Toronto Crypto Company CEO Kidnapped, Held For $1 Million Ransom Before Being Released | An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBC News: The head of a company specializing in cryptocurrency was kidnapped and held for ransom in downtown Toronto during rush hour Wednesday. Police were called about a kidnapping in the area of University Avenue and Richmond Street W. just before 6 p.m., says a spokesperson with the Toronto Police Service. The suspects forced the victim into a vehicle and made a demand for money, the spokesperson said. The man was later located in Centennial Park in Etobicoke uninjured.
CBC Toronto has learned the victim is Dean Skurka, the president and CEO of Toronto-based financial firm WonderFi. He was released after a ransom of $1 million was paid electronically, a source close to the investigation said. Police say the investigation is ongoing and have not released any further details. [...] The alleged kidnapping happened the same day WonderFi released its third quarter earnings results, showing a 153 per cent increase compared to its third quarter in 2023. Read more of this story at Slashdot. |
Interview with Programmer Steve Yegge On the Future of AI Coding | I had the opportunity to interview esteemed programmer Steve Yegge for the SourceForge Podcast to ask him all about AI-powered coding assistants and the future of programming. "We're moving from where you have to write the code to where the LLM will write the code and you're just having a conversation with it about the code," said Yegge. "That is much more accessible to people who are just getting into the industry."
Steve has nearly 30 years of programming experience working at Geoworks, Amazon, Google, Grab and now SourceGraph, working to build out the Cody AI assistant platform. He's not shy about sharing his opinions or predictions for the industry, no matter how difficult it may be for some to hear. "I'm going to make the claim that ... line-oriented programming, which we've done for the last 40, 50 years, ... is going away. It is dying just like assembly language did, and it will be completely dead within five years."
You can watch the episode on YouTube and stream on all major podcast platforms. A transcription of the podcast is available here. Read more of this story at Slashdot. |
Apple Scraps Plans for 27-inch iMac | Apple has confirmed it has no plans to release a 27-inch iMac, ending speculation about a larger successor to its flagship desktop computer. The tech giant will instead focus on its 24-inch M3 iMac and Mac Studio offerings. Read more of this story at Slashdot. |
Global Temperatures Likely To Exceed Key Limit For First Time | With October's initial temperature data in, 2024 will rank as the first calendar year in modern record-keeping in which global average surface temperatures exceed the Paris Agreement's aspirational 1.5C guardrail. From a report:Holding long-term warming to the 1.5-degree target compared to the preindustrial era is crucial for lowering the risk of triggering climate change tipping points, beyond which potentially catastrophic impacts have a higher likelihood of occurring, studies show. Holding warming to that target is viewed as necessary for small island states and other extremely vulnerable nations to avoid being wiped out by sea level rise, drought and other threats.
The data -- and proxy records such as tree rings and ice cores -- shows this year is likely to be the hottest in at least 125,000 years. Right now, the world is on track for as much as 3.1C (5.58F) of warming based on already pledged emissions cuts, assuming they are fulfilled. Copernicus Climate Change Service reported early Thursday that the year is headed for a temperature anomaly of more than 1.55C (2.79F) above preindustrial levels. Last year fell just shy of the 1.5C threshold relative to the 1850-1900 average. Read more of this story at Slashdot. |
US Agency Warns Employees About Phone Use Amid Ongoing China Hack | A federal agency has issued a directive to employees to reduce the use of their phones for work matters due to China's recent hack of U.S. telecommunications infrastructure, WSJ reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. From the report: In an email to staff sent Thursday, the chief information officer at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau warned that internal and external work-related meetings and conversations that involve nonpublic data should only be held on platforms like Microsoft Teams and Cisco WebEx and not on work-issued or personal phones.
"Do NOT conduct CFPB work using mobile voice calls or text messages," the email said, while referencing a recent government statement acknowledging the telecommunications infrastructure attack. "While there is no evidence that CFPB has been targeted by this unauthorized access, I ask for your compliance with these directives so we reduce the risk that we will be compromised," said the email, which was sent to all CFPB employees and contractors. It wasn't clear if other federal agencies had taken similar measures or were planning to, but many U.S. officials have already curtailed their phone use due to the hack, according to a former official. Read more of this story at Slashdot. |
Hacker Says They Banned 'Thousands' of Call of Duty Gamers By Abusing Anti-Cheat Flaw | An anonymous reader shares a report: In October, video game giant Activision said it had fixed a bug in its anti-cheat system that affected "a small number of legitimate player accounts," who were getting banned because of the bug. In reality, according to the hacker who found the bug and was exploiting it, they were able to ban "thousands upon thousands" of Call of Duty players, who they essentially framed as cheaters. The hacker, who goes by Vizor, spoke to TechCrunch about the exploit, and told their side of the story.
"I could have done this for years and as long as I target random players and no one famous it would have gone without notice," said Vizor, who added that it was "funny to abuse the exploit." TechCrunch was introduced to Vizor by a cheat developer called Zebleer, who is familiar with the Call of Duty hacking scene. Zebleer said he had been in touch with Vizor for months, and as such had knowledge of the exploit, which he said he saw Vizor using. Read more of this story at Slashdot. |
'Just Have AI Build an App For That' | Software engineer David Gomes writes in a blog post: I sometimes need to search for a website that will "convert a PNG to SVG", or "remove page from PDF" or "resize svg". And these apps are... okay. I don't really trust most of them with my data, and also a lot of times they just don't work or have too many ads. So, I've been noticing a trend of people just using AI agents to create full blown apps for these simple use cases.
I decided to try it myself for a "resize SVG" app since I recently had to go through a bunch of websites to do this. So, I pulled up Replit Agent and even though I've used it before, it doesn't cease to amaze me just how insanely good it is. The level of polish on this product is unlike any other AI agent out there right now. It starts off by drawing up a plan and asking you for feedback on that plan. Then, it'll just go to town and try to build the app. But what's super clever about it is that the agent asks you for feedback along the way. Effectively, the Replit Agent guides you, not the other way around (as one might have expected). Read more of this story at Slashdot. |
What Tired Texans Wrote To the FCC | A pre-dawn statewide alert about an officer shooting in Hall County triggered over 4,500 complaints to the Federal Communications Commission. The 4:52 a.m. "Blue Alert" on October 4 awakened millions of Texans, many living hundreds of miles from the incident location, to notify them about suspect Seth Altman. Air traffic controllers, healthcare workers, and other professionals reported safety concerns from sleep disruption, according to records obtained by 404 Media. Multiple residents told the FCC they disabled all emergency notifications in response, potentially compromising public safety for future alerts. Read more of this story at Slashdot. |
Plastic Pollution is Changing Entire Earth System, Scientists Find | Plastic pollution is changing the processes of the entire Earth system, exacerbating climate change, biodiversity loss, ocean acidification, and the use of freshwater and land, according to scientific analysis. From a report: Plastic must not be treated as a waste problem alone, the authors said, but as a product that poses harm to ecosystems and human health. The authors gave their warning in the days before final talks begin in South Korea to agree a legally binding global treaty to cut plastic pollution. Progress towards a treaty on plastic pollution has been hindered by a row over the need to include cuts to the $712bn plastic production industry in the treaty.
At the last talks in April, developed countries were accused of bowing to pressure from fossil fuel and industry lobbyists to steer clear of any reductions in production. The discussions in South Korea, which start on 25 November, mark a rare opportunity for countries to come to an agreement to tackle the global crisis of plastic pollution. In 2022 at least 506m tonnes of plastics were produced worldwide, but only 9% gets recycled globally. The rest is burned, landfilled or dumped where it can leach into the environment. Microplastics are now everywhere, from the top of Mount Everest to the Mariana Trench, the deepest point on earth.
The new study of plastic pollution examined the mounting evidence of the effects of plastics on the environment, health and human wellbeing. The authors are urging delegates at the UN talks to stop viewing plastic pollution as merely a waste problem, and instead to tackle material flows through the whole life pathway of plastic, from raw material extraction, production and use, to its environmental release and its fate, and the Earth system effects. Read more of this story at Slashdot. |
Malwarebytes Acquires AzireVPN | Malwarebytes, in a blog post: We've acquired AzireVPN, a privacy-focused VPN provider based in Sweden. I wanted to share with you our intentions behind this exciting step, and what this means for our existing users and the family of solutions they rely on to keep them private and secure.
Malwarebytes has long been an advocate for user privacy (think Malwarebytes Privacy VPN and our free web extension Malwarebytes Browser Guard). Now, we're leaning even more on our mission to reimagine consumer cybersecurity to protect devices and data, no matter where users are located, how they work and play, or the size of their wallet. With AzireVPN's infrastructure and intellectual property, Malwarebytes is poised to develop more advanced VPN technologies and features, offering increased flexibility and enhanced security for our users. Read more of this story at Slashdot. |
Sega Delisting Over 60 Classic Games From Virtual Stores | Over 60 classic Sega games are being delisted from digital stores, including Crazy Taxi, Golden Axe and Jet Set Radio. From a report: Starting on 6th December at 11:59pm PST (so, 7.59am on 7th December, for those of us in the UK), the affected games will no longer be available to purchase. Of course, if you already have a game in your library, it will remain available to download and play as and when.
In a FAQ, Sega noted select individual classic titles will remain playable for those among us who have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription. No explanation was given for why these changes are being made. Read more of this story at Slashdot. |
Nvidia Sets 100-Hour Monthly Cap on Cloud Gaming Service | Nvidia will impose a 100-hour monthly limit on its GeForce Now cloud gaming service for new subscribers starting January 2025, with existing members facing the same restriction from 2026, the company said on Thursday.
The gaming giant aims to maintain current subscription prices by implementing the cap, which affects roughly 6% of users. Members can purchase additional 15-hour blocks for $2.99 on Performance tier or $5.99 for Ultimate tier once they exceed the limit.
The service, which allows users to stream games from remote servers, will also rebrand its Priority membership to Performance tier, adding 1440p streaming and ultrawide resolution support. Subscribers can carry over 15 unused hours monthly or switch to basic servers after reaching the cap, Nvidia said. Read more of this story at Slashdot. |
Taiwan Must Improve Its Chip Tech to Stay Ahead, TSMC's Hou Says | Taiwan should pour more resources into advancing chip technology and expanding its supply chain expertise to maintain global leadership, an executive from its most valuable company said hours after Donald Trump was elected to be US president for the second time. From a report: "We should accelerate research and development to ensure our standing as an indispensable member of the global semiconductor supply chain," Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Senior Vice President Cliff Hou said in remarks delivered in his role as chairman of the Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association on Thursday. "We are also working with the government to see whether we can attract foreign partners to set up design and materials centers in Taiwan."
The self-governing island, home to the world's biggest contract chipmaker, TSMC, lives with the constant threat of invasion by China, which considers it a breakaway territory. The imminent change in US leadership may alter its standing in global affairs. While President Joe Biden has repeatedly voiced unequivocal support for Taiwan, Trump said the island should pay the US for defending it, calling Xi Jinping "a very good friend of mine until Covid" in an interview with Bloomberg.
Hou, a 27-year TSMC veteran who obtained his doctorate in the US, added that Taiwan must also aim to develop more expertise in equipment and materials, areas that are dominated by foreign businesses. Meanwhile, the close relationship Taiwan and the US have forged over the past few decades will not be affected by the election's outcome, the executive told reporters separately on the sidelines of his trade group's event in Hsinchu. [...] In October, Trump told podcast host Joe Rogan that Taiwan took away US semiconductor business and jobs. "These chip companies, they stole 95% of our business. It's in Taiwan right now. They do a great job, but that's only because we have stupid politicians," Trump said as part of a lengthy interview where he also stated he protected Taiwan from China during his first stint as president. Read more of this story at Slashdot. |
The Other Election Night Winner: Perplexity | AI startup Perplexity demonstrated strong performance in real-time during Tuesday election coverage, while rivals failed by predicting wrong outcomes before polls closed, marking the first major test of AI systems in U.S. election reporting, TechCrunch reports.
Perplexity launched an election hub featuring live maps powered by Associated Press and Democracy Works data, contrasting with major competitors like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini, which declined to provide election information. Despite some minor data display issues and occasional inaccuracies in state-level analysis, Perplexity's coverage largely matched traditional media outlets, potentially intensifying its ongoing legal battle with Dow Jones over audience competition. Read more of this story at Slashdot. |
DataBreach.com Emerges As Alternative To HaveIBeenPwned | An anonymous reader quotes a report from PCMag: Have I Been Pwned has long been one of the most useful ways to learn if your personal information was exposed in a hack. But a new site offers its own powerful tool to help you check if your data has been leaked to cybercriminals. DataBreach.com is the work of a New Jersey company called Atlas Privacy, which helps consumers remove their personal information from data brokers and people search websites. On Wednesday, the company told us it had launched DataBreach.com as an alternative to Have I Been Pwned, which is mainly searchable via the user's email address. DataBreach.com is designed to do that and more. In addition to your email address, the site features an advanced search function to see whether your full name, physical address, phone number, Social Security number, IP address, or username are in Atlas Privacy's extensive library of recorded breaches. More categories will also be added over time.
Atlas Privacy has been offering its paid services to customers, such as police officers and celebrities, to protect bad actors from learning their addresses or phone numbers. In doing so, the company has also amassed over 17.5 billion records from the numerous stolen databases circulating on the internet, including in cybercriminal forums. As a public service, Atlas is now using its growing repository of stolen records to create a breach notification site, free of charge. DataBreach.com builds off Atlas's effort in August to host a site notifying users whether their Social Security number and other personal information were leaked in the National Public Data hack. Importantly, Atlas designed DataBreach.com to prevent it from storing or collecting any sensitive user information typed into the site. Instead, the site will fetch a hash from Atlas' servers, or a fingerprint of the user's personal information -- whether it be an email address, name, or SSN -- and compare it to whatever the user is searching for. "The comparison will be done locally," meaning it'll occur on the user's PC or phone, rather than Atlas's internet server, de Saint Meloir said. Read more of this story at Slashdot. |
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