Day: May 25, 2019

Consumer Reports: Tesla’s New Automatic Lane-Changing Is Much Worse Than a Human Driver

“Tesla’s updated Navigate on Autopilot software now lets some drivers choose whether the car can automatically change lanes without his or her input,” writes Consumer Reports — before complaining that the feature “doesn’t work very well and could create safety risks for drivers.” An anonymous reader quotes their report: In practice, we found that the…


Why the US Air Force Is Investigating a Cyber Attack From the US Navy

“The Air Force is investigating the Navy for a cyber intrusion into its network, according to a memo obtained by Military Times.” Zorro (Slashdot reader #15,797) shares their report: The bizarre turn of events stems from a decision by a Navy prosecutor to embed hidden tracking software into emails sent to defense attorneys, including one…


Little Lamp To Learn Longer Leaps

Reinforcement learning is a subset of machine learning where the machine is scored on their performance (“evaluation function”). Over the course of a training session, behavior that improved final score is positively reinforced gradually building towards an optimal solution. [Dheera Venkatraman] thought it would be fun to use reinforcement learning for making a little robot…


Stolen NSA hacking tool now victimizing US cities, report says – CNET

The EternalBlue hacking exploit, already used in the infamous WannaCry and NotPetya attacks, has now surfaced in the NSA’s own backyard, says The New York Times. …read more Source:: CNet


Neal Stephenson Says Social Media Is Close To A ‘Doomsday Machine’

PC Magazine interviewed Neal Stephenson about his new upcoming book Fall; Or, Dodge in Hell, as well as “the digital afterlife, and why social media is a doomsday machine.” [Possible spoilers ahead]: The hybrid sci-fi/fantasy novel begins in the present day with Richard “Dodge” Forthrast, an eccentric multibillionaire who made his fortune in the video…


The best grill sales for Memorial Day 2019 – CNET

Nobody beats our meat-cooker deals. …read more Source:: CNet


The best Memorial Day mattress sales – CNET

Save, then sleep. …read more Source:: CNet


Systemd Now Has More Than 1.2 Million Lines of Code

This week Phoronix marked a very special anniversary: Five years ago today was the story on Phoronix how the systemd source tree was approaching 550k lines so curiosity got the best of me to see how large is the systemd Git repository today. Well, now it’s over 1.2 million lines. After surpassing one million lines…


Alien and I both hatched in 1979. Now I’m watching the movie, finally – CNET

Ridley Scott’s landmark monster film from 40 years ago holds up, but its ship could use a new operating system. …read more Source:: CNet


Why Are Some Wealthy Kids Getting Extra Time To Finish Their SAT Tests?

Students from wealthy high schools are more than twice as likely to qualify for extra time to finish their SAT or ACT college entrance tests than students from poor schools — and in some cases, they’re getting 50% more time. An anonymous reader quotes CBS News: About 4.2 percent of students at wealthy high schools…