Tech

Russia Breached Update Server Used by 300,000 Organizations, Including the NSA

Sunday Reuters reported that "a sophisticated hacking group" backed by "a foreign government" has stolen information from America's Treasury Department, and also from "a U.S. agency responsible for deciding policy around the internet and telecommunications." The Washington Post has since attributed the breach to "Russian government hackers," and discovered it's "part of a global espionage campaign that stretches back months, according to people familiar with the matter." Officials were scramb...
Tags: Obama, Washington Post, Nsa, White House, Russia, Tech, National Security Council, State Department, National Security Agency, Reuters, White House Read, Dmitri Alperovitch, Executive Office of the President, America s Treasury Department, Pentagon State Department Justice Department NASA, Silverado Policy Accelerator

Apple TV+ killed a show about Gawker after Tim Cook disapproved: report

A TV series about the defunct news/gossip blog Gawker was killed by Apple TV+ after Chief Executive Tim Cook found out it was being...
Tags: Apple, Tim Cook, Gawker

Reddit acquires Dubsmash

Reddit announced that it has acquired short video platform Dubsmash. The deal’s terms were undisclosed. Dubsmash will retain its own platform and brand, and Reddit will integrate its video creation tools. Its co-founders, Suchit Dash, Jonas Drüppel and Tim Specht, will join Reddit. According to Crunchbase data, the app has raised $20.2 million from investors including Lowercase Capital, Index Ventures, Eniac Ventures, Heartcore Capital and Sunstone Life. Dubsmash is now one of TikTok’s big...
Tags: Fundings & Exits, Startups, TC, Facebook, Apps, Video, Berlin, Tech, Brooklyn, United States, New York Times, Reddit, Alexis Ohanian, Steve Huffman, Dubsmash, Crunchbase

ROSS Intelligence Comes to a Close

It’s the type of story we like to bandy around in legal technology circles. Precocious law student interested in technology founds a start-up with some friends. They create some innovative solutions, and make it big enough to establish a company. In 2014, three students founded ROSS Intelligence, an artificial intelligence driven product using Watson, to build tools that enhance lawyers’ abilities through natural language queries. The company was widely celebrated as the type of successes that e...
Tags: Technology, Law, Canada, Watson, Ross, Westlaw, ROSS Intelligence, ROSS Intelligence Comes

Boy surprises mom with massive in-app purchase bill

Lots of safeguards have been put in place in recent years to prevent unauthorized in-app purchases, so how did this six-year-old boy rack up such a hefty bill?
Tags: Iphone, Apple, Ipad, Mobile, News, Trends, In-app Purchases, Breaking Twitter

U.S. Schools are Buying Phone-Hacking Tech That the FBI Uses to Investigate Terrorists

Pig Hogger (Slashdot reader #10,379) writes: Everywhere, every day, thousands of phones are plugged-into forensic tools that will pull out everything a phone has to offer an investigator. The thing is, investigators are not always working for police departments, but for school districts, who have been increasinly buying various phone hacking tools. Gizmodo writes: Public documents reviewed by Gizmodo indicate that school districts have been quietly purchasing these surveillance tools of their o...
Tags: Tech, Fbi, United States, Gizmodo, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Los Angeles Unified School District, Pig Hogger Slashdot, Cooper Quentin, MDFT

Creator of DirectX Dies at Age 55

The Wall Street Journal looks back to the days when Windows was "a loser in the world of computer games." But to change that, Eric Engstrom and his cohorts "secretly hired programmers to get the work done, and they had to do an end run around partners like Intel," remembers VentureBeat. Long-time Slashdot reader whh3 shares The Wall Street Journal's report: Windows inserted itself between game programs and the computer hardware in a way that slowed down graphics and animation. Game developers ...
Tags: Microsoft, Tech, Intel, Wall Street Journal, DOS, Engadget, Slashdot, Silverberg, Alex St John, Brad Silverberg, Engstrom, Eric Engstrom, Eric Engstrom Alex St John, Craig Eisler, Ben G Wolff

AirPods Max Begin Shipping to Customers Ahead of December 15 Launch

Apple last week announced the AirPods Max, the first Apple-branded over-ear headphones. Now, AirPods Max preorders are beginning to ship to customers around the world ahead of the December 15 launch date. Although several orders for the headphones are still in the "Processing" or "Preparing to Ship" stages, one MacRumors reader has of an AirPods Max order marked as "Shipped" on Apple's online store. Priced at $549, AirPods Max have a mesh headband with a stainless steel frame that connect...
Tags: Apple, United States, AirPods Max, AirPods Max Begin Shipping to Customers Ahead, AirPods Max Begin Shipping

Google closes Stadia’s Cyberpunk 2077 hardware giveaway early due to ‘overwhelming’ demand

Google has ended its Cyberpunk 2077 promotion on Stadia a bit ahead of schedule due to 'overwhelming' demand for the freebie.
Tags: Google

Are Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles the Future of Autos?

Long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 shared this article from ABC News: What if your electric vehicle could be refueled in less than 5 minutes? No plug, no outlet required. The range anxiety that's stymied sales of EVs? Forget about it. Three EVs can meet these demands and allay concerns about owning an emissions-free vehicle. There's just one drawback. You can only find them in California. Welcome to the world of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). A tiny market that includes Toyot...
Tags: California, Tech, Toyota, Epa, Slashdot, Honda Motor, Mirai, ABC News When, Birdsall, NEXO, Mirai Hyundai, Jackie Birdsall

Silicon Valley ‘Texit’ Is Real: Here’s Who’s Going and Where

A string of high profile tech investors and executives are leaving the San Francisco Bay Area and taking their companies headquarters with them in what some have called a "tech exodus." Many are relocating to the Lone Star State which has been encouraging such a "Texit" for years.
Tags: Business, Technology, News, Local, Tesla, Silicon Valley, Oracle, San Francisco Bay Area, Lone Star State, Texit

Huawei reportedly worked with 4 additional companies to build surveillance tools that track people by ethnicity, following recent revelations that it tested a 'Uighur alarm'

Getty Huawei has worked with at least four partner companies to develop surveillance technologies that claim to monitor people by ethnicity, The Washington Post reported Saturday. Last week, The Post reported that Huawei in 2018 had tested a "Uighur alarm" — an AI facial recognition tool that claimed to identify members of the largely Muslim minority group and alert Chinese authorities. Huawei told the The Post that the tool was "simply a test," but according to Saturday's report, Huawei ...
Tags: Google, Post, Politics, Human Rights, News, Washington Post, Police, China, US, Trends, Surveillance, Artificial Intelligence, Civil Rights, Muslim, Ai, Huawei

Do Games Made Under Crunch Conditions Deserve 'Best Direction' Awards?

The annual Game Awards ceremony awarded this year's "Best Direction" award to Naughty Dog studio's The Last of Us Part II — provoking a strong reaction from Kotaku's staff writer. "I think it's pretty obvious that no game that required its developers to crunch, like The Last of Us Part II did, should be given a Best Direction award." It's no secret that Naughty Dog subjected its workers to unbelievable levels of crunch to get The Last of Us Part II out the door, but that's hardly an innovatio...
Tags: Tech, Kotaku, Neil Druckmann, Fanbyte, Jordan Mallory

Hundreds Riot, Thousands Protest at iPhone Factory in India

The international news agency AFP reports on "a violent rampage at a Taiwanese-run iPhone factory in southern India" leading to over 100 arrests. About 2,000 workers were involved in the protest, reports the Verge, citing the Indian Express newspaper. The workers are protesting over allegations of unpaid wages and exploitation, according to AFP. "Local media reported workers saying they had not been paid for up to four months and were being forced to do extra shifts..." Workers at the Taiwane...
Tags: India, Tech, Labour, Cctv, Bangalore, Afp, Indian Express, Wistron Infocomm Manufacturing, Satyanand

How Long Does It Take to Rank in Google & How To Speed It Up

Traffic on the website is essential in the global world. Ranking on Google is vital... The post How Long Does It Take to Rank in Google & How To Speed It Up appeared first on Are Morch, Digital Marketing Coach.
Tags: Google, Seo, Google Ranking, Guest Article

US treasury hacked by foreign government group – report

Concern that hackers who breached treasury and commerce departments used similar tool to break into other agencies Hackers backed by a foreign government have been monitoring internal email traffic at the US treasury department and an agency that decides internet and telecommunications policy, according to people familiar with the matter.“The United States government is aware of these reports and we are taking all necessary steps to identify and remedy any possible issues related to this situati...
Tags: Technology, US, US news, United States, Hacking, US politics, Washington Dc, John Ullyot

Best Ebookstore

I've searched the threads here and really can't find one with the answer to my question. Google is not much help at all. Anyhow, here's the question: I'm using a linux computer and calibre for book management. Ereader is a Samsung 7 tablet. So far I haven't found a place (Google Play, Kobo, B&N) where I can purchase an epub title that doesn't have digital rights management. I tried to purchase a book on Google Play and all I get is a link that will direct me to download book to Adobe DRM which ...
Tags: Google, Books, Samsung, General Discussions, David Gilman

'Will Remote Work Kill Innovation?' Ask Silicon Valley Experts

Remote work "is here to stay," argues a new article in Silicon Valley's newspaper The Mercury News (also re-published in the East Bay Times). But they've also asked industry professionals around Silicon Valley whether this will hurt our ability to innovate. Software engineer/entrepreneur Joyce Park (who's worked in Silicon Valley over 20 years): "Fast feedback is what we're all about in this town. That's what's gone away... If you have a dumb idea or people hate your idea then you don't have ...
Tags: Tech, Park, Silicon Valley, Carnegie Mellon University, Peter Rojas, Bay Area, Mercury News, Rojas, Strasser, Wadhwa, Joyce Park, East Bay Times, Betaworks Ventures, Tarun Wadhwa, Mike Strasser, Campbell med tech startup Imperative Care

US Treasury Department Breached by 'Hackers Backed By Foreign Government'

Reuters reports that "a sophisticated hacking group" backed by "a foreign government" has stolen information from America's Treasury Department, and also from "a U.S. agency responsible for deciding policy around the internet and telecommunications." There is concern within the U.S. intelligence community that the hackers who targeted the Treasury Department and the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration used a similar tool to break into other governmen...
Tags: White House, Tech, National Security Council, Reuters, Treasury Department, US Treasury Department, America s Treasury Department

The Guardian view on China’s treatment of the Uighurs: from unthinkable to irrefutable | Editorial

Whether it be via football or fashion, the rest of the world is tied to what is happening in Xinjiang – as Antoine Griezmann has reminded usWhat once seemed surely unthinkable has become, in just a few years, irrefutable. The evidence amassed by scholars, journalists and campaigners of grotesque human rights abuses in Xinjiang has begun to cut through to the wider public. On Thursday, the France and Barcelona forward Antoine Griezmann cut his commercial ties to the Chinese tech giant Huawei, say...
Tags: Fashion, Technology, Human Rights, Coca-cola, France, China, Football, Nike, Barcelona, Asia Pacific, Ethical business, Islam, Xinjiang, Huawei, Antoine Griezmann, Trade Policy

Nathan Myhrvold's Dazzling High-Resolution Photographs of Snowflakes

Nathan Myhrvold is a former CTO of Microsoft, co-founder of the equity company Intellectual Ventures, and the founder of "food innovation lab" Modernist Cuisine (which among other things resulted in book of remarkable food photography). But he's now photographing the intricate designs of snowflakes, reports Fast Company: Over the span of 18 months, Myhrvold built a camera with a microscopic lens and then shot in the freezing locales of Fairbanks, Alaska, and Yellowknife, Northwest Territories...
Tags: Microsoft, Tech, Grand Canyon, Cto, Fairbanks Alaska, Intellectual Ventures, Nathan Myhrvold, Myhrvold, Yellowknife Northwest Territories Canada

AstraZeneca Tries Combining Its Covid-19 Vaccine With Russia's 'Sputnik V' Vaccine

Slashdot reader Hmmmmmm shared this report from Reuters: AstraZeneca is to start clinical trials to test a combination of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine with Russia's Sputnik V shot to see if this can boost the efficacy of the British drugmaker's vaccine, Russia's sovereign wealth fund said on Friday. Trials will start by the end of the year and Russia wants to produce the new vaccine jointly if it is proven to be effective, said the RDIF wealth fund, which has funded Sputnik V. AstraZenec...
Tags: Russia, Tech, Sputnik, Astrazeneca, Pfizer, Reuters, Gamaleya Institute

A History of the American Energy System In One Chart

Long-time Slashdot reader BoredStiff writes: An energy Sankey diagram [where the width of arrows is proportional to flow rates] was published today by the University of Chicago, and shows the history of the American energy system in chart form, from 1800 to 2019. The Atlantic explains: It is the first attempt to put so much information about U.S. energy history in one place. This particular Sankey diagram shows the inputs and outputs for the U.S. energy system, measured in watts per capita. T...
Tags: Tech, Atlantic, University Of Chicago, Georgia Tech, Sun Belt, Sankey, Elisabeth Moyer, BoredStiff, Emily Grubert

Why Apple, Cloudflare, and Fastly Proposed a New Privacy-Focused DNS Standard Called 'Oblivious DoH'

"Cloudflare, Apple, and Fastly have co-designed and proposed a new DNS standard to tackle ongoing privacy issues associated with DNS," reports ZDNet. Cloudflare calls it "a practical approach for improving privacy" that "aims to improve the overall adoption of encrypted DNS protocols without compromising performance and user experience..." Third-parties, such as ISPs, find it more difficult to trace website visits when DNS over HTTPS (DoH) is enabled. DoH deployment is on the cards for many m...
Tags: Firefox, Tech, Cloudflare, Cto, Equinix, ZDNet Cloudflare, PCCW Global Surf, Eric Rescorla Firefox

REVIEW: The new Ford F-150 pickup improves on everything that's great about America's most popular vehicle

2021 Ford F-150 Matthew DeBord/Insider I tested a 2021 Ford F-150 pickup truck, in the upscale Lariat trim level with a SuperCrew cab, a 4x4 drivetrain, and a terrific 400-horsepower V6 engine. The new F-150 is the 14th generation of a full-size pickup truck that's been part of Ford's bestselling F-Series franchise since the 1980s. Pickup trucks have become wildly popular in the US, with Ford and Detroit rivals Chevy, GMC, and RAM duking it out for customers. How good is the new F-150? Ver...
Tags: Apple, Transportation, Usa, New York, Review, France, US, America, Trends, Features, Ford, Italy, Toyota, Epa, Chevy, Lincoln

An even bigger battle for gig worker rights is on the horizon

When California voters passed Proposition 22 with 58.6% of the vote, they agreed with Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart and Postmates that gig workers should not be employees who are entitled to myriad labor rights. The proposition they passed stated that gig workers should be independent contractors who receive the limited benefits proposed by those companies. “The first feeling I had was shock, disbelief and hurt,” Vanessa Bain, a worker-organizer with Gig Workers Collective, told TechCrunch. “I...
Tags: TC, Lyft, Labor, Abc, California, Tech, Postmates, Bain, Gig Economy, Ride Hailing, Murphy, Oakland California, AB, Josh Edelson, Assembly Bill, Gig workers

How Salesforce COO and star exec Bret Taylor has steered the cloud giant through a tumultuous year to help companies adapt to an 'all-digital, work-anywhere economy'

Bret Taylor, Salesforce COO Salesforce Salesforce COO Bret Taylor has risen rapidly through the ranks since joining the company four years ago and has helped guide Salesforce through a transformational year. Salesforce has seen executive upheaval in 2020 and, like other companies, had to adapt quickly to remote work. Then, it bought Slack in a $27.7 billion deal spearheaded by Taylor.  Taylor is also the product visionary behind Salesforce's goal to give its clients a "360 de...
Tags: Google, Facebook, Enterprise, Ipo, Trends, Remote Work, United Kingdom, Salesforce, Taylor, Stewart Butterfield, Business Insider, Nordic, Stewart, Brett, Bret, Keith Block

Apple, Cloudflare, and Fastly Propose a New Privacy-Focused DNS Standard Called 'Oblivious DoH'

"Cloudflare, Apple, and Fastly have co-designed and proposed a new DNS standard to tackle ongoing privacy issues associated with DNS," reports ZDNet. Cloudflare calls it "a practical approach for improving privacy" that "aims to improve the overall adoption of encrypted DNS protocols without compromising performance and user experience..." Third-parties, such as ISPs, find it more difficult to trace website visits when DNS over HTTPS (DoH) is enabled. DoH deployment is on the cards for many m...
Tags: Firefox, Tech, Cloudflare, Cto, Equinix, ZDNet Cloudflare, PCCW Global Surf, Eric Rescorla Firefox

This is how Google’s internet-serving Loon balloons can float for nearly a year

Alphabet's Loon balloons recently set a record for most consecutive days spent aloft in the stratosphere. How'd they do it? A software upgrade.
Tags: Google, Trends, Features, Machine Learning, Ai, Loon, Emerging Tech, Reinforcement Learning

Here Comes the Google Chrome Change that Worries Ad-Blocker Creators

CNET reports: With the next version of Chrome, Google is moving ahead with a plan to improve privacy and security by reining in some abilities of extensions used to customize the browser. The move had angered some developers who expected earlier it would cripple ad blockers. Manifest v3, the programming interface behind Google's security plans, will arrive with Chrome 88 in mid-January, Google said Wednesday at the Chrome Dev Summit. Extensions using the earlier Manifest v2 will still work for ...
Tags: Google, Microsoft, Tech, Cnet, Chrome Google, Jeremy Tillman, Andrey Meshkov