Welcome to Tech Beat, your daily look at the stories shaping our digital world.
Microsoft VP Scott Hanselman has released an open-source tool called gputaskman, and if you've ever wondered why your machine slows to a crawl during an AI workload, this might be your answer. It runs on Windows, Linux, and macOS, breaking down per-process GPU usage, VRAM consumption, and active runtimes with a level of transparency that existing tools simply don't offer.
Shifting to Amsterdam, where a protest at a Microsoft data center construction site turned confrontational this week. Police arrested between one hundred fifty and two hundred demonstrators on suspicion of trespassing, after authorities say some in the group moved beyond peaceful demonstration and attempted to breach the site. Tools for breaking in were reportedly seized before officers allowed the remaining crowd to protest lawfully.
And on a question many of us quietly wonder about — streaming versus downloading, which actually costs you more battery and data? The short answer is nuanced. Downloading in advance tends to be more battery efficient during playback, but the upfront transfer carries its own cost, and video quality settings can swing the math considerably either way.
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