• Pourquoi C# reste aussi décrié par les libristes, et pourquoi ils ont raison ?

    – Le langage C# est normalisé ECMA, mais n’est que open-source
    – .NET Core est libre (licence MIT), mais reste sous l’EULA Microsoft... je ne sais pas comment ca se résoudrait devant un juge.
    – Le compilateur est libre (Roslyn, licence MIT).
    – Xamarin, le cross platform implementation, est privateur
    – je ne parle pas du compilateur indépendant MONO

    Donc on peut vite penser que C# et .NET sont libres, mais en vrai, ils s’adossent à des outils qui ne le sont pas. On peut tomber dans des superpositions de licences qui ne sont pas libres, juste open-sources.

    Et n’oublions pas : L’open-source, c’est la laisse que le maitre a faite tomber au sol, mais qu’il peut reprendre à tout moment.

    #microsoft #.net #csharp #dotnet #opensource

  • Les bernard-l’ermite déménagent dans des déchets plastiques… et intriguent les scientifiques
    https://theconversation.com/les-bernard-lermite-demenagent-dans-des-dechets-plastiques-et-intri

    Un autre facteur qui limite le choix de la coquille est la disponibilité de coquilles appropriées. Or, pour une raison encore inconnue, une partie des bernard-l’ermite terrestres choisissent d’occuper des objets en plastique plutôt que des coquilles naturelles, comme le montre cette dernière étude.

  • Microsoft: four Xbox-exclusive games are coming to PS5 and Nintendo Switch - The Verge
    https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/15/24073691/microsoft-xbox-games-ps5-nintendo-switch-exclusivity

    It’s official: Microsoft is bringing some Xbox-exclusive games to PS5 and Nintendo Switch. It’s part of a broader strategy shift inside Microsoft’s gaming business to grow games beyond just the company’s Xbox consoles.

    #jeux_vidéo #jeu_vidéo #business #microsoft #console_xbox #console_playstation #console_switch #exclusivité

  • Microsoft prepares to take Xbox everywhere - The Verge
    https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/12/24067370/microsoft-xbox-playstation-switch-games-future-hardware

    Microsoft’s Xbox business needs to get bigger. The company’s Xbox Series S and X sales still lag behind Sony’s PlayStation 5, and Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has previously admitted its Xbox Game Pass subscriptions were slowing down, too. He admitted that in 2022, a dry year for Xbox games after Microsoft’s big exclusive Bethesda game Starfield was delayed.

    An Xbox Game Pass slowdown might be why I’m hearing that a number of Xbox exclusives are coming to consoles with which Microsoft usually competes. Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tell The Verge that the company is getting ready to launch a select number of Xbox games on PS5 and Nintendo Switch. Weeks of rumors suggest that Hi-Fi Rush, Sea of Thieves, and even Bethesda titles like Starfield and Indiana Jones could appear on non-Xbox platforms.

    #jeux_vidéo #jeu_vidéo #business #microsoft #console_xbox #console_playstation #console_switch #analyse #rumeur

  • Microsoft’s recent layoffs contradict what the company promised of its merger, the FTC says. - The Verge
    https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/7/24065150/microsofts-recent-layoffs-contradict-what-the-company-promised-of-its-merg

    Microsoft’s recent layoffs contradict what the company promised of its merger, the FTC says.

    Pour le détail des observations de la FTC, voir les captures jointes à ce Tweet :
    https://twitter.com/tomwarren/status/1755309305866154194

    Réponse de Microsoft :
    Microsoft says Activision was already planning ‘significant’ layoffs. - The Verge
    https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/8/24066089/microsoft-says-activision-was-already-planning-significant-layoffs

    Microsoft says Activision was already planning ‘significant’ layoffs.

    Plus détaillée dans ce Tweet :
    https://twitter.com/tomwarren/status/1755626533048209882

    #jeux_vidéo #jeu_vidéo #microsoft #acivision_blizzard #ftc #business #rachat #acquisition #finance #ressources_humaines #licenciements

  • #Microsoft Relents: #VS_Code will Work with #ubuntu_18.04 Until 2025
    https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/02/vscode-recovery-update-for-ubuntu-18-04

    Microsoft has announced a temporary reprieve for developers who use VS Code to connect to servers, clouds, container, and other devices running on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. As I covered last week, Microsoft pushed out an update to VS Code that bumps its glibc requirement, dropping support for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (which uses an older version of glibc) in the process. Innocuous though it sounds, that move had a huge impact, leaving thousands of developers who use VS Code unable to connect to/work with devices running Ubuntu 18.04 LTS or other Linux distros using <glibc 2.27, including RHEL 7, CentOS 7, […] You’re reading Microsoft Relents: VS Code will Work with Ubuntu 18.04 Until 2025, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without (...)

    #News

  • #vscode Drops Ubuntu 18.04 Support, Devs Feel “Screwed”
    https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/02/vscode-drops-ubuntu-18-04-support-leaves-devs-screwed

    Microsoft Visual Studio Code (VS Code) has dropped support for #ubuntu_18.04_LTS — a move causing issues for scores of developers. VS Code 1.86 (aka the ‘January 2024’ update) saw #Microsoft bump the minimum build requirements for the text editor’s popular remote dev tools to ≥glibc 2.28 — but Ubuntu 18.04 LTS uses glibc 2.27, ergo they no longer work. While Ubuntu 18.04 is supported by Canonical until 2028 (through ESM) a major glibc upgrade is unlikely. Thus, this “breaking change” is truly breaking workflows: “Yeah this has completely screwed me. I have a number of older servers and […] You’re reading VSCode Drops Ubuntu 18.04 Support, Devs Feel “Screwed”, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without (...)

    #News

  • Deutsche Bahn sucht Admin für Windows 3.11 for Workgroups
    https://www.heise.de/news/Deutsche-Bahn-sucht-Admin-fuer-Windows-3-11-for-Workgroups-9611543.html

    Depuis les années 1990 il faut renouveler tous les deux ans ses compétences en matière de systèmes informatiques si on veut trouver des jobs. Les services de la Deutsche Bahn sont moins exigeants. On y trouve toujours des postes avec ses connaissances d’il y a 30 ans.

    29.1.2024 von Dirk Knop - Eine Stellenanzeige der Deutschen Bahn wirkt auf den ersten Blick wie ein irrlaufender Wiedergänger aus der Vergangenheit. Darin suchte das Unternehmen nach Administratoren für Windows 3.11. Das Betriebssystem Windows 3.11 wird in wenigen Tagen 30 Jahre alt, es erschien im Februar 1994. Windows for Workgroups 3.11 erschien ein Quartal früher und tauchte in der Stellenanzeige ebenfalls auf. „Tauchte“, weil etwa gegen 11:30 Uhr am heutigen Montag die Stellenanzeige aus nicht näher erläuterten Gründen vom Netz genommen wurde, auch in anderen Job-Portalen, wo sie geschaltet war. Eine Anfrage von heise online zu den Details der Stellenanzeige bei Gulp blieb bisher unbeantwortet.


    Stellenanzeige für Windows-3.11-Admin

    Die Bahn sucht nach Administratoren für Windows 3.11. (Bild: Screenshot / dmk / gulp.de)

    Windows 3.11 for Workgroups ergibt deshalb Sinn, da die Stelle als „Remote“ ausgeschrieben war. Daher sollte ein TCP-IP-Stack für Fernwartung vorhanden sein. Das Aufgabenspektrum, das die Bahn sich vorstellte, umfasste die Aktualisierung von Treibern sowie die Pflege des Altsystems. Bewerber sollen Kenntnisse in Windows 3.11 haben, präziser in den „Legacy-Betriebssystemen und Windows-Managern (insbesondere MS DOS und Windows for Workgroups)“.
    Bahn: unglückliche Stellenbeschreibung

    Die Stellenbeschreibung war etwas unglücklich formuliert. Möglicherweise kam eine KI zur Ausformulierung zum Einsatz, was ebenfalls auf die Aktualität der Meldung deutet. Das könnte auch der Grund für den Rückzug der Ausschreibung sein.

    „Das Ergebnis Ihrer Arbeit ist eine hochwertige Display-Software, deren Schnittstellen zur Fahrzeugsteuerung bzw. Fahrzeugleittechnik reibungslos funktionieren“, forderte die Bahn. Das Anzeigesystem in den Führerständen von Hochgeschwindigkeits- und Regionalzügen zeige dem Fahrer die wichtigsten technischen Daten in Echtzeit an, erklärte das Unternehmen weiter. Das gewünschte Ergebnis lässt sich bei genauer Betrachtung eigentlich nur sicherstellen, wenn man gegebenenfalls selbst Hand an den Programmcode anlegt.

    Allerdings sagte die Aufgabenbeschreibung lediglich, dass die Administratoren „Treiber aktualisieren“ sollen. Auch das könnte schwer sein: Anbieter „normaler“ Produkte bieten keine Treiber für ein derart altes System mehr an. Selbst programmieren wäre auch da eine Lösung. Womöglich hat die Bahn aber entsprechende Wartungsverträge mit Hardware-Anbietern von damals, die die Software-Pflege auf viele Jahrzehnte sichern. Explizit erläuterte die Stellenanzeige das jedoch nicht. Es war auch nicht ersichtlich, welche Pflege die Altsysteme benötigen würden. Beim Auswerten von Daten könnten temporäre Dateien anfallen, sodass Systemreinigungen und Defragmentierungen alter Festplatten noch sinnvoll sein könnten. Auch hier blieb die Stellenbeschreibung oberflächlich.

    Gerne sollten Bewerber jedoch bereits Kenntnisse von Systemen der Deutschen Bahn wie Sibas (Siemens Bahn Automatisierungs System) haben, auch seien „Kenntnisse mit bildgebenden Systemen oder im Bahnbereich von Vorteil“.

    Systeme sind bei der Bahn oft viele Jahrzehnte im Einsatz, was mit modernen und gewohnten Produkt-Lebenszyklen nicht viel gemein hat. Neue Entwicklungen für die Bahn haben auch langen Vorlauf. Erst 2015 wurde die ICE-Flotte etwa mit einer Sitzplatzreservierung ausgestattet, die per DFÜ die Informationen ausliefert. Bis dahin war es üblich, die Daten auf Disketten zu liefern.

    Wer Windows 3.11 for Workgroups noch einmal anfassen möchte, muss dafür keine alte Hardware entstauben oder erst Installationsmedien suchen. Das Internet Archiv stellt eine im Browser lauffähige Version für die Zeitreise zurück nach 1993 bereit.

    #Allemagne #chemins_de_fer #Deutsche_Bahn #Microsoft #Windows #travail #wtf

  • #Macron, #Attal, et #Darmanin font dans leur culotte, et "ils assument" #mdr #guignolos #bouses #tartuffes #petites_bites #politique #France #agriculture #Europe #monde #miniature #microcosmos #minimundus #seenthis #vangauguin

    https://www.politis.fr/articles/2024/01/colere-des-agriculteurs-le-deux-poids-deux-mesures-assume-du-gouvernement

    "Colère des agriculteurs : le « deux poids deux mesures » assumé du gouvernement

    Le gouvernement, Gérald Darmanin en tête, se montre indulgent envers les agriculteurs en colère. Cette approche met en lumière une réelle partialité, suscitant des questions sur l’équité dans le traitement des différentes expressions de mécontentement social. (...)"

  • The Damage - Aftermath
    https://aftermath.site/microsoft-activision-blizzard-layoffs-survival-report

    As of now, news reports and comments from laid-off employees suggest that many parts of the company were hard hit: Activision Blizzard’s six-years-in-the-making survival game was canceled, and much of its team, including its director, was laid off. The Overwatch 2 team lost dozens of employees, including its lead narrative designer, in a round of cuts that did not seem to factor in seniority or talent. Activision subsidiaries like Sledgehammer, High Moon, and Toys for Bob – which have all contributed to Call of Duty in recent years – reportedly lost significant percentages of their workforces. Current and former Activision Blizzard employees tell Aftermath that community and customer service departments across the company wound up in especially bad shape, with “almost all” Game Masters – employees who oversee and moderate World of Warcraft servers – being let go.

    #jeux_vidéo #jeu_vidéo #business #activision_blizzard #abk #microsoft #cwa #ressources_humaines #licenciements

  • Microsoft Cancels Big New Blizzard Game After Six Years of Development - Bloomberg
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-25/microsoft-cancels-big-new-blizzard-game-after-six-years-of-development

    Video-game maker Blizzard Entertainment canceled one of its biggest projects on Thursday as part of a reorganization under new owner Microsoft Corp. that led to mass layoffs of 1,900 people, or 8% of the gaming division’s total staff. The cancelation of the game, codenamed Odyssey, left Blizzard employees reeling as some lost their jobs and others were left wondering about the future of the studio.

    #jeux_vidéo #jeu_vidéo #business #activision_blizzard #microsoft #acquisition #rachat #ressources_humaines #licenciements #annulation #jeu_vidéo_odyssey #moteur_de_jeu #unreal_engine

  • Microsoft lays off 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox employees - The Verge
    https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/25/24049050/microsoft-activision-blizzard-layoffs

    Microsoft is laying off 1,900 employees at Activision Blizzard and Xbox this week. While Microsoft is primarily laying off roles at Activision Blizzard, some Xbox and ZeniMax employees will also be impacted by the cuts.

    24 Days Into 2024 And 3,900+ Video Game Layoffs Have Been Announced
    https://kotaku.com/game-industry-layoffs-how-many-2024-unity-twitch-1851155818

    Within the last few years, video game industry layoffs have unfortunately become more commonplace. In 2023, we saw near-weekly layoffs across the entire industry. When the dust had settled, at least 6,000 jobs across publishers, developers, and other video game-related companies had been terminated. Sadly, it appears 2024 will outpace that, if the first few weeks of the year are any indication.

    Most folks didn’t expect 2024 to be much better, but I’m not sure anyone was ready for it to be possibly worse—yet this year has kicked off with a string of big and small layoffs signaling that the corporate bloodletting rituals aren’t ending anytime soon. So Kotaku is going to try and track all of 2024’s layoffs as they happen. Hopefully, we don’t have to update this post that much.

    #jeux_vidéo #jeu_vidéo #business #microsoft #activision_blizzard #zenimax #king #xbox #acquisition #rachat #ressources_humaines #licenciements

  • Le directeur d’#OpenAI : ‘Une percée énergétique s’avère nécessaire pour l’avenir de l’intelligence artificielle’ - Data News
    https://datanews.levif.be/actualite/innovation/le-directeur-dopenai-une-percee-energetique-savere-necessaire-pour-la

    ‘Il n’y a aucun moyen d’y parvenir sans une avancée décisive’, a-t-il déclaré à propos de l’avenir de l’IA. ‘Cela nous motive à investir davantage dans la #fusion nucléaire.’ En 2021 déjà, Altman avait personnellement procuré 375 millions de dollars à la société américaine de #fusion_nucléaire #Helion Energy. Cette dernière avait ensuite signé un accord pour fournir de l’énergie à #Microsoft, le principal bailleur de fonds d’OpenAI.

    Je partageais hier l’info, déjà. Là, on constate que le monsieur participe aussi à une startup de la fusion nucléaire.

    https://seenthis.net/messages/1037047

    La fusion, c’est pour au bas mot dans 15 ans, ce qui finalement, est presque proche... mais d’ici là... pour alimenter nos super-intelligences qui vont nous rendre la vie plus facile, et nous permettre à tous de profiter de la vie (au chômage https://seenthis.net/messages/1037216), pour les alimenter, donc, il va falloir de l’énergie... et cette énergie, c’est dans la fission qu’on va la trouver, pendant encore au moins 15 ans.

    La SF qui imagine que les derniers électrons produits par l’humanité le seront pour faire fonctionner la dernière IA avant extinction finale, elle n’est pas à côté de la plaque ?

  • Autour des microplastiques et du sens des priorités de celleux qui nous gouvernent...

    35 % des #microplastiques primaires proviennent du lavage des #vêtements_synthétiques
    28 % des #microplastiques_primaires proviennent du frottement des #pneus lors de la conduite

    Mais on va interdire les paillettes (https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2024/01/07/pourquoi-les-paillettes-sont-en-voie-d-etre-interdites-dans-l-union-europeen). Le sens des priorités...
    https://eldritch.cafe/@ralocycleuse/111713256302292054

    Pourquoi les #paillettes sont en voie d’être interdites dans l’Union européenne

    https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2024/01/07/pourquoi-les-paillettes-sont-en-voie-d-etre-interdites-dans-l-union-europeen

    #transports #industrie_textile #interdiction

    • Microplastiques : sources, impact et solutions

      D’où viennent les microplastiques et quel impact ont-ils ? Apprenez-en plus sur les microplastiques et découvrez les solutions sur lesquelles travaille le Parlement européen.

      Que sont les microplastiques et d’où viennent-ils ?

      Les microplastiques sont de minuscules morceaux de #plastique qui mesurent généralement moins de 5 millimètres. Ils peuvent être divisés en deux catégories en fonction de la source dont ils proviennent.

      Les microplastiques primaires

      - Ils sont directement rejetés dans l’environnement sous forme de petites particules
      - On estime qu’ils représentent entre 15 et 31 % des microplastiques présents dans les océans
      - 35 % des microplastiques primaires proviennent du lavage des #vêtements_synthétiques
      – 28 % des microplastiques primaires proviennent du frottement des pneus lors de la conduite
      – 2 % proviennent des #produits_de_soin dans lesquels ils sont ajoutés volontairement (par exemple dans les #gommages)

      Les #microplastiques_secondaires

      – Proviennent de la #dégradation_d’objets en plastique plus grands tels que les #sacs_en_plastique, les #bouteilles, les filets de pêche
      – Représentent entre 69 et 81 % des microplastiques retrouvés dans les océans

      Microplastiques : quel impact ont-ils ?

      On retrouve de plus en plus de microplastiques dans les océans. Les Nations Unies ont déclaré en 2017 que l’océan contenait 51 trillons de particules, 500 fois plus que le nombre d’étoiles dans la galaxie.

      Les microplastiques présents dans l’océan peuvent être ingérés par les espèces marines et donc, se retrouver dans la chaîne alimentaire. Des microplastiques ont en effet été retrouvés dans des produits alimentaires comme la bière, le miel ou encore l’eau du robinet.

      Leur impact sur la santé humaine n’est pas encore connu mais les plastiques contiennent souvent des additifs tels que des stabilisants ou des agents ignifuges qui peuvent être nuisibles pour les humains ou pour les animaux qui les ingèrent.

      Sur quelles solutions l’Union européenne travaille-t-elle ?

      En septembre, les députés européens ont approuvé la stratégie plastiques qui a pour objectif d’augmenter le taux de recyclage des déchets plastiques dans l’UE. De plus, les députés ont appelé la Commission à introduire une interdiction à l’échelle européenne de tous les microplastiques ajoutés volontairement dans les produits cosmétiques et dans les détergents d’ici 2020 et à prendre des mesures pour minimiser les rejets de microplastiques provenant des textiles, des pneus, des peintures et des filtres à cigarette.

      En octobre, le Parlement a introduit une interdiction des plastiques à usage unique les plus retrouvés dans les océans et pour lesquels des alternatives plus écologiques existent. Les députés ont ajouté les plastiques oxodégradables à la liste des produits à interdire. Ces plastiques oxodégradables sont des plastiques conventionnels qui se brisent facilement en petites particules à cause des additifs qu’ils contiennent et contribuent à la pollution des océans.

      En 2015, le Parlement a voté en faveur de la réduction de l’utilisation des sacs en plastique dans l’Union européenne.

      https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/fr/headlines/society/20181116STO19217/microplastiques-sources-impact-et-solutions

  • GPT-4 kostenlos nutzen : Microsoft Copilot für iPhone, iPad und Mac
    https://www.heise.de/news/GPT-4-kostenlos-nutzen-Microsoft-Copilot-fuer-iPhone-iPad-und-Mac-9585553.html

    Encore une offre « gratuite » où on paye avec ses données personnelles. Pourtant c’est tentant d’avoir les générateurs d’images et textes artificiels à sa disposition. Nous avons tellement pris l’habitude de’accepter des pactes avec le diable qu’on peut se permettre celui-ci aussi. On verra bien si c’est vrai.

    2.1.2024 von Malte Kirchner - Wenige Tage nach der Android-Version veröffentlichte Microsoft jetzt auch Copilot für iOS und iPadOS. Auch Mac-Nutzer können die App verwenden.

    Microsoft hat seine App Copilot jetzt auch für iOS, iPadOS und macOS veröffentlicht. Sie ist im App Store kostenlos verfügbar. Der KI-Chatbot erlaubt das Generieren von Texten unter anderem auch mit dem Large Language Model (LLM) GPT-4 – und das kostenlos und ohne Anmeldung. Von Interesse dürfte für einige sicherlich auch der Text-zu-Bild-Generator DALL-E3 sein, der integriert ist.

    Die Variante für Apple-Geräte folgte wenige Tage, nachdem Microsoft die App für Android-Geräte veröffentlicht hatte. Offiziell ist sie nur für iOS und iPadOS vorgesehen. Doch Microsoft lässt es zu, dass sie auch auf Macs mit Apple Silicon aus dem Mac App Store geladen werden kann. Dort gilt sie zwar als ungeprüft, funktionierte aber in unseren Tests einwandfrei.
    Bis zu 30 Antworten pro Thread

    Der zuerst Bing Chat genannte KI-Assistent ist auch ohne Anmeldung nutzbar. Dann allerdings sind pro Thread nur fünf Fragen und Antworten möglich. Das Erzeugen von Bildern ist nur nach Anmeldung möglich. Mit einem Microsoft-Account erhöht sich zudem die Zahl der Antworten pro Thread auf 30. Neben Texteingaben können auch Fotos und Spracheingaben zur Verarbeitung hochgeladen werden. Gegenwärtig lassen sich komplette Chatverläufe nicht sichern. Einzelne Antworten können kopiert werden.

    Microsofts Copilot gesellt sich im App Store zur offiziellen App ChatGPT von OpenAI, die aber nicht für den Mac bereitsteht. Zudem ist die Nutzung von GPT-4 bei ChatGPT nur mit einem kostenpflichtigen Plus-Abo möglich. Der Copilot wurde bereits auch in Windows, in Office-Anwendungen und weiterer Software integriert.

    #Microsift #intelligence_artificielle #service_gratuit

  • Bobby Kotick Will Receive Nearly $15 Million For Leaving Activision - Aftermath
    https://aftermath.site/bobby-kotick-will-receive-nearly-15-million-for-leaving-activision

    As part of this, Kotick and other execs will receive “golden parachute” payments of, in several cases, over $10 million. Per a 2022 merger proposal that an Activision spokesperson told Aftermath remains up to the date.

    Kotick in particular will take home nearly $15 million – less than some of his soon-to-be-ex-colleagues because, according to Activision Blizzard financial statements from 2023 and 2022, Kotick did not have any unvested equity outstanding as of December 31, 2021 or December 31, 2022. Basically, big companies like Activision often compensate executives with restricted stock options, or RSUs, which then “vest” and reach their full value by converting into common stock at a later date. The idea here is to incentivize executives to stick around; if they suddenly leave without a (contractually defined) good reason, they risk forfeiting a great deal of money they theoretically made.

    #jeu_vidéo #jeux_vidéo #activision_blizzard #microsoft #finance #rachat #acquisition #parachute_doré

  • Bobby Kotick : With gratitude - Activision Blizzard King
    https://newsroom.activisionblizzard.com/p/bobby-kotick-december-note

    Lettre d’adieu de Bobby Kotick, P-DG d’Activision Blizzard, qui quitte la société, après un rachat de la société par Microsoft :

    A note from outgoing Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, two months after the completion of the company’s merger with Microsoft.

    Microsoft announces more Xbox leadership changes as Activision’s Bobby Kotick departs - The Verge
    https://www.theverge.com/2023/12/20/24009129/microsoft-gaming-xbox-phil-spencer-bobby-kotick-activision-leadership-chan

    Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is stepping down officially December 29th. Microsoft has not appointed a direct replacement and instead has rolled the suite of Activision Blizzard executives — including Blizzard president Mike Ybarra, Activision publishing president Rob Kostich, and Activision Blizzard vice chair Thomas Tippl — under Microsoft’s game content and studios president Matt Booty.

    #jeu_vidéo #jeux_vidéo #activision_blizzard #microsoft #business #acquisition #ressources_humaines #bobby_kotick #démission

  • #Paraguay official resigns after signing agreement with fictional country

    A Paraguayan government official was replaced after it was revealed that he signed a memorandum of understanding with representatives of a fugitive Indian guru’s fictional country, who also appear to have duped several local officials in the South American country.

    The revelation sparked a scandal — and lots of social media mockery — in Paraguay but it’s hardly the first time self-described representatives of the United States of #Kailasa duped international leaders. Earlier this year, they managed to participate in a United Nations committee meeting in Geneva and also signed agreements with local leaders in the United States and Canada.

    Arnaldo Chamorro was replaced as chief of staff for Paraguay’s Agriculture Ministry on Wednesday shortly after it was revealed that he signed a “proclamation” with representatives of the United States of Kailasa.

    Among other things, the Oct. 16 “proclamation” expressed a “sincere wish and recommendation for the government of Paraguay to consider, explore and actively seek the establishment of diplomatic relations with the United States of Kailasa and support the admission of the United States of Kailasa as a sovereign and independent state in various international organizations, including, among others, the United Nations,” according to a copy of the agreement posted on social media.

    Representatives of the fictional country met with Chamorro and Agriculture Minister Carlos Giménez, Chamorro said in a radio interview.

    During the interview, Chamorro recognized he didn’t know where Kailasa was located and said he signed what he characterized as a “memorandum of understanding” because they offered to help Paraguay with a variety of issues, including irrigation.

    Photos posted in Kailasa’s social media accounts also showed representatives of the fictional country signing agreements with local leaders of the María Antonia and Karpai municipalities. The social media account celebrated each of these signings.

    On Kailasa’s website, the fictional country is described as the “revival of the ancient enlightened Hindu civilizational nation which is being revived by displaced Hindus from around the world.” It is led by a self-styled guru, Nithyananda, who is wanted in India on several charges, including sexual assault. His whereabouts are unknown.

    Representatives of the United States of Kailasa participated in two U.N. committee meetings in Geneva in February, according to media reports.

    In March, Newark City Hall in New Jersey acknowledged it had gotten scammed when it signed a sister city agreement with Kailasa.

    https://apnews.com/article/kailasa-paraguay-india-hindu-chamorro-bec1acb8178cfe645392f0f1aae75a58

    –—

    #Nithyananda

    Nithyananda (born Arunachalam Rajasekaran;[a] 1 January 1978), known among followers as Nithyananda Paramashivam or Paramahamsa Nithyananda, is an Indian Hindu guru, “godman”, and cult leader.[2] He is the founder of Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam, a trust that owns temples, gurukulas, and ashrams in many countries.

    Following charges of rape and abduction filed in Indian courts, he fled India and has remained in hiding since 2019. He is subject of a court-issued non-bailable warrant relating to the allegations.[3][4][5]

    In 2020, he announced the founding of his own self-proclaimed island nation called Kailaasa.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nithyananda

    #micro-Etat #micro-nation #micro-nations #micro-Etats #Kailaasa #hindouisme

  • The invisible price of water

    During communism, extensive irrigation systems turned the regions along the Romanian Plain into major producers of fruit and vegetables. But when the irrigation infrastructure collapsed, so did the ecosystems built around it. Today, farmers are digging wells to deal with desertification: a risky strategy.

    From the 1970s until 2000, the Sadova-Corabia irrigation system watered over 70,000 hectares of land in Romania’s Dolj and Olt counties. A set of pipelines that brought water from the Danube, the system turned the area from a sandy region predominantly used for vineyards into a fruit and vegetable paradise. Little by little, however, the system was abandoned; now only segments of it are still working.

    Agriculture in the area has changed, as has the environment. Today the Sadova-Corabia region is known not just as the homeland of Romania’s famous Dăbuleni watermelons, but also as the ‘Romanian Sahara’. Together with the south of Moldavia, Dobrogea and the Danubian Plain, it is one of the regions in Romania most affected by desertification.

    Anthropologist Bogdan Iancu has been researching the irrigation system in southern Romania for several years. Scena9 sat down with him to talk about drought, Romania’s communist-era irrigation systems, and the local reconstruction of agriculture after their decline. The interview has been edited for clarity.

    Oana Filip: How did your interest in drought arise?

    Bogdan Iancu: Rather by accident. Around seven years ago I was in the Danube port of Corabia for another research project, and at one point I heard a student talking at a table with a local, who was telling him about the 2005 floods and the irrigation systems in the area. The man also wanted to talk to me and show me the systems. It was an extremely hot summer and I thought it was very interesting to talk about irrigation and drought.

    I myself come from the area of Corabia-Dăbuleni. My grandparents lived in a village a bit north of the Danube floodplains, where there was an irrigation system with canals. This was where I learned to swim. The encounter somehow reactivated a personal story about the frequent droughts of that time and the summers I spent there. A lot of people in the area told us that the emergence of irrigation systems in the ’60s and ’70s led to more employment in agriculture. For them it was a kind of local miracle. As I realized that droughts were becoming more frequent and widespread, I became certain that this could be a research topic.

    The following year I started my own project. In the first two or three years, I was more interested in the infrastructure and its decline, the meanings it held for the locals and the people employed in the irrigation system, and how this involved their perceptions of changes in the local microclimate. Later, I became interested in the fact that people began to migrate out of the area because of the dismantling and privatization of the former collective or state-owned farms.

    I then started looking at how seasonal workers who had left for Italy, Spain, Germany or Great Britain had begun to come back to work in agriculture and start their own small vegetable farms. I was interested in how they started to develop the area, this time thanks to a few wells that have been drilled deep into the ground. So, somehow, the formerly horizontal water supply has now become vertical. This could have some rather unfortunate environmental implications in the future, because too many drilled wells that are not systematically planned can cause substances used in agriculture to spill into the ground water.

    How has the locals’ relationship with water changed with the disappearance of the irrigation system and the increasing frequency of droughts?

    The irrigation system had a hydro-social dimension. Water was primarily linked to agriculture and the planned socialist system. For a long time, the locals saw the system as the reason for the appearance and cultivation of fruits and vegetables they had never known before. For ten years after 1990, the irrigation network still worked and helped people farm on small plots of land, in subsistence agriculture, so that they could still sell vegetables in nearby towns. But after 2000 the state increased the price of water and cut subsidies. When the system collapsed, the ecosystem built around it collapsed along with it.

    At that time, something else was going on as well. The system was being fragmented through a form of – let’s say partial – privatization of the water pumping stations. The irrigators’ associations received loans via the World Bank. These associations did not work very well, especially since the people there had just emerged from the collective farming system, and political elites deliberately caused all forms of collective action to lose credibility after the ’90s.

    Because the irrigation system was no longer being used, or being used at much lower parameters than before, it no longer seemed functional. Bereft of resources, the local population saw the remaining infrastructure as a resource and sold it for scrap. It became even more difficult to use the irrigation system. This caused people to migrate abroad. The first waves of ‘strawberry pickers’ have only recently started coming back, perhaps in the past six or seven years, bringing in the money they have made in Italy or Spain.

    People have to be empowered in relation to the water they need. So these seasonal workers began digging their own wells. They have lost all hope that the state can still provide this water for them. They saw that in the Romanian Danubian Plain, thousands, tens of thousands of hectares of land were sold off cheaply to foreign companies that receive water for free, because they take it from the drainage canals. This caused even greater frustration for the locals, who not only look down on the new technologies that these companies use, but also resent their privilege of receiving free water from the Romanian state.

    How do you see the future of the area?

    It’s difficult to say. In the short term, I think the area will partially develop. But, at the same time, I think problems could arise from too many exploitations.

    The number of private wells will probably increase. Some very large companies in Romania are lobbying Brussels to accept the inclusion of wells drilled into underground aquifers (geological formations that store groundwater) into the irrigation strategy being developed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. This would mean ten years of semi-subsistence, or slightly above semi-subsistence agriculture, where the former ‘strawberry pickers’ turn into successful small farmers. We’ve already seen this in the villages on the Sadova-Corabia system. But we have no way of knowing how long this will last, and how much pressure these aquifers would be subjected to. There is a risk that they might get contaminated, because they function like pores, and the water resulting from agricultural activities, which contains nitrites and nitrates, could get in there and cause problems.

    In Spain, for instance, they are very cautious about drilling wells. Arrests have been made. It’s a political issue that contributed to the defeat of Pedro Sanchez’s Socialist party in the last elections. Many farmers in Spain privileged to have access to water could dig a well wherever they wanted, but now found themselves faced with this rather drastic law. And the People’s Party promised them that they would be able to continue digging wells.

    At the Dăbuleni Agricultural Research Station, for example, they are experimenting with exotic crops better adapted to desertification, such as dates, kiwis and a certain type of banana. Do you think people could adopt new cultures in Sadova-Corabia too?

    This already happened decades ago. With the advent of the irrigation system, people were forced to be open to cultivating vegetables and fruits they had never seen before. Someone told me how, when they ate the first eggplants, they didn’t know what to do with them, they seemed bitter. Even tomatoes, which to us seem always to have been eaten there, were only introduced in the ’60s. One person told me that when he first tried a tomato he thought it tasted like soap. But if their grandparents or parents could adapt, so will people today. Besides, most have worked in agriculture abroad with this kind of fruit.

    Have you seen any irrigation best practices that you think would be suitable for the situation in the Sadova-Corabia area?

    I think one such example is micro-agriculture, which is employed on smaller plots in Italy, for instance. There are also micro farms in Sadova-Corabia that produce organic, ecological, sustainable products and so on. And there are a few cooperatives that work quite well, some of them supply tomatoes for the Belgian-owned supermarket chain Mega Image, for example.

    Spain, on the other hand, is not a best practice model. Spain is a devourer of water resources in an absolutely unsustainable way. We’re already seeing that the Tagus (the longest river in the Iberian peninsula and an important source for irrigation) is endangered by large-scale agriculture. In the 1990s, there was small and medium-sized farming there, and I think there should be a return to that. Obviously, the economists say it’s not profitable, but it’s time to think about a decrease and not an increase, which is always cannibalistic. This kind of farming, on a medium or small scale, should also bring this irrigation system back into focus.

    Unfortunately, it’s unclear for how much longer the Sadova-Corabia system will be able to function. It has an outlet in the Danube, which dries up in the summer and is not permanently supplied with water, as it was during the socialist period. Last year, for example, irrigation electricians and mechanics working on the Danube encountered problems, because the main canal poured water into the Danube, instead of collecting from it. If the Danube is no longer a sustainable source for irrigation canals (and not just in Romania), the alternative lies in the different management of water resources.

    In the multimedia exhibition based on the project that you organized last year, there was a notion of how grand socialist projects obfuscated life narratives, and how human stories were lost to anonymity. What life narratives are being lost or hidden now, in this larger discussion of drought and desertification in the area?

    I met a woman who during communism had managed a farm where they grew peaches that were then exported to Germany and Czechoslovakia. She told me that local vegetables were exported to Great Britain; and that this export was even stipulated by the two countries. Over 200 British technicians and experts lived in Sadova-Corabia for about four years. The story of these people, these British experts, not just the Romanian ones, and how they collaborated is completely lost to history.

    In the ’70s, these people were a sort of agricultural vanguard. They were trying to propose a productive model of agriculture, a break from the post-feudal, post-war past. There were people who worked at the pipe factory and built those gigantic pipes through which water was collected from the Danube. Today, there are still people who continue to make enormous efforts to do what needs to be done. The mayor of Urzica, for example, encourages locals to sell or give away plots of land for afforestation, and the town hall is even trying to deploy its own afforestation projects.

    I have seen journalists travel to the area for two days, come back and report that socialism destroyed everything. Obviously, lakes were drained and the environmental toll was very high. At the same time, that era brought unlimited water to many areas where it was previously lacking. Acacia forests were planted. Biologists say they’re no good, as they actually consume water from the soil; but foresters everywhere defend them and say they provide moisture.

    One way or another, all these stories should be told. As should the stories of the people who went abroad for work and are coming back. These so-called ‘strawberry pickers’ or ‘seasonals’, whose lives we know nothing about, because the Romanian state doesn’t believe that five million Romanians who went to work abroad deserve the attention.

    When I went to the Dăbuleni research station, many of the researchers had grown up there and had a personal connection to the area and a notion that they were working for the place where they grew up. How does the connection between the locals and the environment change, when so many choose to work abroad?

    This is where things intersect. These people have parents who tell us that for them the emergence of the irrigation system was similar to what happened in Israel, a country that has problems with its soil and that managed to make it better with the aid of water improvement systems. They saw that desert repopulated, greened, diversified, and they saw a greater complexity in the kinds of crops they can grow. They got predictability, i.e. permanent jobs at state agricultural enterprises, or jobs that allowed them to work at home, at the agricultural production cooperative (CAP).

    One thing I didn’t know before this research was that peasants who met their agricultural production quota were given 22 acres of land that they could work within the CAPs, with fertilizer from the CAPs, and irrigated with water from CAPs. One person I talked to even drove a truck contracted by the state and sold watermelons in Cluj, Sibiu, Râmnicu Vâlcea, and Bucharest in the 1980s and 1990s. And he wasn’t the only one.

    For them, the irrigation system was not only associated with farms, but also the related industries – pipeline factories, factories making tiles that lined the irrigation channels. It was a flourishing new ecosystem. But once this system collapsed, they also came to associate it with the degradation of the environment. I spoke to a local who said that when the system worked, he didn’t feel the summer heat, even though the temperatures were just as high, because of the water in the canal network.

    The absence of water is like the absence of blood – without it, an organism can no longer metabolize. And then, naturally, the young people decided to leave. But this was not a permanent departure. They went to Spain, for example, they saw vertical water there, and they said, ‘Look, we can make our own wells, we don’t need to wait around for horizontal water.’

    Why, as a state, have we failed to come up with an irrigation project today as ambitious as Sadova-Corabia in its time?

    There’s more to it than just this one system. There are about a hundred or so chain irrigation systems that start in this area, from south of Resita all the way to Dobrogea. The problem is that these irrigation systems were in full boom before the 1990s. Now, don’t think I believe that only irrigation systems can ensure good crops. I think they should be seen as part of a mixed bag of solutions. The problem is not that no more irrigation systems have been built, but that the old ones have not been preserved, optimized or modernized. Private interests were prioritized, especially those of a very large class of landowners, and land-grabbing was prioritized to the detriment of working on smaller plots of land. And so, such infrastructures were abandoned, because the big players can afford super-performant extractive technologies.

    How do you see urban dwellers relate to droughts and irrigation?

    I have seen many of them ridiculing people in the countryside and finding it unacceptable that they use municipal water handed to them for irrigation; but, at the same time, none of them disclose the amount of water they use on their lawns, which are worthless grass. Obviously, it’s easier to laugh from inside an office and to think that people are being irrational than to understand that they’re selling tomatoes that they would have otherwise been unable to grow.

    As climate change intensifies, droughts will become more frequent. Will we see better cooperation in the face of this new reality, or more division?

    In the next five to six years I think we will see more competition for water and the criminalization of our fellow water-users. But I think that this is where the role of the media comes in. It should abandon the logic of only showing us the big, scary monster called climate change. Rather, it should detail how these climate changes are occurring at the grassroots level. I think both the press and the state should work on research and popularization, on disseminating information that talks about these effects.

    I don’t think that anything can be done without pedagogies. Yes, during the socialist period these pedagogies were abused, sometimes enforced with actual machine guns, and that was tragic. But today we don’t see any kind of pedagogy, any kind of relating. None of the measures that need to be implemented are socialized. People are not being called to their village cultural center to be told: ‘Here’s what we want to do.’ The cultural center is now only used for weddings. Some radical forms of pedagogy should be devised and disseminated locally, so that people understand the invisible price of water.

    https://www.eurozine.com/the-invisible-price-of-water
    #eau #histoire #communisme #Roumanie #irrigation #infrastructure #agriculture #puits #Dolj #Olt #acqueduc #Danube #maraîchage #vignobles #fruits #Sadova-Corabia #melons #Dăbuleni #désert #désertification #sécheresse #privatisation #banque_mondiale #émigration #saisonniers #fraises #micro-agriculture #Urzica #Bogdan_Iancu
    via @freakonometrics

  • Impact des moteurs #diesel sur la santé publique
    http://carfree.fr/index.php/2023/11/03/impact-des-moteurs-diesel-sur-la-sante-publique

    Encore majoritaire dans le parc automobile français, le moteur diesel, qui n’a pas été conçu pour des trajets en ville (à l’origine pour les longs trajets et le transport de Lire la suite...

    #Fin_de_l'automobile #Pollution_automobile #Réchauffement_climatique #carbone #CO2 #dieselgate #HAP #microparticules #motorisation #NO2 #nuisances #pollution #santé

  • The Guardian rips Microsoft for distasteful generative AI poll about death
    https://www.axios.com/2023/10/31/guardian-microsoft-generative-ai-poll-death

    Sara Fischer (Axios Media Trends)

    Screenshot of the poll, which was removed Monday, Oct. 31.

    The Guardian Media Group is demanding that Microsoft take public responsibility for running a distasteful AI-generated poll alongside a Guardian article about a woman found dead at a school in Australia, according to a letter from The Guardian CEO Anna Bateson to Microsoft president Brad Smith, obtained by Axios.

    The poll, which ran within Microsoft’s curated news aggregator platform Microsoft Start, asks the reader what they think the cause was of the woman’s death featured in the article.

    Why it matters: While Microsoft did eventually remove the poll, the damage was already done.

    Readers slammed The Guardian and the article author in the poll’s comments section, whom they assumed were responsible for the blunder.

    Details: “This is clearly an inappropriate use of genAI by Microsoft on a potentially distressing public interest story, originally written and published by Guardian journalists,” Bateson wrote.

    “This application of genAI by Microsoft is exactly the sort of instance that we have warned about in relation to news, and a key reason why we have previously requested to your teams that we do not want Microsoft’s experimental genAI technologies applied to journalism licensed from the Guardian.”

    Between the lines: Bateson urged Microsoft to add a note to the poll, arguing there’s a strong case for Microsoft to take “full responsibility for it.”

    She also asked for assurance from Microsoft that it will not apply “experimental technologies on or alongside Guardian licensed journalism” without its explicit approval.
    She accused Microsoft of failing to “substantively respond” to the Guardian’s request to discuss how Microsoft intends compensate news publishers for the use of their intellectual property “in the training and live deployment of AI technologies within your wider business ventures.”

    Microsoft didn’t immediately respond to request for comment.

    The big picture: Newsrooms have been grappling with ways to leverage artificial intelligence responsibly while ensuring they don’t compromise their editorial content.

    Many are currently pushing tech firms to pay them to use their content to train AI models.

    What to watch: Following an embarrassing publishing experiment from CNET earlier this year, more media companies are including disclosures of the use of AI in their editorial products.

    In her letter to Smith, Bateson asked that Microsoft always make it clear to users “wherever genAI is involved in creating additional units and features as they apply to third party journalism from trusted news brands like the Guardian.”

    #Intelligence_artificielle #The_Guardian #Microsoft #Journalisme #Sondage

  • Nintendo of America President: “Everyone Has the Right To Form a Union”
    https://www.inverse.com/gaming/doug-bowser-super-mario-bros-wonder-switch-2-nintendo-union

    Video game consoles come and go, but the Nintendo Switch is forever. At least, that’s how it sometimes seems. Six years after its launch, the beloved handheld hybrid is still going strong and on track to sell 15 million devices in 2023. But for Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser, the reason behind the Switch’s lasting power is simple: It’s the games.

    #jeu_vidéo #jeux_vidéo #business #nintendo #microsoft #rachat #acquisition #finance #rumeurs #nintendo_switch #console_switch #finance #ressources_humaines #crunch #syndicalisme #entrevue #interview #doug_bowser

  • Read Xbox chief Phil Spencer’s memo welcoming Activision Blizzard to Microsoft - The Verge
    https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/13/23915634/microsoft-xbox-internal-memo-chief-spencer-activision-blizzard-completion

    Microsoft just finalized its giant $68.7 billion deal to acquire Activision Blizzard earlier today. Xbox chief Phil Spencer has now welcomed Activision Blizzard King employees to Xbox in an internal memo to all of Microsoft’s full-time employees today.

    #jeu_vidéo #jeux_vidéo #business #finance #acquisition #microsoft #activision_blizzard #phil_spencer #bobby_kotick