Microsoft’s Imagine Cup ‘Evolves’ From Student Competition To AI Startup Contest
theodp writes: That Was Then: The Imagine Cup competition, Microsoft explained in a 2003 press release, “seeks to provide students [aged 16-and-up] around the world with resources to use technology and Web services to solve everyday problems […] Imagine Cup is about empowering students to apply their creativity a … ⌘ Read more
NASA Announces X-70 Experimental Aircraft to Advance Flight Research
NASA has unveiled the X-70 Fractal, a new crewed experimental aircraft “designed to accelerate the development and testing of advanced aviation technologies.” From a press release: The crewed X-70 features advanced, rapidly reconfigurable flight-control technology that will allow NASA to explore aircraft maneuverability in ways never b … ⌘ Read more
Canva To Cut Or Relocate 22% of Global Workforce
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Canva is cutting or relocating more than 1,200 jobs, representing 22% of its global workforce, as part of a major restructure that includes laying off staff who helped build the Australian-founded design platform. The changes mirror a trend across the technology sector, where software companies are fighting to stay competitive ag … ⌘ Read more
Domicile Desktop Brings Web Technologies To Building Wayland Desktops
Domicile is a new Wayland compositor that leverages Chromium for allowing custom Linux desktops to be built using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript/TypeScript… ⌘ Read more
MIT Researchers Used GPT-6 Astra To Edit Qwen’s Open Weights Directly, Boosting Math Scores
An anonymous reader quotes a report from VentureBeat: Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) reported today that they used OpenAI’s GPT-6 Astra language model to raise a small, open source Qwen model’s mat … ⌘ Read more
Cops Bust Botnet of 1.3 Million Android TV Boxes
A coalition of security firms working with Japan’s National Police Agency has disrupted a botnet of more than 1.3 million Android devices across 200+ countries. “We assess with high confidence that the backdoor and botnet were intentionally developed, deployed, and operated for financial gain by Videostrong Technology,” the Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) said in a blog po … ⌘ Read more
College Students are Pushing Colleges to ‘De-Flock’
Inside Higher Ed reports:
In September, Emory University removed a dozen license plate-reading cameras from its campus in Atlanta and declined to renew its contract with Flock Safety, the company that sells and operates the automatic license plate readers and other mass-surveillance technology. For the coalition of Emory students and employees who had spent months pushing t … ⌘ Read more
DXVK-NVAPI 0.9.3 Brings Nice Improvements For Linux Gamers On Latest NVIDIA Drivers
DXVK-NVAPI 0.9.3 is out this weekend as a new feature update to this NVIDIA NVAPI implementation used by Valve as part of Steam Play with Proton for nicely integrating NVIDIA technologies into various Windows games running on Linux… ⌘ Read more
US Tech Stocks See Sharp Falls As AI Spending Nears $1 Trillion
U.S. technology stocks plunged for a second consecutive day on Friday as investors grew increasingly concerned about the enormous cost of artificial intelligence development and whether those investments will pay off. The Nasdaq fell more than 3.5%, while Intel shares dropped as much as 30%, Reddit fell 26%, and Alphabet extended its losses after sh … ⌘ Read more
Canada to Join EU Network of Supercomputers
Canada is joining the European Union’s supercomputing network to give Canadian companies, startups, and researchers access to European computing resources for AI development. The partnership aims to strengthen AI cooperation and reduce dependence on US technology. Politico reports: The EU’s supercomputing network is run by the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, an EU public-private vehicle with … ⌘ Read more
EMACS Turns 50
“EMACS, the mother of all editors, turns 50!” writes Slashdot reader dr_jerry, sharing a report from MIT Technology Review: Programming used to be a very different experience from the one we know today. In fact, the first programmers didn’t write code at all; the six women who worked on the ENIAC, one of the world’s first computers, at the University of Pennsylvania in 1946 did it by physically configuring switches, cables, and plugboards.
A … ⌘ Read more
AI Delivers ‘Zero Financial Payoff’ To Most Companies, Economist Says
“Despite massive investments and widespread hype around AI , the technology has delivered zero financial payoff to corporate America outside of tech,” writes the chief economist at U.S. asset management firm Apollo Global.
He adds that “there are still no signs of AI boosting productivity growth… [M]ainstream corporate America is pulling b … ⌘ Read more
America’s Defense Department Is Building an ‘Elite New Tech Sabotage Agency’
America’s Defense Department “has spent months quietly building an elite new tech agency,” reports Politico, “to help covertly disrupt and sabotage foreign technology programs considered threats to American military superiority.”
Information on the Technology Support Office, or TSO as it is called internally, is nearly impos … ⌘ Read more
Unvetted AI Agents Are Accessing US Bank Accounts
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Axios: Major U.S. banks are detecting unauthorized third-party AI agents operating inside customer accounts, with some agents attempting to take actions that appear to be independent of user instructions, sources tell Axios. The difficulty in distinguishing between a human and an unauthorized bot is forcing banks to block the technolog … ⌘ Read more
Microsoft Says October Updates Didn’t Actually Fix VPN Issues
joshuark shares a report from BleepingComputer: Microsoft says it mistakenly flagged a bug causing Always On VPN connection issues as fixed in the October 2026 Windows 11 cumulative updates. Always On VPN replaced the legacy DirectAccess technology and supports domain-joined, non-domain-joined, and Microsoft Entra ID-joined devices running Windows 10, Win … ⌘ Read more
Zoe Kleinman: PHP Is the Cyber Equivalent of an Unexploded Bomb
BBC technology editor Zoe Kleinman likens the recently discovered PHP security vulnerabilities to an unexploded bomb, writing, “The PHP story feels like the cyber equivalent of an unexploded bomb – I have never seen such a dramatic, public and global response to a cyber event that hasn’t happened yet.” Although no successful attacks have been confi … ⌘ Read more
Google Staff Resign In Backlash Over Its AI Contracts With Military
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: Google is facing a backlash from some staff members over the company’s deployment of its AI technology for military use. The BBC has spoken to several tech workers who have either recently resigned from Google’s AI company, Google DeepMind, or are in the process of leaving, over concerns wit … ⌘ 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
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
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
There appears to be a rush a disgruntled Linux users switching to NetBSD:
https://mastodon.sdf.org/@netbsd/117451701775023949
They even got a ton of new donations (which, funnily, broke their little progress bar):
https://cannot.understand.computer/kunev/p/1791449917.947134
So… donations for @netbsd@netbsd over the last few years look like this:
2020 - $46k 2021 - $52k 2022 - $44k 2023 - $60k 2024 - $40k 2025 - $79kAnd in 2026 $120k so far!
And why is all that? Because of this:
Do not commit tainted code to the repository.
If you commit code that was not written by yourself, double check that the license on that code permits import into the NetBSD source repository, and permits free distribution. Check with the author(s) of the code, make sure that they were the sole author of the code and verify with them that they did not copy any other code.
Code generated by a large language model or similar technology, such as GitHub/Microsoft’s Copilot, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, or Facebook/Meta’s Code Llama, is presumed to be tainted code, and must not be committed without prior written approval by core.
https://www.netbsd.org/developers/commit-guidelines.html
This official guideline is much more “tame” and “diplomatic” than the overall “vibe” (sic) on the Fediverse: NetBSD basically says no to AI as much as possible.
And, apparently, this attracts lots of users and donors. Maybe there’s still some hope after all?
Flock CEO Defends Surveillance Tech Amid National Backlash
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Flock’s founder and CEO Garrett Langley doesn’t think the risks of introducing surveillance technology at scale outweigh the rewards. “If we want to live in a society where, if you commit a crime, you have a higher probability of being held accountable, we shouldn’t pause progress,” Langley said, speaking o … ⌘ Read more
Uber Begins Self-Driving Robotaxi Trial In Manchester
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Uber has begun a trial of autonomous vehicles on the streets of Manchester as it looks to bring robotaxis to cities around the UK. The first self-driving cars are operating, using the technology of its partner firms Pony and Verne, with whom Uber recently launched Europe’s first autonomous taxi service in the Croat … ⌘ Read more
Kroger to Lay Off 3,000 Corporate Employees In AI Restructuring
Kroger says it will cut 3,000 corporate jobs over the next three years as it expands its use of AI and other technology to streamline operations. “Technology is reshaping what’s possible,” CEO Greg Foran wrote in a memo to employees on Monday. “The way work gets done is changing across every industry; we must adapt and take advantage of technology. We ne … ⌘ Read more
Linus Torvalds On Why AI Works For Him
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: Many open-source developers still dislike AI. The latest example is System76 banning AI-generated content from its COSMIC desktop. At Open Source Summit Europe, Linux creator Linus Torvalds offered a different take: “I actually really like using AI,” Torvald told Dirk Hohndel, his good friend and head of Ericsson Software Technology, in their latest … ⌘ 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
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
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
Secretive Rosaic Labs Hires Legendary Linux x86 Developer
The curiosity into secretive semiconductor startup Rosaic Labs builds. Earlier this year it was noted that Intel was providing Rosaic Labs with access to its Atom technology with RTL code. There have also been rather mysterious x86 additions not from Intel or AMD (or Zhaoxin / Hygon) that given the timing may pertain to Rosaic Labs. News today is that Rosaic recently hired a long-time, Linux x86 developer veteran… ⌘ Read more
Sam Altman: ‘The World Should Accept Some Bad Things Happening’ For the Benefits of AI
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says society should accept some negative consequences from AI in exchange for the technology’s broader benefits and widespread public access. “I think there’s a lot of daylight,” Altman told Decoded co-author and Politico senior tech reporter Brendan Bordelon. Asked about where he differs … ⌘ Read more
Huawei and Qualcomm Struck a Broad Multi-Year Patent Licensing Deal
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Quartz: Huawei and Qualcomm on Monday announced a multi-year, broad patent license agreement covering 5G, artificial intelligence, compute, and networking technologies, along with Qualcomm’s purchase of certain Huawei U.S. patents in those same fields. The deal is the first patent licensing agreement … ⌘ Read more
Physicists Identify ‘Octupolar’ Magnetism, With Implications for Quantum Technologies
While most magnets have two poles (north and south, or positive and negative), recent advances in quantum mechanics have revealed an “octupolar order,” writes Phys.org, where a pattern of particles in a crystalline structure “behaves as if it has eight magnetic poles rather than the familiar two.”
Now, … ⌘ Read more
The University of Washington Is Moving a Graduate Program to Microsoft’s Campus
Longtime Slashdot submitter theodp writes: GeekWire reports that the University of Washington has moved its Global Innovation Exchange {GIX) program to Microsoft’s campus in a rent-free deal (UW News release). GIX, an institute supporting tech leaders that offers an MS in Technology Innovation, is the first UW program … ⌘ Read more
Cops Can Bypass iPhone’s Automatic Reboot To Get Into Locked Phones
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: A company that makes phone hacking devices claims to have developed a solution that freezes iPhones in a state that lets cops more easily access sensitive data inside them, according to a video obtained by 404 Media. […] The new technology to get around inactivity reboot was developed by … ⌘ Read more
Singapore Pilots a Government-Built Dating Service
Longtime Slashdot reader AmiMoJo shares a report from Mashable: Singapore’s government is trying its hand at matchmaking again. The country’s Government Technology Agency (GovTech) has launched FirstDate, a pilot dating service for singles aged 21 to 35. For now, it’s open only to public officers, according to the service’s website. Applications close Oct. 5. FirstDate is de … ⌘ Read more
Mistral CEO Says US AI Safety Debate Masks Competitors’ ‘Negligence’
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: Mistral Chief Executive Arthur Mensch has accused leading global artificial intelligence companies of using the debate over the safety of the technology as a cover-up for their “negligence.” “The debate that we’ve seen in the U.S. has been a cover for the negligence of some of our competitors,” Mensc … ⌘ Read more
500K Facial Recognition Scans at UK Stations Yield Zero Arrests, One False Positive
A six-month British Transport Police trial of live facial recognition at London railway stations scanned more than 500,000 faces, cost over 320,000 pounds, and produced just one alert with no arrests directly resulting from the technology. That one alert ended up being a false positive.
Despite those results, … ⌘ Read more
Meta Taps MongoDB CEO Desai to Drive Enterprise AI Push
Meta has hired MongoDB CEO Chirantan “CJ” Desai to lead a new enterprise AI business aimed at turning Meta’s models, agents and tools into products companies can deploy themselves. Reuters reports: Desai, a veteran technology executive, took over the role from Dev Ittycheria. MongoDB has appointed Ittycheria as interim CEO as it searches for a permanent repl … ⌘ Read more
Bill Gates Says an AI ‘Kill Switch’ Isn’t Enough
Bill Gates said an AI “kill switch” alone would be insufficient to address the technology’s risks. “The kill switch is, that’s kind of a weird thing. It’s not enough to have a kill switch,” the Microsoft co-founder said in an interview that aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He said the more immediate concern is people using AI for cyberattacks or bioterrorism rather than systems … ⌘ Read more
Walmart Says It’s Not Using Personal Info To Set Prices As It Expands Digital Shelf Labels
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: Walmart is aiming to assuage customers’ fears about its new pricing technology as it rolls out digital price labels at its stores. In a statement posted on the company’s website, Walmart’s CEO John Furner vowed that the Bentonville, Ar … ⌘ Read more
Apple Faces $5.7 Billion Patent Infringement Verdict Over iPhone And Apple Watch Haptics
“A federal jury in San Diego awarded Taction Technology more than $5.7 billion in damages Friday after finding that Apple infringed claims from two haptics patents,”
reports CNBC:
Taction sued Apple in 2021 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. The company alleged that … ⌘ Read more
Waymo Says Its Self-Driving Cars Reduced Injury-Causing Accidents by 82%
Waymo’s self-driving car technology “continues to outperform human benchmarks,” the company claimed this week. “It was involved in 841 fewer injury-causing crashes — an 82% reduction compared to human drivers.”
Electrek reports:
We’ve seen various Waymo crash data before, with Waymo claiming crash reductions. That’s all well and … ⌘ Read more
China and the US Say They’ve Agreed to Start Talks About AI
The United States and China have agreed to “launch a dialogue” on AI, reports Reuters.
On artificial intelligence, the two sides agreed to hold a dialogue on the technology’s risks and benefits, with the next round of discussions set for November, and to set up a communication channel for AI-related incidents, the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the White Hou … ⌘ Read more
OpenAI, Anthropic CEOs Urge UN Countries to Cooperate on AI Safety Standards
“The heads of major AI firms pleaded with the United Nations on Wednesday to save the world or at least its people — by somehow regulating the fast-expanding technology that they have been designing,” writes the Associated Press.
“If managed poorly, I even believe AI could be a risk to humanity as a whole,” said Dario Amodei, c … ⌘ Read more
Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon X2 Series Processors Will Support Linux
Snapdragon X2 Series processors feature a neural processing unit (NPU) delivering 80 trillion operations per second and allowing advanced AI features to run locally. And Snapdragon X2 Series “is expanding to Linux,” Qualcomm announced today, calling it one of their most-requested capabilities:
Qualcomm Technologies is a top contributo … ⌘ Read more
Ex-Google DeepMind Researcher Also Warns AI Could ‘Kill All Humans’. But Meta’s Zuckerberg Believes Safety is Up to Each AI Company
Reuters reports that a former Google DeepMind employee “became the latest AI researcher to warn that the technology could ‘kill all humans’, saying time could be running out to avoid the outcome:
Public alarm about the po … ⌘ Read more
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei Calls For AI Slowdown
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: The chief executive of Anthropic called for a global slowdown of artificial intelligence development in a 3,800-word essay on Saturday, just days after one of the company’s employees quit over concerns about the safety of the technology. Dario Amodei, who co-founded Anthropic to focus on securely and carefully building A.I … ⌘ Read more
California Governor Signs Laws Protecting Kids From Risks of Social Media, AI Chatbots
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a sweeping package of laws Thursday aimed at protecting children from the risks of technology, including social media and AI chatbots. The laws will penalize large social media companies up to $1 million per … ⌘ Read more
OpenAI Says It Has Cracked One of Math’s ‘Millennium Problems’
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: OpenAIsaid on Tuesday that its newest artificial intelligence technology had solved one of the “Millennium Problems,” a collection of important unanswered math questions meant to push the world’s leading mathematicians to new heights. The announcement is an another clear sign that A.I. is f … ⌘ Read more
‘The Jobs Apocalypse Is Postponed. An AI Jobs Boom Is Here’
A new article about AI in The Economist argues that “Initial effects of the technology on employment look positive.”
Perhaps AI will eventually make many humans unemployable — but there is no sign of it yet. On September 4th the Bureau of Labour Statistics reported that the American economy added 162,000 jobs in August, far above expectations. The unemployment ra … ⌘ Read more