#fuel reporting software

[rupasriymts]

VAS (Virtual Accounting Service) for Petrol Pumps – Powered by Petrosoft

Petrosoft introduces VAS (Virtual Accounting Service), a simple and smart way to manage petrol pump accounts. This software is specially made for petrol pumps and fuel stations to handle daily transactions, credit bills, sales, stock, and GST reports in one place.

With VAS, you can record daily fuel sales, manage customer payments, and check profit reports without needing expert knowledge. It helps avoid manual errors and saves a lot of time. Whether you sell petrol, diesel, or oil, every entry is safe, fast, and accurate in the system.

Petrosoft’s VAS gives you full control of your accounts. You can view all your reports anytime and even manage multiple fuel stations from one screen. The software is easy to use and works smoothly for both beginners and experienced staff.

[vivekbsworld]

Driving Efficiency: Fleet Management Software Solutions in Dubai

In the heart of the bustling metropolis of Dubai, where every minute counts and precision is paramount, efficient fleet management is crucial for businesses to stay ahead of the curve. From logistics companies navigating the city's intricate road network to construction firms overseeing a fleet of heavy machinery, the ability to monitor, track, and optimize fleet operations can make all the difference. This is where fleet management software solutions in Dubai come into play, offering innovative tools to streamline processes, enhance productivity, and drive business growth. Let's explore some of the top fleet management software solutions making waves in Dubai's dynamic business landscape.

1. Trinetra

Trinetra is a leading provider of fleet management software solutions, offering a comprehensive suite of tools to help businesses optimize their fleet operations. With features such as real-time tracking, route optimization, and driver behavior monitoring, Trinetra empowers businesses to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance customer satisfaction. Whether it's managing a fleet of delivery vehicles or a construction fleet, Trinetra's customizable solutions cater to a wide range of industries and business needs.

2. Chekhra Business Solutions

Chekhra Business Solutions specializes in fleet management software tailored to the unique requirements of businesses in Dubai and the wider UAE. Their user-friendly platform offers advanced features such as GPS tracking, fuel management, and maintenance scheduling, allowing businesses to gain real-time insights into their fleet operations. With a focus on innovation and customer satisfaction, Chekhra Business Solutions is committed to helping businesses maximize their productivity and profitability.

3. Carmine

Carmine is a cloud-based fleet management software solution designed to meet the needs of businesses of all sizes in Dubai. With features such as vehicle tracking, driver management, and compliance monitoring, Carmine helps businesses streamline their operations and ensure regulatory compliance. Its intuitive interface and customizable reporting tools make it easy for businesses to track their fleet performance and make data-driven decisions to optimize efficiency and reduce costs.

4. Fleet Complete

Fleet Complete is a global leader in fleet management software solutions, with a strong presence in Dubai and the UAE. Their comprehensive platform offers a wide range of features, including GPS tracking, route optimization, and asset management, enabling businesses to maximize the efficiency of their fleet operations. With real-time visibility into vehicle location, status, and performance, Fleet Complete empowers businesses to improve productivity, reduce fuel consumption, and enhance customer service.

5. GPSit

GPSit is a trusted provider of fleet management software solutions, offering cutting-edge technology to businesses across Dubai and the UAE. Their platform provides real-time tracking, route optimization, and driver behavior monitoring, helping businesses optimize their fleet operations and improve overall efficiency. With a focus on reliability, scalability, and customer support, GPSit is committed to helping businesses achieve their fleet management goals and drive success in a competitive marketplace.

Conclusion

In the fast-paced business environment of Dubai, where efficiency and productivity are paramount, the adoption of fleet management software solutions is essential for businesses to stay competitive and thrive. Whether it's optimizing routes, improving fuel efficiency, or ensuring regulatory compliance, these software solutions offer a comprehensive suite of tools to help businesses streamline their operations and drive growth. By harnessing the power of technology and innovation, businesses in Dubai can unlock new opportunities for success and maintain their position as leaders in their respective industries.

[nasa]

LaRue Burbank, mathematician and computer, is just one of the many women who were instrumental to NASA missions.

4 Little Known Women Who Made Huge Contributions to NASA

Women have always played a significant role at NASA and its predecessor NACA, although for much of the agency’s history, they received neither the praise nor recognition that their contributions deserved. To celebrate Women’s History Month – and properly highlight some of the little-known women-led accomplishments of NASA’s early history – our archivists gathered the stories of four women whose work was critical to NASA’s success and paved the way for future generations.

LaRue Burbank: One of the Women Who Helped Land a Man on the Moon

LaRue Burbank was a trailblazing mathematician at NASA. Hired in 1954 at Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory (now NASA’s Langley Research Center), she, like many other young women at NACA, the predecessor to NASA, had a bachelor's degree in mathematics. But unlike most, she also had a physics degree. For the next four years, she worked as a "human computer," conducting complex data analyses for engineers using calculators, slide rules, and other instruments. After NASA's founding, she continued this vital work for Project Mercury.

In 1962, she transferred to the newly established Manned Spacecraft Center (now NASA’s Johnson Space Center) in Houston, becoming one of the few female professionals and managers there.  Her expertise in electronics engineering led her to develop critical display systems used by flight controllers in Mission Control to monitor spacecraft during missions. Her work on the Apollo missions was vital to achieving President Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the Moon.

Eilene Galloway: How NASA became… NASA

Eilene Galloway wasn't a NASA employee, but she played a huge role in its very creation. In 1957, after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, Senator Richard Russell Jr. called on Galloway, an expert on the Atomic Energy Act, to write a report on the U.S. response to the space race. Initially, legislators aimed to essentially re-write the Atomic Energy Act to handle the U.S. space goals. However, Galloway argued that the existing military framework wouldn't suffice – a new agency was needed to oversee both military and civilian aspects of space exploration. This included not just defense, but also meteorology, communications, and international cooperation.

Her work on the National Aeronautics and Space Act ensured NASA had the power to accomplish all these goals, without limitations from the Department of Defense or restrictions on international agreements. Galloway is even to thank for the name "National Aeronautics and Space Administration", as initially NASA was to be called “National Aeronautics and Space Agency” which was deemed to not carry enough weight and status for the wide-ranging role that NASA was to fill.

Barbara Scott: The “Star Trek Nerd” Who Led Our Understanding of the Stars

A self-described "Star Trek nerd," Barbara Scott's passion for space wasn't steered toward engineering by her guidance counselor. But that didn't stop her!  Fueled by her love of math and computer science, she landed at Goddard Spaceflight Center in 1977.  One of the first women working on flight software, Barbara's coding skills became instrumental on missions like the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) and the Thermal Canister Experiment on the Space Shuttle's STS-3.  For the final decade of her impressive career, Scott managed the flight software for the iconic Hubble Space Telescope, a testament to her dedication to space exploration.

Dr. Claire Parkinson: An Early Pioneer in Climate Science Whose Work is Still Saving Lives

Dr. Claire Parkinson's love of math blossomed into a passion for climate science. Inspired by the Moon landing, and the fight for civil rights, she pursued a graduate degree in climatology.  In 1978, her talents landed her at Goddard, where she continued her research on sea ice modeling. But Parkinson's impact goes beyond theory.  She began analyzing satellite data, leading to a groundbreaking discovery: a decline in Arctic sea ice coverage between 1973 and 1987. This critical finding caught the attention of Senator Al Gore, highlighting the urgency of climate change.

Parkinson's leadership extended beyond research.  As Project Scientist for the Aqua satellite, she championed making its data freely available. This real-time information has benefitted countless projects, from wildfire management to weather forecasting, even aiding in monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic. Parkinson's dedication to understanding sea ice patterns and the impact of climate change continues to be a valuable resource for our planet.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space! 

[probablyasocialecologist]

The latest, AI-dedicated server racks contain 72 specialised chips from manufacturer Nvidia. The largest “hyperscale” data centres, used for AI tasks, would have about 5,000 of these racks.  And as anyone using a laptop for any period of time knows, even a single chip warms up in operation. To cool the servers requires water – gallons of it. Put all this together, and a single hyperscale data centre will typically need as much water as a town of 30,000 people – and the equivalent amount of electricity.  The Financial Times reports that Microsoft is currently opening one of these behemoths somewhere in the world every three days. Even so, for years, the explosive growth of the digital economy had surprisingly little impact on global energy demand and carbon emissions. Efficiency gains in data centres—the backbone of the internet—kept electricity consumption in check.  But the rise of generative AI, turbocharged by the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, has shattered that equilibrium. AI elevates the demand for data and processing power into the stratosphere. The latest version of OpenAI’s flagship GPT model, GPT-4, is built on 1.3 trillion parameters, with each parameter describing the strength of a connection between different pathways in the model’s software brain.  The more novel data that can be pushed into the model for training, the better – so much data that one research paper estimated machine learning models will have used up all the data on the internet by 2028. Today, the insatiable demand for computing power is reshaping national energy systems. Figures from the International Monetary Fund show that data centres worldwide already consume as much electricity as entire countries like France or Germany. It forecasts that by 2030, the worldwide energy demand from data centres will be the same as India’s total electricity consumption. 

30 May 2025

[kccinstitutes]

🎉 From B.Tech Dreams to Big-Tech Deals! 🎉

Once upon a time, four brave B.Tech - CSE warriors – Vivek, Areeb, Ankit, and Tushar – entered the gates of KCC Institutes with a single goal: to survive endless assignments, 8 a.m. lectures, and every engineer’s nemesis… the 50-page project report.

After years of late-night coding sessions (fueled by caffeine and maybe a few panic attacks) and occasional “I know the answer” moments in class, these four champions have achieved the ultimate victory. They’ve bagged jobs as Software Engineers at Jellyfish Technologies with a whopping 6 LPA package! 💰💻

Now they’re ready to swap “CTRL+C” and “CTRL+V” with actual coding skills (we hope) and bring their A-game to the tech world! 🚀

We’re incredibly proud of these newly minted engineers, who’ve proven that with enough coffee, Wi-Fi, and a sprinkle of last-minute motivation, anything is possible! Join us in congratulating them and wishing them good luck as they start their journey of debugging life! 🐛💼

futuretechtitans #kccproud #engineersatwork #nomoreassignments #jellyfishtechnologies #bigdreamsbigdeals #codinglegends #latenightheroes

[silenceofthewave]

[ closed starter for @quantumlogician; Soundwave ]

⸻⸻⸻⸻

Laserbeak decidedly hated the Shadow Zone. It was cold, silent, dead, unchanging and unmoving. It was a death trap, a place where no one belonged, yet once they were there, it became their permanent resting place. Soundwave knew this, and his words had been clear to her: this was the end of their line.

But, Laserbeak was stubborn. She was angry, headstrong, unable to accept things as they are, and, worst of all, full of hope. She knew these things about herself, and grew to be completely comfortable with them. She pushed. Usually, Soundwave would push right with her. They would propel forward, they would survive no matter the cost, they would work together.

Yet, it seemed like that was not the case anymore. Her fountain of hope was no longer enough to keep her little brother going. No, he would rather sit and rust at the side of the mech who dragged them to the bottom of the ocean in the first place. Soundwave had finally met his match, and that was something Laserbeak would not accept.

Soundwave might have given up, but she could not. She was no Ravage; she could not provide the guidance he needed. She knew that her words would not convince him. Therefore, Laserbeak had resorted to action.

Laserbeak had left Soundwave. He undoubtedly would take this as an abandonment, as a devistating blow, a final act of cruelty he must endure. He could think that all he wanted; Laserbeak knew the truth.

If Soundwave didn't want to fight to find a way out, Laserbeak would have to.

She planned on returning to him- truly! She couldn't say as much, it's not like Soundwave would believe her. Plus, it was better this way. Maybe her absence would light a fire under his aft and finally drag him into the fight for their lives.

At least, that's what Laserbeak hoped would happen. She didn't really have a plan. She didn't know how she was going to find a way out. She didn't even know if she could. All she could do was try.

Judging by the regularity that the Earthian sun had crested and sank below the horizon, it had been a week since she left her little brother. Her fuel reserves were approaching critically low. She had to stop often to rest. Her little body didn't hold much, but at the very least it was efficient. Though, efficiency didn't mean endless, and Laserbeak was beginning to truly learn why.

Laserbeak had not found a single damned thing during her escapade. There was no portal, no one else was in this purgatory; there was only the grey landscape and silence that came with it. Luckily, she still had information. None of it was helpful, but it kept her going.

Whenever she would poke at their symbiont bond, she recieved feedback of static. Concerning, given the fact that the communication it offered was next to none, but also enlightening to the fact that, at the very least, Soundwave was functioning. The static wasn't the absence that she had grown so used to coming from her offlined siblings.

So, that was one good thing. Another was that for whatever reason, this "Shadow Zone" wasn't impervious to radio waves. She could pull up a map, her messaging software, and even use her rudimentary scans. Laserbeak couldn't exactly interact with her environment, but she wasn't completely static within it either.

It was one of those scans that Laserbeak believed to be her saving grace. As soon as it had detected something, her little engine began to thrum with excitement. Finally. A way out? Maybe? Or, at least something interesting; something helpful.

Laserbeak had no way of knowing what was waiting for her. She wanted to message Soundwave- their first communication since her departure. She wanted to tell him the good news, that she had found something, and that they were going to get out of here. She tried to. Several times in fact. Always with the same message, "Soundwave, reporting in."

She always got the same response. Nothing. Failed message. Reciever not available. Try again later.

Unable to accept this, Laserbeak poked and prodded at their bond as she neared the coordinates. She still was recieving static, though it was concerningly growing dimmer. She always knew this was a possibility; distance and failing health made bonds wobbly. When both were in effect, well.

Nothing good would come of it.

Still, Laserbeak reasoned that the distance was the issue. She had left Soundwave in what the humans call the Pacific Ocean. She was located over the state of North Carolina, deep in the wilderness. Not to mention, Soundwave always carried extra rations with him. He had enough to last the both of them for Primus knows how long.

Yes. The distance and signal was the problem.

She could fix that. She had fixed worse problems before, though she couldn't remember a situation as bad as this one. Still, she was one for two. 50/50 odds. Laserbeak has beaten worse.

When Laserbeak first arrived to her destination, she was greeted with nothing. There was only the dense Cherokee forest; no caves, no one else, no other means of contact. She landed, folding her wings close to her body and sent out another scan.

Again, it came back with a ping. Something was here. She just wasn't looking hard enough for it. Laserbeak began to hop around. She didn't have pedes like the rest of them, but using her datacables and wings had become second nature.

She did this for what felt like hours; hopping a few feet, scanning again, looking around, then moving on. She could feel the way something began to tug on her. It whispered in her audials, beckoning her closer. Every time she felt like she got close, it would move. Frustration began to mount within her; cat and mouse was Ravage's game, not hers.

Just as she was about to give up on this course of action and try something else, she saw it. A perfect sphere bending the light around it. The sphere hovered just above the ground, barely out of Laserbeak's mostly stationary line of sight. It bent the trees of the dense forest, reflecting back both what was in front and behind it.

A wormhole.

Laserbeak had only seen one once before, way back in the early days of their escape to the cosmos. Soundwave had informed her that these cosmic entities were rare, but their physics were utilized in space bridge technology. How the Quintessons were able to harness this power was mostly lost to time, but their schematics and engineering worked nonetheless.

Laserbeak realized with an excited shiver that this could be their ticket out of here. A plan hatched in her processor; she had enough energon to make it somewhere civilized. A giant metal bird would be enough to call any government agency, meaning that she would soon enough be brought to Agent Fowler. He would bring her to the Autobots, and Laserbeak would not only be repaired and refueled, but put into a much better state to escape and find her brother. She just needed him to get here.

An idea came to her. She could leave her back up communications transmitter here. It would only take a few quick commands to have it send out the same message at the same time every day. She didn't know how long it would last, and she didn't know if he would ever find it. But, she didn't have any way to boost the signal, nor make it last longer than whatever reserve battery life it had.

Laserbeak didn't know if it would work. She didn't know where this little marvel would spit her out, or if it even would. But she knew that she had to try.

Laserbeak unfolded her wings and warmed up her thrusters. They spat and protested, her HUD telling her that her actions were inadvisable. She didn't care. It was either this or die alone, and Laserbeak was not taking that second option without defeat.

Laserbeak quickly set the message, a simple set of coordinates and "meet me here." The frequency, rate and duration were programmed with haste. She ejected the little cartridge and carefully set it on a nearby rock.

Without further ado, Laserbeak launched herself upwards. Tree branches that would normally stop her meant little to her incorporeal form. As soon as she breached the treetops, she u-turned and dove towards the ground. Either Laserbeak would be taken somewhere else, or she would slam into the ground and pay whatever price that would be demanded.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Though, Laserbeak would never admit to such a thing. She didn't even contemplate it as the light bending sphere drew closer, and swallowed her whole.

Light seemed to both explode and fizzle away. It was blinding, white and black and so many other colors fighting for dominance within her optical feed. She could feel gravity. She could feel gravity!

Forget the rest, Laserbeak couldn't help but celebrate that she could feel something's force of touch outside of her own body! Sure, this experience was terrifying, but the noise and the feeling and the vibrancy was enough to push away fear. There was only elation.

This was going to work.

As fast as the experience had begun, it stopped. Laserbeak slammed face first into the ground. Her little body glanced off the metal floor, sending her bouncing and skidding to a stop. She hurt.

Her optics were knocked offline from the blow, and her audials weren't much better. Pain blossomed from her head down to her tail. Her wings seemed to be the only parts of her that didn't scream in agony. She struggled to move, trying to shake sense back into herself and get an awareness of her surroundings.

She could dimly hear panicked shouts. She couldn't make out the words, but she could recognize the language. Cybertronian.

What?

Again she struggled, letting out a series of mechanical squeals as her body tried to right itself. Cybertronian? Why was she hearing Cybertronian? She should be on Earth!

She should be in that organic forest, not on cold metal ground, feeling the vibration of every step someone took within a few yards of her. She could feel them coming closer, an uneven gait with a third, softer step. Hands now, she felt hands on her frame! Both terror and relief flooded her systems. She struggled again, squawking and shaking.

Maybe it hadn't worked. Maybe she was in a much worse predicament.

[mariacallous]

The anonymous image board 4chan has survived years of controversy. It weathered user and advertiser boycotts as well as damning accusations that it incubated hate speech that may have fueled mass shootings. Users have convened on 4chan to plan hacks like DDoS attacks, and conspiracy theories that festered on 4chan even reportedly inspired the January 6 insurrection at the United States Capitol. On Monday night and Tuesday, though, the platform faced its latest test after a series of outages led to speculation that the site had been hacked.

The core feature 4chan provides is public anonymity to post text and images, but the platform itself does collect information about users, such as their IP addresses. As a result, a breach of the website could represent a significant exposure of data that was intended to be private.

“4chan is an anonymous message board that enables often offensive and hateful content. The content leaked, if genuine, would remove some of the anonymity from 4chan administrators, moderators, and janitors,” says Ian Gray, director of analysis and research at the security firm Flashpoint. The image board’s billing as an “anonymous” platform may have given users a “false sense of security,” Gray says. “Some users may have registered their email addresses years ago when they were less aware or concerned about their operational security.”

Reports about the apparent hack began circulating after a previously banned board on 4chan briefly appeared online and the site was defaced with a message saying, “U GOT HACKED XD.” Subsequently, an online account on a rival forum known as Soyjak.party posted screenshots allegedly showing 4chan’s backend systems, plus a list of alleged 4chan administrator and moderator usernames, with associated email addresses. Following this post of 4chan administrator email addresses, Soyjak.party users started posting alleged doxes, including photos and personal information, of the accounts included in the leak.

WIRED has not been able to confirm whether the data is legitimate. A press email address associated with 4chan as well as two alleged administrator emails from the leaked data did not immediately respond to WIRED’s requests for comment on the hack and its validity. One of the site’s moderators said they believed the hack and leaks were real, according to a report by TechCrunch.

Rumors also started circulating on Tuesday that the breach is the result of 4chan running legacy, unpatched software that exposed the platform to attack. After a breach a decade ago, 4chan founder Christopher Poole, known online as “moot,” wrote in a blog post, “[We] have spent—and will continue to spend—dozens of hours poring over our software and systems to help mitigate and prevent future intrusions. We’re sorry it happened, and will do our best to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”

Emiliano De Cristofaro, a computer science and engineering professor at UC Riverside, who has researched the impact of 4chan on the web, says the ramifications could be large if the hack is confirmed.

“It seems true that 4chan hasn't been properly maintained and patched for years, which might indicate that a hack would have definitely been a possibility,” De Cristofaro says. “There might be some ‘high profile’ users exposed as moderators—traditionally, 4chan users hate them, so they might be targeted. It might be hard or at least painfully slow and costly for 4chan to recover from this, so we might really see the end of 4chan as we know it.”

Initial reports posted on Soyjak.party referencing a 4chan hack appeared to say that Soyjak.party members may have been involved in the attack. One post claimed that a hacker had been in 4chan’s systems “for over a year” and exposed personal information allegedly linked to 4chan users and administrators. And multiple screenshots posted on Soyjak.party appear to show someone accessing 4chan’s internal systems. These include images of someone with administrator access to a 4chan backend database, stats about users on various sections of 4chan, a page showing deleted posts and the IP addresses they were made from, as well as other internal documentation. Some reports also claim that hackers stole 4chan’s source code.

In recent years, 4chan has increasingly been on the radar of US government officials. The website has reportedly been kept online due in part to investment by a Japanese company. In June 2023, WIRED reported on internal 4chan documents that showed how the site’s policies shaped the highly toxic nature of the platform—including how moderators explicitly allow racism. In most cases, the documents showed, calls for violence on 4chan are not met with user bans.

“If the data is legitimate, information on members and posting could be useful for law enforcement investigations,” Flashpoint’s Gray says. “4chan has been around since at least 2003, which is extremely notable for any online service. Aside from the offensive and often extremist content, a lot of internet culture has originated from 4chan. If this is a death knell for 4chan, other services will likely fill its place. However, the effect of 4chan on the internet cannot be overstated.”

[meret118]

In 2008, a software developer in San Francisco named Curtis Yarvin, writing under a pseudonym, proposed a horrific solution for people he deemed “not productive”: “convert them into biodiesel, which can help power the Muni buses.”

Yarvin, a self-described reactionary and extremist who was 35 years old at the time, clarified that he was “just kidding.” But then he continued, “The trouble with the biodiesel solution is that no one would want to live in a city whose public transportation was fueled, even just partly, by the distilled remains of its late underclass. However, it helps us describe the problem we are trying to solve. Our goal, in short, is a humane alternative to genocide.”

He then concluded that the “best humane alternative to genocide” is to “virtualize” these people: Imprison them in “permanent solitary confinement” where, to avoid making them insane, they would be connected to an “immersive virtual-reality interface” so they could “experience a rich, fulfilling life in a completely imaginary world.”

Yarvin’s disturbing manifestos have earned him influential followers, chief among them: tech billionaire Peter Thiel and his onetime Silicon Valley protégé Senator J.D. Vance, whom the Republican Party just nominated to be Donald Trump’s vice president. If Trump wins the election, there is little doubt that Vance will bring Yarvin’s twisted techno-authoritarianism to the White House, and one can imagine—with horror—what a receptive would-be autocrat like Trump might do with those ideas.

Way back in 2012, in a speech on “How to Reboot the US Government,” he said, “If Americans want to change their government, they’re going to have to get over their dictator phobia.” He had also written favorably of slavery and white nationalists in the late 2000s (though he has stated that he is not a white nationalist himself).

Both Thiel and Vance are friends of Yarvin.

. . .

In 2016, Yarvin attended Thiel’s election night party in San Francisco where, according to Chafkin, champagne flowed once it became clear that Thiel’s investment in Donald Trump would pay off.

Since entering politics, Vance has publicly praised—and parroted—Yarvin’s ideas. 

. . .

When Vance ran for U.S. Senate in 2022, Thiel spent an unprecedented $15 million on the campaign and persuaded Trump to endorse him (Vance had previously compared Trump to Hitler). In 2024, Thiel led the charge to convince Trump to pick Vance as V.P.

. . .

Yarvin is the chief thinker behind an obscure but increasingly influential far-right neoreaction, or NRx, movement, that some call the “Dark Enlightenment.” Among other things, it openly promotes dictatorships as superior to democracies and views nations like the United States as outdated software systems. Yarvin seeks to reengineer governments by breaking them up into smaller entities called “patchworks,” which would be controlled by tech corporations.

More at the link.

------

Are you fucking kidding me?!! Why isn't this leading every news report? Is this well known, and I somehow just missed knowing about this yarvin sociopath? This needs to be exposed like project 2050 is!

It's like republicans are deliberately trying to see if they can find someone worse to put in the oval office each time - nixon, reagan, dumbya, trump, and eventually vance.

[warningsine]

Unnecessarily compiling sensitive information can be as damaging as actively trying to steal it. For example, the Cybernews research team discovered a plethora of supermassive datasets, housing billions upon billions of login credentials. From social media and corporate platforms to VPNs and developer portals, no stone was left unturned.

Our team has been closely monitoring the web since the beginning of the year. So far, they’ve discovered 30 exposed datasets containing from tens of millions to over 3.5 billion records each. In total, the researchers uncovered an unimaginable 16 billion records.

None of the exposed datasets were reported previously, bar one: in late May, Wired magazine reported a security researcher discovering a “mysterious database” with 184 million records. It barely scratches the top 20 of what the team discovered. Most worryingly, researchers claim new massive datasets emerge every few weeks, signaling how prevalent infostealer malware truly is.

“This is not just a leak – it’s a blueprint for mass exploitation. With over 16 billion login records exposed, cybercriminals now have unprecedented access to personal credentials that can be used for account takeover, identity theft, and highly targeted phishing. What’s especially concerning is the structure and recency of these datasets – these aren’t just old breaches being recycled. This is fresh, weaponizable intelligence at scale,” researchers said.

The only silver lining here is that all of the datasets were exposed only briefly: long enough for researchers to uncover them, but not long enough to find who was controlling vast amounts of data. Most of the datasets were temporarily accessible through unsecured Elasticsearch or object storage instances.

What do the billions of exposed records contain?

Researchers claim that most of the data in the leaked datasets is a mix of details from stealer malware, credential stuffing sets, and repackaged leaks.

There was no way to effectively compare the data between different datasets, but it’s safe to say overlapping records are definitely present. In other words, it’s impossible to tell how many people or accounts were actually exposed.

However, the information that the team managed to gather revealed that most of the information followed a clear structure: URL, followed by login details and a password. Most modern infostealers – malicious software stealing sensitive information – collect data in exactly this way.

Information in the leaked datasets opens the doors to pretty much any online service imaginable, from Apple, Facebook, and Google, to GitHub, Telegram, and various government services. It’s hard to miss something when 16 billion records are on the table.

According to the researchers, credential leaks at this scale are fuel for phishing campaigns, account takeovers, ransomware intrusions, and business email compromise (BEC) attacks.

“The inclusion of both old and recent infostealer logs – often with tokens, cookies, and metadata – makes this data particularly dangerous for organizations lacking multi-factor authentication or credential hygiene practices,” the team said.

What dataset exposed billions of credentials?

The datasets that the team uncovered differ widely. For example, the smallest, named after malicious software, had over 16 million records. Meanwhile, the largest one, most likely related to the Portuguese-speaking population, had over 3.5 billion records. On average, one dataset with exposed credentials had 550 million records.

Some of the datasets were named generically, such as “logins,” “credentials,” and similar terms, preventing the team from getting a better understanding of what’s inside. Others, however, hinted at the services they’re related to.

For example, one dataset with over 455 million records was named to indicate its origins in the Russian Federation. Another dataset, with over 60 million records, was named after Telegram, a cloud-based instant messaging platform.

“The inclusion of both old and recent infostealer logs – often with tokens, cookies, and metadata – makes this data particularly dangerous for organizations lacking multi-factor authentication or credential hygiene practices,”

While naming is not the best way to deduce where the data comes from, it seems some of the information relates to cloud services, business-oriented data, and even locked files. Some dataset names likely point to a form of malware that was used to collect the data.

It is unclear who owns the leaked data. While it could be security researchers that compile data to check and monitor data leaks, it’s virtually guaranteed that some of the leaked datasets were owned by cybercriminals. Cybercriminals love massive datasets as aggregated collections allow them to scale up various types of attacks, such as identity theft, phishing schemes, and unauthorized access.

A success rate of less than a percent can open doors to millions of individuals, who can be tricked into revealing more sensitive details, such as financial accounts. Worryingly, since it's unclear who owns the exposed datasets, there’s little impact users can do to protect themselves.

However, basic cyber hygiene is essential. Using a password manager to generate strong, unique passwords, and updating them regularly, can be the difference between a safe account and stolen details. Users should also review their systems for infostealers, to avoid losing their data to attackers.

No, Facebook, Google, and Apple passwords weren’t leaked. Or were they?

With a dataset containing 16 billion passwords, that’s equivalent to two leaked accounts for every person on the planet.

We don’t really know how many duplicate records there are, as the leak comes from multiple datasets. However, some reporting by other media outlets can be quite misleading. Some claim that Facebook, Google, and Apple credentials were leaked. While we can’t completely dismiss such claims, we feel this is somewhat inaccurate.

Bob Diachenko, a Cybernews contributor, cybersecurity researcher, and owner of SecurityDiscovery.com, is behind this recent major discovery.

16-billion-record data breach signals a shift in the underground world

According to Cybernews researcher Aras Nazarovas, this discovery might signal that criminals are abandoning previously popular methods of obtaining stolen data.

"The increased number of exposed infostealer datasets in the form of centralized, traditional databases, like the ones found be the Cybernews research team, may be a sign, that cybercriminals are actively shifting from previously popular alternatives such as Telegram groups, which were previously the go-to place for obtaining data collected by infostealer malware," Nazarovas said.

He regularly works with exposed datasets, ensuring that defenders secure them before threat actors can access them.

Here’s what Nazarovas suggests you should do to protect yourself.

"Some of the exposed datasets included information such as cookies and session tokens, which makes the mitigation of such exposure more difficult. These cookies can often be used to bypass 2FA methods, and not all services reset these cookies after changing the account password. Best bet in this case is to change your passwords, enable 2FA, if it is not yet enabled, closely monitor your accounts, and contact customer support if suspicious activity is detected."

Billions of records exposed online: recent leaks involve WeChat, Alipay

Major data leaks, with billions of exposed records, have become nearly ubiquitous. Last week, Cybernews wrote about what is likely the biggest data leak to ever hit China, billions of documents with financial data, WeChat and Alipay details, as well as other sensitive personal data.

Last summer, the largest password compilation with nearly ten billion unique passwords, RockYou2024, was leaked on a popular hacking forum. In 2021, a similar compilation with over 8 billion records was leaked online.

In early 2024, the Cybernews research team discovered what is likely still the largest data leak ever: the Mother of All Breaches (MOAB), with a mind-boggling 26 billion records.

16 billion passwords exposed: how to protect yourself

Huge datasets of passwords spill onto the dark web all the time, highlighting the need to change them regularly. This also demonstrates just how weak our passwords still are.

Last year, someone leaked the largest password compilation ever, with nearly ten billion unique passwords published online. Such leaks pose severe threats to people who are prone to reusing passwords.

Even if you think you are immune to this or other leaks, go and reset your passwords just in case.

Select strong, unique passwords that are not reused across multiple platforms

Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) wherever possible

Closely monitor your accounts

Contact customer support in case of any suspicious activity

[rjzimmerman]

The Carbon Footprint of Amazon, Google, and Facebook Is Growing. (Sierra Club)

Excerpt from this story from Sierra Club:

IN MARCH The Information reported that Microsoft was in talks with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, about spending an eye-popping $100 billion on a gargantuan data center in Wisconsin dedicated to running artificial intelligence software. Code-named “Stargate,” the data center would, at full operation, consume five gigawatts of electricity, enough to power 3.7 million homes. For comparison purposes, that’s roughly the same amount of power produced by Plant Vogtle, the big nuclear power station in Georgia that cost $30 billion to build.

Stargate is in the earliest of planning stages, but the sheer scale of the proposal reflects a truth about artificial intelligence: AI is an energy hog. That’s an embarrassing about-face for the technology industry. For at least 20 years, American electricity consumption has hardly grown at all—owing in part, say computer scientists, to steady advances in energy efficiency that have percolated out of the tech industry into the larger economy. In 2023, according to the US Energy Information Administration, total electricity consumption fell slightly from 2022 levels.

But according to a report published last December by Grid Strategies, a consultancy that advises on energy policy, multiple electric utilities now predict that US energy demand will rise by up to 5 percent over the next five years. One of the chief culprits responsible for the surge, say the utilities, are new data centers designed to run AI. To meet the growing demand for power, those utilities want to build new fossil fuel power plants and to dismantle climate legislation that stands in their way.

For environmentalists, this represents a giant step backward. Artificial intelligence was supposed to help us solve problems. What good are ChatGPT and its ilk if using them worsens global warming?

This is a relatively new story—the AI gold rush is still in its infancy, ChatGPT only having debuted in fall 2022. But computing’s energy demands have been growing for decades, ever since the internet became an indispensable part of daily life. Every Zoom call, Netflix binge, Google search, YouTube video, and TikTok dance is processed in a windowless, warehouse-like building filled with thousands of pieces of computer hardware. These data centers are where the internet happens, the physical manifestation of the so-called cloud—perhaps as far away from ethereality as you can get.

In the popular mind, the cloud is often thought of in the simple sense of storage. This is where we back up our photos, our videos, our Google Docs. But that’s just a small slice of it: For the past 20 years, computation itself has increasingly been outsourced to data centers. Corporations, governments, research institutions, and others have discovered that it is cheaper and more efficient to rent computing services from Big Tech.

The crucial point, writes anthropologist Steven Gonzalez Monserrate in his case study The Cloud Is Material: On the Environmental Impacts of Computation and Data Storage, is that “heat is the waste product of computation.” Data centers consume so much energy because computer chips produce large amounts of heat. Roughly 40 percent of a data center’s electricity bill is the result of just keeping things cool. And the new generation of AI software is far more processor intensive and power hungry than just about anything—with the notable exception of cryptocurrency—that has come before.

The energy cost of AI and its perverse, climate-unfriendly incentives for electric utilities are a gut check for a tech industry that likes to think of itself as changing the world for the better. Michelle Solomon, an analyst at the nonprofit think tank Energy Innovation, calls the AI power crunch “a litmus test” for a society threatened by climate change.

[usafphantom2]

U.S. Air Force Testing New Sensors On The F-22

The F-22 recently tested multiple new sensors as part of the modernization, with plans for a rapid prototyping effort to field them and expand the capabilities of the jet.

Stefano D'Urso

F-22 new sensors

U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptors assigned to the 27th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron and Philippine Air Force FA-50PH light jet fighters conduct joint combined exchange training, above Basa Air Force Base, Philippines, on Aug. 9, 2024. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Mitchell Corley)

The U.S. Air Force is testing multiple new advanced sensors on the F-22 Raptor, which could extend its service life and also be applied to systems of the Next Generation Air Dominance family. The info was disclosed during the Life Cycle Industry Days conference.

“The F-22 team is working really hard on executing a modernization roadmap to field advanced sensors, connectivity, weapons, and other capabilities,” said Brig. Gen. Jason D. Voorheis, Program Executive Officer for Fighters and Advanced Aircraft. “The Raptor team recently conducted six flight test efforts to demo advanced sensors.”

Voorheis also added that the service is planning for a rapid prototyping effort to get these sensors fielded quickly. “We’re executing that successfully, and that will lead to […] a rapid fielding in the near future,” he said.

The news was first reported by Air and Space Forces Magazine, which also added that Air Force officials have also confirmed that the stealthy pods seen since last year being tested on the F-22 are indeed InfraRed Search and Track (IRST) sensors. The development of a new IRST sensor for the Raptor was also confirmed by the service’s budget document, however they did not mention the sensor being podded.

The sensors are part of an upgrade program worth $ 7.8 billion before 2030, of which $ 3.1 billion are for research and development and the remaining $ 4.7 billion are for procurement. This is in contrast with previous statements that the Air Force was looking to retire the F-22 around 2030.

“From an F-22 sunsetting perspective, I don’t have a date for you,” said Voorheis when asked about the topic. “What I can tell you is that we are hyper-focused on modernization to sustain that air superiority combat capability for a highly contested environment for as long as necessary.”

This also reflects recent comments by Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, head of Air Combat Command, who mentioned that the service should retain also the older F-22s in the Block 20 configuration, together with the latest ones. The General added that several upgrades are being planned and even the older Block 20s are still very capable, should they be needed for combat in an emergency.

An F-22 Raptor assigned to the 1st Fighter Wing, Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, approaches the boom of a 134th Air Refueling Wing KC-135R Stratotanker to refuel along the east coast of the United States Aug. 14, 2024. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Teri Eicher)

Voorheis also mentioned a software being integrated on the Raptor, which he defined as Government Reference Architecture Compute Environment, or “GRACE.” He further explained this open architecture software would allow “non-traditional F-22 software” to be installed on the aircraft and provide “additional processing and pilot interfaces.”

It’s unclear if the new GRACE is related to Project FOX, the innovation project tested last year which allowed to integrate on the F-35 software applications developed for the F-22. This allowed both 5th gen fighters to fly with common tactical software applications.

The F-22 upgrades

Some of the upgrades expected for the F-22 Raptor were unveiled in the Fiscal Year 23 budget request documentation and in an official artwork shared by Gen. Mark Kelly, then Commander of Air Combat Command. In the artwork we can see three Raptors loaded with new stealthy external fuel tanks, two underwing faceted pods and a new unknown air-to-air missile, but there are even more novelties in the documents, which unveils a previously undisclosed relationship between the F-22 and the development of the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD).

Two years after the upgrades were announced, we might have gotten, earlier this year, the first glimpse of the new stealthy external fuel tanks being developed for the F-22 Raptor. The aircraft was, in fact, spotted near the Mojave Air and Space Port and shows the Raptor with two fuel tanks, whose shape is reminiscent of the one shown in 2022.

The new tanks are officially known as Low Drag Tank and Pylon (LDTP) and designed to be stealthier and more aerodynamically efficient than the current 600-gallon fuel tanks. In the FY2023 budget request, the Air Force mentioned that the F-22 LDTPs are advanced technological designs providing increased persistence and range while maintaining lethality and survivability, critical to future mission execution and to maintaining Air Superiority.

U.S. Air Force Capt. Samuel “RaZZ” Larson, F-22 Raptor Demonstration Team commander and pilot, practices different maneuvers while training for the upcoming 2023 airshow season, at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, Jan. 6, 2023. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Mikaela Smith)

The low drag tanks are intended to reduce drag, facilitate supersonic flight with external tanks and extend the range of the F-22. The pylons are equipped with smart rack pneumatic technology to accurately control ejection performance and smooth wind swept surface for minimum drag without stores.

The two pods installed under the outer underwing hardpoints have already been spotted during flight testing on an F-22 at the Air Force’s Plant 42 facility in Palmdale, California, in February 2022. The latest budget documents mention an InfraRed Search and Track (IRST) sensor being developed for the F-22, which is now confirmed to be the sensor housed inside the two pods, although they could host also other capabilities in addition to the IRST.

In July 2024 we got an up-close look at one of the pods installed under a Rockwell Sabreliner 65 testbed after a test campaign at Nellis AFB, Nevada. It would have been expected to see some kind of transparent surface associated with the IRST, however the surfaces on the nose of the pod appeared to be opaque. We still cannot exclude that there are two different variants of the pod, depending on the equipment inside.

The last upgrade featured in the artwork is a new unknown air-to-air missile. While there are a number of air-to-air missile programs in the works, it is possible that the one in the image could be a representative design, which may or may not correspond to the real deal, for the highly secretive AIM-260 missile. So far, the missile has never been depicted in any kind of image and details about the program are very scarce.

The development of the AIM-260, also called Joint Advanced Tactical Missile, was first unveiled in 2019 and has been in the works at least since 2017. The goal of the new long-range air-to-air missile is to replace the AIM-120 AMRAAM (Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile) and counter the threat posed by the Chinese PL-15 missile, while avoiding any foreign threats being able to outrange the AIM-120.

Among the few known technical details, the new missile will be compatible with the AMRAAM dimensions, but obviously with greater range, and is planned to be carried in the F-22 weapons bay and on the F/A-18 at first, with the F-35 to follow. Flight tests are already in progress and the missile is expected to be fielded by next year. Because of these reasons, it would be reasonable to suppose that the one shown in the image could be at least a hint at the AIM-260.

Other upgrades mentioned in the budget request are a Mode 5 Identification Friend or Foe (IFF), Link 16 and Multifunction Information Distribution System Joint Tactical Radio System (MIDS JTRS), a new Operational Fight Program, advanced radar Electronic Protection, Embedded GPS/Inertial Navigation System (INS) Modernization (EGI-M), Open System Architecture (OSA), new encrypted radios.

File photo of the U.S. Air Force’s 5th gen aircraft, the F-22 and the F-35. (Photo: U.S. Air Force)

A new helmet is also being tested by F-22 pilots, as part of the Next Generation Fixed Wing Helmet program to replace the current HGU-55P helmet, which has been the standard issued helmet for the last 40 years. The goal is to provide pilots a more comfortable, stable, and balanced platform to accommodate helmet-mounted devices usage without imposing neck strain and discomfort to the user.

Despite various integration efforts in the past, the F-22 is not equipped yet with a helmet that provides the essential flight and weapon aiming information through line of sight imagery: the shape of the Raptor’s canopy, optimized to preserve Low Observability, doesn’t allow enough range of motion and minimum visibility to a pilot wearing the JHMCS or the Scorpion.

About Stefano D'Urso

Stefano D'Urso is a freelance journalist and contributor to TheAviationist based in Lecce, Italy. A graduate in Industral Engineering he's also studying to achieve a Master Degree in Aerospace Engineering. Electronic Warfare, Loitering Munitions and OSINT techniques applied to the world of military operations and current conflicts are among his areas of expertise.

@The Aviationist.com

[topazs-stuff]

living planets < I >

"Don’t worry, dear... yeah, yeah, I ate—promise. Really, don’t worry about me. I’ve got it covered. Yes, I’ll take my medication, and I’ll take care of myself. It’s just... I need to compile these findings—try to make sense of it all, maybe form a theory, a hypothesis. I’ll send it to you once it’s ready so you can read it, okay? Yeah... yeah, I promise. Alright. Take care, love. Bye."

As he hangs up the call, he lets out a weary sigh, his hand instinctively brushing across the cluttered desk. Data sheets, charts, and geological samples—spanning from 6000 BCE to the present day—are scattered in a chaotic mess. He picks up a report, scanning it with furrowed brows, then tosses it aside with a frustrated grunt. “This shit doesn’t make any sense... How can a volcano erupt with no buildup? No seismic activity, no pressure changes—nothing.” He mutters to himself, flipping through more pages. “And four times? Four times, across millennia? If it were just one, I could’ve ignored it. Coincidence. Statistical anomaly.”

His hands shake slightly as he fishes a pill bottle from the edge of the desk, popping the cap open with practiced ease. “This is truly a headache,” he sighs, swallowing the pill dry. His eyes drift back to the data, unwilling to let it go. Something about it gnaws at the edges of his mind, refusing to let him rest. Massaging his temples, he slumps into the creaking chair, his mind a whirlwind of unanswered questions. With trembling fingers, he boots up the simulation software. "One more," he mutters under his breath. "Just one more. I just need at least one case where everything goes... normally. If there’s a god—oh mighty—make sense of this data." His voice cracks slightly, betraying the mounting unease.

He hits the start button and leans in, his gaze fixed intently on the screen as the simulation begins to run. His other hand fidgets with a pen, spinning it between his fingers with increasing agitation. Every flick of his wrist, every tap of the keyboard, carries the weight of his desperation. His lips move silently as numbers and graphs play out before him. "Please," he whispers, barely audible. "Please no... not again." His eyes dart across the results, scanning for anomalies, for patterns, for anything. The pen slips from his fingers, clattering onto the desk. He freezes. The simulation’s outcome becomes unmistakable. The same eerie conclusion as before.

"It fucking happened again," he hisses, his voice sharp and trembling. His fists clench, gripping the edge of the desk as if trying to steady himself. "I can’t even blame my software. I’ve run this on two other systems—double-checked every variable." He exhales sharply, his breaths shallow and rapid. "It has to be the data. The data must be wrong."

He grabs his phone with shaky hands, dialing a number with practiced urgency. As soon as the line connects, he doesn’t wait for pleasantries. “The geological record we’ve been using is wrong. There’s no doubt about it,” he snaps.

A muffled voice on the other end responds, but whatever they’re saying only fuels his irritation. “What do you mean I’m crazy?” he cuts in, his tone sharp and incredulous. “Oh, so you’re telling me the data—showing that a volcano exploded and wiped out an entire region—when that volcano had no geological possibility of erupting for another thousand years, is accurate? Do you even hear yourself right now?”

The voice tries to counter, but he’s too far gone. Sarcasm drips from his words. “Oh, of course, I’m the fucking idiot here. Yeah. Sure. Great talk.” Without another word, he hangs up, slamming the phone onto the desk. “Fucking hell,” Alex mutters, running a hand through his already disheveled hair. “Everyone thinks I’m crazy. And this data—this damn data—is driving me insane. Why me?” He groans, slumping back in his chair.

With a frustrated sigh, he picks up the phone he’d thrown moments ago, brushing off the dust as if that would also wipe away his exasperation. His eyes dart to a business card lying amidst the chaos of his desk. "Why don’t I call him?" he mumbles to himself. "He might have an idea—or at least know something."

He grabs the card, carefully dialing the number etched into its surface. The phone rings twice before a calm, unfamiliar voice answers.

“Uh, hello? Mister Ishu? This is Alex—Alex Martin. We met during the G20 Summit back in 2034? You gave me your card.” His voice wavers slightly, unsure if the man even remembers him. “I know, I know—it’s been three years. But, um... I’ve been studying Earth’s geological data, and, uh, the explosion of Mount Vesuvius? It’s—it’s very peculiar, to say the least.”

The voice on the other end pauses, then responds. Alex’s eyes widen slightly at the words. “Wait—you’re also looking into it?” His breath catches. “So, it’s not just me. You find it weird too. That’s... that’s a relief, I guess.”

He leans forward, pen tapping anxiously against his desk. “Do you have any idea what might’ve caused it?” A longer pause. When the reply comes, Alex stiffens, repeating the words aloud as if they’re incomprehensible. “You... you’ve started to consider Earth as a living thing?”

He lets out a nervous laugh, though there’s no humor in it. “I mean—it’s a planet. A rock. How could it possibly be alive? I didn’t study much biology, but a creature like this shouldn’t even be... possible. Should it?”

The voice on the other end says something else—calm, measured, almost cryptic. Alex nods absently, even though they can’t see him. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll, uh—I’ll call you later. Thank you, Mister Ishu, for your time.”

He ends the call and stares at the phone in his hand, his mind racing. The idea lingers, impossible yet... it was explaining everything.

[amol-98]

The Road Ahead – Navigating the Future of the Automotive Industry

🌍 Market Overview

The Global automotive industry Market Size is evolving rapidly, driven by technological advancements, sustainability initiatives, and changing consumer preferences. Automakers are embracing electric vehicles (EVs), autonomous technology, and digital transformation to stay ahead.

Download a Free Sample : https://rb.gy/iwh4in

📈 Growth Drivers

✅ Electrification – Rise in EV adoption due to sustainability goals and government incentives. ✅ Autonomous Vehicles – Investments in self-driving technology from major players like Tesla, Waymo, and GM. ✅ Connectivity & IoT – Smart features, in-car AI, and enhanced safety tech. ✅ Urbanization & Mobility Services – Growth of ride-sharing and subscription-based vehicle models.

⚠️ Key Challenges & Factors

🚧 Chip Shortages – Semiconductor supply chain disruptions affecting production. 🚧 Regulatory Hurdles – Stricter emissions policies worldwide. 🚧 Consumer Preferences – Shift towards SUVs and electric mobility. 🚧 Raw Material Costs – Fluctuations in lithium, nickel, and other EV battery components.

🔥 Emerging Trends

🔹 EV Market Boom – Tesla, Rivian, and legacy automakers expanding electric fleets. 🔹 Hydrogen Fuel Cell Tech – Toyota & Hyundai leading innovations. 🔹 Sustainable Manufacturing – Recycling initiatives & carbon-neutral plants. 🔹 Software-Defined Vehicles – Over-the-air (OTA) updates & AI-driven enhancements.

Related Urls :

https://www.sphericalinsights.com/reports/automotive-blockchain-market https://www.sphericalinsights.com/reports/china-halal-logistics-market

[probablyasocialecologist]

Ex-Meta employee Madelyn Machado recently posted a TikTok video claiming that she was getting paid $190,000 a year to do nothing. Another Meta employee, also on TikTok, posted that “Meta was hiring people so that other companies couldn’t have us, and then they were just kind of like hoarding us like Pokémon cards.” Over at Google, a company known to have pioneered the modern tech workplace, one designer complained of spending 40 percent of their time on “the inefficien[cy] overhead of simply working at Google.” Some report spending all day on tasks as simple as changing the color of a website button. Working the bare minimum while waiting for stock to vest is so common that Googlers call it “resting and vesting.” ​ In an anonymous online poll on how many “focused hours of work” software engineers put in each day, 71 percent of the over four thousand respondents claimed to work six hours a day or less, while 12 percent said they did between one and two hours a day. During the acute phase of the Covid-19 pandemic, it became common for tech workers to capitalize on all this free time by juggling multiple full-time remote jobs. According to the Wall Street Journal, many workers who balance two jobs do not even hit a regular forty-hour workload for both jobs combined. One software engineer reported logging between three and ten hours of actual work per week when working one job, with the rest of his time spent on pointless meetings and pretending to be busy. My own experience supports this trend: toward the end of my five-year tenure as a software engineer for Microsoft, I was working fewer than three hours a day. And of what little code I produced for them, none of it made any real impact on Microsoft’s bottom line—or the world at large. For much of this century, optimism that technology would make the world a better place fueled the perception that Silicon Valley was the moral alternative to an extractive Wall Street—that it was possible to make money, not at the expense of society but in service of it. In other words, many who joined the industry did so precisely because they thought that their work would be useful. Yet what we’re now seeing is a lot of bullshit. If capitalism is supposed to be efficient and, guided by the invisible hand of the market, eliminate inefficiencies, how is it that the tech industry, the purported cradle of innovation, has become a redoubt of waste and unproductivity?

[shantitechnology]

Boosting Efficiency:  The Role of ERP Software in Modern Manufacturing Operations

In today's fast-paced manufacturing landscape, efficiency is not just a desirable trait; it's a necessity.  To stay competitive and meet the demands of the market, manufacturers must streamline their processes, optimize resource utilization, and enhance decision-making capabilities.  This is where Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software steps in as a game-changer.  In this article, we'll delve into the pivotal role of ERP systems in revolutionizing manufacturing operations, particularly in India's thriving industrial sector.

Understanding ERP for Manufacturing Industry

ERP systems for manufacturing are comprehensive software solutions designed to integrate and automate core business processes such as production planning, inventory management, supply chain logistics, financial management, and human resources.  By consolidating data and operations into a unified platform, ERP empowers manufacturers with real-time insights, facilitates collaboration across departments, and enables informed decision-making.

Streamlining Operations with ERP Solutions

In the dynamic environment of manufacturing, where every minute counts, efficiency gains translate directly into cost savings and competitive advantages.  ERP software for manufacturing offers a multitude of features that streamline operations and drive efficiency:

1.   Enhanced Production Planning:  ERP systems enable manufacturers to create accurate production schedules based on demand forecasts, resource availability, and production capacity.  By optimizing production timelines and minimizing idle time, manufacturers can fulfill orders promptly and reduce lead times.

2.   Inventory Management:  Efficient inventory management is crucial for balancing supply and demand while minimizing holding costs.  ERP software provides real-time visibility into inventory levels, automates reorder points, and facilitates inventory optimization to prevent stockouts and overstock situations.

3.   Supply Chain Optimization:  ERP solutions for manufacturing integrate supply chain processes from procurement to distribution, enabling seamless coordination with suppliers and distributors.  By optimizing procurement cycles, minimizing transportation costs, and reducing lead times, manufacturers can enhance supply chain resilience and responsiveness.

4.   Quality Control:  Maintaining product quality is paramount in manufacturing to uphold brand reputation and customer satisfaction.  ERP systems offer quality management modules that streamline inspection processes, track product defects, and facilitate corrective actions to ensure adherence to quality standards.

5.   Financial Management:  Effective financial management is essential for sustaining manufacturing operations and driving profitability.  ERP software provides robust accounting modules that automate financial transactions, streamline budgeting and forecasting, and generate comprehensive financial reports for informed decision-making.

6.   Human Resource Management:  People are the cornerstone of manufacturing operations, and managing workforce efficiently is critical for productivity and employee satisfaction.  ERP systems for manufacturing include HR modules that automate payroll processing, manage employee records, and facilitate workforce planning to align staffing levels with production demands.

The Advantages of ERP for Manufacturing Companies in India

India's manufacturing sector is undergoing rapid transformation, fueled by factors such as government initiatives like "Make in India," technological advancements, and globalization.  In this dynamic landscape, ERP software plays a pivotal role in empowering manufacturing companies to thrive and remain competitive:

1.   Scalability:  ERP solutions for manufacturing are scalable, making them suitable for companies of all sizes – from small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to large conglomerates.  Whether a company is expanding its operations or diversifying its product portfolio, ERP systems can adapt to evolving business needs and support growth.

2.   Compliance:  Regulatory compliance is a significant concern for manufacturing companies in India, given the complex regulatory environment.  ERP software incorporates compliance features that ensure adherence to industry regulations, tax laws, and reporting requirements, minimizing the risk of non-compliance penalties.

3.   Localization:  ERP vendors catering to the Indian manufacturing sector offer localized solutions tailored to the unique requirements of the Indian market.  From multi-currency support to GST compliance features, these ERP systems are equipped with functionalities that address the specific challenges faced by Indian manufacturers.

4.   Cost Efficiency:  Implementing ERP software for manufacturing entails upfront investment, but the long-term benefits far outweigh the costs.  By streamlining processes, optimizing resource utilization, and reducing operational inefficiencies, ERP systems drive cost savings and improve overall profitability.

5.   Competitive Edge:  In a fiercely competitive market, manufacturing companies in India must differentiate themselves through operational excellence and agility.  ERP software equips companies with the tools and insights needed to outperform competitors, adapt to market dynamics, and capitalize on emerging opportunities.

Choosing the Right ERP Software for Manufacturing

Selecting the right ERP solution is crucial for maximizing the benefits and ensuring a smooth implementation process.  When evaluating ERP software for manufacturing, companies should consider the following factors:

1.   Industry-specific functionality:  Choose an ERP system that offers industry-specific features and functionalities tailored to the unique requirements of manufacturing operations.

2.   Scalability and flexibility:  Ensure that the ERP software can scale with your business and accommodate future growth and expansion.

3.   Ease of integration:  Look for ERP systems that seamlessly integrate with existing software applications, such as CRM systems, MES solutions, and IoT devices, to create a cohesive technology ecosystem.

4.   User-friendliness:  A user-friendly interface and intuitive navigation are essential for ensuring widespread adoption and maximizing user productivity.

5.   Vendor support and expertise:  Select a reputable ERP vendor with a proven track record of success in the manufacturing industry and robust customer support services.

Conclusion

In conclusion, ERP software has emerged as a cornerstone of modern manufacturing operations, empowering companies to enhance efficiency, drive growth, and maintain a competitive edge in the global market.  For manufacturing companies in India, where agility, scalability, and compliance are paramount, implementing the right ERP solution can be a transformative investment that paves the way for sustainable success.  By harnessing the power of ERP, manufacturers can optimize processes, streamline operations, and unlock new opportunities for innovation and growth in the dynamic landscape of the manufacturing industry.

[mariacallous]

Congress is moving closer to putting US election technology under a stricter cybersecurity microscope.

Embedded inside this year’s Intelligence Authorization Act, which funds intelligence agencies like the CIA, is the Strengthening Election Cybersecurity to Uphold Respect for Elections through Independent Testing (SECURE IT) Act, which would require penetration testing of federally certified voting machines and ballot scanners, and create a pilot program exploring the feasibility of letting independent researchers probe all manner of election systems for flaws.

The SECURE IT Act—originally introduced by US senators Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, and Susan Collins, a Maine Republican—could significantly improve the security of key election technology in an era when foreign adversaries remain intent on undermining US democracy.

“This legislation will empower our researchers to think the way our adversaries do, and expose hidden vulnerabilities by attempting to penetrate our systems with the same tools and methods used by bad actors,” says Warner, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The new push for these programs highlights the fact that even as election security concerns have shifted to more visceral dangers such as death threats against county clerks, polling-place violence, and AI-fueled disinformation, lawmakers remain worried about the possibility of hackers infiltrating voting systems, which are considered critical infrastructure but are lightly regulated compared to other vital industries.

Russia’s interference in the 2016 election shined a spotlight on threats to voting machines, and despite major improvements, even modern machines can be flawed. Experts have consistently pushed for tighter federal standards and more independent security audits. The new bill attempts to address those concerns in two ways.

The first provision would codify the US Election Assistance Commission’s recent addition of penetration testing to its certification process. (The EAC recently overhauled its certification standards, which cover voting machines and ballot scanners and which many states require their vendors to meet.)

While previous testing simply verified whether machines contained particular defensive measures—such as antivirus software and data encryption—penetration testing will simulate real-world attacks meant to find and exploit the machines’ weaknesses, potentially yielding new information about serious software flaws.

“People have been calling for mandatory [penetration] testing for years for election equipment,” says Edgardo Cortés, a former Virginia elections commissioner and an adviser to the election security team at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice.

The bill’s second provision would require the EAC to experiment with a vulnerability disclosure program for election technology—including systems that are not subject to federal testing, such as voter registration databases and election results websites.

Vulnerability disclosure programs are essentially treasure hunts for civic-minded cyber experts. Vetted participants, operating under clear rules about which of the organizer’s computer systems are fair game, attempt to hack those systems by finding flaws in how they are designed or configured. They then report any flaws they discover to the organizer, sometimes for a reward.

By allowing a diverse group of experts to hunt for bugs in a wide range of election systems, the Warner–Collins bill could dramatically expand scrutiny of the machinery of US democracy.

The pilot program would be a high-profile test of the relationship between election vendors and researchers, who have spent decades clashing over how to examine and disclose flaws in voting systems. The bill attempts to assuage vendors’ concerns by requiring the EAC to vet prospective testers and by prohibiting testers from publicly disclosing any vulnerabilities they find for 180 days. (They would also have to immediately report vulnerabilities to the EAC and the Department of Homeland Security.)

Still, one provision could spark concern. The bill would require manufacturers to patch or otherwise mitigate serious reported vulnerabilities within 180 days of confirming them. The EAC—which must review all changes to certified voting software—would have 90 days to approve fixes; any fix not approved within that timetable would be “deemed to be certified,” though the commission could review it later.

A vendor might not be able to fix a problem, get that fix approved, and get all of its customers to deploy that fix before the nondisclosure period expires.

“Updates to equipment in the field can take many weeks, and modifying equipment close to an election date is a risky operation,” says Ben Adida, the executive director of the vendor VotingWorks.

Some vendors might also chafe at the bill’s legal protections for researchers. The legislation includes a “safe harbor” clause that exempts testing activities from the prohibitions of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and bars vendors from suing researchers under those laws for accidental violations of the program’s terms.

There is also a funding question. The SECURE IT Act doesn’t authorize any new money for the EAC to run these programs.

“I hope Congress accounts for the necessary funding needed to support the increased responsibilities the EAC will take on,” says EAC chair Ben Hovland. “Investments in programs like this are critical to maintaining and strengthening the security of our elections.”

Meanwhile, the bill’s prospects are unclear. Even if it passes the Senate, there is no sign of similar momentum in the House.