Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the thanks-for-the-heads-up department: "Players who made Steam purchases of Helldivers 2 are now, months after the fact, being told by Sony that their games will be useless unless linked to a PSN account," writes longtime Slashdot reader Baron_Yam. From a report: Publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment announced today that Helldivers 2 players on Steam will soon be required to link their in-game profiles to a PlayStation Network account -- a feature that was optional at launch due to "technical issues" -- or risk losing access to the game. SIE explained that account linking allows players to take advantage of "safety and security" provided by PlayStation, as it can more easily protect folks from "griefing and abuse by enabling the banning of players that engage in that type of behavior."
Many Steam players haven't responded well to the news. As of the time of writing, over 2,500 negative user reviews have been submitted to the game's storefront page today, blemishing an otherwise spotless "Very Positive" rating. Some reviews cite data harvesting and security concerns as potential worries. Others point to the fact that Sony waited months after launch to make account linking mandatory. How this affects players in regions that don't have access to the PlayStation Network is a bigger concern, though. In the Helldivers 2 Discord, community manager Thomas 'Twinbeard' Petersson said they aren't yet sure what these rule changes meant for players in areas without PSN access, which could be another factor contributing to the negative downturn.
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the cease-and-desist department: A bipartisan group of senators, led by Jeff Merkley, John Kennedy, and Roger Marshall, is advocating for limitations on the Transportation Security Administration's use of facial recognition technology due to concerns about privacy and civil liberties. PBS reports: In a letter on Thursday, the group of 14 lawmakers called on Senate leaders to use the upcoming reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration as a vehicle to limit TSA's use of the technology so Congress can put in place some oversight. "This technology poses significant threats to our privacy and civil liberties, and Congress should prohibit TSA's development and deployment of facial recognition tools until rigorous congressional oversight occurs," the senators wrote.
The effort, led by Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., John Kennedy, R-La., and Roger Marshall, R-Kan., "would halt facial recognition technology at security checkpoints, which has proven to improve security effectiveness, efficiency, and the passenger experience," TSA said in a statement. The technology is currently in use at 84 airports around the country and is planned to expand in the coming years to the roughly 430 covered by TSA.
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the speed-above-everything department: An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: Late last year, an artificial intelligence engineer at Amazon was wrapping up the work week and getting ready to spend time with some friends visiting from out of town. Then, a Slack message popped up. He suddenly had a deadline to deliver a project by 6 a.m. on Monday. There went the weekend. The AI engineer bailed on his friends, who had traveled from the East Coast to the Seattle area. Instead, he worked day and night to finish the job. But it was all for nothing. The project was ultimately "deprioritized," the engineer told CNBC. He said it was a familiar result. AI specialists, he said, commonly sprint to build new features that are often suddenly shelved in favor of a hectic pivot to another AI project.
The engineer, who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation, said he had to write thousands of lines of code for new AI features in an environment with zero testing for mistakes. Since code can break if the required tests are postponed, the Amazon engineer recalled periods when team members would have to call one another in the middle of the night to fix aspects of the AI feature's software. AI workers at other Big Tech companies, including Google and Microsoft, told CNBC about the pressure they are similarly under to roll out tools at breakneck speeds due to the internal fear of falling behind the competition in a technology that, according to Nvidia
CEO Jensen Huang, is having its "iPhone moment."
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the closer-look department: The UK government's climate action plan is unlawful, the high court has ruled, as there is not enough evidence that there are sufficient policies in place to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. From a report: The energy secretary, Claire Coutinho, will now be expected to draw up a revised plan within 12 months. This must ensure that the UK achieves its legally binding carbon budgets and its pledge to cut emissions by more than two-thirds by 2030, both of which the government is off track to meet. The environmental charities Friends of the Earth and ClientEarth took joint legal action with the Good Law Project against the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) over its decision to approve the carbon budget delivery plan (CBDP) in March 2023.
In a ruling on Friday, Mr Justice Sheldon upheld four of the five grounds of the groups' legal challenge, stating that the decision by the former energy security and net zero secretary Grant Shapps was "simply not justified by the evidence." He said: "If, as I have found, the secretary of state did make his decision on the assumption that each of the proposals and policies would be delivered in full, then the secretary of state's decision was taken on the basis of a mistaken understanding of the true factual position."
< This article continues on their website >
Posted by from MMO Champion
Season of Discovery Realm Consolidation - Lava Lash US
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
Good afternoon everyone,
The dust settles on our recent character moves in Season of Discovery and much like a similar situation in Europe, the Lava Lash roleplay ruleset realm isn’t where we want it to be. Roleplay is a ruleset that we generally try to leave alone, players in these communities often make strong connections and don’t have the same desires as other players on PvE and PvP realms.
But, Lava Lash is now looking a little too lean even after recent transfer additions to the realm. As a result we are going to mark Lava Lash as closed to new accounts and open transfers to the Wild Growth PvE and Crusader Strike RP-PvP realms. It is our hope that you will still be able to recreate your communities on these much larger realms, and hopefully attract some new role-players too!
These changes have already gone into effect and the transfers are open and will remain open for the lifetime of the realm. You can find the free transfer option in the in-game store while at the character select screen.
Posted by from MMO Champion
This Week in WoW - May 3, 2024
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
Catch up on all the latest World of Warcraft news from the last week—embrace the spirit of spring with May's Trading Post, take a dive into Norhrend Cup, mark your calendars for the next content update for
Dragonflight—Dark Heart, learn more about the
Cataclysm Classic Pre-Expansion, and more!
The Cataclysm Classic Pre-Expansion Patch is Now Live
You’ve toppled the undead armies of the Lich King and ended Arthas' reign. Now, Deathwing, The Worldbreaker, bursts from the heart of the Maelstrom, unleashing his rage. Reignite the fire and help usher in a new Azeroth.
The Cataclysm Classic pre-expansion patch ushers in the shattering of Azeroth and the changed landscape in Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms, a variety of systems changes along with new class and race combinations, and the new Worgen and Goblin races. Players can also begin learning the new Archaeology profession, use Reforging to upgrade your gear, and more.
New Player Races: Goblin and Worgen
New Race and Class Combinations
Leveling Updates: Level through a changed landscape in Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms from level 1 through 60.
Class Updates: New Talents, Trees, spells and More
New Profession: Archaeology
New Feature: Transmog Collection
Updated Character and Gear Stats
Your new journey begins with the pre-expansion patch—the Shattering of Azeroth—and continues with the launch of Cataclysm Classic on May 20, 2024, at 3:00 p.m. PDT worldwide. Learn more about what's in store for Azeroth from our
official Cataclysm Classic overview.
< This article continues on their website >
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the how-about-that department: An anonymous reader shares a report: A software engineer has been keeping nearly 7,500 Firefox tabs open on her Mac computer for over two years -- and doesn't plan on closing them anytime soon. The Firefox power user, who goes by the pseudonym "Hazel" online, posted a screenshot showing 7,470 tabs open earlier this week after finding the browser initially unable to restore all the tabs. Hazel was able to bring the tabs back to life via a Firefox profile cache, however, and tells PCMag that reloading the full session took "no more than a minute."
"I feel like a part of me is restored," Hazel wrote on X once the Firefox tabs had returned. The Firefox fan tells PCMag in a message that she keeps so many tabs open for nostalgia reasons. "I like to scroll back and see clusters of tabs from months ago -- it's like a trip down memory lane on whatever I was doing/learning about/thinking about," she says. Surprisingly, all those tabs haven't impacted the computer's performance. "Firefox is quite memory efficient and isn't actually loading the websites unless I click on the tab -- so it's not very resource intensive," Hazel says.