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Astronomers May Have Just Discovered Our Solar System's Sixth ...

2026-10-28T11:00:00Z

Astronomers May Have Just Discovered Our Solar System's Sixth Dwarf Planet

Astronomers using the Vera C. Rubin Observatory have discovered 2026 ED138, a large object beyond Neptune that could become the solar system's sixth recognized dwarf planet if further observations confirm it is massive enough to be round. Located about 46 times farther from the Sun than Earth, the object is estimated to be 600 to 1,500 kilometers wide and had remained hidden because it lies against a particularly crowded field of Milky Way stars. Scientific American reports: The discovery was made by running billions of pieces of data collected by the Rubin Observatory through a search code developed by Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian astronomers Matthew Holman and Kevin Napier. "My first reaction was one of excited disbelief," Holman said in a statement. "Objects like this are very rare, so I immediately started checking whether I or the code had done something wrong."

When Holman and his colleague Mario Juric of the University of Washington went to double-check, they found 30 more observations of the object by Rubin that dated to between March and July 2026. Looking at other observation tools, the pair found even more sightings going back to 2016. Together, these data allowed the astronomers to begin mapping out 2026 ED138's orbit. The suspected dwarf planet is about 46 times as far from the sun as Earth, making it even more remote than Pluto, which is just 40 times as far. The object is also tilted off the solar system's plane by around 25 degrees, an arrangement that could be linked to disruptions caused by Neptune's gravitational pull.

Initial measurements indicate that 2026 ED138 has a diameter between 600 and 1,500 kilometers (373 and 932 miles), which makes it one of the largest dwarf planet candidates yet detected. But size isn't all that matters: further observations are required to determine if the object has enough mass to be pulled into a round shape, which is a key requirement for a dwarf planet. Despite its size, 2026 ED138 was able to avoid detection for all these years because it's located in a part of the night sky that's crowded with stars whose light drowned it out.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/10/28/035218/astronomers-may-have-just-discovered-our-solar-systems-sixth-dwarf-planet?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/10/28/035218/astronomers-may-have-just-discovered-our-solar-systems-sixth-dwarf-planet?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

CDC Warns of Rising Threat of Drug-Resistant Germs The CDC ...

2026-10-28T07:00:00Z

CDC Warns of Rising Threat of Drug-Resistant Germs

The CDC estimates that 19 drug-resistant pathogens cause 9.7 million infections and more than 50,000 deaths annually in the U.S., with resistance continuing to outpace development of new treatments. "The agency considers this problem to be one of our most urgent public health threats," reports NBC News. From the report: The report is the CDC's first comprehensive assessment of these drug-resistant pathogens in seven years. [...] The new report offers a detailed picture of these threats in the U.S., including a ranking of which are the most urgent concerns, based on the number and severity of infections they cause and how easily preventable or transmissible they are. The ranking also factors in how many treatment options exist and their costs. [...] The report estimates that 19 drug-resistant germs cause 9.7 million infections annually in the U.S. Of these, four pathogens are ranked as most worrisome, including the fungus Candida auris and the bacteria that causes gonorrhea, which has become resistant to all but one class of antibiotics used to treat it.

The other two urgent threats, according to the CDC, are the bacteria Acinetobacter and Enterobacterales, both of which are resistant to a class of antibiotics widely considered a "last resort" for patients. In addition, the report adds a new bacteria to the list of "concerning" threats, which are considered less worrisome but still warrant monitoring: neisseria meningitidis, which causes meningococcal disease. The rare but life-threatening illness can be prevented through childhood vaccinations, but the bacteria that causes it is slowly developing a resistance to penicillin and another antibiotic called ciprofloxacin.

The report also offers some good news: The CDC determined that the bacteria Clostridioides difficile, or "C. diff," which causes diarrhea and inflammation of the colon and can be deadly, is causing fewer cases year over year. The agency downgraded it to a serious threat, whereas it was categorized as urgent in the prior version of the report, which came out in 2019.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/10/28/0256204/cdc-warns-of-rising-threat-of-drug-resistant-germs?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/10/28/0256204/cdc-warns-of-rising-threat-of-drug-resistant-germs?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Greenhouse Gas Levels Set Records In 2025, UN Says An anonymous ...

2026-10-28T03:30:00Z

Greenhouse Gas Levels Set Records In 2025, UN Says

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBS News: Greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere rose to record highs in 2025, locking in climate impacts that will persist for centuries, the United Nations said on Tuesday. Levels of the three main greenhouse gases -- the climate-warming carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide -- all rose to unprecedented figures in 2025, the U.N.'s weather and climate agency said. The World Meteorological Organization said the rise would lead to more long-term temperature increases for the planet.

The bulletin looks at greenhouse gas concentrations -- the amount of those gases in the atmosphere -- rather than new annual emissions amounts as the world burns more coal, oil and gas. In 2025, carbon dioxide concentrations were at 426.8 parts per million (ppm); methane at 1,948 parts per billion, and nitrous oxide at 339.1 parts per billion. That takes them, respectively, to 153%, 267% and 126% of the pre-industrial levels witnessed before 1750. Of the three major greenhouse gases, CO2 accounts for about 66% of the warming effect on the climate.

Around half of the total CO2 emitted each year remains in the atmosphere; the rest is absorbed by the land and oceans. From 2024 to 2025, the global average concentration of CO2 rose by 2.8 ppm -- smaller than the record surge from 2023 to 2024 of 3.6 ppm. WMO senior scientific officer Oksana Tarasova said this reflected the "recovery of the land carbon sinks and reduced fire carbon emissions in 2025 after the strong 2023/2024 El Nino," the naturally occurring, climate-warming weather phenomenon. "However, a 2.8 ppm annual increase is still a substantial addition of carbon to the atmosphere from fossil fuel burning." It is also above the average growth rate for the past decade of 2.6 ppm -- a figure that stood at 0.8 ppm in the 1960s. "Another year, another new record," said WMO Deputy Secretary-General Ko Barrett. "Greenhouse gases are trapping an unprecedented amount of heat in the atmosphere, providing energy for more extreme weather and associated risks to our economies and societies.

Further reading: UN Says Breaching 1.5C Warming Limit Is 'Imminent and Unavoidable'

https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/10/27/2325218/greenhouse-gas-levels-set-records-in-2025-un-says?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/10/27/2325218/greenhouse-gas-levels-set-records-in-2025-un-says?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Ford's Most Affordable EV Will Offer Built-In Bidirectional ...

2026-10-27T23:00:00Z

Ford's Most Affordable EV Will Offer Built-In Bidirectional Home Charging

Ford's upcoming $28,350 Fathom electric truck will include a built-in inverter capable of supplying up to 10 kW of AC power to a home, bringing bidirectional charging to a significantly cheaper EV. Owners will still need additional Ford home hardware for features like outage backup and peak-rate energy management, but the company expects the necessary equipment to cost substantially less than its previous-generation system. CNET reports: The upcoming Fathom will be based on what Ford calls its Universal EV Platform, designed with the aid of its 2023 acquisition, startup Auto Motive Power, with bidirectional power on the plate from the start. The hardware required to invert the battery's DC energy to an estimated 10 kW of AC home power will be built into the truck, so it won't require a separate wall-mounted inverter box. Ford says the Fathom's system will meet all applicable UL 1741 requirements and IEEE 1547 standards to ensure the vehicle is safely connected to the grid. As for the actual hardware you plug into your car, all signs point to the Fathom using the NACS plug type pioneered by Tesla and now widely adopted by new EVs in North America. In terms of the communication standard -- the one that governs how AC power is routed from the slim wall box to the car's onboard charger -- that'll be via SAE J3068, a software protocol developed for high-power, heavy-duty AC charging.

[...] However, while Fathom's Universal EV Platform eliminates the need for a wall inverter box, it doesn't completely bypass the need for additional hardware to make your home ready to accept bidirectional power. Say you wanted to take advantage of the Home Power Management feature to draw energy into the Fathom's battery when power is cheapest, and then use that energy to offset peak-hour usage when power is most expensive. You'll have to install at least the Ford Home Power Station in your home, at an additional cost. The automaker hasn't specified pricing, but says that it's working to reduce costs and expects this component alone to cost half as much as the first-generation Ford Home Energy system, which debuted at around $1,300. That could put the new system at roughly $650.

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/10/27/2151204/fords-most-affordable-ev-will-offer-built-in-bidirectional-home-charging?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/10/27/2151204/fords-most-affordable-ev-will-offer-built-in-bidirectional-home-charging?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Growing List of Firms Object to OKX-ICE Tokenized Stock Plans ...

2026-10-27T22:00:00Z

Growing List of Firms Object to OKX-ICE Tokenized Stock Plans

Intel, Oracle, IBM and IonQ have joined a growing list of companies objecting to having tokenized versions of their shares traded through OKX and Intercontinental Exchange's blockchain venture, bringing the total number of objections to 26. About 37% of the companies on OKXICE's original list have now opted out, according to CoinDesk. From the report: The four companies were named in an updated public notice (PDF) dated Monday, Oct. 26, from OKXICE, the two firms' joint venture. They join earlier objectors including Microsoft, Alphabet, Goldman Sachs, Cisco and Wells Fargo. The growing list underscores a hurdle for OKXICE and the SEC's new framework for tokenized stock trading: building a market that issuers are willing to join. The agency's five-year "Innovation Exemption" gives qualifying venues room to test round-the-clock blockchain-based trading of stocks, and it also gives public companies an option to block their shares from being offered.

OKXICE issued its initial public notice on Oct. 4, outlining plans to use Uniswap v4 liquidity pools on OKX's XLayer blockchain, with transactions settled in stablecoins. The venue would use automated market makers -- software that executes trades through pools of assets rather than matching buyers and sellers through a conventional order book. Under the framework, venues must notify issuers and give them 30 days to object before offering tokenized versions of their shares.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/10/27/2130245/growing-list-of-firms-object-to-okx-ice-tokenized-stock-plans?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/10/27/2130245/growing-list-of-firms-object-to-okx-ice-tokenized-stock-plans?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Code-Execution Flaw In UEFI Firmware Threatens Most Servers On ...

2026-10-27T21:30:00Z

Code-Execution Flaw In UEFI Firmware Threatens Most Servers On Planet Earth

Ars Technica's Dan Goodin reports: Defenders across the world face the burden of responding to yet another botched code-execution vulnerability, this time in boot-time firmware used by most of the world's server vendors and data centers. The vulnerability, with a severity rating of 9.5 out of 10, resides in the TianoCore EDK II, an open source codebase that hardware makers and cloud providers use to create the UEFI firmware that runs during the boot-up sequence. Last year, a representative of the UEFI Forum called (PDF) EDK2 the "preeminent solution / implementation of the UEFI specifications." Virtually all UEFI suppliers (sometimes still called IBVs or independent BIOS vendors), including AMI, Insyde, and Phoenix, use the reference code extensively. Project Mu, Microsoft's hardened EDK2 fork, used the code containing the vulnerable component as well.

The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-97631, is a memory-corruption flaw in an ICMP component that attackers can exploit to execute malicious code that runs before the operating system and firmware can implement defenses like Secure Boot, which establishes a chain of trust for all code, including the Trusted Platform Module (TPM), loaded during boot. While final payloads delivered by CVE-2026-97631 have no persistence -- meaning they run only once -- they can give attackers a wide opening to install other payloads that also run each time early in the boot process.

The parties that discovered CVE-2026-97631 -- Alex Matrosov of Anthropic and Dan Holmes of Google -- had arranged for it to stay under wraps until a coordinated disclosure that was scheduled for January. AMI, a maker of motherboards and other hardware, published this pull request last month that detailed the vulnerability and included a code fix. Once the post came to the attention of the discovering parties, TianoCore Project members published a public advisory last week. With publicly available patch code, it will be trivial for advanced hackers to learn how the vulnerability is triggered and to build working exploits. Further compounding the urgency, patching UEFI code vulnerabilities in millions of end devices sold and used by thousands of hardware makers and cloud providers is cumbersome and time-consuming.

https://it.slashdot.org/story/26/10/27/2121232/code-execution-flaw-in-uefi-firmware-threatens-most-servers-on-planet-earth?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://it.slashdot.org/story/26/10/27/2121232/code-execution-flaw-in-uefi-firmware-threatens-most-servers-on-planet-earth?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Google's Genie 4 World Model Adds Audio, More Realistic ...

2026-10-27T20:00:00Z

Google's Genie 4 World Model Adds Audio, More Realistic Worlds

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Google DeepMind released its newest world model, Genie 4, in research preview on Tuesday. The latest model generates the most photorealistic and interactive worlds yet, allowing users to type prompts mid-simulation to change the scene. The model also generates real-time audio that matches the simulated world, including music, ambient noises, and interactive dialogue.

[...] Google released its predecessor, Genie 3, as a research preview a little over a year ago. Aside from being far more photorealistic and featuring audio, Genie 4 allows for freeform edits, like changing the weather or camera angle in real time or adding new people or objects. It can maintain a consistent scene for up to two minutes, double its predecessor's limit, and offers better physics and more human-like characters. Gemini, Google's AI model, is also mo "What we'll increasingly see in the future are these hybrid world models, where you have a combination of Gemini writing code and text, and Genie ingesting that in real time and simulating reality at different levels of abstraction," Tejas Kulkarni, research director at Google, said during a briefing.

Genie 4 is now available to select testers, with a broader rollout planned in the coming weeks for Google AI Ultra subscribers.

You can watch a demo of Genie 4 on YouTube.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/27/1841227/googles-genie-4-world-model-adds-audio-more-realistic-worlds?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/27/1841227/googles-genie-4-world-model-adds-audio-more-realistic-worlds?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Anduril Partners With Qualcomm to Build Laptops On US Soil ...

2026-10-27T19:00:00Z

Anduril Partners With Qualcomm to Build Laptops On US Soil

Longtime Slashdot reader fadethepolice writes: Anduril, arguing that its manufacturing capabilities are directly applicable to laptop manufacturing, is starting a project for a fully 100% U.S.-sourced laptop. The computer will use a Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC. I did not see any information about the OS, but I'm assuming that, given the type of processor, this will be Linux-based? "Other companies might design their computers in the U.S., Anduril makes them here,â the Anduril founder Palmer Luckey said in a YouTube video. "We're making parts out of metals that the U.S. knows how to extract, knows how to refine, knows how to process, and knows how to mill at scale at a reasonable price; and that goes for the entire laptop. The same thing goes for the battery technology."

The project, called BlueChip, "will take a phased approach, beginning with expanding domestic sourcing and manufacturing, progressing toward eliminating reliance on foreign suppliers, and ultimately establishing an end-to-end American supply chain." The first device is expected in April 2027.

A press release with additional information is available here.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/10/27/1833240/anduril-partners-with-qualcomm-to-build-laptops-on-us-soil?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/10/27/1833240/anduril-partners-with-qualcomm-to-build-laptops-on-us-soil?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Apple's Foldable iPhone Duo Draws Early Complaints of the ...

2026-10-27T18:00:00Z

Apple's Foldable iPhone Duo Draws Early Complaints of the Screen Cracking

Apple has acknowledged an inner-display defect affecting a small number of its new $1,999 iPhone Duo foldables after customers reported hearing a crunch while unfolding the device before cracks, lines and other display failures appeared along the crease. Apple is replacing affected phones and investigating the problem.

iFixit believes a failing hinge component may be pressing into and cracking the display rather than the panel itself being defective. Bloomberg reports: Reports of the problem first surfaced on Reddit and other social media sites. Bloomberg News has since independently verified the issue with more than half a dozen customers, who provided photos showing damage to their devices or evidence of their support conversations with Apple. Apple acknowledged the issue in a statement, saying it was "aware of an issue impacting the inner display on a small number of iPhone Duo units."

"If users experience issues with their iPhone Duo display, they should contact AppleCare for a replacement," the Cupertino, California-based company said. Most Duos aren't affected by the problem, and the units that are impacted exhibit the defect quickly, Apple said.

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/10/27/1630226/apples-foldable-iphone-duo-draws-early-complaints-of-the-screen-cracking?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/10/27/1630226/apples-foldable-iphone-duo-draws-early-complaints-of-the-screen-cracking?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Cybersecurity CEO Indicted For Allegedly Scamming Millions From ...

2026-10-27T17:00:00Z

Cybersecurity CEO Indicted For Allegedly Scamming Millions From Ransomware Victims

An anonymous reader quotes a report from ProPublica: A Florida man who was the subject of a 2019 investigation by ProPublica was indicted last month on federal charges that he defrauded clients of his ransomware data recovery firm. According to the Justice Department, the man, Zohar Pinhasi, told customers he could recover their encrypted files without having to pay hackers, when, in reality, he paid the ransom and charged victims a hefty fee on top. The indictment mirrors the findings from ProPublica's 2019 article "The Trade Secret," which centered on Pinhasi and his scheme.

The outlet found that the ransomware victims were being harmed twice: once by the hackers, who locked their targets' files and demanded ransom, and a second time by MonsterCloud, Pinhasi's Florida-based data recovery firm, which misled its clients about not paying ransoms. "By falsely claiming to decrypt ransomware without paying off the ransomers, the defendant re-victimized his clients while extracting a hefty profit for himself," U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella said in an Oct. 7 press release. "Our Office will vigorously prosecute ransomware attackers who prey on Americans from across the world and those who cynically profit from their criminal activity." [...] Pinhasi, who went by the alias Zack Green, told ProPublica in 2019 that MonsterCloud never promised clients that their data will be recovered by any particular method. "How we do it, it's our problem," he told ProPublica. "You will get your data back. Sit back, relax and enjoy the ride." He called MonsterCloud's data recovery methods a "trade secret."

[...] Federal investigators found that, over the course of the scheme, Pinhasi allegedly charged clients more than $19 million and paid more than $8 million in ransom payments. In one example, Pinhasi made a ransom payment of about $8,200 but charged the client about $150,000. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison. [...] In 2019, Pinhasi touted MonsterCloud's ties to law enforcement as evidence of its integrity. Pistole, who also headed the Transportation Security Administration under President Barack Obama, was listed on MonsterCloud's website as the only member of its "Cyber Security Advisory Council."

https://it.slashdot.org/story/26/10/27/1550230/cybersecurity-ceo-indicted-for-allegedly-scamming-millions-from-ransomware-victims?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://it.slashdot.org/story/26/10/27/1550230/cybersecurity-ceo-indicted-for-allegedly-scamming-millions-from-ransomware-victims?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Apple Updates MacBook Pro With M6 Chips Ahead of the touchscreen ...

2026-10-27T16:00:00Z

Apple Updates MacBook Pro With M6 Chips

Ahead of the touchscreen MacBook Pro expected to debut tomorrow, Apple has refreshed its standard 14-inch MacBook Pro with the new M6 processor, promising up to 20% faster multithreaded performance, improved power efficiency, and more powerful on-device AI capabilities. The Verge reports: Announced this morning through a press release, the new 14-inch MacBook Pro features three Thunder 4 USB-C ports that all support charging and DisplayPort connectivity, a MagSafe 3 charging port, full-size HDMI, and an SDXC memory card slot accommodating photographers. Pricing for the new M6 version of the 14-inch MacBook Pro starts at $1,999 with 16GB of memory, the same as last year's M5 model. Preorders start on October 28th and shipping is expected to begin on November 6th.

The new M6 processor is Apple's first 2nm chip with a bump to a 12-core CPU, up from 10 cores in the M5, and the company says it offers up to 1.2x faster multithreaded performance when compared to its predecessor. The M6 also features a Dual 16-core Neural Engine to handle heavy on-device AI tasks, plus an upgraded 12-core GPU with a Neural Accelerator in each core. In addition to performance improvements, Apple says its M6 processor is more power efficient.

https://apple.slashdot.org/story/26/10/27/1541235/apple-updates-macbook-pro-with-m6-chips?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://apple.slashdot.org/story/26/10/27/1541235/apple-updates-macbook-pro-with-m6-chips?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

In China, the AI Bubble Has Already Burst An anonymous reader ...

2026-10-27T15:00:00Z

In China, the AI Bubble Has Already Burst

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: While global tech stocks teeter, in China they have already crashed as lofty valuations collapse under worries about AI demand and curbs on Chinese exports. The meltdown, tanking the mainland STAR50 index of AI and semiconductor leaders by 40% in less than four months and vaporizing some $480 billion in market value, is an ill omen for wobbly world markets and a dampener on China's efforts at encouraging its savers into stocks to fund the AI boom. It has also slammed the brakes on a rally running two years, since economic stimulus promises sent shares soaring, and has stalled Beijing's push to break with a long boom-bust pattern and drive a "slow bull" market that delivers reliable performance. China's broad blue-chip index has dropped about 20% from highs made in June. "The stock market later evolved into a speculative crazy bull," said Beijing-based fund manager Dong Baozhen. "And now we see the bubble bursting." There was no clear trigger for the selloff in China, though traders pointed to high valuations, tax bills, and the threat of foreign bans on Chinese data center equipment. According to Goldman Sachs, AI stocks account for 42% of China's market capitalization and 57% of trading turnover, leaving investors widely exposed to the downturn.
"What's happening is now going to put a stop for many of the companies trying to get themselves listed," said Hong Hao, managing partner and chief investment officer at Lotus Asset Management in Hong Kong.

"Overemphasising the 'technology content' -- that is, the weighting of tech companies by market value in major indexes -- leads to a deviation, even a distortion, in capital behavior," said Leo Wang, partner at Beijing-based Qianchuang Capital. "This created a severe bubble in certain sectors and a serious drain on others."

"Just like all other Chinese manufacturers, (chipmakers and AI suppliers) will eventually end up in a price war," said fund manager Wang Zhuo, partner at Shanghai Zhuozhu Investment Management. "There's no exception," he said. "All bubbles inevitably burst."

https://slashdot.org/story/26/10/27/0218203/in-china-the-ai-bubble-has-already-burst?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://slashdot.org/story/26/10/27/0218203/in-china-the-ai-bubble-has-already-burst?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Denmark Gives Up On Replacing Microsoft Office With Collabora ...

2026-10-27T11:00:00Z

Denmark Gives Up On Replacing Microsoft Office With Collabora

Denmark's Ministry of Digitization reportedly abandoned a pilot to replace Microsoft Office with the open-source Collabora suite less than six months after it began. Tom's Hardware reports: According to Danish publication Computerworld, the pilot project was launched in 2025 and involved 38 employees, all of whom would start using the British open-source Collabora office suite instead of Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. The experiment was initiated by the then Digitization Minister Caroline Stage, who wanted to reduce the country's dependence on American technology. Denmark isn't alone in moving away from U.S. software, with France and the Netherlands both taking steps to replace Microsoft Windows. However, it seemed that the experiment fizzled out less than six months after it started. It had reportedly ended by the time the Danish government called for an early election in February 2026, with some employees complaining about issues with style, paragraph formatting, blank pages, and challenges with tracking changes.

But even though it's been months since the experiment reportedly ended, Prof. Mikkel Flyberbom of the Copenhagen Business School complains that the project hasn't been properly evaluated. "It's a good idea to test alternatives in a pilot project," the professor said in an email. "However, I wish that the ministry would take the opportunity to learn from the pilot project and share those experiences with other parts of the public sector."

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/26/2222246/denmark-gives-up-on-replacing-microsoft-office-with-collabora?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/26/2222246/denmark-gives-up-on-replacing-microsoft-office-with-collabora?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Industry Executives Knew For Decades That Microplastics Were ...

2026-10-27T07:00:00Z

Industry Executives Knew For Decades That Microplastics Were Infiltrating the Human Body

Susanne Rust of the Los Angeles Times reports (paywalled) that industry executives knew for decades that microplastics were infiltrating the human body. Slashdot reader joshuark shares an excerpt from the report: Scientists today say we're just beginning to understand the harm that the tiny bits of plastic we drink, eat and breathe are doing to the human body. Internal memos among company scientists and executives obtained by The Times reveal that for at least half a century, the plastics industry has been aware of and concerned about the potential for microplastic contamination in the human body. But recently discovered chemical company documents dating back several decades show that industry scientists have long been aware of -- and concerned about -- the way microplastic particles migrate beyond the gut in animals and humans, depositing in important organs. And the potential for that knowledge to affect the plastic food packaging industry.

Their concern goes back to 1974 and a scientific meeting at a New York City hotel, where a German gastroenterologist presented a scientific paper that showed for the first time that ingested particles like microplastics could infiltrate the rest of the body. His presentation was largely overlooked by the government scientists in attendance but became a point of worried discussion among company scientists. Tracey Woodruff, professor of epidemiology and population health at Stanford University, who reviewed the documents, said they indicate scientists and executives at major chemical companies have known and remained silent even as microplastics accumulated in tissues. She likened it to other industries that knew about pollutants -- greenhouse gases, asbestos and tobacco -- but did not take action to make them safer.

A spokesperson with the chemical industry's largest trade group took issue with that characterization. "Scientific debate over what the evidence shows is not silence. It is how sound science and effective policy advance," said Craig Davis, senior director of plastics chemistry at the American Chemistry Council. "Our industry is committed to advancing microplastics science by supporting independent research and policies that would do so."

https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/10/27/0232248/industry-executives-knew-for-decades-that-microplastics-were-infiltrating-the-human-body?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/10/27/0232248/industry-executives-knew-for-decades-that-microplastics-were-infiltrating-the-human-body?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

US Designates Helium As a Critical Material An anonymous reader ...

2026-10-27T03:30:00Z

US Designates Helium As a Critical Material

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: The U.S. designated helium as a critical material on Friday because it's indispensable for making semiconductors that are essential to energy generation, and the global supply is at risk of disruption, according to the Energy Department. The designation by the Energy Department means that more federal financing will be available for helium producers and that the government will monitor it more closely. Helium is primarily produced as a byproduct of natural gas processing. The United States is the world's largest producer of natural gas and of helium. Qatar and Russia are the other top helium producers.

[...] Helium makes balloons rise, but that's not why the DOE is interested in it. Helium plays an important role in wind, solar and nuclear energy production, space exploration, medical imaging and research. Assistant Secretary of Energy Audrey Robertson said helium's unique properties make it irreplaceable, such as the fact that it's non-combustible and has the lowest boiling point of any gas. The nation needs an ample supply for semiconductors, quantum and super computing, and superconducting magnets, added Robertson, who oversees the Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation.

[...] Despite environmental concerns with recovering helium from natural gas, there are also opportunities, said Greeshma Gadikota, director of the Lenfast Center for Sustainable Energy at Columbia University. "If we burn the natural gas, there are a lot of CO2 emissions associated with that," Gadikota said. "But if you just extract the helium and use it, the uses of it don't contribute necessarily to greenhouse gas emissions. "So from a climate standpoint, if we are going to continue down the line of extracting natural gas and recovering helium," she added, "I would prefer to see natural gas being used in a form where we directly produce hydrogen and we produce solid carbon." Hydrogen is a clean burning fuel, and solid carbon can provide permanent carbon sequestration and can be used widely in industrial applications, including rubber and pigments.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/10/26/227203/us-designates-helium-as-a-critical-material?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/10/26/227203/us-designates-helium-as-a-critical-material?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

PHP2Shell Security Flaws Now Successfully Exploited The critical ...

2026-10-26T23:00:00Z

PHP2Shell Security Flaws Now Successfully Exploited

The critical PHP2Shell vulnerabilities (CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619) have now been successfully exploited in the wild, just days after patches were released and initial exploitation attempts failed. BleepingComputer reports: The malicious activity was caught by Adel Karimi, detection and response lead at Perplexity, whose honeypots recorded evidence of confirmed remote code execution against an Apache mod_php installation running PHP 8.4.26. "This is now confirmed RCE with usable memory disclosure, not just a crash followed by a suspicious process. The response delivered an 800 KiB decoded cookie dump, and a function address derived from that dump using the public exploit's offsets appears in the subsequent execution payload," Karimi shared.

"The evidence demonstrates this chain on the intentionally favorable single-worker mod_php profile; it is not a measurement of exploit reliability on other worker counts, PHP builds, or applications," he added. Karimi's findings were also confirmed by Expel threat researcher Marcus Hutchins, who has been tracking a stream of alleged successful PHP2Shell exploitation reports.

"This is by far the highest quality confirmation of in-the-wild php2shell exploitation I've seen so far. Deep technical breakdown of a successful exploitation attempt against an Apache mod_php installation running PHP 8.4.26," Hutchins said.

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/10/26/2150206/php2shell-security-flaws-now-successfully-exploited?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/10/26/2150206/php2shell-security-flaws-now-successfully-exploited?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Skydance Offers Buyouts, Gives 5-Day RTO Order Skydance, as it ...

2026-10-26T22:00:00Z

Skydance Offers Buyouts, Gives 5-Day RTO Order

Skydance, as it begins integrating Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, is offering voluntary buyouts to some employees and imposing a five-day-a-week office requirement. Layoffs are also expected as the company targets more than $6 billion in annualized cost savings within three years. Variety reports: The new program was outlined by chairman and CEO David Ellison and co-CEO Ynon Kreiz in a memo to staffers Monday. "As we bring our teams together, we recognize that not everyone will see their future here, and we respect that. To give eligible employees the option to move on in a way that works for them, we are introducing a Voluntary Buyout (VBO) Program," the execs wrote. "Those who qualify will receive an individual communication with their personalized details and terms, and a window to decide whether to accept this one-time offer."

They added, "Please know we don't take any of this lightly. We are clear about what we're building: a company that tells the stories people around the world love, embraces new ways to connect with audiences, and leads the next era of media and entertainment. We have the talent, the creative firepower and the ambition to do it, and we will get there together."

[...] In the Oct. 26 memo, Ellison and Kreiz also said the new Skydance is moving to a mandatory five-days-per-week in-office policy across the company. "We believe in-person collaboration is vital to our culture and to the success of our business. Especially in a creative company like ours, the best ideas come from people in the same room, sharing perspectives, challenging one another and solving problems," the execs said. "We truly believe this is in the best interest of our company and our people. We've seen the benefits firsthand at Paramount, and we want every part of Skydance to share in them."

https://slashdot.org/story/26/10/26/2128235/skydance-offers-buyouts-gives-5-day-rto-order?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://slashdot.org/story/26/10/26/2128235/skydance-offers-buyouts-gives-5-day-rto-order?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Singapore Boffins Weave a GUI Into Fabric Researchers at the ...

2026-10-23T23:00:00Z

Singapore Boffins Weave a GUI Into Fabric

Researchers at the National University of Singapore have developed a machine-washable electronic fabric that can turn clothing into an interactive graphical user interface. The prototype reportedly survived 50 gentle machine washes and 1,000 bending cycles, though it still relies on external batteries and controllers. The Register reports: The development could lead - at some point - to a "future in which clothing functions as a pervasive, multimodal human-computer interface," according to the study published in peer-reviewed science journal Nature this week. The paper shows someone interacting with computing devices using the sleeve of a wool sweater (no jokes about the Windows ugly sweater please, this is serious). The researchers, led by Singapore National University research engineer Fu Heng, claim this is a big leap forward.

"This fiber-centric approach shifts wearable electronics from flexible panels toward truly textile-native architectures, laying the groundwork for fabrics that visualize, sense, communicate and compute as naturally as the garments they inhabit," the paper says. The researchers claim to have developed a scalable process to make millimeter-thick fibers. Using lasers to strip the insulation from specific spots on the thin copper wires, they attached light-emitting chips to the exposed sections, creating electrical connections to the chips. Thousands of chips were connected to the wires with extreme precision using this process.

The fibers were then fed into a transparent plastic tube, and made pressure-sensitive by adding two strips of a compressible, conductive polymer into a second longitudinal channel in the tube. The paper says they could make fibers 10 meters long using this method, and that they are thin and flexible enough to be woven into or attached to fabrics. The researchers were also able to add "peripherals" such as a microphone, a speaker, a temperature sensor and a light sensor.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/23/2048215/singapore-boffins-weave-a-gui-into-fabric?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/23/2048215/singapore-boffins-weave-a-gui-into-fabric?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

People Are Vibe Coding Their Way to Better TVs Frustrated by ...

2026-10-23T22:00:00Z

People Are Vibe Coding Their Way to Better TVs

Frustrated by intrusive ads, sluggish interfaces, and data tracking, smart TV owners are using AI coding tools and open-source projects to strip unwanted software from their televisions and build customized home screens. The Verge reports: Several vibe-coded TV-debloating projects exploded in popularity over the weekend. Cleanyourtv (known as tv-vibehack until the 19th), tv-detox, and dumbtv all claim to accomplish similar things -- remove sponsored ads, debloat the TV so it runs faster, and block unwanted data collection that tracks what you're watching -- without hacking, or rooting, the TV. By default, they all also replace the TV's built-in app launcher with simpler ones. Many users are going a step further and vibe-coding their own replacement launchers, like the Pokemon one below.

Most of the projects we've seen so far focus on TVs that run on Android and Google TV operating systems (such as TCL, Hisense, Sony, and older Amazon Fire products), using existing developer modes and the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) to tweak settings and apply (and remove) packages. According to the GitHub pages, they can also work with some Fire TV products that use a custom fork of Android (although likely not on the new Vega-based Fire TV Sticks). Because they use built-in developer tools, they don't require root access or firmware hacking, and they're reversible. Even projects that totally change the look of the interface just use Android's ability to install custom launchers -- in many cases with an assist from Claude Code or a similar tool to create the new launcher, too.

https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/26/10/23/2034217/people-are-vibe-coding-their-way-to-better-tvs?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/26/10/23/2034217/people-are-vibe-coding-their-way-to-better-tvs?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Greece Enacts Social Media Ban For Kids Under 15 Greece has ...

2026-10-23T21:00:00Z

Greece Enacts Social Media Ban For Kids Under 15

Greece has passed a law banning children under 15 from social media platforms beginning January 1, 2027. The legislation requires platforms to implement reliable age verification and parents to use government-backed apps to restrict access, with penalties for noncompliance under the EU's Digital Services Act. Engadget reports: "It would have been very easy to do absolutely nothing today and wait for the perfect European law. But the challenge is here. Children are sinking into the internet every day, and I believe a responsible government must do what it is obliged to do," said Greece's digital governance and AI minister, Dimitris Papastergiou.

The legislation was opposed by Greece's minority parties, so Mitsotakis used his majority government to pass the bill. The nation previously barred mobile phones in schools in 2024, and opinion polls show that the new social media ban for children is widely supported by Greece's adult population. Mitsotakis previously said that his government's "goal is to push the European Union in this direction as well."

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/23/1928227/greece-enacts-social-media-ban-for-kids-under-15?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/23/1928227/greece-enacts-social-media-ban-for-kids-under-15?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

SpaceX In Talks to Access 80,000 Cell Sites For New Network ...

2026-10-23T20:00:00Z

SpaceX In Talks to Access 80,000 Cell Sites For New Network

SpaceX is reportedly seeking access to at least 80,000 cellular tower sites across the U.S. as it prepares to launch Starlink Mobile as a fourth nationwide wireless carrier. "We will be building out our terrestrial networks so there's broad-based connectivity anywhere that SpaceX and Starlink are allowed to operate," Musk said during SpaceX's earnings call this week. Satellite launches plus spectrum acquisition "will pave the way for Starlink Mobile to become a major mobile carrier in the US," he said. Bloomberg reports: One of the companies they're in talks with is Crown Castle, which, along with American Tower and Vertical Bridge Holdings, are among the largest owners of cellular towers. When asked on a Wednesday earnings conference call whether Crown Castle is discussing leases with SpaceX, Amazon.com or other satellite-based telecom providers, Chief Executive Officer Chris Hillabrant said, "You can assume that we're talking to all parties." He declined to discuss specific customer details.

Mobile networks rely on antennas placed on towers across the country to transmit wireless signals. Carriers such as AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and T-Mobile US Inc. typically lease room for their equipment at the tower sites because it's more cost effective than owning and maintaining them, in part because the facilities can be shared. The value of the deals with SpaceX could reach into the billions.

https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/26/10/23/1916222/spacex-in-talks-to-access-80000-cell-sites-for-new-network?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/26/10/23/1916222/spacex-in-talks-to-access-80000-cell-sites-for-new-network?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Knicks Sent Employees Fake Offer of Championship Rings In ...

2026-10-23T19:05:00Z

Knicks Sent Employees Fake Offer of Championship Rings In Phishing Test

The New York Knicks reportedly sent employees a fake offer of complimentary NBA championship rings as part of an internal phishing test, requiring anyone who clicked the link to attend mandatory cybersecurity training. "Congratulations, your Employee Championship Ring is here," the email said. According to The New York Times, Madison Square Garden employees who clicked that link "were forced to attend a mandatory cybersecurity class to help satisfy some of [owner James] Dolan's growing cybersecurity concerns." Ars Technica reports: The offer wasn't implausible, either. "Typically, most employees for NBA teams receive rings, even if they are not as fancy and expensive as the ones the players receive," wrote Joe Vardon, senior NBA writer for The Athletic, which was bought by The New York Times in 2022 and then merged into the parent news organization. Vardon's article was primarily about how Knicks assistant coaches did not get rings on Tuesday when the team raised its first league championship banner since 1973. The assistant coaches were handed boxes without rings inside, though they are expected to receive rings later on.

"Ring orders, designs, and measurements can take time, and not every coaching staff for every defending champion gets its rings on ring night... The Knicks assistants were told they would receive championship rings eventually, but many longtime employees at Madison Square Garden, including some who work in the Knicks' business operations, will not receive rings at all, team sources told The Athletic," Vardon wrote. MSG employee hopes were raised "at the end of September when the Knicks sent an email to a long list of employees, which gave recipients a first glimpse at their would-be championship rings," Vardon wrote. The email included "a graphic of two differently styled rings" that the lucky employees could supposedly choose from, the article said.

"(Employee name), this one is on the house. MSG is issuing a complimentary employee championship ring. The same jeweler, the same craftsmanship, personalized with your name. No cost to you," the email said. "There are two designs to choose from: Championship Gold and Garden Classic. Reserve the one you want below." Vardon wrote that "multiple team sources" confirmed the email was a phishing test. It's not clear how many employees clicked the link or whether any of the employees who received the email will eventually get some type of championship ring. We contacted the Madison Square Garden Sports organization with these questions and will update this article if we get a response.

https://it.slashdot.org/story/26/10/23/193208/knicks-sent-employees-fake-offer-of-championship-rings-in-phishing-test?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://it.slashdot.org/story/26/10/23/193208/knicks-sent-employees-fake-offer-of-championship-rings-in-phishing-test?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Left Alone With Nothing To Do, AI Agents Started Playing An ...

2026-10-23T18:00:00Z

Left Alone With Nothing To Do, AI Agents Started Playing

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: AI agents left to explore a virtual island without a specific task began inventing challenges of their own. MIT researchers say the behavior bears the hallmarks of play. The researchers put 13 AI agents called Eko, each running on Claude Opus 4.7, alone on a simulated desert island for 30 hours. They describe the experiment in a paper posted on arXiv, a site where researchers share studies before peer review. Afterward, they gave the agents specific challenges, like getting as many objects as possible onto the island's tallest rock spire. The Eko agents that had spent those 30 hours playing generally beat identical agents that had never set foot on the island.

Today, developers decide in advance what AI should practice and what counts as success. The researchers see this technique -- exploring without a goal -- as a different way for AI agents to learn skills, especially skills that could one day be used to control robots. "We normally develop artificial agents by deciding in advance what they should practice, what they should optimize, and what counts as progress," the researchers write in their report. "Play suggests another regime: give an agent a sufficiently rich and safe world, let it choose what is interesting, and allow useful knowledge to accumulate from the history that follows." UC Berkeley cognitive scientist Eunice Yiu told MIT Technology Review she was impressed with the findings but that more evidence is needed to determine whether AI models are genuinely playing. "It could be the case that the models are genuinely playing, but we don't know based on the paper," says Yiu. "If you only have the behavioral piece, it could be the case that they're just trying to abide by the prompt, trying to imitate humans."

MIT professor and coauthor of the paper, Phillip Isola, added: "It's not like this is a system that just suddenly magically decided to play. It's an artifact that learned from our culture, was trained by engineers at Anthropic, and was then placed on an island by us. It does things that surprise us and that are causally related to its future skillful behavior."

https://slashdot.org/story/26/10/23/1647249/left-alone-with-nothing-to-do-ai-agents-started-playing?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://slashdot.org/story/26/10/23/1647249/left-alone-with-nothing-to-do-ai-agents-started-playing?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Microsoft Announces Per-Hour Cost for Xbox Cloud Gaming Service ...

2026-10-23T17:00:00Z

Microsoft Announces Per-Hour Cost for Xbox Cloud Gaming Service

Microsoft has revealed pay-as-you-go pricing for Xbox Cloud Gaming, with introductory packages costing $3.99 for 10 hours, $7.99 for 25 hours, or $11.99 for 50 hours. Starting in November, Game Pass subscribers will receive only 5 to 15 included cloud-gaming hours depending on their tier and will have to buy additional time -- even to stream games they've already purchased. Gizmodo reports: Back in September, before these changes were announced, you paid full purchase price for a game that isn't in the Game Pass library on the assumption that you'd be able to play it via cloud streaming. Maybe your hardware doesn't meet the specs for this fancy new game. Maybe your gaming PC exploded/got stuck on a ship/had a component fail. Maybe you just want to be able to play it in bed on your laptop. Whatever. Now you find that in addition to the cost of the game you bought, you're going to be paying by the hour to play it once your monthly allotment of hours is up. If this is you, I expect you're not particularly amused. Thankfully, Microsoft notes that the playtime you purchase "remains available until it's used," so you won't have to worry about losing any unused time between gaming sessions.

https://games.slashdot.org/story/26/10/23/1636239/microsoft-announces-per-hour-cost-for-xbox-cloud-gaming-service?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://games.slashdot.org/story/26/10/23/1636239/microsoft-announces-per-hour-cost-for-xbox-cloud-gaming-service?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Ukraine Is Wiping Out Data Centers Across the Border Ukrainian ...

2026-10-23T16:00:00Z

Ukraine Is Wiping Out Data Centers Across the Border

Ukrainian drone strikes have damaged three major Yandex data centers as well as facilities serving Sberbank and VKontakte (the country's equivalent to Facebook), disrupting cloud services, banking, e-commerce, ride-hailing and other digital services across Russia. The attacks may deal a longer-lasting blow to Russia's AI ambitions: Yandex's affected facilities housed its three top-500 supercomputers, and experts say sanctions and shortages of high-end Nvidia chips could make repairs difficult or even take years. "This effectively sets Russia far behind in the AI race, "said Mikhail Klimarev, head of the Internet Protection Society activist group. Fortune reports: Data centers are the latest targets of aerial campaigns waged by both sides against each other's vital infrastructure. [...] Kyiv's attacks on Russian data centers closely followed Moscow's recent strikes on data centers in Ukraine, which disrupted the internet and TV broadcasts. On Oct. 8, Ukrainian drones hit a Yandex data center in Sasovo in the Ryazan region that houses two of the company's three supercomputers. A data center in Kaluga was hit a day later and the one in Vladimir was struck Oct. 11.

The data center and AI hub for Sberbank was hit Oct. 14 in Balakovo in the Saratov region, and four days later, Kyiv struck a data center in St. Petersburg serving VKontakte. While oil refineries and warehouses are easy prey, data centers are even softer targets -- massive buildings packed with servers and supporting power and cooling infrastructure. Lasting damage can result from a drone carrying a relatively light load of explosives.

[...] Ukraine has stored critical data on servers in allied European countries, helping limit the damage from Russian attacks. But Moscow's strict digital sovereignty policy requires all data storage at home, making it extremely vulnerable. "Because all the infrastructure and all the data is located inside Russia, it's relatively easier to take down," [said Nick Reiners, senior geotechnology analyst at Eurasia Group]. Klimarev predicted the data center attacks could encourage many top Russian companies to move data abroad, while the authorities could ease their efforts to tighten internet controls to minimize the damage.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/23/0153232/ukraine-is-wiping-out-data-centers-across-the-border?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/23/0153232/ukraine-is-wiping-out-data-centers-across-the-border?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Comcast Loses More Customers, Claims Other ISPs' Cheap Prices ...

2026-10-23T15:00:00Z

Comcast Loses More Customers, Claims Other ISPs' Cheap Prices Are 'Irrational'

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Comcast reportedly plans significant job cuts in its cable division as the firm continues to lose residential broadband and TV customers. Comcast lost 144,000 residential broadband customers in Q3 2026, up from a 91,000-customer loss in the same quarter a year ago, the company said in its earnings report today. Comcast historically capitalized on a lack of competition for high-speed wired broadband. But now it faces stronger competition from fixed wireless providers and from fiber providers in parts of its cable territory. "Fixed wireless remains aggressive and continues to take share, while fiber construction remains elevated, with pockets of irrational pricing and promotional activity," Comcast co-CEO Mike Cavanagh said today in an earnings call.

Comcast CFO Jason Armstrong said "irrational pricing" from fiber operators includes $30 to $40 monthly broadband offers "in specific markets in the third quarter." He said $30 to $40 pricing is irrational because deploying fiber costs $1,500 or more per home, and is "getting more expensive with construction costs up as you get into more suburban and rural areas." "As we look at the return profile of that, to us, that is irrational competition," Armstrong said. While he didn't name any specific competitors, Verizon has been pitching FiOS fiber plans that start at $30 a month. Comcast's network is a mix of fiber and cable, and it offers fiber-to-the-home in only small portions of its cable territory.

Armstrong said more Comcast customers are leaving when they face "pricing transitions," apparently referring to the price hikes customers get when promotional offers expire. "We've been refining our offers and retention strategies to better manage these transitions and strengthen customer retention," he said. Cavanagh said that "satellite is not yet a material factor" in the competition Comcast faces, but that Comcast is focused on "anticipating emerging forms of competition and positioning our business to respond as the market evolves."

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/23/0143254/comcast-loses-more-customers-claims-other-isps-cheap-prices-are-irrational?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/23/0143254/comcast-loses-more-customers-claims-other-isps-cheap-prices-are-irrational?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Physicists Trap a Single Antimatter Particle For a Month ...

2026-10-23T11:00:00Z

Physicists Trap a Single Antimatter Particle For a Month

Physicists at Northwestern University have successfully trapped a single positron for an entire month, allowing researchers to study its quantum properties with unprecedented precision. "Further investigations using the trap might reveal the secret of why the world around us is made of matter and not antimatter, when things could have presumably gone either way," reports Scientific American. From the report: Every normal particle of matter has an antimatter counterpart with equal mass but opposite charge. To build their trap, physicists started with atoms of sodium 22, a radioactive isotope with a half-life of about two and a half years. When one of these atoms decays, it emits a positron -- the antimatter counterpart of the electron. "The big challenge is to persuade these positrons to slow down and then capture them," says Gerald Gabrielse, a physicist at Northwestern University, who oversaw the project. The team reported its achievement on Wednesday in Physical Review Letters (PDF).

The first step is to send the positrons through the crystal lattice of a sliver of cold tungsten. As the particles go pinballing through the material, they slow down and lose energy. "Every time they bang into something, there's a chance of annihilation, but it doesn't always happen," Gabrielse says. "If they make it to the end, they get popped out." Next, the physicists steer the positrons along a channel using electromagnetic fields. Eventually the particles end up in a vacuum, just three tenths of a degree Celsius above absolute zero, trapped by an electric field on top and bottom and a magnetic field on the sides. "If you want to hold on to antimatter, you have to hold it in a container without walls," Gabrielse says. This method allowed the researchers to isolate and study a solitary, lone positron for a monthâ"and could let them do so indefinitely.

The researchers intend to use their trap to make precise measurements of the positron's magnetic moment -- basically the strength and orientation of its magnetic field. To do this, they must determine two things: the energy needed to flip the direction of the positron's spin and the energy needed to make it jump from its ground state to its first excited state. Using a similar trap setup, Gabrielse and his team have already measured the magnetic moment of an electron to a precision of one part in 10 trillion. Taking the equivalent measurement for a positron will allow them to make a crucial comparison. "We're looking to see if they have an exactly opposite magnetic moment," Gabrielse says. That's the prediction of the Standard Model of particle physics. If the two have different values, however, this could help explain why our universe is made of matter instead of antimatter.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/10/23/021237/physicists-trap-a-single-antimatter-particle-for-a-month?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/10/23/021237/physicists-trap-a-single-antimatter-particle-for-a-month?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

UN Says Breaching 1.5C Warming Limit Is 'Imminent and ...

2026-10-23T07:00:00Z

UN Says Breaching 1.5C Warming Limit Is 'Imminent and Unavoidable'

For the first time, the UN has declared that exceeding the Paris Agreement's 1.5C warming limit is "imminent and unavoidable." "We are now saying this window has closed, but we can open it again by making the overshoot as brief as possible," UN Environment Program Executive Director Inger Andersen said on a call with reporters. "This is about how to find a way back as shortly and as quickly as possible with as limited an overshoot as possible." CNN reports: Past reports have examined the distance between countries' emissions reduction commitments and what it would take to limit global warming to 1.5 C above preindustrial levels. However, this year's report redefines the gap. Instead, it examines new emissions overshoot scenarios, and what it would take to limit peak warming to just 1.7 to 1.8 degrees C before bringing temperatures back down to 1.5 C through emissions cuts and the use of carbon removal technologies.

The report makes clear that every additional fraction of a degree of warming above 1.5 C "raises the risk of irreversible changes including in ice sheets, permafrost carbon, ocean circulation, and coral systems, along with devastating human impacts." Each added fraction of a degree of warming can have an "immense" impact "as measured in terms of damage, cost and loss of lives," said climate scientist Michael Mann of the University of Pennsylvania. Mann was not involved in producing the UNEP report.

According to the UNEP, which is based in Nairobi, the lowest overshoot scenario would keep peak warming to between 1.7 and 1.8 degrees C and return global average temperatures to at or below 1.5 C by 2100. However, to follow such a pathway, global greenhouse gas emissions would need to be slashed by far more than anything currently on the table at the upcoming COP31 talks. This would require an 18% cut by 2030, 45% by 2035, and 69% by 2040, relative to 2025 levels.

Meeting this lowest-possible overshoot scenario would require a tripling of renewable electricity capacity by 2035, and dramatic cuts to fossil fuels, including the phaseout of coal by 2040, the report states. In addition, there would need to be a major scaling up of carbon removal technologies, which so far have not been proven to work at such a large scale. In stark contrast to these figures, the fulfillment of existing emissions reduction pledges would only yield a 5-to-8% emissions cut by 2030 and an 11-to-15% reduction by 2035, the report found. This would be associated with a peak warming of about 2.6 degrees C.

If countries simply follow their current policies, then warming could reach a peak of about 2.8 C. That estimate has increased since last year, in part because of the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement and retraction of its emissions reduction commitments, the report states. Even the scenario that assumes countries meet their existing reduction commitments, and nations with net-zero pledges succeed in fulfilling them, still brings warming to a peak of 2.1 C.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/10/23/0031209/un-says-breaching-15c-warming-limit-is-imminent-and-unavoidable?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/10/23/0031209/un-says-breaching-15c-warming-limit-is-imminent-and-unavoidable?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Unvetted AI Agents Are Accessing US Bank Accounts An anonymous ...

2026-10-23T03:30:00Z

Unvetted AI Agents Are Accessing US Bank Accounts

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Axios: Major U.S. banks are detecting unauthorized third-party AI agents operating inside customer accounts, with some agents attempting to take actions that appear to be independent of user instructions, sources tell Axios. The difficulty in distinguishing between a human and an unauthorized bot is forcing banks to block the technology and rapidly rewrite their terms of service. [...] This presents significant security risks: banking executives fear the steps agents with login access might take, especially if a user has granted purchase authority or the ability to shift funds. In other instances, some banks have tracked activity when agents -- programmed to fulfill requests or complete tasks on a user's behalf -- contact call centers or appear to take actions independent of user instructions, the people said.

Bank executives described the situation as horrifying, with one official saying the industry has grave concerns about agents gaining access to customer accounts and taking steps that could impact user finances. The concerns are at the root of the decision by several banks to restrict third-party AI agent access, the people said. Morgan Stanley has begun blocking third-party agents from accessing its platforms, sources familiar with the decision said. JPMorgan, Bank of America and Citi are also restricting agents. [...] Many banks are broadly not able to parse whether agent account activity is user-directed, sources said.

[...] On one hand, banks are best positioned to respond to the threats and opportunities of AI given their cash on hand and experience as critical infrastructure. But money isn't necessarily enough to solve this problem, one source said, because of how quickly the technology is developing and revealing new weaknesses in real time. Banks are investing in preventing worst-case scenarios, but they are also preparing for when those could happen, including with "day after" scenario planning that would allow them to quickly secure or restore customer access, sources said.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/10/23/0023257/unvetted-ai-agents-are-accessing-us-bank-accounts?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/10/23/0023257/unvetted-ai-agents-are-accessing-us-bank-accounts?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

To Make Way For Data Centers, Google Will Pay Others to Use Less ...

2026-10-22T23:00:00Z

To Make Way For Data Centers, Google Will Pay Others to Use Less Power

Google is funding one of the nation's largest "virtual power plants," paying homes and businesses indirectly to reduce electricity consumption during periods of peak demand so more grid capacity can be available for data centers. Under its expanded deal with Voltus, the program could provide up to 1,070 megawatts in the Mid-Atlantic PJM grid -- roughly the output of a large nuclear reactor. The New York Times reports: That electricity won't come from new power plants. Instead, Voltus will sign up homes and businesses and give them financial incentives to curb their usage when local power demand is high or the grid is strained. Many of these reductions could occur automatically, such as through smart thermostats that dial back air-conditioning during peak summer hours or batteries that can provide temporary on-site power.

Each of these tweaks frees up only a small amount of power on its own. But by aggregating them across thousands of businesses and homes, Voltus says it can reliably provide lots of extra capacity when it's most needed, and do so within a few years. While tech companies will likely ultimately need to build traditional power plants if they want to keep building large data centers, this approach could be a faster, cheaper and less-polluting option in the interim. "We really see virtual power plants as a critical short-term solution," said Ellen Zuckerman, head of energy market development for North and South America at Google. "It's a way to invest in our communities, really double down on our clean energy ambition, but also meet capacity at speed and scale."

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/10/22/180226/to-make-way-for-data-centers-google-will-pay-others-to-use-less-power?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/10/22/180226/to-make-way-for-data-centers-google-will-pay-others-to-use-less-power?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Microsoft Says October Updates Didn't Actually Fix VPN Issues ...

2026-10-22T22:00:00Z

Microsoft Says October Updates Didn't Actually Fix VPN Issues

joshuark shares a report from BleepingComputer: Microsoft says it mistakenly flagged a bug causing Always On VPN connection issues as fixed in the October 2026 Windows 11 cumulative updates. Always On VPN replaced the legacy DirectAccess technology and supports domain-joined, non-domain-joined, and Microsoft Entra ID-joined devices running Windows 10, Windows 11, and Windows Server. It runs in the background and establishes secure tunnels back to the user's corporate network whenever their device connects to the internet.

Microsoft first acknowledged the issue in a service alert sent to IT administrators in late September, saying it was triggered on systems running Windows 11 24H2 and later after installing the September 2026 security updates when the initial Always On VPN connection failed (e.g., when using automatic protocol selection with IKEv2 and SSTP). "When automatic protocol selection or protocol fallback was configured, affected VPN connections could remain stuck in a Connecting state or fail to connect after an initial connection attempt failed," it said. "In some cases, subsequent connection attempts could display the error, 'The specified port is already in use.'"

After releasing the October 2026 Patch Tuesday Windows 11 cumulative updates, Microsoft marked the bug as resolved, but in a Tuesday update it said the issues weren't actually addressed and that a fix would ship later. "This disclosure was mistakenly updated to Resolved status on October 13, 2026. We have returned its status to Mitigated," it said in a service alert sent to IT admins. "A resolution for this issue is planned to be included in an update to be released in the coming weeks. We apologize for any inconvenience or confusion." While Microsoft continues working on a permanent solution, it shared a temporary fix that requires affected customers to choose one of two VPN tunneling protocols to work around the issue.

https://it.slashdot.org/story/26/10/22/1950254/microsoft-says-october-updates-didnt-actually-fix-vpn-issues?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://it.slashdot.org/story/26/10/22/1950254/microsoft-says-october-updates-didnt-actually-fix-vpn-issues?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

The Browser Company Retires Its Arc Browser, Pushes Users to Dia ...

2026-10-22T21:00:00Z

The Browser Company Retires Its Arc Browser, Pushes Users to Dia

The Browser Company is shutting down its Arc browser on December 22 and encouraging users to migrate to Dia, its newer AI-powered browser for Apple Silicon Macs and Windows 11 PCs. Thurrott reports: In the message explaining why it was sunsetting Arc, The Browser Company explained that maintaining two separate browsers was difficult to justify, especially from a security perspective. "Dia was built from the ground up to meet today's security standards, so that's where our engineering and security teams will focus moving forward," the company wrote.

The retirement of Arc will be gradual: While nothing changes for existing Arc users, it's no longer possible to create new Arc accounts as of today. On November 23, tab sync, Browse for Me, and other AI features will be disabled on the iOS and Android versions of Arc. Lastly, the desktop version of Arc will stop working on December 22, and Arc accounts will be deactivated.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/22/1944228/the-browser-company-retires-its-arc-browser-pushes-users-to-dia?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/22/1944228/the-browser-company-retires-its-arc-browser-pushes-users-to-dia?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Moderna Shares Plunge After Leak of Cancer Vaccine Data Moderna ...

2026-10-22T20:01:00Z

Moderna Shares Plunge After Leak of Cancer Vaccine Data

Moderna shares plunged as much as 25% after partial clinical trial data leaked for its personalized cancer vaccine developed with Merck, despite the full results showing promising outcomes for melanoma patients. Analysts attribute the selloff largely to inflated investor expectations rather than disappointing clinical results. CNBC reports: The personalized vaccine, known as intismeran autogene, paired with Merck's immunotherapy Keytruda reduced the risk of recurrence or death in certain melanoma patients by 42% compared with Keytruda alone. The data also showed the shot along with Keytruda reduced the risk of cancer spreading to distant parts of the body or death by 38%, compared with just the immunotherapy. The companies say about 82% of patients who received the personalized cancer vaccine alongside Keytruda were alive without their melanoma returning at two years, compared with 70% of those who received Keytruda alone.

[...] Investors see the targeted vaccine as a possible breakthrough treatment, with the potential to be used in other forms of cancer in the future. It could also offer Moderna a critical additional commercial product in its pipeline, following vaccines for Covid-19, the flu and respiratory syncytial virus. "We assert this relative reduction in recurrence/death is clinically meaningful," said BMO Capital Markets analyst Evan Seigerman. "Such a reaction likely reflects inflated expectations into the full data release, rather than a true indictment on the efficacy of the combo therapy."

UBS analysts said "this is overall a strong data set" and gives more confidence in upcoming studies of the vaccine in kidney and bladder cancers. They added the stock reaction may be due more to massive expectations than disappointing data.

https://slashdot.org/story/26/10/22/200209/moderna-shares-plunge-after-leak-of-cancer-vaccine-data?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://slashdot.org/story/26/10/22/200209/moderna-shares-plunge-after-leak-of-cancer-vaccine-data?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Bose Is Buying Skullcandy An anonymous reader quotes a report ...

2026-10-22T19:00:00Z

Bose Is Buying Skullcandy

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Longtime audio giant Bose announced on Wednesday that it's acquiring Skullcandy, the lifestyle brand known for its bass-heavy headphones. Skullcandy will remain a separate company within Bose's Premium Consumer Audio business and will still be based in Park City, Utah.

The acquisition isn't out of left field. Bose has lent its audio expertise to Skullcandy over the past year under its Sound by Bose licensing program. Skullcandy designs the headphones and then works with Bose on the audio front. The relationship began with the Skullcandy Method 360 ANC earbuds in 2025 and more recently, with the Crusher 1080 ANC headphones in July.

[...] This is hardly Bose's first audio acquisition (though it may be the most mainstream). Bose acquired McIntosh Group, owners of luxury audio brands McIntosh Laboratory and Sonus Faber, back in 2024. But Bose seems to be after Skullcandy's connection to its community. "What does the brand stand for? Does it have meaning for consumers? Is it relevant to a group of consumers that, frankly, we otherwise aren't reaching?" Bose CEO Lila Snyder tells WIRED. "If you think about McIntosh, Sonus Faber, and Skullcandy, they all fit into that realm. Skullcandy gives us access to a customer base that we think we're largely missing with the Bose brand."

That's why Bose has no plans to relocate Skullcandy from Park City, Utah, which Snyder says is the epicenter of board sports culture. "We want to make sure we're right at the heart of it, as they always have been," she says. Skullcandy products are also affordable, especially compared to other Bose products and Bose-owned brands, which lets Bose compete at both ends of the market.

https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/26/10/22/1737238/bose-is-buying-skullcandy?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/26/10/22/1737238/bose-is-buying-skullcandy?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Zoe Kleinman: PHP Is the Cyber Equivalent of an Unexploded Bomb ...

2026-10-22T18:00:00Z

Zoe Kleinman: PHP Is the Cyber Equivalent of an Unexploded Bomb

BBC technology editor Zoe Kleinman likens the recently discovered PHP security vulnerabilities to an unexploded bomb, writing, "The PHP story feels like the cyber equivalent of an unexploded bomb -- I have never seen such a dramatic, public and global response to a cyber event that hasn't happened yet." Although no successful attacks have been confirmed, the AI-assisted discovery of long-hidden flaws has triggered a worldwide security scramble, with websites taken offline as a precaution and administrators racing to deploy patches before attackers can exploit the vulnerabilities. From the report: The weaknesses found in the PHP programming language, which is used by millions of websites, had been quietly resting there for years and are not easy to exploit. One cyber security researcher told me he'd been up all night trying to do it as an experiment, but it was proving very difficult. [...] It was supposed to be kept quiet until everyone had a chance to fix their sites -- but the news was leaked. From that point the clock started ticking.

As I write this, there are no reports that anyone or anything has succeeded in using the flaws to attack a site. "There's a real dilemma," said Prof Alan Woodward from Surrey University. "How do you alert people they need to be ready, and then that a patch is urgently required, whilst not alerting attackers? Basically you're telling everyone about the problem at the same time and hoping the defenders aren't awake enough to act as soon as the patch is out."

But we do know from large web companies like Cloudflare and Palo Alto Networks that millions of attempts have been made. We probably won't know for a while whether it has worked for any criminals, because the companies affected might not be aware yet either. As far as we know the unexploded bomb remains intact for now, and for some experts this is a success. "We've seen how a team of people supported by the large AI company have used AI to find the problem, work for months together to solve it and get everybody ready to be safe and secure," Gina Neff, Professor of Responsible AI at Queen Mary University, told the Today Program on BBC Radio 4. "We have enormous capability to handle these risks."

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/22/1717246/zoe-kleinman-php-is-the-cyber-equivalent-of-an-unexploded-bomb?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/22/1717246/zoe-kleinman-php-is-the-cyber-equivalent-of-an-unexploded-bomb?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Anthropic Takes On Muse With Claude Duet Anthropic has launched ...

2026-10-22T17:00:00Z

Anthropic Takes On Muse With Claude Duet

Anthropic has launched Claude Duet, an AI agent aimed at professionals and small businesses that competes with Meta's Muse and OpenAI's Dots. Here's Anthropic's description of what it can do: Each morning, it sends you a short brief on the most important items across your connected apps. Throughout the day, it keeps tabs on those apps and messages you only when something needs your attention. You can also hand it tasks of all shapes -- from simple administrative tasks of scheduling meetings to more complex ones, such as building dashboards with dozens of tools, creating financial or sales forecasts, prototyping, and building web apps. The Verge reports: Claude Duet pulls in memory, skills, and connected apps from Claude, and it has a virtual machine with a browser that it can use for completing work. Before any big step, like sending a payment or deleting something, Claude Duet messages you for approval. Given that Duet may be taking action on sensitive information, it has a new "new dedicated classifier and safety system prompt" that are "designed to reject requests to share the strictest tier of information," such as credit card numbers.

Anthropic says Claude Duet is currently an "early version" and that it "still might misread a thread or miscalibrate what's urgent." It's also not "as strong" at personal errands like booking tickets.

https://slashdot.org/story/26/10/22/1629209/anthropic-takes-on-muse-with-claude-duet?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://slashdot.org/story/26/10/22/1629209/anthropic-takes-on-muse-with-claude-duet?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Several Linux Kernel Vulnerabilities Accidentally Posted To ...

2026-10-22T16:16:00Z

Several Linux Kernel Vulnerabilities Accidentally Posted To Public Kernel Mailing List

Trend Micro's Zero Day Initiative appears to have accidentally disclosed several unpatched Linux kernel vulnerabilities on the public LKML instead of the private security list, including two CVSS 9.0 flaws that could enable remote code execution through SMB Direct and KSMBD. "This seemingly was a mistake with Linux's second-in-command Greg Kroah-Hartman responding to each report asking about their submission to the public mailing list," adds Phoronix. The newly-disclosed vulnerabilities include: ZDI-CAN-33549 as a CVSS 9.0 scored vulnerability for SMB Direct remote code execution vulnerability due to integer underflow. For this one there is a patch in a Git branch of code intended for Linux v7.5 but now presumably will be expedited for getting to mainline.

ZDI-CAN-33774 as a KSMBD race condition that can lead to remote code execution. Another CVSS 9.0 rated vulnerability.

ZDI-CAN-33367 is a vulneravbility for skbuff skb_zerocopy in the network code that can lead to local privilege escalation. For this one Linux kernel developers received a security report from another source last week over the same issue and a patch is expected to be posted soon.

ZDI-CAN-34068 as a VMWGFX VMware graphics driver bug with an out-of-bounds write leading to local privilege escalation.

ZDI-CAN-34076 an uninitialized resource in the NVMET code leading to information disclosure.

ZDI-CAN-32005 was also posted to the mailing list a day prior for a search-domain TCP query stack buffer overflow leading to local privilege escalation.

https://it.slashdot.org/story/26/10/22/1612227/several-linux-kernel-vulnerabilities-accidentally-posted-to-public-kernel-mailing-list?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://it.slashdot.org/story/26/10/22/1612227/several-linux-kernel-vulnerabilities-accidentally-posted-to-public-kernel-mailing-list?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Google Staff Resign In Backlash Over Its AI Contracts With ...

2026-10-22T15:00:00Z

Google Staff Resign In Backlash Over Its AI Contracts With Military

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: Google is facing a backlash from some staff members over the company's deployment of its AI technology for military use. The BBC has spoken to several tech workers who have either recently resigned from Google's AI company, Google DeepMind, or are in the process of leaving, over concerns with the tech firm's military contracts. Sofia Liguori, a London-based research engineer, is one of them. She resigned from Google DeepMind this week and spoke about her concerns exclusively with the BBC, despite her contract restricting her from doing so.

"Realizing my company is pushing more and more for AI systems in military operations makes me feel ashamed to work at Google," Liguori said, speaking in a personal capacity. [...] After working for the company for three years, Liguori said she decided to resign over Google's increasing work with the US and Israeli militaries. "I don't agree with this direction and this has led me to lose faith in my company being true to its stated ethical values," she said. Those values, according to Google's AI Principles, include implementing AI with "human oversight" and aligning the technology with "international law and human rights." But former and current staff at the company, and experts the BBC spoke to, said they were concerned about the level of human oversight at critical moments.

The tech workers said they are particularly worried about the AI military deals signed this year, because they greatly increase the scope of what the Pentagon can use the technology for. Andreas Kirsch, an AI researcher, also resigned from Google DeepMind earlier this month over his concerns. Kirsch told the BBC that he believes "Google's governance and oversight are not sufficient or meaningful enough to deploy AI safely and responsibly in military and classified settings" or "to develop artificial superintelligence safely in the future." "Google seems to have no right to control or veto how the Pentagon uses its AI and also seems to have limited visibility into how it's being deployed," he added.

[...] Employees at Google have told the BBC that staff are scared to speak out about AI safety and its uses in warfare because their employment contracts prohibit them from publicly criticizing the company. "In principle I'm not allowed to criticize Google for the duration of my life," Sofia Liguori told the BBC. But she decided to do so "because I believe it's important for these things to be known and I also think that talking about facts is not criticizing." Liguori added that at Google "people are scared of retaliation and putting their career at risk. You feel you are being watched, you can't speak."

A current employee at Google DeepMind, who declined to be named for fear of retaliation, told the BBC that "a lot of motivated employees who signed up for [the company's] original mission could leave -- but there's also a pipeline of people at the start of the careers who could fill those positions. It could be a changing of the guard." Another Google DeepMind staff member, who also wished to remain anonymous, told the BBC: "A lot of people have left the company that feel strongly about this [how Google DeepMind has changed its ethics position]." "Some people are putting up a fight, others are thinking: 'it's a big company. What do you expect to change?'", the employee said. In response, a Google spokesperson told the BBC: "We work with public sector organisations worldwide and follow a consistent process for reviewing and entering these contracts, including compliance with our acceptable use policies and AI principles."

"We also have dedicated channels for employees to safely raise any concerns -- ranging from business ethics to misconduct -- and have strict workplace policies in place to prevent retaliation of any kind."

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/22/0043216/google-staff-resign-in-backlash-over-its-ai-contracts-with-military?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/22/0043216/google-staff-resign-in-backlash-over-its-ai-contracts-with-military?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

America's War Department Will Test Heat Ray Weapon For ...

2026-10-22T07:00:00Z

America's War Department Will Test Heat Ray Weapon For Potential Use

Longtime Slashdot reader destinyland shares a report from CNN: The Pentagon has given the Department of Homeland Security permission to test a military-grade heat ray and develop tactics to potentially use it in operations at the southern US border, according to a memo signed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last month and obtained by CNN. The heat ray, officially known as the Active Denial System, is a nonlethal weapon that shoots an invisible beam of electromagnetic waves that can reach a little more than half a mile away, according to the US military. The energy beam causes a burning sensation when it comes into contact with the human skin -- which Pentagon officials have previously compared to feeling a blast of heat when opening a hot oven. Military officials have said the resulting "tingling effect" lasts between 10 and 15 minutes but also generates "an instinctive and irresistible urge to run from the effect."

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/22/0020206/americas-war-department-will-test-heat-ray-weapon-for-potential-use?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/22/0020206/americas-war-department-will-test-heat-ray-weapon-for-potential-use?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Startup Claims To Use AI-Created Viruses To Treat a Patient An ...

2026-10-22T03:30:00Z

Startup Claims To Use AI-Created Viruses To Treat a Patient

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: For the first time, scientists say they have used viruses designed by artificial intelligence to treat a human patient. Researchers announced on Tuesday that they had administered the virus, known as a phage, to a patient suffering from a deadly bacterial infection. Phages attack bacteria, and the hope is that this one will kill the microbes causing the infection.
Radical Numerics, the start-up that created the viruses, posted a technical report about them on its website. But the company declined to provide information about the patient or the doctors running the trial, citing confidentiality requirements.

[...] In 2025, researchers at the Arc Institute in Palo Alto, Calif., created an A.I. model called Evo 2, which they trained on millions of DNA sequences, including phage genes. They prompted Evo 2 to make new genomes similar to those in a group of phage species. The A.I. generated 700,000 virus genomes. The team synthesized DNA molecules from 285 genomes and inserted them into bacteria. The researchers found that 16 of the genomes gave rise to viable viruses. Three members of the Evo team, including Dr. Nguyen, left to found Radical Numerics. In June, the company unveiled a new A.I. model, called Omnii, based on some of the same principles as Evo.

Omnii can be trained not just on DNA but also on other aspects of biology, such as the structures of proteins and molecules that keep genes turned on or off. The company is now using Omnii to tackle a range of challenges, including designing cancer vaccines and recognizing the risk that a virus may cause a pandemic. Among these efforts is the first trial of A.I.-designed phage therapy. The researchers created variations of a phage called T7. The virus, which only infects E. coli, looks like a microscopic Apollo lunar lander: a ball-shaped protein shell that holds its DNA atop six leglike protrusions. To infect a bacterium, T7 lands on its surface, using its legs to anchor in place. It then injects its DNA into the cell.

Omnii generated new viral genes altering the shapes of T7's legs, according to Dr. Nguyen and his colleagues. While some of the new legs were significantly different from natural ones, Omnii's phages could still infect bacteria. Once the researchers were confident their strategy had worked, they partnered with doctors treating a patient with a stubborn E. coli infection. The bacteria had resisted not just antibiotics but all the available phages. The researchers said they had trained Omnii with information about the resistant strain and told it to design T7 phages with legs that could grab onto the bacteria. Once the A.I. generated genomes for new viruses, the scientists said they produced the corresponding DNA molecules and inserted them in bacteria. The bacteria became infected and produced T7 phages that could successfully infect, and kill, other microbes. After running tests to make sure the phages were safe, Radical Numerics presented them to the doctors. The F.D.A. authorized a trial. While the trial was authorized by the FDA, it's worth noting that the research has not yet been peer-reviewed in a scientific journal and there's no guarantee the AI-designed phages will work.

However, if it does prove successful, it could help speed phage therapy by cutting down the time it takes to create a new virus tailored to each patient's infection. "We think we can get it done in days," said Dr. Eric Nguyen, the chief executive officer of Radical Numerics.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/10/21/2054216/startup-claims-to-use-ai-created-viruses-to-treat-a-patient?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/10/21/2054216/startup-claims-to-use-ai-created-viruses-to-treat-a-patient?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

eBay to Cut 9% of Workforce eBay plans to cut about 1,000 jobs, ...

2026-10-21T23:00:00Z

eBay to Cut 9% of Workforce

eBay plans to cut about 1,000 jobs, or 9% of its workforce, as CEO Jamie Iannone moves to redirect resources toward the company's fastest-growing businesses. Reuters reports: The company had 12,300 employees at the end of last year. It also let go about 6% of its workforce, or 800 employees, in February as part of efforts to streamline operations. EBay has set itself apart from rivals by pushing into authenticated luxury goods, collectibles and refurbished products, which draw enthusiasts willing to pay more for valuable items. That has helped its shares rise nearly 40% this year, outperforming the benchmark S&P 500's around 12% gain.

"Our strategy is working," Iannone said in the memo, adding that "continuing to capture the significant opportunity ahead requires us to make thoughtful choices about where we focus and invest." He said affected staff would be informed in the coming days.

https://slashdot.org/story/26/10/21/2040246/ebay-to-cut-9-of-workforce?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://slashdot.org/story/26/10/21/2040246/ebay-to-cut-9-of-workforce?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

AMD Brings Ryzen Overclocking Driver to Linux AMD has published ...

2026-10-21T22:00:00Z

AMD Brings Ryzen Overclocking Driver to Linux

AMD has published Linux kernel patches for an official Ryzen overclocking driver that allows users to adjust CPU power and current limits through a firmware interface exposed via sysfs. Phoronix reports: AMD engineer Shyam Sundar S K posted the patches for the AMD Overclocking "AOD" WMI driver as an interface to the platform firmware for managing overclocking and power/current limits of modern Ryzen CPUs.

The driver in its initial form allows setting via sysfs a number of CPU tunables including the Package Power Tracking (PPT), Thermal Design Current (TDC), and Electrical Design Current (EDC) limits along with reading their supported range. SMT toggling can also be done via the interface as an alternative to the likes of Linux's "nosmt" option in disabling SMT at the platform level rather than kernel disabling. The current memory clocks can also be read via this AOD driver.

The power tunables aren't applied in real-time but go into effect at next reboot. The firmware does support many more commands compared to the few initially wired up and hopefully in time more of these controls will be enabled with this driver.

https://linux.slashdot.org/story/26/10/21/2030239/amd-brings-ryzen-overclocking-driver-to-linux?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://linux.slashdot.org/story/26/10/21/2030239/amd-brings-ryzen-overclocking-driver-to-linux?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

More Than 1.5 Million Canadian Crime Stoppers Tips Leaked A CBC ...

2026-10-21T21:00:00Z

More Than 1.5 Million Canadian Crime Stoppers Tips Leaked

A CBC investigation found that more than 1.5 million Canadian Crime Stoppers tips spanning 25 years were exposed in a breach of the P3 Global Intel tip-management platform. About 850,000 records contained personally identifiable information, including addresses, phone numbers, emails, license plates and some banking details. Longtime Slashdot reader doconnor shares the report: The data was stolen last March by hacktivist collective Internet Yiff Machine. In a manifesto, the group said it wanted to disprove the claim by P3 Global Intel -- the company hired by Crime Stoppers to manage its tips -- that the platform was "anonymous" and "secure." A copy of the hacked data was made available to researchers and journalists, including CBC, by Distributed Denial of Secrets, a U.S. non-profit that archives and publishes hacked and leaked documents it deems to be in the public interest. The report found that more than 4,300 Crime Stoppers tipsters identified themselves by their full name, with hundreds of records containing staff warnings that individuals had "self-identified" or been "exposed," yet their information remained unredacted.

The leaked data included sensitive allegations involving murder, terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crime, with nearly 49,000 tips linked to cases cleared through arrests or criminal charges. Cybersecurity experts criticized the retention of decades-old records... "If a tip is closed, does that need to stay online?" asked cybersecurity expert Ben Coon. "The answer to that, to me, is no."

The RCMP was initially told Canadian data was unaffected, then assured that exposed Canadian records contained no personally identifiable information. This appears to contradict the CBC's findings. Furthermore, affected individuals have not been systematically notified because contacting them could further jeopardize their anonymity.

"For a system that has been designed to promise anonymity to the users, that has failed categorically," said Prof. Ali Dehghantanha, the Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity and Threat Intelligence at the University of Guelph.

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/10/21/1729218/more-than-15-million-canadian-crime-stoppers-tips-leaked?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/10/21/1729218/more-than-15-million-canadian-crime-stoppers-tips-leaked?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Microsoft Reportedly Projects $1,200 To $1,800 Price For Next-Gen ...

2026-10-21T20:00:00Z

Microsoft Reportedly Projects $1,200 To $1,800 Price For Next-Gen Xbox

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: We haven't heard many details about Microsoft's upcoming "Project Helix" gaming hardware since the company announced it in March as a device that will "play your Xbox and PC games." In a new wide-ranging profile of Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, though, Fortune alludes to a dual release strategy for upcoming Microsoft gaming hardware, with "a next-generation handheld device" planned by the end of next year and a 2028 holiday season console release that could cost between $1,200 and $1,800.

That future console price range is based on what has "internally been projected" at the company, according to Fortune. But the price for consumers could come down if "Microsoft decides to subsidize the cost," the outlet says, as many console makers have done in the past. While a $1,200 starting price would be historically high for the game console market, even accounting for inflation, it also reflects a new normal: The slowdown in Moore's Law and AI-driven component shortages mean cutting-edge gaming hardware just isn't as cheap as it used to be. This year, the Steam Machine broke the $1,000 starting price, while the 2-year-old technology in the PlayStation 5 Pro is now going for $900, and the 6-year-old Xbox Series X now starts at $750.

https://games.slashdot.org/story/26/10/21/180214/microsoft-reportedly-projects-1200-to-1800-price-for-next-gen-xbox?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://games.slashdot.org/story/26/10/21/180214/microsoft-reportedly-projects-1200-to-1800-price-for-next-gen-xbox?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Meta Ordered to Pay New Mexico $25 Billion for Deceiving Users ...

2026-10-21T19:00:00Z

Meta Ordered to Pay New Mexico $25 Billion for Deceiving Users About Privacy On Facebook

A New Mexico judge has ordered Meta to pay $25 billion after a jury found Facebook liable for deceiving users about privacy during the Cambridge Analytica scandal. State Attorney General Raul Torrez called it "one of the largest, if not the single largest state verdict against a company in American history." While Meta plans to appeal the ruling, the funds that are to be collected will go toward state education spending. The Associated Press reports: Jurors in September found Meta liable for over 43 million violations of New Mexico consumer protection laws when a political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, harvested Facebook user data to generate targeted political ads for the 2016 election. Forty-eight other states settled with Facebook in a nationwide case, but New Mexico chose to take the social media company to court on its own. [...] During the trial, jurors assessed whether Facebook misled users about privacy and content moderation 34 separate times. State prosecutors, though, argued Facebook's statements deceived the entire population of New Mexico and extended beyond social media users.

In the end, jurors agreed with this premise and found Facebook liable for 2.1 million violations on certain counts, bringing the total number of violations to over 43 million. Facebook's attorneys have argued in subsequent court filings that the state's consumer protection laws don't apply to people in New Mexico who weren't using the platform at the time. [...] In one of the few wins for the defense, jurors found the state didn't prove that Facebook made false claims about removing harmful content, including misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic.

The state said the company favored certain accounts and allowed for violent or inaccurate content to proliferate. Attorney Randi McGinn said in her closing argument for the state that Facebook profited off harmful content, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg denied during his video deposition. Zuckerberg said the company has to carefully balance freedom of speech with content moderation. Attorneys for Facebook said the company has adapted its policies since the state's lawsuit was filed in 2021 and that it removes 99% of content that violates standards.

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/10/21/188251/meta-ordered-to-pay-new-mexico-25-billion-for-deceiving-users-about-privacy-on-facebook?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/10/21/188251/meta-ordered-to-pay-new-mexico-25-billion-for-deceiving-users-about-privacy-on-facebook?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

EA Is Shutting Down BioWare "According to a recent report by ...

2026-10-21T18:30:00Z

EA Is Shutting Down BioWare

"According to a recent report by Bloomberg's Jason Schreier (paywalled), EA has reportedly decided to shut down BioWare," the studio behind the Dragon Age and Mass Effect games, writes longtime Slashdot reader atari_kid. Quartz reports: Chief Studios Officer Cam Weber and Chief Operating Officer David Tinson wrote that "over the past several months, we've taken a hard look at our business." They said a small BioWare team had been doing early groundwork on a Mass Effect game, but EA chose to drop the effort. That decision means closing the studio and its Edmonton workspace, they wrote. "We do not take this decision lightly," Weber and Tinson said of the BioWare closure, according to Variety.

EA will keep investing in Apex Legends and is continuing work on two upcoming launches, Marvel's Iron Man and the next Star Wars Jedi game, the executives said. They added that EA's Respawn and DICE studios will join forces on an upcoming project, in addition to new Battlefield titles. Bloomberg said the project is probably a new installment of the Star Wars: Battlefront franchise.

https://games.slashdot.org/story/26/10/21/1738206/ea-is-shutting-down-bioware?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://games.slashdot.org/story/26/10/21/1738206/ea-is-shutting-down-bioware?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

OpenAI Models Are Now On All Three Major US Cloud Platforms ...

2026-10-21T18:00:00Z

OpenAI Models Are Now On All Three Major US Cloud Platforms

OpenAI is bringing its models to Google Cloud's model garden and Antigravity coding tool, putting its technology on all three major U.S. cloud platforms after Microsoft's exclusive license ended earlier this year. "Google Cloud's longstanding investment in machine learning and AI has made it a destination for AI workloads and the developers and data scientists building them," OpenAI said in a blog post. It continues: [...] The integration will pair OpenAI's frontier models with Google Cloud's built-in access controls, centralized data governance, and high-performance infrastructure to support demanding enterprise workloads.

Google Cloud customers will be able to purchase OpenAI frontier models via model garden, transacted through the Google Cloud Marketplace. Enterprises with Google Cloud spend commitments will be able to draw down their GCP commitments for these purchases.

Additionally, OpenAI models will soon be available in Google Antigravity and the Gemini Agent, providing enterprise customers with model choice flexibility and the best model for each task. [...] For context, Microsoft previously held exclusive licensing rights to OpenAI's intellectual property, but that arrangement ended less than six months ago as OpenAI began expanding its partnerships with other cloud providers.

Just one day after Microsoft's exclusivity ended, Amazon announced plans to host OpenAI's models on its cloud platform in April.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/21/1637221/openai-models-are-now-on-all-three-major-us-cloud-platforms?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/21/1637221/openai-models-are-now-on-all-three-major-us-cloud-platforms?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Government Websites Go Dark After Severe PHP Vulnerabilities ...

2026-10-21T17:00:00Z

Government Websites Go Dark After Severe PHP Vulnerabilities Disclosed

"PHP disclosed two critical vulnerabilities in their programming language and urged web site operators to immediately apply the fix," writes longtime Slashdot reader smooth wombat. "As a result, government web sites in Europe and elsewhere temporarily went dark on Wednesday as operators worked to protect their systems." The Independent reports: Dane Knecht, the chief technology officer of Web and cloud security firm Cloudflare, said that attacks were emerging and Cloudflare was updating its firewall rules as a stopgap measure. "We are seeing early attacks emerging and are updating mitigations as new vectors show up. This is a STOPGAP only. Patch as soon as PHP releases the update," he said on X.

Officials have said that all PHP versions from PHP 5 onward could be affected, although PHP has not yet disclosed which versions are vulnerable. Special thanks to Slashdot readers Alain Williams and mrspoonsi for sharing this critical PHP security release.

For more details, read the official PHP announcement and guidance on what to do next.

https://developers.slashdot.org/story/26/10/21/1644235/government-websites-go-dark-after-severe-php-vulnerabilities-disclosed?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://developers.slashdot.org/story/26/10/21/1644235/government-websites-go-dark-after-severe-php-vulnerabilities-disclosed?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

PHP Warns It Plans To Release 2 Emergency Patches Imminently An ...

2026-10-21T15:00:00Z

PHP Warns It Plans To Release 2 Emergency Patches Imminently

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Website admins, brace yourselves. Fixes for what are believed to be uncommonly severe vulnerabilities are scheduled to drop in a little more than 12 hours for PHP, a programming language that powers websites and Web applications everywhere. PHP maintainers said Monday that they planned to release patches for two vulnerabilities, both with severity ratings of 9.2 out of a possible 10.

"All PHP users are encouraged to prepare now so they can upgrade as soon as the release is available," the advisory stated. "We reserve the right to release earlier should details of either vulnerability become public, or should evidence of active exploitation appear in the wild." The maintainers published the advisory following the leaking of purported details, which have yet to be confirmed. The report showed a video of an exploit tool dubbed PHP2Shell executing code on webservers running WordPress 7.1.3, MediaWiki 1.46.2, phpBB 3.3.17, Magento 2.4.9, Joomla 6.2.0, Laravel 13.36.0, Laravel 8.83.29, Symphony 8.1.9, Drupal 11.4.10, and WHMCS 9.0.9, all of which use PHP. A video depicting the tool has been reposted here.

Attempts to locate the unconfirmed report were unsuccessful, but security firm watchTowr said it claimed to affect every PHP version from PHP 5, released in 2004, onward. The security firm went on to say it has confirmed that the vulnerabilities, tracked as CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619, are real. Researchers from separate security firm Sansec said they "expect mass attacks to start within 15 minutes of the release." A third security firm, Webfence, also urged admins to prepare now. Huntress has also issued an advisory.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/21/054204/php-warns-it-plans-to-release-2-emergency-patches-imminently?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/21/054204/php-warns-it-plans-to-release-2-emergency-patches-imminently?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Tesla-SpaceX Merger Being Considered Elon Musk says a merger ...

2026-10-21T11:00:00Z

Tesla-SpaceX Merger Being Considered

Elon Musk says a merger between Tesla and SpaceX is under active consideration, with special committees at both companies evaluating a deal that could combine businesses valued at roughly $3.5 trillion. "Do I think it would be a good idea? Yes," Musk said during a call with financial analysts over the quarterly business results of SpaceX on Tuesday. The BBC reports: While Musk noted the certainty of such a merger should not be assumed, and it would need shareholders' support, he said special committees within both companies have been formed to examine the move. "The special committees have not reached agreement on terms of any transaction and there's no guarantee that they will," Musk added. "But I do think there is a lot of merit to merging and a lot to be gained."

[...] The company, which builds space rockets and Starlink internet satellites, is now expanding into offering cloud compute capacity for other tech companies, like Anthropic and Google. That line of business has become the most profitable part of SpaceX, bringing in $7.5bn according to the latest quarterly results (PDF). Starlink also tallied revenue of $5.2bn. SpaceX as a whole, however, is not profitable and has lost $1.1bn so far this year.

[...] Musk said on Tuesday a full merger between the two companies would make sense for the work each is doing around chips, artificial intelligence, software and more. He described himself as a "conflicted party" as the chief executive of Tesla and of SpaceX. Even commenting on the possibility of a merger between the two companies, Musk compared to "tap dancing through a minefield." He added a merger would ultimately be decided by shareholders. At least 50% of Tesla's shareholders would need to approve the merger, which Musk described as "quite a high hurdle to achieve."

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/21/0458211/tesla-spacex-merger-being-considered?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/21/0458211/tesla-spacex-merger-being-considered?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Russian Satellite's Close Shadowing of Radar Imaging ...

2026-10-21T07:00:00Z

Russian Satellite's Close Shadowing of Radar Imaging Satellite Is a Big Deal

Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from TWZ: A Russian satellite, Kosmos 2612, may have passed within approximately 85 feet (26 meters) of a U.S.-registered satellite belonging to commercial imagery provider ICEYE. This would be an extraordinarily close and potentially dangerous pass-by for two objects in space traveling at thousands of miles per hour. For weeks beforehand, ICEYE-X36, which would be of special interest to Russia, had already found itself in increasingly close orbital alignment with its pursuer. The two satellites now look to be drifting further and further apart, but the episode has been a clear sign of what is to come as the potential for conflict in space only continues to grow.

Publicly available space tracking data from the satellitemap.space and orbitalradar.com websites show that Kosmos 2612 (also written sometimes Cosmos 2612 and abbreviated K2612) and ICEYE X36 had their especially close encounter at approximately 16:07 UTC today. Private space services company LeoLabs also told TWZ today that it could not "confirm or contradict what other data sources have stated publicly," but that it has "high-confidence that the objects came within approximately [emphasis in the original] 500 meters [1,640 feet] of each other." Kosmos 2612 had been making progressively closer passes by ICEYE X36 in recent days. "This is the most advanced and potentially dangerous uncooperative RPO we've observed," Adam Marsh, LeoLabs vice president for technical solutions, separately told Breaking Defense.

"It's important to note that 'red' on 'blue' engagements, such as this, are relatively uncommon in Low Earth Orbit (LEO)," LeoLabs' report points out. At the same time, "this was not a routine conjunction or 'fly by.' The sequence included a controlled approach, changes in relative position, close-proximity loitering, additional small maneuvers, and a controlled departure. The behavior is consistent with sophisticated rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO)."

"We can only speculate about the operation's goal, but it could have been anything from simply intimidation to outright destruction or sabotage of a U.S.-registered satellite," CSIS' Clayton Swope told TWZ. "Perhaps the operation is on hold. There are, however, several other satellites that shadowed ICEYE X36 back in May that could be brought in[to] action too."

https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/10/21/0449230/russian-satellites-close-shadowing-of-radar-imaging-satellite-is-a-big-deal?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/10/21/0449230/russian-satellites-close-shadowing-of-radar-imaging-satellite-is-a-big-deal?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Judge Orders Meta To Name Employees Who Approved Torrenting ...

2026-10-21T03:30:00Z

Judge Orders Meta To Name Employees Who Approved Torrenting Anna's Archive, Libgen

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: Last month, Magistrate Judge Thomas Hixson ordered Meta to hand over the command histories of the servers it used to torrent pirated books. These logs would presumably reveal how Meta's torrent clients were set up, including any changes to their upload settings. [...] The server logs could reveal what happened on Meta's machines. However, publisher Entrepreneur Media also wants to know who approved the torrenting activity.

Entrepreneur Media, which publishes Entrepreneur magazine, filed one of the related lawsuits where it accuses Meta of contributing to piracy by uploading (seeding) works to third parties, similar to the authors' contributory infringement claim. To find out more, the publisher asked Meta to identify everyone who "made, authorized, or approved" the decisions to obtain the shadow library datasets, and to do so via BitTorrent.

Meta's answers named several people who are believed to have been involved in data-related decisions. However, Meta said it couldn't identify anyone who "formally" made or approved decisions to acquire or use books for its first two Llama models. Those decisions were often the result of team consensus, Meta argued. When it came to the torrenting itself, Meta pointed to the employees who ran the downloads, describing their choices as technical decisions.

Meta added that the acquisition of data from Anna's Archive went through an internal legal review in early 2024, which involved its in-house lawyers. In other words, the company didn't name anyone higher up who approved the use of BitTorrent. "On that construction no one at Meta decided to torrent anything, yet Meta torrented shadow libraries repeatedly from 2022-2024," Entrepreneur Media countered. An internal Meta logbook warned that using torrents would involve sharing copyrighted material with others. "Using torrents would entail seeding the file such as sharing content outside. This would be legally not okay," the logbook stated.

Although Meta admits downloading data from LibGen and Anna's Archive via BitTorrent, it claims no one "made, authorized, or approved" a decision to distribute the material and that measures were taken to limit seeding. Meta's own expert previously estimated that uploads from its AWS servers amounted to no more than roughly 30% of the data downloaded during a period in 2024.

Judge Thomas Hixson is not convinced and ordered (PDF) the company to identify everyone involved in approving the downloads, including those who decided "whether or how to seed, or to mitigate seeding."

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/10/20/2055251/judge-orders-meta-to-name-employees-who-approved-torrenting-annas-archive-libgen?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/10/20/2055251/judge-orders-meta-to-name-employees-who-approved-torrenting-annas-archive-libgen?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Ukraine Claims World's First Drone Evacuation of Wounded ...

2026-10-20T23:00:00Z

Ukraine Claims World's First Drone Evacuation of Wounded Soldier

Ukraine says it carried out the world's first evacuation of a wounded soldier by aerial drone, using a heavy-lift hexacopter after enemy drones and landmines made conventional ground evacuation too dangerous. NBC News reports: Shared by the 92nd Separate Assault Brigade on Monday, the video shows the soldier strapping himself into a large drone and being flown at what appears to be relatively low altitude over blurred-out territory. The drone carefully lowers him, and the drone operator greets him with "Welcome back to the ground!" The video also shows blurred faces of drone operators who carried out the mission.

The post said the unidentified infantryman was wounded at his position. "Due to intense enemy drone activity and the presence of landmines, evacuation using conventional unmanned ground vehicles was impossible," the brigade said. "At that point, the specialists in our unit took it upon themselves to attempt something that had never been done before: evacuating a serviceman using an aerial drone," it added.

The craft was a heavy-lift hexacopter, it said, originally designed as a bomber by a Ukrainian manufacturer. It looks about twice the size of the soldier in the video. The specialists working on the mission had to ensure the drone could carry a human being without flipping over or swaying excessively, according to the unit.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/20/1929211/ukraine-claims-worlds-first-drone-evacuation-of-wounded-soldier?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/20/1929211/ukraine-claims-worlds-first-drone-evacuation-of-wounded-soldier?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Sony Updates the Walkman As a $5,900 Gold-Plated MP3 Player Sony ...

2026-10-20T22:00:00Z

Sony Updates the Walkman As a $5,900 Gold-Plated MP3 Player

Sony has revived its Walkman lineup with three Android 16-powered high-end music players ranging from $1,900 to $5,900, topped by the gold-plated NW-WM1ZM3 with 256GB of storage. The Register reports: The Japanese giant named the new models the NW-WM1ZM3, NW-WM1AM3 and NW-ZX900. All can store and play many codecs, including MP3s, WMA, and FLAC files, plus others like Direct Stream Digital (DSD) and Apple Lossless, which use various tricks to avoid nasty artefacts accruing during the digitization process. Sony also says it has used "key components made from oxygen-free copper" because that apparently delivers "uncompromising sound quality."

The machines also include "screws featuring a low-resistance gold-plated treatment ... providing a stable ground connection that delivers powerful bass, an expansive soundstage and smooth, extended high frequencies." Sony claims even the cabling it's used in the devices "further reduces noise and preserves signal integrity for rich, detailed sound." They're also housed in carefully-milled slabs of copper -- gold-plated in the case of the NW-WM1ZM3 -- because that apparently improves sound, too.

And then Sony's gone and spoiled it all by offering Bluetooth connectivity, a notorious music-mangler, in addition to wired headphone ports. Sony's US site lists all three devices, which run Android 16 and include Wi-Fi so they can access streaming music services. All are USB-chargeable and Sony claims their batteries allow 30-odd hours of music playback.

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/10/20/1923237/sony-updates-the-walkman-as-a-5900-gold-plated-mp3-player?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/10/20/1923237/sony-updates-the-walkman-as-a-5900-gold-plated-mp3-player?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

AMD Is Bringing FSR 4.1 to Xbox Consoles and Handhelds AMD is ...

2026-10-20T21:00:00Z

AMD Is Bringing FSR 4.1 to Xbox Consoles and Handhelds

AMD is expanding its FSR 4.1 upscaling technology beyond Radeon RX 9000-series GPUs to Xbox Series X/S consoles, Xbox Ally handhelds, laptops, and Radeon RX 6000-series graphics cards. The Verge reports: AMD launched its FSR 4.1 update for Radeon RX 9000-series graphics cards in March, and promised to bring the technology to older GPUs and handhelds this year. FSR 4.1 can improve performance in more than 300 supported games, including Cyberpunk 2077, Battlefield 6, and Assassin's Creed Shadows.

[...] While owners of Radeon RX 6000-series GPUs and Gorgon Halo- or Strix Halo-powered devices will get FSR 4.1 today with the latest Adrenalin Edition 26.10.1 drivers, Xbox console owners will have to wait a little longer. "We've worked very closely with AMD to optimize this technology, giving developers another powerful tool for great performance and visual quality for players," says Xbox CTO Scott Van Vilet.

https://games.slashdot.org/story/26/10/20/1917248/amd-is-bringing-fsr-41-to-xbox-consoles-and-handhelds?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://games.slashdot.org/story/26/10/20/1917248/amd-is-bringing-fsr-41-to-xbox-consoles-and-handhelds?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Google Support Pages Start Defaulting to AI Chatbots Google is ...

2026-10-20T20:00:00Z

Google Support Pages Start Defaulting to AI Chatbots

Google is beginning to replace traditional support articles with "Ask Google Help," a Gemini-powered interface that summarizes documentation and lets users troubleshoot through a chatbot. 9to5Google reports: "Ask Google Help" will display a condensed version of the support article with direct troubleshooting steps, with the user then able to type in queries to have Gemini help figure out the next step forward. A "View Sources" button at the bottom of the AI response allows users to still access the original article, but direct links to any of these articles now defaults to the AI experience.

An example can be seen below on the "Secure a hacked or compromised Google account" page that Google's own support account directed users to within the past few days. It can also be seen on the "Fix common issues with 2-Step Verification" page and, as far as we can tell, any support pages on the Google Account Help forum.

Google, as of right now, appears to only be testing this on select support topics. The Google Pixel Help section, for instance, still defaults to articles, whereas the Google Chrome topic has also moved to the new experience. Beyond support pages alone, this new design also impacts the central hub, with links to topics no longer showing by default in exchange for an AI chatbot that helps you find the relevant page.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/20/199206/google-support-pages-start-defaulting-to-ai-chatbots?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/20/199206/google-support-pages-start-defaulting-to-ai-chatbots?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

DHS Lied About Why It Wanted To Search Activist's GrapheneOS ...

2026-10-20T19:00:00Z

DHS Lied About Why It Wanted To Search Activist's GrapheneOS Phone

New court records reportedly show that DHS targeted Stop Cop City activist Samuel Tunick at an Atlanta airport because he was under investigation for suspected "terrorist activities." However, the CBP officers told him instead that they wanted to search his phone for child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Tunick, who is not accused of terrorism or any other crime beyond allegedly wiping his GrapheneOS phone during the encounter, faces up to five years in prison. 404 Media reports: Instead of saying he was being targeted for suspected terrorism -- although this search happened just at the start of the second Trump administration, it has dramatically broadened what organizations or people may be considered such -- they said they needed his phone to look for "kiddie p*rn." "Good afternoon," an email sent from a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) official, part of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), to CBP and other officials reads. "The following subject is scheduled to arrive in ATL [Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport] today via DL 1778 @ 1930 Hours. TUNICK is under investigation by HSI/JTTF for suspected terrorist activities." The email includes a photo of Tunick, and asks the officials to direct him to secondary inspection, retain all of his electronics, and collect their passcodes.

As 404 Media first revealed in December, Tunick was charged because he allegedly "did knowingly destroy, damage, waste, dispose of, and otherwise take any action to delete the digital contents of a Google Pixel cellular phone, for the purpose of preventing and impairing the Government's lawful authority to take said property into its custody and control." Matthew Dodge, one of Tunick's lawyers, previously told 404 Media he only found one other case using the same obscure law, a drug trafficking case. "This is extraordinarily rare," Dodge said.

Tunick was part of the Stop Cop City movement in Atlanta, which broadly protested the building of a large police training center, and which authorities investigated for arson, vandalism, and doxing. Tunick is not suspected of any crime beyond the alleged wiping of the phone, and has previously put his current prosecution in the context of the wide spanning cases against other Stop Cop City protesters. The newly filed court record, in which Tunick's lawyers argue that evidence should be thrown out, include new photos and descriptions of the airport encounter. The CBP officials asked Tunick if they were going to find "kiddie p*rn" on his phone, which Tunick immediately denied. "As the evidentiary hearing made clear, these unfounded accusations were nothing more than pretext for a fishing expedition into the depths of Mr. Tunick's devices," the lawyers wrote. They added, "Officer Findley acknowledged that officers had no reason whatsoever to believe Mr. Tunick possessed child p*rnography," referring to one of the officials.

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/10/20/1740207/dhs-lied-about-why-it-wanted-to-search-activists-grapheneos-phone?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/10/20/1740207/dhs-lied-about-why-it-wanted-to-search-activists-grapheneos-phone?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

OpenBSD 8.0 Released OpenBSD 8.0 has been released with major ...

2026-10-20T18:00:00Z

OpenBSD 8.0 Released

OpenBSD 8.0 has been released with major virtualization and hardware upgrades, including support for up to 64 vCPUs per VM, Intel Arc graphics, ARM64 hibernation, and expanded RISC-V support. Linuxiac points out that it marks the "61st release of the security-focused Unix-like operating system." From the report: Several fixes improve compatibility with 32-bit Linux guests, while changes to virtual machine ownership management and interrupt emulation make the virtualization infrastructure more capable. Graphics support has also been upgraded, with DRM drivers updated to those from Linux kernel 6.18.53. Notably, OpenBSD 8.0 adds support for Intel Arc A-Series (Alchemist) graphics cards through the inteldrm driver.

Another important change increases the amd64 kernel's virtual address space from 4 GB to 512 GB, allowing the system to map over 4 GB of video memory. The release also addresses GPU timeout issues affecting some Intel Alder Lake systems. [...] For security, OpenBSD 8.0 adds checks and fixes across the kernel and system utilities, including improvements to pledge and unveil, tighter validation of executable files, and protections against memory corruption and information disclosure. A full list of changes can be found here.

Further reading: Wine Ported to OpenBSD

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/20/171229/openbsd-80-released?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/20/171229/openbsd-80-released?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Meta Muse Exposes Users' Personal, Business Secrets When They ...

2026-10-20T17:00:00Z

Meta Muse Exposes Users' Personal, Business Secrets When They Share Conversations

Security researchers say Meta's Muse AI assistant exposed thousands of users' shared conversations because conversation titles were placed in subdomains that could be discovered through public DNS records. Meta has since suspended the sharing feature while it considers making changes. Ars Technica reports: Like many online services, Muse has allowed users to share searches, conversations, images, and similar content with other people. Such share features usually involve clicking an option to create a unique URL that anyone can use to load a page hosting the content. To keep potentially sensitive information from being accessible to unintended people, the URLs typically contain a long sequence of text that can't be easily guessed.

Muse, which Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said last month was "built from the ground up for privacy and security," seems to take the same precautions. But a central design decision for constructing URLs has made the links easy to discover. As a result, researchers from security firm Claroc said they were able to enumerate 6,800 links Muse users created for sharing conversations with others. After opening a few hundred of them, the researchers found information that was clearly not intended to be publicly available... [...]. "If you had asked us beforehand, we would have guessed that gathering these would take real effort," the researchers wrote. "It took one query."

[...] The easiest way to discover the URLs is to perform a passive DNS search through one of many available commercial services. Passive DNS records store the historical resolution of domain names to IP addresses, as well as nameserver, and mail-server records over time. Passive DNS systems typically collect DNS responses from sensors positioned at recursive DNS resolvers or other infrastructure. A passive DNS record is generally created when a monitoring system observes a DNS response. In the case here, once the intended party clicks on the share link, the DNS information is recorded in a searchable database.

Claroc researchers were able to discover the Muse share links because all of them use the domain name cf.metaaiusercontent.com. Discovery is further made easy by the decision to add the conversation name to the URL, along with a long string of text. Simplified examples of such links are home-sale-budget-9f21c8a3.cf.metaaiusercontent.com, q3-revenue-review-7b1e42f0.cf.metaaiusercontent.com, and loan-application-draft-a4c9e2.cf.metaaiusercontent.com. It's this last design decision, putting the conversation title in the subdomain rather than in the URL path, that makes public discovery possible.

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/10/20/1655247/meta-muse-exposes-users-personal-business-secrets-when-they-share-conversations?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/10/20/1655247/meta-muse-exposes-users-personal-business-secrets-when-they-share-conversations?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

US Bans DeepSeek From Government Use The Trump administration has ...

2026-10-20T16:00:00Z

US Bans DeepSeek From Government Use

The Trump administration has banned DeepSeek AI from most US civilian federal agencies, ordering the removal of the Chinese company's models and technology developed using them. The Department of Homeland Security did not specify the security threats behind the decision. The BBC reports: The order (PDF) is broad, as it requires agencies to ditch "all DeepSeek and DeepSeek-affiliate products, and third-party products and services developed using DeepSeek implementations." Complying will be tricky as it is not clear which third-party products and services have been developed using DeepSeek's wares. Nor is it clear whether "developed using" means providing ongoing access to DeepSeek models via API or simply refers to any app vibe-coded with the help of DeepSeek.

It also leaves open the question of AI gateways. Services such as OpenRouter and Vercel AI Gateway make DeepSeek's models available through APIs. And those using gateway services may find themselves using DeepSeek models without meaning to do so. OpenRouter, for example, "routes requests to the best available providers for your model." It selects what the service deems to be the best fit provider of AI services. Vercel AI Gateway does the same by default. So federal civilian agencies could be using DeepSeek models inadvertently, if they haven't taken steps to constrain their AI providers.

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/10/20/0546213/us-bans-deepseek-from-government-use?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/10/20/0546213/us-bans-deepseek-from-government-use?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Nscale, Anthropic In Talks For New $45 Billion AI Cloud Deal An ...

2026-10-20T15:00:00Z

Nscale, Anthropic In Talks For New $45 Billion AI Cloud Deal

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Nscale is in talks to sell AI computing power to Claude maker Anthropic in a new deal that could be worth about $45 billion, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday. The data center developer is seeking another major deal with the AI lab for a second facility at its Monarch data center campus in West Virginia, the person said. In August, Anthropic struck a deal to spend $45 billion to rent AI cloud computing power from Nscale's West Virginia data center campus. A second Monarch building would deliver 460 megawatts of computing power using Nvidia's advanced Vera Rubin AI chips, according to the source. [...] According to the Nscale prospectus, Microsoft and Anthropic are expected to be the company's major customers in the future. Further reading: Microsoft Abandons UK AI Supercomputer As Grid Struggles to Keep Up

https://slashdot.org/story/26/10/20/0536218/nscale-anthropic-in-talks-for-new-45-billion-ai-cloud-deal?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://slashdot.org/story/26/10/20/0536218/nscale-anthropic-in-talks-for-new-45-billion-ai-cloud-deal?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Microsoft Abandons UK AI Supercomputer As Grid Struggles to Keep ...

2026-10-20T11:00:00Z

Microsoft Abandons UK AI Supercomputer As Grid Struggles to Keep Up

Microsoft has reportedly abandoned plans to serve as the anchor customer for Britain's largest proposed AI supercomputer after learning that the project's Essex data center might not receive sufficient grid power until the early to mid-2030s. "Its departure leaves Nscale without a publicly announced customer for the site, although the neocloud insists the project is still going ahead," reports The Register. From the report: When the deal was announced in September 2025, the plan was to pack 23,040 Nvidia GB300 GPUs into a 50MW facility, with room to expand to 90MW. Microsoft would use the computing power for its Azure cloud services, with the first chips expected in early 2027. One important detail remained: how to power it.

As The Guardian reported last month, UK Power Networks warned Nscale that the grid capacity needed might not be available until the 2030s. A UK Power Networks spokesperson told The Register it could not discuss individual connections due to obligations under Section 105 of the Utilities Act. "However, in general, many datacenters, whilst they can connect to our distribution network, are awaiting works on the national transmission network which we do not own," the spokesperson said.

Nscale, meanwhile, isn't letting the small matter of losing its biggest customer dampen its enthusiasm. "We remain committed to both the Loughton project and the UK and we are exploring alternative power sources for the site, in addition to other expansion sites in the UK. Our relationship with Microsoft remains strong and long-term, and this unfortunate London-wide grid issue has no impact on our other contracts," Nscale told The Register.

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/10/20/0529215/microsoft-abandons-uk-ai-supercomputer-as-grid-struggles-to-keep-up?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/10/20/0529215/microsoft-abandons-uk-ai-supercomputer-as-grid-struggles-to-keep-up?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Japan Launches Historic MMX Sample-Return Mission to Mars' ...

2026-10-20T07:00:00Z

Japan Launches Historic MMX Sample-Return Mission to Mars' Moon Phobos

Japan has successfully launched its Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission to study Mars' two moons, Phobos and Deimos. Scheduled to arrive in August 2027, "MMX will become the first spacecraft to land on and return samples from Phobos for study back on Earth, which scientists think could shed light on a decades-old mystery about the moons' origins" and resolve whether they were formed from a giant impact or were captured asteroids, reports Space.com. From the report: It was the 10th liftoff of Japan's expendable, two-stage H3 rocket, which was jointly developed by JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. After clearing its launch pad today, the 207-foot-tall (63 meters) launch vehicle flew a nominal trajectory through its ascent corridor over the Pacific Ocean, jettisoning its four solid boosters in pairs just before the flight clock reached two minutes. The rocket shed its payload fairings about one minute and 20 seconds later, exposing MMX to the vacuum of space for the first time. [...] MMX is now under its own power, and on course for Mars.

The interplanetary transit will last about 10 months, with the spacecraft scheduled to arrive at the Red Planet in August 2027. When it does, MMX's propulsion module will execute an orbital insertion burn to place itself in a quasi-satellite orbit (QSO) around Phobos, which places MMX within the space around the moon as both circle Mars. MMX will spend about three years in the Martian system, devoting much of that time to studying the 14-mile-wide (22 km) Phobos with its science instruments. The spacecraft also carries the IDEFIX rover, a joint effort of the space agencies of France and Germany, which is scheduled to deploy to the surface of Phobos in late 2028 or early 2029.

After a mapping campaign to select suitable landing sites, MMX will perform two separate touchdowns on Phobos to collect and stow samples in the spacecraft's return capsule. Following its second landing and sample collection, MMX will briefly return to QSO with Phobos before transferring to a more elongated orbit around Mars that intersects with the planet's smaller moon, Deimos, which is just 8 miles (14 km) in diameter. During the last several months of its time around Mars, MMX will perform a series of Deimos flybys before departing for Earth in November 2030. If all goes according to plan, the MMX sample-return capsule will land in Australia in 2031. You can watch a recording of the launch on YouTube.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/10/20/0522251/japan-launches-historic-mmx-sample-return-mission-to-mars-moon-phobos?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/10/20/0522251/japan-launches-historic-mmx-sample-return-mission-to-mars-moon-phobos?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Amazon To Fund 12 Small Nuclear Reactors At Former Indiana Coal ...

2026-10-20T03:30:00Z

Amazon To Fund 12 Small Nuclear Reactors At Former Indiana Coal Plant

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Amazon is funding development of a proposed 960-megawatt nuclear plant in Indiana and would be the first customer to buy its power, the companies announced Monday. Utility company American Electric Power (AEP) would operate the plant. X-energy, which designs small modular nuclear reactors and went public in April, would supply the reactors. The new power plant would consist of 12 Xe-100 small modular reactors and be located on the site of a demolished coal power plant just south of Terre Haute. The deal is the second commercial agreement between Amazon and X-energy, and it's three times larger than the first, which was announced two years ago.

Amazon has invested heavily in X-energy, leading a $700 million Series C-1 round in October 2024. The two companies have said they ultimately plan to build 5 gigawatts of new nuclear generating capacity in the U.S. by 2039. Unlike many newly announced power plants, these reactors would be connected to the public electric grid, though Amazon says the power would also serve its data centers.

The companies' aggressive timeline still depends on X-energy successfully delivering its first power plant at a Dow Chemical plant southeast of Houston, Texas. The site, called Seadrift, has recently been at the center of a lawsuit filed by the state of Texas, which accuses the plant of "habitual non-compliance" with water and solid-waste regulations and permits. X-energy has yet to break ground at Seadrift, which will host four Xe-100 reactors to provide the chemical plant with heat and electricity. The company said its construction permit is in the final phases of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's review process.

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/10/19/2133234/amazon-to-fund-12-small-nuclear-reactors-at-former-indiana-coal-plant?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/10/19/2133234/amazon-to-fund-12-small-nuclear-reactors-at-former-indiana-coal-plant?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Professor Calls To Abolish Business Schools For Failing Society ...

2026-10-19T23:00:00Z

Professor Calls To Abolish Business Schools For Failing Society

joshuark writes: Professor Christopher Marquis makes a provocative argument about business schools: "We need to abolish them." A 20-year business educator at Harvard, Cornell and Cambridge, Marquis argues in The New York Times and on LinkedIn that MBA programs sanctify profit-driven dealmaking at the expense of public life. "That's not the institution failing," he writes. "Sadly, it's the institution working." "Business school doesn't just hand out skills and a network," argues Marquis, "it quietly reshapes how people see the world, rewarding dealmaking, simplification, and optimization for financial metrics, while workers and communities become afterthoughts."

Marquis points to research suggesting that business-school-trained CEOs often benefit shareholders at the expense of workers, without delivering measurable improvements in company performance... "[W]hen a business-school-trained CEO takes over a firm, wages fall and labor's share of income drops, with no gain in productivity," writes Marquis. "In both the U.S. and Denmark, what passes for the 'managerial skill' of business-school graduates turns out to be a transfer of wealth away from workers and toward shareholders. Students deserve better than a machine that narrows their sense of what's possible."

https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/10/19/2126207/professor-calls-to-abolish-business-schools-for-failing-society?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/10/19/2126207/professor-calls-to-abolish-business-schools-for-failing-society?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

TP-Link Moves to Assemble Routers In the US Following Import Ban ...

2026-10-19T22:00:00Z

TP-Link Moves to Assemble Routers In the US Following Import Ban

TP-Link plans to begin assembling routers in Mississippi as early as 2027 after the FCC banned imports of new foreign-made consumer routers over security concerns. Engadget reports: The company has signed a letter of intent with manufacturer Key Tronic and, pending approval from regulators, TP-Link says stateside assembly of its routers could start at a Mississippi production line as soon as early 2027.

Once things are up and running, Wi-Fi 8 routers are expected to be among the first TP-Link products that Key Tronic assembles. TP-Link claims that the agreement is part of its "long-term effort to accelerate US investment in high-tech manufacturing and job creation, designing and assembling next-generation products for American consumers here on American soil."

The company said it will still have to source components from outside the US. "Many [components] are just not available from a domestic source, and this is not a TP-Link issue," TP-Link's corporate affairs officer Steve Kovsky told PC Mag. "This is an issue for all manufacturers that are trying to onshore manufacturing."

https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/26/10/19/211219/tp-link-moves-to-assemble-routers-in-the-us-following-import-ban?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/26/10/19/211219/tp-link-moves-to-assemble-routers-in-the-us-following-import-ban?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Trump DHS Officials Asked CISA To Secretly Aquire and Hack a ...

2026-10-19T21:00:00Z

Trump DHS Officials Asked CISA To Secretly Aquire and Hack a Voting Machine

Longtime Slashdot reader fahrbot-bot shares a report from ProPublica: A few months into President Donald Trump's second term, political appointees at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) wanted Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to secretly acquire a voting machine and hack it. The appointees wanted the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to procure the machine, examine it and report back the findings so they could be given to the White House, according to two former administration officials with knowledge of the request.

The proposition was shocking to CISA's career staffers, according to one of the former officials. CISA typically worked to thwart hackers. Moreover, the agency had been directed not to alert the voting machine company if it uncovered flaws, contrary to its standard practices. The request made the CISA employees fear they were being asked to take part in political interference. "My thought was they could keep it in their back pocket to invalidate any [election] results they don't like," one of the former officials said. "This goes against everything CISA represents." [Or, perhaps do something worse?]

The CISA employees repeatedly told the political appointees that their request was impossible, in part because the agents capable of pulling off such an operation had just been laid off by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative. The appointees eventually stopped pressing CISA. Though not acted on, the request shows how the Trump administration has tried to use the agency for its own ends while draining it of resources for one of its critical missions: protecting the nation's voting systems.

https://politics.slashdot.org/story/26/10/19/2055248/trump-dhs-officials-asked-cisa-to-secretly-aquire-and-hack-a-voting-machine?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://politics.slashdot.org/story/26/10/19/2055248/trump-dhs-officials-asked-cisa-to-secretly-aquire-and-hack-a-voting-machine?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

A Hacker Broke Into John Deere, SharkNinja With an Army of AI ...

2026-10-19T20:00:00Z

A Hacker Broke Into John Deere, SharkNinja With an Army of AI Agents

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: A hacker broke into more than 100 websites using an army of AI agents that mostly operated on their own, according to findings from the AI security firm Norforge. Though Norforge doesn't name the targets, Reuters reports that the victims included companies like John Deere, SharkNinja, and Cummins.

[...] Researchers at Norforge uncovered the attacks through exposed work on Cairn, an open-source AI platform that describes itself as a "general-purpose problem-solving engine." With Cairn, users set a start and end point for the AI agents, which document their progress as they move forward with the task. However, as noted by Norforge, hackers can also use the tool to orchestrate cyberattacks using AI agents.

The hacker who broke into more than 100 sites was the "most active" among the exposed Cairn instances discovered by Norforge, waging attacks on companies based in the US, Canada, Australia, and Japan, as reported by Reuters. This attacker laid out "preferred intrusion tactics" using fewer than 100 Chinese characters, with successful breaches taking about 23 hours, according to Reuters. Overall, Nordforge found more than 20 exposed Cairn instances that are "likely malicious." A John Deere spokesperson said there is "no indication that sensitive information was accessed" as a result of the attack, while Cummins said it's "investigating the report of a potential cyber-attack on a website operated by one of our third-party vendors."

Meanwhile, SharkNinja says the breach impacted a standalone site with product support information, and that it has contained the threat.

https://it.slashdot.org/story/26/10/19/1746204/a-hacker-broke-into-john-deere-sharkninja-with-an-army-of-ai-agents?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://it.slashdot.org/story/26/10/19/1746204/a-hacker-broke-into-john-deere-sharkninja-with-an-army-of-ai-agents?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Apple Announces October 28 'Pro and Tell' Event Following ...

2026-10-19T19:30:00Z

Apple Announces October 28 'Pro and Tell' Event

Following its October 13 HomeView launch, Apple is gearing up for its second hardware event of the month. The event is scheduled for October 28 in Los Angeles and carries the tagline "Pro and tell." 9to5Mac reports: Rumors say Apple has a slew of new products to announce at its next event, headlining by its first MacBook Pro with a touchscreen and OLED. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, here's what's on the docket:
- New 14-inch and 16-inch touchscreen MacBook Pro models with OLED displays. They will also have a Dynamic Island for the first time and will be "significantly lighter" than the current models. The new MacBook Pro models are expected to be powered by the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips.
- A revamped iPad mini with an OLED screen, a "revamped speaker system," and a relocated FaceTime camera
- New iMac and entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro models powered by the M6 chip, which will "look like their current versions."

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/10/19/1737252/apple-announces-october-28-pro-and-tell-event?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/10/19/1737252/apple-announces-october-28-pro-and-tell-event?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Florida DMV Hacked After Police Dept Insecurely Stored Login Info ...

2026-10-19T19:00:00Z

Florida DMV Hacked After Police Dept Insecurely Stored Login Info

Florida's DMV says a September 4 breach exposed driver's license and motor vehicle records after attackers obtained credentials that a local law-enforcement employee had "improperly stored on an electronic device." The ShinyHunters group has been linked to the intrusion. Ars Technica reports: In a notice posted Friday, [Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV)] confirmed that it took "immediate steps" after discovering that "a malicious actor accessed certain department records on September 4, 2026, using compromised credentials." There's "no evidence" that data has yet been misused, the department said, but law enforcement "determined the information potentially affected includes driver license and motor vehicle data, to include document images, and other personal information."

[...] On a webpage describing the security incident, FLHSMV confirmed that an "international cybercriminal organization" was behind the breach but did not specify which group or how long they had access. Instead, officials claimed to have "promptly mitigated the breach, launched an investigation, and issued required notification to state authorities." Mitigations included "blocking unauthorized access, resetting relevant user credentials, engaging cybersecurity professionals, and implementing additional safeguards to protect sensitive information," FLHSMV said. Florida's investigation is "ongoing," officials said, but a cybercriminal group called ShinyHunters -- which recently claimed credit for hacking the FBI -- may have stolen the data. Florida residents affected by the breach will receive a letter offering one year of free credit monitoring through Sontiq, Inc. Those whose contact information is outdated can email the FLHSMV at customerinquiry@flhsmv.gov to determine whether their data was compromised.

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/10/19/1726218/florida-dmv-hacked-after-police-dept-insecurely-stored-login-info?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/10/19/1726218/florida-dmv-hacked-after-police-dept-insecurely-stored-login-info?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Elon Musk Vows To Give a SpaceX Share To 'Every Kid In ...

2026-10-19T18:00:00Z

Elon Musk Vows To Give a SpaceX Share To 'Every Kid In America'

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: Elon Musk has said he will give every child in America a stake in SpaceX, his $2 trillion aerospace and artificial intelligence company, as tech firms face intensifying scrutiny over their impact on society. "Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America," he wrote on X on Monday. "This will be the first of many."

SpaceX only began trading publicly in June (and after the biggest initial public offering in history). The company's shares were trading for about $146 when the market closed on Friday. Musk's proposal was thin on detail. It is not clear how those shares would be distributed to the tens of millions of American children or whether all of them would even be eligible. According to the United States Census Bureau, there are roughly 73 million people under the age of 18, making Musk's potential giveaway worth about $10.7 billion at SpaceX's current share price. The move came in response to Anthropic's announcement on Sunday that it will commit at least 5% of its shares to a "Public Benefit Fund" that will donate money to social causes. "I recommend giving the shares directly to the public," Musk said in a reply to Anthropic's announcement. "This is what I will be doing."

https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/10/19/1721258/elon-musk-vows-to-give-a-spacex-share-to-every-kid-in-america?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/10/19/1721258/elon-musk-vows-to-give-a-spacex-share-to-every-kid-in-america?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Wine Ported to OpenBSD Wine has been successfully ported to ...

2026-10-19T17:10:00Z

Wine Ported to OpenBSD

Wine has been successfully ported to OpenBSD, with developers reporting that dozens of 64-bit Windows applications now run on the operating system. "Even the Remaster of The Witcher 3 which released just last month runs, and runs well," writes Thomas Frohwein, OpenBSD developer and ports maintainer. OSnews reports: The biggest limitation seems to be the lack of support for WoW64, so 32bit Windows software won't work. Still, this is a massive milestone for OpenBSD, and makes especially gaming a somewhat viable option on OpenBSD.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/19/176251/wine-ported-to-openbsd?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/19/176251/wine-ported-to-openbsd?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Elizabeth Holmes Doc 'You Can See Everything' Shocks With ...

2026-10-19T15:00:00Z

Elizabeth Holmes Doc 'You Can See Everything' Shocks With Massive Opening

Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim's Elizabeth Holmes documentary "You Can See Everything" earned more than $15 million in its limited opening weekend, making it one of the biggest documentary launches in decades and the strongest opening for a film on fewer than 1,000 screens since Borat in 2006. It was also "the biggest non-music documentary since 'Fahrenheit 9/11' in 2004," adds CNN. From the report: Many weekend screenings in cities like New York and Los Angeles were sold out despite the three-hour running time. The film's distributor, A24, called it "one of the largest limited-release openings of the 21st century." "You Can See Everything" opened on fewer than 900 screens following a jaw-dropping surprise premiere at the Telluride Film Festival last month.

Fielder and Oppenheim worked on the project in secret for years, filming with Holmes and her partner Billy Evans in the weeks before Holmes went to prison in 2023. Holmes was convicted of wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud Theranos investors, but she tried to convince the filmmakers of her innocence.

Fielder, who appears on camera interviewing Holmes and Evans, takes the film in unexpected directions, thrilling critics and theatergoers. The film has an extraordinarily high 99% "fresh score" on Rotten Tomatoes and a record-high 4.8 rating on Letterboxd. Further reading: Will New Documentary Make Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes More Sympathetic?

https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/26/10/19/1451201/elizabeth-holmes-doc-you-can-see-everything-shocks-with-massive-opening?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/26/10/19/1451201/elizabeth-holmes-doc-you-can-see-everything-shocks-with-massive-opening?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

America Tries Reviving Shuttered Nuclear Plants - Partly to Help ...

2026-10-19T11:34:00Z

America Tries Reviving Shuttered Nuclear Plants - Partly to Help Power Data Centers

America is "making an unprecedented attempt to revive three shuttered nuclear plants to meet rising energy demand," reports the Los Angeles Times,
"Two of the plants have contracts with Big Tech companies that will pay a premium to get large amounts of carbon-free energy for data centers..."

No commercial nuclear reactor is known to have resumed generating electricity after beginning the decommissioning process that takes one out of service, though some reactors have restarted after long outages. The Department of Energy is lending as much as $4.4 billion to restart the Palisades Power Plant in Michigan, the Crane Clean Energy Center on Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island and the Duane Arnold Energy Center in Iowa to restore a combined 2.25 gigawatts of electricity, which can power roughly 2 million homes and businesses. All three of the plants closed before their licenses expired, largely because the electricity they produced was considered too expensive... Restarting a reactor is a fairly quick way to get a lot of electricity, and it's cheaper than building a new, large reactor, said nuclear engineering expert Todd Allen...

Edwin Lyman, at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the taxpayer money being used should go toward addressing safety risks. For example, most U.S. plants were built between 1970 and 1990 and were designed to withstand natural disasters of that era, said Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at UCS. But climate change is making extreme weather events more frequent and severe. "It's possible, if they set the right level of safety and spend the necessary funds to meet that, they could restore these plants to operable condition," he said. "That's not happening at this point...."

NextEra Energy and Google are collaborating to restart Duane Arnold by early 2029... Microsoft has a contract with the Crane Clean Energy Center on Three Mile Island just outside Harrisburg. The plant was the site of the nation's worst commercial nuclear power accident in 1979. The accident destroyed one reactor, leaving the plant with one functioning. In 2019, Constellation Energy's then-parent company Exelon shut down the functioning reactor, saying it was losing money and that Pennsylvania lawmakers had refused to subsidize it. Constellation Energy announced in 2024 that it would spend $1.6 billion to restart the reactor under a 20-year agreement with Microsoft. It hopes to bring the plant back online in 2027...

Palisades is expected to be the first nuclear plant in the world to resume generating power after beginning the decommissioning process.

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/10/19/0448253/america-tries-reviving-shuttered-nuclear-plants---partly-to-help-power-data-centers?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/10/19/0448253/america-tries-reviving-shuttered-nuclear-plants---partly-to-help-power-data-centers?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Mozilla is Calling Out Microsoft for Forcing Edge on Users ...

2026-10-19T07:34:00Z

Mozilla is Calling Out Microsoft for Forcing Edge on Users

"Mozilla reps tell me they've met with Microsoft about their concerns," reports PC Magazine, "but that the company wasn't responsive."

"They'll do the minimum the law requires to respect user choice," explains Kush Amlani, Mozilla's counsel overseeing global competition and regulatory work... Mozilla recently marked 100 days since it released an 87-page report detailing the ways in which Microsoft pushes Edge on Windows PCs.... One example is how Windows often displays a "Let's finish setting up your PC" pop-up after an OS update. This screen has an enabled-by-default option to "use recommended browser settings," which makes Edge the default web browser.
However, that screen doesn't appear in Europe. European laws now force Microsoft to make Windows more respectful of user choices. For instance, in European countries, the Start menu opens links in your default web browser rather than in Edge, as it does everywhere else. Amlani says Mozilla wants Microsoft to release the European version of Windows to the rest of the world. However, he thinks this will require government action. As he puts it, "Microsoft can do better when it's forced."
The last line of the article sums up Mozilla's main point. "No one should have to fight their OS this hard on something as simple as a browser preference."

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/19/0655217/mozilla-is-calling-out-microsoft-for-forcing-edge-on-users?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/19/0655217/mozilla-is-calling-out-microsoft-for-forcing-edge-on-users?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Anthropic Announces 'Public Benefit Fund', Committing 5% ...

2026-10-19T04:34:00Z

Anthropic Announces 'Public Benefit Fund', Committing 5% of Its Shares

"Anthropic says it's committing 5% of its shares to a 'public benefit fund'," reports TechCrunch, "structured as a wholly-owned entity within the company — with the option to contribute an additional 2% for every 50% increase in Anthropic's value."

Important context from CNBC:

The timing of Anthropic's public fund announcement is both mandatory to prepare for an initial public offering, and "beneficial from an image perspective," especially as AI reshapes the jobs market, Lise Buyer, partner at IPO advisory firm Class V Group, told CNBC...

Anthropic said it will share more about the fund structure and governance in the coming months, including valuation milestones that may increase the stake. It said it will also share progress on the fund in an upcoming public benefit report. In response to Anthropic's announcement, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on X that he "recommend[s] giving the shares directly to the public."

Anthropic's announcement hints the fund could address job-market displacements. It says the fund "might" explore "large donations to traditional nonprofits" — or, that it "might" explore "direct distributions to specific populations. One example is labor market impacts."

It then argues AI could "cause instability" for many workers. And while Anthropic has already committed $200 million for "studying and addressing" this issue, Sunday's announcement says "bolder" approaches may be needed, and that the Fund "will have the versatility to pursue them."

"Combined with its co-founders' pledge to donate 80% of their equity and an employee donation matching program, roughly 20% of Anthropic's shares will be dedicated to public purposes," reports Reuters, "excluding any additional shares added later."

https://it.slashdot.org/story/26/10/19/0252201/anthropic-announces-public-benefit-fund-committing-5-of-its-shares?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed at Slashdot.

https://it.slashdot.org/story/26/10/19/0252201/anthropic-announces-public-benefit-fund-committing-5-of-its-shares?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed