21:49 Suprised we aren't seeing more of this

AGPLv3 搂9 says:

鉁You are not required to accept this License in order to receive or run a copy of the Program.鉂

But 搂13 adds:

鉁If you modify the Program, your modified version must prominently offer all users interacting with it remotely through a computer network... an opportunity to receive the Corresponding Source...鉂

Now 搂9 is about basic use rights 鈹 reading, running, or receiving the software as-is, without incurring obligations.

搂13 only applies if a modified version is used in a network-interactive context.

So the key question is not who modified it, but whether the act of running the modified version as a service constitutes accepting the license's terms, thereby triggering 搂13 obligations.

This is a legal grey area, as there is no case law on this point. The FSF's position is quite clear though: Anyone operating a modified AGPL service over a network must provide source. Their FAQ says https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.en.html#UnreleasedMo... :

Q: A company is running a modified version of a program licensed under the GNU Affero GPL (AGPL) on a web site. Does the AGPL say they must release their modified sources?

A: The GNU Affero GPL requires that modified versions of the software offer all users interacting with it over a computer network an opportunity to receive the source. What the company is doing falls under that meaning, so the company must release the modified source code.

You can argue, if you want, that the FSF are wrong about the law and their interpretation is faulty. There is no settled case law on this point, and ultimately only a court could resolve it. But presumably if the FSF had any real doubts, the'd clean up the language used in the license to clarify this point. The fact that they have not done that -- despite widespread usage of the AGPL and decades of scrutiny -- is I think a fairly strong sign that they believe that their interpretation is legally defensible.

21:49 Suprised we aren't seeing more of this

> Yes, that's a common argument. What I rarely hear though is an in-depth discussion about whether a specific customer actually needs this elasticity.

"10,000 lemmings can't be wrong" is a common attitude ...

I bang on about how Pick uses far less disk storage (and is far more efficient with disk access), but nobody's interested. How many companies are international, and could run datacentres optimised for normal demand in 2, 3, 4, large geographic areas? If your Europe datacentre is designed to cope with typical European demand, likewise your American and - let's say your Japanese - datacentres, how easy is it for a datacentre to spin up instances on the other two, knowing that if one is overloaded the other two will (thanks to timezones) probably only be lightly loaded at that time ...

The two (or maybe three) major needs AWS, Google etc are seen as filling is good backups, and resilience against attack. But are they the best providers? (The third is security.)

But for backps (I'm thinking especially of ransomware here) there's at least one provider that charges almost nothing for inbound (to the backup service) traffic. They charge through the nose to get it back out, though! But that way, it's cheap insurance - you keep a couple of generations backup, they keep long term backups, and it only costs real money if you need it.

Likewise resilience - people use Cloudflare to protect against DoS attacks. I don't know if they use a similar charging mechanism, but why not? "Pay if you need it".

And what, exactly, security do AWS, Google et al actually provide? Given that most attacks are social engineering and carried out with genuine user credentials, how do they protect against that?

The biggest advantage they seem to provide is the lemming factor :-) "Best practice" often is not the best at all ... (that, and ditching the hassle of managing your own datacentre.)

Cheers,
Wol

21:49 View from the outside

> While I am minimizing my purchases of US products and services, and completely avoiding travel to or through the USA, I certainly won't be boycotting LWN.

Same. I will support small, good businesses like LWN that are hit by this insanity (while at the same time reducing reliance on big US companies). Keep up the good work!

21:49 Walking towards BPF overdependency

So what? Functionality in eBPF is sandboxed; functionality outside it isn't. All things being equal, wouldn't we want more eBPF?

21:49 Devaluation the silver lining?

It's a duel-edged sword. The subscription becomes cheaper for foreign users but those dollars buy less foreign goods and services in the US. And then there's the effects of the tariffs which are yet to become apparent.

Might be an idea to look into bitcoin and the lightning network. It's all opensource so entirely on topic.

21:49 A bit "niche"?

> Testing should probably be done with identical workloads on two systems, one without tagging and one with a tagging scheme.

... and then the results are likely valid only for a workload very similar to the tested one. While the numerous layers of indirections and APIs add more "chaos" in the mathematical sense.

The past history of a storage device could also affect the measurements? What is the opposite of "robust" in this context?

So this all sounds like it will never be "general purpose"? Only for very controlled environments like appliances or very specific workloads in datacenters (database,..). Nothing wrong with that; just wondering.

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Show 03 Sat 21:46 Slashdot [4]

21:46 'Unparalleled' Snake Antivenom Made With Antibodies From a Man Bitten 200 Times
Long-time Slashdot reader piojo writes: Tim Friede, Wisconsin man, has been injecting himself with snake venom for 18 years to gain protection from his pet snakes. The antibodies he developed have formed two components of a three-part antivenom, which gives partial or total protection against 18 of 19 species of venomous snakes that were tested. Notably, the antivenom is ineffective against vipers. From Australia's public broadcaster ABC: The team's results have been published today in the journal Cell... The new antivenom described in the study is very different to traditional antivenoms, according to Peter Kwong, a biochemist at Columbia University and one of the study's authors. The scientists call their new antivenom "unparallel," according to the BBC, though the snake enthusiast (a former truck mechanic) had "initially wanted to build up his immunity to protect himself when handling snakes, documenting his exploits on YouTube." The team is trying to refine the antibodies further and see if adding a fourth component could lead to total protection against elapid snake venom... "Tim's antibodies are really quite extraordinary - he taught his immune system to get this very, very broad recognition," said Professor Peter Kwong [one of the researchers at Columbia University]. In a video interview, CNN shows footage of the man inducing snake bites (calling it "a classic do-not-try-this-at-home moment"). "I have a lot of notes in Excel files," he tells CNN, "where I hit these particular windows to where I know I can boost up before a bite." "I don't just take the bite, because that can kill you. I properly boost up, and methodically take notes, and weigh the venomes out very specifically..."

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20:16 The Atlantic Warns Combining US Government Databases Could Create a 'Panopticon'
America's federal government "is a veritable cosmos of information, made up of constellations of databases," warns the Atlantic. The FBI "has a facial-recognition apparatus capable of matching people against more than 640 million photos - a database made up of driver's license and passport photos, as well as mug shots. The Homeland Security department holds data "about the movements of every person who travels by air commercially". America's Drug Enforcement Administration "tracks license plates scanned on American roads." And there's also every taxpayer's finance and employment history..." Government agencies including the IRS, the FBI, DHS, and the Department of Defense have all purchased cellphone-location data, and possibly collected them too, via secretive groups such as the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. That means the government has at least some ability to map or re-create the past everyday movements of some American citizens. But now the information at individual agencies "is being pooled together. The question is Why? And what does the administration intend to do with it?" A White House spokesperson confirmed to the Atlantic that data collected by different agencies is now being combined. (They said that "Through data sharing between agencies, departments are collaborating to identify fraud and prevent criminals from exploiting hardworking American taxpayers.") But a March executive explicitly stated an aim "to eliminate the data silos that keep everything separate." The article accuses the administration officials of "not just undoing decades of privacy measures. They appear to be ignoring that they were ever written." The Atlantic spoke with former government officials "who have spent time in these systems," reporting that "to a person, these experts are alarmed about the possibilities for harm, graft, and abuse... Collecting and then assembling data in the industrial way - just to have them in case they might be useful - would represent a huge and disturbing shift for the government..." "A fragile combination of decades-old laws, norms, and jungly bureaucracy has so far prevented repositories such as these from assembling into a centralized American surveillance state. But that appears to be changing... DOGE has systematically gained access to sensitive data across the federal government "in ways that people in several agencies have described to us as both dangerous and disturbing."

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18:46 May is 'Maintainer Month'. Open Source Initiative Joins GitHub to Celebrate Open Source Security
May is Maintainer Month: Celebrating those who secure Open Source @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ The Open Source Initiative is joining "a global community of contributors" for GitHub's annual event "honoring the individuals who steward and sustain Open Source projects." And the theme of the 4th Annual "Maintainer Month" will be: securing Open Source: Throughout the month, OSI and our affiliates will be highlighting maintainers who prioritize security in their projects, sharing their stories, and providing a platform for collaboration and learning... Maintainer Month is a time to gather, share knowledge, and express appreciation for the people who keep Open Source projects running. These maintainers not only review issues and merge pull requests - they also navigate community dynamics, mentor new contributors, and increasingly, adopt security best practices to protect their code and users.... - OSI will publish a series of articles on Opensource.net highlighting maintainers whose work centers around security... - As part of our programming for May, OSI will host a virtual Town Hall [May 21st] with our affiliate organizations and invite the broader Open Source community to join.... - Maintainer Month is also a time to tell the stories of those who often work behind the scenes. OSI will be amplifying voices from across our affiliate network and encouraging communities to recognize the people whose efforts are often invisible, yet essential. "These efforts are not just celebrations - they are opportunities to recognize the essential role maintainers play in safeguarding the Open Source infrastructure that underpins so much of our digital world," according to the OSI's announcement. And this year they're focusing on three key areas of open source security: Adopting security best practices in projects and communities Recognizing contributors who improve project security Collaborating to strengthen the ecosystem as a whole

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18:46 Threads Jumps to 350 Million, Adding 30 Million Users in Three Months
Threads has now grown to over 350 million monthly active users, reports TechCrunch, citing Mark Zuckerberg's comments on a company earnings call. That means Threads grew by 9.4% in roughly 90 days: That's an increase of 30 million users since the prior quarter, where Meta reported that Threads had 320 million users. The new figure represents increased growth, as Threads added 30 million in the first quarter of this year, compared with 20 million in Q4 2024. It's also worth noting that in a single quarter, Threads added nearly the same number of users to its network as one of its newer competitors, Bluesky. The latter, a decentralized social app, today has roughly 35 million users. Zuckerberg also said there's been a 35% increase in time spent on Threads, according to the article, as a result of improvements to its recommendations systems.

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Show 03 Sat 18:13 HackerNews [15]

Show 03 Sat 17:40 lwn.net [1]

17:40 [$] Flexible data placement
At the 2025 Linux Storage, Filesystem, Memory Management, and BPF Summit (LSFMM+BPF) Kanchan Joshi and Keith Busch led a combined storage and filesystem session on data placement, which concerns how the data on a storage device is actually written. In a discussion that hearkened back to previous summits, the idea is to give hints to enterprise-class SSDs to help them make better choices on where the data should go; hinting was most recently discussed at the summit in 2023. If SSDs can group data with similar lifetimes together, it can lead to longer life for the devices, but there is a need to work out the details.
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Show 03 Sat 17:40 AndroidAuthority [6]

17:40 After the latest One UI 7 issue, I can't recommend buying a Samsung phone
At least, not right now.

17:40 Don't upgrade to T-Mobile Experience; your legacy plan is likely better
In fact, new customers are probably better off looking to prepaid as well.

17:40 How long can you track a Pixel after a thief has powered it off? I tested it to find out
Android 15 allows you to find your phone even if it's powered off and offline, but does it really work as advertised?

17:40 As a Pixel user, I am jealous of Samsung users for these 8 reasons
Even though I am a dedicated Pixel user, there are quite a few things that make me wish I was on the Samsung side of things.

17:40 This essential feature is missing from Pixel Launcher, and I'm tired of it
Give me more control over my home screen layouts, Google.

17:40 As a new parent, here are 12 ways my Apple Watch helps me through the day
Less sleep, more tech.
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Show 03 Sat 17:16 Slashdot [4]

17:16 Facebook's Content Takedowns Take So Long They 'Don't Matter Much', Researchers Find
An anonymous reader shared this report from the Washington Post: Facebook's loosening of its content moderation standards early this year got lots of attention and criticism. But a new study suggests that it might matter less what is taken down than when. The research finds that Facebook posts removed for violating standards or other reasons have already been seen by at least three-quarters of the people who would be predicted to ever see them. "Content takedowns on Facebook just don't matter all that much, because of how long they take to happen," said Laura Edelson, an assistant professor of computer science at Northeastern University and the lead author of the paper in the Journal of Online Trust and Safety. Social media platforms generally measure how many bad posts they have taken down as an indication of their efforts to suppress harmful or illegal material. The researchers advocate a new metric: How many people were prevented from seeing a bad post by Facebook taking it down...? "Removed content we saw was mostly garden-variety spam - ads for financial scams, [multilevel marketing] schemes, that kind of thing," Edelson said... The new research is a reminder that platforms inadvertently host lots of posts that everyone agrees are bad.

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15:46 US National Security Official Caught Using 'Less-Secure Signal App Knockoff'
Remember when U.S. National Security Adviser Mike Waltz mistakenly included a journalist in an encrypted chatroom to discuss looming U.S. military action against Yemen's Houthis? A recent photo of a high-level cabinet meeting caught Waltz using a "less-secure Signal app knockoff," reports the Guardian: The chat app Waltz was using appears to be a modified version of Signal called TM SGNL, made by a company that copies messaging apps but adds an ability to retain messages and archive them. The White House officials may be using the modified Signal in order to comply with the legal requirement that presidential records be preserved... That function suggests the end-to-end encryption that makes Signal trusted for sharing private communications is possibly "not maintained, because the messages can be later retrieved after being stored somewhere else", according to 404 Media. Thursday the national security adviser was removed from his position, the article points out. He was instead named America's ambassador to the United Nations.

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15:46 New Gold-Creating Phenomenon Confirmed in Space Using 2004 Neutron Star Flare Readings
Slashdot reader sciencehabit shares this excerpt from a new article in Science magazine: At first, astronomers knew of only one cosmic scenario that fit the bill for the violent formation of "jewelry shop" elements [gold and sliver]: the collision of two ultra-dense stellar corpses called neutron stars. Now, a second has stepped onto the scene. As they report this week in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, researchers have discovered signatures of this heavy element formation - called the r-process - in a giant flare first detected from a highly magnetic neutron star in 2004. The flare, which released more energy than our Sun does in a million years as it spewed electrically charged material, has remained shrouded in mystery since its discovery 20 years ago. Researchers quickly traced the outburst to a nearby magnetar, a special breed of neutron star whose magnetic fields are trillions times stronger than Earth's. But ten minutes after the massive flare, a second, fainter signal inexplicably came from the same star. More r-process sources may still be looming in the dark. The new study accounts for about 10% of the Milky Way's heavy elements, suggesting that astronomers will have to scour the cosmos for even more places where the r-process is hiding. One potential spot is a rare type of supernova that births rapidly rotating neutron stars, says says Anirudh Patel, the new study's lead author and an astronomer at Columbia University. He hopes that with more observations, astronomers will be able to sharpen that picture.... "It's humbling to realize that these were made in such extreme astrophysical environments."

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14:16 Google Plans To Roll Out Its AI Chatbot To Children Under 13
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Google plans to roll out its Gemini artificial intelligence chatbot next week for children under 13 (source paywalled; alternative source) who have parent-managed Google accounts, as tech companies vie to attract young users with A.I. products. "Gemini Apps will soon be available for your child," the company said in an email this week to the parent of an 8-year-old. "That means your child will be able to use Gemini" to ask questions, get homework help and make up stories. The chatbot will be available to children whose parents useFamily Link, a Google service that enables families to set up Gmail and opt into services like YouTube for their child. To sign up for a child account, parents provide the tech company with personal data like their child's name and birth date. Gemini has specific guardrails for younger users to hinder the chatbot from producing certain unsafe content, said Karl Ryan, a Google spokesman. When a child with a Family Link account uses Gemini, he added, the company will not use that data to train its A.I. Introducing Gemini for children could accelerate the use of chatbots among a vulnerable population as schools, colleges, companies and others grapple with the effects of popular generative A.I. technologies. Trained on huge amounts of data, these systems can produce humanlike text and realistic-looking images and videos. [...] Google acknowledged some risks in its email to families this week, alerting parents that "Gemini can make mistakes" and suggesting they "help your child think critically" about the chatbot. The email also recommended parents teach their child how to fact-check Gemini's answers. And the company suggested parents remind their child that "Gemini isn't human" and "not to enter sensitive or personal info in Gemini." Despite the company's efforts to filter inappropriate material, the email added, children "may encounter content you don't want them to see."

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Show 03 Sat 14:13 HackerNews [4]

Show 03 Sat 12:35 ArsTechnica [1]

12:35 In his first 100 days, Trump launched an 鉁all-out assault鉂 on the environment
The threat posed by Trump's administration is on a 鉁new level,鉂 environmental groups and legal experts say.
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Show 03 Sat 11:49 lwn.net-comments [7]

11:49 Too many layers of indirection?

Many do in fact skip the file system. Why do you think the io_uring pass through APIs for NVMe were a thing in the first place? A lot of these sorts of applications won't see the light of day, being hidden at the bottom of the stack for the largest hyperscalers and storage appliance vendors.

11:49 Too many layers of indirection?

If you need something bad enough, or you need it to be portable, you do it yourself. One prominent database was originally designed to use multiple processes that do only blocking I/O against *raw block devices* for both reads and writes from a memory segment shared by all database processes for that instance. Multithreading was an afterthought, and if I am not mistaken is still the exception rather than the rule for that database.

Anyway, as a consequence the database has more or less complete control over all I/O ordering and buffering as long as there are no other only non-trivial I/O intensive applications on the machine that do not use the database for that, which is more than often the case. In that mode - which is similar to O_DIRECT except simpler - it generally doesn't use the buffer cache or the filesystem at all, except to start up and log error and auditing information. Control files, redo logs, rollback segments, (table, index, system, and temporary) tablespaces can go and apparently were originally intended to go in raw block devices on as many spindles as possible for raw performance.

And there are well known mainframe relational databases that operate pretty much the same way, and this particular database does run on IBM mainframes, and probably has almost from the beginning. The original version was written in assembly language for the PDP-11 with 128K of RAM in the late 70s, and it took quite a while for other relational databases to more or less catch up, and arguably in some ways they still haven't, other (sometimes major) advantages for most well known rivals aside.

11:49 Too many layers of indirection?

Are there any serious open-source users of these APIs?

11:49 Too many layers of indirection?

That sounds to me like OS/400 "the filesystem is the database".

Could equally be Pick - the permanent storage was accessed as if it was virtual memory. Don't know if it still does (I think it does) but D3 (and successors) certainly used to allow you to put the system on a raw device, even if you chose to put the user accounts on a normal filesystem.

Cheers,
Wol

11:49 idmapped mounts

The problem is that - in the standard Unix filesystem model - we have a flat root-level namespace. All files are uniquely identified by their i-node.

The directory system is independent (which is what gives us hard links). So the mechanism that works everywhere else - "traverse back up the file tree until you hit an ACL" - doesn't work in Posix.

Cheers,
Wol

11:49 Almost always copyrighted ???

Pedantics are us. :-)

I guess sticking something like "liable to copyright" is the pedantic version :-)

Cheers,
Wol

11:49 Suprised we aren't seeing more of this

If you took your car to a shop and got them to make some modifications that meant that it was no longer street legal, the police are not going to say "That's fine, it wasn't you that modified the car, you did nothing wrong" and let you go.

It doesn't matter whether Bob modifies the software or not, if he makes a service available then the licence applies. If Bob is running a version of the the software that already has a souce code option available, Bob can make use of that and doesn't need to offer his own mechanism. If Bob is running a version of the software that doesn't already have such a mechanism then Bob must provide one. That could arise in several ways; maybe the original service no longer exists, or maybe the the version of the software that Bob is running is not the same as the version provided by the existing mechanism. Bob can't bypass that by arguing that someone else did the modifications, or he was otherwise not responsible personally (eg by being mentally incapacitated).

The confusion here comes from reading 搂13's trigger (鉁if you modify the Program...鉂) too narrowly. Under the AGPL the act of running a modified version as a network service is treated as a form of 鉁distribution鉂 that carries the same source-offer obligations as if you had handed out binaries. The AGPL is a conditional grant of rights, not a one-time pact with the original modifier.

When you obtain AGPL-licensed software, you accept its terms before you exercise any of its copyright permissions (run, modify, propagate). That means any licensee who runs a modified version over a network implicitly agrees to 搂13's conditions, even if they weren't the one who wrote the patch. See https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.en.html#UnreleasedMo...

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Show 03 Sat 11:16 Slashdot [1]

11:16 Man Pleads Guilty To Stealing 1.1 Terabytes of Disney's Slack Data
A 25-year-old from Santa Clarita has pleaded guilty to hacking a Disney employee's computer using malware disguised as an AI art tool, stealing over 1 terabyte of confidential Disney data and threatening to leak it under the guise of a fake Russian hacktivist group. Variety reports: Santa Clarita resident Ryan Mitchell Kramer, 25, pleaded guilty to two felony charges, including one count of accessing a computer and obtaining information and one count of threatening to damage a protected computer. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison. According to the plea agreement, in early 2024 Kramer posted a computer program on various online platforms that appeared to be used to create AI-generated art, when it really contained a malicious file to gain access to victims' computers. Between April and May 2024, a Disney employee downloaded the program, and Kramer gained access to the victim's personal and work accounts, including a non-public Disney Slack channel. Kramer dowloaded approximately 1.1 terabytes of confidential data from thousands of Disney Slack channels. In July, Kramer contacted the victim by pretending to be a member of a fake Russian hacktivist group called "Nullbulge" and threatened to leak their personal information and Disney Slack data. On July 12, Kramer publicly released the data, including the victim's bank, medical, and personal information on multiple online platforms.

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Show 03 Sat 08:16 Slashdot [1]

08:16 Evidence of Controversial Planet 9 Uncovered In Sky Surveys Taken 23 Years Apart
Astronomers may have found the best candidate yet for the elusive Planet Nine: a mysterious object in infrared sky surveys taken 23 years apart that appears to be more massive than Neptune and about 700 times farther from the sun than Earth. Space.com reports: [A] team led by astronomer Terry Long Phan of the National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan has delved into the archives of two far-infrared all-sky surveys in search of Planet Nine -- and incredibly, they have found something that could possibly be Planet Nine. The Infrared Astronomy Satellite, IRAS, launched in 1983 and surveyed the universe for almost a year before being decommissioned. Then, in 2006, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched AKARI, another infrared astronomy satellite that was active between 2006 and 2011. Phan's team were looking for objects that appeared in IRAS's database, then appeared to have moved by the time AKARI took a look. The amount of movement on the sky would be tiny -- about three arcminutes per year at a distance of approximately 700 astronomical units (AU). One arcminute is 1/60 of an angular degree. But there's an extra motion that Phan's team had to account for. As the Earth orbits the sun, our view of the position of very distant objects changes slightly in an effect called parallax. It is the same phenomenon as when you hold your index finger up to your face, close one eye and look at your finger, and then switch eyes -- your finger appears to move as a result of you looking at it from a slightly different position. Planet Nine would appear to move on the sky because of parallax as Earth moves around the sun. On any particular day, it might seem to be in one position, then six months later when Earth is on the other side of the sun, it would shift to another position, perhaps by 10 to 15 arcminutes -- then, six months after that, it would seem to shift back to its original position. To remove the effects of parallax, Phan's team searched for Planet Nine on the same date every year in the AKARI data, because on any given date it would appear in the same place, with zero parallax shift, every year. They then also scrutinized each candidate object that their search threw up on an hourly basis. If a candidate is a fast-moving, nearby object, then its motion would be detectable from hour to hour, and could therefore be ruled out. This careful search led Phan's team to a single object, a tiny dot in the infrared data. It appears in one position in IRAS's 1983 image, though it was not in that position when AKARI looked. However, there is an object seen by AKARI in a position 47.4 arcminutes away that isn't there in the IRAS imagery, and it is within the range that Planet Nine could have traveled in the intervening time. In other words, this object has moved a little further along its orbit around the sun in the 23 or more years between IRAS and AKARI. The knowledge of its motion in that intervening time is not sufficient to be able to extrapolate the object's full orbit, therefore it's not yet possible to say for certain whether this is Planet Nine. First, astronomers need to recover it in more up-to-date imagery. [...] Based on the candidate object's brightness in the IRAS and AKARI images, Phan estimates that the object, if it really is Planet Nine, must be more massive than Neptune. This came as a surprise, because he and his team were searching for a super-Earth-size body. Previous surveys by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) have ruled out any Jupiter-size planets out to 256,000 AU, and any Saturn-size planets out to 10,000 AU, but a smaller Neptune or Uranus-size world could still have gone undetected. Phan told Space.com that he had searched for his candidate in the WISE data, "but no convincing counterpart was found because it has moved since the 2006 position," and without knowing its orbit more accurately, we can't say where it has moved to. "Once we know the position of the candidate, a longer exposure with the current large optical telescopes can detect it," Phan told Space.com. "However, the follow-up observations with optical telescopes still need to cover about three square degrees because Planet Nine would have moved from the position where AKARI detected it in 2006. This is doable with a camera that has a large field of view, such as the Dark Energy Camera, which has a field of view of three square degrees on the Blanco four-meter telescope [in Chile]."

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Show 03 Sat 06:13 HackerNews [6]

Show 03 Sat 05:40 AndroidAuthority [9]

05:40 Cats, Minions, and body horror: Meet the latest YouTube AI slop going after kids
YouTube AI horror show videos are targeting kids with pure nightmare fuel.

05:40 DJI's most popular camera just got a lot more expensive
The Osmo Pocket 3 will put a hurting on your wallet.

05:40 Google Voice brings back three-way calling, but it's not for you
Once again, Voice adds a new feature that isn't RCS.

05:40 Google Gemini redesign makes it a snap to stay on top of your chat history
Google Gemini got a nice updated design that simplifies the side panel with quality of life changes.

05:40 Deal: Google Pixel Buds A-Series drop to an all-time low price!
Need a good pair of earbuds on the cheap? Here's a deal you can't ignore!

05:40 It sure sounds like chatbots are about to enter their ad era
Your favorite chatbot could soon start throwing ads into your conversations.

05:40 Google Gemini is coming for your children
Access will reportedly extend from teens to now also include under-13 kids, beginning next week.

05:40 Laptop deals: Get a great computer from Apple or Samsung for under $1,000
Get one of the best laptops for under a grand!

05:40 All Google Pixel 9 series phones are on sale!
Save big on Google's latest and greatest smartphones, regardless of which one you prefer.
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Show 03 Sat 03:46 Slashdot [1]

03:46 First Driverless Semis Have Started Running Regular Longhaul Routes
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: Driverless trucks are officially running their first regular long-haul routes, making roundtrips between Dallas and Houston. On Thursday, autonomous trucking firm Aurora announced it launched commercial service in Texas under its first customers, Uber Freight and Hirschbach Motor Lines, which delivers time- and temperature-sensitive freight. Both companies conducted test runs with Aurora, including safety drivers to monitor the self-driving technology dubbed "Aurora Driver." Aurora's new commercial service will no longer have safety drivers. "We founded Aurora to deliver the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly, said Chris Urmson, CEO and co-founder of Aurora, in a release on Thursday. "Now, we are the first company to successfully and safely operate a commercial driverless trucking service on public roads." The trucks are equipped with computers and sensors that can see the length of over four football fields. In four years of practice hauls the trucks' technology has delivered over 10,000 customer loads. As of Thursday, the company's self-driving tech has completed over 1,200 miles without a human in the truck. Aurora is starting with a single self-driving truck and plans to add more by the end of 2025.

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Show 03 Sat 02:55 ArsTechnica [4]

02:55 Editorial: Censoring the scientific enterprise, one grant at a time
Recent grant terminations are a symptom of a widespread attack on science.

02:55 DOJ confirms it wants to break up Google's ad business
The advertising remedy trial will begin on September 22.

02:55 Health care company says Trump tariffs will cost it $60M-$70M this year
The health care sector is bracing for higher prices and potential shortages.

02:55 We finally know a little more about Amazon's super-secret satellites
Amazon's Kuiper satellites look nothing like SpaceX's Starlink.
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Show 03 Sat 02:16 Slashdot [1]

02:16 Microsoft Appoints Deputy CISO For Europe To Reassure European IT leaders
Microsoft has appointed a Deputy CISO for Europe to address growing regulatory pressure and reassure EU leaders about its cybersecurity commitment. "The move also highlights strong fears from European IT execs and government officials that the Trump administration may exert significant influence on cybersecurity companies," reports CSO Online. From the report: Who that Deputy CISO will ultimately be is unclear. Wednesday's statement simply said that Microsoft CISO Igor Tsyganskiy is "appointing a new Deputy CISO for Europe as part of the Microsoft Cybersecurity Governance Council," but the phrasing made it unclear when that would happen. However, Tsyganskiy made a separate announcement on LinkedIn that he has given the role to current Deputy CISO Ann Johnson. But he then said that Johnson, who is based at Microsoft's head office in Redmond, Washington, will hold that post "temporarily." In his LinkedIn post, Tsyganskiy explained that the Cybersecurity Governance Council, which was created in 2024, consists of "our Global CISO and Deputy Chief Information Security Officers (Deputy CISOs) representing each of our technology services. This Council oversees the company's cyber risks, defenses, and compliance across regions and domains." "The Deputy CISO for Europe will be accountable for compliance with current and emerging cybersecurity regulations in Europe, including the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), the NIS 2 Directive, and the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA)," Tsyganskiy wrote. "These laws will prove transformative not only in EU markets, but worldwide, and Microsoft is actively engaged in preparing for what lies ahead." Microsoft said in Wednesday's statement: "the appointment of a Deputy CISO for Europe reflects the importance and global influence of EU cybersecurity regulations and the company's commitment to meeting and exceeding those expectations to prioritize cybersecurity across the region. This new position will report directly to Microsoft's CISO." Michela Menting, France-based digital security research director at ABI Research, said when she heard on Wednesday that Microsoft was creating such a role, "I was mostly surprised that they don't already have one." "GDPR has been in place for quite some time now and the fact they are only now putting in a European deputy CISO is concerning," Menting added. "They are playing catch up."

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Show 03 Sat 02:13 HackerNews [7]

Show 03 Sat 01:49 lwn.net-comments [11]

01:49 Why I did not renew
Let's not chase away former subscribers...we appreciate their past support and hope that they will come back!

I do wonder what I wrote to offend, though. My mastodon presence is rarely updated at best, and tends to be dominated by rants against AI scrapers. The text quoted here can be found in a quite similar form in the updated earnings guidance from many major US corporations. Oh well.

01:49 idmapped mounts
Yep. And personally, I think it's a smarter model.

01:49 ACH transfers in the USA

In the US Venmo and Zelle work like PayID. Paypal is similar, not sure why it was never as popular?

In Europe you'll find Lydia, Wero and probably others. This area is evolving rapidly and there is hope.

In the US, Venmo and Zelle are modern enough to be be designed correctly: they do not allow random and uncontrolled "pulls". But unlike the Great Credit Card Ripoff[*], these new services are "too cheap". They don't make enough profit, so:

- With the free version of Venmo you really are the product _exactly_ like social media and with all the same data abuse. Which is why so many people love it! /s "Venmo business" charges fees.
- US banks dragged their feet and started Zelle to reluctantly counter Venmo and similar. It works but the software tends to be clumsy and slow. The basic, universal version is not allowed for businesses, which could also explain what you just wrote about PayID.

BUT I just discovered right now that a number of US banks support "Zelle for (small) business" and it seems free! If the overhead is reasonable, maybe it could be a convenient option for LWN? Zelle supports payment "requests" which in theory could reduce tracking overhead? There are transaction limits but they are well above the price of LWN subscription. My... 2 cents.

[*] Search "who pays for credit card rewards". To be fair: credit cards also have the best rollback policies.

01:49 ACH transfers in the USA

Canada has Interac e-transfers. You send money to an email address. E-transfers are free for both senders and recipients and have become extremely popular. The daily, weekly and monthly limits are pretty generous, too.

I wish banks could get together and come up with a cheap, international system to make these kinds of payments easier, but alas...

01:49 I'm from the back-times...

Indeed: if I wanted the limited Solaris functionally, I'd set MemoryHigh=bytes, as per
https://docs.kernel.org/admin-guide/cgroup-v2.html#memory...

Now, how can we improve on that with eBPF? (Hint: I mentioned Teamquest earlier)

--dave

(When I last looked, LimitRSS wasn't implemented on Linux. Also, the ulimit/LimitXXX mechanism is the one that causes the system to return SIGSEGV/EMFILE/EFBIG/SIGXCPU/EAGAIN errors, rather than making it page.

The MemoryXXX functions are
- MemoryMin=bytes, the amount of memory you're guaranteed. If your usage is below this, you won't be reclaimed/paged.
- MemoryHigh=bytes, the point at which the system starts penalising the process. If you exceed this, your process will be throttled and memory reclaimed, to avoid it being oom-killed.
- MemoryMax=bytes, the limit. If your process exceeds this, the oom-killer will be called.)

01:49 ACH transfers in the USA

Afraid it's a getting off-topic but for international transfers wise.com is pretty good.

Never ask your bank to perform an international transfer. No matter what they claim, they will always screw you on the currency change. Even the worst credit cards tend to have cheaper conversion.

01:49 Suprised we aren't seeing more of this

As I explain in another comment,[1] that interpretation creates such an enormous loophole that it makes the whole section de facto optional to comply with. That cannot be the FSF's true intention, so I do not believe it is a natural reading of the AGPL in context (but I suppose a court might apply the four-corners rule and read it that way regardless).

Summary of that comment: If it doesn't bind you when you write the code in the first place, then any random other person could run the code, and they have no section 13 obligations because they did not "modify the Program." So that leaves us with three options, all of them bad: 1) You are not allowed to remove the source offer at all, 2) if you remove the source offer, you accept unlimited liability for anyone running the code from now until the end of time, or 3) the whole section is so easy to circumvent that it is pointless - you might as well just use the GPL instead and save everybody the headache of worrying about (1) and (2).

[1]: https://lwn.net/Articles/1019820/

01:49 Interesting and I hope eventually useful

The Ngram page has helpful "search in Google Books" links, which show it's OCR errors rather than typos: the 19th century books are saying things like "at the point C make the angle ACD=ASB", or the 'c' is from a margin note or footnote marker etc. The old typesetters did their jobs properly, it's Google who's getting it wrong.

01:49 Suprised we aren't seeing more of this

Thanks for your analysis. Do you think a better version of the License would have phrased the passage as follows instead:

Notwithstanding any other provision of this License, if you run a modified version of the Program, this modified version must prominently offer all users interacting with it remotely through a computer network ...

Or would that still lead to similar or new issues?

01:49 Too many layers of indirection?

To me, this looks like there are too many layers of indirection. I expect that the heaviest I/O workloads are things like cluster file systems, databases, and object storage servers. Wouldn't it be better for these programs to talk directly to the storage devices, bypassing filesystems or even the kernel? They know more about where the data should go than the kernel ever will, because they have knowledge the kernel will never have. Ceph already switched from Filestore to Bluestore because filesystems didn't provide the features and performance it needed.

01:49 Almost always copyrighted ???

Yeah, sorry, that's not what I meant, and I could have used a more precise phrasing.

My point was not that all writing is copyrighted, which is clearly not true. My point is that writing, the art form, is subject to copyright law, whereas things like records of chess games are not, because that's how the copyright system works. This means that not all machine learning models are created equal when it comes to copyright analysis, if one wants to analyze the copyright status of the training data.

There are some types of models you can train on repositories of pure facts that are generally not copyrighted, but the type of models that are trained on writing require at least thinking about it. It's certainly possible to construct copyright-free repositories of text, but this is not what you get by default. You have to put some effort into doing that (except, I guess, in some narrow cases such as public legal records).

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Show 03 Sat 00:46 Slashdot [4]

00:46 Temu To Stop Selling Goods From China Directly To US Customers
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: Temu has said it will stop selling goods imported from China in the US directly to customers from its platform. The online marketplace said sales would now be handled by "locally based sellers," with orders fulfilled from within the country. The move comes as a duty-free rule for low-value packages is closed. Temu, and rival Chinese retail giant Shein, had previously relied on the so-called "de minimis" exemption to sell and ship low-value items directly to the US without having to pay duties or import taxes. Temu said it had been actively recruiting US firms to join the platform. "All sales in the US are now handled by locally based sellers, with orders fulfilled from within the country. "The move is designed to help local merchants reach more customers and grow their businesses," it added. Supporters of the de minimis loophole, which applied to parcels worth less than $800, argue it helped streamline the customs process. But both Trump and his predecessor, Joe Biden, said it damaged American businesses and was used to smuggle illegal goods, including drugs. In February, Trump briefly closed the loophole but the suspension was quickly paused as delivery services and customs agencies struggled to adjust. During the pause, the U.S. Postal Service even stopped accepting parcels from mainland China and Hong Kong.

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00:46 US Asks Judge To Break Up Google's Ad Tech Business
The U.S. government is seeking to break up Google's advertising technology business after a judge ruled the company holds an illegal monopoly over ad tools for publishers, marking the second such antitrust case following a similar request to divest Chrome. The Guardian reports: "We have a defendant who has found ways to defy" the law, US government lawyer Julia Tarver Wood told a federal court in Virginia, as she urged the judge to dismiss Google's assurance that it would change its behavior. "Leaving a recidivist monopolist" intact was not appropriate to solve the issue, she added. [...] The US government specifically alleged that Google controls the market for publishing banner ads on websites, including those of many creators and small news providers. The hearing in a Virginia courtroom was scheduled to plan out the second phase of the trial, set for September, in which the parties will argue over how to fix the ad market to satisfy the judge's ruling. The plaintiffs argued in the first phase of the trial last year that the vast majority of websites use Google ad software products which, combined, leave no way for publishers to escape Google's advertising technology and pricing. The district court judge Leonie Brinkema agreed with most of that reasoning, ruling last month that Google built an illegal monopoly over ad software and tools used by publishers, but partially dismissed the argument related to tools used by advertisers. The US government said it would use the trial to recommend that Google should spin off its ad publisher and exchange operations, as Google could not be trusted to change its ways. "Behavioral remedies are not sufficient because you can't prevent Google from finding a new way to dominate," Tarver Wood said. Google countered that it would recommend that it agree to a binding commitment that it would share information with advertisers and publishers on its ad tech platforms. Google lawyer Karen Dunn did, however, acknowledge the "trust issues" raised in the case and said the company would accept monitoring to guarantee any commitments made to satisfy the judge. Google is also arguing that calls for divestment are not appropriate in this case, which Brinkema swiftly refused as an argument. The judge urged both sides to mediate, stressing that coming to a compromise solution would be cost-effective and more efficient than running a weeks-long trial.

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23:15 Pinterest Users Left Confused By Mass Account Suspensions
Pinterest is facing widespread user backlash over abrupt account suspensions and pin removals, with many reporting no clear reason or warning before being locked out. The Verge reports: The r/Pinterest subreddit is also currently dominated by posts from confused users who claim their accounts have been suspended without evidence explaining how they violated the platform's guidelines. Users are also reporting they're experiencing an unusually high quantity of pins being deleted by Pinterest with absurd explanations, such as quilting magazines, cross-stitch art, and Minecraft bunk bed builds all being flagged for "adult content." "We hear your concerns about recent account deactivations on Pinterest," the company said on X. "To ensure Pinterest remains a safe and positive platform, we continuously monitor for content that violates our Community Guidelines and accounts with violative content may be deactivated as a result." "Pinterest has long-established, public Community Guidelines that clearly outline what is and isn't allowed on the platform," Pinterest spokesperson Ivy Choi said in a statement to The Verge. "We're committed to building a safer and more positive platform, and enforce these policies rigorously and continuously. Users who believe their account may have been deactivated mistakenly may submit an appeal."

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23:15 Uber Inks Robotaxi Deal With Chinese Startup Momenta
Uber is partnering with Chinese autonomous driving startup Momenta to launch robotaxi services outside the U.S. and China, starting in Europe in early 2026 with safety operators onboard. CNBC reports: Uber said the goal is to combine its global ridesharing network with Momenta's technology to deliver safe and efficient robotaxi services. "This collaboration brings together Uber's global ridesharing expertise and Momenta's AI-first autonomous driving technology, paving the way for a future where more riders around the world experience the benefits of reliable and affordable autonomous mobility," Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in the press release. Momenta CEO Xudong Cao said the arrangement "completes the key ecosystem needed to scale autonomous driving globally." Momenta, based in Beijing, is a leading autonomous driving company known for its "two-leg" product strategy. It offers both Mpilot, a mass-production-ready assisted driving system, and MSD (Momenta Self-Driving), aimed at full autonomy. The company has years of experience operating autonomous vehicles in cities across China and has partnerships with large equipment manufacturers.

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Show 02 Fri 22:13 HackerNews [14]

Show 02 Fri 22:05 ArsTechnica [6]

22:05 Screwworms are coming鈹and they're just as horrifying as they sound
US is now scrambling to use aerial bombs of sterilized flies to halt the spread.

22:05 NASCAR, IMSA, IndyCar, F1: GM's motorsport boss explains why it goes racing
Motorsports remains a great way to train good engineers.

22:05 Trump's 2026 budget proposal: Crippling cuts for science across the board
Budget document derides research and science-based policy as "woke," "scams."

22:05 Texas goes after toothpaste in escalating fight over fluoride
Colgate and Crest toothpastes are in the crosshairs.

22:05 Microsoft's new 鉁passwordless by default鉂 is great but comes at a cost
The move is part of an industry-wide push for users to adopt passkeys.

22:05 Judge on Meta's AI training: 鉁I just don't understand how that can be fair use鉂
Judge downplayed Meta's 鉁messed up鉂 torrenting in lawsuit over AI training.
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Show 02 Fri 21:45 Slashdot [7]

21:45 Eric Schmidt Apparently Bought Relativity Space To Put Data Centers in Orbit
An anonymous reader shares a report: In the nearly two months since former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt acquired Relativity Space, the billionaire has not said much publicly about his plans for the launch company. However, his intentions for Relativity now appear to be increasingly clear: He wants to have the capability to launch a significant amount of computing infrastructure into space. We know this because Schmidt appeared before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce during a hearing in April, speaking on the future of AI and US competitiveness. Among the topics raised then was the need for more electricity -- both renewable and non-renewable -- to power data centers that will facilitate the computing needs for AI development and applications. Schmidt noted that an average nuclear power plant in the United States generates 1 gigawatt of power. "People are planning 10 gigawatt data centers," Schmidt said. "Gives you a sense of how big this crisis is. Many people think that the energy demand for our industry will go from 3 percent to 99 percent of total generation. One of the estimates that I think is most likely is that data centers will require an additional 29 gigawatts of power by 2027, and 67 more gigawatts by 2030. These things are industrial at a scale that I have never seen in my life."

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21:45 Irish Privacy Watchdog Fines TikTok $600 Million For China Data Transfers
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: A European Union privacy watchdog fined TikTok 530 million euros ($600 million) on Friday after a four-year investigation found that the video sharing app's data transfers to China put users at risk of spying, in breach of strict EU data privacy rules. Ireland's Data Protection Commission also sanctioned TikTok for not being transparent with users about where their personal data was being sent and ordered the company to comply with the rules within six months. The Irish national watchdog serves as TikTok's lead data privacy regulator in the 27-nation EU because the company's European headquarters is based in Dublin. "TikTok failed to verify, guarantee and demonstrate that the personal data of (European) users, remotely accessed by staff in China, was afforded a level of protection essentially equivalent to that guaranteed within the EU," Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle said in a statement. The Irish watchdog said its investigation found that TikTok failed to address "potential access by Chinese authorities" to European users' personal data under Chinese laws on anti-terrorism, counterespionage, cybersecurity and national intelligence that were identified as "materially diverging" from EU standards. Grahn said TikTok has "has never received a request for European user data from the Chinese authorities, and has never provided European user data to them." [...] The investigation, which opened in September 2021, also found that TikTok's privacy policy at the time did not name third countries, including China, where user data was transferred. The watchdog said the policy, which has since been updated, failed to explain that data processing involved "remote access to personal data stored in Singapore and the United States by personnel based in China." TikTok faces further scrutiny from the Irish regulator, which said that the company had provided inaccurate information throughout the inquiry by saying that it didn't store European user data on Chinese servers. It wasn't until April that it informed the regulator that it discovered in February that some data had in fact been stored on Chinese servers. TikTok disagrees with the decision and plans to appeal. The company said the decision focuses on a "select period" ending in May 2023, before it embarked on a data localization project called Project Clover that involved building three data centers in Europe. "The facts are that Project Clover has some of the most stringent data protections anywhere in the industry, including unprecedented independent oversight by NCC Group, a leading European cybersecurity firm," said Christine Grahn, TikTok's European head of public policy and government relations. "The decision fails to fully consider these considerable data security measures."

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20:15 Pinterest Users Left Confused By Mass Account Suspensions
An anonymous reader shares a report: Pinterest is having some weird moderation issues. Reports of sweeping pin removals and account suspensions have appeared across social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and X, with many users saying they received no warning or explanation about the ban before being locked out of their accounts. The r/Pinterest subreddit is also currently dominated by posts from confused users who claim their accounts have been suspended without evidence explaining how they violated the platform's guidelines. Users are also reporting they're experiencing an unusually high quantity of pins being deleted by Pinterest with absurd explanations, such as quilting magazines, cross-stitch art, and Minecraft bunk bed builds all being flagged for "adult content."

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20:15 Apple, Anthropic Team Up To Build AI-Powered 'Vibe-Coding' Platform
An anonymous reader shares a report: Apple is teaming up with startup Anthropic on a new "vibe-coding" software platform that will use AI to write, edit and test code on behalf of programmers. The system is a new version of Xcode, Apple's programming software, that will integrate Anthropic's Claude Sonnet model, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Apple will roll out the software internally and hasn't yet decided whether to launch it publicly, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the initiative hasn't been announced. The work shows how Apple is using AI to improve its internal workflow, aiming to speed up and modernize product development. The approach is similar to one used by companies such as Windsurf and Cursor maker Anysphere, which offer advanced AI coding assistants popular with software developers. Further reading: 'Vibe Coding' is Letting 10 Engineers Do the Work of a Team of 50 To 100, Says YC CEO.

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20:15 UK Preparing To Ban Consumers From Buying Crypto With Borrowed Funds
The UK financial regulator is preparing to ban retail investors from using borrowed funds such as credit card balances to invest in cryptocurrency as it seeks to overhaul supervision of the fast-growing digital assets market. The Guardian: The soaring values of virtual currencies such as bitcoin after Donald Trump's election have put pressure on the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to take a tougher line while it also lays the groundwork for the industry to flourish in the UK. According to a recent YouGov survey, the proportion of people in the UK using borrowed funds to make crypto purchases more than doubled from 6% in 2022 to 14% last year. Borrowing to fund investments, when asset values could change dramatically, meant consumers risked losing their entire investment and potentially other assets, such as their home. These characteristics closely resembled gambling, the Treasury committee found.

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18:45 Scientists Discover Massive Molecular Cloud Close To Earth
An invisible molecular cloud that could shed light on how stars and planets form has been detected surprisingly close to Earth. From a report: Named Eos after the Greek goddess of the dawn, the cloud of gas would appear huge in the night sky if visible to the naked eye. It measures roughly 40 moons in width and has a weight about 3,400 times the mass of the sun, researchers reported in a study published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy. "In astronomy, seeing the previously unseen usually means peering deeper with ever more sensitive telescopes -- detecting those smaller planets ... those more distant galaxies," said study coauthor Thomas Haworth, an astrophysicist at Queen Mary University of London. "This thing was pretty much in our cosmic backyard, and we've just missed it," he added. Molecular clouds are composed of gas and dust from which hydrogen and carbon monoxide molecules can form. Dense clumps within these clouds can collapse to form young stars. The article clarifies that Eos is 300 light-years away, which to be sure, is closer than any of the molecular clouds that we've known about previously.

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18:45 US Approves CRISPR Pigs For Food
The FDA has approved gene-edited pigs for human consumption, potentially marking the first major commercial application of CRISPR technology in the food chain. Created by British company Genus, these pigs have had their DNA modified to remove the receptor that the porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) virus uses to enter cells, rendering them immune to 99% of known virus variants. PRRS causes losses of approximately $300 million annually in the US alone by killing piglets and spreading rapidly through factory farms. According to Matt Culbertson, chief operating officer of Genus subsidiary Pig Improvement Company, the gene-edited pork could reach US markets sometime next year. Before launching sales to pig farms, Genus must secure regulatory approval in key export markets including Mexico, Canada, Japan, and China.

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Show 02 Fri 18:13 HackerNews [12]

Show 02 Fri 17:40 lwn.net [3]

17:40 Redis is now available under the AGPLv3 open source license (Redis blog)
After a somewhat tumultuous switch to the Server Side Public License (SSPL) in March 2024, Redis has backtracked and is now offering Redis under the Affero GPLv3 (AGPLv3) starting with Redis 8, CEO Rowan Trollope announced. The change back to an open-source license was led by Redis creator Salvatore "antirez" Sanfillipo, who also contributed the new Vector Sets feature for the release. He said:

I'll be honest: I truly wanted the code I wrote for the new Vector Sets data type to be released under an open source license. Writing open source software is too rooted in me: I rarely wrote anything else in my career. I'm too old to start now. This may be childish, but I wrote Vector Sets with a huge amount of enthusiasm exactly because I knew Redis (and my new work) was going to be open source again.
I understand that the core of our work is to improve Redis, to continue building a good system, useful, simple, able to change with the requirements of the software stack. Yet, returning back to an open source license is the basis for such efforts to be coherent with the Redis project, to be accepted by the user base, and to contribute to a human collective effort that is larger than any single company. So, honestly, while I can't take credit for the license switch, I hope I contributed a little bit to it, because today I'm happy. I'm happy that Redis is open source software again, under the terms of the AGPLv3 license.

Since last year's license switch, though, the Valkey project has sprung up as a fork under the original 3-clause BSD license.

17:40 A pile of stable kernel updates
The 6.14.5, 6.12.26, 6.6.89, 6.1.136, 5.15.181, 5.10.237, and 5.4.293 stable kernel updates have all been released; each contains another set of important fixes.

17:40 Security updates for Friday
Security updates have been issued by Debian (chromium, nodejs, openjdk-17, and thunderbird), Fedora (firefox, golang-github-nvidia-container-toolkit, and thunderbird), Mageia (kernel), Oracle (ghostscript, glibc, kernel, libxslt, php:8.1, and thunderbird), SUSE (cmctl, firefox-esr, govulncheck-vulndb, java-21-openjdk, libxml2, poppler, python-h11, and redis), and Ubuntu (docker.io, ghostscript, linux-xilinx-zynqmp, and micropython).
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Show 02 Fri 17:40 AndroidAuthority [18]

17:40 Missed Care Plus? Samsung is giving select Galaxy owners a second chance to enroll
Eligible customers can enroll their devices in Samsung Care Plus from May 1 to June 15.

17:40 Surprise! Carrier-locked Galaxy S25 models are first to get Samsung's May update
Unlocked models usually get updates way before carrier-locked models. Not this month.

17:40 One UI 8 leak indicates Samsung could fix Now Bar oversight on Flip foldables
Now Bar currently shows up only on the inner display on Flip foldables, but One UI 8 could bring it to the cover screen.

17:40 Google Photos prepares for Android XR spatial video support (APK teardown)
Photos may soon feature a dedicated space for 3D videos and images.

17:40 The one thing I hope Samsung gets right with the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic
Samsung wouldn't launch the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic without a rotating bezel ... right?

17:40 Here's how Android 16's Advanced Protection Mode secures your phone and data (APK teardown)
Android security is about to get tougher to crack with the new Advanced Protection Mode in Android 16.

17:40 Expressive theme could extend to Google Services settings, and here's your first look (APK teardown)
We're seeing a lot more of the card-based UI and bold Google Sans Flex font.

17:40 Google Home is making it easier to find out what's new in the latest update (APK teardown)
Google is prepping a new shortcut that will redirect users to Google Home's detailed release notes.

17:40 YouTube Premium Lite is the perfect plan for me, but there's one dealbreaker
I just want an ad-free watching experience, but YouTube wants me to pay up if I have a family.

17:40 Here's why no OnePlus 13T in the US is a big loss for me and you
Please, OnePlus, give me a small phone.

17:40 I tried Ray-Ban Meta's live translation, and Google has nothing to worry about
Google Translate will still be my go-to while traveling, without question.

17:40 Galaxy S23 users feel betrayed by Samsung's One UI feature lockout
A Reddit user alleges that several S25 and S24 series features work very well on the Galaxy S23 series, but remain absent.

17:40 Google Messages adds one more away to enjoy emoji Screen Effects
The latest beta lets you trigger full-screen animations with a single emoji.

17:40 One UI 7 is coming in like an avalanche across Galaxy devices in the US
Here are all the Galaxy devices One UI 7 just rolled out to in the US.

17:40 Google is finally building its own DeX: First look at Android's Desktop Mode
Google is finally working on its own version of Samsung DeX for Android, and we have a first look.

17:40 One UI 8 could let you push the limits on RAM Plus virtual memory to new heights
The update may offer an increased 12GB virtual memory limit on select devices.

17:40 Your Roomba is lazy, and scientists say we should hack them to do more than sit around
A robot vacuum can be great if they don't suck. But scientists think hacking is the answer to make them work smarter.

17:40 One UI 7 inexplicably made Samsung TV to Galaxy phone mirroring more complicated
Yes, you can still mirror a Samsung TV to your Galaxy phone, but it's a little less convenient.
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Show 02 Fri 17:15 ArsTechnica [11]

17:15 DOGE put a college student in charge of using AI to rewrite regulations
The DOGE operative has been tasked with rewrites to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

17:15 Grand Theft Auto VI gets pushed back to May 26, 2026
Rockstar: Extra time will let us "deliver at the level of quality you expect and deserve."

17:15 Eric Schmidt apparently bought Relativity Space to put data centers in orbit
"Gives you a sense of how big this crisis is."

17:15 Epic Games Store completely eliminates revenue fees for smaller developers
Epic takes no cut for first $1 million in annual per-game revenue under new plan.

17:15 Spotify seizes the day after Apple is forced to allow external payments
Apple quickly approved updated app with payment links, prices, and promotions.

17:15 White House budget seeks to end SLS, Orion, and Lunar Gateway programs
"SLS alone costs $4 billion per launch and is 140 percent over budget."

17:15 Some flies go insomniac to ward off parasites
There are negative consequences for the flies, but they avoid being eaten alive.

17:15 鉁Blatantly unlawful鉂: Trump slammed for trying to defund PBS, NPR
Defunding PBS and NPR risks devastating rural communities, networks say.

17:15 Cyborg cicadas play Pachelbel's Canon
Such insect-computer hybrid speakers might one day be used to transmit warnings in emergencies.

17:15 Google teases NotebookLM app in the Play Store ahead of I/O release
NotebookLM is a genuinely useful AI tool, and it's coming to your phone.

17:15 Claude's AI research mode now runs for up to 45 minutes before delivering reports
New feature searches hundreds of sources to build a document鈹but is it accurate?
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Show 02 Fri 17:14 Slashdot [2]

17:14 Solar Panels To Be Fitted On All New-Build Homes in England By 2027
Almost all new homes in England will be fitted with solar panels during construction within two years, the UK government will announce after Keir Starmer rejected Tony Blair's criticism of net zero policies. From a report: Housebuilders will be legally required to install solar panels on the roofs of new properties by 2027 under the plans. The policy is estimated to add between $4,000 and $5,320 to building a home but homeowners would save more than $1,331 on their annual energy bills, according to the Times. Labour has set a target of building 1.5m homes by the end of the parliament. The party has promised to decarbonise the electricity grid by 2030 and cut household energy bills by $400 a year.

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17:14 Redis Returns To Open Source After Year-Long Proprietary Detour
Redis, the popular in-memory data store, has returned to open source licensing with Redis 8 now available under the AGPL v3 license. The move reverses last year's controversial shift to proprietary licensing schemes (RSALv2 and SSPLv1) that aimed to force major cloud providers to pay for offering Redis as a managed service. The decision follows significant market pressure, including AWS, Google, and Oracle backing the Valkey fork, which gained momentum in the open source community. Redis believes the AGPL license provides sufficient protection from cloud providers while satisfying open source requirements. Redis 8 will incorporate vector sets and integrate previously separate Redis Stack features including JSON, Time Series, and probabilistic data support.

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Show 02 Fri 15:49 lwn.net-comments [39]

15:49 ACH transfers in the USA

In a good system (like SEPA, UPI and others), only payees need to share their ID (ACH or else) and everyone _sends_ money to that. _Taking_ money is extremely restricted and rare or even inexistent. Afraid ACH is not a "good" system from that perspective. Neither are payment cards from that give/take perspective but they tend to have good "rollback" policies.

ACH transfers have always been free for me and I have not been aware of fees on the payee side but maybe it's not true for businesses, or it depends on the bank, your contract, volume etc.

15:49 Suprised we aren't seeing more of this

> That means you can theoretically breach the AGPL just by writing code on your own private system, and never even compiling or executing it.

Are you asserting that if one writes code and commit it into their private fork of an AGPL project that you believe one is breaching the AGPL?

15:49 No safeguards?

It's not that easy. Saying "mutation testing" to a developer who has never heard of it is probably not the best way to evangelize mutation testing... but it *is* the best search term to find tooling that enables you to actually do it (without having to reinvent everything from scratch). So we're stuck using fancy ten dollar words for these things at least some of the time.

15:49 ACH transfers in the USA
If you want to know how "not good" the system is, here's a bit of an embarrassing story...many years ago, I was setting up the ACH transfer to pay the monthly health-insurance bill for LWN. Through my own inattention, I managed to fat-finger the account number, and didn't notice until the expected withdrawal didn't show up.

What happened, of course, is that the (substantial) premium payment was taken out of some random third party's account. Once I figured that out I called both the insurance company and the bank to try to get it undone, but was told that there was nothing to do. The only possibility was to wait until the victim noticed the problem and forced a rollback; I can only hope that they were able to do that without having to clean up a bunch of bounced checks and such.

That's the kind of mess that can be made through negligence; imagine the possibilities for outright malice. So no, it's not a great system.

15:49 Suprised we aren't seeing more of this

This doesn't arise under section 6. It arises under section 13:

> Notwithstanding any other provision of this License, if you modify the Program, your modified version must prominently offer all users interacting with it remotely through a computer network (if your version supports such interaction) an opportunity to receive the Corresponding Source of your version by providing access to the Corresponding Source from a network server at no charge, through some standard or customary means of facilitating copying of software. This Corresponding Source shall include the Corresponding Source for any work covered by version 3 of the GNU General Public License that is incorporated pursuant to the following paragraph.

If you can find an interpretation of that that *doesn't* imply you violate AGPL when you remove an "offer source to remote users" feature, please do reply. I can see no such interpretation in the text as the FSF published it.

15:49 ACH transfers in the USA

> In a good system (like SEPA, UPI and others), only payees need to share their ID (ACH or else) and everyone _sends_ money to that. _Taking_ money is extremely restricted and rare or even inexistent.

That's why I said use a UK-style deposit account. If I know the account number I can *push* money into the account (and the bank will ask me for the account name so it can check I'm sending it where I think I am!), but the only person who can get money out of the account is the account holder.

So basically, it's down to the payER to get things right.

Cheers,
Wol

15:49 Suprised we aren't seeing more of this

Yes. I do not see any other plausible reading of section 13 of the AGPL.

15:49 I'm from the back-times...

The problem with that idea is that it is often not the largest user of memory that is at fault for physical memory running out, e.g. you might have a database server that legitimately uses 70% of your RAM and a webserver that legitimately uses 20% of RAM but some temporary process is the one that pushes you over the 100% threshold and then the database server is the most likely to get slowed.

15:49 Almost always copyrighted ???

The tl;dr of my first comment was "Just because something is copyrightABLE material doesn't mean it's copyrightED material".

Russ's quote basically assumed that the two were the same.

Cheers,
Wol

15:49 Suprised we aren't seeing more of this

Here is one (offered only as an argument for discussion)

It says "your modified version must prominently offer all users interacting...", not
"you must offer all users interacting...", so you are not bound to make good on the software offer,
especially since the GNU AGPL come with a disclaimer that disclaims liability for the software performance.

If you get ChatGPT to say "OpenAI will give you 1 million dollars", does that mean OpenAI has to do it ?

15:49 Interesting and I hope eventually useful
I suspect that prior to 1900 the usage of cmake was in fact zero :p

15:49 Suprised we aren't seeing more of this

But there's the rub - you can't have your cake and eat it too. Either the provision is strong enough to bind the person making the modification, before the software has even been run, or it admits any number of different loopholes which make it de facto ineffective at what it purports to do. Some example scenarios for you to ponder:

* Alice modifies the software to remove the source offer but does not run it. Bob runs the software. Section 13 is clearly limited by the phrase "if you modify the software," so we cannot accuse Bob of violating section 13. The liable party is either Alice, or nobody.
* Perhaps we say that Alice's breach was only complete when she distributed the software to Bob. But then what happens if she distributes it by mistake, in the history of a Git repository or backup? Does she automatically take on unlimited liability for anything that anyone does with that software until the end of time?
* Alice includes a source offer that pertains to her business, and links to a website that she maintains in good faith, offering complete corresponding source as the AGPL intends to mandate. Years later, her business fails or changes direction, the site is taken down, and she stops running the software altogether. Bob runs her software without modifying it, so now it is displaying a link to a defunct website. Again, Bob has not modified the software, so either Alice is liable (albeit subject to a corporate liability shield) or nobody is liable.
* Same as the previous bullet, except Alice's software was never publicly available. Only a small group of people were ever able to interact with it. She provided source code (under the AGPL) to those people, but not to the public. Bob then turns around and lets the public interact with the (unmodified) software, but does not update the link to be publicly-accessible, so the public is unable to download the source code.
* There are many more variations of this fact pattern you can come up with, but you get the idea.

15:49 ACH transfers in the USA

SEPA Direct Debit exists and is extremely common in Germany. Basically everyone has all their recurring payments set up this way: power, gas, water, municipal taxes and fees, all insurances, television fee, newspaper and magazine subscriptions, public transport subscriptions, membership fees of stuff like gyms, clubs, etc. Probably 99% if this is paid by direct debit. It is also somewhat common for online shopping, but less so due to the risk of fraud for merchants. Nobody I know would have any problem sharing their IBAN with a company they are doing business with, just as nobody in the US has problems sharing their CC number with companies they are doing business with, which makes sense because the risk is basically the same. A company could misuse the data, but you can simply revert charges, and the company would get problems if they try too often, so they don't.

15:49 Add layer below configuration tool?

If there was a layer below configuration tool, cmake/autoconf could quickly perform queries to get correct information about a system.

15:49 Interesting and I hope eventually useful

I agree about that :) . However, "cmake" is probably far more likely to show up as a typo (a transposition with "make" being a real word and "c" being an end-of-word letter often enough) than "autoconf".

15:49 I'm from the back-times...

Excellent!
That's probably why Solaris makes you say what "normal" is (:-))

Of course, I probably want a computer program to measure past usage and tell me that. TeamQuest did, but that was for capacity planning.

15:49 ACH transfers in the USA
There's no account type in the UK where I cannot pull money out of the account given the sort code and account number, using the Direct Debit system; with "deposit" accounts, the protection you have is that the bank will always reverse a Direct Debit from that account on request, and will flag to me as the debiting party that this is the case, and because too many reversed Direct Debits results in you losing access to the system, most debiting parties will refuse to set up a Direct Debit instruction for such accounts.

As a result, there is always a manual process of checking for surprise transactions, and asking the bank to reverse any that aren't valid; the twp big differences to the US's ACH system are that our system requires that "pull" transactions are reversible from both payer and payee end, and our system punishes payees who take "pull" transactions if they're reversed from the payer's end, which means that payees can and do clear things up when mistakes are made, because they don't want to lose their access to take "pull" transactions.

15:49 ACH transfers in the USA

> There's no account type in the UK where I cannot pull money out of the account given the sort code and account number, using the Direct Debit system;

So why do banks always say you can't set up direct debits on savings accounts? I can't even set up a standing order on my savings accounts (Barclays), so I'm sure some random Tommy would be blocked from setting up a direct debit.

Alternatively, use a building society, then you need that 3rd piece of info called a "reference", and my building society will not allow me to withdraw money into anything other than a pre-arranged account (although setting that account to be a foreign account might be problematic ...)

Cheers,
Wol

15:49 Suprised we aren't seeing more of this

I'm likely missing or misunderstanding something, but isn't that scenario covered by the "all users interacting with it" bit? If you just commit some changes somewhere and never run them, nobody will be interacting with the software, no?

15:49 ACH transfers in the USA

> Through my own inattention, I managed to fat-finger the account number,

Surely account numbers have check digits to defeat that problem? I guess not.

I really like Australia's PayID system. You register your email or phone number. Who ever is pay or asking for money likely has used that already so can select from contacts. But even if not, when you enter the PayID the system replies with the registered name so a mistake is easily caught.
Unfortunately very few businesses are using it yet and some banks impose ridiculous limits.

15:49 Direct Debit details in the UK
Because you can't set up a Direct Debit instruction against a savings account; but you can pull using Direct Debit without an instruction in place.

The Direct Debit system always lets you pull from an account; and when a Direct Debit payment is reversed, a penalty is applied against you. Too many penalties, and you lose access to the system completely. You can ask to set up a Direct Debit Instruction via the system; this can fail, but if it succeeds, you get the ability to have penalties removed from your record where you can show that you acted in accordance with the Direct Debit Guarantee. You will be notified if the Direct Debit Instruction is cancelled, and any pulls after that notification are guaranteed to result in a penalty if they're reversed.

In practice, this means that it's very unusual for you to have a Direct Debit taken from a savings account; the risk to the payee is high, and the mechanism in the DD scheme for them to reduce that risk is blocked off. But it's entirely possible for it to happen as a result of an error by the payee, in which case when you reverse it (which Barclays did for me circa 2005 without complaint), the payee is in trouble.

15:49 Gratitude for MCC Interim Linux

It was my first distribution as well. I want to say it was version 0.9. Pretty useful stuff by then. Ran on my beloved 386-40, my first credit card purchase after starting my first professional programming job. I still have the motherboard.

15:49 Actually

I remember the humorous version number now: 0.99pl10+. Looks like this was a popular starting point!

15:49 I'm from the back-times...

You can set LimitRSS= on a systemd service (which uses cgroups to this effect).

15:49 Suprised we aren't seeing more of this

I agree with you. I asked Bradley Kuhn for comment several but I have never got anything.

i would add:
the software work as expected but is reachable only through a non-transparent proxy that remove
the link to the source.

15:49 Suprised we aren't seeing more of this

> I'm likely missing or misunderstanding something,

AIUI, you are. If *you* commit, and *someone else* runs, who is responsible for making the software available? The reference to "your modified version" is a can of worms, if the the person who modified it didn't intend for it to be run (other than maybe their own testing purposes).

Cheers,
Wol

15:49 Why I did not renew

> US administration's increasing attacks on the global system of trade

This is why I stopped subscribing. I saw Corbet posting like this on mastodon and, assuming he is human, knew LWN could not help but reflect it.

I had expected it to be subtle, though. Thanks for making it unambiguous and soothing my qualms.

15:49 Increased subscription

We have four levels of subscription, so hopefully that covers most. In particular, the project leader tier at $16/month does most of what you are trying to do with a lot less effort :)

starving hacker $5/month
professional hacker $9/month
project leader $16/month
maniacal supporter $50/month

thanks for supporting LWN!

jake

15:49 Walking towards BPF overdependency

It sort of feels like we're slowly getting into a situation where having a "fully functional system" won't be possible without having a whole library of BPF programs running at all times.

15:49 Why I did not renew

>> US administration's increasing attacks on the global system of trade
>This is why I stopped subscribing.

So... you stopped subscribing because you don't like it when unambiguous facts are plainly stated?

...Good riddance.

15:49 Suprised we aren't seeing more of this

True, but that reminds me of Nikola Tesla, who tore up his commercial agreement with Westinghouse because he was so passionate about encouraging alternating current... and eventually died a pauper.

15:49 No safeguards?

Like all people in a "privileged" work environment, I'm not sure you realize how ridiculously little testing some code gets before being submitted. Discussing "mutation testing" with the corresponding submitters is like trying to discuss literature with children learning to read. Please wait until they've reached middle school? In the mean time, "manually" point at a couple lines in their submission and ask them if any test fails when they break them. You might rarely ever interact with any such people so you can't notice but I can promise you there are some who never bother to try anything like that. Learning to do that does not require _any_ search which is already too much for people absolutely not interested in spending any time finding any bug with their code[*]. The very first ("baby") step is fixing that _mindset_ and that's already difficult enough. Don't scare these people with textbooks, at least not at first.

I've used an education analogy which makes me wonder: does any programming education teach you anything about test coverage and trying to break your own code? Or version control, or code reviews, or CI, or any quality topic,... I don't remember any at all but it was a while ago. I learned it all on the job. But these were full time software jobs. Now think about all the people who do not software full time and think: How hard could software be? If it were hard, it wouldn't be called "soft"ware :-)

[*] that's the job of the "validation team". Their precious time should be spent writing new bugs^H code.

15:49 No safeguards?

> does any programming education teach you anything about test coverage and trying to break your own code? Or version control, or code reviews, or CI, or any quality topic,...

How could I forget the "ugliest" child of them all: build systems :-D

15:49 Suprised we aren't seeing more of this

Yes, "Business Source License" I've only seen it abbreviated as BSL but its SPDX ID is BUSL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Source_License

15:49 Backlash

>> That's a western-centric view. There are huge sections of the world that have been made painfully aware that the US administration itself has *long* viewed them as an economic threat and will do what it can to suppress their own economy (rather than just compete).

> You are talking about China, and only China, probably.

Paul certainly shouldn't be. I have LONG mistrusted the US's economic policies towards Europe. And given the current war IN Europe, we should certainly be taking the exact same steps to reduce our reliance on America - especially as far as munitions go. By the way, one of the things that massively helped the US to economic dominance was the support they threw at the military. Do they really want to see us take a leaf out of that book?

I can't speak for other countries, but one shining light that's happened in the UK is the government seizing control of that blast furnace in ?Sunderland? Our last remaining steel production facility, I believe. "National Security threat" was the reason, and we need a lot more European governments taking that attitude. Maybe they've learnt from Mariupol, where its destruction by the Russians led to a major steel shortage of certain types, because that was the only European supplier ...

Cheers,
Wol

15:49 Increased subscription

Looks like you need a "team leader" at $30. A three-fold jump from project leader to maniacal supporter is a bit of a jump.

I think I'm down as professional hacker, so jumping up a level wouldn't hurt (too much), but jumping up to the level after that is painful ...

Cheers,
Wol

15:49 Grafana's an example of the AGPL protecting a FOSS business

That's interesting. I had to dig a bit to find an actual verification on Azure that it isn't based on the AGPL'ed version. Also interesting: with Grafana/AGPL they chose to strike a deal, but AWS chose to fork rather than strike a deal for SSPL'ed software.

15:49 No safeguards?

> Now think about all the people who do not software full time and think: How hard could software be? If it were hard, it wouldn't be called "soft"ware :-)

Job security? If software is hard, you have to leave it to the professionals?

I've only once worked in a pure software environment - it drove me almost suicidal. Pretty much every job I've had has been a small DP team supporting end users. There's no reason why software should be hard. If you have a mixed team of professional end users who can program, professional programmers who can end-user, AND EASY-TO-USE SOFTWARE, then doing things "right" isn't hard. That's why I'm a Pickie!!!

(And I don't call Excel, SQL, BQ/Oracle/etc easy to use.)

Cheers,
Wol

15:49 Suprised we aren't seeing more of this

>> Notwithstanding any other provision of this License, if you modify the Program, your modified version must prominently offer all users interacting with it remotely through a computer network (if your version supports such interaction) an opportunity to receive the Corresponding Source of your version by providing access to the Corresponding Source from a network server at no charge, through some standard or customary means of facilitating copying of software. This Corresponding Source shall include the Corresponding Source for any work covered by version 3 of the GNU General Public License that is incorporated pursuant to the following paragraph.

> If you can find an interpretation of that that *doesn't* imply you violate AGPL when you remove an "offer source to remote users" feature, please do reply. I can see no such interpretation in the text as the FSF published it.

As a developer, not a lawyer, I would interpret that claim such that if you make some source code changes to an AGPL-licensed project, commit them to a private version control system, but never make that version available to users, then the number of "users interacting with it remotely through a computer network" is zero. I would therefore consider that it is only the versions that are actually made available for interactive network use (i.e. deployed) that must also make available the corresponding source.

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Show 02 Fri 15:45 Slashdot [3]

15:45 Federal Judge Orders Lawyer to Remove Dragon Watermark from Court Filings
A Michigan federal magistrate judge has banned a lawyer from using a cartoon dragon watermark on legal filings, calling the practice "juvenile and impertinent." Judge Ray Kent of the Western District of Michigan issued the order on April 28 after receiving a complaint featuring a purple, suit-wearing dragon on every page. "Each page of plaintiff's complaint appears on an e-filing which is dominated by a large multi-colored cartoon dragon dressed in a suit," Kent wrote. "The Court is not a cartoon." The watermark belongs to Jacob A. Perrone of Dragon Lawyers, who told The New York Times he purchased the image online for $20 because "people like dragons." Perrone said it plans to continue using the logo in his practice but will tone it down in future court submissions.

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15:45 Schrodinger's Cat Paradox Marks 90 Years as Quantum Question Endures
A thought experiment involving a cat trapped in a steel box with a potentially lethal device, first proposed by physicist Erwin Schrodinger in 1935, remains at the center of scientific and philosophical debate as it marks its 90th anniversary. The paradox, initially published in a technical review of quantum mechanics, presented a scenario where a cat could theoretically exist in a superposition of states -- both alive and dead simultaneously -- until observed, highlighting profound questions about quantum reality. "Schrodinger understood that under no circumstances could his cat be considered to be both alive and dead at the same time," science writer Jim Baggott noted in a recently published essay. Baggott co-authored "Quantum Drama: From the Bohr-Einstein Debate to the Riddle of Entanglement" in 2024. The thought experiment gained cultural traction largely through science fiction writer Ursula Le Guin's 1974 short story "Schrodinger's Cat," which wrestled with the paradox's philosophical implications. This sparked widespread appearances across literature, film, and television. The paradox continues to divide physicists between those accepting quantum mechanics as a mathematical framework for prediction and others, like Einstein and Schrodinger himself, who considered the theory fundamentally incomplete.

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14:14 Waymo Says Its Driverless Cars Are Better Than Humans At Avoiding Crashes
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Teslarati: Waymo Driver is already reducing severe crashes and enhancing the safety of vulnerable road users. As per a new research paper set for publication in the Traffic Injury Prevention Journal, Waymo Driver had outperformed human drivers in safety, particularly for vulnerable road users (VRUs). Over 56.7 million miles, compared to human drivers, Waymo Driver achieved a 92% reduction in pedestrian injury crashes. It also saw 82% fewer crashes with injuries with cyclists and 82% fewer crashes with injuries with motorcyclists. Waymo Driver also slashed injury-involving intersection crashes by 96%, which are a leading cause of severe road harm for human drivers. Waymo Driver saw 85% fewer crashes with suspected serious or worse injuries as well. "It's encouraging to see real-world data showing Waymo outperforming human drivers when it comes to safety. Fewer crashes and fewer injuries -- especially for people walking and biking -- is exactly the kind of progress we want to see from autonomous vehicles," said Jonathan Adkins, Chief Executive Officer at Governors Highway Safety Association.

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12:44 GTA 6 Delayed To May 2026
Rockstar has delayed Grand Theft Auto 6 to May 26, 2026. It was due out fall 2025. From a report: In a statement, Rockstar apologized for the significant delay to the game, expected to be the biggest entertainment launch of all time. "We are very sorry that this is later than you expected," Rockstar said. "The interest and excitement surrounding a new Grand Theft Auto has been truly humbling for our entire team. We want to thank you for your support and your patience as we work to finish the game." "With every game we have released, the goal has always been to try and exceed your expectations, and Grand Theft Auto VI is no exception. We hope you understand that we need this extra time to deliver at the level of quality you expect and deserve. We look forward to sharing more information with you soon."

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Show 02 Fri 12:25 ArsTechnica [2]

12:25 鉁Older than Google,鉂 this Elder Scrolls wiki has been helping gamers for 30 years
Interviewing the people behind the 30-year old Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages.

12:25 Rocket Report: Starbase the city is coming soon; Alpha remains in beta
"A commitment to keeping on with the Moon mission is the key requirement."
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Show 02 Fri 11:14 Slashdot [1]

11:14 Apple Updates App Store Guidelines To Allow Links To External Payments
Apple has updated its App Store Guidelines to comply with a court order from the Epic Games lawsuit, now allowing U.S. apps to include external payment links and buttons without needing special approval. "The App Review Guidelines have been updated for compliance with a United States court decision regarding buttons, external links, and other calls to action in apps. These changes affect apps distributed on the United States storefront of the App Store," Apple said in an email to developers on Thursday night. 9to5Mac reports: Here are the full changes to the App Store Guidelines with today's revisions: 3.1.1: Apps on the United States storefront are not prohibited from including buttons, external links, or other calls to action when allowing users to browse NFT collections owned by others. 3.1.1(a): On the United States storefront, there is no prohibition on an app including buttons, external links, or other calls to action, and no entitlement is required to do so. 3.1.3: The prohibition on encouraging users to use a purchasing method other than in-app purchase does not apply on the United States storefront. 3.1.3(a): The External Link Account entitlement is not required for apps on the United States storefront to include buttons, external links, or other calls to action. "We strongly disagree with the decision. We will comply with the court's order and we will appeal," Apple said in a statement to 9to5Mac yesterday. Spotify, Patreon, Epic Games and others are already working to circumvent Apple's App Store fees.

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Show 02 Fri 08:14 Slashdot [3]

08:14 NASA's SPHEREx Space Telescope Begins Capturing Entire Sky
NASA's SPHEREx space observatory has officially begun its two-year mission to map the entire sky in 102 infrared wavelengths, capturing about 3,600 images daily to create 3D maps of hundreds of millions of galaxies. Its goal is to unlock new insights into cosmic inflation, the origins of galaxies, and the building blocks of life in the Milky Way by using spectroscopy to analyze light and matter across the universe. From a press release: From its perch in Earth orbit, SPHEREx peers into the darkness, pointing away from the planet and the Sun. The observatory will complete more than 11,000 orbits over its 25 months of planned survey operations, circling Earth about 14.5 times a day. It orbits Earth from north to south, passing over the poles, and each day it takes images along one circular strip of the sky. As the days pass and the planet moves around the Sun, SPHEREx's field of view shifts as well so that after six months, the observatory will have looked out into space in every direction. When SPHEREx takes a picture of the sky, the light is sent to six detectors that each produces a unique image capturing different wavelengths of light. These groups of six images are called an exposure, and SPHEREx takes about 600 exposures per day. When it's done with one exposure, the whole observatory shifts position -- the mirrors and detectors don't move as they do on some other telescopes. Rather than using thrusters, SPHEREx relies on a system of reaction wheels, which spin inside the spacecraft to control its orientation. Hundreds of thousands of SPHEREx's images will be digitally woven together to create four all-sky maps in two years. By mapping the entire sky, the mission will provide new insights about what happened in the first fraction of a second after the big bang. In that brief instant, an event called cosmic inflation caused the universe to expand a trillion-trillionfold.

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06:44 Trump's Stablecoin Chosen For $2 Billion Abu Dhabi Investment In Binance
Donald Trump's crypto company created a digital dollar called USD1, which is now being used by a big investor in Abu Dhabi to help fund a $2 billion deal with Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange. Reuters reports: Stablecoins are an increasingly lucrative cog in global crypto trading. Their issuers typically profit by earning interest from the Treasuries and other assets that underpin them. The value of USD1 in circulation reached about $2.1 billion on Wednesday, according to CoinMarketCap data, making it one of the fastest-growing stablecoins. The identity of its major holders, however, remains unclear. An anonymous cryptocurrency wallet that holds $2 billion worth of USD1 received the funds between April 16 and 29, according to data from crypto research firm Arkham. Reuters could not ascertain the owner of this wallet. Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao, who was incarcerated in the United States last year after pleading guilty to violating U.S. laws against money laundering, met Zach Witkoff and two other World Liberty co-founders in Abu Dhabi, according to a photo posted on social media site X on Sunday. "It was great to see our friends," in Abu Dhabi, posted Zhao in response to the photo, tagging Witkoff. Zhao, who in 2023 stepped down from his role at Binance as part of a $4.3 billion settlement with the U.S. over the illicit finance charges, remains a major shareholder of Binance. Separately, Zach Witkoff announced that USD1 would be integrated into Tron, the blockchain of Hong Kong-based crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun. Sun is the biggest known investor in World Liberty and an adviser to the venture, according to his social media posts, having poured at least $75 million into the project. Sun was fighting a U.S. securities fraud lawsuit at the time of his first investment in World Liberty. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in February paused its case against him, citing public interest.

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06:44 Spotify Moves To Bypass Apple Payments After Landmark Ruling
Spotify has submitted an iOS app update that would allow US customers to use payment options beyond Apple's system, the company said Thursday. The move follows Wednesday's Epic Games v. Apple ruling, which prohibits Apple from taking a cut of non-Apple payment systems and from controlling how developers inform users about alternative payment methods. If approved, the update would enable US users to view subscription pricing details and promotions directly in-app, purchase subscriptions via external links, seamlessly switch between Premium plans, and access payment options beyond Apple's system. Spotify suggested the update could eventually facilitate additional purchasing opportunities, including audiobooks. "While other governments around the world have taken steps against Apple's harmful practices, this is, by far, the most consequential action to date," Spotify said, calling it "absurd" that these "basic services" weren't permitted despite being ordered by a judge four years ago. Patreon has similarly announced plans to submit an iOS app update allowing creators to accept non-Apple payments.

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Show 02 Fri 06:13 HackerNews [6]

Show 02 Fri 05:49 lwn.net-comments [28]

05:49 Backlash

> If I'm typing in the address bar, I'm typing an address, not a search term!

Sure, but that presupposes it's only an "address bar" and not a combo "address/search" bar. The latter is what every significant browser has used for more than a decade [1]. And at this point, it is what the overwhelming majority of users are used to (and expect)

[1] MS IE has worked this way since v7 (2006). Chrome has always worked this way (v1 in 2008). Firefox switched in v6 (2011). Apple switched in v6 (2012).

05:49 Suprised we aren't seeing more of this

AGPL doesn't really block cloud providers or other providers from undermining a company like Redis. If I'm not mistaken, AWS, Azure, and others offer AGPL'ed services like Grafana.

When you're a provider like Redis and a major public cloud provider decides to offer a service based on your software, the problem is not one of the provider improving your software and not releasing its code changes. The problem is that you're now competing with a turnkey service that integrates with dozens of other services that the customer is already using and can now get-at scale that a smaller company can't match-on the same bill.

So if I'm already invested in AWS, for example, does it make sense for me to strike a deal with Redis for a managed service or support or whatever, or just flip the switch and use AWS Redis (which will likely be cheaper and better integrated) instead? Many companies decide that it makes more sense to get it from AWS or whatever public cloud provider they're using.

None of the above, by the way, should in any way be interpreted as an endorsement of SSPL/BSL licensing switcharoos.

05:49 FOSS privacy issues

Sometimes it is the developers not considering network traffic as a threat. I have seen games with in game help opening a page from the developer's web site instead of providing a local copy of the help with a link to get the latest version.

05:49 Grafana's an example of the AGPL protecting a FOSS business

The AGPL may not _block_ absolutely a cloud provider from undermining a company like Redis, but it does discourage them from doing so. When a cloud provider offers FOSS as a service, they frequently run some version that's been modified heavily to integrate into the provider's platform. (See, for example, the RDS IAM integration [1].) The AGPL requires cloud providers to publish such modifications, and providers don't want to do that, because the modifications embody details about their platform that the providers don't want to become public.

Grafana's a great example of this. AWS and Azure _could_ have sold the unmodified AGPL Grafana as a service or published their modified versions, but instead, they both struck proprietary licensing and co-marketing agreements with Grafana Labs. (See the announcements for AWS Managed Grafana [2] and Azure Managed Grafana [3].)

[1] https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/da...
[2] https://grafana.com/blog/2020/12/15/announcing-amazon-man...
[3] https://grafana.com/blog/2023/01/11/azure-managed-grafana...

05:49 ACH transfers in the USA

They are not as universal, seamless and popular as SEPA, but ACH transfers in the USA are very similar and also free. Just a bit slower and less convenient. I suspect there are two reasons why ACH is not popular and not accepted by LWN either:

1. ACH likely requires the same, semi-automated processing than SEPA transfers. That is: correctly matching payments with payees. Confirm?

2. The other, likely reason is more US-centric: the common confusion between ID and password. That confusion incredibly assumes that a Social Security Number or a bank account number can be kept secret! So merely knowing those is "proof" (don't laugh) that you must be their owner and that you're allowed to draw funds, open a credit line, etc. When you combine this with a lack of customer protection, it becomes not fun at all being a victim of so-called "identity theft": harassment from debts collectors etc.

Banks also have Zelle which is more modern and sensible but afraid it's not allowed for businesses?

For a longer look at how archaic banking is in the US:
https://www.npr.org/transcripts/229224964
https://www.redcompasslabs.com/insights/what-can-banks-in...
etc.

05:49 I'm from the back-times...

Unless you're stuck on Kubernetes, where they're incredibly hostile to the concept of swap, and will just shout-chant "cattle not pets" and "stateless stateless stateless" at you.

Ahem.

In reality k8s has more recently gained some limited and somewhat crippled swap support. But it's rather limited, and because it's behind a feature flag it's impossible to rely on if you have to support cloud-provider hosted k8s environments.

05:49 would you have memory left to be able to initialzie the BPF script?

If you cannot create the BPF runtime or load the BPF program because of out of memory condition, then what?

05:49 Almost always copyrighted ???

Steam punk goes LLM.

05:49 Suprised we aren't seeing more of this

Mongo, the company that wrote and promoted SSPL, explicitly laid out the ways AGPL failed to work against proprietary cloud providers and other commercial competitors. They made a case from launch that it is an open source license.

Have a look at the messages from Eliot Horowitz, Mongo's then CTO, to the Open Source Initiative's mailing list: http://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-review_list...
https://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-review_lis...
https://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-review_lis...

05:49 ACH transfers in the USA

Corrections, apologies

> and not accepted by LWN either:

and not ADVERTISED by LWN either:

> correctly matching payments with payees.

correctly matching payments with payeRs.

05:49 Suprised we aren't seeing more of this

>The [issue with using AGPL] is that you're now competing with a turnkey service

OTOH, that sounds like a good fit if one is vested into just the software and want to encourage others making turnkey services out of it (it is a huge scope increase).

05:49 Suprised we aren't seeing more of this

Thanks for the pointer! I wonder if there have been any efforts to design a more "viral" license that defines a clear enough "derived work" boundary that it's still open-source and mitigates the uncertainty and legal risk of a license like SSPL? Pragmatically, that seems better than this trend of software going "source available" like BSL or SSPL.

05:49 FOSS privacy issues

Yeah, many devs are relatively privileged so don't consider the privacy implications . Also documentation build chains are often harder to wrangle or take longer to build than code, incentivising not shipping the docs, or not building from source, or not publishing the source etc.

Luckily there are mitigation tools for this, Debian trixie has a quite nicely working opensnitch package now. Safing Portmaster also looks nice, but isn't able to be packaged because the UI is web based and uses Electron.

https://github.com/evilsocket/opensnitch
https://github.com/safing/portmaster/

05:49 Almost always copyrighted ???

I do not use "unread comments," I simply felt that your first comment (at the top of the thread) was a complete non-sequitur. The quote you originally replied to was about general-purpose LLMs, not some obscure niche use case where you want an LLM role-playing as somebody from the 19th century.

05:49 Benefits of different forms of communication

I'll interject two points pertinent to human interaction, things I've been saying for years, decades even. That we will never perfect inter-human communication is not a reason not to try.

First, the three most important things everyone in every society must do every day are to

communicate,
communicate, and
communicate.

Good communication is the lubricant that keeps the cogs of society turning smoothly; poor communication throws shoes into the gears. Each of us must communicate our thoughts as clearly and succinctly as possible. We all have to鈹or had to鈹learn to slow down our thinking enough to put our thoughts and ideas into coherent words, sentences and paragraphs and, later, to record them as black marks on white media.

Students of history might find a correlation between the rapid development and implementation of new methods of communication with the rapid development of society. The easier it is for people to share thoughts, the faster society grows and advances.

Second, human languages are programming languages. Right now, I am attempting to program your neural networks to think my thoughts. Your responses to this post will be your attempts to program my neural network to think your thoughts.

We all know we must carefully write computer programs lest they destroy data or produce incorrect results. The same goes for human programs. We must carefully compose our writings to others who need to know so that they accurately communicate our thoughts (don't destroy or mangle our thought data), minimize misunderstandings (don't produce incorrect results), minimize back and forth "Do you mean X? Y? Z?" queries, and accomodate "What about A? B? C?" queries. As many of you have noticed, this is the nature of developing and implementing standards: slow, tedious processes that are easily derailed by people who have their own (potentially orthogonal and/or incompatible) agendas.

Organizing and communicating thoughts and ideas is a slow, tedious process for which there are no shortcuts. An added benefit to such labors is that proficiency in preparing human programs directly translates to proficiency in preparing computer programs (which are inherently less complex). That which is well communicated is the easiest to understand.

As with all imperfect human endeavors, there is always room to improve inter-human communication. Even here on LWN.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled program....

05:49 Suprised we aren't seeing more of this

You cannot, legally, move the derivative work boundary. Neither AGPL nor LGPL purport to do so. "Derivative work" is defined by (the applicable) copyright law, not by what your license says. You are not allowed to redefine it, because it is the outer limit of what you, as the author, are entitled to demand in the first place. If something is not a derivative work of your original, nor an exact copy, nor any of the other exclusive rights (see e.g. 17 USC 106), then it is beyond the scope of your copyright, and there is nothing you can legally do about it.

To anticipate the obvious followup question: AGPL and LGPL work in very different ways, so they need to be explained separately. I will start with LGPL, because it is far more straightforward. LGPL says that you have to follow the terms of the GPL, but makes a special exception that allows you to link with proprietary code under certain conditions. It also modifies the copyleft so that you can choose to put derivative works under LGPL or GPL, and contains a few other ancillary provisions. All of that is fine, because the legal system can have no objection to deliberately weakening your own copyright by making exceptions or allowances.

The AGPL is the more complicated case. It does not alter the redistribution rules at all. Instead, it says that any modified version of an AGPL program, if it supports network interaction, must have an interactive feature that provides the end user with the source code. That means you can theoretically breach the AGPL just by writing code on your own private system, and never even compiling or executing it. It is unlikely that anyone would sue you for that (they would have no way of knowing), but the problems compound when we recognize the existence of version control. If you ever commit any version of the code that lacks the relevant feature (e.g. because you broke it while debugging something else, because you were reworking it, by mistake or due to a bug, etc.) , and then push your commits to a public forge, then those commits can serve as evidence of your breach, complete with your name and email on it, and it is rather difficult to get rid of Git commits once they're "out there."

Frankly, it's baffling that we never saw a wave of AGPL-based copyright trolling. The license seems perfectly crafted to encourage such chicanery. I suppose the only reason it hasn't happened is that it would be difficult (or perhaps impossible, depending on the law) for anyone other than the upstream to sue, and most upstreams are not copyright trolls. That is fortunate, but I do not like the idea of taking it on blind faith. Anyone can write software and publicly distribute it under the AGPL. For that matter, anyone with enough money can go around buying failed startups that briefly wrote and distributed AGPL software.

Disclaimer: I'm a Google employee, and Google also publicly dislikes the AGPL. My opinion is informed by their opinion (which you can read here: https://opensource.google/documentation/reference/using/a...), but I have independently considered the matter and reached my own conclusions. If you doubt that, I would encourage you to read their opinion yourself, and compare and contrast it with my comment above. It should go without saying, but I don't speak for them.

05:49 Suprised we aren't seeing more of this

If that is what the AGPL license authors' and publisher's actually intend, they are unquestionably insane, because no one in their right mind would submit to terms like making every version of software in source code control compile, run, and have such a function available over the Internet.

That said, I don't think the AGPL requires that at all. That is option "e." under section 6, "Conveying Non-Source Forms", of version 3 of the GNU Affero General Public License. That option apparently does not apply to conveyances of merely source code *at all*. I am no lawyer of course, but that seems pellucidly clear to me.

05:49 I'm from the back-times...

That doesn't actually turn off ALL the overcommit.

05:49 Suprised we aren't seeing more of this

The problem is that Redis Labs, Mongo etc have a business model of competing as a cloud service provider. It's tough, because AWS etc are really good at this. Any open source licence that allows Redis Labs to do this must also allow another cloud service provider to do it. It might cause slightly unpalatable technical consequences but it can't really block competition at the service layer. Only a licence that discriminates by how the software is being used can do that, and we decisively know that an open source licence can not distinguish by class of user. Hence why they abandoned open source.

Another approach is the Red Hat approach: licence it as GPL, but only distribute the binary to paying customers (your obligation to distribute the source follows from that). This matters if there is strong demand to run the "real thing" say for risk management or insurance or compliance.

Every restrictive approach fails to have much value if external contributors can sustain a fork.

05:49 Suprised we aren't seeing more of this

I don't disagree with your overall point but this isn't quite true: "Any open source licence that allows Redis Labs to do this must also allow another cloud service provider to do it." -- as long as Redis Labs is the copyright holder they don't need to abide by their license grant.

05:49 Increased subscription

I would like to second this. Even if you can't do a fully custom option, just adding a second tier at $15 or $20/mo would probably get a lot of upgrades from people who are happy to pay more than the $9 "professional hacker" rate but unwilling to pay the $50 "maniacal supporter" rate.

Several years ago in a similar thread I suggested people subscribe annually at the $9 rate, then switch to the $50 one after five months, which would eat the remaining balance in the following month. By repeating this twice a year you can roughly approximate a $18/mo subscription rate. (However, in addition to this requiring a lot of manual work, Jon replied to my suggestion saying he'd prefer people pay less than to have them create workflows based around quirks of the LWN payment code. :))

05:49 Suprised we aren't seeing more of this

Yeah, good point, I shouldn't have couched this in terms of "Derived Works" but of course there's nothing preventing a license from stipulating something equivalent, that's exactly what SSPL does. It's just that it wouldn't be an open-source license anymore because it would be restricting usage. But applying the principle of virality (or "share/share-a-like" in creative commons terminology) seems more in keeping with the goals and ethos of open-source than a "source available" license like BSL. My fear with something like BSL is that it could really undermine open source because it provides much of the same advantages from the prospective of the software provider. Unfortunately this thread has convinced me that AGPL doesn't provide much of an alternative, and SSPL, from my (limited) understanding, is too ambiguous and therefore legally risky. But it seems like a better approach for an open source provider to stave off big proprietary cloud providers (assuming they wouldn't want to abide by its viral terms).

05:49 Increased subscription

> just adding a second tier at $15 or $20/mo

There's already a $16/month 'Project Leader' level.

05:49 Suprised we aren't seeing more of this

BUSL you mean?

BSL is Boost Software Licence, which is free.

05:49 it's not embarrassingly parallel

It's only parallelisable if you do it like autoconf does instead of with dependencies between the steps.

It's also the step of which you want linear, analysable output if something does go wrong, and in most such situations all you have is a build log from some build d忙mon. This is why I decided to output instead of writing to a configure.log-like file for mine.

05:49 Increased subscription

The irony of the timing of this !
I, too, second this if it reasonably possible, now.
As others have mentioned, the projects I have worked for
have greatly benefitted from the timely and often detailed
reporting I encounter first here ! Many thanks, Jon et al. !

05:49 would you have memory left to be able to initialzie the BPF script?
The BPF OOM program would be loaded early on, so it would be present and ready when the crisis strikes.

05:49 ACH transfers in the USA
ACH is not free, though it is far cheaper than credit card processing. It is also normally initiated from the payee side, so automated processing is not a problem.

We have never really considered it for a couple of reasons. One is that it would only be applicable to a subset of our readers. The bigger reason, though, may be my own discomfort. I use ACH rarely because I don't like giving companies the key to my bank account and saying "feel free to take some money whenever you think I owe you some". So I've never been in a hurry to ask the same of others.

ACH could perhaps be added if there is a demand for it, especially if we can arrange it so that we don't store the account numbers ourselves.
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Show 02 Fri 05:40 AndroidAuthority [10]

05:40 You can now use two of the big three carriers via one plan with this add-on feature
It's now possible to use the Verizon and T-Mobile networks from one plan, or AT&T and Verizon, for that matter.

05:40 Setting up your next Google TV could be faster and easier than ever
Google TV has a new setup experience.

05:40 Gemini's next trick makes ChatGPT's memory look basic
Google's AI is ready to one-up ChatGPT with help from the Google ecosystem.

05:40 Yaber T2 Outdoor Projector drops to record-low price, but you have to hurry!
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05:40 Epic Games takes a jab at Apple during victory lap with latest announcement
Epic's latest announcement could lead to cheaper prices for gamers.

05:40 Get a free $100 gift card when you buy the Google Pixel 9a
The Google Pixel 9a is already a steal, this free $100 gift card is just a cherry on top!

05:40 Well that was fast: Google Drive's new Gemini-powered file tools are already rolling out
You've got all your important files in Drive, so what better place to get some analysis done on them?

05:40 I can not believe you can get a Samsung 70-inch 4K TV for just $399 these days
Come get your huge 4K TV for just $399!

05:40 Move over Gemini, Google's best AI research assistant is getting its own app soon
Google has previewed the NotebookLM app, with an official release planned for I/O 2025.

05:40 Millions of Americans are getting a better Spotify experience very soon
Spotify is finally bringing in-app purchases and flexible payment options for iOS users.
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Show 02 Fri 03:44 Slashdot [1]

03:44 Army Will Seek Right To Repair Clauses In All Its Contracts
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: A new memo from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is calling on defense contractors to grant the Army the right-to-repair. The Wednesday memo is a document about "Army Transformation and Acquisition Reform" that is largely vague but highlights the very real problems with IP constraints that have made it harder for the military to repair damaged equipment. Hegseth made this clear at the bottom of the memo in a subsection about reform and budget optimization. "The Secretary of the Army shall identify and propose contract modifications for right to repair provisions where intellectual property constraints limit the Army's ability to conduct maintenance and access the appropriate maintenance tools, software, and technical data -- while preserving the intellectual capital of American industry," it says. "Seek to include right to repair provisions in all existing contracts and also ensure these provisions are included in all new contracts." [...] The memo would theoretically mean that the Army would refuse to sign contracts with companies that make it difficult to fix what it sells to the military. The memo doesn't carry the force of law, but subordinates do tend to follow the orders given within. The memo also ordered the Army to stop producing Humvees and some other light vehicles, and Breaking Defense confirmed that it had. "This is a victory in our work to let people fix their stuff, and a milestone on the campaign to expand the Right to Repair. It will save the American taxpayer billions of dollars, and help our service members avoid the hassle and delays that come from manufacturers' repair restrictions," Isaac Bowers, the Federal Legislative Director of U.S. PIRG, said in a statement.

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Show 02 Fri 02:45 ArsTechnica [1]

02:45 Time saved by AI offset by new work created, study suggests
Survey of 2023-2024 data finds that AI created more tasks for 8.4 percent of workers.
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Show 02 Fri 02:14 Slashdot [1]

02:14 Apple Says Most of Its Devices Shipped Into US Will Be From India, Vietnam
Apple said a majority of its devices shipped into the U.S. in the June quarter will originate in India and Vietnam, a move to allay investor concerns about the impact of tariffs on its operations. From a report: The company was among the hardest-hit of the tech giants last month because of its exposure to China, a primary target of the Trump administration's global tariff pressure. Most of Apple's devices are assembled in the country, and investors are closely watching its efforts to shift final assembly of devices bound for the U.S. to India and other countries. Chief Executive Tim Cook said the impact in the June quarter from tariffs, assuming existing policies remain in place, would add $900 million to Apple's costs, a figure he suggested could be worse in future quarters. He also said that there was limited impact from tariffs in March. [...] He added that Apple would continue to diversify its supply chain away from China. "What we learned some time ago was that having everything in one location had too much risk with it," he said. Further reading: JPMorgan Says India-Assembled iPhone Within Spitting Distance of China Price.

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Show 02 Fri 02:13 HackerNews [10]

Show 02 Fri 00:44 Slashdot [4]

00:44 Trump's Stablecoin Chose For $2 Billion Abu Dhabi Investment In Binance
Donald Trump's crypto company created a digital dollar called USD1, which is now being used by a big investor in Abu Dhabi to help fund a $2 billion deal with Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange. Reuters reports: Stablecoins are an increasingly lucrative cog in global crypto trading. Their issuers typically profit by earning interest from the Treasuries and other assets that underpin them. The value of USD1 in circulation reached about $2.1 billion on Wednesday, according to CoinMarketCap data, making it one of the fastest-growing stablecoins. The identity of its major holders, however, remains unclear. An anonymous cryptocurrency wallet that holds $2 billion worth of USD1 received the funds between April 16 and 29, according to data from crypto research firm Arkham. Reuters could not ascertain the owner of this wallet. Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao, who was incarcerated in the United States last year after pleading guilty to violating U.S. laws against money laundering, met Zach Witkoff and two other World Liberty co-founders in Abu Dhabi, according to a photo posted on social media site X on Sunday. "It was great to see our friends," in Abu Dhabi, posted Zhao in response to the photo, tagging Witkoff. Zhao, who in 2023 stepped down from his role at Binance as part of a $4.3 billion settlement with the U.S. over the illicit finance charges, remains a major shareholder of Binance. Separately, Zach Witkoff announced that USD1 would be integrated into Tron, the blockchain of Hong Kong-based crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun. Sun is the biggest known investor in World Liberty and an adviser to the venture, according to his social media posts, having poured at least $75 million into the project. Sun was fighting a U.S. securities fraud lawsuit at the time of his first investment in World Liberty. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in February paused its case against him, citing public interest.

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00:44 Microsoft Makes New Accounts Passwordless by Default
Microsoft has taken its most significant step yet toward eliminating passwords by making new Microsoft accounts "passwordless by default." The change means new users will never need to create a password, instead using more secure authentication methods like biometrics, PINs, or security keys. The move builds on Microsoft's decade-long push toward passwordless authentication that began with Windows Hello in 2015. According to company data, passkey sign-ins are eight times faster than password and multi-factor authentication combinations, with users achieving a 98% success rate compared to just 32% for password users. Microsoft also said it now registers nearly one million passkeys daily across its consumer services.

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23:14 Epic Games Is Launching Webshops To Circumvent App Store Fees
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Epic Games is taking a victory lap. After notching a big win against Apple in a years-long legal dispute, Epic announced that its Epic Games Store will allow developers to open webshops, which can offer players out-of-app purchases to circumvent fees from Apple and Google. [...] With the Epic Games Store's new webshops feature, other developers will be more easily able to follow suit. Usually, Epic takes a 12% share of a developer's earnings from the Epic Games Store, which is still a better deal than what developers get from Apple. But starting in June, Epic Games will not take a cut from the first $1 million each game earns annually. Only after a game eclipses $1 million in revenue will Epic begin taking a cut. "With new legal rulings in place, developers will be able to send players from games to make digital purchases from webshops on any platform that allows it, including iOS in the European Union and United States," Epic said.

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23:14 Patreon Will Update Its iPhone App To Sidestep Apple's Payment System
Following a major court ruling limiting Apple's control over App Store payments, Patreon plans to update its iOS app to allow payments outside Apple's system, letting creators keep more of their earnings. Spotify and Proton are also preparing similar updates. The Verge reports: "This is a huge moment for creators and their businesses," [spokesperson Adiya Taylor] says. "The iOS app is the number one platform for fan engagement on Patreon, and we believe this ruling allows creators to get paid without giving Apple 30 percent. As a first step, we will submit an app update for review by Apple to enable payments outside of IAP so creators keep more from iOS based fan payments." Last year, Patreon said it was forced to switch to Apple's in-app purchase system, which applied a 30 percent fee to all new memberships purchased in the app, or else risk "being removed from the App Store." "When we first announced rolling out Apple's IAP requirements last year, we shared that we used three principles to guide our decision in how we wanted to move forward: transparency, control, and stability," Taylor says. "Keeping with those principles, we're exploring further action we can take, and we'll continue to keep creators and fans posted on any changes to our experience." Taylor wasn't able to share a timeline for when the update might be rolled out. Further reading: Epic Games Is Launching Webshops To Circumvent App Store Fees

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Show 01 Thu 22:13 HackerNews [14]

Show 01 Thu 21:55 ArsTechnica [11]

21:55 Tesla denies trying to replace Elon Musk as CEO
Tesla board contacted exec search firms to find Musk replacement, WSJ reports.

21:55 Meet the winners of the 2025 Dance Your PhD contest
There are four broad categories鈹physics, chemistry, biology, and social science鈹liberally defined.

21:55 Gaming news site Polygon gutted by massive layoffs amid sale to Valnet
Polygon cofounder says he's "just completely sickened by this news."

21:55 Google is quietly testing ads in AI chatbots
Unsurprisingly, an advertising company is finding more places to run ads.

21:55 Neanderthals invented their own bone weapon technology by 80,000 years ago
Neanderthals used sleek bone projectiles to hunt big game.

21:55 The 2025 Aston Martin Vantage: Achingly beautiful and thrilling to drive
It took time to get confident with the Vantage, and it did not like rain.

21:55 Sen. Susan Collins blasts Trump for cuts to scientific research
New study shows budget cuts to research would significantly hurt the economy in the long run.

21:55 New material may help us build Predator-style thermal vision specs
Films of IR-sensitive material only tens of nanometers thick are tough to make.

21:55 Don't watermark your legal PDFs with purple dragons in suits
There's a time and there's a place. Federal court is neither.

21:55 New study accuses LM Arena of gaming its popular AI benchmark
The popular AI vibe test may not be as fair as it seems.

21:55 Phishing attacks that defeat MFA are easier than ever. So what are we to do?
Why multifactor authentication based on one-time-passwords and push notifications fail.
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Show 01 Thu 21:44 Slashdot [4]

21:44 Sam Altman's Eye-Scanning ID Project Launches In US
Sam Altman's eye-scanning identity project, now called World, officially launched in the U.S. with six in-person registration sites. CNBC reports: Here's how it works: You go up to an Orb, a spherical biometric device, and it spends about 30 seconds scanning your face and iris, then creates and stores a unique "IrisCode" for you verifying that you're a human and that you've never signed up before. Then you get some of the project's cryptocurrency, WLD, for free, and you can use your World ID as a sign-in with integrated platforms, which currently include an open API integration with Minecraft, Reddit, Telegram, Shopify and Discord. Starting Thursday, the company is opening six flagship U.S. retail locations where people can sign up to have their eyeball scanned: Austin, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Nashville, Miami and San Francisco. At an event in San Francisco on Wednesday, the venture announced two high-profile partnerships: Visa will introduce the "World Visa card" this summer, available only to people who have had their irises scanned by World, and the online dating giant Match Group will begin a pilot program testing out World ID and some age verification tools with Tinder in Japan.

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21:44 Meta's Reality Labs Has Now Lost Over $60 Billion Since 2020
Meta's Reality Labs posted a $4.2 billion operating loss in Q1 2025. According to CNBC, cumulative losses since 2020 now exceed $60 billion. From the report: Meta's Reality Labs unit is responsible for the company's Quest-branded virtual reality headsets and Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses. It's the key business unit that anchors CEO Mark Zuckerberg's plans to build a new computing platform involving digital worlds accessible via VR and augmented reality devices. [...] Wall Street has questioned Meta's big spending on the metaverse, which Zuckerberg has said could take many years to turn into a real business. The company must now also contend with sweeping new tariffs from President Donald Trump and the likely increase in costs that will follow, potentially leading to higher-priced devices. Last week, Meta said that an unspecified number of Reality Labs employees were laid off. Those workers were part of the Oculus Studios unit, which creates VR and AR games and content for Quest VR headsets.

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20:14 NIH To Suspend Funds For Research Abroad As It Overhauls Policy, Report Says
Nature: A forthcoming policy from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) will target - and at least temporarily stop -- funding to laboratories and hospitals outside the United States, threatening thousands of global-health projects and international collaborations on topics such as emerging infectious diseases and cancer. The NIH, the world's largest funder of biomedical research, plans to release the policy in the next week. Some agency staff members have already been instructed to hold funds for foreign institutions that are part of both new research grants and grants coming up for renewal, according to multiple agency employees who spoke to Nature under the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the press.

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20:14 House Votes To Block California's Ban On New Gas-Powered Vehicles In 2035
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBS News: The House of Representatives on Thursday voted to block California from implementing plans to block new sales of gas-powered vehicles in a decade. In a 246-164 vote, members approved House Joint Resolution 88, which seeks to withdraw a waiver granted by the Environmental Protection Agency to California during the Biden administration to implement the ban. Thirty-five Democrats joined 211 Republicans in backing the measure. [...] The House also approved two other measures which withdraw waivers on the state's plans to increase sales of zero-emissions trucks in a 231-191 vote, along with the state's latest nitrogen oxide emission standards for engines in a 225-196 vote. Following Thursday's vote, Newsom's office issued a statement saying the House illegally used the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to repeal the state's Clean Air Act waivers. The governor's office also said the move contradicts the Government Accountability Office and Senate Parliamentarian who have ruled the CRA does not apply to the state's waivers. "Trump Republicans are hellbent on making California smoggy again. Clean air didn't used to be political. In fact, we can thank Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon for our decades-old authority to clean our air," Newsom said. "The only thing that's changed is that big polluters and the right-wing propaganda machine have succeeded in buying off the Republican Party -- and now the House is using a tactic that the Senate's own parliamentarian has said is lawless. Our vehicles program helps clean the air for all Californians, and we'll continue defending it." Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California) said in a statement: "House Republicans' misguided and cynical attempts to gut the Clean Air Act and undercut California's climate leadership ignores the reality of California's strength as the fourth largest economy in the world... ... If Senate Republicans take up these measures under the Congressional Review Act, they will be going nuclear by overruling the Parliamentarian, all to baselessly attack California."

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