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The Star
2 days ago
- The Star
Opinion: Learning to manage your cloud storage
The easiest way to copy your files from OneDrive back to your computer is to use a browser to log into your OneDrive and download the files. — Photo by Nick on Unsplash This week a reader is having a problem with Microsoft OneDrive. 'I had been keeping all of my files off of OneDrive successfully for several years. Somehow in the last year, all of my files, documents, photos, etc., have been moved to the OneDrive cloud storage. I want everything back and nothing left on the cloud. Each time I have followed Microsoft's instructions on how to do this, it doesn't work. It places everything back on my hard drive as 'copies' of everything in the cloud, leaving all of the originals on the cloud. I am at my wits' end! I want to turn OneDrive off permanently once I finally get everything back.' Not everyone is comfortable with their files being stored in the cloud. You can see what local folders are set to sync to the OneDrive cloud by clicking on the OneDrive cloud icon in your system tray and choosing the gear icon on the top right and choosing Settings. At the top of the Settings page is a button to Manage Backup, which is where you can pick which of your local folders are automatically synced to OneDrive. You can check here to see if your Desktop, Documents or Downloads folders (or others) are set to sync. Make your own choices here. You can also pause syncing all your files under the gear icon. The easiest way to copy your files from OneDrive back to your computer is to use a browser to log into your OneDrive and download the files. The OneDrive web interface will show you exactly what files are in the cloud. You can select the files and/or folders and click the download button. I recommend you save them to an external hard drive or flash drive. Once you have your files safely onto whatever drive you choose, you can unlink your PC from OneDrive. Under the gear icon, select the Account setting and click 'Unlink this PC.' Finally, you can uninstall OneDrive under your computer's Settings by selecting Apps or Apps & Features, then choosing Microsoft OneDrive from the application list, clicking on it and selecting Uninstall. – Tribune News Service
The Star
3 days ago
- The Star
Roblox rolls out safety features including age test
Roblox, which operates one of the largest video game platforms on the planet, has been rolling out new features and tools to help parents control how children interact with strangers on its site as it struggles with controlling child predation. — Unsplash Roblox Corp is adding new safety features, including an age-estimation tool that relies on video selfies, in an effort to better protect its kid-heavy user base. The gaming platform is changing the name of its in-game communications system from "Friends' to "Connections', to better reflect how users interact. The company is also introducing a new tier, called Trusted Connections that allows people to communicate via text chat and voice calls without the built-in filters that censor certain words and phrases. People 13 and older will be able to access this new feature by verifying their age with a video selfie that is "analysed against a large and diverse dataset to estimate their age,' the company said. If the tool determines that a user is under 13, the account will be flagged. If it's unable to determine a user's age, the person will be able to confirm it with another form of ID or, at some point in the future, parental consent. "We think this is the future of how teens will communicate,' Roblox chief executive officer Dave Baszucki said on Bloomberg TV Thursday. He described the artificial intelligence behind the age-estimation tool as "really good' but "not perfect', and said they were using it "in a conservative way to enable freer communication that is still monitored.' Freedom to chat more openly with trusted connections reduces the incentive for teens to move interactions off platform, where they may be exposed to greater risk, according to the company. Roblox, which operates one of the largest video game platforms on the planet, has been rolling out new features and tools to help parents control how children interact with strangers on its site as it struggles with controlling child predation. A Bloomberg investigation published last year revealed that since 2018, police had arrested at least two dozen people accused of abducting or abusing victims they met or groomed on the site. As Roblox works to generate more revenue from advertising, creating a safe space for kids and families will be key to getting brands to commit, Baszucki has said. As part of the latest set of safety features, Roblox is offering parents of teens new tools to monitor their child's experience on the site, such as spending notifications, data on Connections activity and controls for all users to manage their screen time and privacy. Those controls include a Do Not Disturb mode that silences alerts during bedtime. Teens who want to establish Trusted Connections with users over 18 will have to use a QR code scan or the platform's Contact Importer tool as an additional safety measure. Roblox plans to use the age-estimation tool even more in the future to support access to age-appropriate features and content. "Our goal is to lead the world in safety and civility for online gaming,' chief safety officer Matt Kaufman wrote in a blog post Thursday. – Bloomberg
RNZ News
4 days ago
- RNZ News
Thinking of trekking to Everest Base Camp? Don't leave home without this expert advice
First published on Mt Everest. Photo: Unsplash / Kabita Darlami Tourists in Kathmandu are tempted everywhere by advertisements for trekking expeditions to Everest Base Camp. If you didn't know better, you might think it's just a nice hike in the Nepalese countryside. Typically the lower staging post for attempts on the summit, the camp is still 5364 metres above sea level and a destination in its own right. Travel agencies say no prior experience is required, and all equipment will be provided. Social media, too, is filled with posts enticing potential trekkers to make the iconic journey. But there is a real risk of creating a false sense of security. An exciting adventure can quickly turn into a struggle for survival, especially for novice mountaineers. Nevertheless, Sagarmatha National Park is deservedly popular for its natural beauty and the allure of the world's highest peak, Chomolungma (Mount Everest). It is also home to the ethnically distinctive Sherpa community . Consequently, the routes to Everest Base Camp are among the busiest in the Himalayas, with nearly 60,000 tourists visiting the area each year. There are two distinct trekking seasons : spring (March to May) and autumn (September to October). High mountains require everyone to be properly prepared. Events which under normal conditions might be a minor inconvenience can be magnified in such an environment and pose a serious risk . Even at the start of the trek in Lukla (2860m), one is exposed to factors that can directly or indirectly affect one's health, especially altitude mountain sickness or unfamiliar bacteria. We interviewed 24 trekkers in May this year, as well as 60 residents and business owners in May 2023, to explore some of the safety issues anyone considering heading to base camp should be aware of. Author Heike Schanzel (right) atop the famous and much-photographed base camp rock. Photo: Heike Schanzel First, it's vital to choose goals within one's technical and physical capabilities . While the human body can adapt to altitudes of up to 5,300m, the potential risk of altitude mountain sickness can occur at only 2500m - lower than Lukla. Proper acclimatisation above 3000m means ascending no more than 500m a day and resting every two to three days at the same altitude. The optimal (though rarely followed) approach is the "saw tooth system" of climbing during the day but descending to sleep at a lower level. Residents of the Khumbu region (on the Nepalese side of Everest) are familiar with the problem of tourists not acclimatising, or not paying attention to their surroundings. As one hotel owner said, pointing to a trekker setting out: "He's going uphill and it's already late. It's going to get dark and cold soon. He won't make it to the next settlement. We have to report this to the authorities or go after him ourselves." Inexperienced trekkers should hire a local guide. Several we interviewed had needed medical evacuation, including a woman in her mid-20s who had to leave base camp after one night. She found her guides - not locals - online. But they never checked her vital signs during the trek: "[The doctors] said that I had high-altitude pulmonary edema… it was just really important to come down the elevation. And if I had tried to go higher, it probably would have been really bad." Health checks throughout the trek are imperative. This includes assessing the four main symptoms of altitude mountain sickness: headache, nausea, dizziness and fatigue. If they appear, the trekker shouldn't go higher and might even need to descend. Using a reputable local trekking agency might be more expensive, but it will help ensure safety and also familiarise the visitor with the local culture, helping avoid negative impacts on the host community . Too often, the primary goal of trekkers is a photo on the famous rock at base camp. Once obtained, many simply take a helicopter back to Kathmandu. As a helicopter tour agency owner said: "They don't want to get back on their feet. The goal, after all, has been achieved. In general, tourists used to be much better prepared. Now they know they can return by helicopter." Helicopter travel can be dangerous on its own, of course. But this tendency to view the trek as a one-way trip also affects host-guest relations and can irritate local communities . It's also important to monitor your food and drink intake and watch for signs of food poisoning. Diarrhoea at high altitudes is particularly dangerous because it leads to rapid dehydration - hard to combat in mountain conditions. Low air pressure and reduced oxygen exacerbate the condition, weakening the body's ability to recover. Also, the symptoms of dehydration can resemble altitude mountain sickness. When travelling in other climate zones or countries with different sanitary standards, there is inevitable contact with strains of bacteria not present in one's natural microbiome. A good solution is to spend a few days naturally adapting to bacterial flora at a lower altitude in Nepal before heading to the mountains. Also, try to eat the local food, such as daal bhat, Nepal's national dish. According to one hotel owner in Pangboche: "Tourists demand strange food from us - pizza, spaghetti, Caesar salad - and then are angry that it doesn't taste the way they want. This is not our food. You should probably eat local food." Most of the trekkers we interviewed during this spring season reported experiencing gastrointestinal issues, often for several days. Overall, diarrhoea-related infections are the leading cause of illness among travellers, including base camp trekkers. Studies conducted in the Himalayas show as many as 14 percent of mountain tourists contract gastroenteritis , accounting for about 10 percent of all helicopter evacuations. In the end, the commonest cause of failure or accident in the mountains is overestimating one's abilities - what has been called "bad judgement syndrome" - when the route is too hard, the pace too fast, or there's been too little time spent acclimatising. A simple solution: walk slowly and enjoy the views. * Heike Schanzel, Professor of Social Sustainability in Tourism, Auckland University of Technology; Michal Apollo, Adjunct Professor of Earth Science, University of Silesia in Katowice. - This story originally appeared on The Conversation.
Forbes
4 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
3 Reasons Your Business Doesn't Need AI Agents
Photo by Igor Omilaev on Unsplash If you saw the HBO show Game of Thrones, you're probably aware of the close but complex relationship Daenerys Targaryen had with her three dragons, Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion. In the show, dragons are powerful but dangerous creatures—in Daenerys's case, two of them proved to be too uncontrollable for even her—the mother of dragons herself—to fully manage. AI may not be able to incinerate an enemy army with a blast of flames, but even so, its awesome power reminds me quite a bit of those dragons. There's so much that today's technology can do, but its abilities should not be taken lightly. The AI landscape is still pitted with ethical and legal challenges, privacy concerns, unchecked biases and hallucinations. For leaders considering implementing agentic AI into their operations, these risks are essential to consider. The truth is, not every company needs an AI agent. Thinking of building your own? Here are three reasons why you shouldn't. Your Customers Don't Really Need It Businesses of all stripes have gone all in on AI, and the result has been a multitude of AI-driven products that no one needs—or wants. But jumping on the agentic AI bandwagon just to keep up with the tech-enabled Joneses can not only backfire, it can be a liability. In fact, research published in the Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management found that, rather than signalling advanced capabilities and features, products that advertise the use of AI can actually repel customers. 'When AI is mentioned, it tends to lower emotional trust, which in turn decreases purchase intentions,' said Mesut Cicek, the study's lead author. 'We found emotional trust plays a critical role in how consumers perceive AI-powered products.' This isn't to say that AI isn't transformative for businesses—according to Gartner, 79 percent of corporate strategists agree that AI is critical to success. The key is to ensure you're actually implementing agents in a way that will serve your customers, and not simply capitalizing on the latest buzz. Conduct market research, figure out your friction points, and listen to feedback. The last thing you want is to dump time, energy and money into an offering that never needed to exist. You're Hoping To Replace Your Human Workforce What sets AI agents apart from LLMs is their ability to operate autonomously: For example, while an LLM can generate text responses or summaries when prompted, an AI agent can proactively schedule tasks, connect to external systems (like email or databases), and execute actions on its own—without waiting for a human request. For organizations looking to unlock efficiency and save their human workforces from dull, repetitive tasks, agents represent an exciting opportunity. But if your goal is to eliminate every flesh-and-blood member of your team in exchange for a hyper-efficient, AI-powered workforce, you're looking at it wrong. While the autonomy of agentic AI is one of its features, it's also one of its greatest risks. Their ability to act independently poses any number of threats, from accidental privacy exposure or data poisoning, which can lead to devastating consequences. As Shomit Ghose writes at UC Berkeley's Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology: 'We might grant some lenity to an LLM-driven chatbot that hallucinates an incorrect answer, leading us to lose a bar bet. We'll be less charitable when an LLM-driven agentic AI hallucinates a day-trading strategy in our stock portfolios.' As a leader, your goal should be for AI agents to work alongside your team, not to replace it. The fact is, agents are good, but they're not infallible. If an agent commits an error that doesn't get caught until it's too late, your organization will lose credibility that it may never recover. You're Not Paying Attention To Government Regulations And Risk Management The rapid advance of AI agents have created unprecedented opportunities for businesses, but without proper governance, these systems can quickly become liabilities. A major challenge is that AI operates autonomously across vast datasets, learning and evolving in ways that may not always align with ethical or regulatory standards. Leaders considering implementing agentic AI should familiarize themselves with all of the potential hazards, and establish structured oversight frameworks to mitigate them. As AI-powered decision-making becomes more integral to business operations, companies must establish clear policies around compliance, transparency, and accountability. This includes adopting governance models that align with all current regulations, which are changing rapidly. Organizations should also integrate AI risk management frameworks to ensure ongoing monitoring and ethical deployment. AI agents, like Daenerys's dragons, hold immense power. But without careful and deliberate strategy, they can quickly become more of a liability than an asset. Instead of rushing to adopt AI for the sake of staying on trend, businesses must take a measured approach, ensuring their agents serve real needs, support human expertise, and adhere to evolving regulations.
Edinburgh Reporter
4 days ago
- Health
- Edinburgh Reporter
Scientists Successfully Modify E. Coli to Convert Waste Plastic into Painkiller Ingredient
Scientists at the University of Edinburgh have made an exciting breakthrough. They used genetic engineering to modify common E. coli bacteria. The modified bacteria can now turn plastic bottle material (PET) into painkiller medicine (paracetamol). Photo by masakazu sasaki on Unsplash Introduction Scientists at the University of Edinburgh have made an exciting breakthrough. They used genetic engineering to modify common E. coli bacteria. The modified bacteria can now turn plastic bottle material (PET) into painkiller medicine (paracetamol). The conversion rate reaches an impressive 92%. The entire process was carried out in 24 hours at room temperature with no toxic byproducts discovered. The Two Materials Paracetamol is the most popular non-anti-inflammatory antipyretic and analgesic drug, and the best form of drugs that fall under acetanilide. It is particularly for patients who are not able to use carboxylic acid drugs. PET is a pale yellow or milky white, very crystalline polymer with a smooth, shiny surface. It possesses good physical and mechanical properties in a wide temperature range, and the service temperature is to 120°C. PET also has good electrical insulation properties and good electrical performance up to high temperatures and high frequencies. PET films may be used in liquid crystal displays to provide transparent conducting layers. The Modification Method In essence, the researchers first used green chemical processes to convert PET plastic into an intermediate compound. The intermediate would then react with E. coli, triggering the 'Lossen rearrangement reaction.' This reaction was, for the first time, proven to be biocompatible (harmless to living cells), with cell phosphates catalyzing the process (traditionally involving inhumane lab conditions). For the aforementioned genetic editing procedure, the scientists halted the metabolic pathway through which the bacteria synthesize para-aminobenzoic acid (Paba) and introduced mushroom and soil bacteria genes to metabolize Paba to paracetamol. Project leader Professor Stephen Wallace stated: 'People don't know today that raw materials for making paracetamol come from petroleum. This technology is the first one to bring together chemistry and biology, allowing us to manufacture pharmaceuticals sustainably and at the same time, resolve plastic pollution.' Although the commercialization process has not been achieved, Wallace pointed out that 'this is the first synthetic route from plastic waste to paracetamol, which cannot be done with single-discipline technology.' Source: Nature Like this: Like Related
