Upgrading your office isn’t just about technology or aesthetics—it’s about creating a workspace that inspires productivity, keeps you organized, and helps you tackle every challenge with confidence. The right desk supplies can transform your daily routine, streamline your workflow, and even spark creativity. Whether you’re working from home, heading into a busy office, or managing a hybrid setup, these five cutting-edge accessories are designed to elevate your workspace to new heights. Have a look at the top desk supplies you need for an instant upgrade in May 2025. Investing in these top desk supplies will boost your productivity and also make your workspace a place you truly enjoy spending time. These upgrades will help you embrace the future of work—efficient, organized, and inspiring. Make May 2025 the month you transform your desk and elevate your daily routine. 1. Thunderboost eGPU Dock Imagine never having to choose between portability and power again. The Thunderboost eGPU Dock is a true game-changer for anyone who wants the flexibility of a laptop but the raw muscle of a high-end desktop. With this compact device, your ultrabook can suddenly handle demanding tasks like 3D rendering, AI model training, 8K video editing, and gaming—all thanks to the NVIDIA RTX 4090 GPU packed inside. This isn’t just about raw specs. The ThunderBoost eGPU Dock represents a major leap for professionals and creatives who often find their slim laptops struggling under heavy workloads. Plugging in this eGPU instantly transforms your setup: Blender renders finish in a fraction of the time, AI workflows become local and secure, and gaming or VR experiences are smooth and immersive. It’s a solution that makes your workspace more versatile and future-ready, letting you tackle whatever the workday throws your way, whether you’re at your desk or on the road. What we like Instantly upgrades your laptop’s performance for demanding professional or creative tasks. Lightweight and compact, it fits easily in a bag for power on the go. What we dislike Only compatible with devices that have the latest Thunderbolt port, which may limit use with older laptops. To unlock its full potential, you’ll need to keep it plugged in, which can add cable clutter to your workspace. 2. DockOrb Cables, dongles, and missing adapters can turn even the neatest desk into a frustrating mess. The DockOrb 12-in-1 Dock + Qi2 Wireless Charger is designed to solve all your connectivity and charging woes in one sleek, compact package. This multifunctional hub keeps your devices powered and connected, and brings a sense of order and sophistication to your workspace. The DockOrb offers a magnetic Qi2 wireless charger right up front, making it incredibly easy to power up your smartphone—just drop it on the dock and let the high-speed 15W charging do its thing. No more fumbling for cables or worrying about alignment; the magnetic interface ensures your device is always charging at its fastest. But that’s just the beginning. Flip the DockOrb around, and you’ll find an impressive array of eleven more ports: dual HDMI outputs for multi-monitor setups, fast USB-C and USB-A connections, Ethernet, SD and microSD slots, and more. It’s perfect for those who juggle between laptops, tablets, and other peripherals or who need to quickly set up an expanded workstation. Click Here to Buy Now:  . Hurry, only 81/200 left! What we like Offers twelve essential functions, reducing cable clutter and streamlining your setup. Qi2 magnetic charger delivers quick, reliable power for your devices. What we dislike Not all smartphones support the latest wireless charging standard, so older models may not benefit. The dock’s footprint, while compact, still takes up space that may be a concern for very small or minimalist desks. 3. UnifyDrive UP6 Data management is at the heart of the modern workday, whether you’re editing high-res videos, managing research files, or simply backing up precious photos. The UnifyDrive UP6 Portable NAS reimagines storage solutions by letting you carry your own secure “cloud” wherever you go—no internet connection or remote servers required. What sets the UP6 apart is its blend of portability and robust performance. This device isn’t just a hard drive; it’s a compact NASsystem with a built-in touchscreen, battery, and wireless connectivity. With room for up to six SSDs, it lets you access, transfer, and manage your files on the fly. The touchscreen interface means you can browse or even preview files directly, without needing another computer. Bluetooth support adds further flexibility, allowing direct transfer from phones and cameras. What we like Holds up to 48TB and offers quick access via cable or wireless—ideal for large media libraries. Built-in screen lets you manage files directly, even without another device. What we dislike Filling the device with high-capacity drives can be expensive, especially for personal users. The built-in battery is useful, but may require frequent recharging during heavy use on the go. 4. Levitating Pen 2.0: Cosmic Meteorite Edition A desk isn’t just a place to work—it’s a reflection of your personality, creativity, and aspirations. The Levitating Pen 2.0: Cosmic Meteorite Edition stands out as a functional work of art, giving your workspace a futuristic, inspiring focal point. More than just a tool for writing, this pen is a conversation starter, a stress reliever, and a tangible reminder of the wonders that exist beyond our daily routines. What makes this pen extraordinary is its gravity-defying design. Suspended at an elegant 23.5-degree angle, it appears to float in mid-air, inviting you to reach out, give it a spin, and let your mind wander. Its aerospace-grade aluminum body is both durable and luxurious, while the genuine Muonionalusta meteorite embedded in the tip connects you to a piece of cosmic history, older than Earth itself. The pen’s magnetic cap and premium German ink cartridge ensure a smooth, satisfying writing experience every time. Click Here to Buy Now: What we like The floating design and meteorite tip make it an eye-catching centerpiece and conversation piece. High-quality materials and ink offer comfort and smooth performance. What we dislike The craftsmanship and materials mean it’s an investment compared to basic pens. Its levitating mechanism requires a steady surface, and the pen should be handled carefully to maintain its effect. 5. Grovemade Matte Studio Pad A cluttered desk is the enemy of productivity, but staying organized shouldn’t mean sacrificing style. The Grovemade Matte Studio Pad redefines what a desk pad can be—combining thoughtful organization, a pleasing tactile experience, and a modern aesthetic that instantly polishes any workspace. This is much more than just a surface to place your laptop. The Studio Pad’s smooth, matte surface feels inviting and resists fingerprints, keeping your space looking crisp and fresh even after hours of use. Underneath, a brushed aluminum chassis anchors the pad firmly, while a natural cork layer protects both the pad and your desk from scratches. A full-length hardwood tray provides a designated spot for pens, styluses, or other essentials, helping you keep everything in its place. The result is a workspace that feels orderly and inspiring every time you sit down. What we like Built-in tray and layered design keep your essentials tidy and accessible. The combination of aluminum, cork, and hardwood adds durability and a sophisticated look. What we dislike May not fit smaller desks, so measure your workspace before purchasing. High-quality materials come at a higher cost than standard desk pads. The post Top 5 Desk Supplies That Will Instantly Upgrade Your Office & Workflow first appeared on Yanko Design. #top #desk #supplies #that #will

Roblox Corporation, a global platform for immersive user-generated content, has introduced Cube 3D, a foundational generative AI model for creating 3D digital content from text prompts. The company has made a version of the model open-source, now accessible via GitHub and HuggingFace. The beta version, which integrates into Roblox Studio and its Lua-based API, enables creators to produce 3D meshes directly within game environments using natural language input. Unlike image-based reconstruction methods that rely on limited visual data, Cube 3D is trained on native 3D assets generated and used across Roblox’s ecosystem. This allows it to output structurally complete digital objects compatible with game engines—objects that can be interacted with in gameplay, rather than being flat facades. A typical use case involves entering a command like “generate a motorcycle” into the platform’s Assistant, resulting in a full 3D mesh suitable for immediate in-game deployment. These objects can later be enhanced with texture and color but are generated as functionally usable meshes from the outset. Cube 3D applies a token-based system to understand and predict 3D shapes. Drawing from techniques used in large language models, the AI converts geometry into shape tokens and uses autoregressive transformers to forecast subsequent tokens in a sequence—effectively “building” a mesh piece by piece. This method supports both individual object completion and full scene layout generation. To align multimodal inputs, Roblox engineers developed a unified transformer architecture compatible with text, image, and future data types such as audio. The current release focuses on object generation from text, but future updates are expected to support scene-level outputs and hybrid input modalities. Roblox has positioned the software as part of a broader shift toward real-time, user-augmented content creation. Players and developers alike will be able to generate props, environments, or interactive objects on demand. The longer-term aim is “4D creation,” where AI understands not only object form but also interaction logic and environmental relationships. This includes bounding box placement for layout, mesh fusion for multi-object environments, and context-aware alterations—such as swapping seasonal elements or adapting geometry based on narrative triggers within a game. Prompt: A red buggy with knobby tires. Image via Roblox. While Cube 3D does not currently support 3D printing file formats such as STL, the underlying methodology of tokenizing 3D shapes may influence emerging tools in virtual prototyping, AI-assisted design, and even CAD automation. Open-source release of this nature remains rare among proprietary game development platforms, particularly those dealing with native 3D asset pipelines. Roblox has also co-founded ROOST, a nonprofit focused on open-source AI safety, and recently released other models tied to responsible AI development.  Emerging AI-generated 3D modeling Tencent, a Chinese multinational technology company with significant investments in gaming and cloud services, released Hunyuan3D 2.0 to streamline digital asset creation. The system features two specialized models—Hunyuan3D-DiT for geometry and Hunyuan3D-Paint for texture—designed to improve fidelity and responsiveness in 3D generation. Internal benchmarks using Condition-Model Matching Distance (CMMD) and Fréchet Inception Distance (FID) suggest higher alignment between user prompts and resulting outputs. A companion interface, Hunyuan3D-Studio, enables sketch-to-3D workflows and low-polygon mesh export. While Tencent has not formally targeted additive manufacturing, the platform’s ability to generate both high-resolution and simplified meshes may support adaptation in prototyping and multi-material 3D printing environments. A year earlier, Nvidia, a leading developer of GPUs and parallel computing platforms widely used in AI and visualization, introduced Magic3D in 2023 as part of its generative AI research. The tool produces textured 3D meshes from natural language using a two-stage pipeline that refines coarse models into high-resolution geometry. Demonstrations—such as rendering a blue poison dart frog from a single prompt—illustrated the system’s capacity for mesh synthesis, text-driven editing, and stylistic transformation. Although primarily geared toward video games and computer-generated imagery, Nvidia researchers identified potential crossover applications in VR development and special effects, noting that streamlined model generation could lower production barriers across digital design domains. Hunyuan3D 2.0. Image via Tencent. Ready to discover who won the 20243D Printing Industry Awards? Subscribe to the 3D Printing Industry newsletter to stay updated with the latest news and insights. Featured image showcase Prompt: A red buggy with knobby tires. Image via Roblox. Anyer Tenorio Lara Anyer Tenorio Lara is an emerging tech journalist passionate about uncovering the latest advances in technology and innovation. With a sharp eye for detail and a talent for storytelling, Anyer has quickly made a name for himself in the tech community. Anyer's articles aim to make complex subjects accessible and engaging for a broad audience. In addition to his writing, Anyer enjoys participating in industry events and discussions, eager to learn and share knowledge in the dynamic world of technology. Source: https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/roblox-open-sources-cube-3d-model-for-ai-driven-3d-object-generation-239504/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=roblox-open-sources-cube-3d-model-for-ai-driven-3d-object-generation #roblox #opensources #cube #model #for #aidriven #object #generation

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 $709.It's sleek and lightweight with a gorgeous OLED, 120Hz display, great battery life, and snappy performance.Users might run into the usual compatability issues seen on Arm-compatible devices. View now at Walmart At Walmart, Asus' Vivobook S 15 is currently marked down to $709, which is roughly $90 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. It's the configuration with the Intel Core Ultra 7 chip that's drastically marked down right now.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 raised the bar for the MacBook Air (and everything else)Like all of the new Windows on ARM laptops released last summer, the Vivobook S 15 is fast and responsive with nice battery life. For the average consumer, 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: I replaced my laptop with Microsoft's 12-inch Surface Pro - here's my buying advice a week laterThis 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: Are dual-screen Windows laptop a gimmick or pure genius? My buying advice after testing oneOptimization 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: This Asus laptop is my go-to pick for creative professionals and design teams - here's whyInstead, 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 $713 is very competitive for this laptop, particularly for the display alone. Featured reviews Source: https://www.zdnet.com/article/this-affordable-asus-is-my-go-to-laptop-for-work-travel-and-its-on-sale/ #this #affordable #asus #goto #laptop #for #work #travel #and #it039s #sale

Hyper-converged infrastructure pioneer Nutanix is among a number of suppliers that smell blood in the water when it comes to VMware and its customers following the virtualisation giant’s acquisition by Broadcom. At Nutanix’s annual .Next bash in Washington DC last week, migration away from VMware and to – it hopes – its own Acropolis hypervisor (AHV) was a constant theme. As part of this, it gathered three customers to talk about their experiences of moving from VMware to Nutanix.  Of these, only one was directly attributable to Broadcom’s licensing changes, but Broadcom-Amazon Web Services (AWS) relations were key to another. We asked them about their journey to Nutanix and away from VMware, as well as the precise pain points that prompted their decisions. Here, we talk to: Dom Johnston, IT manager for Golding in Brisbane, Australia, which is a heavy civil and mining contracting company that has operated on the east coast of Australia for about 75 years.  Kee Yew Wei, associate vice-president for infrastructure and operations at MSIG, which is a Japan-headquartered insurance company that operates internationally.  Mike Taylor, hospital ship joint task director for Military Sealift Command and the US Navy, which operates two hospital ships, Mercy (pictured above) and Comfort. Dom Johnston: Golding had its infrastructure sitting in VMware on AWS. We had a three-year contract with VMware for that platform, which ended in February this year. About March of last year, there was a fairly public divorce between VMware and AWS. We weren’t sure where that left us.  To cut a long story short, with what we saw over the next two to three months from there, we considered the risk of leaving our infrastructure there beyond the end of that three-year contract was too great for us. Golding had its infrastructure sitting in VMware on AWS. [After the] fairly public divorce between VMware and AWS, we weren’t sure where that left us. With what we saw over the next two to three months, we considered the risk of leaving our infrastructure there beyond the end of that three-year contract was too great. Nutanix has kind of swung in to replace that Dom Johnston, Golding So we went out to market to look at alternatives. And Nutanix has kind of swung in to essentially replace that. We use NC2 [Nutanix Cloud Clusters] to run our production workloads in AWS, for our DR [disaster recovery] capability, and that’s essentially to directly replace the functionality that existed within AWS and VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery, which was the DR product that sat alongside that.  So essentially, our DR strategy is that if an event occurs, we immediately spin up the DR environment ready to accept a workload. In the event that is not required, it’s spun back down again, and we’ve lost, you know, a couple 100 bucks worth of compute usage.  Kee Yew Wei: Our journey with Nutanix is from 2017. We were looking for a hyper-converged system to simplify our environment, to do away with the traditional three-tier legacy system, to simplify our environment, and to reduce our datacentre footprint.  Nutanix is the system, but we didn’t have full confidence in Acropolis at that time, because it was quite new compared to VMware.  After a couple of years using Nutanix, we built confidence, so we have recently migrated all our VMware to Nutanix AHV. We completed the full migration last month.  All this came about after the acquisition by Broadcom, and we received a quotation with a 300% to 400% increase on our renewal pricing. So, then we made the decision to go for Nutanix.  We started planning somewhere around Q3 last year and were quite conservative, with completion planned for maybe somewhere in Q2 this year. My team migrated 1,000 to 2,000 VMs [virtual machines] from Q4 and completed that at the beginning of April. So today, we are a full Nutanix house. Mike Taylor: Our story with Nutanix started way back in 2017. We’d been Nutanix lookers for a long time.  On my ships, we had 1,000 blade servers and EMC tiered storage taking up multiple racks. But on the ships, there’s only a finite amount of power they generate, so I needed to find a way to bring everything down into a smaller footprint – but a smarter, smaller footprint, something that would allow me to very elegantly manage and have ease of use that my teams aboard the ships could deal with.  After a couple of years using Nutanix, we built confidence, so we have recently migrated all our VMware to Nutanix AHV Kee Yew Wei, MSIG So, we did a bake-off with Dell, Cisco and Nutanix, and we implemented Nutanix on Mercy in 2019 and Comfort in 2020. Now, we’re looking at generational refreshes of all of our equipment and probably expanding from there and getting some new features, with redundancy and disaster recovery. We do have an onboard continuity-of-operations rack, so we have mirrored failover clusters of Nutanix aboard the ships.  Now we’re all Nutanix. Everything moved over. That’s like, out of 80-something servers, we only had two or three servers that had hiccups.  Taylor: I remember standing in my main datacentre on the hospital ships. It’s very anticlimactic if you ever get to go; I just have five racks, but two of those five were purely just to run my server infrastructure. I remember standing there with one of my peers, and we were looking at it and we said, “Oh, hey, we’re still using SAN directors.” And SAN was going away, they were on their way out.  Dell had come out with stuff like FX, and other people were dabbling with hyper-converged, whereas Nutanix had already done it, and they had their own software, which was easy to understand for my engineers. So, I’m looking at these racks full of equipment, especially the VNX, which was power hungry. So, we said, “There has to be a better way to do this.” Energy was the problem. Energy was the driver to finding a solution.  We weren’t impacted by the Broadcom event. We got in before it. I do still run some VMware, so I am impacted by it there. The challenge we have incurred in continuing to operate that small part isn’t financial. It’s purely that I can’t get to updates. I can’t get to download them. It’s support aspects of the change that impact us the most, not the financial part of it.  If we hadn’t moved to Nutanix, if we were still purely ESXi, the financial part would certainly be a burden, like it is for other military commands.  Johnston: After AWS and VMware had their thing, we were notified by VMware that we were no longer able to spin up our on-demand DR cluster. They told us that, essentially, we could still use our DR plan if we powered down our production cluster before spinning up a DR cluster. We were testing quarterly, but we were no longer able to do that. In fact, we shifted to testing monthly because there was so much uncertainty in that space. We were left in a situation where, because we couldn’t test, we had zero confidence.  Kee Yew Wei: It was all about cost. We got a bill with a 300% to 400% increase on our last renewal. So, this is one of the key factors that drove us to migrate all our workloads to Nutanix. Taylor: The trade-offs are very, very light, if any. My people were very seasoned with ESXi VMware Tools and the orchestration that VMware had.  But the learning curve for Nutanix is very short. It’s very easy to pick up, but you have to learn it. There’s a different way to import an OVA, as opposed to the way you do it within the VMware ecosystem, for example. So, the trade-off is really just time to become a master at using the system with regard to functionality.  The learning curve for Nutanix is very short. It’s very easy to pick up Mike Taylor, US Navy In fact, I think I have enhanced capability using AHV as my hypervisor. When it comes to security, using VMware with the military, we have to submit vulnerability scans constantly. That’s just part of our regular drumbeat. I still run VMware on classified parts of my network, and it is very challenging to keep it secure and up to date. I don’t have that issue with Nutanix. Johnson: I second that. As far as trade-offs are concerned, or the functionality, it’s really just a question of semantics in relation to the differences between the two platforms. The way that Nutanix handles snapshots is different to the way that VMware handles snapshots. That was a learning curve for us. It’s like going from Windows 10 to Windows 11. Things are in a different spot, but it’s the same functionality.  You need to prepare your team, get them training, show them what to do. I don’t think there’s any loss of functionality. In fact, I think there are faster workflows, better availability of tools.  Kee Yew Wei: I don’t see trade-offs. Maybe 10 years ago, compatibility with other suppliers’ software might have been an issue, like backup solutions such as [Veritas] NetBackup. Maybe seven or eight years ago, they did not support Nutanix. But that’s not the case today. Read more about virtualisation and storage University will ‘pull the plug’ to test Nutanix disaster recovery: University of Reading set to save circa £500,000 and deploy Nutanix NC2 hybrid cloud that will allow failover from main datacentre.  NHS trust cloud plans hampered by Trump tariff uncertainty: Essex NHS wants to move some capacity to the Nutanix cloud, but can’t be certain prices will hold between product selection and when procurement plans gain approval.  Source: https://www.computerweekly.com/feature/Roundtable-Why-did-customers-sail-away-from-VMware #roundtable #why #did #customers #sail #away #from #vmware

Identifying the exact location of a software issue—such as a bug or feature request—remains one of the most labor-intensive tasks in the development lifecycle. Despite advances in automated patch generation and code assistants, the process of pinpointing where in the codebase a change is needed often consumes more time than determining how to fix it. Agent-based approaches powered by large language models (LLMs) have made headway by simulating developer workflows through iterative tool use and reasoning. However, these systems are typically slow, brittle, and expensive to operate, especially when built on closed-source models. In parallel, existing code retrieval models—while faster—are not optimized for the verbosity and behavioral focus of real-world issue descriptions. This misalignment between natural language inputs and code search capability presents a fundamental challenge for scalable automated debugging. SWERank — A Practical Framework for Precise Localization To address these limitations, Salesforce AI has introduced SWERank, a lightweight and effective retrieve-and-rerank framework tailored for software issue localization. SWERank is designed to bridge the gap between efficiency and precision by reframing localization as a code ranking task. The framework consists of two key components: SWERankEmbed, a bi-encoder retrieval model that encodes GitHub issues and code snippets into a shared embedding space for efficient similarity-based retrieval. SWERankLLM, a listwise reranker built on instruction-tuned LLMs that refines the ranking of retrieved candidates using contextual understanding. To train this system, the research team curated SWELOC, a large-scale dataset extracted from public GitHub repositories, linking real-world issue reports with corresponding code changes. SWELOC introduces contrastive training examples using consistency filtering and hard-negative mining to ensure data quality and relevance. Architecture and Methodological Contributions At its core, SWERank follows a two-stage pipeline. First, SWERankEmbed maps a given issue description and candidate functions into dense vector representations. Using a contrastive InfoNCE loss, the retriever is trained to increase the similarity between an issue and its true associated function while reducing its similarity to unrelated code snippets. Notably, the model benefits from carefully mined hard negatives—code functions that are semantically similar but not relevant—which improve the model’s discriminative capability. The reranking stage leverages SWERankLLM, a listwise LLM-based reranker that processes an issue description along with top-k code candidates and generates a ranked list where the relevant code appears at the top. Importantly, the training objective is adapted to settings where only the true positive is known. The model is trained to output the identifier of the relevant code snippet, maintaining compatibility with listwise inference while simplifying the supervision process. Together, these components allow SWERank to offer high performance without requiring multiple rounds of interaction or costly agent orchestration. Insights Evaluations on SWE-Bench-Lite and LocBench—two standard benchmarks for software localization—demonstrate that SWERank achieves state-of-the-art results across file, module, and function levels. On SWE-Bench-Lite, SWERankEmbed-Large (7B) attained a function-level accuracy@10 of 82.12%, outperforming even LocAgent running with Claude-3.5. When coupled with SWERankLLM-Large (32B), performance further improved to 88.69%, establishing a new benchmark for this task. In addition to performance gains, SWERank offers substantial cost benefits. Compared to Claude-powered agents, which average around $0.66 per example, SWERankLLM’s inference cost is $0.011 for the 7B model and $0.015 for the 32B variant—delivering up to 6x better accuracy-to-cost ratio. Moreover, the 137M parameter SWERankEmbed-Small model achieves competitive results, demonstrating the framework’s scalability and efficiency even on lightweight architectures. Beyond benchmark performance, experiments also show that SWELOC data improves a broad class of embedding and reranking models. Models pre-trained for general-purpose retrieval exhibited significant accuracy gains when fine-tuned with SWELOC, validating its utility as a training resource for issue localization tasks. Conclusion SWERank introduces a compelling alternative to traditional agent-based localization approaches by modeling software issue localization as a ranking problem. Through its retrieve-and-rerank architecture, SWERank delivers state-of-the-art accuracy while maintaining low inference cost and minimal latency. The accompanying SWELOC dataset provides a high-quality training foundation, enabling robust generalization across various codebases and issue types. By decoupling localization from agentic multi-step reasoning and grounding it in efficient neural retrieval, Salesforce AI demonstrates that practical, scalable solutions for debugging and code maintenance are not only possible—but well within reach using open-source tools. SWERank sets a new bar for accuracy, efficiency, and deployability in automated software engineering. Check out the Paper and Project Page. All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also, feel free to follow us on Twitter and don’t forget to join our 90k+ ML SubReddit. Here’s a brief overview of what we’re building at Marktechpost: ML News Community – r/machinelearningnews (92k+ members) Newsletter– airesearchinsights.com/(30k+ subscribers) miniCON AI Events – minicon.marktechpost.com AI Reports & Magazines – magazine.marktechpost.com AI Dev & Research News – marktechpost.com (1M+ monthly readers) Partner with us Asif RazzaqWebsite |  + postsBioAsif Razzaq is the CEO of Marktechpost Media Inc.. As a visionary entrepreneur and engineer, Asif is committed to harnessing the potential of Artificial Intelligence for social good. His most recent endeavor is the launch of an Artificial Intelligence Media Platform, Marktechpost, which stands out for its in-depth coverage of machine learning and deep learning news that is both technically sound and easily understandable by a wide audience. The platform boasts of over 2 million monthly views, illustrating its popularity among audiences.Asif Razzaqhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/6flvq/A Step-by-Step Guide to Build a Fast Semantic Search and RAG QA Engine on Web-Scraped Data Using Together AI Embeddings, FAISS Retrieval, and LangChainAsif Razzaqhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/6flvq/A Step-by-Step Guide to Deploy a Fully Integrated Firecrawl-Powered MCP Server on Claude Desktop with Smithery and VeryaXAsif Razzaqhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/6flvq/OpenAI Releases HealthBench: An Open-Source Benchmark for Measuring the Performance and Safety of Large Language Models in HealthcareAsif Razzaqhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/6flvq/PrimeIntellect Releases INTELLECT-2: A 32B Reasoning Model Trained via Distributed Asynchronous Reinforcement Learning Source: https://www.marktechpost.com/2025/05/13/agent-based-debugging-gets-a-cost-effective-alternative-salesforce-ai-presents-swerank-for-accurate-and-scalable-software-issue-localization/ #agentbased #debugging #gets #costeffective #alternative #salesforce #presents #swerank #for #accurate #and #scalable #software #issue #localization

SanDisk has officially introduced the WD Black SN8100, its latest high-end PCIe Gen 5 NVMe SSD targeting PC enthusiasts, gamers, and professional users. With sequential read speeds of up to 14,900 MB/s and write speeds of 14,000 MB/s, the drive sets a new bar for consumer SSD performance, surpassing some of the best NVMe SSDs currently on the market, including the Crucial T705.  The SN8100 uses a standard M.2 2280 form factor and is available in capacities of 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, and 8TB. It’s worth noting that the 1TB model offers lower write speeds, up to 11,000 MB/s, compared to the higher-capacity versions, which reach up to 14,000 MB/s.  Recommended Videos According to SanDisk, the drive is designed for applications ranging from gaming and content creation to AI workflows, where rapid data access and transfer are critical. The SN8100 uses SanDisk’s BiCS8 TLC 3D CBA NAND, which is engineered for a smaller footprint thereby improving thermal performance. SanDisk also states that the Gen 5.0 model is twice as power efficient as its PCIe Gen 4.0 predecessor, averaging just 7W of power consumption. Comparing the new WD Black SN8100 with the Crucial T705, which is currently one of the fastest consumer NVMe SSDs, it has some clear advantages. It’s marginally faster in read speeds (14,900 MB/s vs. 14,500 MB/s) but noticeably faster in write speeds (14,000 MB/s vs. 12,700 MB/s). It also delivers much better random performance, with 2.3 million IOPS for both reads and writes, compared to 1.5 million on the T705. While these are just numbers, in the practical world such small differences shouldn’t matter for the average consumer. FeatureWD Black SN8100Crucial T705InterfacePCIe Gen 5.0PCIe Gen 5.0Sequential Read (MB/s)14,90014,500Sequential Write (MB/s)14,00012,700Random IOPS (Read/Write)2.3M / 2.3M1.5M / 1.5MPower Draw (Avg)7W~11WForm FactorM.2 2280M.2 2280Max Capacity8TB4TB More importantly, the SN8100 is more power efficient. As mentioned, the drive is listed to draw an average of just 7W of power draw, while the T705 uses around 11W. That should potentially mean less heat and better performance in tight spaces. The WD Black SN8100 is available now through SanDisk.com and major retailers, with U.S. MSRPs set at $179.99 for 1TB, $279.99 for 2TB, and $549.99 for 4TB. The top-tier 8TB version of the SN8100 is expected to release later in the year. Additionally, a heatsink-equipped variant is also expected to launch this fall for all current capacities, priced at a $20 premium. These models will feature a newly designed passive aluminum heatsink with a low-profile form factor and customizable RGB lighting.  Source: https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/sandisks-latest-drive-sets-a-new-benchmark-for-consumer-nvme-ssds/ #sandisks #latest #drive #sets #new #benchmark #for #consumer #nvme #ssds

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Generative AI is creating a digital diaspora of techniques, technologies and tradecraft that everyone, from rogue attackers to nation-state cyber armies trained in the art of cyberwar, is adopting. Insider threats are growing, too, accelerated by job insecurity and growing inflation. All these challenges and more fall on the shoulders of the CISO, and it’s no wonder more are dealing with burnout. In Part 1: We explored how gen AI is reshaping the threat landscape, accelerating insider threats and putting unprecedented pressure on cybersecurity teams. Insider-driven risks, shadow AI usage and outdated detection models are forcing CISOs to rethink their defenses.Now, in Part 2, we turn to the solutions — how gen AI can help combat burnout across security operations centers (SOCs), enable smarter automation and guide CISOs through a 90-day roadmap to secure their enterprises against evolving threats. Battling burnout with gen AI deserves to be a 2025 CISO priority Nearly one in four CISOs consider quitting, with 93% citing extreme stress, further proving that burnout is creating increasingly severe operational and human risks. Gartner’s most recent research links burnout to decreased team efficiency and overlooked security tasks that often become vulnerabilities. Unsurprisingly, 90% of CISOs identify burnout as one of the main barriers that stand in the way of their teams getting more accomplished and using the full extent of their skills. How bad is burnout across cybersecurity and SOC teams? The majority of CISOs, 65%, say that burnout is a severe impediment to maintaining effective security operations. Forrester adds that 36% of the cybersecurity workforce are categorized as “Tired Rockstars,” or individuals who remain highly engaged but are on the brink of burnout. This emphasizes the critical need to address mental health and workload management proactively.​ SOC analysts endure heavy workloads that often turn severe when they have to monitor, analyze and aggregate insights from an average of over 10,000+ alerts a day. Chronic stress and not having enough control over their jobs lead to high turnover, with 65% considering leaving their careers. Ivanti’s 2024 Digital Employee Experience (DEX) Report underscores a vital cybersecurity link, noting that 93% of professionals agree improved DEX strengthens security, yet just 13% prioritize it. Ivanti SVP Daren Goeson told VentureBeat in a recent interview that “organizations often lack effective tools to measure digital employee experience, significantly slowing security and productivity initiatives.” SOC teams are particularly hard hit by burnout. While AI can’t solve the entire challenge, it can help automate SOC workflows and accelerate triage. Forrester is urging CISOs to think beyond automating existing processes and move forward with rationalizing security controls, deploying gen AI within existing platforms. Jeff Pollard, VP at Forrester, writes: “The only way to deal with the volatility your organization encounters is to simplify your control stack while identifying unnecessary duplicate spend and gen AI can boost productivity, but negotiating its pricing strategically will help you achieve more with less.” There are over 16 vendors of new-gen AI-based apps aimed at helping SOC teams that are in a race against time every day, especially when it comes to containing breakout times. CrowdStrike’s recent global threat report emphasizes why SOCs need to always have their A-game, as adversaries now break out within 2 minutes and 7 seconds after gaining initial access. Their recent introduction of Charlotte AI Detection Triage has proven capable of automating alert assessment with over 98% accuracy. It cuts manual triage by more than 40 hours per week, all without losing control or precision. SOCs increasingly lean on AI copilots to fight signal overload and staffing shortfalls. VentureBeat’s Security Copilot Guide (Google Sheet) provides a complete matrix with 16 vendors’ AI security copilots. What needs to be on every CISO’s roadmap in 2025 Cybersecurity leaders and their teams have significant influence on how, when and what gen AI applications and platforms their enterprises invest in. Gartner’s Phillip Shattan writes that “when it comes to generation AI-related decisions, SRM leaders wield significant influence, with over 70% reporting that cybersecurity has some influence over the decisions they make.” With so much influence on the future of gen AI investment in their organizations, CISOs need to have a solid framework or roadmap against which to plan. VentureBeat is seeing more roadmaps comparable to the one structured below for ensuring the integration of gen AI, cybersecurity and risk management initiatives. The following is a guideline that needs to be tailored to the unique needs of a business: Days 0–30: Establish core cybersecurity foundations 1. Set the goal of defining the structure and role of an AI governance framework Define formal AI policies outlining responsible data use, model training protocols, privacy controls and ethical standards. Vendors to consider: IBM AI Governance, Microsoft Purview, ServiceNow AI Governance, AWS AI Service Cards If not already in place, deploy real-time AI monitoring tools to detect unauthorized usage, anomalous behaviors and data leakage from models. Recommended platforms: Robust Intelligence, CalypsoAI, HiddenLayer, Arize AI, Credo AI, Arthur AI Train SOC, security and risk management teams on the AI-specific risks to alleviate any conflicts over how AI governance frameworks are designed to work. 2. If not already in place, get a solid Identity and Access Management (IAM) platform in place Keep building a business case for zero trust by illustrating how improving identity protection helps protect and grow revenue. Deploy a robust IAM solution to reinforce identity protection and revenue security. Top IAM platforms: If not already done, immediately conduct comprehensive audits of all user identities, focusing particularly on privileged access accounts. Enable real-time monitoring for all privileged access accounts and delete unused accounts for contractors. Implement strict least-privilege access policies, multi-factor authentication (MFA) and continuous adaptive authentication based on contextual risk assessments to strengthen your zero-trust framework. Leading Zero-Trust solutions include CrowdStrike Falcon Identity Protection, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access, Cisco Duo Security and Cloudflare Zero Trust. Establish real-time monitoring and behavioral analytics to identify and reduce insider threats rapidly. Insider threat detection leaders: Proofpoint Insider Threat Management, Varonis DatAdvantage, Forcepoint Insider Threat, DTEX Systems, Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management. Days 31–60: Accelerate Proactive Security Operations 1. Replace manual patch workflows with an automated patch management systems Your organization needs to move beyond fire drills and severity-based patch cycles to a continuous, real-time vulnerability monitoring and patch deployment strategy. AI is helping cut the risks of breaches with patch management. Six in ten breaches are linked to unpatched vulnerabilities. The majority of IT leaders responding to a Ponemon Institute survey, 60%, say that one or more of the breaches potentially occurred because a patch was available for a known vulnerability but not applied in time. Leading automated patch management vendors: Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management, Qualys Patch Management, Tanium Patch Management, CrowdStrike Falcon Spotlight, Rapid7 InsightVM. Implement automated tools prioritizing patches based on active exploitation, threat intelligence insights and business-critical asset prioritization. Establish transparent processes for immediate response to emerging threats, drastically reducing exposure windows. 2. Initiate comprehensive Cyber Risk Quantification (CRQ) If not already in progress in your organization, start evaluating the value of CRQ frameworks in improving how cybersecurity risks are measured and communicated in financial and business impact terms. Trusted CRQ solutions: BitSight, SecurityScorecard, Axio360, RiskLens, MetricStream, Safe Security, IBM Security Risk Quantification Services. Test out a CRQ by creating a detailed risk dashboard for executives and stakeholders, linking cybersecurity investments directly to strategic business outcomes. Conduct regular CRQ assessments to inform proactive security spending and resource allocation decisions clearly and strategically. Days 61–90: Keep optimizing security efficiency to fuel greater team resilience 1. Consolidate and Integrate Security Tools Audit existing cybersecurity tools, eliminating redundancies and streamlining capabilities into fewer, fully integrated platforms. Comprehensive integrated platforms: Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR, Microsoft Sentinel, CrowdStrike Falcon Platform, Splunk Security Cloud, Cisco SecureX, Trellix XDR, Arctic Wolf Security Operations Cloud. Check for strong interoperability and reliable integration among cybersecurity tools to improve threat detection, response times and overall operational efficiency. Regularly review and adjust consolidated toolsets based on evolving threat landscapes and organizational security needs. 2. Implement structured burnout mitigation and automation Starting in the SOC, leverage AI-driven automation to offload repetitive cybersecurity tasks, including triage, log analysis, vulnerability scanning and initial threat triage, significantly reducing manual workloads. Recommended SOC automation tools: CrowdStrike Falcon Fusion, SentinelOne Singularity XDR, Microsoft Defender & Copilot, Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR, Ivanti Neurons for Security Operations Establish structured recovery protocols, mandating cooldown periods and rotation schedules after major cybersecurity incidents to reduce analyst fatigue. Define a balanced, regular cadence of ongoing cybersecurity training, mental well-being initiatives, and institutionalized burnout mitigation practices to sustain long-term team resilience and efficiency. Automation and burnout mitigation vendors: Tines, Torq.io, Swimlane, Chronicle Security Operations Suite (Google Cloud), LogicHub SOAR+, Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR Conclusion With modest budget and headcount increases, CISOs and their teams are being called to defend more threat vectors than ever. Many tell VentureBeat it’s a continual balancing act that demands more time, training, and trade-offs on which legacy apps stay and which go, all defining how their future tech stack will look. CISOs who see gen AI as a strategic technology that can help unify and close gaps in security infrastructure are thorough in their vetting of new apps and tools before they go into production. While gen AI continues to fuel new adversarial AI techniques and tradecraft, cybersecurity vendors respond by accelerating the development of next-generation products. Paradoxically, the more advanced threatcraft becomes with adversarial AI, the more critical it becomes for defenders adopting AI to pursue and perfect human-in-the-middle designs that can flex and adapt to changing threats. Daily insights on business use cases with VB Daily If you want to impress your boss, VB Daily has you covered. We give you the inside scoop on what companies are doing with generative AI, from regulatory shifts to practical deployments, so you can share insights for maximum ROI. Read our Privacy Policy Thanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here. An error occured. Source: https://venturebeat.com/ai/what-your-tools-miss-at-213-am-how-gen-ai-attack-chains-exploit-telemetry-lag-part-2/ #what #your #tools #miss #how #gen #attack #chains #exploit #telemetry #lag #part

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Generative AI is creating a digital diaspora of techniques, technologies and tradecraft that everyone, from rogue attackers to nation-state cyber armies trained in the art of cyberwar, is adopting. Insider threats are growing, too, accelerated by job insecurity and growing inflation. All these challenges and more fall on the shoulders of the CISO, and it’s no wonder more are dealing with burnout. In Part 1: We explored how gen AI is reshaping the threat landscape, accelerating insider threats and putting unprecedented pressure on cybersecurity teams. Insider-driven risks, shadow AI usage and outdated detection models are forcing CISOs to rethink their defenses.Now, in Part 2, we turn to the solutions — how gen AI can help combat burnout across security operations centers (SOCs), enable smarter automation and guide CISOs through a 90-day roadmap to secure their enterprises against evolving threats. Battling burnout with gen AI deserves to be a 2025 CISO priority Nearly one in four CISOs consider quitting, with 93% citing extreme stress, further proving that burnout is creating increasingly severe operational and human risks. Gartner’s most recent research links burnout to decreased team efficiency and overlooked security tasks that often become vulnerabilities. Unsurprisingly, 90% of CISOs identify burnout as one of the main barriers that stand in the way of their teams getting more accomplished and using the full extent of their skills. How bad is burnout across cybersecurity and SOC teams? The majority of CISOs, 65%, say that burnout is a severe impediment to maintaining effective security operations. Forrester adds that 36% of the cybersecurity workforce are categorized as “Tired Rockstars,” or individuals who remain highly engaged but are on the brink of burnout. This emphasizes the critical need to address mental health and workload management proactively.​ SOC analysts endure heavy workloads that often turn severe when they have to monitor, analyze and aggregate insights from an average of over 10,000+ alerts a day. Chronic stress and not having enough control over their jobs lead to high turnover, with 65% considering leaving their careers. Ivanti’s 2024 Digital Employee Experience (DEX) Report underscores a vital cybersecurity link, noting that 93% of professionals agree improved DEX strengthens security, yet just 13% prioritize it. Ivanti SVP Daren Goeson told VentureBeat in a recent interview that “organizations often lack effective tools to measure digital employee experience, significantly slowing security and productivity initiatives.” SOC teams are particularly hard hit by burnout. While AI can’t solve the entire challenge, it can help automate SOC workflows and accelerate triage. Forrester is urging CISOs to think beyond automating existing processes and move forward with rationalizing security controls, deploying gen AI within existing platforms. Jeff Pollard, VP at Forrester, writes: “The only way to deal with the volatility your organization encounters is to simplify your control stack while identifying unnecessary duplicate spend and gen AI can boost productivity, but negotiating its pricing strategically will help you achieve more with less.” There are over 16 vendors of new-gen AI-based apps aimed at helping SOC teams that are in a race against time every day, especially when it comes to containing breakout times. CrowdStrike’s recent global threat report emphasizes why SOCs need to always have their A-game, as adversaries now break out within 2 minutes and 7 seconds after gaining initial access. Their recent introduction of Charlotte AI Detection Triage has proven capable of automating alert assessment with over 98% accuracy. It cuts manual triage by more than 40 hours per week, all without losing control or precision. SOCs increasingly lean on AI copilots to fight signal overload and staffing shortfalls. VentureBeat’s Security Copilot Guide (Google Sheet) provides a complete matrix with 16 vendors’ AI security copilots. What needs to be on every CISO’s roadmap in 2025 Cybersecurity leaders and their teams have significant influence on how, when and what gen AI applications and platforms their enterprises invest in. Gartner’s Phillip Shattan writes that “when it comes to generation AI-related decisions, SRM leaders wield significant influence, with over 70% reporting that cybersecurity has some influence over the decisions they make.” With so much influence on the future of gen AI investment in their organizations, CISOs need to have a solid framework or roadmap against which to plan. VentureBeat is seeing more roadmaps comparable to the one structured below for ensuring the integration of gen AI, cybersecurity and risk management initiatives. The following is a guideline that needs to be tailored to the unique needs of a business: Days 0–30: Establish core cybersecurity foundations 1. Set the goal of defining the structure and role of an AI governance framework Define formal AI policies outlining responsible data use, model training protocols, privacy controls and ethical standards. Vendors to consider: IBM AI Governance, Microsoft Purview, ServiceNow AI Governance, AWS AI Service Cards If not already in place, deploy real-time AI monitoring tools to detect unauthorized usage, anomalous behaviors and data leakage from models. Recommended platforms: Robust Intelligence, CalypsoAI, HiddenLayer, Arize AI, Credo AI, Arthur AI Train SOC, security and risk management teams on the AI-specific risks to alleviate any conflicts over how AI governance frameworks are designed to work. 2. If not already in place, get a solid Identity and Access Management (IAM) platform in place Keep building a business case for zero trust by illustrating how improving identity protection helps protect and grow revenue. Deploy a robust IAM solution to reinforce identity protection and revenue security. Top IAM platforms: If not already done, immediately conduct comprehensive audits of all user identities, focusing particularly on privileged access accounts. Enable real-time monitoring for all privileged access accounts and delete unused accounts for contractors. Implement strict least-privilege access policies, multi-factor authentication (MFA) and continuous adaptive authentication based on contextual risk assessments to strengthen your zero-trust framework. Leading Zero-Trust solutions include CrowdStrike Falcon Identity Protection, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access, Cisco Duo Security and Cloudflare Zero Trust. Establish real-time monitoring and behavioral analytics to identify and reduce insider threats rapidly. Insider threat detection leaders: Proofpoint Insider Threat Management, Varonis DatAdvantage, Forcepoint Insider Threat, DTEX Systems, Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management. Days 31–60: Accelerate Proactive Security Operations 1. Replace manual patch workflows with an automated patch management systems Your organization needs to move beyond fire drills and severity-based patch cycles to a continuous, real-time vulnerability monitoring and patch deployment strategy. AI is helping cut the risks of breaches with patch management. Six in ten breaches are linked to unpatched vulnerabilities. The majority of IT leaders responding to a Ponemon Institute survey, 60%, say that one or more of the breaches potentially occurred because a patch was available for a known vulnerability but not applied in time. Leading automated patch management vendors: Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management, Qualys Patch Management, Tanium Patch Management, CrowdStrike Falcon Spotlight, Rapid7 InsightVM. Implement automated tools prioritizing patches based on active exploitation, threat intelligence insights and business-critical asset prioritization. Establish transparent processes for immediate response to emerging threats, drastically reducing exposure windows. 2. Initiate comprehensive Cyber Risk Quantification (CRQ) If not already in progress in your organization, start evaluating the value of CRQ frameworks in improving how cybersecurity risks are measured and communicated in financial and business impact terms. Trusted CRQ solutions: BitSight, SecurityScorecard, Axio360, RiskLens, MetricStream, Safe Security, IBM Security Risk Quantification Services. Test out a CRQ by creating a detailed risk dashboard for executives and stakeholders, linking cybersecurity investments directly to strategic business outcomes. Conduct regular CRQ assessments to inform proactive security spending and resource allocation decisions clearly and strategically. Days 61–90: Keep optimizing security efficiency to fuel greater team resilience 1. Consolidate and Integrate Security Tools Audit existing cybersecurity tools, eliminating redundancies and streamlining capabilities into fewer, fully integrated platforms. Comprehensive integrated platforms: Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR, Microsoft Sentinel, CrowdStrike Falcon Platform, Splunk Security Cloud, Cisco SecureX, Trellix XDR, Arctic Wolf Security Operations Cloud. Check for strong interoperability and reliable integration among cybersecurity tools to improve threat detection, response times and overall operational efficiency. Regularly review and adjust consolidated toolsets based on evolving threat landscapes and organizational security needs. 2. Implement structured burnout mitigation and automation Starting in the SOC, leverage AI-driven automation to offload repetitive cybersecurity tasks, including triage, log analysis, vulnerability scanning and initial threat triage, significantly reducing manual workloads. Recommended SOC automation tools: CrowdStrike Falcon Fusion, SentinelOne Singularity XDR, Microsoft Defender & Copilot, Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR, Ivanti Neurons for Security Operations Establish structured recovery protocols, mandating cooldown periods and rotation schedules after major cybersecurity incidents to reduce analyst fatigue. Define a balanced, regular cadence of ongoing cybersecurity training, mental well-being initiatives, and institutionalized burnout mitigation practices to sustain long-term team resilience and efficiency. Automation and burnout mitigation vendors: Tines, Torq.io, Swimlane, Chronicle Security Operations Suite (Google Cloud), LogicHub SOAR+, Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR Conclusion With modest budget and headcount increases, CISOs and their teams are being called to defend more threat vectors than ever. Many tell VentureBeat it’s a continual balancing act that demands more time, training, and trade-offs on which legacy apps stay and which go, all defining how their future tech stack will look. CISOs who see gen AI as a strategic technology that can help unify and close gaps in security infrastructure are thorough in their vetting of new apps and tools before they go into production. While gen AI continues to fuel new adversarial AI techniques and tradecraft, cybersecurity vendors respond by accelerating the development of next-generation products. Paradoxically, the more advanced threatcraft becomes with adversarial AI, the more critical it becomes for defenders adopting AI to pursue and perfect human-in-the-middle designs that can flex and adapt to changing threats. Daily insights on business use cases with VB Daily If you want to impress your boss, VB Daily has you covered. We give you the inside scoop on what companies are doing with generative AI, from regulatory shifts to practical deployments, so you can share insights for maximum ROI. Read our Privacy Policy Thanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here. An error occured. Source: https://venturebeat.com/ai/what-your-tools-miss-at-213-am-how-gen-ai-attack-chains-exploit-telemetry-lag-part-2/ #what #your #tools #miss #how #gen #attack #chains #exploit #telemetry #lag #part

Could you please share a few words about yourself and your artistic background?Is This a 3D Model?: I think the best word to describe myself is "Teapot," because that is what I am, but I'd also say I'm a "3D model lover," because I am also that. I am a self-taught professional 3D Artist, and I am most proficient in ZBrush and 3ds Max. Have I mentioned I love 3D models? I just think they're so neat!Back when the so-called "AI-boom" kicked off in mid-2022, many artists were initially optimistic about the concept, what was your reaction when the first text-to-image AIs started popping up?Is This a 3D Model?: My first reaction to the "AI-boom" was, "These are not 3D models, so who even cares?" But I tried many tools such as Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, DALL-E, and was consistently underwhelmed by the results. I found much better inspiration and ideas by looking up artists' work online. I've tried many times to "adapt AI into my workflow," but I often found it made my workflow worse, both quality and productivity-wise. So now I call it out for what it is – stinky!Were you among those whose opinion on generative artificial intelligence changed over time, or were you anti-AI from the beginning? When would you say most creators started to recognize the unfair practices and overall shady behavior of AI companies and their language models?Is This a 3D Model?: I always hated how companies collected people's work without permission, and I always laughed at AI bros who pretended to be fine artists because they typed a prompt! But in the beginning, I thought the tech had more promise and potential.As time went on, I tried it more and didn't see much value in it. To this day, there is very little it can actually help me with (and I still try). I also observed many instances of shady behavior from AI companies, they act very sus on Twitter. And can you believe, some of these gen-3D companies have the nerve to call a model "high quality" when it looks terrible? Like, c'mon man, have you looked at a 3D model at any point in the last few years? Totally embarrassing!I might be mistaken here, but I think the first instance of mass protests against AI took place in December 2022 with the "Say No to AI Images" movement on ArtStation. What were your thoughts as that protest unfolded? In your opinion, are such online campaigns effective or not?Is This a 3D Model?: I thought the protest was rad! I even uploaded a "No AI" Image on my personal portfolio when it happened. I don't know if banning AI entirely will ever be possible, but ArtStation was being a total butt and could have done a better job allowing users to filter AI out or report people who are misrepresenting their skill sets. It is a professional portfolio site after all.Let's talk about Is This a 3D Model?, when was the page created? What first inspired you to start it? What goal do you ultimately want to achieve with your work?Is This a 3D Model?: This Twitter page started as a joke about a year ago. Whenever I would post negative comments on AI on my main 3D art account, AI bros would show up in my comments with some weird Midjourney images and try to tell me "give up, bro, it's over for you!" However, because AI bros don't know much about art, technology, or, well, anything, I would politely inform them that what they posted was not a 3D model.Over time, this became very frequent for people to post "3D modeling workflows of the future," where the final result was not a 3D model. I decided someone needed to take a stand for all the poor, defenseless 3D models out there!As the page grew, I decided I wanted to use it more to highlight the great work 3D Artists are doing and trying to make more "yes" posts than "no" posts. I hope to call out a lot more of these bad workflows that AI accounts are trying to promote as "the future" and encourage more 3D Artists to stay on the course and learn valuable skills. There are a lot of forces discouraging people from creating art these days. But I truly think genAI is not as capable as it's being made out to be, and all this does is prevent more people from discovering the joy of creation. And that is lame!How do you make sure you're answering the "Is this a 3D model?" question correctly for dozens of projects each week?Is This a 3D Model?: It's actually a lot easier than you think in most cases! I usually check the source, if the poster has an art portfolio, pretty safe bet it's a 3D model – AI bros don't have art portfolios. Also, when you've looked at 3D work for a long time, sometimes you can just develop the eye and tell! Can you see the faceted edges around the shape? Does it look suspiciously overly polished with no attention to literally any details? Are they calling it 3D but posting a Midjourney SREF? I think some of the ones I've classified that are the most surprising are ones that try to create the vibe of N64 games, and I suspect people are either too young to know what N64 games actually look like or just forgot.Based on your experience running the Is This a 3D Model? page, could you please share a brief guide our readers can use to confidently tell whether a given project is truly 3D? What specific signs should we look out for to be sure?Is This a 3D Model?: We implement something called the SIP method (Get it? Like sipping tea? I didn't just make this up for this interview, I promise):Source: Who is posting it? Do they look like a 3D Artist? Do they have a portfolio? Or do they mostly post Midjourney images or 3-second video clips of people talking with robot voices and explosions?Investigate: Look at the image! Can you see weird AI artifacts that make no sense? Can you see faceted edges? Does it look like a consistent 3D model with a well-executed idea?Polygons: If all else fails, can you find a screenshot of the topology? It won't exist with AI images. And if you can, does it make any sense? Some people even make fake wireframes with AI, I've attached a great example of that below. While this may look like a 3D wireframe, if you look closely, the details don't make sense. Why is a simple cylindrical cup so messy? Why do the trucks on the shirt turn into a drawing? It's all because an AI Image generator made a JPG of a wireframe. How silly!Usually, using one or all of these techniques, you can determine pretty quickly if what you're looking at is a safe, lovely 3D model or gross, yucky AI.Regarding the digital art industry as a whole, who would you say are the worst offenders – be it AI developers, companies, individuals, art platforms, you name it – on the matter of AI?Is This a 3D Model?: A lot of companies have sadly succumbed to the AI fad, be it fearmongering or overhyping. The worst offenders by far are the companies developing these AI products. They often don't even pretend to be professional companies and do all sorts of weird things. There is one generative 3D company where the owner resorts to posting fake endorsement comments all over Reddit. Embarassing!The second worst are all the grifters on Twitter who just post "Hollywood is Dead Part 85" over and over again. If AI is so good, you all wouldn't need to post so much slop! For the Is This a 3D Model family personally, I have to say one of the biggest offenders is some guy who compared our account to nazis because I said "no" on one of their posts. Wild!AI is, unfortunately, everywhere, but artists are also everywhere. Seek out the many talented 2D and 3D Artists on all the platforms and fill your feed with them! The majority of artists don't use AI and for a good reason. Pretty soon, your feed will be full of lovely art and 3D models, and you'll have brief moments where you forget AI slop even exists!Lastly, what are your hopes for digital art going forward? How do you think the industry will look in, let's say, 5-10 years? What can we all do to combat the spread of generative AI?Is This a 3D Model?: I would like to end this on a message of hope. While a lot of jobs will be impacted in the short term, I think in 5-10 years, the limitations of AI tools will be much more well-known than they are today. I also think AI will plateau at a certain look and style that people are already getting sick of today. A lot of companies that rudely get rid of artists will quickly realize they got scammed by AI companies, and they still need those artists because AI will fall short in many ways. Plus, many companies simply won't want their video games or their commercials to look like the weird slop plaguing Facebook.The best thing we can do moving forward is to keep focusing on the skills that matter. Learn art fundamentals, drawing, sculpting, anatomy, color theory, and, of course, 3D modeling! Don't listen to "adapt or get left behind!" AI tools are designed for babies! If you spend your time grinding your art skills and developing your artistic eye, even if you are one day forced to use AI tools, you will be the most qualified to use them. Does anyone really think in 5-10 years, "prompt engineering skills" will still exist? Puh-LEASE. Using an AI is already as easy as googling, and it will just get easier. People will always want people who are competent and know what they're doing, and the best way you can do that is by showing you've got your own skills!Art is a historically challenging field for anyone. It always has been! The only way you'll make it is by working hard at it, challenging yourself, and not letting yourself get discouraged. I always recommend people to have backup plans and figure out what a viable career path is. This was important even before AI.I was one of those people who gave up on art jobs, I never thought I'd have one. Thought it was too competitive and focused on a different career entirely. But I kept doing 3D as a hobby because I LOVE POLYGONS. I would dedicate time every night to work in ZBrush for fun, and now I'm a professional 3D Artist! Part of why I run this account is that I know what it's like to be discouraged from pursuing art. And I know if I ever extinguished that flame, I wouldn't be living my dream right now. I hope one day in 5-10 years someone reading this today can say this motivated them to put in the time and effort to become an incredible artist, despite all the naysayers, and got one of those jobs that supposedly wasn't going to exist anymore!Is This a 3D Model, 3D ArtistInterview conducted by Theodore McKenzie Source: https://80.lv/articles/we-spoke-to-is-this-a-3d-model-about-ai-3d-modeling-the-goal-of-their-twitter-page/ #spoke #this #model #about #modeling #ampamp #the #goal #their #twitter #page