Technology

FTX advisor and Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison gets two years in prison

Published

2 hours ago

September 24, 2024

FTX advisor and Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison gets two years in prison

A US district court judge sentenced Caroline Ellison, the former advisor and ex-girlfriend to the convicted crypto fraudster and FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, to two years in prison.

reported Ellison’s sentence for her role in the $8 billion in fraud committed by the FTX crypto exchange that sent for 25 years back in March. Ellison will also have to serve three years of supervised release once she’s finished her prison sentence.

Ellison pled guilty at the end of 2022 to just as Bankman-Fried was being extradited to the US from the Bahamas. US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Director of Enforcement Sanjay Wadhwa said following Ellison’s plea that she and Wang “were active participants in a scheme to conceal material information from FTX investors.”

Ellison was also the former chief executive officer of FTX’s sister company Alameda Research. Prosecutors said she diverted FTX customers’ funds onto Alameda’s books to hide risks from their clients. Ellison testified against Bankman-Fried, making her a key witness in his criminal fraud trial.

Prosecutors also got Bankman-Friend’s house arrest and bail revoked when a judge determined the FTX founder tried to hinder Ellison’s testimony last year. Bankman-Fried tried to message FTX’s general counsel on Signal and email in 2023 to influence Ellison’s testimony who was only identified as “Witness-1.”

Nine months later, Bankman-Fried showed that prosecutors said were an attempt to damage her reputation especially amongst prospective jurors. The judge agreed both instances merited Bankman-Fried’s arrest and jailing while he awaited trial. Bankman-Fried is currently serving his 25-year sentence in a federal prison in Brooklyn awaiting appeal for his conviction.

Ellison issued a statement before her sentence apologizing for her crimes to the people she and her former firm defrauded. Prosecutors did not issue a recommended sentence and characterized her cooperation with investigators as “exemplary” in a memo to the judge.

“Not a day goes by that I don’t think of the people I hurt,” Ellison said in court. “I am deeply ashamed of what I have done.”

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Technology

Sony’s pearlescent new PS5 colors will jazz up your gaming station

Published

13 seconds ago

September 25, 2024

NewsAdmin

Sony’s pearlescent new PS5 colors will jazz up your gaming station

Sony is launching shiny new “Chroma” console covers for the PlayStation 5 Slim that come in pearl, indigo, and teal. And if having an iridescent console isn’t eye-catching enough, you can also get new DualSense controllers to match.

The Chroma console covers will cost $64.99 USD, while the DualSense controllers will cost $79.99. Sony is launching the Chroma pearl and indigo accessories on November 7th, followed by teal on January 23, 2025. The new colors look neat, but they’re quite intense — I’m not sure I’d want to swap out the sleek blue, red, or gray of the PS5 Slim for these.

You’ll be able to preorder covers and controllers from the collection on October 3rd, with availability in the US, UK, France, Germany, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Sony is also opening preorders for the 30th Anniversary PS5 and PS5 Pro on September 26th, which deck them out in the colors of the original 1995 PlayStation — but we don’t yet know if Sony will sell those throwback grey covers separately.

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Servers computers

Why you should or shouldn't buy used servers!

Published

16 mins ago

September 25, 2024

NewsAdmin

Why you should or shouldn't buy used servers!

Bob Pellerin (CTOBOB) looks into what to look for in a used server. Reliable machine can be had. Keep in mind that the more recent a server is, the most likely it will run newer operating systems.

The parts most likely to fail on serves are:
– Drives
– Power supplies
– Fans

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Technology

Spotify’s AI Playlist is now rolling out to more Premium Subscribers – here’s who’s getting it next

Published

21 mins ago

September 25, 2024

NewsAdmin

If you’ve been a Spotify premium subscriber eager to try out the music streaming service’s AI chops at building playlists based on prompts, we have good news. After rolling out AI Playlist to Premium subscribers in the UK and Australia earlier in 2024, the feature is now expanding to the United States, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand in English.

So, you can now use Spotify’s AI to create a playlist based on a prompt that can be as short as a single word. You will need to be a Premium member, though, which in the United States starts at $11.99 a month for an individual, $16.99 per month for Duo (aka two accounts), or $19.99 a month for a family subscription.

The feature, dubbed AI Playlist, can be found on the Spotify app for Android or iOS – not on desktop or the web. Just ensure you’re running the latest version of the app. For instance, I have no updates, and I’m not yet seeing it.

Using AI to build a playlist

Once the feature arrives in your Spotify app associated with the right subscription, you’ll open the app and tap “Library” in the bottom right corner. Then, hit the plus sign in the top right and find AI Playlist as an option.

From there, you’re off to the races as you enter a prompt and watch as a playlist is created. Spotify notes that the more detail provided the better, but you can also refine it further after its first list is made and give it another prompt. You can use words, numbers, or emojis, but Spotify won’t allow offensive words. It also suggests when you’re first playing around with this feature, be specific – potentially with a genre, location, or even characters.

As with any AI, specifically a chatbot, which is close to what this is, results will vary, and Spotify is quick to repeat that AI Playlist is in beta. Considering Spotify is already pretty spot on with music recommendations, adding in this level of customization and personalization via AI is a cool feature that we’re eager to try out.

It’s rolling out now in English for Premium subscribers in United States, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand now after being available for several months in the UK and Australia. If you’re keen to try it, keep your Spotify app updated on your mobile and check to see if “AI Playlist” appears. Until then, you’ll need to create your next fire playlist the old-fashioned way … manually.

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Technology

Sharp rise in problematic teenage social media use, study says

Published

43 mins ago

September 25, 2024

NewsAdmin

Sharp rise in problematic teenage social media use, study says

Getty Images A morose looking teenager stares at a smartphone

A major international study suggests there has been a sharp rise in what it calls “problematic” social media use among young people since the pandemic.

Researchers came to the conclusion after surveying almost 280,000 children aged 11, 13 and 15 across 44 countries.

The Health Behaviour In School-aged Children (HBSC) study found, on average, 11% of respondents engaged with social media in a problematic way in 2022 – compared to 7% in 2018.

England, Scotland and Wales all recorded figures above that average.

The report’s authors say the findings “raise urgent concerns about the impact of digital technology on the mental health and well-being of Europe’s youth”.

They say more action is needed to “promote healthy online behaviours.”

“Problematic use is most common amongst 13-year-olds – it sort of peaks in that early adolescence phase and girls are more likely to report problematic social media use than boys,” said the study’s international co-ordinator Dr Jo Inchley, from the University of Glasgow.

She said the research also revealed how much time young people spend online.

“Across the study as a whole, we found just over a third of adolescents report continuous online contact with friends and others,” she said.

“That means almost all the time throughout the day they are connected online to friends and other people.”

The report does not conclude all that time spent online is detrimental.

Instead, teenagers who were heavy, but not problematic, users of social media reported stronger peer support and social connections.

But for the “problematic” minority it found social media use was associated with addiction-like symptoms including:

neglect of other activities in favour of spending time on social media
frequent arguments about use
lying about how much time is spent online
an inability to control social media use and experiencing withdrawal

It also highlights concerns about the proportion of teenagers considered to be at risk of “problematic gaming” – something it suggests applies to boys more than girls.

That designation applied to 15% of teenagers in England – the second highest proportion across all countries studied.

The average proportion of boys who played daily was 46%, but this figure stood at 52% in England and 57% in Scotland.

And 13-year-old boys in England reported the highest rate of long gaming sessions, with 45% of boys of that age indicating that they played for at least four hours on gaming days.

Positive and negative consequences

The study has been published by the European arm of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Dr Hans Henri P Kluge, the WHO’s regional director for Europe, said the findings made clear social media could have both positive and negative consequences for young people.

He said there needed to be more “digital literacy education” to help young people develop a healthy approach to being online, and governments, health authorities, teachers and parents all had to play their part.

“It’s clear we need immediate and sustained action to help adolescents turn the tide on potentially damaging social media use, which has been shown to lead to depression, bullying, anxiety, and poor academic performance,” he said.

Ben Carter, Professor of Medical Statistics at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, described the report as a “useful snapshot of the evidence”.

But he pointed out it was difficult to agree on a definition of what “problematic social media” was, making gathering data on it challenging.

Nonetheless, he said the study was a “valid contribution to the evidence base”.

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Servers computers

Dell PowerEdge 4220 Server Rack – 42U Data Center Enclosure

Published

59 mins ago

September 25, 2024

NewsAdmin

Dell PowerEdge 4220 Server Rack - 42U Data Center Enclosure

Dell 4220 42U PowerEdge Enclosure. Complete Server Rack.
For more info call 877-307-7225.
Website: www.global1resources.com.
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Technology

Watch a robot peel a squash with human-like dexterity

Published

1 hour ago

September 25, 2024

NewsAdmin

Watch a robot peel a squash with human-like dexterity

A robot that peels vegetables in the same way that people do demonstrates a level of dexterity that could help move delicate objects along a manufacturing line.

Prototype robots are often tasked with peeling vegetables to test their ability to carefully handle awkward objects. But these challenges are usually simplified, such as the vegetable being fixed in place, or only testing single fruits or vegetables, like peeling a banana.

Now, Pulkit Agrawal at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his colleagues have developed a robotic system that can rotate different types of fruit and vegetable using its fingers on one hand, while the other arm is made to peel.

“These additional steps of doing rotation are something which is very straightforward to humans, we don’t even think about it,” says Agrawal. “But for a robot, this becomes challenging.”

First, the robot was taught in a simulated environment, receiving an algorithmic reward for a proper rotation and a punishment if it rotated the wrong way or not at all.

Next, the robot was tested under real-world conditions by tasking it with peeling fruits and vegetables such as a pumpkin, radish and papaya. It used one hand to rotate the produce, using feedback from touch sensors, while a human-controlled robot arm did the peeling.

The robot can hold and rotate a vegetable in one hand, while the other arm peels
Tao Chen, Eric Cousineau, Naveen Kuppuswamy, Pulkit Agrawal

The algorithm struggles with smaller, more awkwardly shaped vegetables, such as ginger, says Agrawal, but the team hopes to expand its capabilities.

Grasping and reorienting objects are challenging tasks for any robot, and the speed and firm grip of this one is impressive, says Jonathan Aitken at the University of Sheffield in the UK. It could be useful in factories where objects have to be moved from one machine to another with the correct orientation, he says.

However, it is unlikely to be used in an industrial setting for peeling vegetables because other approaches already exist, such as automatic potato peelers, says Aitken.

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