Tech Industry Scratches Its Head Over Trump’s ‘AI Force’ Proposal
Saturday morning President Trump announced he’s creating an AI task force and appointing an AI czar, reports Politico.
“I am forming the AI Force, much like I did Space Force, which has been a tremendous SUCCESS,” Trump wrote Saturday in what Politico earlier described as “a lengthy Truth Social post on Saturday morning.”
TRUMP: Over the ye … ⌘ Read more
Customer-Losing Flock Now Offers Buyouts to Avoid Laying Off Employees
Mashable writes:
Flock Safety offered employees voluntary buyouts on Friday, WIRED reported… Without the buyouts, those familiar with the situation suspect the company would have to lay off some of its 1,500 employees.
WIRED writes that people familiar with the program “say they believe that a significant number of the startup’s ro … ⌘ Read more
Developer Abandons ‘PS5 Linux’ Project After Sony Patches AI-Discovered Exploit
“In April this year, we saw Andy Nguyen turning the PS5 into a Linux-powered gaming PC,”
writes the blog It’s FOSS.
It ran Steam games and emulators using the PS5’s on-board hardware. But this week Andy announced he’s “stopping all my work on PS5 Linux” and “stepping away from the PS5 scene.”
stopping work on porting … ⌘ Read more
Fake AI Intelligence Almost Made the US Military Start a War With China
U.S. military intelligence received an inaccurate report this spring that a Chinese ship in the Middle East was transporting components of a nuclear weapons program, reports CNN.
“The US military swung into action with plans to intercept the vessel, according to four sources familiar with the episode.”
Armed members of the US milit … ⌘ Read more
US Air Force F-16 Crashes in Michigan After Pentagon Orders More Flyovers
The F-16 “experienced an incident,” the Texas Military Department said in a statement, adding that “The pilot successfully ejected the aircraft and is receiving care at a nearby hospital.”
ABC News reports:
A Texas Air National Guard F-16 crashed in Michigan during a training mission on Thursday afternoon, sparking an hourslon … ⌘ Read more
Gemini Breached Three Outside Systems, and Claude-Using Researchers Breached OpenAI
“Software security researchers used Anthropic’s Claude AI platform to hack OpenAI’s ChatGPT tool,” reports CBS News.
Using Claude, “On July 25, 2026, we chained two critical vulnerabilities to compromise multiple OpenAI employees’ ChatGPT accounts,” write researchers at security platform Hacktron AI. “With these ac … ⌘ Read more
Has the James Web Space Telescope Discovered a New ‘Black Hole Star’?
The James Webb Space Telescope has been picking up little red dots in almost every image,
writes Quanta magazine. And now two teams of astronomers propose they’re looking at a new astronomical object: a black hole star. It shines with the light of billions of suns — and hides a black hole in its core.
But Quanta adds that “not everyone … ⌘ Read more
Cops Searched Thousands of Flock Cameras for Reasons of ‘LMAO,’ ‘IDK,’ ‘Hehe,’ And ‘Asdfg’
404 Media reports:
Last summer, a cop with the Lake County, Indiana Sheriff’s Department used Flock’s surveillance search engine to look for a license plate across more than 19,000 cameras in 1,558 cities and towns. The cop’s stated reason for the search, according to a record of Flock’s system, was “LMAO. … ⌘ Read more
GNU Automake 1.19 Released With More Than One Year Worth Of Fixes
For those continuing to use GNU Automake over the likes of Meson or CMake for your build system, Automake 1.19 is out today as the first new release in 15 months. Among the many fixes in this release is for a bug dating back 14 years… ⌘ Read more
Google’s Revived Nuclear Power Plant Gets $1.9 Billion Loan From US Government
The U.S. Department of Energy has approved a $1.9 billion loan to NextEra Energy to restart Iowa’s shuttered Duane Arnold nuclear plant, which Google has backed as a power source for its growing AI infrastructure. “The sizable loan is the second of its kind, suggesting that the Trump administration views revived nucle … ⌘ Read more
The World Now Has More Seniors Than Young People - for the First Time In History
“There are now more seniors in the world than young children,” reports the International Business Times, citing a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau report. And it warns that “The share of the population aged 65 and over is projected to nearly double, from 10.5 percent (about 1 in 10 people) in 2025 to 19.6 percent … ⌘ Read more
Linux Kernel Patches Out For Review To Enable USB4/Thunderbolt For Apple M1 / M2 / M3
There is a set of 19 patches out for review on the Linux kernel mailing list that would finally allow the mainline kernel running on Apple Silicon M1 / M2 / M3 SoCs to enjoy USB4/Thunderbolt support… ⌘ Read more
Apple TV and Apple One Subscription Prices Increase By Up To 20%
Apple is raising Apple TV’s U.S. price to $14.99 per month, up from $12.99, while the annual plan jumps from $99 to $119. It’s the service’s fourth price hike in four years and means the monthly cost has now tripled from its $4.99 launch price in 2019. Apple One’s Individual plan is also rising from $19.95 to $21.95 per month.
[ and two nut sticky buns for provisions. This is where the small bird (19-23) was giving us a show.
It’s so dry, the landscape looks already like autumn for several weeks. Sooo many orange and brown leaves on the ground, it’s crazy. I hope we still get a real autumn and head not straight from summer into winter. Last weekend was still an awful 37°C.
This time, we paid the small entrence fee to walk around inside the ruin of Hohenrechberg Castle. The red sandstone looks super sick. I really dig it. It’s actually purplish at parts, no kidding. Absolutely unreal! At least for me, I normally only see the beige sandstone around here.
Right when we went down the castle ditch, both camera batteries were completely drained after just 880 photos in total. What a bummer. I saw a guy with a leather glove coming out of a door and immediately followed him to the aviary in the hopes of a show or something. That flight cage wasn’t there last time I visited the ruin. And we were lucky, the falconer fed his harris’ hawk and explained us along the way. Other families came and went, but we talked to him for at least 20 minutes. Super interesting. I think that was easily the best part.
At exactly 19 o’clock I unlocked the front door. Our feet were done. It was an amazing nine hours hike. :-)
The gallery is a tiny bit larger than usual, enjoy: https://lyse.isobeef.org/wanderung-auf-die-burgruine-hohenrechberg-2026-08-22/
FCC Abolishes Gigabit Speed Goal, Suggesting It Is Unfair To Slower Technologies
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Federal Communications Commission last week eliminated the gigabit speed goal established during the Biden administration and declared that current levels of broadband deployment in the US are acceptable. Though fiber networks have routinely offered such s … ⌘ Read more
Japan to Require AI Firms to Disclose Training Data
Japan is preparing a nonbinding “comply or explain” code that would urge generative AI companies, including foreign firms operating in Japan, to disclose what models they use, what training data they rely on, and how that data was collected. The proposal would also let rights holders ask whether specific webpages were included in training datasets. The Japan Times reports: … ⌘ Read more
New Study Challenges Common Assumptions About Screen Time For Kids
bryanandaimee shares a report from ScienceDaily: A Finnish study has found an unexpected association between screen use and cognitive performance. Children who accumulated more screen time as they grew up tended to show better cognitive processing during adolescence. One of the researchers cautions against viewing screen time as entirely … ⌘ Read more
Rescue Mission Is Called Off For NASA’s Aging Swift Space Telescope
NASA has called off a $30 million mission to rescue its aging Swift space telescope after Katalyst Space’s Link spacecraft developed persistent control and positioning problems. The Associated Press reports: Katalyst said Link will not attempt to capture Swift and boost it to a higher orbit because of problems with controlling the spacecr … ⌘ Read more
Whistleblower Arturo Bejar Leads Testimony In Landmark Trial Against Meta
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: Meta was infused with a culture in which employees obsessed over user numbers and consistently pushed safety to the side, according to Arturo Bejar, a former employee turned whistleblower, who testified today in the landmark child safety trial against the social media company. Only o … ⌘ Read more
PINE64 Halts Linux Device Production Amid DRAM and EMMC Shortages
BrianFagioli writes: PINE64 has some very bad news for Linux hardware fans. PINE64 says it has no plans to produce additional Linux devices in the near future because of the ongoing DRAM and eMMC shortage. Future production will depend on component pricing after mid 2027, while existing PineNote and PineTab2 inventory could run out in rough … ⌘ Read more
Stripe Buys AI Startup OpenRouter For $7.5 Billion
Stripe is acquiring AI model marketplace OpenRouter as it pushes beyond payments into the infrastructure behind AI applications. According to The New York Times, the deal is reportedly valued at about $7.5 billion, with $1.5 billion allocated to OpenRouter’s founders. Less than three months ago the company was valued at about $1.3 billion. CNBC reports: OpenRouter has become … ⌘ Read more
Amazon’s Drones Will Soon Deliver to Nearly 500 US Cities and Towns
Amazon says its Prime Air drone delivery service will expand sixfold to nearly 500 U.S. cities and towns by the end of 2026, including metro areas around Chicago, Syracuse, Cleveland, Atlanta, and Boise. According to Amazon Prime Air vice president David Carbon, the service has already delivered “hundreds of thousands of packages to customer … ⌘ Read more
Music Publisher Round Hill Files $1 Billion Copyright Infringement Suits Against Suno, Anthropic
Independent music publisher Round Hill is suing Suno and Anthropic for allegedly using hundreds of copyrighted songs without permission to train their AI systems. The company says potential damages could exceed $1 billion, arguing there is “nothing fair” about building multibillion-doll … ⌘ Read more
CISA: Medusa Ransomware Hit Over 500 Critical Infrastructure Orgs
CISA says the Medusa ransomware operation has breached more than 500 U.S. critical infrastructure organizations since 2021, up from more than 300 reported last year. The group has targeted healthcare, government, defense, manufacturing, IT and financial organizations, evolving into a ransomware-as-a-service operation that recruits initial-access b … ⌘ Read more
Moderna, Merck Say mRNA Vaccine Prevents Melanoma From Returning
Moderna and Merck say their personalized mRNA melanoma vaccine significantly reduced both cancer recurrence and spread in a late-stage trial. The treatment could reach patients as soon as next year if regulators approve it. Reuters reports: Moderna developed the vaccine with Merck and tested it together with immunotherapy drug Keytruda, a widel … ⌘ Read more
X’s Algorithm Feeds Off Ragebait and Impacts Democrats More, Study Finds
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: X’s algorithm learns what you hate and shows you more of it, according to a new study just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The paper, titled Value misalignment of X’s feed algorithm is a reflection of value tensions in engagement, found … ⌘ Read more
Army Unit Offers 4-Day Pass to Play GTA VI As Reenlistment Incentive
A U.S. Army battalion at Fort Stewart is offering soldiers a four-day pass timed to the release of Grand Theft Auto VI if they reenlist for at least two years. The program is limited to one unit for now, but it fits the Army’s broader effort to appeal to gamers as a recruiting and retention pool. CBS News reports: Twenty soldiers at Fort … ⌘ Read more
Chinese Robotics Giant Unitree Soars In Stock Market Debut
Chinese robotics giant Unitree surged more than 600% in its Shanghai stock market debut, marking the first mainland Chinese listing by a humanoid robot maker and a major milestone for Beijing’s robotics ambitions. The BBC reports: Unitree, officially known as Yushu Technology Co Ltd, was founded in 2016 and now plays a key role in Beijing’s ambitions to … ⌘ Read more
Babies Born Under Sugar Rationing Grew Into Adults With Lower Cancer Risk
A study of more than 64,000 people born around the end of Britain’s postwar sugar rationing found that those exposed to less sugar during their first 1,000 days had lower rates of five cancers decades later, including roughly 69% lower liver cancer risk and 36% lower breast cancer risk. They also “showed signs of slower biolo … ⌘ Read more
Physicists Entangle Quantum Memories Across a Record-Breaking 420 Kilometers
alternative_right shares a report from Phys.org: Optical fibers are already the backbone of global communication systems. Recently, however, physicists have started to explore how their functionality could be boosted further by conveying information via entangled quantum particles – potentially enabling instantaneous exc … ⌘ Read more
Marek Olšák’s 19 Latest Patches Further Optimizing RADV & ACO
Legendary Mesa Radeon Gallium3D driver developer Marek Olšák who was a longtime AMD employee and then joined Valve’s Linux graphics driver team earlier this year has continued his focus now on perfecting his art around the RADV Vulkan driver and ACO shader compiler… ⌘ Read more
Make sure your Flatpak is up to date due to security issues
Version 1.18.1 and 1.19.0 pre-release rolled out for Flatpak, due to some security issues that were found so it’s an essential update for all Linux systems.
Read the full article on GamingOnLinux. ⌘ Read more
Flatpak 1.19 Released With Nine Security Fixes
Flatpak 1.19 was released today as a new development release along with the Flatpak 1.18.1 stable point release. Both of these releases ship a number of newly-discovered security issues with this app sandboxing and distribution tech… ⌘ Read more
Feed rubber ducks to a bottomless corporate void in Project P.I.T.T. on August 19
Throw ducks down a void, unlock helpful contraptions and keep on optimizing in the quirky Project P.I.T.T. with the release date announced for August 19th.
Read the full article on [GamingOnLinux](https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/08/feed-rubber-ducks-to-a-bottomless-corporat … ⌘ Read more
I’m still on a deckbuilding kick, so I was thrilled that we managed to get 3 games of Magic in last night.
In game 1, my Marvel Villains deck couldn’t stand up to Doctor Who’s Missy and her army of Cybermen (and Daleks). Since someone else was playing a dark lord Sauron deck, I guess that means she’s even more “villainous” that anything Marvel or Tolkien could offer.
For game 2, I ran my Guardians of the Multiverse deck (formerly known as The B-Vengers or Marvel Heroes 2: Electric Bugaloo). It was working well, and I had quite an army going, but I was still one turn from a win when an opponent’s tribal elf deck went off, killing everyone with 19 19/19 forest-walking elves. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Then in game 3, I ran my Avengers deck, and finally got the win thanks to a Heroes’ Podium, a pair of Hawkeyes, and a flying, shield-wielding Captain America. Assemble, indeed.
Last night will likely be my final Marvel-only game night for a while. I still need to test the decks out some more, but they’re basically complete (I don’t currently plan on adding any more cards to them). Plus, while I’m on this kick, I’d like to finally finish my Sauron deck, and I’ve got some cards on order for both a Dune-themed deck and a couple of decks inspired by the old-school Beatdown Box.
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I finally built a prototype of a marking gauge with a cutter wheel out of some scraps.
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Of course, the tiny M3 bolts are in a completely different section a few aisles further down than the rest of the bolts and screws. Took me a while to find them. And I didn’t pay close enough attention, I got 19 stainless hex key but one galvanized phillips head bolt, somebody threw it back in the wrong bin. Oh well, at least they’re both seven cents the piece. I only really need two or three.
Oh good 😅
2026/07/19 02:55:52 sync-reaper: observe-only pass — 1152 namespaces, 6 anchored, 1094 undatable, 0 idle candidate(s), 0 reaped
15 years without reinstalling on this particular box.
$ head -n 1 /var/log/pacman.log
[2011-07-07 11:19] installed filesystem (2011.04-1)
Two more years and I’ll be celebrating the “20 years of Arch” anniversary.
First 12, then 37, now 63 liters per square meter, what’s next?
Bitcoin Drops Again. Skeptical Investment Strategist Calls It ‘Useless’
Friday Bitcoin closed at just $59,948 — dropping 19% just for June and more than 50% lower than its record high in October of $124,310.
To commemorate the occasion CNBC interviewed long-time bitcoin skeptic Jeremy Grantham, reporting that the 87-year-old cofounder/chief investment strategist of the massive asset-management firm GMO is … ⌘ Read more
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@movq Yeah, that would also be fine with me. I certainly do like the "arbitrary" in your comment.
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@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org Mhm, yeah, I also think I like date := time.Date(2026, time.June, 19, /**/ 17, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC) the most. 🤔 (My only gripe with this is that it isn’t obvious whether the third 0 is milli-, micro- or nanoseconds. These days it’s probably nanoseconds, but you never know.)
GTA VI Is a Worrying Sign For the Future of Physical Games
Rockstar Games has revealed the price of Grand Theft Auto VI to be $79.99, and confirmed that the physical versions of the game won’t include a disc. Instead, they’ll contain a one-time download code when it launches November 19. “Not only is that a disappointing decision for people who like to own physical games, but given the scale of the next GTA, it als … ⌘ Read more
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@lyse Oh wow, we’re talking about such a detailed level. 🤔
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@movq@www.uninformativ.de Yeah, that would also be fine with me. I certainly do like the “arbitrary” in your comment.
While writing the article, I also thought about something like that:
date := time.Date(2026, 6, 19,
17, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC)
Or possibly:
date := time.Date(
2026, 6, 19,
17, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC,
)
But it’s four lines for a damn timestamp. I also contemplated whether a comment acting as a separator is all that’s needed:
date := time.Date(2026, 6, 19, /**/ 17, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC)
I might like that the most. Not entirely sure yet. It kinda feels like a hack, but still a little elegant. Add your comment on top and we’re golden. Maybe?
I deliberately excluded them as this only distracted from the points I wanted to make. And I also realized that this example was just not ideal at all. Perhaps I should add them nevertheless?
If I ever invented a programming language, a much more human readable timestamp representation of some sort, RFC 3339 or very close to that would be part of that language. Something along the lines of /pattern/ for regexes in certain languages.
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In the light of current events, I will first consult my pillow and only then write an article about readable code.
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@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org Oh wow, we’re talking about such a detailed level. 🤔
I agree with most of what you said.
I probably would have written it like this:
// Arbitrary reference date.
// Y m d H M S nano
date := time.Date(2026, 6, 19, 17, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC)
Would this be better or worse? 😅
Student Loan Borrowers Will Get Interest Rate Cut If They Sign Up For Auto Pay
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: Student loan borrowers who enroll in automatic payments will get a much bigger discount on interest starting July 1, the U.S. Department of Education says. Auto pay has long offered a modest discount off borrowers’ interest rate – .25 percentage points – but after millions … ⌘ Read more
Amazon Retaliated Against Workers Who Supported Regulating Data Centers, Complaint Says
Three Amazon employees have filed a civil-rights complaint alleging the company retaliated against them for publicly supporting Seattle regulations on data centers. “The complaint was filed on the workers’ behalf by Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, an independent group of corporate employees at Amazon … ⌘ Read more
Using Sound Waves To Make Espresso Could Cut Coffee-Brewing Energy Use By 75%
Researchers developed an ultrasonic espresso process that uses high-frequency sound waves instead of hot water to produce espresso-strength coffee at room temperature. And, not only did coffee drinkers find it comparable to traditional espresso, but the brewing process cut energy use by up to 75%. An anonymous reade … ⌘ Read more
Amazon Drops Sam Altman Movie After Announcing OpenAI Partnership
Amazon MGM has dropped Luca Guadagnino’s nearly completed Sam Altman biopic Artificial and is seeking another distributor for the film. The move comes months after Amazon expanded its multibillion-dollar partnership with OpenAI, fueling speculation about a potential conflict given the movie’s reportedly unflattering portrayal of Altman … ⌘ Read more