Tik Tok logos are seen on smartphones in front of a displayed ByteDance logo in this illustration taken November 27, 2019. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo TikTok owner ByteDance saw its revenue grow 70% year on year to about $58 billion in 2021, slower growth than a year earlier as China tightens its regulation of big tech […]
Monthly Archives: January 2022
Microsoft-Activision deal gives merger speculators a new darling
Microsoft logo is seen on a smartphone placed on displayed Activision Blizzard logo in this illustration taken January 18, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Hedge funds, which make profits by speculating on precarious takeovers, got a treat this week when Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) agreed to buy “call of duty” maker Activision Blizzard (ATVI.O) for US$68.7 billion dollars […]
AUSTRIA ADDS A LOTTERY TO COVID VACCINE MANDATE
A doctor vaccinates a person with a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in Vienna, Austria April 26, 2021. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner Austria’s conservative government said Thursday it was launching a national lottery to encourage holdouts to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, hours before parliament passed legislation that would introduce a national vaccination mandate. About 72% […]
CHEAP VERSION OF MERCK COVID PILL TO BE MADE FOR POORER NATIONS
An experimental COVID-19 treatment pill, called molnupiravir and being developed by Merck & Co Inc and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics LP, is seen in this undated handout photo released by Merck & Co Inc and obtained by Reuters May 17, 2021. Merck & Co Inc/Handout via REUTERS A UN-backed agency has struck a deal with nearly 30 […]
This group of tech firms just signed up to a safer metaverse
But much of Oasis’s plan remains, at best, idealistic. One example is a proposal to use machine learning to detect harassment and hate speech. As my colleague Karen Hao reported last year, AI models either give hate speech too much chance to spread or overstep. Still, Wang defends Oasis’s promotion of AI as a moderating […]
Red Cross implores hackers not to leak data for 515k “highly vulnerable people”
reader comments 15 with 15 posters participating Share this story The Red Cross on Wednesday pleaded with the threat actors behind a cyberattack that stole the personal data of about 515,000 people who used a program that works to reunite family members separated by conflict, disaster or migration. “While we don’t know who is responsible […]
If you like the data on your WD My Cloud OS 3 device, patch it now
reader comments 1 with 1 posters participating Share this story Western Digital has patched three critical vulnerabilities—one with a severity rating of 9.8 and another with a 9.0—that make it possible for hackers to steal data or remotely hijack storage devices running version 3 of the company’s My Cloud OS. CVE-2021-40438, as one of the […]
FAA clears Boeing 777 and other planes after 5G warning halted some flights
Enlarge / A Boeing 777. reader comments 37 with 28 posters participating Share this story The Federal Aviation Administration today said it has cleared 62 percent of US commercial airplanes to perform low-visibility landings at airports where AT&T and Verizon are deploying 5G on C-band spectrum this week. Several international airlines previously canceled some flights […]
Vodafone, MyRepublic the fastest in download speed tests – Ookla
Peter Griffin, Editor. 20 January 2022, 9:47 am Vodafone serves up the fastest mobile download speeds and niche player MyRepublic beats the pack for fast downloads on fixed-line broadband connections according to Ookla, creator of the popular speedtest.net network test. During the fourth quarter of 2021, Vodafone earned a “Speed Score” of 83.72, significantly higher […]
Sustainability starts in the design process, and AI can help
Artificial intelligence helps build physical infrastructure like modular housing, skyscrapers, and factory floors. “…many problems that we wrestle with in all forms of engineering and design are very, very complex problems…those problems are beginning to reach the limits of human capacity,” says Mike Haley, the vice president of research at Autodesk. But there’s hope with […]