The General thread for Computers And Internet

[RTH10260]

Just a note, one can purchase cheap ($5) adapters that make the USB-A to -C transpose. (Amazon, surely Ebay)

[pipistrelle]

I went from a very old MacBook Pro to an M1. I ended up with both cables and dongles.

[pipistrelle]

Just a note, one can purchase cheap ($5) adapters that make the USB-A to -C transpose. (Amazon, surely Ebay)

Yep.

[keith]

Yeah, I got maybe 5 of connected to stuff on my desk right now, and proll a half dozen more in my spares box.

You get a new one every time you get a new Samsung phone too. Dont all phone companies do that?

I even have a -A plug to -C socket so I can use my -C message stick in the USB socket on my desktop machine front panel.

[RTH10260]

Microsoft, Quantinuum claim breakthrough in quantum computing

By Stephen Nellis
April 3, 202411:11 PM GMT+2 Updated a month ago


April 3 (Reuters) - Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab and Quantinuum on Wednesday said they have achieved a key step in making quantum computers a commercial reality by making them more reliable.

The move is the latest in a race to perfect quantum computing in which tech firms such as Microsoft, Alphabet's Google (GOOGL.O), opens new tab and IBM (IBM.N), opens new tab are jostling with both rivals and nation states to create machines that take advantage of quantum mechanics to promise speeds far faster than conventional silicon-based computers. Those quantum machines could make feasible scientific calculations that would otherwise take millions of years with today's classical computers.

But the fundamental unit of quantum computers - called a "qubit" - is fast but finicky, producing data errors if the quantum computer is even slightly disturbed. To solve that problem, quantum researchers often build more physical qubits than needed and use error-correction techniques to yield a smaller number of reliable and useful qubits.

Microsoft and Quantinuum said they had made a breakthrough in that field. Microsoft applied an error-correction algorithm that it wrote to Quantinuum's physical qubits, yielding about four reliable qubits from 30 physical ones.

Jason Zander, Microsoft's executive vice president for strategic missions and technologies, said the company believes that is the best ratio of reliable qubits from a quantum chip that has ever been shown.

"We ran more than 14,000 individual experiments without a single error. That's up to 800 times better than anything on record," Zander told Reuters in an interview.

Microsoft said it plans to release the technology to its cloud computing customers in the coming months.

Quantum researchers, both at Quantinuum and its rivals, often cite a figure of about 100 reliable qubits as the number needed to beat a conventional supercomputer. Neither Microsoft nor Quantinuum on Wednesday would say how many more years they will need to use the new technique to hit 100 reliable qubits.

But Ilyas Khan, the chief product officer of Quantinuum, said, "The current view is that we have lopped at least two years off that, if not more."




https://www.reuters.com/technology/micr ... 024-04-03/

[Reality Check]

Quantum computing and practical fusion reactors all seem to exist in the realm of any day now. Quantum computing seems closer though.

[Uninformed]

Is the fact they estimate they have knocked two years off a timescale they cannot estimate an example of quantum maths?

[Reality Check]

I am putting my money on thorium molten salt reactors becoming practical alternatives for uranium fueled high pressure water fusion reactors first (i. e. before quantum computing and fusion are practical.)

[keith]

I am putting my money on thorium molten salt reactors becoming practical alternatives for uranium fueled high pressure water fusion reactors first (i. e. before quantum computing and fusion are practical.)

Pretty safe bet. Thorium reactors are practical now. But I dont know of any under developement (all nukes are too expensive), or operational (maybe in Italy?).

[Reality Check]

Pretty safe bet. Thorium reactors are practical now. But I dont know of any under developement (all nukes are too expensive), or operational (maybe in Italy?).

China was supposed to bring on test reactor in 2021 in the Gobi desert but there is surprisingly little news available on it. The plan was to build a commercial reactor by 2030. Several other countries are working on thorium and molten salt reactors. To call thorium practical might be a bit of a stretch right now.

[keith]

Pretty safe bet. Thorium reactors are practical now. But I dont know of any under developement (all nukes are too expensive), or operational (maybe in Italy?).

China was supposed to bring on test reactor in 2021 in the Gobi desert but there is surprisingly little news available on it. The plan was to build a commercial reactor by 2030. Several other countries are working on thorium and molten salt reactors. To call thorium practical might be a bit of a stretch right now.

World Nuclear Association: Thorium

In July 2009 a second phase agreement was signed among AECL, the Third Qinshan Nuclear Power Company (TQNPC), China North Nuclear Fuel Corporation and the Nuclear Power Institute of China to jointly develop and demonstrate the use of thorium fuel and to study the commercial and technical feasibility of its full-scale use in Candu (a Canadian heavy water design) units such as at Qinshan. An expert panel appointed by CNNC unanimously recommended that China consider building two new Candu units to take advantage of the design's unique capabilities in utilizing alternative fuels. It confirmed that thorium use in the Enhanced Candu 6 reactor design is “technically practical and feasible”, and cited the design’s “enhanced safety and good economics” as reasons it could be deployed in China in the near term.

And MSRs have been demonstrated to be feasible already in the 1960's. China has a 'modern' prototype under construction in Shanghai.

Molten salt reactors: In the 1960s the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (USA) designed and built a demonstration MSR using U-233 as the main fissile driver in its second campaign. The reactor ran over 1965-69 at powers up to 7.4 MWt. The lithium-beryllium salt worked at 600-700ºC and ambient pressure. The R&D program demonstrated the feasibility of this system and highlighted some unique corrosion and safety issues that would need to be addressed if constructing a larger pilot MSR.

There is significant renewed interest in developing thorium-fuelled MSRs. Projects are (or have recently been) underway in China, Japan, Russia, France and the USA. It is notable that the MSR is one of the six ‘Generation IV’ reactor designs selected as worthy of further development (see information page on Generation IV Nuclear Reactors).

[RTH10260]

Major U.S. Carriers Fined $196 Million by FCC for Selling Customer Location Data
The FCC has imposed fines totaling $196 million on T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon for unauthorized sales of customer location data, sparking debates over privacy.

Apr 29, 2024

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has finalized a series of penalties totaling $196 million against major U.S. wireless carriers for the illicit sale of customer location data. The fines have been imposed on T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon for their unauthorized sharing of sensitive customer information without consent and inadequate measures to protect it.

In a statement released today, the FCC outlined the penalties: $80.1 million for T-Mobile, $57.3 million for AT&T, and $46.9 million for Verizon. Additionally, T-Mobile is responsible for a $12.2 million fine initially levied on Sprint, which T-Mobile acquired subsequent to the proposed penalties.

The FCC's Enforcement Bureau investigations found that each carrier sold access to customer location data to "aggregators," who subsequently resold the information to third-party service providers. Carriers were accused of shifting the responsibility of obtaining customer consent to these third parties, often resulting in no valid consent being acquired. The investigations also highlighted that carriers continued to sell this information without adequate safeguards even after acknowledging the ineffectiveness of their existing protections.

The issue was first exposed in 2018 when location data was reportedly used without consent to track individuals for a Missouri Sheriff through a service operated by Securus. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel stated, "This ugly practice violates the law—specifically Section 222 of the Communications Act, which protects the privacy of consumer data."

All three carriers have announced their intentions to appeal the fines. T-Mobile, in a statement to Ars, emphasized that the data-sharing programs had been discontinued over five years ago and that it intended to challenge the "excessive" fine. AT&T and Verizon also signaled plans to appeal, citing immediate actions taken to rectify contractual breaches and the support of critical services that relied on location data.

The FCC's decision, which was delayed by previous partisan deadlock, came as a 3-2 vote with Republicans Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington dissenting. The Republicans argued that the fines might dissuade legal use of consent-based location data services and criticized the retroactive application of liability.

Commissioner Carr specifically contended that the FCC had not previously classified non-call location information as Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI) and questioned the FCC's authority to impose liability for such data.

Despite the carriers' objections, the FCC maintains that phone location data falls within the definition of CPNI as outlined in the Communications Act. The orders reinforce the message that carriers are obligated to safeguard customer geolocation information, a stance reinforced by Rosenworcel's statement on following through with the fines initially proposed by the previous administration.




https://www.tftc.io/fcc-fines-us-carrie ... tion-data/

[RTH10260]

Apple users are being locked out of their Apple IDs with no explanation

Chance Miller
| Apr 26 2024 - 7:59 pm PT

There appears to be an increasingly widespread Apple ID outage of some sort impacting users tonight. A number of people on social media say that they were logged out of their Apple ID across multiple devices on Friday evening and forced to reset their password before logging back in…

Have you been signed out of your Apple ID?
We received our first tip about this around 8 p.m. ET. In the hours since then, the problem has gained significant traction on social media.

Apple’s System Status webpage doesn’t indicate that any of its services are having issues this evening. Still, it’s clear based on social media reports that something wonky is going on behind the scenes at Apple. A few of us here at 9to5Mac have also been directly affected by the problem.

People are being signed out of their Apple ID across all of their devices. If you try to sign in with your original Apple ID password, you’ll be locked out of your account. You’ll then be forced to reset your password before being able to sign back in. There doesn’t appear to be any rhyme or reason as to why this is happening.

Whether what’s happening on Friday evening has any relation to the ongoing password reset attacks problem that we’ve been tracking for several weeks is unclear right now.

Additionally, if you have Stolen Device Protection enabled, being signed out of an Apple ID randomly can present an especially big headache if you’re away from a trusted location.

Another problem: if you reset your Apple ID password, any app-specific passwords you had previously set up via iCloud will be reset as well.




https://9to5mac.com/2024/04/26/signed-o ... -password/