Shameless Plug

Brave Releases Its Search API Published on June 01, 2023 at 03:30AM Brave has launched its Brave Search API, allowing third parties to integrate its privacy-preserving and ad-free search results into their applications through a simple API call. Thurrott reports: Brave notes that its Search API is inexpensive and that it's a great fit for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Large Language Models developers in particular because it provides access to a collection of high-quality, Web-scale data including recent events. Brave claims that its standalone Brave Search offering now delivers over 8 billion annualized queries, which makes it the fastest-growing search engine since Microsoft Bing. And in sharp contrast to the market leaders, Brave Search is private and transparent. Plus, it's fueled by opt-in users of the Brave browser's Web Discovery Project, which adds millions of new web pages to the index every single day and keeps it current and fresh. The Brave web browser has ...

Ransomware Attack On US Dental Insurance Giant Exposes Data of 9 Million Patients Published on June 01, 2023 at 02:50AM An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: An apparent ransomware attack on one of America's largest dental health insurers has compromised the personal information of almost nine million individuals in the United States. The Atlanta-based Managed Care of North America (MCNA) Dental claims to be the largest dental insurer in the nation for government-sponsored plans covering children and seniors. In a notice posted on Friday, the company said it became aware of "certain activity in our computer system that happened without our permission" on March 6 and later learned that a hacker "was able to see and take copies of some information in our computer system" between February 26 and March 7, 2023. The information stolen includes a trove of patients' personal data, including names, addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, email add...

Ubuntu Core as an immutable Linux Desktop base Published on June 01, 2023 at 02:11AM motang writes: Canonical, the sponsor of widely popular Ubuntu Linux, plans on shipping the next LTS in two versions. In addition to the traditional version, there will be one immutable desktop OS flavor. From Canonical blog: The technology behind snaps extends beyond the distribution of desktop applications however. With Ubuntu Core this philosophy of security and stability applies equally to the components that make up the entire Ubuntu operating system. Rather than treating the OS as a single immutable 'blob,' Ubuntu Core breaks it up into discrete components. The base of Ubuntu Core, for example, is built on four primary snaps: Gadget: Defines the system's bootloader, partition layout and default configurations for snaps. Kernel: Containing the Linux kernel and hardware drivers. Base: A minimal Ubuntu OS image containing only the necessary services and utilities to support the applica...

Firefox Users on Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 Moving To Extended Support Release Published on June 01, 2023 at 01:32AM Mozilla: Firefox version 115 will be the last supported Firefox version for users of Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. If you are using these versions of Windows you will be moved to the Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR) channel by an application update. Mozilla will provide security updates for these users until September 2024. No security updates will be provided after that date. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Popular Reddit App Apollo Would Need To Pay $20 Million Per Year Under New API Pricing Published on June 01, 2023 at 01:06AM Popular Reddit app Apollo might not be able to operate as is in the future due to planned API pricing that Reddit is implementing. From a report: Apollo developer Christian Selig was today told that Reddit plans to charge $12,000 for 50 million API requests. Last month, Apollo made seven billion requests, which would mean Selig would need to pay $1.7 million per month or $20 million per year to Reddit to keep the app running. The average Apollo user uses 344 requests per day, which would be priced at $2.50 per month, more than double the current subscription cost, or a sum that Selig is not able to afford. Right now, Apollo Pro is a one-time $4.99 fee that unlocks additional features, and Apollo Ultra is an even more premium tier that costs $12.99 per year. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Millions of PC Motherboards Were Sold With a Firmware Backdoor Published on June 01, 2023 at 12:11AM Hidden code in hundreds of models of Gigabyte motherboards invisibly and insecurely downloads programs -- a feature ripe for abuse, researchers say. From a report: Hiding malicious programs in a computer's UEFI firmware, the deep-seated code that tells a PC how to load its operating system, has become an insidious trick in the toolkit of stealthy hackers. But when a motherboard manufacturer installs its own hidden backdoor in the firmware of millions of computers -- and doesn't even put a proper lock on that hidden back entrance -- they're practically doing hackers' work for them. Researchers at firmware-focused cybersecurity company Eclypsium revealed today that they've discovered a hidden mechanism in the firmware of motherboards sold by the Taiwanese manufacturer Gigabyte, whose components are commonly used in gaming PCs and other high-performance computers. Whe...

Lawyer Cited 6 Fake Cases Made Up By ChatGPT; Judge Calls It 'Unprecedented' Published on May 31, 2023 at 03:30AM An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A lawyer is in trouble after admitting he used ChatGPT to help write court filings that cited six nonexistent cases invented by the artificial intelligence tool. Lawyer Steven Schwartz of the firm Levidow, Levidow, & Oberman "greatly regrets having utilized generative artificial intelligence to supplement the legal research performed herein and will never do so in the future without absolute verification of its authenticity," Schwartz wrote in an affidavit (PDF) on May 24 regarding the bogus citations previously submitted in US District Court for the Southern District of New York. Schwartz wrote that "the use of generative artificial intelligence has evolved within law rms" and that he "consulted the artificial intelligence website ChatGPT in order to supplement the legal research ...

Men Behind UK's Largest Pirate Service Jailed For 30+ Years Published on May 31, 2023 at 02:50AM TorrentFreak: Five men behind pirate IPTV service 'Flawless' were sentenced to more than 30 years in prison today, after a private prosecution by the Premier League. A FACT test purchase in 2017 led to the involvement of four territorial police forces, three regional Trading Standards units, and the arrest of service kingpin, Mark Gould, in 2018. In less than two years, Flawless served over 50,000 UK households while generating millions in revenue. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

RaidForums User Data Leaked Online a Year After DOJ Takedown Published on May 31, 2023 at 02:10AM A database containing the details of almost half-a-million RaidForums users has leaked online, a year after the U.S. Department of Justice seized the notorious cybercrime forum. From a report: The leaked database was posted on Exposed, described by security researchers as an up-and-coming forum "wanting to fill the void" left by the recent BreachForums shutdown. An Exposed admin, known as "Impotent," posted the alleged RaidForums user data, which includes the details of 478,000 users, including their usernames, email addresses, hashed passwords and registration dates. "All of the users that were on raidforums may have been infected," the admin's post says. RaidForums had around 550,000 users at the time of its shutdown last year. The admin added that some users' details have been removed from the leak, though it's unclear how many or the reasonin...

LHC Experiments See First Evidence of a Rare Higgs Boson Decay Published on May 31, 2023 at 01:30AM CERN: The discovery of the Higgs boson at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in 2012 marked a significant milestone in particle physics. Since then, the ATLAS and CMS collaborations have been diligently investigating the properties of this unique particle and searching to establish the different ways in which it is produced and decays into other particles. At the Large Hadron Collider Physics (LHCP) conference last week, ATLAS and CMS report how they teamed up to find the first evidence of the rare process in which the Higgs boson decays into a Z boson, the electrically neutral carrier of the weak force, and a photon, the carrier of the electromagnetic force. This Higgs boson decay could provide indirect evidence of the existence of particles beyond those predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics. The decay of the Higgs boson into a Z boson and a photon is similar to that...

Critic of Amazon's Policies Says Company's Lawyers Are Trying To Ruin Him Published on May 31, 2023 at 12:47AM Entrepreneur Molson Hart, writing in a Twitter thread: I criticized Amazon's policies in a blogpost. Now, their lawyers are trying to ruin me. Four years ago, I wrote an article. It had a simple message: 1. Amazon doesn't allow sellers to price their products for less off-Amazon. 2. If they do, Amazon hides their products. 3. This keeps prices off-Amazon high, which is bad for consumers. This is a big deal. Vox's Land of the Giants podcast interviewed me because of it. And I even got to testify before Congress. But nothing happened until November 2022 when the state of California filed a complaint against Amazon. They cited me and made me a witness. And in response, Amazon served me with a lawsuit. I said Amazon's policy raises prices for consumers. That's evidence in this lawsuit. So Amazon's lawyers want to show that I'm lying or wrong. ...

Air New Zealand To Weigh Passengers Before They Board the Airplane Published on May 31, 2023 at 12:10AM New Zealand's Civil Aviation Authority is asking that its national airline weigh passengers departing on international flights from Auckland International Airport through July 2, 2023. From a report: The program, which Air New Zealand calls a passenger weight survey, is a way to gather data on the weight load and distribution for planes, the airline said. "We weigh everything that goes on the aircraft -- from the cargo to the meals onboard, to the luggage in the hold," Alastair James, the airline's load control improvement specialist said in a statement. "For customers, crew and cabin bags, we use average weights, which we get from doing this survey." Still, weight is a personal thing that not everyone wishes to disclose. In order to protect individuals' privacy, the airline says it has made the data anonymous. Read more of this story at Slashdot....

India's JioCinema Breaks World Record With Free Cricket Streaming Published on May 30, 2023 at 07:30AM India's JioCinema broke the global record for the most concurrent views to a live streamed event on Monday, eclipsing a long-standing milestone set by Disney's Hotstar, as the Asian tycoon Mukesh Ambani spares no expense in expanding his digital empire. From a report: The Indian streaming app, whose partner includes James Murdoch's Bodhi Tree-backed Viacom18, surpassed the record Monday evening, attracting over 32 million concurrent viewers to the final game of the 16th edition of Indian Premier League cricket tourney between Chennai Super Kings and Gujarat Titans. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

CD Projekt is Not For Sale, CEO Clarifies Published on May 30, 2023 at 06:00AM Polish games developer CD Projekt is not for sale, its CEO reiterated on Monday, following weekend rumours that the maker of "Cyberpunk 2077" could be targeted by Sony. From a report: "Nothing has changed on our end. I can repeat what we've been saying throughout the years - CD Projekt is not for sale. We want to remain independent", Adam Kicinski said on a conference call following first-quarter results. "It's very exciting to follow our own path, so it's pure rumour." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Intel Says AI is Overwhelming CPUs, GPUs, Even Clouds, So All Meteor Lakes Get a VPU Published on May 30, 2023 at 04:00AM Intel will use the "VPU" tech it acquired along with Movidius in 2016 to all models of its forthcoming Meteor Lake client CPUs. From a report: Chipzilla already offers VPUs in some 13th-gen Core silicon. Ahead of the Computex conference in Taiwan, the company briefed The Register on their inclusion in Meteor Lake. Curiously, Intel didn't elucidate the acronym, but has previously said it stands for Vision Processing Unit. Chipzilla is, however, clear about what it does and why it's needed -- and it's more than vision. Intel Veep and general manager of Client AI John Rayfield said dedicated AI silicon is needed because AI is now present in many PC workloads. Video conferences, he said, feature lots of AI enhancing video and making participants sounds great -- and users now just expect that PCs do brilliantly when Zooming or WebExing or Teamisin...

After Being Wrongfully Accused of Spying for China, Professor Wins Appeal To Sue the Government Published on May 30, 2023 at 03:30AM Xiaoxing Xi, a Temple University professor who was falsely accused of spying for China, will be able to bring a lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Investigation. From a report: A judge at a federal appeals court ruled in favor of Xi on Wednesday, allowing the physicist to move forward with his case against the U.S. government for wrongful prosecution and violating his family's constitutional rights by engaging in unlawful search, seizure and surveillance. The decision comes after FBI agents swarmed Xi's Philadelphia home in 2015, rounded up his family at gunpoint, and arrested him on fraud charges related to economic espionage, before abruptly dropping the charges months afterward. "I'm very, very glad that we can finally put the government under oath to explain why they decided to do what they did, violating our constitutional right...

ASUS Shows Off Concept GeForce RTX 40 Graphics Card Without Power-Connectors, Uses Proprietary Slot Published on May 30, 2023 at 02:30AM ASUS is extending its connector-less design to graphics cards and has showcased the first GPU, a GeForce RTX 40 design, which features now power plugs. From a report: Spotted during our tour at the ASUS HQ, the ROG team gave us a first look at an upcoming graphics card (currently still in the concept phase) which is part of its GeForce RTX 40 family. The graphics card itself was a GeForce RTX 4070 design but it doesn't fall under any existing VGA product lineup & comes in an interesting design. So the graphics card itself is a 2.3 slot design that features a triple axial-tech cooling fan system and once again, it isn't part of any interesting GPU lineup from ASUS such as ROG STRIX, TUF Gaming, Dual, etc. The backside of the card features an extended backplate that extends beyond the PCB & there's a cut-out for the air to pass thr...

Nvidia, MediaTek Partner on Connected Car Technology Published on May 30, 2023 at 01:45AM Nvidia and MediaTek on Monday said they will collaborate on technology to power advanced vehicle infotainment systems that can stream video or games or interact with drivers using artificial intelligence. From a report: Under the agreement, announced at the Computex technology trade show in Taipei, MediaTek will integrate an Nvidia graphic processing unit chiplet and Nvidia software into the system-on-chips it supplies to automakers for infotainment displays. MediaTek systems using Nvidia software would be compatible with automated driving systems based on Nvidia technology, the companies said. Dashboard displays could show the environment around the vehicle, while cameras would monitor the driver. "The automotive industry needs strong companies that can work with the industry for decades at a time," Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang told a news conference in Taipei, pointing to a lo...

App That Lets Homeowners Rent Their Swimming Pools Draws Backlash Published on May 29, 2023 at 10:04AM Somewhere in Maryland, an app that lets homeowners rent their swimming pools "has sharply divided suburban residents of Montgomery County as the local government considers formally regulating the short-term amenity rentals," reports the Washington Post, "potentially becoming the first in the nation to do so." Neighbors have spied on neighbors, reporting unwanted outsiders flocking to their quiet residential streets. "Our entire block has been disturbed," Constance Kiggans, a Chevy Chase resident, said in written testimony to the Montgomery County Council. "It is, for all intents and purposes, like having a pool club on the street..." Unlike long-established home rental and ride sharing apps, newer apps that let people rent out their pools, home gyms and backyards have largely been unregulated across the United States so far. In fact, several j...

Japan Will Try to Beam Solar Power from Space by 2025 Published on May 29, 2023 at 07:04AM An anonymous reader shared this report from Engadget: Japan and JAXA, the country's space administration, have spent decades trying to make it possible to beam solar energy from space. In 2015, the nation made a breakthrough when JAXA scientists successfully beamed 1.8 kilowatts of power, enough energy to power an electric kettle, more than 50 meters to a wireless receiver. Now, Japan is poised to bring the technology one step closer to reality. Nikkei reports a Japanese public-private partnership will attempt to beam solar energy from space as early as 2025. The project, led by Naoki Shinohara, a Kyoto University professor who has been working on space-based solar energy since 2009, will attempt to deploy a series of small satellites in orbit. Those will then try to beam the solar energy the arrays collect to ground-based receiving stations hundreds of miles away. Orbital solar arrays ...

Automakers Ask Judge to Block Pending Enforcement of Massachusetts' Right-to-Repair Law Published on May 29, 2023 at 04:14AM "Beginning next Thursday, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell plans to start enforcing the state's automotive right-to-repair law," reports the Boston Globe. "But this week, the world's top automakers asked a federal judge to stop her." The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a car industry trade group, sued to block enforcement of the law almost from the moment it was passed by voter referendum in 2020. Ever since, the law has been tied up in the courtroom of US District Judge Douglas Woodlock. Now the alliance has asked Woodlock to grant a temporary injunction that would stop Campbell from enforcing the law until he issues a final ruling in the case. Campbell's predecessor, now-Governor Maura Healey, repeatedly refrained from enforcing the law, pending Woodlock's decision. But Healey always reserved the r...

A Quake on Mars Showed Its Crust is Thicker Than Earth's Published on May 29, 2023 at 03:14AM "Planetary scientists now know how thick the Martian crust is," reports ScienceNews, "thanks to the strongest Marsquake ever observed." On average, the crust is between 42 and 56 kilometers thick [26 to 34 miles], researchers report in a paper to appear in Geophysical Research Letters. That's roughly 70 percent thicker than the average continental crust on Earth. The measurement was based on data from NASA's InSight lander, a stationary seismometer that recorded waves rippling through Mars' interior for four Earth years. Last May, the entire planet shook with a magnitude 4.7 quake that lasted more than six hours. "We were really fortunate that we got this quake," says seismologist Doyeon Kim of ETH Zurich. InSight recorded seismic waves from the quake that circled Mars up to three times. That let Kim and colleagues infer the crust thickness over ...

A Japanese-Made Moon Lander Crashed Because a Crater Confused Its Software Published on May 29, 2023 at 02:14AM Last month Japanese startup ispace tried to become the first private company to land a spacecraft on the moon — but in the crucial final moments lost contact with its vehicle. Now the Associated Press reports that company officials are revealing what happened: while trying to land, their vehicle went into free-fall. Company officials blame a software issue, plus a decision in December to change the touchdown location to a crater. The crater's steep sides apparently confused the onboard software, and the 7-foot (2-meter) spacecraft went into a free-fall from less than 3 miles (5 kilometers) up, slamming into the lunar surface. The estimated speed at impact was more than 300 feet (100 meters) per second, said the company's chief technology officer, Ryo Ujiie. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter photographed the crash site the next day as it flew overhead, revealin...

China Deletes 1.4 Million Social Media Posts in Crackdown Published on May 29, 2023 at 01:14AM Reuters reports: China's cyberspace regulator said 1.4 million social media posts have been deleted following a two-month probe into alleged misinformation, illegal profiteering, and impersonation of state officials, among other "pronounced problems"... Beijing frequently arrests citizens and censors accounts for publishing or sharing factual information considered sensitive or critical of the Communist Party, the government or the military, especially when such information goes viral. Of the 67,000 accounts that were permanently closed, almost 8,000 were taken down for "spreading fake news, rumours, and harmful information," according to The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC). Around 930,000 other accounts received less severe punishments, from being removed of all followers to the suspension or cancellation of profit-making privileges. In a separate campaign,...

Are We Headed to a Future With Autonomous Robot Soldiers? Published on May 28, 2023 at 09:04AM A CBS News video reports the U.S. military "is now testing an autonomous F-16 fighter jet, and in simulated dogfighting, the AI already crushes trained human pilots." And that's just one of several automated systems being developed — raising questions as to just how far this technology should go: "The people we met developing these systems say they aren't trying to replace humans, just make their jobs safer. But a shift to robot soldiers could change war in profound ways, as we found on a visit to Sikorsky Aircraft, the military contractor that makes the Blackhawk helicopter... Flying the experimental Blackhawk is as easy as moving a map." [The experimental helicopter is literally controlled by taps on a tablet computer, says a representative from Sikorsky. "We call it operating, because you're making suggestions. The machine really decides how to do it....