Bunch of old papers that were almost shredded after being found hidden in a loft have sold for massive £465k - because they are the work of a WWII hero
'It's a once-in-a-lifetime discovery - not just for collectors, but for the sake of preserving the story of one of the greatest minds in history,' Jim Spencer, of Rare Books Auctions of Lichfield, Staffs, said.
Bernard Lacombe dead at 72: Legendary France striker who won Euro 1984 passes away as tributes flood in
The prolific striker is best remembered as one of the victorious European Champions of 1984 alongside Michel Platini, and netted 12 times for Les Bleus in his 38 international appearances.
Why China is Giving Away Its Tech For Free
An anonymous reader shares a report: [...] the rise in China of open technology, which relies on transparency and decentralisation, is awkward for an authoritarian state. If the party's patience with open-source fades, and it decides to exert control, that could hinder both the course of innovation at home, and developers' ability to export their technology abroad.
China's open-source movement first gained traction in the mid-2010s. Richard Lin, co-founder of Kaiyuanshe, a local open-source advocacy group, recalls that most of the early adopters were developers who simply wanted free software. That changed when they realised that contributing to open-source projects could improve their job prospects. Big firms soon followed, with companies like Huawei backing open-source work to attract talent and cut costs by sharing technology.
Momentum gathered in 2019 when Huawei was, in effect, barred by America from using Android. That gave new urgency to efforts to cut reliance on Western technology. Open-source offered a faster way for Chinese tech firms to take existing code and build their own programs with help from the country's vast community of developers. In 2020 Huawei launched OpenHarmony, a family of open-source operating systems for smartphones and other devices. It also joined others, including Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent, to establish the OpenAtom Foundation, a body dedicated to open-source development. China quickly became not just a big contributor to open-source programs, but also an early adopter of software. JD.com, an e-commerce firm, was among the first to deploy Kubernetes.
AI has lately given China's open-source movement a further boost. Chinese companies, and the government, see open models as the quickest way to narrow the gap with America. DeepSeek's models have generated the most interest, but Qwen, developed by Alibaba, is also highly rated, and Baidu has said it will soon open up the model behind its Ernie chatbot.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Russia rains down fire on Kyiv with devastating nine hour bombardment as Keir Starmer meets Zelensky at G7 summit
The Kyiv attack, which killed at least 15 people and left 139 injured, was 'one of the most terrifying strikes' of the bombardment, Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky said.
CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews Storyville - The Contestant: The game show so cruel it left me wondering at the depravities of TV
CHRISTOPHER STEVENS: Back in the days when we laughed openly at foreigners and their peculiar ways, the strangest sight on television was a game show called Endurance
Beyonce pays tribute to Sir Paul McCartney for penning 'one of the best songs ever' after performing the hit at her London shows
The hitmaker, 43, wore a T-shirt featuring two blackbirds, in a nod to The Beatles 1968 song Blackbird, which she recorded a cover of last year.
Moment Brit is knocked unconscious after getting sucker-punched by Benidorm local while arguing with bouncers
Footage taken by a fellow bar-goer shows the unnamed Brit being slammed to the floor by another man in the Spanish resort on Sunday night.
Revealed: Sister of 'feral' e-bike rider whose goading of police officer led to veteran officer being hauled into court is also a serial criminal - as neighbours reveal 'hell' of living next to pair
Mason McGarry, 19, was jailed earlier this month after he drove at 60mph in a 40mph zone during a police chase before mounting the pavement and hitting a lorry.
Sir Keir Starmer's embarrassing gaffe at G7 summit: Prime Minister shakes hand of interpreter... rather than South Korea's president
After the mix-up, Sir Keir said Britain had a 'good strong relationship' with South Korea and 'want to strengthen it even further' in areas including 'the enhancement of our free trade agreement'.
KDE Plasma 6.4 Released
Longtime Slashdot reader jrepin writes: Plasma is a popular desktop (and mobile) environment for GNU/Linux and other UNIX-like operating systems. Among other things, it also powers the desktop mode of the Steam Deck gaming handheld. The KDE community today announced the latest release: Plasma 6.4. This fresh new release improves on nearly every front, with progress being made in accessibility, color rendering, tablet support, window management, and more.
Plasma already offered virtual desktops and customizable tiles to help organize your windows and activities, and now it lets you choose a different configuration of tiles on each virtual desktop. The Wayland session brings some new accessibility features: you can now move the pointer using your keyboard's number pad keys, or use a three-finger touchpad pinch gesture to zoom in or out.
Plasma file transfer notification now shows a speed graph, giving you a more visual idea of how fast the transfer is going and how long it will take to complete. When any applications are in full screen mode Plasma will now enter Do Not Disturb mode and only show urgent notifications. When you exit full-screen mode, you'll see a summary of any notifications you missed.
Now, when an application tries to access the microphone and finds it muted, a notification will pop up. A new feature in the Application Launcher widget will place a green New! tag next to newly installed apps, so you can easily find where something you just installed lives in the menu.
The Display and Monitor page in System Settings comes with a brand new HDR calibration wizard. Support for Extended Dynamic Range (a different kind of HDR) and P010 video color format has also been added. System Monitor now supports usage monitoring for AMD and Intel graphic cards -- it can even show the GPU usage on a per-process basis.
Spectacle, the built-in app for taking screenshots and screen recordings, has a much-improved design and more streamlined functionality. The background of the desktop or window now darkens when an authentication dialog shows up, helping you locate and focus on the window asking for your password.
There's a brand-new Animations page in System Settings that groups all the settings for purely visual animated effects into one place, making them easier to find and configure. Aurorae, a newly added SVG vector graphics theme engine, enhances KWin window decorations.
You can read more about these and many other other features in the Plasma 6.4 announcement and complete changelog.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
How Netanyahu's war on Iran is bolstering his support in Israel despite rising death toll - and could even lead to him being re-elected
Every night since last Friday, when Israel launched surprise military strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, I've gone to bed at night braced for the alert that will send me racing down to the shelter.
Cruise expert issues major warning for unruly passengers
A cruise expert has issued a warning to Britons as more than 2.4 million passengers are to set sail this year.
Daughter of a former England cricketer died from sepsis, pneumonia and Crohn's disease after paramedics failed to alert doctors to her symptoms
Bethan James, 21, daughter of ex-England and Glamorgan batsman Steve James had visited hospital multiple times in the days leading up to her death.
Pilot reveals why taking off makes him more nervous than landing
Answering questions on his YouTube channel, commercial pilot Steve Schreiber was questioned about whether he was ever on edge when flying.
Police prioritised welfare of 'American spy' suspected of killing Harry Dunn in collision outside US airbase rather than carrying out a prompt investigation, damning report finds
Police failed to arrest an American spy after she killed motorcyclist Harry Dunn, 19, in a head-on collision because they prioritised her welfare over a 'prompt' investigation', a review has found.
Fears over butt lifts, fat jabs and Botox offered in public toilets in 'Wild West' procedures market
The Chartered Trading Standards Institute said there is a need for urgent Government action over unregulated and unlicensed practitioners and treatments, alongside where they can be offered.
Dentists cleaning toilets in McDonald's as thousands unable to secure a licence to practice despite major NHS shortage
A registration 'bottleneck' means dentists who trained overseas but want to work in the UK are being forced to make a living in fast food restaurants.
GPs to hunt patients with 'red flag' risk factor for lethal pancreatic cancer - are YOU on the list?
Dubbed a 'silent killer' due to its subtle symptoms only one in 20 patients currently diagnosed with this cancer are expected to survive a decade after diagnosis with many dying in just months.
Teachers reveal shocking extent of drug use in school and say kids at PRIMARY are high on cannabis
A survey of almost 4,000 teachers found many pupils are abusing drugs and alcohol on school grounds - with ketamine and cocaine also rife.
US poised to join Iran war: America amasses armada of warships and fleets of fighter jets in the Middle East as Trump warns Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei 'we know where you're hiding'
At least 224 people have been killed in Iran since Israel began its bombing campaign last week in an attempt to stop the regime from producing a nuclear weapon.