Snap’s Master Plan To Turn Its Business Around

After getting “punched in the face hard” by a cratering stock price and brutal layoffs, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel told employees this week how the company plans to still grow its revenue and user base next year. The Verge reports: In an internal memo sent to employees on September 6th and obtained by The Verge, Spiegel said the company aims to grow Snapchat’s user base by 30 percent to 450 million by the end of next year, and that it aims to increase revenue to $6 billion in 2023. He said the plan is for $350 million of that revenue to come from the paid subscription Snapchat recently introduced to unlock additional features, which is already on track to hit 4 million subscribers by the end of this year. […] To achieve its user growth goal, Spiegel said Snap will focus on “increasing our penetration in at least one new large country or demographic” and onboarding more 30- to 40-year-olds. Funneling more users into the Map and Spotlight sections of Snapchat “helps to make our service more compelling for our community, harder to copy, and more resilient to competition, and increases our monetization opportunity over the longer term.”

Snap recently laid off 20 percent of its workforce, cutting whole teams and projects like its recently introduced camera drone. Even still, Spiegel said the company remains committed to augmented reality, which he thinks “represents the next major evolution in computing,” and that the next generation of its Spectacles AR glasses is in development. “Leadership in augmented reality is important to Snap because it helps us build a durable competitive advantage that comes from investing over the long term, building things that are technically difficult, and growing a platform that is increasingly hard to replicate,” Spiegel said. “It also positions us to benefit from the next major platform shift: mobile to wearables. Leading this shift will be one of our most meaningful contributions to human progress; empowering people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together.”

Here are some other highlights from the memo:
– Snap aims to grow time spent on content by 10 percent per user in 2023.
– It wants 35 percent of users interacting daily with the Map tab of Snapchat and 30 percent of users on Spotlight, its TikTok competitor, every day next year.
– The plan is to make $6 billion in revenue and at least $1 billion in free cash flow in 2023.
– Snap wants AR-based advertising to make up 10 percent of its total ad revenue next year.
– The company wants to grow the number of people who use its AR effects, called Lenses, in other apps to 1 billion monthly users next year.
– It is setting up an AR enterprise division to sell its technology to other companies.
– “We will help developers confidentially explore the possibilities that are enabled with our next-generation” of Spectacles, according to Spiegel, which suggests the next version won’t be commercially available for sale.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Germany Sticks To Nuclear Power Deadline But Leaves Loophole

Beeftopia writes: Germany will keep two of its three reactors operational through the end of 2022, despite a pledge to shut them all down by December 31. A likely winter gas shortage prompted the change. “German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said in a statement on Monday the move did not mean Berlin was reneging on its long-standing promise to exit nuclear energy by the end of 2022,” reports Reuters. Habeck went on to say, “It remains very improbable that we will have crisis situations and extreme scenarios” requiring further use of nuclear.

“Germany is part of a European system hit by a decline in Russian gas deliveries, the French nuclear power squeeze and a drought that has curbed hydroelectric production and cooling water supplies to thermal power stations as well as hampering barge deliveries of coal,” Reuters says. A problem with the planned use case for the reactors is that nuclear plants are not designed to be variable backup energy generators, but rather continuous first-line generators.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

US Plans Shift To Annual COVID Vaccines Akin To Flu Shots

The United States is likely to start recommending COVID-19 vaccines annually, health officials said on Tuesday, as new boosters designed to fight currently circulating variants of the coronavirus roll out. Reuters reports: By the end of this week, 90% of Americans will live within five miles (8 km) of sites carrying updated vaccines, U.S. health secretary Xavier Becerra said at a White House briefing. Officials said people could get the new boosters this fall or winter alongside their regular annual flu shots, and said it was likely this would become a yearly ritual.

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky said even with the seven-day average of COVID hospitalizations down 14% to 4,500 per day, annual shots could save thousands of lives. “Modeling projections show that an uptake of updated COVID-19 vaccine doses similar to an annual flu vaccine coverage early this fall could prevent as many as 100,000 hospitalizations and 9,000 deaths, and save billions of dollars in direct medical costs,” she said. The redesigned boosters, green-lighted by U.S. health regulators last week, aim to tackle the BA.5 and BA.4 Omicron subvariants, which account for over 88% and 11% of circulating viruses, respectively, Walensky said. The so-called bivalent vaccines also still target the original version of the virus.

Top U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said unless a dramatically different variant emerges, annual vaccines should offer enough protection for most people, but that some vulnerable groups might need more frequent vaccinations. “We likely are moving towards a path with a vaccination cadence similar to that of the annual influenza vaccine, with annual, updated COVID-19 shots matched to the currently circulating strains for most of the population,” he said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes Requests a New Trial

Elizabeth Holmes — the founder of blood testing startup Theranos and the poster child for misleading investors, media, and innocent people looking for medical care through a web of deceit — wants a do-over. She is requesting a new trial, according to a document filed Tuesday in the Southern District Court of California. Gizmodo reports: The motion for a new trial, authored by Holmes’ attorneys, hinges on “newly discovered evidence,” specifically: the alleged testimony regrets of Adam Rosendorff. Rosendorff was a lab director at Theranos and later, testified as a key witness in the case against Holmes and her ex-boyfriend/partner in crime Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani. His original testimony lasted multiple days and emphasized the pressure that Theranos employees were under to demonstrate the faulty diagnostic technology worked, even when it didn’t.

“I felt that it was a question on my integrity as a physician not to remain there and to continue to bolster results I essentially didn’t have faith in,” Rosendorff said while on the witness stand in 2021, according to CNBC. “I came to understand that management was not sincere in diverting resources to solve issues.” Now, Holmes and her lawyers are claiming that Rosendorff left a voicemail and then showed up at Holmes’ residence on August 8 in a desperate bid to communicate that he “felt he had done something wrong, apparently in connection with Ms. Holmes’ trial.” The motion, supposedly paraphrasing Rosendorff, says that the former Theranos employee stated, “the government made things seem worse than they were.”

In the document, Holmes’ legal team wrote, “Under any interpretation of his statements, the statements warrant a new trial under Rule 33. But, at a minimum, and to the extent the Court has any doubt about whether a new trial is required, the Court should order an evidentiary hearing and permit Ms. Holmes to subpoena Dr. Rosendorff to testify about his concerns.” Holmes was found guilty in January on four of 11 charges defrauding the company’s investors and patients. She was found not guilty on four counts.

In July, Balwani was found guilty of 12 counts of conspiracy and fraud against certain investors and patients.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Withdrawals Frozen at Crypto Mining Firm Poolin Amid ‘Liquidity Problems’

Poolin, one of the world’s biggest crypto mining pools, is suspending bitcoin and ether withdrawals from its wallet service due to “liquidity problems.” From a report: “As you may have known, Poolin Wallet is currently facing some liquidity problems due to recent increasing demands on withdrawals. But please be assured, all user assets are safe and the company’s net worth is positive,” the firm said in an announcement Monday. Poolin said that it would “make a snapshot of the remaining BTC and ETH balances on pool on September 6th to work out the balances.” “The daily mined coins after September 6th will be normally paid out per day. Other coins are not affected. The details of payout schedule for remaining balances will be released when details are set,” the post continued. The Beijing-based company is among the latest industry firms to suspend withdrawals due to liquidity problems amid this year’s decline in crypto asset prices. Lenders Voyager Digital and Vauld both halted withdrawals in July. Voyager has since begun restoring some access to customers.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Britain’s Failure To Build is Throttling Its Economy

An anonymous reader shares a report: Building in Britain is never easy, often difficult and sometimes impossible. The country has become a vetocracy, in which many people and agencies have the power to stymie any given development. The Town and Country Planning Act, passed in 1947, in effect nationalised the right to build. Decisions about whether to approve new projects are made by politicians who rely on the votes of nimbys (“Not in my back yard”), notes (“Not over there, either”) and bananas (“Build absolutely nothing anywhere near anything”). Green belts, which were designed to stop suburban sprawl, have achieved precisely that. These enormous no-build zones enjoy Pyongyangesque levels of support among voters, who picture them as rural idylls rather than the mish-mash of motorways, petrol stations, scrubland and golf courses that they are in reality. Strict environmental laws protect many creatures, especially cute ones like bats. Judges strike down government decisions if they are based on a botched process because Britain respects the rule of law.

In isolation, each part of the planning system may seem unobjectionable. But the whole thing is a disaster. Britain’s failure to build enough is most pronounced when it comes to housing. England has 434 homes per 1,000 people, whereas France has 590. Its most dynamic cities can barely expand outwards, and are frequently prevented from shooting skywards as well. But the problems extend well beyond housing. Britain has not built a reservoir since 1991 or finished a new nuclear-power station since 1995. hs2, a high-speed railway, is the first new line connecting large British cities since the 19th century. Even modest projects, such as widening the a66 road across northern England, take over a decade. The result is frustration and slower economic growth. A truly bold government could transform the planning system. A proper land-value tax would weaken the perverse incentives to keep city centres underdeveloped and encourage landlords to build or sell up. Scrapping or shrinking the green belt is a no-brainer. A rules-based system, with local authorities declaring loose zones of development and letting developers build within them, would be preferable to a discretionary system that leaves each decision in the hands of capricious politicians.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Cloudflare Blocks Site Linked To Hate After Weeks of Pressure

Cloudflare blocked Kiwi Farms on Saturday, days after hinting it will continue working with the controversial discussion forum despite weeks of pressure. From a report: The company has blocked Kiwi Farms content from being accessed through its infrastructure after an escalation in rhetoric and “specific, targeted threats” over the past 48 hours, Chief Executive Officer Matthew Prince said in a blog post. “This is an extraordinary decision for us to make and, given Cloudflare’s role as an internet infrastructure provider, a dangerous one that we are not comfortable with,” Prince said. While we believe “it would have been appropriate as an infrastructure provider for us to wait for legal process, in this case the imminent and emergency threat to human life which continues to escalate causes us to take this action.” Previously, Cloudflare offered security services to Kiwi Farms. Visitors to Kiwi Farms sites that use any of its services will now see a Cloudflare block page and a link to Prince’s post.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Judge Declines To Overturn Elizabeth Holmes Guilty Verdict

A federal judge on Thursday tentatively declined to overturn the jury conviction of disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes on four felony counts of fraud and conspiracy. That leaves the former Silicon Valley star a step closer to serving prison time. Politico reports: U.S. District Judge Edward Davila won’t make that decision final until Oct. 17, when he is scheduled to sentence Holmes in the same San Jose, California, courtroom where a jury found her guilty of duping investors in her much-hyped blood-testing startup. Holmes, 38, faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, plus restitution, for lying to investors about a Theranos technology she hailed as a revolution in healthcare but which in practice produced dangerously inaccurate results.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Facebook ‘Repeatedly and Intentionally’ Violated Washington’s Political Ad Law, Judge Rules

The Seattle Times reports:
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, repeatedly and intentionally violated Washington campaign-ad transparency law and must pay penalties yet to be determined, a judge ruled Friday.

The court also denied Meta’s attempt to invalidate Washington’s decades-old transparency law, according to Attorney General Bob Ferguson, whose office has repeatedly sued Meta over its failure to abide by the law…. In a statement, Ferguson said his office defeated Facebook’s “cynical attempt” to gut Washington’s campaign-finance transparency law. “On behalf of the people of Washington, I challenge Facebook to accept this decision and do something very simple — follow the law,” he said.
Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Washington’s transparency law, originally passed by voters through an initiative in 1972, requires ad sellers such as Meta to disclose the names and addresses of political ad buyers, the targets of such ads and the total number of views of each ad.

Meta says that rather than comply with the law, Facebook has stopped serving campaign ads altogether in Washington, GeekWire reports, “after determining that the company wouldn’t be able to reasonably comply with the law.”

But “The current suit against Meta, filed in April 2020, asserts that the company continued to accept political ads in the state after promising to stop.”
The judge will now consider fines and a potential injunction against the social media giant, reported Eli Sanders, a Seattle journalist who covered the dispute for years for The Stranger newspaper and more recently in his Wild West newsletter….

In court filings, Meta called Washington state “an outlier,” arguing that the disclosure law violates the First Amendment by unfairly targeting political speech, and imposing onerous timelines for disclosing what Meta considers unreasonable degrees of detail to people who request information about political ads.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Attacks on Linux Servers Rose 75% Over Last Year, Warn Security Researchers

“There’s been a big rise in ransomware attacks targeting Linux,” reports ZDNet, “as cyber criminals look to expand their options and exploit an operating system that is often overlooked when businesses think about security.”

According to analysis by cybersecurity researchers at Trend Micro, Linux servers are “increasingly coming under fire” from ransomware attacks, with detections up by 75% over the course of the last year as cyber criminals look to expand their attacks beyond Windows operating systems.

Linux powers important enterprise IT infrastructure including servers, which makes it an attractive target for ransomware gangs — particularly when a perceived lack of threat to Linux systems compared with Windows means that cybersecurity teams might choose to focus on defending Windows networks against cybercrime. Researchers note that ransomware groups are increasingly tailoring their attacks to focus specifically on Linux systems. For example, LockBit is one of the most prolific and successful ransomware operations of recent times and now offers the option of a Linux-based variant that is designed to target Linux systems and has been used to conduct attacks in the wild….

And it isn’t just ransomware groups that are increasingly turning their attentions towards Linux — according to Trend Micro, there’s been a 145% increase in Linux-based cryptocurrency-mining malware attacks, where cyber criminals secretly exploit the power of infected computers and servers to mine for cryptocurrency for themselves. One of the ways cyber criminals are compromising Linux systems is by exploiting unpatched vulnerabilities. According to the report, these flaws include CVE-2022-0847 — also known as Dirty Pipe — a bug that affects the Linux kernel from versions 5.8 and up, which attackers can use to escalate their privileges and run code. Researchers warn that this bug is “relatively easy to exploit”.
The article recommends installing all security patches as soon as they’re available — and implementing multi-factor authentication across your organization.

And yes, it’s the real ZDNet. They’ve just re-designed their web site…

Read more of this story at Slashdot.