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Elon Musk hit with lawsuit from landlord over millions in missing payments
Twitter owner Elon Musk has been slapped with another lawsuit, but this time it isn't over any controversial tweets.
The SpaceX and Tesla CEO has been accused of failing to pay rent for Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco since December 2021, and the total amount owed has reached the multiple million mark. The lawsuit, which was filed this month in San Francisco state court by SRI Nine Market Square LLC, a company associated with the real estate company Shorenstein, claimed that Twitter has reduced its rent payments over the last two months. Twitter's HQ is located at 13555 Market Street and takes up multiple floors.
Notably, reports state that Twitter owes approximately $3.4 million in rent for December and another $3.4 million for January. Furthermore, the San Francisco Business Times claims the social media company has provided a letter of credit that allowed the real estate firm to cover some of the unpaid rent, but Twitter as a company still has $3.2 million in outstanding rent payments. Additionally, the owners of the building have said that Twitter has failed to fulfill its promise of increasing the size of the letter of credit after Musk took over the company in late October.
Elon Musk publicly names the people that 'effectively control the stock market'
Elon Musk has taken to his Twitter to publicly name the entities that he believes have far too much sway over the stock market.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO took to his personal Twitter account on Monday to reply to a post by Vivek Ramaswamy, who said he had traveled the country to meet with state pension funds and found that investment companies such as BlackRock and Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) have a "staggering" amount of influence over investors and companies. Ramaswamy then called for "new alternatives" to be brought to the table to even the playing field.
Musk replied to the tweet and agreed that "far too much power" is given to shareholder services such as ISS and Glass Lewis. The Twitter owner then explained that companies such as ISS and Glass Lewis have too much power because "so much of the market is passive/index funds, which outsource shareholder voting decisions to them." In conclusion, Musk wrote that both the ISS and Glass Lewis" effectively control the stock market".
Earth's mysterious iron ball at its center may have just stopped and flipped
Researchers are suggesting that the mysterious iron ball at the center of Earth may have just stopped spinning and did a flip.
A new study published on Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience details research about the inner core of Earth and how it may experience several changes in its rotation every several decades. While researchers are unable to look directly into Earth's inner core, they can measure the impact of powerful earthquakes and nuclear-weapon strikes through the seismic waves they cause. These waves reverberate through the center of Earth and inform researchers that the inner core is comprised of mostly iron and nickel.
Notably, researchers say that Earth's inner core spins slightly faster than the rotation of Earth and that if the inner core was spinning in line with the planet's outer layers, these seismic waves created by earthquakes or large weapon strikes should pass through the core through a similar path. However, researchers have noticed that these wave paths are changing over time, which some attribute to the spinning motion of the inner.
Chess.com servers struggle to keep up with demand as chess popularity surges
Chess has been popular for hundreds of years, long before the first home computer arrived. And if we look back to the early days of PC gaming, there have always been chess games. In the age of the smartphone and always-online social interaction, chess.com is proving to be one of the most popular gaming destinations on the planet.
Thanks in part to lockdowns and shows like The Queen's Gambit on Netflix, and fun things like soccer stars Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo playing chess on social media, chess, and Chess.com is seeing a massive surge in interest and players. We're talking over one million games per hour and a record-breaking 31,700,000 games played on January 20 alone. These are incredible numbers, but it has also led to issues keeping servers up and running.
GeForce Game Ready 528.24 WHQL driver available now, adds DLSS 3 to Hitman
The latest GeForce Game Ready Driver has been released, GeForce Game Ready 528.24 WHQL, bringing DLSS 3 to HITMAN World of Assassination and Marvel's Midnight Suns. It also brings optimizations and day-one support for Dead Space, Deliver Us Mars, and Forspoken. All three include DLSS 2 support.
DLSS 3 includes NVIDIA's new Frame Generation technology alongside DLSS Super Resolution (DLSS 2) and NVIDIA Reflex, with Frame Generation being exclusive to the new GeForce RTX 40 series of GPUs. Using the beefed-up AI hardware inside the new Ada cards, it leverages AI to generate entire frames to bring a massive boost to performance - especially in cases where there are CPU limitations or bottlenecks. In the case of Marvel's Midnight Suns, it will bring more frames to those with that game's ray-traced reflections and ray-traced ambient occlusion enabled.
DLSS 2's addition to Dead Space is great to see and is a remake of one the greatest horror games of all time it's Frostbite-engine-enhanced visuals make it one of the biggest releases this month.
Here's Noctua's new stylish low-profile coolers for AMD Ryzen 7000 CPUs
Noctua has announced a new addition to its popular low-profile CPU coolers, the NH-L9 series. Designed for the latest AMD Ryzen 7000 CPUs, the NH-L9a-AM5 features a height of only 37mm, a sweet Noctua fan, and a compact size perfect for small form-factor systems or PCs with AM5-based Ryzen processors.
The new low-profile cooler has been specifically designed for the latest low-power non-X variants of the AMD Ryzen line-up. With CPU compatibility on the official Noctua product pages listed as Ryzen 5 7600, Ryzen 5 7600X, Ryzen 7 7700, and Ryzen 9 7900. Interestingly Noctua's official press info for the new cooler does mention that it can handle the beefy Ryzen 9 7950X's 130W.
"AMD's just-released 65W Ryzen CPUs are ideal for building small yet highly powerful systems, and our new NH-L9a-AM5 is the perfect cooler to match", Roland Mossig, Noctua CEO, says. "It can easily cool the new 7900, 7700 and 7600 at ultra-quiet fan speeds and offers plenty of headroom if customers want to push them beyond 65W - we've actually been running up to 130W on the Ryzen 7950X and 7900X!"
NVIDIA dominated the list of the most searched GPUs on Google in 2022
Google trends can often indicate popularity, especially regarding product interest. In a new study by Raul Bilc over at Razzem, compiling 62 graphics cards from NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel, we get a breakdown of Google searches for currently available GPU models. The results are surprising, and not that most searches were for NVIDIA products but that 78% of total searches were for current NVIDIA GPUs.
AMD followed this with 22% of overall searches, and Intel trailed with only 1%.
The winner was the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060, which racked up almost 9% of the total. This is in line with the mainstream Ampere card's popularity on Steam, as the most recent hardware survey results list it as the most popular GPU amongst PC gamers. This was followed by the GeForce RTX 3050, NVIDIA's most affordable Ampere generation GPU.
Continue reading: NVIDIA dominated the list of the most searched GPUs on Google in 2022 (full post)
DOJ and U.S. states seek to dismantle Google's ad monopoly
Google parent company Alphabet is facing an anti-trust lawsuit for allegedly dominating the advertisement market with its search engine.
The Department of Justice and eight U.S. states including California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Tennessee today filed an anti-competition lawsuit alleging that Google is not only largely in control over the digital advertising space but taking active steps to maintain control over the $280 billion-dollar market. For reference, Google made $209.49 billion from advertising in 2021.
The 153-page lawsuit makes scathing accusations against Alphabet's Google while outlining methodologies and practices that are used to damage and reduce competition in the advertisement world. The document has rather illuminating section titles including:
Continue reading: DOJ and U.S. states seek to dismantle Google's ad monopoly (full post)
AI chatbot passes a final business school exam, beating Wharton students
A professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, a prestigious university best known for its rigorous finance program, has given the final exam to Open AI's ChatGPT to see how it would score.
Professor Christian Terwiesch penned the research paper titled 'Would Chat GPT3 Get a Wharton MBA? A Prediction Based on Its Performance in the Operations Management Course', where the professor details giving the AI chatbot the final exam for the school's Master of Business Administration (MBA) program.
According to Terwiesch, ChatGPT scored quite decently, receiving between a B- and a B. The professor explained that the AI showed a "remarkable ability to automate some of the skills of highly compensated knowledge workers in general and specifically the knowledge workers in the jobs held by MBA graduates, including analysts, managers, and consultants."
Elon Musk goes after a Saudi investor in court over the infamous Tesla tweet
After attempting to get the trial moved to Texas, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has defended his controversial tweet that dates back to 2018.
Tesla shareholders have filed a lawsuit against Musk for any damages caused by Musk's 2018 tweet, where he announced that he was considering taking Tesla private at $420 and that funding was secured. This tweet caused Tesla share prices to become volatile for a period of time, with the price immediately rising substantially and then recorrecting when nothing came of it. Musk is now being taken to court by Tesla shareholders and took the stand on Friday to defend his tweet.
According to the Tesla CEO, the tweet wasn't simply a gag or a joke as Musk claims Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of Saudi Arabia's Private Investment Fund, "verbally" backed the transaction. Additionally, Musk said that Al-Rumayyan spoke to then-Tesla Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Sam Teller that he had Saudi investors that were "committed" to the plan of taking Tesla private. Furthermore, Musk said that Al-Rumayyan stated "they would do whatever it took to get it done" and that they were "unequivocal" about backing the deal.
20-year Google veteran responds to getting fired unexpectedly over an email
A Google engineer that began working at the company in 2003 has described his firing as a "slap in the face" after he discovered an email informing him he was laid off.
The now-former Google engineer is named Jeremy Joslin, who took to Twitter last Friday to announce that he had been informed of his firing via an unexpected email and that it's hard for him to believe that he was laid off via email after spending 20 years at the company. Notably, Joslin says that he isn't sure what kind of criteria Google used to determine who got laid off and who didn't, but before his firing, he said he never had the sense that his job was in jeopardy.
Joslin took to his LinkedIn profile to write, "I never thought it would happen like this". Joslin's firing came after Google announced it was laying off 12,000 employees, or approximately 6% of its global workforce. These layoffs were announced on Friday and covered many areas of Alphabet's empire, Google's parent company. According to Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, the layoffs will be "across Alphabet, product areas, functions, levels and regions," and that the reason behind them is the company hired too many people far too quickly, leading to it being an "economic reality" that some had to go.
Working in the metaverse with a VR headset doesn't sound great
The metaverse is still a strange concept to wrap your head around, but in terms of working in an office, devices like the Meta Quest 2 and Meta's application suite point to a potential scenario where meetings and even design sessions can happen in a virtual space.
A new report by Slate featuring first-hand accounts from people working at tech-consulting firm Accenture outlines some of the issues and frustrations born from working virtual and in the metaverse.
"I am totally immersed in the metaverse, have a big headset on, and then I need to take off the Oculus, look on my phone for the two-factor authentication code that's been sent to my phone, then memorize the number, put my headset back on, and try to key it in," an anonymous spokesperson said. And when the headset goes into sleep mode when it's taken off, that adds another wrinkle to the process.
Continue reading: Working in the metaverse with a VR headset doesn't sound great (full post)
AMD Ryzen 7000 X3D Gaming CPUs will be unlocked for overclocking, maybe
It's worth noting outright that the official product pages for the upcoming AMD Ryzen 7000X3D with 3D V-Cache have removed the note about overclocking. But that didn't stop several people from noticing that there was a specific mention of "Unlocked for Overclocking: Yes," pointing to the new line of X3D CPUs supporting base overclocking like the full Ryzen 7000 line-up.
It wouldn't be the first time this had happened, as not that long ago, a Valentine's Day release date of February 14 was listed before it was removed, and AMD chimed in that it was an error. So, this could be another typo or mistake that has since been corrected.
But if it wasn't, and AMD was planning to announce that these 3D V-Cache powered chips feature an unlocked design for overclocking, then that would be an excellent addition to the line-up. The removed overclocking feature in the specs also noted AMD's recommendation that users use auto-tuning options like Curve Optimizer.
Apple's long-rumored AR and VR headset will function as a Mac second screen
Apple has been working on a mixed-reality VR/AR headset for many years, and reports are emerging that it will finally be released sometime in 2023. The word is that it will support both VR and AR and be able to toggle between the two modes, the former being a sort of extended display for Mac - and even a virtual big-screen cinema that will pair with Apple TV+.
The headset will be a familiar experience for those in the Apple ecosystem, with a UI and presentation described as "IOS-like," with a home screen and app icons similar to what's found on an iPhone and iPad.
Unlike other VR headsets, it won't ship with a controller but instead use a mix of eye and hand-tracking (via external cameras) alongside supporting traditional mouse and keyboard input on the Mac. With eye tracking, you'll be able to look at something on-screen and then use a gesture to interact with it. The headset can switch between augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), so the former will overlay virtual objects onto the wearer's surroundings.
Microsoft confirms its investing billions in ChatGPT developer OpenAI
Although Microsoft has recently cut over 10,000 employees across its many divisions (including staff at Xbox and Bethesda), the company has just announced that it's expanding its "long-term partnership with OpenAI through a multiyear, multibillion-dollar investment."
OpenAI is behind the groundbreaking ChatGPT platform, an advanced chatbot so convincing that it's being banned from school and education networks. OpenAI is also behind DALL-E, the powerful AI-based image creation tool that is helping fuel debates and discussions about the legality of creating new works based on learning through analyzing millions of images.
Microsoft has played a role in OpenAI's progress, having invested in the company in 2019 and 2021. This latest investment will accelerate "the development and deployment of specialized supercomputing systems" for AI research leveraging Azure networks.
Continue reading: Microsoft confirms its investing billions in ChatGPT developer OpenAI (full post)
Watching Boston Dynamics' Atlas robot in action is a glimpse into the future
Boston Dynamics' Atlas robot is one of the most advanced humanoid robots, and if you've seen a clip of it in action over the years, then you'll no doubt have been impressed by how it moves. Now equipped with hands, Boston Dynamics has released a new video of Atlas on a mock construction site as a worker up on a scaffold realizes he's forgotten his tool bag.
And with that, we cue Atlas to create a little bridge to make its way up the scaffolding, grab the bag, toss it up to the worker, and then perform a gymnast-style backflip as it dismounts back onto ground level.
Check it out.
Diablo 2 is getting 8 new runewords, but they're not so great
Blizzard is bringing eight new runewords to Diablo 2, but most of them may not actually be used all that much.
Diablo 2 Resurrected is getting another batch of new runewords aimed at melee builds and utilizing unpopular runes. The result is an interesting and eclectic mix of abilities, however the runewords could have a hard time gaining traction.
The most noteworthy runewords are Hustle (Shael+Ko+Eld), which adds 50% faster run walk for armors and a 5% chance to cast a level 9 Burst of Speed ability when socketed into weapons. The lack of any other useful stats makes this armor an extremely niche item, and the lower enhanced damage effectively removes any real utility for Hustle as a weapon.
Continue reading: Diablo 2 is getting 8 new runewords, but they're not so great (full post)
FTC trying to use Microsoft-Activision merger to 'reset merger policy'
Former FTC Commissioner William Kovacic says that Lina Khan and the current FTC administration is trying to reset merger policy in high-profile antitrust cases like the Microsoft-Activision merger.
The Federal Trade Commission has been quite vocal in its opposition to Microsoft's proposed $68.7 billion buyout of Activision Blizzard King. The FTC has issued formal complaints that the merger would give Microsoft unfair advantages in multiple segments, including multi-game subscription (Xbox Game Pass), cloud gaming, and potentially even mobile gaming--Activision does, after all, have eight franchises that have all made $1 billion each, including Call of Duty, whose lifetime revenues exceed $31 billion.
Various antitrust lawyers and analysts believe the FTC will have a hard time proving antitrust in this vertical merger, namely because Microsoft owning Activision Blizzard King will not shut down the console, PC, or mobile gaming environment, nor does the merger have the power to squeeze out competitors like Sony and Nintendo, both of which are entrenched in these markets with their own lucrative billion-dollar hardware, software, and service-based ecosystems.
Continue reading: FTC trying to use Microsoft-Activision merger to 'reset merger policy' (full post)
Bungie's new change makes Destiny much more rewarding
Bungie is making one of the best changes in Destiny 2 that will alleviate lots of extra tedium.
Live RPG games with any sort of skills, crafting, or gear are one half gameplay and one half inventory management. That's the case with Destiny 2, whose myriad of updates constantly shift mechanics around and make things into a complicated game of juggling materials and dismantling unwanted gear. Think of all the time we've spent scrapping items...
Now Bungie is removing a big portion of Destiny 2's most unenjoyable moments. Blue engrams are being removed from the game. Yes, it's finally happening and Guardians all over the globe are happy for the adjustments. No more full mailboxes of useless blues, no more dismantling. It's a win-win.
Continue reading: Bungie's new change makes Destiny much more rewarding (full post)
Google, NVIDIA give key evidence to FTC relating to Microsoft-Activision merger
Google and NVIDIA are concerned about Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision-Blizzard for $68.7 billion, and have provided key evidence to the Federal Trade Commission regarding a possible unfair advantage.
Google and NVIDIA both have sizable stakes in the world of video games. NVIDIA commands the largest share of graphics cards that help power the PC gaming market and also runs its own cloud game streaming service, GeForce Now. Google pulls in billions every year from its mobile Play Store and had a brief stint with game streaming in its now-defunct Stadia service.
Now both gaming titans have outlined their concerns with the Microsoft-Activision merger. Sources tell Bloomberg that Google and NVIDIA have laid out their thoughts on the Microsoft-Activision merger and have also given the FTC information that reinforces one of the major concerns that regulators have with the deal.






















