ICT news

• 'I Made Doge In Like Two Hours': Dogecoin Creator Says He 'Didn't Consider' Environmental Impact

  15-05-2021 02:02 via rss.slashdot.org
  
  One of the creators of dogecoin has noted that he "didn't consider" the environmental impact of the cryptocurrency, which was initially created as a joke. The Independent reports: The comments from Billy Markus, one of the people who helped create dogecoin in the first place, when it was intended partly as a joke, came in response to a tweet from Elon Musk. Mr Musk had been attempting to clarify his position on cryptocurrency generally, in the wake of his statement about Tesla. "To be clear, I s
  
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• Indian IT Outsourcing Firms Cut 60,000 Jobs in First Layoffs in 20 Years

  19-04-2024 20:41 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: TCS, Infosys, and Wipro, India's top three IT outsourcing firms, have collectively seen their workforce shrink for the first time in at least 20 years. The trio reported a combined reduction of more than 63,750 employees in the financial year ending March 31, 2024.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• Porn Sites Face Strict EU Rules, Commission Says

  19-04-2024 20:02 via slashdot.org
  
  Adult content companies Pornhub, Stripchat and XVideos will have to do risk assessment reports and take measures to address systemic risks linked to their services to comply with new EU online content rules, the European Commission said on Friday. From a report: The three companies were designated as very large online platforms last December under the Digital Services Act (DSA) which requires them to do more to remove illegal and harmful content on their platforms. Pornhub and Stripchat will hav
  
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• Meta's Not Telling Where It Got Its AI Training Data

  19-04-2024 19:22 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Today Meta unleashed its ChatGPT competitor, Meta AI, across its apps and as a standalone. The company boasts that it is running on its latest, greatest AI model, Llama 3, which was trained on "data of the highest quality"! A dataset seven times larger than Llama2! And includes 4 times more code! What is that training data? There the company is less loquacious.
  Meta said the 15 trillion tokens on which its trained came from "publicly available sources." Which
  
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• Microsoft Does Not Want You To Use iPerf3 To Measure Network Performance on Windows

  19-04-2024 18:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: iPerf is a fairly popular cross-platform tool that is used by many to measure network performance and diagnose any potential issues in this area. The open-source utility is maintained by an organization called Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) and officially supports Linux, Unix, and Windows. However, Microsoft has now published a detailed blog post explaining why you should not use the latest version, iPerf3, on Windows installations.
  Microsoft has highlighted
  
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• Google To Employees: 'We Are a Workplace'

  19-04-2024 18:01 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Google, once known for its unconventional approach to business, has taken a decisive step towards becoming a more traditional company by firing 28 employees who participated in protests against a $1.2 billion contract with the Israeli government. The move comes after sit-in demonstrations on Tuesday at Google offices in Silicon Valley and New York City, where employees opposed the company's support for Project Nimbus, a cloud computing contract they argue harms Palestinians in Gaza. Nine employe
  
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• Samsung Shifts To Emergency Mode With 6-day Work Week for Executives

  19-04-2024 17:21 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Korean newspaper KED Global: Executives at all Samsung Group units will work six days a week from as early as this week in a shift to emergency mode. The move comes as the won's sharp depreciation, rising oil prices and high borrowing costs aggravate business uncertainties after some of the group's mainstay businesses delivered poorer-than-expected results in 2023. The executives of Samsung Electronics Co., including those in the manufacturing and sales divisions, will work either on Saturday or
  
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• Windows 10 Will Start Pushing Users To Use Microsoft Accounts

  19-04-2024 16:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft is getting ready to annoy its faithful Windows 10 user base with yet another prompt. From a report: This time, Microsoft wants Windows 10 users to switch from using a local account to their online Microsoft account. As first noticed by the outlet Windows Latest, the most recent Windows 10 update Release Preview includes some information about new notifications added to the operating system intended to make users switch from their local account to their Microsoft account. "New! This upd
  
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• Apple Removes WhatsApp, Threads and Telegram From China App Store

  19-04-2024 16:00 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  China ordered Apple to remove some of the world's most popular chat messaging apps from its app store in the country, the latest example of censorship demands on the iPhone seller in the company's second-biggest market. WSJ: Meta's WhatsApp and Threads as well as messaging platforms Signal, Telegram and Line were taken off the Chinese App Store Friday [non-paywalled link]. Apple said it was told to remove certain apps because of national security concerns, without specifying which. "We are oblig
  
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• Chinese Cities Are Sinking Rapidly

  19-04-2024 15:00 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: Major cities across China are sinking, putting a substantial portion of the country's rapidly urbanizing population in harm's way in the coming decades, according to a sweeping new analysis by Chinese scientists. Subsidence is the technical term for when land sinks relative to its surroundings, and it's a major threat for cities around the world. It accelerates local sea level rise from climate change, because the land is getting lower as the ocean g
  
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• Cisco Releases Security Advisories for Cisco Integrated Management Controller

  19-04-2024 14:00 via cisa.gov
  Cisco has released security advisories for vulnerabilities in the Cisco integrated management controller. A remote cyber threat actor could exploit one of these vulnerabilities to take control of an affected system. 
  Users and administrators are encouraged to review the following advisories and apply the necessary updates: Cisco Integrated Management Controller CLI Command Injection Vulnerability
  Cisco Integrated Management Controller Web-Based Management Interface Command Injection V
  
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• FBI Says Chinese Hackers Preparing To Attack US Infrastructure

  19-04-2024 12:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  schwit1 shares a report from Reuters: Chinese government-linked hackers have burrowed into U.S. critical infrastructure and are waiting "for just the right moment to deal a devastating blow," FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Thursday. An ongoing Chinese hacking campaign known as Volt Typhoon has successfully gained access to numerous American companies in telecommunications, energy, water and other critical sectors, with 23 pipeline operators targeted, Wray said in a speech at Vanderbilt Un
  
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• Northrop Grumman Working With SpaceX On US Spy Satellite System

  19-04-2024 09:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Longtime Slashdot reader SonicSpike shares a report from Reuters: Aerospace and defense company Northrop Grumman is working with SpaceX [...] on a classified spy satellite project already capturing high-resolution imagery of the Earth, according to people familiar with the program. The program, details of which were first reported by Reuters last month, is meant to enhance the U.S. government's ability to track military and intelligence targets from low-Earth orbits, providing high-resolution im
  
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• Reddit Is Taking Over Google

  19-04-2024 05:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Business Insider: If you think you've been seeing an awful lot more Reddit results lately when you search on Google, you're not imagining things. The internet is in upheaval, and for website owners the rules of "winning" Google Search have never been murkier. Google's generative AI search engine is coming from one direction. It's creeping closer to mainstream deployment and bringing an existential crisis for SEOs and website makers everywhere. Coming from
  
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• Ubuntu 24.04 Yields a 20% Performance Advantage Over Windows 11 On Ryzen 7 Framework Laptop

  19-04-2024 03:25 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Michael Larabel reports via Phoronix: With the Framework 16 laptop one of the performance pieces I've been meaning to carry out has been seeing out Linux performs against Microsoft Windows 11 for this AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS powered modular/upgradeable laptop. Recently getting around to it in my benchmarking queue, I also compared the performance of Ubuntu 23.10 to the near final Ubuntu 24.04 LTS on this laptop up against a fully-updated Microsoft Windows 11 installation. The Framework 16 review unit
  
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• Netflix Blows Past Earnings Estimates As Subscribers Jump 16%

  19-04-2024 02:45 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  Netflix on Thursday reported a 16% rise in memberships in the first quarter, reaching 269.6 million, beating Wall Street expectations. Starting next year, the company will no longer provide quarterly membership numbers or average revenue per user starting next year. CNBC reports: "As we've noted in previous letters, we're focused on revenue and operating margin as our primary financial metrics -- and engagement (i.e. time spent) as our best proxy for customer satisfaction," the company said in i
  
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• Frontier Communications Shuts Down Systems After Cyberattack

  19-04-2024 02:02 via it.slashdot.org
  
  U.S. telecom provider Frontier Communications shut down its systems after a cybercrime group breached some of its IT systems in a recent cyberattack. BleepingComputer reports: Frontier is a leading U.S. communications provider that provides gigabit Internet speeds over a fiber-optic network to millions of consumers and businesses across 25 states. After discovering the incident, the company was forced to partially shut down some systems to prevent the threat actors from laterally moving through
  
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• Cops Can Force Suspect To Unlock Phone With Thumbprint, US Court Rules

  19-04-2024 01:20 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The US Constitution's Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination does not prohibit police officers from forcing a suspect to unlock a phone with a thumbprint scan, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday. The ruling does not apply to all cases in which biometrics are used to unlock an electronic device but is a significant decision in an unsettled area of the law. The US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit had to grapple with the
  
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• Software Glitch Saw Aussie Casino Give Away Millions In Cash

  19-04-2024 00:40 via news.slashdot.org
  
  A software glitch in the "ticket in, cash out" (TICO) machines at Star Casino in Sydney, Australia, saw it inadvertently give away $2.05 million over several weeks. This glitch allowed gamblers to reuse a receipt for slot machine winnings, leading to unwarranted cash payouts which went undetected due to systematic failures in oversight and audit processes. The Register reports: News of the giveaway emerged on Monday at an independent inquiry into the casino, which has had years of compliance tro
  
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• Meta Is Adding Real-Time AI Image Generation To WhatsApp

  19-04-2024 00:00 via meta.slashdot.org
  
  WhatsApp users in the U.S. will soon see support for real-time AI image generation. The Verge reports: As soon as you start typing a text-to-image prompt in a chat with Meta AI, you'll see how the image changes as you add more detail about what you want to create. In the example shared by Meta, a user types in the prompt, "Imagine a soccer game on mars." The generated image quickly changes from a typical soccer player to showing an entire soccer field on a Martian landscape. If you have access t
  
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• Colorado Bill Aims To Protect Consumer Brain Data

  18-04-2024 23:20 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Consumers have grown accustomed to the prospect that their personal data, such as email addresses, social contacts, browsing history and genetic ancestry, are being collected and often resold by the apps and the digital services they use. With the advent of consumer neurotechnologies, the data being collected is becoming ever more intimate. One headband serves as a personal meditation coach by monitoring the user's brain activity. Anot
  
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• Feds Hit Coding Boot Camp With Big Fine For Allegedly Conning Students

  18-04-2024 22:42 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has slapped coding boot camp BloomTech -- formerly known as Lambda School -- with several punishments for alleged deceptive business practices. From a report: The business, which claims on its site it will help students land their "dream job" in tech at companies like Amazon, Cisco, and Google, accepted the consent order without admitting or denying any wrongdoing. In an announcement yesterday, the CFPB said it had taken action against BloomTech
  
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• Crypto Trader Eisenberg Convicted of Fraud in $110 Million Mango Markets Scheme

  18-04-2024 22:01 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  A jury found Avraham "Avi" Eisenberg guilty on all three counts of fraud and manipulation in a $110 million crypto trade scheme using the Mango Markets platform. Axios: The case was the first known test for a jury to decide whether existing U.S. laws governing fraud and market manipulation apply to the world of decentralized finance (DeFi). The 28-year-old Eisenberg will be held to account for his actions on Oct. 11, 2022, when a series of trades he made intentionally boosted the price of Mango
  
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• Boeing Aims To Bring Flying Cars To Asia By 2030

  18-04-2024 21:22 via news.slashdot.org
  
  U.S. aircraft manufacturer Boeing plans to enter the flying car business in Asia by 2030, looking to tap demand for the fast travel the vehicles could provide in the region's traffic-choked cities. Nikkei: Boeing Chief Technology Officer Todd Citron revealed the plans in an interview with Nikkei. The company is developing electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) craft at subsidiary Wisk Aero. The aircraft will adopt autonomous technology, rare among eVTOL craft. The plan is to first obtain
  
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• Nigeria To Criminalise Fiber Cable Damage Costing Telecoms Billions

  18-04-2024 20:41 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Nigeria will criminalize the destruction of broadband fiber cables following repeated complaints by MTN Nigeria and other telecommunications companies that they are losing billions of naira, Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter. From the report: Nigeria's works ministry, which supervises federal road constructors, is finalizing the regulation that will be signed as an executive order by President Bola Tinubu, said the people, asking not to be identified as they weren't
  
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• Author Granted Copyright Over Book With AI-Generated Text - With a Twist

  18-04-2024 20:00 via slashdot.org
  
  The U.S. Copyright Office has granted a copyright registration to Elisa Shupe, a retired U.S. Army veteran, for her novel "AI Machinations: Tangled Webs and Typed Words," which extensively used OpenAI's ChatGPT in its creation. The registration is among the first for creative works incorporating AI-generated text, but with a significant caveat - Shupe is considered the author of the "selection, coordination, and arrangement" of the AI-generated content, not the text itself.
  Shupe, who writes und
  
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• Hackers Are Threatening To Publish a Huge Stolen Sanctions and Financial Crimes Watchlist

  18-04-2024 19:22 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: A financially motivated criminal hacking group says it has stolen a confidential database containing millions of records that companies use for screening potential customers for links to sanctions and financial crime. The hackers, which call themselves GhostR, said they stole 5.3 million records from the World-Check screening database in March and are threatening to publish the data online.
  World-Check is a screening database used for "know your customer" che
  
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• Meta Releases Llama 3 AI Models, Claiming Top Performance

  18-04-2024 18:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Meta debuted a new version of its powerful Llama AI model, its latest effort to keep pace with similar technology from companies like OpenAI, X and Google. The company describes Llama 3 8B and Llama 3 70B, containing 8 billion and 70 billion parameters respectively, as a "major leap" in performance compared to their predecessors.
  Meta claims that the Llama 3 models, trained on custom-built 24,000 GPU clusters, are among the best-performing generative AI models available for their respective para
  
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• Google is Combining Its Android and Hardware Teams

  18-04-2024 18:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced substantial internal reorganizations on Thursday, including the creation of a new team called "Platforms and Devices" that will oversee all of Google's Pixel products, all of Android, Chrome, ChromeOS, Photos, and more. From a report: The team will be run by Rick Osterloh, who was previously the SVP of devices and services, overseeing all of Google's hardware efforts. Hiroshi Lockheimer, the longtime head of Android, Chrome, and ChromeOS, will be taking on othe
  
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• Canadian Science Gets Biggest Boost To PhD and Postdoc Pay in 20 Years

  18-04-2024 17:24 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Researchers in Canada got most of what they were hoping for in the country's 2024 federal budget, with a big boost in postgraduate pay and more funding for research and scientific infrastructure. From a report: "We are investing over $5 billion in Canadian brainpower," said finance minister Chrystia Freeland in her budget speech on 16 April. "More funding for research and scholarships will help Canada attract the next generation of game-changing thinkers."
  Postgraduate students and postdoctoral
  
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