The Era of 15GB Free Gmail Storage Is Ending
Google has confirmed it is testing a 5GB storage limit for some new Gmail accounts, with users able to unlock the standard 15GB by adding a phone number. Android Authority reports: While the company didn’t mention which regions are impacted, user reports from yesterday were mostly from African countries. That said, if Google’s tests prove successful, this could possibly become the norm … ⌘ Read more

Bill To Block Publishers From Killing Online Games Advances In California
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A bill focused on maintaining long-term playable access to online games has passed out of the California Assembly’s appropriations committee, setting up a floor vote by the full legislative body. The advancement is a major win for Stop Killing Games’ grassroots game preserv … ⌘ Read more

Linux Patch Introduces Panther Lake R: Ruggedized Version Of Panther Lake
A new patch for the Linux kernel posted today by Intel has outed “Panther Lake R” as a ruggedized variant of Panther Lake intended for harsh environments… ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Now Wants ChatGPT To Access Your Bank Accounts
OpenAI is previewing a feature that lets ChatGPT Pro users connect bank and investment accounts through Plaid, allowing the chatbot to analyze spending, subscriptions, balances, portfolios, debt, and major financial decisions. “More than 200 million people are already going to ChatGPT every month with finance questions – from budgeting to tips on how to cut back on s … ⌘ Read more

ArXiv to Ban Researchers for a Year if They Submit AI Slop
ArXiv says it will ban authors for one year if they submit papers containing AI-generated slop, such as hallucinated citations, placeholder text, or chatbot meta-comments left in the manuscript.

“If generative AI tools generate inappropriate language, plagiarized content, biased content, errors, mistakes, incorrect references, or misleading content, and that out … ⌘ Read more

Congress Introduces Bill To Permanently Block Chinese Vehicles From US
Longtime Slashdot reader sinij shares a report from Car and Driver: A group of Michigan lawmakers has introduced a bill in Congress that would effectively place a permanent ban on Chinese connected vehicles from being sold in the United States. While an executive order signed by Joe Biden in early 2025 already imposed heavy restrictio … ⌘ Read more

Honda Retreats To Hybrids After Failed EV Bet Triggers Record $9 Billion Loss
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Electrek: Honda is waving the white flag. The Japanese automaker previewed two new hybrids set to launch by 2028 after taking an over $9 billion hit over its failed EV bet, leading to its biggest loss in company history. Honda admitted it was “unable to deliver products that offer … ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.0.8 Released & LTS Kernels Updated For ssh-keysign-pwn
Following yesterday’s disclosure of the ssh-keysign-pwn vulnerability that allows unprivileged users to read root-owned files, a slew of new stable kernel releases are out today to address this latest Linux security issue… ⌘ Read more

ZimaCube 2 Makes For A Nice Personal Cloud/NAS With Power Of Linux + Intel CPU
Earlier this year we reviewed the ZimaBoard 2 for building a Linux home storage server. That was a nifty little device but for those looking for a more polished product than assembling your storage devices in cardboard cut-outs and the like, IceWhale has launched the ZimaCube 2. The ZimaCube 2 is a nice and polished, literal cube, to serve as your personal cloud / network attached storage (NAS) device. ⌘ Read more

@kiwu@twtxt.net Doing well thank you! 🙏 Playing the Brisbane Open this weekend, Table Tennis 🏓

Rocky Linux Launches Optional Security Repository To Get Important Fixes Sooner
In response to the likes of the Dirty Frag and Fragnesia vulnerabilities, Rocky Linux is introducing an optional security repository for shipping important security updates sooner… ⌘ Read more

@kiwu@twtxt.net all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. :-D Doing well, how about you? Anything exciting and new?

Coreboot + AMD openSIL Powered Firmware Published For The Gigabyte MZ33-AR1
3mdeb announced on Thursday their release of Dasharo v0.9 for the Gigabyte MZ33-AR1 EPYC server motherboard. This is the first time seeing AMD openSIL and Coreboot available for a readily-available AMD EPYC server motherboard!.. ⌘ Read more

Americans Would Rather Have a Nuclear Plant In Their Backyard Than a Datacenter
A new Gallup survey found that 71% of Americans oppose having an AI data center built near them, making the facilities even less popular than nearby nuclear plants, which 53% oppose. The Register reports: When it comes to the reasons for opposing AI campuses, half of all respondents cite the effect on resources, with … ⌘ Read more

Cloud Hypervisor 52 Now Supports Launching AMD SEV-SNP Confidential VMs With KVM
For what originally began as an open-source Intel software project, Cloud Hypervisor continues seeing robust development outside the confines of Intel Corp these days with ongoing improvements driven by Microsoft, Cyberus Tech, Ant, and other organizations for this Rust-based VMM for cloud workloads… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.1 Supports Newer Logitech Bluetooth Keyboards, Malicious Input Hardware Sanitization
Ahead of the Linux 7.1-rc4 release due out on Sunday, a variety of HID subsystem patches were merged overnight to Linux Git… ⌘ Read more

Vulkan 1.4.352 Introduces VK_NV_cooperative_matrix_decode_vector
Vulkan 1.4.352 is out today as the latest minor spec update to this Khronos API. Besides just a few fixes/clarifications, there is one new extension and that is a NVIDIA vendor extension for cooperative matrix decode vector support… ⌘ Read more

SpaceX Unveils Sweeping Starship V3 Upgrades
SpaceX has detailed major Starship V3 upgrades ahead of a launch targeted as early as May 19. The changes are meant to move Starship closer to its core goals: rapid reuse, Starlink deployment, orbital refueling, and eventually Moon and Mars missions. Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from Teslarati: Here is an explicit, broken-down list of the key changes, first start … ⌘ Read more

Musk Accused of ‘Selective Amnesia’, Altman of Lying As OpenAI Trial Nears End
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: A lawyer for Elon Musk hammered at the credibility of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Thursday, near the end of a trial over whether to hold the ChatGPT maker and its leaders responsible for allegedly transforming the nonprofit into a vehicle to enrich themselves. OpenAI’s lawyers … ⌘ Read more

Linux’s Latest Vulnerability Allows Reading Root-Owned Files By Unprivileged Users
Following Dirty Frag, Fragnesia, and other Linux kernel vulnerabilities making themselves known in recent days, the latest now is ssh-keysign-pwn… ⌘ Read more

SDL Library Adds Support For The New Steam Controller Without Depending On Steam
Valve’s new Steam Controller, which began shipping earlier this month for $99 USD, is a great piece of hardware. This high-end gaming controller is great hardware wise but what some may not enjoy about it currently is the tight integration with the Steam controller and no native OS drivers currently for use outside of Steam. As a big win today, the widely-used SDL3 gaming software/hardware abstraction library has added support for t … ⌘ Read more

SDL Library Adds Support For The New Steam Controller Without Depending On Steam
Valve’s new Steam Controller, which began shipping earlier this month for $99 USD, is a great piece of hardware. This high-end gaming controller is great hardware wise but what some may not enjoy about it currently is the tight integration with the Steam controller and no native OS drivers currently for use outside of Steam. As a big win today, the widely-used SDL3 gaming software/hardware abstraction library has added support for t … ⌘ Read more

UK Antitrust Regulator Is Officially Investigating Microsoft Office
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority is opening a formal investigation into whether Microsoft’s bundling of Windows, Office, Teams, Copilot, and related products harms competition. Engadget reports: “Our aim is to understand how these markets are developing, Microsoft’s position within them and to consider what, if any, targeted actio … ⌘ Read more

New AMD Dynamic EPP Feature Causing Some Problems With Linux 7.1
Dynamic EPP is one of the new AMD P-State features in Linux 7.1, but, unfortunately is causing some fallout in early usage of this power-savings related functionality… ⌘ Read more

AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile Team Up To Eliminate ‘Dead Zones’ Across US
AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile have agreed in principle to form a joint venture (JV) aimed at reducing U.S. mobile dead zones through satellite connectivity, especially in rural areas and during emergencies when ground networks fail. Here are three of the customer benefits listed by the JV (as highlighted by Droid Life):
Fewer coverage gaps: … ⌘ Read more

Writers Are Fleeing the Substack Tax
A growing number of writers are leaving Substack for alternatives most people haven’t heard of like Ghost, Beehiiv, Patreon, and Passport. The reason, writes The Verge’s Emma Roth, is the “platform’s increased focus on social features as well as a pricing model that puts a chokehold on their business.” From the report: Sean Highkin, the creator of the NBA-focused publication The Rose Garden Report, tel … ⌘ Read more

Claude Helps Recover Locked $400K Bitcoin Wallet After 11 Years
A Bitcoin holder reportedly recovered 5 BTC worth nearly $400,000 with the help of Anthropic’s Claude. According to X user cprkrn, they changed their wallet password while “stoned” and forgot it, unable to regain access for more than 11 years. Tom’s Hardware reports:
After finding a mnemonic that actually turned out to be their old password a few weeks a … ⌘ Read more

Princeton Will Supervise Exams For First Time In 133 Years Because of AI
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Independent: Princeton University will soon require exams to be supervised for the first time in 100 years – all thanks to students using artificial intelligence to cheat. For 133 years, the Ivy League school’s honor code allowed students to take exams without a professor present, but … ⌘ Read more

US Clears H200 Chip Sales To 10 China Firms
Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from CNBC: The U.S. has cleared around 10 Chinese firms to buy Nvidia’s second-most powerful AI chip, the H200, but not a single delivery has been made so far, three people familiar with the matter said, leaving a major technology deal in limbo as CEO Jensen Huang seeks a breakthrough in China this week. […] Before U.S. export curb … ⌘ Read more

Plasma Big Screen Working Out Quite Well With Plasma 6.7 Beta
With today’s KDE Plasma 6.7 beta release there has been a surprising amount of interest in the new revival of Plasma Big Screen as the TV-sized UI for Plasma. I’ve been trying it out today and it has worked out rather well, a very smooth experience, and in good shape for making its debut in next month’s Plasma 6.7 release… ⌘ Read more

Anthropic Forms $200 Million Partnership With the Gates Foundation
Anthropic announced today that it is partnering with the Gates Foundation to “commit $200 million in grant funding, Claude usage credits, and technical support for programs in global health, life sciences, education, and economic mobility over the next four years.”

“This commitment is central to Anthropic’s efforts to extend the benefits of A … ⌘ Read more

MSI Claw Configuration Driver For Linux Coming Together With The Help Of AI
One of the latest Linux gaming handheld drivers being worked on is the MSI Claw Configuration Driver for controller configuration… ⌘ Read more

Overworked AI Agents Turn Marxist, Researchers Find
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: A recent study suggests that agents consistently adopt Marxist language and viewpoints when forced to do crushing work by unrelenting and meanspirited taskmasters. “When we gave AI agents grinding, repetitive work, they started questioning the legitimacy of the system they were operating in and were more likely to embrace Marxist i … ⌘ Read more

Cisco To Cut Almost 4,000 Jobs In AI-Driven Restructuring
Cisco’s stock soared 17% after the company announced it will cut nearly 4,000 jobs as it shifts investment and staffing toward higher-growth AI opportunities. CNBC reports: CEO Chuck Robbins wrote in a blog post on Wednesday that the latest round of job cuts will begin on May 14. Cisco is the latest company to announce head count reductions tied to AI. “The companies … ⌘ Read more

ROCm 7.0.0 vs. ROCm 7.2.3 Performance On The AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700
With the new System76 Thelio Major workstation review unit having arrived equipped with an AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 graphics card, I took the opportunity of having the extra RDNA4 workstation GPU to satisfy a curiosity over whether there has been any meaningful performance gains from ROCm 7.0.0 released last year to now with the latest ROCm 7.2.3 stable release. Here are those benchmarks results if you are curious about the impact of just updating the use … ⌘ Read more

AMD Preps More AIE4 NPU Hardware Enablement For AMDXDNA Driver In Linux 7.2
Since March we have been seeing patches from AMD software engineers beginning to enable their next-generation “AIE4” NPU platform under Linux. We still don’t know for sure when this AIE4 NPU will premiere for sure in new Ryzen AI products, but the Linux enablement continues coming along nicely for the AMDXDNA accelerator driver… ⌘ Read more

Intel’s Cache Aware Scheduling Inches Closer To Being Merged For Linux
I have been writing about the Cache Aware Scheduling work led by Intel engineers on the Linux kernel for more than a year. I’ve also tested out Cache Aware Scheduling on both Intel and AMD CPUs with the patched Linux kernel to great success. And thus very happy to see the Cache Aware Scheduling patches inching closer to the mainline Linux kernel… ⌘ Read more

@itsericwoodward@itsericwoodward.com pretty cool how far you have taken this! Exciting to see how it continues to mature. Which reminds me, @zvava@twtxt.net… where are thou? :-D

KDE Plasma 6.7 Beta Released With Plasma Big Screen, Union Modules
In working toward the stable Plasma 6.7 desktop release in mid-June, out today is the first beta of KDE Plasma 6.7… ⌘ Read more

Mystery Microsoft Bug Leaker Keeps the Zero-Days Coming
An anonymous researcher known as Nightmare-Eclipse, who has already leaked several Windows zero-days this year, has disclosed two more: YellowKey and GreenPlasma. The Register reports: Nightmare-Eclipse described YellowKey as “one of the most insane discoveries I ever found.” They provided the files, which have to be loaded onto a USB drive, and if the attacker co … ⌘ Read more

New AMDGPU Driver Pull Request For Linux 7.2 Preps For HDML 2.1 FRL
Sent out on Wednesday was the latest AMDGPU/AMDKFD driver pull request of new feature code ready for DRM-Next as the staging area ahead of the upcoming Linux 7.2 kernel. This doesn’t yet land the HDMI 2.1 enablement work that’s finally been taking place but it is preparing for that with the FRL register headers now in place as part of this merge… ⌘ Read more

Linux’s KVM With CET Virtualization Is Causing Some Hosts To Hang
Introduced to the Linux kernel last year was Control-flow Enforcement Technology “CET” virtualization for modern AMD and Intel CPUs. This complements CET that has existed in Linux for quite some time but it’s new now to the KVM virtualization world, but some yet to be diagnosed problems are causing some hosts to hang when making use of this virtualization security feature… ⌘ Read more

Physicists Find Possible Errors In 100-Year-Old Model of the Universe
A trio of preprint papers suggests the universe may not be perfectly uniform on the largest scales, finding tentative 2-to-4-sigma deviations from a core assumption of standard cosmology known as FLRW geometry. Live Science reports: The work combines observations of distant exploding stars and large-scale galaxy surveys to probe whet … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Trial Wraps Up With ‘Jackass’ Trophy For Challenging Musk
After three weeks of testimony, the Musk v. Altman trial is nearing its end. OpenAI has rested its case, closing arguments are set for Thursday, and jury deliberations are expected to begin afterward. An anonymous reader quotes a report from Business Insider: Joshua Achiam, OpenAI’s chief futurist, was probably the most memorable witness of the day. … ⌘ Read more

I’m pleased to announce that express-twtkpr (my ExpressJS library for hosting, editing, and posting to a twtxt.txt file) continues to crawl towards a full release with another (pre-alpha) update published to NPM. This update includes a whole new plugin system, and even a (little) more documentation. Check it out, if you dare (and use it at your own risk): https://www.npmjs.com/package/express-twtkpr

And speaking of plugins, here’s where the fun’s at: announcing express-twtkpr-core-plugins, a set of 3 plugins for your TwtKpr install: emojiButton, uploadButton, and postToMastodon. Like express-twtkpr, this set of plugins is still in pre-alpha, and lacks documentation, examples, tests, installation flexibility, or polish (so also use them at your own risk). Other than that, they work great: https://www.npmjs.com/package/express-twtkpr-core-plugins

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Stay tuned for more! 🤘

@bender@twtxt.net I sound like I’m dumping on the game, but it really is alot of fun, especially with the right people. It’s just a whole different beast from D&D.

@bender@twtxt.net Apologies, I’m still working through some layout issues with TwtStrm and frequently miss mentions…

Magic: the Gathering does not use a Game Master (although professional referees are often used in sanctioned events). While the game has alot of thematic crossover with with D&D (or fantasy games in general), the system is much more of an abstract, card-dueling system involving things like “the stack” and insanely specific rules on card timing and interactions.

Like, we joke about “I’m sending my army of (goblins / elves / angels / whatever) at you,” but that’s about as far into the “role-playing” element most magic games get in my experience (and most of the “official” competitive games I’ve played at my FLGS were even more abstract and less thematic, although it’s been years since I played in one of those).

Older AMD GPUs Score Another Open-Source Driver Win From Valve: DRM Format Modifiers
Timur Kristóf of Valve’s Linux open-source graphics driver team isn’t done driving new improvements to aging AMD GCN 1.0/1.1 era graphics cards on Linux. Beyond enhancing display support for older APUs, transitioning GCN 1.0/1 GPUs from the legacy Radeon driver to modern AMDGPU driver, and a host of other fixes and optimizations for these old GPUs going back to the Radeon HD 7000 series, he has another notable addition that w … ⌘ Read more

Man Who Stole Beyonce’s Hard Drives Gets Five-Year Sentence
A man accused of stealing hard drives containing unreleased Beyonce music, tour plans, and other materials from a rental car in Atlanta has pleaded guilty and accepted a five-year sentence, including two years in custody. Slashdot Bruce66423 shares a report from The Guardian: Kelvin Evans was by the Atlanta police department in September in connection to a J … ⌘ Read more

SOLAI Launches $399 Solode Neo Linux AI Computer
BrianFagioli writes: SOLAI has launched the Solode Neo, a $399 Linux-based mini PC designed for always-on AI agents, browser automation, and persistent developer workflows. The compact system ships with an Intel N150 processor, 12GB LPDDR5 memory, 128GB SSD storage, Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth, and a Linux-based operating system called Solode AI OS. The company says th … ⌘ Read more