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Fund Managers Warn AI Investment Boom Has Gone Too Far

1 month 1 week ago
A majority of global fund managers think companies are overinvesting, as market anxiety grows about the sustainability of the AI spending boom. From a report: A net 20 per cent of fund managers surveyed this month by Bank of America said companies were spending too much on their investments -- the first time this has been a majority view in data running back to 2005. "This jump is driven by concerns over the magnitude and financing of the AI capex boom," said BofA analysts. The surge in investment to develop AI infrastructure has been a dominant theme in the record rally in US tech stocks this year -- with chipmaker Nvidia becoming the world's first $5tn company last month -- but growing concerns about the sustainability of this spending has caused a pullback on Wall Street in recent weeks.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

msmash

Datacenter fossil fuel habit 'not sustainable' as AI workloads soar

1 month 1 week ago
Rising AI power demand is straining grids and pushing operators toward hydrogen, batteries, geothermal, and nuclear

Gartner warns that fossil fuel dominance in on-site power generation is not sustainable, given the rapid rise in datacenter energy consumption due to AI servers.…

Dan Robinson

Brussels eyes AWS, Azure for gatekeeper tag in cloud clampdown

1 month 1 week ago
European Commission probes whether Amazon and Microsoft wield outsized control under Digital Markets Act

The European Commission has launched investigations into Amazon and Microsoft's cloud services, and plans to review if legislation introduced in 2022 is being applied effectively to the cloud market.…

Lindsay Clark

Firefox 145: A Major Release with 32-Bit Linux Support Dropped

1 month 1 week ago
by George Whittaker Introduction

Mozilla has rolled out Firefox 145, a significant update that brings a range of usability, security and privacy enhancements, while marking a clear turning point by discontinuing official support for 32-bit Linux systems. For users on older hardware or legacy distros, this change means it’s time to consider moving to a 64-bit environment or opting for a supported version.

Here’s a detailed look at what’s new, what’s changed, and what you need to know.

Major Changes in Firefox 145 End of 32-Bit Linux Builds

One of the headline items in this release is Mozilla’s decision to stop building and distributing Firefox for 32-bit x86 Linux. As per their announcement:

“32-bit Linux (on x86) is no longer widely supported by the vast majority of Linux distributions, and maintaining Firefox on this platform has become increasingly difficult and unreliable.”

From Firefox 145 onward, only 64-bit (x86_64) and relevant 64-bit architectures (such as ARM64) will be officially supported. For those still running 32-bit Linux builds, Mozilla recommends migrating to 64-bit or switching to the Extended Support Release (ESR) branch (Firefox 140 ESR) which still supports 32-bit for a limited period.

Usability & Interface Enhancements

Firefox 145 brings several improvements designed to make everyday web browsing smoother and more flexible:

  • PDF viewer enhancements: You can now add, edit, and delete comments in PDFs, and a comments sidebar helps you easily navigate your annotations.

  • Tab-group preview: When you hover over the name of a collapsed tab group, a thumbnail preview of the tabs inside appears, helpful for reorganizing or returning to work.

  • Access saved passwords from the sidebar, without needing to open a new tab or window.

  • “Open links from apps next to your active tab” setting: When enabled, links opened from external applications insert next to your current tab instead of at the end of the tab bar.

  • Slight UI refinements: Buttons, input fields, tabs and other elements get more rounded edges, horizontal tabs are redesigned to align with vertical-tab aesthetics.

Privacy, Security & Under-the-Hood Upgrades

Mozilla has also doubled down on privacy and risk reduction:

  • Fingerprinting defenses: Firefox 145 introduces new anti-fingerprinting techniques that Mozilla estimates reduce the number of users identified as unique by nearly half when Private Browsing mode or Enhanced Tracking Protection (strict) is used.

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George Whittaker