Things haven’t been going great for Xbox recently. Microsoft is facing stiff resistance in its attempt to acquire Activision Blizzard. It released hardly any big exclusive blockbusters last year. And it just cut over 10,000 jobs last week, including many senior developers at Halo Infinite studio 343 Industries.…
Source: Kotaku – Phil Spencer Says Halo Studio Remains ‘Critical’ To Xbox Despite Cuts
I’m generally an Apple man, but even I can admit Android’s “blobs” were the superior emoji. They’re cute, they’re fun, they’re unique, and they were unjustly retired in 2017 in a move to make Android’s emojis look more like everyone else’s. It’s a damn shame, but not a shame you have to live with anymore. If you have…
Source: LifeHacker – You Can Bring ‘Blob’ Emojis Back to Your Android Phone
Enlarge / Dr. Peter Marks, director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research within the Food and Drug Administration, testifies during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing on the federal coronavirus response on Capitol Hill in March 2021, in Washington, DC. (credit: Getty | Pool)
The US Food and Drug Administration’s committee of independent vaccine experts gathered Thursday to discuss the future of COVID-19 shots. The meeting seemed primed for explosive debate. Earlier in the week, the FDA released documents that made clear the agency is holding steadfast to its idea that COVID vaccines will fit the mold of annual flu shots—with reformulations decided in the first half of each year, followed by fall rollouts in anticipation of winter waves.
But outside experts, including some on the FDA’s advisory committee, have questioned almost every aspect of that plan—from the uncertain seasonality of COVID-19 so far, to the futility of chasing fast-moving variants (or subvariants, as the case may be). Some have even questioned whether there’s a need to boost the young and healthy so frequently when current vaccines offer protection against severe disease, but only short-lived protection against infection.
One particularly outspoken member of FDA’s committee, Paul Offit, a pediatrician and infectious disease expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, has publicly assailed the bivalent booster, writing a commentary piece in the New England Journal of Medicine earlier this month titled: Bivalent Covid-19 Vaccines — A Cautionary Tale. (The FDA’s advisory committee voted 19-2 in support of the bivalent boosters last year, with Offit being one of the two votes against.)
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Source: Ars Technica – Annual? Bivalent? For all? Future of COVID shots murky after FDA deliberations
From the maintainer of Ubuntu Unity and the Unity desktop environment, here comes blendOS, a GNU/Linux distribution that aims to be the last distribution you’ll ever use, especially if you distro hope.
Source: LXer – First Look at blendOS: A Blend of Arch Linux, Fedora Linux, and Ubuntu
In this article, you’ll learn what file globbing is in Linux and how to use it with various commands through practical examples.
The post What is Linux File Globbing? appeared first on Linux Today.
Source: Linux Today – What is Linux File Globbing?
Shinichiro Watanabe is responsible for making the coolest anime of all time—so cool, in fact, it’s been regularly airing on Adult Swim for the last two decades, and is still being watched. It’s a testament to how great Cowboy Bebop is that it still enraptures audiences all these years later—something Netflix’s…
Source: Gizmodo – Cowboy Bebop Creator Shinichiro Watanabe Has Thoughts on the Live-Action Version
In this week’s kids-report, the children of post-everything America take a look at the world we built for them and offer a verdict. Spoiler: It’s not super positive. Luckily, development of flying Taser robots is proceeding rapidly; hopefully they’ll soon be deployed to our nation’s schools soon to offer a forceful…
Source: LifeHacker – The Out-of-Touch Adults’ Guide to Kid Culture: What Is ‘Corecore’ and Why Does It Make Me So Sad?
Intel saw about $8 billion wiped off its market value on Friday after the U.S. chipmaker stumped Wall Street with dismal earnings projections, fanning fears around a slump in the personal-computer market. Reuters reports: The company predicted a surprise loss for the first quarter and its revenue forecast was $3 billion below estimates as it also struggled with slowing growth in the data center business. Intel shares closed 6.4% lower, while rival Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia ended the session up 0.3% and 2.8%, respectively. Intel supplier KLA Corp settled 6.9% lower after its dismal forecast.
“No words can portray or explain the historic collapse of Intel,” said Rosenblatt Securities’ Hans Mosesmann, who was among the 21 analysts to cut their price targets on the stock. The poor outlook underscored the challenges facing Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger as he tries to reestablish Intel’s dominance of the sector by expanding contract manufacturing and building new factories in the United States and Europe. “AMD’s Genoa and Bergamo (data center) chips have a strong price-performance advantage compared to Intel’s Sapphire Rapids processors, which should drive further AMD share gains,” said Matt Wegner, analyst at YipitData.
Analysts said that puts Intel at a disadvantage even when the data center market bottoms out, expected in the second half of 2022, as the company would have lost even more share by then. “It is now clear why Intel needs to cut so much cost as the company’s original plans prove to be fantasy,” brokerage Bernstein said. “The magnitude of the deterioration is stunning, and brings potential concern to the company’s cash position over time.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Intel’s ‘Historic Collapse’ Erases Billion From Market Value
Enlarge / Artist’s conception of D&D fans holding back WotC’s attempts to change the game’s license. (credit: WotC)
Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) owner Wizards of the Coast (WotC) has halted its attempts to update the longstanding Open Gaming License (OGL) that has dictated the legal use of the game’s rules for decades. The move comes after weeks of controversy and belated attempts to partially scale back leaked plans for an OGL update.
The original OGL 1.0a, first released in the early ’00s, will now “remain untouched” WotC announced in a tweet Friday. What’s more, the entire D&D Systems Reference Document (SRD)—which also includes creative content like classes, spells, and monsters trademarked and copyrighted by WotC—is now available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, meaning it’s free to use as long as proper credit is given.
WotC’s full retreat in this licensing battle comes as WotC says survey feedback on the latest draft update to the license was “in such high volume and its direction is so plain,” that the company felt it had to act immediately, as Executive Producer Kyle Brink wrote on the D&D Beyond blog.
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Source: Ars Technica – D&D maker retreats from attempts to update longstanding “open” license
When a sickness is tearing through your home, you may not feel like cleaning, whether because you’re down and out yourself or you’re taking care of a family member who is—or maybe both. Unfortunately, it’s more important than ever to stay on top of your disinfecting game when someone in the household has a virus.
But…
Source: LifeHacker – What You Should Clean in Your House After Someone Gets Sick
Last November, two weeks after the Biden administration held the second International Counter Ransomware Summit, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a joint cybersecurity advisory warning organizations about the
Source: Hot Hardware – FBI Beats Hive Ransomware Gang At Its Own Hacking Game With A M Bounty
Amazon Prime members who use Amazon Fresh, the company’s grocery delivery service, will soon be shelling out more for their standard shipments. The company is set to start charging delivery fees on all grocery orders under $150 on February 28, 2023, according to an email sent to Amazon Prime members and seen by…
Source: Gizmodo – Amazon Fresh to Start Charging Delivery Fees on Grocery Orders Under 0
Hollywood may be taking another stab at a Tomb Raider production, but this time for the small screen. The Hollywood Reportersources say Amazon is creating a Tomb Raider TV series for Prime Video, with Phoebe Waller-Bridge (of Fleabag fame) set to be an executive producer and write the script. It’s not certain who would star, but we wouldn’t count on movie stars Angelina Jolie or Alicia Vikander reprising the role of Lara Croft. The show is reportedly still in the development stage.
We’ve asked Amazon for comment. A collaboration like this wouldn’t be surprising, at least. Amazon is publishing the next Tomb Raider game, and Waller-Bridge previously struck a three-year deal with Amazon that includes projects like the novel adaptation Sign Here. Sources for The Reporter claim Amazon was “aggressive” in pursuing a deal renewal late last year.
The rumor comes as game-based TV shows have their moment in the spotlight. HBO’s The Last of Us has already been successful enough to get a second season. Sony, meanwhile, is prepping God of War, Gran Turismo and Horizon titles for Netflix and Prime Video. A Tomb Raider series would bolster Amazon’s game-themed catalog and help it compete against rivals like Netflix, which already has hits like the League of Legends offshoot Arcane.
Amazon also hasn’t been shy about chasing after potential blockbusters. The company reportedly spent $1 billion on The Lord of Rings: The Rings of Power, for instance. While a Tomb Raider show isn’t likely to be as lavish, Waller-Bridge’s involvement suggests Amazon is eager for a hit. Amazon struggled to breach the top streaming charts last year — this might give it better ammunition against Netflix successes like Stranger Things.
Source: Engadget – Amazon is reportedly making a Tomb Raider TV series
It’s fitting that new sci-fi film The Pod Generation centers on a circular-shaped object because it so disappointingly drops the ball. What starts as a fascinating blend of futuristic technology, sci-fi aspirations, and gender commentary eventually gets to a point where it all falls apart. Everything that the film was…
Source: Gizmodo – The Pod Generation Gives Emilia Clarke and Chiwetel Ejiofor a Challenging Sci-Fi Pregnancy
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: BuzzFeed said Thursday that it will work with ChatGPT creator OpenAI to use artificial intelligence to help create content for its audience, marking a milestone in how media companies implement the new technology into their businesses. Jonah Peretti, the company’s co-founder and chief executive, told employees in a memo that they can expect “AI inspired content” to “move from an R&D stage to part of our core business.” Peretti elaborated that the technology will be used to create quizzes, help with brainstorming, and assist in personalizing content to its audience. BuzzFeed, for now, will not use artificial intelligence to help write news stories, a spokesperson told CNN.
“To be clear, we see the breakthroughs in AI opening up a new era of creativity that will allow humans to harness creativity in new ways with endless opportunities and applications for good,” Peretti said. “In publishing, AI can benefit both content creators and audiences, inspiring new ideas and inviting audience members to co-create personalized content.” “When you see this work in action it is pretty amazing,” Peretti added, vowing to “lead the future of AI-powered content.” The news sent BuzzFeed’s sagging stock skyrocketing more than 150% in trading Thursday to more than $2 a share. Further reading: CNET Used AI To Write 75 Articles
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – BuzzFeed Says It Will Use AI To Help Create Content, Stock Jumps 150%
Enlarge / Screenshots you can hear.
Update (5:35 ET pm): As user Cuesport77 points out on Reddit, Nintendo offers a system-level button remapping function that can get around most of the issues highlighted in this piece. Going into the Switch’s system settings and swapping the left and right analog stick inputs (as well as the inputs for any other buttons you want) can help provide more standardized “dual stick” controls for the game.
This isn’t the most convenient option, as players will have to undo the customizations when switching from GoldenEye to any other Switch game (and then back when going back to GoldenEye). These customizations also don’t seem to be available on any controller connected to the system when in portable mode.
Nonetheless, Ars regrets not recognizing this option existed before publishing the below story, which is included in its original form (with a few noted updates) below.
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Source: Ars Technica – How to fix GoldenEye 007’s control issues on the Nintendo Switch [Updated]
While content moderation on Mastodon is far from perfect, it may be miles ahead of what’s in second place.
The post Why Content Moderation on Mastodon Isn’t the Train Wreck Some on Twitter Say It Is appeared first on FOSS Force.
Source: FOSS Force – Why Content Moderation on Mastodon Isn’t the Train Wreck Some on Twitter Say It Is
Seagate this week confirmed plans to launch the industry’s first 30+ TB hard drive that uses its heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology, as well as reaffirming its commitment to release HDDs with capacities of 50 TB and higher in a few years. But before this happens, the company will release 22 TB and 24 TB HDDs that will rely on perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) and shingled magnetic recording (SMR) technologies, respectively.
Various energy assisted magnetic recording methods, such as HAMR, will be used for next generations of hard drives for years to come. But while PMR is running out of steam, it is still evolving. Seagate has managed to increase areal density enabled by its PMR + TDMR platform by around 10%, enabling 2.2 TB 3.5-inch HDD platters and thus 22 TB hard drives featuring 10 of such disks. Furthermore, by using shingled recording, these drives can have their capacity stretched to 22 TB.
These 22 TB and 24 TB Seagate Exos drives will likely be drop-in compatible with existing cloud datacenter hardware as well as infrastructure, and should not require extensive validation and certification procedures, unlike brand-new HAMR HDDs. As a result, Seagate’s customers will be able to deploy such hard drives fairly quickly and increase storage density and storage capacity of their datacenters.
Seagate is now ramping up production of its 22 TB hard drives for datacenters, so expect the company to start their shipments shortly. Seagate is not disclosing when exactly it will officially launch its 22 TB and 24 TB parts, but we would expect them to arrive before the company introduces its HAMR-based HDDs; so think Q1 or Q2.
In fact, Seagate has been shipping HAMR HDDs to select customers for evaluation as well as inside its own Lyve storage systems for a while, but those drives featured capacities akin to those of PMR/CMR HDDs and were not available in huge volumes. With Seagate’s 2nd generation HAMR platform, the company is going after higher volumes, but it took the company quite some time to get there. The first pre-qualification high-capacity HAMR-based HDDs are only just now getting ready to head out to customers for evaluation.
“We are meeting or exceeding all product development milestones and reliability metrics, and we will be shipping pre-qualification units to key cloud customers in the coming weeks,” said Dave Mosley, chief executive of Seagate.
Meanwhile, commercial HAMR hard drives with capacities of 30TB or higher will ship in third quarter of this year, which is in-line with what Seagate promised last year.
“As a result of this progress, we now expect to launch our 30-plus terabyte platform in the June quarter, slightly ahead of schedule,” said Mosley. “The speed of the initial HAMR volume ramp will depend on a number of factors, including product yields and customer qualification timelines.”
Initially Seagate will only offer its HAMR technology for its highest-capacity offerings for hyperscale datacenters, whom need maximum storage density and are willing to pay premium for the drives and for supporting infrastructure. As yields of HAMR-supporting media and the appropriate read/write heads increase, the technology will be applied for drives with lower capacities in a bid to cut down their production costs (fewer disks and heads, lower the costs). This is not going to happen overnight though, as the company needs to increase yields of HAMR drive components and the HDDs themselves to a comfortable level.
“I think this year, [the volume of HAMR HDDs] will probably still be relatively low,” said the head of Seagate. “Then the faster we can get the yields and scrap and all the costs that we can control down on the heads and media, then the faster we’ll be accelerating. I think that will happen in calendar year 2024 and calendar year 2025 will just continue to accelerate. The highest capacity points will be addressed, but also these midrange capacity points.”
Seagate’s launch of its first mass market 30+ TB HAMR hard drives platform will mark a milestone for the company and the whole industry. But apparently the company has another breakthrough to share at this time. The firm said this week that it had created 5 TB platters for 3.5-inch hard drives, which presumably entails new media, new write heads, and new read heads.
“It was nearly four years ago to the day that I first shared our lab results demonstrating 3 TB per disk capacities,” explained Mosley. “And today, we have demonstrated capacities of 5 TB per disk in our recording physics labs.”
For now, these platters are used on spinstands for evaluation and testing purposes, but platters like these will allow for 50 TB HDDs a few years down the line. Seagate’s roadmap indicates that such hard drives will hit the market sometimes in calendar 2026.
It is unclear how thin the new platters are. But following current trends of nearline HDD evolution — increasing areal density and increasing number of platters per hard drive — it’s not outside the realm of possibility that Seagate will find ways to integrate even more than 10 platters in future drives. In which case Seagate would be able to hit drive sizes even larger than 50 TB.
In any case, with ~3 TB platters in production, samples of ~30 TB HDDs shipping to customers, and 5 TB platters demonstrated in the lab, Seagate’s HAMR roadmap seems to look quite solid. Therefore, expect hard drives to gain capacities rapidly in the coming years.
Source: AnandTech – Seagate Confirms 30TB+ HAMR HDDs in Q3, Envisions 50TB Drives in a Few Years
Yuga Labs, the company behind the toilet-obsessed Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, is in a strange space regarding its intellectual property.
Source: Gizmodo – Yuga Labs Claims Its Bored Apes Have Copyright, Even if It Never Filed for Protection
From a mouse jiggler to help you pretend you’re actively working to a refillable hand-warmer to help you survive the dead of winter, you’re sure to find something on this list that will help you care for your physical or mental health. These are the best self-care deals you can find right now for less than $25, and…
Source: LifeHacker – 14 of the Best Self-Care Deals to Gift Yourself for Under
