Leftovers

• The Register UK ☛ 52 year old data tape could contain Unix history

  If it's what it says on the label, this is a notable discovery because little of UNIX V4 remains. That's unfortunate as this specific version is especially interesting: it's the first version of UNIX in which the kernel and some of the core utilities were rewritten in the new C programming language. Until now, the only surviving parts known were the source code to a slightly older version of the kernel and a few man pages – plus the Programmer's Manual [PDF], from November 1973.

• Science

  • Jeff Geerling ☛ Converting hot dog plasma video to sound with OpenCV

    But a few people left comments speculating whether an audio waveform could be reproduced based on the plasma arcing—using video frames alone. Put another way: could I get slow motion footage to translate the visual plasma arcing into audible sound?

• Hardware

  • Logikal Solutions ☛ Review – SilverStone PS13 ATX Tower Chassis

    The SilverStone PS13 ATX tower chassis is a really sad product. I had decided to give my old AMD Phenom II system to a new home but wanted an AMD system in the office. After my i-9 gen13 experience, I am never buying Intel again. Initially I was just going to give away all of the guts. Why? Newegg had this combo

  • Logikal Solutions ☛ Avoid MSI Graphics Like the Plague

    To go from that funky HDMI to Display Port you need the BENFEI cable designed for that purpose.

  • Dan Langille ☛ r730-01: storage plan

    Following on from What will I do with those 2 x 1TB drives?, I received a fantastic suggestion from Mike Gerdts. Do more bifurcation.

    Buy an ASUS HYPER M.2 X16 GEN 4 CARD and put 4x NVMe devices on each one. I can be adding 8 more storage devices to the chassis.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-10-28 [Older] Disease in flight: Bird flu spreads in Europe, US. What's new?

  • Futurism ☛ ChatGPT's Dark Side Encouraged Wave of Suicides, Grieving Families Say

    In October, OpenAI published a blog post in which it said that around 0.07 percent of its vast user base appeared to be exhibiting signs of mania, delusion, or psychosis on a weekly basis, while 0.15 percent of weekly users talk to the chatbot about suicidal thoughts. With a userbase of around 800 million, those seemingly small percentages mean that millions of people, every week, are engaging with ChatGPT in ways that signal they’re likely in crisis.

  • Yordi Verkroost ☛ A Runner’s Realization

    And really, who has time for that?

    The solution, of course, is simple, but it took a while to really sink in: run a little more often, with fewer kilometers per session.

  • Annie Mueller ☛ Outside sad is better than inside sad

    To me, it feels safer to be sad outside. Like I can let it well up and leak out and there’s room for it to be big and there’s still room for the rest of me. The trees and the ground and the sky are a witness, a reflection, a reminder that I have existed before and will keep existing. That nature is truth and I am part of it. That even where there is no path, I can find my way.

• Proprietary

  • Copenhagen Post ☛ 2025-10-31 [Older] Apple sees billion-dollar revenue, but disappointing iPhone sales

  • Feld ☛ Samba Shares Not Discovered On Windows 11

    The only sofware I've seen that can do this is a Python tool called wsdd. On FreeBSD you simply install and activate the service like this: [...]

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Chinese microdrama creators turn to AI despite job loss concerns

      With over 50 million views, it is one of a growing number of AI-generated “microdramas”, soap opera-like series with episodes as short as 30 seconds, that are taking China by storm.

      Microdrama production companies are increasingly harnessing AI to replace actors and screenwriters with algorithms, raising concerns about job losses and copyright infringement that have riled creative industries globally.

    • The Hindu ☛ How is AI going to be regulated in India? | Explained

      The guidelines flow from the government’s need to have a consistent way to regulate the AI industry and the use of its tools, especially in the light of their growing usage in India, the world’s second largest user of Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT after the U.S. “India’s goal is to harness the transformative potential of AI for inclusive development and global competitiveness, while addressing the risks it may pose to individuals and society,” the guidelines say. In previous multilateral AI summits in Bletchley Park (U.K.), Seoul and Paris, governments have generally agreed on rough starting points to managing the spread of LLMs and AI in their countries: watch out for and classify the risks that can emerge, create policies for who will be responsible when something goes wrong, and conduct safety research among other things.

    • New York Times ☛ Vigilante Lawyers Expose the Rising Tide of A.I. Slop in Court Filings

      Mr. Freund is part of a growing network of lawyers who track down A.I. abuses committed by their peers, collecting the most egregious examples and posting them online. The group hopes that by tracking down the A.I. slop, it can help draw attention to the problem and put an end to it.

      While judges and bar associations generally agree that it’s fine for lawyers to use chatbots for research, they must still ensure their filings are accurate.

      But as the technology has taken off, so has misuse. Chatbots frequently make things up, and judges are finding more and more fake case law citations, which are then rounded up by the legal vigilantes.

    • Reuters ☛ How Tesla and Waymo's radically different robotaxi approaches will shape the industry

      In Austin, where it started offering autonomous rides through the Uber (UBER.N) , opens new tab app in March, authorities have often seen Waymo vehicles ignore officers’ hand signals and drive into dangerous situations, said Austin Police Lieutenant William White. In May, a Waymo vehicle drove into flood waters and the passenger had to find a way out. “Obviously that’s a huge concern to us,” said White. “If that person had died, we could have been looking at a serious criminal incident.” Last year, during a charity walk near downtown Austin, a Waymo vehicle tried repeatedly to go around an officer who was clearly blocking a roadway. Police eventually disabled the vehicle by wrapping tape around one of its sensors, White said.

    • International Business Times ☛ Tesla Robotaxi City Rollout Plans Revealed — Could Disrupt Daily Travel for Millions

      Tesla's approach differs from some rivals. According to industry analysis, Tesla is relying on a vision‑only system with cameras and AI, rather than on LiDAR and high‑definition maps.

      That means the automotive company hopes to scale faster. But it also raises questions about how it will maintain safety and reliability at a mass scale, matters that affect every rider and non‑rider on the road.

    • Doc Searls ☛ Smart is as Smart Does

      Never mind that Artificial Intelligence is neither. As most of us know and understand it, AI is an answer machine. Or a know-it-all librarian who looks stuff up and gives you answers. While it uses the first person voice and speaks in a friendly style, its humanity is pure emulation. It’s not human but speaking in a human way makes it maximally useful. In a way it is what it does.

    • Futurism ☛ Judge Blasts Lawyer Caught Using ChatGPT in Divorce Court, Orders Him to Take Remedial Law Classes

      A Maryland appellate court judge issued a scathing opinion after a family attorney was caught using ChatGPT to write legal briefs.

  • Social Control Media

    • The Guardian UK ☛ Social media misinformation driving men to seek unneeded NHS testosterone therapy, doctors say

      Doctors warn taking testosterone unnecessarily can suppress the body’s natural hormone production, cause infertility, and increase the risk of blood clots, heart problems and mood disorders.

    • Nick Heer ☛ Meta Is Earning a Fortune on a Deluge of Fraudulent Ads

      The only reason we are getting even a small glimpse of the true nature of Meta’s business is in spite of people like Stone, and because of books like “Careless People” and reporters like Horwitz.

    • [Old] Don Marti ☛ some ways that Facebook ads are optimized for deceptive advertising

      Why are there so many scam ads on Facebook? The over-simplified answer is that Facebook just doesn’t have enough ad reviewers for the number of ads they get. Since basically anyone with a credit card can advertise, and advertisers have access to tools for making huge numbers of ad variations, while Meta runs an aggressive program of layoffs, then of course lots of scam ads are going to get through.

    • Reuters ☛ Meta is earning a fortune on a deluge of fraudulent ads, documents show

      Meta internally projected late last year that it would earn about 10% of its overall annual revenue – or $16 billion – from running advertising for scams and banned goods, internal company documents show. A cache of previously unreported documents reviewed by Reuters also shows that the social-media giant for at least three years failed to identify and stop an avalanche of ads that exposed Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp’s billions of users to fraudulent e-commerce and investment schemes, illegal online casinos, and the sale of banned medical products.

    • CoryDoctorow ☛ Pluralistic: Facebook’s fraud files

      A blockbuster Reuters report by Jeff Horwitz analyzes leaked internal documents that reveal that: 10% of Meta's gross revenue comes from ads for fraudulent goods and scams, and; the company knows it, and; they decided not to do anything about it, because; the fines for facilitating this life-destroying fraud are far less than the expected revenue from helping to destroy its users' lives: [...]

    • Barry Hess ☛ I’d Like a Better Fortnite System

      I like to play Fortnite. After several failed attempts, my kids finally got me into the game a couple years ago and now I’ll sit down with it a few times a week. For good or ill.

    • [Old] Forbes ☛ Is Fortnite The New Social-Media Home For Teens?

      "Fortnite is the No.1 service teens are using, and audiences cite its social elements as the primary motivators for playing: it’s the best place to be my authentic self and to connect to what everyone is talking about, making me feel like I’m not alone," according to the study.

• Security

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • Wired ☛ Mexico City Is the Most Video-Surveilled Metropolis in the Americas

      Mexico City has more government video cameras in public spaces than any other city in the Americas. There are more than 83,000 cameras that continuously record the daily life of one of the most populated cities in the world. New York, by comparison, has 71,000.

    • Evan Hahn ☛ Notes from "Tor: From the Dark Web to the Future of Privacy"

      I just finished Tor: From the Dark Web to the Future of Privacy, a profile of the Tor Project. I thought it was an approachable overview of Tor and its history. If you’re interested, the book is free! Or you can read my chapter-by-chapter notes below.

  • Confidentiality

    • Roger Comply ☛ Year one of hosting Tor exit relays

      It’s a dirty job, but somebody’s got to do it. Well, actually, that’s not quite true. I’ve been mirroring this blog as an onion site since 2016, so I figured it was time to contribute a little time, effort, and money towards the infrastructure of the Tor network. Besides, running Tor relays has always been on my bucket list, and I am getting old. No more time to waste ;)

• Defence/Aggression

  • SBS ☛ Denmark follows Australia's youth social media ban | SBS News

    Denmark's government has announced a political agreement to ban access to social media for anyone aged under 15.

    The measures would set that age limit for access to social media but give some parents — after a specific assessment — the right to give consent to let their children access social media from age 13.

  • JURIST ☛ Denmark announces national minimum age requirement for certain social media

    The agreement prohibits children under 15 from self-registering on platforms deemed to expose them to harmful content or features. However, children aged 13 and older can access social media if their parents provide opt-in consent. The agreement emphasizes the objective to provide children with more time for peace, play, and healthy development before engaging with social media.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-10-28 [Older] Germany: Police officer guilty of not pursuing future killer

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • Insight Hungary ☛ Trump grants Hungary exemption from sanctions after Orbán visit to Washington

      The US has granted Hungary a one-year exemption from sanctions on Russian oil and gas imports after Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán pressed his case during a meeting with US President Donald Trump in Washington. The Hungarian PM met the US president at the White House on Friday for their first bilateral talks since Trump’s return to power, arguing that Hungary had "no viable alternative" to Russian energy. “The consequences for the Hungarian people, and for the Hungarian economy, not to get oil and gas from Russia” would be severe, Orbán said. Trump, who has been urging Europe to reduce reliance on Russian energy, appeared sympathetic. “They don’t have the advantage of having sea,” he said, noting that “many European countries are buying oil and gas from Russia, and they have been for years.”

      A White House official said alongside the sanctions exemption, Hungary had agreed to purchase $600m worth of US liquefied natural gas. Bloomberg reported that Orbán was expected to offer commitments to buy US LNG and nuclear fuel as part of the deal. The meeting, marked by warm exchanges, saw Trump describe Orbán as a “great leader” and call for European countries to “respect Hungary and respect this leader very, very strongly.” He also praised Orbán’s hardline anti-immigration stance, saying “Look what’s happened to Europe with the immigration,” Trump said. “You go to some of the countries, they’re unrecognizable now because of what they’ve done. And Hungary is very recognizable.”

• Environment

  • Deccan Chronicle ☛ Delhi's Air Quality Slips into Severe Category

    Several parts of the city registered alarming pollution levels with AQI readings crossing the 400-mark. As per CPCB data, Anand Vihar recorded an AQI of 412, Alipur reported 415, and Bawana registered the highest level at 436. Chandni Chowk recorded an AQI of 409, while RK Puram and Patparganj logged 422 and 425, respectively. Sonia Vihar also recorded a 'severe' AQI of 415, indicating hazardous air conditions across the city.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-10-28 [Older] Kenya: Plane carrying foreign tourists crashes, 11 dead

    • India Times ☛ Meta plans $600 billion US spend as AI data centers expand

      Last month, the social media giant sealed a $27 billion financing deal with Blue Owl Capital to fund its Louisiana data center, its biggest project globally.

      Meta said in October it would invest $1.5 billion in a data center in Texas, breaking ground on its 29th such facility globally.

    • India Times ☛ India's data centre capacity set to grow 5x to 8GW by 2030: Jefferies

      The report highlights that India's colocation data centre capacity, where enterprises lease infrastructure from operators, has already increased fivefold to 1.7GW, with occupancy levels at 97%, underscoring strong demand.

    • US News And World Report ☛ Voters’ Anger at High Electricity Bills and Data Centers Looms Over 2026 Midterms

      Voter anger over the cost of living is hurtling forward into next year's midterm elections, when pivotal contests will be decided by communities that are home to fast-rising electric bills or fights over who's footing the bill to power Big Tech's energy-hungry data centers.

    • International Business Times ☛ When Will LA Power Return? Officials Offer No Timeline for Massive Outage

      The scale of the LA power outage was staggering. According to the LADWP's own data, reports peaked around 4:15 p.m. EDT, with more than 100,818 customers left without electricity across its service area.

  • Wildlife/Nature

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-10-28 [Older] Japan governor calls for army to tackle deadly bear attacks

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-10-28 [Older] Ouattara's victory in Cote d'Ivoire: Progress or setback?

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-10-28 [Older] Rescuing Lake Prespa through cross-border activism

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2025-10-28 [Older] South Korea: Cheeto Mussolini's demands test Seoul's patience

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ Shein avoids ban in France — government

    Singapore-based online retailer Shein is not to be subject to a ban in France during a probe into the sale of illegal items, France's government announced on Friday.

  • India Times ☛ AI startup Anthropic expands in Europe with offices in Paris, Munich

    It has offices in London, Dublin and Zurich in Europe, and has tripled the number of employees in the region last year.

  • Federal News Network ☛ Return-to-office mandates are undermining federal workforce readiness — especially for employees with disabilities

    In the wake of the federal government’s push to bring employees back to the office, agencies like FEMA are facing a critical crossroads. While the intent behind return-to-office policies may be rooted in tradition, optics or perceived productivity, the reality is far more complex — and far more costly.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Scam Altman backs away from OpenAI's statements about possible U.S. gov't AI industry bailouts — company continues to lobby for financial support from the industry

    The original confusion stemmed from remarks made by CFO Sarah Friar, who said at a Bloomberg event that a federal “backstop” could help unlock investment for future data center expansion. Those comments, widely interpreted as a request for taxpayer guarantees, drew scrutiny given the scale of AI server costs and energy requirements. While Altman has said OpenAI is investing heavily in future compute, it is not seeking a bailout for its facilities. “We plan to be a wildly successful company, but if we get it wrong, that’s on us,” he said.

  • The Register UK ☛ Microsoft's lack of quality control is out of control

    It's difficult to pinpoint precisely where it went wrong for Microsoft when it comes to quality. In 2014, the company decided it could do without many of its testers. Mary Jo Foley reported that "a good chunk" were being laid off. Microsoft didn't need to bother with traditional methods of testing code. Waterfall was out. Agile was in.

  • The Record ☛ Congressional Budget Office implementing new security controls following cyberattack | The Record from Recorded Future News

    An anonymous source told The Washington Post that the breach was discovered in “recent days” and that the agency told Congress it detected the incident “early.”

    The CBO declined to answer follow-up questions about the nature of the breach and how the hackers gained entry. The agency provides analysis of the financial impact of legislation to Congress.

  • Jason Becker ☛ Something Rotten in the Market

    Tesla’s valuation is completely detached from the reality of the business fundamentals. It can never achieve, through revenue generation, its current valuation (in constant dollars).

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Mike Brock ☛ Who’s Actually Practicing Taqiyya?

      The problem, you see, isn’t that the law cuts a trillion dollars from Medicaid while giving tax cuts to the richest Americans. The problem is branding. Messaging. The failure to properly conceal who the legislation actually serves.

      Representative Lisa McClain captures the entire strategy with one perfect sentence: “We have to do a better job of correcting the truth with the other half of the truth.”

      Let it settle. This isn’t a gaffe. This is the method.

      Correcting the truth. With the other half of the truth. When a member of Congress says this out loud, we’re past the point where deception requires shame. We’re watching language itself weaponized against meaning in real time.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • The Moscow Times ☛ Russia Plans 24-Hour Internet Blackout for Dormant or Returning SIM Cards

    Russia plans to introduce a 24-hour blackout period for domestic SIM cards that have been inactive for more than three days or have just returned from international roaming, the business newspaper Kommersant reported Friday, citing telecom industry sources.

  • ANF News ☛ Iranian woman activist sentenced to prison

    Mahnoush Abdollahi, a civil activist living in Shiraz, had been sentenced by Branch 1 of the Shiraz Revolutionary Court to five years in prison on charges of “engaging in cultural and media activities in support of Israel during the 12-day war” and one year in prison for “propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran on digital media.” The Fars Court of Appeals ruled to reduce the total sentence to two years and suspend its execution for six years.

  • The Telegraph UK ☛ Right to criticise Islam is protected under British law, judge rules

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • The Kyiv Independent ☛ 'We had only a few seconds before it hit' — Russian drones force journalists farther from Ukraine’s front lines

    “October 2025 showed a new risk for journalists with an increase in Russian first-person-view (FPV) drone attacks against media professionals identified as journalists,” Pauline Maufrais, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Regional Officer for Ukraine, told the Kyiv Independent.

  • New York Times ☛ Anthony Grey, Journalist Held Hostage by China for Two Years, Dies at 87

    The guards painted up the windows to increase his isolation, though eventually one was partly unblocked. After several months he was allowed brief walks in the building’s courtyard. He was freed after England agreed to release the eight journalists being held, in addition to another 13 Chinese citizens, who the Chinese said were “newspaper workers.”

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • The Nation ☛ DC’s Antifascist Hero—Sandwich Guy—Is Free

    The original incident, caught on a bystander’s phone, showed former Department of Justice employee Sean C. Dunn in a loud and heated conversation with a group of federal agents patrolling the capital city’s nightlife corridor on U Street. This, as it happens, was on August 10, the night before President Donald Trump announced a phony crime emergency to justify a plainly illegal mobilization of federal officers to supersede local law enforcement. Dunn was carrying a recently purchased Subway sandwich and abruptly hurled it at the chest of one of the agents before tearing down U Street at an impressive clip before his pursuers finally caught and arrested him. Attorney General Pam Bondi fired him after his arrest, declaring on social media that the hoagie-slinging malefactor was “an example of the Deep State we have been up against.”

  • Kelly Hayes ☛ In Chicago, We Run Toward Danger Together

    More than 3,000 people have been abducted by ICE across Chicagoland since early September. For those of us responding to that crisis, it can be hard to respond to anything else.

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Techdirt ☛ ‘Stop Killing Games’ Finds More Allies From MPs In The UK

    European gaming lobbying groups predictably lost their shit in response. And, so that there is no misunderstanding, here is the horrible premise upon which the Stop Killing Games movement is built.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Copyrights

  • Futurism ☛ Meta Accuses Employee's Dad of Downloading Gigantic Illegal Goon Stash

    To make a long story short, the two rightsholders essentially accused Meta of illegally torrenting some 2,400 skin flicks to train its AI systems. Their civil suit seeks a combined $359 million in damages, and alleges Meta could be developing a secret “adult version” of its generative AI software, Movie Gen.

    It wouldn’t exactly be uncharacteristic of Meta, which was found to have fed over seven million illegally-pirated books, articles, and magazines into its AI earlier this year. There’s also the smoking gun to consider — as the copyright industry publication TorrentFreak reported, Meta was caught with their pants down hosting 47 IP addresses linked to the illegal distribution of all those dirty movies.

  • Techdirt ☛ CyberGhost DMCAs Our Story About Their Bogus DMCA (Yes, Really)

    Almost exactly a year ago, we wrote about a bizarre copyright takedown involving CyberGhost. In that case, it had sent the takedown to Facebook because we had reposted the Daily Deal we had offered in 2016 for a CyberGhost subscription. As with all Techdirt posts, it had automatically reposted to our Facebook account.

    For no clear reason, CyberGhost falsely claimed that Facebook post (but not our original post) violated its copyright (it does not). So yeah, this seemed like CyberGhost sending a copyright takedown of us running a promotion for their VPN from eight years earlier. How bizarre.