Apple Brings Device-Level Age Verification to Two More Countries
11 days ago Apple launched device-level age restrictions in the U.K. There were some glitches, reports the blog 9to5Mac.
For me, the experience was an entirely painless one, taking less than 30 seconds. All I had to do was tap a confirm and continue button, and Apple told me that the length of time I’d had an Apple account was used to confirm t … ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.1 Expected To Begin Removing i486 CPU Support
It’s finally time: a patch queued into one of the development branches ahead of the upcoming Linux 7.1 merge window is set to finally begin the process of phasing out and ultimately removing Intel 486 CPU support from the Linux kernel. Anyone still using an i486 CPU with an upstream Linux kernel would be incredibly rare and no known Linux distribution vendors are still shipping with i486 CPU support, but in case you are, you can continue to be running one of … ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.1 To Begin Removing i486 CPU Support
It’s finally time: a patch queued into one of the development branches ahead of the upcoming Linux 7.1 merge window is set to finally begin the process of phasing out and ultimately removing Intel 486 CPU support from the Linux kernel. Anyone still using an i486 CPU with an upstream Linux kernel would be incredibly rare and no known Linux distribution vendors are still shipping with i486 CPU support, but in case you are, you can continue to be running one of the exis … ⌘ Read more
Chrome 148 Will Start ‘Lazy Loading’ Video and Audio to Improve Performance
“Google has announced that it’s currently testing a new feature for Chrome 148 that could speed up day-to-day browsing,” reports PC World:
[T]he browser can intelligently postpone the loading of certain elements. Why load all images at the start when it can instead load images as you get close to them while scrolling? Chrome and … ⌘ Read more
Scientists Engineered a Plant To Produce 5 Different Psychedelics At Once
Plants, toads, and mushrooms “can all produce psychedelic substances,” writes ScienceAlert.
“And now their powers have been combined in one plant.”
[S]cientists have taken the genes these organisms use to make five natural psychedelics and introduced them into a tobacco plant ( Nicotiana benthamiana), which then produced a … ⌘ Read more
AMD & Valve Deliver Better Kaveri / Kabini APU Experience With Upcoming Linux 7.1
A nice Easter surprise are some last minute updates submitted to DRM-Next of the final planned AMDGPU/AMDKFD feature changes for the upcoming Linux 7.1 feature cycle… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.0-rc7 Adding More Documentation For AI Tools To Send Better Security Bug Reports
For helping with the increase of AI tools scouring the Linux kernel source tree and sending security bug reports, a pull request sent today ahead of the Linux 7.0-rc7 improves the documentation to better guide AI agents – and anyone reading the documentation – how to send better quality bug reports… ⌘ Read more
Does Ubuntu Now Require More RAM Than Windows 11?
“Canonical is no longer pretending that 4GB is enough,” writes the blog How-to-Geek, noting Ubuntu 26.04 LTS “raises the baseline memory to 6GB, alongside a 2GHz dual-core processor, and 25GB of storage…”
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) set the floor at 1GB — a modest ask when it launched more than a decade ago in 2014. Then came the Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver) that pus … ⌘ Read more
@bender@twtxt.net Haven’t seen Azabache yesterday. But I was probably not checking enough at the correct times.
hid-omg-detect: Linux Driver In Development To Detect Malicious HID Devices
Zubeyr Almaho has been leading work on a new HID driver named hid-omg-detect with an intent on passive monitoring to watch out for any malicious HID devices being connected to the system… ⌘ Read more
Linux Sees Fixes For Its GD-ROM Driver In 2026 For Sega Dreamcast
Seeing new Linux patches for benefiting Sega Dreamcast devices wasn’t on my bingo card for 2026. A patch series was sent out today for fixing the Linux kernel’s GD-ROM driver for accessing media using the drivers on “real” Sega Dreamcast devices… ⌘ Read more
Mesa 26.1 Makes It Easier To “Fake” A GPU Reset Using LLVMpipe
As a small but interesting addition coming for this quarter’s Mesa 26.1 release is making it easy to simulate a GPU reset with the LLVMpipe software driver. While seemingly mundane, this can be quite handy for compositor developers and other app/software developers wanting to more easily test how their code behaves when encountering a GPU reset… ⌘ Read more
Apple’s First 50 Years Celebrated - Including How Steve Jobs Finally Accepted an ‘Open’ App Store
Apple’s 50th anniversary got celebrated in weird and wild ways. CEO Tim Cook posted a special 30-second video rewinding backwards through the years of Apple’s products until it reaches the Apple I. Podcaster Lex Fridman noticed if you play the sound in reverse, “It’s the Think Differ … ⌘ Read more
The problem is, they jump hosts all the time.
Maybe it’s time to add automated blocking after all … God, I’m too lazy for that. 😞
Top NPM Maintainers Targeted with AI Deepfakes in Massive Supply-Chain Attack, Axios Briefly Compromised
“Hackers briefly turned a widely trusted developer tool into a vehicle for credential-stealing malware that could give attackers ongoing access to infected systems,” the news site Axios.com reported Tuesday, citing security researchers at Google.
The compromised package … ⌘ Read more
Microsoft Pulls Then Re-Issues Windows 11 Preview Update. Also Begins Force-Updating Windows 11
Nine days ago Microsoft released a non-security “preview” update for Windows 11 — not mandatory for the average Windows user, notes ZDNet, “but rather as optional, more for IT admins and power users who want to test them.”
TechRepublic adds that the update “was to bring ‘production-rea … ⌘ Read more
America’s CIA Recruited Iran’s Nuclear Scientists - By Threatening To Kill Them
A former U.S. spy spoke to The New Yorker about “years of clandestine work for the C.I.A. — which, he said, had ‘prevented Iran from getting a nuke’.”
[Kevin] Chalker told me that, as he understood it, the Pentagon had suggested running commando operations to kill key Iranian scientists, as Israel subsequently did. … ⌘ Read more
Before Webcomics: Selling Political Cartoons On BBSes In 1992
Slashdot reader Kirkman14 writes: A year before the Web opened to the public, Texas entrepreneur Don Lokke was trying to syndicate weekly political cartoons to bulletin board systems. His “telecomics,” as he called them, represent an overlooked early experiment in online comics. Lokke launched his main series, “Mack the Mouse” at the height of the 1992 … ⌘ Read more
Are Employers Using Your Data To Figure Out the Lowest Salary You’ll Accept?
MarketWatch looks at “surveillance wages,” pay rates “based not on an employee’s performance or seniority, but on formulas that use their personal data, often collected without employees’ knowledge.”
According to Nina DiSalvo, policy director at labor advocacy group Towards Justice, some systems use signals associated with fi … ⌘ Read more
Anthropic Announces Claude Subscribers Must Now Pay Extra to Use OpenClaw
Anthropic’s making a big and sudden change — and connecting its Claude AI to third-party agentic tools “is about to get a lot more expensive,” writes the Verge:
Beginning April 4th at 3PM ET, users will “no longer be able to use your Claude subscription limits for third-party harnesses including OpenClaw,” according to an email sen … ⌘ Read more
Debian Is Figuring Out How Age Verification Laws Will Impact It
With age verification/attestation laws down to the OS level enacted by California and being decided upon by other US states, it’s been a hot topic of discussion in the open-source world. For the Debian project that is strictly volunteer/community-driven unlike various commercial Linux platforms, they are figuring out how such laws will impact them… ⌘ Read more
No, AMD Is Not Buying Intel
“The April 1st timing should have been your first clue,” writes Gadget Review. TechSpot’s false story was just an April Fool’s prank — although Gadget Review thinks it’s still funny how “something about this particular piece of satire felt uncomfortably plausible.”
Maybe it’s because AMD stock sits around $196 while Intel hovers near $41, or perhaps it’s the poetic justice of the underdog finally eating the giant. The semi … ⌘ Read more
Amazon Must Negotiate With First Warehouse Workers Union, US Labor Board Rules
Amazon “must negotiate with a labor union representing some 5,000 workers at a company warehouse on Staten Island,” reports Reuters, citing a ruling Wednesday from America’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
The union formed in 2022, according to the article, and “has been seeking to negotiate with Amazon over pay, … ⌘ Read more
Razer Wolverine V3 Pro & Betop KP50 Controllers To Be Supported By Linux 7.0
Ahead of tomorrow’s Linux 7.0-rc7 kernel release, this week’s batch of input fixes were sent in and merged. Besides a few small input fixes are also some new device IDs and quirks for hardware now to be handled by Linux 7.0… ⌘ Read more
The Document Foundation Removes Dozens of Collabora Developers
Long-time GNOME/OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice contributor
Michael Meeks is now general manager of Collabora Productivity. And earlier this month he complained when LibreOffice decided to bring back its LibreOffice Online project, as reported by Neowin, which had been inactive since 2022. After the original project went dormant — to which Collabora was a … ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.1 To Expose AMD Zen 6’s AVX-512 BMM For Guest VMs
A small but important patch that looks like it will be merged for the upcoming Linux 7.1 kernel is for enumerating AVX-512 BMM support for KVM virtualized guests. AVX-512 BMM is one of the exciting ISA additions with next-gen AMD Zen 6 processors… ⌘ Read more
‘Cognitive Surrender’ Leads AI Users To Abandon Logical Thinking, Research Finds
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: When it comes to large language model-powered tools, there are generally two broad categories of users. On one side are those who treat AI as a powerful but sometimes faulty service that needs careful human oversight and review to detect reasoning or factual fl … ⌘ Read more
AWS Engineer Reports PostgreSQL Performance Halved By Linux 7.0, But A Fix May Not Be Easy
An Amazon/AWS engineer raised the alarms on Friday over the current Linux 7.0 development kernel leading to the throughput for the PostgreSQL database server being around half that of prior kernel versions. The culprit halving the PostgreSQL performance is known but a revert looks like it may not happen and currently suggesting that PostgreSQL may need to be adapted… ⌘ Read more
AWS Engineer Reports PostgreSQL Performance Halved By Linux 7.0, But A Fix May Not Be Easy
An Amazon/AWS engineer raised the alarms on Friday over the current Linux 7.0 development kernel leading to the throughput for the PostgreSQL database server being around half that of prior kernel versions. The culprit halving the PostgreSQL performance is known but a revert looks like it may not happen and currently suggesting that PostgreSQL may need to be adapted… ⌘ Read more
Colorado’s New Speed Camera System Makes Waze Nearly Useless
Colorado is rolling out an average-speed camera system that tracks vehicles across multiple points instead of catching them at a single camera, making it much harder for drivers to dodge tickets with apps like Waze and Radarbot. Motor1 reports: The state’s new automated vehicle identification systems (AVIS) use several cameras to calculate your average spe … ⌘ Read more
3mdeb Makes Progress Bringing AMD openSIL + Coreboot To Ryzen AM5 Motherboard
In addition to 3mdeb firmware engineers porting AMD openSIL and Coreboot to a Gigabyte EPYC Turin server motherboard, the staff at this firmware consulting company are also porting AMD openSIL and Coreboot to a modern Ryzen AM5 desktop motherboard. They continue making good strides with that quest for the first readily-available Ryzen desktop motherboard with open-source system firmware… ⌘ Read more
KDE’s KWin Continues Working On Vulkan Support, Other Improvements For Plasma 6.7
KDE Plasma developers continue working on new features for Plasma 6.7 while continuing to land more fixes and hardening for the current Plasma 6.6 stable series… ⌘ Read more
Artemis II Astronauts Pass 100,000 Miles From Earth On Voyage To the Moon
The Artemis II crew has passed 100,000 miles from Earth and is now on a “free-return” path around the moon after a successful “translunar” injection burn. “Ladies and gentlemen, I am so, so excited to be able to tell you that for the first time since 1972 during Apollo 17, human beings have left Earth orbit,” NASA’s Dr Lori Gl … ⌘ Read more
‘AI’ Is Coming For Your Online Gaming Servers Next
“Consumer PC parts aren’t the only things being gobbled up by the ‘AI’ industry,” writes PCWorld’s Michael Crider. “A Starcraft-inspired strategy game is shutting down its multiplayer servers because the hosting company got bought out for ‘AI.’” The game will still be playable offline for now, but the shutdown highlights the ripple effects of the AI boom on the gaming indust … ⌘ Read more
OpenRazer 3.12.1 Enables Two More Razer Devices Under Linux
OpenRazer 3.12 released in mid-March as the latest feature update to these open-source drivers for Razer hardware on Linux. Out today is OpenRazer 3.12.1 for enabling two more Razer products on Linux plus shipping a couple fixes… ⌘ Read more
Iran Strikes Leave Amazon Availability Zones ‘Hard Down’ In Bahrain and Dubai
Iranian strikes have reportedly knocked out key AWS availability zones in Bahrain and Dubai, leaving parts of both regions effectively offline for an extended period and forcing Amazon to urge teams and customers to shift workloads elsewhere. “These two regions continue to be impaired, and services should not expect to be … ⌘ Read more
Wine 11.6 Begins Reviving Its Android Driver
Wine 11.6 is out as the newest bi-weekly development release for this open-source software enabling Windows games and applications on Linux, macOS, and other platforms… ⌘ Read more
Microsoft To Invest $10 Billion In Japan For AI, Cyber Defense Expansion
Microsoft plans to invest $10 billion in Japan from 2026 to 2029 to expand AI infrastructure, boost local cloud capacity, train 1 million engineers and developers, and deepen cybersecurity cooperation with the Japanese government. Reuters reports: The investment includes the training of 1 million engineers and developers by 2030, Microso … ⌘ Read more
@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org wow, quite a few good ones today! One thing about our friend, they are very, very consistent.
I just finished mowing the lawn, taking the trash out, and doing the dishes. Now tired, boss, dog tired.
Netflix Must Refund Customers For Years of Price Hikes, Italian Court Rules
A Rome court ruled that several Netflix price hikes in Italy were unlawful because the company’s contracts didn’t adequately explain or justify future pricing changes. As a result, Netflix has been ordered to issue refunds that could total roughly 500 euros for some long-term subscribers. Ars Technica reports: The lawsuit was b … ⌘ Read more
@movq@www.uninformativ.de Yeah. Unfortunately. :-( I tried to bring up the subject of dependency upgrade reviews a few times, but nobody else cared. We finally experienced a supply chain attack (luckily, didn’t turn out too horrible for us, could have been worse) and this got the discussion slowly rolling again. So, publication of this article is perfect timing. Let’s see. Admittedly, I don’t have high hopes. And I bet someone suggests to use AI agents…
Thank you, @bender@twtxt.net!
My mate and I took advantage of the public holiday and went on a hike. At first, the 14°C and only slight wind weren’t all that terrible, especially since there were only a few clouds. Later, the sun got covered more and more and also the wind picked up. I was really glad that I brought my jacket along. In the beginning I was contemplating about leaving it at home, but then still wore it and stripped it a few minutes into the trip. It was very windy at the summit, so for our second lunch break wearing it was an absolute must. It was a very beautiful trip and I enjoyed my mate’s company.
Finally, Azabache showed up, too. I didn’t bother videoing with all the wind. Didn’t feel like fixing the audio. Maybe tomorrow.
Fan Fiction Website AO3 Exits Beta After 17 Years
Archive of Our Own (AO3) is officially dropping its “beta” label after 17 years. The Organization for Transformative Works, the nonprofit behind the fanfiction site, said the site will keep evolving with new improvements even though it’s no longer technically in beta.
“As the AO3 software has been stable for a long time, the change is mostly cosmetic and does not indicate th … ⌘ Read more
Tech Companies Are Trying To Neuter Colorado’s Landmark Right-to-Repair Law
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Today at a hearing of the Colorado Senate Business, Labor, and Technology committee, lawmakers voted unanimously to move Colorado state bill SB26-090 – titled Exempt Critical Infrastructure from Right to Repair – out of committee and into the state senate and house for a vote. … ⌘ Read more
Redox OS Introducing New CPU Scheduler For ~1.5x Performance In Heavy Tasks
The Rust-based Redox OS operating system is preparing to land a new CPU scheduler thanks to work being carried out by open-source developer Akshit Gaur on modernizing the platform’s process scheduling subsystem… ⌘ Read more
College Student, Cat Meme Helped Crack Massive Botnet Case
The Wall Street Journal shares the “wild behind-the-scenes story” of how the world’s largest and most destructive botnet was uncovered and taken down, writes Slashdot reader sturgeon. “At times, the network known as Kimwolf included more than a million compromised home Android devices and digital photo frames – enough DDoS firepower to disrupt internet traffic … ⌘ Read more
Penalties Stack Up As AI Spreads Through the Legal System
Tony Isaac shares a report from NPR: When it comes to using AI, it seems some lawyers just can’t help themselves. Last year saw a rapid increase in court sanctions against attorneys for filing briefs containing errors generated by artificial intelligence tools. The most prominent case was that of the lawyers for MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who were fined $3,000 … ⌘ Read more
Intel Linux NPU Driver 1.32 Adds Wildcat Lake Support
Intel today released their Linux NPU Driver 1.32 as the user-space driver components that interacts with the upstream IVPU kernel accelerator driver for supporting the NPU hardware with Core Ultra processors… ⌘ Read more
Half of Planned US Data Center Builds Have Been Delayed or Canceled
Despite hundreds of billions of dollars in investment, nearly half of planned U.S. data center projects are being delayed or canceled. “One major reason behind these setbacks is the availability of key electrical components – such as transformers, switchgear, and batteries – that are used both at data center sites and outside of them, … ⌘ Read more
