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Submission + - WI Voters Were Unswayed by $3.3B AI Data Center Announcement by Microsoft, Biden

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Back in the day, one could influence voters for as little as $1 or with food or liquor. Today, however, even Microsoft's widely-publicized $3.3B Wisconsin AI Data Center announcement by U.S. President Joe Biden and Microsoft President Brad Smith (who Biden called out for helping his campaign just days later at a WA fundraiser) — at a politicized Racine County (WI) event last May where Biden slammed now President-elect Donald Trump for a failed Foxconn project on the same site — wasn't enough to convince Racine County voters to favor a Democrat for President in the 2024 election. Trump won 52.5% of the 100K or so Racine County votes compared to Vice President Kamala Harris's 46.3%, a one-point improvement over his performance there in 2020, en route to a victory in the swing state.

Interestingly, in his 2019 book Tools and Weapons, Microsoft's Smith — who supported the Harris campaign after Biden bowed out of the 2024 race — revealed that Microsoft led other tech giants who successfully used the promise of $300 million in pledges to support K-12 CS education to secure then First Daughter Ivanka Trump's assistance in persuading President Trump to sign a $1 billion Presidential order "to ensure that federal funding from the Department of Education helps advance [K-12] computer science," a key objective of the Microsoft-led Computing in the Core advocacy coalition and Microsoft's National Talent Strategy.

On the day after the Presidential election, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella joined other tech CEOs who took to social media to congratulate Trump on his victory. "Congratulations President Trump," Nadella tweeted. "We're looking forward to engaging with you and your administration to drive innovation forward that creates new growth and opportunity for the United States and the world."

Submission + - Huawei developing SSD-tape hybrid (blocksandfiles.com) 4

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: Huawei’s in-house development of Magneto-Electric Disk (MED) archive storage technology combines an SSD with a Huawei-developed tape drive to provide warm (nearline) and cold data storage. The MED is a sealed unit presenting a disk-like, block storage interface to the outside world, not a streaming tape interface. Inside the enclosure there are two separate storage media devices: a solid-state drive with NAND, and a tape system, including a tape motor for moving the tape ribbon, a read-write head, and tape spools. The MED has a disk-like, block interface, with the SSD logically having a flash translation layer (FTL) in its controller that takes in incoming data and stores it in NAND cell blocks. From there, a logical second tape translation layer assembles them into a sequential stream and writes them to the tape.

Huawei and its Chinese suppliers have developed their tape media and the read-write technology, not using IBM LTO tape drive technology or LTO tape media, which is made by Fujifilm and Sony. The tape media ribbon is about half the length of an LTO tape and has a much higher areal density. The MED NAND is produced in China as well. A gen 1 MED will store 72 TB.

Submission + - Netflix fails users during Tyson vs Paul boxing match (reuters.com)

Submitted by SonicSpike
SonicSpike writes: Streaming platform Netflix was down for thousands of users in the United States late on Friday, outage tracking website Downdetector.com said, just as viewers tuned into a highly anticipated boxing match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul.

The number of users indicating problems was 85,021, by 10:35 p.m. ET (0335 GMT Saturday), according to Downdetector, which tracks outages by collating status reports from various sources.

Downdetector reported that the outage primarily impacted users in major metropolitan areas, including New York, Seattle and Los Angeles, with scattered reports from other regions.

Netflix said it had no immediate comment in response to a request from Reuters.

The platform has faced outages during live or highly anticipated events in the past, with spikes in user traffic often being a contributing factor.

Submission + - It Sounds Like NASA's Moon Rocket Might Be Getting Canceled (futurism.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: NASA has squandered $27 billion on the SLS moon rocket — $6B over budget and 5 years late. The SLS isn't reusable so even if they finished it — it is already obsolete. It is clear to everyone that the boondoggle has failed but the newest plan is to find a way to blame Trump.

There is a big desire for big changes.

Submission + - Once Worth $7.3 Billion, Grubhub Sells for Just $650 Million (cnn.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Europe’s biggest meal delivery firm, Just Eat Takeaway, said on Wednesday it had struck a deal to sell its U.S. unit Grubhub to Wonder for $650 million, sending its shares soaring 20% in early trading. The Amsterdam-listed company had been looking to offload Chicago-based Grubhub since as early as 2022, after acquiring it in 2020 in a $7.3 billion deal amid a pandemic-driven boom in delivery services — a process that was hampered by slowing growth, high taxes and a question of fee caps in New York City.

“Just Eat Takeaway is at last putting an end to its disastrous U.S. journey,” Bryan Garnier analyst Clement Genelot said, noting the group had destroyed more than $7 billion in shareholder value there. Grubhub’s enterprise value of $650 million includes $500 million of senior notes and $150 million cash, Wonder said in a statement. Wonder is a food-delivery startup led by former Walmart executive Marc Lore.

Submission + - Diamond-based tech could transform chip cooling, CHIPS Act funding in the works (techspot.com)

Submitted by jjslash
jjslash writes: Akash Systems is exploring the use of synthetic diamond as a high-performance thermal conductor to address one of modern computing’s major challenges: managing heat in semiconductors. While the company’s claims of significant temperature and energy savings remain to be proven, its early approval for CHIPS Act funding suggests credibility in a field where venture capital support has been scarce. TechSpot reports:

Akash Systems, an Oakland-based startup, has landed a preliminary deal with the US government for major funding under the CHIPS Act. The company, which is developing diamond-based cooling technology for semiconductors, has signed a non-binding memorandum with the Department of Commerce. If finalized, it would net Akash $18.2 million in direct funds and $50 million in federal and state tax credits.

Submission + - Grok names Musk 'one of the most significant spreaders of misinformation on X' (fortune.com) 2

Submitted by fahrbot-bot
fahrbot-bot writes: Fortune reports that X user Gary Koepnick asked [Grok], "Who personally spreads the most disinformation on X?" and the service did not hesitate in pointing a finger at its creator.

"Based on various analyses, social media sentiment, and reports, Elon Musk has been identified as one of the most significant spreaders of misinformation on X since he acquired the platform," it wrote, later adding "Musk has made numerous posts that have been criticized for promoting or endorsing misinformation, especially related to political events, elections, health issues like COVID-19, and conspiracy theories. His endorsements or interactions with content from controversial figures or accounts with a history of spreading misinformation have also contributed to this perception."

The AI also pointed out that because of Musk's large number of followers and high visibility, any misinformation he posts is immediately amplified and gains legitimacy among his followers.

This, it said, "can have real-world consequences, especially during significant events like elections."

Grok did note that the definition of misinformation is somewhat subjective and often depends on the ideological stance of the reader. And it added, late in its answer, that there are many actors, bots and more that spread misinformation.

Submission + - RFK Jr nominated for Head of HHS (independent.co.uk)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: HHS included the CDC and FDA

Kennedy ran as independent candidate while attacking Covid-era lockdown rules, and has referred to vaccines as unproven and dangerous

Submission + - The Onion buys Alex Jones's Infowars (bbc.com)

Submitted by skam240
skam240 writes: "Satirical news publication The Onion has bought Infowars, the media organisation headed by right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, for an undisclosed price at a court-ordered auction.

The Onion said that the bid was secured with the backing of families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, who won a $1.5bn (£1.18bn) defamation lawsuit against Jones for spreading false rumours about the massacre."

Submission + - Teen pleads quilty to making 375 swatting calls (cnn.com)

Submitted by quonset
quonset writes: Between August 2022 and January 2024, hundreds of swatting calls were made across the country targetting religious institutions, government offices, schools, and random people. Authorities were finally able to track down the criminal, Alan Fillon, who entered the plea to four counts of making interstate threats to injure the person of another, the US Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida said in a news release. He faces up to five years in prison on each count. A sentencing date has not yet been set.

Filion also pleaded guilty to making three other threatening calls, including an October 2022 call to a public high school in the Western District of Washington, in which he threatened to commit a mass shooting and claimed to have planted bombs throughout the school.

He also pleaded guilty to a May 2023 call to a historically black college and university in the Northern District of Florida, in which he claimed to have placed bombs in the walls and ceilings of campus housing that would detonate in about an hour.

Another incident was a July 2023 call to a local police-department dispatch number in the Western District of Texas, in which he falsely identified himself as a senior federal law enforcement officer, provided the officer’s residential address to the dispatcher, claimed to have killed the federal officer’s mother, and threatened to kill any responding police officers.

Submission + - Apple accused of trapping and ripping off 40m iCloud customers (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: Apple is facing a legal claim accusing it of effectively locking 40 million British customers into its iCloud service and charging them "rip off prices". Consumer group Which? says the legal action — which it has launched — could result in a £3bn payout if it is successful, equivalent to £70 per customer.

Users of Apple products get a small amount of digital storage for free – and after that are encouraged to pay to use its iCloud service to back up photos, videos, messages, contacts and all the other content which lives on their device. Prices for this storage range from £0.99 a month for 50GB of space to £54.99 a month for 12TB. Apple does not allow rival storage services full access to its products.

Submission + - IBM Boosts the Amount of Computation You Can Get Done On Quantum Hardware (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: There's a general consensus that we won't be able to consistently perform sophisticated quantum calculations without the development of error-corrected quantum computing, which is unlikely to arrive until the end of the decade. It's still an open question, however, whether we could perform limited but useful calculations at an earlier point. IBM is one of the companies that's betting the answer is yes, and on Wednesday, it announced a series of developments aimed at making that possible. On their own, none of the changes being announced are revolutionary. But collectively, changes across the hardware and software stacks have produced much more efficient and less error-prone operations. The net result is a system that supports the most complicated calculations yet on IBM's hardware, leaving the company optimistic that its users will find some calculations where quantum hardware provides an advantage. [...]

Wednesday's announcement was based on the introduction of the second version of its Heron processor, which has 133 qubits. That's still beyond the capability of simulations on classical computers, should it be able to operate with sufficiently low errors. IBM VP Jay Gambetta told Ars that Revision 2 of Heron focused on getting rid of what are called TLS (two-level system) errors. "If you see this sort of defect, which can be a dipole or just some electronic structure that is caught on the surface, that is what we believe is limiting the coherence of our devices," Gambetta said. This happens because the defects can resonate at a frequency that interacts with a nearby qubit, causing the qubit to drop out of the quantum state needed to participate in calculations (called a loss of coherence). By making small adjustments to the frequency that the qubits are operating at, it's possible to avoid these problems. This can be done when the Heron chip is being calibrated before it's opened for general use.

Separately, the company has done a rewrite of the software that controls the system during operations. "After learning from the community, seeing how to run larger circuits, [we were able to] almost better define what it should be and rewrite the whole stack towards that," Gambetta said. The result is a dramatic speed-up. "Something that took 122 hours now is down to a couple of hours," he told Ars. Since people are paying for time on this hardware, that's good for customers now. However, it could also pay off in the longer run, as some errors can occur randomly, so less time spent on a calculation can mean fewer errors. Despite all those improvements, errors are still likely during any significant calculations. While it continues to work toward developing error-corrected qubits, IBM is focusing on what it calls error mitigation, which it first detailed last year. [...] The problem here is that using the function is computationally difficult, and the difficulty increases with the qubit count. So, while it's still easier to do error mitigation calculations than simulate the quantum computer's behavior on the same hardware, there's still the risk of it becoming computationally intractable. But IBM has also taken the time to optimize that, too. "They've got algorithmic improvements, and the method that uses tensor methods [now] uses the GPU," Gambetta told Ars. "So I think it's a combination of both."

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