Comment True enough!! (Score 1) 38
True enough!
I am very border line autistic myself and listening to other's advice has saved me many times.
Comment Re:You're Not Wrong (Score 0, Troll) 62
At some point, between yt-dlp and simply downloading stuff from torrents, where should we draw the line in terms of socially acceptable behavior?
Granted although, some marginal stuff might only be avail through yt-dlp but still, screen and video capture of absolutely anything you think you need has been available for eons.
Then, if you are a nice guy, you can make a torrent and share it with others.
I guess the point I am trying to make is that there is no difference between yt-dlp and downloading a torrent. You still are guilty of the same offense!
Comment 49,889km (31,000miles) of cable (Score 2) 62
New Zealand's ministry of foreign affairs says it could take more than a month to repair breaks in the 49,889km (31,000miles) of cable that serves the South Pacific.
Given that Earth circumference is roughly 25,000 miles, that cable must take a lot of detours if its length is 31,000 miles!
Or maybe, just maybe, 31,000 miles accounts for more than one specific cable that needs to be fixed...
Comment Re: Obvious that he crashed on purpose (Score -1, Offtopic) 185
On the other hand, this is exactly what you most probably would have done yourself thinking that you would have time to post and spam your ugly selfie face all over the fricking internet and gain some kind of notoriety for the Darwin award before you crashed to the ground!
+1 insightful since no currently existing parachute could ever keep creimer from crashing to the ground!
Submission + - SPAM: China's Noisy 'Dancing Grannies' Silenced By Device That Disables Speakers
An anonymous reader writes: Across China’s public parks and squares, in the early hours of the morning or late in the afternoon, the grannies gather. The gangs, made up mostly of middle-aged and older women who went through the Cultural Revolution, take to a corner of a local park or sporting ground and dance in unison to Chinese music. Loud music. The tradition has led to alarming standoffs, with the blaring music frequently blamed for disturbing the peace in often high-density residential areas. But many are too scared to confront the women. The dilemma of the dancing grannies has prompted some to seek out tech solutions. One went viral online this week: a remote stun gun-style device that claims to be able to disable a speaker from 50 meters away.
Reviews of the item were positive. “Downstairs is finally quiet. For two days the grannies thought their speaker is not working!”, said one on Taobao, China’s version of eBay. “Great invention, with this tool I will be the boss in the neighbourhood now,” said another. “This is not just a regular product, it is social justice!” China is home to an estimated 100 million dancing grannies. Square dancing allows older women, many of whom live alone or with younger family members who they accompanied on a move to the cities, to socialize. They form strong bonds, often shopping or doing other activities, including group investments, together, the South China Morning Post reported.
State media has described the square dancing, which has its roots in the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, as a “positive and effective way to reduce the medical and financial burden as well as increase the life quality of older people." "Many participants are retired, their children are no longer around. Square dancing becomes a place for them to have a social life.” But neighbours complain it has gotten out of control, with competing groups blasting their music over each other in small areas, and bullying those who try to intervene. Viral videos and reports have shown the groups arguing and fighting with basketball players to take over their court, or, in one case, breaking into a football field and stopping the game to dance in the space, prompting a police response and arrests.
Link to Original Source
Reviews of the item were positive. “Downstairs is finally quiet. For two days the grannies thought their speaker is not working!”, said one on Taobao, China’s version of eBay. “Great invention, with this tool I will be the boss in the neighbourhood now,” said another. “This is not just a regular product, it is social justice!” China is home to an estimated 100 million dancing grannies. Square dancing allows older women, many of whom live alone or with younger family members who they accompanied on a move to the cities, to socialize. They form strong bonds, often shopping or doing other activities, including group investments, together, the South China Morning Post reported.
State media has described the square dancing, which has its roots in the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, as a “positive and effective way to reduce the medical and financial burden as well as increase the life quality of older people." "Many participants are retired, their children are no longer around. Square dancing becomes a place for them to have a social life.” But neighbours complain it has gotten out of control, with competing groups blasting their music over each other in small areas, and bullying those who try to intervene. Viral videos and reports have shown the groups arguing and fighting with basketball players to take over their court, or, in one case, breaking into a football field and stopping the game to dance in the space, prompting a police response and arrests.
Link to Original Source
Submission + - SPAM: Credit-Card Firms Are Becoming Reluctant Regulators of the Web 1
An anonymous reader writes: Who should police the internet? For some time now the question has tied companies, regulators and campaigners in knots. Social networks spend billions moderating content posted on their platforms, but are still criticized either for not removing enough toxic material or for stifling free speech. They are not the only ones to grapple with the problem. Banks and credit-card companies too are finding themselves playing a bigger role in what is said and done in the public square—to their, and their customers’, discomfort. Now the boundary of censorship is being extended further, into the pornography business. From October 15th adult websites worldwide will have to verify the age and identity of anyone featured in a picture or video, as well as the ID of the person uploading it. They will need to operate a fast complaints process, and will have to review all content before publication. These requirements are being imposed not by regulators but by Mastercard, a credit-card giant. Websites can always choose not to work with Mastercard. But given that the company handles about 30% of all card payments made outside China, to do so would be costly. Visa, which manages a further 60% of payments, is also taking a firmer line on adult sites. And the trend goes beyond porn. In the shadier corners of the web, and in industries where the law is unclear or out of date, financial firms are finding themselves acting as de facto regulators.
[...]
Visa and Mastercard’s near-duopoly on card payments makes their decisions more powerful—and the firms prime targets for protesters. In 2019 SumOfUs, a left-wing pressure group, tabled a proposal at Mastercard’s annual meeting meant to stop payments to far-right groups. (The proposal was defeated.) Thirty-four women are suing Visa along with the owners of Pornhub, an adult site which they say hosted unconsenting footage of them. Illegal-porn sites “care a lot more about their finances than they do about the law," says Laila Mickelwait, whose Justice Defense Fund helps sex-abuse victims litigate. And, she adds, when financial firms change their policies it applies globally. Last year Visa and Mastercard cut off Pornhub over its hosting of potentially unlawful material. Payment companies in particular face a philosophical dilemma. “On one hand they try to be very open, accepting, willing to facilitate payments for whomever. They’re not taking any sort of political or moral stance,” says Lisa Ellis of MoffettNathanson, a research firm. “But on the other hand, they also feel like they have a very strong responsibility in making sure that they’re not aiding and abetting any sort of crime.”
Visa and Mastercard both say that, as global companies, their guiding principle is local legality. (This can throw up some surprises: one executive recalls being informed by clients from a Scandinavian country that bestiality was legal there at the time.) Things are not always black and white. In 2017, after a far-right march in Charlottesville, Virginia, Mastercard shut down the use of its cards on websites that had made “specific threats or incite[d] violence," but kept dealing with other sites labelled hate-groups. “Our standard is whether a merchant’s activity is lawful, even when we disagree with what they say or do,” the company said at the time. In grey areas they have reason to err on the side of caution. Payment networks’ risk of liability tends to be low, since they operate at one remove from the merchants. But being named in a sex-trafficking complaint or accused of helping Nazis does not look good. In working with a borderline adult site, for instance, there’s “not a lot of upside and a lot of downside”, says Ms Ellis. And in legally tricky areas it can be cheaper to issue a blanket ban than pick through every difficult case. Banks may steer clear of countries that are not embargoed but which have a lot of people on the banned list, “to minimize the burden of determining whether every transaction is compliant,” says Jonathan Cross of Herbert Smith Freehills, a law firm. [...] For as long as legislation lags behind, financial institutions will be left in a difficult position: either accused of being the “moral police," as one executive puts it, or of enabling wrongdoing. As Richard Haythornthwaite, then Mastercard’s chairman, told the protesters at the firm’s annual meeting in 2019: “If it is lawful, then we need to respect that transaction. If it is something that is swimming against the tide of society, it’s for the society to rise up and change the law.”
Link to Original Source
[...]
Visa and Mastercard’s near-duopoly on card payments makes their decisions more powerful—and the firms prime targets for protesters. In 2019 SumOfUs, a left-wing pressure group, tabled a proposal at Mastercard’s annual meeting meant to stop payments to far-right groups. (The proposal was defeated.) Thirty-four women are suing Visa along with the owners of Pornhub, an adult site which they say hosted unconsenting footage of them. Illegal-porn sites “care a lot more about their finances than they do about the law," says Laila Mickelwait, whose Justice Defense Fund helps sex-abuse victims litigate. And, she adds, when financial firms change their policies it applies globally. Last year Visa and Mastercard cut off Pornhub over its hosting of potentially unlawful material. Payment companies in particular face a philosophical dilemma. “On one hand they try to be very open, accepting, willing to facilitate payments for whomever. They’re not taking any sort of political or moral stance,” says Lisa Ellis of MoffettNathanson, a research firm. “But on the other hand, they also feel like they have a very strong responsibility in making sure that they’re not aiding and abetting any sort of crime.”
Visa and Mastercard both say that, as global companies, their guiding principle is local legality. (This can throw up some surprises: one executive recalls being informed by clients from a Scandinavian country that bestiality was legal there at the time.) Things are not always black and white. In 2017, after a far-right march in Charlottesville, Virginia, Mastercard shut down the use of its cards on websites that had made “specific threats or incite[d] violence," but kept dealing with other sites labelled hate-groups. “Our standard is whether a merchant’s activity is lawful, even when we disagree with what they say or do,” the company said at the time. In grey areas they have reason to err on the side of caution. Payment networks’ risk of liability tends to be low, since they operate at one remove from the merchants. But being named in a sex-trafficking complaint or accused of helping Nazis does not look good. In working with a borderline adult site, for instance, there’s “not a lot of upside and a lot of downside”, says Ms Ellis. And in legally tricky areas it can be cheaper to issue a blanket ban than pick through every difficult case. Banks may steer clear of countries that are not embargoed but which have a lot of people on the banned list, “to minimize the burden of determining whether every transaction is compliant,” says Jonathan Cross of Herbert Smith Freehills, a law firm. [...] For as long as legislation lags behind, financial institutions will be left in a difficult position: either accused of being the “moral police," as one executive puts it, or of enabling wrongdoing. As Richard Haythornthwaite, then Mastercard’s chairman, told the protesters at the firm’s annual meeting in 2019: “If it is lawful, then we need to respect that transaction. If it is something that is swimming against the tide of society, it’s for the society to rise up and change the law.”
Link to Original Source
Submission + - SPAM: FAA Fumbled Its Response To a Surge in GPS Jamming 2
schwit1 writes: In March and April this year, flight controllers at the Albuquerque Air Route Traffic Control Center filed reports on NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS), a forum where aviation professionals can anonymously share near misses and safety tips.
The complaints accused the FAA of denying controllers permission to ask the military to cut short GPS tests adversely affecting commercial and private aircraft. These so-called "stop buzzer" (or "cease buzzer") requests are supposed to be made by pilots only when a safety-of-flight issue is encountered.
"Aircraft are greatly affected by the GPS jamming and it's not taken seriously by management," reads one report. "We've been told we can't ask to stop jamming, and to just put everyone on headings."
In a second report, a private jet made a wrong turn into restricted airspace over the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico after being jammed. On that occasion, the air traffic controller called a stop buzzer. "[The] facility manager on duty later informed me we can't ask them to 'stop buzzer' and to just keep putting aircraft on headings," their ASRS report reads.
Putting an aircraft on headings requires giving pilots precise bearings to follow, rather than letting them perform their own navigation using GPS or other technologies. This adds work for controllers, who are already very busy at certain times of day.
In May, the pilot of a light aircraft taking off at night in the Albuquerque area suddenly lost their GPS navigation and terrain warnings. Air traffic control told the pilot that WSMR was jamming, and instructed them to use other instruments. That pilot was ultimately able to land safely, but later submitted their own ASRS report: "Being unfamiliar with this area and possibly a different avionics configuration I feel my flight could have possibly ended as controlled flight into terrain."
Such an outcome–a likely deadly crash–would surely not meet anyone's definition of "acceptable risk."
Link to Original Source
The complaints accused the FAA of denying controllers permission to ask the military to cut short GPS tests adversely affecting commercial and private aircraft. These so-called "stop buzzer" (or "cease buzzer") requests are supposed to be made by pilots only when a safety-of-flight issue is encountered.
"Aircraft are greatly affected by the GPS jamming and it's not taken seriously by management," reads one report. "We've been told we can't ask to stop jamming, and to just put everyone on headings."
In a second report, a private jet made a wrong turn into restricted airspace over the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico after being jammed. On that occasion, the air traffic controller called a stop buzzer. "[The] facility manager on duty later informed me we can't ask them to 'stop buzzer' and to just keep putting aircraft on headings," their ASRS report reads.
Putting an aircraft on headings requires giving pilots precise bearings to follow, rather than letting them perform their own navigation using GPS or other technologies. This adds work for controllers, who are already very busy at certain times of day.
In May, the pilot of a light aircraft taking off at night in the Albuquerque area suddenly lost their GPS navigation and terrain warnings. Air traffic control told the pilot that WSMR was jamming, and instructed them to use other instruments. That pilot was ultimately able to land safely, but later submitted their own ASRS report: "Being unfamiliar with this area and possibly a different avionics configuration I feel my flight could have possibly ended as controlled flight into terrain."
Such an outcome–a likely deadly crash–would surely not meet anyone's definition of "acceptable risk."
Link to Original Source
Submission + - FSF Warns Windows 11 'Deprives Users of Freedom and Digital Autonomy' (fsf.org)
destinyland writes: From a new statement by the Free Software Foundation:
_______________________________________________________________________
Microsoft claims that "life's better together" in their advertising for this latest Windows version, but when it comes to technology, there is no surer way of keeping users divided and powerless than nonfree softwarechoosing to create an unjust power structure, in which a developer knowingly keeps users powerless and dependent by withholding information. Increasingly, this involves not only withholding the source code itself, but even basic information on how the software works: what it's really doing, what it's collecting, and how often it's snitching on users. "Snitching" may sound dramatic, but Windows 11 will now require a Microsoft account to be connected to every user account, granting them the ability to correlate user behavior with one's personal identity. Even those who think they have nothing to hide should be wary of sharing potentially all of their computing activity with any company, much less one with a track record of abuse like Microsoft...
We expect Microsoft to use its tighter control on cryptography that happens in Windows as a way to impose more severe Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) onto media and applications, and as a way to ensure that no application can run in Windows without Microsoft's approval. In cases like these, it's no longer appropriate to call a machine running Windows a "personal" computer, as it obeys Microsoft more than it does its user. Indeed, it's bitterly ironic that Microsoft is calling the program that verifies a system's compatibility with Windows 11 a "PC Health Check." We counter that a healthy PC is one that respects its user's wishes, runs free software, and doesn't purposefully restrict them through treacherous computing. It would also never send the user's encryption keys back to its corporate overlords. Intrepid users will likely find a way around this requirement, yet it doesn't change the fact that the majority of Windows users will be forced into a treacherous computing scheme...
Sometimes, Microsoft realizes that it can't be quite so overtly antisocial. We've commented many times before on the hypocrisy involved in saying that Microsoft "loves open source" and "loves Linux," two ways of mentioning free software without reference to freedom. At the same time, Microsoft employees do make contributions to free software, contributions which benefit many others. Yet they do not extend this philosophy to their operating system, and in the last few years, they've made an attempt to impair the ways free software makes "life better together" further by making critical functions of Microsoft GitHub rely on nonfree JavaScript and directing users toward Service as a Software Substitute (SaaSS) platforms. By attacking user freedom through Windows, and the free software community directly by means of nonfree JavaScript, Microsoft proves that it has no plans to loosen its grip on users.
No program that you're forbidden to copy, modify, or share can truly bring people "together" in the way that Microsoft claims.
Thankfully, and right outside the window, there's a true community of users you and your loved ones can join...
Let's stop falling for the trap of chasing short-term, superficial improvements in proprietary software that may seem to make life better, and instead opt for free software, the only software that can support the best versions of ourselves.
_______________________________________________________________________
Microsoft claims that "life's better together" in their advertising for this latest Windows version, but when it comes to technology, there is no surer way of keeping users divided and powerless than nonfree softwarechoosing to create an unjust power structure, in which a developer knowingly keeps users powerless and dependent by withholding information. Increasingly, this involves not only withholding the source code itself, but even basic information on how the software works: what it's really doing, what it's collecting, and how often it's snitching on users. "Snitching" may sound dramatic, but Windows 11 will now require a Microsoft account to be connected to every user account, granting them the ability to correlate user behavior with one's personal identity. Even those who think they have nothing to hide should be wary of sharing potentially all of their computing activity with any company, much less one with a track record of abuse like Microsoft...
We expect Microsoft to use its tighter control on cryptography that happens in Windows as a way to impose more severe Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) onto media and applications, and as a way to ensure that no application can run in Windows without Microsoft's approval. In cases like these, it's no longer appropriate to call a machine running Windows a "personal" computer, as it obeys Microsoft more than it does its user. Indeed, it's bitterly ironic that Microsoft is calling the program that verifies a system's compatibility with Windows 11 a "PC Health Check." We counter that a healthy PC is one that respects its user's wishes, runs free software, and doesn't purposefully restrict them through treacherous computing. It would also never send the user's encryption keys back to its corporate overlords. Intrepid users will likely find a way around this requirement, yet it doesn't change the fact that the majority of Windows users will be forced into a treacherous computing scheme...
Sometimes, Microsoft realizes that it can't be quite so overtly antisocial. We've commented many times before on the hypocrisy involved in saying that Microsoft "loves open source" and "loves Linux," two ways of mentioning free software without reference to freedom. At the same time, Microsoft employees do make contributions to free software, contributions which benefit many others. Yet they do not extend this philosophy to their operating system, and in the last few years, they've made an attempt to impair the ways free software makes "life better together" further by making critical functions of Microsoft GitHub rely on nonfree JavaScript and directing users toward Service as a Software Substitute (SaaSS) platforms. By attacking user freedom through Windows, and the free software community directly by means of nonfree JavaScript, Microsoft proves that it has no plans to loosen its grip on users.
No program that you're forbidden to copy, modify, or share can truly bring people "together" in the way that Microsoft claims.
Thankfully, and right outside the window, there's a true community of users you and your loved ones can join...
Let's stop falling for the trap of chasing short-term, superficial improvements in proprietary software that may seem to make life better, and instead opt for free software, the only software that can support the best versions of ourselves.
Submission + - SPAM: Firefox Now Sends Your Address Bar Keystrokes to Mozilla
An anonymous reader writes: Firefox now sends more data than you might think to Mozilla. To power Firefox Suggest, Firefox sends the keystrokes you type into your address bar, your location information, and more to Mozilla’s servers. Here’s exactly what Firefox is sharing and how to control it. This change was made as part of the introduction of Firefox Suggest in Firefox 93, released on October 5, 2021. As part of Firefox Suggest, Firefox is getting ads in your search bar — but that’s not the only thing that will be news to longtime Firefox users. According to Mozilla, "Firefox Suggest acts as a trustworthy guide to the better web, surfacing relevant information and sites to help people accomplish their goals.” In reality, what that means is, when you start typing in your address bar, you won’t just see the standard search suggestions from Google or your current search default engine. You’ll also see “Firefox Suggest” results pointing to web pages. Some of them are sponsored ads, but you can disable the ads.
Firefox Suggest is on by default. Mozilla’s blog post on the subject says Firefox Suggest is an “opt-in experience,” which was the case in September 2021—but it’s now enabled by default in Firefox 93. However, as of Firefox 93’s release in October 2021, Firefox Suggest is only enabled in the USA—for now. It’s worth noting that, for many years, Firefox and other web browsers have had search suggestions in their address bar. So, when you start typing “win” in your address bar, you may see suggestions for “Windows 11” and “Window repair.” This is accomplished by sending keystrokes to your default search engine as you type in the search bar, as Mozilla’s support site explains. Mozilla is also providing contextual suggestions, for which it needs more data, including the city you’re located in and whether you’re clicking its suggestions.
You can disable Firefox’s suggested results, if you like. This will stop Mozilla from collecting the data you type in your search bar, and it will also disable the suggested results and ads. To do so, open Firefox and click menu > Settings. Select “Privacy & Security” in the left pane, and scroll down to “Address Bar — Firefox Suggest.” Disable “Contextual suggestions” and “Include occasional sponsored suggestions” to stop Firefox from sending data to Mozilla.
Link to Original Source
Firefox Suggest is on by default. Mozilla’s blog post on the subject says Firefox Suggest is an “opt-in experience,” which was the case in September 2021—but it’s now enabled by default in Firefox 93. However, as of Firefox 93’s release in October 2021, Firefox Suggest is only enabled in the USA—for now. It’s worth noting that, for many years, Firefox and other web browsers have had search suggestions in their address bar. So, when you start typing “win” in your address bar, you may see suggestions for “Windows 11” and “Window repair.” This is accomplished by sending keystrokes to your default search engine as you type in the search bar, as Mozilla’s support site explains. Mozilla is also providing contextual suggestions, for which it needs more data, including the city you’re located in and whether you’re clicking its suggestions.
You can disable Firefox’s suggested results, if you like. This will stop Mozilla from collecting the data you type in your search bar, and it will also disable the suggested results and ads. To do so, open Firefox and click menu > Settings. Select “Privacy & Security” in the left pane, and scroll down to “Address Bar — Firefox Suggest.” Disable “Contextual suggestions” and “Include occasional sponsored suggestions” to stop Firefox from sending data to Mozilla.
Link to Original Source
Submission + - SPAM: Hackers of SolarWinds Stole Data On US Sanctions Policy, Intelligence Probes
An anonymous reader writes: The suspected Russian hackers who used SolarWinds and Microsoft software to burrow into U.S. federal agencies emerged with information about counter-intelligence investigations, policy on sanctioning Russian individuals and the country’s response to COVID-19, people involved in the investigation told Reuters. The hacks were widely publicized after their discovery late last year, and American officials have blamed Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service, which denies the activity. But little has been disclosed about the spies' aims and successes. [...] It has been previously reported that the hackers breached unclassified Justice Department networks and read emails at the departments of treasury, commerce and homeland security. Nine federal agencies were breached. The hackers also stole digital certificates used to convince computers that software is authorized to run on them and source code from Microsoft(MSFT.O) and other tech companies. One of the people involved said that the exposure of counter-intelligence matters being pursued against Russia was the worst of the losses.
In an annual threat-review paper released on Thursday, Microsoft said the Russian spies were ultimately looking for government material on sanctions and other Russia-related policies, along with U.S. methods for catching Russian hackers. Cristin Goodwin, general manager of Microsoft’s Digital Security Unit, said the company drew its conclusions from the types of customers and accounts it saw being targeted. In such cases, she told Reuters, “You can infer the operational aims from that.” Others who worked on the government’s investigation went further, saying they could see the terms that the Russians used in their searches of U.S. digital files, including “sanctions.”
Chris Krebs, the former head of U.S. cyber-defense agency CISA and now an adviser to SolarWinds and other companies, said the combined descriptions of the attackers’ goals were logical. “If I’m a threat actor in an environment, I’ve got a clear set of objectives. First, I want to get valuable intelligence on government decision-making. Sanctions policy makes a ton of sense,” Krebs said. The second thing is to learn how the target responds to attacks, or "counter-incident response," he said: "I want to know what they know about me so I can improve my tradecraft and avoid detection.”
Link to Original Source
In an annual threat-review paper released on Thursday, Microsoft said the Russian spies were ultimately looking for government material on sanctions and other Russia-related policies, along with U.S. methods for catching Russian hackers. Cristin Goodwin, general manager of Microsoft’s Digital Security Unit, said the company drew its conclusions from the types of customers and accounts it saw being targeted. In such cases, she told Reuters, “You can infer the operational aims from that.” Others who worked on the government’s investigation went further, saying they could see the terms that the Russians used in their searches of U.S. digital files, including “sanctions.”
Chris Krebs, the former head of U.S. cyber-defense agency CISA and now an adviser to SolarWinds and other companies, said the combined descriptions of the attackers’ goals were logical. “If I’m a threat actor in an environment, I’ve got a clear set of objectives. First, I want to get valuable intelligence on government decision-making. Sanctions policy makes a ton of sense,” Krebs said. The second thing is to learn how the target responds to attacks, or "counter-incident response," he said: "I want to know what they know about me so I can improve my tradecraft and avoid detection.”
Link to Original Source
Submission + - Comcast's Sky Jumping Into Television Business With Sky Glass (theverge.com)
phalse phace writes: British Satellite broadcaster Sky is moving away from the satellite dishes that have defined its TV service for decades. Sky Glass is launching today, an ambitious effort to sell television sets that stream Sky TV content over Wi-Fi directly to consumers. There’s no external box, no satellite dish, and no need for a soundbar.
Although announced for the UK today, Sky has global aspirations for Glass TV “built on technology borne of the collaboration as part of the Comcast Corporation.” As such, we might be looking at the platform underpinning Comcast’s rumored XClass TVs for the US.
Sky Glass TVs will be available in three sizes: 43-inch, 55-inch, and 65-inch. Each 4K TV will stream Sky’s TV channels, and integrates in voice control (Hello Sky) and 21 apps to access additional content like Netflix, Spotify, or Disney Plus. The price of a Sky Glass TV is designed to be baked into a monthly subscription to Sky’s TV service, known as Sky Ultimate TV, but you can also pay for the TV upfront if you want to lower the monthly costs.
Although announced for the UK today, Sky has global aspirations for Glass TV “built on technology borne of the collaboration as part of the Comcast Corporation.” As such, we might be looking at the platform underpinning Comcast’s rumored XClass TVs for the US.
Sky Glass TVs will be available in three sizes: 43-inch, 55-inch, and 65-inch. Each 4K TV will stream Sky’s TV channels, and integrates in voice control (Hello Sky) and 21 apps to access additional content like Netflix, Spotify, or Disney Plus. The price of a Sky Glass TV is designed to be baked into a monthly subscription to Sky’s TV service, known as Sky Ultimate TV, but you can also pay for the TV upfront if you want to lower the monthly costs.
Submission + - Firefox now shows ads as sponsored address bar suggestions (bleepingcomputer.com) 1
waspleg writes: Mozilla is now showing ads in the form of sponsored Firefox contextual suggestions when U.S. users type in the URL address bar. Mozilla says the feature was introduced with Firefox 92 in September to fund development and optimization.
Mozilla describes Firefox Suggest contextual suggestions as opt-in, in BleepingComputer's tests and from what users have reported, the feature is on by default.
Furthermore, Firefox doesn't tag the ads displayed via Firefox Suggest. There is no clear way to identify what a sponsored suggestion and what a regular unsponsored suggestion should look like.
The only way Firefox users will know whether a sponsored suggestion is an ad would be by looking at the URL, but, in many cases, the URL is not clearly visible.
Mozilla describes Firefox Suggest contextual suggestions as opt-in, in BleepingComputer's tests and from what users have reported, the feature is on by default.
Furthermore, Firefox doesn't tag the ads displayed via Firefox Suggest. There is no clear way to identify what a sponsored suggestion and what a regular unsponsored suggestion should look like.
The only way Firefox users will know whether a sponsored suggestion is an ad would be by looking at the URL, but, in many cases, the URL is not clearly visible.
Submission + - SPAM: First RISC-V Computer Chip Lands At the European Processor Initiative
An anonymous reader writes: The European Processor Initiative (EPI) has run the successful first test of its RISC-V-based European Processor Accelerator (EPAC), touting it as the initial step towards homegrown supercomputing hardware. EPI, launched back in 2018, aims to increase the independence of Europe's supercomputing industry from foreign technology companies. At its heart is the adoption of the free and open-source RISC-V instruction set architecture for the development and production of high-performance chips within Europe's borders. The project's latest milestone is the delivery of 143 samples of EPAC chips, accelerators designed for high-performance computing applications and built around the free and open-source RISC-V instruction set architecture. Designed to prove the processor's design, the 22nm test chips – fabbed at GlobalFoundries, the not-terribly-European semiconductor manufacturer spun out of AMD back in 2009 – have passed initial testing, running a bare-metal "hello, world" program as proof of life.
It's a rapid turnaround. The EPAC design was proven on FPGA in March and the project announced silicon tape-out for the test chips in June – hitting a 26.97mm2 area with 14 million placeable instances, equivalent to 93 million gates, including 991 memory instances. While the FPGA variant, which implemented a subset of the functions of the full EPAC design, was shown booting a Linux operating system, the physical test chips have so far only been tested with basic bare-metal workloads – leaving plenty of work to be done.
Link to Original Source
It's a rapid turnaround. The EPAC design was proven on FPGA in March and the project announced silicon tape-out for the test chips in June – hitting a 26.97mm2 area with 14 million placeable instances, equivalent to 93 million gates, including 991 memory instances. While the FPGA variant, which implemented a subset of the functions of the full EPAC design, was shown booting a Linux operating system, the physical test chips have so far only been tested with basic bare-metal workloads – leaving plenty of work to be done.
Link to Original Source
Submission + - SPAM: The Fed Is Evaluating Whether To Launch a Digital Currency and In What Form
An anonymous reader writes: The Federal Reserve is pushing ahead with its study into whether to implement its own digital currency and will be releasing a paper on the issue shortly, Chairman Jerome Powell said Wednesday. No decision has been made on the matter yet, he added, and said the Fed does not feel pressured to do something quickly as other nations move forward with their own projects. “I think it’s important that we get to a place where we can make an informed decision about this and do so expeditiously,” Powell said at his post-meeting news conference. “I don’t think we’re behind. I think it’s more important to do this right than to do it fast.” Powell added that the Fed is “working proactively to evaluate whether to issue a CBDC, and if so in what form.”
The Boston Fed has taken point on the project, joining with MIT in an initiative on whether the central bank should establish its own digital coin targeted at making the payments system more effective. Fed Governor Lael Brainard has been a strong advocate of the effort, though several other officials, including Vice Chair for Supervision Randal Quarles, have cast doubts. Advocates such as Brainard say a central bank digital currency’s benefits include getting payments quickly to people in times of crisis and also providing services to the unbanked. “We think it’s really important that the central bank maintain a stable currency and payments system for the public’s benefit. That’s one of our jobs,” he said. He noted the “transformational innovation” in the area of digital payments and said the Fed is continuing to do work on the matter, including its own FedNow system expected to go online in 2023. The test for a CBDC, he said, is “are there clear and tangible benefits that outweigh any costs and risks.”
Some concerns even have been raised that if the Fed does not act more aggressively, the dollar’s position as the global reserve currency could be challenged. Powell noted the dollar’s position in the world and said the Fed is “in a good place” to make a decision on whether to implement its own digital currency. He expressed some concern about the regulatory landscape and said the Fed likely will need congressional permission should it decide to proceed. “Where the public’s money is concerned, we need to make sure that appropriate regulatory protections are in place, and today there really are not in some cases,” Powell said.
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The Boston Fed has taken point on the project, joining with MIT in an initiative on whether the central bank should establish its own digital coin targeted at making the payments system more effective. Fed Governor Lael Brainard has been a strong advocate of the effort, though several other officials, including Vice Chair for Supervision Randal Quarles, have cast doubts. Advocates such as Brainard say a central bank digital currency’s benefits include getting payments quickly to people in times of crisis and also providing services to the unbanked. “We think it’s really important that the central bank maintain a stable currency and payments system for the public’s benefit. That’s one of our jobs,” he said. He noted the “transformational innovation” in the area of digital payments and said the Fed is continuing to do work on the matter, including its own FedNow system expected to go online in 2023. The test for a CBDC, he said, is “are there clear and tangible benefits that outweigh any costs and risks.”
Some concerns even have been raised that if the Fed does not act more aggressively, the dollar’s position as the global reserve currency could be challenged. Powell noted the dollar’s position in the world and said the Fed is “in a good place” to make a decision on whether to implement its own digital currency. He expressed some concern about the regulatory landscape and said the Fed likely will need congressional permission should it decide to proceed. “Where the public’s money is concerned, we need to make sure that appropriate regulatory protections are in place, and today there really are not in some cases,” Powell said.
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Submission + - SPAM: Forever Lifetime Support and Updates for Software
joshuark writes: The creator of Virtual Reality Modeling Language and founder of the first virtual reality startup, Mark Pesce in a piece in IEEE Spectrum opines that we need software updates forever.
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