As more positive indications around AMD's OpenSIL effort for open-source CPU silicon initialization to eventually replace AGESA, both AMD and Supermicro are now collaborating with the Open-Source Firmware Foundation. Supermicro has also publicly shown off a platform with OpenSIL+Coreboot and is said to be exploring OpenBMC for future hardware...

Japan's Toshiba said on Thursday it will cut up to 4,000 jobs domestically as the industrial conglomerate accelerates restructuring under new ownership. From a report: Toshiba delisted in December due to a $13 billion takeover by a consortium led by private equity firm Japan Industrial Partners, capping a decade of scandal and upheaval. The consortium's efforts to engineer a turnaround at Toshiba are seen as a test for private equity in Japan, which used to be seen as "hagetaka" or vultures due to its rapacious reputation. The restructuring amounts to up to 6% of Toshiba's domestic workforce. The company also said it would relocate office functions from central Tokyo to Kawasaki, west of the capital, and target an operating profit margin of 10% in three years.

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Has social media biz done enough to comply with Digital Services Act? Maybe not

The European Commission has opened formal proceedings to assess whether Meta, the provider of Facebook and Instagram, may have breached the Digital Services Act (DSA) in areas linked to the protection of minors.…

Visa is rolling out new technology that will allow the payments giant to share more information about customers' preferences [non-paywalled source] based on their shopping history with retailers as it seeks to remain a top player in the competitive e-commerce space. From a report: The data will be shared via the payments giant's proprietary "tokens," which provide an added layer of security between a consumer's bank information and a merchant. Shopping inclinations and other information based on past transactions -- such as preferred categories, like movies or golf -- will be shared via token with retailers with the consent of consumers. "It's almost entirely blind to almost all consumers," Visa Chief Executive Officer Ryan McInerney said in an interview of the company's token technology. "They just know their payments work better." The sharing of shopping data via token is one of a handful of innovations Visa unveiled at a conference in San Francisco, where it's based. Visa, one of the largest e-commerce technology companies in the world, is finding itself increasingly fending off competitors seeking larger slices of the fees merchants must pay to carry out consumer transactions.

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Bug or feature?

Users looking for Windows repair tips via the Microsoft PC Manager app may be recommended to switch Edge's default search engine back to Bing.…

Ampere Computing today made public their roadmap update concerning current and future AArch64 server processors. AmpereOne availability remains tough but the company is hoping next year to introduce a 3nm CPU with up to 256 cores and supporting 12 channel DDR5 memory.

Annual conference of cyber intel unit shows UK's alarm over China blaring louder than ever

CyberUK  Regular attendees of CYBERUK, the annual conference hosted by British intelligence unit the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), will know that in addition to the expected conference panels, there is usually an interwoven theme to proceedings.…

In an op-ed on Windows Central, the site's co-managing editor Jez Corden laments Microsoft's "short-sighted" decision-making and "inconsistent" investment in its products and services, which he argues has led to a loss of trust among customers and missed opportunities in the tech industry. Despite Microsoft's advancements in AI and cloud computing, the company has made "baffling" decisions such as shutting down Windows Phone, under-investing in Xbox, and canceling promising Surface products. The author argues that Microsoft's lack of commitment to security, customer support, and long-term quality has "damaged" its reputation and hindered its potential for growth. Examples include recent hacking scandals, poor customer service experiences, and the aggressive promotion of Microsoft Edge at the expense of user choice. The author also expresses concern over Microsoft's handling of the Xbox brand, particularly the decision to release exclusive games on PlayStation, which could undermine the reasons for customers to choose Xbox. The op-ed concludes that while Microsoft has the potential to be a leader in the tech industry, its pattern of short-sighted decisions and failure to learn from past mistakes has led to a growing sense of doubt among its customers and observers.

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Meanwhile, the creator of Open Source Definition argues the real problem is unauthorized copying

The Open Source Initiative – the non-profit overseeing the Open Source Definition, which lays out the requirements for software licenses – is taking its effort to define Open Source AI to the wisdom of the crowds.…

Microsoft is asking hundreds of employees in its China-based cloud-computing and AI operations to consider transferring outside the country, as tensions between Washington and Beijing mount around the critical technology. WSJ: Such staff, mostly engineers with Chinese nationality, were recently offered the opportunity to transfer to countries including the U.S., Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, people familiar with the matter said. The company is asking about 700 to 800 people [non-paywalled link], who are involved in machine learning and other work related to cloud computing, one of the people said.ÂThe move by one of America's biggest cloud-computing and AI companies comes as the Biden administration seeks to put tighter curbs around China's capability to develop state-of-the-art AI. The White House is considering new rules that would require Microsoft and other U.S. cloud-computing companies to get licenses before giving Chinese customers access to AI chips.

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After a smashing fiscal '24, we're surprised he didn't get more

Nvidia's chief Jenson Huang received a 60 percent pay bump in the corporation's fiscal 2024 on the back of a massive rally in the share price based on demand for AI, and triple digit growth percentages for revenue and operating profit.…

Also demonstrates success accelerating molecular dynamics

Even as world leaders raise alarm bells about the impact of AI in war, waferscale startup Cerebras is joining forces with Aleph Alpha to develop sovereign models for the German armed forces.…

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Airbus Helicopters showcased an experimental half-plane, half-helicopter on Wednesday in a quest for speed as competition heats up to define the rotorcraft of the future. The $217 million Racer is a one-off demonstrator model combining traditional overhead rotors with two forward-facing propellors in a bid to combine stability and speed, shortening response times for critical missions like search-and-rescue. "There are missions where the quickest possible access to the zone is vital. We often talk about the 'golden hour'," Airbus Helicopters CEO Bruno Even told Reuters, referring to the window considered most critical for providing medical attention. Such designs could also be offered for military developments as NATO conducts a major study into next-generation helicraft, though much depends on how its planners define future needs. [...] Racer's public debut came months after Italy's Leonardo and U.S. manufacturer Bell agreed to co-operate on the next generation of tilt-rotor technology, which replaces a helicopter's trademark overhead blades altogether. Leonardo is also leading a separate project to develop the next generation of tilt-rotors for civil use. Its AW609 is the sole existing civil design, but has yet to be certified. Proponents of the tilt-rotor, which relies on swiveling side-mounted rotors 90 degrees to go up and then forwards, say it permits higher speed and range that are suited to military missions. Critics say the tilt mechanism reaches higher speeds only at the expense of higher complexity and maintenance costs. Airbus said the Racer will fly at 220 knots (400 km/hour) compared with traditional helicopter speeds closer to 140 knots. Bell says its V-280 Valor tilt-rotor design, recently picked by the Pentagon, will reach a cruise speed of 280 knots. Watch: Racer - Inside the high speed demonstrator (YouTube)

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Following last year's release of PipeWire 1.0 for managing audio and video streams on the Linux desktop and proving itself a capable replacement to PulseAudio and JACK, among other uses, PipeWire 1.2 is nearing release. Out today is the first release candidate of the upcoming PipeWire 1.2...

Company will require certain suppliers to run on 100% carbon-free electricity ... by 2030

Microsoft has increased carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 30 percent since 2020, making its goal of becoming carbon-negative by 2030 even more difficult, and it looks like AI is to blame.…

'We would never crush creativity,' says South Korea megacorp

If Apple thought it could forget about last week's marketing disaster — which saw the tech giant roundly slated for appearing to crush human creativity in the name of computing progress — it was wrong.…

ESA/JAXA mission running on reduced thrust as engineers work to resolve the issue

Updated  Thruster problems with BepiColombo, the joint ESA and JAXA mission to Mercury, could cause headaches for managers plotting the spacecraft's trajectory and insertion into Mercury's orbit.…

Sort of a FOSS Norton Ghost, now updated to Ubuntu 24.04 base

A fresh release of Rescuezilla, a free Ubuntu-based rescue disk for imaging the drives of a sickly computer, is available.…

Coming as a surprise, longtime Linux developer Oded Gabbay announced he's left Intel / Habana Labs and is therefore stepping down from the maintainer role of the Linux kernel drivers for the Intel Xe DRM driver and more notably the Habana Labs accelerator driver that he's maintained from the start...

HMRC forgot to tell Brits about its digital support channels

Appalling service levels at Britain's tax collector meant customers phoning in with inquiries were collectively left on hold for 798 years in fiscal 2023.…