Framework Laptop 13 is Getting a Drop-In RISC-V Mainboard Option - ICT news - NewsLocker (2024)

An anonymous reader shared this report from the OMG Ubuntu blog:Those of you who own a Framework Laptop 13 — consider me jealous, btw — or are considering buying one in the near future, you may be interested to know that a RISC-V motherboard option is in the works. DeepComputing, the company behind the recently-announced Ubuntu RISC-V laptop, is working with Framework Computer Inc, the company behind the popular, modular, and Linux-friendly Framework laptops, on a RISC-V mainboard.
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An Asteroid Just Passed Within 180,000 Miles of Earth

game of AsteroidsAn anonymous reader shared this report from The Hill:
An asteroid the size of a football stadium threaded the needle between Earth and the moon Saturday morning — the second of two astronomical near misses in three days. Near miss, in this case, is a relative term: Saturday's asteroid, 2024 MK, came within 180,000 miles of Earth. On Thursday, meanwhile, asteroid 2011 UL21 flew within 4 million miles.
But the Saturday passage of 2024 MK — which scientists discovered o

William Gibson's 'Neuromancer' to Become a Series on Apple TV+

It's been adapted into a graphic novel, a videogame, a radio play, and an opera, according to Wikipedia — which also describes years of trying to adapt Neuromancer into a movie. "The landmark 1984 cyberpunk novel has been on Hollywood's wishlist for decades," writes Gizmodo, "with multiple filmmakers attempting to bring it to the big screen." (Back in 2010, Slashdot's CmdrTaco even posted an update with the headline "Neuromancer Movie In Your Future?" with a 2011 story promising the movie

Caching Is Key, and SIEVE Is Better Than LRU

USENIX, the long-running OS/networking research group, also publishes a magazine called ;login:. Today the magazine's editor — security consultant Rik Farrow — stopped by Slashdot to share some new research. rikfarrow writes:
Caching means using faster memory to store frequently requested data, and the most commonly used algorithm for determining which items to discard when the cache is full is Least Recently Used [or "LRU"]. These researchers have come up with a more efficient and s

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Boeing Fraud Violated Fatal MAX Crash Settlement, Says Justice Department, Seeking Guilty Plea on Criminal Charges

America's Justice Department "is pushing for Boeing to plead guilty to a criminal charge," reports Reuters, "after finding the planemaker violated a settlement over fatal 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people, two people familiar with the matter said on Sunday."Boeing previously paid $2.5 billion as part of the deal with prosecutors that granted the company immunity from criminal prosecution over a fraud conspiracy charge related to the 737 MAX's flawed design. Boeing had to ab

A 'Safe' Chemical in Plastic Bottles Could Reduce Insulin Responsiveness, Increase Diabetes Risk

A new study "has found direct evidence linking a key chemical ingredient of plastic bottles to a higher risk of type 2 diabetes," reports the Independent:
The study, published in the journal Diabetes, found that the chemical BPA used to make food and drink packages, including plastic water bottles, can reduce sensitivity to the hormone insulin which regulates the body's sugar metabolism. The findings, to be presented at the 2024 Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association, call for

Ask Slashdot: What's the Best Way to Charge Your Smartphone Battery?

To stop their smartphone battery from swelling, long-time Slashdot reader shanen bought a Samsung Galaxy with a "restrictive charging option." But what setting should they use?The way this battery protection option worked was to stop charging the phone at 85%. That left me enough charge for my normal daily travels, which rarely took the phone below 50%, and the battery remained unswollen after a year, which included a month of quite heavy tethering, too. Unfortunately... After a recent upgrade,

Chinese Space Company's Static Rocket Test Ends In Premature Launch, Huge Explosion

Commercial space efforts continue around the world, as the Chinese company Space Pioneer fired up a partially-fueled rocket engine Sunday for a short-duration test of its reusable rocket on the ground. But Space News reports that the test "ended in catastrophic failure and a dramatic explosion."
"Amateur footage captured by Gongyi citizens and posted on Chinese social media shows the nine-engine test stage igntiing and then, exceptionally, taking off."
Hold-down clamps and other structures are t

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Is AI's Demand for Energy Really 'Insatiable'?

Bloomberg and The Washington Post "claim AI power usage is dire," writes Slashdot reader NoWayNoShapeNoForm. But Ars Technica "begs to disagree with those speculations."
From Ars Technica's article:The high-profile pieces lean heavily on recent projections from Goldman Sachs and the International Energy Agency (IEA) to cast AI's "insatiable" demand for energy as an almost apocalyptic threat to our power infrastructure. The Post piece even cites anonymous "some [people]" in reporting that "some w

New Linux 'Screen of Death' Options: Black - or a Monochrome Tux Logo

It was analgous to the "Blue Screen of Death" that Windows gives for critical errors, Phoronix wrote. To enable error messages for things like a kernel panic, Linux 6.10 introduced a new panic handler infrastructure for "Direct Rendering Manager" (or DRM) drivers.
Phoronix also published a follow-up from Red Hat engineer Javier Martinez Canillas (who was involved in the new DRM Panic infrastructure).Given complaints about being too like Microsoft Windows following his recent Linux "Blue Screen o

New Undersea Power Cables Could Carry Green Energy From Country to Country

What if across the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, six high-voltage power cables stretched -- each over 2,000 miles long.
CNN reports that a group of entrepreneurs "wants to build what would be the worldâ(TM)s largest subsea energy interconnector between continents, linking Europe and North America...to connect places like the United Kingdomâ(TM)s west with eastern Canada, and potentially New York with western France...
"The Europe-US cables could send 6 gigawatts of energy in both dir

Fuel From Water? Visiting a Texas 'Green Hydrogen' Plant

It transforms water into the fuel — one of the first fuel plants in the world to do so.
The Washington Post visits a facility in Corpus Christi, Texas using renewable energy to produce "green" hydrogen.The plant feeds water through machines that pull out its hydrogen atoms... [T]he hydrogen is chemically transformed into diesel for delivery trucks. This process could represent the biggest change in how fuel for planes, ships, trains and trucks is made since the first internal combustion en

NASA's Commercial Spacesuit Program Just Hit a Major Snag

Slashdot reader Required Snark shared this article from Ars Technica:
Almost exactly two years ago, as it prepared for the next generation of human spaceflight, NASA chose a pair of private companies to design and develop new spacesuits. These were to be new spacesuits that would allow astronauts to both perform spacewalks outside the International Space Station as well as walk on the Moon as part of the Artemis program. Now, that plan appears to be in trouble, with one of the spacesuit provider

Will a US Supreme Court Ruling Put Net Neutrality at Risk?

Today the Wall Street Journal reported that restoring net neutrality to America is "on shakier legal footing after a Supreme Court decision on Friday shifted power away from federal agencies.""It's hard to overstate the impact that this ruling could have on the regulatory landscape in the United States going forward," said Leah Malone, a lawyer at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. "This could really bind U.S. agencies in their efforts to write new rules." Now that [the "Chevron deference"] is gone

Threads Expands Fediverse Beta, Letting Users See Replies (and Likes) on Other Fediverse Sites like Mastodon

An anonymous Slashdot reader shared this report from the Verge:Threads will now let people like and see replies to their Threads posts that appear on other federated social media platforms, the company announced on Tuesday.
Previously, if you made a post on Threads that was syndicated to another platform like Mastodon, you wouldn't be able to see responses to that post while still inside Threads. That meant you'd have to bounce back and forth between the platforms to stay up-to-date on replies..

Could We Lower The Carbon Footprint of Data Centers By Launching Them Into Space?

The Wall Street Journal reports that a European initiative studying the feasibility data centers in space "has found that the project could be economically viable" — while reducing the data center's carbon footprint.
And they add that according to coordinator Thales Alenia Space, the project "could also generate a return on investment of several billion euros between now and 2050."The study — dubbed Ascend, short for Advanced Space Cloud for European Net zero emission and Data sovere

Get Ready For Nuclear Clocks

Long-time Slashdot reader jrronimo says JILA physicist Jun Ye's group "has made a breakthrough towards the next stage of precision timekeeping."
From their paper recently published to arXiv:
Optical atomic clocks use electronic energy levels to precisely keep track of time. A clock based on nuclear energy levels promises a next-generation platform for precision metrology and fundamental physics studies.... These results mark the start of nuclear-based solid-state optical clocks and demonstrate t

Citing 'Crisis' in Local Reporting, Associated Press Creates Sister Organization to Seek Grants

Founded in 1846, the not-for-profit Associated Press distributes its news stories to other news outlets. But are free online sites putting those outlets at risk?
This week the Associated Press wrote that a "crisis" in local and state news reporting "shows little signs of abating" — and that it's now setting up "a sister organization that will seek to raise money" for those outlets.
The organization, which will have a board of directors independent of the AP, will solicit philanthropic spen

90 Workers Given a Choice: Relocate Across the US, or Leave the Company

"The outdoor-apparel brand Patagonia has given 90 U.S. employees a choice," reports Business Insider: "tell the company by Friday that you're willing to relocate or leave your job." [Alternate URL here.]
The employees all work in customer services, known at Patagonia as the customer-experience, or CX, team, and have been allowed to work remotely to field calls and inquiries. These workers received a text and email Tuesday morning about an "important" meeting... Two company executives, Amy Vellig

Lego Bricks Made From Meteorite Dust 3D Printed by Europe's Space Agency

Lego teamed up with the European Space Agency to make Lego pieces from actual meteorite dust, writes Engadget.
"It's a proof of concept to show how astronauts could use moondust to build lunar structures."Consider the sheer amount of energy and money required to haul up building materials from Earth to the Moon. It would be a game changer to, instead, build everything from pre-existing lunar materials. There's a layer of rock and mineral deposits at the surface of the Moon, which is called lunar

Linux Foundation Announces Intent to Form LF Decentralized Trust

This week the Linux Foundation announced a new organization for decentralized systems and technologies, with an aim of "fostering innovation and collaboration" in both their development and deployment.
It will build on existing Linux Foundation blockchain and digital identity projects, according to the announcement, while supporting "a rapidly growing decentralized technology landscape."To foster this broader ecosystem, LF Decentralized Trust will encompass the growing portfolio of Hyperledger p

Colorado's Universal Basic Income Experiment Gets Surprising Results

In November of 2022, "More than 800 people were selected to participate in the Denver Basic Income Project," reports the Colorado Sun, "while they were living on the streets, in shelters, on friends' couches or in vehicles.
One group received $1,000 a month, according to the article, while a second group received $6,500 in the first month, and then $500 for the next 11 months. (And a "control" group received $50 a month.) Amazingly, about 45% of participants in all three groups "were living in a

Japan Achieves 402 TB/s Data Rate - Using Current Fiber Technology

Tom's Hardware reports that Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (working with the Aston Institute of Photonic Technologies and Nokia Bell) set a 402 terabits per second data transfer record — over commercially available optical fiber cables.
The NICT and its partners were able to transmit signals through 1,505 channels over 50 km (about 31 miles) of optic fiber cable for this experiment. It used six types of amplifiers and an optical gain equalizer that

Are 'Immortal Stars' Feasting on Dark Matter in the Milky Way's Core?

"Stars very close to the center of our galaxy could be fueled by dark matter in perpetuity," writes Gizmodo, "according to a team of astronomers who recently studied the distant light sources."The group of stars, known as S-cluster stars, is just three light-years from the center of the Milky Way (for reference, we are about 26,000 light-years from the center of our galaxy, which hosts a supermassive black hole at its core). The stars are surprisingly young for their galactic neighborhood, yet t

ChatGPT Outperforms Undergrads In Intro-Level Courses, Falls Short Later

Peter Scarfe, a researcher at the University of Reading's School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, conducted an experiment testing the vulnerability of their examination system to AI-generated work. Using ChatGPT-4, Scarfe's team submitted over 30 AI-generated answers across multiple undergraduate psychology modules, finding that 94 percent of these submissions went undetected and nearly 84 percent received higher grades than human counterparts. The findings have been published in th

South African Researchers Test Use of Nuclear Technology To Curb Rhino Poaching

Researchers in South Africa have injected radioactive material into the horns of 20 rhinos to deter poaching, aiming to leverage existing radiation detectors at borders for early detection and interception of trafficked horns. The Associated Press reports: The research, which has included the participation of veterinarians and nuclear experts, begins with the animal being tranquilized before a hole is drilled into its horn and the nuclear material carefully inserted. This week, researchers at th

Bipartisan Consensus In Favor of Renewable Power Is Ending

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: One of the most striking things about the explosion of renewable power that's happening in the U.S. is that much of it is going on in states governed by politicians who don't believe in the problem wind and solar are meant to address. Acceptance of the evidence for climate change tends to be lowest among Republicans, yet many of the states where renewable power has boomed -- wind in Wyoming and Iowa, solar in Texas -- are governed by Republi

Apple Developing New Way To Make iPhone Batteries Easier To Replace

According to a report from The Information, Apple is developing a new "electrically induced adhesive debonding" technology that would make iPhone batteries easier to replace. 9to5Mac reports: Currently, replacing an iPhone battery requires using tweezers to remove the existing battery, which is held in place by adhesive strips. Then, you must use a "specialized machine and tray" to press the new battery into place. The new process uses metal instead of foil to cover the battery, as The Informati

Lawsuit Claims Microsoft Tracked Sex Toy Shoppers With 'Recording In Real Time' Software

Samantha Cole reports via 404 Media: A woman is suing Microsoft and two major U.S. sex toy retailers with claims that their websites are tracking users without their consent, despite promising they wouldn't do that. In a complaint (PDF) filed on June 25 in the Northern District of California, San Francisco resident Stella Tatola claims that Babeland and Good Vibrations -- both owned by Barnaby Ltd., LLC -- allowed Microsoft to see what visitors to their websites searched for and bought."Unbeknow

Apple Vision Pro Launches In First Countries Outside the US

After launching in the United States earlier this year, Apple's Vision Pro is now available to buy in China, Japan, and Singapore. "The Apple Vision Pro will also roll out to Germany, France, Australia, the UK, and Canada on July 12th, with preorders for those regions available starting today at 5AM PT," notes The Verge. Apple is documenting the international launch via a recent blog post.According to CNBC, the device starts at $4,128 (29,999 yuan) in China, compared to $3,500 in the U.S. Meanwh