Microsoft Pulls Then Re-Issues Windows 11 Preview Update. Also Begins Force-Updating Windows 11
Nine days ago Microsoft released a non-security “preview” update for Windows 11 — not mandatory for the average Windows user, notes ZDNet, “but rather as optional, more for IT admins and power users who want to test them.”
TechRepublic adds that the update “was to bring ‘production-rea … ⌘ Read more

AMD Ryzen AI Max “Strix Halo” Enjoys Great Performance Gains With Latest Linux Software
With the Ubuntu 26.04 LTS release due out in three weeks, I have been re-testing a number of different devices on this newest Ubuntu release. One of the most significant improvements to note was when running the Framework Desktop with Ryzen AI Max “Strix Halo” and quantifying the performance gains of the Radeon 8060S Graphics since launch last year. Here’s a look at how the Vulkan and OpenGL performance has evolved for the Ryz … ⌘ Read more

AMD Ryzen AI Max “Strix Halo” Enjoys Great Performance Gains With Latest Linux Software
With the Ubuntu 26.04 LTS release due out in three weeks, I have been re-testing a number of different devices on this newest Ubuntu release. One of the most significant improvements to note was when running the Framework Desktop with Ryzen AI Max “Strix Halo” and quantifying the performance gains of the Radeon 8060S Graphics since launch last year. Here’s a look at how the Vulkan and OpenGL performance has evolved for the Ryz … ⌘ Read more

OkCupid Settles FTC Case On Alleged Misuse of Its Users’ Personal Data
OkCupid and parent company Match Group settled an FTC case dating back to 2014 over allegations that the dating app shared users’ photos and other personal data with a third party without proper disclosure or opt-out rights. Engadget reports: According to the FTC, OkCupid’s privacy policy at the time noted that the company wouldn’t shar … ⌘ Read more

‘Project Hail Mary’: Real Space Science, Real Astrophotography
Project Hail Mary has now grossed $300.8 million globally after earning another $54.1 million this weekend from 86 markets, reports Variety, noting that after just nine days it’s now Amazon MGM’s highest-grossing film ever. And last weekend it had the best opening for a “non-franchise” movie in three years, adds the Associated Press — the best … ⌘ Read more

This Friendly Robot Just Installed 100 MW of Solar Power
Utility-scale solar construction… by robots! It’s “one of the largest real-world demonstrations,” notes Electrek, with 100 MW of capacity installed by the “Maximo” robots from AES, one of the world’s top power companies.

Maximo uses AI “to automate the heavy lifting of solar panels and accelerate solar installation,” according to their web page, which sho … ⌘ Read more

Jupiter’s Lightning May Have the Force of Nuclear Weapons
How powerful is Jupiter’s lightning? Thick clouds cover the view, notes Science magazine. But using an instrument on NASA’s Juno spacecraft (orbiting Jupiter for the past decade), researchers determined Jupiter’s lightning bolts are 100 to 10,000 times more energetic than earth’s:

A single bolt of lightning on Earth releases about 1 billion joules of energy. … ⌘ Read more

Thousands of Americans Treated With Psilocybin in 2025
In a new 4,000-word article, CNN tells the story of a retired appellate paralegal and grandmother in her early 70s who was treated for depression with psilocybin. CNN notes there’s now retreats featuring psilocybin in a few countries — and while psilocybin is illegal under United States federal law, “In Oregon, 5,935 clients received psilocybin services through O … ⌘ Read more

Epic Games To Cut More Than 1,000 Jobs As Fortnite Usage Falls
Epic Games is cutting more than 1,000 jobs as usage of its flagship title, Fortnite, falls. “The layoffs aren’t related to AI,” CEO Tim Sweeney noted. Reuters reports: The cuts, along with more than $500 million in savings from lower contracting and marketing spending and unfilled roles would put the company in “a more stable place,” Sweeney said in … ⌘ Read more

Will AI Force Source Code to Evolve - Or Make it Extinct?
Will there be an AI-optimized programming language at the expense of human readability? There’s now been experiments with minimizing tokens for “LLM efficiency, without any concern for how it would serve human developers.”

This new article asks if AI will force source code to evolve — or make it extinct, noting that Stephen Cass, the special projects edi … ⌘ Read more

Trivy Supply Chain Attack Spreads, Triggers Self-Spreading CanisterWorm Across 47 npm Packages
“We have removed all malicious artifacts from the affected registries and channels,” Trivy maintainer Itay Shakury posted today, noting that all the latest Trivy releases “now point to a safe version.” But “On March 19, we observed that a threat actor used a compromised credential…”

And … ⌘ Read more

SystemD Adds Optional ‘birthDate’ Field for Age Verification to JSON User Records
“The systemd project merged a pull request adding a new birthDate field to the JSON user records managed by userdb in response to the age verification laws of California, Colorado, and Brazil,” reports the blog It’s FOSS.

They note that the field “can only be set by administrators, not by users themselves” — it’s … ⌘ Read more

@movq@www.uninformativ.de Yeah well I’ve put in an order for a much better quality Ocarina 😅 The one I originally started with was a bit on the “cheap” side. It’s been okay, but the high notes are a bit “meh” (airy).

Apple Launches AirPods Max 2 With Better ANC, Live Translation
Apple has quietly announced the AirPods Max 2, featuring improved active noise cancellation, an H2 chip, and new features like adaptive audio and AI-powered real-time translation. Like the original model, these headphones start at $549. The Verge reports: As noted by Apple, the AirPods Max 2 offer active noise-cancellation that’s 1.5 times mo … ⌘ Read more

Samsung Wants To Let You Vibe Code Your Galaxy Phone Experience
Samsung says it’s thinking about bringing “vibe coding” to future Galaxy phones, allowing users to describe apps or interface changes in plain language and have AI generate the code. TechRadar interviewed Won-Joon Choi, Samsung’s head of mobile experience, to learn more about the plans. Here’s an excerpt from their report: As noted by Won-Joon Ch … ⌘ Read more

Scientists Just Doubled Our Catalog of Black Hole and Neutron Star Collisions
Colliding black holes were detected through spacetime ripples for the first time in 2015 by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), notes Space.com:

Since then, LIGO and its partner gravitational wave detectors Virgo in Italy and KAGRA (Kamioka Gravitational Wave Detector) in Japan have detect … ⌘ Read more

Steven Spielberg + Dinosaurs + Netflix = Mixed Reviews
Steven Spielberg directed his last Jurassic Park movie nearly 30 years ago, notes ScreenRant. But the 79-year-old filmmaker now brings us The Dinosaurs, a four-part documentary on Netflix where he’s executive producer:

The first few reviews are in, and the results lead to a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s worth noting that the rating will likely f … ⌘ Read more

Python ‘Chardet’ Package Replaced With LLM-Generated Clone, Re-Licensed
Ancient Slashdot reader ewhac writes: The maintainers of the Python package `chardet`, which attempts to automatically detect the character encoding of a string, announced the release of version 7 this week, claiming a speedup factor of 43x over version 6. In the release notes, the maintainers claim that version 7 is, “a ground … ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.0 Slab Fix On The Way For A “Severe Performance Regression”
Sent out today was this week’s batch of Slab allocator fixes for the Linux 7.0 development kernel. Making this pull notable is fixing a “severe performance regression” with a ~64% performance drop having been noted in late February… ⌘ Read more

United Airlines Can Now Boot Passengers Who Refuse To Use Headphones
United Airlines has updated its contract of carriage to require passengers to use headphones when playing audio or video on personal devices during flights. Travelers who refuse could be removed from the plane or even permanently banned from flying with the airline, reports CBS News.

United notes that it will offer customers who forget t … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Is Developing an Alternative To GitHub
OpenAI is reportedly developing a code-hosting platform that could compete with GitHub, The Information reported on Tuesday. “If OpenAI does sell the product, it would mark a bold move by the creator of ChatGPT to compete directly against Microsoft, which holds a significant stake in the firm,” notes Reuters. From the report: Engineers from OpenAI encountered a rise in service … ⌘ Read more

Accenture Acquires Ookla, Downdetector As Part of $1.2 Billion Deal
Accenture is acquiring Downdetector parent company Ookla from Ziff Davis in a $1.2 billion deal to bolster its network analytics and visibility tools for telecoms, hyperscalers, and enterprises. “The deal, which will transfer all of Ziff Davis’s Connectivity division to Accenture, includes Ookla’s Speedtest, Ekahau, and RootMetrics,” notes The … ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.1 Will Power Off The System By Default If A Fatal ACPI Error Occurs
An important default kernel behavior change worth noting in advance for the upcoming Linux 7.1 kernel is that the system will attempt to power-off automatically if encountering any fatal ACPI errors. Up to now the Linux kernel has just logged ACPI fatal errors… ⌘ Read more

Stack Overflow Adds New Features (Including AI Assist), Rethinks ‘Look and Feel’
“At its peak in early 2014, Stack Overflow received more than 200,000 questions per month,” notes the site DevClass.com. But in December they’d just 3,862 questions were asked — a 78 percent drop from the previous year.

But Stack Overflow’s blog announced a beta of “a redesigned Stack Overflow” this week, noting t … ⌘ Read more

Galileo’s Handwritten Notes Discovered in a Medieval Astronomy Text
In a library in Florence, Italy, historian Ivan Malara noticed handwritten notes on a book printed in the 1500s — and recognized the handwriting as Galileo’s. The finding “promises new insights into one of the most famous ideological transitions in the history of science,” writes Science magazine — since the book Galileo annotated was a r … ⌘ Read more

Startup Plans April Launch for a Satellite Reflect Sunlight to Earth at Night
A start-up called Reflect Orbital “proposes to use large, mirrored satellites to redirect sunlight to Earth at night,” reports the Washington Post, “with plans to bathe solar farms, industrial sites and even entire cities in light that could, if desired, reach the intensity of daylight….”

Slashdot noted their idea i … ⌘ Read more

Still enjoying my command-line set up where I can log my time, keep notes and a daily journal all through a few aliases and functions, and it stores everything in plain text files. #KISS

Raspberry Pi Stock Rises Over Its Possible Use With OpenClaw’s AI Agents
This week Raspberry Pi saw its stock price surge more than 60% above its early-February low (before giving up some gains at the end of the week). Reuters notes the rise started when CEO Eben Upton bought 13,224 pounds worth of shares — but there could be another reason. “The rally in the roughly $800 million company has materialis … ⌘ Read more

EVs Are Already Making Your Air Cleaner, Research Shows
Fossil fuels produce NO2, which is linked to asthma attacks, bronchitis, and higher risks of heart disease and stroke, according the EV news site Electrek. But the nonprofit news site Grist.org notes a new analysis showing that those emissions decreased by 1.1% for every increase of 200 electric vehicles — across nearly 1,700 ZIP codes.
“A pretty small addition of … ⌘ Read more

Researchers Discover Ancient Bacteria Strain That Resists 10 Modern Antibiotics
CNN reports on a 13,000-year-old glacier in a Romanian cave, where scientists say a bacterial strain they thawed and analyzed “is resistant to 10 modern antibiotics used to treat diseases such as urinary tract infections and tuberculosis.”

But there’s no evidence the bacteria is harmful to humans, CNN notes, and … ⌘ Read more

Goldman Sachs Launches AI-Free Index
Goldman Sachs has launched an “S&P ex-AI” index (SPXXAI) that tracks the S&P 500 stocks not related to AI, offering investors a way to “hedge their exposure to the AI trade,” reports Axios. From the report: “Excluding ‘AI enablers’ from the passive benchmark would eliminate the noise introduced by the AI hype,” Louis Miller, head of the firm’s equity custom basket desk, wrote in a note to clients abou … ⌘ Read more

California’s New Bill Requires DOJ-Approved 3D Printers That Report on Themselves
California’s recently-proposed AB-2047 would require 3D printers sold in the state to be DOJ-approved models equipped with “firearm blocking technology,” banning non-certified machines after 2029 and criminalizing efforts to bypass the software. Adafruit notes that unlike similar legislation proposed in Washin … ⌘ Read more

Intel Vulkan Driver Lands One-Line Change That Can Bring Minor Performance Benefits
Merged today to Mesa 26.1 Git is a one-line change to the Intel “ANV” Vulkan driver that is showing to deliver some slight performance benefits or up to 3% noted in some select games… ⌘ Read more

RISC-V In Linux 7.0 Brings User-Space CFI & Optimized strlen Assembly
The RISC-V architecture updates have been merged for Linux 7.0 with a few items to note… ⌘ Read more

Will Tech Giants Just Use AI Interactions to Create More Effective Ads?
Google never asked its users before adding AI Overviews to its search results and AI-generated email summaries to Gmail, notes the New York Times. And Meta didn’t ask before making “Meta AI” an unremovable part of its tool in Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.

“The insistence on AI everywhere — with little or no option to turn it off — r … ⌘ Read more

Oldest Active Linux Distro Slackware Finally Releases Version 15.0
Created in 1993, Slackware is considered the oldest Linux distro that’s still actively maintained. And more than three decades later… there’s a new release! (And there’s also a Slackware Live Edition that can run from a DVD or USB stick…)
.

Slackware’s latest version was released way back in 2016, notes the blog It’s FOSS:

The major hi … ⌘ Read more

Dates with AI Companions Plagued by Lag, Miscommunications - and General Creepiness
To celebrate Valentine’s Day, EVA AI created a temporary “pop-up” restaurant at a wine bar in Manhattan’s “Hell’s Kitchen” district where patrons can date AI personas.

The Verge notes that looking around the restaurant, “Of the 30-some-odd people in attendance, only two or three are organic users. The rest are EVA … ⌘ Read more

Meta Auditor EY Raised Red Flag on Data-Center Accounting
Meta Platforms’ latest annual report contained an unusual, cautionary note for investors. From a report: The tech giant’s auditor, Ernst & Young, raised a red flag over the financial engineering Meta used to keep a $27 billion data-center project off its balance sheet. While EY ultimately blessed Meta’s accounting treatment, the firm flagged it as a “critical a … ⌘ Read more

US Had Almost No Job Growth in 2025
An anonymous reader shares a report: The U.S. economy experienced almost zero job growth in 2025, according to revised federal data. On a more encouraging note: hiring has picked up in 2026. Preliminary data had indicated that the U.S. economy added 584,000 jobs last year. But the Bureau of Labor Statistics revised that number after it received additional state data, and found that the labor market had … ⌘ Read more

Well it’s ~2am and I finally defeated the AI player in a game of Frontier Crown 👑 – On that note I’m now going to bed, I’ve made so many improvements to the aesthetics (UX) of the game, the mechanics, and it’s now quite nicely playable 👌 G’night! 😴

NULLFS & OPEN_TREE_NAMESPACE Features Merged For Linux 7.0
Christian Brauner sent in a dozen VFS pull requests that are now-merged today for the Linux 7.0 kernel. The VFS pull requests worth noting right away in this article are the introduction of the NULLFS and OPEN_TREE_NAMESPACE features… ⌘ Read more

Do Super Bowl Ads For AI Signal a Bubble About to Burst?
It’s the first “AI” Super Bowl, argues the tech/business writer at Slate, with AI company advertisements taking center stage, even while consumers insist to surveyors that they’re “mostly negative” about AI-generated ads.

Last year AI companies spent over $1.7 billion on AI-related ads, notes the Washington Post, adding the blitz this year will be “inescapable” — even … ⌘ Read more

Google Home Finally Adds Support For Buttons
An anonymous reader shares a report: Google Home users, your long nightmare is over. The platform has finally added support for buttons. The release notes for a February 2 update state that several new starter conditions for automations are now available, including “Switch or button pressed.”

Smart buttons are physical, programmable switches that you can press to trigger automations or … ⌘ Read more

YouTube Kills Background Playback on Third-Party Mobile Browsers
YouTube has confirmed that it is blocking background playback – the ability to keep a video’s audio running after minimizing the browser or locking the screen – for non-Premium users across third-party mobile browsers including Samsung Internet, Brave, Vivaldi and Microsoft Edge.

Users began reporting the issue last week, noting that audio wou … ⌘ Read more

The AI Boom Is Coming for Apple’s Profit Margins
Apple’s long-standing dominance over its electronics supply chain is eroding as AI companies outbid the iPhone maker for critical components like chips, memory and specialized glass fiber, giving suppliers the leverage to demand that Apple pay more. CEO Tim Cook acknowledged the pressure during a Thursday earnings call, noting constraints in chip supplies and significant increa … ⌘ Read more

EU Deploys New Government Satcom Program in Sovereignty Push
The EU “has switched on parts of its homegrown secure satellite communications network for the first time,” reports Bloomberg, calling it part of a €10.6 billion push to “wean itself off US support amid growing tensions.”

SpaceNews notes the new government program GOVSATCOM pools capacity from eight already on-oribit satellites from France, Spain, It … ⌘ Read more

Fourth US Wind Farm Project Blocked By Trump Allowed to Resume Construction
Vineyard Wind (powering Massachusetts) is one of five offshore wind projects “that the Trump administration tried to hold up in December,” reports The Hill.

This week it became the fourth of those wind projects allowed by a judge to resume construction, the article notes, while even the fifth project “is still awaiting … ⌘ Read more

Oracle May Slash Up To 30,000 Jobs
An anonymous reader shares a report: Oracle could cut up to 30,000 jobs and sell health tech unit Cerner to ease its AI datacenter financing challenges, investment banker TD Cowen has claimed, amid changing sentiment on Big Red’s massive build-out plans.

A research note from TD Cowen states that finding equity and debt investors are increasingly questioning how Oracle will finance its datacenter bui … ⌘ Read more

Cancer Might Protect Against Alzheimer’s
For decades, researchers have noted that cancer and Alzheimer’s disease are rarely found in the same person, fuelling speculation that one condition might offer some degree of protection from the other. Nature: Now, a study in mice provides a possible molecular solution to the medical mystery: a protein produced by cancer cells seems to infiltrate the brain, where it helps to break apart clu … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft 365 Endured 9+ Hours of Outages Thursday
Early Friday “there were nearly 113 incidents of people reporting issues with Microsoft 365 as of 1:05 a.m. ET,” reports Reuters. But that’s down “from over 15,890 reports at its peak a day earlier, according to Downdetector.” Reuters points out the outage affected antivirus software Microsoft Defender and data governance software Microsoft Purview, while CRN notes it also imp … ⌘ Read more