NVIDIA GTX 980 Through RTX 5080: Open-Source Nouveau/Mesa Drivers vs. NVIDIA 580 Linux Drivers
With the NVIDIA 590 Linux driver series removing GeForce 900 series “Maxwell” and GeForce 10 series “Pascal” as part of punting it off to the latest legacy driver branch, it’s time for a last look at how the mainline NVIDIA Linux driver is performing with these aging graphics cards relative to the current state of the upstream open-source NVIDIA Linux drivers. In this article is a look at how the open-source and upstream … ⌘ Read more

Ubuntu 26.04 Snapshot 2 Released As Latest Monthly ISOs
It was just at the end of month that Ubuntu 26.04 Snapshot 1 ISOs were published for the first “Resolute Raccoon” milestone. Out already is now Snapshot 2 with Canonical releasing these images ahead of their engineers having time off for end-of-year holidays… ⌘ Read more

Cable Channel Subscribers Grew For the First Time In 8 Years Last Quarter
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On Monday, research analyst MoffettNathanson released its “Cord-Cutting Monitor Q3 2025: Signs of Life?” report. It found that the pay TV operators, including cable companies, satellite companies, and virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPDs) like … ⌘ Read more

Same Product, Same Store, but on Instacart, Prices Might Differ
A study this week has found that shoppers using Instacart are often charged different prices for identical products at the same store at the same time, even when selecting in-store pickup rather than delivery. The Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive policy group, and Consumer Reports organized nearly 200 volunteers across four cities to simultaneously … ⌘ Read more

AI Slop Ad Backfires For McDonald’s
McDonald’s has pulled an AI-generated Christmas commercial from YouTube after viewers pushed back on what they called a distasteful, “AI slop”-filled take on the holidays. The 45-second ad, titled “It’s the most terrible time of the year,” was a satirical look at holiday chaos – people tripping while carrying overloaded gift bags, getting tangled in lights, burning homemade cookies, starting kitchen fires – … ⌘ Read more

Rubio Orders Diplomats To Return To Using Times New Roman Font
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday ordered diplomats to return to using Times New Roman font in official communications, calling his predecessor Antony Blinken’s decision to adopt Calibri a “wasteful” diversity move, according to an internal department cable seen by Reuters. The department … ⌘ Read more

Webp, though it has been around for a long while, wasn’t fully supported on all browsers until recently. The other formats have been in use for such a long time, proving to work just fine, that the advantages Webp provides haven’t been seemingly enough to merit a switch.

Google is also the one behind Webp, and, well, people don’t trust, nor like, them much.

US State Department to revert to Times New Roman font over ‘wasteful’ Calibri
In a leaked internal cable, Secretary of State Marco Rubio calls the department’s decision to adopt Calibri in 2023 a “wasteful” diversity move. ⌘ Read more

North Melbourne still confident of landing former AFLW number one pick
North Melbourne have been unable to trade for Kristie-Lee Weston-Turner but the two-time defending AFLW premiers are still confident they’ll secure the former number one draft pick. ⌘ Read more

@movq@www.uninformativ.de @zvava@twtxt.net I think people get sick of everything changing all the time and so don’t bother adopting things to change when things are already good enough 🤷

Big result for Slot and Liverpool with no Salah in Milan
Liverpool win away in the Champions League without Mohamed Salah for the first time since 2009, in a big night for boss Arne Slot. ⌘ Read more

Dancing gorilla wins funniest wildlife photo of the year
The winning images pair talented nature photography with humour that often relies on capturing a moment at just the right time. ⌘ Read more

The social media ban for under-16s starts today — here’s what to know
After months of build-up, the time has finally come. From today, Australians under the age of 16 are now banned from having a social media account. ⌘ Read more

Scheduler Woes: Bisecting Early Performance Regressions Found In Linux 6.19
Yesterday I noted some early performance regressions I’ve found on the Linux 6.19 kernel compared to Linux 6.18 LTS stable. Those initial benchmarks were on an AMD EPYC server. Since then I’ve seen many of the same workloads regressing similarly on an AMD Ryzen Threadripper workstation between Linux 6.18 and Linux 6.19 Git. Given the significant impact and AMD Threadripper processors always helping out to speed-up Linux kernel build time … ⌘ Read more

‘Colleges Oversold Education. Now They Must Sell Connection’
A tenured USC professor is arguing that universities need to fundamentally rethink their value proposition as AI rapidly closes the gap on human instruction and a loneliness epidemic grips the generation most likely to be sitting in their lecture halls. Eric Anicich, an associate professor at USC’s Marshall School of Business, wrote in the Los Angeles Times … ⌘ Read more

Woman accused of googly eyes vandalism to begin negotiations with prosecution
A 20-year-old Mount Gambier woman appears in court in person for the first time, accused of damaging a controversial sculpture, following a campaign to raise money online for her defence. ⌘ Read more

Cold Case Inquiries Stall After Ancestry.com Revisits Policy For Users
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Since online genealogy services began operating, millions of people have sent them saliva samples in hopes of learning about their family roots and discovering far-flung relatives. These services also appeal to law enforcement authorities, who have used them to solve cold c … ⌘ Read more

China’s trade surplus tops $US1 trillion for first time as exports surge
China’s record trade surplus comes as manufacturers seeking to avoid US President Donald Trump’s tariffs ship more to Europe, Australia and South-East Asia. ⌘ Read more

‘Time to go’: Calls for UTS VC to resign after staff no confidence vote
The union-run vote comes as controversial, consultant-designed redundancies continue and politicians call for resignations. ⌘ Read more

IBM To Buy Confluent For $11 Billion To Expand AI Services
IBM is buying Confluent for $11 billion in a major push to own real-time data streaming infrastructure essential for enterprise AI workloads. It marks Big Blue’s biggest acquisition since Red Hat in 2019. Bloomberg reports: The AI boom has touched off billions of dollars in deals for businesses that build, train or leverage the technology, propelling the valu … ⌘ Read more

Fuck me, soooooooo beautiful! Awwww! :‘-) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYfKgi133qo

This focuses more on the landscape part, other episodes also have amazing interactions with the locals. I cannot recommend the Itchy Boots channel enough. It’s in my top three channels of all time I believe. I hardly get the travel bug, but this has now changed. Watching Noraly’s videos brings me great joy. It also shows humanity is not lost, contrary to what one might think in this crazy world. :-)

Caution, this channel gets very addictive!

How worried should you be about spending too much time on your phone?
Screen time has been linked to all sorts of problems, from depression and obesity to poor sleep. But how worried should you really be? Jacob Aron sifts through the evidence ⌘ Read more

Japan Issues Tsunami Warning After Magnitude 7.6 Earthquake
A powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake has shaken Japan, prompting tsunami warnings and orders for residents to evacuate. From a report: A tsunami as high as 3 metres (10ft) could hit the country’s north-eastern coast after the earthquake occurred offshore at 11.15pm local time (2.15pm GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. Tsunami warnings were issued f … ⌘ Read more

Idaho Lab Produces World’s First Molten Salt Fuel for Nuclear Reactors
America’s Energy Department runs a research lab in Idaho — and this week announced successful results from a ground-breaking experiment. “This is the first time in history that chloride-based molten salt fuel has been produced for a fast reactor,” says Bill Phillips, the lab’s technical lead for salt synthesis. He calls it “a major … ⌘ Read more

**Christmas overwhelm? How to say no and take back control **
We often agree to do things we don’t want to do at this time of year. Here are three ways to help you say no. ⌘ Read more

College Students Flock To A New Major: AI
AI is the second-largest major at M.I.T. after computer science, reports the New York Times. (Alternate URL here.) Though that includes students interested in applying AI in biology and health care — it’s just the beginning:

This semester, more than 3,000 students enrolled in a new college of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity at the University of South Florida in Tampa.
At the Unive … ⌘ Read more

No Rise in Radiation Levels at Chernobyl, Despite Damage from February’s Drone Strike
UPDATE (12/7): The New York Times clarifies today that the damage at Chernobyl hasn’t led to a rise in radiation levels:

“If there was to be some event inside the shelter that would release radioactive materials into the space inside the New Safe Confinement, because this facility is no longer sealed t … ⌘ Read more

@prologic@twtxt.net Bwahahaha! I tried to establish some form of “convention” for commit messages at work (not exactly what you linked to, though), but it’s a lost cause. 😂 Nobody is following any of that. Nobody wants to invest time in good commit messages. People just want to get stuff done.

I’m just glad that 80% are at least somewhat useful – instead of “wip” or “shit i screwed up”.

Homebrew Can Now Help You Install Flatpaks Too
“Homebrew, the package manager for macOS and Linux, just got a handy new feature in the latest v5.0.4 update,” reports How-To Geek.

Brewfile install scripts “are now more like a one-stop shop for installing software, as Flatpaks are now supported alongside Brew packages, Mac App Store Apps, and other packages.”

For those times when you need to install many software packages at on … ⌘ Read more

Many Privileged Students at US Universities are Getting Extra Time on Tests After ‘Disability’ Diagnoses
Today America’s college professors “struggle to accommodate the many students with an official disability designation,” reports the Atlantic, “which may entitle them to extra time, a distraction-free environment, or the use of otherwise-prohibited technology.”

Their st … ⌘ Read more

‘England in battle to avoid worst Ashes tour in modern times’
Do you feel angry, depressed or a sense of deja vu? Maybe you feel hoodwinked for believing England had a chance in Australia? Overall, it is probably a feeling of profound sadness, says Stephan Shemilt. ⌘ Read more

Could America’s Paper Checks Be On the Way Out, Like the Penny?
“First the penny. Next, paper checks?” asks CNN:

When the U.S. Mint stopped making pennies last month for the first time in 238 years, it drew a lot of attention. But there have been quiet moves to stop using paper checks as well. The government stopped sending out most paper checks to recipients as of the end of September, part of an effort to fully … ⌘ Read more

England given UK-friendly World Cup kick-off times as Scotland face late finishes
England are handed World Cup kick-off times which suit UK audiences - but Scotland fans face later finishes during next summer’s tournament. ⌘ Read more

England given UK-friendly World Cup kick-off times as Scotland face late finishes
England are handed World Cup kick-off times which suit UK audiences - but Scotland fans face later finishes during next summer’s tournament. ⌘ Read more

England given UK-friendly World Cup kick-off times as Scotland face late finishes
England are handed World Cup kick-off times which suit UK audiences - but Scotland fans face later finishes during next summer’s tournament. ⌘ Read more

Evening World Cup kick-offs for England, but Scotland face 2am opener
England are handed World Cup kick-off times which suit UK audiences - but Scotland fans face later finishes during next summer’s tournament. ⌘ Read more

So, you think you’re good at quizzes? It’s time to play HARD!
Alright, show us what you’ve got. I’ll keep my expectations low. ⌘ Read more

England handed UK-friendly World Cup kick-off times as Scotland face late finishes
England are handed World Cup kick-off times which suit UK audiences - but Scotland fans face later finishes during next summer’s tournament. ⌘ Read more

England given UK-friendly World Cup kick-off times as Scotland face late finishes
England are handed World Cup kick-off times which suit UK audiences - but Scotland fans face later finishes during next summer’s tournament. ⌘ Read more

Bethlehem Christmas tree lights up for first time since start of Gaza war
For the past two years all public Christmas celebrations have been cancelled in Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank. ⌘ Read more

Linux 6.19 Brings Many Driver Core Changes For Rust, Housekeeping CPUs Exposed
Beyond the main set of Rust changes to land in Linux 6.19 earlier this week, as we near the end of the first week of two for the Linux 6.19 merge window… More Rust changes. This time around the driver core updates for the kernel bring a number of Rust changes… ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Has Trained Its LLM To Confess To Bad Behavior
An anonymous reader quotes a report from MIT Technology Review: OpenAI is testing another new way to expose the complicated processes at work inside large language models. Researchers at the company can make an LLM produce what they call a confession, in which the model explains how it carried out a task and (most of the time) owns up to any bad behavior. Figuring out why … ⌘ Read more

Baby blue whale numbers peak at just the right time off WA coast
Researchers are relieved as baby blue whale numbers increase after a slow start to the migration season. ⌘ Read more

North American leaders take stage together for the first time
The World Cup draw marked the first time that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has met Trump. ⌘ Read more

North American leaders take stage together for the first time
The World Cup draw marked the first time that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has met Trump. ⌘ Read more

North American leaders take stage together for the first time
The World Cup draw marked the first time that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has met Trump. ⌘ Read more

The New York Times Is Suing Perplexity For Copyright Infringement
The New York Times is suing Perplexity for copyright infringement, accusing the AI startup of repackaging its paywalled reporting without permission. TechCrunch reports: The Times joins several media outlets suing Perplexity, including the Chicago Tribune, which also filed suit this week. The Times’ suit claims that “Perplexity provides commerci … ⌘ Read more

No summer break for Australian athletes chasing Winter Olympic glory
At a time when many Aussies are heading off for beach holidays, a group of snow sports athletes are chasing winter with their sights set on the next Olympic Games. ⌘ Read more

‘No-one expected what we found’: Martian discovery got us closer to finding life
Scientists said at the time that the flow of water would have filled multiple swimming pools. ⌘ Read more

50/50 quiz: This week we’re testing your knowledge on Madonna, the Matrix and Pac-Man
Every question has only two options: one is right and the other is wrong. You have an even chance of guessing correctly each time. ⌘ Read more