Computers & Linux News

Billion Dollar Art Gallery - CNET

CNET News - Thu, 2023-12-07 19:41
Plug into TV USB, 500 pictures.

Best Internet Providers in Fayetteville, North Carolina - CNET

CNET News - Thu, 2023-12-07 19:22
Metronet and Spectrum are top options for home internet in Fayetteville, but they may not be your only choices. Here's the best broadband in Fayetteville.

Meta Defies FBI Opposition To Encryption, Brings E2EE To Facebook, Messenger

SlashDot - Thu, 2023-12-07 19:02
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Meta has started enabling end-to-end encryption (E2EE) by default for chats and calls on Messenger and Facebook despite protests from the FBI and other law enforcement agencies that oppose the widespread use of encryption technology. "Today I'm delighted to announce that we are rolling out default end-to-end encryption for personal messages and calls on Messenger and Facebook," Meta VP of Messenger Loredana Crisan wrote yesterday. In April, a consortium of 15 law enforcement agencies from around the world, including the FBI and ICE Homeland Security Investigations, urged Meta to cancel its plan to expand the use of end-to-end encryption. The consortium complained that terrorists, sex traffickers, child abusers, and other criminals will use encrypted messages to evade law enforcement. Meta held firm, telling Ars in April that "we don't think people want us reading their private messages" and that the plan to make end-to-end encryption the default in Facebook Messenger would be completed before the end of 2023. Meta also plans default end-to-end encryption for Instagram messages but has previously said that may not happen this year. Meta said it is using "the Signal Protocol, and our own novel Labyrinth Protocol," and the company published two technical papers that describe its implementation (PDF). "Since 2016, Messenger has had the option for people to turn on end-to-end encryption, but we're now changing personal chats and calls across Messenger to be end-to-end encrypted by default. This has taken years to deliver because we've taken our time to get this right," Crisan wrote yesterday. Meta said it will take months to implement across its entire user base. A post written by two Meta software engineers said the company "designed a server-based solution where encrypted messages can be stored on Meta's servers while only being readable using encryption keys under the user's control." "Product features in an E2EE setting typically need to be designed to function in a device-to-device manner, without ever relying on a third party having access to message content," they wrote. "This was a significant effort for Messenger, as much of its functionality has historically relied on server-side processing, with certain features difficult or impossible to exactly match with message content being limited to the devices." The company says it had "to redesign the entire system so that it would work without Meta's servers seeing the message content."

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Apple Launches MLX Machine-Learning Framework For Apple Silicon

SlashDot - Thu, 2023-12-07 18:40
Apple has released MLX, a free and open-source machine learning framework for Apple Silicon. Computerworld reports: The idea is that it streamlines training and deployment of ML models for researchers who use Apple hardware. MLX is a NumPy-like array framework designed for efficient and flexible machine learning on Apple's processors. This isn't a consumer-facing tool; it equips developers with what appears to be a powerful environment within which to build ML models. The company also seems to have worked to embrace the languages developers want to use, rather than force a language on them -- and it apparently invented powerful LLM tools in the process. MLX design is inspired by existing frameworks such as PyTorch, Jax, and ArrayFire. However, MLX adds support for a unified memory model, which means arrays live in shared memory and operations can be performed on any of the supported device types without performing data copies. The team explains: "The Python API closely follows NumPy with a few exceptions. MLX also has a fully featured C++ API which closely follows the Python API." Apple has provided a collection of examples of what MLX can do. These appear to confirm the company now has a highly-efficient language model, powerful tools for image generation using Stable Diffusion, and highly accurate speech recognition. This tallies with claims earlier this year, and some speculation concerning infinite virtual world creation for future Vision Pro experiences. Ultimately, Apple seems to want to democratize machine learning. "MLX is designed by machine learning researchers for machine learning researchers," the team explains.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Notepad On Windows 11 Is Finally Getting a Character Count

SlashDot - Thu, 2023-12-07 18:20
Microsoft's Notepad app on Windows 11 is getting a character count at the bottom of the window. "When text is selected, the status bar shows the character count for both the selected text and the entire document," explains Microsoft's Windows Insider team in a blog post. "If no text is selected, the character count for the entire document is displayed, ensuring you always have a clear view of your document's length." The Verge reports: This is the latest addition in a line of changes to Notepad this year, with the app recently getting a new autosave option that lets you close it without seeing the pop-up save prompt every time. Microsoft has also added tabs to Notepad, a dark mode, and even a virtual fidget spinner. Alongside the Notepad changes in this latest Windows 11 test build, the widgets section of the OS is also getting some improvements. You'll soon be able to just show widgets and hide the feed of news and articles that appear inside the widgets screen.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Best Internet Providers in Winston-Salem, North Carolina - CNET

CNET News - Thu, 2023-12-07 18:15
Winston-Salem residents can rely on AT&T, Spectrum and other top ISPs for home internet. Here's a look at the best internet providers in Winston-Salem.

Study Shows How Heat Pumps Can Help the Grid and Reduce Energy Costs - CNET

CNET News - Thu, 2023-12-07 18:11
A US government report looked at the cost savings and grid effects of the mass installation of heat pumps. The result: lower energy bills.

First Impressions of Gemini: Google's Newest Major AI Upgrade video - CNET

CNET News - Thu, 2023-12-07 17:41
Google introduces its newest AI model, Gemini, which it says can understand video, images and audio.

New systemd Update Will Bring Windows' Infamous Blue Screen of Death To Linux

SlashDot - Thu, 2023-12-07 17:40
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Windows' infamous "Blue Screen of Death" is a bit of a punchline. People have made a hobby of spotting them out in the wild, and in some circles, they remain a byword for the supposed flakiness and instability of PCs. To this day, networked PCs in macOS are represented by beige CRT monitors displaying a BSOD. But the BSOD is supposed to be a diagnostic tool, an informational screen that technicians can use to begin homing in on the problem that caused the crash in the first place; that old Windows' BSOD error codes were often so broad and vague as to be useless doesn't make the idea a bad one. Today, version 255 of the Linux systemd project honors that original intent by adding a systemd-bsod component that generates a full-screen display of some error messages when a Linux system crashes. The systemd-bsod component is currently listed as "experimental" and "subject to change." But the functionality is simple: any logged error message that reaches the LOG_EMERG level will be displayed full-screen to allow people to take a photo or write it down. Phoronix reports that, as with BSODs in modern Windows, the Linux version will also generate a QR code to make it easier to look up information on your phone.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Apple Shares Cybersecurity Breach Report Amid Push for Encryption - CNET

CNET News - Thu, 2023-12-07 17:30
The tech giant wants more people to use its optional security feature.

The Extremely Large Telescope Will Transform Astronomy

SlashDot - Thu, 2023-12-07 17:00
The Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) under construction in Chile's Atacama Desert will be the world's biggest optical telescope when completed in 2028. With a giant 39.3-meter main mirror and advanced adaptive optics, the ELT will collect far more light and achieve much sharper images than any existing ground-based telescope, revolutionizing the study of exoplanets, black holes, dark matter, and the early universe. Economist adds: But when it comes to detecting the dimmest and most distant objects, there is no substitute for sheer light-gathering size. On that front the ELT looks like being the final word for the foreseeable future. A planned successor, the "Overwhelmingly Large Telescope," would have sported a 100-metre mirror. But it was shelved in the 2000s on grounds of complexity and cost. The Giant Magellan Telescope is currently being built several hundred kilometres south of the elt on land owned by the Carnegie Institution for Science, an American non-profit, and is due to see its first light some time in the 2030s. It will combine seven big mirrors into one giant one with an effective diameter of 25.4 metres. Even so, it will have only around a third the light-gathering capacity of the ELT. A consortium of scientists from America, Canada, India and Japan, meanwhile, has been trying to build a mega-telescope on Hawaii. The Thirty Meter Telescope would, as its name suggests, be a giant -- though still smaller than the elt. But it is unclear when, or even if, it will be finished. Construction has been halted by arguments about Mauna Kea, the mountain on which it is to be built, which is seen as sacred by some. For the next several decades, it seems, anyone wanting access to the biggest telescope money can buy will have to make their way to northern Chile.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Is Sleeping on Your Stomach Really That Bad? - CNET

CNET News - Thu, 2023-12-07 16:30
Stomach sleeping may be your go-to way to hit the hay, but it can wreak havoc on your body. Here's why you may want to consider a different sleeping position.

Actors Recorded Videos for 'Vladimir.' It Turned Into Russian Propaganda.

SlashDot - Thu, 2023-12-07 16:20
Internet propagandists aligned with Russia have duped at least seven Western celebrities, including Elijah Wood and Priscilla Presley, into recording short videos to support its online information war against Ukraine, according to new security research by Microsoft. From a report: The celebrities look like they were asked to offer words of encouragement -- apparently via the Cameo app -- to someone named "Vladimir" who appears to be struggling with substance abuse, Microsoft said. Instead, these messages were edited, sometimes dressed up with emojis, links and the logos of media outlets and then shared online by the Russia-aligned trolls, the company said. The point was to give the appearance that the celebrities were confirming that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was suffering from drug and alcohol problems, false claims that Russia has pushed in the past, according to Microsoft. Russia has denied engaging in disinformation campaigns. In one of the videos, a crudely edited message by Wood to someone named Vladimir references drugs and alcohol, saying: "I just want to make sure that you're getting help." Wood's video first surfaced in July, but since then Microsoft researchers have observed six other similar celebrity videos misused in the same way, including clips by "Breaking Bad" actor Dean Norris, John C. McGinley of "Scrubs," and Kate Flannery of "The Office," the company said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Electric Co-op and Utility: What's the Difference? - CNET

CNET News - Thu, 2023-12-07 16:03
There's a wide variety of entities operating our electrical infrastructure. Here's why the difference matters, even if you don't have much of a choice.

How Tech Giants Use Money, Access To Steer Academic Research

SlashDot - Thu, 2023-12-07 15:40
Tech giants including Google and Facebook parent Meta have dramatically ramped up charitable giving to university campuses over the past several years -- giving them influence over academics studying such critical topics as artificial intelligence, social media and disinformation. From a report: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg alone has donated money to more than 100 university campuses, either through Meta or his personal philanthropy arm, according to new research by the Tech Transparency Project, a nonprofit watchdog group studying the technology industry. Other firms are helping fund academic centers, doling out grants to professors and sitting on advisory boards reserved for donors, researchers told The Post. Silicon Valley's influence is most apparent among computer science professors at such top-tier schools as Berkeley, University of Toronto, Stanford and MIT. According to a 2021 paper by University of Toronto and Harvard researchers, most tenure-track professors in computer science at those schools whose funding sources could be determined had taken money from the technology industry, including nearly 6 of 10 scholars of AI. The proportion rose further in certain controversial subjects, the study found. Of 33 professors whose funding could be traced who wrote on AI ethics for the top journals Nature and Science, for example, all but one had taken grant money from the tech giants or had worked as their employees or contractors.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A Guide to the American Express Gold Card's Benefits - CNET

CNET News - Thu, 2023-12-07 15:16
The card's benefits may be lucrative, but you'll need to be strategic to take advantage of them.

The Best Fitness Apps for 2023 - CNET

CNET News - Thu, 2023-12-07 15:00
Workout apps make it easy to maintain a solid exercise routine. Put strength training, yoga, cardio and more in the palm of your hand with the best fitness apps.

Cable Lobby To FCC: Please Don't Look Too Closely at the Prices We Charge

SlashDot - Thu, 2023-12-07 15:00
The US broadband industry is protesting a Federal Communications Commission plan to measure the affordability of Internet service. From a report: The FCC has been evaluating US-wide broadband deployment progress on a near-annual basis for almost three decades but hasn't factored affordability into these regular reviews. The broadband industry is afraid that a thorough examination of prices will lead to more regulation of ISPs. An FCC Notice of Inquiry issued on November 1 proposes to analyze the affordability of Internet service in the agency's next congressionally required review of broadband deployment. That could include examining not just monthly prices but also data overage charges and various other fees. [...] Cable industry lobby group NCTA-The Internet & Television Association complained in a filing released Monday that the Notice of Inquiry's "undue focus on affordability -- or pricing -- is particularly inappropriate." The group, which represents cable providers such as Comcast and Charter, said that setting an affordability benchmark could lead to rate regulation.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Compare Current Refinance Rates in December 2023 - CNET

CNET News - Thu, 2023-12-07 14:46
The main goal of refinancing your mortgage is reducing your interest rate -- and your monthly payments.

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