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Submission + - SPAM: US To Open Program To Replace Huawei Equipment In US Networks

An anonymous reader writes: The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Monday said it would open a $1.9 billion program to reimburse mostly rural U.S. telecom carriers for removing network equipment made by Chinese companies deemed national security threats like Huawei and ZTE. The program, which was finalized in July, will open Oct. 29 for applications through Jan. 14, 2022.

Last year, the FCC designated Huawei and ZTE as national security threats to communications networks — a declaration that barred U.S. firms from tapping an $8.3 billion government fund to purchase equipment from the companies. The FCC in December adopted rules requiring carriers with ZTE or Huawei equipment to "rip and replace" that equipment. The issue is a big one for rural carriers that face high costs and difficulty finding workers to remove and replace equipment. The FCC's final order expanded the companies eligible for reimbursement from those with 2 million or fewer customers to those with 10 million or fewer customers. The FCC in September 2020 estimated it would cost $1.837 billion to remove and replace Huawei and ZTE equipment from networks. [...] The affected companies included the previously designated Huawei and ZTE, as well as Hytera, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co and Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co.

Link to Original Source

Submission + - User shares lessons from 2.5 Years working in VR (immersed.team)

Keighvin writes: Portions of the metaverse have leaked into 2021 from the future. From the article:

I float in space, surrounded on all sides by a grand view of the Milky Way Galaxy. A movie-theater-sized screen hangs before me, gently curved, everything at the perfect viewing distance. Eight different panes glitter with code, facets of a technological jewel granting views into the brain of a system responsible for moving tens of millions of dollars a day. A communications console canted like a drafting table at my fingertips holds a workshop of quick-fire exchanges with my colleagues, my meeting calendar, various API references, and camera feeds of the “real” world. To my left, abutting the mammoth array of code, a two-story tall portrait display shows the specifications for the task at hand atop an ever-present Spotify playlist. I crank the tunes and get into my flow.

But this isn’t an excerpt from some Ernest Cline novel—this is my every-day experience. I’ll spend 40–50 hours in Virtual Reality this week, like I did last week and every (work) week for the last 2½ years...

How close are we to ditching screens? What would it take for you to work in VR, or AR? What are the deal breakers?

Submission + - 6th Grader Expelled for 3 Months after Zoom provided inaccurate IP address info (ajc.com)

McGruber writes: On one day in February, 11-year-old Malachi Battle was not feeling well, so he stayed home sick and attended his 6th grade classes virtually via Zoom. Strange things started happening. In one class, Malachi said he heard an unknown person yell a racial slur. Teachers said other unidentified people were trying to get into their virtual classrooms. Two days later, Malachi was suspended, accused of repeatedly trying to log into Zoom classes with threatening phrases and racial slurs in lieu of his name

Malachi’s lawyers say Gwinnett County Public Schools accused him based on an inaccurate list of students’ Internet Protocol addresses from Zoom, a problem that could repeat elsewhere since the company’s online sessions are replacing classrooms for millions of students amid the coronavirus pandemic. Chris Gilliard, a fellow with the Technology and Social Change Project of the Harvard Kennedy School Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, had not heard of a situation similar to Malachi’s but said “it’s hugely unlikely that this is the first time” a student had been disciplined based on questionable data from Zoom.

During the “Zoom bombing” attempts, Malachi had already logged into the classes under his regular name, according to his appeal.

The school district retrieved from Zoom a list of the names and IP addresses in each waiting room, Malachi’s legal team said. The Zoom bombers’ public IP addresses matched Malachi’s — but four other students who did not appear to be Zoom bombers were also listed as having Malachi’s public IP address, an impossibility since they were not in the same house, said Scott Moulton, a Woodstock-based forensics expert hired by the attorney working on Malachi’s case.

Moulton said the school district’s technology employee who investigated should have been able to tell that many of the IP addresses in the Zoom report were wrong.

“I would have at least picked up the phone and called Zoom before hanging the life of an 11-year-old kid based on a log that looks like an error,” Moulton said.

The Zoom bombers’ local IP addresses, which identify the exact device being used, did not match Malachi’s, according to the log his attorneys provided. Nor did the local IP addresses match any of the possible sequences available under the configuration of the router in Malachi’s house, Moulton said. There were no other routers or devices in the house that could have used those local IP addresses, Moulton said.

Submission + - SPAM: Bose Frames Solve Half the Puzzle

swarm writes: I bought a pair of Bose Frames after reading a review in Tom's Guide. The frames impressed me greatly with the quality of sound from bone conduction and the quality of the built-in microphone. These frames seem to be the first to hit the mark for the interactive sound quality required for quality AR. Once I confirmed the quality of the audio system, I found that it was simple for me to order and install prescription transition lenses with blue-light filtering for practical use in all environments.
I'm hoping that this sound and microphone quality will be folding into retinal projection glasses systems for a truly useful AR experience.
I've signed up to develop applications for the bose system and I'm curious if any other slashdot users have begun developing apps for the frames.

Link to Original Source

Submission + - Any personal experience with implementing TOGAF? (cbronline.com)

swarm writes: I'm evaluating using TOGAF as a model for defining enterprise and solution architecture within our $4B company. Before I invest much more time or money into the effort, I'd like to find out if my fellow slashdotters have experience they can share concerning implementation of TOGAF.
Image

"Farming" Amoebas Discovered 49

Researchers from Rice University have found a type of amoeba that practices a sort of "primitive farming behavior." When their bacteria food become scarce, the Dictyostelium discoideum will group together and form a "fruiting body" that will disperse bacteria spores to a new area. From the article: "The behavior falls short of the kind of 'farming' that more advanced animals do; ants, for example, nurture a single fungus species that no longer exists in the wild. But the idea that an amoeba that spends much of its life as a single-celled organism could hold short of consuming a food supply before decamping is an astonishing one. More than just a snack for the journey of dispersal, the idea is that the bacteria that travel with the spores can 'seed' a new bacterial colony, and thus a food source in case the new locale should be lacking in bacteria." It's good to know that even a single celled creature is not immune to the pull of Farmville.
First Person Shooters (Games)

Unreal Tournament 3 For Linux Is Officially Dead 190

ndogg writes "There is no longer any uncertainty surrounding the release of Unreal Tournament 3 for Linux. It's official: the port is now dead. No reasons were given, but no one should be waiting for it anymore, if anyone still was."
The Courts

Man Sues Rockstar Saying GTA:SA Is Based On His Life 124

dotarray writes "From the article: 'Rockstar Games are no strangers to legal action, but it doesn't come stranger than this. An American model, Michael Washington (known as "Shagg") is suing the publisher — as well as parent company Take Two Interactive — because they based Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on his life.'" It's a good thing Washington never learned the infinite ammo cheat.
Patents

8-Year-Old Receives Patent 142

Knile writes "While not the youngest patent recipient ever (that would be a four year old in Texas), Bryce Gunderman has received a patent at age 8 for a space-saver that combines an outlet cover plate with a shelf. From the article: '"I thought how I was going to make a lot of money," Bryce said about what raced through his brain when he received the patent.'"
Hardware Hacking

Combining Two Kinects To Make Better 3D Video 106

suraj.sun sends this quote from Engadget about improving the Kinect 3D video recordings we discussed recently: "[Oliver Kreylos is] blowing minds and demonstrating that two Kinects can be paired and their output meshed — one basically filling in the gaps of the other. He found that the two do create some interference, the dotted IR pattern of one causing some holes and blotches in the other, but when the two are combined they basically help each other out and the results are quite impressive."
The Almighty Buck

Boy Finds £2.5M Gold Locket With Metal Detector 169

Instead of bottle caps and ridicule from his peers, 3-year-old James Hyatt found a locket worth millions with his metal detector. James and his dad found the gold locket last May in Essex. Since then the 500-year-old treasure has been appraised at around £2.5million. From the article: "James’s father Jason, 34, said: ‘My son is one of the luckiest people ever. If we go to the doctors he’ll put his hand down the side of the sofa and pull out a tenner.’"

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