AMD Linux GPU Driver Improvement Coming For DP-HDMI Dongles
For those using a DisplayPort to HDMI dongle currently with the AMDGPU Linux kernel graphics driver may find some higher resolutions / modes unavailable. Fortunately, a fix is on the way for dealing with this situation due to an oversight in the kernel driver… ⌘ Read more

@zvava@twtxt.net and the year of the Linux desktop, I swear! No more procrastination, this year is it.

New Dietary Guidelines Abandon Longstanding Advice on Alcohol
An anonymous reader shares a report: Ever since the federal government began issuing the Dietary Guidelines in 1980, it has told Americans to limit themselves to one or two standard alcoholic drinks a day. Over time, the official advice morphed to no more than two drinks a day for men, and no more than one for women. No longer [non-paywalled source]. … ⌘ Read more

Vacation: Doing crazy things like C on DOS, lots of Rust, bare-metal assembly code, everything is fine.

Back at work: How the fuck do I move an email in this web mail program? Am I stupid? 😮‍💨

@rrraksamam@twtxt.net down, boy! :-D

Samsung’s Rolling Ballie Robot Indefinitely Shelved After Delays
Samsung Electronics has once again sidelined Ballie, a long-anticipated robot that was first announced six years ago but never released. Bloomberg News: The device – designed to roll and roam throughout the home – is completely absent from this week’s CES, the biggest electronics trade show. And though Samsung said last year that Ballie was … ⌘ Read more

The Inevitable Rise of the Art TV
Several years after Samsung introduced the Frame TV in 2017 – a television designed to display fine art and resemble a framed painting when switched off – competitors are finally catching up in meaningful numbers. Amazon announced the Ember Artline TV at CES 2026 this week, a $899 model that can display one of 2,000 works of art for free and includes an Alexa AI tool to recommend pieces suited to … ⌘ Read more

Intel FSP Improvements With Core Ultra Series 3 “Panther Lake”
While for years open-source firmware enthusiasts have been after an open-source Firmware Support Package “FSP” for Intel CPUs and back during Raja Koduri’s tenure at Intel it sounded like it might happen, it has yet to happen. But at least with the forthcoming Intel Core Ultra Series 3 “Panther Lake” there are some FSP improvements… ⌘ Read more

How Aviation Emissions Could Be Halved Without Cutting Journeys
Climate-heating emissions from aviation could be slashed in half – without reducing passenger journeys – by getting rid of premium seats, ensuring flights are near full and using the most efficient aircraft, according to analysis. The Guardian: These efficiency measures could be far more effective in tackling the fast-growing carbon footprint of … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Cancels Plans To Rate Limit Exchange Online Bulk Emails
Microsoft has canceled plans to impose a daily limit of 2,000 external recipients on Exchange Online bulk email senders. From a report: The change was announced in April 2024, when Microsoft said that it would add new External Recipient Rate (ERR) limits starting January 2025 to fight spam, with plans to begin enforcing the limit on cloud-hosted … ⌘ Read more

Dell Pro Max GB10 vs. AMD Ryzen AI Max+ Framework Desktop For Llama.cpp, OpenCL & Vulkan Compute
Over the past number of weeks the Dell Pro Max with GB10 has been undergoing a lot of testing at Phoronix. This NVIDIA GB10 powered mini PC with its 20 Arm cores (10 x Cortex-X925, 10 x Cortex-A725) and Blackwell GPU offers a lot of combined compute potential for AI and other workloads. In this article is a look at how the Dell Pro Max with GB10 competes with AMD’s Ryzen AI Max+ 395 “Strix Halo” within the Framew … ⌘ Read more

Logitech Caused Its Mice To Freak Out By Not Renewing a Certificate
An anonymous reader shares a report: If you’re among the macOS users experiencing some weird issues with your Logitech mouse, then good news: Logitech has now released a fix. This comes after multiple Reddit users reported yesterday that Logi Options Plus – the app required to manage and configure the controls on Logitech accessories – had … ⌘ Read more

Dell Walks Back AI-First Messaging After Learning Consumers Don’t Care
Dell’s CES 2026 product briefing, PC Gamer writes, stood out from the relentless AI-focused presentations that have dominated tech events for years, as the company explicitly chose to downplay its AI messaging when announcing a refreshed XPS laptop lineup, new ultraslim and entry-level Alienware laptops, Area-51 desktop refreshes and s … ⌘ Read more

Next-Gen AMD Server SoCs To Enjoy Firmware-Agnostic Platform Configuration Approach
Next-generation AMD server SoCs – presumably the AMD EPYC “Venice” on Zen 6 – is poised to introduce a firmware-agnostic platform configuration platform configuration change method/format. This is This aims to improve server platform interoperability and eliminate redundant configuration efforts for different firmware solutions… ⌘ Read more

‘Everyone Hates OneDrive, Microsoft’s Cloud App That Steals Then Deletes All Your Files’
Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud storage service has drawn renewed criticism for a particularly frustrating behavior pattern that can leave users without access to their local files after the service automatically activates during Windows updates.

Author Jason Pargin recently outlined the problem: Windows updat … ⌘ Read more

Polymarket Refuses To Pay Bets That US Would ‘Invade’ Venezuela
Polymarket is disputing that the mission to capture Nicolas Maduro constituted an invasion and said it will only settle a prediction contract if the US military takes control of Venezuelan territory. From a report: The decision by the prediction market has angered gamblers and added to the controversy surrounding a successful wager on the timing of M … ⌘ Read more

South Korea’s President Identifies a New Enemy: Baldness
South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung asked at a televised policy meeting last month whether the country’s state-run healthcare plan could cover hair-loss treatment, framing it as a question about whether hair loss qualifies as a disease. The health minister told Lee that baldness is generally considered an aesthetic problem and therefore covered out-of-po … ⌘ Read more

Founder of Spyware Maker PcTattletale Pleads Guilty To Hacking, Advertising Surveillance Software
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: The founder of a U.S.-based spyware company, whose surveillance products allowed customers to spy on the phones and computers of unsuspecting victims, pleaded guilty to federal charges linked to his long-running operation. pcTattle … ⌘ Read more

Radeon RADV Vulkan Driver Is On The Verge Of Another Big Ray-Tracing Performance Gain
Natalie Vock as one of the open-source developers on Valve’s Linux graphics team has been spearheading another big ray-tracing performance improvement for the AMD Radeon Vulkan driver. RADV ray-tracing performance improved a lot in 2025 but it’s looking like 2026 could be even more exciting… ⌘ Read more

Compiler-Based Context & Locking Analysis On Deck For Linux 7.0 Paired With Clang 22+
A new feature in the queue for likely introduction with the next version of the Linux kernel (Linux 6.20~7.0) is compiler-based context and locking analysis. This kernel code depends on the yet-to-be-released LLVM Clang 22 compiler but can provide some powerful insights to kernel developers… ⌘ Read more

Acer Laptop Battery Control Driver Looks Toward The Upstream Linux Kernel
For those with Acer laptops running Linux on GitHub there has been an out-of-tree driver providing an experimental “acer-wmi-battery” kernel module to allow controlling battery-related features. Now a cleaned-up version of that driver is working on getting into the mainline Linux kernel… ⌘ Read more

DRM Splash Screen Updated To Simply Drawing A Colored Background, Displaying A BMP Image
Back in October was an initial proposal for a DRM splash screen client for the Linux kernel that would be primarily useful for embedded systems for rendering a simple “splash screen” when updating the system firmware/software, early display activation at boot, during system recovery, or similar processes. Sent out today was a second revision to the DRM splash screen code… ⌘ Read more

Congressman Introduces Legislation To Criminalize Insider Trading On Prediction Markets
Ritchie Torres has introduced a bill to ban government officials from using insider information to trade on political prediction markets like Polymarket. The bill was prompted by reports that traders on Polymarket made large profits betting on Nicolas Maduro’s removal, raising suspicions that some wage … ⌘ Read more

An AI-Generated NWS Map Invented Fake Towns In Idaho
National Weather Service pulled an AI-generated forecast graphic after it hallucinated fake town names in Idaho. “The blunder – not the first of its kind to be posted by the NWS in the past year – comes as the agency experiments with a wide range of AI uses, from advanced forecasting to graphic design,” reports the Washington Post. “Experts worry that without properly … ⌘ Read more

Creator of Claude Code Reveals His Workflow
Boris Cherny, the creator of Claude Code at Anthropic, revealed a deceptively simple workflow that uses parallel AI agents, verification loops, and shared memory to let one developer operate with the output of an entire engineering team. “I run 5 Claudes in parallel in my terminal,” Cherny wrote. “I number my tabs 1-5, and use system notifications to know when a Claude needs input. … ⌘ Read more

Discord Files Confidentially For IPO
According to Bloomberg, Discord has confidentially filed for a U.S. IPO. Reuters reports: The U.S. IPO market regained momentum in 2025 after nearly three years of sluggish activity, but hopes for a stronger rebound were tempered by tariff-driven volatility, a prolonged government shutdown and a late-year selloff in artificial intelligence stocks. Discord, which was founded in 2015, offers voice, video … ⌘ Read more

Linux’s Old Mount API Code On The Chopping Block For The 7.0 Kernel
The Linux kernel’s “new mount API” that has been in the kernel since 2019 and recently made rounds for taking 6+ years to land the man page documentation on it will soon be the the only mount API internally within the kernel. Removing the “old” Linux kernel mount API internals is a candidate for the upcoming Linux 7.0 kernel cycle… ⌘ Read more

@kiwu@twtxt.net better now, with you around! 🙈

NYC Wegmans Is Storing Biometric Data On Shoppers’ Eyes, Voices and Faces
schwit1 shares a report from Gothamist: Wegmans in New York City has begun collecting biometric data from anyone who enters its supermarkets, according to new signage posted at the chain’s Manhattan and Brooklyn locations earlier this month. Anyone entering the store could have data on their face, eyes and voices collected and stor … ⌘ Read more

Utah Allows AI To Renew Medical Prescriptions
sinij shares a news release from the Utah Department of Commerce: The state of Utah, through the Utah Department of Commerce’s Office of Artificial Intelligence Policy, today announced a first-of-its-kind partnership with Doctronic, the AI-native health platform, to give patients with chronic conditions a faster, automated way to renew medications. This agreement marks the first s … ⌘ Read more

Nvidia Details New AI Chips and Autonomous Car Project With Mercedes
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: On Monday, [Jensen Huang, the chief executive of the chip-making giant Nvidia] said the company would begin shipping a new A.I. chip later this year, one that can do more computing with less power than previous generations of chips could. Known as the Vera Rubin, the chip has b … ⌘ Read more

Google Will Now Only Release Android Source Code Twice a Year
Google will begin releasing Android Open Source Project (AOSP) source code only twice a year starting in 2026. “In the past, Google would release the source code for every quarterly Android release, of which there are four each year,” notes Android Authority. From the report: Google told Android Authority that, effective 2026, Google will publish new s … ⌘ Read more

Gentoo Linux Made Progress On RISC-V, WSL, & More While Pulling In Just $12k USD
The Gentoo Linux project published their 2025 retrospective this week with their many accomplishments, including the recruitment of four more developers and now being up to 31,663 ebuilds and a total of 89GB worth of x86_64 binary packages on mirrors… ⌘ Read more

Vietnam Bans Unskippable Ads
Vietnam will begin enforcing new online advertising rules in February 2026 that ban forced video ads longer than five seconds and must allow users to close ads with just one tap. “Furthermore, platforms must provide clear icons and instructions for users to report advertisements that violate the law, and allow them to opt out, turn off, or stop viewing inappropriate ads,” reports a local news outlet (translated to Eng … ⌘ Read more

Intel Is Making Its Own Handheld Gaming PC Chips At CES 2026
An anonymous reader quotes a report from IGN: Last year, Intel had the best iGPU on the market. This year, it’s broken that record by over 70% with Panther Lake and it’s a huge win for handhelds. “We’ve overdelivered” is how Intel CEO Lip Bu Tan categorized the Panther Lake launch during the company’s CES 2026 Keynote address, and that really does se … ⌘ Read more

Study Casts Doubt on Potential For Life on Jupiter’s Moon Europa
Jupiter’s moon Europa is on the short list of places in our solar system seen as promising in the search for life beyond Earth, with a large subsurface ocean thought to be hidden under an outer shell of ice. But new research is raising questions about whether Europa in fact has what it takes for habitability. Reuters: The study assessed the pot … ⌘ Read more

Nvidia’s New G-Sync Pulsar Monitors Target Motion Blur at the Human Retina Level
Nvidia’s G-Sync Pulsar technology, first announced nearly two years ago as a solution to display motion blur caused by old images persisting on the viewer’s retina, is finally arriving in consumer monitors this week. The first four Pulsar-equipped displays – from Acer, AOC, Asus and MSI – hit select retailers on W … ⌘ Read more

Lego Unveils Smart Bricks, Its ‘Most Significant Evolution’ in 50 years
The Lego Group today unveiled Smart Bricks, a tiny computer that fits entirely inside a classic 2x4 brick and which the company is calling the most significant evolution in its building system since the introduction of the minifigure in 1978. The Smart Brick contains a custom ASIC smaller than a single Lego stud and includes light and … ⌘ Read more

All Fedora 44 KDE Variants To Use Plasma Login Manager Rather Than SDDM
The Fedora Engineering and Steering Committee (FESCo) has approved a Fedora 44 change for switching all KDE variants away from using the SDDM display manager to instead use the newer Plasma Login Manager… ⌘ Read more

Elite Colleges Are Back at the Top of the List For Company Recruiters
The “talent is everywhere” approach that U.S. employers adopted during the white-hot pandemic job market is quietly giving way to something much older and more familiar: recruiting almost exclusively from a small set of elite and nearby universities. A 2025 survey of more than 150 companies by Veris Insights found that 26% were exclusiv … ⌘ Read more

HarperCollins Will Use AI To Translate Harlequin Romance Novels
Book publisher HarperCollins said it will start translating romance novels under its famous Harlequin label in France using AI, reducing or eliminating the pay for the team of human contract translators who previously did this work. 404Media: Publisher’s Weekly broke the news in English after French outlets reported on the story in December. Accord … ⌘ Read more

Many Schools Don’t Think Students Can Read Full Novels Anymore
A survey of 2,000 teachers, students and parents conducted by the New York Times found that many high schools have stopped assigning full novels to students, opting instead for excerpts that are often read on school-issued laptops rather than in print. The shift stems from multiple factors: a belief that students have shorter attention spans, pressure … ⌘ Read more

UK Urged To Unplug From US Tech Giants as Digital Sovereignty Fears Grow
An anonymous reader shares a report: The Open Rights Group is warning politicians that the UK is leaning far too heavily on US tech companies to run critical systems, and wants the Cybersecurity and Resilience Bill to force a rethink.

The digital rights outfit says the bill, which is due to receive its second reading in the House … ⌘ Read more

Redox OS Begins Developing Its Own Intel Graphics Driver
The Rust-written Redox OS operating system had an exciting end to the year as it began developing its own native Intel graphics driver… ⌘ Read more

@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org I’ll let you guys know when/if it’s ready to get published. 😅 There are still rough edges and, obviously, very few widgets. Most importantly, a list view and a table widget are missing. But my vacation is over now, so things will crawl to a halt.

HP Pushes PC-in-a-Keyboard for Businesses With Hot Desks
HP this week announced the EliteBoard G1a at CES 2026, a Windows computer built into a full-size 93-key desktop keyboard that the company is marketing to businesses where employees use hot desks and need a portable computing environment they can carry between workstations.

The device connects to a USB-C monitor for both video output and power delivery over a single … ⌘ Read more

@prologic@twtxt.net Yep! I like that this distillation metaphor makes it explicit: You have to go ahead and actually distill something. It doesn’t happen automatically. The metaphor acknowledges that this is work that needs to be done by someone.

“What is a PC compatible?” https://codon.org.uk/~mjg59/blog/p/what-is-a-pc-compatible/

‘NY Orders Apps To Lie About Social Media Addiction, Will Lose In Court’
New York Governor Kathy Hochul has signed S4505, a law that requires websites to display warnings claiming that features like algorithmic feeds, push notifications, infinite scroll, like counts, and autoplay cause addiction – despite, as TechDirt argues, the absence of scientific consensus supporting such claims.

State Senator Andr … ⌘ Read more

Transparent Hugepage Performance On Linux 6.18 LTS: Madvise vs. Always
With some Linux distributions like Fedora Workstation and Ubuntu defaulting to “madvise” Transparent Hugepages (THP) while others like CachyOS and openSUSE defaulting to “always”, you may be curious about the madvise vs. always THP difference in modern Linux environments. If so this round of benchmarking is for you in looking at the performance impact of madvise vs. always THP. ⌘ Read more