Technology

Fashionistas, you should do well on today's Feb. 8 Strands puzzle, No. 342.

Here are some hints — and the answers — for Connections: Sports Edition No. 138 for Feb. 8

Here are some hints and the answer for Wordle No. 1,330 for Feb. 8.

Looking to upgrade your TV speakers? These top soundbars will take your audio experience next level.

• The company behind Arma and DayZ suffered a disruptive cyberattack
• Bohemia Interactive game's servers are inaccessible for days
• The community is speculating about the causes of the outage

If you’re a DayZ or Arma Reforger player, you may have noticed issues connecting to your favorite games these past couple of days, as the company’s servers are reportedly suffering a disruptive Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, rendering playing the games impossible.

The company behind these games is called Bohemia Interactive, a Czech-based developer and publisher who, according to media reports, first started experiencing problems with its servers several days ago.

A few days later, it confirmed the issues and apologized to the community, however five days later, the problems still seems to persist, as there are no updates on the company’s X page.

Political motives

In the latest tweet, published on February 5, it said: “We understand the frustration of the community with the server difficulties over the past week. And we know that many of you want answers. However, we cannot divulge details about the issue or the specifics of our efforts. We know this naturally leads to much community speculation, which we cannot prevent.”

BleepingComputer had also reported the Bohemia Interactive website was not functioning - however our tests show it seems to be back up and running.

Since the company did not want to disclose details about the issues, speculation is running rampant. On Reddit, a group named 'styled squad reborn' assumed responsibility for the attack, the publication found. The motives are unknown, but the group did say it wanted to see “drastic changes” in the company’s games, as well as in the company itself.

It denied claims it was asking for money. Some people also think this is related to the Russia - Ukraine war, and how it was portrayed in the games.

Until Bohemia comes forward with more details, there’s no way of knowing what actually happened. We have reached out to the company with additional questions and will update the article if we hear back.

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If you use the online food delivery service, there are a few steps you can take.

OpenAI has changed the way that its new ChatGPT o3-mini model displays its chain of thought (Cot) to “make it easier for people to understand how the model thinks," however it has faced an almost immediate backlash from users and accusations that it is copying the way that DeepSeek's R1 model displays its reasoning.

Speaking to TechRadar, OpenAI said: “Users have told us that understanding how the model reasons through a response not only supports more informed decision-making but also helps build trust in its answers."

"While the model’s raw CoT remains hidden as it’s hard to understand, we’ve found a balance: the model can think freely, and then it organises those thoughts so that they are easy to read. To improve clarity and safety, we’ve added an additional post-processing step where the model reviews the raw chain of thought, removing any unsafe content and then simplifies any complex ideas. Additionally, this post-processing step enables non-English users to receive the CoT in their native language, creating a more accessible and friendly experience.”

The new approach effectively provides summaries of the model’s reasoning instead of showing you the raw data. However, despite the new approach being available in both the o3-mini for free and paid users and o3-mini-high for paid users, the response on X to its changes was not entirely positive.

Mayo Oshin responded on X, posting: “We'd appreciate if you showed the full chain of thought, not just summarised version....thank you”, and Conor responded with, “its still a summary and not real CoT, which is disappointing."

Some other users responded by suggesting that OpenAI was simply responding to the threat offered by the new DeepSeek by copying the way it presented the reasoning chain in its R1 model. “Finally DeepSeek changing the O-World for us,” replied Hamza. “So OpenAI copied Deepseek's Chain of Thought feature?” said Ignis Rex, and “That moment when China is the one innovating, and US is the copycat,” said Josip Tomo Licardo.

A big step forward

Personally, I much prefer the new way of presenting reasoning in ChatGPT o3-mini. If you try the model now (just hit the Reasoning button) before you enter your prompt, you’ll find that much more information is provided on how ChatGPT is coming to its conclusion. The previous scarcity of reasoning information, when compared to DeepSeek, was something I criticized 03-mini for in the last few days. So, from my perspective, I think the new approach is a big step forward for ChatGPT o3-mini.

I’m not alone in welcoming the new feature, either. X user Roman Pshichenko said, “Hilariously, the chain of thought is more endearing and funny than the stiff response,” and “That's a nice improvement! I'd love to see some examples of how this update impacts it's reasoning process," said Jesus Vazquezon X.

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An internal email reviewed by WIRED calls DOGE staff's access to federal payments systems “the single biggest insider threat risk the Bureau of the Fiscal Service has ever faced.”

French big guns meet for the third time in six weeks.

The Bavarians are looking to claim an eighth straight win in the league.

• Amazon’s last quarter capex was $26.3 billion last quarter, with growth set to continue
• Company plans to spend big on AI projects in 2025 to keep pace with rivals
• Microsoft and Google are also spending more on AI

Amazon's CEO appears to have indirectly revealed the company plans to allocate around $100 billion to capital expenditure in 2025, with much of the money destined for AI.

The news comes as the ecommerce and cloud computing giant announced its fourth-quarter and year-end financial results.

Amazon revenue for the final three-month period of 2024 climbed 10% year-over-year to $187.8 billion, boosting its full-year revenue to $638.0 billion, up 11% compared with 2023.

Amazon will invest even more money in 2025

Its Amazon Web Services cloud divison, accounted for around 15-17% of its entire revenue, depending on whether we take a quarterly or annual overview. Both periods saw 19% increases year-over-year.

Speaking with investors on an earnings call, CEO Andy Jassy suggested Amazon may spend more than $100 billion in the year ahead: “We spent $26.3 billion in capex in Q4, and I think that is reasonably representative of what you expect an annualized capex rate in 2025.”

Although a lack of figures doesn’t allow us to quantify the bold claims, Jassy added: “The vast majority of that capex spend is on AI for AWS.”

It’s not just Amazon looking to increase its capital expenditure to keep up with demand for artificial intelligence. Google recently revealed it would be spending $75 billion this year, with Microsoft set to invest $80 billion.

It’s no surprise Amazon’s investments will far exceed its key hyperscaler rivals – Canalys has its market share at a staggering 33%; Microsoft and Google occupy 20% and 10% of the market respectively. Just last month, Amazon unveiled an $11 billion investment into data centers in the state of Georgia.

The consensus is that investing more will help make AI more accessible and increase its use cases, therefore bringing more money in for the companies.

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• Yandex developed and open-sourced Perforator which identifies inefficiencies in applications
• This in turn allows DevOps and SysOps to optimize applications and reduce infrastructure costs
• Savings can be billions of dollars for hyperscalers but even SMBs with on-prem servers can benefit

Yandex, Russia's largest tech company, has released an open source tool designed to identify and evaluate code inefficiencies across an entire code base.

“Perforator” can help a range of businesses - from tech giants like Google and Microsoft to SMBs - reduce their infrastructure costs by up to 20%, the company says, helping DevOps and SysOps teams pinpoint the most resource-intensive sections of code and offers detailed suggestions for how to optimize them. Using eBPF technology it can run programs within the Linux kernel safely and without slowing down systems.

The tool supports a range of popular languages, including C, C++, Go, Rust, Python, and Java. Analytics and data visualization are offered through flame graphs, making problem diagnostics much more manageable, and use of profile-guided optimization (PGO) can accelerate C++ programs by up to 10%. Yandex says it intends to improve future versions with better integration for Python and Java, along with more precise event analysis.

Saving hyperscalers a fortune

“Perforator helps businesses get the most out of their servers without sacrificing performance," said Sergey Skvortsov, a senior developer at Yandex who leads the team behind the tool. "Using Perforator, businesses can optimize their code, reduce server load, and ultimately lower energy and equipment costs."

Yandex says Perforator is useful for large data centers, tech corporations, and even smaller businesses with limited resources. Instead of investing in additional equipment, they can use the tool to get more out of their existing infrastructure. Perforator also includes handy A/B testing capabilities.

The tool has been used within Yandex services for over a year and is now available globally for companies, developers, and researchers. Because it runs directly on a company’s servers, Perforator reduces reliance on external cloud providers, making it ideal for organizations with strict data security requirements.

For hyperscalers, the potential savings could be huge, but SMBs with on-prem servers can also see substantial cost reductions. "Perforator can benefit companies of all sizes, from small businesses with 10-100 servers, which can save millions of dollars per year, to larger enterprises with thousands of servers and more, where savings can reach hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars annually,” Skvortsov said.

Perforator’s source code is available for free on GitHub, alongside Yandex's other open-source tools.

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Looking for a different day?

A new Quordle puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Friday's puzzle instead then click here: Quordle hints and answers for Friday, February 7 (game #1110).

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,100 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today – or scroll down further for the answers.

Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc's Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

Quordle today (game #1111) - hint #1 - Vowels How many different vowels are in Quordle today?

• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 5*.

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

Quordle today (game #1111) - hint #2 - repeated letters Do any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?

• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 2.

Quordle today (game #1111) - hint #3 - uncommon letters Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?

• No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today's Quordle answers.

Quordle today (game #1111) - hint #4 - starting letters (1) Do any of today's Quordle puzzles start with the same letter?

• The number of today's Quordle answers starting with the same letter is 2.

If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:

Quordle today (game #1111) - hint #5 - starting letters (2) What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• A

• A

• H

• T

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

Quordle today (game #1111) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1111, are…

• AFOOT
• ALIKE
• HUMUS
• TOWEL

Another close shave. After a couple of unlucky guesses and one wild one (Pushy was an extremely unlikely punt) I just about managed to complete today’s puzzle.

The word AFOOT is automatically connected to “the game is afoot”, an idiom uttered by Sherlock Holmes to Watson when his detecting senses are pricked by a case. The phrase was not coined by author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but by Shakespeare's Henry V and his impassioned plea for the English to take up arms.

Whatever its provenance, for me today’s Classic game was not afoot, but the Sequence most definitely was and I somehow pulled rabbits out of hats to conjure up the four words. A very WOOZY experience.

How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.

Daily Sequence today (game #1111) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1111, are…

• WOOZY
• WHOOP
• NOMAD
• BLOKE

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1110, Friday 7 February: PETAL, ABASE, AMONG, CORER
• Quordle #1109, Thursday 6 February: MADAM, SCAMP, FAUNA, TRACK
• Quordle #1108, Wednesday 5 February: SIXTH, VERVE, BLURB, CACTI
• Quordle #1107, Tuesday 4 February: BIRTH, DRAWN, MILKY, JOIST
• Quordle #1106, Monday 3 February: SLEET, TENSE, SEIZE, SCAMP
• Quordle #1105, Sunday 2 February: LOUSY, PENNE, CHUMP, SALVE
• Quordle #1104, Saturday 1 February: FACET, BLISS, FLUFF, FRANK
• Quordle #1103, Friday 31 January: PARER, SYNOD, BRAWN, BANJO
• Quordle #1102, Thursday 30 January: WEEDY, CHIRP, STALE, SUGAR
• Quordle #1101, Wednesday 29 January: CROWN, SCENE, AGILE, CRANK
• Quordle #1100, Tuesday 28 January: TOKEN, DAISY, INANE, PLIED
• Quordle #1099, Monday 27 January: ANGEL, GLOBE, MAYOR, BRAVE
• Quordle #1098, Sunday 26 January: WATER, ORBIT, BRIDE, TOUCH
• Quordle #1097, Saturday 25 January: GIVER, GROOM, GUSTO, MAKER
• Quordle #1096, Friday 24 January: GRIND, STOCK, SERVE, TOUCH
• Quordle #1095, Thursday 23 January: RUGBY, SASSY, WORRY, BANAL
• Quordle #1094, Wednesday 22 January: SLANT, TRUNK, WOOZY, EATEN
• Quordle #1093, Tuesday 21 January: CHART, VIGOR, PRINT, SPAWN
• Quordle #1092, Monday 20 January: SIXTY, THONG, TATTY, ROBIN
• Quordle #1091, Sunday 19 January: WREST, RINSE, SCOUR, CANNY

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Friday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Friday, February 7 (game #341).

Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Strands today (game #342) - hint #1 - today's theme What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Westminster assembly

NYT Strands today (game #342) - hint #2 - clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

• NUDE
• GOING
• SPOON
• RIDER
• KING
• DROWN

NYT Strands today (game #342) - hint #3 - spangram What is a hint for today's spangram?

• Well bred

NYT Strands today (game #342) - hint #4 - spangram position What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

First side: left, 4th row

Last side: right, 5th row

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #342) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #342, are…

• WORKING
• HOUNDS
• HERDING
• TOYS
• TERRIERS
• SPORTING
• SPANGRAM: DOG GROUP

• My rating: Moderate
• My score: 2 hints

Despite being a big fan of the movie Best In Show – which parodies the prestigious and pretentious dog show world – it took me ages before I realized what today’s theme was about.

Being British, Westminster automatically triggers thoughts of the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and all that tourist malarky, rather than The Westminster Kennel Club and its many canine categories.

Despite my ignorance, this was still a really enjoyable puzzle, with dozens of hint words lurking in the grid to throw us off scent. Top marks, Strands.

How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Friday, 7 February, game #341)

• EMBROIDERY
• LACE
• FRINGE
• TASSEL
• SEQUINS
• SPANGRAM: CLOTHING ACCENTS

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT's new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now out of beta so is a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable and can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

I've got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Friday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Friday, February 7 (game #607).

Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Connections today (game #608) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• FAST
• BUNCH
• TEAM
• PLAYER
• SOUL
• STAT
• SOON
• RUFFLE
• LATER
• GATHER
• BIO
• FINGER
• NOW
• JUNK
• THEN
• PUCKER

NYT Connections today (game #608) - hint #1 - group hints

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: Ballers deets
• GREEN: Ruche it up  
• BLUE: Cometh the hour 
• PURPLE: Eat it

Need more clues?

We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…

NYT Connections today (game #608) - hint #2 - group answers

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: INFO ON A BASEBALL CARD
• GREEN: SCRUNCH, AS FABRIC
• BLUE: TIME ADVERBS 
• PURPLE: — FOOD 

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #608) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #608, are…

• YELLOW: INFO ON A BASEBALL CARD BIO, PLAYER, STAT, TEAM
• GREEN: SCRUNCH, AS FABRIC BUNCH, GATHER, PUCKER, RUFFLE
• BLUE: TIME ADVERBS LATER, NOW, SOON, THEN
• PURPLE: — FOOD FAST, FINGER, JUNK, SOUL

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

I completed today’s Connections without ever knowing what the four groups were until getting them correct – I just thought they belonged together.

It’s part of the two-tiered wonder/satisfaction/disappointment loop of this particular puzzle. You can whiz through it and still feel as if you know nothing – and I know absolutely nothing about INFO ON A BASEBALL CARD – which in turn can make you feel either blessed or as if you have gotten away with something.

I’m definitely in the latter camp. “He got away with it (until now)” is all that will need to be said in my obituary.

How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Friday, 7 February, game #607)

• YELLOW: BE IN CHARGE OF DIRECT, HEAD, LEAD, RUN
• GREEN: THINGS MADE OF RUBBER BALLOON, ERASER, GALOSH, TIRE
• BLUE: ASSOCIATED WITH THE GENIE IN "ALADDIN" BLUE, EARRING, LAMP, WISHES
• PURPLE: RED -_ BULL, CROSS, HERRING, VELVET

What is NYT Connections?

NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.

On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.

It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.

It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

The S25, S25 Plus and S25 Ultra feature modest upgrades, but are they enough to justify a big purchase? Here's how the phones stack up against each other, as well as previous Galaxy devices.

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The budget-friendly device is expected to include Face ID and Apple's first in-house modem.

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