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Elon Musk Reveals Details of Next-Generation Starlink Satellites Published on June 01, 2022 at 03:30AM An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: The next generation of Starlink satellites are going to be larger, and more powerful, designed to provide internet access to remote parts of the world, according to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. The space billionaire recently discussed the details of the Starlink Gen2 System on the popular YouTube show, Everyday Astronaut. In the 32 minute clip, Musk reveals that SpaceX has already produced the first Starlink 2.0 satellite. The new generation satellite is 7 meters (22 feet) long and weighs about 1.25 tons (approximately 2,755 pounds or 1,250 kilograms). Starlink 1.0, by comparison, weighs about 573 pounds (260 kilograms). The extra weight accounts for a more effective satellite, according to Musk. "Just think of it like how many useful bits of data can each satellite do," Musk said during the interview. "Starlink 2.0 in terms ...

Supreme Court Blocks Texas Social Media Law Published on June 01, 2022 at 02:50AM The Supreme Court blocked a controversial Texas social media law from taking effect in a decision released (PDF) on Tuesday, after the tech industry and other opponents warned it could allow for hateful content to run rampant online. CNBC reports: The law, HB20, prohibits online platforms from moderating or removing content based on viewpoint. It stems from a common charge on the right that major California-based social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are biased in their moderation strategies and disproportionately quiet conservative voices. The platforms have said they apply their community guidelines evenly and it's often the case that right-leaning users rank among the highest in engagement. In the 5-4 decision, Alito dissented from the decision to lift the stay, issuing a written explanation for his vote, which was joined by two other conservative justices, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gor...

Germany Slashes Summer Train Fares More Than 90 Percent To Curb Driving, Save Fuel Published on June 01, 2022 at 02:15AM Germany's parliament has set summer train fares at 9 euros per month in a bid to slash pollution and curb imports of Russian oil by spurring drivers to take public transit. From a report: The initiative takes effect on June 1, with 9 euros covering the cost of all buses, trams, subways, and regional trains, effectively cutting fares by more than 90 percent in some cities. Berlin commuters will save 98 euros on their monthly travel pass, while commuters in Hamburg will save more than 105 euros, Bloomberg reported. Deutsche Bahn is adding 50 additional trains to absorb the expected increase in users. The reduced fares come with an estimated price tag of 2.5 billions euros, the cost to the German government of reimbursing transit companies for lost revenue. Critics have said the plan is too expensive and warned that a surge in travelers could overwhelm mass transi...

Farmer Says Dealer Wouldn't Repair His Tractor Until He Filed FTC Complaint Published on June 01, 2022 at 01:35AM A farmer in Missouri said he had to go to complain to the Federal Trade Commission in order to get his tractor repaired by the only John Deere dealership in his area, showing how without the right to repair farmers are bound by the whims of the corporations who have a monopoly on repair. From a report:Jared Wilson had a problem with the AC in his John Deere tractor. It wasn't running and he needed to finish planting his corn and soybeans. The tractor would run, but finishing the plant would be a miserable experience in the heat of the Missouri spring. According to an affidavit Wilson filed to the FTC, he called the local John Deere dealership and asked for an appointment. The manager told him he didn't want his business. In the FTC complaint, Wilson is asking the commission to open a consumer protection investigation. Wilson and the manager talked on April 14,...

Netflix's Password-Sharing Test in Peru is Confusing Subscribers Published on June 01, 2022 at 01:02AM It's been a bumpy ride for Netflix recently, and the announcement that it will be charging for password sharing hasn't gone as smoothly as it might have hoped, a new report claims. TechCrunch: Subscribers in Peru who were opted in to new password-sharing restrictions have reported confusion over Netflix's loose definition of "household" and noted the lack of clarity around the differing charges imposed on consumers. Global tech news site Rest of World informally surveyed more than a dozen Netflix users in Peru, after Netflix's March announcement that it would be asking customers in the country -- as well as in Chile and Costa Rica -- to pay extra when sharing their account passwords outside their homes. Central and South America represent Netflix's lowest revenue per user, which helps to explain the markets' selection. The majority of those surv...

Greece, Saudi Arabia Eye Fibre Optic Data Cable To Link Europe With Asia Published on June 01, 2022 at 12:27AM Greece and Saudi Arabia agreed on Tuesday on the main terms to set up a joint venture to lay a fibre optic data cable that will link Europe with Asia, Greek sources said on Tuesday. From a report: The "East to Med data Corridor", an undersea and land data cable, will be developed by MENA HUB, owned by Saudi Arabia's STC and Greek telecoms and satellite applications company TTSA. Greece's power utility Public Power Company (PPC) and Cyprus' telecoms operator CYTA, will also hold a stake in the project, pending final corporate approvals, a Greek diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The final closing of the deal is expected by July, for the project to launch in autumn and be completed by the end of 2025, the diplomat said. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Hit Hard by High Energy Costs, Hawaii Looks To the Sun Published on May 31, 2022 at 09:30AM Nearly a third of Hawaii's single-family houses have rooftop solar panels -- more than twice the percentage in California -- and officials expect many more homes to add panels and batteries in the coming years. From a report: Even before energy prices surged globally this year, homeowners, elected leaders and energy executives in Hawaii had decided that rooftop solar panels were one of the best ways to meet demand for energy and tame the state's high power costs. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has only strengthened the state's embrace of renewable energy. Electricity rates in Hawaii jumped 34 percent in April from a year earlier because many of its power plants burn oil, about a third of which came from Russia last year. While Hawaii faces unique challenges, the state's reliance on solar carries lessons for other states and countries looking to fight climate change and bring ...

India Withdraws Warning on Biometric ID Sharing Following Online Uproar Published on May 31, 2022 at 06:30AM India has withdrawn a warning that asked users to not share photocopies of their national biometric ID following a widespread uproar from users on social media, many of whom pointed that this is the first time they were hearing about such a possibility. From a report: A regional office of UIDAI, the body that oversees the national biometric ID system Aadhaar, warned users on Friday that "unlicensed private entities" such as hotels and theatre halls are "not permitted to collect or keep copies of Aadhaar," a 12-digit unique number that ties an individual's fingerprints and retina scan, and people should avoid sharing photocopies of their Aadhaar to prevent misuse. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Silicon Valley Investors Give Startups Survival Advice for Downturn Published on May 31, 2022 at 04:30AM After years of funneling cash into startups' grand ambitions, Silicon Valley's investors are engaging in the grim ritual of delivering survival advice to their portfolio companies. From a report: In recent online slide presentations, blog posts and social-media threads, venture-capital doyens including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Craft Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Y Combinator are telling the founders that they need to take emergency action for what could be the sharpest turn in more than a decade. Their advice includes cutting costs, preserving cash and jettisoning hopes that hedge funds or other investors will swoop in with big checks. "The boom times of the last decade are unambiguously over," Lightspeed, which has backed companies including social network Snap and crypto exchange FTX, wrote in a dispatch for startup executives that was posted on Medium, a p...

Google Quietly Bans Deepfake Training Projects on Colab Published on May 31, 2022 at 03:00AM Google has quietly banned deepfake projects on its Colaboratory (Colab) service, putting an end to the large-scale utilization of the platform's resources for this purpose. From a report: Colab is an online computing resource that allows researchers to run Python code directly through the browser while using free computing resources, including GPUs, to power their projects. Due to the multi-core nature of GPUs, Colab is ideal for training machine learning projects like deepfake models or for performing data analysis. Deepfakes can be trained to swap faces on video clips, adding realistic facial expressions to make the result appear genuine, although it's fake. They have been used for spreading fake news, creating revenge porn, or for fun. However, the lack of ethical limitations in their use has been the source of controversy and concern. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Fox News Breaking News Alert Number of dead rises after devastating tornadoes, Kentucky governor announces 12/13/21 7:52 AM

Greece Passes First Climate Law, Vows To Cut Dependence on Fossil Fuels Published on May 31, 2022 at 02:01AM Greece has passed its first climate law, which sets out specific targets to fight climate change and wean itself off coal in power generation by 2028. From a report: The legislation sets interim targets for Greece to cut greenhouse emissions by at least 55% by 2030 and by 80% by 2040 before achieving zero-net emissions by 2050. It also engages the country to cut dependence on fossil fuels, including weaning off indigenous lignite or brown coal -- once the main source of energy -- in electricity production from 2028 onwards. This target might be brought forward to 2025, taking into account security of supplies. "It's an existential matter, a very important one, because it has to do with our lives, because it has to do with our children's lives," Energy Minister Kostas Skrekas told lawmakers before the vote. "Is this just going to help protect the environm...

Japan Tries To Revitalize Its Research Published on May 31, 2022 at 01:00AM Alarmed by the declining stature of its universities, Japan is planning to shower up to $2.3 billion a year on a handful of schools in hopes of boosting their prominence. From a report: The scheme was approved by the Japanese legislature on 18 May, although many details, including how to pick the favored universities, are still up in the air. But the move, under study for more than a year, has rekindled a debate among academics over how to reverse Japan's sinking research fortunes. Several previous schemes have yielded mixed results. The new plan "aims to provide young promising scholars with the research environment that the world's top universities are supposed to offer, to dramatically enhance international collaborations, and to promote the brain circulation both domestically and internationally," says Takahiro Ueyama, a science policy specialist on the Council for Science, Technology an...

'Turn an Old PC Into a High-End Amiga with AmiKit' Published on May 30, 2022 at 07:40AM Mike Bouma (Slashdot reader #85,252) writes: AmiKit is a compilation of pre-installed and pre-configured Amiga programs running emulated on Windows, macOS, and Linux (as well as running on classic 68K Amigas expanded with a Vampire upgrade card). Besides original Workbench (Commodore's desktop environment/graphical filemanager), AmiKit provides Directory Opus Magellan and Scalos as desktop replacements and its "Rabbit Hole" feature allows you to launch Windows, Mac or Linux applications directly from your Amiga desktop! Anti-aliased fonts, Full HD 32-bit screen modes and DualPNG Icons support is included and this package comes with exclusive versions of the Master Control Program (MCP) and MUI 5 (Magic User Interface). The original AmigaOS (version 3.x) and Kickstart ROM (version 3.1) are required, also the recently released AmigaOS 3.2 is supported. You can also get the need...

Should IT Professionals Be Liable for Ransomware Attacks? Published on May 30, 2022 at 04:40AM Denmark-based Poul-Henning Kamp describes himself as the "author of a lot of FreeBSD, most of Varnish and tons of other Open Source Software." And he shares this message in June's Communications of the ACM. "The software industry is still the problem." If any science fiction author, famous or obscure, had submitted a story where the plot was "modern IT is a bunch of crap that organized crime exploits for extortion," it would have gotten nowhere, because (A) that is just not credible, and (B) yawn! And yet, here we are.... As I write this, 200-plus corporations, including many retail chains, have inoperative IT because extortionists found a hole in some niche, third-party software product most of us have never heard of. But he's also proposing a solution. In Denmark, 129 jobs are regulated by law. There are good and obvious reasons why it is illegal for ...

Instagram Moderators Say Iran Offered Them Bribes to Remove Accounts Published on May 30, 2022 at 03:36AM The BBC reports: A Persian-language content moderator for Instagram and a former content moderator have said Iranian intelligence officials offered them money to remove Instagram accounts of journalists and activists.... Both content moderators also accused some Iranian colleagues of exhibiting "pro-regime bias" when reviewing posts on the photo-sharing service. They spoke to the BBC after many Iranian Instagram users complained that posts about recent anti-government protests in their country had been deleted. Instagram's owner, Meta Platforms, and the third-party company it uses to moderate content said there was no validity to the claims.... The protests received very little coverage on Iranian state media, meaning that Iranians had to rely on Instagram and other social media sites to learn what was happening on the ground. As the unrest continued, users noticed ...

Will Electric Cars Transform the Workforce? Published on May 30, 2022 at 02:29AM Gas-powered vehicles "have hundreds of moving parts and other components" that keep mechanics busy, argues CalMatters (which describes itself as a "nonpartisan and nonprofit news organization.") "By 2040, the state projects that nearly 32,000 auto mechanics jobs will be lost in California, since electric vehicles need far less maintenance and repair than conventional combustion engines." And they base that prediction on statistics from the state's own Air Resources Board (part of California's Environmental Protection Agency): Throughout the economy, an estimated 64,700 jobs will be lost because of the mandate, according to the California Air Resources Board's calculations. On the other hand, an estimated 24,900 jobs would be gained in other sectors, so the estimated net loss is 39,800 jobs, a minimal amount across the state's entire economy, by 2040. But no s...

Farm Equipment Dealers Block 'Right to Repair' Provision in North Carolina Published on May 29, 2022 at 11:04AM North Carolina's largest newspaper, Raleigh's News & Observer newspaper, reports that "In the face of stiff opposition from farm equipment companies and dealers, North Carolina state senators on Tuesday walked back a provision that would have widened access to the repair of farming equipment." The so-called "right to repair" provision was included in the Farm Act of 2022, Senate Bill 762, which was discussed Tuesday in the Senate's Agriculture, Energy and Environment Committee. As introduced, the bill would have required manufacturers of farming equipment that relies on digital components to make diagnostic equipment and parts available at "fair and reasonable terms." Representatives of national farm equipment trade groups and North Carolina equipment dealers opposed the bill. Allowing repairs outside of authorized shops...

Why Are There No Bridges Over the Amazon River? Published on May 30, 2022 at 01:20AM LiveScience reports: Despite being around 4,300 miles in length, the Amazon River surprisingly has no bridges. The Amazon River is the world's second-longest river and one of the planet's most significant waterways... Given the Amazon flows through three countries (Peru, Colombia and Brazil) and more than 30 million people live in the river's basin, according to the World Wildlife Fund, it seems somewhat improbable that no bridges span the river. So why is this the case? Are there fundamental difficulties with building such structures in a rainforest containing swaps, extensive wetlands and deep, thick undergrowth? Are there financial barriers? Or is it simply not worth the effort? The site got answers from Walter Kaufmann, the chair of Structural Engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. Long-time Slashdot reader fahrbot-bot shared this summary of the explanatio...

Minor League Baseball is Now Using AI Umpires to Call Strikes Published on May 30, 2022 at 12:20AM "There's no guarantee that robot umpires will make their way to the majors," writes the San Francisco Chronicle. "But the system is as close as it has been now, one level below." Here's how it looks for a minor league/Triple-A team, the Albuquerque Isotopes: Using the same computerized optical tracking technology known as Hawk-Eye that has been used for several years now in pro tennis and some other sports, MLB's new Automated ball-strike system is a rather in-depth setup. In early April, MLB set up eight high-speed cameras and hundreds of receivers around Isotopes Park that, along with the video from the cameras, add to a triangulation process that can help determine exactly where the ball crosses the strike zone — despite there being no camera directly over or behind the plate. The MLB says it is confident a foul ball hitting one camera or a light drizz...

Remote Learning Apps Tracked Millions of US Children During Pandemic Published on May 29, 2022 at 09:04AM An international investigation uncovered some disturbing results, reports the Washington Post. "Millions of children had their online behaviors and personal information tracked by the apps and websites they used for school during the pandemic..." The educational tools were recommended by school districts and offered interactive math and reading lessons to children as young as prekindergarten. But many of them also collected students' information and shared it with marketers and data brokers, who could then build data profiles used to target the children with ads that follow them around the Web. Those findings come from the most comprehensive study to date on the technology that children and parents relied on for nearly two years as basic education shifted from schools to homes. Researchers with the advocacy group Human Rights Watch analyzed 164 educational apps and ...

25 Gigabit Per Second Fiber Retail Broadband Service Demoed in New Zealand Published on May 29, 2022 at 07:04AM 25 gigabits per second — both downloading and uploading. CRN reports broadband infrastructure wholesaler Chorus demonstrated those speeds over their existing passive optical fiber network [PON]. The demonstration in Auckland achieved 21.4 Gbps throughput, tested simultaneously on the same strand of fibre that ran an 8 Gbps symmetric HyperFibre connection, and a 900/550 Mbps UFB link.... Chorus uses Nokia's Lightspan FX and MX access nodes for multiple types of fibre service, including standard GPON, the XGS-PON behind HyperFibre, point-to-point Ethernet, and envisages the 25 GPON service to run on it as well. It is based on the Quillion chip set line cards, which Nokia says are 50 per cent more energy efficient than earlier models. Currently, Chorus has no wholesale 25 GPON product, with its fastest offering topping out at 8/8 Gbps HyperFibre. The wholesaler expects to ...

Cydia's Antitrust Case Against Apple Can Proceed, Judge Rules Published on May 29, 2022 at 04:04AM In 2018, Engadget described Cydia as the maker of an app store for jailbroken iPhones that shut down claiming it just wasn't profitable (after operating for nearly a decade). But now Cydia has filed an antitrust case against Apple, Engadget reports: On Thursday, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, the same judge that oversaw the case between Apple and Epic Games, ruled Cydia's creator, Jay "Saurik" Freeman, could present his claim against the company after rejecting a bid by Apple to dismiss the complaint. [According to a paywalled article from Reuters.] Freeman first sued Apple at the end of 2020, alleging the company had an "illegal monopoly over iOS app distribution." Judge Gonzalez Rogers dismissed Cydia's initial complaint against Apple, ruling the suit fell outside the statute of limitations. But she also granted Freeman leave to amend his case, which...

How CentOS Stream and RHEL 9 Led to AlmaLinux 9 Published on May 29, 2022 at 03:05AM ZDNet writes that in late 2020 Red Hat decided "they'd no longer release CentOS Linux as a standalone distribution. Instead, CentOS Stream would work as a beta for RHEL." So where are we now? The competition immediately sprang up to replace CentOS. The two most important of these are the AlmaLinux OS Foundation's AlmaLinux and Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation's Rocky Linux. [May 16th saw the release of Rocky Linux 8.6.] Now, mere weeks after the release of RHEL 9, AlmaLinux 9 has arrived. Like RHEL itself, AlmaLinux 9 starts from CentOS Stream via RHEL. Indeed, AlmaLinux developers are CentOS Stream contributors. The bottom line is that CentOS 9 is an identical twin to RHEL 9 — except for the names and trademarks. It has all the same features, all the same advances, and, for better or worse, all the same bugs. Besides the big server architectures, AlmaLinux is also ready to ...

Disney+ Premiers New Star Wars Miniseries 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' Published on May 29, 2022 at 02:04AM CNET reviews Obi-Wan Kenobi, the new six-episode miniseries premiering today on Disney+ It's a question that's vexed Star Wars fans for decades: How did the bad guys not find Luke Skywalker when he was literally hiding in his father's old home? New Disney Plus miniseries Obi-Wan Kenobi, streaming now, will reveal the answer. But the real question is, can a minor continuity error actually be stretched out to create an entire TV series worth your time? And is there really a compelling story to be told when you already know how it turns out? Thankfully, on the strength of the first two episodes — both available to stream on Disney Plus today, followed by further installments each Wednesday — the answer appears to be yes. Obi-Wan Kenobi (the show) is an assured, pacey and exciting new series with a great cast, from creators who know how to use familiar elements — and, cruci...

Newest Version of Systemd Includes Experimental Feature for A/B-Style Updating Published on May 29, 2022 at 01:04AM "Let's popularize image-based OSes," writes Lennart Poettering, "with modernized security properties built around immutability, SecureBoot, TPM2, adaptability, auto-updating, factory reset, uniformity — built from traditional distribution packages, but deployed via images." Or, as the Register puts it, the Systemd Linux init system "continues to grow and develop, as does Linux itself." They delve into the rationale for the new systemd-sysupdate and kernel-install features, noting "The former is still described as an experimental feature, so relax — for now." No, this does not mean that systemd is becoming a package manager. Like it or not, though, the nature of operating systems is changing. Modern ones are large, complex, and need regular updates, and as The Register has examined in depth recently, this means that the design ...