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President Joe Biden signed a wide-ranging executive order on artificial intelligence Monday, setting the stage for some industry regulations and funding for the U.S. government to further invest in the technology. From a report: The order is broad, and its focuses range from civil rights and industry regulations to a government hiring spree. In a media call previewing the order Sunday, a senior White House official, who asked to not be named as part of the terms of the call, said AI has so many facets that effective regulations have to cast a wide net. "AI policy is like running into a decathlon, and there's 10 different events here," the official said. "And we don't have the luxury of just picking 'we're just going to do safety' or "we're just going to do equity' or 'we're just going to do privacy.' You have to do all of these things."

The official also called for "significant bipartisan legislation" to further advance the country's interests with AI. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., held a private forum in September with industry leaders but has yet to introduce significant AI legislation. Some of the order builds on a previous nonbinding agreement that seven of the top U.S. tech companies developing AI agreed to in July, like hiring outside experts to probe their systems for weaknesses and sharing their critical findings. The order leverages the Defense Production Act to legally require those companies to share safety test results with the federal government.

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Biden Signs Executive Order To Oversee and Invest in AI - Slashdot

Meta Platforms is preparing to launch software to help developers automatically generate programming code, a challenge to proprietary software from OpenAI, Google and others, according to two people with direct knowledge of the product. Metas code-generating artificial intelligence model, dubbed Code Llama, will be open-source and could launch as soon as next week, one of these people said.

The new coding model rivals OpenAIs Codex model and builds on Metas Llama 2 software, a large-language model that can understand and generate conversational text. Llama 2, which is open-source, upended the AI field by making it easier for companies to make their own AI apps without paying for software from OpenAI, Google or Microsoft. Code Llama will make it easier for companies to develop AI assistants that automatically suggest code to developers as they type, and it could siphon customers from paid coding assistants such as Microsofts GitHub Copilot, which is powered by Codex.

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Meta's Next AI Attack on OpenAI: Free Code-Generating Software - The Information

We all love getting something for free, and if you're reading this and use a Samsung Galaxy S23 series device, chances are you just have. That's because a major update has just been made available for users in a host of new territories.

The One UI 6 beta program opened late last week, offering users the chance to test out the latest version of Samsung's software before it gets a public release. The new operating system runs on the latest Android 14 software, with a few additional lashings of Samsung flair for good measure.

Previously, the beta software was only available to users in the USA, South Korea and Germany. But now, users in China, India, Poland and the UK can also get access.

It's a great upgrade. While there's not really a headline feature upgrade this time out, it does come with a suite of smaller changes which should add up to a decent boost for users.

Among the most notable features are a new back arrow for easier navigation. That hovers on the left-hand side of the screen, and should give users a better idea of whether they're heading back a single page, or to the home screen something which hasn't always been abundantly clear, before now. There are also upgrades to accessibility features, more detailed control for media sharing and more.

On top of that, Samsung have had some fun with things. There's a new default font, which will likely be the most noticeable change. They've also redesigned the quick panel, and made it easier to access the panel in a hurry.

The new update means that users with a base model S23, a Samsung Galaxy S23+ or a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra can gain access to the new operating system. Don't panic if you're still using an older Samsung phone, either.

Generally, the brand debut the beta access on their most recent device range, before moving on to older, supported handsets. It may take a little longer generally the roll out happens over the space of a few weeks but you'll get the same opportunity before long.

If you'd prefer to wait for the full public release, you can. There's currently no date set in stone for that to be released, with Samsung only saying that it will come out after feedback from the beta is implemented.

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Millions of Samsung Galaxy S23 users just got a sweet free software ... - Yahoo Life

benny Vasquez told iTWire in an interview: "I see Enterprise Linux shifting into something new and exciting, and I see a shift away from anyone using Red Hat as *the* standard to a much more diversified enterprise Linux ecosystem. We are already seeing new and exciting opportunities that havent existed while the 'standard' was being a downstream-rebuild of RHEL."

There have been plenty of ructions in the open source and free software communities after Red Hat announced on 21 June that it would be making the source of Red Hat Enterprise Linux available only to paying customers.

Vasquez said while there was no direct communication about this from Red Hat, "there were certainly signs of a shift at least a few weeks ahead of time".

Vasquez entered open source development as part of her early career in Web hosting. "The entire Web hosting industry is built on open-source software," she said. "It was an absolute delight to be able to encourage and support the software that we used to build the web hosting control panel cPanel, and then to take the skills Id learned there to help the community at Chef through a rough transitionary time."

The foundation is a non-profit but there is a company named CIQ that offers support for AlmaLinux, with one of its more notable staffer being Samba co-founder Jeremy Allison, a long-time supporter of free software and an individual who left Novell on principle when the company, at that time the owner of SUSE, signed a deal with Microsoft in 2006.

Vasquez said last month that from now on, AlmaLinux would aim for being application binary interface compatible

She answered a number of queries from iTWire; her answers are given in full below:

iTWire: What kind of company generally uses AlmaLinux?

benny Vasquez: AlmaLinuxs users are as diverse as they come. If we focus on just non-hobbyist uses of AlmaLinux, weve got everything from ubiquitous communication platforms to global delivery services to

How are support contracts determined? I mean the amounts, based on services offered. You don't have to give dollar figures.

The AlmaLinux OS Foundation is a 501(c)(6) non-profit and doesnt offer any contracts of any kind. AlmaLinux OS is a community operating system, which is free for use and for which our community provides support. There are some companies that offer third party support of AlmaLinux, but we dont offer them ourselves.

What kinds of services does AlmaLinux offer?

None. Our software and various projects are free to use, and we welcome contributors at whatever level they can join us.

When AlmaLinux was first announced, there was an estimate of what it would take to make the distribution a viable build at the enterprise scale. Has that target been achieved?

Im not sure what specifically youre referencing in that article, but the answer is yes. As is evidenced by our release schedule and consistent delivery of updates and security patches, weve achieved that goal and more.

Any notable names who are working for AlmaLinux? (similar to Jeremy Allison in CIQ)

For sure! Our volunteer Board has a number of bigger names, but its important to distinguish that CIQ is a commercial brand, and AlmaLinux is a non-profit who doesnt pay any of its contributors. For example, Simon Phipps, who was the president of the Open Source Initiative for many years, and has been a leader in open source for decades, has been with us since the beginning.

How much has the Red Hat move been a surprise to AlmaLinux? Were there any hints in advance voices in the corridor that the step taken in June would be taken?

We didnt receive any advanced communication from Red Hat, but there were certainly signs of a shift at least a few weeks ahead of time.

In a few of my earlier reports on the development, I have mentioned the following: "The change could have something to do with the revenue which Red Hat's owner, IBM, has been reporting for Red Hat. In the first quarter of 2023, the company reported an 8% rise in revenue; for the previous four quarters it was 18%, 12%, 12% and 10% respectively." Do you think this is accurate?

I dont think I can speak for Red Hat around their decision making, but that logic certainly tracks. If a company is looking at the situation from a dollars-made perspective only, theyre going to make changes that are consistent with building revenue.

SUSE has said it will put more than US$10 million(A$15.61 million) into helping Rocky Linux. Does AlmaLinux have any big corporate names behind it?

SUSE and CIQ are working together through OpenELA, which will certainly be a boon to Rocky Linux, but I think theres an important distinction to be made here: with our 25+ sponsors comes a diversification of our funding, and that makes us feel much more confident that were around for the long haul.

Companies like CloudLinux and CyberTrust Japan are making large monetary and staffing investments in AlmaLinux, and our other sponsors provide monetary, infrastructure, and staffing support in a variety of ways. Having such an active group of invested contributors means we can stay hyper-focused on building what our community needs, and solving the pains that we all felt with CentOS Linux.

How do you see the future of enterprise Linux playing out?

I see Enterprise Linux shifting into something new and exciting, and I see a shift away from anyone using Red Hat as *the* standard to a much more diversified enterprise linux ecosystem. We are already seeing new and exciting opportunities that havent existed while the standard was being a downstream-rebuild of RHEL.

Itll be interesting to see how it plays out from a business perspective, because even if we just take the Netflix example, the reality is people will get mad about a change, but the dollars are what the company cares about. If the dollars dont go away, and actually grow (as they do in most cases), then they feel justified in whatever decision they made.

Netflix is my favorite example right now, because they announced that they are going to start cracking down on login sharing. The whole Internet was full of people saying, Well, Im leaving, Im not gonna put up with this. But then Netflix also signed up 6 million new users in the first quarter after that change.

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Red Hat unlikely to be standard for enterprise Linux in future, says ... - iTWire

The author took this image of star trails above observatory domes from near San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, looking toward the South Celestial Pole. Credit: Molly Wakeling

I got started in astrophotography in July 2015, when I received my first telescope as a gift: an 8-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain on an altitude-azimuth mount. After nearly falling over, seeing Saturn for the first time, I decided I must attach a camera to the telescope somehow so I could share that beauty with the world.

Astrophotography is often associated with expensive telescopes, robotic mounts, and highly technical challenges. But getting started can be easier than you think: All you need is a basic DSLR and a tripod.

Images of star trails are stunning and easy to make. Start with your DSLR and a short-focal-length lens (a stock 1855mm zoom lens at 18mm is perfect) on a tripod, and pick an area of sky. Capturing the motion of stars as they wheel around the celestial poles is particularly mesmerizing, so facing north (or south, in the Southern Hemisphere) is a good place to start. A nice foreground, such as a barn or a tent or even a distant tree line or mountain, will make for a captivating image.

In Manual mode, set the exposure time to 30 seconds and choose a relatively high ISO, such as 1600 or 3200. Use the widest f/stop, or stop down one or two if you are using a very fast lens, such as f/1.8. If your camera has a built-in multiple-exposure mode, use that to trigger it. If not, an intervalometer is an indispensable tool for all kinds of astronomy purposes. Intervalometers can be programmed to activate the shutter for you (rather than you manually depressing the shutter button), including in Bulb mode, where you can set an arbitrary exposure time. You can get an intervalometer for around $20.

Take long exposures 15 to 60 seconds to avoid saturation for at least one hour, although you can go all night. I recommend taking images in JPEG format for ease of processing, or you can convert raw shots to JPEGs later.

Processing star trail images is simple through free software called Startrails (www.startrails.de). Simply load all the photos, press the Startrails button, choose the mode, and watch the magic. You can import the final image into Photoshop or another image processor to tweak colors, contrast, and other details.

This same technique can be used to take time-lapse videos of objects rising or setting, such as the Milky Way, the constellation Orion, or a crescent Moon. In this case, choose a short enough exposure that the stars dont trail as much. (Fifteen seconds is good for an 18mm lens.) Otherwise, use the same the settings and technique as for star trails.

There are many free and paid programs to turn individual frames into a video. A favorite of mine is TimeLapse DeFlicker ($35 at http://www.timelapsedeflicker.com), which smooths variation in light between exposures. Add some space-themed music for a fun video of the night!

Nightscape (or skyscape) images are wide-field shots of the night sky with a fascinating foreground, such as mountains, buildings, or anything else you might think of. Nightscape photos are best taken in raw format and from dark locations, far from cities.

A fast camera lens, such as a 14mm f/2, can capture the Milky Way rising using a single 20-second exposure. For an even more stunning image, photographers might take a single long exposure of the foreground say 30 or 60 seconds, while lighting the landscape in some way and then take several 15-second exposures of the sky to keep the stars from trailing. Stacking software can align and combine the sky exposures into one bright, high-contrast image; the photographer then replaces the sky in the foreground frame with the stacked sky frame.

Eight years after my first astroimaging experience, I now run four automated imaging rigs in my yard, with even bigger plans for the future. And I am thrilled to start sharing my knowledge and love of astronomy here!

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Observing Basics: Astrophotography without a scope | Astronomy.com - Astronomy Magazine