Linux 7.2-rc2 BPF Code Being Hardened Against JIT Spraying Attacks
Some post-merge-window code changes merged overnight ahead of Linux 7.2-rc2 this weekend is hardening the kernel’s BPF code against JIT spraying attacks… ⌘ Read more

Linux Preparing To Retire Its 32-bit MSR Interfaces
Currently measuring in at 32 patches, SUSE engineer Juergen Gross has been leading the effort to end the Linux kernel’s usage of their 32-bit model specific register (MSR) interfaces so the more modern 64-bit interfaces can be exclusively used. This allows for better code unification and cleaning up the MSR code… ⌘ Read more

Vibe Coded X11 Server Written In Rust Adds Xinerama, FreeBSD Support & Other Features
One month ago we reported on YSERVER as a modern X11 server written in Rust with the help of Claude Code. Since then YSERVER has continued to advance in supporting more X11 functionality thanks to the help of Claude Code (AI) and out today is version 1.3 o this display server… ⌘ Read more

KDE Plasma Affected By Arbitrary Code Execution To Break Sandboxes With “Open New Window”
A security disclosure has been made public today for a yet-to-be-patched arbitrary code execution vulnerability with the KDE Plasma desktop… ⌘ Read more

Amazon Blames Piracy Apps With Malware For Killing New Fire Stick Sideloading
Amazon says it is ending sideloading on new Fire Sticks because “apps that facilitate piracy, and other apps, can carry malware,” adding that there is “a good amount of evidence” that sideloaded apps may contain unwanted code or behavior. However, the company did not provide specific examples of Fire Stick users being har … ⌘ Read more

Remembering How Microsoft’s Fake Windows Error Ended In a $280 Million Secret Settlement
Slashdot reader joshuark summarizes this walk down memory lane from the tech site MakeUseOf:
Facing real competition from Digital Research’s DR DOS, Microsoft secretly embedded a sabotaging mechanism known as “AARD code” into beta versions of Windows 3.1 to prevent it from running on Digital Research’s com … ⌘ Read more

GCC 17 Compiler Lands SpacemiT X100 Core Targeting
The newest GCC 17 compiler code has landed support for -mcpu=spacemit-x100 and -mtune=spacemit-x100 targeting for the SpacemiT X100 RISC-V core… ⌘ Read more

Next Bcachefs Release Aims To Include Rust Code In The Kernel Module
The Bcachefs file-system already makes use of the Rust programming language in the user-space tools for this CoW file-system and they have been planning to make use of Rust within the kernel module too. Beginning in the next Bcachefs release, v1.38.7, they are looking at beginning to include Rust code now in their kernel driver… ⌘ Read more

Forget Prompt Engineering: ‘Loop Engineering’ Is All the Rage Now
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Business Insider: For the most powerful voices in AI, it’s all about being in the loop. Claude Code creator Boris Cherny recently said he doesn’t write his own AI prompts much anymore. Thanks to loops, he doesn’t have to. “It’s an agent that prompts Claude,” Cherny recently told CNBC, adding, “I don’t … ⌘ Read more

Linux MD RAID5 Seeing Scalability Improvements Up To 17%
Posted to the Linux kernel mailing list this week was a new patch series working on scalability enhancements to the MD RAID5 software RAID code. Up to a 10~17% improvement was observed in some configurations with these RAID5 scalability patches… ⌘ Read more

Experimental Code Enables Per-Monitor Backgrounds For GNOME Shell
One of the limitations of GNOME’s current multi-monitor handling is that the same background is used across the displays. For those that want to enjoy per-monitor background selection, some experimental / proof-of-concept code is now working to allow such per-monitor backgrounds to work with the modern GNOME desktop… ⌘ Read more

I now decided to include the alternatives: https://lyse.isobeef.org/code-readability/#alternative-timestamp-formattings

Linux 7.2 Drops Ancient PROFIBUS Driver: Ported From SCO Unix In 1998, Unused For Years
Linux 7.2 is continuing the trend of removing obsolete hardware drivers for which the code hasn’t seen any maintenance in years and there are no believed users left of said drivers, especially those that would be running modern mainline versions of the Linux kernel. The char/misc changes merged dropped two more obsolete drivers from the Linux source tree… ⌘ Read more

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

One Line x86 Change To GCC Compiler Nets +12% Benchmark Win For Modern Intel/AMD CPUs
A one line code change to the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) for its generic x86 tuning is benefiting modern Intel and AMD processors… ⌘ Read more

“Disgusting” Linux sched_ext Source Code Restructured Following Complaint By Linus Torvalds
Last week the main set of sched_ext changes were merged for Linux 7.2 that included continued work on sub-scheduler support. While Linus Torvalds didn’t object to any of the features being worked on for this extensible scheduler framework that relies on user-space BPF programs, he was frustrated by the layout of the new C source files and remarked, “please don’t do this disgusting thing…proper hierarchical filesyste … ⌘ Read more

BASIC09 Programming Language Front-End Developed For LLVM
The 46-year-old BASIC09 programming language has new compiler support with a front-end having been developed for the LLVM compiler stack. BASIC09 was developed in 1980 for the Motorola 6809 CPU running with the OS-9 operating system. With this LLVM compiler front-end, you can write BASIC09 code for modern software and hardware… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.2 Showing Some Unexpected & Nice Performance Gains On AMD EPYC Sorano
While the Linux 7.2 merge window doesn’t wrap up until this weekend as the feature cut-off for new material, I have already begun some early benchmarks of the code currently staged for this next version of the Linux kernel. Linux 7.2 already was looking quite exciting with cache aware scheduling and other exciting new features while an unexpected surprise in my early testing this week was seeing some local network/socket performan … ⌘ Read more

AMD Updates ROCDXG To Deliver Better ROCm Experience On WSL
Back in March AMD introduced ROCDXG to improve their Windows Subsystem for Linux support. This improved Windows Subsystem for Linux “WSL” support with the ROCm compute stack is a cleaneer architecture, open-source compared to their legacy WSL code having closed bits, and more robust handling. Today they issued a new ROCDXG library release to further enhance their WSL support… ⌘ Read more

Mesa 26.2 Merges Vulkan Present Timing Support For X11/XWayland
Mesa’s Vulkan windowing system integration (WSI) code now has support for present timing support “VK_EXT_present_timing” with X11 and XWayland… ⌘ Read more

Remembering When Alan Turing Developed a Portable Voice Encryption Device
Long-time Slashdot reader smooth wombat writes: Alan Turing, one of the more famous people who worked at Bletchley Park to decipher the German Enigma coding machine, was also working on a separate project. His private papers, known as the Bayley papers for his assistant Donald Bayley who held onto the papers until his death in 2020 … ⌘ Read more

@movq@www.uninformativ.de Sometimes, views on quality code are 180° apart.

Here we are, it took me a bit longer: https://lyse.isobeef.org/code-readability/

Linux’s ARM64 NEON Intrinsics CRC64 Code Adapted To Work On 32-bit ARM
Merged for Linux 7.1 was ARMM64 NEON-accelerated CRC64-NVMe support for around 6x the performance out of that checksumming algorithm. The generic code had been a bottleneck in NVMe and other storage subsystem code of the Linux kernel with CRC64-NVMe being used to help verify against data corruption. Now for Linux 7.2, the NEON-accelerated code will also work for those still relying on 32-bit ARM… ⌘ Read more

Open-Source NVIDIA NVK Vulkan Driver Now Supports DLSS
With the code merged today to Mesa 26.2-devel, the open-source NVIDIA “NVK” Vulkan driver is capable of handling Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) with modern game titles running on Linux / Steam Play… ⌘ Read more

New Unpatchable Exploit Targets Apple Devices With A12 and A13 Chips
Researchers have disclosed a new unpatchable BootROM exploit affecting Apple devices with A12, A13, S4, and S5 chips. The attack requires physical USB access and DFU mode, but can let an attacker run code before iOS loads, bypass signature checks, and boot modified software. 9to5Mac reports the details: In a highly detailed technical post p … ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.2 Brings More Work Around WiFi Aware, WiFi 8 / UHR & More Networking Hardware
The networking subsystem changes have been merged for Linux 7.2 with a lot happening around the core networking code as well as the many wired and wireless networking device drivers… ⌘ Read more

AMD Introduces An AI-Powered Bash Coding Agent
Just days after AMD engineers released a new Lemonade AI server with MCP server integration to make it much more useful, they have now released a new release of their GAIA “Generative AI Is Awesome” open-source software. With AMD GAIA 0.21.2, they have introduced a bash coding agent is their latest big ticket item in the AI space… ⌘ Read more

I noticed that there are quite a few UI glitches in vim-classic – and quickly found the cause: It comes with outdated Unicode tables.

I have to admit that I wasn’t aware that there’s a new Unicode release every year:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode#Versions

Look at this huge number of changes. Every program has to keep track of that, often through libraries but sometimes not (like in Vim’s case).

I use Unicode extensively, but this shit is extremely expensive …

My TUI framework is having the same problem. At the moment, this is all offloaded to wcwidth, but if that library was to become unmaintained, I’d have to track Unicode myself.

Gah!

The DOS days were simpler. CP437, end of story. (Yes, I know that’s a lie.)

Oh come on! Why such a stupid anti-feature!?

WARNING: Your yt-dlp version (2026.03.17) is older than 90 days!

     It is strongly recommended to always use the latest version.
     You cannot update when running from source code; Use git to pull the latest changes.
     To suppress this warning, add --no-update to your command/config.

Claude AI Assists In Fixing Years Old AMD Radeon Linux Display Bug Affecting Numerous Laptops
A bug in the AMDGPU Linux kernel graphics driver leading to some laptop displays freezing after periods of use may finally be close to being resolved. Given the length and quantity of bug reports and one of the problematic commits being tracked back to 2017, it’s a heavy hitting issue for some Linux users. With the help of Claude Code, it looks like a fix is on the way to the Linux kernel… ⌘ Read more

AF_ALG Deprecation Approved For Linux 7.2, Useless & Insecure Crypto Driver Code Removed
The cryptographic subsystem updates have been merged for the ongoing Linux 7.2 kernel merge window… ⌘ Read more

Hacking Group Claims Major Hack of Novo Nordisk, Attempted $25 Million Extortion
Reuters reports a cyber extortion group has claimed responsibility for breaching Novo Nordisk’s network, stealing roughly 1.3 terabytes of data, including source code, drug research, clinical-trial records, employee and physician information, production-system details, and internal AI model data. The group says it’s e … ⌘ Read more

In the light of current events, I will first consult my pillow and only then write an article about readable code.

Stop Killing Games Fails To Secure EU Law Despite 1.3 Million Signatures
The European Commission has declined (PDF) to propose a law requiring publishers to keep discontinued video games playable, despite the Stop Killing Games initiative collecting nearly 1.3 million verified signatures. Instead, it plans to develop a voluntary industry code covering end-of-life transparency and preservation. Dextero … ⌘ Read more

IO_uring, NVMe & Other Block + Device Mapper Changes Merged For Linux 7.2
Linux 7.2 continues seeing a fair amount of storage-related changes from file-systems to the block device code itself, software RAID, the wonderful IO_uring interface, and more. Here is some of the latest feature work that has been merged for Linux 7.2… ⌘ Read more

SpaceX To Acquire AI Coding Startup Cursor For $60 Billion
SpaceX has agreed to acquire Cursor for $60 billion in stock, adding the popular AI coding assistant to Elon Musk’s newly public aerospace-and-AI conglomerate. CNBC reports: Cursor built a popular AI coding tool that helps software developers generate, edit and review code, and the company has experienced explosive growth since its founding in 2022. In Nove … ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.2 Continues Removing Old i486 Code Remnants, Adds Rugged Panther Lake
The x86/cpu changes have been merged for the Linux 7.2 kernel with an interesting span of changes covering 36 years from the Intel 486 days up to adding the new “rugged” Panther Lake variant… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.2 Optimization Shows +5% IOPS For EXT4 & XFS After Moving Around Two Lines Of Code
In addition to the surprising impact of /proc/filesystems read optimizations for Linux 7.2, another one of the VFS pull requests for this next kernel version is delivering some nice improvements for EXT4 and XFS around IOmap, the framework that maps file data offsets in memory to their physical locations on storage… ⌘ Read more

FBI Issues Urgent Kali365 Security Warning For Teams, Outlook, OneDrive Users
alternative_right shares a report from The Hill: The FBI released an urgent security warning to the public about a fast-acting scam targeting Microsoft 365 users on Teams, Outlook and OneDrive. The agency warned that the hacking platform Kali365 seeks out OAuth device codes, allowing scammers to sneak past multi-factor auth … ⌘ Read more

Google Chrome’s Next Update Will Mark the End of Popular Ad Blockers
Google is removing Chrome’s last remaining workarounds for Manifest V2 extensions, effectively ending support for legacy ad blockers such as the original uBlock Origin. 9to5Google reports: CyberNews points out a Chromium commit that removes support for the “kExtensionManifestV2Disabled” flag, which is referred to as “dead code” seeing as Ch … ⌘ Read more

GCC Steering Committee Supports Inclusion Of WebAssembly Backend
Last month a new GCC back-end was proposed for WebAssembly to allow C/C++ code to be compiled to WASM with this GNU compiler toolchain. The GCC Steering Committee has evaluated it and approves the notion of WebAssembly back-end for GCC… ⌘ Read more

Firefox 152 Now Available With JPEG-XL Support Built By Default, Modernized Settings UI
The Firefox 152.0 release binaries are now available ahead of tomorrow’s official unveiling. With Firefox 152 there is now the JPEG-XL support code being compiled by default for the release albeit still disabled at run-time by default behind a preference for now… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.2 Introducing The Rust Zerocopy Library To Eliminate More “Unsafe” Code
Miguel Ojeda already mailed in the many Rust code changes for the in-development Linux 7.2 kernel. This is quite a big Rust code with more than forty thousand new lines of Rust code in the kernel… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.2 To Better Communicate File-System Casefolding For Helping Windows NFS & More
Newly-merged code for the in-development Linux 7.2 kernel will now expose the case-folding (case insensitive) behavior of local file-systems so that Linux file servers and others can properly report the actual behavior rather than guessing if case-folding is actually used/supported… ⌘ Read more

GNU Linux-libre 7.1-gnu Released With More Driver Deblobbing, Unhappy With i486 Removal
Following yesterday’s release of the upstream Linux 7.1 kernel release, GNU Linux-libre 7.1 is out with its new build for de-blobbing various drivers from loading non-free-software microcode/firmware and other sanitizing of the kernel code in the name of software freedom… ⌘ Read more

Vintage AMD R600 Graphics Driver Sees Code Cleanups Thanks To GitHub Copilot
Phoronix reports:

The AMD R600 Gallium3D driver saw 59 commits [last] Sunday to Mesa 26.2. Making this code restructuring and code cleaning all the more notable is that the improvements to this old AMD Radeon graphics driver was done in part by GitHub Copilot.

Gert Wollny has been among the few open-source developers … ⌘ Read more

@movq@www.uninformativ.de Yes. The author tries hard not to break existing code, but apparently he did this time. In his defense, it’s not an official release, I just updated to master. Which is exactly what I always did in the past as there are no real versions (I even think that in one ticket he wrote years ago that master is always stable). That has finally changed a year ago, though: https://github.com/rivo/tview/releases/tag/v0.42.0

Fuck me! I tried to upgrade tview and the first thing I notice is a shitload of added dependency versions:

go.mod | 18 ++++-----
go.sum | 97 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-----------

My code does not compile anymore as the view.FormItem interface was extended. Get/SetDisabled(…) are quickly implemented, no worries.

But the tview.Primitive (what makes a widget) interface has now a bunch of PRIVATE methods. For focus handling. Would you believe that!? Thanks, I cannot satisfy this interface in my very custom widgets anymore. Okay then, I just embed *tview.Box. tt now successfully compiles, but does not react anymore on key presses and the message tree is not focused either.

I’m not in the mood to debug this shit. :-( Lunch time.

Getting the vim key bindings to work for focus switching in this modal dialog took me forever. Only cursors and (Shift+)Tab are supported out of the box. I absolutely understand that, it’s fine. I installed an input handler on the dialog, but the focus always stayed the same.

After two wasted hours, I was in despair to copy the tview.Modal into my own code base. Of course, I had to fix all the private tview field accesses first. But even installing the input handler directly on the buttons themselves did not work. Even though, the handler was definitely executed, the focus did not shift. Forcing redraws as a last resort also did not work.

Looking through all the messy chained input handling, I eventually stumbled across another place in the tview.Form, which is internally used by tview.Modal. This messed around with app focus receptions and input handlers. This gave me the idea to make the tview.Application refocus my modal dialog after I told the modal dialog which button to select. And would you look at that, this did the trick! I haven’t completely figured out what is going on exactly, but I could get rid of my Modal clone again.

I always go through hell with focus handling in tview. Each and every time. It just does not feel natural to me. Complete brainfuck to wrap my head around. The Urwid API felt sooo much more refined, it never was an issue. It just works. In fact, I cannot think of any other TUI library that has remotely the same pain level when it comes to focusing widgets as tview.

Now I’m curious how movwin deals with that. ;-)

@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org Thanks!

On the AI changelog part, though, I’d rather recommend to just not have a changelog at all.

I’m afraid that ship has sailed. You can rest assured that someone who uses AI/LLMs for their code (which is almost everybody at this point) will most certainly also use it for changelogs.

I actually considered not mentioning AI output at all, because this just opens a huge can of worms … 😞

While going through these terrible GitHub release pages, I also found these “New Project Contributors” sections

Yeah, they play on a nerd’s pride.

Now, it’s just the same auto shitshow with MR titles in a rolling date-versioned release scheme. It’s just our team who has to deal with that, though. I think I’m the only one who is not a fan of it.

I’ve found that this whole situation is much worse at work than it is in the Free Software world. At work, it’s literally work and hardly anybody actually cares. We still don’t have all people convinced that writing good commit messages or using good branch names is worth the time. It’s … oh god, no, I’m going to stop here, this is bad for my mental health. 😅

Suffice it to say, all release notes at work are now AI-generated. Nobody gives a fuck.