Comment Re:Drop in the bucket (Score 1) 166
AND India. (And probably elsewhere.)
Comment Re:Who funded this "study"? (Score 1) 166
The economic reasons I've heard is that with an aging population, a much smaller percentage of younger folk need to support a much larger proportion of the elderly.
I really think that this argument doesn't work in a world with improving AI and robots, but it's true currently, and has been true for the last century or so. (Probably really true only since antibiotics supplemented public sanitation, though.)
Comment Re:Physics. In your face. (Score 1) 166
Sorry, biofuels CAN be carbon neutral. But it's more expensive to do it that way, so nobody does. Generally they're just greenwashing PR, so they don't try to make it actually work. Alternatively, they're a research project that gets written up as if it were a reasonable operational choice. (Or both, of course.)
This is more a problem with our decision making strategy than it is a technical problem, even though of course there are technical components. We are really poor at dealing with long term problems. Less poor at recognizing them. But we highly discount future costs.
SEC: Financial Orgs Have 30 Days To Send Data Breach Notifications (bleepingcomputer.com) 12
An anonymous reader quotes a report from BleepingComputer: The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has adopted amendments to Regulation S-P that require certain financial institutions to disclose data breach incidents to impacted individuals within 30 days of discovery. Regulation S-P was introduced in 2000 and controls how some financial entities must treat nonpublic personal information belonging to consumers. These rules include developing and implementing data protection policies, confidentiality and security assurances, and protecting against anticipated threats.
The new amendments (PDF) adopted earlier this week impact financial firms, such as broker-dealers (funding portals included), investment firms, registered investment advisers, and transfer agents. The modifications were initially proposed in March of last year to modernize and improve the protection of individual financial information from data breaches and exposure to non-affiliated parties. Below is a summary of the introduced changes:
- Notify affected individuals within 30 days if their sensitive information is, or is likely to be, accessed or used without authorization, detailing the incident, breached data, and protective measures taken. Exemption applies if the information isn't expected to cause substantial harm or inconvenience to the exposed individuals.
- Develop, implement, and maintain written policies and procedures for an incident response program to detect, respond to, and recover from unauthorized access or use of customer information. This should include procedures to assess and contain security incidents, enforce policies, and oversee service providers.
- Expand safeguards and disposal rules to cover all nonpublic personal information, including that received from other financial institutions.
- Require documentation of compliance with safeguards and disposal rules, excluding funding portals.
- Align annual privacy notice delivery with the FAST Act, exempting certain conditions.
- Extend safeguards and disposal rules to transfer agents registered with the SEC or other regulatory agencies.
The new amendments (PDF) adopted earlier this week impact financial firms, such as broker-dealers (funding portals included), investment firms, registered investment advisers, and transfer agents. The modifications were initially proposed in March of last year to modernize and improve the protection of individual financial information from data breaches and exposure to non-affiliated parties. Below is a summary of the introduced changes:
- Notify affected individuals within 30 days if their sensitive information is, or is likely to be, accessed or used without authorization, detailing the incident, breached data, and protective measures taken. Exemption applies if the information isn't expected to cause substantial harm or inconvenience to the exposed individuals.
- Develop, implement, and maintain written policies and procedures for an incident response program to detect, respond to, and recover from unauthorized access or use of customer information. This should include procedures to assess and contain security incidents, enforce policies, and oversee service providers.
- Expand safeguards and disposal rules to cover all nonpublic personal information, including that received from other financial institutions.
- Require documentation of compliance with safeguards and disposal rules, excluding funding portals.
- Align annual privacy notice delivery with the FAST Act, exempting certain conditions.
- Extend safeguards and disposal rules to transfer agents registered with the SEC or other regulatory agencies.
Submission + - SEC: Financial Orgs Have 30 Days To Send Data Breach Notifications (bleepingcomputer.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has adopted amendments to Regulation S-P that require certain financial institutions to disclose data breach incidents to impacted individuals within 30 days of discovery. Regulation S-P was introduced in 2000 and controls how some financial entities must treat nonpublic personal information belonging to consumers. These rules include developing and implementing data protection policies, confidentiality and security assurances, and protecting against anticipated threats.
The new amendments (PDF) adopted earlier this week impact financial firms, such as broker-dealers (funding portals included), investment firms, registered investment advisers, and transfer agents. The modifications were initially proposed in March of last year to modernize and improve the protection of individual financial information from data breaches and exposure to non-affiliated parties.
The new amendments (PDF) adopted earlier this week impact financial firms, such as broker-dealers (funding portals included), investment firms, registered investment advisers, and transfer agents. The modifications were initially proposed in March of last year to modernize and improve the protection of individual financial information from data breaches and exposure to non-affiliated parties.
Comment Re:Lighter than air (Score 1) 166
Use hot air with a hydrogen fuel to keep it hot. (Batteries MIGHT work for that.)
OTOH, it would be slow. There's no way around that. It could be a good replacement for a luxury liner, I suppose. And it might be useful for freight that wasn't too heavy and didn't have an extremely urgent delivery requirement. That's a pretty niche market.
Comment Re:Who thought this was feasible? (Score 3, Informative) 166
You can't make things work by just building wind-turbines. (Or solar cells.) You need to add large investments in energy storage and voltage regulation, and the ability to pour power into the grid episodically from random locations. This *is* the right way to go, but don't oversimplify things.
The current grid is not designed to accept random amounts of input from random locations. It's designed to be driven by base-line loads, like hydro, nuclear, coal, or gas. That's what was available when it was being designed. When variable sources get to be around 40% it becomes less stable. (That's what the various huge batteries have been added to handle...but the problem gets worse when the base-line load becomes a smaller fraction.)
The grid is **In the process** of being redesigned. But the redesign is not near completion. This is only partially because of existing commercial interests.
Comment Re:Obviously not! (Score 1) 166
Hydrogen is a more realistic choice. I.e. it's known to be possible, and CAN be generated from water and electricity.
There are lots of problems with it, but there are known plausible answers to those problems. (Except the ones about expense. This requires different engines on the airplanes.)
The easiest plausible answer is synthetic kerosene. This is doable, and requires feedstock of things like methane. It CAN be done in an approximately non-polluting manner. Expect this to be MORE expensive than the hydrogen approach at scale.
The processes involving things like food waste will always be non-scalable, because the feedstock it to varied. (Well, you could compost them anaerobically and pull off the methane...but doing that at scale is both difficult and inefficient as a source of methane.)
Batteries are too heavy to be a suitable replacement for air fuel This is true even of Lithium batteries. There *do* exist short range electric airplanes...but I expect them to always be
Arizona Woman Accused of Helping North Koreans Get Remote IT Jobs At 300 Companies (arstechnica.com) 43
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: An Arizona woman has been accused of helping generate millions of dollars for North Korea's ballistic missile program by helping citizens of that country land IT jobs at US-based Fortune 500 companies. Christina Marie Chapman, 49, of Litchfield Park, Arizona, raised $6.8 million in the scheme, federal prosecutors said in an indictment unsealed Thursday. Chapman allegedly funneled the money to North Korea's Munitions Industry Department, which is involved in key aspects of North Korea's weapons program, including its development of ballistic missiles. Part of the alleged scheme involved Chapman and co-conspirators compromising the identities of more than 60 people living in the US and using their personal information to get North Koreans IT jobs across more than 300 US companies.
As another part of the alleged conspiracy, Chapman operated a "laptop farm" at one of her residences to give the employers the impression the North Korean IT staffers were working from within the US; the laptops were issued by the employers. By using proxies and VPNs, the overseas workers appeared to be connecting from US-based IP addresses. Chapman also received employees' paychecks at her home, prosecutors said. Federal prosecutors said that Chapman and three North Korean IT workers -- using the aliases of Jiho Han, Chunji Jin, Haoran Xu, and others -- had been working since at least 2020 to plan a remote-work scheme. In March of that year, prosecutors said, an individual messaged Chapman on LinkedIn and invited her to "be the US face" of their company. From August to November of 2022, the North Korean IT workers allegedly amassed guides and other information online designed to coach North Koreans on how to write effective cover letters and resumes and falsify US Permanent Resident Cards.
Under the alleged scheme, the foreign workers developed "fictitious personas and online profiles to match the job requirements" and submitted fake documents to the Homeland Security Department as part of an employment eligibility check. Chapman also allegedly discussed with co-conspirators about transferring the money earned from their work. Chapman was arrested Wednesday. It wasn't immediately known when she or Didenko were scheduled to make their first appearance in court. If convicted, Chapman faces 97.5 years in prison, and Didenko faces up to 67.5 years.
As another part of the alleged conspiracy, Chapman operated a "laptop farm" at one of her residences to give the employers the impression the North Korean IT staffers were working from within the US; the laptops were issued by the employers. By using proxies and VPNs, the overseas workers appeared to be connecting from US-based IP addresses. Chapman also received employees' paychecks at her home, prosecutors said. Federal prosecutors said that Chapman and three North Korean IT workers -- using the aliases of Jiho Han, Chunji Jin, Haoran Xu, and others -- had been working since at least 2020 to plan a remote-work scheme. In March of that year, prosecutors said, an individual messaged Chapman on LinkedIn and invited her to "be the US face" of their company. From August to November of 2022, the North Korean IT workers allegedly amassed guides and other information online designed to coach North Koreans on how to write effective cover letters and resumes and falsify US Permanent Resident Cards.
Under the alleged scheme, the foreign workers developed "fictitious personas and online profiles to match the job requirements" and submitted fake documents to the Homeland Security Department as part of an employment eligibility check. Chapman also allegedly discussed with co-conspirators about transferring the money earned from their work. Chapman was arrested Wednesday. It wasn't immediately known when she or Didenko were scheduled to make their first appearance in court. If convicted, Chapman faces 97.5 years in prison, and Didenko faces up to 67.5 years.
Comment Re:HelloWorld (Score 1) 63
I'm not sure. Copyright isn't supposed to apply to functionally required elements. And I don't think "hello" can be copyrighted.
Comment Re:Not a ban (Score 3, Interesting) 63
I think it's effectively a ban at this point. After a few court cases are decided that may change. At the moment it's just playing safe...which is normal NetBSD activity.
Companies Are So Desperate For Data Centers They're Leasing Them Before They're Even Built (sherwood.news) 23
Data center construction levels are at an all-time high. And more than ever, companies that need them have already called dibs. From a report: In the first quarter of 2024, what amounts to about half of the existing supply of data center megawattage in the US is under construction, according to real estate services firm CBRE. And 84% of that is already leased. Typically that rate had been about 50% the last few years -- already notably higher than other real estate classes. "I'm astonished and impressed by the demand for facilities yet to be fully constructed," CBRE Data Center Research Director Gordon Dolven told Sherwood.
That advanced interest means that despite the huge amount of construction, there's still going to be a shortage of data centers to meet demand. In other words, data center vacancy rates are staying low and rents high. Nationwide the vacancy rates are near record lows of 3.7% and average asking rent for data centers was up 19% year over year, according to CBRE. It was up 42% in Northern Virginia, where many data centers are located. These sorts of price jumps are "unprecedented" compared with other types of real estate. For comparison, rents for industrial and logistics real estate, another hot asset class used in e-commerce, is expected to go up 8% this year.
That advanced interest means that despite the huge amount of construction, there's still going to be a shortage of data centers to meet demand. In other words, data center vacancy rates are staying low and rents high. Nationwide the vacancy rates are near record lows of 3.7% and average asking rent for data centers was up 19% year over year, according to CBRE. It was up 42% in Northern Virginia, where many data centers are located. These sorts of price jumps are "unprecedented" compared with other types of real estate. For comparison, rents for industrial and logistics real estate, another hot asset class used in e-commerce, is expected to go up 8% this year.
Comment Re:How will they prove it? (Score 0) 37
AI does substantially the same thing that humans do when they are "inspired by" other artists.
[Citation needed]
Moreover, if it's legal for humans, then it's cannot intrinsically be illegal when a human directs a machine to do it.
Computers and humans are treated differently under copyright law. Get better arguments, yours suck.
Germany's Sovereign Tech Fund Now Supporting FFmpeg (phoronix.com) 16
Michael Larabel reports via Phoronix: Following Germany's Sovereign Tech Fund providing significant funding for GNOME, Rust Coreutils, PHP, a systemd bug bounty, and numerous other free software projects, the FFmpeg multimedia library is the latest beneficiary to this funding from the Germany government. The Sovereign Tech Fund notes that the FFmpeg project is receiving 157,580 euros for 2024 and 2025.
An announcement on the FFmpeg.org project site notes: "The FFmpeg community is excited to announce that Germany's Sovereign Tech Fund has become its first governmental sponsor. Their support will help sustain the [maintenance] of the FFmpeg project, a critical open-source software multimedia component essential to bringing audio and video to billions around the world everyday."
An announcement on the FFmpeg.org project site notes: "The FFmpeg community is excited to announce that Germany's Sovereign Tech Fund has become its first governmental sponsor. Their support will help sustain the [maintenance] of the FFmpeg project, a critical open-source software multimedia component essential to bringing audio and video to billions around the world everyday."
Archie, the Internet's First Search Engine, Is Rescued and Running (arstechnica.com) 31
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: It's amazing, and a little sad, to think that something created in 1989 that changed how people used and viewed the then-nascent Internet had nearly vanished by 2024. Nearly, that is, because the dogged researchers and enthusiasts at The Serial Port channel on YouTube have found what is likely the last existing copy of Archie. Archie, first crafted by Alan Emtage while a student at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, allowed for the searching of various "anonymous" FTP servers around what was then a very small web of universities, researchers, and government and military nodes. It was groundbreaking; it was the first echo of the "anything, anywhere" Internet to come. And when The Serial Port went looking, it very much did not exist.
While Archie would eventually be supplanted by Gopher, web portals, and search engines, it remains a useful way to index FTP sites and certainly should be preserved. The Serial Port did this, and the road to get there is remarkable and intriguing. You are best off watching the video of their rescue, along with its explanatory preamble. But I present here some notable bits of the tale, perhaps to tempt you into digging further.
While Archie would eventually be supplanted by Gopher, web portals, and search engines, it remains a useful way to index FTP sites and certainly should be preserved. The Serial Port did this, and the road to get there is remarkable and intriguing. You are best off watching the video of their rescue, along with its explanatory preamble. But I present here some notable bits of the tale, perhaps to tempt you into digging further.
