Shameless Plug

Leaked Amazon Memo Reveals Anti-Union PR Idea: Score Points by Hiring Former Inmates Published on August 01, 2022 at 10:16AM Someone leaked an internal Amazon memo to Vox's Recode. The May 2021 memo "offers rare insights into the anti-union strategies of one of the world's most powerful companies," Recode writes: The memo laid out two crucial goals for Amazon: establish and deepen "relationships with key policymakers and community stakeholders" and improve "Amazon's overall brand...." To achieve these goals, the memo proposed strategies to help Amazon boost its reputation and simultaneously "neutralize" company critics by befriending these critics' own allies and by launching feel-good initiatives to turn the media and local politicians into company boosters.... Amazon staff acknowledged in the memo that the Teamsters' "economic argument is ... currently stronger," with union truck drivers, warehouse workers, and g...

Meta Cuts Funding for US News Publishers Published on August 01, 2022 at 08:14AM Engadget writes that "After Meta's revenue shrank for the first time in its history, the company has reportedly told publishers it will no longer pay for content to run in Facebook's News Tab, according to Axios." Axios notes it's the end of three-year deals Facebook brokers in 2019 with news publishers. At the time, the company was ramping up its investment in news and hired journalists to help direct publisher traffic to its new tab for news. The deals were worth roughly $105 million in the U.S., sources told Axios. In addition to that, the company spent around $90 million on news videos for the company's video tab called "Watch." "A lot has changed since we signed deals three years ago to test bringing additional news links to Facebook News in the U.S. Most people do not come to Facebook for news, and as a business it doesn't make sense to over-invest in ar...

MIT Engineers Develop Stickers That Can See Inside the Body Published on August 01, 2022 at 06:14AM Live and high-resolution images of a patient's internal organs are already possible with ultrasound imaging technology. But currently the technology "requires bulky and specialized equipment available only in hospitals and doctor's offices," explains an annoncement from MIT. Now a new design by MIT engineers "might make the technology as wearable and accessible as buying Band-Aids at the pharmacy." In a paper appearing today in Science, the engineers present the design for a new ultrasound sticker — a stamp-sized device that sticks to skin and can provide continuous ultrasound imaging of internal organs for 48 hours. The researchers applied the stickers to volunteers and showed the devices produced live, high-resolution images of major blood vessels and deeper organs such as the heart, lungs, and stomach. The stickers maintained a strong adhesion and capture...

Linus Torvalds Releases Linux 5.19 - From an Apple Silicon MacBook Published on August 01, 2022 at 04:59AM "Linus Torvalds just released Linux 5.19 as stable for the newest version of the Linux kernel..." reports Phoronix. But they also note that on the Linux kernel mailing list, "Torvalds went on to write about his Arm-based MacBook [running an AArch64 Apple M1 SoC]... now under Linux thanks to the work of the Asahi Linux project." Torvalds wrote: [T]he most interesting part here is that I did the release (and am writing this) on an arm64 laptop. It's something I've been waiting for for a _loong_ time, and it's finally reality, thanks to the Asahi team. We've had arm64 hardware around running Linux for a long time, but none of it has really been usable as a development platform until now. It's the third time I'm using Apple hardware for Linux development — I did it many years ago for powerpc development on a ppc970 machine. And then a deca...

Nichelle Nichols, Who Played Uhura In 'Star Trek' Franchise, Dies At 89 Published on August 01, 2022 at 03:37AM A sad announcement was posted online today, reports CNN: "Last night, my mother, Nichelle Nichols, succumbed to natural causes and passed away. Her light however, like the ancient galaxies now being seen for the first time, will remain for us and future generations to enjoy, learn from, and draw inspiration," Johnson said in a statement shared to Nichols' official site on Sunday. "Hers was a life well lived and as such a model for us all." Nichols died from natural causes, he said... George Takei, who portrayed the USS Enterprise's helmsman Hikaru Sulu, posted a touching tribute to his co-star. "I shall have more to say about the trailblazing, incomparable Nichelle Nichols, who shared the bridge with us as Lt. Uhura of the USS Enterprise, and who passed today at age 89," wrote Takei on Twitter. "For today, my heart is heavy...

US Air Force Grounds Most of Its F-35 Fighter Jets Over Ejection Seat Concerns Published on August 01, 2022 at 01:59AM The F-35 stealth-combat aircraft is the "crown jewel" of America's Air Force fight fleet, according to the defense news site Task & Purpose. But Friday they were all grounded — "sidelined for an indeterminate amount of time as the service inspects most of its F-35 fighter jet ejection seats for faulty launch cartridges, service officials said..." The news marks the latest difficult headline for the beleaguered fighter, which U.S. military officials have placed at the forefront of their airpower strategy despite a long list of maintenance issues. Air Combat Command, the Air Force command which oversees the bulk of the service's fighter fleet, made the decision to ground its F-35s on Friday after other units of the Air Force and Navy grounded many of their aircraft due to concerns over faulty parts which could prevent the pilot ejection ...

What's New in Linux Mint 21 Cinnamon Published on August 01, 2022 at 12:54AM Today saw the release of Linux Mint 21 "Vanessa" Cinnamon Edition, a long term support release (supported until 2027). Release notes at LinuxMint.com promise that it comes with "refinements and many new features to make your desktop experience more comfortable." Among the highlights: its Bluetooth manager is now Blueman (instead of Blueberry). Blueberry depended on gnome-bluetooth, which was developed exclusively for GNOME. In contrast, Blueman relies on the standard Bluez stack which works everywhere and can even be used or queried from the command line. The Blueman manager and tray icon provide many features that weren't available in Blueberry and a lot more information which can be used to monitor your connection or troubleshoot Bluetooth issues. Out of the box Blueman features better connectivity, especially when it comes to headsets and audio profiles. In preparation for Linu...

Tons of Chinese Rocket Debris Have Crashed into the Indian Ocean Published on July 31, 2022 at 07:22AM The 25-ton core stage of a Long March 5B rocket "reentered Earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean this afternoon," reports Space.com, citing an announcement on Twitter from the U.S. Space Command. Mission managers didn't screw anything up; this end-of-life scenario is built into the Long March 5B's design, to the consternation of exploration advocates and much of the broader spaceflight community. This disposal strategy is reckless, critics say, given that the big rocket doesn't burn up completely upon reentry. Indeed, 5.5 tons to 9.9 tons (5 to 9 metric tons) of the Long March 5B likely survived all the way to the ground today, experts with The Aerospace Corporation's Center for Orbital Reentry and Debris Studies have estimated. And it's possible that falling rocket chunks caused some injuries or infrastructure damage today, given where the Long ...

Boosters of US Climate Bill Included Clean Energy Companies, Nuclear Developers - and Bill Gates Published on July 31, 2022 at 05:52AM A proposed $369 billion bill would have far-reaching impacts on America's energy landscape — and in a wide variety of ways. The Washington Post took a close look at its tightly targetted energy-industry tax subisidies. "The goal? To make new green energy production cheaper for utilities to build than fossil fuel plants are." But others benefit too: The bill contains numerous smaller measures aimed at specific parts of the economy with high emissions: $20 billion for agriculture subsidies to help farmers reduce emissions, $6 billion to reduce emissions in chemical, steel and cement plants, and $3 billion to reduce air pollution at ports. Yet how do you convince a congressman from a coal-producing state? Politico explores what changed the mind of one of the legislation's last hold-out votes and convinced West Virginia Senator Joe Manch...

America's 'Transformative' Climate Bill Would Fund EV Purchases - While Penalizing China Published on July 31, 2022 at 04:22AM This week U.S. lawmakers drew closer to passing a $369 billion bill with wide-ranging climate provisions. It helps U.S consumers buy electric vehicle chargers, rooftop solar panels, and fuel-efficient heat pumps. It extends energy-industry tax credits for wind, solar and other renewable energy sources -- and for carbon capture technology. In fact, most of its impact is accomplished through tax credits, reports the New York Times, "viewed as one of the least expensive ways to reduce carbon emissions. "The benefits are worth four times their cost, according to calculations by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago." One example is ending an eligibility cap on the $7,500 tax credit for consumers buying electric vehicles: Currently, the credits are phased out after a manufacturer has sold 200,000 electric or plug-in hy...

The Spice DAO Crypto Collective Wants to Sell Its 'Dune' Bible - But Can't Find Buyers Published on July 31, 2022 at 03:22AM Remember the Spice DAO? They raised $3 million to buy a rare copy of a proposed film adaptation of Dune, "allegedly with the misguided idea that owning the book would also grant them the rights to its content," Morning Brew reported back in January. Their ambitious goal was to make the Dune bible public, before producing an animated series and supporting community projects. But now they're just trying to sell it, in what they're calling "Redemption Phase One" — although project lead Kortelin indicated on Discord that the bible currently has "no willing buyers," the Verge reports: After a series of setbacks in an ambitious plan for a crypto-powered media studio, the group is letting people who hold its $SPICE token cash out by withdrawing their money from the group's treasury. It will change its name to ...

Australian Teenager Sold Remote-Access Spyware To 14,500 People, Earned $300,000 Published on July 31, 2022 at 02:04AM "Jacob Wayne John Keen, now 24, was 15 years old and living in his mother's rental when he allegedly created a sophisticated spyware tool known as a remote access trojan that allowed users to remotely take control of their victims' computers," reports the Guardian. Once installed it could be used to steal victims' personal information, spy on them via webcams and microphones and track what they typed into emails or documents. Keen allegedly sold the tool for $35 on a hacking forum, making between $300,000 and $400,000 by selling it to more than 14,500 people in 128 countries.... Keen was slapped with six charges earlier in July, and is due to appear at Brisbane's magistrates court next month. His mother, 42, has also been charged with allegedly dealing in the proceeds of crime. A global investigation involving more than a dozen law enforceme...

'Halt and Catch Fire' Co-Creator's Next Project? A 'Max Headroom' Reboot Published on July 31, 2022 at 01:04AM "A 1980s pop culture mainstay is plotting a comeback," reports Deadline. "AMC Networks is developing a Max Headroom drama series reboot, with Matt Frewer set to reprise his role as the world's first artificial intelligence TV personality." Halt and Catch Fire co-creator Christopher Cantwell is writing the adaptation and is attached as showrunner for the project, which is produced by Elijah Wood and Daniel Noah's SpectreVision and All3Media. Known for biting commentary, quick wit and manic glitching, the supposedly computer-generated TV host played by Frewer was first introduced in the 1985 British cyberpunk TV movie Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future. He became an instant pop culture phenom and went on to host a music-video show, star in ads for New Coke, appear on the cover of Newsweek and headline his own primetime seri...

A Large Chunk of Rocket Space Debris Landed In Australia Published on July 31, 2022 at 12:04AM Newsweek reports that "A huge piece of space debris appears to have fallen from the sky and landed on a sheep farm in Australia." On July 9, locals across the Snowy Mountains in southern New South Wales heard a bang, ABC Australia reported. It was heard for miles, by those as far away as Albury, Wagga Wagga and Canberra.... Sheep farmer Mick Miners then came across a strange, charred object on his ranch, south of Jindabyne, on July 25. "I didn't know what to think, I had no idea what it was," Miners told ABC Australia. He found the 10 foot chunk of metal wedged into the ground in a remote part of his sheep paddock. He was not the only one. His neighbor, Jock Wallace also found some strange debris in the area. "I didn't hear the bang, but my daughters said it was very loud," Wallace told ABC. "I think it's a concern, it's just fallen out of ...

Samsung's 'Repair Mode' Lets Technicians Look At Your Phone, Not Your Data Published on July 30, 2022 at 03:30AM An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Samsung is introducing an interesting new feature for people sending in their Galaxy phones for repair: "repair mode." When shipping off your phone, you might want to do something to protect your data, and the new feature sounds like a great solution. It locks down your data, but not your phone. [...] While in repair mode, technicians can still poke around in your device and test everything, but they'll only see the default apps with blank data. When you get your device back, you can re-authenticate and disable repair mode and you'll get all your data back. The feature was first spotted by SamMobile, and Samsung has so far only announced the feature in a Korean press release; it is first launching in Korea for the Galaxy S21 (the S22 is Samsung's latest flagship phone). Repair mode can...

The FDIC Has Had It With Crypto Companies Claiming It Insures Them Published on July 30, 2022 at 02:52AM After admonishing crypto lender Voyager Digital for "false and misleading" statements on the subject, the FDIC said banks must ensure that crypto firms they partner with are clear about whether customer deposits are insured. From a report: In industry guidance published Friday, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said insured banks should monitor that crypto firms they work with do not misrepresent the availability of deposit insurance and "should take appropriate action to address such misrepresentations." The notice comes a day after the FDIC and Federal Reserve demanded Voyager Digital correct what it called misrepresentations that suggested some of its customers were covered by federal insurance if the firm collapsed. When Voyager filed for bankruptcy earlier this month, its banking partner, Metropolitan Commercial Bank, issued a statement clarifying that F...

Iran Ramps Up Drone Exports, Signaling Global Ambitions Published on July 30, 2022 at 02:14AM Iran has made steady advances in the design and production of military drones in recent years, and has stepped up their transfer to militant groups across the Middle East as it seeks to shift the dynamics of battlefields from Yemen to Gaza. Those efforts have now extended far beyond the region. From a report: Iran is now seeking to build its global clout and sell increasingly sophisticated weapons-capable drones commercially to other nations, including those that have been subject to various sanctions in recent years, like Venezuela and Sudan, according to Iranian news media, satellite images and defense experts inside and outside Iran. That has provided an important source of funds and political influence for Iran, which is itself isolated and struggling under U.S. financial restrictions. Now, Russia may be a potential client. Washington said this month that it had intelligence that Moscow ...

Metaverse Jobs Are Disappearing as Hiring Slows at Google, Facebook Published on July 30, 2022 at 01:35AM Meta Platforms, grappling with its first-ever quarterly sales slump, now has another problem: Jobs in the metaverse are disappearing. From a report: New monthly job postings across all industries with "metaverse" in the title declined 81% between April and June, according to workplace researcher Revelio Labs, after surging in the months following Facebook's rebranding last fall. The dropoff coincides with a broader slowdown across the tech sector, which has prompted layoffs and hiring freezes, leaving workers from the Bay Area to Bangalore increasingly rattled. Job postings in tech hubs like San Francisco and Austin, Texas, dropped 8.4% in the past four weeks, according to job site Indeed. Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg's big bet on virtual reality and other nascent, immersive technologies encouraged companies of all stripes to look for experts in ...

Gaming Time Has No Link With Levels of Wellbeing, Study Finds Published on July 30, 2022 at 12:55AM A study of 39,000 video gamers has found "little to no evidence" time spent playing affects their wellbeing. From a report: The average player would have to play for 10 hours more than usual per day to notice any difference, it found. And the reasons for playing were far more likely to have an impact. Well-being was measured by asking about life satisfaction and levels of emotions such as happiness, sadness, anger and frustration. The results contradict a 2020 study. Conducted by the same department at the Oxford Internet Institute -- but with a much smaller group of players -- the 2020 study had suggested that those who played for longer were happier. "Common sense says if you have more free time to play video games, you're probably a happier person," said Prof Andrew Przybylski, who worked on both studies. "But contrary to what we might think about games ...

Facebook Approved Pro-Genocide Ads in Kenya Published on July 30, 2022 at 12:15AM Kenya's national cohesion watchdog threatened to suspend Facebook from the country Friday if it doesn't mitigate hate speech ahead of the country's general elections next month. From a report: The regulator has given the company one week to remediate the problem, which included Facebook's approval of ads advocating for ethnic cleansing. Human rights organizations and the Facebook whistleblower are calling on Facebook to immediately suspend all advertising in Kenya and take other emergency steps. The National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC), a Kenyan agency founded to mitigate ethnic violence and promote national healing in the wake of the 2007-08 post-election crisis, told reporters on Friday that Facebook was "in violation of the laws of our country." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Justice Department Investigating Data Breach of Federal Court System Published on July 29, 2022 at 04:10AM The Justice Department is investigating a data breach of the U.S. federal courts system dating to early 2020, a top official testified on Capitol Hill Thursday. Politico reports: House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) told fellow lawmakers that there had been a "system security failure" of the U.S. Courts' document management system. He said the committee learned in March about the "startling breadth and scope" of the breach. It was the first public disclosure of the hack. Nadler said the data breach of the courts was separate from the SolarWinds hack revealed in late 2020, which involved Russian government-backed hackers infiltrating the networks of over a dozen U.S. federal agencies for much of 2020, including the federal court systems. He spoke at a committee hearing on oversight of the Justice Department's National Security Divisi...

Instagram Is Walking Back Its Changes For Now Published on July 29, 2022 at 03:32AM An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Instagram will walk back some recent changes to the product following a week of mounting criticism, the company said today. A test version of the app that opened to full-screen photos and videos will be phased out over the next one to two weeks, and Instagram will also reduce the number of recommended posts in the app as it works to improve its algorithms. "I'm glad we took a risk -- if we're not failing every once in a while, we're not thinking big enough or bold enough," Instagram chief Adam Mosseri said in an interview. "But we definitely need to take a big step back and regroup. [When] we've learned a lot, then we come back with some sort of new idea or iteration. So we're going to work through that." The changes come amid growing user frustration over a series of changes to Instagram designed to help it be...

JetBlue Announces a Deal To Buy Spirit Airlines. Fares Could Surge Published on July 29, 2022 at 02:52AM JetBlue Airways on Thursday announced it would purchase Spirit Airlines, a combination that would create America's fifth-largest airline. From a report: The announcement comes a day after Spirit pulled the plug on a deal to merge with Frontier. JetBlue had been pursuing a hostile bid for Spirit even while Spirit sought shareholder approval for a lower-priced deal with Frontier. Spirit had continually expressed concern whether regulators would approve a deal with JetBlue. But shareholders had balked at accepting Frontier's less-valuable cash-and-stock offer when they had JetBlue's all-cash offer on the table. JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes said the deal will be fruitful for investors and passengers. "We are excited to deliver this compelling combination that turbocharges our strategic growth, enabling JetBlue to bring our unique blend of low fares and exceptional service ...

Axie Infinity CEO Moved Crypto Tokens Before the Company Revealed Hack Published on July 29, 2022 at 02:15AM Sky Mavis, the company that makes the online game, says the executive was shoring up funds to protect the business and help users after Ronin attack. From a report: This spring, Sky Mavis, the startup that makes the video game Axie Infinity, announced it had suffered a devastating hack. While most video games are primarily recreational, Axie Infinity's popularity relied largely on its players' ability to trade and earn crypto tokens that had financial value, and players had stashes that represented significant savings. The hack forced the Vietnam-based game developer to shut down its system for pulling tokens out of the game, essentially freezing the assets of its users before they could react to the news. Most of them, anyway. In the hours before the announcement and freeze, a digital wallet belonging to its chief executive officer and co-founder, Trung Nguyen, made a...

PS5 Will Get Folders and Support for 1440p Displays This Year Published on July 29, 2022 at 01:35AM An anonymous reader shares a report: Although PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X have always been extremely close in their tech specs, features, and performance, one area where the Microsoft console established an early lead was in its compatibility with a range of modern displays and display technologies. That gap is finally now set to be closed. After PS5 was updated with support for variable refresh rates in April, Sony has now confirmed that the system will finally be able to output at 1440p resolution. The new feature is introduced in a system software beta available to invited users today, which Sony expects to roll out to everyone "later this year." Also included in the beta are a bunch of interface customizations, including the ability to group games together in folder-style Gamelists. Although most modern TV sets have 1080p or 4K resolutions, compatibility with 1440p (a...