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Comment I tried it so you don't have to. (Score 3, Informative) 24

The introductory tutorial involves cartoon caricatures of Donald Trump and Elon Musk meta-explaining the features of the AI animation program.

*It does not get better from there.*

The entire project feels like they distilled a Family Guy Knock Off TV Series Production Executive Who Isn't Even Allowed In The Writer's Room into an AI.

It's just... *that fucking bad*.

Verdict: Absolute dogshit. Not even in a "so bad you'll be ironically entertained" way. Just in a "this is abhorrent and everything it produces is soulless and unfunny".

Comment Re:the science (Score 1) 134

by Bahumat (#65026821) Attached to: 'World's First' Grid-Scale Nuclear Fusion Power Plant Announced In the US

The Lockheed Skunkwords CFR is either a) a complete bust, or b) successful enough that the department of defense has hopped all over it and classified the shit out of it.

Normally with most companies I'd assume it was a), but given it's the Skunkworks, the answer could range anywhere from "we actually solved this twenty years ago but can't admit that" to "it won't ever work but the Department of Defense and Department of Energy back dumptrucks of money up to our doors to keep trying".

Submission + - UK Royal Mint to Extract Gold from e-Waste (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by newcastlejon
newcastlejon writes: The Royal Mint, which has produced coins since the 9th Century, has begun to recover gold from electronic waste as the use of cash has declined and fewer new coins are needed. In 2022 construction began on a new site in Llantrisant, Wales. This facility will now be used to initially produce gold for jewellery and later for commemorative coins.

The BBC writes:

At the Royal Mint plant, piles of circuit boards are being fed into the new facility.

First, they are heated to remove their various components. Then the array of detached coils, capacitors, pins and transistors are sieved, sorted, sliced and diced as they move along a conveyor belt. Anything with gold in it is set aside.

âoeWhat we're doing here is urban mining,â says head of sustainability Inga Doak. âoeWe're taking a waste product that's being produced by society and we're mining the gold from that waste product and starting to see the value in that finite resource.â

The gold-laden pieces go to an on-site chemical plant. Theyâ(TM)re tipped into a chemical solution which leaches the gold out into the liquid. This is then filtered, leaving a powder behind. It looks pretty nondescript but this is actually pure gold â" it just needs to be heated in a furnace to be transformed into a gleaming nugget.

âoeTraditional gold recovery processes are very energy intensive and use very toxic chemicals that can only be used once, or they go to high energy smelters and they're basically burnt,â says Leighton John, the Royal Mint's operations director. âoeThe groundbreaking thing for us is the fact that this chemistry is used at room temperature, at very low energy, itâ(TM)s recyclable and pulls gold really quickly.â

Submission + - Windows Update Flaws Allow Undetectable Downgrade Attacks (securityweek.com)

Submitted by wiredmikey
wiredmikey writes: Researcher Alon Leviev is calling urgent attention to major gaps in Microsoft’s Windows Update architecture, warning that malicious hackers can launch software downgrade attacks that make the term “fully patched” meaningless on any Windows machine in the world. During a presentation at the Black Hat conference today in Las Vegas, Leviev showed how he was able to take over the Windows Update process to craft custom downgrades on critical OS components, elevate privileges, and bypass security features.

A Microsoft spokesperson told SecurityWeek the company is developing a security update that will revoke outdated, unpatched VBS system files to mitigate the threat.

Submission + - EPA Takes Emergency Action To Stop Use of Dangerous Pesticide (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: For the first time in 40 years, the Environmental Protection Agency has taken emergency action to stop the use of a pesticide linked to serious health risks for unborn babies. Tuesday’s emergency order applies to dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate, also known as DCPA, a weedkiller used on crops such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage and onions. When pregnant farmworkers and others are exposed to the pesticide, their babies can experience changes to fetal thyroid hormone levels, which are linked to low birth weight, impaired brain development, decreased IQ and impaired motor skills later in life.

“DCPA is so dangerous that it needs to be removed from the market immediately,” Michal Freedhoff, assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, said in a statement. “It’s EPA’s job to protect people from exposure to dangerous chemicals. In this case, pregnant women who may never even know they were exposed could give birth to babies that experience irreversible lifelong health problems.” The European Union banned DCPA in 2009. But the EPA has been slower to act, frustrating some environmental and public health advocates.

In an interview, Freedhoff said that EPA scientists have tried for years to get more information on health risks from the sole manufacturer of the pesticide, AMVAC Chemical. But she said the company refused to turn over the data, including a study on the effects of DCPA on thyroid development and function, until November 2023. “We did make some good-faith efforts to work with the company,” Freedhoff said. “But in the end, we didn’t think any of the measures proposed by the company would be implementable, enforceable or effective.”

Comment Apple's *legal counsel* gets to see it, not Apple. (Score 5, Informative) 100

by Bahumat (#61101216) Attached to: Valve Has To Provide Some Steam Sales Data To Apple, Judge Says

Apple's legal counsel gets to see this data, NOT Apple itself, and the data is under a protection order by the judge.

A third-party subpoena is a fairly common thing in business litigation; the court balances the power of that kind of discovery by strictly limiting who gets to have eyes on it (lawyers, not clients) and stacking up both enormous liability and penalties, both civil and criminal, for leaking or sharing that information beyond the legal counsel.

This is a pretty humdrum decision by the courts, it's just exciting to nerds because of the brand names involved.

Submission + - New Mersenne Prime Discovered, Largest Known Prime Number: 2^74,207,281 - 1

Submitted by Dave Knott
Dave Knott writes: The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) has discovered a new largest known prime number, 2^74,207,281-1, having 22,338,618 digits. The same GIMPS software just uncovered a flaw in Intel's latest Skylake CPUs, and its global network of CPUs peaking at 450 trillion calculations per second remains the longest continuously-running "grassroots supercomputing" project in Internet history. It is almost 5 million digits larger than the previous record prime number, in a special class of extremely rare prime numbers known as Mersenne primes. It is only the 49th known Mersenne prime ever discovered, each increasingly difficult to find.

Comment Re:Dont do anyone any favors (Score 1) 644

by Bahumat (#46056695) Attached to: Court Says Craigslist Sperm Donor Must Pay Child Support

What the father failed to do in this situation was draft up a contractual agreement with the other woman in this case, with her agreeing to reimburse him for any expenses or support related to the child in perpetuity.

Which would still leave him out-of-pocket until he could collect from her, but it would (probably, IANAL, your state or provincial laws may vary) be a legal arrangement.

Source: My family law lawyer (Alberta provincial and Canadian Federal law.)

Comment Re:Breaking laws (Score 2) 218

by Bahumat (#41454547) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Ideas and Tools To Get Around the Great Firewall?

Because that invites reciprocation of that attitude from other countries. Most people tend to get angry when foreigners from anywhere come into their country and intentionally disrespect the local cultural mores and laws.

I'll give you an easy, hyperbolic example:

By that same argument, how do you feel about Sudanese refugees performing female genital mutilation just down the street from where you live? How do you feel about them snorting in contempt at you when you show outrage, saying: "If a country doesn't respect my cultural norms, then why respect it at all?"

Etc. Etc.

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