An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: In a newly published paper titled "Achieving Human Level Competitive Robot Table Tennis," Google's DeepMind Robotics team is showcasing its own work on the game. The researchers have effectively developed a "solidly amateur human-level player" when pitted against a human component. During testing, the table tennis bot was able to beat all of the beginner-level players it faced. With intermediate players, the robot won 55% of matches. It's not ready to take on pros, however. The robot lost every time it faced an advanced player. All told, the system won 45% of the 29 games it played. "This is the first robot agent capable of playing a sport with humans at human level and represents a milestone in robot learning and control," the paper claims. "However, it is also only a small step towards a long-standing goal in robotics of achieving human level performance on many useful real world skills. A lot of work remains in order to consistently achieve human-level performance on single tasks, and then beyond, in building generalist robots that are capable of performing many useful tasks, skillfully and safely interacting with humans in the real world." The robot's biggest trouble areas are responding to fast balls, high and low balls. It also has trouble with backhand and the ability to read the spin on an incoming ball. Here's how the researchers plan to address the issue with fast balls: "To address the latency constraints that hinder the robot's reaction time to fast balls, we propose investigating advanced control algorithms and hardware optimizations. These could include exploring predictive models to anticipate ball trajectories or implementing faster communication protocols between the robot's sensors and actuators."

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Apple on Thursday announced changes to its Digital Markets Act (DMA) compliance plan for the European Union, as the tech giant faces an ongoing investigation by the European Commission for suspected non-compliance. The revised rules, set to roll out this fall, ease restrictions on developers' ability to promote external offers within iOS apps. Developers can now inform users about offers available beyond their own websites, including on other apps and marketplaces, without adhering to Apple-mandated templates. Apple has also introduced a new fee structure for purchases made through external links. An "Initial Acquisition Fee" of 5% will apply to new users' first-year purchases, while a "Store Services Fee" of 10% (or 5% for smaller developers) will be charged on subsequent transactions. These changes replace the controversial Core Technology Fee, which is currently under EU scrutiny. Spotify and Epic aren't satisfied with the changes. Spotify has called the new plan "unacceptable," arguing it disregards DMA requirements. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney labeled it "malicious compliance" involving "junk fees."

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China's rapid deployment of robotaxis is raising concerns among the country's 7 million ride-hailing drivers, who fear job losses as autonomous vehicles hit the streets, according to a Reuters report. At least 19 Chinese cities are conducting robotaxi trials, with seven approving tests without human monitors. Baidu's Apollo Go plans to deploy 1,000 vehicles in Wuhan by year-end and operate in 100 cities by 2030. The push for self-driving technology aligns with President Xi Jinping's call for "new productive forces," but contrasts sharply with the more cautious approach in the United States. As robotaxi fleets proliferate, some drivers worry about their livelihoods, with one Wuhan driver predicting "everyone will go hungry."

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Another study is raising concern about the safety of the widely used sugar alcohol sweetener erythritol, a low-calorie sugar substitute found in "keto-friendly" foods, baked goods and candies. From a report: Researchers from the Cleveland Clinic compared erythritol to typical sugar and found only erythritol caused worrisome cardiovascular effects. Although the study was small, it's the first head-to-head look at people's blood levels after they consume products with erythritol or sugar (glucose). "We compared the results, and glucose caused none of the problems," said Dr. Stanley Hazen, a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic and the lead author of the study, published Thursday morning in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. Erythritol is one ingredient on a growing list of nonsugar sweeteners found in low-calorie and sugar-free foods. Erythritol and xylitol are sugar alcohols that are sweet like sugar but with far fewer calories. Erythritol is often mixed with another sweetener, stevia, and xylitol is often found in gum, mouthwash and toothpaste. Earlier studies from Hazen's lab -- one published last year and the other in June -- found potential links between the sugar alcohols and an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes. The research suggested both sugar alcohols might make blood platelets stickier and therefore more susceptible to clotting and blocking veins or arteries, in turn contributing to heart attacks and strokes. For the new research, Hazen's team analyzed the heart effects of erythritol and regular sugar -- in this case, simple glucose -- by enrolling two groups of healthy middle-aged male and female volunteers: 10 who consumed the erythritol and 10 who consumed sugar.

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Privacy removal services fail to effectively scrub personal data from people-search websites, a Consumer Reports (CR) study [PDF] revealed Thursday. The four-month investigation found these services eliminated only 35% of volunteers' identifying information profiles across 13 people-search sites. Manual opt-outs proved most effective, removing 70% of profiles within a week.

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ICON, a construction technology company, is nearing completion of 100 3D-printed homes in Wolf Ranch, Texas, using a massive robotic printer. The 45-foot-wide, 4.75-ton Vulcan printer began constructing the walls of what ICON claims is the world's largest 3D-printed community in November 2022. The printer extrudes a concrete mixture layer by layer, creating corduroy-textured walls. ICON senior project manager Conner Jenkins told Reuters the process is faster and more efficient than traditional construction, requiring fewer workers and reducing material waste. The single-story homes, priced between $450,000 and $600,000, feature concrete walls resistant to water, mold, termites, and extreme weather. However, homeowners reported weak wireless signals due to the thick walls, necessitating mesh internet routers. ICON, which printed its first home in Austin in 2018, is also developing lunar construction systems for NASA's Artemis program.

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Apple is set to implement stricter controls on screen recording permissions in its upcoming macOS Sequoia release this fall. Users will be required to grant explicit permission weekly and after each reboot for apps needing screen access, 9to5Mac reports. From the report: Multiple developers who spoke to 9to5Mac say that they've received confirmation from Apple that this is not a bug. Instead, Apple is indeed adding a new system prompt reminding users when an app has permission to access their computer's screen and audio.

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Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar has called for faster defense spending, arguing the Pentagon should focus on rapid deployment over higher budgets. "The biggest challenge is speed," Sankar told Axios in an interview. "The Department of Defense would be better off spending half as much money twice as quickly." The U.S. military has "lost our ability to value time," he said. The Denver-based software company, known for its work in areas ranging from vaccine logistics to Ukraine demining efforts, has positioned itself as a "software prime" in the defense sector.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: I'm not sure I knew of anyone, Borderlands fan or not, who believed that the movie adaptation of the game was going to be good, based on everything from casting to trailers. Now as reviews come in ahead of its release tomorrow, those fears have been validated. And then some. As I write this, the Borderlands movie has a flat 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. No positive reviews whatsoever, and the ones that are in are not just negative, but brutal.

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Nasdaq is taking steps to purge itself of dubious companies whose shares trade below $1 each, following criticism that the exchange has become home to hundreds of risky penny stocks. From a report: [...] When a stock closes below $1 for 30 consecutive trading days, Nasdaq deems the company to be noncompliant and gives it 180 days to remedy the situation. After 180 days, if the stock hasn't climbed above $1, the company can request another 180-day grace period. At the end of that second period, the company can still get a last-minute reprieve by appealing to a Nasdaq hearings panel. The delisting is stayed while the company awaits its hearing. Some say those rules are lax, leading to a pileup of penny stocks on Nasdaq. On Wednesday, there were 523 stocks listed on U.S. exchanges that closed below $1 per share, of which 433 were listed on Nasdaq, according to Dow Jones Market Data. By comparison, there were fewer than a dozen sub-$1 stocks in early 2021. The two proposed rule changes unveiled by Nasdaq on Thursday would tighten up some of the rules regarding sub-$1 stocks, though they don't go as far as Virtu has demanded. Under one of the proposed changes, companies that reach the end of their second 180-day grace period wouldn't be able to postpone delisting by seeking an appeal. Instead, their shares would move to the over-the-counter market -- a sort of purgatory where companies land after being delisted -- while they await the appeal. Effectively, the rule change caps the amount of time that sub-$1 stocks can be listed on Nasdaq to roughly a year. The second proposed rule change would speed up the delisting process for companies that recently did a reverse stock split. Under the change, if a company carried out a reverse split to prop up its share price, but then its stock fell below $1 within a year, Nasdaq would immediately send the company a delisting notice. The company could still appeal and remain listed for another 180 days.

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ADT confirmed this week that it was recently hacked, compromising some customer data. From a report: The home security company did not say when the cyberattack and data breach occurred, but disclosed that the attackers accessed the company's databases containing customer home addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers. In a brief regulatory filing published late Wednesday, ADT said it has "no reason to believe" that customer home security systems were compromised during the incident, but ADT did not say how it reached that conclusion. The statement said a "small percentage" of customers are affected, but did not provide a more specific number. As of June 2024, ADT said it had six million customers.

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The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has agreed to reserve the .internal top-level domain so it can become the equivalent to using the 10.0.0.0, 172.16.0.0 and 192.168.0.0 IPv4 address blocks for internal networks. From a report: Those blocks are reserved for private use by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, which requires they never appear on the public internet. As The Register reported when we spotted the proposal last January, ICANN wanted something similar but for DNS, by defining a top-level domain that would never be delegated in the global domain name system (DNS) root. Doing so would mean the TLD could never be accessed on the open internet -- achieving the org's goal of delivering a domain that could be used for internal networks without fear of conflict or confusion. ICANN suggested such a domain could be useful, because some orgs had already started making up and using their own domain names for private internal use only. Networking equipment vendor D-Link, for example, made the web interface for its products available on internal networks at .dlink. ICANN didn't like that because the org thought ad hoc TLD creation could see netizens assume the TLDs had wider use -- creating traffic that busy DNS servers would have to handle. Picking a string dedicated to internal networks was the alternative. After years of consultation about whether it was a good idea -- and which string should be selected -- ICANN last week decided on .internal. Any future applications to register it as a global TLD won't be allowed.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: In Brazil, there was a [...] unbelievable display of public piracy last week that went on to make national headlines. The mayor of the municipality Acopiara, in the north-east of the country, invited citizens of the small town Trussu to join a screening of the blockbuster "Inside Out 2" at the local town square. With little more than a thousand inhabitants, many of whom have limited means, this appeared to be a kind gesture. The mayor, Anthony Almeida Neto, could use some positive marks too; he was removed from office three times on suspicion of being involved in corruption schemes, and was most recently reinstated in March. The mayor officially announced the public screening of 'Inside Out 2' via Instagram and Facebook, inviting people to join him. That worked well as a sizable crowd showed up, allowing the controversial mayor to proudly boast the event's popularity in public through his social media channels. Taking place in an outside theater created just for this occasion, the screening was a unique opportunity for the small town's residents. There are no official movie theaters nearby, so locals would normally have to travel for several hours to see a film that's still in cinemas. Thanks to the mayor, people could see 'Inside Out 2' in their hometown instead. The mayor was pleased with the turnout too and proudly broadcasted it through a livestream on Instagram. Amidst all this joy, however, people started to notice a watermark on the film that was clearly associated with piracy. In addition, it was apparent that the copy had been sourced from pirate streaming site, Obaflix. All signs indicate that the public event wasn't authorized or licensed. Instead, it appeared to be an improvised screening of a low-quality TS release of the film, which is widely available through pirate sites. When this 'revelation' was picked up in the Brazilian press, mayor Anthony Almeida was quick to respond with assurances that he only had honest intentions.

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Nikhilesh De writes via CoinDesk: A federal judge ordered Ripple to pay $125 million in civil penalties and imposed an injunction against future securities law violations on Wednesday. District Judge Analisa Torres, of the Southern District of New York, imposed the fine (PDF) after finding that 1,278 institutional sale transactions by Ripple violated securities law, leading to the fine. The $125.035 million fine is well below the $1 billion in disgorgement and prejudgment interest and $900 million in civil penalties the SEC sought. Wednesday's order on remedies follows the judge's July 2023 ruling in the case itself, finding that Ripple violated federal securities laws through its direct sale of XRP to institutional clients, though she also ruled that Ripple's programmatic sales of XRP to retail clients through exchanges did not violate any securities laws. The SEC tried unsuccessfully to appeal that portion of the ruling while the case was ongoing.

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The founder of Cambridge-based Riverlane, Steve Brierley, predicts quantum computing will have its "Sputnik" breakthrough within years. "Quantum computing is not going to be just slightly better than the previous computer, it's going to be a huge step forward," he said. Phys.org reports: His company produces the world's first dedicated quantum decoder chip, which detects and corrects the errors currently holding the technology back. In a sign of confidence in Riverlane's work and the sector in general, the company announced on Tuesday that it had raised $75 million in Series C funding, typically the last round of venture capital financing prior to an initial public offering. "Over the next two to three years, we'll be able to get to systems that can support a million error-free operations," said Earl Campbell, vice president of quantum science at Riverlane. This is the threshold where a quantum computer should be able to perform certain tasks better than conventional computers, he added. Quantum computers are "really good at simulating other quantum systems", explained Brierley, meaning they can simulate interactions between particles, atoms and molecules. This could open the door to revolutionary medicines and also promises huge efficiency improvements in how fertilizers are made, transforming an industry that today produces around two percent of global CO2 emissions. It also paves the way for much more efficient batteries, another crucial weapon in the fight against climate change. "I think most people are more familiar with exponential after COVID, so we know how quickly something that's exponential can spread," said Campbell, inside Riverlane's testing lab, a den of oscilloscopes and chipboards. [...] While today's quantum computers can only perform around 1,000 operations before being overwhelmed by errors, the quality of the actual components has "got to the point where the physical qubits are good enough," said Brierley. "So this is a super exciting time. The challenge now is to scale up... and to add error correction into the systems," he added. Such progress, along with quantum computing's potential to crack all existing cryptography and create potent new materials, is spurring regulators into action. "There's definitely a scrambling to understand what's coming next in technology. It's really important that we learn the lessons from AI, to not be surprised by the technology and think early about what those implications are going to be," said Brierley. "I think there will ultimately be regulation around quantum computing, because it's such an important technology. And I think this is a technology where no government wants to come second."

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There's nothing inherently wrong with the ternary operator. It's just the kind of thing that gets abused.

Now, we all know how it should be used. We frequently would write something like this:

let val = arr.length>0?arr[0].id:0;

If the array contains elements, grab the first one, otherwise use a reasonable default. It's not my favorite convention, but it's fine. Nothing worth complaining about.

Lahar Shah's co-worker has a different approach to this.

// Set value for tempVariable arr.length > 0 ? tempVariable = arr[0].id : tempVariable = null;

It's amazing how converting a ternary from an expression which evaluates to a value into a statement which changes program state makes it feel so much grosser. There's nothing technically wrong with this, but it makes me want to set the code on fire and dance naked around the flames.

This, of course, wasn't a one-off use of the ternary operator. This was how the developer used the ternary, forever and always.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report originally published by Business Insider: A Chinese state-backed company has launched its first 18 satellites in its bid to build a vast orbital network aimed at rivaling Starlink, according to local media. The launch on Monday by Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology involved 18 satellites and one rocket, per The China Securities Journal, which is run by state news agency Xinhua. According to the outlet, the rocket lifted off from the Taiyuan satellite and missile launch center in Shanxi province. These satellites mark the first step in the company's effort to create a 15,000-strong network of Low Earth Orbit satellites, which the firm has dubbed the "Thousand Sails Constellation." The company said it plans to reach that final tally by 2030, per The China Securities Journal. Domestic media has widely called the project the Chinese version of Starlink, which runs about 6,000 satellites. Elon Musk has said that he plans to eventually host a network of 42,000 satellites. The Thousand Sails Constellation, also known as the G60 project, is one of three planned major satellite networks in the country. Each is expected to field 10,000 or more satellites. Most are anticipated to orbit between 200 and 1,200 miles above the Earth's surface, which is also where Starlink satellites are generally found. The three constellations, along with dozens of ambitious space projects from other Chinese firms, have been fueled by a recent push from the central government to loop the private sector into its science and technology goals.

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"The Royal Mint, which has produced coins since the 9th Century, has begun to recover gold from electronic waste as the use of cash has declined and fewer new coins are needed," writes Slashdot reader newcastlejon. "In 2022, construction began on a new site in Llantrisant, Wales. This facility will now be used to initially produce gold for jewelry and later for commemorative coins." The BBC reports: At the Royal Mint plant, piles of circuit boards are being fed into the new facility. First, they are heated to remove their various components. Then the array of detached coils, capacitors, pins and transistors are sieved, sorted, sliced and diced as they move along a conveyor belt. Anything with gold in it is set aside. The gold-laden pieces go to an on-site chemical plant. They're tipped into a chemical solution which leaches the gold out into the liquid. This is then filtered, leaving a powder behind. It looks pretty nondescript but this is actually pure gold -- it just needs to be heated in a furnace to be transformed into a gleaming nugget. "Traditional gold recovery processes are very energy intensive and use very toxic chemicals that can only be used once, or they go to high energy smelters and they're basically burnt," says Leighton John, the Royal Mint's operations director. "The groundbreaking thing for us is the fact that this chemistry is used at room temperature, at very low energy, it's recyclable and pulls gold really quickly." "Our aim is to process over 4,000 tonnes of e-waste annually," says Leighton John. "Traditionally this waste is shipped overseas but we're keeping it in the UK and we're keeping those elements in the UK for us to use. It's really important." The report notes that the UK is the second biggest producer of tech trash per capita, beaten only by Norway. According to the UN, e-waste is a rapidly growing problem, with 62 million tons discarded in 2022. That's expected to increase by a third by 2030.

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Sony's Crunchyroll streaming service dedicated to anime has passed 15 million monthly paid subscribers. "Today marks an exciting milestone not only for Crunchyroll, but for the entire anime industry," Rahul Purini, president of Crunchyroll, said in a press release. "It is proof that the rich stories, characters and experiences that our partners create are resonating deeply with fans at record numbers all over the world. As the number of people excited about anime continues to explode and the breadth of content continues to widen, we believe it has never been a better time to be an anime fan." TheWrap reports: Currently, the streamer has the world's largest streaming library dedicated to anime, including 50,000 episodes and more than 25,000 hours of anime series, music and films. Every season, the streamer brings in between 45 and 60 new and returning series to its service. Those include series such as "Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba," "JUJUTSU KAISEN," "One Piece," "Chainsaw Man" and "Solo Leveling." Last year, the streamer also partnered with SMEJ (Sony Music Entertainment Japan) to bring anime-related music to the platform, a collaboration that has resulted in 3,300 music videos and concerts so far.

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"We are getting leaner," said Dell's Bill Scannell and John Byrne in an internal memo to employees on Monday. "We're streamlining layers of management and reprioritizing where we invest." While no official numbers have been confirmed, a source close to the matter told SiliconANGLE that 12,500 layoffs, or about 10% of Dell's worldwide workforce, were planned across the company starting Tuesday. However, that number could be high. "It's unlikely the number is that high because that would typically trigger an SEC filing," said theCUBE Research Chief Analyst Dave Vellante. From the report: Indeed, in February 2023, a 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission was made for a reduction of about 6,000 employees. The number of new layoffs might become more apparent when Dell files its latest earnings report on Aug. 29, which should show severance and other costs. Dell declined to provide specifics on the layoff. "Through a reorganization of our go-to-market teams and an ongoing series of actions, we are becoming a leaner company," the company said in an email to SiliconANGLE. "We are combining teams and prioritizing where we invest across the company. We continually evolve our business so we're set up to deliver the best innovation, value and service to our customers and partners." Rumors of layoffs were swirling today on TheLayoff.com website. "Despite whatever person from corporate put in here earlier about this being a 1% layoff, it is in fact larger than that and is hitting services, sales, marketing & engineers," one person said. "Half of my team is gone in marketing and still no coms." Dell has been cutting staff for at least the past year. It laid off a total of 13,000 last year, according to CRN, including the 6,000 in February 2023 and another round in August whose numbers the company didn't specify. The layoffs follow a 15% reduction announced by Intel last week, affecting over 16,000 workers.

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