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Previous thread HEREBACKGROUND: Mozilla, maker of Firefox browser and Thunderbird e-mail client, had long claimed that it "never has, never will sell" users' personal information In late February, Mozilla changed its policies to delete that assertion and made other confusing changes to its ToUs that tended to indicate going forward, Mozilla would "sell" its users' personal data that was entered in the Firefox browser. These murky changes ignited an uproar among Mozilla's user base NOW (condensed version): Mozilla asserts that it had to delete the assertion that it "never has, never will sell users' personal information" because of broad definitions...

President Donald Trump is expected to announce a $100 billion investment from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing to bolster chip manufacturing over the next four years in the U.S, NBC has learned. The Wall Street Journal first reported the news. TSMC, which supplies semiconductors to the likes of Nvidia and Apple for artificial intelligence use, would help support the Trump administration’s efforts to make the U.S. an artificial intelligence hub. Last month, Trump announced a multibillion-dollar AI infrastructure project with Oracle , OpenAI and Softbank. Trump has repeatedly called out and accused Taiwan of stealing the U.S. chip manufacturing business and touted...

As noted a few months ago, Mozilla -- maker of the Firefox browser and Thunderbird e-mail client -- is facing an 80% revenue drop due to investigations into its “revenue-sharing” deals with Google. That revenue drop is apparently prompting Mozilla's all-out search for alternate revenue streams. Mozilla's changes last week to the Firefox browser's privacy notice and usage terms indicate that users' privacy may be sold out. Specifically, Mozilla's new use terms provide: “When you upload or input information through Firefox, you hereby grant us a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to use that information to help you navigate, experience, and...

Google Chrome users have been warned to delete 16 “malicious” browser extensions that could lead to a security threat and “fraud” at the hands of a prolific “threat actor.” The extensions affect functionality involving screen capture, ad blocking, emoji keyboards and more, with a potential impact on at least 3.2 million users, according to GitLab Threat Intelligence, which first reported the threat. The extensions inject code and harmful scripts into browsers, allowing hackers to steal user data and engage in search-engine fraud involving ad revenue, according to Tom’s Guide. After users granted permission to use them, the extensions, while legitimate,...

Jimmy Page and Brian May have both warned about artificial intelligence's potential to destroy art and bankrupt artists financially and spiritually, echoing recent exhortations made by Paul McCartney, Bon Jovi and many more musicians. May voiced his concerns in support of the Daily Mail's campaign against the U.K. Labour Party's AI copyright proposal, which would allow tech companies to use existing copyrighted material to train AI unless the rights holders opt out. Although Page did not explicitly reference any such campaign, he shared a lengthy and impassioned statement on Facebook in which he stressed the importance of "defending the sanctity...

Gunshots fired at a Tesla dealership in Salem, Oregon A Tesla showroom in Oregon was struck by gunfire just weeks after an arson attack damaged the same dealership, according to local authorities. On Wednesday, just before 5 a.m., Salem police responded to reports of damage at a Tesla facility. Officers discovered that several showroom windows had been shattered by gunfire. No suspects have been identified, and no arrests have been made as of now. The FBI has joined the investigation alongside the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and local law enforcement. The same Tesla dealership, located in...

Opinions...every has one. I chatted with Grok3. Opening proposal> See new posts A number of things happened yesterday that not being actually here in the U.S. you likely missed at the time of this video. I also watched the 6:00pm post action interview of Z with Brett Beier. Listening very carefully to him in that interview Z is not looking for a ceasefire/peace. Even in that interview Z wants security guarantees upfront. He wants to be treated as a member of NATO, even though his country is not in NATO. Second, this is where the 'world' might be reading the...

Here is the full 50-minute conversation between President Trump and President Zelensky. There are a lot of politicians claiming Zelensky was "ambushed." There was a full 40 minutes of dialogue before the "fireworks" started. The president insisted throughout the first 40 minutes that he was focused on peace. Zelensky responded by strongly pushing back on a ceasefire with Russia and demanded that Putin pay for the entire war. JD Vance jumps in at the 40-minute mark to clarify the difference between Trump and Biden and their approach to the war. This apparently ticked off Zelensky which is when the fireworks...

One of America’s biggest banks accidentally transferred more than $80 trillion (£64 trillion) to a customer’s account after a “fat finger” input error by an employee. Citigroup, one of America’s “big four” lenders, erroneously transferred $81 trillion to the account in April last year instead of the $280 requested because of a keyboard mistake by a bank staffer. The huge sum, worth more than 20 times Britain’s entire gross domestic product (GDP), was approved after being checked by two of the bank’s employees, before being sent to the customer account the following morning. The payment was only flagged after a...

After kickstarting the market for making calls over the internet 23 years ago, Skype is closing down. Microsoft, which acquired the messaging and calling app 14 years ago, said it will be retiring it from active duty on May 5 to double down on Teams. Skype users have 10 weeks to decide what they want to do with their account. It’s not clear how many people are impacted. The most recent numbers that Microsoft had shared were in 2023, when it said it had more than 36 million users — a long way from Skype’s peak of 300 million users....

Several months ago I bought a new laptop, 128 GB RAM, 13th Generation i9 CPU, running Win 11.Should be faster than my nine-years old laptop, 32 GB RAM, i7 CPU, Win 7.Two days ago I bought two external HDDs (Western Digital Passports), 6 TB each.I then copied (drag & drop method) a folder from an old WD passport to the new, larger one. Folder contained over 2,900 MP4 files, 29 subfolders, at about 1.97 TB total.It took over 8 hours to copy.Then verified that all the files were copied by clicking Properties on the old and copied folders. My new...

Taliban's police force proudly shows off its newly-acquired network of 90,000 CCTV cameras - used to watch over the day-to-day lives of millions of people. "We monitor the entire city of Kabul from here," says Khalid Zadran, a spokesperson for the Taliban police chief, pointing to one of the screens. The authorities say such surveillance will help fight crime, but critics fear it will be used to clamp down on dissent and to monitor the strict morality code enforced by the Islamist Taliban government under their interpretation of Sharia law. The BBC are the first international journalists allowed to see...

Nothing like giving the Christian progressives fuel. Apparently it was on Truth Social, but I could not find it

Verizon, the biggest carrier in the United States, is also the fastest when it comes to 5G upload speeds, at least in theory. The Big Red claims it successfully completed a trial in collaboration with Ericsson and Qualcomm, achieving North American uplink speeds of 480 Mbps.During the test, Verizon made use of Advanced 5G technologies, which combines two TDD carrier component aggregation with C-band spectrum and uplink MIMO (Multiple Input, Multiple Output). The combination of these technologies enabled the companies to achieve a US record-breaking 480 Mbps uplink speed using sub-6 GHz spectrum...Verizon expects to attract numerous businesses with its...

Meta Platforms (META), the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, is in discussions to construct a new data center campus for its artificial intelligence projects, with potential costs exceeding $200 billion, The Information reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Meta executives have informed data center developers that the company is considering building the campus in states including Louisiana, Wyoming or Texas, with senior leaders having visited potential sites this month, the report said. Since the launch of Microsoft (MSFT) backed OpenAI's ChatGPT in 2022, investment in AI has surged as companies across various sectors strive to incorporate...

TikTok refugees fled by the millions to RedNote, a Chinese app, in response to the TikTok ban, which went into effect Jan. 19, 2025. The company shut down the app shortly before midnight on Jan. 18 but restored service the following day. The app was unavailable to download from the Apple and Google app stores on Jan. 19. Through cat memes, shared jokes about the ban and honest conversations about usually avoided topics, former TikTokers and RedNote natives are bridging years of U.S.-China digital separation. This spontaneous convergence recalls the internet’s original dream of a global village. It’s a glimmer...

Researchers have developed a new type of photochromic glass that can store and rewrite data indefinitely.By embedding magnesium and terbium, they’ve created a material that changes colors under different wavelengths of light, allowing for high-density, long-term storage without power. This breakthrough could revolutionize data preservation.Exploring the Potential of Glass for Data StorageFor years, scientists have explored the potential of glass as a long-term data storage medium, drawn to its ability to preserve information for eons without requiring power. One promising candidate is photochromic glass, a special type of glass that changes color when exposed to different wavelengths of light. Now,...

An analyst note flagging a possible slowdown by Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab in leasing data center capacity grabbed the market's attention on Monday, lending credence to skepticism among investors worried that the AI-led stock-market boom might be running out of steam. TD Cowen analysts in a note Friday said the tech giant had scrapped leases for sizeable data center capacity in the United States, suggesting potential oversupply as it builds out artificial intelligence infrastructure. The brokerage, citing its supply chain checks, said Microsoft has canceled leases totaling "a couple of hundred megawatts" of capacity with at least two private...

Sonny is a chatbot that relies on a combination of human staff and AI. When students text their questions to Sonny, the AI suggests a response, but it’s humans who are ultimately responsible for the message. Sonar...says it’s now available to more than 4,500 middle and high school students across nine districts. The company says the chats are currently being monitored by a team of six people with backgrounds in psychology, social work, and crisis-line support. CEO Drew Barvir told the Journal that he makes it clear to students and schools that Sonny isn’t a therapist and that Sonar staffers...

Ryan Duff, a self-described internet sleuth, published evidence that the person running the account wasn’t who she claimed.The person behind a popular “tradwife” social media account apologized Monday for misleading followers into thinking the account owner was an ultraconservative married mother of 14. “I just want to say that I am sorry for the lies I told and the hurt I caused. I never intended for this account to become as big as it did, and once things started snowballing, I enjoyed the relationships I’d built and didn’t know how to put an end to it,” the person behind the...