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Submission + - Wolves Descend on Finnish Villages After Google Hacked Down 1,300 Acres of trees (futurism.com)

fjo3 writes: Earlier in October, Finnish authorities ordered Google’s affiliate data center developer Tuike Finland Oy to immediately suspend the illegal cutting of some 1,300 acres of forest. The tech giant was given a week to draft a report explaining its actions, which soon became a flashpoint for Europe’s growing outrage over the data center boom.

As the anger grew, reporters descended on the scene — and what they found is a clear-cut example of the AI revolution’s impact on the environment.

New reporting by the Guardian shed fresh light on the impacts of Google’s deforestation. After the 1,300 acres of pristine boreal forests were reduced to tracts of mud and stumps, fauna which once called the woods home has been forced to vacate.

Comment Re:uh no (Score 1) 171

They have? I thought they conquered parts of Ukraine years ago, and the occupants (especially the ones closest to Russian border and away from the fighting) are doing just "fine" (for whatever definition of that word describes living under military occupation).

I'm no fan of Russia or anything they are doing but *genocide* seems inaccuate.

Submission + - Trump DHS asked CISA to Secretly Aquire and Hack a Voting Machine (propublica.org)

fahrbot-bot writes: ProPublica (and others) is reporting that a few months into President Donald Trump’s second term, political appointees at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) wanted Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to secretly acquire a voting machine and hack it.

In addition, the agency had been directed not to alert the voting machine company if it uncovered flaws, contrary to its standard practices. The request made the CISA employees fear they were being asked to take part in political interference.

“My thought was they could keep it in their back pocket to invalidate any [election] results they don’t like,” one of the former officials said. “This goes against everything CISA represents.” [Or, perhaps do something worse?]

The CISA employees repeatedly told the political appointees that their request was impossible, in part because the agents capable of pulling off such an operation had just been laid off by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative. The appointees eventually stopped pressing CISA.

Comment Re:Achievements (Score 1) 35

It depends on the game/player. Some people are completionists who want to experience the entire game, and achievements help them do that.

Some people don't give a crap about achievements ... but still get a small serotonin boost when Steam pops that "You just got achievement X" message.

But really instead of asking "do lots of gamers want achievements" ... just ask "would Steam and almost all game creators bother with achievements at all (that's a lot of effort across a whole lot of companies) ... if they weren't something a significant number of gamers wanted?"

Comment It's not crazy ... (Score 1) 81

That valuation is not at all a crazy if you think Anthropic has a key new technology, that will be wildly in demand in the future, with a business "moat" to help protect it (eg. a huge % of market share from being the first mover, or a set of government regulations that only it and maybe 1-2 companies can navigate) ...

... and if you think Anthropic still has that, over halfway in to 2026 ... well then actually I guess you are crazy.

Good luck to Anthropic's IPO investors ... they will need it.

Comment This Was Broadcom's Entire Plan (Score 5, Insightful) 90

Let me be clear: Broadcom did not buy VMWare to go into the virtualization business!

They bought them with the following plan:

1. Jack up the prices (by an insane amount) while reducing costs in extreme ways
2. Most customers are large enterprise users: they will change eventually ... but it will take the time, and in the meantime they will pay
3. Eventually everyone leaves VMWare ... but Broadcom (or rather the people behind it) have already pocketed enough from step #2 to pay for acquiring VMWare in the first place, plus a profit
4. VMWare, even with few/no customers, still has tons of assets like real estate: you liquidate all that and now you've made a massive profit over what it cost to buy VMWare

This was not some secret: it's a playbook Broadcom has used on acquisitions before. Maintaining a virtualization company was never their goal: it was to make money fleecing the company's corpse.

Comment Re: Enough Already (Score 1) 130

No one is getting fired for doing what Altman told them to do. These failures aren't legit, they are theater to justify regulations ...

... regulations that would create a moat Open AI desperately needs around it's business, if it wants to be able to pay back the INCREDIBLY HUGE LOANS it needs to repay in the next year or two.

Comment Re:This is Gavin Newsom's Fault (Score 1) 120

I know you're being flippant, but I'm referring to California's attorney general (who had been VERY vocal about pursuing this ... and who had been leading the charge on this lawsuit).

He capitulated after fighting hard and people were like "why would you do that?" Answer: BECAUSE GAVIN NEWSOM MADE HIM.

Comment This is Gavin Newsom's Fault (Score 1) 120

The CA attorney general buckled because of pressure from Gavin Newsom (who is worried that falling employment levels in CA might damage his run for president in a few years).

Again GAVIN NEWSOM is to blame. When he runs for president in a few years, remember it was GAVIN NEWSOM who betrayed America and forced his attorney general to let the Paramount deal through. GAVIN NEWSOME.

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