Free Republic

Not sure what to make of this, perhaps people more knowledgeable about computers than I can add some insight: I opened up my Lenovo laptop, I had not shut it down over night, just closed the screen. I could faintly hear music and some background noise. It sounded as if I was listening to a phone, that had been left off the hook with the line open. I had no programs running. I then shut down and restarted. Problem went away. I do subscribe to a computer help system that has in the past come into my computer to resolve...

As leading AI labs compete in a breakneck race to develop more powerful systems, the “Godfather of AI” says ethical concerns and safety research are being sidelined, risking serious consequences for society. The Financial Times reports that AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio has sounded the alarm on the current state of AI development, warning that the competitive drive to create increasingly intelligent systems has led to a reckless disregard for safety and ethical considerations. Bengio, often referred to as the “Godfather of AI,” believes that this negligent approach could have disastrous consequences for humanity. In an interview with the Times, Bengio...

Hackers have leaked what they claim is AT&T’s database which was reportedly stolen by the ShinyHunters group in April 2024 after they exploited major security flaws in the Snowflake cloud data platform. But is this really the Snowflake-linked data? We took a closer look. As seen by the Hackread.com research team, the data was first posted on a well-known Russian cybercrime forum on May 15, 2025. It was re-uploaded on the same forum on June 3, 2025, after which it began circulating among other hackers and forums. After analyzing the leaked data, we found it contains a detailed set of...

A 22-year-old man has been arrested in Pakistan and confessed to the murder of 17-year-old social media influencer Sana Yousaf, according to police. Authorities say they believe Umar Hayat murdered Ms Yousaf at her home in Islamabad on Monday after she rejected what they called his "offers of friendship". He allegedly also repeatedly tried, and failed, to meet her. They say he broke into her home, fired two shots, stole her phone and fled. Her last video on Instagram, posted last week, showed her surrounded by balloons and cutting a cake for her birthday. Given her high profile in Pakistan,...

Every weekend warrior knows the drill — you sit in front of a computer all week, and when the weekend hits, you bike, hike, and run yourself ragged. Your body feels destroyed on Monday. Repeat. If this sounds like you — or even if you’re a casual exerciser who wants to walk and bike longer distances without getting tired — the future has arrived. The world’s first-ever outdoor exoskeleton, Hypershell X, can help max out your physical abilities with minimal effort. Hypershell X is causing a buzz among both outdoorsy types and robotics enthusiasts, and it won the Best of...

In a thought-provoking conversation during Theo Von's recent podcast, Meta Platforms (META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg provided a vivid glimpse into a future dominated by augmented reality (AR) technology. Highlighting the dramatic shift toward holographic interactions, Zuckerberg emphasized that many of the physical objects we currently rely on would soon become obsolete, replaced by immersive digital alternatives. The podcast featured a striking example described by Von, who recounted an experience playing ping pong using Meta’s new AR glasses. Notably, the ping pong table, paddles, and even the net weren't physically present — they were holograms projected through the glasses. Von humorously...

Conventional wisdom long held that majoring in a STEM field was a surefire path to job security and high earnings. But new data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York challenges that narrative, revealing that recent graduates with degrees in computer engineering face significantly higher unemployment than their counterparts in the humanities.According to the Fed’s analysis of 2023 Census data, the unemployment rate for computer engineering majors stood at 7.5%, compared to just 3% for art history majors. The finding has surprised many education and labor market analysts, especially given the persistent demand for tech talent in the US...

Meatball

Google is launching AI Mode, a new AI-powered search feature for US-based users. After a short testing period in its Labs environment, the feature will be rolling out for everyone in the coming weeks via a new Search tab and the Google app. The company describes AI Mode as its “most powerful AI search, with more advanced reasoning and multimodality, and the ability to go deeper through follow-up questions and helpful links to the web.” New features of AI Mode include Deep Search with longer-than-usual, report-style responses, Search Live, which enables users to talk with Search about what they see...

Can someone help with getting the notification popup window at the bottom right of the screen to show the notifications again? For instance, I used to get the popup window notification to show immediately when a Youtube video was downloaded. Not getting the window anymore. Now, up at the top right on the Youtube page there is a bell that will show the number of new videos since the last time I checked but if I don't constantly check, I never know. Not to mention the bell has when the videos were loaded all messed up - 1 hour ago,...

The unexpected costs of being too nice to your chatbot.Recently, I said, “Thank you,” to my printer. Not because it did anything heroic, unless printing out a mildly off-center PDF counts as gallantry, but because I’m apparently the kind of person who anthropomorphizes anything with a plug. You’d think this sort of thing would stop with childhood dinosaurs (the remote-controlled ones), but no. Now, we’re all doing it—toasters, chatbots, the vacuum cleaner—and it’s getting weird.Take ChatGPT. People are writing things like, “Could you please write a sonnet about my goldfish who died in 2003? Thank you sooo much, kind machine.”...

An Irish man has died and a child has been injured in a shooting incident at a shopping centre in County Carlow on Sunday. Emergency services are currently at the scene at the Fairgreen Shopping Centre, with an army bomb disposal team also in attendance. Gardaí (Irish police) were alerted to the incident shortly after 18:15 local time. The girl was treated by paramedics at the scene. Gardaí said it is not yet known how her injuries were sustained. The shopping centre has been evacuated and the area has been sealed off by police. The cordon will remain in place...

Micro-brain sensors placed between hair strands overcome traditional brain sensor limitations. Georgia Tech researchers have developed an almost imperceptible microstructure brain sensor to be inserted into the minuscule spaces between hair follicles and slightly under the skin. The sensor offers high-fidelity signals and makes the continuous use of brain-computer interfaces (BCI) in everyday life possible. BCIs create a direct communication pathway between the brain's electrical activity and external devices such as electroencephalography devices, computers, robotic limbs, and other brain monitoring devices. Brain signals are commonly captured non-invasively with electrodes mounted on the surface of the human scalp using conductive electrode...

[Note: What follows is a blog-post formatted version of the 34 page letter I submitted to the FTC on May 21, 2025 in response to the agency’s RFI entitled: “Request for Public Comment Regarding Technology Platform Censorship.” I have also added a section at the end on what you can do to save the open web from Google’s AI takeover.] In this letter I will explain how Google censored my travel website – and thousands of small and independent web publishers like me – all so that it can use AI to control the flow of information online. In late...

The initial announcement of the AI feature Recall for Windows caused quite an uproar in the security community. Microsoft's idea was to introduce an AI tool in Windows that would take a snapshot of the desktop every five seconds, analyze what it displayed to allow the user to interact with the AI about it. Problem was, in its hurry to get the AI feature out in the open, Microsoft forgot security. It turned out, that Recall was set to run by default, that the database that Recall used was not all that well protected. Additionally, despite Microsoft reassuring that Recall...

Hackers just hit a massive jackpot: 184 million accounts across Apple, Google and Microsoft were exposed in a sweeping data breach. I’m talking email addresses, usernames, passwords, device info (the whole buffet), now up for grabs on the dark web. Before you say, “I’m safe, I use strong passwords,” or “I’ve never been hacked,” take a second to think. These weren’t obscure services. This breach hit the biggest names in tech. Household-name-level oopsie. If your login credentials got caught in the cross fire, hackers are already trying to use them to break into your other accounts. The hidden risk It’s...

Gen Z thinks they’ve figured out a dead giveaway that someone has used ChatGPT — and it might surprise you. The em dash (—) is punctuation loved by writers everywhere, functioning like a comma, colon or a pair of parentheses. It can be used to sum up information at the end of a sentence, encase supplementary information within a sentence, emphasize a point or expand upon something that comes before it, according to Merriam-Webster. But according to Gen Z, the dash is actually a so-called “ChatGPT hyphen.” The phenomenon started gaining attention online after podcasters Daisy Reed and Sapna Rao,...

It's not just TikTok that's in trouble over cybersecurity. U.S. authorities are investigating TP-Link, a Chinese company that holds 65% of the U.S. market for home and small-business routers, for potential national security risks, the Wall Street Journal reports today. The company’s routers have been linked to cyberattacks targeting Western organizations and government agencies. Key points Security Concerns: Microsoft found that Chinese hackers used TP-Link routers in cyberattacks. Government Probes: Commerce, Defense, and Justice departments are investigating, with a potential U.S. ban on TP-Link devices under consideration for next year. Router Flaws: TP-Link routers are often shipped with unaddressed security...

Last season, SEC teams would fine schools $100,000 if their students storm the field. If it happens a second time, the fine would jump up to $250,000. Any subsequent offenses would cost $500,000. During this year's SEC Spring Meetings, league commissioner Greg Sankey announced that fines for field stormings will be much more...

The Truth about the SLAUGHTER in South Africa! 192,000 views May 28, 2025 serpentza -- Everybody know Serpentza. He was born in South Africa. Lived in China for about 15 years, until he was pressured to leave. He comments about China on you tube, on his own channel and The China Show channel. 1.59M subscribers 192,000 views May 28, 2025 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8pEGA1yhUk