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Anthropic on Tuesday released an upgraded version of its Claude 3.5 Sonnet model that can understand and interact with any desktop app. Via a new “Computer Use” API, now in open beta, the model can imitate keystrokes, button clicks, and mouse gestures, essentially emulating a person sitting at a PC. “We trained Claude to see what’s happening on a screen and then use the software tools available to carry out tasks,” Anthropic wrote in a blog post shared with TechCrunch. “When a developer tasks Claude with using a piece of computer software and gives it the necessary access, Claude looks...

Microsoft Excel, the true successor to the throne of COBOL. Version 1.0 was released on the last day of September 1985, four decades ago.Since the original US English version of Windows 1.0 went to manufacturing at the end of November that year, this means that the default spreadsheet for Microsoft Windows is itself older than Windows. (The European version of Windows didn't appear until May 1986, but that doesn't really matter, nobody cared about it either.)Excel 2 wasn't pretty, but it was prettier than 1-2-3 – click to enlargeAs the old joke goes, like an "incel", it still incorrectly assumes...

Why bother with making information accessible and usable if you can tell people what you want them to hear instead?When Google launched in the late 1990s, it quickly overtook the market for search engines. Its proprietary method of indexing led users to results they were actually looking for rather than producing the hodgepodge of results offered by other search engines of the time. Within just a few years, it was dominating the market. Today, it is a money-printing machine.It’s also increasingly horrible at the core mission that produced such success. The company’s leadership may have realized early on that to...

I meant to make notes on everything you guys suggested, but I can't find it.

A federal rule banning fake online reviews is now in effect. The Federal Trade Commission issued the rule in August banning the sale or purchase of online reviews. The rule, which went into effect Monday, allows the agency to seek civil penalties against those who knowingly violate it. “Fake reviews not only waste people’s time and money, but also pollute the marketplace and divert business away from honest competitors,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said about the rule in August. She added that the rule will “protect Americans from getting cheated, put businesses that unlawfully game the system on notice, and...

Big tech is going big on nuclear, with Amazon becoming the newest addition to the club with a $500 million deal, joining Microsoft, Google, and Oracle by investing in nuclear projects to support surging data-center energy demand.With powerful advances in generative AI, the US has become the fastest-growing market for data centers, according to McKinsey, which forecasts demand to more than triple by 2030 to 80 gigawatts. The boom has sent stock prices of nuclear-energy companies soaring, briefly making utilities the best-performing sector of the S&P 500 Index this year.Going nuclear As commercial nuclear-power plants went global in the 1970s...

TikTok developed an internal strategy for using content on its platform to win favor from Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell and other politicians, according to recently revealed portions of a lawsuit against the tech giant. The idea was part of an internal company document that, according to the complaint filed by the Kentucky attorney general, “seeks to identify TikTok accounts that might persuade each politician - along with his or her staff - as to the value of the Platform.” TikTok videos by Kentucky businesses including a hot dog shop, a record store and a bait and ammunition store were proposed...

Google on Tuesday announced a fresh Chrome browser update that addresses 17 vulnerabilities, including 13 security defects reported by external researchers.The most severe of the externally reported bugs is CVE-2024-9954, a high-risk use-after-free defect in AI . . .The latest Chrome iteration is now rolling out as versions 130.0.6723.58/.59 for Windows and macOS, and as version 130.0.6723.58 for Linux.

This is a link to the Real Clear Politics page that summarizes where the online betting sites have the race.

Meta provides workers with $25 meal vouchers for use at the office.. Meta fired roughly two dozen staffers based in Los Angeles for abusing the company's $25 meal vouchers to purchase non-food household items... Meta fired the workers last week after the company discovered that the workers were abusing its food credit system by using the funds to buy other household items, ranging from acne pads and wine glasses to laundry detergent. According to the report, Meta staff are given daily allowances of $20 for breakfast, $25 for lunch and another $25 for dinner — similar perks to what other...

Lightmatter, a company building computer chips that process information with light, has raised a $400 million Series D at a $4.4 billion valuation, highlighting investors’ appetite for novel solutions to AI’s computational demands. T. Rowe Price Associates led the round with additional backing from previous investors GV and Fidelity. The raise continues Boston-based Lightmatter’s remarkable growth. Founded in 2017, the company has raised $709 million in the past 18 months. With its Series D, Lightmatter has nearly quadrupled its previous valuation of $1.2 billion in a $155 million Series C-2 that closed in December 2023. In May 2023, it raised...

Among the California police departments that have tried using Teslas was the Ukiah Police Department, the largest municipal police force in Mendocino County. There, Police Chief Cedrick Crook requested the City Council approve the purchase of two Tesla Model 3s, which is the company's sedan, on August 7, 2024. That purchase totaled nearly $150,000 between the cost of the cars and $35,000 in modifications to make the Teslas patrol-ready, Crook told the San Francisco Gate. He said the vehicles needed the standard emergency lights, sirens, radio, antenna, push bar, partition and gun rack, but the Teslas also needed to be...

TOCKHOLM (AP) — Two pioneers of artificial intelligence — John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton — won the Nobel Prize in physics Tuesday for helping create the building blocks of machine learning that is revolutionizing the way we work and live but also creates new threats for humanity. Hinton, who is known as the godfather of artificial intelligence, is a citizen of Canada and Britain who works at the University of Toronto, and Hopfield is an American working at Princeton. “These two gentlemen were really the pioneers,” said Nobel physics committee member Mark Pearce. The artificial neural networks — interconnected computer...

Do any FReepers have experience with cell phone extenders such as the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Network Extender ASK-SFE116? This is not a repeater, instead, it works through and existing Ethernet Connection to your computer / the Web, and functions like a little "mini-tower" in your home. I did find this useful vid: https://www.verizon.com/support/verizon-lte-network-extender-setup-video/ However, I've not found much info. regarding range. My guess is that it is similar to a typical Wi-Fi router. Unfortunately these "extenders" do not connect via a Wi-Fi router.) It also appears activation can be a problem if buying a used unit, as evidently the...

Had to reload my PC and when I went to cywoody's page to reload the posting enhancer the add-on link is dead. He disappeared from FR years ago but the page remained. Now, his page is there but the link to the add-on is dead. I loved that add-on and used it for years. I am not smart enough to create it so I'm hoping one of our coders here would take on the job. I know a lot of Freepers use it, too.

While millions of people in Florida fled Hurricane Milton, Mike Smalls Jr ventured into the violent winds in Tampa, Florida, holding a blow-up mattress, an umbrella and a pack of ramen noodles. He went outside Wednesday evening as the storm pounded the US state and livestreamed on the platform Kick. He told his online audience if he reached 10,000 views, he would launch himself and his mattress into the water. Once he hit the threshold, he took the plunge. Then he got worried: “The wind started picking up and I don’t know how to swim…so I had to grab on...

"It could have been worse," one owner incredibly concluded. It’s a tale as old as… the Internet of Things era. Robot vacuums made by Ecovacs have been reported roving around people’s homes, yelling profanities at them through the onboard speakers after the company’s software was found to be vulnerable to intrusion. ABC News in Australia reports that there were recently multiple instances across the U.S. when owners of Ecovacs vacuums noticed their devices acting unusually. “It sounded like a broken-up radio signal or something,” Daniel Swenson told the outlet. “You could hear snippets of maybe a voice.” He opened the...

"I never want to play this game again". Tetris has been ported to many different consoles. Image credit: Jordi Villar/Shutterstock.com A16-year-old from the US appears to have become the first person to beat the game of Tetris, clearing the final level and causing it to reset to level 0. Tetris has been around for a while, so you might have assumed it would be complete by now. After all, it's not like a game of Zelda or Skyrim where you can complete all the side quests and put off the main quest until long after you've lost all interest in...

Caroline Calloway said she is going to “die” after she refused to abandon her Florida home in a “mandatory evacuation” zone ahead of Hurricane Milton’s landfall. “So if you’ve been following Hurricane Milton, I’m going to die,” the 32-year-old, known as the “world’s worst influencer,” said via her Instagram Story Tuesday. “It’s supposed to make landfall in the Sarasota-Bradenton area. I’m in Sarasota, I live on the water. It’s a zone A, mandatory evacuation.” Calloway also shared a video of Tampa Bay Mayor Jane Castor warning residents that those who stay behind “will die” when the monstrous storm hits. The...

Bumble, a dating app with a long history of promoting abortion, is paying for a series of screenings to be shown throughout Texas of a pro-abortion propaganda film produced by Jennifer Lawrence, Hillary Clinton, and Chelsea Clinton. Earlier this month, “Zurawski vs. Texas” was announced, ostensibly telling the story of a ‘cruel‘ Texas pro-life law and three of the women who sued to overturn it. The entire film is based on a massive lie: that Texas’ pro-life law bans something other than the intentional killing of preborn children. The movie, and the headlines which inspired it, are based on sensationalism...