Java has elbowed its way onto a Tyne and Wear Metro information display, giving passengers an error message alongside their train times. Eagle-eyed Register reader abend0c4 spotted the sign, whose dialog design suggests a rather elderly Windows installation. Could it be Windows 7 in Classic guise, or perhaps Windows Server 2008 R2? Both wheezed their last in 2023, when the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program ended. Or perhaps POSReady 7? That kept going (again via ESU) until October 8, 2024. Not that the end of ESU means the code will suddenly stop working. Just that Microsoft has called a halt to updates. The Tyne and Wear Metro is no stranger to keeping old technology running past its expiration date. Opened in August 1980, the transit network has been replacing its aging rolling stock with new units, but the signage has endured. Then again, compared to the Commodore VIC-20 and Apple II, which ruled the home computing roost in 1980, perhaps an operating system that's only been obsolete for a few years isn't such a bad thing. Any second now somebody will be writing an email about some hardware by Sinclair, Acorn, or their particular device maker of choice. But back to the sign. Sadly, it's unclear which version of Java has elbowed its way to the foreground. Java's troubleshooting guidance lists video driver problems as one possible cause of this error. The train indicator seems to be operating as normal if somewhat obscured by Java's attempt to be the centre of attention," our reader noted. Java is longer be a bright young thing, yet it still keeps plenty of enterprise systems running behind the scenes. On this occasion, it appears to prefer the foreground. We'd prefer it kept a lower profile. Passengers have enough ups and downs without Java throwing its toys out of the virtual pram. ®
Mass unemployment, boiling the planet, and human extinction within a decade: the dystopian visions of AI are well rehearsed. Academics now argue that EU policymakers should ensure the taxpayers helping to fund the tech get something back, a “happiness dividend.” Researchers at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII), led by Professor Sandra Wachter, say citizens who are inadvertently helping to create the next generation of tech billionaires need more than promises that AI will boost economic growth and fatten corporate profits. Their paper, "Optimising for happiness in EU technology policy to repay public subsidies for AI," published in the Royal Society Open Science, notes that the public backs AI development through funding, tax breaks, and access to land, water, energy, infrastructure, and data. On data, most people have no say in the matter. Creative work, social media posts, and user interactions have all been swept up to train frontier models, spurring a stream of lawsuits. The OII team proposes happiness as a third goal for AI heavyweights, alongside economic growth and risk mitigation. “Making technology less harmful is not the same as making it socially beneficial,” the researchers told us. What makes people happy? The researchers point to relatedness, competence, and autonomy, all of which some uses of AI could undermine. Chatbots that mimic human emotion may erode the value people place on real human connection. Heavy reliance on AI could dull skills. AI influence could make it harder for people to make their own choices. And datacenters threaten land and water, leaving fewer trees and green spaces for people to connect with nature. “Under the proposed approach, companies benefiting from public support would be expected to predict how their technologies will improve happiness and well-being, and be held accountable for delivering those benefits,” the researchers said. The EU has allocated €20 billion for AI gigafactories, while GenAI4EU and the Digital Europe programme is using €700 million through Horizon research projects into generative AI and supercomputing initiatives. “The public already pays for AI through subsidies, resources, and data, yet has little say over what it gets in return,” said lead author Professor Sandra Wachter. “We believe people deserve technology that increases their happiness. If the public is helping to build the AI industry, it should also share in its benefits.” Denser, more powerful servers in a growing number of datacenters are drawing more energy, potentially pushing up household electricity bills. Memory makers are prioritizing higher-margin chips, so ordinary DRAM and NAND cost more, and so do the devices that use them. Water, which some see as the planet’s next most precious commodity, is being used to cool server racks. Anthropic warned this year that humanity risks courting extinction unless powerful models are properly controlled. Last year it and OpenAI raised the prospect of mass unemployment as employers turn to AI to cut costs. The researchers add that the difficulty of getting data out of model makers and their cloud providers makes it harder to gauge the environmental damage datacenters are doing. Against that backdrop, finding some way to improve people’s well-being looks essential. Will the model makers take note? Even pessimists are sometimes pleasantly surprised, though we expect profits will trump pleasantness. ®
If last week’s headlines proved anything at all, it’s that the long wait for flying, flipping, fully self driving electric vehicles is finally over – especially if you’re shopping at Tesla’s competitors. On today’s episode of Quick Charge, we’ve got a full rundown of hot new EVs that you can fly, flip, and (most importantly) take delivery of today.
To feed its Indiana datacenters with plenty of juice, Amazon is funding the development of a new nuclear facility that will provide nearly 1 gigawatt of power. However, we'll have to see if this happens anytime soon, given the immature technology it's using. Amazon said on Monday that it was funding the project with an undisclosed amount of cash as part of an expansion of its existing deal with X-energy, a next-generation nuclear power startup focusing on building small modular reactors (SMRs) powered by Tri-Structural ISOtropic (TRISO) fuel pellets and cooled by helium gas. Amazon would tell us only that it’s “investing billions in nuclear energy projects” without getting specific on this project. According to X-energy, the project will see Amazon fund the development of 12 of those SMRs, its Xe-100 model, in Sullivan County, Indiana, at the site of a former coal power plant. Once up and running, the facility will supply 960 megawatts of grid-connected electricity, with Amazon contracting as the first power purchaser from the future plant. As for when it might come online, that’s anyone’s guess. Amazon wouldn’t tell us, only pointing us to an article in Indiana newspaper the South Bend Tribune in which an X-energy representative said it could be completed “as early as the mid-2030s,” though “the timeline could change the further the project gets developed.” That’s quite likely given X-energy’s current status and the state of next-generation nuclear power more generally, and to understand why it helps to understand how nuclear permitting works in the US. First off, despite the promises, hype, and mountains of cash poured into nuclear power by the tech industry, the US has yet to build a single operable SMR. China and Russia have built functional SMRs. A single experimental unit has achieved criticality in the US, but it’s not a functional, power-producing reactor and was only built to demonstrate the ability for a specific design to become one. The company with that experimental US SMR is not X-energy, who has yet to build a working reactor. As to how reactors get approved in the US, there are two pathways that nuclear power companies can pursue: One is to get a standard design approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). That pathway gives a company license to build a reactor of a specific model wherever they want, as the design has been deemed safe independent of any physical site. That means the certified reactor can be sold and built without the need for the NRC to recertify the core design each time a project gets underway. There is only one company in the US that has a standard design approval for an SMR: Nuscale, which has yet to build a single reactor, has no projects under construction, and has already abandoned a Utah plant due to lack of interest from power distributors. The other option allows SMR developers to get approval for a site-specific project, which is quicker and involves the NRC blessing a particular reactor in a particular place. There have been several of those permits awarded, with Kairos Power being approved to build an SMR in Oak Ridge, Tennessee in partnership with Google, General Electric planning another SMR in Oak Ridge, and TerraPower inching forward with its own project in Wyoming despite delays. Notice X-energy isn’t mentioned there, either. The company claims that it’s in “the final phases” of NRC approval for a construction permit in Texas, where it’ll supply power for a Dow Chemical manufacturing plant, but that likely won’t matter too much for the Indiana project’s timeline. As mentioned above, nuclear construction permits are site specific, and the Texas plant only involves four reactors - far fewer than the 12 planned in Indiana. X-energy didn’t respond to questions for this story, but Amazon told us it's not going to be involved in any way with getting approval across the finish line for the Indiana plant. “Amazon's role is as an investor … as well as committing to being the first customer for power produced from the facility,” a company spokesperson told us. “New technologies like this often need initial customers to help de-risk projects and provide funding so they can be built and scaled to commercial availability, and that is the role Amazon is playing by helping to fund the project's development.” Like other large, ambitious next-generation nuclear projects, in other words, this one is just as much in the maybe column as the rest. ®
The plug-in hybrid BYD Denza B8 didn’t set the sales charts on fire, but its high-tech suspension promised a smooth ride across just about any terrain, adjusting damping and ride height while independently controlling hydraulic pressure at each wheel. It’s a neat trick, but one driver has figured out a whole new use for it: avoiding traffic boots.
As if to prove that there may not be money for universal childcare or nationalized healthcare but there is ALWAYS more money for war, the US Department of War has awarded Amprius a $75 million grant to convert a civilian EV battery production line to churn out high-energy-density batteries for military drones.
Decommissioning humanoid robots that are packed with proprietary tech is a tricky thing – you want to make sure none of the expensive raw material goes to waste, but you also need to make sure no one else gets a hold of your tech. The solution? Have your robots hurl themselves into a vat of molten steel, Terminator 2-style.
The all-electric Dodge Charger Daytona may not have been a stunning sales success with either EV fans or the Mopar faithful, but that didn’t change the fact that it’s one of the most competent straight-line performance cars ever built – and now, Hallmark is making it easier than ever to park one under a Christmas tree.
A joint venture between Chinese carmaker SAIC and German car brand Audi, the all-electric AUDI (all caps) brand has been turning heads in the Chinese market with solid all-weather performance, reasonable prices and plenty of chunky Teutonic style. Now, AUDI cars are turning up in Europe — and Audi is pissed.
Login
