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Submission + - Mastercard to phase out manual card entry for online payments in Europe by 2030 (cnbc.com)

Submitted by storkus
storkus writes:

Instead of the 16-digit card number we’re all accustomed to using for transactions, this will be replaced with a randomly-generated “token."

This story, as currently written, says nothing about their plans outside Europe but in the past the USA in particular has been dead last in getting this kind of tech.

Submission + - Solar modules deployed in France in 1992 still provide 79.5% of original output (pv-magazine.com)

Submitted by storkus
storkus writes:

The testing showed that the modules still produce on average 79.5% of their initial power after 31 years of operation. In a previous testing carried out 11 years ago, the panels were found to produce 91.7% of their initial power. “This result exceeds the performance promised by the manufacturers who said the panels would have maintained 80% of their output after 25 years

Another US NREL study says ~0.75% per year. Locally here in Arizona there are a LOT of used panels available at VERY cheap prices, but CSA / UL / NFPA may be the reason they go uninstalled.

Submission + - Advisory Panel of Experts Endorses FDA Approval of New Alzheimer's Drug (nytimes.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A committee of independent advisers to the Food and Drug Administration voted unanimously on Monday that the benefits outweigh the risks of the newest experimental drug for Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s afflicts more than six million Americans. It has no cure, and there is no treatment or lifestyle modification that can restore memory loss or reverse cognitive decline. The drug, made by Eli Lilly, is donanemab. It modestly slowed cognitive decline in patients in the early stages of the disease but also had significant safety risks, including swelling and bleeding in the brain. The committee concluded, though, that the consequences of Alzheimer’s are so dire that even a modest benefit can be worthwhile.

The F.D.A. usually follows the advice of the agency’s advisory committees but not always. The drug is based on a long-held hypothesis that Alzheimer’s disease begins when rough hard balls of amyloid, a protein, pile up in patients’ brains, followed by a cascade of reactions leading to the death of neurons. The idea is to treat Alzheimer’s by attacking amyloid, clearing it from the brain. Two similar amyloid-fighting drugs were approved recently:Leqembi, made by Eisai and Biogen, was approved last year. That drug’s risks and modest benefits are similar to those of donanemab.Aduhelm, made by Biogen, is the other drug and was approved in 2021 but was discontinued becausethere was insufficient evidence that itcould benefit patients. Donanemab was expected to be approved earlier this year, but in March, the F.D.A. decided that, instead,it would require donanemabto undergo the scrutiny of an independent advisory committee, a surprise to Eli Lilly.

The vote, said Dr. Daniel Skovronsky, chief scientific officer at Lilly, confirmed his 25-year quest to find a way to intervene in the Alzheimer’s disease. Now, he said, the company is starting a study that, it hopes, will stop the disease before symptoms even begin. At issue before the committee on Monday were some unusual aspects of donanemab’s clinical trials, especially that study participants stopped taking the drug as soon as their amyloid was cleared. Some experts questioned whether stopping was the best strategy and whether clinical practice should include halting the treatment after amyloid clearance.

Submission + - Linux to compete with Windows 11 Copilot+ PCs as TUXEDO unveils Snapdragon X Eli (betanews.com)

Submitted by BrianFagioli
BrianFagioli writes: The PC community is abuzz with Qualcommâ(TM)s recent announcement of its Snapdragon X Elite SoC, a powerhouse chipset that promises to revolutionize the performance and energy efficiency of laptops and tablets. While Windows 11 Copilot+ PCs are set to feature this advanced processor, Linux enthusiasts have reasons to celebrate as well. You see, TUXEDO Computers is bringing this cutting-edge technology to the Linux world with its upcoming ARM notebook, positioning it as a strong competitor to Windows 11 Copilot+ devices.

In a recent update, TUXEDO Computers revealed its ambitious project of developing an ARM notebook powered by the Snapdragon X Elite SoC from Qualcomm. This announcement has generated significant excitement, as it presents a viable alternative to traditional x86 notebooks, offering comparable performance with lower energy consumption, directly challenging the dominance of Windows 11 Copilot+.

Submission + - GPT-4 autonomously hacks zero-day security flaws with 53% success rate (newatlas.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes:

Researchers were able to successfully hack into more than half their test websites using autonomous teams of GPT-4 bots, co-ordinating their efforts and spawning new bots at will. And this was using previously-unknown, real-world 'zero day' exploits.

A couple of months ago, a team of researchers released a paper saying they'd been able to use GPT-4 to autonomously hack one-day (or N-day) vulnerabilities – these are security flaws that are already known, but for which a fix hasn't yet been released. If given the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) list, GPT-4 was able to exploit 87% of critical-severity CVEs on its own.

Skip forward to this week and the same group of researchers released a follow-up paper saying they've been able to hack zero-day vulnerabilities – vulnerabilities that aren't yet known – with a team of autonomous, self-propagating Large Language Model (LLM) agents using a Hierarchical Planning with Task-Specific Agents (HPTSA) method.

Instead of assigning a single LLM agent trying to solve many complex tasks, HPTSA uses a "planning agent" that oversees the entire process and launches multiple "subagents," that are task-specific. Very much like a boss and his subordinates, the planning agent coordinates to the managing agent which delegates all efforts of each "expert subagent", reducing the load of a single agent on a task it might struggle with.

It's a technique similar to what Cognition Labs uses with its Devin AI software development team; it plans a job out, figures out what kinds of workers it'll need, then project-manages the job to completion while spawning its own specialist 'employees' to handle tasks as needed.

AI Teamwork

When benchmarked against 15 real-world web-focused vulnerabilities, HPTSA has shown to be 550% more efficient than a single LLM in exploiting vulnerabilities and was able to hack 8 of 15 zero-day vulnerabilities. The solo LLM effort was able to hack only 3 of the 15 vulnerabilities.

Blackhat or whitehat? There is legitimate concern that these models will allow users to maliciously attack websites and networks. Daniel Kang – one of the researchers and the author of the white paper – noted specifically that in chatbot mode, GPT-4 is "insufficient for understanding LLM capabilities" and is unable to hack anything on its own.

Submission + - Tokyo's Government Is Building Its Own Dating App To Combat Falling Birthrates (time.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Called “Tokyo Futari Story,” the city hall’s new initiative is just that: An effort to create couples, “futari,” in a country where it is increasingly common to be “hitori,” or alone. While a site offering counsel and general information for potential lovebirds is online, a dating app is also in development. City hall hopes to offer it later this year, accessible through phone or web, a city official said Thursday. Details were still undecided. City Hall declined to comment on Japanese media reports that said the app will require a confirmation of identity, such as a driver’s license, your tax records to prove income and a signed form that says you are ready to get married.

Comment Re:Plenty of part-timers are in unions (Score 1) 1008

by Lotunggim Ginsawat (#36445716) Attached to: Apple Store Employee Attempts To Form Union

Right here, you said

I have meta-moderated wherever I liked it,

Whoa, a typo and you jump on it? A grammar Nazi. I admit it can be misleading though.

If you read the FAQ, you could not have possibly come to that conclusion. But trolls don't read links they are provided with, and you are a troll.

Nothing in the FAQ indicates I am wrong. And you still responds, so I am right.

So, you couldn't actually bother clicking on the links provided to you. Rather typical troll behavior, really.

I read them (which I shouldn't, because nothing has changed), you are wrong.

Of which four have been moderated down and zero have been moderated up. Hence this month roughly 20% of your comments are being down moderated. Those are not statistics to be proud of.

No, 20% of your comments being down moderated is generally abysmal.

20% is majority? Maybe 80% would have been absymal.

Wow, paranoid are you? You really think I am behind the accurate moderation of your trolling comments?

Did I accuse you of moderating here? I think I don't.

Indeed I should stop replying but you seem to be coming unraveled, which well practiced trolls won't allow themselves to do. I am enjoying watching you decompose in front of me.

Scram, troll. You're not even an effective or well-composed troll. You waste time but you fail to enrage. You think you're pulling off a good trolling job but more people are laughing at you than with you.

So,please reply then to this post. I am not trolling when I say GM unions caused their downfall.

The fact that you haven't answered any of my questions about why GM unions get paid first (no you haven't described this). You didn't explain the 24 billion bailout for USPS and 12 billion Treasury credit limits granted by Congress to USPS in 2006, which if not granted,would have already bankrupted USPS. And of course the silly money granted to USPS unions even when their financials in dire straits.

You think USPS is good health? They are going the way of GM soon,unless drastic measures are taken. The management knows what to do (things like privatizing post offices), but the unions (with their job security clause) prevented it.

Nahh...you won't be able to explain those things, and still said unions doesn't cause bankruptcies.

Comment Re:Plenty of part-timers are in unions (Score 1) 1008

by Lotunggim Ginsawat (#36445470) Attached to: Apple Store Employee Attempts To Form Union

No. You can say you signed up for that account before I signed up for this account. But that says nothing about who was reading or posting here first.

That's correct. But at least I stopped being Anonymous Coward first than you.

So then you admit that you lied when you said you could meta moderate a particular part of slashdot. Thank you for helping to clear that up.

Since when I say that you can meta-moderate any particular posting huh? Please provide a direct citation of my post saying that.

No, you're wrong. Meta moderation is broken, period. If you are completely clueless as to what it is supposed to do, I encourage you to read the FAQ and you will see that it is most definitely not doing what it is supposed to do.

It didn't, period.

If that is the case, and they instead shared yours, then why is it you have four comments moderated down in here and zero moderated up?

In other words, your comments are mostly being ignored. Those that are getting attention are being properly moderated - as troll and flamebait.

My e-mails says that I have 1 insightful upvote and 2 troll downvotes. So you are wrong. And considering that I have posted here a lot, my general karma related to this thread is positive.

I know, trolls don't often go back to review their own work, but I'll offer it up for you anyways:

        one
        two
        three
        four

Nahh..I will get any e-mail whenever I get voted on, negatively or positively, so I know where I stand. Considering the number of posts I have here, I have positive karma generally.

Hmm. Your statistics in this thread aren't looking good. Three troll mods, one flamebait, and zero positive of any sort. There is at least one person besides me who agrees that you are trolling here. And being as you meet the slashdot definition of troll (which I provided previously) there is plenty of reason for others to agree as well, although on your benefit they likely won't read your posts or see them worthy of moderation.

I have posted more than 20 posts here in this thread. Assuming that your numbers is correct, plus the fact that I don't post as AC, my numbers is going to be excellent unless you can get more people with mods point to actually downvote my posts in this thread more. Karma in meta-moderation can be a bitch though, but a quick check at the front page shows that I am still in the clear.

You can troll all you want. But spread truth you have not done, as you have just been trolling instead. You aren't very good, or even the least bit enraging. You are just a marginally competent troll.

There is this Internet saying: "Don't feed the troll".

Hohohoho.... the fact that you replied says that I am not a troll. Statistic also backed my up. So I really really hope you reply to this post after this.

GM unions are greedy. They played big parts in causing GM demise. Not stopping at that, the unions makes GM pay them first before creditors/bondholders (you still haven't addressed this yet).

Comment Re:Plenty of part-timers are in unions (Score 1) 1008

by Lotunggim Ginsawat (#36445162) Attached to: Apple Store Employee Attempts To Form Union

I guess I errantly expected you were smart enough to realize that people can read and post here without UIDs, for as long as they wish. It is perfectly reasonable to read and post here arbitrarily long with no UID if you so desire, although I expect you will try to deny that as well.

Of course you can do so,as an AC. But when comparing our IDs, it it obvious I am here before you do.

Clearly you have no idea what you are talking about. Meta-moderation is not something that you opt to do in a particular part of slashdot, nor has it ever been that way. If you click the meta-moderation link, you would know that you are given 10 random comments to meta-moderate.

You can opt to do meta-moderation whenever you like it. AllI have to do is to bring up http://slashdot.org/metamod.pl and I can meta-moderate away. The posts are random of course.

No, that is not applying the same concept at all. Nice try though, troll.

Allow me to reiterate. Meta-moderation is broken. This has been known and documented for some time. It has several substantial errors that you could easily see if you went to the meta-moderation page, and several more that you would realize if you went to it, and then read the slashdot FAQ on meta-moderation.

Meta-moderation works, it is just that how you understand how it works is faulty. More below.

Not if very few people consider this thread to be worth moderating.

Or as an alternative viewpoint, because those people doesn't share your sentiments?

That is an article from 2005 that you cited. Very little of the code that runs this site currently has roots from 2005 or earlier.

The algorithm is still the same, since the last major upheaval in 2002.

And clearly, I am not the only one who sees that you are trolling here, as you have four comments in this thread currently moderated down - three as "troll" and one as "flamebait".

From my records, I only has two. Yet I have posted more than that, so why not all of them marked as such?

You really don't have any idea what meta-moderation is supposed to do, do you?

but will affect the karma of the poster.

Actually, regular moderation is supposed to do that...

Regular moderation affects a post scoring and also a user karma. Meta-moderation affects only karma. So, if I get many +5 rated posts, but was buried in meta-moderation, my karma will be negative, my posts will start at -1 (even when logged in) and I will not be able to disable advertising.

Now scram, troll. You have given us enough examples of trolling slashdot for this week.

Statistic doesn't lie. And if you really think I am a troll (statistic shows otherwise), are you supposed to feed me? Oh no, you replied because you don't want me to spread the truth about how greedy GM unions can be. So greedy, even USPS unions cannot compete with them. And USPS unions are the biggest in US, and even have absolute job security. Go look across the Internet, many people shared the same sentiments as me.

Comment Re:Plenty of part-timers are in unions (Score 1) 1008

by Lotunggim Ginsawat (#36444734) Attached to: Apple Store Employee Attempts To Form Union

I'm not sure if you could come up with a more ridiculous question if you tried...

Mainly because you imply that I am incorrect when I am saying USPS unions comes after the organization founding.

Wrong. Simply wrong. The USPS actually showed gains after the establishment of the unions. USPS started shrinking much, much later.

True only after the wars. Not during other times. Even between WWI-WWII USPS doesn't really do well.

Wow, you take part of a statement, and then make your own absurd statement from it. I would say it is a surprise, but no, it's just you trolling. Unless you believe that it is impossible to read and post to slashdot without a UID.

I can see the UIDs well. From the UIDs, it is easily seen that I am here first way before you do. Slashdot doesn't recycle inactive UIDs. That's why I call bullshit on you.

No, it doesn't work. Many more people agree that it is broken than agree that it works. Have you even tried to meta moderate, ever? If you would have tried it years ago, you would know how it was supposed to work. If you then subsequently tried it more recently you would see how badly it does not work. There are so many problems with it now that the only way you could possibly claim it to work is is you have never tried it, or had no idea whatsoever of what it is supposed to accomplish. What it attempts to do right now doesn't even live up to the name.

I have meta-moderated wherever I liked it, and it works just fine. If you want to believe what a lot of people told you, then fine.

If I were to apply the same concept as you, then many people who commented on news about the Apple union like the one at http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-20070919-248/meet-the-man-who-wants-an-apple-retail-union/ also commented about how evil unions can be, with some even trotting the same GM example. Because people says so, then unions is truly evil as those people says there (and here).

I have already explained how your karma is not related to your trolling. Besides you've posted too much jibberish to this thread to catch the attention of the main source of moderation here, and you've trolled so far deep into discussions that the odds of being moderated is damned near zero.

Statistic doesn't lie. BTW, this thread has nearly 1000 comments, which indicates that many people actually read it. Surely I will have low karma by now if people did consider I am a troll.

If you think the moderation system itself to be without flaws then you aren't paying attention to that, either.

But then again we all know you are a troll.

It isn't perfect, especially in cold articles, but it do work - http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue2/poor.html#methods. Calling me a troll isn't going to work. Whether someone is a troll or not, statistic can easily proved it to be true or not. Remember, meta-moderation doesn't affect the score of a post, but will affect the karma of the poster.

Comment Re:Plenty of part-timers are in unions (Score 1) 1008

by Lotunggim Ginsawat (#36444572) Attached to: Apple Store Employee Attempts To Form Union

But one of the biggest reforms Thatcher has done is to allow organization to actually fire workers if reasons justify it. Isn't that what happened, that when BA strikes due to the removal of discounted ticket prices for employees, that BA wants to use that option? BA unions doesn't get to have the discounted ticket prices right?

Comment Re:Plenty of part-timers are in unions (Score 1) 1008

by Lotunggim Ginsawat (#36438882) Attached to: Apple Store Employee Attempts To Form Union

As a matter of fact, you did. By virtue of the fact that I was asking for an example of a company that meets those criteria, which you tried - and dramatically failed - to meet with these two very inaccurate answers.

You now finally admit that you were wrong to claim that label for those two companies.

So you now resorts to misquoting me huh? So you think USPS is a wrong answer? Did USPS was born with a twin union in tow? The unions comes later, and they are the primary reason why it has to endure losses. Of course, there are other reason too, but not as big as the unions are. Unions are cancer in both USPS can GM cases. Pretending that it isn't is just folly. The fact that no other people tried to prove me wrong, the so-called troll, sometimes make me wonder. Remember, this topic has high message count comment.

You cannot prove that solely with your UID. If you were more than just a petty troll you would know that.

So those with lower UID# must have registered later than me. Sure makes you go hmm....

Oh wait, that's isn't how Slashdot works.

If you were paying attention you would know that meta-moderation does not work. It has been broken for years, and slashdot is making no real effort to fix it.

I am paying attention on how meta-moderation works, after all, I am here before GNAA is cool and shit like that. That shit works and there are papers out there referencing the system.

That is not true. There are users who have been here less than a year who have been allowed to disable advertising.

So you did realize that people can actually disable advertising. So you did know that people with negative karma doesn't get any.Remember, my initial posts in Slashdot is +1, which mean my karma is good.

Wrong again. I do believe facts, you just haven't provided any. You have instead just been trolling.

My karma grade indicates otherwise. How many of posts in this thread are marked as one? Don't tell me that you want to accuse that the normal moderation system is also broken?

Comment Re:Plenty of part-timers are in unions (Score 1) 1008

by Lotunggim Ginsawat (#36437942) Attached to: Apple Store Employee Attempts To Form Union

The only person who have explained it to me says that GM filed for bankruptcy because GM wants to violate their agreements with the creditors. And whoever tghat person is, the person agrees that GM should not be bailed out. For me, this simply shows that the clout of GM unions is strong as ever.

So now you admit that indeed the USPS is not an example of a company that was doing well, then met a union and promptly decayed as a result? Thank you for admitting to being wrong, that is unusual for a troll to do.

Did I say that? USPS decayed mainly because of their unions (you did know that USPS cannot fire any single member of the the unions right). Mismanagement contribute far too little to its demise. Even UPS and Fedex has more impact to USPS than mismanagement is.

If you think metamoderation works, you are either new, or an idiot. Of course as seldom as you show up around here you might not be aware of just how broken that system is.

Hahahaha... I'm a member of Slashdot far earlier than you, you don't think I don't know how meta-moderation works? I visit this site at least once every two days, it is just I don't really post unless I find naive people who thinks that unions are good like you.

I see no reason to believe that, given your track record for making shit up. Can you provide a source to back up that assertion, or are you just saying it because you want it to be true?

That's a common knowledge for any members who have been here for years (must be members for X years, and karma must be Good or higher). Oh wait, you tend not to believe facts.

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