ICT news

• YouTube Rolling Out Its Widely Hated New Web Redesign

  24-05-2024 01:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Ben Schoon reports via 9to5Google: After first appearing earlier this year, YouTube once again appears to be rolling out a new redesign for its website that everyone hates. In mid-April, Google started testing a redesign to YouTube's website, which moved the title of the video, its description, and the comments to the side of the screen. In their place, video recommendations were moved directly underneath the video being watched with much larger thumbnails and titles. The change was widely hated
  
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• 'Blue Screen of Death' Comes To Linux

  16-06-2024 23:10 via linux.slashdot.org
  
  In 2016, Phoronix remembered how the early days of Linux kernel mode-setting (KMS) had brought hopes for improved error messages. And one long-awaited feature was errors messages for "Direct Rendering Manager" (or DRM) drivers — something analgous to the "Blue Screen of Death" Windows gives for critical errors.
  Now Linux 6.10 is introducing a new DRM panic handler infrastructure enabling messages when a panic occurs, Phoronix reports today. "This is especially important for those building
  
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• Which Way is the EV Market Headed? And Does the US Lag the World?

  16-06-2024 21:58 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Wednesday the annual electric vehicle outlook report was released by market researcher BloombergNEF. And the analyst wrote that "Our long-term outlook for EVs remains bright," according to the Los Angeles Times:In 2023, EVs made up 18% of global passenger-vehicle sales. By 2030, according to the report, 45% will be EVs. That number jumps to 73% by 2040 — still short of what the world needs to reach net zero emissions in transportation, the firm says, but enough to achieve major reductions
  
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• 53 LA County Public Health Workers Fall for Phishing Email. 200,000 People May Be Affected

  16-06-2024 20:44 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  The Los Angeles Times reports that "The personal information of more than 200,000 people in Los Angeles County was potentially exposed after a hacker used a phishing email to steal the login credentials of 53 public health employees, the county announced Friday."
  Details that were possibly accessed in the February data breach include the first and last names, dates of birth, diagnoses, prescription information, medical record numbers, health insurance information, Social Security numbers and oth
  
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• Flesh-Eating Bacteria That Can Kill in Two Days Spreads in Japan

  16-06-2024 19:44 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Bloomberg reports:
  A disease caused by a rare "flesh-eating bacteria" that can kill people within 48 hours is spreading in Japan after the country relaxed Covid-era restrictions. Cases of streptococcal toxic shock syndrome (STSS) reached 977 this year by June 2, higher than the record 941 cases reported for all of last year, according to the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, which has been tracking incidences of the disease since 1999.
  Group A Streptococcus (GAS) typically causes swelli
  
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• Wine Staging 9.11 Released with A Patch For A 17 Year Old Bug

  16-06-2024 18:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Building off Friday's release of Wine 9.11, the development team has now also released Wine Staging 9.11 with some 428 patches, reports Phoronix founder Michael Larabel:Catching my interest was a patch for Bug 7955. That right away catches my attention since the latest Wine bug reports are at a bug ticket number over 56,000.... Yep, Bug 7955 dates back 14 years ago to April 2007.
  The #7955 bug report is over the S-Hoai Windows client displaying an application exception when clicking the "File" o
  
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• In Memoriam: Dr. Ed Stone, Former NASA JPL Director and Voyager Project Scientist

  16-06-2024 17:34 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Slashdot reader hackertourist shared this announcement from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory:Edward C. Stone, former director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and project scientist of the Voyager mission for 50 years, died on June 9, 2024. He was age 88...Stone served on nine NASA missions as either principal investigator or a science instrument lead, and on five others as a co-investigator (a key science instrument team member). These roles primarily involved studying energetic ions from the
  
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• CISA Head Warns Big Tech's 'Voluntary' Approach to Deepfakes Isn't Enough

  16-06-2024 16:34 via slashdot.org
  
  The Washington Post reports:
  Commitments from Big Tech companies to identify and label fake artificial-intelligence-generated images on their platforms won't be enough to keep the tech from being used by other countries to try to influence the U.S. election, said the head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. AI won't completely change the long-running threat of weaponized propaganda, but it will "inflame" it, CISA Director Jen Easterly said at The Washington Post's Futurist S
  
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• What Advice Would You Give a First-Time Linux User?

  16-06-2024 13:22 via linux.slashdot.org
  
  ZDNet published a new article this week with their own tips for new Linux users. It begins by arguing that switching to the Linux desktop "is easier than you think" and "you'll find help everywhere". (And also that "You won't want for apps.")
  That doesn't mean it has everything. For example, there is no version of Adobe Photoshop. There is GIMP (which is just as powerful as Photoshop) but for those of you accustomed to Adobe's de facto standard, you're out of luck. The worst-case scenario is you
  
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• FAA Investigating How Counterfeit Titanium Got Into Boeing and Airbus Jets

  16-06-2024 10:10 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  "Titanium that was distributed with fake documentation has been found in commercial Boeing and Airbus jets," reports CNN. America's Federal Aviation Administration is now investigating whether those components pose a safety hazard to the public," along with the manufacturers of the aircraft and supplier Spirit AeroSystems.
  "A parts supplier found small holes in the material from corrosion," the New York Times reported Friday:Boeing and Airbus both said their tests of affected materials so far ha
  
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• Is There Life on This Saturn Moon? Scientists Plan a Mission to Find Out

  16-06-2024 06:59 via science.slashdot.org
  
  It's one of Saturn's 146 moons — just 310 miles in diameter (or 498 kilometers). Yet the European Space Agency plans to send a robot on a one-billion mile trip to visit it. Why?Because astronomers have discovered Enceladus "possesses geysers that regularly erupt from its surface and spray water into space," reports the Guardian:Even more astonishing, these plumes contain complex organic compounds, including propane and ethane. "Enceladus has three key ingredients that are considered to be
  
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• Is C++ More Popular Than C?

  16-06-2024 04:24 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  Last month TIOBE announced its estimate that the four most popular programming languages were:1. Python
  2. C
  3. C++
  4. JavaBut this month C++ "overtook" C for the first time, TIOBE announced, becoming (according to the same methodology) the #2 most popular programming language, with C dropping to #3. " C++ has never been that high in the TIOBE index," says TIOBE Software CEO Paul Jansen in the announcement, "whereas C has never been that low."
  1. Python
  2. C++
  3. C
  4. JavaC++ started a new life
  
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• Security Lessons from the Change Healthcare Ransomware Catastrophe

  16-06-2024 00:34 via science.slashdot.org
  
  The $22 million paid by Change Healthcare's parent company to unlock its systems "may have emboldened bad actors to further target the vulnerable industry," writes Axios:
  There were 44 attacks against the health care sector in April, the most that [cybersecurity firm] Recorded Future has seen in the four years it's been collecting data. It was also the second-largest month-over-month jump, after 30 ransomware attacks were recorded in March. There were 32 attacks in February and May.
  But an analy
  
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• Researchers Find No Amount of Alcohol is Healthy For You

  15-06-2024 23:34 via slashdot.org
  
  The New York Times magazine remembers that once upon a time, in the early 1990s, "some prominent researchers were promoting, and the media helped popularize, the idea that moderate drinking...was linked to greater longevity.
  "The cause of that association was not clear, but red wine, researchers theorized, might have anti-inflammatory properties that extended life and protected cardiovascular health..."More recently, though, research has piled up debunking the idea that moderate drinking is good
  
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• OpenAI CEO Says Company Could Become a For-Profit Corporation Like xAI, Anthropic

  15-06-2024 22:34 via slashdot.org
  
  Wednesday The Information reported that OpenAI had doubled its annualized revenue — a measure of the previous month's revenue multiplied by 12 — in the last six months. It's now $3.4 billion (which is up from around $1 billion last summer, notes Engadget).
  And now an anonymous reader shares a new report from The Information:OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently told some shareholders that the artificial intelligence developer is considering changing its governance structure to a for-profit
  
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• Have Scientists Found 'Potential Evidence' of Dyson Spheres?

  15-06-2024 21:34 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Have scientists discovered infrared radiation, evidence of waste heat generated by the energy-harvesting star-surrounding spheres first proposed by British American physicist Freeman Dyson? CNN reports:
  [A] new study that looked at 5 million stars in the Milky Way galaxy suggests that seven candidates could potentially be hosting Dyson spheres — a finding that's attracting scrutiny and alternate theories... Using historical data from telescopes that pick up infrared signatures, the researc
  
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• Rust's Foundation Announces a New 'Safety-Critical Rust Consortium'

  15-06-2024 20:34 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  This week the Rust Foundation jointly announced "the Safety-Critical Rust Consortium" with industry partners including Arm, AdaCore, Lynx Software Technologies, and Toyota's mobility tech subsidiary Woven. Its goal is supporting "responsible use" of Rust "in safety-critical software — systems whose failure can impact human life or cause severe environmental or property harm."
  "This is exciting," said Rust creator Graydon Hoare in a statement. "I am truly pleased to see the Rust Foundation
  
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• Solar Modules Deployed In France In 1992 Still Provide 79.5% of Original Output

  15-06-2024 19:34 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  French photovoltaics group Hespul tested solar panels installed in 1992, reports PV Magazine:The testing showed that the modules still produce on average 79.5% of their initial power after 31 years of operation. In a previous testing carried out 11 years ago, the panels were found to produce 91.7% of their initial power. "This result exceeds the performance promised by the manufacturers who said the panels would have maintained 80% of their output after 25 years," said Hespul.
  The drop in perfor
  
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• Linux vs Windows 11 Copilot+ PCs? TUXEDO Unveils Snapdragon X Elite ARM Notebook

  15-06-2024 18:34 via linux.slashdot.org
  
  Slashdot reader BrianFagioli shares his report from BetaNews:
  The PC community is abuzz with Qualcomm's recent announcement of its Snapdragon X Elite SoC, a powerhouse chipset that promises to revolutionize the performance and energy efficiency of laptops and tablets. While Windows 11 Copilot+ PCs are set to feature this advanced processor, Linux enthusiasts have reasons to celebrate as well. You see, TUXEDO Computers is bringing this cutting-edge technology to the Linux world with its upcoming
  
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• An AI-Generated Candidate Wants to Run For Mayor in Wyoming

  15-06-2024 17:34 via politics.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shared this report from Futurism:
  An AI chatbot named VIC, or Virtually Integrated Citizen, is trying to make it onto the ballot in this year's mayoral election for Wyoming's capital city of Cheyenne.But as reported by Wired, Wyoming's secretary of state is battling against VIC's legitimacy as a candidate — and now, an investigation is underway.According to Wired, VIC, which was built on OpenAI's GPT-4 and trained on thousands of documents gleaned from Cheyenne council
  
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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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