Comment Why bother then? (Score 1) 105
There are many less precarious ways to make a living.
Submission + - Bank of America kindly asks that you don't share your password with your AI asst (techcrunch.com)
schwit1 writes: In an email blast to customers titled “Protecting your finances in the Al World,” Bank of America urged customers to never share their username and password with another person or an outside service, “including an Al-enabled tool or agent that offers to act on your behalf.”
You can practically sense the frustration in the person sending the email. Still, customers are increasingly handing over their log-ins as personal AI assistants grow more popular. Sharing your banking username and password with an AI assistant runs the risk that it could do something with your finances without your knowledge, or that your bank thinks someone’s raiding your account and locks you out of it. Worse, a security flaw in the AI assistant could result in it leaking your banking credentials elsewhere, giving financially motivated hackers a way into your bank account.
You can practically sense the frustration in the person sending the email. Still, customers are increasingly handing over their log-ins as personal AI assistants grow more popular. Sharing your banking username and password with an AI assistant runs the risk that it could do something with your finances without your knowledge, or that your bank thinks someone’s raiding your account and locks you out of it. Worse, a security flaw in the AI assistant could result in it leaking your banking credentials elsewhere, giving financially motivated hackers a way into your bank account.
Submission + - New Discovery Reveals Shakespeare Co-Wrote Play With His Famous Rival Marlowe (greekreporter.com)
joshuark writes: Nisha Zahid of the Greek Reporter writes that new research has found that William Shakespeare collaborated with Christopher Marlowe on Edward III, a historical play published anonymously in 1596. The findings suggest Shakespeare was the main author, while Marlowe contributed several sections. The discovery challenges the long-held belief that the two playwrights were primarily rivals.
Dr. Rory Loughnane, a Shakespeare scholar at the University of Kent, said the research establishes Shakespeare’s leading role “beyond any reasonable doubt.” The findings could settle a centuries-old debate over the play’s authorship. Scholars had previously linked Shakespeare to several scenes but remained uncertain about how much of the work he wrote.
The researchers used computer-based text analysis to compare Edward III with confirmed works by 10 playwrights active between the late 1580s and mid-1590s.
In one test, the analysis attributed 23 sections of the play to Shakespeare and nine to Marlowe. The results suggest Shakespeare wrote most of the work, with Marlowe contributing a smaller portion. The findings build on earlier research into the play’s disputed authorship.
A 2016 study had already identified Marlowe as a co-author of Shakespeare’s three Henry VI plays. Combined with the new findings, that research suggests Shakespeare and Marlowe maintained a working relationship across several plays during their early careers. Their collaboration on Edward III, believed to have been written around 1592, suggests the two writers worked together while both were in their 20s.
The findings add to scholarly understanding of Shakespeare’s early career and the collaborative nature of Elizabethan theater. The research is expected to appear in the winter issue of the academic journal Shakespeare Quarterly.
Dr. Rory Loughnane, a Shakespeare scholar at the University of Kent, said the research establishes Shakespeare’s leading role “beyond any reasonable doubt.” The findings could settle a centuries-old debate over the play’s authorship. Scholars had previously linked Shakespeare to several scenes but remained uncertain about how much of the work he wrote.
The researchers used computer-based text analysis to compare Edward III with confirmed works by 10 playwrights active between the late 1580s and mid-1590s.
In one test, the analysis attributed 23 sections of the play to Shakespeare and nine to Marlowe. The results suggest Shakespeare wrote most of the work, with Marlowe contributing a smaller portion. The findings build on earlier research into the play’s disputed authorship.
A 2016 study had already identified Marlowe as a co-author of Shakespeare’s three Henry VI plays. Combined with the new findings, that research suggests Shakespeare and Marlowe maintained a working relationship across several plays during their early careers. Their collaboration on Edward III, believed to have been written around 1592, suggests the two writers worked together while both were in their 20s.
The findings add to scholarly understanding of Shakespeare’s early career and the collaborative nature of Elizabethan theater. The research is expected to appear in the winter issue of the academic journal Shakespeare Quarterly.
Comment Re: It's funny (Score 1) 131
It's been a decade and a half. Just because a person knows how to compile a kernel doesn't mean they can't also be a Luddite at the same time.
Comment Re: Shocking (Score 1) 131
Well that escalated quickly.
Submission + - Rubin Telescope discovers a new solar system planet (behindtheblack.com)
schwit1 writes: Using data from the Rubin Telescope in Chile, astronomers have discovered a new planet in the outer solar system beyond Neptune, joining Pluto, Eris, Haumea, and Makemake as the five known large Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNO) so far discovered.
On the evening of 13 October, [Matthew] Holman was running data collected by Rubin earlier in 2026 through a search code he developed with CfA colleague Kevin Napier. The code is built to look at billions of detections of moving objects, compare them, and find the detections that correspond to the same object. Using this method, Holman uncovered ED138, and he immediately noticed that its brightness and distance indicated that it is unusually large. “My first reaction was one of excited disbelief,” says Holman. “Objects like this are very rare, so I immediately started checking whether I or the code had done something wrong.”
To remove any doubt, a detailed search through the data began in the hopes of uncovering more observations of ED138. Juri searched Rubin’s catalogs and images and found 20 more observations, going back to 4 March 2026. In all, Rubin observed ED138 30 times on 20 nights between 4 March and 11 July. Additional archival images from the DOE-fabricated Dark Energy Camera (DECam), and uncovered by the Asteroid Institute’s ADAM Precovery service, provided data going all the way back to 2016. These data allowed the team to trace more than 10 years of ED138's orbit. DECam is mounted on the NSF Victor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF NOIRLab.
ED138 is currently at a distance of about 46 astronomical units (au), where 1 au is the average distance between the Earth and the Sun. For reference, dwarf planet Pluto has an average distance of 40 au. This classifies ED138 as a trans-Neptunian object (TNO) — objects that orbit the Sun at a distance greater than Neptune’s.
The data suggests this new planet is the largest TNO object so far discovered, though at present the size estimate is very uncertain, from 350 to 1400 miles in diameter.
Comment Current news cycle (Score 1) 100
That's why it's on Slashdot. High value thefts are increasing but most are by traditional methods. Fraudulent pickups and carrier impersonation are simple, easy and allow ample time to unload cargo.
Value rose ~725 million dollars for 2025 so a drop in the economic swimming pool. That's hardly impressive in an economy the size of the US.
High value load tracking and hiring private security guards will be natural responses.
Comment Predictable reddit outcome was obvious (Score 1) 146
Reddit drama is hardly "news" and but does drive monetizable view counts. Posting reddit drama on Slashdot drives views because Slashdot is a general news site.
Ideological communities are prone to infighting because humans enjoy competing virtue displays. Weak communities will render themselves irrelevant. Effective communities will thrive. Water is wet.
Where AI proves sufficiently useful it will be used but there is no need for everyone to use AI.
Comment Re: Let me fix this for you (Score 1) 150
These points are all flawed, and if I thought you wrote them, or even understood them yourself, I'd bother writing a full rebuttal.
Comment Re: Proprietary software needs to be abandoned. (Score 1) 68
Not half as violent as allowing obsolete approaches and flawed architecture to remain out of some weird combination of concern for backwards compatibility and sentimentality.
Comment Re: Proprietary software needs to be abandoned. (Score 1) 68
Python 2 users were supported for more than a decade after 3 came out, and there was a LOT of migration tooling released. CIOs may not want to be forced to upgrade too often, but if they think upgrading once every 10 years is too much, then they need to quit and get into something more aligned with their expectations. Perhaps blacksmithing.
Comment Ukraine needs to find the kompromat (Score 1) 171
Then ensure it's wisely leaked by a third party.
Comment "Luser" awareness matters and fear works (Score 1) 84
Automated defenses have value, but so does making distrust the default it should have been in the first place.
Clueful people don't expect others to be intelligent. We've seen who they elect.
Comment Thank you for the heads up (Score 1) 6
I now am dependent in part for my livelihood on paypal. Going to check my contact info there now.
Comment Insightful use of protest as self-promotion (Score 1) 120
Not jumping ship until a politically fashionable trigger event offers itself is a fine way to profit from a system to which one expediently objects. That's an admirably shrewd career move, not rage against anyones machine.
Bailing out "in protest" when you're making phat bank to go make even phatter bank is great self-promotion with no downside. Seriously capable people don't stay unemployed long. The departing will be easily replaced which reinforces corporate policies they object to. No one loses anything because nothing is sacrificed.
