A lot can change in a few months.The climate tech world hasnt exactly been turned upside down, but its definitely more askew than it was in the summer. The U.S. federal election results may have imperiled the startup-friendly Inflation Reduction Act, likely throwing a wrench into many companies business plans.Yet at the same time, AIs skyrocketing computing needs have driven data center operators scouring the earth for sources of electricity, bringing a surge of interest in a range of power sources, including nuclear, renewables, batteries, and even fusion.As 2025 dawns, its a good time to look at the trends that are likely to define the coming 12 months.Advanced nuclearNuclear power received a lot of love this past year, from Microsoft restarting a reactor at Three Mile Island to Google signing a 500-megawatt deal with startup Kairos. The driver? Data centers, data centers, data centers. With AI servers facing a power shortage as soon as 2027, tech companies have been racing to get their hands on electricity wherever they can find it.Nuclear power is one of those places. Historically, adding nuclear capacity meant big power plants that take a decade or more to build. But a new wave of startups has been proposing smaller designs that can be more easily mass produced, or so the thinking goes. They havent been tested at scale yet, and the success of nuclear startups will depend on how the first few go.In their favor, those companies have the benefit of a newly streamlined regulatory process, which should help speed the time from proposal to construction.But theyre also facing stiff competition from renewable power sources, which are proven and quick to deploy. Unless theres a breakthrough in efficiency for AI model training or inference, expect to hear more about techs love affair with nuclear in the coming year.Fusion powerWere just over two years out from the National Ignition Facilitys groundbreaking announcement that it had produced the worlds first controlled, net-positive fusion reaction. Fusion startups undoubtedly used the news to kickstart their fundraising efforts. Among the winners this year: Acceleron Fusion, Marvel Fusion, Marathon Fusion, Type One Energy, Xcimer Energy, and Zap Energy.Expect more this year, too. Building a fusion power plant, even a demonstration unit, is expensive. Several startups have begun work on prototypes, demos, and even commercial reactors, including Commonwealth Fusion System and Zap Energy. Many have goals of hooking power plants up to the grid in the early 2030s, which means they have a lot of work to do in the coming years. And that means theyll need more money soon.Its a risky technology, but the rewards include remaking the trillion-dollar energy sector. If companies are able to hit scientific and engineering milestones, expect more investors to line up in 2025.HydrogenFew sectors are as exposed to potential changes to the Inflation Reduction Act as hydrogen. Many startups are hoping to eventually deliver the gas at $1 per kilogram, but not until later this decade or early next.To get there, theyve been optimistic that the two-year-old IRA can help them bridge the gap by way of a $3 per kilogram subsidy for hydrogen produced by renewable electricity. If that provision is nixed, a number of hydrogen startups could be in danger of going belly up. Large companies have already grown skittish.At the same time, scientists and investors have warmed to so-called geologic hydrogen, or hydrogen thats produced naturally within the Earth. Could it save the industry? The next 12 months might be a make or break moment.What else?The coming year will almost certainly bring more changes, especially as politicians and regulators grapple with growing power demand from AI. Changes in the permitting process could drive a wave of investment in grid-related technologies, but if those efforts stall, expect more companies to sign deals with power providers to sidestep the grid and connect directly to data centers.Investors have told me that it will probably be challenging for many startups to raise new funding in the coming year. The most exposed companies are those that are overly dependent on vulnerable subsidies.But 2025 is just as likely to throw a curveball its helpful to remember that the current climate tech wave emerged during the first Trump administration. Next year might have some surprises in store, too.

Explore the really cool visual effects crafted by beloFX across The Acolyte, Wolfs, Disclaimer, and My Lady Jane. From magical landscapes to gritty realism and historical fantasy, the studio showcases its talent in bringing every genre to life with breathtaking precision! Vincent Frei The Art of VFX 2025The post beloFX Showreel 2024 appeared first on The Art of VFX.

The former Goshen Academy building is located in the central village of the rural town of Goshen, Connecticut, and it is an important vestige of early education in the small town. The Goshen Academy building was built in 1824 from funds by shareholders of the institution. The academy featured a lecture room on the second floor with smaller classrooms downstairs. The academy would eventually close, and it has been occupied by the Goshen Historical Society.

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If you have an aging computer and want to give it new life, there are plenty of lightweight Linux distributions that will serve you for years to come.

Bitcoin dropped, crashed, and burned - then it skyrocketed. My $50 investment went through the wringer. Here's how 2024's halving event and political shifts turned massive losses into unexpected gains.

Google won't fix this confirmed AI security issuehere's whySOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty ImagesGmail users love the smart features that make using the worlds most popular email provider with 2.5 billion accounts such a breeze. The introduction of Gemini AI for Workspace, covering multiple Google products, only moved usability even further up the email agenda. But, as security researchers confirmed security vulnerabilities and demonstrated how attacks could occur across platforms like Gmail, Google Slides, and Google Drive, why did Google decide this was not a security issue and issue a Wont Fix (Intended Behavior) ticket? Ive been digging with the help of Google, and heres what Ive found and you need to know.The Gmail AI Security Issue ExplainedAcross the course of 2024 there were multiple headlines that focused attention on AI-powered attacks against Gmail users, from the viral story about a security consultant who came oh so close to becoming yet another hacking statistic, to Googles own security alerts being turned against users and, as the end o0f the year approached, a warning from Google itself about a second wave of attacks targeting Gmail users. But one technical security analysis caught my attention from earlier in the year that left me wondering just why one problem with potentially devastating security consequences was seemingly not being addressed: Gemini is susceptible to indirect prompt injection attacks, the report stated, and illustrating just how these attacks can occur across platforms like Gmail, Google Slides, and Google Drive, enabling phishing attempts and behavioral manipulation of the chatbot. Jason Martin and Kenneth Yeung, the security researchers involved in writing the detailed technical analysis, said that, as part of the responsible disclosure process, this and other prompt injections in this blog were reported to Google, who decided not to track it as a security issue and marked the ticket as a Wont Fix (Intended Behavior).With some people suggesting that Gmail users should disable smart features, and others asking how they can opt out of AI reading their private email messages, I thought it was worth talking to my contacts at Google as I dug deeper into what was going on here.MORE FOR YOUThe Gmail Gemini Prompt Injection Problem In A NutshellI would, as always, recommend that you go and read the HiddenLayer Gemini AI security analysis in full, but heres the security issue in as small a nutshell as I could get to fit. Like most large language models, Googles Gemini AI is susceptible to what are known as indirect prompt injection attacks. This means that under certain conditions, the report said, users can manipulate the assistant to produce misleading or unintended responses. So far, so meh, unless you paid attention to the indirect bit of that. Indirect prompt injection vulnerabilities allow third-parties to take control of a language model by inserting the prompt into less obvious channels such as documents, emails or websites. So, when you then take into consideration that attackers could distribute malicious documents and emails to target accounts, compromising the integrity of the responses generated by the target Gemini instance, it starts getting, as Elon Musk might say, interesting. Through detailed proof-of-concept examples, the researchers explained they were able to illustrate how these attacks can occur across platforms like Gmail, Google Slides, and Google Drive. Specifically, the report covered phishing via Gemini in Gmail, tampering with data in Google Slides and poisoning Google Drive locally and with shared documents. These examples show that outputs from the Gemini for Workspace suite can be compromised, the researchers said, raising serious concerns about the integrity of this suite of products.Google Responds To Gmail Prompt Injection Attack ConcernsI approached my contacts within Gmail and a Google spokesperson told me:Defending against this class of attack has been an ongoing priority for us, and weve deployed numerous strong defenses to keep users safe, including safeguards to prevent prompt injection attacks and harmful or misleading responses. We are constantly hardening our already robust defenses through red-teaming exercises that train our models to defend against these types of adversarial attacks.A more detailed conversation with my contacts revealed the following information that all Gmail users should take into consideration when thinking about security and Googles AI resources.These vulnerabilities are not novel and are consistent in LLMs across the industry.When launching any new LLM-based experience, Google conducts internal and external security testing to meet user needs as well as its own standards regarding user safety.This includes security testing from the Google AI Red Team on prompt attacks, training data extraction, backdooring the model, adversarial examples, data poisoning and exfiltration.Google also includes AI in its Vulnerability Rewards Program, which includes a specific criteria for AI bug reports to assist the bug hunting community in effectively testing the safety and security of Google AI products.In addition, Gmail and Drive include strong spam filters and user input sanitization which help to mitigate against hostile injections of malicious code into Gemini.

HaloParamountI recently just finished Secret Level, the new Amazon anthology focused on specific video games in the vein of Love, Death and Robots on Netflix, which makes sense, given that they share a creator in Tim Miller.Many franchises both new and old appeared in the series, from Pac Man to Warhammer to new mobile hits like Honor of Kings and Crossfire. Sony also had a big presence with an extremely unfortunate episode focused on its instantly-killed Concord shooter, and they also had the last episode of the season, a very, very bad segment featuring a number of PlayStation icons in a way that felt like an overly long ad rather than a coherent story.But Sonys rival Microsoft did not show up in the same way (well, sort of with Spelunky), even when they could have. And it turns out there was a great idea for an episode that involved a crossover between Master Chief and the Doom Slayer. An idea Microsoft apparently killed, according to the shows creator. Heres Miller speaking to Collider:I get a little chafed when I read online, and they're like, Hold on, these assholes took Spelunky when they could have taken Halo? Or something like that. I'm like, Man, you think that we didn't talk to Halo or something?And director Dave Wilson:The creative director at id [Software] is a good friend of ours, and so are folks at Microsoft, so we made a big plea because one of the things both Tim and I would love to do is do something that isn't currently available in the games, like crossovers. We wanted to make a Master Chief/Doom Slayer crossover episode, and I spent a whole weekend crafting this impassioned letter of my childhood. And it's exactly what Tim said; they were like, Nah.MORE FOR YOUDOOMidWhenever something like this gets shot down, its usually in the name of brand safety if you do or dont want your IP represented in a specific way (Microsoft now owns both properties after acquiring Bethesda). This seems like an incredibly bad call on their end. Doom has a new game coming out in 2025, The Dark Ages, and Halo? Well, Master Chief really needs a win after the last few years.Halo Infinite was delayed a year and arrived with a somewhat underwhelming launch. Its made improvements to multiplayer over the years but remains largely ignored.Halo has been entirely left out of Microsofts vast showcases of future games the next few years. Work continues behind the scenes on...something, but we have no idea if well see Master Chief again before the end of the decade.The most significant presence of Master Chief lately was the very bad Halo live-action series that was just cancelled after two seasons and lambasted by fans for constant inaccuracies, including a John-117 that was constantly out of his helmet and armor.But a Master Chief/Doom Slayer crossover? I mean come on, thats a slam dunk if Ive ever seen one. Now that Secret Level is a hit, I hope Microsoft changes its mind for next time on that concept.Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram.Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.

Facepalm: BitLocker is a full volume encryption feature introduced by Microsoft with Windows Vista. The technology can apparently keep users' data safe thanks to AES and other advanced encryption algorithms, but it isn't safe from bugs and serious hacking attempts. According to a presentation shown during the recently held Chaos Communication Congress at the Chaos Computer Club (CCC), Windows BitLocker can be screwed without a screwdriver. A Hacker named Thomas Lambertz found a way to exploit an old, supposedly fixed vulnerability in Microsoft's encryption tech, bypassing many security features to compromise a fully-updated Windows 11 setting.The software vulnerability abused by Lambertz is also known as bitpixie (CVE-2023-21563). Microsoft has known about it since 2022 but never managed to effectively address the issue. The CVE-2023-21563 flaw is a "BitLocker Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability," Microsoft said. A successful attack could bypass full volume encryption and access protected data, though it would need physical access to the target system.Lambertz was able to "repurpose" the bitpixie bug using the controversial Secure Boot technology to load an outdated Windows bootloader. The bootloader is instrumental for extracting the encryption key into memory, which can then be retrieved by using a Linux OS. The hack requires a one-time physical access to the target system, plus a working network connection.The new bitpixie attack sounds impractical from a consumer standpoint, but the enterprise sector is a completely different matter. Many corporate clients use BitLocker to secure their PC fleets, Lambertz noted, and the encryption technology is now being enabled by default on newer Windows 11 installations. The popular "Device Encryption" mode doesn't need an additional password, which means users can "unseal" a BitLocker volume by just booting Windows with their normal user accounts.This BitLocker configuration has been broken for a while, the hacker said, and can be attacked from both hardware and software sides to decrypt a drive's data. In his hour-long presentation, Lambertz explained how Secure Boot and TPM work, the role of PXE boot and BCD bootloaders, what the new exploit needs to run, and more. // Related StoriesLambertz's presentation is in English, and was recently uploaded on CCC's official platform for video and audio content. The CCC collective is the largest association of hackers in Europe, with 7,700 registered members who have been working tirelessly since 1981 to hack almost everyone and everything.

Facepalm: Apple is believed to have ended production of its Vision Pro headset amid weak demand from customers. The news comes months after a report claimed that the company would wind down manufacture of the much-hyped mixed-reality headset by the end of October. Apple is said to have scaled back production of the Vision Pro last summer after building up a large inventory that it believed would last through the year. Now that production has ended, the company reportedly has enough units in stock to meet demand for the device's remaining lifespan through 2025.According to an earlier report by The Information, most Vision Pro suppliers produced enough components by October for 500,000 to 600,000 headsets. However, some of them apparently stopped manufacturing components as early as May 2024 based on Apple's weak sales forecasts.Luxshare, the Chinese contract manufacturer producing the Vision Pro, was reportedly told by Apple in November that it will need to wind down production by the end of this year. Toward the end of its production run, Luxshare was believed to have been making around 1,000 units per day, about half of its peak production rate.According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple sold fewer than 500,000 units of the Vision Pro since launch. While many returned the product after experiencing headaches, vision issues, neck pain, and motion sickness, even the people who kept it are reportedly not using it as much as Apple expected, largely due to the lack of compelling apps and games.It is worth noting that an earlier report claimed Apple will release an updated version of the first-generation Vision Pro with a faster chip, but we haven't heard anything about it in a while. It's unclear whether that project is still in the works, or if Apple has canceled those plans permanently. // Related StoriesThe Vision Pro was unveiled in June 2023 at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference and became available for purchase in February 2024. The device launched to mixed reviews from the media and never set the sales charts ablaze, mostly due to its astronomical price-tag.Apple is rumored to be working on two new mixed-reality headsets: a second-generation Vision Pro and a new low-cost model that could bring in more sales. However, the company is believed to have suspended development of the former for at least a year to focus on the affordable variant. Cupertino is betting big on the low-cost headset, and has reportedly told suppliers that it expects to sell four million units of this device over its lifespan.