Hoeveel nou?

Feest van IJsselstein tot Loosdrecht want we krijgen een: asielmaatregel. Het kabinet-Jetten verprutste het hele asielfestijn van Faber nog in de Eerste Kamer (moet:kapot), maar vandaag danken we Bart van den Brink op onze blote knieën omdat hij luttele dagen later dan de zelfopgelegde deadline alweer een heuse asielmaatregel presenteert: het makkelijker ongewenst verklaren van overlastgevers. De asielminister bezweert tegenover De Telegraaf: "Overlastgevers kunnen straks makkelijker worden bestraft. Ze kunnen ook een gevangenisstraf krijgen.". Ja ja mensen, 't is wat. Gelukkig zitten de gevangenissen niet vol en rotten er niet allerlei ongewenst verklaarden weg in cellen en tbs-klinieken. Uitzetten, wat dus niet gaat gebeuren, is dan niet eens nodig joh. D66 steunt dit voorstel in ieder geval en staat zelfs open voor méér, dus als Boris Dittrich nou een keertje mag uitpraten in de eerste kamer, verwelkomen we als trotse Nederlanders straks gezamenlijk een waar wondertje: een eerste asielmaatregel.

No week at The Register is complete without a new installment of On Call, the reader-contributed column in which you share tales of the peaks and troughs of the tech support experience. So let's get going and meet this week's contributor, who we shall Regomize as "Gerald." He took us back to an early moment in his career, when he worked for an outfit that configured Windows 98 PCs as "data collectors" for its clients. As part of his job, Gerald built PCs and provided field support. In this story, he built a new data collector, checked that it worked with the usual round of tests, and left it for someone else to install because he had another job to do elsewhere for a different client. That visit was interrupted by his boss, who Gerald said "reamed me out for allowing a non-functional system to leave the shop." After the criticism stopped, Gerald's boss ordered him to fix the stricken PC, ASAP, even though it was 100 km away by car. "The boss man said go, so I went," Gerald told On Call. "About an hour and a half later, I arrived to diagnose the recalcitrant PC. The client was literally hopping mad and asking how I could be so stupid, because his firm was losing money." Gerald got to work and inspected the PC, which was on the shop floor, connected to power and peripherals. It booted and worked well but couldn't reach the network. "A check of devices installed showed the network card," Gerald reported, "and a ping to home worked... but nothing outside the box itself was reachable." Gerald decided the only thing to do was take the PC back to the office for more tests, so he started unplugging the peripherals. "Out came the power cord, display cable, keyboard, mouse..." and then he noticed the network cable wasn't plugged in. "It was neatly coiled and taped to a support column," Gerald told On Call, making it very easily fixed – and quite the embarrassment for the angry client and boss. Have you been abused for a customer's error? If so, click here to send On Call an email so we can share your story on a future Friday. ®

DEN HAAG (ANP) - Bij de stewardess van KLM die werd getest op het hantavirus is de uitslag van de test negatief. Dat bevestigt de Wereldgezondheidsorganisatie (WHO). De vrouw uit Haarlem was eerder in het Zuid-Afrikaanse Johannesburg in contact gekomen met een Nederlandse vrouw die later overleed aan het virus.

De 69-jarige Nederlandse vrouw ging op 25 april aan boord van een vlucht van KLM van Johannesburg naar Amsterdam, maar de bemanning besloot uiteindelijk de vrouw om haar gezondheidstoestand niet mee te nemen. De stewardess zat op die vlucht en is volgens de GGD Kennemerland een van de vijf mensen die "intensief contact" had met de vrouw.

FRANKFURT (ANP/AFP/BLOOMBERG) - Commerzbank heeft de winstverwachting voor dit jaar verhoogd. Ook schrapt de Duitse bank meer banen. De stappen volgen op het vijandige bod van de Italiaanse bank UniCredit op Commerzbank.

UniCredit wil de tweede bank van Duitsland kopen voor in totaal ongeveer 35 miljard euro. Commerzbank wil echter zelfstandig blijven en heeft het bod afgewezen. De Italiaanse bank, die al bijna 30 procent van de aandelen Commerzbank bezit, heeft deze week zijn bod echter rechtstreeks aan de aandeelhouders van Commerzbank voorgelegd.

Topvrouw Bettina Orlopp van Commerzbank is er tot nu toe in geslaagd de Italiaanse concurrent op afstand te houden door de winstgevendheid en de dividenduitkeringen te verhogen om zo de aandelenkoers van Commerzbank op te drijven en een deal duurder te maken. Ook schrapt de bank duizenden banen om de kosten te verlagen. Lagere kosten en hogere winsten stuwen de aandelenkoers, waardoor een overname duurder wordt.

TOKIO (ANP) - Elektronica- en entertainmentconcern Sony verwacht dit jaar de winst op te voeren, geholpen door betere resultaten van zijn gametak en muziekdivisie. Het bedrijf verkoopt onder andere de PlayStation 5-console en denkt ook meer eigen games te verkopen. Van de spelcomputers zelf verwacht Sony er juist minder te verkopen dan in het afgelopen boekjaar.

In het gebroken boekjaar 2026, dat tot maart volgend jaar loopt, rekent Sony op een licht lagere omzet en een 13 procent hogere winst. Dit is ondanks de sterk gestegen prijzen voor geheugenchips, een gevolg van massale bouwplannen van AI-datacenters. Sony verwacht dat de marges op verkochte gameconsoles ondanks die kostenstijging op hetzelfde niveau als in 2025 blijven.

In het afgelopen boekjaar kwam de omzet uit op 12,5 biljoen yen (64,9 miljard euro), 4 procent meer dan in het voorgaande boekjaar. De operationele winst, dus voor betaling van rentes en belastingen, steeg 13 procent tot ruim 1,4 biljoen yen.

Eigenaar Jan Belder van de Coop in Schiedam-West voelt zich machteloos, na weer een overval in zijn supermarkt. De zoveelste in een paar jaar tijd. "Die jongens beseffen niet wat ze aanrichten", zegt Belder.

Eigenaar Jan Belder van de Coop in Schiedam-West voelt zich machteloos, na weer een overval in zijn supermarkt. De zoveelste in een paar jaar tijd. "Die jongens beseffen niet wat ze aanrichten", zegt Belder.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Business Insider: As the trial between Elon Musk and OpenAI ended its second week, the Tesla CEO started scoring points against Sam Altman. His witnesses landed three solid punches in testimony about how Altman runs OpenAI as CEO, raising concerns about his dedication to AI safety, the nonprofit's mission, and his honesty as a leader of the organization. [...] This week, Musk's legal team called a parade of witnesses who questioned whether Altman was acting in the interest of the nonprofit. On Thursday, that included a former OpenAI safety researcher, who described a slow erosion of the company's safety teams, which prompted her to leave the company. Witnesses also shared stories about the company launching products without the proper safety reviews -- or the knowledge of the board. Rosie Campbell, a former AI safety researcher at OpenAI, testified that the company became more product-focused during her time there and moved away from the long-term safety work that had initially drawn her in. She said both long-term AI safety teams were eventually eliminated, and that she supported Altman's reinstatement only because she feared OpenAI might otherwise collapse into Microsoft: "It was my understanding at the time that the best way for OpenAI to not disintegrate and fall about would be for Sam to return." Still, Campbell's testimony wasn't entirely favorable to Musk. She also said xAI, Musk's AI company, likely had an inferior approach to safety than OpenAI.

Helen Toner, another former OpenAI board member, also testified about the board's concerns leading up to Altman's removal. She said the board was not primarily worried about ChatGPT's safety, but about Altman's leadership and investor relationships, saying, "The issues that we were concerned about in our decision to fire Sam were exacerbated by relationships with investors." Toner also described concerns that Altman was misrepresenting what others had said, telling the court, "We were concerned that Sam was inserting words into other people's mouths in order to get people to do what he wanted."

Meanwhile, Tasha McCauley, a former OpenAI board member, described a deep loss of trust in Altman and accused him of creating "chaos" and "crisis" inside the company. She said Altman fostered a "culture of lying and culture of deceit," including allegedly misleading others about whether GPT-4 Turbo needed internal safety review before launch.

Musk's lawyers then called to the stand David Schizer, a Columbia Law professor and nonprofit-governance expert, who framed Altman's alleged behavior as a serious governance problem for an organization that was supposed to be mission-driven. Asked about claims that products were launched without full board awareness or safety review, he said, "The board and CEO need to be partnering, working together, to make sure the mission is being followed," adding that "if the CEO is withholding that information, it's a big problem."

The day ended with the start of a Microsoft executive's deposition. Microsoft VP Michael Wetter said Azure had integrated OpenAI technology, that Microsoft saw strategic value in having AI developers build on Azure, and that a 2016 agreement allowed OpenAI to use Microsoft tools for free even though it could mean a loss of up to $15 million for Microsoft. Testimony ended early, with no court on Friday and the trial set to resume Monday.

Recap:

Sam Altman's Management Style Comes Under the Microscope At OpenAI Trial (Day Seven)
Brockman Rebuts Musk's Take On Startup's History, Recounts Secret Work For Tesla (Day Six)
OpenAI President Discloses His Stake In the Company Is Worth $30 Billion (Day Five)
Musk Concludes Testimony At OpenAI Trial (Day Four)
Elon Musk Says OpenAI Betrayed Him, Clashes With Company's Attorney (Day Three)
Musk Testifies OpenAI Was Created As Nonprofit To Counter Google (Day Two)
Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Head To Court (Day One)

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo: