ICT news

• 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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• Google Phone Starts Rolling Out 'Audio Emoji'

  02-05-2024 12:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  The Google Phone app is rolling out "Audio Emoji" to some users as part of an incoming update in the beta channel, version 128. As 9to5Google reports, they are "essentially stock sound effects attached to one of six different emoji." The list includes: clapping (applause), laughing, party, crying (trombone), poop, and sting (ba dum tss). From the report: When you, as the caller, select one of these "Audio Emoji," the Google Phone app will play a fun animation while a sound effect plays for a cou
  
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• A New Battery Warns Parents if Their Child Has Swallowed It

  02-05-2024 09:05 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  A new battery from Energizer comes with "color alert technology" to alert parents if their child has swallowed one. When the coin lithium battery comes into contact with saliva, it activates a blue dye "so parents and caregivers know that medical attention could be required," reports the New York Times. The battery also features more secure packaging and a nontoxic bitter coating. From the report: The new coin lithium battery features more secure packaging, a nontoxic bitter coating to discourag
  
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• AM Radio Law Opposed By Tech and Auto Industries Is Close To Passing

  02-05-2024 05:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A controversial bill that would require all new cars to be fitted with AM radios looks set to become a law in the near future. Yesterday, Senator Edward Markey (D-Mass) revealed that the "AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act" now has the support of 60 US Senators, as well as 246 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives, making its passage an almost sure thing. Should that happen, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration would be requi
  
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• PFAS Increase Likelihood of Death By Cardiovascular Disease, Study Shows

  02-05-2024 04:02 via science.slashdot.org
  
  New submitter berghem shares a report from The Guardian: For the first time, researchers have formally shown that exposure to toxic PFAS increases the likelihood of death by cardiovascular disease, adding a new level of concern to the controversial chemicals' wide use. The findings are especially significant because proving an association with death by chemical exposure is difficult, but researchers were able to establish it by reviewing death records from northern Italy's Veneto region, where m
  
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• Google Lays Off Hundreds of 'Core' Employees, Moves Some Positions To India and Mexico

  02-05-2024 03:25 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  According to CNBC, Google is laying off at least 200 employees from its "Core" teams and moving some roles to India and Mexico. From the report: The Core unit is responsible for building the technical foundation behind the company's flagship products and for protecting users' online safety, according to Google's website. Core teams include key technical units from information technology, its Python developer team, technical infrastructure, security foundation, app platforms, core developers, and
  
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• Unity Appoints Ex-Zynga Exec Matthew Bromberg As CEO

  02-05-2024 02:45 via games.slashdot.org
  
  Unity has appointed Matthew Bromberg, former CEO of Zynga, as its new CEO, president and board member. "Filling a role that has been temporarily filled by former Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst, Bromberg will formally join Unity as CEO on May 15," reports VentureBeat. "Whitehurst will serve as executive chair of the Unity board, and Roelof Botha will transition from chairman to lead independent board member." From the report: Bromberg fills a slot vacated by John Riccitiello, who resigned last fall a
  
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• Congress Lets Broadband Funding Run Out, Ending $30 Low-Income Discounts

  02-05-2024 02:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Federal Communications Commission chair today made a final plea to Congress, asking for money to continue a broadband-affordability program that gave out its last round of $30 discounts to people with low incomes in April. The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) has lowered monthly Internet bills for people who qualify for benefits, but Congress allowed funding to run out. People may receive up to $14 in May if their ISP opted into off
  
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• Anthropic Brings Claude AI To the iPhone and iPad

  02-05-2024 01:20 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Anthropic has released its Claude AI chatbot on the App Store, bringing the company's ChatGPT competitor to the masses. Compared to OpenAI's chatbot, Claude is built with a focus on reducing harmful outputs and promoting safety, with a goal of making interactions more reliable and ethically aware. You can give it a try here. 9to5Mac reports: Anthropic highlights three launch features for Claude on iPhone:Seamless syncing with web chats: Pick up where you left off across devices.
  Vision capabilit
  
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• Roblox Players To Start Seeing Video Ads In Its Virtual Realms

  02-05-2024 00:40 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Roblox announced it'll be rolling out virtual billboards with video advertisements that will be displayed in its virtual worlds. Reuters reports: Users will now see billboards featuring content from brands such as e.l.f beauty, Walmart and Warner Bros Discovery, just as they would in real life. That would give advertisers access to Roblox's nearly 72 million daily active users -- half of whom are Gen-Z customers, a population group prized by marketers and businesses.The company in November began
  
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• Dropbox Says Hackers Breached Digital-Signature Product

  02-05-2024 00:01 via it.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Dropbox said its digital-signature product, Dropbox Sign, was breached by hackers, who accessed user information including emails, user names and phone numbers. The software company said it became aware of the cyberattack on April 24, sought to limit the incident and reported it to law enforcement and regulatory authorities. "We discovered that the threat actor had accessed data related to all users of Dropbox Sign, such as emails and user name
  
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• National Archives Bans Employee Use of ChatGPT

  01-05-2024 23:22 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) told employees Wednesday that it is blocking access to ChatGPT on agency-issued laptops to "protect our data from security threats associated with use of ChatGPT," 404 Media reported Wednesday. From the report: "NARA will block access to commercial ChatGPT on NARANet [an internal network] and on NARA issued laptops, tablets, desktop computers, and mobile phones beginning May 6, 2024," an email sent to all employees, and seen by 404 Media, r
  
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• Microsoft Says April Windows Updates Break VPN Connections

  01-05-2024 22:42 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft has confirmed that the April 2024 Windows security updates break VPN connections across client and server platforms. From a report: The company explains on the Windows health dashboard that "Windows devices might face VPN connection failures after installing the April 2024 security update or the April 2024 non-security preview update."
  "We are investigating user reports, and we will provide more information in the coming days," Redmond added. The list of affected Windows versions inclu
  
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• UnitedHealthCare CEO Says 'Maybe a Third' of US Citizens Were Affected By Recent Hack

  01-05-2024 21:59 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Two months after hackers broke into Change Healthcare systems stealing and then encrypting company data, it's still unclear how many Americans were impacted by the cyberattack. Last month, Andrew Witty, the CEO of Change Healthcare's parent company UnitedHealth Group, said that the stolen files include the personal health information of "a substantial proportion of people in America." On Wednesday, during a House hearing, when Witty was pushed to give a more
  
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• Tens of Millions Secretly Use WhatsApp Despite Bans, Company Says

  01-05-2024 21:22 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  "Tens of millions" of people are using technical workarounds to secretly access WhatsApp in countries where it is banned, the messaging platform's boss has said. From a report: "You'd be surprised how many people have figured it out," Will Cathcart told BBC News. Like many Western apps, WhatsApp is banned in Iran and North Korea and, intermittently, in Syria. And last month, China joined the list of those banning users from accessing the secure platform. Other countries, including Qatar, Egypt,
  
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• The BASIC Programming Language Turns 60

  01-05-2024 20:41 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  ArsTechnica: Sixty years ago, on May 1, 1964, at 4 am in the morning, a quiet revolution in computing began at Dartmouth College. That's when mathematicians John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz successfully ran the first program written in their newly developed BASIC (Beginner's All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) programming language on the college's General Electric GE-225 mainframe.
  Little did they know that their creation would go on to democratize computing and inspire generations of progr
  
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• Google Urges US To Update Immigration Rules To Attract More AI Talent

  01-05-2024 20:01 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  The US could lose out on valuable AI and tech talent if some of its immigration policies are not modernized, Google says in a letter sent to the Department of Labor. From a report: Google says policies like Schedule A, a list of occupations the government "pre-certified" as not having enough American workers, have to be more flexible and move faster to meet demand in technologies like AI and cybersecurity. The company says the government must update Schedule A to include AI and cybersecurity and
  
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• Windows 10 Reaches 70% Market Share as Windows 11 Keeps Declining

  01-05-2024 19:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Windows 11's market share dropped in April 2024, falling below 26% after reaching an all-time high of 28.16% in February. According to Statcounter, Windows 11 lost 0.97 points, while Windows 10 gained 0.96 points, crossing the 70% mark for the first time since September 2023. Neowin adds: Some argue that Windows 11 still offers little to no benefits for upgrading, especially in light of Microsoft killing some of the system's unique features, such as Windows Subsystem for Android. Add to that the
  
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• LastPass Separates From GoTo

  01-05-2024 18:41 via it.slashdot.org
  
  LastPass, the password manager company, has officially separated from its parent company, GoTo, following a series of high-profile hacks in recent years. The company will now operate under a shareholder holding company called LMI Parent.
  LastPass -- owned by private equity firms Francisco Partners and Elliott Management -- has faced criticism for its handling of the breaches, which resulted in the theft of customer data and encryption keys. The company has since enforced a 12-character minimum f
  
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• Microsoft Concern Over Google's Lead Drove OpenAI Investment

  01-05-2024 18:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft's motivation for investing heavily and partnering with OpenAI came from a sense of falling badly behind Google, according to an internal email released Tuesday as part of the Justice Department's antitrust case against the search giant. Bloomberg: The Windows software maker's chief technology officer, Kevin Scott, was "very, very worried" when he looked at the AI model-training capability gap between Alphabet's efforts and Microsoft's, he wrote in a 2019 message to Chief Executive Offi
  
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• Global Debt Hasn't Been This Bad Since the Napoleonic Wars, Says WEF President

  01-05-2024 17:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The massive volumes of debt piling up around the globe forced the president of the World Economic Forum to reach back more than 200 years for a comparable period. Fortune: In an interview Sunday with CNBC at a WEF conference in Saudi Arabia, Borge Brende warned overall debt is approaching the world's total economic output. "We haven't seen this kind of debt since the Napoleonic Wars," he said. "We're getting close to 100% of global GDP in debt."
  According to the International Monetary Fund last
  
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• LinkedIn Now Has Wordle-style Games You Can Play Every Day

  01-05-2024 16:40 via games.slashdot.org
  
  LinkedIn, the professional network known for job listings and unsolicited career advice, is jumping into gaming. From a report: The platform is officially introducing a set of Wordle-style puzzle games, weeks after they were first spotted in the app. The company is starting with three games: Pinpoint, a word game where players must guess the theme that ties a series of words together; Queens, a puzzle game that's a bit like a cross between Sudoku and Minesweeper; and Crossclimb, a trivia game th
  
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• Star Scientist's Claim of 'Reverse Aging' Draws Hail of Criticism

  01-05-2024 16:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Harvard geneticist David Sinclair, who has said his "biological age" is roughly a decade younger than his actual one, has put forward his largely unlined face as a spokesman for the longevity movement. The 54-year-old has built his brand on the idea that aging is a treatable disease. The notion has proven so seductive that legions of acolytes follow his online postings about his research and the cocktails of supplements he consumes to stave off the inevitable
  
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• Mysterious 'gpt2-chatbot' AI Model Appears Suddenly, Confuses Experts

  01-05-2024 15:00 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On Sunday, word began to spread on social media about a new mystery chatbot named "gpt2-chatbot" that appeared in the LMSYS Chatbot Arena. Some people speculate that it may be a secret test version of OpenAI's upcoming GPT-4.5 or GPT-5 large language model (LLM). The paid version of ChatGPT is currently powered by GPT-4 Turbo. Currently, the new model is only available for use through the Chatbot Arena website, although in a limited way. In
  
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• CISA and Partners Release Fact Sheet on Defending OT Operations Against Ongoing Pro-Russia Hacktivist Activity

  01-05-2024 14:00 via cisa.gov
  Today, CISA, in collaboration with U.S. and international partners, published a joint fact sheet, Defending OT Operations Against Ongoing Pro-Russia Hacktivist Activity. This fact sheet provides information and mitigations associated with cyber operations conducted by pro-Russia hacktivists who seek to compromise industrial control systems (ICS) and small-scale operational technology (OT) systems in North American and European critical infrastructure sectors, including Water and Wastewater Syste
  
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• CERT/CC Reports R Programming Language Vulnerability

  01-05-2024 14:00 via cisa.gov
  CERT Coordination Center (CERT/CC) has released information on a vulnerability in R programming language implementations (CVE-2024-27322). A cyber threat actor could exploit this vulnerability to take control of an affected system.
  Users and administrators are encouraged to review the following advisories and apply the necessary updates:CERT/CC VU#23819
  Hidden Layer Blog: R-Bitrary Code Execution--Vulnerability in R’s Deserialization
  Comprehensive R Archive Network
  
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• China Launches World's Largest Electric Container Ship

  01-05-2024 12:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  AmiMoJo shares a report from Tech Times: China has reached a major landmark in green transportation with the launch of the world's largest fully electric container ship. Developed and manufactured by China Ocean Shipping Group (Cosco), the vessel is now operating a regular service route between Shanghai and Nanjing, aiming to reduce emissions significantly along its journey. The Greenwater 01, an all-electric container ship, is positioning itself to be a shipping industry pioneer. Equipped with
  
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• Satellite Operator SES Acquiring Intelsat In $3.1 Billion Deal

  01-05-2024 09:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Satellite operator SES plans to buy fellow satellite operator Intelsat, in a $3.1 billion deal that's expected to close next year. According to Space Magazine, the combined company could help it "compete with SpaceX's huge Starlink broadband network." From the report: SES and Intelsat both operate communications satellites in geostationary orbit, which lies 22,236 miles (35,785 kilometers) above Earth. SES also runs a constellation called O3b in medium Earth orbit, at an altitude of about 5,000
  
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• America's Wind Power Production Drops For the First Time In 25 Years

  01-05-2024 05:30 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: U.S. wind power slipped last year for the first time in a quarter-century due to weaker-than-normal Midwest breezes, underscoring the challenge of integrating volatile renewable energy sources into the grid. Power produced by turbines slipped 2% in 2023, even after developers added 6.2 gigawatts of new capacity, according to a government report Tuesday. The capacity factor for the country's wind fleet -- how much energy it's actually generating
  
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• Is Self Hosting Going Mainstream?

  01-05-2024 03:48 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares that IPv6rs has debuted a new one-click self hosting system:Everyone seemed like they were talking about self hosting, but we didn't understand why it wasn't more prolific. Thus, we conducted a survey to hear reasons. It turned out the two most common reasons were:
  1. Lack of an external IP address
  2. Too difficult to setup and maintain
  Our service already solves the first issue. We set out with a self-hostathon to figure out what the blockers were in setting up and ru
  
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