Monthly Archives: November 2020

Ajit Pai announces departure from FCC after four-year deregulatory blitz

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FCC Chairman Ajit Pai.

Enlarge / FCC Chairman Ajit Pai speaking at a press conference on October 1, 2018, in Washington, DC. (credit: Getty Images | Mark Wilson )

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced today that he will leave the FCC on January 20, 2021, the day Joe Biden will be inaugurated as president. In his four years as FCC chief, Pai deregulated the broadband industry, eliminated net neutrality rules, and justified his deregulatory agenda by using faulty data and taking credit for broadband deployments that were planned before he became chairman.

Pai called being chairman “the honor of a lifetime.”

“I am grateful to President Trump for giving me the opportunity to lead the agency in 2017, to President Obama for appointing me as a Commissioner in 2012, and to Senate Majority Leader McConnell and the Senate for twice confirming me. To be the first Asian-American to chair the FCC has been a particular privilege. As I often say: only in America,” Pai said in his statement today.

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Source: Ars Technica – Ajit Pai announces departure from FCC after four-year deregulatory blitz

Why Europe's Space Agency Is Spending $103 Million to Remove a Single Piece of Space Junk

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The European Space Agency has signed a historic deal with Swiss startup ClearSpace to remove a single item of space debris in 2025. The $103 million price tag is steep, but this mission—involving an orbiting, mouth-like net—could herald the beginning of an entirely new space industry.

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Source: Gizmodo – Why Europe’s Space Agency Is Spending 3 Million to Remove a Single Piece of Space Junk

Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING OC Customer Deliveries Arrive Ahead Of This Week's Rumored Launch

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Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING OC Customer Deliveries Arrive Ahead Of This Week's Rumored Launch
NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is reportedly set to launch on December 2nd, which is just a couple of days away. We’ve already seen a ton of information leak concerning the newest budget entry in NVIDIA’s Ampere family of GPUs, and there has been a considerable number of leaked specs that have made their way to the internet.

But today, we

Source: Hot Hardware – Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING OC Customer Deliveries Arrive Ahead Of This Week’s Rumored Launch

Adopting Fujifilm AI Policy

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Fujifilm (Tokyo) — Fujifilm Holdings Corporation (President: Kenji Sukeno) has adopted the “Fujifilm Group AI Policy” as guidelines for utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) effectively and appropriately across all areas of its corporate activities including research and development, production, sales, and marketing.

The Fujifilm Group’s corporate philosophy is to contribute to the advancement of culture, science, technology, and industry, as well as improved health and environmental protection in society, thereby helping enhance the quality of life of people worldwide. Based on this philosophy, Fujifilm has developed and accumulated technologies for identifying valuable information out of a massive amount of image data in the fields of medical diagnostic imaging and photo imaging. Using the data-interpreting knowledge and technologies as its strengths, Fujifilm is working on developing and implementing AI technology that addresses the needs and challenges in the areas of healthcare and highly functional materials to resolve social issues.

For example, in the area of healthcare, Fujifilm speedily develops and offers various solutions which support diagnostic workflows at the medical frontline by utilizing AI technology. Fujifilm utilizes AI technology to develop a function that assist diagnostic imaging and a function that automatically generate the candidates of findings to be included to an interpretation report based on the diagnostic image by combining image processing technology and natural language processing technology. In the area of highly functional materials, Fujifilm offers infrastructure photo analysis cloud service “Hibimikke” based on AI-based image analysis, to substantially streamline crack inspection work in response to emerging social issues of aging infrastructures such as bridges and tunnels and the need to verify their safety.

Amidst rapid uptake of AI technology in society, there have been active global debates on the risks of using AI technology, such as the widening of inequality and disparity, from social, ethical, and legal perspectives.

The Fujifilm Group AI Policy stipulates guidelines so that each of its employees can utilize AI effectively and appropriately in terms of fair use, respect for human rights, management of information security, and assurance of transparency. Fujifilm will take on the tasks of creating new value and resolving social issues by providing its customers with safe and secure products and services, developed in line with this policy. In order to ensure adequate administration and application of this policy, Fujifilm plans to enhance literacy education on employees involved in AI development and use to reinforce the development of human resources capable of utilizing AI property at an advanced level.

Fujifilm Holdings will continue to identify social movements and changes in people’s sense of values, associated with the advancement of AI technology, as it strives to maximize enriched values brought about by AI use to contribute to building a better society.

The post Adopting Fujifilm AI Policy appeared first on Akihabara News.



Source: Akihabara News – Adopting Fujifilm AI Policy

pip 20.3 release

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The Python Packaging Authority has announced the release of pip 20.3. There
is some potential for disruption with this release. “The new resolver is now *on by default*. It is significantly stricter
and more consistent when it receives incompatible instructions, and
reduces support for certain kinds of constraints files, so some
workarounds and workflows may break.“

Source: LWN.net – pip 20.3 release

The Asus RT-AX86U Is a Wi-Fi 6 Router That Doesn't Sacrifice Looks for Power

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Wi-Fi 6 has accelerated its creep into mainstream wireless networking, urged along by the similarly accelerating spread of gigabit internet. Until the last few months or so, purchasing a Wi-Fi 6 device has largely been a decision more about future-proofing and less about immediate gain. That’s quickly changing,…

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Source: Gizmodo – The Asus RT-AX86U Is a Wi-Fi 6 Router That Doesn’t Sacrifice Looks for Power

Immortals: Fenyx Rising: The Kotaku Review

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Immortals: Fenyx Rising isn’t the game I was expecting. I was prepared for a big Ubisoft open-world action game filled with colorful vistas, Greek gods, and some elements inspired by The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild. It is all of that, but it’s not just Assassin’s Creed: Hyrule. It’s a welcome streamlining of…

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Source: Kotaku – Immortals: Fenyx Rising: The Kotaku Review

Put Eggnog in Your Coffee From Now Until the New Year

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This “year” is drawing to a close, and it seems like people are really leaning into Christmas, even more so than usual. (Their halls are already decked!) This, to me, makes sense: The year of our lord 2020 has been more of an “ordeal” than a “year,” and we deserve all the shiny lights, nostalgic music, and delicious…

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Source: LifeHacker – Put Eggnog in Your Coffee From Now Until the New Year

Facebook, Google to Face New Antitrust Suits in US

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Big Tech’s legal woes are expected to worsen in the coming weeks as federal and state antitrust authorities prepare to file new lawsuits against Facebook and Alphabet’s Google, WSJ reported Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. From the report: The authorities are readying as many as four more cases targeting Google or Facebook by the end of January, these people said, following the Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit against Google last month. Federal and state officials are probing whether the tech giants abused their power in the internet economy– Google to dominate search and advertising, and Facebook to dominate social media. Google and Facebook have denied doing so, saying they operate in highly competitive markets and that their services, which are mostly free, benefit consumers. If Facebook were to be sued, it would mark the first government antitrust action against the social-media titan in the U.S. Facebook has come under particular criticism from Republicans and Democrats in Congress as well as President-elect Joe Biden over its content-moderation policies. Democrats generally contend the company has been too lax in policing misleading speech, while Republicans say Facebook has sometimes suppressed conservatives. Facebook has said it aims to support free speech while limiting hate speech and other harmful content.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – Facebook, Google to Face New Antitrust Suits in US

How To Score Destiny 2: Beyond Light Exotic Armor As You Conquer Legend And Master Lost Sectors

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How To Score Destiny 2: Beyond Light Exotic Armor As You Conquer Legend And Master Lost Sectors
The latest Destiny 2: Beyond Light expansion has introduced a handful of lost Exotic armor pieces. However, unlike previous armor exotics, these pieces can only be found in the brand new Legend and Master Lost Sectors. Here is how you can nab the Destiny 2: Beyond Light Exotic Armor pieces and master the new Lost Sectors. 

What Exotic Armor

Source: Hot Hardware – How To Score Destiny 2: Beyond Light Exotic Armor As You Conquer Legend And Master Lost Sectors

Poopy salad greens still plague public health

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Poopy salad greens still plague public health

Enlarge (credit: Getty | The Washington Post)

With pandemic stress-eating colliding with holiday feasts last week, many of us may be eyeing some healthy salads in the coming days. But if there’s one constant we can rely upon in this year of upheaval—it’s the enduring possibility that our leafy greens may be laced with poopy bacteria.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently has three open investigations on Escherichia coli outbreaks—two directly linked to leafy greens and the other involving a bacterial strain that caused an outbreak in 2018 linked to romaine lettuce.

Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration had issued four separate safety alerts for recalled salad fixings this month. Three of the recalls involved romaine lettuce—a now notorious source of gut-busting bacteria—for potential E. coli contamination. Over the past weekend, the FDA added baby spinach to the list, another common culprit, for potential Salmonella contamination.

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Source: Ars Technica – Poopy salad greens still plague public health

Disney's Godmothered Contains a Brief but Beautiful Bit of Inclusivity

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Disney+’s Godmothered might be the silly story of an out-of-touch fairy godmother trying to prove magic is still needed in the world, but at its core, there’s a heartwarming message of accepting ourselves. Nowhere is this better shown than in a tiny, blink-and-you-might-miss-it moment that star Jillian Bell said…

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Source: io9 – Disney’s Godmothered Contains a Brief but Beautiful Bit of Inclusivity

Report: Microsoft is again planning Android app support for Windows 10

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Microsoft's "Your Phone" app can display Android apps via remote desktop, but soon we might have native Android apps.

Enlarge / Microsoft’s “Your Phone” app can display Android apps via remote desktop, but soon we might have native Android apps.

If the release of the Surface Duo wasn’t enough of a sign that Microsoft is cozying up to Android more, how about this? A report from Windows Central claims that Microsoft is working on building Android app support into Windows 10.

The effort is codenamed “Project Latte,” and according to the report, it would ” allow app developers to bring their Android apps to Windows 10 with little to no code changes.” The Android-on-Windows apps would be packaged as an MSIX file and would be distributed through the Windows Store.

A lot of the hard work for this is already done, thanks to the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) that already ships in Windows 10. WSL is a virtualized Linux kernel in Windows, making it easy to run developer-centric Linux tools through the Windows command line. Microsoft is also testing support for Linux GUI apps in WSL, and GPU acceleration. Android, which runs the Linux kernel, is expected to plug into the WSL for app support, so Microsoft mainly needs to implement a version of the Android Runtime (ART), which already runs on Linux, is open source, and has x86 compatibility. Unofficially, it is already possible to run Android apps on WSL with Anbox, a project meant to run Android apps on full GNU/Linux.

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Source: Ars Technica – Report: Microsoft is again planning Android app support for Windows 10

Cyber Monday Streaming Service Deals Are Here For Your Binge-Watching Pleasure

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Cyber Monday Streaming Service Deals Are Here For Your Binge-Watching Pleasure
Maybe you scored a Fire TV streaming device for Black Friday or purchased a discounted LG smart TV this deal season. Having the right hardware is only half of the equation. The other part is, of course, the content. To that end, there are deals to be had on various streaming services, so you can kick back with a tub of popcorn and binge watch

Source: Hot Hardware – Cyber Monday Streaming Service Deals Are Here For Your Binge-Watching Pleasure

Western Digital WD_BLACK SN850 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD Linux Performance

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This month Western Digital introduced the WD_BLACK SN850 as the latest PCI Express 4.0 solid-state drive hitting the market. The WD_BLACK SN850 is a surprisingly strong performer if looking to upgrade to PCIe 4.0 solid-state storage, competing with the fastest of the consumer drives currently available.

Source: Phoronix – Western Digital WD_BLACK SN850 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD Linux Performance

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Will Step Down on January 20

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FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has announced plans to depart the commission when President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated on January 20th. Pai has served on the FCC since 2012. From a report: “It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve at the Federal Communications Commission, including as Chairman of the FCC over the past four years,” Pai said in a statement. “To be the first Asian-American to chair the FCC has been a particular privilege. As I often say: only in America.”

Pai was appointed chairman in 2017 and served for the duration of the Trump administration, overseeing an unusually active period in federal telecom policy. He began his term with the controversial decision to roll back Title II classification, undoing the net neutrality rules put in place under President Obama. More recently, Pai oversaw the merger of T-Mobile and Sprint, which he called “a unique opportunity to speed up the deployment of 5G throughout the United States.” Pai also implemented new measures to fight robocalls and established a national suicide prevention hotline number. Pai’s tenure coincided with a significant shift in Republican telecom policy, with Republican commissioners like Brendan Carr advocating for a more aggressive FCC role to regulating social media platforms.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Will Step Down on January 20