Submission + - Lead found in clothing (independent.co.uk)
Bruce66423 writes: Lead(II) acetate is being used as a fixer to keep dyes adhering to clothing.
Submission + - The document foundation descends into chaos as biggest contributor to is ejected
paulatz writes: After a controversial vote in January, the board of the Document Foundation (TDF) changed its statute to substantially widen its definition of "affiliation". The entire staff of Collabora has now been expel from membership and from the board itself, including the board members that opposed the initial change. Collabora is an UK-based firm and the single largest contributor to the LibreOffice codebase, they continued the development of a rebranded version of LibreOffice Online when it was dropped by TDF in 2022. However, in 2026, TDF has revived the development of their web-based suite while Collabora is bringing its web-based suite to the desktop with a completely redesigned GUI.
After the fork from OpenOffice in 2010, it looks like the most popular open-source office suite is headed into a new period of strife.
After the fork from OpenOffice in 2010, it looks like the most popular open-source office suite is headed into a new period of strife.
Submission + - COMMAND.COM is back!
kevin lyda writes: Microsoft's best try at an operating system, COMMAND.COM from MS-DOS 3.3, is now a native shell for Unix-like systems.
The project recreates the DOS command-line experience while running on a modern Unix environment. It supports a small, historically inspired command set, .BAT-style scripting, and even maps DOS concepts like drive letters onto the Unix filesystem. You can even experience the joy of editing a CONFIG.SYS file (this time as an INI style file).
Unlike a simple emulator, it’s designed to work as a real shell: it can be used as a login shell or as an interpreter for batch files (within reason, given the differences between DOS and Unix semantics). The result is an unusual hybrid of DOS-style command parsing layered on top of Unix processes.
It’s implemented in Go for maximum portability and aims to balance authenticity with just enough practicality to be usable.
Source and release on codeberg.
The project recreates the DOS command-line experience while running on a modern Unix environment. It supports a small, historically inspired command set,
Unlike a simple emulator, it’s designed to work as a real shell: it can be used as a login shell or as an interpreter for batch files (within reason, given the differences between DOS and Unix semantics). The result is an unusual hybrid of DOS-style command parsing layered on top of Unix processes.
It’s implemented in Go for maximum portability and aims to balance authenticity with just enough practicality to be usable.
Source and release on codeberg.
Submission + - Microsoft Copilot is now injecting ads into pull requests on GitHub, GitLab (neowin.net)
darwinmac writes: Neowin reports that on GitHub, Microsoft appears to be injecting ads into pull requests generated by Copilot. There are now thousands of pull requests containing the phrase, "Quickly spin up Copilot coding agent tasks from anywhere on your macOS or Windows machine with Raycast."
A quick cursory search of that phrase on GitHub reveals this is not an isolated incident. The exact same promotional text appears in over 11,000 different pull requests across thousands of repos on GitHub. Even merge requests on GitLab are not safe from the injection.
At first, you might think the ads are coming from Raycasts Copilot extension, which lets you start and track Copilot coding agent tasks, kick off Copilot jobs, monitor progress, and manage pull requests from within the Raycast launcher using prompts. But the ads appear to be tied to Microsofts Copilot coding agent tips rather than Raycast itself. Neowin adds:
If you look at the raw markdown of the affected pull requests, there is a hidden HTML comment, START COPILOT CODING AGENT TIPS, placed just before the ad tip. This suggests Microsoft is using the comment to insert a tip that points back to its own developer ecosystem or partner integrations.
There is a growing push for monetization in generative AI, as labs and platforms try to cover the massive costs of inference computing.
With an over $400 billion gap between the money invested in AI data centers and the actual revenue these products generate, Silicon Valley slowly returned to the tested and trusted playbook: advertising.
Ads on generative AI platforms are already proving lucrative. Just weeks after launching ads for Free and Go tier users, OpenAI says its ChatGPT ad business hit a $100 million annualized run rate. The company now plans to expand the ads to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand and roll out a self-serve ad platform for businesses.
Submission + - All 11 xAI co-founders have now reportedly left Elon Musk's AI company (thenextweb.com) 1
ZipNada writes: Every co-founder Elon Musk recruited to build xAI has now reportedly left the company. Manuel Kroiss, who led the pretraining team, told people this month that he was departing. Ross Nordeen, described by Business Insider as Musk’s “right-hand operator,” left on Friday. They were the last two of eleven co-founders, all of whom have exited a company that was valued at $250 billion when SpaceX acquired it in February and that Musk himself described two weeks ago as having been “not built right the first time around.”
The departures are not ordinary startup attrition. The researchers Musk assembled in 2023 were among the most accomplished in artificial intelligence. Jimmy Ba co-authored the 2014 Adam optimisation paper, the most-cited paper in AI with more than 95,000 citations. Igor Babuschkin, the chief engineer, came from Google DeepMind. Christian Szegedy came from Google. Tony Wu led the reasoning team. Greg Yang, Toby Pohlen, Zihang Dai, Guodong Zhang, and Kyle Kosic brought experience from DeepMind, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI. That entire cohort is now gone, and the company they helped build is being, in Musk’s words, “rebuilt from the foundations up.”
The departures are not ordinary startup attrition. The researchers Musk assembled in 2023 were among the most accomplished in artificial intelligence. Jimmy Ba co-authored the 2014 Adam optimisation paper, the most-cited paper in AI with more than 95,000 citations. Igor Babuschkin, the chief engineer, came from Google DeepMind. Christian Szegedy came from Google. Tony Wu led the reasoning team. Greg Yang, Toby Pohlen, Zihang Dai, Guodong Zhang, and Kyle Kosic brought experience from DeepMind, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI. That entire cohort is now gone, and the company they helped build is being, in Musk’s words, “rebuilt from the foundations up.”
Submission + - In hilarious move, FCC bans all new routers (fcc.gov)
TheNameOfNick writes: The FCC has just banned new router models, expect for models entirely made in the US from parts made in the US and running software made in the US. Models which fit the exemption do not exist. The press release states: "New devices on the Covered List, such as foreign-made consumer-grade routers, are prohibited from receiving FCC authorization and are therefore prohibited from being imported for use or sale in the U.S."
Submission + - AI doctor ready to triple your opiates and help you make meth (mindgard.ai) 1
electroniceric writes: Doctronic, the AI medical chatbot that convinced Utah to make a "regulatory sandbox" to permit it to operate before undergoing full regulatory approval, has been pwned.Redteamers from Mindgard got it to spill its system prompts, then poisoned it with fake updates from reputable-seeming organizations. They were then able to get it to repeat COVID vax conspiracies, recommend unsafe doses of opioids, and give detailed instructions on how to make methamphetamine.
Submission + - Russia Orders Google to Pay $1.2 Quintillion (united24media.com) 1
AmiMoJo writes: Russia’s Supreme Court has upheld a ruling ordering Google to pay an extraordinary 91.5 quintillion rubles (about $1.2 quintillion)—a figure roughly one million times larger than the global gross domestic product, according to court materials, The Moscow Times reported on February 18. The Moscow Arbitration Court set the final penalty of 91.5 quintillion rubles ($1.2 quintillion) in spring 2025. For comparison, the World Bank estimates total global GDP at roughly $100 trillion, making the court-ordered sum vastly larger than the value of the entire world economy.
The legal dispute dates back to 2020, when pro-Kremlin media outlets Tsargrad and RIA FAN sued Google entities—including Google LLC, Google Ireland, and the Russian subsidiary “Google”—demanding restoration of their blocked YouTube accounts.
Russian courts sided with the plaintiffs, but Google did not comply with the ruling. Judges then imposed a progressive daily penalty that began at 100,000 rubles (about $1,315) and doubled each week the decision remained unenforced.
The legal dispute dates back to 2020, when pro-Kremlin media outlets Tsargrad and RIA FAN sued Google entities—including Google LLC, Google Ireland, and the Russian subsidiary “Google”—demanding restoration of their blocked YouTube accounts.
Russian courts sided with the plaintiffs, but Google did not comply with the ruling. Judges then imposed a progressive daily penalty that began at 100,000 rubles (about $1,315) and doubled each week the decision remained unenforced.
Submission + - Bill Introduced to Drop West Virginia's CS HS Graduation Requirement
theodp writes: West Virginia lawmakers on Tuesday introduced House Bill 5387, which would repeal the state's recently enacted mandatory stand-alone computer science graduation requirement and replace it with a new computer literacy proficiency requirement. Not too surprisingly, the Bill is being opposed by tech-backed nonprofit Code.org, which lobbied for the WV CS graduation requirement just last year. Code.org recently pivoted its mission to emphasize the importance of teaching AI education alongside traditional CS, teaming up with tech CEOs and leaders last year to launch a national campaign to mandate CS and AI courses as graduation requirements.
"It would basically turn the standalone computer science course requirement into a computer literacy proficiency requirement that's more focused on digital literacy," lamented Code.org as it discussed the Bill in a Wednesday conference call with members of the Code.org Advocacy Coalition, including reps from Microsoft's Education and Workforce Policy team. "It's mostly motivated by a variety of different issues coming from local superintendents concerned about, you know, teachers thinking that students don't need to learn how to code and other things. So, we are addressing all of those. We are talking with the chair and vice chair of the committee a week from today to try to see if we can nip this in the bud." Concerns were also raised on the call about how widespread the desire for more computing literacy proficiency (over CS) might be, as well as about legislators who are associating AI literacy more with digital literacy than CS.
The proposed move from a narrower CS focus to a broader goal of computer literacy proficiency in WV schools comes just months after the UK's Department for Education announced a similar curriculum pivot to broader digital literacy, abandoning the narrower 'rigorous CS' focus that was adopted more than a decade ago in response to a push by a 'grassroots' coalition that included Google, Microsoft, UK charities, and other organizations.
"It would basically turn the standalone computer science course requirement into a computer literacy proficiency requirement that's more focused on digital literacy," lamented Code.org as it discussed the Bill in a Wednesday conference call with members of the Code.org Advocacy Coalition, including reps from Microsoft's Education and Workforce Policy team. "It's mostly motivated by a variety of different issues coming from local superintendents concerned about, you know, teachers thinking that students don't need to learn how to code and other things. So, we are addressing all of those. We are talking with the chair and vice chair of the committee a week from today to try to see if we can nip this in the bud." Concerns were also raised on the call about how widespread the desire for more computing literacy proficiency (over CS) might be, as well as about legislators who are associating AI literacy more with digital literacy than CS.
The proposed move from a narrower CS focus to a broader goal of computer literacy proficiency in WV schools comes just months after the UK's Department for Education announced a similar curriculum pivot to broader digital literacy, abandoning the narrower 'rigorous CS' focus that was adopted more than a decade ago in response to a push by a 'grassroots' coalition that included Google, Microsoft, UK charities, and other organizations.
Submission + - Is Linux Mint burning out? Developers consider longer release cycle (nerds.xyz)
BrianFagioli writes: The Linux Mint developers say they are considering adopting a longer development cycle, arguing that the projectâ(TM)s current six month cadence plus LMDE releases leaves too little room for deeper work. In a recent update, the team reflected on its incremental philosophy, independence from upstream decisions like Snap, and heavy investment in Cinnamon and XApp. While the release process âoeworks very wellâ and delivers steady improvements, they admit it consumes significant time in testing, fixing, and shipping, potentially capping ambition.
Mintâ(TM)s next release will be based on a new Ubuntu LTS, and the team says it is seriously interested in stretching the development window. The stated goal is to free up resources for more substantial development rather than constant release management. Whether this signals bigger technical changes or simply acknowledges bandwidth limits for a small team remains unclear, but it marks a notable rethink of one of desktop Linuxâ(TM)s most consistent release rhythms.
Mintâ(TM)s next release will be based on a new Ubuntu LTS, and the team says it is seriously interested in stretching the development window. The stated goal is to free up resources for more substantial development rather than constant release management. Whether this signals bigger technical changes or simply acknowledges bandwidth limits for a small team remains unclear, but it marks a notable rethink of one of desktop Linuxâ(TM)s most consistent release rhythms.
Submission + - Albany lawmakers want to freeze data centers for three years, and thatâ(TM) (nerds.xyz)
BrianFagioli writes: New York lawmakers have introduced a bill that would freeze permits for new large data centers for at least three years while the state studies their environmental, energy, and utility impacts. The proposal targets facilities using 20 megawatts of power or more and would pause approvals statewide while regulators prepare a broad environmental impact study and rewrite rules governing energy use, water consumption, and grid costs.
Supporters argue the pause is needed to protect ratepayers and meet climate goals, but critics warn it could push data center investment, tech jobs, and AI infrastructure to other states. Rather than setting clear requirements and letting compliant projects move forward, the bill creates years of uncertainty around permitting in a sector that underpins cloud computing and modern digital services, raising questions about whether New York is choosing caution or simply opting out of the next wave of infrastructure growth.
Supporters argue the pause is needed to protect ratepayers and meet climate goals, but critics warn it could push data center investment, tech jobs, and AI infrastructure to other states. Rather than setting clear requirements and letting compliant projects move forward, the bill creates years of uncertainty around permitting in a sector that underpins cloud computing and modern digital services, raising questions about whether New York is choosing caution or simply opting out of the next wave of infrastructure growth.
Submission + - Bitcoin drops below $67,000 as sell-off intensifies (cnbc.com)
fjo3 writes: Bitcoin sank below $67,000 on Thursday as investor confidence continued to falter in the asset once hailed as “digital gold” and a unique store of value.
Digital assets, including bitcoin, have fallen deeper into the red as investors re-assess the practical utility of a token that has been championed not only as a hedge against inflation and macroeconomic uncertainties but also as an alternative to fiat currencies and traditional safe-havens such as gold.
Digital assets, including bitcoin, have fallen deeper into the red as investors re-assess the practical utility of a token that has been championed not only as a hedge against inflation and macroeconomic uncertainties but also as an alternative to fiat currencies and traditional safe-havens such as gold.
Submission + - nVidia Graphic Cards Succumb to the RAM Shortage it Created
BrendaEM writes: It seems that, even nVidia is having trouble finding RAM.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/...
https://www.notebookcheck.net/...
Submission + - Developers took 20% longer to accomplish tasks with AI (fortune.com)
alternative_right writes: It’s like a new telling of the “Tortoise and the Hare”: A group of experienced software engineers entered into an experiment where they were tasked with completing some of their work with the help of AI tools. Thinking like the speedy hare, the developers expected AI to expedite their work and increase productivity. Instead, the technology slowed them down more. The AI-free tortoise approach, in the context of the experiment, would have been faster.
Submission + - Hacker Dressed as the Pink Ranger Takes Down White Supremacist Websites Live (gizmodo.com)
t0qer writes: On stage at the annual Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg, Germany, a hacker known as Martha Root deleted the servers of three websites run by white nationalists. The takedown, performed by Root while dressed up as the Pink Ranger from the Power Rangers, came at the end of a talk on the Nazi online ecosystem that also featured journalists Eva Hoffmann and Christian Fuchs, per TechCrunch. The three sites targeted included WhiteDate, a white nationalist dating site; WhiteChild, a website for matching white sperm and egg donors; and WhiteDeal, an online labor market for white supremacists. As of Monday, the websites remain offline.
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