An anonymous reader shared [1]this report from Phoronix :

> Intel's Linux kernel test robot has reported a 3888.9% performance improvement in the mainline Linux kernel as of this past week...

>

> Intel thankfully has the resources to maintain this automated service for per-kernel commit/patch testing and has been maintaining their public kernel test robot for years now to help catch performance changes both positive and negative to the Linux kernel code. The commit in question causing this massive uplift to performance is [2]mm, mmap: limit THP alignment of anonymous mappings to PMD-aligned sizes . The patch message confirms it will fix some prior performance regressions and deliver some major uplift in specialized cases...

>

> That mmap patch merged last week affects just one line of code.

This week [3]the Register also reported that Linus Torvalds revised a previously-submitted security tweak that addressed Spectre and Meltdown security holes, writing in his commit message that "The kernel test robot reports a 2.6 percent improvement in the per_thread_ops benchmark."



[1] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-Linux-3888.9-Performance

[2] https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=d4148aeab412432bf928f311eca8a2ba52bb05df

[3] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/06/torvalds_patch_linux_performance/

The Free Software Foundation turns forty on October 4, 2025 "and we will end our thirties on a high note!" [1]they announced this week :

> We wish we were celebrating the achievement of software freedom for all computer users, but we're not there yet. Until our mission becomes reality and we can retire, instead, we are celebrating forty years of activism, and all that we have achieved.

>

> Since our founding in 1985, we laid out many stepping stones on the road to software freedom, and we're eager to continue building the road ahead. We will celebrate our fortieth in the spirit of bringing the international free software community together, discussing what we can do next to make the world freer, and celebrating how far we've come. We're aiming for a libre planet! Sounds familiar? Instead of hosting one [2]LibrePlanet conference in 2025, we're planning a jam-packed anniversary year, filled with several new and exciting activities!

>

> We'll begin the anniversary year with an unprecedented memorabilia auction, starting as a silent auction on March 17, and culminating in a virtual live auction on March 23. By moving out of the FSF office, we got to sort through all the fun and historically important memorabilia and selected the best ones. This is your chance to get your very own personal souvenir of the FSF, from original GNU art to a famous katana and the very same VT220 that was standing on the FSF's front desk, and which people used to display ASCII art or to play free software games.

>

> Let's claim the month of May as libre planet (or libre local) month! We're inviting free software supporters like you anywhere in the world, to organize an in-person community meetup in your area to bring people together. We're setting up a small fund for these local gatherings, can send stickers, flyers, ideas and tips, and you can invite an FSF staff member to give a talk or workshop during your event and of course, we'll help promote it...

>

> Then, on the actual birthday of the FSF on October 4, 2025, there will be a big celebration in Boston, MA, and the entire free software community is invited... These are just some of the big ticket items we have worked out, but there is more! Keep an eye out on the FSF's pages, we'll be posting exact information on everything upcoming.

They're looking for volunteers — and they also suggest organizing a community meetup in your area. Plus, there's also an FSF Anniversary Logo Contest. "We would like to source the fortieth anniversary logo design directly from a free software supporter. Everyone is welcome to submit a design (or even multiple designs) no matter your previous experience in design."

The winning design "will be chosen by the community and ultimately immortalized in the history of the FSF," according to the announcement — displayed on the FSF homepage, printed on all celebration materials, "and possibly even stamped on some merchandise." But of course, the [3]contest's requirements include respecting everyone's freedoms:

> - The logo must be produced using exclusively free software editing tools, such as GIMP, Krita, or Inkscape;

>

> - Any fonts used in the design must be under the SIL Open Font license or another free license...

"The final logo will be released under CC BY, attributed to the FSF."



[1] https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/forty-years-of-commitment-to-software-freedom

[2] https://libreplanet.org/2024/

[3] https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/fsf-anniversary-logo-contest

This week Discover magazine looks at evidence — both old and new — [1]for a ninth planet in our solar system :

> "Orbits of the most distant small bodies — comets or asteroids — [2]seem to be clustered on one half or one side of the solar system," says Amir Siraj [an astrophysicist with Princeton University]. "That's very weird and something that can't be explained by our current understanding of the solar system." A [3]2014 study in Nature first noted these orbits. A [4]2021 study in The Astronomical Journal examined the clustering in the orbit and concluded that "Planet Nine" was likely closer and brighter than expected.

>

> Astrophysicists don't agree whether the clustering in the orbit is a real effect. Some have argued it is biased because the view that scientists currently have is limited, Siraj says. "This debate for the last decade has a lot of scientists confused, including myself. I decided to look at the problem from scratch," he says.

>

> In [5]a 2024 paper , Siraj and his co-authors ran simulations of the solar system, including an extra planet beyond Neptune. "We did it 300 times, about 2.5 times more than what was done previously," Siraj says. "In each simulation, you try different parameters for the extra planet. A different mass, a different tilt, a different shape of the orbit. You run these for millions of years, and then you compare the distribution to what we see in our solar system...." They found that the perimeters for this possible planet were different than what has been previously discussed in the scientific literature, and they supported the possibility of an unseen planet beyond Neptune.

>

> Scientists hope [6]a new telescope will have the potential to see deeper into the solar system. In 2025, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory on Cerro Pachón — a mountain in Chile, is expected to go online. The observatory boasts that in the time it takes a person to open up their phone and pose for a selfie, their new telescope will be able to snap an image of 100,000 galaxies, many of which have never been seen by scientists. The telescope will have the largest digital camera ever built, the LSST. Siraj says he expects it will take "the deepest, all-sky survey that humanity has ever conducted." So, what might the Rubin Observatory find past Neptune? Based on the current literature, Siraj sees a few possibilities. One is that the Rubin Observatory, with its increased capabilities, might be able to see a planet beyond Neptune... "Next year is going to be an enormous year for solar system science," he says.

NASA points out that the Hawaii-based Keck and Subaru telescopes are also searching for Planet X, while "a NASA-funded citizen science project called [7]Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 , encourages the public to help search using images captured by NASA's [8]Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission.

And starting next year the Rubin observatory will also "search for more Kuiper Belt objects. If the orbits of these objects are systematically aligned with each other, it may give more evidence for the existence of Planet X (Planet Nine), or at least help astronomers know where to search for it.

"Another possibility is that Planet X (Planet Nine) does not exist at all. Some researchers suggest the unusual orbit of those Kuiper Belt objects can be explained by their random distribution."

Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader [9]Tablizer for sharing the news.



[1] https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/new-telescope-could-potentially-identify-planet-x

[2] https://earthsky.org/space/planet-9-evidence-solar-system/

[3] https://www.nature.com/articles/nature13156

[4] https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ac2056/meta

[5] https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=rGhzUUwAAAAJ&sortby=pubdate&citation_for_view=rGhzUUwAAAAJ:R3hNpaxXUhUC

[6] https://rubinobservatory.org/about

[7] https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/marckuchner/backyard-worlds-planet-9

[8] https://science.nasa.gov/mission/neowise/

[9] https://www.slashdot.org/~Tablizer

A [1]2002 Slashdot post informed the world that "Recently Blake Ross, a developer of the Phoenix web browser, has made a post on the Mozillazine forums looking for a new name for the project. Apparently the people over at Phoenix Technologies decided that the name interferes with their trademark since they make an 'internet access device'..."

And then, on November 9 of 2004, [2]the BBC reported that "Microsoft's Internet Explorer has a serious rival in the long-awaited Firefox 1.0 web browser, which has just been released." Their headline? "Firefox Browser Takes on Microsoft."

> Fans of the software have banded together to raise cash to pay for an [3]advert in the New York Times announcing that version 1.0 of the browser is available. ["Are you fed up with your browser? You're not alone...."] The release of Firefox 1.0 on 9 November might even cause a few heads to turn at Microsoft because the program is steadily winning people away from the software giant's Internet Explorer browser.

>

> Firefox has been created by the Mozilla Foundation which was started by former browser maker Netscape back in 1998... Earlier incarnations, but which had the same core technology, were called Phoenix and Firebird. Since then the software has been gaining praise and converts, not least because of the large number of security problems that have come to light in Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Rivals to IE got a boost in late June when two US computer security organisations warned people to avoid the Microsoft program to avoid falling victim to a serious vulnerability.

>

> Internet monitoring firm WebSideStory has charted the growing population of people using the Firefox browser and says it is responsible for slowly eroding the stranglehold of IE. Before July this year, according to WebSideStory, Internet Explorer was used by about 95% of web surfers. That figure had remained static for years. In July the IE using population dropped to 94.7% and by the end of October stood at 92.9%. The Mozilla Foundation claims that Firefox has been downloaded almost eight million times and has publicly said it would be happy to garner 10% of the Windows- using, net-browsing population.

>

> Firefox is proving popular because, at the moment, it has far fewer security holes than Internet Explorer and has some innovations lacking in Microsoft's program. For instance, Firefox allows the pages of different websites to be arranged as tabs so users can switch easily between them. It blocks pop-ups, has a neat way of finding text on a page and lets you search through the pages you have browsed...

Firefox celebrated its 20th anniversary with [4]a special video touting new and upcoming features like tab previews, marking up PDFs, and tab grouping.

And upgrading to the latest version of Firefox now displays this message on [5]a "What's New" page . "Whether you just downloaded Firefox or have been with us since the beginning, you are a vital part of helping us make the internet a better place.

"We can't wait to show you what's coming next." ("Check out our special edition wallpapers — open a new tab and click the gear icon at the top right corner...")



[1] https://developers.slashdot.org/story/02/11/08/0148216/phoenix-project-considers-a-name-change

[2] https://web.archive.org/web/20171220113953/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3993959.stm

[3] https://web.archive.org/web/20180628015444/https://blog.mozilla.org/press/files/2013/11/nytimes-firefox-final.pdf

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Mz8xJW4CNE

[5] https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/132.0/whatsnew/

Sodium-ion batteries are cheaper than lithium-ion batteries — and they're also more environmentally friendly. And "In the past few years, sodium-ion battery production has increased in the United States," [1]reports the Washington Post , with a new factory planned to manufacture them "in the same way as lithium-ion batteries, just with different ingredients. Instead of using expensive materials like lithium, nickel and cobalt, these will be made of sodium, iron and manganese..."

> Last month, sodium-ion battery manufacturer Natron Energy [2]announced it would open a "gigafactory" in North Carolina that would produce 24 gigawatt hours of batteries annually, enough energy to charge 24,000 electric vehicles. But sodium-ion batteries are still early in their development compared with lithium-ion, and they have yet to hit the market on a massive scale.

>

> "It's unlikely sodium-ion could displace lithium-ion anytime soon," said Keith Beers, polymer science and materials chemistry principal engineer at technical consultancy firm Exponent... The biggest limitation of sodium-ion batteries is their weight. Sodium weighs nearly three times as much as lithium, and it cannot store the same amount of energy. As a result, sodium-ion batteries tend to be larger. Jens Peters, an economics professor at the University of Alcalá in Madrid, said the energy density could be improved over time in sodium-ion batteries. But, he added, "what we found out so far in our assessments is that it is not a game changer."

>

> Sodium-ion batteries are touted to be the environmentally friendly alternative to their lithium-ion counterparts, thanks to their raw materials. Sodium, iron and manganese are all abundant elements on the planet, so they require less energy to extract and cost less... Sodium-ion batteries also last longer than lithium-ion ones because they can withstand more charge cycles, said Wendell Brooks, co-CEO of Natron Energy. "Our product can have millions of cycles," said Brooks, "where lithium-ion would have three to five thousand cycles and wear out a lot faster...." Sodium-ion batteries aren't the best fit for smartphones or electric vehicles, which need to store lots of energy. However, one advantage is their low cost. And they could be a good candidate in situations where the size of the battery isn't a concern, like energy storage. "When something is built out to support grid or backup storage, it doesn't need to be very dense. It's staying put," Beers said.

Natron will invest nearly $1.4 billion in the factory "to meet the rapidly expanding demand for critical power, industrial and grid energy storage solutions," according to [3]their announcement .

"Natron's high-performance sodium-ion batteries outperform lithium-ion batteries in power density and recharging speed, do not require lithium, cobalt, copper, or nickel, and are non-flammable... Natron's batteries are the only UL-listed sodium-ion batteries on the market today, and will be delivered to a wide range of customer end markets in the industrial power space, including data centers, mobility, EV fast charging, microgrids, and telecom, among others."



[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/lithium-ion-batteries-have-ruled-for-decades-now-they-have-a-challenger/ar-AA1tq7J2

[2] https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240815622233/en/Natron-Energy-Announces-Plans-for-1.4-Billion-Giga-Scale-Sodium-Ion-Battery-Manufacturing-Facility-in-North-Carolina

[3] https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240815622233/en/Natron-Energy-Announces-Plans-for-1.4-Billion-Giga-Scale-Sodium-Ion-Battery-Manufacturing-Facility-in-North-Carolina

Though it breaks down faster than CO2, methane is a greenhouse gas over [1]80 times as potent as carbon dioxide, [2]reports the Washington Post . It suddenly started increasing in the atmosphere in 2007 — and then in 2020, its growth rate doubled.

While scientists have suspected it was natural gas, some researchers have a new theory...

> "The changes that we saw in the last couple of years — and even since 2007 — are microbial," said Sylvia Michel, lead author of the [3]paper published last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Wetlands, if they are getting warmer and wetter, maybe they're producing more methane than they used to...."

>

> Michel and her co-authors analyzed samples of methane, or CH4, from 22 sites around the globe at a Colorado laboratory. Then they measured the "heaviness" of that methane — specifically, how many of the molecules had a heavier isotope of carbon in them, known as C13. Different sources of methane give off different carbon signatures. Methane produced by microbes — mostly single-celled organisms known as archaea, which live in cow stomachs, wetlands and agricultural fields — tends to be "lighter," or have fewer C13 atoms. Methane from fossil fuels, on the other hand, is heavier, with more C13 atoms. As the amount of methane has risen in the atmosphere over the past 15 years, it's also gotten lighter and lighter. The scientists used a model to analyze those changes and found that only large increases in microbial emissions could explain both the rising methane and its changing weight....

>

> Researchers say it doesn't mean that the world can just keep burning natural gas. If wetlands are releasing methane faster than ever, they argue, there should be an even greater push to curb methane from the sources humans can control, such as cows, agriculture and fossil fuels.

The article includes this quote from Stanford University professor Rob Jackson (who works on the [4]Global Methane Budget , a project tracking the world's methane sources). "You can turn a wrench in an oil and gas field to quench methane emissions," Jackson said. "There's no wrench for the Congo or the Amazon."

> Another recent [5]study found that two-thirds of current methane emissions are caused by humans — from fossil fuels, rice cultivation, reservoirs and other sources. "Methane forms biologically in warm, wet, low-oxygen environments," Jackson said. "The wetlands of a rice paddy and the gut of the cow are all similar." But evidence is also emerging that natural wetlands may be responding to warming temperatures by pumping out more methane. Satellite data from recent years has shown global methane hot spots in the tropical wetlands of the Amazon and the Congo. "Wetlands will emit more methane as temperatures warm," Jackson said. "This may be the start of a reinforcing feedback, that higher temperatures release more methane from natural ecosystems...."

>

> Over 100 countries have pledged to reduce their methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030, compared with 2020 levels — but so far, that pledge has yet to see results. Instead, satellite measurements show concentrations are rising at a rate that is in line with the worst-case [6]climate scenarios .



[1] https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/understanding-global-warming-potentials

[2] https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/scientists-may-have-figured-out-why-a-potent-greenhouse-gas-is-rising-the-answer-is-scary/ar-AA1ttGxX

[3] https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2411212121

[4] https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2024-115/essd-2024-115.pdf

[5] https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ad6463

[6] https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2022/global-warming-1-5-celsius-scenarios/?itid=lk_inline_manual_4&itid=lk_inline_manual_34

Law enforcement officers are warning other officials and forensic experts that iPhones which have been stored securely for forensic examination are [1]somehow rebooting themselves, returning the devices to a state that makes them much harder to unlock , 404 Media is reporting, citing a law enforcement document it obtained. From the report:

> The exact reason for the reboots is unclear, but the document authors, who appear to be law enforcement officials in Detroit, Michigan, hypothesize that Apple may have introduced a new security feature in iOS 18 that tells nearby iPhones to reboot if they have been disconnected from a cellular network for some time. After being rebooted, iPhones are generally more secure against tools that aim to crack the password of and take data from the phone.

>

> "The purpose of this notice is to spread awareness of a situation involving iPhones, which is causing iPhone devices to reboot in a short amount of time (observations are possibly within 24 hours) when removed from a cellular network," the document reads. Apple did not provide a response on whether it introduced such an update in time for publication.



[1] https://www.404media.co/police-freak-out-at-iphones-mysteriously-rebooting-themselves-locking-cops-out/

An anonymous reader [1]shares a post from Financial Times:

> The economic and geopolitical conditions of the past year or two have created arguably the most hostile environment in history for incumbent parties and politicians across the developed world. From [2]America's Democrats to [3]Britain's Tories , Emmanuel's Macron's Ensemble coalition to Japan's Liberal Democrats, even to Narendra Modi's erstwhile dominant BJP, governing parties and leaders have undergone an unprecedented series of reversals this year.

>

> The incumbents in every single one of the 10 major countries that have been tracked by the ParlGov global research project and held national elections in 2024 were given a kicking by voters. This is the first time this has ever happened in almost 120 years of records. Ultimately voters don't distinguish between unpleasant things that their leaders and governments have direct control over, and those that are international phenomena resulting from supply-side disruptions caused by a global pandemic or the warmongering of an ageing autocrat halfway across the world.

>

> Voters don't like high prices, so they punished the Democrats for being in charge when inflation hit. The cost of living was also the top issue in Britain's July general election and has been front of mind in dozens of other countries for most of the last two years. That different politicians, different parties, different policies and different rhetoric deployed in different countries have all met similar fortunes suggests that a large part of Tuesday's American result was locked in regardless of the messenger or the message. The wide variety of places and people who swung towards Trump also suggests an outcome that was more inevitable than contingent.

>

> But it's not just about inflation. An update of economist Arthur Okun's "misery index" -- the sum of the inflation and unemployment rates -- for this era might swap out joblessness and replace it with immigration. On this basis, the past couple of years in the US, UK and dozens of other countries have been characterised by more economic and societal upheaval than they have seen in generations.



[1] https://on.ft.com/3AkW6ND

[2] https://slashdot.org/story/435135

[3] https://slashdot.org/story/24/07/05/0413233/labour-party-set-for-landslide-win-in-uk-election

Google is generally rolling out its [1]Gemini AI-powered Vids app that lets you [2]create video presentations using a prompt . From a report:

> Some of Vids' key features include letting Gemini auto-insert stock footage for you, generating a script, and making AI voiceovers so you don't have to speak. Google advertises that the tool can help turn customer support articles into videos, make training videos, share company announcements, create meeting recaps, and more. Vids will be available by default for Workspace organizations with access, but Google notes possible usage limits may apply to features like "Help me create" and AI voiceovers starting in 2026.



[1] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/04/09/1229209/with-vids-google-thinks-it-has-the-next-big-productivity-tool-for-work

[2] https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/8/24291241/google-vids-ai-presentation-video-general-availability-rollout

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC:

> Police are on the hunt for 43 monkeys who [1]escaped from a research facility in South Carolina , after a keeper left their pen open. The rhesus macaque fugitives broke out of Alpha Genesis, a company that breeds primates for medical testing and research, and are on the loose in a part of the state known as the Lowcountry. Authorities have urged residents to keep their doors and windows securely closed and to report any sightings immediately. The escaped monkeys are young females, weighing about 7lbs (3.2kg) each, according to the Yemassee Police Department. Police said on Thursday that the company had located the "skittish" group, and "are working to entice them with food."

>

> "Please do not attempt to approach these animals under any circumstances," police said. The statement added that traps had been set in the area, and police were on-site "utilizing thermal-imaging cameras in an attempt to locate the animals". Police say the research company has told them that because of their size, the monkeys have not yet been tested on and "are too young to carry disease."

In an update Friday, the local police department said the monkeys are [2]still staying around the perimeter of the facility . "The primates are exhibiting calm and playful behavior, which is a positive indication," the department noted.

"They're just being goofy monkeys jumping back and forth playing with each other," Alpha Genesis CEO Greg Westergaard [3]told CBS News Thursday. "It's kind of like a playground situation here."

The article points out that all the escaped monkeys "carry no contagious viruses because they were too young to test, according to the lab. "



[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy4gd8xx93yo

[2] https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/11/43-research-monkeys-on-the-lam-still-playfully-exploring-police-say/

[3] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/south-carolina-escaped-monkeys-what-we-know/

Longtime Slashdot reader [1]AmiMoJo shares a report from The Verge:

> It's been two long years since the [2]launch of Matter -- the one smart home standard designed to rule them all -- and there's been a fair amount of disappointment around a sometimes buggy rollout, slow adoption by companies like Apple, Amazon, and Google, and frustrating setup experiences. However, the launch of the [3]Matter 1.4 specification this week shows some signs that the [4]Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA, the organization behind Matter) is [5]using more sticks and fewer carrots to get the smart home industry coalition to cooperate .

>

> The [6]new spec introduces 'enhanced multi-admin,' an improvement on [7]multi-admin -- the much-touted interoperability feature that means your Matter smart light can work in multiple ecosystems simultaneously. It brings a solution for making Thread border routers from different companies play nicely together and introduces a potentially easier way to add Matter infrastructure to homes through Wi-Fi routers and access points. Matter 1.4 also brings some big updates to energy management support, including adding heat pumps, home batteries, and solar panels as Matter device types.



[1] https://slashdot.org/~AmiMoJo

[2] https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/22/10/04/2145233/matter-smart-home-standard-officially-launches

[3] https://csa-iot.org/newsroom/matter-1-4-enables-more-capable-smart-homes/

[4] https://csa-iot.org/all-solutions/matter/

[5] https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/7/24289972/matter-smart-home-standard-1-4-spec-new-features-device-types

[6] https://csa-iot.org/developer-resource/specifications-download-request/

[7] https://csa-iot.org/developer-resource/matter-multi-admin-video/

With the debut of the [1]Pirate Bay TV series in Sweden, international viewers are [2]finding it surprisingly difficult to pirate . TorrentFreak reports:

> The series [3]premiered at the on-demand platform of the Swedish national broadcaster SVT a few hours ago. International deals haven't been announced, but pirates can generally get access anyway. Soon after the first two episodes of The Pirate Bay series came out, scene release copies started [4]circulating online . As one would expect.

>

> The Scene group OLLONBORRE, which specializes in Swedish content, was the first to pick the show up. Within minutes, the first 1080p WEB-rips were posted on private scene servers and 720p copies followed a few hours later. Interestingly, pirate releases have yet to make their way to The Pirate Bay. We haven't seen any other copies on other public pirate sites either, which is surprising given the topic of the series.

>

> It's common knowledge that [5]The Scene -- a secretive network of release groups -- prefers to keep its releases private. Therefore, it wasn't happy with The Pirate Bay's public nature and rise to prominence in the early 2003s, which is highlighted in the first episodes of the TV series. However, we expected non-scene release groups would be eager to pick up the show. Apparently that's not the case, yet.



[1] https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/24/08/20/2116212/the-pirate-bay-tv-series-teaser-appears-online

[2] https://torrentfreak.com/pirating-the-pirate-bay-tv-series-is-ironically-difficult-241108/

[3] https://www.svtplay.se/the-pirate-bay

[4] https://predb.org/

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warez_scene

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch:

> The FBI is warning that hackers are obtaining private user information — including emails and phone numbers — from U.S.-based tech companies by [1]compromising government and police email addresses to submit "emergency" data requests . The [2]FBI's public notice filed this week is a rare admission from the federal government about the threat from fraudulent emergency data requests, a legal process designed to help police and federal authorities obtain information from companies to respond to immediate threats affecting someone's life or property. The abuse of emergency data requests is not new, and has been [3]widely reported in [4]recent years . Now, the FBI warns that it saw an "uptick" around August in criminal posts online advertising access to or conducting fraudulent emergency data requests, and that it was going public for awareness.

>

> "Cyber-criminals are likely gaining access to compromised US and foreign government email addresses and using them to conduct fraudulent emergency data requests to US based companies, exposing the personal information of customers to further use for criminal purposes," reads the FBI's advisory. [...] The FBI said in its advisory that it had seen several public posts made by known cybercriminals over 2023 and 2024, claiming access to email addresses used by U.S. law enforcement and some foreign governments. The FBI says this access was ultimately used to send fraudulent subpoenas and other legal demands to U.S. companies seeking private user data stored on their systems. The advisory said that the cybercriminals were successful in masquerading as law enforcement by using compromised police accounts to send emails to companies requesting user data. In some cases, the requests cited false threats, like claims of human trafficking and, in one case, that an individual would "suffer greatly or die" unless the company in question returns the requested information.

>

> The FBI said the compromised access to law enforcement accounts allowed the hackers to generate legitimate-looking subpoenas that resulted in companies turning over usernames, emails, phone numbers, and other private information about their users. But not all fraudulent attempts to file emergency data requests were successful, the FBI said. The FBI said in its advisory that law enforcement organizations should take steps to improve their cybersecurity posture to prevent intrusions, including stronger passwords and multi-factor authentication. The FBI said that private companies "should apply critical thinking to any emergency data requests received," given that cybercriminals "understand the need for exigency."



[1] https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/08/fbi-says-hackers-are-sending-fraudulent-police-data-requests-to-tech-giants-to-steal-peoples-private-information/

[2] https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25281365-fbi-ic3-notice-241104

[3] https://krebsonsecurity.com/2022/03/hackers-gaining-power-of-subpoena-via-fake-emergency-data-requests/

[4] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-30/apple-meta-gave-user-data-to-hackers-who-forged-legal-requests

Starting November 11, TSMC [1]plans to stop supplying 7 nm and smaller chips to Chinese companies working on AI processors and GPUs. "The move is reportedly to ensure it remains compliant with US export restrictions," reports The Register. From the report:

> This will not affect Chinese customers wanting 7 nm chips from TSMC for other applications such as mobile and communications, according to Nikkei, which said the overall impact on the chipmaker's revenue is likely to be minimal. TrendForce further cites another China-based source who claims the move was at the behest of the US Department of Commerce, which informed TSMC that any such shipments should not proceed unless approved and licensed by its BIS (Bureau of Industry and Security). We asked the agency for confirmation.

>

> Any moves by the silicon supremo is likely to be out of caution to pre-empt accusations from Washington that it isn't doing enough to prevent advanced technology from getting into the hands of Chinese entities that have been sanctioned. As TrendForce notes, it "highlights the foundry giant's delicate position in the global semiconductor supply chain amid the heating chip war between the world's two superpowers."



[1] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/08/tsmc_chinese_ai_shipments/

According to a [1]partial teardown video of Apple's new Mac mini, the new machine [2]features modular storage that can be removed . "As we saw with the Mac Studio, however, replacing the modular storage [3]is complicated ," notes MacRumors. The teardown also reveals two 128GB storage chips in the 256GB model, enabling faster SSD speeds comparable to higher-capacity versions. From the report:

> The criticism surrounding Apple's decision to use a single 256GB chip in some base-model Macs a few years ago primarily came from a vocal contingent of tech enthusiasts, and the average customer is unlikely to even notice the slower speeds in common day-to-day tasks. Nevertheless, it appears that customers who do want the fastest SSD speeds do not need to worry about which storage capacity they choose when ordering the new Mac mini.



[1] https://x.com/ohgkg/status/1854859167213011199

[2] https://www.macrumors.com/2024/11/08/m4-mac-mini-modular-storage/

[3] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/03/explaining-the-mac-studios-removable-ssds-and-why-you-cant-just-swap-them-out/

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica:

> Anthropic has [1]announced a partnership with Palantir and Amazon Web Services to [2]bring its Claude AI models to unspecified US intelligence and defense agencies . Claude, a family of AI language models similar to those that power ChatGPT, will work within Palantir's platform using AWS hosting to process and analyze data. But some critics have called out the deal as contradictory to Anthropic's widely-publicized " [3]AI safety " aims. On X, former Google co-head of AI ethics Timnit Gebru wrote of Anthropic's new deal with Palantir, "Look at how they care so much about 'existential risks to humanity.'"

>

> The partnership makes Claude available within Palantir's Impact Level 6 environment (IL6), a defense-accredited system that handles data critical to national security up to the "secret" classification level. This move follows a broader trend of AI companies seeking defense contracts, with Meta offering its Llama models to defense partners and OpenAI pursuing closer ties with the Defense Department. In a press release, the companies outlined three main tasks for Claude in defense and intelligence settings: performing operations on large volumes of complex data at high speeds, identifying patterns and trends within that data, and streamlining document review and preparation.

>

> While the partnership announcement suggests broad potential for AI-powered intelligence analysis, it states that human officials will retain their decision-making authority in these operations. As a reference point for the technology's capabilities, Palantir [4]reported that one (unnamed) American insurance company used 78 AI agents powered by their platform and Claude to reduce an underwriting process from two weeks to three hours. The new collaboration builds on Anthropic's earlier integration of Claude into AWS [5]GovCloud , a service built for government cloud computing. Anthropic, which recently began operations in Europe, has been seeking funding at a valuation up to $40 billion. The company has raised $7.6 billion, with Amazon as its primary investor.



[1] https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241107699415/en/Anthropic-and-Palantir-Partner-to-Bring-Claude-AI-Models-to-AWS-for-U.S.-Government-Intelligence-and-Defense-Operations

[2] https://arstechnica.com/ai/2024/11/safe-ai-champ-anthropic-teams-up-with-defense-giant-palantir-in-new-deal/

[3] https://www.anthropic.com/news/core-views-on-ai-safety

[4] https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241107699415/en/Anthropic-and-Palantir-Partner-to-Bring-Claude-AI-Models-to-AWS-for-U.S.-Government-Intelligence-and-Defense-Operations

[5] https://aws.amazon.com/govcloud-us/

Scalpers attempting to profit from Sony's new PlayStation 5 Pro are struggling to sell units above retail price, as [1]widespread availability dampens resale prospects . The $699 console, launched this week with enhanced graphics capabilities, remains in stock at major retailers across the United States and Europe. eBay listings show PS5 Pro units selling below the manufacturer's suggested retail price, with some auctions starting at $640.

While isolated listings reach $2,300, most hover near retail value. UK scalpers face similar challenges, offering units at or below the $900 retail price. Even in Sony's home market of Japan, where availability is tighter, resellers on Mercari barely break even after platform fees and shipping costs. The situation marks a sharp contrast to the original PS5's 2020 launch, when widespread shortages led to significant markups. Only the console's external disc drive, priced at $79.99, commands premiums up to $130 on secondary markets.



[1] https://www.techspot.com/news/105500-scalpers-struggling-resell-playstation-5-pro-because-stock.html

The FBI is warning that hackers are obtaining private user information -- including emails and phone numbers -- from U.S.-based tech companies by compromising government and police email addresses to [1]submit "emergency" data requests . From a report:

> The FBI's public notice filed this week is a rare admission from the federal government about the threat from fraudulent emergency data requests, a legal process designed to help police and federal authorities obtain information from companies to respond to immediate threats affecting someone's life or property.

>

> The abuse of emergency data requests is not new, and has been widely reported in recent years. Now, the FBI warns that it saw an "uptick" around August in criminal posts online advertising access to or conducting fraudulent emergency data requests, and that it was going public for awareness. "Cyber-criminals are likely gaining access to compromised U.S. and foreign government email addresses and using them to conduct fraudulent emergency data requests to U.S. based companies, exposing the personal information of customers to further use for criminal purposes," reads the FBI's advisory.



[1] https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/08/fbi-says-hackers-are-sending-fraudulent-police-data-requests-to-tech-giants-to-steal-peoples-private-information/

From [1]an opinion piece on GamesIndustry.biz about the recently launched [2]PS5 Pro that went on sale this week:

> What I'd argue is actually more interesting about PS5 Pro in a wider perspective isn't what Sony has done to the chips in the system -- it's what they've chosen not to include, and what it tells us about the decision-making process that's likely occurring for the company's future hardware. PS5 Pro doesn't have a disc drive. Anyone who wants to play disc-based games on the system will need to buy one of the add-on drives Sony started selling when the PS5 Slim model was released, adding further to the cost of the already very expensive device.

>

> To add insult to injury, Sony doesn't seem to have made any effort whatsoever to ensure that those drives are actually well-stocked for the launch of the Pro. I can only speak directly to the situation in Japan, where they've been out of stock at most major retailers for months and even second-hand units are being sold at three to four times SRP by scalpers. But asking around suggests that the situation isn't much better in other regions. That's a very rough welcome to PS5 Pro ownership for anyone upgrading who has a collection of games on disc.

>

> It's possible, of course, that Sony excluded the drive simply because its cost would push the Pro's price tag even higher. However, the incongruity of Sony's "Pro" console lacking the basic ability to play the games Sony sells at retailers all around the world is striking, and it's difficult to see the decision to accept that incongruity -- and the inconvenience it would inevitably cause for customers -- as anything other than strategic.

>

> Digital sales make up a bigger and bigger portion of the industry's revenues every year, but physical game sales are still a very big deal -- and physical games are products that fall outside the control of publishers and platform holders in a way that they have found increasingly irritating in recent years. People who buy physical games can sell them second-hand or lend them to their friends, retailers with physical games in stock can discount them or include them in bundles as they see fit.



[1] https://www.gamesindustry.biz/ps5-pro-signposts-a-disc-less-future-that-few-actually-want-opinion

[2] https://games.slashdot.org/story/24/09/10/1655248/sony-unveils-700-playstation-5-pro

The chief executive of Cop29 has been filmed apparently agreeing to [1]facilitate fossil fuel deals at the climate summit . From a report:

> The recording has amplified calls by campaigners who want the fossil fuel industry and its lobbyists to be banned from future Cop talks. The campaign group Global Witness posed undercover as a fake oil and gas group asking for deals to be facilitated in exchange for sponsoring the event. In the calls, Elnur Soltanov, Azerbaijan's deputy energy minister and chief executive of Cop29, agreed to this and spoke of a future that includes fossil fuels "perhaps for ever." Cop officials also introduced the fake investor to a senior executive at the national oil and gas company Socar to discuss investment opportunities.

>

> Soltanov told the fake investment group: âoeI would be happy to create a contact between your team and their team [Socar] so that they can start discussions." Shortly after that they received an email from Socar. The UN framework convention on climate change (UNFCCC), the UN body that oversees Cop, says officials should not use their roles "to seek private gain" and it expects them to act "without self-interest."



[1] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/08/cop29-ceo-filmed-agreeing-to-facilitate-fossil-fuel-deals-at-climate-summit