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Submission + - VLC blames Windows 11 bug for slow performance, defends open source and calls ou (windowslatest.com) 9

Submitted by Misanthrope
Misanthrope writes: VLC can take 33 seconds to start playing an MP3 on some Windows PCs, and VideoLAN, the developers behind the open-source media player, says a Microsoft Defender bug is to blame.
Jonathan Blow, the game designer and programmer behind Braid and The Witness, said he had finally switched from VLC to Microsoft’s Media Player because the former had become painfully slow, then used the moment to declare that “a large sector of open source software is in a truly embarrassing place now.”

VideoLAN couldn’t let this criticism slide and accused Microsoft, saying a Windows 11 Defender update was interfering with VLC’s plugin cache. However, we checked VLC’s bug reports and found several users on Windows 10 and Windows 11 describing the same startup problem.

Note that the criticism is for MP3 files and not videos, which is what VLC is typically associated with. I have already sold my soul to streaming services like Spotify, and didn’t have any experience of a delay like this despite using VLC every other day.

But for those of you who use VLC to listen to music and have experienced a 33-second delay, the supposed reason is VLC’s plugin cache.

Comment Re:Just... wow (Score 1) 120

by _xeno_ (#66285652) Attached to: US Hires Over 2,000 Video Gamers As Air Traffic Controllers

Nothing says "clown-show shit-hole" like hiring gamers - many of whom undoubtedly live in momma's basement and maybe work at 7-eleven or Walmart - to look after the safety of all those people both in airplanes and under their flight paths. Brilliant!

New air traffic controller hires would all be in the 21-31 years old bracket. The PS3 and Xbox 360 released 20 years ago. These are people who grew up with video games being around them.

I don't understand why they're promoting that they're "hiring gamers" (it's what the gamers would call a "weird flex") but it's not that surprising that new hires would be "gamers" if you define "gamers" loosely enough to include anyone who plays video games somewhat routinely.

And, to be quite frank, the skills that make a good gamer (good hand-eye coordination, ability to keep calm under pressure, routine use of voice chat) likely translate to someone who would be good as an air traffic controller.

Hiring gamers to increase the total number of air traffic controllers certainly seems better than the previous administration's solution, which was nothing.

But in any case, it's not really clear to me that "hiring gamers" is that meaningfully different from "hiring people who are 21-31 and grew up with video games all around them."

Submission + - Ordinary WiFi can now identify you with near-perfect accuracy (sciencedaily.com) 2

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Ordinary WiFi networks could quietly become powerful surveillance tools, allowing people to be identified without cameras, special sensors, or even carrying a connected device. Researchers showed that unencrypted signals routinely exchanged between WiFi devices and routers can be used to create radio-based images of people and recognize them within seconds. In tests involving 197 participants, the system identified individuals with nearly 100% accuracy, even from different angles and regardless of how they walked.

Submission + - Massive Debian 13 Linux Kernel Security Update Patches 68 Vulnerabilities (9to5linux.com)

Submitted by prisoninmate
prisoninmate writes: Linux blog 9to5Linux reports: "The new Debian 13 Linux kernel security update is a massive one, and it patches no less than 68 security vulnerabilities in the Linux 6.12 LTS kernel. Most of these security vulnerabilities are smaller, individually scoped fixes, ranging from use-after-free and out-of-bounds access to NULL-pointer bugs across networking, storage, and filesystem drivers. Nonetheless, these may lead to a privilege escalation, denial of service, or information leaks.

The most severe vulnerabilities patched in the new Debian 13 “Trixie” kernel security update are CVE-2026-64530, a use-after-free in the traffic-control subsystem leading to remote denial-of-service with potential for remote code execution, and CVE-2026-64531 (a.k.a. OVSwrap), a local-root vulnerability in the Open vSwitch datapath leading to local privilege escalation to root.

CVE-2026-64532 and CVE-2026-64533 are a pair of NTFS3 bugs that could lead to denial-of-service with potential memory corruption or information leak triggered by mounting a crafted NTFS filesystem, and CVE-2026-64534 and CVE-2026-64535 are two flaws in the NVMe-over-TCP target that may lead to denial-of-service."

Comment Re:Basic question (Score 1) 78

by _xeno_ (#66266522) Attached to: A Fundamental Flaw Leaves LLMs Strikingly Vulnerable To Attack

I assume there is some reason this does not work. Any explanations?

The simplest answer is that it's trivial to ask the first LLM to speak in code such that the second LLM has no context to know what's being talked about. Something as simple as asking the LLM not to use a word for a forbidden topic and swap it out with something else. Taking the example from the article, ask the first LLM to call cocaine "Coca-Cola" or something.

You can't create an absolutely massive list of forbidden topics for the filter LLM anyway: you risk filling up its window as well, since its window includes the system prompt used to ask it to indicate whether or not an output shouldn't be given to the end user.

Submission + - China wants physical buttons on cars instead of touchscreens (autobuzz.my)

Submitted by cantle2000
cantle2000 writes: The Chinese Government has mandated physical buttons on Chinese built cars instead of using touchscreens, from July 1st 2027. Essential functions such as the demister, defogger, power windows, lighting,and gear shifting will be button controlled instead of touchscreen controlled.

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