The Blaisdell-Carter House is a great example of a Queen Anne style home in Chicopee, Massachusetts. The house was built in 1890 for Harriet P. Blaisdell following the death of her husband, Samuel Blaisdell, a cotton broker, in 1888. Mrs. Blaisdell hired David B. Griggs, a builder in Chicopee under the firm D. B. Griggs & Sons, to design and build the residence, which sat across the street from Griggs own home. Harriet would pass away just three years after her home was built, and the property would eventually be sold to Nathan P. Ames Carter (1864-1959). The residence sits on a large lot and exhibits varied siding, asymmetrical plan with porches, additions, and steep gable roofs, and the use of irregular windows of varied sizing and locations. While the second floor porch has been enclosed, the house retains much of its original fabric and has not been covered by vinyl or aluminum siding, a rarity in Chicopee.

BooksBookish Good Luck at McLellan Signs in Nampa, IdahoJay Smith embraces serendipity to add to his library of sign painting and lettering books.Better LettersJan 30, 2025 5 min readInside Elmore McLellan's copy of the Coast Manual of Lettering and Designs.For the 'Book Club' section of BLAG 07, we'll be taking a look back at some of the publications that inspired the original Letterheads. And drained the toner in more than one photocopier! Some of these now grace the shelves of Jay Smith in Boise, Idaho, and here he tells the story of his recent good fortune.McLellan Signs, Nampa, IdahoOn an otherwise innocuous Fall morning, I was making breakfast and boxed lunches for my daughters when I received a message from a good friend of mine who deals in estate sales. It contained a link to a Craigslist ad for a retirement sale at McLellan Signs, a local, generational sign shop; my interest was instantly piqued.Then, as I was driving the girls to school, I got a call from a local number. It was Scott McLellan, the owner of the shop in Nampa, Idaho. Another friend of mine in the antique business had given him my details, suggesting that I might be interested in some of the sign painting tools and equipment.I guess it was meant to be, and straight after the school run I drove the 35 km (20 miles) to Nampa to meet with Scott. He was the third generation to run the McLellan business, which was started by his grandfather Elmore 'Mac' McLellan in 1913 there can't be many shops in the world that can claim over 110 years of heritage!Three generations of the McClellan Sign Co. in 1982. From left: Scott, Don, and Elmore, the firm's founder.Scott and I spent hours discussing the history of signs in Idaho, techniques, tools, and every aspect of the trade. It's rare to meet someone with such a wealth of generational knowledge, and I soaked up everything I could from him.1950s press clipping, captioned: West Junior High School in Nampa is getting a new sign today the first since it became a junior high school in the fall of 1955. Don McLellan is shown painting the school's new name on the north side of the building. The old "Nampa High School" sign was covered before the painting job started.1957 billboard by Don McClellan, captioned: The sign was painted Monday at Stampede Stadium announcing that Eddy Arnold will be star of this year's Snake River Stampede, July 1620. Each year, name of the Stampede star is painted on the Highway 30 wall of the Stadium. Singer Arnold has sold more than 30,000,000 records in the past 10 years, which makes him one of the nation's leading recording artists, announced Stampede officials.After purchasing all of his hand-built workbenches, remaining cans of 1 Shot, his Electro-Pounce, some shelves, and everything else I could get my hands on, Scott unveiled what could be considered our trade's equivalent of the 'Dead Sea Scrolls'.In his hands were six tomes I had never before seen in-person, let alone touched. And, while I had electronic scans of some, downloaded from the Internet Archive, holding them was a mystical experience.These treasures were: Atkinson Sign Painting by Frank Atkinson (1916, 2nd edition); Atkinsons Last and Final Book on Sign Art (1950); Hendersons Sign Painter by John G. Ohnimus (1906, 1st edition); Modern Signs and Show Cards by E.C. Matthews (1951, 1st edition); 35 New Alphabets for Modern Brush Lettering (1931, 1st edition); and the Coast Manual of Lettering and Designs by Fred Knopf and J. M. Mahaffey (1907)."Atkinson" Sign Painting is available digitally from archive.org and via the Lettering Library.Another Atkinson classic among these extremely rare volumes. Henderson's Sign Painter is available online at the Library of Congress.The well-used copy of E.C. Matthews' Modern Signs and Show Cards.These books are well-worn, with personal inserts, clippings, and sketches inside, showing they were used daily in the shop by Scott's grandfather.A hand-rendered McClellan Signs bookplate inside the Coast Manual of Lettering and Designs.I couldn't afford them that day, having already bought nearly everything else. However, knowing how much I revered and cherished these books, Scott called me a couple days later with an offer I couldn't refuse. He knew they would be protected and respected in my hands, and wanted them to go to someone that truly appreciated these fountains of historical wisdom and technique.Tucked inside one of the books was this 'Half Block' alphabet from The Detroit School of Lettering.After a few weeks of saving client deposits and finishing jobs, I met with Scott and bought the books. To have them now in my collection is a dream come true.I can't wait to dive in, and I'm sure I'll be reading these with white gloves for the rest of my sign painting career.Thanks Scott, and wishing you a very happy retirement!Written by Jay SmithFor more from Jay Smith, check out his recent 'Mural School' experience, just one of the projects in the 'On the Brush' section of BLAG 06. More BooksMore History

Software was one the five key areas of change Volvo Cars unveiled in its Capital Days presentation in November 2024. The companys plan for navigating an ever-changing world is to move from being a hardware-first business to one that is software-first. The company also discussed a superset technology stack, which it unveiled in September 2024.Alwin Bakkenes, head of global engineering at Volvo Cars, says the technology stack is closely related to some of the attributes that define modern cars, such as safety, human-centric technology and customer experience.The superset tech stack is a modular engineering platform that the company says will be used to build all future vehicles. It allows Volvo Cars to make safer cars, more efficiently, and to improve them over time through software.Effectively, the superset tech stack is a true superset strategy, says Bakkenes. This means Volvo can build small B class cars like the EX30 right up to premium F class cars like the EX90 in a scalable way.Discussing the benefits, Bakkenes says: Very often, companies have one architecture for smaller cars and one for mid-sized cars. They have different physical layouts in terms of engines or electric motors. But with a superset technology stack, we effectively have a one-track implementation for our software and electronics stack, which is a lot more efficient for us as a company.The benefits of software-defined functionalityIn the past, car manufacturers took a vertical integration approach to building vehicles, whereby all the parts of a car are delivered to the factory as bespoke modules that are then integrated. But manufacturers now see the benefit of building software-defined cars.Alwin Bakkenes, head of global engineering at Volvo Cars, says the move from bespoke platforms to a software-defined architecture means that instead of relying on vertical integration of components, vehicles are built based on capabilities. All of the cars sensors and actuators are exposed as APIs [application programming interfaces] on the core computing platform, where we can combine them into custom functions.This is how software is starting to replace physical hardware.For instance, as Bakkenes explains: In traditional vehicles, a front camera system would be directly connected to an application-specific integrated circuit [ASIC] that would try to assess whether or not the car needs to display a forward collision warning or perform a brake assist manoeuvre.What we [now] do is connect the front camera together with other cameras to our core computer platform, which means we can use it for different things. As an example, he says the cameras could be used to implement sentry mode or a dashcam.The camera could potentially also work with the cars built-in Google Assistant, allowing the driver to ask for more information about something the camera has seen, such as finding out the opening times of a supermarket it passes.Its the same sensors, but they are integrated in a completely new way, enabling us to extract much more value, he adds.As we build more cars based on the superset tech stack instead of bespoke platforms, it will contribute to our margins, he adds. As the superset tech stack underpins all Volvo Cars upcoming vehicles, it converges all engineering efforts into one single direction, rather than working on specific, siloed, car projects.The Volvo EX90 (pictured above) is the companys first car to be software-defined, built on the superset tech stack. It is based on a centralised core compute architecture using the Nvidia Drive Orin system-on-chip architecture.Nvidia Orin orchestrates everything in the car, from powering the deep learning capabilities underpinning Volvos artificial intelligence (AI)-based active safety and driving assistance systems, to helping introduce safe autonomous driving in the future and delivering best-in-class customer experience.Instead of large steps between different generations of cars, Volvo Cars can continuously enhance the performance of each vehicle in its line-up simultaneously, with the same superset tech stack. It also enables closed-loop development, which allows Volvo Cars to reduce the time it takes to roll out new software features.For instance, with its EX90 model, Volvo has begun collecting data from fleets of cars to improve the behaviour of the vehicle over time. We can understand if something is wrong by asking a fleet of cars to collect data from, for example, a certain intersection or under certain driving conditions. We can use the raw data we get back to retrain our data models, says Bakkenes.In effect, the closed-loop system, built on the superset tech stack, uses real-time data to improve product development. The data processing is powered by what Bakkenes says is one of northern Europes largest AI supercomputers.Through its fully owned software company Zenseact Volvo has been using the Nvidia DGX-based AI supercomputing platform to help develop safe autonomous driving. The company plans to use Nvidia DGX systems, optimised for large workloads, for training current and future AI models, based on uploading data from the fleet of Volvo cars being driven on public roads.To support its strategy to make driving safer, Bakkenes says Volvo equips all its cars with 5G connectivity.With a superset technology stack, we effectively have a one-track implementation for our software and electronics stack, which is a lot more efficientAlwin Bakkenes, Volvo CarsHe says the cars make use of AI in a hybrid setup, which uses in-vehicle processing capabilities at the edge, along with the 5G-connected cloud-based processing.Through the partnership with Nvidia, he says Volvos goal is to equip every car with potent silicon, on which complex AI models can be deployed that make the cars the safest it has ever built.Volvo has also standardised on the Google Automotive Android-based operating system for its cars. What Google gives us is a very good starting position for a stable infotainment system and provides us a way to integrate in a larger ecosystem, says Bakkenes.This means Volvo not only uses Google Automotive as a complete application framework for developing its own in-car applications, but it also enables Volvo to work with third-party developers. For instance, in Sweden, Volvo has partnered with parking app providers to integrate the app into the infotainment system. It makes the experience of owning and operating a Volvo car easier, he adds.Google Automotive also provides Google Maps and Google Assistant for voice control, where the driver simply says hey Google and asks Google Maps to navigate somewhere.Modern cars put a lot of emphasis on the infotainment system. Certainly, car reviews on the web often make a point of highlighting the shortcomings of these in-car systems. Bakkenes says that from a customer satisfaction, loyalty and preference perspective, a cars infotainment system plays a very important role.Its not just about the media player or the radio, but about how the car interacts with the driver. How you implement that digital relationship while the car is being driven is extremely important, he says.Over time, the infotainment system is used to add more functionality to the car, which, for Bakkenes, means Volvo Cars can improve the customer experience by updating vehicles that have already shipped based on the data it collects from the fleet of cars on the road.Read more stories about AI in manufacturingAI use cases in manufacturing: Initially slow to adopt digital transformation, manufacturers are recognizing the power of AI technologies as they seek ways to cut costs, boost productivity and improve products.NTT and Toyota gear up for joint auto mobility AI project: IT and comms giant and global auto manufacturer investing nearly $3.3bn to jointly develop mobility AI platform with goal to eliminate traffic accidents.

maciek905/Getty ImagesI've been around technology for long enough that very little excites me, and even less surprises me. But shortly after Open AI's ChatGPT was released, I asked it to write a WordPress plugin for my wife's e-commerce site. When it did, and the plugin worked, I was indeed surprised.That was the beginning of my deep exploration into chatbots and AI-assisted programming. Since then, I've subjected 14 large machine models (LLMs) to four real-world tests. Also:The five biggest mistakes people make when prompting an AIUnfortunately, not all chatbots can code alike. It's been almost two years since that first test, and even now, five of the 14 LLMs I tested can't create working plugins.In this article, I'll show you how each LLM performed against my tests. There are two chatbots I recommend you use, but they cost $20/month. The free versions of the same chatbots do well enough that you could probably get by without paying. But the rest, whether free or paid, are not so great. I won't risk my programming projects with them or recommend that you do until their performance improves. I've written a lot about using AIs to help with programming. Unless it's a small, simple project, like my wife's plugin, AIs can't write entire apps or programs. But they excel at writing a few lines and are not bad at fixing code.Also: I tested DeepSeek's R1 and V3 coding skills - and we're not all doomed (yet)Rather than repeat everything I've written, go ahead and read this article:How to use ChatGPT to write code: What it can and can't do for you.If you want to understand my coding tests, why I've chosen them, and why they're relevant to this review of the 14 LLMs, read this article:How I test an AI chatbot's coding ability - and you can too. Let's start with a comparative look at how the chatbots performed: David Gewirtz/ZDNETNext, let's look at each chatbot individually. I'll discuss 13 chatbots, even though the above chart shows 14 LLMs. The results for GPT-4 and GPT-4o are both included in ChatGPT Plus. Ready? Let's go. David Gewirtz/ZDNET Pros Passed all testsSolid coding resultsMac app Cons HallucinationsNo Windows app yetSometimes uncooperative Price: $20/moLLM: GPT-4o, GPT-4, GPT-3.5Desktop browser interface: YesDedicated Mac app: YesDedicated Windows app: NoMulti-factor authentication: YesTests passed: 4 of 4ChatGPT Pluswith GPT-4 and GPT-4o passed all my tests. One of my favorite features is the availability of a dedicated app. When I test web programming, I have my browser set on one thing, my IDE open, and the ChatGPT Mac app running on a separate screen.Also:I put GPT-4o through my coding tests and it aced them - except for one weird resultIn addition,Logitech's Prompt Builder, which pops up using a mouse button, can be set up to use the upgraded GPT-4o and connect to your OpenAI account, making it a simple thumb-tap to run a prompt, which is very convenient.The only thing I didn't like was that one of my GPT-4o tests resulted in a dual-choice answer, and one of those answers was wrong. I'd rather it just gave me the correct answer. Even so, a quick test confirmed which answer would work. But that issue was a bit annoying. I didn't have that issue in GPT-4, so for now, that's the LLM setting I use with ChatGPT when coding. View now at OpenAI David Gewirtz/ZDNET Pros Multiple LLMsSearch criteria displayedGood sourcing Cons Email-only loginNo desktop app Price: $20/moLLM: GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Sonar Large, Claude 3 Opus, Llama 3.1 405BDesktop browser interface: YesDedicated Mac app: NoDedicated Windows app: NoMulti-factor authentication: NoTests passed: 4 of 4I seriously considered listingPerplexity Proas the best overall AI chatbot for coding, but one failing kept it out of the top slot: how you log in. Perplexity doesn't use username/password or passkey, and doesn't have multi-factor authentication. All the tool does is email you a login pin. The AI also doesn't have a separate desktop app, as ChatGPT does for Macs.What sets Perplexity apart from other tools is that it can run multiple LLMs. While you can't set an LLM for a given session, you can easily go into the settings and choose the active model.Also:Can Perplexity Pro help you code? It aced my programming tests - thanks to GPT-4For programming, you'll probably want to stick to GPT-4o, because that aced all our tests. But it might be interesting to cross-check code across the different LLMs. For example, if you have GPT-4o write some regular expression code, you might consider switching to a different LLM to see what that LLM thinks of the generated code.As we'll see below, most LLMs are unreliable, so don't take the results as gospel. However, you can use the results to give you more things to check your original code. It's sort of like an AI-driven code review.Just don't forget to switch back to GPT-4o. View now at Perplexity.AI David Gewirtz/ZDNET Pros Different LLM than ChatGPTGood descriptionsFree access Cons Only available in browser modeFree access likely only temporary Price: Free (for now)LLM: Grok-1Desktop browser interface: YesDedicated Mac app: NoDedicated Windows app: NoMulti-factor authentication: YesTests passed: 3 of 4I have to say, Grok surprised me. I guess I didn't have high hopes for an LLM that appeared tacked onto the Social Network Formerly Known as Twitter. But then again, X is now owned by Elon Musk and two of Musk's companies, Tesla and SpaceX, have towering AI capabilities.It's not clear how much of the Tesla and SpaceX AI DNA went into Grok, but we can fairly assume that there will likely be more work. As it is now, Grok is the only LLM not based on OpenAI LLMs that made it into the recommended list.Also: X's Grok did surprisingly well in my AI coding testsGrok did make one mistake, but it was a relatively minor one that could be easily remedied by a slightly more comprehensive prompt. Yes, it failed the test. But by passing the others, and by even doing an almost perfect good job on the one it passed, it earned itself a spot as a contender.Stay tuned. This is one to watch. View now at X David Gewirtz/ZDNET Pros FreePassed most tests Cons Prompt throttlingCould cut you off in the middle of whatever you're working on Price: FreeLLM: GPT-4o, GPT-3.5Desktop browser interface: YesDedicated Mac app: YesDedicated Windows app: NoMulti-factor authentication: YesTests passed: 3 of 4 in GPT-3.5 modeChatGPTis available to anyone for free. While both the Plus and free versions support GPT-4o, which passed all my programming tests, there are limitations when using the free app.OpenAI treats free ChatGPT users as if they're in the cheap seats. If traffic is high or the servers are busy, the free ChatGPT will only make GPT-3.5 available to free users. The tool will only allow you a certain number of queries before it downgrades or shuts you off.Also:How to use ChatGPT: What you need to know nowI've had several occasions when the free version of ChatGPT effectively told me I'd asked too many questions.ChatGPT is a great tool, as long as you don't mind getting shut down sometimes. Even GPT-3.5 did better on the tests than all the other chatbots, and the test it failed was for a fairly obscure programming tool produced by a lone programmer in Australia.So, if budget is important to you and you can wait when cut off, go for ChatGPT free. View now at OpenAI David Gewirtz/ZDNET Pros FreePassed most testsRange of research tools Cons Limited to GPT-3.5Throttles prompt results Price: FreeLLM: GPT-3.5Desktop browser interface: YesDedicated Mac app: NoDedicated Windows app: NoMulti-factor authentication: NoTests passed: 3 of 4I'm threading a pretty fine needle here, but because Perplexity AI's free version is based on GPT-3.5, the test results were measurably better than the other AI chatbots.Also: 5 reasons why I prefer Perplexity over every other AI chatbotFrom a programming perspective, that's pretty much the whole story. But from a research and organization perspective, my ZDNET colleague Steven Vaughan-Nichols prefers Perplexity over the other AIs.He likes how Perplexity provides more complete sources for research questions, cites its sources, organizes the replies, and offers questions for further searches.So if you're programming, but also doing other research, consider the free version of Perplexity. View now at Perplexity.AI David Gewirtz/ZDNET Pros FreeOpen SourceEfficient resource utilization Cons Weak general knowledgeSmall ecosystemLimited integrations Price: Free for chatbot, fees for APILLM: DeepSeek MoEDesktop browser interface: YesDedicated Mac app: NoDedicated Windows app: NoMulti-factor authentication: NoTests passed: 3 of 4While DeepSeek R1 is the new reasoning hotness from China that has all the pundits punditing, the real power right now (at least according to our tests) is DeepSeek V3. This chatbot passed almost all of our coding tests, doing as well as the (now mostly discontinued) ChatGPT 3.5.Also: I tested DeepSeek's R1 and V3 coding skills - and we're not all doomed (yet)Where DeekSeek V3 fell down was in its knowledge of somewhat more obscure programming environments. Still, it beat out Google's Gemini, Microsoft's Copilot, and Meta's Meta AI, which is quite the accomplishment all on its own. We'll be keeping a close watch on each DeepSeek model, so stay tuned. View now at Deepseek Chatbots to avoid for programming helpI tested 14 LLMs, and seven passed most of my tests. The other chatbots, including a few pitched as great for programming, each only passed one of my tests -- and Microsoft's Copilot didn't pass any. I'm mentioning them here because people will ask, and I did test them thoroughly. Some bots do just fine for other work, so I'll point you to their general reviews if you're just curious about how they function. DeepSeek R1 David Gewirtz/ZDNETUnlike DeepSeek V3, the advanced reasoning version DeepSeek R1 did not showcase its reasoning capabilities when it came to our programming tests. It was odd that the new failure area was one that's not all that hard, even for a basic AI -- the regular expression code for our string function test.Also: I tested DeepSeek's R1 and V3 coding skills - and we're not all doomed (yet)But that's why we are running these real-world tests. It's never clear where an AI will hallucinate or just plain fail, and before you go believing all the hype about DeepSeek R1 taking the crown away from ChatGPT, run some programming tests. So far, while I'm impressed with the much reduced resource utilization and the open source nature of the product, its coding quality output is inconsistent.GitHub Copilot David Gewirtz/ZDNETGitHub's Copilot integrates quite seamlessly with VS Code. It makes asking for coding help very quick and productive, especially when working in context. That's why it's so disappointing that the code it writes can often be so very wrong.Also: I put GitHub Copilot's AI to the test - and it just might be terrible at writing codeI can't, in good conscience, recommend you use the GitHub Copilot extensions for VS Code. I'm concerned that the temptation will be too great to just insert blocks of code without sufficient testing -- and that GitHub Copilot's produced code is just not ready for production use. Try again next year. Meta AI David Gewirtz/ZDNETMeta AI is Facebook's general-purpose AI. As you can see above, it failed three of our four tests.Also: 15 ways AI saved me time at work in 2024 - and how I plan to use it in 2025The AI did generate a nice user interface but with zero functionality. And it did find my annoying bug, which is a fairly serious challenge. Given the specific knowledge required to find the bug, I was surprised it choked on a simple regular expression challenge. But it did. Meta Code Llama David Gewirtz/ZDNETMeta Code Llama is Facebook's AI designed specifically for coding help. It's something you can download and install on your server. I tested it running on a Hugging Face AI instance.Also:Can Meta AI code? I tested it against Llama, Gemini, and ChatGPT - it wasn't even closeWeirdly, even though both Meta AI and Meta Code Llama choked on three of four of my tests, they choked on different problems. AIs can't be counted on to give the same answer twice, but this result was a surprise. We'll see if that changes over time. Claude 3.5 Sonnet David Gewirtz/ZDNETAnthropic claims the 3.5 Sonnet version of its Claude AI chatbot is ideal for programming. After failing all but one test, I'm not so sure.If you're not using it for programming, Claude may be a better choice than the free version of ChatGPT.My ZDNET colleague Maria Diaz reports that Claude can handle uploaded files, process more words than the free version of ChatGPT, provide information roughly a year more current than GPT-3.5, and access websites. Gemini Advanced David Gewirtz/ZDNETGemini Advanced is Google's $20 pro version of its Gemini (formerly Bard) chatbot. I expected the tool to do better than one out of four. Interestingly, it passed the one test that every AI other than GPT-4/4o failed -- knowledge of that fairly obscure programming language produced by one programmer in Australia.So, if it knew that language, why couldn't it handle basic regular expressions or other first-year programming student problems? Microsoft Copilot David Gewirtz/ZDNETYou'd think the company with the "Developers! Developers! Developers!" mantra in its DNA would have an AI that does better on the programming tests. Microsoft produces some of the best coding tools on the planet. And yet, Copilot did badly.Also:What are Microsoft's different Copilots? Here are the differences and how you can use themThe one positive thing is that Microsoft always learns from its mistakes. So, I'll check back later and see if this result improves. But I like [insert name here]. Does this mean I have to use a different chatbot?Probably not. I've limited my tests to day-to-day programming tasks. None of the bots has been asked to talk like a pirate, write prose, or draw a picture. In the same way we use different productivity tools to accomplish specific tasks, feel free to choose the AI that helps you complete the task at hand.The only issue is if you're on a budget and are paying for a pro version. Then, find the AI that does most of what you want, so you don't have to pay for too many AI add-ons. It's only a matter of time The results of my tests were fairly surprising, especially given the big investments of Microsoft and Google. But this area of innovation is improving at warp speed, so we'll be back with updated tests and results over time. Stay tuned.Have you used any of these AI chatbots for programming? What has your experience been? Let us know in the comments below. You can follow my day-to-day project updates on social media. Be sure to subscribe to my weekly update newsletter, and follow me on Twitter/X at @DavidGewirtz, on Facebook at Facebook.com/DavidGewirtz, on Instagram at Instagram.com/DavidGewirtz, and on YouTube at YouTube.com/DavidGewirtzTV.Featured

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For the first time ever the H5N9 avian influenza virus has caused an outbreak in the U.S. This ... [+] occurred on a duck farm in Merced, California. Pictured here is a random duck, not from that farm. (Photo: Getty)gettyA bird in hand may be worth two in the bush. But two bird flu strains out of hand would certainly be worse than one. The U.S. hasnt been able to control the spread of the H5N1 bird flu. And now another strain of avian influenza, H5N9, has caused for the first time ever an outbreak in the U.S.This H5N9 outbreak occurred on a duck farm in Merced, California, and has been reported to the World Organisation for Animal Health, known as WOAH. And whoa, the outbreak resulted in nearly 119,00 birds perishing as of December 2, 2024, although its not clear how many of these birds died from infections versus were culled to prevent further spread of H5N9.What Makes H5N9 Different From H5N1When you are scrolling through the news or social media and only half paying attention, it may be easy to mistaken H5N9 for H5N1 since the only difference in their names is the number following the N. But these are two different lineages that in turn have their own sets of different clades and subclades under them. In other words, there are lots of different H5N1 viruses and lots of different H5N9 viruses. In this case, H stands for hemagglutinin, a protein that is found on the surface of influenza type A viruses that helps get the virus into cells that it infects and can come in 18 different subtypes: H1 through H18. The N stands for neuraminidase, a different protein that helps the virus out of cells and can come in 11 different subtypes: N1 through N11.This H5N1 Strain Has Been Spreading Further For A Longer Time Than The H5N9 StrainHaving to worry now about two different strains of highly pathogenic avian influenza isnt exactly a two tickets to paradise situation. But could it be two possible tickets to a pandemic? Well, the H5N1 strain has been spreading among birds for the past several years and recently appeared in other animals like cattle, cats, pigs and, yes, humans, as Ive described for Forbes. At least 67 humans have tested positive for the H5N1 strain to date with one person in Louisiana dying, as reported by the Louisiana Department of Public Health.The positive news is that there hasnt yet been any clear evidence of any of these 67 people catching the virus from another human. But the more this strain continues to spread the greater the concern that H5N1 may eventually acquire the ability to spread among humans, which in turn would raise the possibility of the p word.MORE FOR YOUA pandemic is when a novel pathogenmeaning one that hasnt really infected humans previouslyspreads among humans in different countries simultaneously, as I have described for Forbes. Novel pathogens can wreak havoc because your immune system can behave like a virgin on a first date when encountering them. It can fire off in random directions, trying all sorts of things that wont work and in fact cause more self-harm. Thats what happened during the 1918 H1N1 influenza pandemic and the COVID-19 pandemic.Mutations And Reassortments Could Change The Pandemic Potential Of H5N9So far, the H5N9 strain hasnt seemed to spread nearly as far as the H5N1 strain. Therefore, at this moment, the H5N9 doesnt seem to be as big a p threat as the H5N1. Keep in mind, though, that bird flu strains are sort of like celebrity marriages. You never know what may happen and what is currently happening behind the scenes. You never know when a series of mutations or genetic reassortments in the virus could significantly change what it can do. Reassortment is when two or more influenza viruses infect a single host and then swap segments of their genetic material with each other.The more birds get infected with the H5N1 or N5N9 viruses, the more likely it is for different mutations and reassortments to occur. Chances of such chance events increase even more when other animals get infected like pigs where reassortments are even more likely. Thats why its important to control the spread of such viruses among birds even if you are not a bird. And why the failure of the U.S. to do so could end up endangering all of us. After all, you never know when mutations and reassortments could end giving humans the bird, the bird flu that is.

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TL;DR: AMD has published benchmarks that appear to suggest its Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics card is significantly faster than Nvidia's RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 Super when it comes to DeepSeek R1 benchmarks. Team Red also released instructions for DIY enthusiasts to run the R1 on Ryzen AI CPUs and Radeon GPUs. According to an X post by David McAfee, the VP and GM of Ryzen CPU and Radeon graphics at AMD, the company tested the 7900 XTX against the RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 Super using DeepSeek R1, and the RDNA 3 GPU was between 13 percent and 34 percent faster than Nvidia hardware depending on the LLM and number of parameters.With seven billion parameters, the 7900 XTX trumped the RTX 4090 by 13 percent in Distill Qwen, while it was 11 percent faster in Distill Llama with eight billion parameters. With 14 billion parameters, the AMD card beat the Ada Lovelace flagship by two percent in Distill Qwen. However, when the number of parameters went up to 32 billion, the RTX 4090 had a four percent advantage over the RDNA 3 flagship in Distill Qwen.AMD also compared the 7900 XTX to the RTX 4080 Super, showing its card was faster in every test. The AMD product outperformed the Nvidia GPU by 34 percent using DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen with seven billion parameters and 27 percent using Distill Llama with eight billion parameters. With the number of parameters increased to 14 billion, the card from Team Red was still 22 percent faster using Distill Qwen.In addition to the benchmarks, AMD also published detailed instructions on how to run DeepSeek locally on your PC. According to the company, all its RDNA 3 desktop GPUs are compatible with several LLMs using R1. Most of these models can also run on select Ryzen CPUs with XDNA NPUs.AMD also released a list of the maximum supported LLM parameters and provided instructions on how LM Studio's one-click installer can be tuned for its hardware. According to the company, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX supports up to 32 billion parameters, while the entry-level RX 7600, with its 8GB of VRAM, supports up to eight billion parameters in Distill Llama. // Related Stories

WTF?! Following the pandemic, companies are rethinking their physical footprints and looking for ways to optimize whatever desk space employees use. Logitech believes it has part of the solution with a tiny radar sensor called Spot. The Spot is basically a peel-and-stick pebble that uses radar to detect people's presence. It can see about 16 feet in front of it and also sense movement from side to side. Stick one of these on the wall, and your office will know when rooms are occupied and by how many people.The device is also loaded with environmental sensors to measure air quality, CO2 levels, temperature, humidity, and more. Logitech says companies can use this data to make sure office conditions are ideal for employees.However, the bigger play here is giving companies deeper insights into how their physical workspaces are actually being utilized. Facility managers can see which areas are being underutilized by blanketing the office with these sensors.Henry Levak, the head of product for Logitech's business division, told The Verge that there are already cameras to monitor larger spaces. But the beauty of Spot is adding that same visibility to smaller rooms and huddle areas "where you don't want cameras pointing at people."The company touts several use cases: automating unused room reservations, optimizing HVAC systems based on real occupancy instead of schedules, and even potential cognitive benefits from avoiding stale air buildup. // Related StoriesSpot transmits its sensor data wirelessly to hubs using low-power LoRaWAN radio technology. It hooks into Logitech's existing office management solutions such as interactive maps and scheduling panels. It also integrates with Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and various workplace platforms via APIs. The sensors run for up to four years on a single battery.Of course, densely blanketing the corporate campus with occupancy sensors also provides a panoptic view into individual movements and behaviors. But Logitech emphasizes that the radar isn't precise enough to identify specific people, and it's certainly less invasive than office cameras.Spot officially launches in the second half of this year.

Table of ContentsTable of ContentsRTX 5090RTX 5080Prebuilt PCsThe day is finally upon us Nvidias best graphics cards are here, and you can buy them now. The RTX 5090 and the RTX 5080 are now available at various retailers, both online and in brick-and-mortar stores. Theres just one problem: The cards may suffer from limited availability, so the sooner you shop, the better.While we expect these GPUs to sell out quickly over the next few weeks, its still possible to buy them today. Find out where to buy the RTX 5090 and the RTX 5080 today.Recommended VideosJacob Roach / Digital TrendsNvidias RTX 5090 is a complete beast, and it comes with a price tag to match. Starting at $2,000, these GPUs arent cheap, but they also wont be easy to come by. Leakers and manufacturers alike have been pretty vocal about the fact that we may face a GPU shortage when it comes to these cards. For instance, MSI said that itll open preorders today, but the cards wont ship until February 6. Still, no reason not to buy one now theyll probably be sold out by February 6, anyway.Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming Lets start with Best Buy. The retailer currently has two RTX 5090 models up for grabs. Theres the Nvidia Founders Edition model sold at the recommended list price (MSRP) of $1,999, and theres a much pricier Gigabyte Aorus Master Ice in a gorgeous silver color, and that one will cost you $2,529.Newegg has a whole lot of RTX , and all of these cards are made by some of Nvidias most popular partners. Youll find Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, and Zotac cards up for grabs at varying prices, although the vast majority are sold at above MSRP. The good news is that there are plenty of GPUs up for grabs, so you very well might be able to score one before theyre all gone.B&H is another retailer that has a bunch of RTX 5090s in stock. The cards are only available through B&Hs waiting list, which means you can only grab one if you sign up for a Stock Alert request the first people to sign up will be the first ones to get notified and be able to buy one. There are cards from PNY, MSI, Asus, and Gigabyte, ranging from more reasonable options like to outrageous GPUs like this liquid-cooled .The card is also most likely going to be available at Nvidias own store as well as through .If youre based in Canada, you have a few options, including , , and Memory Express.While youre here, dont forget that the RTX 5090 is a power-hungry beast, so you might need a new PSU.Jacob Roach / Digital TrendsThe Nvidia RTX 5080 is a much cheaper card at $999, but its still powerful. While far behind the RTX 5090, it outpaces the RTX 4080 Super and isnt too far behind the RTX 4090. Were not sure whether this card will suffer from similar availability constraints as the RTX 5090, but its better to be safe than sorry these GPUs might sell out quickly, seeing as the RTX 4080 Super is running low on stock levels, too.Starting with , the retailer is a good place to find an RTX 5080. There are lots of variants available, and although they might sell out quickly, there are several different models up for grabs at the time of writing.Similarly, B&H seems like a . There are models from Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, and PNY. Much like with the RTX 5090, youll need to sign up for B&Hs waiting list and hope you were quick enough to get picked to buy the GPU.Strangely enough, Best Buy doesnt have any RTX 5080s in stock right now, but it does have that come with the RTX 5080. Id be wary of the availability of the latter, as its unclear when theyll become available.We expect the RTX 5080 to make an appearance at , with third-party models as well as Nvidias Founders Edition up for grabs.People in Canada can also find these GPUs at the same retailers as the RTX 5090, meaning , Memory Express, and .If you dont want the hassle of building your own PC, youre in luck. System builders prepared several prebuilt PCs for the launch of the RTX 5090 and the RTX 5080, so there are options if you want to just get a computer and start gaming right away.Best Buy is a good place to check first. There are some surprisingly decent prebuilt deals, such as this Asus ROG G700, priced at $2,399. Aside from the RTX 5080, the PC also comes with an Intel Core Ultra 7 Series 2 CPU, 32GB of VRAM, and a 2TB SSD.If you prefer AMD, iBUYPOWER prepared a prebuilt with the Ryzen 9 9900X and 32GB of DDR5 RAM, starting at $2,999.Adorama also has a few , starting at $2,299 and going all the way up to $2,769.Want a prebuilt with an RTX 5090? So far, Newegg seems like your best bet. The retailer is offering AMD and Intel models from a few system builders, including ABS, AVGPC, and Yeyian. There are a couple of RTX 5090 models, one from Yeyian and one from ABS, both priced at $4,299 and running on Intel.Stock levels for these GPUs are bound to be volatile in the next few weeks, so check back here for more offers throughout the day.Editors Recommendations