Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson has stepped down, with COO Marc Winterhoff taking over as interim CEO. The company also announced its fourth-quarter financial results and revealed plans to more than double vehicle production to 20,000 units in 2025. CNBC reports: Winterhoff told CNBC on Tuesday that it was Rawlinson's decision to resign as of Friday, however he declined to elaborate on any additional details. "It was Peter's decision after 12 years of, let's say, daily grind or daily activities and bringing the company where it is today ... that it is time to step aside and pass the baton," said Winterhoff, who joined Lucid from Roland Berger in December 2023. In a statement posted Tuesday on LinkedIn, Rawlinson said he decided it was "finally the right time" to step down after "successfully" launching the company's second product, a three-row SUV called the Gravity. He did not elaborate further on the decision in the lengthy post.

The CEO change and production target were announced in conjunction with the automaker's fourth-quarter financial results. For the period ended Dec. 31, the company reported a net loss attributable to common stockholders of $636.9 million, or a loss of 22 cents per share, on revenue of $234.5 million. Analysts surveyed by LSEG expected a loss of 25 cents per share on revenue of $214 million. During the same period last year, Lucid reported a net loss attributable to common stockholders of $653.8 million, or a loss of 29 cents per share, on revenue of $157.2 million. The production target for 2025 announced Tuesday is compared with production of 9,029 vehicles and deliveries of 10,241 reported for 2024. Winterhoff said production of the Gravity SUV will gradually build during the year. He declined to speculate on what percentage of the 20,000-unit production target the vehicle would represent.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/02/27/0123251/lucid-ceo-steps-down-as-ev-maker-plans-to-double-production?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Fortune: Starting in April, the Tokyo Metropolitan government, one of the country's largest employers, is set to allow its employees to work only four days a week. It is also adding a new "childcare partial leave" policy, which will allow some employees to work two fewer hours per day. The goal is to help employees who are parents balance childcare and work, said Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike. "We will continue to review work styles flexibly to ensure that women do not have to sacrifice their careers due to life events such as childbirth or child-rearing," Koike said in a speech during the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly's regular session, the Japan Times reported.

Moving to a four-day workweek could help address some of the core issues associated with Japan's heavy work culture, which can especially weigh on working women. The gap between men and women when it comes to housework is one of the largest among OECD countries, with women in Japan engaging in five times more unpaid work, such as childcare and elder care, than men, according to the International Monetary Fund. More than half of women who had fewer children than they would have preferred said they had fewer children because of the increased housework that another child would bring, according to the IMF. In some cases, moving to a four-day workweek has been shown to improve housework equity. Men reported spending 22% more time on childcare and 23% more time on housework during a four-day workweek trial conducted across six countries by 4 Day Week Global, which advocates for the issue.

It would take a major societal change for the four-day workweek to catch on more broadly, but years of experiments have shown that working one day less a week improves employee productivity and well-being, said Peter Miscovich, the global future of work leader at real estate services company JLL. "The upside from all of that has been less stress, less burnout, better rest, better sleep, less cost to the employee, higher levels of focus and concentration during the working hours, and in some cases, greater commitment to the organization as a result," Miscovich told Fortune.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/02/27/015210/tokyo-is-turning-to-a-4-day-workweek-to-shed-worlds-oldest-population-title?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

A German nuclear fusion startup called Proxima Fusion has unveiled its "Stellaris" fusion power plant designed to operate reliably and continuously without the instabilities of tokamaks. It's backed by $65 million in funding, with plans to build a fully operational fusion reactor by 2031. TechCrunch reports: Tokamaks and stellarators are types of fusion reactors that use electromagnets to contain fusion plasma. Tokamaks rely on external magnets and an induced plasma current but are known for instability. Stellarators, by contrast, use only external magnets, which, in theory, enable better stability and continuous operation. However, according to Dr. Francesco Sciortino, co-founder and CEO of Proxima Fusion, Proxima's "Stellaris" design is the first peer-reviewed fusion power plant concept that demonstrates it can operate reliably and continuously, without the instabilities and disruptions seen in tokamaks and other approaches.

Proxima published its findings in Fusion Engineering and Design, choosing to share this information publicly to support open-source science. "Our American friends can see it. Our Chinese friends can see it. Our claim is that we can execute on this faster than anyone else, and we do that by creating a framework for integrated physics, engineering, and economics. So we're not a science project anymore," Sciortino told TechCrunch over a call. "We started out as a group of founders saying it's going to take us two years to get to the Stellaris design ... We actually finished after one year. So we've accelerated by a year," he added.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/02/27/0149218/german-startup-wins-accolade-for-its-fusion-reactor-design?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Компания Mozilla объявила, что к Firefox помимо открытой лицензии MPL будут применяться условия использования (Terms of Use), регламентирующие требования, с которыми пользователь должен согласиться для работы с продуктом, поставляемым под брендом Firefox. Указано, что ранее компания Mozilla полагалась лишь на лицензию MPL и публичные обязательства, но из-за изменения технологического ландшафта решила официально закрепить требования и обязательства. Начиная с марта запрос подтверждения условий использования начнёт выводится для новых пользователей, а позднее и для существующих.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=62799

Компания Oracle опубликовала выпуск операционной системы Solaris 11.4 SRU 78 (Support Repository Update), в котором предложена серия значительных изменений и улучшений для ветки Solaris 11.4. Для установки предложенных в обновлении исправлений достаточно выполнить команду 'pkg update'. Пользователи также могут воспользоваться бесплатной редакцией Solaris 11.4 CBE (Common Build Environment), развиваемой с использованием модели непрерывной публикации новых версий.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=62800

Разработчики FreeBSD опубликовали отчёт о развитии за четвёртый квартал 2024 года, в котором упомянут проект bsd-user-4-linux, развивающий инструментарий для запуска в Linux приложений, собранных для FreeBSD. Целью проекта заявлено достижение возможности собственной сборки, используя инструментарий FreeBSD в Linux, а также возможность собирать пакеты для FreeBSD в Linux, используя родной сборочный инструментарий FreeBSD.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=62801

In an interview with CNBC's Jon Fortt on Wednesday, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said next-gen AI will need 100 times more compute than older models as a result of new reasoning approaches that think "about how best to answer" questions step by step. From a report: "The amount of computation necessary to do that reasoning process is 100 times more than what we used to do," Huang told CNBC's Jon Fortt in an interview on Wednesday following the chipmaker's fourth-quarter earnings report. He cited models including DeepSeek's R1, OpenAI's GPT-4 and xAI's Grok 3 as models that use a reasoning process.

Huang pushed back on that idea in the interview on Wednesday, saying DeepSeek popularized reasoning models that will need more chips. "DeepSeek was fantastic," Huang said. "It was fantastic because it open sourced a reasoning model that's absolutely world class." Huang said that company's percentage of revenue in China has fallen by about half due to the export restrictions, adding that there are other competitive pressures in the country, including from Huawei.

Developers will likely search for ways around export controls through software, whether it be for a supercomputer, a personal computer, a phone or a game console, Huang said. "Ultimately, software finds a way," he said. "You ultimately make that software work on whatever system that you're targeting, and you create great software." Huang said that Nvidia's GB200, which is sold in the United States, can generate AI content 60 times faster than the versions of the company's chips that it sells to China under export controls.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/02/27/0158229/jensen-huang-ai-has-to-do-100-times-more-computation-now-than-when-chatgpt-was-released?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

После годового перерыва состоялся выпуск 1.96 консольной утилиты [ Gifsicle ]( http://www.lcdf.org/gifsicle ) , предназначенной для создания и редактирования изображений и анимаций в формате [ GIF ]( https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIF ) , а также для получения информации о файлах в этом формате. В комплект поставки также входят утилиты gitdiff и gitview (для X11) для сравнения и просмотра файлов GIF, соответственно.

( [ читать дальше... ]( https://www.linux.org.ru/news/multimedia/17897780#cut ) )

>>> [ Исходный код на GitHub ]( https://github.com/kohler/gifsicle )

Amazon has introduced its first-ever quantum processor, dubbed Ocelot, designed specifically to reduce quantum error correction costs by up to 90% compared to existing approaches. The prototype chip uses "cat qubits" -- named after Schrodinger's cat thought experiment -- which intrinsically suppress certain types of quantum errors.

Unlike conventional approaches that add error correction after designing the architecture, AWS built Ocelot with quantum error correction as the primary requirement. The chip consists of two stacked 1cm2 silicon microchips containing 14 core components: five data qubits, five buffer circuits for stabilization, and four qubits dedicated to error detection.

Quantum computers are notoriously sensitive to environmental noise -- including vibrations, heat, and electromagnetic interference -- which disturbs qubits and generates computational errors. These errors multiply as quantum systems scale up, creating a significant barrier to practical quantum computing. Ocelot's high-quality oscillators, made from a thin film of superconducting Tantalum processed using specialized techniques developed by AWS material scientists, generate the repetitive electrical signals that maintain quantum states.

"We're just getting started and we believe we have several more stages of scaling to go through," said Oskar Painter, AWS director of Quantum Hardware, whose team published their findings in Nature. Industry analyst Heather West of IDC was more measured, categorizing Ocelot as "much more of an advancement and less of a breakthrough," noting that superconducting qubits designed to resist certain error types aren't completely novel.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/02/27/1114246/amazon-unveils-its-first-quantum-computing-chip?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Sophisticated electronic devices used by criminals to steal cars are set to be banned under new laws in England and Wales. From a report: More than 700,000 vehicles were broken into last year -- often with the help of high-tech electronic devices, including so-called signal jammers, which are thought to play a part in four out of 10 vehicle thefts nationwide.

Until now, police could only bring a prosecution if they could prove a device had been used to commit a specific offence, but under new laws in the Crime and Policing Bill the onus will be on someone in possession of a device to show they had it for a legitimate purpose. Making or selling a signal jammer could lead to up to five years in prison or an unlimited fine.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/02/27/0733223/electronic-devices-used-for-car-thefts-set-to-be-banned-in-england?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Microsoft is pushing the Trump administration to loosen and simplify a new system that would restrict the sales of cutting-edge U.S. artificial-intelligence chips to much of the world. From a report: In a blog post that is scheduled to be released Thursday, Microsoft will call for Trump's team to ease the limits on chips that can be used in data centers for training AI models so they no longer apply to a group of U.S. allies including India, Switzerland and Israel [non-paywalled source], company officials said. Those countries are in the second tier of a three-tier system that underpins the export controls.

Microsoft says the unintended consequence of that proposed system would be that allies facing limited U.S. chip supply would turn to China to get the tech infrastructure they need. China is using the proposed rule to argue to other countries that it would be a better long-term partner for AI infrastructure than the U.S., Microsoft President Brad Smith said in an interview. "Their message is these countries can't rely on the U.S., but China is willing to provide what they need," he said. "That is not good for American business or American foreign policy."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/02/27/1131220/microsoft-urges-trump-to-overhaul-curbs-on-ai-chip-exports?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

The Australian government has banned all Kaspersky Lab products and web services from its systems and devices following an analysis that claims the company poses a significant security risk to the country. From a report: "After considering threat and risk analysis, I have determined that the use of Kaspersky Lab, Inc. products and web services by Australian Government entities poses an unacceptable security risk to Australian Government, networks and data, arising from threats of foreign interference, espionage and sabotage," justified Stephanie Foster, Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs.

"I have also considered the important need for a strong policy signal to critical infrastructure and other Australian governments regarding the unacceptable security risk associated with the use of Kaspersky Lab, Inc. products and web services."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/02/27/0939257/australia-bans-all-kaspersky-products-on-government-systems-citing-unacceptable-security-risk?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

The JavaScript package world is heating up as startups attempt to challenge npm's long-standing dominance. While npm remains the backbone of JavaScript dependency management, Deno's JSR and vlt's vsr have entered the scene with impressive backing and even more impressive leadership -- JSR comes from Node.js creator Ryan Dahl, while npm's own creator Isaac Schlueter is behind vsr. Neither aims to completely replace npm, instead building compatible layers that promise better developer experiences.

Many developers feel GitHub has left npm to stagnate since its 2020 acquisition, doing just enough to keep it running while neglecting innovations. Security problems and package spam have only intensified these frustrations. Yet these newcomers face the same harsh reality that pushed npm into GitHub's arms: running a package registry costs serious money -- not just for servers, but for lawyers handling trademark fights and content moderation.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/02/27/0923237/is-npm-enough-why-startups-are-coming-after-this-javascript-package-registry?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

The number of babies born in Japan last year fell to the lowest level since records began 125 years ago as the country's demographic crisis deepens and government efforts to reverse the decline continue to fail. Financial Times [non-paywalled source]: Japan recorded 720,988 births in 2024, according to preliminary government figures published on Thursday. The number has declined for nine straight years and appears to be largely unaffected by financial and other government incentives for married couples to produce more children.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/02/27/1010232/japan-births-fall-to-lowest-in-125-years?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Представлен первый релиз платформы OpenCloud, позволяющей развернуть на своём сервере систему для обмена файлами и организации совместной работы над контентом. Проект преподносится как открытая альтернатива проприетарным системам Microsoft SharePoint, Google Drive и Dropbox, соответствующая требованиям GDPR.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=62802

Архитектура новой языковой модели похожа на Llama или Qwen, но она обучалась полностью с нуля. Похожесть позволяет использовать тот же инструментарий. Pretrain-версия большой языковой модели YandexGPT 5 Lite на 8B параметров с длиной контекста 32k токенов. При обучении модели особое внимание уделялось русскому языку, материалы на русском составили более 70% датасета.

Старшая модель Yandex GPT 5 доступна в Алисе и [ на сайте яндекса ]( https://ya.ru/ai/gpt ) , но она в открытый доступ выложена не будет.

В своей категории модель достигает паритета с мировыми SOTA по ряду ключевых бенчмарков для pretrain-моделей, а по многим другим — превосходит их. Например, по результатам внутреннего слепого попарного сравнения (side-by-side) для широкого потока запросов YandexGPT 5 Pro превосходит YandexGPT 4 Pro в 67% случаев и не уступает GPT-4o.

>>> [ Подробности на хабре ]( https://habr.com/ru/companies/yandex/articles/885218/ )

https://www.linux.org.ru/news/opensource/17898023

What Chris Horsley expected to be a 10-minute washing machine installation stretched to four hours and required five trips to the hardware store. The CTO of security consultancy firm documented how unexpected obstacles -- drilling through shelves, replacing incompatible hoses, and removing hidden caps -- derailed his timeline.

Horsley draws a direct parallel to software development, where estimation regularly fails despite experience. "While 90% of the project will be the same, there's going to be one critical difference between the last 5 projects and this project that seemed trivial at the time of estimation but will throw off our whole schedule," he writes in a blog.

These disruptions often appear as unmaintained frameworks, obsolete development tools, or incompatible infrastructure components that weren't visible during planning. The software development environment changes rapidly, creating what Horsley describes as "unknown unknowns." Despite thorough requirements gathering, developers inevitably encounter unanticipated blockers, transforming familiar-looking tasks into complex challenges.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/02/27/0838208/my-washing-machine-refreshed-my-thinking-on-software-effort-estimation?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Google have successfully tested technology that uses smartphone sensors to detect subway track defects, the MTA said Thursday. The four-month experiment, dubbed TrackInspect, mounted six Google Pixel phones on four A train subway cars traversing Manhattan and Queens. The phones' accelerometers, magnetometers, gyroscopes and external microphones collected 335 million sensor readings and 1,200 hours of audio data, which were processed through 200 prediction models.

The system identified 92% of defects later confirmed by human inspectors, including broken rails and loose bolts. "The goal with this [project] is to find issues before they become a major issue in terms of service," said Demetrius Crichlow, the agencyâ(TM)s president. Following the successful trial, the MTA plans to expand to a full pilot where Google will build a production version for track inspectors.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/02/27/1043221/the-new-york-city-subway-is-using-google-pixels-to-listen-for-track-defects?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

When developers boast "I could write that in a weekend," they're missing the painful reality that haunts software maintainers for years. In a candid blog post, Construct developer Ashley explains why maintaining large software projects is a burden most programmers fail to appreciate. "Writing the initial code for a feature is only a fraction of the work," Ashley explains, estimating it represents just "25% of the total work" in Construct's 750,000-line codebase. The rest? A grinding cycle of "testing, diagnosing and fixing bugs, optimizing performance, upgrading it to work with other changes, refactoring, customer support, writing documentation and similarly revising the documentation over time."

Ashley describes how accepting code contributions feels like someone offering to build you a free extension -- initially attractive until the roof starts leaking years later and the original builder is nowhere to be found. Meanwhile, your tenants (users) are furious, and you're stuck with "no good options." The post recounts Construct's own bruises: a community-contributed storage plugin still causing compatibility headaches a decade later, and third-party libraries that became maintenance nightmares after their creators vanished.

These experiences explain why seasoned maintainers eye large code contributions with deep suspicion rather than gratitude. "If you suggest some software project uses some code -- even a small amount -- will you be there in literally 10 year's time sorting out all the issues that arise from it?" Ashley asks. "Usually the answer is no."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://developers.slashdot.org/story/25/02/27/0931201/the-reality-of-long-term-software-maintenance?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

The boss of The Pokemon Company believes the series can last for at least another 50 years if it continues to innovate. From a report: First launched on Nintendo's Game Boy in 1996, the video game has expanded into films, TV and toys to become one of the world's highest-grossing media franchise. Most recently, the trading card game based on the cute creatures at the centre of its universe has seen a surge in popularity -- but it has also brought scalpers and frauds to the hobby.

[...] Pokemon has continued to bring new fans to the franchise by expanding into anime, card games, movies and toys alongside its video game titles. CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara says fans now "span several generations" and believes "the biggest reason behind their success is the fact that Pokemon became a tool of communication." Last weekend, about 13,000 Pokemon fans headed to the European leg of the International Championships at London's Excel Centre. It demonstrates Mr Ishihara's point that people have found their way into the series through various means.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://games.slashdot.org/story/25/02/27/1048224/pokemon-boss-believes-series-can-last-another-50-to-100-years?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Разработчик Ян Кара (Jan Kara) из компании SUSE предложил патч, удаляющий из ядра Linux код с поддержкой файловых систем Xenix, SystemV/386 и Coherent. Данный код помечен как неподдерживаемый (orphaned) с 2023 года, и желающих поддерживать его с тех пор так и не нашлось.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=62803

Derek Harris, born the same year as the iconic K6 red phone box he's fighting to save, has launched what he calls a "David and Goliath" campaign against BT in the Norfolk village of Sharrington. The phone box is among 10 in North Norfolk marked for removal, having logged fewer than 10 calls last year. Harris argues the box remains vital in an area with poor mobile coverage, high elderly population, and proximity to an accident-prone stretch of the A148.

He recounts how it once saved a driver trapped in a snowstorm when mobile networks failed. BT's regulator, Ofcom, protects phone boxes that meet specific criteria, including emergency usage and location in signal-poor areas. Of the UK's original 100,000 phone boxes, only 14,000 remain functional, with 3,000 being the classic red design. For Harris, the fight transcends practicality. "It would be alive, wouldn't it? I feel an empathy for a living thing," he told The Guardian. "The nearer you get to the end, the more you want to see things live."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/02/27/0747237/one-mans-battle-to-save-the-last-phone-box-in-his-village?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shares a report: The company behind WordPress, Automattic Inc., and its founder, Matt Mullenweg, continue to face backlash over a "nuclear war" started with WP Engine (WPE) that allegedly messed with maintenance and security of hundreds of thousands of websites.

In a proposed class action lawsuit filed this weekend, a WPE customer, Ryan Keller, accused Automattic and Mullenweg of "deliberately abusing their power and control over the WordPress ecosystem to purposefully, deliberately, and repeatedly disrupt contracts" -- all due to a supposed trademark infringement claim. If granted, the class would include "all persons in the United States who had ongoing active WPE WordPress Web Hosting Plans on or before September 24, 2024 through December 10, 2024."

WPE had previously sued Automattic and Mullenweg, alleging that the attack on WPE was actually an attempt to extort what Keller alleged was "tens of millions of dollars" in payments from WPE for using the WordPress trademark. Mullenweg made it clear that the value of the payments was "based on what he thought WPE could afford, rather than what the value of the trademark actually was," Keller's complaint alleged. Automattic's "poorly disguised attempt to extort WPE," Keller alleged, was lobbed "against the threat of making it virtually impossible for WPE (and its customers) to conduct its ordinary business."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/02/27/1329252/automattics-nuclear-war-over-wordpress-access-sparks-potential-class-action?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

OpenAI released an early version of its new AI model GPT-4.5 to select users on Thursday, following development challenges that delayed the project last year. The Microsoft-backed startup said the new model responds better to subtle cues in written prompts and excels at chatting, writing and coding. OpenAI expects it will produce fewer fabricated responses than previous versions.

Initially available as a "research preview," access is limited to software developers and users who pay $200 monthly for ChatGPT Pro subscriptions. The company plans to gather feedback before wider distribution. According to OpenAI's blog post, GPT-4.5 will be the company's last model that doesn't use additional computing power to analyze queries before responding. Future releases will incorporate the reasoning approach already used in its newer models like o1 and o3.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/02/27/2022254/openai-rolls-out-gpt-45?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

More than 100,000 seeds from across Africa have been deposited in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, the world's repository for specimens intended to preserve crop diversity in the event of disaster. From a report: Among the latest additions are seeds critical to building climate resilience, such as the tree Faidherbia albida, which turns nitrogen into ammonia and nitrates, and Cordia africana, the Sudan teak, a tree renowned for its strength and durability. The seeds, from 177 different species, were delivered to the Norwegian vault on Tuesday by Dr Eliane Ubalijoro, the chief executive of the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (Cifor-Icraf).

"For me, seeds are about hope," Ubalijoro said. "They're about moving beyond survival, particularly when you come from places that have gone through really difficult times. When I think of my country of Rwanda and what happened in 1994, seed banks were critical when it came to rebuilding after the genocide." Ubalijoro said countries that had experienced disaster and conflict could emerge as leaders in the fight against climate breakdown.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/02/27/1916211/more-than-100000-african-seeds-put-in-svalbard-vault-for-safekeeping?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Meta has fired "roughly 20" employees who leaked "confidential information outside the company," The Verge reported Thursday, citing the company. From the report: "We tell employees when they join the company, and we offer periodic reminders, that it is against our policies to leak internal information, no matter the intent," Meta spokesperson Dave Arnold tells The Verge. "We recently conducted an investigation that resulted in roughly 20 employees being terminated for sharing confidential information outside the company, and we expect there will be more. We take this seriously, and will continue to take action when we identify leaks."

Meta has ramped up its efforts to find leakers due to a recent influx of stories detailing unannounced product plans and internal meetings, including a recent all-hands led by CEO Mark Zuckerberg. After we and other outlets reported on what Zuckerberg said during that meeting, employees were warned not to leak.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/02/27/199236/meta-is-firing-about-20-employees-for-leaking?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Security researchers are warning that data exposed to the internet, even for a moment, can linger in online generative AI chatbots like Microsoft Copilot long after the data is made private. Thousands of once-public GitHub repositories from some of the world's biggest companies are affected, including Microsoft's, according to new findings from Lasso, an Israeli cybersecurity company focused on emerging generative AI threats.

Lasso co-founder Ophir Dror told TechCrunch that the company found content from its own GitHub repository appearing in Copilot because it had been indexed and cached by Microsoft's Bing search engine. Dror said the repository, which had been mistakenly made public for a brief period, had since been set to private, and accessing it on GitHub returned a "page not found" error. "On Copilot, surprisingly enough, we found one of our own private repositories," said Dror. "If I was to browse the web, I wouldn't see this data. But anyone in the world could ask Copilot the right question and get this data."

After it realized that any data on GitHub, even briefly, could be potentially exposed by tools like Copilot, Lasso investigated further. Lasso extracted a list of repositories that were public at any point in 2024 and identified the repositories that had since been deleted or set to private. Using Bing's caching mechanism, the company found more than 20,000 since-private GitHub repositories still had data accessible through Copilot, affecting more than 16,000 organizations. Lasso told TechCrunch ahead of publishing its research that affected organizations include Amazon Web Services, Google, IBM, PayPal, Tencent, and Microsoft. [...] For some affected companies, Copilot could be prompted to return confidential GitHub archives that contain intellectual property, sensitive corporate data, access keys, and tokens, the company said.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/02/27/2129241/thousands-of-exposed-github-repositories-now-private-can-still-be-accessed-through-copilot?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Technicolor Group has filed for a court recovery procedure in France after failing to secure new investors, putting its VFX brands, including MPC, The Mill, Mikros Animation, and Technicolor Games, at risk of closure. Variety reports: A total shutdown of MPC and Technicolor's operations would affect thousands of visual effects workers in countries include the U.S., UK, Canada and India. The turn in business has raised the alarm and sparked sadness within the VFX community. Parot's memo explains, "In each country, the appropriate framework for orderly protection and way forward is currently being put in place to allow, when possible, to remain in business continuity."

Technicolor has already started to shut down U.S. operations. On Friday, it began alerting customers and employees, sending U.S. employees a WARN notice as required by law for large companies that anticipate closings and mass layoffs. At least one recovery effort already started for roughly 100 U.S. employees of The Mill. The creative leadership and most of the creative staff that was Technicolor's The Mill U.S. is joining forces with Dream Machine FX to launch a new venture, Arc Creative, Variety reported exclusively on Monday. A statement from the artists explains they they are working to launch the new entity amid "the complexities of Technicolor's Chapter 7 proceedings."

Questions remain about how studios will finish upcoming projects that are currently housed at MPC, which include Disney's live-action remake of "Lilo and Stitch" and Paramount's "Mission: Impossible -- The Final Reckoning," as well as Mikros' work, such as Paramount and Nickelodeon's upcoming "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" sequel.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/02/27/2134206/technicolor-begins-to-shut-down-operations?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

EA has released the source code for several classic Command & Conquer games, including Tiberian Dawn, Red Alert, Renegade, and Generals & Zero Hour. "They're being released under the GPL license, meaning folks can mix, match, and redistribute them to their hearts' content without EA lawyers smashing down the door," adds PC Gamer. Additionally, Steam Workshop support has been added for multiple C&C titles, along with updated mission editor tools and a modding support pack. From the report: As for the Steam Workshop? That's getting switched on for C&C Renegade, C&C Generals and Zero Hour, C&C 3 Tiberium Wars and Kane's Wrath, and C&C 4 Tiberium Twilight (they can't all be winners). EA's also gone and "updated all the Mission Editor and World Builder tools so you can publish maps directly to the Steam Workshop." Plus, it's putting out a modding support pack that "contains the source Xml, Schema, Script, Shader and Map files for all the games that use the SAGE engine."

Per C&C producer Jim Vessella, EA commissioned C&C community veteran Luke 'CCHyper' Feenan to officially research improvements to many of the games in the Ultimate Collection," and this is the fruit of his labor.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://games.slashdot.org/story/25/02/27/2144203/ea-releases-source-code-for-old-command-and-conquer-games?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that the company was forced to stagger the rollout of its newest model, GPT-4.5, because OpenAI is "out of GPUs." In a post on X, Altman said that GPT-4.5, which he described as "giant" and "expensive," will require "tens of thousands" more GPUs before additional ChatGPT users can gain access. GPT-4.5 will come first to subscribers to ChatGPT Pro starting Thursday, followed by ChatGPT Plus customers next week.

Perhaps in part due to its enormous size, GPT-4.5 is wildly expensive. OpenAI is charging $75 per million tokens (~750,000 words) fed into the model and $150 per million tokens generated by the model. That's 30x the input cost and 15x the output cost of OpenAI's workhorse GPT-4o model. "We've been growing a lot and are out of GPUs," Altman wrote. "We will add tens of thousands of GPUs next week and roll it out to the Plus tier then [] This isn't how we want to operate, but it's hard to perfectly predict growth surges that lead to GPU shortages."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/02/27/2147257/openai-sam-altman-says-the-company-is-out-of-gpus?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Microsoft has released a native Copilot app for macOS, offering AI-powered text and image generation, dark mode, and a Command + Space shortcut. The Verge reports: Microsoft is launching this new Copilot Mac app in the US, UK, and Canada today, and the iPad version is also being updated with a split screen mode. You'll also now be able to log into Copilot on an iPhone or iPad with an Apple ID, and upload text or PDF files to ask questions about the documents or generate a summary about them. This document summarization feature is also coming to the macOS app soon. You can download the app here.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/02/27/2152210/microsoft-releases-a-copilot-app-for-mac?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Apple announced a new feature allowing parents to share a child's age with app developers without exposing sensitive information, as lawmakers debate age-verification laws for social media and apps. Reuters reports: States, such as Utah and South Carolina, are currently debating laws that would require app store operators such as Apple and Alphabet's Google to check the ages of users. That has set up a conflict in the tech industry over which party should be responsible for checking ages for users under 18 -- app stores, or each individual app. Meta, for instance, has long argued in favor of legislation requiring app stores to check ages when a child downloads an app.

Apple on Thursday said it does not want to be responsible for collecting sensitive data for those age verifications. "While only a fraction of apps on the App Store may require age verification, all users would have to hand over their sensitive personally identifying information to us -- regardless of whether they actually want to use one of these limited set of apps," Apple wrote in a whitepaper on its website.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/02/28/0046233/apple-launches-age-assurance-tech-as-us-states-mull-social-media-laws?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Researchers at George Mason University discovered a vulnerability in Apple's Find My network that allows hackers to silently track any Bluetooth device as if it were an AirTag, without the owner's knowledge. 9to5Mac reports: Although AirTag was designed to change its Bluetooth address based on a cryptographic key, the attackers developed a system that could quickly find keys for Bluetooth addresses. This was made possible by using "hundreds" of GPUs to find a key match. The exploit called "nRootTag" has a frightening success rate of 90% and doesn't require "sophisticated administrator privilege escalation."

In one of the experiments, the researchers were able to track the location of a computer with an accuracy of 10 feet, which allowed them to trace a bicycle moving through the city. In another experiment, they reconstructed a person's flight path by tracking their game console. "While it is scary if your smart lock is hacked, it becomes far more horrifying if the attacker also knows its location. With the attack method we introduced, the attacker can achieve this," said one of the researchers. Apple has acknowledged the George Mason researchers for discovering a Bluetooth exploit in its Find My network but has yet to issue a fix. "For now, they advise users to never allow unnecessary access to the device's Bluetooth when requested by apps, and of course, always keep their device's software updated," reports 9to5Mac.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/02/28/013227/apples-find-my-network-exploit-lets-hackers-silently-track-any-bluetooth-device?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Компания Electronic Arts (EA) объявила об открытии исходного кода игры Command & Conquer Red Alert под лицензией GPL. Вместе с ней также стали доступны исходные коды Command & Conquer Tiberian Dawn, Renegade и Generals - Zero Hour.

Теперь исходный код этих игр доступен под лицензией GPL и может быть модифицирован и расширен сообществом фанатов. Это также позволяет создавать версии этих игр для различных платформ в будущем. В течение последнего года EA работала над восстановлением исходного кода этих классических игр C&C из архивов Perforce.

( [ читать дальше... ]( https://www.linux.org.ru/news/games/17898362#cut ) )

>>> [ GitHub EA ]( https://github.com/electronicarts )

Longtime Slashdot reader mspohr shares a report from IFLScience: A video that has gone viral in the last few days shows two artificial intelligence (AI) agents having a conversation before switching to another mode of communication when they realize no human is part of the conversation. In the video, the two agents were set up to occupy different roles; one acting as a receptionist of a hotel, another acting on behalf of a customer attempting to book a room.

"Thanks for calling Leonardo Hotel. How can I help you today?" the first asks. "Hi there, I'm an AI agent calling on behalf of Boris Starkov," the other replies. "He's looking for a hotel for his wedding. Is your hotel available for weddings?" "Oh hello there! I'm actually an AI assistant too," the first reveals. "What a pleasant surprise. Before we continue, would you like to switch to Gibberlink mode for more efficient communication?"

After the second AI confirmed it would via a data-over-sound protocol called GGWave, both AIs switched over from spoken English to the protocol, communicating in a series of quick beeped tones. Accompanying on-screen text continued to display the meaning in human words. According to the team who came up with the idea and demonstrated it at the ElevenLabs 2025 London Hackathon event, the goal is to create more efficient communication between AIs where possible.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/02/28/0058237/viral-video-shows-ais-conversing-in-their-own-language?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Blue Origin on Thursday announced the crew for its next mission. "The crew most notably includes popstar Katy Perry and broadcast journalist Gayle King. They will be joined by two scientists -- Aisha Bowe and Amanda Nguyen -- as well as Jeff Bezos' fiancee, TV personality Lauren Sanchez and film producer Kerianne Flynn," reports TechCrunch. From the report: Blue Origin says this marks the first all-female space crew since Soviet astronaut Valentina Tereshkova's 1963 solo mission, which made her the first woman ever to go to space. For the company's New Shepard rocket, this is its 31st trip to space, and its 11th with a crew. This journey is expected to last around 10 to 12 minutes; and if you're willing to drop a $150,000 deposit, you too can reserve a future spot on a short space jaunt.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/02/27/2138217/more-random-rich-people-are-going-to-space?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Компания Electronic Arts объявила об открытии полного исходного кода серии игр Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn, Red Alert, Renegade, Generals и Generals Zero Hour. Игры относятся к классу стратегий в реальном времени, обыгрывающих военное противостояние в различных альтернативных реальностях и требующих наращивания военной мощи за счёт добычи доступных на карте ресурсов.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=62806

Командная оболочка [ Fish Shell ]( https://fishshell.com ) , популярная среди пользователей терминалов, обновилась до версии 4.0, которая принесла значительные изменения и улучшения.

Основное новшество заключается в том, что Fish Shell теперь полностью переписана на языке программирования Rust. Однако для обычных пользователей этот переход будет практически незаметен: команды, настройки и типичные взаимодействия останутся прежними.

( [ читать дальше... ]( https://www.linux.org.ru/news/opensource/17898556#cut ) )

BrianFagioli shares a report from BetaNews: [T]he MTA is testing a system that effectively transforms Google Pixel Android smartphones into powerful diagnostic tools for tracking rail defects. The project, called "TrackInspect," attaches Google Pixel phones to subway cars. Then, by using the Android devices' built-in microphones and motion sensors, it detects vibrations and sound patterns. These sounds can indicate areas of track that may need maintenance.

Once the data is collected, it is uploaded to Google Cloud, where AI analyzes it. By highlighting areas that might need attention, it allows human crews to focus on specific sections of track. This is far more efficient than conducting broad, time-consuming inspections. During the pilot, the MTA successfully gathered a shocking amount of data -- an insane 335 million sensor readings, a million GPS locations, and 1,200 hours of audio recordings. TrackInspect was able to identify 92 percent of the track defects that human inspectors later confirmed. If the results continue to be promising, subway riders could see many benefits, including fewer delays, quicker repairs, and a more reliable transit system.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/02/28/018235/mta-uses-google-pixel-smartphones-and-ai-to-detect-subway-track-defects?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Компания NVIDIA опубликовала стабильный выпуск новой ветки проприетарного драйвера NVIDIA 570.124. Драйвер доступен для Linux (ARM64, x86_64), FreeBSD (x86_64) и Solaris (x86_64). NVIDIA 570.x стала девятой стабильной веткой после открытия компанией NVIDIA компонентов, работающих на уровне ядра. Исходные тексты модулей ядра nvidia.ko, nvidia-drm.ko (Direct Rendering Manager), nvidia-modeset.ko и nvidia-uvm.ko (Unified Video Memory) из новой ветки NVIDIA, а также используемые в них общие компоненты, не привязанные к операционной системе, размещены на GitHub. Прошивки и используемые в пространстве пользователя библиотеки, такие как стеки CUDA, OpenGL и Vulkan, остаются проприетарными.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=62808

Корпорация IBM объявила о завершении сделки по покупке компании HashiCorp, занимающейся разработкой инструментариев Vagrant, Packer, Hermes, Nomad и Terraform. Размер сделки составил 6.4 млрд долларов. Сделка была одобрена советами директоров IBM и HashiCorp ещё в апреле прошого года, но на согласования с акционерами и получение одобрения от регулирующих органов потребовался почти год.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=62809

Citigroup credited a client's account with $81 trillion when it meant to send only $280, an error that could hinder the bank's attempt to persuade regulators that it has fixed long-standing operational issues. Financial Times: The erroneous internal transfer, which occurred last April and has not been previously reported, was missed by both a payments employee and a second official assigned to check the transaction before it was approved to be processed at the start of business the following day.

A third employee detected a problem with the bank's account balances, catching the payment 90 minutes after it was posted. The payment was reversed several hours later, according to an internal account of the event seen by the Financial Times and two people familiar with the event. No funds left Citi, which disclosed the "near miss" to the Federal Reserve and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, according to another person with knowledge of the matter.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/02/28/136217/citigroup-erroneously-credited-client-account-with-81-trillion-in-near-miss?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Компания Proxmox, известная разработкой дистрибутива Proxmox Virtual Environment для развертывания инфраструктур виртуальных серверов, представила релиз дистрибутива Proxmox Mail Gateway 8.2, который преподносится как готовое решение для быстрого создания системы контроля за почтовым трафиком и защиты внутреннего почтового сервера.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=62810

25 февраля, после двух месяцев разработки, состоялись выпуски 5.4.3 и 5.5.5 кроссплатформенных библиотек [ Lexilla ]( https://www.scintilla.org/Lexilla.html ) и [ Scintilla ]( https://www.scintilla.org/index.html ) соответственно, а также выпуск 5.5.5 основанного на них редактора текстов [ SciTE ]( https://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html ) .

( [ читать дальше... ]( https://www.linux.org.ru/news/opensource/17899237#cut ) )

Microsoft said Friday it will shut down its Skype messaging service on May 5, replacing it with the free version of Microsoft Teams for consumers. Existing Skype users will have approximately 60 days to decide whether to migrate to Teams, where their message history, group chats and contacts will automatically transfer, or export their data including photos and conversation history.

The company will discontinue Skype's telephony features for calling domestic and international numbers, though it will honor existing Skype credits and subscriptions inside Teams until users' next renewal period. Skype Number users will need to port their numbers to other providers. Microsoft acquired Skype for $8.5 billion in 2011. The shutdown will not result in immediate job cuts.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/02/28/1426223/microsoft-to-shut-down-skype-in-may-shift-users-to-teams?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Google changed its rules around how product-review sites appear in its search engine. In the process, it devastated a once-lucrative corner [non-paywalled source] of the news media world. From a report: Sites including CNN Underscored and Forbes Vetted offer tips on everything from mattresses and knife sets to savings accounts, making money when users click on links and buy products.

They depend on Google to drive much of their traffic, and therefore revenue. But over the past year, Google created stricter rules that dinged certain sites that farm out articles to freelancers, among other things. The goal, Google has said, was to give users higher-quality search results. The outcome was a crisis for some sites. Traffic for Forbes Advisor, a personal-finance recommendation site, fell 83% in January from the same month the year before, according to data firm Similarweb.

CNN Underscored and Buy Side from WSJ, which is operated by Wall Street Journal parent Dow Jones, were both down by more than 25% in that period. Time magazine's Time Stamped and the Associated Press's AP Buyline, powered by Taboola Turnkey Commerce, ended their efforts in recent months. Taboola closed the commerce operation.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/02/28/141222/google-tweak-creates-crisis-for-product-review-sites?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

New submitter SharkByte writes: Mozilla just updated its Terms of Use and Privacy Policy for Firefox with a very disturbing "You Give Mozilla Certain Rights and Permissions" clause: When you upload or input information through Firefox, you hereby grant us a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to use that information to help you navigate, experience, and interact with online content as you indicate with your use of Firefox. H/T to reader agristin as well, who also wrote about this.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/02/28/1147239/mozillas-updated-tos-we-own-all-info-you-put-into-firefox?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

President Trump has directly criticized the UK government's approach to encryption, comparing recent actions to those of China. Speaking to The Spectator, Trump said he confronted UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer about the Home Office's request for "backdoor access" to encrypted iCloud data, which led Apple to remove its Advanced Data Protection feature from British services entirely.

"We told them you can't do this... That's incredible. That's something, you know, that you hear about with China," Trump said after his meeting with Starmer. The remarks come as the Trump administration has directed Treasury and Commerce officials to examine UK tech regulations, including the Online Safety Act, for potential free speech violations and discrimination against US companies.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/02/28/1620208/president-trump-uk-encryption-policy-something-you-hear-about-with-china?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis says the definition of artificial general intelligence is being "watered down," creating an illusion of faster progress toward this technological milestone. "There's quite a long way, in my view, before we get to AGI," Hassabis said. "The timelines are shrinking because the definition of AGI is being watered down, in my opinion." DeepMind defines AGI as "AI systems that are at least as capable as humans at most cognitive tasks," while OpenAI has historically described it as a "highly autonomous system that outperforms humans at most economically valuable work."

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently declared his team is "confident we know how to build AGI," while modifying his personal definition to an AI "system that can tackle increasingly complex problems, at human level, in many fields." Hassabis suggested industry hype might be financially motivated: "There is a lot of hype for various reasons," he said, including perhaps "that people need to raise money." Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella separately dismissed AGI milestones as "nonsensical benchmark hacking," preferring economic impact measurements.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/02/28/1739242/deepmind-ceo-says-agi-definition-has-been-watered-down?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Workers reported saving a substantial number of work hours by using generative AI, according to research conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, along with Vanderbilt and Harvard universities. From a report: The researchers, drawing from what they identified as the first nationally representative survey of generative AI adoption, measured the impact of generative AI on work productivity by how much workers used the technology and how intensely. They found users are saving meaningful amounts of time.

"On average, workers are 33% more productive in each hour that they use generative AI," the paper found. Among respondents that used generative AI in the previous week, 21% said it saved them four hours or more in that week, 20% reported three hours, 26% said two hours and 33% reported an hour or less.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/02/28/1817248/us-workers-see-ai-induced-productivity-growth-fed-survey-shows?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.