Wine 11.9 Released With Wayland Pointer Warp, Initial Support For System Threads
Wine 11.9 is out today as the newest bi-weekly development release and nearing the half-way point of the development cycle toward Wine 12.0… ⌘ Read more

Meta Employees Launch Protest Against Mouse-Tracking Tech At US Offices
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Meta employees distributed flyers at multiple U.S. offices on Tuesday to protest the company’s recent installation of mouse-tracking software on their computers, according to photos of the pamphlets seen by Reuters. The flyers, which appeared in meeting rooms, on vending machines and … ⌘ Read more

Sam Altman Testifies That Elon Musk Wanted Control of OpenAI
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman took the stand Tuesday in Elon Musk’s trial against the company, testifying that Musk repeatedly sought control of OpenAI before leaving in 2018. Altman said he opposed putting AI “under the control of any one person,” while Musk’s lawyer used a pointed cross-examination to attack Altman’s trustworthiness. An anonymous reader shares … ⌘ Read more

South Korea Floats ‘Citizen Dividend’ Using AI Profits
South Korea’s presidential policy chief is calling for a “citizen dividend” that would return some AI-driven profits and tax revenue to the public. The Straits Times. From the report: Presidential policy chief Kim Yong-beom said in a Facebook post that a portion of the profits and tax revenue derived from the artificial intelligence boom “should be structurally returned to … ⌘ Read more

Instructure Pays Canvas Hackers To Delete Students’ Stolen Data
Instructure, the company behind the widely used Canvas learning platform, says it reached an agreement with the hackers who stole 3.5 terabytes of student and university data. The company says it received “digital confirmation” that the information was destroyed and that affected schools and students would not be extorted. The BBC reports: Paying cyb … ⌘ Read more

Amazon Employees Are ‘Tokenmaxxing’ Due To Pressure To Use AI Tools
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Financial Times (via Ars Technica): Amazon employees are using an internal AI tool to automate non-essential tasks in a bid to show managers they are using the technology more frequently. The Seattle-based group has started to widely deploy its in-house “MeshClaw” product in recent weeks, allowing emplo … ⌘ Read more

Google Announces Its Chromebook Successor: the Googlebook
Google is teasing a new line of “Googlebook” laptops for this fall, powered by a new Android-and-ChromeOS-derived operating system that will run Chrome, Android apps, phone-connected apps and files, and deeply integrated Gemini features. The company says Chromebooks will continue “after the launch of Googlebook” and “…all Chromebooks will continue to receive … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft’s $1 Billion AI Data Center Will ‘Switch Off Half of Kenya’
Microsoft and G42’s planned $1 billion AI data center in Kenya has stalled amid disagreements over power commitments, with President William Ruto saying the country would need to “switch off half the country” to support the project at full scale. Tom’s Hardware reports: The project, announced in May 2024 during Ruto’s visit to Washingto … ⌘ Read more

EU To Crack Down On TikTok, Instagram’s ‘Addictive Design’
The EU plans to target “addictive design” features on TikTok, Instagram, and other platforms, including endless scrolling, autoplay, push notifications, and recommendation loops that can steer children toward harmful content. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said new regulation could arrive later this year, alongside an EU age-verification app m … ⌘ Read more

eBay Rejects GameStop’s $56 Billion Takeover As ‘Neither Credible Nor Attractive’
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: EBay on Tuesday rejected a $56 billion takeover bid from the much smaller GameStop over financing doubts, calling the proposal “neither credible nor attractive.” EBay, which has roughly four times GameStop’s market value, also underscored that its turnaround efforts under … ⌘ Read more

FCC Says Foreign-Made Routers Can Get Updates Until 2029
The FCC has softened its ban on foreign-made consumer routers, allowing vendors to keep issuing broader software and firmware updates for devices already in use in the U.S. through at least January 2029. Dark Reading reports: Under the original FCC ruling, foreign manufacturers were permitted to provide only limited maintenance and security patches to US custom … ⌘ Read more

First Real-Time Brain-Controlled Hearing Device
Researchers at Columbia demonstrated the first real-time brain-controlled hearing system that can identify which speaker a listener is focusing on in a noisy environment and automatically amplify that voice while suppressing others. “This breakthrough addresses the ‘cocktail party effect,’ a major limitation of conventional hearing aids, which often struggle to distinguish betw … ⌘ Read more

Arts and Cultural Engagement ‘Linked To Slower Pace of Biological Aging’
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: Singing, painting or visiting a gallery or museum helps people age more slowly, according to the latest study to link taking an active interest in art and culture with improved health. The findings are the first to show that both participating in arts activities and attending … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Testifies In OpenAI Trial
The Musk v. Altman trial entered its third week Monday, with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and former OpenAI co-founder and renowned AI researcher Ilya Sutskever taking the stand. Nadella testified that Elon Musk never raised concerns to him that Microsoft’s investments in OpenAI violated any special commitments, and said he viewed the partnership as clearly commercial f … ⌘ Read more

GM Secretly Sold California Drivers’ Data, Agrees to Pay $12.75M In Privacy Settlement
“General Motors sold the data of California drivers without their knowledge or consent,” says California’s attorney general, “and despite numerous statements reassuring drivers that it would not do so.”

In 2024, The New York Times “reported that automakers including GM were sharing information about their c … ⌘ Read more

VKD3D-Proton 3.0.1 Brings More Improvements For Direct3D 12 On Vulkan
Hans-Kristian Arntzen of Valve’s Linux graphics driver team announced the release today of VKD3D-Proton 3.0.1 for Direct3D 12 over the Vulkan API… ⌘ Read more

OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft Back Bill To Fund ‘AI Literacy’ In Schools
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: A new, bipartisan bill introduced (PDF) by Democratic Senator of California Adam Schiff and endorsed by the biggest AI developers in the world – including OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft – would change the K-12 curriculum to shoehorn in “AI literacy,” something that young people and … ⌘ Read more

Mesa Begins Seeing Patch Activity For AMD GFX12.1 Graphics
Since last November we’ve begun seeing new open-source driver activity for their next-gen GPU IP with their GFX12.1 graphics engine. GFX12 (12.0) was for the Radeon RX 9000 series RDNA4 hardware while GFX 12.1 is some new revision for yet-to-be-known products while there is also GFX13 bring-up and GFX12.5 too… ⌘ 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

French Prosecutors Link 15-Year-Old To Mega-Breach At State’s Secure Document Agency
French prosecutors say police detained a 15-year-old suspected of using the alias “breach3d” in connection with a cyberattack on France Titres (ANTS), the state agency that handles passports, ID cards, and other secure documents. The breach allegedly involved 12 million to 18 million lines of data offered for … ⌘ Read more

Apple Introduces a Cheaper Option For App Store Subscriptions
Apple is adding a new App Store subscription option that lets developers offer lower monthly prices in exchange for a 12-month commitment. “This model will allow developers to offer discounted rates to customers in exchange for more predictable long-term revenue,” reports TechCrunch. “This also caters to how many developers have already been marketing … ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.1 Adds Support For 12 New SoCs, Other ARM & RISC-V Hardware
All of the SoC updates were recently merged for the ongoing Linux 7.1 kernel cycle. Most of the activity as usual is on the Arm side but also with some RISC-V additions too for the Linux 7.1 kernel… ⌘ Read more

Is the Iran War Driving a Surge of Interest in Electric Cars?
In October and through November, America’s EV sales reached their lowest point since 2022 after government subsidies expired, remembers Time. “But first-quarter data for 2026 shows that used EV sales were 12% higher than the same time last year and 17% higher than the previous quarter.

“One factor likely helping push buyers toward these cars is hig … ⌘ Read more

Will Some Programmers Become ‘AI Babysitters’?
Will some programmers become “AI babysitters”? asks long-time Slashdot readertheodp. They share some thoughts from a founding member of Code.org and former Director of Education at Google:

“AI may allow anyone to generate code, but only a computer scientist can maintain a system,” explained Google.org Global Head Maggie Johnson in a LinkedIn post. So “As AI-generated code beco … ⌘ Read more

Has the Rust Programming Language’s Popularity Reached Its Plateau?
“Rust’s rise shows signs of slowing,” argues the CEO of TIOBE.
Back in 2020 Rust first entered the top 20 of his “TIOBE Index,” which ranks programming language popularity using search engine results. Rust “was widely expected to break into the top 10,” he remembers today. But it never happened, and “That was nearly six years ago….”

… ⌘ Read more

How Good is Windows on Arm With Snapdragon X?
A new powerful chipset has arrived to take on x86 CPUs and Apple’s M5, writes Wccftech.

The blog Windows Central writes that “Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 processors are here” — and they run Windows:

Microsoft has done a massive amount of work to improve compatibility and has also convinced developers to embrace Windows 11 on Arm. Users of Windows 11 on Arm PCs spend 90% of their ti … ⌘ Read more

‘Super Mario Galaxy Movie’ and ‘Project Hail Mary’ Combine for Best Box Office in 7 Years
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie “is officially the year’s highest-grossing film to date with $629 million at the global box office,” reports Variety — and it will likely earn over $1 billion. Project Hail Mary now becomes the year’s second highest-grossing movie, with four-week ticket sales over … ⌘ Read more

Hisense’s New Backlit RGB LED TV ‘a Shot Against OLED’s Bow’, and Includes a DP Port
“RGB LED TVs have been the talk of the TV world this year,” argues The Verge, with models coming from all the manufacturers.”
And the first one of 2026 is here — the UR9 from China’s Hisense — “the first look at the viability of the new backlight technology outside of demo rooms.” They call it “a step above … ⌘ Read more

Botched IT Upgrade Ended Liquor Sales for the Entire State of Mississippi
Mississippi has one warehouse — run by a contractor — that sells all the liquor for the entire state of 2.9 million people. “If a restaurant or store anywhere in Mississippi wanted a bottle of Jim Beam, they had to order it from the wholesale warehouse,” reports the Washington Post.

But then Mississippi’s warehouse-managing con … ⌘ Read more

Neuroscientist’ AI-Powered Startup AIms To Transform Human Cognition With Perfect, Infinite Memory
Bloomberg describes him as a “former Harvard Medical School professor whose research has focused on the intersection of AI and neuroscience.”
“For the past 20 years, I studied how the human brain stores and retrieves memories,” Kreiman writes on LinkedIn. And now “My co-founder … ⌘ 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

Greg Kroah-Hartman Tests New ‘Clanker T1000’ Fuzzing Tool for Linux Patches
The word clanker — a disparaging term for AI and robots — “has made its way into the Linux kernel,” reports the blog It’s FOSS “thanks to Greg Kroah-Hartman, the Linux stable kernel maintainer and the closest thing the project has to a second-in-command.”

He’s been quietly running what looks like an AI-assisted fuzzing tool o … ⌘ Read more

Trisquel 12.0 Released For Free Software Foundation Endorsed Distribution
For those sticking to absolute free software ideals, Trisquel 12.0 was released this weekend for this Free Software Foundation (FSF) approved distribution for only containing free software and foregoing loadable microcode/firmware and running on the Linux-libre kernel even with its reduced scope in hardware support… ⌘ Read more

AI That Bankrupted a Vending Machine is Now Running a Store in San Francisco
Remember that AI-powered vending machine that went bankrupt after Wall Street Journal reporters “systematically manipulated the bot into giving away its entire inventory for free”? It was Anthropic’s experiment, with setup handled by a startup named Andon Labs (which also built the hardware and software integration). But for th … ⌘ Read more

Latin America’s Central Banks Establish Digital Payments Used By Hundreds of Millions
175 million people in Brazil now use its instant-payment system “Pix”, developed by the country’s central bank for real-time payments using QR codes or keys, and American Banker notes that the central banks of Argentina and Costa Rica also have developed their own widely used digital systems for instant pa … ⌘ Read more

Judge Pauses Arizona’s Prosecution of Kalshi, Bars Arizona from Regulating Prediction Markets
Arizona state prosecutors allege Kalshi is running an illegal gambling operation, charging the prediction market with 20 “wagering” misdemeanors. But Friday a federal judge “temporarily barred Arizona from enforcing its gambling laws against predictive market operators,” reports the Associated … ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.0 Ready For Release With Many Exciting Changes
The Linux 7.0 kernel is gearing up for its stable release and should be out this coming Sunday, 12 April, barring any major last minute issues… ⌘ Read more

I called it quits a bit earlier and enjoyed the sunny 19°C blue sky in nature. I just sat an entire hour on a bench (12) near a habitat (07) and enjoyed the sun rays and singing birds around me. When I returned, the batteries were almost drained. The sunset finished them off, so that I could not record Azabache’s concert shortly after. However, I saw that amazing bird this morning and got him on film. Enjoy!

https://lyse.isobeef.org/waldspaziergang-2026-04-08/

OpenRazer 3.12.1 Enables Two More Razer Devices Under Linux
OpenRazer 3.12 released in mid-March as the latest feature update to these open-source drivers for Razer hardware on Linux. Out today is OpenRazer 3.12.1 for enabling two more Razer products on Linux plus shipping a couple fixes… ⌘ Read more

@movq@www.uninformativ.de with the current regime, everything is, to put it politely, rather odd, and in disarray. They have yesterday’s window, otherwise the next one was on the 12 of April, or something like that. We knew it was going up for a few days, but we are used to that kind of thing, so it is not that super exciting any more. LOL.

Yeah, I saw it in person.

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

wlroots 0.20 Released,Sway 1.12-rc1 Available For Testing With Color Management
Released today was wlroots 0.20 as this Wayland support library used by some Wayland compositors for doing much of the “heavy lifting” of compositor bring-up. Following wlroots 0.20, Sway 1.12-rc1 was released for testing as this closely-aligned Wayland compositor inspired by the i3 window manager… ⌘ Read more

Hong Kong Police Can Demand Passwords Under New National Security Rules
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: Hong Kong police can now demand phone or computer passwords from those who are suspected of breaching the wide-ranging National Security Law (NSL). Those who refuse could face up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $12,700, and individuals who provide “false or misleading informatio … ⌘ Read more

Intel’s Vulkan Linux Driver Lands New Feature To Boost DX12 Game Performance
Intel’s open-source “ANV” Vulkan driver for Linux systems enabled a new feature called BTP+BTI RCC Keying. You may be wondering what it means or stands for, but long story short it helps with the performance of Direct3D 12 (DX12) games running on Linux by way of Valve’s Steam Play with Proton + VKD3D-Proton… ⌘ 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

The 12°C sunshine was rather windy all day long as witnessed by the ruffled 02. https://lyse.isobeef.org/waldspaziergang-2026-03-18/

Btrfs Performance From Linux 6.12 To Linux 7.0 Shows Regressions
Last week I provided a look at the EXT4 and XFS performance from Linux 6.12 LTS through Linux 7.0 in its current development form. As mentioned in that article and as requested by many Phoronix readers, benchmarks have since wrapped up looking at how the Btrfs copy-on-write file-system performance has evolved since that late 2024 period and all major Linux kernel releases past that Long Term Support version. ⌘ Read more

Microsoft, OpenAI & Others Pony Up $12.5M To Strengthen Open-Source Security
The Linux Foundation announced today that $12.5 million USD in grants from the likes of OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS, GitHub, Google, and Microsoft have been collected to invest in strengthening the security of the open-source software ecosystem… ⌘ Read more

Meta Signs $27 Billion AI Infrastructure Deal With Nebius
AI infrastructure company Nebius signed a deal to provide up to $27 billion in AI computing capacity to Meta over the next five years, including a guaranteed $12 billion purchase by 2027. Reuters reports: Under the agreement, Meta will also buy an additional $15 billion worth of capacity planned by Nebius over the coming five years if it is not sold to other cu … ⌘ Read more

OpenRazer 3.12 Released With Support For Newer Razer Products On Linux
OpenRazer 3.12 was just released today as the newest update to these independently-maintained, open-source drivers for Razer devices on Linux. Paired with the likes of the Polychromatic GUI, OpenRazer allows for a pleasant experience for the Razer gaming peripherals under Linux… ⌘ Read more