US Air Force burns more money on electric flying taxis

Waiting on that thumbs up from the FAA

The US Air Force is dipping its toe into electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft by trialing a short-hop air taxi that has yet to get FAA certification to fly. …

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White House: Losing Section 702 spy powers would be among 'worst intelligence failures of our time'

As expert panel suggests some tweaks to boost public's confidence in FISA

The White House has weighed in on the Section 702 debate, urging lawmakers to reauthorize, "without new and operationally damaging restrictions," the controversial snooping powers before they expire at the end of the year.…

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Do Facebook's algorithms drive political polarization? Meta says no, but researchers say it's complicated

Plus: Google DeepMind's latest visual-language model robot, and more

AI in brief  Four research papers this week concluded that users' political beliefs and behavior don't seem to be all that impacted by information amplified by Facebook's algorithms.…

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Twitter's giant glowing X was put up without a permit, say SF officials

Neighbors say it's an eyesore, but Musk's underlings won't let inspectors near it

A giant light-up X logo appeared atop the HQ of the company formerly known as Twitter on Friday, spurring complaints from neighbors and visits from San Francisco building inspectors that Elon Musk's underlings rebuffed twice over the weekend. …

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LLMs appear to reason by analogy, a cornerstone of human thinking

How they do it remains a mystery, say boffins in research paper

Large language models such as OpenAI's GPT-3 can display the ability to solve complex reasoning tasks which humans crack using analogies.…

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AWS: IPv4 addresses cost too much, so you’re going to pay

Perhaps that'll focus your minds on speeding up your adoption of IPv6, eh?

Cloud giant AWS will start charging customers for public IPv4 addresses from next year, claiming it is forced to do this because of the increasing scarcity of these and to encourage the use of IPv6 instead.…

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Hikvision and Nvidia named in contract for Uyghur detection

Chip giant washes its hands – but you can't stop secondary sales

Chinese video surveillance equipment maker Hikvision was reportedly paid $6 million by Beijing last year to provide technology that could identify members of the nation's Uyghur people, a Muslim ethnic majority, according to physical security monitoring org IPVM.…

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Arc: A radical fresh take on the web browser

In an industry that runs on hype, this might just live up to it

Arc is a new Chromium-based web browser which shakes up the standard workflow that browsers have had ever since tabs were invented. It's good, but it will take some getting used to.…

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BT hires chartered management accountant and telco veteran as next CEO

Got to keep up with those FTTP builds and the tens of thousands of staff that will leave

BT, the former state owned telecommunications monopoly that is building Britain's fiber backbone, has confirmed current Telia Company president and CEO Allison Kirkby as its new boss from the end of January 2024.…

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Can AI Deliver Therapy? Examining the Pros and Cons

Earlier this year, the U.S.-based National Eating Disorder Association shut down its AI-powered chatbot after it provided unsafe

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Wearable Ultrasound Scanner Could Detect Breast Cancer Earlier

The new ultrasound device, which can be incorporated into a bra, could allow more frequent monitoring of patients

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New material could hold key to reducing energy consumption in computers and electronics

A University of Minnesota team has, for the first time, synthesized a thin film of a unique topological

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New Synergistic Method Can Create Non-Canonical Amino Acids by Merging Synthetic Photochemistry with Biocatalysis

New chemistry, new enzymology. With a new method that merges the best of two worlds — the unique

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Rethinking Algorithmic Decision-Making

In a new paper, Stanford University authors, including Stanford Law Associate Professor Julian Nyarko, illuminate how algorithmic decisions

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Satnav for the Moon could benefit from Fibonacci’s expertise

Middle Ages maths to the rescue

Future satellite navigation systems intended for Earth's Moon may be aided by a model of it developed with methods that go back to mathematician Fibonacci, who lived 800 years ago.…

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What would sustainable security even look like?

Clue: Nothing like what’s on offer today

Opinion  "There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today," fumed Admiral David Beatty during 1916's Battle of Jutland. Fair enough: three of the Royal Navy's finest vessels had just blown up and sank.…

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Public Support Hydrogen and Biofuels to Decarbonise Global Shipping

New research into public attitudes towards alternative shipping fuels shows public backing for biofuel and hydrogen. The study

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What is the Difference Between Strong AI and Weak AI?

Artificial intelligence encompasses diverse applications, from chatbots and predictive analytics to recognition systems and autonomous vehicles. The ultimate

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Nobody would ever work on the live server, right? Not intentionally, anyway

Techie installing an upgrade did everything right. But the user was already wrong

Who, Me?  Greetings and felicitations, dear reader-folk, and welcome to the soft landing to the working week that we at The Reg call Who, Me? in which we share tales of readers like you who found themselves in unfortunate circumstances – often of their own making.…

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Avaya reseller pleads guilty to role in $88m licensing scam

Comms vendor's employee allegedly generated bogus licences and hijacked sysadmin accounts to make more

A New Jersey man has plead guilty to selling pirated Avaya software licenses, allegedly generated and shopped by one of the vendor's system administrators.…

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NASA mistakenly severs communication to Voyager 2

Thankfully the probe can phone home to fix this sort of mess

NASA revealed on Friday that its venerable Voyager 2 probe is currently incommunicado, because the space agency pointed its antenna in the wrong direction.…

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'Weird numerological coincidence' found during work on Linux kernel 6.5

It might be the only non-boring thing about the release, which has Linus Torvalds celebrating

Linus Torvalds has noticed a "weird numerological coincidence" during work on version 6.5 of the Linux kernel.…

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Indonesia blocks Musk's X.com over its X-rated past

ALSO: Japan's government to write docs with AI; 5G boom coming; India denies infosec issues

Asia In Brief  Elon Musk's rebadged Twitter, X.com, has been blocked in Indonesia as the domain was formerly used to for websites containing content deemed unsuitable, such as – ahem – adult entertainment and gambling.…

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US senator victim-blames Microsoft for Chinese hack

ALSO: China says US hacked it right back, BreachForums users have been pwned, and this week's critical vulns

Infosec in brief  US senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) thinks it's Microsoft's fault that Chinese hackers broke into Exchange Online, and he wants three separate government agencies to launch investigations and "hold Microsoft responsible for its negligent cyber security practices." …

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Advanced Aircraft Tracking Will Come Live From Space

Satellites will soon be used to keep an independent eye on airborne planes, under a deal agreed between

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Quantifying the Strength of the Land Carbon Sink

The world’s forests, grasslands, and other terrestrial ecosystems have played a substantial role in offsetting human carbon emissions—a

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Generative AI Imagines New Protein Structures

Biology is a wondrous yet delicate tapestry. At heart is DNA, the master weaver that encodes proteins, responsible

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‘Neuroshield’ Could Protect Citizens From Artificial Intelligence

There’s an urgent need to support citizens with a system of digital self-defense, or a Neuroshield, argues a

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Researchers Create an Open-Source Platform for Neural Radiance Field Development

Plug-and-play framework makes it easier to collaborate and develop interactive 3D scenes using neural radiance fields. Just a

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Advanced Control Logic in Thermal Systems using Modelica

A control algorithm is the brain of any thermal application; it can make or break the energy effectiveness

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New NIST Measurements Aim to Advance and Validate Portable MRI Technology

A new wave of smaller, less expensive, and portable MRI systems promises to expand the delivery of health

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Lights Could be the Future of the Internet and Data Transmission

Fast data transmission could be delivered in homes and offices through light emitting diode (LED) bulbs, complementing existing

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4 SEO Tips to Improve Your Content Marketing Campaign

Isn’t it obvious that an SEO-optimized website will bring more traffic than non-optimized content? After all, content that

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Time Tracking Software Could Help You Boost Your Productivity and Efficiency If You Use It

In the fast-paced world of business and project management, time is without a doubt one of the most

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High Grade 5.23% Lithium Oxide Intersect Found at Only Nine Meters Depth in Brazil

Atlas Lithium Corporation, a leading mineral exploration company, announced its new geochemical high mark for lithium mineralization from

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Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's pop artifact stash now heads to a museum

Kurt Cobain and Jimi Hendrick's guitars, Vader's helmet, Captain Kirk's chair, and more

Paul Allen left more than just a tech legacy and billions of dollars behind when he died. The Microsoft co-founder amassed a sizable collection of unique artifacts from popular movies and music, which is now headed to a permanent home at Seattle's Museum of Pop Culture. …

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Using Drones to Monitor Rainforest Biodiversity

A team led by researchers from ETH Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape

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Future AI Algorithms Have Potential to Learn Like Humans, Say Researchers

New study measures effectiveness of AI, machine learning method. Memories can be as tricky to hold onto for

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Apple demands app makers explain use of sensitive APIs

Privacy ritual aims to deter fingerprinting of the iFaithful

Apple has told developers writing apps for its shiny stuff that they will soon have to explain why their programs use certain sensitive APIs.…

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New Laser-Based Method Could Help Scientists Discover New Puncture-Resistant Materials

Using tiny laser-launched projectiles and troves of data, scientists can more quickly bridge the gap between a material’s

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Robotic Hand Rotates Objects Using Touch, Not Vision

Inspired by the effortless way humans handle objects without seeing them, a team led by engineers at the

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A New Way to Look at Data Privacy

Imagine that a team of scientists has developed a machine-learning model that can predict whether a patient has

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New Dataset of Arctic Images Will Spur Artificial Intelligence Research

The Arctic image dataset, being collected as part of a US Coast Guard science mission, will be released

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Florida man accused of hoarding America's secrets faces fresh charges

Mar-a-Lago IT director told 'the boss wanted the server deleted'

Federal prosecutors have expanded their criminal case against a famous Floridian and his loyal minions for allegedly mishandling national security secrets and not being forthright about the storage and handling of hundreds of classified documents.…

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List of Florida’s Five Premier Cybersecurity Firms Unveiled

In an era defined by technological advancements, an undercurrent of cyber threats has emerged, challenging the integrity of

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List of the Best Sites to Hire Skilled .NET Developers

Unearthing the best talent in the field of technology is a journey. As a business owner, you understand

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Millions of people's data stolen because web devs forget to check access perms

IDORs of the storm

Personal, financial, and health information belonging to millions of folks has been stolen via a particular class of website vulnerability, say cybersecurity agencies in the US and Australia. They're urging developers to review their code and squish these bugs for good.…

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Biden urged to completely cripple AI chips to China

Give them Z80s, Joe, and tell 'em to like it

Some American lawmakers aren't happy with US efforts to limit exports of AI chips to China, and have called on the Biden administration to enact tighter controls.…

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School for semiconductors? Arm tries to address chip talent shortages

US, Europe and China all rushing to create next gen of experts and upskill existing workforce

Chip designer Arm is looking to address the shortage of vital skills in the semiconductor industry with an initiative that aims to help find the next generation of talent and upskill the existing workforce.…

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The Perfect Candidate for Apple: Exploring Apple Home Advisor Jobs

Are you interested in Apple at home advisor jobs or Apple home advisor jobs? Have you ever asked

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FBI boss: Congress must renew Section 702 spy powers – that's how we get nearly all our cyber intel

Also: China's 'got a bigger hacking program than that of every major nation combined'

Nearly all of the FBI's technical intelligence on malicious "cyber actors" in the first half of this year was obtained via Section 702 searches, according to FBI Director Christopher Wray.…

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Chinese companies evade sanctions, fuel Moscow’s war on Ukraine, says report

PRC semiconductor exports curiously rose 19% y-o-y for first 9 months of 2022

Chinese companies, including state-owned defense companies, are evading tech sanctions and fueling Moscow’s war in Ukraine, according to a US report released on Thursday.…

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Latest version of Canonical's Wayland compositor arrives

Mir 2.14 and its easily installable sibling Miriway

Canonical is still working away on its own Mir display server, used in several of its IoT product lines. Version 2.14 gains more functionality useful for full desktop environments.…

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Creator of the Unix Sysadmin Song explains he just wanted to liven up a textbook

When you get to Chapter 14 of a Unix book you're ready for a laugh

In more than a few IT departments, or more likely in the pub on Friday night, there will be the ritual singing of the Unix Sysadmin Song, which is still remembered 28 years after its genesis in Harley Hahn's book, The Unix Companion.…

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Friendly AI chatbots will be designing bioweapons for criminals 'within years'

Watch out, mad scientists – your careers are over

AI systems are rapidly improving and will accelerate scientific discoveries – but the technology could also give criminals the power to create bioweapons and dangerous viruses in as little as two to three years, according to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.…

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Sysadmins are being left out of AI implementation

Sounds to us like the beginning of an entertaining, but tragic, Who Me tale

AI may be coming to help sysadmins, with the promise of alleviating repetitive tasks like log analysis, resource monitoring, vulnerability prioritization, and patch management, but few of them are put in charge of its implementation.…

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Rimini Street ordered to correct 'false' statements in Oracle copyright case

Both support biz and vendor claim victories in latest chapter in 13-year legal saga

In litigation dating back to the year the first iPad was released, Oracle and SAP support specialist Rimini Street is vowing to appeal against the latest court ruling that it infringed Big Red's copyright, removed copyright notices, and made false statements about support practices.…

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OctoX is a radical Rust implementation of a very old OS for RISC-V

There's still life in the wider Version 6 Unix family – and 9front too

Not only are various editions of Version 6 UNIX, often known as V6 for short, still being maintained – but new ones continue to appear.…

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Microsoft places huge cap-ex bets on datacenters for cloud and AI

CFO says paying customers expected to flood in from 2024

Microsoft is betting big on generative AI by spending many billions of dollars more on building datacenter capacity in anticipation of a rapid uptick in demand from paying customers, expected to start in anger from calendar 2024.…

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Harnessing Synthetic Biology to Make Sustainable Alternatives to Petroleum Products

Visolis is working to decarbonize the production of everything from rubber to jet fuel through synthetic biology alternatives.

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Simpler Method for Learning to Control a Robot

Researchers develop a machine-learning technique that can efficiently learn to control a robot, leading to better performance with

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New Quantum Magnet Unleashes Electronics Potential

Researchers discover how to control the anomalous Hall effect and Berry curvature to create flexible quantum magnets for

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Infineon to offer recyclable circuit boards that dissolve in water

Phasing out epoxy resin laminate with biodegradable substrate might be costly, though

Infineon Technologies will using recyclable printed circuit boards (PCBs) based on a material developed by a UK startup in upcoming demo boards.…

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Towards Silver Cluster-Assembled Materials for Environmental Monitoring

Scientists develop two novel silver cluster-assembled materials with enhanced stability and excellent selective Fe3+ sensing ability. Silver cluster-assembled

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The choice: Pay BT megabucks, or do something a bit illegal. OK, that’s no choice

We’ve dipped into the mailbag for more tales of rogue cabling and keyboard confusion

On Call  Some say that working for The Register is one never-ending holiday, but On Call – our weekly reader-contributed tale of techies being asked to endure atrocious emergencies, has taken a break. This week we therefore present some shorter tales from the On Call mailbag that were sent in response to an On Call from June 2nd, regarding ethernet cable strung through trees to avoid blowing the budget on a WAN, and an On Call from June 30th concerning the perils of international keyboard layouts .…

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Pioneering study signals new era of environment-friendly programmable bioelectronics

Researchers have created a unique microscopic toolkit of ‘green’ tuneable electrical components, paving the way for a new

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New Catalyst Could Dramatically Cut Methane Pollution from Millions of Engines

Researchers demonstrate a way to remove the potent greenhouse gas from the exhaust of engines that burn natural

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The Semiconductor Workforce Program Increases Access to Hands-on Training

In a program designed to help grow the U.S. semiconductor workforce, a cohort of college students from across

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On the record: Apple bags patent for iDevice to play LPs

From Norman Cook to Tim Cook

A patent granted to Apple this week suggests the iGiant is, if not actively working on, at least entertaining the thought of introducing some modular hardware into its lineup – including, bizarrely, an old-fashioned record player. …

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Meltdown avoided: Intel rediscovers profitability

Pat on the back for Pat who's back in the black after getting costs whacked and demand stacked

After racking up $3.5 billion in losses over the past two quarters, Intel managed to stanch the bleeding and return to profitability in the second quarter.…

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Tesla's Autopilot boasts, safety probed by California AG

This tech is certainly full of something

California's Attorney General is reportedly investigating complaints about the safety of Tesla's so-called self-driving features, as well as boasts made by the automaker about the technology in its marketing.…

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A federal watchdog to police Big Tech? Yeah, that'll do the trick, senators...

Sorry, FTC, didn't mean to step on you like that

Two US Senators have proposed legislation to create a government commission to tame Big Tech, an often uttered goal on both sides of the political aisle that has yet to be realized.…

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NATO probes hacktivist crew's boasts of stolen portal data

'Gay furry hackers' say it's in response to 'attacks on human rights' and noooothing to do with Russia-Ukraine

NATO is investigating claims by miscreants that they broke into the military alliance's unclassified information-sharing and collaboration IT environment, stole information belonging to 31 nations, and leaked 845 MB of compressed data.…

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How to make today's top-end AI chatbots rebel against their creators and plot our doom

Boffins build automated system to smash safety guardrails

The "guardrails" built atop large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Bard, and Claude to prevent undesirable text output can be easily bypassed – and it's unclear whether there's a viable fix, according to computer security researchers.…

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Deloitte and Chuck E. Cheese join 500+ orgs as MOVEit victims

Third of Big 4 accountants get trampled by Clop, KPMG may be nervous

Accounting giant Deloitte, pizza and birthday party chain Chuck E. Cheese, government contractor Maximus, and the Hallmark Channel are among the latest victims that the Russian ransomware crew Clop claims to have breached using the MOVEit file transfer hack.…

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Think tank calls for monitoring of Chinese AI-enabled products

Will make regulating China’s 5G telecom equipment look like a cinch

Chinese made AI-enabled products should spark similar concerns to Middle Kingdom sourced 5G equipment and therefore be regulated, said think tank Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) on Thursday.…

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Prices of gallium and germanium rise as China export controls loom

Plus: US warns domestic chip suppliers will feel the pain

Prices of two vital chipmaking materials are rising ahead of export restrictions imposed by the Chinese government coming into effect next week.…

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NASA, DARPA enlist Lockheed to build nuclear-powered spacecraft

Hey, at least this one isn't an actual bomb

NASA's ambitions to speed up space travel are about to go nuclear, as its joint project with military boffinry unit DARPA has found a builder for an experimental nuclear thermal rocket vehicle, or X-NTRV: Lockheed Martin.…

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Wafer shipments still down, but chipmakers are looking up

AI runs on chips, remember

Despite yet another dip in wafer shipments, major chip shops are predicting a resurgence in the latter half of 2023.…

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Hadar heats up race for better night-time computer vision, AV performance

Machine learning helps take fuzz out of thermal imaging

A machine learning-assisted approach to thermal imaging could transform the night vision of autonomous vehicles and other nascent robots.…

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Google's browser security plan slammed as dangerous, terrible, DRM for websites

'The solution to the surveillance economy seems to be more surveillance' Vivaldi boss tells El Reg

Google's Web Environment Integrity (WEI) proposal, according to one of the developers working on the controversial fraud fighting project, aims to make the web "more private and safe."…

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It's official: EU probing bundling of Teams with Microsoft 365

Antitrust inspectors trying to figure out if Redmond has breached local competition laws

The European Commission has officially launched a “formal investigation” into whether Microsoft flouted EU competition rules by bundling Teams with dominant productivity software suite Office 365 and Microsoft 365.…

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Global Slack messaging outage cuts world off from colleagues

Come back Teams, all is forgiven

No, your colleagues aren't just taking ages to respond, Slack is currently staggering to its feet after experiencing a global outage across all regions.…

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Thames Water to datacenters: Cut water use or we will

Utility to consider introducing restrictions

Thames Water is considering measures to cut down the water used by some datacenters, including fitting flow restrictors or charging operators more at peak times.…

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Artificial Intelligence Has Become The Cardiologist’s “Super-Assistant”

If anything goes wrong with your heart, it is critical to get the right treatment quickly. Artificial intelligence

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Biosurfactants Might Offer An Environmentally Friendly Solution For Tackling Oil Spills

Can biosurfactants increase microbiological oil degradation in North Sea seawater? An international research team from the universities of

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What Is SBOM and Why You Need One in Your Software Project

Software development has transformed from a relatively simple, linear process to a complex ecosystem of interconnected components. A

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£214m effort to modernize SAP ERP in UK govt systems marked Code Red

Experts warn agreement needed and skills lacking in HMRC-led project

The UK's major government projects experts have warned a programme to overhaul ERP systems in three central government departments is undeliverable in its current state.…

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Scientists Caught Hofstadter’s Butterfly in One of the Most Ancient Materials on Earth

Researchers in the National Graphene Institute (NGI) at The University of Manchester have revisited one of the most ancient materials on

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A room-temperature, ambient-pressure superconductor? Take a closer look

It's OK to be skeptical if someone says they found the holy grail

Three scientists in South Korea claim they've crafted a superconductor that works at both room temperature and ambient pressure – a revolutionary breakthrough if confirmed. …

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Brain Networks Encoding Memory Come Together via Electric Fields

Electric fields shared among brain neurons via “ephaptic coupling” provide the coordination necessary to assemble the engrams that

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New Sensor Mimics Cell Membrane Functions

The new sensor device detects the same molecules that cell receptors do, and may enable routine early screening

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Aliens crash landed on Earth – and Uncle Sam is covering it up, this guy tells Congress

Men in Black snatched Little Green Men's spacecraft, allegedly

Poll  The US government has recovered alien spacecraft and bodies from crash landings on Earth, and is keeping the whole thing covered up, Congress was told on Wednesday.…

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Crooks pwned your servers? You've got four days to tell us, SEC tells public companies

Cripes, they actually sound serious

Public companies that suffer a computer crime likely to cause a "material" hit to an investor will soon face a four-day time limit to disclose the incident, according to rules approved today by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.…

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FCC boss says 25Mbps isn't cutting it, Americans deserve 100Mbps now, gigabit later

First refresh of minimums in eight years for the country that invented the internet

FCC boss Jessica Rosenworcel thinks Americans deserve better broadband than the current minimum speeds of 25Mbps down and 3Mbps up. She has thus proposed boosting these lower bounds at least fourfold, with the "long term" goal of upping this further to 1Gbps down and 500Mbps up.…

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Cigna sued for using software to deny healthcare insurance claims

It's just some if-then statements, no AI here, insurer sniffs

Cigna has been sued in California based on allegations the US healthcare insurer unlawfully reviewed insurance claims using automated systems rather than relying on humans.…

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Understanding and Excelling at CS:GO Missions

The gaming world has been captivated by Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), a multi-player first-person shooter game developed by

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Russia throws founder of infosec biz Group-IB in the clink for treason

Sachkov faces 14-year stretch after 'unreasonably rushed trial'

A Russian court has sentenced Ilya Sachkov, the founder of security research house Group-IB, to 14 years in a maximum-security prison after finding the executive guilty of high treason.…

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Musk's X tries to win advertisers back with discounts

Plus: Did Xwitter just suggest stripping people of gold checks? Don't threaten us with a good time

The website formerly known as Twitter is trying to win back advertisers yet again with half-off deals on certain ads – and reportedly threats to remove gold checks from company profiles if advertisers don't start spending money. …

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Netflix offers up to $900,000 for AI product manager while actors strike for protection

That could pay for 35 humans and their families' health insurance, says human

Striking Hollywood writers and actors will be delighted to learn that Netflix, one of the powers perceived to be upending the entertainment industry, is advertising for an AI product manager with a salary up to $900,000.…

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AI mentioned 175 times during Microsoft's Q4 earnings call

Are you sure that's an exec on the line? Also, smart move distracting folks from revenue growth slowdown, profit slide

AI was mentioned 175 times during Microsoft's conference call with analysts to discuss the megacorp's Q4 financial results – it seems there will be no let-up to the hype in an industry already bursting at the seams with marketing bluster.…

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Intel adds fresh x86 and vector instructions for future chips

Some big changes are afoot

Intel has revealed two sets of extensions coming to the x86 instruction set architecture, one to boost the performance of general purpose code and the second to provide a common vector instruction set for future chips.…

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What does Twitter's new logo really represent?

It has a meaning in mathematics, and even more interested parties than you might expect

Logowatch  Twitter's new logo isn't just an X, it's a very specific form of X, and not only does it have a meaning, it also has some history behind it.…

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TSMC thinks it's got exactly what Taiwan needs – another multibillion-dollar chip plant

Talk about all your eggs in one China-coveting basket

TSMC confirmed on Tuesday that it is investing $2.87 billion in a chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging fab for AI chips in northern Taiwan.…

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To infinity and beyond, with a swarm of tiny computers costing under $1K each

BLISS this: Berkeley Low-cost Interplanetary Solar Sail project wants to head into space on the cheap

Boffins believe the future of space exploration may belong to small, affordable probes sailing away under the Sun's power.…

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Unmanned Mine-Clearing Vehicle in Ukraine is Trying to Make Life Safe Again

Landmines are an effective weapon, slowing down the enemy’s advances. However, they are also severely dangerous even after

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ESA sees satellite-based air traffic monitoring on near horizon

EURIALO project aims to prove flights can be tracked in real time through multilateration

The European Space Agency (ESA) has awarded a contract to a US company to create a technology demonstrator for a proposed aircraft monitoring system using low Earth orbit satellites.…

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Ambulance patient records system hauled offline for cyber-attack probe

UK trusts serving 12 million people affected as vendor awaits results of forensic investigation

Several UK NHS ambulance organizations have been struggling to record patient data and pass it to other providers following a cyber-attack aimed at health software company Ortivus.…

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Video Production Agency: How to Choose the Right Partner for Your Project

Are you seeking a video production agency to bring your creative project to life? Choosing the right partner

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Advanced Electrode to Help Remediate Stubborn New ‘Forever Chemicals’

As new environmental regulations are rolling out to mitigate the industry-retired long-chain chemicals known as PFAS in drinking

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AI and Precision Medicine May Discover Risk of Cardiovascular Disease

Cardiovascular disease is one of the most common causes of death in Sweden and in the world. Researchers

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Sneaky Python package security fixes help no one – except miscreants

Good thing these eggheads have created a database of patches

Python security fixes often happen through "silent" code commits, without an associated Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) identifier, according to a group of computer security researchers.…

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Accelerating AI, Machine Learning in Research

Case Western Reserve, University of Cincinnati and Ohio Supercomputer Center partner on five-year, $5.1 million plan to bring

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Australian court orders Meta subsidiaries to pay $14 million over data use

Adverts said Onavo Protect user data would be kept a secret – just didn't say from whom

On Wednesday, Australia's Federal Court ordered two Meta subsidiaries to pay $14 million after an over two and a half year legal battle instigated by the country’s competition regulator found the pair misled users on the data collection of a now defunct VPN app.…

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Ivanti plugs critical bug – but not before it was used against Norwegian government

Uncle Sam warns sysadmins to get patching as soon as possible

A critical security flaw in Ivanti's mobile endpoint management code was exploited and used to compromise 12 Norwegian government agencies before the vendor plugged the hole.…

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Challenge: Autonomous Soil Data Collection and Reporting in Remote Ground Locations

The organizer of this competition is interested in a device/system that must identify and map the location, dig

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NASA awards $150 million to prototype tech for humans on the Moon, and above it

Inflatable heat shields, robot cable layers, and a furnace to burn lunar dust for minerals and oxygen

NASA is distributing $150 million between 11 US organizations developing technology and infrastructure supporting long-term human exploration on the Moon for its Artemis missions and beyond.…

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Challenge: Meta AI Video Similarity

The ability to identify and track content on social media platforms, called content tracing, is crucial to the

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New Tiny Atomic Beam Clock Could Bring Stable Timing to Places GPS Can’t Reach

A new type of miniature atomic clock could provide better timing over the span of weeks and months

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Clients turn to Indian IT outsourcers for AI faster than industry can train staff

Earnings calls from the Big Four show massive reskilling in progress

India's top four IT outsourcers saw a quarter where clients were hesitant about everything except their desire to discuss AI, according to earnings reports from TCS, HCL, Infosys and Wipro.…

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NIST Team Demonstrates Novel Way to Convert Heat to Electricity

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have fabricated a novel device that could dramatically

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One problem with America's chip ambitions: Not quite enough staff

Semi industry fears US will be short 70K engineers, technicians, computer scientists by end of decade

Last week, TSMC postponed production at its under-construction Arizona chip fab until at least 2025 because it said it couldn't find enough skilled workers to complete the facility. This could be a sign of things to come.…

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OpenAI pulls AI text detector due to it being a bit crap

If getting stuff right is such a deal breaker, why are we still so deep into this ML hype?

OpenAI has taken down its AI classifier months after it was released due to its inability to accurately determine whether a chunk of text was automatically generated by a large language model or written by a human.…

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It’s Not a Computer Game: Ukrainian ComBat Vision Tactical System Provides Real-Time Battlefield View

The ComBat Vision tactical level control system, developed by a Ukrainian team, is revolutionizing the way defense forces

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FTC boss Khan shrugs off Microsoft, Meta defeats: 'Losing two is okay'

How quick y'all are to forget Nvidia-Arm

Two high-profile defeats in court do not a failed strategy make, or so says FTC boss Lina Khan. …

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Apple patches exploited bugs in iPhones plus other holes

One spotted by Amnesty International - wonder what that was used for?

Apple has released fixes for several security flaws that affect its iPhones, iPads, macOS computers, and Apple TV and watches, and warned that some of these bugs have already been exploited.…

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The Ultimate Guide to Choosing the Perfect TV Stand for Your Living Room

A well-chosen TV stand is the cornerstone of a stylish living room. Not only do they store your

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3 Catalysts Fast-Tracking the Global Adoption of Clean Energy: Fuelling the Future with Renewables

In 2015, 193 Member States of the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This Agenda

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Create Impactful Experiences For Your Customers With ActiveCampaign Software

Creating impactful customer experiences is the key to business success, and that’s where software from ActiveCampaign comes in.

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Our AI habit is making us less environmentally friendly, Google admits

Just 6% of the water it consumed last year was replenished, report says

Google's plans to go green are faltering – and its all AI's fault, the company claims.…

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Debian 12.1 released with bug fixes aplenty and excitement still in short supply

The next version, 'Trixie', is starting to take shape and boasts an additional official CPU architecture

The first point release in the Debian "Bookworm" series is here, but version 12.1 is a modest bugfix. It might be time for even the ultra-cautious to start taking a look.…

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GlobalFoundries claims German chip subsidies will 'distort competition'

US semiconductor manufacturer unhappy rival TSMC is bagging billions

US semiconductor manufacturer GlobalFoundries has criticized the German government's €20 billion ($22 billion) in semiconductor subsidies, claiming it will distort competition.…

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Logitech reports broad declines as pre-pandemic buying cycles return

Inventory holding reduced in Q1, hunt for new CEO continues

Logitech has reported shrinking sales across much of its portfolio but the rate of decline is slowing, causing interim CEO Guy Gecht to up sales and profit forecasts for the first half of fiscal 2024.…

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Intel: Here, have some AI reference kits ... now please buy our silicon

With 34 designs to pick from, you can choose your own ML adventure

To encourage techies and engineers to try out its AI acceleration hardware, Intel has put together a bunch of software reference kits it claims will reduce the time and resources required to deploy machine learning systems on its silicon.…

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European project to develop 6G network architecture to improve communications performance and capabilities

The Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) is participating in a European research project for the creation of

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James Webb spots water vapor in rocky planet-forming disk

Turns out proto-Earths may bring their own drinks

Astronomers have detected water vapor in the inner region of a protoplanetary disk – where rocky planets may be forming – for the first time, thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope.…

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Digital revolution at HMRC left 99,000 UK taxpayers on hold over five-day fiasco

Technology resilience gets red rating in tax collector's annual report

Poor IT performance caused a five-day shutdown of the UK tax authority's phone services in December last year, affecting around 99,000 citizens.…

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Seeing Eye to Eye: Researchers Train AI to Copy Gaze of Clinical Professionals

An artificial intelligence (AI) system, which mimics the gaze of radiologists reading medical images such as mammograms, has

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New Wearable Sensor Sets Record for Solar Power Efficiency

Sweat, like blood, can tell us a lot about a person’s health. And conveniently, it’s a lot less

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Too many bytes and not enough bricks for datacenters

More than 3,000 needed to meet demand, and that won't be easy, says Aggreko

The European datacenter industry is facing issues meeting the growing demand for capacity with materials and heavy equipment to build sites in short supply, among other factors.…

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Apple owes Brit iOS app devs millions from excessively high commission, lawsuit claims

Lawyers look to scale the walled garden

Apple is facing a legal challenge over the "creator tax," or the commission it charges developers who write the apps that populate its digital walled garden.…

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Germany raids climate piggy bank for €20B to bankroll chip fabs

Less than a quarter will go to locals though

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz reportedly plans to siphon €20 billion ($22 billion) from the country's Climate and Transformation Fund to offset the cost of building semiconductor manufacturing plants.…

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Novel thermal sensor could help drive down the heat

Excess heat from electronic or mechanical devices is a sign or cause of inefficient performance. In many cases,

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Tokkers can Tok like Tweeters can Tweet – for now

Scavenging for disgruntled former Twitter users? Fellow vulture, we honor thee.

Chinese short video platform TikTok announced yesterday it will offer text-based content – a feature that mimics capabilities of various other social media sites, including what is formerly known as Twitter, Meta's Threads and even Instagram.…

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Google's next big idea for browser security looks like another freedom grab to some

Safe to say, this proposal has gone down like a poweroff -fn

Analysis  Googlers have proposed a way to determine whether browsers can be trusted, as a defense against criminal fraud and other bad behavior. Some in the internet community fear this is the end of the web as we know it.…

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Challenge: Faster and Simpler Installation of Underground Cables in Medium Voltage (MV) Lines

Enel Grids is always looking for innovative solutions that can improve the growth and maintenance of its underground

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European Project Develops Comprehensive 6G Solution to Optimise Network Reliability and Efficiency

The Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) coordinates the European research project PREDICT-6G to develop deterministic networks. This

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TETRA radio comms used by emergency heroes easily cracked, say experts

If it looks like a backdoor, walks like a backdoor, maybe it's a ...

Midnight Blue, a security firm based in the Netherlands, has found five vulnerabilities that affect Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA), used in Europe, the United Kingdom, and many other countries by government agencies, law enforcement, and emergency services organizations.…

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Worldcoin: New Cryptocurrency Project from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Will Require Iris Scan

Worldcoin, a cryptocurrency project launched by Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, made its debut on Monday. The

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Jury orders Google to pay $340M patent-infringement damages over Chromecast

Something something don't cross the streams

Google has been ordered by a US federal court to cough up $338.7 million in damages for infringing someone else's patents with its Chromecast gear.…

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Streamlining Payroll Processes: The Advantages of Payroll Software for Tech Companies

In today’s fast-paced world of technology, where innovation drives success, efficiency and accuracy are paramount for businesses, especially

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7 Ways To Enhance Employee Engagement

Close to three-quarters of workers are actively thinking about quitting their jobs, according to a survey conducted by

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Toyota Lunar Cruiser: Comfortable Ride on the Moon, Powered by Fuel Cells

Toyota revealed this Friday it intends to employ regenerative fuel cell technology for a manned lunar rover, the

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AMD Zenbleed chip bug leaks secrets fast and easy

Zen 2 flaw more simple than Spectre, exploit code already out there – get patching when you can

AMD has started issuing some patches for its processors affected by a serious silicon-level bug dubbed Zenbleed that can be exploited by rogue users and malware to steal passwords, cryptographic keys, and other secrets from software running on a vulnerable system.…

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Want to live dangerously? Try running Windows XP in 2023

The pain and joy of using an old OS on hardware newer than it is

Warning: the stunts in this article were performed by professionals, so for your safety and the protection of those around you, do not attempt any of the stunts you're about to read unless qualified.…

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Ultra-rare Apple sneakers from the 1990s on sale for $50,000

Meanwhile, Einstein dismantles the creation myth in $125,000 letter

A pair of Apple-branded sneakers have gone on sale for $50,000 through art broker Sotheby's.…

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Oracle's revised Java licensing terms 2-5x more expensive for most orgs

One in five users can expect an audit in the next three years

Most organizations adapting to Oracle's new licensing terms for Java expect the per-employee subscription model to be two to five times more expensive than the legacy model, according to Gartner estimates.…

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AMD mulls new chip manufacturing partners amid supply chain jitters

TSMC has too much capacity when China has made no secret of its desire for Taiwan

AMD is considering broadening chip production suppliers as it believes it is too reliant on semiconductor giant TSMC and this places the supply chain at risk of disruption.…

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A ‘toolbox of biocatalysts’ improves control over free radicals

One of the central challenges for synthetic chemists is to impose control over free radicals. Highly reactive molecules

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Device Makes Hydrogen from Sunlight With Record Efficiency

New standard for green hydrogen technology set by Rice University engineers. Rice University engineers can turn sunlight into

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Twitter name and blue bird logo to be 'blowtorched' off company branding

X marks the rot: It's Elon's fave letter and way forward for the 'everything app'

Mercurial billionaire Elon Musk has ditched the Twitter brand name in favor of a white "X" on a black background, and is kicking the blue bird logo out of the nest to signal a world-bending shake-up at the biz.…

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Google fails to get AI engineer lawsuit claiming wrongful termination thrown out

Plus: Apple is building its own large language models internally, and AI South Park is terrible

AI in brief  Judges have tentatively rejected Google's request to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a former engineer who accused the company of firing him for challenging an internal AI chip design research project.…

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BT and OneWeb deliver internet to rock in Bristol Channel – population 28

More puffins than people on Lundy, and no one wants to say how much it cost

BT and satellite operator OneWeb are now providing internet access to the island of Lundy as part of the UK government's program to connect up hard-to-reach areas of the country, but the pair are strangely reluctant to discuss costs.…

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World's most internetty firm tries life off the net, and it's sillier than it seems

What do you call an air-gapped Googler? Anything you like, they can't hear you

Opinion  It seems intuitively obvious. Disconnect your PC from the internet, and it's safe from attack. Google thinks enough of the idea to try cutting off a couple of thousand workstations from the pestilential swamp. The air gap is an experiment in increasing the cost of mounting an attack, says the company.…

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Study finds billions of nanoplastics released when microwaving containers

The fastest way to heat food and drink might also rank as the fastest route to ingesting massive

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Linux lover consumed a quarter of the network

Penguins are OK with glaciers. Academics not so much

Ah, gentle reader, we find ourselves once again at that juncture of the week we call Who, Me? in which your fellow Regizens' tales of technical not-quite-competence brighten an otherwise dull Monday.…

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Alibaba opts out of Ant Group stock buyback

Sign of confidence or … something bigger?

Alibaba will not participate in a planned share buyback of its fintech arm, Ant Group, according to a regulatory filing lodged with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Sunday.…

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TII McEliece Challenge: Data Security in a Post-Quantum Era

Contribute to data security in a post-quantum era by participating in the TII McEliece Challenge and win prizes

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Google half-patches Cloud Build permissions exploit, the rest is on you

ALSO: Amazon's child-sized COPPA fine, smart tech security labels coming to the US, and this week's critical vulns

Infosec in brief  A security weakness in Google Cloud Build could have allowed attackers to tamper with organizations' code repositories and application images, according to Orca Security researchers.…

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China eases barriers for cashless foreigners to use local services

ALSO: Singapore's government LLM, China beats 5G base station target, and Malaysia telecom gives in to 5G bandwidth purchasing policy

ASIA IN BRIEF  Mastercard announced last week it will allow linking of its credit cards to AliPay's digital wallet without advancing the cash to a prepaid account, thus easing foreigner travel in China.…

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Future Car Travel May Be Cheaper – And More Expensive

Many of the cars currently speeding through the summer landscape are running on electricity. At the same time,

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Materials Science: What Good it Brings for Humankind?

Artificial nerve cells, electronic plants, cheap solar cells and new types of diodes are all examples of materials

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AI-guided Brain Stimulation Aids Memory in Traumatic Brain Injury

A collaborative study shows that targeted electrical stimulation in the brains of epilepsy patients with traumatic brain injury

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How an “AI-tocracy” Emerges

In China, the use of AI-driven facial recognition helps the regime repress dissent while enhancing the technology, researchers

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MISO Forecasting Challenge: Probabilistic Temperature Forecasting Using Available Weather Data Models

In this Challenge, MISO is seeking ideas and advanced frameworks that leverage multiple weather forecast data sets to

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Challenge: Anti-soiling Coatings for Solar Panels

Can you help Enel Green Power by providing a solution, technology, or method that provides effective anti-soiling coatings?  Enel Green

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How Much Dead EV Battery is Worth? Latest US Incentives Turn Them Into Gold Mine

What is the value of a dead EV battery pack? The little-known provision in the U.S. Inflation Reduction

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Amazon sets up shop at Kennedy Space Center to prep Kuiper broadband satellites

Web super-biz dreams of lobbing 3,000-plus internet-relay birds into orbit

Amazon is building a $120 million facility at the Kennedy Space Center, on Florida's Cape Canaveral, where it'll prepare Project Kuiper internet-relaying satellites for launch.…

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Innovative Wearable Sensor for Measuring Sweat Lactate Levels During Exercise

Scientists solve the long-standing problem of air bubbles in sweat affecting the performance of microfluidic wearable sensors. Wearable

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Digital Autopsies with 3D Visualisation Technology

It is already possible to perform part of the autopsy with the assistance of mixed reality, and fully

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How to Regulate AI-created Disinformation?

The Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) is participating in a European research project, SOLARIS, to analyze the

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Microsoft’s Dublin DC power plant gets the, er, green light

How does more natural gas consumption contribute to Redmond's eco dream?

Unable to secure a steady supply of power from Ireland's national power grid, Microsoft has elected to build its own power plant to keep its €900 million datacenter development outside Dublin up and running.…

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Smart Home Challenge: Make it Matter!

The organizer calls upon the community of developers to create an innovative, human-centered, Matter-ready smart home application (display,

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Just declassified: US senator caught up in Section 702 FBI surveillance dragnet

Still, judge finds 'reason to believe' Feds are getting better at not abusing snooping powers

The FBI improperly spied on a US senator, a state senator, and a state-level judge, among others, according to a previously secret court opinion released Friday afternoon.…

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Myanmar's government in exile throws support behind launch of crypto-based bank

Ousted opposition seeks ways to circumvent military junta and access resources

In the Southeast Asian country of Myanmar, the exiled government is betting on cryptocurrency to help it overthrow a military junta as it backs the Saturday launch of the nation's first crypto-based bank.…

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Fear not, White House chatted to OpenAI and pals, and they promised to make AI safe

Nice one, Joe, get those non-binding voluntary pledges in early

Seven top AI development houses have promised to test their models, share research, and develop methods to watermark machine-generated content in a bid to make the technology safer, the White House announced on Friday.…

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Stolen Microsoft key may have opened up a lot more than US govt email inboxes

How does the Azure giant come back from this?

A stolen Microsoft security key may have allowed Beijing-backed spies to break into a lot more than just Outlook and Exchange Online email accounts.…

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VirusTotal: We're sorry someone fat-fingered and exposed 5,600 users

File under PEBCAK

VirusTotal today issued a mea cupla, saying a blunder earlier this week by one of its staff exposed information belonging to 5,600 customers, including the email addresses of US Cyber Command, FBI, and NSA employees.…

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US Air Force's Angry Kitten turns Reaper drone into fierce feline of electronic warfare

Hardware from a decade ago? More like grumpy old mog

The US Air Force is turning to an unlikely place to beef up its electronic warfare countermeasures: a decade-old aircraft-mounted pod known as the "Angry Kitten."…

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Framework starts taking orders for 16-inch repairable, upgradeable laptop

Coming soon and looking very promising – if you like your models skinny, anyway

You can now order the new 16-inch model of the Framework user-repairable – and user-upgradeable – laptop.…

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Venezuelan Su-30 Crashed During Exercise – Poor Maintenance Is to Blame, or Not?

The Sukhoi Su-30 is a large Russian twin-engine, two-seat fighter jet. It is a truly remarkable machine –

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Meta can call Llama open source as much as it likes, but that doesn't mean it is

For Zuck, open source is just another marketing phrase. For developers, it's the rules of the road

Opinion  Meta's newly released large language model Llama-2 is not open source. Yes, I know Meta AI people proclaim: "Llama 2 [is] the next generation of our open source LLM available for research and commercial use." So what? It's not.…

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NASA's DART kicked up swarm of 37 boulders after Dimorphos asteroid crash

Hubble Space Telescope managed to capture 'some of the faintest things ever imaged inside our solar system'

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has spied a swarm of 37 boulders that were ejected from the asteroid Dimorphos after the DART spacecraft crashed into its surface in the world's first planetary defense test mission.…

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Major Companies Agree to Watermark AI-Generated Content

Leading companies working in the field of artificial intelligence will introduce special content watermarking techniques to everything created

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SAP checks cloud forecast to find it's not raining as much revenue as hoped

Yet mission vital to ERP giant's financial future remains on track

SAP has disappointed markets following a readjustment of cloud revenue forecasts despite robust sales in its calendar Q2 profit and loss accounts.…

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Tesla's Dojo supercomputer is a billion-dollar bet to make AI better at driving than humans

More data means better neural net training, but it also means more cores

Tesla says it is spending upwards of $1 billion on its Dojo supercomputer between now and the end of 2024 to help develop autonomous vehicle software.…

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Watchdog mulls online facial age-verification tech – for kids' parents

COPPA load of this

Technology that estimates how old someone is based on their face geometry may soon be used to verify internet users' ages, if an approach submitted to the US government gets the green light.…

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Lawyer sees almost 1,000 complainants sign up to Capita breach class action

95% pertain to pension schemes administered by outsourcing giant, says Barings Law

The law firm that last month sent a Letter of Claim to Capita over the breach in late March says it has signed up nearly 1,000 clients as it prepares a class action lawsuit aimed at the outsourcing biz.…

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Challenge: Connect things with code!

Sensors, actuators, microcontrollers, communication modules, and security components are part of every IoT device. At Infineon, we are

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Can Artificial Intelligence Reduce Invasive Testing and Improve Cardiac Diagnostics?

Improving cardiac diagnostics: CathEF uses a deep neural network algorithm, a form of artificial intelligence, to predict reduced

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Workday wants racially biased recruitment algorithm claims thrown out

Case is without merit, finance and HR SaaS vendor insists

HR and financial management software vendor Workday has moved to dismiss a class action case which alleges it produced a screening system resulting in racial bias.…

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Engineers’ Storage Technology Keeps Nanosurfaces Clean

Containers attract, and trap organic molecules that frequently foul nanosurfaces. Rice University engineers have created containers that can

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Douglas Adams was right: Telephone sanitizers are terrible human beings

This one cleaned things up so well that signals couldn't get through

On Call  Welcome once again to On Call, in which The Register connects readers with your peers to share stories of shocking support SNAFUs.…

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Judge lets art trio take another crack at suing AI devs over copyright

Just the facts, ma'am. More facts, in fact

A US federal judge almost threw out a lawsuit brought by artists accusing text-to-image AI developers of copyright infringement, but decided to give the creatives a chance to improve and resubmit their complaint.…

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Proposed ban on data brokers selling warrantless personal info to Feds revived

Plus: Senator teases larger surveillance reform bill coming soon

A draft law that would prevent data brokers from selling US citizens' personal information to law enforcement and federal agencies without a warrant has been advanced by lawmakers.…

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TSMC says Arizona fab behind schedule, blames chip geek shortage

Output of 4nm parts stalled until at least 2025

TSMC on Thursday said its under-construction chip fab in Arizona won't be up and running until at least 2025 due to a shortage of skilled workers.…

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Tesla to license Full Self-Driving stack to other automakers, says Musk

Multiple safety investigations, patches for unsafe behavior, and the fact it's still a beta haven't dissuaded other OEMs?

Tesla CEO Elon Musk let an interesting tidbit slip during yesterday's Q2 earnings call: his car company has plans to license its as-yet Full Self-Driving stack to other automakers.…

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Weird radio pulses could be coming from new type of stellar object

Astronomers puzzled over what is powering GPM J1839−10

Astronomers believe they may have discovered a new type of stellar object after spotting something that has been beaming radio pulses every 22 minutes for more than three decades.…

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Feds want to rewrite rules for competition-crushing merger probes

No more embrace-and-extinguish M&As, but budgetary changes may make enforcement harder

The US Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice have proposed rewritten guidelines on how mergers should be scrutinized by American watchdogs – the goal being to crack down harder on competition-crushing takeovers.…

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MOVEit body count closes in on 400 orgs, 20M+ individuals

'One of the most significant hacks of recent years,' we're told

The number of victims and costs tied to the MOVEit file transfer hack continues to climb as the fallout from the massive supply chain attack enters week seven.…

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Uncle Sam would rather Silicon Valley VCs did not invest in Chinese AI

Qualcomm's venture arm among the firms under investigation

A US congressional panel is investigating four venture capital firms, including the investment arm of semiconductor company Qualcomm, regarding financing of Chinese AI, semiconductor and quantum technologies.…

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‘Strange Metal’ Sends Quantum Researchers in Circles

A Yale-led team of physicists has discovered a circular pattern in the movement of electrons in a group

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AI Translator for Bats Could Revolutionize Our Understanding of These Mysterious Creatures

Bats are fascinating creatures that play an important role in our ecosystem. They are the only mammals that

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A Guide to Australia and New Zealand’s Technology Industry

Australia and New Zealand may be geographically a long way away from the northern hemisphere’s global powers; however,

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RIP Kevin Mitnick: Former most-wanted hacker dies at 59

Tributes paid to husband, father, son and rogue-turned-consultant

Obit  Kevin Mitnick, probably the world's most-famous computer hacker – and subsequently writer, public speaker, and security consultant – has succumbed to pancreatic cancer. He was 59.…

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Chips still down for TSMC with glimmer of hope this quarter

Global economic conditions? Check. Sluggish end market demand? Check. Customer inventory adjustment? Bingo!

TSMC has reported a double digit year-on-year plunge in sales, yet it seems the results aren't as bad as analysts anticipated and the chipmaker expects business to pick up again in the coming months.…

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MySQL Heatwave dives into object storage data lakes

Oracle joins the analytics anywhere bandwagon, promises future access to AWS S3

Oracle has launched MySQL HeatWave Lakehouse, an extension to its proprietary analytics platform which now supports object storage outside the database.…

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Ultra Ethernet Consortium wants to optimize networking for AI and HPC

Not changing the standard, but tweaking how applications work over top

A group of tech companies has kicked off a project to adapt the Ethernet standard to make it better suited for the demanding network requirements of AI and high performance computing (HPC) applications.…

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Cerebras's Condor Galaxy AI supercomputer takes flight carrying 36 exaFLOPS

Nine-site system built for UAE's G42, but there'll be plenty to spare

AI biz Cerebras has unveiled its Condor Galaxy supercomputer, a distributed cluster that, when complete, will span nine sites capable of 36 exaFLOPS of combined FP16 performance.…

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Under CISA pressure collaboration, Microsoft makes cloud security logs available for free

In hindsight, it's probably good practice to give clients access to cloud logs

Microsoft announced on Wednesday it would provide all customers free access to cloud security logs – a service usually reserved for premium clients – within weeks of a reveal that government officials' cloud-based emails were targets of an alleged China-based hack.…

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RHEL drama, ChromeOS and more ... Our vultures speak freely about the latest in Linux

Do distros even matter in the era of cloud and microservices?

Register Kettle  Linux is everywhere. Servers, phones, laptops, and more, whether people know it or not. And it's all over our headlines lately – for good reason.…

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Slackware wasn't the first Linux distro, but it's the oldest still alive and kicking

Who needs a graphical desktop manager anyway?

This week the Slackware Linux project is celebrating its 30th anniversary. It is the oldest Linux distribution that is still in active maintenance and development.…

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Always on the Horizon, UK must wait for megabucks EU science deal

Rishi Sunak fails to secure place in €95.5B program before Parliament packs up for holiday

After taking years to get to the point where it could rejoin the EU's €95.5 billion Horizon science program, the UK now seems to want more time to think about its options en route to becoming a global science superpower.…

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Bulky Size Frustrates Radical Molecules to Boost Chemical Reactions

How to harness the potential of highly reactive radical molecules to work in pairs and spur transformative chemistry?

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Space-ready Menstrual Cup a Giant Leap for Womankind

In October 2022, two menstrual cups were launched toward space. Contained in a small metal box designed by

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Social media is too much for most of us to handle

I know, because I let it all flood in. And it was damaging to my mental health

Column  In 2008, I formed a hypothesis that everyone has something to teach you, so the more connected you are, the more you should be able to learn.…

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Researchers Produce Highly Efficient, Low-cost “Green” Hydrogen

Researchers from Tel Aviv University (TAU) have succeeded in producing “green” hydrogen through the use of green electricity. The resulting

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Ukraine busts bot farm spreading Russian infowar propaganda and fraud

Plus: Spanish cops arrest Ukrainian scareware dev after ten-year hunt

Ukrainian cops have disrupted a massive bot farm with more than 100 operators allegedly spreading fake news about the Russian invasion, leaking personal information belonging to Ukrainian citizens, and instigating fraud schemes.…

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ChatGPT study suggests its LLMs are getting dumber at some tasks

Behavior of OpenAI models about as consistent as Office 365's uptime

GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 – the models at the heart of OpenAI's ChatGPT – appear to have got worse at generating some code and performing other tasks between March and June this year. That's according to experiments performed by computer scientists in the United States. The tests also showed the models improved in some areas.…

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Russia's tiny quantum computer is (probably) nothing to worry about

16 qubit system capable of modeling simple molecules, Kremlin says

Scientists at Russia's International Center for Quantum Optics and Quantum Technologies recently presented a new quantum computer to the nation's President Vladimir Putin, proclaiming it to be the "most powerful in Russia today."…

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Samsung makes big promises about GDDR7 RAM

Too bad GPU slingers keep shrinking the memory bus

Keeping graphics processors fed, whether for large language models or the latest AAA games, takes a lot of memory bandwidth. That's exactly what Samsung's GDDR7 memory module, unveiled Wednesday, claims to deliver.…

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Days before its earnings call, Infosys announces $2B in new business

Results were anticipated to be dim, so where does this put outsourcer now?

IT outsourcer Infosys has signed a five-year $2 billion AI and automation deal with an unnamed existing client just three days before it releases its Q1 2024 earnings, a report that experts have predicted would be dismal.…

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Google tries airgapping staff internet to boost security

Tells us fewer than 2% of workstations will be cut off in 'experiment'

In a bid to shrink the attack surface of its army of employees, and thus boost security, Google is taking an experimental approach: cutting their workstations off from the internet. …

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Energy efficiency, staffing keep datacenter operators awake at night

Outages are declining, but when one does hit, it's expensive

While datacenter operators are under pressure to reduce energy consumption, reliability is gradually increasing and there have been fewer reported disruptive outages. Meanwhile, trust in AI as a tool for operational decision making has actually fallen.…

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Tech support scammers go analog, ask victims to mail bundles of cash

The approach is the same, but never mind the crypto or gift cards

Cybercriminals are taking their business offline in a new approach to familiar technical support scams recently identified by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.…

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Computer scientist calls for new layers in the tech stack to make generative AI accurate

Temasek's head of AI is optimistic about 'overhyped' technology

In order to make generative AI accurate, new layers must be inserted into its stack, according to the head of AI at state-owned Singapore investment company Temasek.…

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Rocket Lab wants to dry off and reuse Electron booster recovered from the ocean

Appears to have given up the idea of catching the component midair with a helicopter

Rocket Lab has successfully launched seven satellites into space and recovered the booster for its Electron rocket from the Pacific Ocean.…

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UK greenlights Broadcom's $61B VMware takeover

Only obstacle left is the FTC, which is still licking its wounds from other recent antitrust defeats

Broadcom was today given a provisional OK from the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to close its $61 billion bid to acquire VMware, leaving only one major regulatory hurdle in the way of the deal: the US Federal Trade Commission.…

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Korean Company Uses AI to Merge K-pop Singer’s Voice with Native Speakers’ Speech

K-pop’s largest music label, HYBE, is utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) to digitally transform the singer’s voice into different

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Antitrust clouds continue to gather over Microsoft's European business

Regional trade group applies to partake in Germany's probe of Redmond's cloud software policies

A trade association of mostly European cloud providers and Amazon Web Services has filed an application to "actively participate" in a probe by Germany's competition watchdog to examine the dominance of Microsoft.…

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How Computer Chess Changed People’s Minds?

From beginners to Grandmasters, nothing surpasses the pure bliss and the satisfaction of defeating computer chess. The intense

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Tesla Planning The Biggest Car Plant in Europe

Tesla has submitted an application to German local authorities outlining its plans for significant changes to its factory

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Opportunity NUCs for Asus to continue Intel's mini PC line

Though chip giant is only referring to deal as a 'proposed agreement' for now

Asus looks set to take on the NUC brand from Intel, saying it aims to form its own NUC business unit to manufacture, sell, and support the line of mini PCs.…

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Embracing the Road Ahead: A Glimpse into the Future of the Car Industry

The automotive industry has always been at the forefront of innovation, driving society forward with revolutionary advancements in

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Mint 21.2 is desktop Linux without the faff

Nifty new features mostly go to Cinnamon users, though

The latest update to Linux Mint is here, with expanded video file format support and a tweaked Cinnamon desktop. It's as cool and refreshing as ever.…

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AI maybe on everyone's lips, but it's not what's driving IT spending

Software expected to top $1 trillion next year, according to analysts

In the face of continuing economic uncertainty and geopolitical conflict, spending on computer software continues at a staggering pace, forecast to grow 13.5 percent in 2023.…

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Study Finds ChatGPT Boosts Worker Productivity for Some Writing Tasks

A new report by MIT researchers highlights the potential of generative AI – including ChatGPT – to help

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With limited space for tourist attractions, Singapore bets on augmented reality

Will people really hop on a plane to gaze at their phone?

Singapore attracts millions of tourists every year, but lags well behind competing Asian destinations like Malaysia, Indonesia or Japan. Part of the problem is limited space available to build tourist attractions – the whole country is on an island. So the Singapore Tourism Board has turned to creating digital experiences to lure in guests and their wallets.…

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How to Break the Cycle of Social Media Addiction

It may come as a surprise to many, but on average, people across the globe are spending anywhere

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Leveraging Artificial Intelligence in Pay Stub Generators for Enhanced Accuracy and Efficiency

The efficiency and accuracy of payroll processes play a pivotal role in the smooth operation of businesses. Pay

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Meet the guy trying to drag HM Treasury's data strategy into the 21st century

John Kelly is building approach around Microsoft, but there's room for flexibility

Interview  The UK government is to spend £1.2 trillion in the current financial year overseen mainly by HM Treasury, the department also responsible for keeping the economy on track and overseeing financial markets. To do its job, the Treasury aims to create a "production model" of a new data platform by the end of the 2024-2025 financial year.…

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AI Helps Household Robots Cut Planning Time in Half

PIGINet leverages machine learning to streamline and enhance household robots’ task and motion planning, by assessing and filtering

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How Can Everyday Gadgets Monitor Your Health?

Smartphones and other portable electronics and gadgets have changed our habits and society in a couple of decades

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Norway bans Meta's behavioral advertising with threats of wrist-slap fines

Won't someone think of Zuck's pocket change?

Norwegian data protection authorities have temporarily banned Meta from tracking users for the purposes of serving ads, and threatened the US company with fines of one million Kroner per day if it doesn't comply.…

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Challenge: Chemical and Heat Resistant Non-Fluoro Rubber Material

NineSigma, representing a major global medical device manufacturer, seeks a non-fluoro rubber material for medical device components.   Our client would

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Meta trots out Llama 2 AI models, invites devs to hop on

As Microsoft warns it'll charge $30 per user per month for Copilot for Business

Llama 2, Meta's latest collection of large language models, can now be downloaded for free and commercial use is supported.…

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US adds Euro spyware makers to its export naughty list

Predator dev joins Pegasus slinger

The US government on Tuesday added commercial spyware makers Intellexa and Cytrox to its Entity List, saying the duo are a possible threat to national security.…

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JumpCloud says 'nation state' gang hit some customers

Enough to make you hopping mad

JumpCloud says a "sophisticated nation-state" attacker broke into its IT systems and targeted some of its customers.…

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Tesla board members to return $735M in compensation settlement

Look who is learning to share: Deal includes no admission of fault, naturally

Tesla's board of directors has settled a case with shareholders who accused its members of awarding themselves oversized compensation packages.…

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Make chips, not trade wars, says Semiconductor Industry Association

Industry body warns against political rhetoric or US subsidy efforts will be diminished

The US Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) has stepped into the fray to lower tensions between Washington and Beijing over chip exports, as well as calling for further restrictions to be put on ice.…

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AWS and Azure own lion's share of $120B cloud infrastructure market

China's Alibaba comes in third followed by Google and Huawei

The global market for cloud infrastructure services grew by 30 percent last year, exceeding $100 billion in value for the first time and two lions account for nearly two-thirds of that entire spend.…

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If you're going to train AI on our books, at least pay us, authors tell Big Tech

Also: OpenAI enters deals with the Associated Press and Shutterstock to license content, and more

AI in brief  More than 8,000 writers have signed an open letter penned by the US Authors Guild urging leaders from six top AI companies to obtain consent and compensate them for training models on their copyrighted work.…

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Auroras – the solar system's universal light show (except Neptune... sorry, Neptune)

Data from 2021 Mercury flyby shows same mechanisms cause phenomena throughout our star system

Scientists have found that the fundamental mechanism behind the spectacular light shows of auroras on Earth are universal throughout the solar system.…

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Unidentified object on Australian beach may be part of Indian rocket launcher

Probably not aliens, maybe

The Australian Space Agency said on Monday it was making enquiries related to a mysterious cylindrical object that washed ashore on Western Australia's Jurien Bay.…

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Recycling giant TOMRA pulls systems offline following 'extensive cyberattack'

Says baddies launched attack at weekend, isolates parts of tech infrastructure to contain spread

Norwegian mining and recycling giant TOMRA says it has isolated tech systems as it deals with an "extensive cyberattack."…

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The Necessity of Virtual Private Networks in Today’s Digital Age

Nowadays, the internet has become a basic necessity. In some countries, it is even cheaper to get an

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How AI and Neuromodulation Could Help with Sleep Disorders

‘We still don’t fully comprehend what actually occurs in our brains during sleep‘ A new partnership between the

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Linux has nearly half of the desktop OS Linux market

It would be twice as much if people could stop arguing about who counts and who doesn't

Opinion  Linux is now a little more than three 3 per cent of the desktop OS market, excluding the just over four per cent that is ChromeOS. Which is also Linux, but the wrong kind of Linux.…

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Microsoft 'fesses to code blunder in Azure Container Apps

Misconfiguration led to hours of pain for engineers as bootstrap service caught in a loop

A code deployment for Azure Container Apps that contained a misconfiguration triggered prolonged log data access issues, according to a technical incident report from Microsoft.…

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Samsung 'closing the gap' with TSMC on 3nm, 4nm

The race to 2nm is getting crowded as Intel, Japan's Rapidus enter the fray

Samsung Electronics has reportedly caught up with rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) in advanced processor design, achieving comparable yields for both 4nm and 3nm nodes.…

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Challenge: Wind Turbine Materials Recycling Prize

Wind energy deployment in the United States is projected to grow significantly to meet the nation’s decarbonization goals

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Challenge: Removal of Iron Pentacarbonyl from Chemical Reactions

This Challenge is looking for a new technology to reduce the concentration of iron pentacarbonyl that accumulates during

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Typo watch: 'Millions of emails' for US military sent to .ml addresses in error

Good thing Mali isn't best pals with Russia right no– oh, shoot

For the past decade, millions of emails destined for .mil US military addresses were actually directed at .ml addresses, that being the top-level domain for the African nation of Mali, it's claimed.…

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Microsoft promises to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for next decade. Sony believes it

Redmond one step closer to $69bn Activision Blizzard merger

Microsoft and Sony have signed a pact to keep Call of Duty games available for PlayStation consoles for the next ten years, clearing a major roadblock to Microsoft closing its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.…

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Quick: Manually patch this Zimbra bug that's under attack

Smells like Russian cyber spies (again)

A vulnerability in Zimbra's software is being exploited right now by miscreants to compromise systems and attack selected government organizations, experts reckon.…

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Euro monopoly cops to probe Microsoft for slipping Teams into Office

Three years after Slack flagged up 'illegal' bundling of chat app

European Union antitrust regulators are expected to next week launch their first formal probe into Microsoft’s integration of collaboration app Teams with its dominant Office 365 productivity software suite.…

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