Advanced nuclear reactors spark frenzy as Google moves to secure clean energy for cloud storage and booming digital infrastructure
Google is building a small nuclear reactor in Tennessee to power its data centers
Google leans on nuclear energy to support cloud storage expansionEfosa Udinmwen (TechRadar)
South Korea ban using mobile phones and other smart devices during classes at elementary and middle schools nationwide, starting March 2026
Use of Smart Devices to be Restricted in Elementary, Middle, High Schools
Starting the spring semester of next year, use of smart devices, including smartphones, will be restricted in classrooms at elementary, middle and high schools.A related ...world.kbs.co.kr
On the Front Lines of Climate Change, Firefighters Are Getting Very Sick
Across the country, unmasked wildfire fighters are falling ill and dying. Hannah Dreier talks about her investigation into the risks these workers face.
Lynx-R1 Headset Makers Release 6DoF SLAM Solution As Open Source
cross-posted from: ibbit.at/post/37907
Some readers may recall the Lynx-R1 headset — it was conceived as an Android virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) headset with built-in hand tracking, designed to be open where others were closed, allowing developers and users access to inner workings in defiance of walled gardens. It looked very promising, with features rivaling (or surpassing) those of its contemporaries.
Founder [Stan Larroque] recently announced that Lynx’s 6DoF SLAM (simultaneous location and mapping) solution has been released as open source. ORB-SLAM3 (GitHub repository) takes in camera images and outputs a 6DoF pose, and does so effectively in real-time. The repository contains some added details as well as a demo application that can run on the Lynx-R1 headset.
The unusual optics are memorable. (Hands-on Lynx-R1 by Antony Vitillo)
As a headset the Lynx-R1 had a number of intriguing elements. The unusual optics, the flip-up design, and built-in hand tracking were impressive for its time, as was the high-quality mixed reality pass-through. That last feature refers to the headset using its external cameras as inputs to let the user see the real world, but with the ability to have virtual elements displayed and apparently anchored to real-world locations. Doing this depends heavily on the headset being able to track its position in the real world with both high accuracy and low latency, and this is what ORB-SLAM3 provides.
A successful crowdfunding campaign for the Lynx-R1 in 2021 showed that a significant number of people were on board with what Lynx was offering, but developing brand new consumer hardware is a challenging road for many reasons unrelated to developing the actual thing. There was a hands-on at a trade show in 2021 and units were originally intended to ship out in 2022, but sadly that didn’t happen. Units still occasionally trickle out to backers and pre-orders according to the unofficial Discord, but it’s safe to say things didn’t really go as planned for the R1.
It remains a genuinely noteworthy piece of hardware, especially considering it was not a product of one of the tech giants. If we manage to get our hands on one of them, we’ll certainly give you a good look at it.
From Blog – Hackaday via this RSS feed
AWE 2021: Hands-on Lynx-R1 mixed reality headset - The Ghost Howls
My hands-on Lynx-R1 headset at AWE 2021. I had a limited time to test it, but enough to evaluate if the beta of its devkit is good or notSkarredghost (The Ghost Howls)
BrikoX likes this.
Immigration advocates alarmed over detention of DACA recipient: ‘No legal basis’
Border patrol agents arrested Catalina Santiago, granted temporary protection as a Dreamer, on 3 August
Catalina “Xochitl” Santiago had already made it past the security line at the El Paso airport when two border patrol agents called her in for questioning and whisked her away to an immigration detention center.
Nearly a month after her arrest, she and her family still aren’t clear why she is detained. Santiago is a beneficiary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) program – which has allowed her to legally live and work in the US.
“They have no legal basis for why they detained her or why they’re holding her or why they’re trying to deport her,” said her spouse, Desiree Miller. And immigration officials have yet to provide her or her family any clear answers, she added.
Last time I replied to a comment here my comment got deleted for violating "be civil' rule. I'm going to violate again and tell you.. Are you really this dumb? Cant you comprehend what people mean when they say free healthcare you muppet?
P.s. Mods: are you going to implement a "don't say dumb things" rule ? Why do we have to be civil against obvious empty buckets for brains?
Anthropic: Claude was weaponized for sophisticated cybercrimes, including a “vibe-hacking” data extortion scheme
cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/36406626
Threat Intelligence Report
- Agentic AI has been weaponized. AI models are now being used to perform sophisticated cyberattacks, not just advise on how to carry them out.
- AI has lowered the barriers to sophisticated cybercrime. Criminals with few technical skills are using AI to conduct complex operations, such as developing ransomware, that would previously have required years of training.
- Cybercriminals and fraudsters have embedded AI throughout all stages of their operations. This includes profiling victims, analyzing stolen data, stealing credit card information, and creating false identities allowing fraud operations to expand their reach to more potential targets.
Anthropic: Claude was weaponized for sophisticated cybercrimes, including a “vibe-hacking” data extortion scheme
- Agentic AI has been weaponized. AI models are now being used to perform sophisticated cyberattacks, not just advise on how to carry them out.
- AI has lowered the barriers to sophisticated cybercrime. Criminals with few technical skills are using AI to conduct complex operations, such as developing ransomware, that would previously have required years of training.
- Cybercriminals and fraudsters have embedded AI throughout all stages of their operations. This includes profiling victims, analyzing stolen data, stealing credit card information, and creating false identities allowing fraud operations to expand their reach to more potential targets.
Detecting and countering misuse of AI: August 2025
Anthropic's threat intelligence report on AI cybercrime and other abuseswww.anthropic.com
Anthropic: Claude was weaponized for sophisticated cybercrimes, including a “vibe-hacking” data extortion scheme
cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/36406626
Threat Intelligence Report
- Agentic AI has been weaponized. AI models are now being used to perform sophisticated cyberattacks, not just advise on how to carry them out.
- AI has lowered the barriers to sophisticated cybercrime. Criminals with few technical skills are using AI to conduct complex operations, such as developing ransomware, that would previously have required years of training.
- Cybercriminals and fraudsters have embedded AI throughout all stages of their operations. This includes profiling victims, analyzing stolen data, stealing credit card information, and creating false identities allowing fraud operations to expand their reach to more potential targets.
Anthropic: Claude was weaponized for sophisticated cybercrimes, including a “vibe-hacking” data extortion scheme
- Agentic AI has been weaponized. AI models are now being used to perform sophisticated cyberattacks, not just advise on how to carry them out.
- AI has lowered the barriers to sophisticated cybercrime. Criminals with few technical skills are using AI to conduct complex operations, such as developing ransomware, that would previously have required years of training.
- Cybercriminals and fraudsters have embedded AI throughout all stages of their operations. This includes profiling victims, analyzing stolen data, stealing credit card information, and creating false identities allowing fraud operations to expand their reach to more potential targets.
Detecting and countering misuse of AI: August 2025
Anthropic's threat intelligence report on AI cybercrime and other abuseswww.anthropic.com
Anthropic: Claude was weaponized for sophisticated cybercrimes, including a “vibe-hacking” data extortion scheme
- Agentic AI has been weaponized. AI models are now being used to perform sophisticated cyberattacks, not just advise on how to carry them out.
- AI has lowered the barriers to sophisticated cybercrime. Criminals with few technical skills are using AI to conduct complex operations, such as developing ransomware, that would previously have required years of training.
- Cybercriminals and fraudsters have embedded AI throughout all stages of their operations. This includes profiling victims, analyzing stolen data, stealing credit card information, and creating false identities allowing fraud operations to expand their reach to more potential targets.
Detecting and countering misuse of AI: August 2025
Anthropic's threat intelligence report on AI cybercrime and other abuseswww.anthropic.com
youtuber impazziti cancellan la roba e l’octopiangiaggio inizia di nuovo!
Ma cos’è ‘sta storia assurda e ricorrente che gli youtuber dal niente (anche se oddio, forse non proprio dal niente a questo punto) prendono e diventano schizoidi, facendo sparire (a volte cancellando, forse altre mettendo il privato, boh) i loro video? E, precisamente, non tutti i video, e nemmeno i video più vecchi, ma in […]
octospacc.altervista.org/2025/…
youtuber impazziti cancellan la roba e l’octopiangiaggio inizia di nuovo!
Ma cos’è ‘sta storia assurda e ricorrente che gli youtuber dal niente (anche se oddio, forse non proprio dal niente a questo punto) prendono e diventano schizoidi, facendo sparire (a volte cancellando, forse altre mettendo il privato, boh) i loro video? E, precisamente, non tutti i video, e nemmeno i video più vecchi, ma in special modo quelli relativamente più nuovi. Si, solo negli youtuber (o forse, negli influencer audiovisivi tutti, ma io consumo solo youtube, perché solo lì c’è roba elaborata) vedo questo comportamento… non nei blogger, non negli sviluppatori open source (quelli fanno di molto peggio); non capisco. 🥴Ma succede davvero da un giorno all’altro, eh… cos’è, alla sera vanno bene, come sono andati bene per mesi, e alla mattina dopo invece non più? E questa non è solo un’ipotesi, bensì ho la certezza che sia così: con il fatto che uso un aggregatore di feed RSS per tenere le mie iscrizioni di YouTube, se lo youtuber cancella o nasconde i video più recenti, quelli più vecchi (che altrimenti sarebbero oltre il limite di elementi) ecco che risalgono in cima, e io li vedo come se fossero nuovi (anche se in effetti non so perché in FreshRSS appaiano con una data e ora recente, anziché con quella di pubblicazione originale… meglio per me, così mi accorgo delle magagne semplicemente scrollando normalmente). 👹
Sarò io che ho tra le iscrizioni troppi youtuber schizofrenici, o è fisiologico che su circa un migliaio ce ne debba essere almeno qualcuno particolare? La cosa strana è che in genere questo avviene comunque di rado… e invece, temo purtroppo che anche in questo ora ci sia qualcosa sotto, perché ho appena visto questa cosa succedere con ben 2 youtuber a distanza di proprio pochi giorni: 3 giorni fa ho notato che il fu YouTube Fa Cagare ha attuato la rimozione coatta di tutti i video degli ultimi 5-6 anni, e stamattina invece noto che Hiding In My Room pure ha fatto la sua solita pulizia varia (si, in effetti di lui non mi stupisco, ma rimane la goccia che oggi ha fatto traboccare il fritto misto). 😾
Non parliamo nemmeno di come il secondo tizio (…che in foto è a sinistra, e non a destra come dovrebbe essere logico, perché sono purtroppo una frana), tra i tanti video cancellati, abbia lasciato al proprio posto una quantità sospetta di recensioni tutte rigorosamente negative di vari prodotti — e sono abbastanza sicura che di Switch 2 ne avesse parlato bene o almeno neutralmente, ma invece c’è solo un video “VERY disappointing…“, figuriamoci…
Però bah, questa cosa non la gradisco, ‘un mi garba, serve una soluzione definitiva!!! Ovviamente non posso scaricarmi tutti i video di cui normalmente salverei un semplice link (…ci ho provato in passato, e scaricando in 720p VP9/AV1 ho riempito un disco da 320 GB in appena qualche mese)… Però, come dire… si da il caso che io mesi fa avessi trovato per caso un metodo efficace per salvare video di YouTube sull’Internet Archive, a differenza del “salva pagina ora” che non ha mai funzionato, quindi… La soluzione è smettere di usare dei normali segnalibri (nel mio caso, Shiori, non i merdosi del browser) per salvare i video, e invece usare un blog su WordPress.org semplicemente embeddando i video; la magia automatica del web farà il resto, dietro le quinte!!! 😈#lost #media #youtuber #youtubers
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“These were not negotiations”
Arnaud Bertrand
This is extraordinary. For the many of you who wonder how the EU could agree to such a humiliating "deal" with Trump, wonder no more.
We have an unusually straightforward answer directly from the horse's mouth: Sabine Weyand, who's the Directorate-General for Trade at the EU commission.
As she puts its:
- "If you didn't hear me say the word 'negotiation' – that's because there wasn't one." => the U.S. dictated the terms
- "From the Commission's perspective, this was a strategic compromise, not an ideal economic solution" => they're aware this completely f*cks the EU economically
- "The European side was under massive pressure to find a quick solution to stabilize transatlantic relations – especially with regard to security guarantees" => the EU agreed to the "deal" under a protection racket
- "We have a land war on the European continent. And we are completely dependent on the United States. The member states were not prepared to take the risk of further escalation – that would have been the consequence of European countermeasures." => Europe acted out of fear, choosing economic submission because of its total dependence on the U.S. (which ironically will only worsen the dependence)
There you have it, she said the quiet part out loud: the EU is in such a terrible strategic situation and EU leaders have so little courage that they're unable and unwilling to say 'no' to even the most humiliating demands.
xcancel.com/RnaudBertrand/stat…
„Das waren keine Verhandlungen“ (Tiefgang) | SZ Dossier
„Wenn Sie mich das Wort ‚Verhandlung‘ nicht haben sagen hören – das liegt daran, dass es keine war.“ Mit diesem Satz beschreibt Sabine Weyand den geopolitischen …SZ Dossier
#qualedistribuzioneperchicomincia
Il dual boot, è una cosa saggia?
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Do Any of You Guys Have Ideas for an Open Source Political Party?
I have been brainstorming an Open Source Political Party. Its probably the only way the entire earth isnt going to be ruined by corporations and dumb people.
Some ideas,
A digital voting framework, no rich canidates allowed.
Transparent online interviews, instead of debates, have a topic of the week.
A summery of peoples positions before the election.
--Some first policies--
Get rid of most laws and taxes, have a simple flat tax on everyone that is the same.
Replace our currency with a metal based currency with no fixed value by law.
Trans rights and Expanding the Constitution to limit the types of laws other politicians can pass if they are antihuman, antiliberty.
Reimaging some systems like healthcare and education for the 21st century and beyond.
Informing juries of their right to nullify the legal process
Forcing transparency in the state, passing privacy laws and protections.
Scientific funding for some ideas, like helping trans people to get better treatment and also have children. Taking half of tax revenues and giving it back to people in UBI. Creating a defensive military instead of an imperial one. Giving children more rights. Expanding schools into bording schools where students have a right to pick their school and live there if they want to escape abusive parents.
Bottom up governments, top down civil rights enforcment and dispute settling and managing of resources.
Getting rid of property tax for most people, only taxing property when someone or an entity owns multiple properties. No spamming to het around the tax.
Creating an opensource free internet infastructure and a free digital low bandwidth per user national digital radio network.
Right to repair and hack your devices. Full ownership of most devices. People cannot sell you partial ownership and puppet you through restrictive contracts, but still have protrctions for intellectual property. All devices must have open bootloaders or unlockable bootloaders. People cannot monopolize things like the radio chips and stuff to keep out competition and control the telecomunications infastructure by forcing people to only use apple and android devices which are full of spyware and adware and dont have root access to the hardware.
What do you guys think? Any ideas? Anyone want to maybe meet once a week on discord to start planing out the platform?
GitHub · Build and ship software on a single, collaborative platform
Join the world's most widely adopted, AI-powered developer platform where millions of developers, businesses, and the largest open source community build software that advances humanity.GitHub
Technology reshared this.
Consigli per un DynDNS provider EU o magari italiano (e comunque non criminale)?
Sto iniziando a giocare con un vecchio laptop sciacallato dal lavoro su cui ho installato ubuntu server, con Nextcloud e Docker.
Con Docker Compose ho installato Nginx e adesso vorrei provare a fare la cosa del DDNS su un dominio che ho registrato presso un provider italiano.
Ho guardato a un po' di provider e mi sembrano essere tutti americani o comunque su infrastruttura americana (DuckDNS su AWS, etc)
C'è qualcuno che mi consigliate nostrano o comunque EU e che abbia in generale una buona reputazione?
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Linux Foundation says yes to NoSQL via DocumentDB
Linux Foundation says yes to NoSQL via DocumentDB
: PostgreSQL implementation of document-oriented NoSQL datastore adopted under permissive MIT licenseThomas Claburn (The Register)
Linux Foundation says yes to NoSQL via DocumentDB
Linux Foundation says yes to NoSQL via DocumentDB
: PostgreSQL implementation of document-oriented NoSQL datastore adopted under permissive MIT licenseThomas Claburn (The Register)
Technology reshared this.
like this
Microsoft made some database software called DocumentDB (which utilizes a kind of database system called NoSQL) that the Linux Foundation is now accepting into their list of projects they support. This was done because, unlike others like MongoDB, this one called DocumentDB was released under a license that people can use without certain restrictions that MongoDB put inside their license.
The core issue is that big tech companies regularly take software developed by open source devs and then use it for their big money machines without giving anything back to the original developers. MongoDB was fed up with this and started using a license that forces companies to publicize the code of the projects they use MongoDB for. Big Tech doesnt like that, because they really like money and not sharing how they make that money.
"Today, the market has spoken," Farkas wrote on Tuesday. "The Linux Foundation has announced the adoption of the DocumentDB project to create an open standard with MongoDB compatibility, the exact thing we were sued for earlier this year."
So now they have a software suite that people can use to replace their MongoDB systems.
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According to the company: mongodb.com/company/newsroom/p…
Unfortunately, once an open source project becomes interesting, it is too easy for cloud vendors who have not developed the software to capture all of the value while contributing little back to the community
They are totally morally correct imo, but reality simply doesnt work like that. If you disallow free use of your software for commercial purposes, it will simply die.
They also just spent a bit too much money on a single project from what it look like.
“We have invested approximately $300M in R&D over the past decade to offer a modern, general purpose, open source database for everyone. With the added protection of the SSPL, we can continue to invest in R&D and further drive innovation and value for the community.”
MongoDB has been removed from the Debian, Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux distributions because of the licensing change. Fedora determined that the SSPL version 1 is not a free software license because it is "intentionally crafted to be aggressively discriminatory" towards commercial users.
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MongoDB was never about open source but about making money. 10+ years ago they were trying to market their JSON store as capable of anything when it could not even handle objects larger than 64 MB: yeah I know you use collections not nesting but try to aggregate complex data without constantly working around that limit.
The fact that it still exists when there are alternatives that are faster and more efficient amazes me.
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The 'traditional' way of storing a database is on a mainframe or supercomputer, where all the information is stored in tables with the information all uniquely stored, frequently containing id references to other tables. For instance, an 'orders' table would have a customer id in it, and the 'customer' table would have their name and address. The programming language for databases like that is SQL - PostGres and Oracle are examples. That model gives you a lot of advantages - the data is always consistent, changes are either made completely or not at all - but every query has to go through one machine, so performance can suck, and you waste a lot of time 'joining' tables together for certain kinds of query.
If you're storing eg. a blog with comments on it, that model doesn't make sense. Each page has a varied selection of comments, comment will have a username and maybe their icon, which will rarely change, but will need to be evaluated by the database every time. It would make more sense to output the pre-rendered page as a JSON blob, and you could have a hundred machines with a few pages each to share the load. Updating people's icons and adding new comments would need to be done by telling each machine to make a certain update if they've a copy of that page; you'd 'eventually' be consistent, but if you don't care about that then you get a very scalable robust solution quite cheaply. Examples of such 'NoSQL' databases are MongoDB, Hadoop and DocumentDB.
Linux foundation have looked at DocumentDB's license and said 'yes, free enough for us', so they'll adopt it.
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Mongo DB popularized the "document DB" model which is just storing JSON in a database and offering a way to interact with it roughly like you would data in a traditional relational DB.
7ish years ago, they got fed up with the major cloud providers offering their free software as a service and changed their license to one that is more restrictive.
Of course this is sort of the inevitable outcome: a cloud provider builds a competing product and then "open sources" it in a way that will allow them to grab mind share and eventually erode the company that dared to demand compensation for a "free" product.
Microsoft added a middle finger by announcing it just before mongo released quarterly financials too.
MongoDB switches up its open-source license | TechCrunch
MongoDB is a bit miffed that some cloud providers -- especially in Asia -- are taking its open-source code and offering a hosted commercial version of itsFrederic Lardinois (TechCrunch)
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DocumentDB is a NoSQL-ish database implementation built on PostgreSQL that has been accepted by the Linux Foundation. It was created by Microsoft (under MIT license) in response to MongoDB's more restrictive licensing.
Time will tell what adoption is like or if Mongo will change it's licensing to be more permissive.
TL;DR « Microsoft began developing DocumentDB in 2024 as a set of PostgreSQL extensions »
I can’t help but think : what could go wrong ? 🙄
(Social Security Administration)SSA's chief data officer files a whistleblower complaint that DOGE uploaded a database with every Social Security number ever issued to an insecure cloud server
cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/36366091
::: spoiler Comments
- Hackernews;
- Reddit.
:::
(Social Security Administration)SSA's chief data officer files a whistleblower complaint that DOGE uploaded a database with every Social Security number ever issued to an insecure cloud server
::: spoiler Comments
- Hackernews;
- Reddit.
:::Whistleblower Warns of Possible Risks to Americans’ Social Security Information - Government Accountability Project
August 26, 2025 Whistleblower Warns of Possible Risks to Americans’ Social Security Information WASHINGTON—Today, Government Accountability Project submitted a protected whistleblower disclosure to the Office of Special Counsel and congressional…Mary Allain (Government Accountability Project)
essell likes this.
London targets noisy commuters with headphone campaign: TfL posters are appealing to passengers who blast loud music and calls out their speakers to ‘be respectful.’
- As 4G and 5G covers more of London's transport network, TfL's campaign is about changing behaviours and encouraging customers to be respectful
- This supports TfL's existing #TravelKind campaign, which encourages customers to be considerate of one another when using public transport
- Posters appearing on the Elizabeth line from today and will expand to other TfL services this autumn
- Customers also reminded to look up from their screens when using public transport in case someone needs their seat more
New TfL campaign encourages customers to use headphones on public transport
New TfL campaign encourages customers to use headphones on public transport, as research shows majority of customers find loud content disruptiveTransport for London
Linux Foundation says yes to NoSQL via DocumentDB
Linux Foundation says yes to NoSQL via DocumentDB
: PostgreSQL implementation of document-oriented NoSQL datastore adopted under permissive MIT licenseThomas Claburn (The Register)
Uncomfortable Questions About Android Developer Verification
cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/36398844
::: spoiler Comments
- Hackernews.
:::
Uncomfortable Questions About Android Developer Verification
::: spoiler Comments
- Hackernews.
:::Uncomfortable Questions About Android Developer Verification
Google announced a program that is proving to be unpopular among Android app development experts. I have questions.CommonsWare: Android App Development Books
Technology reshared this.
Question 3. Why does Google’s privacy policy allow Google to share “personal information” with any “businesses or persons”?
The Google Paradox
Asahi Linux Lead Developer, Alyssa Rosenzweig, Steps Down, After bringing full GPU support to Asahi Linux on Apple Silicon.
cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/36401904
::: spoiler Comments
- Hackernews.
:::
Asahi Linux Lead Developer, Alyssa Rosenzweig, Steps Down, After bringing full GPU support to Asahi Linux on Apple Silicon.
::: spoiler Comments
- Hackernews.
:::
The oil industry and all of it’s executives need jail time for ~~treason~~ crimes against humanity
Asahi Linux Lead Developer, Alyssa Rosenzweig, Steps Down, After bringing full GPU support to Asahi Linux on Apple Silicon.
cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/36401904
::: spoiler Comments
- Hackernews.
:::
Asahi Linux Lead Developer, Alyssa Rosenzweig, Steps Down, After bringing full GPU support to Asahi Linux on Apple Silicon.
::: spoiler Comments
- Hackernews.
:::
Raoul Duke likes this.
Why I'm declining your AI generated merge request (MR)
Raoul Duke likes this.
AI robots are helping South Korea’s seniors feel less alone
A ChatGPT-powered robotic companion called Hyodol is taking over some work from overburdened caregivers, much to the delight of seniors who treat them like grandchildren.
- South Korea has handed out AI companionship robots to seniors living alone.
- Eldercare workers say the robots act as their eyes and ears, easing their mind about clients in the days between visits.
- Older adults form strong bonds with the bots, which occasionally becomes problematic.
Hyodol AI robots ease loneliness for South Korea’s seniors - Rest of World
ChatGPT-powered Hyodol robots are helping overburdened caregivers while providing companionship to lonely seniors across South Korea.Gayathri Vaidyanathan (Rest of World)
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Experts Worry About New DHS Appointee Overseeing US’s Election Infrastructure
Experts Worry About New DHS Appointee Overseeing US’s Election Infrastructure
Heather Honey, a high-profile denier of Trump’s loss in the 2020 election, has been appointed to a senior position.Doug Bock Clark (Truthout)
Methane leaks at California oil facilities are also spewing toxic chemicals
Methane leaks at California oil facilities are also spewing toxic chemicals
Large methane leaks not only unleash massive amounts of the greenhouse gas, but are also carry a toxic mix of air pollutants.Tony Briscoe (Los Angeles Times)
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Just found a relevant site for the US, called:
Tracking methane-linked health risks to communities.
121 AI processor companies, $73.5 billion invested: Where are they?
~States with AI processor companies.~
- AI investment is booming, with $13.5 billion poured into 95 start-ups and an estimated $60 billion in R&D from 26 public companies.
- Tenstorrent secured over $693 million in Series D funding, with investors including Samsung, LG, and Jeff Bezos backing its open RISC-V CPUs and modular chiplet approach.
- Lightmatter raised $400 million for photonic interconnects, while Germany’s Black Semiconductor received $275 million in state-led support.
- Imagination Technologies unveiled its E-Series GPUs, blending graphics and AI in a unified architecture designed for automotive and edge devices.
- Flow Computing advanced its Parallel Processing Unit, a fresh take on parallelism embedded directly into CPUs.
Source: Jon Peddie Research.
'Old things work': Argentines giving new life to e-waste
'Old things work': Argentines giving new life to e-waste
Need a new gaming console? Just make one yourself with an old ventilator. Got an old payment terminal? Turn it into a camera.Tomás VIOLA (Phys.org)
Uncomfortable Questions About Android Developer Verification
- Hackernews.
:::
Uncomfortable Questions About Android Developer Verification
Google announced a program that is proving to be unpopular among Android app development experts. I have questions.CommonsWare: Android App Development Books
Authors celebrate “historic” settlement coming soon in Anthropic class action
A class-action lawsuit against AI company Anthropic over copyright infringement is nearing settlement, with both parties reaching an agreement in principle1. The lawsuit, filed by authors Andrea Bartz, Kirk Wallace Johnson, and Charles Graeber, alleged Anthropic illegally downloaded millions of books to train its AI models2.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup certified what could be the largest copyright class action ever, potentially including up to 7 million claimants1. The lawsuit claimed Anthropic pirated books from online sources including Books3, Library Genesis, and Pirate Library Mirror2.
"This historic settlement will benefit all class members," said Justin A. Nelson, attorney for the authors1. The parties must file a motion for preliminary approval by September 5, 20251.
While settlement terms remain undisclosed, the case had serious implications - industry advocates warned that if every eligible author filed a claim, it could "financially ruin" the AI industry1. Anthropic had previously argued the lawsuit threatened its survival as a company1.
- Ars Technica - Authors celebrate "historic" settlement coming soon in Anthropic class action ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
- LA Times - AI company Anthropic settles with authors who alleged piracy ↩︎ ↩︎
AI company Anthropic settles with authors who alleged piracy
Anthropic trained its AI assistant Claude using copyrighted texts, according to a lawsuit from several affected authors.Cerys Davies (Los Angeles Times)
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should not be gatedshould be protected
Insidious language to imply people who restrict one type of information is bad and anti humanity, while restricting information you classify as 'recreational' - that still provides educational background, cultural identity, a sense of shared community and media with friends, and that is literally out of reach for many poor people in first world countries or most people in third world countries, that do not have libraries, or the funds to buy books and videos - or even the devices to play videos on - no, it's 'protecting' the poor rich billionaire authors who live in their mansions because they wrote a book about a wizard they don't want people to read without giving them even more money to attack trans people with.
I don't think individuals should have to pay - even with their private data
Agree.
[...] and that means companies shouldn't either.
Disagree.
Whn a person pirates, they usually do it for a) themselves, b) their family or c) a close friend. Some might share on a larger basis.
And other than that, they also usually use it for a) educational or b) entertainment purposes.
For companies, it's alsmost always d) On a larger basis and c) commercially.
As most licences and contracts differentiate the two uses, so should the law.
The fact that I can download a book online and read it (sneakily, and technically illegally) doesn't mean that if I became an AI LLC I could download it, along with thousands of others, to then sell as my AI's "knowledge".
Making that an AI's knowledge is "storing in a retrieval system" and commercial use isn't a free use criterion.
The true problem with (common law) copyright is the fact that it can be bought and sold. Or rather, the author doesn't own it - the publisher does. Which goes against the initial idea of the author getting dividends from their works.
2025: 6 anni di PlusBrothers
26 agosto 2019: i PlusBrothers sono nati come scherzo in un gruppo ristretto su Facebook ma poi l’entusiasmo ci ha portato a valorizzarli come vero esercizio di #scrittura creativa.
I primi anni però abbiamo pubblicato le nostre ispirazioni in modo casuale, senza curarci di quanto senso potessero avere le singole storie.
Ora invece il blog multilingua e il #fediverso ci costringono a fare ordine perché non possiamo continuare a comportarci come se chi legge conoscesse già tutto di noi.
Cancellare le vecchie storie? Non esiste, creiamo l’arcHIVio, lo lasciamo pubblico, e ricominciamo da capo. Il virus senziente ha diritto di presentarsi e partecipare ai nuovi social network decentralizzati al pari (e meglio) degli umani.
47 State and Territory Attorneys General Urge Tech and Payment Platforms to Address Deepfake Exploitation
cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/36394223
Letter.
The attorneys general request that:
1. Search platforms describe how they currently restrict or block deepfake NCII content and tools, and commit to further action to prevent their services from being used to propagate such material.
2. Payment platforms outline how they identify and remove payment authorization for deepfake NCII-related content and commit to proactive enforcement of their terms of service to prevent monetization of this content.
47 State and Territory Attorneys General Urge Tech and Payment Platforms to Address Deepfake Exploitation
The attorneys general request that:
1. Search platforms describe how they currently restrict or block deepfake NCII content and tools, and commit to further action to prevent their services from being used to propagate such material.
2. Payment platforms outline how they identify and remove payment authorization for deepfake NCII-related content and commit to proactive enforcement of their terms of service to prevent monetization of this content.
State and Territory Attorneys General Urge Tech and Payment Platforms to Address Deepfake Exploitation - National Association of Attorneys General
In their letter, the attorneys general outlined the broader societal harms associated with illegal online gambling, including its links to fraudulent schemes, problem gambling, money laundering, and other criminal activity.Lisa Jeter (National Association of Attorneys General)
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Breaking Down the Lawsuit Against OpenAI Over Teen's Suicide
cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/36382199
Breaking Down the Lawsuit Against OpenAI Over Teen's Suicide
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Holy shit, I thought it would just be another story of the assistant answering a "Tell me how to die" request (and it did, and it's terrible enough), but there's even worse.
The part where the kid says he'd want to be stopped and the assistant tells him he should hide better to make sure nobody can.
He has told it that he was writing a story so that all of this was for the story. He didn’t get anything from ChatGPT that he couldn’t have gotten from a search engine or a chat room or Reddit.
He was mentally ill, his feelings were affirmed, and he made a stupid decision that he was clearly in no mental state to make, and it ended up with severe consequences. Hopefully some people learn some lessons from that.
How To Argue With An AI Booster
cross-posted from: programming.dev/post/36394646
In the last two years I've written no less than 500,000 words, with many of them dedicated to breaking both existent and previous myths about the state of technology and the tech industry itself. While I feel no resentment — I really enjoy writing, and feel privileged to be able to write about this and make money doing so — I do feel that there is a massive double standard between those perceived as "skeptics" and "optimists."To be skeptical of AI is to commit yourself to near-constant demands to prove yourself, and endless nags of "but what about?" with each one — no matter how small — presented as a fact that defeats any points you may have. Conversely, being an "optimist" allows you to take things like AI 2027 — which I will fucking get to — seriously to the point that you can write an entire feature about fan fiction in the New York Times and nobody will bat an eyelid.
In any case, things are beginning to fall apart. Two of the actual reporters at the New York Times (rather than a "columnist") reported out last week that Meta is yet again "restructuring" its AI department for the fourth time, and that it’s considering "downsizing the A.I. division overall," which sure doesn't seem like something you'd do if you thought AI was the future.
Meanwhile, the markets are also thoroughly spooked by an MIT study covered by Fortune that found that 95% of generative AI pilots at companies are failing, and though MIT NANDA has now replaced the link to the study with a Google Form to request access, you can find the full PDF here, in the kind of move that screams "PR firm wants to try and set up interviews." Not for me, thanks!
In any case, the report is actually grimmer than Fortune made it sound, saying that "95% of organizations are getting zero return [on generative AI]." The report says that "adoption is high, but transformation is low," adding that "...few industries show the deep structural shifts associated with past general-purpose technologies such as new market leaders, disrupted business models, or measurable changes in customer behavior."
Yet the most damning part was the "Five Myths About GenAI in the Enterprise," which is probably the most wilting takedown of this movement I've ever seen:
- AI Will Replace Most Jobs in the Next Few Years → Research found limited layoffs from GenAI, and only in industries that are already affected significantly by AI. There is no consensus among executives as to hiring levels over the next 3-5 years.
- Generative AI is Transforming Business → Adoption is high, but transformation is rare. Only 5% of enterprises have AI tools integrated in workflows at scale and 7 of 9 sectors show no real structural change.
1. Editor's note: Thank you! I made this exact point in February.
- Enterprises are slow in adopting new tech → Enterprises are extremely eager to adopt AI and 90% have seriously explored buying an AI solution.
- The biggest thing holding back AI is model quality, legal, data, risk → What's really holding it back is that most AI tools don't learn and don’t integrate well into workflows.
1. Editor's note: I really do love "the thing that's holding AI back is that it sucks."
- The best enterprises are building their own tools → Internal builds fail twice as often.These are brutal, dispassionate points that directly deal with the most common boosterisms. Generative AI isn't transforming anything, AI isn't replacing anyone, enterprises are trying to adopt generative AI but it doesn't fucking work, and the thing holding back AI is the fact it doesn't fucking work. This isn't a case where "the enterprise" is suddenly going to save these companies, because the enterprise already tried, and it isn't working.
An incorrect read of the study has been that the "learning gap" that makes these things less useful, when the study actually says that "...the fundamental gap that defines the GenAI divide [is that users resist tools that don't adapt, model quality fails without context, and UX suffers when systems can't remember." This isn't something you learn your way out of. The products don't do what they're meant to do, and people are realizing it.
Nevertheless, boosters will still find a way to twist this study to mean something else. They'll claim that AI is still early, that the opportunity is still there, that we "didn't confirm that the internet or smartphones were productivity boosting," or that we're in "the early days" of AI, somehow, three years and hundreds of billions and thousands of articles in.
I'm tired of having the same arguments with these people, and I'm sure you are too. No matter how much blindly obvious evidence there is to the contrary they will find ways to ignore it. They continually make smug comments about people "wishing things would be bad" or suggesting you are stupid — and yes, that is their belief! — for not believing generative AI is disruptive.
Today, I’m going to give you the tools to fight back against the AI boosters in your life. I’m going to go into the generalities of the booster movement — the way they argue, the tropes they cling to, and the ways in which they use your own self-doubt against you.
They’re your buddy, your boss, a man in a gingham shirt at Epic Steakhouse who won't leave you the fuck alone, a Redditor, a writer, a founder or a simple con artist — whoever the booster in your life is, I want you to have the words to fight them with.
How To Argue With An AI Booster
In the last two years I've written no less than 500,000 words, with many of them dedicated to breaking both existent and previous myths about the state of technology and the tech industry itself. While I feel no resentment — I really enjoy writing, and feel privileged to be able to write about this and make money doing so — I do feel that there is a massive double standard between those perceived as "skeptics" and "optimists."To be skeptical of AI is to commit yourself to near-constant demands to prove yourself, and endless nags of "but what about?" with each one — no matter how small — presented as a fact that defeats any points you may have. Conversely, being an "optimist" allows you to take things like AI 2027 — which I will fucking get to — seriously to the point that you can write an entire feature about fan fiction in the New York Times and nobody will bat an eyelid.
In any case, things are beginning to fall apart. Two of the actual reporters at the New York Times (rather than a "columnist") reported out last week that Meta is yet again "restructuring" its AI department for the fourth time, and that it’s considering "downsizing the A.I. division overall," which sure doesn't seem like something you'd do if you thought AI was the future.
Meanwhile, the markets are also thoroughly spooked by an MIT study covered by Fortune that found that 95% of generative AI pilots at companies are failing, and though MIT NANDA has now replaced the link to the study with a Google Form to request access, you can find the full PDF here, in the kind of move that screams "PR firm wants to try and set up interviews." Not for me, thanks!
In any case, the report is actually grimmer than Fortune made it sound, saying that "95% of organizations are getting zero return [on generative AI]." The report says that "adoption is high, but transformation is low," adding that "...few industries show the deep structural shifts associated with past general-purpose technologies such as new market leaders, disrupted business models, or measurable changes in customer behavior."
Yet the most damning part was the "Five Myths About GenAI in the Enterprise," which is probably the most wilting takedown of this movement I've ever seen:
- AI Will Replace Most Jobs in the Next Few Years → Research found limited layoffs from GenAI, and only in industries that are already affected significantly by AI. There is no consensus among executives as to hiring levels over the next 3-5 years.
- Generative AI is Transforming Business → Adoption is high, but transformation is rare. Only 5% of enterprises have AI tools integrated in workflows at scale and 7 of 9 sectors show no real structural change.
1. Editor's note: Thank you! I made this exact point in February.
- Enterprises are slow in adopting new tech → Enterprises are extremely eager to adopt AI and 90% have seriously explored buying an AI solution.
- The biggest thing holding back AI is model quality, legal, data, risk → What's really holding it back is that most AI tools don't learn and don’t integrate well into workflows.
1. Editor's note: I really do love "the thing that's holding AI back is that it sucks."
- The best enterprises are building their own tools → Internal builds fail twice as often.These are brutal, dispassionate points that directly deal with the most common boosterisms. Generative AI isn't transforming anything, AI isn't replacing anyone, enterprises are trying to adopt generative AI but it doesn't fucking work, and the thing holding back AI is the fact it doesn't fucking work. This isn't a case where "the enterprise" is suddenly going to save these companies, because the enterprise already tried, and it isn't working.
An incorrect read of the study has been that the "learning gap" that makes these things less useful, when the study actually says that "...the fundamental gap that defines the GenAI divide [is that users resist tools that don't adapt, model quality fails without context, and UX suffers when systems can't remember." This isn't something you learn your way out of. The products don't do what they're meant to do, and people are realizing it.
Nevertheless, boosters will still find a way to twist this study to mean something else. They'll claim that AI is still early, that the opportunity is still there, that we "didn't confirm that the internet or smartphones were productivity boosting," or that we're in "the early days" of AI, somehow, three years and hundreds of billions and thousands of articles in.
I'm tired of having the same arguments with these people, and I'm sure you are too. No matter how much blindly obvious evidence there is to the contrary they will find ways to ignore it. They continually make smug comments about people "wishing things would be bad" or suggesting you are stupid — and yes, that is their belief! — for not believing generative AI is disruptive.
Today, I’m going to give you the tools to fight back against the AI boosters in your life. I’m going to go into the generalities of the booster movement — the way they argue, the tropes they cling to, and the ways in which they use your own self-doubt against you.
They’re your buddy, your boss, a man in a gingham shirt at Epic Steakhouse who won't leave you the fuck alone, a Redditor, a writer, a founder or a simple con artist — whoever the booster in your life is, I want you to have the words to fight them with.
There Is No AI Revolution
Soundtrack: Mack Glocky - Chasing Cars Last week, I spent a great deal of time and words framing the generative AI industry as a cynical con where OpenAI's Sam Altman and Anthropic's Dario Amodei have used a compliant media and braindead i…Edward Zitron (Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At)
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(The paste above stops just before the table of contents)
wheresyoured.at/how-to-argue-w…
How To Argue With An AI Booster
Editor's Note: For those of you reading via email, I recommend opening this in a browser so you can use the Table of Contents.Edward Zitron (Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At)
enkers
in reply to silence7 • • •Seems the orphan crushing machine is working as designed.
Rentlar
in reply to silence7 • • •theguardian.com/world/2023/jun…
I remember this article from a couple years ago talking about the ethos of taking care of the limited firefighting resources we had. Firefighters in Alberta have 12 hour shifts followed by mandated breaks, which is not a thing in the US.
‘It burns wild and free up there’: Canada fires force US crews to shift strategy
Gabrielle Canon (The Guardian)