When the developers of the Linux security module (LSM) subsystem find themselves disagreeing with other kernel developers, it tends to be because those other developers don't think to or don't want to add security hooks to their shiny new subsystems. Sometimes, though, the addition of new hooks by non-LSM developers can also create some friction. Andrii Nakryiko's posting of a pair of BPF-related security hooks raised a couple of interesting questions, one of which spurred a fair amount of discussion, and one that did not.

Microsoft revealed that recent attacks against PaperCut servers aimed at distributing Cl0p and LockBit ransomware.

Microsoft linked the recent attacks against PaperCut servers to a financially motivated threat actor tracked as Lace Tempest (formerly DEV-0950). The group is known to be an affiliate of the Clop ransomware RaaS affiliate, it has been linked to GoAnywhere attacks and Raspberry Robin infection. Since April 13, Lace Tempest added the PaperCut exploits to its arsenal.

In the attack observed by Microsoft, the group ran multiple PowerShell commands to deliver a TrueBot DLL, which connected to a C2 server, attempted to steal LSASS credentials, and injected the TrueBot payload into the conhost.exe service.

Then Lace Tempest dropped a Cobalt Strike Beacon implant, gathered additional information on the target environment, and used WMI for lateral movement. The group used the file-sharing app MegaSync for data exfiltration.

Microsoft is also monitoring a separate cluster of attacks exploiting PaperCut flaws to deliver the Lockbit ransomware. The company warns that other financially motivated groups could adopt a similar infection chain.

From the early days of ARPANET until the dawn of the World Wide Web (WWW), the internet was primarily the domain of researchers, teachers and students, with hobbyists running their own BBS servers you could dial into, yet not connected to the internet. Pitched in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee while working at CERN, the WWW was intended as an information management system thatd provide standardized access to information using HTTP as the transfer protocol and HTML and later CSS to create formatted documents inspired by the SGML standard. Even better, it allowed for WWW forums and personal websites to begin to pop up, enabling the eternal joy of web rings, animated GIFs and forums on any conceivable topic.

During the early 90s, as the newly opened WWW began to gain traction with the public, the Mosaic browser formed the backbone of the WWW browsers (web browsers) of the time, including Internet Explorer which licensed the Mosaic code and the Mosaic-based...

After profiling and raising an issue by Google's Chrome OS engineers, there is a set of "request for comments" patches out today for the Intel Linux graphics driver that can provide 10~15% better performance when operating in the tuned mode...

A little-known Russian-speaking cyber-espionage group has been linked to a new politically-motivated surveillance campaign targeting high-ranking government officials, telecom services, and public service infrastructures in Tajikistan. The intrusion set, dubbed Paperbug by Swiss cybersecurity company PRODAFT, has been attributed to a threat actor known as Nomadic Octopus (aka DustSquad). "The

A new study published in the American Journal of Ophthalmology suggests that there seems to be a significant rate of concomitant retinal nonperfusion in pediatric optic nerve hypoplasia (ONH) patients.

This study was carried out by Natasha da Cruz and colleagues to report the correlation between peripheral retinal nonperfusion, secondary problems, and optic nerve hypoplasia in pediatric patients.

The Bascom Palmer Eye Institute conducted the Retrospective case series investigation between January 2015 and January 2022. Age under 18 years old, a clinical diagnosis of optic disc hypoplasia, and an acceptable-quality FA were the inclusion criteria.

The Universe is swarming with galaxies, billions upon billions as far as the eye can see. And among this multitude, some galaxies really stand out in a spectacular way.

These are the quasar galaxies. Powered by an active supermassive black hole guzzling material at such a tremendous rate, they blaze with some of the brightest light in the Universe, lighting up the galactic center right across the electromagnetic spectrum. For decades, astronomers have wondered why some galaxies have such extreme activity and others do not.

Now they think theyve cracked it. By making a careful study of nearby quasar and non-quasar galaxies, a team led by astrophysicist Jonny Pierce of the University of Hertfordshire in the UK concludes that, in a majority of cases, quasar activity is triggered when two galaxies start the process of colliding and merging.

Is there such a thing as absolute motion? Modern science, as represented by Einsteins theory of relativity, says no. After all, absolute motion would require that there exists a single coordinate system or common reference point that all observers could agree is stationary. Such a coordinate system doesnt exist.

But modern science has also found a way to observe the coordinate system of the entire visible Universe. If one can find a coordinate system in which the visible Universe is stationary, isnt that the right one? Whats the truth behind this, and does it invalidate Einsteins theory? And how does the yin-yang symbol come into play?

Einsteins theory of relativity makes many counterintuitive claims, but those claims are consequences of one fundamental assumption: that any individual is perfectly justified in assuming that they are the one, unmoving, thing in the entire Universe. This assertion could be called the cosmic egotist principle. Essentially, you are the one thing around which the entire Universe revolves.

New research indicates that for patients with advanced skin cancer, it may be important to maintain normal vitamin D levels when receiving immunotherapy medications called immune checkpoint inhibitors. The findings are published by Wiley online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.

Vitamin D has many effects on the body, including regulation of the immune system. To see whether levels of vitamin D might impact the effectiveness of immune checkpoint inhibitors, investigators analyzed the blood of 200 patients with advanced melanoma both before and every 12 weeks during immunotherapy treatment.

A favorable response rate to immune checkpoint inhibitors was observed in 56.0% of patients in the group with normal baseline vitamin D levels or normal levels obtained with vitamin D supplementation, compared with 36.2% in the group with low vitamin D levels without supplementation. Progressionfree survivalthe time from treatment initiation until cancer progression in these groups was 11.25 and 5.75 months, respectively.

RSA Conference 2023 is taking place at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Check out our microsite for the conference for all the most important news. The Early Stage Expo is an innovation space dedicated to promoting up-and-comers in the industry. The featured vendors in our photo gallery are: Paladin Cloud, Token, Privado, Fend, Cytellix, Seraphic, Inside-Out Defense, Session Guardian, Oxeye, Myota, Tromzo, Surf, Operant, At bay, HackNotice, Cybervadis, Viso Trust, Mammoth, Mesh Security, Radiant More

The post Photos: RSA Conference 2023 Early Stage Expo appeared first on Help Net Security.

Security updates have been issued by Fedora (chromium, perl-Alien-ProtoBuf, and redis), Oracle (kernel), SUSE (dmidecode, fwupd, libtpms, libxml2, openssl-ibmca, and webkit2gtk3), and Ubuntu (cloud-init, ghostscript, linux, linux-aws, linux-aws-5.15, linux-azure, linux-gke, linux-gke-5.15, linux-gkeop, linux-hwe-5.15, linux-ibm, linux-lowlatency, linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.15, linux-oracle, linux-oracle-5.15, linux, linux-aws, linux-azure, linux-gcp, linux-hwe-5.19, linux-ibm, linux-kvm, linux-lowlatency, linux-oracle, linux-raspi, and linux, linux-aws, linux-kvm, linux-lts-xenial).

hubie writes:

Even worms get the munchies:

If you give a worm some weed, he might just need a snack. Worms exposed to a cannabinoid became even more interested in the kind of food they already prefer, new University of Oregon research shows. The effect is analogous to a cannabis user's craving potato chips and ice cream after a few puffs a phenomenon scientists call "hedonic feeding," but known more colloquially as "the munchies."

[...] The endocannabinoid system is a far-reaching signaling network that helps regulate key body systems like appetite, mood, and pain sensation. Molecules called endocannabinoids send chemical messages by interacting with cannabinoid receptors, special proteins that are sprinkled throughout the body and brain. Normally, these messages help keep different body systems in balance. But certain compounds in cannabis, like THC, also interact with cannabinoid receptors, making users feel "high" after partaking and causing other effects, too.

[...] To see how cannabis-like substances might affect the worms' food preferences, Lockery's team soaked the worms in anandamide. Anandamide is an endocannabinoid, a molecule made by the body that activates the body's cannabinoid receptors.

Then, they put the worms into a T-shaped maze. On one side was high-quality food; on the other side, lower-quality food. Even under normal conditions, the worms prefer the high-quality food. But when soaked in anandamide, that preference became even stronger they flocked to the high-quality food and stayed longer than usual.

"We suggest that this increase in existing preference is analogous to eating more of the foods you would crave anyway," Lockery said. "It's like choosing pizza versus oatmeal."

Read more of this story at SoylentNews.

Skyhigh Security announced the addition of several new capabilities to its Security Service Edge (SSE) portfolio at RSA Conference 2023. The features and functionality converged in the Skyhigh Cloud Platform reinforce Skyhigh Securitys mission to protect the worlds data with an easy to use, customer-first approach. According to The Data Dilemma: Cloud Adoption and Risk Report, on average, organizations store 61% of their sensitive data in the cloud, a 48% increase from 2019. Most have More

The post Skyhigh Security unveils major updates to product portfolio appeared first on Help Net Security.

Introduced one month ago in Vulkan 1.3.246 was the new VK_EXT_shader_object extension that was worked on by developers from Activision to Valve. Zink lead developer Mike Blumenkrantz at Valve has been busy the past few weeks on getting this shader object support wired up for use by this OpenGL-on-Vulkan driver...

Remote Access Trojans (RATs) have taken the third leading position in ANY. RUN's Q1 2023 report on the most prevalent malware types, making it highly probable that your organization may face this threat. Though LimeRAT might not be the most well-known RAT family, its versatility is what sets it apart. Capable of carrying out a broad spectrum of malicious activities, it excels not only in data

At RSA Conference 2023, Thales launched CipherTrust Transparent Encryption Ransomware Protection (CTE-RWP), an optional licensed feature to the CipherTrust Data Security Platform. CTE-RWP will elevate the protection of customer files and folders from ransomware attacks via access management controls and encryption processes. According to the 2023 Thales Data Threat Report, 49% of IT professionals reported an increase in ransomware attacks with 22% of organisations having experienced a ransomware attack in past 12 months. Ransomware attacks More

The post Thales CTE-RWP protects critical files and folders from ransomware attacks appeared first on Help Net Security.

RSA Conference 2023 is taking place at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Check out our microsite for the conference for all the most important news. Part 1 of the photos is here, and Part 2 is here. Here are a few photos from the event, featured vendors include: Tehtris, SentinelOne, Armis, Cisco, FBI, Arctic Wolf, Thales, Trellix, Palo Alto Networks.

The post Photos: RSA Conference 2023, part 3 appeared first on Help Net Security.

Contents

• GNU/Linux
  • Desktop/Laptop
  • Kernel Space
  • Applications
  • Instructionals/Technical
  • Games
  • Desktop Environments/WMs
    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt
    • GNOME Desktop/GTK
• Distributions and Operating Systems
  • Fedora Family / IBM
  • Debian Family
  • Canonical/Ubuntu Family
  • Devices/Embedded
  • Open Hardware/Modding
  • Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications
• Free, Libre, and Open Source Software
  • Web Browsers/Web Servers
  • Education
  • GNU Projects
  • Programming/Development
    • Python
    • Shell/Bash/Zsh/Ksh
    • Rust
  • Standards/Consortia
• Leftovers
  • Science
  • Education
  • Hardware
  • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
  • Proprietary
  • Security
    • Privacy/Sur...

Over the years here at Hackaday, weve covered a range of stories about the ongoing panic surrounding drone flights. From plastic bags reported as drone incidents through to airports closed with no evidence of drones being involved, its clear that drone fliers are an embattled group facing a legal and aeronautical establishment that seems to understand little about them or their craft.

It sometimes seems to be a no-win situation for fliers, but perhaps [XJet] has something which might improve matters. Hes published a video showing off a portable ADS-B receiver which could be used by drone pilots to check for any aircraft in the vicinity and perhaps more importantly allow the drone community to take the moral high ground when problems occur.

The receiver isnt particularly special, being a Raspberry Pi with LCD screen and an RTL-SDR receiver in a nice 3D printed enclosure. He says hell be publishing all software and build details in due course. But its the accessibility which makes it such a good idea, instead of being a very expensive safety device its a receiver that could probably be made with a less powerful Pi for under $100.

There is of course a flaw in the plan, that not all pilots are concerned enough for their safety to fit an ADS-B transponder to their aircraft, and so are in...

It's likely been years since many of you have heard of Firewire and some readers likely never had the opportunity to use it. The Firewire interface was great back in the day and during the early period of digital video cameras, but modern versions of USB and Thunderbolt are far faster, allow longer cable distances, and numerous other advantages. While Firewire hasn't seen much activity in years and can be outpaced by USB 3.0 and beyond, there is a new Firewire subsystem maintainer for the Linux kernel and he intends to keep at it for the next six years...

CyberNews analyzed a classic cryptocurrency romance scam, also known as CryptoRom, explaining how scammers hid the money

CryptoRom scammers hid the money with several layers of obfuscation, but the Cybernews research team discovered that the stolen funds ended up in Binance accounts.

A man from Florida in the US recently reached out to Cybernews for help. Scammers had lured him into parting with $480,000 after cultivating a long-term relationship, eventually coaxing him into making cryptocurrency investments.

Usually involving fake romantic interest, the scheme is known as cryptocurrency romance or CryptoRom. This increasingly popular scam is often run by criminal gangs in Southeast Asia, where the affair is called Sha Zhu Pan, a Chinese phrase that means pig butchering.

CryptoRom scams are very sophisticated and indicate a vast criminal organization behind the curtain. This certainly necessitates a significant amount of social engineering. This type of scam has an enormous psychological toll on victims in addition to their financial loss, the researchers said.

The Cybernews research team meticulously followed the money that the victim sent to scammers in seven installments. Even though the crooks attempted to hide the funds, moving money between several accounts, the team managed to locate the victims money in Binance, the worlds largest crypto exchange.

Heres how we did it.

The scam

The victim first met the scammers via OkCupid, a popular online dating app. The crooks used a fake profile to develop a romantic relationship with the victim online, slowly gaining the trust of the Floridian.

This type of fraud is particularly vicious as scammers carefully cultivate long-term relationships with their victims. Not a single word about crypto investments or even money may be uttered f...

Vulkan 1.3.249 is out today as the latest spec update for this industry-standard high performance graphics and compute API. Notable with Vulkan 1.3.249 is the introduction of VK_KHR_ray_tracing_position_fetch...

ThreatX announced the expansion of its platform offering with the release of a new Botnet Console and API catalog 2.0. These new dashboards, unveiled at RSA Conference 2023, will help security teams rapidly investigate automated threats and attempts to abuse APIs with enhanced metrics, analytics, and visualizations. Attackers use botnets and other advanced techniques to exploit APIs and applications and evade detection thanks in part to solver services that are sold on the dark web. More

The post ThreatX strengthens API and application protection with Botnet Console and API Catalog 2.0 appeared first on Help Net Security.

For those making use of the Radeon R600 Gallium3D driver within Mesa for supporting the Radeon HD 2000 series through the HD 6000 series (pre-GCN) graphics cards, Mesa 23.2 is finally ready to drop its TGSI code path for what was once the default intermediate representation (IR) used by Gallium3D drivers but in more recent years NIR has become the preferred IR format...

Two years ago, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) reported the Portuguese streaming site MrPiracy to the U.S. Trade Representative.

The Hollywood anti-piracy group described the site as a notorious pirate operation that should be dealt with accordingly.

Whether this diplomatic lobbying effort had a direct effect is not clear, but MrPiracy.top shut down a few weeks later. Interestingly, however, it didnt take long for another site to step up and take its place.

Pobre.tv Rises

The successor was Pobre.tv, where Pobre is Portuguese for poor. The site offered many thousands of movies and TV shows free of charge and quickly became the go-to entertainment portal for millions of people.

This meteoric rise was in part facilitated by the old MrPiracy domains, which were redirected to Pobre without an official explanation. Perhaps the old behemoth willingly handed over the reigns to this newcomer, or there might have been some kind of deal behind the scenes.

In part due to these redirects, the popularity of Pobre.tv and Pobre.wtf in Portugal was massive from the get-go. Up until last month, it was ranked among the top 25 most visited sites in the country, beating the web traffic numbers of legitimate platforms such as Netflix, HBO, and Disney.

Enforcement Efforts Begin

PobreTVs status didnt go unnoticed by rightsholders. Over the last year, the MPA-led Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) tried its best to identify the operators through a series of DMCA subpoenas, targeted at Cloudflare.

The first DMCA subpoena, through which Cloudflare was asked to share identifying information of the domain names owner, was filed early last year, with another one following in November.

Whe...

Clop and LockBit ransomware affiliates are behind the recent attacks exploiting vulnerabilities in PaperCut application servers, according to Microsoft and Trend Micro researchers. The detected campaings Microsoft is attributing the recently reported attacks exploiting the CVE-2023-27350 and CVE-2023-27351 vulnerabilities in print management software PaperCut to deliver Clop ransomware to the threat actor tracked as Lace Tempest (overlaps with FIN11 and TA505), Microsoft shared. Lace Tempest (DEV-0950) is a Clop ransomware affiliate that has been observed More

The post PaperCut vulnerabilities leveraged by Clop, LockBit ransomware affiliates appeared first on Help Net Security.

The threat actors behind RTM Locker have developed a ransomware strain that's capable of targeting Linux machines, marking the group's first foray into the open source operating system. "Its locker ransomware infects Linux, NAS, and ESXi hosts and appears to be inspired by Babuk ransomware's leaked source code," Uptycs said in a new report published Wednesday. "It uses a combination of ECDH on

Linux sound subsystem maintainer and SUSE engineer Takashi Iwai submitted all of the sound driver updates this week for the ongoing Linux 6.4 kernel merge window...

upstart writes:

Bosch to acquire TSI Semiconductors for $1.5B to boost US chip production:

Bosch will acquire the assets of U.S. chipmaker TSI Semiconductors to expand its semiconductor business with silicon carbide chips (SiC), the German engineering and technology giant said Wednesday.

The acquisition includes a $1.5 billion investment over the next few years to upgrade TSI Semiconductors' manufacturing facilities in Roseville, California. Starting in 2026, the first chips will be produced on 200-millimeter wafers based on silicon carbide.

News of more chips being produced on U.S. soil is welcome in the automotive world, one of the industries most affected by the global semiconductor shortage that began with the COVID-19 pandemic. The shortage started when factories shut or slowed production due to lockdowns, thus disrupting global supply chains. A surge in demand for electronics as people stayed inside, as well as a boom in demand from an automotive industry determined to go electric and build smarter vehicles, only exacerbated the problem.

Electric vehicles on average use more chips than their gas-powered counterparts, and most new EVs hitting the market today promise advanced driver assistance systems and high-tech infotainment systems. As a result, in 2021, the average car had about 1,200 chips, twice the number in 2010, and a figure that will likely increase.

SiCs, which Bosch's new factory will produce, have been a hot commodity among automakers, as well. The company says the market for SiCs has grown by 30% a year on average, and that's in part because they offer greater range and more efficient recharging for EVs. They also lose up to 50% less energy, last longer and require less maintenance.

Bosch expects an average of 25 of its chips will be integrated in every new vehicle by 2025.

Original Submission

Read more of this story at SoylentNews.

Also available via the Gemini protocol at:

• gemini://gemini.techrights.org/irc-gmi/irc-log-techrights-260423.gmi
• gemini://gemini.techrights.org/irc-gmi/irc-log-260423.gmi
• gemini://gemini.techrights.org/irc-gmi/irc-log-social-260423.gmi
• gemini://gemini.techrights.org/irc-gmi/irc-log-techbytes-260423.gmi

Over HTTP:

Is Microsoft Leaving Atlanta?

Summary: In Seattle, Redmond and Bellevue (Washington) Microsoft has hit the brakes and laid off many people (more than it admits to the press); apparently Atlanta too is impacted (skip to 1:22)

Several viewers told 7 On Your Side tap-enabled systems captured their credit card information at a variety of places a restaurant, a store, even a doctors office. So is this going to happen more? https://abc7ne.ws/3Lgpkzu.

#news #money #creditcard #technology #taptopay #abc7news

Think of it as a ChatGPT service for images.

Iran-linked APT group Charming Kitten employed a new malware dubbed BellaCiao in attacks against victims in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East and India.

Iran-linked Charming Kitten group, (aka APT35, Phosphorus, Newscaster, and Ajax Security Team) made the headlines in 2014 when experts at iSight issued a report describing the most elaborate net-based spying campaign organized by Iranian hackers using social media.

Microsoft has been tracking the threat actors at least since 2013, but experts believe that the cyberespionage group has been active since at least 2011 targeting journalists and activists in the Middle East, as well as organizations in the United States, and entities in the U.K., Israel, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.

Now researchers from Bitdefender uncovered a new campaign targeting users in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East and India. The Charming Kitten used a new custom malware, dubbed BellaCiao, that is tailored to suit individual targets and is very sophisticated.

The name BellaCiao comes from the Italian folk song about resistance fighting.

The researchers pointed out that after a transition of power in 2021, the IRGC and the Iran-linked APT groups adopted a more aggressive strategy. Charming Kitten and other Iran-linked APT groups were observed quickly weaponizing publicly disclosed PoCs.

Bitdefender identified multiple samples of the BellaCiao malware, each of them was customized to target a specific victim and included hardcoded information such as company name, specially crafted subdomains, or associated public IP address.

All samples that we collected included .pdb paths. PDB (Program DataBase) is a file format used by Microsoft Visual Studio for storing debugging information about an executable or DLL file. reads the report published by Bitdefender. We used it to extract build information of project, including the project name and path that was configured in Visual Studio.

Z:\BellaCiao\BellaCiao\More Targets\\\\backdoor\Microsoft...

GitHub has announced that its private vulnerability reporting feature for open source repositories is now available to all project owners. General availability The private vulnerability reporting feature provides a direct collaboration channel that allows researchers to more easily report vulnerabilities, and maintainers to easily fix them. It has been available in public beta since November 2022. Since then, maintainers for more than 30k organizations have enabled private vulnerability reporting on more than 180k repositories, receiving More

The post GitHub introduces private vulnerability reporting for open source repositories appeared first on Help Net Security.

Microsoft has confirmed that the active exploitation of PaperCut servers is linked to attacks that are designed to deliver Cl0p and LockBit ransomware families. The tech giant's threat intelligence team is attributing a subset of the intrusions to a financially motivated actor it tracks under the name Lace Tempest (formerly DEV-0950), which overlaps with other hacking groups like FIN11, TA505,

Ask anyone to name a first-generation home computer from the 1970s, and theyll probably mention the likes of the Altair 8800 and IMSAI 8080. But those iconic machines werent the only options available to hobbyists back in the day: Heathkit, famous for its extensive range of electronic devices sold in kit form, jumped on the microcomputer bandwagon with their H8. Though it always remained a bit of an obscure machine, several dedicated enthusiasts kept making H8-compatible hardware and software long after the computer itself went out of production. That tradition continues in 2023, with [Scott M. Baker] producing a brand-new DRAM board thats compatible with

Although the Heathkit H8 was designed around the Intel 8080 processor, it could also be equipped with a Z80. [Scott] had built an 8085 based CPU board as well, meaning that any other hardware he developed for the H8 had to support these three processors. For something as timing-critical as a memory board, this turned out to be way harder than hed expected.

First off, he had already made things difficult for himself by choosing DRAM rather than the simpler SRAM. Whereas SRAM chips can be more or less directly hooked up to the CPUs address and data buses, a DRAM setup needs refresh circuitry to ensure the data doesnt leak out of the chips internal capacitors. [Scott] decided to use the classic D8203 DRAM controller to do...

upstart writes:

Chang'e 8 missions will check whether regolith harbors appropriate materials:

China's space program has decided to no longer worry about hauling construction materials to the Moon and just 3D print buildings onsite instead, said state-sponsored media on Monday.

China Daily said the Chang'e 8 lunar mission would conduct onsite investigations to see if lunar materials would be appropriate for the job. Wu Weiren, a leading scientist at the China National Space Administration (CNSA), told the outlet that lunar soil would be printed into the construction units.

He added that [scientists] at Tongji University in Shanghai and Xi'an Jiaotong University in Shaanxi Province had "already begun studying the possible applications of 3D printing technology on the Moon."

It is globally understood that astronauts will work and live on the Moon and will need not only infrastructure, but also the ability to repair and construct tools and resources independently.

"If we wish to stay on the Moon for a long time, we need to set up stations by using the Moon's own materials," Wu told China Daily.

[...] China achieved its first lunar landing in 2013. Chang'e 8 is expected to launch in 2028 after Chang'e 6 and 7. China plans to place an astronaut on the lunar surface by 2030.

Original Submission

Read more of this story at SoylentNews.

Google has been vying to win business from big corporations and government agencies that are deciding between major tech vendors as they move from traditional data centers to the cloud and rely on more compute-heavy applications involving artificial intelligence. Amazon Web Services, the leader in cloud infrastructure, popularized the market in the mid-2000s and has been profitable every quarter since 2014. Microsoft, the second-biggest player in the space, doesnt report profitability figures for its Azure unit.

Alphabet started disclosing cloud revenue in 2020, and the following year began providing information on the scale of its operating losses.

Last week Alphabet restated operating income for cloud and its other segments, resulting in lower cloud losses in 2021 and 2022. The restated numbers show the cloud unit had a $186 million operating loss in the fourth quarter, compared with $480 million before the change, for example.

Read the original blog at Read More 

The post Linux Foundation Newsletter: April 2023 appeared first on Linux.com.

Video download link

Summary: The above LibrePlanet talk by Anthony Wang was uploaded by the FSF 8 days ago (slides here; PeerTube link); From the official page: Free software needs free tools! Were making software development collaboration and hosting websites (a.k.a forges) talk to each other using shared protocols, hopefully allowing the free software community to create a decentralized network of self-hosted forge websites powered by fully free software, and whose UX design is geared towards filling human needs rather than company profits. Well explore this vision, talk about (and see) our latest development progress, examine the challenges, and present our roadmap for realizing this dream.

Licence: CC BY SA 4.0

AI generated video is mostly nightmare fuel at this point. But this I laughed so hard, I nearly injured myself. Via: toms HARDWARE: In the last few months, weve seen how large language models such as ChatGPT can generate text copy, how image generators like Stable Diffusion can create pictures on demand and even how []

Its partnership with OpenAI gives Microsoft a head start.

After years of playing second fiddle to Google in the search engine market, Microsoft is set to become a technology leader again as businesses and individuals worldwide look to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) into everything they do. In the Q1 2023 earnings reported recently, the 48-year-old company has outperformed its younger rival, Alphabet.

For years, Microsoft was mainly a market leader in operating systems. Still, the changing nature of computing technologies meant it has ventured into other areas, such as cloud computing and gaming, through its Xbox platform.

CodeWaves platform generates the code necessary to develop the app from descriptions of the users intended app functionality.

One of Chinas largest video gaming companies, NetEase, has introduced CodeWave, a low-code application development platform powered by its large language model (LLM).

This makes NetEase, the newest major Chinese tech company, to provide such artificial intelligence (AI) service, allowing users to build apps with text prompts, according to a new report by South China Morning Post (SCMP) on Wednesday.

I expect that these tools will be valuable for everyone from regular people to creators to businesses.

Meta sees an opportunity to introduce AI agents to billions of people in ways that will be useful and meaningful, CEO Mark Zuckerberg told investors today.

While he was vague about how exactly Meta will add generative AI to its apps, Zuckerberg gave the most detailed preview yet during the companys earnings call for the first quarter of this year, when it reported $28.6 billion in revenue and a record 2 billion daily users of the Facebook app, beating Wall Streets estimates. Metas profit for the quarter was $5.7 billion, a 24 percent decrease from the same time last year.

Get ready for ChatGPT competition in Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp.