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The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office arrested hundreds of suspects accused of ripping off retail chains in a massive anti-theft operation, including disrupting a likely international gift card scam the office has never seen before. "Retail theft in Sacramento County is out of control. Over the course of seven days, sheriff's detectives conducted an operation targeting thieves and large retailers throughout our region. This operation was an overwhelming success, but we can't fight this alone," Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper said in a video of the operation. The sheriff’s office carried out "Operation Bad Elf" to curb retail theft at big...

After a California grand jury handed down an indictment of first son Hunter Biden, political analysts predicted the bombshell would put President Biden in a self-constructed "trap" after he again claimed allegations he was in influence-peddling cahoots with his brother and son were "lies." A grand jury empaneled in the Central District of California – which comprises Los Angeles – handed down an indictment against Hunter Biden. "I think a lot of people felt … that David Weiss was going to let these charges skate and Hunter Biden would never be held accountable for making millions of dollars overseas. And...

Diamond is a promising material for data storage, and now scientists have demonstrated a new way to cram even more data onto it, down to a single atom. The technique bypasses a physical limit by writing data to the same spots in different-colored light. Diamond has great potential as a data storage medium – recent developments have produced 2-inch (5-cm) wafers of the stuff that can store the equivalent of a billion Blu-Ray discs. Intriguingly, it works not by writing data to the diamond itself but to tiny nitrogen defects in the material. These defects can absorb light, earning them...

From dating sites to phishing emails, bad actors are taking advantage of artificial intelligence to create more realistic scams. They are now infiltrating dating apps to try and create a fake relationship, and eventually trick victims into sending money. Scammers are using bots at scale to create a massive number of accounts. Then, they'll utilize AI to chat to victims in a completely authentic way, Kevin Gosschalk, CEO of cybersecurity company Arkose Labs, told FOX Business. With AI, they "are able to… perfectly speak to a person to the point where they feel like the victim is kind of on...

FAYETTEVILLE, AR — As the December days began to tick away, a local man grew so desperate in his attempt to buy his wife a great Christmas gift that he decided to reach out to the National Security Agency to find out what she wants. "I figured it's my best shot," said Willard McBane. "She's always so difficult to buy for, and she doesn't ever give me any hints, so I knew I needed to bring the NSA in on this one." At first, Willard's attempts to ask for help were subtle. "I just started speaking out loud whenever I...

Miami-Dade County The man set ablaze claims the incident happened after the suspect asked him for $60 to help fix her car; she, however, claims she was being sex trafficked. A Florida woman has been arrested after she allegedly set fire to her Tinder date and his car, which was "engulfed in flames." But Destiny Lenai Johnson, 25, and the man in question tell two very different stories when it comes to what went down during the November 25th incident. According to an arrest report, via Local 10, the two connected on Tinder and met up in person for the...

WASHINGTON, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Unidentified governments are surveilling smartphone users via their apps' push notifications, a U.S. senator warned on Wednesday. In a letter to the Department of Justice, Senator Ron Wyden said foreign officials were demanding the data from Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google and Apple (AAPL.O). Although details were sparse, the letter lays out yet another path by which governments can track smartphones. Apps of all kinds rely on push notifications to alert smartphone users to incoming messages, breaking news, and other updates. These are the audible "dings" or visual indicators users get when they receive an email or...

(Image credit: Shutterstock)A team of researchers from the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Eindhoven University of Technology, and the University of L’Aquila have achieved a groundbreaking transmission that demonstrates the possibility of transmitting up to 22.9 petabits per second (Pb/s) through a single optic cable composed of multiple fibers. This is a significant increase in transmission capacity, as the previous world record was 10.66 Pb/s.The old record was broken last June, with 1.8 Pb/s by researchers from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. Then it was broken multiple times...

OpenAI and ChatGPT have a new challenger on the horizon, and leading the competition is an all-too-familiar face. Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Dec. 5 to raise up to $1 billion in a an equity offering. According to the filing, the AI firm has raised $134,679,312 from four investors since Nov. 29. Musk's company has a "binding and enforceable agreement" for the purchase of the remaining shares and is requiring a minimum $2 million investment from those who wish to invest. Musk's artificial intelligence firm has some lofty goals. Its...

Years ago, a Freeper designed a GIF using the CBS eye logo. It cycled through the various government assistance items the eneMedia company participated in. If anyone has a copy, please link it below. It needs new life in the Twitterverse and FakeBook

"War. War never changes."This actually looks pretty good. It's got a strong cast coming together also. Anything with Michael Emerson is bound to be good.

Author and journalist Michael Shellenberger has said that “U.S. and U.K. military contractors” have used “sophisticated psychological operations and disinformation tactics… against the American people” in sworn testimony in the U.S. House of Representatives. In a hearing of the Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government chaired by Jim Jordan (R-OH) on suppression of free speech by the government, Shellenberger presented the information he received from a whistleblower about the origins of the so-called “Censorship Industrial complex.” Shellenberger, one of the “Twitter Files” authors, coined the phrase “Censorship Industrial Complex” to describe the network of government and private entities...

Some of you folks might find this interesting. It is most a discussion of the current state of development of AI and the pace of development. The person being interviewed is the co-founder of an AI company, is immersed in the industry, and seems to have a pretty good grasp on what is going on behind the scenes. Bio of Mitch Randall from source:Mitch Randall is the CEO of Ascendant AI and innovator behind the SkyWatch Passive Radar UAP tracking system. Skywatch was developed through the Galileo Project and hopes to detect UAP using reflected signals from existing transmitters as...

Computer Chronicles was a show on PBS back in the 1980s. This episode features, among others, an interview of Gary Kildall, the inventor of CP/M, an 8-bit operating system which preceded QDOS and MS-DOS, both of which were based on CP/M. Kildall was the founder of Digital Research Inc. (DRI).

**SNIP** 1. Using out-of-date software Keiran told MailOnline that one of the first things he and other hackers look for when preparing an attack is out-of-date software. 'Out-of-date software is a really big issue because, if the software has been updated, it's probably because there is a security issue', he explained. Software, whether it is the operating system of your iPhone or the control system for a factory, often has some sort of vulnerability. While these can quickly fixed by developers, they are also often shared online through forums and hacker communities. If you haven't updated your software to include...

@xDaily NEWS: Walmart (WMT.N) said on Friday it is not advertising on social media platform X, one of the latest brands to say it has dropped the Elon Musk-owned site. "We aren't advertising on X as we've found other platforms to better reach our customers," a Walmart spokesperson said.

Vice President Kamala Harris' 2019 post calling Jussie Smollett a victim of attempted "modern day lynching" is still online despite the actor losing his conviction appeal Friday and facing the likelihood of going back to prison. An Illinois appeals court on Friday upheld Smollett's previous conviction on five of the six charges of disorderly conduct in 2021. Smollett had claimed he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack by two men who were wearing ski masks in January 2019. While police searched for the suspects, an investigation into Smollett led to charges that he planned the whole attack...

Tired of being on platforms and long for days when we all had web sites and pages. Is there a way to have communication via personal websites. I miss being able to visit the many sites available when the web young and people were interesting. I remember the rings. However is there a way to have a bit more functionality and be able to communicate via sites without cookie cutters platforms?

Key Points: - Numerous marketing agencies representing major brands have decided not to resume advertising on X following Elon telling them to GFY - Temporary advertising pauses on X are likely to become permanent, with Musk's comments providing little incentive for a return. Lou Paskalis, CEO of AJL Advisory, highlights the reputational risk involved. - Elon’s history of alienating advertisers, including threatening those who paused spending over content moderation concerns, has compounded the issue. - Over 200 advertisers paused their campaigns on X after Musk's replying to an antisemitic comment and the presence of ads near pro-Nazi content. - Musk's...

Wall Street is gearing up for rate cuts. Twenty months after the Federal Reserve began a historic campaign against inflation, investors now believe there is a much greater chance that the central bank will cut rates in just four months than raise them again in the foreseeable future.Interest-rate futures indicated Monday a 52% chance the Fed will lower rates by at least a quarter-of-a-percentage point by its May 2024 policy meeting, up from 29% at the end of October, according to CME Group data. The same data pointed to four cuts by the end of the year. Investors, battered by...