US Congress Passes an IoT Security Bill ‘That Doesn’t Totally Suck’

Shotgun (Slashdot reader #30,919) shared these thoughts from The Register: Every now and again the U.S. Congress manages to do its job and yesterday was one of those days: the Senate passed a new IoT cybersecurity piece of legislation that the House also approved, and it will now move to the President’s desk. As we noted back in March when the…

Werner Herzog On Asteroids, Star Wars, and the ‘Obscenity’ of a City On Mars

78-year-old filmmaker Werner Herzog shared some interesting thoughts before the release of his new documentary on asteroids, Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds now available on Apple TV+. From Herzog’s new interview with the science site inverse: Herzog tells Inverse he’s less concerned than ever that a meteorite will destroy the Earth, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t still be worried about…

Twitter Launches Disappearing ‘Fleets’ Worldwide

Twitter said on Tuesday it was globally launching tweets that disappear after 24 hours, similar to the stories feature that is popular on Snapchat and Facebook’s photo-sharing app Instagram. Reuters reports: Twitter has previously announced its plan for these ephemeral tweets, dubbed “fleets,” and tested the feature in Brazil, Italy, India, and South Korea. “Some of you tell us that Tweeting…

Ask Slashdot: What’s the Ultimate Backup System? Cloud? Local? Sync? Dupes? Tape…?

Long-time Slashdot reader shanen noticed a strange sound in one of their old machines, prompting them to ponder: what is the ultimate backup system? I’ve researched this topic a number of times in the past and never found a good answer… I think the ultimate backup would be cloud-based, though I can imagine a local solution running on a smart storage…

Should Retraining Programs for Laid-Off Retail Workers Include Computer Programming?

Appearing on ABC, former Chicago Mayor and Obama White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel on Friday volunteered some suggestions for an economic recovery plan that America’s next president could implement. “One of the things we’ve got to do to rebuild, mainly on infrastructure,” he begins, before switching to additional ideas for also offering a more promising future to laid-off retail…

Why Do We Keep Setting Our Clocks Back an Hour?

“Its that time of year again,” writes long-time Slashdot reader rufey:
Millions of people around the world will be adjusting (or have already adjusted) their clocks… Over the years it is apparent that most people who have spoken about the twice-yearly clock change oppose it. So I ask, why are we still changing clocks in the year 2020? Long-time Slashdot reader thegreatbob…

‘No, Microsoft Won’t Rebase Windows to Linux’ Argues Canonical’s Manager for Ubuntu on WSL

Last month Eric Raymond suggested Microsoft might be moving to a Linux kernel that emulates Windows. ZDNet contributing editor Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols argued such a move “makes perfect sense”, and open source advocate Jack Wallen even suggested Microsoft abandon Windows altogether for a new distro named Microsoft Linux. It eventually drew the attention of Canonical’s engineering manager for Ubuntu on WSL,…

Cory Doctorow: Tech Workers Are Now Questioning the Powers Technology Gives

“Anyone who has ever fallen in love with technology knows the amount of control that it gives you,” says Cory Doctorow. But in a new interview about his recently-released scifi novel Attack Surface, he argues that many Silicon Valley employees are now having second thoughts: If you can express yourself well to a computer it will do exactly what you tell…

Employee Works For Both Google and Facebook From Home

Michael Arrington, who founded TechCrunch and is now a VC, shares an interesting story: A friend of a friend at Google interviewed at Facebook right as the virus hit. Accepted new job in March. Didn’t quit old job. Apparently does both jobs at home in 55 hours/week. Neither company knows yet. Might have reversed the co’s, not sure. I have so…

Crows Possess Higher Intelligence Long Thought a Primarily Human Attribute, New Research Shows

Research unveiled on Thursday in Science finds that crows know what they know and can ponder the content of their own minds, a manifestation of higher intelligence and analytical thought long believed the sole province of humans and a few other higher mammals. STAT reports: “Together, the two papers show that intelligence/consciousness are grounded in connectivity and activity patterns of neurons”…