Zettascale (YC S24) Is Hiring Founding FPGA Engineers
Samsung Ditches New Jersey For Texas, Costing Garden State 1,000 Jobs
schwit1 shares a report from NJ.com: Samsung is pulling up stakes in New Jersey and heading to Texas, a move that could leave roughly 1,000 Garden State workers facing a stark choice: relocate or risk losing their jobs. The South Korean tech giant confirmed this week that it will move its US headquarters from Englewood Cliffs, NJ, to its existing campus in Plano, Texas, marking a stunning reversal less than a year after it celebrated the opening of a new headquarters in Bergen County. The relocation is expected to be completed by the end of the year, according to company statements. "Samsung Electronics America Inc. is undergoing a business transformation designed to better position our organization for long-term growth and future success. As part of this effort, we are relocating our U.S. headquarters from New Jersey to our existing campus in Plano, Texas, building on our 30-year presence in the state," said Samsung in a statement emailed to NJ.com on Tuesday. "As part of this strategy, we will be optimizing parts of the organization to ensure our roles and functions align to key business priorities. We recognize such adjustments will have an impact on our people and we will be providing support to those affected," it continued.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
After 11 years at Mars, NASA's MAVEN spacecraft went out with a whisper
NASA's MAVEN spacecraft was in excellent shape when it disappeared behind Mars on December 6 of last year. The routine passage, called an occultation, was supposed to last less than an hour, but ground teams didn't hear from the spacecraft when it was supposed to regain contact with Earth.
The loss of communication triggered contingency plans for engineers to try to restore a link with MAVEN, which orbits Mars more than 200 million miles from Earth. To no avail, they listened for faint signals and uplinked commands in the blind. Hopes of saving the mission faded over time, and NASA officials announced Wednesday that they're giving up on it.
"NASA has ceased efforts to search for the MAVEN spacecraft and are beginning activities to decommission the mission," said Mike Moreau, MAVEN's project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
Apple Is Bringing Age Verification To Texas This Week
joshuark shares a report from The Verge: Apple will introduce age verification in the App Store for users in Texas starting on Thursday, June 4th. The move, as spotted by MacRumors, comes just days after a federal appeals court allowed Texas' App Store Accountability Act to go into effect while a lawsuit against it proceeds. People in Texas who are creating a new Apple account will need to verify they're over 18 using a credit card or government ID. Apple may also automatically verify users' age using the age of their account and whether they have a credit card on file. Despite Apple's attempts to push back on app store-level age verification, the company has announced plans to implement age checks to comply with laws in places like Utah, Louisiana, Brazil, Australia, Singapore, and the UK. Google is required to make similar changes to the Play Store and is also introducing age-checking tools for developers. Last December, a judge blocked the App Store Accountability Act (SB 2420) from taking effect, but an appeals court has now reversed this decision -- at least while the court figures out whether the law is constitutional. Even if this law gets struck down in Texas, a federal version with the same name is still making its way through Congress and could impose age verification at the app store nationwide.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
It doesn't feel very agricultural: The 2026 Subaru Solterra review
After a slow start, Subaru's electrification journey picked up a bit this year with the debut of a pair of new electric vehicles, the Uncharted and the Trailseeker. Neither is truly an in-house Subaru—like the Solterra EV before them, they use Toyota's e-TNGA platform. The Solterra remains on sale alongside the two new EVs—it's bigger than the Uncharted and less off-roady than the Trailseeker—and like the closely related Toyota bZ, the Solterra recently got its midlife update. And since it had been a while since Ars had last driven a Solterra, we decided to spend a week with one.
The original Solterra was a rather underwhelming effort. It looked OK, and it was recognizable as a Subaru from the outside, even if the interior was pure Toyota. But it was inefficient and slow to charge, and in 2024, it was a tough value proposition compared to something like a Hyundai Ioniq 5. For Solterra version 1.1, there's a new visage—does it remind anyone else of an Autobot?—and the tech specs look much improved. At 74.7 kWh, the battery capacity has increased by less than 2 kWh, but its EPA range estimate leaps from 227 miles (365 km) to 288 miles (463 km).
The logo illuminates now.
Credit:
Jonathan Gitlin
From the side, it's nearly identical to the bZ.
Credit:
Jonathan Gitlin
The range increase didn't require something like a decrease in power—in fact, the standard Solterra got a few extra horsepower, taking it to 233 hp (174 kW) from a pair of identical front and rear motors. But alongside the standard powertrain, Subaru now offers the Solterra XT. It almost doubles power to the front motor—it now makes 223 hp (167 kW) to go with the rear's 117 hp (87 kW), for a combined 338 hp (252 kW). There's a small range toll to pay, with an EPA estimate of 278 miles (447 km) for the XT. There's also a slightly larger price tag: The base Solterra starts at $38,495, but the cheapest Solterra XT costs $42,895.
Linux 7.2 Will Be Able To Boot On Apple M3 Macs - But Far From Useful For End-Users
The upcoming Linux 7.2 mainline kernel is expected to be able to boot on Apple M3 devices including the M3-powered iMac and MacBook products. But before getting too excited it's still a long ways to go before it will actually be useful for any Apple M3 daily usage under Linux with the overall support at this stage still being very limited for these 2~3 year old Apple Macs...
The World’s First GPIB Speech Synthesizer, and it’s for a GRiD Compass
The GRiD Compass is a legendary portable computer — a taste of an early-80s future with bubble memory, tough enough for NASA to take them into space, and one of the machines which defined the beginnings of the form factor we know today as a laptop. They’re not easy to come by, but [Scott M. Baker] got his hands on one. As well as nursing it back to health, he’s made an unusual peripheral, a GPIB speech synthesizer.
The GRiD arrived in one piece despite sketchy packaging, and after a little confusion over its line voltage it ran as well as the day it was made. It was designed to use GPIB as its interface for large peripherals such as printers or disk drives, so it was that interface picked for the speech synthesizer. It emulates a GPIB printer, and bytes are sent to the synthesizer chip by printing to LPT1, making driving it an easy process.
The synth itself is a clever design that allows the use of all the various speech chips of the day. It achieves this using a GPIB carrier board holding the interfacing, and a set of plug-in modules, one for each different chip. It’s certainly an unusual peripheral.
You can see more details in the video below the break, meanwhile if you can’t get the real thing there’s a cyberdeck tribute you can make.
Restoring a GRiD Compass and Building the World’s First GPIB Speech Synthesizer
Google Ordered To Put Clearer Links In AI Search, Let UK Publishers Opt Out
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: UK regulators today ordered (PDF) Google to put clearer attributions and links to publishers' content in its AI-generated search features. The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) also said Google must give publishers a way to opt out of AI features in search. "In a world first, publishers will now have effective tools to prevent their content being used to power AI features in search, such as AI Overviews," the CMA said today. "This will put publishers, like news organizations, in a stronger position to negotiate content deals with Google. To boost consumer trust, Google is also now required to make sure that publisher content is properly attributed, using clear links, in AI-generated search results." The CMA ruled that Google may not penalize publishers for opting out of AI, meaning that Google can't downrank opted-out publishers in general search results. The CMA said Google will have nine months to comply with all requirements but that the agency "expects important parts of the controls to become available to publishers well before that deadline. Google will also be required to submit and publish compliance reports, supported by key data and metrics, explaining changes it has made and how it has complied." [...] The CMA applied the rules to Google after determining that it has "strategic market status" in general search services, and has ongoing investigations into Apple and Microsoft. Google today said it will comply with the CMA decision. The News Media Association, a trade group in the UK, said that "the legally enforceable Conduct Requirements for Google Search published today are a significant step towards leveling the playing field and building a fair, transparent digital economy where premium content is properly respected and fairly compensated." The group called on the UK to implement "robust enforcement."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Blender 5.2 LTS Enters Beta With New Features
Blender 5.2 is now available in beta form for this leading open-source 3D modeling software...
How some data center operators are tackling their water use problems
On Monday, SpaceX amended its initial public offering to state that water conditions—including water scarcity, regulations around water, and drought—could constrain data center development.
It isn’t the only tech company trying to assess how water scarcity might impact its business. Water use is emerging as one of the most contentious data center issues. A recent Gallup poll found that seven out of 10 Americans are opposed to data center development, with water scarcity ranking as the top resource concern. Facing increasingly fierce resistance, some tech companies are scrambling to assure the public that they’re facing the issue head-on.
Data centers primarily use water to cool server racks, which throw off massive amounts of heat. One popular technique, known as evaporative cooling, uses fresh water to absorb the heat, which is then pumped to cooling towers where it evaporates outside.
Qualcomm Gets The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen11 Snapdragon X2 Laptop Working On Linux
For those interested in the prospects of running Snapdragon X2 laptops on Linux rather than Windows 11 on ARM, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen11 has emerged as one of the initial X2 laptops with tentative Device Tree handling to allow Linux to boot on this latest-generation Qualcomm-powered laptop,..
Ask Hackaday: How Do You Feel About Electronic Shelf Labels?
Unless you’ve spent the last few years locked indoors and had all of your goods delivered to you — a not entirely implausible situation, given our audience — you’ve likely noticed the growing popularity of electronic shelf labels (ESLs). They’ve been a common sight in grocery stores like Aldi for some time, and major retailers such as Walmart and Home Depot have been expanding their use of the technology.
On the surface, it makes perfect sense. With electronic ink displays, you can create a price tag that looks enough like a paper label that the customer’s experience isn’t really any different, but the retailer doesn’t have to send somebody out to update the prices. Sure, the upfront cost is higher than a roll of sticky paper, but theoretically, the ESLs should pay for themselves thanks to the reduced labor costs.
It’s the sort of high-tech solution to a common problem that one of us would have come up with. If this were a decade ago, we wouldn’t have been surprised to see something like this get entered into the Hackaday Prize. It might have even won.
Now that the technology is becoming commonplace, there’s even more reason for hardware hackers to be interested in it. Since most of these tags will show whatever image you beam over to them via radio or infrared, we’ve seen a number of projects that repurpose second-hand tags as convenient data displays.
Rather than showing the price of milk, they can show the current price of Bitcoin. Or maybe you’d like to stick them up all over the house to display the weather forecast and your family calendar. They’ve been repurposed as badges at hacker cons, and at least one industrious hacker has used a discarded ESL to show an alert whenever a new episode of the Hackaday Podcast drops.
But not everyone is happy about ESLs. Recently, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) International Union released the results of a poll showing that most American consumers are opposed to ESLs, citing concerns that the technology would ultimately lead to higher prices.
With Great Power Comes…
The rejection of electronic shelf labels isn’t just about automation taking over a job that humans used to do, although that’s likely part of it. What’s got most consumers worried is what happens in the future once ESLs are the norm. There’s growing concern that the ability to rapidly and remotely update an item’s price will enable retailers to implement aggressive dynamic pricing schemes that were previously impractical. When you don’t have to send out a teenager with a price gun for each change, there’s nothing stopping stores from updating item prices every hour.
Things get really worrying when you consider the possibilities should the ESL system get tied into other data sources, and artificial intelligence be given free rein to virtually put its thumb on the scale. It’s not hard to imagine the price of umbrellas going up when it rains, or a premium being put on a particular team’s merchandise after they win a big game.
Such practices are referred to as “surveillance pricing”, and according to the UFCW poll, as many as 75% of respondents believe that one day stores might even attempt to tailor the price of an item to the individual. Like something out of Minority Report, the price tag could jump up when it detects a more affluent shopper passing by — or at least, one with a higher credit limit.
To those who may say this all sounds a bit far-fetched, the reality is that surveillance pricing is already here for many goods and services. Anyone who’s ever booked a hotel room can tell you that the price goes up and down based on demand, and rideshare services like Uber and Lyft have never hidden the fact that they adjust fare prices in real-time. Online retailers such as Amazon also routinely offer personalized “deals” based on your shopping habits or search activity, although whether or not you actually save any money in these scenarios is up for debate.
Electronic shelf labels don’t make surveillance pricing possible, since it’s already happening every day online. Rather, it enables retailers to use those same techniques in their brick-and-mortar stores in ways that weren’t possible before.
A Double-Edged Label
As hardware hackers, we love electronic shelf labels, if for no other reason than all those e-ink displays eventually trickling down to us. But the ability to change prices on a whim and without the need for human interaction is troubling, especially when considering the pricing schemes that are already so prevalent online. For better or for worse, we’ve become accustomed to dynamic pricing when we buy things on the Internet, but that doesn’t mean we have to accept as an eventuality that the same practices will eventually come to the grocery aisle.
So, Dear Reader, where do you fall on the subject? Are you excited about the technological implications of turning each price tag into a tiny remotely-controlled computing device, or does the potential for misuse outweigh the benefits? If so, do you think there’s a path forward that allows stores to take advantage of electronic shelf labels while protecting the consumer? Let us know in the comments.
My SSN was exposed in a breach at Columbia—a school I have no connection with
A weird text from my dad in February sent me on a months-long quest to solve a mystery that has been troubling an odd group of victims from a Columbia University data breach last year. That group? People with absolutely no connection to the school.
The text included a photo of a letter from Columbia, informing me that I was a victim of a data breach last June, one that exposed a wide range of sensitive information, including 1.8 million Social Security numbers.
Columbia's public notices about the breach were addressed exclusively to "members of the Columbia community." In the notices, Columbia warned that an "unauthorized party obtained information about students and applicants related to admissions, enrollment, and financial aid processes, as well as certain personal information associated with some Columbia employees." Major news reports that followed only referenced people affiliated with Columbia as victims, while pointing out that the hacktivist behind the breach was reportedly motivated to expose Columbia's history of "affirmative action-based" admissions.
AMD's GAIA Finally Has A Nice Multi-Device Experience For AI
AMD's GAIA open-source project geared for building AI agents that run locally on your PC is out with a significant new feature release for Windows and Linux systems...
GCC Git Enables Additional Tuning For AMD Zen 6
In addition to Intel adjusting their Nova Lake and Diamond Rapids targets in GCC this week to deal with APX realities, AMD this week also adjusted some tuning bits for their Zen 6 "znver6" target...
systemd 261-rc3 Released With Individual Binaries Now Embedding dlopen ELF Metadata Note
The stable release of systemd 261 is quickly approaching for being found in H2'2026 Linux distributions...
Used Waymo robotaxi batteries become backup storage for power grids
Thousands of electric vehicles in Waymo’s autonomous robotaxi fleet may eventually give up their used batteries for a very different purpose—contributing up to hundreds of megawatt-hours of stationary energy storage to local power grids.
That prospect comes from a “strategic supply agreement” announced by Waymo and B2U Storage Solutions on June 4. B2U has been repurposing thousands of used batteries from various electric vehicles by installing them in large stationary energy storage projects. Such energy storage facilities can capture excess renewable energy during low demand periods and release such energy when local power grids are experiencing peak demand periods.
“Our business is getting the full residual value out of electric vehicle batteries after they're no longer suitable for automotive use,” Freeman Hall, CEO of B2U Storage Solution, told Ars. “Waymo puts a lot of miles on EVs and their model is expanding rapidly, and so we're just very pleased and honored to be able to work with them.”
Make Your Ceiling Disappear With ADS-B and Short-Throw Projector
If you’re into airplanes, you’ve probably had the experience of hearing an unusual aircraft and rushing outside to try and catch a glimpse of it, all while fumbling with a smartphone to open a flight-tracking app. If your home was equipped with [cpaczek]’s Skylight project, which combines ADS-B data with a short throw projector, that little dance would have been totally unnecessary.
ADS-B or the “Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast”, is the standard by which aircraft broadcast their position and other flight information from onboard transponders. In most of the world, every commercial aircraft has an ADS-B transmitter, and they’re slowly creeping into general aviation as well. The signals aren’t hard to pick up with software-defined radio — like perhaps this RP2040 based unit we featured — or the RTL-SDR v4 this project calls for.
Using data from ADS-B, the Skylight software runs on Raspberry Pi 5 and renders icons of the aircraft exactly where they would appear above you, if that pesky ceiling wasn’t in the way. You get the flight’s code, destination and flightplan with a nice icon representing what type of airplane it is. Thanks to specifying a Pi 5, the projection is a smooth 60 FPS at 1080p. Airplanes aren’t the only things plotted, though — this is also a planetarium, giving you a full view of the stars and any satellites passing overhead. That’s obviously via an API, not SDR, and if you like you can configure it to track aircraft that way to — allowing you to set your Skylight for anywhere in the world, if you aren’t near an interesting airport.
ADS-B isn’t just for pilots and plane nerds — if you’re flying drones, you probably should keep an eye on it, too. In that case, though, you probably won’t be looking at your ceiling.
Thanks to [Thinkerer] for the tip!
NASA Says Goodbye to Its Longtime Mars MAVEN Mission
NASA has officially ended the MAVEN mission after the Mars orbiter stopped responding in December, apparently after an unexpected spin drained its batteries and knocked out communications. Launched in 2013 and orbiting Mars since 2014, MAVEN spent more than a decade studying how the planet lost its atmosphere and helped explain how Mars transformed from a potentially habitable world into the cold, dry planet seen today. The New York Times reports: The NASA spacecraft MAVEN, short for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, had been orbiting around the Red Planet since 2014. NASA last received a signal from MAVEN on Dec. 6, shortly before the spacecraft passed behind Mars. Then the spacecraft stopped responding. A review board found that MAVEN began unexpectedly rotating, causing its batteries to drain too quickly and resulting in a loss of power to the communications system. "The team is certainly broken up about this," said Shannon Curry, the principal investigator of the mission and a scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder, at a news conference on Wednesday. "But at the same time, we are incredibly proud of the science we've accomplished over the last decade." NASA officials declined to speculate on the root cause of the mishap. A final report is expected to be released later this year.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
AMD Submits Its Long-Awaited HDMI 2.1 FRL Support For Linux 7.2 AMDGPU
It's happening! The long-awaited HDMI 2.1 Fixed Rate Link "FRL" support for handling higher resolutions and higher refresh rates on modern AMD Radeon graphics cards with the upstream AMDGPU open-source driver has been submitted to DRM-Next ahead of this month's Linux 7.2 merge window!..
Crown Engine 0.63 Restores Its OpenGL Renderer For Legacy Hardware Support
While not as well known as the likes of the Godot or O3DE open-source game engines, Crown Engine continues advancing as an open-source, C++-based game engine...
LLVM To Begin Offering Zstd-Compressed Binaries For "Significantly Reduced" Downloads
The LLVM project will begin offering Zstd-compressed archives of their binaries in addition to the existing XZ-compressed releases. LLVM developers are finding Zstd working out great with "significantly reduced" download sizes...
Steam Survey For May 2026 After Delay: Linux Just Under 4%
Back in March Steam on Linux skyrocketed to 5.33% with more than double the Steam gaming marketshare of macOS. Then for April Steam on Linux pulled back to a still-great 4.52%, well above the times when Steam on Linux was at 2% or less for many years. Now the May 2026 figures have been published overnight by Valve...
Thursday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Reading 1 2 Timothy 2:8-15
Beloved:
Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David:
such is my Gospel, for which I am suffering,
even to the point of chains, like a criminal.
But the word of God is not chained.
Therefore, I bear with everything for the sake of those who are chosen,
so that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus,
together with eternal glory.
This saying is trustworthy:
If we have died with him
we shall also live with him;
if we persevere
we shall also reign with him.
But if we deny him
he will deny us.
If we are unfaithful
he remains faithful,
for he cannot deny himself.
Remind people of these things
and charge them before God to stop disputing about words.
This serves no useful purpose since it harms those who listen.
Be eager to present yourself as acceptable to God,
a workman who causes no disgrace,
imparting the word of truth without deviation.
Responsorial Psalm Psalm 25:4-5ab, 8-9, 10 and 14
R. (4) Teach me your ways, O Lord.
Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;
teach me your paths,
Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my savior.
R. Teach me your ways, O Lord.
Good and upright is the LORD;
thus he shows sinners the way.
He guides the humble to justice,
he teaches the humble his way.
R. Teach me your ways, O Lord.
All the paths of the LORD are kindness and constancy
toward those who keep his covenant and his decrees.
The friendship of the LORD is with those who fear him,
and his covenant, for their instruction.
R. Teach me your ways, O Lord.
Alleluia See 2 Timothy 1:10
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death
and brought life to light through the Gospel.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel Mark 12:28-34
One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him,
"Which is the first of all the commandments?"
Jesus replied, "The first is this:
Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
The second is this:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these."
The scribe said to him, "Well said, teacher.
You are right in saying,
He is One and there is no other than he.
And to love him with all your heart,
with all your understanding,
with all your strength,
and to love your neighbor as yourself
is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding,
he said to him, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God."
And no one dared to ask him any more questions.
Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
Fixing a Nintendo Game Boy Clone that Runs Too Fast
There’s no shortage of cloned Nintendo hardware out there, and most of it is pretty poor. A few are actually pretty interesting though, such as the GB Boy by Gangfeng, which takes real cartridges and thus in many ways should provide the original Game Boy Pocket experience with modern hardware. But as you might imagine, even the best of the clones comes with various technical issues at no additional charge — with this particular unit having a habit of running the game too fast. It’s an issue that [Sharopolis] addresses in a recent video with a partial fix.
As can be seen in the demonstration, it runs games just too fast to make it very usable or fun, hence why it sat in a drawer for a few years after purchasing off AliExpress. This raises the question of what’s wrong with these units, as others report similar issues with this and other ‘GB Boy’ variants.
Fortunately the unit is easy to open, revealing the PCB with a couple of chips on it, one marked KF2001 being the brains of the operation alongside two memory chips. The oscillator marked X1 for the main IC is rated for 5 MHz, whereas a quick look inside the Game Boy Pocket shows that its oscillator runs at 4.1943 MHz, which is a bit of a difference.
Because of how buying components and pricing works, [Sharopolis] ended up with a reel of 100 of replacement oscillators with the right parameters for a drop-in replacement. After swapping the oscillator, the GB Boy now does indeed run games at the right speed, but a new issue has now cropped up in the form of flicker on the display.
In the comments it’s suggested that replacing the cheap capacitors on the GB Boy’s board can help here, but it highlights just how these clone systems keep managing to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by pairing what looks to be a pretty good IC with either the wrong or sub-par components.
Amazon's New Stargate Series Is Officially Dead
Amazon has reportedly killed its planned new Stargate series despite giving it a series order in 2025. According to Variety, studio executives were worried it would only appeal to longtime fans. ScreenRant reports: Reports of what became Gero's Stargate series started in 2022, after Amazon acquired MGM Studios. Dean Devlin, who co-wrote the 1994 Stargate movie with Emmerich, was another executive producer for the Amazon show, as were Joby Harold and Tory Tunnell via Safehouse Pictures. The project also had Brad Wright and Joe Mallozzi as consulting producers, with both having had extensive history working within the Stargate franchise. On X, Michael Shanks, who played Daniel Jackson in Stargate SG-1, posted in response to the news that: "Yep. They did that." Mallozzi was resistant to the idea that the series was being geared toward diehard fans: "Nope. No. Sorry. Gonna have to push back on this. We were ever mindful of creating a show that would have broad appeal." In an additional post, Mallozzi went into further detail about why the cancellation is so disappointing: Before the new series was canceled by Amazon, Stargate began with Emmerich and Devlin's movie starring Kurt Russell and James Spader. This paved the way for 10 seasons of Stargate SG-1, followed by five seasons of Stargate Atlantis. There has also been the two-season Stargate Universe, the one-season animated show Stargate Infinity, the web miniseries Stargate Origins, and the 2008 direct-to-video movies Stargate: The Ark of Truth and Stargate Continuum, along with numerous games.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Web-Based Control for a CB Radio
There was a time when a CB radio was a simple affair: a small box with a channel selector, volume, and squelch controls. No longer it seems, because they can now be multi-mode devices that equal the capabilities of amateur radio rigs if not surpass them. [ThatCrazyDcGuy] has one, an Albrecht AE-5900, which has the interesting feature that it can be entirely controlled from its microphone. This led to a web-based interface for the rig, through clever emulation of the microphone.
The communication between rig and microphone is a serial line, for which an FT232 USB-to-serial interface is pressed into service. A USB sound card handles the audio along with some little transformers for isolation, and a USB hub joins everything together. The whole is mounted on perfboard in a small enclosure, and plugged into a Raspberry Pi which acts as a server. This is running a Python script that expose a web front end to control the rig. We like the way this has been done, with minimal intrusion into the radio itself.
Far less so than this CB to 6 meter conversion we featured a while back.
Demand Is Booming For New No Tech, Repairable Tractor
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: The secondary market for decades old, low-tech John Deere tractors has been booming for years as farmers have sought reliable tractors that they can actually fix without having to deal with John Deere's repair monopoly. A Canadian company has seen that demand and came up with a radical thought: What if they made a new, repairable, "no-tech" tractor to solve what has become a gigantic pain point for farmers? Alberta's Ursa Ag says that it has been inundated with demand after announcing its tractor, which costs roughly half as much as a Deere and has the benefit of not being a repair nightmare. [...] Ursa Ag markets its tractors as "no frills" and "built to last." Ursa Ag's Doug Wilson told me that the company designed the tractor because of a need in the marketplace for a new machine that isn't loaded with tech and is easy to maintain. The company follows in the footsteps of consumer electronics companies like Fairphone, which makes a repairable smartphone and Framework, which makes modular, repairable laptops. The demand Ursa Ag has seen is part of the backlash to manufacturer repair monopolies and the injection of technology and internet-connected sensors and terms of use into even the most basic of gadgets. "I talk to farmers every day and I hear from farmers every day about how they went out and bought machinery from 1987 so that it wouldn't have a computer on it," Wilson said. "All of this came from a simple discussion with a customer who wanted to be able to turn [the tractor] on at the start of the day, to use it, and shut it off at the end of the day. It needed to work, so that's what we built." Ursa Ag's tractor has been hyped in agriculture circles after Wilson showed the tractor off at a Canadian farm show and it was featured by Farms.com. Wilson said more than a thousand farmers have contacted him after that show, from roughly 30 countries. "I got a handwritten letter from a farmer in France who doesn't own a computer and wanted us to mail him information about the tractors," he said. He said the company has thus far made a couple fewer than 100 tractors but is working on tripling its production capacity and has seen a lot of demand over the last few months. "Given the number of my customers that carry flip phones, I would say there is consumer pressure to back away from some of the technology that is unnecessary to perform everyday tasks," Wilson said. "So that is definitely transferable to dishwashers and washing machines, refrigerators. Refrigerators that have screens on them that'll tell you what's inside. It's a little crazy." "That high-tech stuff, the million-dollar John Deere tractor has a place. It has technology that is well worth the money," Wilson said. "But that technology is needed for 5 percent of what a farm does. There are so many applications for tractors on farms that don't require technology. The technology that goes into even a calculator is not required for most farming applications."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Distilling Stale Gasoline to Make it Usable Again
The propensity of gasoline to ‘go stale’ through the process of oxidation is the reason why gasoline that has been stored for a long period of time is considered to be unusable, as it will no longer combust property. Since this process creates the sludge that you find in the bottom of an old gasoline canister, it follows that you may be able to distill out the still good gasoline. With this reasoning, [Joel] over at the [Lowered Expectations] channel set to work to try out this theory.
As part of his job of maintaining things like pressure washers, he got access to many grades of stale gasoline to experiment with. After a short demonstration of how poorly these grades of stale gasoline burn it’s on to the main distillation event. To the stale gasoline aluminium oxide is added as both a catalyst and to create nucleation sites that will prevent ‘bumping’ where you suddenly get a surge out of the heated flask.
Of course, that this is incredibly dangerous should be obvious, and the lack of PPE on the side of [Joel] is somewhat worrying. On the positive side, he does take it easy with ramping up the temperature on the gasoline to try and find the sweet spot where production seems sufficient. This turned out to start at 70°C in the flask when the condenser began to receive its first load of presumably clean-ish gasoline.
The goal here is of course to approximate the function of the fractionating column (‘distillation tower’) at refineries at smaller scale, which [Joel] appears to be doing correctly with what looks to be a Vigreaux column. Since the base product is gasoline with oxidized contaminants this process is of course quite different, so he goes through the different temperature ranges to see what kind of distillate he gets, up to nearly 200°C before calling it.
Ultimately 880 mL of the initial 1 L was collected, with the various distillates combined for testing. Unfortunately none of the testing is actually covered in the video, but it is mentioned at the end that a second batch of the distillate was used to power his car, so presumably it works.
Suffice it to say that ‘works’ doesn’t mean that it is safe, of course. Heating such stale gasoline produces many highly flammable and combustible substances, along with many that are just downright bad for your health to be exposed to. The plethora of very short-term to all the way to very long-term health effects this may cause should be obvious.
Libinput Updated Due To Arbitrary Root Code Execution
The libinput input handling library used by both X.Org and Wayland environments on modern Linux desktops is out with a new security fix release. A new vulnerability is now public allowing for arbitrary root code execution...
3mdeb Keeps Making Progress On Their AMD Coreboot + OpenSIL Port To Ryzen MSI Board
Following thr 3mdeb consulting firm's recent release of their Dasharo build of Coreboot and AMD openSIL for the Gigabyte MZ33-ARI1 EPYC 9005 series motherboard, the same engineers continue working on their port of Coreboot and the openSIL CPU silicon initialization library to a Ryzen 9000 series consumer motherboard...
DIY Ceramic Circuit Boards Surely Count As Solarpunk
Solarpunk is all about combining that DIY hacker ethos with sustainability and renewable resources. Our usual PCB manufacturing methods, with their bevy of chemical baths and petrochemical resins aren’t exactly the most sustainable. Digging up some clay and firing it into a circuit board? Very sustainable! And apparently doable, as demonstrated by [Emily Velasco] on Mastadon.
Of course anybody could take a ceramic wafer and call it a circuit board, but that’s only part of what [Emily] did. The ceramic wafer is apparently native clay, which is very cool. Even cooler is that she’s baked the traces into the pottery. While you could conceivably use some sort of conductive glaze for this, what [Emily] did was stamp her desired circuit into the unfired ceramic using a 3D-printed stamp, and then fill the depression with copper powder after the first firing. After that, a second firing is done in a reducing atmosphere to melt/sinter the copper together–it’s not totally clear which is happening here–without burning up.
The results speak for themselves; on the finished demo board, a pair of LEDs blink happily away, driven by the astable oscillator circuit baked right into the clay– and of course the components soldered to it. You’ll have to click through to see it, though.
Given those not-so-sustainable petrochemicals behind our favourite PCBs may be in short supply, this is a timely hack. If it seems familiar, that’s because we featured virtually the same technique last year, but using more-expensive silver powder instead of copper, and a campfire instead of a kiln.
Thanks to [smellsofbikes] for the tip!
Fedora Linux 43 Exposes 20-Year-Old Microsoft Outlook Security Failure
BrianFagioli writes: Fedora Linux 43 users upgrading to the latest Dovecot mail server discovered something rather unsettling: some older Microsoft Outlook configurations may have been silently ignoring SSL/TLS settings for POP3 email connections for years. According to a Fedora community blog post, affected Outlook clients reportedly continued using insecure port 110 connections even when encryption was enabled in the application settings. The issue surfaced after Dovecot 2.4 disabled plaintext authentication on non secure connections by default, causing Outlook users to suddenly lose mailbox access after the Fedora 43 upgrade. The report suggests the behavior may date back as far as Outlook 2007, although modern Outlook builds were not fully tested. Fedora admins stress that the problem could be limited to legacy account configurations rather than current versions of Outlook itself. Still, the discovery has sparked discussion among Linux admins and security folks because many users likely assumed their email traffic was encrypted simply because Outlook claimed SSL/TLS was enabled. The incident also highlights how stricter defaults in modern open source infrastructure can expose ancient assumptions and questionable behaviors that quietly survived for decades.
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Microsoft, Atom Computing, EeroQ update their quantum computing progress
With dozens of companies, from small startups to tech giants, pursuing quantum computing, there's a steady flow of results as they try to find a path to utility. We typically focus on new technologies and major landmarks, which can obscure the fact that any big success will inevitably have been built on a lot of incremental progress.
The past few weeks have seen a number of companies release progress reports on how they're trying to get the technologies closer to general use. None of these represents a major breakthrough, but all are absolutely necessary for the technology to advance. The idea here is to convey the hard work required to move us closer to something useful.
Microsoft does material science
Microsoft is one of the few companies working on topological qubits, based on the distinct physics that occurs when particles are confined. Microsoft's system relies on a thin superconducting wire placed on top of a semiconductor. In superconductors, groups of two electrons form Cooper pairs. But if the wire contains an odd number of conducting electrons—meaning there's a single unpaired electron—it will end up delocalized to both ends of the wire. (Because quantum mechanics is weird.)
EU Plots To Abandon US Tech
Ancient Slashdot reader whitroth shares a report from Politico, with the caption: "shutting down Microsoft Office for the International Criminal Court (ICC) was clearly a wake-up call." From the report: The EU is moving to counter American dominance in technology by reaching for one of the oldest tools in its arsenal: industrial strategy. As the European Commission unveiled a plan Wednesday to reduce Europe's reliance on the foreign technology providers that underpin the modern economy, it was careful to stress that it was not picking a fight with U.S. digital giants. Instead, the tech sovereignty package -- motivated in no small part by U.S. President Donald Trump's weaponization of Europe's dependence on American firms -- takes a longer-term view: boost the continent's players so they can eventually challenge their U.S. rivals. [...] If adopted, the package will direct public money toward products that contribute to Europe's economy and independence from foreign firms; cut red tape for data centers; beef up research and innovation through "leadership initiatives"; incentivize countries to share digital capacities in a new "Eurocloud" forum; and require EU governments to come up with national strategies to boost the adoption of cutting-edge tech, including AI. The package will also seek to ramp up the bloc's demand for advanced chips -- a response to criticism by the industry -- with a series of industrial initiatives to revise a 2023 chips law. [...] As part of its proposal to keep a list of trustworthy countries, the Commission would require EU governments to run a so-called "sovereignty risk assessment" for every digital service they rely on, measuring foreign control, potential access to sensitive data and the risk of operational disruption. Within a year, they would have to determine the appropriate level of protection for each public sector and procure digital services accordingly -- unless they can prove doing so would come at a "disproportionate cost," the proposal reads. However, the Commission reserves the right to overrule their assessment in future legislation if it believes they downplayed the risks. The Commission estimated that just one percent of Europe's public services are so sensitive that they would be required under the proposed certification scheme to rely on the strict level that totally excludes foreign technology. "We cannot afford to depend on others for the technologies that keep our hospitals running, our energy grids stable and our services secure," Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement. "This is about protecting our citizens, defending our interests and making our own choices."
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Flesh-eating screwworm infection detected in South Texas, USDA says
A case of New World screwworm has been reported in South Texas. If confirmed, it would be the first detected breach of the US-Mexico border by the ravenous flesh-eating flies, which have been making their way up through Central America for the past several years.
In a social media post Wednesday afternoon, the US Department of Agriculture said a "sample is now at USDA's National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) in Ames, lowa for confirmatory testing. We will provide updates the moment results are available." It added that "We have already activated personnel on the ground and are working with local partners."
Chatter of a screwworm detection had already been building this week, rattling the US cattle industry.
MacBook Neo is So Popular That Apple Reportedly Doubled Production
According to supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple has reportedly doubled 2026 MacBook Neo production from 5 million to 10 million units after stronger-than-expected demand for its $599 budget laptop. MacRumors reports: On an earnings call in late April, Apple's CEO Tim Cook said that customer response to the MacBook Neo was "off the charts," and the popularity of the laptop has reportedly led the company to significantly boost production. [...] Apple was very optimistic about the MacBook Neo before announcing it, but the company still "undercalled" the level of enthusiasm that the laptop would generate, according to Cook. He said that MacBook Neo demand exceeded Apple's expectations and helped to drive a record number of first-time Mac buyers last quarter. New figures from market research firm IDC support Apple's claim that the MacBook Neo is selling well, and the Windows PC industry has taken notice. For example, Dell recently introduced a redesigned XPS 13 laptop from $699 and said it has features "you won't find on a MacBook Neo," such as a touch screen and a backlit keyboard. "Apple's MacBook Neo is a capable machine, and its arrival confirms that there's real appetite for premium quality at accessible prices," admitted Dell.
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Google ordered to put clearer links in AI search and let UK publishers opt out
UK regulators today ordered Google to put clearer attributions and links to publishers' content in its AI-generated search features. The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) also said Google must give publishers a way to opt out of AI features in search.
"In a world first, publishers will now have effective tools to prevent their content being used to power AI features in search, such as AI Overviews," the CMA said today. "This will put publishers, like news organizations, in a stronger position to negotiate content deals with Google. To boost consumer trust, Google is also now required to make sure that publisher content is properly attributed, using clear links, in AI‑generated search results."
The CMA ruled that Google may not penalize publishers for opting out of AI, meaning that Google can't downrank opted-out publishers in general search results. The CMA said Google will have nine months to comply with all requirements but that the agency "expects important parts of the controls to become available to publishers well before that deadline. Google will also be required to submit and publish compliance reports, supported by key data and metrics, explaining changes it has made and how it has complied."
Texas Instruments Changes the NE5532 and Others into Incompatible Versions
First introduced in 1979 by Signetics, the NE5532 was a pretty spiffy dual op-amp for the time with low noise and low distortion. Over the years it has become a standard part that showed up in countless audio products, and has become a so-called jellybean generic component with Texas Instruments (TI) being one of countless manufacturers.
It being such a standard, multi-sourced part makes it thus even more puzzling that TI has now decided to completely overhaul this IC in a way that makes it incompatible with even the original Signetics NE5532. These changes are covered in detail by [Dave] of EEVblog as his mind is pretty much blown at such an incomprehensible change.
The changes entail an entirely different manufacturing process and a big change in specifications, while making no change to the part number. In revision K of the TI datasheet these changes are first seen, with some specifications changed for the better, like a higher unity gain bandwidth by 2 MHz, but a much slower slew rate.
Although the 5532 op-amps are multi-sourced, there are good reasons to just stick with manufacturers like TI, as that means receiving a product change notification (PCN) when anything changes. In the PCN related to this op-amp a change to process node is noted, along with other changes, but no reasoning.
Among the other big changes are a reduction in the supply voltage from 22V to 18V, and a halving of the ESD protection from 2kV to 1kV. Although it might be slightly more efficient on the new process node this way, it clearly comes with a lot of trade-offs that make it an overall worse op-amp, while also being incompatible with the same op-amp from other manufacturers.
In the video [Dave] goes through the datasheets of this jellybean part of other manufacturers, showing that they still have the original 1980s specifications. Only one exception here was the NE5532DR from Shenzhen HuaXuanYang Electronics, whose supply rail voltage is also 18V for some reason, along with a similar internal transistor configuration that reduces the ESD resistance.
In addition to the NE5532 op-amp, it seems that TI also took an ax to the OPA134 op-amp, by removing its offset trim feature and listing the pins as ‘NC’, with a warning to not connect these pins and also worsening other specifications. This makes these similar jellybean parts incompatible, with no change to the part number. Worse is that it continues with the LMH6518, whose changes [Dave] argues might even kill oscilloscopes as they are commonly found in those.
Meanwhile the LM317M also got an overhaul, but here TI opted to give it a new part name, calling it the LM317MQ with at first glance no major degradations in the specifications, but instead some actual improvements. This makes it even more puzzling why TI didn’t give the other ICs a new part number to differentiate them from the jellybean part.
Until there’s some clarification from the side of TI, it might be a good idea to source these jellybean parts from a manufacturer that is not TI, especially when replacing these ICs in older devices.
Google Launches 'Gemma 4 12B' AI Model That Can Run On Your Laptop
Google has launched Gemma 4 12B, a 12-billion-parameter open AI model designed to run locally on your laptop without depending entirely on cloud infrastructure. WION reports: According to Google, the new model delivers performance close to much larger AI systems while requiring significantly less memory. The company says Gemma 4 12B can run locally on devices equipped with just 16GB of VRAM, making advanced AI more accessible to developers, researchers and businesses. The launch highlights a growing trend across the AI industry: bringing powerful AI models directly to personal computers instead of relying solely on remote data centers. Gemma is Google's family of open AI models built using technology and research from its Gemini program. The new Gemma 4 12B model contains 12 billion parameters and has been designed to handle multiple types of information, including text, images and audio. Unlike traditional AI systems that focus only on text, Gemma 4 12B can understand visual content, process audio inputs and perform advanced reasoning tasks. This makes it suitable for a wider range of applications, from software development and content creation to research and automation. Google says the model is available under the Apache 2.0 licence, allowing developers and organizations to use, modify and deploy it with relatively few restrictions. [...] One of the most significant technical changes in Gemma 4 12B is its new unified architecture. Traditionally, multimodal AI systems use separate components known as encoders to process images, audio and text before combining the information. Google says Gemma 4 12B removes the need for separate multimodal encoders. Instead, the model processes different types of information through a unified architecture. According to the company, this helps improve efficiency while reducing memory requirements and computational overhead. The result is a model that can deliver advanced multimodal capabilities while remaining small enough to run locally on modern hardware.
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Dashlane issues opaque advisory warning 20 encrypted vaults were stolen
There’s a lot that doesn’t add up in a security advisory password manager Dashlane published Monday, warning that attackers managed to obtain 20 encrypted user vaults.
“Starting on Sunday, May 31, 2026, an external party launched a brute force attack against certain Dashlane user accounts,” the company said. “The goal of the attack was to brute-force two-factor authentication (2FA) protections to allow the attacker to register new devices on existing user accounts.”
Hello, Dashlane, anybody home?
A Dashlane user who received such a 2FA request provided this screenshot of the notification, which arrived on Sunday.
Google's new Gemma 4 12B model is designed to run on any laptop with 16GB of RAM
The generative AI boom has driven the cost of memory into the stratosphere, and Google is a key part of that trend. So it's only fitting that Google should offer some less RAM-hungry local AI models. The company has announced the release of a new Gemma 4 model that fills a gap in the lineup that launched earlier this year. The new model is efficient enough that you may be able to run it on a pretty average consumer laptop.
In April, Google released four models in the Gemma 4 family, which also marked the shift to a more open Apache 2.0 license. The initial models included two mobile-optimized options (E2B and E4B) along with a pair of models for more serious work (26B Mixture of Experts and 31B Dense). That left a rather large unserved space in the middle, which is right where the new model falls.
Gemma 4 12B is considerably more capable than the mobile versions, but it won't require a $20,000 AI accelerator to run locally. Google says Gemma 4 12B is unique in that it can run on many consumer laptops without sacrificing quality. As long as you've got a computer with 16GB of system RAM or VRAM, the 12-billion-parameter model will work. That's about half the total memory footprint of Gemma 4 26B MoE, and Google claims the new model is almost as capable, at least as far as benchmarks go.
Google Shares Fitbit Air Blueprints So Anyone Can 3D-Print Accessories
Google has released (PDF) technical specs and 2D CAD drawings for the Fitbit Air to encourage users to make their own accessories. "These CAD drawings include crucial mating dimensions, tolerances, and mating force specifications -- including attach and detach force -- to help you build a high-quality accessory band," Google says on a store page listing. 9to5Google reports: Noting how the "community has already come up with innovative and creative new ideas to make the Fitbit Air [their] own" since launch last month, Google is "officially releasing the hardware specifications and accessory design guidelines for the Fitbit Air tracker to the public." For example, owners have already found their own bicep band solutions. This information would typically just be available for third-party accessory companies, but Google wants to open things up to "independent designers and artisan makers." The Google Store page also lists other things developers should keep in mind, such as sensor clearance, sensor pressure, secure retention, and skin-friendly materials.
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COSMIC Now Implements Wayland Pointer Constraints For Better Gaming Experience
COSMIC Epoch 1.0.15 was released today and while it doesn't yet contain the new "Frosted Glass" option for the desktop UI, COSMIC Epoch 1.0.15 does contain some other notable enhancements...
Deltarune’s Tenna Brought to Life
For those who have never played the hit video games Undertale and Deltarune, the games are partially known for their interesting characters, many of which have eerie, surreal, and expressive designs. One of the more memorable characters from Deltarune is Tenna, a game show host of sorts whose distinguishing feature is an old television as a head, as well as a colorful suit. As a result he’s been the subject of a number of recreations by various cosplayers and makers like [BigRig Creates].
This version of the character was actually inspired by a previous build by [BunnyBii] which used an iPad as the interactive screen/face. Inside the television, though, the actual human found this to be front heavy and limiting in the ways that it could be used interactively, especially since the only way to see the outside world in this version was with a small endoscope and screen. [BigRig Creates]’s version builds on this idea but swaps out the iPad for a Raspberry Pi, allowing for much more customization, and uses a pair of Xreal glasses instead of a screen for the view of the outside world from in the television.
To get the whole costume together, the head is 3D printed with all of the electronics inside, and a game controller integrated into a handheld microphone controls the animations shown on the screen. A vibrant, custom-tailored suit with white gloves rounds out the ensemble, along with a pair of 3D-printed shoe covers since actual yellow shoes were a bit pricy. There were some interesting problems to solve along the way, specifically with regards to power management for all the electronics, but in the end it all seems to have come together quite well. [BigRig Creates] is no stranger to builds with unusual displays, though; one of our favorites was the world’s largest Nintendo 3DS.
Trump plan to test AI models has a problem—US security teams were gutted by DOGE
On Tuesday, Donald Trump finally signed his executive order expanding the government's efforts to conduct voluntary safety testing of frontier AI models. Now, critics are warning that the order may be short-sighted, offering only performative reassurances that the government is actively monitoring for AI risks, while changing very little about how and when models are deployed.
Last month, Trump abruptly canceled a signing event, where he had hoped to launch an earlier version of the EO with CEOs of leading AI firms in attendance. Invited at the last minute, several CEOs simply couldn't make the signing but still signaled support for the order. Officially, Trump claimed he postponed the event because he worried that the EO might have gone too far and had become a "blocker" impeding AI innovation. Reports indicated there was infighting in his administration as cybersecurity experts clashed with officials committed to deregulating AI.
The watered-down EO that Trump signed promises not "to stifle this innovation with overly burdensome regulation" and establishes no requirements for AI firms. Instead, it sets up a voluntary process for companies to collaborate with the government on safety reviews that Trump's EO claimed would "ensure that the best and most secure technology is deployed rapidly to confront any and all threats to our country."
Microsoft Plans Linux Tools, RTX Spark Desktop For Windows Devs
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Microsoft's Build developer conference kicked off today, and as with almost everything the company has done in the last few years, Microsoft's opening keynote focused overwhelmingly on AI and other closely related technologies. [...] On the hardware front, we didn't get any updates for existing Surface devices (not counting yesterday's Surface Laptop Ultra announcement), but we did get something new: the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box is "a compact developer PC" built around Nvidia's new RTX Spark chip with up to 128GB of built-in memory. The Dev Box looks a little like a cartoon anvil or piano fell onto an Xbox Series X and flattened it. Its aluminum casing was designed "to double as a heatsink," and its preloaded version of Windows 11 Pro will include a "purposeful" set of developer-centric default settings and preinstalled tools. This is a follow-up of sorts to the Windows Dev Kit 2023, also known as "Project Volterra." This Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3-powered PC was essentially the system board from a Surface Pro tablet stuffed into a plastic box, and it was introduced alongside Arm-native versions of several Microsoft developer tools. It helped to set the stage for the Arm-based flagship Surface devices that launched the next year, which benefitted from a better and faster x86-to-Arm code translation technology called Prism and a greater number of Arm-native third-party apps that didn't need to be translated in the first place. Microsoft didn't announce pricing or specific specs for the RTX Spark Dev Box, but you can probably expect it to cost quite a bit more than the $600 that Project Volterra did. Hopefully, Microsoft can keep the price at least somewhat lower than the $4,699 asking price for Nvidia's similarly specced DGX Spark box. On the software side, several developer-centric changes are coming to Windows 11, particularly for users of the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). Microsoft is introducing a Windows-native version of the coreutils command line tools, so that commands or scripts made for Linux work within Windows and the other way around; the ability to run WSL inside of containers, said to be arriving in "the coming months"; and something called Windows Developer Configurations that uses the WinGet tool to quickly set up "a distraction-free dev environment with VS Code, GitHub Copilot, WSL, PowerShell 7 and developer-optimized settings with one command on any Windows 11 device." Microsoft also introduced Microsoft Execution Containers (MXC), as "enterprise-grade sandboxed environments" that let AI agents like OpenClaw operate on Windows without getting unrestricted access to the whole system. In theory, MXC could let organizations enforce agent-specific limits, such as blocking access to personal accounts, separating work and personal data, or requiring permission before deleting files. The MXC GitHub repo also notes support for "multiple containment backends," meaning the same sandboxing concept could apply beyond AI agents to other plugins, tools, and workloads. Further reading: Microsoft Unveils Scout, an Autonomous AI Agent Built On OpenClaw
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