Month: October 2024

Earlier this week, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. used a Zoom call to tell his supporters that Donald Trump had promised him "control" of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the federal agency that includes the Centers for Disease Control, Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health, as well as the Department of Agriculture. Given Kennedy's support for debunked anti-vaccine nonsense, this represents a potential public health nightmare.

A few days after, Howard Lutnick, a co-chair of Trump's transition team, appeared on CNN to deny that RFK Jr. would be put in charge of HHS. But he followed that with a long rant in which he echoed Kennedy's spurious claims about vaccines. This provides yet another indication of how anti-vaccine activism has become deeply enmeshed with Republican politics, to the point where it may be just as bad even if Kennedy isn't appointed.

Trump as Kennedy’s route to power

Kennedy has a long history of misinformation regarding health, with a special focus on vaccines. This includes the extensively debunked suggestion that there is a correlation between vaccinations and autism incidence, and it extends to a general skepticism about vaccine safety. That's mixed with conspiracy theories regarding collusion between federal regulators and pharmaceutical companies.

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There's a lot going on in the world of Mac apps for popular AI services. In the past week, Anthropic has released a desktop app for its popular Claude chatbot, and Perplexity launched a native app for its AI-driven search service.

On top of that, OpenAI updated its ChatGPT Mac app with support for its flashy advanced voice feature.

Like the ChatGPT app that debuted several weeks ago, the Perplexity app adds a keyboard shortcut that allows you to enter a query from anywhere on your desktop. You can use the app to ask follow-up questions and carry on a conversation about what it finds.

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The Colorado Department of State said it accidentally posted a spreadsheet containing "partial passwords" for voting systems. The department said there is no "immediate security threat" because two passwords are needed for each component, but it is trying to complete password changes by the end of today. There were reportedly hundreds of BIOS passwords accessible on the website for over two months before being removed last week.

A government statement issued Tuesday said the agency "is aware that a spreadsheet located on the Department's website improperly included a hidden tab including partial passwords to certain components of Colorado voting systems. This does not pose an immediate security threat to Colorado's elections, nor will it impact how ballots are counted."

Secretary of State Jena Griswold told Colorado Public Radio that "we do not think there is an immediate security threat to Colorado elections, in part because partial passwords don't get you anywhere. Two unique passwords are needed for every election equipment component. Physical access is needed. And under Colorado law, voting equipment is stored in secure rooms that require secure ID badges. There's 24/7 video cameras. There's restricted access to the secure ballot areas, strict chain of custody, and it's a felony to access voting equipment without authorization."

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You might think that since Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (which was released last Friday) is the 21st game in the franchise, it wouldn't be that highly anticipated. You'd be wrong. Last week's entry set multiple records when it launched.

Specifically, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the game set new records for Game Pass subscribers, particularly for a first-day game launch. That's, of course, to be expected—Call of Duty was a major reason why Microsoft acquired Activision, the longtime publisher of the series.

It gets a little zanier, though. The Internet service provider Comcast says Black Ops 6 was directly responsible for 19 percent of its overall traffic the week of the launch, according to a report in The Verge.

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Jeder wird in Zukunft Zuhause seinen persönlichen AI-Assistenten haben. Auch den Festnetz-Betreibern helfe AI beim automatischen Netzbetrieb und durch Selbstheilung bei Problemen. (Festnetz, Huawei)

Google is shifting its Android release schedule, with the next major update coming in the first half of 2025 rather than the second half. That means net-gen flagship phones from companies like Samsung are more likely to ship with an operating system that isn’t nearly a year old. In other recent tech news from around […]

The post Lilbits: Pixel 9a and Android 16 are coming in early 2025, ChatGPT is now a search engine, and Thunderbird comes to Android appeared first on Liliputing.

Residents in the Southwest District Health in Idaho are no longer able to get COVID-19 vaccines from public health clinics after the district's board of directors voted 4–3 recently to stop administering the shot.

The vote came during a hearing swamped by misinformation and conspiracy theories about the lifesaving vaccines. It's a chilling reminder of how dangerous anti-vaccine sentiment and misinformation have infested communities nationwide, causing vaccination rates to slip across the country and making way for deadly outbreaks of preventable diseases.

Safety net

In a hearing last week, Perry Jansen, the health district’s medical director, gave the only presentation that favored keeping COVID-19 vaccines available through district clinics. He echoed the points that all health experts and major health organizations, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have pointed out for years: that COVID-19 vaccines have proven to be safe, lifesaving immunizations that are recommended for everyone ages 6 months and up.

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The Humane Ai Pin is a wearable wearable gadget that launched earlier this year to a chorus or reviews that largely amounted to “this thing is overpriced, doesn’t work very well, and could probably have just been an app.” As if that wasn’t bad enough, this summer the company told customers to stop using the […]

The post Humane recalls Charge Case accessory for the Ai Pin due to fire risk appeared first on Liliputing.

The Topton D13 is a compact desktop computer that measures 108 x 108 x 60mm (4.25″ x 4.25″ x 2.36″) and features an AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS processor, 32GB of LPDDR5-6400 onboard memory and three M.2 2280 slots for PCIe 4.0 x4 storage. It’s also the smallest, cheapest mini PC I’ve seen that features an OCuLink […]

The post Topton D13 is one of the smallest, cheapest mini PCs with an OcuLink port appeared first on Liliputing.

Was einst die IT der Polizeien vereinheitlichen sollte, hat längst viele Überwachungsmodule erhalten. Die Umsetzung war für 2020 geplant, nun weredn die Module für P20 programmiert. (KI, Soziales Netz)