The governments of Australia, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Israel, and Singapore "are likely customers of Israeli spyware maker Paragon Solutions," reports TechCrunch, "according to a new technical report by a renowned digital security lab."

On Wednesday, The Citizen Lab, a group of academics and security researchers housed at the University of Toronto that has investigated the spyware industry for more than a decade, published a report about the Israeli-founded surveillance startup, identifying the six governments as "suspected Paragon deployments."

At the end of January, WhatsApp notified around 90 users that the company believed were targeted with Paragon spyware, prompting a scandal in Italy, where some of the targets live... Paragon's executive chairman John Fleming told TechCrunch that the company "licenses its technology to a select group of global democracies — principally, the United States and its allies." Israeli news outlets reported in late 2024 that U.S. venture capital AE Industrial Partners had acquired Paragon for at least $500 million upfront....

Among the suspected customer countries, Citizen Lab singled out Canada's Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), which specifically appears to be a Paragon customer given that one of the IP addresses for the suspected Canadian customer is linked directly to the OPP.

In a related development the Guardian reports that a prominent activist in Italy "has warned the international criminal court that his mobile phone was under surveillance" when he was providing them confidential information about torture victims in Libya.

Both articles submitted by long-time Slashdot reader ISayWeOnlyToBePolite.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/03/22/0459224/six-countries-named-as-likely-purchasers-of-paragons-cellphone-spyware?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Исследователи безопасности из компании Fenrisk раскрыли информацию об уязвимостях в инструментариях Pagure и OBS (Open Build Service), позволявших скомпрометировать инфраструктуры формирования пакетов дистрибутивов Fedora и openSUSE. Исследователи продемонстрировали возможность совершения атаки для выполнения произвольного кода на серверах с Pagure и OBS, что можно было использовать для подстановки изменений в пакеты в репозиториях Fedora и openSUSE.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=62928

This week the "Old Vintage Computing Research" blog published a 21,000-word exploration of the DEC PDP-11, the 16-bit minicomputer sold by Digital Equipment Corporation. Slashdot reader AndrewZX calls the blog post "an excellent deep dive" into the machine's history and capabilities "and the classic Venix UNIX that it ran." The blogger still owns a working 1984 DEC Professional 380, "a tank of a machine, a reasonably powerful workstation, and the most practical PDP-adjacent thing you can actually slap on a (large) desk."

But more importantly, "It runs PRO/VENIX, the only official DEC Unix option for the Pros."
In that specific market it was almost certainly the earliest such licensed Unix (in 1983) and primarily competed against XENIX, Microsoft's dominant "small Unix," which first emerged for XT-class systems as SCO XENIX in 1984. You'd wonder how rogue processes could be prevented from stomping on each other in such systems when neither the Intel 8086/8088 nor the IBM PC nor the PC/XT had a memory management unit, and the answer was not to try and just hope for the best. It was for this reason that IBM's own Unix variant PC/IX, developed by Interactive Systems Corporation under contract as their intended AT&T killer, was multitasking but single-user since in such an architecture there could be no meaningful security guarantees...
One of Venix's interesting little idiosyncrasies, seen in all three Pro versions, was the SUPER> prompt when you've logged on as root (there is also a MAINT> prompt when you're single-user...

Although Bill Gates had been their biggest nemesis early on, most of the little Unices that flourished in the 1980s and early 90s met their collective demise at the hands of another man: Linus Torvalds. The proliferation of free Unix alternatives like Linux on commodity PC hardware caused the bottom to fall out of the commercial Unix market.

The blogger even found a 1989 log for the computer's one and only guest login session — which seems to consist entirely of someone named tom trying to exit vi.

But the most touching part of the article comes when the author discovers a file named /thankyou that they're certain didn't come with the original Venix. It's an ASCII drawing of a smiling face, under the words "THANK YOU FOR RESCUING ME".

"It's among the last files created on the system before it came into my possession..."

It's all a fun look back to a time when advances in semiconductor density meant microcomputers could do nearly as much as the more expensive minicomputers (while taking up less space) — leaving corporations pondering the new world that was coming:
As far back as 1974, an internal skunkworks unit had presented management with two small systems prototypes described as a PDP-8 in a VT50 terminal and a portable PDP-11 chassis.
Engineers were intrigued but sales staff felt these smaller versions would cut into their traditional product lines, and [DEC president Ken] Olsen duly cancelled the project, famously observing no one would want a computer in their home.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/03/22/1927247/rebooting-a-retro-pdp-11-workstation---and-its-classic-venix-unix?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Was the cutting of undersea cables part of a larger pattern? Russia and its proxies are accused by western officials of "staging dozens of attacks and other incidents across Europe since the invasion of Ukraine three years ago," reports the Associated Press.

That includes cyberattacks and committing acts of sabotage/vandalism/arson, as well as spreading propaganda and even plotting killings, according to the article. ("Western intelligence agencies uncovered what they said was a Russian plot to kill the head of a major German arms manufacturer that is a supplier of weapons to Ukraine...") The news agency documented 59 incidents "in which European governments, prosecutors, intelligence services or other Western officials blamed Russia, groups linked to Russia or its ally Belarus."

[Western officials] allege the disruption campaign is an extension of Russian President Vladimir Putin's war, intended to sow division in European societies and undermine support for Ukraine... The incidents range from stuffing car tailpipes with expanding foam in Germany to a plot to plant explosives on cargo planes. They include setting fire to stores and a museum, hacking that targeted politicians and critical infrastructure, and spying by a ring convicted in the U.K. Richard Moore, the head of Britain's foreign intelligence service, called it a "staggeringly reckless campaign" in November...

The cases are varied, and the largest concentrations are in countries that are major supporters of Ukraine... In about a quarter of the cases, prosecutors have brought charges or courts have convicted people of carrying out the sabotage. But in many more, no specific culprit has been publicly identified or brought to justice.
Despite that, "more and more governments are publicly attributing attacks to Russia," the article points out.
This week a nonprofit, bipartisan think tank on global policy released a report which "found that Russian attacks in Europe quadrupled from 2022 to 2023 and then tripled again from 2023 to 2024," reports the New York Times.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland noted in a social media post on Monday that Lithuanian officials had confirmed his assessment that Russia was responsible for a series of fires in shopping centers in Warsaw and Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital...

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/03/22/1821200/was-undersea-cable-sabotage-part-of-a-larger-pattern?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Slashdot reader Required Snark shared this article from Phys.org:

In the realm of science fiction, [sun-energy capturing] Dyson spheres and ringworlds have been staples for decades. But it is well known that the simplest designs are unstable against gravitational forces and would thus be torn apart. Now a scientist from Scotland, UK has shown that certain configurations of these objects near a two-mass system can be stable against such fractures...

[A] rigid ring around a star or planet, as in Larry Niven's "Ringworld" series of novels, is also unstable, as it would drift under any slight gravitational differences and collide with the star. So [engineering science professor Colin] McInnes considered a restricted three-body problem where two equal masses orbit each other circularly with a uniform ring of infinitesimal mass rotating in their orbital plane. The ring could enclose both masses, just one or none... McInnes also investigated a shell-restricted three-body problem with the shell also of infinitesimal mass, again with the shell enclosing two masses, one or none.

For the restricted ring, McInnes found that there are seven equilibrium points in the orbital plane of the dual masses, on which, if the ring's center were placed, it would stay and not experience stresses, akin to the three stable Lagrange points where a small mass can reside permanently for the two-body problem... McInnes restricted this research to a planar ring (in the plane of the circularly orbiting masses) but says it can be shown that a vertical ring, normal to the plane, can also generate equilibria...

These results can aid the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, McInnes said, "If we can understand when such structures can be stable, then this could potentially help direct future SETI surveys." An important technosignature would be one bright star orbiting in tandem with an object showing a strong infrared excess. Shells around a sun-exoplanet pair or an exoplanet-exoplanet pair could also be possible. A nested set of Dyson spheres is also a feasible geometry.

In 2003 Ringworld author Larry Niven answered questions from Slashdot readers...

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/03/22/0414254/surprisingly-some-dyson-spheres-and-ringworlds-can-be-stable?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

"I intend to sue the National Archives," said Joseph diGenova, an 80-year-old former Trump campaign lawyer (and a U.S. Attorney from 1983 to 1988). While releasing 63,000 unredacted pages about the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy, the U.S. government erroneously "made public the Social Security numbers and other sensitive personal information of potentially hundreds of former congressional staffers and other people," reports USA Today. ("It is virtually impossible to tell the scope of the breach because the National Archives put them online without a way to search them by keyword, some JFK files experts and victims of the information release told USA TODAY...")

Mark Zaid, a national security lawyer who represented current and former spies and other officials in cases against the government, told USA Today that he "saw a few names I know and I informed them of the breach... Hundreds were doxxed but of that number I don't know how many are still living."

Zaid, who has fought for decades for the JFK records to be made public, said many of the thousands of investigative documents had been made public long ago with everything declassified and unredacted except for the personal information. Releasing that information now, he told USA TODAY, poses significant threats to those whose information is now public, including dates and places of birth, but especially their Social Security numbers. "The purpose of the release was to inform the public about the JFK assassination, not to help permit identity theft of those who actually investigated the events of that day," Zaid said.

The Associated Press reported Thursday afternoon that government officials "said they are still screening the records to identify all the Social Security numbers that were released."
One of the newly unredacted documents... discloses the Social Security numbers of more than two dozen people seeking security clearances in the 1990s to review JFK-related documents for the Assassination Records Review Board.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/03/22/0237216/us-release-of-unredacted-jfk-files-doxxed-officials-including-social-security-numbers?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

После долгого перерыва разработчики Windows-совместимой операционной системы ReactOS, исходные тексты которой доступны по лицензии GPL, выпустили версию 0.4.15.

В этом выпуске:

• исправления Plug and Play;

• исправления в аудиостеке;

• исправления в управлении памятью;

• улучшение работы реестра;

• улучшения в работе системных утилит, включая Notepad, Paint, RAPPS и Input Method Editor.

ReactOS разрабатывается группой энтузиастов с 1998 года и по-прежнему находится в альфа-стадии.

https://www.linux.org.ru/news/opensource/17920610

Founded in 1979, the Association for the Advancement of AI is an international scientific society. Recently 25 of its AI researchers surveyed 475 respondents in the AAAI community about "the trajectory of AI research" — and their results were surprising.

Futurism calls the results "a resounding rebuff to the tech industry's long-preferred method of achieving AI gains" — namely, adding more hardware:

You can only throw so much money at a problem. This, more or less, is the line being taken by AI researchers in a recent survey. Asked whether "scaling up" current AI approaches could lead to achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI), or a general purpose AI that matches or surpasses human cognition, an overwhelming 76 percent of respondents said it was "unlikely" or "very unlikely" to succeed...

"The vast investments in scaling, unaccompanied by any comparable efforts to understand what was going on, always seemed to me to be misplaced," Stuart Russel, a computer scientist at UC Berkeley who helped organize the report, told New Scientist. "I think that, about a year ago, it started to become obvious to everyone that the benefits of scaling in the conventional sense had plateaued...." In November last year, reports indicated that OpenAI researchers discovered that the upcoming version of its GPT large language model displayed significantly less improvement, and in some cases, no improvements at all than previous versions did over their predecessors. In December, Google CEO Sundar Pichai went on the record as saying that easy AI gains were "over" — but confidently asserted that there was no reason the industry couldn't "just keep scaling up."

Cheaper, more efficient approaches are being explored. OpenAI has used a method known as test-time compute with its latest models, in which the AI spends more time to "think" before selecting the most promising solution. That achieved a performance boost that would've otherwise taken mountains of scaling to replicate, researchers claimed. But this approach is "unlikely to be a silver bullet," Arvind Narayanan, a computer scientist at Princeton University, told New Scientist.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/03/22/0341222/majority-of-ai-researchers-say-tech-industry-is-pouring-billions-into-a-dead-end?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Two "groundbreaking research reports" on open source security were announced this week by the Linux Foundation in partnership with the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) and Linux Foundation Europe. The reports specifically address the EU's Cyber Resilience Act (or CRA) and "highlight knowledge gaps and best practices for CRA compliance."

"Unaware and Uncertain: The Stark Realities of CRA-Readiness in Open Source" includes a survey which found that when it comes to CRA requirements, 62% of respondents were either "not familiar at all" (36%) or "slightly familiar" (26%) — while 51% weren't sure about its deadlines. ("Only 28% correctly identified 2027 as the target year for full compliance," according to one infographic, which adds that CRA "is expected to drive a 6% average price increase, though 53% of manufacturers are still assessing pricing impacts.")

Manufacturers, who bear primary responsibility, lack readiness — many [46%] passively rely on upstream security fixes, and only a small portion produce Software Bills of Materials (SBOMs). The report recommends that manufacturers take a more active role in open source security, that more funding and legal support is needed to support security practices, and that clear regulatory guidance is essential to prevent unintended negative impacts on open source development.

The research also provides "an in-depth analysis of how open collaboration can strengthen software security and innovation across global markets," with another report that "examines how three Linux Foundation projects are meeting the CRA's minimum compliance requirements" and "provides insight on the elements needed to ensure leadership in cybersecurity best practices." (It also includes CRA-related resources.)

"These two reports offer actionable conclusions for open source stakeholders to ready themselves for 2027, when the CRA comes into force," according to a Linux Foundation reserach executive cited in the announcement. "We hope that these reports catalyze higher levels of collaboration across the open source community."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/03/21/0212206/unaware-and-uncertain-report-finds-widespread-unfamiliarity-with-2027s-eu-cyber-resilience-requirements?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Computer programming jobs in the US have declined by more than a quarter over the past two years, placing the profession among the 10 hardest-hit occupations of 420-plus jobs tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and potentially signaling the first concrete evidence of artificial intelligence replacing workers.

The timing coincides with OpenAI's release of ChatGPT in late 2022. Anthropic researchers found people use AI to perform programming tasks more than those of any other job, though 57 percent of users employ AI to augment rather than automate work. "Without getting hysterical, the unemployment jump for programming really does look at least partly like an early, visible labor market effect of AI," said Mark Muro of the Brookings Institution.

While software developer positions have remained stable with only a 0.3 percent decline, programmers who perform more routine coding from specifications provided by others have seen their ranks diminish to levels not seen since 1980. Economists caution that high interest rates and post-pandemic tech industry contraction have also contributed to the decline in programming jobs, which typically pay $99,700 compared to $132,270 for developers.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://developers.slashdot.org/story/25/03/22/1211202/us-programming-jobs-plunge-275-in-two-years?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Apple's latest iOS 18.3.2 update is automatically re-enabling its Apple Intelligence feature even for users who previously disabled it, adding to mounting concerns about the company's AI strategy.

The update presents a splash screen with no option except to tap "Continue," which activates the feature. Users must then manually disable it through settings, with the AI consuming up to 7GB of storage space. This forced activation comes amid broader troubles with Apple's AI initiatives.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/03/22/1125225/new-ios-update-re-enables-apple-intelligence-for-users-who-had-turned-it-off?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

The French National Assembly has rejected a controversial provision that would have forced messaging platforms like Signal and WhatsApp to allow government access to encrypted private conversations, lawmakers voted Thursday night. The measure, embedded within anti-drug trafficking legislation, would have implemented a "ghost participant model" allowing law enforcement to silently join encrypted chats without users' knowledge.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/03/22/0855215/france-rejects-backdoor-mandate?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

После более трёх лет разработки представлен релиз операционной системы ReactOS 0.4.15, нацеленной на обеспечение совместимости с программами и драйверами Microsoft Windows. Для загрузки подготовлены установочный ISO-образ (117 МБ) и Live-сборка (в zip-архиве 85 МБ). Код проекта распространяется под лицензиями GPLv2 и LGPLv2.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=62931

Опубликован экспериментальный выпуск открытой реализации Win32 API - Wine 10.4. С момента выпуска 10.3 было закрыто 28 отчётов об ошибках и внесено 241 изменение.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=62930

London's Heathrow Airport resumed operations late Friday after an electrical fire at a nearby substation forced a full-day closure, causing global travel chaos with hundreds of canceled flights and thousands of stranded passengers. The explosion at a Hayes substation 1.5 miles from the airport knocked out power early Thursday, requiring 70 firefighters to battle a blaze in a transformer containing 25,000 liters of cooling oil.

Despite backup generators, Europe's busiest airport couldn't maintain normal operations, forcing flights to divert to airports across Europe and as far as Bangor, Maine. "Contingencies of certain sizes we cannot guard ourselves against 100%," Heathrow CEO Thomas Woldbye told the BBC. "This is as big as it gets for our airport." British Airways, which planned to carry 100,000 passengers Friday, prioritized long-haul flights to Australia, Brazil and South Africa when operations resumed after 4 p.m.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/03/22/010205/how-an-electrical-fire-shut-down-heathrow-and-upended-global-air-travel?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

TOP10 VISITORS:

[1] 45.135.180.x point=224 web=0 up=18.5MB (35%) <--- yesterlink (9/hr)
[2] 37.252.14.x point=144 web=0 up=17.7MB (33%) <--- ake (6/hr)
[3] 80.87.199.x point=69 web=0 up=6.6MB (12%) <--- tgi (3/hr)
[4] Facebook point=0 web=351 up=4.1MB (7%)
[5] 24.130.121.x point=20 web=2 up=1.8MB (3%) <--- spnet (1/hr)
[6] PetalBot point=198 web=308 up=1.1MB (2%) <--- PetalBot (8/hr)
[7] Google point=5 web=286 up=1.0MB (1%) <--- Google
[8] 217.114.158.x point=25 web=0 up=0.8MB (1%) <--- fox (1/hr)
[9] TikTok point=0 web=111 up=0.3MB (<1%)
[10] 162.19.115.x point=0 web=2 up=75KB

TOTAL TRAFFIC: 52MB

Web infrastructure provider Cloudflare unveiled "AI Labyrinth" this week, a feature designed to thwart unauthorized AI data scraping by feeding bots realistic but irrelevant content instead of blocking them outright. The system lures crawlers into a "maze" of AI-generated pages containing neutral scientific information, deliberately wasting computing resources of those attempting to collect training data for language models without permission.

"When we detect unauthorized crawling, rather than blocking the request, we will link to a series of AI-generated pages that are convincing enough to entice a crawler to traverse them," Cloudflare explained. The company reports AI crawlers generate over 50 billion requests to their network daily, comprising nearly 1% of all web traffic they process. The feature is available to all Cloudflare customers, including those on free plans. This approach marks a shift from traditional protection methods, as Cloudflare claims blocking bots sometimes alerts operators they've been detected. The false links contain meta directives to prevent search engine indexing while remaining attractive to data-scraping bots.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/03/22/014247/cloudflare-turns-ai-against-itself-with-endless-maze-of-irrelevant-facts?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is pushing to cut bureaucracy by reducing management layers, according to a recording of a recent internal all-hands meeting obtained by Business Insider. Amazon plans to increase the ratio of individual contributors to managers by 15% by March-end, a process the company says is now complete and affected a "relatively small subset of employees."

"The way to get ahead at Amazon is not to go accumulate a giant team and fiefdom," Jassy told employees, stressing that successful leaders "get the most done with the least amount of resources." Jassy has established a "No Bureaucracy" email alias that has received over a thousand suggestions, leading to more than 375 changes aimed at speeding operations. "It's a meritocracy," Jassy said, urging employees to "move fast and act like owners."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/03/22/018254/amazon-ceo-criticizes-manager-fiefdoms-and-stresses-the-need-for-meritocracy?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Hollywood filmmaker Carl Erik Rinsch has been charged with defrauding Netflix of $11 million after allegedly misusing funds intended for an unfinished science fiction series, federal prosecutors said.

Rinsch, 47, was arrested in West Hollywood this week on charges of wire fraud, money laundering and unlawful monetary transactions that could result in decades of imprisonment if convicted. The FBI and Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York allege Rinsch diverted funds meant for his series "Conquest" to speculate on cryptocurrency, stay in luxury hotels and purchase high-end items including five Rolls-Royces and a Ferrari.

Netflix had paid Rinsch $44 million between 2018 and 2019 for the science fiction project about an artificial humanlike species. Prosecutors say he then requested an additional $11 million but never completed the production. An arbitrator ruled in Netflix's favor last year, ordering Rinsch to pay the company $11.8 million. Rinsch appeared in federal court with shackles and posted a $100,000 bond.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/03/21/2343252/director-charged-with-netflix-fraud-after-splurging-on-crypto-instead-of-finishing-sci-fi-series?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Apple has been hit with a federal lawsuit claiming that the company's promotion of now-delayed Apple Intelligence features constituted false advertising and unfair competition. From a report: The suit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in San Jose, seeks class action status and unspecified financial damages on behalf of those who purchased Apple Intelligence-capable iPhones and other devices. "Apple's advertisements saturated the internet, television, and other airwaves to cultivate a clear and reasonable consumer expectation that these transformative features would be available upon the iPhone's release," the suit reads.

"This drove unprecedented excitement in the market, even for Apple, as the company knew it would, and as part of Apple's ongoing effort to convince consumers to upgrade at a premium price and to distinguish itself from competitors deemed to be winning the AI-arms race. [...] Contrary to Defendant's claims of advanced AI capabilities, the Products offered a significantly limited or entirely absent version of Apple Intelligence, misleading consumers about its actual utility and performance. Worse yet, Defendant promoted its Products based on these overstated AI capabilities, leading consumers to believe they were purchasing a device with features that did not exist or were materially misrepresented."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/03/21/2252226/apple-sued-for-false-advertising-over-apple-intelligence?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Meta is testing an AI feature that generates comment suggestions for Instagram posts. Users with access to the test see a pencil icon beside the comment field that activates "Write with Meta AI." The system analyzes photos before offering three comment suggestions, which users can refresh for alternatives. For a photo showing someone smiling with a thumbs-up in their living room, suggested comments include "Cute living room setup" and "Love the cozy atmosphere."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/03/21/2246239/meta-spotted-testing-ai-generated-comments-on-instagram?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Инженеры из компании Google опубликовали для обсуждения разработчиками ядра Linux набор патчей с реализацией подсистемы Live Update Orchestrator (LUO), предназначенной для обновления ядра в Live-режиме. В отличие от таких механизмов, как livepatch, Ksplice, kpatch и kGraft, новая система не ограничивается возможностью применения отдельных исправлений к работающему ядру Linux, а позволяет полноценно перезагрузить и обновить ядро без остановки работы отдельных устройств. Проект базируется на наборе патчей KHO (Kexec HandOver) к механизму kexec, применяемому для загрузки нового ядра из уже запущенного ядра Linux без физической перезагрузки.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=62929

Higher use of chatbots like ChatGPT may correspond with increased loneliness and less time spent socializing with other people, according to new research from OpenAI in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From a report: Those who spent more time typing or speaking with ChatGPT each day tended to report higher levels of emotional dependence on, and problematic use of, the chatbot, as well as heightened levels of loneliness, according to research released Friday. The findings were part of a pair of studies conducted by researchers at the two organizations and have not been peer reviewed.

San Francisco-based OpenAI sees the new studies as a way to get a better sense of how people interact with, and are affected by, its popular chatbot. "Some of our goals here have really been to empower people to understand what their usage can mean and do this work to inform responsible design," said Sandhini Agarwal, who heads OpenAI's trustworthy AI team and co-authored the research. To conduct the studies, the researchers followed nearly 1,000 people for a month.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/03/21/1851233/openai-study-finds-links-between-chatgpt-use-and-loneliness?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Разработчики проекта Raspberry Pi представили инструментарий rpi-image-gen, предназначенный для упрощения генерации собственных системных образов для плат Raspberry Pi. Из достоинств инструментария упоминаются: быстрая сборка за счёт задействования готовых бинарных пакетов; применение идентичных с Raspberry Pi OS версий библиотек и приложений; возможность настройки произвольной раскладки разделов и использования шифрования ФС; поддержка генерации списка задействованных пакетов и проверки отсутствия уязвимых версий программ. Код написан на Shell и распространяется под лицензией BSD.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=62927

The U.S. Treasury Department's sanctions watchdog removed cryptocurrency mixing tool Tornado Cash from its global blacklist on Friday, following a federal appeals court ruling last November that the Office of Foreign Asset Control couldn't sanction its smart contracts. Despite the delisting of over 100 Ethereum addresses from the Specially Designated Nationals list, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent emphasized continuing concerns about North Korea's digital asset theft operations.

"We remain deeply concerned about the significant state-sponsored hacking and money laundering campaign aimed at stealing, acquiring, and deploying digital assets for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea," Treasury stated. Roman Storm, Tornado Cash co-founder, still faces a July criminal trial for his alleged development role. A Treasury court filing Monday had warned that completely lifting sanctions could have "significantly disruptive consequences for national security."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/03/21/1611253/us-removes-tornado-cash-sanctions?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Опубликован выпуск платформы PeerTube 7.1, предназначенной для создания независимых децентрализованных систем видеохостинга и видеовещания, альтернативных таким сервисам, как YouTube, Dailymotion и Vimeo. Создаваемая при помощи PeerTube сеть распространения контента основывается на связывании браузеров посетителей между собой и использовании P2P-коммуникаций. Код проекта распространяется под лицензией AGPLv3.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=62923

Microsoft has begun urging Windows 10 users to upgrade their systems ahead of the October 14, 2025 support deadline, but with a solution many find impractical: just buy a new computer. According to StatCounter data, 58.7% of Windows users remain on Windows 10 despite the impending end of security updates and technical assistance.

In emails to Windows 10 users, Microsoft's primary recommendation is to trade in old devices for newer Windows 11-compatible hardware, rather than focusing on alternative solutions.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/03/21/1623227/microsoft-tells-windows-10-users-to-buy-new-pcs?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Yahoo on Friday said it has struck a deal to sell TechCrunch, the 20-year-old tech journalism site, to Regent, a media investment firm. Axios: Yahoo's business centers mostly on aggregation. Journalism isn't its core focus. Regent is trying to pull together a portfolio of tech news sites and is eager to invest in news. Earlier this week, it acquired Foundry, which houses a slew of online tech publications, such as PCWorld, Macworld and TechAdvisor.

In a statement, Regent said it is "thrilled to expand its reach as it provides breaking technology news, opinions, and analysis on tech companies worldwide to our audience." Financial deal terms were not disclosed. The deal will not require regulatory review, which is normally needed for deals valued at roughly more than $100 million.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/03/21/1550212/yahoo-sells-techcrunch?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Google has filed a lawsuit against alleged scammers who created and sold fake business profiles on Google Maps, the company said. The legal action follows an investigation that uncovered and eliminated more than 10,000 illegitimate listings.

The investigation began after a Texas business reported an unlicensed locksmith impersonating them on the platform. Google discovered the scams primarily targeted "duress verticals" -- services needed in urgent situations like locksmiths and towing companies. "Once we're alerted to the actual fraud, we take extreme efforts to identify similar fraudulent listings," said Halimah DeLaine Prado, Google's general counsel.

The scammers used tactics including bait-and-switch schemes and intercepting calls to legitimate businesses through "lead generation services." They also sold fraudulent positive reviews to suppress negative feedback.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/03/21/1126233/google-sues-scammers-over-fake-maps-listings?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

DaringFireball: Whole Reddit thread examining this simple question: "What month is it?" and Siri's "I'm sorry, I don't understand" response (which I just reproduced on my iPhone 16 Pro running iOS 18.4b4). One guy changed the question to "What month is it currently?" and got the answer "It is 2025." More comments from that thread:"I ask Siri to play a podcast and she literally says, "I'm trying to play from Apple Podcasts but it doesn't look like you have it installed." I didn't even know you could delete that app. I certainly haven't. So I have to manually do it every time now. It used to work."

"I asked Siri last night to set a reminder for 3:50, so naturally she set it for 10:00." Further reading:
Apple Shakes Up AI Executive Ranks in Bid to Turn Around Siri;
'Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino'.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/03/21/1114253/hey-siri-what-month-is-it?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

5 и 20 марта состоялись выпуски 5.0.0 и 5.0.1 [ высокопроизводительной ]( https://github.com/stephenberry/json_performance ) библиотеки [ Glaze ]( https://github.com/stephenberry/glaze ) , предназначенной для чтения и записи JSON.
Также поддерживаются форматы CSV и [ BEVE ]( https://github.com/beve-org/beve ) .
Библиотека написана на языке C++ (header-only, стандарт C++23) и распространяется по лицензии MIT.

( [ читать дальше... ]( https://www.linux.org.ru/news/development/17919322#cut ) )

European Central Bank Chief Economist Philip Lane warned that Europe must develop a digital euro to counter growing American influence over the continent's financial system [alternative source] amid escalating geopolitical tensions. Lane specifically cited Europe's "current dependence on US payment-card providers Visa and Mastercard, as well as technology companies including PayPal, Apple and Google" as a vulnerability requiring urgent action.

His comments come as President Donald Trump's administration promotes dollar-backed stablecoins worldwide as part of a broader cryptocurrency strategy, alarming European officials. ECB Governing Council member Francois Villeroy de Galhau recently cautioned that "the US risks bringing about the next financial emergency through its support of cryptocurrencies."

"The digital euro is not just about adapting to the digital age. It is about ensuring Europe controls its monetary and financial destiny," Lane told a conference in Ireland, noting that a digital currency would "limit the likelihood of foreign-currency stablecoins gaining a foothold" in Europe.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/03/21/0658224/european-central-bank-chief-economist-warns-of-us-financial-dominance?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Для включения в состав ветки GCC 15 предложена серия патчей с улучшением поддержки языка Rust во фронтэнде gccrs. Наиболее заметным изменением стала поддержка проверки заимствования переменных (borrow checker), реализованная на основе компонента Polonius, разрабатываемого основной командой разработчиков Rust в качестве следующего поколения Borrow checker.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=62924

Илья Чугин (X512) сообщил о первых результатах портирования драйвера NVIDIA для операционной системы Haiku. Порт пока находится на начальной стадии развития, но уже пригоден для простой отрисовки. В работе задействованы открытый модуль ядра от компании NVIDIA и Vulkan-драйвер NVK из состава Mesa. В Mesa-драйвер NVK добавлена поддержка работающего на уровне ядра драйвера NVIDIA вместо DRM-драйвера Nouveau. Libdrm и связанные c данной библиотекой компоненты в порте не используются.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=62926

Различные открытые проекты столкнулись с волной сбоев и замедления работы элементов инфраструктуры из-за повышения активности индексаторов содержимого сайтов (скраперов), собирающих информацию для обучения больших языковых моделей или для обеспечения ИИ-поиска в Web (например, компания Anthropic вчера представила вариант модели Claude 3.7 с возможностью поиска в Web).

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=62925

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on Thursday walked back comments he made in January, when he cast doubt on whether useful quantum computers would hit the market in the next 15 years. From a report: At Nvidia's "Quantum Day" event, part of the company's annual GTC Conference, Huang admitted that his comments came out wrong. "This is the first event in history where a company CEO invites all of the guests to explain why he was wrong," Huang said.

In January, Huang sent quantum computing stocks reeling when he said 15 years was "on the early side" in considering how long it would be before the technology would be useful. He said at the time that 20 years was a timeframe that "a whole bunch of us would believe." In his opening comments on Thursday, Huang drew comparisons between pre-revenue quantum companies and Nvidia's early days. He said it took over 20 years for Nvidia to build out its software and hardware business.

He also expressed surprise that his comments were able to move markets, and joked he didn't know that certain quantum computing companies were publicly traded. "How could a quantum computer company be public?" Huang said.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/03/21/0439241/nvidia-ceo-huang-says-he-was-wrong-about-timeline-for-quantum?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Controversial facial recognition company Clearview AI attempted to purchase hundreds of millions of arrest records including social security numbers, mugshots, and even email addresses to incorporate into its product, 404 Media reports. From the report: For years, Clearview AI has collected billions of photos from social media websites including Facebook, LinkedIn and others and sold access to its facial recognition tool to law enforcement. The collection and sale of user-generated photos by a private surveillance company to police without that person's knowledge or consent sparked international outcry when it was first revealed by the New York Times in 2020.

New documents obtained by 404 Media reveal that Clearview AI spent nearly a million dollars in a bid to purchase "690 million arrest records and 390 million arrest photos" from all 50 states from an intelligence firm. The contract further describes the records as including current and former home addresses, dates of birth, arrest photos, social security and cell phone numbers, and email addresses. Clearview attempted to purchase this data from Investigative Consultant, Inc. (ICI) which billed itself as an intelligence company with access to tens of thousands of databases and the ability to create unique data streams for its clients. The contract was signed in mid-2019, at a time when Clearview AI was quietly collecting billions of photos off the internet and was relatively unknown at the time.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/03/20/1925212/clearview-attempted-to-buy-social-security-numbers-and-mugshots-for-its-database?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

TOP10 VISITORS:

[1] 45.135.180.x point=230 web=0 up=19.0MB (27%) <--- yesterlink (10/hr)
[2] ChatGPT point=0 web=123 up=17.3MB (25%)
[3] 37.252.14.x point=136 web=0 up=16.7MB (24%) <--- ake (6/hr)
[4] 80.87.199.x point=69 web=0 up=6.7MB (9%) <--- tgi (3/hr)
[5] 24.130.121.x point=24 web=2 up=2.1MB (3%) <--- spnet (1/hr)
[6] Google point=3 web=398 up=1.7MB (2%) <--- Google
[7] Facebook point=0 web=222 up=1.5MB (2%)
[8] PetalBot point=166 web=306 up=1.3MB (1%) <--- PetalBot (7/hr)
[9] 217.114.158.x point=23 web=0 up=0.8MB (1%) <--- fox (1/hr)
[10] 196.251.70.x point=0 web=24 up=0.5MB (<1%)

TOTAL TRAFFIC: 68MB

President Trump signed a long-expected executive action on Thursday calling on U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon to "take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities." From a report: "We're going to be returning education, very simply, back to the states where it belongs," Trump said. "And this is a very popular thing to do, but much more importantly, it's a common sense thing to do, and it's going to work, absolutely."

The move has been expected since early February, when the White House revealed its intentions but withheld the action until after McMahon's Senate confirmation. It now arrives more than a week after the Trump administration has already begun sweeping layoffs at the Education Department. According to the administration's own numbers, Trump inherited a department with 4,133 employees. Nearly 600 workers have since chosen to leave, by resigning or retiring. And last week, 1,300 workers were told they would lose their jobs as part of a reduction in force. That leaves 2,183 staff at the department -- roughly half the size it was just a few weeks ago.

The order instructs McMahon to act "to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law," an acknowledgement that the department and its signature responsibilities were created by Congress and cannot legally be ended without congressional approval. That would almost certainly require 60 votes in the U.S. Senate to overcome a Democratic filibuster.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/03/21/044244/trump-signs-order-aiming-to-close-the-education-department?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

LG is shutting down Art Lab, its NFT marketplace for TVs. From a report: In a notice posted to its website, LG says it has made the "difficult decision" to close the platform on June 17th. LG launched its Art Lab app during the NFT craze in 2022, billing it as a way to "buy, sell and enjoy high-quality digital artwork" from your TV. It added new digital art to the platform through "groundbreaking" NFT drops, which users could purchase by scanning a QR code to complete transactions through Wallypto, LG's crypto wallet app.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/25/03/20/1834218/lgs-nft-marketplace-for-tvs-is-shutting-down?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Scientists at Zhejiang University have created the world's smallest LED display, featuring pixels just 90 nanometers wide -- roughly the size of a typical virus and too tiny to be seen with optical microscopes. The breakthrough, described in Nature this week, uses perovskite semiconductors that maintain brightness even at microscopic scales, giving them an advantage over conventional LEDs.

The research team, led by Baodan Zhao, also demonstrated a larger display with pixels measuring about 100 micrometers (human hair width) that successfully rendered images including a spinning globe.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/03/20/1910204/worlds-tiniest-led-display-has-pixels-smaller-than-a-virus?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

A United States District Court judge has approved a settlement between HP and customers who sued the company for firmware updates that prevented printers from working with non-HP ink cartridges.

The class-action lawsuit, filed in December 2020, alleged HP "wrongfully compels users" to buy only HP ink by issuing updates that block competitors' cartridges. Under the settlement, HP admits no wrongdoing and won't pay monetary damages to affected customers, though it will pay $5,000 each to the three plaintiffs and $725,000 in attorneys' fees.

HP has agreed to allow users of specific printer models impacted by the November 2020 update to decline firmware updates containing "Dynamic Security" features -- HP's term for technology that blocks cartridges using non-HP chips. The settlement applies only to 21 specific printer models, leaving numerous other HP printers subject to Dynamic Security restrictions. HP has previously paid millions in similar cases in Europe, Australia, and California related to printer bricking.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/03/20/1853218/hp-escapes-customer-payouts-in-printer-bricking-lawsuit-settlement?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Google is introducing an AI-powered update to Gmail search that prioritizes "most relevant" results based on recency, frequent contacts, and most-clicked emails. The feature aims to help users more efficiently locate specific messages in crowded inboxes. The update is rolling out globally to personal Google accounts, with business accounts to follow at an unspecified date. Users will have the option to toggle between the new AI-powered "most relevant" search and the traditional reverse chronological "most recent" view.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/03/20/1839239/gmail-rolls-out-ai-powered-search?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Over the past two decades, school districts have spent billions equipping classrooms with laptops, yet students have fallen further behind on essential skills, Michael Bloomberg argues. With about 90% of schools now providing these devices, test scores hover near historic lows -- only 28% of eighth graders proficient in math and 30% in reading.

Bloomberg notes technology's classroom push came from technologists and government officials who envisioned tailored curricula. Computer manufacturers, despite good intentions, had financial interests and profited substantially. The Google executive who questioned why children should learn equations when they could Google answers might now ask why they should write essays when chatbots can do it for them.

Studies confirm traditional methods -- reading and writing on paper -- remain superior to screen-based approaches. Devices distract students, with research showing up to 20 minutes needed to refocus after nonacademic activities. As some districts ban smartphones during school hours, Bloomberg suggests reconsidering classroom computer policies, recommending locked carts for more purposeful use and greater transparency for parents about screen time. Technology's promise has failed while imposing significant costs on children and taxpayers, he writes. Bloomberg calls for a return to books and pens over laptops and tablets.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/03/20/1918213/kids-are-spending-too-much-class-time-on-laptops?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Привет, ЛОР!

Компания Galois Inc. представила Grease – программу для статического анализа исполняемых файлов и поиска в них уязвимостей. Grease дизассемблирует исполняемый файл и строит модель его исполнения, после чего анализирует пограничные условия на предмет возможных ошибок. Использовать Grease можно как отдельно, так и плагином к [ системе обратного инжениринга Ghidra ]( https://ghidra-sre.org/ ) .

Код написан на языке Haskell и распространяется под лицензией BSD-3.

>>> [ Репозитарий на Github ]( https://github.com/GaloisInc/grease )

https://www.linux.org.ru/news/opensource/17918764

A new AI system called Aardvark could deliver weather forecasts as accurate as those from advanced public weather services but run on desktop computers, according to a project unveiled Thursday and published in Nature. Developed by the UK's Alan Turing Institute with partners including Cambridge University, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts and Microsoft, Aardvark aims to make sophisticated forecasting accessible to countries with fewer resources, particularly in Africa.

The system has already outperformed the US Global Forecast System on many variables in testing. Project leader Richard Turner noted the system is "completely open source" and not planned for commercialization by Microsoft.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/03/20/1811249/ai-driven-weather-prediction-breakthrough-reported?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

IBM is laying off thousands of employees across the United States, with approximately 25% of staff at its Cloud Classic operation affected, The Register reports, citing a source. "Concrete numbers are being kept private," a source told the publication. "It is in the thousands."

Staff reductions have occurred in Raleigh, North Carolina; New York; Dallas, Texas; and California, the report said. Affected departments include consulting, corporate social responsibility, cloud infrastructure, sales, and internal systems teams. The report adds: With regard to IBM Cloud Classic -- the infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) outfit offering built on IBM's 2013 acquisition of SoftLayer -- another source told us: "It's a resource action. I don't know how many people are in IaaS classic. They don't typically make that information easy to find. What I can say is that they have been making a lot of changes to shift employment to India as much as possible."

A third source, newly let go by Big Blue, said it was fair to characterize this a layoff. "Everyone I know that was affected, myself included, was simply offered a separation agreement," this individual said, estimating that 10 percent of the Cloud group (which is not the same as Cloud Classic) has been let go.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/03/20/177251/ibm-cuts-thousands-of-jobs-cloud-classic-unit-hit-hard-report?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Nvidia is selling its scarce RTX 5080 and 5090 graphics cards from a pop-up "food truck" at its GPU Technology Conference, where attendees paying over $1,000 for tickets can purchase the coveted hardware alongside merchandise. The company has only 2,000 cards available (1,000 each of RTX 5080 and 5090), released in small batches at random times during the three-day conference which concludes tomorrow.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/03/20/170225/nvidia-sells-rtx-gpus-from-a-food-truck?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Apple is undergoing a rare shake-up of its executive ranks, aiming to get its artificial intelligence efforts back on track after months of delays and stumbles, Bloomberg News reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. From the report: Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has lost confidence in the ability of AI head John Giannandrea to execute on product development, so he's moving over another top executive to help: Vision Pro creator Mike Rockwell. In a new role, Rockwell will be in charge of the Siri virtual assistant, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the moves haven't been announced.

Rockwell will report to software chief Craig Federighi, removing Siri completely from Giannandrea's command. Apple is poised to announce the changes to employees this week. The iPhone maker's senior leaders -- a group known as the Top 100 -- just met at a secretive, annual offsite gathering to discuss the future of the company. Its AI efforts were a key talking point at the summit, Bloomberg News has reported.

The moves underscore the plight facing Apple: Its AI technology is severely lagging industry rivals, and the company has shown little sign of catching up. The Apple Intelligence platform was late to arrive and largely a flop, despite being the main selling point for the iPhone 16. Further reading: 'Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino'

[ Read more of this story ]( https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/03/20/168205/apple-shakes-up-ai-executive-ranks-in-bid-to-turn-around-siri?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Опубликовано: 2025-03-20T14:37:02+00:00

Гибриды не могут давать плодовитое потомство? Как могли смешиваться неандертальцы и сапиенсы? В природе почти не бывает гибридизации? Может ли гибридизация привести к образованию новых видов?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nHCjzpTSDA