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Computers/Internet (General/Chat)

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  • Is Anyone Currently Using Cynwoody's FR Posting Form Enhancer and Tree Viewer with Firefox? (Vanity)

    03/18/2025 11:42:54 PM PDT · by KevinB · 46 replies
    Self | 03/19/25 | Self
    For years I've been using Cynwoody's Posting Form Enhancer and Tree Viewer extensions in Firefox to view and post comments on FreeRepublic. They have made the use of FreeRepublic so much more enjoyable. Unfortunately, a few days ago those extensions stopped working and Firefox now displays the following message for each of the extensions: "This extension could not be verified for use in Firefox and has been disabled." I'm curious whether anyone is currently successfully using those extensions and, if so, what version of Firefox is being used.
  • GTC March 2025 Keynote with NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang [2:37:47]

    03/18/2025 6:53:05 PM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 4 replies
    YouTube ^ | Streamed live 9 hours ago (March 18, 2025) | NVIDIA
    Watch NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang’s GTC keynote to catch all the announcements on AI advances that are shaping our future. GTC March 2025 Keynote with NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang | 2:37:47 NVIDIA | 1.9M subscribers | 492,386 views | Streamed live 9 hours ago
  • Baidu unveils ERNIE 4.5 and ERNIE X1, challenging foundation model landscape -(ERNIE 4.5 is just 1% of GPT-4.5's cost)

    03/17/2025 4:15:54 PM PDT · by dennisw · 16 replies
    neowin.net ^ | Mar 16, 2025 | Pradeep Viswanathan
    Since the launch of DeepSeek's R1 model in January, the expectations for new foundation models have substantially increased. Baidu, a prominent Chinese technology firm, has announced the introduction of two new foundation models: ERNIE 4.5 and ERNIE X1. ERNIE 4.5 is a multimodal foundation model designed to understand text, images, audio, and video. It includes enhancements in language skills, understanding, generation, reasoning, and memory. According to Baidu, ERNIE 4.5 surpasses OpenAI’s GPT-4.5 in various standard benchmarks. A notable aspect of ERNIE 4.5 is its cost, which is just 1% of GPT-4.5's cost. Baidu achieved ERNIE 4.5's performance and cost-efficiency using...
  • Trump aide Alina Habba gives inside look at Biden’s ‘fake Oval Office’ --- White House replica inside the EEOB

    03/17/2025 10:13:47 AM PDT · by dennisw · 26 replies
    NY Post ^ | Published March 12, 2025 | By Nicholas McEntyre
    Biden used the White House replica inside the EEOB throughout his presidency — most famously when he received his COVID-19 shot during the height of the vaccine rollout in the country. That set was created in the South Court of the EEOB, across the street from the real White House. It also featured fake windows and a digital display of the White House Rose Garden in full bloom. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller accused Biden of needing the room to read scripts off the teleprompter, which he couldn’t inside the real White House. “The reason Biden uses...
  • RIP Mark Klein, the engineer who exposed US domestic spying ops after wiring it up

    03/17/2025 7:37:28 AM PDT · by ShadowAce · 34 replies
    The Register ^ | 15 March 2025 | Iain Thomson
    In 2006, a retired AT&T engineer knocked on the door of the EFF's office in a rundown part of San Francisco's Mission district and asked, "Do you folks care about privacy?" With him he carried schematics exposing the largest US government domestic spying operation since Watergate.That person was Mark Klein, who died on March 8 this year from cancer. He was 79.After a life working in telecoms, Klein realized he had helped the NSA wire up a listening station in AT&T's San Francisco switching facility - the infamous Room 641A - that was being used to illegally spy on Americans.The...
  • As AI nurses reshape hospital care, human nurses are pushing back

    03/17/2025 2:42:10 AM PDT · by Olog-hai · 11 replies
    Associated Press ^ | 4:48 PM EDT, March 16, 2025 | Matthew Perrone
    The next time you’re due for a medical exam you may get a call from someone like Ana: a friendly voice that can help you prepare for your appointment and answer any pressing questions you might have. With her calm, warm demeanor, Ana has been trained to put patients at ease — like many nurses across the U.S. But unlike them, she is also available to chat 24-7, in multiple languages, from Hindi to Haitian Creole. That’s because Ana isn’t human, but an artificial intelligence program created by Hippocratic AI, one of a number of new companies offering ways to...
  • The End of Computer Programming as We Know It

    03/16/2025 6:24:41 PM PDT · by SeekAndFind · 98 replies
    O'Reilly ^ | 03/16/2025 | Tim O’Reilly
    There’s a lot of chatter in the media that software developers will soon lose their jobs to AI. I don’t buy it.It is not the end of programming. It is the end of programming as we know it today. That is not new. The first programmers connected physical circuits to perform each calculation. They were succeeded by programmers writing machine instructions as binary code to be input one bit at a time by flipping switches on the front of a computer. Assembly language programming then put an end to that. It lets a programmer use a human-like language to tell...
  • A U.S. Influencer Outrages Australians by Snatching a Baby Wombat From its Mom

    03/15/2025 11:08:37 AM PDT · by nickcarraway · 36 replies
    NPR ^ | March 14, 2025 | Rachel Treisman
    A small wombat stands next to its mother in a zoo. Wombats at the Hannover Zoo in Germany. Sam Jones, a self-described outdoor enthusiast with a large social media following, was widely criticized in Australia after briefly yanking a wombat joey away from its mother in the night. Australians are celebrating the departure of an American influencer who separated a baby wombat from its mother, as concerns persist about the animal's wellbeing. The woman, who posts under the name Sam Jones and says she is a Montana-based outdoor enthusiast and hunter, drew ire this week when she posted a video...
  • MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell reveals he’s taking a week off — citing exhaustion from Trump’s presidency

    03/15/2025 3:58:05 AM PDT · by Libloather · 53 replies
    Fox News via NY Post ^ | 3/13/25 | Hanna Panreck
    MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell revealed on Wednesday night that he was exhausted by covering President Donald Trump and that he was taking a week off from hosting his show, “The Last Word,” lamenting that it was only day 52 of Trump’s second term. “I know you’ve pledged to cover and be here for the first hundred days of the Trump presidency. I hope you noticed that I did not make that same pledge,” O’Donnell told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. Maddow, who usually hosts her show once a week on the network, recently committed to hosting her program daily for the duration...
  • All PCs will be AI PCs “pretty soon,” says Intel exec....But do you need one right now?

    03/14/2025 12:48:38 PM PDT · by Red Badger · 69 replies
    FreeThink ^ | February 22, 2025 | Kristin Houser
    It’s 2026. You just bought a new laptop, and unlike your last one, this device is an “AI PC.” The distinction means you can now run all the latest AI applications directly on your device without draining your battery, keeping your data private and secure. AI PCs If you stopped by a Sears circa 1960 to buy a television, the sales clerk’s first question for you would’ve been, “Color or black and white?” Only after hearing the answer could they help you find the television that was right for you. Today’s computer buyers are facing their own fork in the...
  • Let's hit Trump's Tech Bros with that EU Digital Services Tax finally

    03/14/2025 11:16:30 AM PDT · by Olog-hai · 14 replies
    EU Observer ^ | March 13, 2025, 11:07:42 AM | Alex Agius Saliba, MEP
    After all the build-up, the transatlantic trade war has truly begun. US tariffs on steel are reciprocated with EU tariffs on jeans and Harley Davidsons. When announcing the EU tariffs president Ursula von der Leyen was clear that she is open to dialogue with the Americans to deescalate the trade conflict. We have seen in his modus operandi that this is how Donald Trump likes to operate. Bold statements and excessive tariffs to extort trading partners and get a better deal. He has been doing it to Mexico, Canada and Ukraine, and will do so to Europe. However, in exchange...
  • Physicists Stunned: Lead-208’s Shape Just Broke a Fundamental Rule of Nuclear Physics

    03/14/2025 6:02:07 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 38 replies
    Scitech Daily ^ | March 14, 2025 | University of Surrey
    Scientists have discovered that lead-208, once thought to be spherical, is actually elongated. This challenges nuclear theory and sparks fresh questions about atomic structure and stability. Credit: SciTechDaily.com ==================================================================================== For decades, scientists believed that lead-208, a “doubly magic” and highly stable atomic nucleus, was perfectly spherical. However, groundbreaking new research has shattered this assumption, revealing that its nucleus is actually elongated, much like a rugby ball. By using an advanced gamma-ray spectrometer and high-speed particle collisions, researchers uncovered unexpected quantum behavior that contradicts long-standing nuclear theory. This revelation forces physicists to rethink fundamental principles of nuclear structure, potentially reshaping our...
  • 120-Year-Old Math Mystery Finally Solved – Dudeney’s Dissection Proven Optimal!

    03/13/2025 5:19:35 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 23 replies
    Scitech Daily ^ | March 13, 2025 | Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
    Mathematicians have proven that Henry Dudeney’s 1907 four-piece dissection of an equilateral triangle into a square is optimal. Using matching diagrams, researchers from JAIST and MIT showed that no three-piece solution exists, marking the first formal proof of optimality in dissection problems. Their work has applications in mathematics, engineering, and material sciences. ======================================================================================= Researchers have demonstrated, using a novel approach, that the original solution to Dudeney’s famous dissection problem is indeed the optimal one. In 1907, English author and mathematician Henry Ernest Dudeney posed a fascinating puzzle: Can an equilateral triangle be cut into the fewest possible pieces that can...
  • Anti-Trump Channel Tops YouTube Charts

    03/12/2025 11:45:56 AM PDT · by CondoleezzaProtege · 39 replies
    Newsweek ^ | March 12, 2025 | Ewan Palmer
    MeidasTouch, a progressive media network that is highly critical of President Donald Trump, has been named YouTube's most popular news and politics channel over the past three days, just ahead of Fox News. On Sunday, MeidasTouch accumulated more than 9.6 million views and 543,000 likes on its channel. These figures increased to more than 11.6 million views and 672,000 likes on Monday. On Tuesday, MeidasTouch uploaded multiple videos with titles such as "Fox News COLLAPSES ON AIR as Trump CRASHES ECONOMY" and "Trump holds DISASTER PRESSER with Musk as MARKETS CRASH." MeidasTouch co-founder Brett Meiselas told Newsweek in February: "People...
  • New Ideas from the Inventors

    03/12/2025 12:42:43 PM PDT · by ProtectOurFreedom · 26 replies
    Popular Science Magazine ^ | January 1961 | Anonymous
    Straight from the "What will they think of next?" archive in January 1961...
  • Biden Didn't Sign the PARDONS!!

    03/12/2025 9:53:49 AM PDT · by Racketeer · 59 replies
    X ^ | March 11, 2025 | Kyle Becker
    BREAKING: @OversightPR finds that former President Biden’s pardons all have the same “autopen” signature: -Biden Family Members -Anthony Fauci -General Milley -J6 Committee The autopen findings could open up legal challenges to the validity of Biden’s pardons in a court of law. The U.S. Constitution requires a president be “present” for all legal signatures.
  • Oscars 2025 : Barron & Donald Trump's Live Singing–America will be Great Again with Jesus (Fake but beautiful AI video)

    03/11/2025 6:24:29 PM PDT · by RoosterRedux · 104 replies
    Just stumbled upon this. It is fake, of course, but beautiful.
  • USAID employees told to burn, shred and destroy classified documents

    03/11/2025 4:07:14 PM PDT · by Libloather · 59 replies
    Msnbc ^ | 3/11/25 | Vaughn Hillyard
    Vaughn Hillyard, NBC News Correspondent joins Nicolle Wallace on Deadline White House with reaction to the breaking news that the Department of Education has mandated all employees out of headquarters by 6pm today, citing security concerns. Along with news that USAID is now instructing staff to shred or burn all classified documents.
  • 24-year-old ‘mukbang’ streamer dies from obesity-related issues: report

    03/11/2025 3:26:46 PM PDT · by nickcarraway · 29 replies
    New York Post ^ | March 11, 2025 | Shane Galvin
    A 24-year-old extreme eater, who gained fame on TikTok, died due to complications from obesity, according to a report. Efecan Kultur, 24, well known in his native Turkey for his ‘mukbang’ streams, in which he would gorge on massive amounts of food — died on Mar. 7 after spending three months in the hospital due to obesity-related health problems, according to Turkiye Today, citing a post on TikTok. Amassing both a mammoth weight and following, with millions of views on TikTok, Kultur was forced to stop streaming due to being bed-ridden with health issues, such as bruising and breathing difficulties....
  • A Dev Built a Kill Switch That Activated When He Got Fired. Now He’s Convicted of Criminal Sabotage

    03/11/2025 11:59:28 AM PDT · by ShadowAce · 60 replies
    Gizmodo ^ | 10 March 2025 | AJ Dellinger
    We all, at some point, have fantasized about giving our employers a big middle finger on the way out the door, whether we leave on our own volition or are pushed out. Well, a 55-year-old Texas man allegedly built an automated bird flipper in the form of a kill switch that crashed his company’s systems and locked people out of their accounts when he was fired. Satisfying as that may have been, he now faces up to 10 years in prison, according to the Department of Justice, for setting the trip wire on his way out the door. Here’s the...