gates and His Quest to Shape Our World," by Anupreeta Das, a reporter at the New York Times... which often feels like an extended list of all the major and minor complaints that Das could find not only about Gates but als
  
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• Will Electronic Price Labels Tempt Stores to Try 'Dynamic Pricing'?

  18-08-2024 13:34 via slashdot.org
  
  "Electronic shelf labels are already common in Europe," reports the Los Angeles Times, "and will become wider spread in the U.S., with Walmart planning to implement the labels in 2,300 stores by 2026." And grocery giant Kroger also plans to introduce digital labels.
  But will they also bring "dynamic pricing", where stores raise the price of ice cream on hot days — or jack the cost of water and canned goods before upcoming storms?Kroger and Walmart said they have no plans to implement dynam
  
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• 41 Science Professionals Decry Harms and Mistrust Caused By COVID Lab Leak Claim

  18-08-2024 09:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  In 1999 Los Angeles Times reporter Michael Hiltzik co-authored a Pulitzer Prize-winning story. Now a business columnist for the Times, this week he covers new pushback on the COVID lab leak claim:
  Here's an indisputable fact about the theory that COVID originated in a laboratory: Most Americans believe it to be true. That's important for several reasons. One is that evidence to support the theory is nonexistent.
  Another is that the claim itself has fomented a surge of attacks on science and scie
  
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• As 17,000 AT&T Workers Strike, Some Customers Experience 'Prolonged' Outages

  18-08-2024 06:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  17,000 AT&T workers from the CWA union went on strike Friday.
  NPR notes the strike affects workers in nine states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. A North Carolina newspaper says the union will remain on strike until they believe AT&T "begins to bargain over a new contract in good faith" after their previous contract expired back on August 3.
  And meanwhile, their article notes that the strike comes as some AT&
  
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• Refueling Hydrogen Cars in California is So Annoying, Drivers are Suing Toyota

  18-08-2024 02:25 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  The Los Angeles Times spoke to Ryan Kiskis, an environmentally-conscious owner of a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle (the Toyota Mirai):
  He soon learned that hydrogen refueling stations are scarce and reliably unreliable. He learned that apps to identify broken stations hand out bad information. He learned that the state of California, which is funding the station buildout, is far behind schedule — 200 stations were supposed to be up and running by 2025, but only 54 exist. And since Kiskis bough
  
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• 'AI-Powered Remediation': GitHub Now Offers 'Copilot Autofix' Suggestions for Code Vulnerabilities

  18-08-2024 00:39 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  InfoWorld reports that Microsoft-owned GitHub "has unveiled Copilot Autofix, an AI-powered software vulnerability remediation service."The feature became available Wednesday as part of the GitHub Advanced Security (or GHAS) service:"Copilot Autofix analyzes vulnerabilities in code, explains why they matter, and offers code suggestions that help developers fix vulnerabilities as fast as they are found," GitHub said in the announcement. GHAS customers on GitHub Enterprise Cloud already have Copilo
  
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