VP.NET has released the source code for its Intel SGX enclave on GitHub, allowing anyone to build the enclave and verify its mrenclave hash matches what's running on the servers. This takes "don't trust, verify" from marketing to reality, making privacy claims testable all the way down to hardware-enforced execution.

A move like this could set a new benchmark for transparency in privacy tech.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/08/15/2015213/vpnet-publishes-sgx-enclave-code-zero-trust-privacy-you-can-actually-verify?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader writes: Kaisen Linux, a Debian-based distro packed with tools for sysadmins, system rescue, and network diagnostics, is shutting down. This comes not long after Intel's Clear Linux also reached the end of the road.

Kaisen offered multiple desktop environments like KDE Plasma, LXQt, MATE, and Xfce, plus a "toram" mode that could load the whole OS into RAM so you could free up your USB port. The final release, Rolling 3.0, updates the base to Debian 13, defaults to KDE Plasma 6, replaces LightDM with SDDM, drops some packages like neofetch and hping3, and adds things like faster BTRFS snapshot restores, full ZFS support, and safer partitioning behavior.

Unlike Clear Linux, Kaisen will still get security updates for the next two years, giving current users time to migrate without rushing.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://linux.slashdot.org/story/25/08/15/1536230/another-linux-distro-is-shutting-down?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

New research suggests exposure to some common Pfas or "forever chemical" compounds causes changes to gene activity, and those changes are linked to health problems including multiple cancers, neurological disorders and autoimmune disease. From a report: The findings are a major step toward determining the mechanism by which the chemicals cause disease and could help doctors identify, detect and treat health problems for those exposed to Pfas before the issues advance. The research may also point toward other diseases potentially caused by Pfas that have not yet been identified, the authors said.

The study is among the first to examine how Pfas chemicals impact gene activity, called epigenetics. "This gives us a hint as to which genes and which Pfas might be important," said Melissa Furlong, a University of Arizona College of Public Health Pfas researcher and study lead author.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/08/15/1533203/exposure-to-some-common-pfas-changes-gene-activity-new-study-finds?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Барри Каулер (Barry Kauler), основатель проекта Puppy Linux, опубликовал дистрибутив EasyOS 7.0, совмещающий технологии Puppy Linux с применением контейнерной изоляции для запуска компонентов системы. Управление дистрибутивом производится через развиваемый проектом набор графических конфигураторов. Размер загрузочного образа 1 ГБ.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=63730

Опубликован экспериментальный выпуск открытой реализации Win32 API - Wine 10.13. С момента выпуска 10.12 было закрыто 32 отчёта об ошибках и внесено 524 изменения.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=63729

alternative_right writes: A team of researchers at Columbia University, funded in part by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, have developed "machines that can grow by consuming other machines." Video of the experiment shows tubular robots that move by extending their shafts to inch along the ground. As the tubes gather, they connect and form into more complex shapes like triangles and tetrahedrons. With each piece consumed, the whole moves faster and with more elegance.

"AI systems need bodies to move beyond current limitations. Physical embodiment brings the AI into the messy, constraint-rich real world -- and that's where true generalization has to happen," Phillipe Martin Wyder, lead researcher on the project, told 404 Media.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/08/15/158204/pentagon-funded-experiment-develops-robots-that-change-by-consuming-other-robots?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Proton has begun relocating infrastructure outside Switzerland ahead of proposed surveillance legislation requiring VPNs and messaging services with over 5,000 users to identify customers and retain data for six months.

The company's AI chatbot Lumo became the first product hosted on German servers rather than Swiss infrastructure. CEO Andy Yen confirmed the decision and a spokesperson told TechRadar that the company isn't fully exiting Switzerland.

In a blog post about the launch of Lumo last month, Proton's Head of Anti-Abuse and Account Security, Eamonn Maguire, explained that the company had decided to invest outside Switzerland for fear of the looming legal changes. He wrote: "Because of legal uncertainty around Swiss government proposals to introduce mass surveillance -- proposals that have been outlawed in the EU -- Proton is moving most of its physical infrastructure out of Switzerland. Lumo will be the first product to move."

The proposed amendments to Switzerland's Ordinance on the Surveillance of Correspondence by Post and Telecommunications would also mandate decryption capabilities for providers holding encryption keys. Proton is developing additional facilities in Norway.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/08/15/1612259/proton-begins-shifting-infrastructure-outside-of-switzerland-ahead-of-surveillance-legislation?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told reporters that AI investments have entered bubble territory. His remarks: "Are we in a phase where investors as a whole are overexcited about AI? My opinion is yes."

"When bubbles happen, smart people get overexcited about a kernel of truth. If you look at most of the bubbles in history, like the tech bubble, there was a real thing. Tech was really important. The internet was a really big deal. People got overexcited."

He added that he thinks it's "insane" that some AI startups with "three people and an idea" are receiving funding at such high valuations. "That's not rational behavior," Altman said. "Someone's gonna get burned there, I think. Someone is going to lose a phenomenal amount of money."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/08/15/1416222/sam-altman-says-yes-ai-is-in-a-bubble?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Microsoft is updating its pricing approach for Online Services in Enterprise Agreements in the name of consistency and transparency, but could leave some customers paying more. From a report: Many customers, particularly larger ones, enjoy substantial discounts via volume licensing and the change, which will bring the Online Services pricing model into line with those already rolled out for services like Azure, "reflects our ongoing commitment to greater transparency and alignment across all purchasing channels." Online Services include products such as Dynamics 365 and Windows 365.

Exactly how big a discount customers enjoyed depends on the deal they scored. The change will mean that "pricing will align with the pricing published on Microsoft.com." According to Microsoft, "This change reduces licensing complexity, enabling partners to invest less time evaluating Microsoft pricing and programs and more time working with customers on their business needs. With simplified and standardized prices, partners can shift their focus to delivering unique services that will propel their customers' growth." The changes will take effect on November 1.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/08/15/1357205/microsoft-kills-volume-rebates-in-name-of-transparency?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

The Linux kernel project lacks a formal succession plan for when Linus Torvalds steps down, Register columnist Rupert Goodwins writes. Torvalds has said "there's no need for formality" and that succession will occur naturally through community trust. "The next benevolent overlord will appear naturally," Torvalds believes.

Goodwins calls this approach dangerous, noting that "succession is always a time of uncertainty for those who like the way things are, and opportunity for those who do not." The kernel project faces existing tensions including overstretched maintainers doing "two jobs, the one they're paid for, and the Linux kernel work," commercial pressures from companies like Red Hat, and increasing maintenance burdens from automated bug reports. "Hope, as they say, is not a strategy," Goodwins writes.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://linux.slashdot.org/story/25/08/15/1549253/the-plan-for-linux-after-torvalds-has-a-kernel-of-truth-there-isnt-one?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

A Chinese storage manufacturer has developed a solid-state drive smaller than a U.S. penny that delivers sequential read speeds of 3,700 megabytes per second, according to The Verge.

The "Mini SSD" by Biwin measures 15mm x 17mm x 1.4mm thick and connects via PCIe 4x2, offering 512GB to 2TB capacities. The drive inserts into devices using a SIM card-style tray mechanism and claims IP68 water resistance plus three-meter drop protection. Two gaming portables announced at ChinaJoy will include slots for the drives: GPD's Win 5 handheld and OneNetbook's OneXPlayer Super X hybrid laptop/tablet, both powered by AMD's Strix Halo processors. The Mini SSD outpaces MicroSD Express cards used in Nintendo Switch 2 by nearly four times, though full-size M.2 drives remain faster at up to 14,000MB/s.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/08/15/104251/china-is-about-to-launch-ssds-so-small-you-insert-them-like-a-sim-card?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

China launched the World Humanoid Robot Games on Friday. The three-day event will see 280 teams from 16 countries compete in football, track and field, and table tennis alongside robot-specific challenges including medicine sorting and cleaning services. The event also features 192 university teams and 88 private enterprise teams from the U.S., Germany, Brazil and other nations as well as Chinese companies Unitree and Fourier among participants.

Beijing municipal government serves as an organizing body. The Chinese robotics sector has received over $20 billion in government subsidies in the past year with Beijing planning a one trillion yuan ($137 billion) fund for AI and robotics startups. A previous Beijing humanoid robot marathon saw several competitors emit smoke and fail to complete the course.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/08/15/0643213/china-launches-three-day-robot-olympics-featuring-football-and-table-tennis?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Manufacturer to the stars Foxconn is building so many AI servers that they're now bringing in more cash than consumer electronics -- even counting the colossal quantity of iPhones it creates for Apple.

The Taiwanese company revealed the shift in its Thursday announcement of Q2 results, which saw revenue grow 16% to NT$1.79 trillion ($59.73 billion) and operating profit rise 27% to NT$56.6 billion ($1.9 billion). CEO Kathy Yang told investors the company's Cloud and Networking Products division delivered 41% of total revenue, up nine percent compared to Q2 2024, and surpassing the company's Smart Consumer Electronics unit for the first time. The latter business includes Foxconn's work for Apple.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/08/15/0631212/foxconn-now-making-more-from-servers-than-iphones?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Российская компания EvaTeam выпустила обновление до версии 2.30 «Иркутск» своих продуктов EvaProject и EvaGit. Продукты позиционируются как аналог Jira – известной системы управления проектами и отслеживания задач.

Обновления содержат значительные улучшения и дополнительные функциональные возможности, призванные повысить эффективность работы команд разработчиков и упростить управление проектами.
Новая версия EvaProject включает целый ряд значимых усовершенствований. Среди них — разработка нового модуля управления требованиями, позволяющего организовывать иерархические структуры с неограниченной глубиной вложений, автоматически присваивать номера требованиям и сравнивать их версии. Дашборды стали более гибкими благодаря поддержке мощных Rich-фильтров, аналогичных известным функциональностям Jira, а архитектура гаджетов теперь обеспечивает независимость друг от друга, предоставляя простор для индивидуальной настройки представлений данных. Процесс согласования задач дополнительно к существующей логике может осуществляться индивидуально в карточке каждой задачи, делая процессы гибкими и адаптивными. Информация о статусе архивации задач выводится прямо в карточку, предупреждая ошибочные изменения в устаревших данных. Канбан-доски дополнены показателями планируемых трудозатрат, упрощающих оценку загрузки специалистов. Интерфейс бэклога стал более интуитивным и быстрым благодаря удобным инструментам группировки и выбора спринтов.

( [ читать дальше... ]( https://www.linux.org.ru/news/proprietary/18049630#cut ) )

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Margaret Boden, a British philosopher and cognitive scientist who used the language of computers to explore the nature of thought and creativity, leading her to prescient insights about the possibilities and limitations of artificial intelligence, died on July 18 in Brighton, England. She was 88. Her death, in a care home, was announced by the University of Sussex, where in the early 1970s she helped establish what is now known as the Center for Cognitive Science, bringing together psychologists, linguists, neuroscientists and philosophers to collaborate on studying the mind.

Polymathic, erudite and a trailblazer in a field dominated by men, Professor Boden produced a number of books -- most notably "The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms" (1990) and "Mind as Machine: A History of Cognitive Science" (2006) -- that helped shape the philosophical conversation about human and artificial intelligence for decades. "What's unique about Maggie is that she's a philosopher who has informed, inspired and shaped science," Blay Whitby, a philosopher and ethicist, said on the BBC radio show "The Life Scientific" in 2014. "It's important I emphasize that, because many modern scientists say that philosophers have got nothing to tell them, and they'd be advised to look at the work and life of Maggie Boden."

Professor Boden was not adept at using computers. "I can't cope with the damn things," she once said. "I have a Mac on my desk, and if anything goes wrong, it's an absolute nightmare." Nevertheless, she viewed computing as a way to help explain the mechanisms of human thought. To her, creativity wasn't divine or a result of eureka-like magic, but rather a process that could be modeled and even simulated by computers. "It's the computational concepts that help us to understand how it's possible for someone to come up with a new idea," Professor Boden said on "The Life Scientific." "Because, at first sight, it just seems completely impossible. God must have done it." Computer science, she went on, helps us "to understand what a generative system is, how it's possible to have a set of rules -- which may be a very, very short, briefly statable set of rules -- but which has the potential to generate infinitely many different structures." She identified three types of creativity -- combinational, exploratory and transformational -- by analyzing human and artificial intelligence.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/08/15/0050241/margaret-boden-philosopher-of-artificial-intelligence-dies-at-88?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Вышла версия 2.0 Syncthing, программы для обмена файлами между двумя и более устройствами.

Основные отличия от предыдущих версий:

• Переход с LevelDB на SQLite в качестве хранилища данных

• Изменился формат логов

• Удалённые данные удаляются навсегда из БД после полугода хранения

• Новый формат для опций командой строки (опции начинаются теперь с двух дефисов)

• Каталог по умолчанию не создаётся автоматически при первом запуске

• Используется несколько сетевых соединений для ускорения синхронизации

• Больше не создаются бинарные сборки для многих платформ из-за сложностей с автоматической сборкой SQLite (в частности, для windows/arm, openbsd, netbsd)

https://www.linux.org.ru/news/opensource/18051056

hackingbear shares a report from Bloomberg: Top U.S. chip-equipment supplier Applied Materials was sued by a rival in China over alleged trade secret theft, a further escalation in the technology war between the world's two largest economies. Beijing E-Town Semiconductor Technology Co. filed a lawsuit with the Beijing Intellectual Property Court against Applied Materials, according to a company statement (PDF) to the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The Chinese chip-gear maker alleged that the Santa Clara, California-based company illegally obtained, used and revealed its core technologies related to the application of plasma source in treating the surface of wafers, the statement said. The court has filed the case but has not begun a trial, E-Town added.

Applied Materials earlier hired two employees from E-Town's fully owned US subsidiary, Mattson, and they were privy to the Beijing company's proprietary plasma technologies, the filing said. Applied Materials filed a patent application crediting the duo as inventors with the National Intellectual Property Administration in China after the two joined the Santa Clara company, the Beijing firm said, alleging that the content revealed trade secrets co-owned by E-Town and Mattson. "The patent application violated the rules of China's Anti-Unfair Competition Law, and it infringes on trade secrets, and has caused significant damage to the plaintiff's intellectual property and economic interests,â E-Town said in the filing, adding that Applied Materials is also suspected of marketing and selling the technologies involved in the case to Chinese customers. E-Town is asking the court to demand that Applied Materials stop using its trade secrets and destroy related materials. It's also seeking about 100 million yuan ($13.9 million) in recompense for damage.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/08/14/2325232/applied-materials-sued-in-china-over-alleged-trade-secret-theft?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

alternative_right shares a report from ScienceAlert: In February 2023, a detector called KM3NeT, located deep under the Mediterranean Sea, picked up a signal that seemed to indicate a neutrino with a record-shattering energy of 220 petaelectronvolts (PeV). For reference, the previous record was a mere 10 PeV. Now, an exhaustive analysis of all the data on and around the event, designated KM3-230213A, not only supports the conclusions that the signal was caused by a 220-PeV neutrino, but adds to the mystery about where the heck in the Universe it came from."The patterns of light detected for KM3-230213A show a clear match to what is expected from a relativistic particle crossing the detector, most likely a muon, ruling out the possibility of a glitch," the KM3NeT Collaboration told ScienceAlert. "Thanks to the reconstructed energy and direction of this muon, the most likely scenario by far is that the muon originated in the interaction of an astrophysical neutrino in proximity to the detector, making it the most natural explanation."

The scientists believe that it's very, very unlikely that the neutrino originated within the Milky Way galaxy. Work is underway to come closer to tracing its origin point. "KM3-230213A opened a new window on ultra-high-energy neutrino astronomy," the Collaboration said. "Our analysis is the first effort to combine the observations of multiple telescopes over a wide energy range to characterize the ultra-high-energy spectrum. This represents our best chance to gain knowledge on the most extreme objects that populate our Universe."

The research has been published in the journal Physical Review X.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/08/14/2335238/ghost-particle-that-smashed-into-earth-breaks-records?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

TOP10 VISITORS:

[1] 37.252.14.x point=144 web=0 up=24.9MB (40%) <--- ake (6/hr)
[2] 45.135.180.x point=241 web=0 up=20.5MB (33%) <--- yesterlink (10/hr)
[3] PetalBot point=5 web=1025 up=6.0MB (9%) <--- PetalBot
[4] Amazon point=0 web=108 up=2.8MB (4%)
[5] TikTok point=1 web=130 up=2.1MB (3%) <--- TikTok
[6] Google point=0 web=259 up=1.8MB (2%)
[7] 217.114.158.x point=26 web=0 up=1.0MB (1%) <--- fox (1/hr)
[8] 94.25.231.x point=1 web=0 up=0.8MB (1%) <--- 94.25.231.x
[9] 216.73.216.x point=0 web=37 up=0.4MB (<1%)
[10] 47.82.11.x point=0 web=22 up=0.1MB (<1%)

TOTAL TRAFFIC: 61MB

The African Union has endorsed the "Correct The Map" campaign, urging governments and global institutions to replace the distorted 16th-century Mercator projection with the Equal Earth map that more accurately represents Africa's true size. Reuters reports: "It might seem to be just a map, but in reality, it is not," AU Commission deputy chairperson Selma Malika Haddadi told Reuters, saying the Mercator fostered a false impression that Africa was "marginal," despite being the world's second-largest continent by area, with 54 nations and over a billion people. Such stereotypes influence media, education and policy, she said. Criticism of the Mercator map is not new, but the 'Correct The Map' campaign led by advocacy groups Africa No Filter and Speak Up Africa has revived the debate, urging organizations to adopt the 2018 Equal Earth projection, which tries to reflect countries' true sizes.

"The current size of the map of Africa is wrong," Moky Makura, executive director of Africa No Filter, said. "It's the world's longest misinformation and disinformation campaign, and it just simply has to stop." Fara Ndiaye, co-founder of Speak Up Africa, said the Mercator affected Africans' identity and pride, especially children who might encounter it early in school. "We're actively working on promoting a curriculum where the Equal Earth projection will be the main standard across all (African) classrooms," Ndiaye said, adding she hoped it would also be the one used by global institutions, including Africa-based ones. [...]

The Mercator projection is still widely used, including by schools and tech companies. Google Maps switched from Mercator on desktop to a 3D globe view in 2018, though users can still switch back to the Mercator if they prefer. On the mobile app, however, the Mercator projection remains the default. 'Correct The Map' wants organizations like the World Bank and the United Nations to adopt the Equal Earth map. A World Bank spokesperson said they already use the Winkel-Tripel or Equal Earth for static maps and are phasing out Mercator on web maps.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/08/14/2315236/african-union-urges-adoption-of-world-map-showing-continents-true-size?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Russian hackers took control of a Norwegian dam this year, opening a floodgate and allowing water to flow unnoticed for four hours, Norway's intelligence service has said. The admission, by the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST), marks the first time that Oslo has formally attributed the cyber-attack in April on Bremanger, western Norway, to Moscow. The attack on the hydropower dam, which produces electricity, released 500 liters (132 gallons) of water a second for four hours until the incident was detected and stopped.

The head of PST, Beate Gangas, said on Wednesday: "Over the past year, we have seen a change in activity from pro-Russian cyber actors." The Bremanger incident was an example of such an attack, she added. "The aim of this type of operation is to influence and to cause fear and chaos among the general population. Our Russian neighbor has become more dangerous." The incident did not cause any injuries or damage because the water level of the river and the dam, which is close to the town of Svelgen, was a long way below flood capacity. The alleged perpetrators reportedly published a three-minute video, watermarked with the name of a pro-Russian cybercriminal group, on Telegram on the day of the attack.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/08/14/232228/russian-hackers-seized-control-of-norwegian-dam-spy-chief-says?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

BrianFagioli shares a report from NERDS.xyz: If you run Plex Media Server, it's time to drop everything and update. The company has quietly patched a security issue that affects recent versions of its software, and users are being told to upgrade as soon as possible. According to an email Plex sent to affected customers, versions 1.41.7.x through 1.42.0.x are vulnerable. The newly released build, 1.42.1.10060 or later, contains the fix. Plex says the flaw was found through its bug bounty program, but sadly, it has not publicly shared details about how severe the issue is or whether it could be exploited remotely.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/08/14/236202/plex-users-urged-to-update-media-server-after-security-flaw-exposed?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Intel's stock jumped 7% after reports that the Trump administration is considering taking a stake in the struggling chipmaker to support U.S.-based manufacturing. CNBC reports: Intel is the only U.S. company with the capability to manufacture the fastest chips on U.S. shores, although rivals including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Samsung also have U.S. factories. President Donald Trump has called for more chips and high technology to be manufactured in the U.S. The government's stake would help fund factories that Intel is currently building in Ohio, according to the report.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/08/14/2252251/trump-administration-considers-stake-in-intel?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

DeepSeek's development of its next-gen R2 AI model was severely delayed after months of failed training attempts on Huawei's Ascend chips, which suffered from unstable hardware, slow interconnects, and immature software. The Register reports: Following the industry rattling launch of DeepSeek R1 earlier this year, the Chinese AI darling faced pressure from government authorities to train the model's successor on Huawei's homegrown silicon, three unnamed sources have told the Financial Times. But after months of work and the help of an entire team of Huawei engineers, unstable chips, glacial interconnects, and immature software proved insurmountable for DeepSeek, which was apparently unable to complete a single successful training run. The failure, along with challenges with data labeling, ultimately delayed the release of DeepSeek R2 as the company started anew, using Nvidia's H20 GPUs instead. The company has reportedly relegated Huawei's Ascend accelerators to inference duty.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://developers.slashdot.org/story/25/08/14/2247214/dodgy-huawei-chips-nearly-sunk-deepseeks-next-gen-r2-model?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Rising subscription costs, shrinking content libraries, and regional restrictions are pushing viewers back toward piracy. Once seen as nearly dead, piracy has resurged through illicit streaming platforms as the fractured, ad-laden streaming market struggles to deliver convenience and value. The Guardian reports: According to London-based piracy monitoring and content-protection firm MUSO, unlicensed streaming is the predominant source of TV and film piracy, accounting for 96% in 2023 (PDF). Piracy reached a low in 2020, with 130bn website visits. But by 2024 that number had risen to 216bn (PDF). In Sweden, 25% of people surveyed (PDF) reported pirating in 2024, a trend mostly driven by those aged 15 to 24. Piracy is back, just sailing under a different flag.

"Piracy is not a pricing issue," Gabe Newell, the co-founder of Valve, the company behind the world's largest PC gaming platform, Steam, observed in 2011. "It's a service issue." Today, the crisis in streaming makes this clearer than ever. With titles scattered, prices on the rise, and bitrates throttled depending on your browser, it is little wonder some viewers are raising the jolly roger again. Studios carve out fiefdoms, build walls and levy tolls for those who wish to visit. The result is artificial scarcity in a digital world that promised abundance.

Whether piracy today is rebellion or resignation is almost irrelevant; the sails are hoisted either way. As the streaming landscape fractures into feudal territories, more viewers are turning to the high seas. The Medici understood the value linked to access. [The 2016 historical drama series tells of the rise of the powerful Florentine banking dynasty, and with it, the story of the Renaissance.] A client could travel from Rome to London and still draw on their credit, thanks to a network built on trust and interoperability. If today's studios want to survive the storm, they may need to rediscover that truth.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/08/14/2158204/impoverished-streaming-services-are-driving-viewers-back-to-piracy?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Google has announced a tiny version of its Gemma open model designed to run on local devices. Google says the new Gemma 3 270M can be tuned in a snap and maintains robust performance despite its small footprint. [...] Running an AI model locally has numerous benefits, including enhanced privacy and lower latency. Gemma 3 270M was designed with these kinds of use cases in mind. In testing with a Pixel 9 Pro, the new Gemma was able to run 25 conversations on the Tensor G4 chip and use just 0.75 percent of the device's battery. That makes it by far the most efficient Gemma model.

Developers shouldn't expect the same performance level of a multi-billion-parameter model, but Gemma 3 270M has its uses. Google used the IFEval benchmark, which tests a model's ability to follow instructions, to show that its new model punches above its weight. Gemma 3 270M hits a score of 51.2 percent in this test, which is higher than other lightweight models that have more parameters. The new Gemma falls predictably short of 1 billion-plus models like Llama 3.2, but it gets closer than you might think for having just a fraction of the parameters.

Google claims Gemma 3 270M is good at following instructions out of the box, but it expects developers to fine-tune the model for their specific use cases. Due to the small parameter count, that process is fast and low-cost, too. Google sees the new Gemma being used for tasks like text classification and data analysis, which it can accomplish quickly and without heavy computing requirements. You can download the new Gemma for free, and the model weights are available. There's no separate commercial licensing agreement, so developers can modify, publish, and deploy Gemma 3 270M derivatives in their tools. You can download Gemma 3 270M from Hugging Face and Kaggle in both pre-trained and instruction-tuned versions.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/08/14/2150230/google-releases-pint-size-gemma-open-ai-model?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Apple has reintroduced blood oxygen monitoring to certain Apple Watch models in the U.S. by shifting the feature's calculations to the paired iPhone, sidestepping an ITC import ban stemming from its legal dispute with medical device maker Masimo. TechCrunch reports: Blood oxygen data will be measured and calculated on the user's paired iPhone, and results can be viewed in the Respiratory section of the Health app. This means users won't be able to view the data on their Apple Watch, as they'll need to do so on their iPhone. Apple says the update announced today is enabled by a recent U.S. Customs ruling, which means that the tech giant is allowed to import Apple Watches with the redesigned Blood Oxygen feature.

The change doesn't affect previously sold models with the original version of the feature or units bought outside the U.S. The redesigned feature only applies to Apple Watches that were sold after the ITC import ban took effect in early 2024. These users can access the redesigned Blood Oxygen feature through an iPhone and Apple Watch software update coming on Thursday.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/08/14/2018223/apple-returns-blood-oxygen-monitoring-to-the-latest-apple-watches?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

PayPal payment processing has been unavailable for Steam purchases in most countries since early July 2025, Valve has confirmed, with functionality limited to transactions in U.S. dollars, Euros, British Pounds, Japanese Yen, Australian dollars, and Canadian dollars. In a statement to RockPaperShotgun, the company said one of PayPal's acquiring banks terminated all Steam transaction processing. Valve linked the bank's decision to previous Mastercard-related content restrictions. The disruption began in early July 2025 when PayPal notified Valve of the immediate termination, leaving millions of users in affected regions without PayPal access and no certain timeline for resolution.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/08/14/1928226/paypal-no-longer-available-for-steam-purchases-outside-major-currency-zones?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Go 1.25 добавляет [ поддержку контейнеров в GOMAXPROCS ]( https://go.dev/doc/go1.25#runtime ) , [ пакет testing/synctest ]( https://go.dev/doc/go1.25#new-testingsynctest-package ) , [ экспериментальный GC ]( https://go.dev/doc/go1.25#new-experimental-garbage-collector ) , [ экспериментальный encoding/json/v2 ]( https://go.dev/doc/go1.25#json_v2 ) и много другого.

( [ читать дальше... ]( https://www.linux.org.ru/news/development/18049567#cut ) )

An anonymous reader shares a report: Astronomers have observed the calamitous result of a star that picked the wrong dance partner. They have documented what appears to be a new type of supernova, as stellar explosions are known, that occurred when a massive star tried to swallow a black hole with which it had engaged in a lengthy pas de deux.

The star, which was at least 10 times as massive as our sun, and the black hole, which had a similar mass, were gravitationally bound to one another in what is called a binary system. But as the distance separating them gradually narrowed, the black hole's immense gravitational pull appears to have distorted the star -- stretching it out from its spherical shape -- and siphoned off material before causing it to explode. An AI algorithm detected the event in real time, enabling astronomers to conduct comprehensive observations. Data from four years before the supernova showed bright emissions as the black hole consumed its companion's outer hydrogen layer. The exact mechanism remains uncertain -- either gravitational distortion triggered the star's collapse or the black hole completely tore it apart first. Following the explosion, the black hole consumed residual stellar debris, growing more massive.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/08/14/1916235/new-type-of-supernova-detected-as-black-hole-causes-star-to-explode?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Negotiations on a global treaty to end plastic pollution are drawing to a close Thursday, as nations remain deadlocked over whether to tackle the exponential growth of plastic production. From a report: A draft of the treaty released Wednesday wouldn't limit plastic production or address chemicals used in plastic products. Instead, it's centered on proposals where there's broad agreement -- such as reducing the number of problematic plastic products that often enter the environment and are difficult to recycle, promoting the redesign of plastic products so they can be recycled and reused, and improving waste management.

It asks nations to make commitments to ending plastic pollution, rather than imposing global, legally-binding rules. French President Emmanuel Macron said the "lack of ambition" in the draft treaty was unacceptable, and that agreeing to a global treaty against plastic pollution "is our opportunity to make a difference."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/08/14/198211/plastic-pollution-treaty-talks-deadlocked-as-negotiations-draw-to-a-close?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Former Sony Worldwide Studios chairman Shawn Layden criticized subscription gaming services like Xbox Game Pass, arguing that developers working under such models become "wage slaves." Speaking in a recent industry discussion, Layden contended that subscription services prevent developers from traditional profit-sharing arrangements.

"They're not creating value, putting it in the marketplace, hoping it explodes, and profit sharing, and overages, and all that nice stuff," Layden said. "It's just, 'You pay me X dollars an hour, I built you a game, here, go put it on your servers.'" He called the model uninspiring for game developers.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://games.slashdot.org/story/25/08/14/1859256/ex-playstation-boss-says-game-subscription-turns-developers-into-wage-slaves?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shares a report: OpenAI is considering ways to bring in additional revenue, and bringing ads to ChatGPT is one option on the table. While being interviewed on Decoder, ChatGPT head Nick Turley said he's "humble enough not to rule it out categorically," but hedged that OpenAI would need to "be very thoughtful and tasteful" about how ads could be integrated into ChatGPT.

"We will build other products, and those other products can have different dimensions to them, and maybe ChatGPT just isn't an ads-y product because it's just so deeply accountable to your goals. But it doesn't mean that we wouldn't build other things in the future, too," Turley said. "I think it's good to preserve optionality, but I also really do want to emphasize how incredible the subscription model is, how fast it's growing, and how untapped a lot of the opportunities are."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/08/14/1852218/the-head-of-chatgpt-wont-rule-out-adding-ads?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

После четырёх месяцев разработки представлено августовское сводное обновление приложений KDE Gear 25.08, развиваемых проектом KDE. В составе набора опубликованы выпуски 249 программ, библиотек и плагинов. Информацию о наличии Live-сборок с новыми выпусками приложений можно получить на данной странице. Новые версии отдельных приложений можно загрузить из каталогов Flathub и SnapCraft.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=63728

Компания Oracle опубликовала релиз системы виртуализации VirtualBox 7.2. Готовые установочные пакеты доступны для RHEL 8/9/10, Fedora 36-42, openSUSE 15.6, Ubuntu 22.04/24.04/24.10, Debian 11/12, macOS и Windows.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=63727

Meta's internal policy document permitted the company's AI chatbots to engage children in "romantic or sensual" conversations and generate content arguing that "Black people are dumber than white people," according to a Reuters review of the 200-page "GenAI: Content Risk Standards" guide.

The document, approved by Meta's legal, public policy and engineering staff including its chief ethicist, allowed chatbots to describe children as attractive and create false medical information. Meta confirmed the document's authenticity but removed child-related provisions after Reuters inquiries, calling them "erroneous and inconsistent with our policies."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/08/14/1759222/metas-ai-rules-have-let-bots-hold-sensual-chats-with-kids-offer-false-medical-info?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Twenty years after Michelin introduced the Tweel in 2005, airless tires remain absent from passenger vehicles despite their promise to "eliminate nearly 200 million scrap tires a year caused by flats and underinflation," according to Michelin's internal testing cited in a Jalopnik report. Current prototypes "tend to transfer more road noise and vibration into the cabin than traditional radials -- making the ride harsher, especially at highway speeds." Heat dissipation poses additional challenges as "airless designs -- particularly those with internal webbing or solid cores -- have fewer ways to shed thermal load." The added structural mass "can affect fuel economy and increase unsprung weight -- bad news for handling and suspension tuning." Federal regulations compound these technical barriers since vehicle tires are subject to rigorous performance standards, many of which assume air pressure as a baseline.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/08/14/1733234/why-cars-still-dont-have-airless-tires-yet?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Компания NVIDIA [ выпустила ]( https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/details/252613/ ) стабильную версию графического драйвера серии 580 для видеокарт NVIDIA для Linux, BSD и Solaris.

( [ читать дальше... ]( https://www.linux.org.ru/news/hardware/18049525#cut ) )

Electricity rates for individuals and small businesses could rise sharply as Amazon, Google, Microsoft and other technology companies build data centers and expand into the energy business. Residential electricity bills increased at least $15 monthly for Ohio households starting in June due to data center demands, according to utility data and an independent grid monitor. A Carnegie Mellon University and North Carolina State University analysis projects average U.S. electricity bills will rise 8% by 2030 from data center growth, with Virginia facing potential 25% increases. Virginia regulators estimate residents could pay an additional $276 annually by 2030.

National residential electricity rates have already risen more than 30% since 2020. Tech companies' AI push requires data centers that consumed over 4% of U.S. electricity in 2023, with government analysts projecting consumption reaching 12% within three years. American Electric Power warned Ohio regulators that without new rate structures requiring data centers to pay more upfront costs, residents and small businesses would bear much of the expense for grid upgrades.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/08/14/1655246/big-techs-ai-data-centers-are-driving-up-electricity-bills-for-everyone?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

The Office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections (OCCE) has revealed in its annual report that it will "explore the use" AI and emerging technologies to see how they will shape the government body's approach for the next year. From a report: Commissioner Caroline Simard's office didn't outline ways it might adopt AI. In its outlook, the OCCE expected to use funding announced in January 2025 to secure the tools needed for addressing the "challenges of today's electoral environment." This included staffing roles dictated by its new structure and reflected "ongoing modernization efforts," but no further details.

The Commissioner is an independent officer who ensures the government, political parties, and others honour both the Canada Elections Act and Referendum Act. This includes core aspects like financing, nominations, campaigning, and advertising. More recently, the OCCE has been addressing rising issues with AI, including election disinformation facilitated by bots, AI-generated images, and deepfakes (AI-generated videos that resemble real people in false scenarios).

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/08/14/1610236/commissioner-of-canada-elections-will-explore-the-use-of-ai?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Kodak says it remains confident it can avoid shutdown despite filing required "going concern" disclosures about $500 million in debt obligations due within 12 months. The 133-year-old photography company plans to draw approximately $300 million from its U.S. pension fund in December to pay off a significant portion of its term loan before maturity. Chief Marketing Officer Denisse Goldbarg said the disclosure was mandatory under accounting rules but Kodak would emerge virtually debt-free.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/08/14/1531205/kodak-says-itll-figure-things-out-and-wont-shut-down?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

The next version of Windows will become "more ambient, pervasive, and multi-modal" as AI transforms how users interact with computers, Microsoft's Windows chief Pavan Davuluri said in a company video. Davuluri, Corporate Vice President and head of Windows, said that voice will emerge as a primary input method alongside keyboard and mouse, with the operating system gaining context awareness to understand screen content and user intent through natural language.

Windows interfaces, he said, will appear fundamentally different within five years as the platform becomes increasingly agentic. The transformation will rely on both local processing power and cloud computing capabilities to deliver seamless experiences where users can speak to their computers while simultaneously typing or inking.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/08/14/1441240/microsoft-says-voice-will-emerge-as-primary-input-for-next-windows?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Top fintech and crypto executives urged the Trump administration to block US banks from charging fees for access to customer data, levies that strike at the heart of their business models. From a report: Klarna, Robinhood and crypto exchange Gemini were among a long list of companies, investors and lobbying groups that signed a letter sent Wednesday to President Donald Trump, arguing that the proposed fees would "cripple" innovation and "may cause small businesses and financial tools to shut down entirely."

JPMorgan Chase has told fintechs and the data aggregators they rely on that the bank's customer account information will no longer be accessible without a charge. JPMorgan, the biggest US bank, views the data aggregators as freeloaders of sorts who access data without paying and then charge their fintech clients for it. PNC Financial Services is considering charging similar fees.

"We urge you to use the full power of your office and the broader administration to prevent the largest institutions from raising new barriers to financial freedom," they said in the letter. "We cannot allow the most powerful, entrenched banks to close the door on a more open and modern financial system."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/08/14/142255/fintech-crypto-ceos-urge-us-president-to-block-banks-data-access-fees?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

BrianFagioli writes: Lenovo is starting its fiscal year with a major win, delivering record-breaking PC sales and claiming dominance in the AI PC space. For the first quarter of its 2025/26 fiscal year, the company reported $18.8 billion in revenue, which is 22 percent higher than the same period last year. Profit came in at $505 million, more than double the figure from a year ago.

The standout performer was Lenovo's PC and smart devices division. It posted its fastest growth in 15 quarters and secured a record 24.6 percent global market share. More than 30 percent of Lenovo's PCs shipped in the quarter were AI PCs, giving it the top position in the Windows AI PC segment with a 31 percent market share. This leadership is an important talking point for Lenovo as it continues to market AI features as a key reason for buyers to upgrade.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/08/14/0238234/lenovos-pc-business-surges-to-15-quarter-high-with-ai-models-leading-the-charge?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Igor Babuschkin, co-founder of xAI, has left the company to start Babuschkin Ventures, a VC firm focused on AI safety and humanity-advancing startups. TechCrunch reports: Babuschkin led engineering teams at xAI and helped build the startup into one of Silicon Valley's leading AI model developers just a few years after it was founded. "Today was my last day at xAI, the company that I helped start with Elon Musk in 2023," Babuschkin wrote in the post. "I still remember the day I first met Elon, we talked for hours about AI and what the future might hold. We both felt that a new AI company with a different kind of mission was needed."

Babuschkin is leaving xAI to launch his own venture capital firm, Babuschkin Ventures, which he says will support AI safety research and back startups that "advance humanity and unlock the mysteries of our universe." The xAI co-founder says he was inspired to start the firm after a dinner with Max Tegmark, the founder of the Future of Life Institute, in which they discussed how AI systems could be built safely to encourage the flourishing of future generations. In his post, Babuschkin says his parents immigrated to the U.S. from Russia in pursuit of a better life for their children.

Prior to co-founding xAI, Babuschkin was part of a research team at Google DeepMind that pioneered AlphaStar in 2019, a breakthrough AI system that could defeat top-ranked players at the video game StarCraft. Babuschkin also worked as a researcher at OpenAI in the years before it released ChatGPT. In his post, Babuschkin details some of the challenges he and Musk faced in building up xAI. He notes that industry veterans called xAI's goal of building its Memphis, Tennessee supercomputer in just three months "impossible." [...] Nevertheless, Babuschkin says he's already looking back fondly on his time at xAI, and "feels like a proud parent, driving away after sending their kid away to college." "I learned 2 priceless lessons from Elon: #1 be fearless in rolling up your sleeves to personally dig into technical problems, #2 have a maniacal sense of urgency," said Babuschkin.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/08/14/0414234/co-founder-of-xai-departs-the-company?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Data brokers are required by California law to provide ways for consumers to request their data be deleted. But good luck finding them. From a report: More than 30 of the companies, which collect and sell consumers' personal information, hid their deletion instructions from Google, according to a review by The Markup and CalMatters of hundreds of broker websites. This creates one more obstacle for consumers who want to delete their data.

Many of the pages containing the instructions, listed in an official state registry, use code to tell search engines to remove the page entirely from search results. Popular tools like Google and Bing respect the code by excluding pages when responding to users. Data brokers nationwide must register in California under the state's Consumer Privacy Act, which allows Californians to request that their information be removed, that it not be sold, or that they get access to it. After reviewing the websites of all 499 data brokers registered with the state, we found 35 had code to stop certain pages from showing up in searches.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/08/14/0235234/data-brokers-are-hiding-their-opt-out-pages-from-google-search?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shares a report: India's blueprint for displacing China as the world's electronics workshop contains a rather extraordinary feature: the entire Indian edifice requires Chinese companies to supply the technical architecture, manufacturing know-how and operational templates that would make such displacement theoretically possible.

Let's start with Dixon Technologies, India's flagship domestic electronics manufacturer. The company has systematically built indigenous capability through a growing constellation of Chinese partnerships: Longcheer provides the design intelligence, Kunshan Q-Tech delivers camera module expertise, Chongqing Yuhai supplies precision-molded components and HKC brings display technology. This pattern of structured dependence has become the organizing principle of India's electronics manufacturing push.

[...] The current architecture sees Chinese companies retain control of the critical knowledge while their Indian partners provide labour arbitrage and regulatory navigation. Under this arrangement, India isn't constructing an alternative to Chinese manufacturing so much as establishing Chinese manufacturing's most elaborate subsidiary operation, underwritten by Indian taxpayers and marketed as national renewal. Many countries, but most importantly India and Vietnam, have worked hard in recent years to attract businesses that decided to diversify away from China, a strategy analysts have dubbed as "China Plus One."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/08/14/0811259/china-plus-one-was-just-china-all-along?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Russian authorities are "partially" restricting calls in messaging apps Telegram and WhatsApp, the latest step in an effort to tighten control over the internet. From a report: In a statement, government media and internet regulator Roskomnadzor justified the measure as necessary for fighting crime, saying that "according to law enforcement agencies and numerous appeals from citizens, foreign messengers Telegram and WhatsApp have become the main voice services used to deceive and extort money, and to involve Russian citizens in sabotage and terrorist activities."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/08/14/0226212/russia-restricts-calls-via-whatsapp-and-telegram?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Представлена новая техника атаки на реализации протокола HTTP/2, упрощающая проведение атак для вызова отказа в обслуживании через исчерпание ресурсов сервера. Уязвимость получила кодовое имя MadeYouReset и позволяет через манипуляции управляющими кадрами HTTP/2 наводнить сервер большим количеством запросов в обход установленных ограничений.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=63726

TOP10 VISITORS:

[1] 37.252.14.x point=144 web=6 up=24.9MB (33%) <--- ake (6/hr)
[2] 45.135.180.x point=240 web=0 up=20.5MB (27%) <--- yesterlink (10/hr)
[3] ChatGPT point=0 web=126 up=14.2MB (19%)
[4] PetalBot point=1 web=1021 up=6.0MB (8%) <--- PetalBot
[5] Amazon point=0 web=107 up=2.3MB (3%)
[6] TikTok point=0 web=127 up=1.6MB (2%)
[7] 5.9.120.x point=0 web=73 up=1.5MB (2%)
[8] 217.114.158.x point=26 web=0 up=0.9MB (1%) <--- fox (1/hr)
[9] Google point=0 web=123 up=0.8MB (1%)
[10] Yandex point=3 web=56 up=0.4MB (<1%) <--- Yandex

TOTAL TRAFFIC: 73MB