ICT news

• Flood of Fake Science Forces Multiple Journal Closures

  15-05-2024 16:48 via science.slashdot.org
  
  schwit1 shares a report: Fake studies have flooded the publishers of top scientific journals, leading to thousands of retractions and millions of dollars in lost revenue. The biggest hit has come to Wiley, a 217-year-old publisher based in Hoboken, N.J., which Tuesday announced that it was closing 19 journals, some of which were infected by large-scale research fraud. In the past two years, Wiley has retracted more than 11,300 papers that appeared compromised, according to a spokesperson, and cl
  
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• Scammers' New Way of Targeting Small Businesses: Impersonating Them

  11-06-2024 00:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Copycats are stepping up their attacks on small businesses. Sellers of products including merino socks and hummingbird feeders say they have lost customers to online scammers who use the legitimate business owners' videos, logos and social-media posts to assume their identities and steer customers to cheap knockoffs or simply take their money. WSJ: "We used to think you'd be targeted because you have a brand everywhere," said Alastair Gray, director of anticounterfeiting for the International Tr
  
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• Apple Announces visionOS 2 With 3D Photo Transformations and An Ultrawide Mac Display

  10-06-2024 23:20 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Apple has announced visionOS 2 for its Vision Pro spatial computing headset, bringing mouse support, an ultrawide virtual Mac display option, and new Photo features. The company says it's expected to launch "later this year." The Verge reports: The most significant update, for all the productivity heads out there, is a new ultrawide virtual display feature. Apple says that in visionOS 2, you'll be able to connect a Vision Pro to a Mac to generate a dual 4K-equivalent curved ultrawide display. Ri
  
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• One-Line Patch For Intel Meteor Lake Yields Up To 72% Better Performance

  10-06-2024 22:40 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Michael Larabel reports via Phoronix: Covered last week on Phoronix was a new patch from Intel that with tuning to the P-State CPU frequency scaling driver was showing big wins for Intel Core Ultra "Meteor Lake" performance and power efficiency. I was curious with the Intel claims posted for a couple benchmarks and thus over the weekend set out to run many Intel Meteor Lake benchmarks on this one-line kernel patch... The results are great for boosting the Linux performance of Intel Core ultra la
  
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• Apple Brings ChatGPT To Its Apps, Including Siri

  10-06-2024 22:00 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Apple is bringing ChatGPT, OpenAI's AI-powered chatbot experience, to Siri and other first-party apps and capabilities across its operating systems. From a report: "We're excited to partner with Apple to bring ChatGPT to their users in a new way," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a statement. "Apple shares our commitment to safety and innovation, and this partnership aligns with OpenAI's mission to make advanced AI accessible to everyone." Soon, Siri will be able to tap ChatGPT for "expertise" wher
  
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• ISPs Ask FCC For Tax On Big Tech To Fund Broadband Networks and Discounts

  10-06-2024 21:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Internet service providers are again urging the Federal Communications Commission to impose new fees on Big Tech firms and use the money to subsidize broadband network deployment and affordability programs. If approved, the request would force Big Tech firms to pay into the FCC's Universal Service Fund (USF), which in turn distributes money to broadband providers. The request was made on June 6 by USTelecom, a lobby group for AT&T, Veriz
  
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• Apple is Bringing RCS To the iPhone in iOS 18

  10-06-2024 20:44 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Apple has announced that its Messages app will support RCS in iOS 18. From a report: The new standard will replace SMS as the default communication protocol between Android and iOS devices. The move comes after years of taunting, cajoling, and finally, some regulatory scrutiny from the EU. Right now, when people on iOS and Android message each other, the service falls back to SMS -- photos and videos are sent at a lower quality, messages are shortened, and importantly, conversations are not end-
  
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• Apple Unveils Apple Intelligence

  10-06-2024 20:33 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  As rumored, Apple today unveiled Apple Intelligence, its long-awaited push into generative artificial intelligence (AI), promising highly personalized experiences built with safety and privacy at its core. The feature, referred to as "A.I.", will be integrated into Apple's various operating systems, including iOS, macOS, and the latest, VisionOS. CEO Tim Cook said that Apple Intelligence goes beyond artificial intelligence, calling it "personal intelligence" and "the next big step for Apple."
  Ap
  
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• Apple Unveils macOS 15 'Sequoia' at WWDC, Introduces Window Tiling and iPhone Mirroring

  10-06-2024 20:10 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  At its Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple formally introduced macOS 15, codenamed "Sequoia." The new release combines features from iOS 18 with Mac-specific improvements. One notable addition is automated window tiling, allowing users to arrange windows on their screen without manual resizing or switching to full-screen mode. Another feature, iPhone Mirroring, streams the iPhone's screen to the Mac, enabling app use with the Mac's keyboard and trackpad while keeping the phone locked for priv
  
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• Malicious VSCode Extensions With Millions of Installs Discovered

  10-06-2024 19:23 via it.slashdot.org
  
  A group of Israeli researchers explored the security of the Visual Studio Code marketplace and managed to "infect" over 100 organizations by trojanizing a copy of the popular 'Dracula Official theme to include risky code. Further research into the VSCode Marketplace found thousands of extensions with millions of installs. From a report: Visual Studio Code (VSCode) is a source code editor published by Microsoft and used by many professional software developers worldwide. Microsoft also operates a
  
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• Mandiant Says Hackers Stole a 'Significant Volume of Data' From Snowflake Customers

  10-06-2024 18:44 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Security researchers say they believe financially motivated cybercriminals have stolen a "significant volume of data" from hundreds of customers hosting their vast banks of data with cloud storage giant Snowflake. TechCrunch: Incident response firm Mandiant, which is working with Snowflake to investigate the recent spate of data thefts, said in a blog post Monday that the two firms have notified around 165 customers that their data may have been stolen. It's the first time that the number of aff
  
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• Microplastics Found in Every Human Semen Sample Tested in Study

  10-06-2024 18:02 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Microplastic pollution has been found in all human semen samples tested in a study, and researchers say further research on the potential harm to reproduction is "imperative." From a report: Sperm counts in men have been falling for decades and 40% of low counts remain unexplained, although chemical pollution has been implicated by many studies. The 40 semen samples were from healthy men undergoing premarital health assessments in Jinan, China. Another recent study found microplastics in the sem
  
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• Study Finds a Quarter of Bosses Hoped Return-To-Office Would Make Employees Quit

  10-06-2024 17:21 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: A study claims to have proof of what some have suspected: return to office mandates are just back-channel layoffs and post-COVID work culture is making everyone miserable. HR software biz BambooHR surveyed more than 1,500 employees, a third of whom work in HR. The findings suggest the return to office movement has been a poorly-executed failure, but one particular figure stands out - a quarter of executives and a fifth of HR professionals hoped RTO mandates w
  
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• Micrsoft Confirms Cheaper All-Digital Xbox Series X As It Marches Beyond Physical Games

  10-06-2024 16:46 via games.slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft has announced a new lineup of Xbox consoles, including an all-digital white Xbox Series X with a 1TB SSD, priced at $450. The company is also retiring the Carbon Black Series S, replacing it with a white version featuring a 1TB SSD and a $350 price point. Additionally, a new Xbox Series X with a disc drive and 2TB of storage will launch for $600.
  The move comes as Microsoft continues to focus on digital gaming and subscription services like Game Pass, with reports suggesting that the P
  
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• Nokia Unveils 'Future of Voice Calls'

  10-06-2024 16:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark made the world's first phone call using "immersive audio and video" technology, which improves call quality with "three-dimensional" sound. The technology, part of the upcoming 5G Advanced standard, makes interactions more lifelike and is the biggest leap forward in voice calling since monophonic telephony. Nokia aims to license the technology, but widespread availability may take a few years.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• SpaceX Hopes to Eventually Build One Starship Per Day at Its Texas 'Starfactory'

  10-06-2024 13:34 via science.slashdot.org
  
  SpaceX's successful launch (and reentry) of Starship was just the beginning, reports Space.com:SpaceX now aims to build on the progress with its Starship program as continues work on Starfactory, a new manufacturing facility under construction at the company's Starbase site in South Texas... "When you step into this factory, it is truly inspirational. My heart jumps out of my chest," Kate Tice, manager of SpaceX Quality Systems Engineering, said [during SpaceX's livestream of the Starship flight
  
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• When Paying in Cash Costs Extra: America's Reverse ATMs Convert Money into Debit Cards

  10-06-2024 09:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  At a New York Yankees baseball game, one fan discovered its concession stand doesn't accept cash. "An employee directed him to a kiosk that could convert his greenbacks into plastic," reports the Wall Street Journal, where the fan, "fed $200 into the reverse ATM, which subtracted a $3.50 fee and spat out a debit card with a balance of $196.50."
  Paying with cash used to be a way to get a discount. These days it can often cost an extra $1 to $6 — the sort of transaction fees once limited to
  
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• Teams of Coordinated GPT-4 Bots Can Exploit Zero-Day Vulnerabilities, Researchers Warn

  10-06-2024 06:44 via it.slashdot.org
  
  New Atlas reports on a research team that successfuly used GPT-4 to exploit 87% of newly-discovered security flaws for which a fix hadn't yet been released. This week the same team got even better results from a team of autonomous, self-propagating Large Language Model agents using a Hierarchical Planning with Task-Specific Agents (HPTSA) method:Instead of assigning a single LLM agent trying to solve many complex tasks, HPTSA uses a "planning agent" that oversees the entire process and launches
  
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• Birmingham's $125M 'Oracle Disaster' Blamed on Poor IT Project Management

  10-06-2024 03:44 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  It was "a catastrophic IT failure," writes Computer Weekly. It was nearly two years ago that Birmingham City Council, the largest local authority in Europe, "declared itself in financial distress" — effectively declaring bankruptcy — after the costs on an Oracle project costs ballooned from $25 million to around $125.5 million.
  But Computer Weekly's investigation finds signs that the program board and its manager wanted to go live in April of 2022 "regardless of the state of the buil
  
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• Virgin Galactic Completes Final 'Space Tourists and Research' Flight Before Two-Year Pause

  10-06-2024 00:44 via science.slashdot.org
  
  "Virgin Galactic launched six people to suborbital space on Saturday, launching a Turkish astronaut and three space tourists," reports Space.com, "on what was the final voyage of the VSS Unity space plane."Unity, attached to the belly of its carrier plane Eve, took off from runway at Spaceport America in New Mexico at 10:31 a.m. EDT (1431 GMT) and carried to an altitude of 44,562 feet (13,582 meters) over the next hour, where it was dropped and ignited its rocket engine to carry two pilots and f
  
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• Big Copyright Win in Canada: Court Rules Fair Use Beats Digital Locks

  09-06-2024 23:44 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Michael Geist
  Pig Hogger (Slashdot reader #10,379) reminds us that in Canadian law, "fair use" is called "fair dealing" — and that Canadian digital media users just enjoyed a huge win. Canadian user rights champion Michael Geist writes:The Federal Court has issued a landmark decision on copyright's anti-circumvention rules which concludes that digital locks should not trump fair dealing. Rather, the two must co-exist in harmony, leading to an interpretation that users can still rely on fai
  
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• T2 Linux 24.6 Goes Desktop with Integrated Windows Binary Support

  09-06-2024 22:44 via linux.slashdot.org
  
  T2's open development process and the collection of exotic, vintage and retro hardware can be followed live on YouTube and Twitch.
  Now Slashdot reader ReneR writes: Embedded T2 Linux is known for its sophisticated cross compile features as well as supporting all CPU architectures, including: Alpha, Arc, ARM(64), Avr32, HPPA(64), IA64, M68k, MIPS(64), Nios2, PowerPC(64)(le), RISCV(64), s390x, SPARC(64), SuperH, x86(64). But now it's going Desktop!
  24.6 comes as a major convenience update, with ou
  
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• Upcoming Games Include More Xbox Sequels - and a Medieval 'Doom'

  09-06-2024 21:44 via games.slashdot.org
  
  Announced during Microsoft's Xbox Games Showcase, Doom: The Dark Ages is id Software's next foray back into hell. Doom: The Dark Ages is a medieval spin on the Doom franchise, taking the Doom Slayer back to the beginning. It's coming to Xbox Game Pass on day one, sometime in 2025.
  Microsoft's first trailer for Doom: The Dark Ages shows the frenetic, precision gameplay we've come to expect from the franchise — there's a lot of blasting and shooting and a chainsaw. Oh, and the Doom Slayer ca
  
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• Researcher Finds Side-Channel Vulnerability in Post-Quantum Key Encapsulation Mechanism

  09-06-2024 20:44 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Slashdot reader storagedude shared this report from The Cyber Express:A security researcher discovered an exploitable timing leak in the Kyber key encapsulation mechanism (KEM) that's in the process of being adopted by NIST as a post-quantum cryptographic standard. Antoon Purnal of PQShield detailed his findings in a blog post and on social media, and noted that the problem has been fixed with the help of the Kyber team. The issue was found in the reference implementation of the Module-Lattice-B
  
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• Bill Gates Taking Pre-Orders For 'Source Code', a Memoir of His Early Years

  09-06-2024 19:44 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes:If you devoured the Childhood of Famous Americans book series as a kid and are ready for a longer read, Bill Gates has a book for you. "I'm excited to announce my new book, Source Code, which will be published next February," Gates wrote Tuesday in a GatesNotes blog post. "It's a memoir about my early years, from childhood through my decision to leave college and start Microsoft with Paul Allen. I write about the relationships, lessons, and experiences tha
  
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• Is the Uranium Fuel Proposed For Small Modular Nuclear Reactors a Weapons Risk?

  09-06-2024 18:34 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Reuters reports:A special uranium fuel planned for next-generation U.S. nuclear reactors poses security risks because it could be used without further enrichment as fissile material in nuclear weapons, scientists said in an article published on Thursday. The fuel, called high-assay low-enriched uranium, or HALEU, is enriched to levels of up to 20%, compared with about 5% for the fuel that powers most existing reactors.
  Until recently it was made in commercial amounts only in Russia, but the Unit
  
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• How Google Will Distribute $100 Million to Canada's News Companies

  09-06-2024 17:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  In November Google agreed to pay Canadian news publishers $100 million annually "in order to be exempt from the Online News Act, which compels tech companies to enter into agreements with news publishers," writes the Canadian Press.
  On Friday Google "named the organization it has selected to distribute the $100 million..."
  The Canadian Journalism Collective will be responsible for ensuring eligible news organizations get their share of the money. The collective is a federally incorporated non-pr
  
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• Jury Finds Autonomy Founder Mike Lynch Not Guilty of Defrauding HP

  09-06-2024 16:34 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  The BBC reports that British tech tycoon Mike Lynch "has been cleared of fraud charges he faced in the U.S. over the $11bn (£8.6bn) sale of his software firm to Hewlett-Packard in 2011."A jury in San Francisco found him not guilty on all counts in a stunning victory for Mr Lynch, who had been accused of inflating the value of Autonomy, his company, ahead of its sale. Mr Lynch, who faced more than 20 years in prison if convicted, had denied the charges and took the stand to defend himself.
  
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• Should Police Departments Use Drones?

  09-06-2024 13:34 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Wired visits Chula Vista, California (population: 275,487) — where since 2018 drones have been dispatched by police "teleoperators" monitoring 911 calls. ("Noise complaints, car accidents, overdoses, domestic disputes...") After nearly 20,000 drone flights, it's become the envy of other police departments, according to Wired's article, as other police departments "look to expand their use of unmanned aerial aircraft."The [Chula Vista] department says that its drones provide officers with c
  
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• Dutch Police Test AI-Powered Robot Dog to Raid Drug Labs

  09-06-2024 09:34 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  "Police and search and rescue forces worldwide are increasingly using robots to assist in carrying out their operations," writes Interesting Engineering. "Now, the Dutch police are looking at employing AI-powered autonomous robot dogs in drug lab raids to protect officers from criminal risks, hazardous chemicals, and explosions."
  New Scientist's Matthew Sparkes (also a long-time Slashdot reader) shares this report:
  Dutch police are planning to use an autonomous robotic dog in drug lab raids to a
  
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