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JoeMerchant writes:

fliptop writes:Microsoft, long a symbol of American innovation, is now offering a voluntary early retirement program that targets thousands of its most seasoned U.S. employees. Framed as a generous opportunity for longtime workers, the move instead reveals a deeper corporate calculus: trimming payroll of experienced Americans to redirect resources toward artificial intelligence infrastructure and, likely, a younger, often less expensive workforce:

anubi writes:The ability to Side load Android may be going awayI just ran across this while bringing up another Android phone:It is linked from the F-Droid website:

anubi writes:I thought you guys might like this ..Somebody has some 'splainin' to do!https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/claude-powered-ai-coding-agent-deletes-entire-company-database-in-9-seconds-backups-zapped-after-cursor-tool-powered-by-anthropics-claude-goes-rogue

HowdyDoody writes:University of Oregon scientists repurposed battery-testing tool to better measure coffee's flavor profile:

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:https://mashable.com/article/nasa-nancy-grace-roman-space-telescope-explained

An Anonymous Coward writes:https://www.phoronix.com/news/MS-Azure-Linux-Fedora-Based

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:https://gizmodo.com/chinas-biggest-streaming-platform-wants-most-of-its-new-films-to-be-ai-generated-2000748454

An Anonymous Coward writes:https://9to5linux.com/tails-7-7-anonymous-distro-adds-detection-of-outdated-secure-boot-certificates

"c0lo" writes:Antarctica just saw the fastest glacier collapse ever recorded:

fliptop writes:Meta Platforms and Amazon.com agreed to a multibillion-dollar deal over several years in which the social-media company will usetens of millions of Amazon Web Services' Graviton chip cores to support its AI agents and other AI initiatives:

An Anonymous Coward writes:Mozilla shipped it in Firefox 149 without a mention in the release notes:

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:Engineers are working on a long-term plan to keep the iconic spacecraft alive:

An Anonymous Coward writes:https://linuxiac.com/someone-made-a-windows-95-subsystem-for-linux/

hubie writes:A UBC study finds raccoons solve puzzles even without food rewards, suggesting they are driven by curiosity and information-seeking:

hubie writes:Hydrogen atmosphere could keep exomoons habitable for billions of years:

hubie writes:Smart ceramics reveal a new way to control heat transfer, boosting thermal conductivity nearly threefold:

JoeMerchant writes:https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/federal-surveillance-tech-becomes-mandatory-161321992.htmlSection 24220 of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, requires NHTSA to finalize rules forcing all new passenger vehicles to include "advanced impaired driving prevention technology": infrared cameras and sensors which perform a constant biometric assessment of driver alertness and sobriety.The tech involves infrared cameras mounted on steering columns or A-pillars, tracking eye movement, pupil dilation, and drowsiness patterns. Your car watches and decides whether you're fit to drive.Timeline for ImplementationThe surveillance rollout targets late 2026 to 2027 for all new passenger vehicles.While NHTSA's final rule faced delays beyond the November 2024 deadline, automakers will still get 2-3 years for full implementation once regulations are finalized.The timing coincides with broader automotive software integration, making these systems potentially updatable through over-the-air patches-expanding monitoring capabilities post-purchase.-----My deepest apologies to the world for any small part I may have played in this development. In 2012 I submitted an "idea" paper to an anonymous solicitor asking for ways to better integrate smartphones with in-vehicle systems. In that paper (which I wrote carelessly off the top of my head) I suggested that automobiles should abandon the then current practice of using under-powered embedded systems and instead install a desktop level capability computer utilizing standard development tools. I also pointed out the ability of such a system to use OpenCV to perform this kind of monitoring as an opt-in, or parental control type of system - not really thinking through the (not obvious at the time) future of insurance and federally mandated continuous monitoring of all drivers (as Elmo has already demonstrated broad popular compliance with in his Tesla products...) They awarded me 3rd place in the competiton and sent me a check for $2000, which came at a very good time for the family - having been laid off in the post-Afghanistan pullout techonomic upheaval. I'm sure I'm not the only one to point out these things around that time...Original SubmissionRead more of this story at SoylentNews.

fliptop writes:An Apple-backed trade group prematurely published a press release on April 12th praising a yet-to-be-introduced Senate bill, raising questions about coordination between Big Tech companies and lawmakers on child safety legislation:

An Anonymous Coward writes:https://itsfoss.com/news/tuta-drive-closed-beta/

"c0lo" writes:The practice impacts consumers beyond the grocery store. Car dealerships can be dynamic pricing traps, too, the FTC said last year:

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:It adds to the body of evidence that the Red Planet once contained the building blocks of life:

An Anonymous Coward writes:The influencers claim that products such as patches, gums and pouches utilize the 'natural' product and that it has been unfairly condemned by the medical establishment:

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:Gold-based substrates create major cost barriers for mass production:

"Fnord666" writes:What makes a person keep playing a video slot machine? Some of the same features that make children stay on social media apps or video games for too long:

AnonTechie writes:[Source]: Anthropocene Magazine

"c0lo" writes:Governments want to move away from "platforms over which we have no control," says Dutch minister:

"Fnord666" writes:The Dumbest Hack of the Year Exposed a Very Real Problem:

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:The Smash program focuses on processing, not mining:

"Fnord666" writes:A stubborn misconception is hampering the already hard work of quantum readiness:

AnonTechie writes:https://www.techdirt.com/2026/04/23/france-keeps-breaking-the-internet-to-stop-piracy-even-though-its-not-working/

"c0lo" writes:Physicists witness pinpricks of darkness moving faster than the speed of light - without breaking the laws of relativity:

An Anonymous Coward writes:https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=showheadline&story=20169

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:MIT scientists create a detailed map of exactly what happens in the brains of C. elegans worms:

"Fnord666" writes:Schematik is a program that aims to help people vibe code for physical devices. Hopefully, it won't blow anything up:

An Anonymous Coward writes:Prego's Connection Keeper is a screen-free voice recorder designed to capture and preserve dinner table conversation:

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:Dud contracts, proprietary designs, and zero-experience supplier make for quite the mess:

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:Good news for those working with Windows, bad news for Paragon Software:

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:It's an important step towards managing large and complex genetic data:

fliptop writes:Registrations of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in Europe's key automotive markets surged by 51% in March as the Iran war pushed gasoline prices to multi-year highs, data published by research firm New Automotive and trade association E-Mobility Europe showed on Monday:

An Anonymous Coward writes:A postcard spy:

VLM writes:Here's one that's been making the rounds:https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.21852"A single two-input gate suffices for all of Boolean logic in digital hardware. No comparable primitive has been known for continuous mathematics: computing elementary functions such as sin, cos, sqrt, and log has always required multiple distinct operations. Here I show that a single binary operator, eml(x,y)=exp(x)-ln(y), together with the constant 1, generates the standard repertoire of a scientific calculator. This includes constants such as e, pi, and i; arithmetic operations including addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and exponentiation as well as the usual transcendental and algebraic functions."Discussion ideas:1) Yes everyone knows there's not one, but two universal logic gates, anything made of NAND gates can be made of NOR gates and vice versa. So there's possibly at least one other "universal computation" for continuous math.2) Who's playing with the idea of computer/microcontroller FPUs that use nothing but this operation, super optimized? I think this is funny to think about even if impractical.3) Ditto analog computation. Analog opamp subtraction ain't rocket surgery, and old fashioned bipolar transistors can output logs and exponentials or you can use single chip devices to calculate logs and exponentials. I'm trying to wrap my head around using the AD633 universal multiplier... This could get expensive.4) You can do this on a slide rule for educational purposes. You need a rule with LL scales or at least L and C/D. I have to think about this some more.Original SubmissionRead more of this story at SoylentNews.

dw861 writes:As recently reported by CyberAlberta:A webinar hosting platform known as WebinarTV is actively scraping and redistributing both public and private Zoom webinars without knowledge or consent of organizers. Initial access is typically gained through third-party browser extensions such as AI-powered transcription or auto-join tools. These extensions are inadvertently provided calendar permissions by their users and, in some cases, users are willfully submitting meeting details to the WebinarTV platform without the knowledge or consent of the organizers.There have been many reports on social media as well as online review boards indicating hidden scraping of not just publicly advertised webinars, but supposedly private meetings as well. Many organizers reported first learning that their webinars had been made publicly available through a notification email from WebinarTV themselves.Once these tools join a meeting-either with or on behalf of a user-the session content is captured and subsequently published on WebinarTV.us. By analysing previews of uploaded webinars, CyberAlberta validated claims made by online users that WebinarTV uses screen capture to scrape content, rather than using Zoom's built-in "Record" function. The available previews display screenshots consistent with a screen-captured view, rather than the format produced by a native Zoom recording.WebinarTV appears to operate a business model centered around a promotional service called "Lead Advantage", which it offers for a fee. The platform scrapes webinars en masse and positions itself as a facilitator to help these webinars reach a broader audience, which in the case of private webinars is the opposite intention. According to WebinarTV's FAQs, Lead Advantage enables "hosts" (a term it uses to refer to individuals whose content has been scraped) to "promote their webinars through web placements, email distribution, and higher prominence directory listings". The service encourages these hosts to bid for increased exposure, with bidding starting at USD $20.Read more of this story at SoylentNews.

hubie writes:A study introduces an innovative framework for translating biomolecular data from archaeological materials into scent recreations:

hubie writes:A state bill is a glimpse of how corporations are limiting people's ability to make their own fixes and upgrades:

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:https://gizmodo.com/sperm-whales-speak-with-their-own-unique-alphabet-scientists-found-they-even-have-vowels-2000746968

owl writes:https://bravenewteams.substack.com/p/the-friction-we-forgot

hubie writes:Total Solar Eclipse Led to Seismic Quiet for Cities Within its Path:

c0lo writes:A Fresh Scar on the Moon: Newly Discovered Crater Reveals Recent Impact:

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/europol-launches-operation-poweroff-warns-75-000-ddos-users-and-takes-down-53-domains