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Submission + - Proposed Changes To Landmark EU Privacy Law 'Death By a Thousand Cuts' (reuters.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Privacy activists say proposed changes to Europe's landmark privacy law, including making it easier for Big Tech to harvest Europeans' personal data for AI training, would flout EU case law and gut the legislation. The changes proposed by the European Commission are part of a drive to simplify a slew of laws adopted in recent years on technology, environmental and financial issues which have in turn faced pushback from companies and the U.S. government.

EU antitrust chief Henna Virkkunen will present the Digital Omnibus, in effect proposals to cut red tape and overlapping legislation such as the General Data Protection Regulation, the Artificial Intelligence Act, the e-Privacy Directive and the Data Act, on November 19. According to the plans, Google, Meta Platforms, OpenAI and other tech companies may be allowed to use Europeans' personal data to train their AI models based on legitimate interest.

In addition, companies may be exempted from the ban on processing special categories of personal data "in order not to disproportionately hinder the development and operation of AI and taking into account the capabilities of the controller to identify and remove special categories of personal data." [...] The proposals would need to be thrashed out with EU countries and European Parliament in the coming months before they can be implemented.

Submission + - ISRAEL UNVEILS âMILK WITHOUT COWSâ(TM)⦠WOULD YOU DRINK IT? (nerds.xyz)

Submitted by BrianFagioli
BrianFagioli writes: A new product called The New Milk is rolling out across Israel, produced through fermentation instead of farming. Remilk and Gad Dairies say it tastes and behaves exactly like traditional dairy, but contains no lactose, no cholesterol, and is certified kosher-pareve. Itâ(TM)s showing up first in cafés before heading to supermarkets in 2026. Supporters call it the future of dairy. Critics say itâ(TM)s science experiment milk.

Submission + - UK Secondary Schools Pivoting from Narrowly Focused CS Curriculum to AI Literacy

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: The UK Department for Education is "replacing its narrowly focused computer science GCSE with a broader, future-facing computing GCSE [General Certificate of Secondary Education] and exploring a new qualification in data science and AI for 16–18-year-olds." The move aims to correct unintended consequences of a shift made more than a decade ago from the existing ICT (Information and Communications Technology) curriculum, which focused on basic digital skills, to a more rigorous Computer Science curriculum at the behest of major tech firms and advocacy groups to address concerns about the UK’s programming talent pipeline.

The UK pivot from rigorous CS to AI literacy comes as tech-backed nonprofit Code.org leads a similar shift in the U.S., pivoting from its original 2013 mission calling for rigorous CS for U.S. K-12 students to a new mission that embraces AI literacy. Code.org next month will replace its flagship Hour of Code event with a new Hour of AI "designed to bring AI education into the mainstream" with the support of its partners, including Microsoft, Google, and Amazon. Code.org has pledged to engage 25 million learners with the new Hour of AI this school year.

Submission + - A jailed hacking kingpin reveals all about cybercrime gang (bbc.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Penchukov and the gangs he either led or was a part of stole tens of millions of pounds from them.

In the late 2000s, he and the infamous Jabber Zeus crew used revolutionary cyber-crime tech to steal directly from the bank accounts of small businesses, local authorities and even charities. Victims saw their savings wiped out and balance sheets upended. In the UK alone, there were more than 600 victims, who lost more than £4m ($5.2m) in just three months.

Between 2018 and 2022, Penchukov set his sights higher, joining the thriving ransomware ecosystem with gangs that targeted international corporations and even a hospital.

Submission + - Why Solarpunk is already happening in Africa (substack.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: You know that feeling when you’re waiting for the cable guy, and they said ‘between 8am and 6pm, and you waste your entire day, and they never show up?

Now imagine that, except the cable guy is ‘electricity,’ the day is ‘50 years,’ and you’re one of 600 million people. At some point, you stop waiting and figure it out yourself.

What’s happening across Sub-Saharan Africa right now is the most ambitious infrastructure project in human history, except it’s not being built by governments or utilities or World Bank consortiums. It’s being built by startups selling solar panels to farmers on payment plans. And it’s working.

Over 30 million solar products sold in 2024. 400,000 new solar installations every month across Africa. 50% market share captured by companies that didn’t exist 15 years ago. Carbon credits subsidizing the cost. IoT chips in every device. 90%+ repayment rates on loans to people earning $2/day.

And if you understand what’s happening in Africa, you understand the template for how infrastructure will get built everywhere else for the next 50 years.

Submission + - DHS head reportedly authorized purchase of planes that airline didn't own (theguardian.com)

Submitted by joshuark
joshuark writes: DHS head reportedly authorized purchase of 10 engineless Spirit Airlines planes that airline didn’t own– and that the aircraft lacked engines. The bizarre anecdote was contained in a Wall Street Journal report released on Friday, which recounted how Noem and Corey Lewandowski – who managed Donald Trump’s first winning presidential campaign – had recently arranged to buy 10 Boeing 737 aircraft from Spirit Airlines. People familiar with the situation told the paper that the two intended to use the jets to expand deportation flights – and for personal travel.

Complicating matters further, Spirit, which filed for bankruptcy protection for the second time, in August, did not own the jets and their engines would have had to be bought separately. Meanwhile, Democrats on the House appropriations committee said in October that during this fall’s record-long government shutdown, the DHS had already acquired two Gulfstream jets for $200m.

“It has come to our attention that, in the midst of a government shutdown, the United States Coast Guard entered into a sole source contract with Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation to procure two new G700 luxury jets to support travel for you and the deputy secretary, at a cost to the taxpayer of $200m,” Democratic representatives Rosa DeLauro and Lauren Underwood wrote in a letter to the DHS.

The American taxpayer's dollars at work for truth, freedom, justice, and the American $$$ way.

Submission + - Scientists Reveal How The Maya Predicted Eclipses For Centuries (sciencealert.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Instead, they propose that a new table is begun in the 358th month of the current table. With this approach, the table's predictions are only about 2 hours and 20 minutes early for both Sun and Moon alignment.

"This procedure would also entail that, occasionally, the first date in a successor table would be set at the 223rd month, about 10 hours and 10 min later relative to that alignment, to adjust for the gradually accumulating deviations of resettings at month 358," the authors write.

By comparing the table with our modern knowledge of eclipse cycles, they found that with this method, the Maya would have been able to accurately predict every solar eclipse observable in their territory between 350 and 1150 CE, since it corrects for the small errors that accumulate over time.

Submission + - Midi synth/sequencer for MenuetOS

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: You can use upto 256 instruments, which receive at differerent midi channels and note ranges. It has displays for sequencer tracks, synth, mixer, piano roll and notation.Menuet scheduler runs at 1000hz and can be set as high as 100000hz (100khz). So the limiting latency factor is usually sound cards buffer length. The sequencer, like MenuetOS, is written in 64bit assembly.

https://www.reddit.com/r/synth...
https://www.menuetos.net/

Submission + - UK Replacing Narrowly Focused CS GCSE in Pivot to AI Literacy for Schoolkids

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: The UK Department for Education announced this week that it is "replacing the narrowly focused computer science GCSE with a broader, future-facing computing GCSE [General Certificate of Secondary Education] and exploring a new qualification in data science and AI for 16–18-year-olds." The move aims to correct the unintended consequences of a shift made more than a decade ago from the existing ICT (Information and Communications Technology) curriculum, which focused on basic digital skills, to a more rigorous Computer Science curriculum at the behest of major tech firms and advocacy groups like Google, Microsoft, and the British Computer Society, who pushed for a curriculum overhaul to address concerns about the UK’s programming talent pipeline (a similar U.S. talent pipeline crisis was also declared around the same time).

From the Government Response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review: "We will rebalance the computing curriculum as the Review suggests, to ensure pupils develop essential digital literacy whilst retaining important computer science content. Through the reformed curriculum, pupils will know from a young age how computers can be trained using data and they will learn essential digital skills such as AI literacy."

The UK pivot from rigorous CS to AI literacy comes as tech-backed nonprofit Code.org is orchestrating a similar move in the U.S., pivoting from its original 2013 mission calling for rigorous CS for U.S. K-12 students to a new mission that embraces AI literacy. Code.org next month will replace its flagship Hour of Code event with a new Hour of AI "designed to bring AI education into the mainstream" that's supported by AI giants and Code.org donors Microsoft, Google, and Amazon. In September, Code.org pledged to the White House at an AI Education Task Force meeting led by First Lady Melania Trump and attended by U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and Google CEO Sundar Pichai (OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was spotted in the audience) that it will engage 25 million learners in the new Hour of AI this school year, build AI pathways in 25 states, and launch a free high school AI course for 400,000 students by 2028.

Submission + - White House labels BBC 'fake news' over program on Capitol "insurrection"

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: White House labels BBC ‘fake news’ over program on Capitol insurrection

“White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt accused the BBC of being “purposefully dishonest” over the broadcaster’s depiction of the 2021 U.S. Capitol Hill insurrection in a Panorama documentary.”

“The British public broadcaster has been under fire in recent days over allegations that it misled viewers by splicing footage from different portions of U.S. President Donald Trump’s remarks on Jan. 6, 2021 — the day that protesters breached the U.S. Congress.”

Submission + - Global Incident Response Report 2025

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Global Incident Response Report 2025

“First, threat actors are augmenting traditional ransomware and extortion with attacks designed to intentionally disrupt operations. In 2024, 86% of incidents that Unit 42 responded to involved business disruption — spanning operational downtime, reputational damage or both.”

Submission + - Rocky Linux becomes NVIDIAâ(TM)s preferred AI platform (nerds.xyz)

Submitted by BrianFagioli
BrianFagioli writes: Rocky Linux is now the first Linux distribution authorized to ship with the complete NVIDIA AI software stack out of the box, including CUDA Toolkit and DOCA OFED. CIQ, the company backing Rocky Linux, says this eliminates the usual configuration work needed to get GPU clusters running, allowing organizations to go from installation to inference far faster. The move is aimed directly at HPC and large-scale AI deployments where scaling from a few development nodes to thousands of production nodes is often held back by networking configuration and driver validation problems.

The partnership also strengthens Rocky Linuxâ(TM)s position as the post-CentOS enterprise platform for compute workloads. It suggests that NVIDIA wants AI infrastructure to function more like pre-validated appliances rather than DIY Linux stacks. Supporters say this will reduce deployment costs and headaches. Critics are already calling it another step toward deeper NVIDIA lock-in, as the distribution increasingly becomes tuned around proprietary GPU tooling.

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