Submission + - China Testing Domestic Advanced Chipmaking Tool, Plan for AI Clusters (ft.com)

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear writes: The Financial Times reported that China's Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) is testing a deep-ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machine made by Yuliangsheng, a Shanghai-based start-up, said two people with knowledge of the development. The ability to produce advanced DUV machines would represent a big victory in China’s ability to overcome US controls on chip exports, reduce reliance on western technology and increase the production capacity of advanced AI processors. China’s DUV effort has challenges to overcome. While the majority of its components in Yuliangsheng’s machine are made domestically, some parts are sourced from abroad, said those with knowledge of the effort. But they added the company was making efforts to make all parts in the country soon.

In a related development, Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei announced Thursday new computing systems for powering artificial intelligence with its in-house Ascend chips despite heavy American sanctions against the company. Huawei announced it would roll out three new versions of its Ascend chips through the end of 2028, with the aim to “double compute” capabilities with each year’s release, and build AI superpods and superclusters from the new chips. According to Huawei, the 950PR, to be released early 2026, will feature 128GB of its in-house HBM delivering up to 1.6 TB/s of bandwidth, while the 950DT increases those figures to 144GB and 4 TB/s, but Huawei hasn’t disclosed how its in-house HBM is manufactured, what packaging is used, or which foundry is producing the chip itself. That is followed by Ascend 960 and 970, to be released in 2027 and 2028 respectively. Its new Atlas 950 supernode would support 8,192 Ascend 950 chips, and that the Atlas 950 SuperCluster would use more than 500,000 chips. A more advanced Atlas 960 version, slated for launch in 2027, would support 15,488 Ascend 960 chips per node. The full supercluster would have more than 1 million Ascend chips, according to Huawei. In a speech Thursday, Eric Xu, rotating chairman of Huawei, claimed that its forthcoming Atlas 950 supernode would deliver 6.7 times more computing power than Nvidia’s NVL144 system, also planned for launch next year, and the Atlas 950 supercluster would have 1.3 times the computing power of Elon Musk’s xAI Colossus supercomputer. China on Monday announced it was extending a probe into Nvidia over alleged monopolistic practices and ordered local tech giants to stop tests and orders of the Nvidia ("castrated by the US government") H20 and RTX Pro 6000D chips.

Submission + - Zuckerberg Humiliated on Stage After AI-Powered Smart Glasses Keep Glitching (dnyuz.com)

Submitted by fjo3
fjo3 writes: Tech billionaire Mark Zuckerberg was humiliated onstage not once, but twice, as his attempts to showcase the brilliance of Meta’s new AI-powered glasses were met with dismal failure.

Speaking at the company’s annual Meta Connect conference, Zuckerberg introduced the company’s second-generation smart Ray-Bans and a new neural wristband, as part of his vision for an AI that serves people in real-time.

Business Insider reported the vision unraveled when the AI glitched moments after the request, ignoring basic instructions and insisting that the employee had “already combined these ingredients.”

Submission + - Tails 7.0 Linux distribution debuts with Debian 13 and GNOME 48 (nerds.xyz)

Submitted by BrianFagioli
BrianFagioli writes: Tails 7.0 has officially arrived, marking the first release of the privacy-focused, Linux-based operating system based on Debian 13 âoeTrixieâ and GNOME 48 âoeBengaluru.â This update delivers faster startup times, refreshed applications, and stronger hardware support.

One of the most noticeable improvements is boot speed. Thanks to a switch from xz to zstd compression, Tails now starts 10 to 15 seconds quicker on most machines. The tradeoff is a slightly larger image size, but for users with reliable USB sticks the difference in speed is worth it. The developers caution that low-quality USB drives could still cause slower boots.

Software updates are a major part of this release. GNOME Terminal has been replaced by GNOME Console, and GNOME Image Viewer has been swapped for GNOME Loupe. Key applications have been updated as well, including Tor Browser 14.5.7, Tor client 0.4.8.17, Thunderbird 128.14.0esr, Electrum 4.5.8, KeePassXC 2.7.10, GIMP 3.0.4, Inkscape 1.4, and Audacity 3.7.3. The Text Editor and Document Scanner also get substantial upgrades.

GNOME itself sees a wave of improvements. The Settings app now has redesigned sections for sound, accessibility, and input. New accessibility features include Overamplification and always-visible scrollbars. Other changes include a workspace indicator replacing the Activities button, better screen reader navigation, and an option to extend battery life in laptops. While GNOME 48 is a polished release, itâ(TM)s worth noting that GNOME 49 was released just yesterday, which makes Tails 7.0 feel slightly behind the curve from day one.

Some older tools have been removed, such as unar, aircrack-ng, and the Power Statistics utility, but alternatives remain. File Roller still handles most RAR archives, and aircrack-ng can be reinstalled if needed using Additional Software.

Under the hood, the Linux kernel has been updated to 6.12.43, boosting compatibility with newer graphics cards and Wi-Fi hardware. Memory requirements have also increased from 2GB to 3GB, though the developers expect this will affect very few users.

Tails 7.0 is a huge step for anyone who values privacy and security. With faster performance, updated apps, and better hardware support, it continues to be one of the most important Linux-based tools for staying anonymous online.

Submission + - C++ Commitee Prefers Bjarne Profiles Over Baxter Rustification

Submitted by robinsrowe
robinsrowe writes: No surprise, the C++ Committee is still trending toward C++ Profiles. It would have been a huge change had the Committee embraced Baxter's Rustification memory safety proposal. Would mean banning pointers. Making the C++ language much like Rust would deeply break every C++ program in the world. Article at TheRegister: “Rust-style safety model for C++ 'rejected' as profiles take priority” https://www.theregister.com/20...

The C++ standards committee abandoned a detailed proposal to create a rigorously safe subset of the language, according to the proposal's co-author, despite continuing anxiety about memory safety.

Article at Le Monde (in French): “The C++ standards committee rejected a proposal to create a secure subset of the language. Members prefer to focus on the Profiles framework pushed by C++ creator Bjarne Stroustrup.” https://www.lemondeinformatiqu...

"If you mark your code to apply a Profile, some features of the C/C++ language will stop working," he says. There is also a small problem, these guidelines were not integrated into version 26 of C++, but simply into a white paper. The controversy surrounding the security of C++ opens the door to another solution with the use of another language. The first advocated by several American authorities is Rust, but there is also Google's experimental Carbon project. Unveiled in 2022, it also aims to modernize C++.

If Profiles are eventually adopted, it may Balkanize C++ by dividing C++ into safe and unsafe subsets. C++ Profiles won't fix the issue of making C pointers memory safe. A proposal to implement pointer memory safety is TrapC, but for the C language, not C++. Some say make the switch to Rust, but that doesn't solve the safety problems lurking in billions of lines of existing C/C++ code.

Submission + - Shai-Hulud: The novel self-replicating worm infecting hundreds of NPM packages (sysdig.com) 1

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: On September 15, 2025, an engineer discovered a supply chain attack against the NPM repository. Unlike previous NPM attacks, this campaign used novel, self-propagating malware (also known as a worm) to continue spreading itself. At the time of this writing, approximately 200 infected packages have been identified, including several repositories such as the popular @ctrl/tinycolor and multiple owned by CrowdStrike.

Once executed, this novel worm — dubbed Shai-Hulud — steals credentials, exfiltrates them, and attempts to find additional NPM packages in which to copy itself. The malicious code also attempts to leak data on GitHub by making private repositories public.

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