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The Linux Foundation "sponsors the work of Linux creator Linus Torvalds and lead maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman," according to its page on Wikipedia. And now the Linux Foundation "is pleased to announce the launch of the Overture Maps Foundation," according to their December newsletter. It's a collaborative effort "to enable current and next-generation map products by creating reliable, easy-to-use, and interoperable open map data as a shared asset that can strengthen mapping services worldwide."The initiative was founded by Amazon Web Services (AWS), Meta, Microsoft, and TomTom and is open to all communities with a common interest in building open map data. To get involved, please visit overturemaps.org. And they're also announcing plans to form the Open Metaverse Foundation:In October, we brought top experts from diverse sectors together with leaders from many of the projects across the Linux Foundation to discuss what it will take to transform the emerging concept of the Metaverse from promise to reality.... As the next step in this amazing journey, we welcome the Open Metaverse Foundation (OMF) into the Linux Foundation as another piece of the puzzle. With your help, we can realize the promise of the open Metaverse. Learn more about what's next, join us, and get involved at openmv.org. The Foundation has also published three new research papers: The 2022 State of Open Source in Financial Services WebAssembly (Wasm) for Legal Professionals Data and Storage Trends 2022.The newsletter also points out that through Tuesday the foundation is offering 35% off any of their training courses, certifications, bundles or bootcamps.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Until 2020 Neustar was the domain name registry "for a number of top-level domains," according to its page on Wikipedia, "including .biz, .us (on behalf of United States Department of Commerce), .co, .nyc (on behalf of the city of New York), and .in. But now U.S. Senator Ron Wyden has asked America's Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether Neustar violated the privacy rights of millions, reports the Washington Post, "when it sold records of where they went online to the federal government." America's Department of Defense funded a research team at Georgia Tech who purchased Neustar's data starting in 2016, notes a letter from Senator Wyden. Wyden has obtained emails between those researchers and "both the FBI and the Department of Justice, indicating that government officials asked the researchers to run specific queries and that the researchers wrote affidavits and reports for the government describing their findings." But in addition, Wyden now cites a Department of Justice statement (entered an unrelated court case) which he says makes a concerning assertion: that Neustar executive Rodney Joffe, "who led the company's efforts to sell data to Georgia Tech, was also involved in the sale of DNS data directly to the U.S. government. The court documents say:Rodney Joffe and certain companies with which he was affiliated, including officers and employees of those companies, have provided assistance to and received payment from multiple agencies of the United States government. This has included assistance to the United States intelligence community and law enforcement agencies on cyber security matters. Certain of those companies have maintained contracts with the United States government resulting in payment by the United States of tens of millions of dollars for the provision of, among other things, Domain Name System ('DNS') data. These contracts included classified contracts that required company personnel to maintain security clearances. From The Washington Post:The stipulation naming entrepreneur Rodney Joffe was the clearest confirmation to date of web histories being sold directly to federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies, instead of through information brokers exempt from restrictions on what telephone companies and websites can share with the government. Wyden adds:The data that Neustar sold to Georgia Tech may have also included data collected from consumers who were explicitly promised that their data would not be sold to third parties. Between 2018 and 2020, Neustar acquired a competing recursive DNS service, which had previously been operated by Verisign. That service had been advertised to the public by Verisign with unqualified promises that "your public DNS data will not be sold to third parties." When the product changed hands, users of Verisign's service were seamlessly transitioned to DNS servers that Neustar controlled. This meant that Neustar now received information about the websites accessed by these former Verisign-users, even though neither Verisign nor Neustar provided those users with meaningful, effective notice that the change of ownership had taken place, or that Neustar did not intend to honor the privacy promises that Verisign had previously made to those users. It is unclear if the data Neustar sold to Georgia Tech included data from users who had been promised by Verisign that their data would not be sold. This is because both Neustar and Verisign have refused to answer questions from my office necessary to determine this important detail.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"John Carmack, the programmer who brought us Doom, Quake and Oculus/Meta virtual reality products, has resigned from his executive consultant post for virtual reality at Meta," reports VentureBeat. "This is the end of my decade in VR," Carmack wrote in an internal post (which he later reposted on Facebook). "I have mixed feelings."Quest 2 [Meta's VR headset] is almost exactly what I wanted to see from the beginning — mobile hardware, inside out tracking, optional PC streaming, 4k (ish) screen, cost effective. Despite all the complaints I have about our software, millions of people are still getting value out of it. We have a good product. It is successful, and successful products make the world a better place. It all could have happened a bit faster and been going better if different decisions had been made, but we built something pretty close to The Right Thing. The issue is our efficiency.... We have a ridiculous amount of people and resources, but we constantly self-sabotage and squander effort.... It has been a struggle for me. I have a voice at the highest levels here, so it feels like I should be able to move things, but I'm evidently not persuasive enough. A good fraction of the things I complain about eventually turn my way after a year or two passes and evidence piles up, but I have never been able to kill stupid things before they cause damage, or set a direction and have a team actually stick to it. I think my influence at the margins has been positive, but it has never been a prime mover. This was admittedly self-inflicted — I could have moved to Menlo Park after the Oculus acquisition and tried to wage battles with generations of leadership, but I was busy programming, and I assumed I would hate it, be bad at it, and probably lose anyway. Enough complaining. I wearied of the fight and have my own startup to run, but the fight is still winnable! VR can bring value to most of the people in the world, and no company is better positioned to do it than Meta. Maybe it actually is possible to get there by just plowing ahead with current practices, but there is plenty of room for improvement. Make better decisions and fill your products with "Give a Damn"!Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The New York Times cites predictions from American's Defense Department that China could surpass U.S. space capabilities as soon as 2045. "I think it's entirely possible they could catch up and surpass us, absolutely," said the staff director of the United States Space Force. "The progress they've made has been stunning — stunningly fast." But in a new article this week, the newspaper notes that China recenty sent space probes to the moon and to Mars — and invited foreign media to the launch of its space station in November — and looks back over decades of development:Thirty years ago, the Chinese government initiated a secret plan for its space program, including a key goal of building a space station by 2020. At the time, the country was 11 years from sending its first astronaut into space, and its space efforts were going through a rough patch: Chinese rockets failed in 1991, 1992, 1995 and twice in 1996. The worst failure, in 1996, was a rocket that tipped to the side, flew in the wrong direction and exploded 22 seconds after launch, showering a Chinese village with falling wreckage and flaming fuel that killed or injured at least 63 people. While grand spaceflight plans of some nations have ended up many years behind schedule, China completed the assembly in orbit of its Tiangong space station in late October, only 22 months later than planned. And on Nov. 29, the Shenzhou 15 mission blasted off from China's Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center deep in the Gobi Desert and took three astronauts to the space station to begin permanent occupancy of the outpost. The article notes that the U.S. Congress "ended up banning American space agencies in 2011 from spending any money to cooperate in space with China, except in limited circumstances." But today Zhou Jianping, chief designer of China's crewed space program, asserts that "within a few years, we will be able to achieve the reuse of re-entry capsules for our new generation spaceships."Sending a person to Mars is an even bigger prize for China. It has placed an emphasis on shortening the duration of such a trip, perhaps with nuclear propulsion instead of conventional rocket engines. Officials are also determined that any journey will be a round-trip from which all astronauts return alive and in good health.... With nuclear propulsion, the trip could be trimmed to 500 days, Mr. Zhou said, without predicting whether China would adopt that approach.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Pine64, makers of ARM-based, tinker-friendly gadgets, is making the PineTab 2, a sequel to its Linux-powered tablet that mostly got swallowed up by the pandemic and its dire global manufacturing shortages. The PineTab 2, as described in Pine64's "December Update," is based around the RK3566, made by RockChip. Pine64 based its Quartz64 single-board system on the system-on-a-chip (SoC), and has all but gushed about it across several blog posts. It's "a dream-of-a-SoC," writes Community Director Lukasz Erecinski, a "modern mid-range quad-core Cortex-A55 processor that integrates a Mali-G52 MP2 GPU. And it should be ideal for space-constrained devices: it runs cool, has a variety of I/O options, solid price-to-performance ratio, and "is genuinely future-proof." The PineTab 2 is a complete redesign, Erecinski claims. It has a metal chassis that "is very sturdy while also being easy to disassemble for upgrades, maintenance, and repair." The tablet comes apart with snap-in tabs, and Pine64 will offer replacement parts. The insides are modular, too, with the eMMC storage, camera, daughter-board, battery, and keyboard connector all removable "in under 5 minutes." The 10.1-inch IPS display, with "modern and reasonably thin bezels," should also be replaceable, albeit with more work. On that easily opened chassis are two USB-C ports, one for USB 3.0 I/O and one for charging (or USB 2.0 if you want). There's a dedicated micro-HDMI port, and a front-facing 2-megapixel camera and rear-facing 5-megapixel (not the kind of all-in-one media production machine Apple advertises, this tablet), a microSD slot, and a headphone jack. While a PCIe system is exposed inside the PineTab, most NVMe SSDs will not fit, according to Pine64. All of this is subject to change before final production, however. As with the original PineTab, this model comes with a detachable, backlit keyboard cover, included by default. That makes supporting a desktop OS for the device far more viable, Erecinski writes. The firmware chipset is the same as in the PineBook Pro, which should help with that. No default OS has been decided as of yet, according to Pine64. The tablet should ship with two memory/storage variants, 4GB/64GB and 8GB/128GB. It's due to ship "sometime after the Chinese New Year" (January 22 to February 5), though there's no firm date. No price was announced, but "it will be affordable regardless of which version you'll settle on." A video version of the "December Update" can be found on YouTube.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Speedometer 3 will be a "cross-industry collaborative effort" from the Chrome, Safari and Firefox makers to create a new model that balances the companies' visions for measuring responsiveness. Engadget reports: Three companies making a tool that will rate the effectiveness of their competing products sounds like a recipe for disaster. However, Speedometer's governance policy includes a consent system that differs based on potential ramifications. For example, significant changes will require approval from the other two companies, while "non-trivial changes" will need consent from one of the other two parties. Meanwhile, "trivial changes" can be green-lit by a reviewer from any of the three browser makers. The policy's aim is that "the working team should be able to move quickly for most changes, with a higher level of process and consensus expected based on the impact of the change." The project will follow Speedometer 2, the current de facto benchmark developed by Apple's WebKit team. The Speedometer 3 project is still in its infancy, and its GitHub page warns that it is "in active development and is unstable." The groups recommend using Speedometer 2.1 until development is further along, though we don't yet know when Speedometer 3 will be ready.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A new Pentagon office set up to track reports of unidentified flying objects has received "several hundreds" of new reports, but no evidence so far of alien life, the agency's leadership told reporters Friday. The Associated Press reports: The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) was set up in July and is responsible for not only tracking unidentified objects in the sky, but also underwater or in space -- or potentially an object that has the ability to move from one domain to the next. The office was established following more than a year of attention on unidentified flying objects that military pilots have observed but have sometimes been reluctant to report due to fear of stigma. In June 2021 the Office of the Director of National Intelligence reported that between 2004 and 2021, there were 144 such encounters, 80 of which were captured on multiple sensors. Since then, "we've had lots more reporting," said anomaly office director Sean Kirkpatrick. When asked to quantify the amount, Kirkpatrick said "several hundreds." An updated report from the Director of National Intelligence that will provide specific figures on new reports received since 2021 is expected by the end of the year, the officials said.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from VentureBeat: A new study from Intercom shows the stakes are high for customer support and overall customer experience (CX) this holiday season. The survey of 1,000 U.S. adults revealed 64% would leave a business if they didn't feel valued in a support interaction -- only falling behind not having their issue resolved (66%) and getting ghosted by a support representative (65%). Feeling valued and respected is even more important than a quick response (61%). The survey also showed consumers from Gen Z to Baby Boomers prefer digital channels like text and direct messaging to the phone. However, there are striking generational differences in the tone and style that lands well. For instance, younger generations are twice as likely as older ones to want companies to use emojis and GIFs. Overall, consumers prefer professional language (56%), but 61% of Gen Z respondents prefer a casual approach, signaling that businesses will need to adapt as younger generations become primary buyers. [...] According to the survey, acknowledging a customer's purchase history is more powerful than surface-level niceties. Knowing their history was rated by 66% of respondents as among the top three factors that show they are valued vs. using their first name (45%) or friendly greetings (44%). In fact, support agents using cringe-worthy language (41% -- think misused slang), trying too hard with inauthentic communication (35%) or using too many emojis (28%) will cause consumers to take their business elsewhere. As advances with OpenAI's ChatGPT expand possibilities for AI chatbots, the study found people prefer chatbots and online chat for answering a quick question (49%), confirming an appointment or delivery time (37%), or canceling an order (30%). In the study, airlines ranked lowest for customer support satisfaction, with only 6% of respondents rating airlines' customer support experience the best. Healthcare and financial services ranked highest.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Welding problems will require a further six-month delay for France's next-generation nuclear reactor at Flamanville, the latest setback for the flagship technology the country hopes to sell worldwide, state-owned electricity group EDF said Friday. Barron's reports: The delay will also add 500 million euros to a project whose total cost is now estimated at around 13 billion euros ($13.8 billion), blowing past the initial projection of 3.3 billion euros when construction began in 2007. It comes as EDF is already struggling to restart dozens of nuclear reactors taken down for maintenance or safety work that has proved more challenging than originally thought. EDF also said Friday that one of the two conventional reactors at Flamanville would not be brought back online until February 19 instead of next week as planned, while one at Penly in northwest Farnce would be restarted on March 20 instead of in January. EDF said the latest problems at Flamanville, on the English Channel in Normandy, emerged last summer when engineers discovered that welds in cooling pipes for the new pressurized water reactor, called EPR, were not tolerating extreme heat as expected. As a result, the new reactor will be start generating power only in mid-2024.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Longtime williamyf writes: Both ArsTechnica and The Register report that Amazon, Vertigo, and Games Worksop have entered a preliminary deal for the movie, TV, and merchandising rights of the Warhammer 40K franchise. The deal also brings Henry Cavill -- longtime Warhammer 40K fan, actor who played Geralt in Netflix's The Witcher series and Superman in the Zack Snyder DC superhero films -- as both executive producer and actor. While this is only a memorandum of understanding, it's highly likely that the deal will pass. What is still not clear is if this will be handled by MGM (meaning a higher probability of theatrical releases and physical media) or if it will go to Amazon Studios (increasing the probability of a streaming-only affaire), or both. What is your opinion? Let us know in the comments. "Warhammer 40K is set in the very distant future (the 40K roughly refers to the years when it takes place) that is analogous in some ways to what historians used to refer to as Europe's Dark Ages," reports Ars. "The franchise is the definition of 'grimdark,' painting a picture of a universe in which billions toil to serve a God-Emperor and vast, brutal warfare." "The universe is much more expansive than its politics, though, with countless threats to humanity, including Starship Troopers-like insect hordes and space orks, among other beings." It started as a tabletop game and has gone on to spawn numerous popular video games and books over the almost 40 years it's been around.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Three top Democratic campaign arms said Friday that they would set aside more than $1 million in contributions from former crypto golden boy FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, as first reported by The Washington Post. The groups plan to return the money to FTX customers as part of ongoing legal proceedings. The Verge reports: The Democratic National Committee and two top Democratic campaign groups announced the moves days after Bankman-Fried was arrested and charged with eight counts, including wire fraud and campaign finance violations. "Given the allegations around potential campaign finance violations by Bankman-Fried, we are setting aside funds in order to return the $815,000 in contributions since 2020," a DNC spokesperson confirmed in a statement to The Verge on Friday. "We will return as soon as we receive proper direction in the legal proceedings." The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee have also pledged to set aside the $103,000 and $250,000 each received from Bankman-Fried, respectively, according to The Post. Over the last two years, Bankman-Fried became one of the most prolific political megadonors in the US, contributing more than $40 million in personal donations to mostly Democratic campaigns and organizations. But shortly after FTX went bankrupt in November, Bankman-Fried told crypto reporter Tiffany Fong that he donated a similar amount of money to Republican groups as well. While the extent of Bankman-Fried's GOP contributions has yet to be uncovered, Democratic candidates have been pressured to return any money they received from the crypto mogul. CBS News reported Thursday that most Democratic campaigns that received publicly disclosed contributions from Bankman-Fried have pledged to either return or donate the money to charity. Newly elected Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) confirmed Wednesday that he would donate Bankman-Fried's contributions to his campaign to the Zebra Coalition, a Florida-based group servicing homeless LGBTQ+ youth. [...] Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Tina Smith (D-MN), Alex Padilla (D-CA), and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) all received $5,800 from Bankman-Fried since last year and have either already donated or plan to donate the funds, according to CBS News.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: Residents of The Dalles, Oregon, are learning how much of their water Google's data centers have been using to cool the computers inside the cavernous buildings -- information that previously was deemed a trade secret. A lawsuit by the city on behalf of Google -- against Oregon's biggest newspaper, The Oregonian/OregonLive -- that sought to keep the water-use information confidential was dropped, the newspaper reported Thursday. City officials abandoned the 13-month legal fight and committed to release the company's water consumption in future years. In an email, Google confirmed Thursday that its water use numbers would no longer be a trade secret. "It is one example of the importance of transparency, which we are aiming to increase ... which includes site-level water usage numbers for all our U.S. data center sites, including The Dalles," Google spokesperson Devon Smiley said. Google says (PDF) its data centers in the Oregon town consumed 274.5 million gallons (1 billion liters) of water last year. In a Nov. 21 blog posting, Google said that all of its global data centers consumed approximately 4.3 billion gallons (16.3 billion liters) of water in 2021, which it said is comparable to the water needed to irrigate and maintain 29 golf courses in the southwest U.S. each year. The Dalles Mayor Richard Mays said Google had previously insisted its water usage was a trade secret because the company was concerned about competitors knowing how it cools its servers, but then changed its position and agreed to release the water records. "That's why we backed off (the lawsuit)," Mays told The Oregonian/OregonLive. The Oregonian/OregonLive, which had requested Google's records last year, said the case represents a major test of Oregon public records law. "This seemed to be a perfect example of a clash of two important storylines, both the expansion of big businesses and the public resource that they need to use," Therese Bottomly, editor of The Oregonian/OregonLive, was quoted as saying.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Trade groups that represent Meta and Alphabet's Google said they asked the US Supreme Court to overturn a Texas law that would sharply restrict the editorial discretion of social media companies. From a report: The appeal by NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association contends the Texas law violates the First Amendment by forcing social media companies to disseminate what they see as harmful speech and putting platforms at risk of being overrun by spam and bullying. The law "would wreak havoc by requiring transformational change to websites' operations," the groups argued. The New Orleans-based 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the law in September but left the measure on hold to allow time for an appeal to the Supreme Court. The Texas law bars social media platforms with more than 50 million users from discriminating on the basis of viewpoint. Texas Governor Greg Abbott and other Republicans say the law is needed to protect conservative voices from being silenced. The appeal adds a new layer to a Supreme Court term that could reshape the legal rules for online content. The justices are already considering opening social media companies to lawsuits over the targeted recommendations they make to users.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A California startup is pursuing a novel, if simple, plan for ensuring that dead trees keep carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere for thousands of years: burying their remains underground. From a report: Kodama Systems, a forest management company based in the Sierra Nevada foothills town of Sonora, has been operating in stealth mode since it was founded last summer. But MIT Technology Review can now report the company has raised around $6.6 million from Bill Gates's climate fund Breakthrough Energy Ventures, as well as Congruent Ventures and other investors. In addition, the payments company Stripe will reveal on Thursday that it's provided a $250,000 research grant to the company and its research partner, the Yale Carbon Containment Lab, as part of a broader carbon removal announcement. That grant will support a pilot effort to bury waste biomass harvested from California forests in the Nevada desert and study how well it prevents the release of greenhouse gases that drive climate change. It also agreed to purchase about 415 tons of carbon dioxide eventually sequestered by the company for another $250,000, if that proof-of-concept project achieves certain benchmarks. "Biomass burial has the potential to become a low-cost, high-scale approach for carbon removal, though there is a need for further investigation into its long-term durability," said Joanna Klitzke, procurement and ecosystem strategy lead for Stripe.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Stability AI has announced it would allow artists to remove their work from the training dataset for an upcoming Stable Diffusion 3.0 release. From a report: The move comes as an artist advocacy group called Spawning tweeted that Stability AI would honor opt-out requests collected on its Have I Been Trained website. The details of how the plan will be implemented remain incomplete and unclear, however. As a brief recap, Stable Diffusion, an AI image synthesis model, gained its ability to generate images by "learning" from a large dataset of images scraped from the Internet without consulting any rights holders for permission. Some artists are upset about it because Stable Diffusion generates images that can potentially rival human artists in an unlimited quantity.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

IBM has quietly announced it's planning a 24-core Power 10 processor, seemingly to make one of its servers capable of running Oracle's database in a cost-effective fashion. From a report: A hardware announcement dated December 13 revealed the chip in the following "statement of general direction" about Big Blue's Power S1014 technology-based server: "IBM intends to announce a high-density 24-core processor for the IBM Power S1014 system (MTM 9105-41B) to address application environments utilizing an Oracle Database with the Standard Edition 2 (SE2) licensing model. It intends to combine a robust compute throughput with the superior reliability and availability features of the IBM Power platform while complying with Oracle Database SE2 licensing guidelines."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Tokyo metropolitan government has said that it will introduce a system requiring newly built homes to be fitted with solar panels from fiscal 2025 in a bid to reduce carbon emissions from the household sector. From a report: The first mandate of its kind in Japan comes as a revised ordinance on environmental security to introduce the system was passed Thursday by a majority vote on the final day of a regular Tokyo metropolitan assembly session. According to the metropolitan government, major housing construction firms will be required to install solar panels on buildings with a total floor area of less than 2,000 square meters.Home buyers will also be required to cooperate, and those privately contracting the construction of a residence 2,000 square meters or more will be obligated to fit it with solar panels. The system will take effect in April 2025 after residents have been informed and preparations have been made with relevant businesses. The metropolitan government estimates that the 980,000 yen ($7,200) initial cost for installation of the 4-kilowatt panels can be covered within 10 years from electricity sales revenue and can be further reduced down to six years with subsidies it will provide. Subsidies for the initial costs will also be provided to leasing firms to reduce the burden on home buyers, the metropolitan government said.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Google this week released OSV-Scanner -- an open source vulnerability scanner linked to the OSV.dev database that debuted last year. From a report: Written in the Go programming language, OSV-Scanner is designed to scan open source applications to assess the security of any incorporated dependencies -- software libraries that get added to projects to provide pre-built functions so developers don't have to recreate those functions on their own. Modern applications can have a lot of dependencies. For example, researchers from Mozilla and Concordia University in Canada recently created a single-page web application with the React framework using the create-react-app command. The result was a project with seven runtime dependencies and nine development dependencies. But each of these direct dependencies had other dependencies, known as transitive dependencies. The react package includes loose-envify as a transitive dependency -- one that itself depends on other libraries. All told, this basic single-page "Hello world" app required a total of 1,764 dependencies. As Rex Pan, a software engineer on Google's Open Source Security Team, observed on Tuesday in a blog post, vetting thousands of dependences isn't something developers can do on their own.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Microsoft filed a patent describing a system that would serve personalized ad content to gamers as they play. From a report: The patent was first spotted by Gamesual, and is titled, "Providing personalized content for unintrusive online gaming experience." It describes a system whereby ads can be served to cloud-based streaming or internet-connected games, but those ads are personalized for each player. The diagrams included with the patent show personalized ads being applied to billboards in a driving game, the hoarding behind a goal in a soccer game, and branding on outfits in sports games. The ads would be served in real-time, appearing at locations deemed "continuously visible," and based on who is playing, which can be determined by checking the account used to access the game. Although the patent states this would be an "unintrusive" system of serving ads, it would inevitably lead to developers being asked to ensure a minimum number of locations where ads can be placed and easily seen. Environment designs will be impacted, and we could see ads appearing on objects players regularly interact with much more often.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

schwit1 writes: Germany is bleeding cash to keep the lights on. Almost half a trillion dollars, and counting, since the Ukraine war jolted it into an energy crisis nine months ago. And it may not be enough. "How severe this crisis will be and how long it will last greatly depends on how the energy crisis will develop," said Michael Groemling at the German Economic Institute (IW). "The national economy as a whole is facing a huge loss of wealth." The money set aside stands at up to 440 billion euros ($465 billion), according to the calculations, which provide the first combined tally of all of Germany's drives aimed at avoiding running out of power and securing new sources of energy. That equates to about 1.5 billion euros a day since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. Or around 12% of national economic output. Or about 5,400 euros for each person in Germany. Germany wants renewables to account for at least 80% of electricity production by 2030, up from 42% in 2021. At recent rates of expansion, though, that remains a remote goal.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Global accounting firm Mazars is pausing its work with all cryptocurrency clients [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source] worldwide, soon after it published several "proof of reserve reports" for digital-asset platforms. From a report: Earlier this month, a five-page letter from a partner at the South African affiliate of Mazars reported on the crypto exchange Binance's bitcoin assets and bitcoin liabilities. The letter wasn't an audit report, didn't address the effectiveness of the company's internal financial-reporting controls, and said Mazars did "not express an opinion or an assurance conclusion," meaning it wasn't vouching for the numbers.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Meta has halted construction of two data centers in Odense, Denmark, and will instead focus on a new type of data center used for artificial intelligence (AI), a spokesperson said on Thursday. Facebook-owner Meta already has two large data centers in Odense, but only one of the three other centers currently under development there will be completed. Construction on the two halted data centres in Odense began in August. However, on Tuesday Meta terminated the deal with contracting company Per Aarsleff worth 2.4 billion Danish crowns ($344 million). "Over the past month, we have announced a number of measures to make us a more streamlined organization," Meta spokesperson Peter Munster told Reuters. "A significant part of these measures is to shift a larger part of our resources to high-priority growth areas, including a strategic investment in artificial intelligence," he said. The company's traditional data centers house servers for apps such as Facebook and Instagram. But the calculations needed for AI require a new generation of data centers, Munster said.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A new study published in the journal PLoS ONE has reported on the first human tests of an experimental therapy using sound and light to treat Alzheimer's disease (AD). New Atlas reports: Over the last seven years, Li-Huei Tsai and colleagues at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory have been investigating an unusual hypothesis. The researchers found toxic proteins associated with Alzheimer's disease could be eliminated from mouse brains following exposure to flickering lights. Further research found the magic frequency was 40 Hz. When animals were exposed to both sound and light at that frequency, improvements in brain health were detected. Of course, these kinds of animal tests don't mean much if they can't be replicated in humans, so after further investigations revealed how this sensory therapy could be affecting a mouse brain, the researchers started preliminary human experiments. Working with colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital, two clinical trials set out to test the therapy in humans. The first Phase 1 study recruited 43 participants to test whether this kind of light and sound exposure was safe, and did anything to the human brain. Each subject was monitored using EEG measures while experiencing a short exposure to what has been dubbed by the researchers as GENUS (Gamma ENtrainment Using Sensory stimulation). This preliminary study comprised both healthy and cognitively impaired subjects, as well as participants with epilepsy in order to evaluate the seizure potential of the treatment. After a short exposure to the sensory stimulation, the researchers found a number of brain regions synchronize with the 40-Hz frequency. The second trial recruited 15 participants with early-stage Alzheimer's disease. Each participant was given a device to take home and use for around an hour a day. The device was essentially a small LED white board with an iPad in the middle and a soundbar underneath. While watching videos on the iPad, the LED light panel on the white board would flicker at a rate of 40 Hz and the soundbar would play a 40-Hz tone. Half the cohort was randomized to a sham control condition, exposed to a constant white light and white noise. Compliance was relatively high between both the GENUS and the sham groups, with participants completing the daily requirement of exposure around 90 percent of the time. After around three months of use the researchers could detect statistically significant differences between the two groups, both on brain imaging and memory tests. The researchers are cautious not to overstate their initial findings, the report says. "It's early days for human studies [...], larger cohorts of patients are needed to better understand the impacts of this sensory stimulation and longer trials will hopefully establish more prominent beneficial effects."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Fortnite developer Epic Games announced today that it will no longer provide online service or servers for 17 older games, including six from the Unreal series dating back as far as 1998, and it will end access to some additional games entirely. The shutdowns are already starting to be enacted, but won't be completed until January 24, 2023. Kotaku reports: According to its announcement blog post, Epic described its decision to quit servicing some online games as part of its move toward "solely [supporting] Epic Online Services with its unified friends system, voice chat features, parental controls, and parental verification features." The full list of affected games is as follows: 1000 Tiny Claws, Dance Central 1, Dance Central 2, Dance Central 3, Green Day: Rock Band, Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess, Rock Band 1, Rock Band 2, Rock Band 3, The Beatles: Rock Band, Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars, Unreal Gold, Unreal II: The Awakening, Unreal Tournament 2003, Unreal Tournament 2004, Unreal Tournament 3, and Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition. And the last Band-Aid: though you can play those previous games if you own them, Epic is performing a few total shutdowns. Players will lose access to the following titles on their specified removal dates: Battle Breakers (December 30), Unreal Tournament: Alpha (January 24), Rock Band Blitz (January 24), Rock Band Companion (January 24), and SingSpace (January 24).Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Scientists have discovered a record number of dead fir trees in Oregon, in a foreboding sign of how drought and the climate crisis are ravaging the American west. A recent arial survey found that more than a million acres of forest contain trees that have succumbed to stressors exacerbated by a multi-year drought. Images released by the US forest service show Oregon's lush green expanses dotted with ominous swathes of red. "It is stunning," said Daniel DePinte, an aerial survey program manager with the Forest Service who led the agency's Pacific north-west region aerial survey, noting that this year saw the highest mortality rate for firs in this area in history. These evergreen conifers are less able to survive in drought conditions than other heartier trees that line the landscapes. He and his colleagues scanned the slopes from planes several times between June and October, detailing the devastation on digital maps. During that time, it became clear that this year would be unlike anything he had seen before. The report is still being finalized but dead trees were spotted in areas across 1.1m acres of Oregon forest. The scientists have taken to dubbing it "firmageddon." "The size of this is enormous," DePinte said. "A lot of people out there think climate change is just impacting the ice caps or some low-level island out there but it is actually impacting right here in our backyard," he added. "If this drought continues as climate change keeps on, and we continue ignoring what nature is showing us across the globe – it doesn't bode well at all." "It will be a different forest with a different feel and it will happen across the landscape as nature decides," DePinte said. "Nature is saying there is just not enough to support the firs, and they will overtime be eliminated from those areas." "Scientists have expected to see signs of stress in the forests, but the suddenness of the spike in mortality was alarming," adds the report. "Before this year, the largest area where dead trees was recorded in Oregon was in 1952 where die-offs were spotted across roughly 550,000 acres." "The flood of warmth and light once guarded by a thick canopy can increase stream temperatures or make space for invasive species once kept out by shade. Some species will thrive in the shift. But others will perish." The tree deaths also heighten the risk of wildfires.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A Sanskrit grammatical problem which has perplexed scholars since the 5th Century BC has been solved by a University of Cambridge PhD student. The BBC reports: Rishi Rajpopat, 27, decoded a rule taught by Panini, a master of the ancient Sanskrit language who lived around 2,500 years ago. Sanskrit, although not widely spoken, is the sacred language of Hinduism and has been used in India's science, philosophy, poetry and other secular literature over the centuries. Panini's grammar, known as the Astadhyayi, relied on a system that functioned like an algorithm to turn the base and suffix of a word into grammatically correct words and sentences. However, two or more of Panini's rules often apply simultaneously, resulting in conflicts. Panini taught a "metarule", which is traditionally interpreted by scholars as meaning "in the event of a conflict between two rules of equal strength, the rule that comes later in the grammar's serial order wins." However, this often led to grammatically incorrect results. Mr Rajpopat rejected the traditional interpretation of the metarule. Instead, he argued that Panini meant that between rules applicable to the left and right sides of a word respectively, Panini wanted us to choose the rule applicable to the right side. Employing this interpretation, he found the Panini's "language machine" produced grammatically correct words with almost no exceptions. His supervisor at Cambridge, professor of Sanskrit Vincenzo Vergiani, said: "He has found an extraordinarily elegant solution to a problem which has perplexed scholars for centuries. "This discovery will revolutionize the study of Sanskrit at a time when interest in the language is on the rise."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Slashdot reader hackingbear writes: Peter Wennink, the chief executive of ASML Holding NV, the Dutch semiconductor equipment maker, on Tuesday questioned whether a U.S. push to get the Netherlands to adopt new rules restricting exports to China make sense. "He said that following U.S. pressure, the Dutch government has already restricted ASML from exporting its most advanced lithography machines to China since 2019, something he said has benefited U.S. companies selling alternative technology," reports Reuters. "He said that while 15% of ASML's sales are in China, at U.S. chip equipment suppliers 'it is 25 or sometimes more than 30%.'" In response to U.S. claims that advanced chips owned by China pose a threat to national security due to military applications and the rise of artificial intelligence, Wennink said: "What constitutes national security is for Americans to determine. But it is common knowledge that chip technology for purely military applications is usually ten, fifteen years old. The technology used to make such chips can still be sold to China. Artificial intelligence requires the most advanced chips. They are made with EUV and are therefore not produced in China. But those chips are simply sold, also to the Chinese. American chip manufacturers have no problem with China as a customer."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

OpenAI, the research organization co-founded by Elon Musk and investor Sam Altman and backed by $1 billion in funding from Microsoft, expects $200 million in revenue next year and $1 billion by 2024. Reuters reports, citing "three sources briefed on OpenAI's recent pitch to investors": OpenAI was most recently valued at $20 billion in a secondary share sale, one of the sources said. The startup has already inspired rivals and companies building applications atop its generative AI software, which includes the image maker DALL-E 2. OpenAI charges developers licensing its technology about a penny or a little more to generate 20,000 words of text, and about 2 cents to create an image from a written prompt, according to its website. A spokesperson for OpenAI declined to comment on its financials and strategy. The company, which started releasing commercial products in 2020, has said its mission remains advancing AI safely for humanity. In a taste of what's to come, startups including Synthesia and Jasper, the latter having relied on OpenAI's tech, have drawn Fortune 500 companies to use their video-generation or AI copywriting tools, according to their websites. OpenAI has also attracted attention as an AI provider and potential Google search competitor, with ChatGPT answering queries for more than 1 million users so far. A "capped-profit" structure that OpenAI created in 2019 also represented an unusual restriction for venture capital. OpenAI wanted to safeguard its mission by limiting backers' returns to 100 times their investment, or less in the future. Others may be doubling down. Microsoft this year has looked at adding to its stake, two other sources told Reuters and the Wall Street Journal previously reported. Its hope is to drive business for Microsoft's cloud as more enterprises embrace AI.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Australian Financial Review: Members of the inner circle of power at collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX formed a chat group called "Wirefraud" and were using it to send secret information about operations in the lead up to the company's spectacular failure. On Monday (Tuesday AEDT) Mr Bankman-Fried denied being part of the chat saying, "If this is true then I wasn't a member of that inner circle (I'm quite sure it's just false; I have never heard of such a group). The news of the chat group heightens concerns about the prospect of wrongdoing by Mr Bankman-Fried and his colleagues. Last week, Mr Bankman-Fried said he no longer had access to many of his own private communications. He was scheduled to testify virtually before the House Financial Services Committee on the 13th, but was arrested by the Royal Bahamas Police Force the day before. That said, Forbes published a transcript of SBF's planned testimony, where he at no point admits fraudulent behavior and does not address the (multi-)billion dollar loans that helped contribute to the collapse. Most recently, we learned that FTX's chief engineer made a secret change to the cryptocurrency exchange's software that allowed FTX to use client money.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Longtime Slashdot reader necro81 writes: A Soyuz spacecraft (MS-22) docked at the International Space Station appears to have developed a coolant leak, according to NASA and various news sources. YouTuber Scott Manley has further background and explanation. The cause and severity are presently not known. There is no immediate danger to the crew. The leak was discovered during preparations for a planned spacewalk, which has since been cancelled. This Soyuz is the return spacecraft for three of the ISS' residents, but after this failure a replacement spacecraft may need to sent up.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Apple is developing a 15.5-inch MacBook Air that could launch in the spring of 2023, according to display analyst Ross Young. MacRumors reports: In a tweet shared with super followers, Young said that production on panels designed for the MacBook Air will start in the first quarter of 2023. A 15.5-inch MacBook Air will be sized between the 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, and it will be the largest MacBook Air to date. The current model measures in at 13.6 inches. While Young now says that the display will be 15.5 inches, he previously said it would be around 15.2 inches. Apple's rumored 15-inch MacBook Air is expected to feature the same general design as the 13-inch MacBook Air that was released in 2022 with flat edges, a large Force Touch trackpad, a keyboard with function keys, and more. It will also likely include a MagSafe charging port, upgraded speaker system, and a 1080p camera. As for chips, the larger-screened MacBook Air could be available with M2 and M2 Pro chip options, and in comparison to the MacBook Pro models, it is not expected to feature the same mini-LED display or ProMotion technology.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Dell continues tinkering with what it hopes to be a repairable laptop like the Framework Laptop. Last year, it showed off Concept Luna, a clamshell designed to easily disassemble for easy repairs, upgrades, and harvested components. This year, Dell showed the press an updated Concept Luna that could support more power while being even simpler to dismantle. The vendor is also exploring how to automate the process, from disassembly to parts diagnostics, on a broad scale. Dell's Concept Luna laptop is comparable in size to a Latitude with some Dell XPS 13 Plus-like stylings. In person, it looked similar to the Concept Luna demoed last year, including appearing to be a functioning PC. But Dell's representative was able to open this year's version up and pull out internal parts much more rapidly -- well under 60 seconds. The computer was easier to take apart because it doesn't have screws (last year's Concept Luna had four). Dell's rep simply stuck a pin (it could be anything that fits, they said) into a hole in the security lock slot on the right side of the system's deck. That allowed Dell's rep to pull off the keystone north of the keyboard and then slide the keyboard up and out. Once the system was open, the speakers, fan, motherboard, and battery were removed instantly thanks to pop-out modules, which, Dell said, are recyclable. The concept laptop also got rid of the cable connecting the battery, so there are no cables, adhesives, or other types of connectors. Dell built Concept Luna with simple display upgrades and repairs in mind as well. Dell's spokesperson promptly removed the system's LCD by inserting a pin into a hole in a keystone south of the screen and then took off the keystone, releasing a latch underneath the piece, and plucked the display off the chassis. There's also potential for better accommodations for beefier components in the updated Concept Luna. Last year's version used passive cooling, while the new one has a fan. The fans lock into the motherboard, keeping it in place. A tech giant like Dell releasing something like Concept Luna could certainly give the younger Framework a run for its money, but Dell still isn't talking about releasing a laptop with Concept Luna's repairability. And it could ultimately decide not to. However, in addition to advancing the laptop's design this year, Dell also looked into automation techniques that could further this concept on a scale that could extend beyond a single product.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

TikTok recommends self-harm and eating disorder content to some users within minutes of joining the platform, according to a new report published Wednesday by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). CBS News: The new study had researchers set up TikTok accounts posing as 13-year-old users interested in content about body image and mental health. It found that within as few as 2.6 minutes after joining the app, TikTok's algorithm recommended suicidal content. The report showed that eating disorder content was recommended within as few as 8 minutes. Over the course of this study, researchers found 56 TikTok hashtags hosting eating disorder videos with over 13.2 billion views. "The new report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate underscores why it is way past time for TikTok to take steps to address the platform's dangerous algorithmic amplification," said James P. Steyer, Founder and CEO of Common Sense Media, which is unaffiliated with the study. "TikTok's algorithm is bombarding teens with harmful content that promote suicide, eating disorders, and body image issues that is fueling the teens' mental health crisis." The CCDH report details how TikTok's algorithms refine the videos shown to users as the app gathers more information about their preferences and interests. The algorithmic suggestions on the "For You" feed are designed, as the app puts it, to be "central to the TikTok experience." But new research shows that the video platform can push harmful content to vulnerable users as it seeks to keep them interested. Further reading: For teen girls, TikTok is the 'social media equivalent of razor blades in candy,' new report claimsRead more of this story at Slashdot.

After taking control of the Tomb Raider franchise earlier this year, today Crystal Dynamics announced Amazon Games will publish the next game in the series. From a report: The new Tomb Raider is currently untitled, but Amazon confirmed it will be a multiplatform release and a "single-player, narrative-driven adventure." We should expect gameplay familiar to the franchise (exploration, puzzles, creative enemy encounters), which Tomb Raider fans will be happy to hear. Back in April, Crystal Dynamics formed part of the launch of Epic Games' Unreal Engine 5, and took the opportunity to announce it was just starting development on a new Tomb Raider game. That game will of course use Unreal Engine 5, which should offer some spectacular, super-realistic visuals on PS5, Xbox Series X, and PCs running the latest graphics cards.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Federal prosecutors have charged six people for allegedly operating websites that launched millions of powerful distributed denial-of-service attacks on a wide array of victims on behalf of millions of paying customers. From a report: The sites promoted themselves as booter or stressor services designed to test the bandwidth and performance of customers' networks. Prosecutors said in court papers that the services were used to direct massive amounts of junk traffic at third-party websites and Internet connections customers wanted to take down or seriously constrain. Victims included educational institutions, government agencies, gaming platforms, and millions of individuals. Besides charging six defendants, prosecutors also seized 48 Internet domains associated with the services. "These booter services allow anyone to launch cyberattacks that harm individual victims and compromise everyone's ability to access the Internet," Martin Estrada, US attorney for the Central District of California, said in a statement. "This week's sweeping law enforcement activity is a major step in our ongoing efforts to eradicate criminal conduct that threatens the Internet's infrastructure and our ability to function in a digital world." The services offered user interfaces that were essentially the same except for cosmetic differences. The screenshot below shows the web panel offered by orphicsecurityteam.com as of February 28. It allowed users to enter an IP address of a target, the network port, and the specific type of attack they wanted. The panel allowed users to pick various methods to amplify their attacks. Amplification involved bouncing a relatively small amount of specially crafted data at a third-party server in a way that caused the server to pummel the intended victim with payloads that were as much as 10,000 times bigger.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) on Thursday issued digital asset guidance to state-regulated banks laying out what information financial institutions must submit before getting approval to engage in virtual currency-related activities. From a reportL: The guidance, one of the clearest paths forward yet for banks to offer cryptocurrency services, instructs banks to submit a business plan with details of the proposed activity, detail how such a service would impact the bank's capital and liquidity and inform NYDFS of its plans at least 90 days beforehand. In a statement, NYDFS Superintendent Adrienne Harris said the new policies are "critical to ensuring that consumers' hard-earned money is protected" and that New York-regulated banks remain competitive. The regulator will "make a comprehensive assessment" of the information presented under the guidance to determine whether a bank should be permitted to engage in a proposed crypto-related activity, according to an industry letter sent Thursday to regulated institutions.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The next time you order a meal from Uber Eats, it may be delivered by a robot -- at least if you live in Miami. From a report: Starting on Thursday, some Miami residents can order their Uber Eats takeout to be delivered via autonomous, sidewalk-trotting robots thanks to a new partnership between the ride-hailing company and robotics firm Cartken. With the new service, customers will be alerted when their food is on the way and then be instructed to meet the remotely-supervised robot on the sidewalk, according to in-app screenshots shared with CNN by Uber. Customers can then unlock the vehicle using their phone and grab their order from a secure compartment. (Customers can also opt-out if they prefer to have their items delivered by a courier.) Cartken's six-wheeled robots are equipped with multiple sensors and cameras to help them avoid collisions and choose routes which have the fewest hazards, according to its website. The delivery robots can operate indoors as well as outdoors.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Jamming and spoofing attacks can cripple GPS connections entirely or make something appear in the wrong location, causing disruption and safety issues. Just ask Russia. From a report: New data analysis reveals that multiple major Russian cities appear to have faced widespread GPS disruption during the past week. The signal interference follows Ukraine launching long-range drone attacks deep into Russian territory, and it may act as a way to potentially stop drones that rely upon GPS for navigation, experts say. The GPS interference has "expanded on a scale that hasn't been seen before," says Erik Kannike, a program manager at Estonian defense intelligence firm SensusQ who has been monitoring the situation. "What we're seeing now, since about a week ago, is GPS jamming bubbles covering hundreds if not thousands of kilometers around tactical cities." The GPS issues were first spotted by the monitoring system GPSJam, which uses data from planes to track problems with the satellite navigation system. The website has logged an increasing number of GPS disturbances in the Russian cities of Saratov, Volgograd, and Penza since the start of December. All of the cities are in Eastern Russia and within hundreds of kilometers of the border with Ukraine. On December 5, GPSJam logged a limited amount of GPS interference in Russia -- the majority of registered interference took place around Moscow, where the Kremlin for years has tampered with GPS connections. However, since December 11, multiple areas of the country have faced GPS disruption, data gathered by GPSJam shows. In addition, wireless data analytics firm Aurora Insight measured an increase in GPS signal levels in the area at the start of December -- a sign that potential GPS interference could have happened.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Linux Foundation has partnered with some of the world's biggest technology companies to develop interoperable and open map data, in what is a clear move to counter Google's dominance in the mapping realm. From a report: The Overture Maps Foundation, as the new effort is called, is officially hosted by the Linux Foundation, but the program is driven by Amazon Web Services (AWS), Facebook's parent company Meta, Microsoft, and Dutch mapping company TomTom. The ultimate mission of the Overture Maps Foundation to power new map products through openly available datasets that can be used and reused across applications and businesses, with each member throwing their own data and resources into the mix. "Mapping the physical environment and every community in the world, even as they grow and change, is a massively complex challenge that no one organization can manage," noted the Linux Foundation's executive director Jim Zemlin in a press release. "Industry needs to come together to do this for the benefit of all." Map and location data plays such a fundamental role across society today, powering everything from IoT (internet of things) devices and self-driving cars, to logistics and big data visualization tools. Having all that data under the auspices of just one or two mega-firms can be hugely restrictive in terms of what companies can do with the data and what features they have at their disposal, not to mention the costs involved in licensing it.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Bloomberg: Last March, brain-computing interface expert Tom Oxley sat down to dinner with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to talk about Oxley's nascent company, Synchron. That meal in Ojai, Calif., ended with something better than dessert: Bezos told Oxley that he wanted to invest in the business. Synchron said Thursday it completed a $75 million funding round, part of it from Bezos Expeditions. The financing was led by ARCH Venture Partners, and includes a check from Gates Frontier, the venture investment arm of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and others. Existing investors also participated, including Khosla Ventures -- whose founder, Vinod Khosla, introduced Oxley to Gates. Brain-computer interfaces, known as BCIs, can interpret and stimulate parts of the brain and are seen as a possible treatment for brain injuries. New investors approached Synchron "through the lens of making an impact in neurology in an area of need," Oxley said in an interview. They "saw BCI as a future therapeutic." About 100 million people globally have upper limb impairment, he said, and could benefit from the technology. [...] Synchron's Switch device aims to help paralyzed people, such as those with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), communicate by controlling computer cursors with their minds. The company has already enrolled three patients in a six-person US feasibility trial and implanted the device in two of them. Oxley expects the remaining patients to enroll and receive their implants in the next few months.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The US government is blacklisting Yangtze Memory Technologies, Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group and dozens of other Chinese tech companies, ratcheting up a trade conflict between the world's two largest economies. From a report: The Department of Commerce is placing the companies on the so-called entity list, meaning that anyone seeking to supply them with US technology will require a license from Washington -- something that will likely be difficult to get. Bloomberg News previously reported that the US was preparing to add the companies to the list. The latest restrictions are part of a push to limit China's access to advanced chipmaking and artificial intelligence technology, which the US wants to keep away from the Asian nation's military. In October, the Biden administration unveiled sweeping measures that limit what US companies can sell to the country -- and it's been pushing for allies to go along with the plan. The idea is to severely restrict China's "ability to leverage artificial intelligence, advanced computing, and other powerful, commercially available technologies for military modernization and human rights abuses," Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Alan Estevez said in a statement. "This work will continue, as will our efforts to detect and disrupt Russia's efforts to obtain necessary items and technologies for its brutal war against Ukraine, including from Iran." Yangtze Memory and Shanghai Micro were added to the list out of concern that they'll work with Huawei, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology and other companies that the US has decided are either a risk to national security or support oppression by the Chinese government. The two companies are key to China's efforts to build a domestic chipmaking business and wean itself off imports, particularly those from the US. In all, 36 companies are joining the entity list.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Microsoft has quietly banned cryptocurrency mining from its online services, and says it did so to protect all customers of its clouds. From a report: The Windows and Azure titan slipped the prohibition into an update of its Universal License Terms for Online Services that came into effect on December 1. That document covers any "Microsoft-hosted service to which Customer subscribes under a Microsoft volume licensing agreement," and on The Register's reading, mostly concerns itself with Azure. Microsoft's Summary of Changes to the license states: "Updated Acceptable Use Policy to clarify that mining cryptocurrency is prohibited without prior Microsoft approval." Within the license itself there's hardly any more info. A section headed "Acceptable Use Policy" states: "Neither Customer, nor those that access an Online Service through Customer, may use an Online Service: to mine cryptocurrency without Microsoft's prior written approval."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Rules around taking liquids and laptops through airport security will be eased from June 2024, the government has said. The announcement of the biggest relaxation of aviation security regulations in decades confirms reports last month that the change would come in the year after next. Passengers at most major UK airports will be able to carry liquids in containers holding up to two liters, a huge increase from the current limit of 100ml. Travelers will also no longer need to carry the containers in clear plastic bags, or remove tablets and laptops from hand luggage at checkpoints. The Department for Transport said major airports would be required to install new technology that gives security staff more detailed images of what is in passengers' bags. It will lay new legislation around the changes in parliament on Thursday. The transport secretary, Mark Harper, said: "The tiny toiletry has become a staple of airport security checkpoints, but that's all set to change. I'm streamlining cabin bag rules at airports while enhancing security." "By 2024, major airports across the UK will have the latest security tech installed, reducing queueing times, improving the passenger experience, and most importantly detecting potential threats."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) are introducing a bill to crack down on money laundering and financing of terrorists and rogue nations via cryptocurrency. CoinDesk reports: If it becomes law, the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act (PDF) will bring know-your-customer (KYC) rules to crypto participants such as wallet providers and miners and prohibit financial institutions from transacting with digital asset mixers, which are tools designed to obscure the origin of funds. The act would also allow the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to implement a proposed rule requiring institutions to report certain transactions involving unhosted wallets -- wallets where the user has complete control over the contents rather than relying on an exchange or other third party.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A NASA-led international satellite mission was set for blastoff from Southern California early on Thursday on a major Earth science project to conduct a comprehensive survey of the world's oceans, lakes and rivers for the first time. Reuters reports: Dubbed SWOT, short for Surface Water and Ocean Topography, the advanced radar satellite is designed to give scientists an unprecedented view of the life-giving fluid covering 70% of the planet, shedding new light on the mechanics and consequences of climate change. A Falcon 9 rocket, owned and operated by billionaire Elon Musk's commercial launch company SpaceX, was set to liftoff before dawn on Thursday from the Vandenberg U.S. Space Force Base, about 170 miles (275 km) northwest of Los Angeles, to carry SWOT into orbit. If all goes as planned, the SUV-sized satellite will produce research data within several months. Nearly 20 years in development, SWOT incorporates advanced microwave radar technology that scientists say will collect height-surface measurements of oceans, lakes, reservoirs and rivers in high-definition detail over 90% of the globe. The data, compiled from radar sweeps of the planet at least twice every 21 days, will enhance ocean-circulation models, bolster weather and climate forecasts and aid in managing scarce freshwater supplies in drought-stricken regions, according to researchers. One major thrust of the mission is to explore how oceans absorb atmospheric heat and carbon dioxide in a natural process that moderates global temperatures and climate change. [...] SWOT's ability to discern smaller surface features also be used to study the impact of rising ocean levels on coastlines.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Genomics England is to test whether sequencing babies' genomes at birth could help speed up the diagnosis of about 200 rare genetic diseases, and ensure faster access to treatment. The study, which will sequence the genomes of 100,000 babies over the next two years, will explore the cost-effectiveness of the approach, as well as how willing new parents are to accept it. Although researchers will only search babies' genomes for genetic conditions that surface during early childhood, and for which an effective treatment already exists, their sequences will be held on file. This could open the door to further tests that could identify untreatable adult onset conditions, or other genetically determined traits, in the future. The study aims to recruit 100,000 newborn children to undergo voluntary whole genome sequencing over the next two years, to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of the technology – including whether it could save the NHS money by preventing serious illness. It will also explore how researchers might access an anonymized version of this database to study people as they grow older, and whether a person's genome might be used throughout their lives to inform future healthcare decisions. For instance, if someone develops cancer when they are older, there may be an opportunity to use their stored genetic information to help diagnose and treat them. Dr Richard Scott, chief medical officer at Genomics England, said: "At the moment, the average time to diagnosis in a rare disease is about five years. This can be an extraordinary ordeal for families, and it also puts pressure on the health system. The question this program is responding to is: 'is there a way that we can get ahead of this?'" "The bottom line here is about us taking a cautious approach, and developing a view jointly nationally about what the right approach is, and what the right safeguards are," he added.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) are introducing a bill to crack down on money laundering and financing of terrorists and rogue nations [PDF] via cryptocurrency. From a report:If it becomes law, the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act will bring know-your-customer (KYC) rules to crypto participants such as wallet providers and miners and prohibit financial institutions from transacting with digital asset mixers, which are tools designed to obscure the origin of funds. The act would also allow the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to implement a proposed rule requiring institutions to report certain transactions involving unhosted wallets -- wallets where the user has complete control over the contents rather than relying on an exchange or other third party.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The literary magazine Bookforum has announced that its current issue would be its last [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source], dealing a significant blow to literary journalism, which has been vastly diminished in recent years. The New York Times: "We are so proud of the contribution Bookforum has made to the literary community," the magazine said on Twitter after announcing its closure, "and are immensely grateful to the advertisers, subscribers and booksellers who made our mission possible over the years." Bookforum was one of the few remaining publications devoted to books, running a mix of reviews, essays and interviews. Among the articles it published over the years were interviews with writers like Jhumpa Lahiri and Marlon James, and essays on Philip Roth and George Saunders. So called "little" magazines -- independent and noncommercial journals, often with readership in the low four figures -- are experiencing a renaissance, with the recent launching of many new publications such as The Drift and Forever Magazine. At the same time, national legacy journals funded by corporations are struggling to stay afloat in an era of consolidation. Astra Magazine, an international magazine of literature published by Astra Publishing House, ceased publication earlier this year after two issues, while The Washington Post Magazine announced that its final issue will run at the end of December. (The Post's books section, Book World, has recently made a comeback, however.) Bookforum and its sister publication, Artforum, were acquired by Penske Media Corporation last week. Penske did not respond to questions about the decision to shutter Bookforum. David Velasco, the editor of Artforum, said that magazine would continue operations. Bookforum's website will continue to offer access to the archives for the near future, according to Kate Koza, who is the associate publisher at Artforum and Bookforum, and will stay on at Artforum.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Microsoft aims to secure internet access for 100 million more people in Africa by 2025, teaming up with a satellite provider and setting the stage for longer-term cloud adoption, its President Brad Smith said. From a report: The software maker has long pushed to bring more people online, playing the role of facilitator among telecoms and electricity providers, governments and non-profits. Since 2017, it helped widen connectivity for 50 million people, including nearly 10 million in Africa, under its so-called Airband initiative. Now, Microsoft is tapping satellite technology for the program for the first time, aiming to reach remote areas that have had little connectivity. In news pegged to the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, Microsoft said Wednesday it is working with Viasat to expand access in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other countries globally. Smith said the effort was "building a new market for access to the internet, for the use of the cloud, for the power of AI, the ability to harness data. All of these things connect with our business."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

couchslug writes: Mozilla's Firefox once commanded a large chunk of the browser market share, but now it stands under a pitiful 5 percent. Google money removes need to compete from a management POV as they'll get paid either way but they're still leaving money on the table. What should Mozilla do to help Firefox regain its lost market share? Not so long ago Internet Explorer was only used to download Firefox when geeks reloaded Windows machines for others. Today, Edge, however pathetic, still outranks Firefox. Were FF not arguably the best available browser for Linux, share would be even less. Were you the king for a day what would you do to make Firefox great again? If you dropped or deprecated Firefox what shooed you off? This is not about Firefox being good or bad but about regaining casually discarded market share.Read more of this story at Slashdot.