Alterslash

the unofficial Slashdot digest
 

Contents

  1. Scientists Find Rare Meteorite From Mars With Signs of Ancient Water
  2. A Third Major US Offshore Wind Farm Is Now Fully Operational
  3. AlmaLinux Shows Advantages of ABI Compatibility After RHEL Restricted Source Code Access
  4. China’s Top Spy Agency Recruited Woman Who Targeted Jensen Huang
  5. Cryosphere Faces Permanent Damage When World Overshoots 1.5C, Scientists Warn
  6. Vibrating Mattress Helps Clear Alzheimer’s Protein From the Brain
  7. Mexico’s Senate Approves ISP Rules To Disconnect Persistent Online Pirates
  8. EU Says TikTok’s ‘Rabbit Hole’ Effect Must Stop
  9. Chainalysis Says Breach Exposed Credentials For All Customers
  10. Activists Breach Microsoft Data Center Construction Site As Protests Spread In Europe
  11. Developer Pulls Roku’s Popular Fish Tank Screensaver Following Fox Sale
  12. OpenAI’s New Cyber Model Found Ways to Attack Nearly 1,000 Linux Flaws
  13. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Summoned By Congress Over Chinese Espionage Concerns
  14. Tesla to Wind Down Cybertruck Production
  15. Britain to Make Salary Disclosure In Job Ads Mandatory

Alterslash picks up to the best 5 comments from each of the day’s Slashdot stories, and presents them on a single page for easy reading.

Scientists Find Rare Meteorite From Mars With Signs of Ancient Water

Posted by EditorDavid • • View on SlashDot • Skip
“I didn’t think a rock like this existed on Earth,” a geologist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Texas told the Washington Post. It looks like a polished rock, dark brown with a clay-colored stripe — but it’s actually one of the oldest Mars meteorites ever found, blasted by an impact from the surface of Mars billions of years ago:
Technically speaking it’s a collection of eight rock fragments, the largest of which is about the size of a fist. Nearly two pounds of the meteorite was discovered in the Sahara in Mali in 2022, and most is now held by a museum in Maine. Within two years, an initial examination determined the meteorite hailed from Mars; scientists are now finally digging deeper, with stunning results.
It offers records of “interactions of water and rock and maybe even an imprint of the Martian atmosphere as it was losing water,” says Lee Saper, co-author of a new paper recently published in Science. “It was only after we started looking closely that we realized this meteorite is really unique,” said Yang Liu of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the lead author of a new paper published in Science. “One of the paper’s reviewers called it a Rosetta Stone for Mars.”

Its mix of minerals “tells a story about how the planet’s crust formed from cooling magma before it was eventually altered by subsurface water,” NASA’s JPL says in an announcement. The Washington Post reports:
The story begins 4.1 billion years ago, when crystals of a mineral called zircon probably solidified out of molten magma on Mars. “That was a game changer,” [said Yang Liu, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California], since scientists can date zircon very precisely, and it has been rare in other Mars meteorites. The date immediately put the Teghaza meteorite on special footing, alongside only two other Mars rocks known to have formed by 4 billion years ago…

Perhaps most intriguingly, the researchers also saw signs that the rock had been exposed to water during its evolution, a find detailed in work published this summer in Science Advances.

A Third Major US Offshore Wind Farm Is Now Fully Operational

Posted by EditorDavid • • View on SlashDot • Skip
Despite the Trump administration’s efforts to halt development on a $6.2 billion wind farm, it’s now “completely up and running,” reports the nonprofit energy news site Canary Media, delivering enough electricity to power the equivalent over 350,000 homes:
On Thursday, the Danish energy giant Ørsted said its 704-megawatt wind farm near Connecticut and Rhode Island began “generating up to its full capacity” in October. Revolution Wind began producing smaller amounts of power in the spring, and the company installed the last of 65 turbines in September. The project is the third U.S. utility-scale offshore wind farm to reach full commercial operations, after South Fork Wind near New York and Vineyard Wind near Massachusetts.
Before the start of Trump’s second term, BloombergNEF projected America would build 39 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2035 the article points out, but “Now, it expects just 5.9 GW to come online — an amount that reflects the handful of projects that were already completed or under construction at the start of last year.”
Despite the diminished pipeline, the carbon-free energy source is still expected to help keep household utility bills in check across the U.S. Northeast, experts say. Revolution Wind and the country’s other completed projects have already played a key role in reducing grid stress during extreme weather events this year…

Ørsted hit its power milestone despite being forced to halt construction twice last year. In August 2025, the Interior Department issued a stop-work order for Revolution Wind, due to unspecified national security threats. That order was tossed out by a federal judge one month later. But in late December, the administration issued new stop-work orders to all five offshore wind projects then under construction. Judges struck those orders down one by one — but not before developers had lost huge sums of money and nearly missed key project deadlines…

Meanwhile, Ørsted said it’s making progress on another offshore wind development, Sunrise Wind. The developer on Thursday said it has finished installing all of the wind-turbine foundations for the 924-MW project off the coast of Long Island, New York. That installation is expected to be fully operational in the second half of next year.

Now witness the power

By jfdavis668 • • Score: 3 • Thread
of this fully armed and operational wind farm!

AlmaLinux Shows Advantages of ABI Compatibility After RHEL Restricted Source Code Access

Posted by EditorDavid • • View on SlashDot • Skip
“AlmaLinux OS charted a new path in 2023 when Red Hat restricted source code access to Red Hat Enterprise Linux,” remembers Linux Magazine. “Rather than pursue 1:1 compatibility with RHEL like other Enterprise Linux alternatives, the AlmaLinux OS Foundation chose application binary interface (ABI) compatibility, which guarantees that applications and kernel modules that work on RHEL will work on AlmaLinux OS.”
No longer constrained by the 1:1 promise, AlmaLinux can offer new features, or add back deprecated ones, while still remaining a stable, drop-in replacement for RHEL… The release of AlmaLinux OS 10.2 in May 2026 reveals just how far AlmaLinux has come....

When RHEL 10 increased the x86-64-v2 architecture baseline to x86-64-v3, many older server platforms (and some new ones) were left in the lurch. These older servers couldn’t support the modern CPU feature sets in x86-64-v3, including AVX2 CPU instructions. AlmaLinux recognized that many community members employed older hardware that relied on x86-64-v2. While x86-64-v3 is enabled by default in AlmaLinux OS 10 and AlmaLinux OS Kitten 10, an additional x86-64-v2 build is also available. The x86-64-v2 build works best for environments that rely on standard OS packages or that can rebuild any additional packages required by x86-64-v2. For users with older hardware, the additional x86-64-v2 build allows continued use of current hardware, saving money and keeping servers from the landfill. AlmaLinux OS 10 is actively supported through 2030 with security support through 2035, significantly extending the life of older hardware....

Many legacy applications and containerized workloads still run on i686, a 32-bit computer processor architecture belonging to the Intel x86 family, including software that only ships as i686, CI pipelines that require a specific 32-bit glibc, and seemingly normal looking containers that require a 32-bit environment. RHEL 10 completely removed 32-bit application support and multilib libraries after deprecating support in earlier releases… AlmaLinux OS 10.2 has added package repos and official container images for 32-bit x86 (but not a 32-bit kernel or installer)…

NVIDIA GPUs, ubiquitous in modern computing, have been a pain point for Linux users. Getting the closed-source NVIDIA drivers has required extra steps and manual installation. When NVIDIA released an open source version of their graphics driver, AlmaLinux integrated the drivers, along with the associated CUDA components, into the AlmaLinux repository starting with AlmaLinux OS 9 and 10. AlmaLinux also signs the open source drivers, allowing secure boot with the NVIDIA drivers they ship. Unlike RHEL users, AlmaLinux users now have native support, allowing them to skip manual installation. AlmaLinux users can now enjoy a fully integrated NVIDIA experience.
In addition, “Thanks to ABI compatibility, AlmaLinux can sometimes deliver patches more quickly than RHEL,” the article points out. And it lists other points where AlmaLinux OS 10.2 diverges from RHEL 10:

Check it out

By markdavis • • Score: 5, Informative • Thread

I am glad I moved my servers to AlmaLinux. It has been working out really well over the last few years. They were also fast to offer mitigation information and updated packages for each of the high-profile vulnerabilities this year.

If you are worried about what level your processor supports just run this:

  $ /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 —help | grep -A4 ‘glibc-hwcaps directories’

Look for the word “supported” on each level. Mine shows this on my large Xeon 6254 (Alma) servers:

    x86-64-v4 (supported, searched)
    x86-64-v3 (supported, searched)
    x86-64-v2 (supported, searched)

At home on my AMD Ryzen 7 3700X desktop (Mint) I get:

    x86-64-v4
    x86-64-v3 (supported, searched)
    x86-64-v2 (supported, searched)

So I have v3 support, but not v4. Hopefully that will be good enough for a long time coming…

Re:Wait a second…

By thecombatwombat • • Score: 4, Interesting • Thread

It is, but basically only in the barest most minimally technically legal sense.

Only paying customers have access, and of course they can choose who gets to be a paying customer. Once you get access though, it still is open source, you can still publish derivative works and all. This is technically still GPL compliant and has at least held up for three years now.

In real short, the goal was to cut off Oracle, but they went pretty scorched-earth about it.

Re:Check it out

By 93 Escort Wagon • • Score: 4, Informative • Thread

We switched our servers and workstations to AlmaLinux after IBM pulled the rug out from under us with 8. I’ve been very happy with both the product itself and with the people behind it.

Re:Wait a second…

By caseih • • Score: 4, Informative • Thread

This was discussed extensively over the last few years.

Disclaimer: lengthy mansplaning post follows for the one or two slashdotters interested but who haven’t followed this long-running controversy.

Until a few years ago, RH had a public git repository of their rpm spec files, and probably also their patch sets (can’t quite remember). Fairly abruptly they shut down that public repository saying that the repo and folks using it to build RHEL clones didn’t provide anything of value to the community (really passive aggressive). This caught a lot of people by surprise and it really was a poke in the eye of the community.

But going back even further, Red Hat’s support contracts have always caused heartburn for free software supporters, particularly with regards to the GPL. A RH support contract grants access to SRPM files for the entire distro to their customers, along with of course the actual RPMS. But the wording of the support contract says you cannot use those files on non-supported installations. Meaning they don’t want you to pay for one server and then use the downloaded files to update your whole cluster, even though the source code license, particularly in the case of the GPL, explicitly grants such permission. Many free software advocates have complained that although RH abides by the GPL technically, they are using contract law to end run around it.

So far as I know, no actual customers of RH have ever been threatened with contract cancellations over this, and to this day Rocky Linux and Oracle both use these RH-downloaded SRPMs to build their distros. I’m not sure to what extend RH actively pursues the accounts used to download by Rocky and Oracle.

RH’s defense is that the upstream CentOS Stream system is public and free to use by the community to build on. This is what Alma Linux does and it works very well while maintaining compatibility with RHEL. The only downside is it’s harder convert an existing install between RHEL and AlmaLinux. Back in the old CentOS days it was easy. I’d bring up a server on CentOS, test it in beta for a few months/year, then before bringing it into production I’d finally roll it over into a supported RHEL instance.

China’s Top Spy Agency Recruited Woman Who Targeted Jensen Huang

Posted by BeauHD • • View on SlashDot • Skip
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times:
A Chinese businesswoman who had a close relationship with the chief executive of one of the most important artificial intelligence companies in the United States was a spy for China’s Ministry of State Security, Beijing’s top intelligence agency, according to people briefed on U.S. surveillance. The businesswoman, Alice Huang, was recruited by the ministry to collect intelligence on Jensen Huang, the chief executive of Nvidia, as part of a drive to learn more about American A.I. chips and potentially influence the company to push for its most advanced chips to be made available to China, the people said.

[…] The New York Times reported last week that Mr. Huang was a target of a Chinese intelligence operation, and that U.S. intelligence agencies were conducting electronic surveillance of Ms. Huang, a Chinese citizen, for at least a year. The Times reported that Mr. Trump had been briefed last year about Mr. Huang’s relationship with her, but chose not to do anything about it. Ms. Huang speaks English well and has relationships with executives at the highest levels of the A.I. chip industry, including Mr. Huang and the leaders of Gigabyte, one of the top assemblers of Nvidia supercomputers, said people who have met her. She has attended industry conferences and private executive dinners. It is unclear when Ms. Huang first met Nvidia’s leader. In 2024, around the time the two of them were photographed together at a bar in Taipei, her company, Megaspeed, began a multibillion-dollar purchase of advanced A.I. microchips.

To many in the industry, the well-funded push by Megaspeed into A.I. appeared to come out of nowhere. Ms. Huang was connected to a network of companies and investors clustered around Shanghai and Zhejiang province that had used their ties to local officials in Shanghai to push aggressively from mobile video games into data centers, which provide the computing power behind artificial intelligence. Megaspeed has been building data centers in Southeast Asia and then renting their computing power to Alibaba, the giant Chinese internet firm, giving China a backdoor way of getting access to advanced Nvidia chips. Nvidia is restricted by the United States from selling those chips directly to China. Beyond its local connections, the network also has a financial link to the Chinese military establishment, through an investment in a cybersecurity subsidiary of China Electronics Technology Group, one of the country’s largest makers of military technology.
Following the report, top Republican lawmakers have asked Jensen Huang to appear before Congress to answer questions. “Recent reports raise significant national security concerns regarding the People’s Republic of China’s access to sensitive US technology and information,” representatives John Moolenaar, Brian Mast, and Rick Crawford said. “The issue of PRC infiltration and access to cutting-edge US technology is core to the investigative work of our three committees this Congress. It is vital that Congress determines the extent to which US national security has been placed at risk,” the lawmakers added.

Businesswoman is doing a lot of work there

By frenchgates • • Score: 4, Funny • Thread
“Businesswoman Pussy Galore was said to have been recruited by master criminal Ernst Stavro Blofeld.”

Cryosphere Faces Permanent Damage When World Overshoots 1.5C, Scientists Warn

Posted by BeauHD • • View on SlashDot • Skip
A UN-backed report warns that even temporarily overshooting the Paris agreement’s 1.5C warming target could cause permanent and widespread losses of glaciers, snow and polar ice sheets. With Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets already melting about six times faster than in the 1990s, the report argues that global temperatures should ultimately be brought back below 1C. The Guardian reports:
The report, which comes as world leaders and diplomats converge on Turkey for the 31st annual Cop climate conference, documented rapid and accelerating melting of the cryosphere and polar oceans, with damages that range from the loss of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, driving sea level rises that threaten hundreds of millions of people, to thawing permafrost, which releases more planet-heating gas. Glaciers, which are still responding to historical warming, would only preserve about 70% of their current volume over a timescale of centuries if long-term heating were brought back down to 0.8C, the report found.

Meanwhile, the ice sheets covering Greenland and Antarctica, which are melting about six times faster today than in the 1990s, would continue to lose ice even in scenarios where overshoot is brief and temperature rise returns to 1.5C, the report found. The scientists said a safe, long-term temperature limit for polar ice sheets lies much closer to 1.0C of global heating, and possibly even lower. “Snow and ice respond rapidly to every fraction of a degree of warming,” said [James Kirkham, a glaciologist at ICCI and the lead author of the report. “But most of these systems will take centuries or millennia to recover after overshoot, especially if tipping points are crossed that cause changes to become essentially irreversible.”

Last month, a UNEP report found the world must cut emissions by 18% by 2030 and by 45% by 2035 to have a good chance of keeping temperatures from rising 1.7C above preindustrial levels. It found there were “no good outcomes” of remaining above 1.5C. The cryosphere report found that current policies, which will result in 2.8C of global heating, would reduce the mass of glacier ice to below 10% in the Rockies, Alps, Iceland and Scandinavia. If warming was limited to 1.5C, about 20-35% of the mass would remain. In the Hindu Kush Himalayas, where glaciers are a source of water for nearly a quarter of humanity, current policies will leave just 41% of the ice mass. If warming was limited to 1.5C, 83% would remain.

The next article will be asking how people use AI

By BitterEpic • • Score: 3 • Thread

The next Slashdot article will be asking how people use AI. My intuition those propping and talking about AI don’t really care about humanity and are just gambling on the thing that causes human extinction first. AI is making global warming problem substantially worse in one of the stupidest ways possible. The capitalism that is pushing AI is not compatible with us not destroying the world.

Re:Cryosphere

By demon driver • • Score: 5, Informative • Thread

https://wmo.int/themes/cryosph…

Re:Cryosphere

By dfghjk • • Score: 4, Informative • Thread

ICE doesn’t care whether you “come” illegally, they don’t even care if you’re a native born citizen. And the only way for there to be “no more ICE” is to eliminate “people” like you. Of course, we know this is likely a paid account or bot. Sad that /. cares so little that posts like this continue.

Re:Cryosphere

By stabiesoft • • Score: 5, Interesting • Thread
Correct. This is why the R’s got slaughtered in TX. I saw some interviews with biz people in the Rio grande. Basically the interview said the hispanic community was fine with deporting criminal illegal immigrants, and they voted for trump in 2024. But what they did not realize was trump did exactly what he said he was going to do. Round them all up (and by all he meant brown skin) and deport them. So the one biz guy was saying he had a legal immigrant mixing up a batch of concrete and ICE swoops in grabs him and throws him in detention for a few days. Finally the guy got out, but did not come back to the employer. I mean why would you? So in 2026, the Rio grande communities voted blue. And they may do the same in 2028. Ted Cruz of all people who has licked donnie’s ass for years is starting to push back. Maybe he realizes he will be toast next time. I’d tell him too little too late Teddy.

Re:Cryosphere

By jacks smirking reven • • Score: 4, Interesting • Thread

Thank goodness the conservatives and Trump himself seem incapable of changing that strategy. Stephen Miller is Chief of Staff and when you read most of their media commentators they are onboard with the idea that the path forward is to get more racist and they’ll listen to fake tough guy larpers like Matt Walsh before they consider any amount of self reflection, I mean none of them can even do a post-analysis without involving ChatGPT.

The party of giving up on thinking.

Vibrating Mattress Helps Clear Alzheimer’s Protein From the Brain

Posted by BeauHD • • View on SlashDot • Skip
A vibrating mattress combined with two pills that release nitric oxide enhanced the brain’s ability to clear an Alzheimer’s-related protein. According to New Scientist, the experiment “caused the brain’s blood vessels to swell and constrict more strongly, which enhanced the glymphatic system’s clearance of [the protein].” From the report:
[Kesa Kiviniemi at the University of Oulu in Finland] and his colleagues recruited 29 adults who hadn’t been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or any other cognitive issues. The participants took a pill that dissolves when under the tongue, releasing nitric oxide. They then lay on a mattress that caused their bodies to gently vibrate for 40 minutes, taking another pill halfway through. Blood samples revealed that their levels of a type of protein called beta-amyloid 42 increased by 35 per cent, on average, after the intervention. This protein, which usually helps neurons signal and connect to each other, misfolds and form clumps in Alzheimer’s disease.

“The treatment seemed to enhance the glymphatic system’s ability to clear beta-amyloid from the brain to the blood,” says Kiviniemi. “A 35 per cent increase in circulating beta-amyloid 42 is a substantial and very interesting acute effect,” says Tuomas Lilius at the University of Helsinki, who wasn’t involved in the work. “It is certainly possible it could become biologically, and eventually clinically, relevant.” Side effects were mild and minimal, with six of the participants experiencing issues such as nausea and headache. However, this could partly be due to the expectation of an effect from the nitric oxide pills. The researchers hope to overcome this in future work by including placebo pills.

Brain scans suggest the treatment enhanced the flow of fluid along glymphatic channels, probably by widening the brain’s blood vessels and making them pump more strongly, says Kiviniemi. But other mechanisms could also be at play, says Brown. For instance, this intervention may slow the breakdown of beta-amyloid 42 by the liver, leading to higher amounts in the bloodstream, he says. Future studies could get around this by injecting markers into cerebrospinal fluid, which moves through the glymphatic system, to more directly measure its flow, says Brown. Additional experiments by Kiviniemi and his colleagues tested either only the mattress vibrations or only the nitric oxide pills on the same participants, at least a week before or after they underwent the combined approach. Based on brain scans, these solo interventions seemed to have less than half the effect on the glymphatic system than when they were combined.
The findings have been published in the journal Nature Communications.

Magic Fingers was onto something

By sinkskinkshrieks • • Score: 4, Funny • Thread
Insert $ 0.25 to reduce plaque buildup.

Big in Japan

By GeekWithAKnife • • Score: 4, Funny • Thread
Apparently the vibrating mattress can also help loose other kinds of protein!

Re:Debunked…

By Going_Digital • • Score: 5, Informative • Thread
I don’t know about fraudulent, but drugs that reduce beta-amyloid plaques have been developed, but have shown little to no improvement in dementia symptoms. This suggests there may not be a direct causal relationship, and that beta-amyloid may be symptomatic of another cause.

Re:Debunked…

By dvice • • Score: 5, Informative • Thread

You are probably talking about this:
https://katiecouric.com/health….

Lesné’s paper claimed that they found a specific subtype of amyloid protein which causes memory loss. Fraud was that the data was altered using software.

The general link between beta-amyloid and Alzheimer’s still exist in the research.

Methodology

By Jarik C-Bol • • Score: 4, Insightful • Thread
It’s rather refreshing to see a medical science article that both admits to the limitations of their study, and lays out a pathway to continue the study and address those limitations. So many ‘medical breakthrough’ articles get published touting some new miracle treatment, only for the reader to find its ‘in mice’ or the study was done without any double blind controls, on a test group of 3 patients, rendering the results anecdotal at best. This article at least admits the limitations of what they have done so far, and appears to propose ways/plans to actually study this correctly.

Mexico’s Senate Approves ISP Rules To Disconnect Persistent Online Pirates

Posted by BeauHD • • View on SlashDot • Skip
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak:
On Tuesday, Mexico’s Senate approved (PDF) a reform of the Federal Copyright Law that ties ISP liability to having a policy to terminate repeat infringers. [This policy has to be published permanently on their website and in their terms of service, and it must include a basic way to notify users. In other words, what can be terminated is the Internet connection itself, not just an account. According to Mexican business outlet EL CEO, this means that access providers such as Telmex and Izzi will need such a policy.] The Senate approved the amendments with roughly two-thirds of the vote, as the opposition voted against. The Chamber of Deputies already approved the same text in October, so the decree now goes to President Claudia Sheinbaum. Her government proposed the changes in May to bring the law in line with the USMCA trade agreement between Mexico, the United States and Canada.

[…] Providers that don’t comply risk facing liability. Under the new rules, any ISP that fails to meet its safe harbor conditions becomes liable for its users’ infringements if it knowingly contributes to, induces, or causes the infringement. The same goes for an ISP that can control the infringing user and profits directly from the infringement. In both cases, the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) can fine the provider up to roughly 4.7 million pesos (~$250,000), depending on the infringement. The law doesn’t explicitly define the term repeat infringer, nor does it say how many piracy accusations it takes before a subscriber can be cut off. According to Aurora Lopez-Portillo, director of legal services at IP firm ClarkeModet, each provider has to decide its own threshold. She told EL CEO that ISPs should also check whether the accusations actually hold up, while giving users a chance to respond, even though the law doesn’t require that.

During Tuesday’s Senate debate, some lawmakers in the opposition raised similar concerns. Senator Gabriel Elizondo warned that families can share a single connection, so the pirating activities of one person could leave an entire household offline. Previously, opposition lawmakers proposed requiring a court order before Internet service could be suspended, but that proposal was not adopted. […] There, failing to meet the safe harbor conditions, including the repeat infringer policy, is the first requirement for liability. If an ISP also contributes to infringement with knowledge of it, or can control the infringer and directly profits from it, it can be held responsible. The new repeat infringer rules will take effect 180 days after their publication in Mexico’s official gazette, which hasn’t happened yet as far as we can see. How Mexican ISPs will define a repeat infringer, and how many accusations it takes, has yet to be seen.

Most piracy is done through residential proxies

By xack • • Score: 3 • Thread
That is spread through malware and social engineering. A lot of people are going to get mistakenly disconnected because of malware on their system. I hope they realize that disconnecting a lot of people that are not technically inclined enough to know about the malware on their system is going to lead to a lot of complaints and unrest.

data centers

By smillie • • Score: 3 • Thread
Will they be blocking those LLM data centers from scraping the net?

EU Says TikTok’s ‘Rabbit Hole’ Effect Must Stop

Posted by BeauHD • • View on SlashDot • Skip
The European Commission has preliminarily found that TikTok violates the Digital Services Act because its For You recommendation algorithm can create a “rabbit hole effect,” repeatedly exposing users to potentially harmful content involving topics such as sadness, isolation and body image. TikTok must change the feed’s design or potentially face fines of up to 6% of its global annual revenue. The Verge reports:
The findings come months after the EU Commission declared that TikTok’s design is too “addictive.” While TikTok has implemented controls to mitigate the algorithm’s “rabbit hole effect,” the Commission says its preliminary findings suggest that they’re not effective. TikTok must now change the design of its For You feed, or else face fines of up to 6 percent of its global annual turnover. The platform is also facing pressure in the US, with lawmakers and a wave of lawsuits raising concerns about child safety.
“Every time a user scrolls or likes a video on TikTok, the algorithm serves more of the same leading users down rabbit holes they cannot easily escape from,” Henna Virkkunen, the EU Commission’s executive vice president of tech sovereignty, security, and democracy, says in the press release. “Today’s preliminary findings show again that TikTok needs to step up its efforts to protect users’ well-being, including those of minors.”

Legislated to… suck more?

By Powercntrl • • Score: 5, Interesting • Thread

Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve personally experienced the opposite of the so-called “rabbit hole effect” from algorithmic feeds. The first few videos might be decent, but the more I doomscroll, the more it seems like it scrapes the bottom of the content barrel. Before long, I’m just done with it and close the app because it’s just serving up stuff that’s no longer entertaining. Of course, my generation grew up with 57 Channels (And Nothin’ On), so we turned our entertainment off when it ceased to be worth watching. Also, the TV stayed at home, so that was a bit of a limiting factor, too.

What I don’t get about this is that the summary already mentions that the content is making some people depressed. How exactly do they think those people are going to feel when the algorithm is tweaked to serve up even worse content, ostensibly to break their addiction? I’m getting the feeling this was the only solution they could come up with, because imposing actual screen time limits upon adults is still just a little too authoritarian (but you know they’d do it if they could).

Re:Legislated to… suck more?

By martin-boundary • • Score: 5, Insightful • Thread

When I line up for my morning coffee, it’s still shocking to me seeing people in the queue with their eyes glued on their tiktok’s and swiping uninterruptedly. They basically stay 1.5-2 seconds on every video and swipe, for minutes at a time. This is not an isolated case.

Addiction and depression are facts of life. There is a percentage of the population who are caught up in it. Companies should not get a free pass to hurt these people by creating one size fits all products and advertising those products to everybody indiscriminately.

Same argument with children. A child is not an adult, and should not be marketed towards and given an adult experience.

It’s time the tech bros are taught a lesson about building products that actually do the right thing by the norms of European society. Or they can just get the hell out of the European market, and tell their investors that the TAM has just been halved.

Re: People are sheep. The state is their shepherd.

By Gravis Zero • • Score: 4, Insightful • Thread

If I were an EU citizen, I could refrain from using tiktok. But I could not refrain from living under a government that thinks I’m a child.

Given the sophomoric nature of your regular posts, you are a child. Have you still not realized that the very things you scream for are also the things destroying this nation?

Re:People are sheep. The state is their shepherd.

By CaptQuark • • Score: 5, Insightful • Thread

Unfortunately I fear YouTube is a bit more savvy than that.

I watch YouTube videos signed in on my Google TV and it suggests topics that I have shown an interest in or have subscribed to interesting channels.

Occasionally I will look up a topic and watch a YouTube video on my computer using a private/incognito session with cookies and histories deleted. Even with these precautions I will notice some topics will pop up on my TV, even though it should not have associated my computer private browsing with my TV account.

For example, if I do a private session search on my computer for “Shoebill storks”, after watching a few videos I will notice that topic will start to pepper my Recommended videos. This has happened more than once for topics like unusual birds, actor’s biographies, and musical groups. One notable example was when I watched “Hoist the Colours by The Bass Singers” in a private session. I wanted to hear the song but not have every pirate song or bass singer appear in my Recommended list. The next day that happened even after trying to keep everything separate.

My working hypothesis is they can tell my IP address for my logged in TV account and tie private searches from that IP address to my account. This has happened at least six times. At least I’m lucky they don’t cross link my wife’s cooking and gardening topics into my Recommended list.

Re:People are sheep. The state is their shepherd.

By PseudoIdiot • • Score: 4, Informative • Thread
Oh how wrong you are. You are tracked by IP, MAC, hardware IDs, your browser fingerprints that include your OS, language, time zone, screen size, pixel ratio, touch support, how many available CPU threads you have, approximate RAM, your GPU renderer, your installed fonts, how Canvas/WebGL/and audio tests behave, your HTTP headers, your TCP behavior, your HTTPS handshake, your JA3 and JA4 fingerprints, your TLS options… among other things. You leave a unique signature everywhere you go on that computer.

Chainalysis Says Breach Exposed Credentials For All Customers

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Chainalysis says attackers exposed usernames, password hashes and live tokens for all of its customers. “While the company locked Chainalysis accounts as a precaution after discovering that some customers’ passwords had been exposed and asked users to reset their passwords before signing in again, it has now taken the login portal offline, together with Reactor and Data Solutions, the Know-Your-Transaction (KYT) user interface and API, and address screening products, after discovering further abnormal activity,” reports BleepingComputer.

The company says it has no evidence that investigative data or blockchain attribution records were accessed or altered, but all users will be required to reset passwords and rotate API keys before regaining access. BleepingComputer reports:
Chainalysis provides blockchain analysis tools to trace cryptocurrency transactions and investigate crimes such as fraud, ransomware, and money laundering. Its customer list includes law enforcement, government agencies, financial institutions, insurance companies, and cryptocurrency businesses worldwide. This follows the company’s disclosure last Friday that attackers using AI tools accessed customers’ names, email addresses, user IDs, and organizational role labels using what it described as “offensive agentic techniques.”

While it initially said the impact was limited and the breach affected only non-sensitive identity metadata, later updates revealed that usernames and password hashes for all customers were exposed in an “on-path attack” (more commonly known as a Man-in-the-Middle or MITM attack). However, the company found no evidence that the attackers accessed investigative graph data or altered its blockchain attribution repositories. […] To ensure threat actors don’t access affected accounts, Chainalysis asked customers to provide trusted IP addresses so they can regain access to the login portal once it is brought back online and reset their credentials.

Makes sense

By Local ID10T • • Score: 5, Insightful • Thread

Chainalysis provides blockchain analysis tools to trace cryptocurrency transactions and investigate crimes such as fraud, ransomware, and money laundering.

I can see why certain people would want them taken out. Just this week there were a few Billion reasons…

Activists Breach Microsoft Data Center Construction Site As Protests Spread In Europe

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More than 100 activists breached a Microsoft AI data center construction site in Amsterdam as part of coordinated protests against the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure. “These data centres are destroying our world. It’s becoming uninhabitable because of all the resources they consume. That’s why we’re here today,” protester Sam van der Beek said. Reuters reports:
Activist groups have announced actions in 16 countries on Friday and Saturday, according to the "Stop Dirty Data Centers" coalition, which is rallying environmental groups and digital rights campaigns behind calls to pause large-scale construction. In Amsterdam on Friday, more than 100 activists gathered at the construction site of a Microsoft AI data centre, marching arm in arm before breaking into the site, climbing cranes, hanging balloons and dancing while police stood by. Some carried placards with messages reading: “Screw your datacenter.”

Site owner Pure Data Centers, which plans to invest more than $1 billion and is backed by Brookfield-owned Oaktree, said it was committed to engagement with local stakeholders. “We respectfully ask those on site to leave safely and engage with us in dialogue about the development and any concerns they may have,” it said. Other planned actions include a march in Dublin, a protest outside the parliament building in Warsaw, and a demonstration against a different Microsoft data centre in Denmark. […] Stop Dirty Data Centers says it is not anti-progress or calling for existing data centers to be closed but that major construction should be halted until governments establish clearer rules.

Re:Sigh

By commodore73 • • Score: 5, Insightful • Thread
I have known several Dutch people for decades. I have found basically all of them to be friendly, warm, compassionate, and even generous, although obviously I don’t know how they operate when there are no representatives of other cultures present. The only time I ever heard a Dutch person complain about anything was a tour guide in Amsterdam shortly after replacing the Gilder with the Euro. Do you have any evidence to support your conclusion that (all?) Dutch people bitch and moan as a core cultural value? Otherwise, you might want to keep it to yourself, as it seems quite invalid, uneducated, uncultured, and offensive to me and likely countless others.

Re:Sigh

By karmawarrior • • Score: 5, Insightful • Thread

Well yeah, our search results are shit these days because Google is, from what I can tell, intentionally enshittifying it to push people towards Gemini.

And what does AI have to do with Amazon package delivery? Anything at all?

Or are you ignorant of what the complaints are about “data centers”. Nobody’s opposing classic data centers here. They’re opposing AI buildings. And they should. And you should too.

But you don’t.

Because you’re easy manipulated by the chatbot. It makes you feel good! It tells you what a good boy you are and how your ideas are so good all the time. Over and over again. And… you’ve only ever suffered abuse your entire life. Constant being told your ideas are bad. That your code isn’t good. And here it is, a dopamine inducing device that praises you for the first time in your life. And you don’t want to consider the possibility it might be terrible. It might be making you dumber - but it is. It might be saying those things… because it’s been programmed to, in order to prop up an unsustainable business just long enough to make everyone dependent upon it, which it is. Trillions of dollars diverted from things that might actually help people into creating RAM shortages, destroying privacy, destroying incentives to create, and creating dependencies on sociopath-run businesses in the hope that, after crypto and other scams failed, this might be the one, the tech that’ll steal the economy. And you’ve fallen for it.

So you repeat this tired and obviously bad faith criticism of anti-data center protestors because you’ve been indoctrinated into a cybercult so fucking thick you don’t even consider how much of an out of touch moron you appear by pretending this isn’t about AI.

I don’t think I’m going to get through to you, but to those reading this and being on that knifeedge of thinking “This karmawarrior guy’s a bit mean” while for the first time wondering why it is that the chatbots insist on the ridiculous over the top fawning behavior, why the studies show AI is causing skill losses among its users, why so much money is being poured into tech that cannot possibly make a profit, and why the peer reviewed studies seem to say one thing about AI productivity (spoiler! in most cases, it’s not having a massive impact) and programmers who are using the tech enthusiastically are saying another (10X productivity!!!?!)… think about those things some more, and draw the obvious conclusions.

Europe is always ahead of us these days

By BitterEpic • • Score: 5, Insightful • Thread

I’m finding myself using more and more European services because because US big tech dropped the ball . Mudita. Tutanota. Fairphone. SailfishOS. pCloud.

I hope in the next 5 years we have protestors in the US like this. I’m surprised they even found out the owner. In the US we don’t even have that right. Particularly the datacenters that would be built next to your house using a jet engine as a generator.

Re:Hyoperbole much?

By test321 • • Score: 5, Insightful • Thread

I guess we’ll see them go after Procteor and Gamble for the products they produce that are destroying the world.

They don’t have to do that. You have to pick your fights. Say, some people donate to the WWF or Greenpeace to “save the planet”, others donate to whatever other causes like clean ocans, clean air, whatever, also to “save the planet”. You can’t take all of the fights. The fellows above picked “Datacenters” as their fight. Maybe they have more spare time and fight something else. Or maybe they don’t have more spare time and only picked up this one. That their fight against “destroying the world” remains incomplete does not remove its value. Other activists will pick the other fights.

Re:Sigh

By dskoll • • Score: 4, Insightful • Thread

Nah. The Dutch are extremely chill and friendly. They’re also smart and pragmatic and really, really good at engineering. They do call out bullshit and complain when warranted, though, because they’re also very direct and don’t have time for nonsense. I think it’s this directness that takes some people by surprise.

Developer Pulls Roku’s Popular Fish Tank Screensaver Following Fox Sale

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Roku is removing its popular Aquatic Life fish tank screensaver on December 1 and automatically switching affected users to Roku City. According to Cord Cutters News, the creator pulled the license after Roku’s sale to FOX was announced. Ars Technica reports:
The screensaver has been an option for Roku OS users for 10 years. Roku has been licensing the animation, which is called the Marine Aquarium, from artist Jim Sachs through Prolific Publishing. Sachs is the creator and copyright holder of the Marine Aquarium. He developed the screensaver through his company SereneScreen. He tells Ars Technica that the licensing agreement with Roku is up for renewal every October and can be canceled by either party for any reason. A day after learning that Fox was planning to buy Roku, a deal that closed today, Sachs told Prolific that he wouldn’t be renewing Roku’s license. “I can’t be part of the Fox world,” he tells Ars, pointing to Fox News’ controversial style of news and entertainment.

Roku will automatically switch the Aquatic Life screensaver on affected devices to the Roku City screensaver, another popular animation that includes subtle advertisements, according to the user notice. The Aquatic Life screensaver provided an ad-free, relaxing display for years for some Roku users. Numerous people online have lamented the impending loss of the screensaver for Roku OS. […] The decision to not renew the licensing contract has “major financial consequences,” Sachs said. “Our needs are very small, with a high property tax bill being the only significant expense,” he said. “We’ll be okay but can’t start any of the projects I had planned.”

According to Sachs, the licensing “agreement was $80,000 per year for exclusive rights to all set-top devices, or $60,000 per year for non-exclusive. They have always opted for exclusive.” Ars asked Roku to confirm the details of the licensing agreement but didn’t hear back ahead of publication. The licensing deal with Roku was Sachs’ primary form of income, he told Ars, noting low sales of the version of the screensaver for computers. Marine Aquarium fans can still buy the screensaver for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android, but it seems unlikely that it will return to the Roku platform.

Re:Lesson Never Learned

By pla • • Score: 5, Informative • Thread
He’s 77 years old and it’s a screensaver. A retiree pulling down an extra $80k/year “maintaining” a screensaver for a single customer was a ridiculously good deal for him for a good many years.

Whether or not he has any other substantial sources of income is likely a moot point - He’s chosing not to renew the license to Fox, so presumably he’s not going to starve.

You don’t know what you have till it’s gone

By wickerprints • • Score: 5, Interesting • Thread

It’s good publicity for him to pull the licensing and explain why. I’ve seen so many comments from Roku owners who say they’ll really miss the fish. And it sends a message that integrity is more important to him than money. People really need to see more examples like this, because all we ever seem to hear about these days are people who are all too happy to sell out and harm others for their own benefit. Whether he’ll be rewarded for holding to his convictions is yet to be seen. But we need more of this energy, because every time we see exploitation and corruption go unpunished, it hardens us against the idea that we should behave with integrity in our own lives. After all, if you see criminals get away with their crimes, why should you go out of the way to be nice to anyone else? In a world without accountability, being nice only draws a target on your own back. And so a pernicious cycle begins.

Some folks think that there’s a choice involved: you can “choose” to stand up for what you believe in, or you can “choose” to sell out. For people with integrity, it’s not a choice—it’s a bad turn of events, one in which you are forced to act. If someone came up to you and offered you $80k for your child, you’d probably scoff. It’s not something you’d even bother to entertain (or at least, I should hope you wouldn’t, if you were human being of any conscience). The point of my example is not saying that a screensaver is as important as a child; it’s that if someone were to make that offer and then people heard about it and characterized that offer as a CHOICE, you would find it completely offensive. That’s not a real choice. That’s how people who have integrity regard being asked to compromise their morals.

Good on Him

By ewhac • • Score: 5, Interesting • Thread

I’ve had the privilege of working with Jim Sachs back in the Amiga days, when his work was the benchmark for hand-drawn digital art. He did all the UI artwork for Commodore’s CDTV — to name just one of his many works. He’s an exceptionally accomplished programmer and artist, hard worker, and principled guy.

SereneScreen’s “big break” came when it was included with Microsoft Plus! for (I think) Windows XP. It was a limited version that you could upgrade to a full version. Selling screen savers was not so crazy an idea back then, as Berkeley Systems had been doing it with After Dark for the Mac for over ten years at that point.

And frankly I think $80K/year for exclusive rights was a bargain. Half the price of a single engineer? Roku got off cheap. Hell, they probably paid more for the HDMI licenses.

Oh, and Google? Amazon? Apple? Now’s your chance.

Re:Wrong approach

By Fly Swatter • • Score: 5, Insightful • Thread
It is not about the money but the principle. How hard is that to understand?

Re:$80,000 per year for exclusive rights

By Anonymous Coward • • Score: 5, Informative • Thread
I worked at Roku, and did maintenance visits to Aquatic Life, among many other things. The appearance did not change, but mechanisms in the implementation would need to be updated to reconcile with internal API evolution, and verified for smooth and reliable operation on new products. It takes care with thread priorities and mutexes in various parts of the underlying system, to make fish swim smoothly. Fish jerky: ok; jerky fish: bad.

OpenAI’s New Cyber Model Found Ways to Attack Nearly 1,000 Linux Flaws

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OpenAI says its new GPT-6 Cyber model helped an automated system identify 1,724 security flaws in the Linux kernel and exploit 948 of them to gain administrator-level access during testing, including at least 10 previously unknown techniques. Axios reports:
During testing, the system identified 1,724 security flaws and found ways to use 948 of them to gain administrator-level access to Linux systems for about $1.2 million in API credits. At least 10 of the techniques the model used were previously unknown, according to OpenAI. Human researchers reviewed the Linux findings before reporting vulnerabilities and proposed fixes to maintainers. The model also uncovered 81 previously unknown, high-severity flaws in Mozilla’s Firefox browser.

Low-hanging fruit - “for AI”

By davidwr • • Score: 5, Insightful • Thread

This is no surprise. When a new bug-hunting technique comes along, it’s bound to find lots of things that weren’t easy to find with existing techniques but are easy to find with the new technique.

In a few months the “very easy to find” bugs will be found, and a few months later the “easy to find” ones will be identified, and the thousands-of-new-bugs-every-month that you are seeing in the kernel and from Microsoft will get back down to more reasonable levels.

Re:Wait

By Petersko • • Score: 5, Interesting • Thread

It’s a question of priorities. If the exploit requires you to be in the network, install a special usb device on the server, interrupt the boot process, flood a specific port with malformed packets, do it on February 29th at 11:59.59 pm, and call your mother first, it’s gonna bubble down on the priority list.

Re:Wait

By HiThere • • Score: 5, Interesting • Thread

Well, considering the number of updates that have been hitting me recently, I’d say that they’ve likely been already patched. But I sure wish I felt more certain.

Good

By evorster • • Score: 5, Interesting • Thread

I, for one, am very glad that someone is spending all this money to find these vulnerabilities, and reporting them back.

Linux always has been doing its code in the open, and while all of a sudden there is a lot more vulnerabilities reported, it is actually a very, very low number when compared to the size and complexity of the code base.

Now, if you want to see some horror stories, have a look at code that was developed away from public scrutiny.

Re: Wait

By martin-boundary • • Score: 5, Insightful • Thread

I think you’re focusing too much on the number 900. How are these things counted? How *should* they be counted? Are they 900 variations on a single idea? Are they 450 variations on two distinct ideas? There’s plenty of redundant software patterns and anti-patterns in a code base as large as the Linux kernel, so double counting is expected to be rampant.

Similarly, with Linux distros: Attack viability will depend on the mix of installed software packages. Some things are more important than others, and should be counted differently.

AI companies like to claim “number go up” so as time goes by they will make “bigger number” announcements. Ignore the number. It’s the distinct ideas that matter.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Summoned By Congress Over Chinese Espionage Concerns

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica:
Top Republican lawmakers have asked Jensen Huang to appear before Congress to answer questions after it was reported that US intelligence officials believe Nvidia’s chief executive has been targeted by a Chinese spying operation. The chairs of the House committees on China, foreign affairs, and intelligence wrote to Huang this week asking him to appear before a joint closed-door briefing for their committees on November 18. “Recent reports raise significant national security concerns regarding the People’s Republic of China’s access to sensitive US technology and information,” representatives John Moolenaar, Brian Mast, and Rick Crawford wrote. “The issue of PRC infiltration and access to cutting-edge US technology is core to the investigative work of our three committees this Congress. It is vital that Congress determines the extent to which US national security has been placed at risk,” the lawmakers added.

The New York Times last week wrote that US intelligence officials believed Huang had been the target of a Chinese spy operation. The concerns center on a Chinese woman named Alice Huang, an executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based cloud company that has bought billions of dollars of Nvidia’s chips. Nvidia has rejected the claims and on Thursday would not say if Huang would appear before Congress. “Meetings with customers are part of a CEO’s job. Jensen talks with thousands of customer executives every year,” the company said. “Our regional cloud customers receive ordinary business information — not sensitive Nvidia trade secrets — and zero information relevant to national security,” it added.

The lawmakers said they wanted Huang to discuss the security protocols Nvidia had in place to protect against “foreign adversary espionage.” The company said its chief executive had an “outstanding security team” that travels with him. The New York Times said Huang had not received a “defensive briefing,” which the intelligence community usually, but not always, provides potential espionage targets to warn them about the activity. Nvidia said it was confident that the US government would have let the company know if it thought a person was a threat to US industry and that it often receives updates from Washington about people of concern.

Better Timelines?

By Himmy32 • • Score: 3 • Thread

The Ars article makes it sound like this has been a secret for a while:

The New York Times last week wrote that US intelligence officials believed Huang had been the target of a Chinese spy operation.

Nvidia said it was confident that the US government would have let the company know if it thought a person was a threat to US industry and that it often receives updates from Washington about people of concern.

But the New York Times was publicly reporting on this in October of last year…

A Mystery C.E.O. and Billions in Sales: Is China Buying Banned Nvidia Chips?

An executive of a Singaporean firm called Megaspeed socialized with Nvidia’s Jensen Huang. Now the company is being scrutinized by U.S. officials for its ties to China.

Also call me skeptical how much the NVIDIA CEO needs to be told that a Chinese business woman might be trying to snoop…

Re:Only one?

By sabbede • • Score: 4, Interesting • Thread
Were it a political show, it would have happened last month, not after the midterm.

I think Nvidia is now America’s biggest exporter, overtaking Boeing. What’s going on there matters quite a lot to the nation. It is a vital interest now.

Though I kinda wish they had stuck with just making videocards. I might still be able to afford one.

Tesla to Wind Down Cybertruck Production

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Elon Musk says Tesla will be "winding down” Cybertruck production at its Texas Gigafactory around mid-2027 to free up capacity for increased production of its Cybercab robotaxi. CNBC reports:
The Cybertruck is exclusively produced at the company’s plant in Texas alongside the Tesla Model Y and two-seat Cybercab, which Musk has touted as a crucial product for the automaker moving forward. Musk did not say whether the company would produce the Cybertruck at a different facility, but he later responded to a user on X who called the update an “end of an era” and said the Cybertruck was the “best vehicle Tesla has ever made.” “True, but the Cybertruck fleet will be around for a long time,” Musk said.

The Cybertruck and its polarizing design gained a niche following, but it did not achieve mass-market sales, despite Musk’s pre-launch prediction that annual sales would eventually total 250,000. “Trucks have been the same for a very long time,” Musk said when the truck was unveiled in 2019. “Like 100 years. Trucks have been basically the same. We want to try something different.” While Tesla does not break out its sales by model or region, Cox Automotive estimated sales of the Cybertruck last year at 20,237 units in the U.S., down 48% from 38,965 in 2024.
Thank you Slashdot reader Dan Posluns for sharing the news.

Re:Surprised

By Rei • • Score: 5, Interesting • Thread

There was plenty of interest in the beginning**, and the electric truck market really doesn’t have good competition for a given price point. The problems were:

1) The price shot up heavily
2) The stats and capabilities went down
3) Musk went hard-right, and rightly or wrongly the Cybertruck became seen as a symbol of being MAGA.

These things together pushed away ~90% of prospective buyers. Combined with the fact that the Cybertruck’s production line was unique, as well as being a generation back, and it made it hard for Tesla to justify owning it.

** - Including from me. Beyond the stats-for-the-price point as introduced, I liked the engineering behind the design. If you want to make it rugged, that implies a thick skin. So make it an exoskeleton to bear the internal loads. Want to maximize strength while minimizing the mass? Resist torsional loads with a braced cantilever design (the triangular rear). Which, with a retracting tonneau, creates a very long, gradual rear taper, allowing detached air (from the angles necessitated by an exoskeleton) ample time to retract and minimizing the drawn wake. On and on - from an engineering perspective, there was a lot of great stuff that appealed to me. But little of that ended up staying. The final design hangs the (thinner) exterior metal onto a frame just as dead mass. The big raft of changes led to mass growth, cost growth, and range decline (despite advancing battery tech and pricing). And of course, I’m not super eager for Elon to end up with any of my money these days. Another family member had also been interested, and also cancelled.

Re:Surprised

By karmawarrior • • Score: 5, Insightful • Thread

I’ve seen them in RL, and I have to agree with the sibling post who says the kind of person who’d think they look cool would be the same that thinks putting gold veneer on everything makes looks elegant. They’re just… gaudy with no redeeming qualities in terms of design, the kind of thing a 9 year old would draw as his concept of what a really cool car looks like. It’s just weird, angular, and large. It looks as cool as a skip. Which not coincidentally its compared to on a regular basis.

The good news is between Ford and Slate, the options for something that does what the Cybertruck says, but has a utilitarian design, looks decent, and is actually affordable, are coming. Whether there’s a market is another issue given the disproportionately high number of pick-up drivers who are likely swayed by culture war crap. But they’re coming for those who want the advantages of EVs without having to drive a sedan.

Re:It’s pretty much illegal everywhere

By karmawarrior • • Score: 5, Interesting • Thread

> Which begs the question — why are US safety laws so lax?

It’s more different priorities. The US (and Canada) has safety laws (and indeed a whole policy on roads) oriented towards protecting the driver and passengers. While the rest of the world tends to consider the lives of those outside of a car to be more important.

Of course, some times those policies will mesh and vehicles can be made that match both priorities. Other times, they won’t. And other times, there’s no reason why a vehicle can’t be built that considers both priorities to be important, but for whatever reason, the designer decides to focus on one market at the expense of the others.

The Cybertruck is probably not the only design that can’t be exported to Europe for the same reasons, and there are reasons why most car manufacturers have “US” and “non-US” portfolios so different they’ll slap the same name onto two entirely different vehicle designs knowing that there’s no confusion because one is intended for Americans, and the other not.

Re:Surprised

By CrankyFool • • Score: 5, Interesting • Thread
You mentioned a 9 year old’s version of a truck: Fun fact, my 9 year old daughter thinks the Cybertruck is the most beautiful car on the face of the planet and gets incredibly excited every time she sees a Cybertruck on the road.

Thankfully, though, she does not make the family’s car purchasing decisions.

Re:Prior Art

By shilly • • Score: 5, Interesting • Thread

Surely you cannot actually believe that “until recently, being a fashion statement wasn’t high on most truck buyers lists”?

Lift kits, absurdly large wheels, ever more aggressive styling, rolling coal, bull bars, exaggerated air intakes, enormous grilles, brush guards, armoured bumpers, wide stances, protruding wheels, deep dish wheels, blacked out everything, roof mounted light bars, and on and on and on this is fashion for men who belive they’re immune to fashion, because they’re dumb as a rock.

Britain to Make Salary Disclosure In Job Ads Mandatory

Posted by BeauHD • • View on SlashDot
Britain plans to require employers to disclose salaries in job advertisements. “Whether you’re a young person starting out or a parent trying to support your family, you should know what a job pays before spending your time and effort applying for it,” Prime Minister Andy Burnham said in a statement. Reuters reports:
The government said requiring companies to disclose pay in job ads would help young people applying for their first jobs, while boosting pay transparency and helping tackle disparities that can disadvantage women. Just over two in five employers always publish salary ranges, while fewer than one in five always disclose specific salaries, Burnham’s office said, citing estimates from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

The government will soon introduce legislation to parliament making salary disclosures mandatory, Burnham’s office said, although it did not provide a timeline. Nearly one million, or 13%, of 16 to 24 year-olds in Britain are not in employment, education or training, one of the highest shares in Europe. A government review into youth inactivity is due to be published later in November.

Washington State US, already does

By sdinfoserv • • Score: 5, Informative • Thread
Any jobs advertised in Washington State must also include salary range. This has been State law for years and is extremely useful. As the article states, you know when to not waste your time.

Re:Commu-fascism!

By AmiMoJo • • Score: 5, Informative • Thread

And before someone says it, these laws usually state that where a salary range is given, it must be “reasonable”. Exactly what is reasonable ultimately comes down to a court to decide, but that’s how it works for a lot of things here. Tricks like making the top range unattainable are also likely to be illegal.

Hopefully it will also be illegal to offer less than the minimum on the ad.

This is good not just for job hunters who can avoid wasting their time, but also for employees who can see what they are paying new hires.

Well

By pele • • Score: 3 • Thread

If you’ve ever lived in the UK you’d know salaries were always prominently displayed in job ads. They only partially disappeared in the past 10-15 years and only god knows why. I wouldn’t legislate for it though, just bring them back into job postings without government having to tell you to. Same thing with rents.

Re:Washington State US, already does

By sinij • • Score: 4, Insightful • Thread
Compliant job add:

Position involving computers in an office settings, 1 to 45 years of relevant experience required. Salary range: minimum wage to 250K/year with optional bonuses. Remote work available to qualified individuals.