SpaceX Launching NASA’s Roman Space Telescope to Explore Dark Energy and Habitable Planets
SpaceX is scheduled to launch the Roman Space Telescope on a Falcon Heavy rocket, with the launch window opening at 7:26 a.m. EDT (1126 GMT). NASA will carry the launch live on YouTube.
CNN offers this mission overview from NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “Roman will investigate dark matte … ⌘ Read more
NVIDIA Vulkan Frame Rate Up-Conversion “FRUC” Merged To FFmpeg
Upstreamed to the FFmpeg multimedia driver code this weekend is support for Frame Rate Up-Conversion “FRUC” making use of the NVIDIA Vulkan Optical Flow extension… ⌘ Read more
The “KVM Chainsaw” Clean-Up Merged For Linux 7.3 Along With Other Fixes
The Kernel-based Virtual Machine “KVM” changes have landed for the Linux 7.3 merge window that is wrapping up later today… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.3 Introduces 8250_mxpcie Driver For Moxa PCIe Multi-Port Serial Boards
The TTY/Serial code changes for Linux 7.3 were merged this week and include dropping the dated IPWireless driver while introducing the new 8250_mxpcie driver… ⌘ Read more
BMW Blames Young People For Loss of Real Buttons In New Cars
BMW is about to release their most screen-dependent vehicles ever, reports Car and Driver:
Step into the BMW iX3, and you’ll notice something is missing: real buttons. The climate controls are fettered to the center screen, as is nearly every other feature, save for a handful located in the center console — at least the window switches are still on the d … ⌘ Read more
Google’s AI-Powered Lifestyle App ‘Dreambeans’ Now Free in the US
Google’s AI assistant Gemini crawls your Google apps for “more personalized suggestions,” in a feature they call Personal Intelligence. Now when given permission, an Android/iOS app called Dreambeans “uses Personal Intelligence to connect information from Google apps like Gmail, Calendar, Photos, YouTube and Search History, to curate a finite coll … ⌘ Read more
Debian Decides: Contributors Can Use Generative AI ‘Responsibly’
This week Debian voted on whether to ban AI-assisted contributions. The winning proposal? “Debian neither endorses nor prohibits the use of generative AI tools” in its projects, documentation, and packaging… Generative AI “is neither exempt from nor subject to special rules beyond the standards already expected of Debian contributors.”
“The resp … ⌘ Read more
RTL8723BS Driver Continues Dominating The Staging Area Activity For Linux 7.3
Upstreamed back in 2017 for Linux 4.12 was the RTL8723BS driver in the kernel’s staging area. Nine years later it remains in staging and remains a frequent target for clean-ups and code improvements as it tries to work its way out… ⌘ Read more
Anthropic Sued By Sony, Warner For Allegedly Stealing Tens of Thousands of Songs, Torrenting Copyrighted Works
Axios reports:
Some of the world’s largest music publishers filed a blockbuster lawsuit against Anthropic late Friday night, alleging “one of the largest and most blatant ongoing thefts of intellectual property in history.”
The suit is the opening salvo in … ⌘ Read more
What’s 88-year-old Ridley Scott Doing Now?
The Los Angeles Times first calls Ridley Scott’s newest movie “a postapocalyptic thriller that trades zombies for pandemics and asks whether hope can outlast catastrophe.” But besides
The Dog Stars, Scott is also working on an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island” starring Hugh Jackman, and is thinking about turning one of his past films into a musical. (“I can’t t … ⌘ Read more
With the Snip of a Gene, Scientists Hope To Erase High Cholesterol For Life
CNN reports that “A one-time snip of a key gene lowered heart-clogging cholesterol by about 50% over an entire year with no adverse effects, scientists have reported.”
The overwhelmingly positive results were found in four people who had taken the highest dose of the experimental treatment during a pilot study published i … ⌘ Read more
Millions of Cars Recalled Over Danger of Bursting Into Flames. But They’re Not EVs.
The Washington Post shares this tip for car buyers.
Electric vehicles “are not driving the recent growth in recalls warning that vehicles could erupt into flames at any time, even when parked and turned off.”
A Washington Post analysis of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recall notices fo … ⌘ Read more
FreeBSD 14.5-RC1 Released With Several Security Fixes
Ahead of FreeBSD 14.5-RELEASE hopefully debuting on 8 September, FreeBSD 14.5-RC1 is out today as the final scheduled development release… ⌘ Read more
Chatbot Conversations Can Become Evidence in Court
The Washington Post looks “a growing number of Americans who have had their private conversations with AI chatbots made public in court,” calling the chatbots “custodians of a fast-growing trove of intimate data that can be sought by law enforcement, or companies or other opponents in civil litigation.”
A Washington Post review of public records and local news stories found … ⌘ Read more
The Linux Kernel Is Approaching 2,000 CVEs Per Release
Phoronix reports on Greg Kroah-Hartman’s recent slide from his upcoming talk in Paris at Kernel Recipes 2026 (September 21 to 23):
With the proliferation of AI/LLM models analyzing the Linux kernel’s vast codebase, there has been a surge in the number of CVEs per kernel release. After typically being around 500 CVEs fixed per release, we are now approaching 2,000 C … ⌘ Read more
‘Grand Theft Auto 6’ Preview Signals Blockbuster Demand, Analysts Say
Rockstar Games has released a 26-minute “extended look” at Grand Theft Auto VI, due for release November 19th.
After one day the video had nearly 10 million views on YouTube, and when Netflix streamed the footage, “some viewers had to refresh the page after receiving error messages, indicating high usage levels,” reports CNBC:
“Some memb … ⌘ Read more
Another x86 Advisory From Some Entity Other Than Intel Or AMD
Last October I highlighted an interesting post on the Linux kernel mailing list around an x86 corporate entity other than Intel or AMD that left mysterious intrigue. The developer that detailed those x86 opcode/CPUID/MSR allocations back in July then detailed 16-tile and 32-tile AMX implementations again for something outside the current scope of Intel/AMD processors. Today another message is being relayed from that “corporate entity other than Intel/AMD.”. … ⌘ Read more
As Backlash Grows, More Americans Now Oppose Automated Police License Plate Readers Than Support
A new survey on police license plate cameras found that “more Americans oppose these surveillance cameras than support them,” reports TechCrunch:
According to a new YouGov survey of 20,000 people across the U.S. that was shared exclusively with The Washington Post, 46% of respondents … ⌘ Read more
Xylitol Linked To Strokes and Heart Attacks, Study Finds
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: A common sweetener used in products such as chewing gum, toothpaste, jam, yoghurts and ice-cream has been linked to an increased risk of strokes, heart attacks and death. Xylitol is a sugar alcohol present in some natural foods in very low amounts. It is also added – often in amounts 1,000 times higher – … ⌘ Read more
KDE Plasma 6.8 Improving Performance & Efficiency For Some Full Screen Content
In addition to the Union QtWidgets initial release happening this week, a number of other improvements also landed in the past few days in making Plasma 6.8 all the more exciting… ⌘ Read more
ReactOS 0.4.16 Released With New Graphical Installer, Better Hardware Support
ReactOS 0.4.16 released today as the newest major update to this “open-source Windows” project providing an open-source OS with Windows driver and application compatibility… ⌘ Read more
D7VK v2.2 for playing retro Windows games on Linux improves Direct3D 3 support
D7VK v2.2 is out now continuing to improve retro Windows games on Linux with improvements to Direct3D 3 and various bug fixes.
Read the full article on [GamingOnLinux](https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/08/d7vk-v2-2-for-playing-retro-windows-games-on-linux-improves-direct3d-3-supp … ⌘ Read more
F2FS With Now Handle Multi-Device Flushes In Parallel With Linux 7.3
Coming in as a late pull request ahead of the Linux 7.3 merge window closing this weekend were the Flash Friendly File-System (F2FS) updates that have now made it into Linux Git… ⌘ Read more
GNOME’s Very Exciting Week From Flatpak Funding To Reset Recovery Plus Apps
This week was extremely eventful in the GNOME space with GPU reset recovery for GNOME Mutter now largely wrapped up and the merge request opened to facilitate the code review. There was also the announcement of the half million Euro Sovereign Tech Agency investment into Flatpak. Plus on the application side were a few more interesting advancements this week.‘.. ⌘ Read more
The World’s Busiest Spaceport Is About To Get a Lot Quieter, At Least For Now
SpaceX is significantly reducing Falcon 9 launches from Florida this year, ending the Space Coast’s decade-long run as the world’s busiest spaceport as more missions shift to Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The slowdown is expected to continue until Starship begins flying regularly from Florida. Longtime Slas … ⌘ Read more
California Passes AB-1856 For Open-Source Relief Over Age Verification
As an update to the May story about California’s age verification law may end up exempting most Linux distributions, that AB-1856 bill has finally passed!.. ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.3 UBI Adds Support For Per-Device Wear-Leveling Thresholds
The Unsorted Block Images “UBI” layer in the Linux kernel for NAND flash memory tracking and wear leveling finally has the notion of per-device wear-leveling thresholds… ⌘ Read more
GE-Proton 11-6 released with updates for Wayland, PS5 Controllers and more upgrades
The community build of Valve’s compatibility layer GE-Proton 11-6 is out now, bringing major new features and changes to running Windows games SteamOS / Linux.
Read the full article on [GamingOnLinux](https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/08/ge-proton-11-6-released-with-updates-for-waylan … ⌘ Read more
Debian Linux developers vote to allow “Responsible Use of Generative AI”
The flood gates for generative AI in Debian Linux are now seemingly open, with the results from a recent vote now available.
Read the full article on GamingOnLinux. ⌘ Read more
SteamOS 3.9.0 Preview brings major updates to desktop mode, Linux kernel, WiFi and more
Hot on the heels of the SteamOS 3.8.26 Beta, Valve released SteamOS 3.9.0 Preview bringing some really massive changes to the system.
Read the full article on [GamingOnLinux](https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/08/steamos-3-9-0-preview-brings-major-updates-to-desktop- … ⌘ Read more
Trump Creates a Space Academy and Honors the Artemis Astronauts
President Trump awarded the four-member Artemis II crew the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and signed an executive order directing the creation of a new U.S. Space Academy. The proposed academy would train engineers, scientists, technicians, operators, and astronauts for NASA, the Space Force, and the commercial space industry. Houston Public … ⌘ Read more
Is China Secretly Fueling America’s Data Center Rage?
alternative_right shares a report from Axios: Roughly 200 accounts from a suspected Chinese bot farm have quietly tried to influence Americans to oppose AI data centers on social media, X said Thursday night. The X Safety team probed suspected Chinese accounts involved in influence operations and identified 200,000 accounts, including 200 accounts “posting in a manner t … ⌘ Read more
Debian Votes To Allow “Responsible Use Of Generative AI”
The voting is over and there is a winner now known in the much-debated Debian General Resolution voting over an AI policy for the Linux distribution… ⌘ Read more
New York City 911 System Missed 1,700 Calls Due To Software Update
Longtime Slashdot reader belmolis writes: Part of New York City’s 911 emergency system was offline from about 3:13 a.m. to 10 a.m. on August 18th due to a software update, according to Medical Daily. Of 5,659 calls to the Bronx call center during that period, about 1,700 calls connected but could not be heard by emergency operators. Some were … ⌘ Read more
States Can Regulate Prediction Markets As Gambling, Federal Appeals Court Rules
A federal appeals court has ruled that states can regulate prediction markets like Kalshi as gambling, handing state regulators their biggest legal victory yet against the booming industry. “There are still related lawsuits pending across the country, and legal experts believe the matter will ultimately be settled by t … ⌘ Read more
OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and 100 Other Companies Call For Action To Defend Against Rogue AI
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Over a hundred tech companies – including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Microsoft – have signed an open letter urging both the private and public sectors to work together to defend themselves from AI-related cyber threats. The letter – w … ⌘ Read more
Union QtWidgets Sees Initial Release For Advancing KDE Plasma’s Union
Premiering in KDE Plasma 6.7 was Union as the new CSS-based style/theming engine for Plasma. Union ultimately aims to address KDE’s fragmented ways of styling apps. As a step closer to that goal, there is now the initial release of Union for QtWidgets support… ⌘ Read more
Songs Created By AI Banned From Australia’s Music Charts
Australia’s official music charts will no longer accept songs that are largely or entirely AI-generated, requiring eligible releases to be “substantially human made.” The BBC reports: The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) said the new code would help “promote the human nature of artistry.” It follows a controversy around a cover of Madonna’ … ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.3 TPM Makes Cleanup Preparations For TrenchBoot
The Trusted Platform Module (TPM) subsystem changes for the Linux 7.3 kernel are centered around code clean-ups and improvements being made as a precursor toward TrenchBoot support… ⌘ Read more
Apple TV and Apple One Subscription Prices Increase By Up To 20%
Apple is raising Apple TV’s U.S. price to $14.99 per month, up from $12.99, while the annual plan jumps from $99 to $119. It’s the service’s fourth price hike in four years and means the monthly cost has now tripled from its $4.99 launch price in 2019. Apple One’s Individual plan is also rising from $19.95 to $21.95 per month.
[… ⌘ Read more
Roblox Is Cracking Down On Games That Reward Kids For Doomscrolling
Roblox is restricting games that reward younger players for endlessly consuming autoplaying media feeds. The new restrictions are specifically targeting Roblox experiences like “Steal an Egg,” which encouraged players to watch TikTok-style clips for in-game benefits. “Roblox’s official alert does not expressly mention SAE, but the new poli … ⌘ Read more
US Considers Fresh Round of Tariffs On Semiconductors
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is reportedly considering new tariffs on semiconductors used in the U.S., as tech giants race to beat China in the artificial intelligence infrastructure build-out. The duties will be imposed on an expanded range of tech products made alongside chips, including laptops, data cent … ⌘ Read more
HP Z4 G6i: A Linux-Friendly Workstation Powered By The Intel Xeon 600 Series
The past month I have been testing out the HP Z4 G6i workstation across many different workloads and grueling tasks. This HP workstation powered by the Intel Xeon 600 series “Granite Rapids WS” and NVIDIA RTX graphics offers a lot of compute power, but with the top-end configuration retailing for over $41k USD is quite pricey in today’s environment. Windows 11 Pro is the default operating system of the HP Z4 Gi but Ubuntu LTS releases are supported a … ⌘ Read more
The Linux Kernel Is Approaching 2,000 CVEs Per Release
With the proliferation of AI/LLM models analyzing the Linux kernel’s vast codebase, there has been a surge in the number of CVEs per kernel release. After typically being around 500 CVEs fixed per release, we are now approaching 2,000 CVEs fixed per release and perhaps will break that threshold for Linux 7.3… ⌘ Read more
GPU Reset Recovery Merge Request For GNOME Mutter Submitted
Google Summer of Code 2026 featured a project working on GPU reset recovery for GNOME’s Mutter compositor. GSoC has now wrapped up and the project overall was largely successful although some outstanding work remains. In this last week the merge request has been opened to conduct code review on this GPU reset recovery implementation for GNOME… ⌘ Read more
Vulkan 1.4.361 Released With New NVIDIA Vendor Extension
The Khronos Group is closing out the month of August with the Vulkan 1.4.361 specification update… ⌘ Read more