Comment Why bother then? (Score 1) 147
There are many less precarious ways to make a living.
Submission + - Bank of America kindly asks that you don't share your password with your AI asst (techcrunch.com)
schwit1 writes: In an email blast to customers titled “Protecting your finances in the Al World,” Bank of America urged customers to never share their username and password with another person or an outside service, “including an Al-enabled tool or agent that offers to act on your behalf.”
You can practically sense the frustration in the person sending the email. Still, customers are increasingly handing over their log-ins as personal AI assistants grow more popular. Sharing your banking username and password with an AI assistant runs the risk that it could do something with your finances without your knowledge, or that your bank thinks someone’s raiding your account and locks you out of it. Worse, a security flaw in the AI assistant could result in it leaking your banking credentials elsewhere, giving financially motivated hackers a way into your bank account.
You can practically sense the frustration in the person sending the email. Still, customers are increasingly handing over their log-ins as personal AI assistants grow more popular. Sharing your banking username and password with an AI assistant runs the risk that it could do something with your finances without your knowledge, or that your bank thinks someone’s raiding your account and locks you out of it. Worse, a security flaw in the AI assistant could result in it leaking your banking credentials elsewhere, giving financially motivated hackers a way into your bank account.
Submission + - New Discovery Reveals Shakespeare Co-Wrote Play With His Famous Rival Marlowe (greekreporter.com)
joshuark writes: Nisha Zahid of the Greek Reporter writes that new research has found that William Shakespeare collaborated with Christopher Marlowe on Edward III, a historical play published anonymously in 1596. The findings suggest Shakespeare was the main author, while Marlowe contributed several sections. The discovery challenges the long-held belief that the two playwrights were primarily rivals.
Dr. Rory Loughnane, a Shakespeare scholar at the University of Kent, said the research establishes Shakespeare’s leading role “beyond any reasonable doubt.” The findings could settle a centuries-old debate over the play’s authorship. Scholars had previously linked Shakespeare to several scenes but remained uncertain about how much of the work he wrote.
The researchers used computer-based text analysis to compare Edward III with confirmed works by 10 playwrights active between the late 1580s and mid-1590s.
In one test, the analysis attributed 23 sections of the play to Shakespeare and nine to Marlowe. The results suggest Shakespeare wrote most of the work, with Marlowe contributing a smaller portion. The findings build on earlier research into the play’s disputed authorship.
A 2016 study had already identified Marlowe as a co-author of Shakespeare’s three Henry VI plays. Combined with the new findings, that research suggests Shakespeare and Marlowe maintained a working relationship across several plays during their early careers. Their collaboration on Edward III, believed to have been written around 1592, suggests the two writers worked together while both were in their 20s.
The findings add to scholarly understanding of Shakespeare’s early career and the collaborative nature of Elizabethan theater. The research is expected to appear in the winter issue of the academic journal Shakespeare Quarterly.
Dr. Rory Loughnane, a Shakespeare scholar at the University of Kent, said the research establishes Shakespeare’s leading role “beyond any reasonable doubt.” The findings could settle a centuries-old debate over the play’s authorship. Scholars had previously linked Shakespeare to several scenes but remained uncertain about how much of the work he wrote.
The researchers used computer-based text analysis to compare Edward III with confirmed works by 10 playwrights active between the late 1580s and mid-1590s.
In one test, the analysis attributed 23 sections of the play to Shakespeare and nine to Marlowe. The results suggest Shakespeare wrote most of the work, with Marlowe contributing a smaller portion. The findings build on earlier research into the play’s disputed authorship.
A 2016 study had already identified Marlowe as a co-author of Shakespeare’s three Henry VI plays. Combined with the new findings, that research suggests Shakespeare and Marlowe maintained a working relationship across several plays during their early careers. Their collaboration on Edward III, believed to have been written around 1592, suggests the two writers worked together while both were in their 20s.
The findings add to scholarly understanding of Shakespeare’s early career and the collaborative nature of Elizabethan theater. The research is expected to appear in the winter issue of the academic journal Shakespeare Quarterly.
Submission + - Rubin Telescope discovers a new solar system planet (behindtheblack.com)
schwit1 writes: Using data from the Rubin Telescope in Chile, astronomers have discovered a new planet in the outer solar system beyond Neptune, joining Pluto, Eris, Haumea, and Makemake as the five known large Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNO) so far discovered.
On the evening of 13 October, [Matthew] Holman was running data collected by Rubin earlier in 2026 through a search code he developed with CfA colleague Kevin Napier. The code is built to look at billions of detections of moving objects, compare them, and find the detections that correspond to the same object. Using this method, Holman uncovered ED138, and he immediately noticed that its brightness and distance indicated that it is unusually large. “My first reaction was one of excited disbelief,” says Holman. “Objects like this are very rare, so I immediately started checking whether I or the code had done something wrong.”
To remove any doubt, a detailed search through the data began in the hopes of uncovering more observations of ED138. Juri searched Rubin’s catalogs and images and found 20 more observations, going back to 4 March 2026. In all, Rubin observed ED138 30 times on 20 nights between 4 March and 11 July. Additional archival images from the DOE-fabricated Dark Energy Camera (DECam), and uncovered by the Asteroid Institute’s ADAM Precovery service, provided data going all the way back to 2016. These data allowed the team to trace more than 10 years of ED138's orbit. DECam is mounted on the NSF Victor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF NOIRLab.
ED138 is currently at a distance of about 46 astronomical units (au), where 1 au is the average distance between the Earth and the Sun. For reference, dwarf planet Pluto has an average distance of 40 au. This classifies ED138 as a trans-Neptunian object (TNO) — objects that orbit the Sun at a distance greater than Neptune’s.
The data suggests this new planet is the largest TNO object so far discovered, though at present the size estimate is very uncertain, from 350 to 1400 miles in diameter.
Comment Re:Harm (Score 2) 109
"Meanwhile even questioning if the earth is flat will have you downmodded to (-1) Troll."
What you might as well have said.
Comment Re:Good (Score 1) 147
AI is exactly in the same position right now that Photoshop was in 35 years ago. I was a young photographer then. I learned Photoshop on version 1.0 in 1990. I had just one a national award based on my darkroom work with the photo. I was still a teenager, but the pros in my circle were aghast. And they were aghast again a decade later when digital photography became standard. Now everyone has a camera in their pocket with a little photoshop-like thing to manipulate stuff. After 35 years, I can tell you that people who do not have an eye for photography will never actually figure out how to use Photoshop or digital cameras. They can "use photoshop" to make some hacky crap. But actual photographers went from "this has no use" to "this is the most meaningful change ever." And I've been writing code since 1994, and can only tell you that AI is absolutely revolutionary and will change everything. And people who can't code now will never be able to really use it. But people who stick their head in the sand and act like it isn't there? They'll be out of work real fast because everyone else is going to code their own projects a thousand times faster and more accurately. You can't compete, John Henry.
Comment Current news cycle (Score 1) 108
That's why it's on Slashdot. High value thefts are increasing but most are by traditional methods. Fraudulent pickups and carrier impersonation are simple, easy and allow ample time to unload cargo.
Value rose ~725 million dollars for 2025 so a drop in the economic swimming pool. That's hardly impressive in an economy the size of the US.
High value load tracking and hiring private security guards will be natural responses.
Comment Predictable reddit outcome was obvious (Score 1) 147
Reddit drama is hardly "news" and but does drive monetizable view counts. Posting reddit drama on Slashdot drives views because Slashdot is a general news site.
Ideological communities are prone to infighting because humans enjoy competing virtue displays. Weak communities will render themselves irrelevant. Effective communities will thrive. Water is wet.
Where AI proves sufficiently useful it will be used but there is no need for everyone to use AI.
Comment Re:Good (Score 0) 147
Well, it's $17.5 billion after its adjusted for inflation (thanks Trump). Most of it is one-time windfall spending on social programs. Those are things that the right-wing news outlets like "The Federalist" call outright fraud and waste. But most people call it fixing roads and schools while giving economic relief to those hit hardest by federal mismanagement of foreign trade — you know, tariffs, wars — things any economist will tell you are hard on poor people and whole economies.
People are dumbfounded by an AI ban on the subredit because, as written, it effectively bans talking about Linux on an open source thread. Also, it was pretty racist with the whole English thing. Don't be too dense.
Comment Ukraine needs to find the kompromat (Score 1) 173
Then ensure it's wisely leaked by a third party.
Comment "Luser" awareness matters and fear works (Score 1) 84
Automated defenses have value, but so does making distrust the default it should have been in the first place.
Clueful people don't expect others to be intelligent. We've seen who they elect.
Comment Insightful use of protest as self-promotion (Score 1) 120
Not jumping ship until a politically fashionable trigger event offers itself is a fine way to profit from a system to which one expediently objects. That's an admirably shrewd career move, not rage against anyones machine.
Bailing out "in protest" when you're making phat bank to go make even phatter bank is great self-promotion with no downside. Seriously capable people don't stay unemployed long. The departing will be easily replaced which reinforces corporate policies they object to. No one loses anything because nothing is sacrificed.
Comment Proprietary tech has its price long after purchase (Score 2) 41
https://www.pcmag.com/news/bos...
"In addition, the SoundTouch app will no longer function after Feb. 18, 2026, though it will still be available for download until then in markets outside of Japan. Users' My Bose accounts will remain active.
As for why itâ(TM)s cutting support now, Bose says technology has evolved since the speakers first launched in 2013 and that itâ(TM)s âoeno longer able to sustain the development and support of the cloud infrastructure that powers this older generation of products.â
This likely isnâ(TM)t welcome news for audiophiles who have spent large sums of money on the SoundTouch rangeâ"particularly as units such as the SoundTouch 30 retailed for north of $1,000. One Reddit user claims heâ(TM)s now sitting on âoe$4,000 worth of bricks" following the move. Meanwhile, others called the ending of support "exploitative,â shared links to a petition calling on Bose to renew support for the SoundTouch range, and asked their fellow users to send emails to Bose's management team."
Comment Bose is a Boomer lifestyle brand, not high end. (Score 4, Informative) 41
Bose survives on lifestyle marketing and nostalgia. They made decent small dorm and barracks systems when I bought 901s at the Ramstein audio photo club, but that era is ancient history.
Comment What crowd control options SHOULD be used? (Score 1) 144
There are few options for low-damage area denial. Which ARE acceptable and why?
A heat ray beats tear "gas" (which is really a cloud or spray of particulates) whose misery lasts after the target quits the area.
Even if you wear a CBRN mask the rest of you often gets smegged and that IME is not pleasant.
A heat ray does not require physical combat with attendant injuries.
