Tech

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A survey of IT asset managers (ITAM) and software asset managers (SAM) in organisations that use Java has revealed that the majority have experienced an Oracle Java audit in the past three years.

The survey of 500 qualified participants from six continents, conducted by Dimensional Research for the ITAM Forum and Azul, reported that 75% of respondents worked in organisations that were audited by Oracle for Java compliance. More than a quarter of the survey’s respondents spend over $500,000 a year on resolving licensing issues including audits, additional licenses and penalties for non-compliance.

In the age of artificial intelligence, water has become as critical to data centers — which power the development of the cutting-edge technology — as electricity. The facilities pump enormous amounts of cold water into pipes that run throughout the buildings to cool the computers inside so that they can perform calculations and keep internet services like social networking humming.

A data center like Meta’s, which was completed last year, typically guzzles around 500,000 gallons of water a day. New data centers built to train more powerful A.I. are set to be even thirstier, requiring millions of gallons of water a day, according to water permit applications reviewed by The New York Times.

Data center companies often demand as much water as they can get, using the tax revenue they pay as leverage, said Newsha Ajami, a hydrologist and director of urban water policy at Stanford. Some projects are so large that they require the land to first be “dewatered,” which is when groundwater is pumped out of the surrounding area in preparation for construction.

Microsoft has made another adjustment to the restrictions that it plans to place on Windows 10 customers who use Microsoft 365 apps (previously called Office 365), gradually incentivizing them to move to Windows 11.

You’re probably aware that Microsoft is discontinuing support for Windows 10 users this October, has it has said repeatedly for years. But it is also turning off support for Microsoft 365 apps like Word and Excel, too, on the same day: Oct. 14, 2025. Apps like Word will still work, and to ensure a smooth transition Microsoft will still support Microsoft 365 apps with security updates for three years, until 2028.

What’s new? Microsoft has clarified that “security updates” do not include “feature updates” that include new features.

“Devices running Microsoft 365 Apps on Windows 10 will receive feature updates until Version 2608 is released on the following dates: August 2026 for Current Channel (including all versions for individuals and families),” Microsoft says.

Ever since Microsoft announced Windows 11 almost four years ago, there has been significant controversy on a fairly regular basis about stringent hardware requirements that need to be met in order to legitimately run the operating system. A major concern revolved around the fact that Windows 11 mandates TPM 2.0, something that is not present in older processors, rendering otherwise perfectly fine PCs obsolete.

When an average person purchased a Windows 10 PC years ago, they did not ask the retailer if the hardware also included TPM. The customer may care about Windows Hello in their potential purchase, they don't care about how it's more secure through TPM 2.0. This technology, while useful, doesn't matter to your regular home user. Most people don't utilize or even know about BitLocker encryption, in fact, they'd probably be more concerned about the performance hit that could result from disk encryption.

The common Windows 11 user assumes that the operating system's security is built-in, and as long as they have a secure password that allows them to login to their PC and use it, they should be fine.

Elon Musk has stepped away from Doge with very little “efficiency” to show for it. While it may have been more of a showpiece than real policy, this brutal and short experiment in Silicon Valley governance reveals a long-simmering battle between digital utopians and the institutional infrastructures critical to functioning democracies.

Doge’s website dubiously claims $190bn in savings. The receipts show that they are less about efficiency than they are aimed at effective dissolution, a fate met by USAID, the federal agency responsible for distributing foreign assistance.

Don’t be fooled. These brash new reductions are not just your garden-variety small-government crusades or culture-war skirmishes. This administration’s war on institutions derives from the newfound power of Silicon Valley ideology – a techno-determinism that views each institution’s function as potential raw material for capture by private digital platforms.

• Car hire companies are deploying new AI-powered scanning systems to detect even minor vehicle damage, sparking customer outrage over unexpected charges.
• Hertz, a prominent car rental firm, is using UVeye's automated technology at several US airports, which compares high-resolution images taken at pickup and return to identify new damage.
• Customers report receiving substantial bills for tiny imperfections, such as small dents or scuffs, often just minutes after returning their vehicles.
• Specific cases include Kelly Rogers being charged for a 'dent' she thought was a shadow, and another customer facing a $440 bill for a one-inch scuff.
• Despite customer complaints and plans to expand the system to over 100 US airports, Hertz maintains the technology ensures customers are not charged for pre-existing damage.

YouTube has an AI slop problem, with both the main site and the booming Shorts section filling up with low-effort crap shoveled in front of viewers by the millions. New policies are trying to demonetize, or sometimes even ban, accounts that take advantage of AI to mass produce garbage. But if Google is upset that it’s suddenly hosting the web’s video dross, it has only itself to blame.

Starting on July 15th, and with less than a week of notice, YouTube will be taking a closer look at members of the YouTube Partner Program. This is the monetization side of YouTube videos that makes a career as an independent (or even corporate) YouTube video producer functional. Beginning next week, YouTubers who want to keep their advertising dollars will have to avoid “mass-produced and repetitious content,” as well as “inauthentic” videos.

Perplexity has released its own web browser called Comet, and it's clearly aimed at Google.

The AI search upstart has taken a page straight out of Google's playbook to try and supplant it: Comet comes with Perplexity AI search as the default search engine, a position The Chocolate Factory has fought to keep in various third-party browsers and platforms with a series of contracts, some of which a court has ruled to be anticompetitive.

Perplexity says it built Comet "to amplify our intelligence." But that's arguably a very simplified version of its goals. Like Google, Perplexity sees value in employing user data to personalize the browsing experience - and, perhaps, sell ads.

During an interview on the TBPN tech podcast in April, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas cited personalized advertising as one of the reasons to build a browser, noting that you need "memory" – the ability to retain the information provided in and produced by prompts to AI models – to make personalization work.

Artificial intelligence and the hardware that powers it, is at the heart of a fallout in Pennsylvania, where electricity prices have risen dramatically for wholesalers and consumers due to surging demand. The governor is now threatening to abandon the state's grid energy provider, PJM Interconnection, via Reuters. He's demanding that PJM increase energy capacity through the acceleration of new energy plant construction and approval.

Following the launch of ChatGPT in 2023 and the explosion of competitor tools and chatbots in the months that followed, the regional transmission organization, PJM, saw a surge in demand for power as major tech companies scoured the country looking for spare grid capacity to run AI and build new data centers to support them. AI can demand a lot of power, so much so that Elon Musk is shipping an entire power plant to the US.

This couldn't have come at a worse time, as in 2022, PJM had paused new power plant connections after it faced a huge influx of applications for new renewable projects, which required more engineering oversight before they could be connected to the grid. Although PJM claims that this hasn't led to a shortfall in supply, it has meant the grid hasn't expanded like it was expected to. Local opposition to the construction of some of the plants that have been approved has further compounded the issue.

The US General Services Administration (GSA) has announced an agreement with Oracle it claims offers a 75 percent discount on the vendor's license-based technology.

However, experts have pointed out that heavy discounts are commonly offered to Oracle customers, and a 75 percent discount might not be as good as it sounds. Big Red can lock customers into deals stipulating that any attempt to reduce Oracle usage can see discounts disappear and prices rise.

As part of the arrangement, the GSA has agreed to other base discounts for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) services including the vendor's latest database, Oracle Database 23ai. The agreement eliminates data egress fees and provides pricing parity with commercial offerings, a statement said. The Register has asked the GSA how this was benchmarked.

In 2023, analysis by IT procurement consultant Michael Garland found that Oracle and Microsoft get at least 25 percent and 30 percent of their respective government revenue through purchase processes that are not competitive, collectively benefiting by $10-15 billion annually.

Ubisoft is being called out for a clause people have discovered in its licence agreement that orders owners of its games to destroy them should the studio choose to end service for those games. However, not only is the clause not new, as some have implied, but Ubisoft is far from the only studio that has it in its licence agreement.

Not only has that clause been in the Ubisoft EULA for a while, but the same sentiment can be found in EULAs you've agreed to before playing other games from an array of different studios. As highlighted by Amon274 on Reddit, the same clause can be found in the EULAs for various games on Steam, including Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and Oblivion Remastered. A Phasmophobia dev also pointed to a similar clause in multiple agreements when the game was called out for the exact same thing two years ago.

Even your copies of Baldur's Gate 3 have got to go if Larian Studios ever deems it so.

Tech companies have found a way to market digital goods to lonely people, promising relief through connection, but this kind of connection isn’t the solution; it’s the problem. Calling loneliness an epidemic transforms a feeling into a pathology to be cured, creating a loneliness economy. Reframing a universal human experience like loneliness as a medical diagnosis creates a market opportunity to manufacture, sell and buy treatment. The prescription given for loneliness is connection, and Big Tech has found a way to seize the vulnerability of lonely people eager to escape their predicament.

Meta’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, argues that A.I. companions can help fill what he sees as a friendship gap. Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, is developing an A.I. “companion” that will live with users and, the company claims, be capable of sensing their surroundings. Replika, a generative A.I. chatbot, touts customer claims like “I love my human-like A.I. companion” and “Replika understands me better than any real guy ever did.” “Friends come and go, but GalaxyAI has your back,” another ad reads. Social media, dating apps and A.I. companions won’t alleviate loneliness; they will make it worse by giving people a way to avoid their aloneness.

Archive : https://archive.is/MA9RX

• Microsoft recently threw a lifeline to consumers, offering alternatives to paying $30 for extended support for Windows 10
• Public Interest Research Group thinks this doesn't go far enough in terms of avoiding an impending e-waste calamity
• The organization suggests Microsoft considers providing longer-term support for Windows 10, or relaxes the spec requirements for Windows 11

Matt Turnbull, an Executive Producer at Xbox Game Studios Publishing, recently made a LinkedIn post, emphasizing that he'd be "remiss in not trying to offer the best advice" he could to laid-off workers in these trying times. This "best" advice is to turn to AI assistants like Copilot and ChatGPT for emotional support and to reduce cognitive load.

Julia Liuson, president of the Microsoft division responsible for developer tools such as AI coding service GitHub Copilot, recently sent an email instructing managers to evaluate employee performance based on their use of internal AI tools like this.

"AI is now a fundamental part of how we work," Liuson wrote. "Just like collaboration, data-driven thinking, and effective communication, using AI is no longer optional — it's core to every role and every level."

Liuson told managers that AI "should be part of your holistic reflections on an individual's performance and impact."

Microsoft's performance requirements vary from team to team, and some are considering including a more formal metric about the use of internal AI tools in performance reviews for its next fiscal year, according to a person familiar with the situation. This person asked not to be identified discussing private matters.

Nintendo has intentionally implemented measures to restrict third-party accessories, including docks, hubs, and other accessories, from working with the new Switch 2. According to two accessory manufacturers who spoke to The Verge, the console maker is making use of a new encryption method as well as an encryption chip. Previously, a similar report by GamesRadar suggested that the change in power requirements (20V) on the Switch 2 has restricted accessory makers like Jsaux, from making docks for the new handheld hybrid console. However, it seems that the real reason is that Nintendo has made changes to the USB-C protocols, which now require “re-adaptation for both power delivery and video output."

Further investigation done by Sean Hollister, senior editor at The Verge, reveals more evidence. Traditionally, when a user plugs a dock or hub into a USB-C port on a laptop or tablet, a standardized set of structured instructions is sent out to enable successful communication between the host and the dock. The instructions first deliver the correct amount of power using the PD (Power Delivery) protocol and then enable other features like HDMI or DisplayPort video out, Ethernet, and so on.

In a 92-minute interview with Tucker Carlson on Monday, RFK Jr. drilled down on his vision for the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Artificial intelligence — arguably, a uselessly vague umbrella term — came up multiple times. (As did conspiracy theories and disinformation on vaccines and autism, the medical establishment, and covid-19 deaths.)

As the head of HHS, Kennedy said his federal department is undergoing an “AI revolution.” He implored viewers to “stop trusting the experts,” as highlighted by Gizmodo, and, presumably, put their trust into AI instead of decades of scientific consensus.