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AI

Over 1 Million People Have Clicked LinkedIn's AI Slop Button 11

Posted by BeauHD from the slop-it-up dept.
According to a post from chief product officer Hari Srinivasan, "over a million people" have clicked on LinkedIn's new "Seems like AI slop" button, which launched after one analysis found 41% of the platform's longform posts were fully AI-generated. The Verge reports: In Thursday's post, Srinivasan said that users are overall "now experiencing 40% less views on what we classify as AI slop from just a few weeks ago." LinkedIn is also adding a new message that will tell users who make a post if "Some members told us this post seems like AI." "We approached this assuming good intent; I know I'm increasingly conscious on how to not sound like AI & the goal is to provide helpful feedback," Srinivasan said.

Comment Re:Linux Domestic Everywhere (Score 1) 61

by AmiMoJo (#66301426) Attached to: China Joins Europe In Scrapping Windows For Linux

China has domestic hardware for government computers.

For example, they have multiple domestic CPU designs. RISC-V, ARM, MIPS, and even some licensed AMD Epyc cores with the random number generators replaced by domestic designs.

Richard Stalman used to have one of the MIPS CPUs IIRC, until it got stolen. Reason being that it was the freest laptop available at the time, running almost entirely open source software.

Submission + - Battery fires at recycling centres are costing UK £1bn a year, figures sho (theguardian.com)

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: Fires at recycling centres caused by wrongly discarded lithium batteries such as those found in vapes are occurring at the rate of more than 10 a week, according to new figures.

Experts say the sheer volume of battery fires now occurring at waste facilities has reached a crisis that is putting lives at risk, costing £1bn a year and frustrating fire chiefs.

In figures shared with the Guardian, the Environment Services Association (ESA), the trade body for waste management companies, said its members had reported 1,518 fires in the year to March 2026. At least 541 of these fires were directly attributed to lithium ion batteries, the survey found. There were a further 216 battery fires in bin lorries.

Comment Re:This isn't the EU. He's going to win. (Score 1) 209

Cloning the data won't help. The data on any half decent phone is encrypted. The encryption key is kept insecure a secure memory, which requires the password to unlock.

When you use the duress password, it doesn't overwrite the data on the flash memory, instead that key is wiped. The secure memory has an integrated processor that generates a new key.

Merely having a copy of the data is useless, because unless there is a flaw in the key generation there is no way you can decrypt it. If there is a flaw, a mere border agent probably isn't going to have access to that information, it's the sort of thing that the NSA keeps to itself.
Earth

'Off the Charts' El Nino Is Already the Strongest Since Records Began 42

Posted by BeauHD from the record-breaking dept.
A rapidly developing El Nino is already reaching record-setting levels for this time of year and is expected to intensify further over the coming months. "The El Nino has blossomed. It is off the charts. Usual measures of El Nino have blown past prior record levels in the period with good data, even though maximum effects are still several months in the future," writes renowned climate scientist James Hansen at Columbia University in New York in a newsletter sent today. Climate scientists disagree over whether it has already surpassed previous "super El Nino" events on every metric, but several say the signal is unprecedented in forecasts and could ultimately become the strongest modern event on record. New Scientist reports: There are different ways of measuring El Ninos, which occur when warm surface waters spread eastwards along the equator across the surface of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Hansen thinks the best measure is how much warmer than usual the upper 300 meters of the eastern tropical Pacific becomes. "Our preferred metric, the heat anomaly in the upper 300 meters of the Equatorial Pacific Ocean... already exceeds the 1997-98 super El Nino," he writes.

[...] What's clear is that this developing super El Nino will soon exceed previous events on all measures. "I have never seen an El Nino signal this intense in our forecasts," [Adam Scaife at the Met Office, the UK's national weather service] said in a statement released today. "If the forecast is accurate... then 2026 will far exceed our recent experience of El Nino and its worldwide climate influences."

While Hansen is comparing the developing super El Nino to other modern events for which we have direct temperature records, Hayley Fowler at Newcastle University in the UK thinks it could also exceed historical events suspected to be even larger. "The super El Nino evolving in the Pacific will likely be the biggest ever recorded, reaching or exceeding the levels of the 1877-1878 El Nino which caused widespread impacts, including famines and around 50 million deaths (3-4 percent of the global population at the time), mostly across Asia and South America," Fowler said in a statement.

Comment Re: Linux Domestic Everywhere (Score 1) 61

by rsilvergun (#66301318) Attached to: China Joins Europe In Scrapping Windows For Linux
They already are. China is ramping up ram production. You won't be able to buy any of it because the big three will make sure that there are 10,000% tariffs on Chinese ram or that it's just plain blocked entirely. Some of it will probably make its way into apples computers albeit through illegal supply chain shenanigans. None of it will be designed to protect national security or the consumer it'll be about maintaining the big three triopoly.

And we will somehow keep voting for the same imbeciles who do this to us every year either because they're really good at pushing our buttons or because we somehow fall for the overwhelming amount of propaganda.

I don't necessarily blame somebody for falling for the propaganda you can't just decide to be smarter. Hell I wish I could just turn up my IQ points at times but I can't. Some people can't see past propaganda anymore than I can understand particle physics.

But the people who indulge in moral panics like transpanic or satanic panic or the freak outs over comics or if you want to go really far back penny dreadfuls. Those people can fuck right off.
China

China Joins Europe In Scrapping Windows For Linux (zdnet.com) 61

Posted by BeauHD from the end-of-life dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: According to a Bloomberg report, attributed to China's Ministry of State Security, the country has ordered some government agencies to drop Windows 10 China Government Edition for Chinese-made Linux distributions. Why not Windows 11? Because China, like many other non-US governments, no longer trusts American companies with their software and services. This approach is all about digital sovereignty. In addition, even before the recent trend of governments outside America moving away from Windows, Beijing has started a long-running push to replace foreign technology in sensitive systems with domestic, open-source alternatives.

[...] The Chinese government did not specify which Linux versions would replace Windows 10. However, the stock prices of Chinese Linux suppliers, Kylin Software and Tongxin Software Technology (commonly known as UnionTech), immediately jumped. These companies' respective operating systems, Kylin OS (no relation to Ubuntu Kylin) and UnionTech OS (UOS), were already positioned as domestic desktop and server replacements for Windows in government, state-owned enterprise, and critical-infrastructure environments. [...] Huawei's HarmonyOS 2, which began as an Android variant but is now a proprietary mobile and Internet of Things (IoT) operating system, is also being developed into a PC platform. HarmonyOS 2 won't be deployed anytime soon. Kylin and UOS are the only mature desktops that are ready for institutional desktop deployments.

[...] ... this transition won't be easy. For agencies now moving off the government Windows build, the issue will be more demanding than simply swapping one desktop interface for another. Migration requires application testing, peripheral and driver validation, identity system integration, document-format compatibility, staff retraining and, in many cases, replacement or adaptation of Windows-dependent line-of-business software. The report provides no details on exactly how this transformation will occur. But the speed of the shift suggests that these issues are already being addressed in China's centralized managed desktop stack.

Comment Re:We put 8 protesters in jail for life (Score 1) 209

So I understand that you can only read at about a fourth grade level because well, you're a bot trained on Americans talking on the internet and all.

But Jesus Christ could we please improve the quality of the bots around here? They are starting to get embarrassing. I frankly expect better technical skills from the sort of person who runs a bot on a dying web forum.
Government

Township Fights Nuclear Weapons Data Center By Passing a Moratorium on Electrical Infrastructure (404media.co) 31

Posted by BeauHD from the what-will-they-think-of-next dept.
Ypsilanti Township, Michigan, has imposed a six-month moratorium on "major electric utility infrastructure" in its latest attempt to delay a proposed $1.2 billion University of Michigan-Los Alamos data center that would support nuclear-weapons research. Township leaders, who have already paused water service for data centers, say the project has moved forward without adequate consultation and want more time to study noise, grid impacts, and other effects on residents. 404 Media reports: Last year, the university announced it was partnering with LANL on the construction of a massive 220,000 square foot hyperscale data center in Ypsilanti Township and residents have been fighting it ever since. During a meeting of the Township Board on August 18, the council unanimously passed a resolution that will delay the construction of new electrical infrastructure for 180 days. Data centers need a lot of energy, and Michigan's power authority will have to build new substations in the Township to power the proposed facility. The moratorium asked the local power authorities to use the six month delay to study noise pollution and how the new infrastructure would affect existing customers.

The moratorium is narrowly focused on "the nature and scale of electrical infrastructure necessary to serve new high-energy-demand land uses [...] including infrastructure associated, but not limited to hyper-scale data centers, mid-sized data centers, artificial intelligence computing facilities, and high-performance computational centers, industrial facilities, and other intensive electrical users."

Earlier this month, the University of Michigan announced it had settled on a specific plot of land in Ypsilanti Township -- a 144-acre plot on Textile Road. In a press release about the decision, the University said the data center would have the "capacity to change the world" and insisted it would not be a "high value target risk" in a war, that it would not store any hazardous nuclear material, and was not a weapons production facility. LANL previously confirmed that the data center will be used for nuclear weapons research. Ypsilanti Township Supervisor Brenda Stumbo told WEMU news that the selection of the site was a "travesty of justice" because it ignores constituents' concerns about environmental impact.

During the August 18 moratorium vote, the Board projected a large stock photograph of an electric substation behind its members. The photo was meant to remind people of the size of the incoming infrastructure and the lack of communication from the university about it. "This picture's really important to think about because U of M has been so crystal clear that they've been communicating to us abundantly -- which is not true," Township clerk Debbie Swanson said during the meeting. "That speaks to the lack of respect."

Comment We put 8 protesters in jail for life (Score 2) 209

And nobody batted an eye.

Even if you make the argument that one of the eight fired a gun that might have hit a cop you've still got to contend with the other seven who were just at a protest and are now rotting in prison until the day they die unless a Democrat president happens to pardon them, either that or they can come up with a couple million dollars each to buy a pardon from Trump.

I guess what I'm getting at here is you already gave up your civil rights. Or if you didn't then your neighbor did for you.

It is possible you will get them back in two or three years. But is it stands right now you have absolutely no civil rights in this country. At any moment the current administration and the courts they packed with corrupt judges could decide you're a terrorist and you're off to Federal pound me in the ass prison for the rest of your life contingent on the Democrats winning an election and having the political Capital available to pardon you.

So it's not even news that some guy who tried to exercise a basic civil right is going to jail now. If he gets off it will be because he lucked into the unique combination of a judge that wasn't corrupt and a jury who can read above a fourth grade level. And those aren't odds I would want to take.
Apple

Apple Cuts Jobs In Siri, Vision Pro Immersive Video and Gaming Teams 17

Posted by BeauHD from the job-cuts dept.
Apple is cutting more than 200 jobs as it shifts resources toward a rebuilt, AI-powered Siri and other future products. Roughly 100 positions are being eliminated from the Vision Pro organization, including much of its gaming team and some immersive-video staff. Another 100 cuts are hitting the Siri and software teams. Bloomberg reports: In a statement, Apple acknowledged that it was realigning some teams "to evolve our business to deliver the best experiences for our users." "While we will create new roles as part of this change, it will also impact a limited number of existing roles," the company said. "We are grateful to these team members for their contributions, and we are committed to supporting them throughout their transition, including opportunities to apply for other roles at Apple."

The Siri reshuffling is tied to an upcoming AI-infused version of the assistant, which is built on a new technical architecture. That shift requires a change in the necessary expertise, prompting the company to eliminate a small number of existing roles, reallocate resources and create new positions supporting the updated Siri.

The changes to the Intelligent Systems Experience team reflect an effort to reorganize work on AI-powered capabilities. As more groups bring AI functions to apps, features and services, Apple is realigning teams to match priorities and accelerate development. The restructuring will eliminate some existing positions while creating new roles.

Submission + - China Joins Europe In Scrapping Windows For Linux (zdnet.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: According to a Bloomberg report, attributed to China's Ministry of State Security, the country has ordered some government agencies to drop Windows 10 China Government Edition for Chinese-made Linux distributions. Why not Windows 11? Because China, like many other non-US governments, no longer trusts American companies with their software and services. This approach is all about digital sovereignty. In addition, even before the recent trend of governments outside America moving away from Windows, Beijing has started a long-running push to replace foreign technology in sensitive systems with domestic, open-source alternatives.

[...] The Chinese government did not specify which Linux versions would replace Windows 10. However, the stock prices of Chinese Linux suppliers, Kylin Software and Tongxin Software Technology (commonly known as UnionTech), immediately jumped. These companies' respective operating systems, Kylin OS (no relation to Ubuntu Kylin) and UnionTech OS (UOS), were already positioned as domestic desktop and server replacements for Windows in government, state-owned enterprise, and critical-infrastructure environments. [...] Huawei's HarmonyOS 2, which began as an Android variant but is now a proprietary mobile and Internet of Things (IoT) operating system, is also being developed into a PC platform. HarmonyOS 2 won't be deployed anytime soon. Kylin and UOS are the only mature desktops that are ready for institutional desktop deployments.

[...] ... this transition won't be easy. For agencies now moving off the government Windows build, the issue will be more demanding than simply swapping one desktop interface for another. Migration requires application testing, peripheral and driver validation, identity system integration, document-format compatibility, staff retraining and, in many cases, replacement or adaptation of Windows-dependent line-of-business software. The report provides no details on exactly how this transformation will occur. But the speed of the shift suggests that these issues are already being addressed in China's centralized managed desktop stack.

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