Amazon’s New Fire TV Sticks No Longer Support Sideloading
Amazon’s newest Fire TV Sticks are dropping support for normal sideloading, blocking apps from outside the Amazon Appstore unless the device is registered with developers. Cord Cutters News reports: This week, Amazon announced the upcoming launch of a new Fire TV Stick HD. The new model will run on Amazon’s Vega OS, rather than Android, so most streamin … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Starts Offering a Biology-Tuned LLM
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On Thursday, OpenAI announced it had developed a large language model specifically trained on common biology workflows. Called GPT-Rosalind after Rosalind Franklin, the model appears to differ from most science-focused models from major tech companies, which have generally taken a more generic approach that works for various fields. … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Increases the FAT32 Limit From 32GB To 2TB
Longtime Slashdot reader AmiMoJo writes: Windows has limited FAT32 partitions to a maximum of 32GB for decades now. When memory cards and USB drives exceeded 32GB in size, the only options were exFAT or NTFS. Neither option was well supported on other platforms at first, although exFAT support is fairly widespread now. In their latest blog post, Microsoft announced … ⌘ Read more

Newly Unsealed Records Reveal Amazon’s Price-Fixing Tactics
Newly unsealed records in California’s antitrust case against Amazon allegedly show the company pressured third-party sellers to raise prices on rival sites like Walmart, Target, and Wayfair so Amazon could maintain the appearance of offering the lowest price. California says Amazon used tools like Buy Box suppression to punish cheaper listings elsewhere. T … ⌘ Read more

US To Create High-Tech Manufacturing Zone In Philippines
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Wall Street Journal: An agreement with the Philippines to establish a high-tech industrial hub is the Trump administration’s latest effort to lessen China’s dominance over global supply chains. The deal to build up American manufacturing across a stretch of the island of Luzon, signed Thursday, will offer U.S. compani … ⌘ Read more

Intel Xe2 Lunar Lake Linux Graphics Performance Up ~17% Over Past Year
Given the Ubuntu 26.04 LTS release being imminent and also realizing it’s been nearly one year to the day since reviewing the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition laptop under Linux, I ran some fresh benchmarks for seeing how the integrated Xe2 graphics have evolved on Linux over the past year. ⌘ Read more

Valve Developer Lands RADV/ACO Changes For AMD’s GFX11.7 / RDNA 4m
The open-source Linux graphics driver work continues around AMD’s GFX11.7 GPU target for some yet-to-be-launched APUs/SoCs and to be branded as “RDNA 4m”… ⌘ Read more

Glibc Lands A Big Optimization For LoongArch CPUs
Loongson’s LoongArch processors are running decent in our recent Loongson 3B6000 benchmarks but even better performance is on the way with the next GNU C Library “glibc” release… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.1 Crypto Code Rework Enables More Optimizations By Default
Linux libcrypto cryptography subsystem changes for the v7.1 kernel are enabling more optimizations by default and in turn helping to achieve better crypto/hashing performance on this next kernel version… ⌘ Read more

Fedora 44 Will Not Be Released Next Week
Fedora 44 final had been aiming for an early release target of 21 April, but due to outstanding blocker bugs, it’s now revised to target a release on 28 April… ⌘ Read more

Reed Hastings Is Leaving Netflix After 29 Years
Reed Hastings is stepping down from Netflix’s board in June, ending a 29-year run at the company he co-founded and helped transform from a DVD-by-mail business into a global streaming giant. Hastings said in a shareholder (PDF) letter that heâ™s stepping down to focus on “his philanthropy and other pursuits.” Engadget reports: Hastings has served as chairman of Netflix’s board … ⌘ Read more

GCC Compiler Adds Arm AGI CPU Target
The GCC open-source compiler has landed initial targeting support for Arm’s newly-announced AGI CPU… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.1 x86/x86_64 Aligns With Other Architectures Now For Supporting Custom Restart Handlers
With the vast majority of x86/x86_64 systems supporting restarting the system using ACPi, BIOS, or even the KBD keyboard controller, with Linux 7.1 is now support in place for using custom restart handlers registered by drivers, such as in place for other CPU architectures… ⌘ Read more

New Lenovo Fan Driver, More ASUS Motherboards With Sensor Monitoring For Linux 7.1
All of the hardware monitoring “HWMON” subsystem updates were merged this week for the Linux 7.1 kernel… ⌘ Read more

Intel’s New Core Series 3 Is Its Answer To the MacBook Neo
Intel has launched a new budget-focused Core Series 3 processor line for lower-cost laptops – “Intel’s response to budget CPUs that are appearing in laptops like the Apple MacBook Neo,” writes PCWorld’s Mark Hachman. From the report: Intel unexpectedly launched the Core Series 3, based on its excellent “Panther Lake” (Core Ultra Series 3) architecture and 1 … ⌘ Read more

@bender@twtxt.net Absolutely!

@bender@twtxt.net Trust me, so do it. I certainly gained some weight.

Sperm Whales’ Communication Closely Parallels Human Language, Study Finds
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: We may appear to have little in common with sperm whales – enormous, ocean-dwelling animals that last shared a common ancestor with humans more than 90 million years ago. But the whales’ vocalized communications are remarkably similar to our own, researchers have discovered … ⌘ Read more

New NTFS File-System Driver Submitted For Linux 7.1
Making today very exciting in Linux 7.1 merge window land was a pull request being sent out for introducing the new, modern NTFS file-system driver. Linus Torvalds has yet to comment if he’s going to merge the new driver but it looks like it’s ready for providing a better Linux NTFS experience over the current NTFS3 driver that was upstreamed by Paragon Software a few years ago and hasn’t seen too much feature progress… ⌘ Read more

@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org hmmm, pizza! With that amount of food (a) I wouldn’t complain, and (b) I will be obese on my return. LOL.

@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org so beautiful! Azabache is so faithful too! That bird deserves some unsalted, organic seeds!

@movq@www.uninformativ.de more to read, but I read between your words that you are starving for more: https://aphyr.com/posts/411-the-future-of-everything-is-lies-i-guess :-D

‘TotalRecall Reloaded’ Tool Finds a Side Entrance To Windows 11 Recall Database
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Two years ago, Microsoft launched its first wave of “Copilot+” Windows PCs with a handful of exclusive features that could take advantage of the neural processing unit (NPU) hardware being built into newer laptop processors. These NPUs could enable AI and machine le … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI’s Big Codex Update Is a Direct Shot At Claude Code
OpenAI is updating Codex with more agent-like capabilities, positioning it as a more direct rival to Anthropic’s Claude Code. Some of the new features include the ability to operate macOS desktop apps, browse the web inside the app, generate images, use new workplace plug-ins, and remember useful context from past tasks. The Verge reports: Codex will now … ⌘ Read more

Proton 11.0 Beta Released With More Games Playable On Steam Play
Valve and CodeWeavers have just released Proton 11.0 Beta as their first beta milestone for this software that powers Steam Play now rebased against upstream Wine 11.0… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.1 sched_ext Brings cgroup Sub-Scheduler Groundwork, Idle SMT Sibling Improvement
The extensible scheduler “sched_ext” code for allowing Linux scheduling behavior to be defined via BPF programs is seeing some useful improvements with the in-development Linux 7.1 kernel… ⌘ Read more

Is Linux Mint In Trouble?
BrianFagioli writes: The developers behind Linux Mint say the project is rethinking its release strategy and moving toward a longer development cycle, with the next version now expected around Christmas 2026. In a monthly update, project lead Clement Lefebvre said the team reached a “crossroads” and needs more flexibility to fix bugs, improve the desktop, and adapt to rapid changes across the Linux ecosystem. The upcoming … ⌘ Read more

Europe Has ‘Maybe 6 Weeks of Jet Fuel Left’
The head of the International Energy Agency warned that Europe may have only “six weeks or so” of jet fuel left if oil supplies remain blocked by the Iran war and the Strait of Hormuz stays disrupted. The Associated Press reports: IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol painted a sobering picture of the global repercussions of what he called “the largest energy crisis we have ever faced,” s … ⌘ Read more

Google, Pentagon Discuss Classified AI Deal
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Alphabet’s Google is negotiating an agreement with the Department of Defense that would allow the Pentagon to deploy its Gemini AI models in classified settings, the Information reported on Thursday, citing two people with direct knowledge of the discussions. The two parties are discussing an agreement that would allow the Pentagon to use Go … ⌘ Read more

IPv6 Usage Reaches Historic 50% Across Google Services
IPv6 usage briefly reached 50% across Google services for the first time, marking a major milestone for a protocol created in 1998 to solve IPv4’s address shortage. Tom’s Hardware reports: […] IPv6 was dismissed early on as a headache-inducing, hard-to-implement complication that would hardly ever gain any traction – despite offering 2^128 possible numbers, solv … ⌘ Read more

Mir 2.26 Begins Working On Rust-Based Input Platform
Canonical today released Mir 2.26 as the newest feature release for this compositor for building Wayland-based shells. Notable with Mir 2.26 is a Rust-based input platform is in development as part of their broader effort for bringing Rust code into Mir… ⌘ Read more

New Media Drivers Merged For Linux 7.1
The media subsystem updates have been merged for the ongoing Linux 7.1 merge window and includes new hardware support… ⌘ Read more

@kiwu@twtxt.net I returned home from an on-site week at work. Commute was an adventure every day. It started off with a canceled train on Monday morning. Luckily, some very good mates granted my asylum. But even with shorter rides, I faced delays due to fuckwits on the tracks, then the train was terminated early due to the large delay, so we had to change trains. On the bright side, they then sent an entirely empty one, but I don’t get why they just didn’t continue with the first one instead. Due to another delayed train I didn’t catch my connection and the next one was canceled, so I had to wait for the following one. Super great fun. I’m very exhausted now and am very glad that I had already filed in flex time for tomorrow before the on-site event was scheduled.

Meeting my workmates in person was actually nice. It’s okay to do that once a quarter, I don’t need to do that more often. We should have had more meetings, though, trying to work in the office was expectedly incredibly inefficient. We certainly would have had more topics to actually discuss and think about. And most of them would have really benefited from nearly everybody being in the same room. Anyway.

Today, I even met my workmates from past projects in the office, too. So, the socializing was great.

Anthropic Rolls Out Claude Opus 4.7, an AI Model That Is Less Risky Than Mythos
Anthropic released Claude Opus 4.7, calling it its strongest generally available model and an improvement over Opus 4.6 in areas like software engineering, instruction-following, tool use, and agentic coding. But the company says it is “less broadly capable” than the restricted Claude Mythos Preview, “which Anthropic rolled … ⌘ Read more

Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus Performance In 340+ Linux Benchmarks
Last month Intel began shipping the Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus “Arrow Lake Refresh” desktop processor. This is a mighty interesting processor for the $349 USD price point with more cores and a larger cache compared to the Core Ultra 7 265K and capable of delivering much of the performance of the flagship Core Ultra 9 285K Arrow Lake processor. In today’s article is a look at how well the Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus performs under Linux wit … ⌘ Read more

EU Age Verification App Announced To Protect Children Online
The EU says a new age-verification app is technically ready and could let users prove they are old enough to access restricted online content without revealing their identity or personal data. Deutsche Welle reports: Once released, users will be able to download the app from an app store and set it up using proof of identity, such as a passport or nationa … ⌘ Read more

AlmaLinux OS Kitten 10 Adds i686 User-Space Packages
The community-based AlmaLinux OS alternative to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) continues exploring ways to better differentiate it from upstream RHEL and other derivatives. The latest difference is AlmaLinux OS Kitten 10 adding i686 user-space packages for those wanting to run on a RHEL 10 based platform but still needing x86 32-bit user-space software compatibility… ⌘ Read more

Researchers Induce Smells With Ultrasound, No Chemical Cartridges Required
An anonymous reader quotes a report from UploadVR: A group of independent researchers built a device that can artificially induce smell using ultrasound, with no consumable cartridges required. […] The team of four are Lev Chizhov, Albert Yan-Huang, Thomas Ribeiro, Aayush Gupta. Chizhov is a neurotech entrepreneur with a bac … ⌘ Read more

Intel Formally Announces Core Series 3 “Wildcat Lake”
Intel today formally announced the Core Series 3 low-end mobile processors previously known as Wildcat Lake. These are the new Intel 18A offerings that are a step below the Core Ultra Series 3 “Panther Lake” SoCs that began shipping earlier this year… ⌘ Read more

Rust 1.95 Released With Several Improvements
Rust 1.95 was released to the wild today as the latest feature update to this popular programming language… ⌘ Read more

Linux Mint 23 Making Progress On Ubuntu 26.04 Base, Linux 7.0 Kernel & Wayland
The Linux Mint project published their March 2026 monthly status update where they note the ongoing work toward Mint 23 “Alfa” that will be released under their new longer development lifecycle. Linux Mint 23 will be out for Christmas (December) 2026 atop an Ubuntu 26.04 LTS base… ⌘ Read more

Mozilla Announces “Thunderbolt” As An Open-Source, Enterprise AI Client
Mozilla today announced “Thunderbolt” as an open-source AI client built for control and independence. Mozilla Thunderbolt, while having the worst possible name, is built for organizations and others wanting to deploy self-hosted AI infrastructure… ⌘ Read more

Intel LASS In Good Shape For Linux 7.1
In addition to Linux 7.1 supporting FRED by default for Flexible Return and Event Delivery, another Intel CPU feature now in good shape for this next kernel version is Linear Address Space Separation (LASS)… ⌘ Read more

Bullet Train Upgrade Brings 5G Windows, Noise-Cancelling Cabins To Japan
Some Japanese bullet trains will soon support premium private suites this October, featuring windows with embedded 5G antennas for steadier onboard Wi-Fi and NTT noise-cancelling cabin tech to reduce train noise. The 5G window antennas are designed to maintain line-of-sight connections as trains race past base stations at up to 28 … ⌘ Read more

Linux Begins Removing Support For Russia’s Baikal CPUs
Beyond Linux 7.1 beginning to phase out Intel 486 CPU support, this next Linux kernel version is also beginning to remove driver code for supporting Russia’s Baikal CPUs… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.1 Picks Up The MMC Changes After Rejected By Linus In Linux 7.0
Back during the Linux 7.0 merge window the MMC changes were rejected by Linus Torvalds as “complete garbage” that wasn’t building properly and not vetted through linux-next. He went without pulling any MMC changes for the v7.0 cycle while now for Linux 7.1 the code has been better tested and successfully merged… ⌘ Read more

KDE Gear 26.04 Released With Numerous Improvements To KDE Apps
Following the recent KDE Plasma 6.6 desktop release, KDE Gear 26.04 is out today for shipping all the latest updated KDE desktop applications… ⌘ Read more

UK Households To Be Urged To Use More Power This Summer As Renewables Soar
Longtime Slashdot reader AmiMoJo shares a report from the Guardian: Households will be called on to boost their consumption of Great Britain’s record renewable energy this summer to help balance the power grid and lower energy bills. Under the new plans, people could be encouraged to run dishwashers and washing machines or … ⌘ Read more

Nature Is Still Molding Human Genes, Study Finds
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Many scientists have contended that humans have evolved very little over the past 10,000 years. A few hundred generations was just a blink of the evolutionary eye, it seemed. Besides, our cultural evolution – our technology, agriculture and the rest – must have overwhelmed our biological evolution by now. A vast study … ⌘ Read more

AMD Linux Graphics Driver Introducing “Power Module” To Better Match Windows Behavior
With the set of today’s AMDGPU kernel graphics driver Display Core (DC) patches is a rather curious addition with wiring up the Linux code to a “power module” that looks like it will better match Microsoft Windows behavior with the AMD Radeon driver around display-related power savings features… ⌘ Read more