Linux fréttir
New look for Visual Studio but the core still runs on the old .Net Framework
Microsoft has released a preview of Visual Studio 2026, the first major version update since 2021, promising deeper AI integration and a new look and feel.…
Netflix's film division faces a fundamental mismatch between its subscription model and filmmakers' artistic ambitions, according to new data analysis examining a decade of original productions. The streamer's movies cost two to three times more than A24 films but consistently score lower across review aggregators. Netflix attracts established actors like Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz but struggles to retain acclaimed directors.
The typical Netflix director has less critical acclaim and shorter filmographies than theatrical counterparts despite handling larger budgets. Directors recently turned down Netflix's $150 million for Wuthering Heights and $50 million for Weapons, accepting lower offers from Warner Bros. that guaranteed theatrical releases. The Electric State cost Netflix $320 million in February 2025 and received a 30 Metacritic score and 14% on Rotten Tomatoes. Netflix's business model requires filling hours to justify $9.99 monthly subscriptions. Directors seek theatrical releases where audiences watch films in one sitting without checking phones.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Researchers at the University of Tubingen have discovered that human brains process colors in remarkably similar ways across different individuals. The team used fMRI scans from 15 participants viewing various colors to train a machine-learning model that could then accurately predict which colors a second group was viewing based solely on their brain activity patterns.
Published in the Journal of Neuroscience, the study found that specific brain cells in the visual cortex consistently respond more strongly to particular colors across all participants. The discovery challenges long-standing philosophical questions about whether people perceive colors differently.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Arbitrarily inflated lock-in-tastic fees curbed as movement charges must be cost-linked
Most of the provisions of the EU Data Act will officially come into force from the end of this week, requiring cloud providers to make it easier for customers to move their data, but some of the big players are keener than others.…
Charleston's planned $1.3 billion sea wall will protect the city's historic downtown peninsula while leaving lower-income neighborhoods like Rosemont exposed to rising waters. The eight-mile barrier, with Charleston contributing $455 million, excludes historically Black communities already experiencing regular flooding.
Meanwhile, developers have received approval for thousands of new homes in flood-prone areas, including Long Savannah's 4,500 units and Cainhoy's 9,000-home development on filled wetlands. Charleston's sea level rose 13 inches over the past century and faces another four-foot rise by 2100. Climate Central projects 8,000 residents and 4,700 homes will face annual flooding risk by 2050. The Bridge Pointe neighborhood already underwent FEMA buyouts after successive floods, while coastal South Carolina zip codes report among the nation's highest insurance non-renewal rates.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Why strap pricey, power-hungry HBM to a job that doesn't benefit from the bandwidth?
Analysis Nvidia on Tuesday unveiled the Rubin CPX, a GPU designed specifically to accelerate extremely long-context AI workflows like those seen in code assistants such as Microsoft's GitHub Copilot, while simultaneously cutting back on pricey and power-hungry high-bandwidth memory (HBM).…
An anonymous reader shares a report: The Darwin Awards are being extended to include examples of misadventures involving overzealous applications of AI. Nominations are open for the 2025 AI Darwin Awards and the list of contenders is growing, fueled by a tech world weary of AI and evangelists eager to shove it somewhere inappropriate.
There's the Taco Bell drive-thru incident, where the chain catastrophically overestimated AI's ability to understand customer orders. Or the Replit moment, where a spot of vibe coding nuked a production database, despite instructions from the user not to fiddle with code without permission. Then there's the woeful security surrounding an AI chatbot used to screen applicants at McDonald's, where feeding in a password of 123456 gave access to the details of 64 million job applicants.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Prosecutors claim Ukrainian ran LockerGoga, MegaCortex, and Nefilim ops – $11M bounty on his head
A Ukrainian national faces serious federal charges and an $11 million bounty after allegedly orchestrating ransomware operations that caused an estimated $18 billion in damages across hundreds of organizations worldwide.…
Department dangles £160K salary for CDIO to wrangle legacy systems, failed projects, and £1.8B budget
The UK Home Office – a government department with a rich track record of failing IT projects – is on the hunt for a chief digital and innovation officer (CDIO) with an advertised salary not far off from the prime minister's.…
One parent expressed concern for their child's safety
A clumsy data breach has affected hundreds of children at a Birmingham secondary school.…
Dozens of polar scientists have warned that geoengineering schemes to manipulate the Arctic and Antarctic are dangerous, impractical, and risk distracting from the urgent need to cut fossil fuel emissions. The BBC reports: These polar "geoengineering" techniques aim to cool the planet in unconventional ways, such as artificially thickening sea-ice or releasing tiny, reflective particles into the atmosphere. They have gained attention as potential future tools to combat global warming, alongside cutting carbon emissions. But more than 40 researchers say they could bring "severe environmental damage" and urged countries to simply focus on reaching net zero, the only established way to limit global warming.
The scientists behind the new assessment, published in the journal Frontiers in Science, reviewed the evidence for five of the most widely discussed polar geoengineering ideas. All fail to meet basic criteria for their feasibility and potential environmental risks, they say. One such suggestion is releasing tiny, reflective particles called aerosols high into the atmosphere to cool the planet. This often attracts attention among online conspiracy theorists, who falsely claim that condensation trails in the sky -- water vapour created from aircraft jet engines -- is evidence of sinister large-scale geoengineering today. But many scientists have more legitimate concerns, including disruption to weather patterns around the world.
With those potential knock-on effects, that also raises the question of who decides to use it -- especially in the Arctic and Antarctic, where governance is not straightforward. If a country were to deploy geoengineering against the wishes of others, it could "increase geopolitical tensions in polar regions," according to Dr Valerie Masson-Delmotte, senior scientist at the Universite Paris Saclay in France. Another fear is that while some of the ideas may be theoretically possible, the enormous costs and time to scale-up mean they are extremely unlikely to make a difference, according to the review. [...]
A more fundamental concern is that these types of projects could create the illusion of an alternative to cutting humanity's emissions of planet-warming gases. "If they are promoted... then they are a distraction because to some people they will be a solution to the climate crisis that doesn't require decarbonising," said Prof Siegert. "Of course that would not be true and that's why we think they can be potentially damaging." Even supporters of geoengineering research agree that it is, at best, a supplement to net zero, not a substitution.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Meeting with former UK prime minister and his chief advisor withheld from official records, according to leaked documents
Former British prime minister Boris Johnson and his chief adviser Dominic Cummings met with Peter Thiel, co-founder and chairman of Palantir, in 2019, months before the US spy-tech company landed a key role in the UK's COVID-19 response, according to papers seen by The Guardian.…
It's the season of FOSS fruitfulness as juicy goodness falls from the branch
The Northern hemisphere is moving into autumn and FOSS vendors are falling over themselves in their efforts to get new versions out for the season.…
Are you sure you know who has access to your systems?
Feature Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is the latest UK household name to fall victim to a major cyberattack. IT systems across multiple sites have been offline for over a week after what the company described as a "severe disruption."…
Government wants to assess would-be immigrants' language skills remotely
Plans for an £816 million system to test the English skills of UK visa applicants have stalled, with the Home Office pushing procurement back at least five months after repeated consultations with suppliers.…
A U.S. congressional hearing today on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs) featured testimony from military veterans and witnesses describing encounters with mysterious craft, including glowing red squares, tic-tac-shaped objects emerging from the ocean, and videos of missiles striking unidentified orbs. While NASA maintains there's no evidence of extraterrestrial life, lawmakers stressed the need for transparency, whistleblower protections, and further investigation.
There were four witnesses at today's hearing:
Jeffrey Nuccetelli: U.S. Air Force veteran and self-described UAP witness who investigated the reported "red square" sighting above Vandenberg Air Force Base.
George Knapp: Award-winning journalist and chief reporter at KLAS-TV, known for his decades of UFO coverage and multiple Peabody Awards.
Alexandro Wiggins: Navy veteran of 23 years who reported witnessing a "Tic Tac" UAP aboard the USS Jackson in 2023 and noted his father's work at Area 51.
Dylan Borland: Air Force veteran and UAP witness with little public information or media exposure available.
"The public senses that it's real and the people in authority dismiss them," said Knapp, arguing that the public can handle the truth. One of the clips he showed lawmakers was of a drone operator tracking a glowing orb off the coast of Yemen before a missile struck the object. "That's a Hellfire missile smacking into that UFO and just bouncing right off," he said. "What the hell is that?" Knapp said the clip is not unique, claiming multiple video servers with similar UAP footage are being kept from Congress. Borland testified: "This craft interfered with my telephone, did not have any sound and the material it was made of appeared fluid or dynamic."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Management software stumbles at start of term, leaving staff unable to track attendance or reach parents
UK school management information system (MIS) provider Bromcom has had a bad start to the academic year after its Azure-based service left staff struggling to track student attendance, let alone access contact details for parents and guardians.…
Four-tier core design debuts amid NPU debate
Arm has lifted the lid on its latest mobile platform, comprising new CPU and GPU designs plus rearchitected interconnect and memory management logic, all optimized with a coming wave of AI-enabled smartphones in mind.…
If you can find the T&Cs, which are often hidden, you may spot hidden costs and nasties galore
Vendors’ licenses for AI software and services are in a state of “pandemonium,” according to Gartner VP analyst Jo Liversidge.…
Pages
|
