ICT news

• Thousands of Exposed GitHub Repositories, Now Private, Can Still Be Accessed Through Copilot

  27-02-2025 23:40 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Security researchers are warning that data exposed to the internet, even for a moment, can linger in online generative AI chatbots like Microsoft Copilot long after the data is made private. Thousands of once-public GitHub repositories from some of the world's biggest companies are affected, including Microsoft's, according to new findings from Lasso, an Israeli cybersecurity company focused on emerging generative AI threats.Lasso co-founder O
  
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• Meta is Firing About 20 Employees For Leaking

  27-02-2025 23:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Meta has fired "roughly 20" employees who leaked "confidential information outside the company," The Verge reported Thursday, citing the company. From the report: "We tell employees when they join the company, and we offer periodic reminders, that it is against our policies to leak internal information, no matter the intent," Meta spokesperson Dave Arnold tells The Verge. "We recently conducted an investigation that resulted in roughly 20 employees being terminated for sharing confidential infor
  
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• More Than 100,000 African Seeds Put in Svalbard Vault For Safekeeping

  27-02-2025 22:22 via news.slashdot.org
  
  More than 100,000 seeds from across Africa have been deposited in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, the world's repository for specimens intended to preserve crop diversity in the event of disaster. From a report: Among the latest additions are seeds critical to building climate resilience, such as the tree Faidherbia albida, which turns nitrogen into ammonia and nitrates, and Cordia africana, the Sudan teak, a tree renowned for its strength and durability. The seeds, from 177 different species, w
  
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• OpenAI Rolls Out GPT-4.5

  27-02-2025 21:25 via slashdot.org
  
  OpenAI released an early version of its new AI model GPT-4.5 to select users on Thursday, following development challenges that delayed the project last year. The Microsoft-backed startup said the new model responds better to subtle cues in written prompts and excels at chatting, writing and coding. OpenAI expects it will produce fewer fabricated responses than previous versions.
  Initially available as a "research preview," access is limited to software developers and users who pay $200 monthly
  
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• Automattic's 'Nuclear War' Over WordPress Access Sparks Potential Class Action

  27-02-2025 21:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: The company behind WordPress, Automattic Inc., and its founder, Matt Mullenweg, continue to face backlash over a "nuclear war" started with WP Engine (WPE) that allegedly messed with maintenance and security of hundreds of thousands of websites.
  In a proposed class action lawsuit filed this weekend, a WPE customer, Ryan Keller, accused Automattic and Mullenweg of "deliberately abusing their power and control over the WordPress ecosystem to purposefully, delib
  
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• One Man's Battle To Save the Last Phone Box in His Village

  27-02-2025 20:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Derek Harris, born the same year as the iconic K6 red phone box he's fighting to save, has launched what he calls a "David and Goliath" campaign against BT in the Norfolk village of Sharrington. The phone box is among 10 in North Norfolk marked for removal, having logged fewer than 10 calls last year. Harris argues the box remains vital in an area with poor mobile coverage, high elderly population, and proximity to an accident-prone stretch of the A148.
  He recounts how it once saved a driver tra
  
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• Pokemon Boss Believes Series Can Last Another 50 To 100 Years

  27-02-2025 19:41 via games.slashdot.org
  
  The boss of The Pokemon Company believes the series can last for at least another 50 years if it continues to innovate. From a report: First launched on Nintendo's Game Boy in 1996, the video game has expanded into films, TV and toys to become one of the world's highest-grossing media franchise. Most recently, the trading card game based on the cute creatures at the centre of its universe has seen a surge in popularity -- but it has also brought scalpers and frauds to the hobby.
  [...] Pokemon ha
  
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• The Reality of Long-Term Software Maintenance

  27-02-2025 19:00 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  When developers boast "I could write that in a weekend," they're missing the painful reality that haunts software maintainers for years. In a candid blog post, Construct developer Ashley explains why maintaining large software projects is a burden most programmers fail to appreciate. "Writing the initial code for a feature is only a fraction of the work," Ashley explains, estimating it represents just "25% of the total work" in Construct's 750,000-line codebase. The rest? A grinding cycle of "te
  
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• The New York City Subway Is Using Google Pixels To Listen for Track Defects

  27-02-2025 18:21 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Google have successfully tested technology that uses smartphone sensors to detect subway track defects, the MTA said Thursday. The four-month experiment, dubbed TrackInspect, mounted six Google Pixel phones on four A train subway cars traversing Manhattan and Queens. The phones' accelerometers, magnetometers, gyroscopes and external microphones collected 335 million sensor readings and 1,200 hours of audio data, which were processed throu
  
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• 'My Washing Machine Refreshed My Thinking on Software Effort Estimation'

  27-02-2025 17:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  What Chris Horsley expected to be a 10-minute washing machine installation stretched to four hours and required five trips to the hardware store. The CTO of security consultancy firm documented how unexpected obstacles -- drilling through shelves, replacing incompatible hoses, and removing hidden caps -- derailed his timeline.
  Horsley draws a direct parallel to software development, where estimation regularly fails despite experience. "While 90% of the project will be the same, there's going to
  
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• Japan Births Fall To Lowest in 125 Years

  27-02-2025 17:00 via slashdot.org
  The number of babies born in Japan last year fell to the lowest level since records began 125 years ago as the country's demographic crisis deepens and government efforts to reverse the decline continue to fail. Financial Times [non-paywalled source]: Japan recorded 720,988 births in 2024, according to preliminary government figures published on Thursday. The number has declined for nine straight years and appears to be largely unaffected by financial and other government incentives for married
  
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• Is npm Enough? Why Startups Are Coming After This JavaScript Package Registry

  27-02-2025 16:22 via it.slashdot.org
  The JavaScript package world is heating up as startups attempt to challenge npm's long-standing dominance. While npm remains the backbone of JavaScript dependency management, Deno's JSR and vlt's vsr have entered the scene with impressive backing and even more impressive leadership -- JSR comes from Node.js creator Ryan Dahl, while npm's own creator Isaac Schlueter is behind vsr. Neither aims to completely replace npm, instead building compatible layers that promise better developer experiences.
  
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• Australia Bans All Kaspersky Products on Government Systems Citing 'Unacceptable Security Risk'

  27-02-2025 15:40 via slashdot.org
  
  The Australian government has banned all Kaspersky Lab products and web services from its systems and devices following an analysis that claims the company poses a significant security risk to the country. From a report: "After considering threat and risk analysis, I have determined that the use of Kaspersky Lab, Inc. products and web services by Australian Government entities poses an unacceptable security risk to Australian Government, networks and data, arising from threats of foreign interfe
  
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• Microsoft Urges Trump To Overhaul Curbs on AI Chip Exports

  27-02-2025 15:00 via slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft is pushing the Trump administration to loosen and simplify a new system that would restrict the sales of cutting-edge U.S. artificial-intelligence chips to much of the world. From a report: In a blog post that is scheduled to be released Thursday, Microsoft will call for Trump's team to ease the limits on chips that can be used in data centers for training AI models so they no longer apply to a group of U.S. allies including India, Switzerland and Israel [non-paywalled source], company
  
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• Electronic Devices Used For Car Thefts Set To Be Banned in England

  27-02-2025 13:30 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Sophisticated electronic devices used by criminals to steal cars are set to be banned under new laws in England and Wales. From a report: More than 700,000 vehicles were broken into last year -- often with the help of high-tech electronic devices, including so-called signal jammers, which are thought to play a part in four out of 10 vehicle thefts nationwide.
  Until now, police could only bring a prosecution if they could prove a device had been used to commit a specific offence, but under new la
  
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• Amazon Unveils Its First Quantum Computing Chip

  27-02-2025 12:14 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Amazon has introduced its first-ever quantum processor, dubbed Ocelot, designed specifically to reduce quantum error correction costs by up to 90% compared to existing approaches. The prototype chip uses "cat qubits" -- named after Schrodinger's cat thought experiment -- which intrinsically suppress certain types of quantum errors.
  Unlike conventional approaches that add error correction after designing the architecture, AWS built Ocelot with quantum error correction as the primary requirement.
  
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• Jensen Huang: AI Has To Do '100 Times More' Computation Now Than When ChatGPT Was Released

  27-02-2025 11:00 via slashdot.org
  
  In an interview with CNBC's Jon Fortt on Wednesday, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said next-gen AI will need 100 times more compute than older models as a result of new reasoning approaches that think "about how best to answer" questions step by step. From a report: "The amount of computation necessary to do that reasoning process is 100 times more than what we used to do," Huang told CNBC's Jon Fortt in an interview on Wednesday following the chipmaker's fourth-quarter earnings report. He cited model
  
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• German Startup Wins Accolade For Its Fusion Reactor Design

  27-02-2025 08:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  A German nuclear fusion startup called Proxima Fusion has unveiled its "Stellaris" fusion power plant designed to operate reliably and continuously without the instabilities of tokamaks. It's backed by $65 million in funding, with plans to build a fully operational fusion reactor by 2031. TechCrunch reports: Tokamaks and stellarators are types of fusion reactors that use electromagnets to contain fusion plasma. Tokamaks rely on external magnets and an induced plasma current but are known for ins
  
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• Tokyo Is Turning To a 4-Day Workweek To Shed 'World's Oldest Population' Title

  27-02-2025 04:30 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Fortune: Starting in April, the Tokyo Metropolitan government, one of the country's largest employers, is set to allow its employees to work only four days a week. It is also adding a new "childcare partial leave" policy, which will allow some employees to work two fewer hours per day. The goal is to help employees who are parents balance childcare and work, said Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike. "We will continue to review work styles flexibly to ensure that wome
  
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• Lucid CEO Steps Down As EV Maker Plans To Double Production

  27-02-2025 02:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson has stepped down, with COO Marc Winterhoff taking over as interim CEO. The company also announced its fourth-quarter financial results and revealed plans to more than double vehicle production to 20,000 units in 2025. CNBC reports: Winterhoff told CNBC on Tuesday that it was Rawlinson's decision to resign as of Friday, however he declined to elaborate on any additional details. "It was Peter's decision after 12 years of, let's say, daily grind or daily activities and br
  
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• Pixel Watch 3 Gets FDA Clearance For Loss of Pulse Alerts

  27-02-2025 02:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Google has received FDA clearance for the Pixel Watch 3's Loss of Pulse Detection feature, which will start rolling out to U.S. devices around the end of March. The Verge reports: The Loss of Pulse Detection feature is exactly what it sounds like: if the Pixel Watch 3 senses that you've lost your pulse through an event like a heart attack or an overdose, it'll send you a prompt. If you don't respond, it'll automatically call emergency services on your behalf. Back in August, Sandeep Waraich, Goo
  
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• Inception Emerges From Stealth With a New Type of AI Model

  27-02-2025 01:20 via slashdot.org
  
  Inception, a Palo Alto-based AI company founded by Stanford professor Stefano Ermon, claims to have developed a novel diffusion-based large language model (DLM) that significantly outperforms traditional LLMs in speed and efficiency. "Inception's model offers the capabilities of traditional LLMs, including code generation and question-answering, but with significantly faster performance and reduced computing costs, according to the company," reports TechCrunch. From the report: Ermon hypothesize
  
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• Amazon Uses Quantum 'Cat States' With Error Correction

  27-02-2025 00:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Following up on Microsoft's announcement of a qubit based on completely new physics, Amazon is publishing a paper describing a very different take on quantum computing hardware. The system mixes two different types of qubit hardware to improve the stability of the quantum information they hold. The idea is that one type of qubit is resistant to errors, while the second can be used for implementing an error-correction code that catches the pr
  
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• Satya Nadella Argues AI's True Value Will Come When It Finds Killer App Akin To Email or Excel

  27-02-2025 00:00 via slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella argues that AI's success should be measured by its impact on economic growth rather than achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI), emphasizing that true progress will come when AI finds a transformative application akin to email or Excel. The Register reports: "Us self-claiming some AGI milestone, that's just nonsensical benchmark hacking," the chief executive said during an appearance on podcaster Dwarkesh Patel's YouTube show this month. Nadella thinks a bett
  
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