Slashdot reader smazsyr writes: A new review says we've had fructose wrong for decades. The nine authors, led by Richard Johnson at the University of Colorado Anschutz, argue that fructose "is not just another calorie." It is a signal. It tells the liver to make fat and brace for a famine that never comes. That made sense for a bear fattening up on autumn berries. It makes less sense for a person drinking soda in March.

The review reframes the WHO's sugar guideline, argues ScienceBlog.com, as "less a recommendation about calories and more a warning about a signalling molecule we have been dosing ourselves with, several times a day, for most of a century."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/04/18/0444250/fructose-isnt-just-sugar-it-acts-more-like-a-hormone?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Опубликован релиз Linux-дистрибутива Solus 4.9, не основанного на пакетах других дистрибутивов и развивающего собственный установщик, пакетный менеджер и конфигуратор. Ранее в составе дистрибутива развивался рабочий стол Budgie, но теперь он выделен в независимый проект. Следующую ветку Solus 5 решено развивать на технологиях дистрибутива AerynOS. Код наработок проекта распространяется под лицензией GPLv2, для разработки используются языки Си и Vala. Предоставляются сборки с рабочими столами Budgie, GNOME, KDE Plasma и Xfce. Размер iso-образов 2.6-2.9 ГБ (x86_64).

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=65237

Джейсон Доненфилд (Jason A. Donenfeld), автор VPN WireGuard, представил первый значительный релиз клиентского ПО WireGuard для Windows 1.0, а также драйверов WireGuardNT 1.0 с портом VPN WireGuard для ядра Windows 10 и 11, поддерживающий архитектуры AMD64, x86 и ARM64. Код компонентов для ядра Windows распространяется под лицензией GPLv2, а клиентского ПО под лицензией MIT.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=65238

Джейсон Доненфилд (Jason A. Donenfeld), автор VPN WireGuard, представил первый значительный релиз клиентского ПО WireGuard для Windows 1.0, а также драйверов WireGuardNT 1.0 с портом VPN WireGuard для ядра Windows 10 и 11, поддерживающий архитектуры AMD64, x86 и ARM64. Код компонентов для ядра Windows распространяется под лицензией GPLv2, а клиентского ПО под лицензией MIT.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=65238

Wednesday BleepingComputer reported that more than 30 WordPress plugins "have been compromised with malicious code that allows unauthorized access to websites running them."

A malicious actor planted the backdoor code last year but only recently started pushing it to users via updates, generating spam pages and causing redirects, as per the instructions received from the command-and-control (C2) server. The compromise affects plugins with hundreds of thousands of active installations and was spotted by Austin Ginder, the founder of managed WordPress hosting provider Anchor Hosting, after receiving a tip about one add-on containing code that allowed third-party access.

Further investigation by Ginder revealed that a backdoor had been present in all plugins within the EssentialPlugin package since August 2025, after the project was acquired in a six-figure deal by a new owner.... "The injected code was sophisticated. It fetched spam links, redirects, and fake pages from a command-and-control server. It only showed the spam to Googlebot, making it invisible to site owners," explained Ginder.

"WordPress.org's v2.6.9.1 update neutralized the phone-home mechanism in the plugin," Ginder writes in a blog post. "But it did not touch wp-config.php. The SEO spam injection was still actively serving hidden content to Googlebot.

"And here is the wildest part. It resolved its C2 domain through an Ethereum smart contract, querying public blockchain RPC endpoints. Traditional domain takedowns would not work because the attacker could update the smart contract to point to a new domain at any time."

This has happened before. In 2017, a buyer using the alias "Daley Tias" purchased the Display Widgets plugin (200,000 installs) for $15,000 and injected payday loan spam. That buyer went on to compromise at least 9 plugins the same way.... The WordPress plugin marketplace has a trust problem... The Flippa listing for Essential Plugin was public. The buyer's background in SEO and gambling marketing was public. And yet the acquisition sailed through without any review from WordPress.org.

WordPress.org has no mechanism to flag or review plugin ownership transfers. There is no "change of control" notification to users. No additional code review triggered by a new committer. The Plugins Team responded quickly once the attack was discovered. But 8 months passed between the backdoor being planted and being caught.

Thanks to Slashdot reader axettone for sharing the news.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/26/04/18/0552210/30-wordpress-plugins-turned-into-malware-after-ownership-change?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Представлен релиз десктоп-ориентированного дистрибутива GhostBSD 26.01, построенного на базе FreeBSD 15 и предлагающего сборки с пользовательскими окружениями Gershwin, MATE и Xfce. По умолчанию в GhostBSD применяется файловая система ZFS. Поддерживается как работа в Live-режиме, так и установка на жесткий диск (используется собственный инсталлятор ginstall, написанный на языке Python). Загрузочные образы сформированы для архитектуры x86_64.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=65239

Опубликовано: Sat, 18 Apr 2026 20:15:54 GMT
Канал: Все статьи подряд / DIY или Сделай сам / Хабр

У меня дома сломалась стиральная машина. Я решил попробовать починить ее сам. Но очень быстро выяснилось, что в России почти невозможно купить новую плату управления, а для диагностики нужен не только осциллограф, но и мощный разделительный трансформатор. Читать далее]]>

https://habr.com/ru/articles/1025112/

Yesterday the U.S. Congress approved "a short-term extension" of a FISA law that allows wiretaps without a warrant for surveilling foreign targets, reports CNN — but only until April 30. Republican congressional leaders had sought an 18-month extension, but "failed to secure" the votes after "clamoring from some of their members for reforms to protect Americans' privacy."

The warrantless surveillance law, known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, was set to expire on Monday night. Members are hoping the additional time will allow them to come to agreement without ending authorization for the intelligence gathering program, which permits US officials to monitor phone calls and text messages from foreign targets... There was an hour of suspense in the Senate Friday morning when it appeared possible that Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, a longtime critic of FISA 702, might block the House-passed extension. But ultimately, he said his House colleagues had assured him "this short-term extension makes reform more likely, and expiration makes reform less likely," and so he chose not to object....

House Republican leaders believed Thursday night they had struck a deal with conservative holdouts who harbor deep and longstanding concerns that a key piece of the law infringes on Americans' privacy rights. But in a pair of after-midnight votes, more than a dozen rank-and-file Republicans rejected the long-term reauthorization plan on the floor, which was the result of days of tense negotiations among leadership, lawmakers and the White House.

The law allows authorized US officials to gather phone calls and text messages of foreign targets, but they can also incidentally collect the data of Americans in the process. Senior national security officials have for years said the law is critical for thwarting terror attacks, stemming the flow of fentanyl into the US and stopping ransomware attacks on critical infrastructure. Civil liberties groups on the left and the right, meanwhile, argue the surveillance authority risks infringing on Americans' privacy.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/04/18/1834202/us-congress-fails-to-pass-long-term-fisa-extension-authorizes-it-through-april-30?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

"From 2008 to 2024, the number of four-year computer science degrees granted rose about fivefold..." reports the Washington Post. Then in 2025 CS suddenly dropped from the fourth-largest undergraduate major to sixth, they report (citing data from the nonprofit National Student Clearinghouse, which compiles numbers from 97% of U.S. universities.

The 54,000-student drop was "the biggest one-year drop of any major discipline going back to at least 2020." But what major are they choosing instead?

Sarah Karamarkovich, a research associate with the National Student Clearinghouse, pointed to an explanation from the data that we had overlooked. Enrollments in two interdisciplinary majors, data analytics and data science, topped a combined 35,000 in the fall of 2025. That was up from a few hundred when those disciplines were broken out into their own majors in 2020. Those relatively new categories reflect colleges' zeal to create specialized majors, including in AI, data science, robotics and cybersecurity. Some of those disciplines may be counted in the national enrollment data as computer science. Others are not.

The numbers suggest that some of the disappearing computer science majors didn't flee so much as they splintered into related disciplines.... The 8 percent decline in computer science majors last fall was nearly mirrored by a 7.3 percent increase in engineering majors, according to the National Student Clearinghouse data. Within engineering, mechanical and electrical engineering major enrollments increased by the largest absolute amounts — a jump of 11 percent and 14 percent, respectively.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://developers.slashdot.org/story/26/04/18/0332245/fewer-us-college-students-major-in-cs-more-choose-data-science-engineering?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Slashdot reader Bismillah shared this report from ITNews:

Research and development engineer Romain Marchand of Paris headquartered Quarkslab obtained a telematic control unit (TCU) from a salvage yard in Poland... Marchand tore down the TCU, which is based on a Qualcomm system on a chip, and extracted the Linux-based file system from the Micron multi-chip package (MCP) which contained NAND-based non-volatile storage memory. The non-volatile storage contained sensitive information, including system configuration data and more importantly, logs that revealed the vehicle's GPS positions over time.

None of that information was encrypted, Marchand told iTnews, which made it possible to collect and retrieve sensitive data of interest. What's more, the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) logs with GPS positions covered the BYD's full journey from the factory in China to its operational life in the United Kingdom, and to its final wrecking in Poland, Marchand explained in an analysis... The issue is not restricted to BYD, and Marchand added that the hardware architecture of the Chinese car maker's TCU is broadly similar to what can be found in other brands.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/04/18/0621217/old-cars-tell-tales-by-storing-data-thats-never-wiped?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

"A trailer has been released for the first film to star an authorised generative AI version of a major Hollywood actor," writes The Guardian:

Val Kilmer was cast in western As Deep As the Grave before his death in April 2025. Production delays meant he never shot any scenes, but the creative team worked with UK-based company Sonantic to create an AI speaking voice based on his old recordings. His estate and daughter Mercedes collaborated with the film-makers on the visual deepfake of the actor. Kilmer, who was diagnosed with throat cancer, was also assisted by technology for his cameo in 2022's Top Gun: Maverick...
Writer-director Coerte Voorhees confirmed that Kilmer is seen for around an hour of the film's running time... Voorhees has said that the production followed Sag-Aftra [union] guidelines, and that Kilmer's estate — which provided archival material for them to use — was compensated financially.

"Kilmer's likeness can be seen portraying Father Fintan, a Catholic priest and Native American spiritualist," adds The Hollywood Reporter. But the AV Club calls it "ghoulish puppet show time."

"Having your AI Val Kilmer puppet whisper 'Don't fear the dead, and don't fear me' in a movie trailer is a bold choice..."

He is accompanied (per Variety) by a whole host of disclaimers, caveats, and explanations offered by writer-director Coerte Voorhees and his associates: Kilmer deeply wanted to be in the movie, but was too sick to do so. His family endorses and supports his inclusion. He was a big fan of technology, including, presumably, its use in turning his own image into a digital avatar to then shove into movies...

The fact is, of course, that nobody would be paying a fraction of this attention to As Deep As The Grave — about early female archeologist Ann Axtell Morris — if it weren't now being used as the stage on which Voorhees was very publicly accepting the dare to go full-on ghoulish with AI tech.

"The filmmakers said they hoped they were showing Hollywood how to use the technology in a positive way..." notes Australia's ABC News. But their articles add that "Some have called the trailer 'terrifying' and 'disgusting' on social media."
Mashable writes:
"Very fitting that this trailer includes a scene where a corpse is unceremoniously yanked out of the ground," read one of the top comments on As Deep as the Grave's trailer at time of writing... [O]nline commenters have labelled it disgusting and disrespectful, not only for digitally reanimating Kilmer but also for the damaging precedent As Deep as the Grave's use of AI could set for the film industry as a whole.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/26/04/18/2010257/new-movie-trailer-shows-first-ai-generated-performance-by-a-major-star-the-late-val-kilmer?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Опубликовано: Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:53:35 GMT
Канал: Все статьи подряд / DIY или Сделай сам / Хабр

Есть такая штука, как "дисплей покупателя" - это тот самый экран на кассе, где пишут сколько денег вы должны заплатить. И есть такое народное развлечение - делать из этих экранов всякое разное - ну например, "часы или метеостанцию" (с)Фишка тут в том, что можно приобрести их б/у за копейки, и получить при этом винтажный газоразрядный экран, приятного зеленого или синего цвета. Пусть алфавитно-цифровой - для часов этого более чем достаточно. Поскольку сервер времени я себе уже сделал - дай-ка, думаю, и эту штуку попробую освоить, будут часы с синхронизацией по NTP. А еще можно приспособить их для полезного дела - показывать температуру воды в котле, например - чтобы не бегать смотреть на основные экраны "умного дома", и не хвататься за телефон.Итак, под руку попался Wincor Nixdorf BA64-2: 2 строки по 20 символов, газоразрядный, аккуратный черный корпус. Читать далее]]>

https://habr.com/ru/articles/1025130/