canopic jug writes:As noted a few days ago, many notable works from the 1920s have ascended to the public domain in the US this year, as of New Year's Day. Cartoon Brew asks, What Happens When 'Steamboat Willie' Hits The Public Domain In 2024? and briefly covers a bit of what the public is set to gain. Notably, the earliest iteration of Mickey Mouse will enter the public domain then as a result.Assuming that 17 U.S.C. ยงยง 108, 203(a)(2), 301(c), 302, 303, 304(c)(2) is not modified yet again, be sure to observe the difference between trademarks and copyright.Previously:
Some of you may have seen the claims in certain journals that SoylentNews is blocking new accounts. I have been looking at the actual figures for accounts created during December 2022.A total of 2198 accounts have been successfully created during December. Unfortunately the vast majority of these were created by a bot and they will never become active because the bot does not have access to the email addresses being quoted. The email address is required so that the initial password can be issued. The site is designed to handle a much larger number of accounts and at a far greater rate than the bot is using. This causes us no problems whatsoever. It must be keeping somebody amused though. I think it would be nice to have some form of 'captcha' (NOT Google's fire hydrant, bicycle, bus and pedestrian crossing counter!!!) to prevent bots such as these.It is possible, indeed likely, that there will be a small number of genuine accounts buried in there somewhere but it is difficult to identify them until they become active.In those accounts we have successfully identified 28 attempts at creating sock-puppets which have been disabled automatically. This gives 1.27% of all attempts to create an new account are blocked, which is significantly less that the the claim that 'all new accounts' are being blocked.The latest UID to be created is 22820.Read more of this story at SoylentNews.
fliptop writes:Google workers in Switzerland sent a letter this month to the company's vice president of human resources, outlining their worries that a new employee evaluation system could be used to cull the work force:
As we have now welcomed in 2023, heartfelt thanks go out to everyone who makes up the Soylent News community. As most of you probably know, from both the hardware and software side of things we ended the calendar year with some challenging and unstable months, and on the whole 2022 at least seemed more volatile than previous years. We've even done more soul-searching since perhaps the site was first established.We are entirely community run and exist by the grace of those who volunteer their time, big and small. Many thanks go out not only to those who put in a considerable number of hours to make the enormous and visible contributions to keep our software and hardware operational, but also to those who do the behind-the-scenes work of managing finances and keeping services like IRC running in the background. But most importantly, thank you to all those who support the site, whether that is through financial contributions, by submitting stories, writing in their journals (when there are journals to write in), or even just by participating positively, asking/answering questions, or by adding their expertise in the various topics and discussions.Here's hoping for a bright and prosperous 2023.Read more of this story at SoylentNews.
fliptop writes:As AI assumes more software development work, developers may eventually be working with training models more than they do with coding tools:
New York Governor Signs Modified Right-to-repair Bill at the Last Minuteupstart writes:Bill passed the state legislature with overwhelming majorities over the summer:
hubie writes:By studying an exotic atom called muonium, researchers are hoping misbehaving muons will spill the beans on the Standard Model of particle physics:
fliptop writes:Amazon has officially begun making shipment deliveries with drones to customers in both Lockeford, California and College Station, Texas, the company confirmed to Nexstar's KTXL on Friday:
Eufy Publicly Acknowledges Some Parts of its "No Clouds" Controversyupstart writes:Eufy changed some cloud behavior, admitted it can do more, ignored some issues:
Runaway1956 writes:OK, so, we recently had the article on 2023 public domain copyrights. I watched (again) Fritz Lang's Metropolis from 1927. I've also stumbled across The Quake (2018) very recently, and watched it. The only other Euro movie I can think of, offhand, is Pan's Labyrinth. All Quiet on the Western Front?So, what do some of you Euros consider to be important cultural items, that Americans should be familiar with? (British answers will be acceptable here, I think. You're almost Euro . . . )Yeah, sure, I could do an internet search with the same question, alternating the term slightly if I don't get good results. But, where better to ask, than on a more-or-less international forum filled with fellow geeks and nerds? The man in the street isn't going to have the same answers as our Soylent community, on this, or any other subject!And, it isn't necessary to restrict the discussion to Euros - Asians, South Americans, Islanders, even Canadians can suggest important cultural works for us to watch, or read, or listen to! We may have to draw the line with 'Strayans though . . . Do we really have to hear 'Play me Didgeradoo' again?[Ed. note: The way global entertainment has been dominated by only a handful of companies over the last two or three decades, I tend to feel that it is almost impossible to produce culturally important pieces on a large scale any more for fear that they would only have limited mass appeal and not get funded, so I would also love to hear what items I should to add to my watch/listen list that I might be missing out on. --hubie]Original SubmissionRead more of this story at SoylentNews.
hubie writes:Walnuts the new brain food for stressed university studentsStressed university students might want to add walnuts to their daily diet in the weeks leading up to their next exam:
canopic jug writes:The Times Higher Education has an essay by Professor Andy Farnell where he rethinks digital technologies which disenfranchise, dehumanize, excludes, and even bully both students and teachers. These unfortunate technologies with their problems and misfeatures have been plaguing institutions of higher education for quite some time now. Not too long ago, universities took the lead in creating and advancing performant technologies. The triumvirate of LDAP, Kerberos, and AFS is just one which comes to mind, though there are also the original Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) and many more. Now these institutions have mostly lost their way and have become followers and "consumers" of products that not only don't meet their needs but actively work against institutional goals. He starts by asking which digital technologies could, or rather ought to, be removed from higher educational environments.