Technology

Elon Musk Bans People Who Impersonate Him on Twitter
News, Technology

Elon Musk Bans People Who Impersonate Him on Twitter

Pretending to be someone else without clearly stating it is a parody is no longer possible on Twitter. That has the new boss Elon Musk announced. Such parody accounts will be permanently suspended. The announcement came after several users impersonated Musk himself. Elon Musk goes through Twitter with a coarse brush. After a major layoff, he is now also fighting people who imitate him on Twitter. "In the future, all Twitter addresses that engage in impersonation without clearly identifying 'parody' will be permanently suspended. Previously, we issued a warning before suspending, but now that we are introducing widespread verification, there will be no more warning," the new Twitter boss tweeted Monday night. And he immediately turned that measure into reality. American actress...
Dropbox Code Partially Stolen
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Dropbox Code Partially Stolen

Part of the Dropbox code was stolen in a phishing attack. The company itself has announced this. Online vault service Dropbox says attackers have accessed and copied some 130 of the company's private repositories at Github. As a result, the source code and some of Dropbox's API data were stolen. However, customer data, passwords and payment information would not have been stolen. "We believe the risk to customers is minimal," Dropbox said in a statement. The leak was discovered on October 13 when Github noticed suspicious behaviour with Dropbox's corporate account. After an investigation, Dropbox now says it has been the victim of a phishing attack. The attackers created a fake login page for the coding platform CircleCl. Dropbox employees use the same login in Github as they do ...
US Federal Investigation into Tesla Autopilot Claims
News, Technology, US

US Federal Investigation into Tesla Autopilot Claims

The US Justice Department wants to find out whether Tesla misled its customers with claims about the self-driving capabilities of its cars. The research focuses on the Autopilot software. The Department of Justice started an investigation into Tesla's driver guidance software as early as 2021, the Reuters news agency reported. The so-called Autopilot is sold as 'fully self-driving' in the United States. According to CEO Elon Musk, the software makes Tesla the safest car on the market. However, US regulators do not fully agree. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), among others, has already contradicted the claims. And now, the Ministry of Justice is also going into more detail. According to Reuters, the government wants to determine whether Tesla has misled ...
Taiwanese Chip Maker TSMC Wants to Expand in Japan
Business, Japan, News, Technology

Taiwanese Chip Maker TSMC Wants to Expand in Japan

The Taiwanese chip manufacturer TSMC wants to expand in Japan. With this, the company wants to reduce geopolitical risks in the chip sector, the American business newspaper Wall Street Journal writes based on insiders. Taiwan is de facto independent but is seen by China as a renegade province. In recent years, the Asian superpower has made it increasingly clear that Taiwan must become part of “the motherland” again. Recently, China held a major military exercise around Taiwan. That happened after a visit by American politician Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan. TSMC makes the majority of the chips and does this on behalf of tech companies. The company is already building a factory in Japan and is considering more factories. TSMC is also working on a plant in the US state of Arizona.
SWIFT Further Expands Digital Coin Experiment
Business, News, Technology

SWIFT Further Expands Digital Coin Experiment

After eight months of experimentation, SWIFT presents its plans for its digital coin network. The intention is to require more efficient and fewer connections between banks in the future. SWIFT is the messaging system between banks for, among other things, money transfers between players. For the past eight months, it has been experimenting with different technologies and currencies with the central banks of France and Germany and some major financial players. Naturally, this concerns CBDCs, central bank digital currency. According to Reuters, that first test will continue with more advanced testing in the coming year. The setup is partly similar to how cryptocurrencies work, with different parties connecting to a central hub. Today this happens among financial institutions with ...
US Research: Bitcoin is Not Getting Greener, on the Contrary
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US Research: Bitcoin is Not Getting Greener, on the Contrary

Bitcoin is sometimes called the new digital gold, but digital oil would be a better term to describe its environmental impact, according to a study in Scientific Reports. According to that research, Bitcoin's ecological footprint has increased significantly since 2016. Unfortunately, the coin sometimes creates more damage than it is worth. Bitcoin's climate damage averaged 35 percent of its market value between 2016 and 2021. That is a lot more than that of gold (4 percent). On the other hand, it is closer to that of gasoline from oil (41 percent), electricity from natural gas (46 percent) or beef (33 percent). The damage to the environment and climate is so great that it sometimes exceeds the currency's value. "We find several cases between 2016-2021 where Bitcoin is more dam...
Apple is Already Releasing a New Safari on the Eve of macOS Ventura
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Apple is Already Releasing a New Safari on the Eve of macOS Ventura

One of the novelties in Apple's next operating system is macOS 13 Ventura, which will be released in October, which is the sixteenth version of Safari. However, that brand new browser has been available to download separately since Tuesday and offers a few useful new features. Tab groups allow Mac users to organize their favourite tabs in an organized manner. You can then quickly reaccess them via the sidebar of Safari, which has been redesigned in version 16. What's especially new, however, is that you can create tab group homepages, each with its own background photo and favourites. Soon you will also be able to share the groups (via the Messages app) with other macOS Ventura users or iPhone owners who have upgraded to iOS 16. Handy if you want to plan your next holiday toge...
Top Man of VR Project Horizon Resigns from Meta
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Top Man of VR Project Horizon Resigns from Meta

Vivek Sharma, the vice president of VR platform Horizon, is stepping down from Meta. Horizon is one of the spearheads of the metaverse that the company is building above Facebook. Vivek Sharma spent six years at Facebook's parent company, previously responsible for Marketplace and the Gaming business unit, among other things. As vice president, he expanded Horizon: the VR business unit that has shaped the emerging metaverse. Horizon Worlds is one of the VR projects he watched: a project that is very reminiscent of the ancient online game Second Life, but with an extra layer of virtual reality. But Vivek Sharma is equally responsible for Horizon Workrooms and Venues: the apps for collaborating and meeting in a VR environment or going to live events virtually. It is unknown why ...
Google Classifies Innocent Photo of Naked Child as Child Porn and Closes Account
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Google Classifies Innocent Photo of Naked Child as Child Porn and Closes Account

A man was kicked out of his Google account and received a visit from the police for sending a photo of his child's genitals to his doctor. The story sounds like a privacy nightmare. The toddler in question had swelling around his crotch. In preparation for a video consultation, he sent pictures of the condition to the doctor at the request of medical personnel. The facts date from February 2021, when many doctors' practices in the US were not easily accessible due to corona. The condition was treated with antibiotics. However, two days later, the man notified Google that his accounts were being blocked for harmful content, violating Google's policy, and may have committed illegal acts. As a result, the man no longer had access to emails, contacts, or online photos, and even hi...
Apple Employees have to Go Back to the Office 3 Days a Week
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Apple Employees have to Go Back to the Office 3 Days a Week

Apple wants its employees to be back in the office at least three days a week from September 5. It's not the first time Apple has tried to get people back to the office. However, several lockdowns over the past two years have slowed down previous efforts. In practice, Apple will require employees to work from the office on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and a third day determined by individual teams. That's an adjustment to the original plan, which required office work on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. Apple first announced its three-day office work policy in June 2021. Since then, however, there have been several new Covid peaks worldwide, with the result that Apple limited its policy to two office working days per week. The new policy will go into effect for Apple locations in Silicon...