Published April 8, 2025 6:00am EDT close 'CyberGuy': Hydrogen fuel cell trucks hit the roads in Georgia Hydrogen trucks debut in Georgia, sparking debates on costs and green freight gains. Kurt Knutsson comments on this promising chapter in green logistics evolution. Imagine a future where trucks zip along highways without leaving a trail of pollution behind them. That future is becoming a reality, thanks to Benore Logistic Systems Inc., which has just added 14 Hyundai Xcient hydrogen-powered trucks to its fleet in Savannah, Georgia. This move showcases Benore's commitment to sustainability and also positions the company as a trailblazer in the adoption of green technologies for freight transportation. Hyundai Xcient hydrogen-powered trucks (Benore Logistic Systems) (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)A bold step toward sustainabilityBenore Logistic Systems' journey into hydrogen-powered logistics began with a small but significant step in 2022, when it rolled out its first four fuel cell trucks. Building on that success, the company has now expanded its fleet with these additional 14 trucks. They're operating on dedicated routes in Savannah, serving the Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America, a facility that's all about clean logistics operations. These trucks offer an impressive all-electric range of nearly 250 miles, marking a significant leap forward in sustainable transportation.Dennis Kunz, vice president of revenue strategy and operation development at Benore, highlighted the importance of this initiative: "These hydrogen fuel cell trucks represent a significant step forward for Benore and our ability to deliver innovative, sustainable logistics solutions."It's clear that Benore is serious about making a positive impact on the environment.Strategic partnerships driving innovationThe deployment of these trucks is part of a broader collaboration between Benore, Hyundai Motor Group and HTWO Logistics, a joint venture between Hyundai and Glovis America. Hyundai manufactures the trucks, HTWO oversees deployment, and Benore manages daily logistics to ensure seamless operations for the Glovis EV contract. This partnership shows just how committed Benore is to delivering innovative, sustainable solutions that align with its Just-In-Time and Just-In-Sequence operations. Hyundai Xcient hydrogen-powered trucks (Benore Logistic Systems) (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)Infrastructure supporting hydrogen logisticsTo support this initiative, HydroFleet has invested $33 million in a hydrogen production and refueling hub near Savannah’s busy container port. This facility will initially refuel up to 14 trucks daily and scale up to 50 trucks per day in the future. Such infrastructure investments are crucial for expanding hydrogen-powered freight solutions across the region.Industry trends and challengesBenore's adoption of hydrogen-powered trucks aligns with a growing industry trend, joining other major players like Werner and DHL Supply Chain in embracing this clean technology. Hyundai has emerged as North America's leading supplier of hydrogen fuel cell trucks, maintaining momentum despite setbacks faced by competitors such as Hyzon and Nikola. The increasing interest in hydrogen technology stems from its substantial potential to reduce emissions, with each Class 8 truck capable of eliminating over 400 metric tons of CO2 annually.However, the transition to hydrogen fuel cell trucks is not without its hurdles. High initial costs pose a significant barrier, particularly for smaller companies, due to expensive fuel cell technology and specialized hydrogen storage systems. The slow development of hydrogen fueling infrastructure remains a critical challenge, impeding widespread adoption. Additionally, the current hydrogen production landscape, dominated by methane-based processes, falls short of the desired environmental benefits.Technological refinement is ongoing, with continued testing needed to verify range estimates, assess performance across various conditions, and address maintenance issues affecting fueling station uptime. Achieving cost parity with diesel fuel is crucial for mass adoption, with estimates suggesting hydrogen needs to reach $4-$5 per kilogram to compete with diesel at $3-$4 per gallon.Despite these obstacles, the potential for significant emissions reduction continues to drive interest and investment in hydrogen fuel cell technology for the trucking industry. As companies like Benore lead the way, the sector watches closely to see how these early adopters navigate the challenges and pave the way for a cleaner future in heavy-duty transportation. Hyundai Xcient hydrogen-powered truck (Benore Logistic Systems) (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)Hydrogen-powered vehicles: Addressing questions and challengesHydrogen-powered vehicles have ignited interest in their potential to revolutionize transportation. However, their adoption raises critical questions about cost, environmental impact, safety and infrastructure. Below is a summary of key insights and challenges based on expert analysis.Cost and feasibilityHigh production costs: Hydrogen currently costs about $16.51 per gallon equivalent compared to diesel at $4.62, with significant energy (8,410 kWh) required for production.Energy efficiency concerns: Scaling hydrogen production to reduce costs remains a major challenge.Environmental impactGreen vs. gray hydrogen: While green hydrogen (produced via renewable energy) offers near-zero emissions, most hydrogen today is derived from fossil fuels (gray or blue hydrogen), which emit CO2 during production.Water vapor emissions: Though water vapor is a byproduct, its localized warming effects are minimal compared to CO2.Safety considerationsFlammability risks: Modern hydrogen storage tanks are designed to withstand extreme impacts, but public concerns about safety persist due to historical incidents like the Hindenburg disaster.Emergency protocols: Innovations in tank durability and emergency response systems are crucial for public trust.Performance in extreme conditionsHydrogen vehicles perform well across various temperatures but face challenges such as freezing water vapor emissions in cold climates. Integrated heating systems may mitigate these issues.Infrastructure and LogisticsDistribution challenges: Hydrogen requires specialized storage and refueling infrastructure. Converting existing gas stations could lower costs, but widespread adoption demands significant investment.Remote refueling solutions: Portable hydrogen generators are being developed to address refueling in isolated areas.Comparison with electric vehicles (EVs)Hydrogen vehicles offer faster refueling times and lighter energy storage compared to EVs. However, hydrogen production is more energy-intensive, while EV batteries face sustainability concerns due to rare earth mining and recycling issues.Broader barriersEconomic and political hurdles, including high initial infrastructure costs and lobbying by traditional energy sectors, remain significant barriers to mass adoption.Next steps for researchKey areas for future exploration include:Lifecycle emissions analysis to identify sustainable production methodsInnovations in safety protocols for hydrogen storageExpanding hydrogen refueling infrastructureScaling production to make hydrogen cost-competitive with fossil fuels and EVsHydrogen-powered vehicles represent a promising step toward sustainable transportation. However, their success hinges on overcoming economic, environmental and logistical challenges through innovation and collaboration.Kurt's key takeawaysBenore Logistic Systems’ expansion into hydrogen-powered trucking is more than just a business move; it’s a statement about the future of logistics. By embracing cutting-edge technology and sustainable practices, Benore is setting an example for others in the industry. As Kunz aptly put it, these initiatives pave the way toward cleaner transportation solutions that benefit both the planet and future generations. With Savannah as a hub for innovation, this partnership marks a promising chapter in green logistics evolution. It’ll be interesting to see where this will take us.Do you think the potential benefits of hydrogen fuel cell trucks, such as zero emissions and faster refueling, could outweigh their current challenges, or are they destined to remain a niche technology? Let us know by writing us atCyberguy.com/Contact.For more of my tech tips and security alerts, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by heading to Cyberguy.com/Newsletter.Follow Kurt on his social channels:Answers to the most-asked CyberGuy questions:New from Kurt:Copyright 2025 CyberGuy.com. All rights reserved. Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on "FOX & Friends." Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.

Daniel - stock.adobe.com News Government punts cyber governance code of practice for UK businesses The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s cyber security minister Feryal Clark announces a cyber security code of governance for UK businesses to follow By Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor Published: 08 Apr 2025 9:59 The government is launching a code of practice relating to cyber governance for medium and large organisations, with the backing of the Institute of Directors. Feryal Clark, cyber security minister, said the cyber governance code of practice sets out the “steps organisations should take to safeguard their day-to-day operations, while also securing the livelihoods of their workers and protecting their customers”. She added: “A successful cyber attack doesn’t just have the potential to grind operations to a halt – it could drain millions from the bottom line.   “If we want to drive the economic growth which is fundamental to our Plan for Change, then we need to stand side-by-side with British business leaders as they face down that threat.” The government seems to have put its faith in the cyber security of digital services to promote its Plan for Change.    Last week, Peter Kyle, secretary of state for science, innovation and technology, set out the terms of cyber security legislation that will be introduced to Parliament later in the year. He said the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill “will help make the UK’s digital economy one of the most secure in the world”. The bill will, he said, “boost the protection of supply chains and critical national services, including IT service providers and suppliers”.  © House of Commons “If we want to drive the economic growth which is fundamental to our Plan for Change, then we need to stand side-by-side with British business leaders as they face down that threat” Feryal Clark, DSIT The proposals will mean more organisations and suppliers need to meet robust cyber security requirements, including datacentres, managed service providers and critical suppliers. Regulators will require companies to report more incidents to help build a better picture of cyber threats and weaknesses in the national economy’s online defences.  The government will also have more flexibility to update regulatory frameworks. This could include extending the framework to new sectors or updating security requirements. In support of the cyber governance code of practice announced by Clark, the chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre, Richard Horne, said: “In today’s digital world, where organisations increasingly rely on data and technology, cyber security is not just an IT concern – it is a business-critical risk, on a par with financial and legal challenges.  “From my experience working alongside senior leaders across both private and public sectors, I’ve seen first-hand how robust cyber governance is essential to drive resilience, support growth and help to ensure long-term success.  “I urge all board members to engage with the new cyber governance resources and make cyber security an integral part of their governance. Cyber security is a leadership imperative.” The government said the code has received backing from across UK industry, with organisations including the Institute of Directors, EY and Wavestone, a consultancy firm, welcoming it. In support of its code, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) said one-third of large businesses lack a formal cyber strategy and nearly half of medium-sized firms operate without an incident response plan. It stated that 74% of large businesses and 70% of medium-sized firms have experienced attacks and breaches in the past year. Cyber threats cost the UK economy almost £22bn a year between 2015 and 2019, with significant knock-on effects on daily operations and organisations’ long-term reputation, according to DSIT. The department said the code – developed in partnership with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and “industry leaders” – will be the foundation of a support package for businesses. The NCSC will provide online training to help implement the code and has created a board toolkit that offers practical guidance. Small businesses, which do not fall under the purview of the code, are encouraged to engage with the NCSC’s Small Business Guide and use the government’s Cyber Local scheme, which provides tailored funding at a regional level. Read more about government cyber security UK government under-prepared for catastrophic cyber attack: Public Accounts Committee hears government IT leaders respond to recent National Audit Office findings that the government’s cyber resilience is under par. Addressing the Munich Security Conference in February, UK government technology secretary Peter Kyle announced a change to the name of the AI Safety Institute and a tie-up with US AI company Anthropic. NCSC, DSIT enlist IBM to spearhead cyber diversity agenda: IBM signs up to a partnership deal in support of CyberFirst Girls scheme designed to foster gender diversity in the cyber security profession. In The Current Issue: Interview: The role of IT innovation at Royal Ballet and Opera ‘Bankenstein’ and a cold calculation means banking crashes will continue Download Current Issue Google Cloud VP: Beyond monolithic AI into heterogeneous harmony – CW Developer Network Nutanix cloud VP: A complete and open Kubernetes on any infrastructure – CW Developer Network View All Blogs

ZDNET's key takeaways The Vivobook S 15, Asus' first Copilot+ PC, normally retails for over $1,000, but it's currently on sale at Walmart for $668.It's sleek and lightweight with a gorgeous OLED, 120Hz display, great battery life, and snappy performance.However, because of the nature of Windows on ARM laptops, some apps might still not be optimized. View now at Walmart At Walmart, Asus' Vivobook S 15 is currently marked down to $690, which is roughly $110 off. The configuration on sale features a 3K OLED 120Hz display with an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor and 16GB of RAM.Asus' first Copilot+ PC with the Snapdragon X Elite chip last year was the Vivobook S 15, a sleek and lightweight 15-inch laptop with a gorgeous display and ultra-snappy performance. The chassis' minimalist, all-metal design is lightweight and airy, and it feels more premium than last year's Vivobook S 14. It's only 0.58 inches at its thinnest point, and it weighs just 3.13 pounds, making it particularly well-suited for hybrid or remote workers who want a powerful laptop with a nice display that doesn't weigh a ton. Also: This ultraportable Windows laptop can seriously replace my MacBook Air - and it's even lighterLike all of the new Windows on ARM laptops released last summer, the Vivobook S 15 is fast and responsive with nice battery life, and came with new technology that wasn't fully optimized for all apps at the time of its release, but should be mostly optimized for apps by this point. For the average consumer, however, this is the epitome of a laptop that looks and feels good right out of the box, and it starts with the brilliant 3K OLED display. details View at Walmart With an 89% screen-to-body ratio and ultra-thin bezels, the screen is brilliant and high-contrast, rocking a max 600-nit brightness and 120Hz refresh rate for some silky-smooth and crisp image quality. Also: Why I recommend this budget Lenovo ThinkPad over laptops that cost twice as muchThe display's 16:9 resolution gives it that premium widescreen feel, lending itself well to both watching and editing media, but it might not be for everyone. Most 15-inch laptops come with a 16:10 resolution, which might feel more "natural" for some, but ultimately the distinction is subtle.  Kyle Kucharski/ZDNETWith 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, Asus is able to keep costs close to that $1,000 price point with just the right amount of hardware on this machine. And it feels even better in tandem with the snappy, responsive performance the Snapdragon X Elite processor provides. The Vivobook S 15 features the 12-core, 3.4GHz chip with a 45 TOPS NPU, the same one found in the HP Omnibook X 14, but slightly below the 3.8GHz chip found in the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge. The benchmarking scores in Cinebench reflect that same hierarchy, with numbers above the Omnibook and just below the Galaxy Book4 Edge. In testing the CPU's performance, I got a single-core score of 106 and a multi-core score of 969. In Geekbench, I got a single-core of 2447 and a multi-core of 14384. Remember that these scores were recorded while the device was plugged into power. While on battery, I got scores about 30% lower -- somewhat more of a difference than I expected. This is in comparison to the HP Omnibook X 14, which had a much narrower gap in scores in my testing, something I noted as I was reviewing it. Also: The Lenovo ThinkPad I recommend to most remote works has an impressive spec sheetThis paints a picture of a laptop that has somewhat variable battery life, depending on what you're doing and what kind of mode you have the laptop in. There's no escaping the power this display requires, and if you're someone who typically ignores battery setting profiles and keeps your machine blasting at "Best Performance," you may want to adjust the power modes in either the MyAsus software or in Windows (or both) because you'll see a drastic difference. That being said, the Vivobook S 15's 70Wh battery performance is good, but the user must manage it to maximize its efficiency. During the battery test that ZDNET runs on all laptops, I got about 10 and a half hours before it died, but that number fluctuated in subsequent tests with different power mode settings. Also: How to clear the cache on your Windows 11 PC (and why it makes such a big difference)Optimization is the theme here, and this also extends to its performance. The Windows on ARM architecture provides fantastic up-front performance in ways that are immediately apparent to most users. But when you start looking closely at more specialized tasks, things have the potential to get tricky. For example, the Vivobook S 15's aforementioned 16:9 resolution OLED screen seems perfect for editing video. While the integrated Qualcomm Adreno GPU is up to the task, its interaction with different apps and their performance in Windows (via Prism) is still a work in progress.  Kyle Kucharski/ZDNETDuring my testing, I ran DaVinci Resolve for Windows on ARM, and it worked mostly fine, but the performance is still not 100% optimized. There was some lag, graphic stuttering, and quirkiness, especially with 4K video. Adobe Photoshop, however, ran smoothly, with local AI-generative tasks popping off seamlessly with help from the NPU on board the Snapdragon. I expect performance to continue improving as Windows improves and developers improve their products for the platform.The other elephant in the room is gaming, which is not entirely up to speed with Windows on ARM. Yes, technically, you can game on this laptop, but many titles still don't run, and the ones that do are not well-optimized. Although the Vivobook S 15 looks like something you might want to game on, I wouldn't recommend it as a dedicated gaming laptop. At least not yet. Also: The best Windows laptops you can buy: Expert testedInstead, I see the Vivobook S 15 as a primary driver for remote workers or digital nomads who are already integrating AI into their workflows and appreciate an aesthetic laptop with a brilliant display that handles media well. Supporting that use case, it has a generous selection of ports: two USB-A ports on the right-hand side, two USB-C on the left, an HDMI port, a MicroSD slot, and a headphone jack. It also has a "full" keyboard (the number pad on the right side has slightly smaller keys, as typical for sub-16-inch machines), which is satisfying and responsive to typing on. The keyboard has colorful LED backlighting that can be configured in many different lights and effects. Still, again, this is not something that I would consider high on the priority list when optimizing battery life.  ZDNET's buying adviceThe Asus Vivobook S 15 is a sleek and lightweight laptop with a gorgeous OLED display and solid battery life -- as long as you're mindful of your power usage. I'd recommend it to forward-thinking digital nomads who want a performant, AI-ready laptop with a blazing-fast Snapdragon X Elite processor. It's a solid investment for people who regularly swap between creative work, productivity software, and media. All things considered, the sale price of $690 is very competitive for this laptop, particularly for the display alone. Featured reviews

Stargate aims to cement American dominance through scale and speed, while the EU’s InvestAI focuses on ethical leadership and trust-driven innovation.  

A hot potato: There were worrying reports yesterday that Waymo is considering using footage from its vehicles' interior cameras to train AI models and sell ads to riders. Now, the robotaxi company has responded, announcing that it has "no plans" to use the data for targeted ads. Researcher Jane Manchun Wong wrote in an X post that, according to an unreleased version of its privacy policy, Waymo is working on generative AI training using interior camera data associated with a rider's identity. The policy page also states that Waymo may share rider data to tailor products, services, ads, and offers to customer interests. Targeted ads, basically. One of the page toggles is to opt out of Waymo, or its affiliates, using your personal information, including interior camera data associated with your identity, for training generative AI. The page offers opt-outs for this practice and data sharing to comply with California's privacy law, CCPA, which allows residents to access and delete any of their data that may have been collected. // Related Stories Unsurprisingly, the idea that Waymo could be using cameras inside vehicles to train AI and sell targeted ads to riders has not gone down well. The cameras are inside the robotaxis to ensure both riders and the vehicles themselves are safe. A live feed is used to track lost property, make sure the vehicles are clean, and check that customers are following the rules for riding in the autonomous cars. Soon after TechCrunch reported on the post, Waymo spokesperson Julia Ilina gave a statement to The Verge. "Waymo's [machine learning] systems are not designed to use this data to identify individual people, and there are no plans to use this data for targeted ads," she said. Ilina added that the "placeholder text" Wong found does not accurately reflect the feature's purpose, and that the feature is still in development. It "will not introduce any changes to Waymo's Privacy Policy, but rather will offer riders an opportunity to opt out of data collection for ML training purposes." There has been a lot of controversy over AI companies using data without permission to train their models – Waymo is owned by Alphabet, which is also the parent of Gemini and DeepMind owner Google. It's an even more contentious subject when that data is a person's likeness captured by cameras as they ride in a robotaxi, even if it is anonymized. Thankfully, it appears that customers can opt out of this practice.

Table of Contents Table of Contents Shipping manifest confirms what we’ve been expecting It might not be all that bad Will the RTX 5060 be good enough for 2025? Nvidia’s RTX 5060 and RTX 5060 Ti are reportedly right around the corner, but how will they compare to some of the best graphics cards? That’s still a big unknown. However, more and more leaks confirm one specification that I really hoped Nvidia would’ve upgraded this time around: A really narrow memory bus. According to a new shipping manifest, the RTX 5060 Ti and the RTX 5060 will both feature a 128-bit memory bus, and that’s regardless of the amount of VRAM. Here’s why that’s not enough for 2025, but also why Nvidia might get away with this one more time. Recommended Videos Jacob Roach / Digital Trends As spotted by VideoCardz, the RTX 5060 Ti and the RTX 5060 have been spotted in shipping manifests. The publication figured out that they’ll both use the PG152 PCB, and this helped spot the cards based on their model names; for the RTX 5060, it’s the PG152 SKU 25, but there’s also the PG152 SKU 10, which could be the RTX 5060 Ti. Related These strings of letters and numbers don’t mean much on their own, but in context, they reveal a couple of things. First, both cards are confirmed (well, this is a leak, so not fully confirmed — keep that in mind) to use the GB206 GPU. Next, the PG152 is listed with a 128-bit memory interface. So far, all signs point to a repeat of the RTX 4060 Ti and the RTX 4060. In all likelihood, we will end up with an RTX 5060 Ti with either 16GB or 8GB of memory, followed by the RTX 5060, also with 8GB of memory, and all three of those cards will share the same, narrow memory bus. Of course, everything we know about these cards comes from leaks; Nvidia still hasn’t announced them, but an announcement is meant to be coming soon. Jacob Roach / Digital Trends I won’t lie — going into the RTX 50-series, one of my main hopes was that Nvidia would give its lower-end cards a bit of a boost. In the previous generation of GPUs, the RTX 4060 Ti failed to impress even when equipped with 16GB of memory, and that’s partly due to its specifications. The RTX 30-series card actually had more CUDA cores, and it also had a much bigger 256-bit memory bus. While there have been architectural improvements going from Ampere to Ada, it’s hard to beat such a minor difference in specs. In fact, based on cores and memory interface alone, the RTX 3060 Ti had the upper hand, so it’s no wonder that it actually managed to outpace the RTX 4060 Ti in certain benchmarks. Even when the 4060 Ti managed to score a win, it was often minor. The good news is that we’re unlikely to see an apples-to-apples repeat of the previous generation. The difference lies in GDDR6 vs. GDDR7 memory. Personally, I do believe the leaks that claim Nvidia will go with the same approach to VRAM as it did in the previous generation. However, it also made an important switch with the RTX 50-series: It upgraded the whole lineup to GDDR7 memory, which is a whole lot faster. That will give these cards a lot of extra bandwidth to work with, even with that narrow memory bus and limited 8GB VRAM. VideoCardz did the math, and the GPU should see a 55% increase in bandwidth, now up to 448GB/s. This is good news, and if you ask me, it’s kind of the saving grace for Nvidia’s upcoming graphics cards. It also helps that AMD is said to be adopting the same approach by keeping the RX 9060 XT at 8GB and 16GB of VRAM, much like the last generation, while also sticking to the 128-bit interface. Jacob Roach / Digital Trends The RTX 5060 and the RTX 5060 Ti are two GPUs that could arrive at the perfect time to be successful. The GPU market is currently starved. Prices are through the roof, and stock levels are low. Many gamers won’t have the time to think about whether the specs of these two cards are good enough for their particular needs; moreover, the xx60 cards are typically Nvidia’s most popular, so that helps. We’ve recently learned that, at least in the case of the RTX 5060 Ti, we can expect the same kind of pricing as in the previous generation. This is both good news and bad news. After all, a price cut might have helped the limited memory interface and the slight uplift in specs, but on the other hand, the state of the market lends itself to higher prices. With all that aside, will these 16GB and 8GB cards be good enough for AAA games in 2025 and for the next few years? We’re already seeing titles request more than 8GB of video memory. It’s true — 8GB GPUs are slowly on their way out, but not quite there yet. With the help of tools like DLSS, even a card that might not have enough VRAM for a particular title (such as Indiana Jones and the Great Circle) should be able to pull through and deliver solid performance. Outside of DLSS, it’s hard to say just how well these cards will perform. Nvidia is said to be announcing them on April 15, so we might find out very soon — stay tuned. Editors’ Recommendations

The e-commerce company’s CEO is requiring employees to integrate artificial intelligence into teamwork.

C:\>setup.exe FreeDOS 1.4 brings new fixes and features to modern and vintage DOS-based PCs Independent developers are keeping the command prompt alive on PCs new and old. Andrew Cunningham – Apr 7, 2025 4:39 pm | 27 Preparing to install the floppy disk edition of FreeDOS 1.3 in a virtual machine. Credit: Andrew Cunningham Preparing to install the floppy disk edition of FreeDOS 1.3 in a virtual machine. Credit: Andrew Cunningham Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more We're used to updating Windows, macOS, and Linux systems at least once a month (and usually more), but people with ancient DOS-based PCs still get to join in the fun every once in a while. Over the weekend, the team that maintains FreeDOS officially released version 1.4 of the operating system, containing a list of fixes and updates that have been in the works since the last time a stable update was released in 2022. FreeDOS creator and maintainer Jim Hall goes into more detail about the FreeDOS 1.4 changes here, and full release notes for the changes are here. The release has "a focus on stability" and includes an updated installer, new versions of common tools like fdisk, and format and the edlin text editor. The release also includes updated HTML Help files. Hall talked with Ars about several of these changes when we interviewed him about FreeDOS in 2024. The team issued the first release candidate for FreeDOS 1.4 back in January. As with older versions, the FreeDOS installer is available in multiple formats based on the kind of system you're installing it on. For any "modern" PC (where "modern" covers anything that's shipped since the turn of the millennium), ISO and USB installers are available for creating bootable CDs, DVDs, or USB drives. FreeDOS is also available for vintage systems as a completely separate "Floppy-Only Edition" that fits on 720KB, 1.44MB, or 1.2MB 5.25 and 3.5-inch floppy disks. This edition "contains a limited set of FreeDOS programs that are more useful on classic PC hardware" and, to conserve space, does not include any FreeDOS source code. The standard install image includes all the files and utilities you need for a working FreeDOS install, and a separate "BonusCD" download is also available for those who want development tools, the OpenGEM graphical interface, and other tools. Andrew Cunningham Senior Technology Reporter Andrew Cunningham Senior Technology Reporter Andrew is a Senior Technology Reporter at Ars Technica, with a focus on consumer tech including computer hardware and in-depth reviews of operating systems like Windows and macOS. Andrew lives in Philadelphia and co-hosts a weekly book podcast called Overdue. 27 Comments

Elon Musk and US President Donald Trump in the White HouseAndrew Harnik/Getty Images The US government task force known as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) claims it has saved $1 million by switching away from storing data on tape. But experts say that the move is difficult to understand, will likely save no money, and will put data more at risk. Since President Donald Trump’s inauguration, DOGE, headed by billionaire Elon Musk, has slashed government budgets across the board. NASA was made to cancel projects,…

Somewhere in the northern US, drones fly over a 2,000-acre preserve, protected by a nine-foot fence built to zoo standards. It is off-limits to curious visitors, especially those with a passion for epic fantasies or mythical creatures. The reason for such tight security? Inside the preserve roam three striking snow-white wolves—which a startup called Colossal Biosciences says are members of a species that went extinct 13,000 years ago, now reborn via biotechnology. For several years now, the Texas-based company has been in the news for its plans to re-create woolly mammoths someday. But now it’s making a bold new claim—that it has actually “de-extincted” an animal called the dire wolf. And that could be another reason for the high fences and secret location—to fend off scientific critics, some of whom have already been howling that the company is a “scam” perpetrating “elephantine fantasies” on the public and engaging in “pure hype.” Dire wolves were large, big-jawed members of the canine family. More than 400 of their skulls have been recovered from the La Brea Tar Pits in California. Ultimately they were replaced by smaller relatives like the gray wolf. In its effort to re-create the animal, Colossal says, it extracted DNA information from dire wolf bones and used gene editing to introduce some of those elements into cells from gray wolves. It then used a cloning procedure to turn the cells into three actual animals.  The animals include two males, Romulus and Remus, born in October, and one female, Khaleesi, whose name is a reference to the TV series Game of Thrones, in which fictional dire wolves play a part. Two of the “dire wolves” at three months old.COLOSSAL BIOSCIENCES Each animal, the company says, has 20 genetic changes across 14 genes designed to make them larger, change their facial features, and give them a snow-white appearance. Some scientists reject the company’s claim that the new animals are a revival of the extinct creatures, since in reality dire wolves and gray wolves are different species separated by a few million of years of evolution and several million letters of DNA. “I would say such an animal is not a dire wolf and it’s not correct to say dire wolves have been brought back from extinction. It’s a modified gray wolf,” says Anders Bergström, a professor at the University of East Anglia who specializes in the evolution of canines. “Twenty changes is not nearly enough. But it could get you a strange-looking gray wolf.” Beth Shapiro, an expert on ancient DNA who is now on a three-year sabbatical from the University of California, Santa Cruz, as the company’s CSO, acknowledged in an interview that other scientists would bristle at the claim. “What we’re going to have here is a philosophical argument about whether we should call it a dire wolf or call it something else,” Shapiro said. Asked point blank to call the animal a dire wolf, she hesitated but then did so. “It is a dire wolf,” she said. “I feel like I say that, and then all of my taxonomist friends will be like, ‘Okay, I’m done with her.’ But it’s not a gray wolf. It doesn’t look like a gray wolf.” Dire or not, the new wolves demonstrate that science is becoming more deft in its control over the genomes of animals—and point to how that skill could help in conservation. As part of the project, Colossal says, it also cloned several red wolves, an American species that’s the most endangered wolf in the world. But that isn’t as dramatic as the supposed rebirth of an extinct animal with a large cultural following. “The motivation really is to develop tools that we can use to stop species from becoming extinct. Do we need ancient DNA for that? Maybe not,” says Shapiro. “Does it bring more attention to it so that maybe people get excited about the idea that we can use biotechnology for conservation? Probably.” Secret project Colossal was founded in 2021 after founder Ben Lamm, a software entrepreneur, visited the Harvard geneticist George Church and learned about a far-out and still mostly theoretical project to re-create woolly mammoths. The idea is to release herds of them in cold regions, like Siberia, and restore an ecological balance that keeps greenhouse gases trapped in the permafrost. Lamm has unexpectedly been able to raise more than $400 million from investors to back the plan, and Forbes reported that he is now a multibillionaire, at least on paper, thanks to the $10 billion value assigned to the startup. From left to right: Beth Shapiro, George Church, and Ben Lamm pose with the pups.COLOSSAL BIOSCIENCES As Lamm showed he could raise money for Colossal’s ideas, it soon expanded beyond its effort to modify elephants. It publicly announced a bid to re-create the thylacine, a marsupial predator hunted to extinction, and then, in 2023, it started planning to resurrect the dodo bird—the effort that brought Shapiro to the company. So far, none of those projects have actually resulted in a live animal.  Each faced dire practical issues. With elephants, it was that their pregnancies last two years, longer than those in any other species. Testing out mammoth designs would be impossibly slow. With the dodo bird, it was that no one has ever figured out how to genetically modify the pigeon, the most closely related species from which to craft a dodo via editing. One of Lamm’s other favorite targets—the Steller’s sea cow, which disappeared around 1770—has no obvious surrogate of any kind.    But bringing back a wolf was feasible. Over 1,500 dogs had been cloned, primarily by one company in South Korea. Researchers in Asia had even used dog eggs and dog mothers to produce both coyote and wolf clones. That’s not surprising, since all these species are closely enough related to interbreed. “Just thinking about surrogacy for the dire wolf … it was like ‘Oh, yeah,’” recalls Shapiro. “Surrogacy there would be really straightforward.” Dire wolves did present some new problems. One was the lack of any clear ecological purpose in reviving animals that disappeared during the Pleistocene epoch and are usually portrayed as ferocious predators with slavering jaws. “People have weird feelings about things that, you know, may or may not eat people or livestock,” Shapiro says. The technical challenge was there was still no accurate DNA sequence of a dire wolf. A 2021 effort to obtain DNA from old bones had yielded only a tiny amount, not enough to accurately decode the genome in detail. And without a detailed gene map, Colossal wouldn’t be able see what genetic differences they would need to install in gray wolves, the species they intended to alter. Shapiro says she went back to museums, including the Idaho Museum of Natural History, and eventually got permission to cut off more bone from a 72,0000-year-old skull that’s on display there. She also got a tooth from a 13,000-year-old skull held in another museum. which she drilled into herself. This time the bones yielded far more DNA and a much more complete gene map. A paper describing the detailed sequence is being submitted for publication; its authors include George R.R. Martin, the fantasy author whose books were turned into the HBO series Game of Thrones, In addition to placing dire wolves more firmly in the Canidae family tree (they’re slightly closer to jackals than to gray wolves, but more than 99.9% identical to both at a genetic level) and determining when dire wolves split from the pack (about 4 million years ago), the team also located around 80 genes where dire wolves seemed to be most different. If you wanted to turn a gray wolf into a dire wolf, this would be the obvious list to start from. Crying wolf Colossal then began the process of using base editing, an updated form of the CRISPR gene-modification technique, to introduce some of those exact DNA variations into blood cells of a gray wolf kept in its labs. Each additional edit, the company  hoped, would make the eventual animal a little more dire-wolf-like, even it involved changing just a single letter of a gene. Shapiro says all the edits involve “genetic enhancers,” bits of DNA that help control how strongly certain genes are expressed. These can influence how big animals grow, as well as affecting the shape of their ears, faces, and skulls. This tactic was not as dramatic as intervening right in the middle of a gene, which would change what protein is made. But it was less risky—more like turning knobs on an unfamiliar radio than cutting wires and replacing circuits. That left the scientists to engineer into the animals what would become the showstopper trait—the dramatic white fur. Shapiro says the genome code indicated that dire wolves might have had light coats. But the specific pigment genes involved are linked to a risk of albinism, deafness, and blindness, and they didn’t want sick wolves. That’s when Colossal opted for a shortcut. Instead of reproducing precise DNA variants seen in dire wolves, they disabled two genes entirely. In dogs and other species, the absence of those genes is known to produce light fur. The decision to make the wolves white did result in dramatic photos of the animals. “It’s the most striking thing about them,” says Mairin Balisi, a paleontologist who studies dire wolf fossils. But she doubts it reflects what the animals actually looked like: “A white coat might make sense if you are in a snowy landscape, but one of the places where dire wolves were most abundant was around Los Angeles and the tar pits, and it was not a snowy landscape even in the Ice Age. If you look at mammals in this region today, they are not white. I am just confused by the declaration that dire wolves are back.” Bergström also says he doesn’t think the edits add up to a dire wolf. “I doubt that 20 changes are enough to turn a gray wolf to a dire wolf.  You’d probably need hundreds or thousands of changes—no one really knows,” he says. “This is one of those unsolved questions in biology. People argue [about] the extent to which many small differences make a species distinct, versus a small number of big-effect differences. Nobody knows, but I lean to the ‘many small differences’ view.” Some genes have big, visible effects—changing a single gene can make a dog hairless, for instance. But it might be many more small changes that account for the difference in size and appearance between, say, a Great Dane and a Chihuahua. And that is just looks. Bergström says science has much less idea which changes would account for behavior—even if we could tell from a genome how an extinct animal acted, which we can’t. “A lot of people are quite skeptical of what they are doing,” Bergström says of Colossal.  “But I still think it’s interesting that someone is trying. It takes a lot of money and resources, and if we did have the technology to bring species back from extinction, I do think that would be useful. We drive species to extinction, sometimes very rapidly, and that is a shame.” Cloning with dogs By last August, the gray wolf cells had been edited, and it was time to try cloning those cells and producing animals. Shapiro says her company transferred 45 cloned embryos apiece into six surrogate dogs. That led to three pregnancies, from which four dogs were born. One of the four, Khaleesi’s sister, died 10 days after birth from an intestinal infection, deemed unrelated to the cloning process. “That was the only puppy that didn’t make it,” says Shapiro. Two other fetal clones were reabsorbed during pregnancy, which means they disintegrated, a fairly common occurrence in dogs. These days the white wolves are able to freely roam around a large area. They don’t have radio collars, but they are watched by cameras and are trained to come to their caretakers to get fed, which offers a chance to weigh them as they cross a scale in the ground. The 10 staff members attending to them can see them up close, though they’re now too big to handle the way the caretakers could when they were puppies. The pups are being monitored through the different stages of their development but will not be put on public display.COLOSSAL BIOSCIENCES Whatever species these animals are, it’s not obvious what their future will be. They don’t seem to have a conservation purpose, and Lamm says he isn’t trying to profit from them. “We’re not making money off the dire wolves. That's not our business plan,” Lamm said in an interview with MIT Technology Review. He added that the animals would also not be put on display for the public, since “we’re not in the business of attractions.” At least not in-person attractions. But every aspect of the project has been filmed, and in February, the company inked a deal to produce a docuseries about its exploits. That same month it also hired as its marketing chief a Hollywood executive who previously worked on big-budget “monster movies.” And there are signs that de-extinction, in Colossal’s hands, has the potential to generate nearly out-of-control of attention, much like that scene in the original King Kong when the giant ape—captured by a filmmaker—breaks its chains under the flashes of the cameras. For instance company’s first creation, mice with shaggy, mammoth-like hair, was announced only five weeks ago, yet there are already unauthorized sales of throw pillows and T-shirts (they read “Legalize Woolly Mice”), as well as some “serious security issues” involving unannounced visitors. “We’ve had people show up to our labs because they want the woolly mouse,” Lamm says. “We’re worried about that from a security perspective [for] the wolves, because you’re going to have all the Game of Thrones people. You’re going to have a lot of people that want to see these animals.”   Lamm said that in light of his concerns about unruly fans, diagrams of the ecological preserve provided to the media had been altered so that no internet “sleuths” could use them to guess its location.