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Dave W. Plummer, the Microsoft developer who created Task Manager and helped build Windows Product Activation, has revealed the origins of Windows XP's most notorious product key. The alphanumeric string FCKGW-RHQQ2-YXRKT-8TG6W-2B7Q8 was not cracked through clever hacking but leaked as a legitimate volume licensing key five weeks before XP's October 2001 release.
A warez group distributed the key alongside special corporate installation media. Windows Product Activation generated hardware IDs from system.
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The last time the US tested a nuclear weapon was in 1992, when Congress pushed to halt such trials in the wake of the Cold war. Read more ›
772 fresh
A YouTuber's videos telling people how to use Windows 11 without a Microsoft account and how to install it on unsupported hardware were allegedly violating community guidelines on dangerous and illegal activities. Read more ›
559
On Monday, a new online “encyclopedia” sputtered to life. Grokipedia is the brainchild of Elon Musk and his startup xAI, and the billionaire is promoting it as a supposedly less woke and less biased version of Wikipedia. Musk’s goal? “The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.” In both format and style, Grokipedia […] Read more ›
548
Ken Langone also had a word of advice for people who take issue with the country overall. Read more ›
521
"You know, it's not the best news. But there was other news that could have been a lot worse, you know?" Charlie Sheen said. Read more ›
425 fresh
Moving to Vietnam made Peter Truong reflect on how his parents were able to move to Canada without knowing English and still build a life there. Read more ›
421 fresh
Business Insider's reporters walk through the big layoffs at Amazon, why the cuts came, and who could be next. Read more ›
215
Rivian told workers on Oct. 23 that it would be cutting 4.5% of its workforce, or more than 600 employees. BI viewed a copy of the severance package. Read more ›
192 fresh
Poland's armed forces said its MiG-29s "successfully intercepted, visually identified, and escorted" the Russian Ilyushin-20 in the Baltic Sea. Read more ›
174 fresh
Apple's base iPhone 17 appears to be a sleeper hit, but does it offer enough to upgrade from an earlier model? See how it fares against recent iPhones. Read more ›
167
It's been nearly two weeks since Microsoft, a multi-trillion dollar company, shipped a $600 handheld "Xbox" that can't be relied on to sleep, wake, or hold a charge while asleep in my tests. Neither Microsoft nor Asus would admit there's a problem with the white Xbox Ally or offer a timeline to fix it after […] Read more ›
163
On an earnings call, Zuck acknowledged that Meta’s massive AI spend might not go as intended in the near future. Read more ›
116 fresh
Alexander Skarsgård's Apple TV series based on Martha Wells' hit 'Murderbot Diaries' books also has a second season on the way. Read more ›
93
The Python Software Foundation rejected a $1.5 million U.S. government grant because it required them to renounce all diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. "The non-profit would've used the funding to help prevent supply chain attacks; create a new automated, proactive review process for new PyPI packages; and make the project's work easily transferable to other open-source package managers," reports The Register. From the report: The programming non-profit's deputy executive director... Read more ›
238
An AI system "apparently mistook a high school student's bag of Doritos for a firearm," reports the Guardian, "and called local police to tell them the pupil was armed." Taki Allen was sitting with friends on Monday night outside Kenwood high school in Baltimore and eating a snack when police officers with guns approached him. "At first, I didn't know where they were going until they started walking toward me... Read more ›
126
The Washington Post reports on 996, "a term popularized in China that refers to a rigid work schedule in which people work from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week..." As the artificial intelligence race heats up, many start-ups in Silicon Valley and New York are promoting hardcore culture as a way of life, pushing the limits of work hours, demanding that workers move fast to be first... Read more ›
123
Electronic Arts has spent the past year pushing its nearly 15,000 employees to use AI for everything from code generation to scripting difficult conversations about pay. Employees in some areas must complete multiple AI training courses and use tools like the company's in-house chatbot ReefGPT daily. The tools produce flawed code and hallucinations that employees then spend time correcting. Staff say the AI creates more work rather than less, according... Read more ›
110
Employees are using AI to generate fake expense receipts. Leading expense software platforms report a sharp increase in AI-created fraudulent documents following the launch of improved image generation models by OpenAI and Google. AppZen said fake AI receipts accounted for 14% of fraudulent documents submitted in September compared with none last year. Ramp flagged more than one million dollars in fraudulent invoices within 90 days. About 30% of financial professionals... Read more ›
100
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NBC News: Two senators said they are announcing bipartisan legislation on Tuesday to crack down on tech companies that make artificial intelligence chatbot companions available to minors, after complaints from parents who blamed the products for pushing their children into sexual conversations and even suicide. The legislation from Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo, and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., follows a congressional hearing last month at... Read more ›
84
At TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said society will ultimately accept a fatal robotaxi crash as part of the broader tradeoff for safer roads overall. TechCrunch reports: The topic of a fatal robotaxi crash came up during Mawakana's interview with Kristen Korosec, TechCrunch's transportation editor, during the first day of the outlet's annual Disrupt conference in San Francisco. Korosec asked Mawakana about Waymo's ambitions and got answer after... Read more ›
76
An anonymous reader shares a report: With gingko "memory-boost tinctures," fennel "tummy-soothing syrups" and "citrus-immune gummies," AI "slop" has come for herbalism, a study published by a leading AI-detection company has found. Originality.ai, which offers its tools to universities and businesses, says it scanned 558 titles published in Amazon's herbal remedies subcategory between January and September this year, and found 82% of the books "were likely written" by AI. "This... Read more ›
76
Thursday the Washington Post profiled "the people who dare to say no to AI," including a 16-year-old high school student in Virginia says "she doesn't want to off-load her thinking to a machine and worries about the bias and inaccuracies AI tools can produce..." "As the tech industry and corporate America go all in on artificial intelligence, some people are holding back." Some tech workers told The Washington Post they... Read more ›
69
Larry Sanger, who helped launch Wikipedia in 2001 before being ousted by co-founder Jimmy Wales a year later, has spent years arguing the online encyclopedia has abandoned its commitment to neutrality. Leading conservatives in the second Trump administration are now amplifying his critique. Elon Musk announced plans to launch an AI-powered alternative called Grokipedia this week, calling Wikipedia "hopelessly biased." Senator Ted Cruz sent a letter to the Wikimedia Foundation... Read more ›
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30.10.2025 04:15
Last update: 04:11 EDT.
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