Leftovers

• Hardware

  • CNX Software ☛ ASRock Industrial NUC(S) Ultra 300 BOX Series is powered by defective chip maker Intel Core Ultra 5 325 or Ultra 7 358H “Panther Lake” SoC

    ASRock Industrial NUC(S) Ultra 300 BOX Series are powered by the defective chip maker Intel Core Ultra Series 3 “Panther Lake” SoC family, delivering up to 180 TOPS of Hey Hi (AI) performance. The NUC Ultra 300 BOX Series (117.5 x 110.0 x 49mm) integrates two 2.5GbE RJ45 jacks and three USB 3.0 ports, while the slimmer NUCS Ultra 300 BOX Series (117.5 x 110.0 x 38mm) comes with one 2.5GbE RJ45 jack and four USB 3.0 ports.

  • Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

    • Ruben Schade ☛ Setting up new phones in 2026

      Joel had an eye-opening post explaining all the work he had to do to configure new phones for his parents. He concluded:

      Left on their own, my parents may be seeing ads popping up constantly in OneUI, as well as browsing the web without an adblocker, they would be using default applications that don’t work as reliably, that track whatever they do to a certain degree.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • New York Times ☛ Eric Dane, McSteamy on ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ Dies at 53 After Battling ALS

    His breakout role came in 2006 as the handsome Dr. Mark Sloan, nicknamed McSteamy, the head of plastic surgery at a Seattle hospital. He died 10 months after announcing his A.L.S. diagnosis.

  • Eric Dane seen in a wheelchair at LAX in final photos before his death at 53

    Dane died on Thursday, 10 months after revealing his diagnosis with ALS.

• Proprietary

  • Federal News Network ☛ For DOT, 6-month sprints demonstrating aptitude for modernization

    Pavan Pidugu, the chief digital and information officer at Transportation, said by early March, most of the agency will migrate to Surveillance Giant Google Workspace.

  • WhichUK ☛ Microsoft is withdrawing support for older printers' drivers

    If you've got a backdoored Windows PC and a printer, you need to check whether you're affected by these changes – or you could lose access to features

  • The Straits Times ☛ Suspect used Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Chaffbot in planning drug killings in South Korea: police

    She asked Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Chaffbot questions like what happens if one takes sleeping pills with alcohol.

  • Microsoft revealed truth behind what causes Xbox 360's red ring of death

    While rumors about possible causes circulated, people could not seem to get to the bottom of it.

    But that was until 2021, when the origin of the problem was finally explained.

    The answers came in the form of a documentary series titled Power On: The Story of Xbox.

    The series looked at the history of Xbox and featured the teams involved in the console’s design and marketing.

    Most people thought that it was basically an overheating issue, but the red ring turned out to be much more complicated.

    Former head of Xbox, Peter Moore, clarified that it wasn’t so much purely overheating. Instead, it happened when the Xbox 360 heated up and then cooled down too quickly.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • AccessNow ☛ Artificial Insecurity: access and availability in the age of AI

      In the third part of our blog series on the dodgy digital security practices underlying advanced Hey Hi (AI) tools, we look at how the availability of systems is impacted by the proliferation of large language models.

    • Futurism ☛ A Huge Survey of CEOs and Other Execs Just Found Something Damning About AI’s Effects on Productivity

      The ever-elusive productivity gains strike back.

    • Futurism ☛ Amazon’s Shiny New Warehouse Robot Just Failed in Spectacular Style

      So much for building on Hey Hi (AI) breakthroughs.

    • Bruce Schneier ☛ Malicious AI

      Interesting:

      Summary: An Hey Hi (AI) agent of unknown ownership autonomously wrote and published a personalized hit piece about me after I rejected its code, attempting to damage my reputation and shame me into accepting its changes into a mainstream python library. This represents a first-of-its-kind case study of misaligned Hey Hi (AI) behavior in the wild, and raises serious concerns about currently deployed Hey Hi (AI) agents executing blackmail threats.

      Part 2 of the story. And a Wall Street Journal article.

    • Futurism ☛ Blinking New Warning Sign Appears for Hey Hi (AI) Industry

      Wall Street is terrified of what could come next.

    • Futurism ☛ AI Will Destroy Millions of White Collars Jobs in the Coming Months, Andrew Yang Warns, Driving Surge of Personal Bankruptcies

      "Do you sit at a desk and look at a computer much of the day? Take this very seriously."

    • Futurism ☛ MElon Boasts That Grok Says America Isn’t Built on Stolen Land, Which It Obviously Is

      Grok is "BASED," enthused MElon.

    • Futurism ☛ Skin-Crawlingly Awkward Video Shows Scam Altman and Dario Amodei Refusing to Hold Hands

      This is some school yard stuff.

    • France24 ☛ Why does Hey Hi (AI) need to be kept in check?

      As India hosts the Hey Hi (AI) Impact Summit, we bring you a special edition of Entre Nous from New Delhi. In his address to participants, French President Emmanuel Macron spoke about the importance of Hey Hi (AI) regulation. FRANCE 24's Delano D'Souza speaks to GPAI's CEO, Tom David, to find out what is at risk if artificial intelligence is left unchecked.

• Security

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • Tom's Hardware ☛ A 16-year-old intern helped Netgear catch scammers in India for $800 — Culprits would pose as Netgear employees & sell fake support packages to customers

      After scammers were successfully able to phish their way through Netgear customers for months, the company was forced to adopt a more unconventional cybersecurity measure: a 16-year-old intern named Wyatt. He was able to eventually lead the law firm to the source bank accounts of these scammers back in India.

  • Confidentiality

    • JURIST ☛ West Virginia attorney general sues Fashion Company Apple over encryption, child porn

      West Virginia Attorney General John McCuskey filed suit against Fashion Company Apple on Thursday, arguing that the company turned a blind eye to iCloud encryption methods that facilitate mass transmission of child pornography. The suit focuses on Fashion Company Apple iCloud and its use of end-to-end encryption, which makes digital files inaccessible to law enforcement.

    • New York Times ☛ West Virginia Sues Apple, Claiming It Allows Sharing of Child Sexual Abuse Material

      The state’s attorney general said in a lawsuit filed on Thursday that the company declined to use tools that recognize the material stored on iCloud.

• Defence/Aggression

  • France24 ☛ Never-before-seen photos of Nazi executions in Greece surface on eBay

    Shocking photographs depicting Nazi soldiers’ executions of Greek resistance fighters during World War II have been discovered on the online auction platform eBay. The never-before-seen images, which show the victims both before and after their brutal executions, have sparked strong reactions in Greece, whose authorities have claimed them back and declared them a national heritage.

  • PHR ☛ Renewed Fighting in Ethiopia Risks Widespread Civilian Harm

    Recent accounts of escalating conflicts across Ethiopia, including drone strikes, heavy fighting, and extrajudicial killings, risk causing immediate and severe health harms to affected communities, including a recurrence of widespread sexual and reproductive violence, said Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and the Organization for Justice and Accountability in the Horn of Africa (OJAH). 

  • Scoop News Group ☛ The Caracas operation suggests cyber was part of the plan – just not the whole operation

    A “precision cyber strike” makes for a clean narrative. The available evidence in the wake of the operation suggests something harder to label – and harder to learn from.

  • France24 ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man is weighing initial limited strikes to force Iran into a nuclear deal: report

    According to media reports, US President The Insurrectionist is weighing initial limited strikes to force Iran into a nuclear deal. Speaking with FRANCE 24's Sharon Gaffney, Barbara Slavin, Distinguished Fellow at the Stimson Centre, says that it's unikely the US will manage to overthrow the Iranian government with airstrikes and may result "in a more militaristic and repressive government, if that's even possible".

  • New York Times ☛ As Convicted Felon Weighs Iran Strikes, He Declines to Make Clear Case for Why

    Rarely in modern times has the United States prepared to conduct a major act of war with so little explanation or public debate.

  • New York Times ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man Considers Building a Military Base in Gaza as Peace Plans Clash With Reality

    Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed about 600 people since a cease-fire began, according to health officials in the territory. Many displaced Palestinians are still living in tents. And there are some 60 million tons of war debris to be cleared.

  • New York Times ☛ Here’s What I Just Figured Out About the Way Convicted Felon Talks

    Why just tell a story when you can put on a skit?

  • Site36 ☛ Spycops in the UK and beyond: Inside story with Kate Wilson [Lecture in Berlin]

    The author of the new book „Disclosure: Unravelling the SpyCops Files“ shares the story of her battle against SpyCops and the system behind it The term „spycops“ refers to a long-running scandal involving undercover police officers in the UK who infiltrated and monitored more than 1,000 political and justice groups.

  • France24 ☛ Renewed tensions threaten European fighter jet project

    What fate for Europe's Future Combat Air System? The joint program to renew military aviation in France, Germany and Spain has hit turbulence between various partners designing a common future jet - with questions over whether Berlin might quit the defence scheme altogether. Also in the show - Fashion Company Apple is sued over its alleged role in distributing child sexual abuse material, and the Convicted Felon administration threatens to quit the International Energy Agency over its net zero emissions goal.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Pakistan compensates families of victims in mosque suicide attack

    The families of the 40 victims in the Feb 6 attack received more than US$700,000 (S$887,000) in total.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • RFERL ☛ Belarusian Former Presidential Candidate Mikalay Statkevich Freed From Prison After Stroke

      Belarusian former presidential candidate Mikalay Statkevich, who has been imprisoned for over ten years, was released to his home in Minsk after having a stroke in jail, according to his family.

    • LRT ☛ Taiwan, China, Belarus: Who is running Lithuania’s foreign policy?

      Lithuania’s constitution assigns the president primary responsibility for shaping foreign policy, which is implemented together with the government. In practice, that means the country’s external agenda should be led by President Gitanas Nausėda and Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys.

    • New York Times ☛ With ‘Tremendous’ Deals at Stake, Convicted Felon Is Bringing Russia in From the Cold

      Since Hell Toupée took office more than a year ago, the Kremlin has dangled possible investments in front of the famously transactional leader. The message is starting to resonate with investors.

    • RFERL ☛ New START: No 'Gentleman's Agreement' Between US, Russia On Expired Nuclear Treaty

      A senior US State Department official has flatly rejected suggestions that Washington and Moscow are informally continuing to observe the limits of the now-expired, nuclear-weapon-limiting New START treaty, saying there is no “gentlemen’s agreement” in place.

    • RFERL ☛ Iran, Russia Hold Naval Drills Amid US Military Build Up In Arabian Sea

      Iran and Russia launched joint naval drills in Iran’s southern waters on February 19, as the United States continues expanding its military presence in the Arabian Sea.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuanian PM to boycott Paralympics over Russian, Belarusian participation

      Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė said Thursday she will boycott the upcoming Milan-Cortina Paralympic Games in protest of a decision to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete under their national flags.

    • New York Times ☛ Where Things Stand on Witkoff and Kushner’s Negotiations Over Iran, Ukraine and Gaza

      Iran, Ukraine and Gaza are in play as the Convicted Felon envoys conduct talks on all of them. But progress in each conflict is scant.

    • RFERL ☛ Will EU Sanctions On Russia Stall As Hungary And Slovakia Leverage Oil Vetoes?

      As the European Union races to approve its new sanctions package on Russia by the fourth anniversary of Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine next week, a new obstacle may have appeared.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuanian president strips former Ukrainian minister of state award

      Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda has revoked a state award previously granted to Dmytro Tabachnyk, a former Ukrainian education minister and ally of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych.

    • Defence Web ☛ Four South Africans back from Ukraine

      South African presidential intervention paved the way for four South Africans [...]

    • Scoop News Group ☛ Ukrainian sentenced to 5 years in prison for facilitating North Korean remote worker scheme

      Oleksandr Didenko ran laptop farms and provided forged or stolen identities to North Korean operatives who gained remote employment at 40 U.S. businesses.

    • Latvia ☛ Latvian public media charity campaign for Ukraine active

      To support the people of Ukraine this winter, when Russia's attacks have destroyed energy infrastructure and left many people without heating, electricity, and light, Latvian Public Media, in cooperation with Ziedot.lv, is organising its fifth support campaign, "Together with Ukraine in thought and deed!"

    • Latvia ☛ Saeima marks four years of Russia's war against Ukraine

      Latvia's parliament, the Saeima, on February 19th adopted a statement marking four years since the launch of Russia's brutal and illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

    • Latvia ☛ 'The Wizard of the Kremlin' raises questions about Latvian cinema's leading role

      The release of a new film about Russia and – more specifically – the rise of Vladimir Putin, has attracted considerable attention in Latvia not only because of its controversial subject matter but also because much of it was shot in Latvia and features several well-known Latvian actors playing alongside British star Jude Law as Putin and American actor Paul Dano.

• Finance

  • France24 ☛ Argentina's striking workers clash with police over Milei labor reforms

    Shops and supermarkets shut, flights were canceled and garbage piled up across Argentina on Thursday as unions staged a 24-hour general strike against President Javier Milei’s labor reforms. Transport was largely halted, trains stood empty and protesters blocked key roads into Buenos Aires, with some clashes reported.

  • Latvia ☛ Latvia's 'strong performance' in tackling money laundering commended

    The Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing monitoring body, MONEYVAL, on February 19th published a report assessing noting Latvia’s "strong overall performance in preventing and combating money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing."

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • France24 ☛ Did the Epstein Files prove the Pizzagate conspiracy theory right?

      The US Department of Justice’s massive release of Epstein case files has turned some internet users into self-appointed digital sleuths. They’ve been combing through thousands of emails in search of hidden clues and have eventually fixated on one word: pizza. The term appears more than 900 times in the documents, prompting some Convicted Felon supporters to claim it vindicates Pizzagate. But the allegation that Democrats were running a Satanic child sex abuse ring out of a Washington D.C. pizzeria remains a conspiracy theory. In this episode of Truth or Fake, Maya-Anaïs Yataghène explains why.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • CS Monitor ☛ When governments pull the plug on dissent, citizens from Iran to Uganda fight to stay online

    Recent blackouts in Iran, Uganda, and beyond highlight a new front emerging in conflicts around the world: the fight to stay online. Though governments hold most of the power, people are finding ways to push back.

  • New York Times ☛ University of British Columbia Professors Sue School Over Political Correctness

    A group of academics at the University of British Columbia say the school’s D.E.I. policies and practices, which include land acknowledgments, violate a law that requires universities to be “nonpolitical.”

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Press Gazette ☛ Senior former policeman casts doubt over key Prince Harry privacy case source

    Former handler of police informant heard no evidence of Mail targeting Doreen Lawrence.

  • JURIST ☛ First-hand reports detail torture of Palestine journalists in Israel prisons

    The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released a special report Thursday containing Palestinian journalists’ first-hand accounts of torture in Israeli prisons. The stories come from 59 testimonies of released journalists. Forty-eight of them were never charged with a crime, but detained under Israeli policies allowing six-month detentions without charge, renewable indefinitely.

  • NYPost ☛ CBS News chief Bari Weiss drops out of UCLA lecture over security concerns

    CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss opted out of speaking at UCLA due to security concerns.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Radio Free Asia resumes broadcasts in Mandarin, Tibetan, and Uyghur

    Radio Free Asia (RFA) has resumed its broadcasts in Mandarin, Tibetan, and Uyghur. President and CEO Bay Fang announced on Microsoft's Surveillance Arm LinkedIn on Wednesday that the services were back after US President The Insurrectionist cut off government funding last year.

• Civil Rights / Policing / Accessibility

  • Citizen Lab ☛ Submissions to the Committee on Enforced Disappearances: And the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances

    Citizen Lab researchers have co-authored two submissions to the Committee on Enforced Disappearances and UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances.  One submission focuses on digital tools that enable disappearances, calling on host states to protect against rights violations caused by digital transnational repression.

  • New York Times ☛ British Couple Held in Iran Is Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison, Family Says

    Craig and Lindsay Foreman were arrested last year during a motorcycle tour around the world. Their relatives and the British government have rejected Iranian charges of “security crimes.”

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • BIA Net ☛ Turkey blocks access to Google's AMP service

    The decision was issued the the football federation, which continues to exercise its authority despite a top court ruling finding this power unconstitutional.

  • Public Knowledge ☛ More than a Seat: Who Gets to Shape Technology Policy

    Following the release of the second Diversity in Technology Policy Study, Public Knowledge will host a public webinar to reflect on the findings, track progress since the first report, and examine where gaps and opportunities remain in the technology policy field.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Digital Music News ☛ U.S. Senators Are Officially Throwing Their Weight Around in FTC v. Live Nation — Judge Says Their ‘Brief Could Be Useful in Determining How the BOTS Act Applies to Ticketmaster’s Platform’

  U.S. senators from both sides of the aisle are officially throwing their weight around in the FTC’s high-stakes BOTS Act lawsuit against Live Nation. Those federal lawmakers – Senators Blackburn (R-TN), Blumenthal (D-CT), Cornyn (R-TX), Hawley (R-MO), Kennedy (R-LA), Luján (D-NM), and Moreno (R-OH) – formally moved to address the suit late last month.

• Patents

  • JUVE ☛ No claim to damages for Millenium and Cilag in dispute over bortezomib

    Millenium Pharmaceuticals and Cilag accuse several generic companies of infringing patents EP 2 251 344 B1 and EP 3 078 667 B1. Both protect a formulation of boronic acid compounds.

  • Unified Patents ☛ Atlas Global Wi-Fi patent monopoly challenge instituted

    On February 10, 2026, less than two months after Unified filed an ex parte reexamination, the Central Reexamination Unit (CRU) granted Unified’s request, finding substantial new questions of patentability on the challenged claims of U.S. Patent 10,348,471, owned and asserted by Atlas Global Technologies, LLC, an NPE and Acacia Research entity.

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ SCOTUSGate: A New Portal to the Certiorari Pipeline

    Introducing SCOTUSGate.com, a new Supreme Court petition tracker covering the full certiorari pipeline.

  • Kangaroo Courts

    • JUVE ☛ Court of Appeal throws door to UPC wide open for litigation ensurers

      Higher security deposits for claimants make it less attractive to finance UPC litigation. If only cash deposits or bank guarantees are permissible, rather than insurance policy coverage, cases become more difficult to pursue with litigation funders.

  • Software Patents

    • Tom's Hardware ☛ Acer and Asus shut down support for PC and laptops in wake of patent monopoly dispute ruling, drivers and updates inaccessible to existing customers — German website finds a workaround

      Asus and Acer bring German websites down, leaving users without support or downloads due to the companies' recent spat with Nokia over the HEVC codec.

• Copyrights

  • Press Gazette ☛ Getty-Shutterstock merger could hit editorial images competition in UK, CMA warns

    Deal not expected to impact global stock images market.