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Submission + - World's Richest Man Says Don't Bother Saving for Retirement (gizmodo.com) 4

Submitted by echo123
echo123 writes: "We're in the singularity. We're at the top of the roller coaster, and it's about to go down."

====

Elon Musk, who just went to court to fight for a $139 billion compensation package despite already being worth an estimated $700 billion, says you shouldn’t worry your pretty little head about saving your own money. In an appearance on the podcast Moonshots with Peter Diamandis, the world’s richest man told listeners, “One side recommendation I have is: Don’t worry about squirreling money away for retirement in 10 or 20 years. It won’t matter.”

Musk’s theory is basically that AI will become so capable that it’ll drop the cost of everything so much that money won’t really matter. Everyone will have “universal high income.” Diamandis, arguably best known in recent years as the guy who hosted a $30,000 per seat event in the middle of the covid-19 pandemic that resulted in the majority of attendees getting infected, hopped on the hype train, too, explaining that he believes that AI will ultimately lead to “basically demonetizing everything” because “the cost of labor has gone to nothing, the cost of intelligence has gone to nothing.”

Submission + - Stop paying TurboTax when IRS Free File covers most taxpayers for FREE (nerds.xyz)

Submitted by BrianFagioli
BrianFagioli writes: The IRS has flipped the switch on Free File for the 2026 tax season, letting most Americans file federal taxes for exactly zero dollars. Anyone with 2025 adjusted gross income of $89,000 or less qualifies, covering an estimated 70 percent of taxpayers. The catch is that you have to start at IRS.gov/FreeFile, not the commercial sites that steer users into paid upgrades. Free File partners include familiar software brands like TaxAct, FreeTaxUSA, 1040.com and TaxSlayer, and many will throw in free state returns too. The program works on computers and phones and supports e-filing before the official opening of tax season.

What surprises me every year is how few people know this exists. Despite more than 77 million returns filed through Free File since 2003, most folks reach for TurboTax or H&R Block and end up paying for something the government already supports at no cost. Even gig workers and renters qualify now if their AGI is under the limit. If you want to keep more money in your wallet, start at IRS.gov/FreeFile and skip the upsell parade.

Comment Re: It depends on your skills level (Score 1) 139

by echo123 (#65880219) Attached to: Does AI Really Make Coders Faster?

However, with very actively developed libraries and frameworks, I often run into the problem of LLM tools generating code for deprecated interfaces, or mixing the APIs of different versions.

By using explicit, detailed prompts, (and good ol' GIT to fall back on, so I can try again when I fail), I have been successful.

Comment Re:It depends on your skills level (Score 1) 139

by echo123 (#65872809) Attached to: Does AI Really Make Coders Faster?

It depends on your skills level. For trivial beginner stuff, it's OK but then again.

For anything out of mainstream which no or very few examples are available for the model to train, it's pretty much useless.

I agree with you. I find it also true that free, open-source frameworks with tons of documentation and examples on GitHub/gitlab and the 'net work well with artificial intelligence. Especially Drupal because it is so heavily API driven (14 major APIs I think, last time I asked AI to list them all). The major LLMs, especially Claude are well-trained on both Drupal and Ansible in my experience. So go vibe-code a website and deploy it using Configuration As Code.

Especially after January when DrupalCMS 2 is released, (In beta over the seasonal holidays). Here's more information about DrupalCMS.

I also agree with you skill helps, (and probably makes all the difference the world). My long-term concern about the market was best said by Joey Ramone: "lack of skill dictates economy of style".

If what I wrote interests you, check out this Drupal Vienna 2025 keynote from October.

Submission + - Trump Dismantling National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado (pbs.org)

Submitted by echo123
echo123 writes: WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, moving to dissolve a research lab that a top White House official described as “one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country.

White House budget director Russ Vought criticized the lab in a social media post Tuesday night and said a comprehensive review of the lab is underway. “Vital activities such as weather research will be moved to another entity or location, Vought said.

The research lab, which houses the largest federal research program on climate change, supports research to predict, prepare for and respond to severe weather and other natural disasters. The research lab is managed by a nonprofit consortium of more than 130 colleges and universities on behalf of the National Science Foundation.

A senior White House official cited two instances of the lab’s “woke direction” that wastes taxpayer funds on what the official called frivolous pursuits and ideologies. One funded an Indigenous and Earth Sciences center that aimed to “make the sciences more welcoming, inclusive, and justice-centered,” while another experiment traced air pollution to “demonize motor vehicles, oil and gas operations.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity to speak frankly about the administration’s actions.

Submission + - Young Journalists Drone, Expose Russian Ships Off Dutch-German Coasts (digitaldigging.org)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Seven German journalism students, as a continuation of their OSINT course project, tracked the movements of ships with Russian crews off the coasts of the Netherlands and Germany and linked them to swarms of drones appearing over European military airfields and other strategic sites.

The guys not only analyzed thousands of data points, but also used leaked documents, established connections with sources in European agencies, and drove 2,500 km across three countries chasing one of the ships – even launching their own drone to fly over it.

At the end of the article, there’s precise data on the vessels, so you can follow them yourself.

Submission + - Elon Musk admits DOGE was a waste of time (and money) (yahoo.com)

Submitted by echo123
echo123 writes: Elon Musk appeared to admit for the first time that his work at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency was a total waste of time—which also destroyed his reputation.

He told Katie Miller, who is married to Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, that he would not take the controversial post in Washington, D.C., if he had his time over again.

“I think instead of doing DOGE, I would have basically built—worked on my companies, essentially," he told The Katie Miller Podcast.

“If you could go back and start from scratch like it’s January 20th all again, would you go back and do it differently? And, knowing what you know now, do you think there’s ever a place to restart?”

After a deep sigh, Elon Musk, 54, replied, “I mean, no, I don’t think so.”

“You gave up a lot to DOGE,” she said.

“Yeah,” he conceded, sadly.

DOGE oversaw a $220 billion jump in federal spending—not including interest—in the fiscal year, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Bill Gates has warned Elon Musk’s DOGE cuts will cause ‘millions of deaths’

Comment Re:Wait, AI missing from this news (Score 1) 58

by echo123 (#65825631) Attached to: Airbus Issues Major A320 Recall, Threatening Global Flight Disruption

News I get is some big airlines performed all updates in an evening and are back to normal, but a small fraction of planes will take much longer time. I assume these are the oldest planes and they need specialised hardware for the update (e.g. floppy disks, emulators).

Schiphol handles a lot of those Airbus planes every day. From the moment I heard about this immediate requirement at roughly midnight UTC Friday/Saturday I followed all the flight departures for Saturday and only about 4 flights were cancelled.

I didn't bother to check what aircraft they were because 4 cancelled flights seems about normal on any given day for all I know. I checked several times throughout Saturday. Schiphol has many, many flights every day.

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