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Submission + - An Ancient Poop Explosion Could Have Helped Complex Life Evolve (sciencealert.com)

alternative_right writes: If the earliest animals hadn't been such prolific poopers, life might not have diversified into all the weird and wonderful forms we see today.

That's the conclusion reached by a new review study published in Trends in Ecology & Evolution.

The team of scientists in Australia and Germany found that the Cambrian explosion â" a period around 540 million years ago when the ancestors of most animal groups arose â" could have been partly set in motion by an explosion of feces, left by those that came before.

Submission + - Trump administration drafting ban on Chinese data center devices (yahoo.com)

schwit1 writes: The Federal Communications Commission, which oversees the U.S. telecom industry, is working on the measure to bar imports of new Chinese optical transceivers, which allow data to travel over fiber-optic cables at the speed of light within data centers. Officials hope to publish it this year, when it would take effect.

The move, not previously reported, aims to prevent Chinese firms from stealing data, installing malware or disrupting service at U.S. data centers, which house the chips to train and run AI models.

The FCC could still modify or shelve the restriction, the sources stressed, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. But it is the latest example of the Trump administration trying to limit Chinese technological incursions into cutting-edge U.S. industries before they become embedded in the supply chain.

"Transceivers definitely pose a risk," said Divyansh Kaushik, an AI policy expert at Washington, D.C., advisory firm Beacon Global Strategies. "As the data center buildout scales up, you want to make sure the data center supply chain is secure from the get-go," he added.

A U.S. ban on new models of Chinese data center devices would likely hit China's Zhongji Innolight, one of the biggest global sellers of transceivers, which was added to the Pentagon's list of alleged Chinese military-backed companies in June. The list can be a harbinger of tougher action. Innolight did not respond to requests for comment.

A ban could also raise costs for American cloud firms such as Amazon Web Services, as it may force them to transition to other producers such as U.S.-based Coherent and Lumentum.

Comment Re:Apple got lucky on the timing (Score 1) 122

Why did they decide they now they need to release a $500 student laptop? It's only because they've been losing business to Chromebooks for a decade.

Even worse than that, it's probably only because they had a bunch of chips that wouldn't bin out as higher spec parts, and they wanted to use them up, so they will probably do a rugpull sooner or later.

Comment Re: Well gee wiz! (Score 1) 74

And here I was thinking AC required an external compressor and condensor unit.

Thinking is what you were pretending to do. Nobody thinks that the connections don't go to anything. You made that up in order to feel smart, but since literally nobody is as stupid as the person you made up in your head to compare yourself to, in fact that's just pathetic.

Comment Re: Hold on to your papers... (Score 1) 100

"The problem is you don't follow AI companies closely and both Anthropic and OpenAI have announced that their latest models have optimized their own code to run faster and more efficiently, which means that LLMs have already allowed them to make more money"

False. The correct term is lose less money. Zero of these AI companies are in the black.

Submission + - Apple Launches Legal Challenge Against UK Government Demand to Access Data (theguardian.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Apple has launched a new legal challenge against a UK government demand to access its customers’ highly encrypted data, a year after the Home Office agreed to abandon its previous request. The US tech company launched the legal complaint last month at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), an independent court that has the power to investigate claims that the UK intelligence services have acted unlawfully. The UK government had made a second request to Apple to grant it a “back door” to encrypted iCloud data belonging to British users, according to an order issued by the court.

Britain backed down on its original demand for access to data from UK and US customers last year, after a heated transatlantic tussle over encryption between London and Washington. UK authorities subsequently issued a new “technical capability notice” (TCN) to Apple that did not apply to American users. Apple is seeking to challenge the British government’s powers to issue TCNs under the UK Investigatory Powers Act, according to the details of the new legal case first reported by the Financial Times. [...] The original TCN issued last year asked Apple for the right to see users’ encrypted data protected by its advanced data protection (ADP) program in the event of a national security risk.

Apple said the removal of the tool – which not even it can access – would make users more vulnerable to data breaches from bad actors and other threats to customer privacy. Creating a “back door” would also mean all data was accessible by Apple, which it could be forced to share with law enforcement possessing a warrant. As a result, Apple withdrew UK customers’ access to its ADP program in January 2025. The Home Office has maintained that the Investigatory Powers Act, under which such orders are issued, contains robust safeguards and is used only when absolutely necessary.

Comment Re: Employer created and managed Apple IDs (Score 1) 29

But compared to Windows? My doctor's telehealth portal doesn't like Linux, so that was out too.

Ouch. That's the rub indeed, people are getting fucked over by their "service" "providers". I'm able to use everything so far from Linux; the local hospital's telehealth and my bank's website will even work in Firefox, but I need to use Chromium (ungoogled is OK) to pay my bills. Otherwise I have to use the phone payment system, which of course is super duper easy actually but I'd still rather do it on the web.

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