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Submission + - Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 arrives with AI assistant and post-quantum security (betanews.com)

Submitted by BrianFagioli
BrianFagioli writes: Red Hat has just taken the wraps off Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, and honestly, thereâ(TM)s a lot for the Linux community to get excited about. You see, this new version brings some real substance, pushing enterprise Linux in directions that truly matter for todayâ(TM)s IT world.

First and foremost, there's Lightspeed — the new AI-powered assistant baked right into RHEL 10. Instead of spending all day searching for answers or poking through documentation, admins can simply ask questions directly from the command line and get real-time help. This is the kind of smart, hands-on support that can actually make life easier, especially for those just getting started or managing sprawling environments.

Submission + - Nestle's pays €2m for breach of regulations at Perrier (theguardian.com)

Submitted by Bruce66423
Bruce66423 writes: 'In 2024, Nestlé Waters admitted using banned filters and ultraviolet treatment on mineral waters. It said it had always defended the safety of its products and had been transparent to authorities. It denied having put pressure on government.

'The company paid a €2m fine to avoid legal action over the use of illegal water sources and filtering. It said at the time that that the replacement filters were approved by the government and that its water was “pure”.'

The fun bit is that the French government appears to have covered up the details.

Submission + - AI Inference is Coming to Your Desk

Submitted by StyleChief
StyleChief writes: From Tom's Hardware:

Intel has announced its Arc Pro B-series of graphics cards at Computex 2025 in Taipei, Taiwan, with a heavy focus on AI workstation inference performance boosted by segment-leading amounts of VRAM. The Intel Arc Pro B50, a compact card that's designed for graphics workstations, has 16GB of VRAM and will retail for $299, while the larger Intel Arc Pro B60 for AI inference workstations slots in with a copious 24GB of VRAM. While the B60 is designed for powerful 'Project Battlematrix' AI workstations sold as full systems ranging from $5,000 to $10,000, it will carry a roughly $500 per-unit price tag.

There's something to be said for the price point of 24 GB of VRAM for $500. Apparently, one demo included a system running the full 675B parameter Deepseek model entirely on one 8-GPU system, including 256 experts running on the CPU and the most frequently used experts running on the GPU.

Submission + - xAI's Grok 3 Comes To Microsoft Azure (techcrunch.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft on Monday became one of the first hyperscalers to provide managed access to Grok, the AI model developed by billionaire Elon Musk’s AI startup, xAI. Available through Microsoft’s Azure AI Foundry platform, Grok — specifically Grok 3 and Grok 3 mini — will “have all the service-level agreements Azure customers expect from any Microsoft product,” says Microsoft. They’ll also be billed directly by Microsoft, as is the case with the other models hosted in Azure AI Foundry. [...] The Grok 3 and Grok 3 mini models in Azure AI Foundry are decidedly more locked down than the Grok models on X. They also come with additional data integration, customization, and governance capabilities not necessarily offered by xAI through its API.

Submission + - Tracking-based ads no illegal in EU (therecord.media)

Submitted by awwshit
awwshit writes: The Brussels Court of Appeal ruled Wednesday that the use of tracking by online advertisers relies on an inadequate consent model and is illegal in Europe.

The ruling, which is not available in English, makes clear that an existing standard, known as the Transparency and Consent Framework, is insufficient under Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), according to an Amnesty International summary of the decision.

Companies have long relied on that framework as a means of continuing to target advertising under the GDPR.

Submission + - Do we need opt-out by default privacy laws?

Submitted by BrendaEM
BrendaEM writes: In large, companies failed to self-regulate. They have not been respected the individual's right to privacy. In software and web interfaces, companies have buried their privacy setting so deep that they cannot be found in a reasonable amount of time, or that an unreasonable amount of steps are needed to attempt to retain their data. They have taken the rights of the individual's right to privacy away--by default.

Are laws needed that protect a person's privacy by default--unless specific steps are needed by the user/purchaser to relinquish it? Should the wording of the explanation should be so written that the contract is brief, it explains the forfeiture of the privacy, and where that data might be going? Should a company selling a product should state before purchase, which right need to be dismissed for it's use? Should a legal owner who purchased product expect it to not stop functioning--only because a newer user contract is not agreed to?

Submission + - Microsoft Magentic-UI is an open source AI tool that lets humans stay in control (betanews.com)

Submitted by BrianFagioli
BrianFagioli writes: In a world full of AI agents seemingly trying to take control away, Microsoft has done something surprisingly refreshing — it is handing the wheel back to the user. With the launch of Magentic-UI, a new open source research prototype, Microsoft is inviting developers and researchers to explore a different kind of AI assistant. One that doesnâ(TM)t just act on its own, but actually collaborates with people in a transparent, controllable way.

And yes, itâ(TM)s completely open source. That matters a lot. Too often, the tech industry hides this kind of innovation behind corporate walls. But Microsoft has released Magentic-UI under the MIT license on GitHub, allowing anyone to inspect, study, and build on top of it. That alone makes it worth paying attention to.

Unlike typical autonomous agents that operate in the shadows, Magentic-UI is built for the web and designed to work side-by-side with users. It operates in real time inside a browser, handling tasks like form-filling, site navigation, and even executing code. But hereâ(TM)s the twist, folks — users can co-plan, edit steps, pause the agent, override decisions, and even block risky actions before they happen.

That means if Magentic-UI is about to click a purchase button or close a tab, it wonâ(TM)t do it blindly. It asks first. And users can customize how often those approvals are needed.

Submission + - NSW Education Department Unaware as Teams Collects Student Biometrics (theguardian.com)

Submitted by optical_phiber
optical_phiber writes: In March 2025, the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Education discovered that Microsoft Teams had begun collecting students' voice and facial biometric data without their prior knowledge. This occurred after Microsoft enabled a Teams feature called "voice and face enrollment" by default, which creates biometric profiles to enhance meeting experiences and transcriptions via its CoPilot AI tool. The NSW department learned of the data collection a month after it began and promptly disabled the feature and deleted the data within 24 hours. However, the department did not disclose how many individuals were affected or whether they were notified. Despite Microsoft’s policy of retaining data only while the user is enrolled and deleting it within 90 days of account deletion, privacy experts have raised serious concerns. Rys Farthing of Reset Tech Australia criticized the unnecessary collection of children's data, warning of the long-term risks and calling for stronger protections. A concerned parent highlighted the lack of transparency, fearing that others may remain unaware of the data collection. Microsoft has declined to comment on the issue.

Submission + - Nvidia Accused of Media Manipulation Ahead of RTX 5060 Launch

Submitted by jjslash
jjslash writes: Hardware Unboxed has raised serious concerns about Nvidia's handling of the upcoming GeForce RTX 5060 launch. In a recent video, the independent tech reviewers allege that Nvidia is using tightly controlled preview programs to manipulate public perception, while actively sidelining critical voices.

The company is favoring a handful of more "friendly" outlets with early access, under strict conditions. These outlets were given preview drivers – but only under guidelines that make their products shine beyond what's real-world testing would conclude. To cite two examples:

  • One of the restrictions is not comparing the new RTX 5060 to the RTX 4060. Don't even need to explain than one.
  • Another restriction or heavy-handed suggestion: run the RTX 5060 with 4x multi-frame generation turned on, inflating FPS results, while older GPUs that dont support MFG look considerably worse in charts.

The result: glowing previews published just days before the official launch, creating a first impression based almost entirely on Nvidia's marketing narrative.

Comment Re:Nobody wants people anymore (Score 1) 50

If 10 desparate and organized people came to your door looking for anything to steal, do you think your ammo and guns will be able to stop and drop them before they drop you?

Oftentimes after the first few "desperate and organized" people get shot in the face or chest, the others will GTFO post haste and go look for easier pickings.

The main issue is... the "average" people have mostly stood idly by and let it get to this stage (and I am not talking about Trump because he is only the symptom)

Trump is both a symptom and a cause. He's proof that 1/3rd of the general population in the US are uneducated, stupid as fuck, and as gullible as they come. I call them the Dunning-Kruger Party.

Comment Re:Signs You Shouldn't be Applying There ... (Score 3, Informative) 50

Personally, I'm glad I'm basically at retirement age. I quite enjoy my recently-acquired current role (it's the only reason I'm still working, frankly); but if something changed, or if my employer decided to end my position, I can and would just retire - I just can't see myself dealing with what appears to be an almost dystopian current tech job landscape.

I'm in the exact same circumstances; I could have written this word-for-word.

I like what I'm doing, I'm paid more than I ought to be, the workload is very low, and I work from home. I could retire tomorrow but I enjoy what I'm doing for the moment and I don't mind the extra money.

But like you, if I was laid off I'd just retire on the spot. I'm too old and cranky to put myself through anything degrading, inconvenient, or protracted.

(Of course, this assumes that we'll actually get our Social Security and Medicare, which is looking less likely by the moment under the current regime.)

Comment Re:Great, now only if [better] (Score 1) 22

I used Firefox for close to two decades...it became slower and slower over time and succumbed to creeping featuritis, eventually becoming filled with junk no one asked for. I tried Brave, liked it, liked the built-in ad blocking, and I've been using it ever since.

To each their own though, I encourage people to use whatever they like. For me, it's Brave.

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