SoylentNews

cereal_burpist writes:

I know many Soylentils are sick of AI, but I found this to be clever and actually doing something useful:

The Best Use of AI Ever: A 'Grandma' Built To Waste Telescammers' Time
https://decrypt.co/291711/the-best-use-of-ai-ever-a-grandma-built-to-waste-telescammers-time

British telecom giant O2 announced what could be the first deployment of conversational AI specifically designed to counter telephone fraud in the UK telecommunications sector.

The hero: a clueless grandma who endlessly and frustratingly digresses while idiot scammers attempt to hoodwink her out of money.

The system, dubbed "Daisy," uses AI models to snare fraudsters in meandering conversations lasting up to 40 minutes, potentially preventing millions in losses across the network's 24 million mobile customers. The tool operates autonomously around the clock, requiring no human intervention to maintain conversations with suspected scammers.

"Stop calling me dear, you stupid [expletive deleted]!" one exasperated tele-scammer shouted in a video O2 aired to show off its new tool.
"Got it, dear!" the kindly AI grandma replied.

Here's how it works. When a user receives a scam call, they forward the call to the number 7726, which had been used as a hotline to report fraud. From there, Daisy employs a custom large language model with a "personality layer" that generates real-time responses to the scammers.

The system transcribes incoming voice to text, processes it through the AI model so responses are context-relevant, and converts the text output back to speech, creating natural-sounding conversations that can include fictional personal details and bank information.

It's designed to exploit fraudsters' targeting of elderly victims by presenting as a chatty grandmother, complete with meandering stories about family and knitting.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Digital software locks have just become flimsier in Canada with the passage of a pair of laws allowing for their bypass for repair and interoperability purposes.

Royal assent was granted to two right to repair bills last week that amend Canada's Copyright Act to allow the circumvention of technological protection measures (TPMs) if this is done for the purposes of "maintaining or repairing a product, including any related diagnosing," and "to make the program or a device in which it is embedded interoperable with any other computer program, device or component."

The pair of bills allow device owners to not only repair their own stuff regardless of how a program is written to prevent such non-OEM measures, but said owners can also make their devices work with third-party components without needing to go through the manufacturer to do so. 

[...] TPMs can take a number of forms, from simple administrative passwords to encryption, registration keys, or even the need for a physical object like a USB dongle to unlock access to copyrighted components of a device's software. Most commercially manufactured devices with proprietary embedded software include some form of TPM, and neither C-244 nor C-294 place any restrictions on the use of such measures by manufacturers.

As iFixit points out, neither Copyright Act amendments do anything to expand access to the tools needed to circumvent TPMs. That puts Canadians in a similar position to US repair advocates, who in 2021 saw the US Copyright Office loosen DMCA restrictions to allow limited repairs of some devices despite TPMs, but without allowing access to the tools needed to do so.

[...] "While it's now legal to circumvent the digital locks on these machines, the ruling does not allow us to share or distribute the tools necessary to do so," iFixit director of sustainability Elizabeth Chamberlain said last month. "The ruling doesn't change the underlying statute making it illegal to share or sell tools that bypass software locks. This leaves most of the repair work inaccessible to the average person, since the technical barriers remain high."

Original Submission

owl writes:

https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/playstation/pizza-huts-new-pizza-warmer-uses-the-playstation-5s-heat-to-keep-your-pizza-hot-you-can-3d-print-the-new-pizzawarmr-for-free

Pizza Hut has melded the disparate worlds of bready, cheesy foodstuffs and console gaming with the new PIZZAWRMR. This innovation is designed to sit atop your Sony PlayStation 5 console and keep your takeaway of choice piping hot while you enjoy your heated gaming session. This isn't a new retail product or a giveaway, though. Pizza Hut Canada has made the 3D printing source files free for anyone who signs up to download, modify, and print.

The PIZZAWRMR design is inspired by the pizza-centric restaurant's red roof. The lid opens laptop-style for convenient pizza slice access. According to Pizza Hut, several slices of pizza can fit into the top box. Diagrams show that the hot exhaust from the console is channeled under and into the pizza area, which is the appliance of "science and engineering for the greater good," says the Pizza Hut marketing team.

Original Submission

looorg writes:

It's that time of the year again. A compilation of the most common passwords. Nothing has changed. No lessons have been learned. Either people don't care or they, still, just doesn't know any better.

There is the common list but it can also be shown on a per country level. It doesn't really make it better. Idiocy is evenly spread across the lands.

It's our sixth year—this time, in collaboration with NordStellar—analyzing people's password habits, and guess what? They're still really bad.

And we're not just talking about personal passwords here. This time, we also put together a list of the most common corporate passwords to see how they compare to those used in everyday life.

So, check out all the dishonorable winners on both lists and learn what the latest trends are.

https://nordpass.com/most-common-passwords-list/

Original Submission

Freeman writes:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/11/trump-says-elon-musk-will-lead-doge-a-new-department-of-government-efficiency/

President-elect Donald Trump today announced that a new Department of Government Efficiency—or "DOGE"—will be led by Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

[...] DOGE apparently will not be an official federal agency, as Trump said it will provide advice "from outside" of government. But Musk, who has frequently criticized government subsidies despite seeking public money and obtaining various subsidies for his own companies, will apparently have significant influence over spending in the Trump administration.

[...] Trump's statement said the department, whose name is a reference to the Doge meme, "will drive out the massive waste and fraud which exists throughout our annual $6.5 Trillion Dollars of Government Spending." Trump said DOGE will "liberate our Economy" and that its "work will conclude no later than July 4, 2026" because "a smaller Government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy, will be the perfect gift to America on the 250th Anniversary of The Declaration of Independence."

[...] The Wall Street Journal wrote today that "Musk isn't expected to become an official government employee, meaning he likely wouldn't be required to divest from his business empire."

Obligatory SolyentNews Articles:
Elon Musk Reveals Real Reason He Supports Dogecoin, Says Many People at Tesla and Spacex Own DOGE - 20211030
Dogecoin: Inside the Joke Cryptocurrency That Somehow Became Real - 20210222
Hacker Exploits Synology NAS Box Vulnerabity, Mines $620k in Dogecoin - 20140620

Original Submission

The Onion Buys InfoWars

looorg writes:

https://apnews.com/article/onion-buys-infowars-alex-jones-6496f198d141c991087dcd937b3588e9
https://theonion.com/heres-why-i-decided-to-buy-infowars/

Make no mistake: This is a coup for our company and a well-deserved victory for multinational elites the world over.

The Onion won the bidding for Alex Jones' Infowars at a bankruptcy auction. Plans to turn the site into a parody and satire site. It will probably be hard to tell apart from the old site then?

One assumes there is a large overlap of readers between the two. People with a strained connection to reality.

The Onion Buys InfoWars in Bankruptcy Auction

upstart writes:

The Onion buys InfoWars in bankruptcy auction - NewsBreak:

The satirical website The Onion purchased InfoWars on Thursday, a capstone on years of litigation and bankruptcy proceedings following InfoWars founder Alex Jones' defamation of families associated with the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.

Those families backed The Onion's bid to purchase InfoWars' intellectual property, including its website, customer lists and inventory, certain social media accounts and the production equipment used to put Jones on the air. The Connecticut families agreed to forgo a portion of their recovery to increase the overall value of The Onion's bid, enabling its success.

MORE: Alex Jones still must pay $1B judgment: Judge

The families said the purchase would put an end to Jones' misinformation campaign.

"We were told this outcome would be nearly impossible, but we are no strangers to impossible fights. The world needs to see that having a platform does not mean you are above accountability -- the dissolution of Alex Jones' assets and the death of Infowars is the justice we have long awaited and fought for," said Robbie Parker, whose daughter Emilie was killed in the Sandy Hook shooting.

In 2022, the families that brought the case against Jones in Connecticut secured a $1.4 billion verdict in their defamation lawsuit. A Texas bankruptcy court ruled on the liquidation of Jones' assets in June of this year, handing over control to an independent trustee tasked with selling them off to generate the greatest possible value for the families.

"From day one, these families have fought against all odds to bring true accountability to Alex Jones and his corrupt business. Our clients knew that true accountability meant an end to Infowars and an end to Jones' ability to spread lies, pain and fear at scale. After surviving unimaginable loss with courage and integrity, they rejected Jones' hollow offers for allegedly more money if they would only let him stay on the air because doing so would have put other families in harm's way," said Chris Mattei, attorney for the Connecticut plaintiffs and partner at Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder.

Jones had filed for bankruptcy last year in a bid to avoid paying the billion-dollar judgment, but a judge ruled he still had to settle with the Sandy Hook families.

Bankruptcy often staves off legal judgments but not if they are the result of willful and malicious injury. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston decided that standard was satisfied in Jones' case.

"[I]n Jones's case, the language of the jury instruction confirms that the damages awarded flow from the allegation of intent to harm the Plaintiffs – not allegations of recklessness," Lopez wrote in his ruling.

Jones had claimed on his InfoWars show that the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School -- which killed 26 people, including 20 elementary students -- was performed by actors following a script written by government officials to bolster the push for gun control.

We've Done It

After almost 2 years and a lot of hard work by many people, we have finally achieved what we set out to do. On Wednesday, the Linode servers were decommissioned, and the site is now completely independent and running on its own hardware. All the site data and the domains belong to the community - yes, you own this site.

It could not have been possible without the dedication of quite a few people - some of whom have not made it to today. It wasn't pleasant and it wasn't easy. There were numerous meetings to create a new set of Bylaws. That in itself took many months of often acrimonious debate. Everyone wanted the same end, but they were not happy with how it was being achieved. In the end, as is always the case, it required a lot of compromise, and it meant we needed to say goodbye to the old way of doing things. So to all of those who participated in those meetings: mechanicjay, AudioGuy, Deucalion, Fnord666, MartyB, Separatrix, cmn32480, kolie, hubie, mrpg, requerdanos, fab23, chromas, fliptop, dx3bydt3, tedious, cosurgi, Runaway1956, and even aristarchus, and many that I have probably missed out, a huge thank you from me. And if I have missed you out then that is entirely my fault and I apologise!

The Bylaws dictate how the business will be managed. They do not contain any rules about how the site will be used, or what is permitted in submissions or discussions and what is not, or any of those things that tend to interest the community. But there are some unique differences in our Bylaws from those previously. The Board (which I will get to in a moment) manage this site on your behalf. While they handle routine matters as appropriate to their post, many actions require them to seek the agreement of the community. You will have a say in major decisions. After all, you own the site. The data cannot be used for any purpose other than maintaining this site without a majority decision of the community.

So having created the Bylaws, we could apply to create a company. This was necessary so that the new company (Soylent Phoenix) could receive whatever assets the original company (SoylentNews PBC) was prepared to transfer. For legal reasons, the Board members cannot be anonymous; they have to sign various pieces of legal documentation to create the company. So I asked for volunteers from the community. More than we needed stepped forward and so the business was created. The Chairman of the Board is OregonJohn (6105), the Treasurer is Dale (539) (and he is actually a qualified accountant!), and the Secretary is holeinone (17639). They have also been working hard on your behalf setting up the company, creating Stripe accounts, managing the current funds, and filling in the paperwork that is associated with a business. Technically the Board is a temporary one because they do not yet have the approval of the community. But that is built into the Bylaws, and it allows us to keep moving forward until their posts are confirmed by the community, or challenged by someone else who believes they should be allowed to do the job.

Next came the transfer of assets. Like all things this did not go as smoothly as everyone had hoped it would. Quite understandably, it was necessary for everything to be accountable and legal, and to look after everyone's interests. Again, it was only by having some tough discussions and making compromises on both sides that anything has actually been achieved. So another thank-you to NCommander and Matt Angel. I think we have a solution which, while not meeting all of our initial dreams, is one that we can live with for the future. The site never squandered money and there is nothing to suggest that your donations have been misused.

You will probably now all be aware that two people have donated hardware and a data connection at no cost to the site. Those people are kolie and fliptop, and they have my sincere thanks. Kolie's server is the one that you are using at the moment to read this Meta. In fact, it is handling all of the site including email, IRC, DNS, Varnish, the database, etc. etc. Fliptop's server is currently an off-site backup for our data but will probably require a bit of expansion before it will cope with the full Docker installation. You will also be aware that, over the recent weeks and months, kolie has built the entire software infrastructure into Docker containers, moving each function one by one from the Linode servers and incrementally adding it to our own hardware. He has put many man hours into this task and I for one have enjoyed working with him - although my contribution has been considerably less than his! Again, I offer my grateful thanks.

Finally, none of this would have been possible without the community being tolerant and understanding as we have encountered each unexpected obstacle. The community has, in fact, grown slightly in the last 2 years, but it remains at roughly 10% of what it once was. I thank you all for making this possible. Welcome to your site.

And now for something completely different....

Community Representatives

To provide the community with more visibility regarding the actions of staff and the reason and justification for those actions, we have created 3 posts which will act as Community Representatives. Their prime role is to provide the community with the assurance that management is behaving responsibly and within the rules governing the site, and for the community to have a focus when they have concerns regarding what is going on behind the 'curtains'. They will act as your voice in discussions and decisions. They will have full access to staff discussions but will only have limited access, and then only when absolutely necessary, to the data stored in the database. We have had 3 volunteers for these posts for many months, but I will provide more details once I have confirmed that they are still volunteering for the role, and when we have hammered out the working procedures that must be adopted for this system to function correctly.

TOR

We now have TOR up and running again - we had it quite a few years ago and then it disappeared. Eventually, the link will be in the SoylentNews side panel on your screen, but for now it is cut and paste:

http://soylentqarvi3ikkzpp7fn4m5pxeeonbv6kr4akgkczqethjfhmalhid.onion

Elections

As I mentioned earlier, technically the current board is temporary. If you wish to stand for a post then you may do so. We will be asking for nominations in the near future. However, remember that you cannot remain anonymous as your name has to be recorded on the official business records.

We will provide you with a Meta page should you wish to explain to the community why you believe that they should vote for you. The method of voting will be 1 vote per active account, which must be in good standing (i.e. meet a minimum karma level and not be currently banned). The software that will be used is still under consideration as the original voting software was written and operated by audioguy who is not currently taking an active part in the site management.

You cannot nominate someone else for a post. They have to put themselves forward as a candidate. You can of course vote for them should they do so.

realDonaldTrump Account

Accounts that have been dormant for over 5 years quickly attract attention when they suddenly re-appear. In recent years we have seen attempts to resurrect old accounts, sometimes by people other than the original owner. There is an option built in to Rehash which is named "Force User to Verify Account" (FUVA) and it appears on the user's administration page. It simply resets the password and sends the new password to the email address that we hold for that account in the database. The account holder can then reset the password to something of their own choosing and everything works as it should. Currently, it is invoked automatically after the 5-year point if the account becomes active again. About a week ago the "realDonaldTrump" (rDT) account suddenly sprang back into life, having been dormant since 2019, and for the most part it was welcomed by the community. However, by making a comment the FUVA triggered.

I think that the account holder has either forgotten how to access his email or the email address has lapsed for some other reason. So the account is now stuck in limbo. Without a working email contact we cannot send the new password to the account holder. I do NOT want to know who the account owner is. However, they must provide a working email address, which can be a temporary or throw-away address, and they must provide sufficient detail about the account to prove that they are the true account owners. The site can be reactivated as a parody account which will have specific restrictions associated with it.

Community Involvement

Although the site is now independent and 'under new management' there is still much that remains to be done.

• For the present the rules that we have inherited will remain in force, but they will have to be rewritten and approved by the community to take us into the future.
• We will need people to assist with the sys-admin role - which is more Docker management than anything else. Interested people do not have to currently know or use Docker, I am sure that we can provide guidance on acquiring those skills and then explaining the current site structure. It is much simpler than it once was.
• We are investigating how to create a separate environment for both testing code before it is integrated into the main site and as a training facility.
• As ever, we need your support by providing submissions and by participating in the discussions. There are 23 submissions in the queue but 17 of them by one of our 2 submission bots which many people dislike.

Potential Return of Anonymous Cowards to the Full Site

Over the last week or two the level of spamming and abuse has significantly reduced. However, the reasons for this are unclear, and it might not indicate a permanent or even long-lasting change. If the low level continues for a significant period (certainly into the New Year) then it might be possible to re-admit ACs to the whole site again. This is something that is we all want to see, and it would be a welcome enhancement to the site. However, it depends entirely on those few individuals who account for the vast majority of the spam and abuse.

If ACs are allowed back onto the full site then any permanent return is entirely dependent on the spamming remaining at a very low level, and for personal attacks to be rare events.

Withdrawn - It didn't even last until we got this Meta out. JR

c0lo writes:

Bluesky adds 700,000 new members as users flee X after the US election

Bluesky adds 700,000 new members as users flee X after the US election

Social media platform has become a 'refuge' from the far-right activism on X, experts say, after Elon Musk teamed up with Donald Trump
Luca Ittimani
Tue 12 Nov 2024 13.44 AEDT

Social media platform Bluesky has picked up more than 700,000 new users in the week since the US election, as users seek to escape misinformation and offensive posts on X.

The influx, largely from North America and the UK, has helped Bluesky reach 14.5 million users worldwide, up from 9 million in September, the company said.

Social media researcher Axel Bruns said the platform offered an alternative to X, formerly Twitter, including a more effective system for blocking or suspending problematic accounts and policing harmful behaviour.
...
"It's become a refuge for people who want to have the kind of social media experience that Twitter used to provide, but without all the far-right activism, the misinformation, the hate speech, the bots and everything else," he said.
...
The platform has previously benefited from dissatisfaction with X and its billionaire owner, Elon Musk, who is closely tied to US president-elect Donald Trump's successful election campaign. Twitter shed millions of users after rebranding to X and usage in the US slumped by more than a fifth in the subsequent seven months.

Bluesky reported picking up 3 million new users in the week after X was suspended in Brazil in September and a further 1.2 million in the two days after X announced it would allow users to view posts from people who had blocked them.

Snotnose writes:

The history of Heathkit, part 1 and part 2

If you came of age in the 1960s or 1970s and then later became an EE, chances are you're more than casually acquainted with Heathkit. Many engineers started their budding careers by building one or more kits made by the Heath Company. I certainly did. When I stumbled across a brief interview with Chas Gilmore, who joined the Heath Company in 1966 as a design engineer and worked at the Heath Company on and off for more than two decades, eventually becoming VP of product development, marketing, and sales, I knew I needed to interview him.

Teenage me built a shortwave radio and a HAM transmitter for myself, and a TV for a neighbor.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The funding is part of a total of €380m and falls under the Chips Joint Undertaking.

The European Union is set to invest €133m in production facilities for photonic semiconductors in the Netherlands.

The PIXEurope consortium, which consists of parties from 11 countries including the Netherlands, has been selected for contract negotiations to develop a European pilot plant for photonic chips.

It follows one month after Italy-based start-up Ephos had raised $8.5m to create glass-based photonic chips at scale.

Photonic semiconductors use light rather than electrons to perform calculations, with advantages in speed and power consumption. As a result, this makes them ideal for use in areas such as data centres and also in motoring.

[...] The investment forms part of a total amount of €380m aimed at setting up pilot photonic semiconductor production plants throughout Europe, under the Chips Joint Undertaking, which centres around a European public-private partnership to promote research and development in the semiconductor industry.

Work on the Dutch facilities is expected to start in 2025, and will be led by the universities of Eindhoven and Twente, in association with the Dutch knowledge institute TNO.

Europe has been making a concerted effort over the past few years to be a leader in the semiconductor space. In 2023, the region adopted the EU Chips Act, which aims to increase the EU’s share of global chip production from 10pc to at least 20pc by the end of the decade.

Original Submission

DannyB writes:

"There is a big desire for big changes."

NASA's plagued Space Launch System rocket, which is being developed to deliver the first astronauts to the Moon in over half a century, is on thin ice.

[....] there's an "at least 50-50" chance that the rocket "will be canceled."

[....] "Not Block 1B. Not Block 2," [...] All of it.

[....] The SLS has already seen its fair share of budget overruns and many years of delays. In a 2022 interview, former NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver told Futurism that the project is simply "not sustainable."

The rocket platform has become a political football, going well past $6 billion over budget and over half a decade behind schedule.

[....] "I will be direct," former NASA administrator Michael Griffin told the House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee during a January hearing on the space agency's Artemis program, [...] "In my judgment, the Artemis Program is excessively complex, unrealistically priced, compromises crew safety, poses very high mission risk of completion, and is highly unlikely to be completed in a timely manner even if successful."

[....] According to an August report by NASA's Office of Inspector General (OIG), even just the price of the tower designed to launch rockets starting with Artemis IV, which is tentatively scheduled for 2028, has ballooned to a whopping $1.8 billion.

Plagued aerospace giant Boeing has also encountered plenty of headwinds with its contributions to the launch platform. In a separate September report by the OIG, the SLS' Block 1B configuration, which is being built by Boeing, was found to be woefully behind and way over budget.

"We found an array of issues that could hinder SLS Block 1B's readiness for Artemis IV including Boeing's inadequate quality management system, escalating costs and schedules, and inadequate visibility into the Block 1B's projected costs," the report reads.

To reiterate, the SLS is a non-reusable rocket, which means that NASA will have to build entirely new rocket stages for each upcoming Artemis mission. That's in stark contrast to SpaceX's fully reusable Starship, which the space agency is still hoping to tap for Artemis III, the first crewed trip to the Moon's surface.

[...rest omitted...]

Who among ULA, Boeing, Blue Origin, SpaceX, Roscosmos, and others might be a piece of the pie?

Original Submission

Australian Cabinet Proposes Social Media Ban For Under-16s

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The Australia government has proposed 16 as the minimum age for minors to use social media and lays the onus on platforms to demonstrate reasonable actions to prevent any younger users. However, the government did not explain how it expects platforms to enforce the age limits.

In a statement to the press today (7 November), Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese said that the government’s proposed minimum age legislation will be introduced when the country’s parliament returns in two weeks, and if passed, will come into force a year later.

[...] The proposed new legislation enforces a blanket ban on everyone under 16 from using social media, including those already on it and those with parental consent.

“The fact is that social media has a social responsibility, but the platforms are falling short,” said the Australian minister for communications, Michelle Rowland.

“What we are announcing here and what we will legislate will be truly world leading,”

Rowland said that the platforms that do not comply will face penalties under the proposed Act – which under current legislation are less than A$1m.

Australia To Ban Social Media Until Age Of 16

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The Australian government has confirmed it will create legislation that bans access to social media for people under the age of 16.

"The Bill builds upon the Australian Government's work to address online harms for young people, including the $6.5 million age assurance trial, establishing an online dating apps code, legislating new criminal penalties for non-consensual sexual deepfakes, and quadrupling base funding for the eSafety Commissioner," explained a notice from the prime minister's office on November 8.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's government has worked toward the plan for months, but only late last week did it finally receive backing from the National Cabinet.

[...] Services that primarily provide education and health services will not be included in the ban. The nation's eSafety Commissioner will handle oversight and enforcement. Under the current legislation, maximum fines are less than a million dollars.

The new bill "puts the onus" on social media platforms instead of parents to make sure fundamental protections are in place, the notice stated.

[...] The Prime Minister specified there will be no penalties for users. There are also no exemptions from the policy with parental consent or "grandfathering in" for those who already have accounts.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The operator of the longest-running money laundering machine in dark web history, Bitcoin Fog, has been sentenced to 12 years and six months in US prison.

Roman Sterlingov, 36, a Russian-Swedish national, was also ordered to repay more than half a billion dollars accrued from the cryptocurrency mixing service that he ran for a decade between 2011 and 2021.

Bitcoin Fog was assessed to have processed 1.2 million Bitcoin during that time, worth roughly $400 million at the time it was shuttered. Of this, Sterlingov was ordered to repay $395,563,025.39 in restitution, forfeit roughly $1.76 million in seized assets, and relinquish control of Bitcoin Fog's wallet containing more than $100 million in Bitcoin.

He was found guilty back in March, at which point he faced a maximum 50-year sentence. Prosecutors said the vast majority of Sterlingov's wealth came from the proceeds of crime in which he and his online service helped criminals hide from law enforcement.

The court heard that the crimes associated with this activity included the sale of drugs, computer misuse offenses, identity theft, and child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

"Roman Sterlingov laundered over $400 million in criminal proceeds through Bitcoin Fog, his cryptocurrency 'mixing' service that was open for business to criminals looking to hide dirty money," said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M Argentieri, head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division. 

[...] There are many cryptocurrency mixers available to criminals, so the downfall of Bitcoin Fog won't put a significant dent in their use. However, investigators will be pleased that a service as relied upon as Sterlingov's could be scuppered and distrust sown throughout the community of criminals who use them.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Massachusetts has passed a statewide ballot initiative that gives rideshare drivers the opportunity to unionize while remaining independent contractors. The initiative was brought forward by the Service Employees International Union and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. It passed with a narrow margin of about 54 percent of the vote.

The measure will allow the state's 70,000 rideshare drivers to form unions and leverage collective bargaining power, which is not permitted for independent contractors under the National Labor Relations Act. These workers can unionize if they receive signatures from at least 25 percent of active drivers in Massachusetts. The initiative also creates a hearing process so that drivers for companies such as Lyft and Uber can bring complaints about unfair work practices to a state board. However, the ballot initiative does not contain language about strike protections. It also does not extend to food delivery drivers.

Uber and Lyft did not actively campaign against the Massachusetts measure, but they have raised concerns about the specific language. Some labor advocates also opposed the initiative, cautioning that it could hamper efforts for rideshare drivers to win recognition as full-time employees. "We're not against unionization," Kelly Cobb-Lemire, an organizer with Massachusetts Drivers United, told The New York Times. "But we don't feel this goes far enough."

Independent contractors often are not protected by federal or state labor laws because they aren't full-time employees. The Massachusetts ballot measure could create a precedent for other states to offer unionization options for gig workers. California has been a battleground for labor protections for gig workers who drive for Uber and Lyft for several years. Most recently, a court allowed California drivers to retain independent contractor status.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Silicon transistors, which are used to amplify and switch signals, are a critical component in most electronic devices, from smartphones to automobiles. But silicon semiconductor technology is held back by a fundamental physical limit that prevents transistors from operating below a certain voltage.

This limit, known as “Boltzmann tyranny,” hinders the energy efficiency of computers and other electronics, especially with the rapid development of artificial intelligence technologies that demand faster computation.

In an effort to overcome this fundamental limit of silicon, MIT researchers fabricated a different type of three-dimensional transistor using a unique set of ultrathin semiconductor materials.

Their devices, featuring vertical nanowires only a few nanometers wide, can deliver performance comparable to state-of-the-art silicon transistors while operating efficiently at much lower voltages than conventional devices.

“This is a technology with the potential to replace silicon, so you could use it with all the functions that silicon currently has, but with much better energy efficiency,” says Yanjie Shao, an MIT postdoc and lead author of a paper on the new transistors.

[...] In electronic devices, silicon transistors often operate as switches. Applying a voltage to the transistor causes electrons to move over an energy barrier from one side to the other, switching the transistor from “off” to “on.” By switching, transistors represent binary digits to perform computation.

A transistor’s switching slope reflects the sharpness of the “off” to “on” transition. The steeper the slope, the less voltage is needed to turn on the transistor and the greater its energy efficiency.

But because of how electrons move across an energy barrier, Boltzmann tyranny requires a certain minimum voltage to switch the transistor at room temperature.

To overcome the physical limit of silicon, the MIT researchers used a different set of semiconductor materials — gallium antimonide and indium arsenide — and designed their devices to leverage a unique phenomenon in quantum mechanics called quantum tunneling.

Quantum tunneling is the ability of electrons to penetrate barriers. The researchers fabricated tunneling transistors, which leverage this property to encourage electrons to push through the energy barrier rather than going over it.