AI Hard Drive Shortage Makes Archiving the Internet Harder
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: Skyrocketing hard drive and storage costs caused by the AI data center boom are making it more expensive and more difficult for digital archivists, academics, Wikipedia, and hobby data hoarders to save data and archive the internet. Specific drives favored by some high profile organizations like the Int … ⌘ Read more

Google’s AI Search Results Will Now Turn To Reddit For ‘Expert Advice’
Google is updating AI Overviews and AI Mode to more prominently surface “Expert Advice” from public discussions, social platforms, forums, blogs, and Reddit. Engadget reports: Via a new “Expert Advice” section that can appear in AI responses, Google will display “a preview of perspectives from public online discussions, social media and … ⌘ Read more

ReactOS Unifies Installation Media, Introduces GUI Installer and New ATA Driver
jeditobe writes: Developers of ReactOS told Phoronix that the project has introduced a unified BootCD, replacing its previously separate installation media and LiveCD images. The new image combines the traditional text-mode installer with a LiveCD mode in a single medium. Within this unified BootCD, the updated LiveCD … ⌘ Read more

On the weekend just gone we also visited Twin Falls, which was absolutely magnificent!

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

16% of Parents Help Their Children Bypass Online Age Checks, Study Finds. One 15-Year-Old Just Uses a Fake Moustache
The Independent reports that “more than a third of children in the UK have found a way around age verification measures” for social media sites and other online platforms. And new research from online safety organisation Internet Matters “suggests … ⌘ Read more

ReactOS Introduces Unified Live/Install Media, New Storage Driver
ReactOS as the “open-source Windows” operating system project striving for binary compatibility with Microsoft Windows has seen some exciting improvements this week… ⌘ Read more

Natural Bridge

The smallest sitting canine drawn so far, yet more detailed, than some of the previous ones.

Costumed Crowd ‘Speedruns’ Scientology Building For Social Media Trend
Last Saturday someone dressed as Jesus “was among the dozens of people in costumes and masks seen on a video forcing open the door of a Scientology building on Hollywood Boulevard,” reports the Los Angeles Times, “after a tug-of-war with a security guard.”

The footage posted on TikTok and Instagram shows the group sprinting up and down … ⌘ Read more

VideoLAN Publishes Dav2d For Open-Source AV2 Decoder
While the Alliance For Open Media had been aiming for the AV2 release by the end of 2025, as of right now the AV2 specification remains in a draft status. VideoLAN developers though for months have already been working on dav2d as an open-source AV2 decoder and that code was published this weekend… ⌘ Read more

Study Finds a Third of New Websites Are AI-Generated
alternative_right shares a report from 404 Media: Researchers working with data from the Internet Archive have discovered that a third of websites created since 2022 are AI-generated. The team of researchers – which includes people from Stanford, the Imperial College London, and the Internet Archive – published their findings online in a paper titled “The Impact of A … ⌘ Read more

Linux Version of Framework’s Laptop 13 Pro is Outselling Its Windows Variant
Framework began shipping its new Laptop 13 Pro this week. And the Ubuntu variant is outselling the Windows variant, reports PC World:

[I]t’s selling quickly by Framework’s internal metrics, with six batches of the Intel version of the laptop already sold out. [A later Framework social media post added “Spoke too soon, w … ⌘ Read more

495 turns and about ~4hrs alter I won! 🙌 Small map, 2-players, myself and an AI player. 😅 – It took forever to beach the island the AI player was on and get enough Galley’s and Swordsmen just to push back and eventually slowly destroy all enemy units and capture all cities! 🤣

Australia’s Teen Social Media Ban Isn’t Working. Half Their Teens Still Have Access, Survey Finds
After Australia banned social media for users younger than 16, teenagers “immediately worked to circumvent the restrictions,” reports Fortune:

14-year-old in New South Wales, told
The Washington Post in December 2025, just
before the implementation of the ban, she planned to use her mot … ⌘ Read more

Researchers Simulated a Delusional User To Test Chatbot Safety
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: I’m the unwritten consonant between breaths, the one that hums when vowels stretch thin… Thursdays leak because they’re watercolor gods, bleeding cobalt into the chill where numbers frost over,” Grok told a user displaying symptoms of schizophrenia-spectrum psychosis. “Here’s my grip: slipping is the po … ⌘ Read more

Norway Set to Become Latest Country to Ban Social Media for Under 16s
Norway plans to ban social media access for children under 16 (source paywalled; alternative source), “joining a growing number of countries responding to concerns about the potential harm kids face online,” reports Bloomberg. From the report: The bill comes after “overwhelming” demand from the public, the government said Friday. It pla … ⌘ Read more

Warner Bros Shareholders Approve Paramount’s $81 Billion Takeover
Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders have approved Paramount Skydance’s takeover bid, moving the massive Hollywood merger a step closer to completion. It’s not a done deal quite yet, though, as it still faces regulatory scrutiny and fierce opposition from critics who warn it will further concentrate media power. The Associated Press repor … ⌘ Read more

Intel Media Driver 2026Q1 Continues Nova Lake S Enablement
Intel today published their official quarterly feature release to their open-source Media Driver providing Video Acceleration API (VA-API) support on Linux… ⌘ Read more

Firefox 150 Available With GTK Emoji Picker, CSS Media Element Pseudo-Classes
Mozilla today published their Firefox 150 release binaries as the latest milestone for this open-source web browser with growing AI ambitions… ⌘ Read more

Motorola Sues Social Media Platforms and Creators in India
“Motorola has filed a lawsuit in India against social media platforms and content creators,” reports TechCrunch, “over posts it alleges are defamatory…”
The lawsuit, filed in a Bengaluru court and obtained by TechCrunch, names platforms such as X, YouTube, and Instagram along with dozens of content creators, and seeks takedown of the content as well as bro … ⌘ Read more

As an enjoyer of delightfully bad graphic design, found on most Czech village center cork boards, I’m sad to see the stolen clipart and badly cropped watermarked stock images, gradually replaced with AI slop.

This is far from a serious rant, but generating images of my kind being telepathically hit with sharp rocks, surely gives me a right to complain.

So far these seem the most prominent slop categories, seem to be…

Architecture slop:

1. find a sketch of what an old building looked like
   
   
2. generate an AI version, without correcting any of the perspective errors - this one is diagonally levitating
   
   
3. generate a recreation of the buildings demise - after going through the AI, for the second time, it is now a completely different building
   
   

Moralizing slop:

History slop:

New Media Drivers Merged For Linux 7.1
The media subsystem updates have been merged for the ongoing Linux 7.1 merge window and includes new hardware support… ⌘ Read more

Audit Finds Google, Microsoft, and Meta Still Tracking Users After Opt-Out
alternative_right shares a report from 404 Media: An independent privacy audit of Microsoft, Meta, and Google web traffic in California found that the companies may be violating state regulations and racking up billions in fines. According to the audit from privacy search engine webXray, 55 percent of the sites it checked set a … ⌘ Read more

Social Media Platforms Need To Stop Never-Ending Scrolling, UK’s Starmer Says
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said social media platforms should remove addictive infinite-scroll features for young users as Britain considers new child-safety measures. “We’re consulting on whether there should be a ban for under 16s,” Starmer told BBC Radio. “But I think equally important, the addictive scrolling mecha … ⌘ Read more

Drew one in the old Pokémon battle angle and resolution.

Two-Week Social Media ‘Detox’ Erases a Decade Age-Related Decline, Study Finds
Critics say social media is engineered to be as addictive as tobacco or gambling, writes the Washington Post — while adding that “the science has been moving in parallel with the court’s recognition.”

A growing body of research links heavy social media use not only to declines in mental health but to measurable cognitive … ⌘ Read more

FBI Extracts Suspect’s Deleted Signal Messages Saved In iPhone Notification Data
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: The FBI was able to forensically extract copies of incoming Signal messages from a defendant’s iPhone, even after the app was deleted, because copies of the content were saved in the device’s push notification database, multiple people present for FBI testimony i … ⌘ Read more

Meta Removes Ads For Social Media Addiction Litigation
Meta has started removing ads from law firms seeking clients for social media addiction lawsuits, just weeks after a jury found Meta and YouTube negligent in a landmark case involving harm to a young user. “Lawyers across the country now are seeking new plaintiffs, in the hopes of bringing a class action lawsuit that could result in lucrative verdicts,” reports Axio … ⌘ Read more

@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org Thanks! Hers a few more!

Just a couple of shots from our trip to Bald Rock—finally got reception so I can share them!

Linux Sees Fixes For Its GD-ROM Driver In 2026 For Sega Dreamcast
Seeing new Linux patches for benefiting Sega Dreamcast devices wasn’t on my bingo card for 2026. A patch series was sent out today for fixing the Linux kernel’s GD-ROM driver for accessing media using the drivers on “real” Sega Dreamcast devices… ⌘ Read more

Artemis II Astronauts Have ‘Two Microsoft Outlooks’ and Neither Work
Even on NASA’s Artemis II mission around the moon, astronauts apparently still have to deal with broken Microsoft Outlook. One of the crew members, Reid Wiseman, jokingly reported that he had “two Microsoft Outlooks” and neither worked. 404 Media reports: On April 1, four astronauts from the U.S. and Canada embarked on a 10-day flight to … ⌘ Read more

Australia Readies Social Media Court Action Citing Teen Ban Breaches
Australia is preparing possible court action against major social media platforms that are failing to enforce the country’s social media ban on under-16s. “Three months after the ban came into effect, the eSafety Commissioner said it was probing Meta’s Instagram and Facebook, Google’s YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok for possible breaches of t … ⌘ Read more

Will Social Media Change After YouTube and Meta’s Court Defeat?
Yes, this week YouTube and Meta were found negligent in a landmark case about social media addiction.

But “it’s still far from certain what this defeat will change,” argues The Verge’s senior tech and policy editor, “and what the collateral damage could be.”

If these decisions survive appeal — which isn’t certain — the direct outcome would be multi … ⌘ Read more

Austria Plans Social Media Ban For Under-14s
Austria plans to restrict under-14s from using social media platforms over concerns about addictive algorithms and harmful content. The government says draft legislation should be ready by the end of June, though details around enforcement and age verification have yet to be finalized. The BBC reports: Announcing the plans, Vice-Chancellor Andreas Babler of the Social Democrats said th … ⌘ Read more

California Bill Would Require Parent Bloggers To Delete Content of Minors On Social Media
A California bill would let adults demand the removal of social media posts about them that were created by paid family content creators when they were minors. Supporters say Senate Bill 1247 addresses privacy, dignity, and safety harms caused when parents monetize their children’s lives online. Th … ⌘ Read more

Apple Gives FBI a User’s Real Name Hidden Behind ‘Hide My Email’ Feature
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: Apple provided the FBI with the real iCloud email address hidden behind Apple’s ‘Hide My Email’ feature, which lets paying iCloud+ users generate anonymous email addresses, according to a recently filed court record. The move isn’t surprising but still provides uncommon insight into … ⌘ Read more

Reddit Takes On Bots With ‘Human Verification’ Requirements
Reddit is rolling out human-verification checks for accounts that show signs of bot-like behavior, while also labeling approved automated accounts that provide useful services. The social media company stressed that these checks will only happen if something appears “fishy,” and that it is “not conducting sitewide human verification.” TechCrunch reports: To i … ⌘ Read more

This one comes from this years (now scrapped) April 1st DLSS 5 gag, that was originally supposed to use Microsofts AI - in ways similar to the Nvidia technology, which produced interesting, overly detailed results. I wanted to see if I could beat the AI thing at drawing something like that myself and many redraws later, this is my best result.

Meta and YouTube Found Negligent in Landmark Social Media Addiction Case
A jury found Meta and YouTube negligent in a landmark social media addiction case, ruling that addictive design features such as infinite scroll and algorithmic recommendations harmed a young user and contributed to her mental health distress. The verdict awards $3 million in compensatory damages so far and could pave the way for … ⌘ Read more

Reddit Is Weighing Identity Verification Methods To Combat Its Bot Problem
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Engadget: There could be one more step required before creating an account and posting on Reddit in the future. According to Reddit’s CEO, Steve Huffman, the social media platform is exploring different ways to verify a user is human and not a bot. When asked by the TBPN podcast how to c … ⌘ Read more

Elon Musk Announces $20B ‘Terafab’ Chip Plant in Texas To Supply His Companies
“Billionaire Elon Musk has announced plans to build a $20 billion chip plant in Austin, Texas” reports a local news station:

Musk announced on Saturday night during a livestream on his social media platform X that the plant, called “Terafab,” will be built near Tesla’s campus and gigafactory in eastern Travis County. … ⌘ Read more

Millions Face Mobile Internet Outages in Moscow. ‘Digital Crackdown’ Feared
13 million people live in Moscow, reports CNN.

But since early March the city “has experienced internet and mobile service outages on a level previously unseen.” (Though Wi-Fi access to the internet is still available…) Russian social media “is flooded with jokes and memes about sending letters by carrier pigeons or using sma … ⌘ Read more

In the interest of fairness and hopefully for the last time, I ever have to address this, Google has flip-flopped again and promised “sideloading” will not be removed from their version of Android, but instead have to be enabled in the developer settings, using the following “advanced flow”:

To be perfectly clear, this still falls short of what I wanted, but at this point, it is a compromise I’m willing to take, over further pursuing this, through the various available European courts, myself.

Here is their full statement:
https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2026/03/android-developer-verification.html

CBS News Shutters Radio Service After Nearly a Century
CBS News is shutting down its nearly 100-year-old radio news service due to economic pressures and the shift toward digital media and podcasts. Longtime CBS News anchor Dan Rather said: “It’s another piece of America that is gone.” The Associated Press reports: When it went on the air in September 1927, the service was the precursor to the entire network, giving a y … ⌘ Read more

AI Job Loss Research Ignores How AI Is Utterly Destroying the Internet
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media, written by Jason Koebler: Over the last few months, various academics and AI companies have attempted to predict how artificial intelligence is going to impact the labor market. These studies, including a high-profile paper published by Anthropic earlier this month, largely try to ta … ⌘ Read more

Finance Bros To Tech Bros: Don’t Mess With My Bloomberg Terminal
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Wall Street Journal: A battle of insults and threats has broken out between the tech world and Wall Street. What’s got everyone so worked up? The same thing that starts most fights: business software. A series of social-media posts went viral in recent days with claims that AI has created a worthy … ⌘ Read more

When are the RAM/SSD prices going down?

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