Tracy Kidder, Author of ‘The Soul of a New Machine’, Dies At 80
Ancient Slashdot reader wiredog writes: Tracy Kidder, author of “The Soul of a New Machine,” has died at the age of 80. “The Soul of a New Machine” is about the people who designed and built the Data General Nova, one of the 32 bit superminis that were released in the 1980’s just before the PC destroyed that industry. It was excerpted in The Atlantic.
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Open-Source Nouveau Performance With Linux 7.0 + NVK Mesa 26.1-dev vs. NVIDIA Linux Driver
As a few months have passed since our prior round of testing the fully open-source NVIDIA Linux driver stack with the Nouveau kernel driver and Mesa NVK Vulkan driver plus Zink, here is a fresh round of benchmarks using Linux 7.0 and Mesa 26.1-dev compared to the open-source stack shipped by Ubuntu 25.10 (Linux 6.17 + Mesa 25.2) for showing how far the open-source NVIDIA driver has progressed the past few months. Plus testing aga … ⌘ Read more

China Reviews $2 Billion Manus Sale To Meta As Founders Barred From Leaving Country
Chinese authorities have barred two Manus executives from leaving the country while investigating whether Meta’s reported $2 billion acquisition of the Singapore-based AI startup violated foreign investment reporting rules. “Manus was founded in China but last year relocated its headquarters and core team to Singapo … ⌘ Read more

Researchers At CERN Transport Antiprotons By Truck In World-First Experiment
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Physics World: Researchers at the CERN particle-physics lab have successfully transported antiprotons in a lorry across the lab’s main site. The feat, the first of its kind, follows a similar test with protons in 2024. CERN says the achievement is “a huge leap” towards being able … ⌘ Read more

Ubuntu Will Switch To ntpd-rs As Its Next Rust System Component
Canonical engineers are planning a switch to ntpd-rs as the newest Rust-based system component for Ubuntu Linux for handling time synchronization… ⌘ Read more

AMD Announces The Ryzen 9 9950X3D2
AMD this morning finally announced the long-rumored Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 flagship processor with 3D V-Cache for both of the CCDs… ⌘ Read more

Intel Xe Driver In Linux 7.1 Enabling THP For Device Pages As A Big SVM Win
Sent out today was a new batch of “drm-xe-next” material of Intel Xe kernel graphics driver improvements ready for the upcoming Linux 7.1 kernel cycle. Standing out in this pull is enabling Transparent Hugepages (THP) support for drm_pagemap as a big win for those making use of Shared Virtual Memory (SVM) for GPU compute and the like… ⌘ Read more

Reddit Takes On Bots With ‘Human Verification’ Requirements
Reddit is rolling out human-verification checks for accounts that show signs of bot-like behavior, while also labeling approved automated accounts that provide useful services. The social media company stressed that these checks will only happen if something appears “fishy,” and that it is “not conducting sitewide human verification.” TechCrunch reports: To i … ⌘ Read more

Fedora 45 Aims For IPv6-Mostly Support Out-Of-The-Box
One of the early features for Fedora 45 that was approved this week is enabling IPv6-mostly support within NetworkManager for a more modern out-of-the-box network experience… ⌘ Read more

NXP Neutron NPU Kernel Driver Blocked For Now By A Closed-Source User-Space Blob
Last month NXP posted open-source Linux kernel driver patches for their Neutron NPU accelerator. The NXP Neutron NPU aims to help with edge AI applications and this neural processing unit is found in their different SoCs. Unfortunately, their GitHub repository for the user-space software ends up containing a binary-only blob that will end up delaying plans on getting this driver into the mainline Linux kernel… ⌘ Read more

An Enticing Optimization For Linux Memory Reclaim On Today’s Multi-Core Platforms
A new set of Linux kernel patches for batch TLB flushing for dirty folios within the kernel’s vmscan path were recently floated on the Linux kernel mailing list. This batch TLB flushing optimization for dirty folios during memory reclaim can be a significant performance win with today’s multi-core hardware… ⌘ Read more

Melania Trump Welcomes Humanoid Robot At White House Summit
Longtime Slashdot reader theodp writes: In Melania and the Robot, the New York Times reports on First Lady Melania Trump’s inaugural Fostering the Future Together Coalition Summit, which brought together international leaders, First Spouses from around the world, tech leaders, educators, and nonprofits to collaborate on practical solutions that expand … ⌘ Read more

Brazil’s UFO Capital Marks 30 Years Since ‘Alien Encounter’
Thirty years after the alleged 1996 “ET of Varginha” encounter, debate continues to rage over the events that happened in Brazil’s self-styled UFO capital. An anonymous reader quotes an excerpt from the Guardian: The skies over this far-flung coffee-growing hub went charcoal black, the heavens opened and one of Brazil’s greatest mysteries was born. “ … ⌘ Read more

ASUS Armoury & HP WMI Drivers Add More Laptops Ahead Of Linux 7.0-rc6
Merged today was another round of platform-drivers-x86 changes for the ongoing Linux 7.0 cycle. There are bug fixes plus some new hardware support additions that make this merge notable. Due to the new hardware support amounting to just device IDs and not risking existing hardware support, it’s fine for merging at this late stage of Linux 7.0 development… ⌘ Read more

Postal Service to Impose Its First-Ever Fuel Surcharge on Packages
The U.S. Postal Service plans to impose its first-ever fuel surcharge on packages (source paywalled; alternative source), adding an 8% fee starting in April as it struggles with rising fuel costs and ongoing financial pressure. The surcharge will not apply to letter mail and is currently expected to remain in place until January 2027. The Wal … ⌘ Read more

This one comes from this years (now scrapped) April 1st DLSS 5 gag, that was originally supposed to use Microsofts AI - in ways similar to the Nvidia technology, which produced interesting, overly detailed results. I wanted to see if I could beat the AI thing at drawing something like that myself and many redraws later, this is my best result.

Canada’s Immigration Rejected Applicant Based On AI-Invented Job Duties
New submitter haroldbasset writes: Canada’s Immigration Department rejected an applicant because the duties of her current job did not match the Canadian work experience she had claimed, but the Department’s AI assistant had invented that work experience. She has been working in Canada as a health scientist – she has a Ph.D. in the i … ⌘ Read more

Apple Can Create Smaller On-Device AI Models From Google’s Gemini
Apple reportedly has full access to customize Google’s Gemini model, allowing it to distill smaller on-device AI models for Siri and other features that can run locally without an internet connection. MacRumors reports: The Information explains that Apple can ask the main Gemini model to perform a series of tasks that provide high-quality resul … ⌘ Read more

Supreme Court Sides With Internet Provider In Copyright Fight Over Pirated Music
Longtime Slashdot reader JackSpratts writes: The Supreme Court unanimously said on Wednesday that a major internet provider could not be held liable for the piracy of thousands of songs online in a closely watched copyright clash. Music labels and publishers sued Cox Communications in 2018, saying the company had fa … ⌘ Read more

Fedora 45 Plan Approved For Web Frontend To Linux’s “Blue Screen of Death” DRM Panic
With just a few weeks to go until the official Fedora 44 release, there is already feature planning and activity beginning for Fedora 45 that will be released toward the end of 2026. Among the early feature approvals is a new web front-end feature to the DRM Panic “Blue/Black Screen of Death” functionality with a specialized QR code for kernel errors… ⌘ Read more

Stephen Colbert To Write Next ‘Lord of the Rings’ Movie
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: Stephen Colbert already has a new job lined up for when he ends his 11-year run as host of “The Late Show” in May – the comedian and well-known J.R.R. Tolkien superfan announced he will co-write and develop a new film in the blockbuster “Lord of the Rings” franchise. Colbert joined “LOTR” director Peter Jackson … ⌘ Read more

Meta and YouTube Found Negligent in Landmark Social Media Addiction Case
A jury found Meta and YouTube negligent in a landmark social media addiction case, ruling that addictive design features such as infinite scroll and algorithmic recommendations harmed a young user and contributed to her mental health distress. The verdict awards $3 million in compensatory damages so far and could pave the way for … ⌘ Read more

@movq@www.uninformativ.de that’s it, fork it!. I am forking vim. :-D

(This one actually has the potential to live longer than 3 days.)

And another fork: https://drewdevault.com/2026/03/25/2026-03-25-Forking-vim.html

Meta Loses Trial After Arguing Child Exploitation Was ‘Inevitable’
Meta lost a child safety trial in New Mexico after the court found its platforms failed to adequately protect kids from exploitation and misled parents about app safety. According to Ars Technica, the jury on Tuesday “deliberated for only one day before agreeing that Meta should pay $375 million in civil damages…” It’s From the report: The tri … ⌘ Read more

AMD ROCm 7.2.1 Released With Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS Support, Bug Fixes
Building off the release of ROCm 7.2 from January, ROCm 7.2.1 is now available with Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS support as well as various bug fixes to this open-source AMD Radeon/Instinct GPU compute stack… ⌘ Read more

AI Economy Is a ‘Ponzi Scheme,’ Says AI Doc Director
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Vanity Fair: Focus Features is releasing The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist in theaters on March 27. If you’re even slightly interested in what’s going on with AI, it’s required viewing: The film touches on all aspects of the technology, from how it’s currently being used to how it will be used in the near future … ⌘ Read more

KDE Plasma 6.6 Delivers An Impressive Edge For Radeon Graphics Over GNOME 50 On Ubuntu 26.04
In testing thus far on Ubuntu 26.04, the KDE Plasma 6.6 desktop with the Wayland session is working pretty darn well and delivering a performance edge across many games/graphics workloads compared to the default GNOME 50 desktop. At least as far as AMD Radeon graphics are concerned, Plasma 6.6 is in quite impressive shape for the upcoming Ubuntu 26.04 LTS release. ⌘ Read more

China Is Mass-Producing Hypersonic Missiles For $99,000
Longtime Slashdot reader cusco writes: A private company in China has developed hypersonic missiles that cost the same as a Tesla Model X. This missile, the YKJ-1000, is being marketed for sale at a reported price of $99,000, and it’s in mass production now after successful tests. That is far below what countries will spend to target and shoot down the missile if it … ⌘ Read more

Intel Announces Arc Pro B70 With 32GB GDDR6 Video Memory
Alongside announcing the new Intel Core Ultra Series 3 Panther Lake parts with vPro for commercial PCs and the Xeon 600 workstation processors, Intel finally announced their professional “big Battlemage” BMG-G31 graphics card with the Arc Pro B70 as well as the Arc Pro B65… ⌘ Read more

@zvava@twtxt.net rooting for it, and you! As soon as there is a stable (no future truly breaking changes) working alpha (can post, can follow, can reply), I will give it a spin! And yes, I understand the contradiction of “stable” and “alpha”; hoping my meaning comes through, LOL.

FreeCAD 1.1 Brings Many Improvements For Open-Source CAD
FreeCAD 1.1 is out today as the newest feature release for this leading open-source CAD application… ⌘ Read more

Chandra Resolves Why Black Holes Hit the Brakes On Growth
alternative_right shares a report from Phys.org: Astronomers have an answer for a long-running mystery in astrophysics: why is the growth of supermassive black holes so much lower today than in the past? A study using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other X-ray telescopes found that supermassive black holes are unable to consume material as rapidly as … ⌘ Read more

Lemonade 10.0.1 Improves Setup Process For Using AMD Ryzen AI NPUs On Linux
Earlier this month with the release of the Lemonade SDK 10.0 and FastFlowLM 0.9.35, using AMD Ryzen AI NPUs for running LLMs on Linux finally became feasible. AMD XDNA 2 NPUs can now run on Linux well for LLM workloads! Released on Tuesday was Lemonade 10.0.1 with a few improvements for the setup process of this local LLM open-source solution on Linux… ⌘ Read more

Mesa 26.0 Will Make It In Time For The Fedora 44 Release
With the recent Fedora 44 beta release, Mesa 25.3 graphics drivers were in use rather than the newest Mesa 26.0 series. The good news is that there is now approval for getting Mesa 26.0 drivers to land in time for next month’s official Fedora 44 release… ⌘ Read more

Unvanquished 0.56 Released With More Renderer Improvements, OpenMP Added To Engine
Unvanquished 0.56 is out today as the latest major update to this prominent open-source, community-driven shooter game. Unvanquished continues progressing after more than a decade in development for this open-source game and with today’s v0.56 release features improved visuals, OpenMP for CPU-based rendering of skeletal models, and other enhancements… ⌘ Read more

NASA Halts Work On Gateway To Develop a Lunar Base
NASA is reportedly halting work on the lunar Gateway in favor of a more direct push to build a lunar base. The new plan would cost tens of billions over the next decade, though the change could face hurdles because Congress previously funded Gateway specifically. SpaceNews reports: “Starting today, we’re building humanity’s first deep space outpost,” said Carlos Garcia-G … ⌘ Read more

Hong Kong Police Can Demand Passwords Under New National Security Rules
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: Hong Kong police can now demand phone or computer passwords from those who are suspected of breaching the wide-ranging National Security Law (NSL). Those who refuse could face up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $12,700, and individuals who provide “false or misleading informatio … ⌘ Read more

Intel’s Vulkan Linux Driver Lands New Feature To Boost DX12 Game Performance
Intel’s open-source “ANV” Vulkan driver for Linux systems enabled a new feature called BTP+BTI RCC Keying. You may be wondering what it means or stands for, but long story short it helps with the performance of Direct3D 12 (DX12) games running on Linux by way of Valve’s Steam Play with Proton + VKD3D-Proton… ⌘ Read more

Wine 11 Rewrites How Linux Runs Windows Games At the Kernel Level
Linux gamers are seeing massive performance gains with Wine’s new NTSYNC support, “which is a feature that has been years in the making and rewrites how Wine handles one of the most performance-sensitive operations in modern gaming,” reports XDA Developers. Not every game will see a night-and-day difference, but for the games that do benefit fr … ⌘ Read more

Google’s Android Automotive Is Moving From the Dashboard To the ‘Brain’ of the Car
Google is expanding Android Automotive from the infotainment screen into the broader non-safety “brain” of software-defined vehicles. With its new Android Automotive OS for Software-Defined Vehicles, the in-car experience will feel “much more cohesive and the latest features will reach your driveway faster,” Matt … ⌘ Read more

@kiwu@twtxt.net that’s exactly right. Pretty niche, occasionally exuberant. 🤭

OpenAI Discontinues Sora Video Platform App
OpenAI is shutting down Sora, its generative-AI video creation platform it launched in December 2024. “The move is one of a number of steps OpenAI is taking to refocus on business and coding functions ahead of a potential initial public offering as soon as the fourth quarter of this year,” reports the Wall Street Journal.

CEO Sam Altman announced the changes to staff on Tuesday. “We’re sayin … ⌘ Read more

Oracle Releases Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel 8.2 - Still On Linux 6.12 LTS Base
Days after Oracle celebrated their RHEL-based Oracle Linux distribution turning 20 years old, today they announced Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel 8.2 “UEK 8.2” as their alternative to the RHEL-clone kernel with Oracle Linux… ⌘ Read more

Arm Unveils New AGI CPU With Meta As Debut Customer
Arm unveiled its first self-developed data center chip, the AGI CPU, designed for handling agentic AI workloads. The new chip was built in partnership with Meta and manufactured by TSMC. Other customers for the new chip include OpenAI, Cloudflare, SAP, and SK Telecom. Reuters reports: The new chip, called the AGI CPU, will address data-crunching needed for a specific … ⌘ Read more

AMD-Optimized Rocky Linux Distribution To Focus On AI & HPC Workloads
AMD and CIQ jointly announced today that AMD-optimized Rocky Linux builds are being worked on for this RHEL-derived operating system. The AMD-optimized Rocky Linux will focus on AI and HPC workloads and be nicely integrated with ROCm… ⌘ Read more

Anthropic’s Claude Can Now Use Your Computer To Finish Tasks
Anthropic is testing a new Claude feature that lets users send a request from their phone and have the AI carry it out directly on their computer, such as opening apps, using a browser, or editing files. The move follows the viral spread of OpenClaw earlier this year, which has gained cult popularity among devs for the ability to run local, 24/7 personal workf … ⌘ Read more

Self-Propagating Malware Poisons Open Source Software, Wipes Iran-Based Machines
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A new hacking group has been rampaging the Internet in a persistent campaign that spreads a self-propagating and never-before-seen backdoor – and curiously a data wiper that targets Iranian machines. The group, tracked under the name TeamPCP, first gained visib … ⌘ Read more

Arm Announces AGI CPU For AI Data Centers
Arm announced their first silicon product in history with today’s AGI CPU. The Arm AGI CPU complements their existing IP offerings into a production-ready silicon product for AI data centers… ⌘ Read more