Month: July 2024

Enlarge / CrowdStrike's Falcon security software brought down as many as 8.5 million Windows PCs over the weekend. (credit: CrowdStrike)

Security firm CrowdStrike has posted a preliminary post-incident report about the botched update to its Falcon security software that caused as many as 8.5 million Windows PCs to crash over the weekend, delaying flights, disrupting emergency response systems, and generally wreaking havoc.

The detailed post explains exactly what happened: At just after midnight Eastern time, CrowdStrike deployed "a content configuration update" to allow its software to "gather telemetry on possible novel threat techniques." CrowdStrike says that these Rapid Response Content updates are tested before being deployed, and one of the steps involves checking updates using something called the Content Validator. In this case, "a bug in the Content Validator" failed to detect "problematic content data" in the update responsible for the crashing systems.

CrowdStrike says it is making changes to its testing and deployment processes to prevent something like this from happening again. The company is specifically including "additional validation checks to the Content Validator" and adding more layers of testing to its process.

Enlarge / CrowdStrike's Falcon security software brought down as many as 8.5 million Windows PCs over the weekend. (credit: CrowdStrike)

Security firm CrowdStrike has posted a preliminary post-incident report about the botched update to its Falcon security software that caused as many as 8.5 million Windows PCs to crash over the weekend, delaying flights, disrupting emergency response systems, and generally wreaking havoc.

The detailed post explains exactly what happened: At just after midnight Eastern time, CrowdStrike deployed "a content configuration update" to allow its software to "gather telemetry on possible novel threat techniques." CrowdStrike says that these Rapid Response Content updates are tested before being deployed, and one of the steps involves checking updates using something called the Content Validator. In this case, "a bug in the Content Validator" failed to detect "problematic content data" in the update responsible for the crashing systems.

CrowdStrike says it is making changes to its testing and deployment processes to prevent something like this from happening again. The company is specifically including "additional validation checks to the Content Validator" and adding more layers of testing to its process.

Enlarge / I like the idea of clicking "Realistic," "MMORPG," and "Word" boxes, just to see what comes back. (credit: Google)

Google Play is a lot of things—perhaps too many things for those who just want to install some apps. If that's how you feel, you might find "Google Play's next chapter" a bit bewildering, as Google hopes to make it "more than a store." Or you might start thinking about how to turn Play Points into a future Pixel phone.

In a blog post about "How we're evolving Google Play," VP and General Manager of Google Play Sam Bright outlines the big changes to Google Play:

• AI-generated app reviews and summaries, along with app comparisons
• "Curated spaces" for interests, showing content from apps related to one thing (like cricket, and Japanese comics)
• Game recommendations based on genres and features you select.
• Google Play Games on PC can pick up where you left off in games played on mobile and can soon play multiple titles at the same time on desktop.
• Play Points enthusiasts who are in the Diamond, Platinum, or Gold levels can win Pixel devices, Razer gaming products, and other gear, along with other game and access perks.

Those are the upgrades to existing Play features. The big new thing is Collections, which, like the "curated spaces," takes content from apps you already have installed and organizes them around broad categories. I spotted "Watch," "Listen," "Read," "Games," "Social," "Shop," and "Food" in Google's animated example. You can toggle individual apps feeding into the Collections in the settings.

Enlarge / I like the idea of clicking "Realistic," "MMORPG," and "Word" boxes, just to see what comes back. (credit: Google)

Google Play is a lot of things—perhaps too many things for those who just want to install some apps. If that's how you feel, you might find "Google Play's next chapter" a bit bewildering, as Google hopes to make it "more than a store." Or you might start thinking about how to turn Play Points into a future Pixel phone.

In a blog post about "How we're evolving Google Play," VP and General Manager of Google Play Sam Bright outlines the big changes to Google Play:

• AI-generated app reviews and summaries, along with app comparisons
• "Curated spaces" for interests, showing content from apps related to one thing (like cricket, and Japanese comics)
• Game recommendations based on genres and features you select.
• Google Play Games on PC can pick up where you left off in games played on mobile and can soon play multiple titles at the same time on desktop.
• Play Points enthusiasts who are in the Diamond, Platinum, or Gold levels can win Pixel devices, Razer gaming products, and other gear, along with other game and access perks.

Those are the upgrades to existing Play features. The big new thing is Collections, which, like the "curated spaces," takes content from apps you already have installed and organizes them around broad categories. I spotted "Watch," "Listen," "Read," "Games," "Social," "Shop," and "Food" in Google's animated example. You can toggle individual apps feeding into the Collections in the settings.

Enlarge / Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., during a fireside discussion on artificial intelligence risks with Rishi Sunak, UK prime minister, in London, UK, on Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023. (credit: Getty Images)

On Monday, Elon Musk announced the start of training for what he calls "the world's most powerful AI training cluster" at xAI's new supercomputer facility in Memphis, Tennessee. The billionaire entrepreneur and CEO of multiple tech companies took to X to share that the so-called "Memphis Supercluster" began operations at approximately 4:20 am local time that day.

Musk's xAI team, in collaboration with X (formerly Twitter) and Nvidia, launched the supercomputer cluster featuring 100,000 liquid-cooled H100 GPUs on a single RDMA fabric. This setup, according to Musk, gives xAI "a significant advantage in training the world's most powerful AI by every metric by December this year."

Given issues with xAI's Grok chatbot throughout the year, skeptics would be justified in questioning whether those claims will match reality, especially given Musk's tendency for grandiose, off-the-cuff remarks on the social media platform he runs.