ICT news

• What Do You Think of Mozilla's New Branding?

  07-12-2024 23:50 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  As a "global crew of activists, technologists and builders," Mozilla open-sourced Firefox more than 25 years ago, notes a new blog post — and their president says Mozilla's mission is the same today: "build and support technology in the public interest, and spark more innovation, more competition and more choice online along the way."
  But "Even though we've been at the forefront of privacy and open source, people weren't getting the full picture of what we do. We were missing opportunities
  
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• What Arm's CEO makes of the Intel debacle

  07-12-2024 22:50 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Arm " is worth almost $150 billion," writes the Verge, "which is now considerably more than Intel.""With the news earlier this week that Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger 'retired' and Intel is evaluating its options for a possible spinoff or outright sale, I wanted to hear what [Arm CEO Rene] Haas thought should happen to his longtime frenemy. There were reports that [Haas] approached Intel about buying a big chunk of the company before Gelsinger was ousted...."
  Haas: As someone who has been in the indus
  
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• Linux 4.19, the Last Supported Kernel of the Linux 4.x Series, Finally Reaches EOL

  07-12-2024 21:50 via linux.slashdot.org
  
  Slashdot reader prisoninmate shared this report from 9to5Linux:
  Linux kernel 4.19, the last of the Linux 4.x kernel series, has now reached the end of its supported life as announced earlier on the Linux kernel mailing list by kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman. The Linux 4.19 kernel branch was released more than six years ago, on October 22nd, 2018, and it received no less than 325 maintenance updates, the last one being Linux 4.19.325. The biggest highlights of Linux kernel 4.19 were initial
  
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• AI Safety Testers: OpenAI's New o1 Covertly Schemed to Avoid Being Shut Down

  07-12-2024 20:43 via slashdot.org
  
  Wednesday OpenAI bragged they'd released "the smartest model in the world". But the Economic Times describes what happened when "o1" was tested by an AI safety group...Researchers tasked the AI with a goal and instructed it to ensure the goal was achieved "at all costs." In response, o1 began engaging in covert actions... According to OpenAI, the model made a covert attempt to turn off the oversight mechanism 5% of the time when it was given the impression that it would be "shut down" while purs
  
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• A Predicted 'New Star' Didn't Appear in the Night Sky. Astronomers Expect It Soon

  07-12-2024 19:43 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Space.com calls it "the once-in-a-lifetime reignition of a long-dead star in an explosion powerful enough to briefly match the brilliance of Polaris, the North Star." In March CNN promised this once-every-79-years event would happen "anytime between now and September."But it didn't...
  Space.com has a spectacular animation showing what this "recurring nova" was supposed to look like (described by CNN as a "sudden, brief explosion" from a collapsed/"white dwarf" star). "The highly-anticipated 'gue
  
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• Amazon Offers $100M in Cloud-Computing Credits for Projects Like 'AI Teaching Assistant'

  07-12-2024 18:39 via news.slashdot.org
  
  This week AWS pledged up to $100 million in cloud-computing credits for educational organizations over the next five years, to help them build "technology-based learning experiences" on AWS, including:
  AI assistants coding curriculums
  - connectivity tools student learning platforms mobile apps chatbotsOne example shared by Amazon: The nonprofit Code.org will use AWS's cloud credits to scale their AI teaching assistant that "has already helped teachers reduce the time they spend assessing student
  
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• Amazon Offers $100M in Cloud-Computing Credits for Education Projects Like 'AI Teaching Assistant'

  07-12-2024 18:39 via news.slashdot.org
  
  This week AWS pledged up to $100 million in cloud-computing credits for educational organizations over the next five years, to help them build "technology-based learning experiences" on AWS, including:
  AI assistants coding curriculums
  - connectivity tools student learning platforms mobile apps chatbotsOne example shared by Amazon: The nonprofit Code.org will use AWS's cloud credits to scale their AI teaching assistant that "has already helped teachers reduce the time they spend assessing student
  
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• Thanks to Microsoft Collaboration, iFixit Now Sells Genuine Xbox Repair Parts

  07-12-2024 17:34 via games.slashdot.org
  
  "We're excited to be working with Microsoft to keep Xboxes running longer and out of the waste heap," iFixit's director of sustainability told The Verge.
  iFixit now sells genuine Xbox parts you can use to repair your Xbox Series X or S and offers official guides to help with fixes [including both the all-digital and disk drive editions]...iFixit's Microsoft Repair Hub also features iFixit's parts for repairing Microsoft Surface devices, which it started selling in 2023. "Since we launched our Su
  
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• Google Says Its New PaliGemma 2 AI Models Can Identify Emotions. Should We Be Worried?

  07-12-2024 16:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  "Google says its new AI model family has a curious feature: the ability to 'identify' emotions," writes TechCrunch. And that's raising some concerns...
  Announced on Thursday, the PaliGemma 2 family of models can analyze images, enabling the AI to generate captions and answer questions about people it "sees" in photos. "PaliGemma 2 generates detailed, contextually relevant captions for images," Google wrote in a blog post shared with TechCrunch, "going beyond simple object identification to descr
  
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• SpaceX's Thursday Launch Enables Starlink's New Satellite-to-Cellphone Internet Service

  07-12-2024 13:34 via science.slashdot.org
  
  "SpaceX has launched 20 of its Starlink satellites up into Earth's orbit, enabling direct-to-cellphone connectivity for subscribers anywhere on the planet," reports the tech blog New Atlas.That completes the constellation's first orbital shell, following a launch of an initial batch of six satellites for testing back in January. The satellites were launched with a Falcon 9 rocket from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base on December 5 at 10 PM EST; they were then deployed in low Earth orbit.
  
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• Does the New 'Y2K' Comedy/Disaster/Horror Film Give the '90s the Ending It Deserved?

  07-12-2024 09:34 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  The new movie Y2K is either a comedy or a disaster/horror film, according to Wikipedia. The film "imagines a turn of the century where the machines don't just glitch or stop working," writes the Hollywood Reporter. "They go full homicidal." With a cast that includes 1990s icons like Alicia Silverstone and the lead singer for the Napster-loving 1990s metal band Limp Bizkit, the movie "gives the '90s the ending it deserved," according to the article.They interviewed the film's director (and co-wri
  
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• Is Valve Letting Third Parties Create SteamOS Hardware?

  07-12-2024 05:34 via games.slashdot.org
  
  The Verge thinks Valve "could make a play to dethrone the Sony PlayStation and Microsoft." And it's not just because there's lots of new SteamOS hardware on the way (including a wireless VR headset and a pair of trackable wands, a Steam Controller 2 gamepad, and a living room console.
  "Valve has also now seemingly revealed plans for partners to create third-party SteamOS hardware too."
  It won't be easy to take on Sony, Microsoft, or Meta. Those companies have a lot to lose, and they're deeply en
  
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• Microsoft Discontinues Its $4,500 All-in-One Desktop, 'Surface Studio'

  07-12-2024 03:34 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shared this report from the blog Windows Central:
  Microsoft has ended production on the Surface Studio 2+, its ultra-premium all-in-one desktop PC designed for creatives and commercial customers. Starting at a whopping $4,500, the Studio 2+ was the ultimate Windows all-in-one with the best touchscreen display on a unique hinge that allowed the screen to lay down like a draft board... So, if you're interested in buying a Surface Studio 2+, you better hurry, as whatever stock i
  
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• US Government Orders Nationwide Testing of Milk for Bird Flu to Stop the Virus's Spread

  07-12-2024 00:35 via news.slashdot.org
  
  "The U.S. government on Friday ordered testing of the nation's milk supply for bird flu," reports the Associated Press, "to better monitor the spread of the virus in dairy cows."
  Raw or unpasteurized milk from dairy farms and processors nationwide must be tested on request starting Dec. 16, the Agriculture Department said. Testing will begin in six states — California, Colorado, Michigan, Mississippi, Oregon and Pennsylvania.Officials said the move is aimed at "containing and ultimately el
  
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