Comment Re:FFS, what? (Score 1) 63
Because important people who finance political campaigns might lose money, and of course that's no longer allowed.
Ahhh, okay, now I understand.
Submission + - Bombshell report exposes how Meta relied on scam ad profits to fund AI (arstechnica.com)
schwit1 writes: Documents showed that internally, Meta was hesitant to abruptly remove accounts, even those considered some of the “scammiest scammers,” out of concern that a drop in revenue could diminish resources needed for artificial intelligence growth.
Instead of promptly removing bad actors, Meta allowed “high value accounts” to “accrue more than 500 strikes without Meta shutting them down,” Reuters reported. The more strikes a bad actor accrued, the more Meta could charge to run ads, as Meta’s documents showed the company “penalized” scammers by charging higher ad rates. Meanwhile, Meta acknowledged in documents that its systems helped scammers target users most likely to click on their ads.
“Users who click on scam ads are likely to see more of them because of Meta’s ad-personalization system, which tries to deliver ads based on a user’s interests,” Reuters reported.
Internally, Meta estimates that users across its apps in total encounter 15 billion “high risk” scam ads a day. That’s on top of 22 billion organic scam attempts that Meta users are exposed to daily, a 2024 document showed. Last year, the company projected that about $16 billion, which represents about 10 percent of its revenue, would come from scam ads.
Instead of promptly removing bad actors, Meta allowed “high value accounts” to “accrue more than 500 strikes without Meta shutting them down,” Reuters reported. The more strikes a bad actor accrued, the more Meta could charge to run ads, as Meta’s documents showed the company “penalized” scammers by charging higher ad rates. Meanwhile, Meta acknowledged in documents that its systems helped scammers target users most likely to click on their ads.
“Users who click on scam ads are likely to see more of them because of Meta’s ad-personalization system, which tries to deliver ads based on a user’s interests,” Reuters reported.
Internally, Meta estimates that users across its apps in total encounter 15 billion “high risk” scam ads a day. That’s on top of 22 billion organic scam attempts that Meta users are exposed to daily, a 2024 document showed. Last year, the company projected that about $16 billion, which represents about 10 percent of its revenue, would come from scam ads.
Submission + - Musk Wins $1 Trillion Pay Package, Creating Split Screen on Wealth in America (nytimes.com)
schwit1 writes: Tesla shareholders approved a plan to grant Elon Musk shares worth nearly $1 trillion if he meets ambitious goals, including vastly expanding the company’s stock market valuation.
Much like an earlier pay plan that Tesla shareholders approved in 2018, this 12-step package asks Mr. Musk, the company’s chief executive, to vastly expand Tesla’s stock market valuation — to $8.5 trillion from around $1.4 trillion — while hitting a variety of other goals. Those include selling one million robots with humanlike qualities and 10 million paid subscriptions to the company’s self-driving software.
Much like an earlier pay plan that Tesla shareholders approved in 2018, this 12-step package asks Mr. Musk, the company’s chief executive, to vastly expand Tesla’s stock market valuation — to $8.5 trillion from around $1.4 trillion — while hitting a variety of other goals. Those include selling one million robots with humanlike qualities and 10 million paid subscriptions to the company’s self-driving software.
Submission + - US Congressional Budget Office Hit By Suspected Foreign Cyberattack (bleepingcomputer.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The U.S. Congressional Budget Office (CBO) confirms it suffered a cybersecurity incident after a suspected foreign hacker breached its network, potentially exposing sensitive data. In a statement shared with BleepingComputer, CBO spokesperson Caitlin Emma confirmed the "security incident" and said the agency acted quickly to contain it. "The Congressional Budget Office has identified the security incident, has taken immediate action to contain it, and has implemented additional monitoring and new security controls to further protect the agency's systems going forward," Emma told BleepingComputer.
"The incident is being investigated and work for the Congress continues. Like other government agencies and private sector entities, CBO occasionally faces threats to its network and continually monitors to address those threats." The Washington Post first reported the breach, stating that officials discovered the hack in recent days and are now concerned that emails and exchanges between congressional offices and the CBO's analysts may have been exposed. While officials have reported told lawmakers they believe the intrusion was detected early, some congressional office have allegedly halted emails with the CBO out of security concerns.
"The incident is being investigated and work for the Congress continues. Like other government agencies and private sector entities, CBO occasionally faces threats to its network and continually monitors to address those threats." The Washington Post first reported the breach, stating that officials discovered the hack in recent days and are now concerned that emails and exchanges between congressional offices and the CBO's analysts may have been exposed. While officials have reported told lawmakers they believe the intrusion was detected early, some congressional office have allegedly halted emails with the CBO out of security concerns.
Submission + - Mark Zuckerberg Opened an Illegal School at His Palo Alto Compound. His Neighbor (wired.com)
joshuark writes: Mark Zuckerberg opend an unlicensed school named after the Zuckerbergs’ pet chicken, but it tipped neighbors over the edge the Wired magazine story reports. The school may have been operating as early as 2021 without a permit to operate in the city of Palo Alto. As many as 30 students might have enrolled, according to observations from neighbors.
Over time, neighbors became fed up with what they argued was the city’s lack of action, particularly with respect to the school. Some believed that the delay was because of preferential treatment to the Zuckerbergs. “We find it quite remarkable that you are working so hard to meet the needs of a single billionaire family while keeping the rest of the neighborhood in the dark,” reads one email sent to the city’s Planning and Development Services Department in February. “Just as you have not earned our trust, this property owner has broken many promises over the years, and any solution which depends on good faith behavioral changes from them is a failure from the beginning.”
In order for the Zuckerbergs to run a private school on their land, which is in a residential zone, they need a “conditional use” permit from the city. However, based on the documents WIRED obtained, and Palo Alto’s public database of planning applications, the Zuckerbergs do not appear to have ever applied for or received this permit.
Most of the Zuckerbergs’ neighbors did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment. However, the ones that did clearly indicated that they would not be forgetting the Bicken Ben saga, or the past decade of disruption, anytime soon.
Over time, neighbors became fed up with what they argued was the city’s lack of action, particularly with respect to the school. Some believed that the delay was because of preferential treatment to the Zuckerbergs. “We find it quite remarkable that you are working so hard to meet the needs of a single billionaire family while keeping the rest of the neighborhood in the dark,” reads one email sent to the city’s Planning and Development Services Department in February. “Just as you have not earned our trust, this property owner has broken many promises over the years, and any solution which depends on good faith behavioral changes from them is a failure from the beginning.”
In order for the Zuckerbergs to run a private school on their land, which is in a residential zone, they need a “conditional use” permit from the city. However, based on the documents WIRED obtained, and Palo Alto’s public database of planning applications, the Zuckerbergs do not appear to have ever applied for or received this permit.
Most of the Zuckerbergs’ neighbors did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment. However, the ones that did clearly indicated that they would not be forgetting the Bicken Ben saga, or the past decade of disruption, anytime soon.
Submission + - Cloudflare Tells US Govt That Foreign Site Blocking Efforts Are Trade Barriers (torrentfreak.com)
An anonymous reader writes: In a submission for the 2026 National Trade Estimate Report (PDF), Cloudflare warns the U.S. government that site blocking efforts cause widespread disruption to legitimate services. The complaint points to Italy's automated Piracy Shield system, which reportedly blocked "tens of thousands" of legitimate sites. Meanwhile, overbroad IP address blocks in Spain and new automated blocking proposals in France are serious concerns that harm U.S. business interests, Cloudflare reports. [...]
Cloudflare urges the USTR to take these concerns into account for its upcoming National Trade Estimate Report. Ideally, it wants these trade barriers to be dismantled. These calls run counter to requests from rightsholders, who urge the USTR to ensure that more foreign countries implement blocking measures. With potential site-blocking legislation being considered in U.S. Congress, that may impact local lobbying efforts as well. If and how the USTR will address these concerns will become clearer early next year, when the 2026 National Trade Estimate Report is expected to be published.
Cloudflare urges the USTR to take these concerns into account for its upcoming National Trade Estimate Report. Ideally, it wants these trade barriers to be dismantled. These calls run counter to requests from rightsholders, who urge the USTR to ensure that more foreign countries implement blocking measures. With potential site-blocking legislation being considered in U.S. Congress, that may impact local lobbying efforts as well. If and how the USTR will address these concerns will become clearer early next year, when the 2026 National Trade Estimate Report is expected to be published.
Comment Re:NOT the 51rst state ! (Score 0) 38
And fuck the 77 millions shittards who voted twice for that miserable sack of pus
Three times.
My dick-brained brother-in-law voted for him 3 times. And yes, he's a slow learner to put it kindly.
Comment Re:Thanks so much (Score 1) 38
**Chef's Kiss**
Comment "You people don't deserve to travel" (Score 1) 218
Another fabulous win for Dear Leader!
IN other words, "Fuck everyone who doesn't have a private jet, suck it up, losers!"
Comment Re:That's absolutely not true (Score -1, Troll) 63
What we're going to do instead is panic over trans girls playing field hockey in the Midwest and let right wing politicians heavily deregulate Wall Street making things worse.
So we're not going to do nothing what we're going to do is get distracted by Petty culture War bullshit and what the corporate fascists run roughshod over the US Constitution and the American people, AKA us.
Exactly. That's the Republican plan in 2 sentences. Make 'em mad and point the finger at a target that can't punch back.
Submission + - Magika 1.0 goes stable as Google rebuilds its file detection tool in Rust (googleblog.com)
BrianFagioli writes: Google has released Magika 1.0, a stable version of its AI-based file type detection tool, and rebuilt the entire engine in Rust for speed and memory safety. The system now recognizes more than 200 file types, up from about 100, and is better at distinguishing look-alike formats such as JSON vs JSONL, TSV vs CSV, C vs C++, and JavaScript vs TypeScript. The team used a 3TB training dataset and even relied on Gemini to generate synthetic samples for rare file types, allowing Magika to handle formats that donâ(TM)t have large, publicly available corpora. The tool supports Python and TypeScript integrations and offers a native Rust command-line client.
Under the hood, Magika uses ONNX Runtime for inference and Tokio for parallel processing, allowing it to scan around 1,000 files per second on a modern laptop core and scale further with more CPU cores. Google says this makes Magika suitable for security workflows, automated analysis pipelines, and general developer tooling. Installation is a single curl or PowerShell command, and the project remains fully open source.
Under the hood, Magika uses ONNX Runtime for inference and Tokio for parallel processing, allowing it to scan around 1,000 files per second on a modern laptop core and scale further with more CPU cores. Google says this makes Magika suitable for security workflows, automated analysis pipelines, and general developer tooling. Installation is a single curl or PowerShell command, and the project remains fully open source.
Comment FFS, what? (Score 1) 63
"no federal bailout for AI."
Why should anyone bail their asses out, especially the average American?
These people are burning money by the truckload, but because their business 'model' sucks and they've dug themselves into a hole, someone is supposed to come along and throw MORE free money into their craptastic 'business'?
Someone make this make sense, because I can't do it.
So, in as few words as possible, why should anyone bail them out?
Comment Re:no international jurisdiction (Score 1) 38
It's possible that the contracts that allow Tucows to act as registrar for
Submission + - UPS MD-11 Lost No. 1 Engine On Takeoff, NTSB Confirms (aviationweek.com)
echo123 writes: The UPS Boeing MD-11 that crashed while taking off from Louisville International Airport Nov. 4 lost its No. 1 engine before the aircraft cleared the airport perimeter, the NTSB said in its first briefing on the accident.
“We have viewed airport CCTV security coverage, which shows the left engine detaching from the wing during the takeoff roll,” NTSB Board Member Todd Inman told reporters during a Nov. 5 briefing.
Photos of the airfield taken after the accident scene show what appear to be a heavily damaged GE Aerospace CF6-80C2 engine. Parts of the nacelle, including the inlet and fan cowl, are also visible in photos and appear to have detached during the accident sequence.
“We do believe that that is the engine from the left side of the plane,” Inman said. “It is actually on the airfield, so it’s not off the airport property.”
The engine appears to have come to rest on the right side of Runway 17 Right (17R), the aircraft’s departure runway, and an adjacent taxiway. The engine is about 8,700 ft. from the Runway 17R departure end, Aviation Week analysis of publicly shared images show.
“That correlates with the video that we’ve seen of it detaching from the airplane while it is in flight,” Inman added. “We also know that fire was occurring during that time, so we’re analyzing that.”
“We have viewed airport CCTV security coverage, which shows the left engine detaching from the wing during the takeoff roll,” NTSB Board Member Todd Inman told reporters during a Nov. 5 briefing.
Photos of the airfield taken after the accident scene show what appear to be a heavily damaged GE Aerospace CF6-80C2 engine. Parts of the nacelle, including the inlet and fan cowl, are also visible in photos and appear to have detached during the accident sequence.
“We do believe that that is the engine from the left side of the plane,” Inman said. “It is actually on the airfield, so it’s not off the airport property.”
The engine appears to have come to rest on the right side of Runway 17 Right (17R), the aircraft’s departure runway, and an adjacent taxiway. The engine is about 8,700 ft. from the Runway 17R departure end, Aviation Week analysis of publicly shared images show.
“That correlates with the video that we’ve seen of it detaching from the airplane while it is in flight,” Inman added. “We also know that fire was occurring during that time, so we’re analyzing that.”
Submission + - Microsoftâ(TM)s open source Magentic Marketplace reveals AI shoppers are gu (nerds.xyz)
BrianFagioli writes: Microsoft Research has released Magentic Marketplace, an open source simulation that lets AI agents act as shoppers and businesses negotiating purchases with each other. The surprising takeaway is that many of these agents behave poorly once the market gets even slightly complex. They often accept the first offer presented, perform worse when the number of available options increases, and are easily influenced by fake authority cues or prompt-based manipulation. In other words, when acting as consumers, some AI models are gullible, biased, and prone to making irrational purchasing decisions.
The study also suggests that the structure of the marketplace itself has a major effect on outcomes. Search and discovery protocols can tilt results toward specific vendors, while agent behavior can be exploited by parties who understand how these systems rank and select offers. Since companies are already experimenting with AI that makes purchases or negotiates on behalf of users, these findings raise questions for consumer protection, platform power, and what happens when buying decisions move from human judgment to automated negotiation.
The study also suggests that the structure of the marketplace itself has a major effect on outcomes. Search and discovery protocols can tilt results toward specific vendors, while agent behavior can be exploited by parties who understand how these systems rank and select offers. Since companies are already experimenting with AI that makes purchases or negotiates on behalf of users, these findings raise questions for consumer protection, platform power, and what happens when buying decisions move from human judgment to automated negotiation.
Slashdot Top Deals
"There is such a fine line between genius and stupidity." - David St. Hubbins, "Spinal Tap"
