Remember that small leak on the International Space Station discovered in 2018 that was traced to a Russian module and apparently made by a drill bit? (Implicating the technicans that built the module on earth, Ars Technica wrote “There is evidence tha…
What Happens When Big Tech’s Datacenters Come to Small Towns?
Earlier this month Time magazine reported on what it calls “the underside of an economy dominated by big tech companies.”
Few big tech companies that are building and hiring across America bring that wealth with them when they set up in new communitie…
Researchers Find Children ‘Burn So Much Energy, They’re Like a Difference Species’
A study of 6,400 people “from eight days old up to age 95, in 29 countries,” finds that the human metabolism “peaks at the age of one, is stable from 20 to 60 and then inexorably declines,” writes the BBC.
Long-time Slashdot reader Hope Thelps shares…
Report: Java ‘Surges’ Back Up in Programming Language Popularity
“The programming language Java’s popularity has been slowly declining in some programming language index rankings, but it’s popped back into the second spot in RedMonk’s latest chart,” reports ZDNet:
Javascript still rules in RedMonk’s Q3 2021 languag…
Ask Slashdot: Is There a ‘Standard’ Way of Formatting Numbers?
Long-time Slashdot reader Pieroxy is working on a new open source project, a web-based version of the system-monitoring software Conky.
The ultimate goal is send the data to an HTML interface “to find some use for the old iPads/tablets/laptops we all …
‘No Effect Whatsoever’ Found for Ivermectin in Major Study
In 1999 Los Angeles Times reporter Michael Hiltzik won a Pulitzer Prize. Now a business columnist for the Times, he writes that Ivermectin, “the latest supposed treatment for COVID-19 being touted by anti-vaccination groups, had ‘no effect whatsoever’ …
Disgruntled Member of ‘Conti’ Ransomware Gang Leaks Files
“Someone claiming to work with one of the most notorious ransomware gangs says they’re fed up with how extortion money is divvied up and has leaked a host of the gang’s files on a hacker forum,” reports NBC News:
The files, posted to a forum frequente…
Pixar Co-founder Shares ‘the Real Story of Pixar’
Alvy Ray Smith cofounded Pixar. He was the first director of computer graphics at Lucasfilm and the first graphics fellow at Microsoft. He has received two technical Academy Awards for his contributions to digital movie-making technology.
This week h…
Is Big Tech Pressuring Its Call-Center Workers to Install Cameras in Their Homes?
NBC News reports:
Colombia-based call center workers who provide outsourced customer service to some of the nation’s largest companies are being pressured to sign a contract that lets their employer install cameras in their homes to monitor work perfo…
Self-Driving Car Startup Wants to Spare AI From Making Life-or-Death Decisions
Instead of having AI in a self-driving car decide whether to kill its driver or pedestrians, the Washington Post reports there’s a new philosophy gaining traction: Why not stop cars from getting in life-or-death situations in the first place? (Alternat…