Boots & Sabers

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Category: Technology

Google Invests in Nuclear

by | 0731, 7 May 25 | , | 0 Comments

One of the societal benefits of AI may be the rebirth of the civilian nuclear age.

Nuclear developer Elementl Power said Wednesday it’s signed an agreement with Google to develop three sites for advanced reactors. It’s the latest example of tech giants teaming up with the nuclear industry in an effort to meet the vast energy needs of data centers.

 

Google will commit early-stage development capital to the three projects, although the exact terms of the deal remain private. Each site will generate at least 600 megawatts of power capacity, and Google will have the option to buy the power once the sites are up and running. The proposed locations remain private, but Elementl said Google’s funding will be used for things like site permitting, securing interconnection rights to the transmission system, contract negotiations and other early-stage matters.

“Google is committed to catalyzing projects that strengthen the power grids where we operate, and advanced nuclear technology provides reliable, baseload, 24/7 energy,” said Amanda Peterson Corio, global head of data center energy at Google.

 

“Our collaboration with Elementl Power enhances our ability to move at the speed required to meet this moment of AI and American innovation,” she added.

 

Elementl Power, which was founded in 2022 as a nuclear power project developer, hasn’t yet built any sites.

India Invests in Nuclear Power

by | 0923, 17 Feb 25 | , | 0 Comments

This is the way.

Indian state power company NTPC is looking to build 30 gigawatts (GW) of nuclear power capacity over the next two decades, three times more than expected, at a cost of $62 billion, three sources said.

 

The country’s top power producer, which mainly runs coal-fired plants, is seeking land for its ambitious plan in a country where local resistance to such projects is high, said the sources, who have direct knowledge of the matter.

NTPC was targeting 10 GW of nuclear capacity but tripled the goal after the government this month announced plans to open up the sector to foreign and private investment, the sources said.

Navy Bans DeepSeek

by | 1905, 28 Jan 25 | , , | 12 Comments

This is where I think that DeepSeek won’t be as much of an economic threat as it seems. What company outside of China will put their sensitive data into a Chinese GAI platform? It’s one thing for a bunch of dumb kids to use TikTok. It’s quite another thing for an American firm to open up their data to a Chinese bot.

The U.S. Navy has instructed its members to avoid using artificial intelligence technology from China’s DeepSeek, CNBC has learned.

 

In a warning issued by email to “shipmates” on Friday, the Navy said DeepSeek’s AI was not to be used “in any capacity” due to “potential security and ethical concerns associated with the model’s origin and usage.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. Navy confirmed the authenticity of the email and said it was in reference to the Department of the Navy’s Chief Information Officer’s generative AI policy.

Trump and Business Leaders Announce Massive Investment in AI

by | 1905, 21 Jan 25 | , , | 0 Comments

Wow.

President Donald Trump announced a joint venture Tuesday with OpenAI, Oracle and Softbank to invest billions of dollars in artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States.

 

The project, dubbed Stargate, was unveiled at the White House by Trump, Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.

 

The executives committed to invest an initial $100 billion and up to $500 billion over the next four years in the project, which will be set up as a separate company.

 

“What we want to do is we want to keep it in this country,” Trump said of AI, noting that China is a major competitor in the nascent industry.

 

Stargate’s first joint venture will be to construct data centers in Texas — an effort that is already underway, Ellison said in the Roosevelt Room.

 

OpenAI later said in an X post that the project “will not only support the re-industrialization of the United States but also provide a strategic capability to protect the national security of America and its allies.”

 

Softbank’s Son will be the chairman of Stargate, while semiconductor company Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle, and OpenAI will be “the key initial technology partners,” OpenAI said in the post.

TikTok is Down

by | 1028, 19 Jan 25 | , | 1 Comment

Just a public service announcement. TikTok is down. lol

A new US law banning TikTok has come into effect, hours after the popular app stopped working across the country.

 

Late on Saturday a message appearing on the TikTok for US users said a law banning TikTok had been enacted, meaning “you can’t use TikTok for now”.

 

The video-sharing app was banned over concerns about its links to the Chinese government. It was given until 19 January to be sold to an approved US buyer to avert the ban.

 

President Joe Biden had said he would leave the issue to his successor, Donald Trump. The president-elect has said he will “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day reprieve from a ban once he takes office on Monday.

China is a hostile nation that is infiltrating us on every front. TikTok is merely a visible one. The pandemic made me more pessimistic about my fellow American’s ability to process and respond to threats in a rational way. The reaction to the TikTok ban reinforces my pessimism.

Trump Announces Foreign Investment for Data Centers

by | 2052, 7 Jan 25 | , , | 0 Comments

Gonna need more power.

President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a $20 billion foreign investment to build new data centers across the United States.

 

Emirati billionaire Hussain Sajwani, a Trump associate and founder of the property development company DAMAC Properties, is pledging “at least” that amount, the president-elect said at his Florida home, Mar-a-Lago.

“They may go double, or even somewhat more than double, that amount of money,” Trump said of Sajwani’s company.

 

The “first phase” of the plan will take place in Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan and Indiana, Trump said.

 

Sajwani suggested that the Republican’s election spurred him to commit to the investment.

Meta Drops Fact Checkers

by | 1951, 7 Jan 25 | , , | 3 Comments

Good. Late, but good.

New YorkCNN — 

In a number of sweeping changes that will significantly alter the way that posts, videos and other content are moderated online, Meta will adjust its content review policies on Facebook and Instagram, getting rid of fact checkers and replacing them with user-generated “community notes,” similar to Elon Musk’s X, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Tuesday.

The changes come just before President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office. Trump and other Republicans have lambasted Zuckerberg and Meta for what they view as censorship of right-wing voices.

“Fact checkers have been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they’ve created,” Zuckerberg said in a video announcing the new policy Tuesday. “What started as a movement to be more inclusive has increasingly been used to shut down opinions and shut out people with different ideas, and it’s gone too far.”

Hackers Hack Government Surveillance System

by | 1851, 4 Dec 24 | , , | 0 Comments

Any system can be hacked. The fact that this exists is a risk to the privacy and security of all Americans. TBF, it poses the same risk even if it wasn’t hacked.

The third has been systems that telecommunications companies use in compliance with the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), which allows law enforcement and intelligence agencies with court orders to track people’s communications. CALEA systems can include classified court orders from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which processes some U.S. intelligence court orders. The FBI official declined to say whether any classified material was accessed.

Massive Chinese Hack of Networks Threatens National Security

by | 1622, 23 Nov 24 | , , | 1 Comment

We shouldn’t have to say it, but China is not our friend.

(CNN) — Top telecom executives met with US national security officials at the White House on Friday as concerns mount over a long-running Chinese cyber-espionage campaign that has targeted some of the most senior US political figures in the country.

The hackers burrowed deep into some major US telecom providers to spy on phone calls and text messages and have proved difficult to kick out of some networks, people briefed on the matter said.

[…]

The hack is shaping up to be one of the biggest cyber and national security challenges facing the incoming Trump administration.

It is “by far” the “worst telecom hack in our nation’s history,” Sen. Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia and chairman of the intelligence committee, told CNN.

But the full scope of the hack, who it affects and its impact on national security are still being investigated.

The FBI has notified fewer than 150 victims, most in the Washington, DC, area, according to Warner. But all of those victims have likely called or sent texts to numerous people, meaning the number of records accessed by the hackers is likely far greater. The hackers could listen to the calls of specific targets for certain periods of time, according to Warner.

US officials and private cyber experts are keeping a running tally of the number of telecom firms breached. US broadband and internet providers AT&T, Verizon and Lumen have all been targeted in the hacking effort, CNN previously reported.

But Who Will Pick the Crops?

by | 2255, 28 Oct 24 | , | 0 Comments

American farmers are, and have been, some of the most innovative, creative, and aggressive group of early adopters in the world.

A growing number of companies are bringing automation to agriculture. It could ease the sector’s deepening labor shortage, help farmers manage costs, and protect workers from extreme heat. Automation could also improve yields by bringing greater accuracy to planting, harvesting, and farm management, potentially mitigating some of the challenges of growing food in an ever-warmer world.

 

But many small farmers and producers across the country aren’t convinced. Barriers to adoption go beyond steep price tags to questions about whether the tools can do the jobs nearly as well as the workers they’d replace. Some of those same workers wonder what this trend might mean for them, and whether machines will lead to exploitation.

SpaceX Catches Booster with Tower

by | 1432, 13 Oct 24 | | 2 Comments

This is an absolutely amazing feat of imagination and engineering. America is still capable of great things – as long as we keep government out of it.

U.S. to Ban Russian and Chinese Parts in Cars

by | 2035, 23 Sep 24 | , | 1 Comment

There are many lessons to be learned from the beeper and radio explosions in Lebanon. One of them is that it is possible – probable – that hostile foreign actors are willing and able to infiltrate tech on a widescale basis for evil intent.

The US is planning to ban certain hardware and software made in China and Russia from cars, trucks and buses in the US due to security risks.

 

Officials said they were worried that the technology in question, used for autonomous driving and to connect cars to other networks, could allow enemies to “remotely manipulate cars on American roads”.

 

There is currently minimal use of Chinese or Russia-made software in American cars.

Losing Our Digital History

by | 0745, 16 Sep 24 | , | 4 Comments

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately.

Research shows 25% of web pages posted between 2013 and 2023 have vanished. A few organisations are racing to save the echoes of the web, but new risks threaten their very existence.

It’s possible, thanks to surviving fragments of papyrus, mosaics and wax tablets, to learn what Pompeiians ate for breakfast 2,000 years ago. Understand enough Medieval Latin, and you can learn how many livestock were reared at farms in Northumberland in 11th Century England – thanks to the Domesday Book, the oldest document held in the UK National Archives. Through letters and novels, the social lives of the Victorian era – and who they loved and hated – come into view.

But historians of the future may struggle to understand fully how we lived our lives in the early 21st Century. That’s because of a potentially history-deleting combination of how we live our lives digitally – and a paucity of official efforts to archive the world’s information as it’s produced these days.

It’s not just what gets lost. It’s how things get changed. We have already seen media outlets and others go back years to change the wording or content of old writings. Unless someone printed it out, there is no contemporary record to challenge it.

People who are writing wonderful things with great insight; technical documents that explain how things work; court records; etc… if they are exclusively in a digital format, they are subject to be lost or altered in an instant.

That’s not to say that physical writings can’t be lost too. They can, and have been, for millennia. But while they can be lost, it is not easy to change them.

All that to say, buy books. Print out your important stuff. The digital world is fragile.

Iran Hacked Trump Campaign

by | 2157, 19 Aug 24 | , , | 26 Comments

Clearly, Iran has a favorite in this race and a vested interest in the outcome.

Iran was behind the recent hack of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, US intelligence officials have confirmed.

 

The FBI and other federal agencies said in a joint statement that Iran had chosen to interfere in the US election “to stoke discord and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions”.

 

The Trump campaign pointed the finger at Iran on 10 August for hacking its internal messages. Iranian officials denied it.

 

Sources familiar with the investigation told the BBC’s US partner, CBS News, that they suspect Iranian hackers also targeted the campaign of Democratic presidential contender Kamala Harris.

Notice how the story is written… we confirm that Iran hacked Trump, but to give the appearance that Iran hates Harris just as much, we get unnamed “sources familiar with the investigation” saying that they “suspect” that Iran “targeted” Harris too. There is no evidence or named sources to back it up, but the FBI and media have to run cover for Harris.

Biden Promotes Nuclear Power

by | 1923, 29 May 24 | , | 0 Comments

This is the way. I hope that it leads to some real nuclear power development.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House on Wednesday plans to announce new measures to support the development of new U.S. nuclear power plants, a large potential source of carbon-free electricity the government says is needed to combat climate change.

 

The suite of actions, which weren’t previously reported, are aimed at helping the nuclear power industry combat rising security costs and competition from cheaper plants powered by natural gas, wind and solar.

Nuclear proponents say the technology is critical to providing large, uninterrupted supplies of emissions-free power to serve soaring electricity demand from data centers and electric vehicles and still meet President Joe Biden‘s goal of decarbonizing the U.S. economy by 2050.

US to Pay For Internet for Africa

by | 0727, 24 May 24 | , | 0 Comments

It may be a worthy goal, but why is this a goal for the American taxpayers? We’re broke.

WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris is announcing the formation of a new partnership to help provide internet access to 80% of Africa by 2030, up from roughly 40% now.

 

[…]

 

Harris, the first female U.S. vice president, is also announcing that the Women in the Digital Economy efforts to address the gender divide in technology access have now generated more than $1 billion in public and private commitments, with some U.S. commitments pending congressional approval.

Retail Stores Ditching Self-Checkout Due to Theft

by | 0736, 24 Apr 24 | , , | 1 Comment

Shift.

Walmart is continuing to remove self-checkout machines from its stores in what it claims is an effort to improve the ‘in-store experience’ for customers.

 

In two stores – in Shrewsbury, Missouri, and Cleveland, Ohio – the retailer said it would replace kiosks with staffed checkout lanes which will ‘give our associates the chance to provide more personalized and efficient service.’

 

In reality, many retailers are ditching self-checkout kiosks because they are especially vulnerable to shoplifters – and the biggest retailer in the world’s U-turn could be a landmark moment.

In a related note:

Although the company is ditching the cashier-less checkout system at its Amazon Fresh grocery stores, it plans to sell the technology to more than 120 third-party businesses by the end of the year. Reaching that goal would double the number of non-Amazon enterprises that use Just Walk Out compared to last year.

The cashier-less system is the perfect antidote to the theft problem of self-checkout. I used the automated system in the San Francisco airport a while ago. It’s really simple. You scan your card when walking into the store. You can’t get into the store without scanning your card. When you have what you want, you just leave. The products all have RFID chips and are scanned on the way out with no effort. Theft is near impossible without an RFID blocker big enough for the products. I suppose you could bring in a lead-lined tote, but that’s a lot of effort for your average shoplifter.

The problem is cultural. I don’t want to scan my card before I know if I’m going to actually buy anything. Also, there is no “appeal process” if the price is wrong or it scanned wrong or whatever. I don’t want to have to call some number to resolve a $2 mistake.

With labor rates continuing to rise, retailers will continue to seek ways to reduce labor spend and expensive automated technologies will continue to evolve.

 

Google Fires Protestors

by | 1856, 18 Apr 24 | , | 0 Comments

Google is as lefty an organization as exists, but never mess with their money.

Google terminated 28 employees Wednesday, according to an internal memo viewed by CNBC, after a series of protests against labor conditions and the company’s contract to provide the Israeli government and military with cloud computing and artificial intelligence services.

 

The news comes one day after nine Google workers were arrested on trespassing charges Tuesday night after staging a sit-in at the company’s offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California, including a protest in Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian’s office.

 

[…]

 

The New York sit-in started at noon ET and ended around 9:30 p.m. ET. Security asked workers to remove their banner, which spanned two floors, about an hour into the protest, according to Hasan Ibraheem, a Google software engineer based in New York City and one of the arrested workers.

 

“I realized, ‘Oh, the place that I work at is very complicit and aiding in this genocide — I have a responsibility to act against it,’” Ibraheem told CNBC earlier Wednesday. Ibraheem added, “The fact that I am receiving money from Google and Israel is paying Google — I am receiving part of that money, and that weighed very heavily on me.”

Ford Drops Prices to Lure EV Buyers

by | 2015, 11 Apr 24 | , , | 2 Comments

Market working.

DEARBORN, Mich. — Ford Motor is lowering the starting prices of some all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup trucks as it prepares to resume shipping the vehicles after quality issues.

 

[…]

 

The cost reductions are the latest electric vehicle price changes for the broader automotive industry amid slower-than-expected consumer adoption. Ford’s cuts come three months after it adjusted Lightning prices, including increasing some model prices.

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