Posted by from MMO Champion
Mists of Pandaria Beta Stress Test #2 - June 25
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
Our first stress test helped us identify several critical issues, so we’re planning to host another stress test for MoP Classic on Wednesday, June 25 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. PDT.
Once again, during this time time, we’re asking as many players as possible to join us on the Beta to help simulate launch conditions. Level 85 templates, character copies, and all classes and races will be accessible.
Testers may begin gathering and setting up characters at 2:00 p.m. PDT, and starting quests will become active at 2:50 p.m. PDT. Thereafter, you can storm Pandaria and give us lots of data about how the transports are doing! If you encounter any issues during the test, please submit them using the in-game bug reporting tool.
This stress test will be available to all players, regardless of your previous Beta access, and like last time-- there will be shenanigans.
Thank you!
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the security-woes department: Hackers suspected of working on behalf of the Chinese government exploited a maximum-severity vulnerability, which had received a patch 16 months earlier, to compromise a telecommunications provider in Canada, officials from that country and the US said Monday. ArsTechnica: "The Cyber Centre is aware of malicious cyber activities currently targeting Canadian telecommunications companies," officials for the center, the Canadian government's primary cyber security agency, said in a statement. "The responsible actors are almost certainly PRC state-sponsored actors, specifically Salt Typhoon." The FBI issued its own nearly identical statement.
Salt Typhoon is the name researchers and government officials use to track one of several discreet groups known to hack nations all over the world on behalf of the People's Republic of China. In October 2023, researchers disclosed that hackers had backdoored more than 10,000 Cisco devices by exploiting CVE-2023-20198, a vulnerability with a maximum severity rating of 10. Any switch, router, or wireless LAN controller running Cisco's iOS XE that had the HTTP or HTTPS server feature enabled and exposed to the Internet was vulnerable. Cisco released a security patch about a week after security firm VulnCheck published its report.
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the trash-to-tylenol department: Bacteria can be used to turn plastic waste into painkillers, researchers have found, opening up the possibility of a more sustainable process for producing the drugs. From a report: Chemists have discovered E coli can be used to create paracetamol, also known as acetaminophen, from a material produced in the laboratory from plastic bottles. "People don't realise that paracetamol comes from oil currently," said Prof Stephen Wallace, the lead author of the research from the University of Edinburgh. "What this technology shows is that by merging chemistry and biology in this way for the first time, we can make paracetamol more sustainably and clean up plastic waste from the environment at the same time."
Writing in the journal Nature Chemistry, Wallace and colleagues report how they discovered that a type of chemical reaction called a Lossen rearrangement, a process that has never been seen in nature, was biocompatible. In other words, it could be carried out in the presence of living cells without harming them. The team made their discovery when they took polyethylene terephthalate (PET) -- a type of plastic often found in food packaging and bottles -- and, using sustainable chemical methods, converted it into a new material.
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the vowel-movements department: IYO filed a trademark infringement lawsuit [PDF] against OpenAI and Jony Ive's company earlier this month, alleging the defendants deliberately adopted a confusingly similar name for competing products. The lawsuit surfaced after the Microsoft-backed startup quietly pulled promotional materials about its $6.5 acquisition billion deal with Ive's firm.
The Northern District of California complaint targets OpenAI's $6.5 billion acquisition of "IO Products, Inc.," announced May 21, 2025. IYO, which spun out from Google X in 2021, produces the "IYO ONE," an ear-worn device that allows users to interact with computers and AI through voice commands without screens or keyboards.
IYO has invested over $62 million developing its audio computing technology, it says in the filing. According to the complaint, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Ive's design studio LoveFrom met with IYO representatives multiple times between 2022 and 2025, learning details about IYO's technology and business plans. In March 2025, Altman allegedly told IYO he was "working on something competitive" called "io." IO Products, formed in September 2023, develops hardware for screenless computer interaction similar to IYO's products. The lawsuit seeks injunctive relief and damages for trademark infringement and unfair competition.
Posted by from MMO Champion
World of Warcraft at Gamescom 2025: Midnight Expansion Preview
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
World of Warcraft will be at gamescom 2025! Join us for five days of non-stop community celebration. Get ready for a Mythic Dungeon and Arena Showcase, Cosplay Showcase, Developer and Creator Meet and Greets, and much more.
During the show you’ll get exclusive news and updates on the next chapter of the World of Warcraft®: Worldsoul Saga—Midnight —directly from the development team, along with a few additional surprises we have in store.
Where: World of Warcraft booth in Hall 8
When: Wednesday, August 20 – Sunday, August 24 in Cologne, Germany
We can’t wait to see you there! Can’t attend? We’ll have you covered on the
official news site and social media channels. Stay tuned for more as we get closer to the event.