Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the would-you-look-at-that department: An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Indirect carbon emissions from the operations of four of the leading AI-focused tech companies rose on average by 150% from 2020-2023, due to the demands of power-hungry data centers, a United Nations report (PDF) said on Thursday. The use of artificial intelligence by Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta drove up their global indirect emissions because of the vast amounts of energy required to power data centers, the report by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the U.N. agency for digital technologies, said.

Indirect emissions include those generated by purchased electricity, steam, heating and cooling consumed by a company.
Amazon's operational carbon emissions grew the most at 182% in 2023 compared to three years before, followed by Microsoft at 155%, Meta at 145% and Alphabet at 138%, according to the report. The ITU tracked the greenhouse gas emissions of 200 leading digital companies between 2020 and 2023. [...] As investment in AI increases, carbon emissions from the top-emitting AI systems are predicted to reach up to 102.6 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year, the report stated.

The data centres that are needed for AI development could also put pressure on existing energy infrastructure. "The rapid growth of artificial intelligence is driving a sharp rise in global electricity demand, with electricity use by data centers increasing four times faster than the overall rise in electricity consumption," the report found. It also highlighted that although a growing number of digital companies had set emissions targets, those ambitions had not yet fully translated into actual reductions of emissions.

Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the new-and-improved department: Michael Larabel of Phoronix highlights the key updates in today's stable release of FreeBSD 14.3: FreeBSD 14.3 has back-ported a number of improvements from FreeBSD 15 back to the FreeBSD 14 series. Plus a number of routine package updates and other fixes. Some of the FreeBSD 14.3-RELEASE highlights include:

- Updating the ZFS support against OpenZFS 2.2.7.
- Merging of the Realtek RTW88 and RTW89 WiFi drivers based on the Linux 6.14 kernel code.
- The LinuxKPI code has been improved to support crypto offload as well as the 802.11n and 802.11ac standards.
- The Intel IX Ethernet driver has added support for the x550 1000BAS-BX SFP modules.
- Thor2 PCI IDs added to the Broadcom NetXtreme "BNXT" driver along with support for 400G speed modules.
- XZ 5.8.1, OpenSSH 9.9p2, OpenSSL 3.0.16, and many other package updates.
- Syscons as the legacy system console driver is now considered deprecated. Syscons is not compatible with UEFI, lacks UTF-8 support, and is Giant-locked. You can download and learn more about FreeBSD 14.3 via FreeBSD.org.

Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the time-flies department: "Twelve years ago, a baby was born after someone used bitcoin to pay for a frozen egg IVF," writes longtime Slashdot reader bobdevine. "I, for one, welcome..."

Blockworks tells the story of how it all came to be: In February 2012 -- almost two years after Laszlo's pizzas -- a fertility doctor named C. Terence Lee set about a personal and professional quest to onboard his patients to Bitcoin by accepting BTC for his services. He started with a "Bitcoin accepted here" sign in his window, and then a Reddit post.

"Jumping in to do my part to support the BTC economy. This may be a historic first?" Lee wrote in a post on the BitMarket subreddit, titled: "[WTS][USA] Male Fertility Evaluation." Lee was offering a 15-minute consultation to discuss fertility questions and a sperm analysis in exchange for 15 BTC, valued at $70 or so at the time. "Actual value over $100," he wrote. Within three months, he'd found a Bitcoin customer.

"The patient turned out not... so much having a burning desire to know about his fertility, but he was a Bitcoin enthusiast, and he liked the idea of participating in history, in this ritual ceremony of what could be perhaps the world's first Bitcoin medical transaction," Lee explained at a 2013 conference in San Jose. "So we chatted about Bitcoin. He taught me a lot about mining. That's how he acquired bitcoin. And we did a sperm test, and it turned out he had really good sperm ... after it was done he sent me 15 bitcoins... "

< This article continues on their website >

Posted by from MMO Champion
WoW Hotfixes - June 10, 2025

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Renown

Fixed an issue where players could become capped on Gallagio Loyalty Rewards reputation earlier than intended. For players who have killed a boss that would have rewarded reputation properly but didn't, defeating that boss on a separate character this week will yield the intended amount of reputation.

Season of Discovery

The incrementing player buff in Scarlet Enclave now increases by 5% every week (was every 2 weeks).

Developer’s notes: In an effort to support players in Season of Discovery we've decided to advance the incrementing player buff in Scarlet Enclave to go up by 5% every week instead of every 2 weeks. Starting today, June 10, the buff will advance to 10%.

Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the post-search-era department: "It is true, Google AI is stomping on the entire internet," writes Slashdot reader TheWho79, sharing a report from the Wall Street Journal. "From HuffPost to the Atlantic, publishers prepare to pivot or shut the doors. ... Even highly regarded old school bullet-proof publications like Washington Post are getting hit hard." From the report: Traffic from organic search to HuffPost's desktop and mobile websites fell by just over half in the past three years, and by nearly that much at the Washington Post, according to digital market data firm Similarweb. Business Insider cut about 21% of its staff last month, a move CEO Barbara Peng said was aimed at helping the publication "endure extreme traffic drops outside of our control." Organic search traffic to its websites declined by 55% between April 2022 and April 2025, according to data from Similarweb.

At a companywide meeting earlier this year, Nicholas Thompson, chief executive of the Atlantic, said the publication should assume traffic from Google would drop toward zero and the company needed to evolve its business model. [...] "Google is shifting from being a search engine to an answer engine," Thompson said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. "We have to develop new strategies."

The rapid development of click-free answers in search "is a serious threat to journalism that should not be underestimated," said William Lewis, the Washington Post's publisher and chief executive. Lewis is former CEO of the Journal's publisher, Dow Jones. The Washington Post is "moving with urgency" to connect with previously overlooked audiences and pursue new revenue sources and prepare for a "post-search era," he said.

< This article continues on their website >

Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the decentralized-approaches department: An anonymous reader quotes a report from Axios: President Trump quietly took a red pen to much of the Biden administration's cyber legacy in a little-noticed move late Friday. Under an executive order signed just before the weekend, Trump is tossing out some of the major touchstones of Biden's cyber policy legacy -- while keeping a few others. The order preserves efforts around post-quantum cryptography, advanced encryption standards, and border gateway protocol security, along with the Cyber Trust Mark program -- an Energy Star-type labeling initiative for consumer smart devices. But hallmark programs tied to software bills of materials, zero-trust implementation, and space contractor cybersecurity requirements have been either rescinded or left in limbo. The new executive order amends both the Biden cyber executive order signed in January and an Obama administration order.

Each of the following Biden-era programs is now out the door or significantly rolled back: - A broad requirement for federal software vendors to provide a software bill of materials - essentially an ingredient list of code components - is gone. - Biden-era efforts to encourage federal agencies to accept digital identity documents and help states develop mobile driver's licenses were revoked. - Several AI cybersecurity research mandates, including those focused on AI-generated code security and AI-driven patch management pilots, have been scrapped or deprioritized. - The requirement that software contractors formally attest they followed secure development practices - and submit those attestations to a federal repository - has been cut. Instead, the National Institute of Standards and Technology will now coordinate a new industry consortium to review software security guidelines.

Posted by Mechafire from TFW2005


In lieu of an official reveal for Studio Series 86 Leader Megatron at the Hasbro stream today, we have a first look at the figure in his packaging, both the front and back, showing off some nice artwork as well. We can also see that his transformation is a whopping 54 steps. We unfortunately do not know when Hasbro will reveal this and the rest of the wave, but for now you can also check out some in-hand photos and official images from Takara.

The post Studio Series 86 Leader Megatron In-Package Images appeared first on Transformer World 2005 - TFW2005.COM.

Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the would-you-look-at-that department: Connor Jones reports via The Register: Security researchers managed to access the live feeds of 40,000 internet-connected cameras worldwide and they may have only scratched the surface of what's possible. Supporting the bulletin issued by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) earlier this year, which warned of exposed cameras potentially being used in Chinese espionage campaigns, the team at Bitsight was able to tap into feeds of sensitive locations. The US was the most affected region, with around 14,000 of the total feeds streaming from the country, allowing access to the inside of datacenters, healthcare facilities, factories, and more. Bitsight said these feeds could potentially be used for espionage, mapping blind spots, and gleaning trade secrets, among other things.

Aside from the potential national security implications, cameras were also accessed in hotels, gyms, construction sites, retail premises, and residential areas, which the researchers said could prove useful for petty criminals. Monitoring the typical patterns of activity in retail stores, for example, could inform robberies, while monitoring residences could be used for similar purposes, especially considering the privacy implications. "It should be obvious to everyone that leaving a camera exposed on the internet is a bad idea, and yet thousands of them are still accessible," said Bitsight in a report. "Some don't even require sophisticated hacking techniques or special tools to access their live footage in unintended ways. In many cases, all it takes is opening a web browser and navigating to the exposed camera's interface."

HTTP-based cameras accounted for 78.5 percent of the total 40,000 sample, while RTSP feeds were comparatively less open, accounting for only 21.5 percent.

< This article continues on their website >

Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the innovative-tech department: Starbucks is piloting a generative AI assistant called "Green Dot Assist" to streamline barista tasks and improve service speed, with plans for a broader rollout in fiscal 2026. The assistant is built on Microsoft Azure's OpenAI platform. CNBC reports: Instead of flipping through manuals or accessing Starbucks' intranet, baristas will be able to use a tablet behind the counter equipped with Green Dot Assist to get answers to a range of questions, from how to make an iced shaken espresso to troubleshooting equipment errors. Baristas can either type or verbally ask their queries in conversational language.

As the AI assistant evolves, Starbucks has even bigger plans for its next generation. Those ideas include automatically creating a ticket with IT for equipment issues or generating suggestions for a substitute when a barista calls out of work, according to [Starbucks Chief Technology Officer Deb Hall Lefevre]. [...] Lefevre said tenured baristas have been learning to use the new POS in as little as an hour. Plus, the technology can offer personalized recommendations and loyal customers' repeat orders, helping Starbucks achieve the personalized touch it's looking to bring back to its cafes.
"It's just another example of how innovation technology is coming into service of our partners and making sure that we're doing all we can to simplify the operations, make their jobs just a little bit easier, maybe a little bit more fun, so that they can do what they do best," Lefevre told CNBC.

Posted by Black Convoy from TFW2005


The official Transformers YouTube account have uploaded the Transformers Cyberworld Optimus Prime And Grimlock Character Video Profiles.  These are short animation where we can watch Optimus Prime and Grimlock transform from alt/dino mode to robot mode, show off some poses and then going back into alt/dino mode. We can watch their stats on the background. We may see more video profiles as we get closer to Cyberworld cartoon premiere on July 12th. Watch the videos after the break and then sound off on the 2005 Boards!

The post Transformers Cyberworld Optimus Prime And Grimlock Character Video Profiles appeared first on Transformer World 2005 - TFW2005.COM.

Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the new-and-improved department: An anonymous reader shares a blog post from Google: Today, we're bringing you Android 16, rolling out first to supported Pixel devices with more phone brands to come later this year. This is the earliest Android has launched a major release in the last few years, which ensures you get the latest updates as soon as possible on your devices. Android 16 lays the foundation for our new Material 3 Expressive design, with features that make Android more accessible and easy to use.

Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the echo-chamber department: Bluesky's user engagement has fallen roughly 50% since peaking in mid-November, according to a recent Pew Research Center analysis, as progressive groups' efforts to migrate users from Elon Musk's X platform show signs of failure. The research found that while many news influencers maintain Bluesky accounts, two-thirds post irregularly compared to more than 80% who still post daily to X. A Washington Post columnist tries to make sense of it: The people who have migrated to Bluesky tend to be those who feel the most visceral disgust for Musk and Trump, plus a smattering of those who are merely curious and another smattering who are tired of the AI slop and unregenerate racism that increasingly pollutes their X feeds. Because the Musk and Trump haters are the largest and most passionate group, the result is something of an echo chamber where it's hard to get positive engagement unless you're saying things progressives want to hear -- and where the negative engagement on things they don't want to hear can be intense. That's true even for content that isn't obviously political: Ethan Mollick, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School who studies AI, recently announced that he'll be limiting his Bluesky posting because AI discussions on the platform are too "fraught."

All this is pretty off-putting for folks who aren't already rather progressive, and that creates a threefold problem for the ones who dream of getting the old band back together. Most obviously, it makes it hard for the platform to build a large enough userbase for the company to become financially self-sustaining, or for liberals to amass the influence they wielded on old Twitter. There, they accumulated power by shaping the contours of a conversation that included a lot of non-progressives. On Bluesky, they're mostly talking among themselves.

Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the how-about-that department: AI is speeding up the work of America's intelligence services, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Tuesday. From a report: Speaking to a technology conference, Gabbard said AI programs, when used responsibly, can save money and free up intelligence officers to focus on gathering and analyzing information. The sometimes slow pace of intelligence work frustrated her as a member of Congress, Gabbard said, and continues to be a challenge. AI can run human resource programs, for instance, or scan sensitive documents ahead of potential declassification, Gabbard said. Her office has released tens of thousands of pages of material related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and his brother, New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, on the orders of President Donald Trump.

Experts had predicted the process could take many months or even years, but AI accelerated the work by scanning the documents to see if they contained any material that should remain classified, Gabbard said during her remarks at the Amazon Web Services Summit in Washington. "We have been able to do that through the use of AI tools far more quickly than what was done previously -- which was to have humans go through and look at every single one of these pages," Gabbard said.

Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the bleak-picture department: The World Bank sharply reduced its global economic growth forecast for 2025 to 2.3% from 2.7%, warning that the current decade is on track to become the weakest for the global economy since the 1960s. The Washington-based lender attributed the downgrade to mounting costs from "international discord -- about trade, in particular," as Donald Trump's tariff policies create unprecedented uncertainty.

The revised forecast would mark the slowest growth rate outside full-blown recessions since 2008. Even with a modest recovery to 2.4% expected in 2026, the bank characterized the outlook as merely "tepid." Chief economist Indermit Gill said "outside of Asia, the developing world is becoming a development-free zone." Growth in developing economies has steadily declined from 6% annually in the 2000s to 5% in the 2010s, now falling below 4% in the 2020s. The bank said that "many of the forces behind the great economic miracle of the last 50 years" have reversed, with more than half of low-income countries either in debt distress or at high risk.

Posted by Coldheart from The Toyark


Chucky joins this years NECA Exclusives for San Diego Comic-Con 2025 with a new beach themed release. The Child’s Play 3 – “Surf’s Up” Chucky Ultimate 7″ Scale Figure includes two swap out portraits, arm floaties, a beach towel, suntan ...

The post Surf’s Up Chucky – NECA SDCC 2025 Exclusive appeared first on The Toyark - News.

Posted by from MMO Champion
Join Faerin in the Rise of the Red Dawn Story Campaign

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Rise of the Red Dawn

Where: Receive quest from Faerin Lothar standing outside Stonelight Rest in Dornogal.

Difficulty: Level 80

While attention has been focused on Khaz Algar, a new enemy has risen in the Arathi Highlands, threatening to shatter the tenuous peace between Stromgarde and Hammerfall. Join Faerin, Danath, and Geya'rah as they attempt to expose a conspiracy, defuse tensions, and grapple with the legacy of Arathor. Experience this new storyline with branching viewpoints based on your character’s faction as you brave the journey ahead.

---

Rewards

Don the tabard of your allegiance when you complete the "Rise of Red Dawn" quest:

Alliance: Stromgarde Tabard

Horde: Hammerfall Tabard

Look as brave as those who wield the Sacred Flame when you complete the "Past Glory" quest. Earn the Lamplighter's Pauldrons transmog, inspired by Fearin's lamplighter shoulders, and the "Rise of the Red Dawn" achievement and Title:

Alliance: Rise of the Red Dawn achievement and title " of Stromgarde"

Horde: Rise of the Red Dawn achievement and title " of Hammerfall"

---

Dive Further into Faerin's Story




We look forward to hearing about your adventures ahead, Champion.

< This article continues on their website >

Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the moving-forward department: A NASA-backed project using observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has released more than 1.5 TB of data for open science, offering the largest view deep into the universe available to date. From a report: The Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS), a joint project from the University of California, Santa Barbara and Rochester Institute of Technology, has launched a searchable dataset for budding astrophysics enthusiasts worldwide.

As well as a catalog of galaxies, the dataset includes an interactive viewer that users can search for images of specific objects or click them to view their properties, covering approximately 0.54 square degrees of sky with the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and a 0.2 square degree area with the Mid Infrared Instrument (MIRI). Although the raw data was already publicly available to the science community, the aim of the COSMOS-Web project was to make it more usable for other scientists.

Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the moving-forward department: BrianFagioli writes: Ubuntu 25.10, known as Questing Quokka, is taking a big turn under the hood. Canonical has dropped support for the GNOME desktop running on Xorg. Starting with this release, the default Ubuntu session now uses Wayland only. Yes, folks, there's no longer an option to log into GNOME on Xorg.

Posted by Tony_Bacala from TFW2005


Earlier today Hasbro officially revealed the last wave of Age of the Primes along with some exclusive packs, and now those items are going live across the net.  Read on to check out official pics, product copy, and pre-order linkage! Transformers Age of the Primes Sandstorm / Slugslinger 2 Pack Amazon (#ad) Transformers Studio Series ROTF Decepticon 3 Pack (Megatron, Fallen, Soundwave)  Amazon (#ad) Transformers Age of the Primes Aerialbot Skydive TFSource, Entertainment Earth, Big Bad Toy Store, Robot Kingdom, » Continue Reading.

The post Transformers Age of the Primes Wave 3 Official Images, Info, and Links! appeared first on Transformer World 2005 - TFW2005.COM.

Posted by from MMO Champion
Warcraft Short Story: "Faith & Flame"

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Since she was small, Faerin Lothar has felt a call deep within her to brave the darkness. Now Faerin feels that call again, compelling her to leave Hallowfall with Anduin and the outlanders. Join Faerin Lothar for a special fireside telling of our newest short story.

Join Faerin Lothar for a special fireside telling of our newest short story, "Faith & Flame."

Written by L. L. McKinney, Illustrated by Zoltan Boros, and Narrated by Paris Blu as Faerin Lothar.

Download the PDF

Then, find out if Faerin is equal to the task ahead of her in the Rise of the Red Dawn story campaign arriving with The War Within: Legacy of Arathor, arriving on June 17.

And, if you’re catching up with The War Within story, embark on a legendary narrative journey with "Heartlands," a 5-part audio novella written by Adam Christopher and narrated by Chris Metzen.

---

Keep an eye on worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com/news for more details on The War Within: Legacy of Arathor.