-Sn!PeR-

Google I/O 2024 is kicking off very soon – so if you want a glimpse of all the new treats that are coming to Google's many software platforms (plus the odd bit of future-gazing vaporware) it'll be well worth tuning in. The big day is set for Tuesday, May 14 at 10am PST (1pm ET / 6pm BST) and will continue into the following day. The keynote will be hosted by CEO Sundar Pichai at the Shoreline Amphitheater up in Mountain View, California. It’ll be broadcast in front of a live studio audience, and of course everyone will be able to watch the event as it unfolds via livestream. No one knows exactly what will be revealed at Google I/O 2024 and the rumor mill has been uncharacteristically quiet. The likelihood is that AI, and in particular Google Gemini, will be the star of the show – particularly as OpenAI is hosting an event the day before on May 13. But we can also expect to hear lots of Android 15, plus demos on new features coming to the likes of Google Maps, Google Lens, Google Photos and more. Here's how to tune into Google I/O 2024 and everything we're expecting to see... https://www.techradar.com/computing/software/google-io-2024

Nvidia board partner Zotac is diversifying its RTX 40 series GPU product stack with three new cards aimed at the Chinese market according to a Videocardz report. All three cards take on names inspired by outer space and consist of either RTX 4070 or RTX 4060 Ti GPUs. The RTX 4070 Nebulae is a new compact 2.3-slot mid-range graphics card sporting a dual-fan cooler design. The Nebulae is a budget-focused model that apparently slots right underneath the outgoing Twin Edge model. The Nebulae ironically resembles its Twin Edge counterpart in appearance, featuring a rounded GPU shroud and white color theme similar to the Twin Edge White. The only differentiating factors that truly separate the Nebulae from its Twin Edge counterpart are the addition of space-themed graphics on the shroud and backplate, and a complete lack of RGB LED lighting on the card. The card measures 225mm in length making it one of the more compact RTX 40 series graphics cards on the market. Zotac also revealed an RTX 4060 Ti variant of the Nebulae but with a different, cost-reduced design. The Twin Edge-like shroud with rounded corners is gone, replaced by a more boxy design that resembles a cheaper graphics card design. The card shares the same dual-fan design as the 4070 variant but appears to be slightly thinner possibly coming in at just 2 slots in thickness. The RTX 4070 Vespera is another 4070 model Zotac showed off, that is an even cheaper alternative to the Nebulae. Funnily enough, the Vespera shares the same shroud design as the 4060 Ti but instead comes in a black finish. This model appears to be the cheapest RTX 4070 design Zotac now offers (in China at least). This model is noticeably bigger than its Nebulae variant coming in at 280mm in length. The RTX 4060 TI Moon Shadow/White is the last card that Zotac unveiled. Unlike the previous models mentioned above, the Moon Shadow is more performance oriented boasting a triple fan cooler design. The card's appearance resembles the AMP Airo cards, sporting a rounded shroud. Zotac offers two colors, a black Moon Shadow variant and a lighter Moon White version. As previously mentioned all of these cards are reportedly Chinese exclusive offerings. However, if there's enough demand we might see these GPUs make their way to other markets in the future. https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/zotac-releases-space-themed-graphics-cards-for-china-multiple-rtx-4060-ti-and-4070-variants

DH2, I just like it more, i do not like Chris's songs anymore :))

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The government is "gaslighting" Britain over the state of the economy and its plans are "deluded", shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has said. Key economic figures this week are likely to show the UK emerging from recession, while the Bank of England could take steps towards interest rate cuts. The economy is likely to be a key battleground in the upcoming general election. The Tories said Labour had "no plan". Giving a speech in the City of London, Ms Reeves said that suggestions the feel-good factor is returning are "completely out of touch with the realities on the ground". On Friday, however, the first official data on gross domestic product in the three months to March is likely to show that the economy grew, marking the official end to a shallow recession last year. The Bank of England could take further steps towards interest rate cuts on Thursday too, ahead of a likely sharp fall in inflation - which measures how prices rise over time - later in the month. While Ms Reeves acknowledged "these things could happen this month", the opposition's intervention is designed to pre-empt the government's argument about the cost-of-living crisis being over and the coming general election being about "protecting the recovery". "The Conservatives are gaslighting the British public," she said. "Gaslighting" is psychologically mani[CENSORED]ting a person into questioning his or her perception of reality. At the beginning of 2023, Rishi Sunak set out the Conservatives' priorities, including halving inflation, growing the economy, and reducing government debt. The government has met the first pledge, and never set out what it meant by growing the economy. Debt remains at levels last seen during the early 1960s. Just days after a difficult set of local and mayoral elections for the Conservatives, Ms Reeves announced that Labour hopes to fight the general election "on the economy", saying that voters could choose "five more years of chaos with the Conservatives" or "stability with a changed Labour Party". In response, chairman of the Conservative Party, Richard Holden MP, said: "The personnel may change but the Labour Party hasn't." He said that the Labour Party has "no plan" and would take the British public "back to square one" with higher taxes and higher unemployment rates. Despite abandoning its long-standing plan to borrow and spend £28bn of public money on new, green industries, Mr Reeves restated Labour's commitment to a new vision for a green economy, reflecting thinking in the US and Europe. In February Labour rowed back on plans to spend £28bn a year on environmental projects if it wins the upcoming general election. Responding to a question from the BBC on Tuesday, Ms Reeves said that getting to clean energy by 2030 and creating green jobs can be done "through other means", including the creation of GB Energy, the National Wealth Fund, and planning reforms. Ms Reeves said that investment in low-carbon industries was being held back by the UK planning system. Last month, her National Wealth Fund "taskforce", including former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, and the chief executives of Barclays and Aviva, met to discuss how to raise £22bn in private sector investment in next generation technologies. It is expected to report back before the summer. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-68965212

An owl covered in soot and stuck in a chimney has been freed. Nick Reynolds, the director at the Paradise Park wildlife sanctuary in Hayle, Cornwall, said a male tawny owl was lodged in the flue of a chimney at a property near Sennen. Mr Reynolds and a crew from Penzance Fire Station attended the home on Wednesday. He said they freed the owl, which flew away uninjured. Mr Reynolds said the animal was covered in soot and had to be cleaned before he was released. "For me, it was a job I just felt I had to go to," he said. "Getting the fire brigade to come out and help me was just superb, they did a great job." In a Facebook post about the rescue, Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service said: "We'd encourage householders to keep chimneys swept, after all it may not just be Santa that you find stuck in your chimney." https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6pyq7d6kzeo

If you’re confused, even troubled, take a breath. The double-ended van is real, and it’s actually brilliant—and we’ll explain. But take a moment to appreciate that with everything in the world going on right now, we can find whimsy even in something as banal as a clever way to package and ship two commercial vans to upfitters. Because that’s what’s going on here: the Citroën Relay Back-to-Back isn’t meant to stay stuck together in this ridiculous arrangement. It’s ridiculous. It’s clever. It’s very, very French. (Kind of; the van is actually a rebadged Fiat Ducato, which you might know as the Ram ProMaster, but that’s neither here nor there—or here-and-there-at-the-same-time.) We’ve already hinted that the vans are intended to be split up, so why bolt them together in the first place? Our colleagues over at The Autopian did the sort of deep, nerdy research on the subject that we love, and they were equally surprised to learn that the Back-to-Back isn’t some radical new configuration. Fiat’s been doing this for decades, for the simple reason that it can. The Ducato and its badge-engineered variants over the years have benefitted from the packaging advantages of its front-wheel layout. And that means, when the vehicle is sold in a chassis-cab arrangement, there’s no rear axle or driveshaft to worry about. The stuff that drives the van is concentrated up front. All that needs to be out back is something to support the rear wheels, eventually. And that’s something that an upfitter can figure out. Fiat/Citroën/whoever can crank ‘em out of the factory with no back end at all, leaving stubby chassis rails poking out behind its single-cab body. And cleverly—very cleverly, we have to admit—Fiat decided to bolt another one right on there. Why not? Saves the effort and inefficiency that comes with some sort of temporary dolly that you’d have to build and then discard. Or building the entire rear subframe and suspension that the upfitter may or may not want, if it’s interested in stretching the wheelbase or something like that. Upfitters doing any sort of volume likely appreciate the efficiency of buying a two-fer like this, too. It simplifies transportation—just drive it up onto the transporter. Which end? I dunno, whichever one happens to be pointed the right way. Unloading? Hop in the other one. The more we think about it, the more brilliant it becomes. The Citroën version, in the U.K. at least, is only offered with a 2.2-liter, 140 hp turbodiesel I-4 with a 6-speed manual transmission. Or rather, two of them. And it’s just as fast going forward as it is going in reverse. So there’s your weird van news for the day. You can return to your boring single-headed-vehicle programming now. https://www.motortrend.com/news/citroen-relay-back-to-back-double-van-ram-promaster-upfitter-camper-chassis-cab/

The Boston Celtics regained the lead in their NBA Eastern Conference semi-final against the Cleveland Cavaliers with a 106-93 victory on the road. Top-seeded Boston, who were stunned by the Cavaliers at home in game two, edged the first quarter by two points and never relinquished their lead. The Celtics now take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series into game four in Cleveland on Monday. Jayson Tatum hit 33 points for the Celtics, while Jaylen Brown added 28. "We just wanted to bounce back," said Tatum. "Our back was against the wall, so it was a good test for us to see how we respond - we were up for the challenge." Donovan Mitchell top scored for Cleveland, with 33 points. Elsewhere, the Dallas Mavericks took a 2-1 lead in their Western Conference semi-final with a 105-101 win at home over the Oklahoma City Thunder. PJ Washington led the Mavs with 27 points, while star guard Luka Doncic added 22. A late scoring surge by Kyrie Irving, who also made 22, helped Dallas maintain their narrow four-point lead after the third quarter through to the end of the game. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander hit a game-high 31 points for the Thunder. Game four is also in Dallas on Monday. https://www.bbc.com/sport/basketball/articles/c3gvj4xev2eo

Sláinte to the singles! A virtual portal connecting New York City and Dublin opened earlier this week has turned into a hotspot for strangers looking to make connections across the thousands of miles. Streaming live throughout the summer at the busy junction of 5th Avenue, Broadway and 23rd Street in Manhattan, the scheduled cultural programming appears to have been preempted by a whole lot of flirting. “My immediate thought was that this would be the perfect love story,” Ali Weber-Heavey, 25, told The Post on Friday. https://nypost.com/2024/05/10/lifestyle/singles-scene-heats-up-at-portal-linking-nyc-and-dublin/

President Joe Biden upended part of one of the world’s most significant strategic relationships this week. It happened in a TV interview, when Mr Biden was asked what would happen if Israel went ahead with a planned invasion of Rafah. “I’m not supplying the weapons,” he replied. Arms shipments are the bedrock of the US-Israel alliance. For the first time in four decades, a crack appeared. Mr Biden has been under sustained pressure at home and abroad to help prevent further major civilian casualties and a worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza. He finally crossed the threshold of withholding arms shipments to Israel, American’s closest strategic ally in the region - a move not seen since President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. Since the start of the war, Mr Biden has been caught in a political divide between an unquestioningly pro-Israel Republican party, and his own deeply divided Democratic Party, says Aaron David Miller, a former State Department analyst and veteran Middle East peace negotiator. Until now, the president has appeared reluctant to do anything seen to damage the US-Israel relationship, Mr Miller says. What changed was Mr Biden’s view that the Israelis were close to a decision to invade Rafah. On Monday, Israel said its ground forces were starting "targeted activity" in the east of the city, with Israeli tanks said to be massed close to built-up areas. Residents reported the constant sound of shelling and said barely functioning hospitals were overwhelmed with the wounded. The UN says more than 100,000 people have fled the fighting, and are facing dire shortages of shelter, food, water and sanitation services. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed to launch a full ground invasion of the city, home to more than a million displaced Palestinians. He says a major operation is required to destroy four remaining Hamas battalions hiding there, and will be carried out regardless of whether any ceasefire talks succeed. Washington has repeatedly urged him not to, pressing for a more “targeted operation” in Rafah against Hamas. Mr Miller says the president fears a Rafah invasion “would fundamentally undermine any chance of de-escalating the war and freeing hostages”. The former official, who spent years advising administrations in which Mr Biden served, says the president also wants to avoid a crisis with neighbouring Egypt. There is also the risk that an invasion would spark more angst and divisions in the Democratic Party, he says. “So he sent a signal,” says Mr Miller. In the run up to Mr Biden’s TV interview on Wednesday, the US put a “pause” on an arms shipment to Israel - just one consignment of 2,000-pound and 500-pound bombs. A senior administration official told me there was particular concern on the “end use” of the high payload weapons and the impact they could have in dense urban settings, “as we have seen in other parts of Gaza”. The 2,000 pound bombs are among the most destructive munitions in Israel’s arsenal. Its military argues such munitions are necessary to eliminate Hamas. Also under review were shipments of Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) kits which convert unguided bombs into guided ones, the US official said. On Friday, the state department issued a report ordered by Mr Biden earlier this year, which said Israel may have used American-supplied weapons in breach of international humanitarian law in some instances during the war in Gaza. But the report said that it did not have "complete information" in its assessment, meaning military aid could continue. Colonel Joe Buccino, a former US army artilleryman who rose to become a senior official at Centcom, the US military command in the Middle East, points out that the Israeli military could “level” Rafah with the munitions it already has. Washington supplies Israel with $3.8bn of military assistance a year. Congress recently added to that a further $17bn worth of weapons and defence systems - Israel is cumulatively the world’s largest ever recipient of US lethal aid. Col Buccino says the paused shipment is “somewhat inconsequential” to any assault assault on Rafah. “It's like a little bit of a political play for people in the United States who are… concerned about this,” he says. Whether that is the case or not, it has not blunted the political fallout from Mr Biden’s move. In the halls of the US Senate, Republicans were seething. “I think that pause is absolutely outrageous,” said US Senator Pete Ricketts, speaking to me outside a meeting of the Foreign Relations Committee. “The president really has no business doing this.” When I put it to him that Israel still has the means to carry out its stated planned assault, he replied: “This is about supporting our ally Israel against a terrorist organisation.” Another Republican Senator, John Barrasso, said that Israel had a right to “do what they want to do to protect their sovereignty”. For him Mr Biden’s move demonstrated one thing: “A weakness of this president.” But within Mr Biden’s own party, there has been a warmer reception for the shift. Democratic Senator Chris Coons two months ago called for restrictions on military assistance to Israel if it launched an assault into Rafah “at scale”, without significant changes in how Palestinian civilians were treated and protected. “The conflict in Gaza… has led to a lot of painful reflection for many of us who count ourselves as strong supporters of Israel but are also very concerned about suffering and the humanitarian conditions,” he says. He believes the president has tried “over and over” to restrain Mr Netanyahu but that tensions have grown because the Israeli leader relies on the political support of ultranationalists who oppose humanitarian aid going to Gaza and want to expel Palestinians from the West Bank. “This may be the first real break,” says Mr Coons. The “break” with Mr Netanyahu also comes at a critical moment in attempts to reach a ceasefire in exchange for the release of hostages held by Hamas. Talks in Cairo broke up earlier this week without apparent resolution. Some Israeli commentators have suggested that Mr Biden’s move will compromise the hostage negotiations - that any attempt to blunt the threat of an Israeli assault on Rafah would benefit Hamas. The running details of the talks are, however, mostly opaque, making it hard to definitively assess the claim. The biggest stumbling block is over Hamas’ demand for a permanent end to the war, which Israel rejects. The relationship between Mr Biden and Mr Netanyahu goes back five decades, and has been turbulent for just as long. When they were both young men, Mr Biden said he signed a picture which later sat on Mr Netanyahu’s desk, writing: “Bibi, I love you, but I don’t agree with a damn thing you have to say.” Mr Netanyahu has often praised the president for his support of Israel, but they have fallen out frequently over major policy issues relating to the Palestinians. Less than a fortnight after the October 7 attacks, Mr Biden flew to Israel and embraced Mr Netanyahu on the tarmac in Tel Aviv. I was there as Mr Biden emerged from a meeting with the Israeli leader and his war cabinet and stood at a podium to assert his unstinting support for Israel. But he had a warning: Don’t repeat the mistakes we made after the 9/11 attacks. And he spelled out what he meant: “The Palestinian people are suffering greatly as well, and we mourn the loss of innocent Palestinian lives like the entire world.” Mr Biden’s wartime trip takes on further significance in hindsight: the start of an attempt to prevent a near unprecedented break in the US-Israel relationship, which inched closer this week. On Thursday, the day after Mr Biden announced the weapons shipment pause, Mr Netanyahu fired back. The prime minister has long understood that he can rally his own base with shows of defiance to US pressure. “If we need to stand alone, we will stand alone. I have said that if necessary we will fight with our fingernails,” he said. I put Mr Netanyahu’s statement to Chris Coons, the Democratic senator. “They don't need to fight with their fingernails,” he said. “They will and should fight with modern weapons systems that they have developed in many cases jointly with us, that are provided in many cases by us.” “But they should do it in a way that minimises civilian casualties,” he said. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4n14merj97o

Police in the South Korean city of Busan have arrested a 23-year-old true crime fanatic woman in connection with the killing and dismembering of another. Law enforecment authorities said they believe the killing was done out of the suspect’s “curiosity” to experience what murder felt like, according to South Korean outlet The Chosun Ilbo. Jung Yoo-jung, 23, reportedly confessed to the killing and was indicted for murder on Friday. The suspect was driven by her desire to kill someone for real after becoming “obsessed with murder from TV programmes and books,” a police spokesperson reportedly said. Police said Ms Jung’s phone search history revealed three months’ worth of information gathering how to hide a corpse. She had allegedly watched numerous true crime TV shows and borrowed crime books from a library, the local newspaper, one of the country’s oldest outlets, reported. While she initially claimed to have killed the unnamed victim after an argument, Ms Jung later admitted that was a lie. Police said they are conducting tests to see if Ms Jung is a psychopath, according to Insider. The true crime fanatic found her victim through an app that connects parents with private tutors, and presented herself to the now deceased, posing as the mother of a ninth-grader. She reportedly went to meet the victim disguised as a student wearing a school uniform and fatally stabbed her, the report says. Then, after dismembering the victim and placing some of her body parts in a suitcase, she took a taxi and dumped rest of it in the Nakdong river to “make it look like the victim had disappeared”, according to the police. “Jung was a loner and a recluse who has been unemployed since graduating from high school five years ago,” authorities said. https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/east-asia/true-crime-fan-korea-killing-b2351169.html

DH1: DH2:

Samsung Galaxy S21 series is set to receive the One UI 6.1 update, along with the company's Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 foldable phones. However, unlike more recent models from the South Korean smartphone maker, these three handsets will only gain support for two new Galaxy AI features. One the past few months, Samsung has been rolling out One UI 6.1 to recent Galaxy Z and Galaxy S series phones, with support for up to 10 AI-powered features. The company confirmed on Friday that Samsung Galaxy S21 series, Galaxy Z Fold 3, and Galaxy Z Flip 3 users will get access to two Galaxy AI features: Circle to Search and Chat Assist. The company's announcement also contains a footnote stating that it will provide Galaxy AI features "for free until the end of 2025" — the same message that was shown on the company's website when the Galaxy S24 series was launched earlier this year. With the One UI 6.1 update, owners of the Samsung Galaxy S21 series, Galaxy Z Fold 3, and Galaxy Z Flip 3 will be able to use the Circle to Search feature that is currently exclusive to smartphones from Samsung and Google. Users can log press the navigation pill to summon an overlay that lets them draw around, scribble, or highlight a part of the screen to perform a visual lookup — without leaving the app they are using. Chat Assist, another AI feature that is designed to help users compose texts in different languages, via seamless translation of incoming or outgoing messages, is also coming to all three handsets. Samsung says the feature is also designed to work with third party apps, which means users won't have to open a translation app while messaging another user. Chat Assist is also designed to help users change the tone of their messages, according to the company. Samsung's announcement that it will update the Galaxy S21 series, Galaxy Z Fold 3, and Galaxy Z Flip 3 with these two features confirms that the company's other Galaxy AI functionality won't be making its way to these older handsets. AI features that won't be a part of the update include Interpreter, Live Translate, Note Assist, Transcript Assist, Browsing Assist, Generative Edit, Edit Suggestion and AI-Generated Wallpaper. https://www.gadgets360.com/mobiles/news/samsung-s21-z-fold-3-flip-update-limited-galaxy-ai-features-rollout-5639982#pfrom=topstory

OpenAI has announced it's got news to share via a public livestream on Monday, May 13 – but, contrary to previous rumors, the developer of ChatGPT and Dall-E apparently isn't going to use the online event to launch a search engine. In a social media post, OpenAI says that "some ChatGPT and GPT-4 updates" will be demoed at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST on Monday May 13 (which is Tuesday, May 14 at 3am AEST for those of you in Australia). A livestream is going to be available. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman followed up by saying the big reveal isn't going to be GPT-5 and isn't going to be a search engine, so make of that what you will. "We've been hard at work on some new stuff we think people will love," Altman says. "Feels like magic to me." Rumors that OpenAI would be taking on Google directly with its own search engine, possibly developed in partnership with Microsoft and Bing, have been swirling for months. It sounds like it's not ready yet though – so we'll have to wait. AI chatbots such as Microsoft Copilot already do a decent job of pulling up information from the web – indeed, at their core, these Large Language Models (LLMs) are essentially training themselves on websites in a similar way to how Google indexes them. It's possible that the future of web search is not a list of links but rather an answer from an AI, based on those links – which raises the question of how websites could carry on getting the revenue they need to supply LLMs with information in the first place. Google itself has also been experimenting with AI in its search results. In other OpenAI news, according to Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, Apple has "closed in" on a deal to inject some ChatGPT smarts into iOS 18, due later this year. The companies are apparently now "finalizing terms" on the deal. However, Gurman says that a deal between Apple and Google to use Google's Gemini AI engine is still on the table too. We know that Apple is planning to go big on AI this year, though it sounds as though it may need some help along the way. https://www.techradar.com/computing/artificial-intelligence/openai-has-big-news-to-share-on-may-13-but-its-not-announcing-a-search-engine

GigaIO and SourceCode have teamed up to bring the world an ultraportable but still supercomputer-class device for AI needs. The Gryf weighs 55 pounds or less and is packed into a TSA-friendly carry-on suitcase. Despite the small form factor, Gryf can accommodate data collection and processing on a scale that would otherwise require sending the data offsite. This revolutionary development for use cases requires quick processing and analysis turnaround. Gryf is a suitcase-sized supercomputer that supports disaggregating and reaggregating its GPUs. The user can customize the computer's hardware configuration in the field on the fly. You can create the optimal hardware configuration for one assigned workload and then change it for the next. Each Gryf contains multiple slots po[CENSORED]ted with compute, storage, accelerator, and network sleds tailored to the workload. The suitcase-sized supercomputer has six sled slots to insert and remove modules from as needed. For AI or ML workloads, for example, you might plug in two compute sleds, an accelerator sled, two storage sleds, and a network sled. Are you moving on to a storage project? Change the configuration to incorporate one compute sled and five storage sleds instead. According to GigaIO and SourceCode, a single Gryf can be configured to process over a petabyte of information. Using GigaIO’s FabreX memory fabric, the Gryf can also be stacked with up to four other Gryfs for more demanding workloads. Once back in the data center, the FabreX memory fabric allows Gryf to connect to the core computer, a GigaPod, for the more demanding processing and analysis tasks. Rather than waiting for days to transmit the data over internet connections, engineers collect and begin processing the data where it was gathered, then cart it off to the data center. https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/supercomputers/portable-ai-supercomputer-comes-as-a-carry-on-suitcase-with-wheels

Name of the game: Inscryption Price: $10.49 - $5.24 Link Store: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1092790/Inscryption/?curator_clanid=4777282 Offer ends up after X hours: SPECIAL PROMOTION! Offer ends 23 May Requirements:

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Adding @MehrezVM back as a Designer. Welcome back bud!

Accepted. Welcome back bud