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The world is awash in predictions of when the singularity will occur or when artificial general intelligence (AGI) will arrive. Some experts predict it will never happen, while others are marking their calendars for 2026. A new macro analysis of surveys over the past 15 years shows where scientists and industry experts stand on the question and how their predictions have changed over time, especially after the arrival of large language models like ChatGPT. Although predictions vary across a span of almost a half-century, most agree than AGI will arrive before the end of the 21st century. SNIP

PC repair chap turned pet detective to diagnose the defectiveOn Call The unconditional love of a pet is often a solace, and perhaps never more so than at the end of a busy working week. Which is when The Register competes with the animal kingdom for your affection by delivering a new edition of On Call, our Friday column in which we share your stories of scratching out a living delivering tech support. This week, meet a reader we'll Regomize as "Walt" who fixes computers. "One day a client came in and complained that her laptop would not turn on."...

With Microsoft ending support for Windows 10 in October 2025, millions of Windows 10 users will be left behind by the company. Upgrades to Windows 11 may be out of the question, due to stricter system requirements. While these can be bypassed, many Windows 10 users may lack the expertise to do so. This leaves Microsoft's recommendation to buy a new Windows 11 PC or subscribe to one year of extended security updates as the only options that Microsoft highlights in its recommendations. There are at least two additional options available to users, but Microsoft makes no mention of them....

Is the stock narket almost completely manipilated? Who is actually selling (I'm not.). What group of people drove the indexes down because they hate Trump? Look closely at stocks of some major companies and you'll see that they almost identically mirror the DOW Industrials. How could that happen without computer control? Check out GPN vs. the DOW.

Never mind blocking workarounds to sign in with a local account, just give us a straightforward choice in the installation process. Microsoft just blocked a popular workaround to install Windows 11 with a local account Some people like to avoid having a Microsoft account linked to the OS due to privacy (or other) concerns While alternative workarounds remain, it’s likely they could be cut off too – and Microsoft is very much going down the wrong path here Microsoft appears to be moving to block Windows 11 users who want to install the operating system using a local account, meaning...

Users beware: This ransomware poses a threat to precious data. The FBI has issued a warning regarding malicious malware that demands a ransom from victims in order to release their data. Dubbed “Medusa,” the “ransomware-as-a-service” has affected more than 300 known people “from a variety of critical infrastructure sectors” since it was first discovered in 2021, according to a recent advisory penned by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center. In order to protect themselves, people can follow the agencies’ tips and tricks for securing accounts and personal...

It’s official: after 10 years of noble service, Windows 10 will reach its end on October 14, 2025, and what a great decade it’s been. For many users, Microsoft redeemed itself after a run of disappointing operating systems – the mere mention of Windows 8 still sends some people into a rage – but Windows 10 got it right. That’s why the announcement of Windows 11 came as a shock. It felt too soon, too rushed – and unnecessary. Many believed that Windows 10 deserved more time to marinate. At least until it finally managed to migrate the whole Control...

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has pushed for a massive upgrade of the Federal Aviation Administration, claiming their computer system still uses 'floppy discs.' As the nation is reeling from recent plane crashes, Duffy sounded the alarm on the antiquated FAA claiming there are systems in the network 'that are run on floppy discs.' 'The systems that we use are so old. I need the Congress to move faster with us. We can't wait four years, six years, 10 years. We have to do it right now,' Duffy told CBS News. Donald Trump's Administration has set its sights on replacing the...

Gelsinger took to X on Monday to suggest that the market's assumptions were wrong. He said that instead of reducing demand, making computing "dramatically cheaper" and more efficient to use — as DeepSeek appears to have done — "will expand the market for it." The former Intel boss, who retired from the company in December after struggling to capitalize on the AI boom, also suggested that the Chinese engineers at DeepSeek "had limited resources, and they had to find creative solutions" to squeeze performance out of their models. The AI industry has insisted that models become smarter when powered with...

1. Modern Encryption Methods Will Be Rendered UselessFinancial technologies are completely dependent on modern encryption methods. Any password or key can be cracked by brute-force attack, but currently, computing power does not allow attackers to succeed in a reasonable time. With the release of quantum computing into the public sector, all encryption becomes useless, and currently, the industry has no answer on how to deal with it. - Pavlo Sidelov, SDK.finance2. Web Interactions Will Be At RiskThe breakdown of prevalent cryptographic technology is an infrastructural risk. Most security technology is based on our current inability to quickly find the prime...

Run Dialog box is something that is one of the favorite utilities for an avid Windows user. Its been around since Windows 95 and became an important part of Windows User Experience over the years. While its only duty is to quickly open apps and other tools, many power users like us at TechCult, love the handy nature of the Run dialog box. Since it can access any tool, setting, or app as long as you know the command for it, we decided to give you the cheat sheet to help you breeze through Windows like a pro...pressing Windows +...

With everything going on in the world, I wanted to reach out to see what other Freepers are doing online to protect yourselves, whether its subscribing to a monitoring service for activity under your name, using VPN (which one & why), password managers, multi-factor authentication etc. What else should a person consider?

Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee announced late on Friday that the state’s data system has been hit with a major cyberattack. McKee will hold an unprecedented press conference Friday at 7:30 PM regarding a cybersecurity breach of the RIBridges system. That system is managed by Deloitte, one of Rhode Island’s largest tech vendors, and the exposed data includes HealthSource, Medicaid, and SNAP. According to McKee’s office, on December 13, [today] the State was informed by its vendor, Deloitte, that there was a major security threat to the RIBridges system. In response, we have proactively taken the system offline so that...

The breakthrough — achieving this "below threshold" milestone — means that errors in a quantum computer will reduce exponentially as you add more physical qubits. It charts a path for scaling up quantum machines in the future. The technology relies on logical qubits. This is a qubit encoded using a collection of physical qubits in a lattice formation. All the physical qubits in a single logical qubit share the same data, meaning if any qubits fail, calculations continue because the information can still be found within the logical qubit.

My Top Tech Gadgets of 2024! | 15:04Lon.TV | 367K subscribers | 16,130 views | December 7, 2024

I have been happily using Kaspersky anti-virus software to protect my computer for years. It never caused me any problems. Other softwares, notably NORTON, allowed a virus to infect my computer years ago, and could not be removed by home measures. So the BIDEN administration has decided that Kaspersky is too much of a risk by a hostile foreign government to continue to operate in the U.S. and now the company has to close shop in the U.S. and fire all its employees. I haven't shopped for a new anti-virus software for years. Which ones should I look at? I...

Apple has been ordered to pay Ireland €13bn (£11bn; $14bn) in unpaid taxes by Europe’s top court, putting an end to an eight-year row. The European Commission accused Ireland of giving Apple illegal tax advantages in 2016, but Ireland has consistently argued against the need for the tax to be paid. The Irish government said it would respect the ruling. […] A separate European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling on Tuesday also brought a long-running case with Google to a close, with the company ordered to pay a €2.4bn (£2bn) fine for market dominance abuse. […] Apple said in a...

Local repair shops say electronics manufacturers are not following a new law, meant to eliminate intentional barriers currently in place that make it difficult for them to do their jobs fairly. Nearly two months after going into effect, the conditions of SB-244, the Right to Repair Act, are not being followed by some manufacturers, that's according to a couple local repair shops. “‘Right to Repair’ is the idea you should be able to fix anything you own,” said Liz Chamberlain, Director of Sustainability for iFixit, a San Luis Obispo-based company specializing in creating repair guides and manuals for electronics. But...

Phones are supported well beyond their average ownership lifetime. In stark contrast, automakers are struggling to work out how long their “smartphones on wheels” can be kept on the road. In 2022, the automaker told drivers of the affected cars, some only three years old, that a technical solution was delayed by the pandemic. Now, more than two years later, those drivers still don’t have access to telematics services. A recent report found that cars and trucks just reached a new record average age of 12.6 years, up two months from 2023. “Whatever anybody is saying right now, it will...

Vanity: Massive IT Outage Hits Major U.S. Hospital Chain: Microsoft Crowdstrike Glitch Forces Cancellation of All Elective Surgeries and Medical Procedures....