ICT news

• California Bans Legacy Admissions At Private, Nonprofit Universities

  30-09-2024 23:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Politico: It will soon be illegal for public and private universities in California to consider an applicant's relationship to alumni or donors when deciding whether to admit them. Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday signed a ban on the practice known as legacy admissions, a change that will affect prestigious institutions including Stanford University and the University of Southern California. California's law, which will take effect Sept. 1, 2025, is the nation
  
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• Mazda's $10 Subscription For Remote Start Sparks Backlash After Killing Open Source Option

  30-09-2024 22:42 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Mazda recently surprised customers by requiring them to sign up for a subscription in order to keep certain services. Now, notable right-to-repair advocate Louis Rossmann is calling out the brand. He points to several moves by Mazda as reasons for his anger toward them. However, it turns out that customers might still have a workaround. Previously, the Japanese carmaker offered connected services, that included several features such as remote start, without t
  
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• The Big Shift From Salaries To Bonus-Based Pay

  30-09-2024 22:01 via news.slashdot.org
  
  More American workers are seeing their compensation tied to performance metrics, a shift from traditional fixed salaries. A 2024 survey by Alexander Group found 28% of over 300 companies are incorporating incentive pay into new roles, extending a practice once limited to sales and executive positions. Employers argue this model boosts productivity, while some workers report earning less than expected, WSJ reported Monday.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• Massive E-Learning Platform Udemy Gave Teachers a Gen AI 'Opt-Out Window'. It's Already Over.

  30-09-2024 21:20 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Udemy, an e-learning platform with more than 250,000 online classes, recently announced that it would train generative AI on the classes that its users contribute to the site. Not only were class teachers automatically opted in to having their classes used as training, Udemy said teachers would have only a three-week "window" to opt-out of training. That window has now passed. "We want to officially announce that the opt-out period for our Generative AI Progr
  
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• DirecTV To Buy Rival Dish Network

  30-09-2024 20:41 via news.slashdot.org
  
  DirecTV has agreed to acquire struggling rival Dish Network, creating a satellite TV behemoth with nearly 20 million subscribers. The complex transaction, announced Monday, involves private equity firm TPG acquiring a majority stake in DirecTV from AT&T for $7.6 billion. DirecTV will then purchase Dish for $1 and assume its debt.
  The deal provides a lifeline for Dish, which faces $2 billion in debt due November with only $500 million in available cash. EchoStar, Dish's parent company, will r
  
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• Reddit is Making Sitewide Protests Basically Impossible

  30-09-2024 20:01 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Reddit has implemented new restrictions on moderators' ability to alter community visibility settings, the social media platform announced Monday. Moderators must now obtain admin approval before switching subreddits between public, private, or NSFW status.
  The move comes in response to last year's widespread protests against API pricing changes, during which thousands of subreddits went private, disrupting platform accessibility. Reddit VP Laura Nestler stated the policy aims to prevent actions
  
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• US Approves Billions in Aid To Restart Michigan Nuclear Plant

  30-09-2024 19:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The Energy Department said on Monday that it had finalized a $1.52 billion loan guarantee to help a company restart a shuttered nuclear plant in Michigan -- the latest sign of rising government support for nuclear power. From a report: Two rural electricity providers that planned to buy power from the reactor would also receive $1.3 billion in federal grants [Editor's note: the link is likely paywalled; alternative source] under a program approved by Congress to help rural communities tackle cli
  
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• UK Ends 142-Year Coal Power Era in Industry's Birthplace

  30-09-2024 18:40 via news.slashdot.org
  
  AmiMoJo writes: The UK is about to stop producing any electricity from burning coal -- ending its 142-year reliance on the fossil fuel. The country's last coal power station, at Ratcliffe-on-Soar, finishes operations on Monday after running since 1967. This marks a major milestone in the country's ambitions to reduce its contribution to climate change. Coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel producing the most greenhouse gases when burnt.
  The UK was the birthplace of coal power, and from tomorrow it be
  
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• Verizon Cellphone Users Report Outages Across the US

  30-09-2024 18:04 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Thousands of Verizon users across the United States reported having little or no cellphone service on Monday morning in major cities, including in Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, New York and Phoenix. From a report: According to the website Downdetector, which tracks user reports of internet disruptions, more than 104,000 cases of Verizon outages were reported across the country as of 11:20 a.m. Eastern, more than an hour after the first issues were reported.
  A map posted on the site showed cities wit
  
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• Songs by Adele, Bob Dylan, Green Day, Many More Blocked by YouTube in Legal Dispute

  30-09-2024 17:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Songs by Adele, Bob Dylan, Green Day, R.E.M., Burna Boy, Rush and many others are currently unplayable on YouTube in the U.S. due to a legal dispute between the platform and the performing rights organization SESAC. Attempts to play many, but not all, songs by those artists on Saturday met with the following message: "This video contains content from SESAC. It is not available in your country."
  A similar dispute between Universal Music Group and TikTok raged
  
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• AMD Improves Zen 5 CPU Latency and Performance With BIOS Updates

  30-09-2024 16:41 via it.slashdot.org
  
  AMD has released BIOS updates to boost performance and reduce latency for its Ryzen 9600X and 9700X processors. The updates come a month after disappointing Zen 5 desktop CPU reviews and coincide with Windows 11 optimizations for AMD chips. The new AGESA PI 1.2.0.2 firmware addresses high core-to-core latency issues and introduces a 105-watt cTDP option, promising up to 10% performance gains for multithreaded workloads.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• Epic Games Sues Google and Samsung Over App Store Restrictions

  30-09-2024 16:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Epic Games filed a new antitrust lawsuit against Google and Samsung, alleging they conspired to undermine third-party app stores. The suit focuses on Samsung's "Auto Blocker" feature, now enabled by default on new phones, which restricts app installations to "authorized sources" - primarily Google and Samsung's stores.
  Epic claims Auto Blocker creates significant barriers for rival stores, requiring users to navigate a complex process to install third-party apps. The company argues this feature
  
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• CISA’s VDP Platform 2023 Annual Report Showcases Success

  30-09-2024 14:00 via cisa.gov
  Today, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released its Vulnerability Disclosure Policy (VDP) Platform 2023 Annual Report, highlighting the service’s remarkable success in 2023, its second full year of operation. Throughout 2023, CISA focused on advocating for the increased agency adoption of the VDP Platform, supporting federal civilian executive branch (FCEB) agencies in identifying vulnerabilities in their systems, and engaging the public security researcher
  
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• Mars' Long-Lost Atmosphere Might Be Hiding in Plain Sight

  30-09-2024 13:34 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Newsweek writes that the missing atmosphere of Mars "may be locked up in the planet's clay-rich surface, a new study by MIT geologists has suggested."
  According to the researchers, ancient water trickling through Mars' rocks could have triggered a series of chemical reactions, converting CO2 into methane and trapping the carbon in clay minerals for billions of years...The dominant explanation relies on an interaction between the sun's rays and gases in the atmosphere. Mars lost its protective ma
  
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• Exxon Mobil's 'Advanced' Technique for Recycling Plastic? Burning It

  30-09-2024 09:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shared this report from the Los Angeles Times:
  In recent years — as longstanding efforts to recycle plastics have faltered — Exxon Mobil has touted advanced recycling as a groundbreaking technology that will turn the tide on the plastic crisis. But despite its seemingly eco-friendly name, the attorney general's lawsuit denounced advanced recycling as a "public relations stunt" that largely involves superheating plastics to convert them into fuel.
  At Exxon Mobil's
  
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• Could Atom-Sized Black Holes Be Detected in Our Solar System?

  30-09-2024 05:39 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Scientific American has surprising news about the possibility of black holes the size of an atom but containing the mass of an asteroid — the so-called "primordial black holes" formed after the birth of the universe which could solve the ongoing mystery of the missing dark matter.
  These atom-sized black holes "may fly through the inner solar system about once a decade, scientists say... And if they sneak by the moon or Mars, scientists should be able to detect them, a new study shows."
  If
  
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• America's Vice President Gets Stuck Behind a Stalled Driverless Robotaxi

  30-09-2024 03:57 via idle.slashdot.org
  
  As the Vice President of the United States travelled in a motorcade Saturday to a San Francisco hotel, they ended up stopped behind "a Waymo vehicle that had to be driven away from the motorcade route by police," according to a local newscast (which called it an "only in San Francisco moment").
  And that's not all. One local reporter following the vice president's motorcade said "we saw not one but two driverless cars get stuck."
  The San Francisco Standard adds that on Friday, California's govern
  
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• The Hot New Trend in Commercial Real Estate? Renting to Data Centers

  30-09-2024 01:24 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  U.S. real estate developers "are having a hard time keeping up with demand," reports the Los Angeles Times, "as businesses in search of secure spots for their servers rent nearly every square foot that becomes available..."
  Construction of new data centers is at "extraordinary levels" driven by "insatiable demand," a recent report on the industry by real estate brokerage JLL found. "Never in my career of 25 years in real estate have I seen demand like this on a global scale," said JLL real estat
  
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