news aggregator

Longtime Slashdot reader theodp writes: Our goal," Amazon founder Jeff Bezos explained in a Feb. 2021 Instagram post announcing the location of a second tuition-free @BezosAcademy preschool in Tacoma, WA, "is to unlock the potential in kids to become creative leaders, original thinkers, and lifelong learners -- regardless of their zip code." Three years later, a new Amazon SEC filing reveals how much zip codes can matter, even to Bezos, the third richest person in the world. GeekWire reports: "A new Amazon [SEC] filing, detailing Jeff Bezos' plan to sell a slice of his stake in the company, sheds fresh light on his move from Seattle to Miami -- and his ability to avoid Washington state's capital gains tax [ironically, earmarked to be funneled into early-childhood education programs and school construction] in the process. The filing reveals that the Amazon founder and executive chairman adopted a trading plan Nov. 8 to sell up to 50 million Amazon shares during a period ending in January 2025. It would be the first time he has sold Amazon stock since 2021. The plan was adopted less than a week after Bezos announced on Instagram, on Nov. 2, that he was leaving his longtime home of Seattle for sunnier skies in Miami. In his Instagram post, Bezos said he wanted to be closer to his parents and Blue Origin space venture in Florida. He did not mention taxes." "Given Bezos' recent move out of Washington -- where he founded and built Amazon into a global behemoth -- he will also be saving around $600 million in tax expense if he ends up selling the maximum of 50 million shares under the plan, based on the company's current stock price. That's around $600 million in what would have otherwise been tax revenue for his former home state, as The Center Square reported Monday. The capital gains tax, passed in 2021, imposes a 7% tax on any gains of more than $250,000 from the sale of stocks and bonds, with some exceptions. It was challenged in court but ultimately ruled constitutional by the state Supreme Court last year. The tax brought in nearly $900 million in its first year of collection. Revenue goes toward early education and childcare programs, as well as school construction projects." It's of course no secret that Bezos is no fan of taxes -- he explored founding Amazon on an Indian reservation near San Francisco to avoid taxes, ponied up $100,000 to defeat a proposed WA state income tax aimed at improving WA state public education (joined in the fight by Microsoft and Steve Ballmer), characterized as unconstitutional attempts to make Amazon collect and pay sales taxes, and came under fire by ProPublica for paying no income tax in some years.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In a blog post today, Meta announced that it'll stop showing political content across Instagram and Threads unless users explicitly choose to have it recommended to them. The Verge reports: Meta announced that it's expanding an existing Reels policy that limits political content from people you're not following (including posts about social issues) from appearing in recommended feeds to more broadly cover the company's Threads and Instagram platforms. "Our goal is to preserve the ability for people to choose to interact with political content, while respecting each person's appetite for it," said Instagram head Adam Mosseri, announcing on Threads that the changes will be applied over the next few weeks. Facebook is also expected to roll out these new controls at a later, undisclosed date. Users who still want to have content "likely to mention governments, elections, or social topics that affect a group of people and/or society at large" recommended to them can choose to turn off this limitation within their account settings. The changes will apply to public accounts when enabled and only in places where content is being recommended, such as Explore, Reels, in-feed recommendations, and suggested users. The update won't change how users view content from accounts they choose to follow, so accounts that aren't eligible to be recommended can still post political content to their followers via their feed and Stories. For creators, Meta says that "if your account is not eligible to be recommended, none of your content will be recommended regardless of whether or not all of your content goes against our recommendations guidelines." When these changes do go live, professional accounts on Instagram will be able to use the Account Status feature to check if posting political content is impacting their eligibility for recommendation. Professional accounts can also use Account Status to contest decisions that revoke this eligibility, alongside editing, removing, or pausing politically related posts until the account is eligible to be recommended again.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: The maker of a popular smart ski and bike helmet has fixed a security flaw that allowed the easy real-time location tracking of anyone wearing its helmets. Livall makes internet-connected helmets that allow groups of skiers or bike riders to talk with each other using the helmet's in-built speaker and microphone, and share their real-time location in a friend's group using Livall's smartphone apps. Ken Munro, founder of U.K. cybersecurity testing firm Pen Test Partners, said Livall's smartphone apps had a simple flaw allowing easy access to any group's audio chats and location data. Munro says the two apps, one for skiers and one for bike riders, collectively have about a million users. At the heart of the bug, Munro found that anyone using Livall's apps for group audio chat and sharing their location must be part of the same friends group, which could be accessed using only that group's six-digit numeric code. "That 6-digit group code simply isn't random enough," Munro said in a blog post describing the flaw. "We could brute force all group IDs in a matter of minutes." In doing so, anyone could access any of the 1 million possible permutations of group chat codes. "As soon as one entered a valid group code, one joined the group automatically," said Munro, adding that this happened without alerting other group members. "It was therefore trivial to silently join any group, giving us access to any users' location and the ability to listen in to any group audio communications," said Munro. "The only way a rogue group user could be detected was if the legitimate user went to check on the members of that group." [...] In an email, Livall's R&D director Richard Yi explained that the company improved the randomness of group codes by also adding letters, and including alerts for new members joining groups. Yi also said the app now allows the shared location to be turned off at the user level.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The French offices of Chinese tech giant Huawei were raided by financial prosecutors this week, the company confirmed Friday. CNN reports: A French judicial source told CNN Thursday that the raid had been carried out as part of a preliminary probe launched by the financial prosecutor's office over alleged "breach of probity," a broad term concerning offenses such as acts of corruption, favoritism and influence peddling. The source did not provide any further details about the investigation. A preliminary investigation does not imply any wrongdoing. "Huawei has been in France for over 20 years, and has been in compliance with the laws and regulations applicable in the country. While Huawei France does not wish to comment on an ongoing investigation, the company remains confident about its conclusions," a spokesperson said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Longtime Slashdot reader Alain Williams shares a report from the BBC: Users of Ring video doorbells have reacted angrily to a huge price hike being introduced in March. After buying the devices, customers can pay a subscription to store footage on the cloud, download clips and get discounted products. That subscription is going up 43%, from $44 to $63 per device, per year, for basic plan customers. The firm, which is owned by Amazon, insisted it still provided "some of the best value in the industry." Its customers appear not to to agree.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: Reddit is not required to share the IP-address of six users who made piracy-related comments on the website. The company successfully protested the third attempt of a group of filmmakers, which planned to use the requested logs as evidence in their lawsuit against Internet provider Frontier. Instead of focusing on anonymous Redditors, filmmakers can go after the ISP's subscribers directly. [...] Early last year, the film companies subpoenaed Reddit for the first time, requesting the personal details of several users. Reddit refused to cooperate, defending their users' right to anonymous speech, and found a California federal court in agreement. In a second attempt a few weeks later, several film companies sent a similar subpoena to Reddit. This time, the request was more targeted, as all comments specifically referred to the ISP being sued; Grande Communications. Reddit still refused to comply, however, stressing that its users' First Amendment rights would still be at stake. After hearing both parties, Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler sided with Reddit once again. While the denial was another setback for the film companies and their attorney, they had no plans to abandon this route to evidence quite so easily. Last month, they were back in court with a similar but tweaked request, this time related to a lawsuit targeting Internet provider Frontier Communications. Broadly speaking, the third case was comparable to the others. The film companies, including Voltage Holdings and Screen Media Ventures, wanted to use comments made by six Redditors to show that the ISP didn't take proper action against repeat infringers, or that 'lax' enforcement acted as a draw to potential pirates. Contrary to the earlier requests, the film companies were no longer looking for any names or email addresses, only the applicable IP address logs. This would allow the commenters to remain anonymous because an 'IP-address is not a person', their attorney argued. Reddit, again, refused to hand over information, arguing it would violate users' right to anonymous speech. The fact that it would only have to reveal IP-addresses wouldn't change that, Reddit argued. After both sides had the chance to present their arguments, the matter landed on the desk of U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Hixson of the California federal court. After reviewing the paperwork, Judge Hixson denied the motion to compel. [...] Of importance in this decision is the so-called '2TheMart.com' standard, which was also applied in the earlier two cases. From that perspective, the court sees no reason to reach a different conclusion. [...] "While the Court is unaware of any cases in the Ninth Circuit in which a court has declined to apply a First Amendment unmasking standard for IP addresses, other courts have recognized that IP addresses are essential to unmasking because an 'IP address cannot be made up in the same way that a poster may provide a false name and address.'" "For this reason, the Court finds no reason to believe provision of an IP address is not unmasking subject to First Amendment scrutiny," Judge Hixson writes. "In sum, the Court finds Movants cannot meet the 2TheMart standard because the evidence they seek can be obtained from other sources, including from Frontier in the normal course of discovery." If the rightsholders are unable to obtain the desired evidence from Frontier, they could always try again, of course. If anything, the film companies have shown that aren't prepared to give up easily.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Network giant Cisco is planning to restructure its business which will include laying off thousands of employees, as it seeks to focus on high-growth areas, according to three sources familiar with the matter. From the Reuters report: The San Jose, California-based company has a total employee count of 84,900 as of fiscal 2023, according to its website.The company is still deciding on the total number of employees to be affected by the layoffs, one person said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

It appears that the government of Canada is going to ban the Flipper Zero, the tiny, modular hacking device that's become popular with techies for its deviant digital powers. From a report: On Thursday, following a summit that focused on "the growing challenge of auto theft in Canada," the country's Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry posted a statement on X, saying "Criminals have been using sophisticated tools to steal cars...Today, I announced we are banning the importation, sale and use of consumer hacking devices, like flippers, used to commit these crimes. In a press release issued on Thursday, the Canadian government confirmed that it will be pursuing "all avenues to ban devices used to steal vehicles by copying the wireless signals for remote keyless entry, such as the Flipper Zero." The Flipper, which is technically a penetration testing device, has been controversial due to its ability to hack droves of smart products. Alex Kulagin, the COO of Flipper Devices, said in a statement shared with Gizmodo that the device couldn't be used to "hijack any car" and that certain circumstances would have to be met for it to happen:

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Software company's claim of there being no active exploits also being questioned

In disclosing yet another vulnerability in its Connect Secure, Policy Secure, and ZTA gateways, Ivanti has confused the third-party researchers who discovered it.…

India's Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will send a humanoid robot astronaut into this space this year, then send it back alongside actual humans in 2025 on its long-delayed Gaganyaan orbital mission. From a report: According to the space agency, the robot-crewed Vyommitra Mission is scheduled for the third quarter of this year. The robot -- whose name translates to "Space Friend" in Sanskrit -- can monitor module parameters, issue alerts and execute life support operations. Vyommitra is also an excellent multitasker that can operate six panels while responding to queries and mimicking human functions. The humanoid speaks two languages: Hindi and English. It's also been designated as female -- to the extent possible for a legless robot -- and sports coiffed hair, feminine facial features, and hands that look like they are wearing white gloves. It resembles a wax figurine or mannequin and The Register fancies it mostly manages to stay out of the Uncanny Valley -- the term applied to robots and digital depictions of humans that try to appear human but instead come off as creepy and/or unsettling.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Code might get things wrong for patients but we must think of the corporate profits

AI algorithms used to determine eligibility for US government healthcare coverage are increasingly verboten, the federal agency Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) told health insurance companies in a memo this week. …

Ubisoft co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot has defended the $70 price tag for Skull and Bones, calling it a "quadruple-A game." From a report: During a Q&A session as part of a conference call discussing Ubisoft's Q3 sales for its fiscal year 2024, one caller pointed out that Skull and Bones now appears to be taking a more live service approach -- the game's Year 1 roadmap was recently published, for example. The caller asked why Ubisoft was insisting on charging $70 for the game and potentially limiting the size of its player base, suggesting a free-to-play model may better suit the live service mechanics and give it a better chance of building a community. Guillemot replied with an assertion that Skull and Bones deserves to be a full-price game because of its scale. "You will see that Skull and Bones is a fully-fledged game," he said. "It's a very big game, and we feel that people will really see how vast and complete that game is. It's a really full, triple... quadruple-A game, that will deliver in the long run."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Don't want a GPU? How about some intellectual property or design help?

Nvidia is reportedly putting together a business unit to peddle its intellectual property and design services to the likes of AWS, Microsoft, and Meta.…

An Apple executive lobbied against a strong right-to-repair bill in Oregon Thursday, which is the first time the company has had an employee actively outline its stance on right to repair at an open hearing. 404 Media: Apple's position in Oregon shows that despite supporting a weaker right to repair law in California, it still intends to control its own repair ecosystem. It also sets up a highly interesting fight in the state because Google has come out in favor of the same legislation Apple is opposing. "It is our belief that the bill's current language around parts pairing will undermine the security, safety, and privacy of Oregonians by forcing device manufacturers to allow the use of parts of unknown origin in consumer devices," John Perry, Apple's principal secure repair architect, told the legislature. This is a quick about-face for the company, which after years of lobbying against right to repair, began to lobby for it in California last fall. The difference now is that Oregon's bill includes a critical provision that Google says it can easily comply with but that is core for Apple to maintain its dominance over the repair market.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Plus: x86 processor shipments up for the first time in 2 years

AMD is steadily accumulating CPU market share, according to new figures from Mercury Research, and Arm-based systems now account for more than 10 percent of PC client sales.…

Amazon has been sued in a proposed U.S. class action that accuses the online retailer of violating consumer protection law by steering shoppers to higher-priced items to earn extra fees. Filed this week in the Seattle federal court, the complaint cites the recent FTC antitrust case against Amazon. It alleges Amazon's algorithm for its "Buy Box" often shows higher-priced options over faster, cheaper alternatives. The suit says shoppers click Amazon's "Buy Now" button nearly 98% of the time, falsely believing its choices offer the best deal. Amazon created the algorithm to benefit third-party sellers that pay "hefty fees" for its Fulfillment By Amazon services, the suit alleges.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Designer updates, and AI assistants everywhere

Like an incontinent hippo on a helter-skelter, Microsoft has flung out yet more Copilot functionality in the form of enhancements to Designer, an AI-infused image generator.…

Grammarly, the parent firm of eponymous writing assistant service, is laying off 230 employees worldwide as part of a "business restructuring," the company announced this week. From a report: The layoffs are part of Grammarly's efforts to advance its focus on "the AI-enabled workplace of the future," the company says. "To arrive at today's decision, we took a look at our organizational design and the current skillsets of our teams through the lens of our company strategy," Grammarly CEO Rahul Roy-Chowdhury said in a memo to employees. "As we strengthen our focus toward driving the AI-enabled workplace and deepen our technical investments in AI, we will need a different mix of capabilities and skillsets. We also need to redesign our organization to improve the quality and speed of collaboration -- and that means, among other things, restructuring roles and co-locating certain teams." Roy-Chowdhury went on to say that the layoffs are not a cost-cutting measure, noting that Grammarly's financial position is "strong." He says the layoffs affects most Grammarly functions and geographies.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said she is "very worried" about AI being used nefariously in the 2024 election, she told reporters at a press conference in Washington, D.C. on Thursday. From a report: "AI can do amazing things and AI can disrupt our elections, here and around the world," she said. "We're already starting to see it." Raimondo was asked by ABC News about the robocall sent on the day of the New Hampshire primary purporting to be from President Biden and spreading misinformation about voting times. She said the government is going to work "extensively" to start putting out AI framework that helps people -- including journalists -- be able to decipher what is real and what is fake. The Commerce Secretary added that AI companies want to do the right thing based on her conversations with them. "Am I worried? Yes," she said. "Do I think we have the tools to protect our election and our democracy? Yes. Do I feel based on my interactions with the private sector that they want to do the right thing? By and large, Yes. It's a big threat."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Keep your graphics cards safe, people

CableMod has issued a recall for all its angled power adapters for GPU cards following reports of them overheating and posing a safety risk.…