The Wii U was certainly not the most successful console Nintendo’s ever released, and while some may fondly remember it in 2023, at least one person actually bought a brand new Wii U from a store as if it was 2013 all over again.
Source: Kotaku – In The Year 2023, One New Wii U Was Sold
Last month, OpenAI launched GPT-4 with vision (GPT-4V), allowing the chatbot to read and respond to questions about images. One of the many ways AI users are using this new feature is to decode redacted government documents on UFO sightings. “ChatGPT-4V Multimodal decodes a redacted government document on a UFO sighting released by NASA,” one tweet raves. “Maybe the truth isn’t out there; it’s right here in GPT-V.”Decrypt reports: Trying to fill gaps in a string of text is basically what LLMs do. The user did the next best thing when trying to test GPT-Vâ(TM)s capabilities and made it guess parts of a text that he censored. âoeNearly 100% intent accuracy.” he reported. Of course, it’s hard to verify whether its guess at what’s otherwise obscured is accurateâ”itâ(TM)s not like we can ask the CIA how well it did peering through the black lines. Some other ways users are utilizing GPT-4V include: deciphering a doctor’s handwriting; understanding medical images, such as X-rays, and receiving analysis and insights for specific medical cases; providing information about the nutritional content of meals or food items; assisting interior design enthusiasts by offering design suggestions based on personal preferences and images of living spaces; and proving technical analysis for stocks and cryptocurrencies based on screenshots.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – ChatGPT Is Being Used To Declassify Redacted Government Docs
Enlarge / The Hemenway Harbor Marina at Lake Mead, the country’s largest man-made water reservoir, formed by Hoover Dam on the Colorado River in the Southwestern United States, as viewed from Boulder Beach on August 14, 2023. The Lake Mead, a national recreation area, located within the states of Nevada and Arizona 24 miles east of the Las Vegas Strip, serves water to the states of Arizona, California, Utah, Colorado, and Nevada, as well as parts of Mexico, providing fresh water to nearly 20 million people and large swaths of farmland. (credit: George Rose/Getty Images)
It’s been one of the wettest years in California since records began. From October 2022 to March 2023, the state was blasted by 31 atmospheric rivers—colossal bands of water vapor that form above the Pacific and become firehoses when they reach the West Coast. What surprised climate scientists wasn’t the number of storms, but their strength and rat-a-tat frequency. The downpours shocked a water system that had just experienced the driest three years in recorded state history, causing floods, mass evacuations, and at least 22 deaths.
Swinging between wet and dry extremes is typical for California, but last winter’s rain, potentially intensified by climate change, was almost unmanageable. Add to that the arrival of El Niño, and more extreme weather looks likely for the state. This is going to make life very difficult for the dam operators tasked with capturing and controlling much of the state’s water.
Like most of the world’s 58,700 large dams, those in California were built for yesterday’s more stable climate patterns. But as climate change taxes the world’s water systems—affecting rainfall, snowmelt, and evaporation—it’s getting tough to predict how much water gets to a dam, and when. Dams are increasingly either water-starved, unable to maintain supplies of power and water for their communities, or overwhelmed and forced to release more water than desired—risking flooding downstream.
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Source: Ars Technica – Hydro dams are struggling to handle the world’s intensifying weather
Loki season two, episode two, “Breaking Bad,” finds Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Mobius (Owen Wilson) chasing X-5 (Rafael Casal) to find out if he’s located Sylvie (Sophia di Martino). The Marvel Studios series jumps right back into the time crunch to save multiple timeline branches as they’re getting pruned.
Source: Gizmodo – Loki’s ‘Breaking Bad’ Sees the God of Mischief Tapping Into His Old Self
Several weeks after Nintendo revealed Charles Martinet will no longer voice Mario, the company has confirmed the identity of the actor who’ll play its most famous character for the foreseeable future. Kevin Afghani is the new voice of Mario Mario and Luigi Mario in Nintendo’s games.
“Incredibly proud to have voiced Mario and Luigi in Super Mario Bros. Wonder,” Afghani, who was perhaps best known until now as the voice of Arnold in Genshin Impact, wrote on X. “Thanks to Nintendo for inviting me into the Flower Kingdom!” Nintendo confirmed to Polygon that Afghani is voicing the characters and will have the honor of being the first actor to portray Elephant Mario.
Incredibly proud to have voiced Mario and Luigi in Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Thanks to Nintendo for inviting me into the Flower Kingdom!
— Kevin Afghani (@KevinAfghani) October 13, 2023
Fans noticed something different with Mario’s voice when the first trailer for Super Mario Bros. Wonder, which arrives on October 20, emerged over the summer. They noticed a difference in Wario’s voice in a WarioWare: Move It! clip too. It’s not yet clear who’s playing Mario’s arch-rival in that game.
Martinet, who is 67, was the man behind Mario’s “wahoo!” and “here we go!” exclamations for well over two decades in games and since 1991 at trade shows. He’s played several other characters in the Mario-verse during that time, including Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, Baby Luigi and Baby Mario.
But whether it was Martinet’s decision or Nintendo’s, it was evidently time for a change. Martinet will continue to work with Nintendo as a “Mario Ambassador,” which will see him “continue to travel the world sharing the joy of Mario.”
Here’s our recommended list of 10 things after installing Ubuntu 23.10 “Mantic Minotaur” (GNOME edition).
Source: LXer – 10 Things to Do After Installing Ubuntu 23.10
Enlarge (credit: Getty | Lukas Schulze)
At least 14 people in Utah have been sickened with a serious gastrointestinal infection after drinking “raw,” unpasteurized milk, the Salt Lake County Health Department reported this week.
Raw milk outbreaks are not uncommon in Utah, which has some of the more permissive laws regarding the sale and distribution of unpasteurized milk in the country—and an unenviable record of outbreaks. Retail sales of raw milk are legal in Utah and, in 2015, the state passed a law expressly allowing herd-share programs. In these programs people pay for a share of an animal or herd and are thereby entitled to a portion of the unpasteurized milk produced.
In a 2022 study, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that Utah had the largest number of single-state raw milk outbreaks of any other state between 2012 and 2019. In that timeframe, Utah saw 14 outbreaks. The next-closest state was Pennsylvania, with nine outbreaks.
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Source: Ars Technica – Raw milk outbreak sickens 14 in Utah—a state with loose laws, bad track record
In a scene seemingly pulled directly out of Cyberpunk 2077, DARPA, the army’s top research and development arm, is reportedly exploring ways to defend Army soldiers against “cognitive attacks” that could result in them puking under their HoloLens mixed reality headsets. Future wars, it seems, will be fought with guts…
Source: Gizmodo – DARPA’s a Bit Concerned About Tactical-Puking Attacks
India is rolling back its earlier plan to impose restrictions on laptop imports, months after abruptly announcing such plans which came under criticism from industry and Washington. From a report: “India will not impose restrictions on laptop imports,” Trade Secretary Sunil Barthwal told a press conference on Friday. He said the government “only wants importers to be on close watch.” The import licensing regime, announced on Aug. 3, aimed to “ensure trusted hardware and systems” enter India, but it was delayed by three months after objections from industry and criticism by Washington.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – India Won’t Impose Restrictions on Laptop Imports
At New York Comic Con on October 13, Crunchyroll announced Kaiju No. 8, a popular Shonen Jump sci-fi monster fighter series, will come to the anime streaming service exclusively next spring.
Source: Kotaku – Kaiju No. 8 Anime Comes To Crunchyroll Spring 2024
Blackouts are basically inevitable. Unless your home is solar-powered, you can expect to be without electricity for a short period at least once a year (more often and for longer if your area tends to experience severe weather).
Source: LifeHacker – The Best Lights to Help You Survive a Power Outage
The Evil Within will be free next week on the Epic Games Store. The nearly decade-old title is a survival horror game from Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami, who left Bethesda earlier this year. The game will be free to claim on Epic from October 19 to 26.
The game puts you in the shoes of Detective Sebastian Castellanos as he finds himself sucked into a macabre world full of nightmarish monsters and traps. The Evil Within’s action unfolds in a third-person perspective as Castellanos uses stealth and whatever weapons and resources he can scrap together to unravel the mystery of his environment and the villainous Ruvik. The highly intelligent antagonist toes the line between madman and tortured soul as he helms the STEM machine, a complex device that can link human minds together in a virtual world.
Although some players and reviewers chided the title’s uneven plot and archetypal (sometimes bordering on generic) enemies, it could be seen as something of a modern cult classic for horror fans and Mikami devotees. You can add the game (typically $20 these days) to your account for free next week in the Epic Games Store.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/early-ps4-classic-the-evil-within-will-be-free-on-the-epic-games-store-next-week-195626397.html?src=rss
Source: Engadget – Early PS4 classic The Evil Within will be free on the Epic Games Store next week
It’s a fun time to be a Hellboy fan right now, between the general vibes of spooky season and the fact that the rad-looking video game Hellboy: Web of Wyrd is set to drop next week. But why not keep the party going on this cursèd Friday the 13th with some free comics?
Source: Gizmodo – Celebrate Friday 13th With a Slice of Free Mike Mignola Comics
Enlarge / The hood is detachable. (credit: Acer)
Acer is expanding its series of glasses-free 3D products with a new 4K monitor. The 27-inch monitor announced Thursday differs from Acer’s previous 3D designs with its desktop size and introduction of Acer’s headphones-free spatial audio feature.
Like other glasses-free products, Acer’s SpatialLabs View Pro 27 uses a lenticular lens and eye-tracking with an infrared (IR) camera to present a 3D view to users, without the clunky 3D glasses associated with yesterday’s abandoned 3D TVs. Acer claims its eye-tracking infrared camera has 1280×480 resolution and runs at 60 frames per second. Eye-tracking purportedly works with indoor lighting as low as 10 lux. Only one person can experience 3D at a time, though.
Acer hasn’t specified how close you have to be to use the monitor’s 3D functions yet but says it works with up to 11.8-inch (30cm) movements across the X-axis or up and down the Y-axis, as well as 19.7-106.3 inches (50 to 270cm) across the Z-axis (or up to 59.1 inches/150cm with low lighting).
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Source: Ars Technica – Acer’s 27-inch monitor has headphones-free 3D audio, glasses-free 3D screen
Earlier this week, Sony officially revealed the smaller and sleeker PlayStation 5 “slim.” Sure, the console looks a hell of a lot thinner than its gargantuan predecessor, but the PS5 slim’s white void-ass production shot doesn’t do gamers any favors in guesstimating exactly how much space they’d save by purchasing the…
Source: Kotaku – PS5 Slim Is A Lot Smaller Than We Thought
Have you been enjoying Counter-Strike 2, PC gamers? Despite the fact that the game has become Valve’s lowest-rated release ever (largely due to complaints from players who are no longer able to play it), it’s still been an enormously-successful launch for the company, with nearly a million players online and playing right now.
If you’re
Source: Hot Hardware – PSA: Don’t Enable AMD Anti-Lag+ In CS2 Or Valve Will Ban You For It
Cooking without fat is doable, but not fun. Not only does fat equal flavor, it promotes browning, helps seasonings cling, and keeps food from sticking to the pan. There is an overwhelming number of cooking fats on the market, but the average kitchen doesn’t need all that many.
Source: LifeHacker – How to Choose the Right Cooking Oil (or Butter)
Regulators in the EU sent letters to Meta, TikTok, and X/Twitter Thursday, giving the platforms 24 hours to address misinformation and other “illegal” content related to the Israel-Hamas war. It’s hard to say exactly what’s happening on these platforms, however, especially when it comes to the algorithmically defined…
Source: Gizmodo – TikTok Has a Misinformation Crisis on Its Hands. Or Does It?
Enlarge / Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried arrives for a bail hearing at US District Court on August 11, 2023, in New York City. (credit: Getty Images | Michael Santiago )
Over three days of testimony in Sam Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial, Caroline Ellison provided revealing glimpses from the years in which she was SBF’s on-and-off girlfriend and one of his top executives.
Ellison’s testimony described Bankman-Fried’s belief that he could become US president, and his belief that his hair “was an important part of FTX’s narrative and image.” She offered details on a failed attempt to use prostitutes’ identities to unlock funds frozen by the Chinese government, and on Bankman-Fried’s habit of describing hypothetical coin flips in which everything—even the fate of the whole world—would be put at risk.
She also described how Bankman-Fried had a “utilitarian” philosophy in which rules like “don’t lie” and “don’t steal” did not fit into his moral framework.
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Source: Ars Technica – SBF’s dream of being US president and other weird anecdotes from FTX trial
More than 40% of Antarctica’s ice shelves have shrunk since 1997 with almost half showing “no sign of recovery,” a study has found, linking the change to the climate breakdown. From a report: Scientists at the University of Leeds have calculated that 67tn tonnes of ice was lost in the west while 59tn tonnes was added to the east between 1997 and 2021, resulting in a net loss of 7.5tn tonnes. Warm water on the western side of Antarctica has been melting ice, whereas in the east, ice shelves have either stayed the same or grown as the water is colder there. The ice shelves sit at the end of glaciers and slow their rate of flow into the sea. When they shrink, glaciers release larger amounts of freshwater into the sea which can disrupt the currents of the Southern Ocean.
Dr Benjamin Davison, an expert in Earth observation and the study’s lead, said: “There is a mixed picture of ice-shelf deterioration, and this is to do with the ocean temperature and ocean currents around Antarctica. The western half is exposed to warm water, which can rapidly erode the ice shelves from below, whereas much of east Antarctica is currently protected from nearby warm water by a band of cold water at the coast.” Scientists measured year-by-year changes to the ice using satellites that can see through the thick cloud during long polar nights.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Antarctica Has Lost 7.5tn Tonnes of Ice Since 1997, Scientists Find
