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Submission + - Microsoft disbles preview in File Explorer to block attacks (bleepingcomputer.com) 1

Submitted by joshuark
joshuark writes: Microsoft says that the File Explorer (formerly Windows Explorer) now automatically blocks previews for files downloaded from the Internet to block credential theft attacks via malicious documents. This attack vector is particularly concerning because it requires no user interaction beyond selecting a file to preview and removes the need to trick a target into actually opening or executing it on their system.

For most users, no action is required since the protection is enabled automatically with the October 2025 security update, and existing workflows remain unaffected unless you regularly preview downloaded files.

"This change is designed to enhance security by preventing a vulnerability that could leak NTLM hashes when users preview potentially unsafe files."

It is important to note that this may not take effect immediately and could require signing out and signing back in.

Submission + - GM no longer to support Apple CarPlay or Android Auto (nypost.com)

Submitted by jmurtari
jmurtari writes: This may go down as another amazing tail of Corporate Brand suicide! GM wants to give its cherished customers a more customized experience.... That's what every car drive wants — learning the quirks of another nav system! Thanks!

Submission + - Analytics Platform Databricks Joins Amazon, Microsoft in AI Demo Hall of Shame

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: If there was an AI Demo Hall of Shame, the first inductee would have to be Amazon, whose demo to support its CEO's claims that Amazon Q Code Transformation AI saved it 4,500 developer-years and an additional $260 million in 'annualized efficiency gains' by automatically and accurately upgrading code to a more current version of Java showcased a program that didn't even spell 'Java' correctly (it was instead called 'Jave'). Also worthy of a spot is Microsoft, whose AI demo of a Copilot-driven Excel school exam analysis for educators reassured a teacher they needn't be concerned about the student who received a 27% test score, autogenerating a chart to back up its claim.

Today's nominee for the AI Demo Hall of Shame inductee is analytics platform Databricks for the NYC Taxi Trips Analysis it's been showcasing on its Data Science page since last November. Not only for its choice of a completely trivial case study that requires no 'Data Science' skills — find and display the ten most expensive and longest taxi rides — but also for the horrible AI-generated bar chart used to present the results of the simple ranking that deserves its own spot in the Graph Hall of Shame. In response to a prompt of "Now create a new bar chart with matplotlib for the most expensive trips," the Databricks AI Assistant dutifully complies with the ill-advised request, spewing out Python code to display the ten rides on a nonsensical bar chart whose continuous x-axis hides points sharing the same distance (one might also question why no annotation is provided to call out or explain the 3 trips with a distance of 0 miles that are among the ten most expensive rides, with fares of $260, $188, and $105).

Looked at with a critical eye, all three of these examples used to sell data scientists, educators, management, investors, and Wall Street on AI by Amazon (market cap $2.32 trillion), Microsoft (market cap $3.87 trillion), and Databricks (valuation $100+ billion) would likely raise eyebrows rather than impress their intended audiences. So, is AI fever so great that it sells itself and companies needn't even bother reviewing their AI demos to see if they make sense?

Submission + - Iceland Just Found Its First Mosquitoes (cnn.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Iceland’s frozen, inhospitable winters have long protected it from mosquitoes, but that may be changing. This week, scientists announced the discovery of three mosquitoes — marking the country’s first confirmed finding of these insects in the wild. Mosquitoes are found almost everywhere in the world, with the exception of Antarctica and, until very recently, Iceland, due to their extreme cold.

The mosquitoes were discovered by Bjorn Hjaltason in Kioafell, Kjos, in western Iceland about 20 miles north of the capital Reykjavik. “At dusk on October 16, I caught sight of a strange fly,” Hjaltason posted in a Facebook group about insects, according to reports in the Icelandic media. “I immediately suspected what was going on and quickly collected the fly,” he added.

He contacted Matthías Alfreosson, an entomologist at the Natural Science Institute of Iceland, who drove out to Hjaltason’s house the next day. They captured three in total, two females and a male. Alfreðsson identified them as mosquitoes from the Culiseta annulata species. A single mosquito from a different species was discovered many years ago on an airplane at the country’s Keflavik International Airport, Alfreosson told CNN, but this “is the first record of mosquitoes occurring in the natural environment in Iceland.”

Submission + - CCP GOTION DEAD: Whitmer-funded Chinese battery maker pulls plug on project (themidwesterner.news)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: While Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Michigan Economic Development Corporation contends it’s “not the outcome we hoped for,” residents in Mecosta County are celebrating its decision to nix $715 million in taxpayer-funded incentives for Gotion.

MEDC officials on Thursday notified lawmakers that the company with strong ties to the Chinese Communist Party is in breach of its economic development contract, which was negotiated in secret by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration and select lawmakers just three years ago.

“It’s about damn time,” Marjorie Steele, founder of the Economic Development Responsibility Alliance that opposed Gotion’s planned $2.4 billion EV battery plant, told Bridge Michigan. “What the MEDC tried to pull here in Big Rapids was just so egregious.”

Whitmer claimed in 2022 that the agreement, which included $715 million in taxpayer-funded incentives and tax breaks, would fuel “the biggest ever economic development project in Northern Michigan” and create “2,350 good-paying jobs in Big Rapids.”

Submission + - Japanese convenience stores are hiring robots run by workers in the Philippines

Submitted by John.Banister
John.Banister writes: Teleoperated robot workers are here! No more worries about immigrants taking jobs, as the jobs themselves can be exported. Anything that isn't done by the cheapest labor can be exported to where the skilled labor is cheap. And, what better way to train AI replacements than the encoded stimulus and response of teleoperation?

Submission + - Am I The Last Surviving 3-Digit User ID on Slashdot? 4

Submitted by Jeremiah Cornelius
Jeremiah Cornelius writes: Some distinctions mean very little to anyone other than the singular individual holding them. Are there others remaining? Does Rob Malda ever bother checking in here? Who remembers the promising ascent and rapid zenith of VA Linux Systems? How about the decade-old sighting of the Slashdot PT Cruiser?

If you're out there we want to hear from you. Or just tell us why we don't.

Submission + - Alaska Airlines grounds flights nationwide due to IT outage (go.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Alaska Airlines flights were grounded nationwide on Thursday after the airline said it was experiencing an "IT outage affecting operations."

The Federal Aviation Administration issued a ground stop after a request by the airline.

Alaska Airlines flights departing from Seattle Tacoma International Airport were not affected, according to the latest advisory from the FAA.

It's the second IT outage affecting the airline this year.

Submission + - Former R.I. Governor Raimondo is Rethinking Coding Education Push in AI Era

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: As Governor of Rhode Island, the Boston Globe reports, Gina Raimondo made a relentless push to expand computer science in K-12 education, part of an effort to train more students to code. But during a forum at the Harvard Institute of Politics this week, the former R.I. Governor and past U.S. Secretary of Commerce suggested the Computer Science for All initiative might have been a dud (YouTube).

“For a long time, everyone said, ‘let’s make everybody a coder,’” Raimondo said. “We’re going to predict this is where the skills are going to be. Everyone should be a software coder. I don’t know, it doesn’t look necessarily like a super idea right now with AI.”

Raimondo was responding to a question about investing in research and development versus the government picking specific companies to invest in, the Globe notes. She was critical of President Trump’s strategy of having the United States take a stake in companies, although she defended the Biden administration’s handling of subsidies through the CHIPS and Science Act. “You could pick 100 different examples,” Raimondo said. “The government gets it wrong a lot.” Raimondo launched the computer science initiative as governor in 2016 to ensure that it was part of every student’s experience in Rhode Island. It was a trendy – and widely praised – strategy at the time.

Comment Yes but (Score 1) 2

by JustAnotherOldGuy (#65745746) Attached to: The under-discussed MAGA broken promise

Anyone who believes a word Trump says should have their head examined, me included.

He lies with every breath and most of the time he has no idea what he's doing or what he's done.

He lives in the moment with no past, no future, just primal rage and monomania for whatever lie or grift he's currently running.

Submission + - A SiriusXM Update Sent Some Audi Screens Into A Forced-Reboot Loop For Months (thedrive.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: This week, a reader wrote to us sharing that the infotainment in their 2020 Audi A4 had been “rebooting every five minutes all year.” It looks like the problem was caused by a compatibility issue with a SiriusXM app update. Audi tells us the situation’s been rectified, but it illustrates a serious pain point in modern cars—myriad apps interacting with a diverse population of in-car software systems. Our reader was not the only Audi owner affected. “Randomly restarting” Audi infotainment screens have been discussed on Reddit, the Audiworld forum, and elsewhere, going back many months. Audi’s recall notice and related service action only went out this summer.

It looks like this particular problem was caused when the satellite radio app pushed an update that was supposed to work on the latest version of Audi’s infotainment software, but not all cars were running that. Then SiriusXM reverted, which, I guess, did not solve the problem for every owner. Audi now states that the problem has been fixed and originated with the SiriusXM app, but really, the automaker bears more than a little blame, too. [...] I dropped our own contacts at Audi a note about how and why this might have happened, and they added this clarification: "At the beginning of the year, SiriusXM did a programming update which was addressed via a software update to the MMI. However, as not all customers had their cars updated and SiriusXM then reverted back to the previous category numbering. Nonetheless, a MMI update is recommended as the two versions do seem to cause the issue."

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