Disney is exploring a free tier for Disney+ that would make some content available without a subscription. According to Nielsen data, the three largest free streamers accounted for 18.7% of watch time on U.S. TVs in April, up from 16.8% a year earlier and 12.7% in April 2024. Business Insider reports: Product and tech chief Adam Smith spoke about enabling free-tier content during a streaming town hall on Thursday afternoon, one staffer said. Smith didn't share a timeline for this initiative or a sense of the scope, this person added. A person familiar with Disney's streaming strategy said these talks are part of an ongoing discussion about concepts to better serve fans. Currently, the Disney+ and Hulu bundle costs $12.99 a month with ads or $19.99 without ads at full price.

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OpenAI is retiring its ChatGPT Atlas browser less than a year after launch. Going forward, its browsing features will be shifted into a redesigned ChatGPT desktop app that also combines Codex, a built-in browser, and "ChatGPT Work" for acting across apps and files. PCMag reports: OpenAI disclosed Atlas's retirement in a Thursday post introducing a more powerful ChatGPT desktop app, following reports that the company planned on turning it into a "superapp." [...] In a tweet, OpenAI product staff member James Sun added, "The current targeted date for deprecation is 8/9, and we'll share more information in the upcoming days both in-app and via email."

The sunsetting means the Windows version of ChatGPT Atlas has been canceled, though the ChatGPT desktop app is still available on both Mac and Windows. The company is already touting the built-in browser, noting: "You can ask ChatGPT to research a market, compare sources, pull information from websites, or open and refine files from Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 inside the app. It can use the browser to bring in fresh context, take steps across web pages, and keep the work moving while you review and guide the result."

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: The European Commission has ended an investigation into possible anticompetitive practices after SAP agreed to abolish reinstatement fees and reduce back-maintenance fees. The move could reduce barriers for customers considering third-party support for products nearing the end of their vendor support terms, including thousands of large businesses that rely on SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) to run their business operations. SAP's mainstream support for ECC ends in December 2027, while customers can opt for extended maintenance until December 2030 by paying an additional two percentage points on their maintenance fees. The most recent figures from Gartner showed that in Q4 2024 only 39 percent of worldwide ECC customers -- from a total of 35,000 -- had bought or subscribed to licenses to start their transition to SAP S/4HANA, the replacement ERP product.

In September last year, the European Commission launched a formal investigation into SAP's behavior in the aftermarket for maintenance and support services in Europe. It said it was responding to concerns that SAP restricted competition in this crucial aftermarket by making it harder for rivals to compete, leaving European customers with fewer choices and higher costs. In October, SAP published its response. "SAP's commitments aim at improving the financial attractiveness for customers who wish to reinstate SAP maintenance and support services. Thus, future costs associated with reinstatement will not financially prevent customers from choosing to terminate SAP maintenance and support for a given period of time," the document said (PDF).

SAP has now agreed to abolish reinstatement fees and reduce back maintenance fees charged to customers who return to SAP's support after a period of absence, the Commission confirmed. It also agreed to clarify conditions that allow customers to choose different maintenance and support service providers and different levels of support from SAP. The agreement is relevant to customers considering third-party support to extend their use of ECC beyond vendor maintenance. For example, last year, European retailer Kingfisher -- owner of well-known UK brands B&Q and Screwfix -- told a Gartner conference it had chosen Rimini Street to support ECC 6.0 because it saw insufficient value in migrating to SAP S/4HANA. [...] The commitments offered by SAP will remain in force globally for ten years.

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OpenAI's CEO of AGI deployment, Fidji Simo, is stepping down from her full-time role and becoming a part-time adviser after taking extended medical leave for a chronic neuroimmune condition. "Three months ago, I had to go on medical leave after a severe exacerbation of a chronic illness I've lived with for seven years," Simo wrote in a post Thursday on X. "During that time, it became clear that the road to recovery would be much longer and more complex than I had anticipated -- and that I needed to focus on it fully." Wired reports: Simo joined OpenAI's board of directors in March 2024. The following year, CEO Sam Altman hired her to take on the product and business organizations so he could focus on research and the company's data center buildout. Previously, Simo was the CEO of Instacart and head of the Facebook app at Meta.

Shortly before starting at OpenAI, Simo experienced a significant health relapse. She was diagnosed with postural tachycardia syndrome, or POTS, in 2019. "For my entire time here, I've postponed medical tests and new therapies to stay completely focused on the job and not miss a single day of work," she told OpenAI staff in a memo back in April, announcing her temporary departure. "It's now clear that I've pushed a little too far and I really need to try new interventions to stabilize my health."

News of Simo's medical leave came amid a larger executive shakeup that saw Brad Lightcap, OpenAI's former COO, transition to a role overseeing special projects. OpenAI president and cofounder Greg Brockman took over OpenAI's product strategy. In the months since Simo stepped back from OpenAI, the company further reorganized its product teams, positioning Thibault Sottiaux as head of the company's core products, including ChatGPT.

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Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

conspectus_bs posted a photo:

Fomapan 100 with Mamiya 645 Pro and Sekor 50 mm Shift

SergioQ79 - Osanpo Photographer - posted a photo:

A Uguisudani la strada tiene insieme funzioni diverse senza fare troppo rumore: centri massaggi, love hotel, izakaya, piccoli locali, persone che passano. Non è una Tokyo nascosta perché sia difficile da trovare. È nascosta perché molti la attraversano senza guardarla davvero. Anche qui la vita quotidiana continua, tra insegne accese, entrate strette e soste brevi.

鶯谷では、いろいろな場所が同じ通りに並んでいる。マッサージ店、ラブホテル、居酒屋、小さな飲食店、そして通り過ぎる人たち。見つけにくいから隠れている東京ではない。多くの人が見ないまま通り過ぎるから、隠れているように見える。明かりのついた看板、狭い入口、短い立ち寄りの中で、ここでも日常は続いている。

In Uguisudani, the street holds different functions together without making much noise: massage shops, love hotels, izakaya, small places to eat, people passing through. This is not a hidden Tokyo because it is hard to find. It is hidden because many people cross it without really looking. Daily life continues here too, among lit signs, narrow entrances, and short stops.

De Britse politie heeft een verdachte opgepakt in de mogelijke moord op de conservatieve oud-parlementariër Ann Widdecombe. Zij werd donderdag dood in haar huis aangetroffen met ernstig hoofdletsel. De 78-jarige oud-parlementariër stond bekend om haar „hard rechtse” geluid en sterk conservatieve opvattingen.

De Gezondheidsraad had op basis van onderzoek van het RIVM geadviseerd om nieuwe woningen binnen 1.000 meter van geitenhouderijen te verbieden, maar de gevolgen van zo’n maatregel zijn volgens het kabinet te groot.

Mollig en weinig atletisch was de Engelse spits in zijn jeugd. Toch ontwikkelde Kane zich tot een doelpuntenmaker van de buitencategorie, die anderen óók beter laat spelen. „Achter alles wat hij doet, zit een idee.”

Hoe voorzie je het Tourpeloton van voldoende water tijdens een etappe in veertig graden? Mee met de neutrale wagen achter de kopgroep, waar ze merken hoe de hitte de chaos in de koers vergroot. „Pfff, wat een stress, jongen.”

Ik mis het helmhaar van Tadej Pogacar. U weet wel, die warrige plukjes die steevast door de ventilatiegaten van zijn helm heen wapperden. Dat haar is weg.

The reality of living with Singapore's traffic noise [via]

A newly identified destructive Windows backdoor combines ransomware-like encryption with multiple data-wiping features, according to Microsoft. Last October, the Redmond threat-hunting team first spotted attacks using the Golang-based implant they've named GigaWiper. Its developers stuffed multiple malware families into the software as on-demand commands, giving criminals a Swiss Army knife of command-and-control (C2) and destructive capabilities, including multiple wiping commands and file encryption without any possibility of decryption. “The consolidation of multiple destructive capabilities into a modular backdoor reflects a notable shift in wiper malware, which are typically designed purely to destroy rather than to extort and carry real-world consequences,” Microsoft Threat Intelligence wrote in a Thursday blog. Microsoft declined to answer The Register's questions about the scale and scope of GigaWiper attacks. In the blog, Redmond’s malware analysts said they uncovered two types of GigaWiper samples in victims’ environments, and both are unstripped portable executable files written in Golang. One is a standalone wiper that operates at the physical disk level, as opposed to deleting individual files. It overwrites raw disk content, removes partition metadata, and then reboots the system using Windows shutdown functionality with restart and zero-delay. The second sample is the more interesting one. It includes the same disk-wiping functionality, but that’s just one component of the backdoor. This malware also establishes persistence and sets up C2 communication using RabbitMQ over AMQP for receiving commands from the C2 server, and Redis for updating command status and output. GigaWiper also organizes its commands into different categories, including "always run" for tasks such as continuous screen recording, "manage command" for system management functions, and separate "special command" and "shell command" modes for executing additional functionality. These include the standalone wiper command, along with another command that disables Windows recovery, triggers a blue screen of death (BSOD), and leaves the device unable to boot. It also has a destructive command based largely on Crucio ransomware. It encrypts files with randomly generated keys that are never saved, which means victim organizations will never be able to decrypt these files. Another command bulk encrypts or decrypts files with AES-256 in Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) mode, while a different command uses MinIO Client (mc) to upload stolen files to remote storage. The malware also runs PowerShell commands, takes screen shots and recordings of the compromised device, collects system info, clears Windows event logs, and allows remote control over the system along with keyboard and mouse control - among other capabilities that attackers can use at will. According to Redmond, GigaWiper combines components from at least three previously separate malware families, including Crucio ransomware, a Go reimplementation of FlockWiper, and a standalone disk wiper. “Overall, these findings show the evolution of the actor’s tooling over time,” the security sleuths wrote. “Functionality was merged into a single robust backdoor, granting the actor more ways to control and destroy infected systems.” ®

Apple Lisas are rare now. Here's a rather cheaper way to build your own – and in theory, it can even use original floppy drives. LisaFPGA does what it says on the GitHub repo: "The Apple Lisa computer implemented inside an FPGA!" It's an open source project that recreates a complete Apple Lisa on an FPGA board. It's not entirely complete yet, but hardware went on sale in May and you might still be able to buy one – or download the bitstream of the model and build your own. The Apple Lisa was a very strange computer, in part because it was pioneering new design territory. Apple started the project before the famous visits to Xerox PARC to see what became the Alto – also a radical machine, as The Reg FOSS desk tried to describe in 2023 for the machine's 50th anniversary. After those visits (for which Apple paid Xerox in shares, which the photocopier giant promptly sold), Apple changed course. Now the Lisa would be the first mass-market computer with a GUI. (The "mass market" bit didn't work out, and 2,700 unsold Lisas ended up as landfill in 1989.) Even so, it was a very important and influential machine: The Register celebrated its 30th birthday and indeed took another look back in 2019. So it's quite hard to find an Apple Lisa today, and if you manage to do so, it will probably (a) cost you quite a lot of money and (b) not be in working condition. That's a shame because Apple released the source to Lisa OS for the machine's 40th birthday in 2023. The enterprising developer behind LisaFPGA is Alex Anderson-McLeod, and he built his knowledge of the Lisa and its implementation from an earlier project. Last year, he managed to work out how to compile and build Lisa OS from Apple's source code. This was a particularly difficult effort, and he documents the process of Lisa OS Source Code Compilation at length. We've read the account closely and we think it's fair to say the build process is deeply arcane. (Sadly, the repo does not contain the source code itself, as the very strange "Apple Academic License Agreement" allows recompilation and study, but it forbids redistribution. To get the code, you'll have to agree to the license on the Computer History Museum.) Anderson-McLeod learned a great deal about how the Lisa works while rebuilding the OS, and he's applied that knowledge to designing and building LisaFPGA. It is not completely finished – under "Features," the Introduction section of the README states: "Onboard ESP32-based floppy drive emulation (NOTE: THIS DOESN'T WORK YET)." And a few lines down: "Supports Twiggy drives with an optional breakout board. Note that this is CURRENTLY UNTESTED as I don't have a set of Twiggy drives." Even so, we are impressed by the effort, and it sounds like a very entertaining bit of kit. The first batch has already sold out, but finished boards were on sale from two official outlets: MacEffects for £264.89, and from Joe's Computer Museum for $350. Both will take your info and contact you when the next batch is ready. If you can't wait, there is Ray Arachelian's Lisa Emulator Project. The history section is particularly interesting, starting with So, Ray, how come you care about ancient, obsolete machines? The LisaEm source code is on GitHub, but sadly, Arachelian died of cancer in 2023, which is why version 1.2.7 never got past Release Candidate 4. We feel it would be a good tribute for someone to pick it up and produce a finished release. In the meantime, we wrote about the remarkable LisaGUI website last year, which recreates the machine's user interface inside your browser. ®

Hadden we even gemist vorige week omdat we naar een meerdaags festival waren om door het licht te gaan, maar wie dus hoogstwaarschijnlijk nooit een meerdaags festival bezoekt, laat staan door het licht gaat, is Temu-Ernst-Jan Pfauth annex Correspondent-wunderkind Simon van Teutem, want die heeft dertien jaar VVD-hegemonie volledig geïnternaliseerd en kan alleen nog maar denken in termen van productiviteit en efficiency. Voor wie in de veronderstelling leeft dat neoliberaal rendementsdenken een verzinsel is van luie Groene-columnisten en kittige UvA-medewerkers: dat is het niet, zie Simon van Teutem. Deze in 1996 geboren knaap is zelfs dusdanig geobsedeerd door kwantiteit dat de kwaliteit er met enige regelmaat voor mag opdraaien. Nu is er weer een prachtig blog, waarin hij ons uursgewijs meeneemt door zijn werkdagen, want: "Een jaar is een heel mensenleven, als je productief bent." Simon is de beroerdste niet, en gunt ons ook het leven van Simon; een leven waarin overigens geen plaats is voor mantelzorg, echtscheidingen, kinderen, ziekte of zo nu en dan een godsgruwelijke kater. Afijn, without further ado, onder het mom van 'optimaliseren kun je leren': een dag in het leven van.

6.30–6.45

wekker, klein ontbijt

Mooi en goed, biedt bovendien afhankelijk van de daadwerkelijke beperktheid van het ontbijt ook nog gelegenheid tot snoozen. Wij snoozen meestal één keer per negen minuten, maar iets zegt ons dat Simon zijn wekker op 45 seconden zet, waardoor hij in theorie, als hij een beetje doorvreet, bijna 15 keer op de telefoonwekker kan meppen.

6.45–8.45

twee uur fietsen, buiten

Let vooral op het woordje 'buiten'. Simon van Teutem is heel nadrukkelijk niet zo'n kneus met een geragd sportschoolapparaat op zolder, maar iemand die frisse lucht blieft. Voorts is het te hopen dat Simon nooit een lekke band krijgt of per ongeluk een overmoedige gans aanrijdt, want om kwart voor negen moet-ie dus terug zijn. Maar, eerlijk is eerlijk: enig respect voor iedereen die in de ochtenden meer sport dan wij in de avonden eigenlijk zouden willen.

8.45–9.30

douchen, ontbijten, papieren krant lezen

Verwarrend. Poetst Simon van Teutem zijn tanden vóór het ontbijt en tijdens het douchen, of juist erna? En in dat geval, waarom staat het er niet tussen? Wat moet iemand die graag op Simon van Teutem doen als Simon van Teutem er zelf zo'n onduidelijke ratjejoe van maakt? Flost hij eigenlijk ook, is er sprake van mondwater? Afijn, wij weten het goedgemaakt en poetsen voortaan onze tanden wel helemaal niet. 

(Waarom begint iemand die voorbij de waan van de dag gaat de dag eigenlijk met de waan van de voorbije dag?)

9.30–13.00

Onderzoek voor mijn PhD, óf schrijven voor De Correspondent, óf werken aan mijn boek in het Engels, óf m'n substack (geen mix, zodat ik in een flow kom)

Daar kunnen wij alleen maar voor applaudisseren. Wat knap, Simon!

13.00–13.45

buiten lunchen met vrienden

Wacht even, dit roept vragen op. Wonen al zijn vrienden in de buurt? Nemen ze van tevoren lunch mee? Zo ja, wanneer moet dan in godsnaam in elkaar geflenst worden? Waar past dat in het dagschema? Maken Simons vrienden de lunch? Hanteren ze hiervoor een roulatiesysteem, of draaien ze ploegendiensten? Zitten ze op een terras, en zo ja, bestellen ze per telefoon voor ze van huis gaan? Of laten ze eerder al Uber Eats opdraven, en zo ja, bij wie dan? Wat als de maaltijdbezorger vertraging heeft?

13.45–17.15

commentaar verwerken op een column, mails beantwoorden, administratie en huishouden, eindigen met iets leuks (bijvoorbeeld: vakantieplanning).

Jottem, een van A tot Z geplande vakantie met Simon van Teutem, klinkt geweldig.

17.15–17.45

tijdschrift lezen in een café, afschakelen

Even lekker afschakelen met Arts en Auto, heerli.

17.45–19.15

samen eten met vriendin, familie of vrienden

Uiterst ineffiëcent, dit - waarom niet eten met vriendin én familie of vrienden? De totale, perfect uitgevoerde oud-Hollandse ongezelligheid ook. Sober gezelschap, piepers rond EenVandaag op tafel, om kwart over zeven allemaal weer opmiepen. Leuk!

19.15–20.15

ontspannen (café, sport, sauna)

Vrij naar een collega-Correspondent: hele avond rukken?

20.15–20.45

huishouden (ja, m'n vriendin en ik leven nog als studenten)

Ok not sure if serious maar dit is niet helemaal hoe studenten doorgaans leven, ouwe reus. Er gingen bij ons in ieder geval hele dagen voorbij dat we niet na college in een café gingen zitten om even lekker af te schakelen. Sterker nog: dat afschakelen deden wij meestal de volgende dag, tot een uur of twaalf, de rest kwam daarna wel weer.

21.15–22.00

lezen

Ho ho ho eens even, Teutem, wat is er met het tussenliggende halfuur gebeurd? Wat ben je toch een heerlijke dekhengst. Is niets om je voor te schamen hoor, en dagelijks is een uitstekende frequentie. Hou dat vast! Overigens: onduidelijk of je nu een papieren boek leest, of tegen een slechtverlichte Kobo aan zit te turen. Hoe dan ook willen wij je dit meesterwerk van Marian Donner van harte aanraden. Plezier ermee.

22.00

slapen

En geen fucking seconde later hè!