Wasmer 1.0 Can Run WebAssembly ‘Universal Binaries’ on Linux, MacOS, Windows, Android, and iOS

The WebAssembly portable binary format will now have wider support from Wasmer, the server-side runtime which “allows universal binaries compiled from C++, Rust, Go, Python, and other languages to run on different operating systems and in web browsers without modification,” reports InfoWorld: Wasmer can run lightweight containers based on WebAssembly on a variety of platforms — Linux, MacOS, Windows, Android, iOS…

How will the U.S. space program fare under Joe Biden?

Joe Biden is the United States presidential election winner, but his plans for NASA remain unclear. And while citizens digest the election results, the space industry is left wondering what comes next. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/how-will-the-u-s-space-program-fare-under-joe-biden…

Can Chatbots Simulate Conversations with Dead People?

The author of the book Online Afterlives describes the unusual projects of people like Eugenia Kuyda, co-founder of Luka, an AI-powered chat simulator that books restaurant reservations and makes recommendations. Kuyda worked with computer scientists to convert several thousand text messages between deceased tech entrepreneur Roman Mazurenko and his friends and relatives into a chatbot simulation: “How are you there?” asks…

New XPrize Challenge: Predicting Covid-19’s Spread and Prescribing Interventions

Slashdot reader the_newsbeagle shares an article from IEEE Spectrum:
Many associate XPrize with a $10-million award offered in 1996 to motivate a breakthrough in private space flight. But the organization has since held other competitions related to exploration, ecology, and education. And in November, they launched the Pandemic Response Challenge, which will culminate in a $500,000 award to be split between two…

Apple’s Self-Driving Electric Car Is At Least Half a Decade Away

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Apple will take at least half a decade to launch an autonomous, electric vehicle because development work is still at an early stage, according to people with knowledge of the efforts. The Cupertino, California-based technology giant has a small team of hardware engineers developing drive systems, vehicle interior and external car body designs…

Hackers Target Cryptocurrency Users With New ElectroRAT Malware

An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: Security firm Intezer Labs said it discovered a covert year-long malware operation where cybercriminals created fake cryptocurrency apps in order to trick users into installing a new strain of malware on their systems, with the obvious end goal of stealing victims’ funds. The campaign was discovered last month in December 2020, but researchers…

Microsoft is Building a New Outlook App for Windows and Mac Powered by the Web

Microsoft is building a universal Outlook client for Windows and Mac that will also replace the default Mail & Calendar apps on Windows 10 when ready. This new client is codenamed Monarch and is based on the already available Outlook Web app available in a browser today. From a report: Project Monarch is the end-goal for Microsoft’s “One Outlook” vision, which…

A Four-Day Work Week Would Be Affordable For Most UK Firms, Says Think Tank

“A carefully designed four-day week could be introduced in the UK immediately and be affordable for most firms with more than 50 workers, a think tank has said,” reports the Guardian, citing new research from a not-for-profit think tank: A report by Autonomy – which is campaigning for a shorter working week without loss of pay – said the majority of…

Massachusetts To Ban Sale of New Gas-Powered Cars by 2035

While EVs are still in the single-digit area of overall vehicle sales, they continue to climb and have already surpassed the sales of vehicles with manual transmissions. Now it seems that the electrification investments made by automakers are getting a boost from another part of the country. From a report: Massachusetts is joining California with a plan to ban the sale…

Amazon To Expand Its Childhood-To-Career CS Program To India Later This Year

theodp writes: According to an Amazon job listing for a contract position, the e-tailer is seeking a lead for a new Amazon Future Engineer program in India that’s set to launch in 2021. “The initial research for Amazon Future Engineer in India,” Amazon explains, “is currently underway and we look to the chosen candidate to dive deep into operationalizing the program…