Leftovers

• Juha-Matti Santala ☛ When a community graduates

  A community reaches its peak when — bit unintuitively — the shared interest is no longer the (main) reason the community stays together.

  I’m part of a couple of communities that have graduated from the niche interest to a group of friends. One of them I joined somewhere around 2004 in a classic Internet forum and got to know people through our IRC channel.

• Joel Chrono ☛ Lots of messages, not many blog posts

  I just wrote about how much fun it is to get emails and chat with people lately! It really has been great! So much so that it has also limited the amount of time I dedicate to writing on my blog at all!

• Cassidy Williams ☛ Styling the icon for HTML date and time types

  When you use these inputs in a supported browser, you might notice that there’s a fun little clock or calendar icon in them, supplied by the browser itself.

• Career/Education

  • TruthOut ☛ As Trump Targets Higher Education, Sanders to Unveil College for All Act

    The College for All Act of 2025, shared exclusively with Common Dreams ahead of its official introduction, would eliminate public college and university tuition and fees for students from married households earning $300,000 or less per year or single households earning $150,000 or less.

  • Cynthia Dunlop ☛ Glauber Costa on Technical Blogging

    Welcome to our latest attempt to (not-so) gently nudge you to write more! Following up on writethat.blog and Writing for Developers: Blogs That Get Read, we’re sharing the perspectives of expert tech bloggers: why they write, how they tackle writing challenges, and their lessons learned. This time, let’s hear from Glauber Costa.

• Hardware

  • GamingOnLinux ☛ AMD announce the Radeon RX 9060 XT and a big FSR 4 'Redstone' upgrade

    Some fun news coming out of Computex 2025 with AMD revealing two models of the Radeon RX 9060 XT, along with a big upgrade for FSR 4 named 'Redstone'.

  • Digital Camera World ☛ This viral video shows how photographing a self-driving car could actually destroy your camera

    As concentrated beams of light, lasers can heat up surfaces. When this happens to a camera sensor, the laser overheats part of the camera sensor, leaving a permanent dot in any subsequent photos or videos captured with the device. This happens with any high-powered laser and isn’t unique to the Volvo called out in the video.

• Proprietary

  • Entrepeneur ☛ TikTok Is Laying Off Some U.S.-Based Employees This Week. Here's What We Know.

    TikTok laid off some U.S. employees working in its e-commerce unit, TikTok Shop, on Wednesday.

  • HT Digital Streams Ltd ☛ Microsoft-Backed Builder.ai Set for Bankruptcy After Cash Seized

    Builder.ai, the British artificial intelligence startup backed by Microsoft Corp. and the Qatar Investment Authority, is filing for bankruptcy after the chief executive officer said a major creditor had seized most of its cash.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • The Register UK ☛ Google's AI vision clouded by business model hallucinations

      How it might recoup the billions it is spending to build out AI infrastructure was left to the imagination.

    • The Washington Post ☛ Teens are sexting with AI. Here’s what parents should know

      AI chatbots are open-ended chat interfaces that generate answers to complex questions, or banter in a conversational way about any topic. There is no shortage of places minors can find these tools, and that makes blocking them difficult. AI bots are websites, stand-alone apps and features built into existing services like Instagram or video games.

    • Wired ☛ The Time Scam Altman Asked for a Countersurveillance Audit of OpenAI

      The shift in gravity unsettled some people, heightening their anxiety about random and unrelated incidents. Once, a journalist tailgated someone inside the gated parking lot to gain access to the building. Another time, an employee found an unaccounted‑for USB stick, stirring consternation about whether it contained malware files, a common vector of attack, and was some kind of attempt at a cybersecurity breach. After it was examined on an air‑gapped computer, one completely severed from the internet, the USB turned out to be nothing. At least twice, Amodei also used an air‑gapped computer to write critical strategy documents, connecting the machine directly to a printer to circulate only physical copies. He was paranoid about state actors stealing OpenAI’s secrets and building their own powerful AI models for malicious purposes.

    • Digital Camera World ☛ My hunch is that Microsoft's Copilot is as much a dead end as the Metaverse

      What's telling is that even Microsoft seems to be cooling on its AI investments. Reports suggest they've cancelled plans for significant data center expansions; a sign they're not seeing the AI demand they expected. Across industries, AI adoption rates have slowed dramatically according to recent studies.

    • Simon Willison ☛ Chicago Sun-Times Prints AI-Generated Summer Reading List With Books That Don't Exist

      There's an important follow-up from 404 Media in their subsequent story: [...]

    • Bruce Schneier ☛ More AIs Are Taking Polls and Surveys

      I already knew about the declining response rate for polls and surveys. The percentage of AI bots that respond to surveys is also increasing.

    • Malcom Coles ☛ Reasonable Arguments for AI Skepticism

      The hype is huge. It’s nearly impossible to read tech-related news without getting how AI is changing everything shoved down your throat. There is a massive marketing machine behind making sure the whole world knows that AI is the future. And it covers everything. As a worker, if you aren’t using AI, you’re doomed. If the West doesn’t beat China in the AI race, freedom is over.

      I’m skeptical of the AI future for a few reasons. Firstly, anything that is hyped this much with such a massive amount of money put into convincing us that it’s the future warrants skepticism. Secondly, having used LLMs, the results just aren’t that compelling. That isn’t to say they don’t work but that, in my opinion, they don’t work nearly as well as it seems those with vested interest would like to convince us. Most importantly, I cannot see how the model modern AI is built on top of, LLMs, can accomplish what they are being sold as.

    • Pivot to AI ☛ UK AI unicorn Builder․ai is dead — the downfall of “AGI”: A Guy Instead

      The most “AI” part of the whole thing is Natasha the keyword bot at the start of the process.

      Steps 3 and 5 are where A Guy Inside does the actual work: [...]

    • Ars Technica ☛ Chicago Sun-Times prints summer reading list full of fake books - Ars Technica

      Reading list in advertorial supplement contains 66% made up books with real author names.

  • Windows TCO / Windows Bot Nets

    • The Register UK ☛ Teen to plead guilty to PowerSchool extortion attack

      Lane faces a possible maximum sentence of 17 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, plus three years of supervised release. Under the terms of his plea agreement [PDF], he faces a mandatory minimum of two years, with his final sentence to be determined by a federal judge.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Dan Q ☛ Google Shared My Phone Number!

      I deleted my phone number from the business listing again, and within a few minutes it seemed to have stopped being served to random strangers on the Internet. Unfortunately deleting the phone number also made the “Your phone number was updated by Google” message disappear, so I never got to click the “Learn more” link to maybe get a clue as to how and why this change happened.

  • Confidentiality

    • Ars Technica ☛ “Microsoft has simply given us no other option,” Signal says as it blocks Windows Recall - Ars Technica

      Even after its refurbishing, Recall provides few ways to exclude specific apps.

• Defence/Aggression

  • Site36 ☛ Cockroach cyborgs by drone: German start-up develops remote-controlled insects for war and rescue missions

  • Overpopulation ☛ The imminence (or otherwise) of depopulation

    What is more important for future population trends is where births are occurring. As Figure 1 shows, more than half of all births continue to be in countries with above-replacement fertility. Moreover, according to the UN’s medium-variant projection, this will still be the case in 2050. So for decades to come, most young adults coming into their reproductive years will live in societies with fertility rates above replacement.

  • Mike Brock ☛ The Emergency We Cannot Feel: On the Psychological Unreadiness for American Collapse

    Why the most dangerous political crisis in modern American history is met with emotional denial, moral distortion, and cultural distraction.

  • Mike Brock ☛ The Emoluments Clause Is Not a Suggestion

    But here is the legal analysis: The president is receiving the benefit. He will use the plane. He will enjoy the prestige, the utility, the access. The end.

    The Foreign Emoluments Clause was written by men who feared one thing above all: the corruption of American governance by foreign powers. They did not say the president could accept gifts with the right paperwork. They did not say the president could accept personal benefit so long as he named a public purpose. They said: [...]

  • Scoop News Group ☛ Multi-national warning issued over Russia’s targeting of logistics, tech firms

    Entities across nearly all modes of transportation — including air, rail, and sea — as well as government, defense, and IT service sectors have been singled out. Targets are widespread, spanning the United States, Ukraine, several NATO member states, and bordering countries such as Bulgaria, France, Germany, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia.

  • The Register UK ☛ Russia's Fancy Bear sticks its paws in transportation emails

    The orgs they attacked span "virtually all transportation modes: air, sea, and rail," the security advisory [PDF] warns. And it points the finger at the Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) military unit 26165, aka APT28 or Fancy Bear.

    In addition to the logistics and technology entities, the GRU snoops targeted [Internet]-connected cameras at Ukrainian border crossings to track aid shipments.

• Environment

  • TruthOut ☛ 11 States Are Eyeing Laws to Make Fossil Fuel Industry Pay for Climate Crisis

    While the concept of a climate Superfund has been around for decades, it’s only in recent years that states have begun to seriously consider these laws. In Maryland, federal inaction on climate change and the growing burden of climate change on government budgets have led to a surge of interest, said Boafo. Cities and counties are getting hit with huge unexpected costs from damage to stormwater systems, streets, highways, and other public infrastructure. They’re also struggling to provide immediate disaster relief to residents and to prepare for future climate events. Maryland has faced at least $10 billion to $20 billion in disaster costs between 1980 and 2024, according to a recent state report. Meanwhile, up until now, governments, businesses, and individuals have borne 100 percent of these costs.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • The Register UK ☛ AI energy usage hard to measure, but this report tried

      A single person with a serious AI habit may chew through enough electricity each day to keep a microwave running for more than three hours. And the actual toll may even be worse, as so many companies keep details about their AI models secret.

      Speaking to two dozen researchers tracking AI energy consumption, and conducting experiments on its own, the MIT Technology Review concluded that the total energy and climate toll is incredibly difficult to get a handle on. But that didn't stop them from trying.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • The Revelator ☛ From the Archives: An Okapi Tragedy, a New Beginning

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Wired ☛ OpenAI's Big Bet That Jony Ive Can Make AI Hardware Work

    In a nearly 10-minute video posted to X on Wednesday, Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the Apple pioneer’s “creative collective” will “merge with OpenAI to work more intimately with the research, engineering, and product teams in San Francisco.” OpenAI says it’s paying $5 billion in equity to acquire Io.

  • Nick Heer ☛ Jony Ive’s ‘io’ Acquired by OpenAI; Ive to Remain as Designer

  • Michael Tsai ☛ OpenAI Acquires Jony Ive’s io

  • Stephen Hackett ☛ Jony Ive's Startup io Purchased by OpenAI

    Wild news just broke: the company Scam Altman and Jony Ive started to build AI-based hardware has been purchased for a cool $6.5 billion, as Mike Isaac and Cade Metz report: [...]

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Rik Huijzer ☛ How Effective is Russian Subversion? - Rik's Weblog

      He starts off by explaining how most militaries spend about 85% of their money on subversion.

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • The Dissenter ☛ Navigating Our Algo-Controlled Media Landscape

  • Hamilton Nolan ☛ Free Advice For Rich Idiots Who Have Some Bright Ideas About Media Ventures

    Here is how journalism works its influence on society: You start a publication. You do journalism. You build an audience, painstakingly, over years. The audience consists of people who believe in you because you have demonstrated with your work that you are honest, that you are insightful, that you are worth believing. Over the course of years, bit by bit, as your audience grows, so too does the influence of your stories. Slowly, your readership becomes better informed. Thanks to your journalism, and the journalism of others like you, readers know more stuff. They are better equipped to make informed judgments about public matters. They are less susceptible to bullshit. These readers may or may not agree with you. Either way, they will have higher quality information with which to make their decisions.

    There is another thing, called propaganda. That is the thing that most wealthy political donors want. It is a different thing. Journalism seeks to tell the truth; propaganda seeks to produce a specific outcome. See the difference?

  • The Telegraph UK ☛ The rapists, paedophiles and terror offender given shorter sentences than Lucy Connolly

    When you look at the cases where far more egregious offences have been met with shorter or suspended sentences, Connolly’s treatment in the courts begins to look unduly harsh.

    Here are some of the most striking examples.

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • The Register UK ☛ Research reimagines LLMs as tireless tools of torture

    Lee has form when it comes to manipulating LLMs. One of his side projects is HackTheWitness, a cross-examination training game. The game allows a participant to interact with a "witness" by voice. The "witnesses" vary in difficulty level, going up to "John Duncan," a lead database administrator who "may be defensive about his system and reluctant to admit to any flaws or limitations," punishing sloppy questioning with technical detail and jargon, delivered in a sarcastic tone.

    Yes, it appears that Lee has created a virtual BOFH. A couple of responses that are not scripted or prewritten include: [...]

  • 404 Media ☛ Sweden Expands Anti-Sex Work Law to Criminalize Paying for Custom OnlyFans Clips and Camming

    Buying pre-recorded content, paying to follow an account where pornographic material is continuously posted, or otherwise consuming porn without influencing its content is outside of the scope of the law, the bill says. But live-streaming content where viewers interact with performers, as well as ordering custom clips, are illegal.

  • Rolling Stone ☛ Kristi Noem Flubs 'Habeas Corpus' Question at Senate Hearing

    The Department of Homeland Security oversees tens of thousands of arrests and detentions in the United States every year. It should go without saying that the department is responsible for ensuring that anyone in its custody is treated in accordance with the Constitution. It has long been clear that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is wholly unqualified to uphold that responsibility, but nowhere was it more apparent than Tuesday on Capitol Hill.

    During a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday, Noem was asked by Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.): “What is habeas corpus?”

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • The Verge ☛ Signal says no to Windows 11’s Recall screenshots

    Signal is taking proactive steps to ensure Microsoft’s Recall feature can’t screen capture your secured chats, by rolling out a new version of the Signal for Windows 11 client that enables screen security by default. This is the same DRM that blocks users from easily screenshotting a Netflix show on their computer or phone, and using it here could cause problems for people who use accessibility features like screen readers.

  • Rodrigo Ghedin ☛ Signal uses DRM to block Recall, the Windows 11’s built-in spyware

    Signal has found a brilliant solution to shield its app from Recall, Microsoft’s official spyware for Windows 11: setting the app as protected by copyright (DRM), just like Netflix’s, which prevents it from appearing in screenshots — including those taken by Recall.