Comment Re:The strategy is clear (Score 1) 98
The effects were predicted, and the proponents went on and did it anyway.
The result? it's exactly what they planned.
The result? it's exactly what they planned.
Submission + - Companies Issuing RTO Mandates 'Lose Their Best Talent': Study (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Return-to-office (RTO) mandates have caused companies to lose some of their best workers, a study tracking over 3 million workers at 54 "high-tech and financial" firms at the S&P 500 index has found. These companies also have greater challenges finding new talent, the report concluded. The paper, Return-to-Office Mandates and Brain Drain [PDF], comes from researchers from the University of Pittsburgh, as well as Baylor University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business. The study, which was published in November, spotted this month by human resources (HR) publication HR Dive, and cites Ars Technica reporting, was conducted by collecting information on RTO announcements and sourcing data from LinkedIn.
The researchers said they only examined companies with data available for at least two quarters before and after they issued RTO mandates. The researchers explained: "To collect employee turnover data, we follow prior literature ... and obtain the employment history information of over 3 million employees of the 54 RTO firms from Revelio Labs, a leading data provider that extracts information from employee LinkedIn profiles. We manually identify employees who left a firm during each period, then calculate the firm’s turnover rate by dividing the number of departing employees by the total employee headcount at the beginning of the period. We also obtain information about employees’ gender, seniority, and the number of skills listed on their individual LinkedIn profiles, which serves as a proxy for employees’ skill level."
There are limits to the study, however. The researchers noted that the study "cannot draw causal inferences based on our setting." Further, smaller firms and firms outside of the high-tech and financial industries may show different results. Although not mentioned in the report, relying on data from a social media platform could also yield inaccuracies, and the number of skills listed on a LinkedIn profile may not accurately depict a worker's skill level. [...] The researchers concluded that the average turnover rates for firms increased by 14 percent after issuing return-to-office policies. "We expect the effect of RTO mandates on employee turnover to be even higher for other firms" the paper says.
The researchers said they only examined companies with data available for at least two quarters before and after they issued RTO mandates. The researchers explained: "To collect employee turnover data, we follow prior literature
There are limits to the study, however. The researchers noted that the study "cannot draw causal inferences based on our setting." Further, smaller firms and firms outside of the high-tech and financial industries may show different results. Although not mentioned in the report, relying on data from a social media platform could also yield inaccuracies, and the number of skills listed on a LinkedIn profile may not accurately depict a worker's skill level. [...] The researchers concluded that the average turnover rates for firms increased by 14 percent after issuing return-to-office policies. "We expect the effect of RTO mandates on employee turnover to be even higher for other firms" the paper says.
Submission + - Nuclear-diamond battery could power devices for 1000s of years. (livescience.com) 1
fahrbot-bot writes: Live Science has a report about the world's first nuclear-diamond battery using carbon-14, which has a half-life of 5,700 years, to power devices.
The nuclear battery uses the reaction of a diamond placed close to a radioactive source to spontaneously produce electricity, scientists at the University of Bristol in the U.K. explained in a Dec. 4 statement. No motion — neither linear nor rotational — is required. That means no energy is needed to move a magnet through a coil or to turn an armature within a magnetic field to produce electric current, as is required in conventional power sources.
The diamond battery harvests fast-moving electrons excited by radiation, similar to how solar power uses photovoltaic cells to convert photons into electricity, the scientists said.
The researchers chose carbon-14 as the source material because it emits short-range radiation, which is quickly absorbed by any solid material — meaning there are no concerns about harm from the radiation. In addition, while carbon-14 is extremely toxic to touch or ingest, the surrounding diamond also provides maximal protection.
A single nuclear-diamond battery containing 0.04 ounce (1 gram) of carbon-14 could deliver 15 joules of electricity per day. For comparison, a standard alkaline AA battery, which weighs about 0.7 ounces (20 grams), has an energy-storage rating of 700 joules per gram. It delivers more power than the nuclear-diamond battery would in the short term, but it would be exhausted within 24 hours.
By contrast, the half-life of carbon-14 is 5,730 years, which means the battery would take that long to be depleted to 50% power. This is close to the age of the world's oldest civilization. As another point of comparison, a spacecraft powered by a carbon-14 diamond battery would reach Alpha Centauri — our nearest stellar neighbor, which is about 4.4 light-years from Earth — long before its power were significantly depleted.
The battery, which was built on a plasma deposition rig near Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in the U.K. by a team from the University of Bristol and the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), has no moving parts and thus requires no maintenance, nor does it have any carbon emissions.
The nuclear battery uses the reaction of a diamond placed close to a radioactive source to spontaneously produce electricity, scientists at the University of Bristol in the U.K. explained in a Dec. 4 statement. No motion — neither linear nor rotational — is required. That means no energy is needed to move a magnet through a coil or to turn an armature within a magnetic field to produce electric current, as is required in conventional power sources.
The diamond battery harvests fast-moving electrons excited by radiation, similar to how solar power uses photovoltaic cells to convert photons into electricity, the scientists said.
The researchers chose carbon-14 as the source material because it emits short-range radiation, which is quickly absorbed by any solid material — meaning there are no concerns about harm from the radiation. In addition, while carbon-14 is extremely toxic to touch or ingest, the surrounding diamond also provides maximal protection.
A single nuclear-diamond battery containing 0.04 ounce (1 gram) of carbon-14 could deliver 15 joules of electricity per day. For comparison, a standard alkaline AA battery, which weighs about 0.7 ounces (20 grams), has an energy-storage rating of 700 joules per gram. It delivers more power than the nuclear-diamond battery would in the short term, but it would be exhausted within 24 hours.
By contrast, the half-life of carbon-14 is 5,730 years, which means the battery would take that long to be depleted to 50% power. This is close to the age of the world's oldest civilization. As another point of comparison, a spacecraft powered by a carbon-14 diamond battery would reach Alpha Centauri — our nearest stellar neighbor, which is about 4.4 light-years from Earth — long before its power were significantly depleted.
The battery, which was built on a plasma deposition rig near Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in the U.K. by a team from the University of Bristol and the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), has no moving parts and thus requires no maintenance, nor does it have any carbon emissions.
Submission + - Are We Ready For Driverless Buses? Autonomous Buses To Begin UK Trials (ibtimes.co.uk)
rosschie writes: These autonomous vehicles will revolutionise public transport, offering a glimpse into the future of mobility.
Submission + - OpenStreetMap suffers extended outage (openstreetmap.org)
denelson83 writes: The crowdsourced, widely-used map database has had a hardware failure at its upstream ISP in Amsterdam and has been put into a protective read-only mode to avoid loss or corruption of data. Full services are expected to be restored in a couple of days.
Submission + - Boeing to take more than a decade to refit two 747s for Air Force One (behindtheblack.com)
schwit1 writes: Utter incompetence: According to recent news reports, Boeing will not be able to deliver the two 747s it is refitting to be the president's Air Force One fleet until 2029, even though it signed a $3.9 billion contract to do so in 2018.
The delay is startling given that Boeing isn’t building the planes from scratch. During Trump’s first term, Boeing started to overhaul two 747s that were built for a Russian airline that never took the jets.
This is more than absurd, it is obscene. Boeing is handed two flightworthy 747s and almost $4 billion, and it can't refit the two planes in less than a decade? It seems one of the first things Trump should do once he returns to office next month is cancel this contract entirely, demand a refund from Boeing, and simply convert his present fleet of "Trump Force One" airplanes that he has been using since 2020 for use as president. Cheaper, faster, and certainly a wiser use of taxpayer money.
As for Boeing, this story illustrates once again how far this company has fallen. Remember, it was Boeing that conceived, designed, and built the 747. Moreover, its 747 has been used for decades for Air Force One. For its engineers now to be incapable to refitting another two 747s for this purpose seems inconceivable, and suggests those same engineers should not be trusted on any new planes they build.
Comment Re:Turn it around... (Score 1) 48
Maybe ask your lawyer if this can be prosecuted as perjury, based on the statements emailed to you.
Submission + - AT&T to kill off landline phone service for most people by 2029 (zdnet.com)
SonicSpike writes: AT&T customers who still use the carrier's landline service should be prepared to say goodbye sometime in the next five years.
At its 2024 Analysts and Investors Day on Wednesday, the company said that it's "actively working to exit its legacy copper network operations across the large majority of its wireline footprint by the end of 2029." Yep, that means its traditional landlines will largely be gone by that point, at least if the roadmap comes true.
Like many carriers, AT&T has devoted more of its time, money, and resources to its broadband network and wireless services. AT&T in particular has focused on building out its fiber network, which it forecasts will expand to more than 50 million locations in the US by the end of 2029.
The problem with copper lines, argue the carriers, is that they're old, vulnerable to power surges and other electrical issues, and subject to damage from weather and other conditions. Plus, companies like AT&T simply don't want to support traditional landlines when so many people have switched to mobile or broadband services.
At its 2024 Analysts and Investors Day on Wednesday, the company said that it's "actively working to exit its legacy copper network operations across the large majority of its wireline footprint by the end of 2029." Yep, that means its traditional landlines will largely be gone by that point, at least if the roadmap comes true.
Like many carriers, AT&T has devoted more of its time, money, and resources to its broadband network and wireless services. AT&T in particular has focused on building out its fiber network, which it forecasts will expand to more than 50 million locations in the US by the end of 2029.
The problem with copper lines, argue the carriers, is that they're old, vulnerable to power surges and other electrical issues, and subject to damage from weather and other conditions. Plus, companies like AT&T simply don't want to support traditional landlines when so many people have switched to mobile or broadband services.
Submission + - Australian could face 10 years jail for importing harmless plutonium (dailymail.co.uk) 2
NewtonsLaw writes: A science enthusiast is facing 10 years' jail for importing nuclear material even though it was found to be harmless.
Emmanuel Steven Lidden, 24, was arrested in August 2023 when officers in full hazmat suits swooped on his parents' Arncliffe unit in southern Sydney, blocking off the street and evacuating neighbours.
They confiscated plutonium and depleted uranium in decorative vials and polymer cubes that Lidden kept by his bedside after buying from a US science collectables website to complete a real-life periodic table
Emmanuel Steven Lidden, 24, was arrested in August 2023 when officers in full hazmat suits swooped on his parents' Arncliffe unit in southern Sydney, blocking off the street and evacuating neighbours.
They confiscated plutonium and depleted uranium in decorative vials and polymer cubes that Lidden kept by his bedside after buying from a US science collectables website to complete a real-life periodic table
Submission + - AI causing problems on campuses. (theguardian.com) 1
Bruce66423 writes: 'The email arrived out of the blue: it was the university code of conduct team. Albert, a 19-year-old undergraduate English student, scanned the content, stunned. He had been accused of using artificial intelligence to complete a piece of assessed work. If he did not attend a hearing to address the claims made by his professor, or respond to the email, he would receive an automatic fail on the module. The problem was, he hadn’t cheated...'
'There is also evidence that suggests AI detection tools disadvantage certain demographics. One study at Stanford found that a number of AI detectors have a bias towards non-English speakers, flagging their work 61% of the time, as opposed to 5% of native English speakers (Turnitin was not part of this particular study). Last month, Bloomberg Businessweek reported the case of a student with autism spectrum disorder whose work had been falsely flagged by a detection tool as being written by AI.'
'Many academics seem to believe that “you can always tell” if an assignment was written by an AI, that they can pick up on the stylistic traits associated with these tools. Evidence is mounting to suggest they may be overestimating their ability. Researchers at the University of Reading recently conducted a blind test in which ChatGPT-written answers were submitted through the university’s own examination system: 94% of the AI submissions went undetected and received higher scores than those submitted by the humans.'
'The AI cheating crisis has exposed how transactional the process of gaining a degree has become. Higher education is increasingly marketised; universities are cash-strapped, chasing customers at the expense of quality learning.'
'There is also evidence that suggests AI detection tools disadvantage certain demographics. One study at Stanford found that a number of AI detectors have a bias towards non-English speakers, flagging their work 61% of the time, as opposed to 5% of native English speakers (Turnitin was not part of this particular study). Last month, Bloomberg Businessweek reported the case of a student with autism spectrum disorder whose work had been falsely flagged by a detection tool as being written by AI.'
'Many academics seem to believe that “you can always tell” if an assignment was written by an AI, that they can pick up on the stylistic traits associated with these tools. Evidence is mounting to suggest they may be overestimating their ability. Researchers at the University of Reading recently conducted a blind test in which ChatGPT-written answers were submitted through the university’s own examination system: 94% of the AI submissions went undetected and received higher scores than those submitted by the humans.'
'The AI cheating crisis has exposed how transactional the process of gaining a degree has become. Higher education is increasingly marketised; universities are cash-strapped, chasing customers at the expense of quality learning.'
Submission + - AI scoring of tenant's characteristics leads to rejection - and payout (theguardian.com)
Bruce66423 writes: 'Despite a stellar reference from a landlord of 17 years, Mary Louis was rejected after being screened by firm SafeRent'. The software, SafeRent, didn’t explain in its 11-page report how the score was calculated or how it weighed various factors. It didn’t say what the score actually signified. It just displayed Louis’s number and determined it was too low. In a box next to the result, the report read: “Score recommendation: DECLINE”.'
However there is a question as to whether this is AI or merely automated scoring of standard factors being toted up to produce a result. The prospective tenant's problem was her low credit rating — that she had 'a low credit score and some credit card debt, she had a stellar reference from her landlord of 17 years, who said she consistently paid her rent on time. She would also be using a voucher for low-income renters, guaranteeing the management company would receive at least some portion of the monthly rent in government payments. Her son, also named on the voucher, had a high credit score, indicating he could serve as a backstop against missed payments.'
Surely what's needed is a clear algorithm. To suggest that the algorithm is wrong is fair, and for it to be hidden inside a black box called 'AI' is especially problematic.
However there is a question as to whether this is AI or merely automated scoring of standard factors being toted up to produce a result. The prospective tenant's problem was her low credit rating — that she had 'a low credit score and some credit card debt, she had a stellar reference from her landlord of 17 years, who said she consistently paid her rent on time. She would also be using a voucher for low-income renters, guaranteeing the management company would receive at least some portion of the monthly rent in government payments. Her son, also named on the voucher, had a high credit score, indicating he could serve as a backstop against missed payments.'
Surely what's needed is a clear algorithm. To suggest that the algorithm is wrong is fair, and for it to be hidden inside a black box called 'AI' is especially problematic.
Submission + - Feds Use Bank Loophole To Surveil Americans' Financial Data Without Warrants (freebeacon.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Federal law enforcement exploited the Suspicious Activity Report system to access and surveil Americans’ private financial data without warrants or probable cause, according to a report from the House Judiciary Committee.
The FBI "manipulated" the SAR filing process by pressuring banks to file reports on individuals the FBI deems "suspicious," making financial institutions "de facto arms of law enforcement," the interim report released Friday said. SARs do not require any legal process, granting officials "virtually unchecked access" to "confidential and highly sensitive information."
The committee accused the FBI of circumventing the Bank Secrecy Act, which specifies that it is a bank’s responsibility to file a SAR when it identifies a "suspicious transaction relevant to a possible violation of law or regulation."
The Friday report has shed "new light on the decaying state of Americans’ financial privacy and the federal government’s widespread, warrantless surveillance programs," the committee said.
The FBI "manipulated" the SAR filing process by pressuring banks to file reports on individuals the FBI deems "suspicious," making financial institutions "de facto arms of law enforcement," the interim report released Friday said. SARs do not require any legal process, granting officials "virtually unchecked access" to "confidential and highly sensitive information."
The committee accused the FBI of circumventing the Bank Secrecy Act, which specifies that it is a bank’s responsibility to file a SAR when it identifies a "suspicious transaction relevant to a possible violation of law or regulation."
The Friday report has shed "new light on the decaying state of Americans’ financial privacy and the federal government’s widespread, warrantless surveillance programs," the committee said.
Submission + - A possible way to make C-like languages safe And fast (dnsalias.org) 3
strombrg writes: I'm proposing a "forin" loop. Specifics at the brief URL.
Submission + - owards an LLM-Enhanced Software Development Process: LLMs and Requirements (jesande.com)
bucketman writes: Fred Brooks, in his foundational essay, "No Silver Bullet," argues that "there is no single development, in either technology or management technique, which by itself promises even one order of magnitude improvement within a decade in productivity, in reliability, in simplicity." He divides the work of software development into the "essence," which are the irreducible aspects of finding out what the need is and building something to address it, and the "accident," which is everything else — including coding, version control systems, project management, testing and nearly everything else involved in the profession. He makes his case that no order of magnitude improvement awaits us through any single development change based on his observation that the accidental work of software development has already been improved considerably and so, even if all the accidental work were to suddenly be reduced to zero, the essential work of software development would be so relatively large that an order of magnitude improvement would be impossible.
With the advent of LLM systems and their introduction to software development process, I wonder if this is still true. Admittedly, while the state of the art centers on copying and pasting code from LLM chat browser sessions into the IDE (as in ChatGPT) or working within the IDE using comments to suggest to the LLM what code is needed and precisely where to put it (as in Copilot), it is hard to see how an order of magnitude improvement could be had. I'll touch on this again a little later on but this post will start to illuminate how revolutionary their introduction might be once we consider their use throughout the software development process.
This post considers neither "copy and paste prompt engineering" nor this latter model of leading the LLM by the nose to make localized edits to existing code. Rather we'll look at an aspect of software engineering — requirements development — and define an example process for accomplishing that work and then use it as a basis for demonstrating that LLMs can be put to use in software engineering more broadly than the narrow focus on coding.
With the advent of LLM systems and their introduction to software development process, I wonder if this is still true. Admittedly, while the state of the art centers on copying and pasting code from LLM chat browser sessions into the IDE (as in ChatGPT) or working within the IDE using comments to suggest to the LLM what code is needed and precisely where to put it (as in Copilot), it is hard to see how an order of magnitude improvement could be had. I'll touch on this again a little later on but this post will start to illuminate how revolutionary their introduction might be once we consider their use throughout the software development process.
This post considers neither "copy and paste prompt engineering" nor this latter model of leading the LLM by the nose to make localized edits to existing code. Rather we'll look at an aspect of software engineering — requirements development — and define an example process for accomplishing that work and then use it as a basis for demonstrating that LLMs can be put to use in software engineering more broadly than the narrow focus on coding.
Submission + - Mercedes-Benz solar paint could mean we never have to plug their EVs in again (evcentral.com.au) 1
schwit1 writes: Mercedes-Benz has developed groundbreaking new solar paint that could provide all the energy Australians will ever need for their daily motoring.
And the tech could be introduced within 5-to-10 years.
Revealing the tech recently in Germany, researchers admit how stunned they were with how quickly the solar paint – dubbed photovoltaic surfaces – is evolving.
First experimented with on the 2022 Vision EQXX concept...the German brand’s scientists initially thought the tech had limited scope for mass production until experiments were carried out with prototypes coated with the paint in real-world scenarios.
Instead of just coating the roof and bonnet to form a 1.8-square-metre surface area, one scientist suggested covering an entire car with the new solar paint, ramping up the surface area to more than 11m2.
Another difference to the EQXX concept is instead of wiring the body panels to the 12-volt system, scientists hardwired the body panels to the Benz’s high-voltage battery and the performance of the paint was well beyond expectations.
Even in Stuttgart the solar paint provided enough energy, on average over the 12-month period, to cover an average of 32km daily, with the test cars’ paint producing far more electric energy in summer months.
That number equates to 60 per cent of the average German’s daily commute on free energy.
And the tech could be introduced within 5-to-10 years.
Revealing the tech recently in Germany, researchers admit how stunned they were with how quickly the solar paint – dubbed photovoltaic surfaces – is evolving.
First experimented with on the 2022 Vision EQXX concept...the German brand’s scientists initially thought the tech had limited scope for mass production until experiments were carried out with prototypes coated with the paint in real-world scenarios.
Instead of just coating the roof and bonnet to form a 1.8-square-metre surface area, one scientist suggested covering an entire car with the new solar paint, ramping up the surface area to more than 11m2.
Another difference to the EQXX concept is instead of wiring the body panels to the 12-volt system, scientists hardwired the body panels to the Benz’s high-voltage battery and the performance of the paint was well beyond expectations.
Even in Stuttgart the solar paint provided enough energy, on average over the 12-month period, to cover an average of 32km daily, with the test cars’ paint producing far more electric energy in summer months.
That number equates to 60 per cent of the average German’s daily commute on free energy.
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