MSI Net, Inc. & mCloudServ

A look at POSSE, a decade-old idea that a user should Publish (on your) Own Site and Syndicate Elsewhere, and the challenges of building a system based on that (David Pierce/The Verge)

David Pierce / The Verge: A look at POSSE, a decade-old idea that a user should Publish (on your) Own Site and Syndicate Elsewhere, and the challenges of building a system based on that — The platform era is ending. Rather than build new Twitters and Facebooks, we can create a stuff-posting system that works

When your cloud project is over budget

One of my bosses once said there are two types of IT projects whether developed or deployed: those over budget and those about to be. Indeed, if you read the trends of the last few years, cloud computing is more expensive than most first thought, and it’s been challenging for project leaders to estimate what

How to have encryption, computation, and compliance all at once

For years, data teams worked with simple data pipelines. These generally consisted of a few applications or data feeds that converged into a standard extract, transform, and load (ETL) tool that fed data into a centralized data warehouse. From that warehouse, data was sent to a set number of places, like a reporting tool or

The best open source software of 2023

When the leaves fall, the sky turns gray, the cold begins to bite, and we’re all yearning for a little sunshine, you know it’s time for InfoWorld’s Best of Open Source Software Awards, a fall ritual we affectionately call the Bossies. For 17 years now, the Bossies have celebrated the best and most innovative open

AI experts share a paper ahead of the UK’s AI summit in Bletchley Park warning of worrying capabilities in current AI systems and seeking urgent governance (Dan Milmo/The Guardian)

Dan Milmo / The Guardian: AI experts share a paper ahead of the UK’s AI summit in Bletchley Park warning of worrying capabilities in current AI systems and seeking urgent governance — Authors and academics also warn development of advanced systems ‘utterly reckless’ without safety checks

Light Guns Aren’t Just for CRTs Anymore

For how much of a cultural phenomenon light gun games like Duck Hunt were, they didn’t survive the transition from CRT televisions to LCDs particularly well because of all of the technological quirks the light guns exploited in older technology that simply disappeared with modern TVs. But it’s not impossible to get a similar gameplay

Glacial Lakes Threaten Millions in a Warming World

A Himalayan lake fed by melting ice just released a devastating flood in northern India. Thousands of other unstable lakes are getting bigger every year.

Databricks acquires Arcion to enhance data solutions

The renowned analytics company Databricks, valued at $43 billion, has officially agreed to acquire Arcion, an enterprise data business, for a sum of $100 million, which includes incentives. CEO Ali Ghodsi disclosed the news about the acquisition, which comes after Databricks’ announcement of securing $500 million in funding during September, with the participation of investors

1Password detected suspicious activity on its Okta instance for managing employee-facing apps but “found no compromise of user data or other sensitive systems” (Dan Goodin/Ars Technica)

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica: 1Password detected suspicious activity on its Okta instance for managing employee-facing apps but “found no compromise of user data or other sensitive systems” — 1Password CTO says investigation found no compromise of user data or sensitive systems.

9 Best Ecommerce Marketing Plugins in 2023

In the thriving world of eCommerce, marketing is more than just an option; it is a lifeline that can significantly enhance growth and sales. A well-planned and executed marketing strategy can set your online store apart from the rest, attracting many customers and driving exponential revenue. In this digital era, using plugins and platforms to

The iMac GPU Becomes Upgradeable, With PCIe

Over its long lifetime, the Apple iMac all-in-one computer has morphed from the early CRT models through those odd table-lamp machines into today’s beautiful sleek affairs. They look pretty, but is there anything that can be done to upgrade them? Maybe not today’s ones, but the models from the mid-2000s can be given some surprising

Qualcomm overcoming challenges for growth

Qualcomm, a prominent figure in the telecommunications sector, has faced numerous challenges throughout its history. Despite overcoming early resistance to its CDMA technology, the company has adopted certain practices that could potentially hinder its growth and vital partnerships. Nonetheless, Qualcomm continues to demonstrate resilience and adaptability in an ever-changing industry. By identifying and rectifying these

South Korea-based Naver signs a 2024 to 2029 deal with Saudi Arabia to build digital twins of Riyadh, Medina, Jeddah, Dammam, and Mecca, sources say for $100M+ (Kim Na-young/Yonhap News Agency)

Kim Na-young / Yonhap News Agency: South Korea-based Naver signs a 2024 to 2029 deal with Saudi Arabia to build digital twins of Riyadh, Medina, Jeddah, Dammam, and Mecca, sources say for $100M+ — South Korean tech giant Naver Corp. said Tuesday it has struck a deal with the Saudi Arabian government to create a

Twitch CEO Dan Clancy says big-money deals with top livestreaming gamers is not a “sustainable business”; sources: YouTube is also backing away from such deals (Cecilia D’Anastasio/Bloomberg)

Cecilia D’Anastasio / Bloomberg: Twitch CEO Dan Clancy says big-money deals with top livestreaming gamers is not a “sustainable business”; sources: YouTube is also backing away from such deals — Leaders pull back from seven-, eight-figure contracts while upstart Kick forges ahead in some cases.

Shinning a light on Nightshade — a tool coming from the shadows

Ben Zhao, a professor at the University of Chicago, helped a team create an AI program called Nightshade. Zhao claims that he is only helping artists find a way to stop those who use their models without the permission of the creator. He says, “The hope is that it will help tip the power balance

Streaming services, including Hulu, Peacock, and Max, are increasingly showing “pause ads”, which appear a few seconds after a viewer pauses the programming (Brian Steinberg/Variety)

Brian Steinberg / Variety: Streaming services, including Hulu, Peacock, and Max, are increasingly showing “pause ads”, which appear a few seconds after a viewer pauses the programming — Time for a different sort of commercial break. — Any subscriber to the ad-supported version of Hulu is bound …

MangoBoost, which develops data processing units for data centers, raised a $55M Series A, sources say at a ~$300M valuation, bringing its total funding to $65M (Kate Park/TechCrunch)

Kate Park / TechCrunch: MangoBoost, which develops data processing units for data centers, raised a $55M Series A, sources say at a ~$300M valuation, bringing its total funding to $65M — The central processing unit (CPU) and the graphics processing unit (GPU) handle different types of data.

Apple races to catch up in AI arms race

As artificial intelligence chatbots like ChatGPT take the world by storm, Apple has found itself behind the curve. But that may change soon, according to a new report by journalist Mark Gurman. In his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman claims Apple executives were caught off guard by the sudden explosion of interest in AI last

DIY Shredder Creates Insulation

Plenty of us have experience with paper shredders, but there are all kinds of machines designed to completely destroy other materials as well, from metal and plastic, to entire cars. [Action BOX] built their own heavy-duty shredder capable of dismantling things like cell phones and other robust handheld objects, but after seeing what it would

The Hamas Threat of Hostage Execution Videos Looms Large Over Social Media

Hamas has threatened to broadcast videos of hostage executions. With the war between Israel and Hamas poised to enter a new phase, are social platforms ready?

A look at Nightshade and Glaze, UChicago researchers’ tools that help artists “mask” or even “poison” their work to break AI models later trained on the data (Melissa Heikkilä/MIT Technology Review)

Melissa Heikkilä / MIT Technology Review: A look at Nightshade and Glaze, UChicago researchers’ tools that help artists “mask” or even “poison” their work to break AI models later trained on the data — The tool, called Nightshade, messes up training data in ways that could cause serious damage to image-generating AI models.

Zenhub beefs up on-prem edition

Zenhub has updated its Zenhub Enterprise project management platform for internal deployments. Zenhub Enterprise 4.0 both deploys on-premises and eliminates the need for a GitHub account. Zenhub Enterprise 4.0 was announced October 17 and is available now. Teams can use Zenhub Enterprise with GitHub or instead use the built-in Zenhub Issues capability. Zenhub Issues functions

Toyota made a Land Cruiser EV concept that probably won’t see the light of day

Toyota’s Land Cruiser Se concept. | Image: Toyota Toyota is bringing the content for its 2023 Japan Mobility Show showcase that includes an all-electric Land Cruiser SUV concept that could either be a serious contender to duke it out with competing three-row EVs or just a premature look for things to come. The Toyota Land

Meta is “listening to feedback” after some users noticed the company is cross-posting Threads posts to users’ Facebook feeds without offering an opt-out option (Karissa Bell/Engadget)

Karissa Bell / Engadget: Meta is “listening to feedback” after some users noticed the company is cross-posting Threads posts to users’ Facebook feeds without offering an opt-out option — The company said it’s “listening to feedback” about the feature. — Meta is starting to ramp up its growth-hacking tactics …

Parity Technologies, the developer of Polkadot, which helps different blockchains communicate with each other, is laying off ~100 staff, or 30% of its employees (Muyao Shen/Bloomberg)

Muyao Shen / Bloomberg: Parity Technologies, the developer of Polkadot, which helps different blockchains communicate with each other, is laying off ~100 staff, or 30% of its employees — – Parity Technologies will cut a total of about 100 employees — Blockchain infrastructure firm will focus on technology

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