Month: April 2023

Comparing OpenAI’s ChatGPT, for in-depth replies, and Google’s Bard, for natural dialog, on summarizing an article, telling a joke, picking stocks, and more (Financial Times)

Financial Times: Comparing OpenAI’s ChatGPT, for in-depth replies, and Google’s Bard, for natural dialog, on summarizing an article, telling a joke, picking stocks, and more  —  We ask the generative AI systems from OpenAI and Google to pick stocks, tell jokes and imagine the Xi-Putin summit

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The mixed-up history of the shuffle button

Image: Mengxin Li / The Verge A couple years ago, Adele had a complaint about Spotify. Her complaint was not about the miserly rates at which it compensates musicians, the monopolistic stranglehold it has on the music industry, or the misinformation-spewing podcast hosts that it employs. No, she had a gripe with the shuffle feature.

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An interview and profile of Tim Cook on running Apple, succeeding Steve Jobs, being an outsider, creativity, avoiding smartphone addiction, rivals, and more (Zach Baron/GQ)

Zach Baron / GQ: An interview and profile of Tim Cook on running Apple, succeeding Steve Jobs, being an outsider, creativity, avoiding smartphone addiction, rivals, and more  —  As Apple CEO, he has defied his skeptics and refashioned the world’s most creative company on his own exacting terms.

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A look at problems at Digital World Acquisition Corp, which plans to take Truth Social public by September 8, after CEO Patrick Orlando was ousted (Matthew Goldstein/New York Times)

Matthew Goldstein / New York Times: A look at problems at Digital World Acquisition Corp, which plans to take Truth Social public by September 8, after CEO Patrick Orlando was ousted  —  The merger of Digital World and Trump Media has been held up by investigations, but executives are rushing to complete the deal by

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Amsterdam-based Fourthline, which offers AI tools for ID checks and compliance to finance companies, raised €50M led by Finch, taking its total funding to €70M (Ingrid Lunden/TechCrunch)

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: Amsterdam-based Fourthline, which offers AI tools for ID checks and compliance to finance companies, raised €50M led by Finch, taking its total funding to €70M  —  As digital financial services become more advanced, so too do the efforts of malicious hackers and fraudsters to crack …

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Research: Israeli tech startups raised $1.7B in Q1 2023, the lowest since 2018, weighed down by a global slowdown and protests over a proposed judicial overhaul (Marissa Newman/Bloomberg)

Marissa Newman / Bloomberg: Research: Israeli tech startups raised $1.7B in Q1 2023, the lowest since 2018, weighed down by a global slowdown and protests over a proposed judicial overhaul  —  Investment in Israeli tech companies has dropped to the lowest quarterly rate in nearly five years, a result of the global downturn …

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Minecraft Finally Gets Multi-Threaded Servers

Minecraft servers are famously single-threaded and those who host servers for large player bases often pay handsomely for a server that has gobs of memory and ripping fast single-core performance. Previous attempts to break Minecraft into separate threads haven’t ended successfully, but it seems like the folks over at [PaperMC] have finally cracked it with

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Western Digital discloses a network security incident, taking some systems offline, and says the hacker obtained internal data but the scope is so far unknown (Yana Gaur/Reuters)

Yana Gaur / Reuters: Western Digital discloses a network security incident, taking some systems offline, and says the hacker obtained internal data but the scope is so far unknown  —  Data storage devices maker Western Digital Corp (WDC.O) on Monday said it is looking into a network security incident …

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Unlike most boring modern laptops, Framework’s repairable, sustainable, and upgradeable models are exciting, harking back to the early 2000s era of computing (Dan Seifert/The Verge)

Dan Seifert / The Verge: Unlike most boring modern laptops, Framework’s repairable, sustainable, and upgradeable models are exciting, harking back to the early 2000s era of computing  —  It’s not often that I get too excited about new laptops these days.  Modern laptops are extremely capable devices, with few glaring flaws.

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5 priorities that cut cloud costs and improve IT ops

During the past decade, companies have been building significant computing workloads on public and private cloud infrastructure or shifting workloads to the cloud. Gartner predicts that spending on public cloud services by end-users worldwide will reach $591 billion in 2023, a 43% increase from 2021. That’s a significant jump and suggests that many companies optimized

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One year after Rishi Sunak pledged to make the UK a crypto-friendly hub, UK crypto executives say banks are increasingly unwilling to support crypto companies (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg: One year after Rishi Sunak pledged to make the UK a crypto-friendly hub, UK crypto executives say banks are increasingly unwilling to support crypto companies  —  Edouard Daunizeau’s crypto company SavingBlocks has an office in East London’s technology hub and more than 200 customers testing its services.

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Twitter had a very messy weekend

Twitter no longer officially distinguishes between legacy verified accounts and Twitter Blue subscribers. | Image: Twitter April 1st was the day Twitter said it would begin winding down its legacy verified program. But like most things done at the company under Elon Musk’s leadership, the process appeared to be chaotically executed, and subject to the

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