If you’re looking for the Connections answer for Friday, October 6, 2023, read on—I’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solutions to all four categories. Beware, there are spoilers below for October 6, NYT Connections #117! Read on if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s…
Source: LifeHacker – Today’s NYT Connections Hints (and Answer) for Friday, October 6, 2023
James Hunt reports via The Block: A group of FTX U.S.-based employees stumbled across a backdoor for its affiliated trading firm Alameda Research months before the crypto exchange collapsed in Nov. 2022, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The backdoor allowed Alameda to have a negative balance of up to $65 billion using customer funds, according to previous court filings revealing code buried in FTX’s systems. Negative balances were not possible for other FTX users, who would be automatically liquidated if they fell into the red.
The employees reportedly alerted their division boss to the discovery, who discussed it with former FTX CEO Sam Bankman Fried’s lieutenant Nishad Singh, but the issue was never resolved. Instead, the leader of the team who raised the concern was sacked, the WSJ said. […] The backdoor forms a key part of the prosecution’s case in Bankman-Fried’s trial. Bankman-Fried faces multiple fraud charges and could serve decades in prison. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – FTX Employees Discovered Alameda’s Billion Backdoor Months Before Collapse
It’s oddly fitting that well over two years have passed since the first season of Loki, because time is always a piece of the puzzle. Loki introduced the Marvel Cinematic Universe to the multiverse in an unforgettable way, branching the franchise’s most popular villain off from the series’ most popular film and…
Source: Gizmodo – It’s Time (Variance Authority) to Talk Loki Season 2 in Our Spoiler Discussion Zone
Amazon’s second mega-sale of the season is on its way, but there’s no need to wait on some of the best deals of the year. Amazon and other retailers are already slashing prices on everything from AirPods to MacBooks to robot vacuums. So, if you’re ready to start your holiday shopping, dive into these preview deals to save some serious cash ahead of the Amazon Prime Big Deal Days event on October 10–11.
The M1 MacBook Air. (credit: Lee Hutchinson)
Apple introduced AirTags alongside several different kinds of accessories to enhance their flair and attach-ability. (credit: Apple)
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Source: Ars Technica – Dealmaster: Deals from Apple and Sony ahead of Amazon’s big event
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Following preliminary objections over Google’s data terms, set out back in January by Germany’s antitrust watchdog, the tech giant has agreed to make changes that will give users a better choice over its use of their information, the country’s Federal Cartel Office (FCO) said today. The commitments cover situations where Google would like to combine personal data from one Google service with personal data from other Google or non-Google sources or cross-use these data in Google services that are provided separately, per the authority.
Per the FCO decision document (PDF): “The Commitments cover in principle all services operated by Google and directed to end users in Germany with more than one million monthly active users (MAU) in Germany [and Android Automotive whether it meets that threshold or not].” But, as we report below, Google’s core platform services designated under the EU’s DMA are not covered — nor is Fitbit, which the document notes is already subject to “far-reaching obligations regarding the cross-service processing of health and wellness data” as a result of EU merger control. […]
Per the FCO decision document, the implementation date (in principle) for Google’s commitments is September 30, 2024 — with an earlier date of March 6, 2024 for commitments covering Google Assistant and Contacts. But the FCO notes that it may provide Google with an extension upon “substantiated request”. Once implemented, the commitments will have a five year duration from their start date. The document also notes that if, in the future, a Google service falls out of the DMA designation as a core platform service and meets the FCO usage threshold then these local commitments will be applied to it. The converse will also apply; meaning if the European Commission designates one of the Google services covered by this commitments to the DMA list of core platform services it would no longer fall under this arrangement. Gmail is an interesting example here as the EU recently accepted Google’s arguments to exclude the web mail service from the DMA list of core platform services — but the tech giant is facing future restrictions on how it can use Gmail users’ data under the FCO commitments (even if these will only apply in Germany). Commenting in a statement, Andreas Mundt, president of the Bundeskartellamt, said: “Data are key for many business models used by large digital companies. The market power of large digital companies is based on the collection, processing and combination of data. Google’s competitors do not have these data and are thus faced with serious competitive disadvantages. In the future users of Google services will have a much better choice as to what happens to their data, how Google can use them and whether their data may be used across services. This not only protects the users’ right to determine the use of their data but also curbs Google’s data-driven market power. Large digital companies offer a wide range of different digital services. Without the users’ free and informed consent the data from Google’s services and third-party services can no longer be cross-used in separate services offered by Google or even be combined. We have made sure that Google will provide a separate choice option in the future.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Google Agrees To Reform Its Data Terms After German Antitrust Intervention
Yes, this woman is supposed to be typing on her phone with her hat. [credit:
Google Japan/YouTube
]
Is it a key-cap or a keycap cap? We here at Ars are having trouble nailing down the terminology for this cephalic peripheral. But whatever it’s called, Google Japan’s latest DIY project is for people who can’t get keyboards off their heads.
Google isn’t making this product. Instead, the Gboard CAPS project is another of Google Japan’s joke keyboard ideas, like the 5.25-foot-long, single-row Gboard Stick Version keyboard shown off last year, used to promote Google’s Gboard app. However, Google Japan seemingly prototyped the keyboard in real life. Everything you need to make this typing topper, including the firmware and hardware, is open source and available on GitHub.
So how does one type with a hat, you ask? Inside the hat is a 6-axis inertial sensor that can read the hat’s positioning. The wearer turns the hat to the left and right, and each angle represents a different character code. Then, the wearer presses the top of the hat, which has 20 mm of travel, to enter the character. The keyboard connects with a device via Bluetooth and runs on a 3.7 V, 120 mAh battery. Google Japan even ensured it charges over everyone’s favorite connector, USB-C.
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Source: Ars Technica – Google open-sourced a hat shaped like a giant keycap—and it actually types
Enlarge / The flu virus, showing the H and N proteins on its surface. (credit: CDC)
Vaccine advisors for the Food and Drug Administration voted unanimously (12 to 0) Thursday to remove, “as soon as possible,” a component of annual flu shots that targets a strain of the virus that appears to have gone extinct amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The vote follows a similar recommendation from the World Health Organization last week, which stated that “every effort should be made to exclude this component as soon as possible.”
Exactly how soon that removal could happen is unclear, though, and some advisors on the FDA’s panel expressed frustration that plans for the removal appear to have been slow-walked in the last couple of years, as it only became more apparent that the strain may be gone for good.
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Source: Ars Technica – After COVID killed off a flu strain, annual flu shots are in for a redesign
Hyundai and Kia said on Thursday that they will adopt Tesla’s electric vehicle charging technology in the United States. Reuters reports: Joining their global peers, including Ford Motor, General Motors and Nissan in adopting Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS), Hyundai’s and Kia’s moves take the Elon Musk-led company’s superchargers closer to becoming the industry standard at the expense of the rival Combined Charging System (CCS). Hyundai and Kia’s new EVs will come with a NACS port, starting in the fourth quarter of 2024 in the United States, the companies said.
However, in Canada, Hyundai EVs equipped with the NACS port would be available in the first half of 2025, while Kia’s EVs with the technology by the end of 2024. The move gives Hyundai and Kia EVs with NACS ports access to more than 12,000 Tesla Superchargers across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, the companies said. The South Korean automakers also said that they would offer adapters to owners of existing and future Hyundai and Kia EVs with the current CCS giving them access to Tesla’s Supercharging Network in the first quarter of 2025.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Hyundai, Kia To Adopt Tesla EV-Charging Standard From 2024 In US
Enlarge / Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO, participated by video conference in the 74th International Astronautical Congress held in Baku, Azerbaijan. (credit: Resul Rehimov/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Anyone who keeps track of Elon Musk knows the world’s richest man has a penchant for setting aspirational schedules for his companies. SpaceX misses those ambitious timelines so often that Musk has joked the company specializes in making the impossible late.
So, if you have an opportunity to interview him, why spend time asking Musk to prognosticate when one of his companies will do something years in the future? This is especially true for things that are impossible to know, like when will SpaceX land a Starship on Mars? Predictably, Musk replied to that question Thursday by saying it was feasible for Starship to achieve a Mars landing—without people on board—in three or four years.
Landing Starship on Mars in 2026 or 2027 is probably among the least likely of all the feasible outcomes, but setting this timetable helps keep SpaceX’s workforce razor-focused. Starship is a revolutionary design, with the goal of becoming a rapidly reusable rocket that could fly thousands of times per year. It’s also the largest rocket ever built, with at least twice the thrust of NASA’s Saturn V rocket from the Apollo program more than 50 years ago. Musk described Starship on Thursday as a “generalized transport system to anywhere in the Solar System.”
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Source: Ars Technica – World’s largest space conference succeeds in making a Starship update boring
According to metrics tracked by the EPEL Special Interest Group, as of September 2023, Rocky is a leader in the Enterprise Linux segment. Here’s more on that!
Source: LXer – Rocky Linux Is the Most Preferred Enterprise Linux Distribution
Paul Kunert writes via The Register: Talking on stage at the Canalys EMEA Forum 2023, Luca Rossi, senior vice resident at Lenovo and president of its Intelligent Devices Group, said the company has committed to a net zero emission policy by 2050, and analyzing the components used in its hardware is part of the equation. “On repairability, we have a plan that by 2025 more than 80 percent of the repair parts will be repaired again so that they they enter into the circular economy to reduce the impact to the environment.” He added: “More than 80 percent of our devices will be able to be repaired at the customer, by the customer or by the channel and we are enabling this with a design for serviceability kind of approach.” This means that “batteries, SSD, many things, will not any longer be sealed into the product but will be available for the customer to be to repaired on site and then save a lot of waste.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Lenovo PC Boss: 80% of Our Devices To Be Repairable By 2025
Disney just made a new TV deal for all 12 Star Wars movies that will allow them to play not just on Disney+, but its own suite of broadcast and cable channels as well as those owned by Turner Broadcasting.
Source: Gizmodo – All the Star Wars Movies Will Soon Be on More TV Channels
Enlarge / The reformulated Microsoft Teams app. (credit: Microsoft)
If you or your employer uses Microsoft Teams for communication, good news: Microsoft is releasing a fully rewritten version today for Windows PCs and Macs that promises to run faster while using fewer system resources.
A preview of this app was originally released for Windows in March, but the final release covers all types of Teams instances, re-adds support for features like breakout rooms and third-party app support, and supports macOS.
The new Teams app is notable for improved performance and reduced disk space usage, especially when running on Windows PCs. Microsoft says that the reformulated version of Teams is “up to two times faster while using 50 percent less memory” on Windows systems. That sound you hear is old and underspecced work PCs in offices around the world breathing a sigh of relief.
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Source: Ars Technica – Rebuilt Microsoft Teams app promises twice the speed and half the RAM usage
Cyberpunk 2077’s highly acclaimed and massive expansion, Phantom Liberty, almost feels like its own game. That’s probably because the developers behind the expansion spent over $60 million on developing Phantom Liberty and $21 million on marketing it, bringing the total cost of producing the DLC to about half of…
Source: Kotaku – CD Projekt Red Spent Over 0 Million Saving Cyberpunk 2077’s Reputation
This guide shows how to install SSH on Ubuntu 22.04 via OpenSSH, covering some basic configuration and command examples.
The post How to Install SSH on Ubuntu 22.04 appeared first on Linux Today.
Source: Linux Today – How to Install SSH on Ubuntu 22.04
There were a ton of unofficial leaks and rumors about the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro in the lead up to the Made by Google event. Now, they’re official: Google revealed its latest Android smartphones on Wednesday, sporting new AI features, a faster SoC, and upgraded cameras. But how well do these two new devices fare…
Source: LifeHacker – The Differences Between the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro
Samsung’s new smart tags. [credit:
Samsung ]
Samsung has announced its next Tile/AirTag competitor, the Galaxy SmartTag 2. The new Bluetooth trackers are $30 each and ship globally on October 10.
The design is interesting, with a giant ring on the top and a large overall size. Samsung says the battery, a removable CR2032, will last for 500 days in “normal” mode, while a new “Power Saving” mode will last 700 days (Samsung did not expand on what “power saving” mode does). It’s also IP67-rated.
The big ring on top feels like it should somehow attach to an object, but it’s a solid ring that never opens; it’s not a clip. The press release says you’ll need a “clip or keyring” to attach the SmartTag 2 to something. Samsung’s hero shot shows the tag directly attached to some objects like a key, but this does not appear to be possible outside the world of Photoshop.
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Source: Ars Technica – Samsung’s new Bluetooth trackers have a giant keyring on top, UWB support
Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images)
Despite leading AI companies’ attempts to block users from turning AI image generators into engines of racist content, many 4chan users are still turning to these tools to “quickly flood the Internet with racist garbage,” 404 Media reported.
404 Media uncovered one 4chan thread where users recommended various AI tools, including Stable Diffusion and DALL-E, but specifically linked to Bing AI’s text-to-image generator (which is powered by DALL-E 3) as a “quick method.” After finding the right tool—which could also be a more old-school photo-editing tool like Photoshop—users are instructed to add incendiary captions and share the images on social media to create a blitz of racist images online.
Make captions “funny, provocative,” the thread instructs users. Use “redpilling message (Jews involved in 9/11)” that are “easy to understand.”
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Source: Ars Technica – 4chan users manipulate AI tools to unleash torrent of racist images
Of all the fantastical manga crying out for a sumptuous adaptation, Ryōko Kui’s Delicious in Dungeon has long ranked high over the last decade of its serialization. And now that it’s finally happening, it looks to have been worth the mouth-watering wait.
Source: Gizmodo – Delicious in Dungeon’s New Trailer Serves Up a Gorgeous Fantastical Feast
Not to sound bossy, but if you’re planning to do anything but watch the Virginia Tech vs. Florida State game on Saturday afternoon, change your plans.
Source: LifeHacker – Where to Stream the Virginia Tech Vs. Florida State Game
