ICT news

• Bitcoin Heads for Nearly 40% November Gain, Edging Closer to $100,000

  30-11-2024 22:50 via slashdot.org
  
  November 5: Bitcoin's price reaches an all-time high of $74,200.November 11: Bitcoin sets a new record of $84,000.November 12: Bitcoin pushes past $90,000.
  And Friday, CNBC reported:Bitcoin is on pace to post a 38% gain for November, according to Coin Metrics, which would make the month its best since February, when it gained 45% following the launch of spot bitcoin ETFs... Bulls expect bitcoin's price to reach $100,000 by the end of 2024 and potentially double by the end of 2025.
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• New Cosmological Model Proposes Dark Matter Production During Pre-Big Bang Inflation

  30-11-2024 21:50 via science.slashdot.org
  
  To explain the origins of dark market, a new model of the universe has been proposed by researchers, reports Phys.org.
  "Their idea is that dark matter would be produced during a infinitesimally short inflationary phase when the size of the universe quickly expanded exponentially..."
  Although inflation is mostly accepted by cosmologists as part of the Big Bang picture based on some evidence (though there is meaningful dissent), the driver of inflation is still unknown... [T]o-date research has no
  
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• WordPress Anti-Spam Plugin Vulnerability Exposes 200,000 Sites to RCE Attacks

  30-11-2024 20:34 via it.slashdot.org
  
  "A flaw in a WordPress anti-spam plugin with over 200,000 installations allows rogue plugins to be installed on affected websites," reports Search Engine Journal.
  The authentication bypass vulnerability lets attackers gain full access to websites without a username or password, according to the article, and "Security researchers rated the vulnerability 9.8 out of 10, reflecting the high level of severity..."
  The flaw in the Spam protection, Anti-Spam, FireWall by CleanTalk plugin, was pinpointed
  
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• US Insurers Are Still Charging for HIV Prevention Pills That Should Be Free

  30-11-2024 19:34 via science.slashdot.org
  
  The Washington Post reports on tens of thousands of Americans "forced to pay for medication" to prevent the HIV infections, "despite federal requirements guaranteeing free access to treatment...according to multiple studies and interviews with medical professionals, activists and patients."
  Insurance companies are skirting rules compelling them to pay for pre-exposure prophylaxis treatment, known as PrEP, researchers and HIV advocacy organizations say — leaving patients to shell out hundre
  
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• Threads Adds 35 Million More Members in November - But Bluesky's Traffic is Surging

  30-11-2024 18:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  At the start of November Threads had 275 million members. But in 30 days it's apparently increased another 12%, reports The Verge:
  Threads has accrued over 35 million signups so far in November and is "going on three months with more than a million signups a day," Meta spokesperson Alec Booker told The Verge in an email today. 20 million of those signups have come since November 14th, as Axios notes...
  At the same time, Bluesky has seen a surge of interest. The platform grew to 15 million users
  
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• YouTube is Full of Old, Unseen Home Videos. Now You Can Watch Them at Random

  30-11-2024 17:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  From a new web project called IMG_0001:Between 2009 and 2012, iPhones had a built-in "Send to YouTube" button in the Photos app. Many of these uploads kept their default IMG_XXXX filenames, creating a time capsule of raw, unedited moments from random lives. Inspired by Ben Wallace, I made a bot that crawled YouTube and found 5 million of these videos! Watch them below, ordered randomly.
  The Washington Post reports that it's the same 22-year-old software engineer who created Bop Spotter — t
  
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• To Urge Local Shopping, America Celebrates 15th Annual 'Small Business Saturday'

  30-11-2024 16:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The New York Post writes that "After the COVID-19 pandemic upended mom-and-pops around the city and resulted in thousands shuttering for good, it is important — now more than ever — to shop local."
  America's Small Business Administration issued their own statement urging shoppers to "champion small businesses nationwide and #ShopSmall on Saturday, linking to a site mapping small businesses in your area. (And there's also a directory listing online small businesses.)Small Business Sat
  
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• TfL Abandons Plans For Driverless Tube Trains

  30-11-2024 13:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Transport for London (TfL) has dropped its investigation into how it could introduce driverless trains on the London Underground. From a report: One of the many conditions imposed on TfL during the pandemic to keep services running when most of us were stuck at home was that it would investigate how it could introduce driverless trains on the Underground. TfL was required to produce a business case for converting the Waterloo & City line and Piccadilly line to a DLR-style operation, and in S
  
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• Performance Improvement Plans Surge in US as Companies Seek Stealth Job Cuts

  30-11-2024 10:30 via slashdot.org
  
  Performance improvement plans, a controversial corporate tool for managing underperforming employees, are becoming increasingly prevalent in U.S. workplaces. HR Acuity data shows workers subject to performance actions rose from 33.4 per 1,000 in 2020 to 43.6 per 1,000 in 2023.
  While companies maintain PIPs offer a path to improvement, WSJ -- citing HR executives and former employees -- describes them as primarily providing legal protection against wrongful termination lawsuits and an alternative
  
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• Google Offered Millions To Ally Itself With Trade Body Fighting Microsoft

  30-11-2024 07:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Google Cloud dangled hundreds of million of euros worth of financial incentives to ally itself with an association of European cloud providers that had lodged a complaint against Microsoft, according to confidential documents seen by The Register.
  Amit Zavery, the former Vice President of Google Cloud Platform, presented to a selection of members of the Cloud Infrastructure Service Providers in Europe (CISPE) trade body, then to the board and finally to the e
  
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• Ship's Crew Suspected of Deliberately Dragging Anchor for 100 Miles To Cut Baltic Cables

  30-11-2024 05:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  SpzToid writes: A Chinese commercial vessel that has been surrounded by European warships in international waters for a week is central to an investigation of suspected sabotage that threatens to test the limits of maritime law -- and heighten tensions between Beijing and European capitals.
  Investigators suspect that the crew of the Yi Peng 3 bulk carrier -- 225 meters long, 32 meters wide and loaded with Russian fertilizer -- deliberately severed two critical data cables last week as its anchor
  
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• Riot Games is Cracking Down on Players' Off-Platform Conduct

  30-11-2024 01:01 via games.slashdot.org
  
  Riot Games has announced sweeping changes to its terms of service, expanding penalties for player misconduct beyond in-game behavior to include content creation and social media activities.
  The new rules, Engadget reports, enable "Riot-wide bans" for violations across platforms where players discuss or stream Riot games. The company will not actively monitor social media but will respond to reported violations, particularly during game livestreams.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• Canada's Major News Organizations Band Together To Sue OpenAI

  30-11-2024 00:18 via news.slashdot.org
  
  A broad coalition of Canada's major news organizations, including the Toronto Star, Metroland Media, Postmedia, The Globe and Mail, The Canadian Press and CBC, is suing tech giant OpenAI, saying the company is illegally using news articles to train its ChatGPT software. From a report: It's the first time all of a country's major news publishers have come together in litigation against OpenAI. The suit, filed in Ontario's Superior Court of Justice Friday morning, seeks punitive damages, disgorgem
  
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