Mediaboss Marketing

The Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) has delivered a petition to Microsoft calling on the company to rethink the impending abandonment of Windows 10 in the face of millions of PCs potentially being rendered eligible for landfill overnight. From a report: There are now less than two years until Microsoft is due to cut support for Windows 10, and at current estimates, 400 million PCs can't make the jump to Windows 11. The petition, addressed to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, criticizes its plans and states that customers expect their devices to last rather than be rendered obsolete by an arbitrary decision. PIRG warns that tipping that much hardware into landfills is somewhat at odds with the company's stance on the environment.

The petition reads: "All software reaches a point at which it's no longer supported, but when the consequences to our environment are this large we shouldn't accept it." As a reminder, while Windows 10 was largely backwards-compatible with computers running older operating systems, Microsoft slapped hardware requirements on Windows 11 that rendered machines even just a few years old unable to upgrade -- the main issues center on the CPU and TPM requirements.

Originally posted here:
PIRG Petitions Microsoft To Extend the Life of Windows 10 - Slashdot

Leading childcare management software provider Kidsoft, in partnership with the Queensland branch of the Australian Childcare Alliance (ACA Qld) has launched a free, user-friendly calculator designed to streamline fee calculations for Queenslands Free Kindy program.

The tool, which was actively developed with the support of the ACA Qld, is aimed at helping the wider early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector across the state navigate the sometimes complex calculations required to work out fees that also account for Free Kindy, especially for children participating in a kindergarten program within a long day care (LDC) setting.

To make the process simpler, Kidsoft has designed a tool that empowers LDC services to easily determine the gap fee for each child within their kindergarten program.

This innovative calculator will not only help childcare services in Queensland but also streamline the implementation process for the Queensland Government.

Whilst we are thrilled to see Queensland launch this initiative, we recognise the challenges faced by both ECEC services and families in adapting to the Free Kindy program, Kidsofts Chief Executive Officer, Di Girvin said.

By developing this calculator, Kidsoft is proud to provide support to the sector we are dedicated to serving.

ACA Qld Vice President Jae Fraser welcomed the commitment Kidsoft has shown to the ECEC sector in creating the calculator, saying this valuable tool aligns with our mission to support the sector and ensure that families receive the full benefits of the Free Kindy program.

The free calculator is available for all childcare services in Queensland. For further information and to download the calculator, visit Kidsofts blog post: Navigating Queenslands Free Kindy Program with Kidsofts Free Calculator.

For more information about the Queensland Governments Free Kindy initiative please see here.

Read the rest here:
Kidsoft launches free calculator to simplify "Free Kindy" fee working - The Sector

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: GSK will pay 23andMe $20 million for access to the genetic-testing company's vast trove of consumer DNA data, extending a five-year collaboration that's allowed the drugmaker to mine genetic data as it researches new medications. Under the new agreement, 23andMe will provide GSK with one year of access to anonymized DNA data from the approximately 80% of gene-testing customers who have agreed to share their information for research, 23andMe said in a statement Monday. The genetic-testing company will also provide data-analysis services to GSK.

23andMe is best known for its DNA-testing kits that give customers ancestry and health information. But the DNA it collects is also valuable, including for scientific research. With information from more than 14 million customers, the only data sets that rival the size of the 23andMe library belong to Ancestry.com and the Chinese government. The idea for drugmakers is to comb the data for hints about genetic pathways that might be at the root of disease, which could significantly speed up the long, slow process of drug development. GSK and 23andMe have already taken one potential medication to clinical trials: a cancer drug that works to block CD96, a protein that helps modulate the body's immune responses. It entered that testing phase in four years, compared to an industry average of about seven years. Overall, the partnership between GSK and 23andMe has produced more than 50 new drug targets, according to the statement.

The new agreement changes some components of the collaboration. Any discoveries GSK makes with the 23andMe data will now be solely owned by the British pharmaceutical giant, while the genetic-testing company will be eligible for royalties on some projects. In the past, the two companies pursued new drug targets jointly. GSK's new deal with 23andMe is also non-exclusive, leaving the genetic-testing company free to license its database to other drugmakers.

Read this article:
Drugmakers Are Set To Pay 23andMe Millions To Access Consumer ... - Slashdot

President Joe Biden signed a wide-ranging executive order on artificial intelligence Monday, setting the stage for some industry regulations and funding for the U.S. government to further invest in the technology. From a report: The order is broad, and its focuses range from civil rights and industry regulations to a government hiring spree. In a media call previewing the order Sunday, a senior White House official, who asked to not be named as part of the terms of the call, said AI has so many facets that effective regulations have to cast a wide net. "AI policy is like running into a decathlon, and there's 10 different events here," the official said. "And we don't have the luxury of just picking 'we're just going to do safety' or "we're just going to do equity' or 'we're just going to do privacy.' You have to do all of these things."

The official also called for "significant bipartisan legislation" to further advance the country's interests with AI. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., held a private forum in September with industry leaders but has yet to introduce significant AI legislation. Some of the order builds on a previous nonbinding agreement that seven of the top U.S. tech companies developing AI agreed to in July, like hiring outside experts to probe their systems for weaknesses and sharing their critical findings. The order leverages the Defense Production Act to legally require those companies to share safety test results with the federal government.

See the original post:
Biden Signs Executive Order To Oversee and Invest in AI - Slashdot

Meta Platforms is preparing to launch software to help developers automatically generate programming code, a challenge to proprietary software from OpenAI, Google and others, according to two people with direct knowledge of the product. Metas code-generating artificial intelligence model, dubbed Code Llama, will be open-source and could launch as soon as next week, one of these people said.

The new coding model rivals OpenAIs Codex model and builds on Metas Llama 2 software, a large-language model that can understand and generate conversational text. Llama 2, which is open-source, upended the AI field by making it easier for companies to make their own AI apps without paying for software from OpenAI, Google or Microsoft. Code Llama will make it easier for companies to develop AI assistants that automatically suggest code to developers as they type, and it could siphon customers from paid coding assistants such as Microsofts GitHub Copilot, which is powered by Codex.

Here is the original post:
Meta's Next AI Attack on OpenAI: Free Code-Generating Software - The Information