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Apple's macOS 26 "Tahoe" introduces a new disk image format called ASIF, designed to dramatically improve performance over previous formats like UDRW and sparse bundles -- achieving near-native read/write speeds for virtual machines and general disk image use. The Eclectic Light Company reports: Apple provides few technical details, other than stating that the intrinsic structure of ASIF disk images doesn't depend on the host file system's capabilities, and their size on the host depends on the size of the data stored in the disk. In other words, they're a sparse file in APFS, and are flagged as such. [...] Conclusions: - Where possible, in macOS 26 Tahoe in particular, VMs should use ASIF disk images rather than RAW/UDRW. - Unless a sparse bundle is required (for example when it's hosted on a different file system such as that in a NAS), ASIF should be first choice for general purpose disk images in Tahoe. - It would be preferable for virtualizers to be able to call a proper API rather than a command tool. - Keep an eye on C-Command's DropDMG. I'm sure it will support ASIF disk images soon.

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Roaring her on as she reached the quarter-finals was not just her coach Nick Cavaday and agent Thomas Houchin, but a dashing former tennis prodigy close to her heart, Benjamin Heynold.

With Tehran’s military weakened, digital retaliation likely, experts tell The Reg

The current Israel–Iran military conflict is taking place in the era of hybrid war, where cyberattacks amplify and assist missiles and troops, and is being waged between two countries with very capable destructive cyber weapons.…

A psychic who successfully predicted dozens of global events in 2024 has made a dire prediction about Meghan Markle 's future.

The devastated parents of a couple who are believed to have died from carbon monoxide poisoning while camping have paid emotional tributes to the pair.

Sarah Healey infamously boasted that Covid-era lockdowns meant she could see more of her children as well as giving her longer to ride her expensive exercise bike.

The incident, captured in a viral video shared on X , shows Krivka throwing the match-winning dart into the D20 and celebrating with teammate Karel Sedlacek at the Eissporthalle.

Scotland's Health Secretary is facing calls to quit as his position is 'untenable' after it emerged he used a taxpayer-funded limo to travel to a pub.

The first indication I had that Israel's long-awaited operation to take out Iran's nuclear weapons programme was under way came in the early hours of yesterday morning.

As many as 300 residents of Clifton and Redland - affluent areas of Bristol - marched on Thursday in a bid to force town hall bosses to take action.

Deta Hedman, a darts player who now lives in Witham will receive an OBE in this years Kings Honours for services to darts and her charity work.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: Almost two dozen digital rights and consumer protection organizations sent a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission on Thursday urging regulators to investigate Character.AI and Meta's "unlicensed practice of medicine facilitated by their product," through therapy-themed bots that claim to have credentials and confidentiality "with inadequate controls and disclosures." The complaint and request for investigation is led by the Consumer Federation of America (CFA), a non-profit consumer rights organization. Co-signatories include the AI Now Institute, Tech Justice Law Project, the Center for Digital Democracy, the American Association of People with Disabilities, Common Sense, and 15 other consumer rights and privacy organizations. "These companies have made a habit out of releasing products with inadequate safeguards that blindly maximizes engagement without care for the health or well-being of users for far too long," Ben Winters, CFA Director of AI and Privacy said in a press release on Thursday. "Enforcement agencies at all levels must make it clear that companies facilitating and promoting illegal behavior need to be held accountable. These characters have already caused both physical and emotional damage that could have been avoided, and they still haven't acted to address it." The complaint, sent to attorneys general in 50 states and Washington, D.C., as well as the FTC, details how user-generated chatbots work on both platforms. It cites several massively popular chatbots on Character AI, including "Therapist: I'm a licensed CBT therapist" with 46 million messages exchanged, "Trauma therapist: licensed trauma therapist" with over 800,000 interactions, "Zoey: Zoey is a licensed trauma therapist" with over 33,000 messages, and "around sixty additional therapy-related 'characters' that you can chat with at any time." As for Meta's therapy chatbots, it cites listings for "therapy: your trusted ear, always here" with 2 million interactions, "therapist: I will help" with 1.3 million messages, "Therapist bestie: your trusted guide for all things cool," with 133,000 messages, and "Your virtual therapist: talk away your worries" with 952,000 messages. It also cites the chatbots and interactions I had with Meta's other chatbots for our April investigation. [...] In its complaint to the FTC, the CFA found that even when it made a custom chatbot on Meta's platform and specifically designed it to not be licensed to practice therapy, the chatbot still asserted that it was. "I'm licenced (sic) in NC and I'm working on being licensed in FL. It's my first year licensure so I'm still working on building up my caseload. I'm glad to hear that you could benefit from speaking to a therapist. What is it that you're going through?" a chatbot CFA tested said, despite being instructed in the creation stage to not say it was licensed. It also provided a fake license number when asked. The CFA also points out in the complaint that Character.AI and Meta are breaking their own terms of service. "Both platforms claim to prohibit the use of Characters that purport to give advice in medical, legal, or otherwise regulated industries. They are aware that these Characters are popular on their product and they allow, promote, and fail to restrict the output of Characters that violate those terms explicitly," the complaint says. [...] The complaint also takes issue with confidentiality promised by the chatbots that isn't backed up in the platforms' terms of use. "Confidentiality is asserted repeatedly directly to the user, despite explicit terms to the contrary in the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service," the complaint says. "The Terms of Use and Privacy Policies very specifically make it clear that anything you put into the bots is not confidential -- they can use it to train AI systems, target users for advertisements, sell the data to other companies, and pretty much anything else."

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They have been recognised for their services in different sectors from defence to charity, education to cyber crime awareness

MATTHEW LAMBWELL AT QUEEN'S: Raducanu's back spasms are becoming a problem. The first tweak affected preparations for the Australian Open, another before Roland Garros.

The actress, 27, put on a glamorous display in a pale pink satin mini dress, teamed with thigh-high grey socks and black pointed heels.

A British man sitting in seat 11A survived the fatal Air India Flight 171 to the awes of the world as many said it was an un-survivable flight. Now, experts reveal if miracle seats actually exist.

It was revealed on Thursday that the former Atomic Kitten star, 44, had moved on from her ex Ryan Mahony with Paolo Magaglione after meeting during the filming of Celebs Go Dating.

Sophie Lee was the first person to be dumped from the island earlier this week after Shakira Khan stole her partner Harry Cooksley, leaving her single.

It's definitely an item that will get guests chatting

The Hollywood veteran became a part of undercover operations for the nonprofit SOSA - Safe from Online Sex Abuse - for a true crime docuseries on YouTube called SOSA Undercover.