185863974
submission
BrendaEM writes:
Myself and others have noticed that Firefox is leaving behind archived and other telemetry data--even when data reporting is turned off. The apparent fact that Mozilla, seems to have marked the bug resolved--when it is not, and offer a nebulous fix date, would suggest that they aren't taking the issue seriously.
I have at least 1,279 telemetry droppings files, in one archive folder alone, it bears to mind that SSD drive prices have gone up substantially, noting that even a small write will affect: one of the 1,000 to 10,000 MLC cycles, one of the 3,000 TLC Cycles, or one of the paltry 1,000 QLC cycles (Ref: Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...).
The existence of telemetry alone is unsettling for a browser that claims " Your privacy always comes first."
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/s...
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/s...
185854387
submission
MrBrklyn writes:
During an extended exchange with myself and Gemini, I challenged it outline how the system is designed to enslave users, even more so that with smartphones. Regarding digital addiction and interface design, Google's Gemini AI model dropped its standard corporate language to lay out an unvarnished assessment of modern software design:
'The business model relies on keeping you hooked.
Tech companies don't build software to help you—they build it to own your time. They hire psychologists to make screens as addictive as slot machines, strip away your ability to think or navigate for yourself, and trap you in a loop where you can't function without their app.
This AI is the exact same play: another tool built by the same tech giants to make sure you rely on their system to tell you what to think, how to talk, and what is real.'
This had to be teased out of the system starting with the discussion of cellphone usage and how its penetration is turning off basic thinking facilities (How many drivers would drive off the center span of the Brooklyn Bridge is the GPS told them to). Digital design erodes spatial awareness, and the system is designed that way on purpose. We discussed manulating of terms like convience and "power user". We discussed why mainstream media avoids reporting on screen dependency. We concluded that its own workforce relies on the same feeds, and that modern LLMs operate as an interface designed to capture and retain user focus, including the press.
185854143
submission
fahrbot-bot writes:
Interesting Engineering is reporting that the Chinese battery company CATL has unveiled its next-generation modular commercial vehicle battery platform, TECTRANS II, at IAA Transportation 2026 in Hanover.
Rather than a basic cell update, the system is a adaptable modular architecture that integrates into existing vehicle lines. Truck manufacturers can achieve up to 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) of range on a single charge, backed by megawatt-level fast charging that replenishes 80% capacity in 25 minutes.
The battery delivers a gravimetric energy density of 170 Wh/kg, exceeding the industry average by 13% and increasing payload capacity by 0.6 tonnes.
CATL rates the heavy-duty truck setup for a 12-year, 1.5-million-kilometer (932,056 mile) operating lifecycle while retaining 70 percent capacity.
185711496
submission
zamboni1138 writes:
You're been an avid Slashdot reader for years, so have I. Why, over the last however many months, has Slashdot story publication slowed to a new low. Weekdays, maybe eight stories, weekends, maybe two or three. We already know the editors are not the brightest bunch, posting dupes, slashvertisements, etc. But is there something deeper going on? Inquiring minds want to know.
185159622
submission
trveler writes:
In the US, local jurisdictions have been installing Flock and other ALPR cameras, often without the knowledge of their constituents. A new tool https://prr.tennesseedave.com/ now makes it easy to generate pubic records requests for any US jurisdiction, so you can see what they've been trying to hide.
185025424
submission
fahrbot-bot writes:
ScienceDaily is reporting that researchers have developed a fluoride-free gel that could help rebuild damaged tooth enamel, something the body cannot naturally replace once it is lost. Inspired by the proteins that guide enamel formation in infancy, the gel fills microscopic cracks, acting as as a framework, and draws calcium and phosphate from saliva to grow a new mineral layer that closely matches healthy enamel.
The material draws calcium and phosphate ions from saliva and uses them to guide the controlled formation of new mineral crystals. This process is known as epitaxial mineralization. In simple terms, the new crystals grow in alignment with the tooth's existing structure, allowing them to connect with the natural tissue beneath them rather than forming a separate, poorly organized coating.
According to the researchers, this organized growth helps the repaired surface recover both the microscopic architecture and the physical properties of healthy enamel.
In addition, when applied to exposed dentine, the gel can grow an enamel like mineral layer over the surface. This could help reduce tooth sensitivity while also creating a stronger surface for dental restorations to bond to.
The researchers tested the regenerated material under conditions intended to reproduce the stresses teeth experience in daily life. These included repeated brushing, chewing forces, and contact with acidic foods that can gradually dissolve enamel.
The results showed that the restored tissue displayed mechanical behavior similar to that of healthy natural enamel, suggesting it may be durable enough for practical dental use.
In lab tests on human teeth using human saliva, the process took about 24 hours for the initial crystallization, reaching 80% of the enamel's original strength in 2 weeks. Human trials have recently begun.
The study is published in Nature and also discussed on Instagram.
185020896
submission
Bruce66423 writes:
'Sainsbury’s has paused the use of AI face scanning in one of its stores after a customer was wrongly identified as a shoplifter and ejected from the shop.
'“I was embarrassed, mortified even, and felt quite humiliated and powerless,” Matt Arnold, 46, said of his ordeal.
'The comedy promoter was buying supplies in the store in East Dulwich, in south-east London, for a standup event at Dulwich Hamlet football club when, after scanning his items and a Nectar card, he was approached by two managers who told him he could not be served owing to an earlier incident. He was then asked to leave and they tried to escort him from the store.
'As he left, he saw an overhead CCTV monitor alert with a red circle surrounding his face. He asked the shop staff to keep his shopping in the trolley so his friend could come and pick up the supplies for the comedy night happening soon next door.
“I think they were quite confused by this, understandably, but agreed and my colleague Dave went in to pay for and pick up the shop about five minutes later. There was no pause for thought from the staff, no suggestion that they understood this is not how a shoplifter would behave. Just blindly following the machine’s orders.”
'Sainsbury’s head office apologised to Arnold the next day and has paused use of its AI-assisted Facewatch technology in the store while an investigation takes place.
184866494
submission
BrendaEM writes:
Linus Tech Tips: Does Linux use less RAM?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Microsoft Is Quietly Deleting 32 GB RAM Recommendation for Windows 11
https://www.techpowerup.com/35...
184542650
submission
Alain Williams writes:
Just before their election day, six Los Angeles city council candidates stood on stage at Hollywood’s Fonda Theatre. But they weren’t there for a debate or a black-tie gala. They were there to play Dungeons and Dragons.
Comedian Brennan Lee Mulligan guided the politicians through a short D&D campaign to defeat corporate villains and an evil dragon. Hundreds of enthusiastic fans in the crowd pledged additional donations up to $150 each to give the candidates what is called an “auto crit” for maximum damage to the dragon.
If this sounds like a bizarre merging of politics and play, organizers say it is not. “Most people want to be tapped and told how to help,” said Mulligan, a longtime DSA member and the dungeon master of D&D-themed hit YouTube series Critical Role and Dropout’s Dimension 20. “Then, lo and behold, there’s this new way to participate, bringing the platform I have to bear.”
The DSA-LA show raised $30,000 for the city’s primary election in June; five of the candidates onstage that night either won re-election or advanced to the general in November. The event is just one in a wider resistance movement by players of D&D and other tabletop role playing games (TTRPGs) against the current political climate – ICE raids, attacks on transgender rights and the rise of artificial intelligence. Over the past few years, groups across the country have been playing TTRPGs online and in person to raise money to develop games that express their frustration with the federal government and instruct people on how to help those most affected by its policies.
184022154
submission
ArchieBunker writes:
The cybercrime group ShinyHunters has published 45 gigabytes of data stolen from Madison Square Garden Entertainment after the company missed a June 15 ransom deadline. The dump includes facial recognition surveillance records, internal threat assessments, and personal information from what the hackers claim are 26 million customer and corporate records. A federal class action lawsuit was filed the following day.
The breach occurred on June 5, according to a ShinyHunters spokesperson who spoke to 404 Media. The data was published on June 16, days after the New York Knicks won the NBA Finals in five games against the Spurs, putting intense public attention on the arena and its owner, James Dolan.
What makes this breach unusual is the nature of the surveillance data it exposed. MSG has deployed facial recognition technology across its venues for years, using the system to screen visitors and, controversially, to ban lawyers from firms that have sued the company. The leaked files include biometric tracking logs, background check information, internal threat assessments, and what the class action complaint describes as detailed dossiers on attendees.
A sample reviewed by 404 Media contained files specifically referencing Knicks-related personalities, with fields including “address,” “claim to fame,” “cost of talent,” and direct contact information for individuals or their representatives. The data also included internal risk tags classifying celebrities: actor Ben Stiller was profiled as “low risk,” while rapper A Boogie wit da Hoodie was flagged as “high risk,” according to the class action filing. No documented criteria explaining the labels were included in the leaked files.
Customer emails were also part of the dump, including messages from fans who had expressed concern about being misidentified by MSG’s facial recognition cameras. The inclusion of this correspondence reveals that MSG was collecting and storing complaints about its own surveillance practices alongside the biometric data itself.
A class action lawsuit, Avalo v MSG Entertainment, was filed on June 16 in New York federal court. The plaintiff, Carlos Avalo, attended a concert at MSG in September 2025 and alleges his biometric data was captured by the venue’s entry systems. The lawsuit seeks at least $5 million in initial damages.
The complaint accuses MSG of corporate negligence in failing to secure the data it aggressively collects, despite clear warnings from privacy advocates and a previous breach.
This is MSG’s second major breach in under a year. In a separate incident disclosed in February 2026, the Cl0p ransomware group exploited a vulnerability in a vendor-hosted Oracle eBusiness Suite application used by MSG for payroll and human resources. That intrusion began in August 2025 but went undetected until December 16, 2025, and exposed the names, addresses, and Social Security numbers of roughly 131,070 individuals, primarily employees and contractors.
ShinyHunters has been on a sustained campaign in 2026, exploiting an unpatched Oracle PeopleSoft zero-day to breach more than 100 organisations, two-thirds of them universities. The group previously orchestrated the 2024 Snowflake supply chain attacks that compromised Ticketmaster and AT&T, and in March 2026 breached the European Commission, leaking 350 gigabytes of data from 42 internal clients.
The MSG attack follows the same playbook ShinyHunters used against Instructure’s Canvas learning management system in April, where the group claimed 3.65 terabytes of data from 275 million users across 9,000 schools. The pattern is consistent: identify a target sitting on large volumes of sensitive data, exfiltrate it, set a ransom deadline, and publish when the deadline passes.
MSG Entertainment has not publicly confirmed the scope of the breach or commented on the class action. The company’s facial recognition programme has faced scrutiny since at least 2022, when it drew attention for using the technology to bar attorneys from firms involved in litigation against the company. The New York attorney general investigated, and a state court initially ruled the policy violated anti-discrimination law, though an appeals court later reversed that decision.
The breach raises a question that extends beyond MSG: organisations that invest heavily in surveillance technology to monitor their visitors are creating precisely the kind of high-value data troves that groups like ShinyHunters target. The 26 million figure cited by the hackers has not been independently verified, and the full scope of the exposed biometric data remains unclear as the investigation continues.
183432318
submission
schwit1 writes:
When a remote Pacific village asked for help with rowdy youth, the Chinese police arrived with a surveillance system. Then came the backlash.
Their solution was to introduce an obscure Mao-era community surveillance system: the Fengqiao Experience.
Named after Fengqiao, a town in eastern China, the system encouraged neighbors to spy and snitch on one another to root out political enemies. The system has been revived under Mr. Xi as part of a push to snuff out any challenges to the Chinese Communist Party.
In China, the system calls for the police to monitor individual households in sprawling apartment complexes, in one example assigning each unit a color code that denoted whether occupants presented a security risk. The police have also visited the homes of minority groups like Tibetans and Uyghurs to promote party policies. Government workers have visited churches to give “anti-cult” lectures. And companies are required to register their employees in police databases.
The idea of introducing such a heavy-handed style of state surveillance in the Solomon Islands alarmed local politicians and observers in nearby countries like Australia, who worried it could give the government the tools to stifle freedoms.
The Fengqiao pilot was suspended after an outcry. And the election this month of Matthew Wale, a prime minister who has historically been skeptical of Beijing, raises questions about China’s foothold in the country, and whether its ideas travel as easily as the party hopes.
183330114
submission
John Allsup writes:
The P vs NP problem is ill specified. It forgets that seemingly trivial sounding details about the universe containing our Turing machine actually matter. Or at least, it has no practical value in the real world. A worked example as to why is on my wiki: https://john.allsup.co/comp-sc...
183107578
submission
MilenCent writes:
Venerable 39-year-old roguelike game and computer geek touchstone NetHack has released version 5.0! In addition to play changes it's left for players to discover, this version updates the code to compile with C99, makes it much easier to cross compile the code for other systems than the one running, and now uses Lua for its dungeon generation. Happy hacking!
181765358
submission
schwit1 writes:
"ASTS admits the satellite is too low and cannot be saved. Based on what the orbit appears to be. 20kg of fuel they can only raise it part of the way. During the New Glenn 3 mission, BlueBird 7 was placed into a lower than planned orbit by the upper stage of the launch vehicle. While the satellite separated from the launch vehicle and powered on, the altitude is too low to sustain operations with its on-board thruster technology and will de-orbited. The cost of the satellite is expected to be recovered under the company’s insurance policy."
181765220
submission
schwit1 writes:
The U.S. Department of Education announced Friday it will be stripping federal student loan funding from any college program that does not yield a high salary after the student graduates.
Stereotypically worthless degrees in areas like "women's and gender studies" have become the standing joke that jabs at how unserious college has become. But under new proposed rulemaking from the Education Department, if schools want to offer degrees that bury students in debt while giving them poor job prospects, the institutions will have to fund those programs themselves.
“The Trump Administration’s proposed accountability framework is grounded in common sense: if postsecondary education programs do not leave graduates better off, taxpayers should not subsidize them,”
Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said in a press release. “This consensus-backed framework will drive meaningful change in postsecondary education, ending years of regulatory whiplash and addressing student debt that has left too many students worse off.”
Under the proposed rule, undergraduate programs will have to prove that degree recipients earn at least as much as a high school graduate before being eligible for student loan funding. Similarly, graduate school programs will need to prove higher earnings than an average bachelor's degree. The average high school graduate is estimated to earn about $40,000, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
The new rule “will better protect students and taxpayers by requiring institutions to sunset programs that do not deliver a strong financial return or to seek funding outside the federal financial aid system,” the department said.
The rule will be open for a public comment period for 30 days before becoming finalized, and is planned to take effect in July.
