Climate change is revealing long-frozen artifacts and animals to archaeologists. But the window for study is slender and shrinking. From a report: Glacial archaeology is a relatively new discipline. The ice was literally broken during the summer of 199…
Nigeria’s eNaira Digital Currency Had an Embarrassing First Week
The eNaira is supposed to live within a mobile wallet, have the same value and be interchangeable with the physical naira for everyday transactions. Nigerians believe the eNaira, which is governed by a centralized blockchain, is part of the central ban…
The Free Laptop Program Built Into the Biden Reconciliation Plan
After months of negotiations, President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better agenda advanced into its last phase of debate this week. The bipartisan infrastructure bill contains billions to expand high-speed broadband across the country, aiming to close the d…
Code.org and Scratch Access Yanked By Chicago Schools Due To Student Privacy Law
theodp writes: Chicago Public School (CPS) teachers were ‘blindsided’ after access to popular classroom software was yanked due to CPS’s interpretation of Illinois’ Student Online Personal Protection Act (SOPPA), the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Sneha De…
Netflix Launches Into Video Games for Android
Netflix, the video-streaming giant, began its expected foray into video games with the introduction of five mobile games to its users worldwide, playable initially on Android devices. From a report: The titles are included in a Netflix subscription, an…
Facebook, Citing Societal Concerns, Plans To Shut Down Facial Recognition System
Facebook plans to shut down its decade-old facial recognition system this month, deleting the face scan data of more than one billion users and effectively eliminating a feature that has fueled privacy concerns, government investigations, a class-actio…
Microsoft’s Edge Browser for Linux is Now Available for All Users
A year after releasing the first preview build of its Chromium-based Edge browser for Linux, Microsoft is announcing its general availability. From a report: The new release supports a variety of Linux distributions, including Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora an…
Microsoft Launches Google Wave
Microsoft is bringing back Google Wave, the doomed real-time messaging and collaboration platform Google launched in 2009 and prematurely shuttered in 2010. From a report: Maybe we should’ve seen this coming. Back in 2019, Microsoft announced the Fluid…
Microsoft’s Own Metaverse Is Coming, and It Will Have PowerPoint
If you’re worried the metaverse will be all fun and games, fear not: Microsoft is taking its own stab at the idea, and it will have PowerPoint and Excel. From a report: The company is adapting its signature software products to create a more corporate …
DeFi Protocol Cream Finance Loses $130 Million in Latest Crypto Hack
DeFi protocol Cream Finance suffered yet another hack this year after an exploit stole at least $130 million in what could be one of the largest thefts in decentralized finance. From a report: The attack on the Ethereum-based lending protocol was first…