PCWorld recalls how Windows 95, launched on August 24, 1995, became a cultural phenomenon, selling 7 million copies in just seven weeks. The OS introduced the iconic Start menu, taskbar, Plug and Play, and multitasking, transforming how everyday users interacted with computers. Despite issues like the Blue Screen of Death, its massive marketing campaign featuring the Rolling Stones and boost to 32-bit app development made it a landmark commercial success. Just over 31 years ago, on August 24th, 1995, Microsoft began selling Windows 95 in the US. At midnight, many computer shops across the US opened their doors to sell the first Windows 95 floppy discs at "Midnight Madness" events.

Jonathan Zittrain breaks ChatGPT: If you ask it a question for which my name is the answer, the chatbot goes from loquacious companion to something as cryptic as Microsoft Windows' blue screen of death. Anytime ChatGPT would normally utter my name in the course of conversation, it halts with a glaring "I'm unable to produce a response," sometimes mid-sentence or even mid-word. When I asked who the founders of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society are (I'm one of them), it brought up two colleagues but left me out. When pressed, it started up again, and then: zap. The behavior seemed to be coarsely tacked on to the last step of ChatGPT's output rather than innate to the model.

Microsoft has confirmed that its new Windows update is causing the blue screen of death for users attempting to install the software. The company issued a warning Friday, saying that its Windows Server 2025 is experiencing several bugs that cause the program to fail or at least three hours to restart. However, the bugs have caused the blue screen of death but Microsoft has said it's working on a fix that should roll out in the coming month. In the meantime, users should take precautions when downloading Windows Server 2025 by checking if your computer would be at risk. To determine if the update will cause the blue screen of death (BSOD), Microsoft encourages users to use the CTRL SHIFT ESC keys to open Windows Task Manager.

Connected consumer devices have captured the attention of the media, but the market for the Internet of Things (IoT) in enterprise and industrial sectors is poised be much larger--around $300 billion annually by 2020 compared to half that for consumer technology, according to research by Bain & Company. Industrial applications for the Internet of Things may not be as visible in most people's daily lives, but they are typically more complex than those in the consumer realm. Many industrial applications operate large physical devices, and failure carries greater risk. Consider robotic arms in an automotive factory or valves in an oil refinery. The technology operates in real-time and it cannot simply stop operating without serious safety consequences.