Shameless Plug

Web Browser Suspended Because It Can Browse the Web is Back on Google Play Published on December 01, 2023 at 12:50AM Google Play has reversed its latest ban on a web browser that keeps getting targeted by vague Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notices. Downloader, an Android TV app that combines a browser with a file manager, was restored to Google Play last night. From a report: Downloader, made by app developer Elias Saba, was suspended on Sunday after a DMCA notice submitted by copyright-enforcement firm MarkScan on behalf of Warner Bros. Discovery. It was the second time in six months that Downloader was suspended based on a complaint that the app's web browser is capable of loading websites. The first suspension in May lasted three weeks, but Google reversed the latest one much more quickly. As we wrote on Monday, the MarkScan DMCA notice didn't even list any copyrighted works that Downloader supposedly infringed upon. Instead of identifying specific copyrighted w...

Over 75% of Web3 Games 'Failed' in Last Five Years Published on December 01, 2023 at 12:10AM Web3 research and analytics firm CoinGecko: Around 2,127 web3 games have failed in the last five years since the GameFi niche emerged, representing 75.5% of the 2,817 web3 games launched. In other words, 3 out of every 4 web3 games have become inactive. The average annual failure rate for web3 games has been 80.8% from 2018 to 2023, based on the number of web3 games failed compared to launched. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

BBC BASIC Is Back In a Big Way Published on November 30, 2023 at 05:32AM An anonymous reader quotes a report from Hackaday: The BBC has a long history of teaching the world about computers. The broadcaster's name was proudly displayed on the BBC Micro, and BBC Basic was the programming language developed especially for that computer. Now, BBC Basic is back and running on a whole mess of modern platforms. BBC Basic for SDL 2.0 will run on Windows, MacOS, x86 Linux, and even Raspberry Pi OS, Android, and iOS. Desktop versions of the programming environment feature a BASIC editor that has syntax coloring for ease of use, along with luxury features like search and replace that weren't always available at the dawn of the microcomputer era. Meanwhile, the smartphone versions feature a simplified interface designed to work better in a touchscreen environment. It's weird to see, but BBC Basic can actually do some interesting stuff given the power of modern hardware. It can addres...

Dollar Tree Hit By Third-Party Data Breach Impacting 2 Million People Published on November 30, 2023 at 04:50AM Dollar Tree was impacted by a third-party data breach stemming from the hack of service provider Zeroed-In Technologies. According to Bleeping Computer, nearly two million customers have been affected. "The information stolen during the attack includes names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers (SSNs)." From the report: According to a data breach notification shared with the Maine Attorney General, Dollar Tree's service provider, Zeroed-In, suffered a security incident between August 7 and 8, 2023. As part of this cyberattack, the threat actors managed to steal data containing the personal information of Dollar Tree and Family Dollar employees. "While the investigation was able to determine that these systems were accessed, it was not able to confirm all of the specific files that were accessed or taken by the unauthorized actor," reads the l...

Amazon Finally Releases Its Own AI-Powered Image Generator Published on November 30, 2023 at 04:10AM During a keynote at its re:Invent conference today, Amazon debuted the Titan Image Generator, which can create new images or customize existing images via a text description. It's now available in preview for AWS customers on Bedrock, Amazon's AI development platform. TechCrunch reports: Amazon says that Titan Image Generator was trained on a "diverse set of datasets" across a "broad range of domains" and can be optionally fine-tuned on custom datasets, and includes built-in mitigations for toxicity and bias. (Barring testing, the jury's out on just how effective those mitigations are, of course.) The company declined to say exactly where those datasets came from however -- and whether it obtained permission from or is compensating all the creators of the images used to train Titan Image Generator. [...] Sivasubramanian did claim onstage, however, that ...

Canadian Government Reaches Deal With Google On Online News Act Published on November 30, 2023 at 03:30AM An anonymous reader quotes a report from the CBC: Google and the federal government have reached an agreement in their dispute over the Online News Act that would see Google continue to share Canadian news online in return for the company making annual payments to news companies in the range of $100 million. Sources told Radio-Canada and CBC News earlier Wednesday that an agreement had been reached. Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge confirmed the news Wednesday afternoon. "Many doubted that we would be successful, but I was confident we would find a way to address Google's concerns," she told reporters outside the House of Commons. The federal government and Google agreed on the regulatory framework earlier this week, a government source familiar with the talks told Radio-Canada. The federal government had estimated earlier this year that Google's compensation s...

Global Pay TV Penetration To Fall For the First Time in 2024 Published on November 28, 2023 at 11:30PM Global pay TV penetration (the number of pay TV subscriptions relative to the number of households) is set to decline for the first time ever in 2024 following a peak penetration of 60.3% in Q4 2023. This decline will continue into the forecast period, with a drop of almost 4 percentage points by the end of 2028, according to Ampere's latest forecasts, which cover 96 markets. From a report: This decline in pay TV penetration has been driven primarily by the Americas, and in particular North America which has seen its pay TV penetration almost halve from a high of 84% in 2009 to 45% in 2023. In the case of North America, this drop has been caused by a combination of high costs (currently over $90 per month) and competition from a mature SVoD market which is driving customers increasingly to cut the cord. However, the recent distribution deal between Disney and Charter in the US, ...

AI Chip Contenders Face Daunting 'Moats' Published on November 28, 2023 at 10:50PM Barriers to entry in an industry dominated by TSMC and Nvidia are very high. From a report: In the drama that has just played out in Silicon Valley over the future of OpenAI, one side plot concerned an ambitious chip venture by its chief executive Sam Altman. Before he was ousted and reinstated to the helm of the company, Altman had sought to raise as much as $100bn from investors in the Middle East and SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son to build a rival to compete with sector giants Nvidia and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. This would be a vast undertaking. And one where $100bn may not go very far. Given that the US chip designer and Taiwanese chipmaker are critical to all things generative AI, Altman is unlikely to be the only one with hopes of taking them on. But the barriers to entry -- moats in Silicon Valley parlance -- are formidable. Nvidia has about 95 per cent of the markets for G...

First Transatlantic Flight Using 100% Sustainable Jet Fuel Takes Off Published on November 28, 2023 at 10:10PM The first transatlantic flight by a commercial airliner fully powered by "sustainable" jet fuel has taken off from London Heathrow. From a report: Tuesday's Virgin Atlantic flight, partly funded by the UK government, has been hailed by the aviation industry and ministers as a demonstration of the potential to significantly cut net carbon emissions from flying, although scientists and environmental groups are extremely sceptical. Airlines have previously flown on a blend of up to 50% of alternative fuels, called sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), and flight VS100 is operating under special dispensation with no paying passengers, using fuel made mostly from tallow and other waste products. One of those onboard, the transport secretary, Mark Harper, said: "Today's 100% SAF-powered flight shows how we can decarbonise transport both now and in the future, cu...

India's CERT Given Exemption From Right To Information Requests Published on November 28, 2023 at 09:30PM India's government has granted its Computer Emergency Response Team, CERT-In, immunity from Right To Information (RTI) requests, the nation's equivalent of the freedom of information queries in the US, UK, or Australia. From a report: Reasons for the exemption have not been explained, but The Register has reported on one case in which an RTI request embarrassed CERT-In. That case related to India's sudden decision, in April 2022, to require businesses of all sizes to report infosec incidents to CERT-in within six hours of detection. The rapid reporting requirement applied both to serious incidents like ransomware attacks, and less critical messes like the compromise of a social media account. CERT-In justified the rules as necessary to defend the nation's cyberspace and gave just sixty days notice for implementation. The plan generated local and international ...

Researchers Figure Out How To Bypass Fingerprint Readers In Most Windows PCs Published on November 28, 2023 at 02:40AM An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: [L]ast week, researchers at Blackwing Intelligence published an extensive document showing how they had managed to work around some of the most popular fingerprint sensors used in Windows PCs. Security researchers Jesse D'Aguanno and Timo Teras write that, with varying degrees of reverse-engineering and using some external hardware, they were able to fool the Goodix fingerprint sensor in a Dell Inspiron 15, the Synaptic sensor in a Lenovo ThinkPad T14, and the ELAN sensor in one of Microsoft's own Surface Pro Type Covers. These are just three laptop models from the wide universe of PCs, but one of these three companies usually does make the fingerprint sensor in every laptop we've reviewed in the last few years. It's likely that most Windows PCs with fingerprint readers will be vulnerable to simil...

Charter To Reduce Mobile Video Streaming Resolution for Some Customers Published on November 28, 2023 at 01:30AM Charter Communications confirmed to Light Reading it will lower the default video streaming resolution for its Unlimited Plus mobile customers to 480p from 720p starting in December. From a report: Charter's default setting for customers on its other By The Gig and Unlimited mobile plans is already set at 480p. The company said its Unlimited Plus mobile customers can change their default streaming setting back from 480p to 720p using the company's My Spectrum App for no extra charge. Further, the change will not affect customers who are connected to Wi-Fi. When customers are on Wi-Fi, the video streaming resolution among Charter's Spectrum Mobile customers is determined by the format of the video content the customer is streaming and the capabilities and settings of their device, according to the company. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Plex Users Fear New Feature Will Leak Porn Habits To Their Friends and Family Published on November 28, 2023 at 12:50AM Many Plex users were alarmed when they got a "week in review" email last week that showed them what they and their friends had watched on the popular media server software. From a report: Some users are saying that their friends' softcore porn habits are being revealed to them with the feature, while others are horrified by the potentially invasive nature feature more broadly. Plex is a hybrid streaming service/self-hosted media server. In addition to offering content that Plex itself has licensed, the service allows users to essentially roll their own streaming service by making locally downloaded files available to stream over the internet to devices the server admin owns. You can also "friend" people on Plex and give them access to your own server. A new feature, called "Discover Together," expands social aspects of Plex and intr...

Videoconferencing Fatigue is Real, Study Finds Published on November 28, 2023 at 12:10AM Feeling especially drained after a day on Zoom is not a figment of your imagination -- videoconferencing fatigue (VCF) is real, according to a study penned by a quartet of Austrian investigators. From a report: "Self-report evidence, collected all around the world, indicates that VCF is a serious issue," wrote the authors of a study appearing in Scientific Reports, a journal published by Nature Reports. However, most available research on VCF relies on personal accounts of the problem, and focuses on the cause rather than the consequences, explained the researchers. To determine the effects on the brain caused by hours of videoconferences, the team measured electrical activity in the noggins of 35 university students who watched a 50-minute lecture while wired into an electroencephalogram (EEG). The researchers asked another group to watch same content live. The researchers also calcula...

Microsoft, Uber, Dell CEOs Consider Government-Funded Stock Funds for Children Published on November 27, 2023 at 03:04AM "Government-funded investment accounts for children could be on the horizon," writes CNBC, "and if tech investor Brad Gerstner has his way, corporate America will match the funds..." Gerstner been working with lawmakers to promote a legislative program known as Invest America that would create an investing account seeded with $1,000 for each child that's born in the U.S., but it's still too early in the process to publicly name supporters. He's aiming, however, to have legislation passed before the next presidential election. At the same time, he's working with corporate America to encourage businesses to offer matching funds to help employees further their savings. "The vision is simple — that corporations would include an Invest America match of $1,000 into the Invest America account of children of their employees," G...

PHP 8.0 End of Life Is Today, November 26, 2023 Published on November 27, 2023 at 02:04AM Slashdot reader sysadminafterdark writes: Released on November 26, 2020, PHP 8 brought many optimizations and powerful features to the language.Fast forward to today, and PHP 8 is getting the boot in favor of 8.1, 8.2, and 8.3 with 8.4 in development. This leaves some websites at risk of breaking and potential security issues. Hearing of this news, I upgraded my own blog and wrote an article on how to add the Remi repository and update. I run Enterprise Linux (The best distro out there) so if you are standing up new boxes, just keep in mind the PHP in the repo is deprecated. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Ridley Scott Is Terrified of AI: 'It's a Technical Hydrogen Bomb' Published on November 27, 2023 at 01:04AM "Several of your films have explored artificial intelligence," Rolling Stone pointed out to 85-year-old Ridley Scott, before asking: "Does AI worry you?" Ridley Scott: I always thought the world would end up being run by two corporations, and I think we're headed in that direction. Tyrell Corp in Blade Runner probably owned 45-50% of the world, and one of his playthings was creating replication through DNA. Tyrell thinks he's god and in the first Blade Runner has made a Nexus female. And the Nexus female will have a limited lifespan because AI will get dangerous. We have to lock down AI. And I don't know how you're gonna lock it down. They have these discussions in the government, "How are we gonna lock down AI?" Are you fucking kidding? You're never gonna lock it down. Once it's out, it's out. If I'm des...

US Energy Department Funds Next-Gen Semiconductor Projects to Improve Power Grids Published on November 27, 2023 at 12:04AM America's long-standing Advanced Research Projects Agency (or ARPA) developing the foundational technologies for the internet. This week its energy division announced $42 million for projects enabling a "more secure and reliable" energy grid, "allowing it to utilize more solar, wind, and other clean energy." But specifically, they funded 15 projects across 11 states to improve the reliability, resiliency, and flexibility of the grid "through the next-generation semiconductor technologies." Streamlining the coordinated operation of electricity supply and demand will improve operational efficiency, prevent unforeseen outages, allow faster recovery, minimize the impacts of natural disasters and climate-change fueled extreme weather events, and redcude grid operating costs and carbon intensity. Some highlights: The Georgia Institute...

Does OpenAI's Origins Explain the Sam Altman Drama? Published on November 26, 2023 at 03:04AM Tech journalist Kara Swisher disagrees that Sam Altman's (temporary) firing stemmed from a conflict between the "go-faster" people pushing for commercialization and a rival contingent wanting more safety-assuring guardrails. "He's being talking about the problems," Swisher said on CNN. "Compared to a lot of tech people, he's talking about the problems. I think that's a false dichotomy." At the same time, NPR argues, the firing and re-hiring of Sam Altman "didn't come out of nowhere. In fact, the boardroom drama represented the boiling over of tensions that have long simmered under the surface of the company." The chaos at OpenAI can be traced back to the unusual way the company was structured. OpenAI was founded in 2015 by Altman, Elon Musk and others as a non-profit research lab. It was almost like an anti-Big Tech company; it ...

As Doctor Who Turns 60, the TARDIS Flies Again Tonight Published on November 26, 2023 at 02:04AM It was November 23rd of the year 1963 that Doctor Who first premiered on the BBC. And the many years since then have wrought their changes, writes the BBC: Events on screen and off have shaped the character's personality, their face changing to reflect Britain itself, and every version building on what has gone before. To truly understand Who, you have to know your history... [T]he series was originally intended to teach children history as much as thrill them... [T]he Daleks were shouty miniaturised tanks, terrifying to a nation that had lived through World War 2... Scripts by the likes of Douglas Adams (who wrote The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) leaned into the show's inherent strangeness... Interestingly, the new specials and series involve Marvel-owner Disney, who will stream it outside the UK and Ireland, in turn helping boost the budget. The article handily summariz...

How to Support Local Retailers on 'Small Business Saturday' Published on November 26, 2023 at 01:04AM America celebrates "Small Business Saturday" today with special celebrations everywhere from Houston, Texas to Buffalo, New York NBC News reports: Sandwiched between Black Friday and Cyber Monday — historically the biggest and busiest retail days of the year — there's another standout shopping event: Small Business Saturday. Started by American Express in 2010 and co-sponsored by the U.S. Small Business Administration since 2011, Small Business Saturday aims to create awareness about the impact shoppers have when they buy "small" year round, whether they physically visit stores or shop online. This year, 85% of consumers say they're likely to shop "small" during the holiday season, according to the American Express 2023 Shop Small Impact Study. That represents a multibillion dollar opportunity — consumers are expected to spend an estimate...

Ubuntu Budgie Switches to an Xfce Approach to Wayland Published on November 26, 2023 at 12:04AM Last January the Register reported that the Budgie desktop environment was planning to switch from using GNOME to Enlightenment. But this week Budgie's project lead David Mohammed and packaging guru Sam Lane "passed on news of a rift — and indeed possible divorce — between Budgie and Enlightenment," the Register reported. "And it's caused by Wayland." The development team of the Budgie desktop is changing course and will work with the Xfce developers toward Budgie's Wayland future... While Enlightenment does have some Wayland support, in the project's own words this is "still considered experimental and not for regular end users." Mohammed told us... "Progress though towards a full implementation currently doesn't fit into the deemed urgent nature to move to Wayland (Red Hat dropping further X11 development, and questions as to any org...

Putin Says West Cannot Have AI Monopoly So Russia Must Up Its Game Published on November 25, 2023 at 07:30AM Russia President Vladimir Putin on Friday warned that the West should not be allowed to develop a monopoly in the sphere of AI, and said that a much more ambitious Russian strategy for the development of AI would be approved shortly. From a report: China and the United States are leading the development of AI, which many researchers and global leaders think will transform the world and revolutionise society in a way similar to the introduction of computers in the 20th century. Moscow has ambitions to be an AI power too, but its efforts have been set back due to the war in Ukraine which prompted many talented specialists to leave Russia and triggered Western sanctions that have hindered the country's high-tech imports. Speaking to an AI conference in Moscow beside Sberbank CEO German Gref, Putin said that trying to ban AI was impossible despite the sometimes troubling ethic...

China's Secretive Sunway Pro CPU Quadruples Performance Over Its Predecessor Published on November 25, 2023 at 06:06AM An anonymous reader shares a report: Earlier this year, the National Supercomputing Center in Wuxi (an entity blacklisted in the U.S.) launched its new supercomputer based on the enhanced China-designed Sunway SW26010 Pro processors with 384 cores. Sunway's SW26010 Pro CPU not only packs more cores than its non-Pro SW26010 predecessor, but it more than quadrupled FP64 compute throughput due to microarchitectural and system architecture improvements, according to Chips and Cheese. However, while the manycore CPU is good on paper, it has several performance bottlenecks. The first details of the manycore Sunway SW26010 Pro CPU and supercomputers that use it emerged back in 2021. Now, the company has showcased actual processors and disclosed more details about their architecture and design, which represent a significant leap in performance, recently at SC23. The ...

China Supplies Data To WHO About Clusters of Respiratory Illness Published on November 25, 2023 at 01:30AM Chinese health authorities have provided the requested data on an increase in respiratory illnesses and reported clusters of pneumonia in children, and have not detected any unusual or novel pathogens, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. From a report: The WHO had asked China for more information on Wednesday after groups including the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases reported clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children in north China. As per the rule, China responded to the WHO within 24 hours. The WHO had sought epidemiologic and clinical information as well as laboratory results through the International Health Regulations mechanism. Epidemiologists have warned that as, China heads into its first winter since the lifting of zero-Covid restrictions, natural levels of immunity to respiratory viruses may be lower than normal, leading to an increase in infections....