Python Stays #1, R Rises in Popularity, Says TIOBE
Are statistical programmers coalescing around a handful of popular languages? That’s the question asked by the CEO of software assessment site TIOBE, which every month estimates the popularity of programming languages based on their frequency in search results:

This month, the programming language R matched its all-time high by reaching position #8 in the TIOBE index on … ⌘ Read more

Memtest86+ 8.10 Improves Support For Newer Hardware
Memtest86+ 8.10 is out today as a significant update to this legendary open-source RAM testing software… ⌘ Read more

AMD ROCm 7.13 Released With Instinct MI350P Support, More Ryzen AI APUs
ROCm 7.13 was released today as the newest ROCm Core SDK Preview in working toward what will presumably be called ROCm 8.0 later in the year… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.0.8 Released & LTS Kernels Updated For ssh-keysign-pwn
Following yesterday’s disclosure of the ssh-keysign-pwn vulnerability that allows unprivileged users to read root-owned files, a slew of new stable kernel releases are out today to address this latest Linux security issue… ⌘ Read more

Students Boo Commencement Speaker After She Calls AI the ‘Next Industrial Revolution’
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: Speaking to graduates of University of Central Florida’s College of Arts and Humanities and Nicholson School of Communication and Media on May 8, commencement speaker Gloria Caulfield, vice president of strategic alliances at Tavistock Group, told graduating hum … ⌘ Read more

Unemployed Ticked Up in America’s IT Sector
IT sector unemployment “increased to 3.8% in April from 3.6% in March,” reports the Wall Street Journal.

But they add that the increase reflects “an ongoing uncertainty in tech as AI continues to play havoc with hiring. That’s according to analysis from consulting firm Janco Associates, which bases its findings on data from the U.S. Labor Department.”
On Friday, the department said the eco … ⌘ Read more

10 People Called Police to Report Bigfoot Sighting in Ohio
CNN reports on a “sudden surge of claimed sightings” of “unidentified figures averaging 8 feet tall in wooded areas” along Ohio’s Mahoning River.

“And it stopped just as quickly as it started,” says Jeremiah Byron, host of the Bigfoot Society Podcast, which collected and mapped the reports …. Byron doesn’t take every report at face value, making sure he t … ⌘ Read more

The Canvas Hack Is a New Kind of Ransomware Debacle
Wired describes the recent Canvas breach as an unusually disruptive ransomware-style extortion incident because one attack on Instructure’s learning platform temporarily paralyzed thousands of schools during finals and end-of-year assignments. The hackers using the “ShinyHunters” name claim more than 8,800 schools were affected, while Instructure says exposed data included … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Issues Warning About Linux ‘Copy Fail’ Vulnerability
joshuark shares a report from Linux Magazine: Microsoft has issued a warning that a vulnerability with a CVSS score of 7.8 has been found in the Linux kernel. The vulnerability in question is tagged CVE-2026-31431 and, according to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), “This Linux Kernel Incorrect Resource Transfer Between Spheres … ⌘ Read more

Major Homebuilder To Test Placing Mini Data Centers in Suburban Backyards
NewtonsLaw writes: According to Realtor.com, a California startup called Span plans to partner with Nvidia, PulteGroup, and other homebuilders to equip new homes with mini-data centers, so as to relieve the need to build and power much larger traditional centers. The article states the company “can install 8,000 XFRA units ab … ⌘ Read more

Morgan Stanley Undercuts Rivals On Pricing In Crypto Trading Debut
Morgan Stanley is adding crypto trading to E*Trade, with a pilot now underway and a broader rollout planned for the platform’s 8.6 million customers later this year. The bank is reportedly undercutting rivals with a 50-basis-point trading fee as it bets traditional finance and DeFi will converge.

“By contrast, Robinhood Markets’ (HOOD) fees … ⌘ Read more

PCIe 8.0 Spec Draft 0.5 Released For 1TB/s Bi-Directional x16 Bandwidth
The PCI-SIG today held a briefing around PCIe 8.0 that follows the PCIe 7.0 specification that was released to members last June… ⌘ Read more

VS Code Update Added Copilot As Default Co-Author To Git Commits
Longtime Slashdot reader UnknowingFool writes: On April 15, 2026, a Microsoft employee made a change to Visual Studio Code and pushed it within 8 hours without review, notification, or documentation. The change added “Co-authored-by: Copilot” by default to the end of commit messages in Git when Copilot was used in creating the code. However, the imple … ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.1 Fixes Audio For The Steam Deck OLED After Being Broken 2 Years On The Upstream Kernel
It turns out the Steam Deck OLED gaming handheld has not had working audio support with the mainline (upstream) Linux kernel since a change in late 2023 that was merged for Linux 6.8. There was an AMD ASoC audio change that inadvertently broke audio support for the Steam Deck OLED handheld but not affecting the original LCD model. Valve’s downstream Steam OS kernel has compensated for this known breakage and other dis … ⌘ Read more

Wine 11.8 Improves VBScript Compatibility, Finally Fixes Microsoft Golf 1999
Wine 11.8 delivers the latest and greatest support for running Windows applications and games under Linux and other platforms. This newest bi-weekly development release brings several more enhancements in working toward Wine 12.0 stable due out in early 2027… ⌘ Read more

First Tesla Semi Rolls Off High-Volume Production Line
Tesla has produced the first Semi from its new high-volume production line at Gigafactory Nevada, a milestone for the long-delayed electric Class 8 truck program after years of pilot builds and delays. Electrek reports: The Tesla Semi has had one of the longest gestation periods in Tesla’s history. First unveiled in 2017, the truck was originally promised for produc … ⌘ Read more

@bender@twtxt.net There ya go! 8-)

D7VK v1.8 Continues Improving Legacy Direct3D Atop The Vulkan API
D7VK as what began as an implementation of the Direct3D 7 API on top of the Vulkan API, based off DXVK as part of Steam Play (Proton) for D3D8 through D3D11 support, continues enhancing its legacy D3D API support that over time has stretched now from D3D7 to D3D3… ⌘ Read more

Meta Is Laying Off 10% of Its Workforce
Meta is reportedly cutting about 10% of its workforce, or roughly 8,000 jobs, while closing thousands of open roles it had intended to fill. “We’re doing this as part of our continued effort to run the company more efficiently and to allow us to offset the other investments we’re making,” said Janelle Gale, Meta’s chief people officer. The company had almost 79,000 employees at the start of the y … ⌘ Read more

PSA: Check your ladders everybody! https://youtu.be/0wqodPGId-8

Amazon Buys Globalstar For $10.8 Billion, Moving To Expand Its Satellite Internet Service
Amazon is buying satellite communications company Globalstar for $10.8 billion to expand its Leo satellite-internet network and compete more directly with SpaceX’s Starlink. The deal also includes a partnership with Apple to support satellite connectivity for iPhones and Apple Watches, with Amazon pl … ⌘ Read more

WeatherBug Data Says October 8 Is the Real Perfect Date
BrianFagioli shares a report from NERDS.xyz: For years pop culture has treated April 25 as the “perfect date,” thanks to the famous Miss Congeniality line about needing only a light jacket. But new analysis from WeatherBug suggests that idea does not actually hold up when you look at the numbers. After reviewing U.S. weather data from 2018 through today, the compa … ⌘ Read more

DNA-Level Encryption Developed by Researchers to Protect the Secrets of Bioengineered Cells
The biotech industry’s engineered cells could become an $8 trillion market by 2035, notes Phys.org. But how do you keep them from being stolen? Their article notes “an uptick in the theft and smuggling of high-value biological materials, including specially engineered cells.”

In Science Ad … ⌘ Read more

Rust Coreutils 0.8 Brings Significant Performance Gains
Rust Coreutils 0.8 was released today as the newest major release to this alternative to GNU Coreutils… ⌘ Read more

Anthropic Issues Copyright Takedown Requests To Remove 8,000+ Copies of Claude Code Source Code
Anthropic is using copyright takedown notices to try to contain an accidental leak of the underlying instructions for its Claude Code AI agent. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Anthropic representatives had used a copyright takedown request to force the removal of more than 8, … ⌘ Read more

@itsericwoordward@itsericwoodward.com That’s a nice collection. :-)

It made me look at my single frisbee, that was last used maybe 8 years ago, possibly more. I immediately found it in the drawer I thought it was in. And alongside some other stuff I was unsuccessfully hunting for for literally months by now. Thanks, mate! ;-)

Hopefully, my good headlamp also reveals itself at some point in time.

@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org Oops, I guess the new text is a bit obscure. If you follow the link, the text is a bit more explicit, but you still need to know what a lexical scope is. Anyway, this is part of Perl moving very carefully toward being UTF-8 by default while also not breaking code written in the 90s. If you name a recent version like “use v5.42;” then Perl stops letting you use non-ASCII characters unless you also say “use utf8;”. The “lexically” part basically means that strictness continues until the next “}”, or the end of the program. That lets you fix up old code one block at a time, if you aren’t ready to apply the new strictness to a whole file at once.

@itsericwoordward@itsericwoodward.com @bender@twtxt.net Well, even hard-reloading doesn’t change anything. I also just noticed that hovering over the tab title makes it completely invisible. In contrast to the buttons, here, the text color is exactly the same as the background color:

Since I prefer the light theme, that’s no big deal for me. 8-)

After 16 Years and $8 Billion, the Military’s New GPS Software Still Doesn’t Work
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Last year, just before the Fourth of July holiday, the US Space Force officially took ownership of a new operating system for the GPS navigation network, raising hopes that one of the military’s most troubled space programs might finally bear fruit. The GPS Next- … ⌘ Read more

‘Project Hail Mary’: Real Space Science, Real Astrophotography
Project Hail Mary has now grossed $300.8 million globally after earning another $54.1 million this weekend from 86 markets, reports Variety, noting that after just nine days it’s now Amazon MGM’s highest-grossing film ever. And last weekend it had the best opening for a “non-franchise” movie in three years, adds the Associated Press — the best … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI’s US Ad Pilot Exceeds $100 Million In Annualized Revenue In Six Weeks
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: OpenAI’s ChatGPT ads pilot in the United States has crossed the $100 million annualized revenue mark within six weeks of launch, a company spokesperson said on Thursday, pointing to robust early demand for the AI startup’s nascent advertising business. […] While roughly 8 … ⌘ Read more

AMD ROCm 7.12 Tech Preview Brings More Consumer APU & GPU Support
In addition to this week’s ROCm 7.2.1 stable point release, ROCm 7.12 was also released as the newest tech preview in working toward what will presumably be called ROCm 8.0… ⌘ Read more

Postal Service to Impose Its First-Ever Fuel Surcharge on Packages
The U.S. Postal Service plans to impose its first-ever fuel surcharge on packages (source paywalled; alternative source), adding an 8% fee starting in April as it struggles with rising fuel costs and ongoing financial pressure. The surcharge will not apply to letter mail and is currently expected to remain in place until January 2027. The Wal … ⌘ Read more

Oracle Releases Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel 8.2 - Still On Linux 6.12 LTS Base
Days after Oracle celebrated their RHEL-based Oracle Linux distribution turning 20 years old, today they announced Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel 8.2 “UEK 8.2” as their alternative to the RHEL-clone kernel with Oracle Linux… ⌘ Read more

LibreOffice 26.8 To Add A Donation Banner To Its Start Center
LibreOffice 26.8 merged initial support for adding a donation banner to its Start Center. This initial UI when launching LibreOffice aims to make users aware of the community-driven focus of the project and to hopefully solicit additional donations from the community… ⌘ Read more

SteamOS 3.8 Preview Preps For Steam Machine, KDE Plasma Desktop With Wayland By Default
In addition to last night’s Steam client beta with Steam Runtime container support for the client and that SteamRT3 client now a 64-bit build, Valve also released a big preview update to the forthcoming SteamOS 3.8. The SteamOS 3.8 preview release brings initial support for Steam Machine hardware, various handheld gaming device support improvements, various other Steam Deck updates, improved compatibility with newer Intel and AMD p … ⌘ Read more

FFmpeg 8.1 Released With Experimental xHE-AAC MPS212, More Vulkan Acceleration
FFmpeg 8.1 is out today as the newest stable release of this widely-used, open-source multimedia library… ⌘ Read more

Instagram Discontinues End-To-End Encryption For DMs
Meta plans to remove end-to-end encryption (E2EE) from Instagram direct messages by May 8, 2026. “Very few people were opting in to end-to-end encrypted messaging in DMs, so we’re removing this option from Instagram in the coming months,” says Meta. “Anyone who wants to keep messaging with end-to-end encryption can easily do that on WhatsApp.” The Hacker News reports: The … ⌘ Read more

Honda Cancels All Three EVs That It Planned To Build In the US
sinij shares a report from Car and Driver: Honda is making a monumental shift in its business plans. The automaker is canceling the development and launch of the 0 Series SUV, the 0 Series saloon, and the Acura RSX, and as a result, expects to take a significant financial hit in 2026 [of up to $15.8 billion]. The automaker was blunt in its announce … ⌘ Read more

AMD Formally Launches Ryzen AI Embedded P100 Series 8-12 Core Models
AMD announced back at CES the Ryzen AI Embedded P100 series with initially the models up to six Zen 5 cores launching while the eight through twelve core models would be available later in H1. Today AMD formally announced those higher-tier Ryzen AI Embedded P100 series parts… ⌘ Read more

FFmpeg 8.1 Preparing For Release With Vulkan Improvements, JPEG-XS & More
FFmpeg developers are preparing to soon release FFmpeg 8.1 with some great new features and other improvements… ⌘ Read more

British Columbia To End Time Changes, Adopt Year-Round Daylight Time
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBC.ca: The B.C. government says this Sunday will be the last time British Columbians have to change their clocks. The province will be permanently adopting daylight time and the March 8 “spring forward” will be the last time change, Premier David Eby announced Monday. “We are done waiting. British C … ⌘ Read more

COSMIC Epoch 1.0.8 Released With More Desktop Refinements
While System76 has been hard at work on a redesigned Thelio desktop chassis design, this hasn’t slowed down their software work. Today they shipped COSMIC Epoch 1.0.8 as the newest work on their open-source, Rust-based desktop environment used by their in-house Pop!_OS Linux distribution as well as found in other Linux distributions too… ⌘ Read more

Say Goodbye to the Undersea Cable That Made the Global Internet Possible
The first fiber-optic cable ever laid across an ocean – TAT-8, a nearly 6,000-kilometer line between the United States, United Kingdom, and France that carried its first traffic on December 14, 1988 – is now being pulled off the Atlantic seabed after more than two decades of sitting dormant, bound for recycling in South Africa.
… ⌘ Read more

Sam Bankman-Fried Requests New Trial in FTX Crypto Fraud Case
While serving his 25-year prison sentence, “convicted former cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried on Tuesday requested a new federal trial,” reports Courthouse News, “based on what he says is newly discovered evidence concerning his company’s solvency and its ability to repay all FTX customers for what prosecutors portrayed as the looting of $8 billio … ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.0 Networking: Prepping For WiFi 8 UHR While Dropping Last Parallel Port Ethernet Driver
The Linux 7.0 networking pull request showcases two extremes and the diversity and robustness of the open-source kernel ecosystem. Linux 7.0 is laying the groundwork for WiFi 8 Ultra-High Reliability (UHR) support while this kernel version is also bidding farewell to the last Ethernet driver for use over parallel printer ports… ⌘ Read more

Redis 8.6 Released With “Substantial” Performance Improvements & Memory Reduction
The open-source Redis 8.6 release is now available and this GA release has brought “substantial” performance improvements and to memory reduction too. Plus various new features like TLS certificate-based automatic client authentication, time series enhancements, and new eviction policies… ⌘ Read more

MythTV 36 Released With Web App Improvements & FFmpeg 8 Support
MythTV 36 is now available for this long-time open-source digital video recorder “DVR” software that has been around now for more than two decades as the leading choice for those wishing to watch and/or record live TV under Linux especially as an HTPC… ⌘ Read more

D7VK 1.3 Brings Support For Direct3D 5 On Vulkan
D7VK is a fork of the DXVK project that is an important part of Valve’s Steam Play (Proton) for Direct3D 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 support atop Vulkan. With D7VK the original goal was a Direct3D 7 implementation on Vulkan. D7VK 1.1 brought experimental Direct3D 6 support and now with today’s release of D7VK 1.3 is support for Direct3D 5… ⌘ Read more

Linux 6.19 Features Include Many Benefits For Intel & AMD Users
With the Linux 6.19 stable kernel expected to be released tomorrow (8 February), here is a reminder about the top features to expect from this next version of the Linux kernel… ⌘ Read more