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Google Announces Axion, Its First Custom Arm-based Data Center Processor
Google Cloud on Tuesday joined AWS and Azure in announcing its first custom-built Arm processor, dubbed Axion. From a report: Based on Arm’s Neoverse 2 designs, Google says its Axion instances offer 30% better performance than other Arm-based instances from competitors like AWS and Microsoft and up to 50% better performance and 60% … ⌘ Read more
With Vids, Google Thinks It Has the Next Big Productivity Tool For Work
For decades, work has revolved around documents, spreadsheets, and slide decks. Word, Excel, PowerPoint; Pages, Numbers, Keynote; Docs, Sheets, Slides. Now Google is proposing to add another to that triumvirate: an app called Vids that aims to help companies and consumers make collaborative, shareable video more easily than ever. Fro … ⌘ Read more
US To Award Samsung Up To $6.6 Billion Chip Subsidy For Texas Expansion
The Biden administration plans to announce it is awarding more than $6 billion to South Korea’s Samsung next week to expand its chip output in Taylor, Texas, as it seeks to ramp up chipmaking in the U.S., Reuters reported Tuesday, citing sources. From the report: The subsidy, which will be unveiled by Commerce Department Secretary Gin … ⌘ Read more
San Francisco’s Light Rail To Upgrade From Floppy Disks
Those taking public transport in the tech hub of San Francisco may be reassured to know that their rides will soon no longer be dependent on floppy disks. From a report: San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s director of transportation Jeffrey Tumlin told ABC that the city’s automatic light-rail control system is running on outdated tech and “relies on three … ⌘ Read more
The Internet Archive Just Backed Up an Entire Caribbean Island
By becoming the official custodian of an entire nation’s history for the first time, the Internet Archive is expanding its already outsize role in preserving the digital world for posterity. From a report: Aruba has long been a special place for Stacy Argondizzo. For years, her family has vacationed on the tiny Caribbean Island every July. More recen … ⌘ Read more
Magnets Are Switching Up the Keyboard Game
Magnetic switches are emerging as a potential game-changer for mechanical keyboards. By using magnets instead of physical contacts, these switches allow users to adjust the actuation point of each key. While still a nascent technology lacking standardization, magnetic switches could bring a new level of customization to keyboards, TechCrunch writes.
‘Social Order Could Collapse’ in AI Era, Two Top Japan Companies Say
Japan’s largest telecommunications company and the country’s biggest newspaper called for speedy legislation to restrain generative AI, saying democracy and social order could collapse if AI is left unchecked. From a report: Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, or NTT, and Yomiuri Shimbun Group Holdings made the proposal in an AI manifesto to be relea … ⌘ Read more
Nine of the 10 Most-Watched Streaming Programs Are Reruns
Despite investing billions in new streaming services, media giants have failed to dethrone old favorites, according to Nielsen data. The 21-year-old legal drama “NCIS” tops the list, with viewers streaming 11.4 million episodes per week. Netflix dominates the top 10, with eight shows owing most of their viewership to the platform. Reruns from CBS and … ⌘ Read more
Musk Predicts AI Will Overtake Human Intelligence Next Year
The capability of new AI models will surpass human intelligence by the end of next year [non-paywalled link], so long as the supply of electricity and hardware can satisfy the demands of the increasingly powerful technology, according to Elon Musk. From a report: “My guess is that we’ll have AI that is smarter than any one human probably around the end of next y … ⌘ Read more
FCC Chair Rejects Call To Impose Universal Service Fees on Broadband
The Federal Communications Commission chair decided not to impose Universal Service fees on Internet service, rejecting arguments for new assessments to shore up an FCC fund that subsidizes broadband network expansions and provides discounts to low-income consumers. From a report: The $8 billion-a-year Universal Service Fund (USF) pays fo … ⌘ Read more
Microsoft is Confident Windows on Arm Could Finally Beat Apple Silicon-Powered Macs
An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft is getting ready to fully unveil its vision for “AI PCs” next month at an event in Seattle. Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tell The Verge that Microsoft is confident that a round of new Arm-powered Windows laptops will beat Apple’s M3-powered MacBook Air both … ⌘ Read more
Crypto Scam Criminal Trial Tests ‘Code Is Law’ Claim by Trader
A jailed trader accused of stealing $110 million on the Mango Markets exchange faces a criminal trial this week that will test the reach of a US crackdown on cryptocurrencies. From a report: Prosecutors charged Avraham Eisenberg with manipulating Mango Markets futures contracts on Oct. 11, 2022, to boost the price of swaps by 1,300% in 20 minutes. He th … ⌘ Read more
Xbox Moving ‘Full Speed Ahead’ on Next Gen Console
Microsoft is moving “full speed ahead” on its next generation console, an internal email from Xbox president Sarah Bond has revealed. From a report: The email, obtained by Windows Central and verified to be genuine by Microsoft, also announced the formation of a game preservation team at Xbox. “We are moving full speed ahead on our next generation hardware, focused on deliver … ⌘ Read more
TSMC Wins $6.6 Billion US Subsidy for Arizona Chip Production
The U.S. Commerce Department said on Monday it would award Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s unit a $6.6 billion subsidy for advanced semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona and up to $5 billion in low-cost government loans. From a report: TSMC agreed to expand its planned investment by $25 billion to $65 billion and to add a third Arizona fab … ⌘ Read more
Report: Boeing ‘Put Wall Street First, Safety Second’, Creating ‘Yearslong Decline of Safety Standards’
The Seattle Times has a Pulitzer Prize-winning aerospace journalist named Dominic Gates. Sunday he published an expose on “a yearslong decline of safety standards” at Boeing.
After a 1997 merger, its new executive leaders “treated experienced engineers and machinists as expen … ⌘ Read more
TSMC Wins $6.6 Billion US Subsidy for Arizona Chip Production
The U.S. Commerce Department said on Monday it would award Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s unit a $6.6 billion subsidy for advanced semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona and up to $5 billion in low-cost government loans. From a report: TSMC agreed to expand its planned investment by $25 billion to $65 billion and to add a third Arizona fab … ⌘ Read more
One of Disneyland’s Longest-Running Attractions is Ditching Fossil Fuels
When Disneyland opened in 1955, its car-themed attraction Autopia “represented the future of what would become America’s multilane limited-access highways,” according to Wikipedia, “ which were still being developed. President Eisenhower had yet to sign the Interstate Highway legislation…”
Wikipedia adds that the cars “generate … ⌘ Read more
NIST Blames ‘Growing Backlog of Vulnerabilities’ Requiring Analysis on Lack of Support
It’s the world’s most widely used vulnerability database, reports SC Magazine, offering standards-based data on CVSS severity scores, impacted software and platforms, contributing weaknesses, and links to patches and additional resources.
But “there is a growing backlog of vulnerabilities” submitted to Ame … ⌘ Read more
VCs Invest $90M in Varda Space Industries’ Microgravity Drug Manufacturing
“Varda Space Industries has closed a massive tranche of funding,” reports TechCrunch, “just weeks after its first drug manufacturing capsule returned from orbit.”
Varda has now raised $145 million to date, the article points out, and the $90 million in new Series B funding “marks an inflection point for the company, which is … ⌘ Read more
CNN Investigates ‘Space Shuttle Columbia: The Final Flight’
CNN revisits 2003’s disastrous landing of the Space Shuttle Columbia tonight with two “immersive” specials co-produced by BBC and Mindhouse Productions “featuring exclusive interviews and revealing never-before-broadcast footage,” according to an announcement — with two more specials airing next week.
You can watch a trailer here.
Across four episodes, t … ⌘ Read more
US Energy Department Announces ‘Blueprint’ for Slashing Emissions From Buildings and Reducing Energy Use
This week America’s Department of Energy announced “a comprehensive plan to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from buildings by 65% by 2035 and 90% by 2050.”
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) led the Blueprint’s development in collaboration with the Department of Housi … ⌘ Read more
Warner Bros. Issues DMCA’s After ‘Suicide Squad’ Game Cracked to Allow Playing as Unreleased Characters
“It appears the live-service shooter Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League is, once again, suffering from a hacker problem,” reports Kotaku:
Instead of doing absolutely absurd amounts of damage, this time hackers have figured out how to gain access to unreleased characte … ⌘ Read more
Rust, Python, Apache Foundations and Others Announce Big Collaboration on Cybersecurity Process Specifications
The foundations behind Rust, Python, Apache, Eclipse, PHP, OpenSSL, and Blender announced plans to create “common specifications for secure software development,” based on “existing open source best practices.”
From the Eclipse Foundation:
This collab … ⌘ Read more
Boeing Engine Cover Rips Apart During Takeoff This Morning
“Scary moments for passengers on a Southwest flight from Denver to Houston,” tweets an ABC News transportation reporter, “when the engine cover ripped off during flight, forcing the plane to return to Denver Sunday morning.”
“Think that big circular metal panel surrounding the engine,” writes QZ — adding that after it ripped off, the engine cowling “struck … ⌘ Read more
Professors Are Now Using AI to Grade Essays. Are There Ethical Concerns?
A professor at Ithaca College runs part of each student’s essay through ChatGPT, “asking the AI tool to critique and suggest how to improve the work,” reports CNN. (The professor said “The best way to look at AI for grading is as a teaching assistant or research assistant who might do a first pass … and it does a pretty good job … ⌘ Read more
Mozilla Asks: Will Google’s Privacy Sandbox Protect Advertisers (and Google) More than You?
On Mozilla’s blog, engineer Martin Thomson explores Google’s “Privacy Sandbox” initiative (which proposes sharing a subset of private user information — but without third-party cookies).
The blog post concludes that Google’s Protected Audience “protects advertisers (and Google) more than it protec … ⌘ Read more
In America, A Complex Patchwork of State AI Regulations Has Already Arrived
While the European Parliament passed a wide-ranging “AI Act” in March, “Leaders from Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI have all called for AI regulations in the U.S.,” writes CIO magazine. Even the Chamber of Commerce, “often opposed to business regulation, has called on Congress to protect human rights and national security as AI … ⌘ Read more
Have Scientists Finally Made Sense of Hawking’s Famous Black Hole Formula?
Slashdot reader sciencehabit shares this report from Science magazine:
Fifty years ago, famed physicist Stephen Hawking wrote down an equation that predicts that a black hole has entropy, an attribute typically associated with the disordered jumbling of atoms and molecules in materials.
The arguments for black hole entropy … ⌘ Read more
Retro Computing Enthusiast Tries Running Turbo Pascal On a 40-Year-Old Apple II Clone
Four months ago long-time Slashdot reader Shayde tried restoring a 1986 DEC PDP-11 minicomputer.
But now he’s gone even further back in time. Shayde writes:
In 1984, Apple II’s were at the top of their game in the 8 bit market. A company in New Jersey decided to get in on the action and built an exact … ⌘ Read more
Wait, Does America Suddenly Have a Record Number of Bees?
“America’s honeybee population has rocketed to an all-time high,” reports the Washington Post:
We’ve added almost 1 million bee colonies in the past five years. We now have 3.8 million, the census shows. Since 2007, the first census after alarming bee die-offs began in 2006, the honeybee has been the fastest-growing livestock segment in the country! And that d … ⌘ Read more
Is Microsoft Working on ‘Performant Sound Recognition’ AI Technologies?
Windows Report speculates on what Microsoft may be working on next based on a recently-published patent for “performant sound recognition AI technologies” (dated April 2, 2024):
Microsoft’s new technology can recognize different types of sounds, from doorbells to babies crying, or dogs barking, but not limited to them. It can also recognize … ⌘ Read more
Four Baseball Teams Now Let Ticket-Holders Enter Using AI-Powered ‘Facial Authentication’
“The San Francisco Giants are one of four teams in Major League Baseball this season offering fans a free shortcut through the gates into the ballpark,” writes SFGate.
“The cost? Signing up for the league’s ‘facial authentication’ software through its ticketing app.”
The Giants are using MLB’s new G … ⌘ Read more
How the European Space Agency Celebrated April Fool’s Day
The European Space Agency has a Planetary Defence Office, which includes its Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre. “It has come to our attention,” they wrote in the April edition of their monthly newsletter, “that a recent trend among journalists has been to come up with creative comparisons to convey the size of an asteroid to the public.”
So then, as expl … ⌘ Read more
US Invests $20 Billion More to Finance Clean-Energy Projects
Thursday America’s Environmental Protection Agency “awarded $20 billion to help finance clean-energy projects across the country,” reports the Washington Post.
The money comes from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund established by President Biden’s signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act. The fund seeks to leverage public and private dollars to … ⌘ Read more
Disneyland Proposes New Area Based on ‘Avatar’ Movies
Disneyland is a proposing part of the park be dedicated to James Cameron’s Avatar, reports SFGate.
“The rendering isn’t a carbon copy of the Pandora land in Disney World’s Animal Kingdom; instead, it’s themed more closely to the recent sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water.”
The teaser was dropped as part of Wednesday’s company shareholders meeting. The concept ar … ⌘ Read more
AI’s Impact on CS Education Likened to Calculator’s Impact on Math Education
In Communication of the ACM, Google’s VP of Education notes how calculators impacted math education — and wonders whether generative AI will have the same impact on CS education:
Teachers had to find the right amount of long-hand arithmetic and mathematical problem solving for students to do, in order for them to have the “n … ⌘ Read more
Is The US About To Pass a Landmark Online Privacy Bill?
Leaders from two key committees in the U.S. Congress “are nearing an agreement on a national framework aimed at protecting Americans’ personal data online,” reports the Washington Post.
They call the move “a significant milestone that could put lawmakers closer than ever to passing legislation that has eluded them for decades, according to a person familiar with t … ⌘ Read more
Elon Musk Says Tesla Will Unveil Its Robotaxi on August 8
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Tesla “is poised to roll out its version of a robotaxi later this year, according to CEO Elon Musk.” (“Musk made the announcement on social media saying ‘Tesla Robotaxi unveil on 8/8.’ His cryptic post contained no other details about the forthcoming line of autonomous vehicles.”)
Electrek thinks they know what it’ll l … ⌘ Read more
OpenBSD 7.5 Released
Slashdot reader Mononymous writes: The latest release of OpenBSD, the FOSS Unix-like operating system focused on correctness and security over features and performance, has been released. This version includes newer driver support, performance improvements, stability fixes, and lots of package updates. One highlight is a complete port of KDE Plasma 5.
You can view the announcement and get the bits at OpenBSD.org.
Phoronix reports t … ⌘ Read more
Meta (Again) Denies Netflix Read Facebook Users’ Private Messenger Messages
TechCrunch reports this week that Meta “is denying that it gave Netflix access to users’ private messages…”
The claim references a court filing that emerged as part of the discovery process in a class-action lawsuit over data privacy practices between a group of consumers and Facebook’s parent, Meta. The document alleges tha … ⌘ Read more
SK Hynix To Build $3.87 Billion Memory Packaging Fab In the US For HBM4 and Beyond
Longtime Slashdot reader DrunkenTerror shares a report from AnandTech: SK hynix this week announced plans to build its advanced memory packaging facility in West Lafayette, Indiana. The move can be considered as a milestone both for the memory maker and the U.S., as this is the first advanced memory packaging … ⌘ Read more
NASA Figured Out Why Its Voyager 1 Probe Has Been Glitching for Months
NASA engineers have traced the Voyager 1 spacecraft’s transmitted gibberish to corrupted memory hardware in its flight data system (FDS). “The team suspects that a single chip responsible for storing part of the affected portion of the FDS memory isn’t working,” NASA wrote in an update. Gizmodo reports: FDS collects data from Voyag … ⌘ Read more
Biden Takes Aim At SpaceX’s Tax-Free Ride In American Airspace
Whenever a rocket launch occurs, air traffic controllers ensure the safety of commercial flights by managing airspace closures and monitoring rocket debris, without receiving compensation from commercial space companies like SpaceX for these services. The Biden administration’s budget proposal aims to change this by suggesting that for-profit space … ⌘ Read more
Trudeau Pushes 3D-Printed Homes To Solve Canada Housing Crisis
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Daily Hive: It is now the third consecutive day a major housing funding announcement has been made by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Friday’s announcement entails over $600 million in investments targeted to help lower the construction cost of homes and speed up building timelines, with a new focus on … ⌘ Read more
Heat-Trapping CO2, Methane Levels In the Air Last Year Spiked To Record Highs
According to the latest data from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, carbon dioxide and methane levels in the atmosphere reached historic highs last year, growing at near-record fast paces. The Associated Press reports: Carbon dioxide, the most important and abundant of the greenhouse gases caused b … ⌘ Read more
Apple Opens the App Store To Retro Game Emulators
In an update on Friday, Apple announced that game emulators can come to the App Store globally and offer downloadable games. “Apple says those games must comply with ‘all applicable laws,’ though – an indication it will ban apps that provide pirated titles,” adds The Verge. From the report: The move should allow the retro console emulators already on Android – at least thos … ⌘ Read more
FCC Won’t Block California Net Neutrality Law, Says States Can ‘Experiment’
Jon Brodkin reports via Ars Technica: California can keep enforcing its state net neutrality law after the Federal Communications Commission implements its own rules. The FCC could preempt future state laws if they go far beyond the national standard but said that states can “experiment” with different regulations for interconne … ⌘ Read more
Apple Lays Off More Than 700 Workers, Including Apple Car and MicroLED Teams
Apple is laying off more than 700 employees across the company, including its Micro-LED displays division and the recently shut down Apple Car project. 9to5Mac reports: As seen by 9to5Mac in the latest WARN report provided by the California Employment Development Department, the layoffs affect projects that have been in th … ⌘ Read more
Academics Probe Apple’s Privacy Settings and Get Lost and Confused
Matthew Connatser reports via The Register: A study has concluded that Apple’s privacy practices aren’t particularly effective, because default apps on the iPhone and Mac have limited privacy settings and confusing configuration options. The research was conducted by Amel Bourdoucen and Janne Lindqvist of Aalto University in Finland. The pair n … ⌘ Read more
Terraform Labs and Founder Do Kwon Found Liable In US Civil Fraud Trial
Terraform Labs and its founder Do Kwon have been found liable on civil fraud charges on Friday by a jury in Manhattan. The jury agreed with the SEC that the two misled investors before their stablecoin’s 2022 collapse shocked crypto markets around the world. Reuters reports: The SEC accused the company and Kwon of misleading investors … ⌘ Read more