Intel Linux Driver Working To Enable “CMTG” Feature For Lunar Lake Onwards
With Lunar Lake and newer Intel graphics there is a new feature called the Common Mode Timing Generator (CMTG) that so far hasn’t been enabled by the open-source Intel Linux graphics driver. But patches being worked on are enabling this CMTG feature that will unlock other functionality moving forward… ⌘ Read more

Google’s Recent Progress in AI Could ‘Create Some Temporary Economic Headwinds’ For OpenAI, Altman Warns Employees
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told colleagues last month that Google’s recent progress in AI could “create some temporary economic headwinds for our company,” though he added that OpenAI would emerge ahead, The Information reports [non-paywalled source]. Fro … ⌘ Read more

Homeschooling Hits Record Numbers
An anonymous reader shares a report: “In the 2024-2025 school year, homeschooling continued to grow across the United States, increasing at an average rate of 5.4%,” Angela Watson of the Johns Hopkins University School of Education’s Homeschool Hub wrote earlier this month. “This is nearly three times the pre-pandemic homeschooling growth rate of around 2%.” She added that more than a third of the states fr … ⌘ Read more

HP and Dell Disable HEVC Support Built Into Their Laptops’ CPUs
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Some Dell and HP laptop owners have been befuddled by their machines’ inability to play HEVC/H.265 content in web browsers, despite their machines’ processors having integrated decoding support. Laptops with sixth-generation Intel Core and later processors have built-in hardware support for … ⌘ Read more

@xuu@txt.sour.is when it is extremely important to be the very best at everything, nothing can be left behind. Not even a piss drinking contest!

Intel Continues Working On Dynamic PAMT To Reduce Memory Overhead For TDX
One of the improvements that Intel software engineers have been working on for the Linux kernel around their Trust Domain Extensions (TDX) functionality for confidential computing VMs is reducing the memory use. That work is under the Dynamic PAMT umbrella and this week brought the latest iteration of patches to help lower RAM use when engaging TDX for confidential VMs… ⌘ Read more

ASUS Armoury Driver Set To Be Introduced In Linux 6.19
Expected to be introduced in the upcoming Linux 6.19 kernel cycle is the ASUS Armoury “asus-armoury” driver for enhancing support for the ASUS ROG Ally gaming handhelds and other ASUS enthusiast/gaming devices under Linux… ⌘ Read more

Servo Announces Sponsorship Tiers To Get More Organizations Backing This Browser Engine
The Servo open-source web browser engine has been making good progress in recent times. Long outside the confines of Mozilla and working as a Linux Foundation Europe project, Servo has been advancing thanks to Igalia and other open-source developers while getting by on around ~$5.7k USD per month thanks mostly to donations from individuals. Servo has now announced sponsorship tiers in hopefully to solicit more donations from la … ⌘ Read more

CERN Can Now Produce Antihydrogen Atoms Eight Times Faster Than Before
fahrbot-bot shares a report from Phys.org: Physicists from Swansea University have played the leading role in a scientific breakthrough at CERN, developing an innovative technique that increases the antihydrogen trapping rate by a factor of ten. The advancement, achieved as part of the international Antihydrogen Laser Physics Appara … ⌘ Read more

Moss Spores Survive 9 Months Outside ISS
alternative_right shares a report from Phys.org: Inspired by moss’s resilience, researchers sent moss sporophytes – reproductive structures that encase spores – to the most extreme environment yet: space. Their results, published in the journal iScience on November 20, show that more than 80% of the spores survived nine months outside of the International Space Station (ISS) and made it … ⌘ Read more

Advocacy Groups Urge Parents To Avoid AI Toys This Holiday Season
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: They’re cute, even cuddly, and promise learning and companionship – but artificial intelligence toys are not safe for kids, according to children’s and consumer advocacy groups urging parents not to buy them during the holiday season. These toys, marketed to kids as young as 2 years old … ⌘ Read more

Great things happening over at the Xhitter.

Fired Techie Admits Sabotaging Ex-Employer, Causing $862K In Damage
An Ohio IT contractor pleaded guilty to breaking into his former employer’s network after being fired, impersonating another worker and using a PowerShell script to reset 2,500 passwords – an act that locked out thousands of employees and caused more than $862,000 in damage. He faces up to 10 years in prison. The Register reports: Maxwell Schu … ⌘ Read more

Intel Compute Runtime 25.44.36015.5 Brings More Performance Optimizations & Features
Released tonight was the Intel Compute Runtime 25.44.36015.5 as their roughly monthly update to this open-source GPU compute stack providing Level Zero and OpenCL support for Intel’s integrated and discrete graphics hardware… ⌘ Read more

IBM, Cisco Outline Plans For Networks of Quantum Computers By Early 2030s
IBM and Cisco plan to link quantum computers over long distances by the early 2030s, “with the goal of demonstrating the concept is workable by the end of 2030,” reports Reuters. “The move could pave the way for a quantum internet, though executives at the two companies cautioned that the networks would require technologies that … ⌘ Read more

Mozilla Says It’s Finally Done With Two-Faced Onerep
Mozilla is officially ending its partnership with Onerep after more than a year of controversy over the company’s founder secretly running people-search and data-broker sites. Monitor Plus will be discontinued by December 2025, existing subscribers will receive prorated refunds, and Mozilla says it will focus on privacy tools it fully controls. KrebsOnSecurity reports: I … ⌘ Read more

Major Music Labels Strike Deals With New AI Streaming Service
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: The world’s largest music companies have licensed their works to a music startup called Klay, which is building a streaming service that will allow users to remake songs using artificial intelligence tools. Klay is the first music AI service to reach a deal with all three major record labels, … ⌘ Read more

Roblox Blocks Children From Chatting To Adult Strangers
Roblox is rolling out mandatory facial age-verification for chat features to prevent children from communicating with adult strangers. The platform will restrict chat to verified age groups, expand parental controls, and become the first major gaming platform to require facial age checks for messaging. The BBC reports: Mandatory age checks will be introduced for … ⌘ Read more

US Employee Well-Being Hit New Low In 2024, Survey Reveals
alternative_right shares a report from Phys.org: New research from the Human Capital Development Lab at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School analyzes the state of the American workforce in 2024 and shows an overall decline in employee well-being compared to years prior. […] The latest research confirms a decline in general employee well-being since 20 … ⌘ Read more

Dell Now Shipping Laptop With Qualcomm NPU On Linux Ahead Of Windows 11
Dell announced today that their new Pro Max 16 Plus laptop with a Qualcomm discrete NPU is now shipping… That is if you are running Ubuntu Linux while the Windows 11 pre-load option is expected in early 2026. An exciting twist with the Linux version of the Dell Pro Max 16 Plus shipping before Microsoft Windows… ⌘ Read more

Google’s New Nano Banana Pro Uses Gemini 3 Power To Generate More Realistic AI Images
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Google’s meme-friendly Nano Banana image-generation model is getting an upgrade. The new Nano Banana Pro is rolling out with improved reasoning and instruction following, giving users the ability to create more accurate images with legible text and mak … ⌘ Read more

Future Google TV Devices Might Come With a Solar-powered Remote
An anonymous reader shares a report: Epishine, a company that makes solar cells optimized for indoor lighting, has announced its technology is being used in a new remote control for Google TV devices, as spotted by 9to5Google. The remote will rely on rechargeable batteries instead of disposable ones, and thanks to the use of solar cells on both sid … ⌘ Read more

Canonical Gets Flutter Up And Running On RISC-V For Ubuntu
Canonical has been bullish on RISC-V with Ubuntu being one of the most common Linux distributions endorsed by RISC-V board vendors. Canonical also has been bullish on the Flutter toolkit for crafting their desktop installer UI and other modern UI/app interfaces. But these two together haven’t panned out with Flutter not currently supporting RISC-V. Canonical has submitted pull requests now for enabling RISC-V support with Flutter… ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Open-Sources Classic Text Adventure Zork Trilogy
Microsoft has released the source code for Zork I, II, and III under the MIT License through a collaboration with Team Xbox and Activision that involved submitting pull requests to historical source repositories maintained by digital archivist Jason Scott. Each repository now includes the original source code and accompanying documentation.

The games arrive … ⌘ Read more

Nvidia Brings Ad-free Cloud Gaming To New Chromebooks
Nvidia and Google announced today a new cloud gaming plan called GeForce Now Fast Pass that is exclusive to Chromebooks. Anyone who purchases a new Chromebook will receive a year of the service included with their device at no additional charge. Fast Pass allows Chromebook owners to stream more than 2,000 games from their existing Steam, Epic or Xbox libraries.

The … ⌘ Read more

CDC Changes Webpage To Say Vaccines May Cause Autism, Revising Prior Language
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention webpage that previously made the case that vaccines don’t cause autism now says they might. WSJ: The contents of the webpage came up during Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Senate confirmation process. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R., La.) in February said Kennedy had assured hi … ⌘ Read more

PHP 8.5 Released With New Pipe Operator, New URI Extension & Clone With
PHP 8.5 is out today as the annual major feature release for this popular scripting language… ⌘ Read more

As Windows Turns 40, Microsoft Faces an AI Backlash
Microsoft’s push to transform Windows into an “agentic OS” that allows AI agents to control PCs is drawing user backlash similar to the Windows 8 controversy, as the company marks the operating system’s 40th anniversary this week, writes Tom Warren, a reporter at The Verge who has been covering Microsoft for nearly two decades. Windows chief Pavan Davuluri announced the ag … ⌘ Read more

Monarch Tractor Preps For Layoffs and Warns Employees It May ‘Shut Down’
Autonomous electric tractor startup Monarch Tractor – which we covered in 2022 – warned staff Thursday it may need to lay off more than 100 employees, or possibly even “shut down,” according to a company-wide memo obtained by TechCrunch. The report adds: The memo comes after Monarch Tractor was already cutting some positions over … ⌘ Read more

Updated Steam Runtime Switches To Debian 13 Libraries, SDL2 Using Compatibility Layer
An updated version of the Steam Linux Runtime 4 branch was rolled out that has now shifted from Debian 11 to Debian 13 libraries for some significant upgrades. In the process more libraries have gone x86_64 only in foregoing the i386 builds. In addition, the SDL 2 library support for the Steam Runtime is now provided by sdl2-compat as the compatibility layer for SDL2 atop SDL3… ⌘ Read more

You Can Finally AirDrop Files Between Android and iPhone, Starting with Pixel 10
Android’s Quick Share file transfer service can now work with Apple’s AirDrop, allowing users to send files between iPhones and Android devices. Google has started rolling out the feature to its Pixel 10 family of smartphones. The cross-platform compatibility includes security protections that the company says indepen … ⌘ Read more

Prehistoric smooching: did humans and Neanderthals kiss ?
Researchers have been attempting to determine exactly when the act of kissing may have first arisen. Matilda Brindle: If I asked you to imagine your d… ⌘ Read more

Linux 6.18 Sees Late Improvements For Xbox Ally, Lenovo Legion Go, & Alienware Laptops
We’re closing in on the Linux 6.18 stable kernel release likely in little more than one week (30 November barring any delays) and today’s batch of x86 platform driver updates is bringing some new hardware support as well as some notable consumer device fixes/improvements… ⌘ Read more

Disney Loses Bid To Block Sling TV’s One-Day Cable Passes
A federal judge in New York denied Disney’s request to block Sling TV’s short-term passes, which give viewers the ability to stream live content for as little as one day. From a report: In a ruling on Tuesday, US District Judge Arun Subramanian ruled that Disney didn’t prove that Sling TV’s passes caused “irreparable harm” to the entertainment giant, a … ⌘ Read more

@bender@twtxt.net Thanks. That pulley is just to hang back up the telephone wire (on the ground in 16) for that farm and restaurant in 04 once they finish logging. Hahahahahaaahaaaa, I didn’t see the nails on top of the pole. :-D

Yup, these ice crystals are just lovely. :-)

@prologic@twtxt.net Who’s got a life besides work, huh? Yeah, no, thanks, mate! Scratch that.

American Kids Can’t Do Math Anymore
An anonymous reader shares a report: For the past several years, America has been using its young people as lab rats in a sweeping, if not exactly thought-out, education experiment. Schools across the country have been lowering standards and removing penalties for failure. The results are coming into focus.

Five years ago, about 30 incoming freshmen at UC San Diego arrived with math skills below high- … ⌘ Read more

Linux 6.19 Slated To Land “mm/cid” Rewrite That Has Very Positive Performance Potential
A set of Linux kernel patches posted back in October for rewriting the kernel’s memory-mapped concurrency ID code for some nice performance wins looks like it will land for Linux 6.19. This is the code that prominent Intel engineer Thomas Gleixner found to yield up to an 18% improvement for the PostgreSQL database. My testing of this “mm/cid” code has also shown some nice performance wins too… ⌘ Read more

Verizon Cutting More Than 13,000 Jobs As It Restructures
An anonymous reader writes: U.S. wireless carrier Verizon said Thursday it will cut more than 13,000 jobs in its largest single layoff as it works to shrink costs and restructure operations. Verizon also said it plans to convert 179 corporate-owned retail stores into franchised operations and close one store.

Verizon’s new CEO, Dan Schulman, said in a note to employe … ⌘ Read more

VKD3D 1.18 Released With Numerous Improvements For Direct3D 12 On Vulkan
VKD3D 1.18 is now available for this Direct3D 12 implementation that is part of the upstream Wine project. The VKD3D 1.18 release also comes just ahead of next month’s feature freeze for the upcoming Wine 11.0 stable release… ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Exec Asks: Why Aren’t More People Impressed With AI?
An anonymous reader shares a report: A Microsoft executive is questioning why more people aren’t impressed with AI, a week after the company touted the evolution of Windows into an “agentic OS,” which immediately triggered backlash.

“Jeez there so many cynics! It cracks me up when I hear people call AI underwhelming,” tweeted Mustafa Suleyman, the CEO for M … ⌘ Read more

Who is OpenAI’s Auditor?
OpenAI won’t say who audits its books. The company, which projects to hit an ARR of $20 billion this year and is valued at $500 billion, has committed to spending about $1.4 trillion on data centers over the next decade. It accounts for roughly two-thirds of unfulfilled contracts at Oracle and two-fifths at CoreWeave. Microsoft alone holds around $375 billion in unfulfilled contracts with OpenAI.

Reuters reported the company may t … ⌘ Read more

Docker Model Runner Integrates vLLM for High-Throughput Inference
Expanding Docker Model Runner’s Capabilities Today, we’re excited to announce that Docker Model Runner now integrates the vLLM inference engine and safetensors models, unlocking high-throughput AI inference with the same Docker tooling you already use. When we first introduced Docker Model Runner, our goal was to make it simple for developers to run and experiment… ⌘ Read more

Firefox 147 Will Support The XDG Base Directory Specification
A 21 year old bug report requesting support of the XDG Base Directory specification is finally being addressed by Firefox. The Firefox 147 release should respect this XDG specification around where files should be positioned within Linux users’ home directory… ⌘ Read more

@bender@twtxt.net Don’t even think that was on the cards I’m afraid 😳 But yes I’ve said that in a message to the recruiter.

@prologic@twtxt.net counter that you would only work remote.

White House Prepares Executive Order To Block State AI Laws
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Politico: The White House is preparing to issue an executive order as soon as Friday that tells the Department of Justice and other federal agencies to prevent states from regulating artificial intelligence, according to four people familiar with the matter and a leaked draft of the order obtained by POLITICO. The dr … ⌘ Read more

@kiwu@twtxt.net I’m glad you’re liking the updates haha 😆

@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org @bender@twtxt.net Pfft, they want folks to relocate to Sydney. Fuck that 🤣 Sydney is a bit like San Francisco, I’m not actually sure which is worse. Fuck’n expensive as hell, the only palce you’d be able to afford to buy or rent is at least ~2hrs out of the city by public transport (i.e: train) and by that time you’ve just pissed your life down the toilet, because you’d be expected ot work a 9-10hr day + 2-3hrs of travel each way, buy the time you factor in having to wake up super early to get ready to travel in to work, you basically have zero time for anything else, let alone your ufamily,

Fuck that.

NASA publishes new photographs of interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS
The mysterious cosmic interloper has been captured on camera and NASA insists that it really is just a comet. At a press conference yesterday, NASA re… ⌘ Read more