Aulii Cravalho andDwayne Johnson return to the voice cast for this ocean-going sequel, but timid writing sinks the fun.

Broadband customer service ISPs say their excellent customer service is why users dont switch providers ISPs tell FCC that mistreated users would switch to one of their many other options. Jon Brodkin Nov 26, 2024 3:05 pm | 45 Credit: Getty Images | Thamrongpat Theerathammakorn Credit: Getty Images | Thamrongpat Theerathammakorn Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreLobby groups for Internet service providers claim that ISPs' customer service is so good already that the government shouldn't consider any new regulations to mandate improvements. They also claim ISPs face so much competition that market forces require providers to treat their customers well or lose them to competitors.Cable lobby group NCTA-The Internet & Television Association told the Federal Communications Commission in a filing that "providing high-quality products and services and a positive customer experience is a competitive necessity in today's robust communications marketplace. To attract and retain customers, NCTA's cable operator members continuously strive to ensure that the customer support they provide is effective and user-friendly. Given these strong marketplace imperatives, new regulations that would micromanage providers customer service operations are unnecessary."Lobby groups filed comments in response to an FCC review of customer service that was announced last month, before the presidential election. While the FCC's current Democratic leadership is interested in regulating customer service practices, the Republicans who will soon take over opposed the inquiry.USTelecom, which represents telcos such as AT&T and Verizon, said that "the competitive broadband marketplace leaves providers of broadband and other communications services no choice but to provide their customers with not only high-quality broadband, but also high-quality customer service.""If a provider fails to efficiently resolve an issue, they risk losing not only that customerand not just for the one service, but potentially for all of the bundled services offered to that customerbut also any prospective customers that come across a negative review online. Because of this, broadband providers know that their success is dependent upon providing and maintaining excellent customer service," USTelecom wrote.While the FCC Notice of Inquiry said that providers should "offer live customer service representative support by phone within a reasonable timeframe," USTelecom's filing touted the customer service abilities of AI chatbots. "AI chat agents will only get better at addressing customers' needs more quickly over timeand if providers fail to provide the customer service and engagement options that their customers expect and fail to resolve their customers' concerns, they may soon find that the consumer is no longer a customer, having switched to another competitive offering," the lobby group said.Say what?The lobby groups' description may surprise the many Internet users suffering from little competition and poor customer service, such as CenturyLink users who had to go without service for over a month because of the ISP's failure to fix outages. The FCC received very different takes on the state of ISP customer service from regulators in California and Oregon.The Mt. Hood Cable Regulatory Commission in Northwest Oregon, where Comcast is the dominant provider, told the FCC that local residents complain about automated customer service representatives; spending hours on hold while attempting to navigate automated voice systems; billing problems including "getting charged after cancelling service, unexpected price increases, and being charged for equipment that was returned," and service not being restored quickly after outages.The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) told the FCC that it performed a recent analysis finding "that only a fraction of California households enjoy access to a highly competitive market for [broadband Internet service], with only 26 percent of households having a choice between two or more broadband providers utilizing either cable modem or fiber optic technologies." The California agency said the result "suggests that competitive forces alone are insufficient to guarantee service quality for customers who depend upon these services."CPUC said its current rulemaking efforts for California "will establish standards for service outages, repair response time, and access to live representatives." The agency told the FCC that if it adopts new customer service rules for the whole US, it should "permit state and local governments to set customer service standards that exceed the adopted standards."People with disabilities need more help, groups sayThe FCC also received a filing from several advocacy groups focused on accessibility for people with disabilities. The groups asked for rules "establishing baseline standards to ensure high-quality DVC [direct video calling for American Sign Language users] across providers, requiring accommodations for consumers returning rental equipment, and ensuring accessible cancellation processes." The groups said that "providers should be required to maintain dedicated, well-trained accessibility teams that are easily reachable via accessible communication channels, including ASL support.""We strongly caution against relying solely on emerging AI technologies without mandating live customer service support," the groups said.The FCC's Notice of Inquiry on customer service was approved 32 in a party-line vote on October 10. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said that hundreds of thousands of customers file complaints each year "because they have run into issues cancelling their service, are saddled with unexpected charges, are upset by unexplained outages, and are frustrated with billing issues they have not been able to resolve on their own. Many describe being stuck in 'doom loops' that make it difficult to get a real person on the line to help with service that needs repair or to address charges they believe are a mistake."If the FCC leadership wasn't changing hands, the Notice of Inquiry could be the first step toward a rulemaking. "We cannot ignore these complaints, especially not when we know that it is possible to do better... We want to help improve the customer experience, understand what tools we have to do so, and what gaps there may be in the law that prevent consumers from having the ability to resolve routine problems quickly, simply, and easily," Rosenworcel said.ISPs have a friend in Trump adminBut the proceeding won't go any further under incoming Chairman Brendan Carr, a Republican chosen by President-elect Donald Trump. Carr dissented from the Notice of Inquiry, saying that the potential actions explored by the FCC exceed its authority and that the topic should be handled instead by the Federal Trade Commission.Carr said the FCC should work instead on "freeing up spectrum and eliminating regulatory barriers to deployment," and that the Notice of Inquiry is part of "the Biden-Harris Administration's efforts to deflect attention away from the necessary course correction."Carr has made it clear that he is interested in regulating broadcast media and social networks more than the telecom companies the FCC traditionally focuses on. Carr wrote a chapter for the conservative Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 in which he criticized the FCC for "impos[ing] heavy-handed regulation rather than relying on competition and market forces to produce optimal outcomes."With Carr at the helm, ISPs are likely to get what they're asking for: No new regulations and elimination of at least some current rules. "Rather than saddling communications providers with unnecessary, unlawful, and potentially harmful regulation, the Commission should encourage the pro-consumer benefits of competition by reducing the regulatory burdens and disparities that are currently unfairly skewing the marketplace," the NCTA told the FCC, arguing that cable companies face more onerous regulations than other communications providers.Jon BrodkinSenior IT ReporterJon BrodkinSenior IT Reporter Jon is a Senior IT Reporter for Ars Technica. He covers the telecom industry, Federal Communications Commission rulemakings, broadband consumer affairs, court cases, and government regulation of the tech industry. 45 Comments Prev story

Lollipop, lollipop Licking this lollipop will let you taste virtual flavors It produces nine flavors: Sugar, salt, citric acid, cherry, passion fruit, green tea, milk, durian, and grapefruit. Jennifer Ouellette Nov 26, 2024 2:52 pm | 21 A new interface to simulate taste in virtual and other extended reality (XR) environments. Credit: Liu et al., 2024/PNAS A new interface to simulate taste in virtual and other extended reality (XR) environments. Credit: Liu et al., 2024/PNAS Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn more Demonstrating lollipop user interface to simulate taste in virtual and augmented reality environments. Credit: Lu et al, 2024/PNAS Virtual reality (VR) technology has long sought to incorporate the human senses into virtual and mixed-reality environments. In addition to sight and sound, researchers have been trying to add the sensation of human touch and smell via various user interfaces, as well as taste. But the latter has proved to be quite challenging. A team of Hong Kong scientists has now developed a handheld user interface shaped like a lollipop capable of re-creating several different flavors in a virtual environment, according to a new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).It's well established that human taste consists of sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umamifive basic flavors induced by chemical stimulation of the tongue and, to a lesser extent, in parts of the pharynx, larynx, and epiglottis. Recreating those sensations in VR has resulted in a handful of attempts at a flavor user interface, relying on such mechanisms as chemical, thermal, and electrical stimulation, as well as iontophoresis.The chemical approach usually involves applying flavoring chemicals directly onto the tongue, but this requires room for bulk storage of said chemicals, and there is a long delay time that is not ideal for VR applications. Thermal variations applied directly to the tongue can stimulate taste sensations but require a complicated system incorporating a cooling subsystem and temperature sensors, among other components.The most mainstream method is electrical stimulation, in which the five basic flavors are simulated by varying the frequency, intensity, and direction of electrical signals on the tongue. But this method requires placing electrode patches on or near the tongue, which is awkward, and the method is prone to taste biases.So Yiming Liu of City University of Hong Kong and co-authors opted to work with iontophoresis, in which stable taste feedback is achieved by using ions flowing through biologically safe hydrogels to transport flavor chemicals. This method is safe, requires low power consumption, allows for precise taste feedback, and offers a more natural human-machine interface. Liu et al. improved on recent advances in this area by developing their portable lollipop-shaped user interface device, which also improves flavor quality and consistency.A matter of taste Schematic diagram of the gustation interfaces for providing taste feedback to a female user in a virtual environment. Credit: Liu et al., 2024/PNAS Key to the miniaturization was the use of an optimized layout of components on two layers of ultra-thin printed circuit board housed in a lightweight, 3D-printed Nylon lollipop-shaped casing. There were nine taste-generating channels filled with flavored hydrogels. The gels were made out of agarose mixed with a bit of mineral water and specific flavor essences: sugar, salt, citric acid, cherry, milk, green tea, passion fruit, durian, and grapefruit.System components included a lithium-ion battery, a microcontroller, Bluetooth module, resistors, capacitors, N-type and P-type MOSFETs, and linear regulators for wirelessly controlling the flavor channels via a graphical user interface (GUI) in the virtual environment. The final device measured 831 cm and weighed about 15 grams, on par with your average Tootsie Pop.Flavors are generated via a current flowing through a target gel, delivering flavor chemicals to the outside of the lollipop. Users can then lick the device to experience the flavors. Adding smell to the mixseven specific odor chemicalsfurther enhances the perception of taste. Future research will focus on extending the time range for the device, currently limited to about an hour because the chemically infused hydrogels shrink and run out of flavor.Liu et al. described three potential applications for their lollipop device in their paper. The first is in virtual standardized taste tests akin to hearing or vision tests. Many people suffer from "gustatory disorders," per the authors, but the current tests for such conditions are highly subjective and are time-consuming to prepare, since it requires a series of solutions of varying concentrations for all five basic flavors. The lollipop device could be adapted for such a test, in which users could lick the device and provide feedback about what they taste by clicking on the relevant button on a corresponding GUI.Another potential use is immersive online shopping in virtual grocery stores. Users could touch a specific virtual food and be able to taste that item. The device could also prove useful in a mixed-reality educational environment, such as a parent helping their child explore the flavors of different foods.PNAS, 2024. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2412116121 (About DOIs).Jennifer OuelletteSenior WriterJennifer OuelletteSenior Writer Jennifer is a senior reporter at Ars Technica with a particular focus on where science meets culture, covering everything from physics and related interdisciplinary topics to her favorite films and TV series. Jennifer lives in Baltimore with her spouse, physicist Sean M. Carroll, and their two cats, Ariel and Caliban. 21 Comments

Shane Snider, Senior Writer, InformationWeekNovember 26, 20247 Min ReadPhoto courtesy of SolarWindsSudhakar Ramakrishna was just days into his new role as SolarWinds chief executive officer when news broke of a historic nation-state hack targeting his company.During SUNBURST, a cyberattack spanning nearly two years targeted SolarWinds flagship software platform, Orion. The attack struck several US government networks, including the Departments of Commerce, Energy, Homeland Security, State, and Treasury. The 2019 attacks were revealed in December 2020. The US suspected Russian state actors were behind the breach.In the ensuing fallout, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a civil suit in October 2023 alleging the company and its CISO, Timothy Brown, had committed fraud by failing to disclose the breach sooner. In July, a federal judge dismissed most of the charges in the lawsuit.When Ramakrishna first walked into the SolarWinds offices in January 2021, he faced some tough decisions. The company in 2021 shed a large portion of its workforce in a spin-out of the N-able business, going from a headcount of 3,340 to 2,147. An observability and IT management software firm falling victim to one of the biggest cyberattacks in history took a toll on reputation and customer trust as well.Rebuilding Trust After CatastropheRelated:Fast forward three years to the present date, and things are looking brighter for SolarWinds. The companys most recent financials showed a strong third quarter 2024, with revenue of $200 million, a 6% year-over-year jump. Total annual recurring revenue for subscriptions leaped 36%. The company added to its headcount this year as well, bringing the total to 2,305.The trust of our customers and partners is something I would never take for granted, Ramakrishna tells InformationWeek in a live interview. I think the reason we won back trust is that today we are known for the company we have become, versus what happened to us in 2020. The reason I think we got to this point is based on transparency when the incident happened. While it could have happened to anyone, we took responsibility. We did not deflect blame on anyone.Despite best efforts to move forward, the Sunburst incident keeps drawing headlines. Just last month, the SEC fined four SolarWinds customers with penalties ranging from $990,000 to $4 million. The fresh actions dig up old wounds for SolarWinds as it continues to try to move forward.Ramakrishna says its hard seeing SolarWinds grabbing headlines for SUNBURST again because there is so much more positive stuff thats going on with us -- on the business side, the product side, innovation, customers and results.Related:As for maintaining trust, he says, We earn the trust of our customers every day. SUNBURST almost never really comes up when I discuss things with customers. When it does, its in the context of how we can apply the lessons you learned in our environment.Ramakrishna says that the most recent quarter showed customer retention of 97%. That is an indication of trust."Standing Up for CISOsThe indictment and prosecution of former Uber CSO Joe Sullivan sent shockwaves through the security community. In 2022, a federal judge sentenced Sullivan to 3 months probation and a fine for his response to a 2016 cyberattack that exposed millions of Uber customers data. For the first time, the government was coming directly after IT executives.When SolarWinds Brown was named in the SECs lawsuit, many CISOs saw it as a continued trend of scapegoating security executives. Instead of placating calls to fire Brown, SolarWinds shot back at the SEC publicly, denying the allegations and accusing the agency of victimizing victims.One of the very first decisions I had to make was, What do we do with Tim, Ramakrishna says of Brown. The way I thought about it was it was not an incident caused by one person. Thats an incident that many attribute to a nation-state attack so, it takes a village, as they say, to keep the companys assets secure. I dont think we should be in a world of scapegoating. We should be in the world of learning, iterating, and improving.Related:Ramakrishna says his decision to back Brown went beyond SolarWinds.As much as I care about SolarWinds, I also care about the tone we set in the industry as a community are we going to be in a world of scapegoating, or a world of progress? It was a little bit of a go against the grain decision, because I could have taken the simple route. But I would still make the same decision today.He says he felt vindicated for his stance after the federal judge dropped most of the charges in the case. I felt very strongly that we were trying to do the right things.Sullivan, who is now an independent consultant and speaker, applauded SolarWinds and Ramakrishna for standing by Brown."I think he is a role model for all CEOs," Sullivan says in an email interview. "CISOs do not operate in a vacuum -- they are part of an executive leadership team that should stand together on risk decisions that are shared decisions. It is all the more impressive that Mr. Ramakrishna was not the CEO when the incident happened but has operated with such integrity."SolarWinds Effort to De-Silo ITComing out of the SUNBURST incident, the company needed to focus its attention back on its business. Ramakrishna believes emerging technologies and strained budgets are causing IT departments to become siloed, hindering C-suite communication.No matter the size of the enterprise, there are far fewer people today in terms of being able to manage their IT environments, which are exploding into the cloud. The number of applications that a common enterprise is managing is increasing, and complexity is increasing. And nobody is saying their IT budgets are increasing -- at best case, they are flat.SolarWinds IT tools aim to help bridge the gap and de-silo the IT department for more efficiency, Ramakrishna says. We have discovered that its not sufficient to say that there is a problem. It is more useful if we can say not only that there is a problem, but theres a way to solve it or even better, to predict it. That is the journey and continuum that we have put ourselves in and when you do that, youre actually naturally de-siloing an organization.GenAI and the FutureThe ChatGPT-fueled generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) boom of the last two years has greatly impacted all aspects of the technology sector. Ramakrishna offered insights on how companies can home in on a return on investment that has been elusive for many.With any new, exciting technology with a lot of prospects, you have to go through the hype cycle, he says. We have taken a pragmatic approach to AI at large and also GenAI -- weve been investing in GenAI since about 2021 Our focus has been on the observability space related to AIOps [artificial intelligence for IT operations] and how we help customers detect issues faster. How do we help them classify issues faster and how do we help them solve issues faster?He says the company is trying to boost ROI for clients by offering enhanced productivity and more efficient problem solving through observability. You can classify it as a more deliberate approach to AI in general. I believe in 2025, there will be a lot more focus on tangible ROI from AI projects. It gets back to the fundamentals of running a business and our role is to help customers with this notion of AI observability. We manage and observe infrastructure which can be traditional data center infrastructure, cloud infrastructure, and increasingly, data centers with AI-enabled infrastructure.Those solutions, he says, have increasing needs for observability to optimize and provide ROI.Ramakrishna offers a sunny outlook for the tech industry.Im very optimistic, not just about the industrys future, because I think the industry continuously evolves but Im also very optimistic about the SolarWinds platform that we have built Some of the things that have happened to us in the past have been used as a foundation to leapfrog into the future.Read more about:RegulationAbout the AuthorShane SniderSenior Writer, InformationWeekShane Snider is a veteran journalist with more than 20 years of industry experience. He started his career as a general assignment reporter and has covered government, business, education, technology and much more. He was a reporter for the Triangle Business Journal, Raleigh News and Observer and most recently a tech reporter for CRN. He was also a top wedding photographer for many years, traveling across the country and around the world. He lives in Raleigh with his wife and two children.See more from Shane SniderNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also LikeReportsMore Reports

In March,customer service solutions provider Tidio published a survey on self-service in which 88% of respondents said they expected self-service portals from companies they do business with.Plus, 73% said they wanted to resolve their own issues independently.Swamped with trouble tickets, emails, and phone calls, IT help desk staffs want to see more user self-help, too! But can they?A myriad of software vendors provide solutions for user self-help.These systems feature searchable knowledge bases, user forums, chat services, and even the ability for users to request IT services from a menu of tasks that can easily be auto scheduled and then performed, such as the set-up of a new workstation.In some cases, self-service software is bundled with traditional help desk software. In other cases, the self-service software is standalone but can easily be integrated with commonly used help desk software. That sounds good, but the challenge for IT and other company departments, such as HR, that want to provide self-help to employees is being able to develop information that is actionable for users.SearchUnify, a customer service and self-help solutions provider, cites three major challenges in self-help systems: users not being able to find the information they are searching for; users not finding information thats relevant to their issues; and ITs failure to regularly monitor self-help systems to see how well they are working.Related:Lets examine the issues and see how IT and others can address them.Users not finding the information they want. Users can only find the information they want if the information is there.Some vendors offer self-help libraries for their systems, but most of the time it will be up to IT and user department subject matter experts to populate the knowledge base with the information users want to know.The first step in knowledgebase building is performing research to determine who the self-service target audience is. The next step is meeting with these users to understand the topics they need to learn about and identify the questions on any given topic that they are most likely to ask. Additional insights can be gleaned by reviewing notes and old question logs to see which questions were most commonly asked.Once the team determines as to the types of information that the knowledge base needs, the system can be populated with that information. The content can come from documents, blogs, videos, process steps, outside information and resources, and anything else that IT and user department subject matter experts contribute.Related:In the case of HR, for example, a common question that the knowledge base might address is when a new employees 401K contribution from the company will begin to vest. An IT question that the knowledge base might answer could be what a user should do if their workstation suddenly doesnt connect to the network.Users being able to schedule their own IT service events. Most self-help systems come with a self-service catalog feature that allows IT to list an assortment of IT services for which users can schedule requests.Examples include a user who needs a new workstation or printer configured and connected to the network; or a user who requires a company mobile device; or a security user ID-password setup. Service requests like these are easy to automate and schedule because they are straightforward tasks that IT can execute and fulfill in a timely manner.In contrast, a user request for IT to troubleshoot a mysterious system bug thats crashing a system requires investigation, and the timeframe for resolution is unknown. The complexities of these requests require that they be routed through the normal help desk function.Users finding information thats relevant. Initial information planning meetings with users help define the content of the self-help knowledgebase, but they must also take into account usability. In other words, for the topics and questions that users want to know about, can the knowledgebase quickly arrive at the bottom lines of these requests, so users can deftly help themselves and be on their way?Related:Commercial vendors build in tests for information relevancy by asking users questions after knowledge searches like, Did you find this information helpful?In this way, feedback is gathered. It enables vendors --and IT and subject matter experts -- to continually improve the quality of the knowledgebase and the self-help system functions that users experience and use.ITs need to regularly monitor self-help systems to see how well they are working. Some years ago, a software VP at what was then a 4GL (fourth generation) no/low code software company told me that his company regularly filmed users when they were test driving the generation of reports from data to see how well they were navigating screens and understanding how to use the software.We film them, observing where there is hesitance or confusion because theyre not quite sure what to do next, he said. We also check navigation. Can they easily go to the function they want to use? In some cases, the tool works exceptionally well, but weve also seen cases where weve had to revise the product to make it more user friendly, based upon the usability issues we observed from film.Software testing techniques have advanced since then, but usability is still an important goal. In the self-help environment, you want to ensure that users can easily navigate the system and swiftly get to the answers and services they need. If they cant, they cant help themselves. The only way you can do this is to monitor site abandonment levels, observe how often users are using the system, and continually solicit user feedback.A need for system maintenance.Self-help systems will never find themselves on the same mission critical system list as an ERP system, but they still need to be taken seriously by IT.To take a self-help system seriously means that it must be maintained by ensuring its working well for users and continuously delivering point-on, relevant information. All too often, there is a tendency to place the maintenance of self-help systems at the bottom of the IT to-do list, because these systems are only for internal users, and they are never classified as mission critical.A self-help system is relevant for employees ability to do work on their own with optimized self-help tools and knowledge bases at their fingertips. To keep these systems running at optimum performance levels, their knowledge bases and functions must be regulatory updated. Those who own these functions and content (e.g., IT, HR, finance, and others) should build a regular system maintenance routine for self-help systems into their operational cycles.

Produce has been the source of many foodborne illness outbreaks in the US this yearThe Image Party/ShutterstockApple sauce containing lead. Onions carrying E. coli. Deli meat spreading listeria. The past year has seen alert after alert from US public health officials warning of contamination in the food supply, both in packaged and prepared foods. Going to the grocery store or even out to eat has seemingly become a real gamble.But lately, much of the public worry over food safety has been hijacked by Robert

TechnologyToday's huge AI models are composed of several billion numbers known as weights and changing just one of them can destroy their ability to function, leading to gibberish output 26 November 2024 The output of AIs is controlled by the interactions of huge networks of nodes or weightsshulz/Getty ImagesAn artificial intelligence model can be made to spout gibberish if a single one of the many billions of numbers that compose it is altered.Large language models (LLMs) like the one behind OpenAIs ChatGPT contain billions of parameters or weights, which are the numerical values used to represent each neuron of their neural network. These are what get tuned and tweaked during training so the AI can learn abilities such as generating text. Input is passed through these weights, which determine the most statistically likely output.

Nature, Published online: 26 November 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-03745-zThe US National Ignition Facility is the only laboratory where a nuclear-fusion reaction has generated more energy than it consumed. Heres how it achieved this historic milestone and sparked fresh interest in fusion energy.

Nature, Published online: 26 November 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-03842-zDigital preservation is not keeping up with the growth of scholarly knowledge. Recognizing its causes is the first step to securing records everywhere for future generations.

In this exclusive webcast, we delve into the transformative potential of portable microservices for the deployment of generative AI models. We explore how startups and large organizations are leveraging this technology to streamline generative AI deployment, enhance customer service, and drive innovation across domains, including chatbots, document analysis, and video generation. WATCH NOW Our discussion focuses on overcoming key challenges such as deployment complexity, security, and cost management. We also discuss how microservices can help executives realize business value with generative AI while maintaining control over data and intellectual property. WATCH NOW