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Submission + - Hackers for the Chinese government were able to deeply penetrate U.S. telecommun (gizmodo.com)

Submitted by mspohr
mspohr writes: Hackers for the Chinese government were able to deeply penetrate U.S. telecommunications infrastructure in ways that President Joe Bidenâ(TM)s administration hasnâ(TM)t yet acknowledged, according to new reports from the Washington Post and New York Times. The hackers were able to listen to phone calls and read text messages, reportedly exploiting the system U.S. authorities use to wiretap Americans in criminal cases. The worst part? The networks are still compromised and it may take incredibly drastic measures to boot them from U.S. systems.

Hackers werenâ(TM)t able to monitor or intercept anything encrypted, according to the Times, which means that conversations over apps like Signal and Appleâ(TM)s iMessage were probably protected. But end-to-end encryption over texts between Apple devices and Android devices, for instance, arenâ(TM)t encrypted in the same way, meaning they were vulnerable to interception by Salt Typhoon, according to the Times.

The details about how the hackers were able to push so deeply into U.S. systems are still scarce, but it has something to do with the ways in which U.S. authorities wiretap suspects in this country with a court order.

Submission + - Is the Hour of Code the New 30-Minute Saturday Morning Cartoon Commercial?

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Past corporate-sponsored Hour of Code tutorials for the nation's schoolchildren have blurred the lines between coding lessons and product infomercials.

So too is the case again with this year's newly-announced Hour of Code 2024 flagship tutorials, which include Microsoft Minecraft, Amazon Music, and Transformers One movie themed intros to coding. The press release announcing the tutorials from tech-backed nonprofit Code.org, which organizes the Hour of Code and counts Microsoft and Amazon as $30+ million donors, boasts of its "decade of partnership with [Microsoft] Minecraft this year, reaching more than 300 million sessions of Minecraft Hour of Code since 2015!"

Interestingly, The Transformers (Paramount Pictures, which released Transformers One in the US, is a $25,000+ Code.org donor) is cited as one of the OG's of children's Saturday morning cartoon advertising (aka 30-minute commercials) that prompted the Children's Television Act (CTA) of 1990, an act of Congress that ordered the FCC to put in place regulations to protect children from advertising. Throughout the 1980s, Action for Children's Television (ACT) criticized children's television programs that "blur(red) the distinction between program content and commercial speech."

Submission + - Economist says: EVs should go with slow Level 1 charging (cleantechnica.com) 1

Submitted by Geoffrey.landis
Geoffrey.landis writes: Economist Phillip Kobernick makes the case that the emphasis on fast-charging stations for electric vehicles in the US is misplaced. According to an article in cleantechnica, he argues that from an economic standpoint, what we should be doing is making more slow chargers. All thing equal, who wouldn’t choose a 10-minute charge over a 3-hour charge or a 10-hour charge? But all things are not equal. Superfast chargers are far more expensive than Level 2 chargers, and Level 2 chargers are also significantly more expensive than Level 1 charging infrastructure, which are normal electricity outlets. He points out that we get 4–7 times more charging capability installed for the same cost by going with Level 1 charging instead of Level 2. And given that people often just plug in their electric vehicles overnight, Level 1 charging can more than adequately provide what you need in that time. The case is examined in a podcast on the site.

Submission + - Potentially Toxic Chloronitramide Anion Found in 1/3 of US Drinking Water (science.org)

Submitted by Greymane
Greymane writes: Municipal drinking water in the US is often treated with chloramines to prevent the growth of harmful microorganisms, but these molecules can also react with organic and inorganic dissolved compounds to form disinfection by-products that are potentially toxic. Fairey et al. studied a previously known but uncharacterized product of mono- and dichloramine decomposition and identified it as the chloronitroamide anion. This anion was detected in 40 drinking water samples from 10 US drinking water systems using chloramines, but not from ultrapure water or drinking water treated without chlorine-based disinfectants. Although toxicity is not currently known, the prevalence of this by-product and its similarity to other toxic molecules is concerning.

Submission + - AWS will pay devs to verify Rust standard library because of 7,500 unsafe functi (devclass.com)

Submitted by sean-it-all
sean-it-all writes: AWS will pay developers to verify RUST standard library. How much is unclear at this stage. The issue stems from unsafe operations in RUST standard library where access to operating system can cause issues such as a null reference exception.

"The issue AWS highlights is that even if developers use only safe code, most applications still depend on the Rust standard library. AWS states that there are approximately 7.5K unsafe functions in the Rust Standard Library and notes that 57 âoesoundness issuesâ and 20 CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) have been reported in the last three years. The cloud giant also claimed that âoethe rate of change of the standard libraries is faster and more unsound.â "

"The Rust Foundation says that there is a financial reward tied to each challenge, and that the âoechallenge rewards committee is responsible for reviewing activity and dispensing rewards.â How much will be paid though is not stated."

Submission + - Does the Internet route around damage? Looks like it. (ripe.net)

Submitted by Zarhan
Zarhan writes: On Sunday and Monday, two undersea cables in Baltic sea were cut. There is talk of a hybrid operation by Russia against Europe, and a Chinese ship has been detained by Danish Navy. However, the interesting part is did the cuts really have any effect, or does the Internet actually route around damage? RIPE tests seem to indicate so.. RIPE Atlas probes did not observe any noticeable increase of packet loss and only a minimal and perfectly expected increase of latency as traffic automatically switched itself to other available paths.

Submission + - NASA Wants SpaceX and Blue Origin To Deliver Cargo To the Moon (theverge.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: After asking both SpaceX and Blue Origin to develop cargo landers for its Artemis missions, NASA has announced plans to use those landers to deliver heavy equipment to the Moon. The agency wants Elon Musk’s SpaceX to use its Starship cargo lander to deliver a pressurized rover to the Moon “no earlier” than 2032, while Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin will be tasked with delivering a lunar surface habitat no sooner than 2033. Both launches will support NASA’s Artemis missions, which aim to bring humans back to the Moon for the first time in over 50 years.

Both companies are developing human landing systems for Artemis missions — SpaceX for Artemis III and Blue Origin for Artemis V. NASA later asked both companies to develop cargo-hauling variants of those landers, capable of carrying 26,000 to 33,000 pounds of equipment and other materials to the Moon. NASA says it will issue proposals to SpaceX and Blue Origin at the beginning of next year.

Submission + - Inside the Booming 'AI Pimping' Industry (404media.co)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Instagram is floodedwith hundreds of AI-generated influencers who are stealing videos from real models and adult content creators, giving them AI-generated faces, and monetizing their bodies with links to dating sites, Patreon, OnlyFans competitors, and various AI apps. The practice,first reported by 404 Media in April, has since exploded in popularity, showing that Instagram is unable or unwilling to stop the flood of AI-generated content on its platform and protect the human creators on Instagram who say they are now competing with AI content in a way that is impacting their ability to make a living.

According to our review of more than 1,000 AI-generated Instagram accounts, Discord channels where the people who make this content share tips and discuss strategy, and several guides that explain how to make money by “AI pimping,” it is now trivially easy to make these accounts and monetize them using an assortment of off-the-shelf AI tools and apps. Some of these apps are hosted on the Apple App and Google Play Stores. Our investigation shows that what was once a niche problem on the platform has industrialized in scale, and it shows what social media may become in the near future: a space where AI-generated content eclipses that of humans. [...]

Out of more than 1,000 AI-generated Instagram influencer accounts we reviewed, 100 included at least some deepfake content which took existing videos, usually from models and adult entertainment performers, and replaced their face with an AI-generated face to make those videos seem like new, original content consistent with the other AI-generated images and videos shared by the AI-generated influencer. The other 900 accounts shared images that in some cases were trained on real photographs and in some cases made to look like celebrities, but were entirely AI-generated, not edited photographs or videos. Out of those 100 accounts that shared deepfake or face-swapped videos, 60 self-identify as being AI-generated, writing in their bios that they are a “virtual model & influencer” or stating “all photos crafted with AI and apps.” The other 40 do not include any disclaimer stating that they are AI-generated.

Submission + - Windows 95 used three different operating systems during setup (techspot.com)

Submitted by jjslash
jjslash writes: Veteran Microsoft engineer Raymond Chen recently addressed a retro-tech question from a game developer on X. The developer asked about the three user interfaces in the Windows 95 setup process, transitioning from DOS to Windows 3.x and finally to the Win9x GUI. Chen explained this design minimized the code needed for the setup.

With over 30 years of experience shaping the evolution of Windows, Chen holds deep insights into the hidden intricacies of one of the worlds most widely used software platforms. Writing The Old New Thing blog, he said Windows 95 setup was designed to upgrade systems from three possible starting points – MS-DOS, Windows 3.1, and Windows 95 itself. This necessity dictated the need for compatibility with three distinct computing environments.

Submission + - Ukraine fires UK-made Storm Shadow missiles into Russia (aljazeera.com) 1

Submitted by easyTree
easyTree writes: Ukraine fires UK-made Storm Shadow missiles into Russia

Russia’s foreign intelligence chief says attempts by NATO countries to help Ukraine will not go unpunished.

Ukraine has fired long-range British Storm Shadow missiles into Russian territory for the first time, a day after launching United States-made long-range missiles into the country, British media outlets report.

Russian war correspondent accounts on Telegram posted footage on Wednesday they said included the sound of the missiles striking in the Kursk region, which lies on Ukraine’s border. At least 14 huge explosions can be heard, most of them preceded by the sharp whistle of what sounds like an incoming missile. The footage, shot in a residential area, showed black smoke rising in the distance.

People in Kursk also reportedly found fragments from the missiles in the region.

A spokesperson for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his office would not be commenting on reports or operational matters.

Britain had previously said Ukraine could use Storm Shadow cruise missiles within Ukrainian territory, but

London has been pressing Washington for permission to allow their use to strike targets inside Russia for several months.

On Tuesday, Ukraine used US-made long-range weapons to strike targets in Russia. US President Joe Biden’s administration has allowed Kyiv to use these missiles in and around the Kursk region only.

Afterwards, Russian President Vladimir Putin lowered the threshold for a nuclear strike in response to a broader range of conventional attacks. Washington said afterwards it had not seen any reason to adjust its nuclear posture while China called for restraint. See article for more...

Submission + - TCL's inkjet-printed OLED panels are now in mass production (techspot.com)

Submitted by jjslash
jjslash writes: TCL has officially entered the mass production phase for its inkjet-printed OLED panels. Known for being longer-lasting, more energy-efficient, and cheaper to produce, these cutting-edge displays are debuting with a 21.6-inch 4K model. TechSpot reports:

TCL's pledge to make cheaper and less power-hungry OLED monitors began in earnest this week when the Chinese company officially started mass production of inkjet-printed OLED displays. The first product isn't something consumers would be interested in, though: a 21.6-inch 4K OLED panel designed for medical monitors. However, TCL did also unveil a 27-inch prototype.

While the size may seem unconventional, it's tailored for professional use, particularly in the medical industry, offering 204 PPI density, 99% DCI-P3 color accuracy, a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, and 350 nits of brightness.

Submission + - IEEE Spectrum: It's Surprisingly Easy to Jailbreak LLM-Driven Robots (ieee.org)

Submitted by DesertNomad
DesertNomad writes: AI chatbots such as ChatGPT and other applications powered by large language models (LLMs) have exploded in popularity, leading a number of companies to explore LLM-driven robots. However, a new study now reveals an automated way to hack into such machines with 100 percent success. By circumventing safety guardrails, researchers could manipulate self-driving systems into colliding with pedestrians and robot dogs into hunting for harmful places to detonate bombs.

Submission + - Washington Post set to lose $77 million this year even before boycott (archive.is)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A report from New York Magazine's Intelligencer shed light on a recent meeting at The Post newsroom where the top brass revealed that the paper was on pace to lose a whopping $77 million this year, a figure that does not even include the staggering 250,000 subscribers it lost over its last-minute decision by billionaire owner Jeff Bezos to not endorse Vice President Kamala Harris in the final days of the presidential race.

"[It's] not a surprise at all," one Post staffer told Fox News Digital in reaction to the report. "It means ‘buckle up.’"

Notably, the $77 million in reported losses mirrors the exact figure Washington Post publisher Will Lewis said in May the paper lost over the prior year.

The Intelligencer cited other staffers, one saying "The level of anger is through the roof, and fear is also through the roof."

Submission + - Thomas E. Kurtz, Co-Inventor of BASIC, Passes Away at Age 96 (hackaday.com)

Submitted by GFS666
GFS666 writes: It’s with sadness that we note the passing of Thomas E. Kurtz, on November 12th. He was co-inventor of the BASIC programming language back in the 1960s, and though his creation may not receive the attention in 2024 that it would have done in 1984, the legacy of his work lives on in the generation of technologists who gained their first taste of computer programming through it. Link Here: https://hackaday.com/2024/11/1... and here: https://computerhistory.org/bl...

Submission + - Killer Robots Are About to Fill Ukrainian Skies (wsj.com) 1

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: In a front-line dugout this spring, a Ukrainian drone navigator selected a target—a Russian ammunition truck—by tapping it on a tablet screen with a stylus. The pilot flicked a switch on his handset to select autopilot and then watched the drone swoop down from a few hundred yards away and hit the vehicle.

“Let it burn,” said one of the team, as they observed a plume of smoke on a video feed from a reconnaissance drone.

Strikes like this represent a big advance in Ukraine’s attempts to use computers to help it combat Russia’s huge army. The drone that carried it out was controlled in the final attack phase by a small onboard computer designed by the U.S.-based company Auterion. Several other companies, many of them Ukrainian, have successfully tested similar autopilot systems on the battlefield.

Now, an even bigger breakthrough looms: mass-produced automated drones. In a significant step not previously reported, Ukraine’s drone suppliers are ramping up output of robot attack drones to an industrial scale, not just prototypes.

Enabling the upshift is producers’ successful integration of inexpensive computers into sophisticated, compact systems that replicate capabilities previously found only in far pricier equipment.

“None of this is new,” said Auterion founder and chief executive Lorenz Meier. “The difference is the price.”

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