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Bill To Block Publishers From Killing Online Games Advances In California

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A bill focused on maintaining long-term playable access to online games has passed out of the California Assembly's appropriations committee, setting up a floor vote by the full legislative body. The advancement is a major win for Stop Killing Games' grassroots game preservation movement and comes over the objections of industry lobbyists at the Entertainment Software Association. California's Protect Our Games Act, as currently written, would require digital game publishers who cut off support for an online game to either provide a full refund to players or offer an updated version of the game "that enables its continued use independent of services controlled by the operator." The act would also require publishers to notify players 60 days before the cessation of "services necessary for the ordinary use of the digital game." As currently amended, the act would not apply to completely free games and games offered "solely for the duration of [a] subscription. Any other game offered for sale in California on or after January 1, 2027, would be subject to the law if it passes. [...]

In a formal statement of support for the bill sent to the California legislature, SKG wrote that "there is no other medium in which a product can be marketed and sold to a consumer and then ripped away without notice As live service games rise in popularity for game developers and gamers alike, end-of-life procedures are essential tools to ensure prolonged access to the games consumers pay to enjoy." The Entertainment Software Association, which helps represent the interests of major game publishers, publicly told the California Assembly last month that the bill misrepresents how modern game distribution actually works. "Consumers receive a license to access and use a game, not an unrestricted ownership interest in the underlying work," the ESA wrote. The eventual shutdown of outdated or obsolete games is "a natural feature of modern software," the group added, especially when that software requires online infrastructure maintenance. The ESA also said the bill would impose unreasonable expectations on publishers regarding licensing rights for music or IP rights, which are often negotiated on a time-limited basis. "A legal requirement to keep games playable indefinitely could place publishers in an impossible position -- forcing them to renegotiate licenses indefinitely or alter games in ways that may not be legally or technically feasible," they wrote.

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OpenAI Now Wants ChatGPT To Access Your Bank Accounts

OpenAI is previewing a feature that lets ChatGPT Pro users connect bank and investment accounts through Plaid, allowing the chatbot to analyze spending, subscriptions, balances, portfolios, debt, and major financial decisions. "More than 200 million people are already going to ChatGPT every month with finance questions -- from budgeting to tips on how to cut back on spending," OpenAI said in its announcement. "Now, users can securely connect their financial accounts with Plaid to get the full view of their financial picture in the context of their personal goals, lifestyle, and priorities that they've shared with ChatGPT, powered by OpenAI's advanced reasoning capabilities." The Verge reports: When financial accounts are connected, OpenAI says that ChatGPT users can view a dashboard that details their spending history, including any active subscriptions. Users can also ask it to help with financial decisions like buying a house or signing up for credit cards and flag any changes in spending habits. This financial feature will be initially available to users in the US who subscribe to ChatGPT's $200-per-month Pro tier. "We'll learn and improve from early use before rolling it out to Plus, with the goal of making it available to everyone," says OpenAI.

To assuage concerns, OpenAI promises users "control over their data," including the ability to disconnect their bank accounts from ChatGPT at any time, though the company has up to 30 days to delete your data from its systems. You can also view and delete "financial memories" like goals or financial obligations saved by the chatbot. User control extends to whether your data is fed back into AI models -- users can enable the option to "Improve the model for everyone" to allow financial data in their ChatGPT conversations to be used for training AI, for example. OpenAI also says ChatGPT can't make any changes to your bank accounts or see "full account numbers."

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ArXiv to Ban Researchers for a Year if They Submit AI Slop

ArXiv says it will ban authors for one year if they submit papers containing AI-generated slop, such as hallucinated citations, placeholder text, or chatbot meta-comments left in the manuscript.

"If generative AI tools generate inappropriate language, plagiarized content, biased content, errors, mistakes, incorrect references, or misleading content, and that output is included in scientific works, it is the responsibility of the author(s)," said Thomas Dietterich, chair of the computer science section of ArXiv, on X. "We have recently clarified our penalties for this. If a submission contains incontrovertible evidence that the authors did not check the results of LLM generation, this means we can't trust anything in the paper." 404 Media reports: Examples of incontrovertible evidence, he wrote, include "hallucinated references, meta-comments from the LLM ('here is a 200 word summary; would you like me to make any changes?'; 'the data in this table is illustrative, fill it in with the real numbers from your experiments.'" "The penalty is a 1-year ban from arXiv followed by the requirement that subsequent arXiv submissions must first be accepted at a reputable peer-reviewed venue," Dietterich wrote.

Dietterich told [404 Media] in an email on Friday morning that this is a one-strike rule -- meaning authors caught just once including AI slop in submissions will be banned -- but that decisions will be open to appeal. "I want to emphasize that we only apply this to cases of incontrovertible evidence," he said. "I should also add that our internal process requires first a moderator to document the problem and then for the Section Chair to confirm before imposing the penalty."

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Kazari-Daru

El jue has added a photo to the pool:

Kazari-Daru

Kazari-Daru wall in Meji temple, Tokyo

Kyoto Brewery Museum

El jue has added a photo to the pool:

Kyoto Brewery Museum

Izakaya. Shinjuku Golden Gai

lynddion has added a photo to the pool:

Izakaya. Shinjuku Golden Gai

Evening meanderings around the area east of Shinjuku station.

VIDEO - Burgemeester Loosdrecht maakt EXCUSES voor COMMUNICATIE rond komst asielzoekers

Social

Ok nu komt alles goed. Burgemeester Mark Verheijen van Loosdrecht (is nogal wat gaande) maakt in een keurig ondertiteld feesboekfillumpie vanuit zijn woonkamer (de enige juiste reactie!) EXCUSES voor alles. Of nou, eigenlijk vooral over HOE het naar de mensen is gecommuniceerd. Het had anders gekund en gemoeten, helder. Verder gaat de noodopvang gewoon door. 'Maximaal tot 1 november', en we weten ongeveer hoe dat gaat. We zijn errug benieuwd naar de reactie van de Loosdrechters. Verheijen, zo te zien een echte optimist, wil het in ieder geval lekker veilig en leefbaar houden. Succes Loosdrecht!


Formula 1 News

Formula 1® - The Official F1® Website

How Round 8 & 9 of the Sim Racing World Championship went

It was a fascinating Round 8 and 9 of the 2026 F1 Sim Racing World Championship – here is a recap form yesterday’s action.

VK: Voorpagina

Volkskrant.nl biedt het laatste nieuws, opinie en achtergronden

Israël doodt 15-jarige Palestijn op Westelijke Jordaanoever

Wel.nl

Minder lezen, Meer weten.

Burgemeester Wijdemeren biedt inwoners Loosdrecht excuses aan

LOOSDRECHT (ANP) - Burgemeester Mark Verheijen van Wijdemeren biedt de inwoners van Loosdrecht excuses aan dat hij hen heeft "overvallen" met het besluit om een asielnoodopvang in te richten in het gemeentehuis.

In een videoboodschap op Instagram en de website van de gemeente zegt hij: "Vorige maand namen wij als gemeente het besluit over te gaan tot tijdelijke noodopvang voor maximaal zeventig asielzoekers in ons gemeentehuis. Over de snelheid van dat besluit en de communicatie is al veel gezegd. U bent daardoor overvallen, en dat had anders gekund en anders gemoeten. Ik bied u daar namens het gemeentebestuur excuses voor aan."

Rond de asiellocatie in Loosdrecht kwam het de afgelopen tijd tot gewelddadige anti-azc-demonstraties.


Reuters: SpaceX op 12 juni naar technologiebeurs Nasdaq

NEW YORK (ANP/RTR/BLOOMBERG) - SpaceX, het commerciële ruimtevaartbedrijf van Elon Musk, gaat naar verwachting op 12 juni een beursgang maken op de technologiebeurs Nasdaq. Dat meldden bronnen met kennis van de zaak aan persbureau Reuters.

De beursgang van SpaceX op Wall Street wordt de grootste ooit. Naar verluidt wordt gemikt op een waardering van het bedrijf van meer dan 2 biljoen dollar. Volgens Reuters is SpaceX van plan om op 11 juni de uitgifteprijs van het aandeel bekend te maken. Het bedrijf zou dan een notering krijgen onder het beurssymbool 'SPCX'.

De beursgang zou SpaceX 75 miljard dollar moeten opleveren. Musk wil met het opgehaalde geld onder meer datacenters voor kunstmatige intelligentie in de ruimte gaan bouwen. Hij heeft ook plannen voor missies naar de maan en Mars.


Meer platforms boren naar olie in VS door hoge olieprijzen

HOUSTON (ANP/BLOOMBERG) - Door de sterk gestegen olieprijzen vanwege de oorlog in het Midden-Oosten zijn er meer boorplatforms in de Verenigde Staten actief aan het boren naar olie. Volgens de grote Amerikaanse oliedienstverlener Baker Hughes zijn er deze week 415 boorplatforms daarmee bezig. Dat is het hoogste aantal sinds november vorig jaar.

De grootste toename van het aantal actieve boorplatforms was te zien in het olierijke gebied Permian Basin, dat grotendeels in het westen van de staat Texas ligt. Daar vindt schaliewinning plaats waarbij olie uit gesteente wordt gehaald door met hoge druk water, zand en chemicaliën in de grond te spuiten. Het Permian Basin is de grootste olieproductielocatie van de VS.

De topman van Baker Hughes had eerder al gezegd meer investeringen in olieproductie te verwachten van maatschappijen in onder meer Noord-Amerika door de oorlog en de sterk gestegen olieprijzen.


Can't Listen When the Sun's Out

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Can't Listen When the Sun's Out

Moore Energy

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Moore Energy

Kate

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Kate

Somewhere Clean Enough to Feel

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Somewhere Clean Enough to Feel

Jackson

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Jackson

The Guardian

Latest news, sport, business, comment, analysis and reviews from the Guardian, the world's leading liberal voice

Thirteen years in the making: Madrid’s search for a saviour set to end in Mourinho return

The idea that one day Mourinho might return to the Bernabéu had hung in the air, if not really as a serious possibility. Now the impossible is probable

The last time José Mourinho was at the Santiago Bernabéu, he parked up in the bus. That night in late February the Benfica manager was suspended, a red card from the first leg of the Champions League playoff meaning he wasn’t allowed on the touchline he had prowled 13 years and a lifetime ago, so Real Madrid prepared a media booth for him to watch from. Situated on the eighth floor, Spanish radio to the left of him, Portuguese to the right, Cabin No 6 had been supplied with nuts, fruit, salad and jamón sandwiches. As kick-off approached, a crowd gathered by the door. But if the camera phones were out, he wasn’t.

Mourinho never showed. Instead, he stayed in the basement 10 floors below, watching from an iPad on board the bus and leaving the post-match press conference to his assistant, João Tralhão. The next time he comes, which could be as soon as this season ends, it is likely to be different, poised to be welcomed back as a saviour and their manager now, not hidden away. For a while his has been the only candidate’s name that has remained constant and never dismissed from within, seeming more real with every day.

Continue reading...

Underdogs Chelsea have shot at glory at end of season of disruption

A defiant performance against Manchester City could deliver silverware in a year in which the club has already sacked two head coaches

Chelsea fared well as underdogs in their most recent outing in a final. They surprised Paris Saint-Germain in last summer’s Club World Cup, racing into an unassailable 3-0 lead by half-time and disrupting the European champions thanks to a clever tactical approach from Enzo Maresca.

Perhaps there will be more of the same at Wembley. Chelsea have form when it comes to upsetting the odds in a big game, although the one problem with bringing up the PSG win before Saturday afternoon’s FA Cup final against Manchester City is that the challenge of coming up with a plan smart enough to beat Pep Guardiola is no longer Maresca’s responsibility.

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Rijnmond - Nieuws

Het laatste nieuws van vandaag over Rotterdam, Feyenoord, het verkeer en het weer in de regio Rijnmond

Na 20 jaar samen voetballen vliegt dit vriendenteam komend WK het Nederlands elftal achterna

Het begon 20 jaar geleden als een groepje jonge vrienden dat samen ging voetballen. Maar inmiddels is BVCB 6 uit Bergschenhoek een vriendenteam waarbij de kinderen van de spelers elke zaterdag langs de lijn staan. Toch zijn er na zo’n lange tijd nog altijd nieuwe hoogtepunten voor het team: na het winnen van een prijsvraag reizen de vrienden het Nederlands elftal achterna bij het WK van komende zomer.