When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Here's how to skip the AI-generated answers and return to a simple list of useful links. Google Search used to feel like a clean list of links. Now half the screen is taken up by AI summaries and sponsored results that try to answer your question before you can even reach a real website. If you're tired of fighting through all of that, try udm14.com .

PCWorld highlights how old USB drives can be transformed into powerful PC rescue kits using portable applications that run without installation. Essential tools include bootable OS creators like Rufus and Ventoy, antivirus scanners like ClamWin and Stinger, and system repair utilities. These portable rescue kits enable tech support across multiple computers, offering hardware monitoring, network diagnostics, and Windows optimization capabilities. Portable apps are applications and tools that can be started directly upon clicking them, with no prior installation needed. The advantage of this is that the programs are immediately ready for use and can be started from any storage drive -- including a USB flash drive. These useful tools are then available for analyzing and maintaining any computer you slap the flash drive into, making them utterly invaluable for informal tech support duties. Let's take a look at the best portable applications for hardware analysis and system tuning, as well as a basic setup with media player, image editing, and word processing tools.

As attackers ramp up their AI exploit development, the search for software vulnerabilities is changing rapidly. A decade ago, programs to reward researchers for submitting software vulnerability findings were just starting to go mainstream. Vulnerability disclosure and "bug bounty" programs represented a paradigm shift years in the making--moving institutions from hostility and defensiveness about security research findings to acknowledgement that receiving input and releasing fixes was necessary. When Apple finally announced a bug bounty in 2016, the top reward was $200,000. It rose to $1 million in 2019 and $2 million last year .

A Ukrainian flying ace is leveraging his aerobatics skills to protect his countrymen from nightly attacks. The most challenging part of an international aerobatics contest is the Free Unknown. Pilots arrive at a competition after having polished sequences of loops, stall turns, and barrel rolls. But for the Free Unknown section they learn which assortment of tricks they must perform only a day in advance. Contestants plan out how they will string together the stipulated moves in the most pleasing fashion, but they cannot rehearse the routine, except in their minds. It's a test of imagination and airmanship that often decides the competition. In 2019, the World Intermediate Aerobatics Championship, which was held on an airfield in the Czech town of Břeclav, contained three Free Unknowns. The winner of the first was a twenty-five-year-old Ukrainian pilot named Timur Fatkullin. At the controls of his red-and-silver Extra 330LX--a nimble German sports plane--he made the unusual move of starting his sequence upside down. He then executed a complicated routine as if he'd practiced it for months. The Ukrainian team, boosted by Fatkullin's performance, won gold. Trevor Dugan, who served as a navigator with the R.A.F. in Afghanistan and Iraq, was on the British team, which took bronze. Fatkullin, he said, was "absolutely phenomenal." Not long after that championship, Fatkullin stopped entering aerobatics competitions: first came the pandemic, then the war with Russia. He moves through life impatiently. Now thirty-two, he has five children. He is tall, with a tight beard, pale-green eyes, and a square jaw. Even in casual situations, he stands ramrod straight, as though about to give or receive an order. He often wears a shirt with three buttons undone, a beige leather flying jacket with the collar turned up, combat pants, and Nike high-tops. He plays the guitar, a little piano. He often carries a thick fold of high-value bills. He speaks several languages, including English (almost perfectly) and Spanish (conversationally). He once spent thirty days in jail after breaking the ribs of a man who'd threatened his wife. He can dance the tango. When Fatkullin was in his mid-twenties, he started doing stunts with a group of other extreme athletes: parachutists, motorcyclists, a free diver.

The individual pieces create a kind of illusion. When a horse trots, is there a moment when its four feet are in the air simultaneously? In the 1870s, Leland Stanford, the railroad magnate and benefactor of the university that bears his name, funded an effort to find out. The answer shocked many equestrian experts and artists: The horse's feet leave the ground together, but not when outstretched as commonly depicted in paintings and carousels; the feet do so when they reach inward, toward the horse's belly. Surprisingly, this discovery about a horse's gait sheds light on a much more modern debate--whether A.I. is on a path to consciousness.

Premier League predictions - how accurate were BBC Sport pundits? Last summer, 33 BBC TV and radio pundits made their predictions for the Premier League season, picking their champions and their top four. Twenty-one of them thought Liverpool would win it, and none of them got more than two clubs right. Although six pundits correctly picked Arsenal as champions, and everyone had the Gunners and Manchester City in their top four, Matthew Upson was the only one to have the top two in the order they actually finished. Martin Keown, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Sue Smith, Leon Osman and Jermaine Beckford were the other pundits who also backed Mikel Arteta's side.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX is preparing to list its shares on the US-based Nasdaq in what will be the most hotly anticipated initial public offering (IPO) in years. Here's everything you need to know about the deal: Founded in 2002 by Musk, now the world's richest man, SpaceX is best known for designing and launching rockets, spacecraft and reusable launch vehicles. Since 2006, the company has partnered with NASA to deliver cargo and crew to the International Space Station (ISS). The Texas-based company has also launched rockets, satellites and spacecraft for various private companies. As well as its aerospace business, SpaceX provides internet services and artificial intelligence platforms through its dedicated divisions, Starlink and xAI.

Drone games put Ukraine's best military pilots to the test TRUSKAVETS, Ukraine - In the sky over western Ukraine, a bullet-shaped P1-SUN interceptor drone dived toward its target as dozens of soldiers looked on. A cheer went up as it cut through a tow line from another drone to a balloon, which drifted away. Ukraine's most skilled military drone pilots squared off this week not against Russia, but against each other in a competition to win bragging rights and state-of-the-art hardware for their units. Drone technology has transformed the war in Ukraine. Young men using video game consoles to operate strike drones packed with explosives -- sometimes from command centers far behind the front line -- are deeply feared by enemy soldiers.

Countries including Japan see the ability to control chips, data centers and AI models as directly related to national resilience in a landscape dominated by U.S. and Chinese technology. Sakura Internet's chief said the company may need to hike its capital spending by nearly seven times its initial plan to keep up with artificial intelligence demand in Japan. The data center operator is eyeing an allocation of as much as ¥20 billion to ¥30 billion ($125 million to $190 million) this fiscal year, founder and CEO Kunihiro Tanaka said. That's above the ¥4.4 billion in the Osaka-based company's official capital expenditure plan announced last month. "AI server usage rates are 80% to 90%," Tanaka, 48, said in an interview.

On London's streets, facial recognition tests the balance between security and liberty Temporary street signs warn pedestrians of a Metropolitan Police live facial recognition operation in London on May 11. | REUTERS London - Tourists, shoppers and office workers on a busy London street on an ordinary weekday found themselves part of a digital identity check as live facial recognition cameras scanned faces against a police watchlist. The operation was an example of a technology the Metropolitan Police say is transforming policing, helping officers arrest around 2,500 wanted people since the start of 2024, including suspects accused of violent and sexual offences. Critics, however, say live facial recognition undermines the presumption of innocence underpinning British law by treating every passerby as a potential suspect. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.