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Windows Insider build intros background loading for faster launches, sidestepping questions about app's sluggishness

Microsoft is tackling File Explorer's sluggish launch times - not by stripping out the bloat or optimizing code, but by preloading the application in the background.…

An anonymous reader shares a report: Solid-state drives sitting unpowered in drawers or storage can lose data over time because voltage gradually leaks from their NAND flash cells, and consumer-grade drives using QLC NAND retain data for about a year while TLC NAND lasts up to three years without power. More expensive MLC and SLC NAND can hold data for five and ten years respectively. The voltage loss can result in missing data or completely unusable drives. Hard drives remain more resistant to power loss despite their susceptibility to bit rot. Most users relying on SSDs for primary storage in regularly powered computers face little risk since drives typically stay unpowered for only a few months at most. The concern mainly affects creative professionals and researchers who need long-term archival storage.

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German mega vendor responds to latest in-house survey

An internal SAP employee survey reveals declining confidence in leadership as the software giant's restructuring program continues, with trust in the executive board waning in the past six months.…

An anonymous reader shares a report: Singapore's police have ordered Apple and Google to prevent the spoofing of government agencies on their messaging platforms, the home affairs ministry said on Tuesday. The order under the nation's Online Criminal Harms Act came after the police observed scams on Apple's iMessage and Google Messages purporting to be from companies such as the local postal service SingPost. While government agencies have registered with a local SMS registry so only they can send messages with the "gov.sg" name, this does not currently apply to the iMessage and Google Messages platforms.

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DOE told to build a unified research platform linking federal compute, datasets, and national labs

US President Trump has ordered the launch of the "Genesis Mission," a national effort to use AI to drive scientific discoveries, with the aim of strengthening America's technological leadership and global competitiveness.…

Security chief placed on leave pending investigation

Campbell's has placed its US CISO and vice president on temporary leave while it investigates allegations that he disparaged customers, the company's products, and Indian staffers.…

In the latest Windows Insider beta update, Microsoft has announced that it is exploring preloading File Explorer in the background to improve launch performance. The feature will load File Explorer silently before users click on it and can be toggled off for those who prefer not to use it. Microsoft introduced a similar capability earlier this year for Office called Startup Boost that loads parts of Word in the background so the application launches more quickly. The company is also removing elements from the File Explorer context menu in the same update.

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Capsule might only manage three crewed missions to the ISS

NASA has modified its Commercial Crew contract with Boeing, dropping the order from six to four missions, of which one will be uncrewed.…

Uni notifies 1,400-plus Maine residents as zero-day fallout continues

Dartmouth College has confirmed it's the latest victim of Clop's Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) smash-and-grab.…

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Lenovo is stockpiling memory and other critical components to navigate a supply crunch brought on by the boom in artificial intelligence. The world's biggest PC maker is holding on to component inventories that are roughly 50% higher than usual, Chief Financial Officer Winston Cheng told Bloomberg TV on Monday. The frenzy to build and fill AI data centers with advanced hardware is raising prices for producers of consumer electronics, but Lenovo also sees opportunity in this to capitalize on its stockpile. "The price is going very, very high, of course, and I think it's been unprecedented in terms of this rate driven by the AI demand," Cheng said. His company has long-term contracts in place and the benefit of scale, he added, and "those that have the supply actually would be able to have a position in the market." Beijing-based Lenovo will aim to avoid passing on rising costs to its customers in the current quarter, as it wants to sustain this year's strong sales growth, according to the CFO. He said the company will strike a balance between price and availability in 2026. Lenovo said last week that it has enough memory chips for all of 2026 and it can navigate any shortages better than its competitors.

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Power outage in Iberia forced datacenter contingency rethink

Exclusive Airbus is overhauling its datacenter contingency plans after a ten-hour power outage across Spain and Portugal in April nearly forced a complete production shutdown.…

Kyivstar begins trials offering SMS connectivity when ground networks fail

Ukrainian telco Kyivstar has launched Starlink's Direct to Cell satellite service for its subscribers, making the war-torn nation the first in Europe to offer it.…

Uncrewed Shenzhou also delivered supplies and window fixing kit

China's uncrewed Shenzhou-22 spacecraft has successfully docked with the Tiangong space station, providing relief to the crew who were relying on a damaged capsule with a cracked window as their only ride home.…

Attackers sidestep encryption with spoofed apps and zero-click exploits to compromise 'high-value' mobile users

CISA has warned that state-backed snoops and cyber-mercenaries are actively abusing commercial spyware to break into Signal and WhatsApp accounts, hijack devices, and quietly rummage through the phones of what the agency calls "high-value" users.…

Timing of Yantar's visit sparked gossip, but engineers point to a misbehaving protection system

Cock-up beats conspiracy most of the time, but that didn't stop Orkney residents wondering if a Russian warship caused their two-hour power cut.…

Plan would link commercial capacity with Britain's flagship supercomputers

The UK government is looking for cloud providers to support its ambition of increasing its AI compute capacity twentyfold by 2030 in a deal that could be worth £250 million.…

The EPA has approved new pesticides that qualify as PFAS "forever chemicals" (paywalled; alternative source), sparking criticism from scientists and environmental groups who warn these decisions could increase Americans' exposure through food and water at a time when many states are moving to restrict such substances. The Washington Post reports: This month, the agency approved two new pesticides that meet the internationally recognized definition for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS or fluorinated substances, and has announced plans for four additional approvals. The authorized pesticides, cyclobutrifluram and isocycloseram, which was approved Thursday, will be used on vegetables such as romaine lettuce, broccoli and potatoes. The agency also announced plans to relax a rule requiring companies to report all products containing PFAS and has proposed weakening drinking water standards for the chemicals. "Many fluorinated compounds registered or proposed for U.S. pesticidal use in recent years offer unique benefits for farmers, users, and the public," EPA spokeswoman Brigit Hirsch said in a statement. "It is important to differentiate between the highly toxic PFAS such as PFOA and PFOS for which the EPA has set drinking water standards, versus less toxic PFAS in pesticides that help maintain food security," notes Doug Van Hoewyk, a toxicologist at Maine's Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry. He added that concerns about food residue depend on the PFAS and the quantity. Nathan Donley, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, also commented: "The data we have about the use of PFAS pesticides is already seven years old, and since there have been many new approvals during that time, those numbers are sure to underestimate the amount were using today."

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ICO accused of backing off oversight as fallout from Afghan blunder widens

Civil society groups are urging MPs to launch a parliamentary inquiry into the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), accusing the UK data watchdog of abandoning its enforcement duties after it declined to investigate a Ministry of Defence data leak linked to dozens of deaths.…

Taskforce calls UK the priciest place on Earth to build nuclear projects and urges radical regulatory reset

The UK is following the US in seeking to fast-track new atomic development, spurred on by the need to provide enough energy for its AI ambitions plus the increasing electrification of industry and vehicles.…

Scientists report that the Antarctic ozone hole in 2025 is the fifth-smallest since 1992, thanks largely to decades of global restrictions on ozone-depleting chemicals under the Montreal Protocol. ABC News reports: The ozone hole reached its greatest one-day extent for 2025 in early September, measuring 8.83 million square miles, about 30% smaller than the largest hole on record in 2006. NOAA and NASA scientists emphasize that recent findings show efforts to limit ozone-depleting chemical compounds can have a significant impact. The regulations are established by the Montreal Protocol, which went into effect in 1992. Subsequent amendments are driving the gradual recovery of the ozone layer, which remains on track to fully recover later this century as countries worldwide replace harmful substances with safer alternatives. For decades, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other ozone-depleting compounds were widely used in aerosol sprays, foams, air conditioners and refrigerators, causing significant reductions in ozone levels. Natural factors, such as temperature and atmospheric circulation, also influence ozone concentrations and are likely to have contributed to a smaller ozone hole this year, according to researchers. "This year's hole would have been more than one million square miles larger if there was still as much chlorine in the stratosphere as there was 25 years ago," said Paul Newman, a senior scientist at the University of Maryland system and longtime leader of NASA's ozone research team.

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