• Dollar General and PopShelf will close 141 stores as list of retail casualties grows
    www.fastcompany.com
    2025 has not been a good year for retail store closures so far. High-profile chains, including Joann fabrics, Walgreens, and Big Lots, have shuttered locations across the country. And now Dollar General is joining them.Heres what you need to know.Dollar General Corporation to close 141 storesDollar General Corporation is the owner of the popular chain of Dollar General discount stores and the PopShelf retail chain. The company has now announced it will shutter 141 stores across both brands.Dollar General made the announcement yesterday in its fourth-quarter and fiscal-year 2024 earnings report. As part of that report, the company said it has chosen to close a number of locations after evaluating the individual stores performances, operating conditions, and expected future performance.That review led Dollar General Corporations decision to close the following:96 Dollar General stores45 Popshelf storesAs a result of this review, the company plans to close 96 Dollar General stores and 45 pOpshelf stores, and convert an additional six pOpshelf stores to Dollar General stores in the first quarter of the 52-week fiscal year ending January 30, 2026 (fiscal 2025), the company stated.Which Dollar General and Popshelf locations are closing?While Dollar General announced the closure of 141 locations across the two brands, the company did not immediately provide a list of which locations would close.Fast Company has reached out to the company for a list of locations that will be closing.Currently, Popshelfs store locator shows the company has more than 220 stores spread across 20 states. A closure of 45 of those stores means Popshelfs store count is being reduced by roughly 20%.As for the 96 Dollar General store closures, Dollar General Corporation says it currently has more than 20,000 Dollar General stores across 48 states. While the number of closings represents less than one percent of our overall store base, we believe this decision better positions us to serve our customers and communities, Todd Vasos, Dollar Generals CEO, said.Dollar General Corporation did not address what would happen to the employees at the closing locations. The company says it currently employs more than 194,000 employees.Thousands of retail stores expected to close in 2025Dollar General Corporation made the store closure announcement while reporting that its fiscal year 2024 saw a net income of $1.1 billiona decrease of 32.3% from fiscal year 2023. However,net sales for fiscal 2024 increased to $40.6 billion5% higher than in 2023.Still, regarding the announced closures, Vasos said, We believe this review was appropriate to further strengthen the foundation of our business.As Fast Company previously reported, Coresight Research released a report earlier this year in which it says it expects to see up to 15,000 retail locations close across the United States in 2025.The closures, in part, are the result of decreasing foot traffic to many retailers as consumers look to rein in discretionary spending among inflationary pressures. Those same consumers are increasingly turning to online shoppingand that online competition isnt just coming from online retail giant Amazon.We expect general-merchandise retailers across a wide range of categories, from automotive to home and pet, to be threatened by the further growth of Temu and the scaling of Sheins non-clothing offering, the report stated.
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  • The only commercially available 8K monitor is on sale with $1,771 off, and I'm intrigued
    www.creativebloq.com
    From spreadsheets to Spotify, sometimes all you need is a simple display.
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  • People Can Fly is Prototyping a Game Based on a PlayStation IP
    gamingbolt.com
    People Can Fly has plenty on its plate as is, but the Polish studio has added another notable project to its pipeline. The developer has announced that it is prototyping a new game based on a PlayStation IP.In development under the codenameProject Delta, not much is known about the game other than the fact that it is based on an IP owned by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Given People Can Flys extensive experience with shooters the studio has worked onBullestorm, Gears of War: Judgment, Outriders,and more PlayStation fans will likely jump to the likes ofKillzone, Resistance,andSOCOMas the likeliest candidates for whatever this new game is.People Can Fly says in its announcement that the scope and provisions forProject Deltawont be too far off from other similar AAA projects it has partnered on with major publishers.People Can Fly is currently also working with Microsoft on Project Maverick,which is based on an existing Xbox IP and is rumoured to be a PvP shooter. The studio is also providing development support on Gears of War: E-Day,and working on its own new VR IP.
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  • Metaphor: ReFantazio and Sonic X Shadow Generations Are Performing Better Than Expected Sega
    gamingbolt.com
    Sega had a bumper 2024 with a long list of games that enjoyed both critical and commercial success, and the company has highlight two of them in particular for the continuously strong sales they have enjoyed.Metaphor: ReFantazioandSonic X Shadow Generationswere among Segas last major releases of 2024, and both are enjoying steady commercial momentum. During a recent quarterly Q&A with investors, the company said both games are performing better than expected, allowing the company to offset at least some of its losses in projected revenue because of the cancellation ofFootball Manager 25.Speaking specifically about the sales ofMetaphor: ReFantazio, Sega said, The recent number of units sold has been steadily increasing and is on pace to exceed our initial forecast. Those responses support our confidence about the title, and we believe we can expect the further sales by raising awareness of the title in the future. We will continue the effort to increase repeat sales while always closely monitor the appropriate price levels.Metaphor: ReFantaziosold over 1 million units on the day of its release, becoming Atlus fastest-selling game of all time.Sonic X Shadow Generationsmatched that achievement, and as of January, had hit 2 million units sold.
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  • HPC-AI Tech Releases Open-Sora 2.0: An Open-Source SOTA-Level Video Generation Model Trained for Just $200K
    www.marktechpost.com
    AI-generated videos from text descriptions or images hold immense potential for content creation, media production, and entertainment. Recent advancements in deep learning, particularly in transformer-based architectures and diffusion models, have propelled this progress. However, training these models remains resource-intensive, requiring large datasets, extensive computing power, and significant financial investment. These challenges limit access to cutting-edge video generation technologies, making them primarily available to well-funded research groups and organizations.Training AI video models is expensive and computationally demanding. High-performance models require millions of training samples and powerful GPU clusters, making them difficult to develop without significant funding. Large-scale models, such as OpenAIs Sora, push video generation quality to new heights but demand enormous computational resources. The high cost of training restricts access to advanced AI-driven video synthesis, limiting innovation to a few major organizations. Addressing these financial and technical barriers is essential to making AI video generation more widely available and encouraging broader adoption.Different approaches have been developed to handle the computational demands of AI video generation. Proprietary models like Runway Gen-3 Alpha feature highly optimized architectures but are closed-source, restricting broader research contributions. Open-source models like HunyuanVideo and Step-Video-T2V offer transparency but require significant computing power. Many rely on extensive datasets, autoencoder-based compression, and hierarchical diffusion techniques to enhance video quality. However, each approach comes with trade-offs between efficiency and performance. While some models focus on high-resolution output and motion accuracy, others prioritize lower computational costs, resulting in varying performance levels across evaluation metrics. Researchers continue to seek an optimal balance that preserves video quality while reducing financial and computational burdens.HPC-AI Tech researchers introduce Open-Sora 2.0, a commercial-level AI video generation model that achieves state-of-the-art performance while significantly reducing training costs. This model was developed with an investment of only $200,000, making it five to ten times more cost-efficient than competing models such as MovieGen and Step-Video-T2V. Open-Sora 2.0 is designed to democratize AI video generation by making high-performance technology accessible to a wider audience. Unlike previous high-cost models, this approach integrates multiple efficiency-driven innovations, including improved data curation, an advanced autoencoder, a novel hybrid transformer framework, and highly optimized training methodologies.The research team implemented a hierarchical data filtering system that refines video datasets into progressively higher-quality subsets, ensuring optimal training efficiency. A significant breakthrough was the introduction of the Video DC-AE autoencoder, which improves video compression while reducing the number of tokens required for representation. The models architecture incorporates full attention mechanisms, multi-stream processing, and a hybrid diffusion transformer approach to enhance video quality and motion accuracy. Training efficiency was maximized through a three-stage pipeline: text-to-video learning on low-resolution data, image-to-video adaptation for improved motion dynamics, and high-resolution fine-tuning. This structured approach allows the model to understand complex motion patterns and spatial consistency while maintaining computational efficiency.The model was tested across multiple dimensions: visual quality, prompt adherence, and motion realism. Human preference evaluations showed that Open-Sora 2.0 outperforms proprietary and open-source competitors in at least two categories. In VBench evaluations, the performance gap between Open-Sora and OpenAIs Sora was reduced from 4.52% to just 0.69%, demonstrating substantial improvements. Open-Sora 2.0 also achieved a higher VBench score than HunyuanVideo and CogVideo, establishing itself as a strong contender among current open-source models. Also, the model integrates advanced training optimizations such as parallelized processing, activation checkpointing, and automated failure recovery, ensuring continuous operation and maximizing GPU efficiency.Key takeaways from the research on Open-Sora 2.0 include :Open-Sora 2.0 was trained for only $200,000, making it five to ten times more cost-efficient than comparable models.The hierarchical data filtering system refines video datasets through multiple stages, improving training efficiency.The Video DC-AE autoencoder significantly reduces token counts while maintaining high reconstruction fidelity.The three-stage training pipeline optimizes learning from low-resolution data to high-resolution fine-tuning.Human preference evaluations indicate that Open-Sora 2.0 outperforms leading proprietary and open-source models in at least two performance categories.The model reduced the performance gap with OpenAIs Sora from 4.52% to 0.69% in VBench evaluations.Advanced system optimizations, such as activation checkpointing and parallelized training, maximize GPU efficiency and reduce hardware overhead.Open-Sora 2.0 demonstrates that high-performance AI video generation can be achieved with controlled costs, making the technology more accessible to researchers and developers worldwide.Check outthe Paper and GitHub Page.All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also,feel free to follow us onTwitterand dont forget to join our80k+ ML SubReddit. Aswin AkAswin AK is a consulting intern at MarkTechPost. He is pursuing his Dual Degree at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. He is passionate about data science and machine learning, bringing a strong academic background and hands-on experience in solving real-life cross-domain challenges.Aswin Akhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/aswinak/From Sparse Rewards to Precise Mastery: How DEMO3 is Revolutionizing Robotic ManipulationAswin Akhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/aswinak/Hugging Face Releases OlympicCoder: A Series of Open Reasoning AI Models that can Solve Olympiad-Level Programming ProblemsAswin Akhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/aswinak/From Genes to Genius: Evolving Large Language Models with Natures BlueprintAswin Akhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/aswinak/This AI Paper from Google Unveils an AI System that Masters Disease Management and Medication Reasoning Better than Ever Parlant: Build Reliable AI Customer Facing Agents with LLMs (Promoted)
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  • Malicious PyPI Packages Stole Cloud TokensOver 14,100 Downloads Before Removal
    thehackernews.com
    Mar 15, 2025Ravie Lakshmanan Malware / Supply Chain SecurityCybersecurity researchers have warned of a malicious campaign targeting users of the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository with bogus libraries masquerading as "time" related utilities, but harboring hidden functionality to steal sensitive data such as cloud access tokens.Software supply chain security firm ReversingLabs said it discovered two sets of packages totaling 20 of them. The packages have been cumulatively downloaded over 14,100 times -snapshot-photo (2,448 downloads)time-check-server (316 downloads)time-check-server-get (178 downloads)time-server-analysis (144 downloads)time-server-analyzer (74 downloads)time-server-test (155 downloads)time-service-checker (151 downloads)aclient-sdk (120 downloads)acloud-client (5,496 downloads)acloud-clients (198 downloads)acloud-client-uses (294 downloads)alicloud-client (622 downloads)alicloud-client-sdk (206 downloads)amzclients-sdk (100 downloads)awscloud-clients-core (206 downloads)credential-python-sdk (1,155 downloads)enumer-iam (1,254 downloads)tclients-sdk (173 downloads)tcloud-python-sdks (98 downloads)tcloud-python-test (793 downloads)While the first set relates to packages that are used to upload data to the threat actor's infrastructure, the second cluster consists of packages implementing cloud client functionalities for several services like Alibaba Cloud, Amazon Web Services, and Tencent Cloud. But they have also been using "time" related packages to exfiltrate cloud secrets. All the identified packages have already been removed from PyPI as of writing.Further analysis has revealed that three of the packages, acloud-client, enumer-iam, and tcloud-python-test, has been listed as dependencies of a relatively popular GitHub project named accesskey_tools that has been forked 42 times and started 519 times.A source code commit referencing tcloud-python-test was made on November 8, 2023, indicating that the package has been available for download on PyPI since then. The package has been downloaded 793 times to date, per statistics from pepy.tech.The disclosure comes as Fortinet FortiGuard Labs said it discovered thousands of packages across PyPI and npm, some of which have been found to embed suspicious install scripts designed to deploy malicious code during installation or communicate with external servers."Suspicious URLs are a key indicator of potentially malicious packages, as they are often used to download additional payloads or establish communication with command-and-control (C&C) servers, giving attackers control over infected systems," Jenna Wang said."In 974 packages, such URLs are linked to the risk of data exfiltration, further malware downloads, and other malicious actions. It is crucial to scrutinize and monitor external URLs in package dependencies to prevent exploitation."Found this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.SHARE
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  • Today's Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for March 15, #1365
    www.cnet.com
    Start cooking: Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle No. 1,365 for March 15.
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  • Today's NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Saturday, March 15
    www.cnet.com
    Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for March 15.
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  • Fans Demand Dana White Cut Undefeated Fighter After Huge Weight Miss
    www.forbes.com
    LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - MARCH 08: UFC CEO Dana White holds a press conference after the UFC 313 event at ... [+] T-Mobile Arena on March 08, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)Zuffa LLCRarely will fans call for an undefeated fighter to be released. However, that was the case on Friday after Diyar Nurgozhay missed weight by an otherworldly 4.5 pounds ahead of his fight with Brendson Ribeiro.Amazingly, Ribeiro accepted the fight, and the two men are still going to clash on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.That didnt stop fans from taking to social media, urging UFC President Dana White to cut Nurgozhay. The 27-year-old from Kazakhstan is 10-0, with four wins by KO. He earned a spot on the UFCs main roster with a memorable head kick KO win over Bartosz Szewczyk on Dana Whites Contender Series in October 2024.Nurgozhays fight with Ribeiro on Saturday is going to be the formers main roster debut. Needless to say, this is not the way a fighter wants to begin their career in the UFC.Cut him instantly, first day at work, one fan replied to one of the many social media posts announcing Nurgozhays weight miss. Give the other guy win money and move on.Cut him now, @danawhite, completely unprofessional, another fan commented. Doesnt deserve to fight in @ufc.Cut em. I would cut em right there, a third fan said. Coming to work on your first day unpreparedno excuses. Cut EM!Neither White nor the UFC has commented on Nurgozhays wide weight miss, and it is unlikely they will speak on the situation. Quite honestly, Saturdays card is one of the least-hyped events of the year. It is headlined by a middleweight scrap between Marvin Vettori and Roman Dolidze in a rematch of a fight that almost no one remembers.The fight could be epic, but the point is, this event isnt approaching with a ton of hype. Nurgozhays weight miss might actually draw as much attention as any result on the card.That said, missing weight by nearly five pounds in your UFC debut is like being an hour late for your first date with the person youve wanted to date your whole life. Nurgozhay wasnt alone in the weight-missing category.LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - MARCH 14: Chidi Njokuani poses on the scale during the UFC Fight Night weigh-in ... [+] at the Palace Station Hotel & Casino on March 14, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)Zuffa LLCCo-main eventer Chidi Njokuani missed weight by 1.5 pounds ahead of his fight with Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos. Its the second time Njokuani has missed weight in his UFC career. Hes 36 years old with a 24-10 record. It might not be a stretch to say that if he loses to dos Santos on Saturday, it could be his final fight in the UFC.While not as egregious of a miss as Nurgozhay and Njokuani, Josias Musasa, another fighter making his UFC main roster debut, also missed weight.LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - MARCH 14: Josias Musasa of The Democratic Republic of Congo poses on the scale ... [+] during the UFC Fight Night weigh-in at the Palace Station Hotel & Casino on March 14, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)Zuffa LLCMusasa missed weight by half a pound ahead of his fight with Carlos Vera. Musasa comes into the fight 8-0 after barely making the cut on the Contender Series with a split-decision win over Otari Tanzilovi in September 2024.On Saturday, well see how well Nurgozhay, Njokuani, and Musasa perform with the pressure on them to deliver after falling short on the scales. Here is a look at the entire card.Marvin Vettori vs. Roman Dolidze - MiddleweightElizeu Zaleski vs. Chidi Njokuani - WelterweightAlexander Hernandez vs. Kurt Holobaugh - LightweightDaMon Blackshear vs. Cody Gibson - BantamweightDiyar Nurgozhay vs. Brendson Ribeiro - Light HeavyweightKevin Vallejos vs. Seung Woo Choi - FeatherweightWaldo Cortes-Acosta vs. Ryan Spann - HeavyweightSu Young You vs. AJ Cunningham - BantamweightJosias Musasa vs. Carlos Vera - BantamweightSam Hughes vs. Stephanie Luciano - StrawweightAndr Lima vs. Daniel Barez - FlyweightJosiane Nunes vs. P. Cachoeira - BantamweightYuneisy Duben vs. Carli Judice - Flyweight
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  • ChromeOS 134 preview teases accessibility features, quick insert improvements
    www.digitaltrends.com
    Table of ContentsTable of ContentsSlow KeysStudent data transferGIFs with Quick Insert supportIsolated Web Apps for Kiosk ModeThe next ChromeOS update is expected to drop in the coming days and the chromeOS.dev team has once again shared notes of the features scheduled to come with the next version of the Chromebook operating system. According to the team, the initial ChromeOS 134 update will be available starting this coming Monday, March 17th. However, many of the features may arrive at dates beyond the primary rollout.The features previewed on ChromeOS 134 developers notes so far have proven to be very interesting and functional, and this set is no different. The notes share details on improvements for Googles quick insert feature, special enterprise features, more accessibility features, and content manageability tools. Heres a rundown of what you can expect.Recommended VideosSlow KeysChromeOS 134 has noted its commitment to improvements, including accessibility on its software with each version, and this function is another example. Slow Keys is a feature that can help users who require more time and attention in their typing tasks to press keys with intent. It should especially be helpful for users with conditions that affect their fine motor skills, such as tremors, arthritis, or numbness to the fingertips. The feature prompts a delay when a user presses the key, so the system knows the correct key has been pressed. This function is intended to help users type with better precision and fewer errors.ChromeOS 133 includes a similar feature called Bounce Keys, which will ignore repeated keystrokes pressed in succession when enabled, to provide a smoother typing experience with fewer unintended characters pressed.Student data transferchromeOS.devChromeOS 134 will get a feature later in March that will allow graduating students and other users with a .edu account to use a tool that will allow them to transfer the data from their school-associated accounts to a personal Gmail account. The tool will move content from Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Gmail. School administrators will be able to deploy the tool to users by pinning it to users Chromebook shelves. They will also be able to send notifications and schedule reminders to student users so that they can take advantage of the tool.GIFs with Quick Insert supportChromeOS 134 is expanding the functions of its Quick Insert to allow users to use the feature as a shortcut for GIF insertion. Users will be able to add GIFs to messages and documents without leaving the Quick Insert menu. Chromebook Plus netbooks have a Quick Insert button on the keyboard, while standard Chromebooks can access Quick Insert via a Launcher + F shortcut. This addition should make for a welcome function to the Quick Insert menu.Isolated Web Apps for Kiosk ModeChromeOS 134 will include Isolated Web Apps (IWAs) support, which works as an enterprise-level secure app offering that allows for controlling public-facing kiosks and digital signage displays. The feature allows administrators to securely manage IWAs and deploy content onto devices through the Admin console.Editors Recommendations
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