Airbnb Bans Making Guests Do Dishes, Take Out the Trash
Airbnb is banning hosts from requiring guests to perform time-consuming checkout chores, including washing dishes, stripping beds, doing laundry, and taking trash off-site. The updated policy applies to reservations booked on or after November 20. The Verge reports: Airbnb is displaying hosts’ requests more prominently now in a new “rules and requests” section on listin … ⌘ Read more

America’s War Department Will Test Heat Ray Weapon For Potential Use
Longtime Slashdot reader destinyland shares a report from CNN: The Pentagon has given the Department of Homeland Security permission to test a military-grade heat ray and develop tactics to potentially use it in operations at the southern US border, according to a memo signed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last month and obtained by CNN … ⌘ Read more

Startup Claims To Use AI-Created Viruses To Treat a Patient
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: For the first time, scientists say they have used viruses designed by artificial intelligence to treat a human patient. Researchers announced on Tuesday that they had administered the virus, known as a phage, to a patient suffering from a deadly bacterial infection. Phages attack bacteria, and … ⌘ Read more

eBay to Cut 9% of Workforce
eBay plans to cut about 1,000 jobs, or 9% of its workforce, as CEO Jamie Iannone moves to redirect resources toward the company’s fastest-growing businesses. Reuters reports: The company had 12,300 employees at the end of last year. It also let go about 6% of its workforce, or 800 employees, in February as part of efforts to streamline operations. EBay has set itself apart from rivals by pushing into authenticated luxury goo … ⌘ Read more

AMD Brings Ryzen Overclocking Driver to Linux
AMD has published Linux kernel patches for an official Ryzen overclocking driver that allows users to adjust CPU power and current limits through a firmware interface exposed via sysfs. Phoronix reports: AMD engineer Shyam Sundar S K posted the patches for the AMD Overclocking “AOD” WMI driver as an interface to the platform firmware for managing overclocking and power/current limit … ⌘ Read more

More Than 1.5 Million Canadian Crime Stoppers Tips Leaked
A CBC investigation found that more than 1.5 million Canadian Crime Stoppers tips spanning 25 years were exposed in a breach of the P3 Global Intel tip-management platform. About 850,000 records contained personally identifiable information, including addresses, phone numbers, emails, license plates and some banking details. Longtime Slashdot reader doconnor sha … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Reportedly Projects $1,200 To $1,800 Price For Next-Gen Xbox
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: We haven’t heard many details about Microsoft’s upcoming “Project Helix” gaming hardware since the company announced it in March as a device that will “play your Xbox and PC games.” In a new wide-ranging profile of Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, though, Fortune alludes to a dual release strate … ⌘ Read more

Meta Ordered to Pay New Mexico $25 Billion for Deceiving Users About Privacy On Facebook
A New Mexico judge has ordered Meta to pay $25 billion after a jury found Facebook liable for deceiving users about privacy during the Cambridge Analytica scandal. State Attorney General Raul Torrez called it “one of the largest, if not the single largest state verdict against a company in American his … ⌘ Read more

EA Is Shutting Down BioWare
“According to a recent report by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier (paywalled), EA has reportedly decided to shut down BioWare,” the studio behind the Dragon Age and Mass Effect games, writes longtime Slashdot reader atari_kid. Quartz reports: Chief Studios Officer Cam Weber and Chief Operating Officer David Tinson wrote that “over the past several months, we’ve taken a hard look at our business.” They said a small BioWare … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Models Are Now On All Three Major US Cloud Platforms
OpenAI is bringing its models to Google Cloud’s model garden and Antigravity coding tool, putting its technology on all three major U.S. cloud platforms after Microsoft’s exclusive license ended earlier this year. “Google Cloud’s longstanding investment in machine learning and AI has made it a destination for AI workloads and the developers and data scient … ⌘ Read more

Government Websites Go Dark After Severe PHP Vulnerabilities Disclosed
“PHP disclosed two critical vulnerabilities in their programming language and urged web site operators to immediately apply the fix,” writes longtime Slashdot reader smooth wombat. “As a result, government web sites in Europe and elsewhere temporarily went dark on Wednesday as operators worked to protect their systems.” The Inde … ⌘ Read more

PHP Warns It Plans To Release 2 Emergency Patches Imminently
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Website admins, brace yourselves. Fixes for what are believed to be uncommonly severe vulnerabilities are scheduled to drop in a little more than 12 hours for PHP, a programming language that powers websites and Web applications everywhere. PHP maintainers said Monday that they planned to release patc … ⌘ Read more

Tesla-SpaceX Merger Being Considered
Elon Musk says a merger between Tesla and SpaceX is under active consideration, with special committees at both companies evaluating a deal that could combine businesses valued at roughly $3.5 trillion. “Do I think it would be a good idea? Yes,” Musk said during a call with financial analysts over the quarterly business results of SpaceX on Tuesday. The BBC reports: While Musk noted the certainty of s … ⌘ Read more

Russian Satellite’s Close Shadowing of Radar Imaging Satellite Is a Big Deal
Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from TWZ: A Russian satellite, Kosmos 2612, may have passed within approximately 85 feet (26 meters) of a U.S.-registered satellite belonging to commercial imagery provider ICEYE. This would be an extraordinarily close and potentially dangerous pass-by for two objects in s … ⌘ Read more

Judge Orders Meta To Name Employees Who Approved Torrenting Anna’s Archive, Libgen
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: Last month, Magistrate Judge Thomas Hixson ordered Meta to hand over the command histories of the servers it used to torrent pirated books. These logs would presumably reveal how Meta’s torrent clients were set up, including any changes to their upload setting … ⌘ Read more

Ukraine Claims World’s First Drone Evacuation of Wounded Soldier
Ukraine says it carried out the world’s first evacuation of a wounded soldier by aerial drone, using a heavy-lift hexacopter after enemy drones and landmines made conventional ground evacuation too dangerous. NBC News reports: Shared by the 92nd Separate Assault Brigade on Monday, the video shows the soldier strapping himself into a large drone an … ⌘ Read more

Sony Updates the Walkman As a $5,900 Gold-Plated MP3 Player
Sony has revived its Walkman lineup with three Android 16-powered high-end music players ranging from $1,900 to $5,900, topped by the gold-plated NW-WM1ZM3 with 256GB of storage. The Register reports: The Japanese giant named the new models the NW-WM1ZM3, NW-WM1AM3 and NW-ZX900. All can store and play many codecs, including MP3s, WMA, and FLAC files, plu … ⌘ Read more

AMD Is Bringing FSR 4.1 to Xbox Consoles and Handhelds
AMD is expanding its FSR 4.1 upscaling technology beyond Radeon RX 9000-series GPUs to Xbox Series X/S consoles, Xbox Ally handhelds, laptops, and Radeon RX 6000-series graphics cards. The Verge reports: AMD launched its FSR 4.1 update for Radeon RX 9000-series graphics cards in March, and promised to bring the technology to older GPUs and handhelds this year. FSR 4 … ⌘ Read more

Google Support Pages Start Defaulting to AI Chatbots
Google is beginning to replace traditional support articles with “Ask Google Help,” a Gemini-powered interface that summarizes documentation and lets users troubleshoot through a chatbot. 9to5Google reports: “Ask Google Help” will display a condensed version of the support article with direct troubleshooting steps, with the user then able to type in queries to have Gemin … ⌘ Read more

DHS Lied About Why It Wanted To Search Activist’s GrapheneOS Phone
New court records reportedly show that DHS targeted Stop Cop City activist Samuel Tunick at an Atlanta airport because he was under investigation for suspected “terrorist activities.” However, the CBP officers told him instead that they wanted to search his phone for child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Tunick, who is not accused of terrorism or … ⌘ Read more

OpenBSD 8.0 Released
OpenBSD 8.0 has been released with major virtualization and hardware upgrades, including support for up to 64 vCPUs per VM, Intel Arc graphics, ARM64 hibernation, and expanded RISC-V support. Linuxiac points out that it marks the “61st release of the security-focused Unix-like operating system.” From the report: Several fixes improve compatibility with 32-bit Linux guests, while changes to virtual machine ownership management and inte … ⌘ Read more

Meta Muse Exposes Users’ Personal, Business Secrets When They Share Conversations
Security researchers say Meta’s Muse AI assistant exposed thousands of users’ shared conversations because conversation titles were placed in subdomains that could be discovered through public DNS records. Meta has since suspended the sharing feature while it considers making changes. Ars Technica reports: Like many … ⌘ Read more

US Bans DeepSeek From Government Use
The Trump administration has banned DeepSeek AI from most US civilian federal agencies, ordering the removal of the Chinese company’s models and technology developed using them. The Department of Homeland Security did not specify the security threats behind the decision. The BBC reports: The order (PDF) is broad, as it requires agencies to ditch “all DeepSeek and DeepSeek-affiliate products, and third- … ⌘ Read more

Nscale, Anthropic In Talks For New $45 Billion AI Cloud Deal
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Nscale is in talks to sell AI computing power to Claude maker Anthropic in a new deal that could be worth about $45 billion, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday. The data center developer is seeking another major deal with the AI lab for a second facility at its Monarch data center campus in … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Abandons UK AI Supercomputer As Grid Struggles to Keep Up
Microsoft has reportedly abandoned plans to serve as the anchor customer for Britain’s largest proposed AI supercomputer after learning that the project’s Essex data center might not receive sufficient grid power until the early to mid-2030s. “Its departure leaves Nscale without a publicly announced customer for the site, although the n … ⌘ Read more

Japan Launches Historic MMX Sample-Return Mission to Mars’ Moon Phobos
Japan has successfully launched its Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission to study Mars’ two moons, Phobos and Deimos. Scheduled to arrive in August 2027, “MMX will become the first spacecraft to land on and return samples from Phobos for study back on Earth, which scientists think could shed light on a decades-old mystery about t … ⌘ Read more

Amazon To Fund 12 Small Nuclear Reactors At Former Indiana Coal Plant
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Amazon is funding development of a proposed 960-megawatt nuclear plant in Indiana and would be the first customer to buy its power, the companies announced Monday. Utility company American Electric Power (AEP) would operate the plant. X-energy, which designs small modular nuclear … ⌘ Read more

Professor Calls To Abolish Business Schools For Failing Society
joshuark writes: Professor Christopher Marquis makes a provocative argument about business schools: “We need to abolish them.” A 20-year business educator at Harvard, Cornell and Cambridge, Marquis argues in The New York Times and on LinkedIn that MBA programs sanctify profit-driven dealmaking at the expense of public life. “That’s not the institut … ⌘ Read more

TP-Link Moves to Assemble Routers In the US Following Import Ban
TP-Link plans to begin assembling routers in Mississippi as early as 2027 after the FCC banned imports of new foreign-made consumer routers over security concerns. Engadget reports: The company has signed a letter of intent with manufacturer Key Tronic and, pending approval from regulators, TP-Link says stateside assembly of its routers could st … ⌘ Read more

Trump DHS Officials Asked CISA To Secretly Aquire and Hack a Voting Machine
Longtime Slashdot reader fahrbot-bot shares a report from ProPublica: A few months into President Donald Trump’s second term, political appointees at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) wanted Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to secretly acquire a voting machine and hack it. The appointees wa … ⌘ Read more

A Hacker Broke Into John Deere, SharkNinja With an Army of AI Agents
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: A hacker broke into more than 100 websites using an army of AI agents that mostly operated on their own, according to findings from the AI security firm Norforge. Though Norforge doesn’t name the targets, Reuters reports that the victims included companies like John Deere, SharkNinja, and C … ⌘ Read more

Apple Announces October 28 ‘Pro and Tell’ Event
Following its October 13 HomeView launch, Apple is gearing up for its second hardware event of the month. The event is scheduled for October 28 in Los Angeles and carries the tagline “Pro and tell.” 9to5Mac reports: Rumors say Apple has a slew of new products to announce at its next event, headlining by its first MacBook Pro with a touchscreen and OLED. According to Bloomberg’s … ⌘ Read more

Florida DMV Hacked After Police Dept Insecurely Stored Login Info
Florida’s DMV says a September 4 breach exposed driver’s license and motor vehicle records after attackers obtained credentials that a local law-enforcement employee had “improperly stored on an electronic device.” The ShinyHunters group has been linked to the intrusion. Ars Technica reports: In a notice posted Friday, [Florida Department of Hi … ⌘ Read more

Elon Musk Vows To Give a SpaceX Share To ‘Every Kid In America’
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: Elon Musk has said he will give every child in America a stake in SpaceX, his $2 trillion aerospace and artificial intelligence company, as tech firms face intensifying scrutiny over their impact on society. “Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America,” he wrote on X on Monday. … ⌘ Read more

Wine Ported to OpenBSD
Wine has been successfully ported to OpenBSD, with developers reporting that dozens of 64-bit Windows applications now run on the operating system. “Even the Remaster of The Witcher 3 which released just last month runs, and runs well,” writes Thomas Frohwein, OpenBSD developer and ports maintainer. OSnews reports: The biggest limitation seems to be the lack of support for WoW64, so 32bit Windows software won’t work. Still, this … ⌘ Read more

Elizabeth Holmes Doc ‘You Can See Everything’ Shocks With Massive Opening
Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s Elizabeth Holmes documentary “You Can See Everything” earned more than $15 million in its limited opening weekend, making it one of the biggest documentary launches in decades and the strongest opening for a film on fewer than 1,000 screens since Borat in 2006. It was also “the biggest … ⌘ Read more

America Tries Reviving Shuttered Nuclear Plants - Partly to Help Power Data Centers
America is “making an unprecedented attempt to revive three shuttered nuclear plants to meet rising energy demand,” reports the Los Angeles Times,
“Two of the plants have contracts with Big Tech companies that will pay a premium to get large amounts of carbon-free energy for data centers…”

No commercia … ⌘ Read more

Mozilla is Calling Out Microsoft for Forcing Edge on Users
“Mozilla reps tell me they’ve met with Microsoft about their concerns,” reports PC Magazine, “but that the company wasn’t responsive.”

“They’ll do the minimum the law requires to respect user choice,” explains Kush Amlani, Mozilla’s counsel overseeing global competition and regulatory work… Mozilla recently marked 100 days since it released an 87-page rep … ⌘ Read more

Anthropic Announces ‘Public Benefit Fund’, Committing 5% of Its Shares
“Anthropic says it’s committing 5% of its shares to a ‘public benefit fund’,” reports TechCrunch, “structured as a wholly-owned entity within the company — with the option to contribute an additional 2% for every 50% increase in Anthropic’s value.”

Important context from CNBC:

The timing of Anthropic’s public fund announcement is both man … ⌘ Read more

‘Human Vs. Robot’ Cage Match Was Illegal, Says California
“A human defeated two of the three robots he faced in a cage fight recently held in San Francisco,” reports the Los Angeles Times, noting that videos of the event drew more than 10 million views on YouTube.

But “the humans behind that fight could face a battle of their own — the legal type — if they want to hold another event like ‘Human Vs. Robot,’ the Sept. … ⌘ Read more

New Video Game Law Proposed: ‘If You Pay For It, You Own It’
“When you pay for a game, you should own it,” says U.S. Representative Ritchie Torres (D-NY), introducing a new bill to fight the practice of “a rental disguised as a sale”.

Kotaku reports:

The fifth best-selling game of 2024 in the U.S. was NBA 2K25. Every year, fans dump hundreds of hours and hundreds of dollars into the grindy NBA basketball sim. But ju … ⌘ Read more

Planned UK Data Center Delayed Until 2030s Over Power Grid Delays. Microsoft Pulls Out
July: Nvidia-backed Nscale is building a £2bn data centre at Loughton in Essex, with Microsoft signed up as its anchor tenant. But it can’t get the electricity to switch on, reported The Next Web:
Nscale’s problem is not really Nscale’s. It is Britain’s. Grid-connection times have become the single bigges … ⌘ Read more

Researchers Discover How To Lead Dying Coral Reefs To a ‘Fast And Full Recovery’
Gizmodo reports:

Roughly 84.4% of the world’s coral reefs suffered bleaching-levels of heat stress during the last major marine heat wave from January 2023 to September 2025, with over half already lost compared to coral coverage in the 1950s… But there’s some good news, thanks to a new study published this Wed … ⌘ Read more

Websites Are Closing Their Doors to AI Agents
The Verge reports:

OpenAI, Meta, Google, Instinct, and others promise their agents can scour the internet on your behalf, doing anything from booking a dinner reservation and cleaning out your inbox to buying new shoes. But what happens when the rest of the internet won’t play nice?

In recent weeks, users of services like Meta’s Muse, xAI’s Grok, OpenAI’s Dots, and Instinct have reporte … ⌘ Read more

More Details on Arrested Saudi OpenAI Employee, Who is Seeking Release on Bail
More details are emerging about Saudi OpenAI employee Abdulrahman Alfozan, who was arrested by the FBI for allegedly planting a recording device in an executive conference room. Previously Alfozan “was an engineer at Meta,” notes the New York Times, “before joining a start-up that went through Y Combinator, the Silicon V … ⌘ Read more

LinkedIn Fights AI Slop, Now 40% of Its Long-Form Posts
“Even LinkedIn is getting tired of your AI-written posts,” writes CNN, reporting that the Microsoft-owned, job-oriented social media site “is upping its fight against slop.”
A report published in July by Pangram, a research firm that tracks AI content online, found that more than 40% of long-form posts on the platform were AI-generated, compared to around 30% on X a … ⌘ Read more

Programming Language Popularity Increases for R, Julia, and Rust (but Not Go)
TechRepublic reports:

The TIOBE Index is a monthly indicator of programming-language popularity based on factors including skilled engineers, courses, and third-party vendors. The October 2026 rankings show a largely stable top 10, with R overtaking SQL and Julia returning to the top 20 for the first time in three yea … ⌘ Read more

Releasing Palm OS Archive, Developer Rediscovers Working Virus After 25 Years
Long-time Slashdot reader ardiri remembers his days writing applications for the Palm OS. And he’s now released approximately 1.5 GB of historical Palm OS development resources, “accumulated during the early days of handheld computing and preserved on hard drive backups for more than 25 years… to preserve the tools and … ⌘ Read more

FSF Criticizes Raspberry Pi DRM Blocking RAM Upgrades
The Free Software Foundation “has never supported Raspberry Pi,” writes their deputy directory Sean O’Brien, “as it depends on nonfree software for the boot process, leaving an important part of the computer outside the user’s control.”

But they’re now decrying “an even more intrusive restriction on user freedom” — the binary-blob bootloader changes that limit your a … ⌘ Read more

Tech Journalist Robert X Cringely has Died
BoingBoing reports:
Mark Stephens, better known under the pen name Robert X. Cringely, died last week at 73. Stephens chronicled the tech industry of the late 1980s and early 1990s — the age of Bill Gates’ rise, Steve Jobs’ repose, the dawn of the world wide web — and produced the famed documetary Triumph of the Nerds, based on his own bestselling Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon … ⌘ Read more