Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the drastic-times-call-for-drastic-measures department: In response to escalating tensions with Israel, Iran has begun throttling internet access, with plans to disconnect from the global internet entirely to prevent Israeli cyberattacks. The Iranian government also urges citizens to delete WhatsApp -- one of the country's most popular messaging platforms -- claiming without evidence that the Meta-owned app has been weaponed by Israel to spy on its users. (WhatsApp vehemently denied those claims in a statement to the Associated Press.) Telegram is also said to be blocked as well. The Verge reports: The announcements come amidst the escalating war between Iran and Israel, which broke out after Israel attacked the country on June 12th, and a rise in reported internet outages. Civilians have claimed that they've been unable to access basic but critical telecommunications services, such as messaging apps, maps, and sometimes the internet itself. Cloudflare reported that two major Iranian cellular carriers effectively went offline on Tuesday, and The New York Times reports that even VPNs, which Iranians frequently use to access banned sites like Facebook and Instagram, have become increasingly harder to access. [...]
Israel's role in the cyber outages has not been officially confirmed, but independent analysts at NetBlocks noticed a significant reduction of internet traffic originating from Iran on Tuesday, starting at 5:30 PM local time. According to Tasnim, a news network affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Iranians will still have access to the country's state-operated national internet service, though two Iranian officials told the Times that the internal bandwidth could be reduced by up to 80 percent.
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the big-wins department: The U.S. Senate has approved the GENIUS Act with a 68-30 final vote that "saw a huge surge of Democrats joining their Republican counterparts," reports CoinDesk. What the bill sets out to do is create the first federal regulatory framework for U.S. stablecoins, requiring issuers to maintain full 1:1 reserves in cash or Treasuries, adhere to regular audits and anti-money laundering rules, and gain regulatory approval -- all while allowing foreign stablecoin access under strict oversight rules. From the report: As written, the bill would set up guardrails around the approval and supervision of U.S. issuers of stablecoins, the dollar-based tokens such as the ones backed by Circle, Ripple and Tether. Firms making these digital assets available to U.S. users would have to meet stringent reserve demands, transparency requirements, money-laundering compliance and regulatory supervision that's also likely to include new capital rules. "This is a win for the U.S., a win for innovation and a monumental step towards appropriate regulation for digital assets in the United States," said Amanda Tuminelli, executive director and chief legal officer of the DeFi Education Fund, in a similar statement. [...]
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Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the change-in-heart department: An anonymous reader shares a report: [...] the rise in China of open technology, which relies on transparency and decentralisation, is awkward for an authoritarian state. If the party's patience with open-source fades, and it decides to exert control, that could hinder both the course of innovation at home, and developers' ability to export their technology abroad.
China's open-source movement first gained traction in the mid-2010s. Richard Lin, co-founder of Kaiyuanshe, a local open-source advocacy group, recalls that most of the early adopters were developers who simply wanted free software. That changed when they realised that contributing to open-source projects could improve their job prospects. Big firms soon followed, with companies like Huawei backing open-source work to attract talent and cut costs by sharing technology.
Momentum gathered in 2019 when Huawei was, in effect, barred by America from using Android. That gave new urgency to efforts to cut reliance on Western technology. Open-source offered a faster way for Chinese tech firms to take existing code and build their own programs with help from the country's vast community of developers. In 2020 Huawei launched OpenHarmony, a family of open-source operating systems for smartphones and other devices. It also joined others, including Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent, to establish the OpenAtom Foundation, a body dedicated to open-source development. China quickly became not just a big contributor to open-source programs, but also an early adopter of software. JD.com, an e-commerce firm, was among the first to deploy Kubernetes.
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Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the new-and-improved department: Longtime Slashdot reader jrepin writes: Plasma is a popular desktop (and mobile) environment for GNU/Linux and other UNIX-like operating systems. Among other things, it also powers the desktop mode of the Steam Deck gaming handheld. The KDE community today announced the latest release: Plasma 6.4. This fresh new release improves on nearly every front, with progress being made in accessibility, color rendering, tablet support, window management, and more.
Plasma already offered virtual desktops and customizable tiles to help organize your windows and activities, and now it lets you choose a different configuration of tiles on each virtual desktop. The Wayland session brings some new accessibility features: you can now move the pointer using your keyboard's number pad keys, or use a three-finger touchpad pinch gesture to zoom in or out.
Plasma file transfer notification now shows a speed graph, giving you a more visual idea of how fast the transfer is going and how long it will take to complete. When any applications are in full screen mode Plasma will now enter Do Not Disturb mode and only show urgent notifications. When you exit full-screen mode, you'll see a summary of any notifications you missed.
Now, when an application tries to access the microphone and finds it muted, a notification will pop up. A new feature in the Application Launcher widget will place a green New! tag next to newly installed apps, so you can easily find where something you just installed lives in the menu.
The Display and Monitor page in System Settings comes with a brand new HDR calibration wizard. Support for Extended Dynamic Range (a different kind of HDR) and P010 video color format has also been added. System Monitor now supports usage monitoring for AMD and Intel graphic cards -- it can even show the GPU usage on a per-process basis.
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Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the what-to-expect department: In a memo to employees on Tuesday, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said that the company's corporate workforce will shrink in the coming years as it adopts more generative AI tools and agents. "We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs," Jassy said. "It's hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce." CNBC reports: Jassy wrote that employees should learn how to use AI tools and experiment and figure out "how to get more done with scrappier teams." The directive comes as Amazon has laid off more than 27,000 employees since 2022 and made several cuts this year. Amazon cut about 200 employees in its North America stores unit in January and a further 100 in its devices and services unit in May. Amazon had 1.56 million full-time and part-time employees in its global workforce as of the end of March, according to financial filings. The company also employs temporary workers in its warehouse operations, along with some contractors.
Amazon is using generative AI broadly across its internal operations, including in its fulfillment network where the technology is being deployed to assist with inventory placement, demand forecasting and the efficiency of warehouse robots, Jassy said. [...] In his most recent letter to shareholders, Jassy called generative AI a "once-in-a-lifetime reinvention of everything we know." He added that the technology is "saving companies lots of money," and stands to shift the norms in coding, search, financial services, shopping and other areas. "It's moving faster than almost anything technology has ever seen," Jassy said.
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the finger-pointing department: An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: The Spanish government has said that the national grid operator and private power generation companies were to blame for an energy blackout that caused widespread chaos in Spain and Portugal earlier this year. Shortly after midday on April 28, both countries were disconnected from the European electricity grid for several hours. Businesses, schools, universities, government buildings and transport hubs were all left without power and traffic light outages caused gridlocks. While schoolchildren, students and workers were sent home for the day, many other people were stuck in lifts or stranded on trains in isolated rural areas.
In the immediate aftermath, the left-wing coalition government did not provide an explanation, instead calling for patience as it investigated. Nearly two months after the unprecedented outage, the minister for ecological transition, Sara Aagesen, has presented a report on its causes. She said the partly state-owned grid operator, Red Electrica, had miscalculated the power capacity needs for that day, explaining that the "system did not have enough dynamic voltage capacity." The regulator should have switched on another thermal plant, she said, but "they made their calculations and decided that it was not necessary."
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Posted by from MMO Champion
World of Warcraft 2025 Summer Sale
Cataclysm Classic - PvP Season 11 Rewards Updates
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
Greetings!
We’ve made a couple updates to the way ranking and titles will be awarded for Cataclysm Classic’s final PvP Season, and we wanted to share them, below:
We increased the number of spots that will be receiving Rank One and Gladiator Titles for Season 11.
Having multiple alts in the Gladiator range no longer counts towards multiple slots when calculating the cutoff.
For example, if you have 4 characters that are all Gladiator in 3s, you only count as one spot. All your characters that are above the cutoff range will still get the respective reward.
Reminder: Cataclysm Classic’s Arena season will end the week of June 23, at 10:00 p.m. the night before weekly maintenance in each region (June 23 at 10:00 p.m. PDT for North America realms / 24 June at 22:00 CEST for European realms).
Thank you, as always, for all the feedback!
– The WoW Classic Team
Posted by from MMO Champion
MoP Classic: PvP Seasons, Base Resilience, and Max PvE Item Level Updates
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
Greetings!
We’ve updated several PvP-focused elements of the upcoming Mists of Pandaria Classic experience, and we would like to share them below:
During active Arena Seasons, the Conquest cap will go up every week for all characters. If a player does not reach the cap in a week, they will be able to catch up. This is a change we made in Cataclysm Classic, and we were pleased by the feedback.
For example, if you create a new character and hit max level 4 weeks into the Arena Season, your available Conquest cap will be 4 times the weekly cap, and you can catch up to everyone else without being permanently behind.
We are bringing back Gladiator and Rank One titles and rewards for 2v2s and 5v5s.
We will have a flat cutoff instead of a percentage of players for Rank One and Gladiator slots.
Having multiple alts in the Gladiator range no longer counts towards multiple slots when calculating the cutoff for that arena bracket size.
For example, if you have 4 characters that are all Gladiator in 3s, you only count as one spot and all 4 of those characters get Gladiator rewards.
Similarly, if you have 2 characters that are Gladiator in 2s, 2 characters that are Gladiators in 3s, and 4 characters that are Gladiator in 5s, you count as 1 character in 2s, 1 character in 3s, and 1 character in 5s for cutoffs. All of those characters get their Gladiator rewards.
If you have 2 characters that are Gladiator in 3s, and one character that is not, you count as 1 slot in 3s, your 2 characters get Gladiator rewards, and your character that was not Gladiator does not get the rewards.
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Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the friends-turned-foes department: An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: OpenAI executives have discussed filing an antitrust complaint with US regulators against Microsoft, the company's largest investor, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday, marking a dramatic escalation in tensions between the two long-term AI partners. OpenAI, which develops ChatGPT, has reportedly considered seeking a federal regulatory review of the terms of its contract with Microsoft for potential antitrust law violations, according to people familiar with the matter. The potential antitrust complaint would likely argue that Microsoft is using its dominant position in cloud services and contractual leverage to suppress competition, according to insiders who described it as a "nuclear option," the WSJ reports.
The move could unravel one of the most important business partnerships in the AI industry -- a relationship that started with a $1 billion investment by Microsoft in 2019 and has grown to include billions more in funding, along with Microsoft's exclusive rights to host OpenAI models on its Azure cloud platform. The friction centers on OpenAI's efforts to transition from its current nonprofit structure into a public benefit corporation, a conversion that needs Microsoft's approval to complete. The two companies have not been able to agree on details after months of negotiations, sources told Reuters. OpenAI's existing for-profit arm would become a Delaware-based public benefit corporation under the proposed restructuring.
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Posted by Black Convoy from TFW2005
The Infantry X Transformers 40th Anniversary Modular Mechanical Watches Kickstarter campaign is now
officially live. These are a new set of high-end wrist watches featuring Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and Megatron with G1-inspired designs, tool-free modular system (allowing you to swap bezels, straps, and cases in seconds), sapphire watch mirro, silicone watch strap and NH72 Seiko automatic movement. Each watch will also include character card, a card pack and a ID card of the
Transformers AR Card Game By Vanch Studios as rewards. You can support the
Kickstarter campaing on this link until July 17th 2025 at 7:00 AM EST. There are still some special
» Continue Reading.
The post
Infantry X Transformers 40th Anniversary Modular Mechanical Watches Kickstarter Live appeared first on
Transformer World 2005 - TFW2005.COM.
Posted by from MMO Champion
Take a Timely Tour Through the Turbulent Timeways
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
Once more, the Bronze Dragonflight has discovered growing disturbances in the timeways, with several rapidly intersecting our own!
Starting today, Timewalk through a previous expansion each week for seven consecutive weeks, beginning and ending with the Battle for Azeroth. This grand tour through World of Warcraft's past delivers six new Timewalking Dungeons for players to undertake—Atal'Dazar, Freehold, King's Rest, Shrine of the Storm, Temple of Sethraliss, and Waycrest Manor.
Players can also shop at a new Battle for Azeroth vendor located in the harbors of Boralus and Dazar'Alor.
Also, for a limited time, the Timewalking quest available from the weekly quest giver will offer an increased reward—a Heroic level Cache of UndermineTreasures with items level 649-658. The reward upgrade is only available for this special Timewalking event.
Time to Buff Up
Those who run any Timewalking dungeon during the event get the “Knowledge of the Timeways” buff, granting a 5% increase to experience when killing monsters and completing quests.
Completing Timewalking dungeons increases the effect and also extends its duration. This is a stacking buff, and after four applications, it transforms into “Mastery of the Timeways,” increasing the experience gained from killing monsters and completing quests to 30%.
The buff lasts through death and is account-wide, which makes for an excellent opportunity to level up any alts.
Master the Timeways for a New Mount
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Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the price-to-pay department: Salesforce will raise prices by an average of 6% across its Enterprise and Unlimited Editions starting August 1, 2025, while simultaneously launching new AI-focused product tiers that significantly expand the cost structure for its platform. The price increases will affect Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Field Service, and select Industries Clouds, though the company's Foundations, Starter, and Pro Editions will remain unchanged, the company said Tuesday.
Salesforce is justifying the move by citing "significant ongoing innovation and customer value delivered through our products." The company is also rolling out new Agentforce add-ons starting at $125 per user monthly, which provide unlimited AI agent usage for employees, while premium Agentforce 1 Editions begin at $550 per user monthly and include comprehensive AI capabilities plus cloud-specific features. Slack pricing has also been restructured, with the Business+ plan now costing $15 per user monthly and a new Enterprise+ tier added, though basic Slack access will be free for all Salesforce customers.
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the new-normal department: Meetings starting after 8 p.m. are up 16% compared to a year ago, and at 10 p.m. almost a third of active workers are still monitoring their inboxes, according to research from Microsoft. Bloomberg: The company's annual work trends study, which is based on aggregated and anonymized data from Microsoft 365 users and a global survey of 31,000 desk workers, also found that almost 20% of employees actively working weekends are checking email before noon on Saturdays and Sundays [non-paywalled source], while over 5% are active on email again on Sunday evenings, gearing up for the start of the work week.
[...] Meetings are often spontaneous. Some 57% of the gatherings tallied by Microsoft came together without a calendar invite, and even 10% of scheduled meetings were booked at the last minute. [...] Mass emails, those which loop in more than 20 participants, are on the rise, climbing 7% from last year.
