The Qt Company announced today the release and general availability of Qt Creator 5.0, a major update to this open-source, free, and cross-platform integrated development environment (IDE) software for GNU/Linux, macOS, and Windows systems.
Source: LXer – Qt Creator 5.0 Open-Source IDE Released as a Major Update with Experimental Features
Monthly Archives: August 2021
Denmark and Costa Rica Want to Make a No Fossil Fuels Allowed Club
Denmark and Costa Rica want to make extra sure the world quits fossil fuels as soon as possible. The two countries are reportedly launching an alliance of nations that are committed to setting a date to phase out both fossil fuel production and use.
Source: Gizmodo – Denmark and Costa Rica Want to Make a No Fossil Fuels Allowed Club
Blasphemous Sequel News Already Has Me Shook
Blasphemous, the unsettling 2D platformer first released in 2019, is getting another expansion later this year as well as a fully-fledged sequel in 2023, the developers announced during today’s indie showcase at Gamescom.
Source: Kotaku – Blasphemous Sequel News Already Has Me Shook
Police Use iOS App to Track Suspect After ‘Accidentally’ Dropping a Phone in His Truck
Sheriff’s deputies in Colorado tracked down and arrested a man using Apple’s Find My iOS app, claiming that an officer had “lost” his work phone in the bed of the man’s truck after the suspect fled the scene. The unique case, first reported by Denver NBC affiliate 9News, could serve as a constitutional test of…
Source: io9 – Police Use iOS App to Track Suspect After ‘Accidentally’ Dropping a Phone in His Truck
Can Lemons Really Make Your Whites Whiter?
There are endless hacks about how to keep your white clothes clean without hard chemicals. Some suggestions include baking soda, vinegar, and even aspirin—which, fine, we’re hardly opposed to getting creative. One option, though, involves boiling your whites with lemons, and while citric acid really is a good way to…
Source: LifeHacker – Can Lemons Really Make Your Whites Whiter?
Reddit CEO rejects call for a crackdown on coronavirus misinformation
Reddit is pushing back against calls for the company to do a better job of moderating disinformation. In a thread titled Debate, dissent and protest on Reddit, CEO Steve Huffman said the company would continue to point users to authoritative information from the CDC when dealing with misinformation related to COVID-19. What it won’t do is ban communities that “challenge the consensus views on the pandemic.”
“Dissent is a part of Reddit and the foundation of democracy. Reddit is a place for open and authentic discussion and debate,” Huffman said in a thread that is locked, preventing Reddit users from replying to him directly. “This includes conversations that question or disagree with popular consensus. This includes conversations that criticize those that disagree with the majority opinion. This includes protests that criticize or object to our decisions on which communities to ban from the platform.”
Huffman’s statement doesn’t reference a specific community or incident, but as Vice points out, what likely prompted him to say anything at all was a thread from r/vaxxhappened, a subreddit where people share memes about anti-vaxxers. “We call upon Reddit to take action against the rampant Coronavirus misinformation on their website,” says the title of the post, which accuses Reddit of doing “nothing of substance” to tackle the problem of misinformation on the platform. As of the writing of this article, it has nearly 170,000 upvotes, with various other communities crossposting the thread to their subreddits.
“We could have been better off months ago, but disinformation and lies have been allowed to spread readily through inaction and malice, and have dragged this on at the cost of lives,” the post says. “There can be no room for leniency when people are dying as a result of misinformation on this platform. Reddit as a global platform needs to take responsibility here.”
While Reddit often isn’t mentioned in the same breath as Facebook and Twitter, the platform is a source of misinformation. You can visit various communities on the website that consistently share COVID-19 conspiracy theories. The only roadblock preventing access is a landing page that warns you you’re about to enter a subreddit that has been “quarantined” by the company for sharing misinformation.
Source: Engadget – Reddit CEO rejects call for a crackdown on coronavirus misinformation
Clearview AI Offered Free Facial Recognition Trials To Police Around the World
An anonymous reader quotes a report from BuzzFeed News: Law enforcement agencies and government organizations from 24 countries outside the United States used a controversial facial recognition technology called Clearview AI, according to internal company data reviewed by BuzzFeed News. That data, which runs up until February 2020, shows that police departments, prosecutors’ offices, universities, and interior ministries from around the world ran nearly 14,000 searches with Clearview AI’s software. At many law enforcement agencies from Canada to Finland, officers used the software without their higher-ups’ knowledge or permission. After receiving questions from BuzzFeed News, some organizations admitted that the technology had been used without leadership oversight.
In March, a BuzzFeed News investigation based on Clearview AI’s own internal data showed how the New York — based startup distributed its facial recognition tool, by marketing free trials for its mobile app or desktop software, to thousands of officers and employees at more than 1,800 US taxpayer-funded entities. Clearview claims its software is more accurate than other facial recognition technologies because it is trained on a database of more than 3 billion images scraped from websites and social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Law enforcement officers using Clearview can take a photo of a suspect or person of interest, run it through the software, and receive possible matches for that individual within seconds. Clearview has claimed that its app is 100% accurate in documents provided to law enforcement officials, but BuzzFeed News has seen the software misidentify people, highlighting a larger concern with facial recognition technologies.
Based on new reporting and data reviewed by BuzzFeed News, Clearview AI took its controversial US marketing playbook around the world, offering free trials to employees at law enforcement agencies in countries including Australia, Brazil, and the United Kingdom. To accompany this story, BuzzFeed News has created a searchable table of 88 international government-affiliated and taxpayer-funded agencies and organizations listed in Clearview’s data as having employees who used or tested the company’s facial recognition service before February 2020, according to Clearview’s data. Some of those entities were in countries where the use of Clearview has since been deemed “unlawful.” Clearview CEO Hoan Ton-That insists the company’s key market is the U.S., saying: “While there has been tremendous demand for our service from around the world, Clearview AI is primarily focused on providing our service to law enforcement and government agencies in the United States. Other countries have expressed a dire need for our technology because they know it can help investigate crimes, such as, money laundering, financial fraud, romance scams, human trafficking, and crimes against children, which know no borders.”
Ton-That alleged there are “inaccuracies contained in BuzzFeed’s assertions,” but declined to explain what those might be and didn’t answer any follow-up questions.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Clearview AI Offered Free Facial Recognition Trials To Police Around the World
Elon Musk's humanoid robot is just another Tesla publicity stunt
Though it makes popular and groundbreaking electric vehicles, Tesla has had a less than stellar track record when it comes to the company’s more ambitious future-facing projects. CEO Elon Musk’s 2019 promise of unleashing a million autonomous “robotaxis” onto America’s streets and highways has failed to materialize while the “full self-driving” technology that promise was premised on has failed drivers with such stunning regularity that the NHTSA has launched a federal investigation into it. So are we to believe that the same man whose company once designed a cut-rate mini-submarine and tried to distribute knock-off ventilators is capable of building a fully-functional robot prototype within the year?
Source: Engadget – Elon Musk’s humanoid robot is just another Tesla publicity stunt
The Gulf Coast Could Face a Serious Hurricane Early Next Week
We’re heading into the peak of Atlantic hurricane season with a storm on the horizon. And unfortunately, it could be a very serious one.
Source: Gizmodo – The Gulf Coast Could Face a Serious Hurricane Early Next Week
Get Ready to Pay More for the iPhone 13
As we enter the last (hopefully) stretch of iPhone 13 rumors before Apple’s September event, it appears that upgrading might cost more than usual.
Source: Gizmodo – Get Ready to Pay More for the iPhone 13
'Overwatch' hero McCree will be renamed in response to sexual harassment lawsuit
The sexual harassment lawsuit against Activision Blizzard will have more repercussions for game content. Blizzard is changingOverwatch character Jesse McCree’s name now that his real-life namesake has left the company. The developer wants a name that “better represents” Overwatch ideals, according to a statement.
The company had planned a story arc for September that would have featured McCree, but is delaying that narrative until later in 2021 to reflect the name change. Players will instead get a new free-for-all map that month. Blizzard also promised that it would no longer name characters after employees, and said it would be more “thoughtful and discerning” about referencing the real world in Overwatch.
The real Jesse McCree left Blizzard earlier in August, just weeks after his name surfaced in a California lawsuit over sexual discrimination and harassment at the gaming giant. McCree was reportedly spotted in photos of BlizzCon’s notorious “Cosby Suite” hotel room where Blizzard workers allegedly harassed women.
This isn’t the first time Blizzard has altered content following the lawsuit. It pulled World of Warcraft‘s references to Alex Afrasiabi, directly accused of harassment, soon after the suit emerged. However, this might be more noticeable. McCree is one of the best-known characters in Overwatch — the name change could easily draw attention to the lawsuit and the “frat boy” culture that reportedly persisted for years.
A message from the Overwatch team. pic.twitter.com/2W3AV7Pv6X
— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) August 26, 2021
Source: Engadget – ‘Overwatch’ hero McCree will be renamed in response to sexual harassment lawsuit
The Infamous Comic Book Moment Behind Spider-Man: No Way Home's Multiversal Twist
At the center of Spider-Man: No Way Home’s explosive trailer is a simple request from Peter Parker that seemingly turns the Marvel universe upside down: can magic make the world forget he’s Spider-Man? It’s a desperate act—and a road that Peter has gone down before in his comic book journey, as part of one of the …
Source: Gizmodo – The Infamous Comic Book Moment Behind Spider-Man: No Way Home’s Multiversal Twist
Peloton Just Made Its Bike Cheaper
If you’re still on the fence about buying a Peloton Bike, the company is doing everything in its power to talk you into it. After dropping the price of the original Bike last year, Peloton is permanently knocking off another $400, from $1,895 to $1,495, for customers in the U.S., UK, Canada, Germany, and Australia.
Source: Gizmodo – Peloton Just Made Its Bike Cheaper
Dying Light Is Coming To Switch, Which…Hmm
Dying Light, the wildly popular 2015 game about doing awesome front flips over less-awesome zombies, is coming to Switch later this year as Dying Light: Platinum Edition. Developer Techland announced the news during the Gamescom edition of its “Dying 2 Know” video series, which aired earlier today.
Source: Kotaku – Dying Light Is Coming To Switch, Which…Hmm
Samsung Phone Owners Warned: Save Your Photos Now
Samsung smartphone owners are facing a looming deadline to rescue their photos from Samsung Cloud or risk losing backed up images. From a report: Samsung is removing the option to back up your photo gallery to Samsung Cloud, presumably in a bid to cut storage costs. Samsung Cloud will still continue to back up data such as contacts, calendar entries and notes, but photos and videos are no longer part of the package. Samsung has instead been encouraging customers to back up their photos using Microsoft’s OneDrive service, but the deadline is looming for the Samsung Cloud service to be cut off, with customers warned they could lose photos if they don’t have copies of them stored locally. Confusingly, Samsung has split customers into two groups, each with different cut-off deadlines. It’s not easy to work out which group you’re in, so it’s probably safest to assume you’re in Group 1, which has the earliest set of cut-off deadlines.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Samsung Phone Owners Warned: Save Your Photos Now
Solve the repository impedance mismatch in CI/CD
An impedance mismatch in software architecture happens when there’s a set of conceptual and technical difficulties between two components. It’s actually a term borrowed from electrical engineering, where the impedance of electrical input and output must match for the circuit to work.
Source: LXer – Solve the repository impedance mismatch in CI/CD
Neural Fuzzing: A Faster Way to Test Software Security
Software vulnerabilities are a grave threat to the security of computer systems. They often go undetected for years until it is too late and the consequences are irreversible. In order to find these weaknesses, software security testers and developers often have to manually test the entire codebase and determine if any vulnerabilities exist. However, this can take months or even years of work due to the scale of modern software projects.
One way of handling all this is with neural fuzzing. The fuzzing process throws random input at code or software, looking for bugs that might not have been found with traditional testing techniques. In recent years, approaches like neural fuzzing have emerged to make application security testing faster and more accurate.
The post Neural Fuzzing: A Faster Way to Test Software Security appeared first on Linux Today.
Source: Linux Today – Neural Fuzzing: A Faster Way to Test Software Security
New Study Confirms Its Much Safer to Get Vaccinated Than to Catch Covid-19
New research from Israel offers some unsurprising but reassuring news on the safety of covid-19 vaccines. The study found that the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine was not associated with a higher risk of most potential adverse events. And for rare suspected complications such as myocarditis, the risk was still…
Source: Gizmodo – New Study Confirms Its Much Safer to Get Vaccinated Than to Catch Covid-19
U.S. Government Is Using an Algorithm to Flag American Citizens for Denaturalization: Report
U.S. citizens can be kicked out of the country based on the findings of a secret algorithm. The Department of Homeland Security is using an Amazon-hosted system called ATLAS that analyzes millions of records and can be used to automatically flag naturalized Americans for the revocation of their citizenship, the …
Source: Gizmodo – U.S. Government Is Using an Algorithm to Flag American Citizens for Denaturalization: Report
Chrome 94 Beta Released With WebCodecs API Promoted, WebGPU Origin Trial
Google promoted Chrome 94 to beta status today with some exciting changes…
Source: Phoronix – Chrome 94 Beta Released With WebCodecs API Promoted, WebGPU Origin Trial