ICT news

• IRS Free Tax Filing Pilot Saved Consumers $5.6 Million In Prep Fees

  27-04-2024 01:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The free tax filing pilot from the IRS that rolled out in 12 states last month saved filers an estimated $5.6 million in tax preparation fees for federal returns, said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel. CNBC reports: This season, more than 140,000 taxpayers successfully filed returns using IRS Direct File, a free tax filing pilot from the IRS, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the IRS. Direct File surveyed more than 15,000 users, around 90% of whom rated their experience as "excel
  
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• World is On Edge of Climate Abyss, UN Warns

  09-05-2024 19:22 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The world is on the verge of a climate abyss, the UN has warned, in response to a Guardian survey that found that hundreds of the world's foremost climate experts expect global heating to soar past the international target of 1.5C. From a report: A series of leading climate figures have reacted to the findings, saying the deep despair voiced by the scientists must be a renewed wake-up call for urgent and radical action to stop burning fossil fuels and save millions of lives and livelihoods. Some
  
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• Record-Breaking Increase in CO2 Levels in World's Atmosphere

  09-05-2024 18:48 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The largest ever recorded leap in the amount of carbon dioxide laden in the world's atmosphere has just occurred, according to researchers who monitor the relentless accumulation of the primary gas that is heating the planet. From a report: The global average concentration of carbon dioxide in March this year was 4.7 parts per million (or ppm) higher than it it was in March last year, which is a record-breaking increase in CO2 levels over a 12-month period. The increase has been spurred, scienti
  
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• Sonos Says Its Controversial App Redesign Took 'Courage'

  09-05-2024 18:02 via it.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Sonos has responded to the avalanche of feedback -- some good, plenty bad -- about the company's redesigned mobile app that was released on May 7th. In the days since, customers have complained about missing features like sleep timers, broken local music library management, and no longer having the ability to edit playlists or the upcoming song queue. More alarmingly, the Sonos app's accessibility has also taken a hit, something the company says it's aiming t
  
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• Dell Says Data Breach Involved Customers' Physical Addresses

  09-05-2024 17:27 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Technology giant Dell notified customers on Thursday that it experienced a data breach involving customers' names and physical addresses. TechCrunch: In an email seen by TechCrunch and shared by several people on social media, the computer maker wrote that it was investigating "an incident involving a Dell portal, which contains a database with limited types of customer information related to purchases from Dell."
  Dell wrote that the information accessed in the breach included customer names, ph
  
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• OpenAI Considers Allowing Users To Create AI-Generated Pornography

  09-05-2024 16:53 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is exploring whether users should be allowed to create AI-generated pornography and other explicit content with its products. From a report:While the company stressed that its ban on deepfakes would continue to apply to adult material, campaigners suggested the proposal undermined its mission statement to produce "safe and beneficial" AI. OpenAI, which is also the developer of the DALL-E image generator, revealed it was considering letting developers and users
  
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• Microsoft's Xbox Is Planning More Cuts After Studio Closings

  09-05-2024 16:15 via games.slashdot.org
  
  The sudden closure of several video-game studios at Microsoft's Xbox division was the result of a widespread cost-cutting initiative that still isn't finished. From a report: This week, Xbox began offering voluntary severance agreements to producers, quality assurance testers and other staff at ZeniMax, which it purchased in 2020 for $7.5 billion, according to people familiar with the company's plans. Others across the Xbox organization have been told that more cuts are on the way. Employees wer
  
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• US Patent and Trademark Office Confirms Another Leak of Filers' Address Data

  09-05-2024 15:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: The federal government agency responsible for granting patents and trademarks is alerting thousands of filers whose private addresses were exposed following a second data spill in as many years. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) said in an email to affected trademark applicants this week that their private domicile address -- which can include their home address -- appeared in public records between August 23, 2023 and April 19, 202
  
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• ASD’s ACSC, CISA, and Partners Release Secure by Design Guidance on Choosing Secure and Verifiable Technologies

  09-05-2024 14:00 via cisa.gov
  Today, the Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre (ASD’s ACSC), together with CISA, the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS), the United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-UK), and the New Zealand National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-NZ) are releasing the following guidance: Secure by Design Choosing Secure and Verifiable Technologies. This guidance was crafted to provide organizations with secure by design considerations when procur
  
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• North Yorkshire Council To Ban Apostrophes On Street Signs To Avoid Database Problems

  09-05-2024 12:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The North Yorkshire Council in England announced it will ban apostrophes on street signs as it can affect geographical databases. Resident Anne Keywood told the BBC that she urged the authority to retain apostrophes, saying: "If you start losing things like that then everything goes downhill doesn't it?" From the report: North Yorkshire Council said it "along with many others across the country" had opted to "eliminate" the apostrophe from street signs. A spokesperson added: "All punctuation wil
  
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• Scientists Find an 'Alphabet' In Whale Songs

  09-05-2024 09:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Carl Zimmer reports via the New York Times: Ever since the discovery of whale songs almost 60 years ago, scientists have been trying to decipher their lyrics. Are the animals producing complex messages akin to human language? Or sharing simpler pieces of information, like dancing bees do? Or are they communicating something else we don't yet understand? In 2020, a team of marine biologists and computer scientists joined forces to analyze the click-clacking songs of sperm whales, the gray, block-
  
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• Deepfakes of Your Dead Loved Ones Are a Booming Chinese Business

  09-05-2024 05:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from MIT Technology Review: Once a week, Sun Kai has a video call with his mother. He opens up about work, the pressures he faces as a middle-aged man, and thoughts that he doesn't even discuss with his wife. His mother will occasionally make a comment, like telling him to take care of himself -- he's her only child. But mostly, she just listens. That's because Sun's mother died five years ago. And the person he's talking to isn't actually a person, but a digi
  
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• Dell Makes Return-To-Office Push With VPN, Badge Tracking

  09-05-2024 04:02 via slashdot.org
  
  Dell is making sure its employees follow the company's updated return-to-office policy through a series of new tracking techniques. According to The Register, Dell will track employees' badge swipes and VPN connections and include a color-coded attendance grading system that summarizes employee presence."In the latest Jeff Clarke return-to-grade-school initiative, HR will be keeping an attendance report card on employees, grading them at four levels based on how well they meet the goal of being
  
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• Google Will Exit Prominent San Francisco Waterfront Office Tower

  09-05-2024 03:25 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Google announced on Tuesday that it will be exiting One Market Plaza, a prominent office complex in San Francisco that it had been occupying since 2018. The company's lease for the 300,000-square-foot-office will expire next April. The San Francisco Chronicle reports: Many of Google's employees are already working outside of the giant waterfront office, in light of the company's flexible approach to office attendance. As one of the city's largest office properties and a prominent feature on its
  
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• 81% of Young People Say a 4-Day Workweek Would Boost Productivity, Survey Finds

  09-05-2024 02:45 via news.slashdot.org
  
  A new national survey (PDF) from CNBC/Generation Lab of 1,033 people aged 18 to 34 found that an overwhelming 81% of respondents believe a four-day workweek would boost their company's productivity, while 19% said productivity would decline. CNBC reports: Those results from the "Youth & Money in the USA" survey come amid discussions around the potential benefits of switching from the standard five-day U.S. workweek to a four-day cadence without a pay cut. Some companies have begun testing th
  
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• Ransomware Crooks Now SIM Swap Executives' Kids To Pressure Their Parents

  09-05-2024 02:02 via it.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: Ransomware infections have morphed into "a psychological attack against the victim organization," as criminals use increasingly personal and aggressive tactics to force victims to pay up, according to Google-owned Mandiant. "We saw situations where threat actors essentially SIM swap the phones of children of executives, and start making phone calls to executives, from the phone numbers of their children," Charles Carmakal, Mandiant's CTO, re
  
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• US Libraries Are Battling High Prices For Better E-Book Access

  09-05-2024 01:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Librarians are fighting a nationwide battle against high e-book prices, which so far has yielded minimal results. Despite efforts and temporary legislative victories, strict renewal and loan policies imposed by publishers keep e-book costs high, limiting the number of popular titles libraries can offer and leading to frustration among patrons. Axios reports: Publishers typically require libraries to renew the license to each e-book every two years, or after 26 loans -- policies that libraries ca
  
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• Fedora Asahi Remix 40 Now Available For Apple Silicon Devices

  09-05-2024 00:40 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Michael Larabel reports via Phoronix: Building off the recent release of Fedora 40, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 is now available for this downstream of Fedora Linux that's optimized to run on Apple Silicon ARM systems. Fedora Asahi Remix continues to be one of the best ways of enjoying a Linux experience atop recent Apple Macs making use of their in-house M1/M2/M3 SoCs. With the Fedora Asahi Remix 40 release there is now conformant OpenGL 4.6 support thanks to the upgraded Mesa. There is also improved
  
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• FCC Explicitly Prohibits Fast Lanes, Closing Possible Net Neutrality Loophole

  09-05-2024 00:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Federal Communications Commission clarified its net neutrality rules to prohibit more kinds of fast lanes. While the FCC voted to restore net neutrality rules on April 25, it didn't release the final text of the order until yesterday. The final text (PDF) has some changes compared to the draft version released a few weeks before the vote.Both the draft and final rules ban paid prioritization, or fast lanes that application providers have
  
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• Smart Home Startup Brilliant Runs Out of Cash, Which Could Mean Lights Out For Its Light Switches

  08-05-2024 23:12 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Smart home device maker Brilliant has laid off most of its staff and is seeking a buyer after failing to secure funding, CEO Aaron Emigh told The Verge. The company has shut down its support center and halted sales of its smart light switches and controllers, which integrate with various smart home platforms. Emigh said existing devices will continue to function, but their long-term functionality remains uncertain. Founded in 2016, Brilliant aimed to simplify smart home control but struggled wit
  
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• Prime Video Subs Will Soon See Ads for Amazon Products When They Hit Pause

  08-05-2024 22:30 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  Amazon Prime Video subscribers will see new types of advertisements this broadcast year. Amazon announced today that it's adding new ad formats to its video streaming service, hoping to encourage people to interact with the ads and shop on Amazon. From a report: In January, Prime Video streams included commercials unless subscribers paid $3 extra per month. That has meant that watching stuff on Prime Video ad-free costs $12 per month or, if you're also a Prime subscriber, $18 per month. Amazon h
  
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• Raspberry Pis Get a Built-in Remote-Access Tool: Raspberry Pi Connect

  08-05-2024 21:54 via it.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: One Raspberry Pi often leads to another. Soon enough, you're running out of spots in your free RealVNC account for your tiny boards and "real" computers. Even if you go the hardened route of SSH or an X connection, you have to keep track of where they all are. All of this is not the easiest thing to tackle if you're new to single-board computers or just eager to get started.
  Enter Raspberry Pi Connect, a new built-in way to access a Raspberry Pi from nearly a
  
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• Environmental Changes Are Fueling Human, Animal and Plant Diseases, Study Finds

  08-05-2024 20:40 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Several large-scale, human-driven changes to the planet -- including climate change, the loss of biodiversity and the spread of invasive species -- are making infectious diseases more dangerous to people, animals and plants, according to a new study. From a report: Scientists have documented these effects before in more targeted studies that have focused on specific diseases and ecosystems. For instance, they have found that a warming climate may be helping malaria expand in Africa and that a de
  
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• Researchers Warned Against Using AI To Peer Review Academic Papers

  08-05-2024 20:01 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Researchers should not be using tools like ChatGPT to automatically peer review papers, warned organizers of top AI conferences and academic publishers worried about maintaining intellectual integrity. From a report: With recent advances in large language models, researchers have been increasingly using them to write peer reviews -- a time-honored academic tradition that examines new research and assesses its merits, showing a person's work has been vetted by other experts in the field. That's w
  
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• Stack Overflow is Feeding Programmers' Answers To AI, Whether They Like It or Not

  08-05-2024 19:20 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  Stack Overflow's new deal giving OpenAI access to its API as a source of data has users who've posted their questions and answers about coding problems in conversations with other humans rankled. From a report: Users say that when they attempt to alter their posts in protest, the site is retaliating by reversing the alterations and suspending the users who carried them out.
  A programmer named Ben posted a screenshot yesterday of the change history for a post seeking programming advice, which the
  
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• Google DeepMind's 'Leap Forward' in AI Could Unlock Secrets of Biology

  08-05-2024 18:44 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Researchers have hailed another "leap forward" for AI after Google DeepMind unveiled the latest version of its AlphaFold program, which can predict how proteins behave in the complex symphony of life. From a report: The breakthrough promises to shed fresh light on the biological machinery that underpins living organisms and drive breakthroughs in fields from antibiotics and cancer therapy to new materials and resilient crops. "It's a big milestone for us," said Demis Hassabis, the chief executiv
  
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• Full Repairs To Damaged Red Sea Internet Cables Delayed by Yemen Political Splits

  08-05-2024 18:10 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Full repairs to three submarine internet cables damaged in the Red Sea in February are being held up by disputes over who controls access to infrastructure in Yemeni waters. From a report: The Yemeni government has granted permits for the repair of two out of three cables, but refused the third because of a dispute with one of the cable's consortium members. Repairs to the Seacom and EIG cables have been approved, but the consortium that runs AAE-1, which includes telecommunications company Tele
  
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• Apple Slammed By Users Over iPad Pro 'Crush' Ad

  08-05-2024 17:20 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Less than 24 hours after Apple held a special event to unveil the new, record-thin (0.20 inch, the thinnest Apple device yet) iPad Pro with M4 chip inside, which the company says is optimized for AI, it is facing a loud and fast-spreading public backlash to one of its new marquee video advertisements promoting the device -- a spot called "Crush." VentureBeat: The video features a giant, industrial hydraulic press machine -- a device category famous for appearing in viral videos over the last dec
  
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• AstraZeneca To Withdraw COVID Vaccine Globally as Demand Dips

  08-05-2024 16:40 via science.slashdot.org
  
  AstraZeneca said on Tuesday it had initiated the worldwide withdrawal of its COVID-19 vaccine due to a "surplus of available updated vaccines" since the pandemic. From a report: The company also said it would proceed to withdraw the vaccine Vaxzevria's marketing authorizations within Europe. "As multiple, variant COVID-19 vaccines have since been developed there is a surplus of available updated vaccines," the company said, adding that this had led to a decline in demand for Vaxzevria, which is
  
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• US Eyes Curbs on China's Access To AI Software Behind Apps Like ChatGPT

  08-05-2024 16:05 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The Biden administration is poised to open up a new front in its effort to safeguard U.S. AI from China with preliminary plans to place guardrails around the most advanced AI models, the core software of artificial intelligence systems like ChatGPT, Reuters reported Wednesday. From the report: The Commerce Department is considering a new regulatory push to restrict the export of proprietary or closed source AI models, whose software and the data it is trained on are kept under wraps, three peopl
  
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