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An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBC News: Online streaming services operating in Canada will be required to contribute five percent of their Canadian revenues to support the domestic broadcasting system, the country's telecoms regulator said on Tuesday. The money will be used to boost funding for local and Indigenous broadcasting, officials from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) said in a briefing. "Today's decision will help ensure that online streaming services make meaningful contributions to Canadian and Indigenous content," wrote CRTC chief executive and chair Vicky Eatrides in a statement. The measure was introduced under the auspices of a law passed last year designed to make sure that companies like Netflix make a more significant contribution to Canadian culture. The government says the legislation will ensure that online streaming services promote Canadian music and stories, and support Canadian jobs. Funding will also be directed to French-language content and content created by official language minority communities, as well as content created by equity-deserving groups and Canadians of diverse backgrounds. The release also said that online streaming services will "have some flexibility" to send their revenues to support Canadian television directly. [...] The measure, which will start in the 2024-2025 broadcasting year, would raise roughly $200 million annually, CRTC officials said. It will only apply to services that are not already affiliated with Canadian broadcasters. The CMPA was among 20 screen organizations from around the world that signed a statement in January asking governments to impose stronger regulations on streaming companies operating in local markets. One of the demands was a measure that would force companies profiting from their presence in those markets to contribute financially to the creation of new local content."We are disappointed by today's decision and concerned by the negative impact it will have on Canadian consumers. We are assessing the decision in full, but this onerous and inflexible financial levy will be harmful to consumer choice," a spokesperson for Prime Video wrote to CBC News in a statement.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Sarah Perez reports via TechCrunch: After a multi-hour outage that took place in the early hours of the morning, OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot went down again -- but this time, it wasn't the only AI provider affected. On Tuesday morning, both Anthropic's Claude and Perplexity began seeing issues, too, but these were more quickly resolved. Google's Gemini appears to be operating at present, though it may have also briefly gone offline, according to some user reports. It's unusual for three major AI providers to all be down at the same time, which could signal a broader infrastructure issue or internet-scale problem, such as those that affect multiple social media sites simultaneously, for example. It's also possible that Claude and Perplexity's issues were not due to bugs or other issues, but from receiving too much traffic in a short period of time due to ChatGPT's outage.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A donation by former Google chief Eric Schmidt to Europe's top particle physics lab heralds a new way to fund frontier research just as the West's technological race with China quickens. From a report: The European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, will use the previously unreported gift of $48 million [non-paywalled link] from the Eric & Wendy Schmidt Fund for Strategic Innovation to develop AI algorithms to analyze raw data from the lab's Large Hadron Collider, the world's most powerful energy particle accelerator. In 2012, it discovered the Higgs Boson, a particle that's key to understanding how the universe is built. Now, CERN needs to reinvest to stay at the cutting edge of particle physics research. By the late 2030s, the LHC is expected to reach the end of its useful life and CERN needs $17 billion from European nations to fund the construction of a much bigger accelerator, known as the Future Circular Collider. But that funding has yet to be secured and, in the meantime, China has proposed its own collider. raditionally, CERN has relied on contributions from its 23 member states and observer partners like the US for funding pure research, while private investors focus on applied research, according to Charlotte Warakaulle, CERN's director of international relations. That makes the Schmidts' donation to pure research a private-sector first and may herald a different approach to funding the next collider, she says. "We're looking at all sorts of potential partners," Warakaulle said in an interview with Bloomberg last week. "How we could partner with the EU, private investments potentially."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Several broadband industry lobby groups have filed lawsuits against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in an attempt to overturn the recently approved net neutrality rules. The regulations, which prohibit blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization, are scheduled to take effect on July 22. The lawsuits were filed in various US appeals courts by groups representing cable, telecom, and mobile Internet service providers, including NCTA-The Internet & Television Association, USTelecom, CTIA-The Wireless Association, and several state-level associations. The groups argue that the FCC lacks the authority to reclassify broadband as a telecommunications service under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934 without explicit instructions from Congress. In addition to the lawsuits, the industry groups have also petitioned the FCC for a stay of the rules, claiming that their members will suffer irreparable harm if the regulations take effect while litigation is pending. The FCC is expected to reject the petition, but the groups can then seek an injunction from appeals court judges to prevent enforcement. The industry's legal challenge is based on the Supreme Court's evolving approach to the "major questions" doctrine, which limits federal agencies' ability to make decisions on significant issues without clear congressional authorization. However, FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks maintains that the agency's authority to regulate broadband as a telecommunications service is "clear as day."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

jd writes: There aren't many details yet, but a private company used by the National Health Service in London was hit by a ransomware attack today, leading to cancelled operations and cancelled tests. The provider has been hit multiple times this year and is obviously not bothering with making any improvements in cybersecurity. There really should be legal requirements when it comes to maintaining what is de-facto critical infrastructure. From the article: "Major NHS hospitals in London have been hit by a cyber-attack, which is seriously disrupting their services, including blood tests and transfusions. The ransomware attack is having a "major impact" on the care provided by Guy's and St Thomas' NHS trust, its chief executive has told staff in a letter. The attack is understood to affect other hospitals, including King's College hospital, and has left them unable to connect to the servers of the private firm that provides their pathology services. Synnovis, an outsourced provider of lab services to NHS trusts across south-east London, was the target of the attack, believed to be a form of ransomware, a piece of software which locks up a computer system to extort a payment for restoring access. According to one healthcare worker, the labs were still functional, but communication with them was limited to paper only, imposing a huge bottleneck and forcing cancellation or reassignment of all but the most urgent bloodwork. Direct connections with Synnovis' servers were cut to limit the risk of the infection spreading. ...This is the third attack in the last year to hit part of the Synlab group, a German medical services provider with subsidiaries across Europe. In June 2023, ransomware gang Clop hacked and stole data from the French branch of the company just days after it hit headlines for bringing down a payroll provider for companies including BA, Boots and the BBC. Clop published the stolen data later that summer."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Intel Chief Executive Officer Pat Gelsinger took the stage at the Computex show in Taiwan to talk about new products he expects will help turn back the tide of share losses to peers, including AI leader Nvidia. From a report: Intel showed its new Xeon 6 data center processors with more efficient cores that will allow operators to cut down the space required for a given task to a third of prior-generation hardware. Like rivals, from Advanced Micro Devices to Qualcomm, Intel touted benchmarks that showed its new silicon is significantly better than its existing options. AMD and Qualcomm's CEOs, in earlier Computex keynotes, used Intel's laptop and desktop processors to show how far ahead they are in certain aspects of technology. Gelsinger took a direct shot at Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's claim that traditional processors like Intel's are running out of steam in the age of artificial intelligence. "Unlike what Jensen would have you believe, Moore's Law is alive and well," he said, stressing that Intel will have a major role to play in the proliferation of AI as the leading provider of PC chips. "I think of it like the internet 25 years ago, it's that big," Gelsinger said. "We see this as the fuel that's driving the semiconductor industry to reach $1 trillion by the end of the decade."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Chinese people know their country's internet is different. There is no Google, YouTube, Facebook or Twitter. They use euphemisms online to communicate the things they are not supposed to mention. When their posts and accounts are censored, they accept it with resignation. They live in a parallel online universe. They know it and even joke about it. Now they are discovering that, beneath a facade bustling with short videos, livestreaming and e-commerce, their internet -- and collective online memory -- is disappearing in chunks. A post on WeChat on May 22 that was widely shared reported that nearly all information posted on Chinese news portals, blogs, forums, social media sites between 1995 and 2005 was no longer available. "The Chinese internet is collapsing at an accelerating pace," the headline said. Predictably, the post itself was soon censored. It's impossible to determine exactly how much and what content has disappeared. [...] In addition to disappearing content, there's a broader problem: China's internet is shrinking. There were 3.9 million websites in China in 2023, down more than a third from 5.3 million in 2017, according to the country's internet regulator.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A group of current and former employees from OpenAI and Google DeepMind are calling for protection from retaliation for sharing concerns about the "serious risks" of the technologies these and other companies are building. From a report: "So long as there is no effective government oversight of these corporations, current and former employees are among the few people who can hold them accountable to the public," according to a public letter, which was signed by 13 people who've worked at the companies, seven of whom included their names. "Yet broad confidentiality agreements block us from voicing our concerns, except to the very companies that may be failing to address these issues." In recent weeks, OpenAI has faced controversy about its approach to safeguarding artificial intelligence after dissolving one of its most high-profile safety teams and being hit by a series of staff departures. OpenAI employees have also raised concerns that staffers were asked to sign nondisparagement agreements tied to their shares in the company, potentially causing them to lose out on lucrative equity deals if they speak out against the AI startup. After some pushback, OpenAI said it would release past employees from the agreements.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

AmiMoJo shares a report: The world is off track to meet the goal of tripling renewable electricity generation by 2030, a target viewed as vital to enable a swift global transition away from fossil fuels, but there are promising signs that the pace of progress may be picking up. Countries agreed last December on a tripling of renewable power by the end of this decade. But few have yet taken concrete steps to meet this requirement and on current policies and trends global renewable generation capacity would only roughly double in developed countries, and slightly more than double globally by 2030, according to an analysis by the International Energy Agency. Governments should include targets and policies on renewables in their national action plans for the climate (called nationally determined contributions, or NDCs), which are a requirement under the Paris agreement, the IEA found. Many currently fail to do so, even though vast increases in renewable power are essential to meeting the treaty's aspiration of limiting temperature rises to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. The IEA, the gold standard for global energy research, analysed the domestic policies and targets of nearly 150 countries, and found they would result in about 8,000GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030. That amount is about 70% of what is necessary to reach 11,000GW of capacity, the amount needed for the tripling goal agreed at the Cop28 UN climate summit in Dubai last year.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

By 2050, 61% of U.S. adults will have cardiovascular disease, driven mainly by high blood pressure, according to new American Heart Association research. High blood pressure significantly increases the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and other dangerous cardiovascular problems. The findings also point to ongoing challenges with arrhythmias, heart failure, and congenital heart disease. CNN: In the research published Tuesday, the association predicts that 45 million adults will have some form of cardiovascular disease -- excluding high blood pressure -- or will have a stroke in 2050, up from 28 million in 2020. An aging population will be another force behind these trends, as the older you get, the more likely you are to have heart problems. By 2050, 22% of the US will be over the age of 65, whereas seniors made up just 13% of the population 10 years ago, studies say. The median age in the US is projected to increase from 37 in 2010 to 41 in 2050, other research shows. The American population is also becoming more diverse, and communities of color tend to have a disproportionate number of heart problems. By 2050, people who identify as Hispanic will make up about a quarter of the US population, vs. about 20% today, and people who identify as Black will be 14.4% of the country, up from 13.6% today. The number of people who identify as Asian will also increase, from 6.2% of the population to 8.6%, according to US Census predictions.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shares a report: A Ticketmaster data breach that allegedly includes details for 560 million accounts and another one affecting Santander have been linked to their accounts at Snowflake, a cloud storage provider. However, Snowflake says there's no evidence its platform is at fault. A joint statement to that effect made last night with CrowdStrike and Mandiant, two third-party security companies investigating the incident, lends additional credibility to the claim. Also, an earlier third-party report saying bad actors generated session tokens and may have compromised "hundreds" of Snowflake accounts has now been removed. Hudson Rock, the security firm behind that report, posted a statement of its own today on LinkedIn: "In accordance to a letter we received from Snowflake's legal counsel, we have decided to take down all content related to our report." A post from Snowflake says, "To date, we do not believe this activity is caused by any vulnerability, misconfiguration, or malicious activity within the Snowflake product. Throughout the course of our ongoing investigation, we have promptly informed the limited number of customers who we believe may have been impacted."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus VR and Anduril, has launched the ModRetro Chromatic, a retro gaming handheld that plays original Game Boy and Game Boy Color cartridges. The device boasts a magnesium alloy case, sapphire crystal screen, and a pixel-perfect IPS display. It comes bundled with a licensed copy of Tetris and supports Link Cable multiplayer. Luckey suggested that the Chromatic is the most authentic way to play Game Boy games, with custom components designed to provide the ultimate gaming experience. The handheld is available for preorder and will ship during the 2024 holiday season.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from PCMag: Justin Long, the actor known for playing the Mac guy in Apple's mid-2000s ad campaign is once again switching sides -- this time to promote new Windows laptops from Qualcomm. Long appeared in a video that Qualcomm showed during its Computex keynote. To introduce the segment, CEO Cristiano Amon said Qualcomm captured video of a "very special person" preordering a Windows Copilot+ laptop built with a Snapdragon X Elite chip. In the clip, we see Long typing on an Apple MacBook at home and getting annoyed by all the incoming notifications, which include warnings that his laptop only has a 1% battery life and is running out of disk space. Long types in a search for "Where can I find a Snapdragon-powered PC?" and then stares at the camera, looking a bit ashamed, before saying: "What? Things change." Amon then returned to the stage to tell the Computex audience: "Yes, things change." In 2021, Long starred in an Intel ad campaign to promote the company's Windows PCs. Further reading: Arm Targets 50% of Windows PC Market Share in Five Years, CEO SaysRead more of this story at Slashdot.

The PlayStation VR2's PC adapter is arriving on August 7th, allowing PC support for the PS5-exclusive headset. It'll cost $59.99. The Verge reports: Sony says the device will support all Steam VR games, including big-name titles like Half-Life: Alyx. In addition to the new adapter, Sony says players will need a DisplayPort cable to work with Steam titles on PC. (As well as a Steam account, obviously.) You can check out the minimum system requirements right here. In a blog post, Sony explains that there will be some feature differences depending on whether you're playing on PS5 or PC: "PS VR2 was designed from the ground up specifically for PS5 -- so you'll notice that some key features, like HDR, headset feedback, eye tracking, adaptive triggers, and haptic feedback (other than rumble), are not available when playing on PC. However, other high-fidelity and sensory immersion features of PS VR2 are supported, including 4K visuals (2000 x 2040 per eye), 110-degree field of view, finger touch detection, and see-through view, as well as foveated rendering (without eye tracking) and 3D Audio in supported games."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Due to complications with a mechanical heart pump, surgeons in New York removed a pig kidney from Lisa Pisano less than two months after transplanting it. The genetically engineered pig kidney did not show signs of rejection but suffered from inadequate blood flow. Wired reports: Pisano was facing heart and kidney failure and required routine dialysis. She wasn't eligible to receive a traditional heart and kidney transplant from a human donor because of several chronic medical conditions that reduced the likelihood of a good outcome. Pisano first received a heart pump at NYU Langone Health on April 4, followed by the pig kidney transplant on April 12. The heart pump, a device called a left ventricular assist device or LVAD, is used in patients who are either awaiting heart transplantation or otherwise aren't a candidate for a heart transplant. In a statement provided to WIRED, Pisano's medical team explained that they electively removed the pig kidney on May 29-47 days after transplant -- after several episodes of the heart pump not being able to pass enough blood through the transplanted kidney. Steady blood flow is important so that the kidney can produce urine and filter waste. Without it, Pisano's kidney function began to decline. "On balance, the kidney was no longer contributing enough to justify continuing the immunosuppression regimen," said Robert Montgomery, director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute, in the statement. Like traditional transplant patients, Pisano needed to take immunosuppressive drugs to prevent her immune system from rejecting the donor organ. The kidney came from a pig genetically engineered by Virginia biotech company Revivicor to lack a gene responsible for the production of a sugar known as alpha-gal. In previous studies at NYU Langone, researchers found that removing this sugar prevented immediate rejection of the organ when transplanted into brain-dead patients. During Pisano's surgery, the donor pig's thymus gland, which is responsible for "educating" the immune system, was also transplanted to reduce the likelihood of rejection. A recent biopsy did not show signs of rejection, but Pisano's kidney was injured due to a lack of blood flow, according to the statement. The team plans to study the explanted pig kidney to learn more.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: Billions of records detailing people's personal information may soon be dumped online after being allegedly obtained from a Florida firm that handles background checks and other requests for folks' private info. A criminal gang that goes by the handle USDoD put the database up for sale for $3.5 million on an underworld forum in April, and rather incredibly claimed the trove included 2.9 billion records on all US, Canadian, and British citizens. It's believed one or more miscreants using the handle SXUL was responsible for the alleged exfiltration, who passed it onto USDoD, which is acting as a broker. The pilfered information is said to include individuals' full names, addresses, and address history going back at least three decades, social security numbers, and people's parents, siblings, and relatives, some of whom have been dead for nearly 20 years. According to USDoD, this info was not scraped from public sources, though there may be duplicate entries for people in the database. Fast forward to this month, and the infosec watchers at VX-Underground say they've not only been able to view the database and verify that at least some of its contents are real and accurate, but that USDoD plans to leak the trove. Judging by VX-Underground's assessment, the 277.1GB file contains nearly three billion records on people who've at least lived in the United States -- so US citizens as well as, say, Canadians and Brits. This info was allegedly stolen or otherwise obtained from National Public Data, a small information broker based in Coral Springs that offers API lookups to other companies for things like background checks. There is a small silver lining, according to the VX team: "The database DOES NOT contain information from individuals who use data opt-out services. Every person who used some sort of data opt-out service was not present." So, we guess this is a good lesson in opting out.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

AMD is reverting to a simpler, more traditional numbering scheme for its laptop processors, abandoning its recent complex "decoder ring" system. The new system for Ryzen AI laptop processors will use a three-digit model number to denote generation and SKU, aligning more closely with industry norms. Ars Technica reports: For its new Ryzen AI laptop processors, codenamed "Strix Point," AMD is still using the same broad Ryzen 3/5/7/9 number to communicate general performance level plus a one- or two-letter suffix to denote general performance and power level (U for ultraportables, HX for higher-performance chips, and so on). A new three-digit processor number will inform buyers of the chip's generation in the first digit and denote the specific SKU using the last two digits. In other words, the company is essentially hitting the undo button. Like Intel, AMD is shifting from four-digit numbers to three digits. The Strix Point processor numbers will start with the 300 series, which AMD says is because this is the third generation of Ryzen laptop processors with a neural processing unit (NPU) included. Current 7040-series and 8040-series processors with NPUs are not being renamed retroactively, and AMD plans to stop using the 7000- and 8000-series numbering for processor introductions going forward. AMD wouldn't describe exactly how it would approach CPU model numbers for new products that used older architectures but did say that new processors that didn't meet the 40+ TOPS requirement for Microsoft's Copilot+ program would simply use the "Ryzen" name instead of the new "Ryzen AI" branding. That would include older architectures with slower NPUs, like the current 7040 and 8040-series chips. Desktop CPUs are, once again, totally unaffected by this change. Desktop processors' four-digit model numbers and alphabetic suffixes generally tell you all you need to know about their underlying architecture; the new Ryzen 9000 desktop CPUs and the Zen 5 architecture were also announced today. It seems like a lot of work to do to end up basically where we started, especially when the people at AMD who make and market the desktop chips have been getting by just fine with older model numbers for newly released products when appropriate. But to be fair to AMD, there just isn't a great way to do processor model numbers in a simple and consistent way, at least not given current market realities [...].Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Lawmakers in New York have reached a tentative agreement to "prohibit social-media companies from using algorithms to steer content to children without parental consent (source paywalled; alternative source)," according to the Wall Street Journal. "The legislation is aimed at preventing social-media companies from serving automated feeds to minors. The bill, which is still being completed but expected to be voted on this week, also would prohibit platforms from sending minors notifications during overnight hours without parental consent." Meanwhile, the results of New York's first mental health report were released today, finding that depression and anxiety are rampant among NYC's teenagers, "with nearly half of them experiencing symptoms from one of both in recent years," reports NBC New York. "In a recent survey conducted last year, 48% of teenagers reported feeling depressive symptoms ranging from mild to severe. The vast majority, however, reported feeling high levels of resilience. Frequent coping mechanisms include listening to music and using social media."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Ansel Adams estate said it was "officially on our last nerve" after Adobe was caught selling AI-generated images imitating the late photographer's work. The Verge reports: While Adobe permits AI-generated images to be hosted and sold on its stock image platform, users are required to hold the appropriate rights or ownership over the content they upload. Adobe Stock's Contributor Terms specifically prohibits content "created using prompts containing other artist names, or created using prompts otherwise intended to copy another artist." Adobe responded to the callout, saying it had removed the offending content and had privately messaged the Adams estate to get in touch directly in the future. The Adams estate, however, said it had contacted Adobe directly multiple times since August 2023. "Assuming you want to be taken seriously re: your purported commitment to ethical, responsible AI, while demonstrating respect for the creative community, we invite you to become proactive about complaints like ours, & to stop putting the onus on individual artists/artists' estates to continuously police our IP on your platform, on your terms," said the Adams estate on Threads. "It's past time to stop wasting resources that don't belong to you." Adobe Stock Vice President Matthew Smith previously told The Verge that the company generally moderates all "crowdsourced" Adobe Stock assets before they are made available to customers, employing a "variety" of methods that include "an experienced team of moderators who review submissions." As of January 2024, Smith said the strongest action the company can take to enforce its platform rules is to block Adobe Stock users who violate them. Bassil Elkadi, Adobe's Director of Communications and Public Relations, told The Verge that Adobe is "actively in touch with Ansel Adams on this matter," and that "appropriate steps were taken given the user violated Stock terms." The Adams estate has since thanked Adobe for removing the images, and said that it expects "it will stick this time." "We don't have a problem with anyone taking inspiration from Ansel's photography," said the Adams estate. "But we strenuously object to the unauthorized use of his name to sell products of any kind, including digital products, and this includes AI-generated output -- regardless of whether his name has been used on the input side, or whether a given model has been trained on his work."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Android Authority: Like many other phone makers, Google has a self-repair program for servicing your damaged or malfunctioning Pixel device. As its support site explains, there are options to get repair tools, manuals, and certified parts so you can fix up your Pixel like new. Owners can also choose to simply send their device in to have it repaired professionally. As replacement parts can be expensive, some DIYers choose to use parts from third-party suppliers. But if you go down this route, you may want to avoid sending your device to Google if there's a problem you don't have the skills to fix on your own. As YouTuber Louis Rossmann discovered, Google's service and repair terms and conditions contain a concerning stipulation. The document states that Google will keep your device if a non-OEM part is found. Apparently, this rule has been in effect since July 19, 2023, as marked on the page. Last week, iFixit said they are parting ways with Samsung because the company "does not seem interested in enabling repair at scale." A separate report from 404 Media found that Samsung requires independent repair shops to give them the name, contact information, phone identifier, and customer complaint details of everyone who gets their phone repaired at these shops. "Stunningly, it also requires these nominally independent shops to 'immediately disassemble' any phones that customers have brought them that have been previously repaired with aftermarket or third-party parts and to 'immediately notify' Samsung that the customer has used third-party parts," reports 404 Media.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

TorrentFreak's Ernesto Van der Sar recalls the rise and fall of Napster, the file-sharing empire that kickstarted a global piracy frenzy 25 years ago. Here's an excerpt from his report: At the end of the nineties, technology and the Internet were a playground for young engineers and 'hackers'. Some of them regularly gathered in the w00w00 IRC chatroom on the EFnet network. This tech-think-tank had many notable members, including WhatsApp founder Jan Koum and Shawn Fanning, who logged on with the nickname Napster. In 1998, 17-year-old Fanning shared an idea with the group. 'Napster' wanted to create a network of computers that could share files with each other. More specifically, a central music database that everyone in the world could access. This idea never left the mind of the young developer. Fanning stopped going to school and flanked by his friend Sean Parker, devoted the following months to making his vision a reality. That moment came on June 1, 1999, when the first public release of Napster was released online. Soon after, the software went viral. Napster was quickly embraced by millions of users, who saw the software as something magical. It was a gateway for musical exploration, one that dwarfed even the largest record stores in town. And all for free. It sounds mundane today, but some equated it to pure technological sorcery. For many top players in the music industry, Napster's sorcery was pure witchcraft. At the time, manufacturing CDs with high profit margins felt like printing money and Napster's appearance threatened to ruin the party. [...] At the start of 2001, Napster's user base reached a peak of more than 26.4 million worldwide. Yet, despite huge growth and backing from investors, the small file-sharing empire couldn't overcome the legal challenges. The RIAA lawsuit resulted in an injunction from the Ninth Circuit Court, which ordered the network to shut down. This happened during July 2001, little more than two years after Napster launched. By September that year, the case had been settled for millions of dollars. While the Napster craze was over, file-sharing had mesmerized the masses and the genie was out of the bottle. Grokster, KaZaa, Morpheus, LimeWire, and many others popped up and provided sharing alternatives, for as long as they lasted. Meanwhile, BitTorrent was also knocking on the door. "Napster paved the way for Apple's iTunes store, to serve the demand that was clearly there," notes Ernesto. "This music streaming landscape was largely pioneered by a Napster 'fan' from Sweden, Daniel Ek." "Like many others, Ek was fascinated by the 'all you can play' experience offered by file-sharing software, and that planted the seeds for the music streaming startup Spotify, where he still serves as CEO today. In fact, Spotify itself used file-sharing technology under the hood to ensure swift playback."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

After growing concerned about potential stock manipulation, E*Trade is "considering telling meme-stock leader Keith Gill he can no longer use its platform," reports the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter. Gill, known online as "Roaring Kitty," gained notoriety for his role in the 2020 meme stock frenzy, where he encouraged amateur investors to buy GameStop shares, significantly driving up the stock price and challenging hedge funds. Just hours ago, Roaring Kitty announced he bought $116 million worth of GameStop options and stocks. Developing...Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda apologized Monday for massive cheating on certification tests for seven vehicle models as the automaker suspended production of three of them. The wide-ranging fraudulent testing at Japan's top automaker involved the use of inadequate or outdated data in collision tests, and incorrect testing of airbag inflation and rear-seat damage in crashes. Engine power tests were also found to have been falsified. Toyota Motor Corp., based in Toyota city, central Japan, suspended production in the country of the Corolla Fielder, Corolla Axio and Yaris Cross. The deceptive tests were also found on discontinued models. The company said the wrongdoing does not affect the safety of the vehicles already on roads, which include the Corolla subcompact and Lexus luxury vehicles. "We sincerely apologize," Toyoda told reporters, bowing deeply and holding the position for several seconds, as is customary in Japan at news conferences where companies apologize for misbehavior. A Japanese government investigation into Toyota began in January. The issue does not affect Toyota's overseas production. Mazda and Honda also reported cheating on its vehicle testing. Mazda said incorrect engine control software was used in the tests. Meanwhile, the "improper tests" conducted by Honda included "those on noise levels and torque, on a range of models," according to the Associated Press. "Honda said affected older models -- the Accord, Odyssey and Fit -- are no longer in production. The safety of the vehicles is not affected, it said."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Samsung isn't waiting around for Oura to file any patent claims over its forthcoming smart ring. Instead, it's preemptively filed its own suit against Oura, seeking a "declaratory judgment" that states the Galaxy Ring doesn't infringe on five Oura patents. The suit alleges that Oura has a pattern of filing patent suits against competitors based on "features common to virtually all smart rings." In particular, the suit references sensors, electronics, batteries, and scores based on metrics gathered from sensors. The case lists instances in which Oura sued rivals like Ultrahuman, Circular, and RingConn, sometimes before they even entered the US market. For those reasons, Samsung says in the suit that it anticipates being the target of an Oura suit.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The next "Spider-Verse" film may have a new animation style: AI. From a report: Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) CEO Tony Vinciquerra does not mince words when it comes to AI. He likes the tech -- or at the very least, he likes the economics. "We are very focused on AI. The biggest problem with making films today is the expense," Vinciquerra said at Sony's Thursday (Friday in Japan) investor event. "We will be looking at ways to...produce both films for theaters and television in a more efficient way, using AI primarily." That's about the strongest support for AI we've heard from a film studio head. "We had an 8-month strike over AI last year," Vinciquerra began his response to the first analyst question (from Nomura Securities) during his Q&A portion of the annual event. He also acknowledged that ongoing IATSE talks and the forthcoming Teamsters negotiations are "both over AI again." The sum total of those discussions between Hollywood's workers and its studios will inform just how far Vinciquerra and others can go. "The agreements that came out of last year's strikes and the agreements that come out of the IATSE and Teamsters [negotiations] will define roughly what we can do with AI," Vinciquerra said.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Google has accidentally collected childrens' voice data, leaked the trips and home addresses of car pool users, and made YouTube recommendations based on users' deleted watch history, among thousands of other employee-reported privacy incidents, according to a copy of an internal Google database which tracks six years worth of potential privacy and security issues obtained by 404 Media. From the report: Individually the incidents, most of which have not been previously publicly reported, may only each impact a relatively small number of people, or were fixed quickly. Taken as a whole, though, the internal database shows how one of the most powerful and important companies in the world manages, and often mismanages, a staggering amount of personal, sensitive data on people's lives. The data obtained by 404 Media includes privacy and security issues that Google's own employees reported internally. These include issues with Google's own products or data collection practices; vulnerabilities in third party vendors that Google uses; or mistakes made by Google staff, contractors, or other people that have impacted Google systems or data. The incidents include everything from a single errant email containing some PII, through to substantial leaks of data, right up to impending raids on Google offices. When reporting an incident, employees give the incident a priority rating, P0 being the highest, P1 being a step below that. The database contains thousands of reports over the course of six years, from 2013 to 2018. In one 2016 case, a Google employee reported that Google Street View's systems were transcribing and storing license plate numbers from photos. They explained that Google uses an algorithm to detect text in Street View imagery.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

CarbonBrief: China's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions fell by 3% in March 2024, ending a 14-month surge that began when the economy reopened after the nation's "zero-Covid" controls were lifted in December 2022. The new analysis for Carbon Brief, based on official figures and commercial data, reinforces the view that China's emissions could have peaked in 2023. The drivers of the CO2 drop in March 2024 were expanding solar and wind generation, which covered 90% of the growth in electricity demand, as well as declining construction activity. Oil demand growth also ground to a halt, indicating that the post-Covid rebound may have run its course. A 2023 peak in China's CO2 emissions is possible if the buildout of clean energy sources is kept at the record levels seen last year.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The New York Stock Exchange said Monday it was investigating a "technical issue" that was leading to large fluctuations in the prices of certain stocks including Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. From a report: According to a notice posted on its website, the issue involved "limit up, limit down bands," which are designed to limit volatility. Some 50 stocks were affected, the website indicated, and trades in those companies was halted. NYSE trading data incorrectly showed so-called Class A shares of Berkshire down 99% from its price above $620,000 a share.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Zoom's CEO Eric Yuan predicts that AI will significantly transform the workplace, potentially ushering in a four-day workweek, he told The Verge in an interview. Yuan said Zoom is transitioning from a videoconferencing platform to a comprehensive collaboration suite called Zoom Workplace. He believes AI will automate routine tasks such as attending meetings, reading emails, and making phone calls, enabling employees to dedicate time to more creative and meaningful work. The Verge adds: The Verge: I'm asking you which meetings do you look at and think you would hand off?Yuan: I started with the problem first, right? And last but not least, after the meeting is over, let's say I'm very busy and missed the meeting. I really don't understand what happened. That's one thing. Another thing for a very important meeting I missed, given I'm the CEO, they're probably going to postpone the meeting. The reason why is I probably need to make a decision. Given that I'm not there, they cannot move forward, so they have to reschedule. You look at all those problems. Let's assume AI is there. AI can understand my entire calendar, understand the context. Say you and I have a meeting -- just one click, and within five seconds, AI has already scheduled a meeting. At the same time, every morning I wake up, an AI will tell me, "Eric, you have five meetings scheduled today. You do not need to join four of the five. You only need to join one. You can send a digital version of yourself." For the one meeting I join, after the meeting is over, I can get all the summary and send it to the people who couldn't make it. I can make a better decision. Again, I can leverage the AI as my assistant and give me all kinds of input, just more than myself. That's the vision.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

British chip designer Arm expects to capture more than half of the Windows PC market within the next five years, CEO Rene Haas said in an interview. The company's optimism comes as Microsoft and its hardware partners gear up to introduce a new generation of AI-powered PCs running on Arm-designed chips, potentially reshaping the Intel-dominated industry. Haas attributed Microsoft's commitment to supporting Arm's technology through enhanced developer tools as a key factor in the anticipated market shift.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The highlight of AMD's presentation Sunday at Computex 2024 was "the introduction of AMD's Ryzen AI 300 Series processors for laptops and the Ryzen 9000 Series for desktops," writes Slashdot reader BrianFagioli (sharing his report at Beta News):AMD's Ryzen AI 300 Series processors, designed for next-generation AI laptops, come with AMD's latest XDNA 2 architecture. This includes a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) that delivers 50 TOPS of AI processing power, significantly enhancing the AI capabilities of laptops. Among the processors announced were the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, which features 12 cores and 24 threads with a boost frequency of 5.1 GHz, and the Ryzen AI 9 365 with 10 cores and 20 threads, boosting up to 5.0 GHz... In the desktop segment, the Ryzen 9000 Series processors, based on the "Zen 5" architecture, demonstrated an average 16% improvement in IPC performance over their predecessors built on the "Zen 4" architecture. The Ryzen 9 9950X stands out with 16 cores and 32 threads, reaching up to 5.7 GHz boost frequency and equipped with 80MB of cache... AMD also reaffirmed its commitment to the AM4 platform by introducing the Ryzen 9 5900XT and Ryzen 7 5800XT processors. These models are compatible with existing AM4 motherboards, providing an economical upgrade path for users. The article adds that AMD also unveiled its Radeon PRO W7900 Dual Slot workstation graphics card - priced at $3,499 - "further broadening its impact on high-performance computing... "AMD also emphasized its strategic partnerships with leading OEMs such as Acer, ASUS, HP, Lenovo, and MSI, who are set to launch systems powered by these new AMD processors." And there's also a software collaboration with Microsoft, reportedly "to enhance the capabilities of AI PCs, thus underscoring AMD's holistic approach to integrating AI into everyday computing."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonytmous reader shared a recent report from BleepingComputer:Cybercriminals are abusing Stack Overflow in an interesting approach to spreading malware - answering users' questions by promoting a malicious PyPi package that installs Windows information-stealing malware... "We further noticed that a StackOverflow account 'EstAYA G' [was] exploiting the platform's community members seeking debugging help [1, 2, 3] by directing them to install this malicious package as a 'solution' to their issue even though the 'solution' is unrelated to the questions posted by developers," explained Sonatype researcher Ax Sharma in the Sonatype report. Sonatype's researcher "noticed that line 17 was laden with ...a bit too many whitespaces," according to the report, "in turn hiding code much further to the right which would be easy to miss, unless you notice the scroll bar. The command executes a base64-encoded payload..." And then, reports BleepingComputer...When deobfuscated, this command will download an executable named 'runtime.exe' from a remote site and execute it. This executable is actually a Python program converted into an .exe that acts as an information-stealing malware to harvest cookies, passwords, browser history, credit cards, and other data from web browsers. It also appears to search through documents for specific phrases and, if found, steal the data as well. All of this information is then sent back to the attacker, who can sell it on dark web markets or use it to breach further accounts owned by the victim.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous Slashdot reader shared this report from Computer Weekly:A former student at the Inns of Court College of Advocacy (ICCA) says he was hauled over the coals by the college for having acted responsibly and "with integrity" in reporting a security blunder that left sensitive information about students exposed. Bartek Wytrzyszczewski faced misconduct proceedings after alerting the college to a data breach exposing sensitive information on hundreds of past and present ICCA students... The ICCA, which offers training to future barristers, informed data protection regulator the Information Commissioner's Office of a breach "experienced" in August 2023 after Wytrzyszczewski alerted the college that sensitive files on nearly 800 students were accessible to other college users via the ICCA's web portal. The breach saw personal data such as email addresses, phone numbers and academic information - including exam marks and previous institutions attended - accessible to students at the college. Students using the ICCA's web portal were also able to access ID photos, as well as student ID numbers and sensitive data, such as health records, visa status and information as to whether they were pregnant or had children...After the college secured a written undertaking from Wytrzyszczewski not to disclose any of the information he had discovered, it launched misconduct proceedings against him. He had stumbled across the files in error, he said, and viewed a significant number to ensure he could report their contents with accuracy. "The panel cleared Wytrzyszczewski and found it had no jurisdiction to hear the matter," according to the article. But he "said the experience caused him to unenroll from the ICCA's course and restart his training at another provider."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

AI models can evaluate how similar voices are to each other. So NPR asked forensic voice experts at Arizona State University to compare the voice and speech patterns of OpenAI's "Sky" to Scarlett Johansson's...The researchers measured Sky, based on audio from demos OpenAI delivered last week, against the voices of around 600 professional actresses. They found that Johansson's voice is more similar to Sky than 98% of the other actresses. Yet she wasn't always the top hit in the multiple AI models that scanned the Sky voice. The researchers found that Sky was also reminiscent of other Hollywood stars, including Anne Hathaway and Keri Russell. The analysis of Sky often rated Hathaway and Russell as being even more similar to the AI than Johansson. The lab study shows that the voices of Sky and Johansson have undeniable commonalities - something many listeners believed, and that now can be supported by statistical evidence, according to Arizona State University computer scientist Visar Berisha, who led the voice analysis in the school's College of Health Solutions and the College of Engineering. "Our analysis shows that the two voices are similar but likely not identical," Berisha said... OpenAI maintains that Sky was not created with Johansson in mind, saying it was never meant to mimic the famous actress. "It's not her voice. It's not supposed to be. I'm sorry for the confusion. Clearly you think it is," Altman said at a conference this week. He said whether one voice is really similar to another will always be the subject of debate.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Gizmodo reports there's been progress on a male birth-control gel "being developed with the help of several organizations, including the U.S. government's National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, part of the larger NIH."It's now being tested in a larger-scale Phase IIB trial, which involves around 400 couples. [Five milliliters of gel - about a teaspon - is applied to each shoulder blade once a day, reports NBC News.] That trial is still ongoing, but researchers have already begun to pore through some of the available data, which has provided encouraging results. In the summer of 2022, for instance, Diana Blithe, chief of the NICHD's Contraceptive Development Program, reported that the NES/T gel's efficacy rate so far appeared to be on par or even better than contraceptive hormonal options for women... The findings are still preliminary, and it will take more time for the full Phase II data to be collected and analyzed. But Blithe and her team have been encouraged by everything they've seen to date. In the team's early assessments, the gel appears to be both effective and safe, with minimal side effects for men taking it... Blithe and her colleagues are set to meet with the FDA next year about the steps needed to begin a larger Phase III trial and are still seeking a commercial partner to help bring the NES/T gel to the market. Initial findings also showed that the contraceptive worked faster than expected, Blithe said, according to NBC News. They add that at least three other companies are also working on male birth control:Also at the Boston conference on Sunday, YourChoice Therapeutics said a very small trial in the U.K. - just 16 men - showed that its nonhormonal pill, YCT-529, was safe and free of side effects. The San Francisco company's nonhormonal pill works by blocking the vitamin A receptor important for male fertility.YourChoice is planning a larger trial, according to CEO Akash Bakshi.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"Few computer keyboards are as iconic, as influential, or as beige as the IBM Model-M," writes the blog OMG Ubuntu adding that it's "no surprise then that it's been given a modern reimagining by 8BitDo."Following on from their Nintendo NES and Famicom and Commodore 64 homages, 8BitDo has unveiled its latest retro-inspired mechanical keyboard. This one pays tribute to a true computing classic: the IBM Model-M keyboard. Lest anyone familiar with the real thing get too excited I'll mention up front that 8BitDo's Keyboard-M is a mechanical keyboard, using Kailh Box V2 white switches (swappable, of course) and not the buckling spring mechanism synonymous with the original. On Linux you can enable a buckling spring sound effect for every key press though, should you buy this and want the clatter to accompany it...! Like 8BitDo's other retro keyboards you can use this over Bluetooth, 2.4G wireless (USB adapter sits underneath), or wired. It has a built-in rechargeable 2000mAh Li-on battery that's good for 200 hours between charges. "It certainly looks the business," writes the Verge, "especially with the slick new wireless numpad / calculator combo pad 8BitDo will sell alongside it for another $44.99." And Ars Technica adds that "The M Edition's color scheme, chunkier build, and typeface selection, including on the Tab key with arrows and elsewhere, are nods to IBM's Model M," (noting that the Model M first succeeded the Model F keyboard in 1985). "Of course, the keyboard's naming, and the IBM behemoth and floppy disks strategically placed in marketing images, are notes of that, too..." "The M Edition also comes with the detachable A and B "Super Buttons" that connect to the keyboard via a 3.5 mm jack and are programmable without software." "The paint job is pretty faithful to the original," notes Windows Central, "with a combination of gray and white throughout, right down to the accurately recreated LED status panel in the right-hand corner. There are even two key caps with an IBM-inspired blue font on them. It's just tremendous." Ars Technica offers this advice to unconvinced purists:If you want a real Model M, there's a market of found and restored models available online and in thrift stores and electronics stores. For a modern spin, like USB ports and Mac support, Unicomp also makes new Model M keyboards that are truer to the original IBM design, particularly in their use of buckling spring switches.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Associated Press reports that U.S. federal regulators "have given Amazon key permission that will allow it to expand its drone delivery program, the company announced Thursday."In a blog post published on its website, Seattle-based Amazon said that the Federal Aviation Administration has given its Prime Air delivery service the OK to operate drones "beyond visual line of sight," removing a barrier that has prevented its drones from traveling longer distances. With the approval, Amazon pilots can now operate drones remotely without seeing it with their own eyes. An FAA spokesperson said the approval applies to College Station, Texas, where the company launched drone deliveries in late 2022. Amazon said its planning to immediately scale its operations in that city in an effort to reach customers in more densely populated areas. It says the approval from regulators also "lays the foundation" to scale its operations to more locations around the country... Amazon, which has sought this permission for years, said it received approval from regulators after developing a strategy that ensures its drones could detect and avoid obstacles in the air. Furthermore, the company said it submitted other engineering information to the FAA and conducted flight demonstrations in front of federal inspectors. Those demonstrations were also done "in the presence of real planes, helicopters, and a hot air balloon to demonstrate how the drone safely navigated away from each of them," Amazon said. The article also points out that by the end of the decade, Amazon "has a goal of delivering 500 million packages by drone every year." To achieve this, Amazon said in its blog post, "we knew we had to design a system capable of serving highly populated areas and that was safer than driving to the store."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Will appetite-suppressing drugs hurt the sugar industry? Executives from Walmart warned that Ozempic and Zepbound "are impacting food sales," reports Bloomberg, "and multiple analyst surveys have showed that less-hungry customers are spending fewer dollars at grocery stores and restaurants."The drugs, which cut cravings, will result in a decline in calorie consumption in the US of 1.5% to 2.5% by 2035, with a drop of as much as 5% in the consumption of sweets such as baked goods, confectionery and soda, Morgan Stanley analysts including Pamela Kaufman said in a report last month. Morgan Stanley forecast about a 10th of the US population will be on the so-called GLP-1 medications - originally designed to treat diabetes but being used by many as a powerful weight-loss tool - by 2035... Even with tight supplies and sky-high prices limiting uptake of the medications, sales of GLP-1 drugs for both obesity and diabetes already exceeded $19 billion in 2023. The global obesity market alone could top $100 billion by the end of the decade, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. estimates, while Bloomberg Intelligence forecasts $80 billion of sales. More than 60% of US consumers taking the drugs said they had cut back on sweet treats like candy, ice cream and baked goods, and many said they had either significantly - or entirely - stopped eating those products, according to Morgan Stanley.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Slashdot reader storagedude shares a provocative post from the cybersecurity news blog of Cyble Inc. (a Ycombinator-backed company promising "AI-powered actionable threat intelligence"). The post delves into concerns that the new "Recall" feature planned for Windows (on upcoming Copilot+ PCs) is "a security and privacy nightmare."Copilot Recall will be enabled by default and will capture frequent screenshots, or "snapshots," of a user's activity and store them in a local database tied to the user account. The potential for exposure of personal and sensitive data through the new feature has alarmed security and privacy advocates and even sparked a UK inquiry into the issue. In a long Mastodon thread on the new feature, Windows security researcher Kevin Beaumont wrote, "I'm not being hyperbolic when I say this is the dumbest cybersecurity move in a decade. Good luck to my parents safely using their PC." In a blog post on Recall security and privacy, Microsoft said that processing and storage are done only on the local device and encrypted, but even Microsoft's own explanations raise concerns: "Note that Recall does not perform content moderation. It will not hide information such as passwords or financial account numbers. That data may be in snapshots that are stored on your device, especially when sites do not follow standard internet protocols like cloaking password entry." Security and privacy advocates take issue with assertions that the data is stored securely on the local device. If someone has a user's password or if a court orders that data be turned over for legal or law enforcement purposes, the amount of data exposed could be much greater with Recall than would otherwise be exposed... And hackers, malware and infostealers will have access to vastly more data than they would without Recall. Beaumont said the screenshots are stored in a SQLite database, "and you can access it as the user including programmatically. It 100% does not need physical access and can be stolen.... Recall enables threat actors to automate scraping everything you've ever looked at within seconds." Beaumont's LinkedIn profile and blog say that starting in 2020 he worked at Microsoft for nearly a year as a senior threat intelligence analyst. And now Beaumont's Mastodon post is also raising other concerns (according to Cyble's blog post):"Sensitive data deleted by users will still be saved in Recall screenshots... 'If you or a friend use disappearing messages in WhatsApp, Signal etc, it is recorded regardless.'""Beaumont also questioned Microsoft's assertion that all this is done locally."The blog post also notes that Leslie Carhart, Director of Incident Response at Dragos, had this reaction to Beaumont's post. "The outrage and disbelief are warranted."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes: "This is truly game-changing news!" exclaims Minecraft Education's Laylah Bulman in a LinkedIn post targeting high school CS educators. "We're thrilled to announce that the AP Computer Science Principles with Minecraft and MakeCode Curriculum has officially been approved by The College Board! And we are offering free professional learning for our inaugural cohort this summer...! "Minecraft's highly engaging environment makes complex coding concepts relatable and fun, fostering a deeper understanding and encouraging broader participation. Ready to empower your students? Don't miss this opportunity!" Recent Edsurge articles (sponsored by Minecraft Education) touted how Minecraft has found its way into computer science and other curricula in New York City and Broward County (Florida), two of the nation's largest school districts... Microsoft-backed nonprofit Code.org has also pushed Minecraft-themed CS tutorials into the nation's classrooms via its wildly-popular annual Hour of Code events since 2015, a year after Microsoft paid $2.5B to buy Minecraft. ("The best way to introduce anyone to STEM or get their curiosity going on, it's Minecraft," declared Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at the time). Minecraft-related learning initiatives have also received millions of dollars in grants from the U.S. Department of Education and the National Science Foundation.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"There is one big thing holding the United States back from a pollution-free electricity grid running on wind, solar and battery power," writes the Washington Post. "Not enough power lines... the nation's sagging, out-of-date power lines are being overwhelmed - slowing the transition to clean energy and the fight against climate change." But experts say that there is a remarkably simple fix: installing new wires on the high-voltage lines that already carry power hundreds of miles across the United States. Just upgrading those wires, new reports show, could double the amount of power that can flow through America's electricity grid... Most of America's lines are wired with a technology that has been around since the early 1900s - a core steel wire surrounded by strands of aluminum. When those old wires heat up - whether from power passing through them or warm outdoor temperatures - they sag. Too much sag in a transmission line can be dangerous, causing fires or outages. As a result, grid operators have to be careful not to allow too much power through the lines. But a couple of decades ago, engineers designed a new type of wire: a core made of carbon fiber, surrounded by trapezoidal pieces of aluminum. Those new, carbon-fiber wires don't sag as much in the heat. That means that they can take up to double the amount of power as the old lines. According to the recent study from researchers at UC-Berkeley and GridLab, replacing these older steel wires could provide up to 80 percent of the new transmission needed on the electricity grid - without building anything new. It could also cost half as much as building an entirely new line and avoid the headaches of trying to get every state, city and even landowner along the route to agree to a new project... If stringing new lines is so easy - and cheap - why hasn't it been done already? Part of the problem, experts say, is that utilities profit more from big infrastructure projects. Routine maintenance or larger-scale upgrades of the electricity grid don't help utilities make a lot of cash compared with building new transmission lines... Duncan Callaway, a professor of energy and resources at UC-Berkeley and one of the authors of the recent study, said that many transmission engineers are not used to thinking of rewiring as one of their tools. "But it's a much faster way," he said. Some changes are already underway to encourage this approach. For a long time, utilities had to undergo lengthy environmental reviews if they were rewiring a line longer than 20 miles. Earlier this month, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission announced that those would no longer be necessary if utilities are simply replacing wires.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"To save itself, TikTok in 2022 offered the U.S. government an extraordinary deal," reports the Washington Post.The video app, owned by a Chinese company, said it would let federal officials pick its U.S. operation's board of directors, would give the government veto power over each new hire and would pay an American company that contracts with the Defense Department to monitor its source code, according to a copy of the company's proposal. It even offered to give federal officials a kill switch that would shut the app down in the United States if they felt it remained a threat. The Biden administration, however, went its own way. Officials declined the proposal, forfeiting potential influence over one of the world's most popular apps in favor of a blunter option: a forced-sale law signed last month by President Biden that could lead to TikTok's nationwide ban. The government has never publicly explained why it rejected TikTok's proposal, opting instead for a potentially protracted constitutional battle that many expect to end up before the Supreme Court... But the extent to which the United States evaluated or disregarded TikTok's proposal, known as Project Texas, is likely to be a core point of dispute in court, where TikTok and its owner, ByteDance, are challenging the sale-or-ban law as an "unconstitutional assertion of power." The episode raises questions over whether the government, when presented with a way to address its concerns, chose instead to back an effort that would see the company sold to an American buyer, even though some of the issues officials have warned about - the opaque influence of its recommendation algorithm, the privacy of user data - probably would still be unresolved under new ownership... A senior Biden administration official said in a statement that the administration "determined more than a year ago that the solution proposed by the parties at the time would be insufficient to address the serious national security risks presented. While we have consistently engaged with the company about our concerns and potential solutions, it became clear that divestment from its foreign ownership was and remains necessary." "Since federal officials announced an investigation into TikTok in 2019, the app's user base has doubled to more than 170 million U.S. accounts," according to the article. It also includes this assessment from Anupam Chander, a Georgetown University law professor who researches international tech policy. "The government had a complete absence of faith in [its] ability to regulate technology platforms, because there might be some vulnerability that might exist somewhere down the line."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The New York Times reports on a program to forgive U.S. student loans from private lenders - a kind of private parallel to a federal program which "allows those who were seriously misled by their schools to have their federal student loans eliminated." The problem? Eight U.S. senators complain the loan discharge process remains "burdensome and confusing" - and most students don't even know it exists.Navient, a large owner of private student loan debt, has created, but not publicized, a program that allows borrowers to apply to have their loans forgiven.... A nonprofit group of lawyers has stepped in ease the process: On Thursday, the Project on Predatory Student Lending, an advocacy group in Boston, published Navient's application form and an instruction guide for borrowers with private loans who are seeking relief on the grounds that their school lied to them... For nearly a decade, in the early 2000s, Navient - then known as Sallie Mae - struck deals with for-profit schools to issue private loans to their students. Lawsuits from state attorneys general later accused Navient of making those loans knowing that most would never be repaid. Many schools indemnified Navient for the private loans, agreeing to defray the company's loss if the loans defaulted. In 2022, Navient settled with 40 state attorneys general and canceled $1.7 billion in debt on those private loans - but only for borrowers who had already defaulted. Because those debts were unlikely to ever be repaid, the deal cost Navient only $50 million, the company said in regulatory filings. Borrowers who had kept paying their bills... remained stuck. But a pressure campaign from lawmakers, federal regulators and lawyers representing borrowers prompted the company to create the "school misconduct discharge." Navient began sending a 12-page application form this year to some borrowers who complained about their private loans. The document lists dozens of types of impropriety by schools - such as inflating job placement rates and graduates' earnings, or misrepresenting their educational programs - and asks borrowers to choose which apply to their experience. Applicants are required to submit documentation for their claims... [Navient's CEO, David Yowan] told investors on a conference call in January that Navient had put $35 million in reserve for losses on school misconduct claims. He cited "new regulatory expectations" as the reason. Navient has not disclosed how much of its $16.6 billion private student loan portfolio consists of loans that could be eligible for the debt cancellation program.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"Chinese scientists develop cure for diabetes," reads the headline from the world's second-most widely read English-language newspaper. ("Insulin patient becomes medicine-free in just 3 months.") The researchers' results were published earlier in May in Cell Discovery, and are now getting some serious scrutiny from the press. The Economic Times cites a University of British Columbia professor's assessment that the study "represents an important advance in the field of cell therapy for diabetes," in an article calling it a "breakthrough" that "marks a significant advancement in cell therapy for diabetes."Chinese scientists have successfully cured a patient's diabetes using a groundbreaking cell therapy... According to a South China Morning Post report, the patient underwent the cell transplant in July 2021. Remarkably, within eleven weeks, he no longer required external insulin. Over the next year, he gradually reduced and ultimately stopped taking oral medication for blood sugar control. "Follow-up examinations showed that the patient's pancreatic islet function was effectively restored," said Yin, one of the lead researchers. The patient has now been insulin-free for 33 months... The new therapy involves programming the patient's peripheral blood mononuclear cells, transforming them into "seed cells" to recreate pancreatic islet tissue in an artificial environment. Their article calls it "a significant medical milestone" - noting that 140 million people in China have diabetes (according to figures from the International Diabetes Federation). Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader AmiMoJo for sharing the news.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

China's Chang'e-6 probe successfully lands on far side of the moonChina's moon probe has "successfully touched down on the far side of the moon," CNN reports, in "a significant step for the ambitious mission that could advance the country's aspirations of putting astronauts on the moon" by 2030. The mission's ultimate goal is to return to Earth the first samples from the moon's far side, CNN reports. And China's lunar lander "is now expected to use a drill and a mechanical arm to gather up to 2 kilograms of moon dust and rocks from the basin, a crater formed some 4 billion years ago." To complete its mission, the lander will need to robotically stow those samples in an ascent vehicle that made the landing with it. The ascent vehicle will then return to lunar orbit, where it will dock with and transfer the samples to a re-entry capsule, according to mission information provided by the China National Space Administration.The re-entry capsule and orbiter will then travel back to Earth's orbit and separate, allowing the re-entry capsule to make its expected return later this month to the Siziwang Banner Landing Site in China's rural Inner Mongolia region. The mission began with its launch on May 3 - and is expected to last 53 days. The landing marks the second time a mission has successfully reached the far side of the moon. China first completed that historic feat in 2019 with its Chang'e-4 probe... The technically complex mission is made more challenging due to where it is being conducted. The far side of the moon is out of range of normal communications, which means Chang'e-6 must also rely on a satellite that was launched into lunar orbit in March, the Queqiao-2.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

'"As AI programs shake up the office, potentially making millions of jobs obsolete, one group of perpetually stressed workers seems especially vulnerable..." writes the New York Times. "The chief executive is increasingly imperiled by A.I."These employees analyze new markets and discern trends, both tasks a computer could do more efficiently. They spend much of their time communicating with colleagues, a laborious activity that is being automated with voice and image generators. Sometimes they must make difficult decisions - and who is better at being dispassionate than a machine? Finally, these jobs are very well paid, which means the cost savings of eliminating them is considerable... This is not just a prediction. A few successful companies have begun to publicly experiment with the notion of an A.I. leader, even if at the moment it might largely be a branding exercise... [The article gives the example of the Chinese online game company NetDragon Websoft, which has 5,000 employees, and the upscale Polish rum company Dictador.] Chief executives themselves seem enthusiastic about the prospect - or maybe just fatalistic. EdX, the online learning platform created by administrators at Harvard and M.I.T. that is now a part of publicly traded 2U Inc., surveyed hundreds of chief executives and other executives last summer about the issue. Respondents were invited to take part and given what edX called "a small monetary incentive" to do so. The response was striking. Nearly half - 47 percent - of the executives surveyed said they believed "most" or "all" of the chief executive role should be completely automated or replaced by A.I. Even executives believe executives are superfluous in the late digital age... The pandemic prepared people for this. Many office workers worked from home in 2020, and quite a few still do, at least several days a week. Communication with colleagues and executives is done through machines. It's just a small step to communicating with a machine that doesn't have a person at the other end of it. "Some people like the social aspects of having a human boss," said Phoebe V. Moore, professor of management and the futures of work at the University of Essex Business School. "But after Covid, many are also fine with not having one." The article also notes that a 2017 survey of 1,000 British workers found 42% saying they'd be "comfortable" taking orders from a computer.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"The seemingly star-cross Boeing Starliner - within minutes of its long-delayed blastoff on the spacecraft's first piloted test flight - was grounded again Saturday," writes CBS News, "when one of three redundant computers managing the countdown from the base of the launch pad ran into a problem, triggering a last-minute scrub." More details from NPR:With 3:50 left in the countdown, the rocket's computer initiated a hold. The next launch attempt won't happen until at least Wednesday, NASA said. An issue with one of the three redundant computer systems at the base of the launch pad that are responsible for initiating the launch sequence prompted the automatic halt, said Tory Bruno, the head of United Launch Alliance, the government contractor trying to launch the Starliner. "We do require all three systems to be running - triple redundancy," ULA President and CEO Bruno said at a Saturday afternoon press briefing. "Those three big computers do a health check. ... Two came up normally. The third one came up, but it was slow to come up, and that tripped a red line that created an automatic hold." ULA engineers don't know why the computer halted, and will troubleshoot ground support equipment overnight, NASA said in an update on Saturday evening.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has added a critical security bug in Linux to its list of vulnerabilities known to be actively exploited in the wild," reported Ars Technica on Friday. "The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-1086 and carrying a severity rating of 7.8 out of a possible 10, allows people who have already gained a foothold inside an affected system to escalate their system privileges."It's the result of a use-after-free error, a class of vulnerability that occurs in software written in the C and C++ languages when a process continues to access a memory location after it has been freed or deallocated. Use-after-free vulnerabilities can result in remote code or privilege escalation. The vulnerability, which affects Linux kernel versions 5.14 through 6.6, resides in the NF_tables, a kernel component enabling the Netfilter, which in turn facilitates a variety of network operations... It was patched in January, but as the CISA advisory indicates, some production systems have yet to install it. At the time this Ars post went live, there were no known details about the active exploitation. A deep-dive write-up of the vulnerability reveals that these exploits provide "a very powerful double-free primitive when the correct code paths are hit." Double-free vulnerabilities are a subclass of use-after-free errors...Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"Within less than a minute, I'm approached by a store worker who comes up to me and says, 'You're a thief, you need to leave the store'." That's a quote from the BBC by a wrongly accused customer who was flagged by a facial-recognition system called Facewatch. "She says after her bag was searched she was led out of the shop, and told she was banned from all stores using the technology." Facewatch later wrote to her and acknowledged it had made an error - but declined to comment on the incident in the BBC's report:[Facewatch] did say its technology helped to prevent crime and protect frontline workers. Home Bargains, too, declined to comment. It's not just retailers who are turning to the technology... [I]n east London, we joined the police as they positioned a modified white van on the high street. Cameras attached to its roof captured thousands of images of people's faces. If they matched people on a police watchlist, officers would speak to them and potentially arrest them... On the day we were filming, the Metropolitan Police said they made six arrests with the assistance of the tech... The BBC spoke to several people approached by the police who confirmed that they had been correctly identified by the system - 192 arrests have been made so far this year as a result of it. Lindsey Chiswick, director of intelligence for the Met, told the BBC that "It takes less than a second for the technology to create a biometric image of a person's face, assess it against the bespoke watchlist and automatically delete it when there is no match." "That is the correct and acceptable way to do it," writes long-time Slashdot reader Baron_Yam, "without infringing unnecessarily on the freedoms of the average citizen. Just tell me they have appropriate rules, effective oversight, and a penalty system with teeth to catch and punish the inevitable violators." But one critic of the tech complains to the BBC that everyone scanned automatically joins "a digital police line-up," while the article adds that others "liken the process to a supermarket checkout - where your face becomes a bar code." And "The error count is much higher once someone is actually flagged. One in 40 alerts so far this year has been a false positive..." Thanks to Slashdot reader Bruce66423 for sharing the article.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 shares the announcement of a new report from the International Energy Forum:The seemingly universal presumption persists that the copper needed for the green transition will somehow be available... This paper addresses this issue by projecting copper supply and demand from 2018 to 2050 and placing both in the historical context of copper mine output... Just to meet business-as-usual trends, 115% more copper must be mined in the next 30 years than has been mined historically until now. To electrify the global vehicle fleet requires bringing into production 55% more new mines than would otherwise be needed... Our main purpose... is to communicate the magnitude of the copper mining challenge to the broader public that is less familiar with upstream resource issues. "On the other hand, hybrid electric vehicle manufacture would require negligible extra copper mining..." the report points out. Wikipedia describes the non-profit as a 73-country organization promoting dialogue about the world's energy needs. The group's announcement ends with a hope that the report "will promote discussion and formulation of alternative policies to be certain the developing world can catch up with the developed world while global initiatives advance with the green energy transition."Read more of this story at Slashdot.