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Intel Compute Runtime 24.13.29138.7 Brings Improved OpenCL/OpenGL Sharing  Phoronix

An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: Major cities across China are sinking, putting a substantial portion of the country's rapidly urbanizing population in harm's way in the coming decades, according to a sweeping new analysis by Chinese scientists. Subsidence is the technical term for when land sinks relative to its surroundings, and it's a major threat for cities around the world. It accelerates local sea level rise from climate change, because the land is getting lower as the ocean gets higher. Urban subsidence can also affect inland cities by damaging buildings and roads, and causing drainage issues when water is trapped in sinking areas. Out of 82 major Chinese cities, nearly half are measurably subsiding, according to the new study, which was published in the journal Science and conducted by more than 50 scientists at Chinese research institutes. The areas that are sinking are home to nearly one third of China's urban population. And the authors estimate that about a quarter of China's coastal land will be below sea level in the next hundred years, largely due to subsidence. That means tens of millions of people are already at risk, and that could grow to hundreds of millions if China's cities continue to both grow in population and subside at their current rate, and seas continue to rise. Oceans are rising steadily due to greenhouse gas emissions from burning oil, gas and coal. This is the first time scientists have used satellite data to systematically measure how much cities are sinking across China. The study measured how much cities subsided between 2015 and 2022. Similar recent studies in Europe and the United States have also found significant subsidence in some cities, but didn't show the same widespread sinking that is present across China. "The places that really have high levels of subsidence are Asia," says Nicholls, who was one of the authors of a recent study that analyzed sinking cities across the U.S. Asia is at higher risk, he says, because many Asian cities are built on river deltas that are prone to sinking when you put heavy buildings on top and pump groundwater out from below. The places that are sinking most rapidly in the U.S., such as New Orleans, share that geology.

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Setting Up A Minimal Linux Distro From Scratch…  Medium

Yaskawa MOTOMAN NEXT robots run on Wind River Linux, NVIDIA Jetson  Robot Report

Akira Ransomware Gang Extorts $42 Million; Now Targets Linux Servers  The Hacker News

schwit1 shares a report from Reuters: Chinese government-linked hackers have burrowed into U.S. critical infrastructure and are waiting "for just the right moment to deal a devastating blow," FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Thursday. An ongoing Chinese hacking campaign known as Volt Typhoon has successfully gained access to numerous American companies in telecommunications, energy, water and other critical sectors, with 23 pipeline operators targeted, Wray said in a speech at Vanderbilt University. China is developing the "ability to physically wreak havoc on our critical infrastructure at a time of its choosing," Wray said at the 2024 Vanderbilt Summit on Modern Conflict and Emerging Threats. "Its plan is to land low blows against civilian infrastructure to try to induce panic." Wray said it was difficult to determine the intent of this cyber pre-positioning which was aligned with China's broader intent to deter the U.S. from defending Taiwan. [...] Wray said China's hackers operated a series of botnets - constellations of compromised personal computers and servers around the globe - to conceal their malicious cyber activities. Private sector American technology and cybersecurity companies previously attributed Volt Typhoon to China, including reports by security researchers with Microsoft and Google. China's Embassy in Washington said in a statement: "Some in the US have been using origin-tracing of cyberattacks as a tool to hit and frame China, claiming the US to be the victim while it's the other way round, and politicizing cybersecurity issues."

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Get Dark Mode in VLC on Ubuntu and Other Linux  It's FOSS

Why financial infrastructure needs to be open-source — Hyperledger  Cointelegraph

Team Fortress 2 64bit support released, plus Vulkan for Linux via DXVK  GamingOnLinux

Longtime Slashdot reader SonicSpike shares a report from Reuters: Aerospace and defense company Northrop Grumman is working with SpaceX [...] on a classified spy satellite project already capturing high-resolution imagery of the Earth, according to people familiar with the program. The program, details of which were first reported by Reuters last month, is meant to enhance the U.S. government's ability to track military and intelligence targets from low-Earth orbits, providing high-resolution imagery of a kind that had traditionally been captured mostly by drones and reconnaissance aircraft. The inclusion of Northrop Grumman, which has not been previously reported, reflects a desire among government officials to avoid putting too much control of a highly-sensitive intelligence program in the hands of one contractor, four people familiar with the project told Reuters. 'It is in the government's interest to not be totally invested in one company run by one person,' one of the people said. It's unclear whether other contractors are involved at present or could join the project as it develops. Northrop Grumman is providing sensors for some of the SpaceX satellites, the people familiar with the project told Reuters. Northrop Grumman, two of the people added, will test those satellites at its own facilities before they are launched. At least 50 of the SpaceX satellites are expected at Northrop Grumman facilities for procedures including testing and the installation of sensors in coming years, one of the people said. In March, Reuters reported that the National Reconnaissance Office, or NRO, in 2021 awarded a $1.8 billion contract to SpaceX for the classified project, a planned network of hundreds of satellites. So far, the people familiar with the project said, SpaceX has launched roughly a dozen prototypes and is already providing test imagery to the NRO, an intelligence agency that oversees development of U.S. spy satellites.

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SoFi Invest is offering an increased ACAT transfer bonus up to $10,000 for transferring in new assets. Some of the tiers are double what they used to be, but the minimum holding period was also increased. Valid for both taxable brokerage accounts and IRAs (Traditional, Roth, or SEP).

$25 Referral bonus. As this promo includes existing accounts, you should consider grabbing this new account referral bonus first, worth $25 of stock with an initial deposit of only $10.

Get $25 worth of your favorite stock to start building your portfolio when you fund your SoFi Active Invest account** with at least $10*.

New SoFi Invest accounts (both new and existing accounts are eligible)

• $100 bonus with $5,000 to $19,999 in new assets
• $200 bonus with $20,000 to $99,999 in new assets
• $500 bonus with $100,000 to $249,999 in new assets
• $750 bonus with $250,000 to $499,999 in new assets
• $1,000 bonus with $500,000 to $999,999 in new assets
• $2,500 bonus with $1,000,000+ to $1,999,999 in new assets
• $10,000 bonus with $5,000,000+ in new assets

Assets are now required to remain in your SoFi account for 2 years. This used to be only for 180 days.

Earn a bonus (as described in the chart below) when you transfer investments from another brokerage firm into a taxable SoFi Invest Active brokerage or Active retirement account (Traditional, Roth, or SEP IRA). Bonus amounts are based on the total net dollar amount (incoming transfers less outgoing transfers) of settled transfers from another brokerage to an individual SoFi Invest account during each calendar month. Bonuses will be paid within 14 days of the last day of the month in which the transferred assets settled in your SoFi Invest account. Bonuses will be paid into the same account you transferred investments into. Transfers into multiple accounts may not be combined. Assets are required to remain in your SoFi account for 2 years. SoFi reserves the right to recoup up to the bonus amount from any withdrawals that take place prior to the 2 year period. SoFi also reserves the right to change or terminate this promotion at any time without notice. Important Tax Information: The value of the reward you receive may constitute taxable income. SoFi Securities LLC may issue a Form 1099 (or other appropriate form) to you that reflects the value of the reward. Please consult your tax advisor. SoFi Securities LLC and its affiliates and associates do not provide tax advice.

Note that SoFi Invest does NOT accept mutual funds.

We do not accept mutual funds. These funds would need to be liquidated prior to initiating an ACAT with SoFi. Please contact your brokerage firm to complete this action, prior to submitting an ACAT.

In addition, SoFi will cover the outgoing transfer fee charged by your existing broker:

If you transfer a brokerage account with total asset value over $5,000 through the ACAT system, SoFi will reimburse up to $75 of ACAT Fees from your outgoing brokerage firm.

General Transfer Tips

• Before moving, I would download all your old statements and tax cost basis information to make sure it transfers over correctly.
• An ACAT transfer can take a week or so to complete, so you won’t be able to make any sell transactions during that time.
• Consider performing a “partial” ACAT transfer where you only move over specifically designated shares (ex. only all 100 shares of BRKB) if you wish to keep some of your original brokerage account open. I would personally transfer over all shares of any specific ticker, so that the tax cost basis carries over neatly.
• Compare bonuses across different brokers. Look carefully at the tiers, there may be a sweet spot where the percentages are better.

“The editorial content here is not provided by any of the companies mentioned, and has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are the author's alone. This email may contain links through which we are compensated when you click on or are approved for offers.”

SoFi Invest ACAT Transfer Bonus Promotion: $100 to $10,000, Both New and Existing Accounts from My Money Blog.

Copyright © 2004-2022 MyMoneyBlog.com. All Rights Reserved. Do not re-syndicate without permission.

E-Trade is offering an increased transfer offer for existing E-Trade customers of up to $6,000 for transferring in new assets. This specific offer only applies to non-retirement accounts. You must enroll in the offer first after logging into your E-Trade account, fund within 60 days, and keep there for at least 6 months. These tiers are currently better than their offer for new customers.

Existing E-Trade customers (non-retirement taxable accounts only)

• $125 bonus with $5,000 to $24,999 in new assets
• $250 bonus with $25,000 to $99,999 in new assets
• $625 bonus with $100,000 to $199,999 in new assets
• $1,000 bonus with $200,000 to $499,999 in new assets
• $2,000 bonus with $500,000 to $999,999 in new assets
• $4,500 bonus with $1,000,000 to $1,999,999 in new assets
• $6,000 bonus with $2,000,000+ in new assets

These are relatively good percentages for a more established broker. (Morgan Stanley bought E*Trade in 2020, and is in the Top 10 for assets under management.) Importantly, I don’t see any minimum hold period on the offer page beyond keeping the assets there through the end of the 60-day qualification period after enrollment. (Update: The minimum hold period is 6 months, something but not too bad.)

Overall Brokerage Transfer Tips

• Many brokers will charge an “Outgoing ACAT fee” of $50 to $100 when you leave them. (Notably, Fidelity and Vanguard do not. Schwab allows free partial transfers.) I recommend contacting your destination broker and asking them to reimburse you for this fee, on top of any bonuses. If you qualify for one of these bonuses, your account is probably big enough for them to consider it. The worst they can say is no. You may have to send them a statement showing the fee.
• Before moving, I would download all your old statements and tax cost basis information to make sure it transfers over correctly.
• An ACAT transfer can take a week or so to complete, so you won’t be able to make any sell transactions during that time. As long as you do an in-kind transfer, you’ll just keep the same shares of the same securities as before.
• Consider performing a “partial” ACAT transfer where you only move over specifically designated shares (ex. only all 455 shares of BRKB) if you wish to keep some of your original brokerage account open. I would personally transfer over all shares of any specific ticker, so that the tax cost basis carries over neatly.
• Compare bonuses across different brokers. Look carefully at the tiers, there may be a sweet spot where the percentages are better.

“The editorial content here is not provided by any of the companies mentioned, and has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are the author's alone. This email may contain links through which we are compensated when you click on or are approved for offers.”

E-Trade ACAT Transfer Bonus Promotion: $125 to $6,000 for Existing Customers from My Money Blog.

Copyright © 2004-2022 MyMoneyBlog.com. All Rights Reserved. Do not re-syndicate without permission.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Business Insider: If you think you've been seeing an awful lot more Reddit results lately when you search on Google, you're not imagining things. The internet is in upheaval, and for website owners the rules of "winning" Google Search have never been murkier. Google's generative AI search engine is coming from one direction. It's creeping closer to mainstream deployment and bringing an existential crisis for SEOs and website makers everywhere. Coming from the other direction is an influx of posts from Reddit, Quora, and other internet forums that have climbed up through the traditional set of Google links. Data analysis from Semrush, which predicts traffic based on search ranking, shows that traffic to Reddit has climbed at an impressive clip since August. Semrush estimated that Reddit had over 132 million visitors in August 2023. At the time of publishing, it was projected to have over 346 million visitors in April 2024. None of this is accidental. For years, Google has been watching users tack on "Reddit" to the end of search queries and finally decided to do something about it. Google started dropping hints in 2022 when it promised to do a better job of promoting sites that weren't just chasing the top of search but were more helpful and human. Last August, Google rolled out a big update to Search that seemed to kick this into action. Reddit, Quora, and other forum sites started getting more visibility in Google, both within the traditional links and within a new "discussions and forums" section, which you may have spotted if you're US-based. The timing of this Reddit bump has led to some conspiracy theories. In February, Google and Reddit announced a blockbuster deal that would let Google train its AI models on Reddit content. Google said the deal, reportedly worth $60 million, would "facilitate more content-forward displays of Reddit information," leading to some speculation that Google promised Reddit better visibility in exchange for the valuable training data. A few weeks later, Reddit also went public. Steve Paine, marketing manager at Sistrix, called the rise of Reddit "unprecedented." "There hasn't been a website that's grown so much search visibility so quickly in the US in at least the last five years," he told Business Insider. Right now, Reddit ranks high for product searches. Reddit's main competitors are Wikipedia, YouTube, and Fandom, Paine said, and it also competes in "high-value commercial searches," putting it up against Amazon. The "real competitors," he said, are the subreddits that compete with brands on the web. A Google spokesperson told Business Insider that the company is essentially just giving users what they want: "Our research has shown that people often want to learn from others' experiences with a topic, so we've continued to make it easier to find helpful perspectives on Search when it's relevant to a query. Our systems surface content from hundreds of forums and other communities across the web, and we conduct rigorous testing to ensure results are helpful and high quality."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Linux Kernel 6.7 EOL: What Users Need to Know  Security Boulevard

Michael Larabel reports via Phoronix: With the Framework 16 laptop one of the performance pieces I've been meaning to carry out has been seeing out Linux performs against Microsoft Windows 11 for this AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS powered modular/upgradeable laptop. Recently getting around to it in my benchmarking queue, I also compared the performance of Ubuntu 23.10 to the near final Ubuntu 24.04 LTS on this laptop up against a fully-updated Microsoft Windows 11 installation. The Framework 16 review unit as a reminder was configured with the 8-core / 16-thread AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS Zen 4 SoC with Radeon RX 7700S graphics, a 512GB SN810 NVMe SSD, MediaTek MT7922 WiFi, and a 2560 x 1600 display. In the few months of testing out the Framework 16 predominantly under Linux it's been working out very well. With also having a Windows 11 partition as shipped by Framework, after updating that install it made for an interesting comparison against the Ubuntu 23.10 and Ubuntu 24.04 performance. The same Framework 16 AMD laptop was used throughout all of the testing for looking at the out-of-the-box performance across Microsoft Windows 11, Ubuntu 23.10, and the near-final state of Ubuntu 24.04. [...] Out of 101 benchmarks carried out on all three operating systems with the Framework 16 laptop, Ubuntu 24.04 was the fastest in 67% of those tests, the prior Ubuntu 23.10 led in 22% (typically with slim margins to 24.04), and then Microsoft Windows 11 was the front-runner just 10% of the time... If taking the geomean of all 101 benchmark results, Ubuntu 23.10 was 16% faster than Microsoft Windows 11 while Ubuntu 24.04 enhanced the Ubuntu Linux performance by 3% to yield a 20% advantage over Windows 11 on this AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS laptop. Ubuntu 24.04 is looking very good in the performance department and will see its stable release next week.

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Netflix on Thursday reported a 16% rise in memberships in the first quarter, reaching 269.6 million, beating Wall Street expectations. Starting next year, the company will no longer provide quarterly membership numbers or average revenue per user starting next year. CNBC reports: "As we've noted in previous letters, we're focused on revenue and operating margin as our primary financial metrics -- and engagement (i.e. time spent) as our best proxy for customer satisfaction," the company said in its quarterly letter to shareholders. "In our early days, when we had little revenue or profit, membership growth was a strong indicator of our future potential." Netflix said now that it is generating substantial profit and free cash flow -- as well as developing new revenue streams like advertising and a password-sharing crackdown -- its membership numbers are not the only factor in the company's growth. It said the metric lost significance after it started to offer multiple price points for memberships. The company said it would still announce "major subscriber milestones as we cross them." Netflix also noted that it expects paid net additions to be lower in the second quarter compared to the first quarter "due to typical seasonality." Its second-quarter revenue forecast of $9.49 billion was just shy of Wall Street's estimate of $9.54 billion Shares of the company fell around 4% in extended trading. Netflix reported first-quarter net income of $2.33 billion, or $5.28 per share, versus $1.30 billion, or $2.88 per share, in the prior-year period. The company posted revenue of $9.37 billion for the quarter, up from $8.16 billion in the year-ago quarter.

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U.S. telecom provider Frontier Communications shut down its systems after a cybercrime group breached some of its IT systems in a recent cyberattack. BleepingComputer reports: Frontier is a leading U.S. communications provider that provides gigabit Internet speeds over a fiber-optic network to millions of consumers and businesses across 25 states. After discovering the incident, the company was forced to partially shut down some systems to prevent the threat actors from laterally moving through the network, which also led to some operational disruptions. Despite this, Frontier says the attackers could access some PII data, although it didn't disclose if it belonged to customers, employees, or both. "On April 14, 2024, Frontier Communications Parent, Inc. [..] detected that a third party had gained unauthorized access to portions of its information technology environment," the company revealed in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. "Based on the Company's investigation, it has determined that the third party was likely a cybercrime group, which gained access to, among other information, personally identifiable information." Frontier now believes that it has contained the breach, has since restored its core IT systems affected during the incident, and is working on restoring normal business operations.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The US Constitution's Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination does not prohibit police officers from forcing a suspect to unlock a phone with a thumbprint scan, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday. The ruling does not apply to all cases in which biometrics are used to unlock an electronic device but is a significant decision in an unsettled area of the law. The US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit had to grapple with the question of "whether the compelled use of Payne's thumb to unlock his phone was testimonial," the ruling (PDF) in United States v. Jeremy Travis Payne said. "To date, neither the Supreme Court nor any of our sister circuits have addressed whether the compelled use of a biometric to unlock an electronic device is testimonial." A three-judge panel at the 9th Circuit ruled unanimously against Payne, affirming a US District Court's denial of Payne's motion to suppress evidence. Payne was a California parolee who was arrested by California Highway Patrol (CHP) after a 2021 traffic stop and charged with possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, fluorofentanyl, and cocaine. There was a dispute in District Court over whether a CHP officer "forcibly used Payne's thumb to unlock the phone." But for the purposes of Payne's appeal, the government "accepted the defendant's version of the facts, i.e., 'that defendant's thumbprint was compelled.'" Payne's Fifth Amendment claim "rests entirely on whether the use of his thumb implicitly related certain facts to officers such that he can avail himself of the privilege against self-incrimination," the ruling said. Judges rejected his claim, holding "that the compelled use of Payne's thumb to unlock his phone (which he had already identified for the officers) required no cognitive exertion, placing it firmly in the same category as a blood draw or fingerprint taken at booking." "When Officer Coddington used Payne's thumb to unlock his phone -- which he could have accomplished even if Payne had been unconscious -- he did not intrude on the contents of Payne's mind," the court also said.

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A software glitch in the "ticket in, cash out" (TICO) machines at Star Casino in Sydney, Australia, saw it inadvertently give away $2.05 million over several weeks. This glitch allowed gamblers to reuse a receipt for slot machine winnings, leading to unwarranted cash payouts which went undetected due to systematic failures in oversight and audit processes. The Register reports: News of the giveaway emerged on Monday at an independent inquiry into the casino, which has had years of compliance troubles that led to a finding that its operators were unsuitable to hold a license. In testimony [PDF] given on Monday to the inquiry, casino manager Nicholas Weeks explained that it is possible to insert two receipts into TICO machines. That was a feature, not a bug, and allowed gamblers to redeem two receipts and be paid the aggregate amount. But a software glitch meant that the machines would return one of those tickets and allow it to be re-used -- the barcode it bore was not recognized as having been paid. "What occurred was small additional amounts of cash were being provided to customers in circumstances when they shouldn't have received it because of that defect," Weeks told the inquiry. Local media reported that news of the free cash got around and 43 people used the TICO machines to withdraw money to which they were not entitled -- at least one of them a recovering gambling addict who fell off the wagon as the "free" money allowed them to fund their activities. Known abusers of the TICO machines have been charged, and one of those set to face the courts is accused of association with a criminal group. (The first inquiry into The Star, two years ago, found it may have been targeted by organized crime groups.)

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WhatsApp users in the U.S. will soon see support for real-time AI image generation. The Verge reports: As soon as you start typing a text-to-image prompt in a chat with Meta AI, you'll see how the image changes as you add more detail about what you want to create. In the example shared by Meta, a user types in the prompt, "Imagine a soccer game on mars." The generated image quickly changes from a typical soccer player to showing an entire soccer field on a Martian landscape. If you have access to the beta, you can try out the feature for yourself by opening a chat with Meta AI and then start a prompt with the word "Imagine." Additionally, Meta says its Meta Llama 3 model can now produce "sharper and higher quality" images and is better at showing text. You can also ask Meta AI to animate any images you provide, allowing you to turn them into a GIF to share with friends. Along with availability on WhatsApp, real-time image generation is also available to US users through Meta AI for the web. Further reading: Meta Releases Llama 3 AI Models, Claiming Top Performance

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