Microsoft is shutting down Skype in favour of Teams

Microsoft is shutting down Skype in May and replacing it with the free version of Microsoft Teams for consumers. Existing Skype users will be able to log in to the Microsoft Teams app and have their message history, group chats, and contacts all automatically available without having to create another account, or they can choose to export their data instead. Microsoft is also phasing out support for calling domestic or international numbers.

”Skype users will be in control, they’ll have the choice,” says Jeff Teper, president of Microsoft 365 collaborative apps and platforms, in an interview with The Verge. “They can migrate their conversation history and their contacts out and move on if they want, or they can migrate to Teams.”

If you choose to move on and bring your Skype data with you, the exported data will include photos and conversation history. Microsoft also made a tool to easily view existing Skype chat history if you don’t want to move to Teams.

Skype will remain online until May 5th, so existing users will have around 60 days to decide whether they want to switch to Microsoft Teams or export their data. “If they do want to come to Teams then the first-run is pretty instantaneous because we’ve already done the work on the backend to restore their contacts, message history, and call logs,” says Amit Fulay, vice president of product at Microsoft.

www.theverge.com

How North Korea pulled off a $1.5 billion crypto heist—the biggest in history

The cryptocurrency industry and those responsible for securing it are still in shock following Friday’s heist, likely by North Korea, that drained $1.5 billion from Dubai-based exchange Bybit, making the theft by far the biggest ever in digital asset history.

Bybit officials disclosed the theft of more than 400,000 ethereum and staked ethereum coins just hours after it occurred. The notification said the digital loot had been stored in a “Multisig Cold Wallet” when, somehow, it was transferred to one of the exchange’s hot wallets. From there, the cryptocurrency was transferred out of Bybit altogether and into wallets controlled by the unknown attackers. READ MORE...

UPDATE 28 Feb 2025 (The Register): The FBI has officially accused North Korea's Lazarus Group of stealing $1.5 billion in Ethereum from crypto-exchange Bybit earlier this month, and asked for help tracking down the stolen funds.

www.arstechnica.com

UK Creative Industries Launch ‘Make it Fair Campaign

 

The UK’s creative industries have today launched a bold campaign to highlight how their content is at risk of being given away for free to AI firms as the government proposes weakening copyright law. A government consultation seeking views on the copyright issue closes today.

The ‘Make it Fair’ campaign was developed to raise awareness among the British public about the existential threat posed to the creative industries from generative AI models, many of which scrape creative content from the internet without permission, acknowledgement, and critically, without payment.

The impact on creative businesses and individuals throughout the country – who collectively generate over £120 billion a year towards the UK economy – will be devastating if this continues unchecked, or worse still if the government legitimises this content theft.

On 25 February, which is the last day of the government’s consultation, regional and national daily news brands are running the same cover wrap and homepage takeover. READ MORE...

www.newsmediauk.org

Reading for today: Jeremiah tells of God's love & Grace

 

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 

Read Jeremiah 29 at Bible Gateway

AI 'hallucinations' in court papers spell trouble for lawyers

U.S. personal injury law firm Morgan & Morgan sent an urgent email, this month to its more than 1,000 lawyers: Artificial intelligence can invent fake case law, and using made-up information in a court filing could get you fired.

A federal judge in Wyoming had just threatened to sanction two lawyers at the firm who included fictitious case citations in a lawsuit against Walmart. One of the lawyers admitted in court filings last week that he used an AI program that "hallucinated" the cases and apologized for what he called an inadvertent mistake.

AI's penchant for generating legal fiction in case filings has led courts around the country to question or discipline lawyers in at least seven cases over the last two years, and created a new high-tech headache for litigants and judges, Reuters found. READ MORE...

www.reuters.com

Hackers planted a Steam game with malware to steal gamers’ passwords

Last week, Valve removed a game from its online store Steam because the product was laced with malware. 

After the removal of the game, which was called PirateFi, security researchers analyzed the malware and found that whoever planted it modified an existing video game in an attempt to trick gamers into installing an info-stealer called Vidar.

Marius Genheimer, a researcher who analyzed the malware and works at SECUINFRA Falcon Team, told TechCrunch that judging by the command and control servers associated with the malware and its configuration, “we suspect that PirateFi was just one of multiple tactics used to distribute Vidar payloads en masse.”

“It is highly likely that it never was a legitimate, running game that was altered after first publication,” said Genheimer. 

In other words, PirateFi was designed to spread malware. 

Be careful out there folks - watch where you go, what you install. There are some bad people on the InterWebs. If you have installed this game please take expert advice ASAP.

www.techcrunch.com

Want to disable AI features in Google Workspace? Well you can't!

 

If you are a regular reader of this Blog - you will have noticed that I'm not an Artificial Intelligence fanboy. We are all constantly being told it's the best thing since sliced bread: rammed down our throats by the big-tech companies & government alike. Meanwhile I do not like the tech, and have serious concerns about where it is taking us...

For some while, every time I started to type an email in Google Workspace - I'd get a prompt offering to help me to type the email, or to polish the text. This really bugged me - so I looked for a way to turn it off in the Gmail interface = nothing. Under the Google Admin console: there were settings - but none of them worked. I checked on the Workspace forums - lots of folks having the same issues. In the end I opened a call with Google Workspace Support. Long story short - they had to enable an interface - that then allowed me to disable Gemini AI. By default - as "Super Admin" - I'm not allowed to access these controls. The literally don't want us switching this stuff off! Shocking & outrageous!

Find out more about Google Workspace

Microsoft study finds relying on AI kills your critical thinking skills

Artificial intelligence may one day make humans obsolete - just not in the way that you’re thinking. Instead of AI getting so good at completing tasks that it takes the place of a person, we may just become so reliant on imperfect tools that our own abilities atrophy. A new study published by researchers at Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University found that the more humans lean on AI tools to complete their tasks, the less critical thinking they do, making it more difficult to call upon the skills when they are needed.

The researchers tapped 319 knowledge workers—a person whose job involves handling data or information—and asked them to self-report details of how they use generative AI tools in the workplace. The participants were asked to report tasks that they were asked to do, how they used AI tools to complete them, how confident they were in the AI’s ability to do the task, their ability to evaluate that output, and how confident they were in their own ability to complete the same task without any AI assistance.

Over the course of the study, a pattern revealed itself: the more confident the worker was in the AI’s capability to complete the task, the more often they could feel themselves letting their hands off the wheel. The participants reported a “perceived enaction of critical thinking” when they felt like they could rely on the AI tool, presenting the potential for over-reliance on the technology without examination. This was especially true for lower-stakes tasks, the study found, as people tended to be less critical. While it’s very human to have your eyes glaze over for a simple task, the researchers warned that this could portend to concerns about “long-term reliance and diminished independent problem-solving.”

www.gizmodo.com

Oh Microsoft why don't you do the right thing for once? Future Windows 10 updates will cost $61 per device!

Microsoft has quietly updated a support document on how the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program for Windows 10 will work and how much it will cost - and for some it might cause their stomach to churn.

Administrators and accountants alike will be looking glumly at the prices that Microsoft announced in 2024 if their organizations still require Windows 10. In the company's reworked list, it spells out some of the ways whereby users might dodge the fees. If, for example, you have a Windows 10 endpoint connecting to a Windows 365 Cloud PC, ESU could be free.

Windows 10 virtual machines running Windows 365 or Azure Virtual Desktop are also entitled to ESU for up to three years, provided the user has an active Windows 365 subscription license.

Microsoft also updated the support document to confirm the cost to keep the security updates flowing for commercial customers: $61 for Year One per device, a figure that will double for every subsequent year for a maximum of three years. And no, it won't be possible to save money by leaving it for a while before signing up: "If you decide to purchase the program in Year Two, you'll have to pay for Year One too, as ESUs are cumulative," said Microsoft.

Grrr... I mentioned it on this blog a while ago: Microsoft seems to be making all their decisions as bad decisions. I've worked with Microsoft systems for 30 years & been a partner since 1998. They've done some crappy stuff over the years - but this is the worst I've seen.

www.theregister.com

Farewell potholes? UK team invents self-healing road surface

For all motorists, but perhaps the Ferrari-collecting rocker Rod Stewart in particular, it will be music to the ears: researchers have developed a road surface that heals when it cracks, preventing potholes without a need for human intervention.

The international team devised a self-healing bitumen that mends cracks as they form by fusing the asphalt back together. In laboratory tests, pieces of the material repaired small fractures within an hour of them first appearing.

“When you close the cracks you prevent potholes forming in the future and extend the lifespan of the road,” said Dr Jose Norambuena-Contreras, a researcher on the project at Swansea University. “We can extend the surface lifespan by 30%.”

www.theguardian.com

Meta's CTO said the metaverse could be a 'legendary misadventure' if the company doesn't boost sales, leaked memo shows

Andrew "Boz" Bosworth told staff that this year is the "most critical" to prove the metaverse is either a visionary feat or a "legendary misadventure," according to an internal memo from November viewed by BI.

In a post titled "2025: The Year of Greatness," shared on Meta's internal forum Workplace, Bosworth said the company's Reality Labs division planned to launch half a dozen more AI-powered wearable devices — but did not specify a timeline or provide further details.

"We need to drive sales, retention, and engagement across the board but especially in MR," he wrote, referring to mixed reality. "And Horizon Worlds on mobile absolutely has to break out for our long term plans to have a chance. If you don't feel the weight of history on you then you aren't paying attention.

"This year likely determines whether this entire effort will go down as the work of visionaries or a legendary misadventure."

www.msn.com

Reading for today: what God wants from us

 For it is not so much of our time and so much of our attention that God demands; it is not even all our time and all our attention; it is ourselves. For each of us the Baptist's words are true: “He must increase and I decrease.” He will be infinitely merciful to our repeated failures; I know no promise that He will accept a deliberate compromise. For He has, in the last resort, nothing to give us but Himself; and He can give that only insofar as our self-affirming will retires and makes room for Him in our souls. Let us make up our minds to it; there will be nothing “of our own” left over to live on, no “ordinary” life. 

I do not mean that each of us will necessarily be called to be a martyr or even an ascetic. That’s as may be. For some (nobody knows which) the Christian life will include much leisure, many occupations we naturally like. But these will be received from God’s hands. In a perfect Christian they would be as much part of his “religion,” his “service,” as his hardest duties, and his feasts would be as Christian as his fasts. What cannot be admitted - what must exist only as an undefeated but daily resisted enemy - is the idea of something that is “our own,” some area in which we are to be “out of school,” on which God has no claim.

For He claims all, because He is love and must bless. He cannot bless us unless He has us. When we try to keep within us an area that is our own, we try to keep an area of death. Therefore, in love, He claims all. There’s no bargaining with Him.

By C.S. Lewis

From The Weight of Glory

Why users still couldn't care less about Windows 11

Users are still steering clear of Windows 11, with some customers describing the sales pitch as "like trying to sell sand at a beach."

It's an amusing take on the situation, but despite last month's figures showing a slight uptick in Windows 11's market share, only the most die-hard Microsoft apologist would insist that the migration is going well. The question is why is it going so badly?

When Windows 11 debuted in 2021, Microsoft saddled it with an infamous set of hardware compatibility requirements that ruled out a substantial amount of existing hardware. Users needed a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2 and a relatively recent CPU to run the operating system – although Microsoft hurriedly added the Surface Studio 2's Intel Core i7-7820HQ to the list to ensure its kit was not rejected by the flagship OS.

More than three years later, the hardware replacement cycle has turned. The limitations still seem artificial, and users would probably prefer to select how secure they want their desktop to be rather than have Microsoft decide for them, but that older pool of computers is dwindling. Buying a PC that is incompatible with Windows 11 is nowadays a challenge. So that barrier is on its way out.

And yet Windows 10 still enjoys a commanding lead over Windows 11 in terms of market share. Why? READ MORE...

www.theregister.com

Google Pixel 4a’s ruinous “Battery Performance” update is a bewildering mess

What exactly is wrong with the batteries in some of Google's Pixel 4a phones still out there? Google has not really said. Now that many Pixel 4a owners are experiencing drastically reduced battery life after an uncommon update for an end-of-life phone, they are facing a strange array of options with no path back to the phone they had.

Google's "Pixel 4a Battery Performance Program," announced in early January, told owners that an automatic update would, for some "Impacted Devices," reduce their battery's runtime and charging performance. "Impacted" customers could choose, within one year's time, between three "appeasement" options: sending in the phone for a battery replacement, getting $50 or the equivalent in their location, or receiving $100 in credit in the Google Store toward a new Pixel phone. No safety or hazard issue was mentioned in the support document.

Ars Technica has reached out to Google about the Pixel 4a battery updates and appeasement options provided and will update this post with any response.

Update 24 March 2025 Arstechnica: After borking my Pixel 4a battery, Google borks me, too. READ MORE...

www.arstechnica.com

Antiqua et Nova - the Vatican's thoughts on AI

From Future Of Life: On January 28, 2025, the Vatican released a comprehensive document titled "Antiqua et Nova: Note on the Relationship Between Artificial Intelligence and Human Intelligence," addressing AI’s potential implications and risks. This 30-page note emphasizes that AI should serve as a tool to complement human intelligence rather than replace it, underscoring the unique qualities inherent to humans.

The Vatican also raises concerns about AI's role in warfare, particularly the ethical implications of autonomous weapons systems that operate without human oversight, warning of the potential for a destabilizing arms race with catastrophic consequences for all.

One of the more notable quotes refers to the “shadow of evil” that, as they suggest, looms over AI: “Where human freedom allows for the possibility of choosing what is wrong, the moral evaluation of this technology will need to take into account how it is directed and used.”

www.futureoflife.org

Donline is 19 years old today!

 

It's quite incredible to think that I started Donline Computer Consultancy 19 years ago - on 1st February 2006!

It's such a great Blessing to have so many wonderful clients - all 810 of them! Apart from the work (very much appreciated), we have forged some great relationships & friendships along the way. So a huge thank you to all those who have travelled this journey with me. Good Lord willing: here's to many more years!

I started this Blog in 2014 as a way to communicate with my clients & any other passing folk on the InterWebs. I wanted it to be a source of hope through Christian Faith, offer technology advice, tell of my motorcycle madness, be a home to articles about our beloved Calli (sob), and other sometimes random things that I'd thought might be of interest... In those 10+ years the Blog has clicked up over 302,000 hits! Thanks for spending time with me, I hope you found it useful 😃.

To celebrate these 19 years: on Monday 3rd February - I will choose (no favouritism here LOL) one of my clients that I work with on that day to receive a Donline goodie bag & a bottle of bubbly - to celebrate with Kim & me x

UPDATE 5pm 030225: Congratulations to SB of Heathfield! Many thanks to you & your team for 12 years of great business, and being a pleasure to work with! Looking forward to assisting in the future. God Bless 😃

www.donline.co.uk