Alterslash

the unofficial Slashdot digest
 

Contents

  1. US Proposes Requiring Reporting For Advanced AI, Cloud Providers
  2. Sleep Apnea Detection Is Coming To the Apple Watch
  3. CrowdStrike Hopes Legal Threats Will Fade As Time Passes
  4. James Earl Jones, Beloved Actor and Voice of Darth Vader, Dies
  5. US Prepares To Challenge Google’s Online Ad Dominance
  6. AirPods Pro 2 Adds ‘Clinical Grade’ Hearing Aid Feature
  7. The NSA Has a Podcast
  8. It Sure Looks Like FineWoven is Dead
  9. Apple Will Release iOS 18, macOS 15, iPadOS 18, Other Updates on September 16
  10. Apple Unveils iPhone 16 Pro Featuring Bigger Screen, New Chip And Pro Recording Options
  11. Sharks Deserting Coral Reefs as Oceans Heat Up, Study Shows
  12. RTX’s Long-Delayed $7 Billion GPS-Tracking Network Is Still Troubled, GAO Says
  13. The Mosquito-Borne Disease ‘Triple E’ Is Spreading in the US as Temperatures Rise
  14. The Less-Efficient Market Hypothesis
  15. Bending Spoons Plans To Cut 75% of WeTransfer Staff After Acquisition

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.

US Proposes Requiring Reporting For Advanced AI, Cloud Providers

Posted by BeauHD View on SlashDot Skip
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters:
The U.S. Commerce Department said Monday it is proposing to require detailed reporting requirements for advanced artificial intelligence developers and cloud computing providers to ensure the technologies are safe and can withstand cyberattacks. The proposal from the department’s Bureau of Industry and Security would set mandatory reporting to the federal government about development activities of “frontier” AI models and computing clusters. It would also require reporting on cybersecurity measures as well as outcomes from so-called red-teaming efforts like testing for dangerous capabilities including the ability to assist in cyberattacks or lowering barriers to entry for non-experts to develop chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear weapons. External red-teaming has been used for years in cybersecurity to identify new risks, with the term referring to U.S. Cold War simulations where the enemy was termed the “red team.” […] Commerce said the information collected under the proposal “will be vital for ensuring these technologies meet stringent standards for safety and reliability, can withstand cyberattacks, and have limited risk of misuse by foreign adversaries or non-state actors.”
Further reading: Biden Signs Executive Order To Oversee and Invest in AI

Sleep Apnea Detection Is Coming To the Apple Watch

Posted by BeauHD View on SlashDot Skip
Apple announced today that it’s adding sleep apnea detection to the Apple Watch, including the Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 2. The Verge reports:
Sleep apnea is a disorder that causes you to stop breathing as you sleep. Sleep apnea is a feature that wearables makers have been working on for some time, with Samsung getting cleared by the FDA for sleep apnea tracking with the Galaxy Watch earlier this year. Apple says it’s using the accelerometer on its watches to monitor a new metric that it calls “breathing disturbances.” You’ll be able to see your nightly breathing disturbance values in the Health app.

The company expects to get FDA clearance for its sleep apnea detection feature soon, and it plans to launch the feature in more than 150 countries and regions. The company says its sleep detection was validated in a study that was “unprecedented” in size for sleep apnea technology.

CrowdStrike Hopes Legal Threats Will Fade As Time Passes

Posted by msmash View on SlashDot Skip
CrowdStrike CFO Burt Podbere says the cybersecurity firm has not faced lawsuits over July’s global IT outage. Speaking at a conference, Podbere emphasized efforts to shift customer focus from legal threats to business discussions. The Register:
There were dark rumblings from Delta Air Lines last month, for example, threatening litigation over alleged gross negligence. At the time, CrowdStrike reiterated its apologies, saying: “Public posturing about potentially bringing a meritless lawsuit against CrowdStrike as a long-time partner is not constructive to any party.” During his time at the Citi conference, Podbere admitted: “We don’t know how it’s all going to shake out.

“Everything we’re doing and trying to do is take the legal discussion away from our interaction with customers and move it to the business discussion. “And as time goes on, that does get easier because we’re moving further away from the Sun, right? And that’s how we think about it.”

can’t see how the meritless line stands up

By bloodhawk • Score: 3 Thread

":Public posturing about potentially bringing a meritless lawsuit against CrowdStrike as a long-time partner is not constructive to any party.”

how can they say it is meritless, by their own admission they failed in basic security and testing, Crowdstrike when they go into organisations spruik their ability to do security better and safer than Microsoft/Linux/Apple et al. Turns out they have processes that were frowned upon even 20 years ago wtih poor testing/development and deployment practises.

James Earl Jones, Beloved Actor and Voice of Darth Vader, Dies

Posted by BeauHD View on SlashDot Skip
James Earl Jones, the beloved actor best known for his roles in “Field of Dreams,” “The Lion King,” and “Star Wars,” has died at the age of 93. Deadline reports:
Widely regarded as among the world’s great stage and screen actors Jones is one of the few entertainers to have won the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony), though his Academy Award was Honorary. Jones has received two Primetime Emmy Awards, a Daytime Emmy, a spoken-word Grammy Award in 1977 and three Tony Awards.

The actor amassed nearly 200 screen credits during his brilliant 60-year career, starting some early-‘60s TV guest roles and Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 classic Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). He probably is best known for his voice role as the dastardly Darth Vader in George Lucas’ original Star Wars trilogy: Star Wars (1977) The Empire Strikes Back, 1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). He also reprised the villainous role in Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith (2005), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker (2019) and TV’s Obi-Wan Kenobi and Star Wars: Rebels.

Movie fans will remember such chilling, immortal Vader quotes as “When I left you, I was but the learner — now I am the master,” “I find your lack of faith disturbing” and, of course, “No, I am your father.”

US Prepares To Challenge Google’s Online Ad Dominance

Posted by BeauHD View on SlashDot Skip
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times:
For years, Google has faced complaints about how it dominates the online advertising market. Many of the concerns stem from the internet giant’s suite of software known as Google Ad Manager, which websites around the world use to sell ads on their sites. The technology conducts split-second auctions to place ads each time a user loads a page. The dominance of that technology has landed Google in federal court. On Monday, Judge Leonie Brinkema of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia will preside over the start of a trial in which the Department of Justice accuses the company of abusing control of its ad technology and violating antitrust law (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source).

It would be Google’s second antitrust trial in less than a year. In August, a federal judge ruled in a separate case that Google had illegally maintained a monopoly in online search, a major victory for the Justice Department. The new trial is the latest salvo by federal antitrust regulators against Big Tech, testing a century-old competition law against companies that have reshaped the way people shop, communicate and consume information. Federal regulators have also filed antitrust lawsuits against Apple,Amazon and Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, saying those companies have also abused their power.
Google’s vice president for regulatory affairs, Lee-Anne Mulholland, said in a blog post on Sunday that the Justice Department was “picking winners and losers in a highly competitive industry.”

“With the cost of ads going down and the number of ads sold going up, the market is working,” she said. “The DOJ’s case risks inefficiencies and higher prices — the last thing that America’s economy or our small businesses need right now.”

Google will ruin the justice department

By Rosco P. Coltrane • Score: 3 Thread

and get away with it, like IBM and Microsoft did

Famously, IBM outlawyered the justice department so badly they spent the entirety of their yearly budget on that one case alone. That allowed IBM to drag out the case for 13 years until that dirtbag Reagan was elected in office and finally dropped the case.

Microsoft did the exact same thing and managed to hold out until that other dirtbag Dubya got elected and reverted the verdict to a slight slap on the wrist.

Google has an order of magnitude more money and more clout than IBM and Microsoft had. They’ll annihilate the justice department. Even if no dirtbag POTUS drops the case against Google, they can comfortably ruin the taxpayers for decades with legal fees.

AirPods Pro 2 Adds ‘Clinical Grade’ Hearing Aid Feature

Posted by BeauHD View on SlashDot Skip
Apple says AirPods Pro 2 will receive a software feature “soon” that will turn the wireless earbuds into “clinical-grade” hearing aids. “This includes a hearing protection mode being enabled by default, offering passive noise cancellation in loud environments,” adds 9to5Mac. From the report:
Firstly, users can take a clinically-validated hearing test. The hearing test uses your AirPods and iPhone, and can be conducted by a user in under five times. The result of your hearing test can be viewed securely in the Health app. If hearing loss is detected, the hearing aid mode is then available to use. The AirPods will make it easier to hear sounds from the world around you. A custom hearing profile is automatically applied when listening to audio, like music or podcasts.

The hearing aid feature is currently making its way through the FDA and other regulatory bodies. Apple said the functionality will be available in more than 100 countries. The feature will be enabled through a free software update coming later this year to AirPods Pro 2.

The NSA Has a Podcast

Posted by msmash View on SlashDot Skip
Steven Levy, writing for Wired:
My first story for WIRED — yep, 31 years ago — looked at a group of “crypto rebels” who were trying to pry strong encryption technology from the government-classified world and send it into the mainstream. Naturally I attempted to speak to someone at the National Security Agency for comment and ideally get a window into its thinking. Unsurprisingly, that was a no-go, because the NSA was famous for its reticence. Eventually we agreed that I could fax (!) a list of questions. In return I got an unsigned response in unhelpful bureaucratese that didn’t address my queries. Even that represented a loosening of what once was total blackout on anything having to do with this ultra-secretive intelligence agency. For decades after its post-World War II founding, the government revealed nothing, not even the name, of this agency and its activities. Those in the know referred to it as “No Such Agency.”

In recent years, the widespread adoption of encryption technology and the vital need for cybersecurity has led to more openness. Its directors began to speak in public; in 2012, NSA director Keith Alexander actually keynoted Defcon. I’d spent the entire 1990s lobbying to visit the agency for my book Crypto; in 2013, I finally crossed the threshold of its iconic Fort Meade Headquarters for an on-the-record conversation with officials, including Alexander. NSA now has social media accounts on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. And there is a form on the agency website for podcasters to request guest appearances by an actual NSA-ite.

So it shouldn’t be a total shock that NSA is now doing its own podcast. You don’t need to be an intelligence agency to know that pods are a unique way to tell stories and hold people’s attention. The first two episodes of the seven-part season dropped this week. It’s called No Such Podcast, earning some self-irony points from the get-go. In keeping with the openness vibe, the NSA granted me an interview with an official in charge of the project — one of the de facto podcast producers, a title that apparently is still not an official NSA job posting. Since NSA still gotta NSA, I can’t use this person’s name. But my source did point out that in the podcast itself, both the hosts and the guests — who are past and present agency officials — speak under their actual identities.

It Sure Looks Like FineWoven is Dead

Posted by msmash View on SlashDot Skip
An anonymous reader shares a report:
It seems like Apple is already moving on from FineWoven. After introducing the FineWoven brand with a series of very bad cases and accessories last year, it appears as though Apple opted not to release new cases featuring the material for the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro. Apple has stopped offering FineWoven cases for the iPhone 15 lineup on its website, too. Apple launched FineWoven, which had a microtwill material, as a replacement for its leather cases. But the cases quickly accumulated visible wear and tear and picked up bits of lint, which could make them look dirty relatively quickly.

Apple Will Release iOS 18, macOS 15, iPadOS 18, Other Updates on September 16

Posted by msmash View on SlashDot Skip
Apple plans to release the next versions of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS to the general public on September 16, the company announced via its website following its iPhone-centric product event earlier today. From a report:
We should also see updates for tvOS and the HomePod operating system on the same date. The new releases bring a number of new features and refinements to Apple’s platforms: better texting with Android devices thanks to support for the RCS standard, iPhone Mirroring that allows you to interact with your iPhone via your Mac, more UI customization options for iPhones and iPads, and other improvements besides. What won’t be included in these initial releases is any hint of Apple Intelligence, the batch of generative AI and machine learning features that Apple announced at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. Apple is testing some of the Apple Intelligence features in betas of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS 15.1, updates that will be released later this fall.

Good news / Bad news

By Powercntrl • Score: 4, Informative Thread

Good news: Finally, RCS support.

Bad news: Will probably make my aging iPhone 13 mini lag like it’s full of lead, and chew through the battery faster than the former president with a McDonald’s hamberder. Also, since all OS upgrades are a one-way trip with Apple due to cryptographic firmware signing, the only “fix” truly is to buy a new phone.

This is why I have a really difficult time getting excited about anything new from Apple. Sometime after the iPhone X it stopped feeling like they were genuinely improving the product and instead just saying “It’s that time again, bend over and give us more money!” *sigh*

Apple Unveils iPhone 16 Pro Featuring Bigger Screen, New Chip And Pro Recording Options

Posted by msmash View on SlashDot Skip
Apple announced the iPhone 16 Pro lineup at Monday’s product event. The company’s new flagship smartphones have slightly bigger screens across both models: 6.3 inches on the iPhone 16 Pro and 6.9 inches on the iPhone 16 Pro Max (up from 6.1 inches and 6.7 inches, respectively, on the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max). The Verge:
The bodies of the phones are once again made from titanium. It comes in four colors: black, white, natural, and a new “desert titanium.” Apple also claims that the iPhone 16 Pro Max has “the best iPhone battery life ever.” The iPhone 16 Pro lineup comes with the A18 Pro chip, with a 16-core Neural Engine that it says will offer “amazing performance” for Apple Intelligence features, including 15 percent faster performance than the iPhone 15 Pro. It also has improved graphics performance thanks to a 6-core GPU that’s 20 percent faster than the iPhone 15 Pro’s A17 Pro.

The iPhone 16 Pro starts at $999, whereas the iPhone 16 Pro Max starts at $1,199.

New hardware-exclusive feature list boils down to

By Dan Posluns • Score: 3 Thread

* Button for camera

Not exactly a landmark year for the iPhone. Maybe they’ll have something to pique my interest in 2025.

Sharks Deserting Coral Reefs as Oceans Heat Up, Study Shows

Posted by msmash View on SlashDot Skip
Sharks are deserting their coral reef homes as the climate crisis continues to heat up the oceans, scientists have discovered. From a report:
This is likely to harm the sharks, which are already endangered, and their absence could have serious consequences for the reefs, which are also struggling. The reef sharks are a key part of the highly diverse and delicate ecosystem, which could become dangerously unbalanced without them. The researchers tagged and tracked more than 120 grey reef sharks living on the remote coral reefs of the Chagos archipelago in the central Indian Ocean from 2013 to 2020. As reefs became more stressed, particularly during the major ocean-warming El Niño event of 2015-16, the sharks spent significantly less time there. They failed to return to normal residency for up to 16 months after a stress event.

However, the sharks actually spent more time on a minority of the coral reefs. These reefs were healthier and more resilient, due to factors including the eradication of invasive rats and higher populations of birds, which help fertilise the reef. The researchers said this showed that increasing the protection of coral reefs from human-caused damage may help sharks remain on their home reefs. Sharks are cold-blooded and their body temperature is linked to water temperature. “If it gets too hot, they’re going to need to move,” said Dr David Jacoby, a lecturer in zoology at Lancaster University and the leader of the research project. “We think many are choosing to move into offshore, deeper and cooler waters, which is concerning. Some of the sharks were disappearing entirely from the reef for long periods of time. Reef sharks are already absent from nearly 20% of coral reefs globally, partly through [overfishing], and this new finding has the potential to exacerbate these trends.”

RTX’s Long-Delayed $7 Billion GPS-Tracking Network Is Still Troubled, GAO Says

Posted by msmash View on SlashDot Skip
A month before its planned delivery after years of delay and cost growth, RTX’s $7.6 billion ground network to control GPS satellites is still marred by problems that may further stall its acceptance by the US Space Force, congressional auditors said Monday. From a report:
RTX’s system of 17 ground stations for current and improved GPS satellites was supposed to be ready by October, when it would undergo a series of intense Space Force tests to assess whether it can be declared operational by December 2025. The system continues to draw the ire of lawmakers because it’s running more than seven years late in a development phase that’s about 73% costlier than initial projections.

Two rounds of testing by the company have been “marked by significant challenges that drove delays to the program’s schedule,” the Government Accountability Office said Monday in a broad review of the US military’s GPS program, including improvements intended to block jamming by adversaries.

The Next Generation Operational Control System, known as OCX, is intended to provide improvements, including access to more secure, jam-resistant software for the military’s use of the GPS navigation system, which is also depended on by civilians worldwide. “The program faces challenges from product deficiencies” that “create a risk of further delay,” the Pentagon’s Defense Contract Management Agency told the GAO, adding that it expects RTX at the earliest to deliver OCX by December.

Just keep awarding more contracts

By JeffOwl • Score: 3 Thread
This has been a problem program for years. It started back around 2010 and they have stumbled over and over again and the government keeps awarding them more contracts for the same thing (block 0, 1, and 2). I think RTX got another contract in 2021 for this same program to the tune of a couple hundred million.

I guess you can use GLONASS

By 50000BTU_barbecue • Score: 3 Thread

In the meantime. How did the Russians get the washing machines into orbit though?

The Mosquito-Borne Disease ‘Triple E’ Is Spreading in the US as Temperatures Rise

Posted by msmash View on SlashDot Skip
Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) cases have been reported in five U.S. states this year, including a fatal case in New Hampshire last month. The rare mosquito-borne illness, which has no known cure, kills 30-40% of those infected and often causes permanent neurological damage in survivors.

Public health officials are monitoring the situation closely. Massachusetts has implemented insecticide spraying in high-risk areas and issued advisories for residents to limit outdoor activities during peak mosquito hours.

Climate change may be contributing to EEE’s spread, as warmer, wetter conditions favor mosquito breeding. Researchers note the virus has advanced into northern regions where it was previously undetected. From 2003 to 2019, the Northeast saw an increase to 4-5 cases per year on average, up from less than one annual case between 1964 and 2002.

Re:Mosquitoes have no right to exist.

By timeOday • Score: 5, Interesting Thread
Oh, the problem is being worked:

https://www.ocvector.org/learn…

Learn More about Genetically Modified Mosquitoes

What is a GM Mosquito?

GM mosquitoes are mosquitoes that have been implanted with a gene that was not originally present or naturally occurring in the insect. In one case, the implant in question is a self-limiting gene that disrupts the normal processes of mosquitoes’ offspring. These offspring will, in turn, not survive to adulthood. These lab-grown Aedes aegypti mosquitoes would be released into the wild to mate with the wild population â" where their offspring’s inability to grow to adulthood would lower the population of mosquitoes.

Is it healthy for the environment to release GM mosquitoes?

The U.S. EPA, State of California, and Oxitec have confirmed there is no adverse effect on humans or wildlife from implementing the SIT process. Oxitec has carried out exhaustive research (part of submissions made available to the EPA) on this topic and determined, based on a combination of laboratory data, meta-analyses, and a review of the scientific literature, that there will be no unreasonable adverse effects for humans or the environment.

Re:One of the more benign side-effects

By JBMcB • Score: 4, Funny Thread

Of climate-change, that is. What you thought this was not going to kill a ton of people everywhere? Get real.

Total EEE cases in the US in 2024?

  6.

https://www.cdc.gov/eastern-eq…

Cases in 2023? 7.

It will have to triple to catch up with the number of people injured by vending machines or bitten by sharks.

Serious disease

By dsgrntlxmply • Score: 4, Informative Thread
There was a kid in my southern California neighborhood long ago who reportedly had a severe case of Western Equine Encephalitis. This was during a time when the disease was more common, but serious symptoms and sequelae were rare from the Western variant. Horse properties were within easy kid walking distance of new suburban tracts, and there were mosquitoes. This kid had serious neurological impairment (at least from retrospect upon my naive perspective witnessing: seriously impaired movement and speech in very brief encounters) and he was not expected to improve much. The Eastern variant is worse.

Climate change?

By Pinky’s Brain • Score: 3 Thread

“first recognized in Massachusetts, United States, in 1831”

It didn’t move very far in 200 years …

The Less-Efficient Market Hypothesis

Posted by msmash View on SlashDot Skip
Abstract of a paper by Clifford Asness of quant investor AQR Capital:
Market efficiency is a central issue in asset pricing and investment management, but while the level of efficiency is often debated, changes in that level are relatively absent from the discussion. I argue that over the past 30+ years markets have become less informationally efficient in the relative pricing of common stocks, particularly over medium horizons. I offer three hypotheses for why this has occurred, arguing that technologies such as social media are likely the biggest culprit. Looking ahead, investors willing to take the other side of these inefficiencies should rationally be rewarded with higher expected returns, but also greater risks. I conclude with some ideas to make rational, diversifying strategies easier to stick with amid a less-efficient market.

Blaming retail

By DeplorableCodeMonkey • Score: 3 Thread

Before anyone buys into this:

arguing that technologies such as social media are likely the biggest culprit

I would suggest reading up on “dark pools” and the dirty details of all of the backdoor short selling that is “lawful but awful” by market makers and their friends.

Retail has also started to learn how to use Wall St traders’ tools like options trading against them.

If you want to fix the volatility, it’s simple:

1. Require trade resolution without exception by CoB on the last day of the “1 + N” period. Anything beyond 3 days of failure to delivery should be prosecuted as securities fraud.
2. Require all stock trading to happen on the exchanges with dark pools only allowed for manual sale of shares between whales.
3. Either outlaw short selling or make people who allow shares to be sold short to be illiquid until they are returned.

On #3, it’s ridiculous that people can both allow their shares to be sold short AND sell them. That’s literally a felony in any other property context.

Covered last week in The Economist as well

By Lucerne • Score: 3, Informative Thread
With some additional analysis not available in the abstract:

https://www.economist.com/fina…

Apologies for the paywall link, but I don’t have another source at the moment.

Bending Spoons Plans To Cut 75% of WeTransfer Staff After Acquisition

Posted by msmash View on SlashDot
An anonymous reader shares a report:
Italy-based app company Bending Spoons, which owns Evernote and Meetup, is planning to lay off 75% of the staff of file transfer service WeTransfer, TechCrunch has learned. Bending Spoons acquired the Dutch company in July for an undisclosed amount.

The company confirmed the plans for the WeTransfer layoff to TechCrunch. The staff that is being let go will be informed after Bending Spoons goes through local regulations in different countries regarding lay offs. Dutch media reported that WeTransfer has over 350 employees.

Pricing themselves out of the market

By Kevin108 • Score: 4, Insightful Thread

Evernote was amazing when I started using close to a decade ago. I’ve never used the more advanced features, just a text editor that synchronized and organized my notes across various devices. The value for me tops out around $40 a year. When the prices skyrocketed a few years ago, I discovered the Notes app in the Apple ecosystem I was already dabbling in. It’s not as full fledged a solution as Evernote was, but the app and the iCloud web version covers 6 of my 7 devices for zero additional cost. Evernote priced itself out of the market for basic users.

When you think of Enshittification

By ebunga • Score: 4, Insightful Thread

Think of this company.

Strange name

By Harvey Manfrenjenson • Score: 5, Funny Thread

“Bending spoons” immediately makes you think of Uri Geller. Why would you want to name yourself after a famous con man? You might as well call the company “Snake Oil, Inc.”