Submission + - Microsoft Windows 95 reboot chime and Minecraft soundtrack inducted into Nationa (betanews.com)

Submitted by BrianFagioli on Wednesday April 09, 2025 @07:19PM

BrianFagioli writes: In a move that is sure to make longtime PC users do a double take, the Library of Congress has added two very unexpected sounds to its National Recording Registry. No, itâ(TM)s not another classic rock album or jazz staple. Believe it or not, itâ(TM)s actually the âoeReboot Chimeâ from Windows 95 (that played when the operating system started) and the soundtrack from Minecraft! I kid you not, folks. Both of these are linked to Microsoft, a company more known for software than symphonies.

Submission + - DOGE Is Planning a Hackathon at the IRS. It Wants Easier Access to Taxpayer Data (wired.com)

Submitted by echo123 on Tuesday April 08, 2025 @08:48AM

echo123 writes: DOGE operatives have repeatedly referred to the software company Palantir as a possible partner in creating a “mega API” at the IRS, sources tell WIRED. Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has plans to stage a “hackathon” next week in Washington, DC. The goal is to create a single “mega API”—a bridge that lets software systems talk to one another—for accessing IRS data, sources tell WIRED. The agency is expected to partner with a third-party vendor to manage certain aspects of the data project. Palantir, a software company cofounded by billionaire and Musk associate Peter Thiel, has been brought up consistently by DOGE representatives as a possible candidate, sources tell WIRED.

Two top DOGE operatives at the IRS, Sam Corcos and Gavin Kliger, are helping to orchestrate the hackathon, sources tell WIRED. Corcos is a health-tech CEO with ties to Musk’s SpaceX. Kliger attended UC Berkeley until 2020 and worked at the AI company Databricks before joining DOGE as a special adviser to the director at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Corcos is also a special adviser to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Since joining Musk’s DOGE, Corcos has told IRS workers that he wants to pause all engineering work and cancel current attempts to modernize the agency’s systems, according to sources with direct knowledge who spoke with WIRED. He has also spoken about some aspects of these cuts publicly: "We've so far stopped work and cut about $1.5 billion from the modernization budget. Mostly projects that were going to continue to put us down the death spiral of complexity in our code base," Corcos told Laura Ingraham on Fox News in March.

Submission + - China launches HDMI and DisplayPort alternative GPMI (tomshardware.com)

Submitted by AmiMoJo on Monday April 07, 2025 @04:29AM

AmiMoJo writes: The Shenzhen 8K UHD Video Industry Cooperation Alliance, a group made up of more than 50 Chinese companies, just released a new wired media communication standard called the General Purpose Media Interface or GPMI. This standard was developed to support 8K and reduce the number of cables required to stream data and power from one device to another. According to HKEPC, the GPMI cable comes in two flavors — a Type-B that seems to have a proprietary connector and a Type-C that is compatible with the USB-C standard.

Because 8K has four times the number of pixels of 4K and 16 times more pixels than 1080p resolution, it means that GPMI is built to carry a lot more data than other current standards. There are other variables that can impact required bandwidth, of course, such as color depth and refresh rate. The GPMI Type-C connector is set to have a maximum bandwidth of 96 Gbps and deliver 240 watts of power. This is more than double the 40 Gbps data limit of USB4 and Thunderbolt 4, allowing you to transmit more data on the cable. However, it has the same power limit as that of the latest USB Type-C connector using the Extended Power Range (EPR) standard. GPMI Type-B beats all other cables, though, with its maximum bandwidth of 192 Gbps and power delivery of up to 480 watts.

Submission + - Kawasaki unveils horse-like rideable robotic concept 4

Submitted by backslashdot on Saturday April 05, 2025 @11:44AM

backslashdot writes: Unveiled by Kawasaki Heavy Industries at the Osaka Kansai Expo in April 2025, it combines the company’s expertise in motorcycle engineering with advanced robotics. The Kawasaki Corleo is a futuristic, hydrogen-powered, four-legged robotic vehicle designed for off-road personal mobility. Unlike traditional wheeled vehicles, the Corleo moves using four independently articulated legs, each equipped with rubber hooves for enhanced grip on diverse terrains like grass, gravel, rocks, and mountains.

Riders control the Corleo through natural body movements—shifting their weight on adjustable footrests (similar to stirrups) and using a handlebar system that detects their center of gravity, mimicking the feel of riding a horse. A 150cc hydrogen engine powers electric motors in each leg, making it a clean-energy vehicle that produces water as a byproduct. It features an onboard display showing navigation, hydrogen levels, and posture feedback, and at night, it can project guiding markers onto the terrain. The rear legs swing independently from the front to absorb shocks and maintain rider stability on uneven ground or steep inclines.

Submission + - Human genetically identified as a dog (theguardian.com)

Submitted by jd on Saturday March 16, 2024 @06:16AM

jd writes: A pet company has twice sent back dog breed results for human swab samples, prompting doubts surrounding the accuracy of dog breed tests.

On Wednesday, WBZ News reported its investigations team receiving dog breed results from the company DNA My Dog after one of its reporters sent in a swab sample – from her own cheek.

According to the results from the Toronto-based company, WBZ News reporter Christina Hager is 40% Alaskan malamute, 35% shar-pei and 25% labrador.

This, apparently, raises questions about the accuracy of dog breed identification by DNA. Actually, it kinda raises questions about claims linking human DNA to geographic places, too. (YDNA and MtDNA tracing is fine, but clearly the use of general markers leaves a lot to be desired.)

Submission + - McDonald's IT Systems Outage Shuts Some Restaurants Globally (bleepingcomputer.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 15, 2024 @04:31PM

An anonymous reader writes: McDonald's restaurants are suffering global IT outages that prevent employees from taking orders and accepting payments, causing some stores to close for the day. The outages started overnight and are impacting restaurants globally, including those in the USA, Japan, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, New Zealand, and the UK. "We are aware of a technology outage, which impacted our restaurants; the issue is now being resolved," McDonald's said in a statement to BleepingComputer. "We thank customers for their patience and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Notably, the issue is not related to a cybersecurity event."

Submission + - SPAM: Archaeologists Unearth a Secret Lost Language From 3,000 Years Ago. 3

Submitted by schwit1 on Thursday November 16, 2023 @10:44PM

schwit1 writes: And no, it's not COBOL

"A secret text has been discovered in Türkiye, scattered among tens of thousands of ancient clay tablets, which were written in the time of the Hittite Empire during the second millennium BCE.

No one yet knows what the curious cuneiform script says, but it seems to be a long-lost language from more than 3,000 years ago.

Experts say the mysterious idiom is unlike any other ancient written language found in the Middle East, although it seems to share roots with other Anatolian-Indo-European languages."
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Another project goes private: Amara stops being developed as Open Source

Submitted by northar on Tuesday January 14, 2020 @06:43AM

northar writes: Subtitling project Amara closes its repository as focus is shifting. Blog post. https://blog.amara.org/2020/01... . We have seen a few examples of projects that were Open Source changing their license to something else than an OSI approved license. Amara was AGPL up until going private. While future improvements to the code base from PCF will not be public, a copy of the last public code base has been preserved at Gitlab, should anyone be interested in the work done up until now. https://gitlab.com/hanklank/am... Note that no support is given from PCF for this code.

Submission + - Is there in truth no security? (threatpost.com)

Submitted by shanen on Monday January 13, 2020 @08:03PM

shanen writes: This story reminded me of the original break and it's worth remembering why it matters. You thought your file hadn't been tampered with? Not so much if SHA-1 is the reason you think so. The full break implies that the file can be manipulated in an arbitrary way and still return the original checksum. I guess the main lesson is that you can never be too sure how long any form of security will remain secure.

For a historical review, I recommend The Code Book by Simon Singh. It's amazing how little cryptography changed over hundreds of years in contrast to how rapidly things started changing recently. Published before these recent attacks on checksums, so the book says almost nothing on those topics.

Submission + - EFF Files Amicus Brief in Google v. Oracle (eff.org)

Submitted by Areyoukiddingme on Monday January 13, 2020 @05:57PM

Areyoukiddingme writes: EFF has filed an amicus brief with the US Supreme Court in Google v. Oracle arguing that APIs are not copyrightable.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today asked the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that functional aspects of Oracle’s Java programming language are not copyrightable, and even if they were, employing them to create new computer code falls under fair use protections.

Oral arguments before the US Supreme Court are scheduled for March 2020.

Submission + - Killer robots reconsidered: Could AI weapons actually cut collateral damage?

Submitted by Lasrick on Saturday January 11, 2020 @01:33PM

Lasrick writes: On the surface, who could disagree with quashing the idea of supposed killer robots? Dr. Larry Lewis, who spearheaded the first data-based approach to protecting civilians in conflict, wants us to look a bit closer.

Submission + - Libre-RISC-V 3D CPU/GPU applying for EUR 400,000 worth of NLNet Grants (google.com)

Submitted by lkcl on Sunday September 29, 2019 @03:45AM

lkcl writes: The Libre RISC-V Hybrid CPU/GPU, previously reported on /., is applying for eight additional grants from the NLNet Foundation, totalling EUR 400,000. Details on each Grant Application are on the newly-opened RISC-V Community Forum.

The general idea is to kick RISC-V into a commercially-viable mass-volume high gear by putting forward funding proposals for NEON/SSE-style Video Acceleration to be upstreamed for use by ffmpeg, vlc, mplayer and gstreamer; hardware-assisted Mesa 3D (a port of the RADV Vulkan Driver to RISC-V), and a hardware-accelerated OpenCL port to RISC-V. This all in a "Hybrid" fashion (a la NEON/SSE) as opposed to the "usual" way that 3D and Video is done, which hugely complicate both software drivers and applications debugging.

In addition, the Libre RISC-V SoC itself is applying for grants to do a gcc port supporting its Vectorisation Engine including auto-vectorisation, and, crucially, to do an entirely Libre-licensed ASIC Layout using LIP6.fr coriolis2, working in tandem with Chips4Makers to create a 180nm commercially-viable single-core dual-issue test ASIC.

The process takes approximately 2-3 months for approval. Once accepted, anyone may be the direct (tax-deductible) recipient of NLNet donations, for sub-tasks completed. Worth noting: Puri.sm is sponsoring the project, and, given NLNet's Charitable Status, donations from Corporations (or individuals) are 100% tax-deductible.

Submission + - "Inside Bill's Brain: Decoding Bill Gates" (king5.com)

Submitted by hcs_$reboot on Saturday September 21, 2019 @08:22PM

hcs_$reboot writes: hcs_$reboot shares a report from king5.com:

"Inside Bill's Brain: Decoding Bill Gates" is a new documentary on Netflix from Academy Award-winning director Davis Guggenheim. It debuted on September 20. The Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist is asked what his worst fear is. It's not family tragedy or personal pain. "I don't want my brain to stop working," he responds. A portrait emerges of a visionary who gnaws on his eyeglasses' arms, downs Cokes and is relentlessly optimistic that technology can solve social ills. He is also someone who reads manically — he'll scrutinize the Minnesota state budget for fun — and who is a wicked opponent at cards.
Gates himself said he appreciated Guggenheim serving as a reality check for many of the seemingly intractable public health issues that his foundation has tackled. "I'm not that objective. It was interesting, through Davis' eyes, to have him say, 'Are you sure?' Well, I'm not sure," said Gates. "So I thought that was good. It made me step back."

Submission + - iOS 13 Ships With Known Lockscreen Bypass Flaw That Exposes Contacts (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 20, 2019 @06:03PM

An anonymous reader writes: Apple released iOS 13 with a bunch of new features. But it also released the new OS with something else: a bug disclosed seven days ago that exposes contact details without requiring a passcode or biometric identification first. Independent researcher Jose Rodriguez published a video demonstration of the flaw exactly one week ago. It can be exploited by receiving a FaceTime call and then using the voiceover feature from Siri to access the contact list. From there, an unauthorized person could get names, phone numbers, email addresses, and any other information stored in the phone’s contacts list. An Apple representative told Ars the bypass will be fixed in iOS 13.1, scheduled for release on Sept. 24.

Jellyfish Swimming Is Mixing the Oceans 47

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday July 30, 2009 @12:15AM from the jellyfish-effect dept.

eviltangerine writes "A new article from LiveScience suggests that marine creatures, such as the jellyfish, may contribute as much to ocean mixing as wind and tides. Wired is also covering the story and includes a video of the jellyfish in action. From the article, 'The mere act of swimming implies that some water travels with the swimmer,' said CalTech engineer Kakani Katija, co-author of the study in Nature Wednesday. 'Drift applies to all animals, to anything with a body.' No word yet on when the jellyfish blender is to debut."