Leftovers

• Hardware

  • Ruben Schade ☛ The InWin IW-MS04 mini 4-bay case looks interesting

    I’m a fan of the HP(E) ProLiant MicroServer line, and still have a Gen 8 kicking around for NetBSD testing. I call it my Companion Cube. But its limitations and quirky boot behaviour do have me looking for another tiny machine with four bays I can eventually upgrade into. I was also thinking of building a server for Clara to be able to tinker with.

    If only someone made a case with a similar internal design and footprint to the MicroServer that… oh, wait a minute. What’s this handsome thing? I mean, aside from the reader who’s looking at this post?

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • The Straits Times ☛ Rising coffee prices drive search for substitutes in Japan

    Climate change is expected to cut the global land area suitable for growing the major coffee varieties in half by 2050.

• Proprietary / Vendor Lock-in / Malware

  • So-Called 'Artificial Intelligence' ('AI') / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • Futurism ☛ Workers Are Spending An Astonishing Amount of Their Own Money On Hey Hi (AI) for Their Jobs

      "What's particularly striking is how quickly GenAI has become part of everyday working life."

    • Futurism ☛ AI Bros Are Having a Meltdown Because the Associated Press Stylebook Clarifies That AIs Don’t Have Feelings

      "Artificial intelligence systems do not think, feel, want or understand."

    • GNOME ☛ Morten Welinder: LLMs: Vigilatism is not the Answer [Ed: Opposition to spam and plagiarism is not "Vigilatism", there are good reasons for this; Opposition to slop typically comes from people who reject it and opposition to opposers from the abusers, who cannot do things right]

      Jordan Petridis evidently has strong opinions on the use of LLMs. He’s welcome to those.

      What’s not welcome is when it escalates into vigilantism and defacement of bug reports. Specifically for me, this bug where a tag “Probabilistically Automated” was added. That tag has a meaning of

      Usually accompanied by a lack of proper testing, and finalizing patches based on theoretical intended behavior rather than correctness of code.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Futurism ☛ Five More Cops Charged for Abusing Flock Cameras Amid So Many Similar Scandals That We Can’t Even Keep Track

      "We have seen abuse of automated license plate readers for almost as long as they have existed."

• Defence/Aggression

  • New York Times ☛ A Growing North Korea Problem

    In an interview with The New York Times, South Korea’s president dropped a bold proposal for how to curb North Korea’s nuclear program.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korean military, UN Command launch investigation into DMZ explosion

    A team of about 40 officials searched an area near the site where the blast happened on Sept 21.

  • The Straits Times ☛ ‘Currently impossible’: North Korea defections in free fall

    The main cause is leader Kim Jong Un’s aim to preserve his family dynasty by sealing the country off from the outside, experts say.

  • The Strategist ☛ Revolting for the CCP: seizing Taiwan could drive Japan to nuclear weapons

    Potential Japanese acquisition of nuclear weapons is an under-appreciated deterrent to a Chinese attempt at seizing Taiwan.

  • Futurism ☛ After Putting in a Massive Order for Electric Shock Gloves, ICE Is Now Buying Robot Dogs

    Robot dogs are coming to Convicted Felon's immigration enforcement regime.

  • CS Monitor ☛ 5 arrested near British air base used by US in Iran war on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act

    The British base has been used by American bombers for limited strikes against Iran. Iran has said that bases used to attack it are legitimate targets.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Taiwan's chip talisman snack faces production halt after 94% strike vote

    Taiwan's tech talisman snack production could be halted as the Guai Guai company faces strike action.

  • France24 ☛ Major incident at UK airbase used by US

    British police have evacuated homes near an air force base in Gloucestershire, as army bomb disposal experts examined several vehicles in what authorities described as a major incident. Five men have been arrested on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act and offences under the Explosives Act. RAF Fairford, the base involved, is also being used by the US for strikes on Iranian missile sites targeting ships in the Strait of Hormuz. US Air Force personnel at the base have been told to remain vigilant, while police say the incident is now contained. Caroline Baum reports.

  • France24 ☛ UK: Police arrest 5 on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act

    British police have evacuated homes near an air force base in Gloucestershire, as army bomb disposal experts examined several vehicles in what authorities described as a major incident. Five men have been arrested on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act and offences under the Explosives Act. RAF Fairford, the base involved, is also being used by the US for strikes on Iranian missile sites targeting ships in the Strait of Hormuz. US Air Force personnel at the base have been told to remain vigilant, while police say the incident is now contained.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea demands apology from Ukraine over disclosure of North Korean PoW transfer

      South Korea agreed to keep the transfer confidential given security, diplomatic and humanitarian concerns.

    • France24 ☛ Poland fears Ukraine war could spill over

      In Poland, a close ally of neighbouring Ukraine, concerns are growing that the war could spill across the border. Our next report comes from Suwałki, a city in a region bordering Russia and Belarus that is considered particularly sensitive for NATO countries. Caitlin Brown reports.

    • France24 ☛ Russian attacks kill eight in Ukraine after Moscow vows to continue war

      Russian strikes killed eight people across Ukraine on Sunday, authorities said, a day after Moscow vowed to continue the war. President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had launched about 3,900 drones, aerial bombs and missiles over the past week. Ukraine accused Moscow of deliberately targeting civilians as winter approaches.

    • RFERL ☛ Russian Strikes On Ukraine As Zelenskyy Says Russia Not Ready To End War

      Russian drone strikes killed at least four people in Ukraine overnight and into September 27.

• Environment

  • The Straits Times ☛ Bangkok flood waters recede after torrential rain as residents count losses

    Residents in some flooded neighbourhoods are still stranded in their homes.

• Finance

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong workers see real salary growth slow to 1.1% in post-pandemic low

    Workers in Hong Kong have seen their salaries increase 1.1 per cent so far this year, after adjusting for inflation – the lowest pay rise the city has logged since 2021, when its economy was still reeling from the Covid-19 pandemic, a new pay trend survey has found.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ World News Day: Why independent journalism is a lifeline for Hong Kong

    HKFP is joining 1,000 news organisations across more than 100 countries to highlight World News Day on September 28. Coinciding with the UN International Day for Universal Access to Information, it aims to promote fact-based journalism, truth and media literacy across the world.

• Monopolies/Monopsonies

  • Patents

    • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Who Owns Mind Reading?

      Texas, UCSF, Siemens, and a London startup are staking patent monopoly claims on brain-to-text decoding. Older patents already cover pieces of the path.