Webtagr - Technology News Summarizer

Microsoft Tests 45% M365 Price Hike in Asia, Citing AI Features

2025-01-13

Microsoft is testing a 45 percent price increase for its M365 suite in six Asian countries, claiming the hike is necessary to ensure customers have early access to powerful AI features. The move has sparked outrage among subscribers, with many accusing Microsoft of price gouging, especially in regions with high living costs. While Microsoft says users can opt for a cheaper plan without AI features like Copilot, finding this option proves difficult. This test may foreshadow global M365 price adjustments, reflecting Microsoft's massive investment in AI.

(www.theregister.com)

Tech

Debunking California Wildfire Myths: Fact vs. Fiction

2025-01-13

Amidst the raging California wildfires, misinformation has spread online. Governor Newsom's office released a statement debunking false claims about budget cuts, forest mismanagement, water shortages, and the causes of the fires. In reality, the number of CalFire personnel and the budget have nearly doubled, with significant increases in forest management spending. Reservoirs are full, refuting water scarcity claims. Investigations into the fire's origins are underway, with officials denying claims of satanic rituals. California is deploying extensive resources to combat the unprecedented wildfires.

(gavinnewsom.com)

Tech California Wildfires Misinformation Government Response

UK Unveils Ambitious AI Blueprint to Become Global Leader

2025-01-13

The UK Prime Minister recently announced a sweeping AI plan aiming to establish the nation as a global leader in artificial intelligence. Key initiatives include creating dedicated AI Growth Zones to expedite infrastructure development, building a new supercomputer, and boosting AI adoption across public and private sectors. This strategy projects a potential 1.5% annual productivity increase, creation of tens of thousands of jobs, and significant improvements in public services. With over £14 billion in private investment committed, the plan demonstrates a substantial government commitment to AI.

(www.gov.uk)

Tech government policy economic growth

Nvidia Fires Back at Biden's AI Chip Export Restrictions

2025-01-13

The outgoing Biden administration unveiled a final rule on AI diffusion, restricting exports of AI chips to most countries while granting exemptions to key allies. Nvidia vehemently criticized the move, arguing it will harm US technological leadership and potentially evaporate 80% of the GPU market. The company claims the rule is overly restrictive, lacks proper legislative review, and stifles innovation. While framed as an 'anti-China' measure, Nvidia contends it will control technology globally, impacting even widely available consumer hardware.

(www.theregister.com)

Tech export restrictions

Putin's 'Project Russia': A Stealth War Against Western Democracy

2025-01-13

A Washington Spectator article exposes 'Project Russia,' a plan distributed to high-ranking Russian officials and thought leaders between 2005 and 2010. This plan details a program of spiritual warfare aimed at weakening Western democracies, culminating in a 'controlled global collapse' and the establishment of a supranational state headed by a 'Prince-Monk.' The plan's chilling alignment with current events, its links to FSB-connected groups, and its exploitation of societal divisions within the US are highlighted. The article warns of potential catastrophic consequences, including a US debt default and attacks on the dollar, fueled by figures like Elon Musk. It urges Americans to be vigilant and defend democratic values.

(washingtonspectator.org)

Tech Putin Geopolitics

Austrian Cloud Provider Ditches VMware for KVM After 500%+ License Hike

2025-01-13

Facing a massive VMware license cost increase (over 500%), Austrian cloud provider Anexia migrated 12,000 VMs to a KVM-based open-source platform. This move not only saved significant costs, preventing an existential crisis, but also garnered customer support. Anexia leveraged its existing Netcup platform and Anexia Engine abstraction layer for a seamless migration, requiring only a single click and brief reboot. This migration showcases the viability of open-source alternatives and highlights the market backlash against Broadcom's aggressive pricing post-VMware acquisition.

(www.theregister.com)

Tech Open Source Migration

Sonos CEO Ousted After App Disaster

2025-01-13

Sonos CEO Patrick Spence has resigned, effective immediately, following the disastrous launch of a revamped app last May. The buggy app, released prematurely with missing features, sparked outrage among customers, plummeting employee morale and leading to layoffs. Despite a subsequent turnaround plan and crisis PR firm, the damage proved irreparable. Spence will receive a $1.875 million severance package. Interim CEO Tom Conrad will now lead the company, tasked with restoring employee morale and regaining customer trust. The app's issues overshadowed the launch of the Sonos Ace headphones, which have reportedly seen poor sales.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech App Failure CEO Resignation

White House Unveils AI Strategy: Securing US Leadership in the Age of AI

2025-01-13

The White House released a fact sheet outlining its strategy to ensure U.S. security and economic strength in the age of artificial intelligence. The strategy balances the global diffusion of AI technology with national security concerns. It streamlines chip export licensing to foster collaboration with allies and partners, promoting responsible AI development while simultaneously imposing strict restrictions on certain countries to prevent AI misuse, particularly for developing weapons of mass destruction or human rights abuses. The strategy emphasizes establishing security and trust standards and strengthening international cooperation through government-to-government agreements to build an AI ecosystem based on shared values.

(www.whitehouse.gov)

Tech chip controls Economic Strength

Neuralink Implants Brain Device in Third Patient

2025-01-13

Elon Musk announced that Neuralink's brain-computer interface device has been implanted in a third patient, with plans to implant 20 to 30 more in 2025. This technology aims to help patients with paralysis and ALS control external devices. Neuralink currently has two FDA-registered clinical trials, one for paralyzed patients and another for those needing assistive robotic arms.

(finance.yahoo.com)

Tech Brain-Computer Interface Biotech

Bird Flu Out of Control: Government and Industry Failures Set Stage for Pandemic

2025-01-13

The U.S. is grappling with an out-of-control bird flu outbreak that has spread to cattle and even humans. Sluggish federal action, deference to industry, and neglect of worker safety have allowed the virus to spread across 16 states, infecting over 860 herds. Experts express deep concern, fearing the outbreak could become a pandemic. Investigations reveal key failures: prioritizing the farm industry over public health, inadequate funding, disregard for agricultural worker safety, and delayed federal interventions. Despite billions spent, the virus persists, threatening economic devastation and a potential pandemic. The article urges swift action, including improved worker protection, enhanced surveillance, and a more proactive approach to prevent a catastrophic outcome.

(www.scientificamerican.com)

Tech Bird Flu Public Health Failure

18 Million Deceased US Veterans' Records Now Searchable Online

2025-01-13

Reclaim The Records, a non-profit organization, won a multi-year FOIA lawsuit against the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), gaining access to the BIRLS database. This database, now freely available online, contains biographical information on over 18 million deceased US veterans. Searching the database allows researchers to request complete veteran claims files, potentially containing hundreds of pages of historical documents. While most files remain at the VA, BIRLS provides a crucial index, significantly aiding historical and genealogical research.

(www.birls.org)

Tech Veteran Records FOIA

How to Disable Apple Intelligence on Your iPhone

2025-01-13

Apple's new AI feature, Apple Intelligence, offers convenient tools but consumes 7GB of storage and may not be useful for everyone. This article provides a step-by-step guide on how to disable individual Apple Intelligence features, including Writing Tools, Image Creation, and notification summaries, as well as how to completely turn off Apple Intelligence. Note that completely disabling it and freeing up storage requires a device reset.

(www.theverge.com)

Tech

Blue Origin's New Glenn Rocket: NG-1 Mission Details

2025-01-13

Blue Origin is preparing for the maiden flight of its massive reusable rocket, New Glenn, under the NG-1 mission. Launching from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, this flight will carry the Blue Ring Pathfinder payload and serve as the vehicle's first National Security Space Launch certification flight. The first stage will autonomously land on an ocean platform hundreds of miles downrange, while the second stage will deploy the payload into a medium Earth orbit (MEO). This launch marks a significant step for Blue Origin in heavy-lift launch capabilities and heralds a new era of space exploration.

(www.blueorigin.com)

Tech Rocket Launch

Blue Origin: A New Chapter in Space Exploration

2025-01-13

Blue Origin's website showcases its reusable rocket engines, the New Shepard and New Glenn rockets, and the lunar lander Blue Moon. The site offers information about the company, sustainability, news, a gallery, career opportunities, and a shop, inviting users to sign up for updates. Blue Origin is committed to space exploration and offers opportunities for people to fly to space.

(www.blueorigin.com)

Tech Rockets

Google's Messaging Mayhem: A 16-Year History of Chaos and Failure

2025-01-13

From Google Talk in 2005 to Google Chat in 2021, Google's messaging app history is a rollercoaster of launches, shutdowns, and missed opportunities. This article chronicles the rise and fall of numerous Google messaging platforms, highlighting a lack of consistent strategy and top-down leadership. The constant churn of products, from Google Talk and Hangouts to Allo and Duo, resulted in fragmented user bases and ultimately, no dominant messaging app. Google’s inability to commit to a single, well-funded product contrasts sharply with competitors like Facebook and Apple, showcasing the high cost of Google's inconsistent approach. The article concludes by questioning Google’s future prospects in the messaging space.

(arstechnica.com)

Tech Messaging Apps Product Strategy

The Right to Root: Why You Should Own Your Devices

2025-01-13

This article argues for a "right to root" – the consumer's right to install and modify software on any computing device they own outright, regardless of form factor. The author contends that manufacturers' restrictions, justified by security concerns, are anti-consumer, stifle competition, and lead to shorter device lifespans and limited repair options. Using Apple devices as a prime example (comparing the open nature of MacBooks to the closed nature of iPads), the article discusses potential legal solutions and emphasizes that manufacturers should bear the burden of proving the necessity of hardware locks, except in cases like critical medical devices.

(medhir.com)

Tech right to root consumer rights

Havana Syndrome: Intelligence Agencies Shift Stance on Mystery Weapon

2025-01-13

Two years ago, US intelligence agencies emphatically concluded that "Havana syndrome" wasn't the work of a foreign adversary wielding some kind of energy weapon. New intelligence has overturned that conclusion. Some intelligence agencies are no longer ruling out the possibility of a mystery weapon, with the White House even suggesting a deliberate attack by a US foe. This shift is significant, potentially leading to a strong US response. While the new report acknowledges uncertainty, the move from outright denial to a 50% chance is noteworthy.

(www.theatlantic.com)

Tech Havana Syndrome mystery weapon intelligence agencies

Germany Reaches 62.7% Renewables in 2024 Electricity Mix

2025-01-12

Germany generated 62.7% of its electricity from renewable sources in 2024, according to the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer ISE). Solar power contributed 14% to the total, reaching a record 72.2 TWh. Despite less favorable weather, rapid solar capacity expansion drove this record. Wind power remained the largest source at 136.4 TWh. Battery storage capacity also saw significant growth, increasing from 8.6 GW to 12.1 GW. Germany's CO2 emissions continued their downward trend, falling to 152 million tons in 2024, a 58% reduction from 1990 levels.

(www.pv-magazine.com)

Tech solar power german energy

Russia's Hidden War Debt: A Ticking Time Bomb

2025-01-12

The Kremlin has secretly funded much of its war effort through risky, off-budget financing largely overlooked by the West. A new report reveals how Russia has compelled banks to provide preferential loans to defense contractors, totaling an estimated $210 to $250 billion. This clandestine debt accumulation has created a financial predicament for Moscow, leading to soaring inflation and a systemic credit crisis risk. This vulnerability offers Ukraine and its allies significant new leverage in negotiations.

(navigatingrussia.substack.com)

Tech Russian war financing credit crisis

Qubes OS: A Seriously Secure Operating System

2025-01-12

Qubes OS is a security-focused operating system built on the Xen hypervisor, isolating applications and system environments to prevent malware and data breaches. Endorsed by security experts like Edward Snowden and used by organizations such as the Freedom of the Press Foundation, Qubes empowers users with control over their security. It supports multiple operating systems and integrates Whonix for anonymous browsing via Tor, providing robust privacy features.

(www.qubes-os.org)

Tech OS security

Cold Water Viscosity May Have Spurred Complex Life's Emergence

2025-01-12

A new study proposes that the high viscosity of cold seawater during the 'Snowball Earth' periods billions of years ago may have driven the evolution of multicellular life. Experiments show that single-celled algae, under high-viscosity conditions, spontaneously formed larger, coordinated groups to maintain feeding efficiency, persisting in this state for generations. This suggests a novel evolutionary strategy for early life to adapt to environmental challenges. While further research is needed, the study offers a fresh perspective on the origin of multicellularity, highlighting the significant role of physical environmental factors in shaping life's trajectory.

(www.quantamagazine.org)

Tech Snowball Earth Multicellularity Viscosity

It's Time to Ditch the Cargo Cult Metaphor: A Critique of Technological and Cultural Misunderstanding

2025-01-12

This article critiques the overuse of the 'cargo cult' metaphor in programming and technology. The author argues that the popular culture depiction of cargo cults is inaccurate and ignores the underlying colonial oppression and cultural destruction. Actual cargo cults are far more complex than simple imitation, blending religious, cultural, and responses to colonial history. The author calls for abandoning this misleading metaphor and acknowledging its historical and cultural significance.

(www.righto.com)

Tech cargo cult colonial history

Canva Outage: A Case Study in Saturation and Resilience

2025-01-12

Canva recently experienced a major outage stemming from system saturation. A new editor page deploy wasn't the culprit; instead, a stale Cloudflare CDN rule caused massive latency for Asian users loading Javascript files. This triggered 270,000+ concurrent requests, subsequently overwhelming the API gateway with 1.5 million requests per second – three times its typical peak. A known, unfixed performance bug in the API gateway exacerbated the issue. The Linux OOM killer terminated all API gateway tasks, resulting in complete Canva.com failure. Canva engineers resolved the issue by manually increasing task counts, temporarily blocking traffic via Cloudflare firewall rules, and gradually restoring traffic. This incident highlights the importance of system resilience and the potential downsides of automated systems under heavy load.

(surfingcomplexity.blog)

Tech system outage system resilience

Former Aspen Ski Exec Calls Corporate Sustainability a Scam

2025-01-12

Auden Schendler, former VP of Sustainability at Aspen One (formerly Aspen Skiing Company), exposes the hypocrisy of the corporate sustainability movement in his new book, "Terrible Beauty." He argues that focusing on small-scale fixes like carbon footprints and recycling distracts from effective solutions. Schendler calls for corporations to engage politically, fight the fossil fuel industry, and even suggests suing companies like ExxonMobil, mirroring actions taken by municipalities. He contends individuals should move beyond tokenistic eco-friendly actions and engage in political action, such as advocating for a carbon tax, for meaningful climate action.

(www.cpr.org)

Tech corporate sustainability ExxonMobil

Nvidia and MediaTek Team Up to Bring a New Generation of Linux PCs

2025-01-12

Nvidia and MediaTek have partnered to launch Project DIGITS, a personal AI computer powered by the Grace Blackwell superchip and running a customized Ubuntu Linux distribution. Priced at $3000, this powerful machine boasts impressive AI capabilities. However, Nvidia plans to release more affordable versions, potentially around $1000, targeting mainstream users. This move signifies Nvidia's entry into the desktop CPU market and an attempt to bridge the gap between Linux and Windows users via WSL. This offers users high-performance PCs natively supporting Linux, particularly advantageous on ARM architecture.

(www.zdnet.com)

Tech MediaTek

New LLM Jailbreak Exploits Models' Evaluation Skills

2025-01-12

Researchers have discovered a novel LLM jailbreak technique, dubbed "Bad Likert Judge." This method leverages LLMs' ability to identify harmful content by prompting them to score such content and then requesting examples, thus generating outputs related to malware, illegal activities, harassment, and more. Tested on six state-of-the-art models across 1440 cases, the average success rate was 71.6%, reaching as high as 87.6%. The researchers recommend that maintainers of LLM applications utilize content filters to mitigate such attacks.

(www.scworld.com)

Tech LLM security jailbreak

Sugary Drinks Linked to Millions of Heart Disease and Diabetes Cases

2025-01-12

A new study reveals a shocking link between sugary drinks and millions of new cases of diabetes and heart disease annually. Over 2.2 million new diabetes cases and 1.1 million new heart disease cases are attributed to the consumption of sugary beverages each year. The problem is particularly acute in low- and middle-income countries, where these drinks are aggressively marketed and often more accessible than healthier alternatives. Latin America and the Caribbean saw nearly 24% of new type 2 diabetes cases in 2020 linked to sugary drinks, while sub-Saharan Africa experienced the highest percentage increase in diabetes cases over three decades, with sugary drinks contributing to 21% of new diabetes cases and 11% of heart disease cases. The health risks stem from the high sugar content and lack of nutritional value, leading to blood sugar spikes, weight gain, insulin resistance, and increased risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Solutions include public health campaigns, taxes on sugary drinks, and stricter advertising regulations, as seen in Mexico's successful sugar tax implementation in 2014. However, much more action is needed, especially in regions like Latin America and Africa where the impact is most severe.

(bgr.com)

Tech Sugary Drinks Heart Disease

Smoothly Handling Leap Seconds: A Company-Wide 'Time Deception'

2025-01-12

In 2015, the author's company faced the risk of system crashes due to a leap second. To avoid a repeat of past failures, the author cleverly designed a 'time deception' system. Over 20 hours before the leap second, the system slowly adjusted the time on all company devices, making them one second behind world standard time, thus smoothly navigating the leap second. This process required precise calculation of time offsets and multiple tests, ultimately preventing system failures. This demonstrates the author's superior technical skills and creative problem-solving abilities.

(rachelbythebay.com)

Tech leap second system maintenance

Getty Center: A Fortress Against the Flames

2025-01-12

During the 2019 Getty Fire, the Getty Center proved its mettle as the safest place for art and archives. Built with fire-resistant stone, concrete, and steel, its design incorporates wide-open plazas and meticulously landscaped grounds to slow fire spread. Inside, state-of-the-art air filtration and fire separations ensure internal safety, while a one-million-gallon water tank provides ample fire suppression. Year-round fire safety drills and preparedness ensured the protection of both art and personnel.

(www.getty.edu)

Tech fire safety art preservation Getty Center

Zuckerberg's U-Turn and the Death of Tech Culture

2025-01-12

Dan McKinley criticizes Mark Zuckerberg's recent about-face, arguing that his hostility towards employees and tolerance of hate speech on his platforms represent a 'boss revolt' against workers in the tech industry. He reflects on the once-popular 'happy workplace' culture in tech, such as hack weeks, rotations, and 20% time, arguing these weren't just perks, but tools to boost employee morale, foster knowledge sharing and innovation, ultimately increasing productivity. McKinley contends that prioritizing efficiency at the expense of employee happiness and engagement is short-sighted and ultimately detrimental to long-term company success. He suggests that a healthy, happy workforce is both an end in itself and a means to a more productive and innovative company.

(mcfunley.com)

Tech tech culture employee morale Zuckerberg

Category: Tech