Let’s Encrypt to Cut SSL Certificate Lifetimes to 64 Days in February 2027
Let’s Encrypt “will shorten the default validity period of its TLS certificates from 90 days to 64 days, starting February 10, 2027,” reports the blog Linuxiac:

All certificates issued or renewed from that date will have a 64-day lifespan unless users explicitly select one of the shorter options already available: 45 or six days … ⌘ Read more

Game Console Market Craters: Xbox and PS5 Sales Plummet Over 25%
“Video game console sales in the U.S. have cratered,” reports Tom’s Hardware, with sales through August far below where they’d been in 2025:

Mat Piscatella, the video game industry advisor at research firm Circana, shared the numbers on his Bluesky account — PlayStation 5 sales have dropped by 25%, putting it at its lowest point since 2013, whe … ⌘ Read more

Research Firm Calls Anthropic’s Upcoming IPO ‘Unprecedented Test of Investor Gullibity’
CNBC reports:

As Anthropic barrels toward a potential $2 trillion market cap on the Nasdaq, one research firm is valuing the artificial intelligence company at a mere $150 billion and says Wall Street is about to face an “unprecedented test of investor gullibility.” In a report on Tuesday, independent financ … ⌘ Read more

Gas Cars Fall Below 50% of Global New Car Sales for the First Time
“Gas cars are now a minority of the world’s new car sales,” reports Electrek.

Gasoline-only vehicles made up 49% of global new-vehicle sales in the first half of 2026, down from 73% in 2021, according to Mobility Global data first reported by Nikkei. It’s the first time on record that they’ve been under half. But there’s a catch: most of the … ⌘ Read more

‘The Social Reckoning’ Bombs with $5.5 Million Opening
Why didn’t The Social Reckoning enjoy the box office success of 2010’s The Social Network, asks IndieWire/A>:

[T]here wasn’t the same urgency in the story being told. The Social Reckoning focuses less on Zuckerberg, and more on data engineer Frances Haugen’s decision to blow the whistle on how Facebook’s algorithms were promoting political content that radica … ⌘ Read more

Blade Runner, Star Trek, Godzilla, Star Wars + Marvel (and Legos): News From New York Comic-Con
There was some Blade Runner news at New York Comic-Con this weekend — and also some news about Godzilla. Ars Technica reports:

We got our first look at Prime Video’s new sci-fi series Blade Runner 2099 in July at San Diego Comic-Con. With the show’s premiere roughly six weeks away, … ⌘ Read more

A College Told Flock to Remove Its Cameras. The Company Refused.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

When Elgin Community College hired Flock Safety to install six surveillance cameras in April 2025, President Peggy Heinrich thought they would “enhance the safety and security of students….” They were supposed to help locate stolen cars and missing people. But Heinrich started to wonder if the cameras were actually … ⌘ Read more

Original RFC1149 Packet Up For Auction At Christies
Long-time Slashdot reader badger.foo writes: As some of you may remember, in 2001 RFC1149 (TCP/IP over carrier pigeon) was implemented.

Now one of the packets preserved from that event is up for auction at Christies. Direct link to the auction (current bid: USD 2600) is here.

This is a unique chance to own a piece of Internet history!

[![](https://a.fsdn.com/ … ⌘ Read more

US Agency To Rewrite Rules To Finally Address Vehicle Headlight Glare
America’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration “said on Tuesday that it will rewrite its vehicle lighting standards,” reports Reuters, “to address concerns about headlight glare and allow for the latest safety-improving lighting technologies.”

NHTSA said it plans to improve rules for LEDs, dusk sensors, automatic high beams a … ⌘ Read more

NASA Releases Data from Artemis II Moon Mission, Calls It ‘Sights and Sounds of Science’
“What did four astronauts see, notice, and document as they traveled around the Moon during NASA’s Artemis II mission?” asks a new NASA web page, offering some fascinating pictures and video:

Through photographs, spoken observations, drawings, and annotations, the Artemis II crew created a unique s … ⌘ Read more

FBI Arrests Cybersecurity Executive Over Data Breach After Contractor Fails to Update Oracle HR Platform
CNN reports:

The FBI arrested a Canadian cybersecurity executive and ransomware expert as part of the investigation of a damaging hack that exposed the sensitive data of current and former FBI employees, according to court documents and people familiar the investigatio … ⌘ Read more

Ubuntu Confirms Thursday’s Distributed Denial of Service Attack Against Its Web Infrastructure
On Thursday those trying to access the Ubuntu website, ISO downloads, and similar Ubuntu resources on Thursday found the site “inoperable,” reports Phoronix, with the disruption confirmed as a distributed denial of service attack.

“Our team is working diligently to resolve the incident,” … ⌘ Read more

UK Vegetables 20-50% Less Nutritious Than In the 1960s
The Telegraph reports that the nutritional value of fruit and vegetables has fallen by up to 50% since the Sixties, according a new study from researchers at startup studio Deep Science Ventures.

The study “found that humans needed to consume twice the number of vegetables to get the same level of minerals such as potassium, magnesium or copper as would have been … ⌘ Read more

AI Execs Game Out ‘Political Revolt’ after a Catastrophic AI Event
Top executives at Anthropic, OpenAI and other AI companies “are privately gaming out scenarios for a public and political revolt after a catastrophic AI event,” reports Axios, one that turns “an already wary public further against the technology and its leaders…”

These AI company executives “anticipate a large-scale event, most likely a cyber … ⌘ Read more

Nicolas Cage Didn’t Sign Amazon’s AI Waiver For ‘Spider-Noir’. Series Cancelled.
“Nicolas Cage is speaking out against Amazon,” reports Variety. Amazon developed the series Spider-Noir for Prime Video, but then allegedly asked Cage to sign an AI waiver:

“Amazon is a very AI-friendly company, to the tune of $50 billion invested in OpenAI,” Cage said Saturday during a panel on the Empire Stag … ⌘ Read more

Ubuntu 26.10 Will Offer a Rust-based GnuPG Replacement Option
The blog It’s FOSS reports:

You already know that Canonical has been selectively replacing Ubuntu’s C-based system components with Rust-written equivalents that don’t compromise in terms of functionality, most of the time. Now it looks like the distro’s OpenPGP implementation is next, with Sequoia PGP coming preinstalled in Ubuntu 26.10. Canonical wan … ⌘ Read more

Claude Sent Police a Fake Murder Tip. White House Mandates AI Companies Report Security Incidents
AFP reports that an AI model from Anthropic “submitted a fabricated tip about an unsolved homicide to Philadelphia police, authorities said Friday.”

Claude “was instructed never to log in, create accounts, enter personal data, make purchases, or submit anything destructive, but the inst … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Disrupts Two AI-Enabled ‘False Front’ Influence Operations That Included Seven Fake Journalists
OpenAI announced it’s recently banned two “influence operations” — one from Russia and one from Iran — that were using its models “to launder geopolitical, conflict-related messaging” in sophisticated “false front” propaganda campaigns:

The Iranian operation included a … ⌘ Read more

Another Woman Sues Flock For Mistaken Crime Accusation By Police - and for Surveillance
Last week a Florida woman sued Flock over its role in police officer accusing her of a crime she didn’t commit But she’s not the only one suing Flock over mistaken accusations, reports Gizmodo:
.

A Ring video of a Colorado woman being handed a criminal summons for a porch-package theft she did not com … ⌘ Read more

Meta Developing Compressed RAM ‘CRAM’ For Linux: Better Than ZRAM and Zswap?
Phoronix reports on a presentation this week by Meta engineer Gregory Price at the Linux Plumbers Conference in Prague:

With today’s memory shortages, high prices, and ever increasing memory capacity needs, Meta engineers have been working on Compressed RAM (“CRAM”) for Linux.

This hardware-offloaded compression still al … ⌘ Read more

First Thorium Nuclear Clocks Begin to Tick
Researchers in Vienna and Beijing have independently built the first nuclear clocks based on oscillations inside thorium nuclei, marking a major milestone for a field that could eventually produce highly portable, ultra-precise timekeepers. The clocks are already precise enough to lose only about a second over millions of years. The New York Times reports: The first nuclear clocks are n … ⌘ Read more

AI Surveillance Startup Flock To Cut Several Hundred Jobs Amid Backlash, Sources Say
Reuters reports:

Flock plans to let go of about 18% of its employees, people with direct knowledge of the plans said on Thursday, as the maker of AI-powered surveillance cameras and license-plate readers faces mounting opposition to its products from communities and lawmakers….

The company has about 1,500 … ⌘ Read more

Cloudflare Keeps 1.1.1.1 Out of Piracy Blocking, Escapes Penalties In France
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: Cloudflare doesn’t block pirate sports streaming sites through its 1.1.1.1 DNS resolver in France, only through its CDN. The Paris Judicial Court has now accepted that stance, rejecting [French pay-TV provider] Canal+’s request for penalties of 50,000 euros per site, per … ⌘ Read more

A 1960 Paper Published In Science Predicts World Will End Next Month
sciencehabit shares a report from Science Magazine: A physicist has put a definite date on Doomsday,” The New York Times wrote on November 4, 1960. “He calculates that it will come on Friday the Thirteenth in November, 2026 A. D. On that date, or thereabouts, the human population will have expanded so far as to approach infinity and th … ⌘ Read more

Apollo Software Pioneer Margaret Hamilton Dies at 90
“Margaret Hamilton, the groundbreaking researcher who helped create the field of software engineering and whose code helped land NASA’s Apollo astronauts on the moon to win the 20th century space race, has died,” writes longtime Slashdot reader Veeru. “She was 90.” MIT News reports: A computing pioneer who authored over 130 publications, Hamilton helped to establish … ⌘ Read more

First Thorium Nuclear Clocks Begin to Tick
Researchers in Vienna and Beijing have independently built the first nuclear clocks based on oscillations inside thorium nuclei, marking a major milestone for a field that could eventually produce highly portable, ultra-precise timekeepers. The clocks are already precise enough to lose only about a second over millions of years. The New York Times reports: The first nuclear clocks are n … ⌘ Read more

US Bars Microsoft, Adobe, and Major IT Firms From Green Card Program
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: The Trump administration is suspending Microsoft, Adobe, and several other technology companies from a program that helps skilled foreign workers obtain permanent residency in the United States, accusing the companies of fraud. “Our message to Microsoft is: You’re a great American company, … ⌘ Read more

Emmy Awards Leave Broadcast TV For Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video will become the exclusive global home of the Emmy Awards under a six-year deal beginning in 2027, the Television Academy announced on Tuesday. The Emmys will stream live for free to viewers in more than 240 countries and territories without requiring a Prime subscription. From the report: In the release, Prime Video was named as the “permanent home” for the Emmys, in c … ⌘ Read more

Female AI Agents ‘Paid’ Less Than Males, Study Finds
Ancient Slashdot reader williamyf writes: If you thought the gender pay gap was not real, and that there were no biases in the workplace, think again: A recent study from the University of Limerick found that, in a VR office setting, AI agents – not even humanoid robots – that presented themselves as “male” were paid more per task and perceived as more “human-like” th … ⌘ Read more

Chrome 155 Ships Decoding Support For JPEG XL
Google has released Chrome 155 with support for decoding JPEG XL images, a format that offers 30-50% better compression than JPEG along with lossless compression, JPEG transcoding, HDR, animation, and progressive decoding. From a blog post: We expect that JPEG XL is most helpful for high-fidelity or lossless compression, especially of photographic images or in cases in which fine-grained p … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Unleashes Hundreds More Math Results Upon a Field Already In Shock
OpenAI says an unreleased internal model has produced 372 results that either resolve or make substantial progress on open problems in mathematics and theoretical computer science. The company says almost all were generated by a single AI agent from a single prompt. “This would be a striking difference from OpenAI’s earlier b … ⌘ Read more

Campus Censorship Wars, 25 Years After a Slashdot Q&A
Slashdot reader carlk22 writes: In February 2001, Slashdot readers asked Carl Kadie about censorship and privacy at colleges, and he answered. Now Kadie, who founded the Computers and Academic Freedom project at EFF in 1991, has written its history. In Part 1, Ohio State kicks a student off its network, then out of school, after a prank routes his “fuck you” into rec. … ⌘ Read more

Google, Unity Launch Platform To Create Video Games From Prompts
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Alphabet’s Google and gaming tools developer Unity Software announced a new platform that will allow people to create video games from simple text prompts, marking the latest incursion of generative artificial intelligence into artistic and creative industries. The initiative, called Playground, … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft and Nvidia Unveil Surface Laptop Ultra For $2,599
At a press event today, Microsoft unveiled the new Surface Laptop Ultra featuring an NVIDIA RTX Spark platform with a Blackwell-based GPU capable of up to one petaflop of AI compute. The laptop supports up to 128GB of unified memory for running models as large as 120 billion parameters locally, while also adding a 15-inch mini-LED display, expanded ports … ⌘ Read more

Xbox Secures Exclusive GTA 6 Streaming Rights
Microsoft has reportedly secured exclusive cloud-streaming rights for Grand Theft Auto VI, meaning Xbox Cloud Gaming will be the only service able to stream the game at launch. “Rockstar Games still hasn’t announced a PC version of Grand Theft Auto VI, so this deal will allow Xbox to market its Xbox Cloud Gaming service to PC players who would otherwise need an Xbox Series X / S or … ⌘ Read more

Francis Halzen Wins Nobel Physics Prize For Antarctic ‘Ghost Particle’ Hunt
University of Wisconsin-Madison physicist Francis Halzen has been awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to understanding astrophysical neutrinos. Halzen led the development of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory beneath the Antarctic ice, which has helped trace high-energy neutrinos back to cosmic sources such … ⌘ Read more

Google Enters Massive 3.6-GW Power Deal With Constellation Energy
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Google has contracted for 3,590 megawatts of power from Constellation Energy on the largest US power grid, with new nuclear energy accounting for about a quarter of that supply, the companies said on Tuesday. Constellation will make more than $4.3 billion of new investments in its fleet as par … ⌘ Read more

South Korea Says AI Agents May Have Been Used to Hack the Country’s Banks
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung says there are signs AI models may have been used in recent cyberattacks against several major banks. “In some hacking incidents, signs have emerged of AI being used, causing considerable public concern and anxiety,” Lee said during a cabinet meeting. “Please establish the circumstances swiftl … ⌘ Read more

Canadian Analysis: Permanent Daylight Saving Harms Sleep and Mental Health
“With the push to eliminate the twice yearly clock change, Permanent Daylight Savings Time has emerged as the favorite for most states and provinces,” writes longtime Slashdot reader kbahey, sharing the findings from a recent analysis published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Sci.News reports: “Ending the clock … ⌘ Read more

HubSpot Cuts 660 Jobs In AI Restructuring
HubSpot is cutting about 7% of its workforce, or roughly 660 employees, as it restructures into what CEO Yamini Rangan described as a “flatter organization” with fewer management layers. Rangan said the layoffs were “not driven by AI-related efficiencies,” though AI remains central to HubSpot’s strategy as the company adjusts its organization around AI-driven customer outcomes. Fast Company repor … ⌘ Read more

Alexa Can’t Control the AUX Input On Amazon Echo Speakers Anymore
Amazon has removed Alexa voice control for the 3.5mm aux input on several older Echo speakers, meaning users can no longer ask Alexa to play or pause audio coming through the wired connection. It’s unclear why the feature was removed. The Verge reports: Ars Technica points to this Reddit poster claiming they received a message from Amaz … ⌘ Read more

Asos Confirms Hackers Sent ‘Unauthorized’ Notification to App Users
ASOS says hackers gained unauthorized access to third-party platforms it uses and sent an “ASOS HACKED” push notification directly to customers, apparently as part of an extortion attempt. The clothing and beauty store says some basic personal information may have been accessed but does not believe payment-card data or passwords were affected. T … ⌘ Read more

IBM and Red Hat Find More Than 400 New Vulnerabilities In Popular Java Code
IBM and Red Hat say their AI-powered Lightwell initiative has identified and helped remediate more than 400 previously unknown vulnerabilities across widely used Java libraries. Phoronix reports: They announced this feat today as part of their promoting Lightwell Clearinghouse to GA, which is an enterprise service for their cu … ⌘ Read more

Licensing Costs Driving 90% of VMware Users To Explore Options, Survey Finds
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: VMware customers face multiple obstacles as they rethink their virtualization strategy to reduce dependence on VMware. Today, Rimini Street published its “2026 IT Virtualization Survey – What’s Next for VMware Users.” The survey examined 300 organizations worldwide that use … ⌘ Read more

Mistral Unveils New ‘Le Chonk’ AI Model It Says Rivals Best Open Systems From China
Mistral has unveiled Mistral Large 4, or “le Chonk,” a 1-trillion-parameter model that it says is the strongest open-weight AI model developed outside China by a wide margin. The model is entering preview for developers, cybersecurity teams and governments before a broader release later this month. CNBC reports … ⌘ Read more

Researchers Are Tracking a Chinese AI ‘Agent Fleet’
Independent researchers say they’ve identified a large “fleet” of AI agents apparently running on Tencent infrastructure and making parallel queries against Alibaba’s Amap mapping service. TechCrunch reports: Researchers, however, resisted the term “swarm,” noting that there seems to be little coordination between their different queries. “‘Agent fleet,’ not ‘swarm:’” one r … ⌘ Read more

Cable Lobby To Sue Trump FCC Over Repeal of National TV Ownership Cap
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ArsTechnica: Cable lobby groups notified the Federal Communications Commission that they will sue the agency to block its controversial repeal of the National Television Ownership Rule, which limits the number of broadcast TV stations a single company may own. The cable groups said that larger bro … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Is Adding Text Watermarking In ChatGPT and Codex
OpenAI is rolling out an invisible, machine-readable text watermark called textGrain to ChatGPT and Codex, “but only for users in the European Union at first,” reports The Verge. From the report: OpenAI says its textGrain watermarking “matched or exceeded” other approaches like Google DeepMind’s SynthID for text, which is also the basis for the watermarking Anthropic a … ⌘ Read more

Old Hearts Become Biologically Younger When Transplanted Into Younger People
alternative_right shares a report from ScienceAlert: It might be reasonable to think that there’s an indelible link between the heart and the body it resides in – the processes that affect one inevitably affect the other. But a new preprint, uploaded to bioRxiv and yet to be peer-reviewed, suggests that this may only … ⌘ Read more

Texas City Demands $2 Million For Public Records On Flock Usage
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: As bipartisan backlash against Flock grows, some cities are asking anti-surveillance advocates and media outlets to pay eye-popping fees – including charging tens of thousands or even millions – to get information about how police departments are using and potentially abusing AI-enabled camera … ⌘ Read more