Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the getting-with-the-times department: The UK police plan to spend up to 75 million pounds ($102 million) to digitize their vast archive of VHS tapes, aiming to preserve evidence by converting analog media into digital files integrated with evidence management systems. The procurement includes both in-house solutions and outsourced services, with additional funding earmarked for converting other legacy formats like microfiche and DVDs. The Register reports: According to a tender notice published last week, Bluelight Commercial - a not-for-profit buyer that acts on behalf of the emergency services - says the police force requires either in-house technology or outsourced services to convert the arcane magnetic tape format to digital storage. The notice, which sets out procurement plans, says the framework agreement will help forces with the "conversion of analog media to digital records, including metadata for integration with a digital evidence management system."
In the first lot of the framework, Bluelight asks for in-house VHS media digitization software, hardware, and training to "enable a Police Force to convert VHS tapes to digital files." This chunk of the arrangement could be worth 50 million pounds ($68 million) for four years, excluding VAT. The second lot asks for outsourced VHS media digitization "for the provision of conversion services delivered completely by a third party with electronic files being returned securely to the customer force." The output is also set to be ingested by a digital evidence management solution. It could be worth up to 25 million pounds ($34 million) over the same period. In addition, Bluelight Commercial is looking for a provider to help with more niche media digitization, including converting microfiche, CD, DVDs to an electronic file format, in an arrangement which could be worth a total of up to 25 million pounds ($34 million).
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the world-first department: Two Chinese satellites, SJ-25 and SJ-21, have reportedly completed the first autonomous high-altitude orbital docking. "Although unconfirmed, this is thought to be the first orbital refueling at such a height -- the two satellites are currently over 20,000 miles from Earth," reports ExtremeTech. From the report: Orbital refueling is an important component in keeping satellites and space stations in low Earth orbit flying, but any efforts beyond that have been merely speculative until the past few years, when serious efforts from a range of private and national entities have explored its possibilities. China may have gotten ahead of the curve with this latest docking, though, in an impressive world first that raises serious concerns for satellites from nations and entities that align themselves differently from China's goals and ambitions.
In January, a satellite designated SJ-25 was launched "for the verification of satellite fuel replenishment and life extension service technologies," according to the Chinese state-owned designer, Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (via Ars Technica). Sometime last week, it matched orbits with the SJ-21 satellite, which previously conducted space debris maneuvering tests in 2021 and has remained in a geosynchronous orbit ever since.
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Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the back-from-the-dead department: An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: Filmmaker Peter Jackson owns one of the largest private collections of bones of an extinct New Zealand bird called the moa. His fascination with the flightless ostrich-like bird has led to an unusual partnership with a biotech company known for its grand and controversial plans to bring back lost species. On Tuesday, Colossal Biosciences announced an effort to genetically engineer living birds to resemble the extinct South Island giant moa -- which once stood 12 feet (3.6 meters) tall -- with $15 million in funding from Jackson and his partner Fran Walsh. The collaboration also includes the New Zealand-based Ngai Tahu Research Centre. "The movies are my day job, and the moa are my fun thing I do," said Jackson. "Every New Zealand schoolchild has a fascination with the moa."
The moa had roamed New Zealand for 4,000 years until they became extinct around 600 years ago, mainly because of overhunting. A large skeleton brought to England in the 19th century, now on display at the Yorkshire Museum, prompted international interest in the long-necked bird. Unlike Colossal's work with dire wolves, the moa project is in very early stages. It started with a phone call about two years ago after Jackson heard about the company's efforts to "de-extinct" -- or create genetically similar animals to -- species like the woolly mammoth and the dire wolf. Then Jackson put Colossal in touch with experts he'd met through his own moa bone-collecting. At that point, he'd amassed between 300 and 400 bones, he said.
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Posted by from MMO Champion
Patch 11.2 PTR - Build 61871
Build 61871 has been deployed to the Public Test Realms.
Ghosts of K'aresh Development Notes - July 8, 2025
Blizzard has posted the Development Notes for Build 61871.
Achievement Changes
Originally Posted by MMO-Champion
Dungeons
Feats of Strength
The War Within Keystone Conqueror: Season Three Attain a Mythic+ Rating of at least 1500 during The War Within Season Three.
Account Wide. Title: The Unbound. Account Wide.
Unbound Hero: The War Within Season Three Name changed from "[PH] Hero: The War Within Season Three" to "Unbound Hero: The War Within Season Three". End The War Within Mythic+ Season 3 with a Mythic+ Rating in the top 0.1% of all players in your region.
Title: The Unbound Hero.
War Within
Exploration
Phase-Lost-and-Found (New) Collect all of the Phase-List item appearances found from Phase Diving orbs. 10 points.
Strings Changes
Originally Posted by MMO-Champion
OPTION_TOOLTIP_ACCESSIBILITY_FONT_SIZE - Adjust the display size of text
used throughout the game in menus like Text to Speech, social features, and pop-up messages
SPELL_FAILED_CUSTOM_ERROR_2431 (New) - This mount cannot enter Untethered Space.
Misc Changes
Originally Posted by MMO-Champion
LFG Dungeons
Dungeons
Manaforge Omega (New) - Disrupt Manaforge Omega's operations, or else risk a reborn Dimensius feasting on reality itself. Map: Manaforge Omega. Roles: .
Mounts
Ground Mounts
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Posted by from MMO Champion
Ghosts of K'aresh Development Notes - July 8, 2025
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
THE WAR WITHIN SEASON 3
Additional raid and dungeon testing this week. See the schedules for more information:
Raid testing schedule
Dungeon testing schedule
CLASSES
Death Knight
Hero Talents
Deathbringer
Manaforge Omega 4-set bonus – Exterminate deals 20% increased damage, and Reaper’s Mark can stack up to 15 additional times. Upon exploding, Reaper’s Mark increases your critical strike chance by 10% for 8 seconds.
Rider of the Apocalypse
An issue causing the Manaforge Omega 2-set bonus to not grant the bonus damage to Undeath and Trollbane’s Icy Fury has been resolved.
Frost
Trollbane’s Icy Fury bonus from the Manaforge Omega 2-set bonus has been increased to 20% (was 10%).
Trollbane’s Obliterate from the Manaforge Omega 4-set bonus now deals Frost damage if was triggered from an Obliterate that consumed Killing Machine.
Trollbane’s Frostscythe damage from the Manaforge Omega 4-set bonus has been increased by 100%.
Unholy
An issue causing Whitemane’s Epidemic to benefit from the Mastery twice has been resolved.
Whitemane’s Death Coil damage increased by 100%.
Whitemane’s Epidemic damage from the Manaforge Omega 4-set bonus has been increased by 50%.
Whitemane’s Undeath bonus from the Manaforge Omega 2-set bonus has been increased to 20% (was 10%).
San’layn
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Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the human-decision-making-processes department: alternative_right shares a report from Phys.org: Researchers at Princeton University, Boston University and other institutes used machine learning to predict the strategic decisions of humans in various games. Their paper, published in Nature Human Behavior, shows that a deep neural network trained on human decisions could predict the strategic choices of players with high levels of accuracy. [...] Essentially, the team suggests that people behave more rationally while playing games that they perceive as easier. In contrast, when they are playing more complex games, people's choices could be influenced by various other factors, thus the "noise" affecting their behavior would increase.
As part of their future studies, the researchers would also like to shed more light on what makes a game "complex" or "easy." This could be achieved using the context-dependent noise parameter that they integrated into their model as a signature of "perceived difficulty." "Our analysis provides a robust model comparison across a wide range of candidate models of decision-making," said [Jian-Qiao Zhu, first author of the paper]. "We now have strong evidence that introducing context-dependence into the quantal response model significantly improves its ability to capture human strategic behavior. More specifically, we identified key factors in the game matrix that shape game complexity: considerations of efficiency, the arithmetic difficulty of computing payoff differences, and the depth of reasoning required to arrive at a rational solution."
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Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the ask-and-you-shall-receive department: Senators Tim Sheehy and Elizabeth Warren have introduced the bipartisan "Warrior Right to Repair Act," which would guarantee the military's right to repair its own equipment. The bill builds on a previous Army directive and has broad public support, with nearly 75% of Americans in favor, according to a PIRG poll. Engadget reports: The Department of Defense has not been immune from restrictive practices set forth by manufacturers, and much like the average consumer, has been hamstrung in its ability to repair its own equipment by clauses in its purchase agreements. According to the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), the current system leads to excessive repair and sustainment costs, and can even impede military readiness.
"When our neighbors, friends and family serve in our military, we expect them to get what they need to do their jobs as safely as possible," PIRG Federal Legislative Director Isaac Bowers wrote regarding the newly introduced bill. "Somehow, that hasn't included the materials and information they need to repair equipment they rely on. It's time we fixed that."
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the one-tool-closer-to-inbox-zero department: An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Google announced on Tuesday that it's launching a new Gmail feature that is designed to help users easily manage their subscriptions and declutter their inboxes. The new "Manage subscriptions" tool is rolling out on the web, Android, and iOS in select countries. With the new feature, users can view and manage their subscription emails in one place and quickly unsubscribe from the ones they no longer want to receive.
Users can view their active subscriptions, organized by the most frequent senders, alongside the number of emails they've sent in the past few weeks. Clicking on a sender provides a direct view of all emails from them. If a user decides to unsubscribe, Gmail will send an unsubscribe request to the sender on their behalf. "It can be easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of subscription emails clogging your inbox: Daily deal alerts that are basically spam, weekly newsletters from blogs you no longer read, promotional emails from retailers you haven't shopped in years can quickly pile up," Chris Doan, Gmail's Director of Product, wrote in a blog post.
Users can access the new feature by clicking the navigation bar in the top-left corner of their Gmail inbox and then selecting "Manage subscriptions." [...] Google says the new feature will begin rolling out on the web starting Tuesday, with Android and iOS users starting to receive it on July 14 and July 21, respectively. It may take up to 15 days from the start of the rollout for the feature to reach every user, the company says. The Manage subscriptions feature is available to all Google Workspace customers, Workspace Individual Subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts.
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the investing-in-the-future department: Meta has acquired a $3.5 billion stake in Ray-Ban maker EssilorLuxottica, "a deal that increases the U.S. tech giant's financial commitment to the fast-growing smart glasses industry," reports Bloomberg. From the report: Meta's investment in the eyewear giant deepens the relationship between the two companies, which have partnered over the past several years to develop AI-powered smart glasses. Meta currently sells a pair of Ray-Ban glasses, first debuted in 2021, with built-in cameras and an AI assistant. Last month, it launched separate Oakley-branded glasses with EssilorLuxottica. EssilorLuxottica Chief Executive Officer Francesco Milleri said last year that Meta was interested in taking a stake the company, but that plan hadn't materialized until now.
The deal aligns with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's commitment to AI, which has become a top priority and major expense for the company. Smart glasses are a key part of that plan. While Meta has historically had to deliver its apps and services via smartphones created by competitors, glasses offer Meta a chance to build its own hardware and control its own distribution, Zuckerberg has said. The arrangement gives Meta the advantage of having more detailed manufacturing knowledge and global distribution networks, fundamental to turning its smart glasses into mass-market products. For EssilorLuxottica, the deal provides a deeper presence in the tech world, which would be helpful if Meta's futuristic bets pay off. Meta is also betting on the idea that people will one day work and play while wearing headsets or glasses.
Posted by from MMO Champion
Ghosts of K'aresh Development Notes - July 9, 2025
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
THE WAR WITHIN SEASON 3
Additional raid and dungeon testing this week. See the schedules for more information:
Raid testing schedule
Dungeon testing schedule
CLASSES
Death Knight
Hero Talents
Deathbringer
Manaforge Omega 4-set bonus – Exterminate deals 20% increased damage, and Reaper’s Mark can stack up to 15 additional times. Upon exploding, Reaper’s Mark increases your critical strike chance by 10% for 8 seconds.
Rider of the Apocalypse
An issue causing the Manaforge Omega 2-set bonus to not grant the bonus damage to Undeath and Trollbane’s Icy Fury has been resolved.
Frost
Trollbane’s Icy Fury bonus from the Manaforge Omega 2-set bonus has been increased to 20% (was 10%).
Trollbane’s Obliterate from the Manaforge Omega 4-set bonus now deals Frost damage if was triggered from an Obliterate that consumed Killing Machine.
Trollbane’s Frostscythe damage from the Manaforge Omega 4-set bonus has been increased by 100%.
Unholy
An issue causing Whitemane’s Epidemic to benefit from the Mastery twice has been resolved.
Whitemane’s Death Coil damage increased by 100%.
Whitemane’s Epidemic damage from the Manaforge Omega 4-set bonus has been increased by 50%.
Whitemane’s Undeath bonus from the Manaforge Omega 2-set bonus has been increased to 20% (was 10%).
San’layn
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Posted by from MMO Champion
The War Within Season 3 PTR Dungeon Testing: July 8-16
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
The War Within Season 3 dungeon testing continues on PTR today. The test period starts on Wednesday July 8th at 5PM PST (20:00 EDT, 2:00 CEST) and ends Tuesday July 16th at 10:00 PST (13:00 EDT, 20:00 CEST). Please note that the test period may be adjusted in the event of technical difficulties.
This week’s testing focus is on returning dungeons from The War Within:
Tazavesh, the Veiled Market (Hard Mode)
Tazavesh, the Streets of Wonder
Tazavesh, So’leah’s Gambit
Halls of Atonement
Notable updates to these dungeons include:
Tazavesh, the Veiled Market Hard Mode
Players can start this experience by entering the dungeon on Mythic difficulty and talking to Al’dalil at the entrance.
Tazavesh, Streets of Wonder
General
Density of enemies reduced in Zo’phex the Sentinel’s area
Timer reduced from 39 minutes to 32 minutes
Interrogation Specialist
No longer cast Stasis Beam
Zo’phex the Sentinel
Vigor’s duration increased from 6s to 12s
Rotating Body Armor has been removed
Ancient Core Hound
Health reduced by 10%
Ancient Dread’s cooldown has been increased
The Grand Menagerie
Initial RP has been reduced
Overloaded Mailemental
No longer leave behind Expedited Zone after defeat
P.O.S.T. Worker
No longer cast Postage Stamp
P.O.S.T. Master
Spells are now on a more consistent schedule
Mail portals now only become activated during Unstable Goods
Money Order’s damage has been reduced
Bazaar Event
Total number of trades required reduced from 4 to 3
Target vendor now shows up on the mini-map
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Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the let-the-best-agent-to-agent-protocols-win department: An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: The Linux Foundation announced at the Open Source Summit in Denver that it will now host the Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol. Initially developed by Google and now supported by more than 100 leading technology companies, A2A is a crucial new open standard for secure and interoperable communication between AI agents. In his keynote presentation, Mike Smith, a Google staff software engineer, told the conference that the A2A protocol has evolved to make it easier to add custom extensions to the core specification. Additionally, the A2A community is working on making it easier to assign unique identities to AI agents, thereby improving governance and security.
The A2A protocol is designed to solve one of AI's most pressing challenges: enabling autonomous agents -- software entities capable of independent action and decision-making -- to discover each other, securely exchange information, and collaborate across disparate platforms, vendors, and frameworks. Under the hood, A2A does this work by creating an AgentCard. An AgentCard is a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) metadata document that describes its purpose and provides instructions on how to access it via a web URL. A2A also leverages widely adopted web standards, such as HTTP, JSON-RPC, and Server-Sent Events (SSE), to ensure broad compatibility and ease of integration. By providing a standardized, vendor-neutral communication layer, A2A breaks down the silos that have historically limited the potential of multi-agent systems.
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