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The AI Ghost in the Machine Fired Him. Then It Gave Him a New Life

Mark Quinn’s story usually begins with an ending: a seasoned tech executive at companies like Apple and Amazon who was, in the ultimate tech irony, laid off because of AI. But the headline misses the real story. The layoff wasn’t the end. It was the moment the world changed for him, and the beginning of a journey that saw him turn the very technology that made his job obsolete into his most intimate collaborator, career counselor, and even parenting coach. This isn’t just a story about technolo

Topics: ai like quinn work world

The 43 Best Movies on Netflix Right Now (July 2025)

Netflix has plenty of movies to watch. Maybe too many. Sometimes finding the right film at the right time can seem like an impossible task. Let us help you. Below is a list of some of our favorites currently on the streaming service—from dramas to comedies to thrillers. If you decide you’re in more of a TV mood, head over to our collection of the best TV series on Netflix. Want more? Check out our lists of the best sci-fi movies, best movies on Amazon Prime, and the best flicks on Disney+. If

What to read this weekend: When the world spins out of control

I'm still chipping away at my summer reading backlog over here, and this week finally made it to Alex Foster's Circular Motion, which came out in May. And, wow, I wasn't quite ready for the emotional journey this one took me on. It's set in a near future — people ride OneWheels and going viral on social media is still a thing some strive for — where the megacompany CWC has created an extreme form of high-speed travel that allows people to zip across the world in no time flat. But, it soon become

2025 Infrastructure Report Card

Choose State Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wy

Mushroom learns to crawl after being given robot body

Your support helps us to tell the story Read more Support Now From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need

The Curious Case of the Unix workstation layout

Scroll through the blog: ‹ Newer | List All | Older › The Curious Case of the UNIX workstation layout Posted on 2025-07-19 Contents Background Cathode Ray Dude recently did an excellent video about the history of the PC case, particularly the early- and mid-1990s, and the various mainboard layouts that pre-date the ATX standard. You should watch it. Here it is. The rest of this blog will contain some spoilers for that video. UNIX workstations I have a bunch of 1990's RISC/UNIX workstatio

Ring introducing new feature to allow police to live-stream access to cameras

Ring founder Jamie Siminoff is back at the helm of the surveillance doorbell company, and with him is the surveillance-first-privacy-last approach that made Ring one of the most maligned tech devices. Not only is the company reintroducing new versions of old features which would allow police to request footage directly from Ring users, it is also introducing a new feature that would allow police to request live-stream access to people’s home security devices. This is a bad, bad step for Ring an

Today's Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for July 20, #1492

Gael Cooper CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.

Leaked Document Reveals Troubling Details About How AI Is Really Being Trained

Under the hood of a huge amount of artificial intelligence is an immense amount of human labor. This can take many forms, but a particularly prominent one is "data labeling": the process of annotating material like written text, audio, or video, so that it can be used to train an algorithm. Fueling the multi-billion dollar AI industry is a vast army of remote contract workers, often from less wealthy countries like the Philippines, Pakistan, Kenya, and India. Most data labelers are typically o

Popular npm linter packages hijacked via phishing to drop malware

Popular JavaScript libraries were hijacked this week and turned into malware droppers, in a supply chain attack achieved via targeted phishing and credential theft. The npm package eslint-config-prettier, downloaded over 30 million times weekly, was compromised after its maintainer fell victim to a phishing attack. Other packages, namely eslint-plugin-prettier, synckit, @pkgr/core, and napi-postinstall from the same maintainer, were also targeted. The attacker(s) used stolen credentials to pub

The best Samsung TVs of 2025: Expert tested for streaming, gaming, and more

Samsung is one of the biggest names in TVs, and the company rolls out some of the best-rated sets every year. More than a dozen new sets are part of its 2025 lineup, bringing stunning sizes, incredible specs, and some of the best picture quality we've ever seen. If you're looking for the best of the best, a budget model, or something in the middle, Samsung has a TV that will fit your needs. What is the best Samsung TV right now? ZDNET staff went hands-on with plenty of Samsung TV models, and o

A 14kb page can load much faster than a 15kb page (2022)

Why your website should be under 14kB in size Why your website should be under 14kB in size Having a smaller website makes it load faster — that's not surprising. What is surprising is that a 14kB page can load much faster than a 15kB page — maybe 612ms faster — while the difference between a 15kB and a 16kB page is trivial. This is because of the TCP slow start algorithm. This article will cover what that is, how it works, and why you should care. But first we'll quickly go over some of the

Nobody knows how to build with AI yet

Last week I released Protocollie. Built in 4 days with languages I don’t know, without even directly touching the code. People keep asking “how?” but I’m not entirely sure it’ll work the same way twice. We’re all making this up as we go. The Great Experiment Nobody's Running the Same Way There's this moment in every new technology where everyone pretends they know what they're doing. We're past that moment. Or maybe we haven't reached it yet. Either way, we're in this delicious middle ground

Known Bad Email Clients

This is a list of known bad email clients, which you should avoid using if you wish to avoid tracking. Special thanks go to Andrew Klapper of the GNOME project for incentivising me to create this page; I have been meaning to create one for some time. If you wish to keep track of updates on this page, you can follow my blog via my RSS feed or alternatively Mastodon / Bluesky . If you wish to submit more bad clients, contact me . Projects will always be given the opportunity to fix their security

My Early Time Testing the Galaxy Z Flip 7 Brought a Smashing Surprise

If you're concerned about how durable Samsung's foldable phones are, I'm here to tell you not to worry. And that's especially true when it comes to the new Galaxy Z Flip 7, which holds its own among today's best smartphones. After less than six hours with the Galaxy Z Flip 7, I accidentally performed my own informal drop test. At a catered affair in Brooklyn, I walked outside to get a view of the waterfront, and when I pulled the Z Flip 7 out of my pocket, I fumbled it. I watched helplessly as

The Art of Freelancing Like a Boss, According to the Folks Who Do It

Jeffrey Hazelwood/CNET Jamie Brindle has been freelancing for 16 years and is on a mission to "demystify" the freelance world. In 2020, amid a shaky job market and widespread rejection of corporate hustle culture, he started helping beginner freelancers become their own bosses. The expansion of remote work, advances in AI and the growth of influencer platforms have all led to a kind of self-employment boom. As Gen Zers and millennials find new ways to upgrade their skills in a flexible work se

Best TVs I've Tested (July 2025)

The Sony Bravia 8 II is a new flagship OLED David Katzmaier/CNET With all of the TVs available today, and all of the technical terms and jargon associated with television technology, it can be tough to figure out what's important. Here's a quick guide to help cut through the confusion. Picture quality: Broadly speaking, the type of display technology helps dictate how good a TV's picture quality is, but OLED is typically the best display technology, and this is followed by LCD (including QLED,

BMW M5 review: a PHEV worth its weight

After 40 years and six generations, 2025 marks the beginning of a new generation of the BMW M5: the G90 chassis. Featuring a ground-up redesign and a new plug-in hybrid powertrain, the specs are impressive. It’s not just its horsepower and torque numbers but its curb weight of 5,390 pounds, too. That’s no small figure, but the German brand’s never held back in this department, and it has never greatly impeded the badge. Well, until now. There’s a lot to like about the newest M5, especially in i

Topics: bmw latest like m5 new

Nothing Phone 3 review: flagship-ish

Nothing says that the Phone 3 is its “first true flagship phone,” and it has put its money where its mouth is. The phone is getting a full US launch, and at $799, it costs exactly the same as a Pixel 9, Galaxy S25, or iPhone 16. That makes reviewing the Phone 3 refreshingly simple, because there are only two real questions that matter: is this as good as those three? And will it be as good as what we’re expecting from the new Pixel and iPhone models that are right around the corner? The answer

I ditched Google Calendar for paper, and it gave me the mental clarity I needed

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority I started using a paper calendar as sort of a joke. It was part of my experiment to live as if I were back in 1993. I ditched all modern tech and bought a weekly planner from the dollar store. My busy adult life still needed some kind of planning system. I didn’t expect to stick with it after my experiment was up, but you know what? I did. The experiment ended but the paper calendar stuck around. It found a home on my desk, where I’ve been using it every day

This HP EliteBook I tested is one of the most versatile work laptops of 2025 - and it's on sale

ZDNET's key takeaways The HP EliteBook Ultra G1i is on sale for $1,949. I highly recommend it to people looking for a laptop with top-performing hardware, a vibrant screen, and a high-quality webcam. However, because of its limited port selection, some might find its usability limited without supplementary accessories. View now at HP View now at B&H Photo Video more buying choices Work laptops don't have to be boring hunks of gray metal. There are plenty of eye-catching models providing engag

This split keyboard offers deep customization - if you're willing to go all in

ZDNET's key takeaways The Naya Create keyboard is available now starting at $500, with additional modules sold separately. It's very well-built and well-designed, with a breadth of customization options that let you go as deep as you want. It's expensive, and the learning curve requires dedication. View now at Naya I've tested a few split keyboards over the past year, and they all have one thing in common: You really have to be committed to the cause. Rewiring your brain to an all-new keyboar

I spoke with an AI version of myself, thanks to Hume's free tool - how to try it

Chiken Brave/Getty Images If you've ever had the urge to converse with an AI version of yourself, now you can -- kind of. On Thursday, AI start-up Hume announced the launch of a new "hyperrealistic voice cloning" feature for the latest iteration of its Empathic Voice Interface (EVI) model, EVI 3, which was unveiled last month. The idea is that by uploading a short audio recording of yourself speaking -- ideally between 30 and 90 seconds -- the model should be able to quickly churn out an AI-ge

Topics: ai evi like models voice

The Bitter Lessons Behind Kimi Researcher's Taste

The Bitter Lessons Behind Kimi Researcher’s taste Crystal J 7 min read · 2 days ago 2 days ago -- 2 Listen Share This blog will not look like what you often see in tech reports — where someone says, “Oh, ideas just came to my mind, and bang, it just happens.” The reality was far more challenging, iterative, and often frustrating. When I first rolled out this Apple-style frontend UI, it looked sleek, and I was genuinely excited. I shared it with everyone, thinking, “This is really great!” But

Microsoft Office is using an artificially complex XML schema as a lock-in tool

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Why your website should be under 14kB in size

Why your website should be under 14kB in size Why your website should be under 14kB in size Having a smaller website makes it load faster — that's not surprising. What is surprising is that a 14kB page can load much faster than a 15kB page — maybe 612ms faster — while the difference between a 15kB and a 16kB page is trivial. This is because of the TCP slow start algorithm. This article will cover what that is, how it works, and why you should care. But first we'll quickly go over some of the

Is Climate Change an Existential Threat?

If a 60-mile-wide (100-kilometer-wide) asteroid slammed into Earth tomorrow, it would render the planet inhospitable to nearly all life forms, save for the hardiest extremophiles. This mass extinction event would wipe humanity off the face of the Earth—there would be no survivors. To some experts, this is the true definition of an “existential threat.” Traditionalists will say this term describes a risk that endangers the very existence of something—in this case, the human species. In recent ye

How to Watch Australia vs. British & Irish Lions From Anywhere: Stream 1st Test Rugby Union for Free

After weeks of build up, the British & Irish Lions Test series down under finally gets underway on Saturday as Andy Farrell's men take on Australia at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane. Below, we'll outline the best live TV streaming services to use to watch this match as it happens, wherever you are in the world, and how to use a VPN if the game isn't available where you are. After an opening-game defeat against Argentina, the Lions have gone on to win five matches in a row against Super Rugby and

Cats as Horror Movie Villains

Do people like watching cats because of neoteny? I doubt it, because adult cats don’t look at all like babies. But then why do we have this odd fascination with every ordinary action of a cat and treating them as instances of a Platonic Cat? I speculate that there may be an evolutionary psychology reason: cats in Africa prey on primates to a degree I suspect few people appreciate, and this seems to have been true for millions of years, making them our apex predator. So perhaps we are still sligh

New CrushFTP zero-day exploited in attacks to hijack servers

CrushFTP is warning that threat actors are actively exploiting a zero-day vulnerability tracked as CVE-2025-54309, which allows attackers to gain administrative access via the web interface on vulnerable servers. CrushFTP is an enterprise file transfer server used by organizations to securely share and manage files over FTP, SFTP, HTTP/S, and other protocols. According to CrushFTP, threat actors were first detected exploiting the vulnerability on July 18th at 9AM CST, though it may have begun