Papergames has announced that Infinity Nikkis next update Version 1.2, Firework Season goes live on January 24th. It introduces a new region the Firework Isles, where players venture to learn more bout the Fireworks Sprite. Check out the trailer below.Some notable new locations include Camp Kaboom and Crescent Shoal while the Glowing Fireworks storyline continues. Theres even a new boss, The Dark Bouquet, to deal with. New activities, outfits, and mini-games await alongside the New Bloom Festival, which offers over 3,500 diamonds, two outfits and up to 20 pulls for free from January 23rd to February 25th.Infinity Nikki is available for iOS, Android, PC, and PS5. Check out our review here we gave it a seven out of ten, praising the mechanics, world design, and aesthetics despite some issues with the initial plot and gacha mechanics. The free-to-play dress-up title launched on December 5th for iOS, Android, PS5, and PC and has crossed 20 million downloads.

Filecoin Foundation is stepping up today to preserve cultural artifacts in digital form using its decentralized network technology.Read More

Brendan Carr is now formally the chair of the Federal Communications Commission, giving him the power to set the agencys agenda and usher through a host of regulations with major implications for the tech and media industries as soon as he has a Republican majority.In a statement, Carr named a few areas of focus: issues ranging from tech and media regulation to unleashing new opportunities for jobs and growth through agency actions on spectrum, infrastructure, and the space economy.Carrs priorities might also be gleaned from a document you might have already heard about: Project 2025. Thats because he authored the FCC chapter of the Heritage Foundations wishlist for a Donald Trump presidency. In that chapter, Carr proposes actions including: limiting immunity for tech companies under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, requiring disclosures about how platforms prioritize content, requiring tech companies to pay into a program that funds broadband access in rural areas, and more quickly approving applications to launch satellites from companies like Elon Musks StarLink. Carr also wrote about protecting the US from security threats stemming from China, including by addressing TikToks threat to national security.Whether thats something Carr takes up as chair now seems more in doubt, as Trump has changed his tune on the apps danger to the US. While Trump was the first to try to ban TikTok from the US, hes now positioning himself as its savior putting China and TikTok hawk Carr in a tricky position.The new FCC chair has also indicated that he could use his power to revoke spectrum licenses for networks over their decisions to host speech, when he deems it a violation of the equal time rule. This came up in a scuffle about NBCs hosting of Kamala Harris on Saturday Night Live before the election though the network seemed to comply with the rules for giving candidates similar time and placement on public airwaves by offering Trump an appearance on air later on.Regardless, Carr will need a third Republican vote on the commission to approve any measures that are not bipartisan in nature. Trump has nominated Mark Meador, a former staffer to Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), to join the commission, pending Senate confirmation. Trumps pick to lead the Federal Trade Commission is also now in place. Andrew Ferguson, who was already serving as a commissioner, has a reported agenda that echoes parts of Carrs. It includes a desire to hold big tech accountable and stop censorship, and also to protect freedom of speech and fight wokeness.

AI and ML are expanding at a remarkable rate, which is marked by the evolution of numerous specialized subdomains. Recently, two core branches that have become central in academic research and industrial applications are Generative AI and Predictive AI. While they share foundational principles of machine learning, their objectives, methodologies, and outcomes differ significantly. This article will describe Generative AI and Predictive AI, drawing upon prominent academic papers.Defining Generative AIGenerative AI focuses on creating or synthesizing new data that resemble training samples in structure and style. The authenticity of this approach lies in its ability to learn the fundamental data distribution and generate novel instances that are not mere replicas. Ian Goodfellow et al. introduced the concept of Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), where two neural networks, i.e., the generator and the discriminator, are trained simultaneously. The generator produces new data, while the discriminator evaluates whether the input is real or synthetic. GANs learn to produce highly realistic images, audio, and textual content through this adversarial setup.A parallel approach to generative modeling can be found in Variational Autoencoders (VAEs) proposed by Diederik P. Kingma and Max Welling. VAEs utilize an encoder to compress data into a latent representation and a decoder to reconstruct or generate new data from that latent space. The ability of VAEs to learn continuous latent representations has made them useful for various tasks, including image generation, anomaly detection, and even drug discovery. Over the years, refinements such as the Deep Convolutional GAN (DCGAN) by Radford et al. and improved training techniques for GANs by Salimans et al. have expanded the horizons of generative modeling.Defining Predictive AIPredictive AI is primarily concerned with forecasting or inferring outcomes based on historical data. Rather than learning to generate new data, these models aim to make accurate predictions. One of the earliest and widely recognized works in predictive modeling within deep learning is the Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) based language model by Tomas Mikolov, which demonstrated how predictive algorithms could capture sequential dependencies to predict future tokens in language tasks.Subsequent breakthroughs in Transformer-based architectures brought predictive capabilities to new heights. Notably, BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers), introduced by Devlin et al., used a masked language modeling objective to excel at predictive tasks such as question answering and sentiment analysis. GPT-3 by Brown et al. further illustrated how large-scale language models can exhibit few-shot learning capabilities, refining predictive tasks with minimal labeled data. Although GPT-3 and its successors are sometimes called generative language models, their training objective, predicting the next token, aligns closely with predictive modeling. The difference lies in the scale of data and parameters, enabling them to generate coherent text while retaining strong predictive properties.Comparative AnalysisThe table below summarizes the primary differences between Generative AI and Predictive AI, highlighting key aspects.Research and Real-World ImplicationsGenerative AI has wide-ranging implications. In content creation, generative models can automate the production of artwork, video game textures, and synthetic media. Researchers have also explored medical and pharmaceutical applications, such as generating new molecular structures for drug discovery. Meanwhile, Predictive AI continues to dominate business intelligence, finance, and healthcare through demand forecasting, risk assessment, and medical diagnosis. Predictive models increasingly leverage large-scale, self-supervised pretraining to handle tasks with limited labeled data or to adapt to changing environments.Despite their differences, synergies between Generative AI and Predictive AI have begun to emerge. Some advanced models integrate generative and predictive components in a single framework, enabling tasks such as data augmentation to improve predictive performance or conditional generation to tailor outputs based on specific predictive features. This convergence indicates a future where generative models assist predictive tasks by creating synthetic training samples, and predictive models guide generative processes to ensure outputs align with intended objectives.ConclusionGenerative AI and Predictive AI each offer distinct strengths and face unique challenges. Generative AI shines when the objective is to produce new, realistic, and creative samples, whereas Predictive AI excels at providing accurate forecasts or classifications from existing data. Both paradigms continuously develop, drawing interest from researchers and practitioners who aim to refine the underlying algorithms, address existing limitations, and discover new applications. By examining the foundational work on Generative Adversarial Networks and Variational Autoencoders alongside predictive breakthroughs such as RNN-based language models and Transformers, it is evident that the evolution of AI hinges on both the generative and predictive axes.SourcesAlso,dont forget to follow us onTwitter and join ourTelegram Channel andLinkedIn Group. Dont Forget to join our65k+ ML SubReddit. Sana Hassan+ postsSana Hassan, a consulting intern at Marktechpost and dual-degree student at IIT Madras, is passionate about applying technology and AI to address real-world challenges. With a keen interest in solving practical problems, he brings a fresh perspective to the intersection of AI and real-life solutions. Meet 'Height':The only autonomous project management tool (Sponsored)

Jan 21, 2025Ravie LakshmananCyber Attack / Windows SecurityCybersecurity researchers are calling attention to a series of cyber attacks that have targeted Chinese-speaking regions like Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mainland China with a known malware called ValleyRAT.The attacks leverage a multi-stage loader dubbed PNGPlug to deliver the ValleyRAT payload, Intezer said in a technical report published last week.The infection chain commences with a phishing page that's designed to encourage victims to download a malicious Microsoft Installer (MSI) package disguised as legitimate software. Once executed, the installer deploys a benign application to avoid arousing suspicion, while also stealthily extracting an encrypted archive containing the malware payload."The MSI package uses the Windows Installer's CustomAction feature, enabling it to execute malicious code, including running an embedded malicious DLL that decrypts the archive (all.zip) using a hardcoded password 'hello202411' to extract the core malware components," security researcher Nicole Fishbein said.These include a rogue DLL ("libcef.dll"), a legitimate application ("down.exe") that's used as a cover to conceal the malicious activities, and two payload files masquerading as PNG images ("aut.png" and "view.png").The main objective of the DLL loader, PNGPlug, is to prepare the environment for executing the main malware by injecting "aut.png" and "view.png" into memory in order to set up persistence by making Windows Registry changes and executing ValleyRAT, respectively.ValleyRAT, detected in the wild since 2023, is a remote access trojan (RAT) that's capable of providing attackers with unauthorized access and control over infected machines. Recent versions of the malware have incorporated features to capture screenshots and clear Windows event logs.It's assessed to be linked to a threat group called Silver Fox, which also shares tactical overlaps with another activity cluster named Void Arachne owing to the use of a command-and-control (C&C) framework called Winos 4.0.The campaign is unique for its focus on the Chinese-speaking demographic and the use of software-related lures to activate the attack chain."Equally striking is the attackers' sophisticated use of legitimate software as a delivery mechanism for malware, seamlessly blending malicious activities with seemingly benign applications," Fishbein said."The adaptability of the PNGPlug loader further elevates the threat, as its modular design allows it to be tailored for multiple campaigns."Found this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.SHARE

The project was first conceived in 2007, co-ordinating with the design and eventual construction of the Elizabeth Line station beneath the site. As such, the building was designed to be flexible to adapt to changing market conditions across the long project programme. Sustainability is central to the design, with rooftop photovoltaic panels, a biodiverse trellis wall planted with wildflowers and a fully electric energy system. Source:Jack HobhouseThe high-specification workspaces have generous 3m floor-to-ceiling heights with openable windows, providing natural light and fresh air. Balconies and terraces with plantings offer outdoor meeting spaces and amenities are provided to support active and sustainable commuting, including secure bicycle storage, a repair station and premium changing rooms with showers.The material palette of terracotta, stone, and bronze responds to neighbouring historic buildings. The local streetscape is enhanced by a public art installation,Anatomy of Time, by Clare Twomey, which rises six storeys up the west faade, embedded in its terracotta louvres. It depicts ancient plants that once thrived in this area of Mayfair, and traces the path of the lost River Tyburn.Advertisement Source:Jack HobhouseArchitects viewWith 65 Davies Street, we set out to blend connectivity, sustainability, and architectural heritage into a seamless expression of contemporary workplace architecture. Having started the design over 15 years ago, to integrate with the Elizabeth Line station below, our challenge was to create a building of enduring adaptability and quality while setting new standards for sustainability and wellbeing.Our design reflects the areas legacy of terracotta faades, intricate craftsmanship and natural heritage. Clare Twomeys artwork, inspired by local flora, brings life to the faade, while native wildflowers climb a biodiverse trellis, linking the building to its natural context and adjacent green spaces. Inside, the lobby design celebrates the buildings connection to its context and history, integrating shapes from former building footprints in the finishes, carpets and furniture to create a tactile link to the past in a space that all users engage with daily. The materials help to maintain a dialogue with the buildings surroundings, using complementary materials and colours, including stone and bronze.We always set out to create exceptional places to work in. Office floors feature generous terraces, high ceilings, and openable windows that flood the rooms with natural light. These spaces are supported by top-end cycle facilities and changing rooms to promote healthy lifestyles. Through all these different initiatives, we were able to achieve WELL accreditation, BREEAM Excellent, and Wiredscore Platinum certifications.In 65 Davies Street, I think we have created a building that feels truly at home in Mayfair and that will contribute to the long-term success of this vibrant urban area.Ron Bakker, founding partner, PLP Architecture Source:Jack HobhouseClients viewOne of the best-connected offices in London, 65 Davies Street is a fantastic addition to Mayfair, blending heritage and modernity to create outstanding office space that blends seamlessly into its historic environment. Its testament to its design, amenities and the quality of the space that it was fully pre-let so far ahead of its completion.Alongside South Molton, the West Ends largest mixed-used development, and our transformation of Grosvenor Square into an extraordinary urban garden, 65 Davies Street forms part of a wider series of investments to ensure Mayfair remains a pre-eminent place for visitors, residents and businesses.Tom White, senior project manager, Grosvenor Source:PLP ArchitectureProject dataStart on site October 2021CompletionNovember 2023Gross internal floor area 9,058m2Form of contract JCT Design and buildArchitect PLP ArchitectureClient GrosvenorStructural engineer ArupM&E consultant ArupQS Gardiner & TheobaldProject manager Gardiner & TheobaldEmployers agent Gardiner & TheobaldMain contractor MultiplexFaade Thornton Tomasetti

Looking for the most recent Strands answer?Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Connections puzzles.Todays NYTStrandspuzzle is a fun one, especially if, like me, you still fondly remember the 1980s and 1990s and beyond. If you need hints and answers, read on.Also, I go into depth about therules for Strands in this story.If you're looking for today's Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visitCNET's NYT puzzle hints page.Read more:NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So FarHint for today's Strands puzzleToday's Strands theme is:You don't say...If that doesn't help you, here's a clue: Awesome! Dynamite! Cool! Swell!Clue words to unlock in-game hintsYour goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle's theme. If you're stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints, but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:HOST, HOTS, PATS, HATS, BUST, BUTS, STUD, DATE, DATES, CRAB, ROAM, CRAM, CRASS, SLID, FIND, YARD, SLAM, CURT, BEARAnswers for today's Strands puzzleThese are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you've got all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:BOSS, PHAT, FRESH, MAJOR, CHERRY, RADICAL, TUBULARToday's Strands spangramToday's Strands spangram isDATED SLANG.To find it, start with the D that's five letters down on the far-left row, and wind up, and then down and over. The completed NYT Strands puzzle for Jan. 21, 2025. NYT/Screenshot by CNET

You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games hereOver the years, Fortnite has effortlessly incorporated characters from numerous cinematic universes, like Marvel superheroes to renowned DC villains, where players have been able to embrace their favorite characters while battling it out on the island. However, some of the most memorable collaborations have been with animated shows, adding fun and nostalgia to the game. Collaborations with shows like Rick and Morty and Family Guy have been extremely popular among fans. The addition of Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith to Fortnite provided gamers with not only skins but also emotes and items that embodied the shows chaotic and comic tone. Similarly, the Family Guy crossover added Peter Griffins distinct sense of humor to the game, delighting fans with unique emotes and themed challenges that reflected the shows irreverent attitude. The popularity of these animated show partnerships has paved the way for another big leak in the Fortnite community with the popular animated sitcom King of the Hill being the next big crossover.Fortnite x King of the Hill crossover will bring TVs wisest Texan Hank HillAccording to the latest leaks and rumors by popular Fortnite data miners like HYPEX, a collab with the popular TV sitcom King of the Hill is coming soon to the game. In the collab, so far the confirmed skin is Hank Hill, who is the protagonist of the show and has often been referred to as the wisest Texas resident on TV.Fortnite Hank Hill skin leak. Image credit HYPEX.The skin will be a cel-shaded outfit, similar to the Rick and Morty and Family Guy skins that have been released in the game, so fans may not be worried about the characters appearance in the game. Other speculations have revealed that players may also get a Lady Bird Pet back bling, a pickaxe themed after Hanks Golf Club, and an opening theme Jam Track from King of the Hill.To those unaware, King of the Hill is an animated sitcom about Hank Hill, a propane salesman from the imaginary town of Arlen, Texas. The comedy, created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels, takes a satirical look at American suburban life through the eyes of Hanks family, which includes his wife Peggy, son Bobby, and their quirky neighbors.Fans of the show expressed their excitement hearing about the leak where one user wrote, Im genuinely hoping for a group emote where they drink slurp and the theme song plays. Another chimed in, I better get a Boomhauer skin.While fans wait for the King of the Hill collab to arrive in the game, several other leaks also hint at a crossover with Kaiju No. 8 arriving later in Fortnite Chapter 6 as well. FortnitePlatform(s):Android, iOS, macOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/XGenre(s):Action, Massively Multiplayer, Shooter9VideoGamerRelated TopicsFortnite Subscribe to our newsletters!By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime.Share

In the 1950s, Tunisian couturier Azzedine Alaa moved to Paris to enter the world of fashion. After design stints at Dior and Yves Saint Laurent, he opened his first atelier in 1979. Run out of his Parisian apartment, the clothes he designed for the likes of Greta Garbo were synonymous with exquisite tailoring that accented the female form.Almost 50 years later, Paris remains the capital of couture, and Maison Alaa is still one of its key players. Its only fitting for the houses new flagship would be located at 15 Rue du Faubourg Saint Honor, a winding strip in the citys 8th arrondissement affiliated with high style, which also hosts Herms, Bottega Veneta, and Alexander McQueen stores.A sculpture reminiscent of dentistry crowns a Ron Arad table.15 Faubourg Saint Honor completes a trilogy of sorts, with each of Alaas three Parisian boutiques representing a distinct facet of the brand. In collaboration with Alaas creative director Pieter Mulier, the latest store was designed by architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of Japanese architecture firm SANAA. This past year, the studio known for Grace Farms and other bold works won the prestigious 2025 Le Prix Charlotte Perriand, an honor recognizing their visionary contributions to modern architecture and design. We are honored to have had the opportunity to work with Alaa on the design of this new boutique, the duo tells AD. It is a space of soft boundaries and gentle reflections that wraps and unravels around visitors like a second skin, dissolving into a field of objects as people move up through the layers of the project.Tubular rooms in tongue-pink tones punctuate the interior.The idea of second skina barrier, a shield, something intimate, indecent, or familialis integral to Alaa, a key part of the houses design language. Soft, sculptural forms and signature curves define the couture created since the 80s. The new flagships interior evokes this concept through tongue-pink tones and other nudes in the houses repertoire of colors. On the ground floor, four transparent tubular rooms are each dedicated to a distinct range of clothes and accessories. In these glass rooms, time stands still, and products become a sort of specimen. Visitors peek in and feel almost indiscretethey are now involved in an exhibitionist display.