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Science

Bad Dreams in Middle Age Could Be Sign of Dementia Risk, Study Suggests (theguardian.com) 2

Posted by msmash from the PSA dept.
People who experience frequent bad dreams in middle age may experience a faster rate of cognitive decline and be at higher risk of dementia as they get older, data suggests. If confirmed, the research could eventually lead to new ways of screening for dementia and intervention to slow the rate of decline. From a report: Most people experience bad dreams from time to time, but approximately 5% of adults experience nightmares -- dreams distressing enough to wake them up -- at least once a week. Stress, anxiety, and sleep deprivation are all potential triggers, but previous research in people with Parkinson's disease has also linked frequent distressing dreams to faster rates of cognitive decline, and an increased risk of developing dementia in the future.

To investigate whether the same might be true of healthy adults, Dr Abidemi Otaiku at the University of Birmingham turned to data from three previous studies that have examined people's sleep quality and then followed them over many years, assessing their brain health as well as other outcomes. This included more than 600 middle-aged adults (aged 35 to 64), and 2,600 people aged 79 and older. Their data was analysed using statistical software to find out whether those who experienced a higher frequency of distressing dreams were more likely to go on to experience cognitive decline and be diagnosed with dementia. The research, published in eClinicalMedicine, found that middle-aged people who experienced bad dreams at least once a week were four times more likely to experience cognitive decline over the following decade than those who rarely had nightmares. Among elderly participants, those who frequently reported distressing dreams were twice as likely to be diagnosed with dementia in subsequent years.
AI

Site Tells You If Photos of You Were Used To Train AI (techcrunch.com) 12

Posted by BeauHD from the behind-the-scenes dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Deepfakes, AI generated porn, and a thousand more innocent uses -- there's been a lot of news about neural network-generated images. It makes sense that people started getting curious; were my photos used to train the robots? Are photos of me in the image-generating training sets? A brand new site tries to give you an answer.

Spawning AI creates image generation tools for artists, and the company just launched Have I Been Trained? which you can use to search a set of 5.8 billion images that have been used to train popular AI art models. When you search the site, you can search through the images that are the closest match, based on the LAION-5B training data, which is widely used for training AI search terms. It's a fun tool to play with, and may help give a glimpse into the data that the AI is using as the basis for its own.
Transportation

Nvidia Unveils Drive Thor, One Chip To Rule All Software-Defined Vehicles (techcrunch.com) 22

Posted by BeauHD from the one-chip-to-rule-them-all dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Nvidia is gearing up to deliver Drive Thor, its next-generation automotive-grade chip that the company claims will be able to unify a wide range of in-car technology from automated driving features and driver monitoring systems to streaming Netflix in the back for the kiddos. Thor, which goes into production in 2025, is notable not just because it's a step up from Nvidia's Drive Orin chip. It's also taking Drive Atlan's spot in the lineup. Nvidia is scrapping the Drive Atlan system on chip ahead of schedule for Thor, founder and CEO Jensen Huang said Tuesday at the company's GTC event. Ever in a race to develop bigger and badder chips, Nvidia is opting for Thor, which, at 2,000 teraflops of performance, will deliver twice the compute and throughput, according to the company.

"If we look at a car today, advanced driver assistance systems, parking, driver monitoring, camera mirrors, digital instrument cluster and infotainment are all different computers distributed throughout the vehicle," said Nvidia's vice president of automotive, Danny Shapiro, at a press briefing Monday. "In 2025, these functions will no longer be separate computers. Rather, Drive Thor will enable manufacturers to efficiently consolidate these functions into a single system, reducing overall system cost." One chip to rule them all. One chip to help automakers build software-defined autonomous vehicles. One chip to continuously upgrade over-the-air. Further reading: Nvidia Announces Next-Gen RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 GPUs
Iphone

iPhone 14 Pro Max Teardown Reveals Unused SIM Tray Area (macrumors.com) 7

Posted by BeauHD from the courage dept.
In an in-depth teardown of the iPhone 14 Pro Max, iFixit provides a closer look at the device's internals. "Notably, the teardown includes a photo of the plastic spacer that replaced the SIM card tray on the U.S. model," reports MacRumors. From the report: All four iPhone 14 models sold in the U.S. no longer have a physical SIM card tray and rely entirely on digital eSIMs. The teardown confirms that Apple is not using the internal space freed up by the tray's removal for any other component or added functionality, and instead filled in the gap with a square piece of plastic. Outside of the U.S., all iPhone 14 models are still equipped with a SIM card tray in this space.

As seen in previous teardowns, iFixit provided close-up images of the iPhone 14 Pro Max's logic board, which is equipped with a faster A16 Bionic chip and Qualcomm's Snapdragon X65 modem that provides both 5G and satellite connectivity. While the standard iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus can be opened from the back side, and feature a more repairable design with an easily removable display and back glass panel, these design changes do not extend to the Pro models. The teardown shows that the iPhone 14 Pro Max continues to open from the front and does not have removable back glass. The internal design of the device is largely unchanged from the iPhone 13 Pro Max.
Bitcoin

Kraken CEO Jesse Powell Steps Down (coindesk.com) 11

Posted by BeauHD from the because-he's-bored dept.
Jesse Powell, co-founder of crypto exchange Kraken, is planning to step down as CEO, Kraken confirmed with CoinDesk. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the news. From the report: Kraken's current chief operating officer, Dave Ripley, will take over as CEO once someone is hired to fill Ripley's position. According to a press release issued by the company, Powell plans to remain involved with Kraken. He will become chairman of Kraken's board and will continue working on product development and crypto industry advocacy.

The outspoken Powell, an early advocate of bitcoin (BTC) who founded Kraken in 2011, has been at the center of several company-related controversies this year. In June, Powell criticized a contingent of "woke activists" inside the company and told unhappy employees to quit, sparking a social-political debate that roiled the crypto industry and beyond. In July, reports emerged that Kraken was being investigated by the U.S. Treasury Department for allegedly allowing Iranian users to use the platform -- a violation of international sanctions against the Iranian regime.

Powell has denied that these controversies spurred his decision to step down as CEO, telling Bloomberg that he informed Kraken's board of his impending departure over a year ago. Instead, he chalked up the decision to something much more banal -- boredom. "As the company has gotten bigger, it's just gotten to be more draining on me, less fun," Powell told Bloomberg.
Transportation

Flying Car Startup Kitty Hawk Is Winding Down (businessinsider.com) 21

Posted by msmash from the tough-luck dept.
Sebastian Thrun, the CEO of Kitty Hawk, informed employees on Wednesday the company was laying them off, according to a news report. The company also posted the news on its LinkedIn page. From the report: Sources inside the company told Insider that Kitty Hawk had recently wound down work on its most recent flying-car project, Heaviside, and reverted to research-and-development mode with Google co-founder Larry Page more closely involved with the work. However, it appears the company couldn't see a way forward. Laid-off staff have been given four months of severance pay, an employee said. Thrun, a self-driving car pioneer and a Google veteran, founded Kitty Hawk in 2010, and Page financially propped it up. Insiders said Page remained the sole bankroller of Kitty Hawk throughout its lifetime. He became increasingly hands-off over the years, though he would involve himself in newer projects as they sprung up, including an internal initiative to make flying cars run more quietly. The company produced several prototype models of its flying cars, including Flyer, which the company shuttered in 2020. Heaviside, its most recent model, was designed to be quieter for flying in densely populated environments. In 2019 the company also spun up Wisk, a joint venture between Kitty Hawk and Boeing, which will continue.
Transportation

NTSB Wants Alcohol Detection Systems Installed In All New Cars In US (arstechnica.com) 119

Posted by BeauHD from the technologically-feasible dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) yesterday recommended that all new vehicles be equipped with alcohol detection systems that can stop people from driving while drunk. The NTSB can't issue such a regulation on its own but urged the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to do so. The NTSB said it "is recommending measures leveraging new in-vehicle technologies that can limit or prohibit impaired drivers from operating their vehicles as well as technologies to prevent speeding." If adopted, this would require "passive vehicle-integrated alcohol impairment detection systems, advanced driver monitoring systems or a combination of the two that would be capable of preventing or limiting vehicle operation if it detects driver impairment by alcohol," the NTSB said. The agency urged the NHTSA to "require all new vehicles to be equipped with such systems."

Under a US law enacted last year, the NHTSA is already required to examine whether it can issue this type of rule. While drunk driving is a longstanding problem that has caused many deaths, the NTSB said its recommendation was spurred by its investigation into one crash that killed nine people -- including seven children -- in January 2021 on State Route 33 near Avenal, California. On that two-lane highway with a speed limit of 55 mph, an SUV driver leaving a New Year's Day gathering "was driving at a speed between 88 and 98 mph," the NTSB report said. [...]

Section 24220 of the Bipartisan Infrastructure LawSection 30111 of Title 49 in US law, it can delay issuing a rule for three years and submit annual reports to Congress describing the reasons for not issuing the rule. Each annual report would also have to contain an update on "the deployment of advanced drunk and impaired driving prevention technology in vehicles." In writing the law, Congress noted that "in 2019, there were 10,142 alcohol-impaired driving fatalities in the United States involving drivers with a blood alcohol concentration level of .08 or higher, and 68 percent of the crashes that resulted in those fatalities involved a driver with a blood alcohol concentration level of .15 or higher." Congress also cited a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety estimating that "advanced drunk and impaired driving prevention technology can prevent more than 9,400 alcohol-impaired driving fatalities annually."
Social Networks

Florida Brings Battle Over Social Media Regulation To the Supreme Court (washingtonpost.com) 90

Posted by msmash from the escalating-matters dept.
Florida's attorney general on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to decide whether states have the right to regulate how social media companies moderate content on their services, a move that sends one of the most controversial debates of the internet age to the country's highest court. From a report: In its petition, the state asks the court to determine whether the First Amendment prohibits a state from requiring that platforms host certain communications and also whether the states can require companies to provide an explanation to users when they remove their posts. The petition sets up the most serious test to date of assertions that Silicon Valley companies are unlawfully censoring conservative viewpoints. The decision could have wide-ranging effects on the future of democracy and elections, as tech companies play an increasingly significant role in disseminating news and information about politics. Critics of the state social media laws and tech industry representatives also warn that if the Florida law were to take effect, it could lead to a torrent of hate speech, misinformation and other violent content that some major social media companies' policies currently prohibit. The petition is a response to a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit earlier this year that major provisions of a Florida social media law violated the Constitution's First Amendment. The law would bar companies from banning politicians from their services.
Iphone

Chinese Phonemaker Starts Copying iPhone 14's 'Dynamic Island' (macrumors.com) 25

Posted by msmash from the no-time-to-waste dept.
tlhIngan writes: The iPhone 14's "dynamic island" feature is where the pinhole used for the front facing camera is replaced by a pill shaped cutout that can be filled with "useful" snippets of information. It's basically used to help hide the black hole caused by the pinhole camera (as an alternative to the notch) or pill by multiple cameras. Apparently the feature is so innovative, Chinese cellphone company realme is asking its fans for ideas on how to copy, but not copy, the feature. They're asking for submissions in images, GIFs, text or other form on how a "realme Island" should work.
Privacy

Telegram Has a Serious Doxxing Problem (wired.com) 45

Posted by msmash from the growing-concern dept.
An anonymous reader shares a report: Telegram's doxxing problem goes far beyond Myanmar. WIRED spoke to activists and experts in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Eastern Europe who said that the platform has ignored their warnings about an epidemic of politically motivated doxxing, allowing dangerous content to proliferate, leading to intimidation, violence, and deaths. Telegram, which now claims more than 700 million active users worldwide, has a publicly stated philosophy that private communications should be beyond the reach of governments. That has made it popular among people living under authoritarian regimes all over the world (and among conspiracy theorists, anti-vaxxers, and "sovereign citizens" in democratic countries). But the service's structure -- part encrypted messaging app, part social media platform -- and its almost complete lack of active moderation has made it "the perfect tool" for the kind of doxxing campaigns occurring in Myanmar, according to digital rights activist Victoire Rio. This structure makes it easy for users to crowdsource attacks, posting a target for doxxing and encouraging their followers to dig up or share private information, which they can then broadcast more widely. Misinformation or doxxing content can move seamlessly from anonymous individual accounts to channels with thousands of users. Cross-posting is straightforward, so that channels can feed off one another, creating a kind of virality without algorithms that actively promote harmful content. "Structurally, it's suited to this use case," Rio says.

The first mass use of this tactic occurred during Hong Kong's massive 2019 democracy protests, when pro-Beijing Telegram channels identified demonstrators and sent their information to the authorities. Hundreds of protesters were sentenced to custodial sentences for their role in the demonstrations. But with the city split along "yellow" (pro-protests) and "blue" (pro-police) lines, channels were also set up to dox police officers and their families. In November 2020, a telecom company employee was jailed for two years after doxing police and government employees over Telegram. Since then, Telegram doxing appears to be spreading to new countries. In Iraq, militia groups and their supporters have become adept at using Telegram to source information about opponents, such as leaders of civil society groups, which they then broadcast on channels with tens of thousands of followers. Sometimes, bounties are offered for information, according to Hayder Hamzoz, founder of the Iraqi Network for Social Media, an organization that tracks social media use in the country. Often, these come with direct or implicit threats of violence. Targets have faced harassment and violence, and some have had to flee their homes, Hamzoz says.
Businesses

IT Services Group Wipro Fires 300 Employees Moonlighting For Competitors (techcrunch.com) 63

Posted by msmash from the what-else-were-they-expecting dept.
IT services giant Wipro has fired 300 employees in recent months who were found to be moonlighting for competitors, a top executive said Wednesday, weighing in on a practice that has gained momentum across the globe as firms incorporate work-from-home norms. From a report: Rishad Premji, the chairman of Wipro, which employs over 250,000 employees in over five dozen nations, said at a conference Wednesday that the company finds moonlighting for competitors an "act of integrity violation."
Iphone

Cutting Reliance on China, Apple To Move 25% iPhone Production To India By 2025 - JPM (techcrunch.com) 35

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
Apple began assembling some of its devices in India and Vietnam a few years ago, slowly cutting its reliance on China. The Cupertino-giant is now gearing up to make the two nations key global manufacturing hubs, according to analysts at JP Morgan. From a report: In a report they sent to clients Wednesday, JP Morgan analysts said Apple will move 5% of global iPhone 14 production to India by late 2022, and expand its manufacturing capacity in the country to produce 25% of all iPhones by 2025. Vietnam, on the other hand, will contribute 20% of all iPad and Apple Watch productions, 5% of MacBook and 65% of AirPods by 2025, the report said, which was reviewed by TechCrunch. India has attracted investments from Foxconn and Wistron in recent years by offering lucrative subsidies as New Delhi moves to make the country a manufacturing hub. The presence of the foreign production giants, coupled with "ample labor resources and competitive labor costs," make India a desirable location, the analysts said.
Facebook

Meta and Google Are Cutting Staff. Just Don't Mention Layoffs. (wsj.com) 34

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
In response to stalling growth and intense competition, Meta Platforms executives have spoken of cost cuts, hiring freezes and "ruthless prioritization." One word the company hasn't used: layoffs. From a report: But Meta has begun quietly nudging out a significant number of staffers by reorganizing departments and giving affected employees a limited window to apply for other roles within the company, according to current and former managers familiar with the matter, in a move that achieves staffing cuts while forestalling the mass issuance of pink slips. The reductions are expected to be a prelude to deeper cuts, with Meta looking to trim its costs by at least 10% within the next few months, according to people informed of the company's plans. While some savings will come from cuts to overhead and consulting budgets, the people said, much of it is expected to come from reduced employment. In response to questions, Meta spokesman Tracy Clayton referred to Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg's July statement that the company would need to reallocate resources toward corporate priorities as pressures mount on the business.
Google

Google Partners With Framework To Launch Upgradable and Customizable Chromebook (theverge.com) 13

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
Framework and Google have announced the new Framework Laptop Chromebook Edition. As the name implies, this is an upgradable, customizable Chromebook from the same company that put out the Framework laptop last year. From a report: User-upgradable laptops are rare enough already, but user-upgradable Chromebooks are nigh unheard of. While the size of the audience for such a device may remain to be seen, it's certainly a step in the right direction for repairability in the laptop space as a whole. Multiple parts of the Framework are user-customizable, though it's not clear whether every part that's adjustable on the Windows Framework can be adjusted on the Chromebook as well. Each part has a QR code on it which, if scanned, brings up the purchase page for the part's replacement. Most excitingly (to me), the Chromebook Edition includes the same expansion card system as the Windows edition, meaning you can choose the ports you want and where to put them. I don't know of any other laptop, Windows or Chrome OS, where you can do this, and it's easily my personal favorite part of Framework's model. You can choose between USB-C, USB-A, microSD, HDMI, DisplayPort, Ethernet, high-speed storage, "and more," per the press release. HDMI, in particular, is a convenient option to have on a Chromebook.
Businesses

Twitch is Cutting How Much Its Biggest Streamers Earn From Subscriptions (theverge.com) 56

Posted by msmash from the tussle-continues dept.
Twitch is reducing how much money it shares with some of the biggest streamers on the platform. From a report: Right now, the majority of partnered streamers receive a 50 / 50 revenue share on subscriptions to their channel. That means 50 percent of net revenue goes to Twitch, while 50 percent goes to the streamer themselves. However, Twitch has negotiated premium subscription terms with some bigger streamers that give them a 70 / 30 revenue split, and that split is what's going to change.

Under the new policy, streamers with premium terms will keep 70 percent of their subscription revenue on the first $100,000 earned. But after that, the share will go down to a 50 / 50 split. The changes kick into effect on June 1st, 2023, and even then only when a streamer's contract with Twitch is up for renewal, according to a blog post from Twitch president Dan Clancy.

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