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Submission + - eBay Rejects GameStop's $56 Billion Takeover As Neither Credible Nor Attractive (reuters.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: EBay on Tuesday rejected a $56 billion takeover bid from the much smaller GameStop over financing doubts, calling the proposal "neither credible nor attractive." EBay, which has roughly four times GameStop's market value, also underscored that its turnaround efforts under CEO Jamie Iannone have boosted growth, with its stock returning 201% since Iannone took the position six years ago.

"We have concluded that your proposal is neither credible nor attractive," eBay Chairman Paul Pressler said in a statement. "eBay's Board is confident the company, under its current management team, is well-positioned to continue to drive sustainable growth." He also pointed to concerns with GameStop's bid, including its financing, its impact on eBay's long-term growth and the leadership structure of a potentially combined company.

Submission + - There's an Unhinged New Video Game About Trump and the Iran War (wired.com) 1

Submitted by joshuark
joshuark writes: A new video game about President Donald Trump’s war in Iran features fights with the pope and New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani. It’s impossible to win, and that’s the point.

The game, Operation Epic Furious: Strait to Hell, was developed by Secret Handshake, an anonymous group of artists behind a handful of satirical works mocking the Trump administration. The game is available to play online, but three fully functional arcade cabinets are currently installed at the Washington, DC, War Memorial. The games will remain there for the next few days.

In the game, Trump is the playable character, on a quest to collect barrels of oil and ideas for Truth Social posts, to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and win the war. During the game, Trump’s social media posts do little to move the needle, creating an endless cycle of tasks and threats that ultimately lead nowhere. Even if the game is unwinnable, players can lose, and do so abruptly.

Submission + - Kingston shipped 100 million A400 SSDs and SATA still refuses to die (nerds.xyz)

Submitted by BrianFagioli
BrianFagioli writes: Kingston says it has shipped more than 100 million A400 SATA SSDs globally since the budget drive launched back in 2017. While the storage industry keeps pushing ever-faster NVMe hardware, the milestone is a reminder that millions of people still rely on humble SATA SSDs to keep older desktops and laptops alive. The A400 became especially popular with repair shops, budget PC builders, schools, and Linux users looking to breathe new life into aging hardware without spending much money.

The Kingston A400 was never marketed as a high-end enthusiast product, but replacing a mechanical hard drive with even a basic SATA SSD can still make a dramatic difference in real-world performance. In an era dominated by AI hype and increasingly expensive PC hardware, the continued success of a straightforward, inexpensive storage upgrade says a lot about what regular computer users actually need. SATA may not be glamorous in 2026, but it clearly is not dead either.

Submission + - Vibe coding has cybersecurity asking what AI can — and can't — repla (scworld.com)

Submitted by spatwei
spatwei writes: Vibe coding has the cybersecurity industry talking.

As thousands of practitioners attended talks about the promise and risk of AI agents at RSAC 2026 in March, and hundreds of vendors — both legacy and startups — presented their latest AI-powered tools in the expo hall, hard questions about the impact of this technology on the field arose in the back of many attendees’ minds.

At least one person expressed their thoughts on the industry’s future in the AI era by publishing a satirical website titled “RSA 2026: The Great Cooking.” The site, which saw some circulation among social media circles, states 61.9% of RSAC 2026 exhibitors “could be replaced by a weekend of vibe-coding in Cursor.”

While created with unclear methodology, and an “unhealthy amount of spite,” as its creator states, the website’s sharp criticism seemingly resonated with several cybersecurity pros seeking to cut through the noise and really understand what AI can and can’t achieve.

“The Great Cooking website was great satire on the reality of the current cyber market — lots of hype, lots of wrapper companies faking it until they make it, lots of legacy companies that are going to struggle to differentiate, and a few truly differentiating cyber companies that are solving hard problems,” Horizon3.ai CEO and Co-founder Snehal Antani, who shared the site on LinkedIn, told SC Media.

Amy Chaney, SVP of technology at Citi, also praised the site as a “light-hearted review,” but said it is just that — a “funny read” and “not a buyer’s guide.”

  “Many of the RSA ‘cooked’ solutions are high viability market winners, many of the exhibits labeled ‘actually hard’ will solve no problems,” Chaney said.

The satire taps into a large debate already going on in cybersecurity about how AI-assisted development — or “vibe coding” — is disrupting industry norms around software creation and the state of security itself.

Even where claims about AI’s capabilities may be exaggerated, vibe coding’s explosion in popularity is undoubtedly making its mark on security teams and in boardrooms around the world.

“I’ve never seen a bigger disconnect between what investors want to hear and what CISOs are trying to solve, and unfortunately, corporate marketing has over rotated to the investor narrative instead of focusing on solving problems that matter to practitioners,” Antani said.

Comment Re:beat them senseless (Score 2) 99

it's mostly about ghost guns from what I have seen.

Then they better craft some bills to add this snitch technology to lathes, mills, drill presses, and every bit of CNC machinery in existence because all of those things can be used to make 'ghost guns' as well...even though it's 100% legal to make your own firearms.

Then they can start on adding it to hacksaws, files, tin snips, pliers, etc etc etc.

Submission + - Brain scans reveal a shocking difference between psychopaths and other people (sciencedaily.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Scientists have uncovered a striking brain difference linked to psychopathy: people with psychopathic traits were found to have a striatum â" a brain region tied to reward, motivation, and decision-making â" that was about 10% larger on average than those without such traits. Using MRI scans and psychological assessments on 120 participants, researchers connected this enlarged brain region to thrill-seeking, impulsive behavior, and a stronger drive for stimulation.

Submission + - MAGAs Are Fuming After Email Confirms They Will Never Get Their $500 Trump Phone (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by ArchieBunker
ArchieBunker writes: Nearly 600,000 Trump supporters paid £74 ($100) each towards a gold smartphone that, nearly a year on, does not exist.

The Trump Mobile T1 phone was announced in June 2025 by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump as a patriotic alternative to Apple and Samsung, retailing at £370 ($499) and promising a 'Made in the USA' build.

An estimated 590,000 buyers paid a £74 ($100) deposit to secure one, collectively handing the venture roughly £43.7 million ($59 million). As of May 2026, not a single confirmed customer has received the device. Now, a fresh wave of anger is spreading across MAGA forums after buyers received communication making clear that their money is, for all practical purposes, gone.

Trump Mobile launched on 16 June 2025 at an announcement at Trump Tower, headlined by the president's two eldest sons and timed to coincide with the 10th anniversary of Donald Trump's 2016 campaign launch. The T1 was marketed as a gold-coloured Android handset bearing an American flag on its back and bundled with a monthly service plan at £37.50 ($47.45) per month. Initial delivery was promised for late summer 2025.

That deadline slipped to November 2025, then December, then the first quarter of 2026. A mid-March 2026 T-Mobile carrier certification deadline also passed without resolution. By April 2026, Trump Mobile quietly redesigned its website, removing the release date entirely rather than replacing it with a new one.

NBC News, which placed its own £74 ($100) deposit in August 2025 to track the story, called Trump Mobile's support line five times between September and November 2025 and received inconsistent answers each time. A representative said in October that the phone would ship on 13 November, but it did not.

In January 2026, a call centre operator said the T1 was 'in the final stages of certification and field testing,' with a ship date 'sometime in Q1 2026.' That quarter has now passed. At one point, customer service representatives blamed a 43-day federal government shutdown for the delay, an explanation analysts quickly dismissed as irrelevant to a private-sector hardware company.

The clearest signal yet that buyers may never see either a phone or their money came with a revised terms of service published on 6 April 2026. The updated document states explicitly that paying a deposit 'does not constitute a completed purchase and does not create a binding legal contract.' The payment is described as 'a conditional opportunity to buy the device if Trump Mobile eventually chooses to sell it,' with the company retaining all control over whether a phone is produced at all.

The terms confirm that deposits will not accrue interest, are non-transferable and carry no independent cash value. Buyers who wish to cancel must submit a request through customer support before any final sale is completed. If Trump Mobile cancels the project outright, it says it will issue refunds of the original deposit amount. The fine print adds, however, that the company bears no liability for delays caused by 'parts shortages or hold-ups with regulators,' and that buyers waive any right to pursue claims beyond the original deposit figure.

Investigative journalist Joseph Cox of 404 Media, who attempted to place a deposit when pre-orders opened, found the process immediately chaotic. His card was charged the wrong amount, no shipping address was ever collected, and a confirmation email arrived promising delivery notifications that never came. Cox called it 'the worst experience I've ever faced buying a consumer electronic product.' He subsequently reported unauthorised recurring charges being levied against customers' cards.

Android Authority, which placed its own deposit in 2025 and has tracked the story since, wrote in January 2026 that it fully expected to 'never get a phone' and 'never see the $100 deposit again.'

The T1 was sold from day one on the strength of a single, politically loaded promise: it would be built in America. Within days of the June 2025 launch, that language vanished from the Trump Mobile website. 'MADE IN THE USA' became 'American-proud design,' then 'Brought to life right here in the USA,' language that supply chain experts noted was legally and commercially meaningless.

By February 2026, company executives confirmed to reporters that the T1 would not be manufactured in the United States. Final assembly of roughly the last ten components would take place in Miami, while bulk production would happen overseas. In the meantime, Trump Mobile began selling refurbished iPhones, made in China, and Samsung devices, made by a South Korean company, under the same 'American' branding umbrella.

In January 2026, Senator Elizabeth Warren and ten other Democratic lawmakers wrote formally to the Federal Trade Commission, asking the agency to investigate 'bait-and-switch tactics involving deposits for products never delivered' and to determine whether Trump Mobile's 'Made in the USA' advertising constituted false claims. The letter, co-led by Representative Robert Garcia of California, also asked the FTC to confirm whether the White House had communicated with the agency about the venture. 'The American people deserve to know that consumer protection laws apply equally to all businesses, regardless of political connections,' the lawmakers wrote.

As of May 2026, the FTC has not publicly confirmed whether a formal investigation has been opened. Trump Mobile has not responded to multiple press inquiries. California Governor Gavin Newsom's office weighed in publicly, describing the T1 project as appearing to be 'FRAUD.'

For nearly 600,000 Americans who trusted a brand built on the Trump name, the gold phone has become the latest entry in a long record of ventures that took their money and delivered nothing.

Submission + - Is it a 4th Amendment violation when Dropbox shares your data with governments?

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Is it a Fourth Amendment violation when Dropbox shared information about a user's child porn with a quasi-governmental entity? This breezy Seventh Circuit opinion entrenches a circuit split by holding that the fine print in all the online terms of service you never read means you've consented to gov't searches of your electronic files. Some folks (and not just your humble summarist) are skeptical.

Decided May 5.

Submission + - How Laboratory Tests Fail in Application (phys.org)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Most studies showing that houseplants remove pollutants share a fundamental design feature: small, sealed chambers with artificially high concentrations of pollutants introduced as a single high dose. A plant is placed inside the chamber, concentrations of pollutants are measured over time and a removal rate is calculated. This design works well for comparing plants to each other. It works poorly for predicting what happens in your home.

The critical missing variable is what building scientists call the air exchange rate. This is how quickly outdoor air naturally replaces indoor air through gaps, walls and ventilation systems. In a real building, this constant dilution is already doing the heavy lifting on pollutant concentration. When a 2019 study modeled plant performance against real-world air exchange rates, it found you would need between ten and 1,000 plants per square meter to match what a building's passive ventilation already achieves.

So the scientifically defensible answer is: houseplants can remove some pollutants, but they are not an effective standalone air-cleaning solution for homes. That does not mean the earlier studies were "wrong." It means their results were often overextended into everyday settings where the physics of indoor air are very different.

Submission + - Joining Copy Fail, say hello to Dirty Frag (github.com)

Submitted by mrspoonsi
mrspoonsi writes: Dirty Frag vulnerability class, first discovered and reported by Hyunwoo Kim (@v4bel), which can obtain root privileges on major Linux distributions by chaining the xfrm-ESP Page-Cache Write vulnerability and the RxRPC Page-Cache Write vulnerability.

Dirty Frag is a case that extends the bug class to which Dirty Pipe and Copy Fail belong. Because it is a deterministic logic bug that does not depend on a timing window, no race condition is required, the kernel does not panic when the exploit fails, and the success rate is very high.

Because the embargo has currently been broken, no patch or CVE exists

Submission + - Micron ships gigantic 245TB SSD (nerds.xyz)

Submitted by BrianFagioli
BrianFagioli writes: Micron says it is now shipping the worldâ(TM)s highest-capacity commercially available SSD, and the numbers are honestly hard to wrap your head around. The new Micron 6600 ION packs 245TB into a single drive and is aimed squarely at AI infrastructure, hyperscalers, and cloud providers dealing with exploding data growth. According to the company, the SSD can reduce rack counts by 82 percent compared to HDD deployments offering similar raw capacity, while also cutting power usage and cooling requirements. Micron says the drive tops out at roughly 30W, which it claims is about half the power draw of comparable hard drive setups.

The announcement also feels like another warning sign for spinning disks in the enterprise. Hard drives still dominate bulk storage because of lower cost per terabyte, but SSD capacities keep climbing into territory that used to belong exclusively to HDDs. Micron is also touting major performance gains, claiming up to 84 times better energy efficiency for AI workloads and dramatically lower latency versus HDD-based systems. While nobody is dropping one of these into a home NAS anytime soon, the idea of a quarter petabyte on a single SSD no longer sounds like science fiction.

Submission + - ChatGPT Can Now Alert Trusted Contacts When Users Appear Suicidal (nerds.xyz)

Submitted by BrianFagioli
BrianFagioli writes: OpenAI is rolling out a new optional ChatGPT feature called Trusted Contact that allows users to nominate a friend, family member, or caregiver who may be alerted if conversations suggest a serious self-harm risk. The company says the system combines automated detection with trained human reviewers before any notification is sent. Alerts reportedly will not include chat transcripts or detailed conversation history, but instead encourage the trusted person to check in with the user directly.

The feature is already sparking debate about privacy, emotional dependency on AI, and how far chatbot companies should go when users discuss mental health struggles. OpenAI says Trusted Contact is opt-in and designed to complement crisis hotlines and professional care, not replace them. Still, the move highlights how AI chatbots are increasingly drifting into roles once reserved for therapists, counselors, and real-world support systems, which will likely make a lot of users uneasy.

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