ICT news

• Microsoft Plans Boldest Games Bet Since Activision Deal, Changing How 'Call of Duty' Is Sold

  17-05-2024 16:00 via slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft plans a major shakeup of its videogame sales strategy by releasing the coming installment of Call of Duty to its subscription service instead of the longtime, lucrative approach of only selling it a la carte. WSJ: The plans, which mark the biggest change to Microsoft's gaming division since it closed the $75 billion takeover of Activision Blizzard, are expected to be announced at the company's annual Xbox showcase next month, according to people familiar with the matter. Call of Duty i
  
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• Python 'Language Summit' 2024: Security Workflows, Calendar Versioning, Transforms and Lightning Talks

  15-06-2024 16:04 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  Friday the Python Software Foundation published several blog posts about this year's "Python Language Summit" May 15th (before PyCon US), which featured talks and discussions by core developers, triagers, and Python implementation maintainers.
  There were several lightning talks. One talk came from the maintainer of the PyO3 project, offering Rust bindings for the Python C API (which requires mapping Rust concepts to Python — leaving a question as to how to map Rust's error-handling panic!
  
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• Voyager 1 Returns To Normal Science Operations

  15-06-2024 12:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  wgoodman shares a report from The Register: NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft is back in action and conducting normal science operations for the first time since the veteran probe began spouting gibberish at the end of 2023. All four of the spacecraft's remaining operational instruments are now returning usable data to Earth, according to NASA. Some additional work is needed to tidy up the effects of the issue. Engineers need to resynchronize the timekeeping software of Voyager 1's three onboard compu
  
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• Blue Origin Joins SpaceX, ULA In Winning Bids For $5.6 Billion Pentagon Rocket Program

  15-06-2024 09:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  The Pentagon announced the first winners of its $5.6 billion National Security Space Launch program, with Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin securing a spot for the first time alongside Elon Musk's SpaceX and United Launch Alliance (ULA). These companies will compete for contracts through mid-2029 under the program's Phase 3, which is expected to include 90 rocket launch orders. CNBC reports: Under the program, known as NSSL Phase 3 Lane 1, the trio of companies will be eligible to compete for contracts th
  
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• Google Loses Bid To End US Antitrust Case Over Digital Advertising

  15-06-2024 05:30 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Alphabet's Google must face trial on U.S. antitrust enforcers' claim that the internet search juggernaut illegally dominates the online advertising technology market, a federal judge ruled on Friday. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, denied Google's motion during a hearing, according to court records. Google had argued for a win without a trial, saying that antitrust laws do not block companies from refusing to deal wit
  
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• GPT-4 Has Passed the Turing Test, Researchers Claim

  15-06-2024 04:02 via slashdot.org
  
  Drew Turney reports via Live Science: The "Turing test," first proposed as "the imitation game" by computer scientist Alan Turing in 1950, judges whether a machine's ability to show intelligence is indistinguishable from a human. For a machine to pass the Turing test, it must be able to talk to somebody and fool them into thinking it is human. Scientists decided to replicate this test by asking 500 people to speak with four respondents, including a human and the 1960s-era AI program ELIZA as wel
  
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• Electricity Bills Forecasted To Climb With Summer Heat

  15-06-2024 03:25 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  The Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects Americans' monthly electricity bills to average $173 between June through August, compared to $168 last summer. "The slight bump in costs comes from consumers cranking up their air conditioning more to cope with a warmer season than last year," writes The Verge's Justine Calma. "Bills would have jumped higher, if not for lower residential electricity prices helping to balance out some of the increased energy use from air conditioning." From the
  
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• Ransomware Attackers Quickly Weaponize PHP Vulnerability With 9.8 Severity Rating

  15-06-2024 02:45 via it.slashdot.org
  
  A critical vulnerability in the PHP programming language (CVE-2024-4577) has been exploited by ransomware criminals, leading to the infection of up to 1,800 servers primarily in China with the TellYouThePass ransomware. This vulnerability, which affects PHP when run in CGI mode, allows attackers to execute malicious code on web servers. Ars Technica's Dan Goodin reports: As of Thursday, Internet scans performed by security firm Censys had detected 1,000 servers infected by a ransomware strain kn
  
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• The Verge's David Pierce Reports On the Excel World Championship From Vegas

  15-06-2024 02:02 via slashdot.org
  
  In a featured article for The Verge, David Pierce explores the world of competitive Excel, highlighting its rise from a hobbyist activity to a potential esport, showcased during the Excel World Championship in Las Vegas. Top spreadsheet enthusiasts competed at the MGM Grand to solve complex Excel challenges, emphasizing the transformative power and ubiquity of spreadsheets in both business and entertainment. An anonymous reader quotes an excerpt from the report: Competitive Excel has been around
  
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• OpenAI Adds Former NSA Chief To Its Board

  15-06-2024 01:20 via slashdot.org
  
  Paul M. Nakasone, a retired U.S. Army general and former NSA director, is now OpenAI's newest board member. Nakasone will join the Safety and Security Committee and contribute to OpenAI's cybersecurity efforts. CNBC reports: The committee is spending 90 days evaluating the company's processes and safeguards before making recommendations to the board and, eventually, updating the public, OpenAI said. Nakasone joins current board members Adam D'Angelo, Larry Summers, Bret Taylor and Sam Altman, as
  
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• Version 256 of systemd Boasts '42% Less Unix Philosophy'

  15-06-2024 00:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Liam Proven reports via The Register: The latest version of the systemd init system is out, with the openly confrontational tag line: "Available soon in your nearest distro, now with 42 percent less Unix philosophy." As Lennart Poettering's announcement points out, this is the first version of systemd whose version number is a nine-bit value. Version 256, as usual, brings in a broad assortment of new features, but also turns off some older features that are now considered deprecated. For instanc
  
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• New York Recovers $50 Million For Defrauded Gemini Earn Crypto Investors

  15-06-2024 00:00 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: New York Attorney General Letitia James has recovered $50 million from the cryptocurrency platform Gemini Trust to repay investors defrauded in its Gemini Earn program, she said on Friday. Gemini, run by billionaire twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, will provide full recoveries to more than 230,000 Earn investors, including 29,000 in New York, and agreed to a ban on operating crypto lending programs in the state. The payout is in additi
  
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• AI Candidate Running For Parliament in the UK Says AI Can Humanize Politics

  14-06-2024 23:22 via politics.slashdot.org
  
  An artificial intelligence candidate is on the ballot for the United Kingdom's general election next month. From a report: "AI Steve," represented by Sussex businessman Steve Endacott, will appear on the ballot alongside non-AI candidates running to represent constituents in the Brighton Pavilion area of Brighton and Hove, a city on England's southern coast. "AI Steve is the AI co-pilot," Endacott said in an interview. "I'm the real politician going into Parliament, but I'm controlled by my co-p
  
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• Biotech Companies Are Trying To Make Milk Without Cows

  14-06-2024 22:42 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Avian influenza outbreaks on US dairy farms have raised concerns about milk safety, leading some to consider alternatives like engineered milk proteins. Startups like Remilk and Alpine Bio are using yeast and soybeans to produce key milk proteins, aiming to replace dairy cows and reduce environmental impact. However, competing with subsidized dairy industries and their efficient use of cow byproducts remains a challenge for these biotech ventures, MIT Technology Review reports. The story adds: E
  
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• Mozilla Defies Kremlin, Restores Banned Firefox Add-ons in Russia

  14-06-2024 22:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Mozilla has reinstated certain add-ons for Firefox that earlier this week had been banned in Russia by the Kremlin. From a report: The browser extensions, which are hosted on the Mozilla store, were made unavailable in the Land of Putin on or around June 8 after a request by the Russian government and its internet censorship agency, Roskomnadzor. Among those extensions were three pieces of code that were explicitly designed to circumvent state censorship -- including a VPN and Censor Tracker, a
  
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• How the Recycling Symbol Lost Its Meaning

  14-06-2024 21:30 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The iconic recycling symbol, invented 20 years before Earth Day 1990, has become omnipresent on products, often misleading consumers about what can be recycled, according to experts cited in a story explored by Grist. The chasing arrows logo, which promises rebirth for discarded materials, is frequently plastered on items that are not recyclable, particularly plastic products. Confusion over recycling rules has led to contamination at recycling facilities, driving up costs for cities. Only aroun
  
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• Meta Pauses Plans To Train AI Using European Users' Data, Bowing To Regulatory Pressure

  14-06-2024 20:44 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Meta has confirmed that it will pause plans to start training its AI systems using data from its users in the European Union and U.K. From a report: The move follows pushback from the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), Meta's lead regulator in the EU, which is acting on behalf of several data protection authorities across the bloc. The U.K.'s Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) also requested that Meta pause its plans until it could satisfy concerns it had raised. "The DPC welcomes the
  
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• Apple Set To Be First Big Tech Group To Face Charges Under EU Digital Law

  14-06-2024 20:18 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Brussels is set to charge Apple over allegedly stifling competition on its mobile app store, the first time EU regulators have used new digital rules to target a Big Tech group. The European Commission has determined that the iPhone maker is not complying with obligations to allow app developers to "steer" users to offers outside its App Store without imposing fees on them, according to three people with close knowledge of its investigation.
  The charges would
  
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• Sonos Draws More Customer Anger - This Time For Its Privacy Policy

  14-06-2024 19:35 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Itâ(TM)s been a rocky couple of months for Sonos -- so much so that CEO Patrick Spence now has a canned autoreply for customers emailing him to vent about the redesigned app. But as the company works to right the ship, restore trust, and get the new Sonos Ace headphones off to a strong start, it finds itself in the middle of yet another controversy.
  As highlighted by repair technician and consumer privacy advocate Louis Rossmann, Sonos has made a signif
  
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• Visa, Mastercard $30 Billion Fee Settlement in Peril

  14-06-2024 18:42 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Visa's and Mastercard's proposed $30 billion antitrust settlement to limit credit and debit card fees for merchants is in peril, after a New York judge signaled she was preparing to reject the accord. From a report: U.S. District Judge Margo Brodie in Brooklyn told lawyers for the card networks and objectors at a hearing on Thursday that she will "likely not approve the settlement," according to court records.
  She plans to write an opinion explaining her decision and reasoning. Both card network
  
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• Rent is Too Dang High in Cities: Skylines 2, So the Devs Nuked the Landlords

  14-06-2024 18:00 via games.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: City building simulations are not real life. They can be helpful teaching tools, but they abstract away many of the real issues in changing communities. And yet, sometimes a game like Cities: Skylines 2 (C:S2) will present an issue that's just too timely and relevant to ignore. Such is the case with "Economy 2.0," a big update to the beleaguered yet continually in-development game, due to arrive within the next week or so. The first and most important thing i
  
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• The Stanford Internet Observatory is Being Dismantled

  14-06-2024 17:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: After five years of pioneering research into the abuse of social platforms, the Stanford Internet Observatory is winding down. Its founding director, Alex Stamos, left his position in November. Renee DiResta, its research director, left last week after her contract was not renewed. One other staff member's contract expired this month, while others have been told to look for jobs elsewhere, sources say.
  Some members of the eight-person team might find other jo
  
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• London Hospitals Knew of Cyber Vulnerabilities Years Before Hack

  14-06-2024 16:40 via it.slashdot.org
  
  A group of London hospitals struggling to contain the fallout from a cyberattack against a critical supplier had known for years about weaknesses that left them vulnerable to hacks, Bloomberg News reported Friday, citing internal documents. From the report: The Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, which runs five major hospitals in the London area, has failed to meet the UK health service's data security standards in recent years and acknowledged as recently as April that 'cybersecurity re
  
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• Clearview AI Used Your Face. Now You May Get a Stake in the Company.

  14-06-2024 16:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  A facial recognition start-up, accused of invasion of privacy in a class-action lawsuit, has agreed to a settlement, with a twist: Rather than cash payments, it would give a 23 percent stake in the company to Americans whose faces are in its database. From a report: Clearview AI, which is based in New York, scraped billions of photos from the web and social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram to build a facial recognition app used by thousands of police departments, the Department
  
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• Germany Sees Company Bankruptcies Soar

  14-06-2024 14:30 via slashdot.org
  
  Germany's Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on Friday said 5,209 companies filed for bankruptcy in Germany in the first three months of 2024 -- with the trend expected to continue. From a report: Experts think the number of corporate insolvencies in Germany will increase to about 20,000 cases this year as part of a longer-term pattern. The latest figure means corporate insolvencies are up 26.5% compared with the first quarter of 2023. They are also 11.2% more than in the first quarter of 202
  
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• NASA Accidentally Broadcasts Simulation of Distressed Astronauts On ISS

  14-06-2024 12:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: NASA accidentally broadcast a simulation of astronauts being treated for decompression sickness on the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday, prompting speculation of an emergency in posts on social media. About 5:28 p.m. U.S. Central Time (2228 GMT), The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) live YouTube channel broadcast audio that indicated a crew member was experiencing the effects of decompression sickness (DCS), NA
  
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• Wild New Study Suggests Gravity Can Exist Without Mass

  14-06-2024 09:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  A new study by astrophysicist Richard Lieu suggests that gravity can exist without mass, proposing thin, shell-like layers of 'topological defects' as an alternative to dark matter for explaining the gravitational binding of galaxies. This theory posits that these defects create a gravitational force without detectable mass, potentially eliminating the need for dark matter in current cosmological models. Clare Watson reports via ScienceAlert: Lieu started out trying to find another solution to t
  
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• FAA is Investigating New Incident Involving a Boeing 737 Max 8 Jet in Midair

  14-06-2024 07:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  New submitter wgoodman writes: A Boeing 737 Max 8 jet experienced a rare but potentially serious problem recently known as a Dutch roll before landing safely. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the cause of the incident during a Southwest Airlines flight last month. Less than an hour after taking off from Phoenix on May 25th, the plane experienced an uncontrolled side-to-side yawing motion known as a Dutch roll while cruising at 32,000 feet. The pilots of Southwest flight 746 w
  
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• Microsoft Postpones Windows Recall After Major Backlash

  14-06-2024 05:18 via it.slashdot.org
  
  In an unprecedented move, Microsoft has announced that its big Copilot+ PC initiative that was unveiled last month will launch without its headlining "Windows Recall" AI feature next week on June 18. From a report: The feature, which captures snapshots of your screen every few seconds, was revealed to store sensitive user data in an unencrypted state, raising serious concerns among security researchers and experts.
  Last week, Microsoft addressed these concerns by announcing that it would make ch
  
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• A Growing Number of Americans Are Getting Their News From TikTok

  14-06-2024 02:45 via news.slashdot.org
  
  According to a new survey from the Pew Research Center, TikTok is the second most popular source of news for Americans after X, "though most TikTok users don't primarily think of the shortform video app as a news source," notes The Verge. The survey looked at how Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X play a role in Americans' news diets. From the report: Among TikTok users, only 15 percent say keeping up with the news is a major reason they use the app. Still, 35 percent of those surveyed said they
  
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