NEWS ONLINE: April 2017

Slashdot Daily Newsletter

In this issue:
* Slashdot Asks: Should an Employee Be Fired For Working On Personal Side Projects During Office Hours?

* University of California IT Workers Replaced By Offshore Outsourcing Firm To File Discrimination Lawsuit

* Kill Net Neutrality and You'll Kill Us, Say 800 US Startups

* Report Shows Another Diversity Challenge: Retaining Employees

* Apple Patent Hints At Wirelessly Charging Your iPhone Via Wi-Fi Routers

* Elon Musk Outlines His 'Boring' Vision For Traffic-Avoiding Tunnels

* NASA Delays First Flight of New SLS Rocket Until 2019

* Lawsuit: Fox News Group Hacked, Surveilled, and Stalked Ex-Host Andrea Tantaros

* AT&T To Roll Out 5G Network That's Not Actually 5G

* IT Leaders Will Struggle To Meet Future Demands, Study Says

* WikiLeaks Reveals the 'Snowden Stopper': CIA Tool To Track Whistleblowers

* Amazon Confirms Advertising Will Become a 'Meaningful' Part of Its Business

* Qualcomm Says Apple To Stop Paying Royalties

* Nintendo Announces 2DS XL

* We're Getting Closer To Mass Production of Bones, Organs, and Implants

* NSA Halts Collection of Americans' Emails About Foreign Targets

* An Open Letter on DRM To the Inventor of the Web, From the Inventor of Net Neutrality

* The Internet-of-Things is Maturing

* Amazon's Alexa Can Now Whisper, Bleep Out Swear Words, and Change Its Pitch

* A Database of Thousands of Credit Cards Was Left Exposed on the Open Internet

* DNA-Based Test Can Spot Cancer Recurrence a Year Before Conventional Scans

* BitTorrent is Shutting Down Its Live TV Streaming Service

* Apple, Tesla Ask California To Change Its Proposed Policies On Self-Driving Car Testing

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| Slashdot Asks: Should an Employee Be Fired For Working On Personal Side Projects During Office Hours?
| from the let's-get-this-going dept.
| posted by msmash on Friday April 28, @12:00 (The Almighty Buck)
| with 359 comments
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/1451233/slashdot-asks-should-an-employee-be-fired-for-working-on-personal-side-projects-during-office-hours?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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An anonymous reader writes: I found this article that talks about whether
an [0]engineer should be fired if s/he is working on a side project.
Several people who have commented in the thread say that the employer
should first talk to the person and understand why they are working on
personal projects during the office hours. One reason, as many suggested,
could be that the employee might not have been fairly compensated despite
being exceptionally good at the job. In which case, the problem resides
somewhere in the management who has failed to live up to the
expectations. What do you folks think? Let's not just focus on engineers,
per se. It could be an IT guy (who might have a lot of free time in
hand), or a programmer.

Discuss this story at:
https://news.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/1451233/slashdot-asks-should-an-employee-be-fired-for-working-on-personal-side-projects-during-office-hours?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. https://www.quora.com/Should-I-fire-a-software-engineer-for-always-working-on-his-side-projects-during-office-hours?share=1

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| University of California IT Workers Replaced By Offshore Outsourcing Firm To File Discrimination Lawsuit
| from the find-and-replace dept.
| posted by BeauHD on Thursday April 27, @20:05 (The Courts)
| with 291 comments
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/17/04/27/210221/university-of-california-it-workers-replaced-by-offshore-outsourcing-firm-to-file-discrimination-lawsuit?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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The IT workers from the University of California's San Francisco campus
who were [0]replaced by an offshore outsourcing firm late last year
intend to file a lawsuit challenging their dismissal. "It will allege
that the tech workers at the university's San Francisco campus [1]were
victims of age and national origin discrimination," reports
Computerworld. From the report: The IT employees lost their jobs in
February after the university hired India-based IT services firm HCL.
Approximately 50 full-time university employees lost their jobs, but
another 30 contractor positions were cut as well. "To take a workforce
that is overwhelmingly over the age of 40 and replace them with folks who
are mainly in their 20s -- early 20s, in fact -- we think is age
discrimination," said the IT employees' attorney, Randall Strauss, of
Gwilliam Ivary Chiosso Cavalli & Brewer. The national origin
discrimination claim is the result of taking a workforce "that reflects
the diversity of California" and is summarily let go and is "replaced
with people who come from one particular part of the world," said
Strauss. The lawsuit will be filed in Alameda County Superior Court.

Discuss this story at:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/17/04/27/210221/university-of-california-it-workers-replaced-by-offshore-outsourcing-firm-to-file-discrimination-lawsuit?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/09/07/2345227/university-of-california-hires-india-based-it-outsourcer-lays-off-tech-workers
1. http://www.computerworld.com/article/3192989/it-careers/fired-it-workers-to-file-discrimination-lawsuit.html

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| Kill Net Neutrality and You'll Kill Us, Say 800 US Startups
| from the eli5 dept.
| posted by msmash on Thursday April 27, @23:30 (Businesses)
| with 276 comments
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/17/04/27/2016232/kill-net-neutrality-and-youll-kill-us-say-800-us-startups?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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A group of more than 800 startups has sent a letter to the FCC chairman
Ajit Pai saying they are "deeply concerned" about his decision to kill
net neutrality -- [0]reversing the Title II classification of internet
service providers. The group, which includes Y Combinator, Etsy,
Foursquare, GitHub, Imgur, Nextdoor, and Warby Parker, added that [1]the
decision could end up shutting their businesses. They add, via an article
on The Verge: "The success of America's startup ecosystem depends on more
than improved broadband speeds. We also depend on an open Internet --
including enforceable net neutrality rules that ensure big cable
companies can't discriminate against people like us. We're deeply
concerned with your intention to undo the existing legal framework.
Without net neutrality, the incumbents who provide access to the Internet
would be able to pick winners or losers in the market. They could impede
traffic from our services in order to favor their own services or
established competitors. Or they could impose new tolls on us, inhibiting
consumer choice. [...] Our companies should be able to compete with
incumbents on the quality of our products and services, not our capacity
to pay tolls to Internet access providers."

Discuss this story at:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/17/04/27/2016232/kill-net-neutrality-and-youll-kill-us-say-800-us-startups?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. https://yro.slashdot.org/story/17/04/26/2012259/fcc-announces-plan-to-reverse-title-ii-net-neutrality
1. http://www.theverge.com/2017/4/27/15447394/fcc-net-neutrality-roll-back-startups-letter-y-combinator

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| Report Shows Another Diversity Challenge: Retaining Employees
| from the story-of-their-lives dept.
| posted by msmash on Friday April 28, @14:00 (Businesses)
| with 231 comments
| https://slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/1613205/report-shows-another-diversity-challenge-retaining-employees?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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An anonymous reader shares a report: Women, blacks and Latinos are far
more likely to quit jobs in tech than white or Asian men, according to a
new report by the Kapor Center for Social Impact. The Oakland nonprofit
commissioned an online survey by the Harris Poll, which asked 2,006
people who voluntarily left tech jobs in the past three years about why
they quit. It found [0]women were twice as likely to leave as men ([1]alternative
link), while black and Latino tech workers were 3.5 times likelier to
quit than white or Asian colleagues. The most common reason they gave for
their departures was workplace mistreatment.

Discuss this story at:
https://slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/1613205/report-shows-another-diversity-challenge-retaining-employees?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Report-shows-another-diversity-challenge-11104481.php
1. http://www.pressreader.com/usa/san-francisco-chronicle-late-edition/20170428/281977492515970

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| Apple Patent Hints At Wirelessly Charging Your iPhone Via Wi-Fi Routers
| from the turn-your-dreams-into-reality dept.
| posted by BeauHD on Friday April 28, @06:00 (Patents)
| with 136 comments
| https://apple.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/0013209/apple-patent-hints-at-wirelessly-charging-your-iphone-via-wi-fi-routers?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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According to AppleInsider, "Apple is experimenting with medium- to
long-distance wireless charging technologies that could one day [0]allow
users to charge up their iPhones with nothing more than a Wi-Fi router."
From the report: Detailed in Apple's [1]patent application for "Wireless
Charging and Communications Systems With Dual-Frequency Patch Antennas"
is a method for transferring power to electronic devices over frequencies
normally dedicated to data communications. In its various embodiments,
the invention notes power transfer capabilities over any suitable
wireless communications link, including cellular between 700 MHz and 2700
MHz, and Wi-Fi operating at 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. More specifically, the
document's claims apply to millimeter wave 802.11ad spectrum channels
currently in use by the WiGig standard, which operates over the 60 GHz
frequency band. Theoretically, the proposal opens the door to wire-free
charging from in-home Wi-Fi routers to cellular nodes and even satellite
signals. Of course, amplitude in a wireless system is normally a function
of distance. Like conventional wireless charging techniques, Apple's
design requires two devices -- a transmitter and receiver -- to function.
Each device contains one or more antennas coupled to wireless circuitry
capable of making phase and magnitude adjustments to transmitted and
received signals. Such hardware can be employed in dynamic beam steering
operations.

Discuss this story at:
https://apple.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/0013209/apple-patent-hints-at-wirelessly-charging-your-iphone-via-wi-fi-routers?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://appleinsider.com/articles/17/04/27/apple-investigating-wireless-charging-via-wi-fi-routers-other-communications-equipment
1. http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.html&r=1128&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&s1=(1%2F1.CCLS.+AND+20170427.PD.)&p=23&OS=ccl/1/1+and+pd/4/27/2017&RS=(CCL/1/1+AND+PD/20170427)

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| Elon Musk Outlines His 'Boring' Vision For Traffic-Avoiding Tunnels
| from the boring-company dept.
| posted by msmash on Friday April 28, @16:00 (Transportation)
| with 131 comments
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/1920230/elon-musk-outlines-his-boring-vision-for-traffic-avoiding-tunnels?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed new details about his [0]futuristic
tunnel-boring project during his TED talk on Friday. Ina Fried, writing
for Axios: In an appearance at the TED conference in Vancouver, Musk
showed off a new video visualization of electric skates transporting cars
in a narrow tunnel, then raising them back to street level in a space as
small as two parking spaces. Inside the tunnels, Musk said [1]cars could
travel as fast as 200 kilometers per hour (roughly 130 MPH). "You should
be able to go from say Westwood to LAX in 5-6 minutes," the Tesla and
SpaceX founder said, adding he is spending only 2-3 percent on the tunnel
effort. The Boring Company is currently building a demo tunnel in
SpaceX's parking lot, but will need permits from the city of Los Angeles
to extend beyond the property line. Musk added, "I'm not trying to be
anyone's savior. I'm just trying to think about the future and not be
sad." You can watch the video [2] here.

Discuss this story at:
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/1920230/elon-musk-outlines-his-boring-vision-for-traffic-avoiding-tunnels?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. https://tech.slashdot.org/story/17/02/16/1359251/elon-musk-is-really-boring
1. https://www.axios.com/elon-musk-2383371453.html
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5V_VzRrSBI

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| NASA Delays First Flight of New SLS Rocket Until 2019
| from the past-due dept.
| posted by BeauHD on Friday April 28, @03:00 (NASA)
| with 105 comments
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/0250223/nasa-delays-first-flight-of-new-sls-rocket-until-2019?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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[0]schwit1 writes: Despite spending almost $19 billion and more than
thirteen years of development, NASA today admitted that it will have to
[1]delay the first test flight of the SLS rocket from late 2018 to
sometime in 2019. "We agree with the GAO that maintaining a November 2018
launch readiness date is not in the best interest of the program, and we
are in the process of establishing a new target in 2019," wrote William
Gerstenmaier, chief of NASA's human spaceflight program. "Caution should
be used in referencing the report on the specific technical issues, but
the overall conclusions are valid." The competition between the big
government SLS/Orion program and private commercial space is downright
embarrassing to the government. While SLS continues to be delayed, even
after more than a decade of work and billions of wasted dollars, SpaceX
is gearing up for the first flight of Falcon Heavy this year. And they
will be doing it despite the fact that Congress took money from the
commercial private space effort, delaying its progress, in order to throw
more money at SLS/Orion.

Discuss this story at:
https://science.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/0250223/nasa-delays-first-flight-of-new-sls-rocket-until-2019?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. https://slashdot.org/~schwit1
1. https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/04/senior-official-nasa-will-delay-first-flight-of-new-sls-rocket-until-2019/

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| Lawsuit: Fox News Group Hacked, Surveilled, and Stalked Ex-Host Andrea Tantaros
| from the black-room dept.
| posted by BeauHD on Friday April 28, @09:00 (Privacy)
| with 95 comments
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/0342209/lawsuit-fox-news-group-hacked-surveilled-and-stalked-ex-host-andrea-tantaros?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Comparing their
actions to the plot this season on the Showtime series Homeland, an
attorney for former Fox News host Andrea Tantaros has filed [0]a
complaint in federal court against Fox News, current and former Fox
executives, Peter Snyder and his financial firm Disruptor Inc., and 50
"John Doe" defendants. The suit alleges that collective [1]participated
in a hacking and surveillance campaign against her. Tantaros filed a
sexual harassment suit against Roger Ailes and Fox News in August of
2016, after filing internal complaints with the company about harassment
dating back to February of 2015. She was fired by the network in April of
2016, as Tantaros continued to press complaints against Fox News'
then-Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes, Bill O'Reilly, and others. Tantaros
had informed Fox that she would be filing a lawsuit over the alleged
sexual harassment. Tantaros claims that as early as February of 2015, a
group run out of a "black room" at Fox News engaged in surveillance and
electronic harassment of her, including the use of "sock puppet" social
media accounts to electronically stalk her. Tantaros' suit identifies
Peter Snyder and Disruptor Inc. as the operators of a social influence
operation using "sock puppet" accounts on Twitter and other social media.

Discuss this story at:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/0342209/lawsuit-fox-news-group-hacked-surveilled-and-stalked-ex-host-andrea-tantaros?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3678700-Show-Temp-16.html#document/p3/a351071
1. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/04/former-fox-news-host-claims-company-hacked-her-stalked-her-with-sock-puppets/

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| AT&T To Roll Out 5G Network That's Not Actually 5G
| from the desperate-attempt-to-seem-innovative dept.
| posted by BeauHD on Thursday April 27, @20:45 (AT&T)
| with 87 comments
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/17/04/27/224249/att-to-roll-out-5g-network-thats-not-actually-5g?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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AT&T announced plans to deliver what it's calling the "[0]5G Evolution"
network to more than 20 markets by the end of the year. While the company
is "using some wordsmithing to deliver to you faster internet speeds,"
it's important to note that this is [1]not actually a real 5G network.
Yahoo reports: 5G still has years of development and testing before it
will be rolled out across the U.S. So don't let AT&T's use of "5G" make
you think that the next-generation wireless standard has arrived. In
reality, the 5G AT&T is talking about is a bumped-up version of its 4G
LTE to help it bridge the gap until the real 5G, with its ultra-fast
speeds and better bandwidth, is rolled out. It's also important to note
that AT&T won't offer its 5G Evolution technology to all of its customers
initially. In fact, it's currently only available in Austin, TX, and the
company plans to extend it to Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and
other big markets in the coming months. If you're in a smaller metro
market, you'll be out of luck. Perhaps the biggest limitation, and the
reason few people will likely have the chance to actually use the 5G
Evolution, is that AT&T is restricting it to select devices --
specifically, the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+. While that's great if you
have one of those particular phones in one of the specific cities where
AT&T's faster service exists, it's not so great if you're using another
device.

Discuss this story at:
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/17/04/27/224249/att-to-roll-out-5g-network-thats-not-actually-5g?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://about.att.com/story/5g_evolution_to_over_20_metros_in_2017.html
1. https://www.yahoo.com/tech/t-roll-5g-network-apos-233000373.html

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| IT Leaders Will Struggle To Meet Future Demands, Study Says
| from the caution dept.
| posted by msmash on Friday April 28, @16:40 (Businesses)
| with 79 comments
| https://it.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/191250/it-leaders-will-struggle-to-meet-future-demands-study-says?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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When it comes to meeting future demands, IT leaders in the UK are lagging
behind those in Germany and the US. From a report: This is according to a
new report by Brocade, entitled Global Digital Transformation Skills
Study. The report is based on a survey of 630 IT leaders in the US, UK,
France, Germany, Australia and Singapore. It says that organizations are
"at a tipping point" -- [0]a point in time when technology demands are
just about to outstrip the skills supply. Consequently, those that train
their staff now and prepare for the future in that respect are the ones
that are setting themselves up for a successful future. Almost three
quarters (74 percent) of IT leaders in the UK see IT departments as
either "very important" or "critical" to both innovation and the growth
of their business. But the same woes reman, as almost two thirds (63
percent) think they'll struggle to find the right people in the next
year.

Discuss this story at:
https://it.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/191250/it-leaders-will-struggle-to-meet-future-demands-study-says?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. https://betanews.com/2017/04/28/it-struggle-future-demands/

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| WikiLeaks Reveals the 'Snowden Stopper': CIA Tool To Track Whistleblowers
| from the here-we-go-again dept.
| posted by BeauHD on Friday April 28, @18:40 (Privacy)
| with 58 comments
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/205215/wikileaks-reveals-the-snowden-stopper-cia-tool-to-track-whistleblowers?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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[0]schwit1 quotes a report from Zero Hedge: As the latest installment of
it's "[1]Vault 7" series, WikiLeaks has just dropped a user manual
describing a CIA project known as "Scribbles" (a.k.a. the "Snowden
Stopper"), a piece of software purportedly [2]designed to allow the
embedding of "web beacon" tags into documents "likely to be stolen." The
web beacon tags are apparently able to collect information about an end
user of a document and relay that information back to the beacon's
creator without being detected. Per [3]WikiLeaks' press release. But, the
"Scribbles" user guide notes there is just one small problem with the
program: it only works with Microsoft Office products. So, if end users
use other programs such as OpenOffice of LibreOffice then the CIA's
watermarks become visible to the end user and their cover is blown.

Discuss this story at:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/205215/wikileaks-reveals-the-snowden-stopper-cia-tool-to-track-whistleblowers?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. https://slashdot.org/~schwit1
1. https://yro.slashdot.org/story/17/03/07/1440252/wikileaks-reveals-cias-secret-hacking-tools-and-spy-operations
2. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-04-28/wikileaks-reveals-snowden-stopper-cia-tool-track-whistleblowers
3. https://wikileaks.org/vault7/#Scribbles

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| Amazon Confirms Advertising Will Become a 'Meaningful' Part of Its Business
| from the shape-of-things-to-come dept.
| posted by msmash on Friday April 28, @11:20 (Advertising)
| with 55 comments
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/1424211/amazon-confirms-advertising-will-become-a-meaningful-part-of-its-business?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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An anonymous reader shares a report: Amazon's advertising business has
loomed quietly in the digital media space for some time but the [0]online
behemoth has given the clearest indication yet that it will now come to
the fore. Advertisers and agencies have been hearing Amazon-sized
footsteps for some time but until now the business has erred away from
revealing too much. However, on its latest earnings call Amazon was asked
by one analyst as to whether advertising could become a more "meaningful
part of the business" over the near to mid-term. "It's pretty early in
the days with advertising but we're very pleased with the team we have
and the results," said Amazon's chief financial officer Brian Olsavsky in
response to another analyst query. "Our goal is to be helpful to
consumers and enhance their shopping or their viewing experience with
targeted recommendations, and we think a lot of the information we have
and preferences of customers and recommendations help us do that for
customers."

Discuss this story at:
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/1424211/amazon-confirms-advertising-will-become-a-meaningful-part-of-its-business?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.thedrum.com/news/2017/04/28/amazon-confirms-advertising-will-become-meaningful-part-its-business

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| Qualcomm Says Apple To Stop Paying Royalties
| from the on-hold dept.
| posted by msmash on Friday April 28, @13:20 (Businesses)
| with 53 comments
| https://apple.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/141223/qualcomm-says-apple-to-stop-paying-royalties?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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Apple has decided to withhold royalty payments to its contract
manufacturers that are owed to Qualcomm, until a legal dispute between
the companies is resolved, the chipmaker said on Friday. From a report:
Qualcomm, the largest maker of chips used in smartphones, [0]said it will
not receive royalties from Apple's contract manufacturers for sales made
during the quarter ended March 31. San Diego, California-based Qualcomm
also slashed its profit and revenue forecasts for the current quarter, to
account for the lost royalty revenue.

Discuss this story at:
https://apple.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/141223/qualcomm-says-apple-to-stop-paying-royalties?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-lawsuit-qualcomm-idUSKBN17U1QS

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| Nintendo Announces 2DS XL
| from the legacy-of-3ds-lives dept.
| posted by msmash on Friday April 28, @10:00 (Nintendo)
| with 52 comments
| https://games.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/1357251/nintendo-announces-2ds-xl?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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The future for Nintendo is the Switch, or is it? Nintendo continues to
keep things interesting. From a report: The ever-unpredictable hardware
veteran [0]has announced the Nintendo 2DS XL, a new version of the 2DS,
which was itself a refreshed version of the 3DS. Featuring two enlarged
displays, 4.88in on top and 4.18in on the bottom, and a clamshell design,
the new format is lighter than the 3DS XL and of course lacks that
machine's stereoscopic capabilities. Available in black and turquoise or
white and orange and with built-in NFC support for amiibo cards and
figures, it's a fully featured member of the extended 3DS family, even
boasting the secondary C-pad nub like the New 3DS XL. It is priced at
$150.

Discuss this story at:
https://games.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/1357251/nintendo-announces-2ds-xl?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/28/nintendo--2ds-xl-handheld-larger-display-clamshell-design

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| We're Getting Closer To Mass Production of Bones, Organs, and Implants
| from the getting-there dept.
| posted by msmash on Friday April 28, @14:40 (Medicine)
| with 48 comments
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/1637212/were-getting-closer-to-mass-production-of-bones-organs-and-implants?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
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Medical researchers have been able to create certain kinds of living
cells with 3D printers for more than a decade. Now a [0]few companies are
getting closer to mass production of higher-order tissues (bone,
cartilage, organs) and other individually tailored items, including
implants. From an article: Organovo has successfully transplanted human
liver tissue into mice to cure chronic liver failure. Pending the success
of human trials, possible applications include the $3 billion market for
inherited conditions such as hemophilia. [...] Aspect prints tissue cells
to create structures that resemble parts of the human body, such as an
airway or meniscus, to spur easier research on treatments for, say,
asthma or muscle tears. By taking muscle cells from a lung, for example,
the company built respiratory tissue that responded to common asthma
inhalers as a person's body should. [...] Materialise designs custom
3D-printable implants, surgical guides, and other medical devices. It's
waiting on approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for
implants designed to fuse bones.

Discuss this story at:
https://science.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/1637212/were-getting-closer-to-mass-production-of-bones-organs-and-implants?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-27/we-re-getting-closer-to-mass-production-of-bones-organs-and-implants

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| NSA Halts Collection of Americans' Emails About Foreign Targets
| from the moving-forward dept.
| posted by msmash on Friday April 28, @15:20 (Government)
| with 46 comments
| https://politics.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/1851228/nsa-halts-collection-of-americans-emails-about-foreign-targets?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The NSA is [0]stopping one of the most disputed forms of its warrantless
surveillance program ([1]alternative source), one in which it collects
Americans' emails and texts to and from people overseas and that mention
a foreigner under surveillance, NYTimes reports on Friday citing
officials familiar with the matter. From the report: National security
officials have argued that such surveillance is lawful and helpful in
identifying people who might have links to terrorism, espionage or
otherwise are targeted for intelligence-gathering. The fact that the
sender of such a message would know an email address or phone number
associated with a surveillance target is grounds for suspicion, these
officials argued. [...] The N.S.A. made the change to resolve problems it
was having complying with special rules imposed by the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Court in 2011 to protect Americans' privacy.
For technical reasons, the agency ended up collecting messages sent and
received domestically as a byproduct of such surveillance, the officials
said.

Discuss this story at:
https://politics.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/1851228/nsa-halts-collection-of-americans-emails-about-foreign-targets?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/28/us/politics/nsa-surveillance-terrorism-privacy.html
1. http://www.theverge.com/2017/4/28/15474828/nsa-surveillance-snowden-collection-email-702

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| An Open Letter on DRM To the Inventor of the Web, From the Inventor of Net Neutrality
| from the time-to-take-some-action dept.
| posted by msmash on Friday April 28, @12:40 (DRM)
| with 43 comments
| https://tech.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/1533207/an-open-letter-on-drm-to-the-inventor-of-the-web-from-the-inventor-of-net-neutrality?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tim Wu, a law professor at the Colombia University, and best known for
coining the term "net neutrality," has [0]published an open letter to Tim
Berners-Lee, the creator of the web and director of the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C). In the letter, Wu has asked Berners-Lee to "seriously
consider extending a protective covenant to legitimate circumventers who
have cause to bypass EME, should it emerge as a W3C standard." Cory
Doctorow, writes for BoingBoing: But Wu goes on to draw a connection
[1]between the problems of DRM and the problems of network discrimination:
DRM is wrapped up in a layer of legal entanglements (notably section 1201
of America's Digital Millennium Copyright Act), which allow similar kinds
of anticompetitive and ugly practices that make net neutrality so
important. This is a live issue, too, because the W3C just held the most
contentious vote in its decades-long history, on whether to publish a DRM
standard for the web without any of the proposed legal protections for
companies that create the kinds of competing products and services that
the law permits, except when DRM is involved. As Wu points out, this sets
up a situation where the incumbents get to create monopolies that produce
the same problems for the open web that network neutrality advocates --
like Berners-Lee -- worry about.

Discuss this story at:
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/1533207/an-open-letter-on-drm-to-the-inventor-of-the-web-from-the-inventor-of-net-neutrality?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://static.ow.ly/docs/EME_debate_6fMY.txt
1. http://boingboing.net/2017/04/28/two-tims.html

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| The Internet-of-Things is Maturing
| from the going-forward dept.
| posted by msmash on Friday April 28, @13:40 (Network)
| with 30 comments
| https://yro.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/1429210/the-internet-of-things-is-maturing?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An anonymous reader shares a report: The "Internet of Things" (IoT)
category is [0]starting to mature in terms of startup investments,
according to a new report from Silicon Valley venture capital firm Wing.
Like any other trendy area of tech, IoT is in the midst of its own hype
cycle, so it's important to get a more detailed picture of how the money
is flowing.

Discuss this story at:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/1429210/the-internet-of-things-is-maturing?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. https://www.axios.com/investment-in-internet-of-things-startups-starts-to-mature-2382265315.html

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Amazon's Alexa Can Now Whisper, Bleep Out Swear Words, and Change Its Pitch
| from the steady-as-we-go dept.
| posted by BeauHD on Friday April 28, @18:00 (AI)
| with 30 comments
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/2019259/amazons-alexa-can-now-whisper-bleep-out-swear-words-and-change-its-pitch?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Amazon is trying to
make its Alexa voice assistant sound more humanlike. Up until now, the
female-sounding voice maintained an even, monotone cadence whenever
speaking, but with Amazon's new [0]Speech Synthesis Markup Language that
the company introduced this week, Alexa [1]can whisper, vary its speaking
speed, and bleep out words. Developers can also add pauses, change the
pronunciation of a word, spell a word out, add audio snippets, and insert
special words and phrases into their skill. The Verge notes that "the
language markups are [only] available to developers in the U.S., U.K. and
Germany." Amazon will also be hosting a webinar on May 18th on the new
code.

Discuss this story at:
https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/2019259/amazons-alexa-can-now-whisper-bleep-out-swear-words-and-change-its-pitch?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. https://developer.amazon.com/blogs/alexa/post/5c631c3c-0d35-483f-b226-83dd98def117/new-ssml-features-give-alexa-a-wider-range-of-natural-expression
1. http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/4/28/15475070/amazon-alexa-speech-synthesis-markup-language

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| A Database of Thousands of Credit Cards Was Left Exposed on the Open Internet
| from the security-woes dept.
| posted by msmash on Friday April 28, @17:20 (Security)
| with 29 comments
| https://it.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/1741200/a-database-of-thousands-of-credit-cards-was-left-exposed-on-the-open-internet?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A US online pet store has exposed the details of more than 110,400 credit
cards used to make purchases through its website, researchers have found.
From a report on ZDNet: In a stunning show of poor security, the Austin,
TX-based [0]company FuturePets.com exposed its entire customer database,
including names, postal and email addresses, phone numbers, credit card
information, and plain-text passwords. Several customers that we reached
out to confirmed some of their information when it was provided by ZDNet,
but did not want to be named. The database was exposed because of the
company's own insecure server and use of "rsync," a common protocol used
for synchronizing copies of files between two different computers, which
wasn't protected with a username or password.

Discuss this story at:
https://it.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/1741200/a-database-of-thousands-of-credit-cards-was-left-exposed-on-the-open-internet?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.zdnet.com/article/database-of-thousands-of-credit-cards-exposed-on-open-internet/

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| DNA-Based Test Can Spot Cancer Recurrence a Year Before Conventional Scans
| from the medical-breakthrough dept.
| posted by BeauHD on Thursday April 27, @21:25 (Medicine)
| with 23 comments
| https://science.slashdot.org/story/17/04/27/2142222/dna-based-test-can-spot-cancer-recurrence-a-year-before-conventional-scans?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: A revolutionary
blood test has been [0]shown to diagnose the recurrence of cancer up to a
year in advance of conventional scans in a major lung cancer trial. The
test, known as a liquid biopsy, could buy crucial time for doctors by
indicating that cancer is growing in the body when tumors are not yet
detectable on CT scans and long before the patient becomes aware of
physical symptoms. It works by detecting free-floating mutated DNA,
released into the bloodstream by dying cancer cells. In the trial of 100
lung cancer patients, scientists saw precipitous rises in tumor DNA in
the blood of patients who would go on to relapse months, or even a year,
later. In the latest trial, [1]reported in the journal Nature, 100
patients with non-small cell lung cancer were followed from diagnosis
through surgery and chemotherapy, having blood tests every six to eight
weeks. By analyzing the patchwork of genetic faults in cells across each
tumor, scientists created personalized genomic templates for each
patient. This was then compared to the DNA floating in their blood, to
assess whether a fraction of it matched that seen in their tumor.

Discuss this story at:
https://science.slashdot.org/story/17/04/27/2142222/dna-based-test-can-spot-cancer-recurrence-a-year-before-conventional-scans?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/apr/26/dna-based-test-can-spot-cancer-recurrence-a-year-before-conventional-scans
1. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaap/ncurrent/full/nature22364.html

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| BitTorrent is Shutting Down Its Live TV Streaming Service
| from the end-is-nigh dept.
| posted by msmash on Friday April 28, @10:40 (Businesses)
| with 16 comments
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/1410211/bittorrent-is-shutting-down-its-live-tv-streaming-service?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Janko Roettgers, reporting for Variety: San Francisco-based BitTorrent
Inc. is [0]set to shut down its P2P-powered live TV streaming service
BitTorrent Live in the coming weeks, Variety has learned. Most of the
10-person team behind the live streaming service is expected to leave the
company by the end of this week. The closure of Live comes after
BitTorrent unsuccessfully tried to raise money to spin out the service
into a separate company. It's also just the latest twist in a long
corporate drama. Last year, two outside investors took control of
BitTorrent, spent millions of dollars on an expensive expansion into the
media space and promptly got themselves fired. BitTorrent has since
rehired its former COO Rogelio Choy as its new CEO, and is now looking to
focus on its core products. As part of that realignment, the company was
looking to turn Live into a separate, venture-funded entity, but raising
money for it proved challenging.

Discuss this story at:
https://news.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/1410211/bittorrent-is-shutting-down-its-live-tv-streaming-service?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://variety.com/2017/digital/news/bittorrent-live-shutting-down-1202402117/

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Apple, Tesla Ask California To Change Its Proposed Policies On Self-Driving Car Testing
| from the rules-of-the-road dept.
| posted by BeauHD on Friday April 28, @19:20 (Transportation)
| with 12 comments
| https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/2048243/apple-tesla-ask-california-to-change-its-proposed-policies-on-self-driving-car-testing?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tesla and Apple have [0]asked the state of California to change its
proposed policies on self-driving cars to allow companies to test
vehicles without traditional steering wheels and controls or human
back-up drivers, among other things. Reuters reports: In a letter made
public Friday, Apple made a series of suggested changes to the policy
that is under development and said it looks forward to working with
California and others "so that rapid technology development may be
realized while ensuring the safety of the traveling public." Waymo, the
self-driving car unit of Google parent company Alphabet Inc, Ford Motor
Co, Uber Technologies Inc, Toyota Motor Corp, Tesla Motors Inc and others
also filed comments suggesting changes. Apple said California should
revise how companies report self-driving system "disengagements."
California currently requires companies to report how many times the
self-driving system was deactivated and control handed back to humans
because of a system failure or a traffic, weather or road situation that
required human intervention. Apple said California's rules for
development vehicles used only in testing could "restrict both the design
and equipment that can be used in test vehicles." Tesla said California
should not bar testing of autonomous vehicles that are 10,000 pounds
(4,535 kg) or more. Tesla also said California should not prohibit the
sale of non-self-driving vehicles previously used for autonomous vehicle
testing.

Discuss this story at:
https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/17/04/28/2048243/apple-tesla-ask-california-to-change-its-proposed-policies-on-self-driving-car-testing?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email#commentlisting

Links:
0. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-autos-idUSKBN17U2MU

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