Bruce66423 writes: A man boarded a flight at Heathrow without a ticket, boarding pass or passport. ‘The unnamed individual walked onto the 7.20am British Airways (BA) flight to Oslo, Norway, on Saturday after tailgating other passengers through security and evading checks at the departure gate.

An aviation expert described the incident as a “significant lapse in security”, as a witness reported that cabin crew only detected the interloper because the flight was full and he kept sitting in passengers’ assigned seats.

Police arrested the unnamed man, airport sources said, adding that he had passed through “full security screening” before reaching the gate.

Given that he did go through the security check, this is merely embarrassing. Compare and contrast with this episode.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

If you’re human, you’ve probably hollered a curse word or two (or three) when barking your shin on a table edge or hitting your thumb with a hammer. Perhaps you’ve noticed that this seems to lessen your pain. There’s a growing body of scientific evidence that this is indeed the case. The technical term is the “hypoalgesic effect of swearing.” Cursing can also improve physical strength and endurance, according to a new paper published in the journal American Psychologist.

As previously reported, co-author Richard Stephens, a psychologist at Keele, became interested in studying the potential benefits of profanity after noting his wife’s “unsavory language” while giving birth and wondered if profanity really could help alleviate pain. “Swearing is such a common response to pain. There has to be an underlying reason why we do it,” Stephens told Scientific American after publishing a 2009 study that was awarded the 2010 Ig Nobel Peace Prize.

For that study, Stephens and his colleagues asked 67 study participants (college students) to immerse their hands in a bucket of ice water. They were then instructed to either swear repeatedly using the profanity of their choice or chant a neutral word. Lo and behold, the participants said they experienced less pain when they swore and were also able to leave their hands in the bucket about 40 seconds longer than when they weren’t swearing. It has been suggested that this is a primitive reflex that serves as a form of catharsis.

Read full article

Comments

If you get a letter from a company called 700Credit, don’t ignore it. Your information may have been compromised in a massive breach affecting more than 5.8 million consumers, and you should take the necessary steps to protect your data.

700Credit supplies credit and identity verification services to more than 21,000 vehicle, RV, powersport, and marine dealerships in the U.S., so if you’ve purchased a vehicle and applied for dealer financing—or even been pre-screened or pre-qualified to do so—your information could have been affected.

What happened with 700Credit?

According to the company’s filing with the Maine Attorney General, 700Credit’s systems were hacked between Oct. 25 and Oct. 27. Attackers stole personal information about customers of 700Credit’s dealership clients, including names, addresses, Social Security numbers (SSNs), and dates of birth.

As BleepingComputer reports, this breach was actually a consequence of a system compromise back in July at one of 700Credit’s 200 integration partners. Threat actors were able to gain access to an API used to pull consumer data, and a security vulnerability in the API allowed them to exfiltrate information from 700Credit.

What you need to do

If you receive a data breach notice from 700Credit, read it carefully. 700Credit is offering 12 months of credit monitoring and identity restoration services through TransUnion’s Cyberscout to affected consumers. You will need to go to the URL listed in your notice and enter your unique activation code in order to enroll, and you have 90 days from the date of the letter to complete the process.

700Credit expects to begin notifying individuals starting on Dec. 22.

In addition to utilizing the free credit protection, you should take the usual precautions to lock down your identity:

• Freeze your credit at all three credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion).

• Place a fraud alert on your credit file. You only need to do this at one bureau, which will apply it to all three.

• Keep an eye on your financial accounts for suspicious transactions as well as your credit report. Note that if your credit is frozen, thieves shouldn’t be able to take out new credit in your name.

• Request an IP PIN from the IRS to prevent someone from filing a tax return using your SSN.

• Follow good digital hygiene practices, such as using strong passwords and multi-factor authentication.

You cannot reverse a data breach, but you can (and should) do damage control.

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

For parents shopping for a first kids’ tablet that won’t turn into a headache or break after one drop, the Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids (2024) might be worth a look. It usually retails for $149.99, but it’s currently marked down to $74.99 on Amazon, its lowest price to date, according to price trackers.

Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids tablet

$74.99
at Amazon

$149.99
Save $75.00

$74.99
at Amazon

$149.99
Save $75.00

At that price, you’re getting a rugged case, a year of Amazon Kids+ subscription, a two-year worry-free replacement guarantee, and solid parental controls all bundled into one eight-inch tablet. It’s not fast, and it doesn’t have a high-res display, but for young kids starting out with screen time, it does a lot right.

It has a 2.0GHz hexa-core processor, 32GB of storage (expandable to 1TB), and a 1,280-by-800 resolution display. It handles video streaming and basic apps well, though heavier games and multitasking can slow it down. Battery life is impressive, lasting close to 10 hours in PCMag’s video playback tests. The case, which adds bulk, also includes a built-in stand that doubles as a handle, though younger kids might need help adjusting it. It’s not waterproof, but if it breaks, Amazon will replace it for free within two years—no questions asked.

Setup requires a parent to create profiles, set screen time limits, and customize content filters. Once done, kids can access Amazon Kids+, which includes age-appropriate books, videos, games, and a genuinely fun “Quest” feature that blends learning with light gamification. When the free trial ends, though, you’ll need to pay $5.99 a month (or $48 annually) to keep access to that library. Without it, the experience is much more limited and depends on how much effort you want to put into finding and installing your own content. But for under $75, with a kid-proof case and thoughtful tools for parents, it’s one of the better value tablets out there for kids aged three to seven.

Chinese scientists have built a working prototype of an extreme ultraviolet lithography machine in a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, a development that represents exactly what Washington has spent years and multiple rounds of export controls trying to prevent: China’s path toward semiconductor independence and an end to the West’s monopoly on the technology that powers AI, smartphones and advanced weapons systems.

The prototype, completed in early 2025 by former ASML engineers who reverse-engineered the Dutch company’s machines, is operational and generating EUV light, though it has not yet produced working chips. The effort is part of a six-year secret government initiative that sources described to Reuters as China’s version of the Manhattan Project.

Huawei is coordinating thousands of engineers across companies and state research institutes, and recruits are working under false identities inside secure facilities. The Chinese government is targeting 2028 for producing working chips, though sources say 2030 is more realistic — still years earlier than the decade analysts had predicted it would take China to match the West.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

While not quite a separate dialect, Formula 1-speak can be heavy on the jargon at times. They say “box” instead of pit, “power unit” to describe the engine and hybrid system, and that’s before we get into all the aerodynamics-related expressions like “outwash” and “dirty air.” Next year is a big technical shakeup for the sport, and it seems we’re getting some new terminology to go with it. So forget your DRS and get ready to talk about Boost mode instead.

The F1 car of 2026 will be slightly narrower and slightly lighter than the machines that raced for the last time earlier this month. But not by a huge amount: minimum weight is decreased by 30 kg to 724 kg, the wheelbase is 200 mm shorter at 3,400 mm, and the car’s underfloor is 150 mm narrower than before.

The front wing is 100 mm narrower and has just two elements to it, although for the first time in F1 history, this is now an active wing, which works in conjunction with the three-element active rear wing. Active rear wings have been a thing in F1 since the introduction of DRS—the drag reduction system—in 2011, but now there’s a philosophical change to how they’ll work.

Read full article

Comments

OpenAI has introduced an app directory that’s now available right inside ChatGPT, the company announced. “Apps extend ChatGPT conversations by bringing in new context and letting users take action like order groceries, turn an outline into a slide deck or search for an apartment,” the company wrote in a blog post. OpenAI also noted in a help document that “connector” apps like Google Drive are now simply called “apps.”

The new apps section (on iOS, Android and web) is divided into Feature, Lifestyle and Productivity categories, letting you connect to commonly used apps and sites like Booking.com, Spotify and Dropbox. To use an app, simply click on it, hit “Connect” then authorize the app to access ChatGPT. With that done, you can then start a chat related to that app. In the case of Dropbox, for instance, you’ll be able to “gather insights, prepare briefs and summarize reports or internal documents,” according to the description. Once connected, any app can be accessed by doing an @ mention of it.

A new addition that came along with the store is an Apple Music app that, like Spotify, helps users find music, create playlists and manage their libraries through a chat interface. Another is DoorDash, which lets you transform recipes, meal planning and staples into “an actionable shopping cart.”

Along with the app directory, OpenAI is now allowing developers to submit apps for review and publication in ChatGPT according to the company’s app submission guidelines. It also published resources to help developers build such apps, including best practices, open-source example apps, an open-sourced UI library for chat-native interfaces and a step-by-step quickstart guide. That’s on top of the software developer kit (SDK) that OpenAI introduced in October.

OpenAI noted that for now, developers can only monetize apps by linking out from the ChatGPT app to the native app or website — but the company is exploring internal monetization options as well. Privacy was also emphasized, with companies required to provide “clear” policies.

The new feature is a big part of Sam Altman’s promises to make ChatGPT more versatile with the addition of custom “GPT” bots. “Over time, we want apps in ChatGPT to feel like a natural extension of the conversation, helping people move from ideas to action, while building a thriving ecosystem for developers,” the company wrote.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-just-launched-an-app-store-inside-chatgpt-133049586.html?src=rss