Back in March 2020, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the government put a pause on student loan repayment. Now that the pause is over, a national pizza chain is offering a free pizza to those who have started making student loan payments again. Here’s what to know.
Source: LifeHacker – If You Still Have Student Loans, at Least They’ll Get You a Free Pizza
Leaders and policymakers from around the globe will gather in London next week for the world’s first artificial intelligence safety summit. Anyone hoping for a practical discussion of near-term AI harms and risks will likely be disappointed. A new discussion paper released ahead of the summit this week gives a little…
Source: Gizmodo – This AI Safety Summit Is a Doomer’s Paradise
The quantum world operates by different rules than the classical one we buzz around in, allowing the fantastical to the bizarrely normal. Now, a team of physicists has used quantum entanglement to simulate a closed timelike curve—in layman’s terms, time travel.
Source: Gizmodo – Physicists Simulate Time Travel Using Quantum Entanglement
KDE developer Nate Graham is out with his usual weekly recap highlighting all of the interesting accomplishments for this open-source desktop for the past week. But with not having posted last weekend, this edition highlights the many achievements made by the KDE camp over the past two weeks…
Source: Phoronix – KDE Desktop Cube Effect Returns & Plasma Wayland Per-Screen Color Management
The CARSULE pop-up cabin for your car is now through Oct. 31 on sale for $299.97 (reg. $379). This versatile tent transforms any outdoor setting—whether you’re camping, tailgating, or road tripping—into a spacious living area right at your car’s tailgate.
Source: LifeHacker – This Pop-Up Car Tent Is Now Less Than 0
Enlarge (credit: panorios/Getty Images)
Jeremy Wright was the first of five UK ministers charged with pushing through the British government’s landmark legislation on regulating the Internet, the Online Safety Bill. The current UK government likes to brand its initiatives as “world-beating,” but for a brief period in 2019 that might have been right. Back then, three prime ministers ago, the bill—or at least the white paper that would form its basis—outlined an approach that recognized that social media platforms were already de facto arbiters of what was acceptable speech on large parts of the Internet, but that this was a responsibility they didn’t necessarily want and weren’t always capable of discharging. Tech companies were pilloried for things that they missed, but also, by free speech advocates, for those they took down. “There was a sort of emerging realization that self-regulation wasn’t going to be viable for very much longer,” Wright says. “And therefore, governments needed to be involved.”
The bill set out to define a way to handle “legal but harmful” content—material that wasn’t explicitly against the law but which, individually or in aggregate, posed a risk, such as health care disinformation, posts encouraging suicide or eating disorders, or political disinformation with the potential to undermine democracy or create panic. The bill had its critics—notably, those who worried it gave Big Tech too much power. But it was widely praised as a thoughtful attempt to deal with a problem that was growing and evolving faster than politics and society were able to adapt. Of his 17 years in parliament, Wright says, “I’m not sure I’ve seen anything by way of potential legislation that’s had as broadly based a political consensus behind it.”
Read 15 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Source: Ars Technica – The UK’s problematic Online Safety Act is now law
Patches posted this week by SiFive for the Linux kernel provide cryptographic implementations of various functions inside the Linux kernel using the processor ISA’s vector crypto extensions…
Source: Phoronix – Linux Patches Speed-Up Kernel Crypto Functions With RISC-V Vector Extensions
With Mesa 24.0 the developers have switched from using Doxygen and Breathe for building documentation comments from source to instead use the newer but less heard of Hawkmoth…
Source: Phoronix – Mesa Turns To Hawkmoth For Improving Documentation
The Guardian has revealed that the UK government will diverge from the European Union’s standards for monitoring water quality in England. From the report: While in the EU, England was covered by the water framework directive (WFD), which meant a national chemical and ecological survey of rivers was conducted annually. After Brexit, the WFD was transposed into English law but the government removed the requirement to conduct annual tests. This is the latest example of the UK diverging from EU environmental standards. Recent analysis found that many toxic chemicals and pesticides banned in the bloc since Brexit are not outlawed for use in the UK. Ministers have also sought to rip up EU-derived sewage pollution rules for housebuilders.
In 2019, the last time the full water assessments took place, just 14% of rivers were in good ecological health and none met standards for good chemical health. The government has said it does not intend to deliver a complete update until 2025, the latest permissible date under the new WFD. The Guardian can reveal that the government will be using its own, as yet undisclosed methodology to assess river health. Activists say this may make it harder to compare the state of the country’s rivers against those in the EU, and will leave the public in the dark over pollution from sewage and agriculture. Stuart Singleton-White, of the Angling Trust, said: “WFD has been the bedrock of us understanding the state of our rivers, lakes and groundwater. It does not give a full picture, but it does provide a useful starting point. Past assessments have shown things are getting worse, not better. To now not have a full assessment in 2022 and have to wait to 2025 … simply sows confusion and leaves the public in the dark when it comes to properly understanding whether our rivers are getting better or worse.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – England To Diverge From EU Water Monitoring Standards
Jeff Foust reports via SpaceNews: The governments of Australia and the United States have signed an agreement that could allow American rockets to launch from Australian spaceports, although it is unclear how much demand there is for them. The U.S. State Department announced Oct. 26 that the two countries signed a technology safeguards agreement (TSA) regarding space launches from Australia. The agreement provides the “legal and technical framework” for American launches from Australian facilities while protecting sensitive technologies.
The TSA is required to allow the export of U.S.-built launch vehicles to Australia. Industry officials in Australia said the agreement will allow spaceport projects there to sign long-awaited deals to host launches by American companies. […] The precise demand for Australian launch sites from American launch companies remains unclear. The ELA statement included an illustration of four small launch vehicles from ABL Space Systems, Astra, Phantom Space and Vaya Space, as well as Rocket Lab’s Neutron medium-lift rocket. “We hear regularly from both the U.S. government and industry of their demand for this capability in Australia,” said Jeremy Hallett, executive chairman of the Space Industry Association of Australia, in a statement. “This agreement removes the blockage stopping this demand being met by Australian space industry and we look forward to the new business opportunities that will emerge for the industry.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – New Agreement Enables US Launches From Australian Spaceports
Harbor is an open-source Docker image registry for cloud-native environments. In this guide, I will show you how to install Harbor Image Registry using Docker on an Ubuntu 22.04 server.
Source: LXer – How to Install Harbor Docker Image Registry on Ubuntu 22.04
An anonymous reader quotes a report from KOMO News: A groundbreaking medical procedure for those with kidney stones will soon be offered at the University of Washington after more than two decades of research. It will also give astronauts the go ahead they need from NASA to travel to Mars. It’s a groundbreaking procedure to get rid of painful stones while you’re awake, no anesthesia needed. “This has the potential to be game changing,” said Dr. Kennedy Hall with UW Medicine. Still being run through clinical trials at UW Medicine, the procedure called burst wave lithotripsy uses an ultrasound wand and soundwaves to break apart the kidney stone. Ultrasonic propulsion is then used to move the stone fragments out, potentially giving patients relief in 10 minutes or less.
This technology is also making it possible for astronauts to travel to Mars, since astronauts are at a greater risk for developing kidney stones during space travel. It’s so important to NASA, the space agency has been funding the research for the last 10 years. “They could potentially use this technology while there, to help break a stone or push it to where they could help stay on their mission and not have to come back to land,” said Harper. The research has been published in the Journal of Urology.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Breakthrough Kidney Stone Procedure Makes It Possible For Astronauts To Travel To Mars
Amiga Trombone shares a report from Insider: With signs of growing inventory and slowing sales, auto industry executives admitted this week that their ambitious electric vehicle plans are in jeopardy, at least in the near term. Several C-Suite leaders at some of the biggest carmakers voiced fresh unease about the electric car market’s growth as concerns over the viability of these vehicles put their multi-billion-dollar electrification strategies at risk. Among those hand-wringing is GM’s Mary Barra, historically one of the automotive industry’s most bullish CEOs on the future of electric vehicles. But this week on GM’s third-quarter earnings call, Barra and GM struck a more sober tone. The company announced with its quarterly results that it’s abandoning its targets to build 100,000 EVs in the second half of this year and another 400,000 by the first six months of 2024. GM doesn’t know when it will hit those targets.
While GM’s about-face was somewhat of a surprise to investors, the Detroit car company is not alone in this new view of the EV future. Even Tesla’s Elon Musk warned on a recent earnings call that economic concerns would lead to waning vehicle demand, even for the long-time EV market leader. Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz — which is having to discount its EVs by several thousand dollars just to get them in customers’ hands — isn’t mincing words about the state of the EV market. “This is a pretty brutal space,” CFO Harald Wilhelm said on an analyst call. “I can hardly imagine the current status quo is fully sustainable for everybody.” “It’s clear that we’re dealing with a lot of near-term uncertainty,” said Barra. “The transition to EVs, that will have ups and downs.”
Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda said that people are “finally seeing reality” regarding EVs. “I have continued to say what I see as reality,” Toyoda, who recently stepped down as Toyota’s CEO, said. “There are many ways to climb the mountain that is achieving carbon neutrality,” such as hybrids and plug-in hybrids which have long made up a significant share of Toyota’s EV sales.
“The reason (hybrids) are so powerful is because they fit the needs of so many customers,” Toyota North America’s vice president of sales Bob Carter told CNBC last year. “The demand for hybrid has been strong. We expect it to continue to grow as the entire industry transitions over to electrification later this decade.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Auto Execs Are Coming Clean: EVs Aren’t Working
In this article, we will showcase selected open-source cloud storage software for Linux that has gained widespread acceptance among both large organizations and the general public.
The post 15 Open-Source Cloud Storage Software for Linux in 2023 appeared first on Linux Today.
Source: Linux Today – 15 Open-Source Cloud Storage Software for Linux in 2023
Plausible is an open-source privacy-focused analytics software to track your site’s traffic. In this guide, we will install Plausible Analytics using Docker on a Debian 12 server.
Source: LXer – How to Install Plausible Analytics on Debian 12
Today’s puzzle is cute and fun, and features a cameo from a TV character. If you’re looking for the Connections answer for Saturday, October 28, 2023, read on—I’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solutions to all four categories. Along the way, I’ll explain the meanings of the trickier words…
Source: LifeHacker – Today’s NYT Connections Hints (and Answer) for Saturday, October 28, 2023
Brandon Vigliarolo reports via The Register: After over seven years of legal battles, a group of former HP employees who claim the venerable firm discriminated against older staff when culling jobs has won a $18 million settlement. Hewlett Packard’s offshoots, HP and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) have agreed to cough up just over a day’s combined profits for the last quarter to settle a class-action case brought by employees who were over 40 and got laid off when the company split in 2015. The group sued HP and HPE in 2016 claiming both the new entities and the old Hewlett Packard had unfairly targeted older employees for layoffs as far back as 2012.
Two classes were designated in the lawsuit — 146 former staff accusing HP and HPE of age discrimination on US Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) grounds, and 212 accusing their former employer of the same based on California state labor laws. The settlement notice [PDF], which was filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California in late September and preliminarily approved by a judge on Thursday, doesn’t include any admission of guilt on HP or HPE’s part — quite the opposite, in fact. “Throughout the litigation, each Defendant has denied, and continues to deny, the allegations described above,” lawyers for the plaintiffs wrote in the settlement notice. Nonetheless, the settlement notice was filed without opposition from HP and HPE. […]
Judge Edward Davila determined the settlement was “fair, adequate and reasonable” yesterday, and will issue a final order later, a draft [PDF] of which was also filed with the court in September. If approved without changes, each of the 358 plaintiffs in the California case stand to earn $50,279 in gross individual recovery. Net of attorney’s fees, costs and expenses, however, that total shrinks to a “minimum of $15,000,” court filings indicate.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – It Took Seven Years But Over-40s Fired By HP Win Million Settlement
Enlarge / Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin’s founder, meets NASA Administrator Bill Nelson with a mock-up of the Blue Moon Mark 1 lander behind them. (credit: NASA)
Blue Origin has unveiled a mock-up of the Blue Moon lander it says will be ready to fly to the Moon within the next three years as a precursor to human landings on a larger vehicle, perhaps at the end of the decade.
Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Blue Origin, recently showed off the “low-fidelity” mock-up to NASA officials at the company’s engine production facility in Huntsville, Alabama. The vehicle is undoubtedly large and will take advantage of the 23-foot-wide (7-meter) payload volume on Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket.
This is the Mark 1 variant of the Blue Moon lander. It’s designed to deliver up to 3 metric tons (about 6,600 pounds) of cargo anywhere on the lunar surface. Blue Origin revealed the design on Friday.
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Source: Ars Technica – Jeff Bezos shows off new Moon lander design for NASA
This guide shows how to configure a static IP address in Ubuntu using Netplan configuration file, nmcli, nmtui, or the graphical user interface.
The post Step-by-Step Guide to Configuring a Static IP Address in Ubuntu appeared first on Linux Today.
Source: Linux Today – Step-by-Step Guide to Configuring a Static IP Address in Ubuntu
An anonymous reader quotes a report from OPP.Today: Android 14, the latest operating system from Google, is facing a major storage bug that is causing users to be locked out of their devices. This issue is particularly affecting users who utilize the “multiple profiles” feature. Reports suggest that the bug is comparable to being hit with “ransomware,” as users are unable to access their device storage. Initially, it was believed that this bug was limited to the Pixel 6, but it has since been discovered that it impacts a wider range of devices upgrading to Android 14. This includes the Pixel 6, 6a, 7, 7a, Pixel Fold, and Pixel Tablet. The Google issue tracker for this bug has garnered over 350 replies, but there has been no response from Google so far. The bug has been assigned the medium priority level of “P2” and remains unassigned, indicating that no one is actively investigating it.
Users who have encountered this storage bug have shared log files containing concerning messages such as “Failed to open directory /data/media/0: Structure needs cleaning.” This issue leads to various problematic situations, with some users experiencing boot loops, others stuck on a “Pixel is starting…” message, and some unable to take screenshots or access their camera app due to the lack of storage. Users are also unable to view files on their devices from a PC over USB, and the System UI and Settings repeatedly crash. Essentially, without storage, the device becomes practically unusable.
Android’s user-profile system, designed to accommodate multiple users and separate work and personal profiles, appears to be the cause of this rarely encountered bug. Users have reported that the primary profile, which is typically the most important one, becomes locked out.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Android 14 Storage Bug Has Users Locked Out of Their Devices
