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Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes:If you devoured the Childhood of Famous Americans book series as a kid and are ready for a longer read, Bill Gates has a book for you. "I'm excited to announce my new book, Source Code, which will be published next February," Gates wrote Tuesday in a GatesNotes blog post. "It's a memoir about my early years, from childhood through my decision to leave college and start Microsoft with Paul Allen. I write about the relationships, lessons, and experiences that laid the foundation for everything in my life that followed." GeekWire explains the timing of the book release is notable: January 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the Popular Electronics magazine issue that featured the early Altair 8800 personal computer, which inspired Gates and Allen to start the company. Proceeds from book sales will be donated to the nonprofit United Way Worldwide, in recognition of Gates' late mother Mary's longtime work as a volunteer and board member with the organization. "Hey, this thing is happening without us," Allen famously said to Bill Gates (who had just turned 19). When Gates finished reading the Popular Electronics article, "he realized that Allen was right," according to one biographer. "For the next eight weeks, the two of them embarked on a frenzy of code writing that would change the nature of the computer business."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Reuters reports:A special uranium fuel planned for next-generation U.S. nuclear reactors poses security risks because it could be used without further enrichment as fissile material in nuclear weapons, scientists said in an article published on Thursday. The fuel, called high-assay low-enriched uranium, or HALEU, is enriched to levels of up to 20%, compared with about 5% for the fuel that powers most existing reactors. Until recently it was made in commercial amounts only in Russia, but the United States wants to produce it to fuel a new wave of reactors... "This material is directly usable for making nuclear weapons without any further enrichment or reprocessing," said Scott Kemp, one of five authors of the peer-reviewed article in the journal Science. "In other words, the new reactors pose an unprecedented nuclear-security risk," said Kemp, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a former science adviser on arms control at the State Department. A bomb similar in power to the one the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945 could be made from 2,200 pounds (1,000 kg) or less of 19.75% enriched HALEU, the article said. "Designing such a weapon would not be without its challenges, but there do not appear to be any convincing reasons why it could not be done," it said. The authors said if enrichment is limited to 10% to 12%, the supply chain would be far safer with only modest costs... TerraPower, a company backed by Bill Gates that has received funding from the [U.S.] Energy Department, hopes to build its Natrium nuclear plant in Wyoming by 2030 to run on HALEU. TerraPower in late 2022 delayed Natrium's launch date by at least two years to 2030 due to a lack of HALEU. A TerraPower spokesperson said Natrium will use HALEU as it allows more efficient energy production and reduces nuclear waste volumes. "TerraPower has made reduction of weapons risks a foundational principle" the spokesperson said, adding that its fuel cycle eliminates the risk of proliferation. Reuters notes that America's 2022 climate legislation "included $700 million for a HALEU availability program including purchasing the fuel to create a supply chain for planned high-tech reactors." But the study's authors argue that if it becomes a standard reactor fuel, it could eliminate the distinction between peaceful and nonpeaceful nuclear programs - in countries around the world. Thanks to Slashdot reader locater16 for sharing the article.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In November Google agreed to pay Canadian news publishers $100 million annually "in order to be exempt from the Online News Act, which compels tech companies to enter into agreements with news publishers," writes the Canadian Press. On Friday Google "named the organization it has selected to distribute the $100 million..."The Canadian Journalism Collective will be responsible for ensuring eligible news organizations get their share of the money. The collective is a federally incorporated non-profit organization that was created for this purpose. It was founded in May by a group of independent publishers and broadcasters... "We hope these next steps will be completed as quickly as possible, so Canadian publishers and journalists can soon begin to receive the proceeds of this new contribution model," Google said in a blog entry posted on their website Friday... The money will be distributed proportionately based on how many full time-journalists the companies employ. Small print and digital outlets can expect to receive about $17,000 per journalist that they employ, an official with the Canadian Heritage Department has said. Google's money will go to 1,520 news organizations, according to Google's blog post - which describes the arrangement as "addressing our concerns with the Online News Act" and "a viable path to an exemption at a clear and commercially acceptable commitment level..."As part of this transition, we have advised partners in our Google News Showcase program (our online news experience and licensing program for news organizations) will cease to operate in Canada later this year as we transition to this new contribution model. We will be maintaining some Google News Initiative programming in Canada. This includes a range of collaborative tools and resources that can support the advancement of quality journalism. However, with our monetary contribution in Canada now streamlined into the new single collective model, these investments will be non-monetary in nature.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The BBC reports that British tech tycoon Mike Lynch "has been cleared of fraud charges he faced in the U.S. over the $11bn (8.6bn) sale of his software firm to Hewlett-Packard in 2011."A jury in San Francisco found him not guilty on all counts in a stunning victory for Mr Lynch, who had been accused of inflating the value of Autonomy, his company, ahead of its sale. Mr Lynch, who faced more than 20 years in prison if convicted, had denied the charges and took the stand to defend himself. In his testimony, he maintained he had focused on technology not accounting, distancing himself from other executives, including the company's former chief financial officer who was already successfully prosecuted for fraud... Mr Lynch made 500m from the sale. Just a year later, HP wrote down the value of Autonomy by $8.8bn. Years of legal battles followed. The company's chief financial officer, Sushovan Hussain, was found guilty of fraud in 2018 and later sentenced to five years in prison... Mr Lynch's team pushed the argument that HP had failed to properly vet the deal and mismanaged the takeover, while he testified he was uninvolved with the transactions being described. Lynch's lawyers said the verdict "closes the book on a relentless 13-year effort to pin HP's well-documented ineptitude on Dr Lynch. Thankfully, the truth has finally prevailed." Thanks to Slashdot reader Bruce66423 for sharing the news.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Wired visits Chula Vista, California (population: 275,487) - where since 2018 drones have been dispatched by police "teleoperators" monitoring 911 calls. ("Noise complaints, car accidents, overdoses, domestic disputes...") After nearly 20,000 drone flights, it's become the envy of other police departments, according to Wired's article, as other police departments "look to expand their use of unmanned aerial aircraft."The [Chula Vista] department says that its drones provide officers with critical intelligence about incidents they are responding to ahead of initiating in-person contact - which the CVPD says has reduced unnecessary police contacts, decreased response times, and saved lives. But a WIRED investigation paints a complicated picture of the trade-offs between public safety and privacy. In Chula Vista, drone flight paths trace a map of the city's inequality, with poorer residents experiencing far more exposure to the drones' cameras and rotors than their wealthier counterparts, a WIRED analysis of nearly 10,000 drone flight records from July 2021 to September 2023 found. The drones, often dispatched for serious incidents like reports of armed individuals, are also routinely deployed for minor issues such as shoplifting, vandalism, and loud music. [Drones are sent in response to about 1 in every 14 calls.] Early in the Covid-19 pandemic, the city even used drones to broadcast public service announcements to homeless encampments. Despite the police promoting the benefits of the "Drone as First Responder" program, residents who encounter the technology day-to-day report feeling constantly watched. Some say they are afraid to spend time in their backyards; they fear that the machines are following them down the street, spying on them while they use the public pool or change their clothes. One resident says that he was so worried that the drones were harassing him that he went to the emergency room for severe depression and exhaustion. [A 60-year-old professor told Wired that the sound of drones kept them awake at night.] The police drones, equipped with cameras and zoom lenses powerful enough to capture faces clearly and constantly recording while in flight, have amassed hundreds of hours of video footage of the city's residents. Their flight paths routinely take them over backyards and above public pools, high schools, hospitals, churches, mosques, immigration law firms, and even the city's Planned Parenthood facility. Privacy advocates argue that the extensive footage captured by the drones makes it difficult to distinguish between flights responding to specific incidents and mass surveillance from the sky. Department secrecy around the recordings remains the subject of ongoing litigation... At the time of our analysis, approximately one in 10 drone flights listed on the department's transparency portal lacked a stated purpose and could not be connected to any relevant 911 call.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"Police and search and rescue forces worldwide are increasingly using robots to assist in carrying out their operations," writes Interesting Engineering. "Now, the Dutch police are looking at employing AI-powered autonomous robot dogs in drug lab raids to protect officers from criminal risks, hazardous chemicals, and explosions." New Scientist's Matthew Sparkes (also a long-time Slashdot reader) shares this report:Dutch police are planning to use an autonomous robotic dog in drug lab raids to avoid placing officers at risk from criminals, dangerous chemicals and explosions. If tests in mocked-up scenarios go well, the artificial intelligence-powered robot will be deployed in real raids, say police. Simon Prins at Politie Nederland, the Dutch police force, has been testing and using robots in criminal investigations for more than two decades, but says they are only now growing capable enough to be practical for more... Some context from Interesting Engineering:The police force in the Netherlands carries out such raids at least three to four times a week... Since 2021, the force has already been using a Spot quadruped, fitted with a robotic arm, from Boston Dynamics to carry out drug raids and surveillance. However, the Spot is remotely controlled by a handler... [Significant technological advancements] have prompted the Dutch force to explore fully autonomous operations with Spot. Reportedly, such AI-enabled autonomous robots are expected to inspect drug labs, ensure no criminals are present, map the area, and identify dangerous chemicals... Initial tests by force suggest that Spot could explore and map a mock drug lab measuring 15 meters by 20 meters. It was able to find hazardous chemicals and put them away into a designated storage container. Their article notes that Spot "can do laser scans and visual, thermal, radiation, and acoustic inspections using add-on payloads and onboard cameras." (A video from Boston Dynamics - the company behind Spot - also seems to show the robot dog spraying something on a fire.) The video seems aimed at police departments, touting the robot dog's advantages for "safety and incident response": Enables safer investigation of suspicious packages Detection of hazardous chemicals De-escalation of tense or dangerous situations Get eyes on dangerous situationsIt also notes the robot "can be operated from a safe distance," suggesting customers "Use Spot(R) to place cameras, radios, and more for tactical reconnaissance."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"The first European Space Agency instrument to land on the Moon has detected the presence of negative ions on the lunar surface produced through interactions with the solar wind," according to a statement from the agency, collecting over three hours of data, "three times more than what the science teams needed for mission success..."The solar wind is a constant flow of radiation and particles from the Sun. Earth's magnetic field acts as a shield. In contrast, the Moon has no magnetic field and a very tenuous atmosphere, called the exosphere. When the solar wind hits the Moon,athe surface reacts, kicking up secondary particles... While the positively charged particles have been measured from orbit before, measuring negative particles was a challenge. Negative ions are short-lived and cannot make it to orbit. The instrument was dropped off by China's Chang'e-6 lunar lander, and Europe's ground stations are also providing support for that mission. Futurism reports:Within just over 48 hours, China's Chang'e-6 lunar touched down on the far side of the Moon, successfully scooped up samples, and kicked off once again. It was an extraordinary feat, representing the first-ever samples ever collected from the side of the Moon that permanently faces away from us. During its brief visit, the lander also dropped off several scientific payloads on the lunar service, including the European Space Agency's Negative Ions at the Lunar Surface instrument. The lander also unfurled China's red and gold flag for the first time on the far side of the moon, according to the Associated Press. And then... Its ascender lifted off Tuesday morning at 7:38 a.m. Beijing time, with its engine burning for about six minutes as it entered a preset orbit around the moon, the China National Space Administration said. The agency said the spacecraft withstood a high temperature test on the lunar surface, and acquired the samples using both drilling and surface collection before stowing them in a container inside the ascender of the probe as planned. The container will be transferred to a reentry capsule that is due to return to Earth in the deserts of China's Inner Mongolia region about June 25. The samples "could help researchers figure out why the moon's two sides are so starkly different," writes Science News: Spacecraft observations of the farside show very little volcanic activity. Some scientists suspect that this is because the nearside crust is much thinner, which would have allowed more magma to come up from below the surface, says Kerri Donaldson Hanna, a planetary geologist at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. There is evidence that some volcanism occurred in the South Pole-Aitken basin and in Apollo crater, though it appears this activity happened roughly 3.5 billion years ago. It's possible the impact that created both Aiken and Apollo weakened the lunar crust, forming fractures and allowing magma to flow. The samples onboard Chang'e-6 could contain clues as to whether or not this happened. Both Chinese and international researchers will be able to study the material. Donaldson Hanna is looking forward to seeing what insights will be gleaned from Chang'e-6 as well as future landers, such as those in NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. Thanks to Slashdot reader cusco for sharing the news.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

America's Justice Department "indicted the creators of an application that helps people spend their bitcoins anonymously," writes Reason.com: They're accused of "conspiracy to commit money laundering." Why "conspiracy to commit" as opposed to just "money laundering"? Because they didn't hold anyone else's money or do anything illegal with it. They provided a privacy tool that may have enabled other people to do illegal things with their bitcoin... What this tool does is offer what's known as a "coinjoin," a method for anonymizing bitcoin transactions by mixing them with other transactions, as the project's founder, Keonne Rodriguez, explained to Reason in 2022: "I think the best analogy for it is like smelting gold," he said. "You take your Bitcoin, you add it into [the conjoin protocol] Whirlpool, and Whirlpool smelts it into new pieces that are not associated to the original piece." Reason argues that providing the tool isn't a crime, just like selling someone a kitchen knife isn't a crime:The government's decision to indict Rodriguez and his partner William Lonergan Hill is also an attack on free speech because all they did was write open-source code and make it widely available. "It is an issue of a chilling effect on free speech," attorney Jerry Brito, who heads up the cryptocurrency nonprofit Coin Center, told Reason after the U.S. Treasury went after the creators of another piece of anonymizing software... The most important thing about bitcoin, and money like it, isn't its price. It's the check it places on the government's ability to devalue, censor, and surviel our money. Creators of open-source tools like Samourai Wallet should be celebrated, not threatened with a quarter-century in a federal prison. Long-time Slashdot reader SonicSpike shared the article...Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Last week America's energy secretary cheered the startup of a fourth nuclear reactor at a Georgia power plant, calling it "the largest producer of clean energy, and the largest producer of electricity in the United States" after a third reactor was started up there in December. From the U.S. Energy Department's transcript of the speech: Each year, Units 3 and 4 are going to produce enough clean power to power 1 million homes and businesses, enough energy to power roughly 1 in 4 homes in Georgia. Preventing 10 million metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution annually. That, by the way, is like planting more than 165 million trees every year! And that's not to mention the historic investments that [electric utility] Southern has made on the safety front, to ensure this facility meets - and exceeds - the highest operating standards in the world.... To reach our goal of net zero by 2050, we have to at least triple our current nuclear capacity in this country. That means we've got to add 200 more gigawatts by 2050. Okay, two down, 198 to go! In building [Unit] 4, we've solved our greatest design challenges. We've stood up entire supply chains.... And so it's time to cash in on our investments by building more. More of these facilities. The Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office stands ready to help, with hundreds of billions of dollars in what we call Title 17 loans... Since the President signed the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, companies across the nation have announced 29 new or expanded nuclear facilities - across 16 states - representing about 1,600 potential new jobs. And the majority of those projects will expand the domestic uranium production and fuel fabrication, strengthening these critical supply chains... Bottom line is, in short, we are determined to build a world-class nuclear industry in the United States, and we're putting our money where our mouth is. America's Energy Secretary told the Washington Post that "Whether it happens through small modular reactors, or AP1000s, or maybe another design out there worthy of consideration, we want to see nuclear built." The Post notes the Energy department gave a $1.5 billion loan to restart a Michigan power plant which was decommissioned in 2022. "It would mark the first time a shuttered U.S. nuclear plant has been reactivated." "But in this country with 54 nuclear plants across 28 states, restarting existing reactors and delaying their closure is a lot less complicated than building new ones."When the final [Georgia] reactor went online at the end of April, the expansion was seven years behind schedule and nearly $20 billion over budget. It ultimately cost more than twice as much as promised, with ratepayers footing much of the bill through surcharges and rate hikes... Administration officials say the country has no choice but to make nuclear power a workable option again. The country is fast running short on electricity, demand for power is surging amid a boom in construction of data centers and manufacturing plants, and a neglected power grid is struggling to accommodate enough new wind and solar power to meet the nation's needs... As the administration frames the narrative of the plant as one of perseverance and innovation that clears a path for restoring U.S. nuclear energy dominance, even some longtime boosters of the industry question whether this country will ever again have a vibrant nuclear energy sector. "It is hard for me to envision state energy regulators signing off on another one of these, given how badly the last ones went," said Matt Bowen, a nuclear scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, who was an adviser on nuclear energy issues in the Obama administration. The article notes there are 19 AP1000 reactors (the design used at the Georgia plant) in development around the world. "None of them are being built in the United States."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"Researchers observed a new Linux variant of the TargetCompany ransomware family that targets VMware ESXi environments," reports BleepingComputer:In a report Wednesday, cybersecurity company Trend Micro says that the new Linux variant for TargetCompany ransomware makes sure that it has administrative privileges before continuing the malicious routine... Once on the target system, the payload checks if it runs in a VMware ESXi environment by executing the 'uname' command and looking for 'vmkernel.' Next, a "TargetInfo.txt" file is created and sent to the command and control (C2) server. It contains victim information such as hostname, IP address, OS details, logged-in users and privileges, unique identifiers, and details about the encrypted files and directories. The ransomware will encrypt files that have VM-related extensions (vmdk, vmem, vswp, vmx, vmsn, nvram), appending the ".locked" extension to the resulting files. Finally, a ransom note named "HOW TO DECRYPT.txt" is dropped, containing instructions for the victim on how to pay the ransom and retrieve a valid decryption key."After all tasks have been completed, the shell script deletes the payload using the 'rm -f x' command so all traces that can be used in post-incident investigations are wiped from impacted machines." Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader joshuark for sharing the article.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes: "Great news, Louisiana!" tech-backed Code.org exclaimed Wednesday in celebratory LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter posts. Louisiana is "officially the 10th state to make computer science a [high school] graduation requirement. Huge thanks to Governor Jeff Landry for signing the bill and to our legislative champions, Rep. Jason Hughes and Sen. Thomas Pressly, for making it happen! This means every Louisiana student gets a chance to learn coding and other tech skills that are super important these days. These skills can help them solve problems, think critically, and open doors to awesome careers!" Representative Hughes, the sponsor of HB264 - which calls for each public high school student to successfully complete a one credit CS course as a requirement for graduation and also permits students to take two units of CS instead of studying a Foreign Language - tweeted back: "HUGE thanks @codeorg for their partnership in this effort every step of the way! Couldn't have done it without [Code.org Senior Director of State Government Affairs] Anthony [Owen] and the Code.org team!" Code.org also on Wednesday announced the release of its 2023 Impact Report, which touted its efforts "to include a requirement for every student to take computer science to receive a high school diploma." Since its 2013 launch, Code.org reports it's spent $219.8 million to push coding into K-12 classrooms, including $19 million on Government Affairs (Achievements: "Policies changed in 50 states. More than $343M in state budgets allocated to computer science."). In Code.org by the Numbers, the nonprofit boasts that 254,683 students started Code.org's AP CS Principlescourse in the academic year (2025 Goal: 400K), while 21,425 have started Code.org's new Amazon-bankrolled AP CS A course. Estimates peg U.S. public high school enrollment at 15.5M students, annual K-12 public school spending at $16,080 per pupil, and an annual high school student course load at 6-8 credits...Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"Rust is the fastest-growing programming language, with its developer community doubling in size over the past two years," writes The New Stack, "yet JavaScript remains the most popular language with 25.2 million active developers, according to the results of a recent survey."The 26th edition of SlashData's Developer Nation survey showed that the Rust community doubled its number of users over the past two years - from two million in the first quarter of 2022 to four million in the first quarter of 2024 - and by 33% in the last 12 months alone. The SlashData report covers the first quarter of 2024."Rust has developed a passionate community that advocates for it as a memory-safe language which can provide great performance, but cybersecurity concerns may lead to an even greater increase," the report said. "The USA and its international partners have made the case in the last six months for adopting memory-safe languages...." "JavaScript's dominant position is unlikely to change anytime soon, with its developer population increasing by 4M developers over the last 12 months, with a growth rate in line with the global developer population growth," the report said. The strength of the JavaScript community is fueled by the widespread use of the language across all types of development projects, with at least 25% of developers in every project type using it, the report said. "Even in development areas not commonly associated with the language, such as on-device coding for IoT projects, JavaScript still sees considerable adoption," SlashData said. Also, coming in strong, Python has overtaken Java as the second most popular language, driven by the interest in machine learning and AI. The battle between Python and Java shows Python with 18.2 million developers in Q1 2024 compared to Java's 17.7 million. This comes about after Python added more than 2.1 million net new developers to its community over the last 12 months, compared to Java which only increased by 1.2 million developers...Following behind Java there is a six-million-developer gap to the next largest community, which is C++ with 11.4 million developers, closely trailed by C# with 10.2 million and PHP with 9.8 million. Languages with the smallest communities include Objective-C with 2.7 million developers, Ruby with 2.5 million, and Lua with 1.8 million. Meanwhile, the Go language saw its developer population grow by 10% over the last year. It had previously outpaced the global developer population growth, growing by 5Y% over the past two years, from three million in Q1 2022 to 4.7 million in Q1 2024. "TNS analyst Lawrence Hecht has a few different takeaways. He notes that with the exceptions of Rust, Go and JavaScript, the other major programming languages all grew slower than the total developer population, which SlashData says increased 39% over the last two years alone."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A worker at a retail store in an airport has been charged with stealing thousands of dollars in electronics and clothing, reports the Washington Post. But what's more interesting is what led to his arrest... A woman showed up at his home looking for the missing luggage that she'd tracked with her Apple Watch. CNN reports:Paola Garcia told CNN affiliate WPLG in Miami that she usually takes her suitcase onboard, but this time, she was told she had to check it. Garcia waited at least two hours for her pink roller bag, which contained an Apple MacBook, Apple iPad, Apple Watch, jewelry, high-end woman's clothing and toiletries. It never came out on the luggage belt. In her WPLG interview, Garcia said that Spirit Airlines told her that her luggage had been sent to her house. The luggage never came. But Garcia explored another avenue with her own electronic tracker. Garcia, not named in the affidavit, later pinged the electronic items inside the bag to try and locate them, and the ping showed them at an address in Fort Lauderdale, the affidavit said... While at the house, she took video and still pictures, where she saw "several pieces of luggage in the front of the home," none of which were her own, the affidavit said. Garcia told WPLG that she dialed 911. "The first thing I remember the police told me is: 'What are you doing here? This is so dangerous for you to be here.' " When a detective with the Broward County Sheriff's Office searched the address within the airport's employee databases, he found that Bazile reportedly lived at the address. Bazile was listed as working at a Paradies Lagardere Travel Retail store at the airport and was working on the day of the theft, according to the affidavit. So apparently when the airline said the luggage had been sent to her house - they were wrong. In fact when police contacted a store manager, "he provided the detective with internal CCTV footage from the day of the incident," CNN reports, "which allegedly showed Bazile entering the store's storage room with a pink shell roller bag, matching the description of the stolen bag, and rummaging through the luggage, the affidavit said. "He then appeared to take the MacBook and other smaller items out of the luggage and put them in other bags."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"Lansweeper's scans of its customers' networks found an awful lot of Linux boxes facing imminent end of life," reports the Register, "with no direct upgrade path."Belgian corporate network scanner vendor Lansweeper periodically collates some of the statistics collected by its users and publishes the results... This year's report says that while a third of its users' Linux machines run Ubuntu, second place goes to CentOS Linux [with 26.05%]. Back in 2020, Red Hat brought CentOS Linux 8's end of life forward from 2029 to the end of 2021. CentOS Linux 9 was canceled, CentOS Linux 8 is dead and gone, leaving only CentOS Linux 7. As we reported in May, CentOS 7's end of life is very close now - the end of June. After this month, no more updates. Of course, Red Hat will be happy to help you migrate to RHEL. It offers a free tool to switch boxes' package source, but RHEL 7 hits what Red Hat terms "the end of its maintenance support 2 phase" on the same day. RHEL 7 isn't EOL, but you'll need to pay extra for "Extended Lifecycle Support (ELS)" to keep security fixes coming. Lansweeper seems confident this will happen: "Assuming most of the CentOS devices will migrate over to RHEL, we can expect RHEL to comfortably take over first place from Ubuntu soon." RHEL was already on 20% of the machines scanned by Lansweeper (with Rocky Linux at 1.5%). But the Register argues that instead of switching to RHEL, "the freeloaders running CentOS Linux might well migrate to one of the RHELatives instead. CIQ publishes guidance on how to migrate to Rocky Linux, and will help if you buy its CIQ Bridge service. AlmaLinux has more than that with its ELevate tool to perform in-place version upgrades, as we described back in 2022. "Or, of course, you could just reinstall with Debian, and run anything you can't immediately reprovision in a free RHEL container image."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

CNN reports that the low-calorie sweetener xylitol used "may be linked to nearly twice the risk of heart attacks, stroke and death in people who consume the highest levels of the sweetener, a new study found..." In 2023, the same researchers found similar results for another low-calorie sweetener called erythritol, which is used as a bulking sugar in stevia, monkfruit and keto reduced-sugar products. Additional lab and animal research presented in both papers revealed erythritol and xylitol may cause blood platelets to clot more readily. Clots can break off and travel to the heart, triggering a heart attack, or to the brain, triggering a stroke. In the new study on xylitol, "differences in platelet behavior were seen even after a person consumed a modest quantity of xylitol in a drink typical of a portion consumed in real life," said Dr. Matthew Tomey, a cardiologist at Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital in New York City, who was not involved in the study... "Through their work, the investigators have shined a light on the safety of sugar substitutes. There is more to learn," Mount Sinai's Tomey said. "In the meantime, it is worth remembering that sugar substitutes are no substitute for a sincere commitment to the several elements of a healthy diet and lifestyle." Tomey added that the experiments "are interesting but alone do not prove that platelet abnormalities are to account for a linkage between xylitol and clinical events." But CNN notes that the researchers began by analyzing over 3,200 blood samples - and then also gave volunteers a typical xylitol-sweetened drink to see how much in increased their glucose levels. "They went up 1,000-fold," senior study author Dr. Stanley Hazen told CNN. His study adds that the World Health Organization warned consumers in 2023 to avoid artificial sweeteners for weight loss and called for additional research on the long-term toxicity of low- and no-calorie sweeteners.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shared this report from the Washington Post:A YouTuber who posted a Fourth of July video in which passengers on a low-flying helicopter shot fireworks at a speeding Lamborghini is facing a federal charge tied to the stunt. Suk Min Choi, 24, who runs a YouTube channel under the name Alex Choi, was charged Thursday with causing the placement of an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft, the Justice Department announced. He arranged to have the helicopter fly over the El Mirage Dry Lakebed near Los Angeles in June 2023 for a video titled "Destroying a Lamborghini With Fireworks," according to a complaint filed in the Central District Court of California. The video, released on July 4, shows scenes akin to an action film as Choi laughs while driving the Lamborghini and helicopter-launched fireworks ricochet off the car, enveloping it in sparks... Choi faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted, according to the Justice Department. More details from NBC Los Angeles:Federal authorities said radar data from the day of the video shoot showed that the helicopter left an airport in Pacoima, California, around 1:53 p.m. and turned toward El Mirage Lake, a dry lake in California, where the video was filmed. The helicopter's transponder was then turned off, according to the affidavit. The helicopter reappeared on the radar and flew back to the airport just before 9 p.m., the document says. The pilot initially told an FAA inspector that he did not know anything about the El Mirage video, according to the affidavit. In a follow-up call, he told inspectors that he did not want Choi to know he was speaking with them and said "Choi was doing unsafe activities involving cars and aircraft." In January, the FAA issued an emergency order revoking the pilot's private pilot certification, the affidavit says.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

America "is now adding less wind capacity each year" than it was before the passage of a climate-protecting bill in 2022, according to the New York Times. Since then "solar panel installations are indeed soaring to record highs in the U.S., as are batteries that can store energy for later. But wind power has struggled, both on land and in the ocean."Some factors behind the wind industry's recent slowdown may be temporary, such as snarled supply chains. But wind power is also more vulnerable than solar power to many of the biggest logistical hurdles that hinder energy projects today: a lack of transmission lines, a lengthy permitting process and a growing backlash against new projects in many communities... [M]any areas are now crowded with turbines and existing electric grids are clogged, making it difficult to add more projects. Energy companies want to expand the grid's capacity to transport even more wind power to population centers, but getting permits for transmission lines and building them has become a brutal slog that can take more than a decade... Because they can reach the height of skyscrapers, wind turbines are more noticeable than solar farms and often attract more intense opposition from local communities. The wind industry has also been hampered by soaring equipment costs after the pandemic wrecked supply chains and inflation spiked. While those factors initially hurt solar, too, the solar industry has adjusted much faster, with China nearly doubling its manufacturing capacity for panels over the past two years. Wind supply chains, which are dominated by a few manufacturers in China, Europe and the United States, have yet to fully recover. The cost increases have been devastating for offshore wind projects in the Northeast, where developers have canceled more than half the projects they planned to build this decade. Wind isn't languishing only in the United States. While a record 117 gigawatts of new wind capacity came online last year globally, virtually all of that growth was in China. In the rest of the world, developers weren't installing wind turbines any faster than they were in 2020... It's still possible that wind power could rebound. In fact, some experts argue that the recent slowdown is only a temporary artifact of tax policy... [John Hensley, vice president for markets and policy analysis at the American Clean Power Association, a renewable industry trade group] said that U.S. wind manufacturing was beginning to ramp up thanks to new tax incentives, while costs were starting to come down. Last year, orders for new turbines increased by 130%, although many of them won't be delivered until 2025 or later. Some states are now trying to make it easier to build renewable energy: Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota have all passed laws making it harder for local governments to restrict wind and solar. The federal government has issued new rules to accelerate the planning of transmission lines. Demand for wind could also rise as a growing number of states, tech companies and hydrogen producers are trying to secure clean electricity around the clock, rather than just a burst of solar power in the daytime. Many plans for moving America off fossil fuels "envision a large expansion of both solar and wind," the article points out, "because the two sources generate electricity at different hours and can complement each other. A boom in solar power alone, which runs only in daytime, isn't enough."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

HP is facing something of a challenge as the number of printed pages has decreased by 20% since the pandemic. "On the office space, clearly, the amount of pages that is being printed is lower than before the pandemic," HP boss Enrique Lores told tech investors at Bernstein's 40th Annual Strategic Decision Conference last week. "And this is really driven by what we call hybrid work. There are less people in the office every day, and this has driven the amount of pages down." The Register reports: "I use pages as a proxy because, depending on what happens with pages, happens eventually with devices. Before the pandemic, our estimates were that we were expecting to see a 20 percent reduction of printing. And actually, we were looking at the numbers ... and this is more or less where we are." In terms of users printing at home, "during the pandemic, we saw a spike of pages printed, and since then, the number of pages has been declining," Lores added. The levels are not unexpected, though, he said. The industrial customer base was "impacted during the last two or three years by a reduction of capital investments," but recovery is showing up, with those customers printing more labels and packaging. Previous research by IDC showed around 450 billion fewer pages were printed in homes and office worldwide in 2020 versus the year before the pandemic, equating to a 19 percent plunge. It merely accelerated the long-term trend. [...]Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Carbon dioxide levels in Earth's atmosphere are accumulating "faster than ever" and have reached unprecedented levels, with a peak of 426.9 ppm recorded at NOAA's Mauna Loa Observatory in May 2024, said scientists from NOAA, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the University of California San Diego. CBS News reports: "Over the past year, we've experienced the hottest year on record, the hottest ocean temperatures on record, and a seemingly endless string of heat waves, droughts, floods, wildfires and storms," NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad said in a press release. "Now we are finding that atmospheric CO2 levels are increasing faster than ever." The researchers measured carbon dioxide, or CO2, levels at the Mauna Loa Atmospheric Baseline Observatory. They found that atmospheric levels of the gas hit a seasonal peak of just under 427 parts per million in May -- an increase of 2.9 ppm since May 2023 and the fifth-largest annual growth in 50 years of data recording. It also made official that the past two years saw the largest jump in the May peak -- when CO2 levels are at their highest in the Northern Hemisphere. John Miller, a NOAA carbon cycle scientist, said that the jump likely stems from the continuous rampant burning of fossil fuels as well as El Nino conditions making the planet's ability to absorb CO2 more difficult. The surge of carbon dioxide levels at the measuring station surpassed even the global average set last year, which was a record high of 419.3 ppm -- 50% higher than it was before the Industrial Revolution. However, NOAA noted that their observations were taken at the observatory specifically, and do not "capture the changes of CO2 across the globe," although global measurements have proven consistent without those at Mauna Loa. "Not only is CO2 now at the highest level in millions of years, it is also rising faster than ever," Ralph Keeling, director of Scripps' CO2 program, said in the release. "Each year achieves a higher maximum due to fossil-fuel burning, which releases pollution in the form of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Fossil fuel pollution just keeps building up, much like trash in a landfill." "We are living in unprecedented times. ... This string of hottest months will be remembered as comparatively cold," Carlo Buontempo, director of Copernicus, added.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Science Magazine: Authors of a landmark Alzheimer's disease research paper published in Nature in 2006 have agreed to retract the study in response to allegations of image manipulation. University of Minnesota (UMN) Twin Cities neuroscientist Karen Ashe, the paper's senior author, acknowledged in a post on the journal discussion site PubPeer that the paper contains doctored images. The study has been cited nearly 2500 times, and would be the most cited paper ever to be retracted, according to Retraction Watch data. "Although I had no knowledge of any image manipulations in the published paper until it was brought to my attention two years ago," Ashe wrote on PubPeer, "it is clear that several of the figures in Lesne et al. (2006) have been manipulated ... for which I as the senior and corresponding author take ultimate responsibility." After initially arguing the paper's problems could be addressed with a correction, Ashe said in another post last week that all of the authors had agreed to a retraction -- with the exception of its first author, UMN neuro-scientist Sylvain Lesne, a protege of Ashe's who was the focus of a 2022 investigation by Science. "It's unfortunate that it has taken 2 years to make the decision to retract," says Donna Wilcock, an Indiana University neuroscientist and editor of the journal Alzheimer's & Dementia. "The evidence of manipulation was overwhelming." The 2006 paper suggested an amyloid beta (AB) protein called AB*56 could cause Alzheimer's. AB proteins have long been linked to the disease. The authors reported that AB*56 was present in mice genetically engineered to develop an Alzheimer's-like condition, and that it built up in step with their cognitive decline. The team also reported memory deficits in rats injected with AB*56. For years researchers had tried to improve Alzheimer's outcomes by stripping amyloid proteins from the brain, but the experimental drugs all failed. AB*56 seemed to offer a more specific and promising therapeutic target, and many embraced the finding. Funding for related work rose sharply. But the Science investigation revealed evidence that the Nature paper and numerous others co-authored by Lesne, some listing Ashe as senior author, appeared to use manipulated data. After the story was published, leading scientists who had cited the paper to support their own experiments questioned whether AB*56 could be reliably detected and purified as described by Lesne and Ashe -- or even existed. Some said the problems in that paper and others supported fresh doubts about the dominant hypothesis that amyloid drives Alzheimer's. Others maintained that the hypothesis remains viable. That debate has continued amid the approval of the antiamyloid drug Leqembi, which modestly slows cognitive decline but carries risks of serious or even fatal brain swelling or bleeding.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Michelle Lewis reports via Electrek: The world's largest solar farm, in the desert in northwestern Xinjiang, is now connected to China's grid. The 3.5-gigawatt (GW), 33,000-acre solar farm is outside Urumqi, Xinjiang's capital. The state asset regulator's website cited the Power Construction Corp of China and said it came online on Monday. The solar farm will generate about 6.09 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity annually. Assuming an EV consumes about 3,000 kWh per year, 6.09 billion kWh could power 2.03 million EVs annually. The world's largest solar farm in Xinjiang is part of China's megabase project, a plan to install 455 GW of wind and solar. The megabase projects are sited in sparsely populated, resource-rich areas and send their generated energy to major urban centers, such as on China's eastern seaboard. China now boasts the three largest solar farms in the world by capacity. The Ningxia Tenggeli and Golmud Wutumeiren solar farms, each with a capacity of 3 MW, are already online.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

As reported by Jon Peddie Research, Nvidia now holds 88% of the GPU market after its market share jumped 8% in its most recent quarter. "This jump shaves 7% off of AMD's share, putting it down to 19% total," reports XDA Developers. "And if you're wondering where that extra 1% went, it came from all of Intel's market share, squashing it down to 0%." From the report: Dr. Jon Peddie, president of Jon Peddie Research, mentions how the GPU market hasn't really looked "normal" since the 2007 recession. Ever since then, everything from the crypto boom to COVID has messed with the usual patterns. Usually, the first quarter of a year shows a bit of a dip in GPU sales, but because of AI's influence, it may seem like that previous norm may be forever gone: "Therefore, one would expect Q2'24, a traditional quarter, to also be down. But, all the vendors are predicting a growth quarter, mostly driven by AI training systems in hyperscalers. Whereas AI trainers use a GPU, the demand for them can steal parts from the gaming segment. So, for Q2, we expect to see a flat to low gaming AIB result and another increase in AI trainer GPU shipments. The new normality is no normality."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Bruce66423 shares a report from The Independent: A potential disaster was narrowly avoided when a packed passenger plane took off just seconds before it was about to run out of runway because of a software glitch. The Boeing aircraft, operated by TUI, departed from Bristol Airport for Las Palmas, Gran Canaria on 9 March with 163 passengers on board when it struggled to take off. The 737-800 plane cleared runway nine with just 260 metres (853ft) of tarmac to spare at a height of 10ft. It then flew over the nearby A38 road at a height of just 30 metres (100ft) travelling at the speed of around 150kts (about 173mph). The A38 is a major A-class busy road, connecting South West England with the Midlands and the north. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), part of the Department for Transport, said the incident was the result of insufficient thrust being used during take-off. Pilots manually set the thrust level following a software glitch that Beoing was aware of before take-off. "A Boeing 737-800 completed a takeoff from Runway 09 at Bristol Airport with insufficient thrust to meet regulated performance," the AAIB report said. "The autothrottle (A/T) disengaged when the takeoff mode was selected, at the start of the takeoff roll, and subsequently the thrust manually set by the crew (84.5% N1 ) was less than the required takeoff thrust (92.8% N1 ). Neither pilot then noticed that the thrust was set incorrectly, and it was not picked up through the standard operating procedures (SOPs)."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Time Magazine: Called "Tokyo Futari Story," the city hall's new initiative is just that: An effort to create couples, "futari," in a country where it is increasingly common to be "hitori," or alone. While a site offering counsel and general information for potential lovebirds is online, a dating app is also in development. City hall hopes to offer it later this year, accessible through phone or web, a city official said Thursday. Details were still undecided. City Hall declined to comment on Japanese media reports that said the app will require a confirmation of identity, such as a driver's license, your tax records to prove income and a signed form that says you are ready to get married. According to Health Ministry data released on Wednesday, Japan's birth rate fell to a new low for the eighth straight year in 2023. "According to the latest statistics, Japan's fertility rate -- the average number of babies a woman is expected to have in her lifetime -- stood at 1.2 last year," reports ABC News. "The 727,277 babies born in Japan in 2023 were down 5.6% from the previous year, the ministry said -- the lowest since Japan started compiling the statistics in 1899. Separately, the data shows that the number of marriages fell by 6% to 474,717 last year, something authorities say is a key reason for the declining birth rate."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Victoria Song reports via The Verge: Samsung Electronics workers went on a strike on Friday for the very first time in the company's history. The move comes at a time when the Korean corporation faces increased competition from other chipmakers, particularly as demand for AI chips grows. The National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU), the largest of the company's several unions, called for the one-day strike at Samsung's Seoul office building as negotiations over pay bonuses and time off hit a standstill. The New York Times reports that the majority of striking workers come from Samsung's chip division. (Samsung Electronics is technically only a subsidiary comprising its consumer tech, appliances, and semiconductor divisions; Samsung itself is a conglomerate that controls real estate, retail, insurance, food production, hotels, and a whole lot more.) It's unclear how many of the NSEU's roughly 28,400 members participated in the walkout. Even so, multiple outlets are reporting that the walkout is unlikely to affect chip production or trigger shortages. Union leaders told Bloomberg that further actions are planned if management refuses to engage. That said, the fact that it's happening at all is awkward timing for Samsung, particularly due to tensions with the chipmaking portion of its business. Last year, the division reported a 15 trillion won ($11 billion) loss, leading to a 15-year low in operating profits. The current AI boom played a big role in the massive loss. Samsung has historically been the world leader in making high-bandwidth memory chips a" the kind that are in demand right now to power next-gen generative AI features. However, last year's decline was partly because Samsung wasn't prepared for increased demand, allowing local rival SK Hynix to take the top spot.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

United Airlines on Friday launched a media platform to serve travelers personalized ads on seat-back screens and in its app, among other platforms, as it seeks to leverage customer data. CNBC reports: United said its new platform, Kinective Media, is already working with Norwegian Cruise Line, Macy's, IHG Hotels & Resorts, TelevisaUnivision and JPMorgan Chase, which offers a host of co-branded credit cards with United. [...] Customers can opt out of seeing targeted ads through a United web page, and United says advertisers can't access customers' personally identifiable information, the airline said. "There is the potential for 3.5 hours of attention per traveler, based on average flight time," United said.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: After acquiring VMware, Broadcom swiftly enacted widespread changes that resulted in strong public backlash. A new survey of 300 director-level IT workers at companies that are customers of North American VMware provides insight into the customer reaction to Broadcom's overhaul. The survey released Thursday doesn't provide feedback from every VMware customer, but it's the first time we've seen responses from IT decision-makers working for companies paying for VMware products. It echos concerns expressed at the announcement of some of Broadcom's more controversial changes to VMware, like the end of perpetual licenses and growing costs. [...] Every person surveyed said that they expect VMware prices to rise under Broadcom. In a March "User Group Town Hall," attendees complained about "price rises of 500 and 600 percent," according to The Register. We heard in February from ServeTheHome that "smaller" cloud service providers were claiming to see costs grow tenfold. In this week's survey, 73 percent of respondents said they expect VMware prices to more than double. Twelve percent of respondents expect a price hike of 301 to 500 percent. Only 1 percent anticipate price hikes of 501 to 1,000 percent. "At this juncture post-acquisition, most larger enterprises seem to have a clear understanding of how their next procurement cycle with Broadcom will be impacted from a pricing and packaging standpoint," the report noted. Further, 95 percent of survey respondents said they view Broadcom buying VMware as disruptive to their IT strategy, with 46 percent considering it extremely or very disruptive. Widespread concerns about cost and IT strategy help explain why 99 percent of the 300 respondents said they are concerned about Broadcom owning VMware, with 46 percent being "very concerned" and 30 percent "extremely concerned." Despite widespread anxiety over Broadcom's VMware, most of the respondents said they will likely stay with VMware either partially (43 percent of respondents) or fully (40 percent). A smaller percentage of respondents said they would move more workloads to the public cloud (38 percent) or a different hypervisor (34 percent) or move entirely to the public cloud (33 percent). This is with 69 percent of respondents having at least one contract expiring with VMware within the next 12 months. [...] Top reasons cited for considering abandoning VMware partially or totally were uncertainty about Broadcom's plans, concerns about support quality under Broadcom, and changes to relationships with channel partners (each named by 36 percent of respondents). Following closely was the shift to subscription licensing (34 percent), expected price bumps (33 percent), and personal negative experiences with Broadcom (33 percent). Broadcom's history with big buys like Symantec and CA Technologies also has 32 percent of people surveyed considering leaving VMware. "The emotional shock has started to metabolize inside of the Broadcom customer base, but it's metabolized in the form of strong commitment to mitigating the negative impacts of the Broadcom VMware acquisition," said Kyle Campos, CTPO for CloudBolt Software, the company that commissioned the study. He warned that Broadcom could see backlash continue "for months and even years to come."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Hollywood actor and venture capitalist Ashton Kutcher believes that one day, entire movies will be made on AI tools like OpenAI's Sora. From a report: The actor was speaking at an event last week organized by the Los Angeles-based think tank Berggruen Institute, where he revealed that he'd been playing around with the ChatGPT maker's new video generation tool. "I have a beta version of it and it's pretty amazing," said Kutcher, whose VC firm Sound Venture's portfolio includes an investment in OpenAI. "You can generate any footage that you want. You can create good 10, 15-second videos that look very real." "It still makes mistakes. It still doesn't quite understand physics. But if you look at the generation of this that existed one year ago, as compared to Sora, it's leaps and bounds. In fact, there's footage in it that I would say you could easily use in a major motion picture or a television show," he continued. Kutcher said this would help lower the costs of making a film or television show. "Why would you go out and shoot an establishing shot of a house in a television show when you could just create the establishing shot for $100?" Kutcher said. "To go out and shoot it would cost you thousands of dollars," Kutcher was so bullish about AI advancements that he said he believed people would eventually make entire movies using tools like Sora. "You'll be able to render a whole movie. You'll just come up with an idea for a movie, then it will write the script, then you'll input the script into the video generator, and it will generate the movie," Kutcher said. Kutcher, of course, is no stranger to AI.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Buy a pair of wired headphones, and you'd be forgiven for thinking they're just plug and play. Stick them into your phone, and out goes the audio up copper cables into your earholes. Simple as that. Trouble is, that straightforward mechanism has gotten more complicated, and in recent years there has been an influx of budget wired earbuds that, counterintuitively, depend on Bluetooth to function, despite having those copper cables. The problem is largely present in earbuds designed for iPhones. In 2016, Apple removed universal 3.5-mm headphone jacks in its iPhones, which means there are nearly eight years worth of iPhones out in the world -- from the iPhone 7 to the iPhone 14 -- that can connect to headphones only via Bluetooth or Apple's proprietary Lightning ports. (Apple switched to USB-C ports in its iPhones last year after legislation from the European Union put pressure on device companies to standardize connection ports.) Apple used this move to push its wireless AirPods, and it also sells its own wired headphones that connect to its Lightning ports for $19. You can also get an official $9 dongle that adapts the Lightning port to a 3.5-mm output. These work as intended, connecting with the Lightning port to playback audio. But Apple also has strict certification processes called MFi that require any accessories for Apple products to meet certain requirements in order to work with the Lightning port as intended. That means companies have to pay for the privilege of being a genuine Apple accessory. (If you have an unlicensed accessory, you'll probably see an alert pop up every time you plug it in saying, "Accessory may not be supported.") This has led to a steady trickle of knockoff earbuds that have chosen to use roundabout ways of connecting to Apple's proprietary port. Namely, by requiring a Bluetooth connection -- even for wired buds.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Yelp can pursue a lawsuit accusing a reputation management company of fraudulently advertising its ability to remove "bad" reviews from the business review website. From a report: In a decision late Thursday night, U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco said Yelp can pursue trademark infringement and unfair competition claims against ReviewVio, which operates as Dandy. Yelp said ReviewVio's ads, which include the Yelp logo, harmed its reputation by suggesting that businesses could pay for artificially inflated star ratings. This allegedly undercut honest businesses that will not pay to remove negative reviews, and undermined the usefulness of Yelp's website to consumers. Yelp also said it lost ad revenue from businesses that paid for "review gating," which the company prohibits, or incorrectly believed that Yelp endorsed the practice.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has released Ubuntu Core 24, a version of its operating system designed for edge devices and the Internet of Things (IoT). The new release comes with a 12-year Long Term Support commitment and features that enable secure, reliable, and efficient deployment of intelligent devices. Ubuntu Core 24 introduces validation sets for custom image creation, offline remodelling for air-gapped environments, and new integrations for GPU operations and graphics support. It also offers device management integrations with Landscape and Microsoft Azure IoT Edge. The release is expected to benefit various industries, including automation, healthcare, and robotics, Canonical said.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A 27-year old Tamagotchi mystery was solved this week when a collector figured out how to unlock secret characters on the Mothra Tamagotchi, released in Japan in 1997. From a report: A Discord user named rhubarb_pie found out how to unlock the "Moll & Lora" twins as playable characters, which were previously seen in the handheld pet-raising-simulator as medical nurses who healed your character when it was sick. The Tamagotchi Wiki states they had previously been obtained through a "battery glitch," but rhubarb_pie figured out how to unlock them as playable characters through the normal course of gaming. As a reminder, Tamagotchis are virtual pets made by Bandai and introduced in 1996 that were incredibly popular at the time and inspired a ton of clones. There have been many different versions of Tamagotchi since its original release, which included the Mothra Tamagotchi, which was tied to the Japanese release of the movie Rebirth of Mothra II. Mothra is a giant flying moth that exists in the Godzilla cinematic universe. There is an entire community of Tamagotchi collectors, enthusiasts, and reverse engineers, and for several decades players had wondered whether Moll & Lora could be unlocked as playable characters on the Mothra Tamagotchi. "After years of debate whether this was even possible, I have proven that, in fact, you can raise the Twin characters Moll & Lora on the Mothra," rhubarb_pie wrote in a lengthy guide to unlocking the characters posted on Discord Wednesday. "The ROM for the Mothra was dumped about a month ago and I figured out how everything worked by studying the code."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Retailers are struggling to rein in the proliferation of scammers tricking Americans into buying thousands of dollars' worth of gift cards. From a report: The Federal Trade Commission estimates that Americans lost at least $217 million to gift card scams last year. That number is likely higher, given many victims are too embarrassed to report to law enforcement. Cracking down on gift card scams was a hot topic this week at the National Retail Federation's (NRF) cybersecurity conference in Long Beach, California. Some gift card scams start with texts from people pretending to be tech support, your boss, the government or a wrong number. Eventually, those conversations lead to someone asking the victim to buy gift cards on their behalf and send the barcode number to them via text. Others involve criminals in physical locations, tampering with a gift card to access the barcode information and then stealing the funds without taking the actual card. Each scam targets vulnerable populations: elderly, less-tech savvy people; those who are lonely and work from home; and even young kids, experts say.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Microsoft says it's making its new Recall feature in Windows 11 that screenshots everything you do on your PC an opt-in feature and addressing various security concerns. From a report: The software giant first unveiled the Recall feature as part of its upcoming Copilot Plus PCs last month, but since then, privacy advocates and security experts have been warning that Recall could be a "disaster" for cybersecurity without changes. Thankfully, Microsoft has listened to the complaints and is making a number of changes before Copilot Plus PCs launch on June 18th. Microsoft had originally planned to turn Recall on by default, but the company now says it will offer the ability to disable the controversial AI-powered feature during the setup process of new Copilot Plus PCs. "If you don't proactively choose to turn it on, it will be off by default," says Windows chief Pavan Davuluri.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Apple is expected to announce major artificial intelligence updates to the iPhone, iPad, and Mac next week during its Worldwide Developers Conference. Except Apple won't call its system artificial intelligence, like everyone else, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman on Friday. The system will reportedly be called "Apple Intelligence," and allegedly will be made available to new versions of the iPhone, iPad, and Mac operating systems. Apple Intelligence, which is shortened to just AI, is reportedly separate from the ChatGPT-like chatbot Apple is expected to release in partnership with OpenAI. Apple's in-house AI tools are reported to include assistance in message writing, photo editing, and summarizing texts. Bloomberg reports that some of these AI features will run on the device while others will be processed through cloud-based computing, depending on the complexity of the task. The name feels a little too obvious. While this is the first we're hearing of an actual name for Apple's AI, it's entirely unsurprising that Apple is choosing a unique brand to call its artificial intelligence systems.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

California's proposed legislation to regulate AI has sparked a backlash from Silicon Valley heavyweights, who claim the bill will stifle innovation and force AI start-ups to leave the state. The Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Systems Act, passed by the state Senate last month, requires AI developers to adhere to strict safety frameworks, including creating a "kill switch" for their models. Critics argue that the bill places a costly compliance burden on smaller AI companies and focuses on hypothetical risks. Amendments are being considered to clarify the bill's scope and address concerns about its impact on open-source AI models.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Two senior officials working for anti-terror police in Bangladesh allegedly collected and sold classified and personal information of citizens to criminals on Telegram, TechCrunch has learned. The data allegedly sold included national identity details of citizens, cell phone call records and other "classified secret information," according to a letter signed by a senior Bangladeshi intelligence official, seen by TechCrunch. The letter, dated April 28, was written by Brigadier General Mohammad Baker, who serves as a director of Bangladesh's National Telecommunications Monitoring Center, or NTMC, the country's electronic eavesdropping agency. Baker confirmed the legitimacy of the letter and its contents in an interview with TechCrunch. "Departmental investigation is ongoing for both the cases," Baker said in an online chat, adding that the Bangladeshi Ministry of Home Affairs ordered the affected police organizations to take "necessary action against those officers." The letter, which was originally written in Bengali and addressed to the senior secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs Public Security Division, alleges the two police agents accessed and passed "extremely sensitive information" of private citizens on Telegram in exchange for money.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Apple will introduce a new app called Passwords next week, aiming to simplify website and software logins for users, according to Bloomberg. The app -- offered as part of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS 15 -- will be unveiled at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 10. Powered by iCloud Keychain, Passwords will generate and manage passwords, allowing imports from rival services, and support Vision Pro headset and Windows computers.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service reported that the past year saw record-breaking heat, with global temperatures surpassing all historical measurements. According to Copernicus, May marked the 12th consecutive month of record-high global temperatures, and exceeded a key Paris Agreement temperature target. The Week reports: The stretch is a "stark warning." In a separate study published Wednesday, a group of 57 scientists found that human activity was responsible for 92% of 2023's warming, which increased at a rate "unprecedented in the instrumental record." While averting catastrophe is "still just about possible," the decisions made by global leaders "especially in the next 18 months" will determine whether the planet can be saved, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in a special address. "We need an exit ramp off the highway to climate hell." Without serious efforts to reverse global warming, "this string of hottest months will be remembered as comparatively cold," Copernicus Director Carlo Buontempo said. "The 11 months in a row that tied or broke the 1.5C barrier did not yet constitute a breaching of the Paris target, since the benchmark refers to a timescale of multiple decades," notes Axios. "Still, the fact that the climate is now exceeding the target with greater regularity, and is projected to continue doing so, is a sign of the matter's urgency."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from New Atlas: The universe is awash with strange radio signals, but astronomers have now detected a really bizarre one that repeats every hour, cycling through three different states. While they have some ideas about its origin it can't be explained by our current understanding of physics. The signal first appeared in data gathered by the ASKAP radio telescope in Australia, which watches a big swath of sky at once for transient pulses. Officially designated ASKAP J1935+2148, the signal seems to repeat every 53.8 minutes. Whatever it is, the signal cycles through three different states. Sometimes it shoots out bright flashes that last between 10 and 50 seconds and have a linear polarization, meaning the radio waves all "point" in the same direction. Other times, its pulses are much weaker with a circular polarization, lasting just 370 milliseconds. And sometimes, the object misses its cue and stays silent. So what could be behind such a weird radio signal? Let's get it out of the way up front: it's not aliens (probably). The most likely explanation, according to the scientists who discovered it, is that it's coming from a neutron star or a white dwarf. But it's not a neat solution, since the signal's weird properties don't fit with our understanding of the physics of those two kinds of objects. Neutron stars and white dwarfs are fairly similar, but with some key differences. They're both born from the deaths of bigger stars, with the original mass dictating whether you end up with a neutron star or a white dwarf. Neutron stars are known to blast radio waves out regularly, so they're a prime suspect here. It's possible that signals this varied could be produced by interactions between their strong magnetic fields and complex plasma flows. But there's a major problem: they usually spin at speeds of seconds or fractions of a second per revolution. It should be physically impossible for one to spin as slow as once every 54 minutes. White dwarfs, on the other hand, would have no problem spinning that slowly, but as the team says, "we don't know of any way one could produce the radio signals we are seeing here." "It might even prompt us to reconsider our decades-old understanding of neutron stars or white dwarfs; how they emit radio waves and what their populations are like in our Milky Way galaxy," added Caleb. The findings have been published in the journal Nature Astronomy.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Longtime Slashdot reader destinyland shared a story from Space.com reporting on Boeing's missed opportunity to dock with the International Space Station, after five of the 28 thrusters that help control Starliner's movement in space stopped operating. NASA has since been able to recover four of the thrusters to successfully dock Boeing's Starliner capsule with the ISS. From the report: There are now two U.S.-built crew spacecraft docked with the ISS for the first time. Boeing's Starliner joined SpaceX's Dragon capsule "Endeavour," which arrived in March. Boeing's Starliner launched successfully on Wednesday to begin the crew flight test. The mission represents a final major step before NASA certifies Boeing to fly crew on operational missions. [...] NASA flight controllers called off a previously scheduled approach to resolve issues with Starliner's propulsion system. Starliner has 28 jets, known as its reaction control system, or RCS, engines, that help the spacecraft make small movements in orbit. The crew on Starliner, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, were told by NASA capsule communicator, or CAPCOM, Neal Nagata, that the 12:15 p.m. docking attempt had to be called off to resolve the spacecraft's propulsion issue. CAPCOM Nagata noted that the ISS has a zero fault tolerance for a spacecraft control problem. The agency and Boeing had to troubleshoot five of the RCS jets that were not operating. Four of Starliner's malfunctioning jets were recovered after Wilmore and Williams worked with flight controllers to test fire the thrusters. CAPCOM Nagata had the astronauts hold the spacecraft beyond the "keep out sphere," an invisible boundary around the ISS that serves as a safety measure, while diagnosing the problematic thrusters.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: In a blow to publishers and authors, Costco plans to stop selling books regularly at stores around the United States, four publishing executives who had been informed of the warehouse retailer's plans said on Wednesday. Beginning in January 2025, the company will stop stocking books regularly, and will instead sell them only during the holiday shopping period, from September through December. During the rest of the year, some books may be sold at Costco stores from time to time, but not in a consistent manner, according to the executives, who spoke anonymously in order to discuss a confidential business matter that has not yet been publicly announced. Costco's shift away from books came largely because of the labor required to stock books, the executives said. Copies have to be laid out by hand, rather than just rolled out on a pallet as other products often are at Costco. The constant turnaround of books -- new ones come out every Tuesday and the ones that have not sold need to be returned -- also created more work. The decision could be a significant setback for publishers at a moment when the industry is facing stagnant print sales and publishing houses are struggling to find ways to reach customers who have migrated online. Costco had already stopped selling books in some markets, including Alaska and Hawaii. While Costco may not be as critical of an outlet as a bookstore like Barnes & Noble, its influence is also evident in the large quantities it orders. When Costco chose to carry a book, "it often went big, ordering tens of thousands of copies at a minimum," says the report. "For major blockbusters, they might stock hundreds of thousands of copies of a single title." "The change may also impact Costco customers, particularly those who live in areas without a bookstore. And because many books at Costco were impulse buys, some of those sales may not shift over to Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Instead, they might not happen at all."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Online marketplace behemoth eBay said it plans to no longer accept American Express, citing what the company says are "unacceptably high fees." CNBC: It's a notable blow to American Express, whose customers are often the most attractive among merchants and spend the most money per month on their cards. But it's not the first time merchants have voiced opposition to AmEx's business practices by walking away, most notably the warehouse chain Costco nearly a decade ago. [...] Overland said that eBay customers have become aware of new ways to pay for items, making payments more competitive than ever before, and AmEx was no longer a necessary partner for eBay. eBay has increasingly been offering customers buy now, pay later options on purchases through Apple Pay, PayPal and other companies like Klarna and Affirm as well.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Longtime Slashdot reader MattSparkes shares a report from NewScientist: Quantum computing experts are baffled by the UK government's new export restrictions on the exotic devices (source paywalled), saying they make little sense. [The UK government has set limits on the capabilities of quantum computers that can be exported -- starting with those above 34 qubits, and rising as long as error rates are also higher -- and has declined to explain these limits on the grounds of national security.] The legislation applies to both existing, small quantum computers that are of no practical use and larger computers that don't actually exist, so cannot be exported. Instead, there are fears the limits will restrict sales and add bureaucracy to a new and growing sector. For more context, here's an excerpt from an article published by The Telegraph in March: The technology has been added to a list of "dual use" items that could have military uses maintained by the Export Control Joint Unit, which scrutinizes sales of sensitive goods. A national quantum computer strategy published last year described the technology as being "critically important" for defense and national security and said the UK was in a "global race" to develop it. [...] The changes have been introduced as part of a broader update to export rules agreed by Western allies including the US and major European countries. Several nations with particular expertise on quantum computer technologies have added specific curbs, including France which introduced rules at the start of this month. Last year, industry body Quantum UK said British companies were concerned about the prospect of further export controls, and that they could even put off US companies seeking to relocate to the UK. Quantum computer exports only previously required licenses in specific cases, such as when they were likely to lead to military use. Oxford Instruments, which makes cooling systems for quantum computers, said last year that sales in China had been hit by increasing curbs. James Lindop of law firm Eversheds Sutherland said: "Semiconductor and quantum technologies -- two areas in which the UK already holds a world-leading position -- are increasingly perceived to be highly strategic and critical to UK national security. This will undoubtedly create an additional compliance burden for businesses active in the development and production of the targeted technologies."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

GOG, a Poland-based popular gaming platform, has announced plans to enforce a 200MB limit on cloud save files per game. This move may adversely affect players of open-world titles like Cyberpunk 2077, where save folders can reach several gigabytes. A report adds: The company will begin deleting game saves that exceed the limit on Aug 31. When the deadline rolls around, GOG will delete saves for each game, beginning with the oldest until it's below the 200MB threshold. That means your newest saves will survive.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Some artists are jumping ship for the anti-AI portfolio app Cara after Meta began using Instagram content to train its AI models. Fast Company explains: The portfolio app bills itself as a platform that protects artists' images from being used to train AI, and only allowing AI content to be posted if it's clearly labeled. Based on the number of new users the Cara app has garnered over the past few days, there seems to be a need. Between May 31 and June 2, Cara's user base tripled from less than 100,000 to more than 300,000 profiles, skyrocketing to the top of the app store. [...] Cara is a social networking app for creatives, in which users can post images of their artwork, memes, or just their own text-based musings. It shares similarities with major social platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram on a few fronts. Users can access Cara through a mobile app or on a browser. Both options are free to use. The UI itself is like an arts-centric combination of X and Instagram. In fact, some UI elements seem like they were pulled directly from other social media sites. (It's not the most innovative approach, but it is strategic: as a new app, any barriers to potential adoption need to be low). Cara doesn't train any AI models on its content, nor does it allow third parties to do so. According to Cara's FAQ page, the app aims to protect its users from AI scraping by automatically implementing "NoAI" tags on all of its posts. The website says these tags "are intended to tell AI scrapers not to scrape from Cara." Ultimately, they appear to be html metadata tags that politely ask bad actors not to get up to any funny business, and it's pretty unlikely that they hold any actual legal weight. Cara admits as much, too, warning its users that the tags aren't a "fully comprehensive solution and won't completely prevent dedicated scrapers." With that in mind, Cara assesses the "NoAI" tagging system as a "a necessary first step in building a space that is actually welcoming to artists -- one that respects them as creators and doesn't opt their work into unethical AI scraping without their consent." In December, Cara launched another tool called Cara Glaze to defend its artists' work against scrapers. (Users can only use it a select number of times.) Glaze, developed by the SAND Lab at University of Chicago, makes it much more difficult for AI models to accurately understand and mimic an artist's personal style. The tool works by learning how AI bots perceive artwork, and then making a set of minimal changes that are invisible to the human eye but confusing to the AI model. The AI bot then has trouble "translating" the art style and generates warped recreations. In the future, Cara also plans to implement Nightshade, another University of Chicago software that helps protect artwork against AI scapers. Nightshade "poisons" AI training data by adding invisible pixels to artwork that can cause AI software to completely misunderstand the image. Beyond establishing shields against data mining, Cara also uses a third party service to detect and moderate any AI artwork that's posted to the site. Non-human artwork is forbidden, unless it's been properly labeled by the poster.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Adobe is facing backlash over new Terms of Service language amid its embrace of generative AI in products like Photoshop and customer experience software. The ToS, sent to Creative Cloud Suite users, doesn't mention AI explicitly but includes a reference to machine learning and a clause prohibiting AI model training on Adobe software. From a report: In particular, users have objected to Adobe's claims that it "may access, view, or listen to your Content through both automated and manual methods -- using techniques such as machine learning in order to improve our Services and Software and the user experience," which many took to be a tacit admission both of surveilling them and of training AI on their content, even confidential content for clients protected under non-disclosure agreements or confidentiality clauses/contracts between said Adobe users and clients. A spokesperson for Adobe provided the following statement in response to VentureBeat's questions about the new ToS and vocal backlash: "This policy has been in place for many years. As part of our commitment to being transparent with our customers, we added clarifying examples earlier this year to our Terms of Use regarding when Adobe may access user content. Adobe accesses user content for a number of reasons, including the ability to deliver some of our most innovative cloud-based features, such as Photoshop Neural Filters and Remove Background in Adobe Express, as well as to take action against prohibited content. Adobe does not access, view or listen to content that is stored locally on any user's device."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In an interview with PCWorld's Mark Hachman, Google's ChromeOS chief said the company is cautiously exploring a Recall-like feature for Chromebooks, dubbed "memory." Microsoft's AI-powered Recall feature for Windows 11 was unveiled at the company's Build 2024 conference last month. The feature aims to improve local searches by making them as efficient as web searches, allowing users to quickly retrieve anything they've seen on their PC. Using voice commands and contextual clues, Recall can find specific emails, documents, chat threads, and even PowerPoint slides. Given the obvious privacy and security concerns, many users have denounced the feature, describing it as "literal spyware or malware." PCWorld reports: I sat down with John Solomon, the vice president at Google responsible for ChromeOS, for a lengthy interview around what it means for Google's low-cost Google platform as the PC industry moved to AI PCs. Microsoft, of course, is launching Copilot+ PCs alongside Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite -- an Arm chip. And Chromebooks, of course, have a long history with Arm. But it's Recall that we eventually landed upon -- or, more precisely, how Google sidles into the same space. Recall is great in theory, but in practice may be more problematic.) Recall the Project Astra demo that Google showed off at its Google I/O conference. One of the key though understated aspects of it was how Astra "remembered" where the user's glasses were. Astra didn't appear to be an experience that could be replicated on the Chromebook. Most users aren't going to carry a Chromebook around (a device which typically lacks a rear camera) visually identifying things. Solomon respectfully disagreed. "I think there's a piece of it which is very relevant, which is this notion of having some kind of context and memory of what's been happening on the device," Solomon said. "So think of something that's like, maybe viewing your screen and then you walk away, you get distracted, you chat to someone at the watercooler and you come back. You could have some kind of rewind function, you could have some kind of recorder function that would kind of bring you back to that. So I think that there is a crossover there. "We're actually talking to that team about where the use case could be," Solomon added of the "memory" concept. "But I think there's something there in terms of screen capture in a way that obviously doesn't feel creepy and feels like the user's in control." That sounds a lot like Recall! But Solomon was quick to point out that one of the things that has turned off users to Recall was the lack of user control: deciding when, where, and if to turn it on. "I'm not going to talk about Recall, but I think the reason that some people feel it's creepy is when it doesn't feel useful, and it doesn't feel like something they initiated or that they get a clear benefit from it," Solomon said. "If the user says like -- let's say we're having a meeting, and discussing complex topics. There's a benefit of running a recorded function if at the end of it it can be useful for creating notes and the action items. But you as a user need to put that on and decide where you want to have that."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from BleepingComputer: The FBI urges past victims of LockBit ransomware attacks to come forward after revealing that it has obtained over 7,000 LockBit decryption keys that they can use to recover encrypted data for free. FBI Cyber Division Assistant Director Bryan Vorndran announced this on Wednesday at the 2024 Boston Conference on Cyber Security. "From our ongoing disruption of LockBit, we now have over 7,000 decryption keys and can help victims reclaim their data and get back online," the FBI Cyber Lead said in a keynote. "We are reaching out to known LockBit victims and encouraging anyone who suspects they were a victim to visit our Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov." This call to action comes after law enforcement took down LockBit's infrastructure in February 2024 in an international operation dubbed "Operation Cronos." At the time, police seized 34 servers containing over 2,500 decryption keys, which helped create a free LockBit 3.0 Black Ransomware decryptor. After analyzing the seized data, the U.K.'s National Crime Agency and the U.S. Justice Department estimate the gang and its affiliates have raked in up to $1 billion in ransoms following 7,000 attacks targeting organizations worldwide between June 2022 and February 2024. However, despite law enforcement efforts to shut down its operations, LockBit is still active and has since switched to new servers and dark web domains. After disrupting LockBit in February, the U.S. State Department said it is offering a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to the identification or location of the leaders of the ransomware group.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

When buying a new smartphone, it's important to consider the duration of software updates, as it impacts security and longevity. In a rare public commitment on Monday, thanks to the UK's new Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure (PSTI) regulations, Apple said it guarantees a minimum of five years of security updates for the iPhone 15 Pro Max. "In other words, the iPhone 15 is officially guaranteed to receive security updates until September 22, 2028," reports Android Authority. From the report: This, as VP of Engineering for Android Security & Privacy at Google Dave Kleidermacher points out, means that Apple is no longer offering the best security update policy in the industry. Both Samsung and Google guarantee seven years of not just security updates but also Android OS updates for their respective flagship devices, which is two years longer than what Apple guarantees. To Apple's credit, though, it has long provided more than five years of security updates for its various iPhone devices. Some iPhones have received security updates six or more years after the initial release, which is far more support than the vast majority of Android devices receive. So, while Samsung and Google currently beat Apple in terms of how long they're guaranteeing software support, that doesn't mean iPhone users can't keep their phones for just as long, if not longer. They'll just need to hope Apple doesn't cut off support after the five-year minimum.Read more of this story at Slashdot.