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Updated 2024-11-21 11:30
‘A betrayal’: Google workers protest Israeli military contract at vigil for ex-intern killed in airstrike
Employees paid tribute to Mai Ubeid, who was killed in Gaza, and denounced Project Nimbus, which provides services to Israel's militaryIn the shadow of Google's sprawling New York City campus, former and current Google and Amazon workers gathered on Tuesday evening to pay tribute to Mai Ubeid, a young woman and software engineer who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza along with her whole family. The workers also took the opportunity to castigate their employers for contracts with the Israeli military.Ubeid had graduated from a Google-funded coding bootcamp, Gaza Sky Geeks, and later interned at a firm that was part of the Google for Startups accelerator program in 2020. Those who knew her have described her in written tributes and in interviews with the Guardian as a strong and determined visionary. She had muscular dystrophy and, as such, used a wheelchair to get around. Ubeid dreamed of one day developing a platform for people with disabilities to network and connect, according to Kathrine Tinggaard Nicolaisen, a former communications manager at Gaza Sky Geeks based in the West Bank who knew and had met Ubeid. Continue reading...
‘Like an unnecessarily horny seaside postcard’: Yorkshire comedy game Thank Goodness You’re Here!
In a sea of Portakabins in Shoreditch, a pair of best friends are making a very British surreal comedy game based on their northern home townThank goodness you're here!" says a panic-stricken patron of Rog's Veg Hall. The shop owner has lost his rag after overhearing a comment about his corn-shaped head, leading to a full vegetable assault on any and all customers.After a careful creep around the aisles and a few jumps through some boxes and bins, I confront Rog with a reflection of what he's become, triggering a several-minute montage of the man's tormented life, from childhood bullies to first love to his wife asking for a divorce, unable to live a lie any longer. Rog comically breaks down as the customers escape and I head out to help more citizens. Continue reading...
How problematic is mineral mining for electric cars?
In part two of our series exploring myths surrounding EVs, we weigh up the issues of resource extractionIn the deserts of Chile, the Australian outback and the plains of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the earth is being peeled back and the water sucked up and dried out to find the minerals needed to feed the world's need for electric cars.The scars left on the earth by the search for battery minerals are regularly trotted out by opponents of the transition away from fossil fuels. But in our EV mythbusters series, we are taking a closer look at some of the most common criticisms of electric cars, highlighting the myths, the realities, and the grey areas. Continue reading...
Could electronic mail undermine conventional post? – archive, 1 December 1983
1 December 1983: Electronic mail tends to be informal in style encouraging people to send brazen messages but even if you are abroad, work can follow you wherever you areA colleague and I were in different parts of the United States recently and were due to meet at an international airport. I arrived to meet his 6 o'clock flight and to pass the time, went to a call box, put in 10 cents, dialled a local number and linked my handheld computer, via a local computer, to another computer in Britain. I then interrogated my electronic mailbox in London.There was one new message. It read I got an earlier flight and have been sitting in the United Airways arrivals lounge since. Why the hell don't you read your mail more often?" I found him, sitting indignantly, only 100 yards away. Continue reading...
Tesla to begin Cybertruck deliveries with price starting at $60,990
CEO Elon Musk warned before delivery event it would take a year to 18 months to make the car a significant cashflow contributorTesla is set to start deliveries of its long-delayed, much-hyped Cybertruck electric pickup on Thursday after its CEO, Elon Musk, tempered investor expectations, citing problems in ramping production of what he called a radical" product.Cybertruck, Tesla's first new model in nearly four years, is critical to its reputation as a maker of innovative vehicles. At a time when the company is battling softening electric vehicle (EV) demand and rising competition, Cybertruck is also key for generating sales, though not to the extent of the company's high-volume Models 3 and Y. Continue reading...
Meta closes nearly 4,800 fake accounts in China that tried to polarize US voters
Tech company said accounts impersonating Americans spread political content aiming to divide country ahead of election yearSomeone in China created thousands of fake Facebook and Instagram accounts designed to impersonate Americans and used them to spread polarizing political content in an apparent effort to divide the US ahead of next year's elections, Meta said on Thursday.The network of nearly 4,800 fake accounts was attempting to build an audience when it was identified and eliminated by the tech company, which owns Facebook and Instagram. The accounts sported fake photos, names and locations as a way to appear like everyday American Facebook users weighing in on political issues. Continue reading...
Microsoft to join OpenAI’s board after Sam Altman rehired as CEO
Altman says tech giant, which owns 49% of ChatGPT maker after investing $13bn, will take non-voting, observer position on boardMicrosoft will take a non-voting, observer position on OpenAI's board, its CEO, Sam Altman, said in his first official missive after taking back the reins of the company on Wednesday.The observer position means Microsoft's representative can attend OpenAI's board meetings and access confidential information but will not have voting rights on matters including electing or choosing directors. Continue reading...
New Yorkers feel betrayed as police radio dispatches end: ‘You’d hear about nine shootings a day’
The NYPD has communicated via public channels for nearly a century. Now the system is being encryptedA crackle, a chirp and the voice of a dispatcher describing an unfolding crisis in rapid-fire code. For nearly a century, New York City police have communicated about crime and catastrophe over radio broadcasts on public channels. And for journalists and the public, these dispatches have been a reliable way to get real-time knowledge of what's happening in one of the world's most chaotic cities.Now the NYPD is encrypting these channels for the first time in its history - an upgrade" expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars before it's completed in December 2024. Over the summer, police began scrambling the channels for certain precincts, leaving anyone listening in with white noise. Continue reading...
Best podcasts of the week: Marina Hyde and Richard Osman take on pop culture
In this week's newsletter: The Guardian columnist and the presenter turned author unite for The Rest Is Entertainment. Plus: five of the best podcasts with unlikely host pairings Don't get Hear Here delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereThe Rest Is Entertainment
Elon Musk hurls defiant, profanity-laced retort at fleeing advertisers
At New York event on Wednesday, X owner had choice words for Walt Disney and others who pulled ads over antisemitic content
Google to pay Canada news publishers $73m a year to keep news in search
Deal resolves tech giant's concerns over Online News Act, which makes big companies share advertising revenue with publishersCanada and Google have reached a deal to keep links to news stories in search results and for the tech giant to pay $73.6m annually, or C$100m, to news publishers in the country.The deal resolves Alphabet-owned Google's concerns over Canada's Online News Act, which seeks to make large internet companies share advertising revenue with news publishers in the country. Continue reading...
‘Almost like election night’: behind the scenes of Spotify Wrapped
The internet is abuzz with the results of this year's rundown, with Taylor Swift coming out on top as 2023's most streamed artistThere's a flurry of activities inside Spotify's New York City's offices in the Financial District. It's almost like election night," Louisa Ferguson, Spotify's global head of marketing experience says, referring to a bustling newsroom. At the same time, she feels like Santa Claus putting presents under a tree. Honestly, it's a pretty apt analogy," she says on a brief respite during what constitutes her busiest day of the year. It's really like we created this gift of music and then we get to deliver it to everyone."Spotify Wrapped, which went live today for millions of users globally, enjoys its status as a cultural, social and music event of the year. Generated by listening habits and rolled out in a tidy package of graphics, video and music, it's a uniquely shareable snapshot of the sonic year that was, providing users with their most listened to songs, artists and podcasts. 2023's top streamers include Taylor Swift, the Miley Cyrus hit Flowers, Bad Bunny's album Un Verano Sin Ti and The Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Continue reading...
Elliot Ulm: the 10 funniest things I have ever seen (on the internet)
The graphic designer and comedian (AKA elliotisacoolguy) lives online. His list includes several human-sounding animals - and one animal-sounding human
SteamWorld Build review – tinker with a tiny township full of robots in hats
Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox; The Station/Thunderful Games
Hamas invites Elon Musk to Gaza to see ‘extent of destruction’ by Israeli strikes
Invitation comes after tech billionaire accompanied Benjamin Netanyahu to inspect Israeli kibbutz that was attacked by HamasHamas has invited Elon Musk to Gaza to witness the devastation of the Palestinian territory under Israeli attack after the hi-tech billionaire accompanied Benjamin Netanyahu to inspect a kibbutz targeted by Hamas.We invite him to visit Gaza to see the extent of the massacres and destruction committed against the people of Gaza, in compliance with the standards of objectivity and credibility," Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official, said in a press conference in Beirut on Tuesday. Continue reading...
Critics of Serbia’s government targeted with ‘military-grade spyware’
Security researchers say two pro-democracy activists were subjected to attempted state-sponsored hackingCritics of Serbia's nationalist government who have documented the country's endemic corruption were targeted with military-grade spyware earlier this year, according to new findings by security researchers.The attempted hacking of two Serbian pro-democracy activists - who have asked not to be named to protect their safety - was ultimately not successful because both individuals' Apple iPhones had been updated with the latest iOS software, which the researchers said protected the devices from being infiltrated. Continue reading...
TechScape: Why billions in sanctions can’t bring down Binance
In this week's newsletter: Changpeng Zhao has pleaded guilty to breaking US anti-money-laundering laws but will the enforcement end there? Don't get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereBinance is guilty. The world's largest crypto exchange admitted to a range of violations in a massive US court action, including unlicensed money transmitting, sanctions violations and anti-money laundering (AML) violations. Its founder, Changpeng Zhao, near-universally known as CZ, personally pled guilty to his failure to maintain money-laundering controls.The failures allowed money to flow to terrorists, cybercriminals, and child abusers through its platform", the US secretary of the treasury, Janet Yellen, said. From our story:As part of a guilty plea, Zhao agreed to pay a $50m fine and would be barred from any involvement in the business. Binance too agreed to plead guilty, accept the appointment of a monitor and pay a criminal fine of nearly $1.81bn as well as a $2.51bn order of forfeiture to settle three criminal charges.Zhao wrote in a tweet: Today, I stepped down as CEO of Binance. ... I made mistakes, and I must take responsibility. This is best for our community, for Binance, and for myself ... I can't see myself being a CEO driving a startup again."On March 8, 2022, one of these video-conference meetings was scheduled. Mr Moniruzzaman, now employed by Nvidia, attended the video-conference call... and shared his computer screen during the call. When he minimized the PowerPoint presentation he had been sharing, however, he revealed one of Valeo's verbatim source code files open on his computer. So brazen was Mr Moniruzzaman's theft, the file path on his screen still read ValeoDocs." Valeo participants on the video-conference call immediately recognized the source code and took a screenshot before Mr Moniruzzaman was alerted of his error. By then it was too late to cover his tracks. Continue reading...
US, UK and a dozen more countries unveil pact to make AI ‘secure by design’
Non-binding 20-page agreement signed by 18 countries says companies must develop AI that keeps public safe from misuseThe United States, the United Kingdom and more than a dozen other countries on Sunday unveiled what a senior US official described as the first detailed international agreement on how to keep artificial intelligence safe from rogue actors, pushing for companies to create AI systems that are secure by design".In a 20-page document unveiled on Sunday, the 18 countries agreed that companies designing and using AI need to develop and deploy it in a way that keeps customers and the wider public safe from misuse. Continue reading...
The real story of the OpenAI debacle is the tyranny of big tech | Courtney Radsch
The latest episode should jolt us out of our complacency and force us to confront the dangers of monopoly capitalismThe theatrics of OpenAI's seeming implosion amid the firing of its CEO and co-founder Sam Altman, Microsoft's dramatic offer to poach its top executives and staff, and Altman's triumphant return following the ouster of the board has all the trappings of a Hollywood blockbuster.But the drama unfolding should put the spotlight on the tyranny of the tech titans that control critical aspects of the AI ecosystem.Courtney C Radsch is director of the Center for Journalism and Liberty at the Open Markets Institute Continue reading...
‘Serious breach’: social media platform X booted from Australia’s misinformation code
Company failed to respond to a complaint about the removal of a function to report misinformation during the voice referendum
Sacking, revolt, return: how crisis at OpenAI over Sam Altman unfolded
Firing of the CEO behind ChatGPT company sent shock waves through Silicon Valley - only for him to be reinstated days laterWhen Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, took to the stage in San Francisco nine days ago he hinted at another significant development in the world of artificial intelligence.Four times now in the history of OpenAI, the most recent time was just in the last couple weeks, I've gotten to be in the room, when we sort of push the veil of ignorance back and the frontier of discovery forward, and getting to do that is the professional honour of a lifetime," he told the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit. Continue reading...
Rhysida, the new ransomware gang behind British Library cyber-attack
Gang thought to be from Russia or CIS has attacked companies and institutions in several countriesA new name was added to the cyber-rogues' gallery of ransomware gangs this week after a criminal group called Rhysida claimed responsibility for an attack on the British Library.The library confirmed that personal data stolen in a cyber-attack last month has appeared for sale online. Continue reading...
The Lightbulb Princess review – sparkling electrickery for kids
Half Moon theatre, London
‘What do we want? £15!’ Hundreds join Amazon picket line for Black Friday strike
Trade unionists from US and Europe stand with staff at Coventry hub over local pay dispute amid global day of actionHundreds of strikers outside Amazon's Coventry warehouse were joined on Black Friday by trade unionists from Europe and the US as part of a global campaign calling for better working conditions at the internet retailer.Wearing orange beanie hats branded with the GMB union logo, activists from Germany, Italy and California, on strike at their respective Amazon workplaces, expressed solidarity with the Coventry strikers, who have taken 28 days of industrial action since January. Continue reading...
Linda Marigliano: the 10 funniest things I have ever seen (on the internet)
Sharing videos is a love language for the presenter and author. Here, she shows us a dancing frog and multiple mischievous children
Personal data stolen in British Library cyber-attack appears for sale online
Ransomware group Rhysida claims responsibility for hack and has posted images from library's HR filesThe British Library has confirmed that personal data stolen in a cyber-attack has appeared online, apparently for sale to the highest bidder.The attack was carried out in October by a group known for such criminal activity, said the UK's national library, which holds about 14m books and millions of other items. Continue reading...
Dyson tells libel trial Daily Mirror article was a distressing ‘personal attack’
Inventor is suing publisher over rogues' gallery' article that stated he championed Vote Leave before moving global HQ to SingaporeAn article that featured Sir James Dyson in a rogues' gallery" and stated that he had championed Vote Leave ... before moving his global head office to Singapore" was damaging and distressing" to the inventor and entrepreneur, the high court has heard.In a written statement to the court, Dyson described a Daily Mirror article published last year as a personal attack on all that I have done and achieved in my lifetime" and said it was highly distressing and hurtful". Continue reading...
‘It was a way to share your musical experiences’: why cassette tapes flourished, and still endure
Two new books explore the history of the tape and how it helped spread hip-hop, thrash metal and experimental music around the world one mixtape at a timeEveryone who grew up with a tape deck remembers mixtapes, or compilation tapes, as we used to call them in the UK. They remember sitting with a pile of records or CDs, assembling the perfect order, sending the right message. The narrator of Nick Hornby's novel High Fidelity, Rob Fleming, had a set of parameters that had to be observed: You can't have two tracks by the same artist side by side, unless you've done the whole thing in pairs, and ... oh, there are loads of rules."My first girlfriend and I had a cassette," remembers Britt Daniel, frontman of Spoon. She'd put a song on it, then give it to me. I'd keep hold of it for a couple of days, then put a song on and give it back to her. They were all message songs - my communication skills were not top-notch, but it was very sweet." Continue reading...
Sundar Pichai denies Google stifles competition at Epic antitrust trial
Chief executive confirmed that Google pays Apple a 36% revenue share to remain Safari's default search engineGoogle's CEO, Sundar Pichai, testified Tuesday as a witness in the antitrust trial between the company he leads and Fortnite developer Epic Games, which has accused the internet search giant of abusive, monopolistic practices enacted through its app store. The trial could force Google to alter the business and distribution model of its Google Play store, which controls the vast majority of app downloads for Android phones.Asked by Google's attorney whether Google intentionally stifles competition, as Epic has alleged, Pichai said it does not. Continue reading...
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III review – exhilarating multiplayer combat rescues a tired format
PlayStation (version tested), Xbox, PC; Sledgehammer Games/Activision
‘They rile me’: views on the pros and cons of UK supermarket self-checkouts
As Booths returns to fully-staffed tills at many of its stores, shoppers with varying opinions have their sayBooths, a high-end supermarket chain in northern England, has announced it is removing self-checkouts in the majority of its stores. The retailer said it was not a fan of the machines and prided itself on great customer service and you can't do that through a robot".It is believed to be the first supermarket chain in the UK to return to fully-staffed tills, so the Guardian asked people for their views about self-checkouts. Here, four of them share their experiences of the machines and the effect they have on their supermarket shop. Continue reading...
YouTube to offer option to flag AI-generated songs that mimic artists’ voices
Record companies will be able to request removal of content that mimics an artist's unique singing or rapping'Record companies can request the removal of songs that use artificial intelligence-generated versions of artists' voices under new guidelines issued by YouTube.The video platform is introducing a tool that will allow music labels and distributors to flag content that mimics an artist's unique singing or rapping voice". Continue reading...
White faces generated by AI are more convincing than photos, finds survey
Photographs were seen as less realistic than computer images but there was no difference with pictures of people of colourIt sounds like a scenario straight out of a Ridley Scott film: technology that not only sounds more real" than actual humans, but looks more convincing, too. Yet it seems that moment has already arrived.A new study has found people are more likely to think pictures of white faces generated by AI are human than photographs of real individuals. Continue reading...
Stock of British electric moped brand Zapp hits skids months after US listing
The company has lost much of its value after market scepticism about startups' prospectsThe future of the British brand Zapp looked promising as its top team gathered around one of its electric mopeds and stared up at a billboard bearing its logo close to Times Square, New York, in May. They threw their arms aloft as they marked the six-year-old company's listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange, in a deal valuing it at $573m (467m). Another billboard declared: Simply Electric. No compromise." On social media, Zapp wrote: All excited and ready for the next chapter! Live life unplugged."Six months on, the stock has hit the skids, and now has a market cap of $12.5m, according to the Nasdaq, and Zapp looks increasingly like it will join a host of British vehicle companies which have seen their US listing turn into an investors' short stay car park. Continue reading...
Private UK health data donated for medical research shared with insurance companies
Observer investigation reveals UK Biobank opened its biomedical database to insurance firms despite pledge it would not do soSensitive health information donated for medical research by half a million UK citizens has been shared with insurance companies despite a pledge that it would not be.An Observer investigation has found that UK Biobank opened up its vast biomedical database to insurance sector firms several times between 2020 and 2023. The data was provided to insurance consultancy and tech firms for projects to create digital tools that help insurers predict a person's risk of getting a chronic disease. The findings have raised concerns among geneticists, data privacy experts and campaigners over vetting and ethical checks at Biobank. Continue reading...
‘It is a beast that needs to be tamed’: leading novelists on how AI could rewrite the future
Novelists and poets, Bernardine Evaristo, Jeanette Winterson, Stephen Marche and others, consider the threats and thrilling possibilities of artificial intelligenceChatGPT seems to have blindsided us all. In less than a year it has proved that it can make writers redundant, which is one of the reasons why the Writers Guild of America recently went on strike, and why a group of novelists, including Jonathan Franzen, Jodi Picoult and George RR Martin, are pursuing a lawsuit against OpenAI, the company that owns the chatbot. The worry is that its monster brain is rapaciously, unscrupulously scanning the internet and suctioning up all the knowledge and writing contained therein, including copyrighted works, which it then metamorphoses into its imitations of creative writing - poems, novels, scripts, essays, you name it. Imitation that appears to be original writing. Continue reading...
Peter Thiel won’t fund any 2024 races after backing Trump in 2016: ‘It was crazier than I thought’
Thiel says in an interview that Trump had called him earlier this year to solicit $10m and that he turned down the requestPeter Thiel, the tech billionaire who supported Donald Trump in 2016 and sunk millions more into underperforming Maga candidates in subsequent election cycles, has confirmed rumors that he is stepping away from 2024 political funding.In an interview with the Atlantic, Thiel said voting for Trump was like a not very articulate scream for help" and that things had not turned out the way he had hoped when he donated $1.25m to Trump and Trump-affiliated political funds eight years ago. Continue reading...
Ransomware attack on China’s biggest bank disrupts US Treasury market
American arm of ICBC is latest victim of hackers and is investigatingThe Industrial and Commercial Bank of China's US arm was hit by a ransomware attack that disrupted trades in the US Treasury market on Thursday, the latest in a string of victims ransom-demanding hackers have claimed this year.ICBC Financial Services, the US unit of China's largest commercial lender by assets, said it was investigating the attack that disrupted some of its systems, and making progress towards recovering from it. Continue reading...
Heat pumps tempt Twickenham residents – if the house is ready for one
In one well-to-do London street, eagerness to make the shift from boilers is dampened by worries about disruption and hidden costsAs a snapshot of bourgeois Britain, Park House Gardens would be hard to beat. A quiet cul-de-sac of 1930s art deco semis in the south-west London borough of Twickenham leads down to the River Thames. The street's residents include architects and artists, local authority safeguarding administrators and NHS chief operating officers.On paper, it should be the simplest of tasks for Colin Thomas, head of service delivery at Octopus energy, to sell the idea of switching from gas boilers to air source heat pumps here. The people who live in Park House Gardens know all about climate change and want to do their bit in the battle to achieve carbon net zero. And with homes changing hands for about 1.5m, they generally do not have to count every penny. Continue reading...
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak hospitalized for stroke in Mexico City
The 73-year-old had been slated to speak at a business conference when he suffered a minor but real stroke'Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak was hospitalized for a minor but real stroke" on Thursday in Mexico City while he was in the city to speak at a business conference. After a brief stay in the hospital, he said he was flying home," according to ABC News.Wozniak, 73, told ABC he was at his computer in the morning when he felt vertigo and dizziness. He had been scheduled to speak at the World Business Forum in Mexico City, a two-day gathering billed as the world's most important management event. Other advertised speakers were Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, and Muhammad Yunus, a pioneer in microfinance who was awarded the Nobel peace prize. Continue reading...
AI could cause ‘catastrophic’ financial crisis, says Yuval Noah Harari
Historian and Sapiens author says sophistication of technology makes it difficult to forecast its dangersArtificial intelligence could cause a financial crisis with catastrophic" consequences, according to the historian and author Yuval Noah Harari, who says the technology's sophistication makes forecasting its dangers difficult.Harari told the Guardian a concern about safety testing AI models was foreseeing all the problems that a powerful system could cause. Unlike with nuclear weapons, there was not one big, dangerous scenario" that everyone understood, he said. Continue reading...
How Scorsese, Coppola and Schrader went viral on social media
Hollywood's old guard have been finding a new audience through frank opinions, unlikely videos and fan interactionWhen the time comes to remember him, Martin Scorsese's legacy will be that of a pioneer. In his lifetime, Scorsese managed to harness the untapped power of an art form that had long since fallen into a bloated state of rote disrepair. Scorsese grabbed that art form with both hands, and became a superstar by refining and revitalising it.That art form is, of course, TikTok. Continue reading...
Optus went down and the smart lights came on. And then Marayke was stranded in bed
The Optus outage was devastating for people with disability like Marayke Jonkers who rely on internet-assisted technology for life's essentials
Industrial robot crushes man to death in South Korean distribution centre
Machine apparently identified man inspecting it as one of the boxes it was stackingA robot crushed a man to death in South Korea after the machine apparently failed to differentiate him from the boxes of produce it was handling, the Yonhap news agency reported on Wednesday.The man, a robotics company worker in his 40s, was inspecting the robot's sensor operations at a distribution centre for agricultural produce in South Gyeongsang province. Continue reading...
Cruise recalls all self-driving cars after grisly accident and California ban
All 950 of the General Motors subsidiary's autonomous cars will be taken off roads for a software updateGeneral Motors' Cruise autonomous vehicle unit is recalling all 950 of its cars to update software after one of them dragged a pedestrian to the side of a San Francisco street in early October and a subsequent ban by California regulators.The company said in documents posted by US safety regulators on Wednesday that with the updated software, Cruise vehicles will remain stationary should a similar incident occur in the future. Continue reading...
Are video game movies about to take over from Marvel?
Huge numbers for films based on Super Mario and Five Nights at Freddy's have led to news of a Zelda adaptation, suggesting a new lease of life for a once-loathed genreWhen Nintendo announced via Twitter/X that Shigeru Miyamoto had been working for years on a live-action The Legend of Zelda movie with the producer Avi Arad, I immediately felt a little queasy. Not because I'd just browsed Arad's production credits, which really do run the gamut, but because like most adults who love video games, I grew up in the era of game movies so unbelievably dreadful that I still sometimes think angry thoughts about them when I'm trying to get to sleep.It was the era of Jean-Claude Van Damme in Street Fighter, of the fascinatingly terrible 1993 Super Mario cyberpunk nightmare starring Bob Hoskins, of Uwe Boll. Like a kicked dog, I am instinctively fearful. The Zelda series has produced several of the most important, acclaimed games of all time, centred on their mute protagonist, Link, and the various eternally retold and remixed myths of the Kingdom of Hyrule and its royal family (that's Zelda). They are narratively ambiguous, often quite dreamlike, and that works for them. How do you turn that into a gripping movie? Are they going to give Link a voice? A 90s cartoon series turned him into a wisecracking smart-arse and has been relentlessly mocked for it ever since. Continue reading...
Optus network outage may have been caused by same issue that brought Facebook down in 2021
Australian IT company says configuration issue' may have been behind nationwide outage
The problem with tech bro philanthropy | Zoe Williams
Billionaires say they are desperate to give away their money - but their interests are misaligned with society's. Just tax them!Almost exactly a year ago, Vox journalist Kelsey Piper was having a heart-to-heart with Sam Bankman-Fried. The Crypto King" (people used to call him a lot of stupid things) had just declared bankruptcy, setting off a chain of events that last week ended in his conviction for multiple types of fraud. He has yet to be sentenced, but he faces a maximum term of 115 years, which is quite some override of the principle avoid sending rich people to prison" laid down, I believe, by the founding fathers.Against a backdrop in which Bankman-Fried has already been put bang to rights, and on the understanding that further critique of the young gentleman won't give anyone their money back, I still can't help circling one part of the Piper/Bankman-Fried exchange. You don't believe anyone is doing anything for good reasons," Piper told him in a message. You don't believe the good guys' are good, so why not make it big and then be the one who gets to decide what good' is?" Continue reading...
Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2 review: still unique but should be better
Big chip and graphics upgrades come at great cost to wallet and battery life for difficult second actMicrosoft's latest top-end laptop sticks with its novel screen-flipping form, with upgrades on the inside aimed at keeping up with the powerhouse competition - but these improvements come with a very steep price increase.The Surface Laptop Studio 2 starts at 2,069 (2,239/$1999.99/A$3,343) - a 620 increase over the outgoing model. That takes it far away from the normal premium consumer range on which Microsoft has built its Surface reputation, and places it firmly in the creative workstation class of machine typically used by programmers and video and photo editors.Screen: 14.4in LCD 2,400x1,600 (201 PPI; 120Hz)Processor: Intel Core i7-13700H (13th generation)Ram: 16, 32 or 64GBStorage: 512GB or 1TBGraphics: Intel Iris Xe, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 6GB, RTX 4060 8GB or RTX 2000 8GBOperating system: Windows 11Camera: 1080P front-facing, Windows HelloConnectivity: wifi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, 2x Thunderbolt 4/USB 4, USB-A, microSD, headphones, Surface ConnectDimensions: 323 x 230 x 22mmWeight: 1,890 or 1,980g Continue reading...
85% of people worry about online disinformation, global survey finds
UN announces plan to tackle phenomenon as survey finds people worry particularly about impact on electionsMore than 85% of people are worried about the impact of online disinformation and 87% believe it has already harmed their country's politics, according to a global survey, as the United Nations announced a plan to tackle the phenomenon.Audrey Azoulay, director general of the UN's culture body, Unesco, told reporters on Monday that false information and hate speech online - accelerated and amplified by social media platforms - posed major risks to social cohesion, peace and stability". Continue reading...
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