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Microsoft zveřejnil na GitHubu zdrojové kódy MS-DOSu 4.0 pod licencí MIT. Ve stejném repozitáři se nacházejí i před lety zveřejněné zdrojové k kódy MS-DOSu 1.25 a 2.0.

Technologie jako dobrý sluha. Bankovní identita vám pomůže se dostat k výsledkům vyšetření v nemocnici. Firmám chytrý sběr dat zase pomůže přežít nové povinnosti v oblasti reportování udržitelnosti.

Nové Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Noble Numbat je zde, nepřináší prakticky nic jiného než předvídatelnou evoluci a je to tak správně. Novinek je ale i přesto spousta, byť třeba fanoušky Kubuntu čeká malé zklamání.

Tento článek je volným pokračování předchozího článku Sdílení objektů mezi vlákny jednoduše v C++20. Tentokrát se podíváme na jiné řešení, které má ambice se dostat do normy C++26.

Velké APU Strix Halo (Sarlak), které se chystá na začátek roku, vypadá velmi vybaveně. Krom nejrychlejšího AI procesoru (přinejmenším v x86 světě) a nejrychlejšího DisplayPort rozhraní má i MALL cache

Počítačové simulace chování těles Sluneční soustavy s dlouhou oběžnou periodou, které kříží oběžnou dráhu Neptunu a jejich pohyb vykazují nepravidelnosti, ukazují na přítomnost velké planety, tedy „Devítky,“ na periferii Sluneční soustavy. Na přímý důkaz její existence si ale ještě musíme počkat.

Athletics boss accused of deep-faking Baltimore school principal

Baltimore police have arrested Dazhon Leslie Darien, the former athletic director of Pikesville High School (PHS), for allegedly impersonating the school's principal using AI software to make it seem as if he made racist and antisemitic remarks.…

Cash to go out as refunds to punters

The FTC today announced it would be sending refunds totaling $5.6 million to Ring customers, paid from the Amazon subsidiary's coffers.…

CRISPR has revolutionized science. AI is now taking the gene editor to the next level.

Thanks to its ability to accurately edit the genome, CRISPR tools are now widely used in biotechnology and across medicine to tackle inherited diseases. In late 2023, a therapy using the Nobel Prize-winning tool gained approval from the FDA to treat sickle cell disease. CRISPR has also enabled CAR T cell therapy to battle cancers and been used to lower dangerously high cholesterol levels in clinical trials.

Outside medicine, CRISPR tools are changing the agricultural landscape, with projects ongoing to engineer hornless bulls, nutrient-rich tomatoes, and livestock and fish with more muscle mass.

Despite its real-world impact, CRISPR isn’t perfect. The tool snips both strands of DNA, which can cause dangerous mutations. It also can inadvertently nip unintended areas of the genome and trigger unpredictable side effects.

CRISPR was first discovered in bacteria as a defense mechanism, suggesting that nature hides a bounty of CRISPR components. For the past decade, scientists have screened different natural environments—for example, pond scum—to find other versions of the tool that could potentially increase its efficacy and precision. While successful, this strategy depends on what nature has to offer. Some benefits, such as a smaller size or greater longevity in the body, often come with trade-offs like lower activity or precision.

Rather than relying on evolution, can we fast-track better CRISPR tools with AI?

This week, Profluent, a startup based in California, outlined a strategy that uses AI to dream up a new universe of CRISPR gene editors. Based on large language models—the technology behind the popular ChatGPT—the AI designed several new gene-editing components.

In human cells, the components meshed to reliably edit targeted genes. The efficiency matched classic CRISPR, but with far more precision. The most promising editor, dubbed OpenCRISPR-1, could also precisely swap out single DNA letters—a technology called base editing—with an accuracy that rivals current tools.

“We demonstrate the world’s first successful editing of the human genome using a gene editing system where every component is fully designed by AI,” wrote the authors in a blog post.

Match Made in Heaven

CRISPR and AI have had a long romance.

The CRISPR recipe has two main parts: A “scissor” Cas protein that cuts or nicks the genome and a “bloodhound” RNA guide that tethers the scissor protein to the target gene.

By varying these components, the system becomes a toolbox, with each setup tailored to perform a specific type of gene editing. Some Cas proteins cut both strands of DNA; others give just one strand a quick snip. Alternative versions can also cut RNA, a type of genetic material found in viruses, and can be used as diagnostic tools or antiviral treatments.

Different versions of Cas proteins are often found by searching natural environments or through a process called direct evolution. Here, scientist rationally swap out some parts of the Cas protein to potentially boost efficacy.

It’s a highly time-consuming process. Which is where AI comes in.

Machine learning has already helped predict off-target effects in CRISPR tools. It’s also homed in on smaller Cas proteins to make downsized editors easier to deliver into cells.

Profluent used AI in a novel way: Rather than boosting current systems, they designed CRISPR components from scratch using large language models.

The basis of ChatGPT and DALL-E, these models launched AI into the mainstream. They learn from massive amounts of text, images, music, and other data to distill patterns and concepts. It’s how the algorithms generate images from a single text prompt—say, “unicorn with sunglasses dancing over a rainbow”—or mimic the music style of a given artist.

The same technology has also transformed the protein design world. Like words in a book, proteins are strung from individual molecular “letters” into chains, which then fold in specific ways to make the proteins work. By feeding protein sequences into AI, scientists have already fashioned antibodies and other functional proteins unknown to nature.

“Large generative protein language models capture the underlying blueprint of what makes a natural protein functional,” wrote the team in the blog post. “They promise a shortcut to bypass the random process of evolution and move us towards intentionally designing proteins for a specific purpose.”

Do AIs Dream of CRISPR Sheep?

All large language models need training data. The same is true for an algorithm that generates gene editors. Unlike text, images, or videos that can be easily scraped online, a CRISPR database is harder to find.

The team first screened over 26 terabytes of data about current CRISPR systems and built a CRISPR-Cas atlas—the most extensive to date, according to the researchers.

The search revealed millions of CRISPR-Cas components. The team then trained their ProGen2 language model—which was fine-tuned for protein discovery—using the CRISPR atlas.

The AI eventually generated four million protein sequences with potential Cas activity. After filtering out obvious deadbeats with another computer program, the team zeroed in on a new universe of Cas “protein scissors.”

The algorithm didn’t just dream up proteins like Cas9. Cas proteins come in families, each with its own quirks in gene-editing ability. The AI also designed proteins resembling Cas13, which targets RNA, and Cas12a, which is more compact than Cas9.

Overall, the results expanded the universe of potential Cas proteins nearly five-fold. But do any of them work?

Hello, CRISPR World

For the next test, the team focused on Cas9, because it’s already widely used in biomedical and other fields. They trained the AI on roughly 240,000 different Cas9 protein structures from multiple types of animals, with the goal of generating similar proteins to replace natural ones—but with higher efficacy or precision.

The initial results were surprising: The generated sequences, roughly a million of them, were totally different than natural Cas9 proteins. But using DeepMind’s AlphaFold2, a protein structure prediction AI, the team found the generated protein sequences could adopt similar shapes.

Cas proteins can’t function without a bloodhound RNA guide. With the CRISPR-Cas atlas, the team also trained AI to generate an RNA guide when given a protein sequence.

The result is a CRISPR gene editor with both components—Cas protein and RNA guide— designed by AI. Dubbed OpenCRISPR-1, its gene editing activity was similar to classic CRISPR-Cas9 systems when tested in cultured human kidney cells. Surprisingly, the AI-generated version slashed off-target editing by roughly 95 percent.

With a few tweaks, OpenCRISPR-1 could also perform base editing, which can change single DNA letters. Compared to classic CRISPR, base editing is likely more precise as it limits damage to the genome. In human kidney cells, OpenCRISPR-1 reliably converted one DNA letter to another in three sites across the genome, with an editing rate similar to current base editors.

To be clear, the AI-generated CRISPR tools have only been tested in cells in a dish. For treatments to reach the clinic, they’d need to undergo careful testing for safety and efficacy in living creatures, which can take a long time.

Profluent is openly sharing OpenCRISPR-1 with researchers and commercial groups but keeping the AI that created the tool in-house. “We release OpenCRISPR-1 publicly to facilitate broad, ethical usage across research and commercial applications,” they wrote.

As a preprint, the paper describing their work has yet to be analyzed by expert peer reviewers. Scientists will also have to show OpenCRISPR-1 or variants work in multiple organisms, including plants, mice, and humans. But tantalizingly, the results open a new avenue for generative AI—one that could fundamentally change our genetic blueprint.

Image Credit: Profluent

This first part of the Complete Guide to Keylogging in Linux will explore keylogger attacks in network security. Keylogging can be valuable for testing within the Linux Security realm, so we will dive deeper into how you can write keyloggers and read events directly from a keyboard device on Linux.

Suspects in Portugal and the US said to have laundered over $100M

Two men alleged to be co-founders of cryptocurrency biz Samourai Wallet face serious charges and potentially decades in US prison over claims they owned a product that facilitated the laundering of over $100 million in criminal cash.…

Jestli pátráte po nejlepších sluchátkách do kanceláře nebo práci na cestách, Jabry by vás mohly zaujmout. Nabízí přesně takové funkce, které v každodenním pracovním nasazení nejvíc oceníte.

Google this week once again said it will delay plans to eliminate third-party identity tracking software — cookies — from its Chrome browser and from Android OS. Now, it plans to remove them by 2025.

The tech giant said the latest delay is due to “ongoing challenges related to reconciling divergent feedback from the industry, regulators and developers.” 

As far back as 2019, Google was telling users it planned to limit third-party cookies and phase them out in Chrome and other Chromium open-source browsers by 2022. In 2020, it delayed its plans to eliminate them through its Privacy Sandbox initiative. Then in 2022, Google pushed back its plans to 2023. And last year, it delayed the plans again — to the second half of 2024.

In January, it again said it would find alternatives to cookies for identifying users and discovering their habits, but was pushing back plans to eliminate trackers.

“We recognize that there are ongoing challenges related to reconciling divergent feedback from the industry, regulators and developers, and will continue to engage closely with the entire ecosystem,” Google wrote in a blog post this week.

“For marketers, the message is clear: get off cookies now,” said said Ken Weiner, chief technology officer at digital advertising platform GumGum. “Most of the industry, including mobile and other browsers like Safari, have already moved away from cookies or never used them in the first place. Don’t wait for Google’s shifting timeline to take action; the transition should be happening now. Keep in mind that regardless of cookies, the web’s future—driven by consumer preferences and regulatory changes—is identity-less. Contextual targeting is the best way forward.”

Google has been working with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the Information Commissions Office (ICO) on its plans to use its Privacy Sandbox instead of cookies. The British regulatory authority and others have voiced concerns about Google’s plan, saying it could “unfairly hinder competition” by giving preference to Google’s own advertising products, which would increase the company’s market dominance.

“We remain committed to engaging closely with the CMA and ICO and we hope to conclude that process this year,” the company said. “Assuming we can reach an agreement, we envision proceeding with third-party cookie deprecation starting early next year.”

A cookie is a small file that is downloaded onto a computer when the user visits a website. They can do helpful things, such as remembering preferences, recording what has been added to a shopping basket, and counting the number of people viewing a website. They can also use a person’s identity to allow third parties to bombard users with emails and targeted online ads.

Cookies often ingest and retain sensitive consumer information such as login credentials, personally identifiable information, and browsing history. As a result, the move away from cookies should help reduce some cybersecurity risks.

Over the past few years, the online advertising industry has been undergoing a sea change as regulators restricted how cookies can be used and browser providers moved away from them in response to consumer outcries over privacy. “They often feel surveilled; some even find it ‘creepy’ that a website can show them ads related to their behavior elsewhere,” according to a recent study by the HEC Paris Business School.

Google has said its Privacy Sandbox project will create new standards for websites to access user information without compromising privacy by sharing a subset of user information without relying on third-party cookies. “It will provide publishers with safer alternatives to existing technology, so they can continue building digital businesses while your data stays private,” the company said on its website.

For Android device users, Google will introduce new solutions that operate without cross-app identifiers — including Google Play services’s Advertising ID, which will limit data sharing with third parties and offer a user-resettable, and user-deletable ID for advertising.

Google Chrome, which is used for about 66% of all internet traffic, impacts more consumers than any other browser, so changing the way it tracks users would also have market-changing consequences.

“In the short term, there will be some disruption with advertisers struggling to market themselves effectively,” said Roger Beharry Lall, research director for IDC’s Advertising Technologies and SMB Marketing Applications practice. “This may seem good for consumers who are ‘cookie free.’ However, there will likely just be more irrelevant ads flooding the media trying to find an audience. So, it’s a bit of a double-edged sword.”

Browser Security, Browsers, Chrome, Chrome OS, Privacy

The North Korea-linked threat actor known as Lazarus Group employed its time-tested fabricated job lures to deliver a new remote access trojan called Kaolin RAT as part of attacks targeting specific individuals in the Asia region in summer 2023. The malware could, "aside from standard RAT functionality, change the last write timestamp of a selected file and load any received DLL

The North Korea-linked threat actor known as Lazarus Group employed its time-tested fabricated job lures to deliver a new remote access trojan called Kaolin RAT as part of attacks targeting specific individuals in the Asia region in summer 2023. The malware could, "aside from standard RAT functionality, change the last write timestamp of a selected file and load any received DLL Newsroomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]

Do telefonů běžně ukládáme citlivá data, jako jsou hesla či PIN kódy • Při špatné ochraně ale mohou být zneužita • Poradíme, jaké aplikace a služby k jejich bezpečnému uložení používat

Researchers have exposed new and sophisticated types of attacks that endanger the security and confidentiality of virtual machines (VMs). Two variations of Ahoi attacks, Heckler and WeSee, have been identified targeting hardware-based trusted execution environments, specifically AMD's Secure Encrypted Virtualization-Secure Nested Paging (SEV-SNP) and Intel's Trust Domain Extensions (TDX) technologies.

Apple has cut Vision Pro production due to low demand for the $3,500 mixed reality headset, according to Ming-Chi Kuo, an Apple analyst at TF International Securities. 

Apple reduced shipments to between 400,000 and 500,000 units for the year, despite “market expectations” of around sales of 700,000 to 800,000 units, Kuo said in a blog post Wednesday.

Apple cut orders ahead of a planned international launch for the device, said Kuo,

Because of a sharp fall-off in demand in the US, Kuo had earlier claimed that between  160,000 and 180,000 of the spatial computing devices were sold in preorders before the February launch. But sales quickly slowed after that early burst of interest and Apple now takes a “conservative view” of demand outside of the US, Kuo said this week. (Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported this week that demand for Vision Pro demos in Apple stores has also fallen off significantly as interest waned.)

Apple now expects Vision Pro shipments to decline year on year in 2025, Kuo said, prompting Apple to review and adjust its product roadmap; plans for a second Vision Pro in 2025 are now reportedly on hold.

Apple may shed more light on the situation when it releases its Q2 financial results next Thursday.

Wider predictions for Vision Pro sales have varied significantly, and it’s difficult to point to a consensus on market expectations.  According to an Ars Technica report in June 2023, Wedbush Securities forecast around 150,000 units in the first year of sales;  Morgan Stanley expected sales of around 850,000; and Goldman Sachs predicted sales as high as 5 million.

It was rumored that Apple initially hoped to sell 1 million of the devices in the first year on sale, according to a Financial Times report in 2023; that expectation was later revised down due to production issues. 

Morgan Stanley analysts predicted in January that Apple would ship between 300,000 and 400,000 headsets in 2024, according to a CNBC report, while a Wedbush analyst put the figure at 600,000 units for the year, according to Business Insider. 

Kuo himself forecast sales of around 500,000 units for 2024, according to a January blog post.  

What seems clear is that the Vision Pro will make up a relatively small part of the total market for AR/VR devices, which remains a niche product category.

While the first-generation device is powerful and impressive, said Ramon Llamas, research director with IDC’s devices and displays team, consumers still need to be convinced of its value and utility. 

“As a multimedia consumption device, it is pushed up hard against consumers’ large screen televisions and computers,” he said. As a workplace productivity device, he added, it “remains to be seen exactly how it increases efficiency and productivity altogether.

“On top of this, the price most likely makes a lot of people balk,” said Llamas. 

The wider market for AR/VR devices is expected to return to growth in 2024, up 44% from the previous year to 9.7 million units, according to IDC data. This follows a tough year in 2023, when headset sales declined 23.5%. 

Meanwhile, Apple touted the enterprise potential of the Vision Pro earlier this month.

“There’s tremendous opportunity for businesses to reimagine what’s possible using Apple Vision Pro at work,” Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of worldwide developer relations and enterprise marketing, said in a blog post, pointing to VisionOS apps from the likes of SAP, Lowe’s, Porsche, and others. 

Apple, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality

Meta oznámila finanční výsledky za první čtvrtletí, zakladatel a šéf společnosti Mark Zuckerberg to přitom označil za velmi dobrý start nového roku. Firma utržila 36,5 miliardy dolarů, o 27 % více než před rokem. Provozní zisk vzrostl o 91 % na 13,8 miliardy, čistý pak o 117 % na 12,4 miliardy ...

Canonical vydal (email, blog, YouTube) Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Noble Numbat. Přehled novinek v poznámkách k vydání a také příspěvcích na blogu: novinky v desktopu a novinky v bezpečnosti. Vydány byly také oficiální deriváty Edubuntu, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu Budgie, Ubuntu Cinnamon, Ubuntu Kylin, Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Studio, Ubuntu Unity a Xubuntu. Jedná se o 10. LTS verzi.