The XMPP Standards Foundation: The XMPP Newsletter November 2025

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Welcome to the XMPP Newsletter, great to have you here again!
This issue covers the month of November 2025.

The XMPP Newsletter is brought to you by the XSF Communication Team.

Just like any other product or project by the XSF, the Newsletter is th … ⌘ Read more

Housing crisis turns caravan park owners into ‘landlords’ of last resort
The housing crisis is landing at the doorstep of caravan parks and owners like Greg Homer, who says the transition from tourism operator to landlord is taking a toll. ⌘ Read more

I meant were. You get the idea.

Also, I just realized that simple links like that turn into inline images on twtxt.net. Nice! 🥳

RAM Is So Expensive, Samsung Won’t Even Sell It To Samsung
A severe spike in global DRAM prices has pushed Samsung Semiconductor to refuse a long-term RAM order from its own sibling, Samsung Electronics. The move is forcing the smartphone division into short, expensive renegotiations, which will likely mean higher costs for consumer devices. PCWorld reports: Samsung subsidiaries are, naturally, going to look to Sa … ⌘ Read more

I’m contemplating the idea of switching my activity pub instance from Gootosocial to a Pleroma one. While GTS is kinda cute (lightweight and easy to manage) of a software, the inability to fetch/scroll through people’s past toots when visiting a profile or having access to a federated timeline and a proper search functionality …etc felt like handicap for the past N months.

Subaru Owners Are Ticked About In-Car Pop-Up Ads For SiriusXM
Subaru owners are reporting full-screen SiriusXM pop-up ads appearing on their infotainment systems while driving – sometimes even overriding Apple CarPlay. Subaru says the ads appear only twice a year, but frustrated drivers argue the practice is distracting, unsafe, and a sign of an industry trend that’s likely to get worse. The Drive reports: At le … ⌘ Read more

Meta Poaches Apple Design Exec Alan Dye
Apple’s longtime human-interface chief Alan Dye is leaving to lead a new creative studio at Meta’s Reality Labs, where he’ll shape AI-driven design for devices like smart glasses and VR headsets. Dye will be replaced by Steve Lemay, who has had “a key role in the design of every major Apple interface since 1999,” according to a statement Apple CEO Tim Cook gave Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. TechCrunch … ⌘ Read more

‘A rumbling sound and a loud bang’ - small earthquake hits homes in north-west England
Lancashire residents say the 3.3-magnitude tremor felt like “an underground explosion”, but there are no reports of damage. ⌘ Read more

@aelaraji@aelaraji.com I like the sounds of this technique a lot redirecting these AI crawling assholes to multi gigabyte files! The only concern I have is how do you do it in such a way that you don’t end up destroying your own ISP speed test servers?

Earthquake ‘felt like someone driving into house’
Lancashire residents say the 3.3-magnitude tremor felt like “an underground explosion”, but there are no reports of damage. ⌘ Read more

Alleged manslaughter victim told classmate she was ‘treated like a slave’, court hears
A girl who was allegedly criminally neglected at the hands of her mother before she died told a friend she was “treated like a slave” and was “scared to go back home”, a court has heard. ⌘ Read more

Earthquake shakes homes in north-west England
Lancashire residents say the 3.3-magnitude tremor felt like “an underground explosion”, but there are no reports of damage. ⌘ Read more

Missing Woogenellup farmer described as ‘irreplaceable’ by family
Great Southern man Mark Adams went on a short fishing trip on Monday afternoon and never returned. His family are devastated by the likely loss of their loved one. ⌘ Read more

@bender@twtxt.net Would you like me to say moar words ? 🤣

Release Candidate of iOS 26.2, macOS Tahoe 26.2, iPadOS 26.2, Available for Testing
A Release Candidate (RC) build of iOS 26.2, iPadOS 26.2, and MacOS Tahoe 26.2, have been released to those users participating in the beta testing programs for Apple system software. With the issuing of a Release Candidate build, it’s likely the final versions of these operating system versions will arrive next week. The new versions … [Read More](https://osxdaily.com/20 … ⌘ Read more

@bender@twtxt.net Goes to show you just have a good nose for that. :^)

No doubt, I really do love them. Not only wonderful humans and like-minded, but also technically gifted. That made for a superb combination. I just hope the new team turns out to be equally great.

Bwahahahahaaahaaahaaahaaa, what a brilliant story! :‘-D I’ve been given at most ten weeks to return, let’s see. ;-)

@bender@twtxt.net That’s the best one of them. An almonds cake with hazelnut chocolate glaze. The one in front is similar, but with chocolate only. Gingerbread on the right. But it develops the best flavor and consistency only in a few weeks, right now it’s quite hard like a rock, but it will soften up.

All those years I always said that my teammates are THE VERY BEST I ever had. Fuck me, look at that, I didn’t leave the company, just changed projects and this is my farewell present: https://lyse.isobeef.org/tmp/abschiedsgeschenk-2025-12-03.jpg How absolutely beautiful is that, I’m in awe! Now I feel even worse deserting. :‘-(

This emblem is the fleur-de-lis of the world scout movement: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Organization_of_the_Scout_Movement#WOSM_emblem I reckon I must have mentioned casually that I’m a scout. ;-)

Chinese Reusable Booster Explodes During First Orbital Test
schwit1 shares a report from CNN: A private Chinese space firm successfully sent its Zhuque-3 rocket to orbit but failed in its historic attempt to re-land the rocket booster Wednesday – the first such trial by a Chinese firm as the country’s growing commercial space sector races to catch up with American rivals like SpaceX. The rocket entered orbit as … ⌘ Read more

Anthropic Acquires Bun In First Acquisition
Anthropic has made its first acquisition by buying Bun, the engine behind its fast-growing Claude Code agent. The move strengthens Anthropic’s push into enterprise developer tooling as it scales Claude Code with major backers like Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, and Google. Adweek reports: Claude Code is a coding agent that lets developers write, debug and interpret code through natural … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Declares ‘Code Red’ As Google Catches Up In AI Race
OpenAI has reportedly issued a “code red” on Monday, pausing projects like ads, shopping agents, health tools, and its Pulse assistant to focus entirely on improving ChatGPT. “This includes core features like greater speed and reliability, better personalization, and the ability to answer more questions,” reports The Verge, citing a memo reported by the Wall S … ⌘ Read more

I love this quote. “Dependencies are a lot like sexual partners, and it seems most (all?) programming languages are trying to make it easy to be as promiscuous as possible via internal package managers.” gemini://bbs.geminispace.org/s/Reticulum/35090

For those visiting Hanoi in the Old Quarters that are beer snobs like me; highly recommend this place called Local Craft Beer 🤩

Thinking about doing Advent of Code in my own tiny language mu this year.

mu is:

• Dynamically typed
  
• Lexically scoped with closures
  
• Has a Go-like curly-brace syntax
  
• Built around lists, maps, and first-class functions
  

Key syntax:

• Functions use fn and braces:
  

fn add(a, b) {
    return a + b
}

• Variables use := for declaration and = for assignment:
  

x := 10
x = x + 1

• Control flow includes if / else and while:
  

if x > 5 {
    println("big")
} else {
    println("small")
}

while x < 10 {
    x = x + 1
}

• Lists and maps:
  

nums := [1, 2, 3]
nums[1] = 42

ages := {"alice": 30, "bob": 25}
ages["bob"] = ages["bob"] + 1

Supported types:

• int
  
• bool
  
• string
  
• list
  
• map
  
• fn
  
• nil
  

mu feels like a tiny little Go-ish, Python-ish language — curious to see how far I can get with it for Advent of Code this year. 🎄

Government appointments often ‘look like nepotism’, long-awaited review finds
A report into government appointments to boards has savaged the system, which it found too often allowed governments to award friends or pick candidates for political purposes, eroding trust with the public. ⌘ Read more

Fedora 44 Granted Approval For A Nicer NTSYNC Experience For Wine & Steam Play
Fedora stakeholders have been eyeing a nicer experience for NTSYNC usage with Wine and Steam Play by being able to have the NTSYNC kernel module load when it’s likely to be used. That approval has now been granted by the Fedora Engineering and Steering Committee (FESCo) for the Fedora 44 release… ⌘ Read more

AMD GPU Managed Memory Support Merged For The GCC 16 Compiler
When it comes to AMD Radeon/Instinct GPU compiler support much of the emphasis is on the LLVM/Clang compiler stack with their official AMDGPU LLVM shader compiler back-end as well as having the AOMP downstream compiler fork and the like. But the GNU Compiler Collection “GCC” does continue allow targeting AMD GPU targeting with its “AMDGCN” back-end and using the likes of the OpenMP API. It’s not too often seeing new AMD GPU activity there for GCC but mer … ⌘ Read more

‘Hopefully it’s not like the Spirits’: Opinions mixed as Hobart stadium vote looms
By the end of this week, Tasmania will know whether or not Hobart will have a new AFL stadium. Many Tasmanians are still making up their own minds about whether they support it or not. ⌘ Read more

@prologic@twtxt.net pretty neat looking boat. We don’t see boats like this around here. It looks to be made specifically to resemble an older boat.

@prologic@twtxt.net pretty cool! I like these, wish there was a way (I am sure there is, but not for tourists) to go to the top. :-)

Rust Updates For Linux 6.19, Rust Minimum Baseline To Likely Follow Debian Stable
Miguel Ojeda has already submitted the core Rust programming language infrastructure updates intended for the Linux 6.19 merge window. In the pull request he also notes that moving forward the minimum supported Rust version for compiling the Linux kernel will likely follow whatever the minimum Rust version currently in use by the latest Debian stable release… ⌘ Read more

Teens in court charged over Adelaide shopping centre stabbing
Prosecutors are “likely” to consider asking for the case against two teenagers charged over a stabbing — which sent an Adelaide shopping centre into lockdown — to be moved to an adult court. ⌘ Read more

Linux 6.18 Released With Many New Features, Likely This Year’s LTS Kernel
Linux 6.18 stable is now available! Linux 6.18 ushers in many new features and changes while also is expected to become this year’s Long Term Support “LTS” kernel version… ⌘ Read more

The first ever Ashes Test in Brisbane was ‘disastrous’ for Australia
Australia’s Ashes domination in Brisbane is almost total, with England winless at the Gabba since 1986. It wasn’t always like this though, with the first visit to Brisbane resulting in the heaviest defeat in cricket history. ⌘ Read more

The Ozempic effect reshaping supermarkets and stock markets
The explosive rise of drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro is shifting consumption patterns, health outcomes and pushing pharmaceutical giants into trillion-dollar valuations. ⌘ Read more

Features Expected For Linux 6.19: ASUS Armoury, Many Intel Bits, AMD GCN 1.0/1.1 Enhanced
With the Linux 6.18 kernel likely being released later today, here is a look at some of the features on the table for the next kernel cycle, Linux 6.19. The list is based on changes queued in various “-next” branches ahead of the Linux 6.19 merge window. There’s always the possibility of last minute change of plans or objections raised by Linus Torvalds, but this should provide an early look at some of the features more … ⌘ Read more

Benedict Cumberbatch Films Two Bizarre Holiday Ads: for ‘World of Tanks’ and Amazon
“There are times when World of Tanks feels less like a videogame and more like a giant ad budget looking for something to be spent on,” writes PC Gamer.

This year, all those huge sacks with dollar signs on them have been thrown Benedict Cumberbatch’s way, making him the game’s newest “Holiday Ambassador” and t … ⌘ Read more

Browser Extension ‘Slop Evader’ Lets You Surf the Web Like It’s 2022
“The internet is being increasingly polluted by AI generated text, images and video,” argues the site for a new browser extension called Slop Evader. It promises to use Google’s search API “to only return content published before Nov 30th, 2022” — the day ChatGPT launched — “so you can be sure that it was written or produced by the human han … ⌘ Read more

Why tiny Barbados said good by to the royal family
With countries like Australia still debating whether or not the time has come to become a republic, what prompted tiny Barbados with its population of less than 300,000, to take the leap? ⌘ Read more

@prologic@twtxt.net Tada! There you once hope for your flight and ride to be delayed and then of course they are right on time! :-D You gotta wait either way. ;-) Looks like you got some good drinks, though.

Scientists Think They’ve Solved Why One of History’s Most Advanced Civilizations Vanished
A new study published in Communications Earth & Environment has reconstructed the climate conditions of the ancient Indus River Valley civilization between 3000 and 1000 B.C., finding that four intense droughts – each lasting more than 85 years – likely drove the gradual decline of one of the w … ⌘ Read more

Damage from Cyclone Fina exposes NT’s need for new Darwin hospital
A new Royal Darwin Hospital would cost more than $1 billion to build, and likely take a decade or more to deliver. So who has the political bravery to commit? ⌘ Read more

What would it be like to visit the proposed Hobart stadium?
From potential gridlock to an “immersive” viewing experience, let’s set aside the politics — just for a moment — and look at what planning documents tell us about the building at the heart of Tasmania’s fiery stadium debate. ⌘ Read more

As someone that almost exclusively uses “Discover”, that is. If you do use it like I do, you know I mean.

Australia’s Streaming Quotas Become Law
Australia’s streaming quotas have become law. Legislation requiring the likes of Netflix, Disney+ and HBO Max to spend a portion of their local earnings on original Australian content has been passed in parliament, and now comes into effect. From a report: The quotas were announced earlier this month. This will see global streamers with more than one million Australian subscribers made t … ⌘ Read more

Black Friday Reminder For Those Hating Ads But Loving Linux Hardware/Software
As the one and last friendly reminder, if you enjoy the daily and original content found on Phoronix.com but not liking ads and wanting to view multi-page articles on a single page, native dark mode, and more: the 2025 Black Friday / Cyber Week deal is ending Monday to help support the site while enjoying a discounted rate… ⌘ Read more

@movq@www.uninformativ.de All good! 👌 Likely bug on my end (bridge)

Why Can’t ChatGPT Tell Time?
ChatGPT can browse the web, write code and analyze images, but ask it what time it is and you might get the correct answer, a confident wrong answer, or a polite refusal – sometimes all three within minutes of each other.

The problem stems from how large language models work. These systems predict answers based on training data and don’t receive constant real-time updates about things like time unless they specifically se … ⌘ Read more

AMD ISP4 Linux Webcam Driver Updated For HP ZBook Ultra G1a & Future Ryzen Laptops
We eagerly await to see if the AMD ISP4 driver will be ready for mainlining in the imminent Linux v6.19 merge window but it’s getting down to the wire and thus looking less likely it will make it unless action is taken in the coming days. Today though a sixth version of this AMD ISP4 image signal processor driver was posted for this last piece of the puzzle in enabling the web camera on the HP ZBook Ultra G1a Strix Halo laptop as well as … ⌘ Read more

@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org Oh yeah, there’s lots of them here. Even in winter when it’s freezing outside. I’m always baffled to see parrots in the snow … feels like a paradox. 🥴

Plastic can be programmed to have a lifespan of days, months or years
Inspired by natural polymers like DNA, chemists have devised a way to engineer plastic so it breaks down when it is no longer needed, rather than polluting the environment ⌘ Read more