It's no longer a hypothetical question, writes the Washington Post. "In recent years, scientists have devised powerful genetic tools that may be able to eradicate mosquitoes and other pests once and for all."

But along with the ability to fight malaria, dengue, West Nile virus and other serious diseases, "the development of this technology also raises a profound ethical question: When, if ever, is it okay to intentionally drive a species out of existence...?"

When so many wildlife conservationists are trying to save plants and animals from disappearing, the mosquito is one of the few creatures that people argue is actually worthy of extinction. Forget about tigers or bears; it's the tiny mosquito that is the deadliest animal on Earth. The human misery caused by malaria is undeniable. Nearly 600,000 people died of the disease in 2023, according to the World Health Organization, with the majority of cases in Africa... But recently, the Hastings Center for Bioethics, a research institute in New York, and Arizona State University brought together a group of bioethicists to discuss the potential pitfalls of intentionally trying to drive a species to extinction. In a policy paper published in the journal Science last month, the group concluded that "deliberate full extinction might occasionally be acceptable, but only extremely rarely..."

It's unclear how important malaria-carrying mosquitoes are to broader ecosystems. Little research has been done to figure out whether frogs or other animals that eat the insects would be able to find their meals elsewhere. Scientists are hotly debating whether a broader "insect apocalypse" is underway in many parts of the world, which may imperil other creatures that depend on them for food and pollination... Instead, the authors said, geneticists should be able to use gene editing, vaccines and other tools to target not the mosquito itself, but the single-celled Plasmodium parasite that is responsible for malaria. That invisible microorganism — which a mosquito transfers from its saliva to a person's blood when it bites — is the real culprit.

A nonprofit research consortium called Target Malaria has genetically modified mosquitoes in their labs (which get core funding from the Gates Foundation and from Open Philanthropy, backed by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and his wife). ), and hopes to deploy them in the wild within five years...

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/06/07/0630231/we-finally-may-be-able-to-rid-the-world-of-mosquitoes-but-should-we?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

The Associated Press reports that on Friday, U.K. High Court justice Victoria Sharp and fellow judge Jeremy Johnson ruled on the possibility of false information being submitted to the court. Concerns had been raised by lower-court judges about "suspected use by lawyers of generative AI tools to produce written legal arguments or witness statements which are not then checked."
In a ruling written by Sharp, the judges said that in a 90 million pound ($120 million) lawsuit over an alleged breach of a financing agreement involving the Qatar National Bank, a lawyer cited 18 cases that did not exist. The client in the case, Hamad Al-Haroun, apologized for unintentionally misleading the court with false information produced by publicly available AI tools, and said he was responsible, rather than his solicitor Abid Hussain. But Sharp said it was "extraordinary that the lawyer was relying on the client for the accuracy of their legal research, rather than the other way around."
In the other incident, a lawyer cited five fake cases in a tenant's housing claim against the London Borough of Haringey. Barrister Sarah Forey denied using AI, but Sharp said she had "not provided to the court a coherent explanation for what happened." The judges referred the lawyers in both cases to their professional regulators, but did not take more serious action.
Sharp said providing false material as if it were genuine could be considered contempt of court or, in the "most egregious cases," perverting the course of justice, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/06/08/036219/could-uk-lawyers-face-life-in-prison-for-citing-fake-ai-generated-cases?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

FLOX это C++-фреймворк (стандарт C++23), предоставляющий компоненты и абстракции для построения событийных торговых систем с высокой пропускной способностью.

На его базе можно создавать торговые системы для высокочастотной торговли, агрегаторы сделок для сбора исторических данных, платформы визуализации, инструменты для тестирования на исторических данных и многое другое.

Архитектура модульная: компоненты связываются через шины данных, реализованные на базе lock-free очередей. Использование динамической памяти сведено к минимуму.

В FLOX уже реализованы две книги заявок (полная и оконная), агрегатор свечей, интерфейсы коннекторов, управления позициями, риском, стратегиями, а также подписочная модель через единую шину данных.

Код покрыт тестами, есть бенчмарки и документация. Включённое демо‑приложение демонстрирует работу ключевых подсистем и может служить шаблоном для разработки собственных стратегий.

Архитектура спроектирована с прицелом на расширяемость: любые модули можно дополнять без изменения ядра.

В планах встроить JS‑движок для быстрого прототипирования и проверки гипотез.

Проект распространяется по лицензии MIT, код полностью открыт.

https://www.linux.org.ru/news/opensource/17992745

Last year's Pentagon report reviewing UFO reports "left out the truth behind some of the foundational myths about UFOs," reports the Wall Street Journal.
"The Pentagon itself sometimes deliberately fanned the flames, in what amounted to the U.S. government targeting its own citizens with disinformation."

The congressionally ordered probe took investigators back to the 1980s, when an Air Force colonel visited a bar near Area 51, a top-secret site in the Nevada desert. He gave the owner photos of what might be flying saucers. The photos went up on the walls, and into the local lore went the idea that the U.S. military was secretly testing recovered alien technology. But the colonel was on a mission — of disinformation. The photos were doctored, the now-retired officer confessed to the Pentagon investigators in 2023. The whole exercise was a ruse to protect what was really going on at Area 51: The Air Force was using the site to develop top-secret stealth fighters, viewed as a critical edge against the Soviet Union. Military leaders were worried that the programs might get exposed if locals somehow glimpsed a test flight of, say, the F-117 stealth fighter, an aircraft that truly did look out of this world. Better that they believe it came from Andromeda.
That's not the only example. The Journal spoke to Robert Salas, now 84, who in 1967 was a 26-year-old Air Force captain "sitting in a walk-in closet-sized bunker, manning the controls of 10 nuclear missiles in Montana." Suddenly all 10 missiles were disabled after reports of "a glowing reddish-orange oval was hovering over the front gate... The next morning a helicopter was waiting to take Salas back to base. Once there he was ordered: Never discuss the incident."
58 years later, the Journal reports....
The barriers of concrete and steel surrounding America's nuclear missiles were thick enough to give them a chance if hit first by a Soviet strike. But scientists at the time feared the intense storm of electromagnetic waves generated by a nuclear detonation might render the hardware needed to launch a counterstrike unusable. To test this vulnerability, the Air Force developed an exotic electromagnetic generator that simulated this pulse of disruptive energy without the need to detonate a nuclear weapon... But any public leak of the tests at the time would have allowed Russia to know that America's nuclear arsenal could be disabled in a first strike. The witnesses were kept in the dark. To this day Salas believes he was party to an intergalactic intervention to stop nuclear war which the government has tried to hide.
"We were never briefed on the activities that were going on, the Air Force shut us out of any information," Salas tells the Journal.

But it's not just secrecy. Some military men were told directly that they were working on alien technology, according to Pentagon investigator Sean Kirkpatrick:

A former Air Force officer was visibly terrified when he told Kirkpatrick's investigators that he had been briefed on a secret alien project decades earlier, and was warned that if he ever repeated the secret he could be jailed or executed. The claim would be repeated to investigators by other men who had never spoken of the matter, even with their spouses.

It turned out the witnesses had been victims of a bizarre hazing ritual. For decades, certain new commanders of the Air Force's most classified programs, as part of their induction briefings, would be handed a piece of paper with a photo of what looked like a flying saucer. The craft was described as an antigravity maneuvering vehicle. The officers were told that the program they were joining, dubbed Yankee Blue, was part of an effort to reverse-engineer the technology on the craft. They were told never to mention it again. Many never learned it was fake. Kirkpatrick found the practice had begun decades before, and appeared to continue still... Investigators are still trying to determine why officers had misled subordinates, whether as some type of loyalty test, a more deliberate attempt to deceive or something else. After that 2023 discovery, Kirkpatrick's deputy briefed President Joe Biden's director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, who was stunned... "We are talking about hundreds and hundreds of people. These men signed NDAs. They thought it was real."

The article also notes that rep9rts of Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon "skyrocketed" after May of 2023 — but that "Many pilot accounts of floating orbs were actually reflections of the sun from Starlink satellites, investigators found."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/06/08/0520236/how-false-ufo-stories-were-created---sometimes-deliberately---by-the-us-military?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Представлен релиз Live-дистрибутива NST 42 (Network Security Toolkit), предназначенного для проведения анализа безопасности сети и слежения за её функционированием. Размер загрузочного iso-образа (x86_64) составляет 5 ГБ. Для пользователей Fedora Linux подготовлен специальный репозиторий, дающий возможность установить все созданные в рамках проекта NST наработки в уже установленную систему. Дистрибутив построен на базе Fedora и допускает установку дополнительных пакетов из внешних репозиториев, совместимых с Fedora Linux.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=63375

An anonymous reader shared this report from The New York Times:

Russian counterintelligence agents are analyzing data from the popular Chinese messaging and social media app WeChat to monitor people who might be in contact with Chinese spies, according to a Russian intelligence document obtained by The New York Times. The disclosure highlights the rising level of concern about Chinese influence in Russia as the two countries deepen their relationship. As Russia has become isolated from the West over its war in Ukraine, it has become increasingly reliant on Chinese money, companies and technology. But it has also faced what the document describes as increased Chinese espionage efforts.

The document indicates that the Russian domestic security agency, known as the F.S.B., pulls purloined data into an analytical tool known as "Skopishche" (a Russian word for a mob of people). Information from WeChat is among the data being analyzed, according to the document... One Western intelligence agency told The Times that the information in the document was consistent with what it knew about "Russian penetration of Chinese communications...." By design, [WeChat] does not use end-to-end encryption to protect user data. That is because the Chinese government exercises strict control over the app and relies on its weak security to monitor and censor speech. Foreign intelligence agencies can exploit that weakness, too...

WeChat was briefly banned in Russia in 2017, but access was restored after Tencent took steps to comply with laws requiring foreign digital platforms above a certain size to register as "organizers of information dissemination." The Times confirmed that WeChat is currently licensed by the government to operate in Russia. That license would require Tencent to store user data on Russian servers and to provide access to security agencies upon request.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/06/08/0139238/russian-spies-are-analyzing-data-from-chinas-wechat-app?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Композитный сервер Hyprland и сопутствующие пакеты, такие как hyprland-protocols и hyprutils, удалены из репозитория Debian Testing и не будут включены в стабильный релиз Debian 13, находящийся на финальной стадии подготовки. В ветке Debian Unstable пакеты с Hyprland сохранены, но по-прежнему базируются на устаревшем выпуске 0.41.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=63374

TOP10 VISITORS:

[1] 45.135.180.x point=229 web=0 up=19.2MB (51%) <--- yesterlink (10/hr)
[2] PetalBot point=108 web=818 up=5.1MB (13%) <--- PetalBot (5/hr)
[3] TikTok point=0 web=393 up=4.9MB (13%)
[4] Facebook point=0 web=282 up=2.7MB (7%)
[5] 24.130.121.x point=16 web=4 up=1.2MB (3%) <--- spnet (1/hr)
[6] 47.82.60.x point=0 web=127 up=1.0MB (2%)
[7] 217.114.158.x point=21 web=0 up=0.7MB (1%) <--- fox (1/hr)
[8] Google point=1 web=120 up=0.6MB (1%) <--- Google
[9] 47.82.61.x point=0 web=57 up=0.4MB (<1%)
[10] 47.79.98.x point=0 web=17 up=0.1MB (<1%)

TOTAL TRAFFIC: 37MB

An anonymous reader shared this report from SFGate about a lawsuit alleging a "warrantless drone surveillance program" that's "trampling residents' right to privacy":

Sonoma County has been accused of deploying hundreds of drone flights over residents in a "runaway spying operation"... according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union. The North Bay county of Sonoma initially started the 6-year-old drone program to track illegal cannabis cultivation, but the lawsuit alleges that officials have since turned it into a widespread program to catch unrelated code violations at residential properties and levy millions of dollars in fines. The program has captured 5,600 images during more than 700 flights, the lawsuit said...

Matt Cagle, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU Foundation of Northern California, said in a Wednesday news release that the county "has hidden these unlawful searches from the people they have spied on, the community, and the media...." The lawsuit says the county employees used the drones to spy on private homes without first receiving a warrant, including photographing private areas like hot tubs and outdoor baths, and through curtainless windows.
One plaintiff "said the county secretly used the drone program to photograph her Sonoma County horse stable and issue code violations," according to the article.

She only discovered the use of the drones after a county employee mentioned they had photos of her property, according to the lawsuit. She then filed a public records request for the images, which left her "stunned" after seeing that the county employees were monitoring her private property including photographing her outdoor bathtub and shower, the lawsuit said.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/06/07/2346244/aclu-accuses-california-local-governments-drones-of-runaway-spying-operation?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

AppleInsider reports:

The engineer behind much of the Mac's early graphical user interfaces, QuickDraw, MacPaint, Hypercard and much more, William D. "Bill" Atkinson, died on June 5 of complications from pancreatic cancer...
Atkinson, who built a post-Apple career as a noted nature photographer, worked at Apple from 1978 to 1990. Among his lasting contributions to Apple's computers were the invention of the menubar, the selection lasso, the "marching ants" item selection animation, and the discovery of a midpoint circle algorithm that enabled the rapid drawing of circles on-screen.
He was Apple Employee No. 51, recruited by Steve Jobs. Atkinson was one of the 30 team members to develop the first Macintosh, but also was principle designer of the Lisa's graphical user interface (GUI), a novelty in computers at the time. He was fascinated by the concept of dithering, by which computers using dots could create nearly photographic images similar to the way newspapers printed photos. He is also credited (alongside Jobs) for the invention of RoundRects, the rounded rectangles still used in Apple's system messages, application windows, and other graphical elements on Apple products.
Hypercard was Atkinson's main claim to fame. He built the a hypermedia approach to building applications that he once described as a "software erector set." The Hypercard technology debuted in 1987, and greatly opened up Macintosh software development.

In 2012 some video clips of Atkinson appeared in some rediscovered archival footage. (Original Macintosh team developer Andy Hertzfeld uploaded "snippets from interviews with members of the original Macintosh design team, recorded in October 1983 for projected TV commercials that were never used.")

Blogger John Gruber calls Atkinson "One of the great heroes in not just Apple history, but computer history."

If you want to cheer yourself up, go to Andy Hertzfeld's Folklore.org site and (re-)read all the entries about Atkinson. Here's just one, with Steve Jobs inspiring Atkinson to invent the roundrect. Here's another (surely near and dear to my friend Brent Simmons's heart) with this kicker of a closing line: "I'm not sure how the managers reacted to that, but I do know that after a couple more weeks, they stopped asking Bill to fill out the form, and he gladly complied."

Some of his code and algorithms are among the most efficient and elegant ever devised. The original Macintosh team was chock full of geniuses, but Atkinson might have been the most essential to making the impossible possible under the extraordinary technical limitations of that hardware... In addition to his low-level contributions like QuickDraw, Atkinson was also the creator of MacPaint (which to this day stands as the model for bitmap image editorsâ — âPhotoshop, I would argue, was conceptually derived directly from MacPaint) and HyperCard ("inspired by a mind-expanding LSD journey in 1985"), the influence of which cannot be overstated.

I say this with no hyperbole: Bill Atkinson may well have been the best computer programmer who ever lived. Without question, he's on the short list. What a man, what a mind, what gifts to the world he left us.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/06/08/016210/bill-atkinson-hypercard-creator-and-original-mac-team-member-dies-at-age-74?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[ Опубликован ]( https://rawtherapee.com/2025/05/rawtherapee-5.12-released/ ) релиз [ RawTherapee ]( https://rawtherapee.com/ ) 5.12 — мощного кроссплатформенного редактора фотографий, включая RAW-файлы.

RawTherapee предлагает широкий набор инструментов для обработки изображений:

• Коррекция цветопередачи и баланса белого.

• Настройка яркости, контраста и экспозиции.

• Устранение шумов и автоматическое улучшение качества.

• Коррекция перспективы, дисторсии и завала краёв.

• Удаление битых пикселей, царапин и следов пыли.

( [ читать дальше... ]( https://www.linux.org.ru/news/multimedia/17992464#cut ) )

Is copyrighted material a requirement for training AI? asks the Washington Post. That's what top AI companies are arguing, and "Few AI developers have tried the more ethical route — until now.

"A group of more than two dozen AI researchers have found that they could build a massive eight-terabyte dataset using only text that was openly licensed or in public domain. They tested the dataset quality by using it to train a 7 billion parameter language model, which performed about as well as comparable industry efforts, such as Llama 2-7B, which Meta released in 2023."

A paper published Thursday detailing their effort also reveals that the process was painstaking, arduous and impossible to fully automate. The group built an AI model that is significantly smaller than the latest offered by OpenAI's ChatGPT or Google's Gemini, but their findings appear to represent the biggest, most transparent and rigorous effort yet to demonstrate a different way of building popular AI tools....

As it turns out, the task involves a lot of humans. That's because of the technical challenges of data not being formatted in a way that's machine readable, as well as the legal challenges of figuring out what license applies to which website, a daunting prospect when the industry is rife with improperly licensed data. "This isn't a thing where you can just scale up the resources that you have available" like access to more computer chips and a fancy web scraper, said Stella Biderman [executive director of the nonprofit research institute Eleuther AI]. "We use automated tools, but all of our stuff was manually annotated at the end of the day and checked by people. And that's just really hard."

Still, the group managed to unearth new datasets that can be used ethically. Those include a set of 130,000 English language books in the Library of Congress, which is nearly double the size of the popular-books dataset Project Gutenberg. The group's initiative also builds on recent efforts to develop more ethical, but still useful, datasets, such as FineWeb from Hugging Face, the open-source repository for machine learning... Still, Biderman remained skeptical that this approach could find enough content online to match the size of today's state-of-the-art models... Biderman said she didn't expect companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic to start adopting the same laborious process, but she hoped it would encourage them to at least rewind back to 2021 or 2022, when AI companies still shared a few sentences of information about what their models were trained on.

"Even partial transparency has a huge amount of social value and a moderate amount of scientific value," she said.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/06/07/0527212/ai-firms-say-they-cant-respect-copyright-but-a-nonprofits-researchers-just-built-a-copyright-respecting-dataset?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

TweakTown writes that the Switch 2 "has reportedly beaten the record for the most-sold console within 24 hours and is on track to shatter the two-month record," selling over 3 million units and tripling the PlayStation 4's previous launch day sales.
So Nintendo's first console in 8 years becomes "one of the most successful hardware releases of all time," writes Barron's, raising hopes for the future:

[2017's original Switch] ultimately sold more than 152 million units... Switch 2's big advantage is its backward compatibility, allowing it to play current-generation Switch games and giving gamers solace that their large investments in software are intact... Many older Switch games also play better on the Switch 2, taking advantage of the extra horsepower.

Bloomberg writes that its bigger screen and faster chip "live up to the hype:

Despite the hype and a $150 increase over the launch price for the original, the second-generation system manages to impress with faster performance, improved graphics, more comfortable ergonomics and enough tweaks throughout to make this feel like a distinctly new machine... This time, it's capable of outputting 4K resolution and more impactful HDR video to your TV screen... It's a bigger, faster, more polished version of a wildly successful gadget.
The "buzzy launch drew long lines" at retailers like Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and Gamestop, according to the article. (See the photos from AOL.com and USA Today.) "The era of spending hours waiting in line for the latest iPhone is long gone, but the debut of a new video game console is still a rare enough event that Nintendo fans didn't think twice about driving to retailers in the middle of the night to secure a Switch 2."

The Verge also opines that "the Switch 2's eShop is much better," calling it "way faster... with much less lag browsing through sections and loading up game pages."

Or, as Barron's puts it, "Ultimately, Nintendo is winning because it has a different strategy than its competition, the Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox. Instead of trying to appeal to tech snobs like me, who are obsessed with graphics resolution and hardware statistics like teraflops, Nintendo focuses on joy and fun."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://games.slashdot.org/story/25/06/07/2224259/nintendo-switch-2-has-record-breaking-launch-selling-over-3-million-units?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Mike Judge always seemed to have secret geek sympathies. He co-created the HBO series Silicon Valley, as well as the movie Office Space (reviewed in 1999 by Slashdot contributor Jon Katz).

Now comes the word that besides rebooting Buffy the Vampire Slayer — and an animated scifi/action/horror film called Predator: Killer of Killers — Hulu is also relaunching Judge's animated series King of the Hill on August 4th. And Cinemablend notes they took great pains to ensure the inclusion of internet-loving neighbor Dale Gribble despite the death of voice actor Johnny Hardwick:

Co-creators Mike Judge and Greg Daniels joined the cast of returning voice actors for a revealing Q&A at ATX Fest while also revealing longtime cast member Toby Huss took over the role of Dale Gribble... Hardwick passed away in August 2023 at 64, with fans and co-stars paying tribute soon after. It was revealed at the time that he'd recorded some audio for the new season, but it was clear that another actor would be needed to fill those intimidating and conspiracy-obsessed shoes. Among other characters, Huss provided the voice of Cotton Hill and Kahn Sr. in the O.G. run, and feels to me like a natural fit to take over as Dale. And he sounds humbled to have been given the task, telling the ATX Fest crowd:
"Johnny was one-of-a-kind and a wonderful fellow. I'm not trying to copy Johnny...I guess I'm trying to be Johnny. He laid down a really wonderful goofball character...he had a lot of weird heart to him and that's a credit to Johnny. So all I'm trying to do is hold on to his Dale-ness. We love our guy Johnny and it's so sad that he's not here...."

I can already hear Dale himself questioning why he sounds different, and whether or not the government has replaced him with a lizard creature or some other sentient organism... In the immediate aftermath of Johnny Hardwick's death, the word was that the actor had filmed a couple of episodes' worth of material for the Hulu revival, but Mike Judge went on the record at ATX Fest to reveal that initial assessment undershot things entirely. From the voice of Hank Hill himself: "Johnny Hardwick is in six episodes. He's still going to be in the show."

Hulu uploaded the new opening credits to YouTube eight days ago — and it's already been viewed 2.1 million times, attracting 55,000 upvotes and 7,952 comments...
Long-time Slashdot reader theodp shared the official blurb describing the new show:

After years working a propane job in Saudi Arabia to earn their retirement nest egg, Hank and Peggy Hill return to a changed Arlen, Texas to reconnect with old friends Dale, Boomhauer and Bill. Meanwhile, Bobby is living his dream as a chef in Dallas and enjoying his 20s with his former classmates Connie, Joseph and Chane.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/25/06/07/2055259/king-of-the-hill-and-dale-gribble-return-to-tv-after-15-years?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

LSD "is used to treat conditions like depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction," notes Science Daily. And now a microbiology student "has found a long sought-after fungus that produces effects similar to the semisynthetic drug..."

Morning glory plants live in symbiosis with fungi that produce the same ergot alkaloids the Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann modified when he invented LSD in the late 1930s. Hofmann hypothesized that a fungus in morning glories produced alkaloids similar to those in LSD, but the species remained a mystery...

The researchers dubbed the fungus "Periglandula clandestina" for its ability to have eluded investigators for decades.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/06/07/1854211/student-discovers-long-awaited-mystery-fungus-sought-by-lsds-inventor?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Once upon a time, long-time Slashdot reader tgibson learned how to type on a manual typewriter, back in an 8th grade classroom.
And to this day, they write, "my bias is to nod approvingly at touch typists and roll my eyes at those who need to stare at the keyboard while typing..." But how true is that for computer professionals today?

After 15 years I left industry and became a post-secondary computer science educator. Occasionally I rant to my students about the importance of touch-typing as a skill to have as a software engineer.

But I've been out of the game for some time now. Those of you hiring or working with freshly-minted software engineers, what's your take?

One anonymous Slashdot reader responded:

Oh, you mean the kid in the next cubicle that has said "Hey Siri" 297 times this morning? I'll let you know when he starts typing. A minor suggestion to office managers... please purchase a very quiet keyboard. Fellow cube-mates who are accomplished typists would consider that struggling audibly to be akin to nails on a blackboard...
Share your own thoughts in the comments.

How important is it for programmers to learn touch typing?

[ Read more of this story ]( https://ask.slashdot.org/story/25/06/07/0811223/ask-slashdot-how-important-is-it-for-programmers-to-learn-touch-typing?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

MIT comp-sci professor Ryan Williams suspected that a small amount of memory "would be as helpful as a lot of time in all conceivable computations..." writes Quanta magazine.

"In February, he finally posted his proof online, to widespread acclaim..."

Every algorithm takes some time to run, and requires some space to store data while it's running. Until now, the only known algorithms for accomplishing certain tasks required an amount of space roughly proportional to their runtime, and researchers had long assumed there's no way to do better. Williams' proof established a mathematical procedure for transforming any algorithm — no matter what it does — into a form that uses much less space.
What's more, this result — a statement about what you can compute given a certain amount of space — also implies a second result, about what you cannot compute in a certain amount of time. This second result isn't surprising in itself: Researchers expected it to be true, but they had no idea how to prove it. Williams' solution, based on his sweeping first result, feels almost cartoonishly excessive, akin to proving a suspected murderer guilty by establishing an ironclad alibi for everyone else on the planet. It could also offer a new way to attack one of the oldest open problems in computer science.

"It's a pretty stunning result, and a massive advance," said Paul Beame, a computer scientist at the University of Washington.

Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader mspohr for sharing the article.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://developers.slashdot.org/story/25/06/07/0714256/for-algorithms-a-little-memory-outweighs-a-lot-of-time?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

6 июня состоялся выпуск 2.0.1 библиотеки [ QSchematic ]( https://github.com/simulton/QSchematic ) , предназначенной для создания интерактивных схем и диаграмм с использованием [ Graphics View ]( https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/graphicsview.html ) фрейворка Qt 6.
Код проекта написан на языке C++ (начиная с версии 2.0.0 требуется компилятор с поддержкой стандарта C++23) и распространяется по лицензии MIT.

Библиотека предоставляет базовые классы для объектов, таких как узлы и провода, и реализует логику для перемещения объектов, сохраняя провода подключенными, генерируя список сетей и так далее. Типичное приложение включает в себя эту библиотеку и наследники класса Item для реализации пользовательских элементов.

( [ читать дальше... ]( https://www.linux.org.ru/news/opensource/17992222#cut ) )

Meta's Facebook and Instagram apps "were siphoning people's data through a digital back door for months," writes a Washington Post tech columnist, citing researchers who found no privacy setting could've stopped what Meta and Yandex were doing, since those two companies "circumvented privacy and security protections that Google set up for Android devices.

"But their tactics underscored some privacy vulnerabilities in web browsers or apps. These steps can reduce your risks."

Stop using the Chrome browser. Mozilla's Firefox, the Brave browser and DuckDuckGo's browser block many common methods of tracking you from site to site. Chrome, the most popular web browser, does not... For iPhone and Mac folks, Safari also has strong privacy protections. It's not perfect, though. No browser protections are foolproof. The researchers said Firefox on Android devices was partly susceptible to the data harvesting tactics they identified, in addition to Chrome. (DuckDuckGo and Brave largely did block the tactics, the researchers said....)

Delete Meta and Yandex apps on your phone, if you have them. The tactics described by the European researchers showed that Meta and Yandex are unworthy of your trust. (Yandex is not popular in the United States.) It might be wise to delete their apps, which give the companies more latitude to collect information that websites generally cannot easily obtain, including your approximate location, your phone's battery level and what other devices, like an Xbox, are connected to your home WiFi.

Know, too, that even if you don't have Meta apps on your phone, and even if you don't use Facebook or Instagram at all, Meta might still harvest information on your activity across the web.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/06/07/035249/washington-posts-privacy-tip-stop-using-chrome-delete-metas-apps-and-yandex?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

"Everyone has a blog these days, even Claude," Anthropic wrote this week on a page titled "Claude Explains."

"Welcome to the small corner of the Anthropic universe where Claude is writing on every topic under the sun".

Not any more. After blog posts titled "Improve code maintainability with Claude" and "Rapidly develop web applications with Claude" — Anthropic suddenly removed the whole page sometime after Wednesday. But TechCrunch explains the whole thing was always less than it seemed, and "One might be easily misled into thinking that Claude is responsible for the blog's copy end-to-end."
According to a spokesperson, the blog is overseen by Anthropic's "subject matter experts and editorial teams," who "enhance" Claude's drafts with "insights, practical examples, and [...] contextual knowledge."
"This isn't just vanilla Claude output — the editorial process requires human expertise and goes through iterations," the spokesperson said. "From a technical perspective, Claude Explains shows a collaborative approach where Claude [creates] educational content, and our team reviews, refines, and enhances it...." Anthropic says it sees Claude Explains as a "demonstration of how human expertise and AI capabilities can work together," starting with educational resources. "Claude Explains is an early example of how teams can use AI to augment their work and provide greater value to their users," the spokesperson said. "Rather than replacing human expertise, we're showing how AI can amplify what subject matter experts can accomplish [...] We plan to cover topics ranging from creative writing to data analysis to business strategy...."

The Anthropic spokesperson noted that the company is still hiring across marketing, content, and editorial, and "many other fields that involve writing," despite the company's dip into AI-powered blog drafting. Take that for what you will.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/06/07/0412244/anthropics-ai-is-writing-its-own-blog---oh-wait-no-its-not?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Cybercriminals have been increasingly turning to "residential proxy" services over the past two to three years to disguise malicious web traffic as everyday online activity, according to research presented at the Sleuthcon cybercrime conference. The shift represents a response to law enforcement's growing success in targeting traditional "bulletproof" hosting services, which previously allowed criminals to maintain anonymous web infrastructure.

Residential proxies route traffic through decentralized networks running on consumer devices like old Android phones and low-end laptops, providing real IP addresses assigned to homes and offices. This approach makes malicious activity extremely difficult to detect because it appears to originate from trusted consumer locations rather than suspicious server farms. The technology creates particular challenges when attackers appear to come from the same residential IP ranges as employees of target organizations.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/06/07/0137211/cybercriminals-are-hiding-malicious-web-traffic-in-plain-sight?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Britain is moving toward major nuclear power commitments after years of delays, as government officials acknowledge they can no longer postpone critical energy infrastructure decisions. The U.K. Treasury has exhausted options for delaying nuclear power choices, Politico reported this week, citing sources within Whitehall and the nuclear industry.

The urgency stems from Britain's aging nuclear infrastructure, where five power plants currently supply 15% of the country's total energy needs but face shutdown by 2030. This timeline has created significant pressure on policymakers to secure replacement capacity or risk substantial gaps in the nation's electricity supply.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/06/07/0220214/britain-prepares-to-go-all-in-on-nuclear-power---after-years-of-dither?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Startup Nord Quantique has demonstrated that a single piece of hardware can host an error-detecting logical qubit by using two quantum frequencies within one resonator. The breakthrough has the potential to slash the hardware demands for quantum error correction and deliver more compact and efficient quantum computing architectures. Ars Technica reports: The company did two experiments with this new hardware. First, it ran multiple rounds of error detection on data stored in the logical qubit, essentially testing its ability to act like a quantum memory and retain the information stored there. Without correcting errors, the system rapidly decayed, with an error probability in each round of measurement of about 12 percent. By the time the system reached the 25th measurement, almost every instance had already encountered an error. The second time through, the company repeated the process, discarding any instances in which an error occurred. In almost every instance, that meant the results were discarded long before they got through two dozen rounds of measurement. But at these later stages, none of the remaining instances were in an erroneous state. That indicates that a successful correction of the errors -- something the team didn't try -- would be able to fix all the detected problems.

Several other companies have already performed experiments in which errors were detected -- and corrected. In a few instances, companies have even performed operations with logical qubits, although these were not sophisticated calculations. Nord Quantique, in contrast, is only showing the operation of a single logical qubit, so it's not even possible to test a two-qubit gate operation using the hardware it has described so far. So simply being able to identify the occurrence of errors is not on the cutting edge. Why is this notable?

All the other companies require multiple hardware qubits to host a single logical qubit. Since building many hardware qubits has been an ongoing challenge, most researchers have plans to minimize the number of hardware qubits needed to support a logical qubit -- some combination of high-quality hardware, a clever error correction scheme, and/or a hardware-specific feature that catches the most common errors. You can view Nord Quantique's approach as being at the extreme end of the spectrum of solutions, where the number of hardware qubits required is simply one. From Nord Quantique's perspective, that's significant because it means that its hardware will ultimately occupy less space and have lower power and cooling requirements than some of its competitors. (Other hardware, like neutral atoms, requires lots of lasers and a high vacuum, so the needs are difficult to compare.) But it also means that, should it become technically difficult to get large numbers of qubits to operate as a coherent whole, Nord Quantique's approach may ultimately help us overcome some of these limits.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/06/06/2223229/startup-puts-a-logical-qubit-in-a-single-piece-of-hardware?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Организация Linux Foundation представила проект FAIR (Federated and Independent Repositories), предоставляющий децентрализованную альтернативу экосистеме распространения плагинов и тем оформления к WordPress. FAIR позволяет создавать на своих серверах собственные репозитории и зеркала для доставки плагинов, не зависимые от централизованного хостинга WordPress.org. Код написан на языке PHP и распространяется под лицензией GPLv2+.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=63372

Apple has urged Australia not to follow the European Union in mandating iPhone app sideloading, warning that such policies pose serious privacy and security risks. "This communication comes as the Australian federal government considers new rules that could force Apple to open up its iOS ecosystem, much like what happened in Europe with recent legislation," notes Neowin. Apple claims that allowing alternative app stores has led to increased exposure to malware, scams, and harmful content. From the report: Apple, in its response to this Australian paper (PDF), stated that Australia should not use the EU's Digital Markets Act "as a blueprint". The company's core argument is that the changes mandated by the EU's DMA, which came into full effect in March 2024, introduce serious security and privacy risks for users. Apple claims that allowing sideloading and alternative app stores effectively opens the door for malware, fraud, scams, and other harmful content. The tech company also highlighted specific concerns from its European experience, alleging that its compliance there has led to users being able to install pornography apps and apps that facilitate copyright infringement, things its curated App Store aims to prevent. Apple maintains that its current review process is vital for user protection, and that its often criticized 30% commission applies mainly to the highest earning apps, with most developers paying a lower 15% rate or nothing.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/06/06/2249222/apple-warns-australia-against-joining-eu-in-mandating-iphone-app-sideloading?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

TOP10 VISITORS:

[1] TikTok point=0 web=1349 up=21.5MB (39%)
[2] 45.135.180.x point=224 web=0 up=18.9MB (35%) <--- yesterlink (9/hr)
[3] PetalBot point=127 web=904 up=6.0MB (11%) <--- PetalBot (5/hr)
[4] Facebook point=0 web=293 up=3.2MB (5%)
[5] 24.130.121.x point=17 web=7 up=1.4MB (2%) <--- spnet (1/hr)
[6] 217.114.158.x point=25 web=0 up=0.8MB (1%) <--- fox (1/hr)
[7] 47.82.60.x point=0 web=106 up=0.8MB (1%)
[8] Google point=1 web=69 up=0.3MB (<1%) <--- Google
[9] 47.82.61.x point=0 web=44 up=0.3MB (<1%)
[10] 47.79.5.x point=0 web=12 up=76KB

TOTAL TRAFFIC: 53MB

Доступен релиз многотрекового редактора видео Flowblade 2.22, предназначенного для компоновки видеороликов из отдельных видео, звуковых файлов и изображений. Редактор предоставляет средства для обрезки клипов с точностью до отдельных кадров, использования фильтров, определения своего порядка применения инструментов, корректировки поведения шкалы времени, композитинга изображений (например, можно поворачивать, постепенно замещать и создавать переходные эффекты).

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=63371

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: In 2019, we told you about a new interactive digital "murder map" of London compiled by University of Cambridge criminologist Manuel Eisner. Drawing on data catalogued in the city coroners' rolls, the map showed the approximate location of 142 homicide cases in late medieval London. The Medieval Murder Maps project has since expanded to include maps of York and Oxford homicides, as well as podcast episodes focusing on individual cases. It's easy to lose oneself down the rabbit hole of medieval murder for hours, filtering the killings by year, choice of weapon, and location. Think of it as a kind of 14th-century version of Clue: It was the noblewoman's hired assassins armed with daggers in the streets of Cheapside near St. Paul's Cathedral. And that's just the juiciest of the various cases described in a new paper published in the journal Criminal Law Forum.

The noblewoman was Ela Fitzpayne, wife of a knight named Sir Robert Fitzpayne, lord of Stogursey. The victim was a priest and her erstwhile lover, John Forde, who was stabbed to death in the streets of Cheapside on May 3, 1337. "We are looking at a murder commissioned by a leading figure of the English aristocracy," said University of Cambridge criminologist Manuel Eisner, who heads the Medieval Murder Maps project. "It is planned and cold-blooded, with a family member and close associates carrying it out, all of which suggests a revenge motive." Members of the mapping project geocoded all the cases after determining approximate locations for the crime scenes. Written in Latin, the coroners' rolls are records of sudden or suspicious deaths as investigated by a jury of local men, called together by the coroner to establish facts and reach a verdict. Those records contain such relevant information as where the body was found and by whom; the nature of the wounds; the jury's verdict on cause of death; the weapon used and how much it was worth; the time, location, and witness accounts; whether the perpetrator was arrested, escaped, or sought sanctuary; and any legal measures taken. The full historical context, analytical depth, and social commentary can be read in the the paper.

Interestingly, Eisner "extended their spatial analysis to include homicides committed in York and London in the 14th century with similar conclusions," writes Ars' Jennifer Ouellette. Most murders often occurred in public places, usually on weekends, with knives and swords as primary weapons. Oxford had a significantly elevated violence rate compared to London and York, "suggestive of high levels of social disorganization and impunity."

London, meanwhile, showed distinct clusters of homicides, "which reflect differences in economic and social functions," the authors wrote. "In all three cities, some homicides were committed in spaces of high visibility and symbolic significance."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/06/06/2122243/cambridge-mapping-project-solves-a-medieval-murder?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Physicists at Loughborough University have created what they believe is the world's smallest violin, measuring just 35 microns long and 13 microns wide -- smaller than the width of a human hair, which typically ranges from 17 to 180 microns in diameter. The microscopic instrument, created using the university's new nanolithography system, serves as a demonstration of precision manufacturing capabilities that researchers will apply to studies of computing efficiency and energy harvesting methods.

The team used a NanoFrazor machine employing thermal scanning probe lithography, where a heated needle-like tip etches highly precise patterns at the nanoscale onto a chip coated with gel-like resist material. While the individual violin takes roughly three hours to produce, the research team spent several months refining their techniques to achieve the final result, which exists as a microscopic image rather than a playable instrument.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/06/07/0121245/scientists-create-worlds-smallest-violin?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Longtime Slashdot reader sinij shares a report from Car and Driver: [Volvo] is debuting a new version of the three-point seatbelt that it believes is a major improvement over the original. The new design will be a smart belt that adapts to each occupant's body and adjusts the belt load accordingly. It uses data from interior and exterior sensors to customize protection based on the road conditions and the specific occupants. The technology will debut on the upcoming EX60 crossover.

According to Volvo, the onboard sensors can accurately detect a passenger's height, weight, body shape, and seating position. Based on real-time data, the belts optimize protection -- increasing belt load for larger passengers or lowering it for smaller passengers. While the technology for customizing protection isn't new -- Volvo's current belts already use three load-limiting profiles- the new belts increase that number to 11. The belts should also get safer over time, too, as they are equipped to receive over-the-air updates. sinij adds: "Downloading patches for your seat belts from China. What could possibly go wrong?"

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/06/06/222246/volvo-debuts-new-iot-seatbelt-design?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

The Register's Thomas Claburn reports: The Linux Foundation on Friday introduced a new method to distribute WordPress updates and plugins that's not controlled by any one party, in a bid to "stabilize the WordPress ecosystem" after months of infighting. The FAIR Package Manager project is a response to the legal brawl that erupted last year, pitting WordPress co-creator Matthew Mullenweg, his for-profit hosting firm Automattic, and the WordPress Foundation that he controls, against WP Engine, a rival commercial WordPress hosting firm. [...]

The Linux Foundation says the FAIR Package Manager, a mechanism for distributing open-source WordPress plugins, "eliminates reliance on any single source for core updates, plugins, themes, and more, unites a fragmented ecosystem by bringing together plugins from any source, and builds security into the supply chain." In other words, it can't be weaponized against the WordPress community because it won't be controlled by any one entity. "The FAIR Package Manager project paves the way for the stability and growth of open source content management, giving contributors and businesses additional options governed by a neutral community," said Jim Zemlin, Executive Director of the Linux Foundation, in a canned press statement. "We look forward to the growth in community and contributions this important project attracts."

The FAIR Package Manager repo explains the software's purpose more succinctly. The software "is a decentralized alternative to the central WordPress.org plugin and theme ecosystem, designed to return control to WordPress hosts and developers. It operates as a drop-in WordPress plugin, seamlessly replacing existing centralized services with a federated, open-source infrastructure." In addition to providing some measure of stability, the Linux Foundation sees the FAIR Package Manager as advancing WordPress' alignment with Europe's General Data Protection Regulation by reducing automatic browser data transmission and telemetry sent to commercial entities, while also supporting modern security practices and strengthening the open source software supply chain.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://linux.slashdot.org/story/25/06/06/2156203/linux-foundation-tries-to-play-peacemaker-in-ongoing-wordpress-scuffle?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference 25 (WWDC) kicks off next week, June 9th, showcasing the company's latest software and new technologies. That includes the next version of iOS, which is rumored to have the most significant design overhaul since the introduction of iOS 7. Here's an overview of what to expect:
Major Software Redesigns
Apple plans to shift its operating system naming to reflect the release year, moving from sequential numbers to year-based identifiers. Consequently, the upcoming releases will be labeled as iOS 26, macOS 26, watchOS 26, etc., streamlining the versioning across platforms.

iOS 26 is anticipated to feature a glossy, glass-like interface inspired by visionOS, incorporating translucent elements and rounded buttons. This design language is expected to extend across iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS, promoting a cohesive user experience across devices. Core applications like Phone, Safari, and Camera are slated for significant redesigns, too. For instance, Safari may introduce a translucent, "glassy" address bar, aligning with the new visual aesthetics.

While AI is not expected to be the main focus due to Siri's current readiness, some AI-related updates are rumored. The Shortcuts app may gain "Apple Intelligence," enabling users to create shortcuts using natural language. It's also possible that Gemini will be offered as an option for AI functionalities on the iPhone, similar to ChatGPT.

Other App and Feature Updates
The lock screen might display charging estimates, indicating how long it will take for the phone to fully charge. There's a rumor about bringing live translation features to AirPods. The Messages app could receive automatic translations and call support; the Music app might introduce full-screen animated lock screen art; and Apple Notes may get markdown support. Users may also only need to log into a captive Wi-Fi portal once, and all their devices will automatically be logged in.

Significant updates are expected for Apple Home. There's speculation about the potential announcement of a "HomePad" with a screen, Apple's competitor to devices like the Nest Hub Mini. A new dedicated Apple gaming app is also anticipated to replace Game Center.

If you're expecting new hardware, don't hold your breath. The event is expected to focus primarily on software developments. It may even see discontinued support for several older Intel-based Macs in macOS 26, including models like the 2018 MacBook Pro and the 2019 iMac, as Apple continues its transition towards exclusive support for Apple Silicon devices.

Sources:
Apple WWDC 2025 Rumors and Predictions! (Waveform)
WWDC 2025 Overview (MacRumors)
WWDC 2025: What to expect from this year's conference (TechCrunch)
What to expect from Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference next week (Ars Technica)
Apple's WWDC 2025: How to Watch and What to Expect (Wired)

[ Read more of this story ]( https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/06/06/2147236/what-to-expect-from-apples-wwdc?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from OregonLive: Together, the four founders of Beaverton startup AheadComputing spent nearly a century at Intel. They were among Intel's top chip architects, working years in advance to develop new generations of microprocessors to power the computers of the future. Now they're on their own, flying without a net, building a new class of microprocessor on an entirely different architecture from Intel's. Founded a year ago, AheadComputing is trying to prove there's a better way to design computer chips.

"AheadComputing is doing the biggest, baddest CPU in the world," said Debbie Marr, the company's CEO. [...] AheadComputing is betting on an open architecture called RISC-V -- RISC stands for "reduced instruction set computer." The idea is to craft a streamlined microprocessor that works more efficiently by doing fewer things, and doing them better than conventional processors. For AheadComputing's founders and 80 employees, many of them also Intel alumni, it's a major break from the kind of work they've been doing all their careers. They've left a company with more than 100,000 workers to start a business with fewer than 100.

"Every person in this room," Marr said, looking across a conference table at her colleagues, "we could have stayed at Intel. We could have continued to do very exciting things at Intel." They decided they had a better chance at leading a revolution in semiconductor technology at a startup than at a big, established company like Intel. And AheadComputing could be at the forefront of renewal in Oregon's semiconductor ecosystem. "We see this opportunity, this light," Marr said. "We took our chances." It'll be years before AheadComputing's designs are on the market, but the company "envisions its chips will someday power PCs, laptops and data centers," reports OregonLive. "Possible clients could include Google, Amazon, Samsung or other large computing companies."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/06/06/2059235/top-researchers-leave-intel-to-build-startup-with-the-biggest-baddest-cpu?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

alternative_right shares a report: New York state lawmakers voted to stop the NYPD's attempt to block its radio communications from the public Thursday, with the bill expected to head to Gov. Kathy Hochul's desk. The "Keep Police Radio Public Act" passed both the state Senate and state Assembly, with a sponsor of the legislation arguing the proposal strikes the "proper balance" in the battle between transparency and sensitive information.

"Preserving access to police radio is critical for a free press and to preserve the freedoms and protections afforded by the public availability of this information," state Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) said in a statement. "As encrypted radio usage grows, my proposal strikes the proper balance between legitimate law enforcement needs and the rights and interests of New Yorkers."

The bill, which was sponsored in the Assembly by lawmaker Karines Reyes (D-Bronx), is meant to make real-time police radio communications accessible to emergency services organizations and reporters. "Sensitive information" would still be kept private, according to the legislation. In late 2023, the NYPD began encrypting its radio communications to increase officer safety and "protect the privacy interests of victims and witnesses." However, it led to outcry from press advocates and local officials concerned about reduced transparency and limited access to real-time information.

A bill to address the issue has passed both chambers of New York's legislature, but Governor Hochul has not yet indicated whether she will sign it.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/06/06/2049204/lawmakers-vote-to-stop-nypds-attempt-to-encrypt-their-radios?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Mirnotoriety shares a report from the Independent: Downing Street is exploring a proposal to introduce digital ID cards for every adult in Britain in a move to tackle the UK's illegal migration crisis, according to reports. The new "BritCard" would be used to check on an individual's right to live and work in Britain, with senior No 10 figures examining the proposal, The Times has reported.

The card, stored on a smartphone, would reportedly be linked to government records and could check entitlements to benefits and monitor welfare fraud. [...] ... it would cost up to 400 million pounds to build the system and around 10 million pounds a year to administer as a free-to-use phone app.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/06/06/2041236/uk-exploring-plan-for-digital-id-cards?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from BleepingComputer: The FBI is warning that the BADBOX 2.0 malware campaign has infected over 1 million home Internet-connected devices, converting consumer electronics into residential proxies that are used for malicious activity. The BADBOX botnet is commonly found on Chinese Android-based smart TVs, streaming boxes, projectors, tablets, and other Internet of Things (IoT) devices. "The BADBOX 2.0 botnet consists of millions of infected devices and maintains numerous backdoors to proxy services that cyber criminal actors exploit by either selling or providing free access to compromised home networks to be used for various criminal activity," warns the FBI.

These devices come preloaded with the BADBOX 2.0 malware botnet or become infected after installing firmware updates and through malicious Android applications that sneak onto Google Play and third-party app stores. "Cyber criminals gain unauthorized access to home networks by either configuring the product with malicious software prior to the users purchase or infecting the device as it downloads required applications that contain backdoors, usually during the set-up process," explains the FBI. "Once these compromised IoT devices are connected to home networks, the infected devices are susceptible to becoming part of the BADBOX 2.0 botnet and residential proxy services4 known to be used for malicious activity."

Once infected, the devices connect to the attacker's command and control (C2) servers, where they receive commands to execute on the compromised devices, such as [routing malicious traffic through residential IPs to obscure cybercriminal activity, performing background ad fraud to generate revenue, and launching credential-stuffing attacks using stolen login data]. Over the years, the malware botnet continued expanding until 2024, when Germany's cybersecurity agency disrupted the botnet in the country by sinkholing the communication between infected devices and the attacker's infrastructure, effectively rendering the malware useless. However, that did not stop the threat actors, with researchers saying they found the malware installed on 192,000 devices a week later. Even more concerning, the malware was found on more mainstream brands, like Yandex TVs and Hisense smartphones. Unfortunately, despite the previous disruption, the botnet continued to grow, with HUMAN's Satori Threat Intelligence stating that over 1 million consumer devices had become infected by March 2025. This new larger botnet is now being called BADBOX 2.0 to indicate a new tracking of the malware campaign. "This scheme impacted more than 1 million consumer devices. Devices connected to the BADBOX 2.0 operation included lower-price-point, 'off brand,' uncertified tablets, connected TV (CTV) boxes, digital projectors, and more," explains HUMAN.

"The infected devices are Android Open Source Project devices, not Android TV OS devices or Play Protect certified Android devices. All of these devices are manufactured in mainland China and shipped globally; indeed, HUMAN observed BADBOX 2.0-associated traffic from 222 countries and territories worldwide."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/06/06/2033225/fbi-badbox-20-android-malware-infects-millions-of-consumer-devices?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Chinese student enrollment at American universities has dropped to 277,000 in the 2023-24 academic year, down from a peak of 372,000 in 2019-20, according to data in a new report examining shifting global education patterns. The decline accelerated following the State Department's May 28th announcement of an "aggressive" campaign to revoke visas for Chinese students in "critical fields" of science and engineering, as well as those with unspecified Communist Party "connections."

The trend reflects broader economic and geopolitical pressures beyond visa restrictions. Chinese families increasingly view American education as too expensive amid China's economic downturn and property market decline, while domestic employers have grown suspicious of foreign-educated graduates. Meanwhile, Chinese students are choosing alternatives including Britain, which hosted nearly 150,000 Chinese students in 2023-24, and regional destinations like Japan, where Chinese enrollment increased to 115,000 in 2023 from under 100,000 in 2019.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/06/06/1936242/chinese-student-enrollment-in-us-universities-continues-multi-year-decline?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

В рамках проекта X11Libre началась разработка форка X.org Server, нацеленного на проведение чистки кодовой базы и продолжение активного развития функциональности X.org. Проект создал Энрико Вайгельт (Enrico Weigelt), мэйнтейнер драйверов AMD FCH GPIO и VIRTIO GPIO в ядре Linux, мэйнтейнер Xnest и активный разработчик Xorg. В анонсе проекта Энрико отметил, что проект freedesktop.org не является независимым и контролируется компанией Red Hat, которая, по его мнению, специально тормозит развитие X-сервера и пытается похоронить проект X11.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=63369

Apple will lose the ability to collect commissions on external iOS purchases in Europe starting June 23, following a European Commission ruling that hinges on the grammatical interpretation of a single comma in the Digital Markets Act. The dispute centers on Article 5.4, which requires gatekeepers to allow business users "free of charge, to communicate and promote offers, including under different conditions [...], and to conclude contracts with those end users."

Apple contends that "free of charge" applies only to communication and promotion activities, not contract conclusion, allowing the company to maintain its commission structure on external transactions. The European Commission interprets the comma before "and to conclude contracts" as creating an enumeration where the free-of-charge requirement applies to all listed activities, including purchases made outside Apple's payment system.

Under the new ruling, Apple can collect commissions only on the first external transaction between users and developers, with all subsequent purchases and auto-renewed subscriptions exempt from fees. The company faces daily penalties of up to $53.5 million for non-compliance and has already been fined $570 million. Apple's internal forecasts estimate potential annual losses of "hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars" in the US alone, though Europe demands stricter changes than those projections assumed.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/06/06/1633206/apple-faces-billions-in-losses-as-eu-comma-interpretation-ends-external-purchase-fees?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shares a report: There are more than 1,000 technology unicorns, meaning venture-backed companies worth $1 billion or more, but at least one in 5 are likely to fail, said Rich Wong, a partner at venture capital firm Accel Partners. "I think maybe out of that thousand, 20% fully die. The end," Wong said on Thursday at the Bloomberg Tech conference in San Francisco.

The estimate reinforces what's become a grim calculus for many companies. Tech start-up valuations soared during the 2021 pandemic boom -- before crashing back to earth, as interest rates rose and venture capital investments fell. Of the companies that don't fail, about half will be stuck -- muddling along without being able to grow bigger or go public, Wong said. Some of those may "ultimately have reality set in," and sell themselves for lower prices than once seemed feasible. Others, not quite failing, "will be a bit zombie-ish and grind on," he said.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/06/06/1414204/about-20-of-tech-startups-worth-more-than-1-billion-will-fail-accel-says?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

David Sacks, President Trump's AI policy advisor, has dismissed the prospect of implementing a universal basic income program, declaring "it's not going to happen" during his tenure. He said: The future of AI has become a Rorschach test where everyone sees what they want. The Left envisions a post-economic order in which people stop working and instead receive government benefits. In other words, everyone on welfare. This is their fantasy; it's not going to happen."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/06/06/1357256/trump-ai-czar-sacks-on-universal-basic-income-its-not-going-to-happen?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

YouTube pulled a popular tutorial video from tech creator Jeff Geerling this week, claiming his guide to installing LibreELEC on a Raspberry Pi 5 violated policies against "harmful content." The video, which showed viewers how to set up their own home media servers, had been live for over a year and racked up more than 500,000 views. YouTube's automated systems flagged the content for allegedly teaching people "how to get unauthorized or free access to audio or audiovisual content."

Geerling says his tutorial covered only legal self-hosting of media people already own -- no piracy tools or copyright workarounds. He said he goes out of his way to avoid mentioning popular piracy software in his videos. It's the second time YouTube has pulled a self-hosting content video from Geerling. Last October, YouTube removed his Jellyfin tutorial, though that decision was quickly reversed after appeal. This time, his appeal was denied.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/06/06/1039216/youtube-pulls-tech-creators-self-hosting-tutorial-as-harmful-content?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Nearly a quarter of consumers using buy-now-pay-later loans now finance their grocery purchases, representing a significant increase from 14% a year ago, according to a recent LendingTree survey. The shift marks a departure from the traditional use of these short-term financing services for big-ticket items like electronics and furniture toward everyday essentials including groceries, utility bills, and streaming services.

The BNPL market has experienced dramatic growth, expanding from $2 billion in consumer purchases in 2019 to more than $116.3 billion by 2023. Morgan Stanley found that 28% of surveyed Americans had used BNPL services with about 30% of those users applying the financing to grocery purchases. Food prices have risen 28% since 2020, creating particular pressure on lower-income households earning less than $50,000 annually, who represent the largest user base for these services.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/06/06/1025248/consumers-are-increasingly-turning-to-buy-now-pay-later-services-for-groceries?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Исследователи из Мюнхенского технического университета опубликовали инструментарий TPDE и основанный на нём бэкенд компилятора для LLVM - TPDE-LLVM, обеспечивающий генерацию машинного кода для архитектур x86-64 и AArch64 на основе промежуточного представления кода LLVM-IR. При тестировании TPDE-LLVM оказался быстрее бэкенда LLVM -O0 (генератор кода без оптимизаций) в 10-20 раз при том же уровне производительности результирующего машинного кода и увеличении размера на 10-30%. Наработки проекта опубликованы под лицензией Apache 2.0.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=63368

Компания Google подвела итог оптимизаций в Chrome, внесённых с августа прошлого года. Изменения позволили ускорить прохождение теста Speedometer 3 на 22% (было 42.84, а стало 52.35 балла) и добиться наилучших результатов среди всех браузеров. Упомянуто, что полученный прирост производительности в совокупности позволит на 58 миллионов часов сократить ожидания загрузки сайтов у всех пользователей браузера, если каждый пользователь использует Chrome всего 10 минут в день. Примечательно, что c апреля 2022 года по август 2024 года производительность прохождения теста Speedometer 3 в Chrome выросла на 94% (Chrome 101 набирал примерно 22 балла, Chrome 128 - 42.84 балла).

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=63363

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: My wife taught me something," Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski told the crowd at London SXSW. He was addressing the headlines about the company looking to hire human workers after previously saying Klarna used artificial intelligence to do work that would equate to 700 workers. "Two things can be true at the same time," he said. Siemiatkowski said it's true that the company looked to stop hiring human workers a few years ago and rolled out AI agents that have helped reduce the cost of customer support and increase the company's revenue per employee. The company had 5,500 workers two years ago, and that number now stands at around 3,000, he said, adding that as the company's salary costs have gone down, Klarna now seeks to reinvest a majority of that money into employee cash and equity compensation.

But, he insisted, this doesn't mean there isn't an opportunity for humans to work at his company. "We think offering human customer service is always going to be a VIP thing," he said, comparing it to how people pay more for clothing stitched by hand rather than machines. "So we think that two things can be done at the same time. We can use AI to automatically take away boring jobs, things that are manual work, but we are also going to promise our customers to have a human connection."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/06/06/0050210/klarna-ceo-says-company-will-use-humans-to-offer-vip-customer-service?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Разработчики операционной системы Redox, написанной с использованием языка Rust и концепции микроядра, объявили о реализации поддержки протокола X11 в развиваемом проектом дисплейном сервере Orbital, использующем библиотеку iced. Добавленная возможность позволяет запускать в Redos приложения, использующие X11, без внесения изменений в код. Реализация поддержки X11 в Orbital концептуально напоминает применение XWayland в окружениях на базе Wayland, и также использует бэкенд DRI для повышения производительности отрисовки.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=63367

Japan-based Ispace confirmed its Resilience lander likely crashed during its second failed attempt at a lunar landing, after a sensor malfunction prevented proper deceleration. Despite the setback, the company remains committed to future missions, with funding secured for a third attempt using a new lander, Apex 1.0, scheduled for 2027. "Until then, Ispace has its work cut out for it," reports CNN. "[Ispace CEO and founder Takeshi Hakamada] said during the news briefing he will need to work to regain the trust of investors, and the company will need to deeply investigate what went wrong on the Resilience mission to ensure similar issues don't plague Apex 1.0."

The company has ambitious "plans to eventually build a city on the lunar surface that would house a thousand people and welcome thousands more for tourist visits," notes ABC News. "If ispace is going to establish a colony on the moon, it will need to identify an ample supply of ice or water, which it will convert into fuel for a future lunar fueling station. The ability to produce fuel on the moon will enable the company to transport people back and forth between the Earth and the moon."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/06/06/0249228/resilience-spacecraft-likely-crashed-into-the-moon-ispace-confirms?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

TOP10 VISITORS:

[1] ChatGPT point=0 web=655 up=65.6MB (63%)
[2] 45.135.180.x point=222 web=0 up=18.7MB (18%) <--- yesterlink (9/hr)
[3] PetalBot point=84 web=991 up=7.0MB (6%) <--- PetalBot (4/hr)
[4] TikTok point=0 web=408 up=3.8MB (3%)
[5] Facebook point=0 web=186 up=2.2MB (2%)
[6] 24.130.121.x point=18 web=17 up=1.7MB (1%) <--- spnet (1/hr)
[7] 47.82.60.x point=0 web=153 up=1.2MB (1%)
[8] 217.114.158.x point=25 web=0 up=0.8MB (<1%) <--- fox (1/hr)
[9] 47.82.61.x point=0 web=72 up=0.5MB (<1%)
[10] 36.235.226.x point=0 web=2 up=0.4MB (<1%)

TOTAL TRAFFIC: 103MB

После трёх лет разработки опубликован выпуск кроссплатформенного тулкита wxWidgets 3.3.0, позволяющего создавать графические интерфейсы для Linux, Windows, macOS, UNIX-подобных систем и мобильных платформ. Тулкит написан на языке С++ и распространяется под свободной лицензией wxWindows Library License, одобренной Фондом СПО и организацией OSI. Лицензия основана на LGPL и позволяет задавать собственные условия для распространения производных работ в бинарной форме.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=63366