Behold the ‘Glueball,’ a Strange New Form of Matter
sciencehabit shares a report from Science Magazine: For more than half a century, physicists have searched for one of the strangest particles predicted by modern theory. It would be made almost entirely of gluons, the elusive subatomic particles that carry the strong nuclear force. Now, using a particle collider in Beijing, researchers say they have effectively proved the … ⌘ Read more

Contiguous US Breaks Its Record For Hottest Month Ever, NOAA Says
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: The contiguous United States sizzled to its hottest month ever last month, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. July averaged 76.89 degrees Fahrenheit (24.94 degrees Celsius) across the Lower 48 states, eclipsing the Dust Bowl’s July 1936 by an eighth of … ⌘ Read more

Linux Desktop Use Surged To 22% On One Workday, Cloudflare Data Shows
Cloudflare data suggests desktop Linux usage in North America has climbed to 6.4%, up from 4.1% a year earlier, with one post-holiday workday briefly spiking to 22%. ZDNet reports: [B]elieve it or not, on Monday, July 6, when people were back after the July 4 holiday, Linux usage jumped to a high of 22%. The users of these systems are … ⌘ Read more

Freenet Creator Ian Clarke Shares Progress on Its New Decentralized Network
Ian Clarke (aka ancient Slashdot reader Sanity), designer of the peer-to-peer communication platform Freenet, is back with an update on the project’s progress following the launch of its P2P network in March. He writes: Earlier this year, Slashdot covered the launch of the completely redesigned Freenet. I recently gave a tal … ⌘ Read more

Google Gemini Hits 1 Billion Users In Record Time
Gemini has become Google’s fastest-growing product ever, reaching 1 billion monthly active users faster than any of the company’s 13 other billion-user services. Ars Technica reports: Gemini has wormed its way into virtually every Google product and service, powering email organization in Gmail, document summary in Drive, and much more. Gemini is also core to Google’s flagshi … ⌘ Read more

A Zoom Screen-Sharing Bug Let Anyone Take Over Other Devices On a Call
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: As AI models gain advanced capabilities to find vulnerabilities in software, develop ways to exploit them, and even carry out autonomous hacking sprees, researchers offered a sobering new example on Tuesday, disclosing vulnerabilities in the video conferencing platform Zoom that could have … ⌘ Read more

Spotify Will Label ‘AI Persona’ Profiles, Exclude Their Music From Recommendations
Spotify will begin labeling AI-generated artist identities with “AI Persona” badges and exclude their music from editorial, algorithmic, and personalized recommendations unless users explicitly follow them. The company says the designation applies to whether an artist profile represents a real person, not … ⌘ Read more

Paramount Considers Leaving California Amid Antitrust Suit
Paramount CEO David Ellison is threatening to begin moving the studio out of California on October 1 if state Attorney General Rob Bonta refuses to enter settlement talks over the proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger. The company would reportedly move its Los Angeles headquarters first and shift most studio jobs out of the state over five years, with … ⌘ Read more

France Bans Unsolicited Telemarking Calls
Starting today, unsolicited telemarking calls are banned in France unless consumers explicitly consent to them. Companies that violate the law can face fines of up to 375,000 euros per call, though existing customers can still be contacted with related offers. Le Monde reports: The government says the law is a response to years of consumer complaints. Authorities estimate that about three- … ⌘ Read more

England Set To Eliminate Hepatitis C
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: England is on track to become one of the first countries in the world to eliminate hepatitis C, a dangerous virus that attacks the liver, figures show. The target of treating 80% of all known cases has already been met, and deaths from the virus have fallen by 36% in the last decade, just short of what is needed by 2030. Taking antiviral tablets for … ⌘ Read more

Zuckerberg’s Superyacht Reportedly Declined To Help Stranded Boat
Ancient Slashdot reader Alain Williams shares a report from The Guardian: Mark Zuckerberg has faced questions over why a small cruise ship in south-east Alaska rescued a stranded skiff and its crew when his 387ft superyacht had been closer. The Silicon Valley billionaire’s yacht, worth a reported $300 million, is said to have “repeatedly” declin … ⌘ Read more

Reddit Bans 11-Year Account for GPL Game Post, Testing the EU’s DSA
Longtime Slashdot reader DF5JT writes: On July 26, I posted a single announcement in r/backgammon: GNU Backgammon for Android, GPLv3, the first standalone backgammon engine on F-Droid. Reddit’s spam filter removed the post and permanently banned my 11-year, 30,000-karma account – the result is publicly visible at reddit.com/user/OE1FEU. To t … ⌘ Read more

The Roboguard Revolution Is Short-Circuiting
alternative_right shares a report from 404 Media: Robotics companies promise that video-camera-toting security robots can deter and detect crime. But many companies are rethinking the approach after a trail of canceled contracts and questions about whether the artificial intelligence-powered bots are meeting the needs of businesses and local governments. Proof News found evidence … ⌘ Read more

Taxi Drivers Rarely Die of Alzheimer’s
An anonymous reader shares a report from The Conversation, written by Hatim Sharif, a civil and environmental engineer who has “spent more than two decades staring at maps” and spatial data. Sharif finds one connection especially fascinating: the link between spatial reasoning and why taxi drivers seem to have lower rates of Alzheimer’s. From the report: Taxi and ambulance drivers are less likel … ⌘ Read more

Cyber Vulnerability Sweep Picks Up Royal Navy Drones Sending Data To China
A routine security assessment found that cameras aboard Royal Navy Kraken unmanned surface vessels were sending “heartbeat” signals to an IP address in China. “A thorough investigation found no evidence of MoD data or systems being accessed, compromised or transmitted externally,” said a Ministry of Defense spokesperson. “Our … ⌘ Read more

A Data Breach At Shipping Giant Ceva Logistics Is Rippling Across Banks, Retailers, Steam Gamers, and Beyond
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Ceva Logistics, one of the world’s largest shipping and logistics giants, has been hacked. Several companies that rely on Ceva for shipping their products to their customers say that their personal information w … ⌘ Read more

Valve Slowly Expands SteamOS Support On Non-Valve Hardware
Valve is continuing to broaden SteamOS support beyond its own hardware, with the latest beta adding “initial gamepad support” for a few recent gaming handhelds and improving compatibility for a few others. Ars Technica reports: Those newly supported handhelds include MSI’s Claw 8 EX AI+, the extremely expensive, extremely powerful handheld built around I … ⌘ Read more

First Rival Android App Store Arrives In the US Play Store
Aptoide has become the first third-party Android app store available directly through Google Play in the U.S. “The change is a direct result of Google’s litigation with Epic, which saw a judge rule in 2024 that the Play Store would have to open up to third-party stores,” notes The Verge. The change makes rival storefronts far easier to discover and install, potent … ⌘ Read more

Wall Street Giants Partner With Nvidia On $500 Billion AI Financing Deal
Nvidia is working with Wall Street heavyweights on a potential $500 billion financing package for AI infrastructure (source paywalled; alternative source). The consortium includes BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners, Brookfield Asset Management, Goldman Sachs and KKR. The Financial Times reports: The partnership underscores … ⌘ Read more

Meta’s ‘Open’ Muse Glimmer Model Can Run On a Single Computer
Meta has released Muse Glimmer, a slimmed-down open-weight AI model designed to run locally on a single GPU for agent tasks such as scheduling, file management, coding, and tool use. The release is based on Meta’s closed Muse Spark 1.2 model and appears to be aimed at attracting developers who want capable AI agents without relying entirely on cloud-hosted … ⌘ Read more

Taiwan ‘Throttles’ Mobile Internet For First Time During Annual War Games
Taiwan deliberately throttled mobile internet across the Taichung area during its annual Han Kuang war games, “simulating communication disruption in the event of a Chinese attack or natural disaster,” reports Reuters. The drill accompanied air-raid exercises and military rehearsals aimed at defending strategically important areas … ⌘ Read more

AI Assistant Hacks Gym Website In First Known Australian Autonomous Cyber Attack
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ABC News & Headlines: Andrew asked his personal assistant to book him a spot in one of his gym’s coveted morning classes. It was a task he thought was well suited to this particular assistant because the booking form was online and because his assistant was not a person – it … ⌘ Read more

Paramount Promises 30 Film-A-Year Contracts After WBD Acquisition
Paramount is making commitments to major theater chains to release 30 films annually for three years if its Warner Bros. deal goes through. According to Deadline, the written commitment was sent to “at least one of the top two circuits” (specifically Regal but AMC may have also received a written commitment) and includes “an exclusive 4 … ⌘ Read more

Toxic Underground Fires Are Spreading at California Landfills
Three years ago environmental regulators discovered garbage burning deep inside California’s Chiquita Canyon Landfill, reports the Los Angeles Times. [Alternate URL here.] “Few imagined the calamity that would follow.

“Somehow the landfill’s pollution control system introduced oxygen below, causing decades-old waste to rapidly decompose, generating … ⌘ Read more

How Accurate Are Flock’s AI-Powered License-Reading Cameras?
Futurism reports:

404 Media revealed that a July 10 audit by the Los Angeles Police Department Office of the Inspector General caught the department’s ALPR cameras generating 161 false stolen-vehicle alerts in just two months — each one ending with officers pulling over an innocent driver. Factoring in 337 alerts which “resulted in the recovery of stolen v … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Responds to Outcry After Quietly Installing Beta ‘Photos’ App on Enterprise Machines
Microsoft’s cloud storage app OneDrive got a new Photos app in the worst possible way, reports the blog Neowin . “The app is reportedly showing up even on Windows 11 Enterprise machines, despite apparently being a beta application aimed at consumer functionality.”

One admin questioned why … ⌘ Read more

Privacy Backlash Explodes Against Meta’s Smart Glasses
With nearly 70% of the market, “Meta wants its smart glasses to be a big hit,” writes the Los Angeles Times. But after some users found ways to disable the light that warns people they’re being filmed, “the high-tech specs have also turned into a liability, as some are calling the gadget ‘pervert glasses…’”

Some people are using the glasses — which look like a pair … ⌘ Read more

AI Reviews Bring ‘New Normal’ to Linux Release Candidates: Lots of Bug Fixes
Linux Torvalds expects Linux 7.2 should be released next weekend “unless something really bad
pops up,” Torvalds said while announcing today’s release candidate.

But there’s something interesting about Linux 7.2-rc7, writes Phoronix. “By the time the Linux kernel typically hits a -rc7 release things have usually settled qui … ⌘ Read more

Flock Accused of Reactivating Its Cameras Without Notifying a Town
A Massachusetts newspaper reports that officials from the town of Littleton (population: 10,141) “claim that five of Littletonâ™s Flock Safety cameras were switched back on by the company without informing the town…”

Littleton had temporarily disabled the cameras earlier this year, according to the article, but upon discovering the camer … ⌘ Read more

California City Declares State of Emergency After Cyberattack
NBC Bay Area brings news from the small idyllic California town of Suisun City (population: 29,518). The city council “declared a state of emergency Saturday after a cyberattack that shut down computer systems including 911 public safety operations.”

“Malicious software infected and compromised” the East Bay community’s information technology systems b … ⌘ Read more

AI-Powered Browser Just Generates Every Website From Scratch
XDA Developers reports:

On July 22, a Google DeepMind engineer, Vidy Thatte, shared a snippet of a browser he built that “treats every URL as a prompt and generates a site from scratch” on his X account. Just a few days later, he shared a TestFlight link to let iPhone users try it for themselves. The browser he launched is called Gem, and it’s a browser … ⌘ Read more

Ask Slashdot: Whare the Costs of Switching Between Windows, MacOS, and Chrome?
UI changes, lost productivity, untransferrable knowledge… Long-time Slashdot reader theodp notes the folly of switching to an unfamiliar new environment to be “more productive”…

Champions of the switch often insist workers will be able to hit the ground running and get the same or even more work done from the get-go in … ⌘ Read more

Slashdot Reader Builds ‘Spaced Linux’, a New Devuan-Based, User-Friendly Desktop Distro
“I’ve been a Linux IT administrator for 30 years now,” says crhylove (Slashdot reader #205,956), in a new video on his YouTube channel. “I used to be a data center architect, at one point I was the IT director for 13 school districts… I just haven’t been happy overall with all the other operating syste … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Announces It’s Enhancing Security Controls, Pausing Some Work for New AI Model Astra
OpenAI announced Friday it’s pausing work on its Astra AI model because of security concerns. The Guardian reports:

The company had evaluated the agent, Astra, and found “significant advancements in agentic coding and cybersecurity”, which had moved to a “critical” threshold… OpenAI stated that … ⌘ Read more

Brain Activity Reveals the Melodies That People Imagine
Researchers believe they’ve found evidence that brain signals reveal the pitches of notes in imagined musical melodies, reports Medical Express:

Study participants were 10 epilepsy patients with electrodes on the surfaces of their brains for clinical monitoring. Participants quietly listened to the first bars of children’s tunes, then imagined the melodies of … ⌘ Read more

GNOME Receiving Additional Design Help From Germany’s Sovereign Tech Agency Fellowship
The new GNOME Boxes app for accessing virtual systems has reached beta, announced This Week in GNOME. There’s also been more work on the Sushi file previewer for Nautilus, and Papers 51 Beta can now add visual signatures to PDF documents.

But Phoronix noted one more announcement. “Germany’s Sovereign Te … ⌘ Read more

Flock Camera Vandalism Continues Around America, While 100 Communities Reject ALPRs
Dozens of Flock cameras have been vandalized around Dallas Texas in the last six months, reports a local news station. In Utah, ABC News reports, a county sheriff’s office even said Wednesday a Flock camera was even vandalized within days of its being installed. And in the Minnesota city of Winona, “Every Flock … ⌘ Read more

Quake Celebrates 30th Anniversary: New Official Episode With New Maps and Mechanics
To celebrate Quake’s 30th anniversary, Bethesda released “a brutal new episode” — a new campaign chapter titled Dawn of the Machine “delivering ferocious combat, labyrinthine level design, and nightmarish realms that twist reality beyond recognition…”

Face deadly new twists on familiar foes, including the … ⌘ Read more

RAMageddon? 2027 Memory Capacity Reportedly Sold Out
IGN reports:

[A] new report suggests that all three memory manufacturers — Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron — have collectively sold through their 2027 memory manufacturing capacity to, you guessed it, AI companies.

According to a report from Digitimes and spotted by TweakTown, all DRAM and HBM capacity has been sold through for 2027, with no further supply planne … ⌘ Read more

Google Should Still Be Forced To Shed Chrome, Advocacy Group Argues
“Google should be required to divest the Chrome browser, and prohibited from paying Apple to distribute Google’s search engine, the nonprofit advocacy group Public Knowledge argues in a new court filing,” MediaPost reports, citing a friend-of-the-court brief filed Tuesday in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals:

The group adds that “independen … ⌘ Read more

Slashdot Reader Builds a Free Photo-Verification App for iPhones
Long-time Slashdot reader BrianFagioli is announcing that he’s released a new iPhone app that creates a cryptographic witness for photos without uploading the original image.

The app hashes the file, signs the hash using a dedicated identity stored in Apple Keychain, and publishes the witness to Nostr relays while keeping the photo inside the a … ⌘ Read more

New Orleans Will Use AI To Answer 911 Calls Instead of a Human
“If you call 911 in New Orleans, you may hear the sound of an artificial intelligence (AI) agent answering your call instead of a human voice,” reports the Shreveport Times:

The Orleans Parish Communication District (OPCD) is currently testing out the new tool designed to reduce the volume of calls human dispatchers must handle, which is over a thousand … ⌘ Read more

More Police Officers Fired, Investigated, or Arrested for Misusing Flock Camera Systems
In Georgia the Savannah Police Department “terminated four sworn officers and two civilian employees following an internal investigation into misuse of the department’s Flock Safety License Plate Reader system,” according to a local news report:

All six cases are also under independent criminal investig … ⌘ Read more

America’s First Grid-Scale Sodium-Ion Battery Plant Gets Its First Big Test
“In a milestone for energy storage technology, Peak Energy has selected Sacramento, California, as the home of America’s first manufacturing facility dedicated to grid-scale sodium-ion battery systems,” according to the sustainability news site Intelligent Living.

The move “represents the first large-scale test of whethe … ⌘ Read more

Paper Goods Company Is Investigating an Alternative to Trees
The Dallas Business Journal reported Monday that the U.S. multinational paper goods company Kimberly-Clark announced “that its researchers identified and advanced patented technology transforming fibers from hesperaloe, a low-water-use plant with pointy leaves that thrives in the southwest region of the country, into material for paper towels.” Discoverin … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta and Oracle: Expect a Negative Cash Flow of $125 Billion Next Year
The Washington Post shared surprising news this week about five top AI companies.

Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta and Oracle “are spending so much on developing AI and delivering it to customers that they’re expected to bleed cash in the coming year, according to a Washington Pos … ⌘ Read more

Prime Minister Leaves Door Open For Reviewing Policy of No Nuclear Weapons in Japan
At a Hiroshima memorial ceremony, Japan’s prime minister said the country “maintains” its three long-standing non-nuclear principles, reports UPI.

But the prime minister “stopped short of promising that the policy would remain unchanged, fueling speculation that her government could review a longstanding ban … ⌘ Read more

Before and After Views of SpaceX Rocket’s Moon Crash
A South Korean lunar orbiter has captured the first before-and-after images of the Moon’s crash scene caused by a stray SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The Associated Press reports: The Korea Aerospace Research Institute’s Danuri spacecraft flew over the impact site soon after the Falcon 9 upper stage inadvertently plowed into the moon on Wednesday. Danuri made multiple passe … ⌘ Read more

NASA Figured Out How To Keep Its 48-Year-Old Voyager 2 Probe Running For Yet Another Year
NASA has squeezed at least another year of science out of Voyager 2 by cutting power to nonessential systems and switching to lower-power alternatives. Voyager 1 is expected to receive the same power-saving changes in the coming months. Space.com reports: Voyager 2 and its twin launched in 1977 … ⌘ Read more

Woman Pulled From Car at Gunpoint By Police After Mistaken Flock Alert - Twice
The police surrounded her car Thursday, “drew their guns, and told her to come out with her hands up,” reports a local news station. The police thought they were pulling over a murder suspect, but “It turns out it was a mistake by another department with the Flock license plate reader technology.” The black woman says sh … ⌘ Read more