ICT news

• MIT CS Professor Tests AI's Impact on Educating Programmers

  07-09-2024 23:50 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes: "The Impact of AI on Computer Science Education" recounts an experiment Eric Klopfer conducted in his undergrad CS class at MIT. He divided the class into three groups and gave them a programming task to solve in the Fortran language, which none of them knew. Reminiscent of how The Three Little Pigs used straw, sticks, and bricks to build their houses with very different results, Klopfer allowed one group to use ChatGPT to solve the problem, while the sec
  
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• How Should the FOSS Movement Respond to Proprietary Software?

  07-09-2024 22:50 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Long-time FOSS-watcher Bruce Byfield writes that while people "still dream of a completely free alternative, increasingly the emphasis in FOSS seems to be on accepting coexistence with proprietary software."
  Many, too, have always preferred the permissive BSD licenses, which permits combining FOSS and proprietary software. From some perspectives, Debian's newest [non-free firmware] repository or Nobara's popularity [a Fedora-based distro but with proprietary drivers and gaming applications] is s
  
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• New York Times Calls Telegram 'A Playground for Criminals, Extremists and Terrorists'

  07-09-2024 21:34 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  The New York Times analyzed over 3.2 million Telegram messages from 16,220 channels. Their conclusion? Telegram "offers features that enable criminals, terrorists and grifters to organize at scale and to sidestep scrutiny from the authorities" — and that Telegram "has looked the other way as illegal and extremist activities have flourished openly on the app."
  Or, more succinctly: "Telegram has become a global sewer of criminal activity, disinformation, child sexual abuse material, terroris
  
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• 1,000 Autonomous AI Agents Collaborating? Altera Simulates It In Minecraft

  07-09-2024 20:34 via games.slashdot.org
  
  Altera AI's home page says their mission is "to create digital human beings that live, care, and grow with us," adding that their company builds machines "with fundamental human qualities, starting with friends that can play video games with you."
  And while their agents can function in many different games and apps, Altera used Minecraft to launch "the first-ever simulation of over 1,000 collaborating autonomous AI agents," reports ReadWrite, "working together in a Minecraft world, all of which
  
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• Signal is More Than Encrypted Messaging. It Wants to Prove Surveillance Capitalism Is Wrong

  07-09-2024 19:34 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Slashdot reader echo123 shared a new article from Wired titled "Signal Is More Than Encrypted Messaging. Under Meredith Whittaker, It's Out to Prove Surveillance Capitalism Wrong." ("On its 10th anniversary, Signal's president wants to remind you that the world's most secure communications platform is a nonprofit. It's free. It doesn't track you or serve you ads. It pays its engineers very well. And it's a go-to app for hundreds of millions of people.")Ten years ago, WIRED published a news story
  
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• GitHub Actions Typosquatting: a High-Impact Supply Chain Attack-in-Waiting?

  07-09-2024 18:34 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  GitHub Actions let developers "automate software builds and tests," writes CSO Online, "by setting up workflows that trigger when specific events are detected, such as when new code is committed to the repository."
  They also "can be reused and shared with others on the GitHub Marketplace, which currently lists thousands of public Actions that developers can use instead of coding their own. Actions can also be included as dependencies inside other Actions, creating an ecosystem similar to other o
  
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• Telegram CEO Durov Fathered Over 100 Kids as an Anonymous Sperm Donor

  07-09-2024 17:34 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shared this report from USA Today:
  He's the founder of Telegram. He was arrested in France. He also claims to have fathered at least 100 children...
  The 39-year-old Russian-born billionaire often keeps his personal life out of the spotlight. Something he has shared, however, is that, despite never marrying and preferring to live alone, he's fathered at least 100 children through anonymous sperm donation... Durov noted he plans to "open-source" his DNA so his biological childr
  
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• ESA Prints 3D Metal Shape In Space For First Time

  07-09-2024 16:34 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  The European Space Agency (ESA) has successfully 3D printed the first metal part aboard the International Space Station. This achievement marks a significant advancement in in-orbit manufacturing that could enable the production of essential spare parts and tools for future long-duration space missions. "The first metal shape was produced in August, and three more are planned as part of the experiment," notes The Register. "All four will eventually be returned to Earth for analysis -- two to ESA
  
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• Starlink Now Constitutes Roughly Two Thirds of All Active Satellites

  07-09-2024 14:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  "SpaceX deployed its 7,000th Starlink satellite this week, making the vast majority of active satellites around earth part of a single megaconstellation," writes Slashdot reader DogFoodBuss. "The Starlink communications system is now orders of magnitude larger than its nearest competitor, offering unprecedented access to low-latency broadband from anywhere on the planet." According to the latest data from satellite tracker CelesTrak, SpaceX now controls over 62% of all operational satellites. Th
  
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• Boeing's Starliner Makes 'Picture Perfect' Landing - Without Its Crew

  07-09-2024 12:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Boeing's "beleaguered" Starliner spacecraft "successfully landed in New Mexico just after midnight Eastern time," reports NPR:After Starliner made a picture-perfect landing, Stich told reporters that the spacecraft did well during its return flight. "It was a bullseye landing," he said. "It's really great to get the spacecraft back...." He said while he and others on the team felt happy about the successful landing, "there's a piece of us, all of us, that we wish it would've been the way we had
  
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• Malaysia Orders ISPs To Reroute DNS Traffic

  07-09-2024 08:50 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, which regulates online and broadcast media in the Asian nation, has instructed internet service providers in the country to redirect DNS traffic that uses third-party servers back to their own DNS servers, according to local media reports. From a report: MCMC in a statement tonight said this is to ensure that users continue to benefit from the protection provided by the local ISP's DNS servers and that malicious sites are inaccessible to Ma
  
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• Electrocuted Birds Are Bursting Into Flames and Starting Wildfires

  07-09-2024 05:30 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: Electrocuted, flaming bird carcasses are falling off of power lines and causing wildfires across the U.S. This surprisingly common phenomenon has been responsible for at least three Colorado wildfires so far this summer. These events are not isolated. A 2022 study found that electrocuted birds caused 44 wildfires in the contiguous United States between 2014 and 2018. That study was led by Taylor Barnes, a biologist who now works for electric util
  
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• SpyAgent Android Malware Steals Your Crypto Recovery Phrases From Images

  07-09-2024 02:10 via it.slashdot.org
  
  SpyAgent is a new Android malware that uses optical character recognition (OCR) to steal cryptocurrency wallet recovery phrases from screenshots stored on mobile devices, allowing attackers to hijack wallets and steal funds. The malware primarily targets South Korea but poses a growing threat as it expands to other regions and possibly iOS. BleepingComputer reports: A malware operation discovered by McAfee was traced back to at least 280 APKs distributed outside of Google Play using SMS or malic
  
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• ChromeOS 128 Adds Snap Layouts For Apps, OCR Text Extraction, and Improved Settings

  07-09-2024 01:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Google's new ChromeOS 128 update introduces a feature similar to Windows 11's Snap layouts. Called Snap Groups, the feature enables users to organize on-screen apps in various fullscreen layouts. "When you pair two windows for split-screen display, ChromeOS now forms a Snap group," explains the ChromeOS team. "As a Snap group, you can bring the windows back into focus together, resize them simultaneously, and move them both as a group."Other notable features of ChromeOS 128 include Optical Chara
  
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• Podcasters Ditch Short Episodes in Favor of Four-Hour Conversations

  07-09-2024 00:50 via news.slashdot.org
  
  In a newsletter for Bloomberg, Ashley Carman discusses the rising trend of long podcasts and their surprising popularity among listeners. "By today's standards of interminable podcast discussions, a nearly three-hour recording isn't even particularly notable," she writes, highlighting recent episodes from Joe Rogan (2 hours; 16 minutes with Adam Sandler), Lex Fridman (8 hours; 37 minutes with Elon Musk), and the Acquired podcast (3 hours; 38 minutes with Lockheed Martin). "Increasingly, podcaste
  
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• Playing D&D Helps Autistic Players In Social Interactions, Study Finds

  07-09-2024 00:10 via games.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Since its introduction in the 1970s, Dungeons & Dragons has become one of the most influential tabletop role-playing games (TRPGs) in popular culture, featuring heavily in Stranger Things, for example, and spawning a blockbuster movie released last year. Over the last decade or so, researchers have turned their focus more heavily to the ways in which D&D and other TRPGs can help people with autism form healthy social connections, in
  
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