On the weekend just gone we also visited Twin Falls, which was absolutely magnificent!

Astronomers May Have Detected an Atmosphere Around a Tiny, Icy World Past Pluto
“The Associated Press is reporting on a new study in Nature Astronomy suggesting that a tiny, icy world beyond Pluto harbors a thin, delicate atmosphere that may have been created by volcanic eruptions or a comet strike,” writes longtime Slashdot reader fahrbot-bot. From the report: Just 300 miles (500 kilometers) … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI President Discloses His Stake In the Company Is Worth $30 Billion
OpenAI president Greg Brockman’s testimony dominated the fifth day of the trial for Elon Musk’s lawsuit against the AI company. Brockman took the witness stand on Monday, disclosing that his stake in OpenAI is worth nearly $30 billion, despite not personally investing money in OpenAI. The judge also declined to admit a pretrial text … ⌘ Read more

My first game of Magic ended with a truly EPIC TURN yesterday…

It was a 5-player game, and I was running my (unpublished) Superfriends deck (mostly Planeswalkers and counter manipulators). After some ups and downs, I was able to pop the ultimate abilities on a handful of PWs all on a single turn, pumping my Bioessence Hydra to 110/110 (!) before tapping it twice to kill 2 opponents, and then following that by destroying all of the lands of a 3rd opponent and stealing all of the creatures from the 4th, at which point the survivors decided to quit. As I said, EPIC TURN!

Game 2 ran long, so I dropped out. But that first game…

AlmaLinux 10.2 Beta Released With Legacy 32-bit Software Support
AlmaLinux 10.2 Beta released today as their next AlmaLinux 10 release coming down the pipe and derived from the upstream Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10.2 state. Plus this AlmaLinux release continues adding more changes on their own… ⌘ Read more

White House Considers Vetting AI Models Before They Are Released
The Trump administration is reportedly considering an executive order to create a working group that could review advanced AI models before public release. The shift follows concerns over Anthropic’s powerful Mythos model and its cyber capabilities, with officials weighing whether the government should get early access to frontier models without n … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft Back Bill To Fund ‘AI Literacy’ In Schools
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: A new, bipartisan bill introduced (PDF) by Democratic Senator of California Adam Schiff and endorsed by the biggest AI developers in the world – including OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft – would change the K-12 curriculum to shoehorn in “AI literacy,” something that young people and … ⌘ Read more

The Pixel 11 Could Be the Next Victim of the RAM Shortage
Google’s Pixel 11 lineup could see RAM cuts or lower starting configurations because of the global memory shortage, with leaks suggesting the base model may drop from 12GB to 8GB while Pro models could add 12GB versions below the current 16GB tier. The Verge reports: There will be 16GB configurations available for each, but adding a lower-spec model could … ⌘ Read more

NVIDIA Looking To Create New Tool For Generating AutoFDO Profiles For GCC
NVIDIA compiler engineers are looking to develop a standalone tool that could be upstreamed into the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) codebase for generating AutoFDO profiles for consumption by GCC in turn for better benefiting from automatic feedback directed optimizations (FDO) in the name of better performance… ⌘ Read more

Expanded AMD HDMI 2.1 Support Is Coming To Linux
AMD is preparing expanded HDMI 2.1 support for Linux, following earlier delays after the HDMI Forum rejected an open source implementation of HDMI 2.1 as proprietary technology. As GamingOnLinux reports, AMD developer Harry Wentland submitted a patch series to the Linux kernel mailing list, noting that it brings “HDMI FRL support to the amdgpu display driver” and that “DSC is s … ⌘ Read more

ROCm 7.2.3 Brings Minor Updates, ROCm XIO Documentation
Less than one month after releasing ROCm 7.2.2, the ROCm 7.2.3 is now available with some minor improvements to this open-source AMD GPU compute and AI stack… ⌘ Read more

The Audio Industry Is Grappling With the Rise of ‘Podslop’
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg’s Ashley Carman: Welcome to the modern era of podcasting in which thousands of new shows are released into the world every day with a sizable portion likely being AI-generated. Figuring out exactly which ones fall into that growing category is becoming more difficult just as the industry is starting to take this is … ⌘ Read more

Anthropic Nears $1.5 Billion AI Joint Venture With Wall Street Firms
Anthropic is reportedly nearing a roughly $1.5 billion joint venture with Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, Hellman & Friedman, and other Wall Street firms to sell AI tools to private-equity-backed companies. “The investors aim to create a company that acts as a consulting arm for Anthropic and helps teach businesses – including the private-equit … ⌘ Read more

Valve’s Steam Controller Now Shipping
For those eager to get their hands on Valve’s new Steam Controller, the gaming controller is now shipping… ⌘ Read more

GameStop Offers to Buy eBay for $56 Billion
GameStop has made an unsolicited $56 billion cash-and-stock offer to buy eBay (paywalled; alternative source), with CEO Ryan Cohen arguing he can turn the marketplace into a far larger Amazon competitor. “EBay should be worth – and will be worth – a lot more money,” Cohen said in an interview. “I’m thinking about turning eBay into something worth hundreds of billions of dollars.” The Wall St … ⌘ Read more

Scientists Discover 27 Potential New Planets That Orbit Two Stars
Astronomers have identified 27 potential new circumbinary planets – worlds that orbit two stars, like Star Wars’ Tatooine. “To date, only about 18 circumbinary planets … had been identified in the universe,” reports the Guardian. “More than 6,000 planets have been discovered that orbit single stars, like Earth does around the sun.” The Gua … ⌘ Read more

Infrasound Waves Stop Kitchen Fires, But Can They Replace Sprinklers?
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: In a makeshift demonstration kitchen in Concord, California, cooking oil splatters in and around a frying pan, which catches fire on an unattended gas stove. Within moments, a smoke detector wails. But in this demonstration, something less common happens: An AI-driven sensor activa … ⌘ Read more

Omarchy 3.7 Linux Distribution Overhauls Gaming Support, Adds Unified CLI
Omarchy as the Arch Linux based desktop distribution using the Hyprland compositor and led by David Heinemeier Hansson “DHH” is out with a big OS update… ⌘ Read more

@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org These days (and it’s been like that for a while), almost everything is loaded on-demand depending on which hardware the OS finds, so you can simply copy all your files with cp -a, install a bootloader, adjust some minor things /etc/fstab, done. Well, maybe not “done”, but it’s easy to sort out the remaining stuff afterwards.

I’ve moved the Arch installation at work from a stationary Dell workstation to an Acer laptop to a Lenovo Carbon laptop to a Tuxedo laptop to a Lenovo Thinkpad. 😅

Yeah, the keyboard of the netbook isn’t all that great, but I have to say that I absolutely love netbooks. And I hate that they got replaced by tablets and smartphones. A netbook is a normal PC, just very small and super easy to carry around – that’s brilliant!

GCC 16 Compiler Delivering Some Decent Performance Gains Over GCC 15
With the GCC 16.1 compiler released last Thursday, I have begun running more compiler benchmarks on this first GCC 16 stable feature release. GCC 16 comes heavy on new changes in being the annual feature release and delivering changes from AMD Zen 6 and Arm AGI CPU support to new C++ features and even the Algol 68 programming language front-end. It’s also looking quite good in the performance department relative to the GCC 15 compiler from last year. ⌘ Read more

CachyOS Switches Python To Using Tail-Call Interpreter For 5~15% Better Performance
CachyOS is a very fast out-of-the-box Linux distribution and for those concerned about Python performance, the newest updates to this Arch Linux based distribution will provide even better performance… ⌘ Read more

16% of Parents Help Their Children Bypass Online Age Checks, Study Finds. One 15-Year-Old Just Uses a Fake Moustache
The Independent reports that “more than a third of children in the UK have found a way around age verification measures” for social media sites and other online platforms. And new research from online safety organisation Internet Matters “suggests … ⌘ Read more

Linux File-System Proliferation A Burden: Requirements Laid Out For Any Future File-Systems
The growing number of file-systems within the Linux kernel source tree is causing an ongoing burden for upstream developers maintaining the virtual file-system (VFS) code around it and associated code. As a result of the continuing rise of new file-systems being proposed for the Linux kernel, documentation is being introduced to establish clear guidelines for getting new file-systems accepted into the mainline kernel. … ⌘ Read more

Mesa Begins Seeing Patch Activity For AMD GFX12.1 Graphics
Since last November we’ve begun seeing new open-source driver activity for their next-gen GPU IP with their GFX12.1 graphics engine. GFX12 (12.0) was for the Radeon RX 9000 series RDNA4 hardware while GFX 12.1 is some new revision for yet-to-be-known products while there is also GFX13 bring-up and GFX12.5 too… ⌘ Read more

Can Investors Trust AI Sales Figures? Asks Wall Street Journal Opinion Piece
A Wall Street Journal opinion piece warns of “a troubling trend” in AI’s growth. “Rather than selling software, some AI companies are paying their partners to use it.”

It cites OpenAI’s $1.5 billion joint venture with private-equity firms, Anthropic’s $200 million contribution to a private-equity firm joint venture, and Google’ … ⌘ Read more

Roblox Blames Age-Verification Rollout for Lowered Growth. Stock Tumbles 22%
Age verification became mandatory for chat access on Roblox in January — and Friday morning Quartz reported it’s apparently impacted the company’s financials:

Roblox cut its full-year 2026 bookings forecast by roughly $900 million at the midpoint on Thursday, blaming stronger-than-expected headwinds from its mandatory age-ve … ⌘ Read more

NetHack 5.0 Released
“So yesterday the Devteam (it is always the Devteam) released version 5.0 of legendary and venerable rogueike compuer game NetHack,” writes the Rogue-like games column @Play. “It is 39 years old…”

MilenCent (Slashdot reader #219,397) writes: In addition to play changes it’s left for players to discover, this version updates the code to compile with C99, makes it much easier to cross compile the code for other systems than the one … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Introduces AI-Generated Pets for Its Codex App
“Vibe coding just got a whole lot more adorable,” writes Engadget:
OpenAI introduced AI-generated pets to the Codex app, its agentic tool that helps with coding. These “optional animated companions” don’t do any coding themselves, but serve as a floating overlay that can tell you what Codex is working on, notify you when Codex completes a task or whether it needs your … ⌘ Read more

AI Cameras are Being Deployed Across the Western US for Early Detection of Wildfires
The Associated Press reports:

On a March afternoon, artificial intelligence detected something resembling smoke on a camera feed from Arizona’s Coconino National Forest. Human analysts verified it wasn’t a cloud or dust, then alerted the state’s forest service and largest electric utility. One of dozens of … ⌘ Read more

Carbon Pollution Is Making Food Less Nutritious, Risking the Health of Billions
A new meta-analysis found nutrients in food decreased over the last 40 years, reports the Washington Post. “Many of humanity’s most important crops — including wheat, potatoes, beans — contain fewer vitamins and minerals than they did a generation ago.”

“The invisible culprit behind this damaging phenomenon? Carbo … ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.1-rc2 Released With Audio Fix For Steam Deck OLED, Other Fixes
Linux 7.1-rc2 is out for testing with its accumulation of initial bug and regression fixes that have been collected over the past week since the Linux 7.1 merge window was capped off… ⌘ Read more

Robots Are Building Clay Homes In Texas Using Dirt From the Ground
A startup south of Austin is using robots to build homes out of clay pulled directly from the ground, reports a local news station:

The materials are gathered on site, mixed, and placed on a build plate. From there, a robot lowers from above, picks up the clay with a claw, carries it to the wall and drops it into place. Later, the same r … ⌘ Read more

@movq@www.uninformativ.de Oh, nice! I never was brave enough to try to move the OS to a different machine, always reinstalled from scratch. :-S

A mate also had this or a very similar white Samsung netbook. I remember typing on that thing was no fun at all for me, never hit the single right key. :-D

I’m not a fan of netbooks, there’s not remotely enough screen space for my taste. I always had 15 inch notebook. Sure, they are way heavier, but I can actually get work with them done. And yes, glared screens are an invention right from the devil himself. Completely stupid.

It’s Goodbye Time for Jeeves and Ask.com - Relics of Yesterday’s Internet
A 1999 press release bragged “Jeeves” answered 92.3 million questions in just three months. “In the digital wilds of Y2K, we came to him with our most probing questions,” remembers the New York Times — whether it was Britney Spears or tamagotchis:

We asked, and he answered: Jeeves, the digital butler of information, the online va … ⌘ Read more

@movq@www.uninformativ.de It’s a way much cleaner design. Not so overloaded anymore.

Former Nintendo Executive Says Amazon Once Requested ‘Illegal’ Price Discounts
Amazon once tried to pressure Nintendo to break the law, says former Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aimé. At a recent NYU lecture, he describes a conversation with an Amazon executive, Kotaku reports:

“Amazon was looking to get bigger into the video game space,” said Fils-Aimé. “Amazon’s mentality back then … ⌘ Read more

Many people started to become distrustful of big tech in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. I began feeling pessimistic back in 2016, when AlphaGo beat master Go player Lee Sedol four games to one. Something about that event has soured me on the future of technology ever since.

ChatGPT Became So Obsessed With Goblins That OpenAI Had to Intervene
The Wall Street Journal reports that OpenAI “recently gave its popular ChatGPT strict instructions. Stop talking about goblins.”

Recent models of the artificial-intelligence chatbot have been bringing up the creatures in conversations with users seemingly out of the blue, as well as gremlins, trolls and ogres. The goblin-speak caught the atte … ⌘ Read more

@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org Turns out, this actually was a little machine once (small netbook): https://movq.de/blog/postings/2011-04-28/0/POSTING-de.html And then I moved the whole installation to a different laptop later. I love that you can easily do that on Linux.

Brush v0.4 Released As “Significant” Release For This Rust-Based Shell
Brush v0.4 debuted today for this “Bourne Rusty Shell” as a Bash/POSIX-compatible shell written in the Rust programming language… ⌘ Read more

I like the new GitHub:

South Africa’s Draft AI Policy Withdrawn Due to ‘Fictitious’ AI-Generated Citations
An official in South Africa withdrew a draft of the country’s national AI policy, reports a local newspaper, “after it was found the draft policy was compiled using AI, which cited academic articles that were ‘fictitious’.”

Earlier this month, minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni announced cabinet had … ⌘ Read more

Ransomware Is Getting Uglier As Cybercriminals Fake Leaks and Skip Encryption Entirely
“Ransomware activity jumped again in Q1 2026,” writes Slashdot reader BrianFagioli, “with 2,638 victim posts on leak sites, up 22% year over year,” according to a report from cybersecurity company ReliaQuest.

But the bigger shift is how messy the ecosystem has become. Established groups like Akira and Qil … ⌘ Read more

ReactOS Introduces Unified Live/Install Media, New Storage Driver
ReactOS as the “open-source Windows” operating system project striving for binary compatibility with Microsoft Windows has seen some exciting improvements this week… ⌘ Read more

Many Exciting Google Summer of Code 2026 Projects & A Lot Of AI
This week Google announced the selected Google Summer of Code “GSoC” 2026 projects for providing stipends to student developers for engaging in different open-source projects. This year a lot of open-source projects involve AI/LLM adoption but there are also a number of other interesting student projects at large from GNOME Mutter GPU reset recovery to adding new features to FreeBSD… ⌘ Read more

@movq@www.uninformativ.de Happy birthday, little machine!

@prologic@twtxt.net @bender@twtxt.net @movq@www.uninformativ.de Hahaha, I didn’t expect that name either. :-D And it’s actually a cave, too.

@prologic@twtxt.net Oh, lol, it’s literally called that: https://www.queensland.com/au/en/places-to-see/experiences/nature-and-wildlife/everything-to-know-about-natural-bridge 😂

Just missed the 15th anniversary of the Linux installation on my laptop:

$ head -n 1 /var/log/pacman.log
[2011-04-27 11:38] installed filesystem (2011.04-1)

Smuggled Starlink Terminals are Beating Iran’s Internet Blackout
An anonymous reader shared this report from the BBC:

“If even one extra person is able to access the internet, I think it’s successful and it’s worth it,” says Sahand. The Iranian man is visibly anxious, speaking to the BBC outside Iran, as he carefully explains how he is part of a clandestine network smuggling satellite internet technology — whi … ⌘ Read more