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Submission + - The world's tallest chip defies the limits of computing: goodbye to Moore's Law? (elpais.com) 1

Submitted by dbialac
dbialac writes: Building chips up instead of smaller may be a solution to the problems encountered with modern semiconductors.

Xiaohang Li, a researcher at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia, and his team have designed a chip with 41 vertical layers of semiconductors and insulating materials, approximately ten times higher than any previously manufactured chip. The work, recently published in the journal Nature Electronics, not only represents a technical milestone but also opens the door to a new generation of flexible, efficient, and sustainable electronic devices. “Having six or more layers of transistors stacked vertically allows us to increase circuit density without making the devices smaller laterally,” Li explains. “With six layers, we can integrate 600% more logic functions in the same area than with a single layer, achieving higher performance and lower power consumption.”

Comment Re:More useless crap (Score 1) 37

by JustAnotherOldGuy (#65772270) Attached to: Windows 7 Squeezed To 69MB in Proof-of-Concept Build

It depends on what you consider the core OS.

For me it depends on what it can actually do, not how small it is. If it can run a single app correctly, it qualifies as an OS in my view. If all it does is stay alive with no actual functionality, that doesn't really count in my opinion.

For example, I'd consider an tiny embedded RTOS to be a 'real' OS because it normally does something, even if it's only one thing (like monitoring temperature). If it's unable to perform actual work then I'd be hard pressed to call that an OS, because an OS is supposed to do something.

Comment Re:Yep, under-the-hood works well (Score 1) 49

by JustAnotherOldGuy (#65772238) Attached to: The Curious Case of the Bizarre, Disappearing Captcha

How many visitors does it cost you? I often just close sites that demand a captcha, they aren't worth the effort.

Very few from what I can tell. The vast majority that pass the captcha go on to do actual, legit stuff on the site. They create entries with valid info and reference relevant services that exist. (The legit traffic isn't overwhelming so I can check each one to see if it's bogus or not.)

The nice thing about my captcha is that it's very simple for a human with eyes to pass it, but even simpler for a bot to fail it. No misshapen numbers and letters, no photos to interpret, no slide-the-puzzle-piece tests. For a human it's just, "type this word into the box".

Submission + - Sam Altman says 'enough' to questions about OpenAI's revenue (techcrunch.com)

Submitted by joshuark
joshuark writes: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently said that the company is doing “well more” than $13 billion in annual revenue — and he sounded a little testy when pressed on how it will pay for its massive spending commitments.

“First of all, we’re doing well more revenue than that. Second of all, Brad, if you want to sell your shares, I’ll find you a buyer,” Altman said, prompting laughs from Nadella. “I just — enough. I think there are a lot of people who would love to buy OpenAI shares.”

Altman acknowledged that there are ways the company “might screw it up” — for example by failing to get access to enough computing resources — but he said that “revenue is growing steeply.”

At the same time, he denied reports that OpenAI plans to go public next year.

“No no no, we don’t have anything that specific,” Altman said. “I’m a realist, I assume it will happen someday, but I don’t know why people write these reports. We don’t have a date in mind, we don’t have a board decision to do this or anything like that. I just assume it’s where things will eventually go.”

Submission + - Bank of America faces lawsuit over alleged unpaid computer boot-up time (hcamag.com)

Submitted by Joe_Dragon
Joe_Dragon writes: Bank of America is facing allegations that hundreds of hourly workers performed up to 30 minutes of unpaid computer setup work daily for years.

A former Business Analyst filed a class action lawsuit in federal court on October 23, claiming the banking giant systematically shortchanged remote employees who had to boot up complex computer systems before their paid shifts began.

Tava Martin, who worked both remotely and at the company's Jacksonville facility, says the financial institution required her and fellow hourly workers to log into multiple security systems, download spreadsheets, and connect to virtual private networks—all before the clock started ticking on their workday.

The process wasn't quick. According to the filing in the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, employees needed 15 to 30 minutes each morning just to get their systems running. When technical problems occurred, it took even longer.

Here's how it worked: Workers turned on their computers, waited for Windows to load, grabbed their cell phones to request a security token for the company's VPN, waited for that token to arrive, logged into the network, opened required web applications with separate passwords, and downloaded the Excel files they needed for the day. Only then could they start taking calls from business customers about regulatory reporting requirements.

The lawsuit says Bank of America enforced a strict "phone ready" policy. Employees had to be prepared to handle calls the moment their scheduled shifts began. Anyone who clocked in but wasn't immediately available to take or make calls for too long risked poor performance scores and possible disciplinary action, up to and including termination.

Yet the company allegedly discouraged workers from reporting any time outside their scheduled hours. Martin's paystubs routinely showed exactly 40 hours per week, or exactly 32 hours when she missed a day—suggesting the bank paid for scheduled time rather than actual work performed.

The unpaid work didn't stop at startup. During unpaid lunch breaks, many systems would automatically disconnect or otherwise lose connection, forcing employees to repeat portions of the login process—approximately three to five minutes of uncompensated time on most days, sometimes longer when a complete reboot was required. After shifts ended, workers had to log out of all programs and shut down their computers securely, adding another two to three minutes.

Martin earned $46.17 per hour through a third-party staffing agency, though Bank of America controlled her schedule, training, and employment conditions. Like many of her colleagues, she regularly worked full-time hours, meaning the uncompensated startup and shutdown time should have been paid at the overtime rate of one and a half times her regular wage.

The lawsuit points to 2008 guidance from the Department of Labor that specifically addresses call centers under the Fair Labor Standards Act. That guidance explicitly states that an example of the first principal activity of the day for call center workers includes starting computers to download work instructions and applications. It also requires employers to keep daily or weekly records of all hours worked, including time spent in pre-shift and post-shift activities.

The filing suggests Bank of America either didn't bother to determine whether the computer time was compensable or knew it was but failed to pay for it anyway. The lawsuit notes the company has faced factually similar cases from other employees about time spent loading and logging into computer systems.

For the week of March 11 through March 17, 2024, for example, Martin was paid for 40 regular hours but no overtime. With unpaid pre-shift, meal-period, and post-shift time of at least 20 minutes per shift over five shifts, she should have received an additional 100 minutes at her overtime rate of $69.25 per hour. Similar calculations apply to other pay periods cited in the complaint.

Business Analysts were interviewed by company hiring managers and assigned to Bank of America managers upon hire. The bank provided supervisors who oversaw their daily performance and gave them training and technical support. The company controlled work schedules and retained the ability to discipline and terminate employees. The positions were hourly, non-exempt jobs with rigid schedules requiring at least eight hours per day, on average five days per week, and up to 40 hours or more weekly.

Martin seeks to represent all current and former remote hourly Business Analysts who worked for the bank during the three years before conditional certification through judgment. She estimates the group includes hundreds, if not thousands, of workers who performed essentially the same tasks using the same or similar computer programs under the same timekeeping policies.

Many Business Analysts, including Martin, were employed through third-party staffing agencies but were required to comply with all Bank of America employee handbook policies, including those covering attendance, timekeeping, and overtime.

The case remains in early stages, with no court ruling yet on whether it will proceed as a class action or on the merits of the allegations.

Submission + - China Achieved Thorium-Uranium Conversion within Molten Salt Reactor (scmp.com)

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear writes: South China Morning Post, citing Chinese state media, reported that an experimental reactor developed in the Gobi Desert by the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics has achieved thorium-to-uranium fuel conversion, paving the way for an almost endless supply of nuclear energy. It is the first time in the world that scientists have been able to acquire experimental data on thorium operations from inside a molten salt reactor according to a report by Science and Technology Daily. Thorium is much more abundant and accessible than uranium and has enormous energy potential. One mine tailings site in Inner Mongolia is estimated to hold enough of the element to power China entirely for more than 1,000 years. At the heart of the breakthrough is a process known as in-core thorium-to-uranium conversion that transforms naturally occurring thorium-232 into uranium-233 – a fissile isotope capable of sustaining nuclear chain reactions within the reactor itself. Thorium (Th-232) is not itself fissile and so is not directly usable in a thermal neutron reactor. Thorium fuels therefore need a fissile material as a ‘driver’ so that a chain reaction (and thus supply of surplus neutrons) can be maintained. The only fissile driver options are U-233, U-235 or Pu-239. (None of these is easy to supply) In the 1960s the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (USA) designed and built a demonstration MSR using U-233, derived externally from thorium as the main fissile driver.

Comment Re:More useless crap (Score 1) 37

by JustAnotherOldGuy (#65771428) Attached to: Windows 7 Squeezed To 69MB in Proof-of-Concept Build

If it can't run applications, it's not really an operating system. It seems at this point all it does it keep itself alive. It's a brain in a jar, but it's the brain of a vegetative coma patient.

The WASM thing is more interesting; it seems that it's intended to grow into something useful, whereas this micro-Win7 thing appears to have the opposite goal.

But hey, if that's what XenoPanther wants to spend his time on, I say have at it. More power to him for the dedicated trainspotting.

Submission + - Antarctic Glacier Saw the Fastest Retreat In Modern History (cnn.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: An Antarctic glacier shrunk by nearly 50% in just two months, the fastest retreat recorded in modern history, according to a new study — and the way it retreated could have big implications for global sea level rise. The Hektoria Glacier, roughly the size of Philadelphia, is on the Antarctic Peninsula, a spindly chain of mountains sticking off the continent like a thumb pointing toward South America. It is one of the fastest warming regions on Earth.

Grounded glaciers like Hektoria, which rest on the seabed and don’t float, generally retreat no more than a few hundred meters a year. But between November and December 2022, Hektoria retreated by 5 miles, according to the study published Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience. [...] Understanding more about why this happened is vital; if larger glaciers retreat at similar rates, it could have “catastrophic implications for sea level rise,” the authors wrote in a statement accompanying the report. Antarctica holds enough ice to raise global sea level by around 190 feet.

Submission + - New Drug Kills Cancer 20,000x More Effectively With No Detectable Side Effects (scitechdaily.com) 2

Submitted by fahrbot-bot
fahrbot-bot writes: SciTechDaily is reporting that researchers at Northwestern University have redesigned the molecular structure of a well-known chemotherapy drug, greatly increasing its solubility, effectiveness, and safety.

For this study, the scientists created the drug entirely from scratch as a spherical nucleic acid (SNA), a nanoscale structure that incorporates the drug into DNA strands surrounding tiny spheres. This innovative design transforms a compound that normally dissolves poorly and works weakly into a highly potent, precisely targeted treatment that spares healthy cells from damage.

When tested in a small animal model of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), an aggressive and hard-to-treat blood cancer, the SNA-based version showed remarkable results. It entered leukemia cells 12.5 times more efficiently, destroyed them up to 20,000 times more effectively, and slowed cancer progression by a factor of 59, all without causing noticeable side effects.

“In animal models, we demonstrated that we can stop tumors in their tracks,” said Northwestern’s Chad A. Mirkin, who led the study. “If this translates to human patients, it’s a really exciting advance. It would mean more effective chemotherapy, better response rates and fewer side effects. That’s always the goal with any sort of cancer treatment.”

Comment Yep, under-the-hood works well (Score 3, Interesting) 49

by JustAnotherOldGuy (#65770786) Attached to: The Curious Case of the Bizarre, Disappearing Captcha

I use a psuedo-captcha on some of my sites, but I also use a lot of invisible under-the-hood stuff like timing, speed of response, 'special' fake form fields, and few other goodies I won't reveal. All those measures reduce spam to basically nothing. And I mean that literally.

Passing the 'captcha' pretty much requires an actual human operator, and even a lot of those human spammers don't make it through. I know because I look at the logs, and it's working damn well, with a literal 99.999%+ success rate.

The bots never, ever make it through because they don't have human eyes, which works against them nearly every time- they can't decipher the HTML-trickery to see what a human sees, so they fuck up and fall into the pit every time.

Comment More useless crap (Score 1, Insightful) 37

by JustAnotherOldGuy (#65770762) Attached to: Windows 7 Squeezed To 69MB in Proof-of-Concept Build

"The OS boots but runs almost nothing because critical files like common dialog boxes and common controls are missing."

Well then it's not a fucking OS if you can't run anything on it.

And it's definitely not an "OPERATING SYSTEM" if it's missing critical files that prevent it from "OPERATING".

To recap, "I reduced my car's weight by almost 50% just by getting rid of the engine, wheels, fuel tank, drive train, and other 'critical' components. But the starter still works, so yippee for me."

FFS slashdot, is this the drivel we can expect from here on out?

Submission + - Anthropic's models show signs of introspection (axios.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Anthropic, a leading AI company, tells Axios that its most advanced systems are learning not just to reason like humans — but also to reflect on, and express, how they actually think.

They're starting to be introspective, like humans, Anthropic researcher Jack Lindsey, who studies models' "brains," tells us.

Why it matters: These introspective capabilities could make the models safer — or, possibly, just better at pretending to be safe.

Submission + - IT removes inconvenient emails from elected councillors' inboxes (manchestereveningnews.co.uk)

Submitted by Bruce66423
Bruce66423 writes: 'Salford council has announced an investigation into how a misconduct complaint against deputy mayor Jack Youd was removed from the email inboxes of councillors without their knowledge.

'On October 10, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) and Manchester Evening News (M.E.N) revealed that an anonymous email was sent to several councillors in January making a complaint against the deputy mayor.

'A message from a senior official at the council, seen by the LDRS and M.E.N, explained that the sender’s anonymous email address and the wording of the email ‘raised immediate concerns’ over IT security when it arrived, with the term ‘anonymous’ being associated with an ‘active hacking group’. The official’s message said the emails were removed from councillors’ inboxes in light of the security fears.'

The email alleged that the deputy mayor had had an affair with a council employee — not allowed — whilst his wife was another elected councillor...

Submission + - LADWP says it will shift its largest gas power plant to hydrogen (latimes.com)

Submitted by Bruce66423
Bruce66423 writes: 'The board of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power on Tuesday approved a controversial plan to convert part of the city’s largest natural gas-fired power plant into one that also can burn hydrogen.

'The hydrogen burned at Scattergood is supposed to be green, meaning it is produced by splitting water molecules through... electrolysis. Hydrogen does not emit planet-warming carbon dioxide when it is burned, unlike natural gas.

'Although burning hydrogen does not produce CO2, the high-temperature combustion process can emit nitrogen oxides, or NOx, a key component of smog.

'the approved plan contains no specifics about where the hydrogen will come from or how it will get to the site. “The green hydrogen that would supply the proposed project has not yet been identified,” the environmental report says. 'Industry experts and officials said the project will help drive the necessary hydrogen production.'

Burning hydrogen produced by 'excess' solar or wind power is a means of energy storage. The hard question is whether it's the best solution to the storage problem given that other solutions appear to be emerging that would require less infrastructure investment (think pipes to move the hydrogen to the plant and tanks to store it for later use).

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