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Submission + - Meta stops ex-director from promoting critical memoir (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Alain Williams
Alain Williams writes: Meta has won an emergency ruling in the US to temporarily stop a former director of Facebook from promoting or further distributing copies of her memoir.

The book, Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams, who used to be the company's global public policy director, includes a series of critical claims about what she witnessed during her seven years working at Facebook.

Facebook's parent company, Meta, says the ruling — which orders her to stop promotions "to the extent within her control" — affirms that "the false and defamatory book should never have been published".

The UK publisher Macmillan says it is "committed to upholding freedom of speech" and Ms Wynn-Williams' "right to tell her story".

You can also hear Ms Wynn-Williams interviewed in the BBC Radio 4 Media Show on 12 March.

Submission + - Hardware Security Key Shootout! (k9.io)

Submitted by Beave
Beave writes: The standard hardware security key in the tech space is typically a YubiKey. While I’m sure we all appreciate YubiKeys, there are many other key manufacturers out there. Each manufacturer and key has different capabilities, and are not all equal. This article will explore the various hardware security keys that can be used to store Passkeys and SSH keys. We will focus on usability, operating system compatibility, and costs. This article will likely help, whether you're looking for a personal key for projects or seeking to implement a passwordless solution at work.

Submission + - GamersNexus: Effect of 32-bit PhysX removal on older games (youtube.com)

Submitted by UnknowingFool
UnknowingFool writes: Gamer's Nexus performed tests on the effect of removing legacy PhysX on the newest generation of NVidia cards with older games, and the results are not good. With PhysX on, the latest generation NVidia was slightly beaten by a GTX 580 (released 2010) on some games and handily beaten by a GTX 980 (2014) on some games.

With the launch of the 5000 series, NVidia dropped 32-bit CUDA support going forward. Part of that change was dropping support for 32-bit PhysX. As a result older titles that used it would perform poorly with 5000 series cards as it would default to CPU for calculations. Even the latest CPUs do not perform as well as 15 year old GPUs when it comes to PhysX.

The best performance on the 5080 was to turn PhysX off however that would remove many effects like smoke, breaking glass, and rubble from scenes. The second best option was to pair a 5000 series with an older card like a 980 to just handle the PhysX computations.

Submission + - UK starting climate change geoengineering trials (theguardian.com)

Submitted by Bruce66423
Bruce66423 writes: An opponent writes:

'The UK government itself would be leading the charge into what is almost universally recognized as the most dangerous and destabilizing sort of research: field trials that risk developing dangerous technology and paving the way for deployment. That is precisely the emphasis as the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency (Aria) prepares to hand over $58m for solar geoengineering research and development.'

Submission + - DJI and Other Chinese Companies Move to Eliminate Overtime (chosun.com) 1

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear writes: Chinese corporations have begun to improve the long working hours culture represented by the so-called "996" (working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., 6 days a week). As the Chinese government asks them to address inefficient "internal competition," corporations that already needed management efficiency have started to eliminate overtime. DJI, the world's largest drone maker, has been implementing a "no overtime" policy since the 27th of last month. Accordingly, employees must leave the office after 9 p.m. [without requiring workrs starting at 9 a.m.] The company also eliminated transportation expenses paid for overtime and closed down facilities such as the gym, swimming pool, and badminton court, while also reducing team expenses, in order to foster an early leaving environment. Chinese appliance manufacturer Midea began enforcing a mandatory leaving policy at 6:20 p.m. for office workers. Midea has also initiated the simplification of work methods this year, implementing a "strict prohibition on meetings and formal overtime after hours," and has taken a step further with this policy. Another appliance manufacturer, Haier, mandated two days of rest on weekends starting last month and decided to allow a maximum of 3 hours of overtime during the week. The 996 practice is particularly prominent in large corporations and the internet industry. In 2021, Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, one of China's largest e-commerce corporations, stated, "Being able to work 996 is a great blessing" and asked, "If you don't do 996 when you're young, when will you?" China's legislature, the National People's Congress, issued, for the first time, a call to comprehensively [reduce] "internal competition" broadly including chaotic expansion of production capacity, price wars, and zero-sum games. However, reactions from workers regarding these measures by corporations are mixed with some complaint these measures amount to wage cut as overtime pay disappears as well.

Submission + - Anonymous sources: Starship needs a major rebuild after two consecutive failures (behindtheblack.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: According to information at this tweet from anonymous sources, parts of Starship will likely require a major redesign due to the spacecraft's break-up shortly after stage separation on its last two test flights.

These are the key take-aways, most of which focus on the redesign of the first version of Starship (V1) to create the V2 that flew unsuccessfully on those flights:
  • Hot separation also aggravates the situation in the compartment.
  • Not related to the flames from the Super Heavy during the booster turn.
  • This is a fundamental miscalculation in the design of the Starship V2 and the engine section.
  • The fuel lines, wiring for the engines and the power unit will be urgently redone.
  • The fate of S35 and S36 is still unclear. Either revision or scrap.
  • For the next ships, some processes may be paused in production until a decision on the design is made.
  • The team was rushed with fixes for S34, hence the nervous start. There was no need to rush.
  • The fixes will take much longer than 4-6 weeks.
  • Comprehensive ground testing with long-term fire tests is needed. [emphasis mine]

It must be emphasized that this information comes from leaks from anonymous sources, and could be significantly incorrect. It does however fit the circumstances, and suggests that the next test flight will not occur in April but will be delayed for an unknown period beyond.

Submission + - Solar adds more new capacity to the US grid in 2024 than any energy source in 20 (electrek.co)

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: The US installed 50 gigawatts (GW) of new solar capacity in 2024, the largest single year of new capacity added to the grid by any energy technology in over two decades. That’s enough to power 8.5 million households.

According to the US Solar Market Insight 2024 Year in Review report released today by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie, solar and storage account for 84% of all new electric generating capacity added to the grid last year.

In addition to historic deployment, surging US solar manufacturing emerged as a landmark economic story in 2024. Domestic solar module production tripled last year, and at full capacity, US factories can now produce enough to meet nearly all demand for solar panels in the US. Solar cell manufacturing also resumed in 2024, strengthening the US energy supply chain.

Submission + - Codon Python compiler gets faster (usenix.org)

Submitted by rikfarrow
rikfarrow writes: In May 2023, I tried out Codon, an Open Source Python compiler. At the time, I had difficulty compiling the scripts I most commonly used, but was excited by the prospect. Python is essentially single threaded and checks the shape (type) of each variable as it interprets scripts. Codon fixes types and compiles Python into compact, executable binaries that execute much faster.

Several things have changed with their latest release: I have successful compiles, the committers have added a compiled version of NumPy (high performance math algorithms), and changed their open source license to Apache 2.

Submission + - 2nd generation Google Chromecasts stop working globaly (tomsguide.com)

Submitted by ospirata
ospirata writes: Users of Chromecast across the globe have reported that their dongles no longer work since Sunday (March 9). The error was firstly reported in the r/googlehome subreddit, and now is being updated by several IT-review sources (Links to Tom's Guide, NotebookCheck, AndroidAuthority)

Google is already working on a fix, which only affects the 2nd generation, including Chromecast Audio. In the meantime, users are advised not to reset to factory's default. But if they did already, a user suggested a hack to set the mobile date to before March 9 2025. So the device is reconnected to your network via Google Home app (in hope to automatically receive the fix, when available)

Submission + - Global Worldwide Outage on 2nd Gen Chromecasts and Chromecast Audio

Submitted by TigerPlish
TigerPlish writes: Sometime yesterday 2nd-gen Chromecasts stopped authenticating at Googe, rending these devices useless.

Resets aren't having any effect, some sources in reddit suggest a certificate problem at Google.

This story at Android Police seems to reinforce that idea, as it details steps some have taken to restore functionality — this process involves back-dating the device itself to before March 9.

https://www.androidpolice.com/...

Submission + - Physical buttons returning to Volkswagen vehicles (pcmag.com) 1

Submitted by smooth wombat
smooth wombat writes: In what can only be described as a no-brainer, Volkswagen has announced it will have once again have physical buttons in all its vehicles. As Andreas Mindt, design chief at the company said, removing buttons was "a mistake".

“From the ID 2all onwards, we will have physical buttons for the five most important functions – the volume, the heating on each side of the car, the fans and the hazard light – below the screen,” he explained, adding: “It's not a phone: it's a car.”

This doesn’t mean touch screens are set to disappear on new Volkswagens, just that drivers will now have the option of physical controls for their most used day-to-day tasks. The new controls are set to make their debut in the ID.2all, a small, budget EV set to debut in Europe.

Submission + - Fully automating Arduino development - Giving Claude Code access to hardware (youtube.com)

Submitted by ptorrone
ptorrone writes: On the most recent Desk of Ladyada, we shared our experiments with Claude Code, a new large language model (LLM) tool, to streamline hardware development — WAIT WHAT? That's right!. streamline hardware development! We are using it to automate parts of the coding and debugging process for an Arduino-compatible Metro Mini board with an OPT 4048 color sensor. Using Claude Code’s shell access, we can compile, upload, and test code in a semi-automated workflow, allowing the LLM to suggest fixes for errors along the way. The process involves using Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) to bridge hardware interaction gaps, as Claude Code doesn't run natively on Windows yet. While the AI isn’t perfect for high-level driver development, it's proving VERY useful for tedious debugging and super-fast iterative improvements, bringing hardware automation closer to ...reality.

Submission + - How Ants May Save You from Future Traffic Jams

Submitted by gdm
gdm writes: A study published in Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives investigates how ants avoid traffic jams, the results of which could be used to control autonomous vehicles. Quoting the abstract:

The results show that ants adopt specific traffic strategies (platoon formation, quasi-constant speed and no overtaking maneuvers) that help avoid jam phenomena, even at high density.

Scientific American comments on the research:

They found that the ants don’t jam because they travel in groups of three to 20 that move at nearly constant rates while keeping good distances between one another—and they don’t speed up to pass others. Human drivers at rush hour are hardly inclined to follow such rules.

The Scientific American article points out that humans generally are

maximizing the interests of individuals, [whereas] self-driving cars [...] could have more cooperative programming.

It concludes by quoting a mathematical physicist (not involved in this specific study) from the University of Tokyo:

Today’s drivers can learn at least one thing from ants to avoid causing a traffic jam, Nishinari says: don’t tailgate. By leaving room between their car and the one ahead of them, drivers can absorb a wave of braking in dense traffic conditions that would otherwise be amplified into a full-blown “phantom” traffic jam with no obvious cause.

So it seems if we were less greedy when confronted with traffic, perhaps we could all get home sooner.

Submission + - Undocumented "backdoor" found in Bluetooth chip used by a billion devices (bleepingcomputer.com)

Submitted by ZipNada
ZipNada writes: The ubiquitous ESP32 microchip made by Chinese manufacturer Espressif and used by over 1 billion units as of 2023 contains an undocumented "backdoor" that could be leveraged for attacks.

The undocumented commands allow spoofing of trusted devices, unauthorized data access, pivoting to other devices on the network, and potentially establishing long-term persistence.

This was discovered by Spanish researchers Miguel Tarascó Acuña and Antonio Vázquez Blanco of Tarlogic Security, who presented their findings yesterday at RootedCON in Madrid.

"Tarlogic Security has detected a backdoor in the ESP32, a microcontroller that enables WiFi and Bluetooth connection and is present in millions of mass-market IoT devices," reads a Tarlogic announcement shared with BleepingComputer.

"Exploitation of this backdoor would allow hostile actors to conduct impersonation attacks and permanently infect sensitive devices such as mobile phones, computers, smart locks or medical equipment by bypassing code audit controls."

The researchers warned that ESP32 is one of the world's most widely used chips for Wi-Fi + Bluetooth connectivity in IoT (Internet of Things) devices, so the risk of any backdoor in them is significant.

Submission + - New open source Windows-compatible operating system released (github.com) 2

Submitted by paugq
paugq writes: Free95, a new lean, Windows-compatible operating system is available from GitHub. In its current form, it can run very basic Win32 GUI and console applications but its developer promises to keep working on it to reach DirectX and een game compatibility.

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