14461 20251208_110011 Painting at Queensland Art Gallery-but is it art

iain.davidson100 has added a photo to the pool:

14461 20251208_110011 Painting at Queensland Art Gallery-but is it art

Check In at the Route 66 Motel

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Check In at the Route 66 Motel

Shaggin Wagon

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Shaggin Wagon

Apples

The experimental math department's budget is under scrutiny for how much they've been spending on trains leaving Chicago at 9:00pm traveling at 45 mph.

Slashdot

News for nerds, stuff that matters

The Data Breach That Hit Two-Thirds of a Country

Online retailer Coupang, often called South Korea's Amazon, is dealing with the fallout from a breach that exposed the personal information of more than 33 million accounts -- roughly two-thirds of the country's population -- after a former contractor allegedly used credentials that remained active months after his departure to access customer data through the company's overseas servers.

The breach began in June but went undetected until November 18, according to Coupang and investigators. Police have called it South Korea's worst-ever data breach. The compromised information includes names, phone numbers, email addresses and shipping addresses, though the company says login credentials, credit card numbers, and payment details were not affected.

Coupang's former CEO Park Dae-jun told a parliamentary hearing that the alleged perpetrator was a Chinese national who had worked on authentication tasks before his contract ended last December. Chief information security officer Brett Matthes testified that the individual had a "privileged role" giving him access to a private encryption key that allowed him to forge tokens to impersonate customers. Legislators say the key remained active after the employee left. The CEO of Coupang's South Korean subsidiary has resigned. Founder and chair Bom Kim has yet to personally apologize but has been summoned to a second parliamentary hearing.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Google Translate Expands Live Translation To All Earbuds On Android

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Google has increasingly moved toward keeping features locked to its hardware products, but the Translate app is bucking that trend. The live translate feature is breaking out of the Google bubble with support for any earbuds you happen to have connected to your Android phone. The app is also getting improved translation quality across dozens of languages and some Duolingo-like learning features.

The latest version of Google's live translation is built on Gemini and initially rolled out earlier this year. It supports smooth back-and-forth translations as both on-screen text and audio. Beginning a live translate session in Google Translate used to require Pixel Buds, but that won't be the case going forward. Google says a beta test of expanded headphone support is launching today in the US, Mexico, and India.

The audio translation attempts to preserve the tone and cadence of the original speaker, but it's not as capable as the full AI-reproduced voice translations you can do on the latest Pixel phones. Google says this feature should work on any earbuds or headphones, but it's only for Android right now. The feature will expand to iOS in the coming months. [...] The new translation model, which is also available in the search-based translation interface, supports over 70 languages.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

New Kindle Feature Uses AI To Answer Questions About Books - And Authors Can't Opt Out

An anonymous reader shares a report: Amazon has quietly added a new AI feature to its Kindle iOS app -- a feature that "lets you ask questions about the book you're reading and receive spoiler-free answers," according to an Amazon announcement.

The company says the feature, which is called Ask this Book, serves as "your expert reading assistant, instantly answering questions about plot details, character relationships, and thematic elements without disrupting your reading flow."

Publishing industry resource Publishers Lunch noticed Ask this Book earlier this week, and asked Amazon about it. Amazon spokesperson Ale Iraheta told PubLunch, "The feature uses technology, including AI, to provide instant, spoiler-free answers to customers' questions about what they're reading. Ask this Book provides short answers based on factual information about the book which are accessible only to readers who have purchased or borrowed the book and are non-shareable and non-copyable."

As PubLunch summed up: "In other words, speaking plainly, it's an in-book chatbot." [...] Perhaps most alarmingly, the Amazon spokesperson said, "To ensure a consistent reading experience, the feature is always on, and there is no option for authors or publishers to opt titles out."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Het zont

Na jaren ontdekte mijn dochter (9) gisteren dat ‘het zont’ geen gebruikelijke uitdrukking is. „Het is geen Nederlands”, had iemand tegen haar gezegd.

Wel.nl

Minder lezen, Meer weten.

In beslag genomen Venezolaans schip onderweg naar Houston

HOUSTON (ANP) - De supertanker Skipper, die de Verenigde Staten deze week in de buurt van Venezuela in beslag hebben genomen, is onderweg naar de Amerikaanse stad Houston. Dat zeiden twee bronnen vrijdag tegen persbureau Reuters.

De Amerikaanse minister van Justitie Pam Bondi zei deze week dat er een bevel tot inbeslagname van het schip lag. Volgens de Amerikaanse regering maakt de olietanker deel uit van een schaduwvloot die olie levert aan de Revolutionaire Garde in Iran.

De inbeslagname heeft de spanningen tussen de VS en Venezuela verder opgevoerd. Washington is van plan meer schepen in beslag te nemen. Een vermindering van de Venezolaanse olie-export zou de financiën van het land onder druk zetten. Olie is de belangrijkste inkomstenbron voor de regering van president Nicolás Maduro.

De Venezolaanse oppositieleidster en Nobelprijswinnares María Corina Machado drong deze week aan op het afsnijden van deze inkomstenbron om Maduro tot opstappen te dwingen.


CBS: oppositieleidster Machado wil druk VS voor vertrek Maduro

WASHINGTON (ANP) - De Venezolaanse oppositieleidster en Nobelprijswinnares María Corina Machado wil meer druk van de Verenigde Staten om de Venezolaanse president Nicolás Maduro te bewegen op te stappen. Dat zei ze tegen de Amerikaanse televisiezender CBS.

"Ik sta open voor toenemende druk, zodat Maduro begrijpt dat hij moet gaan. Zijn tijd zit erop", zei de oppositieleidster in het programma Face the Nation. Het interview wordt zondag volledig uitgezonden. Volgens Machado is er geen sprake van een traditionele 'regimechange', omdat volgens haar al meer dan 70 procent van de Venezolanen voor politieke verandering heeft gestemd. "We hebben steun nodig om die beslissing af te dwingen."

Gevraagd of haar Nobelprijs voor de Vrede valt te combineren met militair optreden, zei Machado: "Om vrijheid te behouden en te verkrijgen, heb je kracht nodig. We vechten voor vrijheid om democratie te hebben, en voor democratie om vrede te hebben."

Machado zei dat de oppositie niet betrokken is bij Amerikaanse plannen om ook op land aanvallen te doen.