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Submission + - 67% of American Tech Workers Interested in Joining a Union (visualcapitalist.com)

Submitted by AsylumWraith
AsylumWraith writes: Visual Capitalist has posted an article and graph showing that, on average, 67% of US tech workers would be interested in joining a union.

The percentage is highest at companies like Intuit, with 94% or respondents indicating they'd be interested in joining a union. On the other end of the scale, fewer than half of the employees at Apple, Tesla, and Google, who were surveyed were interested in such a move.

Submission + - California governor vetoes bill requiring speeding alerts in new cars (apnews.com)

Submitted by Gruntbeetle
Gruntbeetle writes: Following up on California Drivers May Soon Get Mandatory In-Car Speed Warnings Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill Saturday that would have required new cars to beep at drivers if they exceed the speed limit. The bill, aimed at reducing traffic deaths, would have mandated that vehicles beep at drivers when they exceed the speed limit by at least 10 mph (16kph). Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener, who sponsored the bill, called the veto a setback for street safety.

Submission + - Hogreen Air Drops Game-Changing Hydrogen Drone (techtimes.com)

Submitted by walterbyrd
walterbyrd writes: The hydrogen-powered drone is unique because of its exceptional range and flying duration capacity, which reaches up to 14 hours. This makes it fly beyond the limitations shown by traditional lithium-battery drones, which can only go for 10 to 30 minutes.

Recently, the drone completed remote missions in Germany and the United States while being controlled from nearly 5,800 miles away in South Korea. This can be achieved by integrating systems on radio frequency and LTE/5G communication, wherein control is made possible from the farthest corner of the globe.

Submission + - Were the Egyptian pyramids built with kites? (caltech.edu) 1

Submitted by Smonster
Smonster writes: When people think about the building of the Egyptian pyramids, they probably have a mental image of thousands of slaves laboriously rolling massive stone blocks with logs and levers. But as one Caltech aeronautics professor is demonstrating, the task may have been accomplished by just four or five guys who flew the stones into place with a kite.

On Saturday, June 23, Mory Gharib and his team raised a 6,900-pound, 15-foot obelisk into vertical position in the desert near Palmdale by using nothing more than a kite, a pulley system, and a support frame. Though the blustery winds were gusting upwards of 22 miles per hour, the team set the obelisk upright on second try.

In the course of researching the tools available to the Egyptian pyramid builders, she has discovered, for example, that a brass ankh—long assumed to be merely a religious symbol—makes a very good carabiner for controlling a kite line. And a type of insect commonly found in Egypt could have supplied a kind of shellac to make linen sails hold wind. As for objections to the use of pulleys, the team's intention was always to progress later—actually, "regress" might be a more appropriate word— to the windlasses apparently used to hoist sails on Egyptian ships.

Finally, one might ask whether there was and is sufficient wind in Egypt for a kite or a drag chute to fly. The answer is that steady winds of up to 30 miles-per-hour are not unusual in the areas where the pyramids and obelisks are found.

Submission + - EPA Must Address Fluoridated Water's Risk To Children's IQs, US Judge Rules (reuters.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A federal judge in California has ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to strengthen regulations for fluoride in drinking water, saying the compound poses an unreasonable potential risk to children at levels that are currently typical nationwide. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco on Tuesday sided with several advocacy groups, finding the current practice of adding fluoride to drinking water supplies to fight cavities presented unreasonable risks for children’s developing brains.

Chen said the advocacy groups had established during a non-jury trial that fluoride posed an unreasonable risk of harm sufficient to require a regulatory response by the EPA under the Toxic Substances Control Act. "The scientific literature in the record provides a high level of certainty that a hazard is present; fluoride is associated with reduced IQ," wrote Chen, an appointee of Democratic former President Barack Obama. But the judge stressed he was not concluding with certainty that fluoridated water endangered public health. [...] The EPA said it was reviewing the decision.

Submission + - 'Anne Frank' Copyright Dispute Triggers VPN, Geoblocking Questions (torrentfreak.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Dutch Supreme Court has requested guidance from the EU's top court on geo-blocking, VPNs, and copyright in a case involving the online publication of Anne Frank's manuscripts. The CJEU's response has the potential to reshape the online content distribution landscape, impacting streaming platforms and other services that rely on geo-blocking. VPNs services will monitor the matter with great interest too. [...] While early versions are presumably in the public domain in several countries, the original manuscripts are protected by copyright in the Netherlands until 2037. As a result, the copies published by the Dutch Anne Frank Stichting, are blocked for Dutch visitors. “The scholarly edition of the Anne Frank manuscripts cannot be made available in all countries, due to copyright considerations,” is the message disallowed visitors get to see.

This blocking effort is the result of a copyright battle. Ideally, Anne Frank Stichting would like to make the manuscripts available worldwide, but the Swiss ‘Fonds’ has not given permission for it to do so. And since some parts of the manuscript were first published in 1986, Dutch copyrights are still valid. In theory, geo-blocking efforts could alleviate the copyright concerns but, for the Fonds, these measures are not sufficient. After pointing out that people can bypass the blocking efforts with a VPN, it took the matter to court. Around the world, publishers and streaming services use geo-blocking as the standard measure to enforce geographical licenses. This applies to the Anne Frank Stichting, as well as Netflix, BBC iPlayer, news sites, and gaming platforms. The Anne Frank Fonds doesn’t dispute this, but argued in court that people can circumvent these restrictions with a VPN, suggesting that the manuscripts shouldn’t be published online at all. The lower court dismissed this argument, stating the defendants had taken reasonable measures to prevent access from the Netherlands. The Fonds appealed, but the appeal was also dismissed, and the case is now before the Dutch Supreme Court.

The Fonds argues that the manuscript website is (in part) directed at a Dutch audience. Therefore, the defendants are making the manuscripts available in the Netherlands, regardless of the use of any blocking measures. The defendants, in turn, argue that the use of state-of-the-art geo-blocking, along with additional measures like a user declaration, is sufficient to prevent a communication to the public in the Netherlands. The defense relied on the opinion in the GO4YU case, which suggests that circumventing geo-blocking with a VPN does not constitute a communication to the public in the blocked territory, unless the blocking is intentionally ineffective.

Submission + - Controversial Windows Recall AI Tool Returns Overhauled Security Architecture (securityweek.com)

Submitted by wiredmikey
wiredmikey writes: Three months after pulling previews of the controversial Windows Recall feature due to public backlash, Microsoft says it has completely overhauled the security architecture with proof-of-presence encryption, anti-tampering and DLP checks, and screenshot data managed in secure enclaves outside the main operating system.

In an interview with SecurityWeek,/a>, Microsoft vice president David Weston said the company’s engineers rewrote the security model of Windows Recall to reduce attack surface on Copilot+ PCs and minimize the risk of malware attackers targeting the screenshot data store.

Submission + - Starlink Surpasses 4 Million Subscribers (circleid.com)

Submitted by penciling_in
penciling_in writes: Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite-based internet service, has hit a major milestone by surpassing 4 million subscribers worldwide. SpaceX confirmed the news on Thursday after company President Gwynne Shotwell hinted earlier in the week that the service would reach the mark within days. Since its beta launch in October 2020, Starlink has rapidly scaled, growing from 1 million subscribers by December 2022, to 2 million by September 2023, and now 4 million just months later. The service operates through a vast constellation of nearly 6,000 satellites, providing satellite internet to users in almost 100 countries, including expanding into previously underserved regions like Africa and the Pacific islands. While competition from OneWeb and Amazon’s Project Kuiper looms, Starlink remains the market leader. However, challenges like slowing U.S. growth and concerns over satellite interference with radio astronomy persist.

Submission + - "Negligence Liability for AI Developers'

Submitted by david.emery
david.emery writes: Brian H Choi writes an opinion piece on AI liability over on Lawfare: https://www.lawfaremedia.org/a... To date, most popular approaches to AI safety and accountability have focused on the technological characteristics and risks of AI systems, while averting attention from the workers behind the curtain responsible for designing, implementing, testing, and maintaining such systems. ...

I have previously argued that a negligence-based approach is needed because it directs legal scrutiny on the actual persons responsible for creating and managing AI systems. A step in that direction is found in California’s AI safety bill, which specifies that AI developers shall articulate and implement protocols that embody the “developer’s duty to take reasonable care to avoid producing a covered model or covered model derivative that poses an unreasonable risk of causing or materially enabling a critical harm” (emphasis added). Although tech leaders have opposed California’s bill, courts don’t need to wait for legislation to allow negligence claims against AI developers. But how would negligence work in the AI context, and what downstream effects should AI developers anticipate?

However, the author ignores the established precedent of engineering liability (i.e. who to blame if the building falls down) and licensing, which establishes both liability and limits on same. This is an important issue for the AI industry and for engineering societies to consider.

Submission + - Flaw in Kia's web portal let researchers track, hack cars (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by SpzToid
SpzToid writes: Bug let researchers track millions of cars, unlock doors, and start engines at will.

======
Today, a group of independent security researchers revealed that they'd found a flaw in a web portal operated by the carmaker Kia that let the researchers reassign control of the Internet-connected features of most modern Kia vehicles—dozens of models representing millions of cars on the road—from the smartphone of a car’s owner to the hackers’ own phone or computer. By exploiting that vulnerability and building their own custom app to send commands to target cars, they were able to scan virtually any Internet-connected Kia vehicle’s license plate and within seconds gain the ability to track that car’s location, unlock the car, honk its horn, or start its ignition at will.

Submission + - South Korea Criminalizes Watching or Possessing Sexually Explicit Deepfakes (reuters.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: South Korean lawmakers on Thursday passed a bill that criminalizes possessing or watching sexually explicit deepfake images and videos, with penalties set to include prison terms and fines. There has been an outcry in South Korea over Telegram group chats where sexually explicit and illegal deepfakes were created and widely shared, prompting calls for tougher punishment. Anyone purchasing, saving or watching such material could face up to three years in jail or be fined up to 30 million won ($22,600), according to the bill.

Currently, making sexually explicit deepfakes with the intention of distributing them is punishable by five years in prison or a fine of 50 million won under the Sexual Violence Prevention and Victims Protection Act. When the new law takes effect, the maximum sentence for such crimes will also increase to seven years regardless of the intention. The bill will now need the approval of President Yoon Suk Yeol in order to be enacted. South Korean police have so far handled more than 800 deepfake sex crime cases this year, the Yonhap news agency reported on Thursday. That compares with 156 for all of 2021, when data was first collated. Most victims and perpetrators are teenagers, police say.

Submission + - HP Is Adding AI To its Printers (pcworld.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The latest perpetrator of questionable AI branding? HP. The company is introducing “Print AI,” what it calls the “industry’s first intelligent print experience for home, office, and large format printing.” What does that mean? It’s essentially a new beta software driver package for some HP printers. According to the press release, it can deliver “Perfect Output” — capital P capital O — a branded tool that reformats the contents of a page in order to more ideally fit it onto physical paper.

Despite my skeptical tone, this is actually a pretty cool idea. “Perfect Output can detect unwanted content like ads and web text, printing only the desired text and images, saving time, paper, and ink.” That’s neat! If the web page you’re printing doesn’t offer a built-in print format, the software will make one for you. It’ll also serve to better organize printed spreadsheets and images, too. But I don’t see anything in this software that’s actually AI — or even machine learning, for that matter. This is applying the same tech (functionally, if not necessarily the same code) as the “reader mode” formatting we’ve seen in browsers for about a decade now. Take the text and images of a page, strip out everything else that’s unnecessary, and present it as efficiently as possible. [...]

The press release does mention that support and formatting tasks can be accomplished with “simple conversational prompts,” which at least might be leveraging some of the large language models that have become synonymous with AI as consumers understand it. But based on the description, it’s more about selling you something than helping you. “Customers can choose to print or explore a curated list of partners that offer unique photo printing capabilities, gift certificates to be printed on the card, and so much more.” Whoopee.

Submission + - Paralyzed Jockey Loses Ability to Walk After Manufacturer Refuses to Fix Battery (404media.co)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: After a horseback riding accident left him paralyzed from the waist down in 2009, former jockey Michael Straight learned to walk again with the help of a $100,000 ReWalk Personal exoskeleton. Earlier this month, that exoskeleton broke because of a malfunctioning piece of wiring in an accompanying watch that makes the exoskeleton work. The manufacturer refused to fix it, saying the machine was now too old to be serviced, and Straight once again couldn’t walk anymore. “After 371,091 steps my exoskeleton is being retired after 10 years of unbelievable physical therapy,” Straight posted on Facebook on September 16. “The reasons [sic] why it has stopped is a pathetic excuse for a bad company to try and make more money. The reason it stopped is because of a battery in the watch I wear to operate the machine. I called thinking it was no big deal, yet I was told they stopped working on any machine that was 5 years or older. I find it very hard to believe after paying nearly $100,000 for the machine and training that a $20 battery for the watch is the reason I can't walk anymore?”

Straight’s experience is a nightmare scenario that highlights what happens when companies decide to stop supporting their products and do not actively support independent repair. It’s also what happens without the protection of right to repair legislation that requires manufacturers to make repair parts, guides, and tools available to the general public. Specifically, a connection wire became desoldered from the battery in a watch that connects to the exoskeleton: “It’s not the actual battery, but it’s the little green connection piece we need to be the right fit and that’s been our problem,” Straight posted on Facebook. Straight’s personal exoskeleton was broken for two months, he said in a video on Facebook. He was eventually able to get the device fixed after attention from an article in the Paulick Report, a website about the horse industry, and a spot on local TV. “It took me two months, and I got no results,” he said in the video. With social media and news attention, “it only took you all four days, and look at the results,” he said earlier this week while standing in the exoskeleton.

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