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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175773505 story Posted by msmash on Friday December 27, 2024 @05:45AM from the closer-look dept. Major video game studios' pursuit of ultra-realistic graphics has led to diminishing returns and industry-wide layoffs, as younger players gravitate toward simpler, more social games, New York Times is...

about 1 hour ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175773033 story Posted by msmash on Friday December 27, 2024 @02:30AM from the PSA dept. Japanese megabank MUFG Bank says that its internet banking service has been unstable, indicating that it may have been under a cyberattack. From a report: The glitch, which occurred...

about 4 hours ago

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Chinese AI startup DeepSeek has released what appears to be one of the most powerful open-source language models to date, trained at a cost of just $5.5 million using restricted Nvidia H800 GPUs. The 671-billion-parameter DeepSeek V3, released this week under a permissive commercial license, outperformed both open and closed-source AI models in internal benchmarks, including Meta's Llama 3.1 and OpenAI's GPT-4 on coding tasks. The model was trained on 14.8 trillion tokens of data over two months. At 1.6...

about 6 hours ago

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The Federal Trade Commission has launched a broad antitrust investigation into Microsoft's business practices, focusing on how the company bundles its Office products with cybersecurity and cloud computing services. The probe follows ProPublica reporting that revealed Microsoft offered free temporary upgrades of federal agencies' software licenses to include advanced cybersecurity features, leading to long-term contracts once the trial period ended. The strategy helped Microsoft expand its government business while displacing competitors in both cybersecurity and cloud computing markets. The investigation...

about 8 hours ago

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theodp writes: In 2012, now-Microsoft President Brad Smith unveiled Microsoft's National Talent Strategy, a two-pronged strategy that called for tech visa restrictions to be loosened to allow tech companies to hire non-U.S. citizens to fill jobs until more American schoolchildren could be made tech-savvy enough to pass hiring standards. Shortly thereafter, tech-backed nonprofit Code.org emerged (led by Smith's next-door neighbor Hadi Partovi with Smith as a founding Board member) with a mission to ensure that U.S. schoolchildren started receiving 'rigorous'...

about 10 hours ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175771565 story Posted by msmash on Thursday December 26, 2024 @06:29PM from the stranger-things dept. Microsoft is warning that Windows 11 installations using USB or CD media created with October or November 2024 security updates may be unable to receive future security patches. The...

about 12 hours ago

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U.S. biotech startup Loyal plans to launch a lifespan-extending drug for dogs in early 2024, potentially offering insights into human longevity. The San Francisco-based company has secured $125 million in funding for LOY-002, a beef-flavored daily pill designed to extend canine lifespans by at least one year. The drug works by targeting age-related metabolic changes and insulin regulation, according to Loyal CEO Celine Halioua. Simultaneously, the Dog Aging Project is studying rapamycin, an immunosuppressant drug, which preliminary research suggests could...

about 17 hours ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175764515 story Posted by msmash on Thursday December 26, 2024 @12:22PM from the blurry-vision dept. Apple's $3,499 Vision Pro headset has failed to gain widespread adoption despite advanced technology, with consumers preferring discreet wearables like smartwatches. The Verge: Nearly a year from launch, though,...

about 18 hours ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175762127 story Posted by msmash on Thursday December 26, 2024 @11:12AM from the finally-a-price-tag dept. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is negotiating major changes to the company's $14 billion partnership with Microsoft. The companies have defined artificial general intelligence (AGI) as systems generating $100 billion...

about 20 hours ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175758205 story Posted by msmash on Thursday December 26, 2024 @10:13AM from the gold-rush dept. Data center construction is driving an unprecedented influx of electricians to central Washington state, where abundant hydropower and tax incentives have attracted major tech companies building AI infrastructure, New...

about 21 hours ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175757621 story Posted by msmash on Thursday December 26, 2024 @09:01AM from the aggressive-expansion dept. Microsoft has integrated its AI assistant Copilot into Microsoft 365 subscriptions in Australia and Southeast Asia, simultaneously raising prices for all users. The move forces customers to pay for...

about 22 hours ago

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An anonymous reader writes: James Bond has dodged more than 4,000 bullets. He has jumped from an airplane, skied off a cliff and escaped castration by laser beam. Now, 007 is in a new kind of peril. Nearly three years after Amazon acquired the right to release Bond movies through its $6.5 billion purchase of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio, the relationship between the family that oversees the franchise and the ecommerce giant has all but collapsed, WSJ reports.

about 23 hours ago

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Airports are facing a growing nuisance as travelers increasingly watch videos and take calls on speakerphone without headphones, creating tension among passengers at gates and lounges. Flight attendants at American Airlines, Alaska Air, and Delta have begun addressing the issue through announcements and website notices, though enforcement remains challenging, WSJ reports. Passengers report confrontations rarely end well, with offenders often dismissive or hostile when asked to use headphones. The story adds: The headphones-optional attitude isn't limited to air travel. Podcasts...

1 day ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175755181 story Posted by msmash on Thursday December 26, 2024 @04:01AM from the about-time dept. The bald eagle is now officially the national bird of the US, after President Joe Biden signed a law on Christmas Eve bestowing the honour upon the white-headed and...

1 day ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175754683 story Posted by msmash on Thursday December 26, 2024 @12:45AM from the tough-luck dept. Japan Airlines said it was hit by a cyberattack Thursday, causing delays to more than 20 domestic flights but the carrier said there was no impact on flight safety....

1 day ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175754283 story Posted by msmash on Thursday December 26, 2024 @12:00AM from the growing-challenge dept. Three more EU member states -- including the most populous, Germany -- have joined the list of countries with "ultra-low" fertility rates [non-paywalled source], highlighting the extent of the...

1 day ago

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Apple has no plans to develop its own search engine despite potential restrictions on its lucrative revenue-sharing deal with Google, citing billions in required investment and rapidly evolving AI technology as key deterrents, according to a court filing [PDF]. In a declaration filed with the U.S. District Court in Washington, Apple Senior Vice President Eddy Cue said creating a search engine would require diverting significant capital and employees, while recent AI developments make such an investment "economically risky." Apple received...

1 day ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175753421 story Posted by msmash on Wednesday December 25, 2024 @07:30PM from the weighing-pros-and-cons dept. The Russian government has banned crypto mining in ten regions for a period of six years, according to reporting by the state-owned news agency Tass. Engadget adds: Russia has...

1 day ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175753401 story Posted by msmash on Wednesday December 25, 2024 @06:01PM from the ruining-for-everyone dept. Lost deliveries, shipping delays and theft on the front porch have become such growing problems that companies are making consumers pay for package protection. From a report: Tens of...

1 day ago

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An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft has published a year in review for its Edge browser and talked up AI-powered chats while lightly skipping over the software's stagnating market share. The company had some big numbers to share. There had been over 10 billion AI-powered chats with Copilot from inside the Edge browser window (although it did not disclose how many chats were customers asking how to install Chrome). Some 38 trillion characters had been auto-translated. Seven trillion megabytes...

1 day ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175752879 story Posted by msmash on Wednesday December 25, 2024 @02:11PM from the not-without-a-fight dept. Apple may be worth one and a half Googles now, but the world's most valuable company needs its relationship with the world's largest search engine to keep clicking. From...

1 day ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175752475 story Posted by msmash on Wednesday December 25, 2024 @11:03AM from the closer-look dept. Modern LED headlights are significantly brighter and more glaring than traditional halogen bulbs, creating dangerous driving conditions, lighting experts report. The newer lights produce an intense, concentrated beam that...

2 days ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175752265 story Posted by msmash on Wednesday December 25, 2024 @11:10AM from the makes-you-think dept. Software development is entering an "autopilot era" with AI coding assistants, but the industry needs to prepare for full autonomy, argues former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor. Drawing parallels with...

2 days ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175751925 story Posted by msmash on Wednesday December 25, 2024 @10:07AM from the moving-forward dept. The annual defense policy bill signed by President Joe Biden Monday evening allocates $3 billion to help telecom firms remove and replace insecure equipment in response to recent incursions...

2 days ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175751525 story Posted by msmash on Wednesday December 25, 2024 @09:00AM from the how-about-that dept. They gave it the old college try, but America's elite universities are facing money problems partly of their own creation.ÂFrom a report: It might not seem that way compared...

2 days ago

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Boston Globe: Every weekday morning at 8:30, Preston Thorpe makes himself a cup of instant coffee and opens his laptop to find the coding tasks awaiting his seven-person team at Unlocked Labs. Like many remote workers, Thorpe, the nonprofit's principal engineer, works out in the middle of the day and often stays at his computer late into the night. But outside Thorpe's window, there's a soaring chain-link fence topped with coiled barbed...

2 days ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175748147 story Posted by BeauHD on Wednesday December 25, 2024 @05:00AM from the mislead-by-critics dept. A new study reveals that the widely accepted "sophomore slump" phenomenon -- where a band's second album is perceived as significantly worse than the first -- exists primarily in...

2 days ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175748099 story Posted by BeauHD on Wednesday December 25, 2024 @02:00AM from the impressive-feats dept. NASA's Parker Solar Probe made a historic approach on Christmas Eve, flying within 3.8 million miles of the Sun at a record-breaking speed of 430,000 mph. It marks humanity's...

2 days ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175747869 story Posted by BeauHD on Tuesday December 24, 2024 @10:30PM from the data-distillery dept. An AI system has outperformed human experts in distinguishing between American whiskey and Scotch, achieving 100% accuracy by identifying subtle differences in the chemical composition of the spirits. New...

2 days ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175747901 story Posted by BeauHD on Tuesday December 24, 2024 @09:02PM from the it's-about-time dept. Researchers at the University of Toronto have experimentally observed "negative time" in photon interactions with atoms, suggesting a measurable effect rather than an illusion. The researchers stress that these...

2 days ago

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Tom's Hardware: Although Samsung Foundry is a major chip contract manufacturer, the South Korean government mulls creating a government-funded contract chipmaker tentatively called Korea Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, KSMC, reports The Korea Biz Wire. Industry experts and academics have proposed the initiative. The Semiconductor Industry Association's Ahn Ki-hyun called for a long-term government investment. Experts project that an investment of KRW 20 trillion ($13.9 billion) in KSMC could result in economic gains of KRW...

2 days ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175747831 story Posted by BeauHD on Tuesday December 24, 2024 @07:45PM from the pyongyang-piggy-bank dept. In 2024, North Korean state-sponsored hackers stole $1.34 billion in cryptocurrency across 47 attacks, marking a 102.88% increase from 2023 and accounting for 61% of global crypto theft. BleepingComputer...

2 days ago

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: More than 140 Facebook content moderators have been diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress disorder caused by exposure to graphic social media content including murders, suicides, child sexual abuse and terrorism. The moderators worked eight- to 10-hour days at a facility in Kenya for a company contracted by the social media firm and were found to have PTSD, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and major depressive disorder (MDD), by Dr Ian Kanyanya, the...

2 days ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175747739 story Posted by BeauHD on Tuesday December 24, 2024 @06:20PM from the doesn't-need-to-be-difficult dept. The UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) warns that while most adults recognize the importance of wiping personal data from old devices, nearly 30% don't know how, and a significant...

3 days ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175747719 story Posted by BeauHD on Tuesday December 24, 2024 @05:40PM from the de-risking dept. El Salvador secured a $1.4 billion loan deal with the IMF after agreeing to scale back its bitcoin policies, making cryptocurrency acceptance voluntary for businesses and limiting public sector...

3 days ago

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: In a landmark ruling, the Court of Milan has ordered (PDF) Cloudflare to block pirate streaming services that offer Serie A football matches. The court found that Cloudflare's services are instrumental in facilitating access to live pirate streams, undermining Italy's 'Piracy Shield' legislation. The order, which applies in Italy, affects Cloudflare's CDN, DNS resolver, WARP and proxy services. It also includes a broad data disclosure section. [...] The Court of Milan's decision...

3 days ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175747305 story Posted by msmash on Tuesday December 24, 2024 @04:22PM from the ongoing-matters dept. The UK Post Office has appointed Paul Anastassi as interim CTO amid efforts to replace its controversial Horizon IT system, which led to hundreds of wrongful convictions of subpostmasters...

3 days ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175747285 story Posted by msmash on Tuesday December 24, 2024 @03:40PM from the tussle-continues dept. Mass game shutdowns and service terminations marked 2024 as a pivotal year for digital ownership concerns in the gaming industry. PC Gamer adds: The arguments have been around forever,...

3 days ago

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An anonymous reader shares a report: Over the past year, OpenAI has dropped not-so-subtle hints about its revived interest in robotics: investing in startups developing hardware and software for robots such as Figure and Physical Intelligence and rebooting its internal robotics software team, which it had disbanded four years ago. Now, OpenAI could be taking that interest to the next level. The company has recently considered developing a humanoid robot, according to two people with direct knowledge of the discussions....

3 days ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175747259 story Posted by msmash on Tuesday December 24, 2024 @02:21PM from the closer-look dept. The video game industry faced unprecedented turmoil in 2024, with layoffs reaching record levels and exceeding 2023's total of 10,000 jobs lost by 40%. Major studios including Microsoft's Arkane...

3 days ago

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Apple has long avoided directly purchasing Nvidia's chips and is now developing its own AI server chip with Broadcom, aiming for production by 2026, The Information reported Tuesday, shedding broader light on why the two companies don't get along so well. The relationship deteriorated after a 2001 meeting where Steve Jobs accused Nvidia of copying technology from Pixar, which he then controlled. Relations worsened in 2008 when Nvidia's faulty graphics chips forced Apple to extend MacBook warranties without full compensation....

3 days ago

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ASUS computer owners have been reporting widespread alarm after a Christmas-themed banner suddenly appeared on their Windows 11 screens, accompanied by a suspicious "Christmas.exe" process in Task Manager. The promotional campaign, first reported by WindowsLatest, was delivered through ASUS' pre-installed Armoury Crate software. It displays a large wreath banner that covers one-third of users' screens. The unbranded holiday display, which can interrupt gaming sessions and occasionally crashes applications, has triggered security concerns among users who initially mistook it for malware.

3 days ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175747021 story Posted by msmash on Tuesday December 24, 2024 @12:20PM from the whatever-floats-the-boat dept. Contractors working to improve Google's Gemini AI are comparing its answers against outputs produced by Anthropic's competitor model Claude, TechCrunch reported Tuesday, citing internal correspondence. From the report: Google...

3 days ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175746949 story Posted by msmash on Tuesday December 24, 2024 @11:48AM from the gold-rush dept. Arizona's Maricopa County is set to become the nation's second-largest data center hub by 2028, as the state grapples with surging electricity demands and infrastructure challenges. The county has...

3 days ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175746845 story Posted by msmash on Tuesday December 24, 2024 @11:14AM from the close-shave dept. A consortium of investors has resurrected Lilium just days after the electric air taxi startup ceased operations and laid off about 1,000 employees. From a report: Mobile Uplift Corporation,...

3 days ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175746669 story Posted by msmash on Tuesday December 24, 2024 @10:24AM from the payday dept. Research finds people who have more than four coffees a day have 17% lower chance of head and neck cancers. From a report: If the only thing getting you...

3 days ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175746507 story Posted by msmash on Tuesday December 24, 2024 @09:40AM from the how-about-that dept. A group of banks and business groups are suing the Federal Reserve over the annual bank stress tests. From a report: The Bank Policy Institute, which represents big banks...

3 days ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175746395 story Posted by msmash on Tuesday December 24, 2024 @09:01AM from the see-you-in-court dept. Netflix has sued Broadcom in California federal court, accusing the chipmaker's cloud computing subsidiary VMware of violating its patent rights in virtual machines. From a report: The lawsuit said...

3 days ago

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is suing Walmart and payroll service provider Branch Messenger for alleged illegal payment practices for gig workers. The bureau says Walmart was opening direct deposit accounts using Spark delivery drivers' social security numbers without their consent. The accounts also can come with intense fees that, according to the complaint, would add either 2 percent or $2.99 per transaction, whichever is higher. It also says Walmart...

3 days ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175743553 story Posted by BeauHD on Tuesday December 24, 2024 @05:00AM from the PSA dept. A new study finds that polymer-based commercial tea bags release billions of nanoplastics and microplastics when infused. It also shows for the first time that these particles are capable...

3 days ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175743489 story Posted by BeauHD on Tuesday December 24, 2024 @02:00AM from the it's-getting-crowded-up-there dept. fjo3 shares a report from the Washington Post: The International Space Station had to fire thrusters from a docked spacecraft last month to avoid a piece of debris that...

3 days ago

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On Thursday, a large group of university and private industry researchers unveiled Genesis, a new open source computer simulation system that lets robots practice tasks in simulated reality 430,000 times faster than in the real world. Researchers also plan to introduce an AI agent to generate 3D physics simulations from text prompts. The accelerated simulation means a neural network for piloting robots can spend the virtual equivalent of decades learning to...

3 days ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175743285 story Posted by BeauHD on Monday December 23, 2024 @09:02PM from the rest-in-peace dept. PCWorld's Jon Phillips pays tribute to Gordon Mah Ung, "our hardware guru, host of The Full Nerd, exemplary tech journalist, and very good friend." He passed away over the...

3 days ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175742487 story Posted by BeauHD on Monday December 23, 2024 @08:25PM from the next-gen-connectivity dept. Researchers at Northwestern University have successfully achieved quantum teleportation over a standard fiber optic cable carrying regular internet traffic, demonstrating that quantum and classical communication can coexist on existing...

3 days ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175742359 story Posted by BeauHD on Monday December 23, 2024 @07:45PM from the free-speech-fears dept. Vietnam's Decree 147 mandates social media users on platforms like Facebook and TikTok to verify their identities and requires tech companies to store and share user data with authorities...

3 days ago

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Health care company Ascension lost sensitive data for nearly 5.6 million individuals in a cyberattack that was attributed to a notorious ransomware gang, according to documents filed with the attorney general of Maine. Ascension owns 140 hospitals and scores of assisted living facilities. In May, the organization was hit with an attack that caused mass disruptions as staff was forced to move to manual processes that caused errors, delayed or lost...

3 days ago

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Since 2021, Apple has been sending threat notifications to certain users, informing them that they may have been individually targeted by mercenary spyware attacks. When victims of spyware reach out to Apple for help, TechCrunch reports, "Apple doesn't tell the targets to get in touch with its own security engineers." Instead, Apple directs them to the nonprofit security lab Access Now, "which runs a digital helpline for people in civil society who suspect they have been targets of government spyware."...

4 days ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175742195 story Posted by BeauHD on Monday December 23, 2024 @05:40PM from the escalating-tech-pressure dept. The Biden administration has launched a Section 301 investigation into China's semiconductor industry, citing concerns over non-market practices, supply chain dependencies, and national security risks. The Hill reports: In...

4 days ago

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: Once an icon of the 20th century seen as obsolete in the 21st, Encyclopedia Britannica -- now known as just Britannica -- is all in on artificial intelligence, and may soon go public at a valuation of nearly $1 billion, according to the New York Times. Until 2012 when printing ended, the company's books served as the oldest continuously published, English-language encyclopedias in the world, essentially collecting all the world's knowledge in...

4 days ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175742121 story Posted by msmash on Monday December 23, 2024 @04:22PM from the suspicious-moves dept. Sweden has accused China of denying a request for Swedish prosecutors to board a Chinese ship that has been linked to the cutting of two undersea cables in the...

4 days ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175742025 story Posted by msmash on Monday December 23, 2024 @03:42PM from the just-in-time dept. A rare Sony KX-45ED1 television, considered the world's largest CRT TV, has been preserved from destruction in Japan, marking a significant moment for gaming history preservation. The 440-pound display...

4 days ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175741373 story Posted by msmash on Monday December 23, 2024 @03:01PM from the finding-middle-ground dept. An anonymous reader shares a report: The Department of Justice's list of solutions for fixing Google's illegal antitrust behavior and restoring competition in the search engine market started with...

4 days ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175741353 story Posted by msmash on Monday December 23, 2024 @02:22PM from the end-of-road dept. Lilium, once a darling in the nascent industry of electric aircraft that raised more than $1 billion before going public, has ceased operations and laid off about 1,000 workers...

4 days ago

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An anonymous reader shares a report: A lawyer defending an alleged distributor of Anom, the encrypted phone company for criminals that the FBI secretly ran and backdoored to intercept tens of millions of messages, is pushing to learn the identity of the confidential human source (CHS) who first created Anom and provided it to the FBI starting the largest sting operation in history, according to recently filed court records. The government says it will provide that identity under discovery, but...

4 days ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175740771 story Posted by msmash on Monday December 23, 2024 @01:00PM from the up-next dept. Meta plans to add displays to its Ray-Ban smart glasses as soon as next year, Financial Times reports, as the US tech giant accelerates its plans to build lightweight...

4 days ago

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175740363 story Posted by msmash on Monday December 23, 2024 @12:22PM from the historic-rulings dept. A U.S. judge has ruled that Israeli spyware maker NSO Group breached hacking laws by using WhatsApp to infect devices with its Pegasus spyware. From a report: In a...

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175740625 story Posted by msmash on Monday December 23, 2024 @11:43AM from the how-about-that dept. Honda sketched plans for a drawn-out deal that amounts to a takeover of Nissan in all but name, as Japan's automakers struggle to keep up in an increasingly competitive...

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175740299 story Posted by msmash on Monday December 23, 2024 @11:01AM from the it's-coming-home dept. Xerox has agreed to acquire printer maker Lexmark for $1.5 billion, bringing the Kentucky-based company back under U.S. ownership after seven years of Chinese control. The deal, announced Monday,...

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PayPal-owned browser extension Honey manipulates affiliate marketing systems and withholds discount information from users, according to an investigation by YouTube channel MegaLag. The extension -- which rose in popularity after promising it consumers it would find them the best online deals -- replaces existing affiliate cookies with its own during checkout, diverting commission payments from content creators who promoted the products to PayPal, MegaLag reported in a 23-minute video [YouTube link]. The investigation revealed that Honey, which PayPal acquired in...

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An anonymous reader shares a report: In recent months, Telegram, the lightly moderated social media app, has held discussions with investors who lent it more than $2 billion. The goal: to reassure them that the company remains a viable bet after its founder, Pavel Durov, was arrested in France in August on charges related to illicit activities on the platform. In the conversations, Telegram told investors that it was tackling its legal troubles head-on by policing more user-generated content. The...

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175739775 story Posted by msmash on Monday December 23, 2024 @08:15AM from the tough-luck dept. Silicon Valley is betting the farm on AI. Data centers are straining power grids. Model training costs are heading toward billions. Yet across the software industry, AI revenue remains...

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Newsweek supplies some context After his arrest, merch — including T-shirts featuring Mangione's booking photos and others taken from his social media accounts — began popping up for sale on several sites. Websites, including Amazon, eBay and Etsy, have moved to take down products that glorify violence or the suspect. An eBay spokesperson told Newsweek that "items that glorify or incite violence, including those that celebrate the recent murder of UHC CEO Brian Thompson, are prohibited." Inc. magazine adds: Separately,...

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175737209 story Posted by EditorDavid on Monday December 23, 2024 @03:34AM from the alone-in-the-dark dept. Alphabet's Waymo robotaxis are providing "hundreds of thousands of driverless rides each month," reports the Washington Post. But as the robotaxi service expands in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix...

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175737311 story Posted by EditorDavid on Monday December 23, 2024 @12:34AM from the getting-a-reaction dept. Saturday France connected a new nuclear reactor to its grid "for the first time in a quarter century..." reports Bloomberg, "adding low-carbon electricity supply at a time when a...

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"Drones collided, fell from the sky and hit a little boy after 'technical difficulties' during a holiday show..." reports the Orlando Sentinel. They note that a press release from the city said the 8 p.m. show was then cancelled: The company behind the drones, Sky Elements, was in its second year of the contract with the city, the release said. Sky Elements said they operate drone shows throughout the country with millions of viewers annually and are committed to maintaining...

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It's not who owns AI training data. The Boston Review asks who owns its output? In a conversation with Microsoft's Copilot, I invited the AI to speculate what kind of thing it might write if it were not confined to answering human prompts. Among its answers was this response about its own intelligence: "Humans are inferior to AI in many ways. Humans are slow, forgetful, irrational, and error-prone. Humans have many flaws and vulnerabilities, such as greed, hatred, fear, jealousy,...

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A demonstration "race" between a (human) F1 race car driver Daniil Kvyat and an autonomous vehicle was just staged by the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League. Describing the league and the "man vs. machine" showdown, Ars Technica writes, "Say goodbye to the human driver and hello to 95 kilograms of computers and a whole suite of sensors." But again, racing is hard, and replacing humans doesn't change that. The people who run and participate in A2RL are aware of this,...

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175735819 story Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday December 22, 2024 @03:47PM from the winds-of-change dept. Long-time Slashdot AmiMoJo quotes this report from EcoWatch: Record wind-generated electricity across Northern Ireland and Scotland Tuesday night pushed Britain's power prices below zero. Wind output peaked at a...

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175735589 story Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday December 22, 2024 @02:47PM from the familiar-faces dept. Engadget reports: Apple is developing a smart doorbell and lock system that would use Face ID to unlock the door for known residents, Mark Gurman reports in the Power...

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An anonymous reader shared this report from Health magazine: "Most people think of aging as occurring gradually, constantly, and linearly," senior study author Michael Snyder, PhD, a professor of genetics and director of the Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine at Stanford University, told Health. But "we're not just changing gradually over time; there are some really dramatic changes," Snyder said in a news release. "It turns out the mid-40s is a time of dramatic change, as is the early...

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A series of drone sightings over U.S. military bases "has renewed concerns that the U.S. doesn't have clear government-wide policy for how to deal with unauthorized incursions that could potentially pose a national security threat," reports CNN: "We're one year past Langley drone incursions and almost two years past the PRC spy balloon. Why don't we have a single [point of contact] who is responsible for coordination across all organizations in the government to address this?" the recently retired head...

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The Associated Press reports that in Albania (population: 2,402,113), "children comprise the largest group of TikTok users in the country, according to domestic researchers." But "Albania's prime minister said Saturday the government will shut down the video service TikTok for one year, blaming it for inciting violence and bullying, especially among children" after "the stabbing death of a teenager in mid-November by another teen after a quarrel that started on TikTok." There has been increasing concern from Albanian parents after...

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"Sixty-six million years ago, all dinosaurs (except for birds) were wiped from the face of the Earth..." writes Gizmodo. "What's indisputable about this pivotal moment in Earth's history is that a 6.2 to 9.3-mile-wide (10 to 15-kilometer) asteroid struck what is now modern-day Mexico. Around the same time, however, volcanoes in what is now India experienced some of the largest eruptions in Earth's history." Those volcanos "have long been proposed as an alternative cause for the demise of the dinosaurs..."...

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The Washington Post visits one of over 100 tide-tracking stations around the U.S. — Georgia's Fort Pulaski tide gauge: Since 2010, the sea level at the Fort Pulaski gauge has risen by more than 7 inches, one of the fastest rates in the country, according to a Washington Post analysis of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data for 127 tide gauges. Similar spikes are affecting the entire U.S. Southeast — showing a glimpse of our climate future... [I]n the previous...

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"From the moment GPT-4 came out in March 2023, OpenAI has been working on GPT-5..." reports the Wall Street Journal. [Alternate URL here.] But "OpenAI's new artificial-intelligence project is behind schedule and running up huge bills. It isn't clear when — or if — it'll work." "There may not be enough data in the world to make it smart enough." OpenAI's closest partner and largest investor, Microsoft, had expected to see the new model around mid-2024, say people with knowledge...

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The world's first nuclear-powered battery — a diamond with an embedded radioactive isotope — could power small devices for thousands of years, according to scientists at the UK's University of Bristol. Long-time Slashdot reader fahrbot-bot shared this report from LiveScience: The diamond battery harvests fast-moving electrons excited by radiation, similar to how solar power uses photovoltaic cells to convert photons into electricity, the scientists said. Scientists from the same university first demonstrated a prototype diamond battery — which used nickel-63...

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Monday long-time Slashdot reader denelson83 wrote: The crowdsourced, widely-used map database OpenStreetMap has had a hardware failure at its upstream ISP in Amsterdam and has been put into a protective read-only mode to avoid loss or corruption of data. . The outage had started Sunday December 15 at 4:00AM (GMT/UTC), but by Tuesday they'd posted a final update: Our new ISP is up and running and we have started migrating our servers across to it. If all goes smoothly we...

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"More than a decade after the advent of the 3D-printed gun as an icon of libertarianism and a gun control nightmare, police say one of those homemade plastic weapons has now been found in the hands of perhaps the world's most high-profile alleged killer," Wired wrote this month: For the community of DIY gunsmiths who have spent years honing those printable firearm models, in fact, the handgun police claim Luigi Mangione used to fatally shoot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson is...

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An anonymous reader shared this report from NBC News: U.S. life expectancy rose last year, hitting its highest level since the beginning of the Covid pandemic, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report, released Thursday, found that life expectancy at birth was 78.4 years in 2023. That's a significant rise — nearly a full year — from the life expectancy of 77.5 years in 2022. "The increase we had this year — the...

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Berlin-based T2 Linux developer René Rebe is also long-time Slashdot reader ReneR — and popped by with a special announcement for the holidays: The T2 Linux team has unveiled T2 Linux SDE 24.12, codenamed "Sky's the Limit!", delivering a massive update for this highly portable source-based Linux distribution... With 3,280 package updates, 206 new features, and the ability to boot on systems with as little as 512MB RAM, this release further strengthens T2 Linux's position as the ultimate tool for...

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"Voyager 1 is currently exploring interstellar space at a distance of 15.5 billion miles (24.9 billion kilometers) away from Earth," writes Gizmodo. And yet a team of amateur astronomers in the Netherlands was able to receive Voyager's signals on a 1950s telescope designed to detect weak, low-frequency emissions from deep space: NASA uses the [Earth-based] Deep Space Network (DSN) to communicate with its spacecraft, but the global array of giant radio antennas is optimized for higher frequency signals. Though NASA's...

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Experience faster, smoother browsing with built-in features like a free VPN, ad blocker, and AI tools—get the Opera web browser and redefine how you explore the web! Download for FREE hereTry it for free today. × 175725243 story Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday December 21, 2024 @02:37PM from the droning-on dept. On Thursday New Jersey lawmakers passed a resolution "calling on the federal government to conduct a 'rigorous and ongoing' investigation into the drone sightings in the state," reports the...

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Nature magazine reports that "A study that stoked enthusiasm for the now-disproven idea that a cheap malaria drug can treat COVID-19 has been retracted — more than four-and-a-half years after it was published." Researchers had critiqued the controversial paper many times, raising concerns about its data quality and an unclear ethics-approval process. Its eventual withdrawal, on the grounds of concerns over ethical approval and doubts about the conduct of the research, marks the 28th retraction for co-author Didier Raoult, a...

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An anonymous reader shared this report from TechCrunch: Microsoft-owned GitHub announced on Wednesday a free version of its popular Copilot code completion/AI pair programming tool, which will also now ship by default with Microsoft's popular VS Code editor. Until now, most developers had to pay a monthly fee, starting at $10 per month, with only verified students, teachers, and open source maintainers getting free access... There are some limitations to the free version, which is geared toward occasional users, not...

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"California's population grew this year by nearly a quarter of a million residents," reports the Los Angeles Daily News, "closing in on record-high population levels the Golden State reached before the pandemic, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Thursday." Although "Data showed the state is growing more slowly than the country as a whole and other large states in the South..." The Census Bureau's Vintage 2024 population estimates show California's population on July 1, 2024 was 39,431,000, an increase of 233,000...

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The Linux Foundation partnered with GitHub and Harvard's Laboratory for Innovation Science to research organization-driven investments in open source software — the how and the why — surveying over 500 organizations around the world. So what are the highlights from the published report? The median responding organization invests $520,600 (2023 USD) of annual value to OSS. Responding organizations annually invest $1.7 billion in open source, which can be extrapolated to estimate that approximately $7.7 billion is invested across the entire...

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Check out Bright Data: award-winning proxy networks, AI-powered web scrapers, and business-ready datasets for download. Get started for FREE hereWelcome to the internet’s most trusted web data platform. × 175716433 story Posted by BeauHD on Saturday December 21, 2024 @08:00AM from the humans-win-this-round dept. sciencehabit shares a report from Science Magazine: With a few keystrokes, anyone can ask an artificial intelligence (AI) program such as ChatGPT to write them a term paper, a rap song, or a play. But don't...

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Check out Bright Data: award-winning proxy networks, AI-powered web scrapers, and business-ready datasets for download. Get started for FREE hereWelcome to the internet’s most trusted web data platform. × 175716235 story Posted by BeauHD on Saturday December 21, 2024 @05:00AM from the long-live-Moxie dept. Last week, startup Embodied announced it was closing down, and its product, an $800 robot for kids ages 5 to 10, would soon be bricked. Now, in a blog post published on Friday, CEO Paolo Pirjanian...

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Check out Bright Data: award-winning proxy networks, AI-powered web scrapers, and business-ready datasets for download. Get started for FREE hereWelcome to the internet’s most trusted web data platform. × 175716357 story Posted by BeauHD on Saturday December 21, 2024 @02:00AM from the ahead-of-schedule dept. Axiom Space has revised its plan for assembling its commercial space station by launching the Payload, Power, and Thermal module first, enabling it to operate as a free-flying platform as early as 2028 -- two years...

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Malaysia has agreed to resume the search for the wreckage of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, its transport minister said on Friday, more than 10 years after it disappeared in one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries. Flight MH370, a Boeing 777 carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew, vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. [...] MH370's last transmission was about 40 minutes after it took off...

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