Latest news with #computers
Gizmodo
7 days ago
- Business
- Gizmodo
Forget About $2000 MacBooks, This Mini PC (i7, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD) Now Costs Peanuts on Amazon
Smart shoppers know you don't have to pay more than $1000 for a big desktop computer anymore. If you know what to look for and can spot a good deal, you can build a top setup yourself—or, even easier, just get a ready-to-use, super-powerful little computer like the GMKtec mini PC which is on sale for a big discount on Amazon right now. The GMKtec mini PC featuring a turbo up to 5.0 GHz Intel Core i7-1195G7 processor, 32GB DDR4, and spacious 1TB NVMe SSD is now available for the affordable price of $409, which is a massive 36% discount from its original price of $639. This is not typical for this style of promotion and Black Friday or Prime Day apparently have come early. See at Amazon Slim, Powerful and Efficient GMKtec has become one of the top mini PC brands with a reputation for making slim, powerful and efficient computers that are best-sellers at Amazon. Their designs are renowned for squeezing high-end hardware into tiny, energy-efficient packages that are perfectly suited to home, office or even commercial application. The model currently available for sale at Amazon is a classic example of this philosophy: it's tiny enough to take almost anywhere, but its performance is as good as that of much larger and more expensive desktops. This mini PC boasts an 11th generation Intel Core i7-1195G7 processor which a true powerful processor with four cores, eight threads and a turbo boost clock speed of a whopping 5.0 GHz. This processor is significantly faster than several of its counterparts, like the i7-10810U, i5-12450H, and i5-8259U and is ideal for resource-intensive tasks like video editing, light gaming and business software. Despite its impressive performance, the system sips power with a typical consumption of just 35W. The GMKtec Mini PC comes loaded with 32GB of dual-channel DDR4 RAM which supports smooth multitasking but can also be expanded up to 64GB for future-proofing. Storage is equally impressive with a 1TB NVMe SSD (PCIe 3.0) that can be upgraded to a whopping 2TB plus an additional M.2 2242 SATA slot for even more expansion. Graphics performance is another strong suit thanks to the integrated Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 96EU GPU. This chip delivers rapid HD video across everything from 4K video playback to casual gaming and it is able to power up to three independent 4K monitors simultaneously. The mini PC also features dual-band Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 for rapid wireless connectivity and a 2.5Gbps Ethernet port for lightning-fast wired networking. It also included two HDMI outputs (4K @ 60Hz), a USB Type-C (4K @ 60Hz), and a few USB 3.2 ports. Peripherals, external storage, and numerous monitors can easily be connected all from a device that can be fitted within your palm. The quality of the construction is outstanding, and the system is designed for hassle-free operation so it is a great choice for home offices or classrooms. With capabilities like these for so little money, there is no denying it: the days of pricey desktops are over and the age of smart, small form-factor computing has arrived at last. See at Amazon
Forbes
7 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
The Role Of Leaders When AI Can Know Everything
As much as AI can do and will do, there is something it cannot do that remains a crucial role for ... More leaders—and it's not what we think. When personal computers went mainstream in the 1980's, a euphoria around what they could do was met by contrarians pointing out their limitations. Sure, they could do analytical tasks better than humans, but not intuitive, strategic tasks, such as playing chess. And then computers were built to become chess champions. Yes, they could reason faster than humans but not coordinate movement tasks. And then computers were built into deft manufacturing robots and human prosthetics. Sure, they could do what humans programmed them to do, but they couldn't outlearn their programming. And then AI shredded that assumption. As ChatGPT burst onto the scene, a similar euphoria erupted around what it could do, again followed by contrarians pointing out limitations. Sure, it could learn and regurgitate case law faster than a human, but it also made up cases. Then AI was improved to show sources. Yes, AI can write content better than many people and faster than all, but it's wreaking havoc with publishing and educational practices. Then AI was developed to detect AI-developed content. And so on. We have decades of experience telling us that the edges we suppose to machine intelligence are but the starting point for the next X-prize. And so it is now as we witness the explosive use of AI in good hands and bad—arguably even its own hands—with command of knowledge and networked effects we cannot even imagine. It is with full recognition of this history of underestimating what machines can do that I suggest there is yet something AI cannot do, no matter how much it knows nor how powerful it becomes. And that is to be a living antenna and transformer for sensing and manifesting futures in which life flourishes. This is the crucial and uniquely human role for leaders when AI can know everything. It is an energetic or spiritual role: to sense the zeitgeist, the field, the emerging future, the collective unconscious, God-Source, the Way, or universal Mind—however we name it—and from this place of resonant connection, through collaboration and using all tools available, including AI, conduct that future into the present. I'm certainly not alone in suggesting there's a quality of human intelligence that supersedes AI, nor that AI could be mighty dangerous in the wrong hands or in charge of itself. The earliest pioneers in machine intelligence, such as Marvin Minskey saw risk, not in whether such intelligence could be achieved, but in having no way to ensure it would act in our best interests. The Australian Risk Policy Institute, part of a global risk advisory network, argues for the importance of AI augmenting human intelligence, not replacing it. Numerous tech companies have been party to AI pledges promising responsible and ethical AI development and use. And dominant players, such as Google, have also walked away from those pledges or subjugated them to a winner-take-all race to dominate the AI industry. Mo Gawdat, a former AI leader at Google, in a mind-bending interview on Diary of a CEO, sees the biggest threat facing humanity today is humanity in the age of the machines, with all of our ignorance, greed and competition. 'This is an arms race,' Gawdat says, with 'no interest in what the average human gets out of it…every line of code being written in AI today is to beat the other guy.' AI is an exponential amplifier of the mindset with which it's being created, trained and deployed. As covered in Closing The Great Divides, when that mindset is based in dualism, that is, separation within oneself, self from others or self from the environment, it propagates that separation and resultant suffering in what it creates. For example, it will create businesses that exploit the environment, social systems that create big winners and many losers, or economic policies whereby the rich get vastly richer. Add to this the amplification of AI and the effects are so extreme that it gives even the tech titans pause to ponder the ethics of it all. While dualism is the norm in our culture (in which AI has been created) and embedded in our subject-object language (on which AI has been trained), it is not the greatest truth for the human being. Human leaders are capable of a kind of merge or flow state that goes by many descriptions: unity consciousness, interbeing, samadhi, mystical union, being one-with, or simply being the whole picture. This one-withness is the essence of Zen Leadership. When leaders operate from this state of connection, they propagate a sense of care for the whole, for example, in businesses that take care of the environment, social systems that help people thrive, or economic policies that respect limits. Such leaders create flourishing futures. So, while there are many areas in which AI will far exceed human capacity, it is poorly equipped to sense connection at the depth available to a human being. Moreover, this isn't just another limit that will be superseded by the next generation of AI. Machine intelligence itself grew out of living in our heads—disconnected from the wisdom of the body—and equating intelligence with our thoughts, as in Descartes' dictum: 'I think therefore I am.' We failed to realize that the very thoughts 'I' thinks and the language it uses to express them is how 'I' keeps its ego-centric game going. Modeling computers and AI on how we think and talk propagated this mindset of separation, first replicating the mind's left-brain logic, then advancing to more holistic pattern recognition associated with the right brain. By contrast, the human being has a very different origin. We come from one living cell, through which the entire evolutionary journey played out in our development from gilled sea-creatures to lunged air-breathers. We embody antenna for a whole spectrum of consciousness whereby the universe has revealed itself to itself from the beginning of life, from five basic senses to thought consciousness, to ego consciousness, to collective consciousness. In the collective field, we are able to sense the energy of relationships, of opportunities in crises, of ideas not yet taken form, which is the playground from which skillful leaders bring an emerging future into the present. While AI can reproduce the veneer of human experience—even vastly accelerate and improve upon some aspects of it—it has not lived those experiences. Just as reading the Adventures of Tom Sawyer is not the same as being Tom Sawyer, AI's training in the language of human experience is not the same as living those experiences. Even though AI can talk a good game about being one-with by regurgitating things it has read, it has no physical basis for experiencing one-withness. It lacks the antenna. AI may have sensors or network connections to feed its semiconductors, silicon wafers, transistors, software and so forth. But it does not vibrate or resonate with the field the way a human body does. It does not have the complexity or fractal quality of life and hence cannot support the same expansive consciousness. Opinions vary in the field as to whether AI has consciousness (or 'interiority') at all. But even if we grant that everything has consciousness commensurate with its complexity, AI is far less complex than a human being. That said, AI is already superior to humans at knowing what there is to know. It has thoroughly commoditized knowledge; being the 'smartest person in the room' is no longer a necessary or useful role for human leaders. Far more useful and necessary are practices for connection, which are part of contemplative, embodied wisdom traditions, as in Zen Leadership, for literally resonating one-with others, one-with the environment, one-with the emerging future. Through our connected selves, we bridge AI knowledge and universal wisdom. For sure, such bridging will not be the main AI narrative anytime soon. AI development and use is likely to be dominated by the billionaire footrace we see now, with even shadier characters at the margins and AI itself in the not-too-distant future. But wise, connected AI development and use can serve as a vein of gold through the detritus of disruption and destruction of coming years, manifesting the priceless role of humanity in the evolution of consciousness. AI can only serve a flourishing future for life if it is helped along by living beings connected with same purpose. It is the essential, human leadership opportunity in an era when AI can know and do most everything else. As Mo Gawdat concludes, there are several inevitables with AI. (1) AI will happen, (2) AI will be smarter than us, and (3) AI will replace many of our jobs. But what he also concludes is that it's smarter to create from a place of abundance rather than scarcity, which is another way of saying create from a place of infinitely resourced connection rather than the scarcity of a separate self. That is the most important role a leader can play, and we are living at a most pivotal time in which to play it.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
To steal today's computerized cars, thieves go high-tech
These days, cars are computer centers on wheels. Today's vehicles can contain over 100 computers and millions of lines of software code. These computers are all networked together and can operate all aspects of your vehicle. It's not surprising, then, that car theft has also become high-tech. The computers in a vehicle can be divided into four categories. Many computers are dedicated to operating the vehicle's drive train, including controlling the fuel, battery or both, monitoring emissions and operating cruise control. The second category is dedicated to providing safety. These computers collect data from the vehicle and the outside environment and provide functions like lane correction, automatic braking and backup monitoring. The third category is infotainment systems that provide music and video and can interface with your personal devices through Bluetooth wireless communications. Many vehicles can also connect to cellular services and provide Wi-Fi connectivity. The final category is the navigation system, including the car's GPS system. Computers in one category often need to communicate with computers in another category. For example, the safety system must be able to control the drive train and the infotainment systems. One difference between the network in your car and a typical computer network is that all devices in the car trust each other. Therefore, if an attacker can access one computer, they can easily access other computers in the car. As with any new technology, some aspects of today's cars make it harder for thieves, and some make it easier. There are several methods of stealing a car that are enabled by today's technology. One of the high-tech features is the use of keyless entry and remote start. Keyless entry has become common on many vehicles and is very convenient. The fob you have is paired to your car using a code that both your car and fob know, which prevents you from starting other cars. The difference between keyless entry and the remotes that unlock your car is that keyless entry fobs are always transmitting, so when you get near your car and touch the door, it will unlock. You had to press a button for old fobs to unlock the car door and then use your key to start the car. The first keyless fobs transmitted a digital code to the car, and it would unlock. Thieves quickly realized they could eavesdrop on the radio signal and make a recording. They could then 'replay' the recording and unlock the car. To help with security, the newest fobs use a one-time code to open the door. One method of stealing cars involves using two devices to build an electronic bridge between your fob and your car. One person goes near the car and uses a device to trick the car into sending a digital code used to verify the owner's fob. The thief's device sends that signal to an accomplice standing near the owner's home, which transmits a copy of the car's signal. When the owner's fob replies, the device near the house sends the fob signal to the device near the car, and the car opens. The thieves can then drive off, but once they turn the car off they cannot restart it. Carmakers are looking to fix this by ensuring the fob is in the car for it to be driven. The network used by all computers in a car to communicate is called a controller area network bus. It's designed to allow the computers in a car to send commands and information to each other. The CAN bus was not designed for security, because all of the devices are assumed to be self-contained. But that presumption leaves the CAN bus vulnerable to hackers. Car thieves often try to hack into the CAN bus and from there the computers that control the car's engine. The engine control unit stores a copy of the wireless key code, and thieves can clone this to a blank key fob to use to start the victim's car. One method is accessing a car's onboard diagnostics through a physical port or wireless connection meant for repair technicians. Thieves who access the onboard diagnostics gain access to the CAN bus. Another network hacking method is breaking through a headlight to reach the CAN bus via a direct wiring connection. Modern thieves also try the USB hack, which exploits a design flaw in Hyundai and Kia vehicles. This is more of an old-style hot-wiring of a car than a high-tech computer issue. It is named the USB hack because when thieves break into a car, they look for a slot in the steering column. It turns out that a USB connector fits into the slot, and this allows you to turn on the ignition. So all someone has to do is break the window, insert a USB connector and start the car. This technique has become infamous thanks to a loose affiliation of young car thieves in Milwaukee dubbed the Kia Boyz who have gained notoriety on TikTok. Hyundai and Kia have issued an update that closes the vulnerability by requiring the fob to be in the car before you can start it. Given there are so many different car models, and their complexity is increasing, there are likely to continue to be new and creative ways for thieves to steal cars. So what can you do? Some things are the same as always: Keep your vehicle locked, and don't leave your key fob in it. What is new is keeping your vehicle's software up to date, just as you do with your phone and computer. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Doug Jacobson, Iowa State University Read more: How Ukraine has defended itself against cyberattacks – lessons for the US US autoworkers may wage a historic strike against Detroit's 3 biggest automakers − with wages at EV battery plants a key roadblock to agreement Four strategies to make your neighborhood safer Doug Jacobson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Irish Times
01-06-2025
- General
- Irish Times
The key to a happy long-term relationship? Permission to talk about boring things like computers
I had to buy a new computer. For some, that sentence might prompt a sort of internal shrivelling as they brace themselves to be bombarded with details about processor speeds and RAM size. Others might be dying to know, or even have strong opinions on the subject. I'll avoid all that, other than to tell you that I had to buy a new one because the old one couldn't update from Windows 10 to Windows 11. The reasons why are far too dull to go into, though I do feel compelled to defend my old computer. It wasn't rubbish and I was perfectly happy with it. It was more a case of technological bad luck. Like being born allergic to wine. The Windows people had been sending me 'alerts' – a word seemingly chosen to be deliberately alarming – that the supports for Windows 10 would stop in October, soon after exposing my computer to the possibility of malfunction and, more darkly, security intrusions. I'd wake up one morning and find that I'd have to pay a bitcoin ransom just to be able to log on to the Met Éireann website again. You may be one of those people who knows stuff. Like the fact that there were alternatives to paying out for a new desktop box that looks pretty similar to the old desktop box. And if you are, and wish to tell me about it, please don't. Our world is full of divisions, and one of them is between people who like talking about this kind of thing, and those who don't. READ MORE I could see she had to summon inhuman amounts of willpower to stop her eyes from rolling back in her head An integral part of having a properly functioning long-term relationship is the permission to be boring with each other, and to talk, at least part of the time, about boring things. Myself and Herself will discuss Daughter Number Four's schedule, what we need for the weekly shop, and the problem of getting a secure supply of Ace bleach. It was during such a chat that I told her about my computer changeover; or more precisely, all the palaver involved in moving all the files and programmes from one box to another. Even though it was our Boring Safe Space, I could see she had to summon inhuman amounts of willpower to stop her eyes from rolling back in her head. And I didn't blame her. Because she hears computer-related talk every day at work. Many of us do. In my home office, there's the computer, but also a 70-year-old Royal typewriter that, back in the stone age, I would use to write articles. But I would never have dreamed to write an article about the typewriter. As far as I recall, there were not magazines with titles like TypewriterMag; nor were there people having fevered discussions about the best models and how to operate them. The typewriter was regarded as a tool. The computer, and all the systems it connects to, is also a tool. Admittedly, it's a gazillion times handier than all the things it has replaced, but it's still a tool. Yet it is fetishised, having an inordinate influence on our work and our lives. It barges in between the worker and whatever it is they are trying to produce, in a way other tools don't. A wrench won't influence how a plumber fixes your leaky toilet. But if you work in any sort of office-based job, a certain portion of your day will be devoted to concentrating on or talking about the primary tool you use: the computer. Teams or Zoom or figuring out how to do something on a spreadsheet. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. The computer is fierce handy. Yet there is something slightly creepy about the fact that the tools on our computer, owned by huge corporations, influence how we work, how we communicate and in subtle ways, how we think. You'd wonder who we are actually working for.
Wall Street Journal
29-05-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Dell Technologies Raises Outlook as Sales Rise on AI Demand
Dell Technologies DELL -0.12%decrease; red down pointing triangle raised its profit outlook for the 2026 fiscal year after logging higher sales in its latest quarter, aided by strong demand for its artificial-intelligence servers. The maker of computers and software on Thursday said it now expects adjusted earnings per share of $9.40, up from its previous outlook for $9.30.
