The U.S. Supreme Court will hear two First Amendment rights cases this fall after San Diego board members blocked parents for raising concerns on their social media accounts. A second case was filed against the city manager in Port Huron, Michigan for blocking a resident who raised Covid-19 concerns on his Facebook…
Source: Gizmodo – SCOTUS Will Decide Whether Public Officials Can Block Naysayers on Social Media
Enlarge / Grimes attends The 2021 Met Gala Celebrating In America: A Lexicon Of Fashion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on September 13, 2021, in New York City. (credit: Theo Wargo/Getty Images)
On Sunday night, Canadian musician Grimes tweeted that she would split 50 percent royalties on “any successful AI generated song” that uses her voice, reports The Verge. As an independent artist, Grimes says anyone can use her voice without penalty. “I have no label and no legal bindings,” she says.
Her announcement comes after controversy over an unauthorized song featuring AI-generated vocals of Drake and The Weeknd that went viral earlier this month. Shortly after its reveal, the song got pulled from YouTube and other social media platforms under unclear circumstances, which The Verge reports could have been a botched fan tribute or a marketing stunt.
I’ll split 50% royalties on any successful AI generated song that uses my voice. Same deal as I would with any artist i collab with. Feel free to use my voice without penalty. I have no label and no legal bindings. pic.twitter.com/KIY60B5uqt
— 𝔊𝔯𝔦𝔪𝔢𝔰 (@Grimezsz) April 24, 2023
Grimes is no stranger to the AI and tech cultural scene, having written music about AI and tweeted about the subject frequently. In February, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman tweeted an unlabeled photo of himself with Grimes and AI critic Eliezer Yudkowsky. Grimes also shares two children with her former partner Elon Musk, who recently signed a letter urging the slowdown of AI model development.
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Source: Ars Technica – Grimes says anyone can AI-generate her voice “without penalty”
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Source: Gizmodo – The ‘Ike Dike’ Is the Army Corps of Engineers’ Largest Project Ever, but It May Not Be Big Enough
Google Authenticator just got an update that should make it more useful for people who frequently use the service to sign in to apps and websites. From a report: As of today, Google Authenticator will now sync any one-time two-factor authentication (2FA) codes that it generates to users’ Google Accounts. Previously, one-time Authenticator codes were stored locally, on a single device, meaning losing that device often meant losing the ability to sign in to any service set up with Authenticator’s 2FA. To take advantage of the new sync feature, simply update the Authenticator app. If you’re signed in to a Google Account within Google Authenticator, your codes will automatically be backed up and restored on any new device you use. You can also manually transfer your codes to another device even if you’re not signed in to a Google Account by following the steps on this support page.
Some users might be wary of syncing their sensitive codes with Google’s cloud — even if they did originate from a Google product. But Christiaan Brand, a group product manager at Google, asserts it’s in the pursuit of convenience without sacrificing security. “We released Google Authenticator in 2010 as a free and easy way for sites to add ‘something you have’ 2FA that bolsters user security when signing in,” Brand wrote in the blog post announcing today’s change. “With this update we’re rolling out a solution to this problem, making one time codes more durable by storing them safely in users’ Google Account.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Google Authenticator Can Now Sync 2FA Codes To the Cloud
A new report claims that the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti and Radeon RX 7600 will be announced next month during the Computex 2023 conference. These two GPUs will represent NVIDIA and AMD’s new generation of mid-range GPUs, with the RX 7600 probably stacking up more closely with the RTX 4060, and the RTX 4060 Ti slotting in a tier higher. The exact
Source: Hot Hardware – Radeon RX 7600 And GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Could Duke It Out At Computex
Customers shouldn’t even notice, sniffs Linux distro CEO. On Monday, Matt Hicks, CEO of IBM-owned Red Hat, said the Linux distro maker plans to lay off just under four percent of its roughly 20,000 person workforce, which amounts to less than 800 people.…
Source: LXer – IBM pauses counting its billions to trim Red Hat staff
On Monday, several outlets broke the story that the Biden administration is planning to release a plan to regulate carbon emissions from power plants. And even though the rule isn’t public yet, if history is any indication, conservative forces are already getting ready to take the EPA to court.
Source: Gizmodo – The Next Big U.S. Power Plant Fight Is Coming
Russell T. Davies really is bringing everyone back now that he’s in charge of Doctor Who again, apparently.
Source: Gizmodo – Doctor Who Is Re-Recruiting Composer Murray Gold
SpaceX’s Starship launch was a success in some ways and a failure in others. The largest rocket ever built blasted off the launch pad with record-breaking thrust and flew for four minutes straight. But also, multiple engines failed in flight, it didn’t achieve stage separation, and it exploded dramatically in a “rapid…
Source: Gizmodo – Botched SpaceX Starship Launch Leaves Texas Town Covered in Debris and Dust
Alexander De Croo (the prime minister of Belgium), Mark Rutte (the prime minister of the Netherlands), Xavier Bettel (the prime minister of Luxembourg), Emmanuel Macron (the president of France), Olaf Scholz (the chancellor of Germany), Leo Varadkar (the prime minister of Ireland), Jonas Gahr Store (the prime minister of Norway), Rishi Sunak (the prime minister of the United Kingdom), and Mette Frederiksen (the prime minister of Denmark), writing at Politico: We need offshore wind turbines — and we need a lot of them. We need them to reach our climate goals, and to rid ourselves of Russian gas, ensuring a more secure and independent Europe. Held for the first time last year, Denmark, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands came together for the inaugural North Sea Summit in the Danish harbor town of Esbjerg, setting historic goals for offshore wind with the Esbjerg Declaration. It paved the way for making the North Seas a green power plant for Europe, as well as a major contributor to climate neutrality and strengthening energy security.
This Monday, nine countries will meet for the next North Sea Summit — this time in the Belgian town of Ostend — where France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway and the United Kingdom will also put their political weight behind developing green energy in the North Seas, including the Atlantic Ocean and the Irish and Celtic Seas. Together, we will combine and coordinate our ambitions for deploying offshore wind and developing an offshore electricity grid, putting Europe on the path toward a green economy fueled by offshore green power plants. Collectively, our target for offshore wind in the North Seas is now 120 gigawatts by 2030, and a minimum of 300 gigawatts by 2050 — larger than any of the co-signatories’ existing generation capacity at a national level. And to deliver on this ambition, we are committing to building an entire electricity system in the North Seas based on renewable energy by developing cooperation projects.
This is a massive undertaking and a true example of the green transition in the making. It also requires huge investments in infrastructure, both offshore and on land. It presents us with a political and environmental dilemma as well: We are facing a climate crisis at the same time some of our ecosystems are in decline, and offshore wind is an integral part of both climate action and safeguarding our energy security. Thus, time is of the essence, and we must follow up on the progress already made on reining in the burden of bureaucracy for renewable projects.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – The North Seas Can Be the World’s Biggest Power Plant
When a highly anticipated set of Magic: The Gathering cards leaked on YouTube last week, it’s hard to imagine anyone would have guessed the incident would end with the involvement of one of the most infamous private security firms in the world. But that’s exactly what happened after YouTuber Oldschoolmtg uploaded an unboxing video featuring a collection of March of the Machine: The Aftermath booster packs.
If you’re not familiar, Aftermath is an upcoming 50-card Magic: The Gathering set Wizards of the Coast will release on May 12th. It’s billed as a supplement to the game’s current March of the Machine expansion, which has been available since April 21st. Predictably, Oldschoolmtg’s unboxing video was all anyone in the Magic: The Gathering community could talk about in recent days. Based on Wizards of the Coast’s reaction, it’s safe to say the video also irked the Hasbro-owned publisher.
Over the weekend, Oldchoolmtg uploaded another video, this time titled “The Aftermath of The Aftermath… Everything is Gone!” In the clip, the YouTuber says Pinkerton agents showed up at his home on Saturday morning and began demanding he hand over the “stolen” product. “I got up and recorded some videos,” Oldschoolmtg states. “Right after I got done with the video, dogs started barking because somebody is at the door. I come out and the wife’s answering the door and it was the Pinkertons.”
If you live in the US, the Pinkertons need no introduction. The company is one of the country’s oldest private security firms, with its original incarnation, the Pinkerton Detective Agency, dating back to 1850. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Pinkertons made a name for themselves with their anti-union operations, a job they continue to do in the 21st century.
Oldschoolmtg speculates the person he bought the unreleased cards from likely didn’t know they sent him an unreleased set. “Somebody screwed up and sent out the wrong cases to the gentlemen that I bought the boxes off of, because when he sold me the stuff he said he was selling me March of the Machine collector’s boxes — not Aftermath.”
After recovering the leaked Magic: The Gathering set, including the empty boxes and wrappers, the Pinkertons put Oldschoolmtg in touch with a Wizards of the Coast representative, who was “very apologetic about making my wife cry first thing in the morning by sending these heavy-duty lawmen.”
A Wizards of the Coast spokesperson confirmed to Polygon and Kotaku that the company sent the private security firm to Oldschoolmtg as “part of their investigation” into the leak. The YouTuber says the contact they spoke to at Wizards of the Coast offered to send them free products as compensation for what had happened. For what it’s worth, his YouTube viewership has also doubled since the original video went up.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/magic-the-gathering-publisher-wizards-of-the-coast-sent-the-pinkertons-after-a-leaker-200040402.html?src=rss
Source: Engadget – ‘Magic: The Gathering’ publisher Wizards of the Coast sent the Pinkertons after a leaker
blendOS 2 promises to be more than just a blend of Arch Linux, Fedora Linux, and Ubuntu, and includes out-of-the-box support for Android apps.
The post blendOS 2 Is Already Here, Supports Android Apps Out of the Box appeared first on Linux Today.
Source: Linux Today – blendOS 2 Is Already Here, Supports Android Apps Out of the Box
Asustor, one of the more popular NAS manufacturers, has announced the company’s new Flashtor series. The Flashtor lineup, which currently consists of the Flashtor 6 (FS6706T) and Flashtor 12 Pro (FS6712X), caters to content creators and enthusiasts, offering a rich feature set that includes the capacity to house up to 12 PCIe 3.0 M.2 slots for NVMe SSDs, fast 10GbE connectivity and HDMI 2.0b port that supports 4K displays at 60 Hz. It’s the first time the brand has launched a NAS featuring all-M.2 NVMe SSD storage.
The Flashtor series arrives with a black and very console-looking exterior. The aesthetics may be a refreshing departure from the typical NAS look for some. The Flashtor 6 and Flashtor 12 Pro have identical dimensions. Both measure 12.1 x 7.6 x 1.9 inches (308.26 x 193 x 48.3 mm). The weight varies slightly, though. The Flashtor 6 weighs 2.98 pounds (1.35 kilograms), while the Flashtor 12 Pro checks in at 3 pounds (1.37 kilograms).
The Flashtor 6 and Flashtor 12 Pro leverages Intel’s Celeron N5105 (Jasper Lake) processor. The 10nm chip features four Tremont cores without Hyper-Threading that operate with a 2 GHz base clock and 2.9 GHz boost clock. The 10W processor doesn’t have demanding cooling requirements, making it a common choice among NAS vendors. Asustor pairs the Celeron N5105 with a 4 GB SO-DIMM DDR4-2933 memory module. Regardless of the model, the Flashtor devices come with two SO-DIMM DDR4 memory slots and allow up to 16 GB (2 x 8 GB), the maximum capacity supported on the Celeron N5105. Asustor’s NAS also has 8 GB of onboard eMMC storage.
| Asustor Flashtor NAS Specifications | |||
| Component | Flashtor 6 | Flashtor 12 Pro | |
| CPU | Intel Celeron N5105 | Intel Celeron N5105 | |
| RAM | 4 GB DDR4-2933 SO-DIMM | 4 GB DDR4-2933 SO-DIMM | |
| Flash Memory | 8 GB eMMC | 8 GB eMMC | |
| Storage | 6 x PCIe 3.0 M.2 Slots | 12 x PCIe 3.0 M.2 Slots | |
| Networking | 2 x 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet | 1 x 10 Gigabit Ethernet | |
| I/O | 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2×1 2 x USB 2.0 1 x HDMI 2.0b 1 x S/PDIF |
2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2×1 2 x USB 2.0 1 x HDMI 2.0b 1 x S/PDIF |
|
| Power Adapter | 65 W | 90 W | |
| Power Consumption | 18.2 W | 26 W | |
| Noise Level | 18.7 dB | 18.7 dB | |
| Dimensions (inches) | 12.1 x 7.6 x 1.9 | 12.1 x 7.6 x 1.9 | |
| Weight | 2.98 lbs (1.35 kg) | 3.0 lbs (1.37 kg) | |
| Starting Price (USD) | $449 | $799 | |
The Flashtor 6 and Flashtor 12 Pro differs in storage capacity and connectivity options. The former has six PCIe 3.0 M.2 slots for M.2 2280 drives, whereas the latter has 12. The NAS supports RAID 0, 1, 4, 6, and 10 arrays. In addition, Asustor designed specific air ducts and a small 80 mm cooling fan to keep the drives cool. The included M.2 heatsinks help with heat dissipation. While the Flashtor series are based on NVMe storage, consumers can still utilize hard drives when they need vast amounts of raw storage. However, consumers will need to employ the help of the AS6004U, a four-bay NAS storage capacity expander from Asustor that retails for $329. The AS6004U connects to the Flashtor devices through a standard USB 3 port.
Asustor equipped the Flashtor 6 with two 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet ports with read and write speeds up to 590 MB/s and 583 MB/s, respectively, in an SMB multichannel (RAID 5) environment. In contrast, the Flashtor 12 Pro only has a 10 Gigabit Ethernet port but flaunts read and write speeds up to 1,181 MB/s and 1,027 MB/s, respectively, in Windows with a RAID 5 array. It’s important to highlight that Asustor achieved these performance numbers in the company’s lab with avant-garde systems and optimized network settings. The consumer mileage will vary.
Only the Flashtor 6 supports Wake on LAN (WoL) and Wake on WAN (WoW) since the Flashtor 12 Pro only supports the former. In addition, the Flashtor series provides consumers with two USB 3.2 Gen 2×1 ports and two USB 2.0 ports for connecting external devices. As for multimedia, the NAS devices supply one HDMI 2.0b port for video and one S/PDIF output for lossless audio.
Asustor bundles a 65 W power adapter with the Flashtor 6 and a 90 W unit with the Flashtor 12 Pro. According to the brand, the Flashtor 6 pulls around 18.2 W during operation, and the Flashtor 12 Pro consumes around 26 W. The noise levels aren’t outrageous, either. Asustor rates the Flashtor series with a noise level of 18.7 dB.
The Flashtor 6 and Flashtor 12 Pro retail for $449 and $799, respectively. Asustor backs the Flashtor series with a three-year warranty.
Source: AnandTech – Asustor Launches Flashstor NAS: Up To 12 M.2 Slots & 10GbE Connectivity
Enlarge / A Fortnite loading screen displayed on an iPhone in 2018, when Apple and Epic weren’t at each other’s throats. (credit: Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images)
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed last year’s district court ruling that Apple did not violate antitrust laws by forcing iOS developers to use its App Store and in-app payment systems. The decision is yet another major blow to Epic Games, which first challenged those Apple policies in a 2020 lawsuit.
“There is a lively and important debate about the role played in our economy and democracy by online transaction platforms with market power,” the court wrote. “Our job as a federal court of appeals, however, is not to resolve that debate — nor could we even attempt to do so. Instead, in this decision, we faithfully applied existing precedent to the facts.”
In a highly technical 91-page ruling issued Monday, the appeals court affirmed Apple’s argument that the case centered around the market for mobile game transactions, rather than Epic’s proposed definition of “aftermarkets of iOS app distribution and iOS in-app payment solutions.” That market definition was a key point of contention in the original case, since it establishes that Apple faces competition from other mobile ecosystems like Android.
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Source: Ars Technica – Apple’s iOS “walled garden” doesn’t break antitrust laws, appeals court affirms
Scientists at Johns Hopkins University say they’ve developed a gel-based treatment that might be incredibly effective at treating an often-fatal brain cancer. In a study of mice released this week, the gel in combination with surgery was found to eradicate 100% of glioblastoma tumors. It will take more research and…
Source: Gizmodo – Experimental Gel Killed 100% of Brain Tumors in Mice
Facebook’s advertising system went haywire starting around 2 am on Sunday morning, charging marketers extra money for ads that no one saw. Reports suggest Meta, the social network’s parent company, charged some advertisers more than double what they agreed to pay, ranging from hundreds to hundreds of thousands of…
Source: Gizmodo – Facebook’s Ad System Went Nuts and Charged Customers for Ads No One Saw
Critter & Guitari has made a name for itself by releasing quirky and highly musical gadgets, like this video-based synthesizer, and now the company is back with a multitrack recorder that prioritizes simplicity and ease of use. The 5 Moons also continues the company’s pristine record of making visually distinct devices, due to its attractive wood enclosure made entirely out of pine.
Underneath the hood you’ll find a powerful 48KHz 16-bit sampler and enough storage for around 20 hours of samples and compositions, via an 8GB microSD card. As the name suggests, this is a five track device, but don’t let that dissuade you from making complex compositions with dozens of instruments, as you can easily bounce everything down over and over again.
This musical block of wood does not include a screen of any kind, so everything is handled via the sliders and accompanying buttons, but the interface seems easy to use, with dedicated buttons for most tasks like bouncing, looping and perusing sounds. The company says the 5 Moons is great for making simple enclosed loops and for composing long-form pieces. Looping is no great mystery, but creating longer works does require a certain level of expertise regarding various button and slider combinations.
To that end, you can easily send projects to the DAW of your choice via a USB-C connection for finishing touches, and this connection also powers the device. Transfers go both ways, as you can send projects from your computer to the 5 Moons for additional processing, looping and creative tomfoolery. Critter & Guitari says this feature is a great way to start a unique new track or to “re-envision and remix” prior tracks.
You can run external instruments directly into 5 Moons, like the company’s own Organelle S, thanks to a ⅛-inch monophonic input. The rear also includes a ⅛-inch monophonic output if you want to send the signal out for external processing or to speakers when playing live. Playing live with this thing should be a blast, as it weighs only five ounces, though it does not feature a built-in battery.
Critter & Guitari’s 5 Moons multitrack recorder is available now for $325.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/critter–guitaris-5-moons-is-a-wonderfully-wooden-multitrack-recorder-193616586.html?src=rss
Source: Engadget – Critter & Guitari’s 5 Moons is a wonderfully wooden multitrack recorder
“Thrawn’s return… as Heir to the Empire.” In just seven words, Ahsoka’s first trailer made clear the desires fans have yearned for since a blue-skinned man in a white admiral’s uniform first stepped out of the shadows six years prior: Thrawn is here, and Heir to the Empire, the novel that started it all decades…
Source: Gizmodo – Heir to the Empire’s Greatest Strength Was What Came After
Twitch streamer and YouTuber Simply has attempted the unthinkable: Giving himself just 12 hours, he set out to learn the very tricky speedrun for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and to successfully complete one in as fast a time as possible. The speedrunning challenge was insane, full of death and glitches to…
Source: Kotaku – Twitch Streamer’s Struggle To Become A Top Breath of the Wild Speedrunner Is Today’s Must-Watch
Microsoft will stop forcing customers of its popular Office software to also have its Teams video conferencing and messaging app automatically installed on their devices, in a move designed to prevent an official antitrust probe by EU regulators. From a report: The US tech giant has made the concession to avoid a formal investigation, said two people with direct knowledge of the decision, following a 2020 complaint by rival Slack which claimed Microsoft’s practice of bundling the two services together was anti-competitive. These people said that, in future, when companies buy Office they can do it with or without Teams if they wished, but the mechanism on how to do this remains unclear. The people stressed talks are still ongoing and a deal is not certain. The move is part of an effort by Microsoft to try to avoid what would be its first antitrust probe in more than a decade, having sought to avoid legal battles with the European Commission that have proved bruising in the past.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Microsoft Agrees To Stop Bundling Teams With Office
