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'Star Wars Day' Celebrations Hit Fortnite, Disney+, X.com - and Retailers Everywhere

Slashdot.org - Sun, 05/04/2025 - 20:53

As May the 4th transforms into Star Wars Day, dozens of sites and games have found ways to celebrate. The official Star Wars channel on YouTube released a celebratory video. Disney+ released Tales of the Underworld , a six-part animated series about bounty hunters during the reign of the Empire. And Friday the first two episodes began streaming in Fortnite in a special early premiere on "Star Wars Watch Party island," according to IGN. (Disney acquired a $1.5 billion stake in Epic in March 2024, they note, "positioning itself to collaborate with the game developer for many years to come." One example from StarWars.com: Introducing the GALACTIC BATTLE Season: the largest crossover yet between Fortnite Battle Royale and Star Wars. Strap into a TIE fighter or X-wing and take to the skies over new locations like the First Order Base where you can take on Captain Phasma and her legion of stormtroopers. Players can expect new gameplay updates to drop every week throughout the season, including new weapons, Force Abilities and quests to complete. - There's additional Star Wars celebrations today in several other games, including LEGO Fortnite Brick Life, Rocket League, and Monopoly GO! - CNN is publishing its own list of Star Wars day products and deals. (Including Panasonic's Stormtrooper electric shaver and the Darth Vader toaster.) - There's special Star Wars pages at Amazon, Target, Walmart, and Lego. - On X.com the UK's national library posted what looks a picture of a medieval manuscript with Yoda painted into the text. Someone posted a clip from the 1977 Bob Hope Christmas Special which ends with Mark Hamill rescuing Princess Leia (played by Olivia Newton-John). Even the White House has posted an AI-generated image of president Trump wielding a lightsaber. - Starbucks even has its own line of Star Wars-themed mugs. And if today isn't enough, the Austin American-Statesman reminds readers that there's more Star Wars celebrations are coming up: Sometimes also known as Geek Pride Day, May 25 is known as "Star Wars Day" because it marks the release of the anniversary of the series' debut. "A New Hope" premiered in United States theaters on May 25, 1997... May 21 is Talk Like Yoda Day, an annual celebration marking the release of "Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back" on May 21, 1980 — the film that introduced Yoda to the galaxy...

Preparing Asia Pacific’s workforce for the AI futurePreparing Asia Pacific’s workforce for the AI futurePresident

GoogleBlog - Sun, 05/04/2025 - 19:00

We’re introducing the first 49 recipients of the Google.org AI Opportunity Fund: Asia-Pacific and announcing the Fund’s expansion by $12 million.We’re introducing the first 49 recipients of the Google.org AI Opportunity Fund: Asia-Pacific and announcing the Fund’s expansion by $12 million.

Categories: Technology

The UN Ditches Google for Form Submissions, Opts for Open Source 'CryptPad' Instead

Slashdot.org - Sun, 05/04/2025 - 18:53

Did you know there's an initiative to drive Open Source adoption both within the United Nations — and globally? Launched in March, it's the work of the Digital Technology Network (under the UN's chief executive board) which "works to advance open source technologies throughout UN agencies," promoting "collaboration and scalable solutions to support the UN's digital transformation." Fun fact: The first group to endorse the initiative's principles was the Open Source Initiative... "The Open Source Initiative applauds the United Nations for recognizing the growing importance of Open Source in solving global challenges and building sustainable solutions, and we are honored to be the first to endorse the UN Open Source Principles," said Stefano Maffulli, executive director of OSI. But that's just the beginining, writes It's FOSS News: As part of the UN Open Source Principles initiative, the UN has invited other organizations to support and officially endorse these principles. To collect responses, they are using CryptPad instead of Google Forms... If you don't know about CryptPad, it is a privacy-focused, open source online collaboration office suite that encrypts all of its content, doesn't log IP addresses, and supports a wide range of collaborative documents and tools for people to use. While this happened back in late March, we thought it would be a good idea to let people know that a well-known global governing body like the UN was slowly moving towards integrating open source tech into their organization... I sincerely hope the UN continues its push away from proprietary Big Tech solutions in favor of more open, privacy-respecting alternatives, integrating more of their workflow with such tools. 16 groups have already endorsed the UN Open Source Principles (including the GNOME Foundation, the Linux Foundation, and the Eclipse Foundation). Here's the eight UN Open Source Principles: Open by default: Making Open Source the standard approach for projects Contribute back: Encouraging active participation in the Open Source ecosystem Secure by design: Making security a priority in all software projects Foster inclusive participation and community building: Enabling and facilitating diverse and inclusive contributions Design for reusability: Designing projects to be interoperable across various platforms and ecosystems Provide documentation: Providing thorough documentation for end-users, integrators and developers RISE (recognize, incentivize, support and empower): Empowering individuals and communities to actively participate Sustain and scale: Supporting the development of solutions that meet the evolving needs of the UN system and beyond.