Month: September 2023
Most Authors of Major Superconductor Claim Seek Retraction
Eight of the 11 authors are asking to retract a paper on a room-temperature superconductor, but Ranga Dias, the physicist who led the research, continued to defend the findings.
Eight of the 11 authors are asking to retract a paper on a room-temperature superconductor, but Ranga Dias, the physicist who led the research, continued to defend the findings.
Pudgy Penguins’ approach may be the answer to fixing NFTs’ revenue problems
The company’s toy-focused expansion is its bet that NFTs should have a broader presence, one that’s not limited to the digital world.
The company’s toy-focused expansion is its bet that NFTs should have a broader presence, one that’s not limited to the digital world.
Letterboxd has been acquired — and promises ‘very little’ will change
Image: Letterboxd
Letterboxd, a beloved film reviews and social media platform that took off during the pandemic, has been acquired. Its new owner is a Canadian holding company called Tiny, which promises a “fast, friendly, and simple” process for founders looking for “quick, straightforward exits.”
The deal, as reported by The New York Times, values Letterboxd at $50 million. Tiny also owns companies like AeroPress, according to its website.
Letterboxd has been around since 2011, founded by Matthew Buchanan and Karl von Randow, and has grown its user base to around 10 million people — a drop in the bucket compared to bigger, noisier sites, but home to film buffs, critics, and even a few celebrities.
The app is part social media and part personal log — users can record films they watch, write reviews, and comment on and like their friends’ entries, too. If you see all your friends reviewing something, you can add it to your watchlist for later. There’s also a company-run blog where journalists and other writers publish essays, interviews, and other pieces.
The basic tier of Letterboxd is free to use but includes ads. For the truly dedicated, a $19 yearly paid option offers an ad-free experience and year-end lists of watch data, similar to Spotify Wrapped.
In the Times story announcing the sale, a Tiny founder said Letterboxd’s new owners don’t intend to change the business model. But Letterboxd founders say the acquisition will help the company grow and add more features: eventually, it will include the ability to review TV shows in addition to films.
“Aside from the ownership change, and in line with Tiny’s core operating values, very little else will change,” Buchanan wrote in an announcement. “Karl and I are still leading the team, which remains the same, but now has the additional support of a company with vast experience in helping founders through periods of growth, which Letterboxd continues to enjoy. “
Like millions of others, I joined Letterboxd while the pandemic confined me inside and traditional social media felt especially overwhelming and anxiety-inducing. As Fran Hoepfner wrote in The Washington Post earlier this week, Letterboxd is a whatever you want it to be, a digital journal on your own terms — you can follow people and comment on their reviews or not. You can judiciously record everything you see (like several of my friends) or forget to log films for three months and then start back up (like me).
The platform has undergone few changes in the past 10-plus years, which is perhaps why people love it so much. There are no fleeting features or algorithm-driven manufactured rage. Your movie log is for future you or your friends or for nobody in particular — your choice. Here’s hoping it stays that way.
Image: Letterboxd
Letterboxd, a beloved film reviews and social media platform that took off during the pandemic, has been acquired. Its new owner is a Canadian holding company called Tiny, which promises a “fast, friendly, and simple” process for founders looking for “quick, straightforward exits.”
The deal, as reported by The New York Times, values Letterboxd at $50 million. Tiny also owns companies like AeroPress, according to its website.
Letterboxd has been around since 2011, founded by Matthew Buchanan and Karl von Randow, and has grown its user base to around 10 million people — a drop in the bucket compared to bigger, noisier sites, but home to film buffs, critics, and even a few celebrities.
The app is part social media and part personal log — users can record films they watch, write reviews, and comment on and like their friends’ entries, too. If you see all your friends reviewing something, you can add it to your watchlist for later. There’s also a company-run blog where journalists and other writers publish essays, interviews, and other pieces.
The basic tier of Letterboxd is free to use but includes ads. For the truly dedicated, a $19 yearly paid option offers an ad-free experience and year-end lists of watch data, similar to Spotify Wrapped.
In the Times story announcing the sale, a Tiny founder said Letterboxd’s new owners don’t intend to change the business model. But Letterboxd founders say the acquisition will help the company grow and add more features: eventually, it will include the ability to review TV shows in addition to films.
“Aside from the ownership change, and in line with Tiny’s core operating values, very little else will change,” Buchanan wrote in an announcement. “Karl and I are still leading the team, which remains the same, but now has the additional support of a company with vast experience in helping founders through periods of growth, which Letterboxd continues to enjoy. “
Like millions of others, I joined Letterboxd while the pandemic confined me inside and traditional social media felt especially overwhelming and anxiety-inducing. As Fran Hoepfner wrote in The Washington Post earlier this week, Letterboxd is a whatever you want it to be, a digital journal on your own terms — you can follow people and comment on their reviews or not. You can judiciously record everything you see (like several of my friends) or forget to log films for three months and then start back up (like me).
The platform has undergone few changes in the past 10-plus years, which is perhaps why people love it so much. There are no fleeting features or algorithm-driven manufactured rage. Your movie log is for future you or your friends or for nobody in particular — your choice. Here’s hoping it stays that way.
SCOTUS to decide if Florida and Texas social media laws violate 1st Amendment
SCOTUS will likely rule on the high-stakes social media cases in 2024.
Enlarge (credit: Pitiphothivichit | iStock / Getty Images Plus)
On Friday, the Supreme Court agreed to decide if two laws crafted by Republicans in Florida and Texas run afoul of the First Amendment because the laws force platforms to explain all their content moderation decisions to users.
Both laws, passed in 2021 after several major platforms banned Donald Trump, seemingly were a way for Republicans to fight back and prevent supposedly liberal-leaning platforms from allegedly censoring conservative viewpoints.
The laws are designed to stop the most popular platforms from inconsistently censoring content by requiring platforms to provide detailed explanations to users whenever their posts are removed or their accounts are banned or “shadowbanned” (deprioritized or restricted from feeds by platforms’ algorithms). The Texas law also requires platforms to provide clear paths to timely appeal censored content, and both laws require platforms to publicly disclose standards for when and why they censor users.
Galaxy S24 leaks show Samsung’s usual love for the iPhone
The new flat titanium sides on the S24 remind us of a certain fruit company.
Enlarge / The Galaxy S24 render. This sure does look familiar. (credit: OnLeaks×SmartPrix)
It’s Galaxy S24 leak season! The phone, which won’t be out until early 2024, is already being detailed by OnLeaks and SmartPrix. The two have dueling posts for the S24 Ultra and another for the cheaper S24 and S24 Plus. As usual, these are CAD-derived renders that are usually passed around to accessory makers, so while all the important bits are in the right spot down to the millimeter, don’t read too much into the unconfirmed finer details.
First up are the cheaper Plus and base models, which share a design. The first thing you’ll notice this year is a switch from rounded color-matched sides to a flat metal band that wraps around the perimeter. The new flat band makes the S24 awfully close to an iPhone design, with only the camera block and lack of a dynamic island as the differentiators. Would you believe Samsung has also discovered an affection for titanium and upgraded the phones with slimmer bezels? I swear I’ve heard all this before somewhere recently.
The titanium band has a big oval cutout on the right side of the phone, and that’s reportedly for a UWB (ultra-wideband) antenna. Previously, this was reserved for the Ultra and Plus models, but now even the base model is getting it. Samsung, and seemingly everyone else in the Android ecosystem, is working on coming up with Bluetooth tracker competitors to the AirTag, and UWB’s directional location features will be a core part of that. UWB is not on many Android phones, though, so this is progress.
What’s The Big Deal With Quest 3 Upper Body Tracking?
VR fans are having difficulty deciding what to be most excited about with the Quest 3 Inside-Out Upper Body Tracking
The post What’s The Big Deal With Quest 3 Upper Body Tracking? appeared first on ReadWrite.
The true genius is that Quest 3 will no longer just be an estimate.
The post What’s The Big Deal With Quest 3 Upper Body Tracking? appeared first on ReadWrite.
The NSA has a new security center specifically for guarding against AI
The National Security Agency (NSA) is starting a dedicated artificial intelligence security center, as reported by AP. This move comes after the government has begun to increasingly rely on AI, integrating multiple algorithms into defense and intelligence systems. The security center will work to protect these systems from theft and sabotage, in addition to safeguarding the country from external AI-based threats.
The NSA’s recent move toward AI security was announced Thursday by outgoing director General Paul Nakasone. He says that the division will operate underneath the umbrella of the pre-existing Cybersecurity Collaboration Center. This entity works with private industry and international partners to protect the US from cyberattacks stemming from China, Russia and other countries with active malware and hacking campaigns.
For instance, the agency issued an advisory this week suggesting that Chinese hackers have been targeting government, industrial and telecommunications outfits via hacked router firmware. There’s also the specter of election interference, though Nakasone says he’s yet to see any evidence of Russia or China trying to influence the 2024 US presidential election. Still, this has been a big problem in the past, and that was before the rapid proliferation of AI algorithms like the CIA’s recently-announced chatbot.
As artificial intelligence threatens to boost the abilities of these bad actors, the US government will look to this new security division to keep up. The NSA decided on establishing the unit after conducting a study that suggested poorly-secured AI models pose a significant national security challenge. This has only been compounded by the increase of generative AI technologies that the NSA points out can be used for both good and bad purposes.
Nakasone says the organization will become “NSA’s focal point for leveraging foreign intelligence insights, contributing to the development of best practices guidelines, principles, evaluation, methodology and risk frameworks” for both AI security and for the goal of secure development and adoption of artificial intelligence within “our national security systems and our defense industrial base.” To that end, the group will work hand-in-hand with industry leaders, science labs, academic institutions, international partners and, of course, the Department of Defense.
Nakasone is on his way out of the NSA and the US Cyber Command and he’ll be succeeded by his current deputy, Air Force Lt. Gen. Timothy Haugh. Nakasone has been at his post since 2018 and, by all accounts, has had quite a successful run of it.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-nsa-has-a-new-security-center-specifically-for-guarding-against-ai-180354146.html?src=rss
The National Security Agency (NSA) is starting a dedicated artificial intelligence security center, as reported by AP. This move comes after the government has begun to increasingly rely on AI, integrating multiple algorithms into defense and intelligence systems. The security center will work to protect these systems from theft and sabotage, in addition to safeguarding the country from external AI-based threats.
The NSA’s recent move toward AI security was announced Thursday by outgoing director General Paul Nakasone. He says that the division will operate underneath the umbrella of the pre-existing Cybersecurity Collaboration Center. This entity works with private industry and international partners to protect the US from cyberattacks stemming from China, Russia and other countries with active malware and hacking campaigns.
For instance, the agency issued an advisory this week suggesting that Chinese hackers have been targeting government, industrial and telecommunications outfits via hacked router firmware. There’s also the specter of election interference, though Nakasone says he’s yet to see any evidence of Russia or China trying to influence the 2024 US presidential election. Still, this has been a big problem in the past, and that was before the rapid proliferation of AI algorithms like the CIA’s recently-announced chatbot.
As artificial intelligence threatens to boost the abilities of these bad actors, the US government will look to this new security division to keep up. The NSA decided on establishing the unit after conducting a study that suggested poorly-secured AI models pose a significant national security challenge. This has only been compounded by the increase of generative AI technologies that the NSA points out can be used for both good and bad purposes.
Nakasone says the organization will become “NSA’s focal point for leveraging foreign intelligence insights, contributing to the development of best practices guidelines, principles, evaluation, methodology and risk frameworks” for both AI security and for the goal of secure development and adoption of artificial intelligence within “our national security systems and our defense industrial base.” To that end, the group will work hand-in-hand with industry leaders, science labs, academic institutions, international partners and, of course, the Department of Defense.
Nakasone is on his way out of the NSA and the US Cyber Command and he’ll be succeeded by his current deputy, Air Force Lt. Gen. Timothy Haugh. Nakasone has been at his post since 2018 and, by all accounts, has had quite a successful run of it.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-nsa-has-a-new-security-center-specifically-for-guarding-against-ai-180354146.html?src=rss
VC Office Hours: How data can help improve social impact investing
Erin Harkless Moore talks about Pivotal Ventures’ investment strategy, and its future.
Erin Harkless Moore talks about Pivotal Ventures’ investment strategy, and its future.
How a Thinktank Got the Cost of Net Zero for the UK Wildly Wrong
An anonymous reader shares a report: Imagine demanding an “honest” debate over the cost of net zero in a report full of errors that even a schoolboy would be embarrassed about. Then imagine getting coverage of your report in the Sun, Times, Daily Mail, Daily Express and Spectator. Sound impossible? Well, let me tell you how Civitas, one of the thinktanks housed at 55 Tufton Street in London, did exactly that, and nearly got away with it. On Wednesday, Civitas published a pamphlet on net zero by Ewen Stewart, whose consultancy, Walbrook Economics, works on “the interaction of macroeconomics, politics and capital markets.” Stewart is also a climate sceptic, having written in 2021 that human-caused warming is a “contested theory.” Along with Civitas, 55 Tufton Street also houses the climate-sceptic lobby group the Global Warming Policy Foundation and its campaigning arm Net Zero Watch. These groups previously attempted to spark an “honest debate about the cost of net-zero” in 2020.
The Civitas report claims to offer a “realistic” $5.5tn estimate of the cost of reaching net zero emissions by 2050 and says “the government need to be honest with the British people.” This estimate is much higher than the figure produced by the government’s official adviser, the Climate Change Committee (CCC), which has said that reaching net zero would require net investments of $1.71tn by 2050. Note the difference between Civitas’s “costs” and the CCC’s “net investments.” The CCC also found that reaching net zero would generate savings in the form of lower fossil fuel bills worth $1.34tn, resulting in a net cost of $0.37tn. In his report for Civitas, Stewart adopts the well-worn climate-sceptic tactic of simply ignoring these savings. He also ignores what the Office for Budget Responsibility has called the potentially “catastrophic economic and fiscal consequences” of unmitigated climate change. The report was timed to follow hot on the heels of Rishi Sunak’s big climate speech, in which he called for an “honest” approach to net zero that ends “unacceptable costs.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
An anonymous reader shares a report: Imagine demanding an “honest” debate over the cost of net zero in a report full of errors that even a schoolboy would be embarrassed about. Then imagine getting coverage of your report in the Sun, Times, Daily Mail, Daily Express and Spectator. Sound impossible? Well, let me tell you how Civitas, one of the thinktanks housed at 55 Tufton Street in London, did exactly that, and nearly got away with it. On Wednesday, Civitas published a pamphlet on net zero by Ewen Stewart, whose consultancy, Walbrook Economics, works on “the interaction of macroeconomics, politics and capital markets.” Stewart is also a climate sceptic, having written in 2021 that human-caused warming is a “contested theory.” Along with Civitas, 55 Tufton Street also houses the climate-sceptic lobby group the Global Warming Policy Foundation and its campaigning arm Net Zero Watch. These groups previously attempted to spark an “honest debate about the cost of net-zero” in 2020.
The Civitas report claims to offer a “realistic” $5.5tn estimate of the cost of reaching net zero emissions by 2050 and says “the government need to be honest with the British people.” This estimate is much higher than the figure produced by the government’s official adviser, the Climate Change Committee (CCC), which has said that reaching net zero would require net investments of $1.71tn by 2050. Note the difference between Civitas’s “costs” and the CCC’s “net investments.” The CCC also found that reaching net zero would generate savings in the form of lower fossil fuel bills worth $1.34tn, resulting in a net cost of $0.37tn. In his report for Civitas, Stewart adopts the well-worn climate-sceptic tactic of simply ignoring these savings. He also ignores what the Office for Budget Responsibility has called the potentially “catastrophic economic and fiscal consequences” of unmitigated climate change. The report was timed to follow hot on the heels of Rishi Sunak’s big climate speech, in which he called for an “honest” approach to net zero that ends “unacceptable costs.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.