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Intel Has Many Improvements For The Xe Graphics Driver In Linux 6.10

Phoronix - Tue, 23/04/2024 - 4:13pm
Intel today sent out more than one hundred new feature patches to DRM-Next of new "Xe" kernel graphics driver material they have readied for the upcoming Linux 6.10 kernel merge window...

Fedora Linux 40 Officially Released

Slashdot - Tue, 23/04/2024 - 4:01pm
prisoninmate writes: Fedora Linux 40 distribution has been officially released -- powered by the latest Linux 6.8 kernel series, and featuring the GNOME 46 and KDE Plasma 6 desktop environments, reports 9to5Linux: "Powered by the latest and greatest Linux 6.8 kernel series, the Fedora Linux 40 release ships with the GNOME 46 desktop environment for the flagship Fedora Workstation edition and the KDE Plasma 6 desktop environment for the Fedora KDE Spin, which defaults to the Wayland session as the X11 session was completely removed." "Fedora Linux 40 also includes some interesting package management changes, such as dropping Delta RPMs and disabling support in the default configuration of DNF / DNF5. It also changes the DNF behavior to no longer download filelists by default. However, this release doesn't ship with the long-awaited DNF5 package manager. For AMD GPUs, Fedora Linux 40 ships with AMD ROCm 6.0 as the latest release of AMD's software optimized for AI and HPC workload performance, which enables support for the newest flagship AMD Instinct MI300A and MI300X datacenter GPUs."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

GM shared our driving data with insurers without consent, lawsuit claims

El Reg - Tue, 23/04/2024 - 4:00pm
Motorists file class action alleging breach of contract and more after their premiums went up

Two New Jersey drivers claim they now pay more for their car insurance because General Motors (GM) and its OnStar app snooped on their driving behavior without their consent and sent metrics to "various insurance carriers."…

iPhone sales dive 19.1% in China as Huawei comeback hits Apple in the high end

El Reg - Tue, 23/04/2024 - 3:30pm
From first place to third as local brands grow

iPhone sales in China - the world's largest smartphone market - slipped by 19.1 percent in Q1 year-over-year while many domestic brands rose, pushing Apple from first to third place.…

China's Ageing Tech Workers Hit By 'Curse of 35'

Slashdot - Tue, 23/04/2024 - 3:20pm
Chinese tech giant Kuaishou is laying off employees in their mid-30s as part of a company-wide restructuring plan dubbed "Limestone," FT reported Tuesday, citing people with direct knowledge of the matter. The move highlights the pervasive ageism in China's tech sector, where younger workers are favored for their perceived willingness to work long hours and keep up with the latest technological developments, the report adds. While China's labor law does not explicitly prohibit age discrimination, some have interpreted it as such. However, tech executives have openly expressed their preference for younger employees, with companies like ByteDance and Pinduoduo boasting some of the youngest workforces in the industry. The economic slowdown and regulatory crackdowns have exacerbated the problem, with tens of thousands of jobs cut across the sector in recent months. Those over 35 face significant challenges in finding new employment, as even the civil service and service sector prioritize younger applicants. The situation has left many older tech workers anxious about their future job prospects, the report adds.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Microsoft shrinks AI down to pocket size with Phi-3 Mini

El Reg - Tue, 23/04/2024 - 3:01pm
Language model focused on reasoning fits on a smartphone and runs offline

Microsoft claims the latest incarnation of its lightweight Phi-3 Mini AI model rivals competitors such as GPT-3.5 while being small enough to be deployed on a phone.…

Framework Raises $18M In New Funding, More Collaborations Coming With Cooler Master

Phoronix - Tue, 23/04/2024 - 2:55pm
The folks behind the very popular Framework upgradeable/modular laptops announced today $18M in new funding and a few other interesting details...

Microsoft Launches Phi-3 Mini, a 3.8B-Parameter Model Rivaling GPT-3.5 Capabilities

Slashdot - Tue, 23/04/2024 - 2:45pm
Microsoft has launched Phi-3 Mini, a lightweight AI model with 3.8 billion parameters, as part of its plan to release three small models. Phi-3 Mini, trained on a smaller data set compared to large language models, is available on Azure, Hugging Face, and Ollama. Microsoft claims Phi-3 Mini performs as well as models 10 times its size, offering capabilities similar to GPT-3.5 in a smaller form factor. Smaller AI models are more cost-effective and perform better on personal devices.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Digital Realty wants to turn Irish datacenters into grid-stabilizing power jugglers

El Reg - Tue, 23/04/2024 - 2:30pm
Electricity goes both ways as bit barns in Dublin aim to cut emissions and boost the bank

Datacenter biz Digital Realty is to let facilities in Ireland feed energy back to the electricity grid when needed, helping to smooth out variability in supply, cut CO2 emissions and provide an additional revenue stream.…

Google Fires More Employees Over Protest of Cloud Contract With Israel

Slashdot - Tue, 23/04/2024 - 2:07pm
Google has fired another 20 workers for participating in protests against its $1.2 billion cloud computing contract with the Israeli government, according to an activist group representing the workers. From a report: In total, the company has now fired around 50 employees over sit-in protests held in Google offices last week that were part of yearslong discontent among a group of Google and Amazon workers over claims that Israel is using the companies' services to harm Palestinians. Google has denied those claims, saying Project Nimbus, the cloud-computing contract, doesn't involve "highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services," and that Israeli government ministries that use its commercial cloud must agree to its terms of services and other policies. No Tech For Apartheid, the group representing the workers, claimed in a statement that Google is attempting to "quash dissent, silence its workers, and reassert its power over them." "That's because Google values its profit, and its $1.2 billion contract with the Israeli government and military, more than people. And it certainly values it over its own workers," it said. The group said it will continue organizing until Google cancels Project Nimbus. Further reading: Google To Employees: 'We Are a Workplace'.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Microsoft really does not want Windows 11 running on ancient PCs

El Reg - Tue, 23/04/2024 - 2:00pm
Even tighter requirements, so it's time to put old hardware out to pasture... or find an alternative OS

Microsoft's war on old PCs appears to have intensified as the latest builds of Windows 11 will not boot if your CPU does not support the SSE4.2 instruction set.…

SAP cloud swells its topline, but profits slide

El Reg - Tue, 23/04/2024 - 1:34pm
Cloud migration good for margins, CEO says

SAP booked revenue of €8.04 billion ($8.58 billion) in the first calendar quarter of 2024, up eight percent on the same period of 2023.…

Mandiant: Orgs are detecting cybercriminals faster than ever

El Reg - Tue, 23/04/2024 - 1:05pm
The 'big victory for the good guys' shouldn't be celebrated too much, though

The average time taken by global organizations to detect cyberattacks has dropped to its lowest-ever level of ten days, Mandiant revealed today.…

Toyota's Hydrogen Future Is Crumbling As Owners File Lawsuits, Call For Buybacks

Slashdot - Tue, 23/04/2024 - 1:00pm
Toyota's Mirai, a hydrogen-powered Fuel Cell EV initially heralded as the future of driving, has faced significant challenges due to inadequate hydrogen fueling infrastructure. As chronicled by InsideEVs, many owners have become disillusioned with the vehicle's high operational costs, unreliable refueling options, and significant depreciation, prompting lawsuits and calls for buybacks. Longtime Slashdot reader whoever57 writes: Toyota Mirai owners are fed up and disillusioned. Hydrogen fuel pumps are hard to find and, rather than new pumps opening, they are closing down. Owners feel misled about the costs and availability of hydrogen fuel stations. Even if a Mirai owner can find a fuel station, it may not be operating. Moreover, refueling is frequently a long and problematic process, with pumps taking over an hour to fill a tank and cars getting stuck to the fuel pump for hours. It would be quicker to charge a battery EV. Naturally, resale values of these cars are plummeting. Even without those problems, once the complimentary hydrogen fuel supply that Toyota gives new owners expires or runs out, the cost of hydrogen fuel becomes quite expensive. "Not in my wildest dreams or nightmares would I expect a purchase from a giant car company like Toyota would turn out to be such a terrible experience," said owner Shawn Hall. "The entire H2 vehicle experience is an experiment that is failing. I didn't expect to buy a vehicle from Toyota and feel duped, cheated, and misled." Another user wrote on Reddit: "We all need to realize that we bought a vehicle that had, at best, a questionable future. Unfortunately in this instance, the gamble didn't pay off, and the technology of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles does not appear to be something the vehicle industry is invested in pursuing. Very similar to HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray, there was one clear winner and in our instance, the battery-powered EV won out over H2. Its sucks, but it is what it is."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Fedora Linux 40 Available For Download As A Wonderful Upgrade

Phoronix - Tue, 23/04/2024 - 12:32pm
It's Fedora 40 release day! Fedora 40 is now available for download from mirrors for this leading Linux distribution...

UnitedHealth admits IT security breach could 'cover substantial proportion of people in America'

El Reg - Tue, 23/04/2024 - 12:30pm
That said, good ol' American healthcare system so elaborately costly, some are forced to avoid altogether

UnitedHealth Group, the parent of ransomware-struck Change Healthcare, delivered some very unwelcome news for customers today as it continues to recover from the massively expensive side and disruptive digital break-in.…

Voyager 1 regains sanity after engineers patch around problematic memory

El Reg - Tue, 23/04/2024 - 11:45am
All from billions of miles away

NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has begun returning usable engineering data after engineers devised a way to work around a damaged memory chip.…

Leicester streetlights take ransomware attack personally, shine on 24/7

El Reg - Tue, 23/04/2024 - 11:05am
City council says it lost control after shutting down systems

It's become somewhat cliché in cybersecurity reporting to speculate whether an organization will have the resources to "keep the lights on" after an attack. But the opposite turns out to be true with Leicester City Council following its March ransomware incident.…

NVK Vulkan Driver Adds Implicit Pipeline Caching To Boost DXVK Performance

Phoronix - Tue, 23/04/2024 - 11:00am
Adding to the impressive number of features to be found in this quarter's Mesa 24.1 release is now the open-source NVIDIA "NVK" Vulkan driver supporting implicit pipeline caching...

CBD Proposed For The Linux Kernel: CXL Block Device

Phoronix - Tue, 23/04/2024 - 10:42am
The latest Compute Express Link (CXL) feature work being pursued for the mainline Linux kernel is a driver to create CXL block devices for storage. On Monday a "request for comments" patch series sent out the initial code for setting up CXL shared memory to be used as Linux block devices...