Проект CentOS официально объявил о доступности дистрибутива CentOS Stream 10, который используется в качестве основы для формирования дистрибутива Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10. CentOS Stream относится к непрерывно обновляемым дистрибутивам и позволяет раньше получить доступ к пакетам, развиваемым для будущих выпусков RHEL. Сборки CentOS Stream 10 формируются для архитектур x86_64_v3, Aarch64, ppc64le (POWER9) и s390x (IBM z14) в форме установочных iso-файлов и образов для изолированных контейнеров. Сопровождение ветки CentOS Stream 10 продлится до 2030 года.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=62397

Astro Bot has been crowned winner of Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2024 tonight. The category also included Balatro, Black Myth Wukong, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. IGN reports: Astro Bot was one of the biggest winners of the night, taking home a total of four awards in categories including Best Family Game and Best Game Direction. Other notable winners included Metaphor: ReFantazio, which won Best Narrative, Best Art Direction, and Best RPG, and Balatro, which one Best Indie and Best Debut Indie. A full list of the nominees and winners can be viewed here.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://games.slashdot.org/story/24/12/13/087246/astro-bot-wins-game-of-the-year?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Опубликован выпуск проекта LittleFS 2.10, развивающего компактную файловую систему для встраиваемых устройств и микроконтроллеров. Изначально файловая система была создана компанией ARM для операционной системы Mbed OS, но затем выделена в отдельный проект. Код ФС написан на языке Си и распространяется под лицензией BSD. Эталонная реализация LittleFS поставляется в виде Си-библиотеки, на базе которой создан FUSE-модуль и обвязки для различных языков программирования.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=62398

Начиная с выпуска Fedora 42, намеченного на весну следующего года, предложено формировать официальные Spin-сборки дистрибутива со средой рабочего стола COSMIC, разрабатываемой на языке Rust. Предложение пока не рассмотрено комитетом FESCo (Fedora Engineering Steering Committee), отвечающим за техническую часть разработки дистрибутива Fedora.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=62396

Nigel Richards, a New Zealand-born Scrabble legend, won the Spanish World Scrabble Championship despite not speaking Spanish. The Guardian reports: The Spanish title wasn't the first time Richards' Scrabble skills had shattered linguistic barriers: in 2015 he made headlines when he won the francophone world championships without being able to speak or understand French. Instead he reportedly memorised the entire French Scrabble dictionary in nine weeks. [...]

After nearly three decades of playing Scrabble competitively, Richards is widely viewed as the best player of all time, with some chalking up his skills to his photographic memory and ability to quickly calculate mathematical probabilities. Intensely private and swift to turn down interviews, very little is known about his personal life. His reclusive nature -- along with his decades of Scrabble conquests and coups -- have turned him into a legend of sorts for some.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://games.slashdot.org/story/24/12/13/0819233/scrabble-star-wins-spanish-world-title-despite-not-speaking-spanish?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: Legislation was introduced in the Texas House of Representatives on Thursday to establish a strategic bitcoin reserve, which could serve as a proving ground for the U.S. Treasury. The proposed bill would enable the state to start building a strategic bitcoin reserve by accepting taxes, fees and donations in bitcoin that would be held for a minimum of five years, Republican state Rep. Giovanni Capriglione announced on an X Spaces event Thursday.

The Texas bill aims to provide a way to strengthen the state's fiscal stability and establish it as a leader in bitcoin innovation, according to the Satoshi Action Fund, a nonprofit bitcoin advocacy group that worked with Capriglione on the bill. "Probably the biggest enemy of our investments is inflation," Capriglione said. "A strategic bitcoin reserve, investing in bitcoin, would be a win-win for the state." "I just filed the bill ... entitled 'An act relating to the establishment of a bitcoin reserve within the state treasury of Texas and the management of cryptocurrencies by governmental entities,'" he said later. "My goal is to make this bill as big and as broad as possible," Capriglione said. "This initial step is to allow some optionality and flexibility on it, but if I am able to get support from other legislators, we will make it even stronger."

It's "unlikely" a U.S. strategic bitcoin reserve will be established, "but it helps get animal spirits back into the market," Needham's John Todaro told CNBC. He said it's also "unlikely to drive material price gains, as we do not expect the U.S. government will purchase bitcoin in any meaningful capacity, but it's an item that drives excitement and optimism."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/12/13/0828212/texas-house-introduces-bill-to-establish-a-strategic-bitcoin-reserve?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

The U.S. and China signed a modified science and technology agreement on Friday, narrowing its scope and adding security safeguards to address growing technological rivalry between the world's two largest economies.

The updated pact, which extends cooperation for five years, focuses solely on basic research and excludes critical technologies like AI and quantum computing. The State Department said the agreement strengthens intellectual property protections and introduces new provisions for transparency and data sharing. The revision comes amid escalating tech tensions, with Washington restricting advanced chip exports to China and limiting U.S. investments in sensitive technologies that could enhance Chinese military capabilities.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/12/13/1315238/us-curbs-scope-of-china-science-accord-amid-tech-rivalry?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

EvenUp, a legal tech startup valued at over $1 billion, has largely relied on human workers rather than AI to process personal injury claims, according to Business Insider, which spoke to multiple employees.

The startup, which promised to automate the analysis of medical records and case files to determine accident compensation, saw its valuation surge from $85 million to $1 billion in October. Former staff members reported that supervisors instructed them not to use the AI system due to its unreliability, with some working until 3 a.m. to complete tasks manually.

The ex-employees cited numerous AI errors, including missed injuries, fabricated medical conditions, and incorrectly recorded doctor visits. While no errors made it into final products, such mistakes could have reduced victim payouts if not caught by human reviewers, they cautioned.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/24/12/13/154228/legal-tech-unicorn-evenup-relied-heavily-on-humans-despite-ai-claims?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said his company was able to stop hiring a year ago as it invested in AI that's doing the work of hundreds of staff across the firm. From a report: The buy now, pay later finance provider has seen headcount fall 22% to 3,500 during that time, mostly due to attrition, Siemiatkowski said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in New York on Thursday. The company now has about 200 people using AI for their core work, he said.

Siemiatkowski said that while the total wage bill is shrinking, he's been able to convince employees to get on board with the shift by promising they'll see a chunk of any productivity gains they reap from AI in their paycheck.

"People internally at Klarna are just rallying to deploy as much efficiency AI as they can," he said. "We're going to give some of the improvements that the efficiency that AI provides by increasing the pace at which the salaries of our employees increases."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/24/12/13/1541225/klarna-stopped-all-hiring-a-year-ago-to-replace-workers-with-ai?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Bad news for anyone out there who still uses Skype: The Microsoft-owned phone and messaging platform has quietly stopped letting users top-up accounts with credit and buy Skype phone numbers. From a report: Instead, Skype is locking into SaaS mode: It's pushing users to take monthly subscriptions for regional and global Skype-to-phone plans, for a set monthly fee, likely impacting millions of people. The most recent figures Microsoft released for Skype last year said it had 36 million daily active users.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/24/12/13/164243/microsoft-quietly-axes-skype-credit-and-phone-number-sales-to-push-subscriptions?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives committee on China told Apple and Google's parent Alphabet to prepare to remove TikTok from U.S. app stores on January 19, following a federal appeals court decision upholding legislation requiring Chinese-based ByteDance to divest the platform or face a ban.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/12/13/1657212/us-lawmakers-tell-apple-google-to-be-ready-to-remove-tiktok-from-app-stores-on-january-19?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Группа исследователей из Лёвенского, Любекского и Бирмингемского университетов разработала метод атаки BadRAM (CVE-2024-21944), позволяющий обойти механизм подтверждения подлинности и скомпрометировать окружения, защищённые с использованием расширения SEV-SNP в процессорах AMD. Для совершения атаки злоумышленник, за редким исключением, должен получить физический доступ к модулям памяти, а также иметь возможность выполнения кода на уровне нулевого кольца защиты (ring0) на сервере, выполняющем защищённые гостевые окружения.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=62399

HDMI Forum will announce new specifications with increased bandwidth capabilities at CES 2025, ahead of anticipated graphics card launches from AMD and NVIDIA. The announcement, scheduled for January 6, is expected to introduce HDMI 2.2 standard alongside a new cable supporting higher resolutions and refresh rates.

Current HDMI 2.1 specification maxes out at 48 Gbps bandwidth, allowing 10K resolution at 120 Hz with compression. The upgrade aims to compete with DisplayPort 2.1, which offers up to 80 Gbps bandwidth and is already supported by recent AMD and Intel GPUs.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/24/12/13/1729204/hdmi-22-specs-with-increased-bandwidth-to-be-announced-at-ces-2025?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Major tech companies are scaling back workplace perks amid industry-wide layoffs and increased focus on AI development. Google, Meta, and Salesforce have reduced or eliminated benefits ranging from massage services to retreat centers, marking a shift from the lavish "perks culture" that defined Silicon Valley for two decades.

Netflix has informally shortened its parental leave, while Meta fired employees for misusing meal vouchers. The industry saw over 264,000 layoffs in 2023, suggesting the end of an era where companies competed for talent with luxury amenities

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/24/12/13/1746208/silicon-valleys-perks-culture-is-largely-dead?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Healthcare giant Optum has restricted access to an internal AI chatbot used by employees after a security researcher found it was publicly accessible online, and anyone could access it using only a web browser. TechCrunch: The chatbot, which TechCrunch has seen, allowed employees to ask the company questions about how to handle patient health insurance claims and disputes for members in line with the company's standard operating procedures (SOPs).

While the chatbot did not appear to contain or produce sensitive personal or protected health information, its inadvertent exposure comes at a time when its parent company, health insurance conglomerate UnitedHealthcare, faces scrutiny for its use of artificial intelligence tools and algorithms to allegedly override doctors' medical decisions and deny patient claims.

Mossab Hussein, chief security officer and co-founder of cybersecurity firm spiderSilk, alerted TechCrunch to the publicly exposed internal Optum chatbot, dubbed "SOP Chatbot." Although the tool was hosted on an internal Optum domain and could not be accessed from its web address, its IP address was public and accessible from the internet and did not require users to enter a password.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/12/13/2042250/unitedhealthcares-optum-left-an-ai-chatbot-used-by-employees-to-ask-questions-about-claims-exposed-to-the-internet?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Hill: Shaun Golden, the sheriff of Monmouth County, N.J., wants feds to get to the bottom of recent mysterious drone activity in his state. Local officials, including Golden, are urging Gov. Phil Murphy (D) to declare a state of emergency. "We continue to urge our governor to press the federal government to put more resources out here," Golden said Thursday on NewsNation's "Dan Abrams Live." "The only way we're going to solve this is by the federal government coming in here and doing full investigations as to what these things are, how their movements are made," he added.

The White House insist that the drones do not represent a threat. The Pentagon also said it currently does not appear that a foreign enemy is behind the mysterious drones in the New Jersey sky. Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.) claimed the drones are being launched by an Iranian "mothership," but Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said during a briefing there is "not any truth to that." With the investigation ongoing, Golden has called for the governor to declare a state of emergency and to issue an executive order banning nighttime use of recreational drones. Even more drone sightings are being reported in New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland, reports NBC News. "What is happening is outrageous. Thousands of drones and unmanned aerial systems flying above us, and our government is not telling us who's operating them and for what purpose," Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., said a press conference in Staten Island on Friday. "I don't believe that the United States of America, with its military capabilities, does not know what these objects are. And what I'm asking, and what we're all asking, is for you to be straight with us and just tell us what is going on."

A senior official said there have been 79 sightings across New Jersey alone last night. "The sightings -- which occur up to 180 times per night, according to several New Jersey officials -- have remained consistent for nearly a month," adds NBC News.

Police in New Jersey are investigating a possible drone crash in Hillsborough, NJ. Police were called out at approximately 8:35 p.m. but are being extremely tightlipped, referring all questions to the FBI. A reporter asked a firefighter leaving the scene if they found anything and he said that he is not at liberty to say.

Additionally, at least four commercial airline pilots encountered mysterious, colorful circular lights "moving at extreme speeds" through the skies above Oregon this past weekend. You can listen to air traffic control audio archives from Dec. 7 via OregonLive.

German broadcaster Deutsche Welle is reporting that drones were spotted over sensitive military and industrial sites, including the U.S. air base at Ramstein in the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

Developing...

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/12/13/214233/officials-demand-explanation-on-mysterious-drone-sightings?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

The U.S. military has begun openly discussing offensive capabilities in space, reports ArsTechnica, a significant shift from previous policies that avoided mentioning space-based weapons to prevent an arms race. U.S. Space Command recently listed "integrated space fires" -- military terminology for offensive or defensive actions against adversaries -- among its priorities.

The move follows increasing concerns about China and Russia's space warfare capabilities, including satellite-disabling weapons and potential nuclear anti-satellite systems. "Space is a war-fighting domain," Space Force Chief Gen. Chance Saltzman said at a conference in Orlando. "Ten years ago, I couldn't say that." Gen. Stephen Whiting, head of U.S. Space Command, identified "integrated space fires" as his organization's most urgent requirement. The capabilities under consideration range from cyberattacks and directed energy weapons to satellite-capture systems, though specific details remain classified.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/12/13/211229/the-us-military-is-now-talking-openly-about-going-on-the-attack-in-space?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader writes: Russia's communications watchdog Roskomnadzor said on Friday it had blocked access to Rakuten-owned Viber messaging app, the latest in a line of social media services to be banned by Russian authorities. In a statement, Roskomnadzor said the block was related to a violation of rules concerning the prevention of terrorism, extremism, and drug dealing.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/12/13/2110259/russian-watchdog-blocks-viber-messaging-app?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Tumblr is introducing a new Community feature similar to subreddits: in-app groups organized by topic or interest. "Topics include things like film photography, marine biology, LGBTQ, and video games, and each topic has its own landing page where posts shared with the community populate," reports The Verge. From the report: Many of the features mirror Reddit, like a count of how many members are online, moderators, and community guidelines. Posts shared to communities also get a new comments section that's only visible within the group. Communities have the option to be public or private. [...] Communities is available on the web, iOS, and Android.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/12/13/2224202/tumblr-adds-reddit-like-communities?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Google's NotebookLM and its podcast-like Audio Overviews are being updated with a new feature that allows listeners to interact with the AI "hosts." Google describes how this feature works in a blog post. The Verge reports: In addition to the interactive Audio Overviews, Google is introducing a new interface for NotebookLM that organizes things into three areas: a "sources" panel for your information, a "chat" panel to talk with an AI chatbot about the sources, and a "studio" panel that lets you make things like Audio Overviews and Study Guides. I think it looks nice.

Google is announcing a NotebookLM subscription, too: NotebookLM Plus. The subscription will give you "five times more Audio Overviews, notebooks, and sources per notebook," let you "customize the style and tone of your notebook responses," let you make shared team notebooks, and will offer "additional privacy and security," Google says. The subscription is available today for businesses, schools and universities, and organizations and enterprise customers. It will be added to Google One AI Premium in "early 2025." Google is also launching "Agentspace," a platform for custom AI agents for enterprises.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/12/13/2129249/googles-notebooklm-ai-podcast-hosts-can-now-talk-to-you-too?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Nvidia is hosting its first LAN party in over a decade to celebrate the debut of the RTX 50 series. It'll occur at CES 2025 in January and feature a 50-hour gaming marathon with tournaments, prizes, and global remote sessions. Tom's Hardware reports: The LAN party (dubbed GeForce LAN 50) will start on January 4 at 4:30 pm PT and end right before Nvidia CES Jensen Huang gives his opening speech at the CES event in Las Vegas on January 6 at 6:30 pm PT. The main LAN event will occur in Las Vegas, while remote sessions will take place in Beijing, Berlin, and Taipei. The event will purportedly host up to 400 gamers, requiring a $125 refundable deposit to sign up. The 400 lucky people who manage to make the list will not include content creators who might be invited directly to the LAN party from Nvidia.

As mentioned, the LAN party will be a full-blown 50-hour gaming marathon with in-game and LAN contests, tournaments, and prize raffles. For everyone who won't be able to get into the LAN party, Nvidia is providing additional prizes through its Nvidia App dubbed "LAN" missions. More prizes will be given out through the hashtag #GeForceGreats on social media. Nvidia is going all out for its GeForce RTX 50 series debut early next month. The last time Nvidia hosted a LAN party was purportedly 13 years ago.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://games.slashdot.org/story/24/12/13/2139233/nvidia-revives-lan-party-after-13-years-to-celebrate-rtx-50-series-gpu-launch?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Engadget: The United States Postal Service unveiled a plan to buy a fleet of all-electric mail trucks for its mail carriers back in 2022, of which 3,000 were supposed to be delivered by now. Unfortunately, those plans aren't even close to fruition. The Washington Post reported that defense contractor Oshkosh has only delivered 93 vehicles so far. [...]

The Washington Post obtained nearly 21,000 government and internal company records and spoke with 20 people familiar with the trucks' manufacturing and design process. Its reporting shows that Oshkosh ran into significant manufacturing delays of the electric NGDVs that caused lower than expected delivery numbers. Some of the anonymous sources said that engineers struggled to calibrate the mail trucks' airbags, and the vehicles' body and internal components are unable to contain water leaks to an alarming degree. The turnaround time for building these new mail trucks is also very slow. The Post reports that the South Carolina factory can only build one truck per day even though Oshkosh hoped it could build at least 80 vehicles a day by now.

Oshkosh also failed to inform the Postal Service about these delays. Four of the background sources say a senior company executive tried to update the Postal Service about these manufacturing issues only to have those efforts blocked by their corporate superiors. An Oshkosh spokesperson said in a statement that the defense contractor is still "fully committed to being a strong and reliable partner" with the Postal Services and insists "we remain on track to meet all delivery deadlines," according to The Post.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/12/13/2144254/postal-services-plan-to-electrify-mail-trucks-falling-far-short-of-its-goal?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

MojoKid writes: Today's release and review launch of the new Intel Arc B580 marks a second-gen effort from the company, with a fully refreshed Intel Xe2 graphics architecture, aka Battlemage, that promises big gains in performance and efficiency. Comparing Arc B580 to its Arc Alchemist ancestors, you can see that it's somewhat of a smaller GPU. It has fewer of nearly everything, and yet its performance specifications don't look too far off. A lot of this comes down to massive architectural improvements with an eye toward efficiency and making better use of the resources that were already there.

With 12GB of GDDR6 memory at 19Gbps, Arc B580 delivers performance that typically beats a GeForce RTX 4060 and even an RTX 4060 Ti in spots, especially when its extra 4GB of frame buffer memory comes into play. All in, Intel's latest Arc graphics offering is a strong contender in the $250 graphics card segment, and it should sell well in the months ahead, based on its value proposition, improved performance in ray tracing and advanced upscaling technologies.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/12/13/2151259/intel-arc-b580-battlemage-tested-250-graphics-cards-are-worthy-once-again?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Tucked away in a blog post about Google's quantum computing chip, Willow, Google Quantum AI founder Hartmut Neven wrote that the chip was so "mind-boggling" fast that it seemed to borrow computational power from other universes. According to Neven, the chip's performance suggests the existence of parallel universes, writing, "We live in a multiverse." TechCrunch reports: Here's the passage: "Willow's performance on this benchmark is astonishing: It performed a computation in under five minutes that would take one of today's fastest supercomputers 1025 or 10 septillion years. If you want to write it out, it's 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years. This mind-boggling number exceeds known timescales in physics and vastly exceeds the age of the universe. It lends credence to the notion that quantum computation occurs in many parallel universes, in line with the idea that we live in a multiverse, a prediction first made by David Deutsch."

This drop-the-mic moment on the nature of reality was met with skepticism by some, but, surprisingly, others on the internet who profess to understand these things argued that Nevan's conclusions were more than plausible. The multiverse, while stuff of science fiction, is also an area of serious study by the founders of quantum physics. The skeptics, however, point out that the performance claims are based on the benchmark that Google itself created some years ago to measure quantum performance. That alone doesn't prove that parallel versions of you aren't running around in other universes -- just where the underlying measuring stick came from.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/12/13/225210/google-says-its-new-quantum-chip-indicates-that-multiple-universes-exist?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Meta is asking California Attorney General Rob Bonta to block OpenAI's planned transition from a non-profit to for-profit entity. From a report: In a letter sent to Bonta's office this week, Meta says that OpenAI "should not be allowed to flout the law by taking and reappropriating assets it built as a charity and using them for potentially enormous private gains."

The letter goes so far as to say that Meta believes Elon Musk is "qualified and well positioned to represent the interests of Californians in this matter." Meta supporting Musk's fight against OpenAI is notable given that Musk and Mark Zuckerberg were talking about literally fighting in a cage match just last year.

OpenAI started as a non-profit but stumbled into commercial success with ChatGPT, which now makes billions of dollars a year in revenue. CEO Sam Altman has been clear that the company needs to shed its non-profit status to become more attractive to investors and continuing funding its ambitions.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/12/14/0238223/meta-asks-the-us-government-to-block-openais-switch-to-a-for-profit?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A sophisticated and ongoing supply-chain attack operating for the past year has been stealing sensitive login credentials from both malicious and benevolent security personnel by infecting them with Trojanized versions of open source software from GitHub and NPM, researchers said. The campaign, first reported three weeks ago by security firm Checkmarx and again on Friday by Datadog Security Labs, uses multiple avenues to infect the devices of researchers in security and other technical fields. One is through packages that have been available on open source repositories for over a year. They install a professionally developed backdoor that takes pains to conceal its presence. The unknown threat actors behind the campaign have also employed spear phishing that targets thousands of researchers who publish papers on the arXiv platform.

The objectives of the threat actors are also multifaceted. One is the collection of SSH private keys, Amazon Web Services access keys, command histories, and other sensitive information from infected devices every 12 hours. When this post went live, dozens of machines remained infected, and an online account on Dropbox contained some 390,000 credentials for WordPress websites taken by the attackers, most likely by stealing them from fellow malicious threat actors. The malware used in the campaign also installs cryptomining software that was present on at least 68 machines as of last month. It's unclear who the threat actors are or what their motives may be. Datadog researchers have designated the group MUT-1244, with MUT short for "mysterious unattributed threat."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/24/12/13/2220211/yearlong-supply-chain-attack-targeting-security-pros-steals-390000-credentials?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Опубликован дистрибутив side-0.1.0.

side — это дистрибутив GNU/Linux, собранный с помощью пакетного менеджера pisi и системных скриптов, написанных на языке python2 в рамках проекта pardus в середине 00-х годов. По умолчанию предлагает графическое пользовательское окружение [ SDE ]( https://sde-gui.github.io/ ) . Частично основывается на pisilinux.

Первая минорная версия не связана со значительными изменениями и присвоена лишь для удобства дальнейшего версионирования.

Что нового:

• Из состава iso и репозитория удалены компоненты и зависимости calamares. Систему предлагается ставить вручную с помощью CLI-утилит. Никакой документации по установке в настоящий момент нет.

• Исправлена генерация initramfs при обновлении ядра. Используется dracut.

• Добавлены новые пакеты, среди которых: doxygen, run-mailcap-rust, cd/dvd и spellcheck тулчейны.

• Добавлен пакет radicle, mesa пересобран с libglvnd.

• Исправлен поиск местоположений в просмотрщике карт florb.

• Исправлен некорректный fileType в метаданных некоторых пакетов.

• Добавлены опциональные пакеты с html-документацией gtk+2 и fltk.

• Адреса [ https://side.codeberg.page/ ]( https://side.codeberg.page/ ) и [ https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/ ]( https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/ ) добавлены в стартовое окно lynx.

• Дефолтные настройки шрифтов Qt больше не требуют конфиг qt6ct.

• В образ docker добавлен pip — менеджер пакетов python3 из модуля ensurepip.

• Обновлены и исправлены различные пакеты.

При обновлении от версии 0.0.2 необходимо учесть два момента:

• сломанный initramfs;

• файл /etc/inittab является ссылкой на /etc/inittab.example@/etc/inittab.install

>>> [ ISO ]( https://sourceforge.net/projects/lxdeside/files/iso/ )

>>> [ Docker ]( https://hub.docker.com/u/uglyside )

https://www.linux.org.ru/news/linux-general/17820046

Опубликован релиз проекта mergiraf 0.4, развивающего драйвер для Git с реализацией возможности трёхстороннего слияния. Mergiraf поддерживает разрешение различных видов конфликтов при слиянии и может использоваться для различных языков программирования и форматов файлов. Возможно как отдельный вызов mergiraf для обработки конфликтов, возникающих при работе со штатным Git, так и замена в Git обработчика слияний для расширения возможностей таких команд, как merge, revert, rebase и cherry-pick. Код распространяется под лицензией GPLv3. В новой версии добавлена поддержка языков Python, TOML, Scala и Typescript, а также проведена оптимизация производительности.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=62402

25 years ago today, the late, great Suck.com played a prank on Slashdot. Their daily column of pop-culture criticism was replaced by... Suckdot, a parody site satirically filed with Slashdot-style headlines like "Linux Possibly Defamed Somewhere."

RabidZelot was one of a bunch to report: "In Richmond, California, this afternoon, this dude said something bad about Linux at the Hilltop Mall near the fountains right after the first showing of Phantom Menace let out. He was last seen heading towards Sears and has a 'Where Do You Want to Go Today?' T-shirt and brown hair. Let us know when you spot him."

( Read More... | 0 of 72873 comments)

There's more Slashdot-style news blurbs like "Red Hat Reports Income". (In which Red Hat founder Bob Young finds a quarter on the way to the conference room, and adds it to the company's balance sheet...) Its list of user-submitted "Ask Suckdot" questions include geek-mocking topics like "Is Overclocking Worth That Burning Smell?" and "HOW DO I TURN OFF SHIFT_LOCK?" And somewhere there's even a parody of Jon Katz (an early contributor to Slashdot's content) — though clicking "Read More" on the essay leads to a surprising message from the parodist admitting defeat. "Slashdot has roughly 60 million links on its front page. I'm simply not going to waste any more of my life making fun of each and every one of them. Half the time you can't tell the real Slashdot from the parody anyway."

Suck.com was a fixture in the early days of the web, launched in 1995 (and pre-dating the launch of Slashdot by two years). It normally published link-heavy commentary every weekday for nearly six years. Contributing writer Greg Knauss was apparently behind much of the Suckdot parody — even taking a jab at Slashdot's early online podcast, "Geeks in Space" (1999-2001). [Suckdot informs its readers in 1999 that "The latest installment of Geeks Jabbering at a Mic is up..."] Other Suckdot headlines?

Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune Uses Words "Red" and "Hat" in ArticleBSD Repeatedly IgnoredDVD Encryption Cracked: Godzilla for Everybody!Linus Ascends Bodily Into HeaveniMac: Ha Ha Ha Ha Wimp

There were no hard feelings. Seven months later Slashdot was even linking to Greg Knauss's Suck.com essay proclaiming that "Mozilla is dead, or might as well be..."

So whatever happened to Suck.com? Though it stopped publishing in 2001, an outpouring of nostalgia in 2005 apparently prompted its owners at Lycos.com to continue hosting its content through 2018. (This unofficial history notes that one fan scrambling to archive the site was Aaron Swartz.) Though it's not clear what happened next, here in 2024 its original domain is now up for sale — at an asking price of $1 million.

But all of Suck.com's original content is still available online — including its Suckdot parody — at archive.org. Which, mercifully, is still here a full 28 years after launching in 1996...

[ Read more of this story ]( https://meta.slashdot.org/story/24/12/13/0026213/25-years-ago-today-slashdot-parodied-by-suckcom?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Опубликован выпуск библиотеки libmdbx 0.13.2 (MDBX) с реализацией высокопроизводительной компактной встраиваемой базы данных класса ключ-значение. Код libmdbx распространяется под лицензией Apache 2.0. Поддерживаются все актуальные операционные системы и архитектуры, а также российский Эльбрус 2000. Для libmdbx предлагается развитое API для C++, а также поддерживаемые энтузиастами привязки к языкам Rust, Haskell, Python, NodeJS, Ruby, Go, Nim, Deno, Scala.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=62403

An anonymous reader shared this report from the SF Standard:

San Francisco police found Open AI whistleblower Suchir Balaji, 26, dead in his Lower Haight apartment November 26, SiliconValley.com reported on Friday. Police said there is "no evidence of foul play. "The manner of death has been determined to be suicide," David Serrano Sewell, director of the office of the city's chief medical examiner, told The Standard by email.

Balaji, a former researcher for the company, accused OpenAI of using copyrighted material to train ChatGPT shortly after he quit the company in August. The New York Times profiled Balaji in a story focused on his whistleblowing in October. Multiple lawsuits against Open AI are expected to present information Balaji unearthed as key evidence.

More details from TechCrunch:

After nearly four years working at OpenAI, Balaji quit the company when he realized the technology would bring more harm than good to society, he told The New York Times. Balaji's main concern was the way OpenAI allegedly used copyright data, and he believed its practices were damaging to the internet.

"We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news today and our hearts go out to Suchir's loved ones during this difficult time," said an OpenAI spokesperson in an email to TechCrunch...

On November 25, one day before police found Balaji's body, a court filing named the former OpenAI employee in a copyright lawsuit brought against the startup. As part of a good faith compromise, OpenAI agreed to search Balaji's custodial file related to the copyright concerns he had recently raised.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/12/14/0518203/police-report-openai-whistleblower-committed-suicide-in-november?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

BrianFagioli shares a report from BetaNews: As we close out 2024, we Linux enthusiasts are once again looking ahead to what the future holds. While Linux has long been the unsung hero of technology, powering servers, supercomputers, and the cloud, it's also a dominant force in the consumer space, even if many don't realize it. With Android leading the way as the most widely used Linux-based operating system, 2025 is shaping up to be another landmark year for the open source world Here are the predictions mentioned in the article:

- Linux will continue to dominate the enterprise sector
- Linux will further solidify its role in powering cloud infrastructure, with major providers like AWS and Google Cloud relying on it.
- Gaming on Linux is set to grow in 2025
- Linux will play a major role in AI development
- Linux's appeal to developers and tech enthusiasts will remain strong
- The open source movement will grow stronger

What additional predictions do you have for Linux in 2025?

[ Read more of this story ]( https://linux.slashdot.org/story/24/12/14/0058244/linux-predictions-for-2025?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

NASA believes Ingenuity's navigation system was responsible for its crash on the surface of Mars. Engineers determined that the helicopter's navigation system struggled to track features over smooth terrain, leading to a hard landing and structural failure. Universe Today reports: Now, almost a year after the incident, a team of engineers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have been analyzing the data. Their findings will be published in the next few weeks however the team of engineers assert it was harder than expected to complete an accident investigation from 160 million kilometers. The faults lie in the navigation system that was designed to visually track surface features using a camera pointed at the round. The system worked during early flights over more textured terrain but as Ingenuity moved over the Jezero Crater, it began operating over featureless sand ripples.

The navigation system was designed to provide estimates of the helicopter's velocity, chiefly to enable it to land. The data revealed from Flight 72 revealed that the navigation system couldn't find features to track. Images showed that the lack of features led to a harder than usual touchdown leading to a pitch and roll of the craft. The sudden change of attitude led to increase load on the rotors, beyond their designed limits leading to the structural damage. "Even though Ingenuity will not be able to fly anymore it can still provide weather and avionics data to the Perseverance rover," notes Universe Today. "It will help us to understand more about the weather in its vicinity but perhaps its greatest legacy are its hours of flight on an alien world."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/12/14/0051211/nasa-thinks-it-knows-why-ingenuity-crashed-on-mars?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from MacRumors: Apple will begin making AirPods in India for the first time early next year, reports Bloomberg. Foxconn will make the wireless earphones at a factory near Hyderabad in Telangana state, beginning around Q1 2025. The factory has reportedly been making AirPods on a trial basis, with manufacturing set to ramp up quickly after production begins. It will make AirPods only the second major Apple product to be assembled in India after the iPhone.

The decision to set up production in India was requested by Apple back in 2023, according to a previous report. Foxconn officials apparently debated internally for months about whether to assemble AirPods due to the relatively low profit margins, but ultimately decided to go ahead with it to "reinforce engagement" with Apple. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government offers financial incentives to companies that produce wireless earphones and smartwatches locally, which influenced Apple's decision to move manufacturing there. The move is also part of Apple's plan to reduce its production reliance on China amid rising geopolitical tensions between the country and the United States.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://apple.slashdot.org/story/24/12/14/016212/airpods-to-be-made-in-india-for-the-first-time-next-year?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

"The Chinese government has long subsidized carmakers with the goal of becoming a major auto exporter," notes the New York Times. But this week they reported on dozens of dealerships around Mexico that are now selling China-made electric vehicles, saying it could be "a potentially grave threat to the North American auto industry."

One employee said their dealership "was selling cars as fast as they arrived from China," including "a small but capable four-door electric compact that costs about $18,000."

Chinese carmakers are effectively barred from the United States by tariffs that double the sticker price of vehicles imported from China, and they are not yet manufacturing significant numbers of vehicles in Mexico that could be exported across the border. But their ambition to expand overseas is on vivid display in Mexico and across Latin America, Asia, Europe and Africa. Ads for Chinese brands are in airports and soccer stadiums and loom above Mexico City streets on large billboards. Chinese cars, both gasoline and electric models, are an increasingly common sight. BYD and others are also looking for places to build factories in Mexico, although none have announced firm plans. Initially, the plants would serve Latin America, part of a campaign by Chinese automakers to erode the dominance of Japanese, American and European carmakers in places like Brazil and Thailand.

But there is little doubt that, eventually, Chinese carmakers hope to use Mexico as an on-ramp to the United States.

One of Mexico's EV dealers suggested to the Times that "maybe next year BYD can enter the United States." And he added with a smile, "If not, I can deliver."
It is very unlikely that the Dolphin or any other Chinese car brand will be available in the United States soon. Because of the high tariffs, Chinese carmakers have not tried to establish dealerships or get approval from federal regulators to sell in the United States. (BYD does make electric buses in California.) And someone buying a BYD from a Mexican dealer like Mr. Alegría would have a hard time registering and insuring it in the United States because the cars have not demonstrated that they meet safety standards... But in the years to come it may be difficult to explain to consumers in the United States why they're not allowed to buy inexpensive electric vehicles that are readily available across the border, especially if they're made in Mexico, which already manufactures millions of cars for the United States.

Less than 20 years ago, Chinese cars were widely seen as inferior, even by many Chinese drivers. But in recent years, the country's manufacturers have pulled even with foreign rivals in mechanical quality, analysts say, and often surpass U.S., Japanese and European carmakers in battery technology, autonomous driving and entertainment software. (Think in-car karaoke and rotating touch screens)... [T]he auto industry does not appear to have seen anything like the current wave of Chinese brands, which have quickly overtaken Japanese companies as the world's largest auto exporters. Chinese carmakers have made deep inroads in countries where they have local production or face few significant trade barriers. In Brazil, Chinese brands have a 9 percent share of car sales, up from 1 percent in 2019. In Thailand, they have 18 percent of the market, up from 5 percent in 2019, according to JATO.
The article notes that for the world's largest car market — China itself — General Motors just announced "a more than $5 billion hit to its profit" to restructure China operations that have been losing money in recent years. And the article includes this quote from Felipe Munoz, global analyst at the research firm JATO Dynamics.

"Before the pandemic, the rules were set down by the Western carmakers. Now it's the opposite."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/24/12/14/0534213/chinese-electric-cars-are-already-surging-in-popularity-in-mexico-europe-asia-and-africa?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

America's telecom-regulating Federal Communications Commission "has opened up the entire 6 GHz frequency band to very low-power devices," reports the Register, "alongside other unlicensed applications such as Wi-Fi kits."

The FCC said it has adopted extra rules to allow very low-power device operation across the entire 1,200 MHz of the 6 GHz band, from 5.925 to 7.125 GHz, within the US. The agency had already opened up 850 MHz of the band to small mobile devices a year ago, and has now decided to open up the remaining 350 MHz.

It hopes that this will give a shot in the arm to an ecosystem of short-range devices such as wearables, healthcare monitors, short-range mobile hotspots, and in-car devices that will be able to make use of this spectrum without the need of a license. These applications often call for low power transmission across short distances, but at very high connection speeds, the FCC says — otherwise, existing technologies like Bluetooth could suffice. "This 1,200 MHz means unlicensed bandwidth with a mix of high capacity and low latency that is absolutely prime for immersive, real-time applications," said Jessica Rosenworcel, the FCC's outgoing chair. "These are the airwaves where we can develop wearable technologies and expand access to augmented and virtual reality in ways that will provide new opportunities in education, healthcare, and entertainment."

Because these are such low-power devices, no restrictions have been placed on where they can be used, and they will not be required to operate under the control of an automatic frequency coordination system, as some Wi-Fi equipment must to avoid interference with existing services that use the 6 GHz spectrum. However, to minimize the risk of any potential interference, the devices will be required to implement a transmit power control mechanism and employ a contention-based protocol, requiring a device to listen to the channel before transmission. They are, however, prohibited from operating as part of any fixed outdoor infrastructure.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/12/14/0548225/americas-fcc-opens-6-ghz-band-to-unlicensed-very-low-power-devices?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

The U.S. wants to limit China's access to advanced AI chips, reports the Wall Street Journal, with new rules to restrict sales in parts of the world.

"The rules are aimed at China, but they threaten to create conflict between the U.S. and nations that may not want their purchases of chips micromanaged from Washington.

The latest round of curbs could come this month... Among the restrictions, the administration aims to introduce caps on shipments of AI chips to certain countries for use in large computing facilities, people familiar with the plans said. One grouping of countries — close U.S. allies — would be unrestricted, the people said, while another tier of countries would face limits on the number of chips that can go into data centers used for AI... The purchasing caps primarily apply to regions such as Southeast Asia and the Middle East, the people said...

The administration recently sent letters to major chip-makers including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and Samsung Electronics informing them about some of the restrictions, these people said. The letters said the companies needed to apply for a license to transfer chips to China that are manufactured using advanced chip-making technology or meet other criteria. These criteria include a size and transistor-number limit as well as any indication that the chips are for use in training AI models, the people said. Previous regulations already limit the shipment of advanced GPUs and memory chips to China, but the new rules spell out more clearly to manufacturers what is banned.
U.S. officials "are also considering other options," the article points out. "The administration is considering placing controls on exports of the so-called weights that underlie advanced AI models, according to people familiar with the matter, and weighing further China-specific restrictions on chip manufacturing."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/24/12/14/1921226/america-prepares-new-ai-chip-restrictions-to-close-chinas-backdoor-access?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

"Proposals for a tunnel connecting the U.K. to the U.S. underneath the Atlantic Ocean have resurfaced," reports Newsweek, "but with a price tag of almost $20 trillion, the project is a big ask."

With the two global cities being over 3,000 miles apart, construction would take several years — the 23.5-mile Channel Tunnel linking England and France took six years to construct — and require significant investment. Estimates over the cost have reached as high as £15.5 trillion, the equivalent of $19.8 trillion.

However, developments in vacuum tube technology have made the concept more viable. By creating a vacuum within the tunnel and using pressurized vehicles, trains traveling along the structure could theoretically reach speeds of more than 3,000 mph, making the journey between London and New York barely an hour long. This is because trains would not face any air resistance within the tunnel, allowing them to reach higher speeds than unconventional trains. This design, which has seen new development in Indian transportation, is sometimes called a "hyperloop". Cutting the intercontinental journey down to a matter of minutes means that for the first time, the Transatlantic Tunnel justifies the hefty price tag that undersea construction comes with, as it would become significantly more efficient and environmentally friendly than flying.

While no plans are underway, it's interesting to ask whether it could even be done. Weighing in, Elon Musk "has suggested the idea of building a '£20 trillion' underground tunnel link from London to New York appears to be a genuine possibility," according to the site LADbible, "although he says he could do it for less." (On X.com Musk posted that his Boring Company "could do it for 1000X less money.")
This comes after the SpaceX boss, 53, who promises to revolutionise the way we travel, said his 'Starship' rocket could be used to transport passengers to any city in the world in under an hour.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/12/14/1945209/could-an-undersea-hyperloop-train-tunnel-offer-one-hour-trips-from-london-to-new-york?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

"Single-board computer maker Raspberry Pi is updating its cute little computer-meet-keyboard device with better specifications..." reports TechCrunch.

They call the new $90 Raspberry Pi 500 "not as intimidating" because "when you look at the Raspberry Pi 500, you can't see any chipsets or printed circuit board... The idea with the Raspberry Pi 500 is that you can plug in a mouse and display, and you're ready to hit the ground running."
When it comes to specifications, the Raspberry Pi 500 features a 64-bit quad-core Arm processor (the same one as the Raspberry Pi 5 uses); 8GB of RAM; 2 micro-HDMI ports, with support for up to two 4K displays; 3 traditional USB ports (but no USB-C besides the power port unfortunately); a Gigabit Ethernet port; and a 40-pin expansion header. It comes with native Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support.

More importantly, this device brings us back Raspberry Pi's roots. Raspberry Pi computers were originally intended for educational use cases... The Raspberry Pi 500 draws inspiration from the not-for-profit Raspberry Pi Foundation's roots. It's the perfect first computer for school. In many ways, it's much better than a Chromebook or an iPad because it is both cheap and highly customizable — encouraging creative thinking. The Raspberry Pi 500 comes with a 32GB SD card preloaded with Raspberry Pi OS, a Debian-based Linux distribution...

In other news, Raspberry Pi has announced another brand-new product: the Raspberry Pi Monitor. It's a 15.6-inch 1080p monitor with a price-tag of $100.

Tom's Hardware calls the Pi 500 "a superb update" to the original computer-in-a-keyboard Raspberry Pi 400:

Having the ports at the back makes total sense. It tidies up the cables, and means that we only need one thick edge, the rest can be as thin as possible... [P]assive cooling performance is remarkable, even when overclocked to 3 GHz...! I did have to adjust the voltage to keep everything stable, but once I found the magic numbers, the system was stable and performed remarkably well... [I]t ran buttery smooth and surprisingly, cool under stress. I'd consider this a successful overclock and one that I would happily keep as a permanent addition...
Just like the Raspberry Pi 400, the Pi 500 is there to be a 21st century equivalent to the home computers of the 1980s. You plug in to a wedge-shaped keyboard, hook up to your display, and start work. But the Raspberry Pi 500 has much more processing power than the Pi 400, and that means it can be a viable desktop computer for those that don't need an RTX 4090 or a power-hungry CPU.

I like the Raspberry Pi 500. It's a powerful machine, in a pleasant package. I'm old enough to remember the 1980s home computer craze, and this, just like the Pi 400, reminds me of that time. But now we have much more power... The Raspberry Pi 500 is the kit that you buy as a gift for someone, or as a child's first computer. I can see this being used in schools and to an extent in offices around the world.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://build.slashdot.org/story/24/12/14/2044250/raspberry-pi-announces-new-90-computer-in-a-keyboard-plus-raspberry-pi-monitor?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

The Washington Post reports:

Years before the internet was created and the first smartphones buzzed to life, an educational platform called PLATO offered a glimpse of the digital world to come. Launched in 1960 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign [UIUC], it was the first generalized, computer-based instructional system, and grew into a home for early message boards, emails, chatrooms, instant messaging and multiplayer video games.

The platform's developer, Donald Bitzer, was a handball-playing, magic-loving electrical engineer who opened his computer lab to practically everyone, welcoming contributions from Illinois undergrads as well as teenagers who were still in high school. Dr. Bitzer, who died Dec. 10 at age 90, spent more than two decades working on PLATO, managing its growth and development while also pioneering digital technologies that included the plasma display panel, a forerunner of the ultrathin screens used on today's TVs and tablets. "All of the features you see kids using now, like discussion boards or forums and blogs, started with PLATO," he said during a 2014 return to Illinois, his alma mater. "All of the social networking we take for granted actually started as an educational tool."

Long-time Slashdot reader theodp found another remembrance online. "Ray Ozzie, whose LinkedIn profile dedicates more space to describing his work as a PLATO developer as a UIUC undergrad than it does to his later successes as a creator of Lotus Notes and as Microsoft's Chief Software Architect, offers his own heartfelt mini-obit." Ozzie writes:

It's difficult to adequately convey how much impact he had on so many, and I implore you to take a few minutes to honor him by reading a bit about him and his contributions. Links below. As an insecure young CS student at UIUC in 1974, Paul Tenczar, working for/with Don, graciously gave me a chance as a jr. systems programmer on the mind-bogglingly forward thinking system known as PLATO. A global, interactive system for learning, collaboration, and community like no other at the time. We were young and in awe of how Don led, inspired, and managed to keep the project alive. I was introverted; shaking; stage fright. Yeah I could code. But how could such a deeply technical engineer assemble such a strong team to execute on such a totally novel and inspirational vision, secure government funding, and yet also demo the product on the Phil Donahue show?

"Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules." You touched so many of us and shaped who we became and the risks we would take, having an impact well beyond that which you created. You made us think and you made us laugh. I hope we made you proud."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/24/12/14/2128209/donald-bitzer-a-pioneer-of-cyberspace-and-plasma-screens-dies-at-90?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shared this report from The Verge:

Waymo's driverless vehicles can detect emergency vehicles, know how to respond to hand signals for traffic cops, and can be disabled manually when something goes wrong, according to an independent review of the company's first responder protocols. As such, the Alphabet company's first responder protocols passed an independent review conducted by Tüv Süd, a German tech inspection company. The firm's assessment found that Waymo's First Responder Program "meets industry standards" for responding to emergency situations, which is in line with the best practices set out in the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)...

Waymo is staking out the position that it goes beyond what's required to prove that its vehicles are trustworthy... The company has also publicly released its own guide for first responders who are responding to incidents involving autonomous vehicles. The 32-page document includes a toll free number for getting in touch with remote operators, a visual guide for disabling the vehicle's autonomous mode, and instructions for how to disconnect the high-voltage battery. Waymo also hosts training sessions for police and fire officials in the cities in which it operates. The company says it has trained 15,000 first responders from over 75 agencies.

Gizmodo notes that Waymo's self-driving cars are already live for paying customers in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin, "with deployment in Miami coming soon."

But Waymo's self-driving cars still attract some mockery online, reports TechCrunch:
A video is circulating on social media showing a Waymo robotaxi going round and round on a roundabout — as if it is stuck in a loop. A Waymo spokesperson told TechCrunch there were no passengers onboard the vehicle in the video and said the company has already addressed the issue by deploying a software update to its fleet.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/12/14/0640258/waymo-robotaxis-pass-emergency-vehicle-review-but-one-got-stuck-in-a-roundabout?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

America's 1994 "Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act" (or CALEA) created the security hole that helped enable a massive telecomm breach. But now America's FBI "is falling back on the same warmed-over, bad advice about encryption that it has trotted out for years," argues the Intercept:

In response to the Salt Typhoon hack, attributed to state-backed hackers from China, the bureau is touting the long-debunked idea that federal agents could access U.S. communications without opening the door to foreign hackers. Critics say the FBI's idea, which it calls "responsibly managed encryption," is nothing more than a rebranding of a government backdoor. "It's not this huge about-face by law enforcement," said Andrew Crocker, the surveillance litigation director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "It's just the same, illogical talking points they have had for 30+ years, where they say, 'Encryption is OK, but we need to be able to access communications.' That is a circle that cannot be squared...."

In a blog post last month, encryption expert Susan Landau said CALEA had long been a "national security disaster waiting to happen... If you build a system so that it is easy to break into, people will do so — both the good guys and the bad. That's the inevitable consequence of CALEA, one we warned would come to pass — and it did," she said...

Sean Vitka, the policy director at the progressive group Demand Progress, said the hack has once again provided damning evidence that government backdoors cannot be secured. "If the FBI cannot keep their wiretap system safe, they absolutely cannot keep the skeleton key to all Apple phones safe," Vitka said.

Thanks to Slashdot reader mspohr for sharing the article.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/24/12/15/0023237/was-the-us-telecom-breach-inevitable-proving-backdoors-cant-be-secure?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Long-time Slashdot reader smooth wombat writes: Scientist have unlocked the secret to a bacteria dubbed 'Conan the Bacterium' which is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most radiant-resistant life-form. Deinococcus radiodurans can withstand radiation doses 28,000 times greater than that which would kill a human [and every other organism]. In addition, this bacteria can survive on the outside of the International Space Station for three years. It can also withstand acid, cold, and dehydration (a D&D player's worst nightmare). All of this protection comes down to a unique antioxidant. The antioxidant is formed by a simple group of small molecules called metabolites, including manganese, phosphate and a small peptide, or molecule, of amino acids.

CNN reports:

The antioxidant is formed by a simple group of small molecules called metabolites, including manganese, phosphate and a small peptide, or molecule, of amino acids. Together, this powerful trilogy is more effective in protecting against radiation than manganese combined with just one of the other components, according to a new study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The findings could be used to protect astronauts from high doses of cosmic radiation on future deep-space missions across our solar system, according to the study authors.

âoeWeâ(TM)ve long known that manganese ions and phosphate together make a strong antioxidant, but discovering and understanding the âmagicâ(TM) potency provided by the addition of the third component is a breakthrough," said study coauthor Brian Hoffman, the Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor of Chemistry and professor of molecular biosciences at Northwestern Universityâ(TM)s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, in a statement...
On Earth, the antioxidant could be used for protection against accidents that release radiation.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/12/15/0142225/why-a-bacteria-can-withstand-radiation-which-would-kill-a-human?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Мэтью Косарек (Matthew Kosarek) из компании Canonical опубликовал выпуск композитного менеджера miracle-wm 0.4, использующего протокол Wayland и компоненты для построения композитных менеджеров Mir. Miracle-wm поддерживает мозаичную (tiling) компоновку окон в стиле проектов i3 и Sway. В качестве панели может применяться Waybar. Код проекта написан на языке C++ и распространяется под лицензией GPLv3. Готовые сборки сформированы в формате snap, а также в пакетах rpm и deb для Fedora и Ubuntu.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=62405

"There are concerns human rights will be breached," reports the BBC, as Wales police forces launch a facial-recognition app that "will allow officers to use their phones to confirm someone's identity."

The app, known as Operator Initiated Facial Recognition (OIFR), has already been tested by 70 officers across south Wales and will be used by South Wales Police and Gwent Police. Police said its use on unconscious or dead people would help officers to identify them promptly so their family can be reached with care and compassion. In cases where someone is wanted for a criminal offence, the forces said it would secure their quick arrest and detention. Police also said cases of mistaken identity would be easily resolved without the need to visit a police station or custody suite.

Police said photos taken using the app would not be retained, and those taken in private places such as houses, schools, medical facilities and places of worship would only be used in situations relating to a risk of significant harm.

Liberty, a civil liberties group, is urging new privacy protections from the government, according to the article, which also includes this quote from Jake Hurfurt, of the civil liberties/privacy group Big Brother Watch. "In Britain, none of us has to identify ourselves to police without very good reason but this unregulated surveillance tech threatens to take that fundamental right away."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/12/14/224222/wales-police-begin-using-a-facial-recognition-phone-app?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

"A man is accused of several felony charges after he allegedly posed as an Uber driver and then stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency from customers in Scottsdale," reports Arizona news channel Fox 10.

"Prosecutors have called it an 'extremely sophisticated electronic fraud,'" reports Gizmodo, " and it's a strange approach to scamming that makes it sound unique in several ways."

Nuruhussein Hussein, 40, allegedly picked up two unsuspecting people who were looking for Uber rides they'd ordered in Scottsdale — one in March and the other in October according to Fox 10 — by shouting their names on the street outside a hotel. It's not clear how Hussein may have known these people were looking for rides and court documents give no indication how he accomplished this or knew the victims would have crypto accounts, according to Fox 10, though a hotel does make sense as a target-rich environment for those looking to get picked up.

Once the victims were in the car, Hussein allegedly obtained the phones of the victims through some kind of pretense, including problems with his own phone and the need to look something up as well as a need to connect with the Uber app, according to NBC News. Hussein would then allegedly open up the victim's Coinbase account. "While manipulating the unsuspecting victim's phone the suspect transferred cryptocurrency from their digital wallet to his digital wallet," police reportedly explained in a statement.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/24/12/14/071245/a-fake-uber-driver-borrowed-phones-then-stole-200k-in-cryptocurrency-police-say?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

После двух лет разработки представлен релиз среды рабочего стола Xfce 4.20, предлагающей классический рабочий стол, потребляющий по возможности минимальные системные ресурсы. Xfce состоит из нескольких взаимосвязанных компонентов, которые при желании можно использовать в других проектах. Среди таких компонентов: оконный менеджер xfwm4, панель для запуска приложений, дисплейный менеджер, менеджер управления пользовательскими сеансами, система управления энергопотреблением, графический конфигуратор, файловый менеджер Thunar, календарь-палнировщик Orage, медиапроигрыватель Parole, текстовый редактор Mousepad, эмулятор терминала xfce4-terminal.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=62406

Witcher 4's first trailer debuted at the 2024 Game Awards — a six-minute cinema-quality thriller. It's a teaser for a game that "aims to be the most immersive and ambitious open-world Witcher game to date," according to an announcement from CD Projekt Red.

The trailer is pre-rendered in a custom build of Unreal Engine 5 on an unannounced NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPU. Powered by the same tech that The Witcher IV is built on, using assets and models from the game itself, it aims to provide players with a cinematic look at the kind of experience the game is aspiring to provide.
The trailer shows "a remote village that has been terrorized for generations by a fearsome monster demanding human sacrifices..." their announcement notes. ("At the heart of the trailer is Ciri's perspective as an outsider to the village.") "Geralt will appear in the game, but we don't want to spoil his role precisely," CD Projekt Red told IGN.

Kotaku reminds fans there's also Netflix's animated movie The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep in February 2025 — plus the first new Witcher novel in over a decade (with an English translation) expected sometime next year as well...

Thanks to Slashdot reader jjslash for sharing the news.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://games.slashdot.org/story/24/12/14/233211/new-the-witcher-4-trailer-pre-rendered-on-an-unannounced-nvidia-geforce-rtx-gpu?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Researchers used Canada's national synchrotron light source facility "to analyze a new type of lithium-ion battery material — called a single-crystal electrode — that's been charging and discharging non-stop in a Halifax lab for more than six years," reports Tech Xplore.

The results? The battery material "lasted more than 20,000 cycles before it hit the 80% capacity cutoff," which they say is equivalent to driving 8 million kms (nearly 5 million miles). That's more than eight times the life of a regular lithium-ion battery that lasted 2,400 cycles before reaching the 80% cutoff — and "When the researchers looked at the single crystal electrode battery, they saw next to no evidence of this mechanical stress." (One says the material "looked very much like a brand-new cell."

Toby Bond [a senior scientist at the CLS, who conducted the research for his Ph.D.] attributes the near absence of degradation in the new style battery to the difference in the shape and behavior of the particles that make up the battery electrodes... The single crystal is, as its name implies, one big crystal: it's more like an ice cube. "If you have a snowball in one hand, and an ice cube in the other, it's a lot easier to crush the snowball," says Bond. "The ice cube is much more resistant to mechanical stress and strain." While researchers have for some time known that this new battery type resists the micro cracking that lithium-ion batteries are so susceptible to, this is the first time anyone has studied a cell that's been cycled for so long...

Bond says what's most exciting about the research is that it suggests we may be near the point where the battery is no longer the limiting component in an EV — as it may outlast the other parts of the car. The new batteries are already being produced commercially, says Bond, and their use should ramp up significantly within the next couple of years. "I think work like this just helps underscore how reliable they are, and it should help companies that are manufacturing and using these batteries to plan for the long term."
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 for sharing the news.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/24/12/14/2350202/single-crystal-lithium-ion-batteries-last-8x-longer-researchers-show?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

"In a tiny handful of places..." Wired wrote last month, "you can find yourself flanked by taxis with no one in the drivers' seats." But they added that "Granted, practically everyone has been numbed by the hype cycle."

Wired's response? "[P]ile a few of us into an old-fashioned, human-piloted hired car, then follow a single Waymo robotaxi wherever it goes for a whole workday" to "study its movements, its relationship to life on the streets, its whole self-driving gestalt. We'll interview as many of its passengers as will speak to us, and observe it through the eyes of the kind of human driver it's designed to replace."

This week Wired senior editor John Gravios discussed the experience on the business-news radio show Marketplace (with Marketplace host Kai Ryssdal):

Ryssdal: What kinds of reactions did you get from people once you track them down, what did they say about their experience in this driverless car?

Gravios:It was pretty uniform and impressive how much people just love it. They just like the experience of the drive, I guess it's a little bit less herky-jerky than a human driver, but I think a lot of it just comes down to people are just kind of relieved not to have to talk to somebody else, as as sad as that is...

Ryssdal: Tell me about Gabe, your Uber driver, and his thoughts on this whole thing, because that was super interesting.

Gravios: So Gabe, this is a guy whose labor is directly at stake. You know, he's a guy whose labor is going to be replaced by a Waymo. He's had 30 years of experience as a professional driver, first as a taxi driver. He even organized a taxi driver strike in the days before Uber. His first, I think his prejudice with Waymo is having shared the road with them sort of sporadically, he thought of them as kind of dopey, rule-following, frustrating vehicles to share the road with. But over the course of the day, he started to recognize that the Waymo was driving a lot like a taxi driver. The Waymo was doing things that were aggressive, that are exactly the kinds of things that a taxi driver is trained to be aggressive with and doing things that were cautious that are exactly the kinds of things that taxi drivers are trained to be cautious with.

Ryssdal: Can we talk unit economics here? According to the math from a study you guys' cite, Waymo is not making a whole lot of money per vehicle, right? And eventually they're going to scale, and it's going to work out, but for the moment, even though they've gotten 11 billion-something-dollars, they're not turning a whole lot of profit here.
Gravios: Yeah, that's a big question, and the math is, even that study, based on a lot of guesswork. It's really hard to say what the unit economics are. What we can say is that the ridership rates are going up so fast that that study is already well out of date. When we were doing our chase, I think the monthly ridership for Waymo was 100,000 rides a month. By October, it was already 150,000 rides a month. So, the economics are just shifting under our feet a lot.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/12/14/0634207/are-people-starting-to-love-self-driving-robotaxis?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.