Linux fréttir

Lots of manual corrections and data entry still required

ai-pocalypse Recent research details how customer service reps at a Chinese utility's call center often struggled when trying to use an AI assistant, and were forced to make manual fixes.…

AI-powered note-taking apps are increasingly attending workplace meetings in place of human participants, creating situations where automated transcription bots outnumber actual attendees. Major platforms including Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet now offer built-in note-taking features that record, transcribe and summarize meetings for invited participants who don't attend. The technology operates under varying legal frameworks, with most states requiring only single-party consent for recording while California, Florida, and Pennsylvania mandate all-party approval.

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A big shrug to early integration questions

HPE has completed its takeover of Juniper Networks, but the conjoined pair isn't yet ready to discuss details about how the networking business will fit into HPE's existing lineup alongside Aruba.…

An anonymous reader shares a report: Law enforcement officials are investigating a former employee of a company that negotiates with hackers and facilitates cryptocurrency payments during ransomware attacks, according to a statement from the firm, DigitalMint. DigitalMint President Marc Jason Grens this week told organizations it works with that the US Justice Department is examining allegations that the then-employee struck deals with hackers to profit from extortion payments, according to a person familiar with the matter. Grens did not identify the employee by name and characterized their actions as isolated, said the person, who spoke on condition that they not be identified describing private conversations. DigitalMint is cooperating with a criminal investigation into "alleged unauthorized conduct by the employee while employed here," Grens said in an email to Bloomberg News. The Chicago-based company is not the target of the investigation and the employee "was immediately terminated," Grens said, adding that he can't provide more information because the probe is ongoing.

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Methane monitoring satellite managed just over a year in orbit before its sudden demise

The Bezos-backed MethaneSAT satellite has been declared "likely not recoverable" after losing contact with controllers just over a week ago.…

An anonymous reader shares a report: From Somalia to mainland Europe, the past two years have seen some of the most ravaging droughts in recorded history, made worse by climate change, according to a UN-backed report. Describing drought as a "silent killer" which "creeps in, drains resources, and devastates lives in slow motion" the report said it had exacerbated issues like poverty and ecosystem collapse. The report highlighted impacts in Africa, the Mediterranean, Latin America and Southeast Asia, including an estimated 4.4 million people in Somalia facing crisis-level food insecurity at the beginning of this year. It recommends governments prepare for a "new normal" with measures including stronger early warning systems.

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Nonprofit TTAM assures everything is BAU. Whether that makes customers feel better is another matter

The medical research nonprofit vying to buy 23andMe is informing existing customers that it plans to complete the deal on July 8.…

An anonymous reader shares a report: Lorde [a popular New Zealand singer and songwriter] fans are clearly struggling to play the CD version of her new album. Customers who purchased the special edition of Virgin released on a transparent plastic disc are reporting on Reddit and TikTok that many CD players, car stereos, and other sound systems they've tried are unable to play it.

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Air pollution has been linked to a swathe of lung cancer-driving DNA mutations, in a study of people diagnosed with the disease despite never having smoked tobacco. From a report: The findings from an investigation into cancer patients around the world helps explain why those who have never smoked make up a rising proportion of people developing the cancer, a trend the researchers called an "urgent and growing global problem." Prof Ludmil Alexandrov, a senior author on the study at the University of California in San Diego, said researchers had observed the "problematic trend" but had not understood the cause. "Our research shows that air pollution is strongly associated with the same types of DNA mutations we typically associate with smoking," he said. The scientists analyzed the entire genetic code of lung tumors removed from 871 never-smokers in Europe, North America, Africa and Asia as part of the Sherlock-Lung study. They found that the higher the levels of air pollution in a region, the more cancer-driving and cancer-promoting mutations were present in residents' tumors. Fine-particulate air pollution was in particular linked to mutations in the TP53 gene. These have previously been associated with tobacco smoking.

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Dismissal bid denied as 16-count indictment moves toward trial in May 2026

Huawei will still have to face trial in the US next year over alleged breaches of sanctions against Iran after a judge declined its request to dismiss various charges.…

An anonymous reader shares a report: In 2021, Google set a lofty goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2030. Yet in the years since then, the company has moved in the opposite direction as it invests in energy-intensive artificial intelligence. In its latest sustainability report, Google said its carbon emissions had increased 51% between 2019 and 2024. New research aims to debunk even that enormous figure and provide context to Google's sustainability reports, painting a bleaker picture. A report authored by non-profit advocacy group Kairos Fellowship found that, between 2019 and 2024, Google's carbon emissions actually went up by 65%. What's more, between 2010, the first year there is publicly available data on Google's emissions, and 2024, Google's total greenhouse gas emissions increased 1,515%, Kairos found. The largest year-over-year jump in that window was also the most recent, 2023 to 2024, when Google saw a 26% increase in emissions just between 2023 and 2024, according to the report.

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Reports of 9,000 staff cut

Microsoft's recent trend of wide-scale workforce reduction continues, with reports that Redmond is preparing to slash an additional 4 percent of its employees – or around 9,000 people.…

Datacenters kept humming along, but there's plenty of blame to be passed around elsewhere

The cause of a power outage that cut the juice to London Heathrow airport in March has been identified - along with a chain of failures that allowed it to happen.…

Earth's atmosphere now has more carbon dioxide in it than it has in millions -- and possibly tens of millions -- of years, according to data released last month by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and scientists at the University of California San Diego. From a report: For the first time, global average concentrations of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas emitted as a byproduct of burning fossil fuels, exceeded 430 parts per million (ppm) in May. The new readings were a record high and represented an increase of more than 3 ppm over last year. The measurements indicate that countries are not doing enough to limit greenhouse gas emissions and reverse the steady buildup of C02, which climate scientists point to as the main culprit for global warming. "Another year, another record," Ralph Keeling, a professor of climate sciences, marine chemistry and geochemistry at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, said in a statement. "It's sad."

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The UK government is preparing new legislation to address undersea cable sabotage as current laws are proving inadequate for modern threats. Ministry of Defence parliamentary under-secretary Luke Pollard told lawmakers yesterday that the Submarine Telegraph Act of 1885, which imposes 1,000 pound ($1,370) fines, "does seem somewhat out of step with the modern-day risk." The government's Strategic Defence Review proposes a new defence readiness bill to cover state-sponsored cybercrime and subsea cable attacks. Chris Bryant, minister of state for data protection and telecoms, said fines could be increased to 5,000 pound ($6,850) through secondary legislation but "that just doesn't seem to meet the needs of the situation." Recent incidents include Sweden's deployment of forces to the Baltic Sea following suspected Russian attacks on underwater data cables in January. The China Strategic Risks Institute found that eight of ten identified vessels in 12 sabotage incidents between January 2021 and April 2025 were linked to China or Russia through registration or ownership.

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NASA science might be cut, but cash can be found to move a 'space vehicle' from museum to museum

Lurking in the text contained within the One Big Beautiful Bill, which was passed by the US Senate yesterday, is an $85 million allocation for shifting a "space vehicle" to a new location, widely interpreted as a move of the retired Space Shuttle Discovery orbiter from Virginia to Houston.…

Microsoft is kicking off its fiscal year by firing thousands of employees in the largest round of layoffs since 2023, the company confirmed Wednesday. From a report: In an ongoing effort to streamline its workforce, Microsoft said that as much as 4%, or roughly 9,100, of the company's employees could be affected by Wednesday's layoffs. The move follows two waves of layoffs in May and June, which saw Microsoft fire more than 6,000 employees, almost 2,300 of whom were based in Washington.

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Cutting out middle man dents coffers of larger service providers, helps Redmond offset AI investments

The sweeping changes Microsoft is making to its licensing incentives for large service providers is taking hold.…

An anonymous reader quotes a report from GameSpot: Perhaps responding to economic uncertainty and narrowing job prospects, young people in the United States are significantly cutting back on spending on video games compared to this time last year. While 18- to 24-year-olds aren't buying as much across a range of different categories, losses are concentrated in games. New data published by market research firm Circana and reported by The Wall Street Journal suggests that young adults spent nearly 25% less on video game products in a four-week span in April than in the same timeframe last year. Other categories also dramatic drops: Accessories (down 18%), technology (down 14%), and furniture (down 12%). All categories combined, the 18-24 age group spent around 13% less than last year. This decrease is not reflected among older cohorts, whose spending has been mostly stable year-over-year. The WSJ report suggests that the economic context could be driving young adults to pull back; a tighter labor market, increased economic uncertainty, and student-loan payments restarting all may be contributing to an environment hostile to the spending habits of 18- to 24-year-olds in particular.

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Aeza Group accused of assisting data bandits and BianLian ransomware crooks

The US Treasury has sanctioned Aeza Group, a Russian bulletproof hosting (BPH) provider, and four of its cronies for enabling ransomware and other cybercriminal activity.…