Posted by from MMO Champion
Patch 11.1.7 Legacy of Arathor Live This Week
Patch 11.1.7 launches this week in North America and Europe.
What is Releasing This Week?
Several new content additions are coming in Patch 11.1.7.
Official Patch Notes
Rise of the Red Dawn Campaign Quests
Lorewalking
Overcharged Delves
UI Additions
New Mounts
Turbulent Timeways
What is Releasing July 1?
Greedy Emmisary Event
Official Patch 11.1.7 Notes
Here are the official patch notes for the War Within Patch 11.1.7.
Rise of the Red Dawn Campaign Quests
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Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the reality-check department: A new benchmark assembled by a team of International Olympiad medalists suggests the hype about large language models beating elite human coders is premature. LiveCodeBench Pro, unveiled in a 584-problem study [PDF] drawn from Codeforces, ICPC and IOI contests, shows the best frontier model clears just 53% of medium-difficulty tasks on its first attempt and none of the hard ones, while grandmaster-level humans routinely solve at least some of those highest-tier problems.
The researchers measured models and humans on the same Elo scale used by Codeforces and found that OpenAI's o4-mini-high, when stripped of terminal tools and limited to one try per task, lands at an Elo rating of 2,116 -- hundreds of points below the grandmaster cutoff and roughly the 1.5 percentile among human contestants. A granular tag-by-tag autopsy identified implementation-friendly, knowledge-heavy problems -- segment trees, graph templates, classic dynamic programming -- as the models' comfort zone; observation-driven puzzles such as game-theory endgames and trick-greedy constructs remain stubborn roadblocks.
Because the dataset is harvested in real time as contests conclude, the authors argue it minimizes training-data leakage and offers a moving target for future systems. The broader takeaway is that impressive leaderboard jumps often reflect tool use, multiple retries or easier benchmarks rather than genuine algorithmic reasoning, leaving a conspicuous gap between today's models and top human problem-solvers.
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the behind-the-scenes department: Longtime Slashdot reader UnknowingFool writes: A new documentary released last week on Netflix goes into detail about events leading up to the destruction of OceanGate's submersible, Titan that imploded on June 18, 2023 while attempting to visit the wreckage of the RMS Titanic off the coast of Newfoundland. The Titan used a carbon-fiber hull instead of more traditional materials like steel or titanium. "Through exclusive access to whistleblower testimony, pivotal audio recordings, and footage from the company's early days, the film provides an unprecedented look at the technical challenges, moral dilemmas, and shockingly poor decisions that culminated in the catastrophic expedition," explains Netflix in an article.
Some highlights:
- Titan's original carbon-fiber hull had been replaced with a second carbon-fiber one after the first one developed noticeable cracks.
- Three scale models of the second hull failed tests. OceanGate decided to manufacture the second hull regardless of these failures.
- Loud pops were heard in many dives; CEO Stockton Rush dismissed these as "seasoning".
- Many employees raised numerous safety concerns. They were fired like lead pilot and head of marine operations, David Lochridge. Or they quit.
- Some employees like Emily Hammermeister wanted to quit earlier, but external conditions like the COVID pandemic made it difficult. After the scale models failed, she refused to bolt anyone in the future submersible. She was given the two options of being fired or quit; she quit in the middle of the pandemic.
- Rush's blindness to inconvenient facts: After the crack was discovered, Rush questioned Director of Engineering, Tony Nissen, about why Nissen did not anticipate the possibility of a crack. Nissen: "I wrote you a report that showed you it was there." Nissen had warned repeatedly that the hull's fibers were breaking (the pops) with each dive. Rush: "Well, one of us has to go."
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Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the blurring-the-lines department: sciencehabit shares a report from Science.org: The newly discovered microbe provisionally known as Sukunaarchaeum isn't a virus. But like viruses, it seemingly has one purpose: to make more of itself. As far as scientists can tell from its genome -- the only evidence of its existence so far -- it's a parasite that provides nothing to the single-celled creature it calls home. Most of Sukunaarchaeum's mere 189 protein-coding genes are focused on replicating its own genome; it must steal everything else it needs from its host Citharistes regius, a dinoflagellate that lives in ocean waters all over the world. Adding to the mystery of the microbe, some of its sequences identify it as archaeon, a lineage of simple cellular organisms more closely related to complex organisms like us than to bacteria like Escherichia coli.
The discovery of Sukunaarchaeum's bizarrely viruslike way of living, reported last month in a bioRxiv preprint, "challenges the boundaries between cellular life and viruses," says Kate Adamala, a synthetic biologist at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities who was not involved in the work. "This organism might be a fascinating living fossil -- an evolutionary waypoint that managed to hang on." Adamala adds that if Sukunaarchaeum really does represent a microbe on its way to becoming a virus, it could teach scientists about how viruses evolved in the first place. "Most of the greatest transitions in evolution didn't leave a fossil record, making it very difficult to figure out what were the exact steps," she says. "We can poke at existing biochemistry to try to reconstitute the ancestral forms -- or sometimes we get a gift from nature, in the form of a surviving evolutionary intermediate."
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Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the bots-ahoy department: Denmark has deployed four uncrewed robotic sailboats (known as "Voyagers") for a three-month trial to boost maritime surveillance amid rising tensions in the Baltic region. The Associated Press reports: Built by Alameda, California-based company Saildrone, the vessels will patrol Danish and NATO waters in the Baltic and North Seas, where maritime tensions and suspected sabotage have escalated sharply since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Two of the Voyagers launched Monday from Koge Marina, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the Danish capital, Copenhagen. Powered by wind and solar energy, these sea drones can operate autonomously for months at sea. Saildrone says the vessels carry advanced sensor suites -- radar, infrared and optical cameras, sonar and acoustic monitoring. Their launch comes after two others already joined a NATO patrol on June 6.
Saildrone founder and CEO Richard Jenkins compared the vessels to a "truck" that carries sensors and uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to give a "full picture of what's above and below the surface" to about 20 to 30 miles (30 to 50 kilometers) in the open ocean. He said that maritime threats like damage to undersea cables, illegal fishing and the smuggling of people, weapons and drugs are going undetected simply because "no one's observing it." Saildrone, he said, is "going to places ... where we previously didn't have eyes and ears." The Danish Defense Ministry says the trial is aimed at boosting surveillance capacity in under-monitored waters, especially around critical undersea infrastructure such as fiber-optic cables and power lines.
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the end-of-an-era department: An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: Social media and video networks have become the main source of news in the US, overtaking traditional TV channels and news websites, research suggests. More than half (54%) of people get news from networks like Facebook, X and YouTube -- overtaking TV (50%) and news sites and apps (48%), according to the Reuters Institute. "The rise of social media and personality-based news is not unique to the United States, but changes seem to be happening faster -- and with more impact -- than in other countries," a report found. Podcaster Joe Rogan was the most widely-seen personality, with almost a quarter (22%) of the population saying they had come across news or commentary from him in the previous week. The report's author Nic Newman said the rise of social video and personality-driven news "represents another significant challenge for traditional publishers." Other key findings from the report include:
- TikTok is the fastest-growing social and video platform, now used for news by 17% globally (up 4% from last year).
- AI chatbot use for news is increasing, especially among under-25s, where it's twice as popular as in the general population.
- Most people believe AI will reduce transparency, accuracy, and trust in news.
- Across all age groups, trusted news brands with proven accuracy remain valued, even if used less frequently.
Posted by from MMO Champion
Mists of Pandaria Classic Development Notes - June 16, 2025
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
We have made additional adjustments that are now live on the beta based on the data gathered during the raid testing weekend. Thank you so much for your participation, your feedback, and your assistance in gathering data during the testing period.
A reminder that these changes:
Are subject to change.
The changes only affect PvE and have zero impact on Arenas and Battlegrounds.
The changes under each Spec’s name are only active for that spec even if the ability is available to multiple specs.
We want to set expectations here: In order to let these changes rest - outside of extreme cases - we’re not going to do additional adjustments until after our next Raid test.
Death Knight
Blood
Outbreak’s base cooldown for Blood Death Knights has been decreased to 30 seconds (was 60 seconds). [New]
Developer’s note: Blood Death Knights are strong at the start of the expansion so a buff to them may seem a bit odd, but this has much less to do with raiding performance and more to do with smoothing over the feeling in dungeons where they go between pulls and a player may not be able to drag mobs from the previous pull with them.
Frost
Howling Blast’s damage to targets around the primary target has been increased to 65% of the damage dealt (was 50%). [5.2 Revert]
Druid
Balance
Force of Nature for Balance Druids has had its damage increased by 9.1% to match the Moonkin Form adjustment last week. [New]
Guardian:
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Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the major-layoffs department: Intel will lay off 15% to 20% of its factory workforce starting in July, potentially cutting over 10,000 jobs as part of a broader effort to streamline operations amid declining sales and mounting competitive pressure. "These are difficult actions but essential to meet our affordability challenges and current financial position of the company. It drives pain to every individual," Intel manufacturing Vice President Naga Chandrasekaran wrote to employees Saturday. "Removing organizational complexity and empowering our engineers will enable us to better serve the needs of our customers and strengthen our execution. We are making these decisions based on careful consideration of what's needed to position our business for the future." The company reiterated that "we will treat people with care and respect as we complete this important work." Oregon Live reports: Intel announced the pending layoffs in April and notified factory workers last week that the cuts would begin in July. It hadn't previously said just how deep the layoffs will go. The company had 109,000 employees at the end of 2024, but it's not clear how many of those worked in its factory division -- called Intel Foundry. The Foundry business includes a broad array of jobs, from technicians on the factory floor to specialized researchers who work years in advance to develop future generations of microprocessors.
Intel is planning major cuts in other parts of its business, too, but employees say the company hasn't specified how many jobs it will eliminate in each business unit. Workers say they believe the impacts will vary within departments. Overall, though, the layoffs will surely eliminate several thousand jobs -- and quite possibly more than 10,000.
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the technical-difficulties department: An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Subscribers in Southern California of Spectrum's Internet service experienced outages over the weekend following what company officials said was an attempted theft of copper lines located in Van Nuys, a suburb located 20 miles from downtown Los Angeles. The people behind the incident thought they were targeting copper lines, the officials wrote in a statement Sunday. Instead, they cut into fiber optic cables. The cuts caused service disruptions for subscribers in Van Nuys and surrounding areas. Spectrum has since restored service and is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the apprehension of the people responsible. Spectrum will also credit affected customers one day of service on their next bill.
"Criminal acts of network vandalism have become an issue affecting the entire telecommunications industry, not just Spectrum, largely due to the increase in the price of precious metals," the officials wrote in a statement issued Sunday. "These acts of vandalism are not only a crime, but also affect our customers, local businesses and potentially emergency services. Spectrum's fiber lines do not include any copper." Outage information service Downdetector showed that thousands of subscribers in and around Van Nuys reported outages starting a little before noon on Sunday. Within about 12 hours, the complaint levels returned to normal. Spectrum officials told the Los Angeles Times that personnel had to splice thousands of fiber lines to restore service to affected subscribers.
Posted by from MMO Champion
Mists of Pandaria Classic Beta Stress Test - June 18
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
We’ll be performing a stress test for Mists of Pandaria Classic on Wednesday, June 18, from 2:00pm - 4:00pm PDT. During this time, we ask players to jump in on the public test realm environment to help simulate the launch.
For the stress test, all races and classes will be available for creation along with level 85 templates and character copy. The starting quests will become active at 2:50pm PDT to allow players time to set-up and get ready.
Jump in, storm Pandaria, and help us make sure that people aren’t getting stuck on the ship. Players who do not have a beta invite are encouraged and welcomed to please help jump in and participate. And who knows, you might encounter some shenanigans along the way…
If you encounter any issues during the test, you can submit them through the bug reporting tool in-game. If there are any aspects you’d like to discuss, feel free to post in the Classic Discussion forum.
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the proceed-with-caution department: A new Salesforce-led study found that LLM-based AI agents struggle with real-world CRM tasks, achieving only 58% success on simple tasks and dropping to 35% on multi-step ones. They also demonstrated poor confidentiality awareness. "Agents demonstrate low confidentiality awareness, which, while improvable through targeted prompting, often negatively impacts task performance," a paper published at the end of last month said. The Register reports: The Salesforce AI Research team argued that existing benchmarks failed to rigorously measure the capabilities or limitations of AI agents, and largely ignored an assessment of their ability to recognize sensitive information and adhere to appropriate data handling protocols.
The research unit's CRMArena-Pro tool is fed a data pipeline of realistic synthetic data to populate a Salesforce organization, which serves as the sandbox environment. The agent takes user queries and decides between an API call or a response to the users to get more clarification or provide answers.
"These findings suggest a significant gap between current LLM capabilities and the multifaceted demands of real-world enterprise scenarios," the paper said. [...] AI agents might well be useful, however, organizations should be wary of banking on any benefits before they are proven.
