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Brave Browser version 1.75 introduces "custom scriptlets," a new feature that allows advanced users to inject their own JavaScript into websites for enhanced customization, privacy, and usability. The feature is similar to the TamperMonkey and GreaseMonkey browser extensions, notes BleepingComputer. From the report: "Starting with desktop version 1.75, advanced Brave users will be able to write and inject their own scriptlets into a page, allowing for better control over their browsing experience," explained Brave in the announcement. Brave says that the feature was initially created to debug the browser's adblock feature but felt it was too valuable not to share with users. Brave's custom scriptlets feature can be used to modify webpages for a wide variety of privacy, security, and usability purposes. For privacy-related changes, users write scripts that block JavaScript-based trackers, randomize fingerprinting APIs, and substitute Google Analytics scripts with a dummy version. In terms of customization and accessibility, the scriptlets could be used for hiding sidebars, pop-ups, floating ads, or annoying widgets, force dark mode even on sites that don't support it, expand content areas, force infinite scrolling, adjust text colors and font size, and auto-expand hidden content. For performance and usability, the scriptlets can block video autoplay, lazy-load images, auto-fill forms with predefined data, enable custom keyboard shortcuts, bypass right-click restrictions, and automatically click confirmation dialogs. The possible actions achievable by injected JavaScript snippets are virtually endless. However, caution is advised, as running untrusted custom scriptlets may cause issues or even introduce some risk.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Two owners of Nvidia's new RTX 5090 Founders Edition GPUs have reported melted power connectors and damage to their PSUs. The images look identical to reports of RTX 4090 power cables burning or melting from two years ago. Nvidia blamed the issue on people not properly plugging the 12VHPWR power connection in fully and the PCI standards body blamed Nvidia. A Reddit poster upgraded from an RTX 4090 to an RTX 5090 and noticed "a burning smell playing Battlefield 5," before turning off their PC and finding the damage. The images show burnt plastic at both the PSU end of the power connector and the part that connects directly to the GPU. The cable is one from MODDIY, a popular manufacturer of custom cables, and the poster claims it was "securely fastened and clicked on both sides (GPU and PSU)." While it's tempting to blame the MODDIY cable, Spanish YouTuber Toro Tocho has experienced the same burnt cable (both at the GPU and PSU ends) with an RTX 5090 Founders Edition while using a cable supplied by PSU manufacturer FSP. Plastic has also melted into the PCIe 5.0 power connector on the power supply.

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According to consultancy firm Janco, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reclassified several job titles, "leading to a downward adjustment of over 111,000 positions for November and December 2024," The Register reports. This revision contributed to an overall decline of 123,000 IT jobs for the year. However, in reality, IT sector hiring is on the rise, with 11,000 new positions added in January. From the report: "Many CEOs have given CFOs and CIOs the green light to hire IT Pros," Janco CEO Victor Janulaitis said of the first month of 2025. "IT Pros who were unemployed last month found jobs more quickly than was anticipated as CIOs rushed to fill open positions." There's still a 5.7 percent unemployment rate in the IT sector in January, Janco noted, which is greater than the national average of 4 percent - and which could rise further as Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) pushes ahead with federal workforce reductions aimed at streamlining operations. "Over the past several quarters much of the overall job growth was in the government sectors of the economy," Janulaitis said. "With the new administration that will in all probability not be the case in the future. "The impact of the DOGE initiatives has not been felt as of yet," Janulaitis added. "Economic uncertainty continues to hurt overall IT hiring." Despite this, Janco reported an addition of 11,000 new IT roles in January. Unfortunately, there's also been a surge in IT unemployment over the same period, with the number of jobless IT pros rising to 152,000 in January - an increase of 54,000 in a single month. [...] Closing out the report, Janco offered a mixed outlook: While IT jobs are expected to grow over the next few years, many white-collar roles could be eliminated. "Over the next five years, the number of individuals employed as IT professionals will increase while many white-collar jobs in the function will be eliminated with the application of AI and LLM to IT," Janco predicted.

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Dark web site seized, four cuffed in Thailand

An international police operation spanning the US, Europe, and Asia has shuttered the 8Base ransomware crew's dark web presence and resulted in the arrest of four European suspects accused of stealing $16 million from more than 1,000 victims worldwide.…

Apple has released emergency security updates for iOS 18.3.1 and iPadOS 18.3.1 to patch a zero-day vulnerability (CVE-2025-24200) that was exploited in "extremely sophisticated," targeted attacks. The flaw, which allowed a physical attack to disable USB Restricted Mode on locked devices, was discovered by Citizen Lab and may have been used in spyware campaigns; users are strongly advised to install the update immediately. BleepingComputer reports: USB Restricted Mode is a security feature (introduced almost seven years ago in iOS 11.4.1) that blocks USB accessories from creating a data connection if the device has been locked for over an hour. This feature is designed to block forensic software like Graykey and Cellebrite (commonly used by law enforcement) from extracting data from locked iOS devices. In November, Apple introduced another security feature (dubbed "inactivity reboot") that automatically restarts iPhones after long idle times to re-encrypt data and make it harder to extract by forensic software. The zero-day vulnerability (tracked as CVE-2025-24200 and reported by Citizen Lab's Bill Marczak) patched today by Apple is an authorization issue addressed in iOS 18.3.1 and iPadOS 18.3.1 with improved state management. The list of devices this zero-day impacts includes: - iPhone XS and later, - iPad Pro 13-inch, iPad Pro 12.9-inch 3rd generation and later, iPad Pro 11-inch 1st generation and later, iPad Air 3rd generation and later, iPad 7th generation and later, and iPad mini 5th generation and later

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBS News: Animal shelters, rescues, and veterinarian clinics around the U.S. are posting on social media telling pet owners to check their four-legged friends' microchips after learning a major microchip company [called Save This Life] is no longer providing services. [...] If you're unsure which company your cats or dogs' chips are registered with, check them. "You can go to your local veterinarian office, a local police station, or even a local animal shelter like HARP, and we can help check that for you and scan your animal. And then you take that number that's on there and there's a tool online where you can go look it up," [said Dan Cody, Executive Director of Humane Animal Rescue of Pittsburgh]. He said you check the number by using the AAHA Universal Microchip Lookup Tool at this link. If you discover your pet's microchip was registered to the company that's ceased operations, you'll need to register with a different company. "So, if you find that you are affected by this, you're going to want to go to one of these other websites that do the registrations. So, things like AKC Reunite, and PetLink. 24PetWatch these are all large companies who've been around for a long time and have good reputations," said Cody. The American Kennel Club shared a post from its AKC Reunite Facebook page, encouraging people to enroll in microchips with AKC Reunite. The post said in part, "If your dog or cat has a microchip number that starts with 991 or 900164 then it could be a Save This Life microchip. Save This Life suddenly closed, and your pet may not be protected." Cody said if your furry best friend isn't microchipped, take them to a vet or shelter like HARP to get one implanted under their skin so they have a permanent ID. Microchipping can be done at HARP's East Side and North Side Veterinary Medical Center by appointment.

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Justin Hotard tapped to replace Pekka Lundmark at the Finnish telco

Intel is going to need more than a new CEO after its Datacenter and AI (DCAI) chief on Monday announced he's leaving to run Nokia as its next chief executive.…

An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft has offered to widen the price differential between its Office product sold with its chat and video app Teams and its software sold without the app in a bid to avert a possible EU antitrust fine, according to three sources. The move by the U.S. tech giant comes five years after Salesforce-owned Slack complained to the European Commission about Microsoft's tying of Teams with Office. In 2023, German rival alfaview filed a similar grievance to the EU watchdog. Teams, which was added to Office 365 in 2017 for free and eventually replaced Skype for Business, became popular during the pandemic due in part to its video conferencing.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: For a man who's spent his career battling to make France more pro-business, Europe's prospects on AI are worrying: an oversight that could cost the bloc dearly. "We are not in the race today," French President Emmanuel Macron told CNN's Richard Quest in an exclusive interview at the Elysee Palace on Thursday. "We are lagging behind." "We need an AI agenda," he said, "because we have to bridge the gap with the United States and China on AI." The French leader added that he fears Europe becoming merely an AI consumer, losing control over the future direction and development of the technology. That's part of the impetus behind this week's AI summit in Paris -- the latest effort by Macron to put France at the heart of the debate and decision-making on international questions of the day. Earlier today, Macron announced investment pledges to bolster France's AI sector totalling $112 billion over the coming years.

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IT hiring ticks up in January, but unemployment climbs to 5.7%

The latest job numbers from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics make IT hiring look like it's in freefall, but that's not the case at all, says consultancy firm Janco. …

An anonymous reader shares a report: A new paper [PDF] from researchers at Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University finds that as humans increasingly rely on generative AI in their work, they use less critical thinking, which can "result in the deterioration of cognitive faculties that ought to be preserved." "[A] key irony of automation is that by mechanising routine tasks and leaving exception-handling to the human user, you deprive the user of the routine opportunities to practice their judgement and strengthen their cognitive musculature, leaving them atrophied and unprepared when the exceptions do arise," the researchers wrote.

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'Intense year' ahead, warned Zuck. Got to spend billions on AI and work to stay out of Trump's bad books

Meta has confirmed to The Register that today marks the start of a mass redundancy process with thousands of workers getting the chop.…

AmiMoJo writes: A computer expert who has battled for a decade to recover a $743 million bitcoin fortune he believes is buried in a council dump in south Wales is considering buying the site so he can hunt for the missing fortune. James Howells lost a high court case last month to force Newport city council to allow him to search the tip to retrieve a hard drive he says contains the bitcoins. The council has since announced plans to close and cap the site, which would almost certainly spell the end of any lingering hopes of reaching the bitcoins. The authority has secured planning permission for a solar farm on part of the land. Howells, 39, said on Monday it had been "quite a surprise" to hear of the closure plan. He said: "It [the council] claimed at the high court that closing the landfill to allow me to search would have a huge detrimental impact on the people of Newport, whilst at the same time they were planning to close the landfill anyway. I expected it would be closed in the coming years because itâ(TM)s 80/90% full -- but didnâ(TM)t expect its closure so soon. If Newport city council would be willing, I would potentially be interested in purchasing the landfill site âas isâ(TM) and have discussed this option with investment partners and it is something that is very much on the table."

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Lyft says it will launch a fleet of robotaxis, using self-driving technology from Intel's Mobileye, in Dallas in "as soon as 2026," with plans to scale to "thousands" of vehicles in additional markets in the months to follow. From a report: To signal its seriousness, the company tapped Marubeni, a Japanese conglomerate, to run fleet operations. Lyft's news comes after Uber dropped new details about its plan to feature Waymo's robotaxis on its platform in Austin and Atlanta later this year. And Tesla recently shared plans to launch a robotaxi service in Austin this summer.

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Free text messages for users of its own and rival networks during test period

T-Mobile US has started a public beta of its Direct-to-Cell service using Starlink satellites, offering just text messages for now, with data and voice calls coming later. Access will be free until July – after which it will cost $15 per month.…

OpenAI is pushing ahead on its plan to reduce its reliance on Nvidia for its chip supply by developing its first generation of in-house AI silicon. From a report: The ChatGPT maker is finalizing the design for its first in-house chip in the next few months and plans to send it for fabrication at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, sources told Reuters. The process of sending a first design through a chip factory is called "taping out." The update shows that OpenAI is on track to meet its ambitious goal of mass production at TSMC in 2026. A typical tape-out costs tens of millions of dollars and will take roughly six months to produce a finished chip, unless OpenAI pays substantially more for expedited manufacturing. There is no guarantee the silicon will function on the first tape out and a failure would require the company to diagnose the problem and repeat the tape-out step. Inside OpenAI, the training-focused chip is viewed as a strategic tool to strengthen OpenAI's negotiating leverage with other chip suppliers, the sources said.

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Overdue, over budget and now... perhaps just over?

Boeing has notified staff that hundreds of jobs could be eliminated if the Artemis program is canceled or heavily revised.…

Europe's Euclid space telescope has captured a rare "Einstein ring," showing light from a distant galaxy bent into a perfect circle by the gravity of another galaxy sitting between Earth and the source, the European Space Agency said. The phenomenon, spotted around galaxy NGC 6505 some 590 million light-years from Earth, reveals the warping of space predicted by Einstein's theory of relativity. The background galaxy, located 4.42 billion light-years away, appears as a complete ring of light around NGC 6505. "An Einstein ring as perfect as this is extremely rare," said Open University astronomer Stephen Serjeant. Analysis shows NGC 6505 contains about 11% dark matter, a key focus of Euclid's mission to map the universe.

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Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis downplayed the technological significance of DeepSeek's latest AI model, despite its market impact. "Despite the hype, there's no actual new scientific advance there. It's using known techniques," Hassabis said on Sunday. "Actually many of the techniques we invented at Google and at DeepMind." Hassabis acknowledged that Deepseek's AI model "is probably the best work" out of China, but its capabilities, he said, is "exaggerated a little bit."DeepSeek's launch last month triggered a $1 trillion U.S. market sell-off.

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When your state machines are vulnerable, all bets are off

Opinion All malicious attacks on digital systems have one common aim: taking control. Mostly, that means getting a CPU somewhere to turn traitor, running code that silently steals or scrambles your data. That code can ride into the system in a whole spectrum of ways, but usually it has to be in memory somewhere at some time, making it amenable to counter-attack.…